point is concerned theosophy as now proclaimed as a world-religion has been the faith of all great religious natures; for such natures arrive at the idea of the existence of God not by a logical process but by direct perception. The difficulty with theosophy lies not only in its vagueness but in the fact that it opens the door for every sort of self-deception and imposture. Miracleworking, which has been the incident of the very highest spiritual development, is among many theosophists the end of their research. They are mere wonder-seekers, persons of the smallest religious instinct and the slightest spiritual development, who are hungry for the supernatural, and who vulgarize, as in the days of Christ, religion into mere magic. That there are profound and noble ideas in Oriental philosophy and faith, no intelligent person questions; but those who have looked into the theosophical movement cannot but feel that its interest is not so much in its fundamental ideas as in a certain attractive Orientalism which surrounds them, and above all in the marvelous possibilities of human action which it professes to open up. It professes to hold the key of all religions and regards each as good in its place. It interprets Christianity as an historical expression of racial character and human need and Christ as a great teacher; but it has the same regard for Mohammed and the faith which bears his name. It substitutes for belief in a God manifest under historic conditions a vague and undefined Energy whence all things proceed and to which all return again. The condition of India is the best comment on the essential force of such a system as theosophy; it utterly fails to help a struggling race; its adepts withdraw, according to the theosophic tradition, into remote retreats and India sinks lower and lower. Its pretended miracles are proven to be impostures of a very erude, kind. BREACH OF PROMISE OF MARRIAGE. THIS letter comes to us from a lady of a New England state, and as it relates to a subject which now, lamentably, requires serious discussion, we give it in full : DEAR SIR :-Should a lady bring suit for a breach of promise? I have two sisters, one of whom was engaged during one year to be married to a lawyer. He broke the engagement that he might propose marriage to another lady. The other sister was engaged to a gentleman for about eighteen mouths, and had made all her arrangements to be married; but the man broke the engagement and immediately began to pay attention to another lady, whom he married. What can be done to correct this evil in social life? It has depressed the lives of my sisters and put a cloud into our family sky which has remained there for a number of years. Very truly yours, It seems to be indisputable that cases of the kind described by our correspondent, so sadly, are increasing in this country. Perhaps the rapid growth and extension of the class of traveling commercial agents has had something to do with their multiplication. Most of these men are honorable in all their dealings, and many of them are the loyal husbands of faithful wives; but some of them, unquestionably, are as destitute of moral principle, so far as women are concerned, as the pirates and bandit barons of a former day. They are like the old-time sailors who had a wife in every port. In their wandering life they feel free from social and moral obligations, and they look on every woman as fair prey. They may not be many, but as they pass from place to place they can leave a trail of broken pledges and sorrow and suffering inexpressible. It is painfully apparent, too, that there are large numbers of other men who have thrown off the old American respect for womanhood, so honorable to this country, and so provocative of well-deserved praise from foreign visitors. Indications of this deterioration appear in the decrease of courtesy toward women, in the great cities more especially. It used to be the proud boast of an American that in this country an unprotected woman could travel far and near and mix in any crowd without danger of encountering even a glance from which she could take reasonable offense, and with the sure confidence that in every gentleman she would find a delicate defender. In these days ladies traveling on city railroads and walking in city streets complain that they are abashed and outraged by the insolent stares and even the actual intrusion of shameless and impudent fellows dressed like gentlemen. To the great honor of the poor people, such a degradation of manhood is rarely observable among them, but rather among men who pretend to social superiority. The evil seems to have been of Women themselves, we are sorry to say, foreign importation, and to have come in are partly responsible for the light regard of with the imitation of foreign manners. In the obligations of betrothal on the part of men. Paris, for instance, a lady alone on the public Some girls will enter into an engagement of streets is always liable to be insulted by men marriage, of all contracts the most solemn followers, by audible comments on her and most momentous, in a spirit so near looks, and even by actual address. In Lon- frivolity that afterward they will break it in don, as many recent exposures have proved, mere petulance or fickleness, sometimes remen of nominal social elevation make it a peating the process and vainly rejoicing over business to prey upon girls and women who the multiplicity of their discarded conquests. are without immediate protection. These Worse still, as in the instances so painfully fellows are careless of the consequences, and described by our correspondent, women even they are of a bottomless depravity, brazen, justify and encourage