_F._ Well, as near as I can see, (a matter of a few million miles, more
or less,) when you speak of Worship, they have more regard there for
Millinery than any thing else. The Christian Religion is based on
Humility, which has Purity and Simplicity for her Handmaids. Look into
some of these New-York churches! see how the jewels glisten, the rich
stuffs fall gracefully in massive folds. Observe the sumptuousness, the
elaborate display! A fine Humility this! Then look at the ceremonial.
Here is a church edifice, belonging to a denomination that assumes to be
Decent and Orderly in ceremony. Is it so in _this_ church? What means
all this tawdriness of color, the crimson, the blue, the gold; what
signify these fantastic designs and figures, these monkey-like
genuflexions; this wilderness of sign and symbol, this elaborate
abasement, this theatrical show of exaltation? This an improvement on
the old dignified simplicity? Do you tell me that childishness, and
prettiness, and pettiness, are valid substitutes for a genuine, manly
modesty and simplicity?

_D._ (Oh, dear! he's been drinking again! How bitter the Bitters do make
him!) Look! Father, come, quick! Here is a Railroad Accident, such as
you have often wished to see. Two trains have collided, and both have
rolled down an embankment at least seventy feet high! into a river, I do
declare! They are all lost!

_F._ Do let me see at once, HELENE I [_Looks eagerly._] Ah, yes; all
gone; nothing visible but one smoke-pipe, three stove-pipe hats, four
bits of orange-peel, some pea-nut shells, and thirteen copies of the
_New-York Ledger_. Sad fate! But see! Some dry-goods-no, a young lady
flounders along toward the shore! The bystanders rush up; she is nearly
exhausted; pants rapidly; they congratulate her. A well-dressed young
man approaches. She instantly begins to think of her looks; her hand