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diff --git a/57439-0.txt b/57439-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4d88af9 --- /dev/null +++ b/57439-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,59565 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 57439 *** + + + + + + + + + [Transcriber's Notes: This production was derived from + https://archive.org/stream/catholicworld09pauluoft/ + catholicworld09pauluoft_djvu.txt + Page images are also available at + https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moajrnl/browse.journals/cath.html + To view the tables in several places use a fixed pitch font.] + + +{i} + + The Catholic World. + + Monthly Magazine + + Of General Literature And Science. + +---------- + + Vol. IX. + + April, 1869, To September, 1869. + +---------- + + New York: + + The Catholic Publication House, + + 126 Nassau Street. + + 1869. + +{ii} + + S. W. Green, Printer, + 16 and 18 Jacob St., N. Y. + +{iii} + + Contents. + + + Aubrey de Vere in America, 264. + A Chinese Husband's Lament for his Wife, 279. + Angela, 634, 756. + Antiquities of New York, 652. + All for the Faith, 684. + + Bishops of Rome, 86. + Beethoven, 523, 607, 783. + + Catholic and Protestant Countries, Morality of, 52. + Catholicity and Pantheism, 255, 554. + Chinese Husband's Lament for his Wife, 279. + Council of the Vatican, The Approaching, 356. + Columbus at Salamanca, 433. + Council of Baltimore, The Second Plenary, 497. + Church, Our Established, 577. + Charms of Nativity, 660. + Conversion of Rome, The, 790. + + Daybreak, 37, 157, 303, 442, 588, 721. + Duration of Life, Influence of Locality on, 73. + De Vere, Aubrey, in America, 264. + Dongan, Hon. Thomas, 767. + + Emily Linder, 98, 221. + Educational Question, The, 121. + + Filial Affection, as Practised by the Chinese, 416. + Foreign Literary Notes, 429, 711. + Faith, All for the, 684. + + General Council, The Approaching, 14. + Good Old Saxon, 318. + + Heremore Brandon, 63, 188. + + Ireland, Modern Street Ballads of, 32. + Irish Church Act of 1869, The, 238. + Immigration, The Philosophy of, 399. + Ireland, A Glimpse of, 738. + + Jewish Church, Letter and Spirit in the, 690. + + Linder, Emily, 98, 221. + Lecky on Morals, 529. + Letter and Spirit in the Jewish Church, 690. + Leo X. and his Age, 699. + Little Flowers of Spain, 706. + + Morality of Catholic and Protestant Countries, 52. + My Mother's Only Son, 249. + Man, Primeval, 746. + Moral Aspects of Romanism, 845. + Matanzas, How it came to be called Matanzas, 852. + + New-York, Antiquities of, 652. + Nativity, The Charms of, 660. + + Omnibus, The, Two Hundred Years Ago, 135. + Our Established Church, 577. + + Pope Joan, Fable of, 1. + Problems of the Age and its Critics, 175. + Pope or People, 212. + Physical Basis of Life, The, 467. + Primeval Man, 746. + Paganina, 803. + + Rome, The Bishops of, 86. + Ravignan, Xavier de, 112. + Ruined Life, A, 385. + Roses, The Geography of, 406. + Religion Emblemed in Flowers, 541. + Rome, Conversion of, 790. + Recent Scientific Discoveries, 814. + + Spain, Two Months in, 199, 343, 477, 675. + Spiritism and Spirits, 289. + Supernatural, The, 325. + St. Mary's, 366. + St. Peter, First Bishop of Rome, 374. + Spanish Life and Character, 413. + Sauntering, 459, 612. + Sister Aloyse's Bequest, 489. + St. Thomas, The Legend of, 512. + Spiritualism and Materialism, 619. + Spain, Little Flowers of, 706. + Scientific Discoveries, Recent, 814. + St. Oren's Priory, 829. + + The Woman Question, 145. + The Omnibus Two Hundred Years Ago, 135. + To those who tell us what Time it is, 565. + The New Englander on the Moral Aspects of Romanism, 845. + + Woman Question, The, 145. + +---------- + +{iv} + + Poetry + + + A May Flower, 282. + A May Carol, 373. + + Faith, 540. + + Lent, 1869, 31. + + March Omens, 97. + May Flower, 282. + May Carol, 373. + Mark IV., 587. + Mother's Prayer, A, 673. + + Our Lady's Easter, 197. + + Sick, 852. + + To a Favorite Madonna, 564. + The Pearl and the Poison, 710. + The Flight into Egypt, 766. + The Assumption of Our Lady, 789. + + Vigil, 405. + + When, 72. + Waiting, 323. + +---------- + + New Publications. + + + Allies's Formation of Christendom, 283. + Anne Séverin, 286. + Auerbach's Black Forest, 424. + Ark of the Covenant, The, 427. + Ark of Elm Island, 428. + Alice's Adventures in Wonder Land, 429. + Alice Murray, 570. + Appleton's Annual Cyclopaedia, 719. + An American Woman in Europe, 856. + A German Reader, 859. + + Brickmose's Travels, 140. + Bacon's False and True Definitions of Faith, 422. + Banim's Life and Works, 716. + + Costello, John M., 143. + Conyngham's Irish Brigade, 720. + Cantarium Romanum, etc., 856. + + Dublin Review, The, 426. + Dolby's Church Embroidery and Vestments, 427. + Dotty Dimple Stories, 428. + Die Alte und Neue Welt. 575. + Die Jenseitige Welt, 715. + Divorce, Essay on, 860. + + Eudoxia, 286. + + Free Masons, The, 426. + Fernecliffe, 428. + Fénélon's Conversations with de Ramsai, 573. + + Glimpses of Pleasant Homes, 423. + + Hewit's Medical Profession and the Educated Classes, 423. + Herbert's, Lady, Love; or, Self-Sacrifice, 574. + Heat, The Laws of, 576. + Habermeister, The, 719. + + Juliette, 429. + + Life and Works of AEngussius, 141. + Little Women, 576. + Lover's Poetical Works, 859. + + McSherry's Essays, 142. + Montarges Legacy, 286. + McClure's Poems, 288. + Manual of General History, 288. + Martineau's Biographical Sketches, 425. + Müller's Chips from a German Workshop, 571. + Mental Photographs, 576. + Mother Margaret M. Hallahan, Life of, 714. + Meditations on the Suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ, 856. + + Nature and Grace, 574. + Notre Dame, Silver Jubilee of, 858. + Nora Brady's Vow, 859. + + Oxenham on the Atonement, 568. + + Pastoral of the Archbishop of Baltimore, 571, + Problematic Characters, 717. + + Reminiscences of Mendelssohn, 428. + Report on Gun-shot Wounds, 857. + + Sunday-School Class-Book, 287. + Studious Women, 287. + Salt-Water Dick, 428. + Sogarth Aroon, 719. + Service Manual, Military, 857. + + Thunder and Lightning, 284. + Twelve Nights in a Hunter's Camp, 427. + Taine's Italy, Florence, etc., 574. + The Fisher Maiden, 576. + The Two Schools, 859. + The Irish Widow's Son, 860. + + Veith's Instruments of the Passion, 141. + + Wonders of Optics, The, 284. + Why Men do not Believe, 284. + Wiseman's Meditations, 421. + Winifred, 575. + Warwick, 716. + Walter Savage Landor, 718. + Wandering Recollections of a Busy Life, 718. + Way of Salvation, The, 859. + + Young Christian's Library, 719. + +---------- + +{1} + + The Catholic World. + +---------- + + Vol. IX., No. 49. April, 1869. + +---------- + + The Fable Of Pope Joan. + + "But avoid foolish and old wives' fables."--I Tim. iv. 7. + + +Every one is more or less familiar with the story of a female +pope, which runs thus: Pope Leo IV. died in 855, and in the +catalogue of Popes Benedict III. appears as his successor. This, +claim the Joan story-tellers, is incorrect; for between Leo and +Benedict the papal throne was for more than two years occupied by +a woman. Her name is not permitted to appear in the list of +popes, for the reason that historians devoted to the interests of +the church desired to throw the veil of oblivion over so +sacrilegious a scandal, and here, say they, is the true account +of the affair. + +On the death of Leo IV. the clergy and people of Rome met to +elect his successor, and they chose a young priest, a comparative +stranger in Rome, who during his short residence there had +acquired an immense reputation for learning and virtue, and who, +on becoming pope, assumed the name of John VII., or, according to +some, John VIII. [Footnote 1] + + [Footnote 1: And it was the most convenient one to take. + Before 855 there were seven popes named John, and at the + period when the story began to spread there had been + twenty-one.] + +Now, the pope so elected was, in fact, a woman, the daughter of +an English couple travelling in Germany. She was born in Fulda, +where she grew up and was well educated. Disguised as a man, she +entered the monastery at Fulda, where she remained undiscovered +for years, and from which she eventually eloped with a monk. They +fled to England, thence to France and Italy, and finally to +Greece. They were both profoundly versed in all the science of +the day, and went to Athens to study the literature and language +of that country. Here the monk died. Giovanna (her name was also +Gilberta or Agnes, according to the fancy of the writer) +[Footnote 2] then left Athens and went to Rome, where her +reputation for learning and the fame of her virtue soon spread. + + [Footnote 2: Her maiden name was for the first time given at + end of 14th century. It was then Agnes.] + +She gave public lectures and disputations, to which she attracted +immense crowds of hearers, all delighted with her exemplary piety +and astonished at her matchless learning. + +{2} + +All the students of Rome, and even professors, flocked to hear +her. On the death of Leo, she was elected pope by the clergy and +people of Rome from among many men preëminent for their learning +and virtue. After governing with great wisdom for more than two +years--there being not the slightest suspicion of her sex--she +left the Vatican on a certain festival at the head of the clergy, +to walk in procession to the Lateran; but on the way was seized +with the pains of labor, and in the open street, amid the +astounded bishops and clergy and surrounding concourse of people, +then and there gave birth to a child--and died. After this +occurrence, it was determined that the pontiff in procession +should never pass that desecrated street, and a statue was placed +on the spot to perpetuate the infamy of the fact, and a certain +ceremony, minutely described, was ordained to be observed at the +consecration of all future popes, in order to prevent the +possibility of any similar scandal. + +Of course there are numerous versions of the narrative, +infinitely varied in every detail, as is apt to be the case with +any story starting from no place or person in particular and +contributed to by everybody in general. + +As told, this incident is supposed to fill every polemical +Protestant with delight, and to fill convicted Catholics with +what Carlyle calls "astonishment and unknown pangs." + +Now, granting every tittle of the story as related to be true, we +see no good reason for delight on one side nor pangs on the +other. We repeat, conceding its entire truth, there is nothing in +the story that necessarily entails injury or disgrace on the +Catholic Church. Why should it? Catholic morality and doctrine do +not depend upon the personal qualities of popes. In this case, +supposing the story true, who was elected pope? A man--as all +concerned honestly believed--of acknowledged learning and virtue. +There was no intrigue, no improper influence; and those who +elected him had no share in the imposture, but were the victims, +not the participators, of the deceit practised. The cunning and +the imposture were all hers, and her crime consisted, not in +being delivered in the streets, but in not having lived chastely. +True, it was a scandalous accident; but the scandal could not add +to the original immorality of which, in all the world, but two +persons were guilty, and guilty in secret--for there is no +pretence, in all the versions, that the outward life of the +pretended she-pope was otherwise than blameless and even +edifying. Those who elected her were totally ignorant of her +sex--an ignorance entirely excusable--an error of fact brought +about by artful imposture. To their honor be it said, that they +recognized in their choice the sole merits of piety and learning, +and wished to reward them. + +But a female pope was once the head of the church! Dreadful +reproach to come from those who call themselves Reformed, +Evangelical, and Puritans, who have not only tolerated but +established, nay, and even forced some queens and princesses to +declare themselves Head of the Church or Defender of the Faith in +their own dominions, and dispose--as one of them does to this +day--of church dignities and benefices, and order other matters +ecclesiastical according to their personal will and pleasure. + +Let us now look into the story and examine the testimony on which +it is founded. The popess is said to have reigned two years and +more. Rome was then the greatest city and the very centre of the +civilized world, and always full of strangers from all parts of +the earth. +{3} +The catastrophe of the discovery brought about by the street +delivery took place under the eyes of a vast multitude of people, +and must have been known on the same day to the entire city +before the sun had set. An event so strange, so romantic, so +astounding, so scandalous, concerning the most exalted personage +in the world, must surely have been written about or chronicled +by the Italians who were there, and reported by letter or word of +mouth by foreigners to their friends at home, and found its way +from a thousand sources into the writings of the time; for it +must be remembered the pope, of all living men, was of especial +interest to the class who at that period were in the habit of +writing. Such testimony as this, being the evidence of +eye-witnesses, would be the highest testimony, and would settle +the fact beyond dispute. Where is it? Silence profound is our +only answer. Nothing of the kind is on the record of that period. +Ah! then in that case we must suppose the matter to have been +temporarily hushed up, and we will consent to receive accounts +written ten, twenty--well, we'll not haggle about a score or +two--or even fifty years later. Silence again! Not a scrap, not a +solitary line can be found. + +And so we travel through all the history which learning and +industry have been able to rescue from the re-cords of the past +down to the end of the ninth century, and find the same unbroken +silence. + +We must then go to the tenth century, where the murder will +surely out. Silence again, deep and profound, through all the +long years from 900 to 1000, and all is blank as before! + +And now we again go on beyond another half-century, still void of +all mention of Pope Joan, until we reach the year 1058, just two +hundred and three years after the assigned Joanide. + +In that year a monk, Marianus Scotus, of the monastery of Fulda, +commenced a universal chronicle, which was terminated in 1083. +Somewhere between these dates, in recording the events of 855, he +is said to have written: "Leo the Pope died on the 1st of August. +To him succeeded John, who was a woman, and sat for two years, +five months, and four days." Only this and nothing more. Not a +word of her age, origin, qualities, or circumstances of her +death. So far it is not much of a story; but little by little, +link by link, line by line, like unto the veridical and melodious +narrative of _The House that Jack built_, we'll contrive to +make a good story of it yet. The statement first appears in +Marianus. So much is certain. For during the seventeenth century, +when the Joan controversy raged, and cartloads of books and +pamphlets were written on the subject--a mere list of the titles +of which would exceed the limits of this article--every library +and collection in Europe was ransacked with the furious industry +of which a polemic writer is alone capable, for every--even the +smallest--fragment or thread connected with this subject. +Nevertheless, this ransacking was neither so thorough nor so +successful as during the present century; for, as the learned +Döllinger states, "it is only within forty years that all the +European collections of mediaeval MSS. have been investigated +with unprecedented care, every library, nook, and corner +thoroughly searched, and a surprising quantity of hitherto +unknown historical documents brought to light." + +Comparing the so-called statement of Marianus with the latest +sensational and circumstantial relation, it is plain that the +story did not, like Minerva, spring full-armed into life, but +that it is the result of a long and gradual growth, fostered by +the genius of a long series of inventive chroniclers. + +{4} + +But where did the monk of Fulda get the story? Ah! here is an +interesting episode. His chronicle was first printed at Basle +(1559) from the text known as the Latomus MS. Its editor was John +Herold, a Calvinist of note, who, in printing the pas-sage in +question, quietly left out the words of the original, "_ut +asseritur_"--that is to say, "as report goes," or "believe it +who will"--thus changing the chronicler's hearsay to a direct and +positive assertion. + +But the testimony of the Marianus chronicle comes to still +greater grief, And here a word of explanation. The Original MS. +Of Marianus is not known to exist, but we have numerous copies of +it, the respective ages of which are well ascertained. Döllinger +mentions two of them well known in Germany to be the oldest in +existence, in which not a word concerning the popess can be +found. The copy in which it is found is of 1513, and the +explanation as to its appearance there is simple. The passage in +question was doubtless put in the margin by some reader or +copyist, and by some later copyist inserted in the text, And so +we return to the original dark silence in which we started. + +A feeble attempt was made to claim that Sigbert of Gembloux, who +died in 1113, had recorded the story; but it was triumphantly +demonstrated that it was first added to his chronicle in an +edition of 1513. The same attempt was made with Gottfried's +_Pantheon_ and the chronicle of Otto von Freysingen, and +also lamentably failed. In 1261, there died a certain Stephen of +Bourbon, a French Dominican, who left a work in which he speaks +of the popess, and says he got the statement from a chronicle +which must have been that of Jean de Mailly, a brother Dominican. + +To the year 1240 or 1250 may then be assigned, on the highest +authority, the period when the Joan story first made its +appearance in writing and in history--nearly four hundred years +after its supposed date. + +In 1261, an anonymous unedited chronicle, still preserved in the +library of St. Paul at Leipsic, states that "another false pope, +name and date unknown, since she was a woman, as the Romans +confess, of great beauty and learning, who concealed her sex and +was elected pope. She became with child, and the demon in a +consistory made the fact known to all by crying aloud to the +pope: + + "Papa Pater Patrum papissae pandito partum, + Et tibi tunc edam de corpore quando recedam." + +Some chroniclers relate it differently, namely, that the pope +undertook to exorcise a person possessed of an evil spirit, and +on demanding of the devil when he would go out from the possessed +person's body, the evil one replied in the Latin verses above +given, that is to say, "O Pope! thou father of the fathers, +declare the time of the pope's parturition, and I will then tell +you when I will go out from this body." + +The demon always was a fellow who had a keen eye for the +fashions, and he appears to have indulged in alliterative Latin +poetry precisely at the period when that sort of literary +trifling was most in vogue among scholars who recreated +themselves with such lines as + + "Ruderibus rejectis Rufus Festus fieri fecit;" + +or + + "Roma Ruet Romuli Ferro Flammaque Fameque." + +{5} + +A few years later, Martinus Polaccus or Polonus, Martin the +Polack, or the Pole, (Polack is now disused, Shakespeare makes +Horatio say, "_He smote the sledded Polack on the ice,_") +who died in 1278, the author of a chronicle of popes and emperors +down to 1207, says: "John of England, by nation of Mayence, sat 2 +years, 5 months, and 4 days. It is said that this pope was a +woman." The chronicle of Polonus is merely a synchronistic +history of the popes and emperors in the form of dry biographical +notices. Nevertheless, from the fact that he had lived many years +in Rome and was intimate with the papal court his book had, to +use a modern phrase, an immense run. [Footnote 3] + + [Footnote 3: The tradition concerning the resignation of Pope + Cyriacus was also widely spread by the same chronicle. The + story ran that Pope Cyriacus resigned the pontificate in the + year 238, and first took its rise a thousand years after that + date. It was pure fiction, and was connected with the legend + of St. Ursula and her 11,000 virgins. No such pope as + Cyriacus ever existed.] + +It was translated into all the principal languages, and more +extensively copied than any chronicle then existing. The number +of copies (MS.) still in existence far exceeds that of any other +work of the kind, and this fact suggests an important reflection. +Great stress is laid by some writers on the multitude of +witnesses for Joan. But the multitude does not increase the proof +when they but repeat one another, and they suspiciously testify +in nearly the same words. "The advocates for Pope Joan," says +Gibbon, "produce one hundred and fifty witnesses, or rather +echoes, of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. +They bear testimony against themselves and the legend by +multiplying the proof that so curious a story _must_ have +been repeated by writers of every description to whom it was +known." + +The various versions that copy one another must necessarily bear +a strong family likeness. Their number can add nothing to their +value as proof, and is no more conclusive than the endeavor to +establish the doubted existence of a man by a great variety of +portraits of him, all--as Whately so well remarks in his +_Historic Doubts_--"all striking likenesses--of each +other." + +In this case the most ancient testimony is posterior to the +claimed occurrence some four hundred years, and is utterly +inconsistent with the indisputable facts related by contemporary +authors. The erudite Launoy, in his treatise _De Auctoritate +Negantis Argumenti_, lays down the rule that a fact of a +public nature not mentioned by any writer within two hundred +years of its supposed occurrence is not to be believed. This is +the same Launoy who waged war on the legends of the saints, +claiming that much fabulous matter had crept into them. On this +account he was called "Dénicheur des Saints"--the Saint-hunter or +router--and the Abbé of St. Roch used to say, "I am always +profoundly polite to Launoy, for fear he will deprive me of St. +Roch." The general rule (Launoy's) so important in historical +criticism is in perfect harmony with a great and leading +principle of jurisprudence. In the Pope Joan incident the silence +of all the writers of that age as to so remarkable a circumstance +is to be fairly received as a _prerogative_ argument +(Baconian philosophy) when set up against the numerous modern +repetitions of the story. It may be taken as a general rule that +the silence of contemporaries is the strongest argument against +the truth of any given historical assertion, particularly when +the fact asserted is strange and interesting, and this for the +reason that man is ever prone to believe and recount the +marvellous; and in the absence of early evidence, the testimony +of later times is, for the same reason, only weaker. +{6} +Now this is in strict accordance with the principle of English +common law, which demands the highest and rejects hearsay and +secondary evidence; for scores of witnesses may depose in vain +that they have heard of such a fact; the eye-witness is the +prerogative instance. This is the logic of evidence. + +And now we find that what happened to Marianus Scotus also befell +Polonus. He was entirely innocent of any mention of Joan! The +passage exists in none of the oldest copies, and is wanting in +all that follow the author's close and methodical plan of giving +one line to each year of a pope's reign, so that, with fifty +lines to the page as he wrote, each page covered precisely half a +century. This method is entirely broken up in those MSS. which +contain the passage concerning Joan, and the rage to get the +passage in was such that in one copy (the Heidelberg MS.) +Benedict III. is left out entirely and Joan put in his place. Dr. +Döllinger and the learned Bayle concur in the opinion that the +passage never had any existence in the original work of Polonus. + +And just at this juncture the testimony of Tolomeo di Lucca +(1312) is important. He wrote an ecclesiastical history, and +names the popess with the remark that in all the histories and +chronicles known to him Benedict III. succeeded Leo IV. The +author was noted for learning and industry, and must necessarily +have consulted every available authority, and yet nowhere did he +find mention of Joan but in Polonus. In 1283, a versified +chronicle of Maerlandt (a Hollander) mentions Joan: "I am neither +clear nor certain whether it is a truth or a fable; mention of it +in chronicles of the popes is uncommon." + +And now, as we advance into the fourteenth century, as +manuscripts multiply and one chronicler copies another, mention +of Joan increases; and successively and in due order, as the +malt, the rat, the cat, the dog, and all the rest appear in turn +to make perfect the nursery ditty, so the statue, the street, the +ceremony, and all the remaining features of the story come +gradually out, until we have it in full and detailed description, +and our popular papal "House that Jack built" is complete. + +Then we have Geoffrey of Courlon, a Benedictine, (1295,) Bernard +Guidonis and Leo von Orvieto, both Dominicans, (1311,) John of +Paris, Dominican, (first half of fourteenth century,) and several +others, all of whom take the story from Polonus. + +In 1306, we get the statue from Siegfried, who thus contributes +his quota: "At Rome, in a certain spot of the city, is still +shown her statue in pontifical dress, together with the image of +her child cut in marble in a wall." Bayle says that Thierry di +Niem (fifteenth century) "adds out of his own head" the statue. +But it appears that it was referred to twenty-three years earlier +than Siegfried by Maerlandt, the Hollander, who says that the +story as we read it is cut in stone and can be seen any day: + + "En daer leget soe, als wyt lesen + Noch aleo up ten Steen ghebouween, + Dat men ano daer mag scouwen." + +Amalric di Angier wrote in 1362, and adds to the story her +"teaching three years at Rome." Petrarch repeats the version of +Polonus. Boccacio also relates it, and was the first who at that +period asserted her name was not known. + +Jacopo de Acqui (1370) says that she reigned nineteen years. + +Aimery du Peyrat, abbot of Moissac, who compiled a chronicle in +1399, puts "Johannes Anglicus" in the list of popes with the +remark, "Some say that she was a woman." + +{7} + +In 1450, Martin le Franc, in his _Champion des Dames_, +expresses surprise that Providence should have permitted such a +scandal as to allow the church to be governed by a wicked woman. + + "Comment endura Dieu, comment + Que femme ribaulde et prestresse + Eut l'Eglise en gouvernement?" + +Hallam (_Literature of Europe_) mentions as among the most +remarkable among the Fastnacht's Spiele (carnival plays) of +Germany the apotheosis of Pope Joan, a tragic-comic legend, +written about 1480. Bouterwek, in his History of German Poetry, +also mentions it. + +In 1481, "to swell the dose," as Bayle says, the stool feature of +the story first comes in. + +In the Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493 (Astor Library copy) Joan is +put down as Joannes Septimus, and the page ornamented (?) with a +wood-cut of a woman with a child in her arms. It relates that she +gained the pontificate by evil arts, "malis artibus." + +In the beginning of the same century there was seen a bust of +Joan among the collection of busts of the popes in the cathedral +at Sienna. And, more astonishing still, the story was related in +the _Mirabilia urbis Roma_, a sort of guide-book for +strangers and pilgrims visiting Rome, editions of which were +constantly reprinted for a period of eighty years down to 1550! + +In the middle of the fifteenth century we find the story related +at full length by Felix Hammerlein, and later by John Bale, then +Bishop of Ossory, who afterward became a Protestant. He pretty +well completes the tale. + +According to Tolomeo di Lucca, the Joan story in 1312 was nowhere +found but in some few copies of Polonus. Nevertheless, it is +notorious that at that time countless lists and historical tables +of popes were in existence, in none of which was there any trace +of the popess. + +Suddenly we find extraordinary industry exercised in multiplying +and spreading the copies of Polonus containing the story, and in +inserting it in other chronicles that did not contain it. As the +editors of the _Histoire Littéraire e France_ aptly remark: +"Nous ne saurions nous expliquer comment il se fait que ce soit +précisëment dans les rangs de cette fidèle milice du saint-siège +que se rencontrent les propagateurs les plus naïfs, et peut-être +les inventeurs, d'une histoire si injurieuse à la papauté." +[Footnote 4] + + [Footnote 4: "We cannot understand how it is that, precisely + among the ranks of the faithful soldiers of the holy see, we + find the most credulous propagators and, perhaps, inventors + of a story so injurious to the papacy."] + +Dr. Döllinger answers this by stating that those who appeared to +be most active in the matter were Dominicans and Minorites, +particularly the former, (Sie waren es ja, besonders die ersten.) +This is specially to be remarked under the primacy of Boniface +VIII., who was no friend of either order. The Dominican +historians were particularly severe in their judgments on +Boniface in the matter of his difficulty with Philip the Fair, +and appear to dwell with satisfaction upon this period of the +weakened authority of the papal see. + +In 1610, Alexander Cooke published in London, "_Pope Ioane, a +Dialogue Betweene a Protestant and a Papist, manifestly prouing +that a woman called Ioane was Pope of Rome: against the surmises +and objections made to the contrarie_," etc. Cooke has a +preface, "To the Popish or Catholicke reader--chuse whether name +thou hast a mind to;" which is very handsome indeed of Mr. Cooke. + +{8} + +The papist in the _Dialogue_ has a dreadful time of it from +one end of the book to the other, and Gregory VII. is effectually +settled by calling him "that firebrand of hell." Bayle grimly +disposes of Cooke's work thus: "It had been better for his cause +if he had kept silence." + +Discussion of the story comes even down to this century. In 1843 +and 1845 two works appeared in Holland: one, by Professor Kist, +to prove the existence of Joan; the other, by Professor Wensing, +to refute Kist. In 1845 was also published a very able work by +Bianchi-Giovini: _Esame critico degli atti e Documenti relativi +alla favola della Papissa Giovanna_. Di A. Bianchi-Giovini. +Milano. + +It is doubtful if in all the annals of literature there exists a +more remarkable case of pure fable growing, by small and slow +degrees through several centuries, until, in the shape of a +received fact, it finally effects a lodgment in serious history. +Taking its rise no one knows where or how, full four hundred +years after the period assigned it, and stated at first in the +baldest and thinnest manner possible, it goes on from century to +century, gathering consistence, detail, and incident; requiring +three centuries for its completion, and, finally, comes out the +sensational affair we have related. All stories gain by time and +travel; scandalous stories most of all. These last are +particularly robust and long-lived. They appear to enjoy a +freedom amounting to immunity. Just as certain noxious and +foul-smelling animals frequently owe their life to the +unwillingness men have to expose themselves to such contact, so +such stories, looked upon at first as merely scandalous and too +contemptible for serious refutation, acquire, through impunity, +an importance that, in the end, makes them seriously annoying. +Then, too, well-meaning people thoughtlessly accept reports and +repeat statements that, through mere iteration, are supposed to +be well-founded. Let any one, be his or her experience ever so +small, look around and see how fully this is exemplified every +day in real life. + +Moreover, there was no dearth of writers in the middle ages who +used, to the extent of license, the liberty of criticising and +blaming the papacy. By all such the Joan story was invariably put +forward by way of illustration; and they appear to have gone on +unchecked until it was found that the open enemies of the church +began to avail themselves of the scandal. + +In 1451, AEneas Sylvius Piccolomini, (Pius II.,) in conference +with the Taborites of Bohemia, denied the story, and told +Nicholas, their bishop, that, "even in placing thus this woman, +there had been neither error of faith nor of right, but ignorance +of fact." Aventinus, in Germany, and Onuphrius Pauvinius, in +Italy, staggered the popularity of the story. Attention once +drawn to the subject, and investigation commenced, its weakness +was soon apparent, and testimony soon accumulated to crush it. + +Ado, Archbishop of Vienne, (France,) who was at Rome in 866, has +left a chronicle in which he says that Benedict III. succeeded +immediately to Leo IV. + +Prudentius, Bishop of Troyes at the same period, testifies to the +same fact. + +In 855, the assigned Joanide period, there were in Rome four +individuals who afterward successively became popes, under the +names of Benedict III., Nicholas I., Adrian II., and John VIII. +During the pretended papacy of Joan these men were all either +priests or deacons, and must have taken part in her election, and +have been present at the catastrophe, Now, of all these popes +there exist many and various writings, but not a word concerning +the popess. On the contrary, they all represent Benedict III. to +have succeeded Leo IV. + +{9} + +Lupo, Abbot of Ferrières, in a letter to Pope Benedict, says that +he, the abbot, had been kindly received at Rome by his +predecessor, Leo IV. + +In a council held at Rome, in 863, under Nicholas I., the pontiff +speaks of his predecessors Leo and Benedict. + +Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, writing to Nicholas I., says that +certain messengers sent by him to Leo IV. had been met on their +journey by news of that pontiff's death, and had, on their +arrival at Rome, found Benedict on the throne. Ten other +contemporary writers are cited who all testify to the same +immediate succession, and afford not the slightest hint of any +story or tradition that can throw the least light on that of the +female pope. "The time of Pope Joan," says Gibbon, "is placed +somewhat earlier than Theodora or Marozia; and the two years of +her imaginary reign are forcibly inserted between Leo IV. and +Benedict III. But the contemporary Anastasius indissolubly links +the death of Leo and the elevation of Benedict; and the accurate +chronology of Pagi, Muratori, and Leibnitz fixes both events to +the year 857." + +But there is no smoke without fire, it is said; and the wildest +stories must have some cause, if not foundation. Let us see. +Competent critics find the story to be a satire on John VIII. +"_Ob nimiam ejus animi facilitatem et mollitudinem_" says +Baronius, particularly in the affair with Photius, by whom John +had suffered himself to be imposed upon. Photius, Patriarch of +Constantinople, was known to be a half-man, and yet so cunning to +overreach John. Therefore they said John Was a woman, and called +him Joanna, instead Of Joannes, in that tone of bitter raillery +constantly indulged in by the Roman Pasquins and Marforios, and +this raillery, naturally enough, in course of time came to be +taken for truth. + +And again: Pope John X., elected in 914, was said to have been +raised by the power and influence of Theodora, a woman of talent +and unscrupulous intrigue. In 931, John, the son of Marozia and +Duke Alberic, and grandson of Theodora, was said to be a mere +puppet in the hands of his mother. "Their reign," (Theodora and +Marozia,) says Gibbon, "may have suggested to the darker ages the +fable of a female pope." + +Again, in 956, a grandson of the same Marozia was raised to the +papal chair as John XII. [Footnote 5] He renounced the dress and +decencies of his profession, and his life was so scandalous that +he was degraded by a synod. Onuphrius Pauvinius and Liutprand are +quoted to show that a woman, Joan, had such influence over him +that he loaded her with riches. She is said to have died in +childbed. + + [Footnote 5: At this period the church was as yet without the + advantages of the great reform effected by Gregory VII. in + 1073, and the choice of a pope by the bishops or cardinals + was ratified or rejected by the Roman people, too often, at + that time, the dupes or tools of such men as the marquises of + Tuscany and the counts of Tusculum, who, says Gibbon, "held + the apostolic see in a long and disgraceful servitude."] + +Long series of years preceding and following these events were +anything but times of pleasantness and peace to the successors of +St. Peter. Even Gibbon says, "The Roman pontiffs of the ninth and +tenth centuries were insulted, imprisoned, and murdered by their +tyrants, and such was their indigence, after the loss and +usurpation of the ecclesiastical patrimonies, that they could +neither support the state of a prince nor exercise the charity of +a priest." + +{10} + +Now, with such materials as these, a Pope Joan story is easily +constructed; for, with the license of speech that has always +existed in Rome in the form of pasquinades, it is more than +likely to have been satirically remarked by the Romans under one +or all of the three popes John, that Rome had a popess instead of +a pope, and that the chair of St. Peter was virtually occupied by +a female. These things would be repeated from mouth to mouth by +men who, according to their temper and ability, would comment on +them with bitter scoff, irreverent comment, snarling sneer, or +ribald leer, and they might readily have been received as matter +of fact assertions by German and other strangers in Rome. + +Carried home and spread by wandering monks and soldiers, it is +only wonderful that they did not sooner come to the surface in +some such fable as the one under consideration. Diffused among +the people, and acquiring a certain degree of consistence by dint +of repetition through two centuries, it finally reached the ear +of the individual who inserted it in the Marianus chronicle in +the form of an _on dit_, and so he put it down "_ut +asseritur_"--"they say." + +Certain it is that no such story was known in Italy until it was +spread from German chroniclers, and the absurdity was too +monstrous to pass into contemporary history even in a foreign +country. + +But, it is answered, by Coeffetau and others, we do not hear of +it for so many years afterward because the church exerted its +omnipotent authority to hush up the story. There needs but slight +knowledge of human nature to decide that such an attempt would +have only served to spread and intensify the scandal. As Bayle +wisely remarks, "People do not so expose their authority by +prohibitions which are not of a nature to be observed, and which, +so far from shutting their mouth, rather excite an itching desire +to speak." + +Then, too, it is claimed that for a period of several hundred +years after 855, writers and chroniclers, by agreement, tacit or +express, not only maintained a profound silence on the subject of +the scandal, but, in all Christian countries of the world, +conspired to alter the order of papal succession, forge +chronicles, and falsify historical records. And yet those who use +this argument tell us that in the city of Rome, under papal +authority, a statue was erected, an order issued, turning aside +processions from their time-consecrated itinerary, and customs as +remarkable for their indecency as their novelty were introduced, +_in order to perpetuate the memory_ of the very same events +tyrannical edicts were issued to conceal and blot out! Comment is +not needed. + +The total silence of contemporary writers, and the immense chasm +of two hundred years (taking the earliest date claimed) between +the event and its first mention, was, of course, found fatal. +Consequently, an attempt was made to prop up the story by the +assertion that it was chronicled by Anastasius the Librarian, who +lived in Rome at the alleged Joannic period, was present at the +election of all the popes from 844 to 882, and must, therefore, +have been a witness of the catastrophe of 855. The testimony of +such a witness would certainly be valuable--indeed irrefutable. +Accordingly a MS. of the fourteenth century, a copy of the +Anastasian MS., was produced, in which mention was made of Pope +Joan. But this mention was attended with three suspicious +circumstances. First, it was qualified by an "_ut dicitur_" +"as is said." Anastasius would scarcely need an _on dit_ to +qualify his own testimony concerning an event that took place +under his own eyes, and must have morally convulsed all Rome. +{11} +Secondly, it was not in the text, but in a marginal note. +Thirdly, and fatally, the entire sentence was in the very words +of the Polonus chronicle. Naturally enough, it was found singular +that Anastasius, writing in the ninth century, should use the +identical phraseology of Polonus, who was posterior to him by +four hundred years. + +But, in addition to these reasons, Anastasius gives a +circumstantial account of the election of Benedict III. to +succeed Leo IV., absolutely filling up the space needed for Joan. +In view of all which the critical Bayle is moved to exclaim, +"Therefore I say what relates to this woman (Joan) is spurious, +and comes from another hand." A zealous Protestant, Sarrurius, +writes to his co-religionist, Salmasius, (the same who had a +controversy with Milton,) after examining the Anastasian MS., +"The story of the she-pope has been tacked to it by one who had +misused his time." And Gibbon says, "A most palpable forgery is +the passage of Pope Joan which has been foisted into some MSS. +and editions of the Roman Anastasius." + +With regard to the early chronicle MSS., it must be borne in mind +that it was common for their readers (owners) to write additions +in the margin, A professional copyist--the publisher of those +days--usually incorporated the marginal notes with the text. +Books were then, of course, dear and scarce, and readers +frequently put in the margin the supplements another book could +furnish them, rather than buy two books. Then again--for men are +alike in all ages--those who purchased valuable books wanted, as +they want to-day, the fullest edition, with all the latest +emendations. So a chronicle with the Joan story would always be +more saleable than one without it. + +But one of the strongest presumptions against the truth of the +story is seen in the profound silence of the Greek writers of the +period, (ninth to fifteenth century.) All of them who sided with +Photius were bitterly hostile to Rome, and the question of the +supremacy of the pope was precisely the vital one between Rome +and Constantinople. They would have been only too glad to get +hold of such a scandal. Numbers of Greeks were in Rome in 855, +and if such a catastrophe as the Joanine had occurred, they must +have known it. "On writers of the ninth and tenth centuries," +says Gibbon, "the recent event would have flashed with a double +force. Would Photius have spared such a reproach? Would Liutprand +have missed such a scandal?" + +We have disposed of the absurdity of the supposition that the +power and discipline of the church were so great as to enforce +secrecy concerning the Joan affair. But--even granting the truth +of this assertion--that power and discipline would avail naught +with strangers who were Greeks and schismatics. In 863, only +eight years after the alleged Joanide, the Greek schism broke out +under Photius, who was excommunicated by Nicholas I. There was no +period from 855 to 863 when there were not numbers of Greeks in +the city of Rome--learned Greeks too. Many of them agreed with +Photius, who claimed that the transfer of the imperial residence, +by the emperors, from Rome to Constantinople, at the same time +transferred the primacy and its privileges. Yet not only can no +allusion to any such story be found in any Greek writer of that +century, but there is found in Photius himself no less than three +distinct and positive assertions that Benedict III. succeeded Leo +IV. + +The Greek schism became permanent in 1053, under Cerularius, +Patriarch of Constantinople, who undertook to excommunicate the +legates of the pope. + +{12} + +With Cerularius, as with Photius, the papal supremacy was the +main question, and neither he nor Photius would have failed to +make capital of the Joan fable, had they ever heard of it. So +also with all the Byzantine writers, and they were numerous. It +was not until the fifteenth century that the first mention of the +story was made by one of them, (Chalcocondylas,) an Athenian of +the fifteenth century, who, in his _De Rebus Turcicis_, +states the case very singularly: "Formerly a woman was in the +papal chair, her sex not being manifest, because the men in +Italy, and, indeed, in all the countries of the West, are closely +shaved." It is true that Barlaam, a Greek writer, mentioned it in +the fourteenth century; but Barlaam was living in Italy when he +wrote his book. + +And now, as we reach the so-called Reformation period, we find +the tale invested with a value and importance it had never before +assumed. It was kept constantly on active duty without relief, +and compelled to do fatiguing service in a thousand controversial +battles and skirmishes. Angry and over-zealous Protestants found +it a handy thing to have in their polemical house. And, although +the more judicious cared not to use it, the story was generally +retained. Spanheim and Lenfant endeavored to think it a worthy +weapon, and even Mosheim affects to cherish suspicion as to its +falsity. Jewell, one of Elizabeth's bishops (1560) seriously, and +with great show of learning, espoused Joan's claims to existence. + +Nor were answers wanting; and, including those who had previously +written on the subject, it was fully confuted by Aventinus, +Onuphrius Pauvinius, Bellarmine, Serrarius, George Scherer, +Robert Parsons, Florimond de Rémond, Allatius, and many others. + +The first Protestant to cast doubt on the fable was David +Blondel. A minister of the Reformed Church, Professor of History +at Amsterdam, in 1630, he was held by his co-religionists to be a +prodigy of learning in languages, theology, and ecclesiastical +history. In his _Fable de la Papesse Jeanne_, with +invincible logic and an intelligent application of the true +canons of historical criticism, he demonstrates the absence of +foundation for the story, the tottering and stuttering weakness +of its early years, the suspicions which stand around its cradle; +and, instead of disputing how far the Pope Joan story was +believed or credited in this or that century, shows that by her +own contemporaries she was never heard of at all; the whole story +being, he says, "an inlaid piece of work embellished with time." +Blondel was bitterly assailed by all sections of Protestantism, +and accused of "bribery and corruption," the question being +asked, "How much has the pope given him?" Blondel's work brought +out a crowd of writers in defence of Joan, foremost among whom +was the Protestant Des Marets or Maresius, whose labors in turn +called out the _Cenotaphium Papessae Joannae_ by the learned +Jesuit Labbe, the celebrity of whose name drew forth a phalanx of +writers in reply. + +But the worst for Joanna was yet to come. Another Protestant, +undeterred by the abuse showered upon Blondel, gave Joan her +_coup de grace_. This was the learned Bayle, who, with rigid +and judicial impartiality, sums up the essence of all that had +been advanced on either side, and shows unanswerably the +altogether insufficient grounds on which the entire story rests. +More was not needed. Nevertheless, Eckhard and Leibnitz followed +Bayle in the extinguishing process, and made it disreputable for +any scholar of respectability to advocate the convicted +falsehood. + +{13} + +There was no dearth of other Protestant protests against Joan. +Casaubon, the most learned of the so-called reformers, laughed at +the fable. So did Thuanus. Justus Lipsius said of it, "Revera +fabella est haud longè ab audacia et ineptis poetarum." [Footnote +6] Schookius, professor at Groningen, totally disbelieved it. Dr. +Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, said, "I don't believe the history +of Pope Joan," and gives his reasons. So, also, Dr. Bristow. Very +pertinent was the reflection of Jurieu, (a fanatical Protestant, +if ever there was one--the same noted for his controversy with +Bayle, who was a "friend of the family"--so much so, indeed, as +to cause the remark that Jurieu discovered many hidden things in +the Apocalypse, but could not see what was going on in his own +household,) in his _Apology for the Reformation_, "I don't +think we are much concerned to prove the truth of this story of +Pope Joan." + + [Footnote 6: "In truth, it is a fable not much differing from + the boldness and silly stories of the poets."] + +The erudite Anglican, Dr. Cave, says: "Nothing helped more to +make that Chronicle (Polonus) famous than the much talked of +fable of Pope Joan. For my own part, I am thoroughly convinced +that it is a mere fable, and that it has been thrust into +Martin's chronicle, especially since it is wanting in most of the +old manuscripts." + +Hallam calls it a fable. Ranke passes it over in contemptuous +silence. So also does Sismondi; and Gibbon fairly pulverizes it +with scorn. + +A favorite polemical arsenal for Episcopalians is found in the +works of Jewell, so-called Bishop of Salisbury. Let them be +warned against leaning on him concerning the Joan story. Listen +how quietly yet how effectually both Joan and Jewell are disposed +of by Henry Hart Milman, D.D., Dean of St. Paul's, in his +_History of Latin Christianity_: "The eight years of Leo's +papacy were chiefly occupied in restoring the plundered and +desecrated churches of the two apostles, and adorning Rome. + +"_The succession to Leo IV. was contested between Benedict +III._, who commanded the suffrages of the clergy and people, +and Anastasius, who, at the head of an armed faction, seized the +Lateran, [Footnote 7] stripped Benedict of his pontifical robes, +and awaited the confirmation of his violent usurpation by the +imperial legates, whose influence he thought he had secured, But +the commissioners, after strict investigation, decided in favor +of Benedict. Anastasius was expelled with disgrace from the +Lateran, and his rival consecrated in the presence of the +emperor's representatives." [Footnote 8] Like Ranke, Milman also +passes over the Joan story with contemptuous silence. + + [Footnote 7: Sept A.D. 855.] + + [Footnote 8: Sept. 29, 855.] + +In his _Papst-Fabeln des Mittelalters_, the learned Dr. +Döllinger has exhausted the erudition of the subject, and not +only demonstrated the utter unworthiness of the invention, but-- +what is for the first time done by him--points out the causes or +sources of all the separate portions of the narrative. Thus, the +statue story arose from the fact that in the same street in which +was found a grave or monumental stone, of the inscription on +which the letters P. P. P. could be deciphered, there was also +seen a statue of a man or woman with a child. It was simply an +ancient statue of a heathen priest, with an attendant boy holding +in his hand a palm-leaf, The P. P. P. on the grave-stone, as all +antiquarians agreed, merely stood for _Propria Pecunia +Posuit_; but as the marvellous only was sought for, the three +P's were first coolly duplicated and then made to stand for the +words of the line already referred to--_Papa Patrum_, +etc.--much in the same way as Mr. Jonathan Oldbuck insisted that +A. D. L. L., on a utensil of imaginary antiquity he had found, +stood for AGRICOLA DICAVIT LIBENS LUBENS, when it only meant +AIKEN DRUM'S LANG LADLE. +{14} +The controversy concerning the +existence of Joan may be considered +as long since substantially closed, and +Joan, or Agnes, or Gilberta, or Ione, +as she is called in the English (Lond. +1612) edition of Philip Morney's +(Du Plessis Mornay) _Mysterie of Iniquitie_, +to stand convicted as an imposter, +or, more properly speaking, a +nonentity. Her story is long since +banished from all respectable society, +although it contrives to keep up a +disreputable and precarious existence +in the outskirts and waste places of +vagrant literature. We are even +informed that it may be found printed +under the auspices and sponsorship +of societies and individuals considered +respectable. If this be true, it is, for +their sakes, to be regretted; and we +beg leave severally to admonish the +societies and individuals in question, +in the words of the apostle: "_Avoid +foolish and old wives' fables: and exercise +thyself to piety._" + +---------- + + Translated From The French. + + The Approaching General Council. + + By Mgr. Dupanloup, Bishop Of Orleans. + + + V. + + The Help Offered By The Council. + +This is the reason why that church, which is the friend of souls +and which was never indifferent to the evils in society, is now +so deeply moved. Undoubtedly the church and society are distinct; +but journeying side by side in this world, and enclosing within +their ranks the same men, they are necessarily bound together in +their perils and in their trials. The church has called this +assembly, therefore, because she feels that in regard to the +evils which are common to both, she can do much to forward their +removal. + +However, let us be careful, as careful of exaggerating as of +diminishing the truth. Does it depend upon the church to destroy +every human vice? No. But in this great work, in this rude +conflict of the good against the bad, she has her part, an +important part, and she wishes to perform it. Man is free, and he +does good of his own free-will. But he is also aided by divine +grace, which assists him without destroying his liberty; for as +the great Pope St. Celestine said, "Free-will is not taken away +by the grace of God, but it is made free." Being the treasury of +celestial goods, the church is man's divine assistant, and lends +him, even in the temporal order, a supernatural aid. If to-day +she is assembling in Rome, and, as it were, is collecting her +thoughts, it is only in order to accomplish her task, to work +more successfully and powerfully for the welfare of mankind. + +{15} + +"Who can doubt," exclaims the Holy Father, "that the doctrine of +the Catholic Church has this virtue, that it not only serves for +the eternal salvation of man, but that it also helps the temporal +welfare of society, their real prosperity, good order and +tranquillity?" And who will deny the social and refining +influence of the church? "_Religion! Religion!_" an eminent +statesman [Footnote 9] has recently said, "_it is the very life +of humanity!_ In every place, at all times, save only certain +seasons of terrible crisis and shameful decadence. Religion to +restrain or to satisfy human ambition--religion to sustain or to +reconcile us to our sorrows, the sorrows both of our worldly +station and of our soul. Let not statesmanship, though it be at +once the most just and the most ingenious, flatter itself that it +is capable of accomplishing such a work without the help of +religion. The more intense and extended is the agitation of +society, the less able is any state policy to direct startled +humanity to its end. A higher power than the powers of earth is +needed, and views which reach beyond this world. For this purpose +God and eternity are necessary." + + [Footnote 9: M. Guizot] + +Then, too, the Holy Father, after he has alluded to the +beneficent influence of religion in the temporal order, proclaims +anew the concord, so often affirmed by him, between faith and +reason, and the mutual help which, in the designs of Providence, +they are called to lend one to the other. "Even," he says, "as +the church sustains society, so does divine truth sustain human +science; the church supports the very ground beneath its feet, +and in preventing it from wandering she advances its progress." +Let those who vainly strive to claim science as an antagonist to +the church understand these words! The head of the church does +not fear science, he loves it, he praises it, and with pleasure +he remembers that the Christian truths serve to aid its progress +and to establish its durability. The most illustrious scholars +who have appeared upon the earth, Leibnitz, Newton, Kepler, +Copernicus, Pascal, Descartes, before whom the learned of the +present time, if their pride has not completely blinded them, +would feel of very little importance, think the same about this +question as does the Sovereign Pontiff. This is demonstrated, +adds the Pope, by the history of all ages with unexceptionable +evidence. This too is the meaning of the well-known phrase of +Bacon, "A little learning separates us from religion; but much +learning leads us to it." Presumptuous ignorance or blind passion +may forget it; but the greatest minds have always recognized the +agreement of faith and science, the harmony between the church +and society, and rejected this antagonism of modern times, which +is so contrary to the testimony of history and the interests of +truth. + +But let us not allow an ambiguous expression to become the +pretext for our opponent's attacks; how then does the church +attempt to reform society? History has answered this question. +Prejudice alone fancies that it has discovered some secret attack +upon the legitimate liberty of the human mind. The Council of +Rome will be the nineteenth Ecumenical Council, and the forty or +fifty nations which will be represented there have all been +converted in the same way; that is, they have been brought from +barbarism to civilization by the authority of her words, by the +grace of her sacraments, by the teaching of her pastors, and the +examples of her saints. Such are the ways of God and the action +of the church, sometimes seconded, but more frequently attacked, +by human powers. + +{16} + +Instructor of souls, the church uses the method of all good +education--authority and patience. Where there is doubt, she +affirms; where there is denial, she insists; where there is +division, she unites; she repeats for ever the same lessons, and +what grand lessons they are! The true nature of God, the true +nature of man, moral responsibility and free-will, the +immortality of the soul, the sacredness of marriage, the law of +justice, the law of charity, the inviolability of private rights +and of property, the duty of labor, and the need of peace. This +always, this everywhere, this to all men, to kings and to +shepherds, to Greeks and to Romans, to England and to France, in +Europe and in Australia, under Charlemagne or before Washington. + +I dare to assert that the continuity of these affirmations +creates order in society and in the human mind, just as certainly +as the repeated rising of the same sun makes the order of the +seasons and success in the culture of the earth. O philosopher, +you who disdain the church! be candid and tell me what would have +become of the idea of a personal God among the nations, had it +not been for her influence? O Protestants and Greeks! admit that +without the church the image of Jesus Christ would have been +blotted out beneath your very eyes! O philanthropist and +statesman! what would you do without her for the family and the +sanctity of marriage? + +What the church has once done, she is going to do again; what she +has already said, she is going to repeat; she will continue her +life, her course, her work, in the same spirit of wisdom and +charity; she will continue to affirm to man's reason those great +truths of which she is the guardian, and it is by this means, by +this alone, though by it most energetically, that she will act on +society. + +It has been said that the religion of the masses of the people is +the whole of their morality. Then since morality is the true +source of good statesmanship and good laws, all the progress of a +people must consist in making the first principles of justice +influence more and more their private and public life. From this +it follows that every people which increases in its knowledge of +Christian truth will make substantial progress, while at the same +time every people which attempts to solve the great questions +that perplex mankind in any way opposed to the gospel of Christ +will be in reality taking the wrong road which can only end in +their utter destruction. Who expelled pagan corruption from the +world, who civilized barbarians by converting them? Look at the +East when Christianity flourished there; and look at it now under +the rule of Islam! The influence of Christianity upon +civilization is a fact as glaring as the sun. But the principles +of the gospel are far from having given all that they contain, +and time itself will never exhaust them, because they come out of +an infinite depth. + +Now, although the centuries have drawn from the Christian +principle of charity, equality, and fraternity of man +consequences which have revolutionized the old world; still all +the social applications of this admirable doctrine are very far +from having been made. It is even, as I believe, the peculiar +mission of modern times to make this fruitful principle penetrate +more completely than ever the laws and customs of nations. If the +century does not wander from the path of Christian truth, it will +establish political, social, and economic truths which will +reflect upon it the greatest honor. +{17} +But it is the mission of the church and her council to preserve +these truths of revelation free from those interpretations which +falsify their meaning. + +Then every great declaration of the truths of the Bible, every +explanation of the doubts and errors concerning it, every true +interpretation of Christianity by the masses of the people is a +work of progress, which is at once social and religious. This +then is why the church is using every effort, or, as says the +Holy Father, why she is exerting her strength more and more. This +is the reason why Catholic bishops will come from every part of +the world to consult with their chief. + +It is in vain you say in your unjust and ignorant prejudice, the +church is old, but the times are new. The laws of the world are +also old; yet every new invention of which we are justly proud +would not exist, and could not succeed, were it not for the +application of those laws. You do not understand how pliant and +yet how firm is the material of which her Divine Founder has +built his church. He has given her an organization at once +durable and progressive. Such is the depth and the fruitfulness +of her dogmas, such too is the expansive character of her +constitution, that she can never be outstripped by any human +progress, and she is able to maintain her position under any +political system. Without changing her creed in the least, she +draws from her treasury, as our divine Lord said, things both new +and old, from century to century, by measuring carefully the +needs of the time. You will find that she is ever ready to adapt +herself to the great transformations of society, and that she +will follow mankind in all the phases of his career. The +Christian revelation is the light of the world, and always will +be; be assured that this is the reason why the coming council +will be the dawn, not as many think the setting, of the church's +glory. + + VI. + + The Unfounded Fears On The Subject Of The Council. + +What then do timid Catholics and distrustful politicians fear? +Ah! rather let mankind rejoice over the magnanimous resolution of +Pius IX. It should be a solemn hope for those who believe, as +well as for those who have not the happiness of believing. If you +have the faith, you know that the spirit of God presides over +such councils. Of course, since it will be composed of men, there +may be possible weaknesses in that assembly. But there will also +be devoted service to the church, great virtues, profound wisdom, +a pure and courageous zeal for the glory of God and the good of +souls, and an admirable spirit of charity; and, besides all this, +a divine and superior power. God will, as ever, accomplish his +work there. + +"God," says Fénélon, "watches that the bishops may assemble when +it is necessary, that they may be sufficiently instructed and +attentive, and that no bad motive may induce those who are the +guardians of the truth to make an untrue statement. There may be +improper opinions expressed in the course of the examination. But +God knows how to draw from them what he pleases. He leads them to +his own end, and the conclusion infallibly reaches the precise +point which God had intended." + +But if one has the misfortune not to be a Christian and not to +recognize in the church the voice of God, from simply a human +point of view, can there be anything more worthy of sympathy and +respect than this great attempt of the Catholic Church to work, +so far as it is in her power, for the enlightenment and peace of +the world? +{18} +And what can be more august and venerable than the assembly of +seven or eight hundred bishops, coming from Europe, Asia, Africa, +the two Americas, and the most distant islands of Oceanica? Their +age, their virtue, and their science make them the most worthy +delegates from the countries in which they dwell, and the +recognized representatives of men of the entire globe with whom +they come in contact every day of their lives. It is a real +senate of mankind, seen nowhere but at Rome. And although our +mind should be filled with the most unjust prejudices, what +conspiracy, what excess, what manifestation of party feeling need +be feared from a meeting of old men coming from very different +parts of the earth, almost every one a complete stranger to the +others, having no bond of sympathy but a common faith and a +common virtue? Where will we find on earth a more perfect +expression, a more certain guarantee of wisdom, of wisdom even as +men understand it? I have ventured to say that modern times, +disgusted by experience with confidence in one man, have faith in +their assemblies. But what gathering can present such a +collection of the intelligent and the independent, such diversity +in such unity? Who are these bishops? Read their mottoes: + + _"In the name of the Lord!" + "I bring Peace!" + "I wish for Light!" + "I diffuse Charity!" + "I shrink not from Toil!" + "I serve God!" + "I know only Christ!" + "All things to all men!" + "Overcome Evil by Good!" + "Peace in Charity!"_ + +As to themselves, they have lost their proper names. Their +signature is the name of a saint and the name of a city. Their +own name is buried, like that of an architect, in the foundation +stone of the building. Here are Babylon and Jerusalem; New York +and Westminster; Ephesus and Antioch; Carthage and Sidon; Munich +and Dublin; Paris and Pekin; Vienna and Lima; Toledo and Malines; +Cologne and Mayence. And added to this, they are called Peter, +Paul, John, Francis, Vincent, Augustin, and Dominic; names of +great men who have established or enlightened various nations +that profess Christianity, They do not bear the names of the past +and present only, they also bear those of the future. One comes +from the Red River, another from Dahomey, others from Natal, +Victoria, Oregon, and Saigon. We are working for the future, +although we are called men of the past. We are working for +countries which to-day cannot boast a single city, and for people +who are without a name. We go farther than science, even beyond +commerce itself, until we find ourselves alone and beyond them +all. When we cannot precede your most adventurous travellers, we +tread eagerly in their footsteps; and why? To make +Christians--that is to say, to make men, to make nations. What +then do you fear? Why do you object to such a council when you +entitle yourselves, with such proud confidence, the men of +progress and the heralds of the future? + +Will it be nations who are disturbed by the council? How can +nations be menaced or betrayed by men who represent every nation +of the civilized globe? The bishops love their countries; they +live in them by their own free choice, and for the defence of +their faith. Will the bishops of Poland meet the bishops of +Ireland to plan the ruin of nations and the oppression of a +fatherland? And is there a single French bishop, or one from +England, or from any other country, who will yield to any one in +patriotism, who does not claim to be as good a Frenchman, or +Englishman, or citizen, as any one of his fellow-countrymen? +{19} +Is our liberty placed in jeopardy? What can you fear from men +who, from the days of the Catacombs up to the massacre of the +Carmelites, have established Christianity only at the sacrifice +of their life, and whose blood flowed freely in the days that +liberty and the church suffered the same persecution? Will the +bishops of America join those from Belgium and Holland in a +conspiracy against liberty? Will the bishops from the East unite +with the bishops of France, and so may other European countries, +in sounding the praises of despotism? + +No, no; there is nothing true in all these fears; they would be +only silly phantoms were it not that they are the result of a +hatred which foresees the good which will be done, and wishes to +prevent it. What will the council do? I cannot say; God alone +knows it at this hour. But I can say that it is a council, +because eighteen centuries of Christianity and civilization know +and affirm it; a council, hence it is the most worthy +exemplification of moral force, it is the noblest alliance of +authority and liberty that the human mind can conceive; and I may +boldly assert that it never would have conceived it by its own +power. + +I am not going to mark out the limits of liberty and power. I do +not intend now to show the characteristics of schism and heresy, +of English or German Protestantism, or of the false orthodoxy of +Russia. I will say only one word, and then proceed to make my +conclusions. It is this. If the Christian churches wish to become +again sisters, and if men wish to become brothers, they can never +do it more certainly, more magnificently, or more tenderly than +in a council, under the auspices and in the breast of that church +which is their true mother. + +Do you imagine that you discover different opinions in the +church, and make this an obstacle? I would have the right to be +astonished at your solicitude, but I will suppose you to be +sincere, and I answer, You know very little about the church, Her +enemies daily declare that our faith is a galling yoke, which +holds us down and prevents us from thinking. And therefore, when +they see that we do think, they are perfectly amazed. This is one +of the conditions of the church's life, and the greatest amount +of earnest thinking is always within her fold. It is true that we +have an unchanging creed, that we are not like the philosophers +outside of the church, who do little more than seek a doctrine, +and endlessly begin again their searches. They are always calling +everything in question, they are continually moving, but never +reach any known destination. With us there are certain +established definite points, about which we no longer dispute. +And thus it is that the church has an immovable foundation, and +is not built entirely in the air. Yet liberty also has its place +in the church, Our anchors are strong and our view is unlimited; +for beyond those doctrines which are defined there is an immense +space. Even in dogma the Christian mind has yet a magnificent +work to accomplish, which can be followed for ever, because, as I +have already said, our dogmas, like God, have infinite depths, +and Christian intelligence can always draw from them, but never +drain them. + +No one should therefore be astonished to see that Catholics argue +about questions not included within the definitions of faith, +many of which are difficult and complex, and which modern +polemics has only made more obscure. +{20} +The spirit of Christianity was long ago defined by St. Augustine +in these memorable words: _In necessary things unity, in +doubtful things liberty, in all things charity_. The course of +centuries has changed nothing. Besides, I have before said, and I +now repeat, that the council, precisely because it is +ecumenical--that is, composed of representatives from all the +churches in the world--bishops living under every political +system and every variety of social customs--excludes necessarily +the predominance of any particular school of a narrow and +national spirit and of local prejudices. It will be the great +catholic spirit, and not such and such particular notions, which +will inspire its decisions; and whatever may happen to be the +peculiar ideas of different schools or parties, the council will +be the true light and unity. There will be complete liberty left +in regard to all things not defined. But these definitions will +be the Catholic rule of faith, and they should not disturb any +one in advance. Again, they threaten nothing which is dear to +you, men of this age, they threaten only error and injustice, +which are your enemies as well as ours. If you wish to know the +real opinions of this magnanimous pontiff, who is the object of +so many odious and ungrateful calumnies, and of the bishops, his +sons and his brothers; if you wish to conjecture the spirit of +the future council, you will find it completely stated in these +few words of Pius IX., which were addressed to some Catholic +publicists, scarcely a year ago, and which have been inscribed on +their standard as a sacred motto: "Christian charity alone can +prepare the way for that liberty, fraternity, and progress which +souls now ardently desire." + +I cannot repeat too often, and you, my brethren of the holy +ministry, cannot repeat too often, that great is the mistake of +those who denounce the future council as a menace or a work of +war. We live in a time in which we are condemned to listen to +all. But nevertheless we are not bound to believe all. When, a +year ago, the Pope announced to the bishops assembled in Rome his +determination to convoke an ecumenical council, what did the +bishops of the whole world see in this? A great work of +illumination and pacification--these are the precise words of +their address. The papal bull uses the same language. In this +ecumenical council, what does the Pope ask his brothers, the +bishops, to examine, to investigate with all possible care, and +to decide with him? Before everything else, it is that which +relates to the peace of all and to universal concord. + +And when I read the bull carefully, what do I see on every page +and in each line? The expression of solicitude well worthy the +father of souls, and not less for civil society than for the +church. He never separates them. He is careful always to say that +their evils and their perils are mutual. The same tempest beats +them both with the same waves. At this time, which is called a +period of transition, religion and society are both passing +through a formidable crisis. There are men to-day who would wish +to destroy the church if they could; and who, at the same time, +would shake society from its very foundations. And it is for the +purpose of bringing help to them both, and to avert the evils +which menace them together, that the holy father has conceived +the idea of a council. The reason given by him to the bishops is +precisely to examine this critical situation, and suggest the +remedy for this double wound. +{21} +These are his words: "It is necessary that our venerable +brothers, who feel and deplore as we do the critical situation of +the church and society, should strive with us and with all their +power to avert from the church and society, by God's help, all +the evils which are afflicting them." + +It has been told that the Pope wished to break off friendly +relations with modern society, to condemn and proscribe it, to +give it as much trouble as lies within his power. Yet never have +the trials which you endure, Christian nations, more sadly moved +the head of the church, never has his soul poured forth more +sympathetic accents, than for your perils and your sorrows. And +it has been noticed by every one, pillaged of three-fourth of his +little territory, reduced to Rome and its surrounding country, +placed between the dangers of yesterday and those of to-morrow, +suspended, as it were, over a precipice, the Pope seems never to +think of these things; he does not seek to defend his menaced +throne; not a sentence, not a single word, about his own +interests; no, in the bull of convocation the temporal prince is +forgotten and is silent--the pontiff alone has spoken to the +world. + + + VII + + The Council And The Separated Churches + +But all has not yet been said, Other hopes may be conceived of +the future council. We delight in anticipating other great +results. The letters of the Holy Father to the Eastern bishops +and to our separated Protestant brethren give us good ground for +hope. + +At two fatal epochs in the history of the world, two great +divisions have been made in this empire of souls which we call +the church--twice has the seamless robe of Christ been rent by +schism and heresy. These are the two great misfortunes of +mankind, and the two most potent causes which have retarded the +world's progress. Who does not admit this? If the old Greek +empire had not so sadly broken with the West, it would have never +been the prey of Islamism, which has so deeply degraded it, and +which even now holds it under an iron yoke. Nor would it have +drawn into its schism another vast empire, in whose breast +seventy millions of souls groan beneath a despotism which is both +political and religious. + +And who can say what the Christian people of Europe would be +today, were it not for Lutheranism, Calvinism, and so many other +divisions? These unhappy separations have made Christianity lose +its active power in retaining many souls in the light of divine +revelation which have since been wrested from it by incredulity. +And who can tell us how much they have retarded the diffusion of +the gospel in heathen countries? + +Sorrowful fact! There are even now millions of men upon whom the +light of the gospel has never shone, and who remain sunken in the +shadows of infidelity. Think of the poor pagans on the shores of +distant isles! They are vaguely expecting a Saviour; they stretch +their arms toward the true God; they cry out by the voice of +their miseries and their sufferings for light, truth, salvation, +Eighteen centuries ago, Jesus Christ came to bring these good +tidings to the world, and spoke these great words to his +apostles, "Preach the gospel to every creature!" The church alone +has apostles of Jesus Christ, emulators of that Peter and Paul +who landed one day upon the coast of Italy to preach the same +gospel to our fathers and to die together for the +same faith. + +{22} + +But poor Indians! poor Japanese! Following the apostles of the +Catholic Church sent by the successor of him to whom Jesus Christ +said, "Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build my church," +we see other missionaries who come to oppose them. But who sends +them? Is it Jesus Christ? What, then, is Christ, as St. Paul +asked of the dissidents of the first century, divided? Is not +this, I ask you, a dreadful misfortune for the poor infidels? And +is it not enough to make every Christian shed tears? + +And union, if it were only possible, (and why should it not be, +since it is the wish of our Saviour)--union, especially because +now the way is open and distance has almost vanished, would it +not be a great and happy step toward that evangelization of every +creature which Jesus charged his apostles and their successors to +begin when he had left the earth? + +Yes, every soul in which the spirit of Jesus dwells should feel +within a martyrdom when it considers these divisions, and repeat +to heaven the prayer of our Saviour and the cry for unity, "My +Father, that they may be all one, as you and I are one." This is +the great consideration which influenced the head of the Catholic +Church when, forgetting his own dangers, and moved by this care +for all the churches which weighs so heavily upon him, he +convoked an ecumenical council. He turns toward the East and to +the West, and addresses to all the separated communions a word of +peace, a generous call for unity. Whatever may be the way in +which his appeal is received, who does not recognize, in this +most earnest effort for the union of all Christians, a thought +from heaven, inspired by Him who willed that his Church should be +one, and who said, as the Holy Father has been pleased to recall, +"It is by this that you will be known to be my disciples"? + +But will our brethren of the East and West respond to this +thought, this wish? The East! Who is not moved before this cradle +of the ancient faith, from whence the light has come to us? I saw +the Catholic bishops of the East trembling with joy at the +announcement of the future council, and expecting their churches +to awake to a new life and to a fruitful activity. But will the +Eastern churches refuse to hear these "words of peace and +charity" that the Holy Father has lately addressed to them "from +the depths of his heart"? [Footnote 10] And why should they be +deaf to this appeal? For what antiquated or chimerical fears? Who +has not recognized and been deeply touched by the goodness of the +pontiff? How delicately, and with what accents of particular +tenderness, does the Holy Father speak of our Oriental brethren, +who, in the midst of Mohammedan Asia, "recognize and adore, even +as we do, our Lord Jesus Christ," and who, "redeemed by his most +precious blood, have been added to his church!" What +consideration does he manifest for these ancient churches, to-day +so unfortunately detached from the centre of unity, but who +formerly "showed so much lustre by their sanctity and their +celestial doctrine, and produced abundant fruits for the glory of +God and the salvation of souls!" [Footnote 11] + + [Footnote 10: Apostolic Letter of Pius IX., September 8th, + 1868.] + + [Footnote 11: _ibidem_.] + +And, at the same time, we must admire his gentleness, his +forgetfulness of all his irritating grievances. The Holy Father +speaks only of peace and charity. +{23} +He asks only one thing, and that is, that "the old laws of love +should be renewed, and the peace of our fathers, that salutary +and heavenly gift of Christ, which for so long a time has +disappeared, may be firmly re-established; that the pure light of +this long-desired union may appear to all after the clouds of +such a wearisome sorrow, and the sombre and sad obscurity of such +long dissensions." [Footnote 12] + + [Footnote 12: _Ibidem_.] + +But let the Eastern bishops know that this deep longing for peace +and union is not found in the heart of the Holy Father alone; the +bishops and all the Christians of the West, how can they help +desiring this most happy event? Can there be any good gained in +keeping the robe of Christ torn asunder? And what--I ask it in +charity and for information--what can the churches of the old +Orient gain by not communicating with those of the entire +universe? Who prevents them? Are we yet in the time of the +metaphysical subtleties and cavils of the Lower Empire? + +I have already alluded to the infidel nations. Let my brethren, +the Eastern bishops, permit me to recall to them what is at this +moment the state of the entire world and the situation of the +church of Christ in all its various parts. If in every time the +church of Christ has had to struggle, is she not now more than +ever before resisted and fought against? Is not the spirit of +revolution--and, unfortunately, it is an impious one--rising +against her on every side? And you, Eastern churches, whether you +are united or not, have you not also your dangers? Is not your +spiritual liberty unceasingly threatened? Is not Christianity +with you surrounded by determined enemies--at your right, at your +left, on every side? And will not the storm of impiety which now +disturbs Europe, since distance is no more an obstacle, burst +upon Asia, and will not the Christian races of the East become +contaminated by the repeated efforts of an irreligious press? + +In such a critical situation, when every danger is directed +against the church of Jesus Christ by the misfortunes of the +time, the first need of all Christians is to put an end to +division which enfeebles, and to seek in reconciliation and peace +that union which is strength. What bishop, what true Christian, +will meditate upon these things, and then say, "No, division is a +good; union would be an evil"? On the contrary, who does not see +that union, the return to unity, is the certain good of souls, +the manifest will of God, and will be the salvation of your +churches? What follows from this? Can there be any personal +considerations, any human motives whatsoever, superior to these +great interests and these grave obligations? Your fathers, those +illustrious doctors, Athanasius, Gregory of Nazianzen, Basil, +Cyril, Chrysostom, did not find it hard to bend their glorious +brows before him whom they call "the firm and solid rock on which +the Saviour has built his church." [Footnote 13] If they were +living to-day, would they not, as Christians, and most nobly, +too, trample upon an independence which is not according to +Christ, but which is merely the suggestion of a blind pride? If +past centuries have committed faults, do you wish to make them +eternal? + + [Footnote 13: _Ibidem_; words of St. Gregory of + Nazianzen, quoted by the Holy Father.] + +But the time, if you will hear its lessons, will bring before +your mind the gravest duties. You who are surrounded on one side +by despotism, and on the other by Mohammedanism, surely, you +cannot fail to feel the peril of isolation, and the fatal +consequences of disunion. + +{24} + +May God preserve me from uttering a word which can be, even in +the most remote way, painful to you; for I come to you at this +moment with all the charity of Jesus Christ. + +Indeed, whether I think of those unhappy races whose souls and +whose country have become sterile under the yoke of the religion +of Mohammed, or whether I turn my eye toward those great masses +of Russians, grave in their manners, religious, who have remained +in the faith, notwithstanding the degradation of their churches, +and notwithstanding the supremacy of a czar whose pretended +orthodoxy has never inspired even the least pity and justice for +Poland! equally do I feel the depths of my soul moved to pray for +those many nations who are worthy of our interest and our sincere +compassion. O separated brothers of the East!--Greeks, Syrians, +Armenians, Chaldeans, Bulgarians, Russians, and Sclavonians, all +whom I cannot call by name--see the Catholic Church is coming +toward you, she stretches out her arms to embrace you! O +brothers! come! + +She is going to assemble, as the whole church, from all parts of +the civilized world. From our West, from your East, from the New +World, also, and from far distant islands, her bishops are now +hastening to answer the call of the supreme chief, to meet at +Rome, the centre of unity. But ah! she does not wish to assemble +her council without your presence, O brothers! come! + +This is one of those solemn and infrequent occasions which will +take centuries before its equal is seen. The church offers peace. +"With all our strength we pray you, we urge you, to come to this +General Council, as your ancestors came to the Council of Lyons +and the Council of Florence, in order to renew union and peace." +[Footnote 14] But, On your Side, will you refuse to take a single +step toward us, and allow this most favorable opportunity to +escape? Who will venture to take this formidable responsibility +upon himself? O brothers! come! + + [Footnote 14: Ibidem.] + +The heart of the church of Jesus Christ does not change; but the +times change, and the causes which have, unhappily, made the +efforts of our fathers fail, now, thank God, no longer exist. +Then I say to you all, O brothers! come! + +In regard to ourselves, we are full of hope; and, whatever may be +the resistance that the first surprise, or perhaps old +prejudices, have made, everything seems to us to be ready for a +return. "Rome," said Bossuet, in former times--"Rome never ceases +to cry to even the most distant people, that she may invite them +to the banquet, where all are made one; and see how the East +trembles at her maternal voice, and appears to wish to give birth +to a new Christianity!" + +O God! would that we could see this spectacle! What joy would it +be for thy church on earth, in the midst of so many rude combats, +and such bitter affliction! What joy for the church in heaven! +And what joy, churches of the East, for your doctors and your +saints, "when from the height of heaven they see union +established with the apostolic see, centre of catholic truth and +unity; a union that, during their life here below, they labored +to promote, to teach by all their studies, and by their +indefatigable labors, by their doctrine and their example, +inflamed as they were with the charity poured into their hearts +by the Holy Spirit, for Him who has reconciled and purchased +peace at the price of his blood; who wished that peace should be +the mark of his disciples, and who made this prayer to his +Father, 'May they be one as we are one.'" [Footnote 15] + + [Footnote 15: _Ibidem_. Unity will be the eternal + characteristic of the true church. Every question concerning + the church is reduced finally to this question, _Where is + unity?_] + +{25} + +Oh! then, listen to the language of the church, the true church +of Jesus Christ, who alone, among all Christian societies, raises +a maternal voice, and demands again all her children, because she +is their true mother! This is the reason why the Sovereign +Pontiff, after he has spoken to the separated East, turns toward +other Christian yet not catholic communions, and addresses to all +our brothers of Protestantism the same urgent appeal. + +Protestantism! "Ah!" exclaimed Bossuet, in his ardent love, in +his zealous wish for unity, "our heart beats at this name, and +the church, always a mother, can never, when she remembers it, +repress her sighs and her desires." These are sighs and desires +which we have heard from the Holy Father in an apostolic letter +written a few days after the Brief addressed to the Eastern +bishops, to "all Protestants and other non-Catholics," and in +which he deplores the misfortunes of separation, and shows the +great advantage of the unity desired by our Lord. "He exhorts, he +begs all Christians separated from him to return to the cradle of +Jesus Christ. ... In all our prayers and supplications we do not +cease to humbly ask for them, both day and night, light from +heaven, and abundant grace from the eternal Pastor of souls, and +with open arms we are waiting for the return of our wandering +children." [Footnote 16] + + [Footnote 16: Apostolic Letters of September 13th, 1868.] + +See, then, what the Holy Father says, and, together with him, the +whole church. Shall we hope and pray always in vain? Will the +work of returning be as difficult as many think it? I know that +prejudices are yet deep; and the difficulty that the work of +tardy justice meets with in England is one proof among others; +but it is the business of a council to explain misunderstandings, +and, by appeasing the passions, prepare the mind to return to the +church. And, should any one be tempted to think me deluded, I +will answer that among those of our separated brethren who are +not carried away by the sad current of rationalism, there is a +daily increasing number who regret the loss of unity. I affirm +that this is true of America, that it is true of England, I will +answer, too, that more than once I have been made the recipient +of grief-stricken confidence, and heard from suffering hearts the +longing desire for the day in which will be fulfilled the words +of the Master, "There shall be one fold and one shepherd." Will +this day never come? Are divisions necessary? And why should we +not be the ones destined to see the days predicted and hailed +with joy by Bossuet? Here, undoubtedly, the dogmatic objections +are serious. But they will disappear, if the gravest difficulty +of all, in my opinion, is removed; and that difficulty is the +negation of all doctrinal authority in the church, that absolute +liberty of examination, which, willingly or unwillingly, is +certain to be confounded with the principles of rationalism. It +is for this reason that Protestantism bears in its breast the +original sin of a radical inconsistency, which is lamented by the +most vigorous and enlightened minds of their communion. And it is +upon this that we rely, at least for numerous individual +conversions, and, by God's grace, perhaps for the reconciliation +of a large number. + +If this essential point is solved--and the solution is not +difficult to simple good sense and courageous faith--all the rest +will become easy. Reason says, with self-evident truth, that +Jesus Christ did not intend to found his church without this +essential principle of stability and unity. +{26} +He did not propose to found a religion incapable of living and +perpetuating itself, abandoned to the caprice of individual +interpretations. This is so clear of itself that it does not need +to be supported by any text of the Bible. + +But there are texts which, to persons of candid mind, and without +any great argument, are equally convincing. I will repeat only +three; the first, "Thou art Peter," the primacy of St. Peter and +the head of the church; the second, "This is my body," the most +blessed sacrament; the third, "Behold thy mother," behold your +mother, the Blessed Virgin, Are you able to efface these three +sentences from the Gospel? Have you meditated upon them +sufficiently, and upon many others which are not less decisive? +Then from the Bible pass to history, and from texts to facts. + +Do not facts tell you plainly that the living element of complete +Christianity is wanting in you? For, on the one hand, you have +had time to understand thoroughly the authors of rupture; and, on +the other, you are now able to consider its results. For three +centuries you have been reading the Bible; for three centuries +you have been studying history. Have not these three +centuries taught you a new and solemn lesson? The principle of +Protestantism, by developing, has borne its fruits; and the +predictions of catholic doctors in ancient controversies are +realized every day beneath your eyes. Contemporaneous +Protestantism is more and more rapidly dissolving into +rationalism; many of her ministers acknowledge that they have no +longer any supernatural faith; and recently a cry of alarm, +proceeding from her bosom, has resounded even in our political +assemblies. But a cry lost in the air! Dissolution will go on, +notwithstanding noble efforts and Christian resistance, always +increasing and ruining more thoroughly this incomplete +Christianity, which needs the essential power that preserves and +maintains, and which is nothing else than authority. To lose +Christianity in pure sophistry, this is the tendency of modern +Protestants, whether they are willing to admit it or not. But +good may come from an excess of evil, And what is more calculated +to enlighten many deceived but well-meaning souls concerning the +radical fault of Protestantism than this spectacle of +disintegration by the side of the powerful unity of the Catholic +Church, and the council which is going to be its living +manifestation? + +There is another hope, little in accordance with human +probabilities, I know, but which my faith in the Divine mercy +does not forbid me to entertain, and that is, that even the Jews +themselves, the children of Israel, who, associating with us, +lead to-day the same kind of social life, will feel something +touch their hearts and bring them, docile at last, to the voice +of St. Paul, to the fold of the church. In the Jews, indeed, so +long and so evidently punished, I cannot help recognizing my +ancestors in the faith; the children of Moses, the countrymen of +Joseph and Mary, of Peter and Paul, and of whom it is written, +that they "who are Israelites, to whom belongeth the adoption as +of children, and the glory and the testament, and the giving of +the law and the service of God and the promises: whose are the +fathers, and of whom is Christ, according to the flesh, who is +over all things, God blessed for ever, Amen." [Footnote 17] I beg +them, therefore, to believe in Him whom they are yet expecting; I +beg them to believe eighteen hundred years of history; for +history, like a fifth gospel, proves the coming and divinity +of the Messiah. + + [Footnote 17: Romans ix. 4, 5.] + +{27} + +Do not feel astonished, then, to see me full of compassion for +Protestant, Greek, and Jew, while I am accused of being severe +toward the abettors of modern scepticism. I recognize the +difference between errors which are nearly finished, and errors +which are just beginning; between responsible and guilty authors +who knowingly spread false doctrines, and their innocent victims, +who, after centuries, still cling to them. How can I help being +moved to tears when I see the people of my country, its mechanics +and its farmers, so industrious and so worthy of sympathy, young +men of our schools, whose active minds call for the truth, both +fall, almost before they are aware of it, into the hands of +teachers of error? When the reawakening of faith was so +perceptible a few years ago, and a decisive progress toward good +seemed to be accomplished, how quickly did the shadows gather +around us; dismal precipices opened beneath our feet, the breath +of an impious science and violent press became most potent, and +the beautiful bark of faith and French prosperity seemed ready to +sink before she had fairly left her port! Ah! I do, indeed, +execrate the authors of that cruel wreck, while I feel myself +full of pity for the many sincere souls I see among our separated +brethren, living in error, it is true, but they have never made +error live! With warmth I extend to such captive souls a friendly +hand. Let them come back to the church; for she it is who guards +Jesus Christ, the God of the whole truth, and invites them to +this great banquet of the Father of the family, where, as Bossuet +has well said, "all are made one." + +May the coming council, in its work of enlightenment and +pacification, reconcile to us many souls who are already ours by +their sincerity, their virtue, and, as I know of many, even by +their desires. Let, at least, this be the heartfelt wish of every +Catholic! Yes, let us open our hearts with more warmth than ever +to these beloved brethren; let us wish--it is the desire of the +Holy Father--that the future council may be a powerful and happy +effort, and let us repeat unceasingly to heaven the prayer of the +Master, "May they be one, as we are one." + + + VIII. + + The Catholic Church. + +And you, whom the duties of my position compel me to address +persistently--in time and out of time, says St. Paul--adversaries +of my faith, though I speak to you with austere words upon my +lips, still know that it is with charity in my heart toward you +all, whether philosophers, Protestants, or indifferent to all +religion, yea, I would wish my voice could reach the most +wretched pagan lost in the shadow of the superstition which yet +covers half the globe. O brethren! I would that you could taste +for a single moment the deep peace that one feels who lives and +dies in the arms of the church! Bear witness with me to this +peace, my brethren of the priesthood, and every Christian of +every rank and of all ages! When one knows that he is surrounded +by this light, assured by her promises, preceded by those sublime +creatures who are called saints, and whose glory in heaven the +church of the earth salutes, bound by tradition to all the +Christian centuries by the successors of the apostles, and +founded, at last, upon Jesus Christ, what joy! what a company! +what power! and what repose in light and certainty! + +{28} + +I am firmly convinced, and each day brings forth a new proof, +that the enemies of the church do not really detest her. No; the +dominant sentiment among our enemies is not always hatred. There +is another feeling which they do not admit, which is far more +frequent among them, This is envy. Yes; they envy us; the +atheist, at the moment he is insulting a Christian, says secretly +to himself, "Oh! how happy he is!" + +Let us not credit that which we hear said against the church, +that her majestic face has been for ever disfigured by calumny, +and that henceforth men can only see in her a mistress of tyranny +and ignorance. These violent prejudices certainly do have an +influence; our faults and our enemies undertake the business of +propagating them. But the church, in spite of this--and the +ecumenical council will prove this again to the world--will not +be any less the church of Christ, "without blemish and without +spot," notwithstanding the imperfections of her children; and +there is not one among those that attack her who can tell us what +evil the church has ever done to him. "_My people, what have I +done to thee?_" + +What evil! Citizens of town and country, you owe to the Catholic +Church the purity of your children, the fidelity of your wives, +the honesty of your neighbor, the justice of your laws, the gay +festival which breaks in upon the monotony of your daily lives, +the little picture which hangs upon your wall; and, more than +these, you owe her the sweet expectation which waits by the +cemetery and the tomb! This is the evil she has done you--this +enemy of the human race! + +And if you can raise your thought above yourself, above your own +interests, above your homes; if you allow your thoughts to soar +higher than the smoke which curls above your roofs, what a grand +spectacle does the Catholic Church present! She is great and +good, even in the little history of our life--greater and far +better does she appear in the history of the laborious +developments of human society. Inseparable companion of man upon +this earth, she struggles and she suffers with him; she has +assisted, inspired, guided humanity in all its most painful and +glorious transformations. It was she who made virtues, the very +name of which was yet unknown, rise up from the midst of pagan +corruption; and souls, so pure, so noble, so elevated, that the +world still falls upon its knees before them. + +It was she who tamed and transformed barbarians; and who, during +the long and perilous birth of modern races in the middle ages, +has courageously fought the evil, and presided over all progress. +And it must be again the Catholic Church which will help modern +society to disengage from the midst of its confused elements that +which disturbs its peace, the principles of life from the germs +of death, by maintaining firmly those truths which alone can save +it. + +Ah! we do not know the Catholic Church well enough. We live +within her fold, we are a part of her, and yet we do not +understand her. We ignore both what she was and what she is in +the world, and the mission God has given her, and the living +forces, the divine privileges, bestowed upon her, so that she may +accomplish eternally her task upon the earth, to maintain +immutably here below truth and goodness, and to remain for ever, +as an apostle said of her, "_the pillar and the ground of +truth_." + +Surely, we never hear it made a matter of reproach that a pillar +remains unchanged; what would become of the edifice, if the +pillar were to leave its place? +{29} +Why, then, reproach the church for being immovable, and why is +not this immobility salutary for you? What will you do when there +are tremblings in regard to the truth like the trembling of the +earth? While you must disperse, we are uniting. What you are +losing, we are defending. We can say to modern doctrines, "We +knew you at Alexandria and at Athens; both you, your mothers, +your daughters, and your allies." The church can say to the +nations, when the Pope has gathered their ambassadors: "France, +thou hast been formed by my bishops; thy cities and their streets +bear their names! England, who has made thee, and why wert thou +once called the isle of saints? Germany, thou hast entered into +the civilization of the West by my envoy, St. Boniface. Russia, +where wouldst thou now be, were it not for my Cyril and my +Methodius? Kings, I have known your ancestors. Before Hapsburg, +or Bourbon, or Romanoff, or Brunswick, or Hohenzollern--before +Bonaparte or Carignan, I was old; for I have seen the Caesars and +the Antonies die; to-morrow I will be, for I am ever the same. Do +you answer that it will be without money, without dwelling, +without power? It may be so, for I have endured these proofs a +hundred times, always ready to address to nations the little +sentence Jesus once spoke to Zaccheus, 'This day I must abide in +thy house.' If I leave Rome, I will go to London, to Paris, or to +New York." It is only of the church and of the sun that it can be +said that to-morrow they will certainly rise; and this is the +reason that the church, in the midst of the disturbances of the +present time, boldly announces her council. + +Admirable spectacle, that our century would wish not to admire, +but whose grandeur it is forced to acknowledge. Yes, many a +wearied eye rests with irresistible emotion upon this stately +pillar, standing alone in the midst of the ruins of the past and +of the actual destruction of all human greatness. The indifferent +feel troubled, surprised, attracted at the sight of the church +testifying her immortal power by this great act; and after they +have exhausted all their doctrines, they are tempted to exclaim +to the Supreme Pontiff that which Peter, the first pontiff, once +said to Jesus, "Master, to whom shall we go? you have the words +of eternal life." + +Hear the words of life, you who doubt, who search, who suffer! +Hear them also, you who triumph, who rejoice, who lord it over +your fellowman! Hear the words that the church calls her little +children to repeat at every rising of the sun: _Credo_, I +believe! I believe in one God, the Creator. See, _savants_, +here is the answer to your uncertainties. _Credo_, I +believe! I believe in a Saviour of the world who has consecrated +purity by his birth, confounded pride by his precepts, rebuked +injustice by his sufferings, and proved his divinity and +immortality by his resurrection, I believe in Jesus Christ! See +in him, poor, afflicted humanity, poor, oppressed people, an +answer to your despair. _Credo_, I believe! I believe in the +Holy Ghost, in the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, +the forgiveness of sins, in the judgment, and in a life of +everlasting happiness to those who have fought the good battle. +See in our creed, O Protestants and philosophers! so divided in +your affirmations, so narrow in your hopes, the response to your +disputes. See in it, oppressive monarch, the answer to your +iniquities! And see, also, O pitiless death! the answer to your +terrors. + +{30} + +To love, to hope, to believe! Everything is contained in these +words; and it is the church who alone can preserve in unshaken +majesty and in the universal truth this _Credo_, that the +nineteenth century, now in the dawn of the twentieth, is going to +repeat with the two hundred and sixty-second successor of the +fisherman Peter, first apostle of Jesus Christ. + +But, brothers, let us cease speaking; let us cease disputing, let +us cease fearing, let us bend the knee and pray! + +O God! who knows the secret of your Providence, and who knows the +wonders which the church will yet display to the world, if men's +faults and their passion do not retard her? If religion and +society, leaning one upon the other, should advance, with mutual +concord, on their blessed course, what great steps would there be +toward the establishment of your reign upon the earth, toward the +progress of nations, toward liberty by the way of truth, toward +the real fraternity of men, toward the extinction of revolution +and of war, toward the peace of the world. Then a new era would +open before us, and a new great century appear in history. Let us +throw open our souls to these hopes; let us beg these blessings +of God, and let us foresee possible misfortunes only to prevent +them. Let it be known at least that Catholics are not men of +discouragement, of dark predictions, or of peevish menaces; but +men of charity, of noble hopes, of peaceful effort, and, at the +same time, of generous struggle. + +Let us invoke St. Peter and St. Paul; let us invoke the Virgin +Mary, Mother of Jesus, the honor and the heavenly guardian of the +race of man; and, united to the souls of all the saints, let us +pray to the adorable Trinity reigning in heaven! + +Let us pray that the council may be able to fulfill its task; +that the Christian world will not repel this great effort which +the church is making to help them; that light may find its way +into their minds, and that their hearts may be softened! That +misunderstandings may be explained, prejudices removed; that +unreasonable fears may disappear, and that Christianity, and +consequently civilization, may flourish with a new and more +vigorous youth. May the return to the church, so much desired and +so necessary, take place! + +Let us pray for the monarchs of the world, that the wish and +formal request that the Holy Father made them in his letter may +be granted, May they cast aside all silly objections, and favor +by the liberty they give the bishops the future assembly of the +church, and let her council meet in peace. + +Let us pray, too, for their people, that they may understand the +maternal intentions of the church; and, closing their ears to +calumny, may hear with confidence and accept with docility the +words of their mother. + +Let us pray even for the avowed enemies of the church, that they +make a truce with their suspicions and their anger until the +church has announced, in her council and under the inspiration of +the Holy Ghost, her decrees whose wisdom and charity can hardly +fail to touch them. + +Let us pray for so many men of good faith, men of science, +statesmen, the heads of families, workmen, men of honor, whom the +light of Jesus Christ has not yet enlightened, that they may now +receive its beneficent rays. + +Let us pray that the anxious wishes of so many mothers, sisters, +wives, and daughters, who, in obscurity, are maintaining purity +and holiness in their families, often without being able to bring +our holy faith there, may at length be heard. + +{31} + +Let us pray for the East and the West, that they may be +reconciled; and for our separated brethren, that they may leave +the division which is destroying them, and answer the urgent +appeal of the holy church, and come to throw themselves in those +arms which have been open to receive them for three centuries. + +Let us pray for the church, for her faithful children, and for +her ministers, that each day may find them more pure, more holy, +more learned, more charitable; so that our faults may not be an +obstacle to the reign of that God whose love we are appointed to +make known. + +Let us also pray for the Holy Father. Deign, O God! to preserve +him to your church, and enable this great pontiff, who has not +feared, even amid the troubles of the age, to undertake the +laborious work of a council, to see its happy issue! May he, +after so many trials, bravely borne, rejoice in the triumph of +the church, before he goes to receive in heaven the reward of his +labors and +his virtues! + +---------- + + Lent, 1869. + + + I. + + We like sheep have gone astray, + Kyrie eleison! + Each his own misguided way, + Kyrie eleison! + Wandering farther, day by day, + Kyrie eleison! + + + II. + + Shepherd kind, oh! lead us back; + Christe eleison! + Wrest us from our dangerous track, + Christe eleison! + Lest the wolves thy flock attack; + Christe eleison! + + + III. + + Ope for us again thy fold, + Kyrie eleison! + Night approaches, drear and cold; + Kyrie eleison! + Death, perchance, and woes untold; + Kyrie eleison! + + Richard Storrs Willis. + +---------- + +{32} + + + The Modern Street-ballads Of Ireland. + + +The home of the street-ballad, pure and simple, is in Ireland. It +has nearly vanished in England, destroyed by the penny newspaper, +which contains five times as highly spiced food for the money. In +Ireland it still exists and supplies the place of the newspaper, +not only in appeals to the passion or reason, but as a general +chronicle of every event of importance, local or national, Very +often both are combined, and the leading article and the account +of political insult will be run into rude rhyme together, and the +story of a murder be interspersed with reflections on its sin. +The quantity of ballads is, of course, enormous, and to expect +that any but a small portion should possess more poetry than a +newspaper article would be unreasonable. But all are not of this +prosaic class, and some possess the genuine spirit of poetry +under their rude but often spirited diction. + +The first question naturally asked is, Whence comes this enormous +flood of ballads? Who are the poets who produce them on every +imaginable subject, even the most verse-defying public meeting, +or in praise of humblest of politicians? Like the immortal Smiths +and Joneses, that make the thunder of the _Times_, their +names never appear, and though the ballad or the leading +article--and both have done so--may influence the fate of +nations, it will bring to the author only his stipulated hire. At +present, the street-ballads of Ireland are mostly composed by the +singers themselves. In ancient days, the weavers and tailors and +the hedge-schoolmasters used to be a fruitful source of supply, +the sedentary occupations of the former being popularly supposed +to foster the poetic talent, The latter class has vanished, and +if here and there one exists, it is in the shape of a red-nosed, +white-haired veteran, who is entertained in farmers' houses and +country _shebeens_, in memory of his ancient glory, when +sesquipedalian, long words and "cute" problems made him the +monarch of the parish next to the priest himself. However, the +singer of the ballad is, in most instances, the writer, who is +only anxious for a subject of interest on which to exercise his +muse, and generally turns out half-a-dozen verses of the +established pattern in half an hour. This he takes to the +publisher, who not only allows him no copyright, but does not +even make a discount in the price of his stock in trade, for +which he pays the same as his brother bards, who, finding his +ballad popular, will straightway strain their voices to it. But +then he has the same privilege with their productions, so that it +is all right in the long run. The ballads are printed on the +coarsest of paper with the poorest of type, and generally with a +worn-out woodcut of the most inappropriate description at the +head. Thus, for instance, I have one, where a portrait of Jerome +Bonaparte does duty over the "Lamentation of Lawrence King for +the murder of Lieut. Clutterbuck." + +The ballad-singers are of both sexes, and are very dilapidated +specimens. The tone in which they send their voices on the +shuddering air is utterly indescribable--a sort of droning, +_pillelu_ falsetto, at once outrageously comical and +lugubrious. They sing everything in the same melancholy cadence, +whether lamentation or love-song. Very often, two, more +especially of women, will be together. +{33} +The first will sing the first two lines of a quatrain alone, and +then the second will join in, and they rise to the height of +discord together. Fair-days are their days of harvest, although +in cities like Cork or Waterford they may be seen on every day +except Sunday. A popular ballad will often have a very large +sale, and will find its way all over the country. + +The greater portion of ballads composed in this way are, of +course, destitute of anything like poetry--mere pieces of +outrageous metaphor and Malapropoian long words, for which last +the ballad-singers have a ridiculous fondness. The singers sing +in a foreign language; they have lost the sweet tongue peculiarly +fitted for improvised poetry, in which their predecessors the +bards, down to the date of less than one hundred years ago, sang +so sweetly and so strongly, with such dramatic diction and happy +boldness of epithet. The language of the Saxon oppressor is from +the tongue, and not from the heart. As the mother of the late +William Carleton used to say, "the Irish _melts into the +tune_;" the English doesn't, and so many of the finest of the +ancient melodies are now songs without words. "Turlogh +O'Carolan," "Donogh MacConmara," and the "Mangaire Sugach" have +not left their successors among the "English" poets of the +present day. Among a people naturally so eloquent as the native +Irish, not even the drapery of an incongruous language can +entirely obscure the native vigor and strength of thought. A +ballad is sometime seen which, though often unequal and rude, is +alive with impassioned poetry, fierce, melancholy, or tender, and +it almost always becomes a general favorite, and is preserved +beyond its day to become a part of the standard stock. The songs +of so genuine a poet as William Allingham, who is the only +cultivated Irish poet who has had the taste and the spirit to +reproduce in spirit and diction these wild flowers of song, have +been printed on the half-penny ballad-sheets, and sung at the +evening hearth and at the morning milking all over Ireland. +"Lovely Mary Donnelly" and the "Irish Girl's Lamentation" have +become, in truth, a part of the songs of the nation, touching +alike the cultivated intellect and the untutored heart. + +The street-ballads may be divided into five classes: patriotic, +love-songs, lamentations, eulogies, and chronicles. + +The patriotic songs are disappointing. There are few to stir the +heart like the war-notes of Scotland. The reason is obvious. The +triumphs were few and fleeting, and the song of the vanquished +was only of hope or despair. They must sing in secret and be +silent in the presence of the victors. In most of the political +songs allegory is largely used. Ireland is typified under the +form of a lonely female in distress, or a venerable old lady, or +some other figure is used to disguise the meaning. Of course the +street ballad-singers dare not sing anything seditious, and even +the whistling of the "Wearing of the Green" will call down the +rebuke of the "peeler." The ballads that express the hatred of +the people to their rulers are sung in stealth and are often +unprinted. They are not usually the production of the hackneyed +professional ballad-singers, and are consequently of a much +higher order. The following is a good specimen, It is entitled + +{34} + + The Irishman's Farewell To His Country. + + Oh! farewell, Ireland: I am going across the stormy main, + Where cruel strife will end my life, to see you never again. + + 'Twill break my heart from you to part; _acushla astore machree_. + But I must go, full of grief and woe, to the shores of America. + + "On Irish soil my fathers dwelt since the days of Brian Borue. + They paid their rent and lived content convenient to Carricmore. + But the landlord sent on the move my poor father and me. + We must leave our home far away to roam in the fields of America. + + "No more at the churchyard, _astore machree_, + at my mother's grave I'll kneel. + The tyrants know but little of the woe the poor man has to feel. + When I look on the spot of ground that is so dear to me, + I could curse the laws that have given me cause to depart to America. + + "Oh! where are the neighbors, kind and true, that + were once my country's pride? + No more will they be seen on the face of the green, + nor dance on the green hillside. + It is the stranger's cow that is grazing now, + where the people we used to see. + With notice they were served to be turned out or starved, + or banished to America. + + "O! Erin machree, must our children be exiled all over the earth? + Will they evermore think of you, _astore_, + as the land that gave them birth? + Must the Irish yield to the beasts of the field? + Oh! no--_acushla astore machree_. + They are crossing back in ships, with vengeance on their lips, + from the shores of America." + +The songs which were in vogue among the young and enthusiastic +Fenians were, as might be supposed, of an entirely different +nature. They were not peasants, but half-educated artisans. The +proscribed _National Cork Songster_ contains probably more +rant and fustian than any similar number of printed pages in +existence. The verses, of course, bear a family resemblance to +those that appeared in the _Nation_ for a couple of years +previous to the events of '48, and in many instances are +reproductions. Those of a modern date are still more extravagant, +if possible, than that deluge of enthusiastic pathos; for among +the _Nation_ poets were Thomas Davis and James Clarence +Mangan, while among those of the Fenians of 1866 there is but one +that deserves the slightest shred of laurel. Charles J. Kickham, +now under sentence of fourteen years' penal servitude in her +Britannic Majesty's prisons, has written two or three pieces of +genuine ballad-poetry of great merit, which the people have at +once adopted as household songs. "Rory of the Hill" is of +remarkable spirit. It begins: + + "That rake up near the rafters, + Why leave it there so long? + The handle of the best of ash + Is smooth and straight and strong. + And mother, will you tell me + Why did my father frown, + When to make hay in summer-time + I climbed to take it down? + She looked up to her husband's eyes, + While her own with light did fill, + 'You'll shortly know the reason why,' + Said Rory of the Hill." + +The love-songs, that are sung by the _colleens_ at the soft +dewy dawn, as they sit beside the sleek cows just arisen from +beneath the hedge, the nimble finger streaming the white milk +into the foaming pail, while the lark's song melts down from that +speck beneath the cloud, and the blackbird and thrush warble with +ecstasy in the hedge, the morning light shining across the dewy +green fields; or at + + "Eve's pensive air," + +when the shadows are growing long, although the tops of the +swelling uplands are bright, and the crows are winging home, and +the swallows darting in the still air; or, in the winter +evenings, when the candles are lighted in the kitchen, and busy +fingers draw the woof, while the foot beats time to the whirring +wheel, are very numerous, and generally of a higher order of +merit than the patriotic songs. The pulses of the heart are freer +and its utterance dearer in human love than in love of country. +The beauties in which the Irish girls excel all others--the +blooming cheeks, and brilliant eyes, and wealth of flowing hair, +are the main objects of compliment, and are often transformed +into personifications of endearment. +{35} +_Colleen_, the universal term for young maidens, seems but a +corruption of _coolleen_, which means a head of curls or +abundant tresses. Grey and blue eyes are especially objects of +endearment, and even in the ancient Irish poems, +_green_-eyed is not unfrequently used, which is not so +unnatural as the English reader may suppose, the Irish word +expressing the indefinable tint of some lighter blue eyes, being +untranslatable into English. [Footnote 18] + + [Footnote 18: "Sweet emerald eyes."--Massinger. "How is that + young and green-eyed Gaditana?" Longfellow's _Spanish + Student_.] + +Although the modern love-songs are inferior to those in the Irish +language, for the reason that has been mentioned, that English is +not yet the language of the Irish heart, they often possess a +simple power, and, though seldom sustained throughout, a touch of +nature's genius, which the highest poet cannot reach with all his +art. How exquisite is the following: + + "As Katty and I were discoursing, + She smiled upon me now and then, + Her apron string she kept foulding, + And twisting all round her ring." + +Bits of poetry can be picked out of almost every love-ballad, as +witness the following: + + "My love is fairer than the lilies that do grow, + She has a voice that's clearer than any winds that blow." + + + "With mild eyes like the dawn." + + + "One pleasant evening, when pinks and daisies + Closed in their bosoms one drop of dew." + + + "His hair shines gold revived by the sun, + And he takes his denomination from the _drien don_." + + + "I wish I were a linnet, how I would sing and fly. + I wish I were a corn-crake, I'd sing till morning clear-- + I'd sit and sing to Molly, for once I held her dear." + + + "'Twas on a bright morning in summer, + That I first heard his voice speaking low, + As he said to the colleen beside me, + Who's that pretty girl milking her cow?" + + + "The hands of my love are more sunny and soft + Than the snowy sea foam." + + + "My love will not come nigh me, + Nor hear the moan I make; + Neither would she pity me, + Though my poor heart should break." + +There is not one, however, that would bear quoting entire, and +none that comes anywhere near the flowers of the ancient Irish +love-songs which are some of the finest in the world. The +principal theme and delight of the ballad-singers are romantic +episodes, where a rich young nobleman courts a farmer's daughter +in disguise, and, after marriage, reveals himself, his lineage, +and his possessions to his bride; or where a noble lady falls in +love with a tight young serving-boy. Such a ballad will be as +great a favorite among the _colleens_ as the novels of +romantic love are said to be among milliners' apprentices. One +thing is especially noticeable among the love-ballads, and that +is the total absence not only of licentiousness, but even of +coarseness. The Irish peasant-girls at home are the most virtuous +of their class in the world, owing to the influence of the +confessional, the strong feeling of family pride, and the custom +of universal and early marriage. Not but there are unfortunates +who have made a "slip;" and when the ballad relates of such a +tragedy, it shows of how deep effect is the scorn of the parish, +and how wretched the fate of the unfortunate and her base-born +offspring. The "lamentations" or confessions of condemned +criminals are highly popular. Premeditated murder is rare among +the Irish peasantry, in comparison with the records of ruffianism +among the English laboring classes, and the interest excited by +the event is deeper, and extends to a larger space of local +influence. These lamentations are the rhymed confessions of the +criminals, giving an account of the circumstances of the tragedy, +sometimes in the third person, and sometimes in the first, always +concluding with a regret at the disgrace which the criminal has +brought on his relations, and imploring mercy for his soul. +{36} +They are of unequal merit, and, as a whole, not equal to the +love-songs. Once in a while, there is a touch of untaught pathos; +but being without exception the production of the hackneyed +writers, they are as little worth preservation as the "lives" of +eminent murderers which supply their places among us. + +The narrative ballads tell of every event of interest to Irish +ears, from Aspromonte to the glorious steeplechase at Namore; the +burning of an emigrant ship, to a ploughing-match at Pilltown, +the same language being used for the one as the other. During the +late war in this country, every great battle was duly sung by the +Irish minstrels. The sympathies of the peasantry were usually +with the majority of their kindred in the North, but not +universally so. Thus does a bard give an account of the battle of +New Orleans, which would astonish General Butler: + + "To see the streets that evening, + the heart would rend with pain. + The human blood in rivers ran, + like any flood or stream. + Men's heads blown off their bodies, + most dismal for to see; + And wounded men did loudly cry + in pain and agony. + The Federals they did advance, + and broke in through the town. + They trampled dead and wounded + that lay upon the ground. + The wounded called for mercy, + but none they did receive--" + +The eulogies of person or place, some patron or his residence, +are innumerable, and ineffably absurd. Some years ago, an idle +young lawyer at Cork happened to be visiting Blarney Castle, when +one of these wandering minstrels came to the gate, and asked to +dedicate a verse to "Lady Jeffers that owns this station." The +request was granted, and the laughter of the guests, as the bard +recited his "composition," may be imagined. The occurrence and +the style of verse were common enough, but an idle banter incited +the gay youth into a burlesque imitation. The result was the +famous "Groves of Blarney," that has been sung and whistled all +over the world. Those who have not seen the originals might +imagine the "Groves of Blarney" to be an outrageous caricature. +But it is not so. It hardly equals and cannot surpass some of the +native flowers of blunder. The original is still sold in the +streets of Cork, and some extracts, in conclusion, will show how +much Dick Milliken was indebted to his unwitting model: + + "There are fine walks in those pleasant gardens, + And spots most charming in shady bowers. + The gladiator, who is bold and daring, + Each night and morning to watch the flowers. + + "There are fine horses and stall-fed oxen, + A den for foxes to play and hide, + Fine mares for breeding, with foreign sheep, + With snowy fleeces at Castle Hyde. + + "The buck and doe, the fox and eagle, + Do skip and play at the river side. + The trout and salmon are always sporting + In the clear streams of Castle Hyde." + + +---------- + +{37} + + Daybreak. + + Chapter I. + + "O jewel in the lotos: amen!" + + +A wide, slow whitening of the east, a silent stealing away of +shadows, a growing radiance before which the skies receded into +ineffable heights of pale blue and gleaming silver, and a March +day came blowing in with locks of gold, and kindling glances, and +girdle of gold, and golden sandals over the horizon. + +Louis Granger, standing in the open window of his chamber, +laughed as he looked in the face of the morning, and stretched +out his hands and cried, "Backsheesh, O Howadji!" + +Not many streets distant, another pair of eyes looked into the +brightening east, but saw no gladness there. Margaret Hamilton +remembered that it was her twenty-fifth birthday, and that she +had cried herself to sleep the night before, thinking of it. But +she would not remember former birthdays, celebrated by father, +mother, and sisters, before they had died, one after one, and +left her alone and aghast before the world. This, and some other +memories still more recent, she put out of sight; and, since they +would not stay without force, she held them out of sight. One who +has to do this is haunted. + +The woman looked haunted. Her eyes were unnaturally bright and +alert, and shadows had settled beneath them; her cheeks were worn +thin; her mouth compressed itself in closing. At twenty-five she +looked thirty-five. + +And yet Miss Hamilton was meant for a beauty--one of the +brilliant kind, with clear gray eyes, and a creamy pallor +contrasting with profuse black hair. The beautiful head was well +set; something vivid and spirited in the whole air of it. Her +height was only medium, but she had the carriage of a Jane de +Montford, and there were not wanting those who would have +described her as tall. + +While she looked gloomily out, a song she had heard somewhere +floated up in her mind: + + "The years they come, and the years they go, + Like winds that blow from sea to sea; + From dark to dark they come and go, + All in the dew-fall and the rain." + +It was like a dreary bitter wind sobbing about the chimneys when +the storm is rising. She turned hastily from the window, and +began counting the hideous phantoms of bouquets on the cheap +wall-paper, thinking that they might be the lost souls of flowers +that had been wicked in life; roses that had tempted, and lilies +that had lied. The room, she found, was sixteen bouquets long, +and fourteen and a half wide. + +When her eyes began to ache with this employment, she took up a +book, and, opening it at random, read: + + "A still small voice said unto me, + 'Thou art so full of misery, + Were it not better not to be?'" + +Was everything possessed to torment her? She dropped the book, +and looked about in search of distraction. In the window opposite +her stood her little easel with a partly finished cabinet +photograph on it a man's face, with bushy whiskers, round eyes, +an insignificant nose, the expression full of a weak fierceness +superficially fell and determined, as though a lamb should try to +look like a lion. +{38} +One eye was sharply finished; and, as Margaret glanced at the +picture, this stared at her in so grotesque and threatening a +manner that she burst into a nervous laugh. + +"I must turn your face to the wall, Cyclops, till I can give you +another eye," she said, suiting the action to the word. + +A pile of unfinished photographs lay on a table near. She looked +them over with an expression of weariness. "O the eyes, and +noses, and mouths! Why will people so misuse the sunbeams? And +this insane woman who refuses to be toned down with India ink, +but will have colors to all the curls, and frizzles, and bows and +ends, and countless fly-away things she has on her! She looks now +more like an accident than a woman. When the colors are put in, +she will be a calamity. Only one face among them pleases me--this +pretty dear." + +Selecting the picture of a lovely child, Margaret looked at it +with admiring eyes. "So sweet! I wish I had her here this moment +with her eyes, and her curls, and her mouth." + +A sigh broke through the faint smile. There seemed to be a thorn +under everything she touched. Laying the picture down, she busied +herself in her room, opened drawers and closets and set them in +order; gathered the few souvenirs yet remaining to her--letters, +photographs, locks of hair--and piled them all into the grate. +One folded paper she did not open, but held an instant in fingers +that trembled as they clung; then, moaning faintly, threw it on +to the pyre. Inside that paper were two locks of hair--both +silver-threaded--twined as the two lives had been; her father's +and her mother's. + +The touch of a match, and the smoke of her sacrifice curled up +into the morning sky. + +Then again she came to a stand-still, and looked about for +something to do. + +"I cannot work," she said. "My hand is not steady enough, and my +eyes are dim. What was it that Beethoven wrote to his friend? 'At +times cheerful, then again sorrowful; waiting to see if fate will +listen to us.' Suppose I should drop everything, since I am so +nerveless, and wait to see what fate will do." + +Here again the enemy stood, The picture of waiting that came up +before her mind was that of Judge Pyncheon in the _House of the +Seven Gables_, sitting and staring blankly as the hours went +by--a sight to shriek out at when at length he was found. With a +swift pencil this woman's imagination painted a companion +picture: the door of her room opening after days of silence; a +curious, frightened face looking in; somebody sitting there cold +and patient, with half-open eyes, and not a word of welcome or +questioning for the intruder. + +A clock outside struck ten. Margaret rose languidly and dressed +for a walk, after pausing to rest. Raising her arms to arrange +her hair and bonnet, she felt so faint that for a moment she was +obliged to lean forward on her dressing-table. + +At length she was ready, only one duty left unperformed. Miss +Hamilton had not said her prayers that morning, and had not even +thought of saying them, or of reproaching herself for the +omission--a scandalous omission, truly, for the granddaughter of +the Rev. Doctor John Hamilton, and daughter of that excellent but +somewhat diluted deacon, John Hamilton, his son. But to pray was +to remember; and beside, God had forgotten her, she thought. + +{39} + +Miss Hamilton was not a Catholic, To her, Christ died eighteen +centuries ago, and went to heaven, and stayed there, only looking +and listening down in some vague and far-away manner that was +easier to doubt than to believe. The church into which, at every +dawn of day, the Beloved descends with shining pierced feet and +hands; with the lips that spoke, and the eyes that saw, and the +locks through which had sifted the winds of Olivet and the dews +of Gethsemane; with the heart of infinite love and pity, yes, and +the soul of infinite power--this church she knew not. To her it +was an abomination. The temples where pain hangs crowned with a +dolorous majesty, and where the path of sorrows is also the path +of delights, her footsteps had never sought. To her they were +temples of idolatry. Therefore, when troubles came upon her, +though she faced them intrepidly, it was only with a human +courage. What wonder if at last it proved that pain was stronger +than she? + +With her hand on the latch of the door she paused, then turned +back into her chamber again. The society face she had assumed +dropped off; a sigh went shivering over her lips, and with it a +half-articulated thought, silly and womanish, "If I had some one +to come in here, put an arm around me--I'm so tired!--and say, +'Take courage, dear!' I could bear up yet longer. I could endure +to the end, perhaps." + +A silly thought, but pitiful, being so vain. + +Miss Hamilton was not by nature one of those who, as Sir Thomas +Browne says, looked asquint upon the face of truth. But she had +not dared to fully realize her circumstances, lest all courage +should die out of her heart. Now you could see that she put aside +the last self-delusion, and boldly looked her life in the face. +It was Medusa. + +One of the bravest of soldiers has said that in his first battle +he would have been a coward if he had dared. Imagine the eyes of +such a fighter, a foe within and a foe without, and but his own +right arm and dauntless will between the two! + +Such eyes had this woman. Of her whole form, only those eyes +seemed to live. But for them she might have been Margaret +Hamilton's statue. + +At length she moved; and going slowly out, held on to the railing +in descending the stairs. Out doors, and down Washington street, +then, taking that direction involuntarily. It was near noon when +she found herself in a crowd on Park street, hastening through +it, without caring to inquire what the cause of the gathering +was. Coming out presently in front of the state house, and seeing +that there was space yet on the steps, she went up them, and took +her stand near a gentleman whom she had long known by sight and +repute. Mr. Louis Granger also recognized her, and made room, +quietly placing himself between her and the crowd. Miss Hamilton +scarcely noticed the movement. She was used to being attended to. + +This gentleman was what might be called fine-looking, and was +thoroughly gentlemanly in appearance. He was cast in a large +mould, both form and features, had careless hazel eyes that saw +everything, and rather a lounging way with him. Indeed, he owned +himself a little lazy, and used laughingly to assert his belief +that inertia is a property of mind as well as of matter. It took +a good deal to start him; but once started, it took still more to +stop him. His age might be anywhere from thirty to forty, the few +silver threads in his fine dark hair counting for nothing. You +perceived that they had no business whatever there. +{40} +He was not a man who would catch the eye in a crowd; but, once +your attention was directed toward him, you felt attracted. The +charm of his face depended chiefly on expression; and those who +pleased him called Mr. Granger beautiful. + +He stood now looking attentively at the lady beside him, finding +himself interested in her. Her eyes, that were fixed on the +advancing procession, appeared to see no more than if they had +been jewels, and her mouth was shut as if it would never open +again. The pale temples were hollow, the delicate nostrils were +slightly pinched, the teeth seemed to be set hard. He studied her +keenly, secure in her perfect abstraction, and marked even the +frail hand that clinched, not clasped, the iron railing. Mr. +Granger could read as much in a hand as Washington could; and +this hand, dazzlingly fair, full-veined, pink-palmed, +transparent, dewy, with heart-shaped finger-tips that looked as +though some finer perception were reaching out through the flesh, +was to him an epitome of the woman's character. + +It was the 17th of March, and the procession in honor of St. +Patrick an unusually fine one. It flowed past like a river of +color and music, with many a silken rustling of the flag of their +adoption, but everywhere and above all the beautiful green and +gold of that most beautiful banner in the world--a banner which +speaks not of dominion, but of song and sunshine and the green +earth. While other nations, higher-headed, had taken the sun, the +star, the crescent, the eagle, or the lion for an emblem, or, +with truer loftiness, had raised the cross as their ensign, this +people, with a sweetness and humility all the more touching that +it was unconscious, bent to search in the grasses, and smilingly +and trustfully held up a shamrock as their symbol. Those had no +need to inscribe the cross upon their escutcheon who, in the face +of the world, bore it in their faithful hearts, and upon their +bowed and lacerated shoulders. + +A pathetic spectacle--a countless procession of exiles; yet, +happily for them, the generous land that gave them a home grew no +dark willows to rust their harp-strings. + +The music was, of course, chiefly Irish airs; but one band in +passing struck up "Sweet Home." + +Margaret started at the sound, and looked about for escape. She +could not listen to that. Happening to glance upward, she saw a +company of ladies and gentlemen in the balcony over the portico. +Governor A---- was there, leaning on the railing and looking +over. He caught her glance, and beckoned. Margaret immediately +obeyed the summons, getting herself in hand all the way, and came +out on the balcony with another face than that she had worn +below. She had put on a smile; some good fairy had added a faint +blush, and Miss Hamilton was presentable. The governor met her +with a hearty smile and clasp of the hand. "I am glad to see +you," he said. "Will you stand here, or take that seat Mr. +Sinclair is offering you?" + +"Yes, sir," he exclaimed, as Margaret turned away, continuing his +conversation with a gentleman beside him, "the English treatment +of the Irish is a clear case of cussedness." + +"Our good chief magistrate is slightly idiomatic at times," +remarked a lady near by. + +A poetess stood in the midst of a group of gentlemen, who looked +at her, while she looked at the procession. "It is Arethusa, that +bright stream," she said with soft eagerness, "Pursued and +threatened at home, it has crept through shadowy ways, and leaped +to light in a new land." + +{41} + +Margaret approached Mr. Sinclair, who sat apart, and who made +room for her beside him. + +Even now she noticed the splendid beauty of this man in whom +every physical attraction was perfected. Mr. Maurice Sinclair +might have posed for a Jupiter; but an artist would scarcely have +taken him for a model of the prince of the apostles. He was +superbly made, with a haughty, self-conscious beauty; his full, +bold eyes were of a light neutral tint impossible to describe, so +transparent were they, so dazzling their lustre; and his face was +delicately smooth and nobly-featured. One could scarcely regret +that the long moustache curling away from his mouth, then +drooping below his chin, and the thick hair pushed back from his +forehead, were of silvery whiteness. It did not seem to be decay, +but perfection. Mr. Sinclair used to say that his head had +blossomed. + +He smiled as Miss Hamilton stepped slowly toward him, the smile +of a man entirely pleased with himself. + +"Own now," he said, "that you are wishing to be Irish for the +nonce, that you might feel the full effervescence of the +occasion." + +She shook her head listlessly. + +Mr. Sinclair perceived that she needed to be amused. "See the +governor wave his handkerchief!" he said. "That man has been born +twice, once into Massachusetts, and the second time into all +creation." + +She glanced at the object of his remarks, noting anew his short, +rotund figure, his round head with all its crow's-nest of black +ringlets, his prompt, earnest face that could be so kind. "There +isn't a drop of mean blood in his veins," she said. "He is one of +those rare men in whom feeling and principle go hand in hand." + +Mr. Sinclair gave his shoulders a just perceptible shrug. "Do you +know all the people here?" he asked, observing that Margaret +looked searchingly over the company. "Let me play Helen on the +walls of Troy, and point out the notables whom you do not know. +That antique-cameo-faced gentleman whom you are looking at now is +the Rev. Mr. Southard. He is misnamed of course. He should be +called after something boreal, Does not he make you shiver? He +lives with my cousin, whom I saw you standing beside down there. +Louis likes him, or pretends to. Mr. Southard is not so much a +modern minister, as a theological reminiscence. He belongs among +the crop-heads; I have somewhere heard that he was a wild lad, +and is now doing penance. It is likely. One doesn't bar a +sheep-fold as one does a prison. He appears to be a little off +guard now, for a breath seems to have forgotten predestination. +When he looks like that, I am always reminded of something pagan, +He'd be horrified, of course, if he knew it. Mark that Olympian +look of painless melancholy, and the blue, motionless eye. What a +cold, marble face he has! Being too polished to retain heat, he +remains unmoved in the midst of enthusiasm. That's philosophy, +isn't it? He is one of those who fancy that ceasing to be human, +they become superhuman. They mistake the prefix, that's all. But +Mr. Southard bristles with virtues. I must own that I never knew +a man so forgiving toward other people's enemies." + +"I know Mr. Southard well by reputation," Margaret interrupted +rather warmly. "He is human, of course, and so, fallible; but +every mountain in his soul is a Sinai!" + +{42} + +"Oh! he has his good points," Mr. Sinclair admitted tranquilly. +"I have known him to be surprised into a glorious laugh, for +which, to be sure, he probably beat himself afterward; and he has +a temper that peeps out now and then in a delightfully human +fashion. I have detected in him, too, a carnal weakness for +French chocolate, and a taste for pictures, even the pictures of +the Babylonians. Once I saw him stand five minutes before a faded +old painting of Cimabue's; I believe it was a virgin standing +between two little boys who leaned to kiss each other, a hand of +hers on either head, I don't condemn the man _in toto_. I +like his faults; but I detest his virtues! + +"That stout, consequential person, with his chin in his cravat, +who as Suckling says of Sir Toby Mathews, is always whispering +nothing into somebody's ear, is Mr. ex-councilman Smith. He was +thrown to the surface at the time of the Know-Nothing ebullition, +and when that was over, was skinned off with the rest of 'em. He +considers himself a statesman, and looks forward with prophetic +goggle eyes to the time when his party shall be again in the +ascendant. He comes here to nurse his wrath, and I haven't a +doubt that he feels as though this procession were marching down +his throat. He used to be to a joiner, then a house-builder, then +he got to be a house-owner. Twenty years ago, my aunt Betsey, who +lives in the country, paid him two dollars to build a trellis for +her grape-vine, and he did it so well that she gave him his +dinner after the family had got through. Now he has a mansion +near hers that dwarfs her cottage to a bird-cage. His place is +really fine, grounds worth looking at, and a stone house with +bronze lions at the door. I don't know what he has lions there +for, unless to indicate that Snug the joiner lives within. I'm +not afraid of 'em. You've never heard of him here; but out there +he is tremendous. '_Imposteur à la Mecque, et prophète à +Médine_.' + +"Still there are people even here who blow about him. Psaphon's +birds, of course, fed on Smith's oats, He hates me because he +thinks that I laugh at him; but I don't doubt that it soothes his +soul to know that the roses on his carpets are twice as large as +those on mine, and that he has ten pictures to my one. The first +thing you see when the vestibule door opens is a row of +portraits, ten of 'em, Smith and his wife, and eight children. +Ames painted 'em, and he must have had the nightmare regularly +till they were done. They are larger than life, and their eyes +move. I am positive that they move. I guess there are little +strings behind the canvas. There they hang and stare at you, till +you wish they were hanged by the necks. The first time I went +there, I shook my fist at 'em behind Smith's back, and he caught +me at it. I couldn't help it. The spectacle is enough to excite +any man's worst feelings. The parlor walls are covered with +landscapes painted from a cow's point of view, strong in grass +and clover, with pleasant drinking-places, and large trees to +stand under when the sun gets high. I never see such trees and +water in nature, but I dare say the cows do. My wife and I dined +there once. The eight children sat in two detachments and ate +Black Hamburg grapes, skins and all; and the peaches were brought +in polished like apples. My wife got into such a giggle that she +nearly strangled. I see, you sharp-eyed Bedouin, you want to +remind me that I have eaten of this man's salt. True, but he made +it as bitter as any that Dante ever tasted. + +{43} + +"That sober, middle-aged man in a complete suit of pepper and +salt, hair and all, is Mr. Ames, the member from N----, Polliwog +Ames they call him, from his great speech. Is it possible you +have never heard of it? It was the speech of the session. Some +one had introduced a bill asking an appropriation of ten thousand +dollars toward building a new museum of natural history. There +was a little palaver on the subject, then Ames got up. All winter +nothing had been heard from him but the scriptural yea and nay; +so, of course, every one was attentive, 'Gentle-men,' he said, +'while thousands of men, women, and children, in the city, and +tens of thousands in the commonwealth, are hungry to-day, and +will be hungry to-morrow, and are and will be too poor to buy +food; while paupers are crowding our almshouses, and beggars are +swarming in our streets; while all this poverty is staring us in +the face, and putting to us the problem, how are we to be fed and +clothed and sheltered, and kept from crime, and taught to read +and to pray? it would seem to me, gentlemen, an unnecessary not +to say reprehensible act, to appropriate ten thousand dollars of +the public money, in order that some long-nosed professor might +be enabled to show us how polliwogs wiggle their tails.' Having +said this, Mr. Ames shut his mouth, and sat down covered with +glory." + +Margaret's only comment was to look earnestly at this man who had +remembered the poor. + +They were silent a little while; then Mr. Sinclair spoke again, +in a lower voice. "I am going to Europe in a few weeks." + +She had nothing to say to this. His going would make no +difference with her. + +"You know, and everybody knows," he went on hastily, "that my +wife and I have not for years lived very happily together. I +think that few blame me. I would not wish all the blame to be +thrown on her, either. The fact is, we never were suited to each +other, and every day we grew more antagonistic. We had a little +sensible talk last week, and finally agreed to separate. She will +remain here, and I, as I said, shall go to Europe for an +indefinite time, perhaps for ever." + +At any other time Margaret might have felt herself embarassed by +such a confidence. As it was, she hardly knew what reply to make; +but, since he waited, managed to say that if people could not +live peacefully together, she supposed it was best they should +separate. + +He spoke again abruptly. + +"Margaret, you cannot, if you would, hide your misery from me. +You are fitted to appreciate all that is beautiful in nature and +art, yet are bound and cramped by the necessity of constant labor +for your daily bread. You suffer, too, what to the refined is the +worst sting of poverty, the being associated with, often in the +power of, vulgar and ill-natured people, who despise you because +you are not rich, and hate you because, being poor, you yet will +not and cannot be like themselves. I know that there are those +who take delight in mortifying you, in misinterpreting your every +act and word, and in prejudicing against you persons who +otherwise might be your friends. What a wretched, double life you +live; petted by notable people on one hand, and insulted by +inferiors on the other! How long is it to last? You must be aware +that you are slipping out of the notice of your early friends. +You cannot accept their invitations, because you have not time, +and moreover, are not suitably dressed. By and by they will cease +to invite you. Do you look forward to marriage? Every day your +chances are lessening. +{44} +You are growing old before your time. I cannot see that you have +anything to look forward to but a life of ill-paid toil, a +gradual dropping out of the place that you were born and educated +to fill, a loss of courage and self-respect, a lowering of the +tastes, and at last, a sinking to the level of what you must +despise. If you should be taken ill now, what would become of +you?" + +"I should probably go to the charity-ward of the public +hospital," Miss Hamilton replied coldly. + +"What do you hope for?" he asked. + +"I hope for nothing," she answered. "I know all that you tell me, +and far more." + +Mr. Sinclair's eyes brightened. "What good are your fine friends +to you? You would never ask them to help you, I know; but if you +could bring yourself to that, would you not feel a bitter +difference? It is not mean to shrink from asking favors, when +they are for ourselves. Walter Savage Landor was neither mean nor +a fool; yet he makes one of his best characters say that the +highest price we can pay for a favor is to ask for it, and +everybody who has tried knows that. You would sink at once from a +friend to a dependent. Now your friends ask no questions, and you +tell them no lies. If they give the subject a thought, they fancy +you in some quiet, retired, and highly genteel apartment, if +rather near the eaves, then so for a pure northern light, +leisurely and elegantly painting photographs, for which you +receive the highest prices, and thanks to boot. They don't see an +upstartly assistant criticising your work, or a stingy employer +taking off part of the price for some imaginary flaw. And if they +did, they would only tell you that such annoyances are trivial, +that you must rise above them. I've heard that kind of talk. But +those who go down to battle with the pigmies know how tormenting +their bites are. The worst of it is, too, that you cannot long +maintain the dignity and purity of your own character in this +petty strife, It isn't in the nature of things, I don't care what +may be said to the contrary by parlor ascetics and philosophers. +They have no right to dogmatize on the necessary influence of +circumstances in which they have never been placed. Moreover, +constant labor is lowering to the mind, and any work is degrading +to the person who can do a higher kind of work. It may be saving +to him whose leisure would be employed in frivolity and license; +but that person is already base. The time you spend in studying +how to make one dollar do the work of five makes a lower being of +you. I can see this in you, Margaret. Your manners and +conversation are not what they were. You have no time to read, or +think, or look at pictures, or hear lectures, or listen to +music--none. You have only time for work, and, the work finished, +are too weary for anything but sleep; perhaps too weary for that +even, How long do you expect to keep up with such a life dragging +at you?" + +Miss Hamilton lifted between her finger and thumb a fold of the +dress she wore. "All the time I could spare from my painting in +the last three weeks has been devoted to the task of making this +dress out of an old one," she said. "It was a difficult problem; +but I solved it. I was always fond of the mathematics. Of course, +during those three weeks my universe revolved around a black +bombazine centre. O sir! I know better than you can tell me, how +degrading such labor is. God in the beginning imposed it as a +curse; and a curse it is!" + +There was again a momentary pause, during which Mr. Sinclair's +merciless eyes searched the cold face +beside him. +{45} +Margaret did not observe that all the company had gone, that the +procession had disappeared, the crowd melted away. She had sat +there and listened like one in a dream, too dull and weary to be +angry, or to wonder that such words should be addressed to her, +and such bold assertions made, where her most intimate friends +had never ventured a hint even. + +When Mr. Sinclair spoke again, his voice was soft and earnest. +"Have you any friend so dear and trusty, that his frown would +make your heart ache yet more? In all the world, do you know one +to whom your actions are of moment, who thinks of you anxiously +and tenderly, for whose sake you would walk in a straight path, +though it might be full of thorns? Is there one?" + +"There is not one," she said. + +"Come with me, then!" he exclaimed. "Think of Italy, and what +that name means, of the east, of all the lands that live in song +and in story. Drop for ever from your hands the necessity for +toil, and let your heart and mind take holiday. 'Not one,' you +said; but, Maud, you mistook, I thought of you all the time, and +got your troubles by heart. Leave this miserable, cramping life +of yours, and come with me where we shall be as free from +criticism as if we were disembodied spirits. Forget this paltry +Boston, with its wriggling streets and narrow breaths. Fancy now +that the breeze in our faces blows off the blue Mediterranean, +the little dome above us rises and swells to St. Peter's, that +last flutter of a banner over the hill is the argent ground with +golden keys. Or Victor Immanuel has got Rome for his own, and +there floats the red, white, and green of Italy. How you would +color and brighten like a rose under such sunshine! Come with me, +Margaret, come! + +She looked at him with troubled, uncomprehending eyes, groping +for the meaning under the flowery speech. His glance dazzled her. + +"It is like a fairy-tale," she said. "How can it come true? I am +poor, yet you bid me travel as only the rich can. How am I to go +with you? who else is going?" + +He smiled. "O silly Margaret! since there is no other way, and +since in all the world there is no one to care for or to question +you, come with me alone." + +Then Margaret Hamilton knew that her cup of bitterness had lacked +one poisoned drop. She got up from the seat, shrinking away, +feeling as though she lessened physically. + +But when she reached the door, Mr. Sinclair was there before her. + +"At least, forgive me!" she heard him say. + +"Let me go!" she exclaimed, without looking up. + +"Remember my tenderness and pity for you," he urged. + +"You have none!" she said. "Let me go." + +"And you are not indifferent to me," he continued. + +She lifted her face at that, and looked at him with eyes that +were bright, gray, and angry as an eagle's. + +"Maurice Sinclair," she said haughtily, "I thank you for one +thing. Weary, and miserable, and lonely as I have been, I could +not have been certain, without this test, that such a temptation +would not make me hesitate. But now I know that temptation comes +from within, not from without, and that infamy attracts only the +infamous. I care for you, you think? My admiration and my +friendships are free; but I am not a woman to tear my hands on +other people's hedges. Let me tell you, sir, that I must honor a +man before I can feel any affection for him. +{46} +I must know that, though being human he might stumble, his proper +stature is upright. If I cared for you, I could not stand here +and scorn you, as I do; I should pray you to be true to your +noble self, to give me back my trust in you. I should forgive +you; but my forgiveness would be coals of fire on your head. If I +could love a man well enough to sin for him, I should love him +too well for that. Oh! it was manly, and tender, and generous of +you, was it not? I had lost all but self-respect, and you would +have taken that from me. But, sir, I have wings which you can +never entangle!" + +"You have nowhere to turn," he said. + +She stood one instant as though his words were indeed true, then +threw her hands upward, "I turn to God! I turn to God!" she cried +out. + +When she looked at him again, Mr. Sinclair stepped aside and let +her pass. + +But the strength that passion gives is brief, and when Margaret +reached the street, she was trembling with weakness. Where to go? +Not home; oh! not to that gloomy place! She walked across the +Common, and thence to the Public Gardens, every step a weariness. + +"I must stay out in the sunshine," she thought, taking a seat +under the great linden-tree that stands open to the west. +"Darkness, and chilly, shadowed places are terrible. Oh! what +next?" + +Though she had called on God, she yet believed not in him, poor +Margaret! Hers had been the instinctive outcry of one driven to +desperation; and when the impulse subsided, then darkness fell +again. + +Sitting there, she drew from her pocket a little folded paper, +opened it in an absent way, and dreamily examined the delicate +white powder it contained. More than once, when life had pressed +too heavily, the enchanter hidden under this delusive form had +came to her aid, had loosened the tense cords that bound her +forehead, unclasping them with a touch as light and tender as +love's own, had charmed away the pain from flesh and spirit. She +recollected now anew its sinuous and subtile ways. First, a deep +and gradually settling quietude of mind and body, all disturbing +influences stealing away so noiselessly that their going was +imperceptible, a prickling in the arms, a languor in the throat +and at the roots of the tongue, a sweet fainting of the breath, +an entire and perfect peace. Then a slowly rising perception of +pleasures already in possession yet unnoticed before. + +How delightful the mere involuntary act of breathing! How airily +intoxicating the full, soft rush of blood through the arteries, +swinging noisily like a dance to a song, never lost, in whatever +labyrinthine windings it might wander. How the universe opened +like a folded bud, like myriad buds that bloom in light and color +and perfume! The air and the sunshine became miracles; common +things slipped off their disguise, and revealed undreamed-of +glories. All this in silence. And presently the silence would be +found rhythmic like a tune. + +She went no farther. The point at which all these downy +influences became twined into a cord as potent as the fabulous +Gleipnir, and tightened about both body and soul with its soft, +implacable coils--that her thought glanced away from. + +She carefully shook the shining powder into a little heap in the +paper. There was ten times as much as she had ever taken at once; +but then she had ten times greater need of rest and +forgetfulness. Her head felt giddy, as if a wheel were going +within it. +{47} +Catching at that thought of a wheel, her confused memory called +up strange eastern scenes, a temple in a gorge among rocky +mountains; outside, the dash of a torrent foaming over its rough +bed between the palms; not far away, the jungle, where the tiger +springs with a golden flash through the shadows; within, hideous +carved idols with vestments of cloth of gold, and silver bowls +set before them, the noiseless entering of a gliding lama, the +bowed form and hand outstretched to twirl the praying-wheel, +whereon is wound in million-fold repetition the one desire of his +soul, "_Um mani panee, houm!_" O jewel in the lotos! Rest +and forgetfulness! So her thought kept murmuring with weary +persistency. + +As she raised the morphine to her lips, some one touched her arm. + +"Madam!" said a man's voice just behind her shoulder. + +She started and half turned. "Well, sir!" + +"What have you there?" he asked, without removing his hand. + +She shook herself loose from him. "Will you go on, sir? you are +insolent!" + +"I cannot go while you have such a face, and while that paper is +in your hand," Louis Granger said firmly; and reaching, took the +morphine from her. + +Her glance slid away from his face, and became fixed. + +"O child! what would you do?" he exclaimed. + +She did not appear to hear him. She was swaying in her seat, and +her breath came sobbingly. + +Mr. Granger called a carriage that was passing, and led her to +it. She made no resistance, and did not object, scarcely noticed, +indeed, when he seated himself opposite her. + +"Walk your horses till I find out where the lady wants to go," he +said to the driver. + +When, after a few minutes of sickening half-consciousness, +Margaret began to realize who and where she was, and looked at +Mr. Granger, she met his eyes full of tears. + +"I have no claim on your confidence," he said, "but I desire to +serve you; and if you can trust me, I assure you that you will +never have reason to regret it." + +Margaret dropped her face into her hands, and all the pride died +out of her heart. + +"I was starving," she said. "I have not tasted food for +twenty-four hours; and for a week I have eaten nothing but dry +bread." + +Mr. Granger leaned quickly and took her hand in a strong grasp, +as we take the hands of the dying, to give them strength to die. + +"I worked day and night," she sobbed; "and I only got enough to +make me decent, and pay for my room. I have done all I could; but +I was losing the strength to do. I have been starving so for more +than a year, growing worse every day. I wasn't responsible for +trying to take the morphine. My head is so light and my heart is +so heavy, that everything seems strange, and I don't quite know +what is right and what is wrong." + +Mr. Granger's sympathy was painfully excited. He was not only +shocked and hurt for this woman, but he felt that in some way he +was to blame when such things could be. He had also that +uneasiness which we all experience when reminded how deceitful is +the fair surface of life, and what tragedies may be going on +about us, under our very eyes, yet unseen and unsuspected by us. +"What if my own little girl should come to this!" he thought. + +"What was Mr. Sinclair saying to you up there?" he asked +abruptly. + +She told him without hesitation. + +{48} + +"The villain!" he muttered. + +"No," Margaret replied sadly, "I think that according to his +light, he had some kind meaning. You know he doesn't believe in +any religion, that he denies revelation; yet you would not call +him a villain for that. Why then is he a villain for denying a +moral code that is founded on revelation? He is consistent. If +God and my own instincts had not forbidden me to accept his +proposal, nothing else would have had power." + +She sighed wearily, and leaned against the back of the carriage. + +"Promise to trust all to me now," Mr. Granger said hastily, "I am +not a Maurice Sinclair." + +"Have I not trusted you?" she asked with trembling lips. +"Besides, it seems that God has sent you to me, and trusting you +is trusting him. I didn't expect him to answer me; but I called, +and he has answered." + + + + Chapter II. + + A Louis D'or. + + +With the exception of that perfect domestic circle not often +beheld save in visions, there is perhaps no more delightful +social existence than may be enjoyed where a few congenial +persons are gathered under one roof, in all the freedom of +private life, but without its cares, where no one is obliged to +entertain or be entertained, but is at liberty to be +spontaneously charming or disagreeable, according to his mood, +where comfort is taken thought of, and elegance is not forgotten. + +Into such an establishment Mr. Granger's home had expanded after +the death of his wife. It could not be called a boarding-house, +since he admitted only a few near friends; and he refused to +consider himself as host, The only visible authorities in the +place were Mrs. James, the housekeeper, whose weapon was a +duster, and Miss Dora Granger, whose sceptre was a blossom. + +The house was a large, old-fashioned one, standing with plentiful +elbow-room in a highly respectable street that had once been very +grand, and there were windows on four sides. All these windows +looked like pleasant eyes with spectacles over them. There was a +rim of green about the place, a tall horse-chestnut-tree each +side of the street, +and an irrepressible grape-vine +that, having been planted at the rear of the +house, was now well on its way to the front. This vine was +unpruned, an embodied mirth, flinging itself in every direction, +making the slightest thing it could catch at an excuse for the +most profuse luxuriance, so happy it could never stop growing, so +full of life it could not grow old. + +In the days when Mr. Granger's grandfather built this mansion, +walls were not raised with an eye chiefly to the accommodation of +Pyramus and Thisbe. They grew slowly and solidly, of honest +stone, brick, and mortar. They had timbers, not splinters; there +wasn't an inch of veneering from attic to basement; and instead +of stucco, they had woodwork with flutings as fine as those of a +lady's ruffle. When you see mahogany-colored doors in one of +those dwellings, you may be pretty sure that the doors are +mahogany; and the white knobs and hinges do not wear red. +Cannon-balls fired at these houses stick in the outer wall. + +Such was Mr. Louis Granger's home. Miss Hamilton had looked at +that house many a time, and sighingly contrasted it with the +dingy brick declivity in which she had her eyrie, Now she was to +live here. + +"How wishes do sometimes come fulfilled, if we only wish long +enough!" she thought, as the carriage in which she had come drew +up before the steps. +{49} +Mr. Granger stood in the open door, and there was a glimpse of +the housekeeper behind him, looking out with the utmost respect +on the equipage of their visitor--for one of Miss Hamilton's +wealthy friends had offered her a carriage. + +But as the step was let down, and the liveried footman stood +bowing before her, Margaret shrank back with a sudden +recollection that was unspeakably bitter and humiliating. In +spite of the mocking show, she was coming to this house as a +beggar, literally asking for bread. On the impulse of the moment, +she could have turned back to her attic and starvation rather +than accept friendship on such terms. In that instant all the +petty spokes and wheels in the engine of her poverty combined +themselves for one wrench more. + +"I have been watching for you," said Mr. Granger's voice at the +carriage-door. + +Margaret gave him her hand, and stepped out on to the pavement, +her face downcast and deeply blushing. + +"I hope I have not incommoded you," she said coldly. + +He made no reply, and seemed not to have heard her ungracious +comment; but when they reached the threshold, he paused there, +and said earnestly, "I bid you welcome to your new home. May it +be to you a happy one!" + +She looked up gratefully, ashamed of her bitterness. + +Mr. Granger's manner was joyful and cordial, as if he were +receiving an old friend, or meeting some great good fortune. +Bidding the housekeeper wait, he conducted Margaret to a room +near by, and seated her there to hear one word more before he +should go to his business and leave her to the tender mercies of +his servants. As she sat, he stood before her, and leaning on the +high back of a chair, looked smilingly down into the expectant +and somewhat anxious face that looked up at him. + +"I am so cruel as to rejoice over every circumstance which has +been influential in adding to my household so welcome and +valuable a friend," he said. "I have worlds for you to do. First, +my little Dora is in need of your care. It is time she should +begin to learn something. I have also consented, subject to your +approval, to associate with her two little girls of her age, who +live near, and will come here for their lessons. Besides this, a +friend of mine, who is preparing a scientific work, and who does +not understand French, wishes you to make some translations for +him. Does this suit you?" + +"Perfectly!" + +"But first you must rest," he said. "And now I will leave you to +get acquainted with the house under Mrs. James's auspices. Do not +forget that your comfort and happiness are to be considered, that +you are to ask for whatever you may want, and mention whatever +may be not to your liking, Have you anything to say to me now?" +pausing with his hand on the door-knob. + +"Yes," she replied, smiling, to hide emotion; "as in the Koran +God said of St. John, so I of you, 'May he be blessed the day +whereon he was born, the day whereon he shall die, and the day +whereon he shall be raised to life!'" + +He took her hand in a friendly clasp, then opened the door, and +with a gesture that included the whole house, said, "You are at +home!" + +Margaret glanced after him as he went out, and thought, "At home! +The French say it better: I am _chez vous!_" + +{50} + +"You have to go up two flights, Miss Hamilton," the housekeeper +began apologetically, with the footman still in her eye. +"But Mr. Granger said that you want a good deal of light. Mr. and +Mrs. Lewis occupy that front room over the parlor, and the next +one is the spare-chamber, and that one under yours is Mr. +Granger's, and that little one is Dora's, and the long one back +in the L is Mr. Southard's. Up this other flight, Miss Aurelia +Lewis has the front chamber. She likes it because the +horse-chestnut tree comes up against the window. In summer you +can hardly see through. It's like being in the woods. There, this +is your chamber," flinging open the door of a large, airy room +that had two deep windows looking over the house-tops straight +into the eyes of the east. The coloring of this room was +delightfully fresh and cool, the walls a pale olive-green, the +wood-work white, and the wide mantel-piece of green marble. There +were snow-white muslin curtains, Indian matting on the floor, and +the chairs were all wicker, except one, a crimson-cushioned +arm-chair. The old-fashioned bureau and wardrobe were of solid +mahogany adorned with glittering brass knobs and handles, and the +black and gilt framed looking-glass had brass candle-sockets at +each side. The open grate was filled with savin-boughs, and a +bright shell set in the midst. In the centre of the mantle-piece +was a white vase running over full of glistening smilax sprays, +and at each end stood a brass candlestick with a green wax candle +in it. There were three pictures on the three blank walls; one a +water-color of moss-roses and buds dew sprinkled, the second, a +chromo of a yellow-gray cat stretched out in an attitude of +slumbrous repose, her tail coiled about her lithe haunches, her +head advanced and resting on her paws, her eyes half shut, but +showing a sly line of watchful golden lustre. The third was a +very good engraving of the Sistine Madonna. A large closet with +drawers and shelves, delightful to feminine eyes, led back from +this quaint and pleasant chamber. + +Margaret glanced around her pretty nest, then flung off her +bonnet and shawl, and, seating herself in the armchair by the +window, for the first time really looked at the housekeeper. Till +that moment she had not been conscious of the woman. + +Mrs. James was hospitably making herself busy doing nothing, +moving chairs that were already well placed, and wiping off +imaginary specks of dust. She looked as though she would be an +excellent housekeeper, and put her whole soul in the business; +but appeared to be neutral otherwise. + +"Everything here was as clean as your eye this morning," she +said, frowning anxiously as she stooped to bring a suspected +table-top between her vision and the light. + +"Everything is exquisite," Miss Hamilton replied. "One can't help +having a speck of dust now and then, The earth is made of it, you +know." + +The housekeeper sighed wofully. "Yes, there's a great deal of +dirt in the world." + +When she was left alone, Margaret still sat there, letting the +room get acquainted with her, and settling herself into a new and +delicious content. Happening after a while to glance toward the +door, she saw it slowly and noiselessly moving an inch or two, +stopping, then again opening a little way. She continued to look, +wondering what singular current of air or eccentricity of hinge +produced that intermittent motion. Presently she spied, clasped +around the edge of the door, at about two feet from the carpet, +four infinitesimal fingertips, rosy-white against the +yellow-white of the paint. Miss Hamilton checked the breath a +little on her smiling lips, and awaited further revelations. + +{51} + +After a moment, there appeared just above the fingers a +half-curled, flossy lock of pale gold-colored hair, and softly +dawning after that aurora, a beautiful child's face. + +"Oh! come to me!" exclaimed Margaret. + +Immediately the face disappeared, and there was silence. + +Miss Hamilton leaned back in her chair again, and began to +recollect the tactics for such cases made and provided by the +great law-giver Nature. She affected not to be aware that the +silken locks reappeared, and after them a glimpse of a low, +milk-white forehead, then a blue, bright eye, and finally, the +whole exquisite little form in a gala-dress of white, with a gay +sash and shoulder-knots. + +Dora came in looking intently at the mantel-piece, and +elaborately unconscious that there was any one present but +herself. Miss Hamilton's attention was entirely absorbed by the +outer world. + +"I never did see such a lovely flower as there is in that +window," she soliloquized. "It is as pink as ever it can be. +Indeed, I think it is a little pinker than it can conveniently +be. It must have to try hard." + +Dora glanced toward the stranger, and listened attentively. + +"And I see three tiny clouds scudding down the east. I shouldn't +be surprised if their mother didn't know they are out. They run +as if they didn't mean to stop till they get into the middle of +next week." + +Dora took a step or two nearer, looked warily at the speaker, and +peeped out the window in search of the truant cloudlets. + +"And there is another cloud overhead that has gone sound asleep," +Miss Hamilton pursued as tranquilly as if she had been sitting +there and talking time out of mind. "One side of it is as white +as it can be, and the other side is so much whiter than it can +be, that it makes the white side look dark. If anybody wants to +see it, she had better make haste." + +"Anybody," was by this time close to the window, looking out with +all her eyes, her hand timidly, half unconsciously touching the +lady's dress. + +"Oh! what a splendid bird!" cried the enchantress. "What a pity +it should fly away! But it may come back again pretty soon." + +Silence, and the pressure of a dimpled elbow on Margaret's knee. + +"I suppose you don't care much about sitting in my lap, so as to +see better," was the next remark, addressed, apparently, to all +out-doors. + +The child began shyly to climb to the lady's knee, and was +presently assisted there. + +"Such a bird!" sighed Margaret then, looking at the little one, +thinking that by this time her glance could be borne. "It had +yellow specks on its breast," illustrating with profuse and +animated gestures, "and a long bill, and a glossy head with +yellow feathers standing up on top, and yellow stripes on its +wings," pointing toward her own shoulders, her glance following +her finger. Then a break, and an exclamation of dismay, "What has +become of my wings?" + +Dora reached up to look over the lady's shoulder, but saw only +the back of a well-fitting bombazine gown. + +"I guess they's flied away," said the child in the voice of a +anguid bobolink. + +"Then I'll tell you a story," said Margaret. "Once there was a +lady who lived in a real mean place, and she didn't have a good +time at all. She was just as lonesome and homesick as she could +be. One day she brought home the photograph of a dear little +girl, and that she liked. And she wished that she could see the +real little girl, and that she could talk to her; but she had +only the paper picture. +{52} +Well, by and by she went to live in a delightful house; and while +she sat in her chamber, the door opened, and who should come in +but the same dear child whose picture she had loved! Wasn't the +lady glad then?" + +"Who was the little girl?" asked Dora with a shy, conscious look +and smile. + +The answer was a shower of kisses all over her sweet face, and +two tears that dropped unseen into her sunny hair. + + + To Be Continued + +---------- + + Comparative Morality Of Catholic + And Protestant Countries. + + +It is truly refreshing to read in _Putnam's Magazine_ for +January, 1869, the article entitled, "The Literature of the +Coming Controversy," written, as we now know, by Rev. Leonard W. +Bacon, a Protestant minister of Brooklyn, In it, he castigates +most soundly the well known anti-popery society called "The +American and Foreign Christian Union," "numbering," as he says, +among its vice-presidents and directors, some of the most eminent +pastors, bishops, theologians, and civilians of the American +Protestant churches. Some of its publications he calls "wicked +impostures" and "shameful scandals," and wonders "how they can +stand, from year to year, accredited to the public by some of the +most eminent and excellent men in the country." Our wonder is +still greater how he can call men who countenance such things +"excellent." He says: "All the time that this society has been +running its manufactory of falsehoods and scandals, only the +resolute good sense of the public, in not buying the rubbish, has +saved the church of Christ from a burning and ineffaceable +disgrace." The disgrace to the church, it seems to us, is the +same, since its chief men are implicated in this proceeding, +"whether the public buy the rubbish or not." We honor Mr. Bacon +for his manly, straightforward conduct, and thank him for this +act of justice. It is the first we have had to rejoice in for a +long while, but we hope it will not be the last. The time seems +to be approaching, when calumny and abuse will no longer be +received with favor by the public, and the Catholic Church be +allowed to speak in her own defence, and listened to, and judged +of, according to her own intrinsic merits. All we ask is fair +play, and we are confident the truth will make itself known. + +But the Rev. Mr. Bacon, after denouncing the lying and scurrilous +attacks against the church, goes on to say: "It is a pleasant +relief to take up another author--the Rev. M. Hobart Seymour, of +the Church of England. His two books, entitled _Mornings with +the Jesuits at Rome_, and _Evenings with the Romanists_, +are models of religious controversy. The latter of the two, +especially, being the more popular, is peculiarly fitted to be +effective in general circulation." .... "This sprightly, +instructive, and interesting book has gone out of print." ... It +is out of print in English; but desiring to gladden our eyes with +a copy of this model of "courtesy, fairness, ability, and +religious feeling," we procured a translation into Spanish, +entitled, _Noches con los Romanistas_, issued by The +American Tract Society, for the use of benighted Spaniards. +{53} +We have read the opening chapter, and found it enough. We are +tempted to exclaim with bitter disappointment, Is this all the +fairness and justice we are to expect from one who is described +as the "model" of a Protestant controversialist? We prefer the +McGavins, the Brownlees, or the Kirwans whom Mr. Bacon so justly +holds up to public scorn. This man stabs you in the dark; he is a +Titus Oates, who swears away your life by false testimony--by +telling just enough to convict you, when he knows enough to give +you an honorable acquittal. + +This opening chapter has for its theme the relative effects of +Protestantism and the Catholic religion upon the morality of +those under their respective influence; and to show that Catholic +countries, in comparison to Protestant, are sinks of crime and +impurity. This, if fairly proved, would be a practical argument +of overwhelming force, sufficient to close the mind against all +that can be said in favor of the Catholic Church; and be a +sufficient reason, with most people, for refusing even to +entertain her claims to be the Church of God. We know that she is +Christ's Church, and that just in proportion as she exerts her +influence, virtue and morality must prevail; and that it is +impossible to prove, unless through fraud and misrepresentation, +that the practical working of her system produces a morality +inferior to that of any other. + +We know all the importance of the question; it is one that +touches our good name, and we feel indignation against any one +who shall attempt to rob us of it, by any mean or unfair tricks. +Let us see how our "model" controversialist deals with this +matter. "In order not to cause a useless waste of time by going +over all sorts of crimes," he selects the greatest one, that of +murder or homicide. Then he selects England, and compares it with +nearly all the Catholic countries of Europe, and shows it to be +at least four times better than the very best of them. We do not +propose to ferret this out; we cannot lay our hands upon the +statistics of this particular crime, which seem to be everywhere +very loosely given; but we can show shortly, that his conclusions +are utterly false. He gives the number of persons +_imprisoned_ on this charge of homicide in England and +Wales, during 1852, as 74, and the annual mean for three years as +72. This will strike every one as simply ridiculous. Luckily, the +_Statistical Journal_ of 1867 gives the following tables of +this crime for 1865, as follows: + + Verdicts Of Coroners' Juries. + + Wilful murder, 227 + Manslaughter, 282 + Total, 509 + + + Police Returns. + + Wilful murder, 135 + Manslaughter, 279 + Concealment of birth, 232 + Total, 646 + + + Criminal Tables. + + Wilful murder cases tried, 60 + Manslaughter, cases tried, 316 + Concealment of birth, cases tried, 143 + Total, 519 + + +{54} + +If 519 were tried, we may judge of the number _imprisoned_. +The author of the article in the _Journal_ says: "The police +returns do not correspond with the coroners', and the discrepancy +is so great that I can only account for it on the supposition +that, according to the police view of it, infanticide is not +murder." The number of coroners' inquests held in 1865, in +England and Wales, was + + Total 25,011 + Verdict of accidental deaths, . . 11,397 + +He continues, "Open verdicts, as they are termed, such as, 'found +dead,' or 'found drowned,' are rendered in many cases when a more +accurate knowledge would have led to the verdict of 'wilful +murder.'" + +It is just as easy to compare the total of first-class criminals +of all sorts, as to select homicide. + +Alison [Footnote 19] says, "The proportion of crime to the +inhabitants was _twelve times_ greater in Prussia +(Protestant) than in France, (Catholic,) and in Austria, +(Catholic,) the proportion of convicted crime is not _one +fourth_ of what is found in Prussia." The _Statistical +Journals_ for 1864-65 show that France is better than England. + + [Footnote 19: _History of Europe_, vol. iii. chap, + xxvii. 10, 11.] + +There were no less than 846 deaths of children under one year +old, in 1857, in England and Wales from violent causes, [Footnote +20] from which we may form some little idea of the extent of only +one sort of homicide. + + [Footnote 20: _Statistical Journal_, 1859.] + +Only 74 incarcerations for homicide in all England and Wales for +the year 1852! Why, it is stated in the _New York Herald_ of +February 4th, that 78 persons were arrested last year for murder +in New York alone. We can easily imagine what the grand total for +the United States must be, and how much better is England, with +its pauperism and crime, than the United States? + +Mr. Seymour undoubtedly is "sprightly" enough, but only +"instructive" by showing us the amount of nonsense which the +public is expected to swallow without examination, where the +Catholic Church is concerned, and the amount of fair play to be +expected from a "model" of a Protestant controversialist. + +But as a comparison based on "homicide" alone would prove +nothing, any more than one based on drunkenness or robbery, Mr. +Seymour institutes another, in respect to unchastity, or +immorality, and here he sets up as his criterion the amount of +_illegitimacy_ among Catholics and Protestants respectively. +In any community, the moral condition is to be estimated by the +greater or smaller proportion of illegitimacy. We object to this +as a very unreliable test. In some communities, an illegitimate +birth is almost unknown, and yet they are the most corrupt and +licentious on the face of the earth. Infanticide and foeticide +replace illegitimacy. A young woman falls from virtue; but in +spite of the finger of scorn which will be pointed at her, her +sense of religious duty restrains her from adding a horrible +crime to her sin. What is her moral condition in the sight of +God, compared with that of the guilty one whom no fear of the +Almighty has restrained from the commission of this crime? The +absence of illegitimacy may be the most convincing proof of a +state of moral corruption, as in Persia and Turkey, where no +children except in wedlock, are suffered to see the light of the +world. [Footnote 21] + + [Footnote 21: Storer, _Criminal Abortion_, p. 32.] + +There are good reasons why more illegitimate children might be +expected to be born among Catholics than among Protestants, and +yet the former be much more the moral than the latter. "The +doctrine of the Catholic Church," says Bishop Fitzpatrick, "her +canons, her pontifical constitutions, her theologians, without +exception teach, and constantly have taught, that the destruction +of the human foetus in the womb of the mother, at any period from +the first instant of conception, is a heinous crime, equal at +least in guilt to that of murder." [Footnote 22] + + [Footnote 22: Ibid. p. 72.] + +{55} + +This is understood by Catholics of all classes, and inspires a +salutary horror of the crime. Protestantism does not teach +morality in this definite way, but leaves people to reason out +for themselves the degree of criminality of particular offences. +Let us listen to Dr. Storer, an eminent Protestant physician. "It +is not, of course, intended to imply that Protestantism, as such, +in any way encourages, or indeed permits, the practice of +inducing abortion; its tenets are uncompromisingly hostile to all +crime. So great, however, is the popular ignorance regarding this +offence, that an abstract morality is here comparatively +powerless; our American women arrogate to themselves the +settlement of what they consider, if doubtful, purely an ethical +question; and there can be no doubt that the Romish ordinance, +flanked on the one hand by the confessional, and by denouncement +and excommunications on the other, has saved to to the world +thousands of infant lives." [Footnote 23] Rev. Dr. Todd, a +Protestant minister of Pittsfield, Mass., to his honor be it +said, has had the courage to declare the same thing in similar +words. [Footnote 24] Dr. Storer proceeds, "During the ten years +that have passed since the preceding sentence was written, we +have had ample verification of its truth. Several hundreds of +Protestant women have personally acknowledged to us their guilt, +against whom only seven Catholics, and of these we found, upon +further inquiry, that but two were only nominally so, not going +to the confession." [Footnote 25] + + [Footnote 23: _Criminal Abortion_, P. 74.] + + [Footnote 24: _Serpents in the Dove's Nest_.] + + [Footnote 25: _Criminal Abortion_, p. 74.] + +Two communities exist, in which, say, an equal amount of +unchastity occurs. In one, religion restrains from the commission +of further crime, and there is much illegitimacy apparent; in the +other, criminal abortion destroys all the evidence, and though +horribly corrupt in comparison, the appearance is all the other +way. Some such comparison might be made between Paris and Boston; +with what truth, each one can determine for himself, And there is +another reason which adds force to what has been said. In +Catholic countries, foundling hospitals, established for the very +purpose of saving infant life, exist everywhere, Knowing that the +temptation to conceal one's shame will, in many cases, be too +strong to be resisted, and thus one crime be added to another, +the impulse of Christian charity has caused the founding of these +hospitals, so that the infant, instead of being killed, may be +provided for, and the mother have a chance to repent, without +being for ever marked with the brand of shame. Scarcely any such +exist among Protestants. To set up, then, illegitimacy as the +best criterion of the morals of a community, is a palpable +injustice to Catholics. + +But let us, nevertheless, follow Mr. Seymour on his own chosen +ground, He thinks the Catholic country people may, in the absence +of peculiar temptations, be as good as the Protestant; and that +the state of great cities will show more the influence of +religion on the morals of the people, We think the opposite; for +in great cities there are immense masses of degraded people, who +abandon the practice of religion, never go to church, and for +whom the Protestant church, at least, would be apt to disclaim +all responsibility. The country people are within the knowledge +and the voice of the preacher or the priest, and religion +exercises its proper influence upon them. + +{56} + +He selects London, on the Protestant side, as the largest city in +the world, the richest, and where there are "the most numerous, +the strongest, and the most varied temptations;" and, of course, +where there should naturally be the most vice and crime. But +facts contradict theory. The percentage of illegitimate births in +London is 4.2, while that for all England and Wales is 6.5, and +in the country districts, where the "numerous, strong, and varied +temptations" are wanting, it varies from 9 to over 11. [Footnote +26] + + [Footnote 26: _Statistical Journal_, 1862.] + +London is compared with Paris, Brussels, Munich, and Vienna; and +the rates are given as follows: + + Proportion Of Illegitimate Births. + + In Paris, Roman Catholic, thirty-three per cent. + In Brussels, Roman Catholic, thirty-five per cent. + In Munich, Roman Catholic, forty-eight per cent. + In Vienna, Roman Catholic, fifty-one per cent. + + In London, Protestant, four per cent. + +and then, to show that this fearful disproportion exists not only +in the capital cities, but also in other smaller ones, we have +another table: + + Protestant England. R. C. Austria. + + Bristol and + Clifton, 4 per ct. Troppau, 26 per ct. + Bradford, 8 per ct. Zara, 30 per ct. + Birmingham, 6 per ct. Innspruck, 22 per ct. + Brighton, 7 per ct. Laybach, 38 per ct. + Cheltenham, 7 per ct. Brunn, 42 per ct. + Exeter, 8 per ct. Linz, 46 per ct. + Liverpool, 6 per ct. Prague, 47 per ct. + Manchester, 7 per ct. Lemberg, 47 per ct. + Plymouth, 5 per ct. Klagenfort, 56 per ct. + Portsea, 5 per ct. Gratz, 65 per ct. + +The inference from these figures, drawn with many exclamations of +surprise and horror, is, that the Protestant religion is ten +times as powerful against crime and vice as the Catholic, and to +create an overwhelming conviction of the essential corruption of +the latter. Nothing is further from the truth. London, Liverpool, +Birmingham, etc., are as corrupt as any cities of the world. The +cities of France and Austria need not fear the comparison, and +the more thoroughly it is made the better. + +J. D. Chambers, Recorder of Salisbury, a Protestant, says: +[Footnote 27] + + [Footnote 27: _Church and World_, 1867.] + + + "And here a few words on the unhappy reason why London and + other large towns of Great Britain and also Holland are + comparatively moral in this respect, and that in their cases + the average of this species of immorality is far below that of + the great cities of the continent; the fact that in this + respect the urban population of Great Britain appears to be + what it most certainly is not, comparatively pure, the rural + the most corrupt; whilst on the continent the reverse is + evident. There can be no doubt, as Mr. Lumley, in his able + _Poor-Law Reports_, has often hinted, that this difference + is owing to the prevalence of what has been justly called the + 'social evil;' to the license, it may, in truth, be called + encouragement, which, in the populous districts of this + country, and notoriously in Holland, is given to public + prostitution. Of course there will be no illegitimacy among + Mohammedans and Hindoos, in Japan and China, or the African + tribes, nor also among those who live much in the same manner." + And, we might add, who practise infanticide and foeticide as + they do. He goes on, "In London, the fallen women may be taken, + at the mean of the estimates, at 40,000. ... In Birmingham, in + 1864, there were 966 disreputable houses where they resorted; + in Manchester, 1111; in Liverpool, 1578; in Leeds, 313; in + Sheffield, 433. [Footnote 28] And here we have revealed a + plague-spot in English society which runs through every grade, + especially the artisan, manufacturing, and lower commercial + classes, who, as we have seen, in general never enter a church. + ... There is no need, in addition, to dwell on the revelations + of the divorce court, which prove that Englishmen are nearly as + bad in this respect as the northern Germans. There is no one + who is acquainted with the condition of the families of + artisans who does not know the sad frequency with which they + abandon their wives, and how frequently they live in a state of + concubinage." + +Alison corroborates this: "In London the proportion (of +illegitimacy) is one to thirty-six, the effect, it is to be +feared, of the immense mass of concubinage which there prevails, +under circumstances where a law of nature renders an increase of +the population from that source impossible." [Footnote 29] + + [Footnote 28: _Statistical Journal_, 1864.] + + [Footnote 29: Vol. ii. chap. xvii. 122.] + + +{57} + +"In London, however, and the English cities, there are more +illegitimate births than appear on the registers, because +children of people who live together without being married are +registered 'legitimate.'" [Footnote 30] So much for London, +Liverpool, etc. + + [Footnote 30: _Statistical Journal_, 1862.] + +In Paris, a great proportion of the children reckoned +illegitimate are born in the lying-in hospitals, or brought to +the foundling hospitals, and the greater proportion of the +mothers are from the provinces, as will be seen from the +following table for 1856: + + Mothers known, 3383 + Department Seine, 551 + Other departments, 2550 + Foreign countries, 282 + +Children born in concubinage are reckoned illegitimate, and about +one-ninth of such children, on an average, are afterward +legitimated. The proportion of illegitimacy, then, for Paris +proper, on the best calculations, is not over 12 per cent; and +that of London, calculated on the same data, would probably be +quite as large, if not larger. + +The same considerations apply to Brussels, Vienna, and Munich. +Large foundling and lying-in hospitals exist in al these places, +and are resorted to by all the country round. The figures for +these cities are in no sense a criterion of their morals. + +In Munich and Vienna, there is another important thing to be +taken into account, which we shall explain when we come to speak +of countries. We see, then, how much value is to be attributed to +the heavenly purity of Protestant London, Liverpool, etc., in +comparison to the "astonishing," "horrible" corruption of +Catholic capitals on the continent. Moreover, in the latter the +"social evil" is kept within strictest limits, and under the +complete control of the government, and is not allowed to flaunt +itself in public, as in London and New York, These considerations +are strengthened by the case of Protestant Stockholm, where, +public prostitution being prohibited, the rate of illegitimacy is +over fifty to the hundred--quite equal to that of Vienna. +[Footnote 31] Why did not Mr. Seymour cite Stockholm, which is +notorious? I will answer: It was not convenient to spoil a good +story. + + [Footnote 31: _Appleton's Cyc._, art. "Foundling + Hospital."] + +Now as to the smaller cities of Austria, which, according to +Seymour, beat the world for corruption, what is to be said? +Simply, that they are no worse than their neighbors. What we have +said of the foundling and lying-in hospitals of Paris explains +the whole matter. "In Austria, excluding Hungary, there are forty +foundling and forty lying-in hospitals, and the number of +foundlings provided for by the government is over 20,000." +[Footnote 32] + + [Footnote 32: _Ibid_.] + +These hospitals exist, without doubt, in all these cities; and if +we subtract their inmates who come from the country we should +find that they do not compare unfavorably with their neighbors. +They include the chief cities of the German provinces of the +empire; and allowing only 4273 foundlings from the country to be +in their hospitals, which is certainly a very moderate +calculation, their own proper rate of illegitimacy would not +exceed ten per cent. This would be the case in Innspruck, for +example, if 53 only were received. Our "model of fairness" from +such data draws his main conclusions, which prove that he is very +"sprightly" at the figures, if nothing else. Shall we excuse him +on the plea of ignorance? No! he was bound to verify his +statements, and the conclusions from them; and if he had chosen +to take the pains, the sources of information were open to him. +{58} +An infamous calumny against the Catholic Church is invented by +somebody, and the whole tribe of popery-haters forthwith swear +roundly that it is "undoubted," "notorious," etc., and, by dint +of clamor, force the public to give credit to it. + +But, seemingly aware that comparing London with cities so +different in climate, position, language, etc., has rather an +unfair look, he says he will take cities of two adjoining +countries of the same race, and gives us the following table: + + _Austria, Rom. Cath. Prussia, Protestant._ + + Vienna, 51% Berlin, 18% + Prague, 47% Breslau 26% + Linz, 46% Cologne, 10% + Milan, 32% Konigsberg, 28% + Klagenfort, 56% Dantzig, 20% + Gratz, 65% Magdeburg 11% + Lembach, 47% Aix la Chapelle, 4% + Laybach, 38% Stettin, 13% + Zara, 30% Posen, 19% + Brunn, 22% Potsdam, 12% + +The only thing this table proves is, that in Prussia the two +Catholic cities of Cologne and Aix la Chapelle are better than +any of the Protestant ones. They show excellently well in the +Protestant column; but then the reader who is not well-posted or +observant might suppose that, being in Protestant Prussia, they +are Protestant cities. We can hardly suppose Mr. Seymour, who is +a traveller, to be ignorant of so well known a fact. And how +comes it that Protestant Prussia makes so poor a show alongside +of the pure and virtuous cities of Birmingham and Liverpool, +where there are "so many and varied temptations"? + +"If, then," he says, "the question of the comparative efficacy of +Romanism and Protestantism to restrain vice and immorality is to +be decided by the comparison of Austria and Prussia, we have as a +basis of a certain judgment this notable fact, that in ten cities +of Austria we find forty-five illegitimate births in the hundred, +and in ten cities of Prussia, sixteen only." We have seen what +this is worth. It seems to us that it would be more satisfactory +to compare Austria and Prussia at once than to pick out cities +here and there to suit one's purpose. And this seems to strike +our author; for he says, "They often assure us that some +Protestant countries, as Norway, Sweden, Saxony, Hanover, and +Wurtemberg are as demoralized as Roman Catholic countries. I +shall not deny the allegation; but if a profound demoralization +exists in some Protestant countries, that in Catholic countries +is much worse." Then he goes on in this style to make his +assertion good: + + _Protestant. Catholic._ + + Norway, 10% Styria, 24% + Sweden, 7% Up. & L. Austria, 25% + Saxony, 14% Carinthia, 35% + Denmark, 10% Salzburg, 22% + Hanover, 10% Prov. of Trieste, 23% + Wurtemberg, 12% Bavaria, 24% + +Here we have Styria, Upper and Lower Austria, Carinthia, +Salzburg, Trieste, which are not separate countries at all, but +simply the German provinces of the Austrian empire, and Bavaria, +compared with countries so different and wide apart as Norway, +Sweden, Saxony, Hanover, and Wurtemberg. This is tricky in the +extreme. Moreover, there is no reliance to be placed on the +figures which express their rate of illegitimacy, for a very good +reason. Marriage is forbidden to great numbers in German Austria +and Bavaria. "No person in Austria can marry if he does not know +how to read, write, and cipher." [Footnote 33] Besides, in both +countries, a man, before being permitted to marry, had to possess +a sum of money quite out of reach of a great many. _Appleton's +Cyclopaedia_ [Footnote 34] says, "In some German states the +obstacles to legal marriage are so great that numbers of people +prefer to live together in what would be perfectly legal wedlock +in Scotland and America, but is only concubinage by the local +laws of the state." + + [Footnote 33: _Alison_, vol. iii. chap, xxvii. 9.] + + [Footnote 34: Article Europe.] + +{59} + +They marry, but the state will not recognize the children as +legitimate, and the official registers are no criterion of the +real state of the case. Mr. J. D. Chambers says, [Footnote 35] +"In Bavaria, moreover, where the population is one-third +Protestant, there exists an atrocious state of law which forbids +marriage unless the contracting parties satisfy the authorities +that they are capable of maintaining a family without extraneous +aid. This, of course, leads to many secret marriages and illicit +connections, so that this country ought to be excepted from the +average." + + [Footnote 35: _Church and World_, 1867.] + +The Bavarians are as good a people as any in Germany, and it is a +shame to libel them. If countries are to be compared--and it is +the only fair and honest way to proceed--why not compare them in +a straightforward, obvious way--France and England, Prussia and +Austria--in fact, all the countries we can get the statistics of, +and show the result in a tabular form, so that we can understand +the _whole_ thing at a glance? This would effectually put a +stop to the cry of the vice of Catholic countries, which the +_Chicago Press_, of January 11th, declares to be "notorious +throughout the country." It is "notorious," because statements +like Seymour's, cooked up for a purpose, give rise to utterly +false conclusions, which are easily caught up and trumpeted, +through the pulpit and the press, all over the country. + +We shall now, leaving out Bavaria, for the reasons above given, +give the latest and best statistics, in respect to illegitimate +births, which it is possible to get. They are taken from the +journals of the Statistical Society of London of the years 1860, +1862, 1865, 1867, the principal portions being compiled by Mr. +Lumley, Honorary Secretary of the society, and contained in that +of 1862, to be seen in the Astor Library. It will be interesting +to the general reader, apart from its controversial bearings. + +In Prussia, we have statistics according to the religious creed +of the people. We shall, therefore, divide it into Catholic and +Protestant. We wish the same could be done for Holland and +Switzerland. Where there is a large minority differing from the +majority, it would be most interesting; but it cannot be done +except in Prussia. The number of illegitimate births in the +hundred is as follows, according to the latest accounts given: + + _Catholic Countries._ + + 1828-37, Kingdom of Sardinia, 2.1 + 1859, Spain, 5.6 + 1853, Tuscany 6. + 1858, Catholic Prussia, 6.1 + 1859, Belgium, 7.4 + 1856, Sicily, 7.4 + 1858, France, 7.8. + 1851, Austria, 9. + + + _Protestant Countries._ + + 1859, England and Wales, 6.5 + 1855, Norway, 9.3 + 1858, Protestant Prussia, 9.3 + 1855, Sweden 9.5 + 1855, Hanover, 9.9 + 1866, Scotland, 10.1 + 1855, Denmark, 11.5 + 1838-47, Iceland, 14. + 1858, Saxony, 16. + 1857, Wurtemberg, 16.1 + +Mixed countries, where the Catholic population approaches the +half: + + 1859, Holland, 4.1 + 1852, Switzerland, 6. + +Lest we be deemed to wish to conceal the depravity of Ireland, we +give what is given by Mr. J. D. Chambers, [Footnote 36] who +probably has access to the registrar's reports, which, of course, +we have not: + + 1865-66, Catholic Ireland, 3 + +and these, we remark, are _mostly in the north_, which is +Protestant. + + [Footnote 36: _Church and World_, 1867.] + +{60} + +The particulars of the statistics throw a good deal of light on +the morality of the different countries, for instance, in France +and England. The rate of illegitimacy in all + + England and Wales is 6.5 + London only 4.2 + Birmingham, 4.7 + Liverpool, 4.9 + +In spite of the "numerous and varied temptations" of the large +towns, the rate is much less in them than in the country, which +runs after this fashion: + + Nottingham, 8.9 + York, N. Riding, 8.9 + Salop, 9.8 + Westmoreland, 9.7 + Norfolk, 10.7 + Cumberland, 11.4 + +In France, it is just the other way. The rate is, + + In all France, 7.8 + In Paris, 27. + Urban districts, 12. + Rural districts 4.2 + La Vendée, 2.2 + Brittany, Dep't. Cote D'Or, 1.2 + +Brittany and La Vendee remained Catholic through the storm of the +French Revolution, and at this moment are thoroughly so. In +Austria, the rate is: whole empire, only 9; urban districts, from +25 to 65; therefore, rural districts cannot be more than 5 or 6. + +Prussia gives us, perhaps, the most conclusive test of the +effects of religion on morals; for the census has been carefully +taken according to creed, for many years, with uniform result +thus. There are over 11,000,000 Protestants, and over 7,000,000 +Catholics, principally in the Rhine provinces, Westphalia, and +Posen. [Footnote 37] The rate + + Among Catholics, 6.48 Among Protestants, 10.0 + Westphalia, 3.7 Prov. of Prussia, 6.7 + Rhineland, 3.3 Pomerania, 10.3 + Posen 6.8 Brandenburg, 12.0 + + [Footnote 37: _Historische Blätter_, 9th Heft, 1867.] + +Rev. T. W. Woolsey, of Yale College, New Haven, bears testimony +to this relative state of morals in regard to the kindred subject +of divorce, in an address before the Western Social Science +Convention, at Chicago, as follows: "We have made some +comparisons between the frequency of divorce in this country and +in other parts of Protestantism. Prussia had the reputation of +having the lowest system of divorce laws anywhere to be found. +But the ratio there of annual divorces to annual marriages in +1855 was, among non-Catholics, one to twenty-nine, or about 3.5 +per cent less than in Vermont or Ohio, and far less than in +Connecticut, where it is 9.6 per cent. The greatest ratio nearly +thirty years ago in the judicial districts of Prussia was 57 +divorces to 100,000 inhabitants; the least, 16 to 100,000: nay +more, in the Prussian Rhenish provinces, where the law is based +on the Code Napoleon, and where the Catholic inhabitants, being +numerous, must have some influence on the social habits of +Protestants, there were but four fair divorces to 100,000 +Protestants, or twenty-four in all among 600,000 of that class of +inhabitants. I write this in pain, being a Protestant, if, as the +Apostle Paul says, 'I may provoke to emulation them which are my +flesh, and might save some of them.'" + +Scotland might be supposed by our Protestant friends to be high +up on the list, having always been so completely under the +influence of the pure gospel of Calvin and Knox; but the rate for +Scotland is 10.1. + +In the Lowlands, where Presbyterianism carried all before it, the +rate is from 10 to 15. In the Highlands, which remained to a +considerable extent Catholic, the average is 5.6. + +{61} + +Supposing the immorality of the large cities, Protestant and +Catholic, to be the same, though it is pretty sure the Catholic +are much the best, and confining our comparison to the mass of +the rural population, which is the fairer test, and the countries +would stand in the following order, beginning with the most +favorable: + + Sardinia, Catholic. + Ireland, Catholic. + Holland, Mixed. + Spain, Catholic. + Switzerland, Mixed. + Tuscany, Catholic. + Catholic Prussia, Catholic. + Belgium, Catholic. + France, Catholic. + Sicily, Catholic. + Austria, Catholic. + England, Protestant. + Norway, Protestant. + Protestant Prussia. Protestant. + Scotland, Protestant. + Denmark, Protestant. + Sweden, Protestant. + Hanover, Protestant. + Iceland, Protestant. + Saxony, Protestant. + Wurtemberg, Protestant. + +Thus, to sum up, the Catholic countries of Europe, perhaps +without an exception, are above the Protestant, if the number of +illegitimate births is accepted as a criterion of morality. Could +we get the statistics of infanticide, and of a still more common +and destructive crime, foeticide, and add them to the above, then +we could form a more just idea of the benefit the Catholic +religion, with her divine ordinance of Confession, has conferred +on the human race. But of course it is impossible to determine +with exactness the amount of this crime which hides itself in +profound darkness; we can only conjecture from sure indications +that it is one of fearful magnitude. + +We need not go abroad; the evidence is at our own door. Take the +State of Rhode Island as a specimen. The number of children +annually receiving Catholic baptism exceeds the half of all the +children born in the State, although the Catholic population does +not exceed the third part; in other words, there are two +Protestants to every Catholic, and yet there are more Catholic +children born than Protestant. Illegitimacy is almost unknown +among Catholics, and the birthrate is at least 1 to 25, which +demonstrates that criminal abortion cannot exist to any extent +worth speaking of. The birth-rate among Protestants is i to over +50. What becomes of the children who ought to be born? Let Dr. +Storer speak: [Footnote 38] "Hardly a newspaper throughout the +land that does not contain their open and pointed advertisements. +... The profits that must be made from the sale of the drugs +supposed abortifacient, may be judged from the extent to which +they are advertised and the prices willingly paid for them." "We +are compelled to admit that Christianity itself, or, at least, +Protestantism, has failed to check the increase of criminal +abortion." [Footnote 39] To the same effect we have a writer in +Harper's very anti-popery Magazine: "We are shocked at the +destruction of human life upon the banks of the Ganges, as well +as on the shores of the South Sea Islands; but here in the heart +of Christendom, foeticide and infanticide are extensively +practised under the most aggravating circumstances. ... It should +be stated that believers in the Roman Catholic faith never resort +to any such practices; the strictly Americans are almost alone +guilty of such crimes." And Bishop Coxe, of the Protestant +Episcopal Church, has published to his people the following: "I +have hitherto warned my flock against the blood-guiltiness of +ante-natal infanticide. If any doubts existed heretofore as to +the propriety of my warnings on the subject, they must now +disappear before the fact that the world itself is beginning to +be horrified by the practical results of the sacrifices to Moloch +which defile our land." + + [Footnote 38: _Criminal Abortion_, p. 55.] + + [Footnote 39: Page 69.] + + +{62} + +How is it with Protestant England? Dr. Lankester, one of the +coroners of London, declares that there are 12,000 mothers in +London alone, guilty of infanticide. [Footnote 40] In Prussia, +Mr. J. Laing says that, "Chastity, the index virtue of the moral +condition of the people, is lower than in almost any part of +Europe." [Footnote 41] Let us look at home. Our attention has +been so diverted to the _vice and immorality_ of our +Catholic neighbors, that we have begun to imagine ourselves the +most moral, the most virtuous, the most enlightened people on the +face of the earth, while, in reality, we are fast getting to be +the most corrupt and abominable. It would be well to call to mind +a little oftener the saying of our Lord, "First pull the beam out +of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to pull the +mote out of thy brother's eye." + + [Footnote 40: _Church and World_, 1866, p. 57.] + + [Footnote 41: _Spald. Miscell_. p. 484.] + +We have thus exposed the untrustworthiness of Mr Seymour's +_Nights among the Romanists_. With the evidence before him, +he has kept back any honest and fair statement of it, and only +put forward such portion as would serve to substantiate an +utterly false conclusion, most injurious to us Catholics, both +religiously and personally; for we cannot be looked upon in the +mass as corrupt and vicious, without a great deal of personal +ill-will and contempt and hatred being engendered. + +We call the attention of the Rev. Mr. Bacon to this. He has taken +a noble stand against base and unfair practices in the +controversy with the Catholic Church, and we hope he will +persevere in spite of the opposition he has raised against +himself. We feel inclined to forgive him for some sins of his +own, in this respect; for example, in speaking of the "Tax-Book +of Roman Chancery," when Bishop England has so clearly shown it +to be a base forgery. We hope our exposure of Mr. Seymour will be +met in a generous and Christian spirit, and that he will promptly +disavow all connection with him as an _amende honorable_ for +having recommended him. + +We see, by _The Christian World_ of September, that the +American and Foreign Christian Union are going to reissue this +book, and we hope these "eminent and excellent" men, now that +their attention is called to it, will clean this out with the +rest of the filth of their Augean stable. And also the directors +of the American Tract Society are requested to consider seriously +whether defamation is exactly the most Christian weapon to fight +with, or the one most likely in the long run to overcome the +Catholic Church, and whether they should not withdraw from +circulation a book so damaging to their reputation as lights of +the pure Protestant Gospel, shining amongst the darkness and +moral corruptions of Popery. + +---------- + +{63} + + Heremore-Brandon; Or, + The Fortunes Of A Newsboy. + + + Chapter VIII. + + +As might have ben supposed, Dick was at Mr. Brandon's office long +before that gentleman made his appearance down-town. It was a +sultry morning, with occasional snatches of rain to make the +gloomy streets more gloomy, and the depressing atmosphere more +depressing. Mr. Brandon was sensitive to heat; he had no cool +summer retreat to go to in the evenings, and return from with a +rose in his button-hole in the mornings; and as, instead of being +grateful for the many years in which he had enjoyed this luxury, +he was disposed to consider himself decidedly ill-used in not +having it still, so soon as he found Dick waiting for him, he +began his repinings in the most querulous of all his tones: + +"Pretty hard on a man who has had his own country-place, and been +his own lord and master, to come down to this blistering old hole +every morning, isn't it, Mr. Heremore? Well, well, some people +have no feeling! There are those old nabobs who were hand and +glove with me, mighty glad of a dinner with me, and where are +they now? Do they come around with '_How are you, Brandon?_' +and invitations to _their_ dinners? Indeed not!" + +"Mr. Brandon, I have come to talk to you about some business," +began Dick, who had prepared a dozen introductions, all forgotten +at the needed moment; then abruptly, "Mr. Brandon, did you ever +hear my name, the name of _Heremore_ before?" + +It would be false to say that Mr. Brandon showed any emotion +beyond that of natural surprise at the abruptness of the +question; but it is safe to add that the surprise was very great, +almost exaggerated. He replied, coolly enough, as he hung up his +hat and sat down, wiping his face with his handkerchief: +"Heremore? It is not, so to say, a common name; and I may or may +not have heard it before. One who has been in the world so long +as I have, Mr. Heremore, can hardly be expected to know what +names he has or has not heard in the course of his life. I +suppose you ask for some especial reason." + +"I do," said Dick, a little staggered by the other's +unembarrassed reply, "Did you not once know a gentleman in +Wiltshire, called Dr. Heremore?" + +"This is close questioning from a young man in your position to +an old gentleman in mine, and I am slightly curious to know your +object in asking before I reply." + +"I believe you were married twice, Mr. Brandon, and that your +first wife's maiden name was Heremore?" + +"Well--and then?" + +"And that she died while you were away, believing you were dead; +and and that she had two children," said Dick, who began to feel +uneasy under the steady, smiling gaze of the other--"and that +she had two children, a son and a daughter." + +"Almost any one can tell you that my family consists of my first +wife's daughter, and two sons by my second wife. But that's of no +consequence. Two children, a son and a daughter, you were +saying." + +"Yes, two; although you may have been able to trace only one. She +died in great poverty, did she not?" + +{64} + +"I decline answering any questions, I am highly +flattered--charmed, indeed--at the interest you show in my +family by these remarks; and I can only regret that my fortunes +are now so low that I know of no way in which to prove my +grateful appreciation of the manner in which you must have +labored in order to know so much. In happier times, I might have +secured you a place in the police department; but unfortunately, +I am a ruined man, unable to assist any one at present." + +At this speech, which was delivered in the most languid manner, +and in a tone that was infinitely more insulting than the words, +Dick was on the point of thrusting his mother's letter before the +man's eyes, to show by what means he had obtained his knowledge; +but the cool words, the indifferent manner, had a great effect +upon our hero, who found it every moment more difficult to +believe in the theory that from the first had seemed so likely to +be the real one, and so he answered respectfully: + +"I assure you, I mean no rudeness to you, Mr. Brandon; but I am +engaged in the most serious business in the world, for me. I may +be mistaken in you, and shall not know how to atone for the +mistake, should I come to know it; but I hope you will be sure of +my respectful intention, however I may err." + +Mr. Brandon bowed, smiled, and played with his pen, as if the +conversation were drawing to a close. Dick, heated and more +embarrassed than ever, was obliged to recommence it. + +"But was not your first wife's name Heremore? I beg you to answer +me this one question, for all depends upon it." + +"A very sufficient reason why I should not answer it. But as you +to have something very interesting to disclose, perhaps we had +better imagine that her name was Heremore before it was Brandon. +Permit me to ask if, in that case, I am to own a relation in you? +I certainly cannot make such a connection as advantageous as I +could a year or so ago; but though I cannot prove the rich uncle +of the romances, I shall be glad to know what scion of my wife's +noble house I have the honor of addressing." + +It seems easy to have answered "_your son_" but the words +would not come. More and more the whole thing seemed a dream. +What! a man so hardened that he could sit before his own son, +whom by this time he must have known to be his son, and talk +after this fashion of his dead wife's house! Impossible! If, +then, he should tell his tale, and tell it to an unconcerned +listener, what a sacrilege he would commit! + +"A very near relative," Dick said at last. "I know that Dr. +Heremore's daughter married a Charles Brandon about twenty-five +years ago." + +"Ah! I see! And you thought there was but one Charles Brandon in +in the world! You see I shall have to learn a lesson in +politeness from you; for I could conceive that there should be +room in this world even two Richard Heremores." + +Poor Dick was silenced for the moment. He knew he was taking up +Mr. Brandon's time, and so the time of his employer. He walked up +and down the little office and thought it all over. Certain +passages in his mother's letter came to his mind. In this way, +perhaps, had her appeals been sneered at in the olden times! + +"Mr. Brandon," he said, standing in front of his tormentor, his +whole appearance changed from that of the hesitating, embarrassed +boy to the resolute, high-spirited man-- +"Mr. Brandon, there has been enough trifling. +{65} +I insist upon knowing if you were or were not the husband of Miss +Heremore. If you were not, it is a very simple thing to say so. +There are plenty of ways by which I can make myself certain of +the fact without your assistance; but out of consideration for +you, I came to you first." + +"I am deeply grateful," with a mock ceremonious bow. + +"But if you persist in this way of treating me, I shall have to +go elsewhere." + +"And then?" + +"Heaven knows I do not ask anything of you, beyond the +information I came to seek. I wondered yesterday why she should +have given me her father's name instead of mine; now I can +understand it. I had doubts while first speaking to you, but now +they are gone. I believe it is so. If you will not tell me as +much as you know of Dr. Heremore, I can go to his old home for +it. It would have saved me time and expense if you had answered +my questions; but as you please." + +He was clearly in earnest. Mr. Brandon saw it, and stopped him at +the door. + +"My wife's name _was_ Heremore," he said very indifferently, +"and her father has been dead these twenty years. You have your +answer. Permit me to ask what you mean to do about it?" + +"Dr. Heremore was my grandfather," said Dick, coming back and +sitting down. + +"Ah! indeed!" politely; "he was a very excellent old gentleman in +his way; it is much to be regretted that he and you should have +been unable to make each other's acquaintance." + +"When my mother--your first wife--died, you knew she left two +children." + +"One--a daughter. I think you have met her." + +"There were two. I was the other." + +"Are you quite sure?" asked Mr. Brandon in the same languid +tones; but, for the first time, it seemed to Dick that they +faltered. + +"I am quite sure. You would know her writing." + +"Possibly. It was a great while ago, and my eyes are not as good +as they were." + +"You would recognize her portrait?" + +"If one I had seen before, I might." + +"I should say this was a portrait of the first Mrs. Brandon," he +said, taking that which Dick handed him and, looking at it, not +without some signs of embarrassment, "or of someone very like +her. And this is not unlike her writing, as I remember it. Oh! +you wish me to read this?" + +Dick signed assent, watching him while he read. Whatever Mr. +Brandon felt while reading that letter, he kept it all in his own +heart. + +"This is all?" he asked when he had read and deliberately +refolded it. + +"It is all at present," answered Dick. + +Then Mr. Brandon arose, handed the paper back, and said very +quietly but deliberately: + +"My first wife is dead and gone; her daughter lives with me, and, +as long as I had the means, received every luxury she could +desire. The past is past, and I do not wish it revived. +Understand me. I do not wish it revived. I want to hear nothing +more, not a word more, on this subject. If I were rich as I once +was, I could understand why you should persist in this thing. I +am not yet so poor that the law cannot protect me from any +further persecution about the matter. Your mother, you say, named +you for your grandfather, not for me. +{66} +If you wish paternal advice--all that my poverty would enable me +to give, however I were disposed--I advise you to go for it to +her father, for whom she showed her judgment in naming you. Good +morning." + +"You cannot mean this! You must have known me as a child, and +known my name before, long, long ago, and surely consented to it, +or she would not have so named me. Of course, it was by some +mistake the Brandon was dropped at first, not by her, but by +those who took care of me when she died; she could never have +meant such a thing; it was undoubtedly an accident. You cannot +mean to end all here--that I am not to know, to see, my sister!" + +"I tell you I wish to hear not another word of this matter; do +you hear me? Have I not troubles enough now without your coming +to bring up the hateful past? You shall not add to your sister's, +whatever you may do to mine." + +"I insist upon seeing her." + +"You shall not. I positively forbid you to go near her. Now leave +me! I have borne enough." + +"But I cannot let the matter rest here; you know I cannot. The +idea of it is absurd! If you do not wish me for a son, I have no +desire to force myself upon you. I do not know why you should +refuse to own me; I am not conscious of any cause I have given +you to so dislike me." + +"I don't dislike you, nor do I like you particularly; I have no +ill-feeling against you, but I don't want this old matter dragged +up. I am not strong enough to bear persecution now." + +"But I do not want to persecute you. I want--" + +"Well, what _do_ you want?" + +"I hardly know. I may have had an idea that you would welcome +your oldest child after so many years of loss, however unworthy +of you he might be. I may have thought that if you once were not +all you should have been to one who, likely, was at one time very +dear to you, it might be a satisfaction to you, even at this late +day, to retrieve--" + +"You thought wrong, and it is not worth while wasting words on the +matter. I have got over all that, and don't want it revived. I +can't put you out, but I beg you to go; or, if you persist in +forcing your words upon me, pray choose some other subject." + +"I will go, since you so heartily desire it; but I warn you that +I will not give up seeing Miss--my sister." + +"As you please. You will get as little satisfaction there, I +fancy; though it may not be quite as annoying to her as to me." + +"I shall try, at all events." + +"Try. Go to her; say anything to her; make any arrangement with +her you choose; take her away altogether. I don't care a button +what you do, so you only leave me." + +"I will leave you willingly, and am indeed sorry to have put you +to so much pain." + +"Not a word, I pray you," answered Mr. Brandon, now polite and +smiling. "You have performed a disagreeable duty in the least +disagreeable way you could, I do not doubt. All I ask is, never +to hear it mentioned again." + +Dick stayed for no more ceremony. Glad to be released from such +an atmosphere of selfishness and cowardice, he hardly waited for +the answer to his good-morning before turning to the street. + +In less than an hour he was in the dreary room, with +_boarding-house_ stamped all over its walls, saying +good-morning to a stately young lady, very pale and +weary-looking, who kindly rose to receive him. +{67} +The little room was hot and close; there were no shutters to the +windows; the shades were too narrow at the sides; besides being +so unevenly put up that the eyes ached every time one turned +toward them, and the gleaming light was almost worse than the +heat. + +"I have been trying for the dozenth time to straighten them," +said Mary, drawing one down somewhat lower, "but it's of no use." + +"Are they crooked?" asked Dick innocently. + +"Well, yes, rather," answered Mary, smiling. "I think I never saw +anything before that was so near the perfection of crooked." + +"I have seen your father this morning," Dick began, taking a +chair near the table. + +"There is nothing the matter, I hope?" she questioned nervously. + +"Nothing that any one but myself need mind. I made some +discoveries about myself last evening that I would like to tell +you. Have you time?" + +"I have nothing to do. I shall be very glad if my attentive +listening can do you any service." She moved her chair, in a +quiet way, a little farther from his, and looked at him in some +surprise. She saw he was very earnest, excited, and greatly +embarrassed. She could not help seeing that his eyes were +anxiously following her every movement, eagerly trying to read +her face. + +"I am afraid I shall shock you very much, and you are not well; I +am sorry I came. I thought only of my own eagerness to see you; +not, until this moment, of the pain I may cause you." + +"Do not think of that. I do not think, Mr. Heremore, you are +likely to say anything that should pain me. I think you too +sensible--I mean, too gentlemanly for that." + +"I hope you really mean that. I am sure I must seem very rude and +unpolished in your eyes; but I would have been far more so, had +it not been for you." + +"For me?" + +"Yes." And he told her about the Christmas morning in Fourteenth +Street. + +"And you remembered that little thing all this time!" Mary +exclaimed. "And you were once a newsboy!" + +"Yes; I was once a great, stupid, ragged newsboy. I do not mean +to deny, to conceal anything. I am so very sorry, for your sake; +but I hope you will like me in spite of it all. If just those few +words and that one smile did so much for me, what is there your +influence may not do?" + +"Mr. Heremore, I do not in the least understand you." + +"I don't know where to begin; this has excited me so that I do +not know what I am saying, and now I wish almost that you might +never know it; there is such a difference between us that I +cannot tell how to begin." + +"Is it necessary that you should begin?" asked Mary. "You told me +you wished to speak to me, of some discoveries you had made in +regard to yourself. To anything about yourself I will listen with +interest; but I do not care to have anything said about myself; +there can be no connection between the two subjects that I can +see; so pray do not waste words on so poor a subject as myself; +but tell me the discovery, if you please." + +"But it concerns you as much as it does me. Do you know much +about your own mother? She died, you told me, long ago." + +"I know very little about her. I presume her death was a great +grief to papa; for he has never permitted a word to be said about +her, and anything that pains papa in that way is never alluded to. +{68} +The little I do know I have learned from my old nurse." + +"You do not remember her?" + +"Not in the least; she died when I was a mere baby." + +"Did you ever see her portrait, or any of her writing, or hear +her maiden name?" + +"No, to all your questions. Does papa know you are here, this +morning?" + +"Yes; I went to him at once. At first he was very determined I +should not see you; but in the end, he seemed glad to get me +silenced at any price, and I was so anxious to see you that I did +not wait for very cordial permission." + +"You did not talk to papa about my mother?" + +"Yes, that is what I went for." + +"How did you dare to do it? Was he not very angry? I am sure you +know something about mamma." + +"Yes, I do. I have her portrait; this is it." + +"Her portrait! My mamma's portrait! O what a beautiful face! Is +this really my mamma? Did papa see it? Did he recognize it?" + +"I showed it to him. He did not deny it was hers." + +"_Deny it was hers!