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Ragatz, July 2, 1849. I SHOULD certainly recommend no tourist to find himself at Zurich without pursuing the course that we subsequently adopted. It is comparatively little taken by English travellers, though it comprehends some of the finest scenery in Switzerland. After an easy and very enjoyable day's journey of about fifty miles, we found ourselves in the very romantic town of Glarus. It is not easy to convey an adequate idea of its singular position. It stands about the centre of the valley of the Linth, which comprehends nearly the whole of the Canton of Glarus. The high precipitous hills on both sides of the valley, in some parts out of the pendicular, threaten to come into contact, and engulph the town in ruin and desolation. The town bears evident marks of industry and prosperity. Muslin and cotton are its manufactures. There are several Fabriques in the valley of the Linth, not adding to its beauty, but happily without chimnies-all being worked by water. They employ about tenthousand persons in the valley, and belong to one owner, who learnt in England our process of spinning and weaving, and introduced it into Switzerland; whether for the real good of the inhabitants may be a question. Their pale, emaciated faces cannot but suggest the idea of the value of a Ten Hours' Factory Bill. I was told that they work very long hours-from half-past five in the morning till seven in the evening— for very small wages. The inhabitants of Glarus are chiefly Protestant. The Papists share with them the church of the town, each having their own hours for service. It is somewhat remarkable that the followers of Zuingle should be willing to prosecute their reformed worship amidst the idolatrous emblems of Popery, and perhaps not the less singular that the Papists should tolerate such an intrusion on the part of the "heretics." Yet all is said to progress with mutual forbearance and good

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will, though one cannot but suspect the spirit of religious indifference which it must engender, and regard it as an arrangement not to be justified amidst so large a population of Protestants who are in prosperous circumstances. Glarus is a remarkable instance of the great pains that are taken with regard to education in the Swiss Cantons. The children are usually obliged to go to school till they are twelve years of age. best house in a village is generally the residence of the minister and the school. In Glarus, out of a population of 4,300, there are about 500 children in the school. But Switzerland is, I fear, a lamentable illustration of the fact that education will not, per se, secure the best interests of a people. In Germany all are compelled to be educated; and so, to a great extent, in Switzerland: but as the Germans become more extensively educated, they are becoming more generally and more inveterately steeped in the sink of infidelity; and so, I fear, it is in Switzerland also. If Sabbath observance is to be any criterion, the Swiss are not a whit behind any other country in their laxity. I have long ceased to regard Protestants on the Continent as at all better in this respect than the Papists. The Sabbath is universally regarded as a day of pleasure, in which every one is at liberty to do what is right in his own eyes. If it be convenient to attend to the little quantum of public worship which is afforded, (little enough indeed; for it commences at nine and is over soon after ten,) why then it is done: but if there be any scheme of pleasure with which this interferes it is manifest what must give way. The root of all this religious laxity must surely lie in the negligence of the clergy. While they ought to extend the public services of the Sabbath more largely over the day, one cannot but fear that they are remiss in urging its claims and privileges. Even if the short service of the morning is attended to, what good can possibly

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be expected to result from it, when the dance and other pastimes occupy the rest of the day. But if the Sabbath, in its high and blessed privileges, is the Christian's grand preparation day for the Sabbath of heaven, and if all its occupations should have a tendency to elevate the soul to high and holy considerations, how manifest it is that the expediency, not to say legitimacy, of all we do should be tried by that test! I am no advocate for an austere or inconsiderate strictness. I would not forbid the poor family, pent up in a close alley, the refreshment of a quiet evening walk in the fields. There is every thing in this to enliven and to elevate. The full spirit of the Sabbath may be there; but this cannot be in the dance and the noisy teagarden: they are equally proscribed, whether we consider our privilege or God's claim they cannot possibly fall in with the design or the spirit of the Sabbath. Yet, alas! even Protestant Switzerland laughs at the idea of such strictness. All classes league together in an unhappy sympathy to trample upon God's holy day. We had but too good a proof of this on the following Sunday. Our route lay up the valley of the Linth to Stachelburg, nine miles from Glarus, where there is a spring similar to Harrogate, and a large, excellent hotel. There every thing in the works of God is wonderfully sublime and beautiful, and man alone is vile. One might be inclined to think that the awful sublimity of his works would ensure for the Creator the homage and fear of his creatures, and that it would drive them into a scrutinizing search into his revelation, in order to learn his requirements and obey his will. But to that ultima Thule, that very end of the world, where snowcapped mountains and an array of glaciers seem to forbid one step further, even there did we go to learn how universal and how inveterate is the system of Sabbath desecration. Between seven and eight in the morning, the man had got to work tuning the piano in the saloon. I protested at all events whilst I was necessarily taking my breakfast. All AUGUST-1849.

