ARCHBISHOP BAYLEY ON SIMPLICITY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 184, 6 October 1876, Page 14

ARCHBISHOP BAYLEY ON SIMPLICITY.

At the annual commencement held at the Academy of the Visitation, Frederick, Maryland, Archbishop Bayley addressed those present m the following words : , . " I thank the audience for their presence here today ; for the .encouragement they have given to the good Sisters of the Academy, and for the great appreciation they have manifested for the musical entertainment given by the young ladies. I mnst praise also tne ladies for their excellent performance. It is customary to give some advice on these occasions ; but I have learned from experience to give little advice. In the writings of Bishop Brute, I find that saintly man putting down this resolution after a retreat : ' Give little advice. Yet 1 must say something. "Let this be my advice : Study simplicity in dress, in manners and in morals. Be as simple in these things us were our forefathers. Nothing shows so plainly the swift progress of our country to ruin as the marked departure from the simplicity of the past generation. " Let me also advise you to love good reading ; nothing is bo goo* a companion as a good book ; and I can say that nothing is so bad a companion as a bad book. Let your reading be select. It w not necessary that you should always read pious books, though these should be perused ; read books of standard literature. Our public schools have a great name, and their admirer, claim for them a great influence, but notwithstanding all their assumed superiority, we are not an educated people, because we do not read and study the right kind of books. Few ever rise above the yellow-covered trash which abounds. Avoid such books as you would the yellow fever. Unfortunately we have no quarantine against the yellow-covered novel, and it does more harm because it undermines the moral sense. " I notice also that the Sisters give premiums for cooking. lam glad of it. Would that all our schools imitated their example. In France, the noblest families think it not beneath them to know how to cook. All young women should have this accomplishment, ™ eh in after life may prove so serviceable. A knowledge of this branch of domestic economy will make home-life much more agreeable. I again offer my thanks to the audience for their appreciation of the exhibition, and for their attention to my remarks."