Fairy Tales Utilised For The New Generation.

results rather than to pure morals , to effects rather than to causes . Do my readers understand me ? Instead of judging of things , and persons , and events , and crimes , —yes , by the light and on the truth of Divine legislation , —we are apt solely to

treat them and handle them according to an earthly standard of right or wrong , truth or falsehood , honour or dishonour , according to society ' s most dubious code of morality and immorality , according to our own preconceived or subjective opinions

, according to the passing " chic" or the popular excitement of the moment . Hence we take very often a free and easy view of affairs ; our conversation and our convictions become both lax and low ; our governing rulesuch as it isis

ex-, , pediency in the place of principle ; what is convenient , what is fashionable , what is agreeable , and what is acceptable to man , not what is true , what is fitting , what is commanded by and well pleasing to God . Society in consequence becomes both

doubting and disorganized , trifling and frivolous , idle and apathetic , and unreflecting , unconcerned , and there creeps over us that callousness and that indifference , that heartlessness generally , that yielding to the recklessness of a polished scepticism as to everything , which is always a prelude to

the weakening of the family ties , the sapping of domestic sympathy , the disintegration of personal morality , and the decadence of national life . People do not look at a thing which is wrong ] ier se , as absolutely wrong per seon first principles

, , but they judge it by second principles , anel find excuses and invent palliations for what they know well enough is utterly unsound and distinctly forbidden by the higher and sacred laws of Divine revelation . If we look at the general literature of

the age , if we listen to the prevailing tone of general conversation , if we may judge of the morals of a people , by the commentaries of publicists , and the colloquies of essayists , iu many works just now , we must come to the irresistible

conclusion , I venture to think , that something is " out of joint" amongst us , and that if anything can be done to raise the standard of society , it must be by the promulgation of true principles of thought , speech and action in the first place . It is useless to expect that society will forthwith reform

itself , that society whose aggregation of sympathy and sense is based on the ind > vidual feelings and tendencies of those who make up its mighty conglomeration . In . deed it may fairly be a question whether society—qua society—can ever be much

better than it is , seeing that it is onl y ^ embodiment of the prevailing temper and tone of those many atoms who float iu the sunshine for a little space , and then make way for other atoms , equally short lived like themselves . Indeedas the chief

cha-, racterics of society — qua society—are mutability , imperfection , weakness , pettiness , disappointment , vanity , deception , all perfectly reflecting that world and that worldliness of which it is the living centre , we have no rightit appears to meto

, , expect ever too much from it , or to hope even that it will ever be here below anything but of the earth earthy , of the world worldly , of humanity human . Indeed wc know that it cannot be , that , like many other things here belowit is only a

per-, mitted evil at the best , and that we cannot predicate truly of it , however pleasant its aspect , or agreeable its favour , or enjoyable its festive hours for man , like many other

things which perish with man ' s using , either what is absolutely true , or right , or edifying , or enduring in the machinery ol the Divine creation , in the eternal providence of the Most High . How well , then , does Prince Cherry advise us allold and youngto act up to

, , our higher natures and better princip les , and in a far better way , too , than any which modern teachers would sometimes commend . Instead of pleasing ourselves , or yielding to our own tempore , instead oi being selfishcalloussneering and heartless ,

, , instead of yielding to self-gratification , and forgetting the unchanging laws of morality , virtue and self-restraint , Prince Cherry bids us all bear in mind that we cannot depart from the Divine injunctions on these important points , without experiencing ,

sooner or later , loss of health , friends , fortune and happiness here . Is it not good for us all to keep before us clay by day , amid the pursuits of pleasure , the search after wealth , the love of self-indulgence , and the grovelling evidences of selfishness and profligacy , amid that hardheartedness that vitiates , and that hateful sybaratism that degrades , that there is even