And then we enter upon the doubtful period--the kind of period in which the whole world is living to-day--a period of vague uneasiness, restlessness, and feverish suspense, looking for we know not what, dissatisfied with things as they are, yet unable to decide how they ought to be. Then is the hour of the brazen-mouthed religious ranter and the political demagogue. The nations of the earth are disquieted mentally and spiritually--the pulpit braggart assumes to teach them, and the upstart in politics offers to reform them. And like the waves of the sea before a storm breaks, the people surge to and fro in billowy masses, with here and there a gleam of hope among them like light on spraying foam, but for the most part moving in darkness and deep unrest. For the time is past when the balm of old tradition can be applied as a soothing salve to the spiritual wounds of humanity. Men do not want to be soothed, but roused--fired to noblest energy, greatest aims and splendid achievement--and they need to feel that their efforts to reach the Highest are worth the making, and that the fight which they enter upon means victory in the end. This, most unfortunately, is not made plain to them by either the faiths or followings of modern society. The Churches have in a great measure lost their hold upon the people, and the consolidation of family life is a thing of the past. When England was truly great, the love of home and country was the chief foundation of her greatness, as it should be with all nations seeking to hold high place and power--but in our present modes of living, both in England and America, “home” is voted hum-drum and a bore--sons and daughters openly profess the gad-about principle of what they term “pleasure,” and are more or less indifferent to the interests or convenience of their parents, showing no more reverence or consideration for them than is necessary to obtain financial “supplies.” They snap the chain that should bind them to filial tenderness and duty, and follow their own particular forms of enjoyment with a cool selfishness which can but astonish any thoughtful beholder--yet even this reprehensible attitude of the rising generation is but a phase of the general “Unrest” pervading all classes and all ages--the vague sense that nothing is going to last very long--that some dire mischief threatens the world--and that one must try to enjoy oneself while one can, because there is no time left to do anything else. And well-meaning fathers and mothers, especially those of the upper classes, adapt themselves more or less compassionately and with regret to the new and often exceedingly bad manners of their children, who, in nine cases out of ten, resemble the Biblical “daughters of the horse-leech,” crying “Give! Give!” and regard their progenitors merely as human banks on which they expect to draw _ad libitum_ till the coin gives out. All this is wrong, hopelessly wrong. Fathers should