the morning carriages full of gailydressed folks, from Glarus and all parts of the Canton, were arriving. At half-past twelve we sat down to dinner-120 in number. After a dining process of nearly two hours, the tables were moved, singing commenced, and then dancing was kept up till the evening to the sound of the piano and other instruments-the guests in the house, and the waiters, &c., dancing with the visitors for the day! We are thought to be regardless of the necessities and enjoyments of the lower orders. But this was not the recreation of the hardworking, closely-confined mechanic, but the choice of the aristocracy of the Protestant Canton of Glarus, who have time and money at their command and can afford to pay for a carriage-and-pair for the day. And if it be said that it was the movement of an insulated and secluded valley, a century behind other places in religion, I have only to add, that it had the sanction of some of the first families of Zurich and other districts, who readily took part in it: and a lady from the Canton of St. Gall, who alone stood aloof, having learnt a more excellent way in another country, from which she had married into Switzerland, told me that I should scarcely meet with an individual who would do otherwise than laugh at the very idea of demurring to such an employment of the Sabbath. She stated that "the Swiss are a moral but not a religious people :" and she

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the clue to all this practical transgression, namely, the awfully prevailing and increasing spirit of infidelity. I was perfectly horrified with her account of the prevalence of sceptical principles. She assured me that the common opinion among the higher classes is, that Christ was merely a good man, and that she is absolutely laughed at when she ventures to express her conviction that, as a sinner, she stands in need of a Mediator with God! She has been asked again and again, "Do you believe that with the rising generation the Gospel will, in a few years, be any thing more than a matter of common history?" It is impossible

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not to regard this religious desolation as a fearful drawback to one's enjoyment in going through this beautiful country; and one anxious wish, amongst many others, cannot fail to be prominent: Oh, that England may take warning from other countries! The nation is throughout fully awake to the importance of education; and a movement in its favour is in progress which cannot be arrested, but good will not of necessity be the result. We may be educating for infidelity, for the devil, for men's everlasting ruin. And I must own, I am very jealous of many parts of the proceedings of our educational movement. The schoolmaster's standard of excellence on which certificates are granted, is not sufficiently based on what, after all, alone constitutes his highest excellence. Many a man carries away the palm who is wholly destitute of these moral and religious qualifications that alone can impart to the young the only influences which, after all, are of the first importance. And what is one result of this? why, that the schoolmasters and mistresses throughout the land are thrown into a state of feverish excitement to secure to themselves that quantum of secular knowledge which shall secure their certificate, and thus are led to treat with comparative indifference all that constitutes the really substantial worth and excellence of the teacher. long been satisfied that a schoolmaster, with comparatively slender attainments, who is under the influence of sound religious principle, and possesses the rare art of communicating knowledge, will prove an infinitely more efficient teacher than the man who may far surpass him in acquirements but want the other requisites. But our present system entirely fails to recognize this principle, and is, I am persuaded, throwing our teachers into a most dangerous and undue estimation of what after all must be regarded as the subordinates of education. In our country parishes, for instance, of what importance is it that the master should be able to go through the first books of Euclid, compared with his ability to

