superior healthfulness of the cold over the tepid or warm bath, though both have their uses. We see also how it is that sea-bathing does not agree with some people. Kecping in view the preliminary shock to the nerves, it is obvious that very young, very old people, and invalids who have to husband their strength, ought not to bathe, simply because it is too much for them. Similarly there are people in whom the re-action never occurs; their cutaneous nerves telegraph for help, and none comes; and hence they are pale and prostrate with headaches and other ailments, and it is plain that they ought not to bathe at all.

A good many workers in cities make this mistake. They get away from their labours with difficulty, and looking upon sea-bathing as a panacea for all ills, they are astonished to find it does them no good, but rather adds to their discomfort and feeling of lassitude. Such persons should not bathe when first they visit the seaside, and should commence with having salt water in their tubs and other forms of the bath before they venture into the open sea; and, above all, they should not bathe without medical advice. If, however, sea-bathing is unsuited to people, it is discovered at once, and the blunder need never be repeated. The re-action is an unfailing test; if that does not supervene, the open sea had better be shunned.

Sometimes a person fails to derive advantage from a dip in the waves, from inattention to the right time and manner of bathing. From two to three hours after breakfast is the best time for ordinary persons, for the morning meal is then digested, and the water has lost the chill of early morning. Strong people, indeed, may bathe before breakfast, but a glass of milk and a biscuit will even in this case be found serviceable.

Many persons are tempted to bathe too frequently: a bath on alternate days is sufficient for women and children, and men who have passed their prime. The young and strong may indulge in a bath once a day, but certainly not more; to bathe only once in twenty-four hours is a rule of universal application. Equally important is the duration of the bath; and here again many people err, by remaining in the water too long. The young folks are great offenders in this respect; lads are often seen coming away from the sea blue and shivering, simply from having been in the water an undue length of time. As a rule, from five to seven minutes will be found long enough to remain in the water.

The next question is how to enter the water. The best way is undoubtedly to take a header, if the depth of the water and your own position allow of it; and the reason is clear, for the plunge gives you the maximum of shock, and of consequent re-action. But as a good many people are timid, and cannot summon up courage to enter the water this way, they have to walk into it, in which case they ought to take the first opportunity of ducking the head and whole body. To go into the water, and dance about without wetting the head, as we have seen some foolish people do at Cockney watering-places, is to derive no benefit whatever from the bath. Such people apparently look upon the sea as a large foot-pan, and the outraged ocean resents the imputation by sending them out of the water with chills and headaches.

1 Capillary Circulation, flow of blood through the capillaries, or smallest veins.

2 Cutaneous nerves, those just

below the skin.

3 Panacea, a remedy for all ills.

THE PURITANS.

[The following portrait of the Puritans is drawn by Lord Macaulay in his essay on Milton, who, however, did not strictly belong to the Puritans, though in politics he sided with them.] .

E would speak first of the Puritans, the most remarkable body of men, perhaps, which the world has ever produced. The odious and ridiculous parts of their character lie on the surface. He that runs may read them; nor have there been wanting attentive and malicious observers to point them out. For many years after the Restoration, they were the theme of unmeasured invective1 and derision. They were exposed to the utmost licentiousness 2 of the press 3 and of the stage, at the time when the press and the stage were most licentious. They were not men of letters; they were as a body unpopular; they could not defend themselves; and the public would not take them under its protection. They were, therefore, abandoned, without reserve, to the tender mercies of the satirists and the dramatists."

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The ostentatious simplicity of their dress, their sour aspect, their nasal twang, their stiff posture, their long graces, their Hebrew names, the scriptural phrases which they introduced on every occasion, their contempt of human learning, their detestation of polite amusements, were indeed fair game for the laughers. But it is not from the laughers alone that the philosophy of history is to be learnt. And he who approaches this subject should carefully guard against the influence of that potent ridicule which has already misled so many excellent writers.

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Those who roused the people to resistance, who directed their measures through a long series of eventful

years; who formed out of the most unpromising materials the finest army that Europe had ever seen; who trampled down King,' Church, and Aristocracy; who, in the short intervals of domestic sedition and rebellion, made the name of England respected by every nation on the face of the earth, were no vulgar fanatics.10 Most of their absurdities were mere external badges, like the signs of freemasonry, or the dresses of friars.11 We regret that these badges were not more attractive. We regret that a body to whose courage and talents mankind has owed inestimable obligations had not the lofty elegance which distinguished some of the adherents of Charles the First, or the easy goodbreeding for which the court of Charles the Second was celebrated. But, if we must make our choice, we shall, like Bassanio in the play, 12 turn from the specious caskets which contain only the death's head and the fool's head, and fix on the plain, leaden chest which conceals the treasure.

The Puritans were men whose minds had derived a peculiar character from the daily contemplation of superior beings and eternal interests. Not content with acknowledging, in general terms, an overruling Providence, they habitually ascribed every event to the will of the Great Being, for whose power nothing was too vast, for whose inspection nothing was too minute. To know Him, to serve Him, to enjoy Him, was with them the great end of existence.

They rejected with contempt the ceremonious homage which other sects substituted (as they believed) for the pure worship of the soul. Instead of catching occasional glimpses of the Deity through an obscuring veil, they aspired to gaze full on His intolerable 13 brightness, and to commune with Him face to face. Hence

originated their contempt for terrestrial distinctions. The difference between the greatest and the meanest of mankind seemed to vanish, when compared with the boundless interval which separated the whole race from Him on whom their own eyes were constantly fixed. They recognised no title to superiority but His favour; and, confident of that favour, they despised all the accomplishments and all the dignities of the world. If they were unacquainted with the works of philosophers and poets, they were deeply read in the oracles of God. If their names were not found in the registers of heralds, they were recorded (so they confidently believed) in the Book of Life. If their steps were not accompanied by a splendid train of menials, legions of ministering angels had charge over them. Their palaces were houses not made with hands; their diadems crowns of glory which should never fade away.

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These fanatics brought to civil and military affairs a coolness of judgment and an immutability of purpose which some writers have thought inconsistent with their religious zeal, but which were in fact the necessary effects of it. The intensity of their feelings on one subject made them tranquil on every other. One overpowering sentiment had subjected to itself pity and hatred, ambition and fear. Death had lost its terrors and pleasure its charms. They had their smiles and their tears, their raptures and their sorrows, but not for the things of this world. Enthusiasm 16 had made them Stoics," had cleared their minds from every vulgar passion and prejudice, and raised them above the influence of danger and of corruption.