to vent harsh judgments on those who keep within the limits of the law, to which we have given our consent, whether they are merchants or professional men. It is not the standard of morality in any pursuit we would lower, but only claim for the trader, as well as for others, that he should not be made morally responsible for the want of what his customers, by common consent, neither ask nor expect of him; that he should not be required to sacrifice his living to an ideal standard of morality incompatible with the very existence of trade, and that he should not be made to feel that he is doing wrong when in fact he is doing right.

Trade is necessarily conducted on the selfish principle. Each man must look out for his own interest, rather than for that of his customers. Thus he acquires his wealth. The sentiment of benevolence comes in and prompts him to spend it in promoting the happiness of those around him, to build churches, endow colleges, erect schoolhouses, patronize the arts, and give to the poor. In the course of his business he may do many things, sanctioned by custom among merchants, which it might be difficult to defend by the most rigid rules of morality. Cicero condemns the merchant of Alexandria who arrived in port with a cargo of flour, and gave no notice of another cargo which he knew was on the way, and must soon arrive, to knock down the price of flour. Grotius, writing

under the Christian dispensation, defends him on the ground that he was not called on to give such information, even if asked, as would lessen the value of his own merchandise. On the same principle a dealer on Washington Street would not be required to inform a lady where she could obtain a better article than he offered her at the same price, and which he might know could be had at the next door. His customer is presumed to be a judge of the goods and the price; if she is not, that is not the fault of the seller. If, knowing some essential, latent and invisible defect in them, he represents them as sound and perfect, he commits an act of fraud. He is expected, however, to praise and recommend his goods, and get as good a price as he can for them, that he may pay his rent and support his family. His temptations are great and constant to depart from the recognized laws of buying and selling, and his merit consists in keeping always within the limit-never going beyond what the necessities of trade require as a condition of its very existence. To define the precise point to which a salesman may go in recommending and urging his goods on the attention of his customers is impossible. The only rule that can be laid down is that he avoids fraudulent misrepresentation, and does only that which, by usage, his customers expect him to do. This, in most cases, is what he does, and goes home at night with a conscience void of offence towards God and man.

THE MORMONS.

THE rise and progress of this strange sect forms another and most striking proof of that great fact, that, when the religious sentiment is appealed to, no superstition is too extravagant, no fanaticism too wild or degrading to number in its ranks sincere and honest converts. Those who look upon the Mormons as either knaves or fools make the greatest mistake. Knavery and deception can account for no such phenomenon as the sudden and rapid spread of this delusion. We must look for its solution deep down into the inmost recesses of our common nature. Mormonism comes from the same source as Mahometanism, Quakerism or Shakerism, a perversion of the religious sentiment, and to this perversion no bounds can be set, nor can any earthly power say, thus far shalt thou go and no farther.

The history of the world abounds in every species of superstition and fanaticism, nor is it too much to say that when the religious sentiment is appealed to no belief is too absurd, no practice too gross and revolting to find zealous and honest believers and followers. Christianity itself has been corrupted into

every variety and form of superstition. The universal belief in a Supreme Being, the feeling of awe and distrust in view of a future and untried state of existence, form the basis and groundwork on which, through all ages, enthusiasts and dreamers have introduced and promulgated the most extravagant notions, and what all but the parties concerned regard only as the most absurd and ridiculous systems of belief-Mormonism is no more strange than Shakerism, nor is it hardly more disgusting. Another generation may see a sect arise, defending, in the name of religion, practices more revolting, if possible, than those of the Saints of the Salt Lake city.

When you appeal to man's religious sentiment you may persuade him of almost anything. You may make him believe in three Gods or in one God, in the moving of the Spirit, or in the actual presence of divinity in the consecrated wafer; that he should never marry, and that he should have a plurality of wives; that Christ was a man, and that he was God himself; that altars and surplices are among the essentials of salvation, and that they are but abominations in the sight of the Lord; that dancing is a religious rite, and that it is sinful and forbidden; that all will finally be saved, and that only the elect can hope for salvation; that all men are depraved and desperately wicked, and that man is a free agent, and can choose the good and reject the evil. The horrible tortures of the Inquisition, life on the top of a

pillar, hair shirts, the burning of widows, suicide under the wheels of Juggernaut, human sacrifices, fierce persecutions, and martyrdom at the stake, are all to be traced to a common origin.

Macaulay, in his Review of Ranke's Lives of the Popes, claims that no discoveries of science have as yet thrown any light on the Sacred Scriptures, such as would enable an intelligent man of the present day to be a better judge of their true meaning and interpretation than an equally intelligent man who lived three hundred years ago. that it would be by no means cism should become again the religion of England, when London, with all its glories, may have passed away. Butler, in his Satire upon the Presbyterians and Independents, exclaims:

"As if religion was intended

Hence he concludes surprising if Catholi

For nothing else but to be mended."

That old religions will be new mended, and that, like Mormonism, new religions will be invented, is as certain as that human nature will remain the same, and that man will continue to be a religious and Godseeking being.

A literal interpretation of Scriptural texts, or the practices sanctioned by the Old Testament, may seem to authorize almost every religious institution that has obtained in the Christian world since our religion was founded. Brigham Young and his disciples will