he strayed sheep, these
piety-professors, with this precept on their lips, took care that the
strayed ones should be cruelly worried and scared from the fold.

This, however, is not surprising when it is recollected that those who
were themselves most impure were ordinarily the first to vilify and
persecute the offending one. From tests, the accuracy of which left no
doubt, I learned that this acrimonious bitterness against their
suffering sisters was nearly always instigated by a desire to conceal
their own defects, to raise themselves, as they thought, by depreciating
others, and to lay hypocritical claim to a superior austerity and
goodness which was not theirs. The really pure--and for the honour of
the past age of Montalluyah, I must say there were some few who were
truly good--were those only from whom the sinner received sympathy and
encouragement to return to the path which had been for a time forsaken.

Even she who receives a qualified or indifferent age-decoration can, if
she pleases, bring her case before the kings, and strict justice is
invariably done to all. None rebel in word or spirit, but all invariably
use their efforts to recover lost ground before the time arrives for
receiving the next decoration. In these laudable efforts they are
assisted; all means being used to cure the patient. When, from tests
ofttimes repeated, we are satisfied that the penitent's reform is
complete, she is received with open arms by the highest of her rank, as
though she had been ever spotless; and at any time to remind her of the
past, or even to make to another the slightest allusion to what had
occurred, would be looked upon as a heinous offence, and punished
accordingly. Thus, a qualified order acts at the same time as a censure
and a protection.

ADVOCATES.

I ought to mention that there are advocates selected by the State from
amongst the most eloquent and able men, charged specially to bring
before the proper tribunals every case where any persons, men or women,
think themselves wronged. There are also able men, advocates to
represent the interests of society. The former, or people's advocate, if
he thinks right, advises his client by the gentlest means to desist from
her cause; but if his efforts prove ineffectual, which seldom happens if
he is right, he is bound to proceed with the case, and if necessary to
bring the question before the kings. Did there prove to be any real
doubt or serious difficulty, the ca