, I fear, than either the dead or the living.

On another occasion, we were present at a preparation for the Holy
Communion in one of the chapels. Some twenty or thirty young girls,
robed in white, with long veils, were sitting together, their friends
and relatives seated at some little distance on the other side. The
priest having read and lectured, some fine chants were sung by the young
maidens, and they were dismissed with a blessing.

While in Paris this time, I was struck with the number of indecent
photographs by no means to be confounded with works of art, in the
windows of shops in the Rue de Rivoli, and indeed almost everywhere;
such photographs, as we should never allow to be exhibited in London,
yet here nothing was thought of it. Even ladies stopped to examine them
without a blush. Indeed, it appeared to me that such is the impudent
immorality and impurity now in Paris, that such an expression as an
innocent blush would be difficult to detect, more especially as the
conscience--that delicate sympathy of the mind which would cause it to
shrink from all that was not perfectly pure and beautiful--is made to
retire and give place to reason and materialism. The pleasure and
satisfaction of the senses seems to be all that they consider worth
living for. Pleasure is God, and both the soul and body bow before it.
Poor France, after so much suffering and national disgrace, still fondly
hugs the filthy rags of Irreligious Reason, which she sadly calls
_liberte_, _equalite_, and _fraternite_.

Next morning (April 14th), we crossed the Channel in delightfully smooth
water, and arrived in London safely once more. Dear old London, with all
thy fogs I love thee still! Every true Englishman, even after travelling
in climates more genial than his own, ever feels a tenderness in
returning to his own island home once more. Taken as a whole, there is
no city like London; no country or even climate like that of England.
Although we have no majestic snow-capped Alps around us, nor the
eternal blue skies and sunny climate of Italy, nor the classical and
ancient mementoes of Rome and Greece,--yet we have wild mountain
scenery, beautiful lakes, lovely undulating and richly timbered
landscapes, dimpled by happy homesteads where the silver stream flows
sweetly by; and there are our magnificent coast headlands and beautiful
seaside resorts, great populous cities, with their splendid public
buildings and fine parks. And as a rule, I