Among diffcrerrt nations these days have been variously employed ; sometimes consecrated to re ligion, and sometimes spent as holidays in the ordinary sense ; generally, in various degrees, de voted to both purposes. But they have all had the same beneficial tendency we are now insisting on—to break the fatal continuity of daily toil, and to prevent the ill effects of it.* Nor is the moral significance of such an institu tion less conspicuous. That there should be sea sons in which the mind, as well as the body, may repair its energies and retrim its lamp,' reason shows to be desirable, and experience necessary. If the soul is to be at all cared for ; if leisure is to be secured for higher interests than those of the body ; for the culture of the intellect and the dis cipline of the heart ; for due meditation on those relations in which man stands to his Creator and to a future world ; in a word, for the attainment of those objects for which, as the ultimate end, the body itself subsists, and the whole machinery of life is put in motion, what more desirable than the institution of such a day ? in which, with a mind free from distracting thoughts, and a body rejoicing in welcome release from its daily chains, man may, in accordance with the designed commemorative character of the day, contemplate the glorious works of the Infinite Creator, and his own soul as the most wondrous of them all ; ponder his mo mentous relations to him, and hold elevating con verse with him. Without such leisure (in part at least so employed), all experience shows that man, engaged in unintermitting toil and absorbing cares on behalf of his material interests, soon loses al most all trace of his higher nature ; and not least (paradoxical though it may seem) when his life is spent chiefly amidst the works of nature itself. The hebetating effect of the severe bodily toil of those who have to work the stubborn glebe' is pro verbial. Wearied with the day's labour, they are too often at its close fit for little but the sleep that is to recruit them for the next day's task, and they wake only to resume it. If it were not for the break of the Sabbath, their whole life would be little else than an alternation of exhausting. work and unconscious slumber ; and themselves little better than those machines whose wheels move in a monotonous round during the day and are stopped during the night.
It is not very difficult to see what would be the effect on the whole animal creation ,(man and brute alike) if it were not for that ratchet in the wheel of life which is provided by some such institution as the Sabbath. In all probability, that part of the creation which, like man, is doomed to daily toil, would, in spite of the periodic relief of deep —supposing no other break—soon degenerate in spirit and strength, and bequeath to each successive generation a diminished vitality. It is not very easy perhaps to detect, or even to conceive, all those subtle and very gradual steps by which mere want of variety (that salt of life), the mere same ness of continuous occupation, will at length break down health, both of body and mind ; still less can we comprehend the mysterious law by which physical debility or depravation is propagated to successive generations. But though the operation of these causes is too complicated and insidious for us to analyse it, and the process too gradual for us to trace out the law, the absolute necessity of variety of scene and employment, of periodic re pose, of periodic suspension of thought, is matter of obvious fact and daily experience.
While the subject-matter of this Hebrew law—if it be indeed the a'uty of man to comply with the laws of his physical nature, to maintain his faculties in full vigour, to care for the culture of his intellect, his heart, and his social affections, not to let his lower nature usurp dominion over his higher—was moral, it is conceded that the separation, for this purpose, of one a'ay seven, as well as the special mode of observance, is positive. The aspects of the law just insisted on—its immense social and moral significance--well justified its being placed in the Decalogue. But even the positive part of the in stitution (supposing it to be of divine command) was not unworthy (as has been sometimes rashly said) of the care of the Supreme. For, in point of fact, as some fixed time was necessary if the law was to be generally obeyed at all, so in the present case there seemed abundant reason, supposing God to give any general law on the subject, why he should also fix the time for the observance. It
has been sometimes affirmed that this might be de termined in every nation by public compact, founded on the experience and conscious wants of the com munity. But suppose, for argument's sake, this were conceded ; still, on the supposition now argued upon, that the law itself was of divine origin, it was not unworthy of the Supreme Wis dom thus to fix the limits in point of time. For the absolute best in such a case is not a problem of easy solution ; or rather it is impossible (otherwise than by guess-work, or by a very imperfect and tentative experience) to such ignorant creatures as ourselves. A very little reflection will show that there must be an absolute best in relation to the entire conditions of this social problem, though it may, and indeed must, transcend the wisdom of man to find it. To take the day in one of its as pects only—that of general rest from toil, of sus pension of all the ordinary occupations of life : though we know from experience, and it is con fessed by the practice of the world in general, that such periodic intermission is necessary, it is a very different thing to know how often it should recur, so as best to answer all the purposes contemplated. and without doing either more or less. And yet it is obvious that, in relation to the actual average capacities of man for labour—the average powers of the human constitution—there must be some ratio of labour to rest which will best comport with the material as well as all the other interests of the community ; best conciliate the welfare of the individual with all the conditions of social pros perity ;—in a word, secure the highest maximum of good of all kinds with the minimum of counter balancing evil. This point is too difficult for us to assign ; and yet there certainly must be such a point. If every alternate day were one of suspen sion of all public business, all would say it was far too much, and feel that such an arrangement would well justify the sarcasms with which Voltaire up braided the rustics of Ferney, whose ever-recurring saints' days were a continual excuse for laziness. On the other hand, such a day once a month would be generally acknowledged to be too rare. But between too much and too little there must be the juste milieu, the lie nimis, if we could but find it. Yet its determination depends on an exact calculation of the effect of innumerable laws, and the interaction of numberless varying elements ; and he only who constituted us and the world can make the computation. Though not moral, there fore, this part of the law was by no means arbi trary, and could only be fixed with absolute accu racy by him who gave it. We have seen in what tenns Protulhon, in the brochure already re ferred to, speaks both of the difficulty of the pro blem and of the transcendental science' implied in solving it. A few sentences from this remark able pamphlet may not displease the reader :— La certitude de cette science est demontree par le fait !name dont nous nous occupons. Di minuez la semaine d'un seul jour, le travail est in suffisant cornparativement au repos ; augmentez-la de la m'eme quantite, devient excessif. Eta blissez tons les trois jours une demi-journee de relache, vous multipliez par le fractionnement la perte de temps, et en scindant l'unite naturelle du Jour vous brisez Pequilibre numt:rique des choses. Accordez, au contraire, quarante-huit heures de repos apres douze jours consecutifs de peine, vous tuez Phomme par l'inertie apres l'avoir epuise par la fatigue. J'omets, pour abreger, la foule de con siderations du meme genre que pourrait suggerer Pintervirtissement des relations de famille et de cite, et qui ferait ressortir bien d'autres incon venients. Comment donc 1)161Se rencontra-t-il si juste ? n'inventa pas la semaine, mais fut, je crois, le premier et le seul qui s'en servit pour un si grand usage. Aurait-il adopte cette proportion, s'il n'en calcule d'avance toute la port& ? Eh si cc ne fut pas en lui l'effet d'une theorie, com ment expliquer une intuition si prodigieuse ? Du reste, quant h supposer que le hasard seul refit ainsi favorisc, je croirais plutot une revelation speciale qui lui en aurait ete faite, ou la. fable de la truie ecrivant l'Iliade avec son groin.'—pp. 67, 6S.