_ What in the world do you mean, Mr. +Heremore? Where did you get it?" + +Then Dick, in the best way he could, told the whole story of the +box, and gave her the letter to read. When Mary came to the part +which said, "_Will you love your sister always, let what may be +her fate? Remember, always, she had no mother to guide her_," +she turned her eyes, full of tears, to Dick, saying no words. + +"She did not know that it would be the other way," Dick replied +to her look, his own eyes hardly dry. "She would have begged for +me if she had known that--" farther than this he could not get. +Mary put her hands in his, and said earnestly: + +"No need for that; her pleading comes just as it should. Will you +really be my brother--all wearied, sick, and worn-out as I am? +Oh! if this had only come two years ago, I could have been +something to you!" + +But Dick could not answer a word, He could only keep his eyes +upon her face; afraid, as it seemed, that it would suddenly prove +all a dream. + +But the day wore on and it did not prove less real. The heat and +the glaring light were forgotten, or not heeded, while the two +sat together and talked of this strange story, and tried to fill +up the outlines of their mother's history. + +"I feel as if our grandpapa were living, or, if not living, there +must be somebody who knows something about him," she said. + +"I think I ought to go and see. Mr. Staffs was very particular in +urging that." + +"I think so; even if you learned nothing, it would be a good +thing for you just to have tried." + +"I know I can get permission to stay away for a few days longer; +there's nothing doing at this season, Would it take long?" + +"I don't know much about it; not more than two days each way, I +should think. There is a steamer, too, that goes to Portland, and +you can find out if Wiltshire is near there. The steamer trip +would be splendid at this season. Are you a good sailor?" + +"I don't know. You have got a great ignoramus for a brother. I +have never been half a day's journey from New York in my life." + +"Is that so? Well, you must go to Portland. How you will enjoy +the strong, bracing sea-breezes; they make one feel a new life!" + +{69} + +Then suddenly Dick's face grew very red, but bright, and he said +eagerly: "Would you trust me--I mean could your father be +persuaded--would you be afraid to go with me?" + +"Oh! I wish I could! I would enjoy it as I never did a journey +before! Just to see the sea again, and with a brother! I can't +tell you how I have all my life envied girls with great, grown-up +brothers. Nobody else is ever like a brother. Fred and Joe are +younger than I, and have been away so much that they never seemed +like brothers. A journey with you on such a quest would be +something never to be forgotten." + +"It doesn't seem as if such a good thing could come to pass," +answered Dick. "I don't know anything about travelling; you would +have to train me; but if you will bear with me now, I will try +hard to learn. Do you think your father would listen to the +idea?" + +"No; he would not listen to ten words about it. He hates to be +troubled; he would never forgive me if I went into explanations +about an affair that did not please him; but if I say, 'Papa, I +am going away for a couple of weeks to New England, unless you +want me for something,' he will know where I am going, what for, +and will not mind, so he is not made to talk about it; that is +his way." + +"Will you really go, then, with me? You know I shall not know how +to treat you gallantly, like your grand beaux." + +"Ah! don't put on airs, Mr. Dick; you were not so very humble +before you knew our relationship. Remember, I have known you +long." + +"I wonder what you thought of me." + +"I thought a great deal of good of you; so did papa, so does Mr. +Ames." + +"You know Mr. Ames?" + +"Ah! very well indeed; he comes to see us every New Year's day; +he actually found us out this year, and I got to liking him more +than ever; he has come quite often since, and we talked of you; +he says you are a good boy. I am going to be _grande dame_ +to-day, and have lunch brought up for us two, unless Madame the +landlady is shocked." + +"Does that mean I have staid too long?" + +"No, indeed. Mrs. Grundy never interferes with people with clear +consciences, at least in civilized communities; in provincial +cities, and country towns she will not let you turn around except +as she pleases; that's the difference. There are no bells in this +establishment, or, if there are, nobody ever knew one to be +answered, so I will start on a raid and see what I can discover." + +In course of time she returned with a servant, who cleared the +little rickety table, and then disappeared, returning at the end +of half an hour with a very light lunch for two; but that was not +her fault, poor thing! + +Then hour after hour passed and still Dick could not leave her; +he had gone out and bought a guidebook, which required them to go +all over the route again, and there was so much of the past life +of each to be told and wondered at, that it was late in the +afternoon and Mr. Brandon's hand was on the door before Dick had +thought of leaving. Of course he must remain to see Mr. Brandon, +who, however, did not seem any too glad to see him. Nothing was +said in regard to the matter which had been all day under +discussion. Mr. Brandon talked of the news of the day, of the +weather, and the last book he had read, accompanied him to the +door, and shook hands with him quite cordially, to the surprise +of the landlady, who was peeping over the banisters in +expectation of high words between them. +{70} +Mr. Brandon even went so far as to speak of him as a very near +relative, as several of the boarders distinctly heard. Mr. +Brandon hated to be talked to on disagreeable subjects, but he +knew the world's ways all the same. + +"Come very early to-morrow morning," Mary said in a low voice as +they parted, "and I will let you know if I can go." + +Dick did not forget this parting charge, and early the next +morning had the happiness of hearing that her father had +consented to let her go. + +"Papa isn't as indifferent as he seems," she said. "When it is +all fixed and settled, he will treat you just as he does the rest +of us, only he hates a scene and explanations. I suppose he +_was_ unkind to poor mamma, and now hates to say a word +about it; but you may be sure he feels it. And now you must take +everything for granted, come and go just as if you had always +been at home with us, and he will take it so." + +"But what will people say?" + +"Why, we will tell the truth, only as simply as possible--as if +it were an everyday affair--that papa's first wife died while he +was away from home, and that when he returned from Paris, where +he says he was then, the people told him you were dead too. I +don't know why that old woman should have told such a story." + +"Nor I, but perhaps, poor, ignorant soul, she thought the boy was +better under her charge than given over to a 'Protestant,' who +had acted so like a heathen to the child's mother; but good as +was her motive, and perhaps her judgment, I hope she did not +really tell a lie about it, so peace to her soul. Who knows how +much Dick owes to her pious prayers?" + +A very proud and happy man was Dick in these days, when he +journeyed to Maine with his newly-found sister. It is true that +the change in Mr. Brandon's circumstances did not enable Mary to +have a new travelling suit for the occasion, and that she was +obliged to wear a last year's dress; but last year's dress was a +very elegant one, and almost "as good as new;" for Mary, fine +lady that she was, had the taste and grace of her station, and +deft fingers, quick and willing servants of her will, that would +do honor to any station; so her dress was all _à la mode_, +and Dick had reason to be proud of escorting her. She had, +however, something more than her dress of which to be proud, or +Dick would not have been so grateful for finding her his sister; +she had a kind heart, which enabled her always to answer readily +all who addressed her, to make her constantly cheerful with Dick, +and to keep everything smooth for the inexperienced traveller, +who otherwise would have suffered many mortifications; she had, +too, a womanly dignity, a sense of what was due to and from her, +not as Miss Brandon, but as a woman, which secured her from any +incivility and made her always gentle and considerate to every +one. Dick could never enough delight in the quiet, composed way +in which she received attentions which she never by a look +suggested; for the gentle firmness, the self-possession, the +quiet composure, the perfect courtesy of a refined and cultivated +woman were new things to him; and to say he loved the very ground +she walked on would be only a mild way of expressing the feeling +of his heart toward her. + +Added to all this, giving to everything else a greater charm, +Mary's mind was always alive; she had been thoroughly educated, +and had mingled all her life with intelligent and often +intellectual people, whose influence had enabled her to seek at +the proper fountains for entertainment and instruction. +{71} +Whatever passed before her eyes, she saw; and whatever she saw, +she thought about. In her turn, Mary already dearly loved her +brother; although two years younger than he, she was, as +generally happens at their age, much more mature, and she could +see, as if with more experienced eyes, what a true, honest heart, +what thorough desire to do right, what patience and what spirit, +too, there was in him, and again and again said to herself, "What +would he not have been under other circumstances!" But she +forgot, when saying that, that God knows how to suit the +circumstances to the character, and that Dick, not having +neglected his opportunities, had put his talent out to as great +interest as he could under other influences. There was much that +had to be broadened in his mind, great worlds of art and +literature for him to enter; but there was time enough for that +yet; he had a character formed to truth and earnestness, and had +proved himself patient and energetic at the proper times. It now +was time for new and refining influences to be brought to bear; +it was time for gentleness and courtesy to teach him the value of +pleasant manners and self-restraint; for the conversation of +cultivated people to teach him the value of intelligent thoughts +and suitable words in which to clothe them; for the knowledge of +other lives and other aims to teach him the value or the mistake +of his own. These things were unconsciously becoming clearer to +him every day that he was with his sister, who, I need hardly +say, never lectured, sermonized, or put essays into quotation +marks, but whose conversation was simple, refined, and +intelligent, whatever was its subject. Others greater than Mary +would come after her when her work was done, we may be sure; but +at the present time Dick was not in a state to be benefited by +such. + + + To Be Continued. + +---------- + +{72} + + When? + + + Come, gentle April showers, + And water my May flowers. + The violet-- + Blue, white, and yellow streaked with jet-- + Thickly in my bed are set; + Gay daffodillies, + Tulips and St. Joseph's lilies; + Bethlehem's star, + Gleaming through its leaves afar; + Merry crocuses, which quaff + Sunshine till they fairly laugh; + And that fragrant one so pale, + Meekest lily of the vale, + All are keeping whist, afraid + Of this late snow o'er them laid. + Come, then, gentle April showers, + And coax out my pretty flowers. + + I am tired of wintry days, + Have no longer heart to praise + Icicles and banks of snow. + When will dandelions blow, + And meadow-sweet, + And cowslips, dipping their cool feet + In little rills + Gushing from the mossy hills? + I am weary of this weather. + Vernal breezes, hasten hither, + Bringing in your dappled train, + Tearful sunshine, smiling rain, + And, to coax out all my flowers, + Fall, fall gently, April showers. + +---------- + +{73} + + + Translated From The French Of Le Correspondant. + + Influence Of Locality On The Duration Of Human Life. + + +In every place there are influences which are favorable or +unfavorable to the duration of human life. The nature of the +soil, the atmospheric changes, the variations of the temperature, +the position of one's abode with respect to the points of the +compass and its elevation above the level of the sea, act in a +powerful manner upon the organization. + +A vast forest is one the grandest, most enchanting and enlivening +scenes in nature. What an ineffable and touching harmony comes +from the varieties of foliage, and what a sweet perfume they lend +to the caressing breeze! What a soothing charm in their cool +shade, calming the fever of life, purifying the soul from all +passion, expanding and elevating the mind, and making man realize +more fully his celestial origin. All men who are endowed with +superior mental faculties have a natural and powerful inclination +for solitude--especially the solitude of a vast forest. The soft +light of its open spaces, the deep shades, the endless variety of +tones from the quivering leaves, the pungent sweetness of the +odors, the air full of vibrations and sparkling light, surround +and penetrate them. It seems to them a glimpse of a world of +mystery to which they have drawn near, and which harmonizes +perfectly with all the thoughts and feelings in which they love +to indulge. + +Not only persons capable of reading the divine lessons written on +space, love to wander in the shades of vast forests, but great +noble hearts that have been wounded, also find here a balm. The +soothing melancholy they drink in, the divine presence they feel, +fill up the void left by some charming illusion that has been +dispelled. There are special places where the air we breathe, and +every exterior influence, tend to nourish and develop not only +physical but intellectual life. A beneficent spirit seems to +watch over the safety of humanity and to promote its happiness. +The fluids, the emanations that surround us, penetrate our +organization and become a part of our being; and in consequence +of the wonderful sympathy between the body and soul, it is +evident that they also influence our intellectual faculties. + +Umbrageous forests are especially favorable to our existence; +trees are devoted and faithful friends that never reproach us for +their benefits, and their love is susceptible of no change, +Plants are for us a real panacea. They are the natural pharmacies +which Providence has established on earth for the prevention or +cure of our diseases. From their wood, barks, leaves, flowers, +and fruits, are exhaled essences which strengthen our organs, +purify the blood, and neutralize the noxious air around us. + +The history of all ages shows that those regions which are +favored with vast forests have always been healthy and propitious +to man; but where the forests have been cut down, those same +regions have become marshy and the source of deadly miasmas, The +marsh fevers which now prevail in certain parts of Asia Minor +render them uninhabitable. +{74} +Nevertheless, ancient authors speak of marshes of small extent, +but not of marsh fevers, because then the forests still remained. + +A thousand years ago, La Brenne was covered with woods, +interspersed with meadows. These meadows were watered by living +streams. It was then a country famous for the fertility of its +pastures and the mildness of its climate. Now the forests have +disappeared. La Brenne is gloomy, marshy, and unhealthy. The same +could be said of La Dombe, La Bresse, La Sologne, etc. + +The following is a permanent example exactly to the point. In the +Pontine marshes, a wood intercepts the current of damp air laden +with pestilential miasmas, rendering one side of it healthy, +while the other is filled with its destructive vapors. The places +where forests have disappeared seem as if inhabited by evil +genii, who eagerly seek to enter the human frame under the form +of fevers, cholera, diseases of the lungs and liver, rheumatism, +etc. For example, it is sufficient to breathe for only a few +seconds in certain regions of Madagascar, or some of the fatal +islands near by, for the whole organization to be instantly +seized with mortal symptoms. The most robust and vigorous young +man, who goes full of ardor to those shores with the hope of a +bright future, affected by these miasmas, feels as if dying with +the venom of the rattlesnake in his veins; and, if he recovers +from his agony, it is often to drag out in sorrow the small +remnant of his days. How many unfortunate people of this class +have I not met during my voyage in the Indian Ocean. What a +sacrilege to think of destroying these delicious and mysterious +forests, with their atmosphere full of celestial vibrations, and +their divine orchestra, where the breeze murmurs in a thousand +tones the hymn which reveals the Creator to the creature! Every +sorrow is soothed in the depths of those beneficent shades. There +the soul, as well as the body, finds a repose which regenerates +it. The divinity descends; we feel its presence. It moves us to +the depths of our souls. It caresses us like the breath of the +mother we adore! + +Man may live to an advanced age in almost every climate, in the +torrid as well as the frigid zone; but he cannot everywhere +attain the utmost limit of human life. The examples of extreme +longevity are more common in some countries than in others. +Although, in general, a northern climate may be favorable to long +life, too great a degree of cold is injurious. In Iceland, in the +north of Asia--that is, in Siberia--man lives, at the longest, +but sixty or seventy years. The countries where people of the +most advanced age have been found, of late years, are Sweden, +Norway, Denmark, and England. Individuals of one hundred and +thirty, one hundred and forty, and one hundred and fifty years of +age, have been found there. Ireland shares with England and +Scotland the reputation of being favorable to the duration of +life. More than eighty persons above fourscore years of age have +been found in a single small village of that country, called +Dumsford. Bacon said that he did not think you could mention a +single village of that country where there was not to be found at +least one octogenarian. Examples of longevity are more rare in +France, in Italy, and especially in Spain. Some cantons of +Hungary are noted for the advanced age to which their inhabitants +attain. Germany also has a good many old people, but few who live +to a remarkable age. Only a small number are to be found in +Holland. It is seldom that any one reaches the age of one hundred +in that country. +{75} +The climate of Greece, which is as healthy as it is agreeable, is +considered now, as it formerly was, favorable to longevity. The +island of Naxos is specially noted in this respect. It was +generally admitted in Greece that the air of Attica disposed +those who breathed it to philosophy. + +Examples of longevity are to be found in Egypt, and in the East +Indies, principally in the caste of Brahmins and among the +anchorets and hermits, who, unlike the rest of the inhabitants, +do not abandon themselves to indolence and excesses of every +kind. + +A careful computation of the comparative longevity, in the +different departments of France, has been made for 1860 and the +preceding years. The medium annual number of deaths in France, at +the age of one hundred years and upward, is 148. The following +fifteen _départements_, given in decreasing order, are those +which have the greatest number: Basses-Pyrenees, Dordogne, +Calvados, Gers, Puy-de-Dôme, Ariége, Aveyron, Gironde, Landes, +Lot, Ardèche, Cantal, Doubs, Seine, Tarn-et-Garonne. It will be +seen that a great number of mountainous districts are to be found +in these departments. It is surprising to see that of _la +Seine_ on this list. Nevertheless these departments do not +hold the same rank in respect to the ordinary duration of life; +which would seem to prove that some examples of extreme longevity +are not a sufficient index that a country is favorable to long +life. I give their numbers in order: Basses-Pyrénées, 7; +Dordogne, 42; Calvados, 2; Gers, 9; Puy-de-Dôme, 30; Ariége, 48; +Aveyron, 34; Gironde, 18; Landes, 52; Lot, 33; Ardèche, 43; +Cantal, 23; Doubs, 25; Seine, 53; Tarn-et-Garonne, 13. + +The fifteen departments in which ordinary life is most prolonged +are: Orne, Calvados, Eure-et-Loir, Sarthe, Eure, Lot-et-Garonne, +Deux-Sèvres, Indre-et-Loire, Basses-Pyrenees, Maine-et-Loire, +Ardennes, Gers, Aube, Hautes-Pyrenees, et Haute-Garonne. + +It is evident that places need not be very remote from each other +to produce a different influence on the duration of life. + +That cold is injurious to the nerves, remarks M. Reveille-Parise, +is a truth almost as old as the medical art. A low temperature +produces not only a painful effect upon the skin, but it benumbs +and paralyzes the nerves of the extremities, and diminishes the +circulation of the fluids, and this gives rise to all sorts of +diseases. + +Men of intellectual pursuits, having an extremely nervous +susceptibility, are particularly affected by change of +temperature. It is not surprising, then, to find that the mental +faculties have attained their utmost degree of perfection in +certain climates. Choice natures, such as poets and other men of +genius, only produce the finest fruit under the influence of an +ardent sun and a pure and brilliant atmosphere. It is only in +warm and temperate climates that nature and life are most lavish +of their treasures; there we find genuine creations; elsewhere +are imitations only, with the exception of the physical sciences, +which depend on continued observation. It is remarkable that, if +the men of the North have conquered the South, the opinions of +the South have always held sway in the North. Besides, fertility +of the soil and a mild temperature set man free, in southern +countries, from all present care and all anxiety respecting the +future, and infuse that blissful serenity of soul so favorable to +the flights of the imagination. In the misty climate of the +north, he has to struggle incessantly against the influence of +the weather, which so greatly diminishes the powers of the mind. +{76} +This struggle is almost always a disadvantage to the minds of +men, who are particularly impressible and often reduced to a +state of muscular enervation. Cold, dampness, fogs, violent +winds, sudden changes of temperature, frequent rains, endless +winters, uncertain summers with their storms and unhealthy +exhalations, are fearful enemies to an organization which is +delicate, nervous, irritable, suffering, and exhausted. + +The state of the atmosphere, then, acts powerfully on the mental +faculties. There are really days when the mind is not clear. The +thoughts, sometimes so free and abundant, are suddenly arrested. +The sources of the imagination are expanded and contracted +according to the degrees of the barometer and thermometer. The +different seasons of the year have more influence than may be +thought, upon the master-pieces of art, upon the affections, the +events of life and even upon political catastrophes. History +relates that Chancellor de Cheverny warned President de Thou that +if the Duke de Guise irritated the mind of Henry III during a +frost, (which rendered him furious,) the king would have him +assassinated; and this really happened on the twenty-third of +December, 1588. + +The Duchess d'Abrantès says: + + "Napoleon could not endure the least cold without immediate + suffering. He had fires made in the month of July, and did not + understand why others were not equally affected by the least + wind from the northeast. It was Napoleon's nature to love air + and exercise. The privation of these two things threw him into + a violent condition. The state of the weather could be + perceived by the temper he displayed at dinner. If rain or any + other cause had prevented him from taking his accustomed walk, + he was not only cross but suffering." + +We read in the Journal of Eugénie de Guerin: + + "With the rain, cold winds, wintry skies, the nightingales + singing from time to time under the dead leaves, we have a + gloomy month of May. I wish my soul were not so much influenced + by the state of the atmosphere and variations of the seasons, + as to be like a flower that opens or closes with the cold and + the sun. It is something I do not understand, but so it is as + long as my soul is imprisoned in this frail body." + +Ask the poets, artists, and men of thought, if a lively feeling +of energy and of joy, prompting to action and labor; or, +otherwise, if a certain state languor--of strange and undefinable +uneasiness--does not make them dependent on the state of the +atmosphere. + +It may be considered, then, as an established principle, that a +temperate climate, mild seasons, and pure air constantly, renewed +constitute not only the highest physical enjoyment but the +indispensable conditions of health. + +The physical character of places has a truly astonishing effect +upon man. A distinguished traveller, M. Trémaux, has endeavored +to prove, in several _mémoires_ to the Académie des +Sciences, that man be changed from the Caucasian to the negro +type simply by this influence. He calls attention to the +coincidences that exist between the physical types and the +geological nature of the countries acting especially through +their products. The least perfect, or rather, the type which is +farthest removed from our own, belongs to the oldest lands, and, +in a subsidiary manner, to climates the least favored. The most +perfect belongs to the countries which, within the smallest +limits, offer the greatest variety of formations, allowing the +most recent to predominate, and, in a subsidiary manner, to the +most favored climates. The type is also influenced by other +causes of a more secondary nature which are very complex. + +{77} + +The geological chart of Europe, says Mr. Trémaux, shows that the +greatest surface of primitive rock formations is in Lapland, +which possesses also the most inferior people; going to the south +of Scandinavia, gneiss and granite occupy also a great part of +the country, but that region is also connected with others more +varied. It contains many lakes, and its climate is more favored, +as well as its inhabitants. As to the Scandinavians of Denmark, +they have a purely Germanic type and are, in effect, upon the +same soil. + +Russia possesses different formations of a medium age, but the +extended surface of each kind does not permit its people to +profit by the resources of those adjoining, and, consequently, +they are but indifferently favored. If we turn to the countries +which are in the best condition, we distinguish in general all +the west and south of Europe, and more particularly France, +Italy, Greece, the eastern part of Spain, and the north-east of +England. It is here, in truth, that civilization and the +intellectual faculties have most sway. + +Race does not change while it remains upon the same soil and +under the same natural influences; whereas, it is gradually +modified, according to its new position, when it is removed to +another place. + +The physical influences of a region, and of mixture of race, have +a distinct manner of acting. By cross-breeding, the features are +at once strongly modified in individuals, but especially +according to the region in which it takes place. Thus, in Europe, +the mixed race is more strongly inclined to the type of the white +man; in Soudan, to that of the negro. A type seems to be more +readily improved than degenerated. The physical character of a +place does not act in detail, but in a general manner, beginning +by modifying the complexion more and more in each generation. It +acts less quickly upon the hair, and more slowly still upon the +features. Cross-breeding is considered the principal modifying +agent only because its effects are at once perceptible, but it +can explain evident facts only in an imperfect manner. + +The elevation of a place above the level of the sea has a radical +influence upon phthisis. With the design of indicating the +regions and the degrees of elevation within which this malady is +rare or completely unknown, Dr. Schnepp has made a compilation +from a series of meteorological observations, made in the +Pyrenees and at Eaux Bonnes, and from analogous documents +furnished by travellers who have lived upon the elevated and +inhabited plateaux of the old and new world. + +The document on this subject which he sent to the Academy of +Sciences shows that, in the choice of a healthy locality for +invalids, people are too exclusively influenced by a warm +temperature, disregarding the more formal indications of nature +in distributing the maladies of the human race over the surface +of the globe. For instance, phthisis exists in the tropical zone. +In Brazil, it causes one fifth of the cases of mortality; in +Peru, three tenths, and in the Antilles, from six to seven, in +every thousand inhabitants. In the East Indies, the greater part +of the English physicians report, among the causes of death, two +cases from phthisis to every thousand people. In the temperate +zones, phthisis is one of the most devastating of diseases. It +generally attacks from three to four in every thousand +inhabitants. The three countries in which it was not to be found, +Algiers, Egypt, and the Russian steppes of Kirghis, have also +been invaded by it, although in a smaller proportion, In Algeria, +the deaths from phthisis are, to those from other causes, in the +proportion of one to every twenty-four or twenty-seven; in Egypt, +in the proportion of one to eight. + +{78} + +This old malady becomes more rare as we approach the higher +latitudes. It is supposed not to exist at all in Siberia, in +Iceland, and in the Faroe Islands. Thus, diseases of the lungs +seem to be more rare in certain cold countries than in warm +countries. It is also observed that at a certain altitude the +number of cases greatly diminish, and even completely disappear. +Brockman testifies that phthisis is rare on the plateaux of the +Hartz mountains at the height of two thousand feet above the +level of the sea; and C. Fuchs, stating the same fact concerning +certain elevations in Thuringia and the Black Forest, was the +first to advance the theory that phthisis diminishes according to +certain altitudes. + +Dr. Brüggens, also, has since testified to the infrequency of +this disease in the Swiss Alps, at the height of 4500 to 6000 +feet in the Engaddine; nor is it found among the monks of the +Great Saint Bernard at the altitude of 6825 feet. According to M. +Lombard, it completely disappears among these mountains at the +height of 4500 feet. + +The populous cities of the American continent, which are situated +in the tropical zone at an altitude of six thousand feet above +the level of the sea, are exempt from lung diseases; although, in +the same latitude, phthisis is common in lower regions, This +immunity exists on the other hemisphere in the same zone--on the +elevated plateaux of Hindostan and the Himalaya. In examining the +state of the climate on the heights in which phthisis is seldom +or never found, we find there, even on the equator, a medium +temperature sufficiently low throughout the year; between twelve +and fifteen degrees on the heights below 9000 feet; between three +and five degrees on those between 9000 and 12,000 feet. + +In the temperate zone it is still lower. But the warmest months +upon tropical heights do not vary more than six or eight degrees +from the medium temperature. It is the same on the plateaux of +the Alps and in Iceland, and is a general and common +characteristic of the regions in which phthisis is not found. The +deviations below the annual medium, appear even to increase this +immunity. If sufficient observations have not been made to decide +upon the degree of comparative humidity on the heights above +12,000 feet, we know that the elevation at which phthisis is +wanting, is in a hygrometrical condition more nearly approaching +saturation than the lower regions, and that the rains are also +more abundant there. + +It is desirable that the heights of Cévennes, the Pyrenees, the +Alps, and, above all, the elevated parts of our Algerian +possessions should be carefully studied, with a view to the +treatment of lung diseases, which are the great scourge of the +human race, and which annually cause the death of more than three +millions of its number. + +It is useful, not only to study different countries with respect +to their salubrity, but also to observe the different situations +in the same locality, and the different quarters of the same +city. M. Junod presented to the Academy of Sciences, some years +since, an essay on this subject, which is full of interest. In +considering the distribution of the population in large cities, +we are struck by the tendency of the wealthy class to move toward +the western portions, abandoning the opposite side to the +industrial pursuits, It seems to have divined, by a kind of +intuition, the locality which would have the greatest immunity in +the time of sore public calamities. +{79} +For example, let us speak first of Paris. From the foundation of +the city, the opulent class has constantly directed its course +toward the west. It is the same in London, and generally, in all +the cities of England. At Vienna, Berlin, St. Petersburg, and, +indeed, in all the capitals of Europe, this same fact is +repeated; there is the same movement of the rich toward the west, +where are assembled the palaces of the kings, and the dwellings +for which only pleasant and healthy sites are desired. + +In visiting the ruins of Pompeii and other ancient cities, I have +observed, as well as M. Junod, that this custom dates from the +highest antiquity. In those cities, as is seen at Paris in our +day, the largest cemeteries are found in the eastern parts, and +generally none in the western. M. Junod, examining the reason of +so general a fact, thinks it is connected with _atmospheric +pressure_. When the mercury in the barometer rises, the smoke +and injurious emanations are quickly dispelled in the air. When +the mercury lowers, we see the smoke and noxious vapors remain in +the apartments and near the surface of the earth. Now every one +knows that, of all winds, that from the east causes the mercury +in the barometer to rise the highest, and that which lowers it +most is from the west. When the latter blows, it carries with it +all the deleterious gases it meets in its course from the west. +The result is, that the inhabitants of the eastern parts of a +city not only have their own smoke and miasmas, but also those of +the western parts, brought by the west wind. When, on the +contrary, the east wind blows, it purifies the air by causing the +injurious emanations to rise, so that they cannot be thrown back +upon the west. It is evident, then, that the inhabitants of the +western parts receive pure air from whatever quarter of the +horizon it comes. We will add, that the west wind is most +prevalent, and the west end receives it all fresh from the +country. + +From the foregoing facts, M. Junod lays down the following +directions: First, persons who are free to choose, especially +those of delicate health, should reside in the western part of a +city. Secondly, for the same reason, all the establishments that +send forth vapors or injurious gases should be in the eastern +part. Thirdly and finally, in erecting a house in the city, and +even in the country, the kitchen should be on the eastern side, +as well as all the out-houses from which unhealthy emanations +might spread into the apartments. + +M. Elie de Beaumont has since mentioned some facts which tend to +prove the constancy and generality of the rule laid down by M. +Junod. He noticed in most of the large cities this tendency of +the wealthy class to move to the same side--generally, the +western--unless hindered by certain local obstacles. Turin, +Liége, and Caen are examples of this. M. Moquin-Tandon has +observed the same thing at Montpellier and at Toulouse. Paris and +London also present analogous facts, although the rivers which +traverse those two great centres flow in a diametrically +different direction. Paris increased in a north-easterly +direction at the time when the Bastille, the Palais des +Tournelles, the Hotel St. Paul, etc., were built; but the +inhabitants were then influenced by fear of the aggressive +Normans, whose fleets ascended the Seine as far as Paris, and +were only arrested by the Pont-au-Change. At that time, and as +long as this fear lasted, they must have felt unwilling to live +in Auteuil or Grenelle, But since the foundation of the Louvre, +and especially since the reign of Henri Quatre, the current has +resumed its normal direction. +{80} +M. Elie de Beaumont is inclined to believe that, among the causes +of this phenomenon, we should reckon the temperature and the +hygrometrical state of the air, which is generally warmer and +more moist during the winds from the west and south-west than +during the east and north-east winds. + +What most contributes to prolong existence is a certain +uniformity in heat and cold, and in the density and rarity of the +atmosphere. This is why the countries in which the barometer and +thermometer are subject to sudden and considerable changes are +never favorable to the duration of life. They may be healthy, and +man may live a long time there; but he will never attain a very +advanced age, because the variations of the atmosphere produce +many interior changes which consume, to a surprising degree, both +the strength and the organs of life. + +Too much dryness or too much humidity are equally injurious to +the duration of life; yet the air most favorable to longevity is +that which contains a certain quantity of water in dissolution. +Moist air being already partly saturated, absorbs less from the +body, and does not consume it as soon as a dry atmosphere; it +keeps the organs a longer time in a state of suppleness and +vigor; while a dry atmosphere dries up the fibres and hastens the +approach of old age. It is for this reason, doubtless, that +islands and peninsulas have always been favorable to old age. Man +lives longer there than in the same latitude upon continents. +Islands and peninsulas, especially in warm climates, generally +offer everything that contributes to a long life: purity of air, +a moist atmosphere, a temperature often at one's choice, +wholesome fruit, clear water, and a climate almost unvariable. I +had an opportunity, long desired, of traversing the ocean as far +the Tristan Islands, and of returning to the Indian Ocean by +doubling the Cape of Good Hope with a captain who wished to +observe the different islands on the way. I was thus able, in +going as well as returning, to visit these numerous islands, and +I can speak of them from reasonable observation. But it is +sufficient to mention, from a hygienic point of view, the Isle of +Bourbon, (where I lived for many years,) to give an idea of the +sanitary condition of islands in general. Like most isles, the +Isle of Bourbon has a form more or less pyramidal. The shore, +almost on a level with the sea, is the part principally +inhabited. There are few villages in the interior of the island, +but many private residences. The temperature on the shore, though +very high, is less intense than is supposed: the medium +temperature being between 40° and 50°. The sea and land breezes, +which succeed each other morning and evening, refresh the +atmosphere and maintain a healthy moisture. It hardly ever rains +except during the winter, Besides, it is very easy to choose the +temperature one prefers. As the mountains are very lofty, they +afford every season at once. On the summit are seen snow and ice, +while at the foot the heat is tropical; so that it is sufficient +to ascend for ten or fifteen minutes to find a marked change of +temperature, And the colonists of but little wealth are careful +to profit by this precious favor of nature. They select two or +three habitations at different heights, in order to enjoy a +continual spring, During the cool season, they reside on the +sea-shore. Then they go to their dwelling a little above, where +the temperature is mild. And in the hot season, they ascend to +still higher regions. + +It is impossible to express the pleasure of thus having several +dwellings at one's choice, in some one of which desirable +temperature can be enjoyed in any season. +{81} +I had three: one at St. Denis, capital of the colony, one at La +Rivière-des-Pluies, and another at La Ressource. La +Rivière-des-Pluies, belonging to M. Desbassayns, a venerable old +man and president of the general council, is the finest situation +on the island. It was formerly called the Versailles of Bourbon. +I inhabited a summer-house above which the surrounding trees +crossed their tufted branches, forming a dome of verdure in which +the birds came to warble. Regular alleys, extending as far as the +eye could reach, formed by superb mango-trees, were enclosed by +parterres, groves, gardens, woods, and all the surroundings of a +small village. Each large habitation in the colony had every +resource within itself, and was the faithful copy of the old +feudal castles. + +La Ressource, a dwelling for the hottest season, belonging also +to M. Desbassayns, presented another kind of beauty. There was +less artistic luxury about it, but nature had lavished on it all +her splendor. After dinner, admiring the panorama which was +spread out as far as the horizon, I remarked to M. Desbassayns +that I did not believe it possible for the entire world of nature +to furnish a more beautiful perspective. "I have travelled a +great deal," said he, "and in truth I have never seen anything +like it, not even from the most magnificent points of view in +America." The venerable old man then took me by the arm and +invited me to visit his estate. He made me first look at his +woods, with their tufted foliage; the cane-fields; the deep +ravines; the streams, with their windings rising one above the +other in such a manner that the lower ones were perfectly +visible, and extending in successive circuits more or less varied +to the shore of the sea, which gleamed like a mirror as far as +the eye could reach, and upon the azure surface of which stood +clearly out, like silver clouds, the white sails from all parts +of the world which had given each other _rendezvous_ here, +and were constantly approaching this isle of lava, flowers, +shadows, and light, which they had taken as the centre of +_réunion_. + +He made me afterward notice the verdant fields which had formerly +belonged to the parents of Virginia, the heroine of the romance +of Bernardin de St. Pierre. He related to me the true history of +Virginia, who was his cousin. Her death happened nearly as +described by the celebrated romancer. He made me notice, upon his +genealogical tree, the branch that bore upon one of its leaves +the name of Virginia! + +M. Desbassayns had promised me some reliable notes respecting +her, and I was glad to offer them to my illustrious friend, Count +Alfred de Vigny, who, in giving me a farewell embrace, had +commissioned me to bear his most tender expressions of love to +the region which had inspired the touching narrative of St. +Pierre. But alas! remorseless death warns us to remember the +uncertainty of life, even when everything disposes us to forget +it. + +He took me to one after another of the most interesting trees, +particularly to the _arbre du voyageur_, a kind of banana, +the leaves of which are inserted within one another like those of +the iris, so as to form, at the height of eight or nine feet, a +vast fan. Rain-water, and particularly dew, accumulates at the +bottom of these leaves, as in a natural cup, and is kept very +fresh; and if the base is pierced with a narrow blade, the liquid +will flow out in a thread-like stream, which it is easy to +receive in the mouth. The venerable old man opened one of their +vegetable veins by way of example, and I soon lanced a great +number of these providential trees, and refreshed myself with +their limpid streams. + +{82} + +Finally, he conducted me by a narrow path to the edge of a deep +ravine in which flowed an abundant torrent, forming capricious +cascades as it wound its way. After passing over a rustic bridge, +an admirable spectacle was presented to our view. An alley was +formed through a wilderness of bamboos, so sombre, so narrow, and +high, that it would be difficult to give an idea of it. It was as +if pierced through a forest of gigantic pipes; and when they were +agitated by a storm, they produced a harmony so plaintive, so +languid, and at the same time so terrible and full of poetry, +that I often passed the entire night in listening to it. I am not +astonished by what is related of these tall and sonorous +_culms_. + +In those fortunate countries that are shaded by the bamboo, it is +said that happy lovers and suffering souls make holes in these +long pipes and combine them in such a way that, when the wind +blows, they give out a faithful expression of their joy or their +grief. Nothing is sweeter than the tones that are thus produced +by the evening breeze which attunes these harmonious reeds, +rendering them at once aeolian harps and flutes. As soon as I +found out this magical pathway, I betook myself there every day +at the dawn, to read, to meditate, and to take notes till the +hour of dinner. The next day after this visit, I had the +curiosity to destroy one of the _arbre du voyageur_. It +inundated me with its fresh stream, but I came near being +punished for this profanation of nature, at the moment I expected +it the least. A most formidable centipede escaped from the +splinters which I made fly, and only lacked a little of falling +directly on my face. M. Desbassayns was greatly astonished to see +it; for it is generally believed, he said, that these venomous +insects avoid this beneficent tree. + +The enchanting heavens of that privileged region are always +serene, and the air is so pure that no gray tint ever appears on +the horizon; the mountains, hills, meadows, every remote object +indeed, instead of fading away in a dim atmosphere, beam out +against a sky of cloudless azure. This is what renders the +equatorial nights so resplendent. The astonished eye thinks it +beholds a new heavens and new stars. How charming is the +moonlight that comes in showers of light through a thousand +quivering leaves which murmur in the breath of the perfumed +breeze! and when to that is joined the far-off moan of the sea, +and the sounds that escape from the ivory keys or resounding +chords, which accompany the sweet accents of a Creole voice, we +feel as if in one of those islands of bliss which surpass the +imagination of the poets. + +One of the things that travellers have not sufficiently noticed, +and which gives us a kind of homesickness for that beautiful +region, is the enchanting harmony which results from the noise of +the sea and the murmur of the breeze in the different kinds of +foliage, a harmony which calms the agitation of the soul as well +as the fever of the body. As there is every variety of +temperature, so there is a great variety of trees. There is one +especially remarkable, namely, the _pandanus_, which +resembles both the pine and the weeping willow, Its summit is +lost in the blue sky, and its numerous branches, borne by a +pliant and elegant stem, support large tassels of leaves, long, +cylindrical, and fine as hair; and when the breeze makes them +tremble in its breath, they murmur in plaintive melancholy notes +that, when once heard, we long to hear again and again. + +{83} + +The cocoanut or palm-trees, with their leaves long, hard, and +shining like steel, give out a sound like the clash of arms. The +gigantic leaves of the banana are the echo of the voice of an +overflowing torrent, piercing the air like the vast pipes of an +organ. The bamboos, with their tall reeds which moan and grind as +they bend, uttering long groans which, mingling with the tones, +the wailing, and the murmurs of a thousand other kinds of +foliage, with the deep roar of the agitated sea afar off, and the +sound of the waves breaking on the shore, form an immense natural +orchestra, the varied sounds of which, rising toward heaven, seem +to bear with them, in accents without number, all the joys and +all the griefs of the world. + +These trees with their tall, slender stems, and thick foliage, +are continually bending in the incessant breeze, In the brilliant +light of that climate their shadow looks black; and, as it is +continually moving, you would think everything animate, and that +sylphs and fairies were issuing forth on all sides. + +There is a constant succession of flowers with the strongest +perfume; and when those of the wood are in bloom, you would think +that every blade of grass, every leaf and every drop of dew gave +out an essence which the wind, in passing, absorbed in order to +perfume with it the happy dwellers in this Eden. + +Those enchanted regions have inhabitants worthy of their abode. +The hospitality of the Creoles is proverbial. Every family is +glad to receive the stranger and soon considers him as a friend +and brother. The Creole women have the elegance of their +palm-trees. They are as fresh and blooming as the corolla that +expands at the dawn. Their kind courtesy envelops you like the +penetrating odors which come from the wonderful vegetation that +surrounds them. A Frenchman who meets another Frenchman in these +far-off countries regards him as a part of France which has come +to smile an him, and the intimacy, which is formed, is +indissoluble. + +The traveller can never forget the touching scenes of the +_varangue_, the enchanting evenings passed there, and the +joyous cup of friendship there interchanged; sweet emotions +contributing to longevity more than is commonly believed. + +One finds one's self in that fortunate land surrounded by +hygienical influences which are most favorable to a long life. +Let us add that the alimentary productions are of the first +quality. The water in the stony basins is limpid, and the +succulent fruits are varied enough to almost suffice for the +nourishment of the inhabitants. How can one be a favorite of +fortune and a prey to spleen without going to visit these places, +which exhale a sovereign balm? + +Nevertheless, under that sky brilliant with pure light, in that +atmosphere of freshness of perfume and of harmony, it seemed to +me that a tint of infinite melancholy was everywhere diffused. I +regarded the glorious sky, I listened to the trembling foliage, I +breathed the penetrating odors, but something was everywhere +wanting. When I sought what it was that I missed, I found it was +the trees of my native land, which do not grow in every zone, and +where they do grow are not so fine as here. I instinctively +sought the wide-spreading oak, the lofty walnut, the chestnut +with its tender verdure, the tall slender poplar, the modest +willow, and the birch with its light shadow. I recalled the odor +of their foliage, associated with my dearest remembrances, but in +vain. I felt then an immense and inexpressible void that nothing +could fill, and tears naturally sprang from these vague and +profound impressions. +{84} +I hungered, I thirsted for the odor of the trees that had +overshadowed my infancy--an insatiable hunger, a thirst nothing +could satisfy. On returning from that remote voyage, especially +during the first weeks, I went to the nursery of the Luxembourg, +(alas! poor nursery!) I sought the fresh shades of the Bois de +Boulogne, and there, during long rambles, I crushed the leaves in +my hands and inhaled the perfume they gave out. I felt my lungs +expand, as if a new life was infused into them with the odor I +breathed. This invisible aliment which we derive from the +exhalations of the plants to which we have been accustomed from +infancy, had become for me an absolute necessity, a condition of +health. + +A climate, a country may not at all times be favorable to +longevity, or at all times unhealthy. The predominance of one +industrial pursuit over another, the choice of one material +instead of another for building houses, or a sudden change in the +general habits, necessarily modifies, in a great degree, the +conditions of longevity. This is what has happened in the Isle of +Bourbon. Till within a few years, no epidemic or contagious +malady was known in that fortunate island; no fever, no cholera, +no throat complaints, no small-pox, etc. But all these diseases +have attacked its inhabitants since our manures, our materials +for building, and our products in general, have been used by them +in large quantities. + +The drying up of a marsh, the cutting down of a forest, the +substitution of one crop for another, may effect atmospheric +changes through an extended radius, which will strengthen or +weaken the vitality of the people. Some years since, there was a +marsh behind the city of Cairo, which was separated from the +desert by a hill. It was always noticed that the pestilential +epidemics appeared to spring from that unhealthy spot and finally +to spread throughout the east. The Pacha of Egypt, without +thinking of this coincidence, noticed, on the other hand, that +the hill behind the marsh entirely concealed the fine view which +he would have from his palace, if it were removed. He gave orders +to cut the hill down and to fill up the marsh with its +_débris_, so that the winds which were formerly checked, had +free circulation and purified the atmosphere, while the soil, +thoroughly modified, ceased to emit the pestilential effluvia, +Since that event the plague has not reappeared. A caprice of the +Pacha effected more than all the quarantines and all the efforts +of science, He has freed the world, perhaps for ever, from the +most terrible of scourges. + +It is known that the cholera comes from India. It is engendered +in the immense triangular space formed by two rivers: the Ganges +and the Brahmapootra. It is the East India Company according to +M. le Comte de Waren, that should be accused of treason to +humanity. It is that power which has destroyed the canals and the +derivations of the two finest rivers in the world. During the +last twenty-five years of English occupation the number of pools +in a single district, that of _Nort Arcoth_, which burst or +were destroyed, amounted to eleven hundred. In the time of the +Mogul conquerors, a fine canal, the Doab, extending from Delhi, +fertilized two hundred leagues in its course. This canal is +destroyed, and the lands, once so fertile and healthy, are now +the infectious lair of wild beasts, having been depopulated by +disease and death. + +{85} + +The hygienic condition of different countries, then, may be +modified in various ways. In 1698, Bigot de Molville, president +_à mortier_ of the Parliament of Normandy, found, after +careful research, that, of all the cities of France, Rouen +possessed the greatest number of octogenarians and centenarians. +Toward the middle of the last century this superiority was +claimed by Boulogne-sur-mer, which retained it for nearly fifty +years, and was then called the _patrie des vieillards_. + +In a recent communication to the Academy, M. de Garogna remarked +that, in the printed or manuscript accounts we possess respecting +the former eruptions of Santorin, many very interesting details +are found concerning the different maladies occasioned by these +eruptions, and observed at that epoch in the island, which +support what we have said of the variable hygienic state of +different places. According to these reports, the pathological +result of the different eruptions included especially alarming +complications, serious cerebral difficulties, suffocation, and +derangement in the alimentary canal. He proved that morbid +influences were only manifest when the direction of the wind +brought the volcanic emanations. The parts of the island out of +the course of the wind showed no trace of the maladies in +question. Moreover, the sanitary condition of the places within +reach of the wind became worse or improved according to the rise +and fall of the wind. It should also be noticed that the morbid +influence of the volcanic emanations extended to islands more or +less remote from Santorin. + +From this report the following conclusions are to be drawn: + + 1. The eruption in the Bay of Santorin, while in action, had a + manifest influence on the health of the people in that + island. + + 2. It especially occasioned complicated diseases, throat + distempers, bronchitis, and derangement of the digestive + organs. + + 3. The acidiferous ashes were the direct cause of the + complications, while the other morbid complaints should be + attributed to sulphuric acid. + + 4. Vegetation was likewise affected by the eruption while + active, and particularly plants of the order _Siliaceae_. + + 5. The changes in the vegetation were probably produced by + hydrochloric acid, at the beginning of the eruption. + + 6. The hydro-sulphuric emanations appear, on the contrary, to + have had a beneficial effect on the diseases of the grape-vine. + It perhaps destroyed the _oidium_. + +It is evident that the question of local influences upon the +duration of life is a most comprehensive and fruitful one. Nature +gives us some formal indications, in dividing the maladies of the +human race; and the study of places and climates in a hygienic +point of view, although in its infancy, has already brought to +our notice many valuable facts. This study is full of interest. +We shall doubtless arrive at a knowledge of the exact relation +between such a malady, such an epidemic, and such a place, or +site, or position with respect to the points of the compass, as +well as of the beneficial and special influence exercised upon +our principal organs by the exhalations from different places, +which might well be called the genii of those regions. + +---------- + +{86} + + + The Bishops of Rome. [Footnote 42] + + [Footnote 42: _Harper's New Monthly Magazine. The Bishops + of Rome._ New York: Harper and Brothers, January, 1869.] + + +_Harper's Magazine_, we are told, has a wide circulation, +and some merit as a magazine of light literature; but it does not +appear to have much aptitude for the scholarly discussion of +serious questions, whatever the matter to which they relate, and +it is guilty of great rashness in attempting to treat a subject +of such grave and important relations to religion and +civilization, society and the church, as the history of the +bishops of Rome. The subject is not within its competence, and +the historical value of its essay to those who know something of +the history of the popes and of mediaeval Europe is less than +null. + +Of course, _Harper's Magazine_ throws no new light on any +disputed passage in the history of the bishops of Rome, and +brings out no fact not well known, or at least often repeated +before; it does nothing more than compress within a brief +magazine article the principal inventions, calumnies, and +slanders vented for centuries against the Roman pontiffs by +personal or national antipathy, disappointed ambition, political +and partisan animosity, and heretical and sectarian wrath and +bitterness, so adroitly arranged and mixed with facts and +probabilities as to gain easy credence with persons predisposed +to believe them, and to produce on ignorant and prejudiced +readers a totally false impression. The magazine, judging from +this article, has not a single qualification for studying and +appreciating the history of the popes. It has no key to the +meaning of the facts it encounters, and is utterly unable or +indisposed to place itself at the point of view from which the +truth is discernible. Its _animus_, at least in this +article, is decidedly anti-Christian, and proves that it has no +Christian conscience, no Christian sympathy, no faith in the +supernatural, no reverence for our Lord and his apostles, and no +respect even for the authority of the Holy Scriptures. + +The magazine, under pretence of writing history, simply appeals +to anti-Catholic prejudice, and repeats what Dr. Newman calls +"the Protestant tradition." Its aim is not historical truth, or a +sound historical judgment on the character of the Roman pontiffs, +but to confirm the unfounded prejudices of its readers against +them. It proceeds as if the presumption were that every pope is +antichrist or a horribly wicked man, and therefore every doubtful +fact must be interpreted against him, till he is proved innocent. +Everything that has been said against a pope, no matter by whom +or on what authority, is presumptively true; everything said in +favor of a Roman pontiff must be presumed to be false or unworthy +of consideration. It supposes the popes to have had the temper +and disposition of non-Catholics, and from what it believes, +perhaps very justly, a Protestant would do--if, _per +impossibile_, he were elevated to the papal chair, and clothed +with papal authority--concludes what the popes have actually +done. It forgets the rule of logic, _Argumentum a genere ad +genus, non valet_. The pope and the Protestant are not of the +same genus. We have never encountered in history a single pope +that did not sincerely believe in his mission from Christ, and +take it seriously. +{87} +We have encountered weakness; too great complaisance to the civil +power, even slowness in crushing out, in its very inception, an +insurgent error; sometimes also too great a regard to the +temporal, to the real or apparent neglect of the spiritual, and +two or three instances in which the personal conduct of a pope +was not much better than that of the average of secular princes; +but never a pope who did not recognize the important trusts +confided to his care, and the weighty responsibilities of his +high office. + +We have studied the history of the Roman pontiffs with probably +more care and diligence than the flippant writer in _Harper's +Magazine_ has done, and studied it, too, both as an +anti-papist and as a papist, with an earnest desire to find facts +against the popes, and with an equally earnest desire to +ascertain the exact historical truth; and we reject as unworthy +of the most fanatic sectarian the absurd rule of judging them +which the magazine adopts, if it does not avow and hold that the +presumption is the other way, and that everything that reflects +injuriously on the character of a bishop of Rome is presumptively +false, and to be accepted only on the most indubitable evidence. +We can judge in this matter more impartially and disinterestedly +than the anti-catholic. The impeccability of the pontiff, or even +his infallibility in matters of mere human prudence, is no +article of Catholic faith. The personal conduct of a pontiff may +be objectionable; but unless he officially teaches error in +doctrine, or enjoins an immoral practice on the faithful, it +cannot disturb us. There are no instances in which a pope has +done this. No pope has ever taught or enjoined vice for virtue, +error for truth, or officially sanctioned a false principle or a +false motive of action. With one exception, we might, then, +concede all the magazine alleges, and ask, What then? What can +you conclude? But, in fact, we concede nothing. What it alleges +against the bishops of Rome is either historically false, or if +not, is, when rightly understood, nothing against them in their +official capacity. + +The exception mentioned is that of St. Liberius. The magazine +repeats, with some variations, the exploded fable that this Holy +Pope, won by favors or terrified by threats, consented to a +condemnation of the _doctrine_ of Athanasius, that is, +signed an Arian formula of faith. It has not invented the +slander, but it has, after what historical criticism has +established on the subject, no right to repeat it as if it were +not denied. We have no space now to treat the question at length; +but we assert, after a very full investigation, that St. Liberius +never signed an Arian formula, never in any shape or manner +condemned the _doctrine_ defended by St. Athanasius, and +consequently never recanted, for he had nothing to recant. The +most, if so much, that can be maintained is, that he approved a +sentence condemning the special error of the Eunomians, in which +was not inserted the word "consubstantial," because it was not +necessary to the condemnation of their special error, and the +error they held in common with all Arians had already been +condemned by the council of Nicaea. Not a word can be truly +alleged against the persistent orthodoxy of this great and holy +pontiff, who deserves, as he has always received, the veneration +of the church. + +The magazine repeats the slander of an anonymous writer, a bitter +enemy of the popes, against St. Victor, St. Zethyrinus, and St. +Callistus, three popes whom the Church of Rome has held, and +still holds, in high esteem and veneration for their virtues and +saintly character. +{88} +It refers to the _Philosophoumena_, a work published a few +years ago by M. E. Miller, of Paris, variously attributed to +Origen, to St. Hippolytus, bishop of Porto, near Rome, to Caius, +a Roman Presbyter, and to Tertullian. The late Abbé Cruice--an +Irishman by birth, we believe, but brought up and naturalized in +France, where he was, shortly before his death, promoted to the +episcopate--a profoundly learned man and an acute critic, has +unanswerably proved that these are all unsustainable hypotheses, +and that historical science is in no condition to say who was its +author. Who wrote it, or where it was written, is absolutely +unknown, but from internal evidence the writer was a contemporary +of the three popes named, and was probably some Oriental +schismatic, of unsound faith, and a bitter enemy of the popes. +The work is not of the slightest authority against the bishops of +Rome, but is of very great value as proving, by an enemy, that +the papacy was fully developed--if that is the word--claiming +and exercising in the universal church the same supreme authority +that it claims and exercises now, and was as regular in its +action in the last half of the second century, or within fifty or +sixty years of the death of the apostle St. John, as it is under +Pope Pius IX. now gloriously reigning. [Footnote 43] + + [Footnote 43: _Vide Histoire de l'Eglise de Rome sous les + Pontificats de St. Victor, de St. Zephirin, et St. + Calliste_. Par L'Abbé M. P. Cruice. Paris: Didot Frères. + 1856.] + +When the magazine has nothing else to allege against the popes, +it accuses them of "a fierce, ungovernable pride." + + "The fourth century brought important changes in the condition + of the bishops of Rome. It is a singular trait of the corrupt + Christianity of this period that the chief characteristic of + the eminent prelates was a fierce and ungovernable pride. + Humility had long ceased to be numbered among the Christian + virtues. The four great rulers of the Church, Bishop of Rome, + and the Patriarchs of Constantinople, Antioch, and Alexandria, + were engaged in a constant struggle for supremacy. Even the + inferior bishops assumed a princely state, and surrounded + themselves with their sacred courts. The vices of pride and + arrogance descended to the lower orders of clergy; the emperor + himself was declared to be inferior in dignity to the simple + presbyter, and in all public entertainments and ceremonious + assemblies the proudest layman was expected to take his place + below the haughty churchman, As learning declined and the world + sank into a new barbarism, the clergy elevated themselves into + a ruling caste, and were looked upon as half divine by the rude + Goths and the degraded Romans. It is even said that the pagan + nations of the west transferred to the priest and monk the same + awestruck reverence which they had been accustomed to pay to + their Druid teachers. The Pope took the place of their Chief + Druid, and was worshipped with idolatrous devotion; the meanest + presbyter, however vicious and degraded, seemed, to the + ignorant savages, a true messenger from the skies." + +There was no patriarch of Constantinople in the fourth century, +and it was only in 330 that the city of Constantinople absorbed +Byzantium. The bishop of Byzantium was not a patriarch, or even a +metropolitan, but was a suffragan of the bishop of Heraclea. It +was not till long after the fourth century that the bishop of +Constantinople was recognized as patriarch, not, in fact, till +the eighth general council. There was no struggle in the fourth +nor in any subsequent century, for the supremacy, between Rome +and Antioch, or Rome and Alexandria; neither the patriarch of +Antioch nor the patriarch of Alexandria ever claimed the primacy; +but both acknowledged that it belonged to the bishop of Rome, as +do the schismatic churches of the East even now, though they take +the liberty of disobeying their lawful superior. In the fifth +Century, when St. Leo the Great was pope, the bishop of +Constantinople claimed the _second_ rank, or the first +_after_ the bishop of Rome, on the ground that +Constantinople was the new Rome, the second capital of the +empire. +{89} +St. Leo repulsed his claim, not in defence of his own rights, for +it did not interfere with his supremacy, or primacy, as they said +then, but in defence of the rights of the churches of Antioch and +Alexandria. He also did it because the claim was urged on a false +principle--that the authority of a bishop is derived from the +civil importance of the city in which his see is established. + +It is not strange that the magazine should complain that the +pontifical dignity was placed above the imperial, and that the +simple presbyter took the step of the proudest layman; yet +whoever believes in the spiritual order at all, believes it +superior to the secular order, and therefore that they who +represent the spiritual are in dignity above those who represent +only the secular. When the writer of this was a Protestant +minister, he took, and was expected to take, precedence of the +laity. The common sense of mankind gives the precedence to those +held to be invested with the sacred functions of religion, or +clothed with spiritual authority. + +That St. Jerome, from his monastic cell near Jerusalem, inveighs +against the vices and corruptions of the Roman clergy, as alleged +in the paragraph following the one we have quoted, is very true; +but his declamations must be taken with some grains of allowance. +St. Jerome was not accustomed to measure his words when +denouncing wrong, and saints generally are not. St. Peter Damian +reported, after his official visit to Spain, that there was but +one worthy priest in the whole kingdom, which really meant no +more than that he found only one who came, in all respects, up to +his lofty ideal of what a priest should be. Yet there might have +been, and probably were, large numbers of others who, though not +faultless, were very worthy men, and upon the whole, faithful +priests. We must never take the exaggerations of saintly +reformers, burning with zeal for the faith and the salvation of +souls, as literal historical facts. St. Jerome, in his ardent +love of the church and his high ideal of sacerdotal purity, +vigilance, fidelity, and zeal, no doubt exaggerated. + +There can be nothing more offensive to every right and honorable +feeling than the exultation of the magazine over the abuse, +cruelties, and outrages inflicted on a bishop of Rome by civil +tyrants. The writer, had he lived under the persecuting pagan +emperors, would have joined his voice to that of those who +exclaimed, _Christianos ad leones;_ or had he been present +when our Lord was arrested and brought as a malefactor before +Pontius Pilate, none louder than he would have cried out, +_Crucifige eum! crucifige eum!_ His sympathies are uniformly +with the oppressor, never, as we can discover, with the +oppressed; with the tyrant, never with his innocent victim, +especially if that victim be a bishop of Rome. He feels only +gratification in recording the wrongs and sufferings of Pope St. +Silverus. This pope was raised to the papacy by the tyranny of +the Arian king Theodotus, and ordained by force, without the +necessary subscription of the clergy. But after his consecration, +the clergy, by their subscription, healed the irregularity of his +election, as Anastasius the Librarian tells us, so as to preserve +the unity of the church and religion. He appears to have been a +holy man and a worthy pope; but he was not acceptable to +Vigilius, who expected, by favor of the imperial court, to be +made pope himself, nor to those two profligate women, the Empress +Theodora and her friend Antonina, the wife of the patrician +Belisarius. +{90} +Vigilius and these two infamous women compelled Belisarius to +depose him, strip him of his pontifical robes, clothe him with +the habit of a monk, and send him into exile; where, as some say, +he was assassinated, and, as others say, perished of hunger. The +magazine relates this to show how low and unworthy the bishops of +Rome had become! Vigilius succeeded St. Silverus, and it +continues: + + "Stained with crime, a false witness and a murderer, Vigilius + had obtained his holy office through the power of two + profligate women who now ruled the Roman world. Theodora, the + dissolute wife of Justinian, and Antonina, her devoted servant, + assumed to determine the faith and the destinies of the + Christian Church. Vigilius failed to satisfy the exacting + demands of his casuistical mistresses; he even ventured to + differ from them upon some obscure points of doctrine. His + punishment soon followed, and the bishop of Rome is said to + have been dragged through the streets of Constantinople with a + rope around his neck, to have been imprisoned in a common + dungeon and fed on bread and water. The papal chair, filled by + such unworthy occupants, must have sunk low in the popular + esteem, had not Gregory the Great, toward the close of sixth + century, revived the dignity of the office." + +We know of nothing that can be said in defence of the conduct of +Vigilius prior to his accession to the papal throne. His +intrigues with Theodora to be made pope, and his promises to her +to restore, when he should be pope, Anthemus, deposed from the +see of Constantinople by St. Agapitus for heresy, and to set +aside the council of Chalcedon, were most scandalous; and his +treatment of St. Silverus, whether he actually exiled him and had +a hand in his death or not, admits, as far as we are informed, of +no palliation; but his conduct thus far was not the conduct of +the pope; and after he became bishop of Rome, at least after the +death of his deposed predecessor, his conduct was, upon the +whole, irreproachable. He conceded much for the sake of peace, +and was much blamed; but he conceded nothing of the faith; he +refused to fulfill the improper promises he had made, before +becoming pope, to the empress, confessed that he had made them, +said he was wrong in making them, retracted them, and resisted +with rare firmness and persistence the emperor Justinian in the +matter of the three chapters, and fully expiated the offences +committed prior to his elevation, by enduring for seven long +years the brutal outrages an indignities offered him by the +half-savage Justinian, the imperial courtiers, and intriguing and +unscrupulous prelates of the court party--outrages and sufferings +of which he died after his liberation on his journey back from +Constantinople to Rome. + +We have touched on these details for the purpose of showing that +the principal offenders in the transactions related were not the +bishops of Rome, but the civil authorities and their adherents, +that deprived the Roman clergy and the popes of their proper +freedom. If the papal chair was filled with unworthy occupants, +and had sunk low in the public esteem, it was because the emperor +or empress at Constantinople and the Arian and barbarian kings in +Italy sought to raise to it creatures of their own. They deprived +the Roman clergy, the senate, and people of the free exercise of +their right to elect the pope; and the pope, after his election, +of his freedom of action, if he refused to conform to their +wishes, usually criminal, and always base. Yet _Harper's +Magazine_ lays all the blame to the popes themselves, and +seems to hold them responsible for the crimes and tyranny, the +profligacy and lawless will of which they were the victims. If +the wolf devoured the lamb, was it not +the lamb's fault? + +{91} + +St. Gregory the Great was of a wealthy and illustrious family, +and therefore finds some favor with the magazine; yet it calls +him "a half-maddened enthusiast," and accuses him of "unsparing +severity," and "excessive cruelty" in the treatment of his monks +before his elevation to the papal chair. But his complaisance to +the usurper Phocas, which we find it hard to excuse, and +especially his disclaiming the title of "Universal Bishop," +redeem him in its estimation. + + "A faint trace of modesty and humility still characterized the + Roman bishops, and they expressly disclaimed any right to the + supremacy of the Christian world. The patriarch of + Constantinople, who seems to have looked with a polished + contempt upon his western brother, the tenant of fallen Rome + and the bishop of the barbarians, now declared himself the + Universal Bishop and the head of the subject Church. But + Gregory repelled his usurpation with vigor. Whoever calls + himself Universal Bishop is Antichrist,' he exclaimed; and he + compares the patriarch to Satan, who in his pride had aspired + to be higher than the angels." + +John Jejunator, bishop of Constantinople, did not claim the +primacy, which belonged to the bishop of Rome, nor did Gregory +disclaim it; but called himself "oecumenical patriarch." The +title he assumed derogated not from the rights and privileges of +the apostolic see, but from those of the sees of Antioch and +Alexandria. It was unauthorized, and showed culpable ambition and +an encroaching disposition. St. Gregory, therefore, rebuked the +bishop of Constantinople, and alleged the example of his +predecessor, St. Leo the Great, who refused the title of +"oecumenical bishop" when it was offered him by the Fathers of +Chalcedon. It is a title never assumed or borne by a bishop of +Rome, who, in his capacity as bishop, is the equal, and only the +equal, of his brother bishops. All bishops are equal, as St. John +Chrysostom tells us. The authority which the pope exercises over +the bishops of the Catholic Church is not the episcopal, but the +apostolical authority which he inherits from Peter, the prince of +the apostles. St. Gregory disclaimed and condemned the title of +"universal bishop," which was appropriate neither to him nor to +any other bishop; but he did not disclaim the apostolic authority +held as the successor of Peter. He actually claimed and exercised +it in the very letter in which he rebukes the bishop of +Constantinople. The magazine is wholly mistaken in asserting that +Gregory disclaimed the papal supremacy. He did no such thing; he +both claimed and exercised it, and few popes have exercised it +more extensively or more vigorously. + +The magazine is also mistaken in asserting that St. Leo III. +crowned Charlemagne "Emperor of the West." Charlemagne was +already hereditary patrician of Rome, and bound by his office to +maintain order in the city and territories of Rome, and to defend +the Holy See, or the Roman Church, against its enemies. All the +pope did was to raise the patrician to the imperial dignity, +without any territorial title. Charles never assumed or bore the +title of Emperor of the West. His official title was "Rex +Francorum et Longobardorum Imperator." The title of "Emperor of +the West," or "Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire," which his +German successors assumed, was never conferred by the pope, but +only acquiesced in after it had been usurped. The pope conferred +on Charlemagne no authority out of the papal states. + +We have no space to discuss the origin of the temporal +sovereignty of the bishops of Rome, nor the ground of that +arbitratorship which the popes, during several ages, +unquestionably exercised with regard to the sovereign princes +bound by their profession and the constitution of their states to +profess and protect the Catholic religion. +{92} +We have already done the latter in an article on _Church and +State_ in our magazine for April, 1867. But we can tell +_Harper's Magazine_ that it entirely misapprehends the +character of St. Gregory VII., and the nature and motive of the +struggle between him and Henry III., or Henry IV., as some +reckon, king of the Germans, for emperor he never was. Gregory +was no innovator; he introduced, and attempted to introduce, no +change in the doctrine or discipline of the church, nor in the +relations of church and state. He only sought to correct abuses, +to restore the ancient discipline which had, through various +causes, become relaxed, and to assert and maintain the freedom +and independence of the church in the government of her own +spiritual subjects in all matters spiritual. + + "His elevation was the signal for the most wonderful change in + the character and purposes of the church. The pope aspired to + rule mankind. He claimed an absolute power over the conduct of + kings, priests, and nations, and he enforced his decrees by the + terrible weapons of anathema and excommunication. He denounced + the marriages of the clergy as impious, and at once there arose + all over Europe a fearful struggle between the ties of natural + affection and the iron will of Gregory. Heretofore the secular + priests and bishops had married, raised families, and lived + blamelessly as husbands or fathers, in the enjoyment of marital + and filial love. But suddenly all this was changed. The married + priests were declared polluted and degraded, and were branded + with ignominy and shame. Wives were torn from their devoted + husbands, children were declared bastards, and the ruthless + monk, in the face of the fiercest opposition, made celibacy the + rule of the church. The most painful consequences followed. The + wretched women, thus degraded and accursed, were often driven + to suicide in their despair. Some threw themselves into the + flames; others were found dead in there beds, the victims of + grief or of their own resolution not to survive their shame, + while the monkish chroniclers exult over their misfortunes, and + triumphantly consign them to eternal woe. + + "Thus the clergy under Gregory's guidance became a monastic + order, wholly separated from all temporal interests; and bound + in a perfect obedience to the church. He next forebade all lay + investitures or appointments to bishoprics or other clerical + offices, and declared himself the supreme ruler of the + ecclesiastical affairs of nations. No temporal sovereign could + fill the great European sees, or claim any dominion over the + extensive territories held by eminent churchmen in right of + their spiritual power. It was against this claim that the + Emperor of Germany, Henry IV., rebelled. The great bishoprics + of his empire, Cologne, Bremen, Treves, and many others, were + his most important feudatories, and should he suffer the + imperious pope to govern them at will, his own dominion would + be reduced to a shadow. And now began the famous contest + between Hildebrand and Henry, between the carpenter's son and + the successor of Charlemagne, between the Emperor of Germany + and the Head of the Church." + +This heart-rending picture is, to a great extent, a fancy piece. +The celibacy of the clergy was the law of the church and of the +German empire; and every priest knew it before taking orders. +These pretended marriages were, in both the ecclesiastical courts +and the civil courts, no marriages at all; and these dispairing +wives of priests were simply concubines. What did Gregory do, but +his best to enforce the law which the emperors had suffered to +fall into desuetude? The right of investiture was always in the +pope, and it was only by his authority that the emperors had ever +exercised it. +{93} +The pope had authorized them to give investiture of bishops at a +time of disorder, and when it was for the good of the church that +they should be so authorized. But when they abused the trust, and +used it only to fill the sees with creatures of their own, or +sold the investiture for money to the unworthy and the +profligate, and intruded them into sees, in violation of the +canons, and sheltered them from the discipline of the +church--causing, thus, gross corruption of morals and manners, +the neglect of religious instruction, and dangers to souls--it +was the right and the duty of the pontiff to revoke the +authorization given, to dismiss his unworthy agents, and to +forbid the emperors henceforth to give investiture. + +The magazine says that if the emperor should suffer the imperious +pope to be allowed to govern at will the great bishoprics of +Cologne, Bremen, Treves, and many others, which were the most +important feudatories of his empire, his own dominion would be +reduced to a shadow. But if the emperor could fill them with +creatures of his own, make bishops at his will, and depose them +and sequester their revenues if they resisted his tyranny, or +sell them, as he did, to the highest bidder--thrusting out the +lawful occupants, and intruding men who could have been only +usurpers, and who really were criminals in the eye of the law, +and usually dissolute and scandalous in morals--where would have +been the rightful freedom and independence of the church? How +could the pope have maintained order and discipline in the +church, and protected the interests of religion? At worst, the +imperious will of the pontiff was as legitimate and as +trustworthy as the imperious will of such a brutal tyrant and +moral monster as was Henry. The pope did but claim his rights and +the rights of the faithful people. It was no less important that +the spiritual authority should govern in spirituals than it was +that the secular authority should govern in temporals. The pope +did not interfere, nor propose to interfere, with the emperor in +the exercise of his authority in temporals; but he claimed the +right, which the emperor could not deny, to govern in spirituals; +and resisted the attempt of Henry to exercise any authority in +the church, which, whatever infidels and secularists may pretend, +is of more importance than the state, for it maintains the state. +He never pretended to any authority in the fiefs of the empire, +or to subject to his will matters not confessedly within his +jurisdiction. + +Does the writer in the magazine maintain that the Methodist +General Conference would be wrong to claim the right of choosing +and appointing its own bishops, and assigning the pastors, +elders, and preachers to their respective circuits; and that it +could justly be accused of seeking to dominate over the state if +it resisted, with all its power, the attempt of the state to take +that matter into its own hands, and appoint for all the Methodist +local conferences, districts, and circuits, bishops and pastors, +itinerant and local preachers, and should appoint men of +profligate lives, who scorned the _Book of Discipline_, +Unitarians, Universalists, rationalists, and infidels, or the +bitter enemies of Methodism; those who would neglect every +spiritual duty, and seek only to plunder the funds and churches +to provide for their own lawless pleasures, or to pay the bribes +by which they obtained their appointment? We think not. And yet +this is only a mild statement of what Henry did, and of what +Gregory resisted. The pope claimed and sought to obtain no more +for the church in Germany than is the acknowledged right of every +professedly Christian sect in this country, and which every sect +fully enjoys, without any let or hindrance from the state. Why, +then, this outcry against Gregory VII.? Do these men who are so +bitter against him, and gnash their teeth at him, know what they do? +{94} +Have they ever for a moment reflected how much the modern world +owes for its freedom and civilization to just such great popes as +Hildebrand, who asserted energetically the rights of God, the +freedom of religion, and made the royal and imperial despots and +brutal tyrants who would trample on all laws, human and divine, +feel that, if they would wear their crowns, they must study to +restrain their power within its proper limits, and to rule justly +for the common good, according to the law of God? + +What Germany thought of the conduct of Henry is evinced by the +fact that when Gregory struck him with the sword of Peter and +Paul, everybody abandoned him but his deeply injured wife and one +faithful attendant. The whole nation felt a sense of relief and +breathed freely. An incubus which oppressed its breast was thrown +off. The picture of the sufferings of Henry traversing the Alps +in the winter and standing shivering with cold in his thin garb, +as a penitent before the door of the pontiff, is greatly +exaggerated, and the attempt to excite sympathy for him and +indignation against the pontiff can have no success with those +who have studied with some care the history of the times. Henry +was a bad man; a capricious, unprincipled, tyrannical, and brutal +ruler, and his cause was bad. The pope was in the right; he was +on the side of truth and justice, of God and humanity, pure +morals and just liberty. Leo the historian, a Protestant, and +Voigt, a Protestant minister, both Germans, have each completely +vindicated Gregory's conduct toward Henry of Germany, though +Harper's historian is probably ignorant of that fact, as he is of +some others. + +As to the pope's subjecting Henry to the discipline of the +church, and depriving him of his crown, all we need say is, that +all men are equal before God and the church, and kings and +kaisers are as much amenable to the discipline of the church, +acknowledged by them to be Christ's kingdom, as the meanest of +their subjects. The pope assumed no more than the kirk session +assumed when it sent their King Charles II. to the "cuttie +stool." The revolutionists of Spain have just deprived Isabella +Segunda of her crown and throne, with the general applause of the +non-Catholic world, and no pope ever deprived a prince who denied +his jurisdiction, or his legal right to sit in judgment on his +case, nor, till after a fair trial had been had, and a judicial +sentence was rendered according to the existing laws of his +principality. We see not why, then, the popes should be decried +for doing legally, and after trial, what revolutionists are +applauded for doing without trial and against all law, human and +divine--unless it be because the pope deprived only base and +profligate monsters, stained with the worst of crimes; and the +revolutionists deprive the guiltless, who violate no law of the +state or of the church, The pope deprived for crime; the +revolutionists usually for virtue or innocence, only under +pretence of ameliorating the state, which they subvert. + +But our space is nearly exhausted, and we must hurry on. Innocent +III. is another of those great bishops of Rome that excite the +wrath of _Harper's Magazine_--probably because he was really +a great pope, energetic in asserting the faith, in removing +scandals, in enforcing discipline on kings and princes as well as +on their subjects; in repressing sects, like the Albigenses, that +struck at the very foundations of religion and society, or of the +moral order; in defending the purity of morals and the sanctity +of marriage, and in espousing the cause of the weak against the +strong, of oppressed innocence against oppressive guilt. +{95} +This is too much for the endurance of the magazine. It indeed +does not say that Innocent did not espouse the cause of justice +in the case of Philip Augustus and his injured queen, Ingeburga; +but it contends that he did it from unworthy motives, for the +sake of extending and consolidating the papal authority over +kings and princes. Though he admits John Lackland was a moral +monster, and opened negotiations with a Mohammedan prince to the +scandal of Christendom, offered to make himself a Mussulman, and +would have embraced Islamism if the infidel prince had not +repelled him with indignation and contempt; it yet finds that +Innocent was altogether wrong in taking effective measures to +restrain his tyranny, cruelty, licentiousness, and plunder of the +churches and robbery of his subjects. His motive was simply to +monopolize power and profit for the papal see. He also, for like +reasons, was wrong in resisting Frederic II. of Germany, who, he +says, preferred Islamism to Christianity, as itself probably +prefers it to Catholicity. + +The article closes with a tirade against Alexander VI., and his +children, Caesar and Lucretia Borgia, Roscoe, a Protestant or +rationalist, has vindicated the character of Lucretia, that +accomplished, capable, and most grossly calumniated woman, who, +in her real history, appears to have been not less eminent for +her virtues than for her beauty and abilities. Caesar Borgia we +have no disposition to defend, though we have ample grounds for +believing that he was by no means so black as Italian hatred and +malice have painted him. Alexander was originally in the army of +Spain, and his manners and morals were such as we oftener +associate with military men than with ecclesiastics, He lived +with a woman who was another man's wife, and had two or three +children by her. But this was while he was a soldier, and before +he was an ecclesiastic or thought of taking orders. He was called +to Rome for his eminent administrative ability, by his uncle, +Pope Callixtus III.; took, in honor of his uncle, the name of +Borgia; became an ecclesiastic; was, after some time, made +cardinal, and finally raised to the papal throne under the name +of Alexander VI. After he was made cardinal, if, indeed, after he +became an ecclesiastic, nothing discreditable to his morals has +been proved against him; and his moral character, during his +entire pontificate, was, according to the best authorities, +irreproachable. The Borgias had, however, the damning sin of +being Spaniards, not Italians; and of seeking to reduce the +Italian robber barons to submission and obedience to law, and to +govern Italy in the interests of public order. They had, +therefore, many bitter and powerful enemies; hence, the +aspersions of their character, and the numerous fables against +them, and which but too many historians have taken for +authenticated facts. The alleged poisonings of Alexander and his +daughter Lucretia are none of them proved, and are inventions of +Italian hatred and malice. Yet, though Alexander's conduct as +pope was irreproachable, and his administration able and +vigorous, his antecedents were such that his election to the +papal throne was a questionable policy, and Savonarola held it to +be irregular and null. + +The magazine indulges in the old cant about the contrast between +the poverty and humility of Peter and the wealth and grandeur of +his successors; the simplicity of the primitive worship, and the +pomp and splendor of the Roman service. +{96} +There is no need of answering this. When the Messrs. Harper +Brothers started the printing business in this city, we presume +their establishment was in striking contrast to their present +magnificent establishment in Cliff street. When the world was +converted to the church, and the supreme pontiff had to sustain +relations with sovereign princes, to receive their ambassadors, +and send his legates to every court in Christendom to look after +the interests of religion--the chief interest of both society +and individuals--larger accommodations than were afforded by that +"upper room" in Jerusalem were needed, and a more imposing +establishment than St. Peter may have had was a necessity of the +altered state of things. Even our Methodist friends, we notice, +find it inconvenient to observe the plainness and simplicity in +dress and manners prescribed by John Wesley their founder. He +forbids, we believe, splendid churches, with steeples and bells; +and the earliest houses for Methodist meetings, even we remember, +were very different from the elegant structures they are now +erecting. We heard a waggish minister say of one of them, "Call +you this the Lord's house? you should rather call it the Lord's +barn." + +The Catholic Church continues and fulfils the synagogue, and her +service is, to a great extent, modelled after the Jewish, which +was prescribed by God himself. The dress of the pontiff, when he +celebrates the Holy Sacrifice, is less gorgeous than that of the +Jewish high-priest. St. Peter's is larger than was Solomon's +temple, but it is not more gorgeous; and the Catholic service, +except in the infinite superiority of the victim immolated upon +the altar, is not more splendid, grand, or imposing than was the +divinely prescribed temple service of the Hebrews. The magazine +appears to think with Judas Iscariot, that the costly ointment +with which a woman that had been a sinner anointed the feet of +Jesus, after she had washed them with her tears and wiped them +with her hair, was a great waste, and might have been put to a +better use. But our Lord did not think so, and Judas Iscariot did +not become the prince of the apostles. We owe all we have to God, +and it is but fitting that we should employ the best we have in +his service. + +Here we must close. We have not replied to all the misstatements, +misrepresentations, perversions, and insinuations of the article +in _Harper's Magazine_. We could not do it in a brief +article like the present. It would require volumes to do it. We +have touched only on a few salient points that struck us in +glancing over it; but we have said enough to show its +_animus_ and to expose its untrustworthiness. Refuted it we +have not, for there really is nothing in it to refute, It lays +down no principles, states no premises, draws no conclusions. It +leaves all that to be supplied by the ignorance and prejudices of +its readers. It is a mere series of statements that require no +answer but a flat denial. It is not strange that the magazine +should calumniate the popes, and seek to pervert their history. +Our Lord built his church on Peter, being himself the chief +cornerstone; and nothing is more natural than that they who hate +the church should strike their heads against the papacy. The +popes have always been the chief object of attack, and have had +to bear the brunt of the battle. Yet they have labored, suffered, +been persecuted, imprisoned, exiled, and martyred for the +salvation of mankind. What depth of meaning in the dying words of +the exiled Gregory VII., "I have loved justice, and hated +iniquity; therefore I die in exile." Alas! the world knows not +its benefactors, and crucifies its redeemers! + +---------- + +{97} + + March Omens. [Footnote 44] + + [Footnote 44: From _Irish Odes and other Poems_, by + Aubrey De Vere, just Issued by the Catholic Publication + Society.] + + + ON ivied stems and leafless sprays + The sunshine lies in dream: + Scarcely yon mirrored willow sways + Within the watery gleam. + + In woods far off the dove is heard, + And streams that feed the lake: + All else is hushed save one small bird, + That twitters in the brake. + + Yet something works through earth and air, + A sound less heard than felt, + Whispering of Nature's procreant care, + While the last snow-flakes melt. + + The year anon her rose will don; + But to-day this trance is best-- + This weaving of fibre and knitting of bone + In Earth's maternal breast. + +---------- + +{98} + + + Translated From The German + By Richard Storrs Willis. + + Emily Linder. + + A Life-portrait. + + +The circle of those who were witness to the blossom-period of the +city of Munich, that glorious epoch of twenty or thirty years +which dawned upon the Bavarian capital when Louis I. ascended the +throne, is gradually narrowing, and every year contracts it still +further. The name of her to whom this sketch is dedicated +belonged to this circle, and is closely associated with the best +of those who aided in inaugurating this brilliant epoch, and +rendering Munich a hearthstone of culture which attracted the +gaze of the educated world. Sunny period of old Munich! They of +that time speak of it with the same enthusiasm as of their own +youth. Yet to a future generation will their testimony sound like +some beautiful tradition. + +To not a few, the name of Miss Emily Linder appeared for the +first time, as the intelligence of her death passed through the +public journals of February, 1857. Yet was her life no ordinary +one; and though it never tended to publicity, she accomplished +more in her great seclusion than many a noisy and feted +celebrity. Hers was a quiet and unassuming nature; she belonged +to those who speak little and accomplish much. It is therefore +befitting, now that she has gone to her home, here to speak of +her. Not so much to praise her, for she shrank from all earthly +praise; but to keep her memory fresh among her friends and to +present to a selfish, distracted age, poor in faith, the +animating example of a pure, faith-inspired, and symmetrical +character a life full of fidelity, unselfishness, and enthusiasm. + +Swiss by birth and unchangeably devoted to her circumscribed +home, Emily Linder little dreamed, probably, when in early life +she wandered to Munich, that she would yet close a long life +there. But over this life, swiftly as it glided along, there +watched a special, directing Providence; and no one could more +cheerfully have recognized this Providence than did she. What +originally attracted her to Munich was Art: she probably +contemplated, at first, only brief and transient visit there; but +the metropolis of German art became a second home to her--even +more than this. + +Emily Linder belonged to a wealthy mercantile family of Basle, +and was born at that place on the 11th of October, 1797. She +received a careful religious education, (in the reformed faith of +her parents,) and that varied instruction which rendered her +unusually wakeful mind susceptible to topics of deeper import. +She seemed to have inherited from her grandfather, who was a +lover and collector of artistic objects, a fondness for fine art. +Following this predilection, the gifted girl decided to seize the +pallet and devote herself to painting as an occupation. Such was +her entirely independent position as to fortune, that nothing but +inward enthusiasm could have led her to this step, or have +confined her from thenceforth to the easel. + +{99} + +The home of Holbein's genius offered her at first, doubtless, +inspiration enough. But a new star had arisen in German art, and +the youthful Swiss was drawn powerfully by its leading away from +home--to Munich. The modest city on the verdant Iser began at +that period to prove the goal of pilgrimage to every ambitious +disciple of art. Miss Linder also heard of it, and, instead of +going to Dresden, as she had intended, she turned for her further +improvement to Munich. On her arrival in this city she had +attained to an age of twenty-seven years; but her devotion to her +chosen profession was so earnest, that she entered as a simple +pupil the Academy of Fine Arts. In the catalogue of the academy, +Emily Linder is inscribed as historical painter, on the 4th of +November, 1824. But she frequented the studios only a few weeks. +At that time it was customary to accept ladies as pupils; but she +soon perceived that the position was hardly a becoming one, +surrounded by so many young people of various characters, and all +beginners like herself. She therefore had recourse to Professor +Schlotthauer for private instruction. Under the guidance of this +excellent master, "a veritable house-father in the painter's +academy," as Brentano characteristically termed him, she pursued +her studies in good earnest, and, according to the representation +of her teacher, made rapid progress in the severer style of +drawing, in which she had hitherto been less practised than in +painting. She soon perfected herself to such an extent that she +was enabled to complete her own compositions, and thus derived +double satisfaction from her profession. + +It was indeed a pleasure in those days, competing with so many +enthusiastic young artists and with the newly-appearing works in +constant view, to labor and strive onward with the rest. This was +the time, too, when Cornelius assumed the directorship of the +Munich Academy and inaugurated, in grand style, the new era of +German art. A wondrous life dawned upon Munich art at that +period. Cornelius himself, in his old age, recalled with emotion +and enthusiasm this youthful period of new German art. At Rome, +thirty years later, on the occasion of the Louis festival of +German artists, 20th May 1855, while he was delivering an address +so celebrated for its many piquant flashes, he thus painted the +joyous industry of those days: + + "But when King Louis ascended the throne of his fathers, then + began the sport. Zounds! what moulding, building, drawing, and + painting! With what eagerness, with what hilarity each went to + his work! But it was an earnest hilarity: ... nor was Munich at + that time a mere hot-house of art. The warmth was a healthy and + vital one, born of the flaming fire of inspiration, the + evidence of which every work, whatever its defects, bore upon + its very face. Those men who worked together in brotherly unity + knew that there confronted them the art tribunal of posterity + and of the German nation. It concerned them, now, that German + genius should open a new pathway in art, as it had already so + gloriously done in poetry, in music, in science." + +In this glorious time of youthful aspiration, bold conception, +and joyful industry, Miss Linder began her artistic career in +Munich. Is it a wonder then that the city pleased her daily +better, and imperceptibly gained a home-like power over her? Nor +had she, by any means, a lack of intellectual incitement. Her +independent position and rare culture secured to her the most +agreeable social position. In the family of Herr von Ringseis, to +which she had brought an introduction from Basle, and where +gathered the nobility of the entire fatherland, she came into +contact with the most eminent artists and scholars. +{100} +Chief among these was Cornelius, who welcomed her to his family +circle. The old master of German art remained a life-long friend +of hers and warmly attached to her. Among her more intimate +companions, she numbered also the two Eberhards, Heinrich Hess, +Franz von Baader. Somewhat later, by the transfer of the +university to Munich, were added to these Schubert, Görres, +Schelling, Lasaulx. Also the two Boiseree, who in the autumn of +1827 came to Munich with their art collection, which had been +purchased by King Louis, were soon numbered among her nearer +acquaintances. + +Amid so choice a circle there unfolded itself for the young +artist a spiritual and intense life, to which she abandoned +herself with all the joyous simplicity and freshness of an +artistic nature; a nature which was susceptible also to the +beautiful and the grand in other things--in poetry, in music, and +in science. The quiet, friendly lady-artist became everywhere a +favorite. + +But, amid all these manifold occupations, there was ever a +certain earnestness, a striving out of the temporal into the +eternal. Even art was not to her a mere amusement. Genuine art +possesses an ennobling power, and she experienced what Michael +Angelo once said to his friend Vittoria Colonna, "True painting +is naturally religious and noble; for even the struggle toward +perfection elevates the soul to devotion, draws it near to God +and unites it with him." Attracted by the pure and lofty in art, +Miss Linder gave preference to religious painting, a taste which +was encouraged by her sterling master: and it caused her, though +a Protestant, special gratification, while ever seeking the best +studies, to paint or copy, whenever she could, devotional church +pictures. + +In order to become acquainted, through actual observation, with +the principal works of Christian art, she determined on a journey +to Italy. Her first visit she decided to confine to the cities of +upper Italy, and in company with Professor Schlotthauer and his +wife, this plan was carried out during the summer and autumn of +1825. Milan, Verona, Padua, Venice, Bologna, were visited, and, +led by the hand of her intelligent master, they all passed under +her examination. The goal of her travel was to be Florence. But +the long-continued, fine autumn weather attracted the travellers +further and further, and at length they came to Perugia, the +middle point of the Umbrian school, and thence to the +neighboring, picturesque-lying Assisi. At this place a little +circumstance occurred which became of deep significance in the +after life of the artist. + +The vetturino, familiar with the land and the people, called the +attention of the travellers to the fact that in Assisi there was +a monastery of German Franciscan nuns. A colony of poor German +women in the middle of Italian lands! That was enough to decide +the party to visit the monastery and greet their pious +countrywomen in the language of home. But they found the +sisterhood in evident distress. As they stood before the lattice, +the history of the monastery was briefly related to them by the +superior. It owed its origin to the patrician family Nocker of +Munich, and according to the terms of its establishment was +intended only for Germans, and more particularly for Bavarian +maidens. Under Napoleon I. it was suspended, and the nuns were +cared for in private dwellings, where, hoping for better times, +they still continued, as well as they could, the practice of +their vocation. These better times came. After the fall of the +Napoleonic dynasty, the purchasers of the monastery consented to +relinquish it, and the poor Franciscans could at least reoccupy +the building. +{101} +But it went so hard with them, that they were sometimes obliged +to ring the distress-bell, and the number of inmates diminished. +At the time of the arrival of our three travellers, they numbered +but twelve. An increase of numbers under such circumstances was +hardly to be hoped for, and the existence of the monastery seemed +again endangered. Municipal abolishment was threatened, with the +unavoidable prospect to the nuns of being distributed among the +various Italian monasteries. Now to maintain themselves as a +German order was everything to these Franciscans; and thus the +superior represented it to her travelling country-people, with +all simple-heartedness, closing her narration with the entreaty +that, on their return to Munich, they would not forget the little +German monastery in Assisi, but care for it as they might be +able, and cause younger sisters to come to them from Bavaria, in +order to save the establishment from utter extinction. + +The three travellers took their leave filled with sympathy, and +promising to bear in mind the petition of the superior. They +commenced their homeward travel from Assisi, passed through Genoa +and reached Munich again in November. Miss Linder vigorously +recommenced her artistic occupations, filled with animation at +her new experiences. But during the winter evenings the Italian +trip often formed the topic of conversation in the Schlotthauer +family, and generally closed with the question, How shall we +manage to increase the number of candidates in the monastery at +Assisi? But at that period this was not so easy. The secular +spirit had spread itself broadly in German lands: the current of +fresh, Catholic life flowed mostly in hidden courses. But with +surprise they soon learned of its continued activity. Through one +of those invisible channels which Providence avails itself of, in +its own good time--in every-day life termed accident--the cry for +help of the superior at Assisi penetrated to to a village where +pious hearts were prepared for it. One day there came a letter +for Professor Schlotthauer from Landshut, addressed to him by an +unknown maiden of the humbler class named Therese Frish, stating +that she had heard of the monastery at Assisi, and the request of +the superior: in Landshut was a goodly number of young girls who +had long cherished the desire in their hearts for convent life, +and only waited for an opportunity to realize their wishes: +several of them, some possessed of means, were ready at any +moment to leave for Assisi. This was welcome intelligence, and +the friends of the superior in Munich were not backward in +performing their part. Thus in the spring they had the happiness +of seeing a little band of candidates departing for Assisi. The +monastery was rescued, and commenced from that time, through the +ever-increasing sympathy in Germany, a new and beneficent career. +From year to year, assisted by the people of Munich, there +wandered true-hearted though indigent maidens to this quiet +asylum of piety, to reach which, as Brentano wrote twelve years +later, (1838,) was the dearest wish of these pious children. + +Her art trip had thus recompensed the maiden of Basle in a manner +little dreamed of or counted on. The impression which this +peculiar experience made upon her susceptible nature could not +well be a transient one. The little monastery at Assisi--what +could be more natural?--from thenceforth lay very closely to her +heart, and its memories became most dear to her. The personality +of the superior herself, her simple worth and naturalness, +gratefully appealed to her; and several years later, on making +her second Italian trip, she gladly revisited Assisi. +{102} +A friendly relation resulted, which, fostered by a regular +correspondence, became more intimate every year. She now began to +understand the true meaning of a voluntary Christian poverty: the +contemplation of which must naturally make a profound impression +upon a nature like hers. She had frequent occasion, by active +assistance, to prove herself a warm friend of the monastery. +Particularly at the time of the great earthquake, (1831,) when +this monastery of women was in great want and distress, she stood +by the nuns most generously. Ever after, indeed, she remained a +constant benefactress of the German daughters of the holy St. +Francis; and there, in the birth-place of the saint, was she most +assiduously prayed for. In Assisi lay the earliest germ of her +quietly-ripening, late-maturing conversion. + +In the year 1828, Miss Linder returned to her native city, Basle, +in order to prepare for a more lengthened visit to Rome. Like +every genuine artist-heart, a powerful influence attracted her to +the ancient capital of art, to the eternal city. On her journey +thither, she touched at Assisi, having the happiness to escort to +the monastery of the Franciscans a new candidate from Munich and +to find the nuns there in happiest tranquillity. Cornelius and +Schlotthauer reported the same of them, when they passed through, +a year and a half later. They received permission from the bishop +to hold an interview with the German sisters in the claustral. +The innocent joyousness and deep peace of the German nuns was +very touching to them. The bishop gave the two artists the best +testimony of them in his assurance that he constantly presented +these pious Germans to their Italian sisters as an example for +imitation. + +Accompanied with the nuns' blessing Miss Linder hastened toward +the eternal city, where a new world opened itself to her. Bright, +blissful days did she pass in Rome, and so well did it please +her, that she remained there nearly three years. Here again her +associates were the brightest spirits of the German art circle, +and their similarity of aim induced a friendly geniality which in +many ways enhanced the pleasure of her stay. Scholars and artists +of the German colony sought her society with equal delight. Here +she met Overbeck--that St. John among the artists--whose +friendship to her and to her subsequent life was of such +significance. Neher and Eberle received from her commissions. +With the painter Ahlborn she read Dante. The venerable Koch was +charmed with the society of the genial Swiss, and passed many a +winter's evening with her. Also Thorwaldsen, Bunsen, and Platen +were among her intimate acquaintance in Italy. + +From Rome Miss Linder made a trip to Naples and Sorrento. With a +party of Germans, among whom was Platen, she passed there the +summer of 1830. The wondrous poetry of the landscape and skies of +Sorrento impressed with their fullest power the sensitive soul of +the artist. All three arts, poetry, music, and painting, were +brought into requisition to give adequate expression to her +enchantment and delight. She became herself a poetess under the +influence of all these glories, and described to her friends, who +remained behind at Rome, with veritable southern warmth of +coloring, her "captivating paradise." As in Rome she listened +with the veneration of an intelligent musician to the ancient +classic music of the Sistine chapel, so at the Bay of Naples she +bestowed her attention upon the popular Italian ballads. Theirs +was a genial company, and they sang much together; of their songs +and melodies she made a collection, and took home with her. +{103} +Platen, in his subsequent letters, reminded her of those days, +and, writing from Venice, requested of her the music of "triads +and octaves," which they had sung together in Sorrento. + +On her return to Rome, late in the autumn of the same year, she +found Cornelius and his family there, and the friendly relations +which subsisted in Munich were warmly renewed. The presence of +the honored master created, in the Roman art world, an animated +and exhilarating activity, and the rest of her stay was thus +enlivened in the most agreeable manner. The following year, in +company with Cornelius, she started for home. It was hard +parting, as finally, in July, 1831, with a wealth of beautiful +and deep impressions, she bade farewell to the Hesperian land +which had become so dear to her, to return to Basle; and we must +not censure the artist that she found it difficult, as her +letters indicate, to forget the blue skies of Italy and accustom +herself again to the gray hues of the German heaven. The +sharpness of the contrast gradually softened, however, and the +old home feeling asserted itself. But the life in Rome remained a +bright spot in her memory, and even in later years, when the +conversation turned upon it, the habitually quiet lady became +warm and animated. + +In Rome, on the other hand, the artists were equally loth to part +with the aesthetic Swiss. The venerable Koch sent her word, +through the the painter Eberle, how much he regretted that he +could no longer pass his winter evenings with her. Overbeck and +others held with her an animated correspondence. But she remained +in hallowed remembrance with the German art-colony, from the +assistance she rendered to youthful talent, and her encouragement +by actual commissions. The historical painter Adam Eberle, +particularly, a pupil of Cornelius, friend and countryman of +Lasaulx--a highly gifted and lofty mind, but struggling in the +deepest poverty--to him she proved a generous benefactress; and +we can truly say, that through her goodness his last days--he +died at Rome, 1832--were illumined with a final gleam of +sunshine. The letters which she received from the youthful +departed, partly during her stay in Rome, partly after her +departure, give ample testimony of this, and indicate the manner, +generally, of her benevolence in such cases. Immediately on their +first meeting in Rome, and learning of his condition, she gave +him a commission for an oil painting; with deep emotion he +thanked the friendly lady "for the confidence she had thus +reposed in a nameless painter." Subsequently she purchased also +several drawings of Eberle, each, like the oil painting, of a +religious nature; among others, one that she particularly prized, +and afterward caused to be engraved, "Peter and Paul journeying +to the Occident." + +On forwarding this drawing to Basle, together with another, the +subject of which was taken from the Old Testament, "as the +product of his muse since her departure," Eberle thus writes: + + "What chiefly attracts me to these Bible subjects is the + healthy and unaffected language, which I endeavor to translate + into my art. Regard this work of mine as a study which is + necessary for my taste. That which is lacking in it, I know + full well, without the power of supplying it. Accept it, + therefore, as it is. Altogether bad it is not. At a very sad + period was it undertaken, and many a tear has fallen upon it, + which, like a vein of noble metal, seven times purified in its + earthen crucible, glistens through it. I have, indeed, some + assurance that I have not fruitlessly worked, in Overbeck's + judgment upon it, whom you saw at Bunsen's: and this not a + little cheers me." + +{104} + +Her generous watchfulness wearied not in rescuing him, at the +times of his greatest need, and Eberle, with overflowing +gratitude, testified to these constant proofs of her goodness, +and, even more, to the great delicacy and the kindly words which +accompanied every act. + +Her personal intercourse at Rome seemed also to have exerted a +favorable influence upon his religious sentiments. The taste for +mystical writings which, encouraged by Baader, she was +cultivating at that period, grew also upon him; and when, shortly +after her departure, Lasaulx came to Rome, Eberle was very happy +that he could continue with him this favorite and elevating +study. He writes to her at Basle on the 25th of September, 1831: + + "An old friend of my youth and countryman of mine, C. Lasaulx, + is now my almost exclusive companion: he will probably remain + the winter here and share my dwelling with me. He is, as you + know, a zealous disciple of Schelling, is deeply versed in the + new philosophy, and, what to me is of still more value, in the + mysticism of the middle ages. I rejoice to have gained in him + some compensation for the loss of your society; yet I cannot + share the expectations which he bases upon the new philosophy. + Although my acquaintance with him has divested me of many a + former prejudice, I find myself, nevertheless, attracted only + the more to the 'one thing needful,' assured that only at the + fountain of living waters, Jesus Christ, can our thirst be + quenched." + +He adds, however, concerning his friend: + + "Lasaulx has nevertheless a very substantial Christian basis, + and if ever his _Knowing_ goes hand in hand with his + _Willing_, and his _Willing_ with his _Knowing_, + we may certainly expect something very sterling from him." + +It was Lasaulx himself who communicated the news to their mutual +friend, in Germany, of the sudden death of Eberle. Eberle's plan +had been to pass yet a year in Rome, then return to Germany, and, +seeking again the sheltering wing of his master, Cornelius, in +Munich, there to close his art-wanderings. Thus he himself wrote +in a letter of the 7th of March, 1832. But a month later he was +no more. He succumbed to a disease of the stomach. Shortly before +his death, Miss Linder had cheered the invalid by a remittance. +On the 24th of April, 1832, Lasaulx thus wrote from Rome: + + "Our friend Adam Eberle, at five o'clock in the afternoon of + the 15th of April, after a hard death-struggle, recovered from + the malady of this life. Good-Friday morning we bore him home. + Three days before his death he had the great joy of receiving + your last letter, and that which your love enclosed with it. He + was one of the few whose souls are washed in the blood of the + Lamb, offered from the beginning of the world. The Lamentations + and the Miserere of the divine old masters Palestrini and + Allrgri which you begged our friend to listen to for you, I + have listened to for both of you." + +Munich had now so grown upon the affections of the artiste that +she again removed thither from Basle in 1832. After her life in +Rome, a residence in the German art-metropolis could not but be a +necessity to her, and the Bavarian capital was thenceforth her +home. Her house became more and more the peaceful abode of the +fine arts. Her fortune enabled her, by a succession of +commissions, gradually to collect a wealth of pictures and +drawings in which the Corypheans of Christian art were +represented. Among these Overbeck took the foremost place with a +series of subjects from the Evangelists, the choicest of +drawings, which during a period of thirty years gradually came +into her possession. A beautiful oil painting by Overbeck, which +she esteemed most highly, "The death of St. Joseph," was also +produced at this time, an elevated delineation of the death of +the just. From Cornelius she secured three cartoons of the wall +pictures in the Louis-church, ("The Creation,") in which this +mighty intellect was worthily represented. +{105} +In like manner an altar-piece by Conrad Eberhard, one of the most +thoughtful compositions of this admirable master, and intended +originally for one of the new church edifices of King Louis, took +its place among the gems of this house--just as the venerable +master himself, in all his purity of soul and pious simplicity, +took his place high in the friendship of the hostess. + +Next to painting, the two sister arts, poetry and music, were +specially cultivated in the home of the artist. She had a clear +perception of the true and elevated in poetry, and kept pace, +even to old age, with the literary productions of the new era. +Her own poetic effusions were confined to the eye of her more +intimate friends; but there were some poems upon which Brentano +himself placed high value. Her library was a choice one, and her +knowledge of languages kept her acquainted with the best +productions of the modern cultivated nations. Her aesthetic and +scientific acquirements became her well, inasmuch as the +cultivation of the mind and of the heart with her kept even pace. + +Miss Linder applied herself to music in full earnest. She not +only practised several instruments--the aeolodicon and harp were +always seen in her drawing-room--but she had herself instructed +by Ett in thorough-bass and the history of music. She followed +his instructions in harmony with practical exercises. In musical +history it was the religious department again which most appealed +to her: her researches went back to the earliest times, the +development of the true church style, and for the unfolding of +this subject she had found in Ett the right man. Moreover, she +stood in friendly exchange of views with Proske of Regensburg, a +profound student of ancient church music. Sometimes musical +gatherings were held, to which Ett brought singing-boys from the +choir of St. Michael's Church: ancient religious cantatas, the +compositions of Orlando di Lasso, Handel, Abbé Vogler's hymns, +and the like, were performed. Conrad Eberhard, an enthusiastic +admirer of music and of the master Ett, who with Schlotthauer +regularly attended the historical lectures on music, in his +ninetieth year spoke with loving recollection of these ennobling +evenings at Miss Linder's. + +By this varied and earnest devotion to art, as well as artistic +and scientific enterprises, to which she constantly brought +willing and generous offerings, her life began to assume more and +more an ideal significance, and to gain that expansiveness of +horizon and completeness which secured for her a position in +society as peculiar as it was agreeable. If we would ask what it +was that identified this quiet spirit with so distinguished a +circle and made her house a rendezvous for scholars and artists, +in which the most brilliant and the most profound so gladly met, +the explanation would be just this--it was the awakened +intelligence which she brought to all intellectual topics, the +simple-hearted abandonment to the views of great minds, the +readiness with which she recognized and admired the true and the +beautiful in all things. It was equally the unselfish, +uncalculating enthusiasm, and the perfect purity of soul, which +compelled the respect of all. An unvarying geniality blended with +a quiet earnestness; a clear intelligence with a golden goodness; +a profound view of life in all its phases, from the very heights +of a sunny existence--herein resided the gentle attractiveness +with which she drew to herself the sympathies of the noblest +souls and held them fast. + +{106} + +A character of such a type is best reflected in its friends. Her +life for the most part flowed on so quietly and evenly that it +rose clearly to the view of only those who were nearest to her. +It seems, therefore, befitting that from among her many friends +we should select a few who, like her, are now at rest, and +mention some of their salient characteristics. + +The foremost place is due to the painter-prince of the new +art-epoch himself, Cornelius--who was a friend from her very +youth, and only a few months after her, even in these latter +days, closed his earthly pilgrimage. The fame of the man and the +sense of his loss, still so freshly felt, will justify us in +dwelling somewhat more at length on him and his letters. It was, +indeed, the opinion of Emily Linder, toward the close of her +life, that the letters which she had received from Cornelius +might some day be of use in his biography. + +At the time Miss Linder started from Munich upon her journey to +Switzerland and Italy, her relations with the family of the +celebrated painter had already become so intimate, that it was +continued in correspondence. Ordinarily it was an Italian-German +or double letter, from Carolina and Peter Cornelius, which +greeted her; they both recall, with friendly warmth, her +residence in Munich, and the message, "We miss you!" was +repeatedly wafted after her as she remained longer away. Frau +Carolina Cornelius evinced for her a very tender attachment. The +genial master himself honored her with confidences from time to +time, as to his artistic plans and undertakings. Particularly was +this the case when he was commissioned to prepare designs for the +Louis-church in Munich, whereby he saw the early realization of a +long-cherished and favorite idea of his; when the history of +mankind in grand outline, the creation, the redemption, the +sending of the Holy Ghost to the church, the last judgment, +presented itself to his mind. Then he felt impelled to open his +heart to his absent friend, and the postscript, which he appended +to a letter of his wife, rises into a veritable dithyrambic. He +writes on the 20th of January, 1829: + + "I cannot better close this letter than by communicating a + thing which transports me and in which you, my dear friend, + will sympathize. Fancy my good fortune! After completing the + _Glyptothek_, I am to paint a church. It is now sixteen + years that I have been going about with the idea of a Christian + epic in painting--a painted _comoedia divina_--and I have + had hours, and longer periods, when it seemed I had a special + mission for this. And now my heavenly love comes like a bride + in all her beauty to me--what mortal after this can I envy? The + universe opens itself before my eyes: I see heaven, earth, and + hell; I see the past, the present, and the future; I stand on + Sinai and gaze upon the new Jerusalem; I am inebriated and yet + composed. All my friends must pray for me, and you, my dear + Emily. With brotherly love greets you CORNELIUS." + +The artistic heroism of this soul--this man whose ideas grasped +the world--breathes in these lines with certainly wonderful +freshness. In other letters of this happy period his natural +humor gains the ascendant, and he indulges in sallies of mirth, +afterward begging her indulgence and a friendly remembrance of +"the crazy painter Peter Cornelius." Her replies were in a +simpler and graver tone, but full of that refreshing +independence, which appeared to a nature like his more than aught +else. She allowed his geniality full play without compromising +her sincerity, or her dignity. He is thus both "charmed and +edified" by her letters, and once made the remark of them, "All +that your personality led me to fancy of the beautiful and the +good finds more artless, more forcible and vivid expression in +your letters. +{107} +It becomes you uncommonly well, whenever you fairly assert +yourself." + +In the year 1831 the cholera threatened, for a time, to visit +Munich. The preparations of the sanitary authorities to meet this +uncomfortable guest were already completed. Miss Linder was in +Basle, and sent thence a friendly invitation to Cornelius and his +family to take refuge at her domestic hearth. The knightly +response of the master, dated Munich, 15th of November 1831, is +as follows: + + "Your friendly suggestion from the shelter of your hospitable + hearth to laugh at the cholera, and by the same opportunity, + perhaps, to reproduce a _Decameron_, corresponding + thereto, has an indescribable attraction for me, and I should + have acted upon it had I not been afraid to be afraid. From + sheer cowardice at the possible death of my honor, I must stand + the cartridges of the cholera. From the spot where my king and + so many admirable and honorable men stand their ground, must + Cornelius never run away. You will take in good part the + informality of this letter from your fanciful friend, yet he + craves of you an _indulgenza plenaria_ while he ends with + the bold declaration that he indescribably loves and honors you. + P. V. CORNELIUS." + +At this period an idea seized Cornelius, which long occupied his +attention, namely, to record the noteworthy incidents of his own +eventful artist-life; a plan which certainly would have enriched +literature by at least one original work and have proved of +inestimable value to the history of modern art. Unfortunately, +the plan was never carried out; but it affords a proof of his +high esteem for his friend that Cornelius intended the memoirs to +be written in the form of letters addressed to her, as will +appear from the two following letters. They are written under the +influence of the same exuberant spirits in which the grand +conception of his "Christian epic" had placed him: + + "Munich, February 12, 1832. + "Very Dear Friend: This is not meant as an answer to the + welcome and beautiful letter which you sent me through H. + Hauser; it is only a slight expression of my gratitude and my + great delight at the kindliness and the loyal friendship which + your dear letter breathes for me, unworthy. I have lately been + asking myself why this letter-writing, which, as you and all + the world knows, is a horror to me, since my correspondence + with you has set me back into that happy period when one can + write an entire library and yet not be satisfied. Had I more + leisure, I would carry out an old project to write the history + of my life in letter-form, after the manner of many French + memoirs, and addressed to you. Although for the present this is + not to be thought of, I by no means abandon the plan. + + "Heroes and artists--in the most liberal way of viewing + it--have their truest and clearest appreciation in the pure + souls of women. Only Hebe might serve the nectar to Alcides; + only Beatrice conducts the singer into Paradise; Tasso's + delirium is a vague searching in a labyrinth where Ariadne's + thread is broken; Michael Angelo would have been as great a + painter as was Dante a poet had Beatrice opened heaven to him; + Raphael's thousand-feathered Psyche bore a material maiden into + the realm of the stars; her human blood enkindled his and slew + him. When I write my memoirs, you will see how it has gone with + me in this respect. In the mean time I allow you a peep through + the keyhole of my private drawer--it is a poor poem of my + youth, which as penance you must read, because you mockingly + called me a poet. [Footnote 45] + + [Footnote 45: It is truly a very youthful poem, + addressed "To the Muse," commencing: + "Confided have I alone + in thee, O Muse," etc. ED.] + + "I know not why I send these poor stanzas to you; it appears to + me as though you exercised some charm over the spirits of my + life, who must perforce appear before you. Perhaps one of these + days this letter might serve for a dedication to the book in + question, because, like an overture, it contains in itself the + leading motive. Now farewell, and take no offence at this gay + carnival-arabesque, The ladies of my family heartily greet you: + we have good news from Rome. Heaven bless you, vouchsafe you + cheerfulness and bliss, and bring you soon to us. Meantime, + however, write soon, and often send tidings + to your most devoted friend, + "P. Cornelius." + +{108} + +Four months later, he reverts to the same subject, on the +occasion of sending to her, while at Basle, a sketch of his +latest composition for the walls of the Louis-church, ("The +Epiphany,") accompanying which he writes: + + Munich, June 21, 1832. + "Herewith you find a little sketch of a drawing just completed + for a large cartoon (the corresponding piece to the + Crucifixion,) and instead of interpreting it to you, I beg your + own interpretation of it; it would have such a charm for me to + read in your mind my own conceptions ennobled and beautified. + What coquetry! I hear you laughingly say; and yet I hope to be + pardoned. If it be true that artists have many feelings in + common with women, those which prompt us to try to please those + we love should meet with some indulgence. + + "I occupy myself often, on my lonely walks, with the plan of my + intended memoirs; the material begins to assume shape; but + unless you apply to it the finishing touch, it will not be + presentable. I never could bring myself to entrust it to other + hands. In the retrospect of my life I find the material more + abundant than I had supposed. Very difficult will be the + shaping of much of it. How easily does many a tie and relation + in this life lose its true coloring and significance by + omissions; and yet must these very often occur, if the work is + to appear during my lifetime. Before beginning to write, I + shall communicate to you, orally, dearest friend, some portions + of the memoirs, and we can then discuss them at leisure--a + welcome plan to me, for thus will the undertaking fairly ripen. + With inmost respect and love, your devoted + "Peter Von Cornelius." + +Finally, it may be allowable to make mention of a letter which he +addresses to her from Rome, on the 12th of October, 1833, while +he was working on his drawing of the Last Judgment. In this +letter we recognize his playful, working humor--and does he not +term these periods of creative activity his wedding time? In +several remarks, however, we discern both sides of his nature. + + "My Noble Friend: It is really too bad! has he not yet written? + not even answered that charming letter from Salzburg? Well, I + must say, I am curious to see how he will justify himself. + + "Thus I hear Schlotthauer exclaim; even Schubert ominously + shakes his head; but you are silent and thoughtful. I should be + in despair for an excuse for myself, having already shot off my + best arrows at you on similar occasions, exhausted my adroitest + terms--my best rhetoric. I say I should be in despair, if that + stupendous, that tremendous thing, 'The Last Judgment,' did not + take me under its protecting wing. Never has a man, probably, + with more sublimity asked pardon of a lady! And now, laying the + universe at your feet, I await composedly my sentence. From + this moment is my tongue loosed; and I can say to you that I am + celebrating my blissfullest time--my wedding time--the harvest + season of my holiest aspirations. How few mortals attain to + such happiness! and how ill-calculated is this world to afford + it! + + "Gladly would I show you the work I am at present engaged + upon. Yet for a nature so quiet as yours, you appear to me far + too forcible and positive. Overbeck must love you a thousand + fold more than I: with me you suffer indulgence to take the + place of impartial justice. How I once fretted about such + things! + + "What a treasure is a deep, positively incurable pain! Better + than the most unalloyed bliss which this poor world has to + offer, it brings us near to the Holy One. It is more faithful, + far less variable. It draws us into solitude, into ourselves. + + "You surmise, doubtless, what I mean. Daily do I thank Heaven + that through you such knowledge was to come to me. This is + bitter medicine; administered, to a child, upon sweet fruit. + But why do I entertain you with such trivialities? In all books + of all nations we read the same thing; and yet when the poor + human heart is pressed with its heavy burthen, it feels just as + profoundly and acutely as in the very days of Troy itself; and + the utterances of joy and of love, like those of pain, are ever + new and their method inexhaustible; ever does one cast himself + upon the breast of a loving, sympathetic soul. + +{109} + + "Accept for the moment this confused scribble and remain + friendly and well-disposed toward me. Continue to peep through + my fingers, and leave me just five of them. I claim to myself, + however, the privilege of an unlimited love and veneration for + you. My entire household and all your friends send heartfelt + greeting; foremost of all, however, your + P. V. CORNELIUS." + + +The correspondence was interrupted when Cornelius removed to +Berlin; but not the friendship, which endured to the end. Nor did +the exchange of letters cease entirely; so that the ink-shy +master once asserted in Berlin, that he had written to no lady so +often as to her. + +Among the earliest acquaintances of Emily Linder, was Father +Franz von Baader; as the nine letters indicate, which were +addressed to her, and published in the complete works of Baader. +The first of these was dated as early as the 25th of May, 1825, +therefore at the commencement of her residence in Munich; and the +contents indicate the immediate cause of their mutual attraction. +This letter has somewhat the nature of a memorial, in which the +philosopher draws a parallel between the art of painting and the +God-like art of benevolence; closing with the following words: + + "Herewith commends himself to Miss Emily Linder--she who + rendered her memory so dear, so imperishable to him by an act + kindness performed at his request to a poor family-- + Franz Baader." + +The tie between them therefore lay in the admirable activity of +that quality by which Emily Linder quietly accomplished so +much--a high-hearted love for her neighbor. + +From that time forward Baader regularly sent her his pamphlets +and works, and we can appreciate to what extent he tasked her +intellect when he forwarded her a copy of his _Speculative +Dogma or, Social-Philosophic Treatise_. He regarded it as a +pleasant duty to acquaint her from time to time with his literary +labors: and she spared herself to no trouble to follow even such +grave and abstruse topics. He succeeded in specially interesting +her in Jacob Böhme. Her intelligent remarks on Baader's article +upon the doctrine of justification led him to remark that her +letter afforded him a more satisfactory proof than many a +criticism that he had succeeded in reaching both the head and the +heart. In the year 1831, Baader dedicated to her a philosophic +paper entitled _Forty Propositions from a Religious +Exotic_," (Munich: Franz, 1831.) In the brief dedication of +this "little work on great subjects" we read, "While you in +ancient Rome are dedicating heart, soul, eye, and hand to art, it +may not be unwelcome to you to hear over the stormy Alps a +friendly voice, reminding you of that holy alliance of the three +graces of a better and eternal life, Religion, Speculation, and +Poetry, adding to these also, Painting." In the letter which +accompanies this pamphlet he places before her the leading +thoughts of the little work in a lucid manner: + + "When the teachers of religion say that the whole Christian + faith rests upon the knowledge and conviction that God is love; + and that in this religion the love of God, of man, of nature, + is made a duty; so that, in fact, a oneness of love and duty is + announced, it would seem seasonable this unloving and + duty-forgetful age so to present the identity of these two, + love and duty, that mankind can discern the laws of religion in + those of love, and those of love in religion; which, I trust, + has been done in this pamphlet in a new, albeit rather a + homoeopathic manner." + +Next to Baader is to be named his intellectual son-in-law, Ernst +von Lasaulx. He started, in the same year that Emily Linder left +Rome, upon his long journey through Italy and Greece, to the +Orient. They met in Florence, the 27th of July, 1831, and he +promised the artist a description of his travels. +{110} +In conformity with this promise ensued a series of letters +recording his experiences and impressions in Greece and the +promised land, fresh and warm to a degree seldom found, and full +of classic beauty. By whom could antiquity be better realized to +this art-enthusiast than by Lasaulx, the zealous student of +Grecian art-history, and equally a master of artistic prose! +Poetic sensibility and literary clearness go refreshingly hand in +hand in these letters; now in a description of his rides to that +"eloquent rock-architecture" of Cyclopean edifices, the Titanic +walls of the Acropolis of Tiryns and Mikene; or his solitary +wanderings among the prostrate, ruined glories strewn from +Corinth to Magara and Athens. At the first view of distant +Athens, the Acropolis and the Parthenon, the temple of Theseus +and the city behind the dark olive-woods he exclaims: + + "Here is Greece, all of a departed glory worthy of the name, + which the noiseless waste of time and the insane fury of man + has left to the after-world. Never in my experience, and in no + other city, have I known such emotions. It is as though my + heart were turned into an AEolian harp, and the night winds + were sighing through its broken strings." + +Despite all his predilections, however, for the classic land, he +did not suffer himself to be deceived as to a new Greece by the +occasion of the 12th of April, 1833, when he was present at the +formal surrender of the Acropolis to the Bavarian troops, when +Osman Effendi withdrew the Turkish forces, and the Bavarian +commander, Baligand, planted the Greek flag upon the northern +rampart. He remarks, in this description: + + "It was a remarkable spectacle; the noisy, confused crowd of + Turks, Greeks, Bavarians and whatever other inquisitive Franks + had collected in the dusky colonnades of the Parthenon. As I + could not bring myself to any faith in the regeneration of + Greece, the rampant irony of this insane funeral wake only + added to my deep depression." + +Written in the year 1833, and, hardly ten years later, what +confirmation! + +Glorious passages does the traveller indite to his distant friend +over his pilgrimage through Palestine; profound melancholy at the +present condition of the holy land; devout emotions amid holy +places. On entering Jerusalem, Sunday, September 15. 1833, he +says: + + "Burning tears and a cold shudder of the heart were the first, + God grant not the only, tributes which I offered for his love + and that of his Son." + +His delineations inspired his friend with a holy longing, and she +entertained for some time afterward the idea of a journey to the +holy land. She had, indeed, made preparations (1836) for a +pilgrimage thither in company with Schubert, and only +considerations of health compelled her at last to abandon the +plan. + +Subsequently, at the close of his life, Lasaulx crowned his +friendship for Miss Linder with a special literary tribute. He +dedicated to her his last great work, _The Philosophy of the +Fine Arts, Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Music, Poetry, +Prose_, (Munich, 1860.) As though from a presentiment of his +death, he felt impelled to bring his esthetic studies to a close, +sensible as he was that here and there were still omissions to +supply. But the book is the thoughtful labor of many years, and a +masterwork of style. In the dedication, which serves as preface, +and which was written in the Bavarian inn, at Castle Lebenberg, +in the Tyrol, on the 25th of September, 1859, after speaking of +the origin of the work, he refers, in the following words, to his +friend: + +{111} + + "That I dedicate this work particularly to you will be found + natural enough on a moment's self-examination. I met you, for + the first time, thirty years ago, at Munich, in a delightful + circle of friendly men and women, so many of whom are + constantly departing from us, that those who are still left + have to move nearer and nearer to each other at your hospitable + table. A few years later, I saw you in Florence again, as you + came from Rome and I went thither. The death of our + early-maturing friend, Adam Eberle, resulted in an association + with you as a correspondent, and since then you have proved to + me, my wife and daughter, both in bright and gloomy days, so + dear and true a friend, that it is now a necessity with me to + express my gratitude to you, even with this very work, whose + subjects are so akin to your own studies, and in writing which, + at this fortress of Lebenberg, I have so often thought of you + and our mutual friends, dead and living, chiefest among whom + should to yourself this book be a tribute." + +A year and a half later, the noble and true soul of Lasaulx had +passed, and his grateful friend founded for him a memorial after +her own peculiar taste, the pious memorial of a stated mass for +his soul. + +An early friend, also, and one true till death, was Gotthilf +Heinrich von Schubert, who met Miss Linder shortly after he was +called to the University of Munich. The amiable personality of +this _savant_ of child-like nature particularly appealed to +her. His fundamental views of religion accorded with her own; and +therefore, the elements of a spiritual harmony were already at +hand. Miss Linder was associated with his family during the +period of an entire human life, in the closest and purest +friendship, which particularly one test safely withstood--that of +her conversion. In his autobiography, Schubert alludes, in a few +words, to this friend of his household; and the comparison he +draws between her and the Princess Gallitzin shows how high a +position he accorded her. Speaking of the circle of friends in +which he chiefly moved, he mentions the names of Roth, Puchta, +Schnorr, Cornelius, Ringseis, Schlotthauer, Boisseree, +Schwanthaler, and then remarks: + + "The gathering-point of many of these friends was the house of + the noble Swiss, Emily. At all times and in all places, in + larger as in smaller social circles, will each with pleasure + thus recall that grand life-picture, which was similarly + presented to a former generation at Münster, in the fair friend + of Hamann, of Stolberg, of Claudius." + +Emily Linder was certainly the first, in her deep humility, to +deprecate such a comparison; but it is for both equally +creditable that the venerable sage felt constrained to bear such +testimony, even after her union with the Catholic Church. + +Next to the testimony of scholars and artists, we will finally +quote an opinion from a female writer, a literary lady of the +higher walks of life. In the summer of 1841, came Emma von +Niendorf to Munich. She was in friendly relation with Schubert +and Brentano, and, several years later, recorded her +reminiscences of those sunny days at Munich in a lively and +imaginative little work. At Schubert's she formed the +acquaintance of Emily Linder, and was attracted closely to her. +She refers to her in glowing and expressive terms, depicting this +art-loving woman in the repose of her home: + + "A noble Swiss, and for this reason remarkable, that, fortified + by exterior means and the most positive convictions, she + presented to me an ideal existence in a ripe and unwedded old + age, having achieved happiness. She lived only for science, for + art, for all that is beautiful and good. But everything was + illumined with the glory of a genuine Christian spirit. And how + this spirit reflected itself in all her surroundings! +{112} + I shall never forget it; the sitting-room, with work-basket, + books, flowers, harp, drawings by Overbeck; a drawing-room + separating these from a little house-chapel, which a painting + of Overbeck also embellished. And, where the organ awaited the + skilful fingers, a Madonna of the school of Leonardo da Vinci + smiled from the wall, while the little side-altar encased a + drawing of Albrecht Dürer. I found, also, in the house of this + lady a portrait of Maria Mori, in the Tyrol, admirably drawn + by her friend, the well-known lady artist, Ellenrieder, + somewhat idealized; a profile, with folded hands; long, brown, + down-flowing hair; the large, dark eye full of devotion, full + of sensibility, the _stigmata_ in the hands not to be + forgotten. ... This lady is a Protestant. The deepest coloring + of her soul is, perhaps, shading toward Catholicism; yet she + doubtless finds satisfying harmonies in the Gospel. By one of + those wonderful providences which life is so full of, this + earnest soul was planted between two strongly pronounced + natures--two opposite polarities of friendship, both deep and + sincere--Clemens Brentano and Schubert, who were on equal + terms of intimacy with her." + +At the very time Emma von Niendorf put her work to press, she +knew not that the lady to whom these lines referred had already +attained that toward which "the deepest coloring of her soul +seemed to be shading." Emily Linder had sought and found +"satisfying harmonies" in the faith of the one, universal, +apostolic church. + + Conclusion In The Next Number. + +---------- + + Xavier De Ravignan. [Footnote 46] + + [Footnote 46: _The Life of Father de Ravignan, of the + Society of Jesus_. By Father de Ponlevoy, of the same + Society. Translated at St. Beuno's College, North Wales. + 12mo, pp. 693. New York: The Catholic Publication Society. + 1869.] + + +Father De Ponlevoy's life of his friend and colleague, the +celebrated orator of Notre Dame, violates many of the canons of +biographical composition, and is nevertheless an admirable book. +As a narrative, it lacks clearness and symmetry; but as a picture +of the interior of a great and beautiful soul, it is wonderfully +vivid. It could only have been written by one who sympathized +completely with the subject, and understood the interior +illuminations and trials, and the complete detachment from the +world, which distinguished the illustrious preacher whose fame at +one time filled all Catholic Europe. Father de Ponlevoy has given +us therefore a valuable work. He has looked at De Ravignan's life +from the right point of view--the only point in fact from which +it offers any important material to the biographer. In a worldly +sense, the life was not an eventful one. He came of a noble yet +hardly a distinguished family, who preserved their faith in the +midst of the storm of revolution, and brought up their children +to love the church. Gustave Xavier was born at Bayonne on the 1st +of December, 1795. As a child he was remarkable for a gravity and +intelligence far beyond his years, a warm affection for his +parents, and a very pious disposition. After completing his +school and college education in Paris, he resolved to devote +himself to the law, and at the age of eighteen entered the office +of M. Goujon, a jurist of some distinction at the capital. He had +scarcely begun his studies, however, when France was thrown into +confusion by the return of Napoleon from Elba. +{113} +The young man threw down his books, enlisted in a company of +royalist volunteers, and after preparing himself for the campaign +by receiving holy communion, marched with his command toward the +Spanish frontier. His company belonged to that unlucky detachment +under General Barbarin, which was surprised and cut to pieces at +Hélette, in the Lower Pyrénées. General Barbarin fell, severely +wounded, and would have fallen into the enemy's hands, when De +Ravignan rushed forward through the fire and attempted to carry +him off the field. It was a generous but desperate act, which +would have led to the sacrifice of both. Barbarin saw the danger +of the young hero, and, freeing one of his arms, shot himself +through the head. Covered with the blood of his unfortunate +commander, Gustave sought safety in flight, wandered afoot and +alone through the Basque country, in the disguise of a peasant, +and, after many hardships and escapes, rejoined the army on +Spanish soil. He now received a commission as lieutenant of +cavalry, and was attached to the staff of the Count de Damas, who +sent him on a confidential mission to Bordeaux. Before he had any +further opportunity of winning distinction, the war was over, and +although tempting offers were made him to continue in the army, +he determined to adhere to the law, and was soon hard at work +again. The indomitable resolution, amounting even to sternness, +which distinguished him in after life, was already one of his +most remarkable characteristics. Whatever he did, was done with +all his might. He studied with the most intense application, and, +not satisfied with the reading necessary for his profession, +applied himself closely to the German and English languages, and +such lighter accomplishments as drawing and music. In due time he +was appointed a _conseiller auditeur_ in the royal court of +Paris, then under the presidency of Séguier. The influence of the +Duke d'Angoulême got him the appointment--not, however, without +some difficulty--and his colleagues received him coldly. He +awaited his time in patience, beginning each day by hearing Mass, +and studying thoroughly, systematically, and indefatigably. At +last, one day when the advocates happened to be out of court, a +civil cause of a very tedious nature was unexpectedly called. The +president turned, rather maliciously, to De Ravignan, and handed +him the papers, saying, "Let us see for once what can be done by +this young gentleman, whose acquaintance we have yet to make." On +the appointed day the "young gentleman" presented a clear and +logical report, and delivered it with a perfection of utterance +which caused the whole court to listen with astonishment. His +success at the bar was assured from that moment, and soon +afterward he was appointed deputy _procureur général_. + +His life at this time presents a curious and instructive study. +He devoted a part of each day regularly to religious exercises; +he was a zealous member of a Sodality of the Blessed Virgin; he +had already in fact formed the idea of entering the priesthood, +if not of joining the Society of Jesus. But while he remained in +the world, he never neglected his professional pursuits, he +mingled freely in society, and showed himself, in the true sense +of the term, an accomplished gentleman. He was a great favorite +in company. "In him," says Father de Ponlevoy, "interior and +exterior were in perfect harmony. It would be impossible to +imagine a more perfect type of a young man: the expression of his +countenance was excellent, his forehead high and full of dignity, +his features fine and characteristic, his eyes deep and blue, by +turns animated and affectionate, his figure slight and graceful. +{114} +To this picture must be added scrupulous attention to person and +dress, perfect politeness, and a nameless something, the +reflection of a lofty mind, a great intellect, and a pure and +affectionate heart." Many years afterward, when he visited +London, to preach at the time of the World's Fair, one of the +principal Protestant noblemen of England said of him, "He is the +most finished gentleman I ever saw." His modesty, like many of +his other virtues, leaned toward severity. At a great +dinner-party one day, before he had embraced the religious life, +he was placed next a young lady whose dress was rather too +scanty. He sat stiff and silent until the unlucky girl ventured +to ask, "M. de Ravignan, have you no appetite?" He replied in a +half-whisper, "And you, Mdlle., have you no shame?" + +He was twenty-six years of age when, after a retreat of eight +days, he entered the Seminary of Saint Sulpice. The resolution +had been gradually formed, yet it took everybody except his +mother and his spiritual director by surprise. His professional +friends and associates did all they could to draw him back to the +world. They sought out his retreat, and went after him in crowds. +"Ah!" he exclaimed, when he saw them, "I have made my escape from +you." + +De Ravignan remained only six months in the seminary, and then +removed to the novitiate of the Society of Jesus, for which he +had made no secret of his preference. The life of a novice offers +little matter for the biographer. We are only told that his +course here was distinguished by a devotion which approached +heroism, a zeal that tended toward excess, and a strictness that +was often too hard and stern. Throughout his life, severity +toward himself, far more than toward others, was his principal +defect; but as years went on, this rigidity of character, always +more apparent than real, disappeared little by little in the +sunshine of divine love. He never spared himself in anything. He +surpassed all in his ambition for humiliation and suffering; the +only trouble was, that he sometimes went too far in attempting to +lead weaker brethren by the hard path he himself had trodden. A +novice once asked somebody for advice, and was recommended to +apply to Brother de Ravignan. "In that case," he rejoined, "I +know beforehand what I must do: I have only to choose the most +difficult course." In the scholasticate, he was known by the +_sobriquet_ of "Iron Bar." When the time came for his +admission to holy orders, after nearly four years passed in the +scholasticate at Paris and at Dôle, he was sent with five other +candidates to the Diocesan Seminary at Orgelet, where the +sacrament of ordination was to be administered. Before the party +set out, Brother de Ravignan was appointed superior for the +journey. His companions were seized with fear when they heard who +had been placed in charge over them; but their alarm was +groundless. "Nothing," said one of the company, "could exceed the +kindness, the affability, the attentiveness to small wants, the +simple joy of the young superior. He availed himself of his +character only to claim the right of choosing the last place, and +of making himself the servant of all." He was ordained priest on +the 25th of July, 1828. + +The war against the Jesuits in France was approaching its crisis, +and the ordinance which deprived them of the liberty of teaching +and shut up all their colleges was promulgated just about the +time of Father de Ravignan's ordination. +{115} +Cut off from the privilege of secular instruction, the society +resolved to devote itself more zealously than ever to the +theological training of its own members. Father de Ravignan was +assigned a chair of theology at Saint Acheul, near Amiens; for he +was not only a thorough scholar, but he possessed a rare talent +for teaching, and according to the testimony of his pupil, Father +Rubillon, fully realized "the idea of a professor of theology +such as is depicted by St. Ignatius." The poor fathers, however, +were not to be left here in peace. In 1829, they received notice +to suspend their classes; but Father de Ravignan hastened to +Paris, saw the Minister of Public Instruction, and caused the +order to be set aside. The next year came the revolution of July. +Late in the evening of the 29th, a mob, led by an expelled pupil, +attacked the college, burst in gates, and with cries for "The +King and the Charter!" "The Emperor!" "Liberty!" and "Down with +the priests!" and "Death to the Jesuits!" proceeded to sack the +building. While some of the fathers took refuge in the chapel, +and others, expecting death, were busy hearing one another's +confessions, Father de Ravignan went upon a balcony, and tried to +make himself heard by the rioters. He persisted until a stone +struck him on the temple, and he was led away bleeding. To what +lengths the fury of the mob would have gone it is impossible to +say; but fortunately, in the course of their devastation they +stumbled into the wine-cellar, and all got drunk. The arrival of +a troop of cavalry dispersed the reeling crowd in the twinkling +of an eye, and the Jesuits were left to mourn over the ruins. The +next day it seemed certain that the attack would be renewed. The +college was deserted, and its inmates scattered in different +directions, Father de Ravignan being sent to Brigue in +Switzerland to resume his courses of theological instruction. + +It was not until the close of 1834 that he came back to France. +Then we find him once more at Saint Acheul, where, since classes +were prohibited, a house had been opened for fathers in their +third year of probation. Three years later, he was appointed +superior of a new house at Bordeaux. There he remained until +1842. + +In the mean time he had entered, imperceptibly, so to speak, upon +the great work of his life. He had preached many retreats at +different times to his own brethren, and to other religious +communities, but had rarely been heard in a public pulpit until, +during the Lent of 1835, while he was living at Saint Acheul, he +was selected to preach a series of conferences in the cathedral +of Amiens. He was forty years of age when he began this +apostleship, and he had been withdrawn from the world ever since +he was twenty-seven; yet he had not been forgotten. There was a +lively curiosity among his old friends to hear him; the members +of the bar in particular were constant in their attendance; and +the impression produced in Amiens was not only deep, but rich in +spiritual fruit. In Advent, he was appointed to preach a similar +course at the same place; and in Lent of the next year, we find +him preaching in the church of St. Thomas Aquinas, in Paris. +Nothing exactly like these conferences and courses of sermons, so +common in France, has ever been known to our country, and some of +our readers may find it difficult to appreciate the magnitude and +importance of the labor in which Father de Ravignan was now +engaged. +{116} +The audiences whom he had to address were not only poor, +unlettered sinners, whose consciences needed arousing; to these +of course he must speak, but with them came hundreds of the most +cultivated and critical listeners, who studied the speaker's +language and manner as they would a literary essay or an exercise +in elocution. The court, the army, the learned professions, and +the leaders of fashionable society crowded around the Lent and +Advent pulpits. The appearance of a new preacher was the +sensation of the metropolis. The newspapers criticised the +performance as they would criticise a play at the theatre. To +satisfy the exactions of such an audience as this, and yet to +preserve that unction without which preaching is a waste of +breath--to please the critical ear, and yet to move the callous +heart, required qualifications which few men combined. The most +famous of all the series of conferences had been those in the +great cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. Father Lacordaire had +there roused an extraordinary enthusiasm, and at the height of +his fame had abandoned the pulpit and gone to Rome for the +purpose of restoring the Dominican order to France. He earnestly +desired that Father de Ravignan should be his successor at Notre +Dame, and it is interesting to know that it was partly through +Lacordaire's agency, that the Jesuit was obliged in 1837 to begin +that grand series of discourses, extending over ten years, by +which he will be chiefly remembered. "No one could claim to be +the apostle of such an assembly as met in Notre Dame," says +Father de Ponlevoy, + + "unless he were first of all a philosopher. The subject chosen + for the first year was accordingly a kind of Catholic + philosophy of history, depicting the broad outlines of the + struggle between truth and error. This idea is analogous to + that which inspired the _City of God_ of St. Augustine; it + was carried on in the station of 1838 by an explanation of + fundamental doctrines, beginning with the personality and + action of God, in opposition to the abstractions of the + pantheists, the ill-defined forms of deism and fatalism; + proceeding on to liberty, the immortality of the soul and the + end of man, against materialism. For all this, it was necessary + to go to first principles, to recall slumbering belief to life, + and again to establish doctrines which had been corrupted by + numberless errors. Some portion of the hearers were from this + time forward led to embrace the last practical conclusions, and + already F. de Ravignan had some consoling returns to the faith + to report. At the end of the station of 1838, he wrote: + + "'The attendance has been large and remarkable for the great + number of distinguished persons, members of the present and + former ministries, peers, deputies, academicians, well known + Protestants, foreigners of rank, and a troop of young men. + + "'There have been symptoms of approval, sometimes too freely + manifested; conversions, a few, but not many. Moreover, no + expressions of hostility, either in the newspapers or among the + audience. God be praised! + + "'I have been forced to have some intercourse with a great many + people, and some of them persons of note. M. de Chateaubriand + paid me a visit; two interviews were arranged for me with M. de + Lamartine; several physicians and men of science have sought to + see me; some have been to confession. How many great men there + are ignorant of the faith, and sick in mind and heart. + + "'God has supported me. I have felt his grace, his help to our + society, and the benefit of the prayers offered for my work. I + took care that none of the journals should employ short-hand + writers, that my words might not be published in a distorted + form.'" + +From the very outset, Father de Ravignan had contemplated the +establishment of an annual retreat by way of a complement to his +conferences; but wishing to give his influence time to work +before he carried out this plan, he waited until 1841, and then +resolved to begin in the small church of the Abbaye-aux-Bois, +which with great crowding holds no more than 1000 or 1200 people. +{117} +Should the attendance be too large for this church, it was +arranged that he should remove to St. Eustache. He describes the +result of his experiment as follows: + + "I gave notice of a retreat for men during Holy Week, only on + Palm-Sunday at Notre Dame before the conference; an instruction + every evening at eight o'clock till Holy Saturday inclusively. + On the Monday evening I went to the Abbaye-aux-Bois about + half-past seven. I found an extraordinary crowd, and difficulty + in getting places; and there was not a single woman. I had kept + them all out. For nearly two hours the whole church had been + full, and already a hundred people had gone away unable to get + in. I wanted to cross the bottom of the church, but I could not + get along. I was recognized, and with great earnestness, but + without uproar, I was asked to adjourn elsewhere. I promised to + do so. From the pulpit I was struck by this throng of men, + almost all young, who filled the doorways, the altars and no + disturbance. After having warmly congratulated them, I + appointed Saint-Eustache for the next day. Then I bade them all + rise for prayer. They all rose like one man. We recited the + _Veni Creator_, and the instruction followed on these + words: _Venite seorsum et requiescite pusillum--Come aside, + and rest a little_. I advised them all to remain for + benediction. All remained. + + "Next day Saint-Eustache was filled five hours before the + service, and the following days they came even earlier. + + "My heart is full of gratitude to God. His help has been plain. + I do not know that such a churchful of men was ever seen. The + iron gates at the doors, the bases of the pillars, the rails, + everything, was covered with people hanging on; the nave and + aisles filled and crowded beyond conception, and the deepest, + most religious silence--not one disturbance, no police--3000 or + 4000 men's voices singing the _Miserere_, the _Stabat + Mater_. The sight affected me deeply. + + "I at once adopted perfect apostolic freedom of language, and, + without preface, began to speak of sin, of hell, of confession, + etc. I delivered my address, and appointed six hours every day + which I would devote to men who might wish to see me. They have + come in shoals. I have been hearing confessions all the week, + six or seven hours a day, of men of all ages and positions in + life--all very much behindhand. God has given me consolation. + The prayers offered on all sides for this work have had a + visible effect. There has been a marked movement in Paris. More + Easter Communions everywhere. Our fathers have received many + more confessions of men. I have not declined a single one, and + I am still busy in finishing them. + + "A good many came to tell me of their difficulties, and I said + to them, 'Well, believe me, there is but one way; take your + place there;' and all, with a single exception, made their + confessions. + + "On Good-Friday the Passion sermon exhausted my strength; the + following day I had no voice left. I was unable to give the + closing instruction of the retreat on Holy Saturday. I wrote a + scrap of a note to inform the Curé of Saint-Eustache, and he + bethought him of reading it from the pulpit. All went off + quietly; the people waited for benediction and went home." + +Lacordaire was a far more brilliant and poetical preacher than De +Ravignan, but the styles of the two men were so entirely +different that there can be no comparison between them. The +conferences of the Jesuit orator, studied in the cold light of +print, lack color and imagination; but they can only be judged +fairly by those who heard them delivered. The principal +characteristic of his delivery we should judge must have been +force--a force which amounted to majesty. He spoke with a +commanding air of authority, as one whose convictions were as +fixed as the everlasting hills. His power of assertion was +tremendous; with all this he was animated and impassioned, +although he generally commenced with a slow and measured cadence. +His style was a little rough, but nervous and striking. He did +not captivate, but he conquered. His gestures were dignified and +impressive; his attitude was modest but commanding; his personal +presence was noble. When he entered the pulpit, he remained a +long time motionless, with eyes cast down, waiting until the +assemblage became perfectly still. Then he made the sign of the +cross with a pomp and stateliness which became famous. +{118} +A Protestant minister who witnessed this solemn exordium +exclaimed, "He has preached without speaking a word!" It used to +be said, "When Father de Ravignan shows himself in the pulpit, no +one can tell whether he has just ascended from earth or come down +from heaven." One day he had been describing the wilful misery of +the unbeliever--his doubts, fears, melancholy, repinings, and +despair; the picture was drawn with a terrible force; the +audience sat as if paralyzed. Suddenly, want of breath compelled +the orator to pause. He folded his arms, and with inimitable +emphasis brought the climax to an end with these words: "And we-- +we are believers!" The effect was overpowering. The people forgot +themselves, and a signal of applause ran through the church. The +priest was indignant. With glowing countenance and arm raised in +air, he cried, "Silence!" in a voice of awful reproof, and the +assembly was instantly hushed. + +Still more effective, though less celebrated than the +conferences, were Father de Ravignan's retreats. In these he was +unapproached. He followed strictly the exercises of St. Ignatius, +to which he gave such unremitting study that he might well be +called a man of one book. His conferences were prepared with +great elaboration, but the retreats were improvisations. As years +went on, he devoted himself more and more closely to these latter +exercises, until they became at last his proper work in the +ministry; and when sickness, and the loss of his voice had +compelled him to abandon formal preaching, he continued to +conduct the retreats at Notre Dame, while Lacordaire resumed his +place in the pulpit. + +It must not be supposed that the success of the Jesuit's oratory +was any indication of a growing favor for the society in France. +The opposition to its existence was still active, and the +government refused to acknowledge that as a society it had any +existence in the kingdom at all. The wildest stories about it +were published and believed. One day, in the midst of a +distinguished party assembled at the Tuileries to celebrate the +king's birthday, a person of influence disclosed a horrible plot: +the Jesuits had arms stored in the cellars of Saint Sulpice, and +only the day before, Father de Ravignan had been there concerting +measures with his accomplices. "Oh! yes," interrupted a lady of +the court, "I was at that meeting. We were drawing a raffle for +the poor. There were two or three hundred families so lucky as to +be set up with a coffee-pot or a sauce-pan." As a general thing, +however, whatever might be said of the society, Father de +Ravignan was treated with respect. Guizot made no secret of his +esteem for him, and Royer-Collard used to say, "Father de +Ravignan is artless enough to imagine himself a Jesuit." In the +little book which De Ravignan accordingly wrote about this +time--_On the Existence and the Institute of the +Jesuits_--there was a double purpose to be gained. He wished +to identify himself as thoroughly and as publicly as he could +with the society to which he had given his heart, and he wished +to share in the gallant battle which Lacordaire was fighting for +the right of the religious orders to exist in France under the +protection of the laws. The opposition in the legislative +chambers had been insisting that they ought not to exist; the +ministry replied that they did not exist; and right in the midst +of the dispute appears Father de Ravignan, like the poor prisoner +who called a lawyer to get him out of jail. +{119} +"But this is preposterous," said the counsel; "you can't be +arrested on such a charge as that!" "I don't know," said the +prisoner, "but I _am_ arrested." "Why, I tell you, you +_can't_ be: it is not legal; they have no right to put you +in jail." "Well, I only know that I _am_ in jail, and I want +you get me out." Father de Ravignan showed clearly enough that +they did exist, and had a right to legal protection. If they were +to be driven out of the kingdom, the government must face the +responsibility, and do it openly. A few days after the appearance +of the book, Lacordaire, being present at a meeting of the +Catholic Club under the presidency of the Archbishop of Paris, +exclaimed, "If we were in England, I should propose three cheers +for Father de Ravignan." The cheers were given with a will. + +We have no space to follow Father de Ravignan in the varied +occupations of the next ten years. His health, always precarious, +broke down completely in 1847, and for the rest of his life he +was condemned to alternations of intense suffering, and of forced +inaction which was worse to him than pain. He was tormented with +chronic neuralgia, with dropsy on the chest, and a severe +affection of the larynx, that for long periods deprived him +entirely of the power of preaching. During these ten years of +suffering, he wrote his history of "Clement XIII. and Clement +XIV," a book which under the guise of an apology for the course +of the latter pontiff in the suppression of the Jesuits was in +reality an apology for the society, and a reply to the recently +published work of Father Theiner on the same subject. He founded +the sodality known as the Children of Mary, assisted in the +establishment of the Congregation of the Oratory, and was +zealously and constantly employed in the direction of souls and +the guidance of converts--gathering up, as Father de Ponlevoy +well expresses it, the fruit of his ten years' preaching. There +is hardly a distinguished name in the history of France at that +day which does not appear in connection with his. Madame +Swetchine was one of his co-laborers. Madame de la Ferronnays, +whose charming life has recently been told under the title of +_A Sister's Story_, was his devoted friend. Chateaubriand, +Count Molé, Walckenaër, Camper the celebrated navigator, Marshal +St. Arnaud, General Cavaignac, Prince Demidoff, Montalembert, De +Falloux, and Bishop Dupanloup--these are some of the illustrious +names which occur most frequently in his correspondence. A +celebrity of a very different sort with whom he had some +intercourse is thus alluded to in Father de Ponlevoy's Life: + + "We cannot conclude this chapter without making some mention of + that well-known American _Medium_, who possessed the + unfortunate talent of turning other things besides tables, and + of calling up the dead for the amusement of the living. Much + has been said, even in the newspapers, about his close and + pious intimacy with F. de Ravignan; and it seems that an + attempt has been made to use an honored name as a passport to + introduce into France, and establish there, these wonderful + discoveries of the new world. + + "The facts, in all their simplicity, are as follows: It is + quite true that, after the young foreigner had been converted + in Italy, he was furnished at Rome with an introduction to F. + de Ravignan; but by this time he had given up his magic at the + same time that he gave up his Protestantism, and he was + received with the interest which is due from a priest to every + soul ransomed with the blood of Jesus Christ, and especially, + perhaps, to a soul which is converted and brought back to the + bosom of the church. On his arrival in Paris, he was again + absolutely forbidden to return in any way to his old practices. + F. de Ravignan, agreeably to the principles of the faith which + proscribe all superstition, prohibited, under the severest + penalties he could inflict, all participation in or presence at + these dangerous and sometimes guilty proceedings. +{120} + Once the unhappy _Medium_, beset by I know not what man + or devil, was unfaithful to his promise; he was received with + a severity which prostrated him; I chanced at the time to come + into the room, and I saw him rolling on the ground, and + writhing like a worm at the feet of the priest, so righteously + indignant. The father was touched by a repentance which led to + such bodily agony, raised him up, and pardoned him; but, + before dismissing him, exacted a written promise confirmed by + an oath. But a notorious relapse soon took place, and the + servant of God, breaking off all connection with this slave of + the spirits, sent him word never again to appear in his + presence." + +We shall not undertake, in the brief space that remains, to +describe the beauty of Father de Ravignan's character--his +touching humility, his rare sweetness of soul, his complete +detachment from earth, his patience, his charity, and his +unflagging zeal. He was once asked how he had attained such +mastery over himself. "There were two of us," he replied; "I +threw one out of the window, so that only I remained where I +was." Father de Ponlevoy applies to him the description which St. +Francis Xavier gave of St. Ignatius: "His character is made up of +three elements; a humility of mind which we can scarcely +understand, a force of soul superior to all opposition, and an +incomparable kindness of heart." + +In the spring of 1857, a severe attack of sickness obliged him to +remove to Saint Acheul. He came back to Paris in the autumn, +apparently restored to as good health as he had experienced of +recent years, but he was already far gone in consumption. On the +3d of December, he passed a long time at the Convent of the +Sacred Heart, conversing with a poor person who wanted to enter +the church. Then he went into the confessional, and remained +there until physically exhausted. One of his penitents on that +occasion remarked that he spoke more than ever like a man who no +longer belonged to this world. He got home with great difficulty. +This was the last of his ministry. On the Feast of the Immaculate +Conception, he celebrated mass for the last time; but it was not +until the 26th of February that he passed to that blessed rest +for which he had yearned so long with an eagerness that he used +to call "homesickness." The account of his last days is too +beautiful to be abridged. With the awe inspired by the sublime +narrative, we prefer to drop our pen at the opening of this final +chapter, wherein the gates of heaven seem to stand ajar, and our +eyes are dazzled by the awful light which streams from the divine +presence. + +---------- + +{121} + + + The Educational Question. + + +The articles upon popular education which have heretofore +appeared in this journal seem to have produced the effects which +were anticipated by the writer. The public interest has been +unusually excited by the discussion; and two classes of +antagonists have ventured to make an issue with the advocates of +a just distribution of the school fund. The first in order, but +much the least important in all other respects, is that confessed +fossil, the "no-popery" party, which ever and anon intrudes +itself upon the unwilling attention of our republican society, +braying itself hoarse with rage because it can neither command +the confidence of enlightened and liberal Protestants nor escape +the galling ridicule of six millions of its Catholic +fellow-citizens. This class is well represented in an elaborate +tract lately issued from the office of the American and Foreign +Christian Union, 27 Bible House, New York City, and purporting to +be a review of the article in the January number of _The +Educational Monthly_, presenting _The Roman Catholic View of +Education in the United States_. It requires no great amount +of logical acumen to enable the least intelligent of men to see +that this tract affords the most apt illustration of one of the +principal arguments we have advanced in support of the Catholic +claim. We have remained silent for the last three months, resting +satisfied that it would be impossible for "the stereotyped class +of saints and philosophers" to rush to the rescue of a cherished +injustice, without forthwith exposing its odious features in +their struggle to carry it victoriously through the battle-field +of a public controversy. The veil of Mokanna has fallen even +before the false prophet had time to secure a victim! or, to +speak more in accordance with scriptural analogies, the cloven +foot has discovered itself under the clerical robe and the +wickedness of the heart has burst out from the tongue. _Quare +fremuerunt gentes!_ Why, indeed, shall they rage and devise +vain things? Have they not fulfilled this prophecy of the royal +David for three hundred years; and have they not suffered the +derision threatened in the fourth verse of the second Psalm? +Where shall we find a more convincing proof than this very tract +of what the enemies of the Catholic faith and people design to +accomplish by a school system which they insincerely profess to +advocate on account of its intrinsic merits, in the face of the +historical fact that, wherever and whenever they have had the +power to control the state--as the early days of all New England +and of several of the other American States--they never failed to +use the school-room as an ante-chamber to the conventicle! After +they had been stripped of this power by such men as Jefferson, +Madison, Hamilton, and the liberal founders of American +institutions, they still struggled for many years to accomplish +by indirect means the injustice and iniquity which could not be +openly maintained under the constitutions and the laws of the +federal government and the several States. We all well remember +how the poor Catholic boys and girls of the free schools were +harassed by colporteurs and proselytizers, who carried baskets +filled, not with bread for the hungry children of poverty, but +with oleaginous tracts, cunningly devised to destroy in those +little pupils of the state the faith of their fathers and the +religious practices of their devout mothers. +{122} +Teachers were selected with especial regard to their bitter +hatred of the Catholic Church and their zeal for "Evangelical" +propagandism. When this failed to make any very perceptible +impression upon the numerical strength of the Catholic people, +then commenced the wholesale child-stealing, under the pious +pretext of cleaning out the moral sewers of society; and tens of +thousands of little children, stolen or forcibly wrested from the +arms of Catholic parents--too poor and friendless to protect the +natural and legal rights of themselves and their offspring--were +hurried off to the far West, their names changed, and their +temporal and eternal hopes committed to the zealous charge of +pious and vigorous haters of the popish anti-Christ! In spite of +all this, the Catholic population of the United States continued +steadily to rise like a flood tide, not only through foreign +immigration, but by reason of virtuous wedlock and the watchful +and severe faith and discipline of a church which forbids and +effectually prevents child-murder! The reader will find this +matter discussed in an article elsewhere in this number, +entitled, "Comparative Morality of Catholic and Protestant +Countries." + +The writer of the tract issued from 27 Bible House is annoyed by +the comparison which the author of the article in _The +Educational Monthly_ instituted between the violent crimes of +our ancestors and the stupendous sins which have supplanted them +in modern times. The comparison was close-fitting as the shirt of +Nessus, and quite as uncomfortable. The Bible House replies to +this with a contrast between the intellectual, material, moral, +and religious advancement of the masses in England, the United +States, and every other Protestant country, in the nineteenth +century, and the debasement of the people of Spain, Italy, +Mexico, and South America. In the first place, we reply that our +present controversy concerns popular education in the United +States now and for a hopeful future, and not the past nor the +present of European or South American nations. In the next place, +we say that this is but another evidence of the malignant spirit +to which we are required to intrust the training of our Catholic +youth. They are to be taught that the church of their fathers is +the nursery of ignorance and vice; and that all the knowledge, +civilization, and virtue which the world enjoys are the offspring +of the so-called Reformation. They are to learn nothing of the +true history of Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Belgium, +Switzerland, Austria, Bavaria, and the Catholic principalities of +Continental Europe. They are never to hear of the vast libraries +of Catholic learning; the rich endowments of Catholic education +all over the world for ages; the innumerable universities, +colleges, academies, and free schools established by their +church, or by governments under her auspices, throughout +Christendom. They are not to be told how Oxford and Cambridge +were founded by their Catholic forefathers and plundered from +their lawful possession. The Bible House tractarian would not +willingly read to them from the _Notes of a Traveller_ by +that eminent Scotch Presbyterian, Samuel Laing, such passages as +these: + + "The comparative education of the Scotch clergy of the present + generation, that is to say, their education compared to that of + the Scotch people, is unquestionably lower than that of the + Popish clergy compared to the education of their people. This + is usually ascribed to the Popish clergy seeking to maintain + their influence and superiority by keeping the people in gross + ignorance. +{123} + But this opinion of our churchmen seems more orthodox than + charitable or correct. The Popish clergy have in reality less + to lose by the progress of education than our own Scotch + clergy; because their pastoral influence and their church + services being founded on ceremonial ordinances, come into no + competition or comparison whatsoever in the public mind with + anything similar that literature or education produces; and + are not connected with the imperfect mode of conveying + instruction which, as education advances, becomes obsolete and + falls into disuse, and almost into contempt, although + essential in our Scotch church. In Catholic Germany, in + France, Italy, and even Spain the education of the common + people in reading, writing, arithmetic, music, manners, and + morals is at least as generally diffused, and as faithfully + promoted by the clerical body, as in Scotland. It is by their + own advance and not by keeping back the advance of the people, + that the Popish priesthood of the present day seek to keep + ahead of the intellectual progress of the community in + Catholic lands; and they might, perhaps, retort on our + Presbyterian clergy, and ask if they, too, are in their + countries at the head of the intellectual movement of the age? + Education is in reality not only not repressed but is + encouraged by the Popish Church, and is a mighty instrument in + its hands and ably used. In every street in Rome, for + instance, there are at short distances public primary schools + for the education of the children of the lower and middle + classes in the neighborhood Rome, with a population of 158,678 + souls, has 372 public primary schools with 482 teachers; and + 14,099 children attending them. Has Edinburgh so many public + schools for the instruction of those classes? I doubt it. + Berlin, with a population about double that of Rome, has only + 264 schools. Rome has also her university with an average + attendance of 660 students; and the Papal States with a + population of 2,500,000 (in 1846) contain seven universities. + Prussia with a population of 14,000,000 has but seven." + +Neither would our Bible House tractarian teach his Catholic +pupils to discriminate between times, circumstances, +opportunities, characteristics of race, influences of climate, +ancient traditional habits, and the complicated causes which +affect the life and development of each nation; so as to contrast +Protestant England with Protestant Denmark, and Catholic France +with Catholic Portugal; or, again, to compare each of these with +itself at different epochs of its own history. They are not to be +told that Spain was never as powerful, covering the seas with her +commerce and the earth with her conquests, and lighting up Europe +by her genius, as at the time when she was the most thoroughly +Catholic and the least tainted with that revolutionary infidelity +which was born of Calvin and has grown to be a giant destroyer +under Mazzini and Garibaldi. They are to be told, however, that +the glory of a Christian nation is to be measured by its national +debt, its fleets and armies, its opium trade, its Coolie traffic, +its bankrupt laws, its work-houses, its prodigious fortunes +mocking squalid poverty, its twenty millions of people who own no +foot of land and its vicious nobles and gentry who firmly grasp +it all, its telegraphic wires and cables, its huge ships and +thundering factories, its luxurious merchants who toil not, and +its starving able-bodied paupers who can find no work to do, its +grotesque mixture of the beautiful and the vile, of the grand and +the infamous, of the light of the skies and the darkness of the +obscene coal-pits, of the pride of science and the ignorance of +barbarism, of the perfume of fashionable churches and the stench +of gin-shops, of the industrial slavery of great towns and the +rotting idleness of vast lazar-houses, which make up the boasted +civilization of haughty England, and extort from the Bible House +the prayerful cry, "_Thank God, we are not like unto these +Romish Publicans!_" Happy Pharisees! we certainly do not +desire to disturb their self-complacency; but we wish to teach +our Catholic children that the simple habits, the earnest piety, +the manly truth and courage of the little Catholic Republic of +San Marino, which has preserved its liberties and independence +for over eight hundred years without losing its religion, are for +the citizens of this great democratic empire a more profitable +study than the doctrines of Malthus or the history of +cotton-gins. +{124} +As we have said in our former articles, we already have here +quite enough of the material, and a superabundance of animal +spirits and vigor; and that what we stand in need of is a +well-defined faith, moral duties clearly understood, and habits +of practical virtue firmly fixed in the daily life of all the +people, Without that, even temporal prosperity must be +evanescent; as it was with all heathen nations that have +successively ruled the world and perished. Without that, temporal +prosperity is a curse, and not a blessing; for what will it +profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? +Men make nations; and nationalities are of no value before God, +except only in so far as they conduce to the end of each +individual man's creation. The Indian who goes to heaven from his +wigwam in the forest attains his end. The philosopher who goes to +hell from his palace in London or Paris has wofully miscalculated +the worth of all human philosophy, statesmanship, and national +grandeur, as the idols of his worship. The pagans measured human +life and society by the standard of the Bible House, No. 27, if +we are to judge it by this tract! + +So also, according to this tract, our Catholic children should be +taught in the schools that Voltaire became an infidel +_because_ he had been a Catholic and was trained at a Jesuit +college. It will nowhere appear in the lesson that he became an +infidel because he rebelled against the teachings of his church, +and renounced the maxims of his Jesuit tutors. When he so +zealously defended his thesis in vindication of Julian the +Apostate, his own apostasy was foretold by his master. His death +was the answer to his life. In his agony he called for a priest; +but three-score years of blasphemy had won to him the avenging +disciples who then encircled his bed like a wall of fire; and no +priest could reach the dying enemy of Christ! + +This tract would also teach our children in the schools that it +was the teachings of the "Romish Church" which drove +revolutionary France from the altars of God. It would not be +explained to them how that revolutionary rage was but the +outburst of a volcano of passion which had smouldered during ages +of long suffering under the rule of kings and nobles; and that +the instincts of the people remained so true, that in the very +same generation they returned, like the people of Israel, to the +worship of God; and rushed to the altars of their fathers with +tears of repentance and joy. _They did not become +Protestants!_ How has it been with the descendants of the +godly men of Plymouth Rock? Quietly and with exquisite decorum +they have settled down into deists, pantheists, freethinkers, +free-lovers, spiritualists, and philosophers! Will they go back +to Puritanism? + + "Facilis descensus Averni!" + +The tract tells our children that Gibbon left the Protestant +Church for the Catholic, and finally landed in infidelity. Why +did he not go back to Protestantism? + +The tract also tells our children that this is a Protestant +country; which means that all its glories are Protestant, and +that the Catholic, with Italy and Spain before his eyes, should +be thankful that he is tolerated here. Are our children to learn +this lesson at the schools? +{125} +Now, in the first place, if Bishop Coxe and other Protestant +witnesses are reliable,[Footnote 47] our Bible House friends may +as well begin to prepare their nerves to see our great country +become Catholic, at least as much of it as will remain Christian +at all. Perhaps they will then value the wisdom and liberality of +that admonitory sentence in the article of _The Educational +Monthly_ which reads thus: + + [Footnote 47: See page 61 of this number.] + + "We are quite sure that if the Catholics were the majority in + the United States, and were to attempt such an injustice," (as + that involved in this school question.) "our Protestant + brethren would cry out against it, and appeal to the wise and + liberal examples of Prussia and England, France and Austria! + Now, is it not always as unwise as it is unjust to make a + minority taste the bitterness of oppression? Men governed by + the law of divine charity will bear it meekly and seek to + return good for evil; but all men are not docile; and + majorities change rapidly and often, in this fleeting world! Is + it not wiser and more politic, even in mere regard to social + interests, that all institutions intended for the welfare of + the people should be firmly based upon exact and equal justice? + This would place them under the protection of fixed habit, + which in a nation is as strong as nature; and it would save + them from the mutations of society. The strong of one + generation may be the weak of the next; and we see this + occurring with political parties within the brief spaces of + presidential terms. Hence we wisely inculcate moderation and of + retribution." + +In the next place, although the present majority of the American +people are non-Catholic, we deny that they are Protestants, as a +nation, in a political sense. The institutions of the country are +neither Catholic nor Protestant. They recognize no one faith more +than another. Christian morality is accepted as the basis of +public and private duties by common consent; that is all. +Religious liberty was not born of the theocracy of New England. +Hancock and Adams, under the lead of Jefferson, departed very far +from the instincts of Calvinism and the traditions of Plymouth +Rock when they laid the foundations of this government; and this +is one of the things which we certainly intend to have our +children taught. We do not intend that they shall be "poor boys +at the feast," humbly thankful for such crumbs as our Bible House +friends may magnanimously bestow upon the "Romish aliens;" but +they shall be told to hold up their heads, with the full +consciousness that they are American citizens, the peers of all +others, and in no way disqualified, by the doctrines or morals of +their church, to perform every duty as faithfully and as ably as +any other men of any other creed. They shall not be terrified +with the "_raw head and bloody bones_" of "degraded Italy," +"besotted Spain," and the other terrible examples of the +destroying influence of their old mother church. We shall teach +them not to trust any morality which does not rest upon a clear +faith; and we shall show them how that faith commands obedience +to lawful authority, purity of motive in all public acts, and +universal charity for all men. + +Some of our readers may be surprised that we have devoted so much +space to this tract. Our motive should be apparent. We said, in +the beginning of this article, that this tract sounds like the +voice of one of the two classes of opponents who are arrayed +against us on this question; and that in itself it affords a +perfect illustration of our main argument, which is this, clearly +stated in the following paragraph from the article in _The +Educational Monthly_: + + "And more than this, Catholics know by painful experience that + history cannot be compiled, travels written, poetry, oratory, + or romance inflicted upon a credulous public, without the + stereotyped assaults upon the doctrines, discipline, and + historical life of their church. +{126} + From Walter Scott to Peter Parley, and from Hume, Gibbon, and + Macaulay to the mechanical compilers of cheap school + literature, it is the same story told a thousand times oftener + than it is refuted; so that the English language, for the last + two centuries, may be said without exaggeration to have waged + war against the Catholic Church. Indeed, so far as European + history is considered, the difficulty must always be + insurmountable; since it would always be impossible for the + Catholic and Protestant to accept the same history of the + Reformation or of the Papal See, or the political, social, and + moral events resulting from or in any degree connected with + those two great centres and controlling causes. Who could + write a political history of Christendom for the last three + hundred years and omit all mention of Luther and the pope? And + how is any school compendium of such history to be devised for + the use of the Catholic and Protestant child alike?" + +Now, it is very well understood that, with all their doctrinal +differences and sectarian antipathies, all the Protestant sects +can nevertheless, as a general rule, accept any Protestant +history of the so-called Reformation, and of the wars, +diplomacies, public events, and moral results springing from or +connected with that episode in the religious annals of our race; +but can Catholics accept such? Will you compel Catholic parents +to accept for their children histories written in the spirit of +this Bible House tract, which tells us (p. 3.) that the Catholic +faith "_taught the people that a Romish priest is to them in +the place of God; that a Romish priest can create his +Creator!