a lot o'
money' to have that effort of my muse in print. Mr. Childs, of Bungay,
had many experiences, equally rustic and still more illustrative of the
simplicity of the class. Once upon a time one of them came in a great
state of excitement for a copy of the 'Life of Mr. General Gazetteer.'
On another occasion a farmer's wife came in search of a Testament. She
wanted it directly, and she wanted it of a large type. A specimen was
selected, which met with the worthy woman's approval. But the question
was, could she have it in half an hour, as she would be away for that
time shopping in the town, and would call for it on her return. She was
told that she could, and great was her astonishment when, on calling on
her return for the Testament, there it was, printed in the particular
type she had selected, ready for her use.

I have a very strong idea that the calm of the country and the peaceful
occupations of the people had not a very rousing influence upon the
intellect. I may go further, and say that the cares of the farm, when
high farming was unknown, did not much lift at that time the master above
the man. The latter wore a smock-frock, while the former, perhaps,
sported a blue coat with brass buttons, and had rather a better kind of
head-dress, and ambled along on a little steady cob, that knew at which
ale-house to call for the regular allowance, quite as well as his master.
But as regards talk--which was chiefly of bullocks and pigs--well, there
really was no very great difference after all. To such religion was the
mainspring which kept the whole intellect going; and religion was to be
had at the meeting. And I can well remember how strange it seemed to me
that these rough, simple, untutored sons of the soil could speak of it
with enthusiasm, and could pray, at any rate, with astonishing fervour.
Away from the influence of the meeting-house there existed a Boeotian
state of mind, only to be excited by appeals to the senses of the most
palpable character, a state of mind in which faith--the evidence of
things not seen, according to Paul--was quite out of the question; and I
regret to say that, notwithstanding the activity of the last fifty years
and the praiseworthy and laborious efforts of the East Anglian clergy in
all quarters, suitably to rouse and feed the intellect of the East
Anglian peasantry, a good deal yet remains to be done. Only a year or
two ago, riding on an omnibus in a Suffolk village, th