The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

THE SABBATH IN FRANCE. 471from any outward sign that it was the Sabbath. No branchof labour or mercliandise was suspended, in the forenoonat least : every shop was open. There was the same bustleon the quay of the Rhone, where steamers were arriving anddeparting. While the priests inside the cathedrals burnedcandles and incense, or chanted mass, or sung a requiemover the coffined dead, to mitigate, as their relatives fondlyhoped, their purgatorial pains, the people over whomthey bore sway were busy outside prosecuting their labours,and intent on making gain. Nay, the churches were approachedthrough stalls of buyers and sellers, which coveredthe open space in front, and came close up to the gates ofthe cathedrals, so that the priest's chant blended with thehum of traffic outside. So few entered, and these for soshort a time (for such went only to mutter a few prayersand retire),and trafficking thousands of Lyons.that they were never missed from the toilingThe amusements of theevening were not unlike those of Cologne. A military band,consisting of at least an hundred performers, was stationedin the grand square, to regale the citizens, who were gatheredaround them in thousands, or sipped wine or coffee in theadjoining gardens.The Sabbaths of Paris are, unhappily, too well known.But here we use a misnomer ;—Paris has no Sabbath. Theman who rises six. successive days to toil, rises on the seventhalso to toil. This shows us, by the way, what, in an economicpoint of view, would be the effect of the abolition of theSabbath : it would be simply the substitution of a day oflabour for a day of rest,—the addition of a seventh tothetoil of man, not only without any additional remuneration,but with a very greatly diminished remuneration,owing tothe over-production which it would create. In Paris alltrades and professions are prosecuted on the Sabbath ason other days. The wheel of the mechanic and the tool ofthe artizan are as busily plied on that day as on any other.The mason builds, and the smith kindles his forge ; theporter, the tailor, the shopkeeper, the merchant,—all are