Whether is Better, the Old or the New? First Paper [pp. 430-432]

THE LADIES' REPOSITOR Y.
Being present at the Hungarian defeat
and dreadful slaughter in Segesvar during
the period of the revolution which surged
through his country in I849, he was
never seen again.
"Tlrampling horse
Galloped o'er his corse;"
so that it was utterly unrecognizable. It
was, therefore, probably thrown into an
enormous trench which covered from
sight many other of the maimed and
marred victims of that sad defeat.
As Portuguese sentiment still looks for
the reappearance of the lost King Sebastian; as the German still dreams of the
return firom the Orient of the red-bear-ded
Hohenstaufen; so the Magyar is tempted
to believe that the patriot Pet6fi is "not
yet dead but somewhere sleeping."
JOHN P. LACROIX.
WHETHER IS BETTER, THE OLD OR THE NEW?
FIRST PAPER.
"I rested in a ruined meeting-house,
And phantoms of the generations gone
Came round me; reveries to arouse
Of all the phases to which flesh is born.
O-DAY our spiritual food is served
in dainty dishes. With feet cased in
fairy sandals, wve glide along tessellated
aisles, where never a footfall may be
lhe,-d whlere every echo trembles in cadences, subdued by softest covering of
tapestry and velvet. Amid this wealth of
satin and brocade we sink down in so
luxurious ease, that the repose appears a
kind of tender consecration of itself. As
we listen to the voice of the preacher,
above and around us droop earthward
the cunningly devised art of painter's
brush and sculptor's chisel. Lovely, indeed, are the frescoed walls in their rare
coloring, perfect in design, as are Gothic
arches, full of grace and sublimity. The
very atmosphere breathes over us an
eternal Spring, unchilled by the reign of
pitiless Winter, never invaded by the
sultry Summer time; while the dim light,
glimmering through railnbow-tinted windows, is tender and delicate-not less
beautiful, indeed, in coloring than the
pale wood-mosses of our solemn forest
sanctuaries.
As a denomination wve too are carried,
by an almost imperative necessity, along
Soon sinking, as a dreamscape out of view,
The congregation, choir, and preacher fade;
And but remain the antiquated pew,
And empty pulpit, broken and decayed."
ADEE.
the stream of popular innovation in
many Church formulas, which, as metllodical dissenters, we once-in the olden
time-felt bound to avoid.
In nothing, perhaps, has the change
from the beginning of this nineteenth
century to its closing years been more
apparent than in its religious services.
In politics, the exfianse for intrigue, duplicity, and ambitious aspiration is in
truth far greater; yet one doubts, when
perusing the earlier records of Washington's administration, and that of his immediate successors, whether malice, rancor, dishonesty, and "all uncharitableness" were not as rampant then among
the few as in its mad career among the
many, as found in the latter half of this
nineteenth century. Fashion has a way
of always repeating herself, so that the
children of those days are but miniature
and mimic representations, in dress, of
grandmothers a hundred years ago.
Science has, indeed, made rapid strides
in experiment on ancient theories, until
the most abstruse problems, those that
to simple readers of sixty years agone
belonged only to occult and unknown
430
[Nov.,