Attend a

in most cases spoken very ill. - English Type of Person.

Puseyite Chapel. — Puseyism a feeble Imitation of Popery. — Popish

-

Cathedral. — Popery the true Resting-place of the Puseyite. — Sketch

of the Rise and Progress of the Puseyite Principle; its purposed Object

not attained; Hostility to Science. - English Funerals.

252

CHAPTER XIV.

Drive from Birmingham to Stratford rather tame. Ancient Building in

a modern-looking Street; of rude and humble Appearance. -"The lm-

mortal Shakspeare born in this House."- Description of the Interior.

The Walls and Ceiling covered with Names. — Albums. — Shakspeare,

Scott, Dickens; greatly different in their Intellectual Stature, but yet

all of one Family. - Principle by which to take their Measure. — No

Dramatist ever draws an Intellect taller than his own. — Imitative Fac-

ulty. The Reports of Dickens. - Learning of Shakspeare. — New

Place. The Rev. Francis Gastrall. - Stratford Church. The Poet's

Grave; his Bust; far superior to the idealized Representations. — The

Avon. The Jubilee, and Cowper's Description of it. The true Hero

Worship. Quit Stratford for Olney. Get into bad Company by the

way. Gentlemen of the Fancy. - Adventure. .

276

CHAPTER XV.

Cowper; his singular Magnanimity of Character; Argument furnished by

his latter Religious History against the Selfish Philosophy. — Valley

of the Ouse. - Approach to Olney. — Appearance of the Town. - Cow-

per's House; Parlor; Garden. - Pippin-tree planted by the Poet.

Summer-house written within and without. - John Tawell. - Delightful

Old Woman. Weston-Underwood. Thomas Scott's House. - The

Park of the Throckmortons. Walk described in "The Task."— Wil-

derness. Ancient Avenue. -Alcove; Prospect which it commands,

as drawn by Cowper. - Colonnade. Rustic Bridge.

"Needless Alarm."- The Milk Thistle.

Scene of the

297

CHAPTER XVI.

Yardley Oak; of immense Size and imposing Appearance. - Cowper's

Description singularly illustrative of his complete Mastery over Lan-

guage. Peasant's Nest. -The Poet's Vocation peculiarly one of

Revolution. The School of Pope; supplanted in its unproductive Old

Age by that of Cowper. - Cowper's Coadjutors in the Work. — Econ-

omy of Literary Revolution. - The old English Yeoman. Quit Olney.

Companions in the Journey. - Incident. -- Newport Pagnell. — Mr.

Bull and the French Mystics. - Lady of the Fancy. — Champion of all

England. - Pugilism. - Anecdote..

315

CHAPTER XVII.

Cowper and the Geologists. Geology in the Poet's Days in a State of

great Immaturity. - Case different now. - Folly of committing the

Bible to a False Science. - Galileo. - Geologists at one in all their

more important Deductions; vast Antiquity of the Earth one of these.

- State of the Question. Illustration. - Presumed Thickness of the

Fossiliferous Strata. - Peculiar Order of their Organic Contents; of

their Fossil Fish in particular, as ascertained by Agassiz. - The Geo-

logic Races of Animals entirely different from those which sheltered

with Noah in the Ark. - Alleged Discrepancy between Geologic Fact

and the Mosaic Record not real. Inference based on the opening

Verses of the Book of Genesis. - Parallel Passage adduced to prove

the Inference unsound. - The Supposition that Fossils may have been

created such examined: unworthy of the Divine Wisdom; contrary to

the Principles which regulate Human Belief; subversive of the grand

Argument founded on Design. — The profounder Theologians of the Day

not Anti-Geologists. - Geologic Fact in reality of a kind fitted to per-

form important Work in the two Theologies, Natural and Revealed;

subversive of the "Infinite-Series" Argument of the Atheist ; subver-

sive, too, of the Objection drawn by Infidelity from an Astronomical

Analogy. - Counter-objection. — Illustration.

335

CHAPTER XVIII.

