The Way We Live Now.

development of mournful weakness and deplorable decadence which , he says , are too plain in conversation , expense , literature , the theatre , and religion , and marriage . So let us take these items of the account

seriatim , and see what the " tottle is . As regards to conversation , the converse of his statement is notoriously the fact , namely , that the defect in conversation does not arise from the over " palaver '' of the women , as he is civil enough to say , hut from the deficiency of the menand

, especially our male youth I No one Avho has studied the educational question in its Avidest range , or attended to its actual Avorking , but must know this—that " pour le moment "—I fain would hope only ' pour le moment" —the Avomen in

all classes alike are ahead of the men , especially in the younger generation . What has rendered conversation so trivial and so flighty , and so unhealthy latterly , ( I quite agree in this with the " old Fogey " ) , is that- our young men can only talk of the

things Avhich they do understand—bets ancl horses , fast life , and questionable company , racehorses and chronicle exercises . Hence all society assumes a " quasi-scandalous inebriate style , " and all the undercurrents of life , which do not always

appear on the surface , are known , discussed , and realized , even by our young ladies . Our young men are , for the most part , so debased by a slavish subserviency to text books , and students "Humes , " and the like , so crammed for the examining mania , that they have studied very little

thoroughly , ancl mastered hardly anything clearly . Scholarship and close reading are at a discount ; the " coach" and the " analysis , " the " comiiendium " and the " abstract , " have struck a heavy MOAV against actual industry and individual

acquirement . We live in an age of generalities and second principles , and Ave vote the tedious process of study , and thought , and induction , a bore and a blunder . Hence Ave have plenty of talkative popinjays , with a smattering of many things ,

knowing nothing perfectly—a band of pretentious heroes , whose spelling is defective , and whose conversation is hopelessly vapid . Some of our leading men have foolishly hounded on the absurd cry against classical studies , ancl so many of our young men are floored Avhen they

hear of Dr . Schhemanns excavations at Mycenae , as they are utterly ignorant of the old world stories of Agamemnon , and Cassandra , Clytemnestra , and __ E gistheus . This is a good illustration of what I am contending for . If conversation is weak and aimless to-day , the fault is with the

young men , not the women ! With reference to expense , the statement is equally fallacious . Enervated luxury and heartless expenditure , questionable company and depraved manners , are very fashionable among our rising

youth . Their extravagance is perfectly dreadful . Dress and flowers , horses and cigars , grooms and decorations , pretty knickknacks , and old china , are the rage , and on them they lavish large sums of money , which being for the most part

borrowed , " Billi , Bill * , Billa , "' bring them rapidly into " Short Street , " and into graver embarrassments . Talk of the extravagance of Avomen , it is positively as nothing compared with the childish wastefulness of men I That some women are greatly addicted to dress and expenditure , who denies . but that the present love of extravagance ,

" outre' fashions and abnormal payments is to be laid at the door of the Avoman , I , for one , utterly deny . The men like those dressy and bedizened dolls you meet here and there , and therefore at once society always , in extremes , thinks it needful to " out-Herod Herod" in those

modern tastes ancl that gaudiness in out-Avarcl adornment , which I admit are too common , but are not so to say indigenous to Avoman positively . Let men cut down their expenses , open and secret , reform their habitsrestrain their unhealthy and

, unjustifiable proclivities , and control their moral life , and they will soon behold a Avonderful change in the great feminine Avorld ! And then the theatre is said to be another arena in which woman ' s influence

is prejudicially felt I Is that the influence which predominates at many of our theatres to-day , happily not all _ I think not ! For whom , in some , is the "banquet made ready ? " and for whom do the ' ' flowers bloom , " ancl the " lights glitter , " and " dulcet cadences fail , " and the " soft songs of sirens prevail , "—the women 1 Oh clear no ; our own golden youth ! whom