_" + +The very encyclopedia, quoted by our tractarian is another +Roundhead trooper armed against the papal anti-Christ! And so, +the bright Catholic boy will be amused with the antics of the +feasting and fighting monk in _Ivanhoe_; whilst graver +calumnies will convince him that the church of his fathers, and +of the great-grandfathers of her modern revilers, is truly a den +of thieves and a house of abominations. + +It may as well be distinctly understood, once and for all, that +we cannot consent that our children shall receive secular +education without religious training; and that we understand very +well that such religious knowledge as we desire them to possess +cannot be imparted by those who are hostile to us. We intend also +to teach them to respect and uphold all the rights, social, +political, and religious, of their fellow-citizens, upon the +plain injunction of the Scriptures that they shall do unto others +precisely as they would have others do unto themselves. At the +same time we will teach them to love and revere their ancient +mother church, as the custodian for fifteen hundred years of that +Bible which she is falsely accused by this tract of +"_fearing;_" as the munificent patroness of every art and +the mistress of every science; as the friend and supporter of +liberty when united to order and justice; as the enemy of pride, +license, and disobedience to lawful authority; as the guardian of +the sanctity of marriage against the pagan concupiscence of the +divorce courts; as the sword of vengeance uplifted over the heads +of the child-murdering destroyers of populations; in fine, as the +hope and future salvation of this republic and all its precious +endowments of personal manhood, honor, virtue, and faith, and all +its national institutions of self-governing popular sovereignty, +equal rights, and faithful citizenship, based, not upon infidel +revolutionary "_fraternity_," but upon a noble Christian +brotherhood. Certainly, even if we were mistaken in our estimate +of the fruitfulness and power of the Catholic faith, it would be +no less an evidence of our sincere patriotism, that we are +anxious to impress upon the children of the church the conviction +that in faithfully serving their country they are only obeying +the commands of their religion. + +{127} + +As we do not intend that our children shall be either untaught or +mistaught in regard to this sublime knowledge and duty, we shall +insist on educating them ourselves, with or without receiving our +just share of the public taxes, to which we do contribute very +largely, the declaration of the Bible House tract to the contrary +notwithstanding. + +We have devoted more space to this first, class of objectors than +they could claim from our courtesy, because we believe that they +nominally represent many honest men who will cheerfully admit the +truth when they see it. + +There is another and a far different class of persons who take +issue with us upon this question, and for whom we entertain a +perfect respect--first, because they treat the subject with +evident fairness and commendable civility; and secondly, because +from their stand-point, there would appear to be much good reason +in their objections to our claim. It gives us very great pleasure +to use all our honest endeavors to remove their difficulties. +This class is represented by the editorial articles which +appeared in _The Chicago Advance, The Troy Daily Press_, and +several other papers, criticising the article of _The +Educational Monthly_. The objections may be summed up as +follows: + +_First_, (and the most important.) That denominational +education would prevent the complete amalgamation or +"unification" of American citizenship, and tend to increase +sectarian bitterness, to the prejudice of republican +institutions. + +_Secondly_. That it would destroy the harmony and efficiency +of the general school system. + +_Thirdly._ That the Catholic people are richer in the jewels +of the Roman matron, _their children_, than they are in the +_images of Caesar_, the coin of the country! and that +therefore they would draw from the common fund an amount much in +excess of the taxes paid by them; which would not be just. + +We shall candidly consider these objections in the order in which +we have stated them. + +As to the first: It would be fortunate, in a temporal point of +view, if all the people were of one mind in religion, especially +if they happen to have the true faith; inasmuch as nothing so +conduces to the general harmony and good will as the total +absence of all religious strife. But we see that such a state of +things cannot be hoped for here. Not only is the community +divided into Protestants, Catholics, and a large body of citizens +professing no faith at all, but the Protestant community itself +is subdivided into innumerable conflicting sects. In defiance of +any system of public education, these various religious +organizations will always be widely separated from each other, +and from the Catholic Church, on questions of doctrinal belief. +The issue then remains nakedly before us, Shall public education +be entirely divorced from revealed religion, and shall we commit +the morals of our children to the saving influences of a little +"_reading, writing, and arithmetic;_" or, shall we have them +educated in some form or another of practical Christianity? The +arguments on this point have been so fully elaborated in our +articles heretofore published, that it would be superfluous to +repeat them now. We may, however, recall to mind the conclusive +evidence afforded us of the correctness of our theory by the +actual experience of such governments as those of England, +France, Prussia, and Austria; under which, as we have shown in +those articles, the denominational system is carried out to the +fullest extent, producing harmony, instead of discord, in +populations composed, as here, of numerous religious bodies. It +is an old adage that one fact is worth a dozen arguments. + +{128} + +We find that, after long years of earnest study of this difficult +question, and after exhausting every half-way expedient, the +statesmen of the countries we have named adopted with singular +unanimity the views which we are presenting for the serious and +candid consideration of the American public. We shall quote +briefly from a few of those statesmen who are well-known leaders +of opinion in the European Protestant world. + +Lord Derby: "Public education should be considered as inseparable +from religion;" the contrary system is declared by him to be "the +realization of a foolish and dangerous idea." + +Mr. Gladstone: "Every system which places religious education in +the background is pernicious." + +Lord John Russell insisted that in the normal schools, which he +proposed to have established, "religion should regulate the +entire system of discipline." + +M. de Raumer: "They have acquired in Prussia a conviction, which +becomes daily more settled, that the fitness of the primary +school depends on its intimate union with the church." In 1854, +he writes that "education should repose upon the basis of +Christianity, the true support of the family, of the commune, and +of the state." + +M. Guizot, the former very eminent Protestant prime minister of +France, deserves to be specially quoted, although we are but +repeating the extracts which we gave in another article. His +words should be written in letters of gold. Let the enemies of +religious education, if they can, present a satisfactory answer +to this superb declaration: + + "In order to make popular education truly good and socially + useful, it must be fundamentally religious. I do not simply + mean by this, that religious instruction should hold its place + in popular education, and that the practices of religion should + enter into it; for a nation is not religiously educated by such + petty and mechanical devices. It is necessary that national + education should be given and received in the midst of a + religious atmosphere, and that religious impressions and + religious observances should penetrate into all its parts. + Religion is not a study or an exercise to be restricted to a + certain place, and a certain hour; it is a faith and a law, + which ought to be felt everywhere, and which after this manner + alone can exercise all its beneficial influence upon our minds + and our lives." + +The first Napoleon, the restorer of order and religion in France, +influenced, at the time, merely by human considerations, and +speaking only as a wise lawgiver, and not as a practical +Christian, insisted upon the necessity of making the precepts of +religion the basis of education in the university, whose halls +had echoed the blasphemous unbelief of the disciples of Voltaire. + +At our very door, we have likewise the judgment and example of +our Canadian neighbors, demonstrating the feasibility of +connecting secular education with the most thorough instruction +in the doctrines and practices of the different churches. Such +opinions and facts should have some weight with our friends here +who are fearful of the proposed experiment. + +{129} + +We know, by our own personal experience, that young men educated +at the exclusively Catholic College of Mt. St. Mary's, in +Maryland, and other young men, graduates of Yale and Princeton, +where Catholics are rarely if ever seen, meet afterward in the +world of business or politics, and immediately learn to value +each other according to intrinsic personal worth, and to exchange +all the mutual courtesies and discharge all the reciprocal duties +of social life. It is the same with Catholics and Protestants +educated together at the many Catholic colleges in the United +States, where the Catholic pupils are nevertheless invariably +instructed, with the utmost exactness, in all the doctrines and +practices of their church. There are thousands of such living +witnesses throughout the country, ready to attest the correctness +of our statement. It proves this, (what _we_ know to be true +without the proof,) that the education received by Catholics at +their own schools, whilst rigidly doctrinal, uniformly inculcates +charity, urbanity, and every duty of good citizenship. There is +not, therefore, and never can be any difficulty, on the part of +Catholics, to meet their Protestant fellow-citizens in all the +relations of life, private and public, with the utmost frankness, +fraternity, and confidence, provided that they are not repelled +by harshness or chilled by distrust. Their religion teaches them +that such is their duty. Certainly, if such happy results are +realized even in England, Prussia, and Austria, where all +barriers, whether social or religious, are traditionally more +difficult to surmount, how can it be that we must expect +animosities to be engendered under the free action and the +liberal intercourse of our republican society? + +We must, therefore, consider the fear expressed by this first +objection as wholly groundless. But even were it otherwise, what +then? Should we, therefore, sacrifice to such an apprehension the +far more momentous considerations that our republican, +self-governing community can never safely trust itself in the +great work of perpetuating the liberties of a Christian nation +without planting itself upon the morality of the Gospel; that the +revealed doctrines of Christ are the foundation of his moral +code, and that to practise the one faithfully the people must be +taught to believe the other firmly; and that religion so taught, +as M. Guizot admirably expresses it, "is not a study or an +exercise, to be restricted to a certain place and a certain hour; +it is a faith and a law which ought to be felt everywhere;" and +that "national education should be given and received in the +midst of a religious atmosphere!" + +What would the advantage of a more perfect amalgamation or +unification of citizenship avail us, if, to obtain it, we were to +strike from under our institutions the only solid basis upon +which they can rest with any hope whatever of being able to +withstand the rude shocks of time, to which all mortal works are +subject, and which destroyed the grandest structures of pagan +power, solely because they rested upon human wisdom and human +virtue, unaided by revealed religion and supernatural grace? We +cannot, therefore, admit any force in the first objection. + +As to the second: How can the harmony or efficiency of the school +system be disturbed by permitting a school to be organized for +Catholic children in any district or locality where the requisite +number may be found to render it practicable, in accordance with +the general policy of the law? It is presumed that the law +contemplates the education of all these children, and we cannot +see that the harmony of the system consists in putting them into +any one school-room rather than another. It is not proposed to +withdraw them from the general supervision of the state, or to +deny to the state the authority to regulate the standard of +education, and to see that its requirements are complied with. +This is done in every one of the countries of which we have +spoken. +{130} +No one is so unreasonable as to expect that separate schools +shall be organized where the number of pupils may be below a +reasonable uniform standard; as it is not proposed to increase +the expense of the system. On the contrary, as far as concerns +the education of our Catholic children in the city of New York, +we propose to reduce the cost considerably, as we shall explain +before we close this article. It is said that the several +Protestant denominations may demand the same privilege. Suppose +that they do. If they have a sufficient number of children in any +particular locality for the proper organization of a separate +school under the law, and are willing to fulfil its requirements, +how can the general system be impaired by allowing them to do so? +This is the condition annexed to the privilege in all those +countries which have adopted this liberal policy. The proposition +seems too plain for argument. When a college contains five +hundred boys, two hundred may be classed in the higher division, +three hundred in the lower, and each may have separate +playgrounds and recitation halls. So, if a district contains two +hundred of one faith, and three hundred of another, or of several +other creeds, surely the two hundred may be organized into one +school and the three hundred into another, or into several +others, according to the standard of numbers, as may be required +by the law. The whole question, therefore, is purely one of +distribution, not at all above the capacity of a drill-sergeant! +The same number of children would be educated, probably in the +same number of schools, and at the same cost, as now. The course +of secular education prescribed by the state could be rigidly +enforced in all such schools without assailing the conscience of +any one, because we suppose that the state would not object that +Catholics should learn English history from Lingard, whilst +others might prefer Hume and Macaulay. We presume that there +would be no disagreement in regard to reading, writing, +arithmetic, mathematics, natural philosophy, and those things +which constitute the general studies of primary and high schools. +It is only with such that the state has any right to intermeddle, +and it is only such that the state professes to secure to its +pupils. The state may say, "The public welfare requires that the +citizens of a self-governing nation shall receive sufficient +intellectual culture to enable them to discharge their duties +understandingly;" but the state has no right to say that its +pupils shall take their knowledge and form their opinions of the +great moral events of history from D'Aubigné or from Cardinal +Bellarmin. It was this that troubled the great Catholic and +Protestant governments of Europe, until experience discovered to +them the simple solution of the difficulty which we are so +earnestly endeavoring to commend to the acceptance of the +American people. Have we not at least a right to expect that our +motives will not be misrepresented; and that we shall be believed +when we say that we are not hostile to the public schools, but, +on the contrary, most earnestly anxious to secure for them the +widest usefulness and the greatest efficiency. We know that that +cannot be if religion be excluded; and that it must be excluded +where so many conflicting creeds confront each other. + +As to the third: If it were true that the Catholic people +contributed almost nothing to the school fund, as is no doubt +sincerely believed by some who are not disposed to do us +injustice, a very serious question would, nevertheless, be +suggested by such a statement as this, which we copy from the +article in _The Chicago Advance_ already referred to: +{131} +"Our American population is principally Protestant, partly +Romish, slightly Jewish, _and increasingly rationalistic or +infidel_." Now, it is unquestionably true that the infidels in +this country can count but very few amongst their number who ever +knelt at a Catholic altar. Still, it is the theory of our +opponents that ignorance is, in itself, the source of all evil, +and the parent of impiety. It would certainly, therefore, be a +terrible calamity for the country if the children of six millions +of Catholics were deprived of education because their fathers +paid no taxes! To educate them would be unanimously regarded as a +public necessity; just as our police authorities remove contagion +at the public expense. If this view of public economy be true, +(and we need not dispute it in this argument,) then it follows +that the question of educating the Catholics is altogether +independent of what they do or do not contribute to the treasury. +Educated they must be; but suppose that they steadily refuse to +receive the knowledge offered, except upon the condition that +their consciences shall not be violated, and their parental +responsibilities disregarded, by subjecting their children to a +training inconsistent with the spirit of their religion; how +then? Will you consign the six millions to what you call the +moral death of ignorance, and suffer their carcasses to putrefy +upon the highway of your republican progress, poisoning the +fountains of your national life? Or will you prefer, in the +spirit of your institutions, to respect their conscientious +opinions, and to enable them, in the manner we have already +indicated, to coöperate with you in the full development of your +great and noble policy of universal popular education? + +But, is it true that the Catholic people have no substantial +claim as tax-payers? Such might have been the case twenty-five +years ago; but every well-informed man knows that it is not so +now. Wealth, amongst the Catholic population, may perhaps be less +perceptible, because it is more diffused than it is amongst some +other bodies of our citizens; but no man who is familiar with the +cities of New York, Brooklyn, Baltimore, St. Louis, Chicago, +Milwaukee, and all others, from the sources of the Mississippi to +the Gulf, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, or with the +Catholic farm-settlements of the Western States, can shut his +eyes to the fact that our Catholic people are thrifty and +well-to-do in the world; and that very many of them possess large +wealth. A member of the British Parliament, in a recent work upon +the Irish in America, has demonstrated this by undeniable +statistics. The same is true of Catholics here of all other +nationalities. We have not the time nor space, neither is it +necessary, to go into the details of this question. We suppose +our readers to be intelligent and well-informed, and that they +can readily recall to their minds the facts which substantiate +the truth of our assertion. + +Are there those, sharp at a bargain, who will say, "Well! the +Catholics have the resources to educate themselves, and are doing +so now; let them continue the good work without calling upon the +state for any portion of the public funds, to which they +contribute by their taxes"? The dishonesty of such a proposition +is shown in the simple statement of it. It is true, as we have +said over and over again, that the Catholic people, after paying +their taxes to the state, have, with a generous self-sacrifice +amounting to heroism, established all over this country more +universities, colleges, academies, free schools, and orphan +asylums than have ever been founded by all the rest of the nation +through private contributions. +{132} +A people capable of such great deeds in the cause of civilization +and religion are not to be despised, _can never be +repressed_, and certainly should not be denied justice, when +they ask no more! + +We hope that we have satisfactorily answered the objections of +those honest adversaries, with whom we will always be happy to +interchange opinions in a spirit of candor and sincere respect. + +In order that our readers may obtain some idea of what the +Catholic people, unaided by the state, have done and are doing +for popular education in this country, we shall now present a +brief summary or synopsis from Sadlier's _Catholic +Directory_ for 1868-9. + +In the archdiocese of Baltimore, there are ten literary +institutions for young men, twelve female academies, and nine +orphan asylums. We shall include the latter, in all instances, +because they invariably have schools attached for the instruction +of the orphans. There are in the same archdiocese about fifty +parish and free schools, the average attendance at which, male +and female, exceeds ten thousand. + +In the archdiocese of Cincinnati, comprising a part of the State +of Ohio, there are three colleges, nine literary institutes for +females, two orphan asylums, and seventy-six parochial schools, +at which the average attendance is about twenty thousand. + +In the archdiocese of New Orleans, there are twenty academies and +parochial schools for females, and ten academies and free schools +for males; attended by seven thousand five hundred scholars; and +one thousand four hundred orphans in the asylums. + +The archdiocese of New York comprises the city and county of New +York, and the counties of Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess, Ulster, +Sullivan, Orange, Rockland, and Richmond. We have lately examined +a carefully prepared list of schools, more complete than that +given in the directory, by which it appears that there are +forty-nine, with a daily attendance of upward of twenty-three +thousand children. Of these schools, twenty-six are in the city +and county of New York, and have a daily attendance of over +nineteen thousand pupils. We shall have occasion to speak more +particularly of New York City at the close of this article. + +In the archdiocese of San Francisco, there are three colleges, +three academies, thirty-two select and parochial schools, and two +orphan asylums, providing for nearly seven thousand children, of +whom about four hundred are orphans in the asylums, and upward of +three thousand are free scholars. + +In the archdiocese of St. Louis, there are three literary +institutions for males, nine for females, and twenty parochial or +free schools, with seven thousand five hundred pupils in daily +attendance, besides nine hundred orphans in four asylums. + +In the diocese of Albany, comprising that part of the State of +New York north of the forty-second degree and east of the eastern +line of Cayuga, Tompkins, and Tioga counties, there are six +academies for males, and six for females, seven orphan asylums, +ten select schools, and fifty-eight parochial schools, with an +average attendance of between ten and eleven thousand. + +{133} + +The diocese of Alton, comprising a portion of the state of +Illinois, has two colleges for males and six academies for +females, one orphan asylum, and fifty-six parochial schools, with +an attendance of about seven thousand five hundred scholars. + +The diocese of Boston comprises the State of Massachusetts, and +has two colleges, three female academies, thirteen parochial or +free schools, five thousand eight hundred scholars, and five +hundred and fifty orphans in the asylums. + +The diocese of Brooklyn comprises Long Island, and has one +college in course of erection, eight female academies, nineteen +parish schools, attended by over ten thousand scholars, and three +asylums, and one industrial school, containing seven hundred +orphans. + +The diocese of Buffalo comprises twelve counties of the State of +New York, and has five literary institutions for males, sixteen +for females, three orphan asylums, and twenty-four parochial +schools, the attendance on which is specifically set down at +something over eight thousand; but it is stated (page 137) that +between eighteen and twenty thousand children attend the Catholic +schools of that diocese. + +The diocese of Chicago comprises a portion of the State of +Illinois, and has eight academies for females, seven colleges and +academies for males, two orphan asylums, and forty-four parochial +schools, attended by over twelve thousand children. + +The diocese of Cleveland, comprising a part of Ohio, contains one +academy for males and six for females, four asylums sheltering +four hundred orphans, and twenty free schools educating six +thousand scholars. + +The diocese of Columbus, comprising a part of Ohio, has one +female academy, twenty-three parochial schools, with over three +thousand pupils; the exact number is not given. + +The diocese of Dubuque comprises the State of Iowa, and +contains twelve academies and select schools, and parochial +schools at nearly all the churches of the diocese, educating ten +thousand children. + +The diocese of Fort Wayne comprises a part of Indiana, and has +one college, one orphan asylum, eleven literary institutions, and +thirty-eight parish schools. + +The diocese of Hartford comprises Rhode Island and Connecticut, +and contains three literary institutions for males and six for +females, twenty-one male and twenty-three female free schools, +the former attended by forty-two hundred, and the latter by +fifty-one hundred scholars, besides four hundred orphans in four +asylums. + +The diocese of Milwaukee has two male and four female academies, +and thirty-five free schools, attended by between six and seven +thousand children, and four orphan asylums, containing over two +hundred orphans. + +The diocese of Philadelphia contains eight academies and +parochial schools, under the charge of the Christian Brothers, +with twenty-five hundred scholars; forty-two other parochial +schools, attended by ten thousand pupils; twenty-four academies +and select schools for females; three colleges for males; and +five asylums, now containing seven hundred and seventy-three male +and female orphans. + +The above statement embraces but nineteen of the fifty-two +dioceses and archdioceses in the United States, as it would +extend this article to an unreasonable length were we to +undertake to give the statistics of each; which, in regard to +many of them, are not sufficiently full in the _Directory_ +to enable us to present satisfactory results. +{134} +Although in many of them the Catholic population is small and +sparse, our readers would nevertheless be surprised, no doubt, to +see how each one has struggled to supply itself with schools and +charitable institutions; and how amazingly they have succeeded, +when we consider the comparative scantiness of their resources. +We have, however, given enough to afford some idea to our +Protestant brethren of the vast interest which their Catholic +fellow-citizens have in this question of the public-school fund, +and of the great claim to the sympathy and good-will of the +country which they have established by their unparalleled efforts +in the cause of popular education. + +As we have shown above, the Catholics of the archdiocese of New +York are educating twenty-three thousand of their children, +nineteen thousand within the city limits. The value of their +school property is placed at eleven hundred and fifty thousand +dollars. For the education of these twenty-three thousand, it is +estimated that their annual expense does not exceed one hundred +and thirty thousand dollars. The actual cost of the Catholic free +schools in New York City is put down at $104,430 for nineteen +thousand four hundred and twenty-eight scholars; which is about +five dollars and a half for each. We have before us the _Report +of the Board of Education for 1867_, from which it appears +that "the cost per head for educating the children in the public +schools under the control of the Board of Education for the year +ending 1867, based upon the cost for teachers' salaries, fuel and +gas, was $19.75 on the average attendance, or $8.50 on the whole +number taught." Adding the cost of books and stationery, each +pupil cost $21.76 on the average attendance, or $9.40 on the +whole number taught. The basis of the above calculation is: +_Teachers' salaries_, $1,497,180.88; _fuel_, (estimated +in a gross amount of expenses,) $163,315.12, and _gas_, +$13,998.96, making a total of $1,674,496.96. But in fact the +_actual expenditures_ for 1867 were $2,973,877.41; which +cover items that enter equally into the estimate we have given of +the Catholic expenditures for school purposes. In that year New +York City paid to the state as its proportion of school tax +$455,088.27; out of which it received back by apportionment +$242,280.04, a little more than one half, the rest being its +contribution to the counties; at the same time the city raised +for its own schools nearly $2,500,000; being the ten-dollar tax +for each scholar taught, and the one twentieth of one per cent of +the valuation of the real and personal property of the city. From +this our readers will gather some idea of what popular education +can cost, even with the best management. + +It is well known that the Catholic people, through their church +organizations, and by the unpaid assistance of their religious +orders, such as the Christian Brothers, possess peculiar +advantages, which enable them to conduct the largest and +best-arranged schools at the smallest possible cost. Why will not +the state permit us to do it? Or, rather, why will not the state +do us the justice to reimburse the actual expenses which we make +in doing it? For it is a thing which we have already accomplished +to a great extent. Suppose that the city of New York was now +educating the nineteen thousand children who attend our schools; +at $19.75 each, it would cost $375,250; or at $8.50 each it would +cost $161,500, this last sum being sixty thousand dollars more +than we pay for the same! +{135} +We have shown, however, that this calculation cannot be made to +rest upon the basis given by the board, when you come to +institute a comparison between the expenditures for the public +schools and for ours. We are willing, nevertheless, to rest our +claim even upon such a contrast as those figures show; and we ask +the tax-payers of New York whether they are willing to follow the +lead of our adversaries and add a few hundred thousand dollars +extra to the annual taxes, for the satisfaction of doing us +injustice? + +It is universally conceded that the school-rooms of New York are +dangerously over-crowded; and the Board of Education finds it +almost impossible to meet the growing necessities of the city. +There are still thousands of Catholics and Protestants unprovided +for. Give us the means, and we will speedily see that there is no +Catholic child in New York left without the opportunity of +education. We will do this upon the strictest terms of +accountability to the state. We will conduct our schools up to +the highest standard that our legislators may think proper to +adopt for the regulation of the public school system. We shall +never shrink from the most rigid official scrutiny and +inspection. We shall only ask that, whilst we literally follow +the requirements of the state as to the course of secular +education, we shall not be required to place in the hands of our +children books that are hostile to their faith, or to omit giving +to their young souls that spiritual food which we deem to be +essential for eternal life. + +In all sincerity and truth we must say, that we have not yet +heard an argument which could shake our faith in the justice of +our cause; and that it will ultimately prevail, by the blessing +of Providence, we cannot possibly doubt; for, we have an abiding +confidence in the integrity and generosity of the American +people. + +---------- + + + The Omnibus Two Hundred Years Ago. + +"I allays thought till to-day," remarked elegant John Thomas to +Jeames, as they were clinging to the back of their mistress's +carriage during a shopping drive in Bond street, London, "that +them 'air nuisances the 'busses was inwented in this 'ear +nineteen centry." + +"I allays thinked so," responded Jeames sententiously. + +"Not a bit," resumed John Thomas, "them air celebrated people the +Romans, the same as talked Lat'n, you know, 'ad plenty of 'em. + +"'Ow d'you know that?" inquired Jaemes. + +"I seed it this blessed morning in one o' master's Lat'n books. I +was a tryin' what I could make out of Lat'n, and I seed that word +'_omnibus_' ever so many times; and that's the correc' name +for 'bus--' _bus_ is the wulgar happerlation." + +"I know that," growled Jeames. + +"'Ow true it is, as King David singed to 'is 'arp, there's +nothing new under the sun!" exclaimed John Thomas +enthusiastically. + +The carriage stopped at this moment and the interesting +conversation was interrupted. + +{136} + +But although people who understand more Latin than John Thomas +have not yet discovered that the Romans were acquainted with that +cheap and convenient mode of conveyance, they may have believed, +like him, that omnibuses were a modern invention, and may be +surprised to learn that, more than two hundred years ago, in the +reign of Louis the Fourteenth, Paris possessed for a time a +regular line of these now indispensable vehicles. + +Nicolas Sauvage, at the sign of St. Fiacre, in the Rue St. +Martin, had been accustomed for many years to let out carriages +by the hour or day; but his prices were too high for any but the +rich; and so in the year 1657, a certain De Givry obtained +permission to "establish in the crossways and public places of +the city and suburbs of Paris such a number of two-horse coaches +and caleches as he should consider necessary; to be exposed there +from seven in the morning until seven in the evening, at the hire +of all who needed them, whether by the hour, the half-hour, day, +or otherwise, at the pleasure of those who wished to make use of +them to be carried from one place to another, wherever their +affairs called them, either in the city and suburbs of Paris, or +as far as four or five leagues in the environs," etc., etc. + +This was a decided step in advance; but the prices of these +hackney coaches were still too high for the public generally, and +they consequently did not meet with the success anticipated. At +length, in 1662, appeared the really cheap and popular +conveyance--the omnibus--under the patronage of the Duke of +Roanès the Marquis of Sourches, and the Marquis of Crenan. These +noblemen solicited and obtained letters patent for a great +speculation--carriages to contain eight persons, at five sous the +seat, and running at fixed hours on specified routes. + +"On the 18th of March, 1662," says Sauval, in his _Antiquities +of Paris_, "seven coaches were driven for the first time +through the streets that lead from the Porte St. Martin to the +palace of the Luxembourg; they _were assailed with stones and +hisses by the populace_." + +This last assertion is much to be doubted; more especially as +Madame Perier, the sister of the great Pascal, has described in +an interesting letter to Arnauld de Pomponne, the general joy and +satisfaction that the appearance of these cheap conveyances gave +rise to in the people; a state of feeling which seems far more +probable than that which _stones and hisses_ would manifest. + +Madame Perier writes as follows: + + "PARIS, March 21, 1662. + "As every one has been appointed to some special office in this + affair of the coaches, I have solicited with eagerness and have + been so fortunate as to obtain that of announcing its success; + therefore, sir, each time that you see my writing, be assured + of receiving good news. + + "The establishment commenced last Saturday morning, at seven + o'clock, with wonderful pomp and splendor. The seven carriages + provided for this route were first distributed. Three were sent + to the Porte St. Martin, and four were placed before the + Luxembourg, where at the same time were stationed two + commissaries of the Chatelet in their robes, four guards of the + high provost, ten or twelve of the city archers, and as many + men on horseback. When everything was ready, the commissaries + proclaimed the establishment, explained its usefulness, + exhorted the citizens to uphold it, and declared to the lower + classes that the slightest insult would be punished with the + utmost severity; and all this was delivered in the king's name. +{137} + Afterward they gave the coachmen their coats, which are + blue--the king's color as well as the city's color--with the + arms of the king and of the city embroidered on the bosom; and + then they gave the order to start. + + "One of the coaches immediately went off, carrying inside one + of the high provost's guards. Half a quarter of an hour after, + another coach set off, and then the two others at the same + intervals of time, each carrying a guard who was to remain + therein all day. At the same time the city archers and the men + on horseback dispersed themselves on the route. + + "At the Porte Saint Martin the same ceremonies were observed, + at the same hour, with the three coaches that had been sent + there, and there were the same arrangements respecting the + guards, the archers and the men on horseback. In short, the + affair was so well conducted that not the slightest confusion + took place, and those coaches were started as peaceably as the + others. + + "The thing indeed has succeeded perfectly; the very first + morning the coaches were filled, and several women even were + among the passengers; but in the afternoon the crowd was so + great that one could not get near them; and every day since it + has been the same, so that we find by experience that the + greatest inconvenience is the one you apprehended; people wait + in the street for the arrival of one of these coaches, in order + to get in. When it comes, it is full; this is vexatious; but + there is a consolation; for it is known that another will + arrive in half a quarter of an hour; this other arrives, and it + also is full; and after this has been repeated several times, + the aspirant is at length obliged to continue his way on foot. + That you may not think that I exaggerate I will tell you what + happened to myself. I was waiting at the door of St. Mary's + Church, in the Rue de la Verrerie, feeling a great desire to + return home in a coach; for it is pretty far from my brother's + house. But I had the vexation of seeing five coaches pass + without being able to get a seat; all were full: and during the + whole time that I was waiting, I heard blessings bestowed on + the originators of an establishment so advantageous to the + public. As every one spoke his thoughts, some said the affair + was very well invented, but that it was a great fault to have + put only seven coaches on the route; that they were not + sufficient for half the people who had need of them, and that + there ought to have been at least twenty. I listened to all + this, and I was in such a bad temper from having missed five + coaches that at the moment I was quite of their opinion. In + short, the applause is universal, and it may be said that + nothing was ever better begun. + + "The first and second days, there was a crowd on the Pont-Neuf + and in all the streets to watch the coaches pass; and it was + very amusing to see the workmen cease their labor to look at + them, so that no more work was done all Saturday throughout the + whole route than if it had been a holiday. Smiling faces were + seen everywhere, not smiles of ridicule, but of content and + joy; and this convenience is found so great that every one + desires it for his own quarter. + + "The shopkeepers of the Rue St. Denis demanded a route with so + much importunity that they even spoke of presenting a petition. + Preparations were being made to give them one next week; but + yesterday morning M. de Roanès, M. de Crenan, and M. the High + Provost (M. de Sourches) being all three at the Louvre, the + king talked very pleasantly about the novelty, and addressing + those gentlemen, said,' And _our_ route, will you not soon + establish it?' +{138} + These words oblige them to think of the Rue St. Honoré, and to + defer for some days the Rue St. Denis. Besides this, the king, + speaking on the same subject, said that he desired that all + those who were guilty of the slightest insolence should be + severely punished, and that he would not permit this + establishment to be molested. + + "This is the present position of the undertaking. I am sure you + will not be less surprised than we are at its great success; it + has far surpassed all our hopes. I shall not fail to send you + exact word of every pleasant thing that happens, according to + the office conferred on me, and to supply the place of my + brother, who would be happy to undertake the duty if he could + write. + + "I wish with all my heart that I may have matter to write to + you every week, both for your satisfaction and for other + reasons that you can well guess. I am your obedient servant, + G. PASCAL." + +Postscript in the handwriting of Pascal, and very probably the +last lines he ever traced: he died in August of the same year: + + "I will add to the above, that the day before yesterday, at the + king's _petit coucher_, a dangerous assault was made + against us by two courtiers distinguished by their rank and + wit, which would have ruined us by turning us into ridicule, + and would have given rise to all sorts of attacks, had not the + king answered so obligingly and so dryly with respect to the + excellence of the undertaking, so that they speedily put up + their weapons. I have no more paper. Adieu--entirely yours." + +Sauval affirms that Pascal was the inventor of this cheap coach, +and Madame de Sévigné seems to allude to the enterprise in a +passage of one of her letters which commences "_apropos_ of +Pascal." It is certain that he and his sister were pecuniarily +interested in the speculation, and it is more than probable that +it was he who induced his rich friend the Duke of Roanès, to take +so prominent a part in the undertaking. But we must not consider +Pascal in the light of a vulgar speculator--earthly interests +affected him but little personally--deeds of charity, the many +ills and pains of premature old age, and the sad task of watching +over a life always on the brink of extinction, almost wholly +engrossed his thoughts during his last years. He saw in this +affair an advantage to the public in general, and if any +pecuniary profits resulted, his share was intended for the +benefit of the poor, as is very evident by the following extract +from the little work Madame Perier dedicated to the memory of her +brother. + + "As soon as the affair of the coaches was settled, he told me + he wished to ask the farmers for an advance of a thousand + francs to send to the poor at Blois. When I told him that the + success of the enterprise was not sufficiently assured for him + to make this request, he replied that he saw no inconvenience + in it, because, if the affair did not prosper, he would repay + the money from his estate, and he did not like to wait until + the end of the year, because the necessities of the poor were + too urgent to defer charity. As no arrangement could be made + with the farmers, he could not gratify his desire. On this + occasion we perceived the truth of what he had so often told + me, that he wished for riches only that he might be able to + help the poor; for the moment God gave him the hope of + possessing wealth, even before he was assured of it, he began + to distribute it." + +{139} + +In the ninth volume of the _Ordonnances de Louis XIV._, we +find, concerning the establishment of coaches in the city of +Paris, that these cheap conveyances are permitted "for the +convenience of a great number of persons ill-accommodated, such +as pleaders, infirm people, and others, who, not having the means +of hiring chairs or carriages because they cost a pistole or two +crowns at least the day, can thus be carried for a moderate price +by means of this establishment of coaches, which are always to +make the same journeys in Paris from one quarter to another, the +longest at five sous the seat, and the others less; the suburbs +in proportion; and which are always to start at fixed hours, +however small the number of persons then assembled, and even +empty, if no person should present himself, without obliging +those who make use of this convenience to pay more for their +places," etc. + +These regulations are similar to those of our modern omnibus; but +the quality of the passengers was more arbitrary; for in the +tenth volume of this same _Register_, we find it enacted +that "Soldiers, Pages, Lacqueys and other gentry in Livery, also +Mechanics and Workmen shall not be able to enter the said +coaches," etc., etc. + +The first route was opened on the 18th of March; the second on +the 11th of April, running from the Rue Saint Antoine to the Rue +Saint Honoré, as high as St. Roch's church. On this second +opening, a placard announced to the citizens that the directors +"had received advice of some inconveniences that might annoy +persons desirous of making use of their conveyances, such, for +instance, when the coachman refuses to stop to take them up on +the route, even though there are empty places, and other similar +occurrences; this is to give notice that all the coaches have +been numbered, and that the number is placed at the top of the +moutons, on each side of the coachman's box, together with the +fleur de lis--one, two, three, etc., according to the number of +coaches on each route. And so those who have any reason to +complain of the coachman, are prayed to remember the number of +the coach, and to give advice of it to the clerk of one of the +offices, so that order may be established." + +The third route, which ran from the Rue Montmartre and the Rue +Neuve Saint Eustache to the Luxembourg Palace, was opened on the +22d of May of the same year. The placard which conveys the +announcement to the public, gives notice also, "that to prevent +the delay of money-changing, which always consumes much time, no +gold will be received." + +Every arrangement having thus been made to render these cheap +coaches useful and agreeable, they very soon became the fashion; +a three act comedy in verse, entitled, "The intrigue of the +coaches at five sous," written by an actor named Chevalier, was +even represented in 1662 at the Theatre of the Marais. An extract +from this play is given in the history of the French Theatre, by +the Brothers Parfaict. + +But the ingenious and useful innovation on the old hackney-coach +system, though so well conducted and so well administered, so +highly protected, and so warmly welcomed, was not destined to +live long. After a very few years, the undertaking failed, and +the omnibus was forgotten for nearly two centuries! Sauval tells +us that Pascal's death was the cause of this misfortune; but the +coaches continued to prosper for three or four years after that +event. + +{140} + +"Every one," says Sauval, in a curious page of his +_Antiquities_, "during two years found these coaches so +convenient that auditors and masters of _comptes_, +counsellors of the Chatelet and of the court, made no scruple to +use them to go to the Chatelet or to the palace, and this caused +the price to be raised one sou; even the Duke of Enghien +[Footnote 48] has travelled in them. But what do I say? The king, +when passing the summer at Saint-Germain, whither he had +consented that these coaches should come, went in one of them, +for his amusement, from the old castle, where he was staying, to +the new one to visit the queen-mother. Notwithstanding this great +fashion, these coaches were so despised three or four years after +their establishment that no one would make use of them, and their +ill success was attributed to the death of Pascal, the celebrated +mathematician; it is said that he was the inventor of them, as +well as the leader of the enterprise; it is moreover assured that +he had made their horoscope and given them to the publicunder a +certain constellation whose bad influences he knew how to turn +aside." + + [Footnote 48: Henri-Jules de Bourbon-Condé, son of the great + Condé.] + +We can give no description of this ancient omnibus; no drawing or +engraving of it is believed to exist; but it is probable that it +resembled the coaches represented in the paintings of Van der +Meulan and Martin. + +It is impossible to attribute to any other cause than that of the +arbitrary choice of passengers, the failure of an undertaking +which appeared to possess every element of success. The people +who _needed_ the cheap coach were debarred from the use of +it; the tired artisan returning from his hard day's work; the +jaded soldier hurrying to his barrack before the beat of the +tattoo that recalled him had ceased; the pale seamstress with her +bundle; each was refused the five sous lift, and had to foot the +weary way; while the aristocracy and rich middle class enjoyed +the ride, not as a social want, but as a fashionable diversion, +and tired of it after a time, as fashionable people even now tire +of everything fashionable. It was reserved for the marvellous +nineteenth century, so fruitful in good works, to endow us with +the true omnibus, that is, a carriage for the use of every one +indiscriminately, in which the gentleman and the laborer, the +rich man and the poor man can ride side by side. This really +_popular_ conveyance has now become in all highly civilized +communities so veritable a _necessity_ and habit that it can +never again fall and be forgotten like its faulty forerunner, or +the omnibus of two hundred years ago. + +---------- + + New Publications. + + + TRAVELS IN THE EAST-INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. + By Albert S. Brickmose, M.A. + With Illustrations. 1 vol. 8vo, pp. 553. + New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1869. + +This elegantly got up volume of travel the author tells us, in +his preface, is taken from his journal, "kept day by day," while +on a visit to the islands described, the object of which visit +was to re-collect the shells figured in Rumphen's _Pariteit +Kamer_. The author travelled from Batavia, in Java, along the +north coast of that island to Samarang and Surabaya; thence to +Macassar, the capital of Celebes; thence south through Sapi +Strait, between Sumbawa and Floris, and eastward to the southern +end of Timur, (near the northwestern extremity of Australia;) +thence along the west coast of Timur to Dilli, and north to the +Banda Islands and Amboina. +{141} +Having passed several months in the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, +he revisited the Bandas, and ascended their active volcano. +Returning to Amboina, he travelled in Ceram and Buru, and +continued northward to Gilolo. Thence he crossed the Molucca +Passage to the Minahassa, or northern end of the Island of +Celebes, probably the most beautiful spot on the surface of our +globe. + +Returning to Batavia, he proceeded to Padang, and thence made a +long journey through the interior of the island to the land of +the cannibals. Having succeeded in making his way for a hundred +miles through that dangerous people, he came down to the coast +and returned to Padang. Again he went up into the interior, and +examined all the coffee-lands. From Padang he came down to +Bencoolen, and succeeded in making his way over the mountains and +down the rivers to the Island of Banca, and was thence carried to +Singapore. This work opens a new field, hitherto but little +known, to the reader of books of travel and adventure. His +descriptions, if not always very vivid, are told in a clear, +unaffected manner, without that egotism so often found in books +of travel. + +---------- + + The Instruments Of The Passion Of Our Lord Jesus Christ. + By the Rev. Dr. J. E. Veith, + Preacher at the Cathedral of Vienna. + Translated by Rev. Theodore Noethen, + Pastor of the Church of the Holy Cross. Albany, N. Y. + Boston: Patrick Donahoe. + +Dr. Veith, a convert from Judaism, is one of the most +distinguished writers and preachers of Vienna. The present work +is rich in thought and original in style. It is one of a series +which the translator proposes to bring out in an English dress, +if he receives encouragement, as we hope he may. F. Noethen, +although a German, writes English remarkably well, and deserves +great credit for his zeal and assiduity in translating so many +excellent and practical works of piety. In point of excellence in +typography and mechanical execution, this book deserves to be +classed with the best which have been issued by the Catholic +press. + +---------- + + The Life And Works Of St. AEngussius Hagiographus, + or Saint AEngus the Culdee, Bishop and Abbot at + Clonenagh and Dysartenos, Queens County. + By the Rev. John O'Hanlon. + Dublin: John F. Fowler, + 3 Crow street. 1868. + For sale by the Catholic Publication Society, New York. + +This tract is a treatise on the life and writings of an humble +and laborious monk of the early ages in Ireland, who published, +if we may use the expression, his _Felire,_ Fessology, or +Calendar of Irish saints, as long ago as 804. From the +biographical and historical value of this poetical work, St. +AEngus ranks among the very earliest of the historical writers of +modern Europe. In this view, no less than to draw attention to +one whose holy life induced the Irish church to ascribe his name +on the dyptics, it is well that the present generation should be +asked to pause and look upon this life, so humble, laborious, and +holy, and which so strongly commended him to the veneration of +succeeding ages. The Rev. Mr. O'Hanlon treats his subject +systematically, displaying great research and sound criticism, +and it is to be hoped that his treatise will induce some of the +publishing societies in Ireland to issue an edition of the works +of this venerated father of the Irish church. + +The _Felire_ of St. AEngus consists of three distinct parts: +the first, the Invocation, containing five stanzas, implores the +grace of Christ on the work; the second, comprising 220 stanzas, +is a preface and conclusion to the main poem; the third part +contains 365 stanzas, one for each day of the year. They comprise +not only the saints peculiar to Ireland, but others drawn from +early martyrologies. This poem was regarded in the early Irish +church with great veneration, and the copies that have descended +to us have a running gloss or commentary on each verse, making it +a short biography of the saint briefly mentioned in the poem. +{142} +In this form its value has long been known to scholars, whose +frequent use of it shows the light it frequently helps to throw +on Irish history and topography. We trust that the work of the +Rev. Mr. O'Hanlon will not be fruitless. + +---------- + + Essays And Lectures on, + 1. The Early History of Maryland; + 2. Mexico and Mexican Affairs; + 3. A Mexican Campaign; + 4. Homoeopathy; + 5. Elements of Hygiene; + 6. Health and Happiness. + By Richard McSherry, M.D., Professor of Principles and Practice + of Medicine, University of Maryland. + Baltimore: Kelly, Piet & Co. 1869. Pp. 125. + + + The Early History Of Maryland. + +The sketch of colonial Maryland is drawn with a masterly hand, +showing, in the first place, the author's thorough knowledge of +its history; and, secondly, the poetic language in which his +ideas are couched tell plainly how completely his heart is imbued +with love for his native Terra Mariae. + +Dr. McSherry is right when he calls his State "the brightest gem +in the American cluster." To the Catholics of this broad land it +is surely so; and the names of Sir George Calvert and his noble +sons, the founders of this "Land of the Sanctuary," should be +enshrined with love and reverence in the hearts of all who +profess the old faith and appreciate our religious liberty. + + + Mexico And Mexican Affairs. + +The article on "Mexico and Mexican Affairs" was written at the +suggestion of the editor of _The Southern Review_, and is a +synopsis of the political history of Mexico from the time of the +conquest to the tragical end of the ill-fated Prince Maximilian. + +As a colonial possession of Spain, Mexico enjoyed a more quiet +existence and a more stable government than either before or +since that period of its history. "Churches, schools, and +hospitals were distributed over the land; good roads were made, +and, without going into detail, industrial pursuits were +generally in honor, and were rewarded with success." + +Political revolution again agitated the country in the +commencement of this century, followed by the establishment of an +empire under Iturbide; this in turn gave place to a republican +form of government in 1824. + +No stronger proof of the belief of our order-loving and +law-abiding neighbors in the republican doctrine of rotation in +office can be given than the fact that during the forty years of +the Republican government "_the record shows forty-six changes +in the presidential chair._" The accounts of revolution and +counter-revolution among the dominant spirits of that time beggar +description, and leave us to conclude that a frightful condition +of strife, desolation, and misery reigned throughout the entire +period. "The rulers of Mexico kept no faith with their own +people; none with foreigners or foreign nations. They gave +abundant cause for the declaration of war made against them by +England, France, and Spain, and for the provocation of the war by +France, when the other powers withdrew." The author describes the +inducements held out by the assembly of notables to Maximilian, +after the French occupation, to accept the throne; and how at +last he unfortunately acceded to the request, and sailed for Vera +Cruz in May, 1864. The subsequent career of this nobleman, who +had thus linked his fate with that of Mexico is feelingly +depicted. It was but a short period of three years from his +"splendid reception at Guadalupe, when about entering his +capital, to his fall by Mexican treachery, and subsequent murder +on the 19th of June, 1867." The author blames ex-Secretary Seward +for not preventing this tragical end of the amiable and highly +cultivated prince, and thinks that as the Indian Juarez had been +enabled to prosecute his illegal claim to the presidency by the +support and comfort derived from the United States, he would not +have dared refuse a claim for this boon, made in a proper spirit, +by Mr. Seward. + +The names of Maximilian and his devoted, beautiful Carlotta will +always bring moisture to the eyes of those who can sympathize +with the afflictions and sufferings of their fellow-beings. + +Mexico has commenced a new chapter of her history. True, the +preface so far is not encouraging; but let us hope her experience +in the past may cause a better record for the future. + +{143} + + A Mexican Campaign Sketch. + +This is an interesting account of the author's travels, as +surgeon, with the army which, in 1847, under General Scott, +fought its way through the historical battles of Contreras, +Churubusco, Molino del Rey, to Chapultepec: and the final +entrance, on the 14th of September, to the Mexican capital. The +description of the appearance of the valley of Mexico, as the +army descended the mountain side, is very beautiful. The author +says, "The valley or basin of Mexico lay spread out like a +panorama of fairy land; opening, closing, and shifting, according +to the changing positions of the observers. At times nothing +would be visible but dark recesses in the mountain, or the grim +forest that shaded the road; when in a moment a sudden turn would +unfold, as if by magic, a scene that looked too lovely to be +real. It was an enchantment in nature; for, knowing as we did +that we beheld _bona fide_ lakes and mountains, plains and +villages, chapels and hamlets, all so bright, so clear, and so +beautiful, it still seemed an illusion of the senses, a dream, or +a perfection of art--nay, in the mountain circle we could see the +very picture-frame." + +How long the mixed races of this beautiful country are to +continue their tragical and at times ludicrous efforts at +self-government is a problem to be solved in the future. + + An Epistle On Homoeopathy. + +The doctor's logical arguments in this article we would recommend +to the perusal of our friends who prefer the more palatable +medicine of that school, + + Lecture On Hygiene. + A Lecture On Health And Happiness. + +These lectures contain many sound practical hints for the general +reader whereby he may avoid many causes of disease, and prolong +his life to a natural limit. We give the doctor's testimony on +two interesting points. He says: + + "Excesses at table are disastrous enough, and in this they are + worse than over devotion to Bacchus; namely, that they + undermine more slowly and more insidiously; but otherwise, + strong drinks are vastly worse. There are persons who think + wines and liquors essential to health; but as the rule, they + are useless at best; and at worst, destructive to soul, and + body, and mind. Strict total abstinence is generally, I might + say universally safe; while even temperate indulgence is rarely + safe or salutary." (P. 119.) + + "Tobacco deserves the next place. It is most marvellous how + this nauseous weed has taken hold upon the affections of man. + It surely is of no benefit to health, but I dare not say it + conduces nothing to happiness. When I see an old friend take + his pipe, or cigar, after the labors of the day, and the + evening meal; when his good honest face beams beneath the + fragrant smoke which rises like incense, making a wreath around + his gray hairs; when his heart expands, and he becomes genially + social and confidential, I can hardly ask Hygeia to rob him of + his simple pleasure. A good cigar is almost akin to the 'cup + that cheers, yet not inebriates.' But honestly, tobacco is + pernicious in all its forms; not like whiskey, indeed, but + still pernicious." (P. 121.) + +As an entirety, the doctor's book presents a charming diversity +of subjects, each in itself of sufficient interest to chain the +earnest attention of the reader, and well repay him for its +perusal. + +---------- + + John M. Costello; Or, The Beauty Of + Virtue Exemplified In An American Youth. + Baltimore: John Murphy & Co. 1869. + +This neat little volume contains a well-written memoir of a young +aspirant to the priesthood who died a few years ago at the +preparatory seminary of St. Charles. + +There is a peculiar charm about the life of a pious Catholic boy +whose heart has always yearned after the realization of the +highest type of Christian virtue. Such a life presents a picture +of simple beauty, in which the smallest details present points of +more than common interest. One sees here how truly the +supernatural life of grace illumines and adorns the commonest +actions of the Christian, and clothes them with a merit that +purely human virtue would never gather from them. There is +nothing in the life of a St. Aloysius or a St. Stanislaus, +however insignificant or commonplace in the eyes of the world, +that can be deemed trivial or unworthy of record. +{144} +Whatever they do is a saintly act. Their words are the words of a +saint. This is the secret of the wonderful influence which the +history of these pure souls has exerted on the minds and hearts +of the thousands and tens of thousands to whom it has become +known. This thought was constantly before us while perusing the +present beautiful tribute to the memory of young Costello. It is +impossible to read the description of the most ordinary events of +the life of this holy child of God without emotion. What in +others of his age and general character might justly be unworthy +of note in him becomes worthy to be written in letters of gold. +We would say to all Catholic parents, among the hundreds of +volumes standing on the bookseller's shelves inviting purchase by +their gay bindings and prettily illustrated pages, and almost +forcing themselves into your hands as birthday or holiday +presents to your darling children, choose this one, and teach +them, by the winning example of such virtue as they will here see +presented to them, to emulate, not the daring exploits of some +lion-killer or wild adventurer, or, it may be, the imaginary +success of some fortunate youth in the pursuit of riches, but +rather the heroism, the piety, the humility, the chastity, the +self-renunciation of the Christian saint. All who love God and +have the spiritual interests of our Catholic youth at heart will +feel deeply grateful to the reverend author for having given to +the world his knowledge of a life so well calculated to edify and +inspire its readers with admiration of what is, after all, the +highest and best within the sphere of human aim, to lead a holy +life, and die, though it be in the flower of youth, the death of +a saint. Let us have more books like this one, that, with God's +blessing on the lessons they impart, we may have more such lives. + +---------- + +P. F. Cunningham, Philadelphia, is about to publish _The +Montarges Legacy_, and _The Life of St. Stanislaus._ + +---------- + + Books Received. + +From John Murphy & Co., Baltimore: + + New editions of the following books: + + Practical Piety set forth by St. Francis de Sales, + Bishop and Prince of Geneva. + 1 vol. 12mo, pp. 360, $1. + + A Spiritual Retreat of Eight Days. + By the Right Rev. John M. David, D.D., + 1 vol. 12mo. $1. + + Kyriale; or, Ordinary of Mass: a Complete Liturgical Manual, + with Gregorian Chants, etc.; in round or square notes, each + $1.25. + + The Holy Week: containing the Offices of Holy Week, from the + Roman Breviary and Missal, with the chants in modern notation. + $1.25. + + Roman Vesperal: containing the complete Vespers for the whole + year, with Gregorian Chants in modern notation. $1.50. + + +From W. B. Kelly, Dublin: + + The Catholic Church in America. A Lecture delivered before the + Historical and AEsthetical Society in the Catholic University + of Ireland. + By Thaddeus J. Butler, D.D., Chicago. + For sale by the Catholic Publication Society, + 126 Nassau street. 25 cents. + + +From KELLY, PIET & Co., Baltimore: + + The Wreath of Eglantine, and other Poems: + Edited and in part composed by Daniel Bedinger Lucas. + 1 vol. 12mo, $1.50. + + Eudoxia; a Picture of the Fifth Century. + Translated from the German of Ida, Countess Hahn Hahn. + 1 vol. 12mo, $1.50. + + +From D. & J. Sadlier & Co.: + + St. Dominic's Manual; or, Tertiary's Guide. + By two Fathers of the Order. + 1 vol. 18mo, pp. 533. + + +From C. Darveau, Quebec, C. E.: + + St. Patrick's Manual, for the use of Young People, prepared by + the Christian Brothers. + 1 vol. 24mo, pp. 648. + + +From Leypoldt & Holt, New York: + + The Fisher Maiden: a Norwegian Tale. + By Bjornstjerne Bjornson. + From the author's German edition, by M. E. Niles. + 12mo, pp. 217, $1.25. + + The Gain of a Loss: a Novel. + By the author of The Last of the Cavaliers. + 1 vol. 12mo, pp. 439, $1.75. + + +From Clark & Maynard, New York: + + A Manual of General History: being an Outline History of the + World from the Creation to the Present Time. Fully illustrated + with maps. For the use of academies, high-schools, and + families. + By John J. Anderson, A.M. + Pp. 400. + + +From Ivison, Phinney, Blakeman & Co., New York: A + + Dictionary of the English Language, Explanatory, Pronouncing, + Etymological, and Synonymous. + Counting-House Edition. + With an appendix containing various useful tables. Mainly + abridged from the latest edition of the Qutarto Dictionary of + Noah Webster, LL. D. + By William G. Webster and William A. Wheeler. + Illustrated with more than three hundred engravings on wood. + Pp. 630. + + +From Longmans, Green, Reader & Dyer, London: + + The Formation of Christendom. Part II. + By T. W. Allies. + 1 vol. 8vo, pp. 495. + The Catholic Publication Society having made arrangements with + Mr. Allies to supply his book in America, will soon have this + volume for sale. Price, $6. + + +From James Duffy, Dublin: + + The Life and Writings of the Rev. Arthur O'Leary. + By the Rev. M. B. Buckley. + 1 vol. 12mo, pp. 410. + + +From W. W. Swayne, New York and Brooklyn: + + The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott. + Vol. 1, paper, 25 cents. + + +From Harper & Brothers: + + The Poetical Works of Charles G. Halpine. + With a Biographical Sketch and Explanatory Notes. + Edited by Robert B. Roosevelt. + 1 vol. pp. 352. + +------- +{145} + + The Catholic World. + + Vol. IX., No. 50.--May, 1869. + +---------- + + The Woman Question. + [Footnote 49] + + [Footnote 49: + 1. _The Revolution_: New York. Weekly. Vol. III. + 2. _Equal Rights for Women_. A Speech by George William + Curtis, in the Constitutional Convention at Albany, July 19, + 1868. + 3. _Ought Women to learn the Alphabet?_ By Thomas + Wentworth Higginson.] + +The Woman Question, though not yet an all-engrossing question in +our own or in any other country, is exciting so much attention, +and is so vigorously agitated, that no periodical can very well +refuse to consider it. As yet, though entering into politics, it +has not become a party question, and we think we may discuss it +without overstepping the line we have marked out for +ourselves--that of studiously avoiding all party politics; not +because we have not the courage to discuss them, but because we +have aims and purposes which appeal to all parties alike, and +which can best be effected by letting party politics alone. + +In what follows we shall take up the question seriously, and +treat it candidly, without indulging in any sneers, jeers, or +ridicule. A certain number of women have become, in some way or +other, very thoroughly convinced that women are deeply wronged, +deprived of their just rights by men, and especially in not being +allowed political suffrage and eligibility. They claim to be in +all things man's equal, and in many things his superior, and +contend that society should make no distinction of sex in any of +its civil and political arrangements. It will not, indeed, be +easy for us to forget this distinction so long as we honor our +mothers, and love our wives and daughters; but we will endeavor +in this discussion to forget it--so far, at least, as to treat +the question on its merits, and make no allowance for any real or +supposed difference of intellect between men and women. We shall +neither roughen nor soften our tones because our opponents are +women, or men who encourage them. The women in question claim for +women all the prerogatives of men; we shall, therefore, take the +liberty to disregard their privileges as women. They may expect +from us civility, not gallantry. + +{146} + +We say frankly in the outset that we are decidedly opposed to +female suffrage and eligibility. The woman's rights women demand +them both as a right, and complain that men, in refusing to +concede them, withhold a natural right, and violate the equal +rights on which the American republic professes to be based. We +deny that women have a natural right to suffrage and eligibility; +for neither is a natural right at all, for either men or women. +Either is a trust from civil society, not a natural and +indefeasible right; and civil society confers either on whom it +judges trustworthy, and on such conditions as it deems it +expedient to annex. As the trust has never been conferred by +civil society with us on women, they are deprived of no right by +not being enfranchised. + +We know that the theory has been broached latterly, and defended +by several political journals, and even by representatives and +senators in Congress, as well as by _The Revolution,_ the +organ of the woman's rights movement, that suffrage and +eligibility are not trusts conferred by civil society on whom it +will, but natural and indefeasible rights, held directly from God +or nature, and which civil society is bound by its very +constitution to recognize, protect, and defend for all men and +women, and which they can be deprived of only by crimes which +forfeit one's natural life or liberty. It is on this ground that +many have defended the extension of the elective franchise and +eligibility to negroes and the colored races in the United +States, and hold that Congress, under that clause of the +Constitution authorizing it to guarantee to the several States a +republican form of government, is bound to enfranchise them. It +may or may not be wise and expedient to extend suffrage and +eligibility to negroes and the colored races hitherto, in most of +the States, excluded from the sovereign people of the country; on +that question we express no opinion, one way or the other; but we +deny that the negroes and colored men can claim admission on the +ground either of natural right or of American republicanism; for +white men themselves cannot claim it on that ground. + +Indeed, the assumption that either suffrage or eligibility is a +natural right is anti-republican. The fundamental principle, the +very essence of republicanism is, that power is a trust to be +exercised for the public good or common weal, and is forfeited +when not so exercised, or when exercised for private and personal +ends. Suffrage and eligibility confer power to govern, which, if +a natural right, would imply that power is the natural and +indefeasible right of the governors--the essential principle of +all absolutism, whether autocratic, aristocratic, monarchical, or +democratic. It would imply that the American government is a +pure, centralized, absolute, unmitigated democracy, which may be +regarded either as tantamount to no government, or as the +absolute despotism of the majority for the time, or its right to +govern as it pleases in all things whatsoever, spiritual as well +as secular, regardless of vested rights or constitutional +limitations. This certainly is not American republicanism, which +has always aimed to restrain the absolute power of majorities, +and to protect minorities by constitutional provisions. It has +never recognized suffrage as a personal right which a man carries +with him whithersoever he goes, but has always made it a +territorial right, which a man can exercise only in his own +State, his own county, his own town or city, and his own ward or +precinct. If American republicanism recognized suffrage as a +right, not as simply a trust, why does it place restrictions on +its exercise, or treat bribery as a crime? If suffrage is my +natural right, my vote is my property, and I may do what I please +with it; dispose of it in the market for the highest price I can +get for it, as I may of any other species of property. + +{147} + +Suffrage and eligibility are not natural, indefeasible rights, +but franchises or trusts conferred by civil society; and it is +for civil society to determine in its wisdom whom it will or will +not enfranchise; on whom it will or will not confer the trust. +Both are social or political rights, derived from political +society, and subject to its will, which may extend or abridge +them as it judges best for the common good. Ask you who +constitute political society? They, be they more or fewer, who, +by the actual constitution of the state, are the sovereign +people. These, and these alone, have the right to determine who +may or may not vote or be voted for. In the United States, the +sovereign people has hitherto been, save in a few localities, +adult males of the white race, and these have the right to say +whether they will or will not extend suffrage to the black and +colored races, and to women and children. + +Women, then, have not, for men have not, any natural right to +admission into the ranks of the sovereign people. This disposes +of the question of right, and shows that no injustice or wrong is +done to women by their exclusion, and that no violence is done to +the equal rights on which the American republic is founded. It +may or it may not be wise and expedient to admit women into +political, as they are now admitted into civil, society; but they +cannot claim admission as a right. They can claim it only on the +ground of expediency, or that it is necessary for the common +good. For our part, we have all our life listened to the +arguments and declamations of the woman's rights party on the +subject; have read Mary Wollstonecraft, heard Fanny Wright, and +looked into _The Revolution_, conducted by some of our old +friends and acquaintances, and of whom we think better than many +of their countrymen do; but we remain decidedly of the opinion +that harm instead of good, to both men and women, would result +from the admission. We say not this because we think lightly of +the intellectual or moral capacity of women. We ask not if women +are equal, inferior, or superior to men; for the two sexes are +different, and between things different in kind there is no +relation of equality or of inequality. Of course, we hold that +the woman was made for the man, not the man for the woman, and +that the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the +head of the church, not the wife of the husband; but it suffices +here to say that we do not object to the political +enfranchisement of women on the ground of their feebleness, +either of intellect or of body, or of any real incompetency to +vote or to hold office. We are Catholics, and the church has +always held in high honor chaste, modest, and worthy women as +matrons, widows, or virgins. Her calendar has a full proportion +of female saints, whose names she proposes to the honor and +veneration of all the faithful. She bids the wife obey her +husband in the Lord; but asserts her moral independence of him, +leaves her conscience free, and holds her accountable for her own +deeds. + +Women have shown great executive or administrative ability. Few +men have shown more ability on a throne than Isabella, the +Catholic, of Spain; or, in the affairs of government, though +otherwise faulty enough, than Elizabeth of England, and Catharine +II. of Russia. The present queen of the British Isles has had a +most successful reign; but she owes it less to her own abilities +than to the wise counsels of her husbands Prince Albert, and her +domestic virtues as a wife and a mother, by which she has won the +affections of the English people. +{148} +Others have shown rare administrative capacity in governing +religious houses, often no less difficult than to govern a +kingdom or an empire. Women have a keener insight into the +characters of men than have men themselves, and the success of +female sovereigns has, in great measure, been due to their +ability to discover and call around them the best men in the +state, and to put them in the places they are best fitted for. + +What women would be as legislators remains to be seen; they have +had little experience in that line; but it would go hard, but +they would prove themselves not much inferior to the average of +the men we send to our State legislatures or to our national +Congress. + +Women have also distinguished themselves in the arts as painters +and sculptors, though none of them have ever risen to the front +rank. St. Catharine of Egypt cultivated philosophy with success. +Several holy women have shown great proficiency in mystic +theology, and have written works of great value. In lighter +literature, especially in the present age, women have taken a +leading part. They almost monopolize the modern novel or romance, +and give to contemporary popular literature its tone and +character; yet it must be conceded that no woman has written a +first-class romance. The influence of her writings, speaking +generally, has not tended to purify or exalt the age, but rather +to enfeeble and abase it. The tendency is to substitute sentiment +for thought, morbid passion for strength, and to produce a weak +and unhealthy moral tone. For ourselves, we own, though there are +some women whose works we read, and even re-read with pleasure, +we do not, in general, admire the popular female literature of +the day; and we do not think that literature is that in which +woman is best fitted to excel, or through which she exerts her +most purifying and elevating influences. Her writings do not do +much to awaken in man's heart the long dormant chivalric love so +rife in the romantic ages, or to render the age healthy, natural, +and manly. We say _awaken_; for chivalry, in its true and +disinterested sense, is not dead in the coldest man's heart; it +only sleepeth. It is woman's own fault, more than man's, that it +sleeps, and wakes not to life and energy. + +Nor do we object to the political enfranchisement of women in the +special interest of the male sex. Men and women have no separate +interests. What elevates the one elevates the other; what +degrades the one degrades the other. Men cannot depress women, +place them in a false position, make them toys or drudges, +without doing an equal injury to themselves; and one ground of +our dislike to the so-called woman's rights movement is, that it +proceeds on the supposition that there is no inter-dependence +between men and women, and seeks to render them mutually +independent of each other, with entirely distinct and separate +interests. There is a truth in the old Greek fable, related by +Plato in the _Banquet_, that Jupiter united originally both +sexes in one and the same person, and afterward separated them, +and that now they are but two halves of one whole. "God made man +after his own image and likeness; male and female made he +_them_." Each, in this world, is the complement of the +other, and the more closely identified are their interests, the +better is it for both. We, in opposing the political +enfranchisement of women, seek the interest of men no more than +we do the interest of women themselves. + +{149} + +Women, no doubt, undergo many wrongs, and are obliged to suffer +many hardships, but seldom they alone. It is a world of trial, a +world in which there are wrongs of all sorts, and sufferings of +all kinds. We have lost paradise, and cannot regain it in this +world. We must go through the valley of the shadow of death +before re-entering it. You cannot make earth heaven, and there is +no use in trying; and least of all can you do it by political +means. It is hard for the poor wife to have to maintain a lazy, +idle, drunken vagabond of a husband, and three or four children +into the bargain; it is hard for the wife delicately reared, +accomplished, fitted to adorn the most intellectual, graceful, +and polished society, accustomed to every luxury that wealth can +procure, to find herself a widow reduced to poverty, and a family +of young children to support, and unable to obtain any employment +for which she is fitted as the means of supporting them. But men +suffer too. It is no less hard for the poor, industrious, +hardworking man to find what he earns wasted by an idle, +extravagant, incompetent, and heedless wife, who prefers gadding +and gossiping to taking care of her household. And how much +easier is it for the man who is reduced from affluence to +poverty, a widower with three or four motherless children to +provide for? The reduction from affluence to poverty is sometimes +the fault of the wife as well as of the husband. It is usually +their joint fault. Women have wrongs, so have men; but a woman +has as much power to make a man miserable as a man has to make a +woman miserable; and she tyrannizes over him as often as he does +over her. If he has more power of attack, nature has given her +more power of defence. Her tongue is as formidable a weapon as +his fists, and she knows well how, by her seeming meekness, +gentleness, and apparent martyrdom, to work on his feelings, to +enlist the sympathy of the neighborhood on her side and against +him. Women are neither so wronged nor so helpless as _The +Revolution_ pretends. Men can be brutal, and women can tease +and provoke. + +But let the evils be as great as they may, and women as greatly +wronged as is pretended, what can female suffrage and eligibility +do by way of relieving them? All modern methods of reform are +very much like dram-drinking. The dram needs to be constantly +increased in frequency and quantity, while the prostration grows +greater and greater, till the drinker gets the _delirium +tremens_, becomes comatose, and dies. The extension of +suffrage in modern times has cured or lessened no social or moral +evil; and under it, as under any other political system, the rich +grow richer and the poor poorer. Double the dram, enfranchise the +women, give them the political right to vote and be voted for; +what single moral or social evil will it prevent or cure? Will it +make the drunken husband temperate, the lazy and idle industrious +and diligent? Will it prevent the ups and downs of life, the fall +from affluence to poverty, keep death out of the house, and +prevent widowhood and orphanage? These things are beyond the +reach of politics. You cannot legislate men or women into virtue, +into sobriety, industry, providence. The doubled dram would only +introduce a double poison into the system, a new element of +discord into the family, and through the family into society, and +hasten the moment of dissolution. When a false principle of +reform is adopted, the evil sought to be cured is only +aggravated. The reformers started wrong. +{150} +They would reform the church by placing her under human control. +Their successors have in each generation found they did not go +far enough, and have, each in its turn, struggled to push it +farther and farther, till they find themselves without any church +life, without faith, without religion, and beginning to doubt if +there be even a God. So, in politics, we have pushed the false +principle that all individual, domestic, and social evils are due +to bad government, and are to be cured by political reforms and +changes, till we have nearly reformed away all government, at +least, in theory; have well-nigh abolished the family, which is +the social unit; and find that the evils we sought to cure, and +the wrongs we sought to redress, continue undiminished. We cry +out in our delirium for another and a larger dram. When you +proceed on a true principle, the more logically and completely +you carry it out the better; but when you start with a false +principle, the more logical you are, and the farther you push it, +the worse. Your consistency increases instead of diminishing the +evils you would cure. + +The conclusive objection to the political enfranchisement of +women is, that it would weaken and finally break up and destroy +the Christian family. The social unit is the family, not the +individual; and the greatest danger to American society is, that +we are rapidly becoming a nation of isolated individuals, without +family ties or affections. The family has already been much +weakened, and is fast disappearing. We have broken away from the +old homestead, have lost the restraining and purifying +associations that gathered round it, and live away from home in +hotels and boarding-houses. We are daily losing the faith, the +virtues, the habits, and the manners without which the family +cannot be sustained; and when the family goes, the nation goes +too, or ceases to be worth preserving. God made the family the +type and basis of society; "male and female made he them." A +large and influential class of women not only neglect but disdain +the retired and simple domestic virtues, and scorn to be tied +down to the modest but essential duties--the drudgery, they call +it--of wives and mothers. This, coupled with the separate +pecuniary interests of husband and wife secured, and the facility +of divorce _a vinculo matrirmonii_ allowed by the laws of +most of the States of the Union, make the family, to a fearful +extent, the mere shadow of what it was and of what it should be. + +Extend now to women suffrage and eligibility; give them the +political right to vote and to be voted for; render it feasible +for them to enter the arena of political strife, to become +canvassers in elections and candidates for office, and what +remains of family union will soon be dissolved. The wife may +espouse one political party, and the husband another, and it may +well happen that the husband and wife may be rival candidates for +the same office, and one or the other doomed to the mortification +of defeat. Will the husband like to see his wife enter the lists +against him, and triumph over him? Will the wife, fired with +political ambition for place or power, be pleased to see her own +husband enter the lists against her, and succeed at her expense? +Will political rivalry and the passions it never fails to +engender increase the mutual affection of husband and wife for +each other, and promote domestic union and peace, or will it not +carry into the bosom of the family all the strife, discord, +anger, and division of the political canvass? + +{151} + +Then, when the wife and mother is engrossed in the political +canvass, or in discharging her duties as a representative or +senator in Congress, a member of the cabinet, or a major-general +in the field, what is to become of the children? The mother will +have little leisure, perhaps less inclination, to attend to them. +A stranger, or even the father, cannot supply her place. Children +need a mother's care; her tender nursing, her sleepless +vigilance, and her mild and loving but unfailing discipline. This +she cannot devolve on the father, or turn over to strangers. +Nobody can supply the place of a mother. Children, then, must be +neglected; nay, they will be in the way, and be looked upon as an +encumbrance. Mothers will repress their maternal instincts; and +the horrible crime of infanticide before birth, now becoming so +fearfully prevalent, and actually causing a decrease in the +native population of several of the States of the Union as well +as in more than one European country, will become more prevalent +still, and the human race be threatened with extinction. Women in +easy circumstances, and placing pleasure before duty, grow weary +of the cares of maternity, and they would only become more weary +still if the political arena were opened to their ambition. + +Woman was created to be a wife and a mother; that is her destiny. +To that destiny all her instincts point, and for it nature has +specially qualified her. Her proper sphere is home, and her +proper function is the care of the household, to manage a family, +to take care of children, and attend to their early training. For +this she is endowed with patience, endurance, passive courage, +quick sensibilities, a sympathetic nature, and great executive +and administrative ability. She was born to be a queen in her own +household, and to make home cheerful, bright, and happy. Surely +those women who are wives and mothers should stay at home and +discharge its duties; and the woman's rights party, by seeking to +draw her away from the domestic sphere, where she is really +great, noble, almost divine, and to throw her into the turmoil of +political life, would rob her of her true dignity and worth, and +place her in a position where all her special qualifications and +peculiar excellences would count for nothing. She cannot be +spared from home for that. + +It is pretended that woman's generous sympathies, her nice sense +of justice, and her indomitable perseverance in what she +conceives to be right are needed to elevate our politics above +the low, grovelling and sordid tastes of men; but while we admit +that women will make almost any sacrifice to obtain their own +will, and make less than men do of obstacles or consequences, we +are not aware that they have a nicer or a truer sense of justice, +or are more disinterested in their aims than men. All history +proves that the corruptest epochs in a nation's life are +precisely those in which women have mingled most in political +affairs, and have had the most influence in their management. If +they go into the political world, they will, if the distinction +of sex is lost sight of, have no special advantage over men, nor +be more influential for good or for evil. If they go as women, +using all the blandishments, seductions, arts, and intrigues of +their sex, their influence will tend more to corrupt and debase +than to purify and elevate. Women usually will stick at nothing +to carry their points; and when unable to carry them by appeals +to the strength of the other sex, they will appeal to its +weakness. When once they have thrown off their native modesty, +and entered a public arena with men, they will go to lengths that +men will not. +{152} +Lady Macbeth looks with steady nerves and unblanched cheek on a +crime from which her husband shrinks with horror, and upbraids +him with his cowardice for letting "I dare not wait upon I +would." It was not she who saw Banquo's ghost. + +We have heard it argued that, if women were to take part in our +elections, they would be quietly and decorously conducted; that +her presence would do more than a whole army of police officials +to maintain order, to banish all fighting, drinking, profane +swearing, venality, and corruption. This would undoubtedly be, to +some extent, the case, if, under the new _régime_, men +should retain the same chivalric respect for women that they now +have. Men now regard women as placed in some sort under their +protection, or the safeguard of their honor. But when she insists +that the distinction of sex shall be disregarded, and tells us +that she asks no favors, regards all offers of protection to her +as a woman as an insult, and that she holds herself competent to +take care of herself, and to compete with men on their own +ground, and in what has hitherto been held to be their own work, +she may be sure that she will be taken at her word, that she will +miss that deference now shown her, and which she has been +accustomed to claim as her right, and be treated with all the +indifference men show to one another. She cannot have the +advantages of both sexes at once. When she forgets that she is a +woman, and insists on being treated as a man, men will forget +that she is a woman, and allow her no advantage on account of her +sex. When she seeks to make herself a man, she will lose her +influence as a woman, and be treated as a man. + +Women are not needed as men; they are needed as women, to do, not +what men can do as well as they, but what men cannot do. There is +nothing which more grieves the wise and good, or makes them +tremble for the future of the country, than the growing neglect +or laxity of family discipline; than the insubordination, the +lawlessness, and precocious depravity of Young America. There is, +with the children of this generation, almost a total lack of +filial reverence and obedience. And whose fault is it? It is +chiefly the fault of the mothers, who fail to govern their +households, and to bring up their children in a Christian manner. +Exceptions there happily are; but the number of children that +grow up without any proper training or discipline at home is +fearfully large, and their evil example corrupts not a few of +those who are well brought up. The country is no better than the +town. Wives forget what they owe to their husbands, are +capricious and vain, often light and frivolous, extravagant and +foolish, bent on having their own way, though ruinous to the +family, and generally contriving, by coaxings, blandishments, or +poutings, to get it. They set an ill example to their children, +who soon lose all respect for the authority of the mother, who, +as a wife, forgets to honor and obey her husband, and who, seeing +her have her own way with him, insist on having their own way +with her, and usually succeed. As a rule, children are no longer +subjected to a steady and firm, but mild and judicious +discipline, or trained to habits of filial obedience. Hence, our +daughters, when they become wives and mothers, have none of the +habits or character necessary to govern their household and to +train their children. Those habits and that character are +acquired only in a school of obedience, made pleasant and +cheerful by a mother's playful smile and a mother's love. +{153} +We know we have not in this the sympathy of the women whose organ +is _The Revolution_. They hold obedience in horror, and seek +only to govern, not their own husbands only, not children, but +men, but the state, but the nation, and to be relieved of +household cares, especially of child-bearing, and of the duty of +bringing up children. We should be sorry to do or say anything +which these, in their present mood, could sympathize with. It is +that which is a woman's special duty in the order of providence, +and which constitutes her peculiar glory, that they regard as +their great wrong. + +The duty we insist on is especially necessary in a country like +ours, where there is so little respect for authority, and +government is but the echo of public opinion. Wives and mothers, +by neglecting their domestic duties and the proper family +discipline, fail to offer the necessary resistance to growing +lawlessness and crime, aggravated, if not generated, by the false +notions of freedom and equality so widely entertained. It is only +by home discipline, and the early habits of reverence and +obedience to which our children are trained, that the license the +government tolerates, and the courts hardly dare attempt to +restrain, can be counteracted, and the community made a +law-loving and a law-abiding community. The very bases of society +have been sapped, and the conditions of good government despised, +or denounced under the name of despotism. Social and political +life is poisoned in its source, and the blood of the nation +corrupted, and chiefly because wives and mothers have failed in +their domestic duties, and the discipline of their families. How, +then, can the community, the nation itself, subsist, if we call +them away from home, and render its duties still more irksome to +them, instead of laboring to fit them for a more faithful +discharge of their duties? + +We have said the evils complained of are chiefly due to the +women, and we have said so because it grows chiefly out of their +neglect of their families. The care and management of children +during their early years belong specially to the mother. It is +her special function to plant and develop in their young and +impressible minds the seeds of virtue, love, reverence, and +obedience, and to train her daughters, by precept and example, +not to be looking out for an eligible _parti_, nor to catch +husbands that will give them splendid establishments, but to be, +in due time, modest and affectionate wives, tender and judicious +mothers, and prudent and careful housekeepers. This the father +cannot do; and his interference, except by wise counsel, and to +honor and sustain the mother, will generally be worse than +nothing. The task devolves specially on the mother; for it +demands the sympathy with children which is peculiar to the +female heart, the strong maternal instinct implanted by nature, +and directed by a judicious education, that blending of love and +authority, sentiment and reason, sweetness and power, so +characteristic of the noble and true-hearted woman, and which so +admirably fit her to be loved and honored, only less than adored, +in her own household. When she neglects this duty, and devotes +her time to pleasure or amusement, wasting her life in luxurious +ease, in reading sentimental or sensational novels, or in +following the caprices of fashion, the household goes to ruin, +the children grow up wild, without discipline, and the honest +earnings of the husband become speedily insufficient for the +family expenses, and he is sorely tempted to provide for them by +rash speculation or by fraud, which, though it may be carried on +for a while without detection, is sure to end in disgrace and +ruin at last. +{154} +Concede now to women suffrage and eligibility, throw them into +the whirlpool of politics, set them to scrambling for office, and +you aggravate the evil a hundred fold. Children, if suffered to +be born, which is hardly to be expected, will be still more +neglected; family discipline still more relaxed, or rendered +still more capricious or inefficient; our daughters will grow up +more generally still without any adequate training to be wives +and mothers, and our sons still more destitute of those habits of +filial reverence and obedience, love of order and discipline, +without which they can hardly be sober, prudent, and worthy heads +of families, or honest citizens. + +We have thus far spoken of women only as wives and mothers; but +we are told that there are thousands of women who are not and +cannot be wives and mothers. In the older and more densely +settled States of the Union there is an excess of females over +males, and all cannot get husbands if they would. Yet, we repeat, +woman was created to be a wife and a mother, and the woman that +is not fails of her special destiny. We hold in high honor +spinsters and widows, and do not believe their case anywhere need +be or is utterly hopeless. There is a mystery in Christianity +which the true and enlightened Christian recognizes and +venerates--that of the Virgin-Mother. Those women who cannot be +wives and mothers in the natural order, may be both in the +spiritual order, if they will. They can be wedded to the Holy +Spirit, and be the mothers of minds and hearts. The holy virgins +and devout widows who consecrate themselves to God in or out of +religious orders, are both, and fulfil in the spiritual order +their proper destiny. They are married to a celestial Spouse, and +become mothers to the motherless, to the poor, the destitute, the +homeless. They instruct the ignorant, nurse the sick, help the +helpless, tend the aged, catch the last breath of the dying, pray +for the unbelieving and the cold hearted, and elevate the moral +tone of society, and shed a cheering radiance along the pathway +of life. They are dear to God, dear to the church, and dear to +Christian society. They are to be envied, not pitied. It is only +because you have lost faith in Christ, faith in the holy Catholic +Church, and have become gross in your minds, of "the earth, +earthy," that you deplore the lot of the women who cannot, in the +natural order, find husbands. The church provides better for them +than you can do, even should you secure female suffrage and +eligibility. + +We do not, therefore, make an exception from our general remarks +in favor of those who have and can get no earthly husbands, and +who have no children born of their flesh to care for. There are +spiritual relations which they can contract, and purely feminine +duties, more than they can perform, await them, to the poor and +ignorant, the aged and infirm, the helpless and the motherless, +or, worse than motherless, the neglected. Under proper direction, +they can lavish on these the wealth of their affections, the +tenderness of their hearts, and the ardor of their charity, and +find true joy and happiness in so doing, and ample scope for +woman's noblest ambition. They have no need to be idle or +useless. In a world of so much sin and sorrow, sickness and +suffering, there is always work enough for them to do, and there +are always chances enough to acquire merit in the sight of +Heaven, and true glory, that will shine brighter and brighter for +ever. + +{155} + +We know men often wrong women and cause them great suffering by +their selfishness, tyranny, and brutality; whether more than +women, by their follies and caprices, cause men, we shall not +undertake to determine. Man, except in fiction, is not always a +devil, nor woman an angel. Since the woman's rights people claim +that in intellect woman is man's equal, and in firmness of will +far his superior, it ill becomes them to charge to him alone what +is wrong or painful in her condition, and they must recognize her +as equally responsible with him for whatever is wrong in the +common lot of men and women. There is much wrong on both sides; +much suffering, and much needless suffering, in life. Both men +and women might be, and ought to be, better than they are. But it +is sheer folly or madness to suppose that either can be made +better or happier by political suffrage and eligibility; for the +evil to be cured is one that cannot be reached by any possible +political or legislative action. + +That the remedy, to a great extent, must be supplied by woman's +action and influence we concede, but not by her action and +influence in politics. It can only be by her action and influence +as woman, as wife, and mother; in sustaining with her affection +the resolutions and just aspirations of her husband or her sons, +and forming her children to early habits of filial love and +reverence, of obedience to law, and respect for authority. That +she may do this, she needs not her political enfranchisement or +her entire independence of the other sex, but a better and more +thorough system of education for daughters--an education that +specially adapts them to the destiny of their sex, and prepares +them to find their happiness in their homes, and the satisfaction +of their highest ambition in discharging its manifold duties, so +much higher, nobler, and more essential to the virtue and +well-being of the community, the nation, society, and to the life +and progress of the human race, than any which devolve on king or +kaiser, magistrate or legislator. We would not have their +generous instincts repressed, their quick sensibilities blunted? +or their warm, sympathetic nature chilled, nor even the lighter +graces and accomplishments neglected; but we would have them all +directed and harmonized by solid intellectual instruction, and +moral and religious culture. We would have them, whether rich or +poor, trained to find the centre of their affections in their +home; their chief ambition in making it cheerful, bright, +radiant, and happy. Whether destined to grace a magnificent +palace, or to adorn the humble cottage of poverty, this should be +the ideal aimed at in their education. They should be trained to +love home, and to find their pleasure in sharing its cares and +performing its duties, however arduous or painful. + +There are comparatively few mothers qualified to give their +daughters such an education, especially in our own country; for +comparatively few have received such an education themselves, or +are able fully to appreciate its importance. They can find little +help in the fashionable boarding-schools for finishing young +ladies; and in general these schools only aggravate the evil to +be cured. The best and the only respectable schools for daughters +that we have in the country are the conventual schools taught by +women consecrated to God, and specially devoted to the work of +education. These schools, indeed, are not always all that might +be wished. +{156} +The good religious sometimes follow educational traditions +perhaps better suited to the social arrangements of other +countries than of our own, and sometimes underrate the value of +intellectual culture. They do not always give as solid an +intellectual education as the American woman needs, and devote a +disproportionate share of their attention to the cultivation of +the affections and sentiments, and to exterior graces and +accomplishments. The defects we hint at are not, however, wholly, +nor chiefly, their fault; they are obliged to consult, in some +measure, the tastes and wishes of parents and guardians, whose +views for their daughters and wards are not always very profound, +very wise, very just, or very Christian. The religious cannot, +certainly, supply the place of the mother in giving their pupils +that practical home training so necessary, and which can be given +only by mothers who have themselves been properly educated; but +they go as far as is possible in remedying the defects of the +present generation of mothers, and in counteracting their follies +and vain ambitions. With all the faults that can be alleged +against any of them, the conventual schools, even as they are, it +must be conceded, are infinitely the best schools for daughters +in the land, and, upon the whole, worthy of the high praise and +liberal patronage their devotedness and disinterestedness secure +them. We have seldom found their graduates weak and sickly +sentimentalists. They develop in their pupils a cheerful and +healthy tone, and a high sense of duty; give them solid moral and +religious instruction; cultivate successfully their moral and +religious affections; refine their manners, purify their tastes, +and send them out feeling that life is serious, life is earnest, +and resolved always to act under a deep sense of their personal +responsibilities, and meet whatever may be their lot with brave +hearts and without murmuring or repining. + +We do not disguise the fact that our hopes for the future, in +great measure, rest on these conventual schools. As they are +multiplied, and the number of their graduates increase, and enter +upon the serious duties of life, the ideal of female education +will be come higher and broader; a nobler class of wives and +mothers will exert a healthy and purifying influence; religion +will become a real power in the republic; the moral tone of the +community and the standard of private and public morality will be +elevated; and thus may gradually be acquired the virtues that +will enable us as a people to escape the dangers that now +threaten us, and to save the republic as well as our own souls. +Sectarians, indeed, declaim against these schools, and denounce +them as a subtle device of Satan to make their daughters +"Romanists;" but Satan probably dislikes "Romanism" even more +than sectarians do, and is much more in earnest to suppress or +ruin our conventual schools, in which he is not held in much +honor, than he is to sustain and encourage them. At any rate, our +countrymen who have such a horror of the religion it is our glory +to profess that they cannot call it by its true name, would do +well, before denouncing these schools, to establish better +schools for daughters of their own. + +Now, we dare tell these women who are wasting so much time, +energy, philanthropy, and brilliant eloquence in agitating for +female suffrage and eligibility, which, if conceded, would only +make matters worse, that, if they have the real interest of their +sex or of the community at heart, they should turn their +attention to the education of daughters for their special +functions, not as men, but as women who are one day to be wives +and mothers--woman's true destiny. +{157} +These modest, retiring sisters and nuns, who have no new theories +or schemes of social reform, and upon whom you look down with +haughty contempt, as weak, spiritless, and narrow-minded, have +chosen the better part, and are doing infinitely more to raise +woman to her true dignity, and for the political and social as +well as for the moral and religious progress of the country, than +you with all your grand conventions, brilliant speeches, stirring +lectures, and spirited journals. + +For poor working-women and poor working-men, obliged to subsist +by their labor, and who can find no employment, we feel a deep +sympathy, and would favor any feasible method of relieving them +with our best efforts. But why cannot American girls find +employment as well as Irish and German girls, who are employed +almost as soon as they touch our shores, and at liberal wages? +There is always work enough to be done if women are qualified to +do it, and are not above doing it. But be that as it may, the +remedy is not political, and must be found, if found at all, +elsewhere than in suffrage and eligibility. + +---------- + + Daybreak. + + Chapter III. + + Chez Lui. + + +Miss Hamilton did not go down to dinner the first day; but when +she heard Mr. Granger come in, sent a line to him, excusing +herself till evening, on the plea that she needed rest. The truth +was, however, that she shrank from first meeting the family at +table, a place which allows so little escape from embarrassment. + +Her door had been left ajar; and in a few minutes she heard a +silken rustling on the stairs, then a faint tap; and at her +summons there entered a small, lily-faced woman who looked like +something that might have grown out of the pallid March evening. +The silver-gray of her trailing dress, the uncertain tints of her +hair, deepening from flaxen to pale brown, even the cobwebby +Mechlin laces she wore, so thin as to have no color of their +own--all were like light, cool shadows. This lady entered with a +dainty timidity which by no means excluded the most perfect +self-possession, but rather indicated an extreme solicitude for +the person she visited. + +"Do I intrude?" she asked in a soft, hesitating way. "Mr. Granger +thought I might come up. We feared that you were ill." + +Margaret was annoyed to feel herself blushing. There was +something keen in this lady's beautiful violet eyes, underneath +their superficial expression of anxious kindness. + +"I am not ill, only tired," she replied. "I meant to go down +awhile after dinner." + +"I am Mrs. Lewis," the stranger announced, seating herself by the +bedside. "My husband and I, and my husband's niece, Aurelia +Lewis, live here. We don't call it boarding, you know. I hope +that you will like us." + +{158} + +This wish was expressed in a manner so _naïve_ and earnest +that Margaret could but smile in making answer that she was quite +prepared to be pleased with everything, and that her only fear +was lest she might disturb the harmony of their circle--not by +being disagreeable in herself, but simply in being one more. + +With a gesture at once graceful and kind, Mrs. Lewis touched +Margaret's hand with her slight, chilly fingers. "You are the one +more whom we want," she said; "we have been rejoicing over the +prospect of having you with us. You do not break, you complete +the circle." + +Her quick ear had caught a lingering tone of pain; and she had +already found something pathetic in that thin face and those +languid eyes. Miss Hamilton did not appear to be a person likely +to disturb the empire which this lady prided herself on +exercising over their household. + +"I know very little about the family," Margaret remarked. "Mr. +Granger mentioned some names. I am not sure if they were all. And +men never think of the many trifles we like to be told." + +Her visitor sighed resignedly. "Certainly not--the sublime +creatures! It is the difference between fresco and miniature, you +know. Let me enlighten you a little. Besides those of us whom you +have seen, there are only Mr. Southard, my husband, and Aurelia. +We consider ourselves a very happy family. Of course, being +human, we have occasional jars; but there is always the +understanding that our real friendship is unimpaired by them. And +we defend each other like Trojans from any outside attack. We try +to manage so as to have but one angry at a time, the others +acting as peacemakers. The only one who may trouble you is my +husband. I am anxious concerning him and you." + +With her head a little on one side, the lady contemplated her +companion with a look of pretty distress. + +"Forewarned is forearmed," suggested Miss Hamilton. + +"Why, you see," her visitor said confidentially, "Mr. Lewis is +one of those provoking beings who take a mischievous delight in +misrepresenting themselves, not for the better, but the worse. If +they see a person leaning very much in one way, they are sure to +lean very much the other way. Mr. Southard calls my husband an +infidel, whatever that is. There certainly are a great many +things which he does not believe. But one half of his scepticism +is a mere pretence to tease the minister. I hope you won't be +vexed with him. You won't when you come to know him. Sometimes I +don't altogether blame him. Of course we all admire Mr. Southard +in the most fatiguing manner; but it cannot be denied that he +does interpret and perform his duties in the preraphaelite style, +With a pitiless adherence to chapter and verse. Still, I often +think that much of his apparent severity may be in those +chiselled features of his. One is occasionally surprised by some +sign of indulgence in him, some touch of grace or tenderness. But +even while you look, the charm, without disappearing, freezes +before your eyes, like spray in winter. I don't know just what to +think of him; but I suspect that he has missed his vocation, that +he was made for a monk or a Jesuit. It would never do to breathe +such a thought to him, though. He thinks that the Pope is +Antichrist." + +"And isn't he?" calmly asked the granddaughter of the Rev. Doctor +Hamilton. + +Mrs. Lewis put up her hand to refasten a bunch of honey-sweet +tuberoses that were slipping from the glossy coils of her hair, +and by the gesture concealed a momentary amused twinkle of her +eyes. + +{159} + +"Oh! I dare say!" she replied lightly. "But such a dear, +benignant old antichrist as he is! Ages ago, when we were in +Rome, I was in the crowd before St. Peter's when the pope gave +the Easter benediction. Involuntarily I knelt with the rest; and +really, Miss Hamilton, that seemed to me the only benediction I +ever received. I did not understand my own emotion. It was quite +unexpected. Perhaps it was something in that intoxicating +atmosphere which is only half air; the other half is soul." + +Margaret was silent. She had no wish to express any displeasure; +but she was shocked to hear the mystical Babylon spoken of with +toleration, and that by a descendant of the puritans. + +Mrs. Lewis sat a moment with downcast eyes, aware of, and quietly +submitting to the scrutiny of the other--by no means afraid of +it, quite confident, probably, that the result would be +agreeable. + +This lady was about forty years of age, delicate rather than +beautiful, with a frosty sparkle about her. Her manner was +gentleness itself; but one soon perceived something fine and +sharp beneath; a blue arrowy glance that carried home a phrase +otherwise light as a feather, a slight emphasis that made the +more obvious meaning of a word glance aside, an unnecessary +suavity of expression that led to suspicion of some pungent +hidden meaning. But with all her airy malice there was much of +genuine honesty and kind feeling. She was like a faceted gem, +showing her little glittering shield at every turn; but still a +gem. + +"Aurelia is quite impatient to welcome you," she resumed softly. +"You cannot fail to like her, when you happen to think of it. She +is sweet and beautiful all through. + +"Now I will leave you to take your rest, and read the note of +which Mr. Granger made me the bearer. I hope to see you this +evening." + +Margaret looked after the little lady as she glided away, +glancing back from the door with a friendly smile and nod, then +disappeared, soundless save for the rustling of her dress. She +listened to that faint silken whisper on the stairs, then to the +soft shutting of the parlor door, two pushes before it latched. +Then she read her note. It was but a line. "Rest as long as you +wish to. But when you are able to come down, we all want to see +you." + +She went down to the parlor after dinner, and found the whole +family there. There was yet so much of daylight that one +gentleman, sitting in a western window, was reading the evening +paper by it; but the stream of gaslight that came in from some +room at the end of the long _suite_ made a red-golden path +across the darkened back-parlor, and caught brightly here and +there on the carving of a picture, a curve of bronze or marble, +or the gilding of a book-cover, and glimmered unsteadily over a +winged Mercury that leaned out of the vague dusk and sparkle, +tiptoe, at point of flight, with lifted face and glinting eyes. + +Mr. Granger stood near the door by which Margaret entered, +evidently on the watch for her; and at sight of him that slight +nervous embarrassment inseparable from her circumstances, and +from the unstrung condition of her mind and body, instantly died +away. To her he was strength, courage, and protection. Shielded +by his friendship, she feared nothing. + +Mrs. Lewis and Dora met her like old friends; that florid +gentleman with English side-whiskers she guessed to be Mr. Lewis; +and she recognized that fine profile clear against the opaline +west. + +{160} + +Mr. Southard came forward at once, scarcely waiting for an +introduction. + +"A granddaughter of the Rev. Doctor Hamilton?" he said with +emphasis. "I am happy to see you." + +Miss Hamilton received tranquilly his cordial salutation, and +mentally consigned it to the manes of her grandfather. + +Mr. Lewis got up out of his armchair, and bowed lowly. "Madam," +he said with great deliberation, "I do not in the least care who +your grandfather was. I am glad to see _you_." + +"Thank you!" said Margaret. + +The gentleman settled rather heavily into his chair again. He was +one of those who would rather sit than stand. Margaret turned to +meet his niece, who was offering her hand, and murmuring some +word of welcome. She looked at Aurelia Lewis with delight, +perceiving then what Mrs. Lewis had meant in saying that her +husband's niece was sweet and beautiful all through. The girl +radiated loveliness. She was a blonde, with deep ambers and +browns in her hair and eyes, looking like some translucent +creature shone through by rich sunset lights too soft for +brilliancy. She was large, suave, a trifle sirupy, perhaps, but +sweet to the core, had no salient points in her disposition, but +a charmingly liquid way of adapting herself to the angles of +others. If the looks and manners of Mrs. Lewis were faceted, +those of her husband's niece were what jewelers' call _en +cabochon_. What Aurelia said was nothing. She was not a +reportable person. What she _was_ was delicious. + +"I remember Doctor Hamilton very well," Mr. Lewis said when the +ladies had finished their compliments. "He was one of those men +who make religion respectable. He held some pretty hard +doctrines; but he believed every one of 'em, and held 'em with a +grip. The last time I saw him was seven or eight years ago, just +before his death. They had up their everlasting petition before +the legislature here, for the abolition of capital punishment; +and a committee was appointed to attend to the matter. I went up +to one of their hearings. There were Phillips, Pierpont, Andrew, +Spear, and a lot of other smooth-tongued, soft-hearted fellows +who didn't want the poor, dear murderers to be hanged; and on the +other side were Doctor Hamilton with his eyes and his cane, +common sense, Moses and the decalogue. They had rather a rough +time of it. Andrew called your grandfather an old fogy, over some +one else's shoulders; and Phillips tilted over Moses, tables and +all, with that sharp lance of his. But Doctor Hamilton stood +there as firm as a rock, and beat them all out. He had the glance +of an eagle, and a way of swinging his arm about, when he was in +earnest, that looked as if it wouldn't take much provocation to +make him hit straight out. Phillips said something that he didn't +like, and the doctor stamped at him. Well, the upshot of the +matter was, that capital punishment was not abolished that year, +thanks to one tough, intrepid old man." + +"My grandfather was very resolute," said Margaret, with a slight, +proud smile. + +"Yes," answered Mr. Lewis, "he would have made a prime soldier, +if he hadn't made the mistake of being a doctor of divinity." + +"The church needed his authoritative speech," said Mr. Southard, +with decision. "To the minister of God belongs the voice of +denunciation as well as the voice of prayer." + +{161} + +Mr. Lewis gave his moustache an impatient twitch. + +Mr. Granger seized the first opportunity to speak aside to +Margaret. "You like these people? You are contented?" he asked +hastily. + +"Yes, and yes," she replied. + +"You think that you will feel at home when you have become better +acquainted with them?" he pursued. + +"It seems to me that I have always lived here," she answered, +smiling. "There is not the least strangeness. Indeed, surprising +things, if they are pleasant, never surprise me. I am always +expecting miracles. It is only painful or trivial events which +find me incredulous and ill at ease." + +The chandeliers were lighted, and the windows closed; but, +according to their pleasant occasional custom, the curtains were +not drawn for a while yet. If any person in the street took +pleasure in seeing this family gathering, they were welcome. + +Mrs. Lewis broke a few sprays from a musk-vine over-starred with +yellow blossoms, and twined them into a wreath as she slowly +approached the two who were standing near a book-case. "_Vive +le roi!_" she said, lifting the wreath to the marble brows of +a Shakespeare that stood on the lower shelf. + +Margaret glanced along a row of blue and brown covers, and +exclaimed, "My Brownings! all hail! there they are!" + +"You also!" said Mrs. Lewis, with a grimace. "Own, now, that they +jolt horribly--that the Browning Pegasus is a racker, and that +the Browning road up Parnassus is macadamized with--well, +diamonds, if you will, but diamonds in the rough. True, the hoofs +do make dents; they do dash over the ground with a four-footed +trampling; but--" a shrug and a shiver completed the sentence. + +"Mrs. Browning needs a lapidary," Mr. Granger said; "but her +husband's constipated style is a necessity. His books are books +of quintessences. At first I thought him suggestive; but soon +perceived that he was stimulating instead. He seems to have +brushed a subject. Look again, and you will see that he has +exhausted it." + +Margaret read the titles of the books, and in them read, also, +something of the minds of her new associates. There were a few +shining names from each of the great nations, and a good +selection of English and American authors, the patriarchs in +their places. She had a word for each, but thought, "I wonder why +I like Lowell, almost in silence, yet like him best." + +Near this was another case of books, all Oriental, or relating to +the Orient. There were the Talmud and the Koran; there were +hideous mythologies full of propitiatory prayers to the devil. +There were _Vathek, The Arabian Nights, Ferdousi_, and a +hundred others. Over this case hung an oval water-color of sea +and sky with a rising sun blazing at the horizon, lighting with +flickering gold a path across the blue, liquid expanse, and +flooding with light the ethereal spaces. On a scroll beneath this +was inscribed, "Ex Oriente Lux." + +"Light and hasheesh," said Mr. Southard laughingly. "Don't linger +there too long." + +Mr. Granger called Dora to him. "What has my little girl been +learning to-day?" he asked. + +The little one's eyes flashed with a sudden, glorious +recollection. "O papa! I can spell cup." + +The father was suitably astonished. + +"Is it possible? Let me hear." + +The child raised her eyebrows, and played the coquette with her +erudition. "You spell it," she said tauntingly. + +{162} + +Mr. Granger leaned back in his chair, and knitted his brows in +intense study. "T-a-s-s-e, cup." + +"No-o, papa," said the fairy at his knee. + +"T-a-z-z-a, cup!" he essayed again. + +Dora shook her flossy curls. + +"T-a-z-a, cup!" he said desperately. + +The child looked at him with tears in her eyes. + +"Oh!" he said, "c-u-p, cup!" at which she screamed with delight. + +"How blue it sounds," said Margaret. "Like a Canterbury bell with +a handle to it." + +A tray was brought in with coffee, which was Dora's signal to go +to bed. She took an affectionate leave of all, but hid her face +in Margaret's neck in saying good night. + +"Who was the little girl in the picture?" she whispered. + +"It was you, dear," was the reply. + +"I keeped thinking of it this ever so long," said the child. + +Her father always accompanied her to the foot of the stairs; and +the two went out together, Dora clinging to his hand, which she +held against her cheek, and he looking down upon her with a fond +smile. + +Margaret shrank with a momentary spasm of pain and terror, as she +looked after them. How fearful is that clinging love which human +beings have for each other! how terrible, since, sooner or later, +they must part; since, at any instant, the hand of fate may be +outstretched to snatch them asunder! + +"Are you ill?" whispered Aurelia, touching her arm. + +Margaret started, and recollected herself with an effort; then +smiled without an effort; for the door opened, and Mr. Granger +came in again, glancing first at her, then coming to sit near +her. + +"I have found out the origin of coffee," Mrs. Lewis said. "It is, +or is capable of being, a Mohammedan legend. I will tell you. +When Mother Eve, to whom be peace! fell, after her sin, from the +seventh heaven, and was precipitated to earth, as she slipped +over the verge of Paradise, she instinctively flung out her arm, +and caught at a shrub with milk-white blossoms that grew there. +It broke in her hand. She fell into Arabia, near Mocha. The +branch that fell with her took root and grew, and had blossoms +with five petals, as white as the beautiful Mother's five +fingers. And that's the history of coffee. Aura, give me a cup +without delay. That story was salt." + +"Why should we not have sentiments with so wonderful a draught?" +Mr. Granger said. "Propose anything. Shall I begin? I have been +reading the European news. Victor Emmanuel is dawning like a sun +over Italy. I propose Rome, the dead lion, with honey for +Samson." + +Mr. Lewis pushed out his underlip. He always scouted at +republicans, red or black. + +"I follow you," he said immediately, with a sly glance at Mr. +Southard. "Rome, the rock that does not crack, though all the +bores blast it." + +There was a momentary pause, during which the eyes of the +minister scintillated. Then he exclaimed, "Luther, the Moses at +the stroke of whose rod the rock was rent, and the gospel waters +loosed." + +"Ah! Luther!" endorsed Mr. Lewis with an affectation of +enthusiasm. "Greater than Nimrod, he built a Babel which babbles +to the ends of the earth." + +Mr. Southard flashed out, "Yes; and every tongue can spell the +word Bible, sir!" + +"And deny its plainest teachings," was the retort; "and vilify +the hand that preserved it!" + +{163} + +"Now, Charles," interposed Mrs. Lewis, touching her husband's +arm, "why will you say what you do not mean, just for the sake of +being disagreeable? You know, Mr. Southard, that he cares no more +for Rome than he does for Pekin, and knows no more about it, +indeed. The fact is, he has the greatest respect for our +church--may I say _militant_?" + +"Sweet peacemaker!" exclaimed Mr. Lewis, delighted with the neat +little sting at the end of his wife's speech. + +Aurelia lifted her cup, and interposed with a laughing quotation: + +"'Here's a health to all those that we love. Here's a health to +all them that love us. Here's a health to all those that love +them that love those that love them that love those that love +us.'" + +This was drunk with acclamations, and peace restored. + +After a while Mr. Lewis managed, or happened, to find Margaret +apart. + +"I protest I never had a worse opinion of myself than I have +tonight," he said. "There I had promised Louis and my wife to let +religion alone, and not get up a skirmish with the minister for +at least a week after you came; and I meant to keep my promise. +But you see what my resolutions are worth. I am sincerely sorry +if I have vexed you." + +He looked so sorry, and spoke so frankly, that Margaret could not +help giving him a pleasant answer, though she had been +displeased. + +"The fact is," he went on, lowering his voice, "I have seen so +much cant, and hypocrisy, and inconsistency in religion that it +has disgusted me with the whole business. I may go too far. I +don't doubt that there are honest men and women in the churches; +but to my mind they are few and far between. I've nothing to say +against Mr. Southard, and I don't want any one else to speak +against him. I say uglier things to his face than I would say +behind his back. He's a good man, according to his light; but you +must permit me to say that it is a Bengal-light to my eyes. I +can't stand it. It turns me blue all through." + +"Perhaps you do not understand him," Margaret suggested. "May be +you haven't given him a chance to explain." + +"I tried to be fair," was the reply. "Now Southard," said I, +"tell me what you want me to believe, and I'll believe if I can." +Well, the first thing he told me was, that I must give up my +reason. 'By George, I won't!' said I, and there was an end to the +catechism. Of course, if I set my reason aside, I might be made +to believe that chalk is cheese. Perhaps I am stubborn and +material, as he says; but I am what God made me; and I won't +pretend to be anything else. I believe that there is somewhere a +way for us all--a way that we shall know is right, when once we +get into it. These fishers of men ought to remember that whales +are not caught with trout-hooks, and that it isn't the whale's +fault if there's a good deal of blubber to get through before you +reach the inside of him. St. Paul let fly some pretty sharp +harpoons. I can't get 'em out of me for my life. And, for another +kind of man, I like Beecher. His bait isn't painted flies, but +fish, a piece of yourself. But the trouble with him is, there's +no barb on his catch. You slip off as easily as you get on." + +Margaret was glad when the others interposed and put an end to +this talk. To her surprise, she had nothing to reply to Mr. +Lewis's objections. And not only that, but, while he spoke, she +perceived in her own mind a faint echo to his dissatisfaction. Of +course it must be wrong, and she was glad to have the +conversation put an end to. + +{164} + +They had music, Aurelia playing with a good deal of taste some +perfectly harmless pieces. While she listened, Miss Hamilton's +glance wandered about the rooms, finding them quite to her taste. +The first impertinent gloss of everything had worn off, and each +article had mellowed into its place, like the colors of an old +picture. There was none of that look we sometimes see, of +everything having been dipped into the same paint-pot. The +furniture was rich in material and beautiful in shape; the +upholstery a heavy silk and wool, the colors deep and harmonious, +nothing too fine for use. The dull amber of the walls was nearly +covered with pictures, book-cases, cabinets, and brackets; there +was every sort of table, from the two large central ones with +black marble tops, piled with late books and periodicals, to the +tiny teapoys that could be lifted on a finger, marvels of gold, +and japanning, and ingenious Chinese perspective. On the black +marble mantel-piece near her were a pair of silver candelebra, +heirlooms in the family, and china vases of glowing colors, +purple, and rose, and gold. There was more bronze than parian; +there were curtains wherever curtains could be; and withal, there +was plentiful space to get about, and for the ladies to display +their trains. + +All this her first glance took in with a sense of pleasure. Then +she looked deeper, and perceived friendship, ease, security, all +that make the soul of home. Deeper yet, then, to the vague +longing for a love, a security, a rest exceeding the earthly. One +who has suffered much can never again feel quite secure, but +shrinks from delight almost as much as from pain. + +She turned to Mr. Southard, who sat beside her. "I am thinking +how miserably we are the creatures of circumstance," she said, in +her earnestness forgetting how abrupt she might seem. "When we +are troubled, everything is dark; when we are happy, everything +that approaches casts its shadow behind, and shows a sunny +front." + +He regarded her kindly, pleased with her almost confidential +manner. "There is but one escape from such slavery," he said. +"When we set the sun of righteousness in the zenith of our lives, +then shadows are annihilated, not hidden, but annihilated." + +When Margaret went up-stairs that night, she knelt before her +open window, and leaned out, feeling, rather than seeing, the +brooding, starless sky, soft and shadowy, like wings over a nest. +Her soul uplifted itself blindly, almost painfully, beating +against its ignorance. There was something out of sight and +reach, which she wanted to see and to touch. There was one hidden +whom she longed to thank and adore. + +"O brooding wings!" she whispered, stretching out her hands. "O +father and mother-bird over the nest where the little ones lie in +the sweet, sweet dark!" + +Words failed. She knew not what to say. "I wish that I could +pray!" she thought, tears overflowing her eyes. + +Margaret did not know that she had prayed. + + + Chapter IV. + + Just Before Light. + + +The days were well arranged in the Granger mansion. Breakfast was +a movable feast, and silent for the most part. The members of the +family broke their fast when and as they liked, often with a book +or paper for company. + +{165} + +Most persons feel disinclined to talk in the morning, and are +social only from necessity. This household recognized and +respected the instinct. One could always hold one's tongue there. +If they did not follow the old Persian rule never to speak till +one had something to say worth hearing, they at least kept +silence when they felt so inclined. + +Luncheon was never honored by the presence of the gentlemen, +except that on rare occasions Mr. Southard came out of his study +to join the ladies, who by this time had found their tongues. +They preferred his usual custom of taking a scholarly cup of tea +in the midst of his books. + +To the natural woman an occasional gossip is a necessity; and if +ever these three ladies indulged in that pardonable weakness, it +was over their luncheon. At six o'clock all met at dinner, and +passed the evening together. This disposition of time left the +greater part of the day free, for each one to spend as he chose, +and brought them together again at the close of the day, more or +lest tired, always glad to meet, often with something to say. + +Margaret found herself fully and pleasantly occupied. Besides +translating, she had again set up her easel, and spent an hour or +two daily at her former pretty employment. The value of her +services increased, she found, in proportion as she grew +indifferent to rendering them; and she could now select her own +work, and dictate terms. But her most delightful occupation was +the teaching her three little pupils. + +There are two ways of teaching children. One is to seek to impose +on them our own individuality, to dogmatize, in utter +unconsciousness that they are the most merciless of critics, +frequently the keenest of observers, and that they do not so much +lack ideas, as the power of expression. Such teachers climb on to +a pedestal, and talk complacently downward at pupils who, +perhaps, do not in the least consider them classical personages. +We cannot impose on children unless we can dazzle them, sometimes +not even then. + +The other mode is to stand on their own platform, and talk up, +not logically, according to Kant or Hamilton, but in that +circuitous and inconsequent manner which is often the most +effectual logic with children. We all know that the greatest +precision of aim is attained through a spiral bore; and perhaps +these young minds oftener reach the mark in that indirect manner, +than they would by any more formal process. + +This was Miss Hamilton's mode of teaching and influencing +children, and it was as fascinating to her as to them. She +treated them with respect, never laughed at their crude ideas, +did not require of them a self-control difficult for an adult to +practice, and never forgot that some ugly duck might turn out to +be a swan. But where she did assert authority, she was absolute; +and she was merciless to insolence and disobedience. + +"I want cake. I don't like bread and butter," says Dora. + +Mrs. James fired didactic platitudes at the child, Aurelia +coaxed, and Mrs. Lewis preached hygiene. Miss Hamilton knew +better than either. She sketched a bright word-picture of waving +wheat-fields over-buzzed by bees, over-fluttered by birds, +starred through and through with little intrusive flowers that +had no business whatever there, but were let stay; of the shaking +mill where the wheat was ground, and the gay stream that laughed, +and set its shining shoulder to the great wheel, and pushed, and +ran away, blind with foam; of the yeasty sponge, a pile of milky +bubbles. +{166} +She told of sweet clover-heads, red and white, and the cow and +the bees seeing who should get them first. 'I want them for my +honey,' says the bee. 'And I want them for my cream,' says Mooly. +And they both made a snatch, and Mooly got the clover, and +perhaps a purple violet with it, and the cream got the sweetness +of them, and then it was churned, and there was the butter! She +described the clean, cool dairy, full of a ceaseless flicker of +light and shade from the hop-vines that swung outside the window, +and waved the humming-birds away, of pans and pans of yellow +cream, smooth and delicious, of fresh butter just out of the +churn, glowing like gold through its bath of water, of pink and +white petals of apple-blossoms drifting in on the soft breeze, +and settling--"who knows but a pink, crimped-up-at-the-edges +petal may have settled on this very piece of butter? Try, now, if +it doesn't taste apple-blossomy." + +Nonsense, of course, when viewed from a dignified altitude; but +when looked up at from a point about two feet from the ground, it +was the most excellent sense imaginable. To these three little +girls, Dora, Agnes, and Violet, Miss Hamilton was a goddess. + +Margaret did not neglect her own mind in those happy days. Mr. +Southard marked out for her a course of reading in which, it is +true, poetry and fiction, with a few shining exceptions, were +tabooed; but metaphysics was permitted; and history enjoined tome +upon tome, striking octaves up the centuries, and dying away in +tinkling mythologies. She read conscientiously, sometimes with +pleasure, sometimes with a half-acknowledged weariness. + +Mr. Southard was a severe Mentor. As he did not spare himself, so +he did not spare others, still less Margaret. She failed to +perceive, what was plain to the others, that, by virtue of her +descent, he considered her his especial charge, and was trying to +form her after his notions. She acquiesced in all his +requirements, half from indifference, half from a desire to +please everybody, since she was herself so well pleased; and then +forgot all about him. It was out of his power to trouble her save +for a moment. + +"You yield too much to that man," Mrs. Lewis said to her one day. +"He is one of those positive persons who cannot help being +tyrannical." + +"He has a fine mind," said Margaret absently. + +"Yes," the lady acknowledged in a pettish tone. "But if he would +send a few pulses up to irrigate his brain, it would be an +improvement." + +Of course Mr. Southard spoke of religion to his pupil, and urged +on her the duty of being united with the church. + +"I cannot be religious, as the church requires," she said +uneasily, dreading lest he might overcome her will without +convincing her reason. "I think that it is something cabalistic." + +"Your grandfather, and your father and mother did not find it +so," the minister said reprovingly. + +Margaret caught her breath with pain, and lifted her hand in a +quick, silencing gesture. "I never bury my dead!" she said; and +after a moment added, "It may be wrong, but this religion seems +to me like a strait-jacket. I like to read of David dancing +before the ark, of dervishes whirling, of Shakers clapping their +hands, of Methodists singing at the tops of their voices 'Glory +Hallelujah!' or falling into trances. Religion is not fervent +enough for me. It does not express my feelings. I hardly know +what I need. Perhaps I am all wrong." + +{167} + +She stopped, her eyes filling with tears of vexation. + +But even as the drops started, they brightened; for, just in +season to save her from still more pressing exhortation, Mr. +Granger sauntered across the room, and put some careless question +to the minister. + +Mr. Southard recollected that he had to lecture that evening, and +left the room to prepare himself. + +"I am so glad you came!" Margaret said, "I was on the point of +being bound, and gagged, and blindfolded." + +Mr. Granger took the chair that the minister had vacated, and +drew up to him a little stand on which he leaned his arms, "I +perceived that I was needed," he said. "There was no mistaking +your besieged expression; and I saw, too, that look in Mr. +Southard's face which tells that he is about to pile up an +insurmountable argument. I do not think that you will be any +better for having religious discussions with him. You will only +be fretted and uneasy. Mr. Southard is an excellent man, and a +sincere Christian; but he is in danger of mistaking his own +temperament for a dogma." + +"If I thought that, then I shouldn't mind so much," Margaret +said. "But I have been taking for granted that he is right and I +wrong, and trying to let him think for me. The result is, that +instead of being convinced, I have only been irritated. I must +think for myself, whether I wish to or not. Now he circumscribes +my reading so. It is miscellaneous, I know; but I am curious +about everything in the universe. I don't like closed doors. He +thinks my curiosity trivial and dangerous, and reminds me that a +rolling stone gathers no moss." + +"And I would ask, with the canny Scotchman,'what good does the +moss do the stone?'" Mr. Granger replied. "The fact is, you've +got to do just as I did with him. He and I fought that battle out +long ago, and now he lets me alone, and we are good friends. Be +as curious as you like. I heard him speak with disapproval of +your going to the Jewish synagogue last week, and I dare say you +resolved not to go again. Go, if you wish; and don't ask his +permission. He frowned on the Greek anthology, and you laid it +aside. Take it up again if you like. Even pagan flowers catch the +dews of heaven. Your own good taste and delicacy will be a +sufficient censor in matters of reading." + +"Now I breathe!" Margaret said joyfully. "Some people can bear to +be so hemmed in; but I cannot. It does me harm. If I am denied a +drop of water, which, given, would satisfy me, at once I thirst +for the ocean. I cannot help it. It is my way." + +"Don't try to help it," Mr. Granger replied decisively; "or, +above all, don't allow any one else to try to help it for you. I +have no patience with such impositions. It is an insult to +humanity, and an insult to Him who created humanity, for any one +person to attempt to think for another. Obedience and humility +are good only when they are voluntary, and are practised at the +mandate of reason. There are people who never go out of a certain +round, never want to. They are born, they live, and they die, in +the mental and moral domicil of their forefathers. They have no +orbit, but only an axis. Stick a precedent through them, and give +them a twirl, and they will hum on contentedly to the end of the +chapter. I've nothing against them, as long as they let others +alone, and don't insist that to stay in one place and buzz is the +end of humanity. +{168} +Other people there are who grow, they are insatiably curious, +they dive to the heart of things, they take nothing without a +question. They are not quite satisfied with truth itself till +they have compared it with all that claims to be truth. Let them +look, I say. It's a poor truth that won't bear any test that man +can put to it. The first are, as Coleridge says, 'very positive, +but not quite certain' that they are right; to the last a +conviction once won is perfect and indestructible. Rest with them +is not vegetation, but rapture. + +"Fly abroad, my wild bird! don't be afraid. Use your wings. That +is what they were made for." + +Margaret forgot to answer in listening and looking at the +speaker's animated face. When Mr. Granger was in earnest, he had +an impetuous way that carried all before it. At the end, his +shining eyes dropped on her and seemed to cover her with light; +the impatient ring in his voice softened to an indulgent +tenderness. Margaret felt as a flower may feel that has its fill +of sun and dew, and has nothing to do but bloom, and then fade +away. She had no fear of this man, no sense of humiliation with +regard to the past. Her gratitude toward him was boundless. To +him she owed life and all that made life tolerable, and any +devotion which he could require of her she was ready to render. +Her friendship was perfect, deep, frank, and full of a silent +delight. She did not deify him, but was satisfied to find him +human. He could speak a cross word if his beef was over-done, his +coffee too weak, or his paper out of the way when he wanted it. +He could criticise people occasionally, and laugh at their +weakness, even when his kind heart reproached him for doing it. +He liked to lounge on a sofa and read, when he had better be +about his business. He needed rousing, she thought; was too much +of a Sybarite to live in a world full of over-worked people. +Perhaps he was rusting. But how kind and thoughtful he was; how +full of sympathy when sympathy was needed; how generously he +blamed himself when he was wrong, and how readily forgot the +faults of others. How impossible it was for him to be mean or +selfish! His rich, sweet, slow nature reminded her of a rose; but +she felt intuitively that under that silence was hidden a heroic +strength. + +Mr. Southard's lecture was on the Jesuits; and all the family +were to go and hear him. + +"Terribly hot weather for such a subject," Mr. Lewis grumbled. +"But it wouldn't be respectful not to go. Don't forget to take +your smelling-salts, girls. There will be a strong odor of +brimstone in the entertainment. + +Margaret went to the lecture with a feeling that was almost fear. +To her the name of Jesuit was a terror. The day of those +powerful, guileful men was passed, surely; and yet, what if, in +the strange vicissitudes of life, they should revive again? She +was glad that the minister was going to raise his warning voice; +yet still, she dreaded to hear him. The subject was too exciting. + +The lecture was what might be expected. Beginning with Ignatius +of Loyola, the speaker traced the progress of that unique and +powerful society through its wonderful increase, and its +downfall, to the present time, when as he said, the bruised +serpent was again raising its head. + +{169} + +Mr. Southard did full justice to their learning, their sagacity, +and their zeal. He told with a sort of shrinking admiration how +men possessed of tastes and accomplishments which fitted them to +shine in the most cultivated society, buried themselves in +distant and heathen lands, far removed from all human sympathy, +hardened their scholarly hands with toil, encountered danger, +suffered death--for what? That their society might prosper! The +subject seemed to have for the speaker a painful fascination. He +lingered while describing the unparalleled devotion, the +pernicious enthusiasm of these men. He acknowledged that they +proclaimed the name of Christ where it had never been heard +before; he lamented that ministers of the gospel had not emulated +their heroism; but there the picture was over-clouded, was vailed +in blackness. It needed so much brightness in order that the +darkness which followed might have its full effect. + +We all know what pigments are used in that Plutonian +shading--mental reservation, probableism, and the doctrine that +the end justifies the means; the latter a fiction, the two former +scrupulously misrepresented. + +Here Mr. Southard was at home. Here he could denounce with fiery +indignation, point with lofty scorn. The close of the lecture +left the characters of the Jesuits as black as their robes. They +had been lifter only to be cast down. + +Miss Hamilton walked home with Mr. Granger, scarcely uttering a +word the whole way. + +"You do not speak of the lecture," he said when they were at the +house steps. "Has it terrified you so much that you dare not? +Shall you start up from sleep to-night fancying that a great +black Jesuit has come to carry you off?" + +"Do you know, Mr. Granger," she said slowly, "those men seem to +me very much like the apostles; in their devotion, I mean? I +would like to read about them. They are interesting." + +"Oh! they have, doubtless, books which will tell you all you want +to know," he replied. + +"_They!_" repeated Margaret. "But I want to know the truth." +Mr. Granger laughed. "Then I advise you to read nothing, and hear +nothing." + +"How then shall I learn?" demanded Miss Hamilton with a touch of +impatience. + +"Descend into the depth of your consciousness, as the German did +when he wanted to make a correct drawing of an elephant." + +"No," she replied remembering the story, "I will imitate the +Frenchman; I will go to the elephant's country, and draw from +life." + +"That is not difficult," Mr. Granger said, amused at the idea of +Miss Hamilton studying the Jesuits. "These elephants have jungles +the world over. In this city you may find one on Endicott street, +another on Suffolk street, and a third on Harrison avenue." + +They were just entering the house. Margaret hesitated, and paused +in the entry. + +"You do not think this a foolish curiosity?" she asked wistfully. +"You see no harm in my wishing to know something more about +them?" + +Mr. Granger was leaving his hat and gloves on the table. He +turned immediately, surprised at the serious manner in which the +question was put. + +"Surely not!" he said promptly. "I should be very inconsistent if +I did." + +She stood an instant longer, her face perfectly grave and pale. + +"You are afraid?" he asked smiling. + +{170} + +"No," she replied hesitatingly, "I don't think that is it. But I +have all my life had such a horror of Catholics, and especially +of Jesuits, that to resolve even to look at them deliberately, +seems almost as momentous a step as Caesar crossing the Rubicon." + + + Chapter V. + + The Sword Of The Lord And Of Gideon. + +Boston, at the beginning of the war, was not a place to go to +sleep in. Massachusetts politics, so long eminent in the senate, +had at last taken the field; and that city, which is the brain of +the State, effervesced with enthusiasm. Men the least heroic, +apparently, showed themselves capable of heroism; and dreamers +over the great deeds of others looked up to find that they might +themselves be "the hymn the Brahmin sings." + +Eager crowds surrounded the bulletin, put out by newspaper +offices, or ran to gaze at mustering or departing regiments. +Windows filled at the sound of a fife and drum; and it seemed +that the air was fit to be breathed only when it was full of the +flutter of flags. + +Ceremony was set aside. Strangers and foes spoke to each other; +and the most disdainful lady would smile upon the roughest +uniform. From the Protestant pulpit came no more the exhortation +to brotherly love, but the trumpet-call to arms; and under the +wing of the Old South meeting-house rose a recruiting office, and +a rostrum, with the motto, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon." + +The Lord of that time was he at the touch of whose rod the flesh +and the loaves were consumed with fire; who sent for a sign a +drench of dew on the fleece; at the command of whose servant all +Ephraim shouted and took the waters before the flying Midianites, +with the heads of Oreb and of Zeb on their spears. + +Of course there was a good deal of froth; but underneath glowed +the pure wine. It is true that many went because the savage +instinct hidden in human nature rose from its unseen lair, and +fiercely shook itself awake at the scent of blood. But others +came from an honest sense of duty, and offered their lives +knowing what they did; and women who loved them said amen. It was +a stirring time. + +It is not to be supposed that our friends were indifferent to +these events. It was a doubtful point with them, indeed, whether +they could be content to leave the city that summer. Mr. Southard +was decidedly for remaining in town; and Mr. Granger, though less +excited, was inclined to second him. But Mr. Lewis had, early in +the spring, engaged a cottage at the seaside, with the +understanding that the whole family were to accompany him there, +and he utterly refused to release them from their promise. As if +to help his arguments, the weather became intensely hot in June. +Finally they consented to go. + +"We owe you thanks for your persistence," Mr. Granger said, as +they sat together the last evening of their stay in town. "I +couldn't stand two months of this." + +Mr. Lewis was past answering. Dressed in a complete suit of +linen, seated in a wide Fayal chair, with a palm-leaf fan in one +hand and a handkerchief in the other, he presented what his wife +called an ill-tempered dissolving view. At that moment, the only +desire of his heart was that one of Sydney Smith's, that he could +take off his flesh and sit in his bones. + +{171} + +Aurelia and Margaret sat near by, flushed, smiling, and languid, +trying to look cool in their crisp, white dresses. + +Miss Hamilton would scarcely be recognized by one who had seen +her only three months before. Happiness had done its work, and +she was beautiful. Her face had recovered its smooth curves and +bloomy whiteness, and her lips were constantly brightening with +the smile that was ever ready to come. + +Mr. Granger contemplated the two young ladies with a patriarchal +admiration. He liked to have beautiful objects in his sight; and +surely, he thought, no other man in the city could boast of +having in his family two such girls as those who now sat opposite +him. Besides, what was best, they were friends of his, and +regarded him with confidence and affection. + +Mrs. Lewis glanced from them to him, and back to them, and pouted +her lip a little. "He is enough to try the patience of a saint!" +she was thinking. "Why doesn't he marry one of those girls like a +sensible man? To be sure, it is their fault. They are too +friendly and frank with him, the simpletons! There they sit and +beam on him with affectionate tranquillity, as if he were their +grandfather. I'd like to give 'em a shaking." + +Mr. Southard was walking slowly to and fro from the back-parlor +to the front, and he, too, glanced frequently at the sofa where +sat the two unconscious beauties. But no smile softened his pale +face. It seemed, indeed, sterner than usual. The war was stirring +the minister to the depths. + +Mr. Lewis opened a blind near him. A beam of dusty gold came in +from the west; he snapped the blind in its face. + +"Seems to me it takes the sun a long time to get down," he said +crossly. "I hope that none of your mighty Joshuas has commanded +it to stand still." + +No one answered. They sat in the sultry gloaming, and listened +dreamily to the mingled city noises that came from near and far; +the softened roll of a private carriage, like the touch of a +gloved hand, after the knuckled grasp of drays and carts; the +irritating wheeze of an inexorable hand-organ; and, through all, +the shrill cry of the news-boy, the cicada of the city. + +The good-breeding of the company was shown by the perfect +composure of their silence, and the perfect quiescence of their +minds, by the fact that their thoughts all drifted in the same +direction, each one after its own mode. + +Mrs. Lewis was thinking: "Those poor horses! I wish they knew +enough to organize a strike, and all run away into the green, +shady country." + +The husband was saying relentingly to himself, "I declare I do +pity the poor fellows who have to work during this infernal +weather." + +The others were still more in harmony with Mr. Granger when he +spoke lowly, half to himself: + +"If that beautiful idyl of Ruskin's could be realized; that +country and government where the king should be the father of his +people; where all alike should go to him for help and comfort; +where he should find his glory, not in enlarging his dominion, +but in making it more happy and peaceful! Will such a kingdom +ever be, I wonder? Will such a golden age ever come?" + +Margaret glanced with a swift smile toward Mr. Southard, and saw +the twin of her thought in his face. He came and stood with his +hand on the arm of her sofa. + +{172} + +"Both you and Mr. Ruskin are unconsciously thinking of the same +thing," he said, with some new sweetness in his voice, and +brightness in his face. "What you mean can only be the kingdom of +God; and it will come! it will come!" + +Looking up smilingly at him, Margaret caught a smile in return; +and then, for the first time, she thought that Mr. Southard was +beautiful. The cold purity of his face was lighted momentarily by +that glow which it needed in order to be attractive. + +Aurelia rose, and crossing the room, flung the blinds open. The +sun had set, and a slight coolness was creeping up. + +"This butchery going on at the South looks as if the kingdom of +God were coming with a vengeance," said Mr. Lewis, fanning +himself. + +"It is coming with a vengeance!" exclaimed Mr. Southard. "God +does not work in sunshine alone. Job saw him in the whirlwind. +Massachusetts soldiers have gone out with the Bible as well as +the bayonet." + +Mr. Lewis contemplated the speaker with an expression of +wondering admiration that was a little overdone. + +"What _did_ God do before Massachusetts was discovered?" he +exclaimed. + +"I was surprised to hear, Mr. Granger, that your cousin Sinclair +had joined a New York regiment," Mrs. Lewis said hastily. "Only +the day before the steamer sailed in which he had engaged +passage, some quixotic whim seized him, and he volunteered. I +cannot conceive what induced him." + +"I think the uniform was becoming," Mr. Granger said dryly. + +"I pity his wife," pursued the lady, sighing. "Poor Caroline!" + +"She has acted like a fool!" Mr. Lewis broke in angrily. "It was +her fault that Sinclair went off. She thorned him perpetually +with her exactions. She forgot that lovers are only common folks +in a state of evaporation, and that it is in the nature of things +that they should get condensed after a time. She wanted him to be +for ever picking up her pocket-handkerchief, and writing +acrostics on her name. A man can't stand that kind of folderol +when he's got to be fifty years old. We begin to develop a taste +for common sense when we reach that age." + +"He showed no confidence in her," Mrs. Lewis said, with downcast +eyes, "He often deceived her, and therefore she always suspected +him." + +"I think that a man should have no concealments from his wife," +said Mr. Southard emphatically. + +"That's just what Samson's wife thought when her husband proposed +his little conundrum to the Philistines," commented Mr. Lewis. + +Margaret got up and followed Aurelia to the window. + +"I am very sorry for Cousin Caroline," said Mr. Granger, in his +stateliest manner, rising, also, and putting an end to the +discussion. + +"He is always sorry for any one who can contrive to appear +abused," Mr. Lewis said to Margaret. "If you want to interest +him, you must be as unfortunate as you can." + +Margaret looked at her friend with eyes to which the quick tears +started, and blessed him in her heart. + +He was passing at the moment, and, catching the remark, feared +lest she might be hurt or embarrassed. + +"Don't you want to come out on to the veranda?" he asked, +glancing back as he stepped from the long window. + +The words were nothing; but they were so steeped in the kindness +of the look and tone accompanying them that they seemed to be +words of tenderness. + +{173} + +She followed him out into the twilight; the others came too, and +they sat looking into the street, saying little, but enjoying the +refreshing coolness. Other people were at their windows, or on +their steps; and occasionally an acquaintance passing stopped for +a word. After a while G----, the liberator, came along, and +leaned on the fence a moment--a man with a ridge over the top of +his bald head, that looked as if his backbone didn't mean to stop +till it had reached his forehead, as probably it didn't; a +soft-voiced, gently-speaking lion; but Margaret had heard him +roar. + +"Mr. G----," said Mr. Granger, "here is a lady with two dactyls +for a name, Miss Margaret Hamilton. She will add another, and be +Miriam, when your people come out through the Red Sea we are +making." + +"Have your cymbals ready, young prophetess," said the liberator. +"The waters are lifting on the right hand and on the left." + + + +The next day they went to the seaside, the ladies going in the +morning to set things in order; the gentlemen not permitted to +make their appearance till evening. + +After a pleasant ride of an hour in the cars, they stepped out at +a little way-station, where a carriage was awaiting them. About +half a mile from this station, on a point of land hidden from it +by a strip of thick woods, was their cottage. + +The place was quite solitary; not a house in sight landward, +though summer cottages nestled all about among the hills, hidden +in wild green nooks. But across the water, towns were visible in +all directions. + +They drove with soundless wheels over a moist, brown road that +wound and coiled through the woods. There had been a shower in +the night that left everything washed, and the sky cloudless. It +was yet scarcely ten o'clock; and the air, though warm, was fresh +and still. The morning sunshine lay across the road, motionless +between the motionless dense tree-shadows; both light and shade +so still, so intense, they looked like a pavement of solid gold +and amber. If, at intervals, a slight motion woke the woods, less +like a breeze than a deep and gentle respiration of nature, and +that leaf-and-flower-wrought pavement stirred through each +glowing abaciscus, it was as though the solid earth were stirred. + +A faint sultry odor began to rise from the pine-tops, and from +clumps of sweet-fern that stood in sunny spots; but the rank, +long-stemmed flowers and trailing vines that grew under the trees +were yet glistening with the undried shower; the shaded grass at +the roadside was beaded, every blade, with minute sparkles of +water; and here and there a pine-bough was thickly hung with +drops that trembled with fulness at the points of its clustered +emerald needles, and at a touch came clashing down in a shower +that was distinctly heard through the silence. + +The birds were taking their forenoon rest; but, as the carriage +rolled lightly past, a fanatical bobolink, who did not seem to +have much common sense, but to be brimming over with the most +glorious nonsense, swung himself down from some hidden perch, +alighted in an utterly impossible manner on a spire of grass, and +poured forth such a long-drawn, liquid, impetuous song, that it +was a wonder there was anything of him left when it was over. + +Three pairs of hands were stretched to arrest the driver's arm; +three smiling, breathless faces listened till the last note, and +watched the ecstatic little warbler swim away with an undulating +motion, as if he floated on the bubbling waves of his own song. + +{174} + +In a few minutes a turn of the road brought them in sight of the +blue, salt water spread out boundlessly, sparkling, and +sail-flecked; and presently they drove up at the cottage door. + +This was a long, low building, all wings, like a moth; colored, +like fungi, of mottled browns and yellows; overtrailed by +woodbines and honeysuckles, through which you sometimes only +guessed at the windows by the white curtains blowing out. + +"Why, it is something that has grown out of the earth!" exclaimed +Margaret. "See! the ground is all uneven about the walls as it is +about the boles of trees." + +This rural domicil faced the east and the sea; and an unfenced +lawn sloped down to the beach where the tide was now creeping up +with bright ripples chasing each other. + +The house was pleasant enough, large and airy; and, after a few +hours' work, they had everything in order. Then, tired, happy, +and hungry, they sat down to luncheon. + +"Isn't it delightful to get rid of men a little while, when you +know that they are soon to come again?" drawled Aurelia, sitting +with both elbows on the table, and her rich hair a little +tumbled. + +Margaret glanced at her with a smile of approval. "That sweet +creature!" she thought. And said aloud, "You know perfectly well, +Aura, that all the time they are gone we are thinking of them and +doing something for them. Whom have we been working for to-day +but the gentlemen, pray?" + +To her surprise, Aurelia's brown eyes dropped, and her beautiful +face turned a sudden pink. + +"I never could carve a fowl," said Mrs. Lewis plaintively. "But +there must be a beginning in learning anything. I wish I knew +where the beginning of this duck is. Aura, will you go look in +that Audubon, and see how this creature is put together? We are +likely to be worse off than Mr. Secretary Pepys, when the venison +pasty turned out to be 'palpable mutton.' We shall have nothing." + +Margaret started up. "Infirm of purpose, give me the carver!" she +cried; and seizing the knife, in a moment of inspiration, +triumphantly carved the mysterious duck, and betrayed its hidden +articulations. + +Mrs. Lewis contemplated her with great respect. "My dear," she +said, "I have done you injustice. I have believed that though you +could succeed admirably in the ornamental and the extraordinary, +you had no faculty for common things. I acknowledge my +error.'Nemesis favors genius,' as Disraeli says of Burke." + +After luncheon and a siesta, they dressed and went out onto the +lawn to watch for the gentlemen, who presently appeared. + +Mr. Granger presented Margaret with a spike of beautiful pink +arethusa set in a ring of feathery ferns. "It came from a swamp +miles away," he said. "I wanted to bring you something bright the +first day." + +"You always bring me something bright," she said. + + To Be Continued. + +------- + +{175} + + _Problems Of The Age_, And Its Critics. + + +The article from _The Independent_ of August 20th, which we +quote in full below, has been sent to us by the writer of it, +with an accompanying note, requesting us to take notice of its +observations. Our remarks will, therefore, be chiefly confined to +this particular criticism on the _Problems of the Age_, +although we shall embrace the opportunity to notice also some +other criticisms which have been made in various periodicals. + + "The pastor of the Broadway Tabernacle, many years ago, taking + a hint from Archbishop Whately,'traced the errors of Romanism + to their origin,' _not_ 'in human nature,' but in Old + School theology. The ultra-Calvinist doctrine of original sin, + he argued, necessitated the dogma of baptismal regeneration; + and the doctrine of physical inability brought in the notion of + sacramental grace. Mr. Hewit is a living example, and his book + is documentary proof, of the justice of this theory. His early + training was under the severest of schoolmasters, in the oldest + of schools. The problems on which his mind has been exercised + from his birth are such as this: How men can be 'born depraved, + with an irresistible propensity to sin, and under the doom of + eternal misery.' With admirable infelicity, a treatise on + questions like this--the freshest of which are as old as + Christian theology, and the others as old, if not older, than + the fall of man--has been entitled _Problems of the Age_, + on the ground (as we are informed in the preface) that they are + 'subjects of much interest and inquiry in our own time.' From + his hereditary embarrassments on these subjects, the writer + makes his way out to a new theodicy, which on the subject of + the existence of sin is Taylorism, word for word; on the + subject of natural depravity is something like Pelagianism; and + on the subject of original sin is a curious notion, which he + strives mightily to represent as the sentiment of Augustine. + The whole series of ideas is labelled 'Catholic Theology,' and + represented as the antagonist of Protestant opinion. + + "The volume deserves no small praise as a specimen of lucid, + consecutive argument on difficult questions, conducted in pure + English. The only serious blemish upon the author's style is + his habit, when he has said a thing once in good English, of + saying it over again immediately in bad Latin. But this, we + suppose, is less the fault of his taste than of his position. + The logic of the book, also, has not more faults than are + commonly incident to such discussions; it is strong for pulling + down, feeble in building up. It reduces to absurdity the + statements of some of his antagonists, with wonderfully + complacent unconsciousness that a smart antagonist could get + exactly the same hitch about the neck of _its_ statement, + and drag it to the same destruction. + + "The plan of the work is curious. It begins with the primary + cognitions of the mind, and goes forward with an _à priori + _ argument for the existence of God: that if God exists, he + must necessarily exist in Trinity; must create just such a + universe; must be incarnate in the Second Person; must redeem a + fallen race; must institute the Roman Catholic Church, its + sacraments and ritual. The second part is devoted to finding in + Augustine the ideas of the former part--ideas some of which, + unless that lucid author has been hitherto read with a veil + upon the heart, + + 'Would make _Augustine_ stare and gasp.' + + "Besides the limits of space, which are imperative, two reasons + suffice to excuse us from examining in detail the course of + this ingenious and protracted argument: + + "_First_. It is a matter of comparatively little interest + to scrutinize severely the _processes_ of a reasoner to + whom one half of his _conclusions_ are prescribed + beforehand, under peril of excommunication and eternal + damnation, while he holds the other half under a vow to + repudiate them at a moment's notice from the proper authority. + + "_Second_. It is profoundly unsatisfactory to argue + against any such book, whatever its origin or pretensions, as + representative of the Roman Catholic theology. From page to + page the author challenges our respect and deference for his + views as being the teachings of the church.'This is Catholic + truth; this is Catholic theology.' +{176} + But, once let us give chase to one of his propositions, and + hunt it down into the corner of an absurdity, and we are sure + to hear some of the author's confederates trying to call off + the dogs with the assurance,'Oh! that is only a notion of + Hewit's;' or, 'only a private opinion of theologians;' or, + 'only the declaration of an individual pope;' or, 'only a + decree of council which never was generally received: the + church is not responsible for such things as these.' So + slippery a thing is 'Catholic doctrine'! So unrestful is the + 'repose' offered to inquiring minds by that church, which + divides all subjects of religious thought into two classes: + one, on which it is forbidden to make impartial inquiry; the + other, on which it is forbidden to come to settled + conclusions." + +We confess that it appears to us a very puzzling "problem" to +find out how to answer the foregoing criticism, or the others +from non-catholic periodicals which it has been our hap to fall +in with. Not one of them has seriously controverted the main +thesis of the book they profess to criticise, or to make any +well-motived adjudication of the several portions of the argument +by which the thesis is sustained. Some, like the one before us, +attempt to set aside the whole question; others content +themselves with a round assertion that the arguments are +inconclusive; and the residue confine themselves to generalities; +or, at most, to the criticism of some minor details. We should +not think it worth while to trouble ourselves or our readers with +a formal replication to such superficial critics, were it not for +the opportunity which is afforded us of bringing into clearer +light the total lack of all deep philosophy or theology in the +non-catholic world, and the value of the Catholic philosophy +which we are striving to bring before the minds of intelligent +and sincere inquirers after truth. + +The criticisms begin with the title of the work. The critic of +_The Independent_ objects to our calling old questions +_problems of the age_. _The Southern Review_ coincides +with him, and suggests that they should rather have been called +"problems _of all ages;_" while another critic, in _The +Evening Post_, gives his verdict that they are all to be +classed as "problems of a bygone age." This last criticism is the +only one founded upon a reason; and is, at the same time, a full +justification of the appropriateness of the title before all +those who still profess to believe in the revelation of God. The +different classes of protesters against the teaching of the +church have wearied themselves in vain in searching for a +satisfactory solution of the problems of man's condition and +destiny; either in some new rendering of divine revelation, or in +some system of purely rational philosophy. The despair produced +by their utter failure vents itself in the denial that these +problems are real ones, capable of any solution at all, and in +the attempt to relegate them finally into the region of the +unknowable. This is a vain effort. They have forced themselves +upon the attention of the human mind ever since the creation, and +they will continue to do so, in spite of all efforts to exorcise +them. The relations of man to his Creator, the reason of moral +and physical evil, the bearing of the present life on the future, +the significance of Christianity, and such like topics, can be +regarded as obsolete questions only by a most unpardonable +levity. The so-called Liberal Christian and the rationalist may +in deed proffer the opinion that the solutions we have given are +already antiquated. But, with all the hardihood which persons of +this class possess in so remarkable a degree in claiming for +themselves all the light, all the intelligence, all the spiritual +vitality existing in the world, we must persist in thinking that +their triumphant tone is some what prematurely assumed. +{177} +We insist that the problems of bygone ages are the problems of +the present ages, and that the solutions of bygone ages are the +only real ones, as true and as necessary at the present moment as +they have ever been. The restless mind of the non-Catholic world, +having broken away from its intellectual centre to wander +aimlessly in the infinite void, has plunged itself anew into all +the puzzle and bewilderment from which Christianity with its +divine philosophy had once delivered it, and, wearied with its +wanderings, longs and yet delays to return to its proper orbit. +Hence the great problems of past ages have become emphatically +the problems of the present, and must be answered anew, by the +same principles and the same truths which past ages found +sufficient, yet presented in part in modified language, in a new +dress, and with special application to new phases of error. The +title _Problems of the Age_ is therefore fully justified as +the most felicitous and appropriate which could have been chosen +for a treatise intended to meet the wants of those who are +seeking for help in their doubts and difficulties respecting both +natural and revealed religion. Any believer in the Christian +revelation who cannot recognize this, and heartily sympathize in +any well-meant effort to present the Christian mysteries in an +aspect which may attract honest and candid doubters or +unbelievers, shows that he has mistaken his side, and has more +intellectual sympathy with unbelief than he would willingly +acknowledge, even to himself. + +Another anonymous critic sets aside with one sentence the entire +argument of the book; because, forsooth, it begins with the +assumption that the Catholic doctrine is the only true one, and +demands a preliminary submission of the reader's mind to the +authority of the Catholic Church. Nothing could be more +superficial and incorrect than this statement of the thesis +proposed by the author. The whole course of the argument supposes +that an unbeliever or inquirer after the true religion begins +with the first, self-evident principles of reason; proceeds, by +way of demonstration, to the truths of natural theology, and by +the way of evidence and the motives of credibility advances to +the belief of Christianity and the divine authority of the +Catholic Church. The thesis proposed or the special topic to be +discussed by the author is, Supposing the authority of the +Catholic Church sufficiently established by extrinsic evidence, +is there any insurmountable obstacle, on the side of reason, to +accept her dogmas as intrinsically credible? The implicit or even +explicit affirmation that Catholic philosophy is the true and +only philosophy, that it alone can satisfy the demands of reason, +is no begging of the question; for it is not stated as the +_datum_ or logical premiss from which the logical +conclusions are drawn. It is stated as being, so far as the mind +of the sceptical reader is concerned, only an hypothesis to be +proved, an enunciation of the judgment which is made by the mind +of a Catholic, the motives of which the non-catholic reader is +invited to examine and consider by the light of the principles of +reason, or of those revealed truths of which he is already +convinced. + +A most sapient critic in the London _Athenaeum_, venturing +entirely out of his depth, makes an observation on the statement +that absolute beauty is identical with the divine essence, which +we notice merely for the amusement of our theological readers. +The statement of the author is, that beauty is to be identified +with the divine essence, by virtue of its definition as the +splendor of truth, and because truth, being identical with the +divine essence, its splendor must be also. +{178} +This consummate philosopher argues that beauty must be +identified, not with the divine essence, but with its splendor, +because it is the splendor of truth. The splendor of God is, +then, something distinct from God; and he is not most pure act +and most simple being! We cannot wish for a more apposite +illustration of the total loss of the first and most fundamental +conceptions of philosophy and natural theology out of the English +mind--a natural result of that movement which began with Luther, +when he publicly burned the _Summa_ of St. Thomas. + +_The Mercersburg Review_ denies the demonstrative force of +the evidences of natural religion and positive revelation; +referring us to conscience, or the moral sense, as the ground of +belief in God and in Jesus Christ. This is another proof of the +truth of our judgment, that the radical intellectual disease +which Protestantism has produced requires treatment by a thorough +dosing with sound philosophy. The corruption of theology has +brought on a corruption of philosophy, and heresy has produced +scepticism, so that we can hardly find a sound spot to begin with +as a _point d'appui_ for the reconstruction of rational and +orthodox belief. We do not despise the argument from conscience +and the moral sense, or deny its validity. We did not specially +draw it out, because we were not writing a complete treatise on +natural theology; but it is contained in the metaphysical +argument establishing the first and final cause. Apart from that, +it has no conclusive force. What is conscience? Nothing but a +practical judgment respecting that which ought to be done or left +undone. What is the moral sense, but an intimate apprehension of +the relation of the voluntary acts of an intelligent and free +agent to a final cause? It is only intellect which can take +cognizance of a rule or principle directing a certain act to be +done or omitted, or of the intrinsic necessity of directing all +acts toward a final cause or ultimate end. The intellect cannot +do this, or deduce an argument from conscience and the moral +sense for the existence of God, unless it has certain infallible +principles given it in its creation; and with these principles, +the existence of God and all natural theology can be proved by a +metaphysical demonstration, proceeding from which, as a basis, we +prove Christianity and the Catholic Church by a moral +demonstration which is reducible to principles of metaphysical +certitude. Deny this, and conscience, or the moral sense, is a +mere feeling, a sensible emotion, a habit induced by education, a +subjective state, which is just as available in support of +Buddhism or Mohammedanism as of Christianity. _The Mercersburg +Review_ is trying to sustain itself midway down the declivity +of a slippery hill, afraid to descend where the mangled remains +of Feuerbach lie bleaching in the sun, and unwilling to catch the +rope which the Catholic Church throws to it, and ascend to the +height from whence Luther, in his pride and folly, slid. Kant's +miserable expedient of practical reason may suit those who are +content with such an insecure position; but it will never satisfy +those who look for true science, and certain, infallible faith. + +_The Round Table_, in a notice which is, on the whole, very +favorable and appreciative, complains that we have accused +Calvinism of being a dualistic or Manichaean doctrine. We have +not only affirmed, but proved that it is so. By Calvinism, +however, we mean the strict, logical Calvinism of the rigid +adherents of the system. +{179} +The moderated, modified system, which approaches more nearly to +the doctrine of the most rigorous Catholic school, we do not wish +to censure too severely. Neither do we charge formal dualism, or +a formal denial of the pure, unmixed goodness of God even upon +the strictest Calvinists. What we affirm is, that, together with +their doctrine respecting God, which is orthodox, they hold +another doctrine respecting the acts of God toward his creatures, +which is logically incompatible with the former, and logically +demands the affirmation of an evil and malignant principle +equally self-existent, necessary, and eternal with the principle +of good, and thus leads to the doctrine of dualism in being. Many +orthodox Protestants have spoken against Calvinism much more +severely than we have done; and, in fact, while we cannot too +strongly reprobate its logical consequences, we always intend to +distinguish between them and the true, interior belief which +exists in the minds of many Calvinists, excellent persons, and +really nearer to the church, in their doctrine, as practically +apprehended, than they are aware of. + +Our _Independent_ critic is displeased with the Latin +quotations from scholastic theology which we have somewhat freely +employed, and compliments us, as he apparently supposes, by +suggesting that this violation of good taste is to be ascribed, +not to any lack of judgment on our part, but to the fault of our +position. It is somewhat amusing to notice the patronizing air +which this well-meaning gentleman assumes, and the evident +complacency with which, from the height of his little, recently +constructed eminence, he looks down with a smile of pitying +forbearance upon our unfortunate "position." We will consent to +waive, once for all, all claims of a personal nature to any +consideration which is not derived from our position as a +Catholic and a humble disciple of the scholastic theology. That +theology is the glory and the boast of Christendom and of the +human intellect. We are firmly convinced that there is no true +wisdom, science, illumination, or progress to be found, except in +following the broad path which scholastic theology has explored +and beaten. Although our nice critic--who seems to have more +admiration for the effeminate classicism of Bembo and the age of +Leo X. than the masculine _verve_ of St. Thomas--may call +the scientific terminology of the schoolmen "bad Latin," we shall +venture to retain a totally different opinion. It is unequalled +and unapproachable for precision, clearness, and vigor. We have +employed it because our own judgment and taste have dictated to +us the propriety of doing so. We have not been led by servile +adhesion to custom, or the affectation of making a display, but +by the desire of making our meaning more clear and evident to +theological readers, especially those whose native language is +not English, and of introducing into our English theological +literature those definite and precise modes of reasoning which +belong to these great schoolmen. We can easily understand the +aversion of our opponents to the schoolmen, in which they are +only following after their predecessor, Martin Bucer, who said, +albeit in Latin, _Tolle Thomam et delebo Ecclesiam Romanam_, +"Take away Thomas, and I will destroy the Roman Church." To the +personal remarks of the critic in regard to the author and the +history of his religious opinions we give a simple +_transeat_, and pass to what semblance of argument there is +in rejoinder to the thesis defended in the _Problems of the +Age_. + +{180} + +The critic says that the same process of logic which the author +employs against his opponents would destroy his own statements. +This is a mere assertion, without a shadow of proof, and we meet +it with a simple denial. It is, moreover, a piece of triviality +with which we have no patience. It is the language of the most +wretched and shallow scepticism, conceived in the very spirit of +the question of Pontius Pilate to our Lord, "What is truth?" We +have been engaged for thirty years in the study of philosophy and +theology, and have carefully examined and weighed the matters we +have undertaken to discuss. The substance of the doctrine we have +presented is that in which the greatest minds of all ages have +been agreed; and it has been proved and defended against every +assault in a manner so triumphant that its antagonists have +nothing to say, but to deny the first principles of logic, the +possibility of science, the certainty of faith. There are, +undoubtedly, certain minor points which are open to question and +difference of opinion. But, as to our main thesis, that the +Catholic dogmas are not contradictory to anything which is known +or demonstrable by human science, we defy all opponents to refute +it. + +By another subterfuge, equally miserable, our critic shakes off +all responsibility of even noticing the serious, calm, and +well-motived statements which we have made respecting Catholic +doctrines. We hold, he says, one half of our doctrines as +prescribed by authority, under pain of excommunication and +damnation; and the other half, under an obligation to renounce +them at a moment's warning, from the same authority; therefore, +no attention is to be paid to our arguments. This is one of the +most remarkable and most discreditable statements we remember +ever to have come across in a writer professing himself an +orthodox Christian. Does this inconsiderate writer see to what a +dilemma he has reduced himself? Either he must admit that Jesus +Christ, the apostles, the Bible, teach him with authority, and +plainly and unequivocally, certain doctrines which he is bound to +believe, under penalty of being cast out from the communion of +true believers, and incurring eternal damnation; or he must deny +it. In the first case, he must retract his words, or give the +full benefit of them to the rationalist and the infidel, against +himself. In the second case, he must lay aside his mask, and step +forth with the discovered lineaments of an open unbeliever. We +receive the dogmas of faith proposed by the church because they +are revealed by Jesus Christ through his Holy Spirit, who is +indwelling in the body of the church. We cannot revoke these +dogmas into an examination or discussion of doubt, any more than +we can doubt our own existence, or the first principle of +reasoning. Nevertheless, as we can argue against a person who +doubts these first principles, or give proofs and evidences to an +ignorant man of facts or truths whose certainty is known to us; +so we can give proofs of dogmas of faith which we are not +permitted to doubt for an instant to one who does not believe +these dogmas, or understand the motives upon which their +credibility is established. It is unlawful to doubt the being and +perfections of God, the immortality of the soul, the truth of +revelation. Yet we may examine thoroughly all these topics to +find new and confirmatory proof and answers to objections. One +who is in doubt or ignorance may examine and weigh evidences in +order to ascertain the truth, and does not sin by keeping his +judgment in suspense until it obtains the data sufficient to make +a decision reasonable and obligatory. +{181} +In arguing with such a person, it is necessary to descend to his +level, and reason from the premises which his intellect admits. +In like manner, when it is a question of the Trinity, the +Incarnation, the divinity of Jesus Christ, the canonicity and +inspiration of the Scriptures, and all other Catholic dogmas; +although a Catholic may not doubt any one of these, and would act +unreasonably if he did, since he has the same certainty of their +truth that he has of his own existence or the being of God; yet +he may examine the evidences which are confirmatory of his faith +for his own satisfaction, and reason with an unbeliever in order +to convince him of the truth. The subterfuge by which our critic +and some other writers, especially one in _The Churchman_, +attempt to evade the inevitable deductions of Catholic logic, +which they cannot meet and refute--namely, that we cannot, with +consistency, argue about doctrines defined by infallible +authority--is the shallowest of all the artifices of sophistry. +When the Son of God appeared on the earth in human nature, and in +form and fashion as a man, claiming infallible authority, and +demanding unreserved obedience, it was necessary for him to give +evidence of his divine mission. A Jew, a Mohammedan, or a +Buddhist cannot, in reason or conscience, believe in Jesus Christ +until this evidence has been proposed to him. When it is +sufficiently proposed, he is bound to believe; and, once becoming +aware that Jesus is the Son of God, he is bound to believe all +that he has revealed, simply upon his word. But, supposing he has +been erroneously informed that the teaching of Jesus Christ +contains certain doctrines or statements of fact which are in +contradiction to what seems to him to be right reason or certain +knowledge, it is unquestionably both prudent and charitable to +correct his mistakes upon this point, and thus remove the +obstacles to belief from his mind. Precisely so in regard to the +Catholic Church. The demand which she makes of submission to her +infallible authority, as the witness and teacher established by +Jesus Christ, is accompanied by evidence. It is upon this +evidence we lay the greatest stress; and in virtue of this it is +that we present the Catholic doctrines as certain truths which +every one is bound to believe. Undoubtedly, the infallibility of +the church once established, it is the duty of every one to +believe the doctrines she proposes, putting aside all +difficulties and objections which may exist in his own imperfect, +limited understanding. Yet, if these difficulties and objections +do not lie in the very mysteriousness, vastness, and elevation of +the object of faith itself, but in merely subjective +misapprehensions, it is right to attempt to remove them, and to +make the exercise of faith easier to the inquirer. Moreover, +although it is sufficient to prove the infallibility of the +church, and then, from this infallibility, to deduce, as a +necessary consequence, the truth of all Catholic teaching; it +does not follow that each separate portion of this teaching +cannot be proved by other and independent lines of argument. The +divine legation of Moses is sufficiently proved by the authority +of Christ; but it can be proved apart from that authority. So, +the Trinity, the real presence, baptismal regeneration, or +purgatory, are sufficiently and infallibly proved from the +judgment of the church; but they may be also proved from +Scripture, from tradition, and, in a negative way, from reason. +In the _Problems of the Age_ our principal intention has +been to clear away difficulties and misapprehensions from the +object of faith, in order that candid inquirers might not be +obliged to assume any greater burden upon their minds than the +weight of that yoke of faith which the Lord himself imposes. +{182} +In doing this, we have endeavored not only to clear the dogmas of +faith from the perversions of heretical doctrines, but also to +distinguish them from theological opinions, which rest only on +human authority, and are open to discussion. We have also thought +it best, not merely to mark off doctrines of faith, and leave +them in their naked simplicity, free from that theological +envelope which is sometimes confounded with their substance; but +also to give them that dress which, in our opinion, is best +fitted to set off their native grace and beauty. We have not +simply expressed the definitions of the church, discriminating +from them the opinion of this and that school, and thus barely +indicating what must be, and what need not be believed, in order +to be a Catholic. We know the wants of the class of minds we are +dealing with. They feel the need of some general view which shall +give them a _coup a'oeil_ of the theological landscape, and +enable them to embrace the details and single objects contained +in it in one harmonious whole. They have had so much sophistical +reasoning and false philosophy, as well as bad and repulsive +theology, dinned into their ears and minds that they cannot be +satisfied without some better system as a substitute. We were +obliged, therefore, not only to point out that certain +opinions--generally repugnant to those who have been sickened by +imbibing the Calvinistic and Lutheran poison--are not obligatory +on the conscience of any Catholic, but also to present the +opinions of another school more remote from Protestant orthodoxy, +and less repugnant to those who are called liberal Christians. +Our critic seems to imagine that, in doing this, we are merely +playing an adroit game in which all kinds of theological or +philosophical opinions are used as counters, without reference to +truth, and merely with the view of winning as many converts as +possible, by any show of plausible argument. At any moment, he +says, we are ready to throw away the whole, if commanded to do so +by authority. Once caught, those who have been drawn into the +church by an artifice will have their minds tutored in a far +different way, and be obliged to keep themselves ready to accept +the very contrary of that which we assured them was sound, +orthodox doctrine, at the arbitrary will of the ecclesiastical +authority. Until that authority defines precisely what the sound +Catholic doctrine is, we can have no settled, well-grounded +opinion; but only conjecture and hypothesis. Let the absurdity of +any of these hypotheses be shown by some Protestant +controversialist, and the plea is ready that the church is not +responsible for private opinions. Yet we have been artful and +audacious enough to put forth a network of such hypotheses as +Catholic doctrine when they are not Catholic doctrine, and are +directly controverted by other Catholic writers. In an article +which appeared lately in _Putnam's Monthly_, publicly +ascribed to the same gentleman who is the avowed author of the +criticism we are noticing, there is a general charge made upon +"Americo-Roman preachers," of presenting a "plausible +pseudo-Catholicity" quite different from the genuine Italian and +Irish article. _The Churchman_, not long ago, made a similar +statement which, if not mendacious, is supremely foolish and +ignorant, respecting F. Hyacinthe, and certain other devoted +Catholics in France. + +{183} + +The whole is a tissue of cobwebs, which a stroke of the pen can +sweep away. The Holy See is not accustomed to condemn suddenly +and by the wholesale the probable opinions of grave and learned +theologians, much less the doctrines of great and +long-established schools. In the _Problems of the Age_, we +have been careful to follow in the wake of theologians of +established repute, and not to lay down propositions whose +tenability is doubtful or suspected. It is possible that some +definitions or decrees may be made hereafter which may require us +to modify some of our opinions in theology or philosophy, and we +shall undoubtedly submit at once to any such decisions. But there +is no probability that we shall ever be called upon to change +radically and essentially that system of theology which we have +derived from the best and most esteemed Catholic authors. There +is certainly no reason to think that the tenets distinguishing +the Dominican from the Augustinian school will ever be condemned +in a mass. Those which distinguish the Jesuit school from either +or both of these have been through a severe ordeal of accusation +and trial long ago, and have come out unscathed. The same is true +of the doctrines of Cardinal Sfondrati. Suarez, St. Alphonsus, +Perrone, and Archbishop Kenrick are certainly respectable +authority, and a good guarantee of the orthodoxy of opinions +sustained by their judgment. Perrone, whom we have followed more +closely than any other author in treating of the most delicate +and difficult questions, has taught and published his theology at +Rome. It has passed through thirty seven editions, and is more +popular as a text-book than any other. He is a consultor of the +Sacred Congregations of the Council and the Index, Prefect of +Studies in the Roman College, and, together with Fathers Schrader +and Franzlin, eminent theologians of the same Jesuit school, a +member of the Commission of Dogmatic Theology, which is preparing +the points for decision in the coming Council of the Vatican. The +doctrines advanced in the _Problems of the Age_ in +opposition to Calvinism, in accordance with the theological +exposition of Perrone, cannot, therefore, be qualified as +peculiar or curious opinions of the author, as pseudo-Catholic or +Americo-Roman theories, or as liable to any theological censure +of unsoundness. + +Nevertheless, we have not, as the critic asserts, set forth these +or other opinions indiscriminately, and in so far as they vary +from the opinions of other approved Catholic authors, as being +exclusively the Catholic doctrine. We have used extreme care and +conscientiousness in this respect, although our critic is +incapable of appreciating it, from his lack of all thorough +knowledge of the controversy he has unadvisedly meddled with. We +do not qualify as Catholic doctrine, in a strict sense, anything +which is not _de fide obligante_, or admitted by the +generality of theologians, without opposition from any +respectable authority, as morally certain. We censure no really +probable opinion as contrary to Catholic doctrine, and are +disposed to allow the utmost latitude of movement to every +individual mind competent to reason on theological subjects, +between the opposite extremes condemned by the church. It does +not follow from this, however, that our doctrine is mere +hypothesis, and that we are forbidden or unable to come to any +positive conclusions beyond the formal definitions of the church. +The substance and essential constituents of the doctrine are +certainly Catholic, and common to all schools. +{184} +The Council of Trent condemned the heresies of Calvin and Luther, +and the Holy See, the whole church concurring, has condemned the +heresies of Jansenius and Baius. We know, also, what was the +theology of the men who framed and enacted the decrees condemning +those errors, or affirming the opposite truths, what was the +spirit animating the church at that time, and continuing in it +until the present; and we have in the episcopate, but especially +in the Holy See, the living, authentic teacher and interpreter of +the doctrine contained in the written decrees. There is, +therefore, a solid and common basis upon which all Catholics +stand, and upon which it is possible and allowable to construct +theological theories or systems. Learning, logic, the intuitive +power of genius, and the special gifts imparted by the Holy +Spirit to certain favored men, have their full scope in carrying +on this work. Through their activity, conclusions, deductions, +expositions, elucidations, may be attained, which have a value +varying all the way from plausible conjecture and hypothesis up +through the different degrees of probability, to moral certainty. +For ourselves, we have always studied to find in the most +approved authors those opinions which approach as nearly as +possible to moral certainty; or, in default of such, those which +are admitted to be probable, and to our mind appear intrinsically +more probable than their opposites. We write and speak, +therefore, not with an economy, or as presenting opinions likely +to captivate our readers, but with an interior conviction, in +accordance with that which we believe to be really the revealed +and rational truth; or else we indicate that we are speaking +under a reserve of doubt and suspended judgment. As for the +insinuation that we are concerned in any artful scheme for +palming off a plausible pseudo-Catholicity in lieu of the +Catholicity of the Pope, the Roman Church, and of the faithful +people of Ireland, we repudiate it as false, groundless, and +injurious. We hold unreservedly to the Pope and all his doctrinal +decisions; to the genuine, thorough, uncompromising Catholicity +of Rome and the universal church; to the faith for which the +martyred people of Ireland have dared and suffered all. Nothing +could be more opposed to that astuteness for which Catholic +ecclesiastics generally obtain extensive credit, than to attempt +such a foolish scheme in this country and age of the world as +some persons attribute to us for the purpose of nullifying the +effect of our influence and arguments upon the minds of candid +inquirers after truth. For what purpose or end could we desire to +propagate the Catholic religion in this country, unless we are +convinced that it is the only true religion established by Jesus +Christ, and necessary to the salvation of the human race? With +this conviction, it would be the most supreme folly to preach any +other doctrine but that genuine and sound Catholic doctrine which +is sanctioned by the supreme authority in the church, and which +we desire to propagate. Individuals may, no doubt, err, even with +good intentions, in the attempt to discriminate between the +permanent and the variable, the essential and the accidental, the +universal and the local elements in Catholicity; and in the +effort to adjust the relations between the doctrine and +institutions of the church and new conditions of human science, +or political and social order. But it is impossible for any +individual or clique either to master or resist the general +Catholic sentiment, and thus to cause the acceptance of any form +of pseudo or neo-Catholicism as genuine Catholicity. +{185} +Moreover, there is the vigilant eye and strong arm of +ecclesiastical authority ready every moment to detect and +restrain the aberrations of private judgment, and to condemn all +opinions or schemes which cannot be tolerated without endangering +either doctrine or discipline. The voice of the Holy Father is +heard throughout the world, and the voice of the whole Catholic +Church will reverberate to the uttermost parts of the earth from +the approaching Ecumenical Council. All intelligent persons, more +especially all inquisitive, shrewd, and cool-headed Americans, +have the means of knowing what genuine Catholic doctrine is. +Whoever should attempt to set forth a dilution of Catholicity +with Grecism, Anglicanism, rationalism, or any other kind of +individualism, as a lure to non-catholics, would, therefore, +simply gain nothing, unless a little unenviable notoriety should +seem to his vanity a gain worth purchasing by the betrayal of his +trust. The people of this country want the genuine Catholicity, +or nothing. They will not be deluded a second time by a +counterfeit, and become followers of a man, a party, or a sect. +Nor do we wish to deceive them. We desire to set before them the +doctrine and law of the Catholic Church in their purity and +integrity, that they may have the opportunity of embracing them +for their temporal and eternal salvation. We have had this end in +view in writing and publishing the _Problems of the Age;_ +and, knowing well the delicacy and difficulty of the task, we +have spared no pains to study the decisions of councils and the +Holy See, to compare and weigh the statements of the most +approved theologians, and to make no explanations which we were +not satisfied are tenable, according to the received criterion of +orthodoxy. We do not desire, however, or exact that any of our +statements should be taken upon trust by any one. We have written +for thinking and educated persons, who have need of light upon +certain dark points of Christian doctrine; who are in earnest, +and willing to take the time and trouble necessary for learning +the truth. Such persons, if they read only English, will find all +that is requisite, in addition to the citations made in the +_Problems of the Age_, in _Möhler's Symbolism_. +Scholars and theologians may satisfy themselves more fully by the +aid of the collection of dogmatic and doctrinal decrees contained +in Denziger's _Enchiridion_, and of the theologies of +Billuart, Perrone, and Kenrick, the first of whom is a strict +Thomist, the second a Jesuit, and the third of no particular +school. In the exposition of the more antique and technically +Augustinian tenets, the works of Berti, Estius, Antoine, Cardinal +Noris, and Cardinal Gotti can be consulted. There are many other +books relating to the Jansenist controversy, in Latin, French, +and English, from which the fullest information can be obtained +in regard to the history of the desperate struggle which that +pseudo-Augustinian heresy--so nearly allied to the more moderate +Calvinism and to one form of Anglicanism--made to gain a foothold +in the church, and its thorough and complete discomfiture by the +learning and logic of the great Thomist and Jesuit theologians, +and the authority of the Holy See. + +There remains but one more point to be noticed, closely connected +with the topic just now discussed, the charge of Pelagianism made +by our critic against our own doctrines, and of semi-Pelagianism +made by _The Mercersburg Review_, against the same, which +the latter does not distinguish from the doctrine of the Roman +Church. +{186} +The learned Professor Emerson, of Andover, long since called the +attention of his co-religionists to the fact that the designation +of Pelagian is used in this country very much at random, and by +persons who have no accurate notion of the tenets of Pelagius. +Calvinism, Jansenism, and Baianism are heresies on one side of +the line; Pelagianism and semi-Pelagianism on the opposite. The +Catholic doctrine is the truth which they all deny or pervert, +exaggerate or diminish, by their false perspective. Therefore, +each of them accuses the Catholic doctrine of the error opposite +to its own error. This is no new thing, but was long ago +complained of by St. Athanasius and St. Hilary. The Arians +accused the Catholics of being Sabellians, and the Sabellians +accused them of being Arians or Arianizers. We uphold both nature +and grace, against Calvinists and Pelagians, therefore we are by +turns accused of denying both. In the present instance, we are +accused of denying or diminishing grace. The accusation is +foolish, and shows a very slight knowledge of theology in those +who make it. The Pelagian heresy asserts that human nature is +capable of attaining the beatitude which the holy angels and +saints possess with Jesus Christ in God, by its own intrinsic +power, and is in the same state now as that in which Adam was +originally constituted. The contrary doctrine is so clearly +stated and so fully developed in the _Problems of the Age_, +that it suffices to refer the reader to its pages. The +semi-Pelagian heresy asserts that human nature is capable of the +beginning of faith by its own efforts, and also of meriting grace +by a merit of congruity. This heresy is unequivocally condemned +by the church, and rejected by every school and every theologian. +There is not a trace of it in a single line we have written. + +This leads us to notice a misapprehension into which the editor +of _The Religious Magazine_ of Boston has fallen. This +Unitarian periodical is one which we esteem very much, on account +of its excellent and truly devout spirit; and its contributors +belong to a class of liberal Christians whose tendencies inspire +us with much hope. It is with pleasure, therefore, that we +recognize the candid and amicable tone of the notice which it has +given of that which we have written especially for those whose +intellectual direction is in the line which it follows. Our +Unitarian critic has, however, made the great mistake of +supposing that we use an orthodox phraseology, without any ideas +behind it different from those of liberal Christians or +rationalists. He says, "Setting aside what we cannot help calling +theological technicalities, his account of man's moral being +accords almost entirely with that which our liberal Christianity +would give." "Perhaps the criticism upon our author must be, that +he only retains in word and form much which he has abandoned in +fact." The writer of this has been so accustomed to associate +certain Catholic formulas and words with Calvinistic ideas, that +they seem to him to mean nothing when dissociated from them. With +him, the logical alternative of Calvinism is Unitarianism; and +whoever agrees with him in rejecting the former, must +substantially agree with him in holding the latter, however his +language may vary from that which he himself uses. The reason of +this is, that he fails to apprehend the Catholic idea of the +supernatural order; that is, of the elevation of the rational +creature to the immediate intuition of the divine essence in the +beatific vision. We fear that in the last analysis it will be +found that Unitarians have lost the distinct conception of the +personality of God, and retain only a vague, confused notion of +him as abstract being, and therefore not an object of direct +vision. +{187} +Hence, they conceive of the highest contemplation and beatitude +of man in the future life as a mere evolution and extension of +our natural intelligence and spontaneity. Or, if they do conceive +of heaven as a state in which the soul attains to a direct, +personal fellowship and converse with God as a friend, a father, +a supreme, intelligent, living, and loving Spirit, with whom the +human spirit comes into immediate relations, like those of man +with man on earth, they still believe that we are capable of +attaining to this by the mere development of our natural powers, +and by purely natural acts. There is, therefore, a great chasm +between the Unitarian and the Catholic doctrine. The latter +teaches, in the mystery of the Trinity, the only real and +possible conception of personal subsistence in the divine +essence, and sets forth the concrete, living, active, +impersonated God, in whom is infinite, self-sufficing beatitude, +without any necessity to create for the sake of completing the +reason, and relations, and end of his being. This infinite +beatitude consisting in the contemplation and love of his own +essence which is actuated in the Trinity, presents the idea of a +beatitude infinitely superior to and distinct from any felicity +to which we have any natural aptitude or impulse. Its cause and +object is the divine essence, directly and immediately beheld by +an intellectual vision, of which our corporeal vision of material +objects is but a faint shadow. The Catholic doctrine teaches that +human nature must be elevated by a supernatural gratuitous grace +in order to attain to this vision of God; that in Christ it is so +elevated, even to a hypostatic union with the second person of +the Trinity; that in Adam it was elevated to a lesser or adoptive +filiation; that the angelic nature is also elevated to a similar +state; and that men, under the present dispensation; are subjects +of the same grace. The church teaches, moreover, that this grace +is granted to men, since the fall, only through the merits of the +sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the cross; that without divine +grace they cannot even begin a supernatural life; that no merely +natural virtue deserves this grace; and that it is by faith, +which is the gift of God; by the sacraments, and by good works +done in the state of grace, in the communion of the Catholic +Church, that we can alone obtain everlasting life with Christ. +There is as much difference between this doctrine and any form of +Unitarianism as there is between the sun and the earth; the +star-studded sky and a neat, well-kept flower-garden. Catholics +may differ from each other in regard to certain questions +concerning the state of human nature when destitute of grace; but +we are all agreed in regard to the need of grace for attaining +the end we are bound to strive after, the conditions of obtaining +this grace, and the obligation of complying with them, as well as +in regard to the insufficiency of all media for bringing the +human race even to its acme of temporal progress and felicity, +except the institutions and teaching of the Catholic Church. + +------- + +{188} + + + Heremore-Brandon; + Or, The Fortunes Of A Newsboy. + + + CHAPTER IX. + +When they arrived at the Wiltshire depot, Dick and Mary were +still undecided what step to take next; for neither of them +favored the idea of asking at once for Dr. Heremore, feeling +certain that the probabilities of his being alive would vanish +the moment that such an inquiry was proposed. + +It was a nice enough town, with fine breezes from the sea blowing +through its streets, and a quaint look about the houses that made +Dick, at least, feel as if they were in a foreign land. Dick and +Mary stood on the depot platform together, undecided still. + +"Let us walk a little way up and see what we can see," Mary +proposed. + +All that they found at first were a few lumber-wagons, a +market-wagon, and now and then a group of boys playing; but +finally they came upon a store, at the door of which several +long-limbed countrymen were talking and chewing tobacco. I should +have said "chewing and talking;" for the chewing was much more +vigorously prosecuted than the talking. The presence of the +strangers, one a lady in a plain but very stylish dress, +attracted some attention; the men surveyed them in a leisurely, +undazzled way, hardly making room for them to pass; for, having +seen the sign POST-OFFICE in the window of this store, Dick and +Mary concluded to enter and make inquiries. The afternoon sun +streamed in upon the floor; the flies buzzed at the windows; and +a man, with his hat on and his chair tilted back, was at the back +of the store. He made no sign of changing his position when he +first saw the strangers, not because Mr. Wilkes was any less well +disposed toward "the ladies" than a city merchant would be, but +because country people fancy it is more dignified to show +indifference than politeness. In time, however, he tilted down +his chair, freed his great mouth from its load of tobacco, and +lounged up to the counter where Mary and Dick were standing. + +"I want to ask you a question," Dick answered to the +storekleeper's look; "I suppose you know this town pretty well?" +Dick was so afraid of the answer that he did not know how to put +a direct question in regard to Dr. Heremore. + +"Rather," was the laconic reply, with no change of the speaker's +countenance. + +"Do you know if a Dr. Heremore lived here once, twenty-five years +or so ago?" + +"I wasn't here in them days," for Mr. Wilkes was a young man who +did not care to be old. + +"I did not suppose you did know, of your own knowledge; I thought +you might have heard." + +"I suppose you have come to see him?" + +"Or to hear of him," added Dick. + +"Come from Boston or York, I suppose?" + +"From New York," answered Dick; "can you tell us who is likely to +give us information?" + +{189} + +"About the old doctor?" asked Mr. Wilkes in the same impassive +manner. + +"Yes," said Dick, rather impatiently. + +"I suppose you are relations o' his?" + +"We came to get information, not to give it," Dick replied in a +quiet tone but inwardly vexed. + +"Well," answered the storekeeper, not in the least abashed by +this rebuke, "there's an old fellow lives up yonder, who knows +pretty much everything's been done here for the last forty years; +you'd better go to him; if any one knows, he does. Better not be +too techy with _him_, I can tell you, if you want to find +out anything; people as wants to take must give too, you know. +That there road will take you straight to the house; white house, +first on the left after you come to the meeting house." + +"Thank you; and the name?" + +"Well, folks usually calls him 'The Governor' round here; you, +being strangers, can call him what you please." + +"Will he like a stranger's calling?" + +"Oh! tell him I sent you--Ben Wilkes--and you are all right." + +"Thank you!" Mary and Dick replied and turned away. "Ben Wilkes," +who, during this conversation, had seated himself on the counter, +the better to show his ease in the strangers' society, +which--Mary's especially--secretly impressed him very much, +looked leisurely after them as they passed out of the store; then +took out some fresh tobacco, and returned to his chair. + +"I don't like to go," said Mary, "it may be some joke upon us." + +"I am afraid it is," answered Dick; "but, after all, what can +happen that we need mind? If it is a gentleman to whom he has +sent us, no matter how angry he is, he will see that you are a +lady, and you will know how to explain it; if he has sent us to +one who is not, I guess I shall be able to reply to him." + +Their walk was a very long one, but the meeting-house at last +came in sight, and next it, though there was a goodly space +between, was a large white house, irregular and rambling, with +very nicely kept shrubbery around. + +Dick opened the gate with a hand that was a little nervous; but +Mary whispered as their feet crunched the neatly bordered gravel +walk to the low porch, "It is all right, I am sure; there is an +old gentleman by the window." + +"Will you be spokesman this time?" asked Dick. + +Mary nodded, and as the path was narrow and they could not well +walk side by side, she was in front, so that naturally she would +be the first to meet the old gentleman. A very fine old gentleman +he was; a large man with a fine head, and, as his first words +proved, a remarkably full, sweet voice. Seeing a lady coming +toward him, he rose at once from his arm-chair, closed his book +and advanced a step or two to greet her. Mary was one of those +women toward whom courteous men are most courteous from the first +glance; and this old gentleman, who moved toward her with all the +grace and ease of a vigorous young man, was one of those men to +whom gentle women are gentler, from the first, than to others. + +"Good-evening," he said, as Mary looked up to him with a smile at +at once pleasant and deferential. "Good-evening," and as she did +not say more than these words, the gentleman continued, "I will +not say, 'Come in,' for it is too pleasant out of doors for that; +but let me give you chairs." + +{190} + +"Thank you, sir, we are strangers, but, we hope, not intruders," +she replied. + +"Certainly not," he answered. "It is a great pleasure for me to +receive my old friends, and a pleasure to me to make new ones; +and strangers, even if they remain strangers, bring with them +great interest to the quiet lives of us old people." This he said +in a tone not in the least formal, or as if "making a speech," +and still looking more at Mary than at her brother. They were not +yet seated, and no expression but that of kindly courtesy crossed +his face while looking into the sweet, gravely smiling one before +him; his tones were hardly altered when he added, "I have waited +for you these many long years, Mary; but I never doubted you +would come at last. You must not play tricks upon my old heart; +it has suffered too much to be able to sustain its part as it did +in old times." + +Mary drew back a step, at this strange address, but she could not +withdraw her eyes from his, as in tender, gentle tones he spoke +the last words. Dick stood closer to her, but said nothing. + +"Indeed, you mistake," Mary said, with great earnestness; "I have +told you the truth, I am really a stranger, although you have +called me by my name, Mary. I am Mary Brandon, and this--" + +"Is your husband. Well, Mary, are you not my daughter? If you +were changed, why come to see me? I heard you were changed. I +spent four years in Paris and Rome, following up the trace given +me in New York, and then I came back disappointed but not +despairing. 