The Penny-a-mile Train and its Passengers. - Aunt Jonathan. - London

by Night. St. Paul's; the City as seen from the Dome. The Lord

Mayor's Coach. - Westminster Abbey. - The Gothic Architecture a

less exquisite Production of the Human Mind than the Grecian. — Poets'

Corner. The Mission of the Poets. - The Tombs of the Kings. The

Monument of James Watt. A humble Coffee-house and its Frequent-

ers. The Woes of Genius in London. - Old 110, Thames-street.—

The Tower. The Thames Tunnel. — Longings of the True Londoner

for Rural Life and the Country; their Influence on Literature. The

British Museum; its splendid Collection of Fossil Remains. - Human

Skeleton of Guadaloupe. — The Egyptian Room. - Domesticities of the

Ancient Egyptians. — Cycle of Reproduction. - The Mummies. 366

CHAPTER XIX.

Harrow-on-the-Hill. - Descent through the Formations from the Tertiary

to the Coal Measures. Journey of a Hundred and Twenty Miles North-

wards identical, geologically, with a journey of a Mile and a Quarter

Downwards. - English very unlike Scottish Landscape in its Geologic

Framework. - Birmingham Fair. Credulity of the Rural English;

striking Contrast which they furnish, in this Respect, to their Country-

men of the Knowing Type. - The English Grades of Intellectual Char-

acter of Immense Range; more in Extremes than those of the Scotch. -

Front Rank of British Intellect in which there stands no Scotchman;

probable Cause. - A Class of English, on the other Hand, greatly lower

than the Scotch; naturally less Curious; acquire, in Consequence, less

of the Developing Pabulum. - The main Cause of the Difference to be

found, however, in the very dissimilar Religious Character of the two

Countries. The Scot naturally less independent than the Englishman;

strengthened, however, where his Character most needs Strength, by

his Religion. -- The Independence of the Englishman subjected at the

present Time to two distinct Adverse Influences, the Modern Poor Law

and the Tenant-at-will System. - Walsall. -- Liverpool. - Sort of Lodg-

ing-houses in which one is sure to meet many Dissenters.
389

CHAPTER XX.

Dissent a Mid-formation Organism in England. -Church of Englandism

strong among the Upper and Lower Classes: its Peculiar Principle of

Strength among the Lower; among the Upper. The Church of Eng-

land one of the strongest Institutions of the Country. Puseyism, how-

ever, a Canker-worm at its Root; Partial Success of the Principle.

The Type of English Dissent essentially different from that of Scot-

land;
the Causes of the Difference deep in the Diverse Character of

the two Peoples. — Insulated Character of the Englishman productive

of Independency. - Adhesive Character of the Scotch productive of

Presbyterianism. -Attempts to legislate for the Scotch in Church

Matters on an English Principle always unfortunate. - Erastianism;

essentially a different thing to the English Churchman from what it

is to the Scot.- Reason why. - Independent Scotch Congregation in

a Rural District. - Rarely well based; and why. Conclusion. . 407

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

OF

ENGLAND AND ITS PEOPLE.

CHAPTER I.

Led to convert an intended Voyage to Orkney into a Journey to England. - Objects of the Journey. -Carter Fell. - The Border Line. - Well for England it should have been so doggedly maintained by the weaker Country. Otterburn. - The Mountain Limestone in England, what it is not in Scotland, a true Mountain Limestone. - Scenery changes as we enter the Coal Measures. - Wretched Weather. - Newcastle. Methodists. Controversy on the Atonement. - The Popular Mind in Scotland mainly developed by its Theology. — Newcastle Museum ; rich in its Geology and its Antiquities; both branches of one subject. Geologic History of the Roman Invasion. - Durham Cathedral. The Monuments of Nature greatly more enduring than those of Man. -Cyathophyllum Fungites. - The Spotted Tubers, and what they indicated. - The Destiny of a Nation involved in the Growth of a minute Fungus.

I HAD purposed visiting the Orkneys, and spending my few weeks of autumn leisure in exploring the Old Red Sandstone of these islands along the noble coast sections opened up by the sea. My vacations during the five previous seasons had been devoted to an examination of the fossiliferous deposits of Scotland. I had already in some degree acquainted myself with the Paleozoic and Secondary formations of the northern half of the kingdom and the Hebrides. One vacation more would have acquainted me with those of Orkney also, and completed