a sort of lunar cycle too eccentric to be calculated correctly. Why should a fashion which was pronounced charming ten years ago be declared ridiculous to-day? Are not the laws of beauty as unchangeable as truth? This instability and restlessness shows an exceeding vagueness and childishness in our ideas of beauty and of the fitness of things."

We do not care to moralize on the question of fashions. There are metes and bounds in everything beyond which sensible people will not go, and people without sense cannot be reasoned with. John Foster shows how long familiarity with the fashionable world destroys all relish for the more substantial enjoyments of life. He says: "After looking a good while on the glaring side of the view, my eye does not nicely distinguish these modest beauties in the shade. Analogy: a man whose feelings and habits are formed in splendid and fashionable life has no relish for the charms of retirement, or of secluded, affectionate society." One of the most tormenting thoughts that enter the mind of the fashionable wife of a bankrupt is that she can no longer shine in splendor as a social star. Is it not a pity to become so attached to the mere outward and changeable, which sooner or later must pass away from all, that when it vanishes the heart droops and all the nobler nature breathes in sighs? Rochester was right:

"Custom does often reason overrule,

And only serves for reason to the fool."

GOOD SOCIETY.

The best definition of good society is: The meeting on a footing of equality, and for the purpose of mutual entertainment, of men or women, or of men and women together, of good character, good education and good bearing. Without a feeling of equality there can be no ease in society, without confidence of good character there can be no freedom of converse, and without intelligence and culture, elevated conversation is impossible.

Good society shuts its doors, once and forever, on the man who has lost his honor, and on the woman who has fallen. It is a

severe censor, pitiless and remorseless. Perhaps this is the only case in which the best society and the merciful religion of Jesus stand opposed to each other; but it should not be forgotten that society, as such, has no court in which to try its offenders; it therefore excludes them.

The indispensable requisites, then, of good society are high moral character, a fair degree of intellectual culture, a perfect command of temper, good habits, good bearing and delicate feeling. Wit, wealth and position may go at their value along with these fundamentals, but without them they ought not to go at all.

Snobbery and sham have some few conditions peculiar to themselves, but as these are bad forms in good society, they deserve no notice here. Bad society has been divided into three classes: First, that in which both morals and manners are bad; second, that in which the morals appear to be good, be the manners what they will; third, that in which the manners appear to be good, but the morals are detestable. The first is low, the second vulgar, the third dangerous.

Lord Chesterfield laid down the rule that a man who does not solidly establish and really deserve a character for truth, probity, good manners and good morals, at his first setting out in the world, may impose and shine like a meteor for a short time, but will very soon vanish and be extinguished with contempt.

Society," says a writer, once esteemed both for his graceful diction and brilliant career, "is full of failures that need never have been made; full of men who have never succeeded when they might have and should have succeeded; full of women who in the first half of their days did nothing but eat and sleep and simper, and in the last half have done nothing but perpetuate their follies and weaknesses. The world is full, I say, of such people; full of men in every trade and profession who do not amount to anything, and of girls and women without trade or profession who have no desire to amount to anything; and I do not speak irreverently, and I trust not without due charity, without making due allowance for the inevitable in life, when I say that God and thoughtful men are weary of their presence. Every boy ought to improve on his own father; every girl grow into a nobler, gentler, more self-denying

womanhood than the mother. No reproduction of the former types will give the world the perfect type. I know not where the millennium is, as measured by distance of time; but I do know, and so do you all, that it is a great way off as measured by human growth and expansion. We have no such men and women yet, no age has ever had any, as shall stand on the earth in that age of peace that will not come until men are worthy of it."

To increase the sum of human happiness, to cultivate kind and fraternal feelings one with another, to live for something besides sense and selfishness, to get above the groveling ideas of accumulation of property and living in ease, should be the controlling purpose of every life. We cannot afford to disregard the comfort and social happiness of our neighbors, and the interchange of friendly sentiments everywhere. We must so live and act that the generous impulses of our hearts will prompt us to extend the hand of fellowship to all, and, as one expresses it, "looking them squarely in the eye, feel that glorious inward consciousness that we have never wronged them in thought, word or deed. Then, too, let words of kindness be spoken; let little deeds of love be done; let the principles of the golden rule be exemplified in our daily lives; let us be more sociable, and cultivate our convivial qualities by frequent interchanges of friendly greetings at social gatherings; let no aristocracy be acknowledged, save that of the intellect; let us beautify our homes; let us make them what they should be by cherishing a love for the beautiful, so that

"Blessings may attend us forever;

And whatever we pray for or do,
May our lives be one grand endeavor

To type the pure, the good, and the true!'"

