ness. Humanity and morality, on the other hand, cannot be reduced to terms of physics, either of force, or of evolution, or of order. There always stand everywhere, and in the last analysis-matter and mind: we cannot conceive the absence of either; we cannot identify them; we cannot state one in terms of the other. Hence the eternal dualism of all real philosophy, and thereby of all true religion; the eternal Cosmos, as the field and envelope of the moral life, and that moral life itself-the Environment and the Life: Man and the Universe; or better, Humanity and the World.

Our love of this rich and potent earth, our awe at this mysterious system which peoples space with a marshalled host of worlds, our sense of the profound unities and harmonies of the mighty whole, are now transfused with all the insight of the poets from Job, and David, and Sappho and Theocritus, to Shakespeare, and Shelley, and Wordsworth, and Blake, and Turner, together with all the thoughts of the philosophers from Pythagoras and Plato to Hegel and Comte; to Helmholtz and Darwin. Our sense of nature never was so rich and deep as it is now; and it gains in richness and depth immensely, when we are not asked to worship it, or to cast man's history and man's conscience and duty into its language (in short to make it a religion), or, on the other hand, to see in it the mere mode of life of an absolute, perfect, and almighty will.

Rational religion stands with a firm front between these two extremes, refusing to believe on the one hand that Nature in its good and its evil, its beauty and horror alike, is God, or the expression of God, or the visible manifestation of God and his will, refusing to believe on the other hand that Nature is the measure of man, or any kind of divinity to man, or the highest term of a series of which man is the unit. It is not so! There lies in the heart of the poorest and meanest child a force that cannot be even stated in terms of the deepest philosophy of the physical universe. Whilst one mother struggling to save one child were left on this mere fleck of dust in the countless procession of the suns, the devotion of that poor creature to her offspring, the love and trust of the child for her protecting parent, have a deeper religious meaning than all the music of the spheres, or the mystery of the cosmic forces. There, where these two are cowering together in trust, and love, there are still life for others, labour for others, endurance for the sake of something not our own, a sense of reverence and gratitude for protection, conquering pain and leaping over death.

And if we are to seek the sources of religion, the ideal of religion in the rushing firmament of suns, or in the withering waifs and strays of humanity who are yielding up their last breath in mutual trust and love, we shall have to look for it in them, for we can find it only in humanity, and in the world around us as the sphere and instrument of humanity.

FREDERIC HARRISON.

COUNTY CHARACTERISTICS-KENT.

THE etymology of our Norman word county (comitatus, the jurisdiction of a comes) affords little help to the understanding of its real significance. The Saxon word shire (from scyrian, to divide), i.e. a section shorn off from the rest of the realm, is far more expressive. The origin of most shires is lost in the haze of antiquity. Their names in some cases serve only to indicate that tribes of Saxon invaders fixed their settlements there; e.g. Sussex, Essex (South and East Saxons); while others are obviously drawn from the presence of great landmarks, e.g. North-umber-land, West-more-land. Their boundaries are almost always matter of tradition, never recorded save by way of recital, but seldom disputed, being for the most part natural marks of division, such as hills, rivers, brooks, &c., which are not easily effaced or forgotten. It is this time-honoured and uncontested title to acceptance which explains, what would else seem strange, the fact that amid many points of similarity with its neighbours, every county differs from any other in certain characteristic features. The idiosyncrasy of each is difficult to define, but after a sufficiently long and wide acquaintance can scarcely be mistaken. Physical, historical, and social peculiarities combine to form it, and it may be regarded as the total impression made upon the observer's mind, partly by the dominant character of the hills, valleys, rivers, lakes, plains, and woodlands embraced within the prescribed limits; partly by the aroma of legendary or historical memories exhaled from the soil as a whole, or lingering round particular localities; partly by the familiar usages and mannerisms common to the inhabitants, which, having grown out of their original segregation and ancestral history, have been cherished and handed down as heirlooms from parent to child.

