and from no other source.

We are horrified at the morals and tenets of the Gnostic sects, the
Manicheans, the Albigenses, and other defunct heresies of old; but we
doubt if any thing more impious, immoral, or absurd happened under the
auspices of these by-gone sects than the blasphemies, delusions, and
corruptions carried on under the cloak of your "camp meetings,"
"revivals," "mediums," "spiritual wife system," and other modern
_reproductions_ of the Protestant Christian churches, falsely so called.

CHAPTER XXIII.

IN WHICH THE SCENE OF OUR TALE IS CHANGED.

The events recorded in the foregoing chapters, as you are aware, good
reader, happened principally among the poor and humble of life; and this
was in accordance with the scope of our narrative, having no higher
ambition than to chronicle the lowly annals of that numerous class of
the community. _Nunc paulo majora._ Now we must introduce you into high
life. We turn our eyes to one of those grand mansions of the rich,--one
of those palaces of the "upper ten,"--where few of the humble are
privileged to enter, much less to be introduced or admitted on terms of
familiarity. It is our privilege to introduce you, friend of the
blistered hand and dusty coat, but of the honest heart, into that palace
of the merchant prince of the second city in the Union, in order that
you may see and judge for yourselves whether or not more happiness
dwells there than in your homely residence. See the imposing structure,
with the neatly-mowed lawn in front. Observe the taste and artistic
skill with which the walks, the little hedges, and the shrubberies are
laid out. You can yet get but an imperfect view of the proud edifice
itself, which seems as if a monarch, that looks down with dignity and
authority on the countless array of ordinary buildings that extend as
far as the eye can reach on every side. The gates, as you enter the
enclosure, are of massive iron, painted green, and, by the help of
machinery, yield to the gentlest pressure of the hand, as if some spirit
of the ancient fabled Olympus kept guard at their hinges. It is a
complete "_rus in urbi_," inside the outer wall. Here the luxuriant
grape vine creeps along in graceful festoons, groaning under the
pressure of her full paps; there the lofty and beauteous palm spreads
his cooling and protecting branches.

On one side see the fruitful lemon and orange trees, bending under the
weight of their golden and emerald pro