Sometime society will be constituted on just such a basis, but when will that "sometime" be? At any rate, it is a blessed word, a "sweet, sweet song, flowing to and fro through the topmost boughs of the heart, and filling the whole air with song and gladness as the songs of birds do when the summer morning comes out of the darkness, and the day is born on the mountains. We have all our possessions in the future which we call 'Sometime.' Beautiful

flowers and sweet-singing birds are there, only our hand seldom grasps the one, or our ears hear, except in faint, far-off strains, the other. But on, reader, be of good cheer, for to all the good there is a golden 'Sometime!' When the hills and valleys of time are all passed, when the wear and fever, the disappointments and the sorrows of life are over, then there is the peace and the rest appointed of God. Oh, homestead over whose blessed roof falls no shadow or even clouds, across whose threshold the voice of sorrow is never heard; built upon the eternal hills, and standing with spires and pinnacles of celestial beauty among the palm trees of the city on high, those who love God shall rest under thy shadow, where there is no more sorrow nor pain, nor the sound of weeping!"

RELIGIOUS SOCIETY.

The social element in religion has often been remarked. "Whoever heard of a church," inquires one," in which the vital elements of religion prevail, which was not, at the same time, a social church? The primitive church was social. Only when the coldness and formality of medieval times appeared, did church members become cold and indifferent concerning each other's welfare in divine things. Two men cannot be perpetually social with each other unless they reciprocally are interested one in the other.

"Jesus was interested in his disciples, and they were also interested not only in him, but in each other. They could not have the mutual interest, nor manifest it without a social disposition.

"The church must be cemented by social ties, in order to the highest spiritual fellowship.

"It should afford a genial social sphere to all its youth. The Sabbath-school, young people's society, and devotional services, if rightly conducted, will glow with social life. But it is undoubtedly possible to maintain sewing circles, church socials, and receptions, unexceptionable in their spirit, and yet full of social inspiration. To devise and conduct such gatherings may be a laborious task for the few, yet the advantages secured extend to all the interests of the church. Then, entirely apart from these assemblies at the church, frequent gatherings should be held as friends and neighbors

among the members. A tea party, divested of all burdensome formality of dress or expensive viands, is one of the most enjoyable of entertainments. No games or amusements are required to beguile the hours. Conversation, music and devotion blend so happily, that pleasant recollections, with no sense of weariness or disgust, are retained. Such gatherings promote the deepest and purest friendships among the members of a church. It is best that the circle shall not be so circumscribed as to render any one jealous, but shall enlarge until it touches at some point all the church. If all were disposed to co-operate in such social gatherings, it would greatly aid to give unity to its membership."

Friendliness in religion is a great power. A church where people are kindly welcomed, shaken hands with and looked after, will always have more influence than one in which the presence of strangers is ignored, or one which allows a family to attend for years without feeling that any one takes any interest in them except to see that they pay their pew rent. It is a sad and bitter feeling which some cherish, and express in the words, "No man cares for my soul." Where the true home-like, social influence pervades the church, this spiritual solitariness is unfelt, unknown. Religious conversation, free from affectation and cant, easy and wise, quickly banishes it. There is nothing which does one so much good to talk over as the state of the heart. Social life, therefore, has its widest and best field in the realm of religion.

Would that society were all as fair and pure as its best phases seem to be. But it is not. Below its surface, here and there, must lie hidden the evil germs that are constantly springing forth in the moral monstrosities that make this world to some the ante-chamber of hell-the realm where millions are conceived and born, and bred and live and die, as if predestined to be fitted only for eternal woe. Of such, Baxter's lines are true :

"Vile man is so perverse,

It's too rough work for verse
His badness to rehearse,

And show his folly;