Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/320

 Invariably he walked abroad in a cassock reaching to his knees, surmounted by a long coat, while his wig, his bands, his knee-breeches, buckled shoes, and cocked hat formed the rest of the clerical dress. Indeed, the bishop's apron is the remains of the cassock and the archdeacon's hat the survival of the cocked hat.

Yet England was at heart religious, and it required but a spark to awaken her dead ashes into life. That spark was now lit by John Wesley, whose life and teaching were the means of creating a new form of religion, which "carried to the hearts of the people a fresh spirit of moral zeal."

This is not the place for an account of Wesley's work. It is well known how he and a few friends led strictly religious lives in the midst of the demoralised many; how they rose at four each morning, abstained from drinking and gambling, and methodically planned out every hour of the day for some beneficial use, till they were mockingly named "Methodists"; how Wesley became a clergyman and worked zealously for the Church in the recently formed colony of Georgia, under the auspices of the newly instituted S.P.G. But though at first a devoted Churchman, Wesley