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    ther . It is not long since , in some of the New England States , there was an edict in force , that no man should travel on a Sunday , and this , while all men were eligible to the highest honours of the state let them believe or disbelieve as little or as much as they might : * " AHading to this edict recalls to me

    the adventure of a Pennsylvania farmer , which , as it may elucidate the good humour with which this people yield to the whims of each other , I will repeat to you . The good farmer was bound on his way to Boston , and found himself within the precincts of Connecticut on a Sunday morning . Aware of the law of Calvin , but still being in haste to proceed , our traveller thought of shifting himself from the back of his steed into the mail which chanced to overtake him , and which , appertaining to the United States , was not under the law of Connecticut . The driver

    advised him to attach his steed to the back of the vehicle , thinking that when they should have passed through a certain town which lay before them , the honest farmer might remount in safety ; but , as ill luck would have it , the citizens were just

    stepping forth from their doors on their way to church when the graceless horse with a saddle on its back , passed before them . Stopping at the inn , a citizen made up to the side of the vehicle , and civilly demanded if that horse was his ; and if he was aware that the Sabbath

    was a day of rest , not only by the law of God , but by the law of Connecticut . The Pennsylvanian as civilly replied , that the horse was his ; begged to return thanks in his name for the care shewn to his ease aud morals ; and offered to surrender the keeping of both , until his

    return , to the individual who addressed him . f 1 will most willingly lodge the horse in my stable , and his master in my house / returned the other ; « but the people will not see with pleasure the beast keeping the commandments and the

    man breaking them . ' * Well , friend ; then beast and man shall keep them together . I will eat your dinner , and he tfhall eat your hay ; and to begin things properl y , you shall shew him to the stable and his master to the church / The

    com" * " The Constitutions of two or three of the states require , that the chief officers « hall be Christians , or , at least , believe iiv * God ; but , as no religious test is enweed , the law is , in fact , a dead letter . % the constitution of every state in the Union , an affirmation is equal to an oath ; | t is at the option of the asseverator , either t 0 lnv oke the name of God ,, or to affirm , under the pains and penalties of the law , ll cases of breach of faith . "

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    pact was fulfilled to the satisfaction of all parties ; the Pennsyrvanian only allowing himself , through the day , gently to animadvert upon this abridgment of the

    liberties of the citizens of the United States , by the decree of the citizens of Connecticut , which might not always be as agreeable to them , as in this case it w # a to him ; and departed the next morning assuring his host that he should be kappy to repay his hospitality to him or his friends , whenever either might choose ta travel his way on a Sunday , or a Saturday , or any day of the seven .

    * ' Some years afterwards , standing one Sunday morning at the gate of his own farm , in Pennsylvania , he perceived a man riding along the- road and driving before him a small flock of sheep . As he approached , our farmer recognized him for a neighbour of his ci-devant host in Connecticut , * Ah , friend 1 that ' s an odd

    occupation you are following on a Sunday ! ' « True , * replied the ; man of New England , * and so I have choaen a byeroad that I may not offend the scrupulous / i Yes , friend ; but supposing you offend me ? and supposing , too , that the Pennsylvania legislature should have passed a law which comes in force this day , that neither man nor beast shall travel on a

    Sunday ? ' c Oh ! ' replied the other , < I have no intention to disobey your laws ; if that be the case , I will put up at the next town . ' ' No , no ; you may just put up here , I will shew your sheep to the stable and , if you be willing , yourself to

    the church . * This was done accordimrlv : the church . * This was done accordingly ; and the next morning the Pennsylvanian , shaking hands with his Connecticut friend , begged him to inform his old acquaintance when he should return home , that

    the traveller and his horse had not forgotten their Sabbath-day ' s rest in . his dwelling , and that , unbacked by a law of the legislature , they had equally enforced the law of God upon his neighbour and his neighbour ' s sheep .

    "There is a curious spirit of opposition in the human mind . I see your papers full of anathemas against blasphemous pamphlets . We have no such things here ; and why ? Because every man is free to write them ; and because every man enjoys his own opinion , without any arguing about the matter . Where

    religion never arms the hand of power , she is never obnoxious ; where she is seated modestly at the domestic hearth , whispering peace and immortal hope to infancy and age , she is always respected , even by those who may not themselves feel the force of her arguments . This is trary the case here ; and the world has my wish , and , lam sure , yours also , that it maybe the case every where . "

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    Review . *—Vieivs of Society and Manners in America . 487

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1821, page 487, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2503/page/47/