of granting seasons of rest and relaxation to the people. Some of the sages of antiquity hesitate not to regard them as the especial boon of the gods, who, in pity to the laborious classes, had granted these stated and solemn remissions of labour. "The Gods, says Plato, pitying the human race, born to toil, appointed the recurrence of the festivals dedicated to the gods for the remission of human labour"." Unceasing daily toil is so prejudicial to health, and so destructive to the happiness of existence, that no rulers in any country, or in any age, have been sufficiently barbarous to enjoin it.

Yet the pagan festivals, considered merely in reference to necessary recreation, were decidedly inferior to the institution of the sabbath. Their multitude was not so much calculated to refresh exhausted nature, as to invite to an indolent licentiousness. Archbishop Potter enumerates above three hundred Grecian festivals; and, though, they were not all observed by each state, every district having some peculiar to it, yet they must have been in all places far more numerous

- Θεοι δε οίκτείραντες το των ανθρωπων ἐπιπονον πεφυκος γενος, ἀναπαυλας τε αύτοις των πονων έταξαντο, τας των ἑορτων ἀμοιβας τοις Θεοις. Plato, De Legibus, lib. II. p. 59. ed. Bipont. "Legum conditores Festos instituerunt dies, ut ad hilaritatem homines publice cogerentur, tanquam necessarium laboribus interponentes temperamentum." Seneca, De Tranquil. Animi, vol. I. p. 385. 8vo. Amstel. 1672. See also Cicero De Legibus, lib. II. § 19.

than could be serviceable for the purpose of relaxation. In Rome they had, in process of time, so multiplied as to take up a great part of the year, to the serious injury of the public; for which reason the emperor Claudius found it expedient to abridge their number ". Not only their frequency, but the length of time which several of them continued, was injurious both to the health and the morals of the people. Some of them lasted two or three days, and even for a longer period: and, as few things are more enervating than a continuance of festive mirth and jollity, they must have had a prejudicial effect upon the body. This must have been the inevitable consequence of such as were kept in the night time. The morning no doubt arose upon the votaries pale and sickly after the riot of the midnight orgies. Such festivals as were held in the light of day were for the most part of a demoralizing tendency, being celebrated with superstitious and idolatrous rites, and not unfrequently with an unprincipled and disgusting licentiousness. Occurring also at intervals of various duration, they were destitute of that which forms one great excellence in the sabbatical institution,-its regular and stated recurrence. Days of casual leisure and rest can

Adam, Roman Antiquities, p. 339.

neither be provided with any established duty, nor sanctified by any public sense of religion; and are therefore usually consumed in criminal pursuits and indulgences. But the sabbath returns at the expected time, bringing with it a stated employment of a sacred nature, and furnishing the labouring classes with a day of rest, most refreshing after the labour of the preceding six, and long enough to recruit their strength and spirits for a renewal of their employments. Nor ought it to be forgotten that the condition of slaves was but little ameliorated by the Greek and Roman festivals, as, with the exception of the Saturnalia, there were very few on which they were absolved from work".

The Mohammedans, convinced of the utility of setting apart one day in the week for attendance upon the worship of God, have selected the sixth, or friday. Different reasons have been assigned for pitching upon this day, but the most probable is, that it was for the sake of distinguishing the followers of the Arabian impostor from the Jews and Christians. The Mohammedan writers bestow extraordinary encomiums on this day, calling it "the prince of days," " the most excellent day on which the sun rises," and believing it to be the

e

Cato, De Re Rustica, cap. II.; Seneca, Epist. 47. Virgil, Georg. I. v. 267.

day on which the work of creation was finished, and that it will be the day on which the last judgment is to be solemnized. "The Mohammedans, says Sale, do not think themselves bound to keep their day of public worship so holy as the Jews and Christians are certainly obliged to keep theirs, there being a permission as is generally supposed in the Korân', allowing them to return to their employments or diversions after divine service is over; yet the more devout disapprove the applying any part of that day to worldly affairs, and require it to be wholly dedicated to the business of the life to come "."

It is not one of the least among the many advantages of the sabbath, that it has a tendency to advance the social and intellectual character of

man.

Its effects in this respect, though extensive as the limits of society, are most apparent among those ranks where its influence is most wanted,the industrious poor. In the cottages of those who subsist upon the produce of their manual labour it creates a feeling of comfort and contentment, of quiet and pleasurable repose, which is the parent of gentle and civilized manners. Its weekly recurrence produces habits of order and regularity,

Prel. Discourse to the Koran, Sect. 7. See Koran, cap. 62.; Pocock, Specimen Hist. Arab. p. 307. ed. White, Oxon. 1806.; D'Herbelot, Biblioth. Orientale in voc. AID AND Giumaat.

favourable to the due. subordination which must exist in every well-governed state. On the sabbath each cottage assumes its neatest trim; the inmates put off their ordinary garb, every individual being anxious to appear in their best apparel; and the love of dress, sometimes indeed absurd, and sometimes culpable, yet in the degree it obtains among the poor is generally a stimulus to frugality, cleanliness, and industry. The cottager, resting from his toils, and adorned in his best attire, feels himself raised in the order of being; he becomes of more importance in his own estimation; he sees in himself the dignity of human nature; feelings always to be encouraged in connection with religious principle, inasmuch as they are instrumental to the moral and intellectual advancement of the species.

It is impossible, as it should seem, to raise the lower orders in the scale of civilization, without providing them with the opportunity of a frequent disengagement of mind. If the attention were constantly fixed upon one, and, generally speaking, dull occupation, the mind, from want of excitement, would seldom rise above the level of the uncultivated barbarian. The faculties, being ever limited to one routine of objects, would be incapable of enlarging their intellectual sphere, and by consequence incapable of intellectual improvement. But the sabbath provides a remedy