| | | | Many changes have passed over the world in the last | fifteen years. We are all colder, more prosaic, less | hopeful than we were. A generous theory, based on a | belief in the perfectibility of man, was as certain then | to evoke a cheer as it is now to be scouted with a | scornful laugh. In those days men believed in an | extended suffrage, and eternal peace, and the | possibility of extirpating crime by reformatory | prisons. Some went so far as to believe in an | approaching union of all Christian Churches. Others, | of an opposite turn of mind, had persuaded | themselves that a drab-coloured millennium was | dawning on the other side of the Atlantic. Rude facts | have roughly woke us from these luxurious dreams, | and taught us that the antagonism which divides sects | and classes, the ambition which embroils nations, and | the love of a good dinner which animates the garrotter, | are passions as rife and powerful as they ever were | before at any period of human history. It is the | melancholy but complete collapse of optimism. We | are compelled with heavy hearts to give up our | aspirations after ideal churches and ideal | commonwealths, and content ourselves with patching | a little here, and altering a bit there, in the hope that | the systems under which we live may at all events | furnish us shelter for our time. Practical philanthropy, | which has abandoned all other hope but that of being | a temporary palliative for ills it cannot cure, is useful, | but little fascinating. The flood of evil wells up | ceaselessly; and it requires no small philosophy to | labour on, baling it out little by little, with the | certainty that no exertions that we can make will ever | materially abate its flow. | Such thoughts, pressed home by the events of our day | even upon the most sanguine, have produced a | marked alteration, not always for the better, in the | tone of popular thought. Many delusions have | disappeared; but much of the zeal which it seems can | hardly be maintained without their aid has evaporated | at the same time. Of course this tendency shows itself | the most strongly in the women, who are always the | quickest barometers to mark the progress of a general | change of | | feeling. The feature

"most conspicuous by its | absence"

in the educated society of the present | day, is the class of devout women and clerical young | ladies who formed a very familiar type of | womanhood ten or fifteen years ago. Whether the | women of the present day are essentially back, is a | matter too delicate for male critics to decide. But that | they are externally less devotional there can be no | question whatever. At the time to which we are | referring, religious observances formed a material | part of a young lady's business in life. She | entertained very strong views in favour of one or | other of the schools into which the religious world | was then divided. She got up regularly for early | church, or taught industriously in a Sunday school. | She had some pet clergyman whom she defended | against all comers, and the praise of whose voice in | intoning, or whose eloquence in preaching, she | sounded on every possible occasion. She was usually | engaged in the conversion of her parents, and often of | one or two Guardsmen into the bargain; and besides | this, she was active in good works ~~ especially in | collecting money for penitentiaries. She possessed an | abundant store of devotional works, magnificently | bound; and she was a diligent reader of the religious | novels which at that time issued so copiously from the | press. Her conversation between the intervals of | dancing was upon subjects of the day ~~ that is to say, | Transubstantiation and Baptismal Regeneration. So | decided was the theological tinge of her mind, that | she imposed the pretence of it, at least, upon those | who sought her favour. Flirtation involved a certain | proficiency in the terms of current controversy; and | love-making wore the pleasant disguise of a mutual | exploration into each other's religious difficulties. | There was a good deal that was ridiculous in the | young-lady religion of that day; but its absurdities | were a healthy sign. The affectation and fashion of | the many was a sure symptom of the real earnestness | of the few. There is no fertility where there are no | weeds. Moreover, the pretence did a good deal of | indirect good. If people were talking polemics, they | could not be talking scandal; and as there is no | evidence that they talked more than the feminine | average at that period, it is evident that a considerable | amount of scandal was thereby elbowed out of | existence altogether. Nor was the general fashion | which it induced, under which | everyone was obliged to have a | theological opinion of some kind, and to be able to | support it in argument, altogether an unhealthy one. | A religious fashion, if it does nothing else, at all | events fills up the ground that would be otherwise | occupied by an irreligious fashion. The world is in | the main composed of people who have no particular | opinions, or tastes, or tendencies of their own, and | who must, by the law of their being, always begin by | pretending to be something that they are not, though | they sometimes end by conforming their characters to | the pretence. Whether these people pretend to be | good or pretend to be bad ~~ whether they conform to | the fashions of Victoria's time, or the fashions of | George IV.'s time ~~ matters little as far as their | sincerity is concerned. In each case they begin by | being equally unreal. But it makes a great difference | as to the reality into which their pretences ultimately | develop. The change, at all events, whether unhealthy | or the reverse, has been very complete. Devotion is | no longer fashionable, and the clerical young lady is | rapidly disappearing. Specimens may undoubtedly be | found, like the specimens of the bustard or | capercailzie, to testify to a state of things that has | passed away. But the average young lady of the | present day has a mortal aversion to parsons, and a | profound ignorance of theology. She entertains no | schemes for the conversion of her benighted parents, | and cares a great deal more about the hearts of | Guardsmen than their souls. Controversy lends her | no aid in small talk. She cannot make love by a free | exchange of sweet experiences with some | mustachioed penitent. Compliments on one side, and | chaff on the other, is now the debased currency with | which she transacts a flirtation; and with her accepted | she chiefly discourses on upholstery. A photographic | album replaces upon her table the illuminated | Thomas a Kempis or | Christian Year of other days ~~ | which album is adorned by a large number of manly | forms, which she modestly assures you are those of |

