This plan would have another advantage. The singers on the platform,all handsome and well dressed, distract our attention from theminister, and what he is saying. We cannot help looking at them,studying all the faces and all the dresses. If one of them sits upvery straight, he is a rebuke to us; if he "lops" over, we wonder whyhe does n't sit up; if his hair is black, we wonder whether it is ageor family peculiarity; if he yawns, we want to yawn; if he takes up ahymn-book, we wonder if he is uninterested in the sermon; we look atthe bonnets, and query if that is the latest spring style, or whetherwe are to look for another; if he shaves close, we wonder why hedoesn't let his beard grow; if he has long whiskers, we wonder why hedoes n't trim 'em; if she sighs, we feel sorry; if she smiles, wewould like to know what it is about. And, then, suppose any of thesingers should ever want to eat fennel, or peppermints, or Brown'stroches, and pass them round! Suppose the singers, more or less ofthem, should sneeze!

Suppose one or two of them, as the handsomest people occasionally will,should go to sleep! In short, the singers there take away all ourattention from the minister, and would do so if they were thehomeliest people in the world. We must try something else.

It is needless to explain that a Gothic religious life is not an idleone.