The centralising tendency of modern times, by means of such agencies as railways and telegraphs, has done much to level provincial distinctions, and threatens wholly to annihilate them; but those of which I speak are too deeply indented to be readily obliterated, and will disappear slowly if they ever vanish altogether. Meantime there is a hopeful prospect of their being kept alive and fostered by the antiquarian spirit which seems to be gaining strength among us as a race, in close alliance with that healthy conservatism of which no

Englishman is wholly devoid. The chief agents of this praiseworthy reaction are the county historians, including in that class the writers of guide-books, whose united labours have produced a body of literature of which any nation might be proud; and the provincial Archæological Societies, which exert themselves not only to record the fading relics of the past in memoirs and drawings, but to preserve them by timely help from material decay. Even such a sketch in outline as is here offered of the characteristic features of Kent could not have been attempted without freely drawing upon the treasuries of research and learning stored in the volumes of Hasted and Furley, the excellent handbook published by Mr. Murray, and the Transactions of the County Archæological Society. But no amount of such reading would serve to impress the idiosyncrasy of a particular county upon the student's mind unless supplemented by what in the jargon of modern science is called 'autopsy.' One must saturate oneself with the atmosphere of the locality by long residence in it, familiarise the eye with its scenery, mingle with its natives, absorb their traditions and learn their ways, in order to apprehend the peculiar contour of its form and tint of its colour so vividly as to make them apprehensible to others. The present writer is conscious of possessing these qualifications most inadequately, but an acquaintance extending over many years with a large portion of the county, and such observations as an inveterate propensity to tramp' every district within reach has enabled him to make, may suffice in default of a better equipment for the modest undertaking which he proposes to himself.

The configuration of Kent, as shown upon a good map, affords a reasonable explanation of its historical vicissitudes. The large extent of flat open coast upon its eastern side, to which it owes its Celtic name, and the presence of such important rivers as the Thames and Medway as inlets to its fertile fields, have rendered it more easy of approach and exposed it more frequently than any other county to invasion from the adjoining Continent. Here, in all probability near Deal, Cæsar and his legions landed. Here, five centuries later, the first incursion of the Saxons, under the reputed leadership of Hengist and Horsa, took place at Ebb's-fleet. A century and a half afterwards. the same coast witnessed the peaceful advent of the first Apostle of Christianity, Augustine. From that time forward it has been the main channel of our communication with Europe, the high-road of travel for princes and envoys, soldiers and churchmen, artists and craftsmen, merchants and pleasure-seekers, invalids and pilgrims, conspirators and refugees. To its neighbourhood to the Continent the county owes the origin of its most precious products, cherries and hops, both of which were introduced from the Netherlands. Hence also is due the presence of the foreign element which has leavened the population of some of its towns, particularly Sandwich, where the descendants of French and Flemish exiles are still

numerous, and the word 'polders' which the latter must have brought with them is locally applied to the adjacent marshes.

On the other hand, the encincture of Kent on two or even three sides with water (for the Rother which divides it from Sussex was within historic times a navigable tidal river), and its dorsal barrier of hills, have served to isolate it in a measure from communion with the rest of the realm, and secure its inhabitants in the possession of their independence and ancient customs. It is a familiar tradition associated with Swanscombe, near Gravesend, that the assembled men of Kent there met the Norman Conqueror and awed him by their determined attitude and their numbers (artificially magnified by the covert of green branches under which they advanced) into confirming them in their Saxon privileges. Whether this story be true or not, the fact is incontestable that Kent is the only county wherein the Saxon law of Gavelkind, which, among other advantages, entitled all the sons of a deceased landowner to equal shares of inheritance, has always prevailed; the custom in other parts of England being restricted to single manors. Notwithstanding the disgavelling of many estates by Act of Parliament, the area subject to the operation of this law is still large. Unique, too, among English counties is the Saxon nomenclature of its division into Laths (from gelathian, to assemble) which answer to the Ridings and Rapes prevailing elsewhere. If any weight is to be attached to the popular belief on the subject, Kent is Saxon to the core. Its heraldic shield, bearing as device the white horse with the motto Invicta,' is paraded by the inhabitants with unconcealed pride; now capping a tradesman's circular, now figuring on an itinerant traction-engine, or ornamenting an oast-house cowl.

