13 APRIL 1901, Page 25

The Day of the Sun. By Conrad Noel. (D. Nutt.

is.)— There are some interesting things in this monograph on the weekly holiday. It is curious, for instance, to see how rigorism reappears in the most dissimilar places, how the refinements of the Mishna were reproduced by medileval doctors, and are to be found mu lairs mutandis in the Scotch Highlanders to-day. To be willing to use a knife but not to use a saw, to refuse hot water for shaving but supply any quantity for toddy, are pretty close parallels to Jewish and Middle-Age restrictions. But Mr, Noel's language is somewhat violent. We owe a great debt to Puritanism, narrow as it was in some things.