matriarchal stage with which society commenced; and the melody of the Troubadour might replace the tramp of armies and the clash of steel. But indeed the matriarchal theory of life is at bottom as false and as one-sided as that called patriarchal. We see it carried to its logical conclusion by the spider and the bee. Neither patriarchal nor yet matriarchal is the system aimed at by Idealism, but parental. Thus alone can the equality of the sexes be ensured and the great law of duality be obeyed.

The idealist need not fear the charge of "mariolatry." He stands under no temptation to confound either Christ or his mother with the Deity but we think that the man who holds his own mother sacred (the beautiful French phrase is "ma sainte mère") will reverence for her sake all true matrons and all innocent maidens everywhere, and will accept as an ideal, Mary, the lovely dream of the Eastern imagination which has been reproduced by the artists of the West.

Blest is he whose guiding star is "the fair pale form with front severe, with wide blue eyes which bear mild wisdom in their gaze: purity shines from her, not young-eyed innocence, but that which comes from wider knowledge, which restrains the tide of passionate youth, and leads the musing soul by the calm depths of wisdom" (L. Morris).

In one respect only can we improve upon the

early ideal of womanhood. The reformation of the sixteenth century has reasserted the truth, familiar to the Greeks, but forgotten from the time of Hypatia to that of Lady Jane Grey, that culture and enlightenment (but not competitive cram) is a crown of glory to a woman.

How low has our ideal fallen when we permit women to exhibit themselves upon the stage, and to take part in the degrading ballet! Worse than this, we take woman from the harem only to thrust her into the arena, forgetting that wageearning and competition, toil and war, are not the lot of woman but the doom of man. Surely in these days when maid and matron strive to resemble the Hetaera (and frequently succeed too well), there is pressing need that we should reinstate, side by side with Christ and Apollo, the mother Mary and the Virgin Queen.

A worshipper tends to become identified with the ideal which he cherishes, carried beyond himself by the object of his worship. Especially in abstract beauty does this magnetism reside. Some places cast a spell upon us, and there are scenes bound up with sacred memories. To these our pilgrimage should be. Plato, discoursing of divine beauty, represents his characters as "entranced by the genius of the spot." Seek, then, these spells, yield to this state of trance, restore the "High Place" (public garden, park, or picnic resort) and set up the Ashera (Maypole); thus shall low aims and sordid cares be

banished from our lives; thus shall we be transfigured and inspired, and catch some reflection of that beauty which haunts the unfrequented spots and hovers on the lonely heights.

Carry the thyrsus (a vasculum or an alpenstock will do as well) with pæans of praise on the moonlit ridge of Citharon. Deck with fresh flowers the fair fountain of Banias, as in the early days of a milder worship before the bleeding victims were butchered on the reeking altars of Javeh. Climb where the air is pure; gaze on each beautiful scene, till the soul freed from the fetters of sense communes with the Spirit of Nature.

NATURE-WORSHIP

Thrice blessed is the man with whom
The gracious prodigality of Nature

The balm, the bliss, the beauty and the bloom,
The bounteous Providence in every feature,
Recall the good Creator to His creature,
Making all earth a fane, all heaven its dome!
In his tuned spirit the wild heather-bells
Ring Sabbath knells:

The jubilate of the soaring lark

Is chant of clerk :

For choir, the thrush and the gregarious linnet:
The sod's a cushion for his pious want:
And consecrated by the heaven within it,
The sky-blue pool a font.

Each cloud-capped mountain is holy altar:
An organ breathes in every grove
And the full heart's a psalter,

Rich in deep hymns of gratitude and love!

-THOMAS HOOD

CHAPTER XXXIV

GOD THE MOTHER: NATURE-(continued)

"Nature Worship still exists in the World to an almost incredible extent."-E. RECLUS.

"La Nature seule, et non pas le tumulte des foules peut nous initier à la vérité."-E. RECLUS.

Now, a doctrine or a theory which has no direct bearing on life and conduct is futile, and this applies to the doctrine of the sacredness of Nature. If Nature be considered sacred, as being animated by the Divine Spirit, it follows that the disfigurement of the landscape, the pollution of streams, and all else that mars the beauty of Nature is forbidden by the religion of Idealism. It follows also that the man who, acknowledging the kinship of the higher animals, abstains from their flesh, is blessed above him who slays them for his food. And from the standpoint of Idealism how fiendish is the crime of those who under the pretence of science inflict tortures on defenceless animals.

What shall we say of him who kills for sport? The sufferings which he inflicts shall fall upon him: despair shall lie in wait for him; and when he calls to Heaven in his agony, the Guardian of all helpless things shall laugh him to scorn.

If the sacredness which was in books and Bibles, in churches and chapels, be dissipated and lost, we are committed to materialism. This feeling of reverence must be transferred, or

rather restored, to Nature. For Nature is the source of sacredness. Whence came the sacredness attributed to Bibles and to revelations ? Simply and solely from the fact that the mass of men, becoming alienated from Nature, lost the sense of right and wrong, the "Inner Light" which cannot exist apart from a natural life; then feeling a void, realising their impotence to guide themselves, they turned for guidance to those few who were still (or professed to be) in contact with Nature and therefore with God. The sacredness of Bibles and churches is but an echo of the sacredness of Nature; it is borrowed from Nature, and to Nature it must be restored.

The man who lives in contact and communion with Nature needs no revelation, for he has within him that primary and direct intuition of sacred things from which all other revelations are derived.

Now, as Nature is sanctified by the indwelling Spirit of God, so the human body (a part of Nature) is sanctified as the habitation of the soul which is divine. Know you not that your body is [like Nature] the temple of the Holy Spirit [God the Father]? (1 Cor. vi. 19). This doctrine of the sacredness of the body is a cardinal principle of Idealism. And it must be insisted upon all the more vehemently because it is persistently denied by scientific materialism, and especially by medicalism.

Certain vices which decency forbids us to name