She exclaimed as a sort of parenthesis,

And by way of putting me quite at my ease,

'You know, I'm to polka as much as I please,

And flirt when I like-now, stop, don't you speak—
And you must not come here more than twice in the week,
Or talk to me either at party or ball,

But always be ready to come when I call;

So, do n't prose to me about duty and stuff,

If we don't break this off, there will be time enough

For that sort of thing; but the bargain must be,
That, as long as I choose, I am perfectly free,
For this is a sort of engagement, you see,
Which is binding on you but not binding on me.

The results of such marriages have been sufficiently depicted above.

There is a universal result of the whole thing, which may now conclude our statement of its evil influence upon the world.

It creates a licentious and moneyed aristocracy, and a corrupt and venal demagogueism.

When money is sought with such maddening energy, for the sake of the gratification which it gives, the feverish craving is not confined to any one class, but from the highest down through every rank of society pours the fearful flood, till from center to circumference, society presents one scene of intense and desperate scrambling after gold, amid the

pompous pageantry of fashion-decked dupes and satined buffoons. In such circumstances money is power-power in the hands of the heartless few, whose keener arts or bolder strokes have insured success in obtaining it. And as this effect is developed, the answering tendency in the human bosom to cringe and fawn at the feet of opulence, is exhibited with it, till we have all the elements of our proposition complete in the experience of society. Through the influence of this very cause, our worthiest offices are bought and sold as wealthy demagogues and cringing partizans desire. Well would it be for us to stop and ask ourselves whither we are tending.

Extravagance sapped the foundations of every empire of antiquity, and has ruined more than one of modern date. It is fast blighting our freedom by the corrupted morality of society, and gathering about our own future a cloud of deeper gloom than any other. "If the past has lessons of instruction for us, we may find in the close connection of opulence, the love of display and extravagance, with the rapid decline of national character and strength, in Babylon, Tyre, Sparta, Rome, Spain, etc., the beacon which would warn us

of the reefs upon which they were wrecked. This single evil is doing more to undermine our institutions, curtail our benevolence, and limit the salvation of the gospel, than all other causes combined." (Gift of Power.)

Surely every person who feels his interests identified with the good of the race, must look upon all such influences not merely with distrust, but with the abhorrence which they deserve. Nor will he permit his mind to be blinded by the thought that things so small and apparently unimportant in themselves, can not be justly charged with the results detailed in the preceding pages. Reject not the conclusions till you have swept away the arguments upon which they are built. And if perchance they should be found valid, they will furnish but another instance in this world of wonders, when insignificant causes have rolled on to the sublimest or most disastrous results.

We entreat you, then, dear reader, to ponder well the foregoing pages, and endeavor not to silence the voice of reason and conscience in a resort to ridicule, as foolish as it is impotent to shield you from the consequences, both here and hereafter, of rejecting truth.

CHAPTER V.

It is with a feeling of sadness that we approach the conclusion of our work,-not that we are apprehensive of any real weakness in the argument; but we are aware of the deceitfulness of the human heart, and not strangers to the exceeding difficulty of banishing an evil which is fortified by the habits of years, and regarded almost as a household god by thousands of its devotees. Well has one said:

"We are not now for the first time to learn that this subject is one upon which it is difficult to touch without giving offense; a hopeless one, perhaps, where the incurable frenzy of the multitude renders the reform, even of the few, a desperate enterprise. What can be said of the morality of this fantastic ornament, that ridiculous deformity, and the other hideous appendage, which would have any weight? It is vain to discuss the moral evil in the fatal constraint applied here, and the frightful enlargement made there, and the disgusting transformation of God's beautiful workmanship which fashion effects every where. It is in vain to appeal to the standard which

God, nature, and common sense have approved. Their opinions on the point are all chaff when they conflict with the decrees of those whom fashion dubs with the magnificent and imposing title of the world. The reply to all that is urged is the stereotyped one: 'We may as well be out of the world as out of the fashion.' It is in vain to return for answer, and to prove that to be in fashion is the readiest way to get out of the world. Every man's eye gives ocular demonstration of it. Every member of the medical faculty, at home and abroad, would qualify to the fact under oath. Many a dissection has furnished the proof; many a death-bed of the young and lovely has told the mournful tale; many an early grave has uttered its fearful warnings. What is all this but chaff, when opposed to the despotism of fashion?

"If it were an army of barbarians that had invaded our land, and were cutting off in their bloom the thousands whom God intended to be the mothers of the next generation, we would meet them with well-appointed armies, and send them quickly into the pit; if it were the pestilence, we would fast, and pray, and weep; if it were Christianity herself that de