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from some of themselves, that the impression hitherto made is neither very deep nor general. The most part of the usual town congregations (and I have seen scarce any other) are women, and those apparently of the middling and lower classes. The menespecially of the educated and professional description, are, I fear, to a very considerable extent, sceptically disposed, if not even worse. These rarely ever frequent the churches, except on fast or sacramental occasions! when it is the custom for all the world, influenced by a feeling of nationality, to present themselves, as a matter of course. I need not add, that discipline is as little attended to, and would as ill be borne, by the national church of the Helvetic confession, as by others that we may know nearer. home. They have a liturgy, to which, in the national worship, the parties are most strictly bound; more so than we, who before or after sermon may pray in the church, according to our discretion, as we please: it is evangelical truly, beginning with a confession (in the words of Calvin or of Beza), which upon original sin is even stronger and fuller than ours: but, as a whole (and they feel and own it themselves), it is bald and dry, and would not stand a moment's comparison with the liturgy of the church of England. The same remark holds good with regard to both their sacramental services, at the latter of which, as a communicant at the Lord's table with them, I have attended twice: and for the burial of the dead they have, in common with our Presbyterians, neither service nor worship at all; but, as one of their pastors, who spent some years in England, expressed it to me, bury them like dogs. The attitude in public prayer here, is standing, which I

think, or feel, to be unfavourable to devotion; and the custom of singing sitting is, I would say, equally so. In regard, however, of ceremonies, I am not one of those who would raise a strife, so as all things be done decently and orderly.

With respect to religious reading here, and academical instruction, the scarcity of Protestant authors in the French language has led too much to the study of the works of the best French Roman Catholic writers, ancient or modern. The result of this is a too favourable opinion of the theology of the Church of Rome, connected with the idea, that the term Protestant applies to the reformed rather as directed against the grinding despotism of former times, whether civil or religious, than against any, or all together, of the doctrinal pollutions of the mystic Jezebel. In vain shall we search for the spirit of primitive Protestantism, whether in its aggressive or self-vindicating character, (and it cannot do the one without the other,) upon any part of the continent of Europe which I have seen. Here, where a healthier tone of evangelical religion exists than perhaps almost any where else in the present day, it might be looked for, but it is not found. Religious liberalism, and a disposition to fraternize with pious Romanists, rather than to seek to revive the spirit of brotherly love which once prevailed among the reformed of different outward denominations, who continue to hold the orthodox doctrines, is here, and I fear almost universally, rather the order of the day. Even Bossuet is praised as a Christian writer; and the craft of Dr. Nicholas Wiseman of Rome, whose learned book has been translated into French by an abbé (who, in his preface, classes Luther and Melancthon with Voltaire

and Rousseau!) does not seem to be in the slightest degree perceived or even suspected. • Much may be learned from him,' you are told, in reply to any hint you may drop, respecting the danger of receiving into your cabinet the work of a Jesuit, purporting to be a defence of divine revelation against the assaults of the infidel philosophy of our times. In politics, since 1831, the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people, and of their capability for self-government, has been here embraced in its most extended sense; and a new constitution has been framed upon that basis. At the same time, the system is here to be put to the fairest trial, by a law of the same date, which makes it imperative upon every Vaudois citizen to teach, or cause to be taught, to all his children, until the age of 15, (when they are expected to confirm their baptismal vows, and to receive their first communion,) the Holy Scriptures, and to send them regularly and frequently to be catechized. Let time tell whether or no the experiment, even upon this small scale, will succeed.

I have only room to add that upon the subject of the second advent (or that of prophecy generally), both pastors and professors, with their respective hearers and pupils, seem to be in utter ignorance. They do not think upon such subjects-they all slumber and sleep. How much ground have the evangelical churches lost here, since the time of the Lollards and the ancient Vaudois, whose knowledge of the prophecies of Daniel and St. John saved them from the jaws of the Roman beast! Dr. Neander, a German theologian, who is regarded as an oracle here, has thrown out a doubt of the genuineness and inspiration of the Apocalypse, if he has not gone the length of rejecting it from the canon altogether.-D.

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING.

DEAR MADAM,

Allow me, wrapped in impenetrable obscurity, to offer on the pages of your Magazine, a few remarks concerning the prevailing folly of my dear countrywomen: bold indeed must the individual be, who unconcealed should venture to attack this reigning absurdity: but having every reason to believe that no carpet work-frame adorns your drawing-room-no skein of floss silk or German wool ever peeps out from the corner of your work-basket, allow me to hope that you are an unprejudiced unbiassed party, not yet gone over to the side of the enemy, and will therefore shelter me in your editorial capacity, from the pricks of the thousand needles, which swift as thought, might be lanced against the daring antagonist of worsted work.

In my younger days, I am happy to say, I wept no tears over spoilt floss silk; I lost no hour of play through the misplaced eye of a dog, or the ill-shaded tail of a parrot-through threads miscounted, stitches crossed the wrong way, or canvas drawn too tight. I darned stockings, I sewed seams, I hemmed pocket-handkerchiefs; and if these employments were less graceful and classical, they were incomparably more useful. Tent-stitch and cross-stitch in hangings and carpets, on chair-backs and rugs, were always pointed out to me as sad mementos of the

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lamentable waste of time in which our grandmothers indulged; and I question whether I did not in some sort regard the cessation of carpet-work and embroidery as one mark of the superior civilization of our own time. But, alas! I have lived to see the recommencement of that era; and being yet young, I know not to what height I may live to see it carried even in my days. Perhaps, like the ladies of old, the mistress of the house will be found sitting in the midst of her family, directing their tasks, with her daughters gathered round her, and all the maids employed upon the 'grounding,' Ah, my dear Madam, you know not the horrors of that grounding,' or you would not wonder at my selecting it as the task likely to be assigned to the poor maids; stitch after stitch, each one exactly like its fellow, and all to be crossed the same way, upon the dire penalty of spoiling the whole. Perhaps, it may be said, it is the same with needle-work. Very true; but the usefulness sanctions the occupation. The very same plant which is tended and nursed with the greatest care where it is needed for use, is cut down as a weed when it springs up in unprofitable luxuriance upon the streets of a tropical town-every stitch that a woman sets, every step she takes, every occupation, however trifling, in which she is engaged, which tends to the comfort of those whose presence makes her home on earth, is at once her duty, her province, and her happiness. And for myself, I confess I really cannot see what good object is promoted by worsted work: certainly not health, so far as the younger portion of the community is concerned ; when the newly-invented swinging frame finds its way into the parlour, it is greatly to be feared that

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