thousands of tons of masonry, such forests of timber, such acres of lead and glass, all united in one harmonious work, on which men lavished wealth and toil for generations-it appears inconceivable that such a monument can perpetuate an error or a dream. The echoing vaults bear witness. Responses come from storied window and multitudinous imagery. When the old cosmogony is proclaimed to be true in York Minster, the scientists sink into insignificance in their modern ordinary rooms; when the acolyte rings his bell in Rouen Cathedral, and the Host is lifted up, and the crowd kneels in silent adoration on the pavement, who is to deny the Real Presence? Does not every massive pillar stand there to affirm sturdily that it is true, and do not the towers outside announce it to field and river, and to the very winds of heaven?

The musical culture of women finds its own special interest in the vocal and instrumental parts of the church service. Women have a direct influence on this part of the ritual, and sometimes take an active share in it. Of all the arts, music is the most closely connected with religion, and it is the only one that the blessed are believed to practise in a future state. A suggestion that angels might paint or carve is so unaccustomed that it seems incongruous, yet the objection to these arts cannot be that they employ matter, since both poets and painters give musical instruments to the angels—

"And angels meeting us shall sing

To their citherns and citoles."

Worship naturally becomes musical as it passes from the prayer that asks for benefits to the expression of

joyful praise, and though the austerity of extreme Protestantism has excluded instruments, and encouraged reading instead of chanting, I am not aware that it has ever gone so far as to forbid the singing of hymns.

over women.

I have not yet touched upon pulpit eloquence as one of the means by which the clergy gain a great ascendency The truth is, that the pulpit is quite the most advantageous of all places for any one who has the gift of public speaking. He is placed there far more favourably than a member of Parliament in his place in the House, where he is subject to constant and contemptuous interruptions from hearers lounging with their hats. on. The chief advantage is that no one present is allowed either to interrupt or to reply, and this is one reason why some men will not go to church; as they say, "We may hear our principles misrepresented, and not be permitted to defend them." A Bishop, in my hearing, touched upon this very point. "People say," he remarked, “that a preacher is much at his ease because no one is allowed to answer him, but I invite discussion. If any one here present has doubts about the soundness of my reasoning, I invite him to come to me at the Episcopal Palace, and we will argue the question together in my study." This sounded unusually liberal, but how the advantages were still on the side of the Bishop! His attack on heresy was public. It was uttered with longpractised professional eloquence, it was backed by a lofty social position, aided by a peculiar and dignified costume, and mightily aided also by the architecture of a magnificent cathedral. The doubter was invited to

The attack was public,

answer, but not on equal terms. the answer was to be private, and the heretic was to meet

the Bishop in the Episcopal Palace, where, again, the power of rank and surroundings would be all in the prelate's favour.

Not only are clergymen privileged speakers in being as secure from present contradiction as a sovereign on the throne, but they have the grandest of all imaginable subjects. In a word, they have the subject of Dantethey speak to us del Inferno, del Purgatorio, del Paradiso. If they have any gift of genius, any power of imagination, such a subject becomes a tremendous engine in their hands. Imagine the difference between a preacher solemnly warning his hearers that the consequences of inattention may be everlasting torment, and a politician warning the Government that inattention may lead to a deficit ! The truth is, that however terrible may be the earthly consequences of imprudence and of sin, they sink into complete insignificance before the menaces of the Church; nor is there, on the other hand, any worldly success that can be proposed as a motive comparable to the permanent happiness of Paradise. The good and the bad things of this world have alike the fatal defect, as subjects for eloquence, that they equally end in death, and as death is near to all of us we see the end to both. The secular preacher is like a man who predicts a more or less comfortable journey which comes to the same end in any case. A philosophic hearer is not very greatly elated by the promise of comforts so soon to be taken away, nor is he overwhelmed by the threat of evils that can but be temporary. Hence, in all matters belonging to this world only, the tone of quiet advice is the reasonable and appropriate tone, and it is that of the doctor and lawyer; but in matters of such tremendous

import as eternal happiness and misery, the utmost energy of eloquence can never be too great for the occasion; so that if a preacher can threaten like peals of thunder, and appal like flashes of lightning, he may use such terrible gifts without any disproportionate excess. On the other hand, if he has any charm of language, any brilliancy of imagination, there is nothing to prevent him from alluring his hearers to the paths of virtue by the most lavish and seductive promises. In short, his opportunities in both directions are of such a nature that exaggeration is impossible, and all his power, all his charm, are as free to do their utmost as an ocean wave in a tempest or the nightingale in the summer woods.

I cannot quit the subject of clerical oratory without noticing one of its marked characteristics. The priest is not in a position of disinterested impartiality like a man of science, who is ready to renounce any doctrine when he finds evidence against it. The priest is an advocate, whose life-long pleading must be in favour of the Church as he finds her, and in opposition to her adversaries. To attack adversaries is therefore one of the recognised duties of his profession, and if he is not a man of uncommon fairness, if he has not an inborn love of justice which is rare in human nature, he will not only attack his adversaries but misrepresent them. There is even a worse danger than simple misrepresentation. A priest may possibly be a man of a coarse temper, and if he is so he will employ the weapons of outrage and vituperation, knowing that he can do so with impunity. One would imagine that these methods must inevitably repel and displease women, but there is a very peculiar reason why they seldom have this effect. A highly

principled woman is usually so extremely eager to be on the side of what is right that suspension of judgment is most difficult for her. Any condemnation uttered by a person she is accustomed to trust has her approval on the instant. She cannot endure to wait until the crime is proved, but her feelings of indignation are at once aroused against the supposed criminal on the ground that there must be clear distinctions between right and wrong. The priest, for her, is the good man—the man on the side of God and virtue, and those whom he condemns are the bad men-the men on the side of the devil and vice. This being so, he may deal with such men as roughly as he pleases. Nor have these men the faintest chance of setting themselves right in her opinion. She quietly closes the avenues of her mind against them; she declines to read their books; she will not listen to their arguments. Even if one of them is a near relation, whose opinions inflict upon her what she calls "the deepest distress of mind," she will positively prefer to go on suffering such distress until she dies, rather than allow him to remove it by a candid exposition of his views. She prefers the hostile misrepresentation that makes her miserable to an authentic account of the matter that would relieve her anguish.

PART III.-ASSOCIATION.

The association of clergymen with ladies in works of charity affords continual opportunities for the exercise of clerical influence over women. A partnership in good works is set up which establishes interesting and cordial relations, and when the lady has accomplished some