ct is that sensual life pictured in
"Lothair,"--fine houses, great retinues, costly clothing, clubs,
yachts, conservatories, etc., etc.,--in fact, an existence without a
crumpled rose-leaf, that would make a man a mixture of the sybarite
and satyr. Such specimens of humanity may occasionally be found in
America, but they are not yet a distinct class, nor are they likely to
become one in our pushing, up-and-down, constantly changing society.
Indeed, amid the earnest strivings, the intellectual aspirings and the
mechanical wonders of steam and electricity which environ us, a
semi-monster of the Lothair type would be as incongruous as a faun on
the Avenue or a Pagan temple on mid-Broadway.

If we would only take the trouble to examine the facts before our eyes
we have constantly in our university towns the proof that high
culture and moderation in dress and living go together. Take
Cambridge, Mass., for instance; its very best society is singularly
unostentatious, and the wives and daughters of its educated
dignitaries entertain without extravagance, and look for respect and
admiration from some loftier standpoint than their dress trimmings.

Ought we to Wear Mourning?

This is a question that from the earliest days of Christianity has at
times agitated the Church. It was specially dominant in the first
centuries, when every divergence from Jewish or Pagan rites was almost
an act of faith. Now the Jews, after the death of their relatives,
wore sackcloth during their time of mourning, which lasted from seven
to forty days. They sat on the ground, and ate their food off the
earth; they neither dressed themselves, nor made their beds, nor went
into the bath, nor saluted any one. This excess of grief rarely lasted
long; then a great feast was made for the surviving friends of the
dead; or the bread and meat were placed upon his grave for the
benefit of the poor. (Tobit iv. 17; Eccles. xxx. 18; and Baruch vi.
27.)

It was natural for the Christian, with the hope set before him, to
oppose this despairing sorrow, and we find Saint Jerome praising those
who partially abandoned it; while Cyprian declares he was "ordered by
Divine revelation to preach that Christians should not lament their
brethren delivered from the world, nor wear any mourning habits for
them, seeing that they were gone to put on white raiment, nor give
occasion for unbelievers by lamenting those as lost whom we affirm to
be with God."

As the Chur