Among the historical associations in which the county is so rich, those of the Saxon era are of capital importance. At Tong Castle, near Sittingbourne, according to legend, was held the memorable banquet at which Rowena, the fair daughter of Hengist, inspired Vortigern with the fatal passion that cost him his crown. A hill occupying the highest ground in the Isle of Thanet is the accredited scene of King Ethelbert's interview with Augustine, when permission was accorded to the introduction of that teaching which brought England within the pale of Christendom. The Goodwin Sands are the mythical site of a submerged city built by Godwin, the great Earl of Kent and father of the last Saxon king. The cathedrals of Canterbury and Rochester, the churches of Swanscombe, Lyminge, and many another, owe their foundation to Saxon piety. Numerous earthen mounds appear to indicate the sites of entrenched camps, or open-air Hundred Courts, belonging to the same period; while the extensive cemeteries found at Osengal Hill, near Ramsgate, and Ash, near Sandwich, date from the age of Saxon Paganism, which has left other traces in the names of such places as Wodnesborough, and Thunor's Leap.

ages

Earlier and later associations than these carry us back to the preceding the Roman occupation, and onward through every century down to living memory. Kits-Coity House, near Aylesford, and other cromlechs are among the most remarkable relics now extant of the Celtic period. The ruined fortresses of Richborough, Reculver, and Lymne, erected by the imperial officers denominated Counts of the Saxon Shore,' mark the points at which they considered it most liable to predatory invasion. The Watling and Stone streets, whose course can still be traced; the foundations of villas; bricks inserted in many ancient church walls, and the extensive remains of pottery in the Upchurch marshes testify to the permanence of the Romans' handiwork no less than the transience of their rule.

As a memorial that links the Saxon with the Norman era, Penenden Heath, near Maidstone, is of singular interest. The Shyre-gemot, or County-Court, having been held there before the Conquest, it was chosen in the year 1076 as the fittest place for trying the right of Odo of Bayeux to certain manors claimed by Archbishop Lanfranc as temporalties of the See of Canterbury. After a three days' trial, at which a leading witness was Agelric, Bishop of Chichester-eminent for his knowledge of Saxon law, who, by reason of his great age, had to be carried to the heath in a quadriga drawn by oxen-the cause was decided in favour of Lanfranc. On few places, probably, in England has the lapse of eight centuries wrought so little change. It has ever since continued to be the rendezvous of .county gatherings; the last noteworthy meeting held there having been to discuss the Catholic Emancipation Bill of 1829.

A century after the establishment of Norman rule, the Cathedral Church of Canterbury itself witnessed the most dramatic event in Kentish annals, the murder of Archbishop Becket. Scenes in his troubled life are associated historically or mythically with many places throughout the county. His arbitrary interference with the patronage of Eynesford Church was prominent among the high-handed acts which incensed the King and the nobles against him. At Otford a spring which feeds St. Thomas' Well,' near the ruins of the archiepiscopal palace, is reported to have issued forth at a stroke of his staff. At Eastry, near Sandwich, he lay concealed for some days before his exile to France. At Saltwood Castle (the title to which, on its escheating by the forfeiture of its tenant, he had fiercely contested with the King), the four knights who conspired to kill him settled their plans, and there they first rested after having accomplished the deed. The reaction in public feeling which followed upon his murder, and led to his canonisation as a martyr, is attested by the aged yews which crest; the ridges of The Pilgrims' Road,' along which they were planted to direct foreign votaries to his shrine at Canterbury.

The historic interest of Kent during the thirteenth century