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give his pupils an intelligent and correct view of a chapter in the Bible, or even to teach them to read it correctly? I am not ignorant of the lamentably low state of scholarship amongst many of our schoolmasters, and I am quite aware that it needed improvement; but still I am sure that our present system, if not carefully watched, will tend to serious mischief. Altogether the dangers of our day are very great. Education will progress; but education, in its scientific and intellectual character, apart from the due inculcation of sound, enlightened, Scriptural principles, is the sword in the hand of the madman. It is the accession of power thrown under the influence of a nature prone and sure to go wrong. The whole of the German people are compelled to be educated. They are infidels. Is Switzerland any better? Is there not a prevailing expectation from the rising generation, that as they advance in intellectual acquirements, they will get more and more rid of the inconvenient trammels of revealed religion, and launch into a new existence of liberty and independence? Oh! that we may be

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wise in time and while we do not undervalue the importance of scholarship for this world, may we practically, in all our arrangements, shew that we regard it as nothing and worse than nothing without that wisdom which brings a man into the fear and love of his God and Saviour -throws him with all reverence and humility under the obligations of his revealed word, and educates for heaven.

I cannot but think that there are serious defects in the Protestant system in this country, which may account for much that is so lamentably wrong in practice. I find that all who have arrived at a certain age are compelled to be confirmed, and compelled to receive the sacrament; so that when the minister of Linthal told me that out of a population of 2000 parishioners, he had 600 at the communion, it can form no safe criterion of the extent of true religious principle and feeling. And must we not fear that there is too much of the

opus operatum of Popery in this? Then the Scriptures are not read in the churches. I must regard this as a serious defect. I was glad to find that the New Testament was almost in every house in Linthal. My readers will be dwelling upon the statement I have given of the Swiss being a moral but not a religious people. That they are not a truly religious people, they are unhappily shewing in the Canton de Vaud and elsewhere, in the spirit of determined persecution with which they pursue those faithful souls who have learned a more excellent way, and begin to form their lives and doings according to true Gospel principles. But it will naturally be asked, how can you separate morality from religion, and what can you say to a people presenting so much more of a favourable moral aspect than some others who make a much greater religious pretension? This is not the time to enter fully into the discussion of so important a subject, but suffice it to say, that it may safely be asked, what is morality which is bereft of all godly consideration as well as obligation, which will be scrupulous in a man's transactions with his fellowmortals, and wholly regardless of the fear and love of God, and of the scheme which, in his wonderful mercy, he has devised for man's spiritual rescue ? What is all morality which is partial; leading a man to make his own selections, and to let those selections be the guage of his conscience? What can be said of that morality which will let a man trample upon the Sabbath with the utmost contempt, while he professes to abhor murder or adultery? infidel or Socinian I admit may seem to possess, in some one respect, a moral superiority over a professed Christian, but I believe that the devil will let alone those who are wholly his, and suffer them to go great lengths in a seeming and spurious morality, while all is upon wrong principles, and they are seared and shut up in a fatal system of ungodliness. Amidst all the boasts of morality, the carnal mind, which is enmity

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against God, everywhere shews its real character. The spirit of infidelity, which so lamentably prevails and increases, will not endure anything like religious life or energy. This accounts, I fear, for much of the apparently properly directed zeal against Jesuitism; and as a proof, I need only state the fact, that the "momieres," as they are called, (a derisive term in Switzerland, the same as Methodists in England,) are bitterly persecuted, because they are supposed to be in league with the Jesuits, and this because of the life, and zeal, and energy which they manifest. Where again, it may be asked, is the morality which persecutes even to exile and earthly ruin our fellow-men for being more religious and heavenly than others? But enough: the fact is indisputable, that education may advance infidelity, and shall not the state of the Continent lead us to say, anarchy and rebellion also all that so signally characterizes the last perilous days, of which the Scriptures tell us? Oh that England may take warning in time!

