Fairy Tales Utilised For, The New Generation.

of all who peruse these lines . Do not suppose , however , that I am going to preach a sermon . A sermon is a very good thing in its way , in its proper place , at its proper season , and it is just possible that the writer of this modest essay may in his time have done such a thing , though with what effect he must leave in that

happy phasis of uncertainty , most becoming , both to his own modesty and so serious a subject , not here lightly to be touched upon . All that I wish you to remember , kind readers , is that this is an Essay , not a Sermon ! If you want any further definition of distinction you must consult

Johnson ' s Dictionary ; but all I can say is an essay is not a sermon , and a sermon is not an essay . I also hope , and shall endeavour , in this humble effort in the " didactic line , " as some one says , to give a little good , wholesome , old-fashioned

advice to those who are so sagacious as to discern the soundness , and the morality , and the intellectual power , which abound for the intelligent Freemason always in the well-filled pages of Bro . Kenning ' s Magazine . " Puss in Boots " is , after all , then , not quite the thing—not perfectly satisfactory ; for poor puss represents also , I fear , that combination of " brass" and boldness

which we sometimes meet with m society , and which , though some may admire , mentor like , I am bound to condemn as well " ore rotundo , " as " currente calamo . " Somebody has said that ours is a very " cheeky age , " and though that somebody is probably , after all , nobody , yet there is

some truth , no doubt , in the assertion , as certainl y ours is an age which thinks no " small beer" of itself—an age which rather likes apparently to hear its own praises sung—if you may judge by the language of some of the most successful scribblers who have earned its approval , and received its rewards . Cardinal

Manning once said that our own age was " one of a flowing tide of generations , neither the wisest nor the best , " and in that concise statement in the abstract we may perhaps all agree . But is it not , after all , the fact that jin every age men always so talk 1 Is not this the character we give for the

most part of ourselves , and of the age , or the ages , which have preceded us ? We are all more or less " laudatores temporis acti , " we invest the past with the

colouring of romance ; so different , we say , from our own prosaic present ; and we often boldly contend that other generations seem to be wiser and better than we ourselves are ! Old Johnson , as we know , laughed

heartily at Lord Monboddo ' s " superior savage , " and made his lordship very angry ; but the old boy was right , as he generally was ; for , to say the truth , this is an ancsent fallacy which , however , we all seem to like to perpetuate . Each age , remember , is

" sui generis , " and has its own greatness and littleness , value , and worthlessnessgood and evil . I , for one , neither believe that our own age is " wusser " than other ages , or that it is better—more civilized , more anything—than other ages ; and

, above all , utterly disapprove of the cant with which many noisy professors of something or other , like to' indulge in whenever they write about it . But , to come back to our story . '' Puss in Boots " appears to me to be an excellent

type of those clever but unprincipled members of society who , wherever they are , vitiate the tone and injure the temper of the hour , who live for No . 1 , for material

enjoyment , whose motto is , " Let us eat and drink for to-morrow we die , " and who are both selfish and slippery , dangerous and defiant all at the same time . We all of us know well , do we not ? many a Puss in Boots—clever , cultivated , empresse , agreeable " clairvoyante" and cool—who yet does

, infinite harm in the society she adorns , in the generation to which she belongs , and who , by the use of chaff or cheek , gets the better of the unwary , and simply shuts up the less unscrupulous . That such a character as " Puss " may have some good

qualities in it is not denied ; that she gives to society more than she takes from it , may be at once freely conceded . But , what then ? It is under the guise of this most artificial character , this painted outside show , that so much evil—yes , moral

evil—is persistently done . We are all of us such creatures of conventionality ; that for us for the most part success gilds iniquity , and prosperity is the keynote of all our social harmonies . We do not ask what " Puss in Boots" has done ! No , there she is " en evidence" before our very eyes , smiling , serene , well-dressed , agreeable , cultivated , fascinating , and what