And now, sir, a word as to the distinguished gentleman at the head of the Embassy—­a gentleman specially dear to the Press.  Judging from the eagerness with which the position is sought, I am led to believe that the loftiest compliment which can be paid to a human being is, that he has once represented Boston in the National House of Representatives.  After such a distinction as that, all other distinctions, however great, must still show a sensible decline from political grace.  But I trust that you will all admit, that next to the honor of representing Boston in the House of Representatives comes the honor of representing the vast Empire of China in “The Parliament of Man, the Federation of the World.”  Having enjoyed both distinctions, Mr. Burlingame may be better qualified than we are to discriminate between the exultant feelings which each is calculated to excite in the human breast.  But we must remember that the population, all brought up on a system of universal education, of the Empire he represents, is greater than the combined population of all the nations to which he is accredited.  Most Bostonians have, or think they have, a “mission”; but certainly no other Bostonian ever had such a “mission” as he; for it extends all round the planet, makes him the most universal Ambassador and Minister Plenipotentiary the world ever saw; is, in fact, a “mission” from everybody to everybody, and one by which it is proposed that everybody shall be benefited.  To doubt its success would be to doubt the moral soundness of Christian civilization.  It implies that Christian doctrines will find no opponents provided that Christian nations set a decent example of Christianity.  Its virtues herald the peaceful triumph of reason over prejudice, of justice over force, of humanity over the hatreds of class and race, of the good of all over the selfish blindness of each, of the “fraternity” of the great Commonwealth of Nations over the insolent “liberty” of any of them to despise, oppress, and rob the rest.

* * * * *

THE SPHERE OF WOMAN

[Speech of Edwin P. Whipple at the “Ladies’ Night” banquet of the Papyrus Club, Boston, February 15, 1879, in response to a toast in his honor as “one whose gentle mind, delicate fancy, keen wit, and profound judgment have made for him a high and secure place among American authors.”]

MR. CHAIRMAN:—­I suppose that one of the most characteristic follies of young men, unmarried, or in the opinion of prudent mammas, unmarriageable, is, when they arrive at the age of indiscretion, to dogmatize on what they call the appropriate sphere of woman.  You remember the thundering retort which came, like a box on the ears, to one of these philosophers, when he was wisely discoursing vaguely on his favorite theme.  “And pray, my young sir,” asked a stern matron of forty, “will you please to tell us what is the appropriate sphere