did not trouble herself
much about it. Mr. Clifton had preached a sermon in which he took the
ground that morality could be best promoted by regulating, instead of
extirpating, human propensities.

Then the rising tide of reform beat heavily upon the church-doors. By
stiff, inexorable logic, those clergymen who refused to join the popular
charge against the outworks of Evil were declared to be in intimate
alliance with its very Essence. Although the Bible, as a whole, was held
in little regard by the leading reformers, they were wonderfully expert
in plucking out texts here and there, and dove-tailing them into
scaffolding to sustain their platform. The grand denunciations of
Jeremiah were shown to have been shot point-blank at our poor little
New-England meeting-houses. It was _their_ fasts and _their_ new moons
which the prophet (his prophetic claims were here generously admitted)
aimed at. Some churches stood the shock of the angry elements. But many
young ministers were borne away before the storm, and carried their
side-aisles and galleries along with them. What! had a theological
_simulacrum_ of Satan excited their fathers to doughty deeds,--and
should they hold back, when challenged to meet him in proper person,
hand to hand? Thus persuading themselves, these ardent divines caught up
bitter words which had drifted out of the dictionary, and laid about
them with a spirit not wholly removed from the old ecclesiastical rancor
which would kill where it could not convince. And taking it for granted
that it is the mission of the intellect to rectify what is wrong in the
world, fruition seemed to answer their efforts. Society was put to its
purgation in very plausible fashion. Songs about Temperance and various
desirable perfections of the outward man were shouted in bar-rooms hired
for the purpose at considerable expense. Then there was dimly seen a
further "progress," of which certain movers of the people were the warm
advocates. Having got the machinery well to work, might it not be
twitched and pulled to effect a wider purification? It began to be
hinted that the use of wine in the sacred offices of religion could not
be countenanced, if its employment elsewhere were the monster iniquity
it was shown to be. That philosophical friend of humanity, Mr. Stellato,
began to denounce the consumers of animal food with every unpleasant
illustration the shambles could be made to supply. In very select
companies of sympathizer