'Mary will not die without sending for me or coming +to me,' I said; and I have taken care always to be ready for you. +I never thought you could come to me with coldness or +indifference. I was prepared for almost anything--to see you poor +and broken-hearted; no shame, no sin, no sorrow that would part +us. I did not think to see you come back beautiful, happy, rich," +a glance at her dress, "and without a word of greeting." + +"Dr. Heremore?" said Dick, not because he believed or thought it, +but because the words came forced by some inward power greater +than his knowledge. + +"Well, Charles," answered the old gentleman, sadly but +composedly, turning at this name, "can you explain it?" + +And then Mary understood it all. The years were nothing to him +who had waited for his child's return, She was in his arms before +Dick had recovered from his first bewilderment, now, by this act +of hers, trebly increased. + +"Ah my child! if I spoke severely, it was only because I could +not bear the waiting. I knew your jokes of old, darling; but when +one has waited so long for the dear face one loves, the last +moments seem longer than all the years. I will ask no questions. +I see you two are together, and it is all right. You can tell me +all at your leisure. Now, Mary, I must kill the fatted calf. Even +though you and Charles have not returned as prodigals," he added +as if he would not, even in play, risk hurting them. + +"Not yet, please," said Mary. "Let us have it all to ourselves +for a few minutes." And they seated themselves on the sunny +porch, the old gentleman's delight now beginning to show itself +in the nervous way he moved his hands, and his disjointed +sentences. +{191} +Mary took off her hat at once, and threw it, with rather more of +gayety than was quite natural to her, upon one of the short +branches, looking like pegs, which had been left in the pillars +of the porch. + +"You haven't forgotten the old ways--eh, Mary?" Dr. Heremore +asked, as he saw the movement. "I remember well how proud you +were the day you first found you could reach that very peg, and +you are as much a child as you were that day, is she not, +Charles?" + +"Pretty nearly," answered Dick, who could not fulfil his part +with Mary's readiness. + +"How deliciously fresh everything looks!" exclaimed Mary. + +"You should have seen it in June. I never saw the roses thicker. +O pet, how I did wish for you, then! The time of roses was always +your time." + +"And I love them as much as ever!" exclaimed Mary, telling the +truth of herself. "Next year, if I am alive, I will be here with +them; we will have jolly times looking after them. I have learned +a great deal about flowers lately, but I shall never love roses +like yours." This indeed, Mary felt to be true. + +"Flora has had to be replaced," said her grandfather observing +her eyes resting on a statue in the garden in front. "I will show +you the alterations I have made, and a few are improvements. But +you must have something to eat now. I cannot let you go a minute +longer. You came up by the boat, I presume?" + +"Yes, and had a hearty dinner," Mary answered, having a dread of +a servant's entering, and getting things all wrong again, "To eat +now will only spoil our appetite for tea, and I want you to see +what an appetite I have." + +"Perhaps you are too tired to go around the garden?" + +"Tired! No, indeed." + +"I am afraid it will not interest you much, Charles," the old +gentleman said to Dick. "You never did care much about the little +place." + +"Oh! I assure you, I would be delighted to see it all," Dick +answered, eagerly; but Mary had noticed the constraint in her +grandfather's voice whenever he addressed the supposed Charles, +and said quickly: + +"Oh! we don't want you, you don't know a rose from a sunflower; +pick up a book and read till we come back." + +"This way, dear; have you forgotten?" Dr. Heremore said, looking +at her in a perplexed manner as naturally enough she turned away +from the house. "This way, dear, you lose the whole effect if you +go around. Come through the house. There, dear old Mary," he +added, smilingly handing her a glass of wine which he poured out +from a decanter on the sideboard in the dining room. "Drink to +'The Elms' and no more jokes upon old hearts." + +"To our happy meeting and no more parting," added Mary, drinking +her wine with him. He poured out a glass for Dick, or Charles, as +he thought him, and, rather formally, carried it to him It was +very clear that "Charles" was no favorite. + +All through the trim garden, and then through the whole house, +Mary followed her grandfather, her heart, as it may be believed, +full of love for the tender father of her lost mother. She stood +in the room which that mother had occupied, and could not speak a +word as she gazed reverently around. It was a thorough New +England bedroom--a high mahogany bedstead, a long narrow +looking-glass with a landscape painted on the upper part, in a +gilt frame, a great chintz-covered arm-chair by the bed, a round +mahogany table, with a red cover and a Bible, a stiff, +long-legged washstand in the corner, a prim chest of drawers +under the looking-glass between the windows, composed the +furniture of the room; a badly painted picture of a young girl in +the dress of a shepherdess, and a pair of vases on the mantel, +were the only ornaments; a crimson carpet and white +window-curtains were plainly of a later date than the furniture. + +{192} + +"I have had to alter some things," said Dr. Heremore, as they +came out of the room, "but I got them as much like the old ones +as I could, that you might feel at home here. Your baggage should +be here by this time, should it not? How did you send it?" "We +left it at the station," answered Mary. "You know we were not +sure--not certain sure that we should find you." + +"I suppose not, I suppose not. These have been long years, Mary, +but they have not changed us, after all. But I must send for your +trunks. I suppose Charles has the checks." + +"We brought but very little with us," Mary said, considerably +embarrassed, and, seeing the change in his countenance, she +hastened to add, "But now that it is all right and we have found +the way, we will stay with you until you turn us out; at least, I +will." + +"Then you will send for more things, and how about the children?" +with the same perplexed look at her. Mary knew not what to say. +Was it not better to tell him the real truth at once? How could +she go on with this deception, as innocent as any deception can +be, and yet how break down his joy in its very midst? Silently +she stood beside him, at a hall window, looking upon the prospect +he had pointed out to her, considering what answer to make him. +He, too, was silent; for a long time the two stood there, and +then it was the doctor who spoke first. + +"Mary, your children must be men and women now. I had forgotten +how long it was; but I remember you were here last the year the +meeting-house over there was put up, and I just was thinking that +was over twenty years ago. Richard was a few months old, then. +Mary, don't deceive me. Tell me the truth." + +Mary turned sadly toward him, and laid her hands in his. + +"_Grandpapa_, I will," was all she said. + +It was a great blow to him, but something had been hovering +confusedly before his mind ever since they came out together, and +now it was clear. He turned abruptly away from her at the first +shock, then came to her more kindly than ever. "Forgive me, +dear," he apologized with mournful courtesy; "I did not mean to +be rude, but it is a great shock. You are very like her, very +like her, but I should have known at once that those years could +not have left her a girl like you. I will not ask more--your +mother--" + +"My _father_ is living," Mary said, with tears streaming +down her face, as he stopped, "and that is my brother +down-stairs." + +"Is he your only brother? have you sisters?" he asked. + +"We are your only grandchildren," she answered; and he understood +that his child was dead, and another woman had filled her place. + +"You are a noble girl," he said, with lingering tenderness in +every word. "We will go down now. I will greet Richard, and then, +dear, you will let me be alone for a little while. I shall have +to send for your things, you know." + +"If it is any trouble--" began Mary. + +{193} + +"None, I will see about it at once." + +They went down, and he greeted Richard, then went away slowly, +still begging them to excuse him for the inattention to them. +Soon after, a barefooted boy of twelve or fourteen or so went +whistling down the road past the house, staring at them as he +went by; an hour after, the same boy returned with their bags; +these were taken up-stairs by a thin, severe-looking, very +neatly-dressed woman, who quickly and with only a word or two +showed them their rooms, and told them that, as soon as they were +dressed, tea would be ready. + +Mary dressed in her mother's room with a sense of that mother's +spirit around her. She fortunately had brought a dress with her, +so that she was able to make a slight change. Then slowly and +with great reverence she went down the stairs, meeting Dick in +the hall, to whom she whispered, "O Dick! how I love him; but I +am afraid it will kill him; the purpose for which he has lived +these twenty years is taken from him. Can we give him another?" + +"It may be that you can," Dick replied, looking tenderly into her +sweet face, all aglow with the bright soul-life which had been +kindled so actively in the last hours. "If you can, Mary, try it; +do not think of anything else; stay with him, do anything you +think right and good for him; he deserves more from us than--" +Dick hesitated, not willing to speak unkindly of Mr. Brandon, who +certainly had been a father to Mary--"than any other." + +"I will try," Mary answered speaking quickly and in a low voice. +"If it seems best that I should stay a little while, you will +explain to papa? But perhaps, after all, it will be you who will +be able to replace her best." + +"We shall see," Dick said, and then Dr. Heremore was seen coming +toward them, with less lightness in his step than they had +noticed before; otherwise there was but little change, except +that his voice was more mournfully tender than at first. + +"It is a long time since I saw that place filled," he said, +arranging a chair for Mary before the tea-urn. "And it is very +sweet to me to see your bright young face before me; a long time +since I have had so strong an arm to help me," he added, as Dick +eagerly offered him some little assistance, "and I am very +grateful for it." + +There were no explanations that night; he talked to Dick and Mary +as to very dear and honored guests, of everything likely to +interest them, and was won by their eager attention to tell them +many little things about his house and grounds, which were his +evident pride and pleasure, all in the same subdued, courteous +way that had attracted them from the first. There seemed, in the +beginning, a far greater sympathy between Mary and him than he +had with Dick, which was the reason, undoubtedly, why he devoted +his attention more especially to his grandson, whose modest +replies, given with a heightened color and an evident desire to +please, were very winningly made. + +"I have two noble grandchildren," he said to them as they stood +up to say good-night. "My daughter, short as her life was, did +not come into the world for a small purpose; she did not live for +little good; she has sent me two to love and esteem, and to win +some love from them, I trust--yes, I _believe_." + +{194} + +The next day, he set apart a time and then there were full +explanations from both sides. Dick's story we know already. Dr. +Heremore's can be told in a few words. His daughter married, when +very young and on a short acquaintance, a gentleman who was +spending his summer holidays in the vicinity of Wiltshire, and, +immediately upon her marriage, had gone to N---- to reside; they +remained there until Richard was a month old, when his daughter +made him a long--her last--visit; from there to New York, whence +a letter or two was all that came for some little time; then one +written evidently in great depression of spirits. Dr. Heremore, +on receipt of this, went at once to New York to see her, only to +hear that she had gone with her husband to Europe. A little +further inquiry proved to his satisfaction that Mr. Brandon was +in the South, and that his wife was not with him; his letters +were unanswered, and his alarm was every day greater and more +painful. At last, he followed a lady--described to be somewhat of +his daughter's appearance, bearing the same name, who had joined +a theatrical company, though of this last he was not aware for a +long time--to Europe. As he had said before, he came back +disappointed but not despairing, to hear of Mr. Brandon's +death--the same false report, perhaps intentionally circulated, +which his daughter had heard. Her letters to him, of which she +spoke in her letter to Dick, were lost while he was away +searching for her. He had not been rich, then; but coming home, +he had resumed his practice, and lived patiently awaiting news of +her, energetically laboring to secure a small fortune for her +should she ever come to claim it. This little fortune he would +divide at once, he said, between her two children; for "what," he +argued with them, "what is the use of hoarding it to give to you +later when, I trust, you will not need it half as much? A few +hundreds in early youth are often worth as many thousands in +after-years." + +"That will do for Dick," Mary conceded, "because it _would_ +be a great thing for him to have a little start just now; and +besides, there's Somebody Else for _him_ to think of; but I +will take my share in staying here. You will not drive me away?" + +"Your father?" + +"Papa would--it's a shabby thing to say--be very willing to have +me away, in his present circumstances. He has been wishing and +wishing for Fred and Joe constantly ever since they went; but for +me--he thinks girls are a sort of nuisance, I know he does; and +will be very grateful to you if you divide the burden with him." + +"But if--just as I got used to loving you, there should be +another Somebody Else besides Dick's? How about this out of +civilization place, then?" + +Mary grew very red indeed, but answered readily, "Oh! that's a +long way off; and besides, he may not think this out of +civilization, you know." + +So it was settled. One of the clerks who had been from early +boyhood in Ames and Narden's store had been long intending to +start out on his own account, and Dick was very sure that they +could fulfill their olden dream of partnership, now that Dr. +Heremore was willing to give them a start. Dick went down to New +York the day after this conversation, and there was a long talk +between the members of the firm, and the two clerks, which +culminated in a dinner and the agreement that all was to go on as +it had been going, until the first of May, when there would be a +new bookseller's firm in the New York Directory, to wit, BARNES +AND HEREMORE. + +{195} + +After a brief conversation with Mr. Brandon, Dick hurried to +Carlton, and was not long making his way to the shadowy lane. To +her honor and glory be it said, Trot was the first to see him; +and without waiting for a greeting, not even for the expected +"dear 'ittle Titten," ran with all speed into the house, crying, +"Thishter! Thishter! Mr. Dit ith toming!" at the top of her +voice; and Rose, all blushing at being caught "just as she was," +had no time to utter a word before "Mr. Dit," was beside her. +There was great rejoicing over Dick; the children pulled him in +every direction, to show him some new thing he had not yet seen, +until he began to tell the story of his adventures, when they +stood around in perfect silence. Mrs. Alaine and Mrs. Stoffs +wiped their eyes between their smiles and their exclamations of +delight; old Carl once held his pipe in one hand and forgot to +fill it for nearly a minute, so absorbed was he; but Rose alone +did not say a word of congratulation when Dick's good fortune and +his brightened future were announced. I even think she had a good +cry about it, after a little talk with Dick by herself, that +evening, so hard it is to leave one's home. + +"There's not a thing to wait for now," Dick had said, with +beaming eyes; and poor Rose's ideas of "youth," and "time to get +ready," and all that sort of remark, were put aside without the +least consideration. "We will have a little house of our own," +Dick continued, "we will not go to boarding, as some people do; +you are too good a housekeeper for _that_, I am sure; and as +New York has no houses for young people of moderate means, we +will have a home of our own near the city. Shall we not, Rose?" + +Dick was a very busy young man for a couple of months after this. +One thing Dr. Heremore did that seemed hard, but not so very +unnatural, and of which no one who has never felt a wrong to some +one dearly loved should judge. He begged that he might never see +Mr. Brandon, nor be asked to hold any communication with him. He +gave Mary a certain sum of money, which he wished her to use for +her father and step-brothers; but beyond that, he left Mr. +Brandon to help himself. + +After attending to all his grandfather's requests and +suggestions, Dick, as he had been invited to do, returned to +Wiltshire to give an account of his management, and to take up +some things for Mary's use. He was on his way to the boat when he +suddenly started and exclaimed, "Mr. Irving!" for no less a +person than his "Sir Launcelot" was standing beside him. Mr. +Irving, not recognizing him, bowed slightly and passed on, and +Dick began to be relieved that Mary was so far away; perhaps, +after all, it was a great deal better. + +But another surprise was in store for Dick, who--an inexperienced +traveller even yet, and always in advance of time--had gone on +and waited long before the boat prepared to leave; for at the +last moment a carriage drove rapidly to the pier, and a gentleman +sprang from it in time to catch the boat. It was "Sir Launcelot." + +"Mr. Heremore, I believe," he said to Dick, when they met +somewhat later on the boat. "I called on Mr. Brandon to-day, just +after you met me, to pay my respects to him on my return from +Europe. I found him in a different business from that in which I +had left him, and very reserved. I asked after the ladies of his +family, who, he told me, were at your grandfather's and his +father-in-law's, in Maine, adding that there was a long story, +which I had better come to you to hear, if you had not already +left. I have business in Maine, so followed you up." + +So they made acquaintance; and the new-found relationship with +Mary was explained, as also the reverses Mr. Brandon had met +with. + +{196} + +"His wife dead, too, you tell me! How shocked he must have been +at my questions of her! How like him not to give me a hint!" +exclaimed Mr. Irving. + +The new friendship progressed well, as it often will between two +gentlemen, one of whom is in love with the other's sister, +although there was a wide difference between their characters. +Mr. Irving was many years older than Dick, as his finished +manners and his manly presence attested, without the aid of a few +gray hairs on his temples, not visible, and half a dozen or so in +his heavy moustache, very visible and adding much to his good +looks, in the eyes of most of the ladies who saw him. It seemed +as natural to Dick that this travelled man, so polished, so +princely as he was, should be just the one to please his +high-bred sister, and he captivated by her, as that he himself +should belong to Rose and she to him. Consequently he did not put +on any of the airs in which brothers, especially when they are +very young, delight to appear before their sister's admirers. + +Dick had even tact enough, when they reached Dr. Heremore's house +--for, of course, Mr. Irving's "business in Maine" did not +interfere with his accompanying Dick to Wiltshire--to be, very +busy with the carriage and trunks, while Mr. Irving opened the +little gate, and announced himself to the young lady on the +porch. When Dick, a few minutes after, greeted his sister, he had +no need, though Mary's color did not come as readily as Rose's, +to say with Sir Lavaine: + + "For fear our people call you lily maid, + In earnest, let me bring your color back." + +I think that Dr. Heremore, though the very soul of courtesy, +looked rather sadly upon Mr. Irving; but he was not long left in +any uncertainty in regard to that gentleman's wishes; for the +very next day his story was told; how he had known and loved Mary +from her very earliest girlhood, but that he was afraid of his +greater age, and, anxious that she should not be influenced by +their long acquaintance and the advantages his ripened years had +given him over admirers more suited to her in age, he had gone to +Europe, but lacked the courage to remain half the time he had +allotted, and now was back, and--" + +"And, ah! yes, I understand; I am to lose her," said her +grandfather sadly. "I knew I could not keep her." + +"Giving her to me will not be losing her. We talked about it last +night, and we are both delighted with this place; and as I am +bound to no especial spot, (Mr. Irving was an author,) and she +loves none half so much as this, we can well pitch our tent +here." + +But when further acquaintance had enabled the man of "riper +years" to take a place in Dr. Heremore's life which neither Mary +nor Dick could fill, it was settled that the old house was large +enough for the three; and as Mr. Irving was wealthy, healthy, and +wise, the sun of Mary's happiness shone very brightly. + +There's nothing more for me to say except that Dick went down to +Carlton still once again, and that in its church there is a +little altar of the Blessed Virgin, whereon Rose had the +unspeakable delight--so precious to every pious heart--of laying +a beautiful veil--Mary's gift to her "sweet little +sister"--which Trot looks critically at every Sunday, and may be +a little oftener, and puzzles her small head wondering if its +delicate texture--the veil's--will stand the wear and tear of the +years that must pass before she can replace it with hers; which +always makes uncle Carl laugh. And Rose has persuaded Mary to +dedicate her own in the same way, and Mary has laughingly +complied, a little shame-faced, too, at her own secret pleasure +in doing it, at the same time half wondering "what will come of +it." Rose does not wonder; she thinks she knows. + +As for Dick, there is every reason to believe that this coming +Christmas there will be two or three glad hearts travelling +around in company with two or three rough, ragged, shaggy boys; +that he will carve his own Christmas turkey at his own, own +table; and that there will be a _couleur de Rose_ over all +his future life. + +---------- +{197} + + Our Lady's Easter. + + I. + + She knelt, expectant, through the night: + For He had promised. In her face + The pure soul beaming, full of grace, + But sorrow-tranced--a frozen light. + + But, ere her eastward lattice caught + The glimmer of the breaking day, + No more in that sweet garden lay + The buried picture of her thought. + + The sealed stone shut a void, and lo! + The Mother and the Son had met! + For her a day should never set + Had burst upon the night of woe. + + In sudden glory stood He there, + And gently raised her to his breast: + And on his heart, in perfect rest, + She poured her own--a voiceless prayer. + + Enough for her that he has died, + And lives, to die again no more: + The foe despoiled, the combat o'er, + The Victor crowned and glorified. + +{198} + II. + + What song of seraphim shall tell + My joy to-day, my blissful queen? + Yet truly not in vain, I ween, + Our earthly alleluias swell. + + It is but just that we should thus + Our Jesus' triumph share with thee. + For us he died, to set us free. + Thou owest him risen, then, to us. + + But thou, sweet Mother, grant us more + Than here to join the festive strain: + To hymn, but never know, our gain + Were ten times loss for once before. + + Thy faithful children let us be. + Entreat thy Son, that he may give + The wisdom to our hearts to live + In his, the risen life, with thee. + + For so, amid the onward years, + This feast shall bring us strength renewed; + To pass secure, o'er self subdued, + To Easter in the sinless spheres. + +------- + +{199} + + Two Months In Spain During The Late Revolution. + + + September 9, 1868. + +To-day, while they are yet celebrating the Nativity of the +Blessed Virgin, we enter Spain, that mysterious world behind the +Pyrenees, so different from all others, and of which we know so +little! To-day is also the anniversary of my birthday into the +Catholic Church, and now it is my birthday into Catholic Spain! +"La tierra de Maria Santisima." + +Leaving Perpignan (in the Pyrénées Orientales) by diligence, we +pass through a most tropical looking country, amidst hedges of +aloe, and oleander, and pomegranates, (reminding one of Texas in +the character of the soil, the productions, and even the houses;) +we soon begin the ascent of the mountains; and, before it is +quite dark, we are across the Pyrenees. By the light of a +beautiful sunset we have some grand mountain views, and encounter +a group of Spanish gypsies, dark, ragged, and dirty, but highly +picturesque. All along these mountains are cork-trees of +prodigious size, with black, twisted trunks, from which the bark +has been stripped--their fantastic shapes taking the form of nuns +or monks--great ghosts in the dim light. Perthus, on the other +side the mountains, is the last French town; high above which +towers the fortress of Bellegarde, built by Louis XIV. in 1679. +Just outside this town we pass a granite pyramid, on which is +written "Gallia." A fellow-passenger tells us we are on Spanish +soil. All cry, "Viva España!" and we look out upon a +solemn-looking soldier, who stands by a cantonnier, above which +floats the red and yellow flag of Spain. La Junguera is the first +Spanish town; and here is a rival fort to the towering French one +so lately seen. Here our luggage is visited, and we have our +first experience of Spanish courtesy. The gentlemen passengers +all come to ask, "Will the ladies have fruit?" "Will they have +wine?" And one of our party, wishing to give alms to a blind +beggar, and asking change for a franc, one of the gentlemen gives +her the money in coppers, and refuses to take the franc; which, +it seems, is the Spanish custom. + +At Figueras we eat our first _Spanish supper_; no +inconsiderable meal, if we may judge by this one. First came the +inevitable soup, (_puchero;_) then, boiled beef; next in +course, cabbage and turnips, eaten with oil and vinegar, and the +yellow sweet-pepper which is the accompaniment to everything, or +may be eaten alone, as salad. The third course was stewed beef; +next, fried fish, (fish, in Spain, never comes before the third +course;) and now, stewed mushrooms; but, as they are stewed in +oil, (and that none of the sweetest,) we pass them by. After +this, lobster; then cold chicken and partridge; and now the +delicious fruits of the country, and the toasted almonds which +are universal at every meal, and cheese. Coffee and chocolate +terminate this repast, for which we pay three and a half francs, +and after which one might reasonably be expected to travel all +night. + +{200} + +Gerona appeared with the early dawn; a curious old town of 14,000 +inhabitants, on the river Oña, and looking not unlike Rome with +its yellow river, its tall houses, and balconies. Both this town +and Figueras have made themselves memorable in wars and sieges. +Indeed, what Spanish town has not its tale of heroism and brave +defence during the French invasion of 1809-11? These towns were +both starved into capitulation, after sieges which lasted seven +or eight months, the women loading and serving the guns during +the siege, and taking the places of their fallen husbands or +lovers, like the "Maid of Saragossa." We were glad to leave the +diligence for the railway which runs by the lovely Mediterranean +coast, passing many pretty towns with ruins of old Moorish +fortresses and castles on the hills beyond. In one of these +towns, Avengo de Mar, the dock-yards are very famous, and a naval +school was here established by Charles III. + +Mataro, a place of 16,000 people, seemed very busy and thriving. +This, too, has its tale of siege and slaughter. The French have +left behind them in Spain a legacy of hate. Of the ruins of a +monastery near one of these towns a pretty story is told. Two +Catalonian students passing by this beautiful site, one +exclaimed, "What a charming situation this would be for a +convent! When I am pope, I will build one here." "Then," said the +other, "I will be a monk, and live in it." Years after, when the +latter _had_ become a monk, he was sent for to Rome, and +being presented to the pope, (Nicholas V.,) recognized in him his +old friend and companion, when in the act of receiving his +blessing. The pope embraced him; reminded the monk of his +promise; built the convent, in which, we presume, the latter +lived and died. The beautiful convent was utterly destroyed in +the civil wars of 1835, when the monks were all driven from +Spain. + + "The sacred taper-lights are gone, + Gray moss hath clad the altar stone, + The holy image is o'erthrown, + The bell hath ceased to toll. + + "The long-ribbed aisles are burnt and shrunk, + The holy shrine to ruin sunk, + Departed is the pious monk; + God's blessing on his soul!" + +---- + + Barcelona, Province Of Catalonia. + Hotel De Las Cuatro Naciones. + +September 10. + +How charming looks this gay, busy city, with its shady streets, +beautiful gardens and fountains, the sea before it, the mountains +behind, fortifications on every side, seemingly impregnable. Our +hotel is on the "Rambla," a wide boulevard, like those of Paris, +upon which most of the fine buildings are situated, and which is +the principal promenade. In the evening, we go to one of the +theatres, and hear a French opera beautifully sung. + + +Friday, 11. + +The books tell us that Barcelona was founded by Hamilcar, the +Carthaginian, B.C. 237. Cesar Augustus raised it to a Roman +colony. Ataulfo, the first king of the Goths, chose it for his +court. In 713, it fell into the hands of the Moors, who were +expelled by Charlemagne in 801. From this time, it belonged to +the Duchy of Aquitaine, and was governed by counts, until Charles +the Bold made it an independent kingdom, to reward Count Wilfred +el Velloso, who had aided him against the Normans. Count Raymond +Berenguer IV. united Catalonia with Arragon, by marrying the +heiress of that kingdom, from which time it was the rival of +Genoa and Venice. It has always been the centre of revolutionary +movement, restlessly endeavoring to regain its independence. The +Catalans are industrious, bold, and enterprising. +{201} +Indeed, so much do they surpass the people of other parts of +Spain in activity and enterprise, that they are called the +Spanish Yankees, and Barcelona is termed the Manchester of Spain. +Manufactories of cotton and silk; the most famous laces of Spain; +a most flourishing trade, as well as fine schools and public +libraries, are to be found here. They boast that the first +experiment with steam for navigation purposes was made in +Barcelona, the inventor having displayed his steamboat before +Charles V. and Philip II., in 1543. Charles, being occupied in +foreign conquests, took little notice of this, and, through fear +of explosion, the discovery was abandoned, and the secret died +with the inventor. + +Barcelona has a very large French population. In the Calle +Fernando, we see shops handsome as those of Paris. Already we +find most tempting Spanish fans for a mere trifle; and at every +turn the delicious chocolate is being made into cakes by +machinery. There are many fine churches. The cathedral is a grand +specimen of the Gothic Catalan of the thirteenth century--one of +the most imposing churches we have seen in Europe. "Sober, +elegant, harmonious, and simple," as some traveller describes it. +The Moors converted the old cathedral of their Gothic +predecessors into a mosque. James II., "el conquistador," one of +the greatest of the Catalan heroes, commenced this in 1293. The +cloisters are very interesting; have a pretty court, with +orange-trees and flowers, and a curious old fountain of a knight +on horseback; the water flowing from the knight's head, his toes, +and from the tail and mouth of the horse. In the crypt is the +body of St. Eulalia, the patron saint of Barcelona; removed from +St. Maria del Mar, where it had been kept since the year 878. +Before this shrine Francis I. heard mass, when a prisoner in +Spain, after the battle of Pavia. In the choir, over each finely +sculptured stall, is painted the shield of each of the knights of +the Golden Fleece. Here was held a "chapter," or general +assembly, presided over by Charles V., March 5th, 1519. Charles, +then only king of Spain, occupied a throne on one side hung with +damask and gold; opposite was the empty throne of Maximilian, +first emperor of Germany, (his grandfather,) hung in black. +Around the king were assembled Christian, King of Denmark; +Sigismund, King of Poland; the Prince of Orange, the Dukes of +Alba, Friaz, Cruz, and the flower of the nobility of Spain and +Flanders. + +There are some curious old monuments in the church, and a +crucifix called "Cristo de Lepanto," which was carried on the +prow of the flagship of Don John, of Austria, in the battle of +Lepanto. The figure--of life size--is all inclined to one side; +and the faithful of that day assure us that the sacred image +turned itself aside, to avoid the Moslem bullets which were aimed +at it. Certain, it was never struck. + +While in the church, we see a funeral mass, which is peculiar in +some of its ceremonies, and very solemn in the dim religious +cathedral light, where every kneeling figure, with its black +mantilla, seems to be a mourner. After the credo, little tapers +are distributed, and, at a certain part of the mass, are lighted. +The priest comes to the foot of the altar. Each person, bearing a +lighted taper, goes forward in procession, the men on one side, +the women on the other. Each one kisses the cross upon the stole +of the priest, as if in submission to the will of God. The +candles are extinguished, and deposited in a plate. + +{202} + +Walking on the Rambla this evening, we hear a drum, and, +following the crowd, witness the performance of a Spanish +mountebank, whose sayings must have been very witty, to judge by +the plaudits of the crowd. He had a learned dog, which so far +surpassed all the dogs we had ever seen that I am persuaded he +was cleverer than his master. + + +Saturday, September 12. + +A rainy day. But we take a long walk through the crooked, narrow +streets; going into the Calle de la Plateria (the street of the +jewellers) to see the curious long filagree earrings worn by the +peasants. We are as much objects of curiosity to these people, as +they are to us, (bonnets and parasols being rarely seen in +Spain.) An old man, touched my blue veil, yesterday, asking, +"Queste paese?" and when I told him we were "Americanos," he +rejoined, "Me speak England; me like Americanos." Even the +poorest people here are courteous and respectful; and their +language seems to have borrowed so much that is flowery and +poetic from their Arab progenitors, that it would seem +exaggerated and insincere, were it not accompanied by a grave and +earnest manner as well as gesticulation. We ask a beggar the way +to a certain street. He accompanies us all the way, declines any +remuneration, and at parting says, "Go, and may God go with you!" +A policeman, seeing us endeavor to enter the Plaza Real, to look +at the monument to the king, opens the gate, though the public +are not admitted. We thank him for making an exception in our +favor; and upon going out, he bids us "Adios," adding,' "May your +beauty never be less." At the _table d'hote_, every Spaniard +bows as we enter, and all rise when we leave the table. In the +centre of the table is a pyramid of cigars and matches most +fantastically arranged; and it is the custom for gentlemen to +smoke at every meal! We visit St. Maria del Mar, a church +considered by many to be superior to the cathedral, +architecturally. It was built in 1329, on the site of a former +church, erected to contain the body of St. Eulalia. The arched +roof is of immense height; the main altar of black and yellow +marble. The church is hung with many pictures by Spanish artists, +and has the usual amount of stucco and gilding for which Spanish +churches have been remarkable since the days of Columbus, when +gold was so plentiful with them. + + + +Sunday, 13th. + +We hear mass in the little Gothic church of St. Monica, hard by, +and go afterward to the cathedral, which is even more impressive +upon a second view. Several baptisms are going on, and the very +babies are dressed in mantillas--the white mantillas worn by the +lower classes, which are very pretty. White silk, trimmed with +white lace, or of the lace alone; the silk, which is a long +strip, is pinned to the hair on top of the head, and the lace +falls over the face, or is folded back. Young ladies wear them of +black lace, in the street or for visits; silk, for the churches; +and these with the never-failing accompaniment of the fan, belong +to all alike; rich and poor, old and young. The fan serves as +parasol, and strange to say, that, with this alone to shelter +them from the sun, these women should be so beautifully fair; and +in Valencia they are famed for their white complexions! Surely +the sun in Spain is kinder than in America, for freckles and +sun-burn are never seen. + +{203} + +The men wear a red or purple cap, which they call "gorro;" a sort +of bag which hangs down behind, or at the side, or is more +generally folded flat across the forehead; a red or purple sash, +(_faja;_) a short jacket; sandals (_espardinya_) of +hemp or straw, tied with strings. We drive through the streets, +and find most of the shops closed, (Sunday;) and see through the +open doors that every house, even the very poorest, looks nice +and clean. + +In the evening, we drive upon the Prado del Gracia, which +terminates in the little town of Gracia, where are pretty villas, +and stop at a convent for the evening service. It is of this very +convent that they tell how, in the Moorish invasion of Al +Mansour, when his soldiers were recruiting for the harems of the +Balearic Islands, (Minorca and Majorca,) the poor nuns, thinking +to avoid so horrible a fate, heroically cut off their noses to +disfigure themselves; but it did not avail to save them; for +history records that they were carried off, in spite of their +noses, or, rather, in spite of the want of them. + +Barceloneta is a suburb where live the fishermen, and where we +find docks crowded with shipping. From this we have a fine view +of the Fort Montuich, built upon a high rock. There is also a +citadel near the sea, and a beautiful promenade upon the walls, +(Muralea del Mar.) And amongst the public buildings is a +university, said to be the finest in Spain; many hospitals and +charitable institutions, and a theatre (the Lycée) which they +claim to be larger than San Carlo, in Naples, the Scala, in +Milan, or even the new-opera house in Paris. Barcelona is the +birthplace of Balmes, the author of that great work, +_Protestantism and Catholicity compared in their Influence upon +Civilization_. + + + +Valencia Del Cid, Sept. 14. + +Yesterday, at six in the morning, we leave Barcelona for "the +City of the Cid," arriving at ten o'clock at night; a long, +fatiguing, but interesting day. The railway runs by the blue +Mediterranean, with stern, bleak mountains close on the other +side; or through vineyards, and fig and olive groves, with which +are mingled peaches, apples, and quinces, showing that all +varieties of fruits meet together in this favored clime. In +passing Martorell, the third or fourth station from Barcelona, we +have a fine view of Montserrat; a picturesque, jagged mountain +1000 feet high, where is a monastery, one of the most celebrated +pilgrimages in Spain. On the opposite side is a famous old Roman +bridge (over the Llobregat river) called "del Diablo," built in +531 B.C., by Hannibal, in honor of Hamilcar. At one end is a +triumphal arch. Here the views are particularly fine. + +Villafranca comes next, the earliest Carthaginian colony in +Catalonia, founded by Hamilcar. Next we see Terragona, an ancient +city, on a steep and craggy eminence, founded by the Scipios. It +was long the seat of the Roman government in Spain; now famous +for its fine wines. + +Here the costume of the peasants begins to look more eastern. The +full, short linen pantaloons, (on each leg a petticoat;) a red +handkerchief, worn as a turban; sometimes leather leggings, but +more frequently legs red from the wine-press, where they have +been treading out the grape-juice. The peasants are simple and +friendly, and, seeing few strangers, look upon them as guests, +and seem never disposed to speculate upon our ignorance of the +prices of things. One of our party offered to pay for a tempting +bunch of grapes which we saw in a man's basket, who pressed to +look at us in one of the stations. With difficulty he was +prevailed upon to take a real, (five cents.) He then offered +more, which we in turn declined. +{204} +Waiting till the train moved off, he sprang forward, and dropped +into my lap a bunch which must have weighed several pounds, and I +looked back to see him smiling most triumphantly. At another +station (a poor place in the mountains) a modest, clean-looking +woman came forward with glasses of water. No one paid anything +for drinking it. But when she came to our carriage, one of the +party gave her two reals, (ten cents in silver.) The poor thing +shook her head sadly, saying, "No tengo cambia." (But I have no +change.) When she was made to comprehend that she was to keep it +_all_, her face glowed with delighted surprise; and as we +moved off, we saw her showing the money to all around her. No +doubt she took my friend for the queen herself! + +At Tortosa, on the Ebro, we begin to see the palm-trees. And here +we enter the province of Valencia, the brightest jewel in the +crown of Spain. The Moors placed here their paradise, and under +their rule it became the garden of Spain. From them the Cid +rescued it in 1094, and here he governed like a king, and died +here in 1099. It was then annexed to Castile and Arragon. It is a +fortified town, about three miles from the sea; and with its +narrow streets, tall houses, balconies, with curtains and blinds +hanging outside into the street, looks perennially southern and +Spanish. We come up from the station in a "tartana," a vehicle +peculiar to Valencia, a sort of omnibus on two wheels, made to +hold six persons; without springs, and with one horse. The driver +sits on the shaft, with his legs dangling down, or supported by a +strap. This vehicle jolts horribly, but is very cheap and +convenient. + + + +Tuesday, September 13. + +To-day we first see the museum, in which are many pictures of +Spanish artists, both ancient and modern--two of Spagnoletto, and +several of Ribalta and Juanes--two Valencian artists of whom they +are very proud. The last is especially famed for his beautiful +pictures of our Lord. We saw here the ancient altar used by James +the Conqueror, "Don Jaime," as he is called--the great hero of +Catalonia, son of Pedro I. He was one of the first sovereigns who +established standing armies in Europe. Amongst other wise +institutions, the municipal body of Barcelona was his work. He +died in Valencia, 1276, on his way to the monastery of Poblet to +become a monk, confiding his goodly sword, "La Tizona," to his +son Don Pedro, in whose favor he had abdicated that year. + +In this museum are many remains of the ancient Saguntum, (now +called Murviedro,) which is but a few miles from Valencia, and a +model of its old Roman theatre. In the court of the building are +some palm-trees three hundred years old. + +We next visit an ancient church of the Jesuits to see one of +Murillo's "Immaculate Conceptions," which is very beautiful. Then +the "Audiencia," an ancient building of the sixteenth century, +where are the courts of justice and other courts. Here is some +wonderful old carving, and curious portraits of Inquisitors; +civil, on one side, ecclesiastical on the other. We were glad to +see that the former greatly outnumbered the latter. After this, +we go to one of the finest hospitals in the world; with marble +floors, and pillars supporting a lofty ceiling; the great windows +opening into gardens of orange, and myrtle, and jessamine; all +clean, fresh, and cool; with an altar so placed in the centre, +under a lofty dome, that every patient could see and hear the +divine office. The whole building was alike well arranged; the +kitchen large and convenient, and the dispensary grand. +{205} +Certainly, in all our experience--and we have visited hospitals +everywhere--we have seen nothing so _inviting_, so really +elegant, as this. Here we meet the two loveliest women we have +seen in Spain; both sisters of charity; one having charge of the +dispensary, and the other of the foundling institution connected +with the hospital. Such white complexions; lovely color; such +eyes, and eyelashes, and teeth! Specimens of the beauty of +Valencia. And such charming groups of children as we saw amongst +these unhappy disowned ones! Unconscious of their fate, they +played merrily in the cool court, till, seeing strangers, many +ran to hide their beautiful eyes behind the sister's apron. The +school-room would have done honor to the most "_enlightened +nation_," which might here take a lesson from "_benighted +Spain_." Great placards hold the "A B C." Slates hang in order +by the little benches against the wall; pictures of beasts and +birds, for natural history; maps, for geography; drawings, for +mathematics; balls strung on wires, for counting; large books +filled with colored engravings of Bible history, from the birth +of Adam to the end of the Apocalypse. And such neatness and +order! There is one department for the little ones whose mothers +leave them each morning, when they go out to work, returning for +them at night. Their tiny baskets hung in a row. Some, who were +quite babies, were being greatly petted, because it was their +first day away from the mother. + +While in the school-room, one of the party began examining a +large map of Spain with reference to our projected route. The +sister seeing this, lowered the map by a cord, and calling a +little fellow of five years, he pointed out the oceans by which +Spain is surrounded, named the rivers and mountains, the +provinces of Spain, and the principal towns; never once making a +blunder, though he often paused to recollect himself. + +We drive to see the queen's garden, where is every tropical tree +and flower. This, with other gardens, borders upon the Alameda, a +broad, shady promenade extending three miles to the sea. There is +another promenade called the "Glorieta," where the band plays +every morning from nine to eleven. We see, also, the Plaza de +Toros, (the arena for the bull-fights,) one of the finest in +Spain, capable of holding twenty thousand people; built so +exactly like a Roman amphitheatre that we feel as if we looked +upon the Colosseum in the days of its glory. It is evident that +these people inherit the love of this their national pastime from +their Roman ancestors. Happily, the fashion is dying out. In +Valencia, the bull-fights occur but once or twice a year. They +are now making preparations for a three days' "funcion," to begin +on the 24th. We saw the poor horses doomed to death. Forty a day +is the average number. The men are rarely killed, but often badly +hurt. + + + +Wednesday, September 16. + +This morning we go to the markets to see the wonderful display of +fruits for which Valencia is so famous. Never were such grapes +and peaches, melons and figs, oranges and lemons, apples and +pears, the last as fine as could be seen in all New England; the +nuts and vegetables equally good. Potatoes, and tomatoes, and +peppers, of mammoth size, and even the Indian corn and rice as +good as those of America. But even the Spanish gravity is here +upset at sight of our round hats, short veils, and parasols. +{206} +The women hold their their sides with laughter, and we are driven +to resolve upon wearing mantillas and fans, which fashion we soon +after, in self-defence, adopt. We go to the shops to buy fans, +which are a specialty of Valencia, as are also the beautiful +striped blankets, (mantas,) which are as indispensable to a +Valencian as the fan is to the Valencienne; and is at once his +cloak, his bag, his bed, his coverlet, and his towel. They say of +a Valencian, that he has two uses for a watermelon--to eat his +dinner, and make his toilette. After eating the melon, he washes +his face with the rind, and wipes upon his manta. They wear it +slung gracefully over the left shoulder, or over both shoulders, +the ends falling behind; and over the head-handkerchief is often +worn the pointed hat of Philip II.'s time, with wide, turned-up +brim. + +To-day we visit the cathedral and San Juanes. Like most of the +great churches of Spain, the cathedral occupies the site of a +Roman temple. This, made into a church by the Goths, was changed +to a mosque by the Arabs, and now (since 1240) it is again a +Christian church. Some of the doors, and many of the ornaments, +are Moorish. The gratings--of brass--are very handsome; as are +the altars and screen, of marble and alabaster. This last is most +abundant in Spain. A palace opposite to our hotel (that of the +Marquis de los Aguas) is beautifully adorned on the outside with +statues, and vases, and flowers of alabaster in relievo. + +All these Spanish churches are much ornamented with stucco and +gilding, according to the taste of the time in which they were +built. The cathedral has some good pictures in the sacristy; and +within the sanctuary hang the _spurs_ of Don Jaime upon his +shield. His body is in one of the chapels. + +In an old chapter-house we were shown some great chains taken +from the Moors, and a series of portraits of all the archbishops +of Valencia; and so much is it the habit to gesticulate in this +country, that even these dignitaries, instead of being painted in +_ecclesiastical attitudes_, have their fingers in every +imaginable position. One must know their expressive language to +read what each of these worthies may be saying. + +After some shopping, we go to call upon the present archbishop, a +graceful and dignified person, who received us most kindly, and +presented us each a chapelette and scapular. He has a grand old +palace, very plainly furnished; a pretty chapel; and, in a fine +old hall, with groined roof, were portraits of his predecessors +from the sixth century to the present day. + +We have a visit from the English consul, to whom we brought +letters. He is very kind and friendly, and full of offers of +service. The Spanish sun seems to have warmed the English heart, +which seldom gives out so much, save in its own foggy island. He +sends us some fine wine, which, with some iced orgeat, secures us +a merry evening. + + + +Thursday, 17. + +This morning we hear mass in the Church of the Patriarch, into +which no woman may enter without being veiled. Then we visit the +house in which St. Vincent Ferrer, the patron of Valencia, was +born, and where is a fountain greatly esteemed for its miraculous +powers. + +While at breakfast, a young man enters, whom we take for a +Spaniard, but who proves to be an American, and from Maine! He +has lived in Cuba, however, and it turns out that his father is a +friend of the Spanish ladies with whom we are travelling. +{207} +He gives a pleasant account of his travels in the north of Spain; +tells of the wonders of Burgos; of the railway between that and +Miranda, which shows such extraordinary engineering skill; and of +the fine scenery through which he has passed. Yesterday, on the +mountains, he saw three sunsets; or rather, saw the sun set three +times, in descending from range to range. + +It is delightful to meet an American who, instead of complaining +of the discomforts of travelling in Spain, as most of our people +do, sees only what is pleasant. For ourselves, we have been most +fortunate; good hotels, most obliging people, and, so far from +being extortionate, (as we were told to expect,) we find Spanish +hotels cheaper than those of any other part of Europe. To-day we +eat the "pollo con arroz," one of the national dishes, (rice with +chicken and saffron,) and find it very good. + +Hans Andersen, in his little book on Spain, says: + + "Connected with Valencia, are several of the old Spanish + romances about the Cid--he who in all his battles, and on + occasions when he was misjudged, remained true to his God, his + people, and himself; he who, in his own time, took rank with + the monarchs of Spain, and down to our own time is the pride of + the country which he was mainly instrumental in rescuing from + the infidels. As a conqueror he entered Valencia, and here + lived with his noble and heroic wife, Zimena, and his + daughters, Doña Sol and Doña Elvira; and here he died in 1099. + Here stood around his bed of death all who were dear to him. + Even his very warhorse, Babieca, was ordered to be called + thither. In song, it is said that the horse stood like a lamb, + and gazed with his large eyes upon his master, who could no + more speak than the poor horse himself. ... Through the streets + of Valencia passed at night the extraordinary cavalcade to San + Peder de Cordoña, which the departed chief had desired should + be his burial-place. The victorious colors of the Cid were + carried in front. Four hundred knights protected them. Then + came the corpse. Upright upon his war-horse sat the dead; + arrayed in his armor with his shield and his helmet, his long + white beard flowing down to his breast. + + "Gil Diaz and Bishop Jeronymo escorted the body on either side; + then followed Doña Zimena with three hundred noblemen. The gate + of Valencia toward Castile was opened, and the procession + passed silently and slowly out into the open fields, where the + Moorish army was encamped. A dark Moorish woman shot at them a + poisoned arrow, but she and a hundred of her sisters paid the + forfeit of their lives for that deed. Thirty-six Moorish + princes were in the camp; but terror seized upon them when they + beheld the dead hero on his white charger. + + 'And to their vessels they took flight, + And many sprang into the waves. + Two thousand, certainly, that night + Amid the billows found their graves.' + + "And the Cid Campeador thus won, after he was dead, good tents, + gold and silver; and the poorest in Valencia became rich. So + says the old 'Song of the Cid in Valencia.' + + + Cordova -- Province Of Andalusia -- + Fonda Suiza -- Hotel Suisse. + +September 18. + +After a long night journey, (by rail,) we reach a hotel rivalling +the cleanness and comfort of the genuine Swiss hotel, and find +ourselves in the ancient capital of the Moorish empire, and in +that lovely, bright Andalusia, so famed throughout the world. + +From the time we leave Valencia until we reach Jativa, (about +fifty miles,) we pass over the "Huerta" (the "garden") of +Valencia, one continuous plain of verdure; pastures which are cut +from twelve to seventeen times a year. Golden oranges, and other +fruits hang above these green fields; and dates, and figs, and +peaches, and pears, and quinces, pomegranates, plums, apples, +melons, and grapes, and olives, with Indian corn, rice, and every +vegetable in equal perfection. Well might the Moors term this +plain (with Andalusia) "the Paradise of the East." For centuries +after their expulsion, their poets still sang verses expressive +of their grief for its loss, and it is said they still mention it +in their evening prayers, and supplicate Heaven to restore it to +them. + +{208} + +And this fertility is all their work. Every stream has been +turned from its channel into numberless little canals, which +water this luxurious soil; and these are arranged with such skill +and care that crop after crop has its share of irrigation, and in +its just proportion. From Jativa the country becomes more +mountainous. We pass the ruins of an old chateau on a high hill, +(Montesa,) seat of an ancient order of chivalry which existed +after the suppression of the Templars. We next pass Almanzar, +Chinchilla, Albacete, where they sell the famous "Toledo blades," +now hardly so famous. Here we are in La Mancha, and when we stop +in Alcazar at midnight, we are near the village of Troboso, which +Cervantes makes the dwelling of Don Quixote's Dulcinea. Alcazar +is claimed as the birth-place of Cervantes. + +Here we leave our road for the grand route between Madrid and +Cordova; and here we are crowded into carriages with other +ladies, a fate from which we have hitherto been defended; each +conductor treating us as if we had been especially committed to +his care, and sparing us all annoyance. Fortunately, at +Manzanares two of these ladies leave us, and we make acquaintance +with the third, who is very kind and polite; offers us a share of +her luncheon, and gives us much information of people and things +in Spain. She is a Portuguese, and tells us how much larger and +finer are the olive-trees in her country than in Spain; she +remembers one tree which eight men could not clasp. From her we +hear much of the queen as from an unprejudiced source, and learn, +what we gathered afterward from many credible sources, that this +poor queen is a good woman, a very pious woman, full of talents +and accomplishments, generous to a fault, with strong feelings +and affections, which induce her to reward to excess those whom +she loves or who have served her; and this has given rise to the +injurious reports which have found their way to every foreign +newspaper, but which no _good_ people in Spain believe. + +From Andujar the country is very uninteresting, more of a grazing +country, where we see immense herds of cattle, sheep, horses, and +goats, with picturesque shepherds minding them. The men wear +short trousers, opened several inches at the ankle, showing the +untanned leathern buskin, (as is seen in the old pictures of +Philip II.'s time,) a red sash, and the black hat turned up all +around. Presently we come upon the Guadalquivir, upon which +Cordova is situated, and which is crossed here by a bridge of +black marble. We drive up the cool, shady streets, catching +glimpses, through open doors and curtains, of the little paradise +within--the marble courts, with fountain, and orange-trees, and +flowers, and vines--a vestige of the old Moorish time. In fact, +everything here so preserves its Arabic character that one is +transported six centuries back, into the palmy days of the +Kalifs, when this city was said to have contained half a million +of inhabitants, 200,000 houses, 60,000 palaces, 700 mosques, 900 +baths, 50 hospitals, and a public library of 600,000 volumes. Of +all these glories only the mosque remains to show by its +magnificence that these accounts cannot be exaggerated. + +{209} + +Saturday, September 19. + +We hasten to see the mosque, (the cathedral now,) and, entering a +low door-way in the wall which surrounds it, you find yourself in +a beautiful oriental court, with fountains, and rows of tall +palms, and ancient orange trees and cypress. This is called "the +court of ranges." Open colonnades surround the court on all sides +save one, from which twenty doors once opened into the mosque; +only one of these is now open. Enter this, and you find yourself +in a forest of pillars--a thousand are yet left--of every hue and +shade, no two alike, of jasper, and verde antique, and porphyry, +and alabaster, and every colored marble, fluted, and spiral; and +over these, rises arch upon arch overlapping each other. These +divide the mosque into twenty-nine aisles from north to south, +and nineteen from west to east; intersecting each other in the +most harmonious and beautiful manner. The Moors brought these +pillars from the ancient temples of Rome, and Nismes, and +Carthage. The mosque was built in the eighth century, by Abd El +Rahman, who aimed to make it rival those of Damascus and Bagdad. +It is said he worked upon it an hour every day with his own hand, +and it is certain that it ranked in sanctity with the "Caaba" of +Mecca, and the great mosque of Jerusalem. Ten thousand lamps +illuminated it at the hour of prayer; the roof was made of arbor +vitae, which is considered imperishable, and was burnished with +gold. The chapel, where is the holy of holies--where was kept the +Koran--gives one an idea of what the ornaments of the whole must +have been. Here the carvings are of the most exquisite fineness, +like patterns of lace; the gold enamel, the beautiful mosaics, +are as bright as if made yesterday. In the holy of holies--a +recess in this chapel--the roof is of one block of marble, carved +in the form of a shell, supported by pillars of various-colored +marble. Around this wall a path is worn in the marble pavement, +by the knees of the faithful making the mystic "seven rounds;" +and our guide tells us that, when a few years ago, the brother of +the king of Morocco came here, he went round this holy of holies +upon his knees, seven times, crying bitterly all the while. The +chapel of the Kalifs is also remarkable, from the floor to the +ceiling, the marble being carved in these beautiful and delicate +patterns. + +From the cathedral, we go to visit the old Roman bridge of +sixteen arches, which spans the Guadalquivir. This looks upon +some ruins of Moorish mills, and the orange-gardens of the +Alcazar, (now in ruins,) once the palace of Roderick, the last of +the Goths. As we pass the modern Alcazar, (used as a prison,) an +old cavalry officer comes out of the government stables, and +invites us to look at the horses--the silky-coated Andalusians of +which we have heard so much, and the fleet-footed, graceful +Arabians. Each horse had his name and pedigree on a shield over +his stall. Returning to our hotel for breakfast, we go out again +to see the markets and the shops; visit some churches, and the +lovely promenade by the Guadalquivir. Our costumes excite great +remark; one woman says to another, "They are masqueraders;" +another lifts her hands and exclaims "Ave Maria;" and but for the +intervention of our guide, who reproves their curiosity, we +should be followed by a troop of children. + + + +Sunday, 20. + +Coming to breakfast, we are charmed to find our young American +friend whom we had left in Valencia; and, in spite of a pouring +rain, we all set out to hear high mass in the cathedral. The +mosque was consecrated, and made the cathedral, when the city was +captured by St. Ferdinand in 1236. +{210} +Several chapels and altars were then added, and in 1521, the +transept and choir were begun, to make room for which, eighty +pillars were sacrificed. Charles V., who gave permission for this +act of vandalism, was deeply mortified when he saw what had been +done, and reproved the canons of the church, saying, they had +destroyed what was unique in the world, to raise that which could +be found anywhere. + +While we are at mass, our young American arrives with the guide, +to tell us that a _revolution_ has broken out, and entreats +us to return to the hotel. Some of the ladies are much alarmed; +but my friend and myself, remembering that revolutions are +chronic in Spanish countries, and are generally bloodless, we +maintain our ground, too old soldiers to be driven from the field +before a gun is fired; and the result justifies our faith. + +Nobody quits the church. We have a solemn procession of the +Blessed Sacrament after mass, winding through these beautiful +aisles, accompanied by a band of wind instruments, the whole +congregation following. We reach home to find our +fellow-travellers very much frightened and annoyed at the +prospect of a long detention; but we are assured that the worst +which can befall us is a delay of a few days, to which we can +well submit in this comfortable inn. Making acquaintance with our +fellow-prisoners, we grow jolly over our misfortunes. The +railways are all cut; General Prim and his colleagues (the exiled +generals) are besieging Cadiz; and the queen has fled to +Biarritz, to claim the intervention of the Emperor Napoleon. +These are some of the rumors which are rife during the day. Hosts +of red umbrellas parade the town--the most formidable weapon +which we encounter; a few voices faintly cry "Libertad!" and +"Viva!" some damp-looking soldiers pass by, with lances from +which depend little red flags, looking limp and hopeless in the +heavy rain. These troops declare for the people. We ask one of +these what they want; the answer is, "Liberty." (Of course.) "And +what is that?" "We want a _King_. We will not be governed by +a woman." Inflammatory hand-bills are distributed amongst the +crowd, very vague in their demands, "_an empty throne_" +being the first requisite on the list. + +One man is killed, (a fine young officer of the queen's troops +mercilessly shot down,) and another man is wounded. In the +evening, we hear that the revolution is accomplished in Cordova; +the insurrectionists have the city! + + +Monday, 21. + +All is peaceful in appearance, and we go out to shop, to find +some of the filagree jewelry for which Cordova is remarkable--an +art retained from the time of the Moors. The rain drives us in, +and we spend the day with music, books, and in conversation with +our new friends--a Spanish lady of rank, who has come to Cordova +about a lawsuit, and who shakes with fright, and goes about with +a glass of water and a cup of vinegar to quiet her nerves; the +poor lady neither eats nor sleeps. The others are of different +calibre; a sturdy Scotch lady, and her companion, a sweet and +charming German girl. "Who's afeard!" + + + +Tuesday, 22. + +We are roused by the sound of military music, and find that 5000 +of the queen's troops are entering the city. Such. +splendid-looking fellows! Such handsome officers! It is plain the +city is taken in earnest _now!_ The inconstant populace +clamor and shout; all is enthusiasm; the report is, that the +insurrectionists are fled to Seville; the roads are repaired, but +we are not allowed to leave the city. +{211} +Still prisoners of _war!_ Later in the day, we hear that the +troops we saw this morning are those which had joined the +insurgents at Seville. The queen's troops, commanded by the +Marquis de Novaliches, are outside the town, fearing to be too +few for those within, and waiting the turn of events. It is +supposed there will be some compromise entered into; a convention +patched up; and no fighting. The prime minister, Gonzales Bravo, +has fled from Madrid, where all is anarchy. This man, who has +been the author of all the oppressive measures, and all the +banishments which have made the queen's government unpopular, +now, in her hour of need leaves her to her fate, after cruelly +deceiving her. When she feared the danger of revolution, he +assured her she might leave the country without any anxiety; and +she went to Biarritz in ignorance of the truth; thus giving her +enemies the very opportunity they desired. Even now, (they say,) +were she to return, and throw herself upon the generosity of the +people, she would be received kindly; such is the loyalty of +Spaniards to their monarchs. The influence of Bravo banished the +Montpensiers, (the queen's sister and her husband, the son of +Louis Philippe,) who were naturally her best friends, and to whom +she had showed every kindness. He sent away many of her most +popular generals; and now they return, with men and arms, and +British and Prussian gold; the people sympathize with them, the +troops join them; we hear from Cadiz, that there was a perfect +ovation upon their landing. + +To-day, we have a fine walk in a beautiful park, on one side of +the city, from whence we have a charming view of the mountains; +on one side, so grand and bold, with olive groves, and white +country houses sparkling in the sunshine; on the other side, the +hills are low, and their graceful, wavy outlines have the +peculiar purple hue belonging to Spain, and form a striking +contrast to the others. Between the two, lies the city, and the +fertile plains about it. We lose our way in the tortuous streets, +and spend the morning peeping into the beautiful patios, +(courts,) which open to the heavens, or have sometimes a linen +awning over them; with marble pavements, over which the cool +fountains play; with orange-trees, and flowers, amongst which +sofas, and chairs, and pictures are disposed; and around which +often runs a marble corridor, with pillars and curtains, +communicating with the other apartments. Here the family sit, and +here take place the "tirtulias," the meetings for talk and music. +A picture of one of these patios is thus charmingly translated +from one of Fernan Caballero's beautiful tales by a late English +traveller; and which any one who has been in Spain will +recognize: + + "The house was spacious, and scrupulously clean: on each side + the door was a bench of stone. In the porch hung a little lamp + before the image of our Lord in a niche over the entrance, + according to the Catholic custom of putting all things under + holy protection. In the middle was the 'patio,' a necessity to + the Andalusian. And in the centre of this spacious court an + enormous orange-tree raised its leafy head from its robust + trunk. For an infinity of generations had this beautiful tree + been a source of delight to the family. The women made tonic + decoctions from its leaves; the daughters adorned themselves + with its flowers; the boys cooled their blood with its fruits; + the birds made their home in its boughs. The rooms opened out + of the 'patio,' and borrowed their light from thence. +{212} + This 'patio' was the centre of all the 'home;' the place of + gathering when the day's work was over. The orange-tree loaded + the air with its heavy perfume, and the waters of the fountain + fell in soft showers on the marble basin, fringed with the + delicate maiden-hair fern. And the father, leaning against the + tree, smoked his 'cigarro de papel;' and the mother sat at her + work, while the little ones played at her feet, the eldest + resting his head on a big dog, which lay stretched at full + length on the cool marble slabs. All was still, and peaceful, + and beautiful." + +We close the day with a farewell visit to the cathedral. Surely +it is the most wonderful building in the world. Even St. Peter's +hardly fills one with greater astonishment. This is altogether +unique; and its grace, and elegance, and harmony win one to love +it. We lingered by the chapel of the holy of holies, finding +beauties which we had not before seen, and bade farewell to it +with deep regret; then wandered to the bridge over the +Guadalquivir, and gazed upon the truly eastern prospect it +reveals. + +To-day, a great robber from the mountains, upon whose head a +price had been fixed by the late government, comes boldly into +town. The people cry, "Viva Pacheco!" In half an hour after, we +hear he has been shot--the victim of private revenge. + +Cordova is the birthplace of Lucan, the author of the +_Pharsalia_; of the two Senecas; of many eminent Moslem +poets and authors, and of the famous Gonzales de Cordova, "El +Gran Capitan." + +---------- + + Pope Or People. + [Footnote 50] + + [Footnote 50: The _Congregationalist and Boston + Recorder_, Boston, March 4th, 1869.] + +We confess to having read with no little surprise an elaborate +article in the _Congregationalist and Boston Recorder_ +entitled _Pope or People_. Had we met the article in a +professedly Unitarian journal or periodical we should have +thought little of it; but meeting it in the recognized organ of +the so-called orthodox Congregationalists of Massachusetts, we +have read it with no ordinary interest. It shows that the +Protestant, especially the old Puritan mind of the country, is +profoundly agitated with the church question under one of its +most important aspects. He who reads with any attention the +leading American sectarian journals can hardly fail to perceive +that there is a growing distrust in the Protestant world of the +Protestant rule of faith, and a growing conviction that the only +alternative, as the journal before us expresses it, is either +pope or people. Of course the journal in question has no clear +apprehension of either of the alternatives it suggests, but it +does see and feel the need of certainty in matters of religious +belief, and is in pursuit of it. It says: + +{213} + + "One of our great men once declared that the thing most to be + desired in this world, by an intelligent mind, is an + unfaltering religious belief. In the sense in which he meant + it, his remark is unquestionably true; and it explains the + philosophy of much of the success of the Romish Church. Men do + crave certainty in their conviction; such certainty demands + infallibility on which to found itself, and the papal system + offers the promise of just that infallibility. And thousands + upon thousands of minds rest in that; and being able to receive + it, it meets that innate and inextinguishable craving of the + soul for stability under its feet, and gives them a + great--though it be a fallacious--peace. + + "But multitudes, and some even among the nominal adherents of + the papacy, are not able so to receive that doctrine, and are + consequently driven to seek for some other rock on which to + found the house of their faith; too often with the result of + building it on the sand, with its seductive security for fair + weather, and its terrible and irremediable fall when the + tempestuous night-time of death shall come. But for those who + reject the pope and that certitude of conviction which he + offers, what solid ground is there on which to stand secure?" + +If the writer knew the Catholic religion better, he would know +that the peace we find in believing is not "fallacious," for "we +know in whom we believe and are certain;" but he does see that to +an unfaltering religious belief infallibility of some sort is +absolutely indispensable, and that the Catholic Church promises +it; yet, unable or unwilling to accept the pope or the church, he +looks around to see if he cannot find elsewhere some infallible +authority in which one may confide, an immovable rock or some +solid ground on which one may stand and feel that his footing is +sure. Does he succeed? We think not. He finds an alternative +indeed, but not an infallible authority, and he has proved very +conclusively that outside of the church there is and can be no +such authority for faith. He says: + + "As we look at it, only two alternatives are possible in this + matter of an infallible faith; either the conditions of it + exist outside of the soul in some constituted and certified + authority, or within the soul in the purest and loftiest + exercise of its reason--and we use this word as + _including_ conscience--under the enlightenment of God's + Spirit through his Word. If outside of the soul, in any central + and constituted authority, then in the pope; for it may as well + be in him as anybody, nobody else claims it, and he does. If + inside the soul, then any pope is an impossibility and an + insult, and God remits every man to those conditions of secure + decision which he has established in his breast, and holds him + responsible for a judgment and a life founded upon them. And + this latter, precisely, is God's way with men. He never + commands them to hang their faith on the pope or the bishop; + but rather inquires--in that tone of asking which is equivalent + to the highest form of injunction--'Why, _(aph' heauton,) + out of your own selves_, do ye not judge what is right?' + Even in that precept which many will be swift to quote against + us in this connection,'Obey them that have the rule over you, + and submit yourselves,' it is first true that these 'rulers,' + as the context proves, are mere (_hëgoumenön_) leaders, + and men of example who were already dead, with no flavor of + potentiality therefore about them; whose 'faith' is to be + imitated rather than whose commands are to be submitted to; and + true, in the second place, that the entire appeal of the + apostle is to the tribunal of the Hebrews' reason as the court + of ultimate decision, inasmuch as he declares that for them to + fail thus to follow the good example of the illustrious and + holy dead who had walked before them in the heavenly way, would + be 'unprofitable' for them; leaving the necessary inference + that men are bound to do what is for their highest profit, and + therefore bound to decide, in all solemnity, what will be for + that profit, and, so deciding, by inevitable necessity, to + assume in the last analysis the function of positive masterhood + over themselves and their destiny." + +The alternative here presented is not pope or people, but pope or +no external authority for faith. But why, supposing the internal +or subjective authority to be all that is here alleged, is the +pope an impossibility or an insult? Why may there not be two +witnesses, the one internal, the other external? Is the +revelation of God less credible because confirmed by two +witnesses, each worthy of credit? +{214} +The external and the internal do not necessarily exclude, and, if +both are infallible, cannot exclude each other, or stand opposed +one to the other. I do not deny or diminish the need or worth of +reason by asserting the infallibility of the church, nor the +importance and necessity of the infallible church by asserting +the full power and freedom of reason. The Catholic asserts both, +and has all the internal light and authority of reason that our +Puritan doctor can pretend to, and has the infallible church in +addition. + +We may say the same when is added to "the purest and loftiest +exercise of reason" the enlightenment of God's Spirit through his +Word. This word, on the hypothesis, must be spoken inside of the +soul, or else it is an authority outside of the soul, which the +writer cannot admit. His rule of faith is reason and the interior +illumination of the Holy Ghost. The Catholic rule by no means +excludes this; it includes it, and adds to it the external word +and the infallible authority of the church. Catholics assert the +interior illumination and inspiration of the Holy Spirit as fully +and as strenuously as the Puritan does or can. The authority +inside the soul, be it more or be it less, does not exclude the +external authority of the church, nor does the external authority +of the church exclude the internal authority of reason and the +Spirit. Catholicity asserts both, and interprets each by the +authority of the other. Catholics have all the reason and all the +interior "enlightenment of God's Spirit" that Protestants have, +and lay as much stress on each, to say the least, as Protestants +do or can. + +The great mistake of non-catholics is in the supposition that the +assertion of an external infallible authority necessarily +excludes, or at least supersedes, reason and the interior +illumination of the Spirit. This is false in logic, and, as every +one who understands Catholic theology knows, is equally false in +fact. There is a maxim accepted and insisted on by all Catholic +theologians, that settles, in principle, the whole controversy; +namely, _gratia supponit naturam_. Grace supposes nature, +revelation supposes reason, and the external supposes the +internal; and hence no Catholic holds that faith is or can be +produced by the external authority of the church alone, though +infallible, or without the grace of God, that illuminates the +understanding and inspires the will. Hence our Lord says, "No man +cometh to me, unless the Father draws him." In our controversies +with Protestants we necessarily insist on the external authority, +because that is what they deny; hence is produced an impression +in many minds that we deny the internal, or make no account of +it. Nothing can be more untrue or unjust, as any one may know who +will make himself at all familiar with the writings of Catholic +ascetics, or with the Catholic direction of souls. + +But while we assert the internal we do not concede that it is +alone sufficient. "Dearly beloved, believe not every spirit, but +try the spirits, whether they be of God," (I John iv. i.) Saints +may mistake their own imaginations or enthusiasm for the +inspirations of the Spirit, and even in their case it is +necessary to try the spirit, and, in the very nature of the case, +the trial must be by an external test or authority. The test of +the internal by the internal is simply no test at all. +{215} +The beloved apostle in this same chapter of his first epistle +gives two tests, the one doctrinal and the other apostolical: "By +this is the Spirit of God known: every spirit that confesseth +Jesus Christ to have come in the flesh is of God, and every +spirit that dissolveth Jesus (by denying either his humanity or +his divinity) is not of God." "We are of God. He that knoweth God +heareth us; he that is not of God heareth us not; by this we know +the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error." The internal, +then, must be brought to the test of apostolic doctrine and of +the apostolic communion or the apostolic authority, both of which +are external, or outside of the soul. The assertion of the +external does not supersede the internal, nor does the assertion +of the internal supersede the necessity of the external +infallible authority. The error of our Puritan journalist is in +supposing that if the one is taken the other must be rejected; he +should know that no one is obliged to choose between them, and +that both, each in its proper place and function, may be and must +be accepted. It is true, neither reason nor the inspiration of +the Spirit can deceive or mislead, us; but we may be deceived as +to what reason really dictates, and as to whether the internal +phenomena really are interior inspirations of the Spirit; and +therefore to the safety and certainty of our faith, even +subjectively considered, the external infallible authority of the +pope or church is indispensable. + +This is evident enough of itself, and still more so from the +article before us. The insufficiency of reason and the spiritual +light, either in the writer or in us, appears in his +understanding of the text of St. Paul, Hebrews xiii., which, as +he cites it, reads, "Obey them that have rule over you, and +submit yourselves;" but as we read it, "Obey your prelates and +submit to them." Which of us has the true version of the words of +the apostle? The Puritan interpreter says these prelates, or +"these rulers," were mere leaders, and men of example, who were +already dead, with no flavor of potentiality, (sic,) therefore, +about them; and whose "faith" is to be imitated, rather than +whose commands are to be submitted to. We are disposed to believe +that they were not dead men, but living rulers placed by the Holy +Ghost over the faithful, to whom the apostle commands them to +submit; and we are confirmed in this view by the reason which the +apostle assigns for his command: "For they watch as having to +give an account of your souls, that they may do this with joy, +not with grief." Which of us is right? The journalist tells us, +moreover, that "the entire appeal of the apostle is to the +tribunal of the Hebrews' reason as the court of ultimate +decision." We hold that the apostle, from beginning to end, +appeals to the revelation held by the Hebrews, and argues from +that and the character of their sacrifices and the levitical +priesthood, that both were types and figures of the real and +everlasting priesthood of Christ and his one all-sufficient +sacrifice. Christ having come in the end of the world, and +offered himself once for all, the types and figures must give way +to the reality they prefigured and announced. Therefore the +Hebrews should accept Christ as the fulfilment of their law. He +undoubtedly reasons, and reasons powerfully, but from revealed +premises. Here we and the journalist are at odds; we cannot both +be right: who shall decide between us? While we thus differ, +supposing us equally able, learned, and honest, how can either +find his cravings for certainty satisfied? + +{216} + +It is a very common prejudice among Protestants and rationalists +that Catholics eschew reason, and assert only an external +authority which operates only on the will. It seems to be +forgotten that it was the reformers who denied reason, and set up +the authority of the written Word against it. No one, as far as +our knowledge extends, ever spoke more contemptuously of reason +than did Doctor Martin Luther; and the old Puritan and +Presbyterian ministers to whose preaching we listened in our +boyhood were continually warning us to beware of the false and +deceitful light of reason, which "dazzles but to blind." This was +in accordance with the doctrine of total depravity with which the +reformers started; man being clean gone in sin and totally +corrupt in his nature, his reason, as well as his will, must be +corrupt, turned against God and truth, and therefore worthy of no +confidence. No doubt, Protestants have softened the harshness of +many of the doctrines of the reformers, and in several respects +have drawn nearer to what has always been the teaching of the +church; but it is hardly fair in them to charge the errors of +their ancestors, which they have outgrown or abandoned, upon the +church which has always condemned them. The Bishop of Avranches, +Pascal, the Traditionalists, and some others, commonly regarded +as Catholics, yet for the most part tinctured with Jansenism, +have indeed seemed to depreciate reason in order the better to +defend faith; but the church has expressly or virtually condemned +them, and vindicated the rights of reason. Whoever knows Catholic +theology, knows that the church never opposes faith or authority +to reason, but asserts both with equal earnestness and emphasis, +and denies that there is or can be any antagonism between them. + +The reformers did not assume that no external infallible +authority is necessary to faith. They denied the infallible +authority of popes and councils, but asserted that of the written +Word, interpreted by private judgment, or rather, by the private +illumination of the Spirit, called by some in our day the +Christian conscience, or consciousness. Our Puritan journalist, +though he rejects not the Scriptures, very ably refutes this +theory of the reformers: + + "There lies before us a recent number of a religious quarterly + containing an elaborate article entitled 'An Infallible Church + or an infallible Book--which?' the great object of which is to + dethrone the Pope and enthrone the Bible, as the subject of + indubitable faith, with that religious certitude with which it + may logically comfort the soul. To quote its own language, it + would make the Bible 'the supreme and only arbiter in things + spiritual.' And this, it thinks, would cause' divisions to + cease among us for ever.' But this forgets that the Bible is + always at the mercy of its interpreters, and that its unity + becomes continual diversity--being all things to all men, as + they compel it, by the manner in which they receive it. This is + not true merely in the extreme cases of those who are--and who + know that they are--'handling the Word of God deceitfully;' it + is true, as well, of those who mean to treat it with extremest + reverence and humility or receptive faith. Here, for example, + are two meek and lowly, yet wonderfully clear-headed disciples, + like Francis Wayland and Bela Bates Edwards; both able scholars + and patient students of the Word; both, so far as human eye can + judge, eminently seeking and securing the habitual guidance of + the Holy Spirit: and yet, as a matter of fact, reaching, upon + certain points which both feel to be of serious importance, + conclusions as to what is taught in the Bible, diametrically + opposite, and beyond possibility of reconciliation. And who can + deny that the one--seeming to himself to find them in the + Bible--was as sacredly bound to hold, practise, and teach + Baptist, as the other, Pedobaptist views." + +We need add nothing to this refutation. Protestants have had from +the first all the Bible, all the private judgment, or private +illumination, they now have or can hope to have; and yet they +have never been able to agree among themselves on a single dogma +of faith. The only point on which they have been unanimous is +their hostility to the Catholic Church. +{217} +They have no standard by which to try the spirit; and the Bible, +not a few among them are accustomed to say, profanely, "is a +fiddle on which a skilful player may play any tune he pleases." +Protestants may go to the Bible to prove the doctrines they have +been taught by their parents or ministers, or held from +Protestant tradition; but they never, or rarely ever, obtain +their doctrines from the study of the Holy Scriptures. Hence, +sects the most divergent appeal alike to the Bible; and each +seems to find texts in its favor. How can any thinking +Protestant, who knows this, not be perplexed and uncertain as to +what he should believe? The writer admits the difficulty, and +asks: + + "Are we to understand, then, that Christ is divided? Is there + no such thing as absolute truth? This cannot be admitted, and + we avoid the admission of it by the claim that God's absolute + truth is a truth of love and life, through dogma yet not of + dogma; so that it may be reached and realized by approaches not + only from different but sometimes from opposite directions." + +But this does not, as far as we can see, help the matter. Concede +that charity or love is the fulfilling of the law, and that +nothing more is required of any one than perfect charity, yet the +love here asserted is, though not of dogma, "through dogma." +Unless, then, we are sure of the absolute truth of the dogma, how +can we be sure of the truth of the love and life, since there are +many sorts of love? The dogma, according to the Puritan writer, +is not the principle, indeed, but it is the medium of the love +and life. Will a false medium be as effectual in relation to the +end as a true medium? Can a falsehood be, in the nature of +things, any medium at all? If we say the absolute truth is a +truth of love and life through dogma, it seems to us absolutely +necessary that the dogma should be absolutely true; but, whether +the dogma is absolutely true or not, the writer concedes that +those who reject the infallibility of the church have no certain +means of determining. If it be said that the true love and life +are practicable with contradictory dogmas, as is said in the last +extract made, then dogmas are indifferent; and whether we believe +the truth or falsehood of God or Christ; of the human soul; of +the origin and end of man; of man's duties, and the means of +discharging them,--can make no difference as to the truth of our +love and life. The truth of love and life is not, then, an +intellectual truth; a truth apprehended by the mind; but must be +a mere affection of the heart, or, rather, a mere feeling, +dependent on no operation of the understanding, but on some +internal or external affection of the sensibility. The love will +not be a rational affection, but a simple sentiment, sensitive +affection, or sensible emotion, and as far removed from charity +as is the sensuous appetite for food or drink. + +The _Congregationalist and Recorder_ seems aware that it has +not yet found a solid ground to stand on, and fairly abandons its +pretension to be able to arrive at absolute truth at all without +the pope. It says: + + "It is, then, both the privilege and the duty of every man to + be a law unto himself; and out of his own reason and + conscience, enlightened from all knowledge that can be made + available by his own researches and those of his fellows, and + more especially by the patient and docile study of the + Bible--all in the most profound, uninterrupted, and prayerful + dependence upon the Holy Spirit--to judge what is right. From + the decision which he thus reaches there can be, for him, no + appeal. Whether it is anybody's else duty to follow the course + prescribed therein, or not, it is _his_ duty to do so. He + has plead his cause before his infallible tribunal, and its + decision over him is necessarily supreme and inexorable. +{218} + Not to obey it, would be to be false equally to God and to + himself. _If it be not absolute right which he has reached, + it stands in the place of absolute right for him; and only + along its road, however thorny, and steep, and high, can he + climb up toward heaven_. Practically, then, we insist upon + it, there is no infallibility possible to man, but that which + is resident in his own soul." + +The conclusion is that to which all who seek their rule of faith +in private judgment and private illumination, or inside the soul, +must come at last; namely, the man is a law unto himself; that +is, is his own law, and, therefore, his own truth. Out of his own +reason and conscience, enlightened by the best study he can make, +he is to judge supremely what is right. This, we need not say, is +pure rationalism. It is man's duty to abide by the conclusion at +which he arrives; for although it may not be the absolute right, +yet it is the absolute right for him. This makes truth and duty +relative; what each one, for himself, thinks them to be. What +infallibility is here to oppose to the infallibility of the +church? Suppose it is announced to a man that God has established +a church which he by his presence renders infallible, to teach +all men and nations; will it not be the duty of that man to +listen to the announcement, and to investigate to the best of his +ability, and with all diligence, whether it be so or not? If, +through prejudice, indifference, or any other cause, he fails to +do so, will his conviction against such church be excusable, and +absolute truth or right, even for him? The article continues: + + "And, in the matter of systems, we submit that there is no + logical pause possible between the two extremes to which we + referred, near the beginning of this article--that each man's + own conscientious reason be his umpire, or that that reason be + implicitly surrendered to some sole arbiter without. It must be + pope or people; the absolutism of the papacy or the democracy + of Congregationalism. There is no intermediate stand-point on + which the aristocracy of Presbyterianism, or the limited + monarchy of Methodism, or Episcopacy, can solidly build itself. + And this is, in point of fact, the unintended confession of + actions that are louder than words, in all these systems; + inasmuch as an appeal to the people in their individuality is + their quick, sharp sword which cuts every knot that draws hard + and cannot be untied." + +But we do not see how this follows. The writer, if he has proved +anything, has proved, not that Congregationalism is a ground on +which one can stand, but that the individual is. He places the +infallible tribunal in the inside of the individual soul; +Congregationalism places it, if anywhere, in the congregation or +brotherhood. He should have said, therefore, that it is either +pope or individualism. We readily agree that there is no solid +ground between the pope and the people, taken individually, on +which any third or middle party can stand; but is individualism, +or the individual soul, a solid ground on which any one can +stand, without danger of its giving way under him? We have seen +that it is not, because an external standard is needed by which +to try the internal; and the writer himself concedes it, if he +understands the force of the terms he uses. He confesses that a +man, after due investigation, with all the helps he can derive +from the Holy Scriptures and the Spirit, cannot be certain of +arriving at absolute truth--that is, at truth at all; he can only +arrive at what is true and right for him, though it may not be so +for any one else. At best, then, he attains only to the relative, +and no man can stand on the relative, for the relative itself +cannot stand except in the absolute. +{219} +His whole doctrine amounts simply to this: What I honestly and +conscientiously think is true and right, is true and right for +me; that is, I may follow what I think is true and right with a +safe conscience: but whether I think right or wrong; in +accordance with the objective reality or not, I do not and cannot +know. What is this but saying that infallibility is both +impossible and unnecessary? Relying on what is inside of the +soul, then, without any authority outside of it, we cannot attain +to that certainty the writer began by affirming to be necessary, +and craved by the soul; and which he proposed to show us could be +had without the pope. All the writer does, is to show us that +without the infallibility of the pope or church, we cannot have +infallible faith; and to attempt to prove that we do not need it, +and can do very well without it. What does he establish, then, +but what Catholics have always told him, that there is no +alternative but pope or no infallibility? He says: + + "We are even prepared to go so far as to claim that, as human + nature has been divinely constituted, it is a psychological + impossibility for any man to waive this prerogative of being + the _supreme authority_ over himself in regard to his + religion; for if he decides to accept the pope and his dictum + as conveying to him the sure will of God, that infallibility + can only be received as such by an express volition of his own + thus to receive it; that is, the man infallible stands behind + the pope infallible, and decrees that he shall become to him an + infallible pope; so that all the infallibility which the pope + can have is just only what the man had before, and gives to him + by his volition." + +In this it is not only conceded that the internal, as we have +seen, does not give infallibility, but asserted that man is so +constituted that he is incapable of having an infallible faith. +Consequently, there can be no infallible teaching. It goes +farther, and denies the supreme authority of God in matters of +religion; and, like all error, puts man in the place of God. It +says: "It is a psychological impossibility for any man to waive +his prerogative of being the supreme authority over himself in +regard to his religion." This is the necessary conclusion from +the writer's assumption in the outset, that the infallible +authority is inside the soul, not outside of it; therefore, +purely subjective and human. Consequently, man is his own law, +his own sovereign; therefore independent of God, and the author +and finisher of his own faith. This is pretty well for a +Calvinist, and the organ of New England Puritanism! But we +charitably trust that the writer hardly understands the reach of +what he says. He confounds the action or office of reason in +receiving the faith, or the internal act of believing, with the +authority on which one believes, or on which the faith is +received. The act is the act of the rational subject, and +therefore internal. The authority on which the act is elicited is +accredited to the subject, and therefore necessarily objective or +external. I believe on testimony which comes to me from without, +or a fact or an event duly accredited to me. I believe the +messenger from God duly accredited to me as his messenger, +although he announces to me things far above my own personal +knowledge, and even mysteries which my reason is utterly unable +to comprehend. Hence, Christians believe the mysteries recorded +in the Holy Scriptures, because recorded by men duly instructed +and authorized by God himself to teach in his name. + +The Puritan writer will hardly deny that St. Peter was a duly +accredited apostle of our Lord, and therefore, that what he +declares to be the Word of God is the Word of God, and therefore +true, since God is truth itself. +{220} +Suppose, then, the pope to be duly accredited to us as the +divinely authorized and divinely assisted teacher and interpreter +of the teaching of our Lord, whether in person or by the mouth of +the apostles, would reason find any greater difficulty in +believing him than in believing St. Peter himself? Of course not. +Now, Catholics look upon the pope as the successor or the +continuator of Peter, and therefore as teaching with precisely +the same apostolic authority with which Peter himself would teach +if he were personally present. It is not more difficult to prove +that the pope succeeds to Peter than it is to prove that Peter +was an apostle of our Lord, and taught by his divine authority. +The same kind of evidence that suffices to prove the one suffices +to prove the other. Suppose it proved, should we not then have an +infallible authority for faith other than that which is inside +the soul? Should we not be bound by reason itself to believe +whatever, in the case supposed, the pope should declare to be +"the faith once delivered to the saints"? + +Our Puritan psychologist, and Protestants very generally, contend +that, since the authority of the pope is accredited to reason, +and we by reason judge of the credentials, therefore we have in +the pope only the authority of our own reason. This is a mistake. +We might as well argue that an ambassador accredited to a foreign +court can speak only by authority of the court to which he is +accredited, since it judges of the sufficiency of the credentials +he presents, and not at all by the authority of the court that +sends him. This would be simply absurd. The ambassador represents +the sovereign that sends him, not the sovereign to whom he is +sent or accredited. The credentials of the pope are presented to +our judgment, but what the pope, the accredited ambassador from +God, announces as the will of his sovereign and ours, must be +taken not on the authority of our own judgment, but on the +authority of the ambassador. The pope is not, indeed, +commissioned to reveal the truth, for the revelation is already +made by our Lord and his apostles, and deposited with the church. +The pope simply teaches what is the faith so revealed and +deposited, and settles controversies respecting it. Our own +reason, operating on the facts of the case, judges the +credentials of the pope or the evidences of his divine +commission, but not of the revelation to which he bears witness. +The fact that God has revealed and deposited with the church what +the pope declares God has so revealed and deposited, we take on +his authority. It is a mistake, then, to say that there can be no +authority in faith or religion but the authority which every man +has even of himself. To deny it is simply to deny the ability of +God to make us a revelation through inspired messengers, or +otherwise than through our natural reason. + +It is equally a mistake to suppose that belief or an external +infallible authority is simply a volition or an act of the will, +without any intellectual assent. We might as well argue that the +credit a jury yields to the testimony of a competent and credible +witness is simply a volition without any conviction of the +understanding. Infallible authority convinces the understanding +as well as moves the will. We do not believe the revealed truth +on the authority of the pope; we believe it on the word of God, +who can neither deceive nor be deceived; but we believe on the +authority of the pope or church the fact that God has revealed +it. The church or the pope is not authority for the truth of what +is revealed--for God's word suffices for that; and we believe it +on his veracity--but is the infallible witness of the fact that +God has revealed or said it. +{221} +If God has made a revelation of supernatural truth, as all +Christians hold, the fact that he has made it, since it +confessedly is not made to us individually, must be received by +us, if at all, on the testimony of a witness. This is what is +meant by believing on authority. If we believe the fact at all, +we must believe it either on some authority or on no authority. +If on no authority, we have no reason for believing it, and our +belief is groundless. If on some authority, then either on a +fallible or an infallible authority. A fallible authority is no +authority for faith. Then an infallible authority, and as the +authority must be duly accredited to us--therefore, be itself +outside of us--it must be an infallible external authority. The +Puritan journal should therefore have headed its article, not +Pope or People, but, Pope or no Faith. Without the infallible +authority or witness, we may have opinions, conjectures, guesses, +more or less probable, but not faith, which excludes doubt, and +is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things +not seen. The Puritan is able, but has not mastered his subject. +There are many things for him yet to learn. + +We have called attention to the article we have reviewed, as one +of the signs of what is going on in the Protestant evangelical +world. It is beginning to learn that there is no resting in the +infallible Book without an infallible interpreter. It begins to +see that it has therefore no authority for dogmas, and it is +gradually giving them the go-by. Dogmas discarded, Christianity, +as a revelation of mysteries or of truth for the intellect, goes +with them, and Christianity becomes a truth only for the heart +and conscience. Then it is resolved into love, and love without +understanding, therefore a sentimental love, and, with the more +advanced party, purely sensual love. This is whither +Protestantism is undeniably tending, and well may Dr. Ewer say +that, as a system of religion, it has proved a failure. It has +lost the church, lost practically the Bible, lost faith, lost +doctrine, lost charity, lost spirituality, fallen into a sickly +sentimentalism, and is plunging into gross sensuality. Here +endeth the "glorious reformation." + +---------- + + Translated From The German + By Richard Storrs Willis. + + Emily Linder. + + II.--Her Conversion. + + +We are now arrived at the most important period of her life. Miss +Linder often referred with thankful heart to God's guiding +providence; and in the steady progress of her spiritual life thus +far is this not to be mistaken. Naturally religious, and inspired +with an unaffected yearning for the entire truth, she was happily +conducted into a circle of friends where her dawning faith +received both impulse and guidance. Exterior incidents +strengthened a certain interior magnetic bias. Since the day +which rendered Assisi so dear to her, an invisible power had +drawn her toward the visible church, and her leaning to +Catholicity was imperceptibly strengthened. +{222} +Her activity in art deepened her sympathies with a church in +which art finds its true place and consecration. An intellectual +intercourse of many years with friendly Catholic men and families +could not fail to remove many a prejudice. Thus had an unexpected +but powerful combination of circumstances conspired to lead a +mind ingenuously seeking the truth to Catholicity. It would be +quite a mistake, however, to suppose, as has been thought by +some, that the personal influence of any friend whatever had +worked decisively upon her determination to take the final step. +No one could do this; not even Brentano, strong as was his +interest in her spiritual life. + +Clemens Brentano had come to Munich in October, 1833, and made +his domestic arrangements in his usual characteristic style at +Professor Schlotthauer's, "in one of the most pious and genial of +Noah's arks," as he facetiously describes it. His associations +led him into the same social circle in which Miss Linder moved, +and soon after his arrival he made her acquaintance. Her pious +earnestness, her cultivated, artistic nature, her charming and +judicious benevolence, enchained his interest; and he believed, +as is stated in his biography, to have found in her just the +nature for the Catholic faith. One knows with what strength and +zeal Brentano devoted himself (and in increasing ratio with +increasing years) to such friends as were dear to him in the +matter, particularly, of their acquaintance with the faith of his +own church, and their participation in her blessings. His +animated desire to instruct, which was ever without affectation +or concealment, expressed itself in just such cases with the +utmost freedom and frankness. Whoever reads that clever letter, +"To a Lady Friend," written during these years at Munich, can +tolerably well judge of the tone and style with which he brought +home to a pious Protestant the warmth and depth of his religious +convictions. + +Certain is it that Miss Linder gained, through Brentano, a deep +insight into the inner life of the church and the hidden graces +and forces which stream through her. He had the power, as she +said, "of making some things intelligible which might otherwise +remain for ever closed to one." The life and the visions of +Katharina Emmerich, which he read aloud on her weekly +reading-evenings, made a profound impression upon her. As though +in confirmation of what she heard, she saw with her own eyes at +Kaldern a similar phenomenon in Maria von Mörl, that astounding +living wonder, and was penetrated with the atmosphere of truth +with which, as Gorres expresses it, Maria von Mörl seemed +enveloped. She caused a portrait of this phenomenon to be +executed by her lady friend, Ellenrieder; and always gladly gave +her visitors (as is stated by Emma Niendorf) a full description +of the _stigimated_, just as Brentano was wont to do in his +letters. In this, as in other ways, was her intercourse with +Brentano of service to her. To many an outwork of knowledge did +he build a bridge, a _pontifex maximus_, as he once +jestingly applied the term to himself. Finally, his own Christian +death made a profound and lasting impression upon her. + +Any other influence than mild, patient instruction was, once for +all, excluded by her. Even the holiest zeal, if it sought, in any +way, to crowd in upon her, could only force a nature like hers +into antagonism, and check everything like quiet development. +{223} +With all her humility, this lady possessed the self-reliance and +genuine independence of a Swiss. She sought the way of truth with +such deep longing that she willingly accepted guidance; but with +such severe scrutiny, that she was not to be confused, and was +inaccessible to every kind of coaxing from any side. For, from +the quarter of her old theological standpoint there was no lack +of friendly advice, or of opinions bringing great weight with +them,--supposing that mere human opinions could ever have decided +such a question. Even raillery was not lacking. Platen gave his +particular attention to this kind of weapon, and put himself to +no little trouble to ridicule her out of her Catholic +proclivities. The theological tendency she had taken since the +days passed at Sorrento had become to the poet of the +_Abassiden_ altogether "too romantic," and he hoped to cool +her religious zeal with a cold irony. Thus, he once satirically +addressed himself to her from Florence, (February 24th, 1835,) +"Might one be so bold as to enquire what progress you have made +in your conversion to the only saving church; or is this a +secret? In case of a change of religion, I trust you will follow +the advice of a friend, and turn, rather, to the Greek Church. +For, if you prize Catholicism on account of its antiquity, the +Greek Church is doubtless older. And is it the ceremonial which +particularly attracts you; then here, too, is the Greek service +far more aesthetic and imposing." Count Platen doubtless felt +that in a theological controversy he was no match for his +well-informed friend; and therefore, in his letters he appealed +to her as an artiste. True, the barrenness of Protestantism in +art he quietly admitted; but all the better success he promised +himself in an attempt to belittle the merit of the church in the +field of art by certain cunning sophistries. In several of his +letters he stumbled upon the neither very bright nor novel idea +of presenting the church as at an obsolete standpoint. +"Certainly," he admonishes the artist, "Catholicity, as a thing +of a former age, is highly to be esteemed, but not for the +present. Her time is past, even for art. Perhaps by and by an +artera may dawn upon her, but this will be of a purely aesthetic +nature; for a blending of art with religion is no longer among +the possibilities," etc. The thought that his friend, after all, +might take some such fatal step evidently gave the poet much +uneasiness; for even in his last letter to her, written but two +weeks before his death, he makes another attempt at the same +style of argument. It is contained in a description of Palermo, +written at Naples, September 7th, 1835: "I received your welcome +letter shortly after my return from Calabria. I know not how my +mother could write you that Palermo did not please me; or, if so, +to what extent this was the case. I simply remember saying that +the location of Palermo bore no comparison with that of Naples. +There are certainly lacking the islands, Vesuvius, and the coast +of Sorrento; although the mountain background of Palermo is very +beautiful. The Rogers chapel, there, is something that would +please you--a church of the twelfth century, in perfect +preservation; its style that of the old Venetian and Roman +churches; and although of smaller dimensions, yet the finest of +them all. It is the more interesting to attend a service there, +because one sees that Catholic culture was calculated solely for +the Byzantine style of architecture; for with such surroundings, +only, could it be effective. Thus does Catholicity, even as to +architecture, prove itself a thing of the past." + +{224} + +Enough of this. Such platitudes as these were not calculated to +entangle a nature far too deep for them, or check the development +of a work so earnestly undertaken. Emily Linder well knew that +the church has already outlived many just such "obsolete +standpoints," and many such prophets of evil, who have mistaken +their wishes for reality, and phrases for axioms. How dignified +and how welcome, in comparison with this sophistry from Naples, +must have seemed to her the greeting of an old friend and art +companion addressed to her from Rome, in the spring of 1833: "Be +assured that I often fervently remember you to our Lord. Do you +the same by me. May a holy unrest and impatience fill us to take +'by violence' the kingdom of heaven!" + +This holy unrest had indeed for some time possessed her, and on +many an occasion broke forth in expressions of touching and +yearning expectancy. While viewing the cathedral of Cologne, in +the year 1835, she ardently exclaims, "Ah! of a certainty an age +whose lofty inspirations (and of no transient kind) could produce +such monuments as this, deserved neither the epithet of rude nor +dark. There resided in it a light which we, with our (gas!) +illumination, could never produce." Again, as to the interior of +the grand cathedral--"I know not why, but I cannot repress my +tears. An irrepressible melancholy and yearning seizes me here." +The same year, after viewing with Schubert the minster at Ulm, +she makes this noteworthy observation in her journal, "It almost +pained me that the old cathedral is no longer used for Catholic +service, and that the choir and sanctuary are now so desolate." +Already had she adopted many Catholic views. At an early period +she believed in an active sympathy between this and the other +world, and a purification of the soul in that world. The church's +benediction was highly prized by her; for which reason, even as +Protestant, she was in the habit of bearing about with her on her +travels a little flask of holy water. Many of her views were as +yet very undecided; but strong and irrepressible was her longing +for that truth which should bring her peace. This clung by her in +all her wanderings, and often drew from her a deep cry of the +heart. The notes which she made during a trip to Holland, in +company with Schubert, in the year 1835, closed with the +following words, "These lonely days of travel have left me much +time for meditation. To-day a crowd of thoughts and emotions +fairly thronged upon me. I said to myself, To what purpose all +this? Whither is this invisible power impelling us? Are we really +advanced by it, or made the happier? Often this affluence of +emotion rises to a kind of transport; then, again, it turns to +pain, for I know not the why nor the whither. Is there a +connectedness in all this? Is it enduring? Once more, then, why? +During this journey of mine I have often prayed, O Lord, let me +know thy will. Let me follow the path which is pleasing to thee. +Lead me but to thyself, and in any way thou mayst choose. Let it +become clear what thou really desirest of me. By this means I +experienced great relief, and also the certainty that He, who +with such signal fidelity had thus far led me, would clearly make +known to me his will, would guide me into his paths." + +{225} + +As the interior movement increased, she was impelled to confer +with intelligent friends in the distance concerning this most +momentous interest of her life. Especially with Overbeck there +ensued a correspondence which, continuing for years, was of great +assistance in attaining to religious clearness. Overbeck took +kindest interest in her doubts and scruples. He had formerly gone +over the same ground, and could therefore confer with her about +such matters "as a brother." His letters grew into a connected +vindication of Catholic doctrine, and the truth and beauty of the +church, expressed in the mild, clear, fervent, and touching +language of one equally worthy of respect as man and artist. With +a nature like Overbeck's, where the man and the artist are not +two distinct individualities, but are united in a higher form +--Christianity--words have a more elevated significance; and a +correspondence with him must have necessarily possessed an import +more than usually edifying. Emily Linder deeply felt this. We +take her own testimony when we say that Overbeck's letters +contributed largely toward her religious development; and, by the +overwhelming conviction of his words, no less than by his own +deep spirituality, she attained to a knowledge of very vital +truths. She viewed the assistance he rendered her in the light of +a perpetual obligation; and in later years, long after she became +a Catholic, she breathed, in her letters to the admirable master, +a "God reward you for it." + +Meantime, however, she had to pass through many a severe +struggle. The wrestling and testing which her conscientiousness +imposed upon her was of long continuance. The dread of a hasty +step which might afterward plunge her into the deepest unrest, +caused her to advance but cautiously. Her mental vacillation +continued for quite a period, during which she was filled with +unsatisfied spiritual yearnings. She stood just on the portal of +the church, afraid to enter. Many a prayer, far and near, +ascended in her behalf to heaven. Brentano lived not to witness +the conversion he so longed for. But the hope which gladdened his +last days attained a realization the year after his death. + +In 1842, she wrote to an artist friend in Frankfort, "I am fully +satisfied that I entertain no prejudices, and honestly wish to +know God's will. He has already cleared away many a spiritual +obstacle, and transformed much within me. When it is his holy +will to lead me into the church, I am confident that he will +remove every remaining hinderance to my conviction." She thought, +however, that the church did not give Protestants a very easy +time. Their acceptance of the Tridentine confession of faith was +a hard matter. Still, her mind had already attained to such +clearness that she now desired the instruction of some competent +priest. Through the instrumentality of Diepenbrock, a theological +teacher was brought to her, who gained her confidence. She +earnestly began her task, zealously and perseveringly devoting to +it several hours a week for an entire year. The structure of +Catholic faith began to open itself to her now with all its +interior consistency and harmony. One scruple after another +vanished, including those which finally troubled her; as, for +instance, the expression, "Mother of God;" the alleged mutilation +of the holy sacrament, by withdrawal of the cup from the laity, +etc. In the words of her spiritual guide, she learned to +distinguish that which is divine, and essential, and immutable in +the church, from that which is human, and incidental, and +mutable; and what had hitherto proved an insurmountable obstacle, +the seemingly mechanical, and often rude devotions of the common +people, as also the worldly splendor of the hierarchy--this +ceased to trouble her more. + +{226} + +In the autumn of 1843, Miss Linder made another tour to the Tyrol +and Upper Italy, and few could surmise that she was so near to +the decisive step. She writes from Munich, on the 16th of +October, "I have just made with the Schuberts a somewhat +fatiguing trip as far as Verona, where, by the way, I had almost +come to a standstill, to copy a picture there. We then remained +for a couple of weeks in Botzen, where all was so quiet, and +reposeful, and secluded, that it was right grateful to me." Amid +this stillness and seclusion to which she abandoned herself, +still more than in Munich, was finally brought to maturity "the +great work of redemption." + +Toward the end of November, 1843, on the approach of Advent, +there burst upon her spiritual life a new era, and her long +suspense and yearning resolved itself into the cry, "I will enter +the church!" The final word of decision was immediately winged to +heaven on a prayer. Upon the threshold of that expectant season, +when the church sings, "Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, +and let the clouds rain the just," she participated, one morning, +with the most ardent devotion, in a low mass celebrated in +conformity with her intention. This was the decisive hour. She +left the chapel with the joyous and unalterable resolve to enter +into fellowship with the Catholic Church. All was overcome, aided +and enlightened by the grace of God. Standing before her little +house altar, she rehearsed, for the first time, the Catholic +creed. + +The first to whom the glad intelligence flew was a noble pair, +Apollonia Diepenbrock and her brother, the latter of whom was +subsequently the celebrated cardinal and bishop of Breslau, but +at that time, the vicar-general of Regensburg. Both were +associated with the pious artiste in a friendship of many years, +and had been long familiar with the course of her religious +development. Melchior von Diepenbrock, during just this last +period, had been a faithful and intelligent adviser to her. The +disciple of Sailers responded to the joyous intelligence with a +peace-greeting befitting a shepherd of the church. He wrote on +the 29th of November, 1843: + + "Hindered by very unwelcome business, I was unable, either + yesterday or the day before, to express my heartfelt sympathy + and delight over the surprising intelligence of your note of + Saturday. Surprising, because I had not anticipated so sudden a + loosening of the fruit, ripe as it was. But the wind 'which + bloweth where it listeth,' stirred the tree, and the ripe, + mellow fruit fell into the lap of the true mother, where it + will now be well cared for, growing mellower and sweeter until + the coming of the Bridegroom. My hope and prayer for you now + is, that peace and rest may be yours after a suspense and + unrest which has thus loosed itself in the simple and welcome + words,'I will enter the church.' But you have every reason to + be at rest; for a church which has given birth to a Wittman, a + Sailer, a Fénélon, a Vincent de Paul, a Tauler, a Suso, a + Thérèse, a Bernard, an Augustine, an Athanasius, a Polycarp, + and so on, up to the apostles themselves, and which has nursed + them on her breast with the self-same heavenly doctrine; from + whose mouth and from whose life, in turn, this same identical + doctrine has been breathed down like a fragrant aroma, through + a course of eighteen hundred years; in such a church is there + safe and good travelling companionship for heaven. Following + their guidance, you need not fear going astray. I therefore, + from my very soul, bid you welcome to this noble company to + which you have long since, through your intense yearning, and + by anticipation, belonged, but now have identified yourself + with openly, by a grasp of the hand and a kiss of + reconciliation; with whom you will soon fully and finally be + incorporated by that most sacred seal and covenant, that + highest consecration of love, the holy Eucharist. You have had + a rough and thorny path to travel, and passed through long + years of struggle, doubt, and conflict, to arrive at this goal. +{227} + Bind, now, the olive wreath of peace coolingly around your + heated temples. Let all labor of the brain, all strain of the + intellect, now subside. Live a life of tranquillity. Open your + heart to a reception of the holy gifts which the church, as you + enter, proffers you. And above all, banish all anxiety and + doubt, for therewith you gain nothing, and spoil all. Let your + barque, wafted by the breath of God, glide peacefully down the + broad stream of the church's life. Revel in the stars, and the + flowers which mirror themselves therein, the denizens that + disport there; and, should now and then an uncouth, repulsive + creature catch your eye, reflect that the kingdom of God is + still entangled in the contradictions of developement. Think + upon that great world-net which gathers souls of every + description, and upon the angel who, upon the great day, will + separate them all. And now I commend you to God. Once more, may + peace and joy in the Holy Ghost be your morning-gift." + +And soon this "morning-gift" possessed her soul. Being fully +prepared, her admission, as she had wished, could be immediate. +But she desired to take the step in all quietness, and only a few +of her friends, like Professor Haneberg and Phillips, were +informed of it the evening before, she desiring to secure for +herself their prayers. + +On the 4th of December, 1843, Emily Linder, accompanied by her +friend Apollonia, in the Georgian Seminary chapel made solemn +profession of the Catholic faith. On the day following, the papal +nuncio, Viale Prelà, administered to her, in his house-chapel the +sacrament of confirmation; delivering, at the same time, an +eloquent address in German. The friend before mentioned was +godmother, and, as one present remarked, by her faith, her love, +her prayers, and her efforts, she had indeed proved her spiritual +mother. In company with this friend, she went to Regensburg, in +order to withdraw into retirement, and to be alone with her +new-born joy. + +Her letters during this period give animated testimony to what +extent, and with what daily increase, this joy was experienced. A +jubilant rapture pervades the letters which announce the event to +distant friends, particularly those addressed to Overbeck in Rome +and Steinle in Frankfort; both friends and companions in art. +These and a few others had been admitted to her confidence in +spiritual matters. To the latter, whom, of her younger friends, +she particularly prized and respected, she thus announces the +circumstance, "This time I come to you with but few words; words +no longer conditional, but right conclusive. I am a Catholic. +Could I have written to you, as I wished, to ask your prayers for +me before the eventful hour, even then you might have been taken +by surprise; but now the news has doubtless reached you from +Munich, and I write this letter simply as confirmation, and +because I wish that you should be informed of it by me +personally. You have lately hardly thought, I suppose, that it +would come so soon; and yet I was long prepared for it. After +many a struggle, particularly of late, it had become to me a +positive necessity, a natural and necessary development of my +spiritual life. When I had once announced my determination to the +clergyman who for some time had been instructing me, my desire +was to take the step right quickly. My good Apollonia left +Regensburg immediately for Munich, to be present at my reception +into the church; and the day following this I was confirmed. I +have now accompanied my friend hither to escape from all +excitement and pass some days in retirement; needed opportunity +of fortifying myself against much that must necescessarily come, +that is hard and disagreeable. +{228} +Yet has God been inexpressibly kind and gentle in his dealings +with me thus far." + +A letter to the same friend on the 19th of January thus reads: + + "My last letter was very, very brief; but the glad tidings had + to come first, and for this few words were needed. But now six + weeks have flown, and it may give you pleasure to hear that I + am daily newly bleat, newly affected by the great goodness of + God. You may not have doubted this, yet you may be glad to be + assured of it, having always taken such interest in my welfare. + Ah dear Steinle! how sweet, how sweet a thing to be in the + church! I ask myself every day, Why then, I? Why just to myself + has this grace been vouchsafed, in preference to others so much + worthier of it? How can this have come about? For no other + reason, surely, than because so many faithful souls living + close to God, have interceded, so untiringly interceded for me, + that God could not resist their importunity. How often, how + very often must I exclaim, as you have done, God be praised and + extolled for ever. Now for the first time do I understand that + deep longing and incessant yearning of the heart. Oh! would + that all, all were in God's one, great house; would that all + could experience the friendliness, the inexpressible + friendliness of the Lord, he whose mercy transcends all + understanding and conception. Ah dear friend! supplicate and + implore God for me, that this grace--I will not say may be + deserved, how could this ever be?--but that I may daily more + deeply comprehend and appreciate it, and that my life may + become one song of thankfulness and benediction. I am still + like a happy little child at rest in the lap of its mother. The + cross will yet come, and perhaps must necessarily do so; yet am + I not dismayed; for well I know where, at any hour, courage, + and strength, and consolation are to be found. + + "Hitherto has God made it very easy to me. My sister--the only + one I have--was surprised and grieved at the first + intelligence; but rather, I think, from a loving dread that I + might be estranged from her. Now that she finds this is not the + case, I hear no complaint from her. My nieces and my intimate + friends at home are all unchanged. Just here, too, my friends + have remained the same; only two of my young lady acquaintances + thought it due to their religious convictions to break with me; + but lo! on New Year's day they both came and threw their arms + around my neck. ... God be with us all! May he purify and + sanctify us and help us mature to life eternal. Once again, + pray to God for me. Join me in ascribing thanks to him for his + inexpressible goodness. With heartfelt friendship, + "Emily Linder." + +From this time forth Advent possessed for her a peculiarly +festive significance. She celebrated each recurring anniversary +with feelings of the humblest gratitude, making it a threefold +festival, and greeting it with the joyousness and bliss of a +child who had received on that day the costliest of gifts; for it +was the anniversary of her day of final decision, her reception +into the church, and her confirmation. On the 27th of December, +1844, she thus writes again to the same friend: + + "Shall I attempt to depict to you the experience of my inner + life? Oh! it is ever yet to me, to use your own expression, the + pure mother-milk of inexpressible grace and goodness. Such, at + times, is the intensity of my joy, that it is as though I must + hold fast my heart with both hands. I have been celebrating of + late a great festivals of the soul; for at advent time I + entered the church, but included in my devotional intention, + also, was the celebration of my decision and confirmation; all + these were occasions of spiritual festivity. One entire year of + grace and blessedness! ... The kind Tony F---- calls me 'the + pet-child of the Lord.' This may be so; but when I enquire, + Whence this to me? oh! then I must deeply, deeply bow myself, + and with profoundest shame can only still enquire of my Lord, + Whence this to. me? ... Nor will I entertain forebodings for + the future. He who infuses such rapture into the heart, + can--yes, must--impart strength and courage, when he lays the + cross upon our shoulders. He will do it, too--benedictions on + his holy name!" + +{229} + +How idle, now, appeared all the fears and anxiety as to a too +hasty step, which had rendered her final decision so difficult, +while still standing at the diverging pathways. Not a trace more +of the unrest which had so troubled her. The morning-gift of +peace and joy in faith, which Diepenbrock's kind wishes bespoke +her, had become indeed her assured inheritance. A song of +thankfulness warbled unceasingly in her heart. + +A few more expressions which escaped her, will show that the +transport she experienced was not the effect of transient +excitement. On one occasion she thus addresses a friend: + + "You may be assured, of course, without written proof, that I + often think of you: but how often I breathe to you spiritually + my joy, my exceeding joy--do you know this? My heart often + sings like that of a little child before a Christmas-tree, over + the inexhaustible goodness of God, and knows not how it should + demean itself in the possession of such imperishable gifts. How + good, how very good has God been thus to call me into his holy + church!" + +On the recurrence of advent she writes again on the 8th of +December, 1845, as to the celebration of this festive period of +hers: + + "During the past week I have been celebrating my apparently + quiet but really great and momentous festival, the anniversary + of my reception into the church. Ah! dear Steinle, what can I + say more than, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is + within me bless his holy name! How inexpressibly great his + mercy and grace, how past all thinking and conceiving! ... To + be safe-sheltered in the church in times like these, when no + hold and no firm footing outside of her can be found! Oh! if + our brethren but knew what peace is hers--if they could but + imagine what they are thrusting away from them! It is enough to + make one's heart bleed. But this I can assure them, that only + in the church can one really know her; only by living her life + can one understand that life. Outside of the church can one + learn much about her, of course, and to a certain extent inform + himself; but then, she is not only a something that _has_ + been--an historical church--she is a present-existing, living + church, because Christ is still alive in her, and still active + in his work of reconciliation. Of such a church-life. we can + have no outside idea, just because we do not live it. How often + should I like to tell Clemens how it is with me now. But, God + willing, he surmises it and rejoices thereat. In all things be + praise to God!" + +In these words there rings out, certainly, the genuine, clear +tone of a heart happy in its faith. Equally evident in these +passages is the fact, that her personal relations with her +Protestant friends and relatives knew no change. With a certain +pious fidelity of friendship, which was peculiar to her, she +sought to hold fast to the old ties which had become so dear, and +always met her former companions in faith with the same simple, +trusting affection. Cornelius, who welcomed her conversion with +heartfelt interest, after his return from Rome writes to her from +Berlin, on the 4th of June, 1844: + + "In Rome I learned that you had at last fully _taken + heart._ It did not surprise me. God bless you, and protect + you hereafter both from spiritual pride and indifference." + +Certainly no one could less need this admonition than Emily +Linder, who was a pattern of lowly humility. No one was more +sweetly considerate and liberal than she; and Abbot Haneberg most +justly remarked at her grave, that, after her conversion, she was +scrupulous to discharge all the duties of friendship toward her +former companions in faith, and never failed fully to appreciate +all who proved worthy of her respect. + +This unchanging fidelity induced her to make a trip, the very +summer after her conversion, to her native city of Basle, and to +Lucerne, where resided other relatives of hers. A personal visit +just at that time seems to her then more a duty than ever, in +order that her relatives might have ocular evidence "that the +Catholic Church is not an estranging one, and cherishes no +feeling like that of hate." +{230} +This sentiment regulated her conduct throughout. A longing for a +universal religious reunion strongly possessed her, and she was +deeply grieved to see many honest Protestants standing so near +Catholicity, who did not recognize "the historic church in the +existing one," mainly (judging by her own experience) from a lack +of proper information and from a certain shyness, which they +could not explain even to themselves. "The emergency is great; +souls are hungering and thirsting; but the more sensitive of the +Protestants shrink from that shock to the feelings and social +relations which they fear will ensue--a great mistake; for love +will experience no diminution; it will be increased. But outside +of the church they know nothing of this. Alas! how much do they +not know!" + +This was written in 1846. Three years later she recurred again to +her favorite idea in a charming letter addressed to Professor +Steinle from Regensburg, on Ascension-day, May 17th, 1849: + + "As I stood gazing at the people thronging up the steps and + through the grand old portals of our superb cathedral, my heart + was strangely moved. I saw in spirit the time when all people, + united again and happy, would stream with songs of hallelujah + through these portals and proclaim the wonderful works of God. + Could I but see this and then depart in peace! Such may not be + my lot, but in eternity the intelligence may yet reach me and + be a theme of thanksgiving to God." + +As though from her very childhood a member of the church, she +felt from the first moment entirely at home in her precincts and +in the blessed activity of her communion, becoming quickly and +easily wonted to all Catholic practices, to which she gave +herself up with all the intelligence and abandonment of her soul. +How well she now appreciated the truth of the words addressed to +her on joining the church by the noble Cardinal Diepenbrock, "You +press now the ground which, not only Christ's own footsteps, but +his very hands, betokened as the foundation of his church; which +his spirit consecrated, which, his love hallowed: the soil whence +all those vines should spring, which clinging around and +clambering over his cross, may literally by and on him bear +fruits of love, of humility, of fidelity, to all eternity!" And +following his faithful precepts, she forthwith launched her +barque, and, wafted by the breath of God, it glided peacefully +over the broad stream of the church-life. + +Amid the deep peace which flowed in upon her, she now recommenced +with fresh vigor her artistic occupations, devoting herself with +more fervor than ever to religious painting. The forenoon was +regularly passed at the easel. What a pleasure it must have been +to her now to produce altar and other pictures for the house of +the Lord! These she donated to poor churches, sending them +sometimes to great distances, even to poor Catholic communities +in Greece and Paris. Whenever a call for assistance reached her, +according to her capacity she was ready with her offering. Her +great industry in art enabled her to respond to numerous +requests, and in the course of a long life she rendered many a +poor parish happy, which would otherwise have been long compelled +to dispense with churchly embellishment. Free from all artistic +fastidiousness, she never disdained to make copies of other +pictures. Thus with great interest and ability she made a copy of +a picture by Overbeck, which she had in her collection, for the +chapel of the Sisters of Mercy in Munich. +{231} +With a modest esteem for her own abilities, she always worked +under the supervision of an old master, whose judgment never +failed to have its weight with her. A deep and tender sensibility +pervades her pictures; and if she betrays a certain timidity in +the technical execution, there is evidence of great industry and +attention to detail. One of her best works, perhaps, is a +portrait of Brentano, an oil painting remarkable for likeness and +spirituality of expression. After his death, she had this +lithographed by Knauth, and copies struck off. It is given in the +first volume of his complete works, and is accompanied by a verse +which serves as a burthen to one of his most beautiful legends, +as it might to the legend of his life, commencing, + + "O star and flower, soul and clay, + Love, suffering, time, eternity." + +The ancient and laudable habit among lovers of art to enrich, by +special orders and purchases, their own homes--that noble +privilege of educated wealth!--she practised to a lavish extent. +Her collection of pictures embraced gradually works of the most +eminent artists. Besides the masters already mentioned, +(Overbeck, Cornelius, Eberhard,) Steinle was represented in a +series of glorious creations. Several of these, like the +"Manger-Festival of St. Francis," the "Legend of St. Marina," +were the source of some of Brentano's beautiful inspirations and +are now included in his sacred poems. In addition to these +artists were Schnorr, Schraudolph, Schwind, Führich, Neher, +Eberle, Ahlborn, Koch, etc. In another respect, also, she +approved herself a true artist, namely, by rendering constant +assistance to such pupils of the distinguished masters with whom +she was friendly, as gave evidence of talent. Her helping hand +alone rendered, indeed, many an artistic undertaking possible; +and not a few artists had occasion, in such instances, to admire +not only the liberality but delicacy with which she dispensed +orders and bore with trying delays. She exhibited an +extraordinary degree of patience in the friendly manner with +which she would conform herself to personal circumstances and +private relations which did not at all concern her, even in cases +of work delayed for years and paid for in advance. She would even +heap coals of fire upon their heads by surprising them with +further money advances--a charity which at times was exceedingly +opportune. By this and similar methods Miss Linder, without any +display, accomplished much good, and constantly experienced the +pure pleasure of making others happy. And in yet another manner +she showed a noble liberality. With rare unselfishness she would +allow copies to be made and disseminated of the most valuable +drawings in her collection, her own private property. She not +only encouraged efforts of this kind, but sometimes at her own +expense actually initiated them. By this multiplication of fine +works of art she shared prominently in that noble task undertaken +by Overbeck and his companions--the establishment of a more +dignified and elevated art standard. + +True art seemed to assume with her, year by year, a graver +aspect. In judging of a work, she deemed its intent just as +important as its execution. She discerned in art a reflected +radiance from the world of light: and all that did not tend +upward to this she regarded as idle effort and labor lost. She +observed with pain an increasing tendency to the material, +particularly since the year 1850; and nothing more deeply +incensed her than a demeaning of art to low and base uses. +{232} +Even in Munich, after Cornelius left and Louis. I. descended the +throne, there existed no longer the ancient standard. What is now +left of that school of sacred art, once blossoming out with such +inspiriting vigor? It now leads the existence of a Cinderella. +Even in the year 1850, Miss Linder remarked: "Our academy affords +me no longer any very great pleasure: the period of love and +inspiration has passed. Shall we ever see its return?" + +The gathering clouds in the political horizon and the disturbance +of social relations were not encouraging to any hope like this. +But at just such a time, when outside life was forbidding, she +found how grateful a definite aim and mission may be, and +experienced the quiet delight of art and art-occupation more than +ever. She thus writes from Pöhl, a favorite resort of hers in +summer, adjacent to the Ammersee, "I shall yet make a little tour +in the Tyrol and then ensconce myself in winter quarters, where I +shall be happy in a work already commenced and which will +immediately engross me. It is a source of the greatest happiness +in these days to have a given task. How much it enables one to +get rid of!" On viewing Gallait's picture of "Egmont and Horn" in +the exhibition, she remarked, "I should not care to own the +picture, and yet there is much to admire in it. The sphere of art +is so extensive and yet so limited--after all, one cannot but +feel that everything not in God's service is, to say the least, +superfluous." + +An evening quiet overspread her relations with the outside world. +But uninterruptedly until her death she kept up, in her own home, +the accustomed hospitality. Her house was always a central point +of really good society. No literary or artistic celebrity could +long tarry in Munich without an invitation to her table, around +which every week a little circle was gathered. Privy-Counsellor +von Ringseis usually acted as host, a man whose varied knowledge, +ripe experience, and inexhaustible humor better befitted him than +any other to blend the most opposite characteristics of the +guests. With friends in the distance she maintained an extensive +correspondence, and also cultivated her friendly relations with +them by regular summer trips: a passion for travel and a love of +nature remaining true to her into advanced old age. + +A nature so profound, so true, and so enlightened was constituted +for friendship, and Emily Linder served as a model in this +regard. She possessed those two qualities by which it is best +retained--candor and disinterestedness. What she was capable of +as to the latter quality has already been sufficiently shown. An +open frankness was the groundwork of her character. She possessed +a kind but impartial judgment, and in the right place she knew +how to assert it. The same sincerity was expected of others, and +nothing with her outweighed truthfulness. Whoever offended in +this point came to conclusions with her speedily and once for +all. A half-and-half sincerity or prevarication could force even +her dovelike mildness to resentment. When called to pass judgment +upon the work of a friendly artist, there arose a noble contest +between frankness and kindness. Her opinions were always to the +point, and by the soundness of her judgment she gave food for +reflection. But in cases of a change of opinion after more mature +consideration, she was quick to acknowledge herself at fault. A +single incident may illustrate this. On occasion, of a defence, +by an artist, of a celebrated master, to one of whose works she +had taken exceptions, she replied: + +{233} + + "My first judgment, then, was unquestionably hasty. But among + friends I shall never like that degree of caution always + insisted upon which admits of no quick and impulsive word; for + thus would all open-heartedness be repressed; a thing which no + amount of shrewdness or cool deliberation could ever replace. I + beg for myself the privilege therefore, hereafter, just as + often, and perhaps just as hastily, to express my opinion." + +She reposed the same confidence in the judgment of others. All +the more weighty art matters about which she concerned herself +were submitted to the counsel and decision of intelligent friends +of art. She took the most lively interest, also, in every +important event or crisis in the families of these friends. Her +thoughtful consideration loved to express itself in pleasant +souvenirs and playful surprises of gifts; and her fidelity often +extended even to the departed. Many a friend, after having passed +to a long home, was endowed with a memorial Mass which she +established for the repose of his soul. The Klee and Möhler +memorial, a composition of Steinle, copies of which she caused at +her own expense to be made, she intended (an intention, indeed, +never realized) as an aid to the establishment of a Klee and +Möhler fund; and a lasting monument it would have proved to the +memory of these two noble men. For any expression of fidelity +toward herself she was deeply grateful; particularly in her more +advanced years, after she became more and more aware how rare a +thing is disinterested attachment in this age of unprincipled +selfishness. "Any instance of loyal attachment," said she, "moves +me the more deeply in these times, when truly it is no +fashionable virtue." + +A special object of her loving thoughtfulness was her beloved +Assisi, the little convent of the German sisters of St. Francis. +In times of great distress, particularly during the ravages of +the Revolution, it was no small consolation and delight to +receive thence, after a long interval, reassuring intelligence. +Particularly was this the case during the Mazzini terrorism of +1849. In the autumn of this year, she announced to a friend, with +something like motherly pride: "I have received tidings lately +from our German nuns at Assisi. Appalling things have happened at +Rome, and indications of the same have threatened elsewhere, even +at Assisi. But the good women bravely set at naught all +intimidation and threat, and have come out entirely unharmed. +Yes, even the gangs themselves are reported to have said: One +cannot get the better of these Germans, they pray too much. May +we all of us lay hands upon the same trusty weapon!" The +burgher-maiden whom she took with her as candidate to Assisi on +her journey to Rome in 1829, has already been, for the last +twenty-four years, Superior of the German convent; it so chanced +that she attained to this position the very year that Emily +Linder became a Catholic. During that time, more than twenty +Bavarian maidens followed her to Assisi. If the gratitude of +happy people, who praise God daily that they have found "the true +ark of peace," ever proved a blessing, this blessing accrued, in +rich measure, to the artist from Assisi. Her name is entered in +the memorial book of the convent, and, so long as this spiritual +order exists, she will live there as their "best benefactress, +and as their dear, good mother in Christ." Thus is she spoken of +in the numerous and touching letters of the pious sisters. + +{234} + +Seldom has a human being made a more magnanimous use of a large +income than the departed Emily Linder. Her benevolence was on a +grand scale. Her whole nature was generosity itself; but that +which at first was but natural good will to all became afterward, +by the pious spirit which pervaded her, an element of her +religious worship. She considered herself but as the almoner of +the riches God had entrusted to her. Her goodness was of that +serene character which never showed aught of impatience toward +those begging or initiating charities. She gave to both with +equal friendliness. She contributed lavishly to public +institutions for the sick and suffering. And yet what she gave to +the individual poor, and such special families as were commended +to her, must also have been a very considerable sum. In these +simpler distributions of charity she showed a marked delicacy. +The modest poor who came to her house she never allowed to be +waited on by her servants, but administered to their wants +herself. In some instances she bore her gifts on certain +specified days to their dwellings; and in these cases she was +just as systematic, and as punctual to the day and the hour, as +in all things else. Christmas in her house was a festival of the +poor. The lines of Clemens Brentano in his collection of sacred +poems, entitled _To the Benefactress, on the Occasion of her +Presentation to the Poor_, refer to this incident. To what +extent and in what instances she served as unknown guardian +angel, her intimate friends rather guessed at than knew. The +character of her benevolence, generally, was piously-noiseless +and still. Through hidden channels she often reached far in the +distance, sustaining and rescuing (both physically and +spiritually) where the need was very urgent. Often, thus, a gift +flowed forth from her and sped like a sunbeam into some +languishing heart. Many an obstacle has she removed from the path +of a struggling child of humanity; into many a stout but wounded +spirit has she infused new life and energy. Clemens Brentano +termed this a "heavenly little piece of strategy." + +This noiseless activity in art and benevolence did not withdraw +her attention from what was going on outside, and although she +never stepped beyond the natural boundaries of her position, and +was of too quiet a nature to mingle generally in the strife of +parties, she nevertheless, to the last year of her life, +maintained a lively interest in all the great church and +political questions of the day. The prodigious changes which took +place in the world during the fourth period of her life, what +heart would not have been profoundly stirred by them? But, +however painful to her the prevailing Machiavelism of the age, +the insanity of the revolutionary leaders, the pitiable confusion +of the people, and the undermining of all conservative bulwarks +in state and society, courage and hope still maintained the upper +hand. The pressure upon the church and the Pope filled her +perhaps with concern, but did not dismay her. She had the right +standard, and the consolation which it brought, in judging of the +destinies of the nations. When the revolutionary storms of 1848 +and 1849 burst upon them and swept over Germany and Italy, she +remarked: "The experience of all history, and the consolation it +imparts, is just this: God allows men their way to a certain +point, and where the end seems just achieved. But then is +inscribed with an almighty hand, the '_Thus far_.' And +though his church be shaken, this is far better for us than to be +reposing upon cushions of ease." + +{235} + +Her confidence was similarly undisturbed during the succeeding +momentous years. During her attendance upon the drama of _The +Passion_, at Oberammergau, in the year 1860, she was occupied +with reflections upon the stupendous drama of passion of our own +times. "There is something so fearfully grand in the present +events of the world," she wrote to her friend in Frankfort, "that +a certain elevation fills the soul, raising one above this little +life of ours upon earth. The image in our mind of the holy father +is already so spiritualized that it begins to be invested with +the sanctity of the martyr. How many may have to follow in his +martyr footsteps? Shall we live to see the victory? At my time of +life, no; and yet a secret joy often possesses me at the thought +of this glorious era. But I say with you, the great task for us +all is to gain heaven. God vouchsafe this!" The latest period of +German distress she lived through with the intensest sympathy. +She accepted the appalling catastrophe as a severe trial, even to +her own personal feelings and hopes, and recognized in this +calamity the initiation of a still greater. "For me," she wrote +to the same friend, "the hope of any kind of a future is now +past. I must subject my heart to no more disappointment; but the +mercy of God for the individual is still attainable and great; to +every one accessible and possible. You belong, of course, to the +younger generation, and can still dream of a sunrise for our +German fatherland. The result of the present calamity, swiftly as +it may seem to be plunging us into irremediable ruin, will, +nevertheless, never go the length intended by the Prince of Evil. +God stands above him; that is certain. The future will be a +different one; a very different one, from that which we could +ever surmise or guess, even the future of the church. And this +future will be God's. Let that content us." + +Her life was a bright contrast to the demoralization, the unrest, +the arrogant selfishness of our age. She presented to those among +whom she lived the picture of a self-sustained, unselfish, +reposeful soul. Humility, trust in God, and compassion, this was +the fundamental harmony of her daily life. Old age, which often, +indeed, smooths away from the good all little imperfections and +blemishes of character, rendered her still more considerate, +patient, and gentle. Her love of simplicity was as great as were +her means. In her own household, well systemized, careful +economy; outside of this, severe, almost noticeable plainness. +But to her applied the line of the poet: + + "A blessing she could see in lowliness to be." + +While denying herself, she gave with lavish hand to poverty and +distress, to art and to the church. She moved with measured, +dignified pace; but a certain religious harmony of action +imparted to her being and doing an indescribable grace, which is +always the accompaniment of inward purity, and a religion based +upon humility. + +The Abbé Haneberg, in his beautiful tribute at her grave, +remarked, "She seemed, during the last twenty years of her life, +to emulate the most pious of her friends and daughters of Assisi, +and to aim even to outdo them, so systematic and untiring was her +service to God." Of this, however, her friends knew but little. +How much she thus quietly accomplished was never fully known +until after her death. It will suffice here to state that in the +year 1851 she informed herself, through the Superior at Assisi, +of their daily regulations, and the usual succession of religious +exercises. Her everyday life was identified with the daily life +of the church. +{236} +She appreciated the significant beauty and expressive symbolism +of churchly ordinances, and in close observance joined in their +celebration. To this end, she followed the _Ordo_ of her +diocese, and her favorite prayer-book was the Missal. Her +knowledge of languages stood her in good stead here; for, in +addition to the modern languages, she had also learned Latin, and +had become sufficiently familiar with it to follow intelligently +the language of the church. Cardinal Diepenbrock, in 1850, wrote +to her of a lady who was occupying herself with the Latin, or +church, language; "A worthy study," he remarked. "Have you not +also begun it? It strikes me that Clemens was saying something +about it. But perhaps you were able to get no farther than the +_mensa_; the _mensa Domini_ would naturally be enough +for you." But she went farther than this. In her manuscripts were +found Latin exercises, written under the guidance of the worthy +old Bröber. One room of her spacious residence was arranged as a +chapel, in which was the superb altar-piece by Eberhard, "The +Triumph of the Church." This chapel was favored by the ordinariat +with a Mass licence. On the anniversary of her union with the +church she was accustomed to receive holy communion here; and +here the departed Bishop Valentin, of Regensburg, once celebrated +Mass. Here, also, she devoted daily a certain time to meditation +and the perusal of the Holy Scriptures. Her favorite place of +devotion, however, was the little chapel of the ducal hospital +which she frequented twice a day; early in the morning, and again +at evening. She had for years a quiet little place in the organ +gallery where, day by day, in all weather, and at all seasons of +the year, she consecrated a couple of hours to prayer. + +As the years flew by, she withdrew herself more and more from the +world, and sought to be "hid in God." The departure to their +final home of so many friends, together with other events, served +as slight admonitions, which by her thoughtful heart were not +unheeded. She recognized in this matter fresh cause of gratitude +to God, who was dealing so tenderly with her to the very end. "I +consider it," she wrote, "a special favor of the Lord that he +grants me so long a preparation for my final hour." Years +previously, she had put herself in Christian readiness for her +last journey, and only hoped that it might prove "a good death +hour." With customary precision, she had ordered all her temporal +affairs. She had even made provision as to her interment, and the +final burial service. Her arrangements for the latter of these, +written in a bold and beautiful hand, were dated the 7th of +October, 1865. On the festival of the Epiphany, 1867, she was for +the last time in her favorite little chapel of the ducal +hospital. Only a few weeks previously, she had begun to feel ill, +and now symptoms of dropsy suddenly developed themselves. The +invalid recognized her condition with Christian resignation, but +did not yet relinquish hope of a recovery. "The task now is, to +resign myself and to be patient. God help me to this," she wrote +at the close of January. It was her last letter. Her friend +Apollonia hastened from Regensburg, and she, who, twenty-three +years before, had stood at her side when received into the +church, was now to stand at her death-bed. The invalid requested +that her friend should remain with her one week; and exactly at +the close of the week she died. During her illness she found +special consolation in the house-altar, where, to her great +spiritual comfort, her worthy confessor repeatedly celebrated +mass. +{237} +From this Eberhard altar, where she first made profession of +Catholic faith and where she yearly commemorated that happy +event, she now received the viaticum and extreme unction. In +conformity with her wish, on the festival of St. Apollonia mass +was again celebrated in her little chapel. It was her last mass, +and the final union of the two friends in holy sacrament. She +seemed now to rejoice in her approaching dissolution as though it +were a return home. One morning as her priest entered, she +stretched out her arms and exclaimed, "May I--oh! may I go home?" +"Yes, the guardian angel accompanies you, he guides you thither," +was the reply. Thereupon she was silent, remained in deep +meditation, and spoke but little after. Yet she seemed to +participate in all that transpired; if prayer were uttered, she +prayed also; to all who drew near she gave a friendly glance, +but, for the most part, remained absorbed and still. + +On the day preceding her death, she summoned all her strength, +and with difficult effort gave expression to several wishes, the +last of her earthly life. She recalled an admirable artist, whom +she held in high personal esteem, from whom she had long desired +a picture as an addition to her collection. She directed a very +considerable sum to be sent to him for a historical picture, +which was now to be painted for the museum at Bale. The future of +her poor, also, such as had been accustomed to receive little +charities, engaged her thoughts; she desired that these charities +should be continued until they had found other benefactors. Her +last words were in allusion to Jerusalem. She bethought herself +of the "Watchers at the Holy Sepulchre," (of the order of St. +Francis,) and also of the "Zion Society," to both of which she +had made yearly contributions, and which she now similarly +remembered. Thus had her life its characteristic close. Her last +mental activity was exercised in works of charity, of art, and of +religion. With a glance at Jerusalem and the sepulchre of her +Saviour, she now went forward toward the new Jerusalem. Her end +was the falling asleep of a child. In the early morning of the +12th of February, 1867, without a single death-struggle, she sank +into slumber--quietly, painlessly, peacefully. + +A gentleman, intimately befriended with her, remarked, "After her +death, I had occasion to observe the intense grief of those who +had been recipients of her bounty, and then first became aware +what a truly royal munificence had been hers, which all were +ignorant of, save God and the poor." Such were the tears that +followed her, together with those countless others, which during +her life she had already dried. + +On the afternoon of the 14th of February a long funeral +procession, composed of the best Catholic society of Munich, and +throngs of the poor, together with the superintendent of public +charities, (then represented by the mayor of the city,) moved +from the pleasant mansion on the corner of Carl street toward the +cemetery, to render their last homage to this noble friend of art +and the poor. The Abbé Haneberg, an old friend of hers, +pronounced the benediction of the church over her grave, which +was located not far from the grave of Möhler. +{238} +In her written instructions, Emily Linder desired only a simple +stone cross above her, the pedestal of the cross bearing the +inscription: + + The slumberer, here, confides in the mercy of God: + +the simplest, but in its simplicity, the most touching testimony +to a being whose interior life was all humility and trust in God, +and whose exterior activity had been the purest mercy itself. To +her might be applied a verse of the beautiful requiem addressed +by Brentano to another departed friend: + + "He, for whom our willing gifts + On the needy we confer, + From his eight beatitudes + Singled Mercy out for her." + +The whole spirit which accompanied her through a life of seventy +years still lived on in her bequests. The half of her large +fortune she left to benevolent and charitable objects; chiefly to +schools and hospitals. True Swiss that she was, she was specially +mindful of her native city. The largest amount donated--200,000 +florins--was bequeathed to the Bishop of Bale, for the benefit of +his diocese. Her art-treasures were, with few exceptions, +incorporated with the museum of Bale, to whose first +establishment she had originally contributed no small amount, and +which, with true patrician feeling, lavishly endowed during her +life. + +In these bequests to art and to the church, Emily Linder reared +for herself a monument which will keep her in blessed +remembrance; and this monument is only the last milestone of +record on the pathway of a life thickly studded with works of +charity. Truly a significant, steadfast existence, harmonious +from its commencement to its very close. + +In days of depression and perplexity would we gaze upon a +portrait of true humanity, ennobled and enlightened by +Christianity, (a portrait we might well present as a study to the +young,) we may point with quiet confidence to the departed Emily +Linder, and exclaim: Behold here a character noble, unselfish, +and complete--a nature of rare purity and depth--a transparent +and beautiful spirit, who verified her faith by her love. + +---------- + + The Irish Church Act Of 1869. + + "They" (the Anglican ministers of Ireland) "will not fleece + the sheep they cannot feed, and spend the spoils of a people + conquered, not won.-- + "_London Times_, March 4th, 1869. + +The measure for the disestablishment and disendowment of the +English Church in Ireland, recently introduced by the English +premier into the British Parliament, is one of the most startling +and boldest steps which has yet been taken by that body to +rectify the criminal blunders of three hundred years of mistaken +legislation. Mr. Gladstone, in moving the first reading of the +act, in a very long speech, evidently prepared with great care, +while admitting it to be "the most grave and arduous work of +legislature that ever has been laid before the House of Commons," +felt the necessity of cautiously and almost apologetically +stating the case and explaining the views of those with whom he +acted. Mr. Disraeli, the leader of the opposition, while agreeing +with his distinguished successor in office in nothing else, was +forced to allow the scheme to be "one of the most gigantic that +had ever been brought before the house"--an opinion which, +judging from the temper of all parties inside and outside of +parliament, appears to be unanimously entertained. + +{239} + +The friends of the act are numerous in England as well as in +Ireland, embracing all the Catholic population and a very large +portion of dissenting Protestants of more advanced and liberal +views in both countries. The Catholics of Ireland see in it the +destruction of that infamous system which has not only robbed +them of their altars and the graves of their ancestors, but +compelled them to support in idleness and luxury what even +Disraeli himself long since denounced as "an alien church." +Though the partial restitution contemplated at this late day by +this act bears no corresponding comparison with the magnitude of +the evils borne, it is still restitution, and a most significant +and, in a sense, abject admission of the utter failure of the +experiment of the English government to force Protestantism on an +unwilling people. The successful passage of the act will also +necessitate the expenditure of large sums of money for purely +charitable purposes, and what, in a national sense, is of more +importance, it will remove one of the most salient and fruitful +causes of Irish discontent. But it is in England that the +question assumes the most portentous magnitude; for it has become +apparent to every one there that the fall of the Irish +Establishment is but the first act in the drama of the total +severance of church and state in the entire British empire. The +entering wedge well driven home in Ireland, the results in other +parts of the United Kingdom become merely a matter of time. Sir +John Grey, one of the strongest supporters of Mr. Gladstone's +bill, himself a Protestant, hints at this in an article in a late +number of his paper, the Dublin _Freeman's Journal_, in +which he says: "He (Gladstone) will soon have powerful +auxiliaries in the English curates, and they have more influence +in forming public opinion in England than the bench of bishops +and the ten thousand incumbents. The Irish curates will be in Mr. +Gladstone's favor, and if ever disestablishment should be the lot +of England--_and he would be a rash politician who would +negative such a proposition_--the English curates would have +in Mr. Gladstone's Irish measure a precedent for an equal measure +of justice to themselves." + +The opposition to the act comes in the first place from the whole +body of Anglican bishops and clergymen in Ireland, if we except +the Bishop of Down and a few badly paid curates who would benefit +by its passage. The Orangemen, that most pestiferous of all +social and political scourges, of course sustain their reverend +friends, and their loyalty on this occasion has culminated in a +remonstrance signed, it is said, by over two thousand noblemen +and landed "gentry." Hostility to the policy foreshadowed by Mr. +Gladstone was very active and virulent in England during the late +elections, and is now exhibited in the Commons by a large and +active tory minority. The English ecclesiastics have also taken +up the cry with equal earnestness and scarcely less vehemence. At +the last sitting of the New Convocation of Canterbury in London, +an address to the queen in opposition to the provisions of the +act was proposed and carried by the upper house, and upon being +sent down to the lower house for adoption, the following and +similar amendments were enthusiastically added: +{240} +"Above all," say those reverend gentlemen, "we are constrained by +our sense of duty to your majesty and to the Reformed Church of +England and Ireland, humbly to represent to your majesty that +disestablishment of the church in Ireland cannot be had without +repudiation, on the part of the nation, of the necessity and +value of the Reformation." This language is explicit and forcible +enough, but the Synod of both Houses of Convocation of the +Province of York, held on the same day, goes a little farther. +"This convocation," they affirm, "view with sorrow and alarm the +proposed attempt to disestablish and disendow the Irish branch of +the United Church of England and Ireland, as seriously affecting +the interests of the church in that part of the British +dominions; as a fatal encroachment on the prerogatives of the +crown; as unsettling the constitution of church and state +guaranteed by engagements entered into by acts of union, and +confirmed to members of the church by the solemn sanction of the +coronation oath." + +That part of the coronation oath prescribed by the first William +and Mary, chapter sixth, to which allusion is here made and which +is the straw that the drowning Anglicans are endeavoring to +grasp, reads as follows: "_Question:_ Will you, to the +utmost of your power, maintain the laws of God, the profession of +the Gospel, and the Protestant Reformed Religion established by +law? And will you preserve unto the bishops and clergy of this +realm, and to the churches committed to their charge, all such +rights and privileges as by law do or shall appertain unto them +or any of them? _King and Queen_: All this I promise to do, +(king and queen lay hands on the holy Gospel, saying,) so help me +God." The condition of this solemn oath would at first sight +appear to preclude the queen from signing the act, were we not +assured by the confident tone, and even the express words, of Mr. +Gladstone that her majesty's views were entirely in accord with +those of her first minister, and in fact, that she had already +placed in the hands of parliament her right of ecclesiastical +appointments in Ireland. + +The history of the Irish Church Establishment, now happily about +to disappear for ever, is so familiar to most intelligent readers +that it requires but a passing notice. Since its birth at a +so-called Irish parliament, summoned by Lord Grey in 1536, down +to the present time, so unjust have been its proceedings, so +rapacious its ministers, and so oppressive its exactions of an +ill-governed and neglected people, with whom it never had the +least sympathy, that Christendom has stood aghast in mingled +wonder and disgust. Not only were the Catholics of Ireland +despoiled of their churches, abbeys, and convents, the monuments +of piety and learning and the dispensaries of Christian charity, +reared by the hands of benevolent ancestors for over a thousand +years, but the very humblest abodes of worship were handed over +to a foreign clergy, preaching a new religion at the point of the +sword, ignorant of the very language of the country, and by birth +and training bitterly hostile to every interest, spiritual and +temporal, of the people they were sent to teach. Nor was this +all. The despoiled masses were compelled to pay, and still pay, +for the support of this "alien" church a tithe on every foot of +cultivated land in the kingdom, and upon the produce and stock +derived from or raised on the same. +{241} +The amount of property thus filched from the overburdened farmers +and peasantry of Ireland under color of law, and the additional +_annual revenue_ wrung from that half-famished nation, is +thus estimated by no less an authority than the English premier: +[Footnote 51] + + [Footnote 51: This, of course, is but a very small portion + indeed of the property taken from the Catholic Church in + Ireland under Henry VIII. and succeeding monarchs. Most of + the abbey lands were first vested in the crown and then + granted to courtiers and others at a nominal rent as the + reward of their apostasy. Many of the wealthiest families in + Ireland derive their titles to their lands from those acts of + spoliation.] + + "The commissioners appointed in 1868 estimated the annual value + at £616,000, but, with all respect for their long labors, he + must differ from them, for they had placed it too low; for one + of their body, in a subsequent publication, estimates it at + £835,000, but for the present purpose he would take it at + £700,000. The capitalized amount was as follows: + + Tithe rent charge, £9,000,000 + Land, £6,250,000 + Other property in money, etc., £750,000 + Total, £16,000,000 + + The result is that the whole value of the ecclesiastical + property of Ireland, reduced and cut down first of all by the + almost unbounded waste of life tenants, and secondly by the + wisdom or unwisdom of well-intentioned parliaments--the + remaining value is no less than £16,000,000 of money, + considerably more than on a former occasion I ventured to + estimate, but then my means of information were smaller than + they now are." + +From the contemplation of past injustice we can now turn with a +sense of relief to the provisions of the act itself, and which, +under such peculiar circumstances, are perhaps as wisely and +judiciously framed as can be expected. On its passage it may be +slightly altered in some of its minor details, but there is +little room for doubt that the act substantially as first +presented will become law. + +And first, those parts of the Acts of Union of the Irish and +English parliaments, passed at the beginning of this century, +permitting certain Irish bishops to sit _ex officio_ as +lords spiritual in the British House of Peers, and giving to the +decrees, orders, and judgments of certain ecclesiastical courts +in Ireland the force and authority of law in that part of the +realm, are unconditionally repealed. The thirteenth section of +the act prescribes: "On the 1st day of January, 1871, every +ecclesiastical corporation in Ireland, whether sole or aggregate; +every cathedral corporation in Ireland as defined by this act +shall be dissolved, and on and after that day no archbishop or +bishop of the said church shall be summoned to or be qualified to +sit in the House of Lords." + +Thus we see that Irish Anglican bishops will no longer be +considered worthy to sit beside their right reverend brethren of +England on the benches of that respectable but rather sleepy +conclave known as the House of Lords, and that the Protestant +Church in Ireland will be resolved into a mere voluntary body +consisting of clerics and laity, whose regulations will only +affect themselves as matters of mutual contract, but who will +have no legal jurisdiction nor recognition except such as may be +conferred by subsequent acts of parliament on local corporations. +When we reflect that the prelates thus so unceremoniously thrust +out of the Lords, and who with their _confrères_ are +stripped of all extrajudicial authority, were, and still are, the +most active promoters of the Act of Union and the fiercest +opponents of its repeal, we cannot help admiring the poetic +justice which now offers the bitter draught to their lips. Like +Macbeth, they but taught "bloody instructions, which, being +taught, return to plague the inventor." + +{242} + +The act next provides for the appointment of a commission which +shall exist for ten years from the commencement of its +operations, and be clothed with full power to reduce to its +possession all the property, lands, tenements, and interests of +or now belonging to the Established Church of Ireland, and to +reconvey, sell, or dispose of the same according to the +provisions of the act, after the 1st day of January, 1871. The +church-buildings now in use by the Established Church will be +handed over, with all their rights, to the "governing body" of +the particular church under the voluntary system of organization; +those not in general use or so dilapidated as to be incapable of +repair, being from their antiquity or the beauty of their +architecture, like St. Patrick's, Dublin, to the number of +twelve, will be transferred by the commissioner to the care of +the Board of Public Works, with an adequate appropriation in +money for their proper care and preservation. Against this latter +arrangement we entirely and emphatically protest. St. Patrick's +Cathedral at least, if not every one of those twelve churches +which the Anglicans have neither the numbers to decently fill nor +the generosity to keep in repair, instead of being put in care of +poor-law commissioners or any other secular body, should be +handed over to the Catholics of the country, the real owners and +spiritual heirs of their founders. This, after all, would be +nothing more than an act of tardy justice, and a reproof not only +to the sacrileges committed in them by the "Reformers" of the +sixteenth century, but to Anglican poverty and niggardliness in +the nineteenth century. In the hands of the poor-law commissions, +who have shown little reverence and less antiquarian lore, those +magnificent temples will become simply objects of wonder to the +passing tourist; surrounded by all the artistic and beautiful +graces of our holy faith, they would be living, breathing +evidences, as it were, of the unswerving devotion to and the +glorious rejuvenation of that faith in the Island of Saints. If +not too late, we wish to see this portion of the act changed; if +this cannot be done, we wish to see the Catholic and the liberal +members of parliament move in the matter by the means of +subsequent legislation. + +See and glebe houses and their curtilages and gardens vested in +the commissioners may be sold to the governing body of any church +to which they are attached, for a sum equal to twelve times the +annual value of the house and land so conveyed, payment to be +made in installments within twenty-two and a quarter years. Upon +application from the same or a similar governing body, the +commissioners may sell, in the case of a see house, thirty acres, +and of any other ecclesiastical residence, ten acres, contiguous +land, for such sum as may be agreed upon by arbitration. It is +further provided that, whenever any church or church sites vest +in the commissioners, not subject to the above conditions, they +shall dispose of the same by public sale at their discretion. +This latter clause, though simple in its terms and apparently +unimportant, constitutes in reality one of the most interesting +features in the act. Knowing as we do the intense devotion of the +Irish Catholics for the crumbling ruins of the old churches built +by their brave and zealous ancestors, where in the olden time +walked so many holy men now with the saints in heaven, and the +cold indifference or ignorance of the Anglican clergy in relation +to such sanctified places, we can confidently predict that not +many years will elapse ere those precious memorials of the past +will be in the possession of the people who have so watched in +silence and in tears their desecration by the followers of the +religion of Henry and Elizabeth. +{243} +It will also be remarked in this part of the act the constant +recurrence of the term "governing body," so expressive of the +total reduction of the once proud Church of England in Ireland as +by "law established" to the same condition as that occupied by +mere Methodists and Presbyterians. + +Graveyards, a subject scarcely less attractive than churches, is +next dealt with in this elaborate act. When a church having a +burial ground attached to it is vested in the commissioners, and +the church-building is subsequently reinvested in the "governing +body," the burial ground will be included in the order conveying +the same; otherwise the burial grounds will be transferred to the +poor-law guardians within whose district the same may be +situated, to be used by them in a manner similar to those already +taken or purchased by such guardians. This clause when carried +out will change many graveyards now exclusively controlled by +Protestants, but which in reality are and formerly were the +property of Catholics, into places of public burial, and, _a +fortiori_, Catholic. + +Having disposed of the material interests and franchises of the +Irish Church, we next come to the most important part (only, +however, as far as the parties immediately affected are +concerned) of the act, though the framers, evidently with a keen +eye to the pockets of the disestablished, place it among the +first in general interest. It appears under the unostentatious +sub-title of "Compensation to persons deprived of Income." It +provides that, on and after the 1st of January, 1871, the +commissioners, having in the mean time ascertained the amount of +annual income of the holder of any archbishopric, bishopric, +benefice, or cathedral preferment, curacy, etc., shall pay to the +holder of the same an annuity equal in amount to such income for +life, or as long as such incumbent continues to perform the +duties of such office; or such incumbent may commute his annuity +in return for a certain payment in bulk, upon his own application +and at the discretion of the commission. For these purposes the +sum of about £5,000,000, or twenty-five millions of dollars, will +be required to be paid out of the assets in the hands of the +commissioners. This amount divided between two thousand +ecclesiastics would give an average of twelve thousand five +hundred dollars for each, but as that number includes the +curates, the most numerous and worst paid of the Anglican +clergymen, the archbishops and other high dignitaries will find +themselves in receipt of enormous revenues during the term of +their natural lives. Then there are other persons who are to +become pensioners on the public bounty to the amount of four +million five hundred thousand dollars; such as parish clerks, +sextons, officers of cathedrals and ecclesiastical courts, +parochial school-masters, organists, and all that sanctimonious +and useless tribe whose mock gravity and unbending advocacy of +church and state so frequently proved a source of amusement and +derision to their less orthodox and perhaps less mercenary +neighbors. With a sigh we part with that grave, shabby-genteel +link between the Protestant curate and the seldom-met poor pauper +of the Anglican Church, well remembering in our early boyhood +with what awe we gazed upon their long, sallow visages as they +stalked by meditatively, clothed in all the little brief +authority of quasi-clerical life. +{244} +Thirty millions of dollars may be considered a large sum with +which to pension off the clergy and their followers of a church +which does not count three quarters of a million of souls, of all +degrees, sexes, and ages; but it will be money well spent if it +heep [helps?] to eradicate an evil which has so long afflicted a +patient people. [Footnote 52] + + [Footnote 52: A late number of _The Catholic Opinion_ + (London) gives us the following statistics: There are, it is + said 700,000 Anglicans in Ireland and 36,000,000 Catholics in + France; that is, 51 times as many Catholics in France as + Anglicans in Ireland. The budget therefore of Catholic + worship in France should be 51 times £800,000, or + £40,800,000, to write which is enough to show the monstrous + iniquity of which Ireland has been the victim. The + Presbyterians, numbering 523,291 persons, receive a _regium + donum_ for their ministers amounting to £40,547, and a + subsidy of £2050 for their theological college at Belfast, + making a total of £42,597. Protestant dissenters have no + endowment, nor yet Catholics, excepting a subsidy to the + college at Maynooth of £26,360. Thus the Anglican + Establishment in Ireland has a revenue of about £800,000 for + 700,000 persons, or about £1 3s. per head. The Presbyterians + receive from the government £42,597 for 523,291 persons, or + about 1s. 7 1/2d. per head. Catholics, £26,360 for 4,505,265 + persons, that is, LESS THAN ONE PENNY HALFPENNY per head. + + According to the last census, that of 1861, there were in + Ireland: + + Per Cent of the + whole Population. + + 4,505,265 Catholics, that is, 77.7 + 693,357 members of the Established Church, 11.9 + 523,291 Presbyterians, 9.0 + 76,661 Protestant dissenters, 1.2 + 393 Jews, 0.0 + 5,798,967 Total 100.0] + + +The holders of advowsons, or the right to appoint to church +livings--with the exception of the queen, corporations sole and +aggregate dissolved by the act, and trustees, officers, and +persons acting in a public capacity--are entitled to certain +compensation to be ascertained by arbitration; one million five +hundred thousand dollars being allowed for the liquidation of +this description of claims. As no Catholic can exercise this +right, even though the owner of the land in fee from which the +right to appoint arises, it follows that whatever compensation is +made will go to Protestants only. It would seem to any person +other than an Anglican landlord that this clause is not only not +in harmony with the equitable spirit of the body of the act, but +that it is manifestly unjust. Advowsons are as much a relic of +ancient feudal barbarism as any that were abolished by law under +the commonwealth or Charles II., and should have been swept away +when all the other devices for defrauding the industrious poor +were abolished centuries ago. We waive altogether the question of +their simoniacal character; for a custom so convenient for the +land-holder and so profitable for younger sons of aristocratic +families would hardly be condemned on that account by those who +so largely profit by it. In addition to all the money which the +commissioners are to reimburse as above mentioned, we find that +upon the property of the Irish Church there is a building debt of +some one million and a quarter dollars for the repair of +churches, glebes, etc., which the commissioners are instructed to +pay. + +Thus we see that the sum of nearly thirty-two millions of dollars +has been set aside as an inducement to the loosening of the grip +of a very small and mercenary faction on the public purse +ostensibly, but in reality on the very vitals of the industrial +interests of the country. Let us now see what corresponding +compensation has been made for the Catholics and dissenters. + +It is well known that for over a century the Presbyterians of +Ireland have been annually in the receipt of a limited sum of +money called the _regium donum_. At first, as the term +indicates, this was simply a gift from the crown, but of late +years it has been regularly voted by parliament, and last year it +amounted to £45,000. This grant is to be withdrawn; and as an +equivalent, a sum of about four millions of dollars is to be +capitalized by the commissioners, the annual interest of which +will be nearly equal to the present donation. In addition to +this, seventy-five thousand dollars are to be bestowed on the +Presbyterian college of Belfast. + +{245} + +But the Catholics, who, notwithstanding the vast emigration of +the last twenty-five years, form three fourths of the entire +population, fare even worse than their dissenting brethren. The +paltry grant of £26,000 to Maynooth College is to cease, and a +sum equal to less than a half of that appropriated to the +Presbyterians is to be substituted, the interest only of which +will be devoted to the support of that distinguished nursery of +Catholic learning. The building debt of some twenty thousand +pounds which the college owes to the Board of Public Works is to +be paid off by the commissioners; but, apart from this trifling +sum, the Catholics of Ireland gain no direct material advantage +from the enforcement of the new act; and it is to be hoped that, +when time confirms the sagacity of the statesmen who have +suggested the introduction of the present reform, and has done +full justice to the moral courage of the men who have proposed it +to the imperial parliament, the self-denial and disinterestedness +of the Irish Catholic hierarchy, clergy, and people will be duly +appreciated. However little flattering such unequal distribution +of funds may be to the rightful claims of Catholics, we presume +they will not think it worth their while to object to it. Many of +them, we are disposed to think, would be willing to dispense +altogether with state aid, if the rule were made general as far +as regards Protestant sects. The Catholic Church in Ireland has +never been desirous of leaning for support on the arm of the +British government, and the experience of its members at home and +in this country has amply proved that the church is always more +prosperous and more powerful for good in inverse proportion to +its reliance on the secular arm. + +There is no provision made for Trinity college, that being left +for future legislation, with an intimation from the premier that, +while its interests will be properly attended to, it shall be +deprived of its exclusively sectarian character. This is well. +Trinity was endowed with many thousand broad acres violently +taken from the rightful owners, the Irish chiefs, by Elizabeth, +which must now yield an enormous revenue. It has been in times +past, to a great extent, the nursery of enlightened intolerance +and philosophic indifference; but when we recall the names of +Swift and Mollineux, Grattan, Curran, the Emmets, Petrie, and +McCullough, and many other illustrious friends of Ireland, who +studied in its venerable halls, and there partially developed the +germs of that keen wit, fiery eloquence, and scientific lore +which graced a nation even in its darkest hour of humiliation, we +can forgive their old _alma mater_ a great many +backslidings. Trinity should be allowed to retain her revenues, +and when her wide gates are thrown open for the reception alike +of the Catholic, the Anglican, and the Dissenter, her sphere of +usefulness will not only be enlarged, but doubly increased by the +competition between the diverse elements of which the population +of Ireland is composed. She will then cease to be sectarian, and +become, in the truest sense, national. + +We now come to the matter of assets to be reduced into possession +by the commissioners, out of which the several sums above +mentioned are to be paid--assets which, according to Mr. +Gladstone's estimates, will amount to £16,000,000, or eighty +million dollars. +{246} +Of this sum, £9,000,000, it is expected, will be derived from the +commutation or obliteration of tithe rent charges; that is to +say, the owners of lands from which tithes are now derived can, +by the payment of a fixed sum to the commissioners, be for ever +relieved from the tithe exaction; and, should they be unable to +pay the whole sum down, they are to be allowed forty-five years +wherein to pay it by instalments. Tithes, it must be remembered, +have not, for nearly forty years, been collected directly from +the cultivator of the soil, but from the owner, who, of course, +added it to the rent, and thus, though the objectionable adjuncts +of distrain and imprisonment for tithes, as such, were done away, +the tenant had still to pay the odious tax in another form. As +the clause of the act regulating this branch of the duties of the +commissioners is perhaps the last of such a nature that will ever +be allowed to encumber the statute-book of the British +parliament, we quote it entire, simply premising that it seems +fair enough, and in terms decidedly favorable to the landlords. +Section 32 recites: + + "The commissioners may at any time after the 1st day of + January, 1871, sell any rent charge in lieu of tithes bestowed + on them under this act to the owner of the land charged + therewith, in consideration of a sum equal to twenty-two and a + half times the amount of such rent charge, and upon any such + sale being so made, the commissioners shall, by order, declare + the rent charge to be merged in the land out of which it + issued, and the same shall merge and be extinguished + accordingly. Upon the application of any owner so purchasing, + the commissioners may, by order, declare his purchase money, or + any part thereof, to be payable by instalments, and the land + out of which such rent charge issued to be accordingly charged + as from a day to be mentioned in such order, for forty-five + years thence next ensuing, with an annual sum equal to four + pounds ten shillings for every one hundred pounds of the + purchase money, or part thereof, so payable in instalments. The + annual sum charged by such order shall have priority over all + charges and incumbrances, except quit or crown rents, and shall + be payable by the same persons, and be recoverable in the same + manner as the rent charge in lieu of tithes, heretofore payable + out of the same lands. Owner, for the purposes of this section, + shall mean the person for the time being liable to pay rent + charge in lieu of tithes under the provisions of the acts of + the first and second years of the reign of her present majesty, + chap. 109." + +When all the charges incumbent on the commissioners are provided +for, including one million dollars for themselves, a matter which +they will not be likely to neglect, there will be left of the +effects of the defunct Establishment the handsome sum of over +seven million pounds sterling. What disposition to make of this +money was a puzzling question for a long time among the +legislative administrators. That it was to be devoted to some +Irish purpose was understood from the first; but grants of money +to Ireland have heretofore turned out to be mere jobs, much more +beneficial to government employees than to the supposed +recipients of the bounty. Besides, as Mr. Gladstone says, they +wanted to make this measure a finality, and to dispose of the +money once and for ever. To have divided it among all religious +denominations _per capita_, would throw the bulk of it into +possession of the Catholics, to the great chagrin of the sects; +and to have expended it on one or two local internal improvements +would have created sectional jealousy, and given rise to the cry +of favoritism. Appreciating these difficulties, the friends of +the act have resolved, and, we think, very wisely, to devote it +to the general charities of the island, not directly connected +with any particular denomination, as follows: + +{247} + + "1. The support of infirmaries, hospitals, and lunatic asylums + in connection with the grand jury cess or other assessment in + lieu thereof. + + "2. In support of reformatory and industrial schools, Ireland + acts, and in aid of other grants for that purpose. + + "3. The salaries of trained or skilled nurses for poor persons + in sickness or in labor. + + "4. The suitable education and maintenance of the blind and of + the deaf and dumb poor in separate asylums. + + 5. The suitable care, training, and maintenance, in separate + asylums, of poor persons of weak intellect, not requiring to be + kept under restraint. The commissioners may, from time to time, + during their trust, report to her majesty whether there is any + income available for the purposes mentioned in this section, + and, upon such report being made, it shall be lawful for her + majesty, by order in council, to direct such available portion + of income to be applied for the aforesaid purposes, or any of + them, under such management and control as aforesaid." + +The poor-law commissioners are to be entrusted with this capital +sum, and the distribution of the annual revenue arising +therefrom, which is calculated at £310,000. There are two very +patent reasons for this distribution. Already the sum of £140,000 +for similar purposes is annually raised by a tax called "county +cess;" "a heavy tax, an increasing tax," says Mr. Gladstone, "and +a tax not divided, like the poor law, between the owner and the +occupier, but paid wholly by the occupier; and a tax not limited, +like the poor law, to occupations above four pounds in value, but +going down to the most miserable huts and cabins. The holders of +these most wretched tenements are now required in Ireland, and +required increasingly from year to year, to pay, not that which +is done by the wealthier portion of the occupants who contribute +to the poor law, but to pay for that class of want and suffering +which ought undoubtedly to be met, which in every Christian +country should be liberally met, but which can only be met by the +expenditure of considerable funds in comparison with those which +are paid to support the pauper." The frightful increase of those +classes of unfortunates to be thus provided for in view of the +decrease of the entire population by emigration [Footnote 53] +calls loudly for some legal interposition. From 1851 to 1861 the +number of deaf and dumb persons increased from 5180 to 5653; and +during the same decade the blind increased from 5787 to 6879, +while the number of lunatics increased from 9980 to 14,098, or +nearly fifty per cent! + + [Footnote 53: The emigration from Ireland from May 1st, 1851, + to December 1st, 1865 amounted to 1,630,722 souls.] + +With this last act of Christian charity, we hope to see the +traces of former injustice gradually fade away from the public +mind, and the bitter memories and sectarian jealousies of the +past give place to a new era of good feeling and brotherly +affection. Time is not only a great healer of wounds, but a great +reformer of ideas. Taking a retrospective glance at the history +of Ireland for the past hundred years, and watching how, step by +step, the church in Ireland, from the veriest depths of +despondency and contumely, has risen in power, strength, and +numbers by its own innate vitality, we are not too sanguine in +believing that it has a glorious future before it, unsurpassed by +that of any country in Europe. Though its members embrace the +great majority of the poorest classes in the land, they have, in +that short period, studded the country with magnificent +cathedrals and substantial parish churches; though unaided by a +government which, if not positively hostile, was certainly +indifferent, they have built and are generously sustaining, +hundreds of colleges, convents, hospitals, and asylums, where +learning flourishes as in the pristine ages, and where the poor, +the needy, and afflicted are comforted and consoled. +{248} +And though famine has decimated the hardy peasantry, and +emigration has torn millions of the "bone and sinew" from their +native shores, the Catholics of Ireland are still, as they always +will be, the people of Ireland. It is true that a great many +changes have yet to be effected through the means of legislation +before the Irish or English Catholic is placed on an equal +footing with his more favored fellow-subject. In Ireland, he must +eventually have equal representation in the British parliament. +The laws controlling the marriage of persons of different +religious beliefs, those relating to the tenure of lands and +spiritual devises, and to the disqualification for office on +account of religious opinions, must be repealed and sent to dwell +with all the other legal rubbish of a bygone age of bigotry. The +Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, which is a disgrace to an enlightened +government and a standing insult to the bishops and people of the +country, must share the same fate before the crown can expect or +ought to receive that heartfelt loyalty which springs from good +and impartial government. The times in which we live imperatively +demand those reforms, and we are very much mistaken in the +strength and spirit of our co-religionists in the United Kingdom +if they do not also quickly and pertinaciously demand them. + +We are gratified, in looking over our files of leading English +journals, to find that they all with one voice, a few old and +obscure tory papers excepted, support the liberal party in its +leading measure, and are waging war with their trenchant pens +against the effete anti-Catholic party in the Commons. We hope, +also, to see our brothers of the American press, secular and +religious, who so generally advocate the support of churches by +voluntary contributions, giving a word of encouragement to their +cousins across the Atlantic. + +Granting that the passage and proper execution of the present act +will be a most important step in the right direction, it still +seems to us unfortunate that it was not taken years ago. With a +fatality that so generally attends English political and +religious concessions, it has been so long delayed that it now +appears to be more the offspring of fear and intimidation than +the result of wise and mature conviction. If British statesmen +will yield only to force what they refuse to sound argument and +the logic of facts, they must expect the same motive power to be +again applied when demands neither so reasonable nor so well +founded are to be put forward. In common with our brethren in +every part of the world, we view with great satisfaction this +awakening sense of public justice in the English mind; but let it +not falter now, as if exhausted by one solitary effort. Let a +good landlord and tenant act be passed without unnecessary delay, +and some comprehensive measures be adopted for the development of +the industrial resources of the nation, and then, indeed, that +chronic state of disaffection which has afflicted every +generation in Ireland since the invasion may be radically cured. + +------- + +{249} + + My Mother's Only Son. + +The rain is falling heavily, to-night. It has a dull, desolate, +lonely sound, as if it were bent upon reminding me of another +night more desolate, dull, and lonely even than the present. What +right have I, who have so much happiness about me now, to be +searching the dark annals of past sorrow, or to unearth a hidden +misery, that will come like a blighting shadow between me and all +the pleasures that might be mine? Yet that rainy, dismal night +_does_ come back to me with a force and terror I would +rather not remember. + +I would rather not remember it, because my son, just budding into +manhood, has left me to-night, for the first time, and gone to +take his place in an old firm in a neighboring city. The world +and its allurements are temptingly laid out before him. He is a +noble, handsome boy, so bright and promising. They tell me he +will always have friends, plenty of friends; that he has all the +elements of popularity, and is destined to become a general +favorite. Dangerous attractions these; they have made wiser heads +than yours, my darling, very giddy and very light; hearts, too, +have been brought to mourning, while the admiring friends of +yesterday could cast only a look of pity on their lost friends as +they passed by. + +My own brother was all this; gifted in an eminent degree with +energy and manly courage to sustain him in any generous +undertaking. We had everything to hope from him; he had +everything to hope from himself. With prospects fair and bright, +an old banker, a friend of my father's, gave him an eligible +situation. It was an office of trust; he was proud of the +confidence placed in him, and left home with the full resolve of +filling it with honor to himself and credit to the good man who +had placed him there. His letters were pleasant and joyous, full +of the new pleasures he had never dreamed of in our quiet life at +home. His graceful manners and natural gentleness soon +established him as a favorite in society; his social pleasures +were daily increasing, and his attention to business was both +active and energetic. + +My mother had a slight misgiving. It was only the shadow of a +thought, she said--that Arthur, in the new pleasures that +surrounded him, might become weaned from us or might learn to be +happy without us. In her deep love for her gifted boy she had +never thought such an event possible, and instantly reproached +herself for the thought. + +In going from home, my brother had left a great waste, an empty +place behind him, and his letters were our only comfort. + +What light and pleasure they brought to our quiet fireside, that +would have been so dreary without them. There were only three of +us, and while his letters were so fresh and vigorous, they almost +kept up the delusion that we were not separated; but there came a +change. + +We may have been slow in discovering it, but we did discover it, +and then to miss him as we missed him through the long winter +nights seemed like losing a star that had led us, that we had +followed, until it passed under a cloud and left us, still +waiting, still watching, for it to come again. +{250} +He paid us a flying visit now and then, and my mother, +unconscious of the cause of his disquietude--for he was both +anxious and disturbed--would redouble her exertions to bring back +his waning love, making every allowance for the indifference, the +coldness, and the neglect that were so glaringly apparent to +other eyes, yet so delicately obscured from her motherly vision. +Not that my brother made any effort to conceal his restless +desire to leave us, or that his interests and pleasures were +centred elsewhere. I was very young, yet old enough to see that +there was a mercy in _this_, my mother's blindness. + +Her beautiful boy seemed to carry the sunshine of her life with +him; she thought him caressed and petted, the favorite of +society, and the embodiment of all that was noble. He has seen so +much of the luxury and elegance of life in the great city, how +can we expect him to be contented with our home, where everything +is so different? Thus she would reason with me, and thus, I +sometimes thought, she would reluctantly reason with herself. + +One day, a letter came to us from the banking-house, where my +brother had gradually risen to an honored position. It was from +the banker himself, our dear old friend; he told, in the +tenderest manner, that Arthur had acquired habits which rendered +him unfit for an office of trust. He deeply regretted the +necessity of making this known to her; he ended by suggesting +that the gentle influence of home might do much toward bringing +him to a sense of his condition. + +My mother read the letter, folded it carefully, reopened it, and +read it again. She then handed it to me without speaking a word. +When I had finished reading it, I looked at her; she was still +immovable, helpless as a child in this her great despair. Her +apathy was the more distressing to me as I was entirely alone. I +dare not consult any one, dare not ask the advice of our kind +neighbors. She had roused herself just enough to tell me it must +be kept as secret as death. I was only sixteen, I had never acted +for myself--there had been no occasion in our quiet life for a +display of individual courage or independence. I had grown up +under my mother's guidance, had never been five miles away from +home, where every day was like all the yesterdays that had gone +before it. And now this great journey lay before me. There was no +one else to go; _I_ must take it alone. + +We were both ignorant of the nature of my brother's disgrace. Mr. +Lester had made no mention of it further than to say that he +could keep him no longer in the bank. I could only conjecture in +my own mind what it might be. Of course I thought of dishonesty; +what else could have driven him from a situation where he was so +honored and trusted? + +The railroad was some miles distant from our little village; +despatch was necessary; I must meet the evening train. My brother +was ill; I was going to him; this would quiet our neighbors and +put an end to curious speculations. Surely I was not far from the +truth--he must have been ill indeed when his proud head was +brought down so low. + +Again and again reassuring my mother that I would bring him back, +telling her in all sincerity that I knew he would be able to +clear himself in her eyes so that not a spot or blemish would be +left on his fair name, (Heaven knows how easy this might be. +{251} +Let him lay his head on her faithful breast, and twine an arm +about her neck, and lovingly whisper, "Mother, I am +_innocent_, all is right;" the _world_ might sit in +judgment and cry "_Guilty_," she would heed it not,) I +became so preoccupied, so entirely absorbed with the +_object_ of my journey, that the journey itself had no +novelty for me, though everything was new and startling. Now I +was hurrying to the great city that I had so often thought and +dreamed about. It was only in a confused way that I could settle +it in my mind that I was really going there. That I was strange, +and new, and unused to the busy scenes that lay before me seemed +no part of my business. My brother--would he come home with me? +He might be angry that I had come. Could I ask him to tell me the +truth? No, I could not see him so humiliated; I would rather hear +the story of his shame from other lips than his. + +It was near midnight when I reached his lodgings. + +"Is Arthur Graham at home?" I, trembling, asked of a kindly +looking woman who opened the door. + +"He is, miss, and sorely in need of some one to look after him." + +Had it come to this? Was my brother an object of pity, even to +her? I asked to see him, not wishing to prolong this painful +interview. She desired me to enter, and we approached his room. I +opened the door cautiously. The woman's manner was so mysterious, +I trembled and began to be afraid; she had told me he was not +sick. Of course I thought he was a prisoner and perhaps chained +in his own room. The light was very dim, and, as I advanced, I +stumbled and was near falling over--what?--over the prostrate +form of my own brother, lost, degraded, fallen. + +As I bent down to see why he did not speak to me, I discovered +the truth. He, the pride and hope of our lives, had sunk into a +drunkard. I uttered no cry; I was no longer terrified; I thought +only of my mother. + +I was all that was left her now, and, as I bent over him, +wondered if that face was his, so changed, so sickening; neglect +and ruin had already settled there. I tried to smooth the heavy +hair, that lay in thick, dank masses about his reeking forehead. +How old, how terribly old, he had grown in so short a time! I +dare not cherish a feeling of loathing; he was my brother, and +needed my love as he had never needed it before. For him--for in +him I was protecting my mother--I must set aside all youth and +girlhood. A woman was needed now, a woman calm, firm, and +resolute. Of myself I was weak, but Heaven would help me. A +conviction settled upon me, as I sat there, with my travelling +wrappings still unremoved, that his case was hopeless. I could +see a lonely, dishonored grave, far away from us in a strange +land. I know not why this sight should rise before me, my brother +was young, and others as debased as he had risen to a good and +noble life. Thus I reasoned with myself, and yet that lonely +mound of earth would come before me, and I felt powerless. + +But I had no time for misery. I had come to protect and assist. +My girlhood was passing away with the shadows of the night, for +to-morrow's sun must find me a woman, prepared to meet the stern +duties that were now mine. + +The night was far advanced, and I was trying to gather up my +newfound energies, when I felt a kindly hand removing my bonnet. +It was the good woman who had met me at the door; she was waiting +to show me my room and to offer me some refreshment. + +{252} + +"You can do no good here," she continued, as she assisted me to +arise, "until morning." + +She shook her head doubtfully as she whispered, "You are very +young, yes, quite too young to undertake it even then. But if you +are afraid he will give you the slip before you are up, (he often +does that,) just lock the door." + +She did so and put the key in her own pocket. + +The little room assigned me was cleanly; it had an air of comfort +about it greatly in contrast with the slovenly chamber I had just +left. The gentle creature made nothing of undressing me, +lamenting the while as if I had been a stricken child that had +unexpectedly fallen into her motherly hands. + +I had made no allusion to my brother as yet. I could not speak of +him, and only ventured to ask the woman as she was leaving me how +long he had been in this condition. "I might ask you the same +question, miss, for surely it is not a day nor a month that has +brought him to _this_." + +To _this!_ What a world of misery there was in that one +simple word! It seemed to carry with it the low wailing of a lost +soul. + +We were to have paid my brother a visit soon, my mother and I. It +was to have been a surprise, and I had gone so far as to arrange +the dress I should wear, for I was anxious to appear at my best +before Arthur's friends. And here I was spending my first night +in New York. No kin of mine had bid me welcome. No brother had +folded me in his loved embrace, and held me out to see how pretty +I had grown, proudly kissing me again and again, and telling me +how happy my coming had made him. + +In my peaceful days I had thought of all this; and oh! how easily +it might have been! + +I arose early; but, early as it was, the woman had apprised +Arthur of my arrival. I found him morose and sullen. He demanded +my reasons for coming so abruptly upon him. He had not asked +after my mother, nor given me one word of kindly greeting; and +when, in a harsh tone, he asked why I thus intruded myself, my +great reserve of womanly strength fled from me, and I cried long +and bitterly. + +He was naturally kind and gentle. He came to me, wiped the tears +from my cheek, and told me he did not intend to be cruel. His +hand trembled violently, as he laid it on my head, and his whole +frame shook and quivered, though I could see he made a desperate +effort to control himself. When he had recovered his composure, +he seemed to know why I had come, and implored me not to say one +word to him; he was miserable enough already. + +"Come home with me, Arthur dear," I whispered. "You can soon +change your life, and be your own self again." + +I ventured to tell him that mother had been taken very ill, when, +with a look, he begged me to say no more. He could not bear even +an allusion to his condition, and I had no wish to harass him. +What a slave he had become to the one ruling passion of his life! + +Regardless of my presence, he drank again and again from a bottle +near him. Once when I laid my hand upon the glass, he told me +that he needed it to steady his nerves, and he would be all right +soon. It was in vain that I urged him to accompany me home. He +told me he had another situation in view, not anything like the +one he had just left, but very good in its way. I could tell my +mother this; it might comfort her.'Twas all the hope I had to +carry home. + +{253} + +As years went by our sorrows were softened. We had become +accustomed to Arthur's manner of life. At times he seemed +changing for the better, and again he would go back to his old +habits. + +It was in early summer time, when everything on our little farm +was at its best. The solitary womanly habits that had come so +early upon me were still very strong with me. I was not yet old, +only twenty-two; and on this lovely summer night I was planning +our quiet future, when a carriage stopped before the door, and +Arthur came in, leading, or rather carrying, a delicate young +girl. + +'Mother," said he, "this is my wife! Grace, this is my mother and +sister." + +"Your wife!" we repeated. + +"Oh! yes," he replied. "We have been married nearly a year, and I +hoped to better my circumstances before I should make the fact +known to you." We saw that the poor child, for such she seemed, +was sadly in want of woman's kindly care. So pale, so +sorrow-stricken, so young, yet so bowed down and disappointed! I +knew nothing of her story, but she was my brother's wife, and I +gave her a sister's love. That night I watched by her bed; and, +as the pale moonlight fell upon her rippling hair, I wondered +what art, what witchery or power my brother had used to bring +this delicate creature to be a sharer of his misery and shame. +She waked with a sudden start, and called in a wild, frightened +way for help. She was really ill, now, and before morning the +doctor laid a feeble baby in my mother's arms. + +My new-found sister and her wailing infant had all our tenderest +care. We were glad that she had come to us that we might, in the +love we gave her, make up in some degree for the sorry life the +poor unfortunate child had taken upon herself. She staid with us; +our home was hers. Arthur returned to New York. + +Her history was soon told. She was an orphan, entirely dependent +upon the bounty of an aunt who had daughters of her own to be +settled in life. She met Arthur. The fascination of his manners +and the interest he took in her friendless condition won her +heart. The misfortune of his life was well known to her, but she +trusted to _her_ love, feeling sure that a life's devotion +must redeem him. A dangerous experiment, this; too often tried, +and too often found a hopeless failure. For her sake, he +_did_ try to be firm and strong, and manfully combated his +besetting sin; but an hour of weakness came; old associates +returned, and old habits with them. In a moment of hilarity and +pleasure all his firmness gave way; his delicate young wife was +forgotten, and she awakened all too soon to the knowledge that +her husband's love for liquor was greater than his love for her. +The dear, sweet girl and her pretty infant had lived with us +nearly a year, when, one cold, drizzly night like this, Arthur +came home. He had grown so reckless of late, that we were not +surprised when he came reeling into our presence. He began by +demanding a small amount of money which Grace had been husbanding +with care. She made no reply to any of his angry threats, nor did +she give him the money. Dead to all sense of manhood, he rose to +strike her. Her infant was sleeping on her breast. She leaped to +flee from him, but before we could save her, he struck her. She +fell heavily; the sleeping babe was thrown against the iron +fender. It uttered one feeble cry, and closed its eyes _for +ever_. + +{254} + +The mother rose, and with a desperate effort snatched her dead +child from my arms, pressed it to her breast, rocked it to and +fro, and tried to give it nourishment. My mother and I spent that +terrible night with a dead infant, a frenzied mother, and a +father lost in hopeless despair. Every rustle in the trees, every +sound in the air, brought the horror of death upon us, for each +murmur seemed fraught with vengeance. Was my brother a murderer? +His own tender infant had fallen dead at his feet. The act must +pass without a name, for in our woe we had none to give it. + +He sat there through the weary hours of the night, a haggard, +desperate fear settling upon him. He dare not approach his wife; +the sight of him increased her frenzy, and she prayed that she +might never see his face again. + +Misery had made my mother strong and she could help me. Calm, +cool, and deliberate action was necessary now. + +Arthur must leave us before morning. No one had known of his +coming. The child's sudden death must be in some way accounted +for, in what way I knew not. My mother whispered God would help +us. + +Arthur slunk away in his guilt and misery. He took no leave of +us, but silently crept out in the darkness. There was darkness on +every side, it was bearing down upon him with the weight of an +avenging fury. I watched him, bowed and desolate, stealing away +from us, away from all that was dear to him, from all that had +loved him, and could not, even now, cast him off. I lingered +until the last sound of his footsteps died away. I knew then as I +know now, that we should never see him again. The rain fell upon +him as he passed out. It fell upon me as I stood there, and I +thought it was falling far away where I had seen a lonely grave. + +I washed our martyred babe and dressed it for the burial. There +was a mark upon its little neck that the solemn wrappings of the +grave must cover. It might be bared before the judgment-seat to +plead for an erring father. + +My mother died soon after of a broken heart. She never recovered +the shock of that terrible night. The curse that settled upon her +poor, misguided son made him none the less her child; and she +would try, with all the tenderness of her wounded spirit, to +think of him as he was, innocent, true, and noble, when first he +left her. When we learned that he had died on foreign shores, and +was buried on a lonely island, she thanked God that he was no +longer a homeless wanderer. + +My sister Grace is with me still, loving and cherishing my young +children, leading them and me to better life by the chastened +beauty of her own Christian character. + +------- + +{255} + + Catholicity and Pantheism. + + Number Six. + + The Finite. + + +In the pantheistic theory, the finite has no real existence of +its own. It is a modification, a limit of the infinite. The sum +of all the determinations which the primitive and germinal +activity assumes, in the progress of its development, constitutes +what is called cosmos. The interior and necessary movement of the +infinite, which terminates in all these forms and determinations, +is creation. The successive appearance of all these forms in this +necessary development is the genesis of creation. The finite, +therefore, in the pantheistic system, does not exist as something +substantially distinct from the infinite, but is one form or +other which it assumes in its spontaneous evolutions. + +As the reader may observe, this theory rests entirely upon the +leading principle of the system that the infinite is something +undefined, impersonal, indeterminate, and becomes concrete and +personal by a necessary, interior movement; a principle which, +viewed in reference to the finite, gives rise to two others, +first, that the finite is a modification of the infinite; second, +that the finite is necessary to the infinite, as the term of its +spontaneous development. Now, in the preceding articles, we have +demonstrated, first, that the infinite is actuality itself; that +is, absolute and complete perfection; second, that in order to be +personal, he is not impelled to originate any modification or +limit. Hence, two other principles concerning the finite, quite +antagonistic to those of pantheism. First, the finite cannot be a +modification of the infinite, because perfection, absolutely +complete, cannot admit of ulterior progress. Second, the finite +is not necessary to the infinite, because the interior and +necessary action of the infinite does not terminate outside of, +but within himself, and gives rise to the mystery of the Trinity, +explained and vindicated in the last two articles. Consequently, +his necessary interior action being exercised within himself, he +is not forced to originate the finite to satisfy that spontaneous +movement, as Cousin and other pantheists contend. The finite, +therefore, can neither be a modification nor a necessary +development of the infinite. And this consequence sweeps away all +systems of emanatism, of whatever form, that may be imagined. +Whether we suppose the finite to be a growth or extension of the +infinite, as the materialistic pantheists of old seemed to +imagine; or mere phenomenon of infinite substance, with Spinoza; +or ideological exercise of the infinite, as modern Germans seem +to think--according to the principle laid down, the finite is +impossible in any emanatistic sense whatever. To any one who has +followed us closely in the preceding articles, it will appear +evident that these few remarks absolutely dispose of the +pantheistic theory concerning the finite, and close the negative +part of our task respecting this question. + +{256} + +As to the positive part, to give a full explanation of the whole +doctrine of Catholicity concerning the finite, we must discuss +the following questions: + +In what sense is creation to be understood? + +Is creation of finite substances possible? + +What is the end of the exterior action of God? + +What is the whole plan of the exterior action of God? + +Before we enter upon the discussion of the first question, we +must lay down a few preliminary remarks necessary to the +intelligence of all that shall follow. + +God's action is identical with his essence, and this being +absolutely simple and undivided, his action also is absolutely +one and simple. But it is infinite also, like his essence, and in +this respect it gives rise, not only to the eternal and immanent +originations within himself, but also may cause a numberless +variety of effects really existing, and distinct from him, as we +shall demonstrate. Now, if we regard the action of God, in itself +originating both _ad intra_ and _ad extra_, that is, +acting within and without himself, it cannot possibly admit of +distinction. But our mind, being finite, and hence incapable of +perceiving at once the infinite action of God, and of grasping at +one glance that one simple action originating numberless effects, +is forced to take partial views of it, and mentally to divide it, +to facilitate the intelligence of its different effects. These +partial views and distinctions of our mind, of the same identical +action of God, producing the divine persons within himself, and +causing different effects outside himself, we shall call moments +of the action of God. + +There are, therefore, two supreme moments of the action of God, +the interior and the exterior. Whenever we shall speak of the +action of God producing an effect distinct from and outside of +him, we shall call it exterior action, to distinguish it from the +interior, which originates the divine personalities. Moreover, we +shall call exterior action of God, all the moments of it which +produce different effects. We shall call creation that particular +moment of his external action which, as we shall see, causes the +existence of finite substances, together with their essential +properties and attributes. + +Now, as to the first question, in what sense can creation be +understood; or, otherwise, what are the conditions according to +which creation may be possible? On the following: First, the +terms laid down by the action of God must be in nature distinct +from him. Second, they must be produced by an act which does not +cause any mutation in the agent. Third, therefore, they must be +finite substances. For, suppose the absence of the first +condition, creation would be an emanation of the divine essence; +since, if the terms created were not different from the nature of +God, they would be identical with it, and consequently creation +would be an emanation or development of the substance of God. The +absence of the second condition would not only render it an +emanation of the substance of God--because, if creation implied a +mutation in him, it would be his own modification--but it would +render it altogether impossible, since no agent can modify itself +but by the aid of another. If, therefore, creation cannot be +either an emanation or a modification of God, it must be distinct +from his substance. Now, something distinct from the substance of +God, and really existing, and not a modification, cannot be +anything but finite substance. Finite, because, the substance of +God being infinite, nothing can be distinct from it but the +finite; substance, because something really existing, and which +is not a modification, gives the idea of substance. +{257} +Creation, therefore, cannot be understood in any other sense +except as implying the causation of finite substances. But is +creation of finite substances possible? In answer to this +question, let it be remarked that the essence of a thing may have +two distinct states: one, intelligible and objective; the other, +subjective and in existence. In other words, all things have a +mode of intelligible existence, distinct from the being by which +they exist, in themselves; the one may be called objective and +intelligible; the other, subjective. To give an instance, a +building has two kinds of states: one, intelligible, in the mind +of the architect; the other, subjective, when it exists in +itself. + +Now, the possibility of a thing to have a subjective existence in +itself, depends upon the intelligible and objective state of the +same thing. Because that only is possible which does not involve +any contradiction. But that which does not involve any +repugnance, is intelligible. Therefore the possibility of a thing +implies its intelligibility, and its subjective existence depends +upon its objective and intelligible state. This is so true, that +the transcendental truth of beings, in their subjective state of +existence, consists in their conformity with their intelligible +and objective state. As the truth of a building consists in it +conformity with the plan in the mind of the architect. + +From these principles it follows that, in order to establish the +possibility of the creation of finite substances, we must prove +three different things: First, that they have an intelligible +state; in other words, that their idea does not involve any +repugnance. Second, that there exists a supreme act of +intelligence, in which the intelligible state of all possible +finite substances resides. Third, that there exists a supreme +activity, which may cause finite substances to exist in a +subjective state conformable to their objective and intelligible +state. When we have proven these three propositions, the +possibility of creation will be put beyond all doubt. Now, as to +the first proposition, pantheists have denied the possibility of +finite substances. Admitting the general possibility of +substance, they deny the intrinsic possibility of a finite one; +and, as everything which is finite is necessarily _caused_, +the whole question turns upon this--whether, in the idea of +substance, there is any element which excludes causation and is +repugnant to it. Every one acquainted with the history of +philosophy knows that Spinoza coined a definition purposely to +fit his system. He defined substance to be that which exists in +itself, and cannot be conceived but by itself. [Footnote 54] + + [Footnote 54: Eth. 1, Def. 1.] + +This definition is purposely insidious. That which exists in +itself may have a twofold meaning; it may express a thing, the +cause of whose existence lies in itself, a self-existing being; +or it may imply a thing which can exist without inhering in or +leaning on any other. Again, that which cannot be conceived but +by itself may be taken in a double sense--a thing which has no +cause, and is self-existent, and consequently contains in itself +the reason of its intelligibility; or it may signify a thing +which may be conceived by itself, inasmuch as it does not lean +upon any other to be able to exist. Spinoza, taking both terms of +the definition in the first sense, had the way paved for +pantheism; for if substance be that which is intelligible by +itself because self-existent, it is evident that there cannot be +more than one substance, and the cosmos cannot be anything but +phenomenon of this substance. +{258} +Hence the question we have proposed: Is there, in the true idea +of substance, any element which necessarily implies +self-existence, and excludes causation? Catholic philosophy +insists that there is none. For the idea of substance is made up +of two elements: one positive, the other negative. The positive +element is the permanence or consistence of an act or being--that +is, the _existing_ really. The second element is the +exclusion or absence of all inherence in another being in order +to exist. + +Now, every one can easily perceive, that to exist really does not +necessarily imply self-existence, or contradiction to the notion +of having been caused by another. Because the notion of real +existence or permanence of a being does not necessarily imply +eternity of permanence, or, in other words, does not include +infinity of being. If the permanence or real existence of a being +included eternity of permanence, then it could not have a cause, +and should necessarily be self-existent. But we can conceive a +being really existing, which did not exist always, but had a +beginning. The better to illustrate this conception, let it be +remembered that duration or permanence is one and the same thing +with being; and that, ontologically, being and duration differ in +nothing. The permanence and duration of a being is, therefore, in +proportion to the intensity of a being. If the being be infinite, +the highest intensity of reality, the being is infinitely +permanent; that is, eternal, without beginning, end, or +succession. If the being be finite and created, the permanence or +duration is finite also; that is, has beginning, and may, +absolutely speaking, have an end. Everything, therefore, really +existing without inhering in another, whether it be infinite or +finite reality--that is, whether it have a cause or be +self-existent--is a substance. If it be self-existent, it is +infinite substance; if it be caused, it is finite substance. This +is so evident that none, slightly accustomed to reflect, can fail +to perceive the difference between being self-existent and +existing really. The two things can go separately without the one +at all including the other. A thing may exist as really after +being caused, as the substance which is self-existent and +eternal, so far as existing really is concerned. + +To show that the idea of substance, however, is such as we have +been describing, it is sufficient to cast a glance at our own +soul. It is evident from the testimony of consciousness, that +there is a numberless variety of thoughts, volitions, sensations; +all taking place in the _me_, all following and succeeding +each other without interruption, like the waves of the ocean +rolling one upon the other, and keeping the sea always in +agitation. We are conscious to ourselves of this continual influx +of thoughts, volitions and sensations; but, at the same time that +we are conscious of this, we are conscious also of the identity +and permanence of the _me_ amid the fluctuations of those +modifications. We are conscious that the _me_, which +yesterday was affected with the passions of love and desire, is +the same identical _me_ which is to-day under the passion of +hate. This permanence or reality of the _me_, amid the +passing and transitory affections, gives the idea of substance or +real existence; whilst the numberless variety of thoughts and +feelings which affect it, and which come and go while the +_me_ remains, gives the idea of modification, or a thing +which inheres in another in order to exist. + +{259} + +The above remarks must put the possibility of finite substance +beyond doubt. But before we pass to the second question, we +remark that any one sooner than a pantheist could call in +question the possibility of finite substance; because if, as we +have demonstrated in the second article, the infinite of the +pantheists be not an absolute nonentity, a pure abstraction, it +is nothing but the idea of finite being or substance. Hence, to +prove the possibility of finite substance to the pantheist, we +might make use of the argument _ad hominem_. That which is +intelligible is possible, by the principle of contradiction. But +the idea of finite substance is intelligible to the pantheists, +being the foundation of their system; therefore, finite +substances are possible. + +Second question: Is there a supreme act of intelligence, in which +reside all possible finite substances in their objective and +intelligible state? + +The demonstration of the second proposition follows from that of +the first. + +For the idea of finite substance does not involve any repugnance, +by the principle of contradiction. Therefore it is necessarily +possible, as we have demonstrated. But that which is necessarily +possible, is necessarily intelligible; because everything that is +possible may be conceived. Therefore the idea of finite substance +is necessarily intelligible, and may be conceived by an +intelligence able to grasp the whole series of possible finite +substances. But God is infinite intelligence, and as such is +capable of apprehending all possible finite substances. Therefore +in God's intelligence resides the whole series of possible finite +substances, in their intelligible and objective state. + +To render this argument more convincing, let us look into the +ontological foundation of the possibility of finite substances. +Finite substances are nothing but finite beings; consequently +they are not possible, except inasmuch as they agree with the +essence of God, which is the infinite, _the being_, and as +such is the type of all things which come under the denomination +and category of being. God, therefore, who fully comprehends his +essence, comprehends, at the same time, whatever may agree with +it; or, in other words, comprehends all possible imitations, so +to speak, of his essence; and consequently, all the possible +imitations of his essence residing in his intelligence, there +dwells at the same time the intelligible and objective state of +all possible finite substances. St. Thomas proves the same truth +with a somewhat similar argument. "Whoever," he says, +"comprehends a certain universal nature, comprehends, at the same +time, the manner according to which it may be imitated. But God, +comprehending himself, comprehends the universal nature of being; +consequently he comprehends also the manner according to which it +may be imitated." Now, the possibility of finite substance is a +similitude of the universal being. Hence, in God's intelligence +resides the whole series of possible finite substances. + +Third proposition: There exists a supreme activity which may +cause finite substances to exist in a subjective state. For St. +Thomas argues that the more perfect is a principle of action, the +more its action can extend to a greater number and more distant +things. As for instance, if a fire be weak, it can heat only +things which are near it; if strong, it can reach distant things. +Now, a pure act, which is in God, is more perfect than an act +mixed of potentiality, as it is in us. +{260} +If therefore by the act which is in us we can not only produce +immanent acts, as for instance, to think and to will, but also +exterior acts by which we effect something; with much greater +reason can God, by the fact of his being actuality itself, not +only exercise intelligence and will, but also produce effects +outside himself and thus be the cause of being. [Footnote 55] The +great philosopher Gerdil, appropriating this reason of St. +Thomas, develops it thus: "In ourselves, and in particular +beings, we find a certain activity; therefore activity is a +reality which belongs to the _being_ or the _infinite_. +The effect of activity when the agent applies it to the patient, +consists in causing a mutation of state. The intensity of acts, +depending on intelligence, has a force to introduce a mutation of +state in the corporal movements. This may be seen in the real +though hidden connection of which we are conscious to ourselves, +between the intensity of our desires and the effect of the +movements which are excited in the body; and better still, in +certain phenomena which sometimes occur, though rarely, when the +imagination, apprehending something vividly and forcibly, +produces a mutation of state in the body which corresponds +somewhat with the apprehension of the imagination. [Footnote 56] + + [Footnote 55: C. G. lib. ii. ch. 6.] + + [Footnote 56: An imminent danger of being burned to death, + vividly apprehended, has sometimes entirely cured persons + altogether paralyzed and unable to move.] + +Now this change in the body, corresponding to what takes place in +the fancy, that is, in the objective and intelligible state, +shows that there exists a certain, though hidden, force and +energy by which, from what exists in an intelligible state, may +be introduced a mutation in the corresponding state of subjective +existence. Therefore the efficacy of the supreme intelligence, +being the greatest and the highest, in force of the supreme +intensity of being which resides in it, may not only effect a +change conformable to a relative, intelligible state in things +already existing, but also cause them to pass altogether from the +intelligible state into the state of existence. And, assuredly, +if the finite intensity of desire and of imagination may produce +an effort of corporal movement, the supreme intensity of the +Infinite Being may, certainly, produce a substantial, existing +being; since the supreme intensity of the Being bears infinitely +greater proportion to the existence of a thing, than the +intensity of desire does in relation to a corporal movement. The +term, therefore, of the supreme activity, is to effect, outside +of itself, the existence of things which had only an intelligible +and objective being in itself." [Footnote 57] + + [Footnote 57: Gerdil, _Del Senso Morale_.] + +It is well to remark here, that the supreme activity is not by +any means determined necessarily to create; for the activity may +be determined to a necessary operation, in that case only when +the agent is actually applied to the subject capable of receiving +a change of state. But creation is not the result of the +application of the supreme activity to a subject coexisting with +itself; because nothing coexists originally with the supreme +activity. Therefore creation cannot be an action determined by +any necessity, but must depend only upon the energy or will of +the supreme intelligence in which the highest activity dwells. +Hence it follows, that creation, as to its term, is not +necessary, either because there is any principle in God impelling +him necessarily to create, as we have seen, or because there is +any principle outside of God forcing him to create; because +outside of the supreme activity nothing exists. +{261} +What is necessary about the creation of finite substances, is +their intelligible and objective state, or their intrinsic +possibility. For everything which does not imply any repugnance +by the principle of contradiction, is intrinsically possible and +intelligible. That which is intrinsically possible is +essentially, necessarily, and eternally so. Consequently, the +objective state of finite substances is necessarily so. + +Pantheists, confounding the objective and intelligible state of +the cosmos with its state of subjective existence; in other +words, identifying the ideal with the real, the ideological with +the ontological, have been led to admit the necessity of +creation. This is particularly remarked in the systems of +Schelling and Hegel; the one admitting, as first principle, the +absolute identity of all things; the other identifying the +_idea_ with _being_. Both confounded the objective and +intelligible state of the cosmos with its state of subjective +existence; and once the two are identified, it follows that, as +the one, which is the intelligible, is necessary, eternal, and +absolute, the other, the subjective, becomes also necessary and +eternal; and hence the necessity of creation. Catholicity, on the +contrary, carefully distinguishing between the ideal and the +real, the objective and the subjective, and admitting the +necessity and eternity of the first, because everything +intelligible necessarily and eternally resides in the supreme +intelligence, denies the necessity of the second, because of that +very intelligible state which it admits to be necessarily and +eternally so. + +For a finite substance is not, and cannot be conceived as +possible or intelligible, except it is supposed to be contingent +or indifferent in itself to be or not to be, not having in itself +the reason of its existence. This is the only condition according +to which finite substances can be possible. Were it otherwise, +were a finite substance supposed to be necessary, it would be +self-existent, and have in itself the reason of its existence; +and in that case it would no longer be finite, but infinite. To +suppose, therefore, a finite substance not contingent is to +suppose it necessary, is to suppose a self-existing finite +substance, or, in other words, an infinite finite substance, +which is absurd, and, therefore, unintelligible and impossible. + +The intelligibility, therefore, or objective state of finite +substances, which is necessary, eternal, and absolute itself, +requires the contingency of their existence in a subjective +state; and, consequently, their contingency is necessary because +their intelligibility is necessary; and their creation is free, +because whatever is indifferent in itself to be or not to be, +absolutely depends, as to its existence, upon the will of the +supreme intelligence. + +An objection is here raised by pantheists impugning the +possibility of the creative act. It is as follows: Given the full +cause, the effect exists. Now, the creative act, the full cause +of creation, is eternal; therefore, its effect must exist +eternally. But, an eternal effect is a contradiction in terms; +because it means a thing created and uncreated at the same time. +Therefore, creation is impossible in the Catholic sense, and can +be nothing more than the eternal development and unfolding of the +divine substance. Given the cause, the effect exists. Such an +effect, and in such a manner as the cause is naturally calculated +to produce, it is granted; such an effect and in such a manner as +the cause naturally is not intended to produce, it is denied. +{262} +Now, what is the cause of creation but the will of God? And how +does the will naturally act, except by a free determination, and +in the manner according to which it determines itself? +Consequently, creation being an effect of the will of God, it +will follow just when and how the will of God has determined it +shall. Hence the will of God being eternal, it does not follow +that the effect should be eternal also. In other words, given the +full cause, the effect exists when the cause is impelled to act +by a necessary intrinsic movement. But when the cause is free, +and perfectly master of its own action and energy, the cause +given is not a sufficient element for the existence of the +effect, but, two elements are required, the cause and its +determination, and the free conditions which the cause has +attached to its determination. Nor does this imply any change in +the action of God when creation actually takes place. For that +same act which determines itself from eternity to create, and to +cause substances and time, the measure of their duration, +continues immutable until the creation actually takes place; and +the creation is not an effect of a new act, but of that same +immutable and eternal determination of God. + +We conclude, finite substances are intrinsically possible; they +have an intelligible and objective state in the infinite +intelligence of God. God's infinite activity may cause them to +exist in a subjective state conformable to their intelligible +mode of existence. Therefore, creation in the Catholic sense is +possible. + +Before we pass to the next question, we must draw some +corollaries. + +First. God can act outside himself, since he can create finite +substances with all the properties and faculties which are +necessary elements of their essence, and naturally and +necessarily spring from it. + +Second. The creative act implies two secondary moments; one, +called preservation, and the other, concurrence. Hence, if God +does create, he must necessarily preserve his effects, and concur +in the development of their activity. Preservation implies the +immanence of the creative act, or the continuation of the +creative act of God, maintaining finite substances in their +existence. The necessity of this movement is proved by the +following reason: + +Every finite being is, in force of its nature, indifferent to be +or not to be; that is, every finite being contains no intrinsic +reason necessarily requiring its existence. Hence, the reason of +its existence lies in an exterior agent or cause. But the finite +being once existing, does not change its nature, but +intrinsically continues to be contingent, that is, indifferent to +be or not to be. Therefore, the reason of the continuation of its +existence cannot be found in its intrinsic nature, but in an +exterior agent; that is, in the action of the Creator. So long, +therefore, as the action of God continues to determine the +intrinsic indifference of contingent being to be or not to be, so +long does the finite exist. In the supposition of the act +ceasing, the finite would simultaneously cease to be. + +Nor does this argument impugn the _substance_ of finite +beings. For, as we have seen, substance is that which exists +really, though the reason of its existence lie in the creative +act; whereas, what we deny here in the argument is the +continuation of existence by an intrinsic reason, which would +change the essence of the finite, and, from contingent, render it +necessary. + +{263} + +The second moment of the creative act is concurrence. Finite +substance is a being in the way of development; a being capable +of modification. Now, no being can modify itself, can produce a +modification of which it is itself the subject, without the aid +of another being who is pure actuality. Therefore, finite +substances cannot modify themselves without the aid of God. The +action of God aiding finite substances to develop themselves, is +called concurrence. We have already proved, in the second +article, the principle upon which this moment of the action of +God is founded. We shall here add another argument. A finite +substance is a being in the way of development; a being in +potency of modification; and when the modification takes place, +it passes from the power or potency to the act. Now, no being can +pass from the power to the act except by the aid of being already +in act. Consequently, finite substances cannot modify themselves +except by the aid of being already in act. Nor can it be supposed +that finite substances can be at the same time in potency and in +act with regard to the same modification; for this would be a +contradiction in terms. It follows, then, that having power of +being modified, they cannot pass from the power to the movement +without the help of another being already in act. This cannot be +a being which may itself be in power and in act, for then it +would itself require aid. It follows, therefore, that this being, +aiding finite substances to modify themselves, must be one which +is pure actuality, that is, God. + +Third corollary: From all we have said follows, also, the +possibility of God acting upon his creatures by a new moment of +his action, and putting in them new forces higher than those +forces which naturally spring from their essence, nor due to them +either as natural properties, attributes or faculties. For, if +God can act outside himself, and effect finite substances +distinct from him; substances endowed with all the essential +attributes and faculties springing from their nature; if he can +continue to maintain them in existence, and aid them in their +natural development, we see no contradiction in supposing that he +may, if he choose, grant his creatures other forces superior +altogether to their natural forces, and, consequently, not due to +them as properties or attributes of their nature. + +For the contradiction could not exist either on the part of God +or on the part of the creature. Not in the former, because God's +action being infinite, may give rise to an infinity of effects, +one higher and more sublime, in the hierarchy of beings, than the +other. Not in the latter, because the capacity of the creature is +indefinite. It may receive an indefinite growth and development, +and never reach a point beyond which it could not go. Therefore, +the supposition we have made does not imply any repugnance either +in God or in the finite, the two terms of the question. Now, that +which involves no repugnance is possible. It is possible, +therefore, that God may act upon his creatures by a moment of his +action distinct from the creative moment, and put in them forces +higher than their natural forces, and not due to them as any +essential element or faculty. + +The other questions in the next article. + +------- + +{264} + + Aubrey de Vere in America. + [Footnote 58] + + [Footnote 58: + _Irish Odes and Other Poems_. + By Aubrey De Vere. + New York: The Catholic Publication Society, + 126 Nassau street. 