Lastly, his dreams. Of these he makes constant mention. "Dreamed that all the teeth of my lower jaw fell out save one, which I had much ado to hold in with both my hands." "Dreamed that my mother shewed me a certain old man; he seemed to lie upon the ground-merry enough, but with a wrinkled countenance. His name was Grove." At one time it was always about Williams. "Dreamed that the La K. [Keeper], was dead: that I passed by one of his men that was about a monument for him that I heard him say that his lower lip was infinitely swelled and fallen, and he rotten already. This dream did trouble me." "In my sleep his Majesty King J. appeared to me [this was after his death]. I saw him only passing by swiftly. He was of a pleasant and serene countenance. In passing he saw me and beckoned to me, smiled, and was immediately withdrawn from my sight.

"Sep. 26, Sunday. That night I dreamed of the marriage of I know not whom at Oxford. All that were present were clothed in flourishing green garments. I knew none of them, but Thomas. Flaxnye. Immediately after, without any intermission of sleep (that I know of), I thought I saw the Bishop of Worcester, his head and shoulders covered with linen. He advised and invited me

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kindly to dwell with them, marking out a place where the Court of Marches of Wales was then held. But not staying for my answer, he subjoined, that he knew I could not live so meanly, etc. "My dream of my Blessed Lord and Saviour, J. C., one of the most comfortable passages that I ever had in my life."

These are not important facts, but they are characteristic. In constructing historical portraits, we cannot afford to sacrifice any point, however small. They only confirm the notion of the busy mind, never resting even during sleep, turning over and over in that grotesque image-land the capital it has gained in the day.

Р

THERE is one question closely connected with the life and principles of Laud which deserves especial consideration, bearing as it does so nearly upon the controversy which, consciously or unconsciously, is at the root of so much of the religious dissidence of modern days.

The most ardent religious reformers of the present time are perhaps to be found in the school that attaches the highest possible value to the form and ritual of worship. The Ritualists have established their claim to serious consideration by the notable success which attends their evangelistic efforts. Among the poorest populations of large towns, that class which political philosophers tell us contains the already germinating seeds of our future rulers, the Democracy, they labour unceasingly, and their labours are not in vain. It seems at present as if the only great successes which have been recorded in the attempts to evangelize the masses

have been attained by one or the other of two great movements-the internal and the external.

The internal movement has been that of Dissent. General Booth, whose sympathetic knowledge of the wants of these bewildering millions has been won by an inner acquaintance, through birth and training, with these needs, represents perhaps most adequately the most vigorous attempt that has been made, so to speak, within the lower classes to raise themselves spiritually. Mr. Moody has done the same for the middle class. They have had, and continue to have, their successes; their converts are numbered by tens of thousands.

The external movement has been numerically even more successful, though conducted in a wider and less concentrated manner. The Ritualists have engaged successfully in the great war against the lower nature of mankind when forced into its most depraved luxuriance by the poisonous atmosphere of our great cities.

The Socialists who have attempted the same task have failed, because they have supposed that a material solution of these problems is possible. It is clear to any one who has seen and studied the axioms of the case that nothing is possible but a spiritual elevation.

The Ritualists have come to the conflict armed

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WEAK CONFOUNDS STRONG.

with despised, but none the less potent weapons. They have thought no influence too high for the task. They have brought to the very poorest, forms of mysterious antiquity, suggestions of truth couched in the most mystical terms, ancient treasures of art and music, movement and culture; and these things have been effective.

And yet these practices are of a kind which are said to make the ordinary English layman "stamp" with impatience when he witnesses them or hears them described, at their extravagance, their pettiness, their pretension. He cannot bring himself to believe that a system which is based upon so much that is antique and mannerized, that clings so close to precedent and rule, that is so precise and formal, can be anything but ludicrous and unworthy of the Christian simplicity. And yet, if he will look patiently at results, he must resist

that contemptuous impulse. He may say, of course, that it is not the ritual, but the character of the men that is effectual: but this is only transferring the problem to another ground. It must be made clear why men of such essential purity and goodness cling so close to and regard as so vital and potent these ceremonial appliances.

All attempts to bridge the gulf have failed. Broad rational systems have melted into air. The