Does the "unco guid" exist in America, then? I should have thought that these people, of the earth earthy, were not found out of England and Scotland. When I was in America two years ago, I heard that an English author of some repute, talking one day with Mr. Richard Watson Gilder about the Venus of Milo, had remarked that, as he looked at her beautiful form, he longed to put his arms around her and kiss her. Mr. Gilder, who, as a poet, as an artist, has felt only respect mingled with his admiration of the matchless divinity, replied: "I hope she would have grown a pair of arms for the occasion, so as to have slapped your face." It is not so much the thing that offends the "unco guid"; it is the name, the reflection, the idea. Unhealthy-minded himself, he dreads a taint where there is none, and imagines in others a corruption which exists only in himself. Yet the One, whom he would fain call Master, but whose teachings he is slow in following, said: "Woe be to them by whom offense cometh." But the "unco guid" is a Christian failure, a _parvenu_. * * * * * The _parvenu_ is a person who makes strenuous efforts to persuade other people that he is entitled to the position he occupies. There are _parvenus_ in religion, as there are _parvenus_ in the aristocracy, in society, in literature, in the fine arts, etc. The worst type of the French _parvenu_ is the one whose father was a worthy, hard-working man called _Dubois_ or _Dumont_, and who, at his father's death, dubs himself _du Bois_ or _du Mont_, becomes a clericalist and the stanchest monarchist, and runs down the great Revolution which made one of his grand-parents a man. M. _du Bois_ or _du Mont_ outdoes the genuine nobleman, who needs make no noise to attract attention to a name which everybody knows, and which, in spite of what may be said on the subject, often recalls the memory of some glorious event in the past. [Illustration: THE PARVENU.] The worst type of Anglo-Saxon _parvenu_ is probably the "unco guid," or religious _parvenu_. The Anglo-Saxon "unco guid" is seldom to be found among Roman Catholics; that is, among the followers of the most ancient Christian religion. He is to be found among the followers of the newest forms of "Christianity." This is quite natural. He has to try to eclipse his fellow-Christians by his piety, in order to show that the new religion to which he belongs was a necessary invention.