The Portland daily press., 1879-09-10
Women and Worship.
Ritualisn as Diversion and Solace.
London World.l

| lLouuoH Noilu.I
Fancy fairs, sensational murder trials, fu.
| neral pageants and discussions in convocaton
On the wearing of ecclesiastical vestments, duly
| reported in the columnf of the daily press
have given lady newspapes-readers more OF
interest and entertainment than journalism
usually affords. As regards the last of these
topics, it is true that the divines in council as
sembled at Westminster have addressed them
selves to other matters of essentially greater
importance. But into the region of abstract
theological controversy the feminine mind sell
dom cares to make an excursion. The symbol,
not the belief symbolized, attracts; and the
cut and color Of the priestly robe appeal far
more forcibly to the imagination of the relig-
ieuse of the period than a 'disquisition on the
true meaning of the damnatory clauses of the
Athanasan creod. To the larger portion of
the wives and mothers of England the only re-
ligion known is that of ritualism, and ritualism
is nothing if not::an affair of bright hues and
well-trained choirs The ceremonial ordi-
nances of ritualism are part of their daily or
weekly life, just as is the dinner party or ball
On the conduct of life the ball or the dinner
party has in most cases, far the greater inhu-
enee. Society represents system and religion
a more or less highly organized group of senti-
ments. AS now generally understood it does not
imply conviction or conduct; it is fashion, like
charity; taste, like nursing or a crochet like
the patronage of women's employment associ-
ations, and of primary schools. So far
as the polite world knows or cares anything
about the matter, it is regarded as an insttu-
ton primarily feminine, and closely analogous
to the right of 5 o'clock tea. There is nothing
to prevent men from dropping in if they will;
but the genius of the repast is that of the
drawing-room and its queeus. So is it with
The ritualistic churches of fashionable London.
Men are not prohibited from entering and are,
indeed, occasionally known to enter; but the
proportion of male to female votaries is that of
one to ten. Yet these are the shrines that are
on the increase throughout the length and
breadth of the land AS they increase, this
disproportion between the attendance of the
two sexes becomes the more conspicuous, and
the conclusion is ever emphasized anew that
the gulf between the manly intellect and the
fashionable religious faith of England is being
steadily widened.
OF whom do the fair and pious votaries for
the most part consist? 1t would be found,
were any returns Of the composition of the
crowds at these places of worship published,
that young, unmarried women largely pre-
dominate. To them, church-going is often the
chief business of existence-a distraction,
solace, pursuit. The fact has something
more than an ecclesiastical significance.
When one is told that young lady has
taken to religion of a ritualistic variety, and
is seriously meditating an abandonment of
the pomps and vanities of this wicked world,
one knows perfectly well what. as rule, it
means. 1t is no pious enthusiasm, no deep
sense of reverential awe, no promptings of
the spiritual nature which can correctly be
cited as the motive cause. 1t is not any sud-
den awakening to the consciousness of a mis-
spent and frivolous life, or of precious oppor
tunities fippantly frittered away The church
is sought after, simply as relief to the un-
happiness of home. There is no more intoler-
able incumbrance to the fashionable mother
who fights against the advance of years than
kept in the background as long as possible.
But it has been necessary for her at last to
come out and take her place in the running
of the London season. To the fond parent
the child becomes rival and spy, and
there gradually commences weary series
of maternal prosecutions, which render
the life of their victim a burden. The op-
pressed maiden, perhaps, is delivered at
once from the bondage OF her vlrgln1ty by
some Heaven-sent knight. Perhaps she at
tempts more dangerous steps with a view of
making herself the instrument of her own re-
lief. But this relief comes very frequently in
deed in the shape of the ornamental ministra-
tions of the church. Natural emotion, cruelty
checked in one quarter. insists upon expending
itself in another, and the appearance which an
Anglo Catholic shrine in select district of the
capital presents on any ecclesiastical festival
is painful commentary upon the standard OF
domestic happiness that obtains in polite socl-
ETY.. Add to this element the number of aus
tere matrons and spinsters of certain age, of
enthusiasts who delight in the music, of ladies
who believe in the responsibility of church-go-
ing, and a tolerably exhaustive analysis will
have been given of an ordinary high Anglican
congregation
This devotion to the rites and ceremonies
of the church can seldom do more than indi-
cate passing phase in the development of
English womanhood. Its social consultations
often fail when their novelty has worn off, or
the worshiper changes her lot, and the sensi-
tive, unhappy girl is merged in the practical
wife and mother. Feminine religion, as it is
now understood is not settled state of mind
so much as an accidental exhibition of feeling.
it is due to the presence of particular social
conditions, and when these have ceased to be
operative, it frequently ceases to exist. And
even in the case of the strong-minded women
and girls it will be found that, however great
the temptation towards it, emotional ecclesias-
ticism is ON the decline rather than the in
crease. If exception be taken to this view
let it be remembered that there is going on in
England a perpetual process of social up
heaval, and that there are annually an inn
mense number of daughters of the middle
class who require a veneer of that culture
which is affected by the social betters, and
who incidentally take up with ritualisp. On
the other hand, sterner occupations and
severer modes of thought attract a large per-
centage of young ladies to whom stoles and
chasubes were once the main business of eX-
istence. The wife and mother of the upper
classes who, ten years ago, might have been
more or less of fashionable religieuse is now
not, improbably, an avowed free-thinker.
Liberal in politics, and latitudinarian in re-
lgion, she hates sacerdotalsm and all that
concerns it with an intensity worthy of Victor
Hugo himself. Thus we have two distinct
types of spiritual womanhood. The new or
the anti-ecclesastical' may be directly referred
to the progress which the higher female educa-
tion has made. That education is advancing
every day. What will the religion of :he wo-
man of the future be like? How will the con-
gregation of the ritualist churches of fash
ionable London be composed twenty years
hence? Or will these churches after such an
interval continue to exist?
Trying to Translate Balzac.