1869.] + +The first if not the strongest attraction this book will have for +American curiosity is not in its contents, but in their +selection. The poems presented are culled from a much greater +number, especially and expressly for the American market, and the +choice interests us vividly as indicating an English author's +deliberate _business_ opinion of that market. This edition +has not been prepared without thought: Mr. De Vere does not often +do anything without thought. Moreover, it has been, if we are not +misinformed, somewhat unusually long in press, and several of the +poems already published have been actually revised and improved +on by their painstaking author to the very last copy, and differ +in quite a number of minutiae from their former selves. Hence +Americans must be all the more surprised at the singular estimate +of taste and the singular conception of their character, which +appear to underlie this book. We cannot help thinking--nay, we +cannot help seeing--that Mr. De Vere has not selected so well as +he would have done if he had ever lived in America, or, if he had +had intelligent, practical, and experienced American advice. +There was only one way to do this thing rightly. It was to +consider either what we, the Americans, ought to like the best, +or what we would like the best; to weigh the facts well, to +settle on some definite plan or theory of selection, and carry +this out with some little sternness to the end, only leaving the +path for the very choicest flowers. We cannot trace any +strictness of system in this book: it has neither spinal column +nor spinal cord, but is made up of miscellaneous +samples--_disjecta membra poetae_. Sometimes we imagine it +to be a compromise of plans, and sometimes a random jumble. Too +many of the best poems we miss, and some of the author's most +taking _lines_ of thought stated nearly, and some totally +unrepresented. On the other hand, some mediocre pieces abound as +to which we seek but cannot find an extrinsic cause for their +reproduction. Our own suggestion to Mr. De Vere would have been +to make _general interest_ his prime criterion in choosing. +We are a very heterogeneous nation, and it is not every topic +that can unite our various tastes. For any wide or national +success here, a book must have at least a kernel of thought or +sentiment which shall appeal directly to almost the only thing we +have in common here--our humanity. Next to such poems--and Mr. De +Vere has written not a few--we should have taken the best +expressed; the boldest or most beautiful. This indeed is but a +branch corollary of the other principle, because we all love fine +expressions of ideas. On these two principles we think we could +have made up from the copies of Mr. De Vere's poetry one of the +most attractive books of the year. We think he has missed this in +several ways. To begin with, we cannot see anywhere that he ever +once grasped the idea of addressing himself to the whole American +people. There is pabulum enough for Boston, and for devout +Catholics everywhere; but where is the intelligence of Georgia, +or California, or Ohio in his estimates for the popularity of +this volume? +{265} +Some of the poems err in the direction of abstruseness, many in +being founded on obscure facts; a few embody the gross fault of +being occasional pieces--the flattest and most surely flat of all +possible forms of dulness. That Mr. De Vere could forget himself +to this last degree is to us proof positive that he never thought +of pleasing the whole American reading community. + +We have heard this praised as sagacity, since this work's +appearance, on the ground that, as an outspoken Catholic and +Irishman, he could never have succeeded. To this the American +observer says, "_Distinguo_." Mr. De Vere is too elevated +and refined a thinker to be a poet of the people anywhere; but it +is, if anything, his religion, not his Celtic outbursts, that +stand in his way here. We are--heaven knows with good +reason--tolerably well past literary prejudices against +foreigners. A foreign author, having no friends nor enemies, no +clique nor counter-clique among the critics here, will have a +fair trial by American public opinion always, on the one +condition that he do not stand upon his being a foreigner and +insist on cramming pet theories down our throats. + +But we do question whether there may not be a measure of truth in +the suggestion that Mr. De Vere, here as everywhere, is too +conspicuously Catholic for popularity. We see little of sectarian +prejudice among our best non-Catholic men; perhaps because so +many of them are freethinkers or indifferentists in religion. But +Protestant prejudice controls some otherwise first-class +criticism, much more of lower grade, and very many ordinary +readers and buyers of books. Perhaps Mr. De Vere is too +pronounced for these--too full and too proud of his faith. Many a +bigoted Protestant who can just barely make up his mind to hear a +man out in spite of his being a "Romish idolater," etc., etc., +lays down a book the instant he suspects--what Protestantism is +always peculiarly quick to suspect--propagandism. Such men might +know that if proselyte-making were Mr. De Vere's aim, his +obviously shrewder plan would have been, first to gain influence +and popularity by neutral poems, and then, entrenched on the +vantage-ground of public favor, to bombard the community with his +explosive Catholic notions to some purpose. But this would be far +too much thinking for a bigoted man to go to the trouble of, +especially when it is so much cheaper, as well as more sweet to +the deacons and elders, to be unjust and slurring. So we fear +that many Protestant organs of opinion will reject the poetry for +the religion, and so do Mr. De Vere's book harm as an American +venture so far as the non-Catholics are concerned. + +On the other hand we do believe that his Irish pieces would be +his best hold on public favor; for he certainly is one of the +best-informed men in Irish history of all the late writers; and +if there is one thing an American admires more than another--in +literature or anything else--it is a man that knows what he is +talking about. + +But this is all of the dead past now; the book is upon us. We go +on to this question--since Mr. De Vere did not aim to please us +all, what was his aim? He has not told us in the natural +place--the preface--and we can only ask the reader to decide for +himself whether it is, as we said, compromise or jumble. The +selection of the Irish pieces is infinitely the worst of all. The +best, because the most truly Irish, of these, are in Inisfail. +{266} +There are very many Irishmen indeed who would not appreciate the +sonnet to Sarsfield and Clare, and who could make neither head +nor tail of "The Building of the Cottage;" but take up Inisfail +and read out "The Malison," or "The Bier that Conquered," or the +"Dirge of Rory O'More," to any Irish audience, and see if they +understand it or not! + +There lay one main element of strength of a book like this; and +yet we do not recall a single piece from "Inisfail" in the entire +collection! It is inconceivable to us except upon the very +well-known and extremely ill-understood principle that an author +always differs with his readers, and generally with posterity, as +to what is his best. In our own humble opinion, for instance, +"The Bard Ethell" or "The Phantom Funeral," as historical +pictures, or the "Parvuli Ejus" or "Semper Eadem" as pure poetry, +is singly worth the whole fifty pages of Irish Odes, sonnets, and +interludes that begin this new volume: and we doubt as little +that Mr. De Vere would smile in benign derision at our notion. So +we will not dispute about tastes, and simply say that we do not +understand the classification of the main body of the Irish +pieces. Especially is this hard to discover the reason for +omitting Inisfail in the light of the following passage from the +preface: "I cannot but wish that my poetry, much of which +illustrates their history and religion, should reach those Irish +'of the dispersion,' in that land which has extended to them its +hospitality. Whoever loves that people must follow it in its +wanderings with an earnest desire that it may retain with +vigilant fidelity, and be valued for retaining, those among its +characteristics which most belong to the Ireland of history and +religion." + +The remainder of the selected poems are purely miscellaneous, and +are chiefly remarkable to us as again showing how curiously +authors estimate themselves. We do indeed meet with much of the +best there is; but we miss, as we have said, very much more. And +having, as we have, a personal intimacy with many of Mr. De +Vere's poems, we feel really resentful to see our favorites +slighted and supplanted by others which--as it seems to us, be it +remembered--no one could ever like half so well. + +After all, Mr. De Vere may be right and we wrong; but we feel so +interested in his success, and so earnestly desirous of +recognition for his high abilities, that--we do wish he had done +it our way! + +The first sixty pages of the present volume are composed mainly +of a sort of rosary of ten odes, all strung on Ireland and the +Irish. Now, odes we disbelieve in generally. We think they +contain more commonplace which we imagine we admire, and which we +don't and can't admire, than any other variety of composition in +English literature. They are the supremely fit form of a few +peculiar orders of thought. The cause of Ireland is not one of +these, and Mr. De Vere has tried hard and failed, to prove the +contrary. Irish griefs are too human, Irish sympathies too +heartfelt, to be reached by this road in the clouds. One good +ballad or slogan is worth practically a million odes. As Ode I. +in this very series beautifully puts it, + + "Like severed locks that keep their light, + When all the stately frame is dust, + A nation's songs preserve from blight + A nation's name, their sacred trust. + Temple and pyramid eterne + May memorize her deeds of power; + But only from her songs we learn + How throbbed her life-blood hour by hour." + +{267} + +But, waiving their final cause, three of the odes are good, the +first two, and the seventh--the best of all--which, as also the +ninth, is republished from the book of 1861. The close of this is +singularly touching and true, and well worth recalling even to +many who must have admired it before. + + "I come, the breath of sighs to breathe, + Yet add not unto sighing; + To kneel on graves, yet drop no wreath + On those in darkness lying. + Sleep, chaste and true, a little while, + The Saviour's flock and Mary's, + And guard their reliques well, O Isle, + _Thou chief of reliquaries!_ + + "Blessed are they that claim no part + In this world's pomp and laughter: + Blessèd the pure; the meek of heart + Blest here; more blest hereafter. + 'Blessed the mourners.' Earthly goods + Are woes, the master preaches: + Embrace thy sad beatitudes, + And recognize thy riches! + + "And if, of every land the guest, + Thine exile back returning + Finds still one land unlike the rest, + Discrowned, disgraced, and mourning, + Give thanks! Thy flowers, to yonder skies + Transferred, pure airs are tasting; + And, stone by stone, thy temples rise + In regions everlasting." + + "Sleep well, unsung by idle rhymes, + Ye sufferers late and lowly; + Ye saints and seers of earlier times, + Sleep well in cloisters holy! + Above your bed the bramble bends, + The yew tree and the alder: + Sleep well, O fathers and O friends! + And in your silence moulder!" + +Scattered about between these odes we find a miscellany of minor +pieces whose function seems to be that of interludes or thin +partitions. Of these _hors-d'oeuvres_ some are new, some +old; the majority, for Mr. De Vere, commonplace. He cannot write +a page without hitting on some happy phrase or just thought, but +there is a little more than this to be said of almost all. The +best is this sonnet which we do not remember having seen before: + + "The Ecclesiastical Titles Act. + + "The statesmen of this day I deem a tribe + That dwarf-like strut, a pageant on a stage + Theirs but in pomp and outward equipage. + Ruled inly by the herd, or hireling scribe. + They have this skill, the dreaded Power to bribe: + This courage, war upon the weak to wage: + To turn from self a Nation's ignorant rage: + To unstaunch old wounds with edict or with jibe. + Ireland! the unwise one saw thee in the dust, + Crowned with eclipse, and garmented with night, + And in his heart he said,'For her no day!' + But thou long since hadst placed in God thy trust, + And knew'st that in the under-world, all light, + Thy sun moved eastward. Watch! that East grows gray!" + +We have also a long series of selections from the entire body of +our author's published works. Here we are glad to welcome to +America many of his best poems. The sonnets especially are as a +rule well chosen. We miss many a lovely one, but we should miss +these that are before us just as much. Mr. De Vere has also with +excellent judgment honored with a place in this book his three +charming idylls, "Glaucè," "Ione" and "Lycius"--among his very +finest pieces of word-painting, and which have more of the old +classic mode of expression than any modern poems in our language +save Landor's, and perhaps Tennyson's "OEnone." We wonder, by the +way, why a man who could write these idylls has never given us +any classical translations. We are sure they would be remarkably +good. The long poem of "The Sisters" is also reprinted in full. +It is good, and we will not say that it is not a good piece here; +but on reading it over, the discussion and description which +frame the picture seem to us better than the picture itself. +Indeed, we have begun to suspect more and more that Mr. De Vere's +strength lies in his descriptive powers. It might surprise many +other readers of his, as much as it did us, to examine for +themselves and discover how many of their most admired passages +are portraits. In mere verbal landscape-painting he stands very +high. His very earliest books abound in felicities of this sort, +and the _May Carols_ are fairly replete with them, and in +fact contain a whole little picture gallery in verse. +{268} +And from the "Autumnal Ode--one of the very latest in his latest +book [Footnote 59] --we select one of many passages which amply +prove that Mr. De Vere's hand has not forgotten her cunning: + + No more from full-leaved woods that music swells + Which in the summer filled the satiate ear: + A fostering sweetness still from bosky dells + Murmurs; but I can hear + A harsher sound when down, at intervals, + The dry leaf rattling falls. + Dark as those spots which herald swift disease, + The death-blot marks for death the leaf yet firm. + Beside the leaf down-trodden trails the worm. + In forest depths the haggard, whitening grass + Repines at youth departed. Half-stripped trees + Reveal, as one who says,'Thou too must pass,' + Plainlier each day their quaint anatomies. + Yon poplar grove is troubled! Bright and bold + Babbled his cold leaves in the July breeze + As though above our heads a runnel rolled. + His mirth is o'er; subdued by old October, + He counts his lessening wealth, and, sadly sober, + Tinkles his minute tablets of wan gold." + + [Footnote 59: Dated in October, 1867.] + +This is very vivid, and the closing fancy extremely graceful and +pleasing. Poplars, by the way, seem to be a favorite theme of our +author. Every one familiar with his poems will recall another +beautiful description in his idyll of "Glaucè," in which occur +these lines: + + "How indolently + The tops of those pale poplars bend and sway + Over the violet-braided river brim." + +And there are other instances also. + +But it is waste of argument to go on giving illustrations of Mr. +De Vere's power to depict the external world; it is like proving +Anacreon a love-poet. What we wish to call attention to is the +nature, not the existence, of his talent for description. It +seems to us that, throughout his works, the faculty of +delineation is not the ordinary sensuous susceptibility of poets, +but rather a clear, tender truthfulness in reproducing +impressions alike of thought and sense. The somewhat unusual +result from which we deduce this opinion is, that he describes +quite as happily in the moral order as the physical. This has not +been adequately noticed by his critics, His beautiful +_genre_ pictures appear to have absorbed almost all of the +public attention. We think this is more than their due. Indeed, +whenever he sets out to paint traits, Mr. De Vere is quite as +sure to make a hit as in his landscape sketches. This volume +chances to afford us one striking set of examples of this. There +are in it three several summaries of the characteristics of +different nations. One--the remarkable epitome of England in the +sonnets on colonization--has been published in this magazine +before, (Vol. iv. No. 19, p. 77.) The next we take from the +"Farewell to Naples," (p. 70.) We think it will bear quoting, +though it has been in print since 1855, and was written as long +ago as 1844. + + 'From her whom genius never yet inspired, + Nor virtue raised, nor pulse heroic fired; + From her who, in the grand historic page, + Maintains one barren blank from age to age; + From her, with insect life and insect buzz, + Who, evermore unresting, nothing does; + From her who, with the future and the past + No commerce holds, no structure rears to last; + From streets where spies and jesters, side by side, + Range the rank markets, and their gains divide; + Where faith in art, and art in sense is lost, + And toys and gewgaws form a nation's boast; + Where Passion, from Affection's bond cut loose, + Revels in orgies of its own abuse; + And Appetite, from Passion's portals thrust, + Creeps on its belly to its grave in dust; + Where Vice her mask disdains, where Fraud is loud, + And naught but Wisdom dumb and Justice cowed; + Lastly, from her who, planted here unawed, + 'Mid heaven-topped hills, and waters bright and broad, + From these but nerves more swift to err hath gained, + And the dread stamp of sanctities profaned, + And gilt not less with ruin, lives to show + That worse than wasted weal is wasted woe-- + We part, forth issuing through her closing gate + With unreverting faces not ingrate." + +Is this not stingingly true? If only the critics found it in +Byron, would it not be inevitable in all the select readers and +speakers, and rampant in the "Notes on France," "Letters from +Italy," "Thoughts while Abroad," etc., which ministers are so +sure to write, and which we hope congregations buy? + +{269} + +The other is a still stronger, and, coming from Mr. De Vere, a +very bold as well as trenchant portraiture--no less than the +English idea of Ireland. True, Mr. De Vere does not even pretend +to agree with it, but that, an Irishman himself, and a devoted +patriot, he can see her so exactly as others see her, makes it +wonderfully good, and raises what would otherwise have been a +mere success of exact expression, to the rank of a high +imaginative effort. + + "How strange a race, more apt to fly than walk; + Soaring yet slight; missing the good things round them, + Yet ever out of ashes raking gems; + In instincts loyal, yet respecting law + Far less than usage: changeful yet unchanged: + Timid yet enterprising: frank yet secret: + Untruthful oft in speech, yet living truth, + And truth in things divine to life preferring: + Scarce men; yet possible angels!--'Isle of Saints!' + Such doubtless was your land--again it might be-- + Strong, prosperous, manly never! ye are Greeks + In intellect, and Hebrews in the soul: + The solid Roman heart, the corporate strength + Is England's dower!" + +We cannot devise an addition that could complete this picture of +the Sassenach's view of the Gael. It is to the life--the +"absolute exemplar of the time." Only we fear that Mr. De Vere +has furnished those who do not particularly love his country with +rather an ugly citation against her, and Irishmen may perhaps +complain of him for giving to such a powerful delineation the +sanction of an Irish name. If so, it will be the highest +compliment in the world; yet it has ever been a dangerous gift to +be able to see both sides of the shield. + +We have only suggested our belief, not asserted it as a fact, +that Mr. De Vere's fullest power is in description; but the idea +grows on us every year, and we wish he would set the question +finally at rest in some future work. Let him for once in his life +make this great gift of his the essential, instead of the +incident, and write something purely descriptive. + +There is another thing--rather a curious thing, perhaps--that we +note in the choice of the old poems. In a former review, some +little time since, we took occasion to speak of the +chameleon-like way in which Mr. De Vere's style--always in its +essence his own--unconsciously reflects his reading of certain of +our best authors. There are poems that recall Shakespeare, and +Wordsworth, and Landor, and Tennyson, and Shelley. But there are +also others--many of them among his best--which are all himself. +Consciously or unconsciously, Mr. De Vere has come back to these +at the last, and they constitute a notable majority of those he +has picked out for this volume. The ode on the ascent of the +Apennines, the "Wanderer's Musings at Rome," the "Lines written +under Delphi," the beautiful "Year of Sorrow," "The Irish Gael +(_alias_ Irish Celt) to the Irish Norman"--all these are of +this class. Perhaps the poet has come to love the best those of +his poems which hold the purest solution of his own nature, or +perhaps it may be mere chance; only certain it is that the most +characteristic of his pieces predominate very largely throughout. + +We cannot, however, pass on to the new poems without expressing +our profound disrespect for one selection in this volume. It is +notorious that, as we hinted before, authors are poor judges of +the relative excellence of their own works. To this rule there +are, apparently, no exceptions. Let us take one rankling example. +No lover of Tennyson but groans inwardly with disgust over that +insane hoot called "The Owl," with its noble description of the +very witching hour of night: + + "_When cats run home_, and night is come," + +and the impotent beauty of the poet's ejaculation: + + "I would mock thy chant (!) anew, + But I cannot mimic it. + Not a whit of thy tuwhoo, + Thee to woo to thy tuwhit," etc., etc. + +--human nature can stand no more of it. + +{270} + +We had long loved to believe that this was a sceptred hermit of +an example, wrapped in the solitude of its own unapproachable +fatuity. It has gone blinking and tu-whooing through edition +after edition, with the muffy solemnity characteristic of the +eminent fowl, its subject. But Mr. De Vere has paralleled it at +last with a certain "Song" which we find in this volume. On the +4th of September, 1843, in a preface to his first book of verses, +[Footnote 60] he tells us that this poem was written considerably +earlier than 1840. + + [Footnote 60: _The Search after Proserpine_. Oxford and + London. 1855.] + +Three years ago, we remember observing and laughing at it, and +thinking whether it would not be well to speak of it as the one +blemish in all his works, on his elsewhere perfect grammar. +Deeming it a mere Homeric dormitation, we passed it by. And now, +after thirty years face to face with it, comes Mr. De Vere, at +last, and drags from utter and most laudable oblivion this +hapless + + "SONG. + + "He found me sitting among flowers, + My mother's, and my own; + Whiling away too happy hours + With songs of doleful tone. + + "My sister came, and laid her book + Upon my lap: and he, + He too into the page would look, + And asked no leave of me. + + "The little frightened creature laid + Her face upon my knee-- + '_You_ teach your sister, pretty maid; + And I would fain teach _thee_.' + + "He taught me joy more blest, more brief + Than that mild vernal weather: + He taught me love; he taught me grief: + He taught me both together. + + "Give me a sun-warmed nook to cry in! + And a wall-flower's perfume-- + A nook to cry in, and to die in, + 'Mid the ruin's gloom." + +If Mr. De Vere had only attended in 1840 to the very reasonable +request of the young person in the last verse, we should have +been spared one of the very silliest little things in the English +language. And yet in thus haling it from the + + "nook to sigh in and to die in + 'Mid the ruin's gloom," + +where public opinion had long since left it in peace, he has done +good. It is instructive to his admirers to see for themselves how +very badly he could write before the year 1840. If intended as a +public penance of this nature, it is perfect of its kind, and the +humility of it will rejoice all Christian souls, excepting, +perhaps, the indignant shade of Lindley Murray. + +Not far behind this in inanity is the "Fall of Rora," all the +good part of which was published years ago, and all the bad part +of which is raked up and added for this edition. But from this to +the end of the book are new poems of a very different order. To +begin with, we have a number of miscellaneous sonnets. They are +none of them poor, but the first that particularly arrests +attention, by its fine harmony and happy illustration, is + + "Kirkstall Abbey. + + "Roll on by tower and arch, autumnal river; + And ere about thy dusk yet gleaming tide + The phantom of dead Day hath ceased to glide, + Whisper it to the reeds that round thee quiver: + Yea, whisper to those ivy bowers that shiver + Hard by on gusty choir and cloister wide, + My bubbles break: my weed-flowers seaward slide: + My freshness and my mission last for ever!' + Young moon from leaden tomb of cloud that soarest, + And whitenest those hoar elm-trees, wrecks forlorn + Of olden Airedale's hermit-haunted forest, + Speak thus,'I died; and lo, I am reborn!' + Blind, patient pile, sleep on in radiance! Truth + Dies not: and faith, that died, shall rise in endless youth." + +The arrangement of the double rhymes, which gives the peculiar, +rich rhythm, is a very unusual one with these sonnets. In the +whole two hundred and fifty before this, we only recall one or +two other instances, notable among which is the famous one +beginning, + + "Flowers I would bring, if flowers could make thee fairer," + +and the effect is almost always excellent. + +{271} + +On the heels of this treads another (of the same rhythm also) too +good to pass by: + + "Unspiritual Civilization. + + "We have been piping, Lord; we have been singing! + Five hundred years have passed o'er lawn and lea + Marked by the blowing bud and falling tree, + While all the ways with melody were ringing: + In tented lists, high-stationed and flower-flinging + Beauty looked down on conquering chivalry; + Science made wise the nations; Laws made free; + Art, like an angel ever onward winging, + Brightened the world. But O great Lord and Father! + Have these, thy bounties, drawn to thee man's race + That stood so far aloof? Have they not rather + His soul subjected? with a blind embrace + Gulfed it in sense? Prime blessings changed to curse + Twixt God and man can set God's universe." + +Better, perhaps, than either of these, as combining the best +qualities of both, is the one on + + "Common Life. + + "Onward between two mountain warders lies + The field that man must till. Upon the right, + Church-thronged, with summit hid by its own height, + Swells the wide range of the theologies: + Upon the left the hills of science rise + Lustrous but cold: nor flower is there, nor blight: + Between those ranges twain through shade and light + Winds the low vale wherein the meek and wise + Repose. The knowledge that excludes not doubt + Is there; the arts that beautify man's life: + There rings the choral psalm, the civic shout, + The genial revel, and the manly strife: + There by the bridal rose the cypress waves: + And there the all-blest sunshine softest falls on graves." + +This is, we think, one of the author's very best. It evolves a +happy allegory very neatly with a happy description, to express a +thought too large, it is true, for development in such brief +space, but highly suggestive. The question, how far wisdom lies +in action, may be raised in a sonnet, and remain unsettled by a +thousand treatises. + +Several versions from Petrarch's sonnets are admirable, and serve +to confirm our already expressed opinion that Mr. De Vere could +give us excellent translations. + +Perhaps, however, readers of our author will be most interested +by the following, which is in an altogether different vein from +the general run of these sonnets, and indeed is perhaps rather a +curious subject for a sonnet to be made about at all. Still there +is no accounting for these poets. Here it is, with all its +oddities upon its head: + + "A Warning. + + "Why, if he loves you, lady, doth he hide + His love? So humble is he that his heart + Exults not in some sense of new desert + With all thy grace and goodness at his side? + Ah! trust not thou the love that hath no pride, + The pride wherein compunction claims no part, + The callous calm no doubts confuse or thwart, + The untrembling hope, and joy unsanctified! + He of your beauty prates without remorse; + You dropped last night a lily; on the sod + He let it lie, and fade in nature's course; + He looks not on the ground your feet have trod. + He smiles but with the lips, your form in view; + And he will kiss one day your lips--not you." + +Where did our pious philosopher, of all men, learn to discourse +thus sagely and plainly of the uncertainty of all things amorous? +We think he makes a very good case, and only add our emphatic +indorsement, if that can serve the young lady, and join in +warning her to find a warmer lover, unless the untrembling and +unsanctifled is very, very handsome, in which case we know better +than to advise her at all. + +The next particularly good piece is the opening one of a +miscellany, and is called + + "The World's Work. + + "Where is the brightness now that long + Brimmed saddest hearts with happy tears? + It was not time that wrought the wrong: + Thy three and twenty vanquished years + Crouched reverent, round their spotless prize, + _Like lions awed that spare a saint_; + Forbore that face--a paradise + No touch autumnal ere could taint. + + "It was not sorrow. Prosperous love + Her amplest streams for thee poured forth, + _As when the spring in some rich grove + With blue-bells spreads a sky on earth._ + Subverted Virtue! They the most + Lament, that seldom deign to sigh; + O world! is this fair wreck thy boast? + Is this thy triumph, vanity? + + "What power is that which, being nought, + Can unmake stateliest works of God? + What brainless thing can vanquish thought? + What heartless, leave the heart a clod? + +{272} + + The radiance quench, yet add the glare? + _Dry up the flood; make loud the shoal! + And merciless in malice, spare + That mask, a face without a soul?_ + + "Ah! Parian brows that overshone + Eyes bluer than Egean seas! + One time God's glory wrote thereon + Good-will's two gospels, love and peace. + Ah! smile. Around those lips of hers + The lustre rippled and was still, + As when a gold leaf falling stirs + A moment's tremor on the rill!" + +We wish to call attention here to the very curious image +italicized in the second verse. Every one is struck by it at +once; every one sees the great beauty of it at once: and yet the +code of a narrow and merely rhetorical criticism would weed it +out like a wildflower shyly intruding in "ordered gardens great." +The simile is not at all a particularly happy one in relation to +the preceding idea; it is well enough, but there have been apter +similes, and there will be. And reducing it to fact, probably it +is one of the most exaggerative images ever written. But yet it +is beautiful--really beautiful, not a verbal juggle that entraps +the imagination in fine words. The force lies in the bringing +into juxtaposition in a new way those old emblems of beauty, +flowers and sky, and the daring inaccuracy of it only adds a +charm. It does a poetical thought sometimes no harm to be loose. +Nature can do clear-cut work enough when she makes things for +use; but all the visible loveliness of this world is in vague +outlines, formless masses, incomplete curves. The law that +softens the distant mountain-tops is the same that makes the +beauty of these lines. Theirs is the rarer excellence that rises +above rule. We notice it the more in Mr. De Vere that his +strength lies generally in the other direction, of photographic +exactness in reproduction. We like the very looseness of such +expressions; they are like the flowing robes of beautiful women. +The third verse also is excellent throughout, especially in the +fine metaphor in the sixth line, and the intensity of "merciless +in malice." This makes it so much the more provoking that the end +is weak, insignificant, and abrupt, and in a vicious style that +seems to be more and more the fashion of to-day. Still, there +have been worse things; does not Horace end an ode with +_"Mercuriusque"?_ + +The next short song, though nothing remarkable, perhaps, as pure +poetry, we cite because it is so like the author--Aubrey De Vere +all over, and the shortest epitome of his style we have yet seen +in any of his works. + + "A Song Of Age. + + I. + + "Who mourns? Flow on, delicious breeze! + Who mourns, though youth and strength go by? + Fresh leaves invest the vernal trees, + Fresh airs will drown my latest sigh. + What am I but a part outworn + Of earth's great whole that lifts more high + A tempest-freshened brow each morn + To meet pure beams and azure sky? + + II. + + "Thou world-renewing breath, sweep on, + And waft earth's sweetness o'er the wave! + That earth will circle round the sun + When God takes back the life he gave! + To each his turn! Even now I feel + The feet of children press my grave, + And one deep whisper o'er it steal-- + The soul is His who died to save.'" + +We like the honesty and earnestness of this none the worse for +knowing that Mr. De Vere is no longer a young man. And yet does +it not seem hard to realize that so good a writer has been before +the public nearly thirty years, and seen a generation of flimsy +reputations hide him from the eyes of the herd? We can only with +difficulty realize, beside, that any one with so romantic and +novel-like a name can ever be old. And will he ever be? Is it not +true in a deeper and other sense, that whom the gods love die +young? + +{273} + +The "Lines on Visiting a Haunt of Coleridge's" are not excelled +by anything in all the volume, but hang so closely together, +that, having to quote all or nothing, we are constrained by their +length to pass on to an interpolated copy of verses by S. E. De +Vere, which gives us a moment's pause. We do not know whether the +unknown S. E. is a gentleman or lady; whether the mysterious +initials stand for Saint Elmo or Selah Ebenezer, Sarolta +Ermengarde or Sarah Elizabeth. But we do know that in this poem, +"Charity," (p. 276,) is one passage of some beauty, as thus: + + "O cruel mockery, to call that love + Which the world's frown can wither! Hypocrite! + False friend! Base selfish man! fearing to lift + Thy soilèd fellow from the dust! _From thee + The love of friends, the sympathy of kind + Recoil like broken waves from a bare cliff, + Waves that from far seas come with noiseless step + Slow stealing to some lonely ocean isle; + With what tumultuous joy and fearless trust + They fling themselves upon its blackened breast + And wind their arms of foam around its feet, + Seeking a home; but finding none, return + With slow, sad ripple, and reproachful murmur!"_ + +We find concluding the work a set of sonnets called "Urbs Roma," +dedicated to the Count de Montalembert; all smooth, polished, +elegant, and dim; with no salient beauties anywhere that +distinguish one above another--golden means. The real climax of +the volume is at the "Autumnal Ode." This is far the best of the +new poems, and one of the best of any of its author's, new or +old. In structure it bears a general resemblance to the rest of +Mr. De Vere's longer odes; and the style is ripe, lofty, easy, +and well-sustained. We have already given one citation from its +rich stores, but there are two more especially worthy of +attention. The first is a description like the one cited, and +quite in Mr. De Vere's own vein. + + "It is the autumnal epode of the year; + The nymphs that urge the seasons on their round, + _They to whose green lap flies the startled deer + When bays the far-off hound, + They that drag April by the rain-bright hair, + (Though sun showers daze her and the rude winds scare) + O'er March's frosty bound, + They whose warm and furtive hand unwound + The cestus falls from May's new-wedded breast--_ + Silent they stand beside dead Summer's bier, + With folded palms, and faces to the west, + And their loose tresses sweep the dewy ground." + + III. + + "A sacred stillness hangs upon the air, + A sacred clearness. Distant shapes draw nigh: + Glistens yon elm-grove, to its heart laid bare, + And all articulate in its symmetry, + With here and there a branch that from on high + Far flashes washed as in a watery gleam; + _Beyond, the glossy lake lies calm--a beam + Upheaved, as if in sleep, from its slow central stream._" + +The images, and the way the allegory is sustained, are the beauty +of the first stanza. The second is perhaps more artistic still. +The adjective "sacred" is an artful and ingenious one. Without +any apparent particular propriety in its places--a hundred other +words might be effective as qualifications of "stillness" and +"clearness"--yet, we find, on passing to the next thought, that +it has had its result in preparing the mind for a more vivid and +imaginative view of the whole scene. The remaining delineation is +exact and cumulative, as our author's descriptions always are; +and the closing lines are a singularly true and acute observation +of an effect of light that very few would notice in the actual +landscape, or will appreciate even now their attention is called +to it. But people who are sensible enough to _bask_ now and +then in the ripeness of an autumn day will feel an electric +contact of recognition. + +Perhaps we cannot do better than to close this rambling notice +with the closing lines of this elegant and thoughtful poem: + + "Man was not made for things that leave us, + For that which goeth and returneth, + For hopes that lift us yet deceive us, + For love that wears a smile yet mournetlh; + Not for fresh forests from the dead leaves springing, + The cyclic re-creation which, at best, + Yields us--betrayal still to promise clinging-- + But tremulous shadows of the realm of rest; + For things immortal man was made, + God's image, latest from his hand, + Co-heir with Him, who in man's flesh arrayd + Holds o'er the worlds the heavenly-human wand: + His portion this--sublime + To stand where access none hath space or time, + Above the starry host, the cherub band, + To stand--to advance--and after all to stand!" + +{274} + +These lines are the real end and culmination of a book which +will, on the whole, do much to raise Mr. De Vere's reputation in +this country to a level nearer his deserts. With its human share +of faults, it is a truer, an abler, and a more scholarly book +than often issues from an American press, and contains everywhere +lofty and pure thought, with never a taint of evil, and never a +morally doubtful passage. And we only wish for our country, that, +of his readers, there may be many in whom these his poems may sow +motives as unselfish and aims as noble as those which, we +sincerely believe, inform the inner life of the true poet and +Christian, Aubrey De Vere. + +---------- + + About Several Things. + + +And, to begin with, about the poverty and vice of London! Hood +and and Adelaide Anne Procter, Dickens, James Greenwood, +[Footnote 61] have made these more familiar to us than the +streets of our own cities. We have talked with Nancy on London +bridge and skulked with Noah Claypole beneath its arches--swept +crossings with poor Joe and starved with the little ragamuffin in +Frying Pan Alley. + + [Footnote 61: _Author of a Night in a London Workhouse_, + and of the _True History of a Little Ragamuffin_.] + +The poor of London are representative beings to us all. As we +walk through the streets, each ragged or threadbare wanderer +tells us a story heard long ago and half forgotten. That +miserable woman huddled up in a doorway is a brickmaker's wife, +and the thin shawl drawn about her shoulders hides the only marks +of attention she ever receives from her pitiful husband. Her baby +is dead, thank God! safe beyond the reach of blows and hunger and +cold. Her story will soon be ended, if we may judge by her thin +face, and the eager look in her eyes, and the short, hacking +cough. The shilling you slip into her hand will only prolong her +misery, but it gives you a moment's consolation, and brings a +flash of gratitude into her poor face. Good-by, Jenny! When we +meet you at the judgment-seat of God, we wonder if it will occur +to us we might have done more for you to-day than give you a +shilling and a glance of recognition. + + "Alas for the rarity + Of Christian charity + Under the sun. + Oh! it was pitiful! + In a whole city-full + Home she had none." + +We wonder if Thomas Hood was much better than other people? If he +found homes for the homeless and food for the hungry? We cannot +get Jenny out of our head. Her wants would be so easily supplied. +In all London is there no place where lodging and fire and food +are provided for the decent poor? + +{275} + +The portly policeman at the street corner says yes, there are +several refuges, but the one in this district is kept by Sisters +of Mercy, in Crispin street, No.30 or thereabouts. Asking poor +Jenny to follow us, (she manifests a mild surprise at our +sympathy,) we cross Finbury Circus, pass Bishopsgate street, +without; and soon find ourselves in Crispin street, standing at +the modest entrance of the House of Mercy. We are not the only +applicants for admission this dreary November afternoon. Women +with children and women without them are sitting on the steps or +leaning against the wall, waiting for the hour of five to strike, +blessed signal for the door to open. It is only half-past four +now, says the sister portress. Jenny must join the throng +lingering about the house; but we as visitors may come in and see +the preparations made for their entertainment. + +This then is the refuge described by Miss Procter, and her pretty +garland of verses is still sold for its benefit. In 1860, there +was no Catholic refuge in England, and excellent as were those +supported by Protestants, they did not supply all demands. Rev. +Dr. Gilbert of Moorfields Chapel found in a block of buildings, +called by a pleasant coincidence, "Providence Row," a large empty +stable separated by a yard from No. 14 Finsbury Square. The +Sisters of Mercy were then seeking a house more suited to their +needs than the one in Broad street. The two projects fitted each +other like mosaic; No. 14 Finsbury Square should be the convent, +the stable should be the refuge. Benches and beds were provided +at first for fourteen persons only; but in February, 1861, +additional provision was made for forty-six women and children. +Before the month of April, 1862, 14,785 lodgings, with breakfast +and supper, had been given. + +But charity is as unsatiable in its desires as self-indulgence, +and Dr. Gilbert's ideas soon outgrew the stable in Providence +Row. The present refuge, giving accommodation to three hundred +adults and children, was opened last autumn. It will be in +operation from October to May of every year, on week-days from +five P.M. to half-past seven A.M.; on Sundays, throughout the +twenty-four hours. In this room on the ground floor, with its +blazing fire, the women are received for inspection. If any one +shows herself unworthy of assistance, either by intoxication or +by the use of bad language, she is turned away. Without doubt +many sinners are admitted to the refuge, and the sisters rejoice +in being able to check their course of evil for twelve hours; but +no one receives hospitality here unless she can conform outwardly +to the habits of decent persons. This is the only refuge where +admission depends on the good character of the applicant. It has +proved an efficient preventive of the contamination so much to be +dreaded whenever the poor and ignorant are brought together in +large numbers. + +The selection of guests being made, their dresses and shawls, wet +with London fog and mud, are dried by the fire; and the fixture +basins round the room are placed at their service with a +bountiful supply of water. + +From the inspection-room they pass to a large apartment, where +they have supper, and sit together in warmth and comfort until +bedtime. The supper consists of a bowl of excellent gruel and +half a pound of bread for each person. It is to be observed that, +though the accommodations are good of their kind, affording a +decent asylum to the homeless, they are not calculated to attract +those who can find comfortable shelter elsewhere. + +{276} + +At an early hour night-prayers are said by a sister, and the +women are shown to the dormitories. The beds are constructed in +an ingenious manner, economizing space and making perfect +cleanliness practicable. Two inclined planes, fastened together +at the higher end, pass down the middle of the dormitory. Two +more inclined planes pass down the sides of the room with the +higher end next the wall. These platforms are partitioned off by +planks into troughs about two feet wide and six feet long, (that +is to say, the length of the slope of the platform,) looking much +like cucumber frames without glass. These are the beds, and at +the foot of each is a little gate, which can be opened to admit +of drawing out a sliding plank in the bottom of the trough. This +is done every morning by the sisters in charge of the +dormitories, and the floor beneath is swept. But now the little +gates are closed and the beds are ready for their forlorn +occupants. Each is furnished with a thick mattress and pillow +covered with brown enamel cloth and with a large coverlet of +thick leather. As the women go to bed thoroughly warm and wear +their clothing, they sleep comfortably under these odd-looking +quilts; especially the mothers, who often hold one little child +in their arms while another nestles at their feet. The bedding is +wiped carefully every morning, and thus the dormitories are kept +free from vermin. A cell partitioned off at each end of the +dormitory, with two or three windows, provides the sisters in +charge with a private room and at the same time with a post of +observation. The arrangements for water throughout the house are +excellent, including a hose fixed in the wall of every dormitory, +ready to be used in case of fire. + +At half-past six in the morning, the sleepers are roused; at +seven they have breakfast, consisting, like the supper, of a +basin of gruel and half a pound of bread. At half-past seven, +they leave the refuge, some times to be seen no more, sometimes +to return night after night for weeks together. On Sunday they +can remain all day. But, as persons are admitted without +distinction of creed, they are allowed to leave the refuge during +the hours of morning service to go to church. A short lesson in +the catechism is given every evening at the refuge; but only +Catholics are allowed to attend the classes unless occasionally +by especial permission. They have, for their Sunday dinner, as +much strong beef soup as they can eat with bread. + +The arrangements for men are similar to those for women, though +less extensive. The entrances are separate, and there are +watchmen in the male dormitory. The refuge provides thirty-two +beds for men and one hundred and fifty for women. It is by +packing in children with their parents that so many individuals +are lodged. + +The survey of the building ended, we pass out of the front door +just as five o'clock strikes, and the tattered throng, Jenny +among them, present themselves for admission. This institution +could be copied with good effect in several American cities. Its +system of management guards against two evils. Provision being +made only for the bare necessities of life, no temptation is +offered to impostors. Propriety of behavior being ensured by +strict surveillance, the chance of contamination is materially +lessened, perhaps wholly removed. + +{277} + +It is no unusual thing, even in the United States, for men and +boys, women and girls, to spend a night in the station-house +because they have no other place to sleep. A refuge is less +expensive than other charitable establishments. The first cost of +a building is considerable; the annual outlay in provisions, +fuel, and light, comparatively trifling. The money spent every +year in indiscriminate almsgiving in a large city would serve to +support a night refuge for several hundred persons. But while +providing for the houseless poor of to-day, we should remember +that their numbers are increasing with every successive +generation. The children of our poorest class must be rescued +from their present migratory life, divided between street, jail, +and penitentiary. + +Much has been done for girls, and we can only desire an extension +of the work. With an increase of funds, the Sisters of Charity, +of Mercy, of the Good Shepherd, and of Notre Dame could +accomplish a mission of great importance to the future prosperity +of our country. These ladies devote their lives to saving from +misery and degradation the children of those who cannot or will +not perform a parent's duty. They need money to accomplish this. +We too often dole it out to them as if they had asked alms for +themselves. Let us give them not only money but sympathy and +encouragement. Many a good work has failed for want of friendly +words to give the strength for one final vigorous effort. + +But what is to be done for the boys? They may be divided into +three classes. First, children guilty of no worse crime than +friendlessness. Second, small boys obnoxious to the police for +petty infringements of the laws; third, newsboys, bootblacks, and +costermongers, more or less familiar with the vices of city life. +The third class is developed from the other two, because +neglected poverty naturally gravitates to vice and crime. + +The development of a true ragamuffin is a process painfully +interesting to watch. At an age when the children of the rich +take sober walks attended by nursery-maid or governess, he knows +the streets as well as any watchman. At seven years old, he is +arrested by some energetic policeman for throwing stones, +bathing, stealing a bunch of grapes, or some other first-class +felony. Once in the hands of the law, there is no redress for him +unless he is "bailed out." He must go to jail to wait for +trial-day--perhaps three or four weeks. The turnkeys do their +best for him; find him a decent companion if he is frightened, +or, still better, give him a cell to himself, where he looks more +like a squirrel in a cage than a criminal offender. I have seen +in one day four mere babies in prison for "breaking and +entering!" + +But, with all the precautions used in a well-ordered jail to +prevent mischief, our infant ragamuffin comes out older by many +years than he went in. He has been in prison, and his tiny +reputation is gone for ever. A few years later he comes back, +arrested for some grave misdemeanor; a sly, old-fashioned little +rogue by this time, gifted with an ingenuity fitting him +admirably to be the tool of some professional thief. Then begins +a course of sojourns in workhouses and juvenile penitentiaries. +By and by he reappears in jail with a smart suit of clothes, the +fruit of a successful burglary, and you are informed with an air +of conscious superiority that this time it is a house of +correction or State's prison offence. There is ambition in crime +as well as in other careers, we may be sure. He grows up to be a +drunkard, a libertine, a bad husband, and the father of children +more degraded than himself. We know of an entire family having +been in prison at one time, father, mother, and all the children. + +{278} + +Who is to blame for this career of vice and crime? Not the +officers of the jail, who bitterly regret the necessity of +receiving children, but cannot set them free. Not the judges, who +are sworn to administer the laws as they stand, not to improve +upon them. + +The police are to blame for exercising their enthusiasm for order +upon babies, instead of making examples of grown men guilty of +similar misdemeanors, but harder to catch. + +The public is to blame for making insufficient provision for the +reclamation of juvenile offenders. Above all, we Catholics are to +blame, because these are usually the children of foreign parents, +and Catholics, at least in name. + +Let us build an asylum in the air for these poor little urchins. +Aerial philanthropy requires no funds, and very little executive +ability. Who knows but our plan may be carried out in earnest, +one of these days, by some Dr. Gilbert, trustful of small +beginnings, and content to let his project first see the light in +a stable? + +We would have _one division_ devoted to little orphans, and +children whose parents are willing to resign them for a time or +for ever. + +A second division should be given to the infant criminals of whom +we have just spoken. Their offences are always bailable. A +trustworthy person should be employed to go bail for all children +under ten years of age, and bring them to the asylum to await +their trial. The judges gladly sentence children to serve out a +term at a juvenile home instead of sending them to +penitentiaries. Thus we should recover them after their trial, +for a length of time proportioned to the importance of severing +old associations. Their circumstances should be thoroughly +investigated and reported to the judge--character of parents, +place of residence, etc., etc. + +These two divisions should be under the charge of female +religious; with several male attendants to do menial work and +enforce discipline in the few instances where strong measures +might be necessary, but without possessing any authority except +the reflected one of acting under the matron's orders. The +necessity of vigilance can hardly be exaggerated. One child of +vicious habits can corrupt many more. But since direct +surveillance is irritating even to children, a routine of light +and frequently-varied occupation would be found useful in giving +vent to restless activity, which is at the root of many childish +misdemeanors. The superintendents must learn to distinguish fun +from mischief; energy from insubordination. + +A third division should provide a refuge for newsboys and others +of the same tribe. These older boys should be under the charge of +the Christian Brothers. An evening school, a library of books +such as boys enjoy, and a collection of innocent games would form +an important element in the plan of management. They should be +persuaded to put a portion of their earnings in the savings bank, +and induced if possible to alter their roving life and learn a +trade. Preference should be shown to lads of correct life over +those who have been in prison, but encouragement and countenance +given to every boy willing to conform to the rules of the refuge. +We lay less stress upon separating the good from the bad among +the lads for two reasons. A boy of fourteen or fifteen who has +not been corrupted by street life must be temptation-proof. It is +difficult to judge the respective merits of lads of that age or +to learn their past histories. They must to a great extent be +taken on trust. + +{279} + +In the course of a few years a fourth division would become +necessary to provide for the little boys grown too old for +petticoat government. This division should also be under the +charge of the Christian Brothers. + +The institution would be very expensive, unless it were made +partially self-supporting. There is a good deal of light work +connected with trades that might be done by boys resident in the +house. Perhaps in time city governments would wake up to the fact +that it costs less to give boys a good plain education than to +support rogues and paupers; but our dream of charity is rudely +dispersed by a yawn from our companion and a suggestion that we +should reach Piccadilly sooner by the underground railroad than +on foot. The gaslights stare despondingly at me through the +yellow fog. A London Arab solicits a penny for clearing the slimy +crossing, and wonders at the glow of charity with which we press +sixpence into his grimy palm. Where are we? In London? Yes, but +there are orphans wandering homeless about the streets of +American cities, too; bootblacks going to destruction by scores; +tiny children falling victims to the misplaced zeal of policemen; +and not even the corner-stone of our asylum is laid! + +---------- + + A Chinese Husband's Lament For His Wife. + Translated From The French Of M. Stanislas Julien, + Professor Of The Chinese Language, Paris. + + + I. + +It was in the fifth watch of the first day of the year, when the +winter's cold was most intense, that my tender wife died. Can +there be on earth a man more unhappy than I? O my wife! if thou +wert still here, I would give thee a new robe for the new year; +but woe is me, thou art gone down to the sombre abode where flows +the yellow fountain. Would that husband and wife could see one +another again! Come to me in the night--come to me in the third +watch--let me renew for a little while the sweetness of the past. + + II. + +In the second moon, when spring has come, and the sun stays each +day longer in the sky, every family washes its robes and linen in +pure water, and husbands who have still their wives love to adorn +them with new garments. But I, who have lost mine, am wasting my +life away in grief; I cannot even bear to see the little shoes +that enclosed her pretty feet! +Sometimes I think that I will take another companion; but where +can I find another so beautiful, wise, and kind! + +{280} + + III. + +In the third moon, the peach-tree opens its rose-colored +blossoms, and the willow is bedecked with green tresses. Husbands +who have still their wives go with them to visit the tombs of +their fathers and friends. But I who have lost mine go alone to +visit _her_ grave, and to wet with my hot tears the spot +where her ashes repose. I present funereal offerings to her +shade; I burn images of gilded paper in her honor. "Tender wife," +I cry with a tearful voice, "where art thou, where art thou?" But +she, alas! hears me not. I see the solitary tomb, but I cannot +see my wife! + + + IV. + +In the fourth moon, the air is pure and serene, and the sun +shines forth in all his splendor. How many ungrateful husbands +then give themselves up to pleasure and forget the wife they have +lost! Husband and wife are like two birds of the same forest; +when the fatal hour arrives, each one flies off a different way. +I am like a man, who, beguiled by the sweet fancies of an +enchanting dream, seeks, when he awakes, the young beauty that +charmed his imagination while he slept, but finds around him only +silence and solitude. So much loveliness, so much sweetness +vanished in one morning! Why, alas! could not two friends, so +dearly united, live and grow gray together! + + V. + +In the fifth moon, the dragon-headed boats float gaily on the +waters. Exquisite wines are heated, and baskets are filled up +with delicious fruits. Each year at this season, I delighted to +enjoy the pleasures of these simple feasts with my wife and +children. But now I am weary and restless, a prey to the +bitterest anguish. I weep all day and all night, and my heart +seems ready to break. Ah! what do I see at this moment? Pretty +children at merry play before my door. Yes, I can understand that +they are happy; they have a mother to press them to her bosom. Go +away, dear children, your joyous gambols tear my heart. + + + VI. + +In the sixth moon, the burning heat of the day is almost +unbearable. The rich and the poor then spread their clothes out +to air. I will expose one of my wife's silken robes, and her +embroidered shoes to the sun's warm beams. See! here is the dress +she used to wear on festal days, here are the elegant little +slippers that fitted her pretty feet so well. But where is my +wife? Oh! where is the mother of my children? I feel as if a cold +steel blade were cutting into my heart. + + + + VII. + +In the seventh moon, my eyes overflow with tears; for it is then +that Nieaulan visits his wife Tchi-niu in heaven. Once I also had +a beautiful wife, but she is lost to me for ever. That fair face, +lovelier than the flowers, is constantly before me. Whether in +movement or at rest, the remembrance of her that is gone from me +never ceases to rack my bosom. What day have I forgotten to think +of my tender wife--what night have I not wept till morning? + + + VIII. + +On the fifteenth day of the eighth moon, her disk is seen in its +greatest splendor, and men and women then offer to the gods +melons and cakes, ball-like in form as the orb of night. Husbands +and wives stroll together in the fields and groves, and enjoy the +soft moonlight. +{281} +But the round disk of the moon can only remind _me_ of the +wife I have lost. At times, to solace my grief I quaff a cup of +generous wine; at times I take my guitar, but my trembling hand +can draw forth no sound. Friends and relations invite me to their +houses, but my sorrowful heart refuses to share in their +pleasures. + + + IX. + +In the ninth moon, the chrysanthemum opens its golden cup, and +every garden exhales a balmy odor. I would gather a bunch of +newly-blown flowers if I had still a wife whose hair they could +adorn! My eyes are weary with weeping--my hands are withered with +grief, and I beat a fleshless breast. I enter the tasteful room +that was once my wife's; my two children follow me, and come to +embrace my knees. They take my hands in theirs, and speak to me +with choking voices; but by their tears and sobs I know they ask +me for their mother. + + + X. + +On the first day of the tenth moon, both rich and poor present +their wives with winter clothing. But to whom shall I offer +winter clothing? I, who have no wife! When I think of her who +rested her head on my pillow, I weep and burn images of gilded +paper. I send them as offerings to her who now dwells beside the +yellow fountain. I know not if these funereal gifts will be of +use to her shade; but at least her husband will have paid her a +tribute of love and regret. + + + XI. + +In the eleventh moon, I salute winter, and again deplore my +beautiful wife. Half of the silken counterpane covers an empty +place in the cold bed where I dare not stretch out my legs. I +sigh and invoke heaven; I pray for pity. At the third watch I +rise without having slept, and weep till dawn. + + + XII. + +In the twelfth moon, in the midst of the winter's cold, I called +on my sweet wife. "Where art thou," I cried; "I think of thee +unceasingly, yet I cannot see thy face!" On the last night of the +year she appeared to me in a dream. She pressed my hand in hers; +she smiled on me with tearful eyes; she encircled me in her +caressing arms, and filled my soul with happiness. "I pray thee," +she whispered, "weep no more when thou rememberest me. Henceforth +I will come thus each night to visit thee in thy dreams." + +------- + +{282} + + A May Flower. + + A look and a word, my sweet lady; + A thought of your kind heart, I pray, + For a flower that blooms by the roadside, + This beautiful morning in May. + + I know that engagements await you; + I know you have many to meet; + Yet, pray, linger here for a moment, + And look at this flower of the street. + + 'Tis but May, my sweet lady, and hardly + Has spring had the time to look bright; + Yet this flower it called into being + Already is smitten with blight. + + Already upon its fair leaflets + Lie heavy the grime and the dust; + Its shrivelled and lack-lustre petals, + Tell a story--stop, lady!--you must. + + For a soul is in danger, my lady, + The soul of this drooping street flower; + And you by a look can recall it + To life, or 'twill die in an hour. + + Ah me! if you knew but the power + Of one word of kindness from you; + Could you see what a tempest of passion + A glance of your eye would subdue! + + What hope once again would awaken + To arm this poor soul for the right! + Thanks, my lady! Go happily onward, + The tempted is strengthened with might. + +------- + +{283} + + New Publications. + + The Formation Of Christendom. + Part II. + By T. W. Allies. + London: Longmans, Green, Reader & Dyer. + New-York: The Catholic Publication Society. + +This volume is the dictation of a scholarly mind and the work of +an experienced pen. It forms the second volume of a work not yet +complete, the first part of which appeared in 1865. In the six +chapters which composed the first volume, as the author tells us +in his advertisement to the present one, he described +Christianity creating anew, as it were, and purifying and +introducing supernatural principles into the individual soul; +showing how the new religion restored the fallen dignity of man +by insisting on his individuality and personal responsibility, by +consecrating the married and counselling the virginal life. The +vile secrets of that viler pagan society are partly revealed, and +the influence of the Gospel is shown in a graceful parallel +between St. Augustine and Cicero. The author further says, that, +having examined the foundations, he has now reached the building +itself and comes "to consider the Christian Church in its +historical development as a kingdom of truth and grace; for while +the soul of man is the unit with which it works, 'Christendom' +betokens a society." It is then the first epoch of such a kingdom +that the author would describe in the present volume. +Accordingly, we have a graphic account of the polytheism which, +at the birth of Christ, reigned throughout the world, save in one +of its most insignificant lands, the frightful power of this +false worship, its relation to civilization, to the political +constitution of the empire, to national feeling in the provinces, +to despotism and slavery, and its hostile preparations for the +advent of the "Second Man." Then follows the teaching of Christ +and the institution of his church, a statement of the nature of +the latter, its manner of teaching and propagation, its +episcopacy and primacy. Then, a picture of the history of the +martyr church through the first three centuries, its sublime +patience under persecution, and its struggle with swarming +heresies that menaced from within. After this, the author +prepares for a dissertation on that strife between Christianity +and heathen philosophy, which terminated on the downfall of the +Alexandrian school, by sketching the history and influence of +Greek philosophy until the reign of Claudius; and, reserving this +dissertation for a future volume, the author closes the present +number of his contemplated series. It is a serious disadvantage +to any work to be published piecemeal. Nevertheless, English +readers, interested in the study of the early ages, and +especially those who have read with pleasure Mr. Allies's former +productions, will be glad to notice the publication of this +volume. But Mr. Allies's work, also, belongs to a class, small +indeed, but all the more worthy of encouragement, namely, that of +original Catholic histories in the English language. It is, +therefore, an attempt to partially supply a want which no one +book, however popular, can adequately meet. In the face of an +ungrateful heathenism that to-day secretly sighs after the +Augustan age, and openly asks, "What has been gained by all this +religion?" daring to draw unjust parallels between the heroes of +Christian tradition and contemporary pagan models, it is the duty +of all who love the Christian name to encourage true historical +criticism; that men may know all that they at present owe to the +Catholic Church; and if they will not acknowledge her to-day as +the guide to true civilization, may learn from the record of the +past how her genius has presided over all that is greatest and +noblest in the past history of mankind. + +----- + +{284} + + Thunder And Lightning. + By W. De Fonvielle. + Translated from the French, and + edited by T. L. Phipson, Ph.D. + Illustrated with thirty nine engravings on wood. + 1 vol. 12mo, pp. 216. + + The Wonders Of Optics. + By F. Marion. + Translated from the French, + and edited by Charles W. Quinn, F.C.S. + Illustrated with seventy engravings on wood. + 1 vol. 12mo, pp. 248. + New York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1869. + +These two volumes are the first issues of the "Illustrated +Library of Wonders," to be published by Messrs. Scribner & Co. +They are highly interesting to the general reader, as well as to +persons of scientific attainments. The accounts given of the +peculiar and novel freaks of lightning are curious and +instructive. The illustrations in both volumes are well executed, +and make these books specially attractive to young people. In the +work on optics, the telescope, magic lantern, magic mirror, etc., +are fully explained. + +---- + + Why Men Do Not Believe; + Or, The Principal Causes Of Infidelity. + By N.J. Laforet, Rector of the Catholic University of Louvain. + Translated from the French. + New York: The Catholic Publication Society, + 126 Nassau Street. + Pp. 252. 1869. + +Whoever has had the happiness of attending the Catholic Congress +of Belgium must have noticed among the distinguished gentlemen +seated by the side of the president the prepossessing, +intellectual countenance of Mgr. Laforet, the Rector Magnificus +of the University of Louvain. Although still a young man, he +holds a high place among the writers who adorn European Catholic +literature. His best known and most elaborate work is an +excellent _History of Philosophy_. In the present volume, +which is quite unpretending in size, and written in such a simple +and easy style as to be easily readable by any person of ordinary +education, he has, perhaps, rendered even a greater service to +the cause of religion and sound science than by his more +elaborate works. It is an excellent little treatise on the causes +of infidelity, which has already produced happy fruits among his +own countrymen by bringing back a number of persons to the +Christian faith, and we trust is destined to accomplish a still +greater amount of good in its English as well as its French +dress. + +Mgr. Laforet assigns as the causes of the infidelity which +prevails, unhappily, to such a considerable extent in our days, +ignorance of the real grounds and nature of the Christian +religion, materialism, and the consequent moral degradation which +it has produced. He denies in a peremptory manner that it has +been caused by progress in science or the more perfect +development of the reasoning faculty, and supports this denial by +abundant and conclusive proofs. The origin of modern infidelity +he traces historically and logically to Protestantism, showing +that it has been transplanted into France and other Catholic +countries from England and Germany. Anti-Catholic writers are +fond of retorting upon us the charge that Protestantism breeds +infidelity by the countercharge that Catholicity breeds +infidelity. They say that it lays too great a burden on reason by +teaching, as Christian doctrine, dogmas that intelligent, +educated men cannot receive without doing violence to their +reason. They point to the infidelity that prevails to a certain +extent among educated men in Catholic countries as a proof of +this assumption. The writer of an article in a late number of +_Putnam's Monthly_, entitled, "The Coming Controversy," has +reiterated this charge, and alleges the fact that some of the +educated laymen belonging to the Catholic Church in the United +States do not approach the sacraments, as an evidence that they +have lost their faith, which is a corroboration of the alleged +charge against the Catholic religion of breeding infidelity in +intelligent, thinking minds. +{285} +The whole of this specious argument is a fabric of sand. In the +first place, it is no proof that men have lost their faith +because they do not act in accordance with it. The entire body of +negligent Catholics are not to be classed among infidels, any +more than negligent Jews or Protestants. Nevertheless, we would +call the attention of those Catholic gentlemen of high standing +who neglect the practice of their religious duties, and fail to +take that active part on the side of the church and of God which +they ought to take, to the scandal they thus give and to the +occasion which the enemies of the church take from their criminal +apathy to revile that faith for which their ancestors have +suffered and contended so nobly. Neither is it true that anywhere +in the world the apostates from the faith are superior in +intelligence and culture to its loyal adherents. We hear too much +of this boasting from free-thinkers and infidels of their +intellectual superiority. On the field of philosophy and positive +religion they have been completely discomfited by the champions +of religion. Some of their ablest men have passed over to our +camp convinced by the pure force of argument, as, for instance, +Thierry, Maine de Biran, Droz, and to a certain extent Cousin. +Many others, and recently one most notorious individual, Jules +Havin, the chief editor of the infamous _Siècle_, of Paris, +have repented at the hour of death. D'Holbach, one of the chiefs +of the infidel party in France, thus writes: "We must allow that +corruption of manners, debauchery, license, and even frivolity of +mind, may often lead to irreligion or infidelity. ... Many people +give up prejudices they had adopted through vanity and on +hearsay; these pretended free-thinkers have examined nothing for +themselves; they rely on others whom they suppose to have weighed +matters more carefully. How can men, given up to voluptuousness +and debauchery, plunged in excess, ambitious, intriguing, +frivolous, and dissipated--or depraved women of wit and +fashion--how can such as these be capable of forming an opinion +of a religion they have never examined?" [Footnote 62] La Bruyère +says, "Do our _esprits forts_ know that they are called thus +in irony?" [Footnote 63] It is no argument against either +Catholicity or Protestantism that infidelity exists in Catholic +or Protestant countries. Before this fact can be made to tell in +any way against either religion it must be proved that it +contains principles which lead logically to infidelity, or +proposes dogmas which are rationally incredible, and thus +produces a reaction against all divine revelation. This has never +been done, and never can be done in respect to the Catholic +religion. So far as Protestantism is concerned, it has been done +repeatedly and can be done easily. We do not rejoice in this; on +the contrary, we grieve over it, and our sympathies are with +those Protestants, such as Guizot, Dr. McCosh, President Hopkins, +and others who defend the great truths of spiritual philosophy, +of Theism, the divine mission of Moses and Christ, and other +Christian doctrines against modern infidelity. Nevertheless, we +cannot help pointing out the fact that they are illogical as +Protestants in doing this, and are unable, after giving the +evidences of the credibility of Christianity, to state what +Christianity is in such a manner as completely to satisfy the +just demands of human reason, or to justify their own position as +seceders from the genuine Christendom. + + [Footnote 62: _Système de la Nature_, tom. ii. c. 13. + Cited on page 106. ] + + [Footnote 63: _Les Caractères_, ch. xvi. Cited on page + 188.] + +Our own youth are exposed to the temptation of infidelity on +account of their imperfect religious education, and the influence +of the Protestant world in which they live, saturated as it is +with the most pestilent and poisonous influences of heresy, +infidelity, and immorality. Good Protestants they will never +become. They can only be good Catholics, bad Catholics, or +infidels. Our friends of the Protestant clergy have no reason, +therefore, to count up and exult over those who are lost from the +Catholic fold, for Satan is the only gainer. +{286} +Let us have a sufficient number of clergy of the right sort, an +ample supply of churches, colleges, schools, and Catholic +literature, and we will engage that the desire for a purer and +more spiritual religion will never lead our Catholic youth to +become Protestants, or the desire for a more elevated and solid +science make them infidels. Such books as the one we are noticing +are of just the kind we want, and we recommend it warmly to all +thinking young men and women, to all parents and teachers, and to +all readers generally. + +---- + + The Montarges Legacy. + By Florence McCoomb. + Philadelphia: P. F. Cunningham. 1869. + +We thank the gentle author of this charming story for the +satisfaction derived from its perusal. Not wishing, by entering +into detail of plot or incident, to diminish the pleasure in +store for its readers, we will merely say that, while +sufficiently exciting, it is by no means morbidly sensational; +that the characters are well portrayed; the incidents varied; the +dialogue not strained, yet not monotonous; the descriptive +portion easy and natural; and that, pervading all, is a true +Catholic spirit. + +---- + + Anne Severin. + By Mrs. Augustus Craven. + New York: The Catholic Publication Society. + 1 vol. 12mo, pp. 411. 1869. + +We do not like the controversially religious novel. There is +generally too much pedantry; too great an admixture of theology, +politics, and love, to suit our taste. But the story of _Anne +Severin_, by the gifted author of _A Sister's Story_, is +not of this kind, it is permeated throughout with a purely +religious feeling; just enough, however, to make it interesting, +and to give the reader to understand that the writer is truly +Catholic in all she writes. The scene of the story opens in +England, about the beginning of this century, when there were +"troublous times in France," and changes to the latter country, +where the thread of the narrative is spun out. The heroine, Anne +Severin, is not an ideal character. It is one that is not rare in +Catholic countries, or in Catholic society. She is a true woman, +in the truest sense of the word, a model for our daughters. The +contrast between her and the English-reared girl, Eveleen +Devereux, is clearly drawn. The one truthful, religious, +conscientious in all her actions, kind, amiable, and loveable; +the other, fickle-minded, constantly wavering, and a flirt, +courting admiration for admiration's sake, yet intending to do +right in her own way, but failing because she did not have the +_true_ religious teaching that Anne Severin had. No better +book of the kind could be put in the hands of Catholics as well +as non-Catholics of both sexes. No one can help for a moment to +see in what consists the difference between these two women. Anne +Severin had a positive, soul-sustaining faith to fall back upon +in her troubles. Eveleen Devereux had nothing but the emptiness +of a religion of the world which failed her in the hour of +tribulation. + +---- + + Eudoxia: A Picture Of The Fifth Century. + Freely translated from the German of Ida, + Countess Hahn Hahn. + Baltimore: Kelly, Piet & Co. Pp. 287. 1869. + +This historical tale, which has already appeared as a serial in +an English periodical, and also in an American newspaper, has +been very favorably received on both sides of the Atlantic. It is +now issued in handsome book form, and will, no doubt, have, as it +deserves, an extensive circulation. + +---- + + The Illustrated Catholic Sunday School Library. + Third Series. 12 vols. pp. 144 each. + New York: The Catholic Publication Society, + 126 Nassau Street. 1869. + +{287} + +The titles of the volumes contained in this series are: + + Bad Example; + May-Day, and other Tales; + The Young Astronomer, and other Tales; + James Chapman; + Angel Dreams; + Ellerton Priory; + Idleness and Industry; + The Hope of the Katzekopfs; + St. Maurice; + The Young Emigrants; + Angels' Visits; + and The Scrivener's Daughter, and other Tales. + +That in the variety of its contents this series is fully equal to +its predecessors is evident from the above list; and the careful +supervision to which each issue is subjected renders it +unnecessary to say another word in its praise. We can safely +promise a rare treat to our young friends when, either +well-deserving at school, or an indulgent parent, will have made +them happy in its possession. + +---- + + The Sunday-school Class-book. + New York: The Catholic Publication Society. 1869. + +This last work of The Catholic Publication Society will be +appreciated by every Sunday-school teacher who has experienced +the torments of an ill-arranged and poorly-made classbook. The +chief characteristics of this small but important work are +_clearness_ and _completeness_. Its new feature is the +plain, brief, but very decided rules to be found on the inside of +each cover. In size it allows a goodly space for marks in detail. +In binding and quality of paper, it is far in advance of anything +yet offered to the Catholic Sunday-school teacher. It provides a +"register" for eighteen or twenty scholars, in which should be +plainly and neatly written the names, etc., of each member of the +class. Then comes a monthly record, extending across two pages, +in which allowance is made for "the fifth" Sunday, and a space +for a "Monthly Report." And in this we have the grand improvement +on all other classbooks in use. + +Twelve such double pages are furnished, thus covering the space +of one year; and on the last half-page there are columns provided +for a yearly report, in which plain figures must be placed by +every teacher to the satisfaction of superintendents, who have so +often experienced the mortifying necessity of declaring teachers' +methods of marking more mysterious than hieroglyphics. + +What has long been needed is not a class-book fitted for the +educated few who devote their spare hours to Sunday-school +teaching, nor a mere record book for large and continually +changing classes of beginners, but a plain, comprehensive book +which any teacher can understand at a glance, and which will +enable him to influence the conduct, if not the studious habits, +of those committed to his charge, instead of calling for an extra +waste of time, in order to mark with precision in perhaps a badly +lighted school-house. Let every teacher send for a copy, examine +it for himself, and see how simple this often neglected duty can +be made. If the rules which are contained therein be attended to, +there will be no necessity of carrying the book away from the +school, which arrangement insures the double object of marking +while the impression of each recitation is fresh and of having +the book in readiness to mark at the next recitation. And, until +every teacher attends to both these duties, in spite of +qualifications in other respects, he will still have much to +learn before he becomes a perfect Sunday-school teacher. + +This little book is substantially bound in cloth, and is sold for +twenty cents a copy, or, to Sunday-schools, at two dollars per +dozen. + +---- + + Studious Women. + From the French of Monseigneur Dupanloup, Bishop of Orleans. + Translated by R. M. Phillimore. + Boston: P. Donahoe. Pp. 105. 1869. + +This able essay of the Bishop of Orleans was translated for and +appeared in _The Catholic World_ very soon after its +appearance in France, nearly two years ago. We see Mr. Donahoe +has used the London translation. + +------- +{288} + + Poems. + By James McClure. + New York: P. O'Shea. Pp. 148. 1869. + +We cannot praise the "poems" contained in this volume, and the +modesty of the author's preface disarms adverse criticism. + +---- + + A Manual Of General History: + being an outline history of the world + from the creation to the present time. + Fully illustrated with maps. + For the use of academies, + high-schools, and families. + By John J. Anderson, A.M. + New York: Clark & Maynard. Pp. 401. 1869. + +This compendium is in some respects inaccurate; much that is +comparatively trivial is admitted, while really important events +are entirely ignored; and on certain points there is, if not an +actual anti-Catholic bias, an absence, at least, of that strict +impartiality to be demanded, as of right, in all compilations +intended for use as text-books in our public schools. + +---- + +The Catholic Publication Society has now in press the Chevalier +Rossi's famous work on the Roman Catacombs--_Roma +Sotterranea_. It is being compiled, translated, and prepared +for the English reading public by the Very Rev. J. Spencer +Northcote, D.D., president of Oscott College, Birmingham, and +author of a small treatise on the catacombs. The present work +will make a large octavo volume of over five hundred pages, and +will be copiously illustrated by wood-cuts and +chromo-lithographs--the latter printed under De Rossi's personal +supervision. This will be an important addition to our +literature, and will, we doubt not, attract considerable +attention in this country. The same Society will have ready about +May 1st, _Why People do not Believe_--a library edition as +well as a cheap edition; _Glimpses of Pleasant Homes_, by +the author of _Mother McCauley_, with four full-page +illustrations; _Impressions of Spain_, by Lady Herbert, with +fifteen full-page illustrations. The two last-mentioned books +will be very appropriate for college and school premiums. _In +Heaven we know Our Own _ will be ready in June. The Fourth +Series of the _Illustrated Catholic Sunday-School Library_ +is also in preparation. _The Life of Mother Margaret Mary +Hallahan, O.S.D._, founder of the Dominican Conventual +Tertiaries in England, is announced, and will be ready in June or +July. + +---- + +Messrs. John Murphy & Co., Baltimore, announce as in +press _The Life And Letters Of The +Rev. Frederick William Faber, D.D._, +Priest of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. +By Rev. John E. Bowden, priest of the same oratory. + + +P. F. Cunningham, Philadelphia, has in +press, and will soon publish, +_Ferncliffe_. + +---- + + Books Received. + +From Joseph Shannon, Clerk of the Common Council, New York. +Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York for 1868. + + +From P. Donahoe, Boston: +America in its Relation to Irish Emigration. +By John Francis Maguire, +Member of Parliament for the City of Cork. +Swd. Pp. 24. + + +From Fields, Osgood & Co., Boston: +The Danish Islands: Are we bound in honor to pay for them? +By James Parton. Swd. Pp. 76. 1869. + +------- +{289} + + The Catholic World. + + Vol. IX., No. 51.-June, 1869. + +---------- + + Spiritism And Spiritists. + [Footnote 64] + + [Footnote 64: 1. _Planchette; or, the Despair of + Science_. Being a full Account of Modern Spiritualism, its + Phenomena, and the various Theories regarding it. With a + Survey of French Spiritism. Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1869. + + 2. _Des Rapports de l'Homme avec le Démon_. Essai + Historique et Philosophique. Par Joseph Bizouard, Avocat. + Paris: Gaume Frères et J. Duprey. 1863 et 1864. Tome VI., + 8vo. + + 3. _The Spirit-Rapper. An Autobiography_. By o. A. + Brownson. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1854. + + 4. _Interesting Facts in relation to Spirit Life and + Manifestations_. By Judge Edmonds. New York: Spiritual + Magnetic Telegraphic Agency. + + 5. Spiritualism Unveiled, and shown to be the Work of Demons. + By Miles Grant. Boston: _The Crisis_ Office.] + + +Worcester, in his dictionary, gives as the second meaning of the +word _spiritualism_, "the doctrine that departed spirits +hold communication with men," and gives as his authority O. A. +Brownson. We think this must be a mistake; for Dr. Brownson uses +in his _Spirit-Rapper_, the term _spiritism_, which is +the more proper term, as it avoids confounding the doctrine of +the spiritists with the philosophical doctrine which stands +opposed to materialism, or, more strictly, sensism, and the moral +doctrine opposed to sensualism. We generally use the word +_spiritual_ in religion as opposed to natural, or for the +life and aims of the regenerate, who walk after the spirit, in +opposition to those who walk after the flesh, and are +carnal-minded. To avoid all confusion or ambiguity which would +result from using a word already otherwise appropriated, we +should use the terms _spiritism_, spiritists, and spirital. + +The author of _Planchette_ has availed himself largely of +the voluminous work of the learned Joseph Bizouard, the second +work named on our list, and gives all that can be said, and more +than we can say, in favor of spiritism. He has given very fully +one side of the question, all that need be said in support of the +reality of the order of phenomena which he describes, while the +French work gives all sides; but he passes over, we fear +knowingly and intentionally, the dark side of spiritism, and +refuses to tell us the sad effects on sanity and morality which +it is known to produce. A more fruitful cause of insanity and +immorality and even crime does not exist, and cannot be imagined. + +{290} + +We have no intention of devoting any space specially to +_Planchette_, or the "little plank," which so many treat as +a harmless plaything. It is only one of the forms through which +the phenomena of spiritism are manifested, and is no more and no +less the "despair of science," than any other form of alleged +spirital manifestations. Contemporary science, indeed, or what +passes for science, has shown great ineptness before the alleged +spirit-manifestations; and its professors have, during the twenty +years and over since the Fox girls began to attract public +attention and curiosity, neither been able to disprove the +alleged facts, nor to explain their origin and cause; but this is +because contemporary science recognizes no invisible existences, +and no intelligences above or separate from the human, and +because it is not possible to explain their production or +appearance by any of the unintelligent forces of nature. To deny +their existence is, we think, impossible without discrediting all +human testimony; to regard them as jugglery, or as the result of +trickery practised by the mediums and those associated with them, +seems to us equally impossible. Mr. Miles Grant in his +well-reasoned little work on the subject, says very justly, it +"would only show that we know but little about the facts in the +case. We think," he says, p. 3, + + "No one, after a little reflection, would venture to say of the + many thousands and even millions of spiritualists, + [spiritists,] among whom are large numbers of men and women + noted for their intelligence, honesty, and veracity, that they + are only playing tricks on each other! ... Can any one tell + what object all these fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, + children, dear friends, and loved companions can have in + pretending that they have communications from spirits, when + they know, at the same time, that they are only deceiving each + other by means of trickery?" + +In our judgment such an assumption would be a greater violation +of the laws of human nature or the human mind and belief, than +the most marvellous things related by the spiritists, especially +since the order and form of the phenomena they relate are nothing +new, but have been noted in all lands and ages, ever since the +earliest records of the race, as is fully shown by M. Bizouard. + +The author of _Planchette_ says the Catholic Church concedes +the facts alleged by spiritists. This, as he states it, may +mislead his readers. The church has not, to our knowledge, +pronounced any official judgment deciding whether these +particular facts are real facts or not; for we are not aware that +the question has ever come distinctly before her for decision. +She has had before her, from the first, the class of facts to +which the alleged spirit-manifestations belong, and has had to +deal with them, in some place, or in some form, every day of her +existence; but we are not aware that she has examined and +pronounced judgment on the particular facts the modern spiritists +allege. She has, undoubtedly, declared the practice of spiritism, +evocation of spirits, consulting them, or holding communication +with them--that is, necromancy--to be unlawful, and she prohibits +it to all her children in the most positive manner, as may be +seen in the case of the American, or rather Scotchman, Daniel +Home, the most famous of modern mediums, and the most dangerous. + +For ourselves, we have no doubt of the order of facts to which in +our view the spirit-manifestations so called belong; we have no +difficulties, _a priori_, in admitting them, though we do +not accept the explanation the spiritists give of them; but when +it comes to any particular fact or manifestation alleged, we +judge it according to the generally received rules of evidence, +and we require very strong evidence to convince us of its reality +as a fact. +{291} +We adopt, in regard to them, the same rule that we follow in the +case of alleged miracles. We have not a doubt, nor the shadow of +a doubt, that miracles continue to be wrought in the church, and +are daily wrought in our midst; but we accept or reject this or +that alleged miracle according to the evidence in the case; and, +in point of fact, we are rather sceptical in regard to most of +the popularly received miracles we hear of. Credulity is not a +trait of the Catholic mind. It is the same with us in relation to +this other class of alleged facts. We believe as firmly in the +fact that prodigies are wrought as we do that miracles are; but +do not ask us to believe this or that particular prodigy, unless +you are prepared with the most indubitable evidence. We are far +from believing every event which we know not how to explain is +either a miracle or a prodigy. + +We have examined with some care the so-called +spirit-manifestations which the spiritists relate, and we have +come, according to our best reason, to the conclusion that much +in them is trickery, mere jugglery; that much is explicable on +natural principles, or is to be classed with well-known morbid or +abnormal affections of human nature; but, after all abatements, +that there is a residuum inexplicable without the recognition of +a superhuman intelligence and force. We say _superhuman_, +not _supernatural_. The supernatural is God, and what he +does immediately or without the intermediation of natural laws, +as has been more than once explained in this magazine. The +creation of Adam was supernatural; the generation of men from +parents is not supernatural, for it is done by the Creator +through the operation of natural laws or second causes. What is +done by created forces or intelligences, however superior to man, +is not supernatural, nor precisely preternatural, but simply +superhuman, angelic, or demoniac. There is a smack of paganism in +calling it, as most contemporary literature does, supernatural; +for it carries with it the notion that the force or intelligence +is not a creature, but an uncreated _numen_, or an immortal. + +Now, what is this superhuman intelligence and force revealed by +these spirit-phenomena? We know that many who admit the phenomena +refuse to admit that they reveal any superhuman force or +intelligence. They explain all by imagination or hallucination. +These, no doubt, play their part, and explain much; but the +author of _Planchette_, as well as M. Bizouard, have, it +seems to us, fully proved that they do not and cannot explain +all, even if they themselves did not need explanation; others +again, to explain them, have recourse to what they call animal +magnetism, or to a force which they call od, odyle, odyllic, or +odic force; but these explain nothing, for we know not what +animal magnetism or what odic force is, nor whether either has +any real existence. These terms do but cover our ignorance. Mr. +Grant ascribes them to demons, and endeavors to show that the +demon mesmerizes the medium who wills with his will, and acts +with his force and intelligence; but our modern science denies +the existence of demons. + +{292} + +The spiritists themselves pretend that the phenomena are produced +by the presence of departed spirits. But of this there is no +proof. It is acknowledged on all hands that the spirits can +assume any outward form or appearance at will. What means, then, +have we, or can we have, of identifying the individuals +personated by the pretended spirits? The author of +_Planchette_ says, in a note, p. 62: + + "If spirits have the power, attributed to them by many seers, + of assuming any appearance at will, it is obvious that some + high spiritual sense must be developed in us before we can be + reasonably sure of the identity of any spirit, even though it + come in bearing the exact resemblance of the person it may + claim to be. We think, therefore, that the fact that the spirit + ... bore the aspect of Franklin, and called itself Franklin, is + no sufficient reason for dismissing all doubts as to its + identity. It may be that we must be in the spiritual before we + can really be wisely confident of the identity of any spirit." + +That is, we must be ghosts ourselves before we can identify a +ghost, or die in the flesh, and enter the spirit-land, before we +can be sure of the identity of the spirits, or of the truth of +anything they profess to communicate not otherwise verifiable! + +It is pretended that the spirits have latterly rendered +themselves visible and tangible. Mr. Livermore, of this city, +sees and embraces his deceased wife, who caresses and kisses him, +and he feels her hands as warm and fleshlike as when she was +living. Suppose the phenomena to be as related, and not eked out +by Mr. Livermore's imagination; the visible body in which she +appeared to him could have been only assumed, and no real body at +all, certainly not her body during life--that lies mouldering in +the grave. And all the spirits teach that the body thrown off at +death does not rise again. They nowhere, that we can find, teach +the resurrection of the flesh, but uniformly deny it. If the +spirits, then, do really render themselves visible and tangible +to our senses, it must be in a simulated body; and why may they +not simulate one form as well as another? The senses of sight and +touch furnish, then, of themselves, no proof that a departed +spirit or a human spirit once alive in the flesh, is present, +communicating through the medium with the living. + +The assertion of the pretended spirit of its identity counts for +nothing, whether made by knocks or table-tipping, by writing or +by audible voice and distinct articulation; for the spiritists +themselves concede that some of the spirits, at least, are great +liars, and that they have no criterion by which to distinguish +the lying spirits from the others, if others there are, that seek +to communicate with the living. Conceding all the phenomena +alleged, there is, then, absolutely no proof or evidence that +there are any departed spirits present, or that any communication +from them has ever been received. The spirit of a person may be +simulated as well as his voice, features, form, handwriting, or +anything else characteristic of him. Spiritism, then, contrary to +the pretension of the spiritists, proves neither that the dead +live again, nor that the spirit survives the body. It does not +even prove that there is in man a soul or spirit distinct from +the body. We call the special attention of our readers to this +point, which is worthy of more consideration than it has +received. + +The spiritists claim that the alleged spirit-manifestations have +proved the spirituality and immortality of the soul, in +opposition to materialism. This is their boast, and hence it is +that they call their doctrine spiritualism, and seek to establish +for it the authority of a revelation, supplementary to the +Christian revelation. Their whole fabric rests on the assumption +that the manifestations are made by human spirits that have once +lived in the flesh, and live now in the spirit-world, whatever +that may be. +{293} +Set aside this assumption, or show that nothing in the alleged +spirit-manifestations sustains it, and the whole edifice tumbles +to the ground. There is nothing to support this assumption but +the testimony of spirits that often prove themselves lying +spirits, and whose identity with the individual they personate, +or pretend to be, we have no means of proving. Unable to prove +this vital point, the spiritists can prove nothing to the +purpose. The spirits all say there is no resurrection of the +dead, and therefore deny point-blank the doctrine that the dead +live again. If we are unable, as we are, to identify them with +spirits that once lived united with bodies that have mouldered or +are mouldering in their graves, what proof have we, or can they +give, that they are, or ever were, human spirits at all? If they +are not proved to be or to have been human spirits, they afford +no proof that the soul is distinct from the body, or that it is +not material like the body, and perishes with it. If, then, the +men of science have shown themselves little able to explain the +origin and cause of the phenomena, the spiritists have shown +themselves to be very defective as inductive reasoners. + +"But the phenomena warrant the induction that they are produced +by spirits of some sort, or that there are intelligences not +clothed with human bodies between whom and us there is more or +less communication." Of themselves alone they warrant no +induction at all, but are simply inexplicable phenomena, the +origin and cause of which lie beyond the reach of scientific +investigation; but, taken in the light of what we know +_aliunde_, they warrant the conclusion that they proceed +from a superhuman cause, and that there are spirits which are, in +some respects, stronger and more intelligent than men; but +whether the particular spirits to whom the spirit-manifestations +in question are to be ascribed are angelic or demoniac, must be +determined by the special character of the manifestations +themselves, the circumstances in which they are made, and the end +they are manifestly designed to effect. + +We make here no attack on the inductive method followed in +constructing the physical sciences. We only maintain that the +validity of the induction depends on a principle which is not +itself obtained or obtainable from induction. Hence Herbert +Spencer and the positivists who follow very closely the inductive +method, relegate principles and causes to the "unknowable." The +principle on which the inductive process depends cannot be +attained to by studying the phenomena themselves, but must be +given immediately, either in _a priori_ intuition or in +revelation. Books have been written, like Paley's _Natural +Theology_ and the _Bridgewater Treatises_, to prove, by +way of induction, from the phenomena of the universe, the being +and attributes of God, and it is very generally said that every +object in nature proves that God is, and that no man ever is or +can be really an atheist; but no study of the phenomena of nature +could originate the idea or the word in a mind that had it not. +Men must have the idea expressed in language of some sort before +they can find proofs in the observable phenomena of nature that +God is. Hence, those _savants_ who confound the origination +of the idea or belief with the proofs of its truth, and who see +that the idea or belief is not obtainable by induction, are +really atheists, and say with the fool in his heart, God is--not. +We do not assert that God is, on the authority of revelation; for +we must know that he is before we have or can have any means of +proving the fact of revelation; yet if God had not himself taught +his own being to the first man, and given him a sign signifying +it, the human race could never have known or conceived that he +exists. +{294} +The phenomena or the facts and events of the universe which so +clearly prove that God is, and find in his creative act their +origin and cause, would have been to all men, as they are to the +atheist, simply inexplicable phenomena. + +So it is with the spirit-manifestations, whether angelic or +demoniac. The existence of spirits must be known to us, either by +intuition or revelation, before we can assign these phenomena a +spirital origin and cause. We do not and cannot know it +intuitively; and therefore, without recurring to what revelation +teaches us, these manifestations, however striking, wonderful, or +perplexing they might be, would be to us and to all men +inexplicable, and we could not assign them any origin or cause. +Revelation--become traditionary, and so embodied in the common +intelligence through language as to control, unconsciously and +unsuspected, the reasonings even of individuals who pride +themselves on denying it--furnishes the principle needed as the +basis of the induction of the principle and cause of the +spirit-manifestations. Revelation teaches that God has created an +order of intelligences superior to man, called angels, to be the +messengers of his will. Some of these remained faithful to their +Creator, always obedient to his command; others kept not their +first estate, rebelled against their sovereign Lord, were, with +their chief, cast out of heaven into the lower regions, and +became demons or evil spirits. + +The spiritists complain of our scientific professors, but without +just reason; for, on the principles of modern science, the proofs +they offer of their doctrines prove nothing but their own logical +ineptness. Science, if it will accept no revelation, and +recognize no principle not obtained by the inductive method, has +no alternative but either to deny the manifestations as facts, or +to admit them only as inexplicable phenomena. The class of facts +are as well authenticated, as facts, as any facts can be; but the +explanation of them by the spiritists is utterly inadmissible, +and sound inductive reasoners, who exclude all revealed +principles, must reject it. The professors are not wrong in +rejecting that explanation as unscientific; for it would be even +more unscientific to admit it; and perhaps, if compelled to do +one or the other, we should hold it more unreasonable to admit it +than to deny outright the facts themselves. + +The fault of the professors is in denying the necessity to the +validity of induction of principles neither obtainable nor +provable by induction, and in supposing that we can construct an +adequate science of the universe without the principles which are +given us only by divine revelation. Without these principles we +can explain nothing, and the universe is a vast assemblage of +inexplicable phenomena; for it is only in those principles we do +or can obtain a key to its meaning. Hence, modern science, which +excludes both revelation and intuition _a priori_, explains +nothing, reduces nothing to its principle and cause, and only +generalizes and classifies observable phenomena, which, we +submit, is no science at all. Certainly, we do not pretend that +science is built on faith, as the traditionalists do, or are +accused of doing; but we do say that, without the light of +revelation, we cannot construct an adequate science of the +universe, or explain the various facts and events of history. +{295} +If I did not know from revelation that the devil and his angels +exist, I might observe the facts of satanophany, but I should not +know whence they came, or what they mean. I might be tempted, +vexed, harassed, besieged, possessed, by evil spirits as the +spiritists are; but I should be ignorant of the cause, and +utterly unable to explain my trouble, or to ascribe it to any +cause, far less to satanic invasion. The prodigies would be for +me simply inexplicable prodigies. But, taught by revelation that +the air swarms with evil spirits, the enemies of man, and enemies +of man because enemies of God, we can see at once the explanation +of the spirit-manifestations, and assign them their real +principle and cause. + +We know that many who call themselves Christians are disposed to +doubt, if not to deny, the personal existence of satan, and to +maintain that the word, which means an enemy or adversary, is +simply a general term for the sum of the evil influences to which +we are exposed, if not subjected. As if a generalization were +possible where there is nothing concrete! We get rid of no +difficulty by this explanation. Influence supposes some person or +principle from whom or from which proceeds the influence or the +in-flowing. If you deny satan's personal existence, you have no +option but either to deny evil altogether or to admit an original +eternal principle of evil warring against the principle of good, +that is, Manichaeism, or Persian dualism, which, though +Calvinism, indeed, in teaching that evil or sin is something +positive, may imply it, is neither good philosophy nor sound +Christian theology. According to sound philosophy and theology, +God alone hath eternity, and by his word has created heaven and +earth, and all things therein, visible and invisible. All the +works of God are good, very good; and as there is nothing in +existence except himself that he hath not made, it follows +necessarily that evil is not a positive existence, but is simply +negative, the negation or absence of good. It originates and can +originate only in the abuse of his faculties by a creature whom +God hath created and endowed with intelligence and free-will, and +therefore capable of acting wrong as well as right. To assert +that man is subjected or exposed to evil influences leads +necessarily to the assertion of a personal devil who exerts it. +You must, then, either deny all evil influences from a source +foreign to or distinguishable from man's own intrinsic nature, or +else admit the personal existence of satan and his hosts. + +Satan and his hosts having rebelled against God, and in refusing +to worship the incarnate Son as God, were cast out of heaven, and +became the bitter enemies of him and the human race. Satan, as +the chief of the fallen angels, evil demons, or devils, carries +on incessant war against God, and seeks to draw men away from +their allegiance to him, and to get himself worshipped by them in +his place. Hence, he seeks by lying wonders to deceive them; by +his prodigies to rival in their belief real miracles; and, by his +pretended revelations of the spirit-world, to substitute belief +in his pretended communications for faith in divine revelation, +and thus reestablish in lands redeemed by Christianity from his +dominion the devil-worship which has never ceased to obtain in +all heathen countries. The holy Scriptures assure us that all the +gods of the heathen are demons or devils. These took possession +of the idols made of wood or stone, gold or silver, [Footnote 65] +had their temples, their priests and priestesses, their service, +and were worshipped as gods. + + [Footnote 65: This explains _Planchette_, which is a + step toward the revival of heathen idol-worship.] + +{296} + +They gave forth oracles, and were consulted, through their +mediums, in all great affairs of state, and their omens and +auguries, which the people consulted to learn the future, as the +spiritists do their mediums. Spiritism belongs to the same order. +The spirits, as Mr. Grant well proves, are demons, and the whole +thing has for its object to reestablish, perhaps in a modified +form, the devil-worship which formerly obtained among all nations +but the Jews or chosen people of God, and still obtains among all +nations not yet Christianized. It began in the grand apostasy of +the Gentiles from the patriarchal religion, which followed the +confusion of tongues at Babel; and the spiritists are doing their +best to revive it in the grand apostasy from the Christian +church, which took place in the sixteenth century, and of which +we have such clear and unmistakable predictions in the New +Testament. So adroitly has satan managed, that, if it were +possible, the very elect would be deceived. So much we say of the +origin and cause of the spirit-manifestations. + +If we examine more closely these manifestations, we shall find +evidence enough of their satanic character. All satanic invasions +bring trouble or perturbation, while the angelic visitations +always bring calm, peace, and order. The divine oracles are +clear, precise, distinct, free from all ambiguity; for he who +gives them knows all his works from their beginning to their end. +Satan's oracles are always ambiguous, stammering, and usually +deceive or mislead those who trust them. Satan is a creature, and +his power and intelligence, though superhuman, are not unlimited. +The universe has secrets he cannot penetrate, and he can do no +more than his and our Creator permits. He has no prophetic power, +for God keeps his own counsels. He can only guess or infer the +future from his knowledge of the present. He has no creative +power, and can never produce any thing as first cause. Hence, he +can operate only with materials fitted to his hand. The +spiritists tell us that it is not every one that can be a medium. +It is only persons of a certain temperament, found much oftener +among women than among men, and, among men, only with those of a +feminine character, and wanting alike in manly vigor and robust +health. The spirits can communicate only through such as nature +or habit has fitted to be mediums, and the communications have +always something of the character of the medium through which +they are made. The limited power of satan, his inability to know +the future, which exists only in the divine decree, and his lack +of power to form his own medium, render the spirit-communications +extremely vague, uncertain, obscure, and feeble. + +The dependence of satan on the medium is manifest. The spirits +will not communicate if anything disturbs the medium, or puts the +pythoness out of humor, like the presence of hard-headed +sceptics, or a too critical examination by keen-sighted +scientific professors determined not to be deceived. Their +communications, oral or written, from the pretended spirits of +distinguished authors, poets, philosophers, statesmen, are by no +means creditable to satan as a scholar or a gentleman. Then +again, the spirits really tell us nothing that amounts to +anything of the spirit-world. Their representations make it a dim +and shadowy region, in which the spirits of the departed wander +about hither and thither, without end or aim, apparently worse +off than in the Elysian fields of the ancients, which resemble +more the Christian hell than the Christian's heaven. +{297} +There is an air of unreality about them; they are the umbrae of +heathen philosophy, not living existences; and their region, or, +more properly, their state, would be distressing, if one believed +at all in the representations given by them. One thing is +evident--the spirits know or can say nothing of the beatific +vision, which proves that they are not blessed angels. They do +not see God, and are clearly banished from his presence. He forms +not the light nor the blessedness of their state. They seem, like +troubled ghosts, to linger around the places where they lived in +the body, pale, thin, shadowy, miserable, anxious to communicate +with the living but only occasionally permitted to do so, and +even then only to a feeble extent. Friends and acquaintances in +this life may recognize, we are told, each other in the +spirit-world, but whether with pleasure or pain, it is difficult +to say. The picture of their disembodied life is very sad, and +the Christian soul finds it dark, hopeless, cheerless, and +depressing; as the condition of those doomed to take up their +abode with the devil and his angels must necessarily be. + +The doctrines the spirits teach and confirm with lying wonders +are what the apostle calls "the doctrines of devils." They are +unanimous in declaring that there is no devil and no hell. God +may not be absolutely denied, but his personality is obscured, +and he appears only in the distance, as an infinite abstraction, +being only in the sense in which, Hegel might say, being and +not-being are identical--remote from all contemplation, +indifferent to what is going on in the world below him, asking +neither prayers nor worship, love nor veneration, praise nor +thanksgiving, and receiving none. The spirits echo the dominant +sentiments of the age, and especially of the circle with which +they communicate. They are, where they are not held in check by +the lingering respect of the circle for Christianity, furious +radicals, great sticklers for progress without divine aid, and of +development without a created germ. Yet the doctrines they teach +are such as they find in germ, if not developed, in the minds of +their mediums. They sometimes deny every distinctively Christian +doctrine, and are sure to pervert what of the faith they do not +expressly deny. In general, they assert that the form of religion +called Christianity has had its day, and that there is a new and +sublimer form about to be developed, and that they come to +announce it, and to prepare the way for it. The new form of +religion will free the world from the old church, from bondage to +the Bible, to creeds and dogmas, the old patriarchal systems and +governments, and place the religious, social, and political world +on a higher plane, and moved by a more energetic spirit of +progress. This is the mission of spiritism. It is destined to +carry on and complete the work commenced by Christ, but which he +left unfinished, and inchoate. + +The special object of the spirits, it is pretended, is to +convince the world of the immortality of the soul; but in what +form, what condition, what sense? The immortality of the soul, or +its survival of the body, was generally believed by the heathens, +however addicted to demon-worship they might be; but the life and +immortality brought to light by the Gospel they did not believe, +and the spirits do not teach it or affirm it. The spirits seem to +know nothing of immortal life in God, and into which the +sanctified soul enters when it departs this life, and is purified +from all the stains it may have contracted in the flesh. + +{298} + +The only immortality they offer is the immortality of evil demons +or the angels who kept not their first estate. But even of such +an immortality for the human soul, they offer no proof. They are +lying spirits, and their word is worthless, and their identity +with human souls once united to human bodies which they +personate, is not and cannot be established. They deny the +resurrection of the dead, which St. Paul preached at Athens, and +they give, as we have seen, no proofs that the soul does not die +and perish with the body. Their doctrines are simply calculated +to deceive the unwary, to draw them away from their allegiance to +the Lord of heaven, and to drag them down to the region where +dwell the angels that fell. + +The ethical doctrines of the spirits are as bad as can be +imagined, and the morals of the advanced spiritists would appear +to be of the lowest and most revolting sort. It matters not that +the spirits give, now and then, some good advice, and say some +true things; for the object of satan is to deceive, and his +practice is usually to lie and deceive by telling the truth. The +truth he tells gains him credit, and secures confidence in him as +a guide. But he takes good care that the truth he tells shall +have all the effect of falsehood. He gives good moral advice, but +he removes all motives for following it, and takes away all moral +restraints. He wars against authority in matters of faith and +morals, as repugnant to the rights of reason, and in political +and domestic life as repugnant to liberty and the rights of women +and children. All should do right and seek what is good, but no +one should be constrained; only voluntary obedience is +meritorious; forced obedience is no virtue. The sentiments and +affections should be as free as the air we breathe, and to +attempt to restrain them is to war against nature herself. They +are not voluntary either in their origin or nature, and therefore +are not and should not be subjected to an outward law. Love, the +apostle tells us, is the fulfilling of the law, the bond of +perfection. How wrong, then, to undertake to put gyves on love, +to constrain it, or to subject it to the petty conventionalities +of a moribund society, or the rules of an antiquated morality! +Taking no note of the distinction between the supernatural love, +which Christians call charity, and love as a natural sentiment, +and as little of the distinction between the different sorts of +love even as a natural sentiment, as the love of parents for +children and children for parents, the love of friends, the love +of country, the love of truth and justice, and the love of the +sexes for each other, or simply sexual love, satan lays the +foundation, as we can easily see, if not blinded by his +delusions, for the grossest corruption and the most beastly +immorality. + +Hence the spiritists very generally look upon the marriage law as +tyrannical and absurd, and assert the doctrine of free love. The +marriage is in the love, and when the love is no more, the +marriage is dissolved. None of our sentiments depend on the will; +hence, self-denial is unnatural, and immoral. Prostitution is +wrong, for no love redeems and hallows it; and for the same +reason it is immoral for a man and a woman to live together as +husband and wife, after they have ceased to love each other. It +is easy to see to what this leads, and we cannot be surprised to +find conjugal fidelity not reckoned as a virtue by spiritists; to +find wives leaving their husbands, and husbands their wives, or +the wife choosing a new husband as often as she pleases or wills; +and the husband taking a new wife when tired of the old, or an +additional wife or two, Mormon-like, when one at a time is not +enough. +{299} +Indeed, Mormonism is only one form and the most strictly +organized form, of contemporary spiritism, and woman's-rightism +is only another product of the same shop, though doubtless many +of the women carried away by it are pure-minded and chaste. But +the leaders are spiritists or intimately connected with them. The +_animus_ of the woman movement is hostility to the marriage +law, and the cares and drudgery of maternity and home life. It +threatens to be not the least of the corrupting and dangerous +forms of spiritism. + +Mr. Grant, who is a staunch Protestant, and hates Catholicity +with a most hearty hatred, gives, on adequate authority, a sketch +of the immorality of spiritists which should startle the +community: we make an extract: + + "We pass to notice some further facts relative to the + _moral_ tendency of spiritualism. We have read its + _claims_, and found them very high; but there is abundant + proof to show that, instead of its being 'ancient Christianity + revived,' it is the worst enemy Christianity ever had to meet. + We believe it to be satan's last grand effort to substitute a + false for the true Christianity. His snares are laid most + ingeniously; and, unless very watchful, ere people are aware of + it, they will be caught in some of his traps. Thousands and + millions are already his deluded victims, and, like a terrible + tornado, he is sweeping with destruction on every side. + Occasionally we hear a warning voice from one who has escaped + from his power, like a mariner from the sinking wreck; but + most, after they once get into the spiritualist 'circle,' are + like the boatman under the control of the terrible whirlpool on + the coast of Norway--destruction is sure. + + "The next witness we introduce is Mr. J. F. Whitney, editor of + the New York _Pathfinder._ He was formerly a warm advocate + of spiritualism, and published much in its favor. He says: + + "'Now, after a long and constant watchfulness, seeing for + months and years its progress and its practical workings + upon its devotees, its believers, and its mediums, we are + compelled to speak our honest conviction, which is, that the + manifestations coming through the acknowledged mediums, who + are designated as rapping, tipping, writing, and entranced + mediums, have a baneful influence upon believers, and create + discord and confusion; that the generality of these + teachings inculcate false ideas, approve of selfish, + individual acts, and endorse theories and principles which, + when carried out, _debase_ and make them _little + better than the brute_.' + + "Again he says: 'Seeing as we have the gradual progress it + makes with its believers, particularly its mediums, from + lives of _morality_ to those of _sensuality_ and + _immorality_, gradually and cautiously undermining the + foundation of good principles, we look back with amazement + to the radical change which a few months will bring about in + individuals.' + + "He says in conclusion: 'We desire to send forth our warning + voice; and if our humble position as the head of a public + journal, our known advocacy of spiritualism, our experience, + and the conspicuous part we have played among its believers; + the honesty and the fearlessness with which we have defended + the subject, will weigh anything in our favor, we desire + that our opinions may be received, and those who are moving + passively down the rushing rapids to destruction, should + pause, ere it be too late, and save themselves from the + blasting influence which those manifestations are causing.' + + + "Forbidding To Marry. + + "Among other instructions of the spirits, the apostle Paul has + assured us that they will be opposed to the marriage + laws,'forbidding to marry.' I Tim. iv. 3. + + "At the Rutland (Vt.) Reform Spiritualist Convention, held in + June, 1858, the following resolution was presented and + defended: + + "'_Resolved_, That the only true and natural marriage is + an exclusive conjugal love between one man and one woman; and + the only true home is the isolated home, based upon this + exclusive love.' + + "The careless reader may see nothing objectionable in the + resolution; but please read it again and observe what + constitutes _marriage_, according to the resolution,'an + exclusive conjugal LOVE between one man and one woman.' +{300} + The poison sentiment is covered up by the word '_one_.' + What constitutes marriage now, according to the laws of the + land? Do we understand that, when we see a notice of a + marriage in a paper, which took place at a certain time and + place, that then the parties began to love each other + exclusively? Certainly not; but at that time their love was + sanctioned by the proper authorities, and thus they became + husband and wife. But the resolution states that the + _marriage_ should consist in the 'exclusive conjugal + _love_.' Then it follows, when either party loves another + exclusively, the first marriage is dissolved, and they are + married again; and if the other one does not happen to find a + spiritual 'affinity,' then there is no alternative left but to + make the best of it, as many have been compelled to do. + According to this resolution, one is married as often as his + love becomes '_exclusive_' for any particular individual. + This is one item in the boasted 'new social order,' which the + spirits propose to establish when the political power is in + their hands. It is called by them the 'Divine Law of + Marriage.' A large number of spiritualists are already + carrying out this resolution practically, regardless of the + laws of the land. + + "A similar resolution was presented at the National Spiritual + Convention held in Chicago, from Aug. 9th to 14th, 1864 It was + offered by Dr. A. G. Parker, of Boston, chairman of the + committee on social relations. This point is strongly urged by + the spirits and spiritualists. + + "At the Rutland Reform Convention, which closed June 27th, + 1858, the resolution under consideration was earnestly + advocated by able men and women. Said Mrs. Julia Branch, of New + York, as reported in _The Banner of Light_, July 10th, + 1858, when speaking on the resolution: 'I am aware that I have + chosen almost a forbidden subject; forbidden from the fact that + any one who _can_ or _dare_ look the marriage + question in the face, candidly and openly denouncing the + institution as the sole cause of woman's degradation and + misery, are objects of suspicion, of scorn, and opprobrious + epithets.' + + "She further remarked in the defence of the resolution, and the + rights of women, 'She must demand her freedom; her right to + receive the equal wages of man in payment for her labor; _her + right to have children when she will, and by whom_.'" + +Much more to the same effect, and even more startling, we might +quote; we might give the account of the spiritist community at +Berlin, Ohio; but we have no wish to disgust our readers, and +this is enough for our purpose; it is sufficient to prove to all, +not under the delusion, that spiritism is of satanic origin, and +to be eschewed by all who wish to remain morally sane, and to +lead honest and upright lives. We are not disposed to be +alarmists, and, like the majority of our countrymen, are more +likely to err on the side of optimism than of pessimism; but we +cannot contemplate the rapid spread of spiritism since 1847, when +it began with the Fox girls, without feeling that a really great +danger threatens the modern world, and that there is ample reason +for all who do not wish to see demon-worship supplanting the +worship of God throughout the land, to be on their guard. Mr. +Grant, who seems to be well informed on the subject, tells us +that since that period, spiritism "has become world-wide in its +influence, numbering among its ardent supporters many of the +first men and women of both continents. Ministers, doctors, +lawyers, judges, congressmen, governors, presidents, queens, +kings, and emperors, of all religions, are bowing to its +influence, and showing their sympathy with its teachings." + +Mr. Grant should not say, "of all religions;" some Catholics may +have become spiritists, but they cannot become so, and persist in +following spiritism without severing themselves from the church. +Some spiritists have been told by the spirits to become +Catholics; but the church has required them to give up spiritism, +and they have either done so, or left her communion, like Daniel +Home, and returned to their communion with the demons. The church +forbids her children to have any dealings with devils. But with +this rectification the statement is not exaggerated. +{301} +The spread of spiritism has been prodigious, and proves not only +the power and cunning of satan, but that the way for his success +had been well prepared, and that no small portion of the modern +world were in the moral condition of the old world at the epoch +of the great Gentile apostasy, and ready to return to the heathen +darkness and superstition, the vice and corruption, from which +the Gospel had rescued them, or, at least, had rescued their +ancestors. + +We know not the number of spiritists in our country. We have seen +it stated that they reckon their numbers by millions; but there +can be no doubt that they include a very large portion of our +whole population. Has this fact anything to do with the +astounding increase of vice and crime in our country within the +last few years, the undeniable corruption of morals and manners, +and the growing frequency of murder and suicide? Senator Sprague, +an honorable and an honest man and a true patriot, stated, the +other day, in his place in the Senate of the United States, that +our country is morally and politically more corrupt than any +other country in the civilized world. We hope he is mistaken, but +we are afraid that he is not wholly wrong. It is idle to +attribute this corruption to the influences of the late civil +war, and still idler or worse than idle, to attribute it, as some +do, to the heavy influx of foreigners; for, though among those +are many old-world criminals, the great body of the foreigners, +when they land here, are far more moral, honest, upright, +conscientious, than the average of native Americans; and though +they soon prove that "evil communications corrupt good manners," +much of the patriot's hope for the future depends on them, +especially the Catholic portion of them, if, in due season, their +children can be brought under the influence of the church, and +receive a proper Catholic training. + +Unhappily, the simple, natural virtues of former times, such as +existed in ancient Greece and Rome, and exist even now in some +pagan and Mohammedan countries, have, to a fearful extent, been +lost with us, and the sects have nothing with which to supply +their place, or to oppose to this terrible satanic invasion. They +have indeed done much to prepare the way for it, and are doing +still more, by their opposition to the church, to render it +successful. But, though the danger is great and pressing, we are +not disposed to think, with Mr. Grant, that we are in what he +calls the "world's crisis." The danger is far less than it was; +because the satanic origin and character of the so-called +spirit-manifestations are widely suspected, and are beginning to +be exposed. Satan is powerless in the open day. He is never +dangerous when seen and known to be satan. He must always +disguise himself as an angel of light, and appear as the defender +of some cause which, in its time and place, is good, but, +mistimed and misplaced, is evil. He has done wonders in our day +as a philanthropist, and met with marvellous success as a +humanitarian, and will, perhaps, meet with more still as the +champion of free love and women's rights. But he has no power +over the elect, and, though he may besiege the virtuous and the +holy, he can captivate only the children of disobedience, who are +already the victims of their own pride, vanity, lust, or +unbelief. + +The end of the world may be at hand, and these lying signs and +wonders may be the precursors of antichrist; but we do not think +the end is just yet. Faith has not yet wholly died out, and the +church has seen, perhaps, darker days than the present. +{302} +The power of Christ, or his patience, is not yet exhausted; the +gospel of the kingdom has not yet been preached to all nations; +three fourths of the human race remain as yet unconverted, and we +cannot believe that the church has as yet fulfilled her mission, +and Christianity done its work. Too many of the sentinels have +slept at their posts, and there has been a fearful lack of +vigilance and alertness of which the enemy has taken advantage. +The sleepers in Zion are many; but these satanic knocks and raps, +and these tippings of tables, and this horrid din and racket of +the spirits to indicate their presence, can hardly fail to awaken +them, unless they are really sleeping the sleep of death. The +church is still standing, and if her children will watch and +pray, she can battle with the enemy as successfully as she has +done so many times before. + +Many Catholics have had their doubts of the reality of the +alleged spirit-manifestations, and, even conceding them as facts, +have been slow to recognize their satanic origin and character. +But those doubts are now generally removed. The fearful moral and +spiritual ravages of spiritism have dispelled or are fast +dispelling them, and it will go hard but here and now as always +and everywhere, what satan regards as a splendid triumph shall +turn out against him and bring him to shame. Thus far in his war +against the Son of God all his victories have been his defeats. + +One thing is certain, that the only power there is to resist this +satanic invasion is the Catholic Church; and there is, unless we +greatly deceive ourselves, a growing interest in the Catholic +question far beyond any that has heretofore been felt. Thinking +and well-disposed men see and feel the impotence of the sects; +that they have no divine life, and no divine support; that they +stand in human folly, rather than even in human wisdom. Eminent +Protestant ministers eloquently proclaim and conclusively show +that Protestantism was a blunder, and has proved a failure; and +there springs up a growing feeling among the more intelligent and +well-disposed of our non-Catholic countrymen, that the judgment +rendered against the church by the Reformers in the sixteenth +century was hasty, and needs revision, perhaps a reversal. This +feeling, if it continues to grow, can augur but ill for the +ultimate success of satan and his followers. + +------- + +{303} + + Daybreak. + + + Chapter VI. + + Presentiments. + + +Mr. Granger's family took the full benefit of their holiday at +the seaside. They rose before the lark, and watched the days come +in: radiant, solemn mornings, all light and silence; tender, +mist-veiled dawns, less like day than a dream of day; and angry, +magnificent sunrises, blazing with stormy colors all over the +sky, soon to be quenched in a fine gray fall of rain. + +They lay in hammocks slung out under the pine-trees, till nature +adopted them for her own, and little wild creatures came and went +about them unscared. + +"Margaret," Mrs. Lewis called, one day, out of her hammock over +to the other, "you remember how the foxes went to St. +Francis--wasn't it St. Francis?--and held out their paws to shake +hands with him, and said, 'How do you do, St. Francis?' and he +gave them his hand, and said, 'How do you do?"' + +"I remember nothing of the kind," was the indignant reply. "But I +know that Robinson Cru--" + +"O fie!" cries the little lady. "Why won't you own that my legend +is beautiful and sublime, whether true or not? And it will be +true when the kingdom comes for which all good people pray. For +the last hour I have been trying to get acquainted with a +squirrel; but just as I thought that he understood me, and as I +was about to offer my hand to him, the little wretch darted away. +At this moment he is perched in the very top of a pine-tree, and +peering down at me as if I were a hyena. Alas!" + +They wandered on the beach at evening, singing, talking, silent; +or if in merry mood, skooning little flat stones over the water, +and counting how many wave-tips they would trip before falling. + +"_Mon armant m'aime--un peu--beaucoup--passionnément--pas du +tout!_" laughed Mrs. Lewis, seeing Miss Hamilton counting to +herself. "You must only try that oracle in flower petals, my +dear. To count it in salt water signifies tears." + +Sometimes they floated out in the harbor, and felt the fresh +breath of the ocean, while the treacherous waters lapped, and +fawned, and gurgled about the bows of their boat, and overhead +the sky was thick with stars. + +All this was not with the ladies mere idle pleasure, but was as +seriously planned as it was heartily enjoyed. They had resolved +that whatever exciting discussions and differences the gentlemen +should have abroad, at home they should find nothing but peace. +Politics were banished; and they sometimes even restrained their +impatience to hear the war-news when they suspected that the +relation was likely to produce any unpleasant entanglement. +Without being religious, they yet had some perception of a +pathway lying changeless and peaceful, far above parties and +nationalities, and they felt that woman's proper place is there. + +The gentlemen soon learned to submit to a restraint which they +would never have imposed on themselves. When they stepped out at +the little station near their cottage, their discussions were at +an end. + +{304} + +"There is our flag of truce," Mr. Lewis would say, pointing to +the thread of smoke that showed, over the trees, Mrs. James's +kitchen-fire just kindled to prepare their dinner. "Understand, +Mr. Southard, I oppose both you and Louis tooth and nail, and I'd +like to fight it out with you now. But our time is up; and there +are three little girls behind the trees there who would break +their hearts if we should go home with cross faces. Let's shake +hands till next time." + +The only news of which they could all speak fearlessly and with +pleasure was what concerned Mr. Granger's cousin. Scarcely a week +passed that did not bring some laudation of him. He was one of +those men who, without effort, are always conspicuous wherever +they go. Opportunities that others sought with pain presented +themselves unsought to him; and he had a gallant, dashing, and, +withal, a lordly way that embellished even brilliant exploits. + +"Upon my word," his cousin said, "at this rate it is not +impossible that he may be made lieutenant-general." + +Mr. Southard was, perhaps, the hardest to keep within bounds, +probably because he felt himself religiously obliged to "cry +aloud and spare not." But even he was subdued after a while. He +seemed indeed too dependent on the ladies to willingly offend +them. All the time he was not in the city he spent in their +company, unbending as much as was possible to him, that his +presence might not be a restraint on their pleasures. He brought +his books to the parlor, and had his special corner there, the +"lion's den," he called it, with a slight touch of reproach in +his voice, when he saw how the others kept away from its +vicinity. He rendered himself agreeable in many ways. He read +aloud to them, he played and sang for them, sometimes he took the +brush from Miss Hamilton's hand, and helped her with a bolder +line than she could achieve. + +"It takes a strong hand to give a fine stroke," she said. "Where +I would be delicate, I am only soft." "Let me finish this for +you, since the stippling is done," he said, as she paused to +contemplate a major-general reposing pacifically on her easel. "I +will not touch the face. Say what you will, there is a softness +and richness in your shading which I can never attain. I may have +a fine or bold touch, but it is hard. Shall I deepen this +background a little to throw the figure out? And may I intensify +his shoulder-straps?" + +Margaret left her work to him, and, taking possession of his den, +divided her attention between a book, and watching Dora at play +with Aurelia outside. + +Since they left the city the child had been set loose from all +city restraints, and turned out to consort with bees and +grasshoppers, harrowing the soul of Mrs. James by the number and +heinousness of her soiled frocks and stockings, but drawing in +full draughts of health. Both Dora and her father were bankers. +But his bank in the city dealt in paper and specie; hers was a +flower-bank. When she wanted him to buy her anything, she brought +him buttercups, which were gold dollars with handles to them, and +he scrupulously kept account and returned her change. No lover +could wear in his buttonhole the rosebud presented by his lady's +hand with a more tender pride than this father cherished for the +bunch of wildflowers given him by his little daughter. + +{305} + +Mrs. Lewis approached the minister's table, and began turning +over his books. "I don't know anything," she said mournfully, +opening a Greek copy of Homer, and passing her fingers +caressingly over the dear little quaint letters. "Wallace, wasn't +it?--that poor Horace Binney-- + + 'Doubly dead, + In that he died so young,' + +writes of the 'arrowy certainty of Grecian phrases.' Woe is me! I +cannot get at the point. I can only see the feathering." + +Margaret looked up with an exclamation from the book in her hand. +"Listen! Coleridge, _à propos_ of having republished his +earlier poems without correction, writes, 'I was afraid of +disentangling the weed for fear of snapping the flower.' +Snapping! only a poet would have chosen that word. The +flower-stem that you can _snap_ must be of sudden and +luxuriant growth, made up of water and color, with just fibre +enough to hold the two together. As I read that, I thought +instantly of a red tulip bursting up bright and hasty through the +moist, warm mould. That sends me outdoors. I want to see weeds +and flowers growing tangled together." + +"Wait a little and let me go with you," Mr. Southard said. "And +meantime let Mrs. Lewis read us one of her poems, as she promised +to do." + +Mrs. Lewis had been for years one of those pretty lady writers of +which the country is full, by no means an artist, or dreaming of +any such distinction, but writing acceptably to her friends, and +sometimes pleasing a not too critical public. But she had abjured +the pen from the day when a friendly publisher, meaning to +compliment her, issued a volume of "Extracts" from her writings. + +"A volume!" she cried in dismay. "Why not a bottle? There were my +poor little fancies torn from their homes and set up in rows, +like flies and bugs transfixed on pins. I shuddered. I wrote no +more." + +"I forgive you for asking me," she said to Mr. Southard. "I dare +say you want to hear my rhyme, and will think it very pretty. And +she read: + + Beating The Bars. + + "0 morning air! O pale, pure fire! + Wrap and consume my bonds away. + This stifling mesh of sordid flesh + Shuts in my spirit from the day. + + "Through sudden chinks the radiance blinks, + And drives the winged creature wild. + She hears rejoice each ringing voice, + She guesses at each happy child. + + "In fleeting glints are shining hints + Of freer beings, good and glad; + Her dream can trace each lovely face, + Each form, in lofty beauty clad. + + "She hears the beat of joyous feet + That break no flower, fear no thorn; + And almost feels the breeze that steals + From out the ever-growing morn. + + "She hears the flow of voices low, + And strains to catch the half-known tongue. + She hears the gush of streams that rush + Their thrilling waters into one. + + "With longing sighs, her baffled eyes + She sets where burn the unseen stars. + With frantic heats her wings she beats, + And breaks them on the stubborn bars. + + "O light!' she cries, 'unseal mine eyes, + Or blind me in thine ardent glow. + O life and breath! O life in death! + O bonds! dissolve, and let me go. + + "'Let drop this crust of cankering rust, + The only crown my brow hath won; + Shake off the sears of briny tears, + And dry my pinions in the sun!'" + +"You don't mean it!" exclaimed Margaret. + +"My dear," said Mrs. Lewis, "I do not mean it as a rule, but as +an exception. That was written during my equinoctial." + +Miss Hamilton waited for an explanation. + +"You don't know it yet," the lady continued, "but you will learn +in time that every woman has her line-gale. It usually comes +between thirty and forty, sooner or later, and is more or less +violent. After that, we settle down and let the snows fall on +us." + +Ending, she laughed a little; but there was a tightening of the +lines about the mouth that showed at least remembered pain. + +{306} + +Margaret, going out, stopped to look over Mr. Southard's +shoulder, drawn there by the absent, dreamy expression of his +face. If he was painting backgrounds, she thought, what mountains +of melting blue, what far-away waters, half cloud, half glitter, +must be stealing to life beneath his hand! + +He had placed a blank sheet on the easel, and was idly covering +it with fragmentary improvisations. Under the heading of +"synonyms" he had written, "_Cogito quia sum, et sum quia +cogito_," the text illustrated by a drawing of a cat running +round after her own tail. + +"Or a mouse going in at the same hole it came out from," thought +Margaret. + +He drew steady, straight lines, crossing them off with wonderful +regularity; then some airy grace stole down to the tips of his +firm white fingers, and the ends of the lines leaved and budded +out, audacious tendrils draped the severest angles, and stars and +crescents peeped through the spaces. Half impatiently he returned +to geometrical figures; but pentagons grouped themselves to look +like five-petaled blossoms or star-crystals of frost, and +hexagons gathered themselves into a mosaic pavement whereon a +sandalled foot was set. + +"This is the Nile," he said, going over all with bold, flowing +lines; "and here comes Cleopatra's barge, the dusky queen dropped +among her cushions, a line of steady glow showing under each +lowered eyelid, cords of cool pearls trying in vain to press into +quiet her untamable pulses. + +"This is a close-shut forest solitude, with a carpet of greenest, +softest moss, whereon I lie like Danae while the heavens shower +gold on me." + +Then, with a start, came recollection, and the rush-tip became an +asp to the Egyptian, and the Greek was drowned in ink. + +"Come out!" he said abruptly. "The air is close here." + +"Will you come, Mrs. Lewis?" asked Miss Hamilton, looking back +from the door. + +The lady shook her head in an exhausted manner. + +"Aura," said Margaret when they reached the veranda," will you +come down to the beach with us?" + +"Thank you, dear," said Aurelia gently, "I do not care to go." + +Miss Hamilton's eyes flashed a little impatiently. She did not +like the way in which they withdrew themselves when she was with +Mr. Southard. But after going a few steps, she glanced back at +Aurelia, and the two smiled. At the moment it struck her that +there was something new in Miss Lewis's expression, an unusual +seriousness and dignity under her sweetness. + +The day was sultry, but otherwise perfect, the green as fresh as +at spring, the harbor purple and sparkling, and the sky a deep +azure, except where a rim of darkness lay piled around the north +and west, cloud-peaks and cliffs showing as hard and sharp as if +hewn of stone, but illuminated now and then by lightnings that +stirred uneasily within them, changing their dense shadows to +molten gold, or leaping in dazzling crinkled flashes from point +to point. It seemed a gala-day of nature, so wide, so brilliant, +so consciously beautiful was everything. + +"'Visibly in his garden walketh God!'" quoted Margaret, looking +abroad with delight. + +"The god Pan, you mean," said the minister, whose little sparkle +of gayety seemed to have been suddenly extinguished. + +"The Creator pronounced his work good," she said. + +"Yes; but we have changed all that," was the reply. "We have put +the heart in the wrong place." + +{307} + +"Moses and Molière," thought Miss Hamilton, amused at the +juxtaposition; then added aloud, "Christ pointed to the lilies of +the field." + +"For a moral and a reproof, yes. He made them not a text, but the +illustration of a text. This delight in inanimate nature is not +harmful if subordinate to the thought of God; otherwise it is a +lure. It leads to materialism, or to sentimental religion that is +worse than none, since it bars the way to a true piety." + +Margaret made no reply. In spite of herself, his remarks +depressed her, and cast some faint shadow over the beauty of the +scene. + +"The breakers are coming in," Mr. Southard said presently, in a +tone of voice that showed his regretful sense of having been +disagreeable. "We shall have a tempest." + +They had reached the shore, and stood looking off over the water, +The liquid emerald wave they watched came rolling toward them, +paused an instant, then rose and flung itself at their feet, +rustling away in foam and sliding, silky water, no longer a +breaker, but a broken. + +"Mr. Southard," Margaret said after a minute, "you know that I +would like to be religious, if I knew how; but it doesn't seem +possible. I am like one who, in the dark, wanting to get into a +house, knocks all about the walls without finding a door. I am +trying--in a sort of way--" She hesitated. What would he say if +he knew in what way she was trying? + +"Give up all," he said; "forget self; and think only of God." + +"What you propose to me is not a path, but a pedestal!" she +exclaimed, turning from him to go back to the house. "And I am +not marble." + +He followed her, looking both hurt and annoyed. Outside the door +she stopped, and bending toward a little cluster of violets that +grew there, shook a warning finger in their innocent blue eyes. +"Don't look at me," she said. "You're wicked!" + +"Do not give all your kindness to those who think only of your +temporal welfare," said the minister hastily, "Remember those +also who care for your soul." + +"Oh! why should I remember those who do me good for God's sake?" +said Miss Hamilton coldly, "Let him reward them; I shall not." + +There was no one in the parlor when they went in; but they did +not perceive that at first, it was so dim. The sky had darkened +rapidly, the clouds rolling up as if self-impelled; for there was +scarcely a breath of air stirring. A shadow had swept the sparkle +off the water, and all the western view was shrouded in gloom. +Southward a single point shone out like a torch amid the +surrounding obscurity, a beam of sunlight drop-ping on it through +a cleft cloud, and showing in a golden path visible across the +heavens. Suddenly, like a torch, it was quenched; and all was +darkness. + +Mr. Southard stood before an open window, with his hands clasped +be-hind him, and his clear eyes lifted heavenward. Margaret heard +him repeating lowly, "'Canst thou send lightnings, and will they +go, and will they return and say to thee, Here we are?'" + +"After all," she said, "God is love, And however circumstances +may hem us in from each other, he looks down on all. Perhaps some +day, lifting us, each after his own way, he will show us not only +himself, but one another, face to face. I think that there are +more mistakes than sins in the world; and God is love." + +"God is justice!" said the minister austerely. + +{308} + +His words were almost lost in a +low rumble of thunder that curdled all about the heavens. +Margaret stood beside him, and looked out at the piled-up +blackness shot through by flying thunderbolts. + +"Ossa upon Pelion," she said. "It is the battle of the gods over +again, and Jove is everywhere, 'treading the thunders from the +clouds of air.'" + +As she spoke, a flash sprang from the north and a flash from the +west, and caught in their glittering toils the grouped inky +crests of the tempest, that for an instant stood out against the +pale blue of the zenith, a stupendous, writhing Laocoon. Then the +lightnings leaped from that height to the midst of the harbor, +and stung the hissing waves till far and wide they quivered with +a froth of flame. As they fell, the heavens seemed to burst in +one awful report. + +There were cries through the house, and the whole family, +servants and all, came rushing into the parlor. Mr. Southard was +leaning against the wall, with both hands over his face. The +shock had been severe, and for a little while he was stunned. + +"Are you hurt?" asked Aurelia, going to him at once. + +He recovered himself, and looked up. "No. Where is Miss +Hamilton?" Miss Lewis drew back immediately, and showed him +Margaret holding the frightened Dora in her arms and hushing her +cries. + +"God be thanked!" he exclaimed. "We have all escaped." + +"Are the skies falling?" cried Mrs. Lewis. + +It seemed indeed as though they were. That thunder-clap had +loosened the pent rain, and it came pouring down in floods, +veiling them in grayness, the multitudinous plash and patter +mingling with a sound like myriad chariot wheels driving +overhead. + +They closed the windows, which immediately became sheeted with +water, the servants went back to their places, Dora took courage, +and ventured to uncover one blue eye, with which she looked +askance at the window. Mrs. Lewis began to take an esthetic view +of the matter, and Miss Hamilton a practical, which she carried +out by setting herself to kindle a fire against the coming of the +absent ones. They were sure to be drenched. + +She had wood brought, removed the pine boughs from the fireplace, +and, kneeling on the hearth, began arranging the pile after the +most scientific country fashion, miniature back-log, back-stick, +and fore-stick, then the finished pyramid, sloping smoothly with +the chimney. It was pretty enough to burn, built of birch, amber +and golden-hearted, with bark of silver and cinnamon. Nothing +else in woods so beautiful as those birch colors. + +Then it must be lighted with ceremony, being their first fire, +their beltane a little belated. Fresh, drowned roses were +snatched in out of the drip to crown the pyre, and the ladies had +the temerity to despatch the minister, as officiating priest, +with a wax taper, to bring sacred fire from the kitchen grate. +Lucifer matches were not to be thought of. + +The lambent flame shone softly out through the chinks, then +reddened and grew broader, tongues of fire lapped the sticks, and +disappeared and reappeared, becoming bolder each time, blistering +brownly the silvery bark, catching at the edges, and rolling it +up and off the sticks. Columns of milk-white smoke rose, propped +by half-sheathed flames, and curled over, mimicking every order +of convolution. Mr. Southard recited: + + "'A gleam--a gleam from Ida's height, + By the fire-god sent it came, + From watch to watch it leaped, that light, + As a rider rode the flame.'" + +{309} + +The smoke shut thickly down, a moment; then a broad blaze burst +out, wrapped the logs, and began to devour them, roaring like a +lion. + +The others gathered about the cheerful fire which was reflected +in their faces; but Margaret glanced out at the storm, then went +up to the long chamber entry from which a window looked down the +townward road, and began walking to and fro there, wringing her +hands, and listening to the wind and the rain lash the windows. A +sudden darkness and terror had settled upon her. It was more than +that atmospheric influence to which many are susceptible, more +than a mere vague impression of evil; it was a thought as clearly +defined as if some one had that moment given it utterance in her +hearing, and it held her like a conviction. Some one whom she +knew was at that instant dying, or dead! + +Her hands grew cold; she shook as with an ague fit. + +She had been too happy. She might have known that it could not +last. She had known it. In all those happy months, had she not +drunk every sweet moment with eager lips that had felt, and must +again feel, the bitterness of thirst? Had she not constantly said +to herself, It is too bright to last? + +"I was not meant for earthly happiness," she thought, wringing +her hands. + +The walls shook in the clutch of the blast. Noises came up from +the sea; and wild voices answered them from echoing rocks and +from out the hollow woods. A great wall seemed to have risen +between her and paradise, with a ceaseless swing of lightning +guarding the entrance. + +She fell on her knees and prayed, one of those terrible, +voiceless prayers when the heart strains upward, but utters no +petition, because it dares not think what it fears or what it +desires. + +Leaning exhausted then against the window frame, whom should she +see but her great drenched hero striding down the road, no form +but his, she knew, though a slouched hat covered his face, and a +long cloak wrapped him from neck to heel. + +In a flash, the great wall changed its front, and now shut her +inside paradise. She ran joyfully downstairs to open the door, +and caught the wind and rain in her face, but caught also with +them a smile. + +"Where is Mr. Lewis?" she asked, thinking of that gentleman by a +happy inspiration. + +Mr. Granger stepped in and shook himself like a half-drowned +Newfoundland dog. "Mr. Lewis stopped to drink General Sinclair's +health. He will come down in the next train." + +"General?" + +"Yes; Maurice is made a brigadier. He doesn't have to climb the +ladder, you see, the ladder comes down to him. And truly he is a +gallant fellow. He goes in front of his men, and laughs at danger +as he laughs at fortune." + +"I've got a fire in the parlor for you," she said. + +He looked at her smilingly, pleased at the childish delight in +his coming which she did not try to hide. Why should she? "Have +you? That's pleasant. Now help me off with my cloak. I cannot +unfasten that buckle at the back of the neck. Stand on the stair +with the railing between us, that you may not get wet." + +As she stood near him, she caught a sweet breath of English +violets. + +"I brought them out for you," he said, giving them to her. "See! +not a stem is broken." + +{310} + +She ran up-stairs to put the flowers in her chamber--they were +too sacred to be shared with others--and coming down, entered the +parlor just after Mr. Granger. Presently Mr. Lewis appeared, and +they had dinner. + +The conversation chanced to turn on presentiments; and since they +were all in very friendly humor, Miss Hamilton told of her +afternoon terror, making it as presentable as possible. "I +suffered a few minutes of mortal fear," she said. "I seemed to +_know_ that some dreadful accident had happened to one of +the family. What is the meaning of those impressions that are +often false, but sometimes true, and that come to us so suddenly, +uninvited and unexpected?" + +"They are the conclusion of which a woman is one of the +premises," Mr. Lewis said in his rough way. "Did you ever hear of +a man having presentiments? Of course not. He may have if his +liver is out of order; not otherwise." + +"I'm not bilious," pouted Miss Hamilton. + +Mrs. Lewis had been listening with interest. She was one of those +persons who believe that there are more things in heaven and +earth than are dreamed of in most philosophies. Her husband +called her superstitious. + +"I believe in those presentiments which come to us unexpectedly," +she said. "We may know that they come from outside by the shock +of their coming. We may not be clear. We may think that they +point to the past or the present, when really they indicate the +future. I think that what we call a true presentiment is a +communication from some outside intelligence." + +Margaret started and looked uneasily at the speaker. Mr. Lewis +regarded his wife with affectionate contempt. "There's the woman +who always wishes when she sees two white-faced horses coming +toward her, and when she sees the new moon over her right +shoulder, and who won't wear an opal because it's an unlucky gem, +though it is her favorite. That's the way with women. Their +manner of arriving at conclusions is a caution to common sense. + +Mrs. Lewis sugared her strawberries, and seemed to soliloquize. +"'Two wings are better than ten legs,' says the butterfly to the +caterpillar." + +Mr. Granger good-naturedly came to the rescue. "It is my +opinion," he said, "that these excessively reasonable people make +as many mistakes as the most imaginative, only their mistakes are +not so obvious, though often far worse. They chill fresh +spontaneous feeling, they dampen enthusiasm, they wound hearts +that they cannot heal. In ordinary matters, I set reason above +all; but when we would measure the walls of the new Jerusalem, we +must have a reed of gold, and it must be in the hand of an +angel." + +Mr. Southard had also his word to say in defence of woman against +Mr. Lewis's slighting remarks. But his serious defence was more +irritating than the others' laughing attack. He spoke honorably, +and often truly; but in the tone of one who understands the +subject, root and branch. The three ladies listening felt as if +they were three primers with pretty pictures, and nice little +good lessons in large print, which Mr. Southard had read with +edification to himself in the intervals of more serious study. + +"Woman," he said, "woman is--" And paused there, catching an +impatient sparkle in Miss Hamilton's eyes. + +{311} + +"Oh! I know," she exclaimed with the stammering eagerness of a +child who can spell a big word--"I know what woman is! +'_Hominis confusio_.' I--I read it in a book." + +The minister sat silent and confounded. + +"I propose the health of General Sinclair," said Mr. Lewis. + +After dinner the party gathered about the parlor fire, and as it +fell from flame to coal, told stories of hurricanes, and +tornadoes, and shipwrecks, the fearful recitals intensifying +their sense of comfort and safety. + +While they talked, the storm passed away, and there was only the +sound of vines swinging against the panes, and the ceaseless +murmur of the sea. When they opened the window, clouds of perfume +came in. The sky was quite clear, and there was a tinge of orange +yet lingering in the west. In the east was a still brighter +aurora, and the full moon, coming up, feathered with a crest of +gold every crisp, bright wavelet. + +They all went out and strolled down to the beach. Every leaf and +twig and blossom, and the long line of the eaves, were hung full +of glittering rain-drops, and the grass shone as if sheathed in +burnished silver. + +They sighed and were silent. A scene so lovely and peaceful is +always like a rebuke. + + + Chapter VII. + + "This monarch, so great, so powerful, + must die, must die, must die." + "Praise be to him who liveth for ever." + +During that whole summer there was a quiet but potent influence +at work under Margaret Hamilton's superficial life; ever at work, +yet silently, scarcely recognized by herself. The spark struck +out by Mr. Southard in his anti-Catholic lecture was slowly +kindling in the depths of her being. + +There was not a thought of controversy in her mind. As she read, +one doctrine after another appeared, and showed its harmony with +some need of hers; or if not needed, it was not antagonistic, +like the pleasant face of a stranger who may become a friend. +Fortunately, no person and no book had said to her, You +_must_ believe; and so awakened opposition. Or if the +obligation had been insinuated, she had not perceived it. She +felt that it was for her alone to say what she must believe, as +long as she invited truth generously, and was ready to accept it +when it appeared to her with a truthful face. Of course she was +not one to make syllogisms at every step, and, being a woman, was +not likely to think that necessary. She looked up to find one +truth after another standing smiling and confident on the +threshold of her heart, and as smilingly she bade them welcome. +Reason gave up the reins to intuition, and light came without a +cloud. She realized nothing, till, startled by some outside call +that woke a many-voiced stir of hitherto silent guests, she +opened her eyes, and found herself a Catholic. + +The first emotion was one of incredulity; then followed delight, +mingled with a fear which was merely the shadow cast by old +bugbears that, looked at fearlessly in that new light, faded and +fled like ghosts at dawning. Then all surprise faded away. She +recognized her proper place. She was at home. + +But how to tell Mr. Granger! For she must tell him without delay. +It was not an easy task. If he had suspected, perhaps she could +have spoken; but he never dreamed of the change in her. If the +subject had been introduced, she must have spoken; but for some +reason, the "papists" were allowed to rest unscathed in the +family conversations. +{312} +It was the war; it was General Sinclair, sabre in hand, riding +into battle as if it were a _féte_; it was the weather, a +whole month of persistent and most illogical rain, pouring down +through west winds, through dry moons, through red sunsets, +through every sign that should bring clear skies, Taurus being +clerk of the weather, they concluded; it was when they should go +back to town--" Not till the trees should resume specie payment," +was Mr. Granger's professional dictum; it was any and everything +but theology. And so the weeks went past, and October came, and +the story was not told. But he must know before they returned to +town, for then she was to be baptized. + +Her uneasiness did not escape Mr. Granger, and in some measure it +communicated itself to him. He perceived that she wished to say +something to him, yet was afraid to speak. + +"After all," he thought, "why should I wait for her to begin? She +is as timid, sometimes, as much of a baby, as my Dora. I dare say +it is some foolish thing, only fit to laugh at. I must help her." + +It was Sunday. Mr. Southard was in town, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis and +Aurelia taking their farewell walk in the pine woods, for the +family were to leave the seashore that week, and Dora was in the +kitchen, hushing to sleep an interesting family of kittens. Miss +Hamilton walked up and down the piazza, and Mr. Granger sat just +inside one of the windows, looking at her. He saw that she +occasionally glanced his way, and hesitated, and that with some +suspense or fear her face had grown very pale. + +He leaned on the sill, as she came past, and regarded her +anxiously. + +"You are not looking well," he said. "I hope that nothing +troubles you." + +She came to him immediately, eagerly; a faint smile just touching +her lips, and fading again. + +"I wanted to tell you; but I was afraid," she said, speaking like +one out of breath. + +"I am sorry that you are afraid of me. Have I ever given you +reason to be?" + +Margaret could not look at him, but leaned against a pillar near +the window, and averted her face. + +"I was afraid only because you might think--" + +She stopped. + +"My dear child, what a coward you are!" he exclaimed, half +laughing. "You are worse than Dora. She had not such an air of +terror when she broke my precious Palissy plate. Must I apply the +thumbscrew?" + +She turned toward him suddenly, and with a look stopped his +raillery. + +"Would you be much displeased, Mr. Granger, if I should be a +Catholic?" she asked; then held her breath while she awaited his +reply. + +His first expression was one of utter astonishment. + +"But you are not in earnest!" he said, after a moment. "This is +only a fancy." + +"Don't believe that!" said Margaret. "I am so firmly a Catholic +that I would die for the faith. It has been growing in my mind a +long time; and now the work is finished. I could not go back, +even to please you, Mr. Granger. I must follow my convictions." + +"Certainly," he said very quietly, looking down. "No one has a +right to interfere with your convictions. Do you intend to become +openly a Catholic, and leave your own church for that?" + +"I do not know how to believe one thing and say another," she +replied. "I am to be baptized as soon as I go in town." + +{313} + +She seemed abrupt, almost defiant; but it was only because she +was weak. + +Mr. Granger drew himself up slightly. + +"Since your mind is so fully made up, and your arrangements +perfected, there is, of course, no more to be said about the +matter. I am surprised, since I have not been led to expect +anything of the sort; but I have neither the right nor the desire +to control your religious opinions. Fortunately, conscience is +free in this country." + +"But you are displeased!" she exclaimed tremulously; for every +word had fallen like ice upon her heart. + +"You cannot expect me to be pleased, since I am not a Catholic," +was the reply. + +Margaret sighed heavily under the first pressure of her cross. +"You wish me to go away?" + +He looked at her in astonishment. "Certainly not! When I say that +I have no right or desire to interfere in your religion, I mean +that I am not to persecute you or to make any difference with you +on account of it. Nothing is to be changed unless you wish it." + +She had expected him to ask some explanation; but not a word more +did he say. He seemed to think that the subject was disposed of. + +His silence wrung her heart like the veriest indifference; but he +was not indifferent. He thought, "She has done all this without +confiding in me, and tells me only when she must. It is not for +me to question her. What I am to know she must communicate +voluntarily." + +She waited a moment, then turned slowly away, went in at the +door, and up-stairs to her chamber. + +When they met again, Mr. Granger tried to be quite as usual. He +was even more scrupulously respectful than formerly. But she felt +the chill of all that courtesy that had once been kindness. The +next day she went in town, and was baptized. The sooner the +better, she thought. But, if she had expected any delight or +conscious change to follow the reception of the sacrament, she +was disappointed. There was only that calm which follows the +consciousness of being in the right way. The baptism was strictly +private; no one present but the two necessary witnesses; and +after it was over, she took the cars back to the country. + +"Everything is peaceful," she thought, walking through the silent +woods, now burning with autumn colors. "Everything is sweet," she +added, as, coming in sight of the house, she saw little Dora +running joyfully out to meet her. + +"When you come back, I'm glad all over," said the child. + +That evening Mr. Southard came home alone, and with a very grave +face. "I have bad news for you," was his first greeting on +entering the parlor. + +Mrs. Lewis started up with a cry. Miss Hamilton sank back in her +chair. + +"General Sinclair is killed." + +"Thank God!" exclaimed both ladies. + +They thought that some accident had happened to Mr. Granger or +Uncle Charles," explained Aurelia, seeing the minister's +astonishment. + +"Some people never know how to tell bad news!" cried Mrs. Lewis, +her face still crimson with that first terrified leap of the +heart. "Can't you see, Mr. Southard, that you ought to have begun +by saying that our family were all well? Look at that girl! She +is like a snow image. Oh! well, excuse me; but you did give me +such a start. Now tell us the whole, please. I am very sorry." + +{314} + +Poor Mr. Southard took his scolding with the greatest humility, +but was so disconcerted by it that he could hardly finish the +recital. + +Mr. Granger had received a telegram from Washington, and had gone +on immediately to bring the remains of his cousin home for +burial. He wished them to go into town, and have the house open +for the funeral. General Sinclair's wife was ill in Montreal, and +could not be present. Mr. Granger had telegraphed her before +starting. + +They went to town the next day, and hastened to put the house in +order; and on the second day Mr. Granger arrived. + +It was impossible to have a private funeral. Mr. Sinclair had a +host of friends, his reputation was a brilliant one, and he had +died in battle. Military companies offered their escort, and the +public desired to honor the dead by some demonstration. Finally, +Mr. Southard opened his church, and consented to preach the +sermon. + +One would have thought that some public benefactor had died. The +church was crowded, and crowds lined the streets through which +the procession passed. Many a great and good man has died, yet +received no such ovation. + +A military funeral is the sublime of mourning. We may not know +whose memory is thus honored, whose silence thus lamented; but +those wailing strains of music touch our heartstrings as the wind +sweeps the windharp, and tears start at the obsequies of him +whose name we never heard, whose face we never looked upon. +Perhaps it is that requiem music mourns not that one man is dead, +but that all men must die. + +Mr. Southard had felt a temporary embarrassment as to the manner +in which he should treat his subject. He could not hold the dead +up as a model, for Mr. Sinclair had been an unbeliever and a man +of the world. There was but one way, and that one was congenial +to the speaker and welcome to the hearers. The man must be, as +much as was possible, ignored in the cause. + +From the moment when the minister rose in the pulpit, the spirit +in which he would speak was plain to be seen. His mouth was +stern, there was a steel-like flash in his eyes, and his voice +was clear and ringing when he announced his text: + +"_And he said to Zebee and Salmana: What manner of men were +they whom you slew in Thabor? They answered: They were like thee, +and one of them as the son of a king. He answered them: They were +my brethren, the sons of my mother. As the Lord liveth, if you +had saved them, I would not kill you. And he said to Jether his +eldest son: Arise, and slay them_." + +There was a pause of utter silence; then the minister extended +his hands toward the open, flag-draped, flower-crowned coffin in +front of the pulpit, and exclaimed, "One of them as the son of a +king!" + +Instantly every eye was turned on that white and silent face, and +the princely form extended there, superbly beautiful as a marble +god. It seemed regicide to kill such a man. After that look, +scarcely one present revolted at the tone of the sermon, which +echoed throughout the vengeful call, "Arise, and slay them!" + +As the family sat that evening at home, trying to throw off the +gloomy impressions of the day, and to talk quite as usual, the +conversation, by some chance, turned on theology, and settled +upon Catholicism. Mr. Granger, who had been sitting apart and +silent, roused himself at that, and tried to introduce some other +topic, but without success. Miss Hamilton was mute, feeling that +her time had come. If only her friend were on her side, she would +not have cared so much; but he was far from her. The coldness +that had arisen between them at first had increased rather than +diminished. Perhaps it was partly her own fault; but it hurt her +none the less. + +{315} + +"The papists are certainly gaining ground in this country," Mr. +Southard said. "We have hard work before us. They know how to +appeal to the frivolous tastes of the times, as of old they +appealed to the superstitious. Their music pleases opera-goers, +and their ceremonies amuse the curious. Worse than that, their +sophistries deceive the romantic and the credulous." + +"Oh! live and let live," interposed Mr. Granger hastily. "There +are a good many roads to heaven." + +"The Son of God said that there was but one," replied the +minister. + +"If there is but one," Mr. Granger said, rising, "he is a bold +man who will say that he is right, and all the others wrong." + +"Are you a Catholic, Mr. Granger?" demanded Mr. Southard with +some heat. + +"No," was the reply; "but some who are dear to me are Catholic." + +Margaret's heart gave a bound. She breathed an aspiration. Her +time had come. She was sitting alone opposite them all, and they +all looked at her as she leaned forward with a slight gesture +that checked further speech. + +"I am a Catholic, Mr. Southard," she said. "I was baptized this +week." + +The minister started up with an exclamation, the others stared in +astonishment; but Mr. Granger took a step and placed himself at +Margaret's side. + +O generous heart! She did not look at him, but she began to +tremble, as the snow-wreath trembles in the sun before it quite +melts away. + +"You cannot mean it!" Mr. Southard found voice to say. + +O joy! She wasn't afraid of him now. + +"I am quite in earnest," she replied. + +He leaned against the table near him, too much excited to sit, +too much overcome to stand unsupported. + +"You mean that you are pleased with their ceremonies, that some +of their doctrines are plausible, not that you accept them all, +and pay allegiance to the pope of Rome. It cannot be!" + +"I honor the pope as the head of the church, and I can listen to +no teacher of religion whom he does not approve," was the reply. + +"My God!" muttered the minister. He stood one moment looking at +her as if he saw a spectre, then turned away with drooping head, +and went toward the door, staggering so that he had to put his +hand out for support. To that sincere but mistaken man it was as +if he had seen the pit open, and one he loved drawn into it. + +The others sat silent and embarrassed, till Aurelia, bursting +into tears, started up and left the room. + +Margaret glanced at Mrs. Lewis, and found that she had quite +recovered from her surprise. + +"The programme seems to be flourish of trumpet, and _exeunt +omnes_," the lady said. "But I mean to stand my ground. I +don't find you in the least frightful. You look to me precisely +as you did an hour ago, only brighter perhaps. My only fear at +this instant is lest we may have to tie you up to keep you out of +a convent." + +"I have no thought of a convent," said Margaret. + +{316} + +"Oh! well, I don't see but we can get along with everything else. +There's fish on Fridays, and the necessity of holding one's +tongue occasionally. I think we can manage. Mr. Lewis, can you +shut your mouth sufficiently to give an opinion?" + +Thus called upon, Mr. Lewis found voice. "What in the world did +you want to go and turn Catholic for?" he demanded angrily. +"Couldn't you like 'em well enough at a distance, as I do? That's +just a woman's romantic, headlong way of doing things up to the +handle. You've upset your own dish completely. Nobody will marry +you now." + +Miss Hamilton smiled. "That is a view of the matter which I never +thought to take," she said. + +"But you must think of that," Mr. Lewis persisted, perfectly in +earnest. + +"No, thank you; I won't," she replied, rising. "I thank you +all"--with downcast eyes and a little tremor in her voice--"I +thank you that you are not too angry with me for what I could not +help. I could not have borne--" There words failed her. + +She glanced at Mr. Granger as she went out, and caught one of +those heartfelt smiles which lighted his face when he was +thoroughly friendly and pleased. + +There was little rest for her that night. Hour after hour she +heard Mr. Southard's step pacing to and fro in his chamber +beneath, not ceasing till near morning. But after she went to +bed, Aurelia came softly in, and, bending, put her arms around +Margaret, and kissed her. + +"I am sorry if I made you feel bad by going away so," she said in +a voice stifled by long weeping. "But you know I was so taken by +surprise. Of course we are all the same friends as ever. +Good-night, dear! Go to sleep, and don't worry about anything. +Mr. Granger and aunt and uncle told me to say good-night to you +for them." + +"How good everybody is--God and everybody!" thought Margaret. + +In the morning all appeared as usual, except that there was no +Mr. Southard at the table. Luncheon-time came, and Mrs. James +reported the minister to have locked his door and declined +refreshment. When the dinner-bell rang, still Mr. Southard had +not come down. + +"If he doesn't come to dinner," Miss Hamilton thought, thoroughly +vexed, "I will send him a note which will give him an appetite. +This is sheer nonsense." + +But as they entered the dining-room they heard his step on the +stairs, and he followed them in. + +Hearing him greet the others quite in his usual manner, Margaret +glanced at him, and found him waiting to bow to her. He looked as +if he had had a long illness. + +"What! you desert your seat too?" he said, seeing her go toward +the other end of the table. + +"I thought you might be afraid to sit by me," she replied +pettishly. Then, as he dropped his glance and colored faintly, +she repented, and went back to her seat by him. + +When they rose, he spoke to her aside. "May I see you in the +library now, or at your convenience? I would gladly speak with +you tonight." + +"Now, if you please," she answered, thinking it best to have the +interview over at once, since it was inevitable. + +It would be worse than useless to repeat the minister's +arguments. With more of patience and humility than she had +expected, he asked for and listened to the story of her +conversion. But his calmness deserted him more and more as he +perceived how firmly grounded was her conviction, and how hard +would be the task of reclaiming her. + +{317} + +Polemical discussions were always irritating, but not always +convincing, she insisted. She could not trust herself to engage +in them, even if she were capable. She did not want to be told +that such a man had been wicked, that such an abuse had existed. +When treason had found a place among the apostles, it might well +taint some of their successors. It mattered not; her faith was +not based on any individual. Let Mr. Southard take the doctrines +of the church, as she had learned them, from the church itself, +and then prove them false if he could. Let him take the books +that had satisfied her, and answer their arguments, theologian to +theologian. With her the contest would be unequal; but she would +gladly listen to his refutation, she assured him. + +"What books have you read?" he asked, resting his head on his +hand, disconcerted to find that, instead of being opposed to an +uninstructed young woman, he was to have arrayed against him the +flower of Catholic theologians. + +She named them, an imposing list, at the repetition of which a +slow red crept up into the minister's cheeks. Apparently the +young woman was not so uninstructed as he had thought. + +"Mr. Southard," she concluded, "I have no desire but to know the +truth. If you can convince me that I am wrong, I will renounce my +errors as promptly as I adopted them. If you are thoroughly +convinced that you are in the right way, then you ought to be +fearless. But if it is too much trouble for you to study the +subject, if I am not worth it, then let the matter drop." + +"I will read the books, and go over their arguments with you," +the minister said, looking at her keenly as if he suspected some +hidden motive in her proposal. + +"I am honest!" she said, hurt by his expression. "What have I to +gain, if not heaven? What have I not to lose? I feel surely that +our happy household will never again be the same that it has +been." + +"I must believe you sincere," he replied. "But I cannot imagine +what should have set you, of all persons, on this track." + +Miss Hamilton smiled as she rose. "It was you, sir. You should +beware of the flattery of abuse." + +The next morning after breakfast the minister found on his study +table a pile of controversial works that the housekeeper had been +instructed to leave there for him. Beside them lay a crucifix. He +touched it, and it seemed to burn his fingers. He pushed it away, +and it burned his heart. + +"After all, it is the image of my crucified Redeemer," he said; +and took it in his hand again. Looking at it a moment, his eyes +filled with tears. + + To Be Continued. + +------- + +{318} + + Good Old Saxon. + + By An English Catholic. + + +During the last five years an admirable society, formed in +London, and called the Early English Text Society, has been +reproducing at a cheap rate a large number of curious and +valuable works written in the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, +and sixteenth centuries. Many of these existed in manuscript +only, while others were out of print, and very difficult of +attainment. They range over a variety of different subjects, and +being beautifully printed, amply supplied with notes and +glossaries, and each edited by an accomplished Anglo-Saxon +scholar, they afford clergymen, antiquarians, and men of letters +in general an excellent opportunity of becoming familiar with the +earlier forms of the English language, and the best authors +during a literary period hitherto regarded as obscure. + +These publications synchronize with, and have partly grown out +of, a movement which, though retrograde, has been really an +improvement and an advance--a movement, namely, from Latinized to +Saxon English. We may perhaps date its commencement from the time +when Dr. Johnson was approaching his sixtieth year. He had, for a +long time, been lending the weight of his great name to the +practice of using very long words, and those chiefly of Latin +origin. In doing this he had not merely followed a crowd of +classical English writers, but had put himself at their head. The +genius of the language was being lost, and when it seemed to be +gaining strength, it was in reality growing weaker. Its original +tendency had been toward words of one syllable, but under +Shaftesbury, Bolingbroke, and a multitude of essayists and +pamphleteers of the eighteenth century, it tended strongly toward +the use of words of many syllables. Thus sound was frequently +substituted for sense, and sentences, though they ran more +smoothly, had in them far less fibre. An air of pedantry was +thrown over expressions, when such a word as "tremulousness" was +substituted for "quivering," and "exsiccation" for "drying." +Mannerism was certainly the mildest epithet that could be applied +to such changes, when they became frequent and systematic. An +instance of the habit in question is often quoted from Johnson's +Dictionary, where, in defining "net" and "network," he calls the +first, "anything made with _interstitial vacuities_," and +the second, "anything _reticulated_ or _decussated_, at +equal distances, with _interstices_ between the +_intersections_." + +Yet Johnson himself had, in the grammar prefixed to his +Dictionary, pointed out clearly how very monosyllabic English was +originally, how "our ancestors were studious to form borrowed +words, however long, into monosyllables;" how they cut off +terminations, cropped the first syllable, rejected vowels in the +middle, and weaker consonants, retaining the stronger, which seem +"the bones of words." Thus, from "excrucio" they made "screw;" +from "exscorio," "scour;" from "excortico," "scratch;" from +"hospital," "spittle;" and the like. +{319} +By such processes, performed not according to rule, but by the +unconscious working of national instincts, our forefathers +produced a wonderful agreement between the sound of their words +and the thing signified. _Squeak, crush, brawl, whirl, bustle, +twine,_ are but a few among a multitude of instances which +will occur to any one who gives attention to the subject. Wallis, +indeed, a writer often quoted in the grammar referred to, +establishes the fact of a great agreement subsisting between even +the letters, in the native words of our language, and the thing +signified; and his analysis of the meaning conveyed by sn, str, +st, thr, wr, sw, cl, sp, and other combinations is highly +ingenious and, on the whole, satisfactory. He comes to the +conclusion that one of our monosyllable words "emphatically +expresses what in other languages can scarce be explained but by +compounds, or decompounds, or sometimes a tedious +circumlocution." + +But although Dr. Johnson, like Wallis, appreciated highly the +Saxon origin and character of English, though he fully recognized +the strength which it derives from its native sources as opposed +to southern innovations, his own practice was eminently faulty, +and sure, in the hands of his imitators, to degenerate into +pedantry and stilts. It was well, therefore, that when his career +was drawing to a close, an obscure but highly gifted boy in +Bristol ransacked the muniment room of St. Mary Redcliffe's +Church, and found, or pretended to have found, in its old chests, +the poems of Rowley, who was said to have written in the time of +Edward III. The poems were not without merit in themselves, but, +when Chatterton had, amid the pangs of hunger, put an end to his +short and weary existence, they attracted attention in +consequence of the antiquated form in which they appeared. They +were like the fossil remains of extinct animals, and spoke of a +literary period little known at that time even to the best +English scholars. They breathed the language and the spirit of +Chaucer; and from the moment of their appearance may be traced +the reaction in favor of Saxon phraseology which marks the +literature of the present day. The boy-author saw by intuition +what Dr. Wallis had reduced to rules. Perhaps he had never +analyzed very closely his own reasons, nor traced attentively the +process of nature in the formation of words, so as to produce in +them an agreement between the sound and the thing signified; but +his youthful ear was charmed with the native energy of what Byron +called our "northern guttural," and he loved to imitate, in such +lines as these, the rugged sweetness of the early English poets: + + "The rodie welkin sheeneth to the eyne; + In dasied mantles is the mountain dight, + The neshe young cowslip bendeth with the dew." + +In these lines, all the words are of the pure Saxon type; and the +same may be said of almost every stanza in Chaucer's Tales. + + "The flowrs of many divers hue + Upon their stalkis gonin for to spread, + And for to splay out their leavis ill brede, + Again the sun, gold-burned in his sphere, + That down to them y-cast his beamis clear.' + +And again, as we read in "The Clerke's Tale:" + + "And whanne sche com hom sche wolde brynge + Wortis and other herbis tymes ofte, + The which sche shred and seth for her lyvyng + And made her bed ful hard, and nothing softe." + +This, as regards language, is the mould in which the Tales are +cast. The same Saxon stamp imprinted on the verse of Spenser, +though the _Fairie Queen_ came two centuries after the +_Canterbury Tales_. One stanza shall suffice as a specimen: + +{320} + + "Then came the jolly summer, being dight + In a thin silken cassock coloured greene, + That was unlyned all, to be more light; + And on his head a girland well beseene + He wore, from which as he had chauffed been + The sweat did drop; and in his hand he bore + A bow and shaftes; as he in forrest greene + Had hunted late the libbard or the bore + And now would bathe his limbs with labor heated sore." + +The habits and tastes of Ben Jonson and of Milton were largely +influenced by their classical studies. The best authors of +ancient Greece and Rome filled their memories, and it was only +natural that their writings should betray at every turn the +sources from which they had been fed. Yet a multitude of passages +might be cited from these poets in which the genuine ring of the +early English rhymers only is heard. Thus Ben Jonson, in a +favorite piece of advice to a reckless youth, says: + + "Nor would I you should melt away yourself + In flashing bravery; lest, while you affect + To make a blaze of gentry to the world, + A little puff of scorn extinguish it, + And you be left like an unsavoury snuff + Whose property is only to offend." + +The last line has more than one word of Latin origin; but in +Milton's _Mask of Comus_ we find long passages entirely free +from the foreign element. Thus, Sabrina sings: + + "By the rushy-fringed bank + Where grows the willow and the osier dank, + My sliding chariot stays, + Thick set with agat, and the azure sheen + Of turkis blue and em'rald green, + That in the channel strays; + Whilst from off the waters fleet + Thus I set my printless feet + O'er the cowslip's velvet head + That bends not as I tread." + +Now it must not be supposed that in calling attention to the +Saxon character of English as opposed to, or distinct from, its +Latin and Norman aspects, we are advocating any exclusive system. +We rejoice in our language being a compound; and as some of the +most exquisite perfumes are produced by distilling a variety of +different flowers and leaves, so languages formed by the mixture +of several races, and influenced by numerous changes and chances +in the history of the people who speak them, are often, in their +way, as vigorous and beautiful as any of more simple origin. This +is especially the case with that tongue which, being our own, is +dearer to us than all besides. But because it consists, and must +ever consist, of various elements, there is no reason why we +should be indifferent to the relative proportions in which these +elements are mixed together; nor is it by any means superfluous +to inquire whether the tendency of a compound language may not, +at any particular period, be toward corruption and decay, and, at +another time, toward health, consistency, majesty, melody, and +strength. + +We have assumed that Saxon is the basis of English, and that of +late years there has been among English writers a tendency to +reascend the stream to its source, to freshen and invigorate +their diction by the use of native, as distinct from foreign +words. We have mentioned Chatterton as being, perhaps +unconsciously, a leader in this movement; and we would add that +Burns also fostered the reviving taste for pure English; for, +though he wrote in the Scottish dialect, that dialect had, and +has still, a thousand points of contact with our language in the +days of its youth. Though its peculiarities were of Gaelic rather +than Saxon origin, yet they resembled old English in this, that +they were marked by short words and many consonants. Hence Robert +Burns's verse revolts instinctively from the many liquid +syllables of the South, and is wild and ragged as the crags and +glens which were his favorite haunts. So far as it influenced our +literature, it recalled it from the smoother and less vigorous +course of Latinized or Johnsonian English to the sharper, +simpler, and clearer notes of less artificial times. + +{321} + + "Your critic-folk may cock their nose + And say, How can _you_ e'er propose, + _You_ who ken hardly verse frae prose, + To mak a sang? + But, by your leaves, my learned foes, + Ye're may be wrang." + +The touch and racy dialect of the _Border Minstrelsy_, which +Walter Scott edited, Mr. Evans's _Collection of Old +Ballads_, and Percy's _Reliques of Ancient English +Poetry_, guided public taste into a direction opposed to the +tame mediocrity of the imitators of Dryden and Pope. The ear and +the mind alike were charmed by the exceeding simplicity of the +style of these old ballads, and their almost exclusive use of +monosyllables. + +Here are a few notes from one of those Jacobite songs which +resounded so freely among the Highlands when Prince Charles +Edward came to recover the crown of his fathers. Walter Scott +compares such ballads to the "grotesque carving on a Gothic +niche:" + + "It's nae the battle's deadly stoure + Nor friends pruived fause that'll gar me cower, + But the reckless hand o' povertie, + Oh! that alane can daunton me! + + "High was I born to kingly gear, + But a cuif came in my cap to wear, + But wi' my braid sword I'll let him see + He's nae the man will daunton me." + +The Lake school of poetry, being founded in a deep love of nature +and a close scrutiny of her works, had a concurrent influence in +restoring the liberal use of the older forms of speech. Writers +like Charles Lamb, whose minds were richly stored with the +treasures of Elizabethan lore, were sometimes accused of +affectation in employing archaisms, but "the old words of the +poet," as the author of "Summer Time in the Country" observes, +"like the foreign accent of a sweet voice, give a charm to the +tone, without in any large degree obscuring the sense." Indeed, +if the most popular passages in Wordsworth, and in his great +master Shakespeare, be examined, they will be found to answer on +the whole to that ideal of English phraseology which is here +formed--one, namely, in which the Saxon element largely +predominates. Thus, almost at random, we quote from _The +Midsummer Night's Dream:_ + + "What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here, + So near the cradle of the fairy queen?" + +And from Wordsworth's "Idle Shepherd Boys:" + + "Beneath a rock, upon the grass, + Two boys are sitting in the sun; + Boys that have had no work to do, + Or work that now is done. + On pipes of sycamore they play + The fragments of a Christmas hymn; + Or with that plant which in our dale + We call stag-horn or fox's tail, + Their rusty hats they trim: + And thus, as happy as the day, + Those shepherds wear the time away." + +Shakespeare's description of Queen Mab, in _Romeo and +Juliet_, may also be pointed out as a signal example of pure +Saxon English throughout; but it is too long and too familiar to +our readers to be quoted here. + +There are not wanting men of talent and research, who have +remarked the change which has come over the national literature +in its rebound toward Saxon diction, and who have recommended it +very distinctly. Dean Swift, though in point of time he preceded +the movement, held as a principle that no Saxon word should be +allowed to fall into disuse. Dean Hoare has, in our own time, +expressed his decided conviction that those speakers and writers +impart most pleasure whose style is most Saxon in its character; +and this remark applies, as he believes, especially to poetry. It +is in accordance with the spirit of the age that we recoil from +that "fine writing" which is generally mere declamation. +{322} +In proportion as we become practical, the racy style--pointed, +suggestive, and curt--rises in value. By the exercise of thought +and cultivation of science we become exact, and through plenty of +business we become brief-spoken. Vague talking and writing is now +at a discount, and persons express themselves with more substance +and strength because they are trained in the love of truth, +historic and scientific, and have contracted a hatred of shams of +every kind. Directness of statement is what is now most valued in +a writer, and such men as Dr. Newman among Catholics, and Carlyle +and Emerson among non-Catholics, have contributed in an immense +degree to promote reverence for this quality. Circumlocution and +over-expansion are faults which no one will now tolerate, and +this jealousy for the clear and ready conveyance of ideas has a +great deal to do with recurrence to the pregnant monosyllables, +the picture-words, the gnarled and knotted strength of Saxon +English. + +It is, however, to Tennyson, more than to any other modern +writer, that the public owes the more frequent use of short and +sinewy words already known to most readers, and the enrichment of +the language by the revival of many words which had become +obsolete. Enoch Arden, though a poem consisting of two thousand +lines, contains scarcely a word that is not of Saxon origin. It +is, as far as language is concerned, simplicity almost in excess. +Thus, to take but one example, it is not till we reach the last +word of the following passage that we are reminded of the partly +Latin origin of our tongue: + + "For in truth + Enoch's white horse, and Enoch's ocean-spoil + In ocean-smelling osier, and his face, + Rough-reddened with a thousand winter-gales, + Not only to the market-cross were known, + But in the leafy lanes behind the down, + Far as the portal-warding lion-whelp, + And peacock-yewtree of the lonely hall, + Whose Friday fare was Enoch's ministering." + +In this passage all the words are in common use, but in other +parts of the same volume, and, indeed, in all which the laureate +has published, we perceive a strong tendency to antique and +grotesque forms of speech, derived from long and devoted +attachment to the old writers. If they were introduced by design, +simply because they are archaisms, the artifice would be +apparent, and the pedantry complete. But when they form a genuine +part of the author's inner life of thought and memory, the case +is different, and what would have been formal and stiff becomes +natural and easy. They comport well with the idea one forms of a +great thinker, and indicate a thorough mastery over the mother +tongue. They might, no doubt, easily degenerate into affectation, +but when employed with judgment and skill, they are like fossils +in a well-arranged cabinet, or old china in a well-furnished +room. Resembling, as they do, the tough, tortuous olive-tree, +they are valuable signs of a people's mental vigor; for as surely +as the "soft bastard Latin" of the Apennines indicates a +population less martial than the Romans of old--as surely as the +soft and sibilant Romaic tells of a race fallen from the higher +walks of Grecian philosophy, history, science, and song--so +surely would Latinized English be a sign that the people writing +and speaking it, were falling away from the marked character of +their forefathers, and contrasting with them as strongly as the +silken senators whom Chatham denounced contrasted with the iron +barons of the days of King John. + +------- +{323} + + Waiting. + + Flame, rosy tapers, flame! + Though flushing day + Is mounting into heaven, it cannot shame + The weakest rush-light burning in his name + Who soon will say, + "Peace to this house!" Consoling word, + Which patient ones have heard, + Then meekly sighed, + "Now let thy servant, Lord, depart in peace!" + And, granted swift release, + Next moment died. + + Flame, rosy tapers, flame! + No garish day can shame + Your ruddy wax a-light in Jesus' name! + + Close, giddy honeysuckles, clambering free, + Close your moist petals to the wandering bee. + That with your cloistered dews you may adore + My Lord, when he shall enter at the door. + O blossoming sweet-brier! + Now flushing like a seraph with desire + To do him homage, send abroad + Your aromatic breath, and thus entice, + With innocent device, + His quickening steps unto my poor abode. + Calm lilies for his tabernacle sealed, + O spicy hyacinths! now yield + Your odors to the waiting air + His welcome to prepare; + Nor fear that by my haste + Your perfumes you will waste; + For each expectant sigh + Is dearer, to the Holy One so nigh, + Than all your honeyed nectaries exhale. + Young rose and lilac pale, + And every flow'ret fair, + Incense the blissful air, + And bid him, hail! +{324} + Flame, rosy tapers, flame! + No garish day can shame + Your ruddy wax a-light in Jesus' name! + Sing, lark and linnet, sing + The graces of this King, + Who, in such meek array, + Will visit me to-day: + Young swallows, twittering at my cottage eaves, + Shy wrens, close-nested in the woodbine leaves, + Blithe robins, chirping on the open gate, + Upon his coming wait: + Glad oriole, swinging with the linden bough, + I do entreat you, now + With gushing throat + Repeat your most ecstatic note. + Afar I hear, + With instinct quick and clear, + His step who bears, enshrined upon his breast, + The God who soon within my own will rest. + Angelic choirs + Are touching their exultant lyres: + Sing, lark and linnet, sing, + And with your artless jubilations bring + Their joy to earth; and you, melodious thrush, + While my glad soul keeps hush, + Attune your song + My silent rapture to prolong. + + Flame, rosy tapers, flame! + No garish day can shame + Your ruddy wax a-light in Jesus' name! + +------- +{325} + + From The Rivista Universale, Of Genoa. + + The Supernatural. + + By Cesar Cantu. + + +Petulant tyranny of science! It will not allow us to say that two +and two are three; that there can be more than the sum of two +right angles in a triangle; or that the radii of a circle are not +equal. What arrogance thus to confine my liberty; to deny me +leave to assert that there is an exact relation between the +diameter and circumference of a circle; that the duplication of +the cube is possible, the trisection of an angle, and perpetual +motion! Why should not error have the same rights as truth? +Reason is mistress of the world; unlimited mistress of herself. +She can prove that yes is identical with no; that being and +nothing are all one. Why tire ourselves with the science of +ultimate reasons? We must regard the effects without ascending to +the causes; we accept only what can be felt and seen. What is +substance? What is cause? What are ideas? Let them pass; we hold +only to phenomenon and effect. + +All would not dare to express these assertions with such +boldness, and yet they are necessary inferences from the current +sophisms and phrases of a science which stains its tyranny by +petulance and bald negations. _Experience! Experience!