dishonorable breaches cynical, and utterly vile. of promise to their sisters by marrying men guilty of the perfidy, even when it is within their knowledge. The most effectual punishment such dishonor could receive would be the complete social ostracism of the men capable of it. They ought to be branded by all women and forever excluded from their company, when the promise is broken, and by whomsoever it is broken, in lawless and indefensible contempt of its obligations. Such men are guilty of a breach of trust and confidence, one of the most grievous sins against the very foundations of all social society. These indications of failing honor and increasing turpitude are otherwise and further displayed in conduct like that described by. our correspondent. Such scoundrels deserve and should receive bitter punishment. Yet if the women deceived and flung aside by them seek to administer the punishment by means of a suit for breach of promise, they punish themselves, necessarily, more than they avenge their injuries on the authors of their sorrows. They must bare their wounded hearts to the whole public, and the public is not tender and sympathetic, delicate and considerate. They make themselves subjects of gossip and, it may be, scandal; inevitably, too, of ridicule from the flippant and evil-minded. The seclusion and sanctity of domestic life are invaded, and the most sacred of feelings are exposed to the vulgar gaze. The woman who sues for breach of promise is sure to be accused of the merely mercenary motive of seeking to plaster sentimental wounds with money damages. She becomes a public character at once, and is in danger of being classed as of the number of depraved women who lure men to make them their prey. Hence the advisability of discontinuing the action for breach of promise of marriage altogether has been much discussed among lawyers and legislators. It has been questioned whether experience has not proved that the legal remedy for a sentimental wrong is worse than the disease itself, both for the individual and for society. We see that the ability to bring the action does not prevent the increase of such perfidy. The statute law and the courts are unavailing to stay its progress. The cure, apparently, must be found in the cultivation of a public sentiment more elevated as to the solemnity of an engage ment of marriage. Except in very rare instances, an engagement of marriage should never be entered into unless it can be announced and is announced to the friends and acquaintances of both the parties. Public sentiment surrounds marriage with its most wholesome and effectual safeguards, and it should likewise erect its muniments about the betrothal of marriage. THE LEAVEN of heresy. FOR several weeks the press of the country has been proving that religion is still the most interesting subject-by the amount of attention and by the prominence it has given to theological matters. We must take leave to doubt that the public is as much exercised about the particular matters as the papers are; but the public is certainly interested in religion, and therefore reads the theological columns. The religious views of many prominent clergymen are being examined and in a sense tried by the newspapers; and there is.below the surface indications a certain amount of real theological disturbance. The Reformed Presbyterians are having some trouble with ministers who believe they ought to bear all the responsibilities and do all the duties of American citizens. Dr. Bridgman, an eminent Baptist pastor of New that the Bible contains too many errors to York, has gone into the Protestant Episcopal Church in a thoroughly commendable fashion; having changed his views he behaved like a Christian gentleman and went to the church holding and teaching his revised opinions. That was wiser than the attempt so often made to "reform" one's own denomination and its theology. A number of other changes of this quiet and gentlemanly self-transfer to more congenial theological air have been reported in the papers. Obviously this is the way to do it if it is to be done at all, and it should be done whenever a clergyman must for the satisfying of a good conscience preach a doctrine at odds with that of his denomination. There is a deeper interest in the cases of Drs. Briggs and Heber Newton of New York; and for several reasons the general public may wisely suspend its judgment until fuller light is given upon the matters in controversy. The facts are difficult to compress into a short article, but are about as given below. Dr. Briggs is a professor in the Union Theological Seminary of New York, a Presbyterian institution for training young ministers. It is plain that there should be no question of the doctrinal loyalty of a man in that position That the question has arisen in the case of Dr. Briggs seems to be due to a certain pugnacity and aggressiveness in his temper and methods. Whether he is actually heretical to Presbyterian belief must be settled by the proper tribunals, since Dr. Briggs vehemently denies that he rejects any part of his church's creed or adds to it new tenets. On the face of his published views there seems to be a very clear hostility to the Westminster Confession of Faith respecting the infallibility of the Scriptures and the sanctification of believers after death. He has his own method of reconciling the apparent difference; and there can be no doubt that he is thoroughly loyal to Presbyterianism in his sympathies. The main matter is his resolute adhesion to what is called the Higher Criticism of the Old Testament. He accepts and maintains conclusions respecting the history of the Hebrew Scriptures which are revolutionary and would