shoots good as a sign of life in the tree, and this consideration might
perhaps make their appearance welcome; but a great deal of strength is
expended on their production, and it would be just as well to lop them
off again. The old tree wants pruning and cutting back occasionally,
and it is a false sentiment that is letting it fall to decay for the
sake of these struggling branches.

"There is another thing, too, for which we should all quarrel with the
Catholic religion. I think the fact his already been noticed by some
writer; at all events, it is evident enough to have occurred to any
one. I mean the fact that the Church, by its narrow views about
education, and its most unspiritual ambition for itself, has retarded
the world's progress for centuries by interfering with the law of
natural selection. As a matter of course for ages all the best men went
into the Church; it was the only career open to them; and so they left
no descendants."

At our house, on another occasion, when the Roman Catholic religion
happened to be under discussion, she launched forth some observations
in her usual emphatic way. There were only two strangers present, a
lady and her husband. Ideala asked the lady, who was sitting next to
her, if she were a Catholic, to which the lady answered "No;" and
Ideala, satisfied, proceeded to remark: "It may be the true religion,
but it certainly is not the religion of truth. The doctrine of
expediency, or the latitude they allow themselves on the score of
expediency--I don't quite know how they put it--but it has much to
answer for. I never find that my Roman Catholic friends are true, as
my Protestant friends are. There is always a something kept back, a
reservation; a want of straightforwardness, even when there is no
positive deception--I can't describe the thing I mean, but it is quite