_ it +cries daily, and proceeds to invent theories on the formation of +the universe which will never meet the approval of experience; it +repudiates every truth _a priori_, and yet establishes, _a +priori_, that faith is contradictory to reason. In the name of +free-will it demands the destruction of free-will; as if man were +more free while seeking than after having found the truth; as if +true liberty did not consist in willing what is right. + +And nowadays a multiform war is waged against ancient belief by a +contracted and intolerant science, and a system of retrogressive +and egotistical politics. Arguments and buffoonery, decrees and +violences, alternate, not only against the priests, but against +Christ. Some disfigure dogmas, and then throw them to the fishes, +or abandon them to the anger of a mob dressed in black waistcoats +or in red caps. Some resuscitate ancient errors under modern +phraseology, or excite the demon of curiosity. Some, faithful to +the system of defamation and intimidation, libel as clericals or +obscurantists those Christians who loved liberty when it was not +a mere speculation, if they are unwilling to believe that the +Italy of the future must deny the Italy of the past, to become +strong. One party in the name of authority attacks its chief +source. Some drag into the lists a conventional nationality and +an exclusive patriotism, against the universality of faith and +charity, and hurt the partial reasons of a state against +ecumenical reason. Some fight in the garb of doctors, striving to +apply the methods of observation to what is super-sensible, +confounding the proximate with the first cause, and thus arriving +at scientific scepticism, positivism, which repudiates ideas, or +at a criticism which considers generations as succeeding each +other without a connecting law--by mere evolution--without +seeking what absolute truth corresponds to the successive rise of +nations, or clearing up the future by the past--that which is +going to happen with what is permanent. +{326} +And thus they whirl in a pantheism which either accepts no God +but the human mind, or makes everything God except God himself; +leaving him the splendor of his idea, the sovereignty of his +name, but depriving him of the reality of his being and the +consciousness of his life. + +There are others who, with frivolous argumentation, produce +excellent pillows for doubt, and refuse to examine, contenting +themselves with repeating the affirmations of the most accredited +organs of the press. Let us pass over those who flatter the +animal instincts of nature by writings and images which Sodom +would condemn, and proclaim the divine reign of the flesh, +saying, with Heine, "The desire of all our institutions is the +rehabilitation of matter. Let us seek good in matter; let us +found a democracy of terrestrial gods, equal in happiness and +holiness; let us have nectar and ambrosia; let us desire garments +of purple, delights of perfumes and dances, comedies and +children." + +Hence comes the deplorable degradation of minds plunged not only +in ignorance but in base adulations to slaves and to the slaves +of slaves, to the rabble hailed by the people, to a debasement +called progress, to a freedom which consists in robbing others of +liberty. + + + II. + +In such a state of affairs, what ought a priest or Christian to +do who reserves to himself the right of not calling evil things +good? Grow low-spirited, reproach the century, grow timorous of +science, groan like Jeremias over the woe of Jerusalem, and await +the rock which is to crush the clay-footed colossus? It looks +like compelling Providence, when we refuse to co-operate with it +in the conflict between good and evil, unless on conditions which +suit our little egotism, or please our frivolous vanity. The +timid compromise their character with strange conventions between +truth and error, by shameful oscillation between liberty and +despotism, resigning themselves to tyranny as a hypocrite may act +toward an atheist. + +Christ came to carry the sword, and the time has come when he who +has one should draw and brandish it. Certainly, God will save his +church. He alone will have the glory, but will man have the merit +of it? Where silence is, there is death; and, outside of what +directly touches revealed truth, discussion is useful, even when +held with those who err; it teaches us, at least, how we are not +to act or think, if nothing else. + +Some say, "It is enough to preach morality. What have rigorous +truths to do with good sentiments? the aspirations of the heart +with the deductions of cold reason?" + +Superficial questions! As if one should say, "What has the soul +to do with the soul?" Do not ethics depend on dogma? do not our +actions follow from metaphysical conditions? Every doctrine +becomes an element of life or a principle of death for the soul. +A sophist may, indeed, boast of a new code of ethics, or a new +law; as if truth could be contingent and relative as well as +universal, eternal, necessary, and, as such, not produced by man, +who is mortal and limited. International associations, conspiring +to assassinate Christian civilization, will soon respond with +consequent acts to such inconsequences of literature. + +{327} + +When the system of attack is changed, we must change the system +of defence. Preaching can no longer be confined to mere prones, +or exhortations to the good and inculcating the _fides +carbonaria_; [Footnote 66] but we must gird on the sword of +science and eloquence, and attack resolutely those who assail us +resolutely. Truth can be saved only by victory; and in this case, +as in war, _the best defence is an attack_. + + [Footnote 66: The faith of the coal-heaver who believes + without science.] + +If errors fortify themselves in the newspapers, and come on in +serried ranks, protected by gazettes, decrees, arts, and +sciences, we must meet them with the same means, humble them with +the truths rejected or distorted by the sophists, turn their own +weapons against them; for error, which is a stumbling-block for +the incautious, may become a ladder for the wise to ascend +higher. Nowadays, when all the arguments of unbelief are allied +in an invisible church which has fraternities, missionaries, +sacrifices, and even martyrs, to assault the visible church in +the name of progress, enlightenment, morality, reason, and the +future, we must draw out all the reasons of belief in opposition. +The manifestation of truth, even though it may not destroy error, +weakens its power. It is not enough to show that our adversaries +are wrong; we must be right ourselves. Let us not allow men to +think that there are truths incompatible with faith, or outside +of its dogmas; but that, notwithstanding exaggerations, +absurdities, erroneous and culpable notions, those truths obtain +from faith all their reality, vitality, and durability; and that +he who looks well will see that every incontestable and positive +progress comes from the organization of Christian society. + +In this labor, can reason ask the aid of revelation? And why not? +The rationalists might complain if we attempted to overwhelm the +question with the weight of revealed authority; but when +revelation is united to reason, the power of the latter is +doubled. Mysteries are above reason, not contrary to it. Faith is +only the most sublime effort of reason, which is persuaded to +believe by arguments, convinced of its impotence without faith, +as well as of its greatness with faith. Faith is a grace, because +it is not sensible certainty. It springs from the desire of a +pure heart and of a right mind that the harmonious structure of +revelation should be true. Reason by itself cannot obtain the +knowledge of a mystery, any more than it can comprehend a mystery +when revelation makes it known. Reason, however, understands that +a mystery is above it, but not opposed to it; and recognizes the +necessity of the supernatural to explain even the mysteries of +nature. In like manner, though we cannot look at the sun, yet by +its light we see all things. + +Some, seeing our adversaries use the sciences and politics +against religion, work with the arts, speak with ability, begin +to vituperate civilization, attack its acts and writings, deplore +the times, deny the stupendous progress of the age--the fruit of +so much study, fatigue, and genius. + +This is not only an evil; it is a danger. Instead of repudiating +natural truths, we must seek to reconcile them with the +super-sensible, show ourselves just toward what is new, use it to +rejuvenate the decrepit, and apply it to the branches which have +lost vitality. The time will never come when all objections will +be conquered. They will always arise with new forms and new +phases. +{328} +Great thinkers give the word of command for new revolts against +truth; it is therefore necessary for great theologians to combat +them. Every Catholic is not fit to enter the list as a champion, +but every Catholic ought to know why faith is necessary in +general, and what he ought to believe in particular. The least +that can be expected of him is not to be less ignorant than the +curious, the learned, and the railers who, on every side, pick up +arguments for not believing. And how few know their religion, not +only among the common people, but even among the educated +classes! The fault lies in the fact that, while we Catholics are +so superior to our adversaries, we do not know how to use our +advantage, because we know not in what this superiority consists. +Otherwise, every educated person would find by himself as many +new, ingenious, and brilliant proofs to defend the religion of +his ancestors as others invent to destroy it--original, personal +proofs, as light, perhaps, as the objections, but sufficient for +the discussion of circles, to answer presumptuous contempt, false +ideas, and false principles, which are published in seductive +garb, with specious propositions, audacious negations, and +intrepid affirmations, [Footnote 67] and which penetrate into +politics, science, art, repugnant not only to logic, but even to +the instincts of common sense. + + [Footnote 67: See a golden work of the Princess Wittgenstein + Iwanowska, _Simplicité des Colombes, Prudence des + Serpents_, where she refutes the most common objections, + and exhorts especially ladies to prudence and simplicity in + controversy and conduct.] + +But, moreover, who does not feel the deficiency in scientific and +really practical education in that science which satisfies the +reason, the heart, and faith. + +The religious element should form a great part in education, and +it would suffice to change the tone of controversy, from being +sour, contemptuous, diffident, discourteous, provoking, and +partial, the result of the usual impoliteness of journalists, to +a courageous yet prudent, conscientious as well as learned, +indulgent yet immovable, method; abandoning a phraseology which +did not formerly shock men's feelings, those sarcasms which +neither heal nor console, and remembering that our adversaries +are probably men of high intelligence, in error precisely on this +account; perhaps persons of right mind, unimpeachable morals, and +even of delicate sensibility. + +This is the arena of _conférences_. Fraysinnous began the +work of uniting religion with science in the pulpit. Those of +Wiseman did better at Rome. Then arose the famous names of +Lacordaire, Ravignan, and now of Fathers Felix and Hyacinthe, +[Footnote 68] and in Italy, Fathers Maggio, Fabri, Rossi, +Giordano, and others. Among these must be named Alimonda, provost +of the cathedral of Genoa, who gave a course of lectures, all +depending on one proposition, and has just published them in four +volumes, with the title _Man under the Law of the +Supernatural_. Genoa, 1868. + + [Footnote 68: At this time Father Hyacinthe is treating of + "The Church under her most general aspect," in Notre Dame, at + Paris. He treats of the providence of God.] + +But four volumes cost more than a box of cigars! How much time it +takes to read them! some will exclaim who have, perhaps, read +_Les Miserables_ of Hugo, or _La Stella d'Italia;_ have +a copy of Thiers; subscribe for four or five magazines, and who +require a hundred or a hundred and fifty pages to be printed on a +question of finance or railroads, but find that number too great +where the discussion is about man's being, or his power of +working, on the essence of God, the immortality of the soul, the +necessity of virtue, and the necessity of religion to create it, +the divinity of Christianity, or belief in its dogmas. + +{329} + +But those who do not merely aspire to cloud the human intellect, +and repress sublime desires under the weight of self-interest, +passion, and the tyranny of prejudice, and who exclaim, with +Linnaeus, _"Oh! quam contemta res est homo nisi super humana se +erexerit,"_ [Footnote 69] know that to follow great ideas +becomes a nobler habit, as trivialities become common; and that +essential truths, which are never out of place or time, are based +on the same systematic method which seemed to deny them entirely. + + [Footnote 69: "Oh! how contemptible a thing is man if he + cannot arise above what is human!"] + + + III. + +Scientific atheism asserts that "common sense is the test of +belief in the supernatural," and that the greatness of every +religious conception referable to this standard is +counterbalanced by the greatness of scientific conceptions on +nature and the universe. Whoever, then, does not belong to the +party of those who presume to differ with the atheist, can easily +perceive how unacceptable a treatise on the supernatural must be; +since Alimonda began by demonstrating that it is true, and +credible; and that it imports us not only in the next life but +even in this to believe it. To desire to invent a mechanical +theory of the universe, a material origin of human intelligence +and liberty, originates the anarchical conception of giving the +explanation of the cosmological whole by means of every special +science. Büchner and Vogt modified the Cartesian ideas by +teaching "that there is no force without matter, no matter +without force; that matter thinks as well as moves; and that all +things are but dynamic transformations of matter." Hence comes +intelligent electricity, cogitating phosphorus; and Moleschott +was invited to teach in our universities that "thought is a +motion of cerebral matter, and conscience a material property." +Rognero taught that "conscience dwells in the circulatory +system." These doctrines have been preached in every +revolutionary tavern with all that personal exaggeration which we +always find in those who retail second-hand dogmas. + +Well! granted these hypotheses, we still ask, What is this force? +What is this primary motion? Where is the mover? Would an +activity anterior to existence have ever created itself imperfect +and subject to evil? Can the relation of necessary succession be +confounded with the relation of causality? Does the metaphysical +conception of cause remain indistinct from the conditions of +existence? If the order of ideas be distinguished from the order +of facts, everything leads us to a first cause, to the most real +of realities, to the will of a supreme artificer which determined +inert matter to motion rather than to rest. + +If, then, this motion endures with fixed laws; if, in so great a +diversity of infinite bodies, I recognize a system according to +which no one interferes with the other, but all agree in a +supreme harmony of mode; if, for instance, the destruction of one +of the celestial bodies would discompose the marvellous structure +of the universe; if from the alteration of the orbit of a planet +the man of science can conclude the existence of another, +thousands of miles distant, it is not the holy fathers but +Voltaire who will exclaim, "If the clock exists, there must +necessarily be a clock-maker." It is impossible to kill a moral +being, a universal sentiment, by arms, or books, or declamations. + +{330} + +The Deity does not offer himself to sensation, observation, or +experience; hence the sensists and perceptionists see in him but +a hypothesis, and reject all theology and all metaphysics. They +abuse the method of observation by applying it to what is not +observable. No object of experiment can be God; nor can any +perception reach him in this world, since he can only manifest +himself to us ideally; that is to say, by the reflection of +thought on itself, under the pure form of an idea; and an idea +necessarily supposes an existence. Reason must come to God +through the medium of the idea of God: whence an illustrious +writer defending religious philosophy adopted the appropriate +title of "IDEA OF GOD." + +Nowadays, when the series of generations are brought to laugh and +dance at the funeral of God and the evaporation of Christ, it is +not superfluous to accumulate psychological and social proofs on +the existence of a first necessary Cause, on its reality, and on +its divine life reverberating in the great labor of creation; on +those laws of phenomena which others call the ideas of nature, +and we call the Creator. The word must be personified, and +substantiated to express something real. + +Among these laws I have always found that those regarding the +origin of language had great influence on me and are of great +help against the atheists. The more we study, the more we are +convinced that the languages have a common source. How did man +ever discover that ideas could be represented with sounds, or +real thought by the medium of words, and then invent symbolical, +phonetic, or alphabetic signs to represent both ideas and sounds? +Or is the word only the means of expressing our thoughts, or the +essential form of them, the indispensable condition necessary to +our having them? Can sensation draw anything out of a word but a +material sound? How is it that all the human races--Iranic, +Semitic, Gallic, or Black--speak, and only men speak? How is it +that although there is a common element in all languages, yet +such diversity exists among certain groups? The more we study +this indispensable complement of creation, this condition of our +intellectual development, the more we are led to confess that +there are mysteries in the human word as well as in the divine +word; and all this reveals the name of God. + +When we have proved the reality, we must investigate the essence +of God. And here we meet the mystery of unity and trinity, which, +considered in itself, explains being; considered outside of +itself, explains beings. Because, if we repudiate a supernatural +God, we must substitute another in his place--a being of reason +and abstraction, or a material god, or a god of pleasure. But +these insane hypotheses must be made to explain the existence of +the universe. They are either the eternity of matter or +emanatism. Life put into matter we know not how; born, we know +not how, we have spontaneous productions, or transformations of +species, as Lamarck and Darwin maintain; but the learned show +that these theories are impossible both as to soul and body. And +then no one of these naturalists explains the end of man, nor his +most precious gift--liberty. + +{331} + +The God of the Bible alone contains the true explanation of man +and the universe. He who, spontaneously putting his omnipotence +into activity without material elements, drew the world out of +nothing; and this because he is good, and wills the good and the +beautiful. + + + IV. + +The most prodigious part of creation is man, destined for +eternity; nor could there be in him a tendency without a scope, +an end without a means, nor a merit without a recompense. The +world is for his use, but he must not forget that eternity is his +destiny. For the purpose of proving the material origin of the +human intellect philosophers reject all who would give to life a +distinct principle, isolated from organism, supposing that life, +at least in its rudimental form, could spring from the bosom of +organic liquids. Virchow praised the little cell, the only one of +the anatomic elements which Milne-Edwards called organical, and +which is a nucleus of various forms, surrounded by a protoplasm +of organic matter without figure. From the cell are formed the +embryos, which gradually become perfect and form animals, until +the ape changes into man. + +Finally, on interrogating life in its unity, in its harmonies, in +its cause and end, in its full and substantial reality, we find +that it does not contain in itself a causal unity which is +sufficient for it; and the great modern physiologist Bernard +says: "The problem of physiology does not consist in pointing out +the physico-chemical laws which living beings have in common with +inorganic bodies, but in discovering the vital laws which +characterize them." By studying mental diseases, and perceiving +that atrophy of a certain part of the brain will cause the loss +of certain faculties, and that the injection of oxygenated blood +will reawaken them, and with similar experiments, it has been +attempted to prove the materiality of cogitation, and to show +that the soul is a chimera. These are irrational materialistic +interpretations of physiological facts, for the cause of the fact +is confounded with the conditions of the phenomenon. + +This same Virchow, who seemed to have discovered such a powerful +argument against spiritualism in his theory of the cell, cannot +explain with physics and optics alone the phenomena of vision; +becomes confounded before the mystery of life, and declares: +"Nothing is like life, but life itself. Nature is twofold. +Organic nature is entirely distinct from inorganic. Although +formed by the same substance, from atoms of the same nature, +organic matter offers us a continued series of phenomena which +differ in their nature from the inorganic world. Not because the +latter represents dead nature--for nothing dies but what has +lived; even inorganic nature possesses its activity, its +eternally active labor--but this activity is not life except in a +figurative sense." [Footnote 70] + + [Footnote 70: "The Atom and the Individual," a discourse + pronounced at Berlin in 1866.] + +We do not think it superfluous to oppose these reflections, added +to those of Alimonda, to the negations of the materialists, which +have weight only because they have been often repeated; and we +conclude with Alimonda that man is an inexplicable mystery if we +do not accept the other mystery of original sin. Hence the +conflict between reason and the passions; the inclination to evil +and bloodthirstiness; the necessity of wars and prisons. +{332} +If we admit the intrinsic goodness of man, there is no guilt and +there can be no chastisement; society can institute no tribunals, +but only hospitals to cure diseases. This has been said in our +age; and common sense rejected it. The primitive fall and +successive activity show how man progresses indefinitely, +according to nature, not according to socialistic utopias. This +explains the inequality of the faculties and of labor, and hence +of goods, of property, which otherwise would be a theft. + +The whole of ancient society attests this degradation; but a +Redeemer was promised; he was confusedly expected by all nations; +he was clearly predicted by the prophets of Judea, in order to +console mankind, that they might believe in him to come, hope in +him, and love him by anticipation. + +These promises, and the figures which personified them, are +deposited in the Bible; that divine history which clears up the +origin of humanity and the changes of civilization, and whose +witnesses, though apparently contradictory, only make the thesis +and the antithesis of a great synthesis, interpreted by an +infallible authority. The unity of the human species asserted in +that book has been proved by the sciences, even by paleontology, +which some pretended to arm against the biblical affirmations; +and while the frivolity of the last century thought it had +mockingly dissipated truth, we have scientific progress proving +the Bible to be wonderfully in accord with the least expected +discoveries. + +The continual intervention of Providence in the Bible is +repugnant to human pride, which would be the centre and creator +of all events; yet this providence it is which satisfies, at the +same time, the wants of the human heart, gives a legal +constitution to society, a sanction to human acts, without which +we should only have cutthroats and the gallows. + + + V. + +Thus far we nave presented man in relation to God; let us +consider man in relation to Jesus Christ, a theme by far more +important, as we can say with the psalmist: "_Convenerunt in +unum adversus Dominum et adversus Christum ejus._" [Footnote +71] In this most corrupt world reparation was expected from +humanity, but who could fulfil it but the incarnate Word? Greater +than all the great ones of the earth, he established his +providential kingdom, making it the social centre of men and +centuries. + + [Footnote 71: "They assembled together against the Lord and + his Christ."] + +Our first parents aspired to become gods, and their pride was +transmitted to their posterity; but behold how God really unites +himself to man! + +Men felt a secret want of expiation, expressed by their +sacrifices and mortifications; and Christ satisfied their desire +by uniting in himself the two natures, and by fecundating with +holy merits the sufferings of individuals and of nations. + +Yet men wish to make a myth of him! And after the encyclopaedists +have derided him, now they hypocritically try to crown him with +human greatness and beauty, to rob him of his divinity! But how +can you explain his influence on the most cultivated nations, +lasting so many centuries, and through an incessant war from +Simon Magus to Renan? Is not his immeasurable influence over the +human race divine? With the light of his doctrine he created the +life of intelligence and of conscience. His is no hidden and +recondite word, but common and popular; not methodized into a +philosophical system, equipped with proofs; not even robed in +eloquence. +{333} +His scope is not to invent, but to _reveal_--that is, lift +the veil which covered primitive truths, and excite to good. He +is virtue personified, the model of men, with grace through which +charity triumphs over egotism--_grace_, the most profound +and most beautiful word in the dictionary of religion. But here +human pride rebels, because Christ taught mysteries. + +What, then, are mysteries but our ignorance, and the +insufficiency of our reason? Thus the vulgar believe that the sun +goes around the earth because the senses show it; thus a silly +man would deny the existence of the imponderable fluids because +he does not see or touch them, although he feels their effects. +Three temples rise in the world: of nature, of reason, and of +religion; and in all there are mysteries. There are mysteries in +space, atoms, divisibility, forces, life, thought, the cell, +sensation, idea, limits: in everything under the form which +passes away there is a mystery which remains. If a miracle is +humanly conceivable, it ought to be divinely possible. + +If you exclude the idea of the supernatural, nothing is left but +nature, with the character of necessity which reason denies it; +with a series of monstrous and gratuitous affirmations which +constitute pantheism. + +But some will say, "Yes, there is a God distinct from nature; he +is self-conscious and free, but he is immutable: while the +supernatural represents him as changeable and arbitrary." + +Thus reason those who, led by anthropomorphic illusions, subject +the action of God to succession. The acts of man, who is +ephemeral and localized, are necessarily successive; and because +the results of divine activity are manifested to our eyes in time +and space, they seem new and wonderful. But God is not limited by +time or space; his act is one, eternal, immanent like his will; +everything which proceeds from that act is the act itself, one, +eternal, and immanent, and thus the differences between the +natural and supernatural disappear. + +To defend the idea of the supernatural is not, therefore, to +attack science or smother intelligence; but to defend the idea of +God, who is the hinge of all science. This, indeed, banishes the +supernatural from its domain; but if every reality is not +reducible to nature, it is impossible not to admit a higher +principle of the laws which nature reveals, and of which nature +is not the necessary principle. Christianity pronounces nothing +on the science of nature, except that the supernatural is above +natural laws; that there is a God, as St. Augustine says, +"_pater luminum et evigilationis nostrae_." [Footnote 72] Is +this a mystery? But is not everything which exists an +incomprehensible manifestation of the supernatural? Is not the +free-will of man an incomprehensible mystery? + + [Footnote 72: "The Father of lights and of our awaking."] + +But revealed mysteries, much more than dry theorems which +restrain reason, are fruitful in meditation, humility, gratitude, +and aspiration after a life of bliss: they are light to the +intellect, motives for virtue; all have a comprehensible side; +they have their wherefore; and this is sufficient for the +happiness of individuals, and works efficaciously on the whole of +society. + +{334} + +Miracles, which are extraordinary to man, are natural to God, and +he uses them to manifest Christ the Redeemer. But the diminishers +of great things wish to make Christ a mountebank, or a magician +working by natural means like the mesmerizers, in whom they +believe rather than in Christ. They deny Christ and offer incense +to Hegel, who said that "_the universe_ is a simple +negation." Every religious, moral, or political doctrine must +stand the test of actualization: the idea must be realized; the +thought must become life; and the result is the criterion. But +the greatest miracle of Jesus Christ was the establishment of the +new kingdom of grace on the ruins of the kingdom of the world; to +substitute the eternal edifice of the church for corrupt +institutions; instead of proud science, to put the holy word of +the apostolate; charity, generous even to martyrdom, in the place +of brute force. Martyrdom! this is another word which shocks the +free-thinkers who retail cheap heroes, and deafen us with hymns +to the martyrs of fatherland, ennobling with this title assassins +on the scaffold. Christ is a martyr for humanity; he is a God of +order, wisdom, and charity. + +But here they stop us again, and pretend that he aimed at an +impossible perfection, and was a utopist; and as such, they +reject him, although they are admirers of such dreamers as More +or Giordano Bruno, Fourier or Saint-Simon. + +But is it true that Christ's doctrine cannot be realized? There +are precepts and counsels in it; and you, by confounding them, +condemn Christianity, as if it commanded all to observe what is +counselled only to a few exceptional existences called by God. To +observe the counsels special virtue is required, and those monks +who deserved so well even of society practised them. Rather than +deride and destroy them, they diffused the evangelical counsels +which they practised in their own lives--obedience, abstinence, +purity; those virtues which would give that _facilitas +imperii_--that self-control--which is so hard to keep; that +virtue which is the order of love. Those monks peopled the +Thebaid, lived in the poverty of St. Francis, in the austerities +of St. Bruno, awaited death in caverns, and ate only herbs; +others fled the world to pray for it, but the church never gave +them pharisaical faces; life, soul, talents, imagination +characterized them; the happiness of their existence was +increased by the blessing of the church; feasts, music, and +sacred rites abounded; social, domestic, and scientific life were +nourished by Christian virtue and education; patriotism had its +hymns if fortunate; audits, litanies, if unsuccessful; art and +poetry became incorporated with worship; admiration for natural +beauties was aroused; activity and prudence stimulated and +eulogized, progress approved, and civilization encouraged. + +Yet the rationalists would give the glory of this civil society +of which we boast to man alone, while it is in fact the work of +the supernatural gospel. In this we find light, virtue, harmony; +that is, power, subjection, and agreement. The gospel establishes +a respected and vigilant authority in face of a policy which +traffics in opinions. Kings are bound by the same morality as the +least subjects. Rulers swear to observe the law of God; that is, +never to become tyrants. Power is exercised after the example set +by God; and the head of the state is the first-born among +brothers. Subjects are children who obey not _propter timorem +sed propter conscientiam_--not from fear but for conscience' +sake; an obedience to God rather than to men. Christianity +asserted the true doctrine of equal rights with inequality of +rank when it proclaimed that we are all brothers; it broke the +chains of the slave; abolished hereditary enmity between nations, +and all superiority save that of merit. + +{335} + +To deny that these advantages are derived from Christianity would +now be stupidity; but they say that while it formerly worked +wonders, there is no longer any necessity for religion, the +priest, or Christ: morality has become acclimated; necessary +truths are acquired; and so man can progress with laws, +tradition, and social organization. + +Those who speak in this way do not comprehend the connection +between metaphysical and practical truth; do not realize that the +most common maxims which we drink in with our mother's milk would +become gradually obscured by separation from their source; as the +necessary sanction would be wanting to them. + +Between the merely honest man and the Christian, there will +always be the difference which exists between the bird that can +only hop and the full-fledged bird which flies. Let us suppose, +even, that the learned of the future will govern themselves +better than the philosophers of antiquity; still it is only +religion that can say to the multitude, "Hope always and never +obtain." If there is no heaven, if gold and pleasure are the only +aspirations, why not enjoy them? Let a revolutionist arise and +promise them, he will obtain a hearing much more readily than the +philosopher who can promise only a doubtful eternity. But then +what will become of society? If you preach resignation to the +poor without giving them hope, will not hope arise without +resignation? + +It was the gospel which humanly unfettered the child, woman, and +the poor. By it alone were exposed children and orphans gathered +together; it founded hospitals and pious retreats for every +disease of the body and mind. Vincent of Paul, Girolamo Miani, +Calasanctius, and a host of others never ceased in the church; +and even the world blesses their name, blesses their work, that +of the holy infancy, and that for the education of Chinese +children, and for the redemption of captives among the Moors. +Entire religious congregations have been founded to save children +from death, from penury, and from ignorance; so that at the +destruction of these religious orders, we ought to say, as Christ +to the mothers of Jerusalem, "Weep not over me, but over your +children." We should weep the more when we see their intellects +and souls entrusted to state officials who fashion them to suit +their masters. + +And woman? From what base degradation and turpitude has she been +raised by Christianity. But the state law wills that she should +be thus addressed: "Thou hast been brought up to purity; to avoid +every impure act and look; but henceforth I, the mayor, command +thee to give thyself up to the man whom I, the mayor, designate +as thy husband." On the other hand, the socialists wish to take +her out of the domestic sanctuary to take part in business, in +government, in war; she must become a woman of letters, a +politician and a heroine. Ah! the heroism of woman consists in +fulfilling her domestic duties, in the apostleship of doing good; +let her have the heroism of faith and virtue, and she will save +the world, as she helped so much to do in the person of Mary over +eighteen centuries ago. + +"Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of God," said +Christ; and his chief followers took care of the poor, instructed +them, supplied their wants with alms; made them noble with +blessings; and, since it is necessary to suffer, the poor were +taught to bear their ills with the hope of immortal recompense. +{336} +But the strong-minded of this age fiercely scream about the +rights of the poor; and yet rob spontaneous and virtuous charity +of the means of supplying the wants of the poor. The necessity of +official aid is created, and thus pride and rancor against the +rich are excited, while suffering remains without consolation. + + + VI. + +All these points have their objections and suitable answer well +developed in our orator's work. Alimonda examines man in relation +to the church and shows how human reason, while it strives to +rebel against her, is obliged to bless her, even by the mouth of +her most determined enemies, as happened to the prophet Balaam. +This church was not established by the power of man or by +progressive development; she was born beautiful and perfect, the +same in the upper room at Jerusalem as in the Council of Trent; +she underwent every species of hostility, violent and puerile, of +kings and people, of rogues and editors, and yet always remained +whole and alive. + +While human institutions regulate man, the church aspires to the +government of souls. Although she aimed at so much, she was +listened to; she defined what good meant; restricted authority; +gave the law of work; and was believed. Even the ancient churches +by their very nature were spiritual societies; but they exercised +no influence on consciences, little on men's conduct, less even +than the schools of philosophy. Later heresies and schisms could +not spread or establish themselves, except by force and war, or +by allowing every one to be the judge of his own conscience and +reason; that is, heresy did not pretend to direct souls. Our +church has a perfect and unchangeable order for the government of +conscience, an order which does not vary according to opinion. +The latter will say with Thierry that the conquered are always +right; with Cousin and Thiers, that it is the conqueror who is is +always right. Which is one to believe? It will be said that the +voice of the people is the voice of God, and that common sense +ought to be the rule of our actions. Well, suppose it is; how can +we interrogate it? Where is its decision? Where its organ? They +will tell us to-day it is "universal suffrage." We shall not +dwell on such nonsense: we merely inquire, must I ask its advice +in reference to my private actions? I need for these safe, well +expressed, and efficacious principles. + +The church answers every question; and her answers are always the +most generous, the most human, and the most kind to the weak. She +has a mixed government--monarchical, aristocratic, and +democratic; her aristocrats are poor fishermen. By this she is +the type of modern governments which have the representative +system. Rationalism wants to substitute revolution for this; +takes away from the people the good conditions peculiar to them, +acquired by them, legitimate and independent of governments; and +makes atheism the lever with which to subvert politics. The +apostles of rationalism adore liberty, provided they are her +priests and sacrificators; create a new author of +civilization--the rabble; oblige kings to divide their authority +with the mob; the mob upsets its creatures; kings run away; good +men hide; the owners of property, menaced by the dogma of +plebeian avidity, oppose the bayonet to the knife of the rabble +until these are overcome. + +{337} + +Precisely because the temporal mission of the church is great as +the mistress and legislator of nations, precisely because she is +authority, the impotent violently, and the powerful foolishly, +attack her at a time when men want rights without duties, the +husband as well as the citizen, the laborer as well as the +legislator. + +The church alone has saints; she is universal, perpetual, +irreformable: characters which manifest her divine origin and +divine actuation. + +This divinity of the church is found in Catholicism, not in +Protestantism. Catholicity alone has positive unity of faith, +love, civilization; that is, light, sacrifice, virtue, which +Protestantism lacks. All history and statistics, not +systematically false or officially disfigured, which looks +further than merely a few years, show that civilization does not +progress so well with Protestantism. The Catholic Church had +conquered the world and formed modern civilization before the +unity of faith and charity was broken; and she would have done +more had there been no rupture; and had not the religious wars +impeded her power, menaced Europe with a new barbarism, subjected +it again to the scourge of armies and conquests, which prevent us +even yet from considering our age superior to the most deplorable +of past centuries. + + + VII. + +The Catholic Church established her primacy in Rome by three +miracles, by conquering Rome when she was mistress of the whole +world; by using Rome, her language, civilization, and +legislation, to defend Christianity; and by perpetuating the +primacy in Rome. Everything that exists has a reason for +existence; resurrection is a proof of divinity. Christian Rome, +though often driven to agony, has always revived. Exiled kings +die in banishment, abandoned and despised; this is a daily +spectacle to our age; the popes become more glorious with +persecution; a pope in exile at Avignon or in a prison at Savona +is as powerful as in the Quirinal palace. If the most powerful +emperor, the most iron will of our century, like the acrobat who +kicks away the ladder after using it to ascend, robbed the pope +who assisted him to rise, insulted and imprisoned him, all +Europe--Catholic, Protestant, and schismatic--took arms to +restore the pontiff. Thrones crumble, dynasties disappear; but +the old man always returns to his seat, from Avignon or Salerno, +from Fontainebleau or from Gaeta. + +Modern servility may grow indignant to see Henry V. at the feet +of Gregory VII.; but it could not see Pius VI. kiss the hand of +emperors, as Voltaire did with Catharine or with Frederic of +Prussia; in vain will it hope to see Pius IX. at the feet of +diplomatists or demagogues; but he will say with St. Augustine, +_Leo victus est saeviendo; Agnus vicit patiendo_. [Footnote +73] + + [Footnote 73: The lion was conquered by fury; the lamb + triumphed by suffering.] + +The church lives immortal, neither in nor above but with the +state. Her relation with the state may be either of protection, +limitation, or separation. Protected as in the beginning and as +she was often under the ancient kings, the church would not be +degraded. She had her autonomy in her laws, ordinances, and +hierarchy; she was, not the slave or the flatterer of the power +under which she lived. + +She does not seek limitation or restrictions, but supports them +without changing her nature. By degrees, as kings prevailed in +modern society, and abridged the power of the people, of the +lords and corporations, they became jealous of the authority of +the church, restricted her action and obstructed her freedom. +Powerful in armies, money, and slaves, kings imposed on the +church; she became resigned, sacrificed some minor points in +order to guard the chief ones in tact; but notwithstanding all +the chains of concordats, she remained sovereign in her freedom. + +{338} + +Separation from the state is like the separation between soul and +body; hence the church is opposed to a state that is unchristian. + +The church, destined to illuminate the world with her divine +light, and not to govern it politically, is by nature +conservative. She was so even when the Roman emperors oppressed +her; when they went away from Rome, she respected them at +Constantinople, until she found it necessary for her defence and +for the cause of national freedom to withdraw herself and Italy +from imperial control. When she absolved nations from their oaths +of allegiance, it was in the name of morality, and not of a +political or social idea; to preserve for God what belongs to +him, and not to deny to Cesar what belongs to him. [Footnote 74] + + [Footnote 74: By the recent work, _Religious and Civil + History of the Popes_, of Wm. Audisio, published at Rome + in 1868, many precious facts have been recalled to my mind. + One is that Gregory XVI., while Portugal was divided between + Don Pedro and Don Miguel, tried to settle the dispute by + recalling the ecclesiastical tradition, to render civil + obedience to him who governs in fact: _Qui actu ibidem + summa rerum potiatur_. In this he wished to settle the + dispute between the contending parties; for the church seeks + _qua Christi sunt, qua, ad spiritualem aeternamque + populorum felicitatem facilius conducant_, ("those things + which are of Christ, which conduce to the spiritual and + eternal happiness of peoples.") The other in which Pius VII., + in the consistory of July 28th, 1817, authorized the oath of + allegiance to be taken to the constitution and laws, because + this oath did not oblige in reference to laws which kings + might make in spiritual matters; laws which are null of + themselves, for kings have no right to make them. This + decision regarding France was repeated October 2d, 1818, in + regard to Bavaria.] + +Thus although we may find no constitution which abolishes +slavery, no one will deny that it ceased through the influence of +Christianity, which modified customs and habits, and these +influenced the laws. Thus the time will come when all that is +good in modern society will be assured to it; and then the +influence of Christianity will be made manifest in purifying and +consecrating all that came from its teachings, or from needs +which it caused to be felt; so that the so-called liberals will +see that it is not necessary to attack Christianity in order to +defend the acquisitions of their age, nor will the faithful +attack the age as an irreconcilable enemy. Does not everything +happen by the will or permission of God? Are not all political +changes and social transformations providential facts? If the +Christian cannot praise them, he becomes resigned to them; he +does not increase the evil by anger; he trusts in God, who can +change the stones into children of Abraham; and we, separating +ourselves from those whose patriotism consists in denouncing +others as enemies of their country, say to the men of good-will +of our day: + + "O socii (neque enim ignari sumus ante malorum) + O passi graviora, dabit Deus hic quoque finem." [Footnote 75] + _AEneid_, lib. I. + + [Footnote 75: "Companions! we have borne evils before this; + ye who have suffered worse, remember that God will put an end + even to these woes."] + +How can you who have learned the watchwords of "Progress," and +"Go-ahead," expect hasty "progress" at Rome, so slow in her +motions? + +Napoleon boasted that he had done in three hours what men +formerly took three months to execute. Yes, he ran from +Alexandria to Vienna, to Madrid, to Moscow, and--to St. Helena; +while Rome remained at her post. Those who do not look +superficially admit that she showed splendidly her wisdom in +certain circumstances by not closing the way to future wisdom. In +the modern exuberance of fungous intelligence, new systems easily +sprout up, die in a few years; and the heroes of to-day become +the objects of hatred to-morrow. +{339} +Rome, eternal guardian of truth, cannot make and unmake in haste, +take up and lay down, like human societies; but she proceeds +slowly and patiently, yet she advances. + +Certainly the church will find a new field in which she can +co-operate with the state to preserve for humanity, no longer the +antique forms or the mere letter given by Catholics alone, but +the Christian spirit; a new method of protecting Catholic truth +in countries open to every people, and every worship; deprived of +the help of force and decrees, she will have no other support but +truth; and since this is greater and more secure in Catholicism, +it will always succeed in propagating itself. Will not this be +the object of the approaching Council? The General Council will +not have to destroy what is irremovable, or what derives +necessarily from eternal truth; but it will help us worldlings to +separate, in principle, the substance from the form, the essence +from the application. + +Certainly the hate which inspires men in these times against true +liberty, makes governments justify and praise every attack +against the church, and deprive her of every right, even when +they pretend to protect her. + +Do these governments want to form national churches? This would +be to go back in civilization, which progresses toward union; to +deny catholicitv or the universality of the race; to give up +souls as well as bodies to the power of kings, as before +Christianity; to give the direction of consciences and the +judgment of morals to the civil power, which should rule only +bodies. + +Some would tolerate Catholicity provided there be liberty of +conscience and of worship; let there be no temporal power in the +church; no religious corporations; and let the secular clergy be +raised to the height, as they say, of the age. + +What is meant by liberty of conscience has been sufficiently +explained by the pamphleteers, and the popes have given solemn +decisions on the subject. Conceive a society in which it would be +unlawful to expel those who violate its laws or disturb its +order! The church simply expels from the communion of prayers and +sacrifice those who are obstinate in violating her dogmas. How! +You insult our community; refuse to communicate in our rites; you +will not accept the pardon which the church always offers you; +and yet you pretend to force her to comfort your last moments +with sacraments which you repel and deride even then; to force +her to bless your corpse, and bury it in the holy ground where +repose those with whom you refused to associate during life! + +As to temporal goods or the right to possess them, and as for +religious corporations--that is, the liberty of community life, +of prayer, benevolence, of wearing a peculiar dress, and of +worshipping according to your conscience--what could Alimonda say +which had not been said by all the independent men of our +century? + +As to those who assert that the clergy are not educated up to the +standard of modern civilization, we need only appeal to those who +have any knowledge to see if the ecclesiastics do not rank high +in every part of the encyclopedia; nor do we hesitate to say that +the most educated man in every village is ordinarily the priest; +the priest who is compelled to make a regular course of study, to +pass repeated examinations, and assist at conferences. + +{340} + VII. + +It is very strange that at a time when the love of show has +become a mania; when kings, ministers, journalists, and myriads +of ephemeral heroes are honored with canticles, poems, and +ovations; when some button-holes have more decorations than our +altars; when there is hardly a name to which pompous titles are +not appended, it should be deemed necessary for the benefit of +religion to abolish external worship in our churches. Is not our +century especially vain of its investigations in matter? Is not +the aspiration of the age after physical comfort? Why, then, try +to restrict religion to the spiritual, to prevent the erection of +temples which would please the senses of that double being--man? + +When Constantinople, austerely interpreting the evangelical +ordinances, attempted to destroy reverence for holy images, the +church fought for the right to cultivate the fine arts; and +sustained martyrdom and exile to maintain the privilege of +guarding the fine arts in her sanctuaries. When the reform of the +sixteenth century called the Catholic Church Babylon, because she +asked Michael Angelo and Raphael to immortalize the grandeurs of +Christianity, she resisted again--knowing how to distinguish the +exceptional life of the voluntary anchorite from the social life +of the merely honest man; exacting virtues from all her children, +but virtues suitable to their state, to the mystic life of Mary +and to the external life of Martha, to the viceroy Joseph and to +the shoemaker Crispin. + +The same church defends, to-day, love and art from the modern +iconoclasts and spurious Puritans. + +Discoursing about worship, our author begins by that of Mary, +showing it to be a religious principle in accord with reason; a +public fact, approved by history; a most tender affection, +sanctioned by the heart. It is not long since the chief of the +English ritualists, Doctor Pusey, made the most honorable +admissions in reference to the Catholic dogmas and ceremonies, +excepting, however, the reverence which Catholics have for the +Mother of God. Archbishop Manning's [Footnote 76] reply is one of +the most beautiful and rational apologies for this worship for +which Italy is so remarkable. For all republics were consecrated +to her; she was the chosen patroness of our chief cities; her +likeness was impressed on our coins and seals; our first poets +sang her praises, and their echoes have not yet died; our +painters could find no higher or sweeter model; our architects +competed in erecting grand temples to her honor; our musicians to +compose canticles to her praise; great expeditions were +undertaken in her name; colonies were consecrated to her, where +now Italian power, but not Italian influence, has ceased. And it +is Mary who will save our Italy from humiliations, and from that +degradation which seems to be the only aspiration of her +intolerant sons. [Footnote 77] + + [Footnote 76: Probably a mistake for Dr. Newman.] + + [Footnote 77: I may be permitted to refer the reader to the + fifty-fourth chapter of my _Heretics of Italy_, in which + the respect due to saints and to Mary is discussed.] + +The intolerant repeat that laws, decrees, and social organization +are sufficient to regulate civil society. + +They are sufficient; but they require science to prepare them and +virtue to apply them; both to be invoked from on high. The safety +of one's country, the fulfilment of its aspirations, the triumph +of justice, must come from heaven. Formerly the Italians marched +to battle under the standard of the saints or of the cross; the +heroes of Legnano, of Fornovo, and of Curzolari prostrated +themselves in prayer before fighting; and the Italians of those +times conquered and gave thanks to God for having given to them a +beautiful, great, and prosperous country. But now we have popular +tumults and the ravings of newspapers. + +{341} + +Our strong-minded heroes consider it degrading to bow before the +Author of all things. Yet, passing over all the wise men of +antiquity, the most free nation in Europe opens its parliaments +with prayer, and obeys the orders of the queen to fast in time of +disaster, or feast in time of great success. The President of the +United States, no matter what may be his creed, orders a day of +thanksgiving to God, and he is obeyed. When the telegraph from +America was able to carry a message to Europe on August 17th, +1858, the first words which leaped along the wire were, "Europe +and America are united. Glory to God in the highest; peace on +earth; to men, good-will." "What grander spectacle can there be +than to see a whole people united in the duties imposed by its +religion in celebrating great anniversaries? What heroic +outbursts, how many noble sacrifices, were expressed in the +monologues of holy days! What high thoughts and magnificent +conceptions arose in the souls of philosophers and poets! How +many generous resolutions were taken! When the observance of the +Sunday was neglected, the last spark of poetic fire was +extinguished in the souls of our poets. It has been truly said, +without religion there is no poetry. We must add, without +external worship and feast days there is no religion. In the +country, where the people are more susceptible of the religious +sentiment, the Sunday still keeps a part of its social influence. +The sight of a rustic population united as one family by the +voice of its pastor, and prostrated in silence and recollection +before the invisible majesty of God, is touching and sublime; is +a charm which goes to the heart." + +Who speaks in this way? Proud hon. [sic] And Napoleon says, "Do +you want something sublime? Recite your _Pater noster_." + +The most sublime prayer is the mass--the culminating point of +worship; the perennial expiation of perennial faults. From the +mass Alimonda passes to confession; then to communion; and thence +to the responsibility of present life. He exhorts all to +_understand_ and _believe_. This is the creed of the +Christian: _Credere et intelligere_. + + + VIII. + +We have thus far followed the illustrious Alimonda, repeating or +developing his arguments. Let us now examine his manner of +treating the questions which he discusses. + +The classic Greek orators had wonderful simplicity of style, in +which the familiarity of their expressions ennobled their +sentiments and gave force to their reasoning. The Eastern fathers +followed in their footsteps. The Latins ornamented eloquence so +as to make it a special art, assigning it a measured cadence, a +peculiar intonation of voice, a system of position and gesture. +Hence, the Latin fathers studied speech even to affectation, +sought after rhetorical figures, yet always more attentive to the +practical than to the abstract. The French formed themselves +rather according to the Greek models; and the noble simplicity of +Bossuet, Massilon, and Fénélon renders them still models for one +who would discourse before a polished people. + +The Italians, if you except some of the very earliest preachers, +preferred to ornament their speeches and indulge in artificial +figures. In the ages of bad taste, the worst display of metaphors +disgraced the pulpit; whence the custom passed to the bar and +parliament, where there have been and still are so many examples +of unnatural oratory. +{342} +Hence, in so great an abundance of literature, we have no good +preachers except Legneri. In modern times, the style of the +pretentious Turchi has been changed to that of the academic +Barbieri; but that style of preaching "whose father is the +Gospel, and whose mother is the Bible," is rarely heard in our +pulpits. Our very best eloquence, that of the pastorals and +homilies of our bishops, is spoiled by too frequent citations, +and is often devoid of that sentiment which comes from the heart +and goes to it. We do not want to borrow the French style. It is +a mistake to steal the language of another nation, either in +writing or preaching. Peoples have different dispositions. It +would not do to address the Carib in the same way as the +Parisian, or the contemporaries of Godfrey as the subjects of +Napoleon. + +Our author, beside being familiar with the first propagators and +defenders of Christianity, is highly educated in the classics, +and has always ready phrases, hemistichs, and allusions which +display his erudition. His method is prudent, his divisions +logical, and the train of ideas well followed up; his language +correct, and the clearness and marvellous beauty of his style +show him to be a finished orator. + +He draws an abundance of materials from the most diverse and +recondite sources. He adduces the most recent discoveries of +science regarding the essence of the sun, nebula, aerolites, and +on the nature of matter. Without mentioning the biblical and +legendary portions of his work, there are in it traces of every +part of both ancient and modern history: Camoens and Napoleon, +Abelard and Renan, Isnard and Jouffroy, Donoso Cortes and +Cagliostro, Marie Antoinette and Madame de Swetchine, Ireland and +Poland, the discourses of Napoleon III. and of Cavour. The author +brings us through the byways of London to the prison of Thomas +More, to the solitude of St. Helena, and to the lands where the +missionaries are laboring. He quotes even the heroes of romance: +"Renzo" and the "Unknown," Renato, Werter, St. Preux, the Elvira +of George Sand, Wiseman's Fabiola, and Victor Hugo's Valjean. +With the spoils of the Egyptians Alimonda builds a tabernacle to +the living God. Who will censure him, since our Holy Father, in a +brief of September 20th, 1867, approves his labor? + +The nineteenth century can be saved only by means suitable to the +nineteenth century; and Simon Stylites or Torquemada, the +Crusaders or the Flagellants, would be as much out of place +to-day as catapults or the theory of uncreated light. We must +fight with modern weapons. + + "Clypeos, Danaumque insignia nobis aptemus." [Footnote 78] + + [Footnote 78: "We must use the weapons and dress of the + Greeks." _AEneid_, lib. ii.] + +We must study Catholicity in all its bearings, and reconcile +divine and human traditions with modern exigencies; authority +established on an immovable pedestal, with liberty which is +always developing. + +Courage! Let us arouse ourselves from lethargy, and not suffer a +condition of affairs for which we are responsible. Let us +remember, with Bacon, that prosperity was the boon of the Old +Testament; adversity, of the New; persuaded, with Donoso Cortes, +that "it is our duty, as Catholics, to struggle, and that we +should thank God who has chosen us to fight for his church," let +us display that energetic will which is so rare among good +people. With charity and faith, by association and perseverance, +we can conquer hatred and unbelief, the divisions of sects, and +the onslaughts of error on the strongholds of Catholic truth. + +------- + +{343} + + Two Months In Spain During + The Late Revolution. + + + Seville, Fonda De Paris. + + September 23, 1869. + +The train leaves Cordova at six A.M., and we are delighted to be +again on our journey. The route proves of little interest between +Cordova and Seville; the Guadalquivir is first on one side of us +and then on the other; the hills and mountains bound each side of +the plain, where are olive groves, and peaceful flocks, and +ploughmen, as if no revolution were occurring around them. At +Almovar, (situated on a high hill,) we see the ruins of a Moorish +castle where that half-Moor, Peter the Cruel, confined his +sister-in-law, Doña Juana de Lara. Carmona is another town which +has the same celebrity. Here he imprisoned many of his female +favorites when tired of them. We grow very hungry in spite of +these tragic histories, and our young gentleman buys a great +melon _de Castile_, which, proving very delicious, we make a +good breakfast _à l'espagnol;_ but are not sorry to see the +towers of the Giralda, and soon after we enter Seville--the most +charming of all Spanish towns; the city of Don Juan and Figaro; +the gayest, the most celebrated for its beautiful women, its +graceful men, its bull-fights, its gypsies, its tertulias, its +fandangos, its cachuchas, its Murillos, its cathedral, (said to +rival St. Peter's,) and its Alcazar, which is almost as wonderful +as the Alhambra. + +After dinner, we hasten to the cathedral through busy, crowded +streets, by handsome shops; passing occasionally a pretty +Sevillian whose black dress, bare arms and neck seen through the +black lace mantilla, with the dainty pink rose peeping from +beneath it, harmonize exactly with one's idea of the Spanish +woman. And presently, upon a terrace ascended by several steps, +we see before us this wonderful pile of buildings: the Giralda +(Moorish tower) on one side; the Sagrario (the parish church) on +the other; the chapter house, and offices facing the cathedral; +and in the centre of all these the court of oranges! The +cathedral is entered from this court by nine doors. We scarcely +know how to describe this magnificent gothic building, which has +affected us more than any we have ever seen. Coming upon us so +immediately after the mosque of Cordova, (each of these a perfect +specimen of its kind,) one sees in each the reflection of the +different faiths they represent. The graceful, elegant mosque +seems to appeal more to the senses, to speak of a faith which +promises material joys, while the grand and majestic gothic +cathedral carries one's heart to the heaven in which these lofty +arches seem to be lost. In despair of being able to do justice to +so high a theme, I must borrow from O'Shea's guide-book the +following description of this building: + + "The general style of the edifice is gothic of the best period + of Spain, and though many of its parts belong to different + styles, these form but accessory parts, and the main body + remains strictly gothic. Indeed all the fine arts, and each in + turn, at their acme of strength, have combined to produce their + finest inspiration here. +{344} + The Moorish Giralda, the Gothic cathedral, the Greco-Roman + exterior, produce variety, and repose the eye. Inside, its + numerous paintings are by some of the greatest painters that + ever breathed; the stained glass, amongst the finest known; the + sculpture, beautiful; the jewellers' and silversmiths' work + unrivalled in composition, execution, and value. The cathedral + of Leon charms us by the chaste elegance of its airy structure, + the purity of its harmonious lines; the fairy-worked cimborio + of that at Burgos, its filagree spires, and pomp of + ornamentation are certainly more striking; and at Toledo, we + feel already humbled and crushed beneath the majesty and wealth + displayed everywhere. But when we enter the cathedral of + Seville, there is a sublimity in these sombre masses and + clusters of spires whose proportions and details are somewhat + lost and concealed in the mysterious shadows which pervade the + whole, a grandeur which quickens the sense, and makes the heart + throb within us, and we stand as lost among these lofty naves + and countless gilt altars, shining dimly in the dark around us, + the lights playing across them as the rays of the glorious + Spanish sun stream through the painted windows. Vast + proportions, unity of design, severity and sobriety of + ornament, and that simplicity unalloyed by monotony which + stamps all the works of real genius, render this one of the + noblest piles ever raised to God by man, and preferred by many + even to St. Peter's at Rome." + +It is said that the canons and chapter resolved to make this +church the wonder of the world; and with this view, sent for the +most celebrated architects and artists of the world to adorn it, +denying themselves almost the necessaries of life to accomplish +the great work. + +The pillars are one hundred and fifty feet high; the church, four +hundred feet long, two hundred and ninety-one wide, with +ninety-five windows and thirty-seven chapels; and nearly each one +of these contains some pictures of Murillo, Cespedes, Campana, +Roelas, or some Spanish painter of celebrity. We go from chapel +to chapel, gazing upon these, lingering before the altar "Del +Angel de la Guarda," where is Murillo's exquisite picture of the +guardian angel with the young child by the hand (so often +reproduced,) and lost in awe before his grand picture of St. +Anthony of Padua, to whom the infant Jesus descends, amidst +angels and flowers and sunbeams, into the arms ecstatically +extended toward him. In a little chapel we come upon a lovely +Virgin and Child, by Alonso Caño, called N. S. de Belem, +(Bethlehem.) + +But the sun declined, and we ascended the Giralda to see his last +beams shine upon so much beauty. What a strange and charming +scene! The forest of white houses painted with delicate blue and +green; the flat roofs decorated with gardens; the four hundred +and seventy-seven narrow streets, some hardly admitting two +people abreast, through which toiled the patient mules bearing +burdens of stones, mortar for building, wood, and vegetables; the +one hundred ornamented squares and promenades; the orange +gardens; the plaza de Toros; the cathedral just beneath us, with +its hundreds of turrets; the Torre del Oro, (Tower of Gold,) so +named from its yellow hue; the Lonja, (Exchange,) with its pink +color; the grey Alcazar; the palace San Telmo by the +Guadalquivir, which winds through the city and over the plain; +and convents, and churches, and palaces; and, beyond all, the +verdant plains and the blue mountains! As the sun sank, the +convent bells rang the "Ave Maria." + + "Blessed be the hour! + The time, the chime, the spot." + +Certainly we all "felt that moment in its fullest power"! + +{345} + + Thursday, 24. +Our first visit to-day is to San Telmo--the royal palace given by +Queen Isabella to her sister, the Duchess de Montpensier--on the +banks of the Guadalquivir, with enchanting gardens, palms and +citrons, and orange-trees; and within, all oriental in its style +and decorations. Here are some lovely pictures--one of Murillo's +most beautiful Virgins, several splendid Zurbarans, a Sebastian +del Piombo, Holy Family, etc. + +Next we visit the great tobacco manufactory, where 4000 women are +employed making cigars. As all these were talking at once, we +were glad soon to escape. And then the Alcazar, the wonderful +Moorish palace, than which not even the Alhambra can be more +beautiful--as it seems to us. We wander in delicious gardens +--like those described in the _Arabian Nights_--and then +enter the enchanted palace! Passing several courts, we find the +great door of entrance sculptured and painted in arabesque. Here +is a long hall, with exquisitely carved and painted roof, from +which we pass into a square marble court, or patio, with double +rows of marble columns and a fountain in the centre. From the +four sides of this patio you enter by immense doors, carved and +inlaid, into the apartments beyond. First, the Hall of the +Ambassadors, which communicates with others through elegant +arches profusely ornamented, supported by marble pillars of every +color with gilded capitals. The walls and dome are ornamented +with sentences from the Koran, in gilt letters upon grounds of +blue and crimson. Every chamber has different decorations, all +equally elegant. + +Below, opening from the garden, we are shown some subterranean +cells said to have been the prisons of Christian captives, and +above these the luxurious baths of Maria de Padilla--the famous +mistress of Peter the Cruel. It was the custom for the king and +courtiers to sit by and see her bathe, and for the latter to +pretend to sip the water of the bath. Seeing one of these fail in +this gallant duty one day, the king asked why he omitted it. +"Because, sire," (said the witty courtier,) "I am afraid to like +the sauce so well that I shall covet the bird." Peter the Cruel +lived much in this palace, and did much to embellish it through +the Moorish artists whom he employed. Many of the Spanish kings +lived there, and Charles V. was married in one of the upper +rooms. These we did not see, and learned afterward that they were +inhabited by "Fernan Caballero," one of the most popular writers +of Spain--whose delightful books we learned later to admire. +Fernan Caballero is the _nom de plume_ of this lady, who has +had many misfortunes, and who by permission of the queen lives in +the Alcazar, devoting her life to deeds of benevolence amongst +the poor, whose traits and trials she records in many delightful +works. It is a pity that out of France these books should be +unknown. One of our party determines to take some of them to +America, that they may be translated and bring to the knowledge +of our people these charming scenes of Spanish home life so +inimitably described.[Footnote 79] + + [Footnote 79: One of "Fernan Caballero's" (Mrs. Fabre) books, + _The Alvareda Family_, has already been translated here + and published in _The Catholic World_ three years ago; + and two others, _The Sea Gull_, and _The Castle and + Cottage in Spain_, have appeared in an English dress in + London, and _Lucia Garcia_ is already translated and + will soon appear in this magazine.--ED. CATH. W.] + +In the evening we go to a ball, to see the Andalusian dances in +their proper costume. Boleros, and cachuchas, and seguidillas, +and manchegas! Such graceful movements, such little feet in such +dainty satin shoes! + +{346} + +Generally to the accompaniment of the guitar, with most peculiar +and monotonous music, singing at the same time, clapping the +hands, stamping the feet, and the dancer always with castanets. +All the dances were peculiar, solos, often in couples, or three +at a time, some of these coquettish--one, especially, danced by a +man and a woman, he in hat and cloak, she with fan and mantilla. +How she wielded this little "weapon"!--now hiding her face, now +peeping from behind it, which he also did with his _manta_. +By and by he takes off his hat and humbly lays it at her feet. +She dances over it scornfully; without ever losing the step, he +recovers it. She flies; he pursues, opening his manta +entreatingly; she relents; again he throws down the hat; she +stoops and gives it to him, and eventually they dance away with +the manta covering both. + + Friday, 25. + +We go again to the wonderful cathedral; examined many pictures +which yesterday escaped us. In the chapter house is one of +Murillo's "Conceptions," and eight charming heads (ovals) painted +by him, in the same room. In the chapel of the kings lies the +body of St. Ferdinand, and of Murillo; who asked to be buried at +the foot of a picture (The Descent from the Cross) of which he +was particularly fond, which is above the main altar. + +Near the great entrance of the cathedral a stone in the pavement +marks the spot where lies Fernando, the son of Christopher +Columbus, with the motto upon it, "A Castilla y á Leon, mundo +nuevo dió Colon." From his tomb we go to the great Columbine +Library given by him to his country, containing some interesting +MSS. of his father--one, a book of quotations containing extracts +from the psalms and prophets, proving the existence of the new +world. There are a series of portraits round the room, of +Columbus, his son, St. Ferdinand, Cardinal Mendoza, and Cardinal +Wiseman, (who was a native of Seville.) There is also preserved +here the great two-edged sword of Ferdinand Gonsalves. + +Some of our party go to visit the archbishop, in the hope to get +permission to see the treasures of the church, which are very +valuable; but the presence of the revolution obliges him to deny +us this as well as the _entrée_ to the convent of St. +Theresa, which is said to be exactly the same as when she founded +it. It was here she underwent such great trouble and persecution, +and where (finding she had but two or three coppers with which to +begin a great foundation) she said to her nuns, "Never mind, two +cents and Theresa are nothing; but two cents and God are +everything." + +And this interesting convent we could not see.[Footnote 80] +Indeed, the time of our visit to Spain was inopportune for seeing +the inside of religious houses. A former revolution having +deprived them of their property, they have now the fear of being +turned out of their convents. + + [Footnote 80: For a full description of this convent see Lady + Herbert's _Impressions of Spain_, just from the press of + the Catholic Publication Society. This work also contains + illustrations of cathedrals, churches, gardens, palaces, and + other places described in these letters.--ED. CATH. W.] + +While we wait in the church for the return of our friends, we +enter into conversation with two of the little boys of the choir, +whose beauty attracts us, begging them to describe the style in +which they dance before the Blessed Sacrament on Corpus Christi, +which is said to be a ceremony most solemn, grave, and +impressive. These children evinced great curiosity about us, and +when told that one of the party was "a convert," (had been a +Protestant,) could not be made to comprehend what it meant; for +they confound all Protestants with unbelievers. +{347} +"And did not know about our dear Lord!" said one little fellow +with a look of sorrowful compassion, reminding one of the scene +in one of Fernan Caballero's tales (_The Alvareda Family_) +where the hero comes home from his travels and describes a +country covered with snow so that people are sometimes buried +under it. + +We go to see the house in which Murillo lived and the spot where +he was first buried--passing the house in which Cardinal Wiseman +was born, upon which is a large tablet with a beautiful and +appropriate inscription. In Murillo's house is an extensive +gallery with many of his loveliest pictures, and some of the +pictures of monks for which Zurbaran is so famous. + +Here we see the Infant St. John with the Lamb, and the Infant +Saviour, so often repeated by Murillo, apart and together an +exquisite Ecce Homo; several Madonnas, and Saints. + +On our way we are shown the shop where dwelt the original Figaro, +and also the house of Don Juan! + +The Casa de Pilatos, one of the residences of the Duke of Medina +Coeli, next claims us--a curious old palace, built in the +sixteenth century in imitation of Pilate's House in Jerusalem, +which was visited at that time by the founder. The patio is fine, +with a beautiful fountain, and double row of columns, (one above +another,) with statues at the four corners. The marble staircase +and halls--lined with azulejos, (colored porcelain tiles,) +universally used in this country--are particularly handsome. + +Next we go to the "Caridad," one of the most celebrated hospitals +in the world, founded by a young nobleman of Seville in the +seventeenth century, upon ground which belonged to a brotherhood +whose duty it was to give consolation to those about to die on +the scaffold. This young man (Don Miguel de Mañara) was +distinguished for his profligacy, but also for his bravery, +generosity, and his patronage of art. One of our friends told us +some most interesting anecdotes connected with his conversion. + +Returning from some orgies, one night, he saw a female figure +upon a low balcony beckon him. Thinking to have an adventure, he +sprang into the open window and found a dead body with a with +lights about it alone in the room. Another time, returning at +midnight through the streets, he saw a church lighted, and, +wondering what could be going on at such an hour, entered. Before +the altar was a bier upon which was extended a body covered with +the mantle of the knights of the order to which he belonged, the +priests about it singing the office for the dead. Asking whose +funeral it was, he was answered, "That of Don Miguel Mañara," and +going to the corpse and uncovering it, saw his own face. The +morning found him stretched upon the pavement, the vision gone. +But the impression remained, in which he recognized a call from +God to a better life, which he soon after entered, giving his +whole fortune to found this institution for the sick, the aged, +and "incurables;" and here he lived and died an example of +humility, piety, and penitence. Murillo and other eminent artists +were also members of this confraternity, and a letter of the +former is here shown in which he asks permission to join the +brotherhood. To the friendship of Don Miguel for Murillo the +hospital is indebted for some of the finest pictures in the +world. In the church are two of his grandest and largest +pictures, "Moses striking the Rock," called here the "Sed," +(thirst,) and the "Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes," a +Visitation, an Infant Saviour, and a St. John. +{348} +There are also several most remarkable pictures by Valdes Leal; +one, "The Triumph of Time," in which the skeleton Death stands +triumphantly above crowns and sceptres and "all there is of +glory." Opposite to this is "The Dead Prelate," a picture made at +the suggestion of Mañara. From the top of the picture a +_pierced hand_ holds the scales, in one side of which a +kingly crown, and jewels, and sceptre, weigh against the mystic +"I. H. S." and a book, the Word of God. Below lies a dead +prelate, in mitre and crosier, half eaten by the worms; on the +other side, Don Miguel Mañara, wrapped in his knightly mantle, +upon which also the worms run riot. On one of the scales is +written "nor more;" upon the other, "nor less." + +Murillo told the painter that he could never pass this picture +without involuntarily "holding his nose." Under the pavement, +near the door, lies the body of the founder; "the ashes of the +worst man that ever lived," so he styles himself in his epitaph; +and he requested that he might lie where the feet of every passer +should walk over him. The sisters conduct us over the clean and +airy wards. On the wall of the patio are these words, from the +pen of Mañara himself, "This house will last as long as God shall +be feared in it, and Jesus Christ be served in the persons of his +poor. Whoever enters here must leave at the door both avarice and +pride." And over his own cell is inscribed, "What is it we mean +when we speak of death? It is being free from the body of sin, +and from the yoke of our passions. Therefore, to live is a bitter +death, and to die is a sweet life." + +Another of the charming histories told us by the same lady was of +St. Maria Coronel, whose body is preserved in the convent of St. +Inez, which we could not be permitted to see. Peter the Cruel, +because enamored of her great beauty, condemned her husband to +death, but offered to save him if she would yield to his wishes. +The husband was actually executed, and Maria fled to this +convent, where the king pursued her. One night he entered her +cell; and, seeing no other way to escape him, she seized the +burning lamp, and emptied its boiling contents over her face. The +poor lady lived the life of a saint, and died in this convent. +Her body is as fresh as if she had died yesterday, and the marks +of the oil upon her face as clearly visible as upon the day when +the heroic deed was committed. + +In the evening we walk in the crowded streets, and find splendid +shops filled with lovely women, who go at this hour to walk or +shop, never stirring out in the day. As late as eleven, when we +came in, the streets and shops were yet filled with ladies. + + + Saturday, 26. + +We spend the morning in the gallery, which is considered the +finest in Spain, after that of Madrid. This is especially rich in +Murillos, and has several Zurbarans, the Spanish Caravaggio so +famous for his pictures of monks. Here is "The Apotheosis of St. +Thomas Aquinas," considered his masterpiece; and of Murillo there +are about twenty-four of his greatest pictures: the "St. Thomas +of Villanuova giving Alms," which was the painter's own favorite; +the "St. Anthony of Padua kneeling before the Infant Saviour," +who stands upon his book--the most perfect type of a child God; +and the ecstasy, the fervor, the humility, in the pale, +attenuated face of the monk brings the tears to one's eyes, you +so feel with him. +{349} +Next this is a picture preferred to the other by most persons, +"St. Felix of Cantalicia," with the infant Saviour in his arms, +the blessed Mother leaning forward to receive him. The beauty of +the Virgin Mother and the grace of her attitude is said by +critics to be beyond all praise. Then comes a beautiful +"Annunciation," a "St. Joseph with the child Jesus," "Saints +Rufina and Justina," (the patrons of Seville,) "Saints Leandro +and Buonaventura," several "Conceptions," and the exquisite +"Virgin de la Sevilleta," (Virgin of the Napkin,) said to have +been painted on a dinner napkin, and given as a present to the +cook of the convent where Murillo worked. The "St. John Baptist +in the Desert" should also be mentioned, as well as many others. + +This evening we bid farewell to beautiful Seville, with all its +delights, and set out for Cadiz. + +Certainly it is the Spaniards, not the French, who are "the +politest people in the world." The conductor opens the railway +carriage with "Good evening, ladies. May I trouble you for your +tickets?" concluding with "A happy night to you." In passing a +street, the other day, a gentleman with whom we had crossed the +mountains, and whose name we do not even know, rushes from his +house to say, "Ladies, is anything wanting? Here is your house." +Such is the pretty exaggerated Spanish phrase. Leaving Seville, +we pass orange-groves and fields divided by aloe and cactus +hedges, but the country is flat and uninteresting; and, except +Lebrija, which has a tower, the rival of the Giralda, and Jerez, +we see no towns of any size or interest till we near Cadiz. +"Jerez de la Frontera" (the frontier town) has always been of +importance; one of the earliest Phoenician colonies. Close to +this took place the battle of the Guadelete, which opened Spain +to the Moors. St. Ferdinand recovered it in 1251; but it was +retaken, and again recovered by his son, Alonzo the Learned, in +1264, who granted to it many important privileges, peopling it +with forty of his hidalgos--the source of the present Jerez +nobility. It has an Alcazar of great interest--its Alameda--some +fine old churches, and near it are the ruins of a fine old +Carthusian convent upon the Guadelete, which the Moors called the +River of Delight. Jerez is now celebrated for its wines; the +sherry so prized in England and America, which occupies palaces +rather than wine-cellars. These are called "bodegas," and +sometimes hold ten thousand casks. As we near Cadiz we see Puerta +San Maria, at the mouth of the Guadelete--a pretty town, looking +upon the sea, with a suspension bridge looking most picturesque +in the moonlight; then Puerto Real, San Fernando, Cadiz. + + + Cadiz, Fonda De Paris. + Sunday, 27. + +The guide takes us first to hear high mass in the new +cathedral--a handsome building, entirely of white marble, within +and without. Some good pictures, (copies of Murillo,) fine music, +and the most devout of congregations. The loveliest of women, in +modest black dresses, mantillas, and fans, sat or knelt upon the +matting, which is spread upon the space between the high altar +and the choir. No seats are provided. A few bring little black +camp-stools. The bishop (who gave the benediction) is a most +dignified and elegant-looking person; and the guide tells us he +is much beloved and respected. Already the new order of things +pulls down churches and banishes the Jesuits, as the first proof +of that "liberty of worship" which is one of the most popular of +the war cries. +{350} +Such bandit-looking fellows as we saw yesterday! Catalan +soldiers, in red cap, short pantaloons with red stripe, +half-gaiters, and a red blanket on the left shoulder, a leathern +belt, with pistols and a great rifle. + +The revolution spreads everywhere, "peacefully," as they say. We +see a handbill posted, in which the queen is spoken of as +"_Doña_ Isabella of Bourbon," to whom they wish "no harm." + +Some Spanish ladies who had once lived in America, and are +friends of ours, came to visit us. They are intensely loyal, as +are all the women of Spain whom we encounter. From these we learn +that, as in all revolutions, the dregs of the people come to the +top, and are most conspicuous. It is only they make it who have +nothing to lose, and all to gain. These "juntas," who now rule in +each city under the provisional government, are composed of +people of low birth and bad morals. Here they are taken from the +low trades-people, who are noted drunkards and unbelievers. Into +such hands are committed the destinies of this lovely city. Their +first work has been to try and kill the Jesuits, who, with a +hundred little boys under their care, had to defend themselves +from these men and the rabble they encourage. And but for the +officers of the fleet, who, with pistols in hand, thrust +themselves between them, they must have been murdered. These +officers took them on board the ships for safety, and some are +yet secreted in the town, waiting an opportunity to escape. +To-day our guide takes us to several curious old churches which +were formerly convents, with pretty cloisters and marble courts. +These, he says, are doomed by the junta to be torn down to build +houses and theatres, thus destroying these beautiful old +monuments of a past time in their blind fury against religion. + +In the evening we change our hotel to the "Fonda de Cadiz," on +the gay "plaza San Antonio." After dinner walk by the seashore on +the walls. As we pass the streets, we enter several churches, +where the people are hearing sermons, or saying prayers with the +priests. Such picturesque groups! + +To-night we see from our windows a procession carrying the +Blessed Sacrament to the sick, from the parish church opposite. A +carriage is always sent, and a long procession, bearing lights, +precedes and follows. One of the ladies present tells us that +last carnival, in the midst of the gayeties on this square, men +and women, in every variety of ridiculous costume, were dancing +to merry music, when suddenly the bell was heard preceding the +Blessed Sacrament, which was being carried to a sick officer, +living upon the square. In an instant every knee was bent of the +motley throng, and the band struck up the Royal March in the most +effective manner, and accompanied the procession to the house; +returning, the fun recommenced. This lady says there was never +anything witnessed more affecting. "And," added she, "this is the +faith these revolutionists would take from us. Already they talk +of introducing every religion, and they will build a mosque and a +synagogue!" + + + Monday, 28. +The morning is given to shopping, to see the lovely mantillas of +every shape and style; fans of wonderful workmanship and +exquisite painting on kid or silk; the beautiful figures in every +variety of Spanish costumes, made in Malaga, of a particular kind +of clay for which Spain is famous; the pretty mattings of Cadiz, +etc. +{351} +In the evening we walk with our friends upon the "Alameda," a +charming promenade by the seaside, where stately palm-trees wave +above marble seats and columns. Entering the church of Mount +Carmel we find it filled with people saying prayers and the +rosary. To-night we are kept awake by the mob, who are marching +with drums and ringing the church bells in honor of a victory +over the queen's troops near Cordova. + + + + Tuesday, 29. +At eight o'clock we set out upon an excursion to Jerez, to visit +the bodegas and taste the fine wines. Passing the salt-meadows we +see the white pyramids of salt glistening in the sunlight, which +had so puzzled us when we last saw them by moonlight. The bay of +Cadiz is on one side, the broad ocean on the other, in the +distance the mountains of the Sierra del Pinal. A friend joins us +at Puerta Real, and takes us to one of the largest bodegas in +Jerez, where are 10,000 casks of wine--each cask valued at $500! +The proprietor (a gentleman of English or Irish descent) is most +kind, shows us this extraordinary place, and gives us to taste of +the finest wines--brown sherry and pale sherry, fifty years of +age. But the most delicious of all are the sweet wines--which are +also sherries--and are called "Pedro Ximenes" from the name of +the person who first introduced this grape. These wines are rich +and oily, (perfect "nectar,") and are made from the grape when +almost as dry as raisins--twelve days from off the vine. In the +midst of these oceans of fine wines, Mr. Graves (the proprietor) +tells us he rarely tastes them, only occasionally taking a glass +of the sweet wine. + +Jerez is said to be the richest town in Spain, the richest of its +size in the world. Beautiful plazas planted with palms, and fine +old palaces. We visited an ornamental garden belonging to one of +these wine princes, where were lakes, and streams, and grottoes, +and bridges, and groves, and flowers of every variety, birds and +fowls, and model cattle, etc. And then we saw San Miguel, one of +the finest churches we have seen, (gothic interior,) of the +fifteenth century, (1432,) elegantly ornamented. There is also a +cathedral and another most interesting church, (St. Dionisius,) +built by Alonzo the Learned in the thirteenth century, said to be +a particularly fine specimen of the gothic moresque of that +period. After a fine breakfast of the delicious Spanish ham, +chocolate, cakes, and sherry, we return to Cadiz. Passing "Puerta +San Maria," we see the Jesuit college, from which they have just +been ejected, the broken trees, the trampled gardens telling +their own story of violence. One of the gentlemen in the train +tells us there were two hundred and fifty boys cared for here, +and that the Jesuits fed five hundred poor each day with soup +from the leavings of the table. The great building looked a +picture of desolation. + +To-night we have another ringing of bells and marching to the +sound of the odious revolutionary hymn. One of the gentlemen of +our party goes out to hear the speeches in the square. Some of +the speakers propose to offer the crown to the father of the King +of Portugal, (of the Catholic branch of that lucky _Coburg_ +family who, possessing nothing, gain everything by marriage,) +others are for the Duke of Montpensier. Some cry "Vive Napoleon." +In fact, they are in great embarrassment--have caught the +elephant and do not know what to do with him, like another nation +we know of. + +{352} + Wednesday, 30. + +To-day we hear that all Catalonia has "pronounced," and even +Madrid, and that the rejoicings of last night were for the +victory of "Alcolea," just won, over the queen's troops, in +which, however, the liberals have lost three thousand men. These +troops were commanded by Serrano, (Duke de Torres,) who owes +everything to the queen's favor; and on the queen's side by the +Marquis de Novaliches, "faithful found amongst the faithless." We +hear of one of her officers (the young Count de Cheste) who has +shut himself with his men in the fortress of Montjuich, at +Barcelona, resolving to die rather than submit. One must admire +such devotion, in whatever cause it is shown. "Loyalty! the most +pure and beautiful feeling of the human breast. It is a love +which exists without requiring the usual nourishment of return; a +feeling void of every shade of egotism; that desires and requires +nothing but the happiness of loving, that causes one joyfully to +sacrifice life and property for the exalted object whose voice, +perhaps, never reached his ear. This feeling, in its highest +purity, is the very triumph of human capacity." Such is the true +definition of "Loyalty," which, like "Liberty," is often profaned +and constantly misunderstood. With our pretty Spanish friends we +go to see a church called the "Cave," a church only for +gentlemen, where they may go privately to their confession and +devotions. The confessionals are unlike those used for women, for +the men go in front and kneel face to face with the priest. It is +a beautiful chapel, wonderfully rich in marbles and fine +vestments and bassi-relievi, and below it is a gloomy chapel from +whence the church derives its name. Over the altar is represented +the crucifixion. It is dimly lighted through a dome, and the +figures (large as life) seem to live. Here the men go for +meditation, and for the Good Friday and other solemn festivals. +At one end of the chapel is a carved chair, raised on a platform, +upon which the priest sits to give his instructions, while a lamp +is so arranged that the light falls only upon the speaker's face, +leaving the rest of the chapel in darkness. The young priest who +showed us the church had the face of an angel, so fair and young +and holy; or, rather, such a face as is represented in a picture +of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, the patron of youth. + +As we wander from shop to shop one of our pretty friends meets +one of the beaux of Cadiz, whose "loyalty" she suspects and whom +she berates most violently for deserting his queen in her need, +and helping to embarrass his country. The pretty way with which +she shakes her fan at him, and gesticulates with her hands, the +expressive eyes and play of feature, is altogether charming and +_Andalusian_. + +Late this evening, we hear particulars of the late battle. +Novaliches fought against fearful odds--three thousand men to +sixteen thousand. He was severely if not mortally wounded, and +was carried off by his men to Portugal, the only way of retreat +open to them. This defeat, we suppose, will put an end to the +war. + +Thursday, Oct. 1. + +This is the feast of the Guardian Angel of Spain, so we hear mass +where the devotion of the forty hours begins. As in Italy, two by +two, kneeling and holding lights, the men of the congregation +keep watch before the Blessed Sacrament during these forty hours, +while hundreds of adorers continually coming and going attest the +devotion of this pious people. +{353} +The Church of the Guardian Angel is near that belonging to the +military hospital; and on the opposite side of the square is an +asylum for widows, founded many years ago by a converted Moor--a +most interesting institution. Widows of all ranks and conditions +find shelter here when their necessities require it. Each one has +her own chamber and sitting-room, and each one her little cooking +apparatus separate. The court with its open corridors on every +story, its pretty flowers, its fine promenade on the roof, makes +it a very inviting abode; and, with the usual Spanish courtesy, +the old widow who showed us about (the widow of an officer, who +had been there these forty years) placed it at our "disposition." +These poor women go out to walk, and to church when they wish, +though there is also a chapel in the house. + +We go next to see the "Albergo dei Poveri," a magnificent +charity, founded and endowed by one man in memory of his mother, +and dedicated to St. Helena. Here five hundred children of both +sexes are taught weaving, sewing, washing, shoemaking, etc., and +there is also an asylum for five hundred old men and old women. +The school-rooms and dormitories are large and airy; the marble +courts, where the children play, and the sewing-room, where a +hundred girls sat at work, looked out upon the sea, and were +deliciously cool and comfortable. The school-rooms were decorated +with pictures of Bible history, and seemed to have all the modern +inventions which make easy the way to learning. The sister told +us how much they had been disturbed by this revolutionary +movement. Her little orphan boys (who had been taught music with +the view to enter the army as musicians) had been carried off at +night to play the revolutionary hymn, kept out marching over the +town till two o'clock in the morning, and then sent home +foot-sore and with aching heads. + +The most interesting thing of all was to see the old men at +dinner--that helpless thing, an old man. Placed by the nice +table, a man with snow-white apron served the soup, a sister gave +round the meat, and then came a pudding. The bread was as white +as is all the bread of Spain, (even the poorest people have bread +of this very white flour,) and there seemed about a hundred of +these men over sixty years of age. The rain drives us home, but +by and by we go out again to buy some of the boots and shoes of +Cadiz, which are the prettiest in the world and cover the +prettiest of feet. + + + Feast Of The Guardian Angels. + +Friday, Oct. 2. + +We go to the lovely church of the Rosary for high mass. The +decorations are very tasteful and beautiful, and hundreds of men +and women, in their grave black garments, assist most devoutly; +the men have benches on each side, the women sit or kneel upon a +bit of matting before the altar. + +From this we go to the "Capuchinos," where we see three of +Murillo's finest pictures, the "Marriage of St. Catherine," over +the altar, which he left unfinished and which is surrounded, in +five compartments, by five pictures of Zurbaran, almost equal to +the centre piece. There is here another "Conception," and that +picture of pictures, "St. Francis receiving the Stigmata," which +is certainly the most extraordinary of all the works of this +great master. The face of the saint seems to come entirely out of +its dark surroundings, and so do the wonderful hands. These all +look like the living flesh, and move us as if they were so. + +{354} + +This Capuchin convent, which Murillo loved to adorn, and in +painting for which he lost his life, is now a hospital for +lunatics--the monks all gone; the present Bishop of Cadiz was one +[of] them. And to show the devotion of the common people to +Murillo, they will not allow the bishop to move this picture of +St. Francis to an opposite altar, where it would be in a better +light and preserved from the smoke of the altar candles. "No; the +place for which Murillo painted it must be the best place, and +there it shall stay." In a chapel near by is a lovely picture of +"Our Lady of the Rosary," which must be a copy of the one in the +gallery of Madrid so celebrated. In this chapel and everywhere +here we see statues or pictures of the "Martyrs of Cadiz," +(Servando and Germano,) two young Roman soldiers who, becoming +converts, died for the faith on a spot near the present city +gates. It is said that on the occasion of the terrible earthquake +which occurred here November 1st, 1755, when the sea rose and +threatened to devour the city, two young men in strange garments +appeared on the spot of their martyrdom and were seen by hundreds +of the inhabitants to stay the waves, speaking to the people and +bidding them pray to God. On another side of the city the +Dominican priests bore the favorite statue of "Our Lady of the +Rosary," with many prayers, to the waters' brink, and "the waves +receded and there was a great calm." + +On the third side, where Cadiz is most exposed to the sea, is a +little church in which the priest was saying mass on the eventful +morning. 'The people ran to him saying, "Behold! the sea is at +the very door." He made haste to consume the consecrated Host, +then seizing the crucifix and the banner of "Our Lady of Mercy," +went out upon the door-step where the waves already licked his +feet: "My Mother, let them not come further"--and they did not! + +What is so remarkable in the accounts of this earthquake is, that +there had been no storm to precede it, but on a soft sunshiny day +came this terrible convulsion of the elements. We went to see +this church, where is yet shown the crucifix and the banner which +played so important a part on this occasion; and see the point to +which the water rose, and an inscription on the wall of a house +recording the event exactly as here related. Next we visit the +church of San Lorenzo, and afterward that of the Scalzi, +(barefoot friars,) where to-day was said the "last mass;" the +"junta" having decreed that it be torn down to build a theatre. +The work of destruction had already commenced. How the strong old +walls resisted! A dozen carpenters were taking down the gilded +altars and curiously carved "retablos," which, belonging to the +days when Spain had her argosies from the new world laden with +gold, were made to resist "all time." Four men with iron crowbars +were striving to dislodge an angel suspended over an altar, which +positively refused to come down; while below him, on the floor, +stood saints and martyrs covered with dust and _débris_, +hastily dislodged from the pedestals on which they had rested for +centuries--a rueful group! No wonder the women wept, and eyed +resentfully the malicious-looking revolutionists employed to +order the work; while armed soldiers, with the hateful red ribbon +on the arm, (the revolutionary mark,) kept off the populace, who +strove to get in at the doors, by the market, to bid farewell to +these ancient altars. +{355} +It had been the church of the market people, the cradle of some +of popular saints, the scene of the "first communion," the +"nuptial mass," the baptism of their children, the funeral mass +for their dead. Great is the clamor outside! Old people kiss the +walls, and the young gather bits of the broken altars, while +sorrowful-looking priests are permitted to carry away the +mutilated statues and gildings. + +The convent of the Good Shepherd, opening into the church, is +also to be torn down, and its unhappy inmates driven elsewhere to +seek shelter. They are putting into the _same convent_ +these, with Carmelites, Ursulines, and others; crowding together +those who teach with those who save the Magdalens in strange and +painful confusion. Such are some of the fruits of revolution! And +this is the "liberty" which England and America seek for the +Spaniard! + +To-night we hear that the Marquis de Novaliches has died of +lockjaw, his face having been dreadfully wounded by a ball. The +Conte de la Cheste, who held Monjuich at Barcelona, has gone to +join the queen, abandoning his "forlorn hope" at her request. + + + Saturday, October 3. + +To-day we hear the high mass in the cathedral, and go to see the +jewels in the sacristia. They have a remarkable "custodia," (the +gift of an ancestor of the Calderon de la Barca,) set in pearls +and emeralds of immense value; a superbly chased crucifix, the +gift of Alonzo the Learned; a small but exquisitely worked +tabernacle of gold with beautiful amethysts forming a cross, +given by the same king. After the mass we go to buy some of the +famous Cadiz gloves, and then drive on the ramparts to see the +fine sea view. In the evening, to the church of the Carmel. As it +is the eve of the feast of "Our Lady of the Rosary," the church +of the Rosary is illuminated, and most of the houses throughout +the city. + + + Sunday, Oct. 4. + +In the church of the Rosary is a beautiful ceremony. The music is +lovely; the wind instruments, in certain parts of the mass, most +effective, and the whole one of the most solemn services at which +we have assisted. + +The sermon is delivered with such grace and unction that we could +but realize the truth of that saying of Charles V., that Spanish +is the language in which to speak to God! So grand, so sonorous! +And there is something in the grave dignity of the Spanish priest +which makes him seem the perfection of ecclesiastical character. +We are all struck with the decorum of the people in the churches, +the quiet and devotion; none of the running in and out and the +familiarity with holy things which in Italy makes one see that +the people regard the church as their father's house, in which +they take liberties. Here, it is alone the house of God, as is +seen in the reverential manner and careful costume. All wear +black, and not even is a lace mantilla usual, but the Spanish +mantilla of modest silk. The men are alike reverential, and +nowhere have we seen so many men in church, particularly at +night. + +To-day we hear the good news that the government of the city is +taken from the hands of the junta and given into the care of the +former military governor of Cadiz, in conjunction with the +admiral of the fleet. This is received with great favor by the +people of moderate opinion of both sides, as putting a stop to +extreme measures. They have countermanded the destruction of the +two old churches, the Franciscan and the Scalzi; of the +last-named they tell a most extraordinary story to-day. +{356} +Yesterday the destroyers had knocked down a portion of the thick +old wall. This morning it was found rebuilt as if by invisible +hands, with the same heavy masonry, as strong as before, and even +the white plaster upon the outside dry and barely to be +distinguished from the rest of the building. Everybody runs to +look at it. The people cry "a miracle," and say that the Blessed +Virgin, whose feast it is to-day, had _a hand in it_. + + + Monday, Oct. 5. +We go for the last time to the shops, and to hear our last mass +in San Antonio; for to-morrow we leave beautiful Cadiz and the +dear friends who have made our stay so delightful. The political +horizon to-day is a little clearer. In consequence of some +outrages upon priests and churches one man has been banished to +Ceuta, and large placards are upon the streets threatening with +like punishment every one who insults a priest or injures a +church. The banished man had harangued the mob, assuring them +that a Dominican father in the convent of that order had some +instruments of torture, formerly used in the Inquisition, and +that he applied them to his penitents. The unthinking mob, guided +by him, rushed to search the convent, broke the church windows, +and not finding what was promised them, turned their fury upon +the man who had deceived them. + +In the war of 1835, when Saragossa began the work of burning the +monasteries and murdering the monks, Cadiz gave her monks five +hours to get away, and armed guards saved the monasteries. To be +sure, the populace burned the libraries and furniture; but as +Cadiz was then more moderate than her sister cities, she will not +now be less kind than then. How impossible to believe, in looking +out upon a city so smiling and so lovely, that evil passions +should lurk in it anywhere! + + To Be Continued. + +---------- + + The Approaching Council Of The Vatican. + +The preparations for the approaching council continue to be made +on a grand scale, and with the greatest diligence. From the +_Chronicle of Matters relating to the future Council_, which +is regularly published at the office of the _Civilta +Cattolicà_, in Rome, we copy the list of the different +commissions and their members which are preparing the matters to +be discussed and decided upon by the bishops assembled in +ecumenical council. + +The supreme directive congregation is composed of the most +eminent cardinals, Patrizi, de Reisach, Barnabo, Panebianco, +Bizarri, Bilio, Caterini, and Capalti. To these are joined, as +secretary, Mgr. Giannelli; and as consulters, Mgr. Tizzani, Mgr. +Angelini, vicegerent of Rome, Mgr. Talbot, (an Englishman,) Don +Melchior Galeotti, of the seminary of Palermo, F. Sanguineti, S. +J., professor of canon law in the Roman College, Professor Feije, +of the University of Louvain, and Professor Hefele, of Tübingen. +{357} +The commission of ceremonies is composed of prelates who have the +general supervision of the grand functions which take place in +the principal churches of Rome. The politico-ecclesiastical +commission is composed of; + + Cardinal de Reisach, president, + Mgrs. Marini, + del Parco a Theatine, + Bartolini, + Jacobini, + Ferrari, + Nussi, + Gizzi, (a judge in one of the high courts,) + Guardi, (vicar-general of the religious + congregation of ministers of the sick,) + Canon Kovaes, of Kolocza in Bohemia, + Canon Molitor of Spire in Germany, + the Abbé Chesnel, vicar-general of Quimper, + Canon Moufang of Mayence, + the Abbé Gibert, vicar-general of Moulins, and + Mgr. Trinchieri, secretary. + +The commission for eastern affairs is composed of + + Cardinal Barnabo, president, + Don John Simeoni, of the Propaganda, + F. Bollig, S. J., professor of Sanscrit and Oriental + languages in the Roman university + and Roman college, + F. Vercellone, (Barnabite religious; since deceased,) + F. Theiner, of the Oratory, + the Most Rev. Leonard Valerga, prefect of Carmelite + missions in Syria, + the Right Rev. Joseph David, a Syrian bishop, + Canon Roncetti, professor in the Roman seminary, + Don Joseph Piazza, + Don Francis Rosi, + F. Haneberg, abbot of St. Boniface and professor + of theology in the university of Munich, + F. Martinoff, + S. J., Mgr. Howard, (an Englishman,) and + Mgr. Cretoni, secretary. + +The commission on the religious orders and congregations is +composed of + + Cardinal Bizarri, president, + Mgrs. Marini, + Svegliati, and + Lucidi, + F. Capelli, (Barnabite,) + F. Bianchi,(Dominican,) + F. Cipressa, (Minorite Franciscan,) + F. Cretoni, (Augustinian,) + F. Costa, (Jesuit,) + Mgr. Guisasola, arch-priest of the + cathedral of Seville, and + Don Francis Stoppani, secretary. + +The commission of dogmatic theology is composed of + + Cardinal Bilio, president, + Mgr. Cardoni, president of the ecclesiastical academy, + F. Spada, (Dominican,) master of the + sacred palace and professor of + dogma in the Roman university, + F. de Ferrari, (Dominican,) + F., Perrone, S.J., + Mgr. Schwetz, professor of theology in the + university of Vienna, + F. Mura, ex-general of the Servites, rector + of the Roman university, + F. Adrogna, definitor-general of the + conventual Franciscans, + Mgr. Jacquenet, curé of St. Jacques at Rheims, + the Abbé Gay, vicar-general of Poitiers, + F. Martinelli, (Augustinian,) professor of Scripture in the Roman + university, + Don Joseph Pecci, professor of philosophy in the same, + F. Franzlin, S. J., professor + of theology in the Roman college, + F. Schrader, S.J., professor in the + university of Vienna, + Professor Petacci, of the Roman seminary, + Professor Hettinger, of Wurtzburg, + Professor Alzog, of Friburg, + the Rev. Dr. Corcoran, of Charleston, S. C., + Canon Labrador, professor of philosophy and theology at Cadiz, and + Canon Santori, rector of the pontifical lyceum in the Roman + seminary, secretary. + +The commission of ecclesiastical discipline is composed of + + Cardinal Caterini, president, + Mgrs. Giannelli, + Angelini, + Svegliati, + Simeoni, + Nina, + Nobili, + Lucidi, + de Angelis, professor of canon law in the Roman + university, + F. Tarquini, S.J., + Canon Jacobini, + Professor Hergenroether, of Wurtzburg, + Professor Feije of Louvain, + the Abbé Sauvé, of Laval, + Canon Giese, of Munster, + Professor Heuser, of Cologne, + Professor de Torres, of Seville, and + Mgr. Louis Jacobini, secretary. + +Several other distinguished men have been added to these +commissioners since this list was published. Dr. Newman was +invited to assist, but declined on account of his infirm health. +Dr. Döllinger was also invited. + +{358} + +The sessions of the council will be held in one of the large +chapels of St. Peter's Church, which is capable of containing +several thousand persons. The principal architects of Rome are +already engaged in preparing the proper accommodations, under the +immediate supervision of the Holy Father himself. The altar of +the council is at one end of the chapel, the throne of the +sovereign pontiff at the opposite end. On the right and left of +the throne are placed the seats of the cardinals, patriarchs, and +ambassadors of sovereigns. The seats of the prelates are ranged +in two semicircles, each tier being elevated above the one before +it; the tribune of the orators is placed in the middle of the +open space between, and there are also tribunes prepared for +those who will be admitted as spectators of the public sessions. + +A large and beautiful piece of black marble, which was found +among the treasures of the Emperor Nero, at the recent +exhumation, is to be made into an obelisk commemorative of the +council, which will be erected near the spot where St. Peter was +crucified. The base of the column is to be made of a number of +small blocks of white marble, equal to the number of prelates +assisting at the council, each one placing his own block, with +his name and title engraved upon it. + +The bishops alone are entitled to a seat in the council by divine +right. Cardinals, abbots, and generals of religious orders are +entitled to a seat also, by ecclesiastical law or privilege. The +question of the right of bishops _in partibus infidelium_ to +a seat is now under discussion, and we have not learned whether +it has yet been decided or not. + +This circumstance has given the Roman correspondent of the _New +York Herald_a chance of furnishing a specimen of the +ridiculous and reckless falsification of matters relating to the +Catholic Church, by which the ordinary readers of newspapers are +perpetually befooled and mystified. The doubt respecting the +right of these bishops is represented as having been raised in +order to keep out those who are not sufficiently subservient to +the holy see, and the conclusion drawn--with the usual flippant +impertinence of this class of writers--that Rome will admit none +who are not prepared to carry out fully her own policy. The truth +is, however, that these bishops _in partibus_--who are +prelates holding merely titular sees which are in fact extinct or +in the possession of schismatics, many of them having been +decorated with the episcopal character by the pope only for the +sake of honor--are precisely the men who have the least power of +opposing the holy see and the greatest interest in procuring its +favor. Some of them are vicars-apostolic governing missionary +districts, others are coadjutors of diocesan bishops, others are +prelates who have resigned their sees, and the remainder are +prelates filling certain high offices in the Roman court. It is +evident enough that if there were any reason to apprehend +opposition to the pontifical authority from any portion of the +hierarchy, it would be rather from the primates and metropolitans +of old and powerful sees, who have been nominated by sovereigns, +and who would have all their support and authority to sustain +them. There is no reason, however, to apprehend that any +collision will take place between the holy see and the hierarchy, +who have never in the whole history of the church been more +completely united than they are at present. + +{359} + +The bishops take no theologians with them, and, besides the +prelates themselves, only the theologians of the holy see and the +representatives of the sovereigns will participate in the +deliberations of the council. + +In regard to the matters which will be proposed for the +adjudication of this supreme tribunal, we find many conjectures, +more or less plausible, both in Catholic and secular periodicals. +We prefer to wait until the acts of the council are made known in +an authentic manner, before speaking on this subject. We remark +merely that there is not the slightest foundation for the rumors +which are reported in certain newspapers respecting proposed +changes in the established discipline of the church, regarding +matters which have long ago been definitely settled. + +The impression made upon the whole civilized world by the +convocation of an ecumenical council is deep, universal, and +continually increasing as the time for its assembling draws near. +The infidel and red-republican party in Europe manifest a fear +and dread which is certainly remarkable, and very encouraging to +all friends of religion and order. The politicians of the old +_régime_ of state supremacy over the church also manifest a +terrible and perfectly well-founded alarm, lest the church should +assert and regain her perfect liberty and independence, and +condemn, without any hope of appeal, those maxims and opinions by +which they have hitherto held a certain number of sincere +Catholics in alliance with themselves. + +The reception given by the emperor of Russia and the patriarch of +Constantinople to the pope's invitation is too well known to need +any fresh notice. Of course, the great body of the oriental +prelates follow the dictation of these two potentates--a striking +commentary upon the value and sincerity of the protest which they +make against the tyranny of the Roman patriarch. There are not +wanting, however, certain instances showing the impression which +the pope's invitation has made upon the more sincere and +conscientious members of these separated communions. The bishop +of Trebizond, a man of venerable age, received the encyclical +letter with marks of great respect, raising it to his forehead +and pressing it to his bosom, exclaiming at the same time with +emotion, "O Rome! O Rome! O St. Peter! O St. Peter!" He would +not, however, declare any decisive intention either to attend the +council or to absent himself. The bishop of Adrianople returned +the letter, saying, "I wish first to reflect. I wish to decide +for myself." Letters from the east testify that many of the Greek +schismatics openly blame the patriarch and the bishops who have +refused to attend the council, saying, that by this refusal they +have shown that they are afraid to enter into discussion with the +Latin bishops. It is believed that the Armenian bishops who were +summoned by their patriarch, residing at Constantinople, to +advise with him respecting the pope's invitation, were in favor +of accepting it, from the fact that he afterward sent the +encyclical to the patriarch of Esmiasin with the report of the +doings of the synod. A strong unionist party has been formed +among the Armenians, and one of their prelates, Mgr. Narses, has +published a long letter advocating union with the Roman Church. +The Ottoman government favors union as a means of weakening the +influence of Russia, and has separated the Bulgarians, who number +four millions, from the jurisdiction of the patriarch of +Constantinople. It has also refused to recognize a prelate sent +by the patriarch of Esmiasin to act as his nuncio at +Constantinople for the purpose of counteracting the efforts of +the unionist party, and has given a semi-official warning to one +of the most violent _Russophilist_ journals. [Footnote 81] + + [Footnote 81: Later news informs us that the Armenian + patriarch of Constantinople has been forced to resign by the + clamors raised against him, that the Greek patriarch had + called an "ecumenical" council, and that the Coptic patriarch + of Alexandria received the encyclical with great respect and + many expressions of courtesy toward the prelate who was the + bearer of it.] + +{360} + +It is an interesting fact that the king of Birmah, when made +acquainted with the desire of the Holy Father that sovereigns +should place no obstacle in the way of the attendance of the +bishops in their dominions at the council, exclaimed: "What! can +there be any princes who would oppose such a just and holy +desire? For my part, I not only promise to interpose no obstacle, +but I engage to pay the travelling expenses of the bishops of my +kingdom both going and returning." He has also announced the +intention of sending by each of the bishops a jewelled cross as a +present to the pope. + +The Jansenist bishops of Holland, who are five or six in number, +each one having two or three priests and about a thousand people +under his jurisdiction, find themselves compelled, by their own +professed principles, to submit themselves to the judgment of the +council. They have appealed, ever since the condemnation of +Jansenius, from the pope to an ecumenical council. Now they find +an ecumenical council on the eve of assembling, before which they +have full liberty to appear, and plead their case. They +acknowledge the infallibility of the tribunal, and therefore can +have no choice but to submit to its decision, which they openly +profess their readiness to do, so that without doubt they will +all be reconciled to the church. + +Among Protestants we find everywhere a great excitement +respecting the council, a full recognition of the immense +importance of the crisis which it must inevitably bring upon +Protestantism; in general, a disposition to rouse up for the +defence of their losing cause, and oppose an obstinate renewal of +their old protest to the admonition of their chief pastor to +return to their allegiance, but occasionally a manifestation of a +different sentiment--a disposition to listen, to hope for good +results, and to welcome the thought of a possible reconciliation. + +On the tenth day of last November, M. Guizot uttered the +following words at a reunion of ecclesiastics and laymen, at +Notre Dame de Dozulè, in Normandy: + + "You priests have faith; it is faith which directs you; and + even when you seem to act imprudently, success always justifies + you in the end. ... It is thus that the Catholic Church + sustains itself, happily for France and the world. ... The + clergy dies not, the papacy does not fall. ... Pius IX. has + exhibited an admirable wisdom in convoking this grand assembly, + from which, perhaps, will issue the salvation of the world; for + our societies are very sick; but, for great evils there are + great remedies. [Footnote 82] + + [Footnote 82: _Rev. du Monde Catholique_, for January + 25th, p. 299.] + +The German publicist, Wolfgang Menzel, in the number of his +_Literary Leaves_ for last October, thus writes: + + "We are far from wishing to blame a reunion of all good + Christians, even though the same authority in Protestants who + are truly Christian is not sufficiently recognized. Every + tentative of reunion, however restricted it may be, must be + hailed with joy." + +{361} + +Reinhold Baumstark, in a pamphlet upon the pontifical letter, +says: + + "It is the Catholic Church which has directed and accomplished + the education of humanity during the whole middle age. Since + the Reformation, it has sustained without succumbing three + centuries of violent struggles, and, if the eternal truth of + God lives in it, we shall see the realization of the word of + its founder, that _"there shall be one fold and one + shepherd."_ + +In quite a different spirit writes Prof. Schenkel, of Heidelberg: + + "It is impossible to deny that the Protestant church of Germany + is at present running a very great danger. The different + confessions are becoming daily more opposed to each other. + Theological parties engage in mortal combats; the liberal party + is combated by the servile party. The bond of peace is with + deliberate purpose torn and broken and a large portion of the + German people, witnesses of these disputes, fall into + discouragement, distrust, and indifference. The ancient and + malign enemy laughs at our folly, that, after having bitten one + another, we shall finish by eating one another up. ... Let us + say it, to our shame, we have no remedy to oppose to this evil. + Interiorly divided, absorbed in party disputes, deprived of + autonomy, the sport of political calculations, and + politico-ecclesiastical experiments which are perpetually + changing, torn by theological hatred, abandoned by the + populations, thrust aside by all classes of citizens, our + church resembles only too much a shipwrecked vessel which lets + in water on every side. How can we face the violent tempest + which is brewing, when we lack unity of direction, when we lack + a head, are destitute of any solid interior or exterior + organization, when we are consuming our forces in the continual + wars of one confession against another?" + +We are sorry, Professor Schenkel, that we really cannot tell you +how you can do it. Perhaps Dr. Bellows, the American and Foreign +Christian Union, or the _New York Observer_ might suggest +something a little consoling or encouraging to the unfortunate +gentleman. + +The official replies made by various Protestant bodies in Europe +are, as we might expect, a reiteration of their old protests +against the Roman Church, and a declaration of their contentment +with their present state. The most courteous and well-reasoned of +these papers which we have seen is that of the Unitarian pastors +who sit in the seat of Calvin at Geneva. It makes the issue +between rationalism, liberalism, and humanitarian progress, on +one side, and the supernatural revelation of doctrine and law, on +the other, very distinctly--imputing, in the usual style, +servility, formalism, tyranny, and obscurantism to the Catholic +Church, and claiming for Protestantism the merit of protecting +and promoting true liberty, intelligence, and happiness. There is +more of the same kind in the number of the _Liberal +Christian_ (February 6th) in which we have read this address. +As statements of the position and opinions of the parties issuing +them, these documents may pass. We are to expect that those who +are challenged in the way they have been will reply in just such +a manner. These are only the preliminaries of an earnest +controversy which must be carried on for a long time before any +result can be looked for. + +Dr. Hedge, of Harvard University, has rendered himself supremely +ridiculous by denying that St. Peter was bishop of Rome, or even +visited Rome at any time; from which he concludes that the pope +has no right to issue encyclicals as his successor. [Footnote 83] + + [Footnote 83: See article on this point in the present + number.] + +{362} + +The _Liberal Christian_, with a kind of audacious valor, +backs him up, and declares that "the whole claim of the bishop of +Rome is an absurdity." Suppose it to be so to the superior and +enlightened minds of this editor and his compeers; the assertion +of it carries no weight, and can have no effect upon any other +person's mind. Another Unitarian, the Rev. Samuel Johnson, of +Massachusetts, says: "If I believed in his (Christ's) authority +even as Matthew presents it, not to say Paul or John, I should +regard the principles of the papacy as in substance right, +whatsoever I might think of the conduct of its representatives." +[Footnote 84] Considering the very great importance of the +subject, the great learning and number of those who differ from +our enlightened friends, and the curious circumstance that almost +every person thinks that no opinion or sect but his own can +uphold itself against the claims of Rome, would it not be in +better taste to have patience a little longer, and speak with a +little more moderation? + + [Footnote 84: _Radical_, January, 1869, p. 9.] + +The _Christian Quarterly_, which is a ferocious young +Campbellite periodical published at Cincinnati, thus addresses +the Protestant community: + + "Are you able to feel the sting in the following words of + 'Pius, sovereign pontiff, ninth of the name, to all Protestants + and non-Catholics?' In speaking of the multitudinous sects of + the Protestant world, and of the restlessness, instability, and + uncertainty that everywhere characterizes Protestantism, he + says," etc. "The very fact that the Pope of Rome should, in the + last half of the nineteenth century, have occasion to pen such + a paragraph, ought to call the blush of shame to every + Protestant cheek! Protestantism has been experimenting for + three hundred years, and the pope of Rome has summed up the + result! Let Protestantism try the force of its logic upon this + papal dilemma!" [Footnote 85] + + [Footnote 85: _C. Q._ Jan. 1869, pp. 52-3.] + +We take the following item of news from the _London Tablet_: + + "English Protestants And The Council. + + "There are signs around us that a movement is beginning. The + _Diplomatic Review_, a peculiar and certainly a remarkable + journal, published the first Wednesday of every month, in + London, contains a Protestant address to the pope, and notifies + to its readers in town and country that it will lie for + signature at its office till the end of the month. The purport + of the address is to implore the pope to proclaim again, by his + own authority or by that of the council, the observance of the + laws of natural justice by Christian and civilized nations in + their relations with the heathen and the uncivilized. In an + article written in French this same journal says: 'We pronounce + the words of the pope like texts, we draw our deduction from + his maxims, and we see in the accomplishment of his work the + only hope for the preservation of European society.' ... 'The + strength of the pope is the law:' our duty is to announce + explicitly this truth, Christianity must be preached anew.' In + addition to this remarkable declaration, we have the public + expression of the Rev. E. W. Urquhart, at a meeting of the + 'English Church Union,' presided over by the Hon. and Rev. C. + L. Courtenay, in South-Devonshire. He said that the separation + of church and state is not far distant, and suggested that the + Anglican party should seek reunion with the Church of Rome, and + that representatives should be sent to the council, to + stipulate the conditions of their submission to the see of + Rome. This language may sound startling in the mouth of an + Anglican clergyman; but we expect the courage of Mr. Urquhart's + utterance will unloose many a tongue. Of course, the only + stipulation that can be made is that of unqualified submission + to the holy see. To a human and fallible authority you may + bring conditions; to one that is divine and infallible, you can + bring only faith and docility." + +{363} + +The comments of the secular press upon the council, in many +cases, would seem as if their authors were aiming to carry +burlesque to its most farcical extreme. Their spirit is that of +the mocking ridicule of Voltairian infidelity without its show of +argument, together with the grossest materialism and the +systematic disavowal of any principle higher than self-interest +or political expediency. It is sufficiently absurd when such +writers attempt to express, under the protection of their +anonymous cloak, any opinions whatever in religious matters. Much +more, when they offer their ludicrous advice to the prelates and +theologians of the Catholic Church, and pretend to understand the +true nature of Christianity and its mission upon earth better +than the church herself. In itself the matter is only laughable, +and of course the really intelligent and well-informed would only +receive with a smile of derision the notion that any serious +meaning or value could be ascribed to such lucubrations. But it +becomes serious and lamentable when we reflect how small this +class really is. The proofs are continually forced upon us of the +fact, that a large proportion of those who are intelligent enough +to make money, to keep the run of politics and the exchange, to +dress well, and to make a show, really read nothing but the daily +papers, look to them for their ideas of religion as well as every +other topic, and are actually possessed by the grossest +ignorance, and the most dense and stolid prejudice, in regard to +everything relating to the Catholic Church and to all Catholic +nations. Any convert to the Catholic Church, who mixes with +ordinary men of business or with general society, will testify to +the fact that they are frequently accosted with expressions of +surprise that persons intelligent and reputable, such as they +are, can possibly be Catholics, and with the assertion, as of a +truism, that only the ignorant, the degraded, and the vicious, +which with Americans is generally a synonym for poor people or +foreigners, believe in the doctrines of the Catholic Church. +Those who read the sectarian newspapers suffer themselves to be +swept along by the lying current which runs through them, like +the filthy stream of a sewer. We happen to have just read a +description from a London paper of a visit to the sewers of that +city which presents an apt and forcible illustration of what we +are saying: "Under Farrington street west," says the writer, "the +Fleet Ditch was running in two swift, black streams; almost below +the footway upon each side, some three feet six inches deep, and +with so strong a current that we were assured it would be +impossible to save the life of any one who stepped or slipped +into them. These foul streams recalled the ancient Styx and made +one hold back with something like a shudder." + +The following extract from the _Boston Traveller_ has just +fallen into our hands in good time to serve as an instance in +point: + + "The New Light Of The Catholic Church. + + "Mr. Editor: Sabbath evening, April 4th, Father I. T. Hecker, + editor of the _Catholic World_, delivered a lecture in the + Music Hall on 'The Religious Condition of the Country.' As it + has been reported by the press, it would seem to be little more + than a tissue of misrepresentations of New England in + particular, and of Protestantism in general. It would be a + sufficient reply to the exaggeration and conceit of the + reverend padre to say, that if Protestantism had done nothing + more than to enable him to rail for an hour and a half at the + most cherished and sacred feelings of our people, its mission + would not be in vain. And herein is its eminent superiority to + that cast-iron system which holds the reviler of our faith. Can + Catholicism do what Protestantism did on Sunday week? Will + Rome, or any other Catholic city, permit a Protestant minister, + placarded and advertised days in advance, in a public hall, to + burlesque and hold up to contempt the Catholic faith? This + lecturer knows that Rome is mean enough to forbid the exercise + of Protestant worship to travellers, or visitors from + Protestant lands sojourning temporarily within her walls. +{364} + And yet _he_ comes to the largest hall in the capital of + New England and has the impudence to undertake to tell our + people that they are adrift on two tides, one of which is to + Rome and the other to infidelity. And if his statements are + reliable, infidelity makes altogether the better stand. But we + insist that he is either wilfully false or wilfully ignorant, + or he would not have said that 'not one in ten of the people of + New England accepts as fundamental, the truths which his + forefathers held.' + + "Father Hecker knows, if he knows anything, that the + evangelical churches of New England hold for substance the same + doctrines that their fathers held; and he knows, too, that + there is not a doctrine held or advocated in any Protestant + Church in Christendom which does not have its advocates in the + bosom of the Catholic Church. He must be aware that biblical + criticism has made sound progress within two hundred and fifty + years; and we can hardly believe that even he would be narrow + enough to deny that certain doctrines may be re-stated and + re-explained without plunging into infidelity, least of all + pushing for Rome. + + "But as he has chosen to attack New England in particular, it + is no more than fair, perhaps, that New England should have the + privilege of being compared with the most favored Catholic + countries. He certainly will not object to France, which has + always been overwhelmingly Catholic, not one in ten of her + population being Protestant. And yet scarcely fifty years have + passed since the whole nation voted God out of existence, and + deified reason in the person of a harlot. The Romish priests, + he knows, were among the foremost in this carnival of + infidelity and blood. Nor need he be told that the men of + France, to-day, are infidels. Italy, too, the seat of this + boasting church, is overshadowed, as Father Hecker knows, by a + sneering, malignant infidelity. And Spain--blessed, so + recently, with the most Catholic queen to whom the Pope sent + the golden rose, which enjoyed for generations the blessings of + the Inquisition, and for many years committed the entire + education of her people into the hands of the Jesuits--what + shall we say of her? The best thing we can say of her is, that + she drove from her borders that nasty woman, and sent the + Jesuits after her. And this is the fruit of Catholicism, and + not of Protestantism. + + "In only a single country where the Catholic Church has been + supreme has the result been the Catholic faith--that country is + Ireland. And if Father Hecker is willing to compare the Irish, + who are the best fruits of the Catholic Church, with the people + of New England, who are the best fruits of Protestantism, we + are entirely content. But it is not a little singular that + these best children of the Catholic Church should have + immigrated to this country by the million, and are still + coming, to improve their condition? And we think that Father + Hecker himself will not deny that these favorite sons of Rome + have wonderfully improved in intelligence, morals, and thrift + in this infidel New England. + + "But what would this reviling priest have? Would he make of New + England another Ireland or Spain, another infidel France or + Italy? What would he have us do? Blot out our public schools, + take the Bible from the hands of our people, subject their + consciences to the priests, establish the inquisition, raise up + a generation of Christians like those of his church who hung + the negroes to the lamp-posts in New York, and roll back this + land into the old night of the middle ages, when Rome sat like + a nightmare upon all the peoples of Christendom? Does this + priest suppose that our people will swallow such stuff as was + offered them at the Music Hall? The common school has not + diffused general intelligence here for two hundred and fifty + years, that our people should need to go to a Catholic + schoolmaster to learn their own history, or the history of that + church which has made an Ireland and a Spain. + "PURITAN." + +We do not expect that such a dense darkness of ignorance and +prejudice as that which exists in the Protestant world will be +immediately dispelled by the light which will radiate from the +city of God through the council of bishops assembled about their +august chief, the vicar of Jesus Christ. We have reason to expect +a great number of conversions, among those who are already +partially enlightened, as its immediate result, and the more +zealous and successful prosecution of the work of bringing back +all nations to the fold of truth and grace as its effect during a +long period to come. +{365} +But, no doubt, the greater number of those who are thoroughly +committed to the anti-Catholic cause will persevere to the last +in their hostility, and retain for a long time a multitude of +followers under their influence. It is useless to argue with such +men in the hope of convincing or converting them. They will be +forced, however, to meet the Catholic question fairly and +squarely, and no longer be able to hide themselves behind vague +platitudes and unmeaning generalities. They will be obliged, +also, to give account of their own systems, whatever they may be, +which they put forward as substitutes for the Catholic religion, +and thus undergo the crucial tests of logic, history, and +critical science. For ourselves, we cannot doubt for a moment +that, as the ultimate result, everything like orthodox or +positive Protestantism will be ground into dust between the two +opposing forces of Catholicity and infidelity, leaving the great +contest to be waged between these two. In regard to this last +great issue we venture to make no prognostics. There are reasons +both for fear and for hope; but the only course for us to pursue +is to aim for as much good as possible, leaving the rest with +God. That a crisis approaches in the conflict between the +universal divine order and universal lawlessness, between the +church and the world, that is, the wicked world or concrete mass +of all false and wicked principles, the _mundus positus in +malignos_, of which the apostle speaks; and that this crisis +will be hastened and materially affected by the council, cannot +be doubted. We desire to impress, therefore, upon all the really +sincere and upright lovers of truth and Christianity, the +importance of their paying careful attention to the doings of +this council and of looking to correct sources for their +information. + +All Catholics must look forward to the council with sentiments of +the most profound veneration and ardent expectation of the +incalculable good which it will produce in the bosom of the +church. An ecumenical council is the representative Catholic +Church, the entire episcopate with its head and supreme bishop, +the highest tribunal on earth, with plenary authority to define +doctrines and enact laws, with the spiritual presence of Jesus +Christ in the midst of it, and the plenitude of the Holy Spirit +to enlighten and assist its deliberations and judgments; +infallible in all its decrees respecting faith and morals, +sovereign in all its enactments, with full power to bind all +minds and consciences to an implicit and unreserved obedience in +the name of God. The church is always infallible, and is +perpetually teaching the faith and the rule of morals; the holy +see is always invested with authority to decide controversies and +make laws; and is competent to make even definitions of faith, to +which the assent of the dispersed bishops gives the same force of +concurrent judgment which their conciliar action possesses. +Nevertheless, the pope with the episcopate assembled in +ecumenical council can do more than when they are dispersed. The +gift of active infallibility is in a higher and more intense +exercise, because the common intellect and will of the church is +prepared by common counsel and communion to receive a more +abundant illumination and vivification of the Holy Spirit. It is +by the councils, from that of Nice to that of Trent, that +heretics have been condemned, and the clear, explicit definitions +of the faith once delivered to the saints have been made. The +council of the Vatican will possess the same infallible authority +with that which met at Jerusalem under St. Peter, or that which +at under the presidency of the legates of St. Sylvester, +condemned the Arian heresy and defined the Son to be +consubstantial with the Father. +{366} +This august tribunal will therefore have full power to terminate +all controversies and differences among Catholics in regard to +which it shall judge that the interests of the faith and the +well-being of the church require a definite judgment to be made. +The result will be both a more perfect concordance in doctrine +and principles of action, regarding all the matters which will be +decided, and a more perfect recognition of liberty in reference +to all opinions which are left as open questions. That this will +be a great gain no truly loyal Catholic can doubt. Another result +to be expected is a more precise, definite, and uniform system of +ecclesiastical law and administration, providing a more perfect +adjustment of all the multiform relations of the church and her +hierarchy. Those portions of the church which are in an apathetic +and torpid state we may hope will be roused up; a multitude of +sluggish and unfaithful Catholics become reanimated with the +spirit of faith; and the unity, sanctity, catholicity, and +apostolicity of the church--the immortality of her life, the +divine authority of her teaching, the irresistible and universal +power of that spirit which is in her--be manifested with a +brightness which will make for ever glorious the close of the +nineteenth century, whose opening was so very dark and +inauspicious. + +---------- + + St. Mary's. + +If there is one spot in our country to which the American +Catholic turns with special interest, it is certainly to the +landing-place of Lord Baltimore's colony in Maryland and the site +of St. Mary's City. New Englanders are never weary of boasting of +"our pilgrim forefathers," who landed on Plymouth Rock to obtain +freedom to worship God according to their own peculiar notions. +To have an ancestor who came over in the Mayflower is equivalent +to a patent of nobility--it sets the fortunate individual above +his fellows, and makes him a member of a caste truly Brahminical. + +The Catholic can turn with far greater pride to those spiritual +forefathers who, with no self-righteousness, sought in the new +world not only liberty of conscience, but allowed it to others; +who were so just in their dealings with the natives that they +never took an inch of land without paying for it; and who, by +their Christian kindness, won over so many of the Indians to +genuine Christianity. We truly have reason to say, + + "Ay, call it holy ground + The soil where first they trod!" + +I had always wished to visit this consecrated spot so dear to the +Catholic heart, and embraced the first convenient opportunity of +doing so. I rode down from Leonardtown during the pleasant Indian +summer time. +{367} +My most vivid remembrance of the ride is of passing over a +frequent succession of what my Aunt Pilcher used to call +"sarvent-madams."--a sudden depression, as if be tween two logs, +which unceremoniously pitched you forward in the carriage and +then brought you up with a sudden jerk, thus forcing you to make +an impromptu bow which gave point to the pleasant name of +"sarvent-madams." This sort of exercise may be novel, but a +continuation of it is not at all amusing, and I was glad when, +after a ride of about twenty miles, we emerged from a woody path, +crossed a stream, and found ourselves on the high plain where +once stood the city of St. Mary. One is surprised--pained--to +find not one stone left upon another of that settlement. When the +seat of government was removed, nature resumed her sway and +avenged herself for the ravages of man by obliterating most of +his traces and reclothing the place with her own freshness and +beauty. There are now a few dwellings belonging to the farmer who +owns this historic site, a barnlike church belonging to the +Episcopalians, said to have been built of the ruins of the old +state-house, and a large brick building that stands dreary and +treeless, looking like a factory, but which is really a seminary +for young ladies, the monument erected by the Maryland +legislature to commemorate the landing of the first colonists! It +would be an excellent place for a convent of Carthusians; but to +banish lively girls to this lonely region, lovely though it be, +so far from any town, several miles from the post-office, and +with no literary advantages, must have been the conception of +some malicious and dyspeptic old bachelor. The young are rarely +lovers of nature. Those whose souls have been chastened and +weaned from the world alone find a balm therein. It is a great +defect in the training of our youth that they are not made more +observant of natural objects. Insects, vegetation, the very +stones beneath the feet, are a source of unceasing pleasure to +the heart in sympathy with nature in all her infinite variety. +But this requires teachers who are capable of opening to youth +the great treasure-house of nature. It is not always the most +intellectual people who are the most fond of the country. Madame +de Staël preferred living in the fourth story of a house on the +Rue du Bac in Paris to a villa on the enchanted shores of Lake +Geneva. And Dr. Johnson thought there was no view that equalled +the high tide of human beings at Charing Cross. + +This seminary is intended to educate the young ladies of +prevailing religious sects of the country, each of which is +represented by a teacher. I have understood that at times there +have been serious conflicts between those who were for Paul and +those who were for Apollos; but this is not at all surprising in +a place where they must be driven to desperation for a little +excitement. The only church near is the Episcopal, where the +services are very intermittent indeed, which obliges the teachers +to play the part of chaplain. + +This uninviting church is in a yard full of old graves, shaded by +clumps of hollies and gloomy cedars. There is a venerable old +mulberry-tree in the midst, now quite decayed, but still putting +forth a few leafy branches, said to have been planted (a twig +from old England) by Leonard Calvert's own hands. There is a +tradition that he was buried in this yard--perhaps near his tree, +familiarly known as Lord Baltimore's tree--but there is nothing +to indicate the precise spot. It is more probable that he was +buried near the Catholic church, which was about a quarter of a +mile farther down. +{368} +Relic lovers have nearly killed this venerable tree, by cutting +out pieces for canes, crosses, etc. Passing through the grassy +graveyard, and descending a steep bank, you come to a narrow line +of sand, a miniature beach on the shore of St. Mary's River, the +place where the colony landed. The water is as salt as the sea, +and the broad river deep enough for the Dove and the Ark to +anchor. A gentle ripple came up over the yellow sand and +crystalline pebbles. The broad expanse of water lay like a lake, +with undulating hills in the background all covered with woods in +their gorgeous autumn foliage. The whole scene was as calm and +peaceful as if these waters had never been disturbed by Indian +canoe or white man's craft. + +A quarter of a mile south of the seminary was a turnip-field, +where once stood the church the colonists hastened to build. You +would not imagine you stood on consecrated ground where holy +rites were once performed. This was not the place where the holy +sacrifice was first offered. Their first chapel was an Indian +wigwam, which a friendly native gave up to Father White; for the +colonists founded an Indian village here which owned the pacific +rule of King Yaocomico, and established themselves in peace +beside it. Opposite the place where the church stood, and east of +it, are some traces of the lord proprietary's residence. The old +cellar is nearly filled with rubbish, in which are found +fragments of crockery and bricks--bricks brought from the old +country. There were grand doings here once. Hilarity and +merriment had their hours in that miniature court, amid those of +grave deliberations. But, at last, Pallida Mors, "that at every +door knocks," came in the train, and brought mourning to all the +settlers; for here died Leonard Calvert. He was nursed in his +last moments by his relatives Margaret and Mary Brent. He died on +the 9th of June, 1647. The place of his burial is not known. In +these days of woman's rights, it may not be amiss to recall the +first woman in this country, perhaps, who asserted her claim to +share the privileges of the stronger sex. Margaret Brent was +appointed by Governor Calvert his sole administratrix, which is +certainly a proof of her capacity for business. By virtue of this +appointment she claimed to be the attorney of the lord +proprietor. Her claims were admitted by the council. She then +appeared in the general assembly, and claimed the right to vote +as Lord Baltimore's representative. This was not permitted. She +was a large land-owner, and displayed her energy in laying out +her estates; and she quelled a mutiny among some Virginia +soldiers who had served under Leonard Calvert. It is surprising +the strong-minded women of this day have not brought forward this +fine precedent, who has been ranked with the famous Margaret of +Parma, regent of the Netherlands. Let us hope, with all her fine +abilities, that she retained her sweet womanly ways and that +modesty which is the charm of her sex. I fancy she did, or she +would never have subdued those early representatives of the +gallant Virginia chivalry. + +Close by the lord proprietary's place is a spot charming enough +for Egeria. It is a spring of delicious water bubbling up from +the rocks, that flows off in a streamlet, over tufts of the +thickest and greenest moss. It is shaded by a dense clump of +cedars and holly bushes---a fit haunt for the dryades and all the +sylvan deities. The warm noontide air was fanned into this cool +and leafy bower, where the birds still sang and insects floated, +bringing with it a certain aroma from the crushed leaves of the +wood. +{369} +From a distance came the measured cadence of some negro song, +snatched up at the hour of noonday rest, which harmonized with +the spot and the atmosphere. There is always an undertone of +melancholy in the gayest songs of the colored race which lulls +the heart, as sorrow underlies all gayety in the heart of man. It +was a place to be alone with nature, poetry, God, and just the +spot for an old hermit to set up his cell, and pass his days in +sympathy with nature and in communion with nature's God. + +With all its beauty, this plain of St. Mary's is full of +melancholy, especially in the fall of the year. Haunted with +memories, its loneliness is in such contrast with its past +history that it touches the spring of regret. The autumn winds, +the slight veil of haze that hangs over the landscape, are full +of sadness. One seems to hear the wail of the forsaken lares +whose altars have so long been levelled with the rest. + + "In consecrated earth, + And on the holy hearth, + The lares and lemures moan with midnight plaint." + +The wailings of Jeremiah come to mind as we wander over the site +of the city that was once full of people, but now sitteth +solitary. "The city of thy sanctuary is become a desert, and the +house of thy holiness and our glory, wherein thou wert praised, +is laid desolate." Perhaps, after all, the melancholy was in my +own heart; for the sky was clear, the earth smiling, and before +us lay, glad and gleaming, the bright waters of the St. Mary's +river, + + "Like any fair lake that the breeze is upon, + When it breaks into dimples and laughs in the sun." + +There is this peculiarity about the river: its windings are so +abrupt that from certain points there seems to be no outlet, and +it has the appearance of a succession of lakelets; pellucid gems +set at this autumn time in bosses enamelled with every shade of +crimson and gold, which I loved to think a bright rosary strung +by nature in honor of Our Lady. + +Two or three miles from St. Mary's is Rose Croft, a charming old +place at the very point between St. Inigoes Creek and St. Mary's +River. In old colonial times it was the residence of the +collector of the port of St. Mary's, and here lived the heroine +of Kennedy's _Rob of the Bowl_. As I rode up to it, I half +expected to see the fair Blanche peeping out of the window to see +if the carriage did not contain the secretary. + +The house is a low, broad one, with verandas and porches, and +large, airy rooms, which look out upon a lovely water view. There +is a good deal of wainscoting about it, and some carvings in the +large parlor that witnessed the birthday festivities. The lady of +the house told me that, in making some repairs, a few years ago, +a ring and a pair of velvet slippers were found, perhaps once +worn by Blanche. All around the yard grows spontaneously the +passion flower, winding over every shrub and tree, and trailing +along the ground. Everything was left very much to nature, and +she had thrown over the grounds a certain sad grace of her own, +which harmonized with the antiquity of the house, and the echo of +past times that lingered in its rooms. A spruce garden and +well-trimmed trees and shrubbery would have ill accorded with +such a spot. And there was a certain melancholy in the large, sad +eyes of the mistress of this charming place that spoke more of +the past than of the present, as if she had imbibed something of +its spirit. + +{370} + +On the point between the river and creek, opposite Rose Croft, is +St. Inigoes manor-house, belonging to the Jesuit fathers. St. +Inigo, or St. Ignatius, was considered, from the first, as one of +the patrons of the colony. This house is built of brick brought +from the old country, perhaps two hundred years ago or more. It +has quite a foreign look, with its high pitched roof and dormer +windows. I have seen similar houses in the valley of the Loire. +At a distance it looks, as Kennedy says, like a chateau with its +dependencies around it. There is a huge windmill at the very +point, around which are washed up fine black sand and some spiral +shells. On the gable of the southern porch of the mansion is the +holy name of Jesus, in large black letters--the cognizance of the +Jesuits. The yard is a garden of roses. They grow in bushes, +cover the cottages, and climb the trees, blooming often as late +as Christmas tide. And the whole place is like an aviary--a +rendezvous of all the martins, wrens, whippoorwills, etc., of the +country--the very place for poor Miss Flite, who would never have +found names enough for them. There are martin-houses, dove-cotes, +and trees full of the American mocking-birds. When the windows of +the chapel are open in the morning, it is filled with their +musical variations, and with the perfume of the roses and +honeysuckles. That chapel always seemed to me a little corner of +heaven itself, full of the divine presence of which one never +wearies. I often betook myself to that sweet solitude. There were +memories that haunted me, an image between me and God, which I +sought there to consecrate to him. I loved to think the little +lamp could be seen all night from the very Potomac and miles up +the St. Mary's River; perhaps lighting up in some dark and sinful +soul some sweet thought of him before whom it burned. + +A religious air prevails at St. Inigoes. Everything is quiet and +subdued, and favorable to meditation. The day commences with Mass +in the chapel. The Angelus is rung three times a day, which every +one kneels to say. Even Nimrod, the dog, howls while it is +ringing, as if infected by devotion. And they told me his +predecessor would pull at the bell till it sounded, if it was not +rung at the moment. Such devotional dogs certainly deserve a +place--if it is not profane to say so--among those fine little +dogs whom Luther declared would be among our companions in +heaven, whose every hair would be tipped with precious stones and +whose collars be of diamonds.[Footnote 86] + + [Footnote 86: See Audin's _Life of Luther_.] + +Everything about the house is extremely tidy and well preserved, +the garden trim, the walks swept, the whole house a temple of +purity and cleanliness. One could sit for ever in that southern +porch reading and dreaming life away. Thought would flow on for +ever with that current whose waters are as changeable in their +aspect as our own varied moods. When so many live merely for the +body, why should not some live for the imagination and fancy? +This is the very place for Mr. Skimpole, who had no idea of time, +no idea of money; who only wished to live, to have a little sun +and air, and float about like a butterfly from flower to flower; +who loved to see the sun shine, hear the wind blow, watch the +changing lights and shadows, and hear the birds sing. He asked of +society only to feed him, to give him a landscape, music, papers, +mutton, coffee, and to leave him at peace from the sordid +realities of the world. + +{371} + +In the dining-room is a large oval table of solid oak which once +belonged to the house of the lord proprietary. It is not +misplaced in this hospitable house. Daniel Webster, when at Piney +Point, used to sail over to St. Inigoes and sit at Leonard +Calvert's table. And he taught the cook how to make a genuine New +England chowder. + +There is, hung up in one of the rooms, a picture of the famous +Prince Hohenlohe which interested me. I could not account for its +being there till I learned that Father Carberry, a former +incumbent, was a brother to Mrs. Mattingly, of Washington, who so +many years ago was miraculously cured by the prayers of the holy +prince--an occurrence that caused a great excitement at the time. + +The parish church is about a half a mile from the manor-house. On +Sundays and other festivals you can see boats full of people +sailing up the creek. Others come flocking in on horseback or in +carriages. A graveyard surrounds the church, which is so hid +among the trees that it is not perceived till you are close upon +it. The yard is filled before service with the country-people, +who fasten their horses around the enclosure, and stand talking +in groups, or go wandering around among the grassy mounds, +reminding you of the English country church-yards. Our northern +churches are almost so exclusively filled up with foreigners that +it seemed strange to worship in a congregation almost wholly +American. A gallery was appropriated to the colored people, and +it was crowded. They seemed quite devout and kept up a great +rattling with their large rosaries. I noticed that the father, in +preaching, was careful to make them feel that his sermon was +addressed as particularly to them as to the others. I was +especially interested to see the number that came filing down the +aisle to receive holy communion. Sunday after Sunday it was the +same, and I was always affected to see these "images of God +carved in ebony," as old Fuller calls them, at the holy table to +receive Him who is no respecter of persons. In talking with the +father about their devotional tendencies, he told me there was +one saintly old negro who walked fifteen miles every Sunday to +worship the Word made flesh. What an example to the cold and +lukewarm in cities who daily pass our churches with scarcely a +thought of the Presence within! This little church is a +substantial one of brick, with arched windows, but no pretension +as to architecture. When the services were over, the ladies all +followed the priest into the sacristy to pay their respects to +him, and there is a pleasant exchange of greetings which is +pleasing and family-like. And many of the men, too, stroll around +the building to the rear door to take part in it. + +Wandering off into the churchyard, I came upon a large cross +around which were clustered the graves of several priests. There +is a large monument to the memory of Father Carberry, a genial +old priest renowned throughout the country for his hospitality. +Among those buried here is Mr. Daniel Barber, of New Hampshire, +who became a convert to the Catholic Church, together with his +son's whole family, at a time when converts were more rare than +at the present time. The son, Rev. Virgil Barber, who was an +Episcopal minister, with his wife and five children, embraced the +religious life. One of the latter took the white veil at Mount +Benedict, near Boston, and was remarkable for her beauty and +accomplishments. She made her profession in Quebec, where she +died young. +{372} +I have heard a nun of that house tell, and with great feeling, of +her descending every morning to the chapel before the rest of the +community, even in the rigorous winter of that latitude, to make +the Way of the Cross, that touching devotion to the suffering +Saviour. + +The grandfather, Mr. Daniel Barber, who was also a minister, only +took deacons' orders in the church on account of his age. He +loved to visit the old Catholic families of St. Mary's, but was +ill pleased when he did not find the cross--the sign of our +salvation--in the apartment. "Where's your sign?" he would +abruptly ask. He rests in peace in this quiet country +church-yard. + +The father at St. Inigoes has to possess a variety of +accomplishments not acquired in the theological seminary. Priest, +farmer, horseman, and boatman must all be combined to form the +fine specimen of muscular Christianity required in this extensive +mission. The place is no sinecure. + +Good Father Thomas, obliged to visit a sick person at the very +head of St. Mary's River, invited me to accompany him, and I +gladly did so. Two colored servants went to manage the sail, or +to row if necessary. The boat was black as a gondola of Venice. +Sailing over these waters, where passed the Dove and the Ark, +reminded me of the Père Jean and the novice René on the St. +Lawrence. The whole country was, as we set out, glorified by the +setting sun. The long points of land around which the river wound +were bathed on one side by a golden mist, and on the other in a +faint lilac. Over the gorgeous woods hung a purple haze that +faded every instant. The amber clouds grew crimson, and then +faded away into grey. The father said his breviary, leaving me to +my own reflections a part of the way. There was not a ripple on +the broad sheet save the receding ones left by our boat. Now and +then we would stop to drink in the beauty of the scene--the sky, +the water which reflected it, the lights and shadows on the +banks, the melancholy cry of the whippoorwill, and the gay sounds +of the laborers just through with their day's work. As it grew +darker, the deep coves were filled with mysterious shades; the +ripples left behind seemed tipped with a phosphorescent light. We +glided at last into a sheltered cove just as the moon came out, +giving enchantment to the whole scene. In such bright waters +bathed Diana when Actaeon beheld her and was punished for his +presumption. One of us repeated the beautiful lines of Shelley: + + "My soul is an enchanted boat, + Which, like a sleeping swan, doth float + Upon the silver waves of thy sweet singing; + And thine doth like an angel sit + Beside the helm conducting it, + Whilst all the winds with melody are ringing. + It seems to float ever, for ever + Upon that many winding river, + Between mountains, woods, abysses, + A paradise of wildernesses! + Till, like one in slumber bound, + Borne to the ocean, I float down, around, + Into a sea profound, of ever-spreading sound." + +A few days after, I sailed over to the Pavilion to take a boat +for Washington. + +---------- + +{373} + + A May Carol. + + She hid her face from Joseph's blame, + The Spirit's glory-shrouded bride. + The Sword comes next; but first the Shame: + Meekly she bore, and naught replied. + + For mutual sympathies we live: + The outraged heart forgives, but dies: + To her, that wound was sanative, + For life to her was sacrifice. + + At us no random shaft is thrown + When charged with crimes by us unwrought; + For sins unchallenged, sins unknown, + Too oft have stained us--act and thought. + + In past or present she could find + No sin to weep for; yet, no less, + Deeplier that hour the sense was shrined, + In her, of her own nothingness. + + That hour foundations deeper yet + God sank in her; that so more high + Her greatness--spire and parapet-- + Might rise, and nearer to the sky: + + That, wholly overbuilt by grace, + Nature might vanish, like some isle + In great towers lost--the buried base + Of some surpassing fortress pile. + + Aubrey De Vere. +------- + +{374} + + St. Peter, First Bishop of Rome. + +The question of which we purpose to treat in this article is one +of those that are sure to receive prominence whenever the claims +of the Roman see are discussed with more than ordinary interest +and warmth. Just now the "Anglo-Catholic" mind is exercised to +find some way of establishing the existence of a one holy +catholic and apostolic church, without admitting the supremacy of +the bishop of Rome; besides, the approaching ecumenical council +directs men's attention to the eternal city, and the high +prerogatives of its pontiffs. Not unfrequently we meet with a +broad denial that St. Peter ever was at Rome at all, or at least +that he was ever bishop of Rome. This is not, indeed, the course +pursued by the most learned or thoughtful amongst our opponents; +they know history too well to stake their reputation for +erudition or fairness on any such denial; but it is in favor with +a lower or less instructed class of minds, and is adopted in +text-books for theological seminaries, as well as in some popular +works intended chiefly for the perusal of persons who, in all +likelihood, may never have the opportunity, even should they have +the inclination, of recurring to those more learned authorities +by consulting whom the imposture would soon be detected. Thus it +has come to pass that in popular works, lectures, magazine and +newspaper articles, and the like, one frequently meets with the +flippant assertion that it is very doubtful whether St. Peter +ever was at Rome, that the place of his death is uncertain; all +that we know for certain being that, shortly before his demise, +he was in Babylon, whence he wrote his first letter. We shall +endeavor to establish as a historical truth beyond all reasonable +doubt, supported by evidence that must be admitted as sufficient +by any unprejudiced critic, that St. Peter visited Rome, dwelt +there, was first bishop of the Roman church, and there, together +with St. Paul, laid down his life for his Master, in fulfilment +of the latter's prophecy, "When thou wilt be old, thou wilt +stretch forth thy hands, and another will gird thee, and lead +thee whither thou wouldst not;" words which, as the inspired +writer tells us, signified "by what death he should glorify God." +[Footnote 87] + + [Footnote 87: John xxi. 18.] + +The question has been so fully discussed, that we may not hope to +say anything that will be considered new; to the learned reader, +indeed, we can but repeat a "thrice-told tale;" but, as the +adversaries of the holy see do not disdain to furbish up the arms +which have already been stricken from the hands of their +predecessors, we shall be content to draw from the same arsenals +whence our fathers drew the weapons that they knew how to wield +so skilfully and successfully. All that we ask of the +non-Catholic reader is, that he approach the question as a merely +historical one, to be judged on the ordinary rules of historical +evidence. All dogmatical preoccupations against the supremacy of +the Roman pontiffs should be laid aside. +{375} +This is demanded by fairness and a sincere love of truth; +besides, although we acknowledge that to establish St. Peter's +Roman bishopric is, if not an indispensable, at least a very +important, preliminary to the successful assertion of the Roman +primacy, yet the ablest amongst Protestant theologians have +thought that, even admitting the historical fact, they could +successfully refute the dogma. Our inquiry, then, shall be purely +historical, to be decided on purely historical grounds. At the +beginning of this century, no one having any pretensions to +historical learning attempted to deny that St. Peter had really +lived and died at Rome. Such high names in the Anglican Church as +Cave, Pearson, and Dodwell had given their unbiassed and positive +testimony to the truth. Whiston had said: "That St. Peter was at +Rome is so clear in Christian antiquity, that it is a shame for a +Protestant to confess that any Protestant ever denied it." But, +about this period, the rage for the new system of biblical +interpretation raised doubts about the accepted meaning of the +word _Babylon_ in the thirteenth verse of the fifth chapter +of the first epistle of St. Peter, and the question whether the +apostle ever was at Rome again came up for discussion. Very +little new has been said, so that little remains to be confuted. +We repeat, we have merely to sum up what has been well and +conclusively said before. We have before us a work entitled _An +Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles, Historical and +Doctrinal_, by Edward Harold Browne, lord bishop of Ely, in +which [Footnote 88] the author endeavors to confute "the position +of the Roman Church, that St. Peter was bishop of Rome." + + [Footnote 88: Art. xxxvii. sec. II.] + +As this work is used as a text-book in the New York Protestant +Episcopal Seminary, and may, therefore, be supposed to furnish +ideas and facts on church questions to the average Episcopalian +clerical mind, we shall follow the author in his argument, and +show how a plain tale can put down all his ingenious explanations +and evasions. + +The plain statement is as follows: The earliest and most reliable +documents of Christian antiquity, with a clearness and unanimity +that leave no room for doubt or cavil, state that St. Peter was +at Rome, took a special care of the Roman Church, and died there. +The bishops of Rome are always represented as his successors, not +merely in that inheritance which has come down to all bishops +from the apostles, but as his successors in his _Cathedra_, +or episcopal chair. Our witnesses are numerous; their knowledge +and fidelity are unimpeachable; their statements cannot be evaded +or explained away; and thus the Roman bishopric of St. Peter is +as undoubted a fact of ecclesiastical history as any other in the +earlier ages. We shall give the proofs one by one, confining +ourselves to the first three centuries. + +St. Clement, who was certainly bishop of Rome, and who, according +to Tertullian was ordained by Peter, in his epistle to the +Corinthians--admitted as genuine by the best +authorities--referring to the late persecution of the Roman +Church under Nero, mentions among other troubles the recent +martyrdom of SS. Peter and Paul, alleging them as noble examples +of patience under tribulation. We have here a witness on the +spot, who had seen the apostles, and been a special disciple of +St. Peter. + +We have next another apostolic father, St. Ignatius of Antioch, +who suffered martyrdom about A.D. 107, and in a letter to the +Romans speaks of SS. Peter and Paul as their special preceptors +and masters: "I do not command you as Peter and Paul; I am a +condemned man." +{376} +It is to be remarked that no one attempts to deny that St. Paul +was at Rome, as one of his journeys thither is related in the +last chapter of the Acts, and he speaks of himself as in that +city; [Footnote 89] the union of St. Peter's name with his, as +both commanding the Romans, shows that the former apostle had +been with them in person as well as Paul. + + [Footnote 89: 2 Tim. i. 17. This letter would seem to have + been written not long before the apostle's death. See ch. iv. + 6,7.] + +Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis, probably a disciple of St. John the +Apostle, as quoted by Eusebius, says that St. Mark wrote his +gospel from the preaching of St. Peter at Rome, [Footnote 90] and +that the apostle wrote his first letter from the same place, +calling it Babylon. [Footnote 91] + + [Footnote 90: _Eus. Hist. Eccl._ lib. iii. c..39.] + + [Footnote 91: _Ibid_. lib. iii. c. I.] + +St. Dionysius of Corinth wrote a letter to the Roman Church under +the pontificate of Soter, (A.D. 151-170,) which is also quoted by +Eusebius, [Footnote 92] in which he says that SS. Peter and Paul, +after planting the faith at Corinth, went into Italy, planted the +faith amongst the Romans, and there sealed their testimony with +their blood. + + [Footnote 92: _Ibid_. lib. ii. c. 25.] + +St. Irenaeus, (Bishop of Lyons A.D. 178,) a disciple of Polycarp, +who was himself a hearer of the Apostle John, speaks of the Roman +Church as "the greatest and most ancient church, known to all, +founded and established at Rome by the two most glorious +apostles, Peter and Paul. [Footnote 93] + + [Footnote 93: Lib. iii. _adv. Har._ c. iii.] + +He adds: "The blessed apostles having founded and arranged the +church, delivered its bishopric and administration to Linus. To +him succeeded Anacletus, after him Clement, to him Evaristus, and +to Evaristus, Alexander. The sixth from the apostles was Sixtus, +after him Telesphorus, next Hyginus; then Pius, after whom came +Anicetus. Soter succeeded Anicetus, and now the bishopric is held +by Eleutherius, the twelfth from the apostles." This is an +authentic list of the bishops of Rome from the apostles to the +writer's time, placing the date of his work between A.D. 170 and +185, the fifteen years of the pontificate of Eleutherius. + +Cajus, a priest of Rome under Zephyrinus, who governed the church +during the first seventeen years of the third century, says, in a +work quoted by Eusebius, [Footnote 94] but now lost: "I can show +you the trophies of the apostles; for whether we go to the +Vatican or the Ostian way, we shall meet with the trophies of the +founders of this church." This is remarkable testimony to the +accuracy of the tradition that prevails to this day of the places +where the apostles were buried--St. Peter at the Vatican, St. +Paul in the Ostian way, which now are marked by "trophies," +greater in splendor and magnificence, but raised by the same +spirit of reverence and love as those which this Roman priest +pointed out in the third century. + + [Footnote 94: _Ibid_. lib. ii. c. 15.] + +Tertullian flourished about the same period, for he died A.D. +216. Speaking in his great work _On Prescriptions_ [Footnote +95] of apostolic churches, he says: "If you are near Italy, you +have Rome, whence we also [the African Church] derive our origin. +How happy is this church on which the apostles poured forth their +whole doctrine with their blood; where Peter by his martyrdom is +made like the Lord; where Paul is crowned with a wreath like that +of John!" Again: "Let us see ... what the Romans proclaim in our +ears, they to whom Peter and Paul left the Gospel sealed with +their blood." [Footnote 96] + + [Footnote 95: C. 36.] + + [Footnote 96: Lib. iv. adv. _Marcion_.] + +{377} + +And speaking in the book _On Prescriptions_ of the origin of +apostolic churches, he calls on heretics to "unfold the series of +their bishops, coming down from the beginning in succession, so +that the first bishop was appointed and preceded by any one of +the apostles, or apostolic men in communion with the apostles. +[Footnote 97] For in this way the apostolic churches exhibit +their origin; ... as the Church of Rome relates that Clement was +ordained by Peter." [Footnote 98] Clement of Alexandria (who died +A.D. 222) states that St. Paul wrote his gospel at the request of +the Romans, who wished to have a written record of what they had +heard from St. Peter. [Footnote 99] + + [Footnote 97: "Ut primus ille episcopus aliquem ex Apostolis + habuerit auctorum et antecessorem." ] + + [Footnote 98: Ch. 32.] + + [Footnote 99: Eus. _Hist. Eccl_. lib. vi. c. 14. ] + +Origen, (A.D. 185-255,) who visited Rome under the pontificate of +Zephyrinus, says that St. Peter having preached to the Jews in +Pontus, Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and Asia, toward the end +of his life [Footnote 100] came to Rome, and was crucified with +his head downward. [Footnote 101] + + [Footnote 100: [Greek text]] + + [Footnote 101: Quoted by Eusebius, _Hist. Eccl_. lib. + iii. C. II.] + +St. Cyprian, (Bishop of Carthage A.D. 248, put to death for the +faith A.D. 258,) speaking of the irregular proceedings of some +local schismatics who had appealed to Pope Cornelius, says: "They +venture to set sail, and carry letters from schismatical and +profane men to the _chair of Peter_, and to the principal +church, whence sacerdotal unity has arisen." [Footnote 102] And +in another letter he speaks of the election of Cornelius, "when +the place of Fabian, that is, the place of Peter, and the rank of +the priestly chair, was vacant." [Footnote 103] Even Bishop +Hopkins, whom his friends cannot blame for too great facility in +his concessions, admits that St. Cyprian acknowledged that St. +Peter was bishop of Rome. + + [Footnote 102: _Epist_. 59, ad _Cornel_.] + + [Footnote 103: _Epist_. 52, ad Antonianum.] + +We do not wish to go beyond the three hundred years immediately +following the death of the apostle, and shall therefore omit here +the clear and unmistakable statements of Optatus, Jerome, +Epiphanius, Augustine, and others, closing with the account given +by Eusebius of Caesarea, (bishop A.D. 315-340,) who is justly +regarded as the father of ecclesiastical history, and of the +greatest weight in historical matters. His accuracy and research +are universally acknowledged, and his authority alone is +generally regarded as conclusive. [Footnote 104] He says that +Simon Magus went to Rome, and that "against this bane of mankind, +the most merciful and kind Providence conducted to Rome Peter, +the most courageous and the greatest among the apostles, who on +account of his virtue was leader of all." [Footnote 105] He adds +in his chronicle: "Having first founded the Church of Antioch, he +goes to Rome, where, preaching the gospel, he continues +twenty-five years bishop of the same city." + + [Footnote 104: "In questions of critical investigation + regarding the early church, no writer bears with him greater + authority than that of the learned Eusebius, bishop of + Caesarea. Removed only by two hundred years from the + apostolic times, and being attached to the imperial court, + and having at his command all the literary treasures of the + Caesarean library, he ever displays a profound knowledge of + the earlier Christian writers, and at the same time a truly + refined critical acumen in discriminating between their + genuine productions and those falsely assigned to them." + --_Dublin Review_, June,1858, art. vii.] + + [Footnote 105: _Hist. Eccl._ lib. ii. c. xiv.] + +We have here a continuous series of witnesses, from those who had +seen and conversed with the Apostle St. Peter to the date of the +first work on ecclesiastical history now extant, all of whom +clearly testify to the fact that he visited Rome, took special +charge of the Roman Church, and there died a martyr, as our Lord +had foretold he would die. After the apostolic writers, who, from +the proximity of the events to their own time, could not be +mistaken, the most important witnesses are Irenaeus and Origen, +Tertullian and Cyprian. +{378} +The two former had visited Rome, and are competent witnesses of +the tradition of the Roman Church, the most important of all in +this matter; the two latter can testify to the same tradition, +both because missionaries from Rome planted the faith in Africa, +and because the constant intercourse, as well in ecclesiastical +as in civil affairs, between the capital of the empire and +Carthage, must necessarily have brought about a community of +traditions between the two churches. The whole ancient church +thus bears witness to what some Protestants now vainly affect to +deny. Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Northern Africa, Gaul, +Palestine, repeat what Clement, ordained by Peter, tells. The +second century takes up the fact from those who had seen the +apostles; the third learns it from the second, and the father of +ecclesiastical history relates it as a matter beyond doubt, found +by him in those ancient records, for the greater part since lost, +the gist of which he has fortunately preserved to posterity. +Scarcely any matter of fact--and this is a _mere_ matter of +fact--connected with the early age of the church, leaving out +those recorded in the sacred pages, is better attested. + +To these written records we must add the expressive testimony of +the catacombs. It is impossible to visit them without feeling +that the Roman Christians looked on the apostles Peter and Paul +as the founders of their local church. Eusebius was struck by the +"monuments marked with the names of Peter and Paul," which he saw +in the cemeteries at Rome, and these have been discovered, in +modern times, by the indefatigable industry of Christian +antiquarians; they are a living testimony to the fact that St. +Peter, as well as St. Paul, labored in Rome. The illustrious +Cardinal Borgia has traced the tradition in regard to the +presence of St. Peter's body in the Vatican from the beginning of +the third century, [Footnote 106] when, as we have seen, Cajus, a +priest of Rome, in a work against heretics, [Footnote 107] spoke +of the trophy of Peter in the Vatican, down to the days of Pope +Urban VIII. And thus the most splendid monument Christianity has +erected to the worship of the living God is also an authentic +record of the fact that the chief of the apostles selected the +city of Rome, in a special manner, as the scene of his labors, +and there consummated his glorious career in the service of his +Master. No wonder learned Protestants are ashamed to join with +their more ignorant brethren. One learned German writer of this +century says: "There is, perhaps, no event in ancient (church) +history so clearly placed beyond doubt by the consenting +testimony of ancient Christian writers as that of Peter having +been at Rome." [Footnote 108] Another more forcibly, if possible, +remarks: "Nothing but the polemics of faction have induced some +Protestants, especially Spanheim, in imitation of some mediaeval +opponents of the popes, to deny that Peter ever was at Rome." +[Footnote 109] + + [Footnote 106: In the work _Vaticana Confessio B. + Petri._] + + [Footnote 107: _The Montanists._] + + [Footnote 108: Berthold, _Historisch-Krit. Inlet. in A. und + N. T. apud_ Perrone.] + + [Footnote 109: Gieseler, _Lehrbuch der Kirchengesch._ + Ibid.] + +A caviller may, indeed, say that all these witnesses prove, at +most, that Peter was at Rome, not that he was bishop of Rome. And +this is the point made by Bishop Browne, in the work to which we +have referred. + + "It is not to be doubted," he says, "that a tradition did exist + in early times that St. Peter was bishop of Rome. But if that + tradition be submitted, like others of the same kind, to the + test of historical investigation, it will be found to rest on a + very slender foundation. +{379} + In the first place, Scripture is silent about his having been + at Rome--a remarkable silence, if his having been bishop there + was a fact of such vital importance to the church as Roman + divines have made it to be. Then, the first tradition of his + having been at Rome at all does not appear for more than a + century after his death. It is nearly two centuries after that + event that we meet with anything like the opinion that the + Roman bishops were his successors. It is three centuries before + we find him spoken of as bishop of Rome. But when we reach + three centuries and a half, we are told that he not only was + bishop of Rome, but that he resided five and twenty years at + Rome; a statement utterly irreconcilable with the history of + the New Testament." [Footnote 110] + + [Footnote 110: Loc. cit.] + + There is, indeed, no good reason to doubt that St. Peter was at + Rome; that he assisted St. Paul to order and establish the + church there; that, in conjunction with Paul, he ordained one + or more of its earliest bishops, and that there he suffered + death for the sake of Christ. But there is no reason to believe + that he was ever, in any proper or local sense, bishop of + Rome." [Footnote 111] + + [Footnote 111: _Ibid_.] + +We leave aside for the present the alleged silence of the New +Testament. In the first place, it is not true that "the first +tradition of Peter's having been at Rome does not appear for more +than a century after his death." Clement of Rome, Ignatius of +Antioch, Papias, Dionysius of Corinth, belong to this period, and +all unmistakably testify to Peter's having been at Rome. Irenaeus +may be fairly counted also, as he was sent from Lyons to Rome in +A.D. 177. Of these, Bishop Browne mentions only Papias and +Irenaeus. He quotes Papias's opinion about the word +_Babylon_ in St. Peter's first Epistle, and tries to set it +aside. But, whatever the exegetical value of the opinion, it is +proof that Papias held it as an undoubted fact that St. Peter was +at Rome; besides, he also states that Mark wrote his gospel at +Rome, under the eye of Peter. Nor is it at all pertinent to say +that Eusebius tells us that Papias was a narrow-minded man, and +an enthusiast about the Apocalypse. Neither narrow-mindedness nor +enthusiasm prevents men from being competent witnesses to simple +facts, and the one about which we are now inquiring is a simple +fact. The only question is--Could Papias have known for certain +whether St. Peter was at Rome or not? He lived in the apostolic +age, not half a century after the death of the apostle. This is a +sufficient answer, and his views about either Babylon or the +Apocalypse cannot impair its sufficiency. As to Irenaeus, our +lord bishop quibbles in a way that is not handsome. He tries to +break down his and other writers' testimony by alleging, first, +that they disagree as to the first bishop of Rome after St. +Peter; second, that they disagree about the _time_ St. Peter +came to Rome. + +We are almost ashamed to have to answer such quibbling. Neither +disagreement at all touches the substantial part of the +narrative. Neither is as great as our expounder of the articles, +in his despair, tries to make it. Neither could ever have been +alleged in ordinary controversy. All authors, save Tertullian, +mention Linus as first bishop of Rome after Peter. The African +father in reality says only that Clement was ordained by Peter; +the context, however, would suggest that he supposed he was the +immediate successor of the apostle. The truth appears to be that +Linus, Cletus, and Clement were consecrated bishops by one or the +other of the apostles. This was commonly done in the first age; +only one person in every city possessed episcopal jurisdiction, +but more clergymen than one were frequently invested with the +episcopal order. This was done in the Roman Church. St. Peter was +its first bishop; after his death, Linus, Cletus, Clement +governed it in succession, all three having been ordained by the +apostles. +{380} +There is nothing in this supposition at all at variance with what +is known to have been the common practice of the first age, a +practice which it is not ingenuous in the lord bishop of Ely to +suppress. As to the discrepancy about the time of the apostle's +coming to Rome, it is easily explained on the commonly received +hypothesis that St. Peter twice visited Rome. Eusebius says that +he went first under Claudius. He was obliged to leave Italy in +consequence of that emperor's decree banishing thence the Jews. +He returned thither, toward the end of his life, and there +suffered martyrdom. But it is plain that such discrepancies +cannot affect the substance, namely, that Peter was at Rome; +indeed, they are intelligible only on the supposition that all +the authors quoted held the main fact as certain. It is plain +also that there is not the slightest foundation for the lord +bishop's assertion that "at whatever time St. Peter came to Rome, +there was some one else bishop of Rome then." The courage +required for this assertion can be measured from another +statement, just four lines above: "All (the early writers) agree +in saying that the first bishop of the see was Linus." This is +simply shameful. Put after "see" the words _after Peter_, +and the quotation will be correct. But then what becomes of the +bishop's argument? He says Linus was bishop of Rome when Peter +went thither; and he also admits that "some (early writers) say +that St. Paul, others that St. Peter and St. Paul, ordained him." +These latter writers surely did not suppose that St. Peter +ordained a man in Rome before he himself ever went to Rome. The +bishop clearly does not stick at trifles. His chronology is also +entirely at fault. He says that it "is three centuries (after St. +Peter's death) before we find him spoken of as bishop of Rome." +But St. Cyprian, whom even Bishop Hopkins admits spoke thus of +the apostle, was put to death before the end of the second +century from St. Peter's martyrdom. He sneers at the statement +that St. Peter was five-and-twenty years bishop of Rome; yet he +admits that it is based on the authority of that eminent and +judicious critic, St. Jerome, who, from his high position under +Pope Damasus, had abundant opportunity for an accurate +examination of the then extant records. In reality, it is based +on an earlier authority, the great historian Eusebius. It is +plain that his polemic system is simply factious; he ignores some +authorities, misconstrues others, miscalculates dates, and +mistakes mere accessories for the principal fact; such a course +is not only a crime against historical truth, it is also a +blunder, for it can mislead only the unlearned or the unwary +reader. + +The writers of the first age do not, it is true, assert in so +many words that St. Peter was bishop of Rome. The reason is +obvious. Treating of other matters, their allusions are merely +incidental, such as we might expect immediately after the death +of SS. Peter and Paul, and relating chiefly to the fact of the +apostle's connection with the Roman Church, or his martyrdom +there. For these facts they are unanswerable authority. These are +a necessary preliminary to the assertion of St. Peter's Roman +bishopric. This fact is broadly stated as soon as we meet with +the polemical development of the doctrine of apostolic +succession. Tertullian, in the text we have quoted from the book +_On Prescriptons_, where he accurately defines in what this +succession consists, namely, that the first bishop was appointed +and preceded by an apostle or an apostolic man, (_Apostolum ... +habuerit auctorem et antecessorem,_) says that in the Roman +Church Clement was ordained by Peter. +{381} +Tracing thus the succession in Rome from Peter, not from Paul, +whose death in the imperial city he mentions, he shows that he +knew Peter was the bishop of the see. St. Cyprian uses +unmistakable language on the same subject, and Eusebius asserts +positively that St. Peter was bishop of Rome. We might quote +other catalogues, but, though of great authority, they are of a +more recent date. But we shall give two more authorities which +can be connected with the period to which we have confined +ourselves. St. Jerome [Footnote 112] positively states that St. +Peter held the episcopal chair (_cathedram sacerdotalem_) of +Rome for twenty-five years. His historical knowledge and critical +acumen give to his words the authority of a statement based on +the very best records of the early age. No one can deny that in +the latter half of the fourth century there were such records at +Rome. St. Optatus of Millevi, in Africa, (A.D. 370,) in a +controversial work against the Donatists, speaks of St. Peter's +Roman bishopric as a matter of notoriety, which no one would dare +deny. "You ought to know," says he to the Donatist leader, +Parmenian, "and _you dare not deny_, that Peter established +at Rome an episcopal chair, which he was the first to occupy, in +order that through (communion with) this one chair all might +preserve unity." [Footnote 113] + + [Footnote 112: In Catal.] + + [Footnote 113: Contr. Parmenianum.] + +A statement made so positively, so unhesitatingly, so boldly, +must have been founded on the very best historical evidence. And +the nineteenth century must accept the judgment of competent +writers of the fourth on such a subject. Unless, then, we wish to +deny all authority to authentic record of the early age of the +church, we must conclude, with the good leave of the lord bishop +of Ely, that there is excellent reason to believe that St. Peter +was bishop of Rome. Nor is there any force in the bishop's remark +that all the apostles had the world for their diocese, and were +not confined to any particular city. We do not, of course mean to +say that St. Peter confined his preaching to Rome. He was apostle +as well as head of the church. As apostle, he preached chiefly to +the Jews. As head of the church, he chose for his episcopal see +the capital of the world, in order that there might be no doubts +about the legitimate heir of his great dignity. For this reason +we find him in Rome among the Gentiles, though St. Paul had a +special mission to them. Dr. Browne says Peter was St. Paul's +_assistant_ at Rome; and this, in the face of the facts that +every writer, from Clement down, puts him before the great vessel +of election, and that St. Paul himself, as we shall see, speaks +of his ministry to the Romans as one merely of mutual +consolation, a tone he never adopted toward a church which he +himself had founded. We have purposely left to the last the +argument based on the alleged silence of the New Testament, +because we wished to clear an historical question of all purely +exegetical difficulties. We have established our thesis on +indubitable evidence; we might rest here and simply say that, +inasmuch as no one pretends that the New Testament contains the +entire history of the apostles, its silence cannot affect the +certainty of our proposition. This silence may puzzle the curious +reader; it may be variously interpreted, according to the +theological bent of the student; but it cannot disprove facts +which are proved by historical authority. +{382} +Bishop Browne feels the force of this, and does not insist much +on the silence of the New Testament. He merely remarks that this +silence is strange, if St. Peter's Roman bishopric be as +important as Roman divines make it out to be. Strictly speaking, +we might let this pass, as we are not now concerned in +establishing the supremacy of the Roman pontiffs, but merely +treating the historical question, Who was first bishop of Rome? +We may observe, however, that no believer in the doctrine of +apostolical succession can consistently urge this silence. How +does Dr. Browne trace _his_ succession in the office of +bishop from the apostles? Is it from St. Peter? Then he has to +meet the same objection about the silence of the New Testament on +what, from his point of view, is a vital matter. Is it from St. +Paul? But there is no scriptural evidence that St. Paul ever +ordained a bishop in Rome, or anywhere in the west. Is it from +any other apostle? The same remark holds good. No claim to +apostolical succession can be established for any see in the +western church unless on the evidence of tradition. This is +virtually admitted by Dr. Browne himself. + +Since, however, the silence of the New Testament is commonly +urged as affording presumptive evidence that St. Peter never was +at Rome, we shall examine all that Protestants have to say on the +subject. The principal text--the only one having direct reference +to the subject--is I Peter v. 13: "The church which is in +Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you, and so doth +Mark, my son." Nearly all ancient writers, commencing with +Papias, say that this letter was written at Rome, which city St. +Peter designates under the name of Babylon. Our Protestant +opponents, of course, reject this interpretation. Now, we wish it +to be understood that we do not allege this text to prove that +St. Peter wrote from Rome. We admit that, taken in itself, apart +from tradition, it is obscure, and can afford, at best, ground +but for conjecture. But, having established beyond all doubt the +fact that St. Peter was at Rome, we follow the interpretation of +the respectable ancient writers whom we have quoted. When the +letter was written, old Babylon of Assyria was in ruins, +according to Strabo and Pliny; and the Jews, to whom St. Peter +wrote, had been banished from Assyria, according to Josephus; +and, though Seleucia was afterward called Babylon, it had not +received the name at this early period. Some think that the +Babylon referred to was in Egypt, the place now called Cairo. But +it was then but a fort, or fortified village, (_castellum_,) +and the Christian church of Egypt has always looked on Alexandria +as its birthplace. St. Peter, moreover, warns the Christians of +the approaching persecution, and exhorts them to be subject to +the emperor and his subordinates. These allusions come very +naturally from the pen of one writing at Rome, but are almost +unintelligible if we suppose the writer in Babylon of Assyria, +out of the Roman empire. The opinion that the letter was written +at Rome, called Babylon by St. Peter for some reason which we can +only conjecture, is based on excellent ancient authority, agrees +with well-known facts of history, and with the internal evidence +of the letter itself. Leaving aside its bearings on the main +question we are discussing, it is by far the most probable view, +and, in any other case, would be accepted without difficulty. +[Footnote 114] + + [Footnote 114: Occasionally the love of novelty induces some + Catholic writer to differ from his brethren. This is the case + with Hug, who holds that we cannot admit mystical names in + the letters of the apostles, as there is no instance of their + use, save in this disputed case. This is criticism based on + internal evidence run mad. One would suppose that there was a + perfect course of sacred epistolary literature in the New + Testament, based on fixed rules, instead of a few detached + letters, written by different authors at different times, + without any communication or agreement with one another about + literary style. There is nothing more fallacious than the + interpretation of any of the letters of the apostles on mere + internal evidence. Hug's remark at most shows that internal + evidence does not afford any proof that St. Peter meant Rome, + which no one will deny.] + +{383} + +Protestants, moreover, commonly allege the absence of any mention +of St. Peter's voyage to Rome in the Acts of the Apostles, and +the absence of any reference to him, either in St. Paul's Epistle +to the Romans or in those he wrote from Rome. The silence of the +Acts is easily explained. After the council of Jerusalem, the +writer relates only the missionary labors of St. Paul, so that we +could not expect any mention of St. Peter's voyages. Dr. Browne +infers from Acts xxviii. 22, that "the Jews of Rome had had no +communication with any chief teacher among the Christians." This +inference is not borne out by the text, "We desire to hear from +thee what thou thinkest; or as concerning this sect, we know that +it is everywhere opposed." The obvious meaning is that the Jews +of Rome knowing that Paul was a Pharisee learned in the law, +wished to hear what he had to say in favor of the new religion. +They must have looked on St. Peter as a Galilean fisherman, who +had no right to attempt to expound the law and the prophets. It +is puerile for Dr. Browne to allege that they should have heard +him with respect because he was the apostle of the circumcision; +for, of what importance could this title be in their eyes, if +they did not believe in Him who sent the apostles? + +If St. Peter went to Rome in the reign of Claudius, he certainly +was afterward absent from the city, as we find him after this +period at the council of Jerusalem. His absence from Rome +accounts for the fact that St. Paul does not salute him in his +Epistle to the Romans, a straw at which some Protestant writers +clutch with great avidity. The great respect with which St. Paul +speaks of the Roman Church, whose faith, he says, was spoken of +in the whole world, agrees with the supposition that St. Peter +had already preached there. On these words, [Footnote 115] "For I +long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, +that ye may be strengthened; that is, I may be comforted together +with you, by that which is common to us both, your faith and +mine." Theodoret remarks as follows: "Because the great Peter had +first given them the doctrine of the gospel, he said merely,'that +ye may be strengthened.' I do not wish, he says, to bring a new +doctrine to you, but to confirm that which you have received, and +to water the trees which have already been planted." [Footnote +116] + + [Footnote 115: Ch. i. 11, 12.] + + [Footnote 116: In locum.] + +The words certainly indicate that the faith had already been +firmly established by some teacher of high rank, and are a very +apposite commentary on Dr. Browne's reason why the Jews, some +years afterward, were anxious to hear St. Paul. We cannot really +understand what hallucination led him to quote these words to +show that St. Paul writes much as "if no apostle had ever been +amongst the Romans." But we admire his prudence in giving purely +a reference, not the words of the text. His other reference to +Rom. xv. 15-24 is even more unlucky. St. Paul therein says +plainly that he generally preached, "not where Christ was named," +lest he should build on another man's foundation. +{384} +"_For which cause_," he adds, "I have been much hindered +from coming to you." Therefore some other apostle _had_ +preached to the Romans. He even goes on to say that he hoped to +be gratified in his desire of seeing them, _when on his way to +Spain_, so that it is plain that he, though apostle of the +Gentiles, considered there was no necessity for his making a +journey to Rome on purpose to instruct the Roman Church. St. +Paul, then, writes very much as if an apostle _had_ been +with the Romans. Whatever else Dr. Browne does, he ought to quote +Scripture fairly. St. Paul's allusions, obscure though they may +be to us, were, of course, clear to those to whom they were +written. No familiar letter can be fully understood without +taking into account the facts which, being well known to those to +whom he writes, the author merely alludes to in a passing way. + +The letters which St. Paul wrote from Rome were all written +during his first stay there, with the probable exception of the +second to Timothy. Colossians iv. II, and 2 Timothy iv. 16, are +quoted to show that St. Peter was not at Rome, else he would have +stood by St. Paul. But the epistle to the Colossians was written +during St. Paul's first imprisonment, when St. Peter, as we have +seen, must have been absent, and in the second to Timothy he +speaks expressly of his "first defence." Most writers think he +refers to his first imprisonment. Others suppose him to speak of +a preliminary hearing before Nero, during his second +imprisonment. Admitting this interpretation, he cannot include +St. Peter, who was his fellow-prisoner, in the list of those who +had forsaken him. The words apply to persons at large, who had +influence with the authorities, which they did not use. + +We have thus fully examined all that Protestants allege +concerning the silence of the New Testament. The candid reader +will see that there is nothing in the sacred pages to contradict +the historical facts we have established; the allusions of St. +Paul to the instruction of the Romans in the faith by a teacher +of high rank, and the interpretation of the word _Babylon_ +in St. Peter's first letter, which has come down to us from the +apostolic age, must be counted in their favor. + +It is on historical evidence that the case must rest; and on it, +as we have rehearsed it, we are satisfied to submit it to +unprejudiced criticism. The testimony of the apostolic age, and +the two immediately following, is conclusive; it cannot be +explained away; much less can it be impeached. We must give up +all belief in well-authenticated history, or else admit that St. +Peter went to Rome, founded the church there, and was its first +bishop, and there died a martyr of Christ. + + "O Roma felix, quae duorum principum + Es consecrata glorioso sanguine + Horum cruore purpurata ceteras + Excellis orbis una pulchritudines." + + "O happy Rome! whom the great Apostles' blood + For ever consecrates while ages flow: + Thou, thus empurpled, art more beautiful + Than all that doth appear most beautiful below." + + + Note By The Editor On The Chronology Of St. Peter's Life. + +Eusebius says that St. Peter established his see at Antioch in +the last year of Tiberius, who died March fifteenth, A.D. 37. It +was probably, therefore, in the year 36; and St. Ignatius, the +second successor of St. Peter in that see; St. John Chrysostom, +who had been a priest there; Origen and St. Jerome, as well as +Eusebius, state that he governed that church seven years; which +probably means, not that his episcopate was just of that length, +but, that seven calendar years were included (the first and the +last partially) in it. +{385} +At any rate, this would make the establishment of his see in Rome +in A.D. 42 or 43; and the day celebrated by the church is January +18th. Now, Eusebius, St. Jerome, Cassiodorus, and others say that +SS. Peter and Paul were put to death in the fourteenth year of +Nero, that is, in A.D. 67; and their martyrdom is celebrated on +June 29th. This gives twenty-four and a half or twenty-five and a +half years for St. Peter's Roman episcopate, or twenty-five years +in the sense that the Antiochan was seven, if he came to Rome in +43; in which case he may even have established his see at Antioch +in 37. + +St. John Chrysostom says that St. Paul's life after his +conversion was thirty-five years; which would make that event to +have occurred in A.D. 32 or 33. He himself says (Gal. i.) that +three years afterward he went to Jerusalem, and thence to Tarsus, +as is also stated in Acts ix. From this place he was called to +preach to the church at Antioch, as mentioned in Acts xi.; and +this visit, which could not have much preceded the establishment +of St. Peter's see there, may well have been in A.D. 35 or 36, +agreeing with the chronology given above. + +These dates do not agree with that commonly assigned for the +crucifixion; but numerous evidences show that this occurred in +the year 29. As late a date as A.D. 31 might, however, be +allowed. + +---------- + + A Ruined Life. + + +It was the saddest, saddest face I ever saw. + +She stood before the stove in my front office, on that dark +December day, and the steam from her wet, heated garments almost +concealed her from my sight. Yet the first glimpse I caught of +her, through the partition door, excited my interest to an +unusual degree; and, though I saw her not again for a half hour, +that one glance fixed her features in my memory as indelibly as +they are printed there to-day. + +It was term time, and the second return-day of the term. For ten +days my eyes and brain had both been crowded with all that varied +detail of business which sessions aggregate upon the hands and +conscience of a rising lawyer; and the musty retinue of +_assumpsit, ejectment_, and _scire-facias_ had nearly +vexed and worn out the little life I had at the beginning. But +the criminal week, which was my peculiar sphere, was close at +hand, and I looked to its exciting, riskful cases as a relief +from the dull, dreary current of civil forms and practice. + +The little room I dignified with the name of "_front +office_" was filled, as far as seats went, with rough +backwoodsmen, witnesses on behalf of a gentleman who occupied +with me the snugly carpeted "_sanctum_" in the rear. While +we discussed together the points of strength or weakness to be +tested at the impending trial, the voices of the rude laborers +reached us brokenly, and more than once words fell upon my ear +which made me tremble for the sensibilities of the lonely woman +who was with them. +{386} +They meant no harm, those bluff, hearty men. A tear from her +drooping eyes would have unmanned them. But they were not +well-bred, nor tender to the weakness of the other sex. My poor +client, as she afterward became, stood while they sat, kept +silence while they laughed and jeered each other. It was not +their fault that they never minded her. They were not hypocrites, +that's all. + +At length I had the happiness to see the door close on the last +of them, and, after arranging the maps and diagrams which would +be needed on the morrow, I called to the stranger to come in. She +obeyed, hesitatingly, and then, for the first time, I saw that +she belonged to that most forlorn and pitiable of all the many +classes who throng around our mining districts, the recent Irish +emigrant. The very clothes she wore were the same with which she +dressed herself in the green isle far away, and her voice and +manner had not yet caught that flippancy and pertness which pass +among the longer landed for tokens of American independence and +equality. She was certainly very poor, or the rough, wintry winds +would not have been permitted to toss her long, black hair in +tangled masses around her shoulders, or drop their melting +snowflakes on her uncovered head. My chivalric interest died +without time to groan, and whatever thought of profit or romance +in assisting her I might have had, at the first sight of her, +perished at the same instant. But I saw poverty and sorrow, and I +determined in my heart, before she told her errand, that my life +of legal labor should embrace at least one act done thoroughly +and for nothing. + +Her story was a short one. Her husband and herself had lived in a +neighboring village. Others of their own people dwelt around +them, and among these was an old woman and her son. No +difficulty, that she knew of, had ever risen between her family +and theirs. But, a few days before, as her husband was gathering +fuel by the roadside, these two had rushed out on him, and in +cold blood murdered him. The son had fled, and the murderer's +mother, with barred doors and windows, forbade the vicinage of +friend or foe. The broken-hearted wife, urged on to take such +vengeance as the law afforded, had come to me and asked my +counsel and assistance. + +It was of little use to question her. Like most of her peculiar +class, her mind could entertain but one idea, and that, in some +form or other, recurred in answer to every inquiry I could make. +Satisfying myself, however, that a murder had really been +committed, and taking down such names and dates as were necessary +for the initial steps of prosecution, I sent her home, with the +assurance that justice should be done her, and her dead husband's +ghost avenged. + +The warrant was issued, the arrest made, the indictment found, +the trial finished. There was no doubt of guilt. The murder was +committed in the broad light of day, and many eyes had seen it. +The counsel for the defence had felt the untenability of his +position before a tithe of the evidence was in, and slipped down +from innocence to justifiability, until his last hope for the +prisoner was in the allegation of insanity, late suggested and +faintly urged. It was useless. The twelve inexorable men brought +in their verdict of "wilful murder," and Bridget Davanagh was +sentenced to be hanged by the neck till she was dead. + +{387} + +It has never been my custom to follow cases, on which the solemn +judgment of the law has been pronounced, beyond those immediate +consequences of that judgment which the connection between a +lawyer and his client has compelled me to superintend. But there +was something in this case which both attracted and disquieted +me, and one day in vacation I found myself at the grated +prison-door, seeking admission to the cell of the condemned. The +old woman received me quietly. She seemed to have forgotten me, +or, at least, how active a part I had taken in the proceedings +which had ended in dooming her to a shameful death. She was +taciturn and moody; and, the longer I remained, the more +satisfied I became that her mind was now unsettled, if it had not +been before. I went several times after that, and gradually, by +kind words and the gift of such simple comforts as aged matrons +most desire, I won her confidence so far that, in her faltering, +disconnected way, she told me all that sad history of woe and +wrong and suffering which had brought an untimely grave to +Michael Herican, and a felon's fate to her. It was one of those +tales of falsity and sorrow which we cannot hear too often, and +whose moral none of us can learn too well. + +The little village of Easky, in the County Sligo, was, when this +present century was young, one of those lonesome, scanty-peopled +hamlets whose very loneliness and isolation render them more dear +and homelike to their few inhabitants. The waters of the Northern +Ocean foamed about the rocks where its fisher-boats were moored. +The feet of its rambling children trod the rough paths and +crumpled the grey masses of the wild Slieve-Gamph hills. Thus +hemmed in between the mountains and the sea, it was almost +separated from the world. The white sails that now and then +flitted across the far horizon, and the slow, lazy car that twice +a month brought over his majesty's mail-bags from Dromore, were +all that Easky ever had to tell it that there were nations and +kingdoms on the earth, or that its own precipices on the one +side, and its weed-strewn rocks upon the other, did not embrace +the whole of human joys and sorrows. + +In this solitary village the forefathers of Patrick Carrol had +dwelt for immemorial years. So far back as tradition went they +had been fishermen, and the last remaining scion now followed the +ancestral calling. He was a sort of hero among his +fellow-villagers. True, he was as poor as the poorest of them +all, and had no personal boast save of his vigorous arms and +honest heart. But his father, contrary to the custom of his race, +had refused to lay his bones within an ocean bed, and had died +fighting in the bloody streets of Killala. All victims of '98 +were canonized by those rude freemen, and the mantle of honor +fell from the father upon the children, and gave to Patrick +Carrol a deserved and well-maintained pre-eminence. And so, when +Bridget Deery became his wife, the whole hamlet agreed that the +village favorite had found her proper husband, and, when the +little Mary saw the light, the christening holiday was kept by +every neighbor, old or young. + +Four years of perfect happiness flew by. Death or misfortune came +to other families, but not to theirs. The little hoarded wealth, +hid away in the dark corner, grew yearly greater. Health and +affection dwelt unremittingly upon the hearthstone, and the +hearts of the father and mother were as full of gratitude as the +heart of the child was of merriment and glee. But the four years +had an end, and carried with them, into the trackless past, the +sunshine of their lives. +{388} +One long, long summer day the wife sat among the rocks, watching +for her husband's boat, and playing with the prattler at her +side. The boat came not. The sun went down. The gathering clouds +in the offing loomed up threateningly. The hoarse northwesters +felt their way across the waters, and whistled in her ears, as +she clasped the child to her bosom and hurried home out of the +storm. As the gale strengthened with the darkness, she fell upon +her knees, and all that wakeful night besought the Mother and the +saints to keep her baby's father from the awful danger. In vain; +for when the morning dawned, the waves washed up his oars and +helm upon the beach, and an hour later his drowned corse was +found beneath the broken crags of Anghris Head. + +For the first few years after that fatal shock the widowed mother +lived she knew not how. One by one the treasured silver pieces +went, till destitution stared her in the face. The charity of her +neighbors outdid their means, but even that could not keep her +from actual suffering, and work for the lone woman there was +absolutely none. What wonder was it, then, that, when the flowers +had bloomed three times above the peaceful bed of Patrick Carrol, +his widow, more for her child's sake than her own, consented to +violate the sanctity of her broken heart, and become the wife of +Bernard Davanagh? + +Bernard was a bold, reckless, wilful man, and both the mother and +the child soon felt the difference between the dead father and +the living. As time passed on, and the boy Bernard was born, the +passions of the man grew stronger, and cruel words, and still +more cruel blows, became the daily portion of the helpless three. +Oh! how often did the widow yearn to lie down with her children +by her dead husband's side, in the drear churchyard, and be at +peace for ever. But not _without_ them. No, not even to be +united with the lost, could she have left them, and so they clung +together, closer and closer, as the years rolled on--knowing +little of life except its dark page of sorrow. + +There never yet was a life without some ray of joy, and, even in +the midnight darkness which hung around the childhood of Mary +Carrol, there were faint gleams of happiness. Next door but one +to their poor cot lived James Herican. He too was a fisherman, +and, in better days, had been Patrick Carrol's most intimate and +faithful friend. He had remained such to the widow and the +fatherless, and, but for him, the family of Bernard Davanagh also +might sometimes have perished from want and cold. He was the +father of one child, the boy Michael, older by two years than +Mary, and doubly endeared to his heart by the mother's early +death. The gossips of Easky had wondered, in their simple way, +why James Herican and Bridget Carrol did not marry, but the +memory of his dead wife and his dead friend forbade the one ever +to entertain the thought, and the poor widow was as far from +wishing it as he. They were happier as they were; he, by his +kindness and true Christian charity, laying up heavenly +treasures, which, as the second husband of a second wife, he +never could accumulate; she, keeping ever fresh and pure the one +love of her maiden's heart, the one hope of reunion in the skies. +What, and how different, the end had been, if they had married, +the eye of the Eternal can alone discern. + +{389} + +The friendship of these parents descended to the children. In all +their sports, their rambles, their labors, (for in that toiling +hamlet even tender childhood labored,) Michael Herican and Mary +Carrol were together. When her half-brother, eight years younger +than herself, grew into boyhood, Michael was his champion against +the impositions of larger boys, and taught him all those arts of +wood and water craft which village youth so ardently aspire to, +and so aptly learn. It could not happen otherwise than that these +constantly recurring kindnesses should beget firm and fast +affection, and knit together these young hearts in bonds +difficult, if not impossible, to sunder. + +It may have been the law of nature, it may have been the +chastening of God, that Michael Herican and Mary Carrol should +come, in later years, to love each other. It was simply fitting, +to all human sight, that it should be so; and it was so. The +father and the mother thanked God for it, day by day, and +bestowed upon them such tokens of encouragement as the bashful +lovers could comfortably receive. The boy Bernard, when he heard +of it, (and there could be no secrets in Easky,) threw up his cap +for joy, and the old village crones for once smiled on the +prospects of a happiness they had never known. Only Davanagh +appeared displeased, but his abuse of the poor girl had been so +extreme for years that it could scarcely suffer any increase, and +all the influence he exerted over her or them was by his ruthless +fist and cursing tongue. This at last ceased; for ears less +patient than her own received his stinging insults, and a blow, +quicker than his drunken arm could parry, stretched him upon the +ground to rise no more. + +Mary Carrol reached her twentieth birthday. She was a frail, +delicate girl, below the middle height, and with that beautiful +but strange union of large blue eyes and pearly complexion with +jet black hair and lashes which tells at once of the pure Irish +blood. We should not have called her handsome; perhaps no one +would, except those who loved her, and in whose sight no +disfigurement or disease could have made her homely. But she was +one of those superior natures which solitude and suffering must +unite with Christian culture to produce; and the whole +neighborhood, for this, and not for her beauty, claimed her as +its favorite and charm. Michael had grown to be a stalwart man, +half a head taller than his sire, and his fellows said that none +among them promised better for diligence and success than he. His +devotion to Mary Carrol knew no bounds, and she, in turn, +cherished scarcely a thought apart from him. Her mother had +rapidly grown old and broken. Grief, and that yearning for the +dead which is stronger than any sorrow, had made her an aged +woman long before her time, and the fond daughter, between her +and the one hope of her young life, had no third wish or joy. Her +only trouble was for her brother. The wild elements of his +father's nature became more apparent in him every day, and, +though he loved his mother and half-sister with an almost inhuman +passionateness, they frequently found it impossible to restrain +his turbulent and curbless will. The stern control of a seafaring +life seemed to be their only chance of saving him, and so, at +little more than twelve years old, he was torn away from home and +friends and sent out on a coasting merchantman to be subdued. +This parting nearly broke his mothers's heart, but her discipline +of suffering had been borne too long and patiently for her to +rebel now. It was only another drop to her full cup of +bitterness, when, a few months later, news came, by word of mouth +from a sailor in Dromore, that the merchantman had foundered in +the stormy Irish Sea. + +{390} + +It would be beyond the power of human pen to describe how these +lone women now clung to Michael Herican. His father went down to +the grave in peace, and he had none but them, as they had none +but him. Already the one looked on him as a husband and the other +as a son. When a few more successful voyages were over, and when +the humble necessaries, which even an Easky maid could not become +a wife without providing, were completed, the benediction of the +church was to fulfil the promise of their hearts, and give them +irrevocably to each other in the sight of God and man. + + + +It was an ill-starred day for Michael Herican and the Carrols +when the Widow Moran and her daughter came to live in Easky. +Pierre Moran, deceased, had been a small shopkeeper in Sligo, +where he had amassed a little competence, and, now that he was +dead, his widow returned to her native village to pass her +remaining life among her former neighbors. There were few among +them who had not known more or less about the reckless girl who +ran away with the half-French half-Irish shopman, twenty years +ago, and her name and memory was none of the best among those +virtuous villagers. But she cared less for this because she had +enough of filthy lucre to command exterior respect, and it was +better, so she thought, to be highest among the lowly than to be +low among the high. In coming to Easky she had had two ends in +view: to queen it over her former associates, and to secure a +steady and good husband for her daughter. Kitty Moran was like +her mother, but without her mother's faults. She was a girl of +dash and spirit, and with a pride as quick and a nature as +impressible as her mother was emotionless. She was a thorough +brunette, with a brunette's violence and passion, with a +brunette's power to love and power to hate. In actual beauty no +maiden of the neighborhood could vie with her, and she had just +enough of city polish and refinement to give her an appearance of +superiority to those around her. Between her and Mary Carrol the +angels would not have hesitated in choosing--unless, indeed, they +were those ancient sons of God who took wives from among the +daughters of men because they saw that they were fair, and then, +like men, they would have chosen wrongly. + +It was not many days before the Widow Moran heard of Michael +Herican, or many weeks before she had decided that he should be +the husband of her child. True, she knew of his betrothal, for +his name was rarely spoken unconnected with the name of Mary +Carrol, but this made no difference. The pale-faced step-daughter +of the drunken Davanagh was of no consequence to her, and to the +right or wrong of her designs she never gave a thought. Whatever +she wished, she determined to have. Whatever she determined to +have, she set herself industriously to secure. So when she +marketed, it was Michael's boat from which she purchased. When +there was a message to send to Sligo, or packages from thence to +be brought home to her, it was Michael's boat that carried it. +When she had work to be done around her cottage, it waited until +Michael had an idle day, and then he was hired to do it. Well +skilled, as every woman is, in arts like these, she used her +knowledge and her chances all too well. + +{391} + +It is but just to say that Kitty Moran had no share in her +mother's wicked plans. She was young and gay. Michael Herican was +the finest young man in the village. It was not disagreeable to +her to watch him and to talk with him, as he worked by her +directions in the little garden, or to sit beside him at their +noontide meal. Unconsciously, she grew to miss him when he was +away at sea, to have a welcome for him in her heart when he came +home, to look for him with impatience when she knew that his +vocation brought him back to her. Before she was aware of it, she +loved him; and when she realized her love, she threw herself into +it, as her one absorbing passion, without a dream of its results +or a suspicion of her error. She would not, for an empire, have +deliberately wronged the patient girl whom, by the stern law of +contraries, she had already learned to cherish, but to her love +there was no limit, no moderation. She could not help loving +Michael Herican, and no more could she mete out or restrain her +love. So, when it mastered her, it _was_ her master, and her +reason and her conscience were whirled away before the rushing +tide of passion like bubbles on the bosom of a cataract. + +How Michael Herican came to love this new maiden not even he +himself could tell. Rochefoucault says, "It is in man's power +neither to love nor to refrain from loving." And false as this +may be as a general law of life, there are cases in which it +appears almost divinely true. It was so in his. He simply could +not help it. When he compared the calm, deep, tried affection of +the heart that had been his for years with the tumultuous +outburst of this impetuous soul, his judgment taught him there +ought to be no such comparison between them. He never had one +doubt as to his duty. He fought nobly and manfully against the +spell that seemed to be upon him. He would gladly have left +Easky, and have stretched his voyages beyond the northern seas; +but he could not leave Mary and her mother there alone. He +thought of hastening his marriage, thereby to put an end to all +possibility of faithlessness, (and this is what he should have +done,) but he had no reason for it that he dared to give. It was +a fearful trial for him, and would have bred despair in stronger +hearts than his, if such there be. He became lax and careless in +his business, harsh and moody in his intercourse with others. A +few tattling croakers, here and there, wiser than the rest, laid +the evil at the Widow Moran's door; but they could give no proof +when asked for it, and the frowns and chidings of the +neighborhood soon put them down. + +In this way things went on for months. The day drew near when the +wedding-feast should usher in a new life to the waiting pair. It +was a drawing near of doom to him. The enchantment had not +weakened by indulgence. The siren's song was as soft and +seductive as when its first notes took possession of his soul. +Feeling as he did toward Kathleen Moran, he would not marry Mary +Carrol, although from his heart of hearts he could have sworn +that his love for her had known no change or diminution. Nor did +he dare to tell her that the fascinations of the stranger had +enchained him; for he knew that he was all she had, and all she +loved. But it could not go on thus always, and he knew it. +Something must be done. Had it been the mere sacrifice of +himself, he would not have hesitated for a moment. As little did +he hesitate between marrying where he did not love supremely, and +not marrying at all. +{392} +He had a conscience, and when his conscience decided between +these, and told him that he must not marry Mary Carrol, it +compelled him also to go to her and in plain words tell her so. + +It almost killed her. The shock was so great, at the moment, +mightily though she strove to command herself, that her life was +in immediate danger. After a while she rallied again, a very +ghost to what she had been, though little else before. Her mother +bore the blow less calmly. She could not understand the +powerlessness of the one to save himself, or the self-sacrifice +of the other, which gave up her life's last greatest hope without +a murmur. She felt the disappointment keenly, but the injury +more. Dispositions, that through all her sorrows had never been +apparent in her character, began to show themselves. She grew +stem and vengeful in place of her old meekness and submission, +and brooded over their cruel wrong until it became a second +nature with her to impute to Michael Herican all her troubles, +and curse him in her heart as the destroyer of her child. + +Of course all Easky soon knew the grief that had come to Bridget +Davanagh's household; and, not unnaturally, most of them sided +with her in her condemnation of Michael Herican. They could not +understand, they would not have believed, that he was under the +dominion of a passion which he could neither escape nor resist. +To them there was no fascination in the Widow Moran's daughter, +and they loved the mother too little for them to suppose that any +one could love the child. It was a hard lot for her, poor girl, +to hear their cutting censures passed upon her as the cause of +Mary Carrol's sufferings; for the people of that uncultivated +neighborhood did not care to conceal their bitterness beneath +soft-spoken words, and did not hesitate to tell her to her face +all that they felt concerning her. Nor spared they Michael +Herican. Old men and young greeted him now with looks askance and +cold, instead of the warm welcomes which every hearth had had for +him a month before. And every woman in Easky, except the few old +crones who grudgingly had wished him well when all was well with +him, went by him on the other side, and prayed the saints to +deliver their young maidens from such faithless lovers as he. + +Intolerable as all this was to him, and unjust as it would have +been, even in their sight who did it, could they have known how +he had fought against his destiny, it still had its inevitable +effect upon him. As there was but one house in Easky where he met +a cordial greeting, that house became his continual resort. As +there was but one heart into which he could look and find +responsive love, he sought his consolation in that heart alone. +To Mary Carrol he would gladly have continued to be a friend and +brother, but her mother would not suffer him to come inside the +doors, and if the broken-hearted maiden could have received his +kindnesses, they would have been to her a mockery worse than +death. Thus Kathleen Moran's was sometimes the only voice he +heard for days, her smile the only smile ever bestowed upon him, +and she became, in time, as necessary to his existence as Eve to +Adam. They were almost always together. He made longer voyages, +and took longer rests; and, when on shore, rarely left the roof +under which she dwelt. But he had no definite aim and purpose for +which to earn, or to lay up his earnings. He never trusted +himself to plan for, or look upon the future. +{393} +He never yet had dreamed of marrying Kitty Moran. The light had +fallen out of his life as effectually as out of Mary Carrol's; +and it would have seemed to him as bootless to have heaped +together money as it would to her to have finished and arranged +her bridal gear. + +A year like this told terribly upon him. The indignation of the +villagers did not abate with time, and more and more did Michael +Herican become an outlaw. It was strange that an event which, in +the swift whirl of our metropolitan career, we meet almost every +day, should have made such an impression on the minds of sturdy +men and women. But it was the first time, in the memory of man, +that an Easky lover had proved faithless to an Easky maid, and +these rude hearts were as honest in their hate as in their love. +He bore it as long as he could, but he was only human; and when +the Widow Moran, herself made most uncomfortable by the active +hostility of her neighbors, determined to return to Sligo, he was +only too willing to go with her. He sold the little cottage where +his forefathers had lived and died for many generations, and bade +farewell for ever to the home where he had known so many years of +happiness, such months of weary suffering. + +If Mary Carrol suffered less in conscience and in self-respect +than Michael Herican, her suffering made far more fearful havoc +with her bodily and mental health. The privations of her +childhood had sown the seeds of premature decay; and, at her best +and strongest, she was frail and weakly. The shock she had +sustained when her life's hopes were shattered had partially +unsettled her mind, and physical disease, now slowly developing, +sank her into hopeless imbecility. She was not violent or +peevish. She never needed any restraint, and, usually, but little +care. She would sit all day in the sunlight, listening to the +roaring of the sea, her hands folded in her lap, and her great +blue eyes gazing out vacantly into the sky. She knew enough to +keep herself from danger, and, at long intervals would go alone +into the narrow street, and wander up and down, groping her way +like a blind person, yet taking no notice of anything that passed +around her. It was a sad sight, indeed, for any eyes to see, but, +far more so to those who knew her history, and could repeat the +story of the cruel wound she bore. There was not among them a +heart that did not bleed for her, and scarce a hand that could +not have been nerved to vengeance, if the blood of her destroyer +could have put away her doom. + +The old woman--God knows how old in sorrows!