"her brother's friends."

She wholly ignores | the theological topics of the day, and does not feel at | the thought of Bishop Colenso one-half the glow of | indignant horror with which the young lady of twelve | years ago would have mentioned the name of Gorham | or Bennett, as the case might be. She knows more | about operas than churches, and more about | dressmakers than either. | No doubt there is more reality in the later type. We | now see the young-lady mind as nature made it, and | not as good books have dressed it out. But few | people will deny that there was something more | fascinating in the enthusiastic fashion than in the | practical fashion. The human mind needs clothes as | well as the human body. There is something | revolting in the photographic truthfulness with which | very unreserved or very cynical people unveil to the | world the workings of their minds. It is always | pleasanter to believe that those around you have at the | bottom of their souls aims higher than can be satisfied | by the passing amusements of each succeeding day; | and most people furnish their neighbours with that | innocent gratification by assuming such aims, even if | they have them not. Men very seldom go mentally | naked. They have almost always sufficient reserve | and restraint to clothe themselves in the decorums | prescribed by the public opinion of their day. Women, | and especially young women, are scarcely | diplomatists enough for this. Their only chance of | presenting to your eye a mind fair to look upon is to | array it in some genuine or affected enthusiasm. | Even the latter, though it be only the contagion of a | passing fashion, is better than nothing at all. In the | most practical point of view the practical young lady | is a mistake. Far-sighted matrons ought to cultivate | enthusiasm in their daughters merely as a marketable | article. In these evil days, when angling in | matrimonial waters is a toilsome and ungrateful | labour; and the fat, well-fed fish ~~ the only fish an | angler cares to hook ~~ nibble so sluggishly and bite | so rarely, it is not a time for throwing away any kind | of bait that might be useful. A languid generation | requires some stimulant more exciting than the | conversation of a voluble chronicler of crinolines. | There is something gratefully exciting, like the acid of | a tropical fruit, in the vehemence of charming women | who talk of things they do not understand; but a | pumpkin is the only vegetable that, in point of flavour | and solidity, can supply a comparison for the small | talk of the charmers of the present day. If young | ladies will be practical, it is no wonder that elder sons | should have become practical too. It requires | something of enthusiasm, something in the nature of | an illusion, to impel an elder son into the weary ways | that lead to matrimony. The public courtship, the | regulation observances of engaged happiness, the | fierce battle of settlements, the ceremonials contrived | for duly exhibiting the bridegroom, are nuisances | from which very practical men, with very mundane | views of the duties and objects of life, will be inclined | to escape. Some mental fascinations, some bait | beyond mere personal beauty, is needed to attract the | shy fish of our generation. This practical fashion falls | very hard upon the large number of young ladies who | have no unusual intellectual power to countervail it. | Every mother who knows her own interests will | earnestly pray that the times of enthusiasm may come | back again. And if the mother desire it from | interested motives, those who merely wish to see the | influence and usefulness of women extended will | desire it still more keenly.