15 DECEMBER 1900, Page 13

[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—An old priest (for

whom I had the greatest respect), having spent the greater part of his life in devotion and study, thought it his duty to go and preach to the poor. One of his first sermons was on the debt of gratitude for the very gift of existence, which he proved to his humble and astonished hearers to be of so high an order that it was better to be in hell than not to be."—I am, Sir, &c.,