--became more firm +and resolute as her daughter grew more helpless. She never +wearied in doing all that a mother's heart could prompt, but it +was gall and bitterness to her that Mary suffered so +uncomplainingly. If she could once have heard her say one hateful +word of Michael Herican, it would have satisfied her, but she +never did. She learned that Michael had left his home, and had +gone with the Morans, and she felt as if she were robbed of her +prey. Not that she ever purposed ill to him, but she did wish it, +and the scoffs and denunciations of his neighbors seemed to her +so many weapons in her hands against him. Alas! for her that this +should be the lot of Patrick Carrol's bride. + +{394} + +It might have been a half year since the widow and her victim +left Easky, and the midsummer days had come. Mary Carrol had been +so long an invalid, and, in her many wanderings, had been so +singularly free from harm, that her absence from the cottage +caused her mother no surprise or fear. The village children, as +they met her rambling in the fields, would sometimes lead her +home, and the seaward-going fishermen would often watch her +footsteps on the beach with fond solicitude; but they became +accustomed to it by and by, and let her have her way. + +One cloudless day in July she had strayed out at early dawn while +the dew was scarcely dry, and wandered off along the shore, +beyond the furthest cottage. The matron of that house, as she +went by, sent out her little boy to see that she came to no +danger, but in a moment he returned to say that she was sitting +on a broken rock out of the water's reach, and so for the time +she was forgotten. The day wore on, and Bridget Davanagh grew +lonely in her desolate home. A dread of coming evil fell upon +her, and, though her cup already so ran over that she could +hardly realize the possibility of further misfortune, she could +not shake off the new shadow. Restless and uneasy, she started +out to seek her child. She hurried past the village eastwardly +along the sands. She peered into every crevice of the rocky coast +that was large enough to hide a sea-gull's nest, and hunted +behind every fallen fragment that might conceal the object of her +quest. Slowly, for it was severest toil to her aged feet, she +groped over one mile after another, until the lofty cap of +Anghris Head rose up before her. She had never been so near it +since that fearful day, long years ago, when she came out to see +the mangled body of her young husband lying underneath its stormy +crags. And now there came over her an impulse to go there once +again; again to visit the place where the waves cast him in their +murderous wrath; the place whither she event last to meet him +when he last came home to her. So she climbed over the huge +boulders, one by one, in the declining sunlight, till she stood +directly underneath that ragged spire which Anghris lifts aloft +above the waves, and there she saw the spot where her beloved had +lain in his sad hour of death. There, too, she found her +daughter, lying on the same rocky couch where her father lay +before her, one arm beneath her head, her face turned up to +heaven in the unbreaking slumber of the dead. + +This same midsummer's day brought news, from Sligo to Easky, that +Michael Herican had married Kitty Moran, and that the widow's +heartless schemes had been accomplished. + +The house of Bridget Davanagh was now desolate indeed. Her son +lost for ever in the unknown waters. Her daughter sleeping in the +village churchyard, bearing the burden of her cross no more. +There was no cheer for her in the well-meant gossip of her +neighbors. There was no comfort for her in the promise of a land, +beyond this mortal, of perpetual rest. If her religious instincts +and principles were still alive, they remained dumb and dormant. +She could not read. She loved not company. Her few personal +necessities rendered much bodily toil superfluous, and, when her +work was done, she had no other occupation than to sit down and +brood over her sorrows. The range of her thought was narrow. She +had no future to look forward to. Her eyes were only on the past, +and the past held for her but two figures--her murdered Mary and +her Mary's murderer. It was in vain that the good parish priest +sought to divert her mind and lead her to better things; for, +though she said but little and that quietly, he could see, like +all who now came intimately near her, that her faculties were +clouded and her control over her will and imagination almost +totally destroyed. + +{395} + +How long she might have lived thus without becoming fully crazed +was, fortunately, never tested. A letter came to her one evening, +bearing a foreign post-mark, and dotted over with the many +colored stamps which tell of journeys upon sea and land. It was +the first letter she had ever received. No relative or friend, no +acquaintance except Michael Herican, has she out of Easky, and +she was sorely puzzled, as she broke the seal and turned the +pages up and down and sideways, in the useless attempt to tell +from whence it came. She called in a passing school-child to +decipher it, and, as he blundered through its weary lines, she +sat with her face buried in her hands, rocking her body +ceaselessly to and fro. He reached the end and read the signature +of "Bernard Davanagh." The widow's boy still lived. She lifted +her worn face out of her hands and the tears chased each other +down her cheeks. They eased her throbbing brain, and she bade the +child go over it again, for of its first reading she had scarcely +heard a word except the name. And now she learned that he was in +America. He had been left sick on shore, at the last voyage of +his ill-fated vessel, and escaped alive. Since then he had been +tossed on every sea which bears a name, till, tired of the toil +and danger, he had settled in the far-off mining regions of the +western continent. He now sent for her and Mary to come out to +him, enclosing money and passage certificates for each, and +saying that in two month's time he hoped to have them both with +him in his new home. It was a long time before the old woman +could comprehend the message; but, when she once really +understood that Bernard was alive, she would have started on the +instant to reach her boy. Her idea of the distance was, that +America lay somewhere out beyond Dromore, as far, perhaps, as +that was from Easky, and it was with difficulty that the +neighbors, who came flocking in when the news went flitting up +and down the street, could control her. Those who stayed with her +through the night, and those who went back homeward, had settled +it, however, before morning dawned, that, though the journey +might be fearful and the chances few, it was better she should go +and perish by the way, than stay at home to grieve, and craze, +and die. + +There was not much preparation. Her cottage sold, her furniture +distributed among her friends, the other passage-paper given to a +woman in Dromore, who eagerly grasped the chance of going out to +seek her husband, and Bridget Davanagh left Easky and its graves +for ever. The emigrant best knows the weariness and hardship of a +steerage passage in a crowded ship, and this old and worn-out +woman endured them as a thousand others, old and feeble, have +done since then and before. But the long voyage had an end some +time, and, in a day after the ship was moored at New York +wharves, the mother had found her son. He had a cabin built and +furnished, deep in the wild gorge of a mountain, out of whose +sides the glittering anthracite was torn by hundreds of tons a +day; and here he took her to live and care for him. Not a face +around her that she ever saw before; the dialect of their +language so differing from her own that she could only here and +there make out a word; Bernard himself grown up into a tall, +stout, burly man, black with dust and reeking with soot and oil, +she longed almost fiercely for her home by the green sea, and +wished herself back again a score of times a day. +{396} +When her homesickness wore off, as it slowly did, and she formed +new acquaintances, and grew familiar with the scenes around her; +above all, when she began to realize the comforts which the new +world gave beyond the old--she became reconciled to her strange +life, and seemed almost herself again. Only when, now and then, +her spite and hatred to the name of Herican broke out again did +her mind reel with its fury; otherwise, she was more like Bridget +Davanagh in her early days of second widowhood than she had been +for years. + +Meanwhile, of Michael Herican. He had married Kitty Moran, as the +Easky story said. It was, on his part, an act of sheer despair. +Not that he did not love her. His passion had grown stronger and +more absorbing every hour, and she well returned it. But it was +no calm conclusion of his judgment that led him to unite his life +with hers. It was more like the suicide of a felon who sees his +fate before him, but would rather die by his own free act, +to-day, than anticipate inevitable death to-morrow. When the +Widow Moran "went to her own place," her fortune fell to them. He +opened a little store, and, for a while, life, cheered by +business, seemed more bearable; but misfortune followed him and, +by one loss and another, both his credit and his stock were +sacrificed. Honest to the last farthing, he stripped himself of +everything to pay his debts, and turned himself and his young +wife, to whom privation had ever been a stranger, into the +streets--to work, or beg, or starve. Then, for a time, he went to +sea; but the lone hours of watchful idleness upon the deep gave +him too many opportunities for recollection, and he could not +endure it. As a common hireling he worked about the docks, and +earned by this chance toil a meagre pittance for the bare +necessities of life. But he could not settle permanently to +anything. Of good abilities, with strong arms and a willing +heart, it was this mental burden only which unmanned him, and +this pursued him everywhere and always, like an avenging ghost. +Then he began to wander. From Sligo they went to Ballina, and +thence to Galway, and thence to Dublin, living awhile in each, +but evermore a restless, wavering, aimless man. His poor wife +suffered fearfully. Deprived of all the comforts she had ever +known, and cut down sometimes to a mere apology for food and +clothing, she rued the day when she was born; but she never +blamed her husband. Through all, she clung to him faithfully; and +when she found herself, at last, in the lowest portion of the +capital, and living among those whose touch in other days would +have been infection, however else she murmured, it was never +against him. They stayed in Dublin for a year and more. A child +was born there, but it soon died from exposure and insufficient +food, and this made the mother's heart uneasy, and she longed to +move. A berth fell in his way on board a homeward-bound Canadian +timber-ship, and he agreed to go. He also paid the passage of his +wife with labor, and, in due time, their weary feet were standing +on the shores of a new world, ready for other journeys and, +perhaps, better paths. + +{397} + +But it did not so eventuate. He was the same man still, though +under other skies. There was a doom upon him. His family grew on +his hands and opened in his heart new chambers of affection, but +they could give no ballast to his brain. He could not anchor +anywhere. The weird ship that sails up and down antarctic seas in +an eternal voyage is no more harborless than was he. He fought +the forests, axe in hand, and smote down many pillars of the +olden fane. He toiled on board the river-craft that drift to and +fro upon the broad St. Lawrence. He was a stevedore in Quebec, a +laborer in Montreal. So he worked on from one town to another, +fretting away his own existence, wearing out the health and +strength of his devoted wife, until he reached the "States," and, +by some mysterious fatality, came into the very village where +Bernard Davanagh and his mother lived. Here he found work +congenial to his tastes. The dark gloom of the long tunnels +underground, the ghastly lamps, and, more than all, the exciting +danger of the labor, kept his mind on the stretch and drowned his +memory more effectually than it had ever been before. He did not +know the nearness of Mary Carrol's mother. He would as soon have +dreamed of meeting his dead children in the street as her, and +his work late and early kept him out of sight, so that they did +not hear of him. + +But it happened on one Sunday morning, as he went to Mass in the +great town, two miles away, that he heard the name of "Bernard" +called by some one in the throng. He looked anxiously around him, +and had no difficulty in recognizing, in the features of the man +addressed, the son of the detested Bernard Davanagh of his youth. +Had he not known the contrary, he might have thought it that very +father stepped out of his grave. The recognition was not mutual, +but the unquiet heart of Michael Herican reeked little of the +sacrifice that day, for thinking where this new phase of his life +would end. He feared no bodily injury. He had not lost his animal +courage by his sufferings. But he felt like Orestes at the +banquet, when he dispels with wine the knowledge of the +ever-present furies, and then suddenly beholds the gorgon face +pressed closely up to his. He saw in this an omen that, go where +he would, the wrongs of Mary Carrol must live on outside him, as +they did within. + +How Bridget Davanagh and her son became aware that Michael +Herican and his family were near them, it is of little +consequence to know. When they did find it out, however, it was +an evil greater in its results to them than to their enemy. +Bernard had warmly espoused his mother's hatred, and added to it +the natural fierceness of his own disposition. The discovery of +her child's betrayer, and an occasional glimpse of him as he went +by, revived all the old woman's vengefulness, and aggravated it +beyond control. If Kathleen Herican had known all this, sick of +her wandering life as she might be, she would not have stayed +near them for a single hour. But she did not know it. Bernard and +Bridget she had never seen in Easky, and Michael never told her +they were here. Thus she, at least, lived on unconsciously, while +vengeance sharpened its relentless sword for retribution, and +hung it by an ever-weakening hair over the head of him she loved +most of all. + +Up to the morning of the fatal day no word or sign had passed +between Michael Herican and either of the Davanaghs. But, as he +went by to his work that morning, they both stood in their cabin +door. The old woman could not resist the impulse to curse him as +he passed her, and Bernard was as ready with his malison as she. +{398} +Michael turned up the path that led toward them, and tried to +speak in friendliness, but they would not hear him. At last, +exasperated by their violence and abuse, he told the mother she +was mad--mad as her daughter had been before her. It was a cruel +word for him to speak, cruel for them to hear; but he did not +mean it. It smote upon him as he hurried off to his work, and the +image of the dead Mary came back and upbraided him many times +that day. He left his work early, and went home. There was a +strange look in his eye which made the timid heart of Kathleen +beat faster when she saw it, and he was more than usually kind +and tender to her and his child. His half-eaten supper over, he +took his woodman's basket, and went out to gather fagots for the +morning's fire. On his way home with others who had been on the +like errand, as he came opposite the Davanagh cottage, the mother +and the son came out and rushed upon him. One struck him with a +stone, and felled him to the earth. The other smote him with an +axe, and cleft his skull. It was all over in an instant. Not a +word was said. The horror-stricken neighbors stood aghast a +moment. When they came to their senses, Bernard Davanagh was +climbing up the mountain on the further side of the ravine, and +Bridget Davanagh, with bolted doors, kept ward in her devoted +house alone. + +They would have lifted Michael Herican from the roadside where he +lay, but he was dead. The red blood oozed out of the gaping +wound. It trickled on in narrow streamlets down the path. It +clotted on the feet of men and women who came to gaze upon the +mangled corpse. It stained the hands, and face, and garments of +his wife and baby as they lay sobbing and shrieking on his +pulseless breast. It dried up in the purple sunlight of the dying +day, and soaked away into the dust and ashes of the trampled +street. + +I have little else to tell. The circumstances of the story, as I +heard them, piece by piece, left on my mind an impression which +would not let me stand by and do nothing. I was satisfied that, +if not absolutely crazed, the murderess had acted in a moment of +exceeding passion, no doubt resulting from the rankling words her +victim spoke to her on the morning of that day; and, in her +unsettled state of mind, the ordinary presumptions of the law, +that passion cannot last, were not reliable. It seemed unjust, to +me, that she should suffer the highest penalty known to our law, +when probably her guilt was actually less than that of hundreds +whom a few years in the state prison give their due. I therefore +drew up a petition which the presiding judge and nearly all of +the convicting jury signed, praying a commutation of her sentence +to imprisonment for life. The prayer was granted, and Bridget +Davanagh lives and will die an inmate of the Eastern Penitentiary +of Pennsylvania. + +------- + +{399} + + + The Philosophy Of Immigration. + +It is strange that while so many of the most enlightened minds of +the country are engaged in the investigation of the mysteries of +social and physical sciences, so few, if any, appear to give the +least attention to the phenomenon of American immigration; a +study which is equal in importance to any that can come within +the purview of the economist, and of much more practical value to +us, nationally, than most of the developments of nature, +considered in her material aspect. + +The researches of geologists and astronomers often supply us with +curious and pleasing discoveries, and the laws which regulate +commerce and labor, manufactures and capital, are doubtless well +worth the attention of intelligent public men; but not more so +than the habits, qualifications, and destiny of the millions of +foreigners who of late years have made their homes among us, and +who are still annually coming in myriads to our shores. + +It may safely be said that neither ancient nor modern history +presents a parallel to this American immigration. The emigration +from the plains of Shinar was a dispersion of one people over the +surface of the globe, a disintegration of a nation into several +fragments, each particle the nucleus of a separate and +independent race, speaking a peculiar tongue, and destined to +establish distinct laws and forms of religion. Ours is the +convergence of many peoples to one common centre, silently +arraying themselves under a uniform system of public polity, +yielding up their own political predilections, and to a certain +extent their creeds and language, and destined eventually to +profess one faith and speak one language. Subsequent migrations +in the old world offer points as strikingly dissimilar as the +first great exodus. Those were nothing else than succeeding waves +of population borne from one portion of the earth to the other, +generally preceded and heralded by fire and sword, and ending in +the subjugation and spoliation of the inhabitants of that country +over which they swept with irresistible violence. Our immigrants, +on the contrary, come to us in detail, peaceably to enjoy the +benefits of our laws and to respect our institutions, with no +thought of conquest but such as may be suggested by our yet +untilled fields of the west and our comparatively undeveloped +mineral treasures. + +Viewed in this light, our knowledge of the past gives no rules of +guidance in our relations with this new and very important +element of our population, and it becomes the duty of every +patriot jealous of the welfare and reputation of his land to draw +lessons of wisdom from every-day, experience, in order to help +direct this perennial flood of life into the most proper and +useful channels. A country's true wealth lies primarily in its +population; the product of its soil is its surest and most +permanent concomitant. To give a helping hand and a word of cheer +and advice to those future citizens and parents of citizens is +the common duty of humanity and patriotism; to protect them until +sufficiently domiciled to be able to protect themselves, is the +absolute duty of our legislators. + +{400} + +The city of New York, being the centre of the commerce of the +country, is necessarily the objective point of European +emigration, though many of our neighboring seaports receive their +proportionate share of the precious human freight. It will be +scarcely credited that in the space of twenty-one years, ending +with 1867, there arrived at this city alone no less than _three +million eight hundred and thirty-two thousand four hundred and +four_ immigrants, or a number almost equal in amount to the +entire white population of the country at the time of the +Revolution. [Footnote 117] Those arrivals included natives of +every country in Europe, China, Turkey, Arabia, East and West +Indies, South America, Mexico, and the lower British Provinces. +Emigrants from Ireland and Germany were of course largely in +excess of all others. Until 1861, these two countries were nearly +equally represented, the numbers from them for fourteen years +previously being respectively 1,107,034 and 979,575, or nearly +four fifths of the whole arrivals. Since that year the German +element has largely preponderated, and is now equal to one half +the entire immigration. England, Scotland, France, and +Switzerland follow next in rotation, the northern countries of +Europe supplying a respectable number in proportion to their +sparse population, and the southern countries, like Spain and +Portugal, comparatively few. + + [Footnote 117: We are indebted to Bernard Casserly, Esq., the + efficient General Superintendent under the Commissioners of + Emigration, for the following official report of arrivals at + Castle Garden: + + 1847, 129,062 + 1848, 189,176 + 1849, 220,791 + 1850, 212,603 + 1851, 289,601 + 1852, 300,992 + 1853, 284,945 + 1854, 319,223 + 1855, 136,233 + 1856, 142,342 + 1857, 183,773 + 1858, 78,589 + 1859, 79,322 + 1860, 105,162 + 1861, 65,539 + 1862, 76,306 + 1863, 167,844 + 1864, 182,396 + 1865, 196,352 + 1866, 233,418 + 1867, 242,730 + + Total, 3,832,404] + +It were beyond the scope of this article to enter into an +extended inquiry as to the cause of this unequal abandonment of +nationality on the part of our new denizens. The misgovernment of +Ireland, which culminated in the terrible famine of 1846-7-8, and +the natural affinity of the people of that country for the +advantages afforded by free governments, will easily account for +the immensity of their numbers who have sought political and +social independence in this republic; while the low rewards of +labor and the heavy burdens of taxation experienced by the German +in his own home, form powerful incentives in his economical mind +to change his condition and abandon the fatherland of which he is +so justly proud. The same reasons, to a lesser extent perhaps, +operate on Englishmen and Scotchmen, with the additional one of +the rapid growth of our infant manufactures requiring the +experience of the workmen of Leeds, Birmingham, and Glasgow. +Spain and Portugal, the pioneers of immigration in former ages, +though now not essentially an emigrant people, as a general rule +prefer Central and South America, where their languages are +spoken and their religion universally established; while France, +of all European countries the least disposed to colonization, +has, on account of political troubles, sent us many of her best +mechanics, and Italy some of her finest artists. + +With the influx of such vast unorganized masses of strangers, +representing all conditions, ages, and degrees, into one port, +and considering the unusual trials and dangers of a long +sea-voyage, it is not to be wondered at that a great amount of +sickness and distress should be developed; but we are glad to +know that all that private benevolence and judicious legislation +could do has been done for the unfortunate. +{401} +Refuges for the destitute and hospitals for the sick have been +established in this neighborhood. Employment for the idle, food +for the hungry, and transportation for the penniless have been +provided by the Commissioners of Emigration with a free and even +profuse liberality. Nearly thirty _per centum_of the total +arrivals, each year, have been thus benefited without any cost +whatever to the state, the money required being derived from a +fund created mainly by a small commutation-tax on each emigrant +passenger. Though this fund, as we have said, is especially +intended for the protection and support of immigrants, a portion +of it has necessarily been expended in the erection or purchase +of valuable buildings, requisite for the purposes of the +commission, all of which will revert to the state when no longer +required for their original objects.[Footnote 118] + + [Footnote 118: This property, besides some on Staten Island, + consists of one hundred and eight acres of land with water + rights, etc., on Ward's Island, in the East River, upon which + the commissioners have built very spacious and substantial + structures, such as five hospitals capable of accommodating + eight hundred patients; four houses of refuge for destitute + males and females; a nursery, lunatic asylum, and two + chapels, besides a number of residences for the officers of + these institutions, out-offices, etc.--_See Commissioners' + Report_, 1868.] + +But this is not the only direct pecuniary advantage which we +derive from immigration. In 1856 it was ascertained that the +average cash means of every person landing at Castle Garden was +about sixty-eight dollars, a sum which, considering the improved +condition of those who have since arrived, must amount to much +more _per capita_, still, taking the standard of that year, +we find that in twenty-one years over three hundred and twenty +millions of dollars have been brought to the country and put into +direct circulation. Its effect on our shipping interest will be +appreciated when we learn that during 1867 there were engaged in +the passenger business alone, at this port, two hundred and +forty-five sailing vessels and four hundred and four steamships, +requiring large investments of capital and employing thousands of +men. + +It would be impossible to estimate the indirect stimulus given to +the general interests of the Union by the acquisition of so much +skilled labor and brawny muscle. We can see its developments, +however, in the rapid rise of our towns and cities, the superior +condition of arts and manufactures, and the extraordinary +increase of our agricultural productions. Coming from so many +lands, each heretofore celebrated for some peculiar excellence, +the European artisan, while he does not necessarily excel his +American fellow-workmen in the aggregate, contributes his special +knowledge to the general stock of industrial information. The +Swede brings his knowledge of metallurgy, the Englishman of +woolens, the Italian of silk; the German, of grape culture, and +the Frenchman, of those finer fabrics and arts of design for +which his country has been so long famous. When the ancient +Grecian sculptor designed to make a representation of the human +form in all its perfection, he selected, it is said, six +beautiful living models, copying from each some member more +perfect than the rest, and thus, by the combination of several +excellences, modelled a perfect and harmonious whole, in which +were combined grace, beauty, and harmony. So the republic, +availing itself of the genius and skill which every country sends +us so superabundantly, may attain that general superiority in the +arts of peace which was formerly divided among many nations. + +{402} + +The destination of this flood of knowledge and strength forms not +the least interesting phase of this subject. From the data before +us, we find that the State of New York retains about forty-four +per cent; the Western States receive over twenty five; the Middle +States, eleven; the New England States, eight; the Pacific slope, +two, and the Southern States a little less than two per cent, the +residue being scattered among various portions of the continent +outside of our jurisdiction. The comparatively small number who +have sought homes in the South may be accounted for partly by the +occurrence of our late civil war, but principally by the peculiar +organization of labor in that section before the abolition of +slavery. In [the] future we may expect a much greater percentage +of people, particularly from Southern Europe, to assist in +developing the almost inexhaustible wealth of such states as +Georgia and Tennessee. It is to be regretted that no record has +been kept of the nationalities and occupations of those who so +instinctively choose their favorite sections of our country; but +our own everyday experience, and the laws of labor and climate, +enable us to form a sufficiently accurate general opinion. +Irishmen, though not adverse to agricultural pursuits, generally +prefer large cities and towns, like those of New England, where +skilled labor is least required in the production of fabrics. The +Germans, on the contrary, though quite numerous in New York, +Philadelphia, and St. Louis, avoid New England, and prefer +farming in the Western States, in some of which they already form +a majority of the rural population. Englishmen are to be met with +either in the Eastern factories or in the Atlantic cities, +keeping up a business connection with their countrymen at home. +Frenchmen find a market for their superior mechanical skill amid +the luxury of large cities, and are seldom tillers of the soil, +while a Welsh miner (if he do[es] not find his way to Salt Lake) +goes as naturally to Pennsylvania, and the slate quarries of New +York and Vermont, as the Swede and Norwegian do to the northern +parts of Michigan and Wisconsin. The mode of emigration may have +something to do with these selections. The continental nations, +particularly the Germans, understand migration better than their +insular neighbors, always leaving home in families and groups, +and settling down in small colonies where, as in all new +countries, union is strength; but the inhabitants of Ireland and +the other islands of the United Kingdom too frequently emigrate, +one member of a family at a time, without system or organization, +to the great disruption of those ties of relationship which are +always a bond of unity and a source of comfort, amid the +hardships attendant on great changes of habitation. + +Considering the various manners, habits, and opinions of so many +nationalities, some of them, if not repugnant, at least strange +to the native-born of America, the power of absorption possessed +by the people of the United States is astonishing. Columbia, +taking to her ample bosom the fiery Celt and the phlegmatic +Teuton, the self-asserting Briton and the _débonnaire_ Gaul, +smiles complacently at their peculiarities, or, remembering the +good qualities which underlie such eccentricities, waits +patiently for time and example to cure them; and we venture to +assert that the German feels himself as free to indulge in his +national games and festivals in New York or Buffalo as if he were +in Vienna or Berlin, and the Irishman can dance as lively and +attend a wake or a wedding with as light a heart, and as free +from hindrance as if he had never left his own green isle. +{403} +In justice, also, to the immigrant, it must be said that, once +settled in America, he gives to its government his hearty and +unqualified allegiance, notwithstanding the occasional spasmodic +attempts of a despicable few to subject him to ridicule and +social ostracism. How many instances do we find of worthy men +who, having gained a competency here, acting upon that natural +and beautiful love of native land, return to the homes of their +childhood to end their days, but who almost invariably return to +us and the scenes of their manhood's toils and triumphs! + +There are two other sources of accession to our population, +independent of that of acquisition of territory, which are worthy +of notice. The first, of present importance, is the passage of +our borders by natives of Lower Canada, and which, though now +more than usually remarkable, has been going on quietly but +steadily for at least a hundred years. [Footnote 119] + + [Footnote 119: Five hundred French Canadians took passage at + Montreal, C. E., for the United States, in one week, during + March, 1869.] + +The French Canadians are a decidedly _unique_ people. +Originally from Normandy, early deprived of the protection of +France, and practically cut off from their fellow-countrymen by +the cessation of emigration, they have still retained all the +primitive simplicity, keenness, and hardiness of their ancestors. +Increasing in numbers with extraordinary rapidity, they have +tenaciously adhered to their faith, language, and manners of +life, in face of the opposition of a dominant and intolerant +master. They have not only, so far, held their own against +English laws and customs; but, despite the increase of British +colonists among them, they have nearly, if not altogether, kept +pace in numbers with the English-speaking inhabitants of the two +Canadas. They have likewise constantly shot forth numerous hardy +offshoots which have taken root and flourished in the far west. +Detroit, La Salle, Dubuque, St. Louis, St. Paul, Sault Ste. +Marie, and many other western centres of wealth and population, +were first selected and settled by those enterprising followers +of Jacques Cartier and the missionary fathers, and their names +are still honored in those places. Many of the later immigrants +from Canada find employment in our seaboard cities, but the +majority either still seek the northwest, as being more congenial +in climate, and offering more opportunities for that spirit of +adventure which distinguishes the race, or go directly to +California, where so many of the French people have already +settled. + +The Chinese immigration to the Pacific coast is one of the most +unaccountable events in the history of that section of our +country, and one which may well attract serious public attention. +Those people, remarkable for centuries for their ingenuity and +industry, as well as for their exclusiveness and dislike to +foreigners, have at last crossed the Rubicon that confined them +within the limits of the Celestial empire, and when we reflect +that that empire contains within itself nearly half the +population of the world, we can readily suppose that a few +millions, more or less, transplanted to the new world would not +very perceptibly diminish its influence or strength. The Chinamen +are represented as quiet and docile, economical in their way of +living, and working for small wages, and as being eminently +adapted for the building of railroads, and the development of the +mineral wealth with which nature has so lavishly enriched the +territory on both slopes of the Rocky Mountains, and, being as +yet only a moiety of the population, are easily controlled. But, +should the tide of Asiatic emigration commence to flow freely +eastward, the gravest fears are entertained by many that it would +lead either to the systematic oppression or even partial +enslavement of the Chinese themselves, or to the deterioration of +the Caucasians of that beautiful region, soon destined to become +the garden of America. + +{404} + +Taking into account, however, the great adaptability of all +classes of immigrants in this country to the condition of affairs +by which they find themselves surrounded, the fears of even a +Chinese invasion appear groundless. Every day and year bring with +them large accessions of energetic and healthy minds to the ranks +of the native-born Americans--some the children of the sons of +the soil; others, of adopted citizens; but all American in spirit +and purpose, no matter what their parentage. Even this uniformity +extends to their _physique_, and it has been remarked by +visitors to our shores that the native-born boy or girl, however +dissimilar the peculiar physical traits of their progenitors, +presents strong points of resemblance in figure and face to each +other. Something of this may be accounted for by food and +climate, training and association, but much more by the fact of +the admixture of races constantly going forward. The heavy +features of the northern European are more or less elongated and +brightened into thoughtful cheerfulness in his American child, +while the angularity and pugnacity supposed to be characteristic +of the Celtic countenance are reduced to finer lines of grace and +repose in their cis-Atlantic descendants. + +Taking American character as it stood at the beginning of this +century, we cannot deny our admiration of its essential features, +though many of its details were susceptible of improvement. Our +stateliness had a tendency to what is now generally called +Puritanism, and our simplicity was apt to degenerate into +parsimoniousness. Our ancestors wanted a little more breadth of +view, a little leaven of the poetry of life to mix with its stern +realities, and a great deal more love for innocent amusements, +and taste for the fine arts, which make man feel more kindly to +his fellow, and raise him so high above irrational animals. +Immigration has done much for us in this way, and we have done +something for ourselves. If we have extended to the strangers +within our gates hospitality, protection, and the rewards of +labor, they have paid us with the sculpture of Italy, the music +of Germany, the melodies of Ireland, and the fashions of France. +It has not only done this, but it has reproduced and naturalized +the love for them, and made them "racy of the soil." But what is +of more importance than all, it has efficiently helped the spread +of true religious faith over this portion of the continent. True, +there were Catholics and very good ones here, even in colonial +times; but they were few in number, and so scattered over the +country that they were in constant danger either of losing their +faith for want of spiritual ministration or were powerless to +assert their proper position before the opposing sects. We have +now not only numbers, but the influence that flows from numbers, +and generously and judiciously has our immigrant population used +the power inherent in it. During the late civil strife which so +afflicted our country, and endangered the Union, citizens by +adoption vied with citizens by birth in defence of our +institutions, and in their contributions to works of piety, +charity, and education they have been so profuse that to others +the results of their charities seem little short of miraculous. +{405} +Even those who have come among us of a different creed, or no +creed at all, have here a better opportunity of learning the +truth than they have had in their own countries. Unfettered by +statecraft or sectional laws, the Catholic priesthood have a +field of labor in America such as the whole of Europe cannot +present, and an audience composed of as many races as the sons of +Adam represent. Realizing the great things done by our +immigrants, and what may yet be expected from them, we hope to +see their protection and welfare occupy a portion, at least, of +the attention of our national and state authorities. But it is +not enough that the law has so completely thrown its protecting +shield over them. Individual charity can do much to supply the +deficiencies which every general law presents. In the city of New +York, especially, where a great deal has already been done by the +commissioners to whose especial care the immigrants are entrusted +by law, much remains still to be performed, in view of the +hundreds of thousands of strangers who may annually be expected +among us, for the next decade, at least. + +---------- + + Vigil. + + + I. + + Mournful night is dark around me, + Hushed the world's conflicting din; + All is still and all is tranquil-- + But this restless heart within! + + + II. + + Wakeful still I press my pillow, + Watch the stars that float above, + Think of _One_ for me who suffered; + Think, and weep for grief and love! + + III. + + Flow, ye tears, though in your streaming + Oft yon stars of his grow dim! + Sweet the tender grief _he_ wakens, + Blest the tears that flow for him!' + + Richard Storrs Willis. + +------- + +{406} + + The Geography of Roses. + + +Wherever man has found a dwelling-place, bounteous nature has +conferred on him not only the necessaries of life, but a share +also of its pleasures. From "sultry India to the pole," the +useful and the beautiful are met with side by side. The bright +poppy and the blue cornflower rise with the wheat-ear in the same +broad field; the sweet-smelling amaryllis and the delicate iris +unfold their variegated petals among the thick stalks of the +African maize, while the marsh-rose and the water-lily float on +the surface of the waters that inundate the rice-grounds of Egypt +and India. + +It is evident that nature regards these fair blossoms as +indispensable to man's happiness as those other more substantial +gifts are to his comfort and existence; and so, with lavish hand, +she scatters them on the mountain and in the valley, amidst +plains of burning sand, or half-buried in snow and ice. + + "Floral apostles! that in dewy splendor + Weep without woe, and blush without a crime, + Oh! may I deeply learn, and ne'er surrender, + Your law sublime. + + "Not useless are ye, flowers! though made for pleasure. + Blooming o'er field and wave, by day and night, + From every source your sanction bids me treasure + Harmless delight. + + "Ephemeral sages! what instructors hoary + For such a world of thought could furnish scope? + Each fading calyx a _memento mori_, + Yet fount of hope." + +The rose, fairest of the floral train, has been said by some +botanists to take its birth in Asia. "The east, the cradle of the +first man," writes a French author, "is also the native place of +the rose; the flowery hillsides near the chain of the frowning +Caucasus were the first spots on earth adorned with this charming +shrub." We do not incline to this opinion, for the researches of +science have proved that the lovely flower is found in every +clime, from the arctic circle to the torrid zone, and that under +every sun it seems to be endowed with some different grace. The +same species is sometimes met with over a whole continent; +another is unknown beyond the limits of a certain province; while +another again never leaves the mountain or dale where it first +shed its sweetness on the air. Thus Pollin's rose (_rosa +Pollinaria_) is never found but at the foot of Monte Baldo in +Italy, nor the Lyon rose (_rosa Lyonii_) out of the State of +Tennessee; while the field-rose (_rosa arvensis_) trails its +long branches and clusters of white flowers all over Europe, and +the dog-rose (_rosa canina_) displays its pale pink petals +and scarlet hips, not only throughout Europe, but also in +northern Asia and a part of America. + +So numerous, indeed, are the varieties of this favorite of +nature, that we will not attempt to describe all that are +peculiar to each country; we will confine our attention to those +only most remarkable for their beauty, and most easy of culture. + +First on the list of American roses, and far away among the +eternal ice that covers the almost desert regions which lie +between the seventieth and seventy-fifth degrees of north +latitude, blooms _rosa blanda_, the charming +_soft-colored_ rose, which as soon as the sun has melted the +snow in the valleys opens its large corolla, always solitary on +its graceful stem, to the warm breathings from the south. +{407} +We can picture to ourselves the delight of the stunted, +amphibious Greenlander, when, the long months of the fierce +winter past, he suddenly meets the expanding blossom. He smiles +as he remembers how his young wife mourned last year over the +death of the flowers, and he plucks the first rose of Greenland's +short summer to carry back to her as a proof that she must ever +hope and trust. + + "Why must the flowers die? + Prisoned they lie + In the cold tomb, heedless of tears and rain. + O doubting heart! + They only sleep below + The soft white ermine snow: + While winter winds shall blow, + To breathe and smile on you again!" + +_Rosa blanda's_ nearest neighbor is the pretty _rosa +rap_ of Hudson's Bay, whose slender, graceful branches are +laden in the early summer with corymbs of pale pink double +flowers. Nature herself has doubled _rosa rapa's_ sweet +corolla, as if she had foreseen that the wandering tribes of +Esquimaux who inhabit those inclement shores would have too much +to do in their never-ending struggle to pick up a precarious +existence ever to busy themselves with the culture of the cold, +unyielding soil. + +_Rosa blanda_ and _rosa rapa_ are still at home in +Labrador and Newfoundland, but with them two remarkable +varieties--the ash-leaved rose, (_rosa fraxinifolia_,) with +small red heart-shaped petals, and the lustrous rose, (_rosa +nitida_,) which shelters its brilliant red cup-like flower and +fruit beneath the scraggy trees that grow sparsely along the +coast. The lustrous rose is a great favorite with the young +Esquimaux maidens, who dress their black hair with its shining +cups, and wear bunches of it, "embowered in its own green +leaves," in the bosom of their seal-skin robes. + +The United States possess a great number of different roses. At +the foot of almost every rocky acclivity we meet the rose with +diffuse branches, (_rosa diffusa_,) whose pink flowers, +growing in couples on their stem, appear at the beginning of the +summer. On the slopes of the Pennsylvanian hills blooms the +small-flowered rose, (_rosa parviflora_,) an elegant little +species bearing double flowers of the most delicate pink; it may +fairly vie in beauty with all other American roses. In most of +the Middle States, on the verge of the "mossy forests, by the +bee-bird haunted," we find the straight-stemmed rose, (_rosa +stricta_,) with light red petals, and the brier-leaved rose, +(_rosa rubifolia_,) with small, pale red flowers, growing +generally in clusters of three. + +The silken rose (_rosa setigera_) opens its great red +petals, shaped like an inverted heart, beneath the "cloistered +boughs" of South Carolina's woods, and in Georgia the magnificent +smooth-leaved rose, (_rosa loevigata_,) known in its native +wilds as the Cherokee rose, climbs to the very summit of the +great forest trees, then swings itself off in festoons of large +white flowers glancing like stars amidst their glossy, dark green +leaves. + +When we leave the hills and woodlands, we find the marshes of the +Carolinas gay with the _rosa evratina_, the _rosa +Carolina_, and the _rosa lucida_, the resplendent rose, +whose corymbs of brilliant red flowers overtop the reeds among +which they love to blossom; while, nearer to the setting sun, we +see the pink petals of Wood's rose (_rosa Woodsii_) +reflected in the waters of the great Missouri. + +The last American rose we shall note in this slight sketch is the +rose of Montezuma, (_rosa Montezumae_,) a solitary, +sweet-scented, pale red flower with defenceless branches. It was +discovered by Humboldt and Bonpland on the elevated peaks of the +Cerro Ventoso, in Mexico, and is perhaps the very rose of which +the unhappy Guatimozin thought when writhing on his bed of +burning charcoal. + +{408} + +These are some of the species yet known to belong peculiarly to +the western hemisphere; but it is highly probable that many +others remain still to be discovered. When we remember the +prodigality with which nature lavishes her gifts, we cannot +believe that while France alone possesses twenty-four varieties +of roses, all described by De Candolle in his _Flore +Française_, the great American continent owns but fifteen. + +We will commence our European rose search in that most +unpromising of all spots, Iceland; there, where volcanic fire and +polar ice seem to dispute possession of the unhappy soil. So +scarce is every kind of vegetation in this rude clime, that the +miserable inhabitants are frequently compelled to feed their +cows, sheep, and horses on dried fish. And yet even here, growing +from the fissures of the barren rocks, a solitary cup-shaped rose +opens its pale petals to the transient sunbeams of summer. This +hardy little plant is, as its name, _rosa spinosissima_, +indicates, covered all over with prickles. Its cream-colored +flowers, numerous and solitary, are sometimes tinged with pink on +the outside, and its fruit, at first red, becomes perfectly black +when ripe. + +In Lapland, too, a country almost as disinherited by nature as +Iceland, the pretty little May rose (_rosa maïalis_) expands +its bright red corolla even before the tardy sun has melted away +all the snow that has covered it during nine long months. A +little later on, in the full blush of the short summer, "when the +pine has a fringe of softer green," the Lapp maidens gather the +blood-red flowers of the _rosa rubella_ among the stunted +trees whose parasitical mosses and lichens afford a scanty +nourishment to the flocks of reindeer, sole riches of the land. + +The May rose is also found in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and +Russia, together with the cinnamon rose (_rosa cinnamomea_,) +and several other species. + +England claims ten indigenous roses, many of them, however, +exceedingly difficult to distinguish from each other. The most +common is the dog-rose or Eglantine, found in every hedge and +thicket, and very precious to rose-cultivators, its elegant, +straight, vigorous stems being admirable for receiving grafts. +The light pink corolla is slightly perfumed. In olden times the +scarlet fruit was made into conserve, and highly esteemed in +tarts, but it seems now to be abandoned to the birds. The _rosa +arvensis_, a small shrub with long trailing branches and white +flowers, and the burnet-leaved rose, which resembles the _rosa +spinosissima_ of Iceland, are also very frequently met. But +the pride of the southern counties is the _rosa rubiginosa_, +the true sweet-briar, with deep pink petals and leaves of the +most delicious fragrance; a flower that seems to belong as +peculiarly to the soft English spring as the primrose and violet, +and like them to be emblematic of the English girl, delicate in +her beauty, modest and retiring in her garb and manners, and +diffusing around her an atmosphere of gentle sweetness. Such, at +least, was the English girl five-and-twenty years ago; it is said +that hoops and boots and croquet have produced strange changes. +Alas! that simplicity and modesty and sweetness should ever go +out of fashion. + +{409} + +In the Scotch fir-woods is found the rose with rolled petals, +(_rosa involuta_.) The large flowers are red and white, and +the remarkably sombre leaves when rubbed between the fingers give +forth a strong smell of turpentine, an odor the plant has +probably acquired from the resinous trees that shelter it. All +the rugged mountains of Scotland possess their roses; the _rosa +sabini_, with clustering flowers, and the villous or hairy +rose, (_rosa villosa_,) with white or deep red, are the most +worthy of notice. + +It is only in the environs of Belfast that we encounter the Irish +rose, (_rosa hibernica_,) a species somewhat resembling both +the _spinosissima_ and the _canina_. The other roses of +beautiful Ireland are identical with those of England. + +The fields and forests of France have been richly endowed with +nature's favorite flower. Our now well-known friend _canina_ +flourishes there also in every hedge and by every wood-side, +together with a pretty white rose, (_rosa alba_,) which has +been very successfully cultivated in gardens. The smiling +hill-sides around Dijon are gay with the lovely little crimson +double flowers of the rose of Champagne, (_rosa +parviflora;_) and, in the south, the yellow rose (_rosa +eglantaria_) and its varieties surpass all others in the +richness of their coloring; their petals sometimes gleaming with +the brightest gold, sometimes deepening into a brilliant orange +red, sometimes reproducing both hues in vivid flecks and streaks. +The woods of Auvergne are bedecked with the small red solitary +corollas of the cinnamon rose, (_rosa cinnamomea_,) so +called from the color of its stalks; and in the department of the +eastern Pyrenees the musk-rose blooms spontaneously in +magnificent corymbs. This exquisitely scented species is also +extensively cultivated for its aromatic essential oil; one of its +kindred is the nutmeg rose, a pretty flower that smells of the +spice. + +The Province rose, so often remarkable for its variegated petals +of white, crimson, and pink, is a variety of the rose of France, +(_rosa gallica_,) a species that has given horticulturists a +great number of beautiful offshoots. + +Crossing the Pyrenean mountains, we again meet with the +musk-rose, but this time in close companionship with the rose of +Spain, (_rosa hispanica_,) whose bright red petals expand in +the month of May. + +In the Balearic Islands the climbing branches of the evergreen +rose (_rosa semper-virens_,) are seen constantly arrayed in +lustrous green leaves mingled with innumerable white perfumed +flowers. This beautiful rose is also found in other parts of the +south of Europe, and in Barbary. + +We have already mentioned Polin's rose, a sweet Italian blossom +which never strays from the foot of Monte Baldo, in the +neighborhood of Verona. Its large crimson corollas open in +handsome clusters. + +Sicily and Greece possess the gluey rose, (_rosa +glutinosa,_) a small, red, solitary flower, with glandular, +viscous leaflets. + +Germany is poorer in native roses than any other part of Europe; +nevertheless nowhere do the blossoms of the field-rose display +such beauty, unless, indeed, among the mountains of Switzerland. +Nowhere else are they so large, so deeply tinted, and +_double_. Germany also gives birth to the curious turbinated +rose, (_rosa turbinata_,) whose double corolla rests on a +top-shaped ovary. + +The whole chain of the Alps abounds with roses. The field-rose, +and the ruby-red Alpine rose, (_rosa alpina_,) an elegant +shrub which has contributed many esteemed varieties to our +gardens, bloom in admirable luxuriance in every forest glade and +mountain dingle; while the red-leaved rose, (_rosa +rubrifolia_,) with red stalks and dark red petals, stands out +in the summer landscape, a charming contrast to the green foliage +of the surrounding trees. + +{410} + +The leaves of another species growing among the pines and firs of +these elevated regions, the rose with prickly leaflets, (_rosa +spinulifolia_,) emit when rubbed the same odor of turpentine +that we have already noticed in the _rosa involuta_of +Scotland. It is singular to observe that the only two roses we +know with this smell are both natives of pine-covered mountains. + +The east has for ages been esteemed the home of flowers; almost +as soon as we can lisp, we are taught that + + "In eastern lands they talk with flowers, + And they tell in a garland their loves and cares; + Each blossom that blooms in their garden bowers + On its leaves a mystic language bears." + +And in joyous youth who has not dreamed of that "bower of roses +by Bendemeer's stream," so sweetly sung by the Irish bard? The +very name of India reminds one of Nourmahal and of that most +enchanting of all feasts, "the feast of roses." + +It will then scarcely surprise any one to be told that Asia, the +birthplace of the great human family, is also the birthplace of +more varieties of roses than all the other parts of the world put +together. Thirty-nine species have been discovered indigenous to +this favored portion of the globe, fifteen of which belong to the +Chinese empire. + +One of the prettiest of these fifteen is the Lawrence rose, +(_rosa Lawrenceana_,) a fairy-like bush, six inches high, +with flowers not much larger than a silver dime, blooming all the +year round. By the side of this pigmy tree, which we must not +forget to observe is remarkable for the symmetry of its +proportions, is often found the many-flowered rose, (_rosa +multiflora_,) whose flexible branches, rising sometimes to the +height of sixteen feet, are covered in the early summer with +magnificent clusters of pale pink double flowers. + +Among the many double Chinese roses, the small-leaved one +(_rosa microphylla_) is highly prized and most assiduously +cultivated in its native land. Its delicate foliage and pale pink +very double flowers are well known also to the rose-fanciers of +the United States. Another beautiful variety, the _rosa +Banksiae_, climbs the rocky fells of China, hiding their +rugged barrenness with a living curtain of verdure, enamelled +with multitudes of little drooping flowers of a yellowish white, +which exhale the sweet odor of violets. + +Cochin-China, with these same species, lays claim to two others +that we must notice; the very thorny rose, (_rosa +spinosissima_,) with scentless flesh-colored petals, and the +white rose, (_rosa alba_,) which we also find indigenous in +France, Lombardy, and other parts of Europe. Japan, besides the +roses of China, possesses the _rosa rugosa_, the only one +peculiar to the clime. + +Passing on to Hindostan, we may believe that the tiger which +prowls along the burning shores of the Bay of Bengal ofttimes +crouches under the boughs blooming with the lovely white corollas +of the many-bracted rose (_rosa involucrata_) to make his +deadly spring, and that the crocodiles of the Ganges find secure +hiding-places to lie in wait for their prey, beneath the +ever-succeeding red blossoms and never-fading luxuriant foliage +of the _rosa semperflorens_. How often, all the world over, +are sweetest things but lurking-places for pain and death! + +{411} + +Among the hills of the peninsula we meet the large-leaved rose, +(_rosa macrophylla_,) the tips of whose white petals are +each stained with a small bright red spot; and on the margin of +the sunny lakes of cool Cashmere, the milk-white flowers of +Lyell's rose, (_rosa Lyellii_,) a beautiful species that has +been successfully acclimatized in France. + +In the gardens of Kandahar, Samarcand, and Ispahan the rose +_tree_ (_rosa arborea_) is cultivated; a real tree, +with wide-spreading branches, covered in the spring with snowy +flowers of the richest perfume, making fragrant the surrounding +hill and dales. In Persia we also find the barberry-leaved rose, +(_rosa berberifolia_,) a singular variety which displays a +star-like yellow corolla marked in the centre with a deep crimson +stain. So unlike is this flower to all others of the family that +one feels almost inclined to deny its claim to any relationship +with the queen of flowers. Science, however, has decided that the +_rosa berberifolia_ is a true rose. + +Further on to the west, beneath "the sultry blue of Syria's +heaven," we encounter the lovely corymbs of the damask rose, +(_rosa damascena_,) with crimson velvet or variegated petals +and gold-colored stamens. It is said that the valiant knights who +accompanied the French king Saint Louis to the Crusades brought +back with them to France this beautiful flower, an ever-living +witness of their prowess in the Holy Land. It is as beloved by +the honey-bees of Europe as its wilder sisters on the sweet banks +of Jordan have ever been by the blossom-rifling rovers of +Palestine. + +As the rose-seeker wanders forth from Syria toward the north he +is arrested for a moment by the vivid yellow double flowers of +the _rosa sulfurea_, but has scarcely time to admire them, +graceful though they be, before he catches sight of the loveliest +and most fragrant of all roses, the _rosa centifolia_, the +hundred-leaved rose, the rose of the nightingale, the rose of the +poet! + + "Rose! what dost thou here? + Bridal, royal rose! + How, 'midst grief and fear, + Canst thou thus disclose + That fervid hue of love which to thy heart-leaf glows? + + "Smilest thou, gorgeous flower? + Oh! within the spells + Of thy beauty's power + Something dimly dwells + At variance with a world of sorrows and farewells. + + "All the soul forth-flowing + In that rich perfume, + All the proud life glowing + In that radiant bloom, + Have they no place but _here_, beneath th' o'ershadowing tomb? + + "Crown'st thou but the daughters + Of our tearful race? + Heaven's own purest waters + Well might wear the trace + Of thy consummate form, melting to softer grace. + + "Will that clime enfold thee + With immortal air? + Shall we not behold thee + Bright and deathless there? + In spirit-lustre clothed, transcendently more fair!" + +The valleys of Circassia and Georgia are the birthplace of this +most beautiful of flowers, of whose exquisite form, color, and +perfume even Mrs. Hemans's rapturous verses can give no idea. + +The fierce rose (_rosa ferox_) is sometimes found mingling +its great red flowers with those of _rosa centifolia_, and +the pulverulent rose (_rosa pulverulenta_) dwells near them +on the declivities of the Peak of Manzana. + +As we hasten on through the dreary steppes of Russian Asia, we +meet the sad-looking yellowish rose, dismal in aspect as the land +it lives in, and more remarkable for its great pulpy hip than for +its flower. A little nearer to the north, the handsome, +large-flowered rose (_rosa grandiflora_) expands its elegant +corolla in the form of an antique vase, and on the plains lying +at the foot of the Ural mountains the reddish rose, (_rosa +rubella_,) with petals sometimes rich and deep in color, but +more often faint and faded-looking, gladdens for a moment the +heart-sore Polish exile as he wends his weary way to his living +grave, faint and faded-looking as the flower that reminds him of +his distant home. + +{412} + +Despite the cold breath of the frozen ocean, the acicular rose +(_rosa acicularis_) lives and thrives on its shores, and +regularly opens its pale-red solitary blossoms at the first call +of the short-lived Siberian summer. The icy breezes of the frigid +zone may have done much, however, toward developing the +ill-natured tendency to long, needle-like thorns to which this +rose owes its uncouth name. + +Omitting ten or twelve other varieties, we will conclude the list +of the indigenous roses of Asia with the rose of Kamtschatka, +(_rosa Kamtschatica_,) a beautiful solitary flower of a +pinkish white color, and bearing some resemblance to the _rosa +rugosa_ of Japan. + +The roses of Africa are still to be discovered; its vast +unexplored regions perhaps contain many as beautiful as those we +possess, but at present we are only acquainted with four or five +species, one of which, the dog-rose, so common all over Europe, +is a native of Egypt. Among the mountains of Abyssinia blooms a +pretty red variety with evergreen foliage, and on the borders of +that "wild expanse of lifeless sand," the great Sahara in Egypt, +and on the plains of Tunis and of Morocco, the corymbs of the +white musk-rose (_rosa moschata_) perfume the ambient air. +This charming flower is also indigenous to the Island of Madeira. + +We have thus taken a bird's-eye view of the rose's +_habitat_, passing over much of interesting, much of curious +that has been written about the favorite flower. We might go on +and mention the singular and marvellous virtues attributed to it +by the ancients; we might (were we learned) learnedly discourse +on the Island of Rhodes, whose coins are found bearing the effigy +of the rose; of the rose-noble, and the old English fashion of +wearing a rose behind the ear; we might describe the gardens of +Ghazipour and the whole process of extracting the delicious attar +of roses; we might hint at the mysterious influence the scented +blossom appears to exercise over some strangely organized +individuals, who seem capable "of dying of a rose, in aromatic +pain;" but we prefer to conclude here our sketch of the geography +of roses. + +Unlearned and superficial as we well know it is, it may show some +pleasant meanings to the young lover of flowers, and awaken his +curiosity to examine for himself the floral treasures that bloom +in every field, garden, and grove. Such a study will do more +toward filling his heart with a spirit of love and peace, and +elevating his mind above purely material cares, than any other +pursuit; for + + "Where does the Wisdom and the Power divine + In a more bright and sweet reflection shine?" + +"From nature up to nature's God" is the natural result of all +scientific investigations which are carried on with a real +capacity of observation and a sincere love of truth. Feeling and +thought, purified and sanctified by constant intercourse with the +high objects of life, with the enduring things of nature, fail +not to recognize the "Wisdom and the Spirit of the universe" in +his works. + + "Were I, O God! in churchless lands remaining, + Far from all voice of teachers or divines, + My soul would find, in flowers of thy ordaining, + Priests, sermons, shrines!" + +---------- + +{413} + + Spanish Life and Character. [Footnote 120] + + [Footnote 120: _Impressions of Spain_. By Lady + Herbert. New York: The Catholic Publication Society. + 1869. + + _Letters from Spain_. By William Cullen Bryant. 12mo. + New York: D. Appleton & Co. + + _Voyage en Espagne_. Par M. Eugène Poitou. 8vo, pp. + 483. Tours: A. Mame et Fila. 1869.] + +Lady Herbert strikes the key-note of her narrative of Spanish +travel about the middle of the book. "Catholicism in Spain," she +remarks, "is not merely the religion of the people: _it is +their life_." Precisely because she feels this life, and, +despite her English common sense, sympathizes with the Spanish +people in their strong religious sentiment, she describes them +with a rare fidelity, and gives us, if not a highly colored, a +very vivid picture. No traveller who is not a Catholic can paint +Spain as she is. Mr. Bryant looked at the people with a kindly +eye; but he did not understand them. From him, as well as from +the common run of English and American tourists, we get mere +surface sketches--pleasant enough to read, perhaps, but that is +all. Protestant travellers see no more of the popular life and +character than if they sailed over the country in a balloon. They +find the diligences marvels of antiquated discomfort; the +railways, miracles of unpunctuality and slowness; travel, a +hardship which there is little attempt to alleviate. They find +that in Spain no Spaniard is ever in a hurry, and no stranger is +allowed to be so either. If they are kept shivering at a roadside +station three or four hours in the midst of the night, waiting +for some lumbering railway train, on a seatless, unsheltered +platform, they get no commiseration from the surly officials but +an exhortation to "paciencia." If government is bad and robbers +are bold, the Spaniard goes on sipping his sugared water and +repeats, "Paciencia, paciencia!" If the country is two or three +generations behind the rest of Europe in all the appliances of +material comfort, why, "_Paciencia, paciencia!_" That is the +great panacea for all the ills of human life. These +peculiarities, the wretchedness and extravagant charges of all +the hotels, and the horrors of the Spanish _cuisine_, fill +most of the travellers' journals. But Lady Herbert found a plenty +of religious beauty underneath this dilapidated exterior. God and +the church are so near to the people's hearts that the mixture of +religion with the language and business of every day shocks a +stranger at first as something irreverent. Pious traditions are +familiar to every Spaniard from his cradle. They come up every +hour of the day. They color every man's conversation, they +affect, more or less intimately, everybody's conduct; nay, it is +difficult sometimes to separate them from the Spaniard's faith, +for he clings to a pious legend almost as stoutly as he holds to +an article of the creed. The peasant woman plants rosemary in her +garden, because there is a story that when our Lord was an infant +the Blessed Virgin hung out his clothes upon a rosemary bush to +dry. Red roses get their color from a drop of the Saviour's blood +which fell on them from the cross. A swallow tried to pluck the +thorns from the head of the crucified Christ, and therefore no +Spaniard will shoot a swallow. +{414} +The owl was present when our Lord expired, and since then has +ceased to sing, his only cry being "_Crux, crux!_" Half the +dogs in Spain are called Melampo, because that was the name of +the dog of the shepherds who came to Bethlehem. Protestants may +laugh at the credulity which listens to such legends, but to our +minds there is the simplicity of real piety in the national +belief, and we cannot think that God will be angry with the +people if they believe a little too much in his honor. +Protestants may sneer at the public reverence which is paid to +sacred things, and call it a gross mark of superstition to show +as much respect to the Blessed Sacrament as to a governor or a +general in the army; but we confess our sympathies are with Lady +Herbert when she describes the sentinels at San Sebastian +presenting arms as he passes before the chapel door, or the +shopkeeper who interrupts a bargain to rush out into the street +and kneel down before the Viatacum, exclaiming "_Sua maesta +viene!_" What a sweet flavor of real piety there is in the +popular term for alms, "_la bolsa de Dios_," "God's +purse!"--a purse, by the way, which is never empty. Beggars are +treated with a tenderness that is felt for them nowhere else but +in Ireland. The poor peasant may have little or nothing to give; +but if he refuses, he begs pardon for doing so. There is no city +without its charity hospitals, marvels of cleanliness, comfort, +and order. There is hardly a town without its asylum, where +religious mea or women tend the unfortunate, shelter the +destitute, feed the hungry, and rear the orphan and the +foundling. Convents have been depopulated and monastic orders +banished throughout the kingdom, but the more active brotherhoods +and sisterhoods are spared, and are doing magnificent work. The +deserted convents, magnificent in their decay, speak eloquently +of the zeal and piety of the people, whose greatest fault it is +as a nation that they have trusted too much to weak and unworthy +rulers. Every one of these religious monuments is the scene of +some holy legend, and most of them are hallowed by incidents in +the lives of saints, of whom Spain has been the birthplace and +home of so many hundreds. Lady Herbert tells a significant story +which shows how closely religion is bound up with the thoughts of +the people. She was visiting the ancient palace of Toledo, when a +peasant woman, sitting by the gate, asked the guide if the +strange lady was an Englishwoman, "because she walked so fast." +On being answered in the affirmative, she exclaimed, "Oh! what a +pity. I liked her face, and yet she is an infidel!" The guide +pointed to a little crucifix which hung from a rosary at Lady +Herbert's side, whereat the peasant sprang from her seat and +kissed both the cross and the visitor. + +Spanish courtesy even has a religious flavor. Ask a Spaniard to +point out the road, and nothing will do but he must go with you +on your way, and pray God's blessing on your head when he leaves +you. No matter how poor he may be, you must not offer money for +such services; he will be either grieved or indignant, at what +seems to him an insult. There is piety also in the Spanish +reverence for age. If an old man passes the peasant's door at +meal-time, he is offered a place at the table, and begged to ask +a blessing on the repast. + +There is, in fine, a lovable and engaging side to Spanish +character from which we cannot but expect a great and beneficial +influence upon the national destinies. Faith has its rewards even +in this life, and we cannot believe that a nation which adhered +so firmly to religion will be overthrown without some very grave +offence of its own. +{415} +The reverential tendency of Spanish character has no doubt +overpassed, in political affairs, its legitimate barriers, and +loyalty has done some mischief as well as good. Respect for +legitimate authority has not always been distinguished from a +fanatical devotion to the persons of bad or incompetent rulers. +There is a great deal of truth, albeit much falsehood likewise, +in Mr. Buckle's explanation of the causes of Spanish greatness +and Spanish decay. Give the kingdom a great sovereign, like +Charles V., and with an obedient and devoted people the nation +may be raised to the pinnacle of greatness and prosperity. But no +people which has not been taught to depend upon itself can long +keep in the van. Greatness is not inherited with titles and +possessions; weak rulers are sure to come sooner or later, and +then the country finds that it leans upon a broken reed. Spain +discovers now that she has suffered her kings to monopolize the +responsibilities which ought to have been divided among the whole +people, and their duties have not been fulfilled. The nation has +slept a sleep of centuries in the comfortable confidence that +government would take care of everything, do all the thinking, +make all the needed improvements, and educate the country as a +father educates his children. It seems to have been forgotten +that this was a task which only those mighty geniuses who appear +once in a century are strong enough to perform. An indolent, +weak, and careless ruler under the Spanish system allows his +people to lag behind in the struggle for national preëminence; a +bad ruler plunges them into misery and disgrace. Spain has +suffered terribly from both these afflictions; we do not believe, +however, that her case is desperate. While there is much in the +present condition of the kingdom to fill all thoughtful men with +alarm, there is promise in the awakened activity of national +life, and in the very spirit of revolution which is driving the +liberal party into such lamentable excesses. It is dirty work to +clean up the dust of three or four centuries. Great political +changes are almost always accompanied by disorder; but when the +uproar subsides, and new parties crystallize out of the fragments +of the present tumult, when the people feel that to be great and +prosperous they must use their own power, and cease to be fed +with a spoon, we believe that there is so much faith and piety at +the bottom of the Spanish heart, and so much real nobleness in +the national character, that a brighter destiny will be within +their reach than has beamed upon them since the days of Charles +and Philip. + + +We have wandered far away from the volume with which we began our +remarks, and left ourselves little room to praise Lady Herbert's +narrative as it deserves to be praised. We shall content +ourselves here with citing a description of a man who has +occupied a prominent place in the recent history of Spain. We +mean Father Claret, the queen's confessor: + + "One only visit was paid, which will ever remain in the memory + of the lady who had the privilege. It was to Monsignor Claret, + the confessor of the queen and Archbishop of Cuba, a man as + remarkable for his great personal holiness and ascetic life as + for the unjust accusations of which he is continually the + object. On one occasion, these unfavorable reports having + reached his ears, and being only anxious to retire into the + obscurity which his humility makes him love so well, he went to + Rome to implore for a release from his present post; but it was + refused him. +{416} + Returning through France, he happened to travel with certain + gentlemen, residents in Madrid, but unknown to him, as he was + to them, who began to speak of all the evils, real or + imaginary, which reigned in the Spanish court, the whole of + which they unhesitatingly attributed to Monsignor Claret, very + much in the spirit of the old ballad against Sir Robert Peel: + + 'Who filled the butchers' shops with big blue flies?' + + He listened without a word, never attempting either excuse or + justification, or betraying his identity. Struck with his + saint-like manner and appearance, and likewise very much + charmed with his conversation during the couple of days' + journey together, the strangers begged at parting to know his + name, expressing an earnest hope of an increased acquaintance + at Madrid. He gave them his card with a smile! Let us hope they + will be less hasty and more charitable in their judgments, for + the future. Monsignor Claret's room in Madrid is a fair type of + himself. Simple even to severity in its fittings, with no + furniture but his books, and some photographs of the queen and + her children, it contains one only priceless object, and that + is a wooden crucifix, of the very finest Spanish workmanship, + which attracted at once the attention of his visitor. 'Yes, it + is very beautiful,' he replied in answer to her words of + admiration; 'and I like it because it expresses so wonderfully + _victory over suffering_. Crucifixes generally represent + only the painful and human, not the triumphant and divine view + of the redemption. Here, he is truly victor over death and + hell.' + + "Contrary to the generally received idea, he never meddles in + politics, and occupies himself entirely in devotional and + literary works. One of his books, _Camino recto y seguro para + llegar al Cielo_, would rank with Thomas a Kempis's + _Imitation_ in suggestive and practical devotion. He keeps + a perpetual fast; and, when compelled by his position to dine + at the palace, still keeps to his meagre fare of 'garbanzos,' + or the like. He has a great gift of preaching; and when he + accompanies the queen in any of her royal progresses, is + generally met at each town when they arrive by earnest + petitions to preach, which he does instantly, without rest or + apparent preparation, sometimes delivering four or five sermons + in one day. In truth, he is always 'prepared,' by a hidden life + of perpetual prayer and realization of the unseen." + +For the rest, it is only necessary to add a word upon the +admirable manner in which the American publishers have presented +Lady Herbert's book to their patrons. It is beautifully printed +upon thick, rich paper, and illustrated with excellent wood-cuts, +and will easily bear comparison with the choice productions of +the secular press, as a book for the parlor table and for holiday +presents as well as for the library. + +---------- + + From The German Of Baron Stolberg. + + Filial Affection As Taught And Practised By The Chinese. + + + "Honor thy father and thy mother, + that thou mayest be long-lived in the land + which the Lord thy God will give thee." + +In a remarkable work, entitled _Mémoires concernant l'histoire, +les sciences, les arts, les moeurs, les usages, etc., etc., des +Chinois_, written by two natives of China who had spent their +early years in Europe, and had there added the sciences of the +west to the learning of the east, and hallowed their knowledge +with "the love of Christ which surpasseth all knowledge," the +greater part of a quarto volume is devoted to the "Teachings of +the Chinese concerning filial affection." + +{417} + +What follows is taken from _Li-ki_, a very ancient Chinese +work, written long before the time of the great Confucius. +Confucius was born in the year of the world 3452, before Christ +551, in the twenty-eighth year of the lifetime of Cyrus. + + "Be ever penetrated by religion and your exterior will bespeak + a man whose regard is directed inward upon his soul; and your + words will be the language of one who controls his passions." + ... + + "Religion alone can render indissoluble the ties that attach + the subject to his prince, the inferior to the superior, the + son to the father, the younger brother to the elder." + + "A son filled with filial affection hears the voice of his + father and mother, even when they are not speaking with him, + and he sees them even when he is not in their presence." + + "At the first call of a father, all should be forsaken in order + to go to him." + + "Mourning for parents should continue three years." + + "A son had murdered his father in the kingdom of Tochu. The + authorities reported the crime to King Ting-kong. He rose from + his mat; sighed, Alas! the fault is mine! I know not how to + govern! He issued an edict for the future. Such a murderer must + be instantly put to death; the house must be razed, and the + governor must abstain from wine during a month." + + "The peace of the realm depends on the filial affection + entertained for parents and the respect shown to elder + brothers." + +The following are extracts from a canonical book of the Chinese +entitled _Hiao-king_, the last work of Confucius, written +480 years before the birth of Christ, during the time of Xerxes. + + "Filial affection is the root of all virtues, and the fountain + head of all teaching." + + "Whosoever loves his parents can hate nobody; whosoever honors + them can despise nobody. If a ruler evinces unlimited respect + and affection to his parents, the virtue and wisdom of his + people will be increased twofold. Even barbarians will submit + to his decrees." + + "If thou entertainest toward thy father the love thou hast for + thy mother, and the respect thou hast for thy ruler, thou wilt + serve thy ruler with filial affection." + + "O immensity of filial affection! how wonderful thou art! What + the revolutions of the planets are for the citadel of heaven, + what fertility is for the fields of the earth, that, filial + affection is for nations. Heaven and earth never deceive. Let + nations follow their example, and the harmony of the world will + be as indefectible as the light of heaven, and as the + productions of the earth!" + + "A prince who causes himself to be loved, and who improves the + morals of men, is the father and mother of nations! How perfect + must be the virtue which guides nations to that which is + greatest of all, whilst they are following the inclinations of + their hearts!" + +The emperors of China have been giving examples of filial +affection from time immemorial. It is an ordinance of the +ancients that the new sovereign shall, during the first three +years, make no changes in the administration of his father. The +emperors of China, the mightiest potentates of the earth, show +the most profound reverence to their mothers before the eyes of +the whole people. + +The great Emperor Kang-hi published, in 1689 of our chronology, a +large work, in one hundred volumes, on filial affection. In the +preface, written by himself, he says, amongst other things: + + "In order to show how the filial affection of an emperor should + be constituted, it is here shown to what tenderness for his + people, interest in the public good, solicitude for health, + contentment, and the happiness of his parents bind him. + Everything in life is filial affection, for everything refers + to respect and love." + +What a beauty and depth of meaning in these words! + +Together with filial affection this comprises the corresponding +love of parents for their children, and the reciprocal duties of +both. From these are also deduced the reciprocal obligations of +rulers and subjects. + +{418} + +All is ultimately referred to God. + + "Who is to be feared, who is to be served, + and who is to be regarded as the Father + and the Mother of all men." + +China is the only empire in which public censors of the acts of +the emperor are appointed. Their number, which originally was +seven, has been increased to forty. Their office is to warn the +emperor when he has transgressed or neglected his duty, and to +admonish him. In a work composed by the Emperor Kang-hi, and +published in 1733, several instances of these admonitions and +remonstrances are mentioned: + + "It is the cry of all ages, O Sovereign! + that it is the most imperative duty + of the son to revere his parents!" + +After explaining how one must prove himself concerning the +fulfilment of this duty, and describing various evidences by +which to judge, the sage continues: + + "Such, O Sovereign! is the nature of genuine filial affection, + of the filial affection of great souls, of the kind of filial + affection that makes the world pleasant, gains all hearts, and + secures the favor of heaven. ... Thy subject, O Sovereign! has + heard that a good ruler attributes to himself whatever disturbs + good order in the realm; that he is made sad by the smallest + misdemeanors of his subjects, and that he devotes the best days + of his life to the sole object of obviating whatever might + interfere with the public weal." + +This remonstrance was presented in the year 1064, of our +chronology, to the Emperor Ing-tsong by the Censor See-ma-kuang, +one of the greatest statesmen China has ever had, who was at the +same time a historian, a philosopher, and a poet. The people +loved him so that after his death the entire realm was disposed +to go in mourning. Another censor very boldly reprimanded the +Emperor Kuang-tsong, because in a journey to his country chateau +he had passed by the villa of his mother without calling to see +her. + +At a later period this censor upbraided the same emperor in terms +of the deepest sorrow for not accompanying his mother's funeral +and wearing mourning in her memory, notwithstanding that all the +magnates of the empire had been plunged into the most profound +grief by the death of that excellent woman. The censor accused +him of having feigned indisposition on that occasion, whilst it +was generally known that he was engaged in his customary +pastimes. + +Another emperor was reproached with a noble intrepidity, for +having weakly permitted a favorite daughter to squander a part of +the revenues of the state in embellishing her country residence +and gardens. + +The Emperor Kang-hi, one of the wisest and greatest rulers the +world has ever seen, practised filial piety in a most perfect +manner toward his grandmother and mother during their lifetime +and after their death. When appointing one of his sons heir to +the throne--a right accorded him by the constitution--he declared +that he was guided in his choice by the wisdom of the two +empresses, his mother and his grandmother. + +When his grandmother was sick, this emperor wrote to one of the +grandees of the realm, Hing-pu, who was probably minister of +justice: + + "My cares do not quit me, whether by day or by night. I have no + relish for food or sleep; my only consolation lies in raising + my thoughts to Tien, (Heaven, or the God of Heaven.) With + tearful eyes I have prostrated myself on the ground, and buried + myself in meditation on the manner of most surely obtaining his + holy assistance; and it appeared to me that the preservation of + men, the objects of his love, would be the surest means of + obtaining, from his infinite goodness and mercy, the + prolongation of a life that we would all be willing to purchase + with our own." + +{419} + +Hereupon he reprieved all criminals not excluded from the favor +by the laws of the state. He concluded with these words: + + "I pray Tien that + he may be pleased to bless my wish." + +He walked in solemn procession, accompanied by the nobles, and +offered sacrifices for the empress. As her condition grew more +alarming, he spent day and night at her bedside, where he slept +upon a mat, in order to be always near to attend to her wants. To +the remonstrances of his court and the requests of the invalid +herself, he replied by answering them that he could not control +his grief, and could find consolation only in nursing his beloved +grandmother, who had nursed him in youth with so much wisdom and +tenderness. + +Many a reader may consider this intense and openly acknowledged +sentiment of filial devotion as exaggerated; in China, men +thought differently. And the man of whom it is related was one of +the greatest princes that ever lived, a great _savant_, a +philosopher upon a throne, an undaunted hero, and during the +whole of his long reign the father of his country, the admiration +and joy of his numerous people. When he was besought by the +princes of the royal house and by the nobles of the realm to +permit the sixtieth anniversary of his birthday to be solemnly +commemorated, he replied: + + "I have never had any taste for and have never found any + pleasure in grand festivities and entertainments. Yet I feel + reluctant to refuse what the love of the princes and nobles + requests from me. But as these festivities would fall upon the + days whereon my much revered father and mother died, their + memory is too vividly present in my heart to suffer me to allow + them to be converted into days of rejoicing." + +At the Chinese court it is customary for the emperor, on New +Year's day, to go in company with the princes and nobles to the +palace of his mother. A master of ceremonies called a mandarin of +Lizu, walks in front and reverently prays that it may be her +serene pleasure to ascend her throne, in order that the emperor +may throw himself at her feet. She then takes her place upon the +throne. The emperor enters the hall and remains standing with his +arms hanging down and his sleeves pulled over his hands--a mark +of reverence amongst this people. The imperial retinue remain +below in the ante-chamber. The musicians sound some thrilling +notes, whereupon the mandarin cries in a loud voice, "Upon your +knees!" The emperor and retinue fall upon their knees. "To the +floor!" The emperor bows his head to the floor, as also the +entire court. "Arise!" And all rise up together. After performing +three prostrations in this manner, the mandarin again approaches +the throne of the empress and reaches her a written request from +the emperor to be pleased to return to her apartment. + +During the ceremony the sound of the bell from the great tower +announces to all the inhabitants of Pekin that the emperor of +China, "the ruler of the thousand kingdoms," as they style him, +is paying homage to humanity. + +When the empress has returned to her apartment, the ringing of +the bell ceases, and then the emperor receives the felicitations +of the court in his own palace. + +The idea of the relation between parents and children is, in +fact, the soul of the constitution of China, a constitution that +has continued unchanged for more than three thousand years. +Through this idea the chains of despotism, so galling in other +countries of the east, are rendered tolerable; by it a powerful +influence is exercised over the rulers of the mightiest empire of +the earth, so that most of them, even in modern times, devote +themselves to their exalted duties with the greatest care, and +look upon the empire not as their own possession, but as a trust +committed to them as vicegerents of heaven. +{420} +This idea is so deeply rooted that even the victorious Tartars +were forced to respect it and adopt it as their principle of +government, as we are shown by the example mentioned of the great +Kang-hi. + +We subjoin some selections from a number of Chinese moral +proverbs relating to this subject, + + "Filial affection produces the same sentiment, the same + solicitude, under every clime. The barbarian, compelled by want + to wander through wildernesses, learns more easily from his own + heart what a son owes to his father and mother than sages learn + it from their books." + + "The most invincible army is that in which fathers are most + mindful of their children, sons of their parents, brothers of + their brothers." + + "The filial piety of the ruler is the inheritance of the aged, + of widows, and of orphans." + + "Whosoever raises the staff of his father with reverence, does + not strike the father's hand. Whosoever yawns at the old man's + oft-repeated tales, will hardly weep at his death." + + "All virtues are threatened when filial affection is sinned + against." + + "A good son never looks upon an enterprise as successful until + it has received the approbation of his father." + + "Rocks are converted into diamonds where father and son have + but one heart; harmony between the elder and younger brothers + changes the earth into gold." + + "Subjects revere their parents in the person of the emperor; + the emperor must revere his parents in the person of those of + his subjects. The love of princes for their parents guarantees + to them the love of their subjects." + + "The Emperor Gin-tsong was counselled by his minister to + declare war. What, replied the emperor, am I to answer fathers + and mothers when they ask their sons of me? and to the widow + who mourns her husband? and to fatherless orphans? and to so + many disconsolate families? I would willingly sacrifice a + province to save the life of one of my own children; all my + subjects are my children." + + "Whosoever cuts down the trees planted by his father, will sell + the house that was built by him." + + "It is not the threats, nor the reproaches, nor the violence of + a father that are dreaded by a dutiful son. He fears his + silence. A father is silent either because he has ceased to + love or because he believes that he is no longer loved." + + "The one who first shed tears was an unhappy father." + + "Much to be pitied is the son who is displeasing to his + parents; but the unhappiest of all is he who does not love + them." + + "A good son is a good brother, a good husband, a good father, a + good cousin, a good friend, a good neighbor, a good citizen. A + wicked son is simply--a wicked son." + + "Reverence and tenderness are the wings of filial affection." + + "When brothers will not come to an agreement before the + sentence of the judge, public morals have already deteriorated. + If father and son go before the mandarin that he may decide + between them, the state is in danger. If children plot against + the life of their parents, and brothers against that of each + other, all is lost." + +This tender reverence for parents instils into the Chinese a +similar regard for aged persons, for authorities, and for +national customs. Their empire has been in existence for almost +four thousand years! + +The contrary disposition, which denies to old age its becoming +deference, which impels youth to contemn the experience of the +past, and to wish, in its immaturity of judgment, to pass +sentence upon all subjects, destroys social relations and +undermines and ultimately ruins empires. It robs youth of its +true grace; destroys the modesty and thirst for knowledge of the +young man as well as the blushing diffidence of the maiden; +defrauds age of its dignity; renders customs and laws altogether +powerless. + +{421} + + _Quid leges, sine moribus + Vanae, proficiunt._ + +said Horace. + +The young man trifles with the gaudy display of ever-changing +fashion, a pest of our country from which the more serious east +never languished. His philosophy is of the fashion as well as his +clothes; and though, at present, he considers them as the very +best, he is nevertheless ready to change them both and decry them +as unsuitable, reserving the liberty, however, of resuming them +as soon as the wand of the enchantress Fashion will have given +the sign. + +The religion of Jesus Christ confers a pure dignity upon the +worthiest and most tender relations of nature. It teaches us to +revere a father in the Being of all beings, to love him tenderly +whose eternal Son did not disdain to become our brother, to +become the Spouse of his church. It sanctifies every relation of +nature, every relation of society. But in attempting to picture +to ourselves a state of the world in which the great majority +would be doing homage to the religion of Jesus Christ, not merely +in words, but in spirit and in deed, a feeling of sadness takes +possession of the soul like to that which might come upon a +prisoner, highly gifted with musical genius, while reading with +the eye the harmonies of Handel and Gluck, when his ear was +denied the rapture of hearing their enchanting melodies. + +---------- + + New Publications. + + + Daily Meditations, by his Eminence, the late Cardinal Wiseman. + Vol. I. + Dublin, James Duffy, 1869. + For sale at the Catholic Publication House, + 126 Nassau Street. + +There is a peculiar charm about all the writings of Cardinal +Wiseman. It is the touch of genius, and of a great genius, whose +loss the world mourns. The present volume, now published for the +first time, comprises a series of meditations useful for all +classes of devout persons, but more especially designed for the +clergy and students in our ecclesiastical seminaries. They were +written, as the Most Rev. Archbishop of Westminster informs us in +a short preface, when the cardinal entered upon his first +responsible office as rector of the English college in Rome. The +subjects for the first six months of the year are taken from and +arranged under a certain number of heads, generally repeated each +week. These are, + + "The End of Man," + "Last Things," + "Mystery of our Saviour's Life," + "Personal Duties," + "The Passion," + "Sin." + "Means of Sanctification," + "Self-Examination," + "The Decalogue," + "The Blessed Eucharist," + "The Blessed Virgin." + +Each meditation consists of two or three reflections, and closes +with an affective prayer. "Preparations" are given, after the +method of St. Ignatius, before the meditations upon the mysteries +of our Lord's life. As a book of meditations, or for spiritual +reading, we could earnestly commend it to the laity, who will +find the greater part of it eminently suitable for these +purposes, while to the clergy it will be especially acceptable, +furnishing, as it does, subjects sufficiently amplified to aid +them in the ready preparation of a sermon or pious conference. We +have few works in good English of this kind, and the reading of +authors whose style is remarkable for purity and vigor cannot +fail of improving the style of a speaker. The works of the great +cardinal need no praise from us on these points, and we are sure +that it is only necessary to call attention to a new work from +his master hand to ensure its rapid sale. + +{422} + +We cannot refrain from transcribing one of the many beautiful +affective prayers. The meditation is on the crowning with thorns. + + "Jesus, King and Lord of my heart and soul, what crown shall I + give thee to acknowledge thee as such? Alas! gold and silver in + my poverty I have none: my gold hath been long since turned + into dross, and my silver been alloyed. I have no roses like + thy martyrs, who returned thee blood for blood; nor lilies, + like thy virgins, who loved thee with an unsullied heart. My + soul is barren, my heart is unfruitful, and I have placed thee + to reign, as the Jewish kings of old, over a heap of ruins. + Long since despoiled and ravaged by the enemy, every flower + hath been ploughed up, and every green plant burned with fire, + and thorns alone and brambles spring up there. Of these, then, + alone can I make thee a crown, my dear and sovereign Jesus. + Wilt thou accept it? I will pluck up my unruly affections, that + they may no more have roots, and, weaving them together into a + wreath, will lay them as a sacrifice at thy feet. I will gather + the thorns of sincere repentance which there each day arise and + prick my heart with a sharp but wholesome smart, and with these + will I make a crown for thy head, if thou wilt vouchsafe to + wear it. Or, rather, thou shalt take it from my hand, only to + place it with thine around my heart, that it may daily and + hourly be pricked with compunction. And may the thorns of thy + crown be to my soul so many goads of love, to hasten it forward + in its career toward thee." + +------ + + False Definitions Of Faith, + And The True Definition. + By Rev. L. W. Bacon. + Reprinted from the _New Englander_ + for April, 1869. + +Mr. Bacon defines faith to be trusting one's self for salvation +to Jesus Christ. "The act of faith--of intrusting one's self for +salvation to the Lord Jesus Christ--includes, not as a remote +consequence, but in itself, repentance, obedience, holiness, and +_whatever things beside_ are demanded in the Scriptures as +conditions of salvation." Dropping all dispute about terminology, +we will take faith as defined by Mr. Bacon, and prove that it is +inconceivable with out the act of intellectual assent to divine +revelation, which the church requires. Jesus Christ must be +accredited as the Messiah by God the Father in such a way as to +give rational, credible evidence to the intellect, before a man +can reasonably or conscientiously trust himself to him for +salvation. When he is convinced that Christ is the Saviour, and +trusts himself to him, he must receive from him certain and +infallible instruction as to the method of repenting and +obtaining pardon, as to the nature and extent of the obedience +and holiness required, and as to _whatever things beside_ +are demanded as conditions of salvation. If his Master teaches +him certain doctrines, and requires his assent, he must give it +as a part of his obedience. If he prescribes sacraments and +communion with one certain visible church as a condition of +salvation, he must obey. The question with Mr. Bacon is, +therefore, not respecting the indispensable obligation of +believing what God has revealed respecting the way of salvation, +but respecting the medium through which that revelation is +communicated, and the actual subject-matter of its contents. Mr. +Bacon very reasonably revolts at the tyranny of imposing mere +human and probable opinions derived from private judgment on the +Scriptures as necessary to be believed for salvation. He has an +independent spirit and an active mind which will not suffer him +to acquiesce tamely in the dominion which certain great names and +traditional formulas have hitherto held among the orthodox +Protestants. He thinks for himself and expresses his thoughts in +a bold and manly way. In the _brochure_ which he has +reprinted from the _New Englander_, the defects of the +old-fashioned Puritan theology respecting justification are +pointed out with distinctness, and a far better and more +reasonable view presented, which includes the moral element in +the disposition of the soul for receiving grace, thus rejecting +the most fundamental and destructive of all the errors of Luther. + +------ + +{423} + + The Relations And Reciprocal Obligations Between The Medical + Profession And The Educated And Cultivated Classes. + An Oration delivered before the Alumni Association of the + Medical Department of the University of the City of New York, + Feb. 23d, 1869. + By Henry S. Hewit, M.D. + Published by order of the Association. + +This pamphlet contains a great deal of matter within a very short +compass. It shows the relation of medicine to philosophy and +intellectual culture, refutes the wretched materialism by which +the profession has been too much infected, castigates with +merciless severity that charlatanism by which some ignorant +pretenders practise on the credulity of the public, and that +criminal malpractice by which others more skilful, but equally +without conscience, prostitute their science to complicity with +licentiousness and child-murder. A higher standard of education +in medical science, a more liberal preparatory culture, and a +distinction in medical degrees are advocated. These are matters +of the deepest moment to society, in which Catholics have +especial reasons to be interested. The physician is next to the +priest, and, in his sphere, very like the priest in the +responsibilities of his office, his power of doing good or evil, +and in the necessity of resorting to him under which all men are +placed in those dangerous and painful crises of life where he +alone can give effectual help. According to Catholic theology, no +one can pretend to practise medicine or surgery, without grievous +sin, who has not received a competent education, and who does not +follow what, according to the judgment of learned and skilful +men, are truly scientific methods. Ignorance, carelessness, rash +empiricism, or violation of the laws of morality as laid down by +the church, are all grievous sins. They are followed by the most +fatal consequences to those who become their victims, causing +even the loss of life and the privation of baptism, which +involves the loss of eternal life, on a vast scale. It is of the +utmost consequence that we should have a body of Catholic +physicians whose scientific culture is the highest possible, and +whose professional code of morals is strictly in conformity with +the moral theology of the church. If we are ever so happy as to +possess a a Catholic university, it is to be hoped that Dr. +Hewit's suggestions in regard to medical education may be carried +out. The author has rendered a great service to the profession +and to the cause of morals and religion by the publication of +this able and high-toned oration, and we trust it may receive a +wide circulation, and exert an equally wide influence. Dr. Hewit +served with great distinction as chief of medical staff to +Generals C. F. Smith, Grant, and Schofield during the late war, +and contributed some valuable papers to the medical journals. We +are indebted to him for some of the best literary notices which +have appeared in our columns, and the present oration not only +shows scientific culture and sound principles, but also a +capacity for producing literary composition of many varied and +rare excellences, combining terse and close logical reasoning +with a vivid play of the imagination. The closing sentence is +remarkably beautiful, and speaks of the adventurous life which +the author led during his military career. + + "The sun has crossed the meridian, and tends toward the western + horizon; the tops of the distant mountains are bathed in purple + light, and the black shadows at their base _begin to creep in + a stealthy and hound-like manner over the plain; _a rising + murmur in the branches of the forest warns us to lift up again + our burdens, and take our respective roads." + +We should like to see a volume from the pen that wrote this +sentence, in which the descriptive power of the author would have +full scope, and another in which the sound principles of +philosophy and morals contained in the oration in an aphoristic +form would be fully developed. + +------ + + Glimpses Of Pleasant Homes; + Or, Stories For The Young. + By the authoress of _Mother McAuley_. + Illustrated. 1 vol. 12mo, vellum cloth. + Catholic Publication Society, + 126 Nassau Street. 1869. + +No one can read a sentence of the preface to this volume without +becoming deeply interested in the book itself. +{424} +Every line tells us that the author has something important to +say, and that her whole soul is in the work of educating the +moral faculties of children simultaneously with their physical +and mental powers. Her aim is to enlist all heads of families in +the work, by making their homes pleasant refuges from the +troubles of busy life, in which their few leisure hours may be +spent in "fitting all those under their charge for the duties of +this earth, without unfitting them for heaven." + +The responsibility of forming and directing the tastes of +children is often thrown upon the school-teacher; and, while the +father builds gorgeous business palaces for the benefit of his +family, their future welfare is perilled and their whole life +embittered by the system of education "which assumes the +obligations of priest and parent, and is gradually driving filial +piety from the face of the earth." + +This book contains not only good examples of the practical +working of kindness and love, but points out the manner in which +the parents make many blunders in the management of young and +boisterous children. Some regard their mechanical toys as causes +of trouble, and wish their children would play outside, "and keep +their noise, dust, and confusion out of sight and hearing of +their seniors." Experience among families where such is the fact +has taught the author to depict with truth the results: + + "These parents who should have aided in developing and + cultivating the tastes of their children, may possibly find, + ere long, that there are no tastes to be developed save those + acquired in the streets, where habits have been formed which it + is now all but impossible to root out. Their children have, as + the phrase is, got beyond them; not because, as is often + falsely asserted, juvenile human nature is different now from + what it was in other ages, or because its lot happens to be + cast in the United States of America, but because parents have + not done their part to multiply and strengthen the sweet and + powerful ties that could and should bind their children + indissolubly to them." + + To warn parents against this evil, to cause them to be kind to + their children, and to bind the child more closely to its home, + the author has written these _Glimpses of Pleasant Homes_, + in which mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters are made to + speak and act in so natural a manner that every reader will be + forced to love them. + + In those happy homes, we find boys full of life and fun, but + always eager to listen to interesting and useful instruction; + girls who are not dolls, made to act and speak by machine; and + fathers and mothers whose example will force every parent to + give a little thought to the manner in which they treat their + offspring. The story of little Frank will be long remembered by + those who read it, and all will like the manly little fellow, + who gravely says: + + "'I should rather be whatever it is right to be,' returned the + boy. 'The Catholics have the Blessed Virgin, and I think they + must be right, for every one knows the Lord would not let his + own mother stay in the wrong place. I asked Mr. Griffin was she + a Calvinist or a Unitarian, and he said no, that she was a + Catholic. Now, I want to be of her church, and I don't see why + I cannot receive the sacraments as well as Tommy and Bernard. + Please, mamma, allow me, and I'll be ever so good and steady.'" + And immediately after tells us that John Griffin is a + first-rate fellow, because "he gives me lots of fruit, and + tells me pleasant stories about birds and angels." + +Every story in this book will amuse the young, interest the old, +and instruct all in the secret ways of showing kindness to those +with whom they may come in contact. Kindness is the author's +watchword; every line bears witness to her love of her +fellow-beings; she fulfils her mission of kindness in a +delightfully pleasant manner, and few will finish reading _The +Glimpses_ without wishing for many more such pictures, and +hoping that the author may enjoy a little of that happiness on +this earth, which she so lavishly bestows on her readers. + +------ + + Black Forest. + Village Stories + by Berthold Auerbach. + Translated by Charles Goepp. + New York: Leypoldt & Holt. + +{425} + +This volume is a collection of stories from the German, filled +with quaint illustrations of peasant life in the Black Forest. +The representations are well drawn and life-like; but the tales, +with two or three exceptions, fail to interest, except as +illustrations of strange phases of human life, and odd customs +retained from age to age by people who seldom left their own +hamlets, or heard from the outer world. + +Each story carries through some of the characters introduced +before, so that there is an intimate connection between them all. +In general, they have no special moral teaching, but there are +two notable exceptions, in the story of "Ivo, the Gentleman," and +"The Lauterbacher." + +The first of these, "Ivo the Gentleman", professes to give the +life of a Catholic family, and the story of a student in his +preparation for the priesthood. We cannot fail to be interested +in the home-life of the collegian, and anxiously watch the +development of doubts and difficulties in his path; but there is +a coldness and hardness in the analyzation of his perplexities +and his religious footsteps that lead one to feel that there is +little vitality in the creed of the author. + +In the story of "The Lauterbacher," there are many striking +thoughts brought out with such charming familiarity as to make +one wonder why they have never before seen them on paper. The +moral of this tale is clear and good. Now and then, however, one +meets with a touch of the mystical transcendentalism with which +many of the works of this author abound; but we find in this +volume less of these fancies than in anything we have seen from +his pen. + +The stories are interspersed with grotesque wood-cuts as +illustrations, with a sprinkling of fantastic rhymes, which +remind us forcibly of our childhood's first introduction to the +muses through the whimsical measures of Mother Goose's Melodies. + +------ + + Biographical Sketches. + By Harriet Martineau. + New York: Leypoldt & Holt. 1869. + +No one at all familiar with the mental characteristics and +proclivities of Harriet Martineau could expect from her pen a +more liberal view of the characters which she has here attempted +to delineate than the volume before us actually presents. The +ordinary reader, ignorant of or not fully appreciating the +standpoint from which the authoress judges the dispositions and +achievements of mankind will, however, experience a feeling of +disappointment and dissatisfaction. The tone of many of her +sketches is depreciatory. The time-honored maxim, "_Nil de +mortuis_," etc., is rigidly ignored, and the shadows in the +lives of the personages she notices are brought into striking +contrast with the sunlight of their virtues and accomplishments. +We remark this especially in regard to those whose work in the +world was of a religious or charitable nature. It grates upon our +inward reverence for men, whose toil and self-sacrifice have +resulted even in a transient benefit to mankind, to be told that +they were mere creatures of an ephemeral occasion, or the +unconscious agents of political aspirants; that the seed which +they sowed had no root, and the plant has withered away. It seems +like an aspersion on the moral capabilities of the human race +when those men who reach the highest ranks of ecclesiastical and +religious preferment are represented as untrue to their +convictions, and recreant to the principles confided to their +propagating and protecting care. Miss Martineau does good morals +and large charity no service, by showing that their outward +exercise may coexist with hypocrisy, tergiversation, and sordid +self-seeking. Nor is it absolute justice to the dead that, having +during life received from her no admonition to correct their +faults, they should at last, when such correction has become +impossible, be held up to posterity as being, after all, but +frail and failing specimens of human kind. + +With this exception, we have found the work before us worthy of +the encomiums bestowed upon it by the press both of this country +and England. It is a handbook to read and remember, to take up +with interest and lay down with pleasure, and, after the first +reading, to consult, from time to time, as a gallery of +portraits painted from subjects of unusual eminence by a skilful +hand. + +------- + +{426} + + The Free-masons. + What they are--What they do--What they are aiming at. + From the French of Mgr. Sègur, + author of _Plain Talk_. + Boston: Patrick Donahoe. 1869. + +The best notice we can give of this book is to reproduce an +extract from the translator's preface: + + "This short treatise, written, not by the archbishop of Paris, + as carelessly stated by some newspapers, but by Mgr. de Sègur, + the author of the work lately translated and published under + the title of _Plain Talk_, was composed to unveil and show + Free-Masonry _as it is in the old world_. Its strictures, + therefore, are not wholly applicable to Freemasonry as it is in + the United States. Yet Masons here may read it with profit to + themselves; and those who are not Masons, but might be tempted + to join some lodge, will, it is hoped, abandon the idea if they + read this book. Even here, Free-Masonry is a secret society, + and to become a member of it, one must take at least an oath, + and swear by the name of God to do so and so. Now, God's + command is, 'Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God + in vain.' And surely it is taken in vain by American + Free-Masons, because they take it without any sufficient and + justifiable cause. For, apart from other ends of their society, + and especially that of affording members a chance never to want + what assistance they may need in case of a momentary difficulty + in their affairs or loss of means or health, the main object + seems to be to meet at times, in order to spend an afternoon in + a merry way, and to partake of banquets provided for the + occasion. But where is the necessity to bind one's self by an + oath, to gather now and then round a bountifully supplied + table, or even to be charitable, and, for such purposes, to be + a member of a _secret_ society? We have many benevolent + societies; there is no secret about them, no oath to be taken + by those who wish to be members of them. Their object is to + carry out the principles of Christian charity; to that they + bind themselves simply by a promise, as also to contribute so + much for the purposes of the society. There are other + objections to joining Free-Masonry, even here; but this is not + the place to discuss that subject." + +------ + + The Dublin Review, for April, 1869. + London, Brown, Oates & Co. + +Dr. Ward On American Orthodoxy. + +The _Dublin Review_ for April closes a notice of F. +Weninger's late book on _Papal Infallibility_ with the +following sentence: "In the United States, no less than in these +islands, a higher and more orthodox type of Catholic doctrine +seems rapidly gaining the ascendant. To God be the praise!" This +implies that hitherto a low and unorthodox type of doctrine has +had the ascendant among us--an insinuation not very complimentary +to our hierarchy, clergy, professors of theology, and Catholic +writers. We deny the charge emphatically, and affirm positively +that no type of doctrine, whatever, is now gaining the ascendant +over any different one which has formerly had the ascendant. The +maxims of that set of court canonists, who maintain the +superiority of the episcopate in council over the pope, and deny +the superiority of the pope over a general council, have never +prevailed or been advocated in this country. The dogmatic decrees +of the holy see have always been received here as binding on the +interior assent to the full extent to which the holy see intends +to impose them; and as for filial obedience to the pontifical +authority in matters of discipline, Gregory XVI. expressed the +true state of the case when he said that he was nowhere so +completely pope as in the United States. The encyclical of Pius +IX. was received without a whimper of opposition, and our college +of bishops, in their steadfast loyalty to the holy father, amid +his struggles with the assailants of his temporal authority, have +represented the universal sentiment of their clergy and laity. +The spirit of the theology which has always been taught in our +seminaries, and prevalent among our clergy, may be seen in the +works of that great prelate, one of the glories of both Ireland +and the United States, the late Archbishop Kenrick. +{427} +A large number of our bishops and leading clergymen have been +thoroughly educated and received the doctor's cap at Rome, and we +are sure that they have never come into collision with any body +of their brethren holding contrary opinions, or found it +necessary to make any imputation on their orthodoxy. We esteem +highly the great services which Dr. Ward has rendered to +religion, and the many noble qualities of mind and heart which he +has exhibited from the beginning of his Oxford career to the +present moment. We think, however, that the impetuosity of his +zeal needs a little curbing, and that if he were somewhat more +sparing of reproofs and admonition to his brethren and fathers in +the church, which savor more of the novice-master than the +editor, his review would be much more useful, as well as more +generally acceptable. We know that our opinion on this point is +shared by some of our most distinguished prelates, who are as +thoroughly Roman in their theology as Dr. Ward can profess to be, +and we think there are few on this side the water who would +dissent from it. + +------ + + Church Embroidery, Ancient And Modern, + Practically Illustrated. + By Anastasia Dolby, + Late Embroideress to the Queen. + + Church Vestments; + Their Origin, Use, And Ornament. + By the same. + For sale by the Catholic Publication Society, + 126 Nassau St., New-York. + +These two elegant volumes furnish a complete and practical +description of every kind of ecclesiastical vestment, from the +Roman collar to the Fanon, which, as Miss Dolby informs us, +"appertains only to the vesture of the sovereign pontiff." The +authoress is a "Ritualist," and, as will be seen, of the highest +order of that formidable sect of the English Church, as by law +established. Her books are full of costly engravings, the volume +on church embroidery being adorned with a fine illuminated +frontispiece--an antependium and frontal for high festivals--and +the one on church vestments, with one representing a +_Pontifical High Mass_, in which the deacon is a little out +of place for such a mass, according to the rite as celebrated by +the "Roman obedience," but which, we presume, is strictly in +accordance with the "Anglican obedience." We smile at the pretty +piece of assumption, but forgive Miss Dolby from our hearts, for +we have derived the greatest pleasure and benefit from the use of +her valuable books. Although the volumes are costly, yet the +information they contain would be considered cheap at treble the +price by those who are interested in furnishing the holy +sanctuary with all things appertaining thereto, in good taste. +The authoress is a practical workwoman, and not only tells us +_what_ to do, but also, what is of the highest moment to +many of us, _how_ to do it. + +------ + + The Ark Of The Covenant; + or, a Series of Short Discourses upon the Joys, Sorrows, + Glories, and Virtues of the Ever Blessed Mother of God. + By Rev. T. S. Preston. + New York: Robt. Coddington. + +This is a new edition of a work already, we are sure, widely +known and much admired. It is prepared by the reverend author to +suit the beautiful devotion of the month of May, and we do not +hesitate to say that it is the best one for that purpose yet +written. It is truly refreshing to meet with a book like this, +when one has had a surfeit (as who has not) of the many namby +pamby _Months of Mary_, from whose pages we have been +expected to cull flowers of piety for our spiritual enjoyment of +the sweet season dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. + +------ + + The General; Or, Twelve Nights In The Hunter's Camp. + A Narrative of Real Life. + Illustrated by G. G. White. + Boston: Lee & Shepard. + +This is an account of the doings of the D---- Club, on one of its +annual excursions. It is interspersed with stories told round the +camp-fire, by "the general," of his own adventures in the west, +when it was still the home of the Indian, and immigrants and +land-surveyors were slowly finding their way through the forests +and over the prairies. + +{428} + +The club were encamped near Swan Lake, two miles east of the +Mississippi, and for twelve days gave themselves up to all the +pleasure and excitement of hunting and fishing. They had a good +time, and one almost envies them the fresh, pure air, the +freedom, the invigorating sport, and enjoyment of nature. The +author thinks that "more tents and less hotels in vacation would +make our professional men more vigorous. Moosehead and the +Adirondacks are better recuperators than Saratoga, Cape May, and +the Rhine; and fishing-rods and fowling-pieces are among the very +best gymnastic apparatus for a college." Summer is coming, and +the advice could be tried. The adventures of the general, and of +the hunters at Swan Lake, would while away most pleasantly the +hours of a warm summer afternoon on the Adirondacks or Lake +George. + +------ + + Reminiscences Of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. + A Social and Artistic Biography. + By Elise Polko. + Translated from the German by Lady Wallace. + New York: Leypoldt & Holt. 1869. + +A woman's book in every page and line, charming for its +simplicity and pleasant gossip. Madame Polko was a friend and +enthusiastic admirer of the great musician. All that he ever did, +said, or wrote she tells us with an air of pride and earnestness +only equalled by the _naïve_ recital of all baby's wonderful +pranks and precocious intelligence peculiar to young mothers. + +These reminiscences will do to beguile a dreamy summer hour, when +the mind needs relaxation, and is not able to bear anything +heavier than the innocent prattle of children, and the soothing +sound of the seaside waves. + +------ + + Ferncliffe. + 1 vol. 12mo. + Philadelphia: P. F. Cunningham. 1869. + +_Ferncliffe_ is an interesting tale of "English country +life." The author has been fortunate enough to give us scenes and +characters which appear in all respects very natural, and +therefore are exceedingly interesting. It is seldom we find a +book containing so many characters, each possessing some +peculiarity, and all kept in that complete subordination to the +principal one which is so necessary to the full development of +the plot. + +The book is neatly printed on fine paper, and is a credit to the +enterprising publisher who, we are glad to see, is accepting the +"situation," and making his books in conformity with the +improvements of the age in style and manner of getting up. We +wish all our publishers would do the same; for it is high time +that Catholic books appeared in as good a dress as non-Catholic +books. + +------ + + Salt-water Dick. + By May Mannering. + Boston: Lee & Shepard. Pp. 230. 1869. + + The Ark Of Elm Island. + By Rev. Elijah Kellogg. + Boston: Lee & Shepard. Pp. 288. 1869. + +In these volumes we have, in addition to the usual amount of +amusing incident and startling adventure inseparable from sea +voyages, a very full and interesting description of life at the +Chincha Islands, the great guano depot; pleasant glimpses into +Lima, Rio Janeiro, and Havana; graphic details of encounters with +sea-lions, etc.; a dreadful storm in the Gulf of Mexico, with a +wonderful escape from shipwreck by literally "pouring oil on the +troubled waters," the whole agreeably diversified with numerous +facts in natural history. + +Combining amusement with instruction, books such as these have a +great fascination for boys, and may, in most cases, be safely +recommended. + +------ + + Dotty Dimple Stories. + Dotty Dimple At School. + By Sophie May, Author of _Little Prudy Stories_. + Illustrated. + Boston: Lee & Shepard. + +{429} + +This story is one of a series, although quite complete in itself. +They are all admirably written; for children's stories, they are +almost perfect. They teach important lessons without making the +children feel that they are taught them, or giving them an +inclination to skip over those parts. If the little folks get +hold of these books, they will be certain to read them, and ever +afterward count Miss Dotty Dimple and dear little Prudy among +their very best friends. Such a pen only needs to be guided by +Catholic faith to make it perfect for children. We do not say +this with any want of appreciation of what it is already, for its +moral lessons are beautifully given; but what might they not be, +enlightened by the truth, the holiness, and the beauty of +Catholic faith! + +------ + + Alice's Adventures In Wonder Land. + By Lewis Carroll. + With forty-two Illustrations by John Tenniel. + Boston: Lee & Shepard, 49 Washington Street. 1869. + +These adventures are most wonderful, even for Wonderland. One +cannot help regretting that children should be entertained in +this way instead of by some probable or possible adventures. They +are well written, and the illustrations are excellent. + +------ + + Juliette; Or, Now And Forever. + By Mrs. Madeline Leslie. + Boston: Lee & Shepard. Pp.416. 1869. + +A religious tale, strictly Protestant, plentifully besprinkled +with scriptural texts, allusions, etc., which will, no doubt, +prove deeply interesting to those for whose special delectation +it is intended. + +------ + +_The Catholic Publication Society_ have purchased all the +stereotype plates and book stock of Messrs. Lucas Brothers, +Baltimore. Some of these books have been out of print for some +years, or have not been kept constantly before the public. The +society will soon issue new editions of all of them. + +Messrs. Murphy & Co., Baltimore, have just issued an edition of +Milner's _End of Controversy_, in paper covers, which is +sold for seventy five cents a copy. + +Mr. P. F. Cunningham, Philadelphia, will soon publish _Catholic +Doctrine, as defined by the Council of Trent_, expounded in a +series of conferences delivered in Geneva during the Jubilee of +1851, by Rev. Father Nampon, of the Society of Jesus; proposed as +a means of reuniting all Christians. It will make an octavo +volume of some 600 or 700 pages. + +From Roberts Brothers, Boston: + + Handy-volume Series. Realities of Irish Life. + + Little Women; or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. + By Louisa M. Alcott. + 2 Vols. Illustrated. + +------ + + Foreign Literary Notes. + +The Abbé Sire, Superior of the Seminary of St. Sulpice, some time +since undertook to procure the translation of the bull +"_Ineffabilis_" into all the written languages of the world. +In this vast enterprise he has made great progress, and more than +a year ago his zeal received the honoring recognition of the holy +father in a letter addressed to him, beginning: "Hinc gratissimum +nobis accidit, Dilecte Fili, consilium a Te susceptum curandi, ut +Apostoliae Nostrae de dogmatica Immaculati ejusdem Dei Genitricis +Conceptus Definitione Litterae e latino idiomate in omnes +converteretur linguas." + +Catholic Ireland has made a handsome contribution to M. Sire's +work in a volume published in Dublin, containing the Bull and its +translation into the French, Latin, and Irish languages. The +Irish translation is by the Rev. Patrick J. Bourke, President of +St. Jarlath's College, Tuam, where, alone in all Ireland, under +the auspices, and, we may say, the national enthusiasm of the Rt. +Rev. Dr. McHale, the language of Ireland is taught, and +endeavored to be preserved. We say endeavored; for it seems that, +excepting among the hills of Connaught, the mother tongue of the +Celtic race has died, or is rapidly dying out in the green +island. Dr. Bourke's volume, published in Dublin, is a fine +specimen of typography. + +{430} + +We believe, although we have never seen any announcement of it, +that Dr. Bourke is also the editor of the _Keltic Journal and +Indicator_, a semi-monthly commenced at Manchester, (England,) +in January last. Why it is called Keltic, instead of Gaelic or +Irish, we do not know, nor can we understand why it should be +published in England rather than in Ireland. Two other Gaelic +races, the Welsh, and the Bretons of France, have periodicals in +their native dialect; the latter, the Feiz he Breiz, and the +former, several. + +The dying out of the Irish language on the lips of a million of +people who speak it, may be attributed mainly to two +causes--emigration, and the indifference of its own race. + +There is still another difficulty. Its pronunciation no longer +accords with its received orthography, and, as written, it is +encumbered with a quantity of unpronounced letters. If the +language is to continue to exist as a written one, a radical +reform similar to that effected by the Tcheks in the Bohemian +dialect at the end of the last century is absolutely necessary. +Meantime, Dr. Bourke is entitled to great praise for his +unceasing efforts in the cause of Ireland's national literature. + +------ + +The publishing house of Adrien Le Clerc (Paris) announces an +important work in press. It is _L'Histoire des Conciles_, in +ten volumes 8vo, (large,) of 640 pages each. The first volume +appeared on the 31st of January. It is a translation, by the +Abbés Goschler and Delarc, from the German of Dr. Ch. Jos. +Hefele, Professor of Theology at the University of Tübingen. The +Messrs. Clarke, of Edinburgh, have announced an English +translation of the same work from the German. + +---- + +_The Femall Glory, or the Life and Death of our Blessed Lady, +the Holy Virgin Mary, God's owne immaculate Mother, etc. etc._ +By Anthony Stafford, Gent. London, 1635. Reprinted in 1869. An +exact typographical reproduction of the original, in all its +quaintness of ancient characters and antiquity of English, +preceded by the apology of the author (Stafford) and an essay on +the cultus of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Edited by the Rev. Orby +Shipley. + +Independently of its intrinsic merit, this work has always +attracted great attention, from the fact that it was written by a +member of the English (Episcopal) Church, and approved by +prelates of that denomination as distinguished as Laud and Juxon. + +As a matter of course, such a book was found to be "egregiously +scandalous" by the Puritans, who looked upon it as nothing short +of a device of papacy. And Henry Burton, minister of Friday +street, London, in a sermon, _For God and the King_, +denounced "several extravagant and popish passages therein, and +advised the people to be aware of it." This was the beginning of +a controversial war concerning the "Femall Glory" that made it +one of the most notable works of the day. That a papist should +have written such a book might have passed without comment, but +that a noble Stafford of Northamptonshire, a graduate of Oriel +College Oxford, and a staunch Church of England man, should have +done this thing was an irremissible sin in Puritanic eyes. + +Stafford was distinguished as a man of letters, and wrote various +other works, most of them with quaint titles, according to the +taste of that day; as, + + _Niobe dissolved into a Nilus: or his Age drowned in her own + tears._ 1611. + + _Heavenly Dogge: a Life and Death of that Great Cynick + Diogenes; whom Laertius styled Canis Caelestis, the Heavenly + Dogge_. 1615. + +The attacks of Burton and others brought out _A Short Apology, +or Vindication of a book entitled Femall Glory, etc._, which +is republished in the fourth edition of 1869. + +_The Femall Glory _ is a book of genuine English growth, +entirely free from imitation or adaptation of foreign words, and, +beyond mere sketches of the most meagre character, the only full +life of the Blessed Virgin. +{431} +It is valuable, in a controversial point of view, as contrasting, +the clear and distinct acknowledgment of the dignity and sanctity +of the mother of God, as recognized by English Protestants of +that, with the Episcopal Low Church views of the present day. +Citations might be made from such men as Jeremy Taylor, Bishop +Bull, Bishop Pearson, Archdeacon Frank, and Archbishop Bramhall, +to show this conclusively. Not the smallest charm about the book +is the odor of its quaint seventeenth century tone of thought and +expression. Thus, in the preface "To the Feminine Reader" she is +told, "You are here presented, by an extreme honourer of your +Sexe, with a Mirrour of Femall Perfection. ... By this, you +cannot curle your haires, fill up your wrinckles, and so alter +your Looks, that Nature, who made you, knowes you no more, but +utterly forgets her owne Workmanship. By this, you cannot lay +spots on your faces; but take them out of your Soules, you may." +Then there is "The Ghyrlond of the Blessed Virgin Marie." + + "There are five letters in this blessed Name, + Which, chang'd, a five-fold Mysterie designe; + The M, the Myrtle, A, the Almonds clame, + R, Rose, I, Ivy, E, sweet Eglantine." + +That such a book should not find favor in the eyes of the London +_Athenaeum_, is not surprising. The author of _Spiritual +Wives_ and the recognizer of the Pope Joan fable as veritable +history could scarcely be expected to recognize merit in such a +work as the _Femall Glory_. + +------ + +_A Slavonian Version of the Bible_ is now in preparation at +Rome. The original Slavonian text was the work of St. Cyril and +St. Methodus, apostles to the Slavonians in the ninth century. In +the lapse of years, the original text has been seriously tampered +with by so-called emendators and incompetent copyists, so that it +is now very difficult to determine several important questions +concerning it. Was the translation made from the Latin, the +Greek, or the Hebrew? What class of manuscripts were used by +these apostles? Which of the Slavonian dialects was the vehicle +of the translation? And, finally, was the original version +written in glagolitic or cyrillic characters? + +------ + +_The Staple of Biographical Notices_ of Pope Sixtus V., is +usually made up of a series of stories, to the effect that he was +the son of ignorant parents and himself a swineherd; that he rose +by his talents to the dignity of cardinal, and that, feigning +extreme illness to the point of appearing to be on the verge of +the grave from debility and disease, was no sooner elected to the +papacy than he threw away his crutches and declared himself +perfectly restored to health. + +These stories have found such favor with compilers of historical +books that they have been carefully preserved in spite of their +want of confirmation by contemporary historians. M. A. I. +Dumesnil has lately written a life of Felix Peretti, Pope Sixtus +V., in which he shows that his origin was not low, and that he +was allied to the best families, short of nobility, of his +province. The stories of his illness, simulated feebleness, and +affected use of crutches, he pronounces to be all fabulous, and +quotes Tempesti, one of the historians of the conclave which +elected Sixtus, thus: "In electing Montalto pope, still vigorous +of years, since he had reached only sixty-four and enjoyed a +robust and vigorous constitution, it was felt certain that he +would live long enough to bury Farnese and his partisans." M. +Dumesnil does not appear to have added anything by research or +discovery to the materials already known to be in existence, but +has simply used the matter furnished by Tempesti, Guerra, +Fontana, and other Italian historians, with skill and judgment. +He bears testimony to the extraordinary talent, judgment, and +energy of the great pontiff, whose reign of less than five years +was, unfortunately, too short to complete the extensive reforms +commenced by him in the temporal government of his territory. +Sixtus V. was remarkable for his energy in the suppression of +abuses, order and economy in the public finances, and unbending +severity toward criminals, encouragement of industry, an +enlightened fondness for the arts, as shown by numerous monuments +and his patronage of the great architect, Fontana, and an +inflexible determination to raise the holy see from any +dependence upon foreign princes. + +{432} + +There is another _Life of Sixus_ in preparation by Baron +Hübner, formerly Austrian Ambassador to France, in which he +promises numerous documents, French, Spanish, and English, never +yet published. + + [Six paragraphs have been moved, three paragraphs toward the + end, from this location according to the notice on page 711-2.] + +------ + +_Concilium Seleuciae et Ctesiphonti_, habitum anno 410. +Textum Syriacum edidit latine vertit notisque instruxit, +T. J. Lamy. Lovanii, 1868. + +From ancient Syrian literature, so rich in works relative to the +church, its history, its discipline, and its dogmas, the Abbé +Lamy, Professor at the University of Louvain, has here selected +one of its most precious monuments for translation and comment. +Not less remarkable for the charm of their antique simplicity of +language than their fulness of doctrine, these few pages alone +would almost suffice to establish the complete symbolism of the +church. "Confitemur etiam"--thus testify the fathers of the +Council of Seleucia--"Spiritum vivum et sanctum, Paracletum +vivum, QUI EX PATRE ET FILIO in una Trinitate, in una essentia, +in una voluntate, amplectentes fidem trecentorum decem et octo +Episcoporum, quae definita fuit in urbe Nicea. Haec est confessio +nostra et fides nostra, quam accepimus a Sanctis Patribus +Nostris. + + [The following six paragraphs have been moved to this location + according to the notice on page 711-2.] + +It will be remembered that in the fifth century the +Priscillianists, in those countries infected with the Arian +heresy, took unfair advantage of the special mention made by the +Council of Constantinople of the first person of the Trinity and +of the omitted mention of the Son, to maintain that the Son was +not consubstantial with the Father. + +Then followed the express insertion of the word FILIOQUE by +decree of a general council. + +The history of the Greek schism turns upon this point, and +students of church history will find high interest and solid +instruction in tracing the reasons and circumstances connected +with the fact that, although this addition of _filioque_ +really made no change in the doctrine of the church, although in +the ninth century the western churches used it, and yet Pope Leo +III. insisted on the use in Rome of the form adopted by the +fathers of Constantinople, and although between the Greek and the +Latin churches there was no divergence on this doctrinal point, +nevertheless it was not until after the consummation of the +schism of Photius and of Michael Cerularius that the Greeks began +to pretend that they had never professed this dogma. + +Then follows the treatment of this question by the councils of +fourth Lateran, (1215,) third Lyons, (1274,) and that of +Florence, (1439.) + +Of course it will be seen that the importance of the action of +the Council of Seleucia lies in the fact that it was composed of +forty bishops, of whom one, at least, was a member of the first +ecumenical council of Constantinople, and that it was called at +the instigation and through the initiative of the Greek Church +herself. + +So that, as the lawyers say, it does not lie in the mouth of the +Greek Church, at the present day, to say that it is simply +opposing a Latin innovation. + + + +In almost immediate connection with what we here remark on the +Rev. Mr. Lamy's book, we may mention that the _Jacobi Episcopi +Edessem Epistola ad Georgium Episcopum Sarugensem de Orthographia +Syriaca_, so well known, at least by reputation, to oriental +scholars, has at last been published at Leipsic. Assemanni and +Michaelis frequently urged its printing, and Cardinal Wiseman, +who took a strong and appreciative interest in the work, speaks +of it at length in the first volume of his _Horae Syriacae_, +(Rome, 1828.) + +------ + +Monsignor Giuliani, of Verona, has published a work on public +libraries, in which he shows that the libraries of Italy possess +a greater number of volumes than the libraries of any other +nation in the world. The Italian libraries number 6,000,000 of +volumes; France, 4,389,000; Austria, 2,400,000; Prussia, +2,040,000, Great Britain, 1,774,493; Bavaria, 1,268,000; Russia, +882,090; Belgium, 509,100. Collections of books are much +scattered in Italy. Paris has one third of all the library books +in France, and most of the European capitals are rich in almost +as great a proportion. This is not the case in Italy. Milan has +only 250,000 volumes in the Brera library, and 155,000 in the +Ambrosian. + +------- + +{433} + + The Catholic World. + + Vol. IX., No. 52.--July, 1869. + + + Columbus At Salamanca. + + "----e di te solo + Basti ai posteri tuoi ch'alquanto accume: + Che quel poco darà lunga memoria + Di poema dignissima e d'istoria." [Footnote 121] + _Gierusalemme Liberata_, TASSO. + + [Footnote 121: "Thy single name will pour diviner light O'er + history's pages; and thy fame inspire Bards, who are yet + unborn, with more celestial fire." + Tasso's _Jerusalem Delivered_. ] + +Some three years since, a large historical painting was exhibited +at the gallery of the Artists' Fund Association in the city of +New York. Its subject, as announced, was "Columbus before the +Council of Salamanca." The picture was said to be a work of +merit, and attracted much attention. It represented the great +discoverer standing in the large hall of a convent, surrounded by +monks and ecclesiastics, foremost among whom are three Dominican +friars, who, having apparently worked themselves into a paroxysm +of anger, face Columbus with gestures of violent denunciation. +Grave, dignified, and majestic stands the great Genoese +discoverer among them, apparently the only reasonable being in +that assemblage of ignorance and bigotry, whose victim he is +evidently about to become. The pictorial lesson sought to be +conveyed was, clearly, that here was another Galileo business, a +second _e pur si muove_ sensation, a repetition of the +favorite amusement of all churchmen, which every one knows to be +the persecution of discoverers and the crushing out of knowledge. +And the warrant for all this misrepresentation was said to be +found in the pages of Washington Irving's _History of +Columbus_. + +Now, a perusal of those pages shows that, although Mr. Irving +committed a grave historical blunder in describing a "council of +Salamanca" that had no existence, he nevertheless expressly +excepts from any charge of ignorance and intolerance that may be +implied from his language these very Dominican monks who, in Mr. +Kauffman's historical picture, are made the foremost and most +violent in their denunciation of Columbus. + +"When Columbus," says Irving, "began to state the grounds of his +belief, the friars of St. Stephen's (Dominicans) _alone paid +attention to him_, that convent being more learned in the +sciences than the rest of the university. The others appear to +have intrenched themselves behind one dogged proposition." + +{434} + +In the entire range of English art and literature so firmly have +some of the most offensive forms of anti-Catholic prejudice +become rooted, that, whenever any prominent historical character +or incident comes in contact with the Catholic Church the +occasion is seized, right or wrong, with or without authority, +and often in the very teeth of history, to exemplify some phase +of what people are pleased to call popish ignorance and +persecution. Under the dark pall of bigotry that has so long +overshadowed the genius of English literature, events which, in +honest truth, should and do redound to the honor of the Catholic +Church and its hierarchy as protectors of knowledge and promoters +of noble enterprises have been, by a species of literary +legerdemain, wrested into so many evidences of their intolerance. + +More than any country, England has furnished astounding and +repulsive proofs of the truth of Count De Maistre's assertion +that "History is a vast conspiracy against truth." With uplifted +hands, dripping with the blood of the innocent, she accuses other +nations of murder. With a statute-book black with intolerance and +suppression of knowledge, she talks complacently of the rights of +conscience and the blessings of education. + +In a lecture on Daniel O'Connell, delivered in Brooklyn on the +fifth of March last, the distinguished orator, Wendell Phillips, +of Boston, with all his eloquence, appeared almost at a loss +fittingly to qualify, by description and illustration, the +frightful tyranny of Protestant England against Catholic Ireland, +as exemplified in the diabolical ingenuity of the means by which +she sought to "stamp out" Irish nationality and annihilate +Catholicity. And, Mr. Phillips might have added, she was as +consistently bigoted at home as in Ireland. Here, the poor hedge +schoolmaster if a Catholic, who taught a child its a b c, was, +for the first offence, subject to banishment, and for the second, +_to be hanged as a felon_. There, when the University of +Oxford was asked to confer the honorary degree of A.M. on Alban +Francis, a learned Benedictine, he was rudely thrust back, solely +for the reason that he was a Catholic. And yet the same +university had shortly before conferred the same degree on--a +Mohammedan! The old distich is very trite, but on that occasion +it was very true: + + "Turk, Jew, or atheist may enter here, + But not a papist." + +It is a memorable fact that Sir Isaac Newton particularly +distinguished himself by active participation in this piece of +bigotry. He actually suspended the preparation for the press of +his _Principia_, and lent all the influence of his position +and his great name in order that an Englishman, distinguished for +his virtues and his learning, might not, because he was a +Catholic, receive the cheap recognition of the honorary degree of +a Protestant university. And Newton's English biographer coolly +states that "it was this circumstance, perhaps, as much as the +personal merit of Newton, that induced the university to select +him, the following year, to serve as their representative in +parliament." + +But space fails us to dwell on this subject, and we desire merely +to note the fact that, so thoroughly has a spirit of intolerant +anti-Catholicity permeated English literature, that its +expression, in some shape, is constantly found at the points of +the pens of many who are personally unconscious of any such +inspiration. +{435} +The spirit we refer to so thoroughly pervades every department of +literature--history, biography, travels, poetry, philosophy--that +from youth to old age it is unconsciously infiltrated into the +mental processes of every one who uses the English language as a +means of acquiring or communicating knowledge. Even as we write, +an instance of this presents itself. Here is a passage from the +editorial columns of a leading daily, published in Brooklyn, the +third city of the Union: + + "----the church so long deemed the enemy of human freedom and + intellectual progress, which imprisoned Galileo, and _tried + to thwart Columbus_ in putting the girdle of her ancient + faith around the world!" + +And yet the article from which this extract is made is evidently +written in a spirit that its author honestly supposes to be one +of entire freedom from religious prejudice. The church tried to +thwart Columbus! That is the main idea of the passage quoted, as +it was also the inspiration of the Kauffman painting. Such ideas +and such inspiration are the result of general prejudice and a +foregone conclusion. + +Of course we are aware of the accommodating pliability of the +term "the church," as used by writers who have anything +disagreeable or false to say of Catholicity. "The church" is, by +turns, a council, the pope, the cardinals, the inquisition, a +bishop or two, a knot of priests, sometimes only one, a king, a +viceroy, a barefooted friar, a dying nun, or even a simple +layman. It is really difficult and discouraging to deal with +people who either cannot or will not abide by some standard of +meaning for words whose proper acceptance is well defined and +recognized. + +In the case of Columbus these misrepresentations are the more +remarkable for the reason that there is no history of the +discovery of America, no biography of Columbus, how ever +imperfect, however prejudiced it may be, from whose perusal the +student can arise with any other conviction than that Columbus, +so far from being thwarted, was, on the contrary, enabled to +succeed in obtaining from Spain the means to fit out his +expedition only, wholly, and solely by reason of the +encouragement and aid he received from friars, priests, bishops, +and cardinals! + +From the moment he set foot on Spanish soil until he sailed from +Palos the generous sympathy and brave advocacy of churchmen never +forsook him. Never for a moment did they waver in their +appreciation of his noble nature, his sincere piety, and the +merit of his enterprise. From the Dominicans cloistered in St. +Stephens to Luis de St. Angel, high treasurer at the royal court; +from the saintly hermit of La Rabida to the grand Cardinal +Mendoza, ("a man of sound judgment, quick intellect, eloquent and +able," says Washington Irving,) in all are found the same +generous enthusiasm and unwavering boldness in their support of +the strange sailor's enterprise. + +And now, should Mr. Kauffman, or any other artist, desirous of +painting a great picture without pandering to a taste as false in +art as in history, desire to select a striking incident from the +history of Columbus, we beg leave to suggest that, without flying +in the face of truth, he may find it among the following +historical incidents: + +First. Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, in appearance lofty and +venerable, of generous and gentle deportment, pleading the cause +of Columbus before the queen. + +Second. The friar Diego de Deza aiding Columbus in sore necessity +from his own scant purse. + +{436} + +Third. Juan Perez, prior of the convent of La Rabida, +remonstrating with Columbus against abandoning his great +enterprise and quitting Spain. + +Fourth. The same prior saddling a mule at midnight to confront +the dangers of mountain passes, and an enemy's country, in order +to intercede for Columbus with the queen at Santa Fé. + +Fifth. The same noble monk pleading the cause of Columbus before +the queen with such chivalrous enthusiasm that "Isabella never +heard the proposition urged with such honest zeal and impassioned +eloquence." + +Sixth. Another noble ecclesiastic, Luis de St. Angel, who, +rivalling Isabella's magnanimity, met the queen's noble offer to +pledge her crown jewels to raise the necessary funds for +Columbus's expedition with the assurance that she need not, for +he would advance the money. + +But to return to the "council of Salamanca." The word council +presents the idea of a solemn ecclesiastical assemblage: not a +committee, not a board, not a junto; but something grand, +elevated in dignity and large in numbers. When you say "council," +every one, instinctively, imagines a crowd of mitres and +episcopal croziers. + +With that "fatal facility" which is the bane of historical +composition Irving has given us an entire chapter of nine pages +describing this famous "council," its debates, and its +proceedings, and from this chapter has gradually, although--we +must in justice to Mr. Irving say--unwarrantably, grown up a +story that, by dint of thirty years' repetition, has almost +acquired the dignity of an historical fact. That Prescott should +have followed Irving is not surprising. That Lamartine should +have disdained reference to historical sources and spoken of +Spain of the fifteenth century with that wonderful _sans +gêne_ that improvises both form and substance, that writes an +apotheosis of Robespierre and calls it a history of the +Girondins, in which there is, of course, a florid description of +"the last banquet," (which never took place,) is still less +surprising. But that a Spaniard and a serious historian, Don +Modesto Lafuente, should have written an important page in the +history of his country on the word of an entire stranger is +astounding. + +The whole of chapter third and part of chapter fourth of Irving's +_Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus_ are devoted to +"the council." Irving represents Ferdinand "determined to take +the opinion of the most learned men in the kingdom, and be guided +by their decision." Ferdinand de Talavera, "one of the most +erudite men of Spain and high in the royal confidence," was +commanded to consult the most learned astronomers, etc. After +they had informed themselves fully on the subject, they were to +consult together and make a report to the sovereign of their +collective opinion. After a long disquisition on the condition of +learning and science at that time, Irving goes on to say: "Such +was the period when a council of clerical sages was convened in +the collegiate convent of St. Stephen to investigate the new +theory of Columbus. It was composed of professors of astronomy, +geography, mathematics and other branches of science, together +with various dignitaries of the church and learned friars. ... +Among the number who were convinced by the reasoning and warmed +by the eloquence of Columbus was Diego de Deza, a worthy and +learned friar of the order of St. Dominick. He obtained for +Columbus a dispassionate if not an unprejudiced hearing." +{437} +Irving speaks of the assembled body as "this learned junto," and +says that occasional conferences took place, but without +producing any decision. + +"Talavera, to whom the matter was specially entrusted, had too +little esteem for it, and was too much occupied to press it to a +conclusion, and thus the inquiry experienced continual +procrastination and neglect." + +So far the third chapter of Irving. It is a remarkable fact that, +for all the important statements concerning the "council," Irving +cites but one authority, Remesal, referring to book ii. chapter +27, and book xi. chapter 7. In an endeavor to verify these +citations we find that book ii. has but twenty-two chapters, and +the passage referred to in book xi. chapter 7 is not there, but +in book ii. chapter 7. But it is more than singular that Irving +should refer to Remesal at all on that subject. Remesal was a +learned Dominican monk and his work is a _History of the +Provinces of Chiapa and Guatemala_, (America.) His book was +completed in 1609, and first published in 1619. Personally, he +was separated from the events at Salamanca by a space of one +hundred and twenty years. He was not writing the history of Spain +in 1487, and what he says concerning Salamanca is merely +incidental, unquestionably correct though it be. Thus, he states +that, with the aid of the Dominicans, Columbus brought over the +most learned men of the university, and among the numerous claims +to greatness of the convent of St. Stephen was that of having +been the principal cause of the discovery of the Indies. +[Footnote 122] + + [Footnote 122: "Y con el favor des los Religiosos reduxo a su + opinion los mayores Letrados de la escuela. ... Entre las + muchas grundezas ... una es aver sido la principal ocasion + del descubrimiento de las Indias."] + +To return to Irving. He relates in chapter 4 that the +"consultations of the board (first it was the council, then "this +learned junto") at Salamanca were interrupted by the Spanish +campaign against Malaga, before that learned body could come to a +decision, and for a long time Columbus was kept in suspense, +vainly awaiting the report that was to decide the fate of his +application." It thus appears that the opinion of the council was +not sufficiently adverse to Columbus to report at once and +unfavorably of his project. Then followed the spring campaign of +1487, the siege of Malaga, August, 1487. "In the spring of 1489," +says Irving, "Columbus was summoned to attend a conference of +learned men to be held at the city of Seville." + +But if a fresh conference is to decide, what then was the value +of the Salamanca council by whose decision, as Mr. Irving +informed us a few pages back, King Ferdinand had resolved to be +guided? + +"In 1490, Ferdinand and Isabella entered Seville in triumph. +Spring and summer wore away. At court was Fernando de Talavera, +_the procrastinating arbiter of the pretensions of +Columbus_." So then the arbiter was Talavera, not the council, +which, so far from condemning, have not yet, at the end of four +years, given any decision concerning the affair of Columbus. + +The higher we remount with the authorities toward the epoch of +"the council" the less do we find concerning it and concerning +Salamanca. The chroniclers of their Catholic majesties, Hernando +del Pulgar, Galindez, Carvajal, and others, make no mention of +it, and Peter Martyr, Lucio Siculo, Gonzalez de Oviedo, Lopez de +Gomara, and Sohs are equally silent on the subject. + +{438} + +It must be borne in mind, with regard to Columbus, that +historical certainty begins really with the siege of Granada, in +1492. Everything preceding that epoch is traditional, often vague +and uncertain, and seldom supported by documentary evidence. A +council at Salamranca held by royal order would have been +authorized by special edict or decree. There was none. Neither +was there any regular delegation to the university, no commission +officially installed, no interrogatories, nor registers, nor +records, followed by a definitive decree. The college and convent +of St. Stephen (Dominican) was only one college of the many at +Salamanca constituting the university. If such a council as +Irving describes had ever been held there, reference to recorded +proceedings, and a final decision in its archives, or in those of +St. Stephen, could long since have been made. + +The truth is that the only authority for any statements +concerning a committee of cosmographers is a passage in the life +of the grand admiral, written by his son Fernando Columbus. As +already remarked, the nearer we approach the period of the +pretended "council" the less we hear about it. Herrera, whose +sagacity, impartiality, and fidelity are universally recognized, +thus relates the matter of the cosmographers, but not once does +he mention "council" or "Salamanca." He says (1st Dec. book i, +chap. vii.) "that Columbus's suit was so home pressed (y tanto se +porfiò en ello) that their Catholic majesties, giving some +attention to the affair, referred it to father Ferdinand de +Talavera. He (Talavera) held a meeting of cosmographers who +debated about it, (qui confirieron en ello,) but there being few +then of that profession in Castile, and those none of the best in +the world, and besides Columbus would not altogether explain +himself, lest he should be served as he had been in Portugal, +[Footnote 123] they came to a resolution nothing answerable to +what he had expected." + + [Footnote 123: During his negotiation at Lisbon with the king + of Portugal, Columbus was requested to furnish for the + consideration of the royal council a detailed plan of his + proposed voyage, with charts and documents according to which + he intended to shape his course. As soon as these were + obtained, a well-manned vessel, under command of an able + captain, was despatched with orders to sail west on the + Atlantic according to the instructions of Columbus. Some few + days out from the Cape Verd Islands, the crew became + discouraged, and the vessel returned. The secret of its + mission soon transpired, and Columbus, outraged at the + treachery, left Portugal in disgust.] + +Herrera follows Ferdinand Columbus very closely; adopting, in +many passages, his very words. Fernando makes no mention of +Salamanca, says expressly that the cosmographers were called +altogether by Talavera, and that Columbus held back his most +important proofs lest what had happened him in Portugal might +also happen him in Spain, (nè lo ammiraglio si volea lasciar +tanto intendere che gli avenisse quel, che in Portogallo gli +avvenne et gli urbassero la beniditione.) + +Fernando Columbus was a man of learning and ability, and his +history is of great value. Unfortunately, the work, as he wrote +it, is lost. It was, of course, in the Spanish language. It is +said that a son of his brother Diego took the MS. to Genoa, where +it was translated into Italian. The version now used in Spain is +retranslated from the Italian, and abounds in errors. There is a +very good copy of the Italian edition (Venice, 1685) in the Astor +library. + +Munoz, the Spanish national historian who followed Herrera and +precedes Navarette, was a scholar of great merits, talents, and +liberal acquisitions. He was indefatigable in research, and being +royal historiographer had free access to all the records of +Spain. He says that Talavera was commissioned to examine the +enterprise with cosmographers, and give their opinion. +{439} +As the court happened that winter to be at Salamanca, they met +there. It is to be regretted that no record exists of the +conferences that took place in the Dominican convent of St. +Stephen, from which to form an opinion of the condition of +mathematics and astronomy in the university so famous in the +fifteenth century. _It is clear, nevertheless, that Columbus +established his propositions, produced his proofs, and met every +objection_. [Footnote 124] + + [Footnote 124: Talavera á quien los reyes encargaron la + comision de juntar à los sujetis habiles in cosmografia, para + examinar la empresa, y dar su pareceo. Formose la junta en + Salamanca, quizá per el invierno estando alli la corte. Es + lastima quo no hayan quidado documentis de las disputas que + se tuvieron en el convento de los dominicanos de San Esteban + para formar juicio del estado de las matematicas y astronomia + en aquella universidad famosa en el siglo XV. Coustu que + Colon sentaban sus proposisciones, exponfa sus fundamentos, y + satisfaciá a' las dificultades.] + +Munoz (_Historia del Nuevo Mundo_, pp. 57, 58, 59) +continues: "Los dominicanos poner entre sus glorias el haber +hospedado en San Esteban al descubridor de las Indias, dadole de +comer y otros auxilios para seguir sus pretensiones; y sobra todo +el haber estado por su opinion en equellas disputas, y atraido á +su partido los primeros hombres de la escuela. En lo qual +attribuyen la principal parte á Fray Diego Deza. ... cuyo +autoridad. ... contribuyó mucho para los creditos y acceptacion +de la empresa." [Footnote 125] + + [Footnote 125: The Dominicans are justly proud of the + hospitality extended by them in their convents to the + discoverer of America, entertaining him, and providing him + with all things necessary to pursue his projects; and still + more of having declared for him in the argument, drawing over + to his side the first men of the university. In all which the + great merit is due to Diego de Deza, whose influence + contributed greatly to the appreciation and adoption of the + enterprise.] + +Only a few years since, in 1858, Don Domingo Doncel y Ordar, of +Salamanca, published a memoir in which he refutes the statements +of Irving. + +A conference of cosmographers doubtless was held, but it was not +of the nature described by Irving and those who copy him, nor was +it a "council" with which the university of Salamanca had any +official connection whatever. + +The archives, documents, and registers of the university have +been searched with the most thorough diligence, and not a trace +of the council is on record. The registers in particular, +admirably kept and carefully preserved, were commenced in 1464 +and record incidents almost insignificant in interest, but make +no mention of such a meeting or council as Irving speaks of. In +this connection it is matter of surprise that such writers as +Rosselly De Lorgues and Cadoret should still be chasing the +phantom of this Salamanca council. The latter says that its +decree was rendered five years after its first meeting, and De +Lorgues supposes it probable that its records may yet be found in +the archives of Simancas. If there had been any decision against +Columbus by a body at all approaching the dignity and importance +of the university of Salamanca, he would have immediately quitted +Spain, never to return. But we find him leaving Salamanca strong +in the support of its first scholars, of the entire body of +Dominicans, and of the papal nuncio. + +That King Ferdinand should have directed Talavera to take the +opinion of cosmographers is perfectly natural. This temporizing +and shuffling treatment of Columbus would lead him to do anything +that would gain time and put Columbus off. Even Isabella was +evidently desirous of procrastinating until a successful +termination of the siege of Granada should enable them to act in +the matter. + +Reference to a committee or a board for the sake of delay +indefinite is not an invention of the nineteenth century. It is +as old as, if not older than, the period of Columbus. +{440} +That Columbus should, as his son Fernando relates, have +hesitated to explain himself fully, was natural, and indeed +inevitable. And with that hesitation there must have been a shade +of disdain in his manner. It looks very much as though he had +reserved his best, most cogent reasons for the private ear of his +special friends the Dominicans, who were enthusiastically the +advocates of his enterprise. + +We see Columbus leaving Salamanca not cast down and defeated, but +serene and with all the courage of confirmed conviction. The +noble Diego de Deza conducts him to the presence of Ferdinand and +Isabella, and we soon afterward hear the hum of preparation at +Palos. + +The latest historian of Columbus, Mr. Arthur Helps, separated +from Washington Irving by a period of some forty years, is +credited with ability, and great industry and research. He +certainly has the advantage of extensive and successful +discoveries of documents concerning Columbus made in Spain within +that period. It would be but reasonable, therefore, to look for +the throwing of much additional light and interesting details on +so capital an incident as "the council of Salamanca." Here is the +account given of it by Mr. Helps in his _Life of Columbus_, +published since the commencement of the present year: + + "Amid the clang of arms and the bustle of warlike preparation, + Columbus was not likely to obtain more than a slight and + superficial attention to a matter which must have seemed remote + and uncertain. + + "Indeed, when it is considered that the most pressing internal + affairs of kingdoms are neglected by the wisest rulers in times + of war, it is wonderful that he succeeded in obtaining any + audience at all. However, he was fortunate enough to find at + once a friend in the treasurer of the household, Alonzo de + Quintilla, a man who, like himself, took delight in great + things, and who obtained a hearing for him from the Spanish + monarchs. Ferdinand and Isabella did not dismiss him abruptly. + On the contrary, it is said they listened kindly; and the + conference ended _by their referring the business to the + queen's confessor, Fra Hernando de Talavera_, who was + afterwards archbishop of Granada. This important functionary + summoned a junta of cosmographers (not a promising assemblage!) + to consult about the affair, and this junta was convened at + Salamanca in the summer of the year 1487. + + "Here was a step gained; the cosmographers were to consider his + scheme, and not merely to consider whether it was worth taking + into consideration. But it was impossible for the jury to be + unprejudiced. All inventors, to a certain extent, insult their + contemporaries by accusing them of stupidity and ignorance. And + the cosmographical pedants, accustomed to beaten tracks, + resented the heresy by which this adventurer was attempting to + overthrow the belief of centuries. They thought that so many + persons, wise in nautical matters, as had preceded the Genoese + mariner, never could have overlooked such an idea as this which + had presented itself to his mind. Moreover, as the learning of + the middle ages resided for the most part in the cloister, the + members of the junta were principally clerical, and combined to + crush Columbus with theological objections. ... Las Casas + displays his usual acuteness when he says that the great + difficulty of Columbus was not that of teaching, but that of + unteaching; not of promulgating his own theory, but of + eradicating the erroneous convictions of the judges before whom + he had to plead his cause. In fine, the junta decided that the + project was 'vain and impossible, and that it did not belong to + the majesty of such great princes to determine anything upon + such weak grounds of information.'" + +Slender material, all this, for another Kauffman painting! Here +is our council sunk to a junta--a junta of cosmographers--not an +assemblage of theologians to decide what the church thought about +the project, but a junta of men supposed to know something of +geography and the conformation of the globe! The "theological +objections" referred to by Mr. Helps were precisely the +opportunity of Columbus's greatest triumph in giving him occasion +to reveal himself to friends and enemies in a capacity never +suspected to exist in him. +{441} +Among the many traditions in Spain concerning "l'almirante" +[Footnote 126] --traditions supported by his own writings and the +testimony of such men as Las Casas--none are so well established +as those that recount the eloquent inspiration of Columbus in +citing or commenting the Scriptures. His perfect familiarity with +them was not more admirable than his majesty of manner in +declaiming their grandest passages. + + [Footnote 126: Humboldt says that whenever a Spaniard + mentions _L'Almirante_, he refers to but one, namely, + Columbus. Just as the Mexicans, when they speak of El + Marchese, mean Cortes, and the Florentines, when they name + _Il Segretario_, mean Macchiavelli.] + +Luther, as we learn from that remarkable book, _D'Aubigné's +History of the Reformation, discovered_, unexpectedly +discovered, to his great joy and surprise, a Bible chained to a +window in the conventual library! Could not some modern D'Aubigné +inform us how it was that an obscure Italian sailor could have +happened upon a Bible in such countries as Italy, Portugal, and +Spain, could have been permitted to read it--more than all that, +could have had the temerity to quote it to the very face of +monks, and priests, and, worse still, show them that he knew as +much about it as they did? We commend the subject to the +D'Aubigné editors. + +In saying that, in our belief, the life of Columbus has yet to be +written, we express no new opinion. + +In this connection it is well remarked by the Marquis De Belloy, +that the best history of Christopher Columbus would be the +collection of his own writings accompanied by commentaries. +Literary and bibliographical research and labor in Spain have +succeeded in collecting nearly everything that Columbus wrote +from the year 1492 up to the period of his death, and their +publication is needed to show this truly grand character in his +true light. Were Columbus simply a man of genius, an ordinary +history would suffice to recount his life. But his soul was as +great as his genius, and such a soul is its own best revelation. +Next to the accomplishments of his great project, the discovery +of a new world beyond the ocean, a world he distinctly saw, his +dominant thought was--with the wealth that must necessarily be +obtained from it--to reconquer and deliver from pagan hands the +sepulchre of our Saviour! + +Profane history and modern impiety instinctively smile at such +simplicity. Mr. Rosselly De Lorgues is one of the very few who +have rendered justice to the religious phase of the character of +the great mariner, and he shows that in Columbus constancy, +perseverance, bravery, and honor were not more marked than +elevated Catholic piety. + +To conclude with Salamanca, there is no more searching, truthful, +and eloquent commentary on its results than the language of +Columbus himself, for he has recorded it. We quote from Navarette +(Madrid edition) vol. 1. p. xcii.: + + "Diego de Deza"--the Dominican monk--"was his (Columbus's) + special protector with Ferdinand and Isabella, and mainly + contributed to the success of his enterprise; referring to + this, Columbus himself said that from his coming into Castile + that prelate (Deza) had protected him, had striven for his + honor, and to him was it due that their majesties possessed the + Indies." [Footnote 127] + + [Footnote 127: "Por lo cual decia el mismo Colon que + _desde_ que vino á Castilla le habia favorecido aquel + prelado y deseado su honora, y que el fue causa que SS. AA. + tuviesen las Indias."] + +For this passage Navarette quotes Remesal, _Historia di Chiapa +e Guatemala_. A very characteristic performance in Navarette! +It was impossible for him to avoid referring to what Columbus had +said, and he weakens the force of it by not crediting it at once +and directly to the proper authority, Las Casas--citing Las +Casas's own words. + +{442} + +For Remesal expressly says that he takes it from Las Casas, (lib. +i. al medio del cap. 29:) "Y assi (dize) en carta escrita de su +mano de Christobal Colon vide que dezia al Rey: Que el suso dicho +Maestro del Principe, Arcobispo de Sevilla D.F. _Diego Deza +avia fido causa que los Reyes abrassen las Indias_." + +It is one thing to be told that Remesal uses the language cited +by Navarette, and quite another thing to learn from Las Casas +that he had seen _a letter written by Columbus himself, in +which he told the king of Spain that their majesties owed their +possession of the Indies to the Dominican monk Diego de Deza_. + +Nothing, however, need surprise us from a historian who undertook +the desperate task of extenuating the notorious injustice of +Ferdinand toward Columbus. In its execution Navarette has +needlessly and shamefully outraged the truth of history and the +memory of the Great Discoverer. + +---------- + + Daybreak. + + + Chapter VIII. + + + The Lord Answered Job + Out Of A Whirlwind. + + +Mr. Southard was perfectly confident in his expectation of being +able to convince Miss Hamilton of her mistake. He knew her well +enough to be sure that she would fearlessly acknowledge her error +as soon as it should be made plain to her; and he did not doubt +that the power to produce that conviction on her mind would be +given him. + +He would not allow that first twinge of wounded personal pride +and dignity of office, with which he had seen how light she held +his authority in matters of religion, to stand in the way of his +endeavors. The first dignity of his office was to perform its +duties. Exacting respect was secondary. + +Mr. Southard had one confident: his journal. The day the books +were left on his table he wrote in it: "Tonight I am to read +Milner's _End of Controversy_. O my God! may I read it by +the light of thy Gospel! May a ray of heavenly truth fall on each +page, expose its hidden falsehood, and teach me how best to prove +that falsehood to this stray lamb who has been lured from thy +fold into the den of the wolf." + +Two or three days passed, the book was read, and read again; but +the refutation was not ready. Mr. Southard was too honest and too +manly to think that personal abuse was a proper answer to +theological argument. He remembered that when St. Michael set his +foot upon the neck of Satan, and chained him to the rock, he did +not use infernal weapons, or walk in loathsome ways; but his +sword was tempered in heaven, and there was no mire upon his +sandals. + +{443} + +"When I fight for the Lord," the minister said, "I will use the +weapons of the Lord." + +He laid aside the first book, and took another. Again a few days, +and yet he was not prepared to undermine his adversary. + +"I am astonished at the ingenuity and subtlety of these writers," +was the record he made in those days. "All the resources of minds +richly dowered by nature, highly cultivated by education, and +inspired by some strange infatuation for what they call the +church, have been brought to bear upon this question of polemics. +How skilfully they mingle truth with falsehood! What beautiful, +what touching, what sublime sentiments they drop in places where +one would not go save so lured! It reminds me of my boyish days, +when the scarlet blossom of a cardinal-flower would entice me +down steep banks, and into dangerous waters, or some bloomy patch +of ripe berries would draw my feet into a treacherous swamp. I +begin to perceive the attraction which the Roman Church exercises +on the unwary." + +It will be perceived that Mr. Southard had the rare courtesy not +to use the word "Romish." He was so much a gentleman that he +could not call nicknames, not even in theological controversy. + +But as his days of study lengthened into weeks, a change came +over him. The obstacles in his way made him nervous, feverish, +and, it must be owned, rather ill-tempered. His political +opposition to Mr. Lewis was expressed with unusual asperity. He +was very haughty with Miss Hamilton. He entirely absented himself +from luncheon, and he sometimes dined out, rather than sit beside +that smiling papist who was doubtless triumphing over him in her +heart, taking his silence for defeat. He groaned as he heard her +light step pass his door every morning on her way to early mass. +That step was his _réveil_. Should he, the Gospel watchman, +sleep while the foe was awake and at work? + +"Why cannot truth inspire as much ardor as error awakens?" he +wrote one morning. "Why cannot we bring back the old days of +faith, when God was to man a power, and not a name; when the +tables of the law were stone to the touch; when he who made +flood, and fire, and death was more terrible than flood, fire, or +death? The author of _Ecce Homo_ is right; no virtue is safe +that is not enthusiastic. A cold religion is a worthless +religion. O Lord! have mercy on Zion; for it is time to have +mercy on it." + +But, angry as he was with her every morning, when Mr. Southard +met Margaret coming in again from mass, her face smiling, her +cheeks red from the cold, he could but forgive her. It is hard to +frown on a bright face, happiness looks so much like goodness. + +Mr. Granger took notice of these early walks, Mr. Lewis +alternately scowled upon and laughed at them. Mrs. Lewis and +Aurelia exclaimed, How dared she go out alone before light! + +The wicked people, if there were any, were all asleep, Miss +Hamilton said, sitting down to breakfast with a most unromantic +appetite, and a general preponderance of rose-color and sparkle +in her countenance. At six o'clock on winter mornings no one was +abroad but papists and policemen. It was the safest hour of the +twenty-four. + +"My good angel and I just go about our business, and nobody +molests us," she said with a spice of mischief; for the mention +of anything peculiarly Catholic usually had the effect of +producing a blank silence, and a general elongation of visage. + +{444} + +"But such a magnificent spectacle as I saw this morning! I came +home round the Common. The sleet-storm of last evening had left +all the trees crusted with ice to the very tips of their twigs, +and set an ice-mitre on every individual arrow-head of the iron +fence. There were the ghosts of all the bishops from Peter down. +There wasn't any sky, but only a vast crystalline distance. I +took my stand on the Beacon and Charles street corner. Every +other person who was so happy as to be out looked also. Then the +sun came up. Park street steeple caught fire at the ball, and +flamed all the way down. There was a glimmer on the topmost +twigs, then the trees all over the Common were in an instant +transfigured into flashing diamonds. The malls were enough to put +your eyes out--nothing but glitter from end to end. It was a +grand display for the frost-people. The trees will talk about it +all next summer." + +The winter slipped away; and Mr. Southard had not fulfilled his +promise to Miss Hamilton. Neither had he relinquished his +studies. Shut up with his books hour after hour and day after +day, in silence and solitude, he scarcely knew how the world +fared without. For him the war had suddenly dwindled. Through +long and weary vigils that wore his face thin and his eyes +hollow, he studied, and thought, and prayed, not the humble +petition of one who places himself before God, and passively +awaits an inspiration, but the impassioned and fiery petition of +one who will not doubt the justice of his cause, and will not be +denied. Then, leaning from the window to cool his heated eyes and +head in the fresh early dawning, a peace that was half exhaustion +would settle upon him. Sleep came pitifully in those hours, and +pressed on the throbbing brain too much expanded by thought, and +for a little while soothed the tormented heart. + +His journal bore traces of the conflict. + +"I will resist the seduction! This is my time of trial; but I +will conquer! In the name of God, I will yet confound the doctors +of the Roman Church. O God! who didst nerve the arm of David +against Goliath, strengthen thou me!" + +At every step he was baffled. Catching at what appeared a mere +theological weed, thinking to fling it out of his way, he found +it rooted like an oak. Approaching dogmas with the expectation of +cutting them down like men of straw, he was confronted by mailed +giants. + +He found himself among crowds and clouds of Catholic +saints--shadows, he called them--that would fly from his path +when he should hold up the torch of truth. But, looking in that +light, he saw steadfast eyes, and shining foreheads, and +palm-branches that brushed his shrinking, empty hands. And out +from among them, with a look of gentle humility that smote him +like a blow, and with a tremulous radiance gathering about her +pure forehead, came one whom he had frowned upon, and striven to +discrown. What was she saying? "All nations shall call me +blessed!" Not great, not glorious, not even lovely, but +_blessed_! + +"Well--she--was blessed," admitted the minister. + +The next moment he started out of his chair, muttered some kind +of exorcism, caught his hat, and went out for a walk. Though it +was mid-April, a north wind was blowing thank heaven for that! +Nothing murky about the north wind. +{445} +It would soon blow away all these pestilential vapors that came +up from the sun-steeped lowlands of his soul; pagan places where, +though his iconoclastic will had again and again gone about +breaking images, no sooner did it rest than there they were +again, Bacchus, and Hebe, and Diana, and the rest. Or from yet +more dangerous because more deceptive regions, wide, bright +solitudes of the soul, arid and dazzling, where the unobstructed +sky seemed to lean upon the earth--the region of mirages, of New +Jerusalems, that shone and crumbled--of sacred-seeming streams +that fled from thirsty lips--of cool shadows that never were +reached. + +In one of these impetuous walks, Mr. Southard came across an old +minister, and went into his study with him, and told him +something of his difficulties. He was too well aware of his own +excitement to venture on a full explanation. Moreover, there was +something soothing and silencing in the look of this man, in his +tranquil, rather sad expression, his noble face, and snowy hair. + +The old doctor leaned back in his chair, and calmly listened +while his younger brother spoke, smiling indulgently now and then +at some vivid turn of expression, some flash of the eyes, some +impatient gesture. + +Elderly ministers were always pleased with Mr. Southard, who +would ask advice and instruction of them with a docility that was +almost childlike. Such respect was very pleasant to those who +seemed to have fallen upon evil days, who saw the prestige of the +ministry departing, to whom boys had ceased to take off their +caps, to whom even women did not look up as of yore. + +"My dear brother," said the doctor gently when the other had +ceased speaking, "you have made a mistake in attempting this +work. I tell you frankly, we can never argue down the Catholic +Church. All the old theologians know that, and avoid the contest. +For perfect consistency with itself, and for wonderful complexity +yet harmony of structure, the world has not seen, and will not +again see its equal. It is the masterwork of the arch-enemy." + +"So much the more reason why we should attack it with all our +might!" exclaimed the other. + +"No," replied the doctor, "That does not follow. There are +dangers which must be shunned, not met; and this is one. As with +wine, so with Romanism, 'touch not, taste not, handle not!'" + +"That might be said to the laity," Mr. Southard persisted. "But +for us who teach theology, we ought to search, we ought to +examine. It is essential that we know the weapons of our +adversary in order to destroy them." + +"Truth has many phases, and so has belief," was the quiet reply. +"We begin by believing that the doctrines we hold are the truth, +the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and that everything +else is unmitigated falsehood. But after a while, according to +the degree of candor of which we are capable, we begin to admit +that every religion on earth has something reasonable to say for +itself. There is a grain of good in Mohammedanism, in Brahminism, +in Buddhism. We are now credibly assured that the old story of +people throwing themselves under the wheels of Juggernaut is a +myth. Hindu converts say that there were sometimes accidents at +these religious celebrations, on account of the crowd, as we have +accidents on the fourth of July; but that Juggernaut was a +beneficent deity who took no pleasure in human pain, and whose +attributes were a dim reflection of Christianity. +{446} +I used to tell that story in perfect good faith whenever a +collection was wanted for the missionaries. I don't tell it now. +At last we learn to choose what seems to us best, to present its +advantages to others, but not to insist that all shall agree with +us under pain of eternal loss. When I hear a man crying out +violently against the purely religious opinions of others, I +always set him down as a man of narrow heart and narrower head. +The principal reason for my well-known hostility to Catholicism +is a political one. + +"The fact is, brother, God's light falling on the mind of man, is +like sunlight falling on a prism. It is no longer the pure white, +but is shattered into colors which each one catches according to +his humor. We ministers are not like Moses coming from the +mountain with the whole law in his two hands, and a dazzling face +to testify for him that he had been with God, he alone. I wish we +were, brother! I wish we were!" + +"But faith," exclaimed the other, "is there no faith?" + +"We believe in the essentials; and they are few." + +"How shall we prove them?" + +"As the Catholic Church proves them. She holds the whole truth +tangled in the midst of her errors, like a fly in a spider's +web." + +Mr. Southard sat a moment, looking steadily, almost sternly, at +his companion. + +"Then you and I have no mission," he said. "We are not divinely +called." + +"Whithersoever a man goes, there is he called," said the doctor, +sighing faintly. "We among the rest. We have a mission, too, and +a noble one. We make people keep the Sabbath, which, without us, +would fall into disuse; we remind them of their duties; we check +immorality; we keep before the eyes of worldlings the fact that +there is another world than this. In short, we spend our breath +in keeping alive the sacred fire on the desecrated altar of the +human soul. Is that nothing?" + +In speaking, the doctor lifted his head, and drew up his stately +form. His voice trembled with feeling, and his eyes were full of +indignant tears. His look was proud, almost defiant; yet seemed +directed less against his companion, than combating some voice in +his own soul. All the enthusiastic dreams of his youth, though +they had long since been subdued, as he thought, by common sense +and necessity, stirred in their graves at sound of the imperious +questioning, at sight of the clear, searching eyes of this young +visionary who fancied that in the troubled spirit of man the full +orb of truth was to be reflected unblurred. + +"In short," Mr. Southard said, rising to go, "you believe that +the spirit of evil can propose a problem which the Holy Spirit +cannot solve." + +"Not so!" was the reply; "but the spirit of evil may propose a +problem which the Holy Spirit may not choose to solve for us till +the end of time." + + + Chapter IX. + + Noblesse Oblige + + +On his way home that day, the minister met Mr. Granger, and the +two stopped to look at a Vermont regiment that was marching +through the city from the Maine depot to the New York depot. As +they stopped, the regiment also was stopped by some obstruction +in the street. + +The attention of the gentlemen was presently attracted to a boy +in the rank nearest them, a bright, resolute-looking lad, with a +ruddy face and smiling lips. +{447} +But it needed not a very keen observer to see in that smile the +pathetic bravado of a boy who had just torn himself away from +home, and was struggling to hide the grief with which his heart +was swelling. + +"What is a boy like you in the army for?" Mr. Granger asked. + +The young soldier looked up, his bright eyes bold with +excitement. "When men won't go, the boys have got to go," he +answered. "Do you want to take my place?" + +Mr. Granger said no more. + +Beside this boy stood a middle aged man who had an uncommonly +good face. He was tall, somewhat awkward, and had that look of +unsophisticated manliness, honest candor, and plain common sense, +which is found only in the country. One could not fancy him a +dweller among masked city faces, breathing air pent in narrow +streets, walking daily on pavements, and knowing no shades but +those of brick and stone. His place was tramping through wild +forests, not with any romantic intent, but measuring with +practised eyes the trunk of some tree in which he saw what +woodsmen call a "good stick," and chopping steadily at it while +the chips flew about him, and above him the spreading branches +shivered at every stroke; or plodding slowly through still +country roads beside his slow oxen; or, in the sultry summer +days, swinging the scythe through thick grass and clover, mowing +them down ankle deep at his feet. He had the flavor of all that +about him. Now he had to wade through other than that fragrant +summer sacrifice, to break through other ranks than serried +clover and Mayweed, and those strong arms of his were to lay low +something greater than pine or cedar. You could see that this +thought was in his mind, that he never lost sight of it, but, +also, that he would not shrink. Such men have not much to say; +but in time of need they put into action the heroism which others +exhale in glowing language. + +This man had been looking straight before him; but at the sound +of a childish voice he turned his head quickly. A little girl +leaning from the curbstone was admiring the bunch of flowers on +the soldier's bayonet, and stretching longing hands toward them. + +The fixed look in the man's face broke up instantly. "Do you want +them, little dear?" he asked. + +"Oh! yes." + +He lowered his rifle, removed the flowers, and gave them to the +child, looking at her with a yearning, homesick smile that was +more pitiful than tears. At that moment the drums began to beat. +The soldier laid his bronzed hand on the happy little head, then, +with trembling lips and downcast eyes, marched on, and out of +sight for ever. + +Mr. Granger turned abruptly away. "I feel as if I were a great +lazy coward!" he exclaimed. "I can't stand this any longer!" + +The minister looked at him with a startled expression; but any +reply was prevented; for just then they met Mrs. Lewis coming out +of a flower-store, with her hands full of Mayflowers done up in +solid pink bunches, without a sign of green. + +"Poor things!" she said. "The sight of them always reminds me of +the massacre of the Innocents. See! they look like so many pretty +little pink and white heads cut off. Massed so, without any +green, they are not at all like flowers. Are we going home to +dinner? My husband will be late, and we are not to wait for him. +He has gone to see who is drafted in our ward." + +{448} + +The family had nearly finished dinner when Mr. Lewis came in. +"Our house is favored," he said immediately. "Granger, both you +and I are drawn." + +Mr. Granger looked up, but said nothing. "I got my substitute on +the spot," Mr. Lewis continued. "He is a decent fellow whom I can +depend on. I asked him if he knew of any one for you, and he +thought he could get somebody." + +Mr. Granger made no reply, seemed to be occupied in waiting on +his little girl who sat beside him. + +"How sober he is!" thought Miss Hamilton; but did not feel +troubled, his gravity was so gentle. + +Dora looked up in her father's face, and laughed, half with love, +half with delight. "You nice papa!" she cried, and gave his arm +an enthusiastic hug. He laid his hand on those sunny curls, as he +had seen the soldier do in the street, but did not smile. + +Glancing at Mr. Southard, Margaret met a look at once anxious and +searching. His eyes were instantly averted, but his expression +did not change. What could it mean? After dinner, he went +directly to his room. + +Mr. Granger sat apart in the parlor with Dora, petting her, and +telling her stories. When her bed-time came, he went out with +her, and was gone longer than usual. The evening was cool, and +they had a fire in the grate. Mr. Lewis sat before it reading the +evening paper, and the three ladies gathered in one corner, and +talked in whispers. + +"How sober and strange everything seems this evening!" Margaret +said, shivering. "I feel cold. It isn't like spring, but like +fall. Hold my hand, Aura dear. What does chill me so?" + +"It is because Mr. Southard looked at you in such an odd way," +Aurelia said gravely, holding Margaret's cold hand between her +warm ones. + +"I know what ails me," Mrs. Lewis said, in a tone of vexation. +"It is that substitute. My husband will preach poverty for six +months to come. Charles," raising her voice, "does your +substitute look as if he had swallowed a new black silk dress +with little ruffles all over it?" + +"He has very much that expression of countenance," growled Mr. +Lewis from behind his newspaper. + +"O dear! And does he look as if Niagara Falls had disappeared +down his throat, and as if he were just chewing up a little trip +to the mountains?" + +"You describe him perfectly," her husband replied with grim +courtesy. + +Mr. Granger came in presently, and stood awhile by one of the +windows, looking out into the twilight. Then he took a seat by +the fire. + +It was getting too dark to read without a light, and Mr. Lewis +laid his paper aside. "I will see about your substitute +to-morrow," he said, "and send him up to the bank, if you wish." + +"Thank you," Mr. Granger replied. "And as soon as I get a +substitute, I shall immediately volunteer." + +There was an exclamation from the ladies, and a sound as if one +caught her breath. + +Mr. Lewis stared at the speaker, turned very red, then started +up, and went out of the room, banging the door behind him. A +minute later, he flung open the door of Mr. Southard's study, and +marched in without the least ceremony. "What is the meaning of +this nonsense of Mr. Granger's volunteering?" he demanded, +stammering with anger. + +Mr. Southard had been sitting with a Bible open before him, and +his face bowed forward and resting on it. He rose with cold +stateliness at this abrupt invasion. "Will you sit, sir?" he +said, pointing to a chair. + +{449} + +"No, sir, I will not!" was the answer. "I want you to go down and +put a stop to his making a fool of himself. I won't say a word to +him; I haven't patience to." + +"If Mr. Granger thinks it his duty to go, I shall not attempt to +dissuade him," said the minister calmly, reseating himself. "He +is his own master, and I am in no way responsible for his action +in the matter." + +"When a man plants an acorn, we hold him responsible for the +oak," was the retort. "You have indirectly done all you could to +make him ashamed of staying at home, and to make him believe that +the more pieces a man gets cut into the more of a man he is. If +you don't prevent his going, I shall hold you responsible for +whatever may happen." + +For a moment the minister's self-control deserted him, and a just +perceptible curl touched his lip with scorn. "Can you see no +nobler destiny for a man," he asked, "than to eat three meals a +day, make money, and keep a whole skin?" + +Mr. Lewis's face had been red: now his very hands blushed with +anger. He opened the door to leave the room, and turned on the +threshold. "Yes, sir, I can!" he replied with emphasis. "But it +is not in staying at home and sending another man out to die, +especially when that man may be in your way!" + +Banging the door behind him, Mr. Lewis ran against his niece who +was just coming up-stairs. She looked terrified. She had +overheard her uncle's parting speech. + +"Oh! how could you!" she exclaimed. "Aunt was afraid that you +were going to say something to Mr. Southard, and she sent me to +beg you to come down. How could you, uncle?" + +"I could a good deal easier than I couldn't," he replied. "Come +into the chamber here and talk to me. I don't want to be left +alone a minute. I shan't go down-stairs again to-night; and I +would advise you and your aunt to get out of the way, and give +Miss Hamilton a chance to talk or cry a little common sense into +Mr. Granger." + +Meantime Mr. Granger had been explaining somewhat to the two +ladies left with him, and exonerating Mr. Southard from all +responsibility. + +"I know that Mr. Lewis will blame him," he said; "but that is +unjust to both of us. It is paying me a very poor compliment to +say that in such a matter I would allow another person to think +for me." + +"You must remember that my husband's excitement will be in +proportion to his regard for you," Mrs Lewis said, with tears in +her eyes. "He has a rough way of showing affection; but he is +fonder of you than of any other man in the world; and I'm sure we +all--" Here her voice failed. + +Mr. Granger turned hastily toward her as she got up to go out. "I +don't forget that," he said. "I know he thinks a good deal of me, +and so do I of him. We shan't quarrel. Don't be afraid. I found +out long ago that he has a kind and true heart under that rough +manner." + +"I'm going to bring him back," Mrs. Lewis said, and went out, +wiping her eyes. + +Mr. Granger had not dared to look at Miss Hamilton, or address +her directly. After having spoken, the thought had first occurred +to him that he should have been less abrupt in announcing his +intention to her. She might be expected to feel his departure +more keenly than the others would. He waited a moment to see if +she would speak. She sat perfectly quiet in the dim light, her +cheek supported by her hand, her elbow on the arm of her chair, +and her eyes fixed on the fire. +{450} +There is an involuntary calmness with which we sometime receive +the most terrible news, and which even an acute observer would +take for perfect indifference, but which, though not assumed, is +utterly deceptive. Perhaps it is incredulity; perhaps the sudden +blow stuns. Whatever it may be, no human self-control can equal +it. Fortunately, this phenomenon worked now for Miss Hamilton. +She would scarcely have forgiven herself or Mr. Granger if she +had lost her self-possession. + +"Nothing will be changed here," he said presently, slightly +embarrassed by the continued silence. "All will go on just as it +has. In case of any uncertainty, when it would take too long to +hear from me, you can consult Mr. Barton, who is my lawyer. He +knows all my wishes and intentions. Of course you have full +authority regarding Dora. I feel quite at ease in leaving her to +you." + +So Mr. Barton had known all about it, and so had Mr. Southard, +and others, perhaps. Miss Hamilton recollected herself with an +effort. She was in Mr. Granger's employment; he was, in some +sort, her patron. She had made the mistake of thinking that they +were friends. But that is not friendship where the confidence is +all on one side. + +"I shall try to do my duty by Dora," she said rather coldly. "But +what does 'full authority' mean?" + +"She is too young to learn theology," he replied; "but everything +else is free. I spoke lest some one might interfere during my +absence, though that isn't likely." + +Margaret waited a moment, then said, "Dora tells me that you hear +her say the Our Father every night and morning. Of course, I +shall hear it when you are gone. If you are willing, I would like +to teach her to bless herself before praying, and to say a little +prayer to the Mother of Christ for your safety. I won't make her +say 'Mother of God.'" + +Mr. Granger was touched. "That cannot hurt her nor me," he said. +"Do as you please." + +Presently he spoke again, "I received yesterday a letter which my +cousin Sinclair wrote me the day before he was killed. It was +given to a soldier who was taken prisoner, and is only just +exchanged. That letter surprised and affected me; and if I had a +lingering doubt as to my own course, it was dispelled then. He +was driving to the steamer, it seems, when he met the Seventh +Regiment marching through Broadway to take the cars south. As +they marched, they sang 'Glory Hallelujah' with a sound like a +torrent. He was electrified. There he was on the point of going +abroad for distraction when here at home was the centre toward +which the eyes of the whole civilized world were turned. He +blushed for the slothful ease and aimlessness of his life. Here +was manly employment. He took no thought for the causes of the +war, since he was not responsible for them; and circumstances had +decided which side he was to take. To him it was a great +gymnasium in which men enervated by wealth, or cramped by petty +aims, were to wake up their nobler powers, string anew their +courage, 'ventilate their souls,' as he expressed it, and, +finding what they were themselves capable of achieving, take back +thus their faith in others. When he saw those gallant fellows +march singing off to battle, the dusty, stale old life broke open +for him, and a new golden age bloomed out. He did not feel that +they were rejoicing over the shedding of blood, or the winning of +victories; but they sang their emancipation from littleness, they +sang because they caught breath of a higher air, they sang +because they had found out that their souls were greater than +their bodies. +{451} +Then first it seemed credible to him that the Son of God took +flesh and died for man; for then he first perceived that man at +his best is a glorious creature. 'I am happy,' he added. 'It is +like getting out of a close room into the fresh air. I am going +through a picture-gallery more magnificent than any in the old +world, and listening to strains of an epic grander than Homer's. +I feel as if I were just made new.'" + +This recital was to Margaret like some reviving essence to a +fainting person. Her heart, drooping inward on itself, expanded +again. + +"If I knew him now!" she said. "If he would-come to me now!" + +"Here is something that will interest you," Mr. Granger added; "I +will read it from the letter." + +He lighted the gas and read: "The last time I was in Washington, +I went to see Lieut. A----, who is laid up in one of the +hospitals in charge of the Sisters of Charity. Everything was +quiet and orderly. A. was enthusiastic about the sisters, calls +them doves of peace and charity, says their bonnets look like +wings of great white birds. I talked with one of them when I went +out. + +"'How can you, who are the children of peace, bear to come among +us who are the sons of strife?' I asked. + +"'Where can the children of peace more fitly go than among the +sons of strife?' she returned. + +"'But we must seem to you cruel, and unworthy of gentle +ministrations,' I said. 'You must think that we deserve our +pains.'" + +"A swift, almost childlike smile just touched her lips, 'We +cannot be everything,' she replied. 'Each has his place; and the +judgment-seat belongs to God. I am only the nurse.' + +"'You must look upon war as the carnival of Satan,' I said. + +"'God permits it,' she replied tranquilly. 'And the thought has +occurred to me that it may be some times a preparation for +religion. In the army men learn to suffer, and to sacrifice, and +to be patient and obedient--lessons which perhaps they would not +learn in any humbler school. And having acquired these virtues, +they may use them in nobler ways, perhaps in preventing war. +But,' she added hastily, 'it is not for me to explain the designs +of the Almighty. Here is my mission!' + +"She bowed, and glided away. A minute later I saw her raising the +head of a dying soldier, and as his eyes grew dim, repeating for +him, 'Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!' + +"As I went away, I said to myself, 'I have seen one wiser than +Solomon!'" + +As Mr. Granger finished reading, the door opened, and Mr. +Southard came in, but stopped on seeing the two alone. + +"I am glad you have, come," Miss Hamilton said quickly, "I want +you to assure Mr. Granger that, though we shall miss him, and be +anxious about him, we will not let our weakness stand in the way +of his strength." + +No matter if she had been slighted! No matter if the confidence +had been all on one side! + +"Will you not bid me also Godspeed?" Mr. Southard asked. + +"You?" + +"I have asked, and am likely to receive, a year's leave of +absence from my congregation," he said. "I do not know how it +will be; but I hope to go in the same regiment with Mr. Granger." + +{452} + +"Well," Margaret sighed as she climbed wearily up-stairs, "I have +had one happy year. But could I have dreamed that Maurice +Sinclair would be the one to reprove my weakness at such a +time?". + + + Chapter X. + + A Broken Circle. + + +Having made up his mind to go, Mr. Granger lost no time. He who +had been the most leisurely of men, whose composure and +deliberateness of manner had often given him the appearance of +haughtiness, was now possessed by a spirit of ceaseless activity. +His slow and dignified step became prompt, he spoke more quickly, +his misty eyes cleared up, and a color glowed in his swarthy +cheeks. + +There was no more lounging on a sofa, and reading; no more +theatre nor concert; no more lingering in picture-galleries, and +looking about with that fastidious, dissatisfied expression of +his till his eyes lit sparkling on something that pleased him; no +more dreaming along, with a cigar in his mouth, under the trees +at twilight. He was busy, happy, and full of life. + +It did not take long to complete his arrangements. Like Madame +Swetchine, he thought those obstacles trifling which were not +insurmountable. + +The family found themselves infected by his cheerfulness. Mr. +Lewis's lugubrious visions of wooden arms and legs, and patches +over the eye, he swept away with a laugh. The wistful glances, +often dim with tears, with which the ladies looked at him, +following his every step, listening to his every word, he chid +more gently, and also more earnestly. + +"How women can weaken men with a tear or a glance!" he said. "It +will be hard for me to leave you. I love you all. I have been +very happy here, and hope to be as happy here again. But I must +go. I can't see poor men leaving their families, and boys torn +away from their homes, and not go. I should never again respect +myself if I staid at home. But there is something else. The +feeling that draws me is something that I cannot explain. It is +irresistible. The breeze has caught me, and I must move. Margaret +has a smile for me, I know. It's in her. She comes of a Spartan +stock." + +Could she disappoint his expectation? No. Henceforth, at whatever +cost to her, he should see no sign of weakness. But, oh! she +thought, sometimes those who stay at home fight harder battles +than those who go. + +"And my little girl," said the father. "She wants me to have +beautiful gold straps on my shoulders, and splendid large gilt +buttons on my coat." + +Dora was enchanted. Soldiers were to her the most magnificent of +beings. "Yes, papa! And little gold cuffs to your sleeves, and +stripes on your pantaloons." + +"Precisely. And a sword, and a belt, and spurs at my heels, and a +feather in my hat. Papa will be as fine as a play-actor. And in +order to have all these things, my pet is willing that I should +go away awhile?" + +The child said nothing, but looked steadily at her father. The +smile still lingered on her lips, but large, slow tears were +filling her eyes. + +"Not for a very great while," he added. "You know we must pay in +some way for all we get. You pay money for your dresses, and +study for your education, and for these shoulder-straps of mine +you must pay by letting me go a little while." + +{453} + +The child struggled hard to keep down the swelling in her throat, +and dropped her eyes to hide the tears in them. + +"I guess, papa," she said, nervously twisting his watch-chain as +she leaned against him, "I guess it's no matter about the +shoulder-straps. I'd rather have you without' em." + +He tried to laugh. "And the feather, and the sash, and the sword, +and the spurs, do you forget them?" + +She broke down completely at that. "I don't want 'em; I'd rather +have you than everything else in the world!" + +"Even than stripes on my pantaloons?" + +"O papa!" she sobbed, "what makes you laugh at me when I'm most +dead?" + +"Margaret," exclaimed Mr. Granger, "don't let this child miss +me!" + +"Not if I can help it," she replied. + +He was to do staff duty till the bloom of his ignorance should be +rubbed off, Mr. Granger said. One whose sole idea of a +_wheel_ was that it was something round with spokes in it, +whose only _forward_ had been learned of the dancing-master, +and who knew no worse _charge_ than the grocer's--such a +person could scarcely be expected to lead men in battle array. He +was going down there to get some of the little boys to teach him +drill. + +It was impossible to resist his delightful humor. Even Mr. Lewis +relented. + +"If ever the doing of a thing could be forgiven for the sake of +the manner in which it is done," he said, "then I could forgive +you. But I can't promise to turn back all at once from +bonny-clabber to new milk." + +"Oh! scold away," was the laughing reply. "I begin to think that +there is a certain pleasure in being abused in a discriminating +manner." + +"Your going to Fortress Monroe helps to reconcile me," Mr. Lewis +continued. "It's a pleasant place, and a strong place. My wife +calls it Fortissimo. I supposed that you would insist on going +straight to the front to do picket-duty, or post yourself in a +tree as a sharpshooter. I'm glad to see that you've got a little +ballast left aboard. I wish that Mr. Southard were to be with +you, instead of going to New Orleans at this time of year. I +spent a year at New Orleans when I was a young man, and I know +all about it. It isn't a city, it's a deposit. You have to hold +on with hands and feet to keep from being melted away by the +heat, or washed away by the water." + +"O the oleanders!" sighed Mrs. Lewis in an ecstasy. + +Almost before they knew, Mr. Granger was gone. They had heard his +last pleasant word, met his last smile, and seen the carriage +that bore him away disappear down the street. Both Mr. Southard +and Mr. Lewis accompanied him as far as New York. + +When they had seen him off, the three ladies returned to the +parlor, and the servants went sorrowfully back to their places. +The neighbors who waved him away left their windows, and the +friends grouped on the steps and the walk went each his way. + +Dora, repulsed by Miss Hamilton, went to Aurelia for comfort. +Margaret walked uneasily about the room, putting books in their +places, pushing intrusive vine-leaves out the windows, arranging +and rearranging the curtains. Then she seated her self by a +table, and began cutting the leaves of a new magazine. + +{454} + +Presently Mrs. Lewis approached her, and after leaning on the arm +of her chair a moment without being noticed, touched her on the +shoulder. + +"Margaret," she said, "why will you be so terribly proud? I think +you might be willing to shed tears when Aurelia and I do. Why +shouldn't you grieve over the absence of your friend? He is a +kind and true friend to you." + +Aurelia rose quietly, and led Dora from the room. + +Margaret persisted a moment longer in her silence and her +leaf-cutting. But the book and the knife shook in her hand, and +presently dropped from her grasp. Turning impulsively, she hid +her face in that kind bosom, and sobbed without control. + +"He will soon come back, I am sure of it," Mrs. Lewis said +soothingly. "And you know we shall hear from him constantly. We +all feel bad. Mr. Lewis choked up whenever he thought of it, and +the only way he had of turning off his emotion was in scolding. I +dare say his last word to Mr. Granger will be an abusive one. And +you are almost as bad." + +"I can't bear to be misunderstood, and watched, and commented +on," Margaret said, trying to control herself. "Most people seem +to think hate more respectable than affection, and if they see +that you care about a person, they sneer." + +"I know all about it, dear," Mrs. Lewis said. "You can't tell me +anything new about meanness and malice. I have suffered too much +from them in my life. But we are friends, real friends, here. We +respect each other's reserve. But too much reserve is not good +nor wholesome." + +Margaret looked up, and wiped her tears away. "How you help me!" +she said. "I don't feel very bad now," with a faint smile. "It is +suppression that kills me. If we could say just what we think and +feel, and act with perfect openness, how good it would be! +Looking back, my life seems to me a cemetery of stifled emotions. +My heart is full of their bones and ashes. It's an awful weight! +You are very good, Mrs. Lewis. You do beautiful things sometimes. +I grow fonder of you every day. By and by," smiling again, "I +shall not be able to do without you. And now, that poor child! I +must go to her. Wasn't I cruel to put her away? But it is very +hard to have to comfort others when you are yourself in need of +comfort." + +The next day the two gentlemen came home with the last news of +Mr. Granger, and they spent the evening more cheerfully than they +could have expected. Mr. Lewis had apologized for his rudeness to +the minister, and had begun to perceive that Mr. Southard had, as +he said, some grit in him. So they were all harmonious enough. + +"Mr. Granger's generosity of disposition would lead him to danger +unnecessarily, if he were not warned," Mr. Southard said, as they +sat together that evening. "I talked to him very plainly about +it. There is sometimes an unconscious selfishness under those +impulses. Exulting in the sense of their own fearlessness, men +put themselves in peril, without thinking what others may suffer +in their loss, and that the real good to be attained does not, +perhaps, counterbalance the evil done. All that is accomplished +is a generous deed." + +"It is something to accomplish a generous deed," said Miss +Hamilton. "I own, I have not the highest admiration for that +'rascally virtue' of discretion." + +"But when the real cost of that 'sublime indiscretion' falls on +some other than the hero, then I object to it," said the minister +firmly. "And Mr. Granger agreed with me." + +{455} + +There are times when to hear those dear to us praised is painful. +It oppresses the heart, by placing the beloved object too far +above us. But a gentle blame, which hints at no serious fault, +while it does not wound our feelings, soothes our sense of +unworthiness, and, without lowering the friend, brings him within +our reach. Listening to such gentle censure, we get a comfortable +human feeling toward one whom we were, perhaps, in danger of +apotheosizing. + +Speaking of the much that they would hear from these soldier +friends of theirs, both Margaret and Mr. Southard urged Mrs. +Lewis to resume her long unused pen. It seemed that every one who +had the talent to do it ought to preserve thus some of the many +incidents of the war. But she was resolute in refusal. + +"Of writing many books there is no end," she said. "And I have a +terrible vision of a coming deluge of war-literature. Everybody +will write, soldiers, nurses, chaplains, (all but you, Mr. +Southard!) philanthropists, novelists, rhymsters--all will write +without mercy. The dilemma of the old rhyme will seem to be on +the point of realization: + + 'If all the earth were paper, + And all the sea were ink, + And all the trees were bread and cheese, + What should we do for drink?' + +"No, don't ask me to join in that rout. Besides, no one but a +scribbler knows a scribbler's afflictions. No 'Heavenly Goddess' +has yet sung those direful woes. First, there is the printer. You +spend all your powers on a certain passage which is to +immortalize you, and under his hands, by the addition, or the +abstraction, or the changing of a word, that passage has taken +the one step more which carries it from the sublime to the +ridiculous. Put in a fine bit of color; he changes your umber to +amber, and the picture is spoilt. Refer to the well-known fact +that Washington Allston put a great deal of character into the +hands and feet he painted, and this fell patriot drops the +Allston, and gives the credit to the father of his country. Then +there are your dear friends. They know all your virtues, so their +sole effort is now to find out your defects. It won't do to +praise you, lest you should become vain; so, with a noble regard +for your truest good, they dissect your writings before your +eyes, and prove clearly their utter worthlessness. Then, there +are your gushing acquaintances who want you to write about them, +and tell you their histories, insisting that they shall be put +into print. As if you should carry cherry-stones to a +cherry-tree, and say, Here, grow cherries round these! If you +should answer ever so humbly, Thank you! but I grow stones to my +own cherries, such as they are, people would be disgusted. Of +course, if I had a great genius, it would scorch up all these +little annoyances. But I have only a pretty talent. Perhaps the +worst is, that they will apply your characters. When I was a +girl, I wrote a rhymed story, and everybody pointed out the hero. +I stared, I bethought myself, I re-read my romance. Imagine my +horror when I found that the description fitted the man +perfectly, even to the wart on his nose. Then, not long ago, I +wrote a little idyl addressed to my first love, and my husband +came home with the face of an Othello. You know you did, Charles. +The fact was, I never had a first love!" + +Mr. Lewis laughed. "And she twitted me with Diana. Diana was a +tall, superb, serene woman whom I got acquainted with in +Washington, before I was married. I admired her excessively. I +didn't know that she was a goose. I would talk, and she would +listen, and smile at all my jokes; and I thought that she was +very witty. +{456} +I spoke of books, and she smiled and said 'Yes!' and I was sure +that she was a well-read person. I ranted about music, and she +smiled and said 'Yes!' and I was positive that she was a fine +musician. Presently I began to grow bashful in the society of +such a superior woman. I couldn't talk, so she had to. Well, at +first I admired her simplicity, then I stared at her simplicity. +And at last I saw that there was + + 'No end to all she didn't know.' + +"One day I'd been there, up in the parlor, and when I left, she +went down to the door with me. There was a large hat on the +entry-table, and we heard a man's voice in the sitting-room. + +"'Who's talking with pa?' she asked of a servant. + +"'Daniel Webster, miss,' was the answer. + +"Daniel Webster was my hero. If our hats had been of the same +size, I would have swapped fervently, though mine was new, and +Daniel's a little shabby. I remembered what somebody had said of +Samuel Johnson; and pointing to the table, I exclaimed with +enthusiasm, 'That hat covers a kingdom!' + +"Diana looked at it with a mild, idiotic perplexity, and +stretched her long neck to see on the other side. 'Hat covers a +kingdom,' she repeated vaguely to herself, as if it were a +conundrum. + +"'When it's on his head!' I cried out in a rage. + +"'Oh!' she said, and smiled, but without a particle of +speculation in her eyes. + +"I bounced out of the house, and I never went to see Diana again. +Shortly after, I met that little woman, and I married her because +she is smart." + + + Chapter XI. + + The Mountains Whence Help Cometh. + + +Mr. Granger was one of those persons whom we miss more than we +expect to, their influence is so quiet, their stability has so +little of hardness. As has been beautifully said, such characters +are "like the water-lily, fixed yet floating." We do not know how +much we rest on them till the support is withdrawn. + +They heard from him constantly, the letters being directed to Mr. +Lewis, but intended for all the family. + +Evidently his good spirits had not deserted him. Never before had +he been so much alive, he wrote. The excitement, the uncertainty, +the very restraints which reminded of power, and of great +interests at stake, all kept his thoughts in a brisk circulation, +and threw the bile off his mind. + +Miss Dora had, however, her separate correspondence, letters +directed to herself, which Miss Hamilton read to her, and +answered from her dictation. + +In those days the child learned a new prayer: "O Mother in +heaven, take pity on me who have no mother on earth, and whose +father has gone to the wars. Watch over him, that I may not be +left an orphan. Pray for him, and for me, and for whoever loves +us best. Do not forget me, O Mother! for if you do, my heart will +break." + +"Who is it that loves us best?" the child asked the first time +she said this prayer. + +"I do not know," was the reply. "We can never be sure who loves +us best. But God knows, and the good Mother can find out." + +"I thought it was you," said Dora. Margaret's voice sank to a +whisper. "Perhaps it is, dear." + +{457} + +In a few weeks Mr. Southard also left then, not cheerfully, but +with a gloom which he took no pains to conceal. + +And the few weeks grew to many weeks, and months multiplied. The +summer was gone, and the autumn was gone, and winter melted like +a snow-flake on the mantle of time. When our eyes are fixed in +anxious longing on some future day, the intermediate days slip +through our fingers like sands through an hour-glass, and keep no +trace of their passage. + +If, when the spring campaign opened, and both the absent ones +were in active service, our friends watched with some sinking of +the heart for news, it was no more than happened in tens of +thousands of other homes. Heart-sickness was by no means a rare +disease in those days. + +The soldier in charge of the soldier's news-room on Kneeland +street became very much interested in one of the few visitors who +used to go there that summer. Nearly every say, surely every day +when there had been a battle, a pale-faced young lady would open +the door, enter quickly, and without looking to right or left go +directly to the frames that held the lists of killed and wounded, +and read them through from end to end. The soldier got to have an +anxious feeling about this lady. Unnoticed by her, he watched her +face while she read, and hushed his breath till he saw that +terrible look go out of her eyes. The lists finished, she would +pull her veil down, sigh wearily, and go out as quietly as she +had entered. + +"When she finds the name she is looking for, I hall see her +drop," he thought. + +But Margaret did not drop, though often enough she was in danger +of it, as her eyes fell on some blurred name, or some name very +like the one she dreaded to see. + +It was too wearing. Both flesh and spirit were sinking under this +constant strain. Where was the help that religion was to give +her? Leave everything to God, trust all to him, she was told. But +how? Her thoughts were clenched in these interests; and, in spite +of faith, it seemed as though, if she should let go her hold, +they would fall. She found that her religion was only of the +surface. It had grown in the sunshine, and was not rooted against +the storm. She tried to put into practice the precepts she +listened to, but the daily distractions of life constantly +neutralized her efforts. There was but one way, and for the first +time Margaret made a retreat. + +The place selected was a convent a little out of the city. + +Here in this secluded asylum was all that her soul needed for its +restoring; quiet, leisure, the society of those whose lives are +devoted to God, and, to crown all, the presence of the blessed +sacrament of the altar. + +One feels very near heaven when one hears only praying voices, +sees only happy, peaceful faces, is looked upon only by kind +eyes, and can at any hour go before the altar, alone, undisturbed +by those distractions which constantly environ our ordinary +worship. How still we become! In that presence how our little +troubles and sorrows exhale, as mists lift from the rivers at +sunrise, and leave all clear and bright! How cramped and feverish +all our past life has been! Everything settles into its true +place. Sorrow and death lose their sting. We are safe, for we +partake of the omnipotence of God. To think that the same roof +that shelters our heads when we lie down to sleep shelters also +the sacred head of the Son of God--that drives every other +thought from the mind. +{458} +It is marvellous, it seems incredible, and yet the wonder of it +is lost in the sweetness. The moonlight coming in at the window +lies white and silent on the bare white floor. You rise to kiss +that luminous spot, for just beneath is the altar. Peace rises to +exultation, for you perceive more and more that the Father holds +us all in his hands, those near and those afar, and that we have +but to lift our eyes, and we shall behold the mountains whence +help cometh. We want to run out and tell everybody. It seems as +if we have just discovered all this, and that no one ever knew it +before. We forget that we are sinners. It isn't much matter about +us any way. We will think of that afterward. We will make acts of +contrition when we get away from here. Now we can make only acts +of adoration and of joy. + +The superior of the convent directed Margaret's retreat, and on +the last morning of it she and all the nuns received communion, +and there was the benediction after mass. + +The others had gone out, but Margaret still lingered before the +altar. Out in the early sunshine, the trees rustled softly, and +the breeze waved the curtains of the chapel windows. +Occasionally, one of the nuns would come to the door, look in, +and go away again smiling, though Miss Hamilton's breakfast was +spoiling over the fire, and there was a gentleman waiting in the +parlor for her. + +"She is in the chapel at her devotions," the sister had told him. + +"Don't disturb her on any account," he had answered. "There is no +haste." + +Margaret was not praying, was not thinking; her soul was silent, +lost in God, like a star in the day. + +Presently she came out, and, meeting one of the nuns in the hall, +embraced her tenderly. "Sister," she said, "this is the most +beautiful world that ever was made." + +The gentleman had been waiting some time when he heard a step, +and in the door there stood a slight, black-robed lady with a +veil thrown over her head, a bright face, and a smell of incense +lingering about her. She lifted both hands when she saw him. + +"My cup runneth over!" + +"You are not a nun?" asked Mr. Granger. + +"You're not an apparition," she returned. "Oh! welcome!" + +"And now," he said, delighted to see her so happy, "if you are +ready, we will go home. I have only a few days' furlough, and I +want to make the most of it." + +Margaret went to take a hasty leave of the nuns, and also to step +into the chapel for one moment. + +Then she went out from under that happy portal, and down the +steps to the carriage that was waiting for them. One of the +sisters stood in the door looking after her, and others here and +there in the grounds looked up with a pleasant word of farewell +as she passed. She stooped to gather from the lower terrace a +humble souvenir, two or three grass-blades and a clover-leaf, +then stepped into the carriage. As they drove slowly down the +avenue, she looked up into the overhanging branches and repeated: + + "'Above him the boughs of the hemlock trees + Waved, and made the sign of the cross, + And whispered their Benedicitis.'" + +The family were in raptures over Mr. Granger's return. They could +not look at him enough, listen to him enough, do enough for him. +"And how nice you look in your uniform!" said Margaret, feeling +as if she were about six years old. + +"And how nice you look in anything!" he retorted, at which they +all laughed. It took but little to make them laugh in those days. + +{459} + +Mr. Granger, on his part, was as merry as a boy. He was full of +adventures to tell them, glad to be at home, happy in their +confidence and affection, and hopeful of the future. + +Margaret could scarcely believe her own happiness. She would turn +away, shut her eyes, and think, "I have imagined it all. He is +hundreds of miles away, I do not know whether he is sick or well. +He may be in peril. He may be dead. O my friend! come home, come +home! Are we never to see you again?" + +Then, when she had succeeded in tormenting herself sufficiently, +when her heart was sinking, and her eyes overflowing with tears, +she would turn quickly, trembling between dream and reality, and +see him there alive and well, and at home. + +"Oh! there he is, thank God!" + +And so every day she renewed in her vivid imagination the pain of +his absence and the delight of his return, till too soon the day +came when she no longer dared to play such tricks with herself, +for he was again gone out of their sight. But the lessons of the +retreat were not forgotten, and every morning brought +refreshment. + + To Be Continued. + +---------- + + Sauntering. + + Saunterer, (from _saint terre_,) + a pilgrim to holy lands or places.--_Thoreau_. + + +Would that I were, if not like the king of Ava--lord of the +twenty-four umbrellas--at least the owner of one, was my thought. +I was in Paris, that paradise of many good Americans who are +_not_ defunct. Three thousand and odd miles from home, in +the streets of a strange city, with an imperfect knowledge of any +foreign tongue, not daring to say _parapluie_ to the most +obsequious shopman, and the rain was pouring down like a douche. + +I had no devotion to St. Swithin--not a particle. I respected him +in a vague way as a successor of the apostles, whose name is in +the calendar; but I was always inclined to mention him with a +smile on account of his hydropathic propensities. I am a perfect +Oriental as far as a warm bath is concerned, but I never could +endure the gentlest shower-bath, and the thought of St. Swithin, +in his wet grave under a waterspout, always made me shudder. This +peculiar sensitiveness always made me suspicious of the lightest +summer cloudlet, and led me to make for years a series of minute +observations on the weather, till I became deeply versed in +mackerel clouds, mare's tails, and such sinister prognostics. I +used to imagine myself so sensitive to the dryness and moisture +of the atmosphere, and to its density and rarity, that I was +quite above barometers. I was a barometer to myself. A +foreknowledge of the weather was my strong point, or one of my +strong points, when at home in the new world. There I had a full +view of the heavens that bend over us all, down to the very +horizon on every side. The rarity of the American atmosphere, its +lofty heavens, with its luminous spheres, are full of skyey +influences, which tell not only upon the very plants, if we +observe them, but upon ourselves, if we heed the silent lesson. +{460} +I always knew what those clouds meant, gathering over the far-off +north-wood hills at the west, and I felt the very mist as it +began to rise around Mount Agamenticus, in the east, like +sacrificial clouds around that altar of the renowned St. +Aspinquid. I seldom made a false prediction, and was consequently +approached with considerable deference by provident neighbors, +especially before a storm. But somehow, I lost this prestige as +soon as my foot was off my native heath. Here, in a compact city, +with the tall houses and narrow streets shutting the great blue +eye of heaven till it became a mere line, like a cat's eye at +mid-day, I felt myself utterly at the mercy of nature; I gave +myself humbly up to St. Swithin, to whom of old I was rather +defiant. A haughty spirit goes before a fall. Humiliations are +good for the soul. I think I must consider mine a case of special +providence; for there is nothing more soothing to mortified +vanity or spiritual pride, or even in dire calamity, than the +conviction that ours is an instance of special providence. + +On one of those doubtful days in October, when the air is murky +and a light mist from the Seine pervades every part of the city, +but which were not always, as I had found, indicative of rain, I +sallied forth from the Hotel Meurice to wander around the French +capital with no special object in view. I discarded my +guide-book, tired of being the victim of square and compass. To +be told to admire, whether an object appealed to my peculiar +tastes or not, was quite opposed to my notions of American +independence, and sure to rouse a certain spirit of contradiction +in me--a bad trait, I fear, but a fault acknowledged is half +cured; so I make a clean breast of it to test the truth of the +old saying. I turned, therefore, a blind eye to all the palaces, +and gardens, and fountains, and went around feasting my eyes on +the forbidden vanities of the world which my god-parents had +renounced for me at baptism, but which were glittering +delightfully in the booths of this Vanity Fair; not that I cared +much for them, to tell the truth, but from a sheer feeling of +perversity. There must be some powerful charm in them, or they +would not be put down in every religious chart as quicksands to +be avoided. Perhaps I was in danger of being stranded among them, +and it was, after all, a case of special providence, when, as I +was pursuing my way, or rather any way in my ignorance of the +city, and moralizing on these things, or demoralizing, of a +sudden it began to pour. For an old weather-wise like me to be +thus caught, was very humiliating; and in my consternation, I +found myself enjoying one of the high and mighty prerogatives of +the king of Ava, as aforesaid. _Que faire?