require very serious modifications of the orthodox view of the Old Testament; such, at least, must be the judgment of the general religious public. The result of a reading of Dr. Briggs' conclusions is a feeling be considered "the Word of God." In short, the doughty critic has shocked orthodox feeling. We believe that the last word cannot yet be spoken respecting these matters of Higher Criticism. Further study may prove that the critical judgment of Dr. Briggs is as imperfect as his controversial temper. Dr. Heber Newton has for several years attracted attention by the boldness and originality of some of his sermons. In general terms, Dr. Newton may be said to reject the Reformation theology which is recorded in the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion. He seeks to return to the poetic simplicity, breadth, and non-committalism of the ancient creeds. The Articles define and prescribe things to be believed which are not defined and prescribed in the ancient creeds. He holds that these Reformation doctrines and definitions are not binding upon him as a clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Here, too, the proper tribunals must decide. There is one large view of all these controversies. The agitators represent to a certain extent a strong tendency in the church of today to concentrate upon "the simplicity that is in Christ," to dispense with fine definitions of faith, and to find theology in the hymnal rather than in the creed. There can be no doubt of the existence and powerful character of this feeling. Whatever tends to free us from definitions of things beyond knowledge, whatever takes all from us but Jesus Christ and salvation by Him, meets with a certain sympathy in the laity of all churches. But on the other hand, the iconoclastic method of reform and the practice of hunting for orthodox mistakes with a brass band find no sympathy in the general Christian public. Drs. Briggs and Newton and a few score more would hardly be missed by the great communions to which they belong. What their denominations have to do, if they degrade them from their high office, is to make it clear to the public that the "reformers" have stepped outside of their several church standards of belief. Nor is the error of an old church a sufficient foundation for a new one. The public will ask what else besides the errors of the Westminster Confession and the Thirty-nine Articles a new communion has to offer to a world weary of religious strifes. EDITOR'S NOTE - BOOK. THE Chevalier Alain de Triton, the hero of the novelette by Miss Grace King in this impression of THE CHAUTAUQUAN, is a historical character, and the story is founded upon matters of fact in history. A description of the principal character was discovered in a historical collection belonging to an old Creole gentleman, Mr. Z. de Moruelle. As a historical romance it depicts faithfully the times in which the scenes were enacted and the city of New Orleans where the characters lived. ALL through our late discussions of protection, in political campaigns, a number of our statesmen have made pilgrimages in the summer time, to Europe, where they have made economic questions a study. The state of Maine has furnished a good quota of these distinguished travelers. Senators Frye and Hale have crossed the Atlantic, looked upon the institutions, and made notes on the conservative governments of the old countries. James G. Blaine occupied himself for nearly a year in Italy, France, and England in this sort of student life just before the present administration went into power, and we imagine that he gathered a fund of information which is of great service to him now in negotiating with Italy about the conduct of the mob in New Orleans, and in treating with England about the seal fisheries in Behring Sea. It so happens that the Speaker of the last House of Representatives, Thomas B. Reed, of Maine, is now traveling as far east as Rome, Naples, and Pompeii, replenishing his mind with facts and theories concerning capital and labor, parliamentary usages and royalty. It is a very hopeful sign when our great statesmen make of European nations a summer school which they attend after this fashion. In the temperance work of these times the women occupy the field. The W. C. T. U. does not admit men, except as honorary members; it is a woman's crusade, and is not this organization a good illustration of woman's ability to organize, to govern, to conduct campaigns, to make literature, and to keep mankind stirred up to see what they are doing? Men as temperance reformers, like Gough, Jewett, and others of years gone by, have died or retired from the field. It will be interesting history, by and by, to read what the women have accomplished. They are making a new and novel piece of history in this reform. Woman's power to bring about results in the social fabric by an exclusively woman's movement will be watched closely to the end. It is the first great attempt of a woman's organization to deal with a gigantic wrong in the lives of men, and on its final issue depends very largely the world's future judgment of woman's ability for managing great public questions. THE temperance movement is receiving or ganized support from two industrial sources, of which there seems to be but little appreciation. The freight and passenger traffic of the railroads of this country, in the operation of which some 689,912 persons are employed, is practically controlled by 600 corporations, and of these no less than 375 prohibit the use of intoxicating liquors by their employees. The action of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers in the same line, illustrates the helpful influence which