Page:Monthly scrap book, for June.pdf/16

16 conscientious in those which immediately relate to man? Is it to him that you would look for a pattern of every social and domestic virtue, of honour, benevolence, and integrity, as a man of property or professional engagement,of rectitude, veracity, and assiduity as a tradesman,of industry and conscientiousness as a workman,of fidelity as a servant,of sobriety and diligence as the head or subordinate member of a family, of kindness as a husband, of affection and prndenceprudence [sic] as a parent, or of dutifulness and obedience as a child? To look for such qualities in combination with gross sabbath-profanation, and with habitual neglect and contempt of the appointed ordinances of the sanctuary, would obviously be to seek for light in darkness, virtue in vice, life in death.

THE SEASON, IN THE COUNTRY.

Sheep-shearing, one of the great rural labours of this delightful month, if not so full of variety as the hay-harvest, and so creative of matter for those "in search of the picturesque" (though it is scarcely less so), is still more lively, animated, and spirit-stirring; and it besides retains something of the character of a rural holiday, which rural matters need, in this age and in this country, more than ever they did, since it became a civilized and happy one. The sheep-shearings are the only stated periods of the year at which we hear of festivities, and gatherings together of the lovers and practisers of English husbandry; for even the harvest-home itself is fast sinking into disuse, as a