E an excuse for shirking an occupation naturally distas

E educated and refined by the instruction
of good teachers and the public performances of skilful musicians.

In the country churches, the congregations still unite in the singing;
or, where it has been the custom for those who could sing to "sit in the
seats" and form a chorus choir, such custom still obtains.
Some notion of city taste, however, has gone abroad
in the country, and the choirs, although old-fashioned
in their organization, are not
quite content with the psalm-books of old time, and are constantly