Nine miles up the Linthal Val from Glarus are the baths of Stachelburg. The situation is one of singular grandeur and beauty. The valley is very narrow, with high eminences on either side, chiefly covered with wood. At the end of the Val is the Pantenbrücke, and beyond it a huge glacier, never traversed by man, coming down from the snow-capped Dödi, 12,800 feet high. It is impossible to give any adequate idea of the awful magnificence of this scene. The finest waterfalls abound in this part of the valley. The Fatschbach, and another between it and Pantenbrücke, are certainly not inferior to any I have seen in Switzerland. After a very pleasant sojourn of a fortnight at Stachelburg, we proceeded by Wesen and Wallanstadt Lake to Ragatz, amidst the finest and most varied scenery. I have seen nothing like that lake for savage grandeur except Lucerne. It is twelve miles long, and it is twenty-two miles from the lake to Ragatz, through a beautiful valley. We are now on what is con

sidered the Splugen Pass, and are so taken with the place, that we scarcely know how to leave it. The valley of the Rhine is here very wide, and flowing at the base of the most grotesque range of mountains, from 4 to 7 or 8000 feet high. Our hotel looks upon them, happily with the comfort of a north aspect, and is situated out of the town, at the foot of a range of hills well wooded, with the ruins of old castles on either side of us. The hotel was formerly the summer residence of the Abbot of Pfeffres, a village about a mile above the hill behind us. It is a large, commodious house, with a beautiful garden behind, out of which you come by the side of the rolling Tamina, escaping out of a deep, awful gorge, where the sun seldom enters, and so narrow that in many parts there is only just room for the river. Two miles up this gorge are the baths of Pfeffres, which have been famous for centuries. They are cut out of the rock, and originally the patients were let down into them by cords from the village of Pfeffres above. It is impossible to describe the awful gloom of the locality. Subsequently a large establishment was built at the baths, a most singular residence indeed, but proving inadequate for the immense number of patients; and the whole having got out of the hands of the religieux into those of the government of St. Gall, they, nine years ago, turned the abbot's summer residence into an hotel, with large additions capable of accommodating 140 persons, and constructed a road up the gorge to the old baths. It is certainly one of the finest things I have seen. The road is just wide enough for a char-a-banc, with no protection, over awful precipices, sometimes cut out of the rock, sometimes passing through it. It required some courage to keep one's seat. Arrived at the hotel, we passed through it to the entrance of the gallery, which takes you for a quarter of a mile to the source of the spring; I cannot pretend to describe its awful grandeur. The sides of the ravine contract in an extraordinary manner, so as to approach within a few feet of each other;

a little farther they even close over, and cover up the river, which is seen issuing out of a cavernous chasm. The gallery on which you walk overhangs the river, and is supported by iron stanchions, driven into the rock. In parts it is almost dark, where the sides of the ravine overtop each other, and actually meet overhead. In some places the roots of the trees are seen dangling through the crevices above your head, and at one spot you find yourself under the arch of a natural bridge. Though the gallery is now perfectly safe, being protected by a railing, yet hanging as it does over the roaring torrent ninety feet below, it might require some courage in weak heads to proceed. Every one should ascend the hill behind the hotel to the village of Pfeffres. In the midst of it stands the convent, a vast edifice, now turned into a lunatic asylum. It encloses a church in the centre, and is finely placed on an elevated mountain platform, commanding on one side the valley of the Rhine, backed by the majestic Falkniss; on the other, opening out to the Lake of Wallanstadt, and the peaks of the Sieben Kurfürster. This Benedictine monastery, founded 713, was suppressed, after an existence of ten centuries, in 1838, by a decree of the government of the Canton of St. Gall, in consequence of the finances of the convent having become involved, and at the request of a majority of the brethren. The government allowed pensions to the abbot and monks, on condition of their being spent in the canton. The agents of the canton took possession of the convent and all that belonged to it, amongst which were the establishment of the baths, and the summer residence of the abbot, now the hotel. The convent once possessed very extensive territory: its abbots were princes, but the French, as usual, appropriated their revenues.

I do not know a more delightful place for a lengthened sojourn than Ragatz. The hotel is in all respects thoroughly comfortable and very reasonable, only a day from Zurich, with every advantage of daily post, diligences, &c. The rides and walks are very varied and delightful, and