may be exerted by labor organizations. Mr. Arthur, the executive head of the organization, is authority for the statement that "whenever a member of the order is known to be dissipated, we not only expel or suspend him, but notify his employers, and during the last year 375 were expelled for this cause." While this is purely a matter of business with the railroad companies, and indeed with the engineers, these rules serve, in a measure, to promote the spread of temperance. WE Americans may congratulate ourselves that we do not have a Monte Carlo, such as is found where a Russian noble recently lost by gambling 800,000 rubles, and then said there was nothing left for him to do but to commit suicide, and shot himself. A number of suicides have occurred within a year from the same cause at the same place. Even the Prince of Wales is reported as having been caught in the wheel; he lost heavily, and Queen Victoria was obliged to come to his rescue with a fabulous sum of ducats to save the honor of the royal family. In Chicago the new mayor, a couple of months ago, warned the gamblers to leave the city; scores of dens were closed and the operators took the first trains in search of new homes. Why should we not have an organization in this country besides the municipalities to contend with gamblers? We do not have a Monte Carlo, but from the sale of options in the great exchanges all the way down to the saloon where men throw dice as a game of chance our towns and cities are honeycombed with places for gambling. Is not this blot on our social structure-which appears at times almost everywhere as an attachment to base ball and political contests and fairs-a problem which moral reformers must soon meet for the protection of the weak, and for the safety of society itself? AFTER a prolonged discussion the trustees of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art have yielded to the popular demand and hereafter the building will be open to the public on Sunday. The objections which have stayed the action of the trustees until this time have been, first: that the collection was the result of contributions from individuals most of whom were opposed to the opening on Sunday, and second: the assertion by the clergy that it would be a "perilous experiment" opening the way to amusements of a degrading class. After considering an endless petition containing the names of many hundreds of citizens these objections have been over-ruled. New York is now in company with Boston and Philadelphia where similar institutions have been thrown open to the public on Sunday for ten years. ONE of the curiosities of taxation is found in France, where the government still levies a tax on doors and windows. To the peasant in his small hut this tax amounts to a little more than three francs a year, but in the towns it rises to seventeen francs annually for each family. Nor is the United States behind in the matter of ancient laws, for in Massachusetts there has been a provision since colonial days for the taxation of incomes derived from a profession, trade, or employment, but with the restriction that income derived from property shall be exempt. THE tendency of great gatherings in both church and state seems to be westward. The Farmers' Alliance and labor people held their great convention recently in Cincinnati. The Presbyterian Synod met in St. Louis. The General Conference of the M. E, Church will meet next May in Omaha. President Harrison made his tour to the Pacific Coast, and preparations for the Columbian Exposition in Chicago show it to be a magnet which draws enterprises of every variety toward the setting sun. For at least two years to come our alert and enterprising western fellow-citizens will have exceptional influence in locating great bodies of people among them. SECRETARY FOSTER of the Treasury Department has appointed a commission of three persons, Messrs. Grosvenor, Kempsted, and Powderly, to go to Europe and investigate the steerage passenger business at European ports by interviews with the agents of steamship companies. American Consuls in European countries have recently sent to the Government at Washington a number of important reports, which will aid the commission in their investigations. With the material the commission will furnish, Secretary Foster hopes to influence legislation in the next Congress on immigration. press of the country has kept agitated the question of pauper and criminal emigrants coming to the United States from foreign countries until reform is now begun. The THE great strikes which have been the disturbing influence in Belgium political and industrial life for so many weeks, have been withdrawn. The conflict centered between the combined forces of the working classes on the one hand, and the landed proprietors, capitalists, and large manufacturers on the other. The peculiarity of the demands made by the strikers was that they were confined solely to the extension and increase of political rights, namely, the revision of the National Constitution and the concession of universal suffrage. The present limited franchise restricts the electorate of Belgium, with its 6,000,000 inhabitants, to 133,000 voters, composed almost exclusively of the classes representing the wealth of the country, giving them almost absolute control of the government. It was probably for the purpose of retaining this great power that the action of the workingmen met with such strong opposition. The desperate character assumed by the laboring classes as the strike progressed, heightened somewhat by the appearance of the National Militia under arms, called forth an emphatic expression of opinion from King Leopold, favoring the conces |