. These rings of spiritual office were frequently worn on the
thumb, and when the tomb of Bede was opened in May, 1831, a large
thumb-ring was found where the right hand had fallen to dust.

The ring has been used not only for carnal and spiritual weddings, but
also for commercial ones. For six hundred years the Doges of Venice
married, with a gold ring, the Adriatic and its rich commerce to their
city on the sea. As an emblem of delegated or transmitted power, the
ring has also played a remarkable part in human affairs. Pharaoh and
Ahasuerus in Biblical records are examples. Alexander transferred his
kingdom to Perdicas with his ring. When Caesar received the head of
Pompey, he also received his ring, and when Richard the Second
resigned his crown to Henry of Lancaster, he did so by giving him his
ring. The coronation ring of England is of gold, in which is set a
large violet ruby, carved with the cross of St. George. The custom of
engraving sacred emblems upon rings for common wear was angrily
reproved by so early a sage as Pythagoras; and this heathen's delicacy
about sacred things is commended to the notice of those women of our
own day, who toss the holy symbol of our faith around the toilet
tables, and wear it in very unconsecrated places.

However, I have said enough to prove that the ring upon our finger is
a link between us and the centuries beyond the flood. We cannot escape
this tremendous solidarity of the human race. We are part of all that
has been, and the generations that follow us will look back to us and
say, "They were our fathers, and we are their heirs, and lo, we are
all one!"

Flirting Wives

If some good and thoughtful woman who died fifty years ago could
return to this world, what in our present life would most astonish
her? Would it be the wonders of steam, electricity, and science; the
tyranny of the working classes, or the autocracy of servants? No! It
would be the amazing development of her own sex,--the preaching,
lecturing, political women; the women who are doctors and lawyers; who
lose and win money on horses, or in stocks and real estate; the women
who talk slang, and think it an accomplishment; who imitate men's
attire and manners; who do their athletic exercises in public; and,
perhaps more astonishing than all, the women who make marriage the
cloak for much profitable post-nuptial flirtation.

For her own sex engaged in business, she might find excuses or even
admiratio