"A Traveller," in an amusing if 'slightly cynical letter to
the Pall Mall of yesterday, gives a very favourable account of the Rev. Olympia Brown, a young lady of Universalist views, whom he heard preach in a New England village. She evidently preached what, as sermons go, must have been a very excellent sermon, with modesty and effect, on the thesis that virtue should be its own reward; and that, if it is not, neither in this life nor in the next can any external happiness, that is not implied in the very fact of good- ness, be expected to accrue to it. We suppose she argued that goodness in itself implies communion with God, and evil, alienation from Him, but "A Traveller" is evidently of opinion that religion is altogether too much a subject for chaff to go into details. Still, he clearly thought both her delivery and matter better than those of nine out of ten male preachers in this country, and describes her election as minister as having created no remark whatever, and resulted merely from the fact that she was the best candidate who applied, just as in England a woman is chosen editor of a magazine without exciting the slightest criticism.
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