_ I should have +said, being in France. Looking around, I saw the open door of a +church, in which I gladly took refuge. In benighted, "popish" +lands, mother church often affords a place of bodily refuge, as +well as moral. It was the church of St. Germain l'Auxerrois, to +which I had wandered back, and which from this time became my +favorite church in spite of the bad repute of the bells. Passing +from the gay streets into these cool shades is like passing for a +moment, as it were, from time into eternity. All light and +frivolous thoughts--all vanity and littleness die away with the +noise of the world, at the very entrance. The mind is elevated. +We partake of the grandeur of the edifice, and, for a few moments +at least, our nature is ennobled. +{461} +Only great and lofty ideas should wander beneath such arches. +Only souls full of noble and magnificent ideas could have +designed them. There are truly sermons in these stones, of which +one never grows weary--sermons in the grand old _vitraux_, +rich with saintly forms, and in the gloom, inspiring sweet and +solemn reverie. + + "I love the gloom; I love the white-robed throng; + I love the flood of most religious song + That tosses all its choric waves afar + To seek and search each quaint-carved crevice there. + The music surges to each singing star, + And bears the soul to heaven's own upper air, + Sweet crushed to happy tears; but chiefly where + Peace, dove-like, broods above clasped hands of prayer." + +The Catholic is no longer in a foreign land when he enters a +church. The altar, the cross, the Madonna, above all, the +tabernacle, with it twinkling lamp of olive oil, are his old +familiar friends, and all there, and his heart is at home. He +feels a bond of universal brotherhood with all these worshippers +before the altar. And then the dear old Latin service! I never +thoroughly realized at home the advantage of a universal language +in which the whole church could lift up her voice, as with one +accord, throughout the world. That language--one of those which +were consecrated above the head of the dying Saviour--is +associated with all the holiest and tenderest memories of a +Catholic. He cannot remember when he first heard it from the lips +of holy mother church. It is one of his mother tongues. Each word +has a new significance in this foreign land, and the whole +service a new meaning. I have heard people exclaim at the +rapidity of the opening service of mass, not knowing its +significance. Every act and word in our sublime ritual has its +meaning to him that enters into its spirit. Dr. Newman says, in +his own beautiful way: + + "I declare nothing is so consoling, so piercing, so thrilling, + so overcoming, as the mass, said as it is among us. I could + attend masses for ever and not be tired. It is not a mere form + of words; it is a great action, the greatest action there can + be on earth. It is not the invocation, merely, but, if I dare + use the word, the evocation, of the Eternal. He becomes present + on the altar in flesh and blood, before whom angels bow and + devils tremble. This is that awful event which is the end and + is the interpretation of every part of the solemnity. Words are + necessary, not as means, but as ends. They are not mere + addresses to the throne of grace; they are instruments of what + is far higher, of consecration, of sacrifice. They hurry on as + if impatient to fulfil their mission. Quickly they go; the + whole is quick, for they are all parts of one integral action. + Quickly they go, for they are awful words of sacrifice; they + are a work too great to delay upon, as when it was said in the + beginning, 'What thou doest, do quickly.' Quickly they pass, + for the Lord Jesus goes with them, as he passed along the lake + in the days of his flesh, quickly calling first one and then + another. Quickly they pass, because, as the lightning which + shineth from one part of the heaven unto the other so is the + coming of the Son of Man. Quickly they pass, for they are as + the words of Moses, when the Lord came down in a cloud, calling + on the name of the Lord as he passed by, 'The Lord, the Lord + God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in + goodness and truth.' + + "And as Moses on the mountain, so do we too 'make haste and bow + our heads to the earth and adore.' So we all around, each in + his place, look out for the great advent, 'waiting for the + moving of the water.' Each in his place, with his own heart, + with his own wants, with his own thoughts, with his own + intention, with his own prayers, separate but concordant, + watching what is going on, watching its progress, uniting in + its consummation; not painfully and hopelessly following a hard + form of prayer from beginning to end, but, like a concert of + musical instruments, each different, but concurring in a sweet + harmony, we take our part with God's priest, + supporting him, yet guided by him." + +The words being, then, only used as means, as instruments of +consecration, it is not at all necessary for the people to follow +the words of the priest; but, entering into the spirit and +meaning of each part of the sacrifice, abandon themselves each +one to his own devotions. +{462} +While the church is exceedingly +particular about the exact following of the liturgy by the +clergy, it allows the greatest latitude to the devotions of +laymen. All the sects that have a form of prayer, or extempore +prayers, afford far less liberty to those who join therein than +the church. Their service is nothing to you unless you join in +its forms, which leave no liberty of soul. Whereas at mass, while +some use a prayer-book with a variety of beautiful and touching +devotions in harmony with the service going on at the altar, +others simply say the rosary, and others again use no form +whatever, but, following the celebrant in spirit, abandon their +hearts in holy meditation and mental prayer according to the +inspiration of the moment. Thus our holy services never become a +mere form. They are always new, new and varied as our daily +wants, as our fresh conceptions of what worship is due Almighty +God, and of the nature of the holy oblation in which we are +participating. + +The church of St. Germain l'Auxerrois was once the frequent +recipient of royal munificence, being for a long time the royal +parish, and it was the most sumptuously adorned in Paris. +Sculptors and painters vied in filling it with the choicest works +of art. It was not much injured at the revolution, but narrowly +escaped destruction in 1831. The anniversary of the death of the +Duc de Berri was to be commemorated by services for the repose of +his soul; but a mob surrounded the church, and destroyed +everything in it. It was afterward closed till 1838, when it was +reopened for public worship. + +It has some poetical associations as well as historical; for here +M. de Lamartine is said to have hung up the long locks that +Graziella had shorn from her beautiful head, and sent to be +suspended in one of the churches of his belle France. And perhaps +this was the one to which he referred in the following words: + + "When the last hour of the day has sounded from thy lofty + towers, when the last beam has faded away from the dome, when + the sigh of the distant organ dies away with the light, and the + nave is deserted by all but the Levite attentive to the lamps + of the holy place, then I come to glide under thy obscure + arches, and to seek, while nature sleeps, Him who never + slumbers! The air which the soul breathes in thy aisles is full + of mystery and peace. Let love and anxious cares seek shade and + solitude under the green shelter of groves to soothe their + secret wounds. O darkness of the sanctuary! the eye of religion + prefers thee to the wood which the breeze disturbs. Nothing + disturbs thy foliage. Thy still shade is the image of eternal + peace." + +I loved to think the poet found here the source of the +inspirations which are embodied in his _Harmonies +Religieuses_ which are the delight of every tender and +religious soul. + +There is in one of the transepts a beautiful font of pure white +marble, executed by M. Jouffroy from a model by Madame de +Lamartine and presented by her to this church. The basin is +surmounted by three expressive figures, Faith, Hope, and Charity, +supporting a cross. + +This church with its perfumed air, its subdued light, and its +quiet recesses incentive to piety, so charmed me by its contrast +with the gay world without, and revived all the fervor of early +religious impressions, that I did not leave it till I had +resolved to commence each remaining day of my stay at Paris, by +going to a different church till I had visited them all, like +Horace Walpole. And should I even visit them like him as a mere +amateur of art, I could not fail to receive some inspiration that +would leave me better for the rest of the day. +{463} +The hours thus passed in the churches seemed to consecrate the +day, and left a perfume in my heart that nothing in the world +could wholly dissipate. They became the happiest and most +profitable of my life, both morally and intellectually. + + "For thou dost soothe the heart, thou Church of Rome, + By thy unwearied watch, and varied round + Of service, in thy Saviour's holy home. + I cannot walk the city's sultry streets, + But the wide porch invites to still retreats, + Where passion's thirst is calmed, and care's unthankful gloom." + + "There, on a foreign shore, + The homesick solitary finds a friend: + Thoughts, prisoned long for lack of speech, outpour + Their tears, and doubts in resignation end." + +One morning I went to St. Merri's, where St. Edmund, Archbishop +of Canterbury, when a young student at Paris, used to go to +assist at the midnight office. A friend had given me his +practical little book entitled _The Mirror of the Church, +_and I took it with me to read in a place he had loved. In +reading it I was struck by what he says of the Lord's Prayer, the +great prayer of the middle ages, and the prominence he would have +us give it in our devotions. He says: + + "The Pater Noster surpasses all other prayers in excellence, + dignity, and utility. It was made by God himself; hence the + injury done to Jesus Christ the Son of God when curious or + rhymed prayers are preferred to that composed by him who knows + the will of the Father, and better than we what prayer is most + acceptable to him, and what we most need. How many deceive + themselves in multiplying the forms of prayer! They think they + are devout, but they are only carnal in their affections, for + every carnally-minded person naturally delights in the vain + curiosity of words. Be then prudent and discreet in this + respect. I know you will bring forward St. Augustin, St. + Gregory, and other saints to oppose me, who prayed according to + the affections of their hearts. I am certainly far from blaming + them. I only blame the practice of those who, from a spirit of + pride or curiosity abandon the prayer made by the Lord himself + for those which the saints have composed. Our Lord himself + says, And when you are praying, speak not much as the heathen + do, for they think they are heard for their much speaking. You + therefore shall pray in this manner, Our Father, etc." + +We Catholics are often accused of elevating the creature above +the Creator, and reproached for saying ten Hail Marys to one Our +Father in the beautiful devotion of the Rosary, as if we had no +other. This extract from St. Edmund does not support the +accusation, and he was a prelate of the dark ages--the thirteenth +century. But then he was an Englishman, and we all know the +Anglo-Saxon race did not fall in Adam, and only a little way in +Peter! + +In justice to St. Edmund I will add that he was so devout to Our +Lady that, early in life, he consecrated himself to her, and +wore, in memory of this consecration, a ring with Ave Maria upon +it. He related this on his death-bed, that his example might be +followed by others, and was buried with the ring on his finger. + +There is an interesting chapel in St. Merri's Church, dedicated +to St. Mary of Egypt, which is beautifully frescoed by +Chasserian, depicting the touching old legend, with its deep +moral significance, of + + "That Egyptian penitent whose tears + Fretted the rock, and moistened round her cave + The thirsty desert." + +The poet tells of a miraculous drop which fell in Egypt on St. +John's day, and was supposed to have the effect of stopping the +plague. Such a drop fell on the soul of this renowned penitent. + + "There's a drop, says the Peri, that down from the moon + Falls through the withering airs of June + Upon Egypt's land, of so healing a power, + So balmy a virtue, that even in the hour + That drop descends, contagion dies, + And health reanimates earth and skies! + Oh! is it not thus, thou man of sin, + The precious tears of repentance fall. + Though foul the fiery plagues within, + One heavenly drop hath dispelled them all!" + +{464} + +St. Mary of Egypt is one of a long line of penitents who, after +the example of Magdalen, have given proofs of their repentance in +proportion to their sins and to the depth of their sorrow, and +thus rendered the very scars on their souls so many rays of +light. + +Le Brun painted one whose frailties are "linked to fame" as +Magdalen, and at her own request. The universal interest felt in +her story, and the sympathy it always excites, induced me to +visit a place that cannot be disconnected from her memory--the +chapel of the Carmelites in the Rue d'Enfer, where she took the +veil. I refer to Madame de la Vallière, whom Madame de Sevigné +calls "la petite violette qui se cachait sous l'herbe." + +A priest was just commencing mass when I entered the chapel. I +knelt down by the tomb of the Cardinal de Bérulle, who used to +come here to pray in the chapel of St. Magdalen, having a great +devotion to that saint. It was difficult to resist the +distractions that were inevitable in such a spot, but in which I +would not indulge till the holy sacrifice was over. The choir of +nuns was separated from the chancel by a grating which was +closely curtained. There is always a certain charm in everything +that savors of mystery. Whatever is hidden excites our curiosity +and interest. That forbidding grate, that curtain of appalling +blackness, were tantalizing. They concealed a world in which we +had no part. Behind them were hearts which had aims and +aspirations and holy ambitions, perhaps, we know not of. They led +a life which is almost inexplicable to the world--hidden indeed +in God. The chapel was so still, save the murmur of the +officiating priest, that you might have supposed no one else +there. But after the Agnus Dei, came out from that mysterious +recess a murmur from unseen lips like a voice from another world. +It was that of the nuns all saying the Confiteor together before +going to holy communion. That murmur of _mea culpâ, mea +culpâ_, seemed like the voice of penitence from La Sainte +Beaume, or the voice of past times repeating the accents of the +repentant La Vallière. There she lived and prayed and did penance +for thirty-six years, longer than Magdalen in her cave, "son +coeur ne respirant que du côté du ciel," thus displaying a +remarkable strength of volition, and therefore of character; for +"What is character but a perfectly formed will?" says Novalis. +Before that altar she used to come two hours before the rest of +the community to pray, and in cold weather she, that had been +brought up in luxury, was often found senseless on the pavement +of the choir when the rest of the nuns came to the chapel. + +We read that the tears of Eve falling into the water brought +forth pearls, and we cannot doubt that the tears through which +our penitent viewed her past life helped obtain for her the pearl +of great price. One instance of her austerity is well known. One +Good-Friday, meditating in the refectory, during the meagre +repast of the day, on the vinegar and gall given to the dying +Saviour when he was athirst, she recalled the pleasures of her +past life and particularly of the time when, returning with the +court from the chase, being thirsty, she drank with pleasure of +some delicious beverage which was brought her. This +immortification, so in contrast with the vinegar and gall of the +Saviour, filled her with lively sentiments of repentance and +humiliation, and she resolved never to drink again. +{465} +For three weeks she did not taste even a drop of water, and for +three years she only drank half a glass day. This severe penance, +which was unsuspected, brought on a fit of illness and caused +violent spasms in the stomach, which reduced her to a state of +great feebleness. Besides that, she suffered greatly from +rheumatism, but she never ceased to share in the labors in the +community. She died in 1710, aged nearly sixty-six years, having +passed thirty-six years in the convent. Her life here was one +long Miserere which was surely heard in heaven. Her soul had to +pass through the deep waters; but she took fast hold of that +"last plank after shipwreck"--repentance. Everything went to feed +the stream of her sorrow. Every new grace gave her a new +conception of the guilt of sin and awoke new regrets for lost +glory. So she shut herself up in the garden of myrrh. She +sheltered herself in the _creux du rocher_ from the waves of +memory that swept over her soul. In that dark night of her soul +she looked tremblingly out over the wide sea of her sorrows with +a heart like the double-faced Janus, looking into the past and +toward the future, memory and hope struggling in her heart. Over +that dark sea rose the moonlight of Mary's face--our Lady of +Mount Carmel--a narrow crescent at first, but growing larger and +brighter every day. And the great luminous starry saints with +their different degrees of glory studded the heavens that opened +to her view. And so the morning came when the voice of Jesus +spoke: Many sins are forgiven her because she hath loved much. + +There is an accent of sincerity, with no savor of cant, in the +well-known reply of Soeur Louise de la Misericorde when asked if +she was happy in the convent: "I am not happy, but I am +satisfied." How few in the world can even say with sincerity that +they are satisfied. Dr. Johnson said, "No one is happy," but +satisfaction is certainly reasonable happiness. Carlyle says, +"There is in man a higher than love of happiness. He can do +without happiness, and instead thereof find blessedness." That +happiness alone is real which does not depend on contingencies. +It is reasonably satisfied with the present, and has a constantly +increasing hope in the future. Such was the happiness Madame de +la Vallière found among the pale-eyed votaries of the cloister, a +satisfaction of the soul which became perfect happiness when +death came to her after so many years of dying. + +I wonder if there was no perfume left in the dried rose leaves in +her heart causing it to faint ofttimes by the way. A person of so +much sensibility must have had a wonderful capacity for +suffering. That her memory was ever alive to the past is evident +from the unrelenting austerity of her life, from her well-known +reply when informed of the death of her son, and from her +requesting Le Brun to paint her as Magdalen. + +Remembering so many proofs of her conversion, we, too, say, +Neither do I condemn thee. No stone will I cast on thy grave; no +reproach on thy memory: for repentance effaced every earthly +stain, and thou art now sharing the joy there is in heaven over +one sinner that repenteth. Tears of penitent love mingled with +those of virgin innocence at the foot of the cross. Let them +still mingle there; we will not regard them with distrust or +disdain. We too have need to cry: + + "Drop, drop, slow tears + I And bathe those beauteous feet. + Which brought from heaven + The news and Prince of peace. + Cease not, wet eyes, + For mercy to entreat: + +{466} + + To cry for vengeance + Sin doth never cease. + In your deep floods + Drown all my faults and fears: + Nor let his eye + See sin but through my tears." + +Every one who looks deeply into his own heart finds a motive of +charity for the faults of others. A monk of Cluny hung up in his +cell the picture of a famous debauchee under which he placed his +own name. The surprised abbot asked the reason. It was to remind +him what grace alone prevented him from becoming. We are all +miracles of grace. It may be restraining or transforming. We are +not the less in need of it than those who have apparently sunk to +lower depths. + +All these things passed through my mind while lingering in the +chapel of the Carmelites. In that chapel had resounded the grand +tones of the great Bossuet at the profession of Madame de la +Vallière, with his usual refrain--the emptiness of all earthly +things. "Away, earthly honors!" he said on that occasion, "all +your splendor but ill conceals our weaknesses and our faults; +conceals them from ourselves, but reveals them to +others."--"There are two kinds of love," he added, "one is the +love of ourselves, which leads to the contempt of God--that is +the old life, the life of the world. The other is the love of +God, which leads to the contempt of ourselves, and is the new +life of Christianity, which, carried to perfection, constitutes +the religious life. The soul, detached from the body by +mortification, freed from the captivity of the senses, sees +itself as it is--the source of all evil. It therefore turns then +against itself. Having fallen through an ill use of liberty, it +would be restrained on every side, by frightful grates, a +profound solitude, an impenetrable cloister, perfect obedience, a +rule for every action, a motive for every step, and a hundred +observant eyes. Thus hemmed in on all sides, the soul can only +fly heavenward. _Elle ne peut plus respirer que du côté du +ciel_"--a beautiful expression, recalling the lines from an +old manuscript poem in the _Bibliothèque Royal:_ + + "Li cuers doit estre + Semblans à l'encensoir + Tous clos envers la terre + Et overs vers le ciel." + +The heart should be like a censer, closed toward earth and open +toward heaven; and such is the heart of the real spouse of +Christ. + +When Bossuet had finished his discourse and the black veil was +placed upon the head of La Vallière, the whole audience wept +aloud. The Duchess de la Vallière was now Louise de la +Miséricorde, vowed to the rigorous life of the Carmelites, to +fasts and vigils, to sackcloth and ashes. + +Philosophers say no motion is ever lost, and that every act is +photographed somewhere in the universe. Think of swelling the +choral song that will go on vibrating in the air for ever; of +sighs of penitence that go on sighing through space for ever in +the ears of a merciful God; of attitudes of adoring praise and +love, which are somewhere imaged, to be revealed at the last day +as a page in the great book that will decide our eternal fate. +How much better to be thus perpetuated than idle words, vain +songs, and all the graces of fashion only intended to please the +eye of a fellow-mortal. + +After all, there is something in such a life that appeals to the +instincts of our nature. Even those who condemn it cannot but +admire. At least, they find it poetical. Who does not feel an +increased sentiment of respect for Dr. Johnson as he stands with +bared head, in the rain, where his father's book-stall was, in +the market place at Uttoxeter, to expiate an act of early +disobedience to his father? +{467} +"The picture of Samuel Johnson," says Carlyle, "standing +bare-headed in the market-place is one of the grandest and +saddest we can paint. The memory of old Michael Johnson rising +from the far distance, sad, beckoning in the moonlight of memory. +Repentance! repentance! he proclaims as with passionate sobs--but +only to the ear of heaven, if heaven will give him audience." + + "O heavy laden soul! kneel down and hear + Thy penance in calm fear; + With thine own lips to sentence all thy sin; + Then, by the judge within + Absolved, in thankful sacrifice to part + For ever with thy sullen heart!" + +---------- + + The Physical Basis Of Life. + [Footnote 128] + + [Footnote 128: _New Theory of Life_. Identity of the + Powers and Faculties of all Living Matter. A Lecture by + Professor T. H. Huxley. _New York World_, Feb. 18th, + 1869.] + + +We know this rather remarkable discourse only as republished in +the columns of _The New York World_, where it had a +sensational title which we have abridged. Professor Huxley's name +stands high among English physicists or scientists, and his +discourse indicates considerable natural ability, and familiarity +with the modern school of science which seeks the explanation of +the universe and its phenomena without recognizing a creator, or +any existence but ordinary matter and its various combinations. +The immediate purpose of the professor is to prove the physical +or material basis of life, and that life in all organisms is +identical, originating in and depending on what he calls the +protoplasm. + +The protoplasm is formed of ordinary matter; say, carbon, +hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. These elements combined in some +unknown way give rise to protoplasm; the protoplasm gives rise to +the plant, and, through the plant, to the animal; and hence all +life, feeling, thought, and reason originate in the peculiar +combination of the molecules of ordinary, inorganic matter. The +plant differs from the animal, and the animal from man, only in +the different combinations of the molecules of the protoplasm. We +see nothing in this theory that is new, or not as old as the +physics of the ancient Ionian school. + +The only novelty that can be pretended is the assumption that all +matter, even inorganic, is, in a certain sense, plastic, and +therefore, in a rudimentary way, living. The same law governs the +inorganic and the organic world. But even this is not new. Many +years ago, Ralph Waldo Emerson asserted the identity of +gravitation and purity of heart, and we ourselves are by no means +disposed to deny that there is more or less analogy between the +formation of the crystal or the diamond and the growth of the +plant. It is not, perhaps, too much to say that the law of +creation is one law, and we have never yet been convinced of the +existence of absolutely inert matter. Whatever exists is, in its +order and degree, a _vis activa_, or an active force. +Matter, as the _potentia nuda_ of the schoolmen, is simple +possibility, and no real existence at all. +{468} +There is and can be no pure passivity in nature, or purely +passive existences. We would not therefore deny a certain +rudimentary plasticity to minerals, or what is called brute +matter, though we are not prepared to accept the plastic soul, +asserted by Plato, and revived and explained in the posthumous +and unfinished works of Gioberti under the term _methexis_, +which is copied or imitated by the _mimesis_, or the +individual and the sensible. Yet since, as the professor tells +us, the animal can take the protoplasm only as prepared by the +plant, must there not be in inorganic matter a preparation or +elaboration of the protoplasm for the use of the plant? + +The professor speaks of the difficulty of determining the line of +demarcation between the animal and the plant; but is it difficult +to draw the line between the mineral and the plant, or between +the plant and the inorganic matter from which it assimilates its +food or nourishment? Pope sings, + + "See through this air, this ocean, and this earth, + All matter _quick_, and bursting into birth;" + +but we would like to have the professor explain how ordinary +matter, even if _quick_, becomes protoplasm, and how the +protoplasm becomes the origin and basis of the life of the plant. +Every plant is an organism with its central life within. Virchow +and Cl. Bernard by their late discoveries have proved that every +organism proceeds from an organite, ovule, or central cell, which +produces, directs, and controls or governs the whole organism, +even in its abnormal developments. They have also proved that +this ovule or central cell exists only as generated by a +pre-existing organism, or parent, of the same kind. The later +physiologists are agreed that there is no well authenticated +instance of spontaneous generation. Now this organite must exist, +live, before it can avail itself of the protoplasm formed of +ordinary matter, which is exterior to it, not within it, and +cannot be its life, for that moves from within outward, from the +centre to the circumference. Concede, then, all the facts the +professor alleges, they only go to prove that the organism +already living sustains its life by assimilating fitting elements +from ordinary matter. But they do not show at all that it derives +its life from them; or that the so-called protoplasm is the +origin, source, basis, or matter of organic life; or that it +generates, produces, or gives rise to the organite or central +cell; nor that it has anything to do with vitalizing it. Hence +the professor fails to throw any light on the origin, matter, or +basis of life itself. + +It may or it may not be difficult in the lower organisms to draw +the line between the plant and the animal, and we shall urge no +objections to what the professor says on that point; we will only +say here that the animal organism, like the vegetable, is +produced, directed, and controlled by the central cell, and that +this cell or ovule is generated by animal parents. There is no +spontaneous generation, and no well authenticated instance of +metagenesis. Like generates like, and even Darwin's doctrine of +natural selection confirms rather than denies it. It is certain +that the vegetable organism has never, as far as science goes, +generated an animal organism. Arguments based on our ignorance +prove nothing. The protoplasm can no more produce or vitalize the +central animal than it can the central vegetable cell, and, +indeed, still less; for the animal cannot, as the professor +himself asserts, sustain its life by the protoplastic elements +till they have been prepared by the vegetable organism. +{469} +Whence, then, the animal germ, organite, or ovule? What vitalizes +it and gives it the power of assimilating the protoplasm as its +food, without which the organism dies and disappears? + +Giving the professor the fullest credit for exact science in all +his statements, he does not, as far as we can see, prove his +protoplasm is the physical basis of life, or that there is for +life any physical basis at all. He only proves that matter is so +far plastic as to afford sustenance to a generated organic life, +which every farmer who has ever manured a field of corn or grass, +or reared a flock of sheep or a herd of cattle, knows, and always +has known, as well as the illustrious professor. + +We can find a clear statement of several of the conditions of +life, both vegetable and animal, but no demonstration of the +principle of life, in the professor's very elaborate discourse. +Indeed, if we examine it closely, we shall find that he does not +even pretend to demonstrate anything of the sort. He denies all +means of science except sensible experience, and maintains with +Hume that we have no sensible experience of causes or principles, +all science, he asserts, is restricted to empirical facts with +their law, which, in his system, is itself only a fact or a +classification of facts. The conditions of life, as we observe +them, are for him the essential principle of life in the only +sense in which the word _principle_ has, or can have, for +him, an intelligible meaning. He proves, then, the physical basis +of life, by denying that it has any intelligible basis at all. He +proves, indeed, that the protoplasm, which he shows, or endeavors +to show, is universal--one and the same, always and everywhere +--is present in the already existing life of both the plant and +the animal; but that, whatever it be, in the plant or animal, +which gives it the power to take up the protoplasm and assimilate +it to its own organism, which is properly the life or vital +power, he does not explain, account for, or even recognize. With +him, power is an empty word. He nowhere proves that life is +produced, furnished, or generated by the protoplasm, or has a +material origin. Hence, the protoplasm, by his own showing, is +simply no protoplasm at all. He proves, if anything, that in +inorganic matter there are elements which the living plant or +animal assimilates, and into which, when dead, it is resolved. +This is all he does, and in fact, all he professes to do. + +The professor makes light of the very grave objection, that +chemical analysis can throw no light on the principle or basis of +life, because it is or can be made only on the dead subject. He +of course concedes that chemical analysis is not made on the +living subject; but this, he contends, amounts to nothing. We +think it amounts to a great deal. The very thing sought, to wit, +life, is wanting in the dead subject, and of course cannot by any +possible analysis be detected in it. If all that constituted the +living subject is present in the dead body, why is the body dead, +or why has it ceased to perform its vital functions? The +protoplasm, or what you so call, is as present in the corpse as +in the living organism. If it is the basis of life, why is the +organism no longer living? The fact is, that life, while it +continues, resists chemical action and death, by a higher and +subtler chemistry of its own, and it is only the dead body that +falls under the action of the ordinary chemical laws. There is, +then, no concluding the principle or basis of life from any +possible dissection of the dead body. + +{470} + +The professor's answer to the objection is far from being +satisfactory. + + "Objectors of this class," he says, "do not seem to reflect ... + that we know nothing about the composition of any body as it + is. The statement that a crystal of calcspar consists of + carbonate of lime is quite true, if we only mean that, by + appropriate processes, it may be resolved into carbonic acid + and quicklime. If you pass the same carbonic acid over the very + quicklime thus obtained, you will obtain carbonate of lime + again; but it will not be calc-spar, nor anything like it. Can + it therefore be said that chemical analysis teaches nothing + about the chemical composition of calc-spar? Such a statement + would be absurd; but it is hardly more so than the talk one + occasionally hears about the uselessness of applying the + results of chemical analysis to the living bodies which have + yielded them. One fact, at any rate, is out of reach of such + refinements and this is, that all the forms of protoplasm which + have yet been examined contain the four elements, carbon, + hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, in very complex union, and that + they behave similarly toward several reagents. To this complex + combination, the nature of which has never been determined with + exactness, the name of protein has been applied. And if we use + this term with such caution as may properly arise out of + comparative ignorance of the things for which it stands, it may + be truly said that all protoplasm is proteinaceous; or, as the + white, or albumen, of an egg is one of the commonest examples + of a nearly pure proteine matter, we may say that all living + matter is more or less albuminoid. Perhaps it would not yet be + safe to say that all forms of protoplasm are affected by the + direct action of electric shocks; and yet the number of cases + in, which the contraction of protoplasm is shown to be effected + by this agency increases every day. Nor can it be affirmed with + perfect confidence that all forms of protoplasm are liable to + undergo that peculiar coagulation at a temperature of 40 + degrees--50 degrees centigrade, which has been called + "heat-stiffening," though Kuhne's beautiful researches have + proved this occurrence to take place in so many and such + diverse living beings, that it is hardly rash to expect that + the law holds good for all." + +This long extract proves admirably how long, how learnedly, how +scientifically, a great man can talk without saying anything. All +that is here said amounts only to this: the conclusions obtained +by the analysis of the dead body cannot be denied to be +applicable to the living body, because we know nothing of the +composition of any body organic or inorganic, as it is. Therefore +all life has a physical basis! Take the whole extract, and all it +tells you is, that we know nothing of the subject it professes to +treat. "All the forms of protoplasm, which have yet been examined +contain the four elements, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen +in very complex union." When chemically resolved into these four +elements, is it protoplasm still? Can you by a chemical process +reconvert them into protoplasm? No. Then what does the analysis +show of the nature of your physical basis of life? "To this +complex union, the nature of which _has never yet been +determined_, the name of protein has been applied." Very +important to know that. Yet this name protein names not something +known, but something the nature of which is unknown. What then +does it tell us? "If we use this term [protein] with such caution +as may properly arise out of our comparative _ignorance_ of +the things for which it stands, it may truly be said that all +protoplasm is proteinaceous." Be it so, what advance in +knowledge, since we are ignorant of what protein is? It is +wonderful what a magnificent structure our scientists are able to +erect on ignorance as the foundation. + +The professor, after having confessed his ignorance of what the +alleged protoplasm really is, continues: + + "Enough has, perhaps, been said to prove the existence of a + general uniformity in the character of the protoplasm, or + physical basis of life, in whatever group of living beings it + may be studied. But it will be understood that this general + uniformity by no means excludes any amount of special + modifications of the fundamental substance. The mineral, + carbonate of lime, assumes an immense diversity of characters, + though +{471} + no one doubts that under all these protean changes it is one + and the same thing. And now, what is the ultimate fate, and + what the origin, of the matter of life? Is it, as some of the + older naturalists supposed, diffused throughout the universe in + molecules, which are indestructible and unchangeable in + themselves; but, in endless transmigration, unite in + innumerable permutations, into the diversified forms of life we + know? Or is the matter of life composed of ordinary matter, + differing from it only in the manner in which its atoms are + aggregated. Is it built up of ordinary matter, and again + resolved into ordinary matter when its work is done? Modern + science does not hesitate a moment between these alternatives. + Physiology writes over the portals of life, + + 'Debemur morti nos nostraque,' + + with a profounder meaning than the Roman poet attached to that + melancholy line. Under whatever disguise it takes refuge, + whether fungus or oak, worm or man, the living protoplasm not + only ultimately dies and is resolved into its mineral and + lifeless constituents, but is always dying, and, strange as the + paradox may sound, could not live unless it died." + +Suppose all this to be precisely as asserted, it only proves that +there is diffused through the whole material world elements which +in certain unknown and inexplicable combinations, afford +sustenance to plants, and through plants to animals, or from +which the living organism repairs its waste and sustains its +life. It does not tell us how carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and +nitrogen are or must be combined to form the alleged protoplasm, +whence is the living organism, nor the origin or principle of its +life. It, in fact, shows us neither the origin nor the matter of +life, for it is only an actually living organism that uses or +assimilates the alleged protoplasm. There is evidently at work in +the organism a vital force that is distinguishable from the +irritability or contractility of the protoplasm, and not derived +from or originated by it. Undoubtedly, every organism that falls +under our observation, whether vegetable or animal, has its +physical conditions, and lives by virtue of a physical law; but +this, even when we have determined the law and ascertained the +conditions, throws no light on the life itself. The life escapes +all observation, and science is impotent, if it leaves out the +creative act of God, to explain it, or to bring us a step nearer +its secret. Professor Huxley tells us no more, with all his +science and hard words, than any cultivator of the soil, any +shepherd or herdsman, can tell us, and knows as well as he, as we +have already said. + +In the last extract, the professor evidently prefers, of the two +alternatives he suggests, the one that asserts that "the matter +of life [protoplasm] is composed of ordinary matter, is built up +of ordinary matter, and resolved again into ordinary matter when +its work is done." This the professor applies to man as well as +to plants and animals. Hence, he cites the Roman poet, + + "Debemur morti nos nostraque." + +But we have conceded the professor more than he asks. We have +conceded that all matter is, in a certain sense, plastic, and +living, in the sense of being active, not passive. But the +professor does not ask so much. We inferred from some things in +the beginning of his discourse that he intended to maintain that +his protoplasm is itself elemental, and pervading all nature. But +this is not the case; he merely holds it to be a chemical +compound formed by the peculiar chemical combination of lifeless +components. Thus he says: + +{472} + + "But it will be observed that the existence of the matter of + life depends on the pre-existence of certain compounds, namely, + carbonic acid, water, and ammonia. Withdraw any one of these + three from the world, and all vital phenomena come to an end. + They are related to the protoplasm of the plant, as the + protoplasm of the plant is to that of the animal. Carbon, + hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen are all lifeless bodies. Of + these, carbon and oxygen unite in certain proportions and under + certain conditions, to give rise to carbonic acid; hydrogen and + oxygen produce water; nitrogen and hydrogen give rise to + ammonia. These new compounds, like the elementary bodies of + which they are composed, are lifeless. But when they are + brought together, under certain conditions they give rise to + the still more complex body, protoplasm, and this protoplasm + exhibits the phenomena of life. I see no break in this series + of steps in my secular complication, and I am unable to + understand why the language which is applicable to any one term + of the series may not be used to any of the others." + +But here is a break or a bold leap from a lifeless to a living +compound. No matter how different are the several chemical +compounds known from the simple components, the new compound is +always, as far as known, as lifeless as were the several +components themselves. Hydrogen and oxygen compounded give rise +to water, but water is lifeless. Hydrogen and nitrogen, brought +together in certain proportions, give rise to ammonia, still a +lifeless compound. No chemist has yet, by any combination of the +minerals, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, the +constituents of protoplasm, been able to produce a living plant +or a living organism of any sort. How then conclude that their +combination produces the matter of life, or gives rise to the +living organism? There seems to us to be a great gulf between the +premises and the conclusion. Certain combinations of carbon, +hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen produce certain lifeless compounds +different from themselves, _therefore_ a certain other +combination of these same elements produces the living organism, +plant, or animal, or originates the matter, and forms the +physical basis of life. If the professor had in his school days +reasoned in this way, his logic-master, we suspect, would have +set a black mark against his name, or, more likely, have rapped +him over the knuckles, if not over his head, and told him that an +argument that has no middle term, is no argument at all, and that +"Transitio a genere ad genus," as from the lifeless to the +living, is a sophism. + +The professor is misled by his supposing that what is true of the +dead body must be true of the living. Because chemical analysis +resolves the dead body into certain lifeless elements, he +concludes that the living body is, while living, only a compound +of these same lifeless elements. That is, from what is true of +death, he concludes what must be true of life. But for this +fallacy, he could never have fallen into the other fallacy of +concluding life is only the result of a certain aggregate or +amalgam of lifeless minerals. Our scientists are seldom good +logicians, and we have rarely found them able, when leaving +traditional science, to draw even a logical induction from the +facts before them. This is wherefore they receive so little +respect from philosophers and theologians, who are always ready +to accept their facts, but, for the most part, unable to accept +their inductions. The professor has given us some valuable facts, +though very well known before; but his logical ineptness is the +best argument he has as yet offered in support of his favorite +theory that man is only a monkey developed. + +In the extract next before the last, the professor revives an old +doctrine long since abandoned, that life is generated from +corruption. "Under whatever disguise it takes refuge, whether +fungus or oak, worm or man, the living protoplasm not only +ultimately dies and is resolved into its mineral and lifeless +constituents, but is _always dying, and, strange as the paradox +may sound, could not live unless it died._" +{473} +We know that some physiologists regard the waste of the body, +which in life is constantly going on, and which is repaired by +the food we take, as incipient death; but this is only because +they confound the particles or molecules of matter of which the +body is externally built up, and which change many times during +an ordinary life, with the body itself, and suppose the life of +the body is simply the resultant of the aggregation of these +innumerable molecules or particles. But the life of the organism, +we have seen, is within it, and its action from the centre, and +it is only its life, not its death, that throws off or exudes as +well as assimilates the material particles. The exudation as well +as the assimilation is interrupted by death. Why the protoplasm +could not live unless it died is what we do not understand. + +The professor, of course, not only denies the immortality of the +soul, but the existence of soul itself. There is for him no soul +but the protoplasm formed of ordinary matter. All this we +understand very well. We understand, too, that on his theory the +protoplasm assimilated by the organism to repair its waste, +renews literally, not figuratively, the life of the organism. But +how he extracts life from death, and concludes that the +protoplasm must die, as the condition of living, passeth our +comprehension. We suppose, however, the professor found it +necessary to assert it in order to be able to reason from the +dead subject to the living. If the protoplasm were not dead, he +could not by chemical analysis determine its constituents; and if +the death of the protoplasm were not essential to its life, he +could not conclude the constituents of the living protoplasm from +what he finds to be the constituents of the dead protoplasm. But +this does not help him. In the first place, the waste of the +living organism is not death nor dying, though death may result +from it. And the supply of protoplasm in the shape of food does +not originate new life, nor replenish a life that is gone, but +supplies what is needed to sustain and invigorate a life that is +already life. In the second place, the vital force is not built +up by protoplastic accretions, but operates from within the +organism, from the organite or central cell, without which there +could be no accretions or secretions. The food does not give +life; it only ministers sustenance to an organism already living. +No chemical analysis of the food can disclose or throw any light +on the origin, nature, or constitution of the organic life +itself. + +It is this fact that prevents us from having much confidence in +chemical physiology, which is still insisted on by our most +eminent physiologists. In every organism there is something that +transcends the reach of chemical analysis, and which no chemical +synthesis can reproduce. Take the professor's protoplasm itself. +He resolves it into the minerals, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and +nitrogen: but no chemist can by any possible recombination of +them reproduce protoplasm. How then can one say that these +minerals are its sole constituents, or that there are not other +elements entering it which escape all chemical tests and, indeed, +are not subject to chemical laws? Chemistry is limited, and +cannot penetrate the essence of the material substance any more +than the eye can. It never does and never can go beyond the +sensible properties of matter. Life has its own laws, and every +physiologist knows that he meets in the living organism phenomena +or facts which it is impossible to reduce to any of the laws +which are obtainable from the analysis of inorganic or lifeless +matter. +{474} +It is necessary then to conclude that there is in the living +organism present and active some element which, though using +lifeless matter, cannot be derived from it, or explained by +physical laws, be they mechanical, chemical, or electrical. The +law of life is a law _sui generis_, and not resolvable into +any other. We must even go beyond the physical laws themselves, +if we would find their principle. + +As far as human science goes, there is, where the nucleus of life +is wanting, no conversion of lifeless matter into living matter. +The attempt to prove that living organisms, plants, animals, or +man are developed from inorganic and lifeless matter, though made +as long ago as Leucippus and Democritus, systematized by +Epicurus, sung in rich Latin verse by Lucretius, and defended by +the ablest of modern British physico-philosophers, Mr. Herbert +Spencer, in his _Biology_, has by the sane part of the human +race in all times and everywhere been held to be foolish and +absurd. It has no scientific basis, is supported by no known +facts, and is simply an unfounded, at least, an unsupported +hypothesis. Life to the scientist is an insolvable mystery. We +know no explanation of this mystery or of anything else in the +universe, unless we accept the creative act of God; for the +origin and cause of nature are not in nature herself. We have no +other explanation of the origin of living organisms or of the +matter of life. God created plants, animals, and man, created +them living organisms, male and female created he them, and thus +gave them the power to propagate and multiply each its own kind, +by natural generation. The scientist will of course smile +superciliously at this old solution, insisted on by priests and +accepted by the vulgar; but though not a scientist, we know +enough of science to say from even a scientific point of view +that there is no alternative: either this or no solution at all. +The ablest men of ancient or modern times, when they reject it, +only fall into endless sophisms and self-contradictions. + +Professor Huxley admits none but material existences, concedes +that the terms of his proposition are unquestionably +materialistic, and yet denies that he is individually a +materialist. + + "It may seem a small thing to admit that the dull vital actions + of a fungus, or a foraminifer, are the properties of their + protoplasm, and are the direct results of the nature of the + matter of which they are composed. But if, as I have endeavored + to prove to you, their protoplasm is essentially identical + with, and most readily converted into, that of any animal, I + can discover no logical halting place between the admission + that such is the case, and the further concession that all + vital action may, with equal propriety, be said to be the + result of the molecular forces of the protoplasm which displays + it. And if so, it must be true, in the same sense and to the + same extent, that the thoughts to which I am now giving + utterance, and your thoughts regarding them, are the expression + of molecular changes in the matter of life which is the source + of other vital phenomena. Past experience leads me to be + tolerably certain that, when the propositions I have just + placed before you are accessible to public comment and + criticism, they will be condemned by many zealous persons, and + perhaps by some of the wise and thoughtful. I should not wonder + if 'gross and brutal materialism' were the mildest phrase + applied to them in certain quarters. And most undoubtedly the + terms of the propositions are distinctly materialistic. + Nevertheless, two things are certain: the one, that I hold the + statement to be substantially true; the other, that I, + individually, am no materialist, but on the contrary believe + materialism to involve grave philosophical error." + +{475} + +If what he has been from the first endeavoring to prove, and here +distinctly asserts, is not materialism and consequently by his +own confession, "a grave philosophical error," we know not what +would be. "This union of materialistic terminology with the +repudiation of the materialistic philosophy," he says, further +on, "I share with some of the most thoughtful men with whom I am +acquainted." His terminology is, then, better fitted to conceal +his thought than to express it. He may repudiate this or that +materialistic system; he may repudiate all philosophy, which he, +of course does, yet not his terminology only, but his thought, as +far as thought he has, is materialistic. Nothing can be more +materialistic than the conception of life, sense, sentiment, +affection, thought, reasoning, all the sensible, intellectual, +and moral phenomena we are conscious of, as the product of the +peculiar arrangement or combination of the molecules of the +protoplasm, itself resolvable into the minerals, carbon, +hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. + +The scientific professor defends himself from materialism, by +asserting that both materialism and spiritualism lie without the +limits of human science, and by denying the necessity of a +substance, whether spirit or matter, to underlie and sustain--we +should say, produce--the phenomena, and the necessary relation of +cause and effect, or that we do or can know things under any +relation but that of juxtaposition in space and time. He falls +back on the skepticism of Hume, and takes refuge behind his +ignorance. He is too ignorant either to assert or to deny the +existence of spirit, and though he may not be able to prove the +phenomena in question are the product of material forces, nobody +knows enough of the nature and essence of matter to say that they +are not; and in fine, he in the first part of his discourse is +only stating the direction in which physiology has for some time +been moving. After all, what is the difference, or rather, what +matters "the difference between the conception of life as the +product of a certain disposition of material molecules, and the +old notion of an Archaeus governing and directing blind matter +within each living body?" + +But if matter lies out of the limits of science, and the +professor is unable to say whether it exists or not, what right +has he to call anything material, to speak of a material basis of +life, or to represent life and its phenomena as the product of "a +certain disposition of material molecules"? What, indeed, has he +been laboring to prove through his whole discourse, but that the +phenomena of life are the product of ordinary matter? After this, +it will hardly answer to plead ignorance of the existence and +properties of matter. If matter be relegated to the region of the +unknowable, his whole thesis, terminology and all, must be +banished with it, for it retains, and can retain, no meaning. + +Nor will it answer for the professor to take refuge in Hume's +skepticism, and say he is not a materialist, because he admits no +necessary relation between cause and effect, or that there is +within the limits of science, any power or force, or _vis +activa_, which men in their ignorance call "cause," actually +producing something which men call "effect." If he says this, +what becomes of his thesis, that life and even mind are the +_product_ of a certain disposition of material molecules, or +of "the peculiar combination of the molecules of the protoplasm"? +If he denies the existence, or even the knowledge of causative, +that is, productive force, his thesis has no meaning, and all his +alleged proofs of a physical basis of the vital and mental +phenomena must count for nothing. +{476} +Every proof, every argument, presupposes the relation of cause +and effect. When that relation is denied, and the two things are +assumed to have with each other only the relation of +juxtaposition, no proposition can be either proved or disproved. +The professor, after having asserted and attempted to prove his +materialistic thesis, cannot, without gross self-contradiction, +plead the skepticism of Hume in his defence. If he holds with +Hume, he should have kept his mouth shut, and never stated or +attempted to prove his thesis. + +Whether we are or are not able to prove that life, sense, and +reason do not originate in the peculiar "combination of the +molecules of the protoplasm," is nothing to the purpose. It is +for the professor to prove that they do. He must not base his +science on our ignorance, any more than on his own. + +But our space is exhausted and we must close. Taken, as we have +taken him, on what he must concede to be purely scientific +ground, and brought to a strictly scientific test, the +professor's thesis must be declared not proven, and to be +destitute of all scientific value. We have met him on his own +ground, and have urged no arguments against him drawn from +religion or metaphysics; we have simply corrected one or two +mistakes in his science, and assailed his inductions with pure +logic. If he has not reasoned logically, that is his fault, not +ours, and neither he nor his friends have any right to complain +of us for showing that his inductions are illogical, and +therefore unscientific. Yet we are bound to say that the +professor reasons as well as any of his class of scientists that +we have met with. No man can reason logically who rejects the +[Greek text], that is, logic itself, and nothing better than +Professor Huxley's discourse can be expected from a scientist who +discards all causes and seeks to explain the existence and +phenomena or facts of the universe, without rising from second +causes to the first and final cause of all. + +Two questions are raised by this discourse, of great and vital +importance. The one as to the _nexus_ between cause and +effect, in answer to Hume's skepticism, and the other as to +spirit and matter, and their reciprocal relation. We have not +attempted the discussion of either in this article; but should a +favorable occasion offer, we may hereafter treat them both at +some length. + +---------- + +{477} + + Two Months In Spain + During The Late Revolution. + + + Gibraltar. + October 7. + +At an early hour yesterday we left Cadiz, which did indeed look +like a "silver cup floating on the water," as the Spaniards say +of it. As the steamer bore us away, the rising sun upon its white +towers and cathedral dome, the belvideres which adorn the roof of +every house, (making each look like a church,) the lovely green +alameda, the distant mountains, the pretty white towns on the +shore, the hundreds of vessels in the sparkling bay, all made an +enchanting scene, from which we were recalled to the miseries of +sea-sickness! From time to time, we crept upon deck to see the +fine sea view, and when we came to Tarifa, near the straits, the +scene was magnificent. On one side, the mountains of Africa, +Tangier in the distance; on the other, the mountains of Spain and +the Moorish-looking town of Tarifa, with an island on which is +the lighthouse and defences standing directly in the mouth of the +straits; so that it seemed as if a long line of vessels with +their white sails spread were encompassing the island. In sight, +at one time, were eighty sail. Every nation under the sun seemed +represented, as they saluted one another with their flags. Among +the rest, Sweden and Norway. We landed at Gibraltar under a +glorious sunset. The farewell beams lighted the mountains with a +tint of gilded bronze. Gibraltar, opposite these, was like a huge +gray mountain, and behind it the sky was of the palest rose +color, melting into blue where it touched the water. The town is +on the side and at the foot of the "Rock," (a place of sixteen or +twenty thousand inhabitants,) and above it are the famous +galleries cut through the rock, from which we could see the noses +of the great guns peeping from the port-holes, range after range, +one above another, till the top is reached, where is the Signal. + +The Rock of Gibraltar is 1430 feet high, and about three miles +long--a great gray sphinx jutting into the water. It is joined to +the mainland by a narrow slip of sand, capable of being submerged +if necessary. Upon this neck of land is the "neutral ground," (a +narrow strip,) where, side by side, the fair British sentinel and +the sunburned Spaniard keep their "lonely round." We mount upon +donkeys to ascend the "Rock," passing through the wonderful +"galleries" which, at an immense expense, have been cut into the +solid rock, where, with the guns, are depositories for powder, +balls, etc. Some of these galleries are over a mile and a quarter +long, lighted by the port-holes, which, in passing, gave us +glimpses of the loveliest of landscapes. Leaving the galleries, +we ascend by zigzag paths to the Signal; at every turn feasting +our eyes upon the wonderful panorama spread out below us, which +is seen in perfection from the summit. Here we looked down upon +two seas, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and two worlds, +Europe and Africa! Spain on one side, with the snowy heights of +the Alpujarras and Sierra Nevada; at our feet, the town of +Gibraltar, with the lovely alameda, its green trees and bright +gardens, the glorious bay crowded with shipping--men-of-war, +school ships, steamers, and every small craft; and, seemingly, +but a stone's throw across lay Ceuta, at the foot of that other +"Pillar of Hercules" which rises 2200 feet, and looks like a +mountain of bronze, while Gibraltar is of gray granite. +{478} +These two great pillars were considered in the olden time the end +of the world--the Tarshish of the Bible; the Calpe of the +Phoenicians, who erected here Calpe (carved mountain) and Abyla. + +Tarik, the one-eyed Berber chief, took Gibraltar in 711, and +called it after his own name, Ghebal Tarik, from whence comes +Gibraltar. + +While upon the "Signal," we signalize the event by taking a lunch +of delicious English cheese, bread and butter, (the first butter +we have had in Spain,) and such ale! And while thus agreeably +engaged, we hear that an American man-of-war is coming into port, +which proves to be the flagship of Admiral Farragut; so we repair +to the rampart to see the ship saluted by the town, and then by +the British frigate Bristol, to both of which the Yankee replied +in gallant style. It was a fine sight, and, altogether, the scene +a most remarkable one. Down by the neutral ground, some English +officers playing cricket looked like ants in the sunshine; the +blue guard-tents of the English sentinels, and the white ones of +the Spaniards, were little specks, and the Christian and Jewish +cemeteries were like checker work on the greensward. + +How longingly we looked toward the purple mountains of Africa, +and that beautiful city of Tangier which we had hoped to visit! +but the quarantine, still in force, obliged us to abandon the +idea. It would have been _something_ to set foot in another +continent! Ceuta, which belongs to Spain, and is but a +prison-house, could not tempt us. Tearing ourselves from this +wonderful scene, we descended by the other side of the mountain +and entered the city by beautiful gardens near the alameda, +seeing below us the government houses, store-houses, magazines, +and many fine residences embowered in gardens of tropical trees +and plants; whole hedges of geraniums and cactus lined the +roadside, and almond trees, dates, and oranges. We passed a +convent-school with beautiful and extensive gardens. In the +evening there is music on the alameda, where are trees and +statues, and marble benches, on which sit the motley population +of this strange place; Moors in turbans, bare-legged Highlanders, +officers in scarlet, Andalusians in the red faja, Irishmen fresh +from their native isle, ladies in French bonnets and English +round hats next the Spanish mantilla and ever-moving fan. +Gibraltar is a free port, and every people and kindred meet here +for trade. The garrison is very large, about three thousand men +in time of peace; for the Spaniards see the occupation of this +important point in their country with great jealousy, and would +gladly seek occasion to win it back. And every now and then the +subject is mooted in the English parliament of giving it up, as +it is a most expensive appendage to the English people, and can +bring little benefit save to their pride. + +{479} + + Malaga Hotel Alameda. + +October 8. + +Leaving Gibraltar at an early hour, and passing the forest of +ships in the bay, we soon see the last of the pillars of Hercules +and the African coast. The sea is calm, and the coast of Spain +along which we come is most beautiful. There is something +peculiarly interesting in the mountains of Spain; they seem to +rise hill upon hill till they grow to be mountains, and instead +of the blue of most southern countries they are of a mulberry +hue--seldom with trees, and reminding one of the purple moors of +Scotland. The steamer is crowded with families returning from +Gibraltar, whither they had fled to get out of the way of the +revolution. + +We find a busy, crowded city, a lovely bay with mountains in the +background, an old Moorish castle overlooking the city, and a +beautiful alameda, with trees, and statues, and marble seats, +upon which we look from the windows of our delightful hotel. + + +October 9. + +The first thing to-day is to drive to a lovely villa, (that of +the Marquis de Casa Loring,) in whose garden we see every fruit +and flower and tree of the tropics. Bananas and mangoes, the +coffee-tree, the magnolia and India-rubber trees, and among all +these we found, and ate, ripe persimmons!--that homely fruit of +old Virginia, found amidst all these oriental splendors; and +sweeter were they than even the oranges which we gathered from +their overladen trees. Returning, we paused to see another villa, +from whence is a more extensive and beautiful view of the +mountains, the city and the sea, and the fertile plateau upon +which Malaga lies, and which is said to rival even the famous +huertas of Valencia and Murcia in variety and luxuriance of +vegetation. The cemetery gives another favorite point of view, +and the old Moorish castle (Gibralfaro) has even a finer one; but +the day is too warm to attempt the ascent. The castle dates from +1279, and the lower portion, (the Alcazaba,) which is connected +with it, is supposed to be of Phoenician origin; Malaga having +been first a Phoenician colony, and afterwards Roman. Of the +remains of the Roman period, we saw two interesting bronze slabs +in a pavilion of the Villa Loring this morning, one of them +containing the municipal laws of Malaga under Domitian, and the +other those of a city (Salpense) now unknown. + +The interior of the cathedral, which rises upon the site of an +ancient mosque, is not at all remarkable. It was begun in 1528. +The church of "El Cristo del Victoria" is interesting, from the +circumstance of its being built on the spot where stood the tents +of the Catholic kings during the siege of 1487. On the right of +the altar hangs the royal standard of Ferdinand, and on the left +the one taken from the Moors. When the city surrendered, the +former was hoisted on the castle, or alcazaba. Opposite this +church is a small church, San Roque, the first Christian edifice +built here by Ferdinand and Isabella. The crucifix which was +formerly here was the one brought by their majesties, is highly +revered, and is now over the high altar of Santa Victoria. + +Malaga is famed for its climate, the best in Spain. It is +considered drier, warmer, and more equable than that of Rome, +Pau, Naples, or Nice, even superior to Madeira. Invalids flock +here, and it will soon be as crowded as Nice. The extreme dryness +of the air is its marked feature, and it is said that there are +not ten days in the whole year when an invalid may not take +out-door exercise. The evaporation is so great, the rain has no +influence on the air. During nine years, it has rained only two +hundred and sixty times. The "oldest inhabitant" does not +remember to have seen snow, and the cold winds from the Sierra +Nevada are kept off by the mountains immediately surrounding the +city. +{480} +To show the longevity of the inhabitants, in the year 1860, +twenty-nine out of five thousand deaths were of people who had +lived to the ages of _ninety or a hundred_. + + + Granada. + +October 10 + +This morning we leave Malaga at an early hour by rail, the road +being cut through extraordinary mountain passes to Antiquera, an +old Roman and Moorish town; from thence by diligence to Loja, +where we again take the railway. The journey is altogether +delightful, the day being cool and bright, and the mountain +scenery on either side grand and beautiful. Loja is in a narrow +valley, through which runs the Genil river, on one side the +Periquete Hills (Sierra Ronda) and the Hacho. The Manzanil unites +here with the Genil, both rapid and clear mountain streams +fertilizing a lovely valley. Soon after leaving Loja, we reach +Santa Fé, (Holy Faith,) built by Queen Isabella to shelter her +army in winter during the siege of Granada in 1492, and called +"Santa Fé" because she looked upon the war as a struggle for the +faith, and believed piously in its happy issue. This little town +has been the scene of many important operations and political +acts. It witnessed the signing of the capitulation of Granada, +and it was to this town that Columbus was recalled by Isabella +when he had already reached the bridge of Piños, behind the +mountains, determining to ask aid elsewhere for his great +undertaking. + +Darkness now fell upon us, and except one exquisite view which +the setting sun gave of the snow mountains over Granada, we saw +nothing till we reached this last stronghold of the Moors in +Spain, and found lodgings inside the Alhambra grounds in the +Hotel Washington Irving. + + +October 11. + +We go first to the Cathedral, to hear the high mass, and pay our +respects to the remains of Ferdinand and Isabella, which rest +there. Driving through beautiful ornamental grounds out of the +Alhambra gate, down a steep hill in the old Moorish looking city, +we find the cathedral, like that of Malaga, greatly ornamented, +(in the Greco-Roman style,) built in 1529. Within the sanctuary +are eleven pictures by Alonzo Caño, and two of his most +celebrated pieces of sculpture--the heads of Adam and Eve carved +in cork. Caño was a native of Granada, and is buried in the +Cathedral Bocanegra. Another of the celebrated artists of Spain +was also a native here, and the cathedral has several of his +pictures. But everything connected with the church sinks into +insignificance when one enters into the royal chapel, where all +that can perish of the great Ferdinand and Isabella lies (a small +space for so much greatness, as Charles V. said.) In a crypt, +below the chapel, in plain leaden coffins, with but the simple +initial of each king and queen upon them, are the coffins of +Ferdinand and Isabella and their daughter Joanna, with her +husband Philip I. (the handsome)--the last--that very coffin +which the poor crazed Joanna carried about with her for +forty-seven years, embraced with such frantic grief, and would +never be parted from. Nothing was so affecting as the sight of +this--not even the remembrance of all Isabella's glories and +goodness! So does an instance of heart devotion touch one more +than even the sight of greatness. Above the vault are the four +beautiful alabaster monuments, made by order of Charles V. to the +memory of his father and mother and his grandparents. +{481} +Ferdinand and Isabella, with their statues, lie side by side; and +poor Joanne la Folle looks lovely and placid (all her jealousies +over) beside the husband she adored, as if at last sure that she +could not be divided from him. Isabella died at Medina del Campo, +(near Segovia, about thirty miles from Madrid,) but desired to be +buried here in the bright jewel which she had won as well for her +crown as for her God. Her body was taken to Granada in December, +journeying over trackless moors amidst storms and torrents, of +which the faithful and learned Peter Martyr gives account, who +accompanied his beloved mistress to her last home. + +The inscription which runs around the cornice tells: "This chapel +was founded by their most Catholic Majesties, Don Fernando and +Doña Isabel, king and queen of las Españas of Naples, of +Sicily--of Jerusalem--who conquered this kingdom, and brought it +back to our faith; who acquired the Canary Islands and Indies, as +well as the cities of Oran, Tripoli, and Bugia; who crushed +heresy, expelled the Moors and Jews from their realms, and +reformed religion. The queen died Tuesday, November 26, 1504; the +king died January 23, 1516. The building was completed in 1517." + +The _bassi relievi_ on the altar in this chapel are very +interesting, from the scenes they represent--Ferdinand and +Isabella receiving the keys of Granada from Boabdil, etc. At each +end of the altar are figures of the king and queen in the costume +of the day, the banner of Castile behind the king. In the +sacristy is the crown of Isabella, the sword of Ferdinand, the +casket in which she gave the jewels to Columbus, some vestments +embroidered by her own hand, and the tabernacle used on the altar +where they heard mass, on which is a picture of the adoration of +the Magi, by that wonderful old painter Hemling of Bruges. Lord +Bacon has said of Isabella: "In all her relations of queen or +woman, she was an honor to her sex, and the corner-stone of the +greatness of Spain--one of the most faultless characters in +history--the purest sovereign by whom the female sceptre was ever +wielded." + +We hear mass in the chapel of the Sagrario, a beautiful church in +itself. It was on one of its three doors that the Spanish knight +Hernan Perez del Pulgar (during the siege of Granada) nailed the +words, "Ave Maria;" to accomplish which feat, he entered the town +at dusk, and left it unharmed--nay, even amidst the plaudits of +the Arabs, who appreciated the deed. He is buried in one of the +chapels called "Del Pulgar." + +From the Cathedral we visit the "Cartuja," once a wealthy +Carthusian convent, built upon grounds given to the monks by +Gonzales de Cordova--"El gran Capitan." In the refectory is shown +a cross, painted on the wall by Cotan, which so well imitates +wood that the very birds fly to it, and try to perch there. The +church has a beautiful statue of St. Bruno upon the altar; and a +larger one in the chapel of the Sagrario, by Alonzo Caño, is +especially fine. The sacristy is rich in marbles from the Sierra +Nevada, and the doors and other wood-work of the church and +chapel are made of the most curious and beautiful inlaid +work--tortoise-shell, ebony, silver, and mother of pearl--all +done by one monk, who took forty-two years to accomplish it; and +after so adorning this chapel, behold! the monks are driven from +it. + +In the church are several lovely pictures--a head of our Lord by +Murillo; a copy, by Alonzo Caño, of the Viergo del Rosario in the +Madrid gallery, and a copy of one of the "Conceptions" of Murillo +--that one with the fair flowing hair, so very lovely. + +{482} + +Returning home, we have our first view of the snow mountains, +(Sierra Nevada.) How strange and how charming to be beneath a +tropical sun, and with all the beautiful vegetation of Africa and +the Indies, with people all eastern in dress and manners, and see +above one snow-capped mountains like the glaciers of Switzerland! +Owing to the proximity of these glaciers, the heat is never +intolerable here, and yet the winters are so mild they seldom +need fire in their sitting-rooms or parlors. + +October 12. + +To-day is made memorable by our first visit to the Alhambra. +Situated on a high hill, on either side of which flows the Darro +and the Genil, this space, which occupies several hundred acres, +was formerly surrounded by walls and towers, and contained within +it the palaces and villas of the Kalifs of Granada; and so +numerous were these that it was called a city, Medina Alhambra. +Of all these, there now remains but that portion of the Alhambra +known as the summer-palace, (the winter-palace having been torn +down by Charles V. to make room for a palace which he never +finished.) Besides this summer-palace, there is the "Generalife," +(a summer-palace built--later than the Alhambra--in 1319;) the +remains of the Alcazabar, (fortress,) the Torre de la Vega, where +the bell strikes the hours in the same manner as in the Moorish +days, to signify upon whom devolves the duty of irrigating the +"vega," the beautiful and fertile plain below; the tower of the +captive; tower of the princesses; the tower of the "Siete +Suetos," (seven stories;) and the Torres Bermujas, (Red Towers.) +The last named are outside the Alhambra walls, but are on the +same hill, and claim to belong to an older date than even the +Moors or the Goths--supposed to be of Phoenician origin. The +walls are entered by several gates, some Arabic, and others more +modern. From these gates, you wander among stately avenues of +trees, with flowers and shrubs and charming paths, through which +now and then is seen a glimpse of the yellow towers, or some +picturesque ruin, altogether a scene of enchanting beauty. And +when upon one of the "miradors" (look-outs) or terraces which +crown these towers and palaces, there lies the Moorish city at +your feet, the grand snow mountains on the east, the beautiful +vega stretching to the mountains on the west, down which marched +the conquering Christians; and on the south lies that mountain so +poetically called "the last sigh of the Moor," from which Boabdil +looked his last upon the kingdom he was leaving for ever, and +where his mother made him the famous reproach which has passed +into history, that he did well to weep as a woman over that +kingdom he could not defend as a man. + +And how venture to describe the Alhambra, which has been written +of by such men as Prescott and Irving! how give to any one an +idea of that which is unique in the world, of the grace and +beauty and wonderful variety of its adornments--the carvings like +lace, the bright colored mosaics and azuelos, (tiles,) the +transparent stucco work and filagree, the inlaid cedar-wood +roofs, the pillars, the domes and fountains, the courts, the +beautiful arches! We enter first the Court of the Myrtles, in +which a large square pool, filled by a fountain at either end, is +surrounded by a hedge of fragrant myrtle, and this in turn by a +marble colonnade, over which is a second gallery, with jalousies, +through which we could imagine the dark eyed beauties to have +peeped. +{483} +The roofs of these galleries are of cedar-wood inlaid, and the +arches and sides of exquisite wreaths and vines in stucco, with +shields of the Moorish kings, mottoes and verses from the Koran, +etc. This court was a place of ablutions for the kalifs. + +From the Court of the Myrtles, one sees the Tower of Comares, +(called from the name of its Persian architect;) and within this +tower, opening from the Court of Myrtles, and preceded by its +"antesala" is the Hall of the Ambassadors, the largest, highest, +and most beautifully adorned of all the Alhambra. Here was the +sultan's throne and reception room. On three sides, arched +windows look down into the deep ravine from which the tower +rises; and, beyond, upon an enchanting prospect, the old Moorish +city and the verdant hills and mountains. The roof of this hall +is a sort of imitation of the vault of heaven, and that of the +"antesala" (called "La Barca," from being shaped like a boat) is +also very elegant. + +On another side the Court of Myrtles is the famous Court of the +Lions, with its one hundred and thirty-six pillars of white +marble, its twelve lions in the centre, supporting an alabaster +basin, (a fountain.) At each end, a pavilion projects into the +court, with arabesque patterns so light and graceful that the +very daylight is seen through the stucco. + +Opening from the Court of the Lions is the Hall of the +Abencerrages, deriving its name from the legend according to +which Boabdil invited the chiefs of the illustrious family of +that name to a feast, and had them taken out one by one and +beheaded. Others assert that they were murdered in this hall, and +show the stains of blood in the marble of the fountain. As they +had been mainly instrumental in placing him upon the throne, this +act of ingratitude helped to his ruin. This story is generally +believed, but Washington Irving has rescued the name of this +"unlucky" one (_el chico_) from this unjust aspersion. His +investigations prove that the crimes laid to the charge of +Boabdil were in reality committed by his father, Aben Hassin. He +it was who murdered the thirty-six Abencerrages upon suspicion of +having conspired against him, and it was he who confined his +queen in the "tower of the captive," etc. + +On the east side of the Court of the Lions is the "Sale del +Tribunal," (the hall of justice,) where the kalifs gave audience +on state affairs. Three arches in the centre and two at either +end lead into this hall, which is ninety feet long by sixteen +wide, with a dome thirty-eight feet high. This is divided by +arches into seven rooms, all profusely ornamented, and in the +ceilings of several recesses are paintings of Moors, with +cimeters, castles, etc. In one of these rooms is the famous +Alhambra vase of porcelain, four feet three inches high, which +was found full of gold. In another small room are three +tombstones, one of Mohammed II., and one of Yusef III., found in +the tomb-house of the Moorish kings, near the Court of the Lions, +in 1574. They have long and elaborate inscriptions, one of which +reads thus: + + "In the name of God, the most merciful and clement! + + "May God's blessing for ever rest with this our king! + + "Health and peace! + + "Gentle showers from heaven come down on this tomb, and give it + freshness, and the orchard spread its perfume upon it. What + this tomb contains is wine without admixture, and myrtles. + Reward and pardon be granted to him who lies within. + + "It was God's pleasure that he should dwell amid the garden of + delights. + + "Those that inhabit those happy regions come forth to meet him + with palms in their hands. + +{484} + + "If thou wouldst know the story of him who lies in the tomb, + listen. He was a prince above all in excellence. May God give + him sanctity! + + "He was cut down into the dust. Yet the Pleiades themselves are + not his equals. + + "Unavoidable fate took up arms, and aimed at the very throne of + the empire. + + "Oh! how great was his fame. His excellence, how high! and + unbounded his virtues! + + "For Abul Hadjaj was like the moon that points out the road to + take, and when the sun went down its brightness beamed no less + from his eyes. + + "Abul Hadjaj showered down tokens of his liberality. But + drought is come; his liberality has ceased; his crops are + gathered. + + "His generosity is forgotten; his halls are lonesome; his + ministers silent, and his rooms deserted. + + "But it was God's pleasure, the merciful one, (may he be + glorified,) to take him into the eternal dwelling when he + deprived him of life. + + "Here lies he softly, within this narrow tomb, but his real + dwelling is the heart of every man. + + "Why should I not pray God that the rain should moisten his + tomb with its abundant dew? for the rain of his liberality + showered down upon all without ceasing. + + "Was he not filled with the fear of God, with gentleness and + wisdom? Amongst his qualities, were not virtue, liberality, and + magnificence one part? + + "Was he not the only one that with his science cleared up all + doubts? + + "Was not poetry one of his attributes, and did he not deck his + throne with verses like strings of pearl? + + "Was he not always stout, and held his ground in the + battle-field? + + "How many enemies his sword repelled! + + "But Ebn Nasr, his successor, is certainly the greatest among + all monarchs of the earth. + + "May God protect him! + + "For he is most generous and victorious; besides, he + distributes rewards generously. He has saved the kingdom from + ruin, and restored it to its former greatness." + +The Hall of the Two Sisters takes its name from two white slabs +of equal size in the pavement. Here are beautiful arches, windows +with painted jalousies, a fountain, and a wonderful roof, +composed of three thousand pieces in little miniature domes and +vaults, all colored in delicate blue and red with white and gold. +From this hall, indeed quite from the Court of the Lions, one +sees through a series of arched entrances into the "Corredor de +Lindaraja," in which room are thirteen little cupolas, and the +Mirador de Lindaraja (a boudoir of the sultana) looks upon the +garden of Lindaraja, with flowers, and fountains, and +orange-trees. + +On the opposite of this lovely garden, and looking into it, are +the rooms occupied by Washington Irving, those built by Philip V. +for his beautiful queen, Elizabeth of Parma, whom the Spanish +call "Isabel Farnese." Several corridors here lead to modernized +parts of the building--" the queen's boudoir," a chapel made by +Charles V. out of the mosque, and a lofty tower, used by the +Arabs as an oratory for the evening prayer, and from which the +view is superb--the "Generalife" with its white towers, the woods +of the Alhambra, the Darro far below in the deep gorge, and, +beyond and above all, the snow-capped Sierra Nevada. + +The "Patio de la Mosquita" (the court of the mosque) has only the +remains of its beautiful roof. + +From this to the baths is a long corridor leading to the Chamber +of Rest, which has just been restored by Sig. Contreras, the able +architect who is repairing the whole building, by order of the +queen. This has a fountain in the centre, marble pillars all +round, a gallery above, where the musicians played and sung while +the bather inclined upon the cushions below; within were the +marble baths of the sultan, the sultana, etc. + +{485} + +"Generalife" means garden of pleasure, and here garden above +garden rises upon the mountain side, through which the Darro +rushes noisily, being brought by a little canal quite through the +mountain. In one of the rooms are some interesting portraits of +the kings and queens of Spain. Ferdinand and Isabella, Philip the +handsome, Jeanne la Folle, Charles V. and Isabella, Don John of +Austria, etc.; and in a second room a series of portraits of the +Dukes of Granada, whose descendant, now married to an Italian +nobleman of Genoa, owns this lovely place. The founder of this +house was a converted Moor, and to his descendants (the houses of +Venegas and Granada) Philip IV. made this a perpetual grant. In +one of the many gardens are some cypress-trees planted by the +Moors, seven hundred years old. Under one of these, a love story +is said to have been enacted, of which the beautiful Sultana +Zorayda is the heroine. Amongst the portraits in the picture +gallery is one of Boabdil, fair and handsome, with yellow hair, +and a gentle, amiable look. He may not have had the qualities +fitted to the terrible emergency in which he was placed, when +domestic contention and misrule had so weakened his empire as to +make it difficult to struggle against the growing greatness of +Ferdinand and Isabella; but he must have possessed qualities +which won for him the love of his people, for many years after +his time, the Moors who still lingered about Granada sung the +plaintive song said to have been composed by Boabdil himself, +relating his misfortunes and his sorrows, spoke of him +reverently, and lamented his fate. + +It is said he lived to see his children begging their bread at +the door of the mosques in Fez. He was killed in Africa, fighting +the battles of the prince who gave him shelter. + +We hasten from the Generalife to see the sunset from the Torre de +la Vega, which is the finest view we have had of the city--the +Vega with the lovely rivers winding through it, and the grand +mountains beyond. As the sun declined, from the many church bells +came the "Ave Maria," soft and musical from the great distance +below. + +The guide points out the hospital founded by St. John of God, (a +Portuguese saint,) the founder of the brothers of charity now +spread all over Europe. According to the guide, the saint asked +the king for as much land, on which to build this hospital, as he +could enclose in a certain number of hours. Of course he was +miraculously assisted; and by working all night, he took in so +great a space that the king became alarmed. Here he built this +hospital and the church in which he is buried. He lost his life +rescuing a drowning man, and died blessing Granada. + + +Tuesday. + +Spent the whole morning in the Alhambra, wandering amid its +beauties, feasting upon its romantic memories, and reading at +intervals the charming legends connected with every spot so +delightfully told by Washington Irving. In the hall of the +tribunal, we read his account of the entrance of the triumphant +Ferdinand and Isabella, and fancy the scene when Cardinal Mendoza +celebrated the first mass here. + +Seated in the Court of the Lions, we meditate upon the cruel +death of the noble Abencerrages, and lean from the window of the +Tower of Comares, down which the good Ayesha let her infant son +Boabdil escape, to save him from the jealous fury of her rival +Zorayda. + +{486} + +And then, in the later days of the beautiful Elizabetta of Parma, +we recall the scene where the hypochondriac Philip persists in +being laid out for dead, and can only be brought to life by the +voice and lute of the fair maiden, "the Rose of the Alhambra." + +In contrast to the Alhambra are the remains of the palace begun +with such magnificence by Charles V., of which only the walls +remain. Within their vast area and amongst its marble pillars, +muleteers were depositing their billets of wood, and burdens of +dirt and ashes! _Sic transit gloria mundi_. + +We go to look at that which has lasted longer, the church built +by him near by, and called Sta. Maria del Alhambra. Wandering on, +we find ourselves amongst the ruins of the Franciscan convent +(still within the Alhambra walls) which was destroyed by the +French in 1809-11, when so much of the Alhambra was injured. + +Led by a little boy, and following the wall, we come upon a +plantation of cactus, with its red and yellow fruit, which a man +is gathering with great scissors, to prevent its prickings. A +woman politely cuts and pares some for us to taste. It is sweet +and juicy; is much eaten by the poor, who call it "Tuños." They +also make from it a palatable drink--a sort of beer. Hans +Andersen has written a pretty sonnet to the cactus, which seems +especially applicable to this time and occasion. + + "Yes, yellow and red are the colors of Spain; + In banners and flags they are waving on high; + And the cactus flower has adopted them too, + In the warm sunshine to dazzle the eye. + Thou symbol of Spain, thou flower of the sun, + When the Moors of old were driven away, + Thou didst not, like them, abandon thy home. + But stayed with thy fruit and thy flowers so gay. + The thousand daggers that hide in thy leaves + Cannot rescue thee from the love of gain; + Too often it is thy fate to be sold, + Thou sunny fruit with the colors of Spain." + +Here we find ourselves at the tower of the "Siete Suelos," +through which Boabdil passed when he left the Alhambra for ever. +It is said that he asked of Isabella that the door might be +walled up, so that no one should ever pass through it after him, +and his conquerors acceded to his request. Returning through one +of the many beautiful paths leading to our hotel, we diverge to +look at a view which presented itself, and find we are near the +villa of Señora Calderon. Here, terrace above terrace rises in +view of the mountains, and on the summit is an artificial lake, +with bridges and boats, and winding walks, and flowers and +fruits, and statues and fountains--everything to make a perfect +paradise. + +At night, we have a gypsy-dance. The chief of his troop is the +finest guitar player in Spain--there can be no better in the +world--a tall, dark, grave man, who received our plaudits with +kingly grace; he looked as if in sorrow over the degradation of +his people, who are here in great numbers, living in wretched +quarters on a hillside, in holes or caves in the ground. + +The dancers were four lovely, graceful girls, modestly dressed, +and several men, all dark, with large, soft eyes and white teeth. +A youth in short jacket, with broad red faja (sash) and the +peculiar Andalusian hat, danced a solo of strange fashion, with +many movements of the body, and the extraordinary gestures which +belong to all. The feet move in short steps--a sort of "heel and +toe"--while the body sways to and fro, and the hands and arms +move gracefully and expressively. The men had tambourines and the +women castanets, and the wild airs to which they danced were +accompanied with their voices. The variety of dances and songs +was curious and interesting, and often descriptive. At the end of +each dance, the girls came round and saluted all, gentlemen and +ladies, by passing one arm over the neck. + +{487} + +Wednesday. + +Drive about the city, the public squares, etc., and visit the +remains of the old Moorish bazaar which occupies a square +intersected by narrow lanes, every one of which is beautifully +ornamented with pillars and arabesque work. + +The alameda, planted in long avenues of trees which meet +overhead, beyond which one catches a view of the Snow mountains, +and beside which flows the Genil river, can not be excelled in +beauty. + +The church and hospital of St. John of God is most interesting. +Over the door are these words of the saint, "Labor, without +intermission, to do all the good works in your power while time +is allowed you." The hospital is built round a large court, with +fountains and gardens, and a double row of corridors in which sat +the sick poor, clean and comfortable. It communicates with the +church, which has several good pictures, and a head of St. John +the Baptist, carved by Caño. + +In a richly ornamented chapel behind the great altar is the body +of the saint in a silver casket. The remains of St. Feliciana are +also here, as well as many other relics. In an adjoining room is +seen the identical basket in which the saint carried provisions +to the poor. + +The church was built by contributions sent by one of the order +from South America. The cedar-wood doors are said to be made from +the logs in which the concealed treasures were brought over. + +We climb to the top of the "Torres Bermujas," outside the +Alhambra walls, from whence is another splendid view--a curious +old ruin, dating from the time of the Phoenicians. It is said to +have been a stronghold of the Jews, who made a colony here during +their persecutions by the Romans; and being treated with equal +cruelty by their Gothic conquerors, they invited in the Moors, +betrayed the city to them, made terms for themselves, and thus +brought upon themselves the eternal enmity of the Spaniards, who +treated them with great rigor after the conquest, and finally +banished them. In the story of the three beautiful princesses, +this tower plays an important _rôle;_ here were confined the +captive Spanish knights who eloped with the Infantas, (daughters +of Mohammed the left-handed,) and beyond, rising above the deep, +romantic ravine, is the Tower of the Princesses, beneath which +the knights sang their tales of love. + + + Madrid, Hotel De Paris. + + Friday, October 16. + +Yesterday (my feast) and the feast of the great Spanish Saint +Teresa was celebrated by our most sorrowful departure from +Grenada! At three o'clock in the morning, we descend the hill of +the Alhambra, and ruefully mount to the top of a Spanish +diligence, and squeeze into what they call the "coupe"--an +exalted place behind the coach-box, from whence one looks down +upon the ten mules who drag this lumbering vehicle, see all their +antics, observe the rash manner in which they tear down +precipitous heights, and mount steep ascents, having the +comfortable certainty that in no event of danger could we +possibly descend from this lofty perch and save ourselves! + +A "special providence," however, guards the Spanish diligence, to +say nothing of the three "conductors"--the postillion who rides +in front, the individual who sits on the box with gold lace and +red on his cap, and who smokes leisurely, let what will happen, +only occasionally speaking to the mules, calling them by name, +and urging them on with a sound like "ayah!" and the boy who runs +alongside shouting, screaming, and plying the whip, now jumping +on the front of the diligence to rest a moment, now hanging on by +one hand to the side doors or behind; active as a cat he springs +up and down while the vehicle is at full speed, keeping one all +the while in terror for his safety. + +{488} + +Such is the Spanish diligence from the "coupé." In the interior, +shut out from the front view, one only hears the united voices of +the "conductors," and it is less exciting. We who are above, +however, have the advantage of a fine view of the mountains, (the +Sierra Morena,) over which we pass by a smooth and beautiful +road. + +Jaen is the only place of importance which we see, an old Moorish +town with histories and legends, a fine cathedral, and a Moorish +castle on the height above. From this, a few hours brings us to +Menjibar, where we take the railway at six P.M., and reach Madrid +about eight the next morning. At Menjibar, we bid adieu to our +young American friend, who had journeyed with us since leaving +Cordova, and parted with the Scotch and German ladies whom we had +encountered at various points. + +Madrid is filled with people. General Prim is in this hotel, is +modestly refusing to be made dictator, and proposing that Spain +shall have, as heretofore, a king. We shall see how long it will +be before (like Caesar) he is overpersuaded, and reluctantly +assumes power. + +Topete (the admiral who, at Cadiz, brought over the fleet) is +also in Madrid; and Serrano, the prince of the traitors, is +president of the provisional government. The table d'hôte is +crowded with men of the press, (letter-writers of all nations,) +giving their several impressions of matters to the gullible +"public," and interpreting events to suit the taste of their +readers. We ask one of these (a witty Frenchman) if he writes for +_Le Monde_. "Oui, Madame, pour tout le monde." Amongst the +motley crowd, we distinguish the letter-writer of the _London +Times_, and him of the New York _Times_, with whom we +make acquaintance, and who having lived a long time in France, +and being of Irish extraction, is very little of an American in +appearance and manner. + + + Saturday, October 17. + +Madrid is a modern city with fine buildings and shops, many +handsome streets and squares, and a beautiful promenade, called +the Prado, (meadow.) The principal of these squares is the +"Puerta del Sol," upon which this hotel opens, and which is +always thronged with people, and is all life and bustle. This +being the head and front of the revolution, and General Prim +being in the house, the doors are besieged by beggars and +revolutionists. As we walk the streets, in many shop-windows are +vulgar caricatures of the queen and the priests. This is adding +insult to injury, and the very essence of meanness--to take away +her throne, and then aim at her character as a woman. It is +refreshing to find that the best people we see--the best born, +the best bred, and the best educated--defend her from these +aspersions, and are loyal to her, and to the throne. + + + Sunday, October 18. + +We hear high mass in the church of the "Calatrava," (an ancient +order of knighthood,) where are crowds of pious looking men. +Certainly it will be difficult for the revolution to rob these +people of their religion. For a time they may be intoxicated with +the excitement of the change, but the reaction must come, when +the sober second thought will bring them back to their true +friends. +{489} +Now, the banishment of the Jesuits, the best and most learned +teachers, the confiscation of church property, and the +destruction of churches initiates the new order of things. +Yesterday, an English gentleman (one of the noisiest supporters +of the revolution) told us how the junta had given two places of +great trust and importance into the hands of two of the lowest +and most vulgar and ignorant of the bull fighters; and thus this +class of people who have helped on the revolution must be +rewarded. We hear, to-day, that General Prim has offered to +promote, one grade, every officer of the army lately opposed to +him. To their honor be it spoken, every one refused such +promotion. + + To Be Continued + +---------- + + Translated From The French. + + Sister Aloyse's Bequest. + + I. + +How delightful it is to sit under the grand old trees of the +courtyard on this charming mid-summer evening! The light breeze +is redolent with the fragrance of the new-mown hay, and the +leaves seem to quiver with joy in an atmosphere heavy with +sunshine. The swallows pursue each other in play with short, wild +cries, and in the foliage of the linden-tree that brown bird, the +nightingale, tries her brilliant cadences, drowned at times by +the shouts of the children at their sports answering her in the +silences, whom without doubt they understood and admired. The +children, happy as the birds, dance and whirl about, just like +those motes one frequently sees rising up in a sunbeam. The nuns, +sombre and silent figures, watch them, contemplating life in its +flower and carelessness. This court-yard where the children play +and the birds sing belonged formerly to a monastery of the order +of St. Benoit; but now to a cloister built out of its ruins, +where the virtues of ancient days flourish under the shelter of +modern walls, which are hallowed by the memories of the past. + +Some young girls, no less pleased with the gambols of the +children, were walking in groups to and fro under the vaulted +arches which encircled the court, talking and laughing merrily; +but whenever they approached a nun reclining in an easy chair, by +an involuntary impulse they lowered their voices. She was a poor +invalid, who had been brought out to enjoy the sweet odors and +the pleasant warmth of the evening. She appeared to be nearing +the end of life, though still young. For the paleness of her +cheeks, the emaciation of her body, and the transparent whiteness +of her hands, all proclaimed the ravages of a long and incurable +illness. There was no more sand in the hourglass, no more oil in +the lamp, and her heart--like a timepiece about to stop--was +slacking its pulsations. One could not help but see that Sister +Aloyse retained a very powerful fascination in the beauty which +her terrible illness had not been able to efface. Her dark blue +eyes had not lost their almond-shape or sapphire hue. +{490} +Her figure was still elegant, seen under the loose robe which +wrapped her like a winding-sheet; and her voice was as sweet and +agreeable as in former days. + +At first she felt a little better upon being brought into the +garden; but she still suffered, and neither the pure air nor the +mildness of the beautiful evening had revived her. She sat in +silence, absorbed, perhaps, in those last thoughts, which she did +not confide even to herself, and which, to one who is about +departing, seem to give a glimpse of those unknown shores which +are yet so near to her who waits them. + +What is she thinking of? Of her past without remorse; of her +future without terror? Does she regret anything which she has +renounced for her God? Does one last thread hold captive this +celestial bird? I cannot say. She appears sad; yet her +companions, always so affectionately attentive, do not seem to be +surprised. For Sister Aloyse had always been characterized, even +in the more beautiful days of her youth, by a kind of melancholy. +She resembled an angel of peace, but yet an angel who weeps. + +One young girl, who was walking under the arches, regarded her +with great interest; and finally, leaving the group by whom she +was surrounded, approached the nun, dropped on her knees in the +grass before her, and, looking in her face, said earnestly: + +"Well, my sister, are you better this evening?" + +Sister Aloyse blushed slightly, just as porcelain is tinged with +a faint rose-color when a flame is passed behind it, and answered +in a voice sweet and low: + +"Thank you, Camille, I am not well, and I shall never be any +better till I come into the presence of our Lord. Look! does it +not seem indeed as if the gates of heaven were opening yonder?" + +She pointed to the west, then filled with the glory and splendor +of purple and gold and flame colors. + +"Yet one cannot go there," answered Camille in a caressing tone. + +"Oh! yes; provided the great God will receive us. And something +warns me that I shall shortly go to him." + +Both now became silent, Camille sadly regarding her companion. +Educated in this convent, she had always been accustomed to see +Sister Aloyse there, where she was much beloved. She would like +to have given her some pleasure, but what could she give, or what +could she say, to a person so detached from earthly things, and +whose aspirations were fixed on joys eternal? + +The nun was still thinking, praying perhaps; and after a long +silence she said, + +"Camille, you must come and see me some time before I go away +from here. But now good-night, dear!" + +Two nuns now came forward to help the sister into the house, +while Camille, who had gathered some white roses, carried them to +Aloyse, saying, + +"They are from my own little garden, my sister; therefore take +them, I pray you." + +"Willingly," said Aloyse, "and I will offer them to the Holy +Virgin. And, Camille, do not forget to remember me in your +prayers tonight." + + + II. + +"Go, my child," said the old abbess to Camille, "go to the +infirmary and see Sister Aloyse; she has something to say to +you." + +"Is she going to die?" asked Camille with tears in her eyes. + +{491} + +"She will go to her eternal home soon, but not to-day. Have no +fear, child, but go and listen carefully to what she tells you." + +Camille with agitated heart (for this poor heart is so quickly +stirred at sixteen years!) ascended the staircase which led to +the cells of the nuns. She passed through a long corridor out of +which opened the little doors, all of which, instead of a number +or design, bore some holy image or pious inscription. At the end +of this corridor she found the infirmary, a large room, quiet and +retired, whose windows opened upon the court and garden below. At +this moment it was almost vacant; she found only one bed +occupied, that of Sister Aloyse, who, as she had no fever, had +been left by the infirmarian while she attended vespers in the +chapel. Camille noiselessly approached the bed, the curtains of +which were half drawn so that Aloyse could see out. She was +sitting up supported by her pillows, and her hands were joined +before her on the cross of her rosary. She smiled on the young +girl, who timidly embraced her; and then Camille very earnestly +asked her why she had sent for her to come to her bedside instead +of any other of the girls, or her friends or companions; for she +was afraid, as one naturally dreads what is unknown. The nun +fixed upon her those searching eyes which seemed to look through +and beyond anything present, and said with much sweetness, + +"Sit down, Camille; I have something to say to you." She +hesitated, but finally said, "You have never heard any one of +your family speak of me?" + +"Never," answered the child, somewhat surprised. "I have known +something of your family--your father," she said with an effort. +"But it was a long time ago, a very long time--before you were +born. I was related to your grandmother, Madame Reville." + +"I never saw her, but I have seen her great portrait," said +Camille. + +"Yes, it hangs in the red drawing-room, does it not?" asked +Sister Aloyse with a sad smile. "Ah! well. Madame Reville +received me into her family as a lady's companion--a reader--for +I was poor, and needed some home. Your father did not live at +home with his mother, but he came there very frequently." + +Here she paused, breathing with difficulty, but continued: + +"He wished to marry me; Madame Reville was opposed to it; he +insisted. I saw he would disobey his mother; I was afraid for +him; I was afraid for myself. So I prayed to the good God. He did +not reject my afflicted and desolate heart, but he--the Divine +Consoler--called me into this home, and placed this holy veil as +a barrier between the world and myself. Here I found peace, +purchased sometimes with bitter suffering, but real; for it +filled the depths of my heart; it was the price of my sacrifice. +And I was able to see, in the clear light which streamed from the +cross, how all joy is deceitful, and all pleasure empty and +false. After two years had passed, I came to consecrate myself +with irrevocable vows to God's service, when the friends who now +and then came to see me, and public report, which in our day +finds its way even into the cloister, told me of the only thing +which had still power to afflict me. For, Camille, your +father--but what can I say to you who bear his name! M. Reville, +angry at my departure, and grieving for the loss of the poor +creature that I am, sought forgetfulness in dissipation. +Undoubtedly, he forgot me--I trust and hope he did--but he also +forgot his God! +{492} +Your father is not a Christian; nay, he is an enemy to +Christianity! Ah! since the day when I first knew that our +prayers did not meet in the pathway to heaven, how have I wept, +how have I prayed, how have I done penance! Alas! my tears, my +blood, my vigils, my sufferings--all have not prevailed, and I am +pierced to the depths of my heart with the terrible reflection." + +She was unable to continue; her voice died upon her lips, while +tears, clear and burning, rolled down her cheeks. Camille, +kneeling by her bedside, wept too; for she began to see what this +self-denying heart had suffered. + +"My child," finally said the sister after a long silence, "I +shall soon die, and there will then be no one to pray for him, +since your mother, who ought especially so to do, is dead. You +love your father, don't you?" + +"Yes, with all my heart!" + +"Well, then, promise me that you will unceasingly pray for his +conversion--that you will offer for him your every action and +your every pain; promise me that there shall always be a +suppliant voice to take the place of poor Aloyse's, which will +soon be hushed in death--to cry 'mercy!' Think of what it is to +have a soul and an eternity, and that soul your father's!" + +She had seized the hands of the child in both her own, and fixed +upon her a look in which the last forces of her life were +concentrated. "Promise!" said she. Camille thought a moment--her +young face wore a grave and stern expression. Finally, raising +one arm toward the crucifix, she said in a distinct voice: "I +solemnly promise you, my sister, I will continue what you have +commenced. I will pray, I will labor all my life for his +conversion." A ray of heavenly light illumined Sister Aloyse's +countenance, and she sank back upon her pillows, murmuring, "I +can die now." + +Two days later she passed away, with a peace and serenity worthy +of the blamelessness of her whole life, though in breathing her +last she cried, "Have mercy!" + +Was it of herself she thought? + + + III. + +Many years have passed away. The grass grows thick and green upon +the bed of clay where sleeps Aloyse. Camille, grown into a fine +young woman, keeps house for her father. She has travelled with +him, she has seen the world, its balls and its routs, but she has +never forgotten the promise made to Sister Aloyse. This promise +has banished the strength of her limbs and of her youth. She has +become serious all at once. She has given to her life but one +aim, and that sublime and difficult, and from that moment when +the struggle which had animated the life of Aloyse passed into +her own all her actions, all her thoughts, had been devoted to +the redemption of one soul. At first overflowing with the +thoughtless and enthusiastic zeal of youth, she would talk to him +of that religion whose arguments her heart found so natural, and +which seemed to her so irresistible. Her father would laugh at +her, and she would cry; she would persist, however, until he +became so angry that she was frightened. Finally she decided to +be more quiet in the future, and to leave to God the conduct of +her cause. But with what vigils, with what prayers, what sighs, +what agony of heart, and with what fervent desire did she ask God +for that precious soul! And what vows did she make to the Blessed +Mother! What flowers she offered upon her altar! +{493} +What prayers, in which she thanked God for the kindness that had +given mortals this all-powerful Mediatrix! Her father's guardian +angel, what careful conversation did she hold with him! How she +labored and prayed for that of which he never thought! + +As years pass, Camille's piety becomes more rigid; self-denial +joins itself to acts of earnest charity, in their turn +supplemented by generous alms! + +One would naturally ask why Camille, rich and young, charming and +admired, should rise so early in the morning, should spend so +many hours upon her knees in church? Why she went with the +Sisters of Charity to visit the sick, why her attire was so plain +and simple, why her room was so little ornamented, why she +labored without any relaxation, and finally, why with so +interesting an appearance and conversation she preferred so +severe a life? No one upon earth could answer these questions +except the guardian angel who writes down these noble acts to the +account of their forgetful subject, her unrepentant father. + +But she accomplished nothing, although the rigors were not for +herself, though she maintained, for her father, this piety united +with a tenderness which only made her more sweet and +affectionate. His hard heart did not open to the rays of divine +grace, nor to the timid smiles of his child. The taste for +amusement, born of a desire for forgetfulness, had chased from +his heart, at the same time with a pure love, the belief in holy +things. The heavenly flame had been quickly extinguished beneath +the ashes of pleasure; and, like many other children of his age, +he had neglected to believe through fear of being compelled to be +good. Bad society and bad literature had completed the work of +headlong dissipation; and neither marriage nor paternity had +reclaimed him. His birth, fortune, and indisputable talents +raised him to public offices. And, to be consistent with his +principles, and congenial to his friends, he had to be inimical +to all religion. The seminaries; the Brothers of the Christian +Doctrine; the Sisters, hospitallers or teachers; the free +establishments; the Carmelites, who ask nothing of a person; the +Clarisses, who ask only a piece of bread; the Little Sisters of +the Poor, who gathered food for their old men; the foreign +missions; the sermons in Lent in the parish; the general +indulgences granted by the pope; the cardinals in the senate; and +the Capuchins who went barefooted--were all equally the objects +of his strong aversion. He read continually the _Journal des +Débats_, the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, and the liberal +journal of his department--of that department in which he played +a prominent part. Shall we say, in excuse for him, that his +impiety had never been tried by adversity; and that he had found +the world so delightful that he had wished to live for ever in +it? In youth he had lived in the midst of noisy pleasures. In +more advanced life he lived for comfort, for his house--cool in +summer, warm in winter, splendid at all times--for his grand +dinners, his good wine, his fine horses and elegant equipages. He +enjoyed exquisitely those excellent things which the public +generally esteem, but in which divine grace does not much appear. +The memories of youth he did not often recall. He now scarcely +recollected the name of that poor cousin whom he had once loved +so passionately, but who had never forgotten him, who, even in +the arms of death, had displayed an angelic love. One day Camille +spoke of Sister Aloyse, and added, + +{494} + +"Was she not related to us, father?" + +"Yes, yes--a romantic affair! She threw herself into a convent; +she became weary even there!" + +He took several turns through the room with a preoccupied air, +and finally stopping before the great picture of his mother--a +withered and haughty figure--he said, + +"My mother did not love this poor Aloyse much! Poor girl! What a +charming voice she had! A voice which ought to astonish the +convent when she chants the _Miserere!_ She will sing no +more; she has a pain in her chest. Zounds! The discipline of the +convent! What a pity for this pretty Aloyse to be buried alive! +On the stage she would equal Malibran!" + +And this was all! The remembrance of Aloyse was only that of a +young girl who could sing charmingly, and who, perhaps, might +have commanded a situation in a theatre! + +He loved his daughter; but, for all that, she troubled him, and +he was anxious that she should marry, so that he might be +relieved from the care and responsibility. She did not oppose his +wishes, for she did not feel that God appointed her to lead the +life of a nun; but she wished her husband to be a Christian, and +said so to her father. He only shrugged his shoulders and cried, + +"Still these absurd ideas!" + +The Christian, however, presented himself, and at twenty-two +Camille Reville became Madame de Laval. + + + IV. + +Camille is now no longer twenty. Her youth has passed on swift +wings, and white is beginning to streak her dark hair; but her +pleasant face preserves the repose of former days. She has been +blessed with mixed and imperfect happiness, such as every one +tastes in this world. For in this life the black squares are +never far distant from the white ones; and in its tangled skein +the dark threads are woven in by the side of brighter colors. She +had lived most happily with her husband. Together they had +laughed over their little children's gambols, and together wept +over them in sickness. They had brought them up with the labor +and care which, in our day especially, accompanies all true +Christian education. Their eldest daughter, Amelia, had been +married about a year; and they were now very happy in expectation +of her approaching maternity. The second daughter was finishing +her education in the same convent of Benedictines where her +mother had been in her youthful days. Their son André was in a +polytechnic school, and their youngest, Maurice, was pursuing his +Latin studies in his native village. + +Through the disappointments and joy of her life, through days of +rain and days of sunshine, Camille had pursued one thought +faithfully--the grand aim which she had proposed to herself in +early life, her father's conversion. As a young wife she had +prayed with her husband, for his heart beat in unison with hers. +As a young mother, she had taught her children to pray with her. +And now, having reached the autumn of life, she still +prayed--prayed constantly; but as yet her prayers had received no +answer. + +The old man lived with her; and every moment she surrounded him +with care and tenderness. She watched him and brooded over him +more like a mother than like a daughter. And it was hard indeed +for her, that this old man of sixty-six years would not listen to +any serious conversation, would only rail at holy things, and +would learn no lesson from either life or death. And she was ever +obliged to turn his words from their real meaning, and interpret +his jeers and sarcasms so that they would not shock her innocent +little children. +{495} +At this moment we find Camille in the drawing-room with her +father, who is half asleep before a great fire, with the +_Débats_ at his feet. She is sewing on some linen for the +coming baby; but twice stops to read two short letters received +that morning from two of her absent children. After a thousand +details about boarding, upon the compositions in history, upon +the new piece of tapestry which Clotilde had just begun, upon the +sermons delivered by a new father whose name she did not know, +she went on to say: "I never forget, dear mother, to pray with +you--you know why! It seems to me that the moment is approaching +when the gentle God will answer us--as if grandpapa was going to +be astonished that he had been able to live so long without +thinking of God!" + +The second letter was from André, and would have been +unintelligible to any one who did not possess the key to a +school-boy's language. But at the end there was a passage which +Camille kissed again and again: "Dear mamma, I love you, and I +always pray with you, just like you." A stick of wood which just +now rolled down with a great noise awoke M. Reville, who, after +rubbing his eyes, asked his daughter, "Where is Maurice?" + +"He is skating. Do you wish me to take his place, and do anything +to amuse you?" + +"No, thank you. But stop, you may read instead; read this +discussion in the Chambers upon the military law." + +Camille took the paper and read slowly; and the old man's eyes +were still closed when the violent ringing of the door-bell woke +him up completely, and made Madame de Laval start. + +"What is the matter with you?" asked her father. + +"I do not know; only the sudden ringing frightened me." + +She jumped up and ran into the hall, and at the same instant her +husband entered from the street. She moved toward him, but +suddenly stopped, frozen with an inexplicable horror. M. de +Laval's face was of an ashy paleness; he tried to speak, he +stammered--the words died upon his lips, and his wife, in one of +those quick transitions which thought makes, believed he was +going to fall dead at her feet. + +"What ails you?" she cried, reaching out her arms toward him. "Do +not be frightened, Camille," said he; "but Maurice--" + +He was unable to finish. + +"Maurice!" she echoed. "Where is he? Why does he not come home? O +great God! he is dead. He is drowned!" + +M. de Laval had now somewhat recovered himself, and he explained: +"He rescued a child who was drowning, and was wounded in the +head. They are bringing him home. My dear Camille, keep up heart! +He lives! God will restore him to us!" + +She staggered and looked at her husband with fixed eyes. + +"Have courage," he cried. + +The servants, already called together by the sad news, had opened +the gates to the relatives and the friends who were coming in +every direction, and also to those who were bringing Maurice. +They bore him on a litter, covered with a mattress, and his head, +all bloody, with eyes wide open, rested upon a pillow made of the +coats of the brave men; while behind the litter walked a man all +covered with blood. He was the father of the child whom Maurice +had saved at the price of his own life. + +{496} + +The boy was quickly placed upon the bed, and the physicians were +soon by his side, followed by the parish priest. Camille, +kneeling beside him, saw, as in an evil dream, the surgeon dress +the wound which Maurice had in the temple, and afterward talk in +a serious manner to the other physicians behind the curtain. She +saw the priest go up to Maurice, and, after talking to him in a +low voice, bend over him and raise his hands in the benediction +of the dying, and immediately after give him the holy oils. As in +a dream she heard her husband's voice saying, "Dear wife, the +good God wants him! Look at our Maurice." + +She then looked at him. Maurice, aroused by the words of the +priest, had regained complete consciousness, and knew that he was +dying. He seemed more than tranquil--happy; and, looking around +on all present, said, + +"Good-by, papa; I only did what you taught me." + +He then discovered the father of the rescued child, who had +concealed himself behind M. de Laval. "Give my love to your +little boy," said he. + +His eyes then sought for his mother. She got up, and, bending +over him, took him in her arms. "Dear mamma, make me an offering +for dear grandpapa's conversion. Say to him--" He stopped. His +mother saw the light fade from his eyes, and knew that his breath +was hushed in death. For a long time she remained holding him in +her arms, like that more desolate of mothers, bathing him with +her tears, and unable to listen to the comforting words of either +husband or father, both of whom were overwhelmed with grief. At +last, her piety, those religious sentiments which had always +animated her life, prevailed, and she said aloud, + +"Yes, my God! I accept the sacrifice, and I sacrifice him for my +father. Save him, Lord, save him!" + +Two days later they buried poor Maurice, the whole village +attending his funeral. + +The same evening the priest, who had been with him in his last +moments, presented himself to Madame de Laval, and said: + +"You are afflicted, but your prayers are heard. Divine grace has +pursued your father, and this very morning, when the body of your +child was yet in the house, he called me to him and made his +confession. He could hold out no longer, he said to me. Rejoice +then, madam, in the midst of your grief." + +She did indeed rejoice, though she still wept. + +"O Aloyse," said she, "and my dear Maurice! They are then taken +away, but at what a price!" "Thank God!" cried the priest. "He +separates a family here only to reunite them in eternity!" + +------- + +{497} + + From Les Etudes Religieuses + + The Second Plenary Council Of Baltimore, + And Ecclesiastical Discipline + In The United States. [Footnote 129] + + [Footnote 129: _Concilii Plenarii Baltimorensis II. Acta et + Decreta. Baltimorae_, 1868.] + +[Introductory Note--The periodical from which the following +article has been translated is one of the highest character, +published at Paris under the editorial supervision of the Jesuit +fathers. The account which it renders of the late Council of +Baltimore is made doubly valuable from the fact that it is the +work of a foreign, and therefore an impartial, judge. We have +been obliged to make a few corrections in the article. Several of +these were suggested by the Most Rev. President of the Council, +and the rest were required by obvious and quite natural +inaccuracies of a writer living in a foreign country.] + + + +The superior of the Grand Seminary of Baltimore has recently done +us the honor of transmitting, in the name of his archbishop, +[Footnote 130] a copy of the _Acts of the Council_ held in +that city in 1866. He asks us to make known the contents to the +readers of the _Etudes_. It gives us pleasure to accede to +this request. + + [Footnote 130: Mgr. Spalding, Archbishop of Baltimore, is the + author of several interesting publications on the religious + history of the United States. He has published two essays + concerning the legislation of the early Protestant colonies + respecting divine worship. In their legislation is to be + found intolerance running to the most cruel extremes, and + this almost until the Revolution of 1776. Besides these, he + is the author of _Evidences of Catholicity, Sketches of + Early Catholic Missions in Kentucky,_ and _Spalding's + Miscellanea_.] + +On the eve of the great event which the Catholic world expects at +the close of this year, it seems to us that there are few +subjects more interesting, or more worthy to be treated of, than +the present. The very organization of the present council, at +which forty-six bishops were present, will give us a fair idea of +what is to be done when all the prelates of all countries and +churches are convened. Moreover, the decisions made in such an +imposing assembly will not fail to clear for us some obscure +points. But, better than all, the collection of decrees will make +us comprehend the situation of Catholicity in the immense +territories of the new world, where it is called to such a lofty +destiny. + +On the 19th of March, 1866, the Feast of St. Joseph, Mgr. +Spalding, using the powers received for this purpose from the +sovereign pontiff, convoked at Baltimore a Plenary Council, +[Footnote 131] to be opened on the second Sunday of October, in +the same year. + + [Footnote 131: A council is called plenary at which the + bishops of several provinces are assembled. After a general + or oecumenical council there is nothing more solemn. The + present is the second of this character which has been held + at Baltimore. The first took place in 1852.] + +If any bishops were prevented from appearing personally, they +were to be represented by proxies furnished with authentic +powers. The day having come, after a preliminary congregation, +held the evening before to clear up certain details, the council +opened with a grand, solemn, and public procession; in which +figured forty-four archbishops and bishops, one administrator +apostolic, two mitred abbots, together with the most +distinguished of the American clergy. It was a spectacle alike +new and imposing for that great city. More than forty thousand +people met to witness it. +{498} +In the streets through which the procession passed, there was +scarcely a house which was not decorated. This was undoubtedly +one of the grandest and most beautiful Catholic demonstrations +which has yet been seen in that land of liberty, where all sects +and communions find a rendezvous. The council furnished one of +those striking lessons which the good sense of Americans does not +forget, and which by little and little will lead them to +understand that where there is unity there is also life. + +Every deliberative assembly has need of order; the fathers began +by tracing a plan for themselves; these are its principal +dispositions. + +Every day the particular congregations of theologians were to +meet together. These were to discuss among themselves and judge, +in a preliminary manner, the measures proposed. The result of +their deliberations, gathered by a notary, with the votes and +motives alleged for or against, in case of a disagreement, was +then to be transmitted to the bishops. These, again, held private +congregations where they occupied themselves solely with +questions already debated by the theologians. _A procès +verbal_ was made, by the secretaries, of what passed in these +meetings. A new examination and judgment was made in this second +instance; yet these preliminary discussions decided nothing; all +was to be referred to the general congregations, and, finally, to +the sessions of the council, where the decrees received their +last form, and the sanction which makes them obligatory. + +As to the order which was to reign in their deliberations, the +bishops found nothing better fitted to their purpose than a small +portion, clearly stated, and well defined, of the rules called +parliamentary, and consecrated under that name in the public +assemblies of their land. Each had the right of proposing +whatever he would, provided he did so by writing and in the Latin +tongue; but a motion made by a member could not become a matter +of deliberation, unless another prelate joined the first in +making the demand. None was at liberty to depart from the +prearranged schedule, nor from the title which formed the object +of present discussion. As to the rest, the greatest liberty of +opinion was not only accorded, but counselled, as long as the +orators confined themselves to the limits of propriety. If any +one transgressed these, or prolonged his discourse uselessly, any +member could demand a call to order; the _promotor_ was +charged with executing the laws of order, but, in cases of doubt, +final decision belonged to the president. + +Before publication in the sessions, the decrees were submitted to +general congregations; when not only the bishops but also the +theologians might set forth their opinions, with only this +provision, namely, that those should be first heard who formed +the commission on which had previously devolved the consideration +of the subject then under discussion. Such are the simple and +precise dispositions which served to maintain order in so great +an assembly. + +The apostolic delegate had by right four theologians; the +archbishops, three; the bishops, two; some, however, contented +themselves with only one. They were divided into seven +congregations or bureaux, among which was divided the matter +which was to occupy the attention of the council. [Footnote 132] + + [Footnote 132: This matter comprised the following subjects. + _1. _De Fide Orthodoxa, deque erroribus + serpentibus;_ + 2. _De Hierarchia et regimine Ecclesiae;_ + 3. _De Personis Ecclesiasticis;_ + 4. _De Ecclesiis bonisque ecclesiasticis tenendis + tutandisque;_ + 5. _De Sacranentis;_ + 6. _De Cultu Divino;_ + 7. _De Disciplinae + uniformitate promovenda;_ + 8. De Regularibus et monialibus; + 9. De Juventute instituenda pieque erudienda; + 10. De Salute animarum + efficacitis promovenda; + 11. De Libris et ephemeribus; + 12. De Societatibus Secretis._ + + Several congregations occupied themselves with two of these + subjects at once because of their connection. In the council + were added a thirteenth congregation, on the creation of new + bishoprics, and a fourteenth, on the execution of the + decrees.] + +{499} + +Each congregation was presided over by a bishop; it had, besides, +a vice-president and an ecclesiastical notary, charged, as we +have seen, with the care of transmitting to the prelates the +result of these deliberations. For the council itself were chosen +a chancellor archdeacon, a secretary with assistants, a notary, +who was to assist those who discharged the same function in the +particular congregations; two _promotors_, one a bishop, the +other a priest, charged with maintaining order and observance of +rule in the sessions and public meetings; finally, judges, who +were to pronounce on motions of absence, or on differences which +might arise. Severe penalties were laid on all who should leave +before the work of the council should be finished. + +This rapid glance at the organization of this assembly and at its +plan of operations seems to us necessary, in order to understand +the labor accomplished by it. + +The chief task of the council was to fix, I had almost said to +create, [Footnote 133] ecclesiastical discipline throughout the +entire extent of the United States. + + [Footnote 133: If the writer had said this, he would have + made a great mistake. While the United States formed one + province, many provincial councils were held at Baltimore; + and since the creation of the other provinces they have been + regularly held in each one, and the principal points of + discipline have thus been long since effectually + settled.--ED. C.W.] + +Amid a population so diverse in origin, manners, character; amid +the manifold influences produced by the heterogeneous mixture of +conflicting sects in which each Catholic congregation is obliged +to live, it would seem difficult to establish uniformity. +Moreover, the spirit of modern times is in every respect so +different from that of bygone ages, private and public +institutions have undergone such modifications, that the +application of the canon law meets on all sides obstacles +apparently insurmountable. The prelates of North America have +legislated with such prudence, with such a perfect union of ideas +and sentiments, that their churches will hereafter possess in the +collection of their decrees a complete code of laws. [Footnote +134] These "acts," printed in a convenient form, are to be used +as a text-book in all the seminaries, and this text, with the +comments of the professor will, we are assured, suffice for the +entire course of canon law. Apart from some inconsiderable +differences regarding days of fasting and feasts of obligation, +[Footnote 135] all the churches will hereafter have a common law +and the same customs. Assuredly, one can scarcely comprehend the +vastness of this result, and we are undoubtedly convinced that +the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore is destined to a +memorable place in the history of Catholicity in the United +States. + + [Footnote 134: The present council had at heart to re-collect + in its acts the legislation fixed by preceding councils. The + decrees taken from these are recognized by a different style + of print. An appendix gives _in extenso_ all the + important portions, above all, those which have come from + Rome. Thus all the ecclesiastical legislation of the United + States is to be found in a single volume.] + + [Footnote 135: The prelates had addressed a petition to Rome + that uniformity on this point might be established. The + answer which had been returned was, that it was better to + respect the existing customs of each diocese, and that, if + modifications were to be made therein, each bishop might have + separate recourse to the holy see. But the feast of the + Immaculate Conception was declared a feast of patronage and + obligation throughout the whole of the United States.] + +The dogmatic part of the acts has not and could not have the same +importance, since a national council, however numerous, generally +does naught but state the faith already defined; nevertheless, on +this very ground, we find declarations very interesting, and +which deserve to command the attention of the Christians of +Europe. + +It is to the united fathers, and, after them, to the assisting +theologians, that the merit of this great work is due. +{500} +Still, we cannot refrain from noticing Mgr. Spalding, Archbishop +of Baltimore and apostolic delegate. Called to the presidency of +the council by a special brief of the pope, dated February 16th, +1866, instructed, moreover, by the Propaganda, which recommended +to his zeal several important points, he it is who has prepared +the matter of the decrees, and has brought together in advance +all the elements which have entered into this vast construction. +Under his wise and prudent direction, his brethren in the +episcopate have made their choice. With the assistance of the +secretaries and other officers of the council the edifice rises, +to which Rome gives the finishing touch, changing a small number +of the materials, and consecrating it with her supreme authority. + +Into this sanctuary, built with so much care, I invite the +readers of the _Etudes_ to enter, persuaded that we shall +find therein much to admire and at the same time much to learn. + + + I. + +The first chapter is consecrated to dogma. It treats of the faith +and of the errors which are contemporaneously opposed to it. The +prelates here recall the precept, imposed on all, of embracing +the truth, and entering the haven of the true church. No safety +is to be hoped for outside of this ark which God guards and +conducts. However, they add, as to those who are plunged +invincibly in error, and who have not been able to see the light, +that the Supreme Judge, who condemns no man, save for his own +faults, will assuredly use mercy toward them, if, although +strangers to the body of the church, they have, nevertheless, +with the assistance of grace, fulfilled the divine commandments, +and professed those Christian truths which they were able to +know. [Footnote 136] + + [Footnote 136: Tit. i. p. 6.] + +Such is the Catholic doctrine and the just principle to which all +our pretended intolerance is reduced. The council recognizes the +rights of reason as well as those of sound faith. It inserts at +length in its decrees the four propositions formulated in 1855 by +the Congregation of the Index, against traditionalism. At the +same time it restates the condemnation pronounced by Gregory IX. +against the system of Raymond Lulle, which expresses a thought +too common in our day, namely, that faith is necessary to the +masses, to vulgar and unlettered people, but that reason suffices +for the intelligent man of study, and constitutes true +Christianity. + +We notice in this chapter the solicitude of the bishops to place +in the hands of the faithful a version of the Bible in the vulgar +tongue. To this end they recommend the Douay translation, already +approved and circulated by their predecessors. Far from opposing +these efforts, the Congregation of the Propaganda, in the +response addressed to the Archbishop of Baltimore with the +revision of the acts of the council, lays great stress on the +necessity of doing this. The congregation directs the prelate to +compare anew the different English editions, to avail himself of +other Catholic translations, if there be any, in order that we +may have in English a faithful and irreproachable text of all our +sacred books, and that this version may be spread throughout all +the dioceses of America. Here we have a peremptory answer to +those Protestants who, at this late hour, reproach Catholics with +interdicting the reading of the Holy Scriptures. + +{501} + +On the question of future life, the fathers declared against +those who deny the eternal duration of punishment, or so mitigate +its severity that there remains no longer any proportion between +the chastisement and the gravity of the offence. Then they +rapidly review that multitude of religious sects and errors, +which are nowhere so numerous or so different as in that classic +land of free thought. Indifferentism, which considers all +religions as equal; Unitarianism, which rejects the divinity of +our Lord Jesus Christ; Universalism, which denies the eternity of +punishment after death; finally, pantheism and transcendentalism, +which destroy the personality of God, such are the latest forms +and last consequences of free inquiry. What a contrast to these +is the spectacle which Catholic truth affords; that full, +complete, and unchanging Christianity, affirming itself, with +full consciousness of its truth, in the face of a thousand +systems which cannot withstand it and a thousand communions that +fail to comprehend what it really is! All serious hearts in +America must be stuck by such a difference. The Council of +Baltimore has again made manifest where lies the strength that +will triumph over all, and what is to be the "church of the +future." The excesses of "Magnetism" and "Spiritism" have been +carried beyond what the fathers consider the limits of morality. +With regard to the first, they undertake to promulgate the +well-known decisions of the sacred congregation of the council. +[Footnote 137] + + [Footnote 137: Encycl ad omnes episcopos contra magnetismi + abusus. August 4th, 1856. Decisions of July 28th, 1847.] + +As to the second, not finding any explicit precedent in acts +emanating from Rome, they express their own thought and doctrine +thus: "It seems certain," they say, "that many of the astonishing +phenomena which are said to be produced in the spiritual meetings +are inventions; that others are the result of fraud, or are to be +attributed to the imagination of the mediums and their +assistants, or, possibly, to slight of hand. Nevertheless," they +add, "it can scarcely be doubted that some of these facts imply a +satanic interference; since it is almost impossible to explain +them in any other way." Then, after a magnificent exposition of +the action of good and bad angels, the prelates remark that, in a +society of which so large a portion remains unbaptized, it is not +surprising if the demon regains in part his ancient empire. They +severely censure those Catholics who take part even indirectly in +the spiritual "circles." Such is the decision of the council; +and, for our part, we are happy to see what we have written on +this subject [Footnote 138] fully confirmed by so imposing an +authority. + + [Footnote 138: _Les Morts el les Vivants_. Paris, Le + Clere. _Etudes_ 1862, p. 41.] + + II. + +The second chapter treats of the hierarchy and government of the +church. The fathers begin with a profession of filial loyalty to +the holy see, whose privileges they recognize and enumerate with +St. Irenaeus, St. Jerome, and St. Leo the Great. They protest +with what respect and love they receive all the apostolical +constitutions, likewise the instructions and decisions of the +Roman congregations, given for the universal church or for their +own special provinces. After Pius IX. they rebuke the manner of +thought and action of those who count for nothing all that has +not been expressly defined as of Catholic faith, and who, +embracing opinions contrary to the common sentiment of +Christians, fear not to shock their ears with scandalous +propositions. The temporal power of the pope, its necessity under +the present circumstances, in order to assure the independence of +the head of the church, is also the subject of a solemn +declaration. + +{502} + +Passing then to the bishops, the council affirms their double +right of teaching and governing Christendom in union with the +Roman pontiff, the successor of St. Peter and the vicar of Jesus +Christ. According to the advice of the fathers of Trent, +provincial councils are to be held every three years throughout +the whole extent of the United States; for the bishops are +persuaded that in these reunions are to be found the most +efficacious remedies for the evils which afflict all parts of the +church, when the pastors of dioceses, after having invoked the +Holy Spirit, unite their wisdom to take measures most fitting to +procure the salvation of souls. Accidental forms are ever +changing. Formerly, the "synodal witnesses" [Footnote 139] were +everywhere in use. + + [Footnote 139: Ecclesiastics chosen in the provincial + councils to observe the state of persons and things in their + dioceses, and to make a report to the metropolitan.] + +After the time of Benedict XIV. this function fell into disuse +and was supplied by something else. The grave and learned pontiff +makes use of these remarkable words, which the council has +thought proper to reproduce: + + "The customs of men are modified and circumstances are + continually changing; that which is useful at one period may + cease so to be, and may become even pernicious in another age. + The duty of a prudent pastor, unless otherwise obliged by a + higher law, is to accommodate himself to times and places, to + lay aside many ancient usages, when by his judgment and the + light of God he deems this to be for the greater good of the + diocese with which he is entrusted." [Footnote 140] + + [Footnote 140: De Synod. Dioec. L. V. c. iii. n. 7.] + +As a natural corollary to provincial councils, the prelates +recommend frequent holding of diocesan synods. If the extent of +the diocese will not permit the priests who obey the same bishop +to unite yearly, the bishop should at least convoke a synod after +each provincial or plenary council, to promulgate the decrees and +provide for their observance. In the meantime, ecclesiastical +conferences, organized in districts, can supply, at least partly, +the place of the synod. The fathers express a wish that such +conferences should meet quarterly in cities, and at least yearly +in rural districts, where pastors cannot easily assemble. + +I pass hastily over some details to arrive immediately at a +matter at once very delicate and important, that of +ecclesiastical judgments. It is well known that the form required +by canon law has become very difficult of application throughout +the greater part of Christendom. The Council of Baltimore does +not innovate. After an experience of ten years it feels bound to +renew a decree made in the Council of St. Louis in 1855. +[Footnote 141] + + [Footnote 141: That is to say, the Plenary Council, by its + enactment, extended this decree of the Provincial Council of + St. Louis to the other provinces.--ED. C. W.] + + "Priests suspended by sentence of the ordinary have no right to + demand sustenance from him, since by their own fault they have + been rendered incapable of exercising their ministry. But, in + order to cut short all complaints, the fathers are of the + opinion that it is more expedient, in the cases of priests and + clerics, to adopt a form of trial approaching as nearly as + possible the requirements of the Council of Trent. The + bishop--or his vicar-general, by his order--shall choose in the + episcopal council two members--not always the same--who shall + serve him as counsellors, when the accused shall be called to + answer before him and his secretary. + +{503} + + "Together, these assistants shall have but one voice, but + either can range himself on the side of the prelate against his + colleague. If, however, both are of a different mind from that + of the bishop or his vicar, the latter may take into his + counsel a third, and that judgment shall be rendered to which + he shall incline. If it happen that all the consultors named by + the ordinary hold an opinion contrary to his, the case is to be + transferred to the tribunal of the metropolitan, who shall + weigh the motives for and against, and himself deliver + sentence. And if the process refers to a subject of the + metropolitan, and all his assistants are opposed to him, the + cause shall be evoked before the oldest bishop of the province, + and he shall have the right to decide, saving always the + privileges and authority of the Holy See." + +Here we see reappearing the jurisdiction of metropolitans, which +in many other churches is little exercised at the present day. On +the question of their authority the council furnishes another +subject worthy of remark. + +In enumerating the rights of archbishops in reference to their +ecclesiastical provinces, the fathers have designated but three: + +1. To make known to the holy see such of their suffragans as do +not observe the laws of residence. + +2. To call the said suffragans to a provincial council, at least +every three years. + +3. To have their cross borne before them in their province, and +to wear the pallium therein on the days when they can wear it in +their metropolitan church. + +The letter written from Rome for the correction of the acts +orders two other privileges of metropolitans to be +re-established: + +1. To supply what is negligently omitted by their suffragans in +the cases determined by law; and + +2. to receive appeals from the sentence of their suffragans +according to the canonical rules. + +If we do not deceive ourselves, there is in this correction a +significant tendency. + + + III. + +The manner of the election of bishops had already been determined +by an instruction emanating from the Propaganda, dated March +18th, 1834. Since that time, at the desire of councils, several +changes and modifications had been made. This is the practice +consecrated and universally established since 1861: Every three +years, each bishop sends to his metropolitan and the congregation +of the Propaganda the list of subjects whom he judges worthy of +the episcopate, with detailed information of the qualities which +distinguish them. + +A see becomes vacant, the bishops of the province meet in synod, +or any other way, and discuss the aptitude of the candidates +presented by each of them. After a secret examination, three +names are sent to Rome with the _procès verbal_ of this +election. On the representation thus made, the sovereign pontiff +designates the one to be promoted to the episcopal dignity. + +This portion of Christendom, still so new, has not yet had time +to settle itself into regularly divided parishes. If our memory +is faithful, we think there is no such thing as a parish, +properly so called, in the whole United States. The prelates of +the council express a desire to establish some, especially in the +great cities; but they add that, in conferring them on the +priests who administer them, they would not exempt the latter +from removal; this never having, been the custom in America. + +Many of the dioceses have no seminaries. The fathers wish that, +if they cannot be everywhere established, each province, at +least, should have its own, for the formation of which the +bishops will unite their resources. Following the custom adopted +in France, they separate the Little Seminary, where boys who +present the conditions required by the Council of Trent are +received, from the Grand Seminary, where clerics study dogmatic +and moral theology, canon law, hermeneutics, and sacred +eloquence. +{504} +The council orders the greatest efforts to be made in order to +secure eminent professors. If there is an establishment common to +an entire province, it should not be confined to teaching the +mere elementary ecclesiastical studies, but a thorough course of +exegesis and oriental languages should be commenced; and the +modern systems of philosophy should be explained in such a manner +that graduates should be able to resolve all the difficulties and +objections of the day. + + "We have now to contend," say the fathers, "no longer with the + often refuted heresies and errors of a bygone age, but with new + adversaries, unbelievers of a pagan rather than a Christian + character, with men who count as naught God and his divine + promises--and yet are not thereby prevented from having + cultivated minds. According to them, the things of heaven and + earth have no other meaning or value than that which reason + alone assigns them. Thus, they flatter pride, so deeply rooted + in our nature, and seduce those who are not on their guard. If + truth cannot persuade them, since they do not care to hear, it + must, at least, close their mouths, lest their vain discourse + and sounding words delude the simple." [Footnote 142] + + [Footnote 142: Act. tit. iii. p. 108.] + +Do not these sage reflections disclose the true plan for renewing +ecclesiastical studies? + +We will not enter on the details of the rules established for the +general life and manners of the clergy, according to their +different functions. We confine ourselves to remarking that the +chapter on preaching alone contains a complete little treatise on +the proper manner of announcing the word of God in our times. + + + IV. + +Questions relating to church property attract the attention of +the council. In order to comprehend the arrangements determined +on in regard to this matter, we must form a correct idea of the +situation in which the different Christian communions stand +before the American civil law. + +It is well known that the legislation of most of the States is +willing to accord legal personality to associations, commercial +or religious. A religious society represented by trustees easily +obtains incorporation; that is to say, is recognized as a person +having the right to own property, to receive gifts and legacies, +to a certain amount, generally far superior to what is necessary. +If this sum is ever exceeded, it is easy to fulfil the +requirements of the law by creating a new centre, building a new +church. + +Nothing then would seem more favorable than these arrangements of +American law. But, as they were conceived from a Protestant point +of view, they recognize the parish only, and not the diocese, +which is, nevertheless, the Catholic unit. Moreover, the +trustees, invested with church property, have on several +occasions made outrageous and extravagant pretensions. More than +once, they have believed that they possessed the right of +choosing their pastors, and dismissing them, if they did not +suit; they have held that they at least have the right of +presenting to the bishop a priest of their own choice, and thus +forcing his consent. Hence, the frequent conflicts between the +parochial element and the episcopal administration. The first +Council of Baltimore formerly protested against this lay +interference, which it declared contrary to the teaching of the +church and the discipline of every age; it decided that the +compensation assigned to members of the clergy, to be provided +from the funds of the parish, or by the alms of the faithful, +conferred on none the right of patronage. +{505} +Subsequent councils return incessantly to the same question; and +it has even appeared before the civil tribunals. In the diocese +of New York, particularly, the disputes between the Catholic +trustees and the bishop were prolonged with various results, but +without interruption, from 1840 to 1863. Finally, an arrangement +was concluded, and on this model the prelates wish to organize +all ecclesiastical property. + + "Since, in the United States, it is permitted to every citizen + and foreigner to live freely and without molestation, according + to the precepts of the religion which he professes--for the + laws recognize and proclaim this right--nothing seems to hinder + us from observing, in all their rigor, the rules established by + councils and the sovereign pontiffs for the acquisition and + preservation of church property. The fathers, therefore, desire + to expose and set clearly before the eyes of the state the true + rights of the church with regard to accepting, possessing, and + defending sacred property, as, for example the land on which a + church is built, or presbyteries, schools, cemeteries, and + other establishments, in order that it may be legally permitted + to Catholic citizens to follow exactly the laws and + requirements of their church." [Footnote 143] + + [Footnote 143: Act. tit. iv. p. 117.] + +Hence, one of the principal dispositions of this legislation is, +that the administrators of ecclesiastical property in parishes +shall do nothing without the consent of the bishop. In order that +this law may be observed, and that nothing more may be feared +from the intervention of the secular tribunals, there is no other +plan than for the bishop to place himself before the civil power, +as having the right to the full administration of all property +belonging to his church as a corporation sole. Some of the states +have recognized this right for the future. In others it is not +yet recognized. Hence they provide the best means for avoiding, +or, at least, diminishing the inconvenience resulting from this +state of things. + +This requires that mutual securities be taken on the part of the +bishop and the trustees. As soon as appointed, the prelate will +make a will, and place a duplicate in the hands of his +metropolitan. Besides the property of which he is sole +proprietor, he will be _ex-officio_ president of all boards +of trustees, who possess, in the eyes of the law, the parochial +properties. Rules are established for the purpose of ensuring a +conscientious choice of these, in order that they may not +infringe on the rights of the parish priest, nor take any profit +from the revenues of the church. Such are the principal measures +relative to this important matter. + + + V. + +In the chapter entitled _De Sacramentis_ we notice the +prudence which the council wishes to be used in administering +baptism to Protestants returning to the Catholic Church. Although +the greater portion of the sects regard what transpires at the +baptismal font as a mere ceremony, and frequently, through +carelessness, baptize invalidly, nevertheless the priest must not +proceed hap-hazard, nor decide on general principles, but must in +each case examine carefully into particulars. Only when certain +of the nullity or probable invalidity of the baptism, can he +confer the sacrament, either absolutely or conditionally. + +In France, discussions have lately arisen as to the proper age +for administering the holy communion. Although the American child +is much earlier developed than the European, the fathers of +Baltimore establish as a rule that he shall not be urged at too +early an age to present himself at the holy table. +{506} +Ten and fourteen years are the two extreme limits to which one +must ordinarily be confined. Nevertheless, this rule leaves room +for all legitimate exceptions, and particularly, in case of +danger of death, it would be a grave fault in the pastor who +would not administer the eucharist to a child capable of +discerning the grace which it contains. + +As their country is not a vine-growing land, and one can nowhere +be fully certain of the purity of wines imported from Europe, the +fathers express a desire to establish in Florida a community +which shall be especially charged with the care of preparing the +matter for the administration of the different sacraments, wine, +oil, etc. This community can also keep swarms of bees, and +furnish the different dioceses with pure waxen tapers. Meanwhile +they caution priests to beware of using for the holy sacrifice +the wines which are commonly sold under the names of port, +sherry, Madeira, Malaga, and to choose, rather, Bordeaux, +Sauterne, and others less subject to adulteration or fraudulent +imitation. Moreover, as the culture of the vine progresses, it +will be inexcusable to neglect having recourse to the products of +the soil, or at least, not to have a moral certainty of the +purity of the wines which are used. + +In districts where a few Catholic families find themselves, as it +were, lost in the midst of Protestants, the scarcity of priests +causes many children to remain unbaptized [Footnote 144] until +after marriage; an _impedimentun dirimens_ which renders the +marriage null in the eyes of God and the church. + + [Footnote 144: The council referred not to unbaptized + children of Catholics, for such are not to be found among us, + but to unbaptized Protestants, or rather pagans, with whom + Catholics have contracted a civil marriage.--ED. C. W.] + +They live together in good faith, notwithstanding, and when the +priest, discovering the radical fault, speaks to them of renewing +their agreement, it frequently happens that the unbaptized party +refuses to do it. The fathers unite in requesting from the holy +see power to communicate to missionaries dispensations _in +radice_, of which they can make use to rehabilitate such +marriages. + +As preceding councils have remarked, it is certain that, in most +of the provinces of the United States, the decree of the Council +of Trent regarding clandestine marriages has not yet been +promulgated. In some districts its promulgation is doubtful. +Besides, to require the presence of a certain priest for the +validity of a marriage appears to the fathers a measure attended +with great inconvenience. They demand, therefore, in order to +reassure consciences, and establish uniformity, to return +everywhere, except in the province of New Orleans, to the ancient +discipline, already universally in force. But the holy see has +not seen fit to accede to this request, as appears from the +answer addressed by the Propaganda to the _postulata_ of the +council. + +On other points uniformity is supremely desirable. For instance, +the bishops earnestly desire it in that which pertains to +Christian instruction and in prayer-books. A catechism is to be +composed after that of Cardinal Bellarmine, adapted to the +peculiar situation of Catholics in the United States. When this +catechism has been approved by the holy see, it will be adopted +in all the dioceses. + +As to prayer-books which do not bear the express approbation of +the ordinary, they ought not to be found in the hands of the +faithful. + +{507} + +The solicitude of the council here extends to various classes of +people. Following the example of the apostle, they recommend to +God those who govern; but the formulas of the church are alone to +be employed in these prayers, and no one is to imitate certain +sects and temples, wherein political passions and partisan rancor +utter accents which dishonor God rather than contribute to his +worship. + +No one will neglect any precaution to free Catholic soldiers and +sailors from being obliged, against their conscience, to assist +at the rites of dissenting sects. The orphans are an object of +special solicitude. They must be gathered into the Catholic +asylums which already exist or are yet to be built. This +necessity is most pressing, and appeals to the charity of all who +can provide against it. + + + VI. + +An entire chapter is consecrated to regular orders of men and +women. After recalling the immense advantages which their +churches have derived from the labor of religious, the fathers +state certain precautions which ought to be taken in order that +foundations may be stable and not precarious. Circumstances do +not always permit canonical erection or establishment in a +permanent manner; hence, in the agreement made between the bishop +and the religious community, this clause must hereafter be added, +to wit, that the latter will not quit the parish, school, +college, or congregation with which it is charged, without +notifying the ordinary at least six months in advance. This +relates only to diocesan work, properly so called, and not to +that which the religious may take up of their own accord, without +any obligation to continue. + +Bishops shall conform to the canonical laws, defending the rights +and privileges of the religious whom they find in the territory +submitted to their jurisdiction, and they will avoid giving them +subjects of complaint, or motives for going elsewhere. Regulars +and seculars work toward the same ends namely, the glory of God +and the salvation of souls; hence, no dissension ought ever to +arise between them, but harmony, unity, and fraternal love should +ever reign supreme. + +The council passes a magnificent eulogium on those "sisters" who +preserve, in their schools, the innocence of so many young +virgins, and who, during the late war, have known how to turn +public calamity to the glory of God and the advantage of +religion. + +Who of the dissenting sects has not admired their zeal, charity, +and patience in the hospitals, and may not say, "the finger of +God is here"? + +Various measures were adopted to assure the observance of the +rules of the church on the part of the religious. The fathers +have heretofore consulted as to the nature of their sacred +engagements. The answers received from Rome state that, in +several specially designated monasteries of the Visitantines, the +vows are solemn. [Footnote 145] + + [Footnote 145: These are the monasteries of Georgetown, + Mobile, Kaskaskia, St. Aloysius, and Baltimore. The solemnity + of the vows is there preserved according to rescripts + formerly obtained from Rome.] + +Henceforth, after the novitiate, simple vows are to be made, and +ten years later the solemn profession will be permitted. As to +other monasteries and religious houses, simple vows alone are +permitted, except by special rescript from the holy see; the same +rule applying to all convents of women which may be hereafter +erected in the various dioceses of the United States. The fathers +severely censure those who leave their monasteries and travel +through the country, under pretext of collecting money for houses +pressed with debt or for new foundations; they declare this to be +an intolerable abuse and contrary to the true character of the +religious life. + +{508} + +Everywhere, to-day, but in no country more than in America, the +question of schools appears most important, and claims the most +lively solicitude on the part of the episcopate. + +Here the council begins by firmly asserting the rights of the +church. Jesus Christ said to his apostles, "Euntes docete," +"Going, teach all nations." Since that time, this utterance has +been understood in the sense of a mission, to be fulfilled by +instruction and the exercise of spiritual maternity toward all, +but especially toward youth. Frequenting such public schools as +exist in the United States offers a thousand dangers. There +indifferentism reigns: corruption of morals is engendered in +early youth; the habit of reading and reciting authors who attack +religion and heap insults on the memory of saintly personages +weakens the faith in the souls of the young, while association +with vicious companions stifles virtue in their hearts. The only +remedy is to create other institutions, to open further +opportunities to Catholic youth. Parochial schools are highly +recommended, as well as the sodalities or congregations which +devote themselves to the instruction of the youth of either sex. + +While speaking of houses of refuge and correction, the fathers +notice the numerous abductions of children which are daily made +by the different sects. These are orphans, or disobedient +children whom parents despair of managing. They are taken to +places where their relatives can neither find nor hear from them, +and their names are changed, so as not to recall them at some +future day to their religion or family. Comfortably nourished, +they are reared in the principles of heresy and in hatred of +Catholicity. [Footnote 146] Moved with pity, several bishops have +already opened houses to gather in these little unfortunates; the +council desires them to be everywhere established; for if one +ought to applaud the zeal of those who raise magnificent temples +to God, much more should one praise those who prepare for him a +spiritual dwelling of these precious and living stones. + + [Footnote 146: Acts have recently been passed in the + Legislature of New York which promise to be a very effectual + check to the most nefarious arts of these kidnappers in this + State.--ED. C. W.] + +Here follows a tribute of recognition of the services rendered by +the various colleges and academies which already exist in the +United States. The American establishments at Rome, at Louvain, +and in Ireland, are now furnishing priests and missionaries. When +will it be granted to the bishops to found a grand Catholic +university, which will complete all the good accomplished by +these institutions? Yet this is not merely a desire; it is +ardently expressed by the council; we hope the future may bring +about its speedy realization. [Footnote 147] + + [Footnote 147: Amen!--Ed. C. W.] + +The missions are one of the most efficacious means of procuring +the salvation of souls. Regulars and seculars are alike called to +this great work. The council demands that a house of missionaries +be founded in each diocese, for giving spiritual exercises in the +parishes, above all during Lent, Advent, at the time of first +communions, and the episcopal visitations. The parish priests are +to co-operate cordially with these auxiliaries, and if any refuse +to do so, they will be constrained by their bishop. On the other +hand, all precautions are taken to avoid any appearance of +interestedness, and any interference in the parochial government +on the part of the missionaries. + +{509} + +The idea of association, so popular at the present day, is +essentially and originally Catholic. If some have used it against +us, we know how to reclaim and avail ourselves of it. Hence, the +fathers recommend the confraternities approved by the church, +such as those of the Blessed Sacrament, the Sacred Heart, the +Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, and the Holy Angels. They +recommend the "Apostolate of Prayer," also, another pious +association, which prays especially for the conversion of +non-Catholics; they seek to develop the well-deserving +undertakings of the "Propagation of the Faith" and "Holy +Childhood;" they accord the highest praise to the +arch-confraternity of St. Peter; finally, they add other works of +piety and mercy, among them the "Society of St. Vincent de Paul," +so well adapted to our times, and which has already produced such +great results. + +After this great encouragement, come restrictions no less called +for. No new associations are to be created where ancient +confraternities suffice. In case any priest desires to institute +a new one, he must have a written permission from his bishop; the +latter is forbidden to approve a new foundation unless he is sure +that its means and aim are truly Catholic. It will be truly +desirable to give such a character to the mutual aid societies +to-day so numerous among the working classes. + +The welfare of the negroes greatly interests the American +episcopate. What a harvest is here to be gathered among these +poor souls, purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, and so well +prepared by their emancipation to listen to the Gospel. Heresy +spares no effort to assure herself of possessing them--another +reason for earnestly seconding the desire expressed by the +Congregation of the Propaganda in this respect. But the measures +adopted for this end cannot be everywhere the same, and general +rules are, therefore, hard to determine. The negroes must have +churches either in common with or separate from the other +faithful; they must have schools, missions, orphan asylums. +Laborers are wanting to this harvest. The superiors of religious +orders are requested to designate some of their subjects for this +purpose, and secular priests, who feel this to be their vocation, +to fly to the succor of this class, so destitute and so +interesting. As to particular measures, provincial councils will +determine in those regions where the negroes are more numerous. + + + VII. + +Books and journals exercise such a great influence on society, +both for evil and for good, that they could not fail to be the +object of a special decree. After noticing the disastrous effects +of an immoral press, the prelates call on all the servants of +Jesus Christ, especially those who are fathers of families, to +rid their houses of all noxious and dangerous books. They do not +hesitate in this instance to employ the severe words of the +apostle, "If any man have not care of his own, and especially of +those of his house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than +an infidel." I Tim. v. 8. School-books must be carefully revised, +expurgated, when necessary, and submitted to episcopal +approbation. A sort of permanent committee is created for this +purpose, composed of the superiors of three colleges existing in +the arch-diocese of Baltimore. + +As to good books, their circulation should be favored as much as +possible. It is desirable that associations should everywhere be +formed, to employ themselves in this work. The fathers +particularly recommend the "Catholic Publication Society" of New +York, which has existed for some years, and has already done +immense good. Committees in every city are to be formed, and +affiliated to the central society, and collections are ordered to +be made yearly for assisting this good work. + +{510} + +Prayer-books ought always to be examined by theologians, and none +should be printed without the approbation of the ordinary. This +has hitherto been only a wish; hereafter it shall be a law +obliging all bishops. + +Among current periodicals there are many impious and immoral, +some more tolerable, but very few deserving eulogy and full +recommendation to the faithful. The prelates continue: + + "Journals edited or directed by Catholics indirectly + contributing to the advantage of religion, must exist. But for + fear lest the political opinions of the writers may be + attributed to ecclesiastical authority, or to Christianity + itself, as often happens, thanks to the bad faith of + adversaries, we desire that all should be duly warned not to + recognize any journal as _Catholic_ unless it bears the + express approbation of the ordinary. + + "In several dioceses, there are journals furnished with this + approbation, under one form or another, because the bishops + require them as a means of conveying their orders or ideas to + their clergy and people. Hence they are assumed to have an + official character, as if the voice of the pastor were to be + heard from every page and line. This is a misunderstanding, + although quite general, chiefly propagated by sectarians. From + it result grave and intolerable inconveniences. For, whatever + may be written by these editors, who may often be controlled by + passions private and political, is laid to the account of the + bishop, and seems to form a part of his pastoral teaching. + + "In order that such a responsibility may cease to weigh upon + the episcopate, and in order clearly to set forth the relations + between the ordinary and the ecclesiastical journals, the + fathers declare that the approbation accorded by a bishop to a + Catholic journal merely signifies that he has found in it + nothing contrary to faith or morals; and that he hopes such + will be the case in future; and moreover, that the editors are + well-deserving men, and their writings useful and edifying. The + bishop, then, is only responsible for what appears in the paper + as his own teaching, counsel, exhortation or command; and for + this, only when signed with his own hand." (Act. tit. xi. p. + 256.) + +They spoke of establishing a journal or review, solely devoted to +the exposition and defence of Catholic dogma, of which the +archbishops of Baltimore, New York, and perhaps other +metropolitans with them, would have the ownership. The question +was submitted by the council to the judgment of the ordinaries. + +If the fathers wish to be free from a solidarity often +compromising, they none the less recognize the services of +Catholic writers. The felicitations which they address to them +are borrowed from the pontifical allocution of April 20th, 1849, +and from the letters apostolic of February 12th, 1866. + + + + VIII. + +The church has frequently uttered severe condemnations of secret +societies, engaged in acts forbidden by religion and justice. +After having recalled to mind and published anew these +condemnations, the fathers add that they do not see any reason +for applying them to societies of artisans which have no other +object than the mutual support and protection of people of the +same calling. + +These must not favor the practices of condemned sects, nor +proceed contrary to equity and the rights of patrons. No one must +regard as even tolerated, associations which demand of those +entering an oath to do whatever the chiefs command, or which +would maintain an inviolable secrecy in the face of lawful +questioning. If there be doubt of the nature of an association, +the holy see must be consulted. No person, however high his +ecclesiastical dignity, ought to condemn any society which does +not fall under the censures of the apostolical constitutions. +[Footnote 148] + + [Footnote 148: At the request of certain bishops, this decree + was to be suppressed. It was re-established in acts according + to directions from Rome.] + +{511} + +In the thirteenth chapter, the bishops request the erection of +fifteen new episcopal sees; to wit, four in the province of +Baltimore, seven in that of St. Louis, one in each of the +provinces of Cincinnati, Oregon, San Francisco, and New York. +They also desire the churches of Philadelphia and Milwaukee to be +raised to metropolitan dignity. Excepting this last demand, this +chapter has met favorable reception at Rome; and at the present +moment, America counts twelve new bishoprics or vicarates +apostolic. + +We will not speak of the pastoral letter addressed by the bishops +of the council to the faithful of their dioceses. It was +published at the time in many French journals. Moreover, it +merely recapitulates the measures and decrees which ought to be +brought to the knowledge of all the Catholic populations. In it +one perceives the accent of ardent zeal for the salvation of +souls. Amid the felicitations which they address to their flock, +the American prelates mingle cries of sorrow at the sight of the +abuses which still exist and the souls which are lost. A warm +appeal is made to families to favor the development of +ecclesiastical vocations; in this country, more than in any other +in the world, the harvest is immense, and arms alone are often +wanting to gather it. + +As to the relations between the church and the state, the fathers +declare that, apart from a few brief instances of over-excitement +and madness, the attitude taken by the civil power and its +non-interference in religious matters is a matter for +congratulation; they complain only of its not according the +necessary guarantees for church property, according to ancient +canons and discipline. But several States have already done what +is reasonable in this respect; it is hoped that others will soon +follow their example. + +Such is the incomplete but at least faithful _résumé_ of the +decrees of this great assembly. In reading, one is struck with +the wisdom and prudence which characterize them. After the divine +assistance, certainly not denied to so holy an undertaking, one +here finds something of that American good sense, eminently exact +and practical, which, in dealing with lofty things, seizes them +principally by their positive side, and, without losing sight of +principles, adapts them always to times and circumstances. + +If doctrine is greatly represented in this volume, pure theory +occupies but a small space. Above everything else the council has +wished to be a work of organization. No less remarkable for what +it has not said than for what it has said, it seems to embody the +device of the poet, "Semper ad eventum festinat;" no superfluous +details, no useless erudition; all bears the seal of a +legislation soberly but firmly motived, wherein nothing is +omitted which can enlighten and convince the mind, and nothing +allowed to lengthen a text by right short, or to complicate a +simple matter; a majestic monument, of simple and severe +proportions, art seems therein neglected, but is by no means +wanting. + +If it were permissible in presence of so great a work to recur to +a secondary detail, we would say that pupils of the seminaries, +in studying these acts, will find in them a model of that +beautiful Latinity unfortunately too rare in theological +treatises. + +Their task ended, the prelates had only to congratulate +themselves on the success obtained. After having announced to +their children that they would be more fully notified of the +result in provincial councils and diocesan synods, they have been +able to add, with lawful pride, that they expect all manner of +good from the practical organization given for the future to the +churches of this vast continent. + +------- + +{512} + + The Legend of St. Thomas. + +And it came to pass, in those days, that Thomas abode at +Jerusalem. And in a dream the Lord appeared to him, and said, +Behold, Gondaphorus, who ruleth in India, hath sent Abbas his +servant into Syria, that he may find men skilful in the art of +building. Go thou, therefore, and I will show thee unto him. But +Thomas answered, and said, Lord, suffer me not to go into India. +But the Lord answered, and said to him, Fear not, but rise up and +depart; for behold, I am with thee, and when thou shalt have +converted the nations of India, thou shalt come to me, and I will +give unto thee the recompense of thy reward. And when Thomas +heard this, he said, Thou art my Lord and I am thy servant. Let +it be as thou hast said. And he went his way. + +And it came to pass that as Abbas, the servant of Gondaphorus the +king, stood in the market-place, the Lord met him, and said, +Young man, what seekest thou? And Abbas answered, and said, +Behold, my master hath sent me hither, that I might bring to him +cunning workmen who shall build for him a palace like unto those +that are in Rome. And when he had spoken these things, the Lord +showed unto him Thomas, as that skilful and cunning workman whom +he sought. + +And straightway Thomas the apostle, and the servant of +Gondaphorus the king, departed. And as they journeyed, the word +of the Lord spake by the mouth of Thomas, and great multitudes of +the Gentiles were converted and baptized. And when they came to +Aden, which lieth at the going in of the Red Sea, they tarried +many days. + +And departing thence, they came into the coasts of India. And +behold, there was a marriage in that city, and both Thomas and +Abbas were called to the marriage. And the whole city was with +them. And while they rejoiced together, behold, Thomas spake to +the people the word of the Lord, and wrought many mighty works +before them all, so that great multitudes believed and were +baptized. And the daughter of the king, (whose feast it was,) and +her husband, and the king also, were among them. And this was +she, who, after a long time, was called Pelagia, and took the +holy veil, and suffered martyrdom. But the bridegroom was called +Denis, and became the bishop of that city. + +And going from thence, they departed, and came to Gondaphorus the +king. And to him was Thomas the apostle brought, as a cunning +workman, skilled in all manner of building. And the king +commanded him to build for him a royal palace, and gave him vast +treasures wherewith to build it, and having done this, he went +into another country. + +And it came to pass, that when Thomas received the treasure of +the king, he put not his hand to the palace of the king, but went +his way throughout the kingdom, for the space of two years, +preaching the Gospel, healing the sick, and giving his treasures +to the poor. + +{513} + +And after the space of two years, Gondaphorus the king returned +into his own city, and when he had asked concerning his palace, +Thomas answered, and said, Behold, O king! the palace is builded; +but thou shalt dwell therein only in the world that is to come. +Then was the king exceeding wroth, when he had heard these +things, and commanded his soldiers to cast Thomas into prison, +and to flay him alive, and afterward to burn his body with fire. + +And it came to pass, that in those days Syd, the brother of +Gondaphorus, died, and the king commanded them to prepare for him +a goodly sepulchre. And on the fourth day, as they made +lamentation over him, behold, he that was dead sat up and began +to speak. And they were sore affrighted and amazed. But he said +to the king, Behold, O king! he whom thou hast commanded to be +flayed and burned is the friend of God. For lo! the angels of +God, who serve him, took me into paradise, and showed to me a +palace adorned with gold and silver and precious stones. And when +I was astonished at its beauty, one cried out to me, and said, +Behold, this is the palace which Thomas has builded for the king, +thy brother. But he has become unworthy; yet, if thou thyself +wouldst dwell therein, we will beseech the Lord, that thou mayest +live again and redeem it of thy brother by paying unto him the +treasure he has lost. + +And when Gondaphorus had heard these things, he was sore afraid. +And he straightway ran to the prison, and came in unto the +apostle, and smote off his chains. And bringing a royal robe, he +would have put it on him. But Thomas answering, said, Knowest +thou not, O king! that those who would have power in heavenly +things care not for that which is carnal and earthly? And when he +had said this, the king fell down at his feet, confessing his +sins. And Thomas baptized both him, and his brother, and all his +house, and said to them, In heaven there are many mansions, +prepared from the foundation of the world. But these are +purchased only by faith and almsgiving. Your riches are able to +go before you into these heavenly habitations, but thither they +can never follow you. + +And after these things, Thomas arose and departed, and came into +all the kingdoms of India, preaching the Gospel, and doing many +mighty miracles. And all the nations of India believed and were +baptized, hearing his words, and seeing the wonders which he did. + +And it came to pass that Mesdeus the king heard thereof. And when +Thomas came into his country, he laid hands upon him, and +commanded him to adore his idols, even the images of the Sun, +which he had made. And Thomas answered, and said, Let it be even +as thou hast said, if at my word the idol bow not its head into +the dust. And when he had said this, the idol fell down prostrate +to the earth. + +And there arose a great sedition among the people, and the +greater part stood with Thomas. But the king was exceeding angry, +and cast him into prison, and delivered him up to the soldiers, +that they might put him to death. And the soldiers, taking him, +led him forth to the top of a mountain over against the city. And +when he had prayed a long time, they pierced him with their +spears, and, falling down, he yielded up the ghost. And his +disciples, which stood by, wept for him with many tears, and, +taking up his body, they wound it in precious spices, and laid it +in a tomb. But the church grew and waxed mightily, and Siforus +the priest, and Zuganes the deacon, whom Thomas had ordained as +he went forth to die on the mountain, taught in his stead. + +{514} + +Such is the legend of St. Thomas, as recited in the name of +Abdias of Babylon, "bishop and disciple," [Footnote 149] in his +"_ten_ books upon the conflicts of the apostles." Whatever +we may think of the individual events therein detailed, the great +outline of the story has much intrinsic probability, and is of no +slight interest to the student of Christian history. Especially +is this so in the present age, when the vast and mystic East +opens her gates once more to the knock of the evangelist, and +when the whole Christian world is agitated with a missionary zeal +which must be comparatively fruitless, unless guided by a +knowledge of the people whom it approaches, and of the religious +traditions with which it must combat or agree. It is our +intention in this article to suggest some of the chief facts in +the ecclesiastical annals of these unknown lands, and to trace, +so far as we may be able, the dogmatic genealogy of those +religious notions with which the Gospel has been, and will be, +there forced to contend. + + [Footnote 149: Abdias of Babylon, to whom is ascribed the + work mentioned in the text, is accounted among the + ecclesiastical writers of the first age. He was a Jew by + birth, and one of the seventy disciples of our Lord. He went + with SS. Simon and Jude into Persia, and by them was made + bishop of Babylon. The work which bears his name was first + printed in the year 1532. Its alleged authorship, on account + of its citations, and for some other reasons, has generally + been denied by the learned. On this point the present writer + ventures no opinion, although convinced that the tradition, + as contained in _The Legend of St. Thomas_, is + substantially true, and has existed in the same general + outline from the earliest periods of Christian history.] + +In the legend which we have repeated, and the discussion of which +will occupy the present article, the scene of the labors of St. +Thomas is laid in India. The tradition that he preached in +Parthia and other countries of the east, and that he perished by +martyrdom, is nearly as old as Christianity itself. All of the +early writers are agreed that his apostolic province lay north +and east of Palestine, and that the Persians, Bactrians, +Scythians, and other kindred nations were entrusted to his +spiritual care. But in regard to the particular regions over +which he travelled, and the extent of his missionary efforts, as +embraced in modern geographical divisions, there appears to be no +small discrepancy between them. Thus, while certain ancient +authors ascribe to him the evangelization of the entire East, +Socrates and Theodoret expressly state that the Gospel was not +preached in India till the fourth century, when Frumentius +carried thither the knowledge of the true faith, and established +a mission, of which he himself became the bishop; while some +extend his wanderings to the Ganges, or even to the Celestial +empire itself, others limit him within the eastern boundary of +Persia, and place his death and burial-place near the city of +Edessa, less than two hundred miles north-east from Antioch. + +Much of this apparent disagreement, however, is explained away by +the acknowledged ambiguity of the phrases under which these +different countries were anciently described. "India" and +"Ethiopia" seem to have been terms as loosely applied in that age +as "the East," in Europe, and "the West," in America, are today; +and it is not at all unlikely that, as has been the case with the +latter phrase in this country, the application of the former was +gradually changed as their nearer frontiers became better known, +and were localized under distinct and peculiar names. The India +of Socrates and Theodoret may or may not embrace the districts +included in the India of Gaudentius and Sophronius; and each, in +his historic statement, may be entirely accurate in fact, though +contradictory to the others in his language. + +{515} + +Moreover, in those early ages kingdoms were less known than +nations. The ancients spoke of "Persians," "Romans," "Jews," +"Egyptians," rather than of the countries in which they were +supposed to dwell; while in our day, on the contrary, the +explorations of geography have rendered the regions far more +definite than the nations which inhabit them. For this reason, +what would be comparatively a safe guide to any given locality in +modern usage, would be far less reliable in writings of a +thousand years ago. Thus we may well dismiss whatever doubts this +seeming disagreement at first sight throws around the +post-scriptural account of this apostle, or at least hold it in +abeyance, to be obliterated if subsequent investigations should +disclose sufficient evidence of the toils and triumphs of St. +Thomas in the vast empires of oriental Asia. + +It is in this _generic_ sense of the terms that "India" and +"the Indies" are employed by the author of this legend, and under +the singular as well as under the plural name are included many +kingdoms through which the apostle travelled, from that in which +he preached the Gospel at the nuptials of a king to that in which +he found the mountain of his martyrdom. Each of these seems to +have had its own court and king, and to have been so far +independent of the others that the same religion which was +maintained and promulgated by the state in one, was persecuted +and condemned by the rulers of the other. It is not, therefore, +to these names that we can look with any confidence of finding +such vestiges of the apostle's footsteps as shall afford us a +definite clue to the countries or the nations which enjoyed the +fruits of his laborious love. + +Such, however, is not the case with the name of King Gondaphorus +to whom particularly, according to the legend, the mission of St. +Thomas was directed. Until within a few years, the age, the +residence, even the existence of this personage has been matter +of serious controversy. The opinion most commonly received among +the learned was, that "Gondaphorus" was a corruption of "Gun +dishavor" or "Gondisapor," a city built by Artaxerxes, and +deriving its name from Sapor or Schavor, the son and successor of +its founder. [Footnote 150] As the city could have acquired this +title only in the fourth century, this, among other reasons, has +generally led historians to deny the substantial authenticity of +the legend itself, and to regard it as the fabrication of some +later age. + + [Footnote 150: Gundisapor was the episcopal and metropolitan + city of the province of Sarac, situated on the Tigris, six + leagues from Susa. It is said to have been built by + Hormisdas, the contemporary of the Emperor Constantine, and + to have been called by the name of Sapor, his son, by whom it + was afterward immensely enriched and beautified with the + treasures which he ravished from the Roman empire.] + +Recent investigations among Indian antiquities have thrown new +light upon this subject, and, in this particular, at least, seem +to have cleared the legend from all suspicions of fraud. Among +the many coins and medals lately discovered in the East are those +of the Indo-Scythian kings who ruled in the valley of the Indus +about the beginning of our present era. One of these kings bore +the name of "Gondaphorus," and pieces of his coinage are now said +to be preserved in different collections of Paris and the East. +[Footnote 151] This striking corroboration, in the nineteenth +century, of a tradition which, in one shape or another, has been +current in the Christian world for eighteen hundred years, can +hardly fail to satisfy the most critical examiner that the legend +ascribed to Abdias is, in its grand outline, entitled to a far +higher degree of credit than it has been accustomed lately to +receive. + + [Footnote 151: Vide _Le Christianisme en Chine_, etc., + par M, Huc. Paris, 1857, p. 28, etc.] + +{516} + +The course of the apostle and his companion toward the east, so +far as this tradition and its modern limitations have defined it, +may thus be traced. Leaving Jerusalem, they journeyed by the +usual route to the Red Sea, and thence along the coasts of Arabia +Petraea and Arabia Felix to Aden, then, as now, a city of much +commercial importance, on account of its excellent harbor and +commanding situation. Here they remained for a considerable +period of time, the apostle preaching the Gospel and laying +foundations on which other men might build. Embarking thence, +they sailed around the southern borders of the Arabian peninsula, +and, crossing the Gulf of Oman, landed at one of the then +flourishing cities near the mouths of the Indus. After some +delay, of which St. Thomas made good use in the service of the +Gospel, they pushed north-easterly into the interior to the +immediate province of King Gondaphorus, where, after the labors +of two years, the apostle brought the monarch and his family +under obedience to the yoke of Christ. His special work thus +accomplished, St. Thomas travelled into many other kingdoms on +the same divine errand, and terminated his devoted and fruitful +life by holy martyrdom. Thus far, the legend; and that it agrees +with and is in fact the interpreter of all other traditions of +St. Thomas, as well as of those various monuments which, until +recently, have been unknown as teachers of Christian history, +will shortly be made manifest. + +The holy apostle, having once established Christianity in those +parts of India which lie nearest to Jerusalem, would naturally +extend his journey into more distant regions, rather than retrace +his steps, and occupy, as his field of labor, a territory to +which the Gospel would, without his intervention, probably be +soon proclaimed. For, having in himself powers plenipotentiary +for the organization and perpetuation of the church, wherever he +might plant it, and being assured, as a Christian and disciple, +that the zeal and perseverance of his fellow-workers might safely +be entrusted with the conversion of the nations adjacent to the +centres of Christian doctrine, it was simply manlike, simply +apostolic, for him to set his face steadfastly toward those who, +but for him, might not in many generations obtain the light of +faith. If, therefore, the footsteps which we have already traced +be genuine, we may with reason look for traces of the same +unwearied feet in other and still more unknown lands. + +And herein also, the traditions of the early ages will not +disappoint us. Still reckoning by nations, rather than by +kingdoms, the ancient writers tell us that St. Thomas preached +the Gospel to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Hyrcanians, +Bactrians, Germanians, Seres, Indians, and Scythians. Thus in a +fragment of St. Dorotheus, (A.D. 254,) "The apostle Thomas, +having announced the Gospel to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, +Germanians, Bactrians, and Mages, suffered martyrdom at Calamila, +a city of India." Theodoret, speaking of the universality of the +preaching of the apostles, says, "They have caused, not only the +Romans, and those who inhabit the Roman empire, but the +Scythians, ... the Indians, ... the Persians, the Seres, and the +Hyrcanians to receive from them the law of the Crucified." +Origen, and from him Eusebius, relates that St. Thomas received +Parthia as his allotted sphere; and Sophronius mentions that he +planted the faith among the Medes, Persians, Carmanians, +(Germanians,) Hyrcanians, Bactrians, and other nations of the +extreme east. Both the latter and St. Gaudentius declare that he +suffered at Calamina in India. + +{517} + +The same traditions are faithfully preserved among the Christians +of India. In the breviary of the Church of Malabar, it is stated +that St. Thomas converted the Indians, Chinese, and Ethiopians, +and that these different nations, together with the Persians, +offer their adorations to God in commemoration of this devoted +apostle, from whom their forefathers received the truth of +Christ. The presumption of fact, which arises out of such a mass +of testimony as these and other witnesses which might be quoted +offer us, existing for so many ages and in countries so widely +separated from each other, is surely sufficient to justify a +careful study of the localities to which these different nations +belonged, as indicative of the later and more extended missionary +labors of St. Thomas. + +According to the best authorities on the subjects of ancient +geography and ethnology, all the various territories which were +inhabited by the nations whose conversion has been attributed to +St. Thomas lie east of the Euphrates, and, with the single +exception of the Scythians, below the fortieth parallel of +latitude. The Medes occupied the districts between the Caspian +and Persian seas. The Hyrcanians lay on the south-east of the +Caspian, the Parthians and the Bactrians lying east of them; and +all three being included in the present Turkistan. The Persians +held the northeastern borders of the Persian Gulf, next to the +kingdom of the Medes; the Germanians, or Carmanians, lying next +on the south-east, in part of what is now known as Beloochistan, +and the lower corner of modern Persia. The "Seres" was a name +given to the Chinese in the earliest historic ages, and embraced +the vast and cultivated people who dwell beyond the Emodi, or +Himalaya, mountains, and east of the sources of the Indus. The +Indians and Scythians--the former occupying from the Indian Ocean +and the latter from the Arctic zone--met together between the +Bactrians and the Seres, and formed the Indo-Scythian races of +the ante-Christian age. Calamila, or Calamina, the city near +which the apostle finally rested from his labors, is on the +eastern coast of Hindostan, a short distance from Madras, and has +been known, at different periods, by the names of Meliapour, +Beit-Thoma, and St. Thomas. + +The connection of these ancient nations and countries with, and +their successive propinquity to, each other enables us to form a +tolerably correct idea of the course of the apostle's missionary +work, from the baptism of Gondaphorus to the close of his own +career. For although our guide is simply the intrinsic +probability which grows out of the nature of the workman and the +work God had appointed him to do, yet, to whoever takes the map +of the various regions which we have described as the scenes of +the apostolic life and death, it will appear that one of two +courses must have been adopted. The first starts from the valley +of the Indus, and, leading westward, reaches in turn the +Germanians, Persians, and Medes; then, turning toward the north +and flexing eastward by the southern border of the Caspian Sea, +it penetrates the land of the Hyrcanians, Parthians, Bactrians, +Indo-Scythians, and Seres; where, again met by the upper Indus, +it bends southward, and, striking through the heart of Hindostan, +ends in the lower portion of the peninsula at or near Madras. +{518} +The second, beginning at the same point, follows up the Indus in +a path directly opposite to the former, until the place of +departure is again reached and the final journey through modern +India begins. It is scarcely possible to say which of these two +routes is most probably correct. Future researches may throw +light upon the extent of the region over which King Gondaphorus +reigned, upon the relation of the dialects of these bordering +nations to each other, and thus afford a clue to the more exact +path of the apostle. But in either case, the districts over which +he travelled, and the races into contact with whom he carried the +Gospel, are distinguished with a high degree of certainty, and +the triumphs of the cross under his leadership may thus be +clearly understood. + +Indeed, the work of scarce any apostle of the twelve can now be +better followed than that of Thomas. The chief indefiniteness +attaches to his mission to the Seres; for here little is extant +to show, with any great conclusiveness, whether his labors +terminated with the borders of Indo-Scythia, or penetrated to the +Yellow Sea. Some monuments of antiquity have, it is true, been +found, which point strongly to the spreading of the Gospel over a +large part of China by primitive if not by apostolic +missionaries; but nothing has as yet been discovered which would +justify the conclusion that St. Thomas actually attempted the +evangelization of that immense and thickly-populated empire. If +such had been the case, it is hardly possible that India should +have received him back again, and given him the distant Calamina +for his martyrdom. + +The area of territory over which the apostle Thomas must thus +have journeyed embraces over three million two hundred and fifty +thousand square miles, and the people to whom he opened the doors +of heaven, through the Gospel, numbered more than two hundred +millions of souls. The linear distance of his own personal +travels probably exceeded ten thousand miles, and this, for the +most part, necessarily on foot. The consideration of these facts, +and of the results which followed from the apostle's labors, will +give us some idea of the work which our Divine Lord committed to +his immediate disciples, and of the untiring zeal and superhuman +endurance with which they were endowed. It has become far easier +for us to say, "The Lord hath shortened his hand," than to go and +do likewise. + +Yet it is still true that Thomas was an apostle; that it was the +will of the Master that all nations should at once almost receive +some knowledge of his Gospel; that the miraculous gift of tongues +swept out of the way one of the greatest obstacles to missionary +labor; and that St. Thomas had received the gifts of faith and +charity to such a degree as enabled him to co-operate, to the +utmost, with the graces of his work. And it is also true that, +had not he and the others of the twelve been such as they were +and accomplished what they did, the promises of Christ would have +been unfulfilled, and the church have suffered from their failure +to its latest day. But in that they were _apostles_, in that +they did their work, the seed of the Gospel can scarcely fall, +to-day, on soil which has not been already watered by the blood +of martyrs, or among people in whom it has not, long ago, sprung +up and brought forth fruit abundantly. + +{519} + +There were, however, in the case of St. Thomas, other and natural +reasons why his work should have been so vast and his success so +extraordinary. The facility of intercourse between the east and +the west was far greater in his day than in our own. The +successive conquests of Alexander had led him beyond the present +western boundary of China. The Roman empire, at the beginning of +our era, reached beyond the Euphrates, and the intimate +connection of part with part, and the ease of intercourse between +the imperial city and the farthest military outpost, can scarcely +be exaggerated. [Footnote 152] Up to the seventh century, this +unity continued to a great degree unbroken, and will account not +only for the presence of the minister of Gondaphorus in Jerusalem +and for the results which followed it, but for the diffusion and +preservation of the traditions which have handed down those +events to us. + + [Footnote 152: De Quincey's _Caesars_. (Introduction.)] + +Nor was this unity altogether that of conquest. Beyond the empire +of Augustus lay the realms of Porus, of whom history relates that +he held six hundred kings beneath his sway. Between these +emperors there seem to have been two formal attempts at an +intimate political alliance. Twenty-four years before the birth +of Christ, an embassy from Porus followed Augustus into Spain, +upon this errand, and another some years afterward met with him +at Samos. In the reigns of Claudius, Trajan, Antoninus Pius, and +succeeding emperors, the same royal courtesies were interchanged, +and it was not until the Mussulman power, sweeping like a sea of +fire between the east and the west, became an impassable barrier +to either, that these relations had an end. + +Nearly the same may be said of commercial unity. The trade in +silk, from which substance the Seres, or Chinese, derived their +name, was carried on between the Romans and that distant nation +on no inconsiderable scale. Numerous caravans perpetually +journeyed to and fro through the wilds of Parthia and along the +southern border of the Caspian Sea; while the Erythrean, Red and +Mediterranean waters glittered with sails from almost every land. +The whole inhabited world (if we except this continent, the date +of whose first settlement no one can tell) was thus +providentially brought close together, and a higher degree of +unity and association established between its different nations +than had existed since the dispersion at Babel, or than has now +existed for over twelve hundred years. + +How vast an advantage to apostolic labor this unity must have +been can easily be seen. While it removed almost entirely the +difficulties of travel, it assured for the traveller both safety +and good-will upon the way. While it conciliated in advance the +people among whom they labored, it gave weight and human +authority to the Gospel, when actually preached. And, when the +church had been established and little colonies of Christians +marked the track of the apostles, it enabled them to maintain a +constant intercourse with their spiritual children by messengers +or by epistles, and to keep watch and ward over the millions +entrusted to their care. + +Those prophetic traditions of a coming Saviour, which pervaded +the east, as well as the south and west, also effected much +toward the rapid spread and wide espousal of Christian truth. The +origin of these traditions is shrouded in the mystery of an +unchronicled antiquity. They may be attributed to the promise in +paradise, to the transfusion of Mosaic teachings, or to direct +revelation by means of pagan oracles. But that they existed, in a +clear and well-defined prophetic form, is established beyond +question; while that they were in the first instance of divine +disclosure, it becomes no Christian to deny. +{520} +The learned and contemplative minds of Asia especially delighted +in this state of expectation. Sons of a soil whereon the feet of +God had trodden in primeval days, the very atmosphere around them +still throbbed with the echoes of that voice which walked in Eden +in the cool of the day. The mountains that overlooked them had +aforetime walled in the garden of the Lord from a dark and +half-developed world. The deserts of their meditations lay like a +pall above the relics of those generations to whom the deluge +brought the judgment wrath of God. Children of Sem, the eldest +son of Noah, it had been theirs to see, even more clearly than +God's chosen Israel, the coming of the Incarnate to the world, as +it was also theirs to win from heaven the first tidings of his +birth through the glowing orient star. + +Among the many forms which this tradition assumed, there is one +so beautiful and so theologically accurate, that we cannot omit +to cite it here. While the swan of Mantua, on the banks of father +Tiber, chanted the glories of the golden age, a Hindoo poet, on +the borders of the Ganges, thus painted to the wondering eyes of +Indian kings the grand event in which the disorders and miseries +of that present age should have an end: + + "Then shall a Brahmin be born in the city of Sambhala. This + shall be Vishnu Jesu. To him shall the divine scriptures and + all sciences unfold themselves, without the use of so much time + in their investigation as is necessary to pronounce a single + word. Hence shall be given to him the name of Sarva Buddha, as + to one who fully knoweth all things. Then shall Vishnu Jesu, + dwelling with his people, perform that work which he alone can + do. He shall purge the world from sin; he shall set up the + kingdom of truth and justice; he shall offer the sacrifice; ... + and bind anew the universe to God. .... But when the time of + his old age draws nigh, he shall retire into the desert to do + penance; and this is the order which Vishnu Sarva shall + establish among men. He shall fix virtue and truth in the midst + of the Brahmins, and confine the four castles within the + boundaries of their laws. Then shall return the primeval age. + Then sacrifice shall be so common that the very wilderness + shall be no more a solitude. Then shall the Brahmins, confirmed + in goodness, occupy themselves only in the ceremonies of + religion; they shall cause penance, and all other graces which + follow in the path of truth, to flourish, and shall spread + everywhere the knowledge of the holy scriptures. Then shall the + seasons succeed each other in unbroken order; the rains, in + their appointed time, shall water the earth; the harvest, in + its turn, shall yield abundance; the milk shall flow at the + wish of those who seek it; and the whole world, being + inebriated with prosperity and peace, as it was in the + beginning, all nations shall enjoy ineffable delights." + [Footnote 153] + + [Footnote 153: _Le Christianisme en Chine_, p. 5.] + +The well-known policy of St. Paul, who, preaching on Mars' hill +to the Athenians, seized the inscription on their altar, "To the +unknown God," as the text of his most memorable sermon, is a +divine endorsement of the important part which God intended that +these far-reaching revelations should play in the conversion of +the world. St. Thomas, in the east, had but to repeat the +announcement, Him whom ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto +you. He, for whom you have waited--he, Vishnu Jesu, has already +come; his wisdom and his counsels I reveal to you. + +{521} + +And among the clear-thoughted and pure-hearted sages of the east, +among the Magi of Persia, the Brahmins of India, and the +philosophers of China, among such as those who at the mere +bidding of a voiceless star followed it to the world's end--to +the cave of Bethlehem--these declarations of the apostle must +have been the signal of salvation. In them there were no +prejudices to wipe away, no new and strange ideas to be espoused. +The Gospel was not to them, as to the Jews, the subversion of +anticipated glory. It was the realization of expectation, the +golden day which had so long shot gleams of light into the +darkness of their iron age. And so it was that, while Judea could +give to Christianity but simple fishermen, or at most a ruler of +the synagogue, India and the orient thought not too highly of her +kings and sages to yield them up to Vishnu Jesu, and offered on +his altars the wealth of all her realms. + +In the year 1521, certain excavations taking place under the +ruins of a large and ancient church at Meliapour, there were +found, in a sepulchre, at a great depth beneath the surface of +the earth, the bones of a human skeleton, in a state of +remarkable whiteness and preservation. With them were also found +the head of a lance, still fastened in the wood, the fragments of +an iron-shod club, and a vase of clay filled with earth. Some +years later, near the same spot, an attempt was made by the +Portuguese to build a chapel; and in digging for the foundations, +the workmen came upon a monumental stone on which was sculptured +a cross, some two feet long by eighteen inches wide, rudely +ornamented and surrounded by an inscription in characters which, +to the discoverers, were totally unknown. The authorities of +Meliapour, being desirous to ascertain the meaning of the letters +engraved around this cross, made diligent search among the native +scholars for an interpreter, and finally obtained one in the +person of a Brahmin of a neighboring city. His translation was as +follows: + + "Thirty years after the law of the Christians appeared to the + world, on the 25th of the month of December, the apostle St. + Thomas died at Meliapour, whither he had brought the knowledge + of God, the change of the law, and the overthrow of devils. God + was born of the Virgin Mary, was obedient to her during thirty + years, and was the eternal God. God unfolded his law to twelve + apostles, and of these, one came to Meliapour, and there + founded a church. The kings of Malabar, of Coromandel, of + Pandi, and of other different nations, submitted to the + guidance of this holy Thomas, with willing hearts, as to a + devout and saintly man." [Footnote 154] + + [Footnote 154: _Le Christianisme en Chine_, p. 26.] + +The same inscription was afterward laid before other oriental +scholars, each of whom, without conference or collusion with the +rest, offered the same rendering of this forgotten tongue. + +Thus, again do the discoveries of later ages verify the +traditions of early Christian history. That SS. Dorotheus, +Sophronius, and Gaudentius possessed reliable evidence for their +statement that St. Thomas died at Calamina, we can no longer +doubt. That the original framer of "The Legend of St. Thomas" +recited events which, in his day, were well known, and could be +easily substantiated, is almost beyond dispute. The wondrous +tales of heroism, built out of the deeds of martyrs and apostles +and evangelists are not all foolish dreams. The "Legends of the +Saints" are not, as the wiseacres of the day would lead us to +believe, altogether idle words. +{522} +Men, who could traverse sea and land, without companions, without +aid, converting nations, building churches, founding hierarchies, +setting their faces ever farther on, looking for no human +sympathy, having no mother-country, toiling for ever toward the +martyr's crown, were not the men to fabricate childish stories, +full of false visions and falser miracles. Nor were those who +stood day by day on the brink of doom; who, in the morning, woke +perhaps to meet the lions, perhaps the stake, but certainly the +burden of the cross of Christ; who lay down at night without hope +of day, the men to listen to wild tales of falsehood from some +cunning tongue. Traditions of those early days were all too often +written in blood. They come to us sealed with the lives of +saints. They have stood the test of ages of investigation. They +remain, to-day, monuments, engraved in many languages, and on +many lands, asserting the achievements of our fathers, while +modern science adds to ancient story the corroboration of her +undeniable deductions, and vindicates the traditions of Christian +antiquity both from the sneers and the indifference of +self-exalted men. + +It is almost needless to remark, as the conclusion of this +sketch, that modern missionaries, who would rival the success of +St. Thomas, can fairly expect it from no less exertion, no less +singleness of heart. Those who from this or other countries sally +forth, with missionary societies behind them to supply their +needs, burdened with the double cares of family and church, with +boards of directors at home, as well as consciences within, to +satisfy, with a support to some extent conditioned on their +apparent success, can scarcely be expected to compete with him +who, bidding farewell to home and friends, goes out alone, +wifeless and childless, looking to God for everything, and +seeking nothing but an endless crown. The history of missions +proves, by indisputable statistics, which of these two methods is +effective, which has borne with it the divine prestige of +success, and which remains, in spite of persecutions and +oppressions, vigorous and undismayed after the conflicts of +eighteen hundred years. If it were a simple question of policy, +between the Catholic Church and her opponents, the event would +indicate her wisdom. If it were one of precedent, she has the +whole apostolic college, and the missionaries of fifteen +centuries upon her side. But if the touchstone of the Master be +still reliable, and we may know his workmen by their fruits, then +does this history of the great missionary church bear witness, +that not only her vocation but her operations are divine, and may +assure her children, that, though heaven and earth should fail, +no jot or tittle of her power or triumph can ever pass away. The +throne of Peter may be smitten by the thunderbolt of war; the +hoary head of his successor may be bowed with grief; the triple +crown may once more be trampled under the feet of men; the +faithful may again be overwhelmed with fear; but, in the far +wilderness, beyond the glittering deserts, across the frozen and +the burning seas, her sons are gathering strange nations to her +bosom, over whom, in her coming days of victory and peace, she +may renew her joy. + +For the same Lord who bade her go into the whole world and teach +all his commandments gave, in the same breath, its people to her +baptism; and he who promised her the nations for her inheritance, +and the uttermost parts of the earth for her possession, was the +same God who said to St. Peter, "Super hanc petram aedificabo +ecclesiam meam, et porta inferi non prevalebunt." + +------- + +{523} + + Beethoven, His Boyhood. + + I. + +One October afternoon, in 1784, a boat was coming down the Rhine +close to that point where the city of Bonn sits on its left +shore. The company on board consisted of old and young persons of +both sexes, returning from an excursion of pleasure. + +The company landed full of gayety and mirth, the young people +walking on before, while their seniors followed. They adjourned +to a public garden, close on the river side, to finish the day of +social enjoyment by partaking of a collation. Old and young were +seated ere long around the stone table set under the large trees. +The crimson faded in the west, the moon poured her soft light +glimmering through the leafy canopy above them, and was reflected +in full beauty in the waters of the Rhine. + +"Your boys are merry fellows," said a benevolent-looking old +gentleman, addressing Herr van Beethoven, a tenor singer in the +electoral chapel, pointing at the same time to his two sons, lads +of ten and fourteen years of age. "But tell me, Beethoven, why +did you not bring Louis with you?" + +"Because," answered the person he addressed, "Louis is a +stubborn, dogged, stupid boy, whose troublesome behavior would +only spoil our mirth." + +"Ah!" returned the old gentleman, "you are always finding fault +with the poor lad, and perhaps impose too hard tasks upon him. I +am only surprised that he has not, ere this, broken loose from +your sharp control." + +"My dear Simrock," replied Beethoven, laughing, "I have a remedy +at hand for his humors--my good Spanish cane, which, you see, is +of the toughest. Louis is well acquainted with its excellent +properties, and stands in wholesome awe thereof. And trust me, +neighbor, I know best what is for the boy's good. Carl and Johann +are a comfort to me; they always obey me with alacrity and +affection. Louis, on the other hand, has been bearish from his +infancy. As to his studies, music is the only thing he will +learn--I mean with good will; or, if he consents to apply himself +to anything else, I must first knock it into him that it has +something to do with music. _Then_ he will go to work; but +it is his humor not to do it otherwise. If I give him a +commission to execute for me, the most arrant clodpoll could not +be more stupid about it." + +Here the conversation was interrupted, and the subject was not +resumed. The hours flew lightly by. It struck nine, and the +festive company separated to return to their homes. + +Carl and Johann were in high glee as they went home. They sprang +up the steps before their father, and pulled the door-bell. The +door was opened, and a boy about twelve years old stood in the +entry with a lamp in his hand. He was short and stout for his +age, but a sickly paleness, more strongly marked by the contrast +of his thick black hair, was observable on his face. His small, +gray eyes were quick and restless in their movement, very +piercing when he fixed them on any object, but softened by the +shade of his long, dark lashes. His mouth was delicately formed, +and the compression of the lips betrayed both pride and sorrow. +It was Louis Beethoven. + +{524} + +He came to meet his parents, and bade them "Good-evening." + +His mother greeted him affectionately. His father said, while the +boy busied himself fastening the door, "Well, Louis, I hope you +have finished your task." + +"I have, father." + +"Very good; to-morrow I will look and see if you have earned your +breakfast." So saying, the elder Beethoven went into his chamber. +His wife followed him, after bidding her sons good night, Louis +more tenderly than any of them. Carl and Johann withdrew with +their brother to their common sleeping apartment, entertaining +him with a description of their day of festivity. "Now, Louis," +said little Johann, as they finished their account, "if you had +not been such a dunce, our father would have taken you along; but +he says he thinks that you will be little better than a dunce all +the days of your life, and self-willed and stubborn besides." + +"Don't talk about that any more," answered Louis, "but come to +bed." + +"Yes, you are always a sleepy-head!" cried they both, laughing; +but in a few moments after getting into bed both were asleep and +snoring heartily. + +Louis took the lamp from the table, left the apartment softly, +and went up-stairs to an attic chamber, where he was wont to +retire when he wished to be out of the way of his teasing +brothers. He had fitted up the little room for himself as well as +his means permitted. A table with three legs, a leathern chair, +the bottom partly out, and an old piano which he had rescued from +the possession of the rats and mice, made up the furniture, and +here, in company with his beloved violin, he was accustomed to +pass his happiest hours. + +The boy felt, young as he was, that he was not understood by one +of his family, not even excepting his mother. She loved him +tenderly, and always took his part when his father found fault +with him; but she never knew what was passing in his mind, +because he never uttered it. But his genius was not long to be +unappreciated. + +The next morning a messenger came from the elector to Beethoven's +house, bringing an order for him to repair immediately to the +palace, and fetch with him his son Louis. The father was +surprised; not more so than the boy, whose heart beat with +undefined apprehension as they entered the princely mansion. A +servant was in waiting, and conducted them, without delay or +further announcement, to the presence of the elector, who was +attended by two gentlemen. + +The elector received old Beethoven with great kindness, and said, +"We have heard much, recently, of the extraordinary musical +talent of your son Louis. Have you brought him along with you?" + +Beethoven replied in the affirmative, stepped back to the door, +and bade the boy come in. + +"Come nearer, my little lad," cried the elector graciously; "do +not be shy. This gentleman here is our new court organist, Herr +Neefe; the other is the famous composer, Herr Yunker, from +Cologne. We promised them both they should hear you play +something." + +{525} + +The prince bade the boy take his seat and begin, while he sat +down in a large easy-chair. Louis went to the piano, and, without +examining the pile of notes that lay awaiting his selection, +played a short piece, then a light and graceful melody, which he +executed with such ease and spirit, nay, in so admirable a +manner, that his distinguished auditors could not forbear +expressing their surprise, and even his father was struck. When +he left off playing, the elector arose, came up to him, laid his +hand on his head, and said encouragingly, "Well done, my boy! we +are pleased with you. Now, Master Yunker," turning to the +gentleman on his right hand, "what say you?" + +"Your highness," answered the composer, "I will venture to say +the lad has had considerable practice with that last air to +execute it so well." + +Louis burst into a laugh at this remark. The others looked +surprised and grave. His father darted an angry glance at him, +and the boy, conscious that he had done something wrong, became +instantly silent. + +"And pray what were you laughing at, my little fellow?" asked the +elector. + +The boy colored and looked down as he replied, "Because Herr +Yunker thinks I have learned the air by heart, when it occurred +to me but just now while I was playing." + +"Then," returned the composer, "if you really improvised that +piece, you ought to go through at sight a motive I will give you +presently." + +Yunker wrote on a paper a difficult motive, and handed it to the +boy. Louis read it over carefully, and immediately began to play +it according to the rules of counterpoint. The composer listened +attentively, his astonishment increasing at every turn in the +music; and when at last it was finished, in a manner so spirited +as to surpass his expectations, his eyes sparkled, and he looked +on the lad with keen interest, as the possessor of a genius +rarely to be found. + +"If he goes on in this way," said he in a low tone to the +elector, "I can assure your highness that a very great +contrapuntist may be made out of him." + +Neefe observed with a smile, "I agree with the master; but it +seems to me the boy's style inclines rather too much to the +gloomy and melancholy." + +"It is well," replied his highness, smiling; "be it your care +that it does not become too much so. Herr van Beethoven," he +continued, addressing the father, "we take an interest in your +son, and it is our pleasure that he complete the studies +commenced under your tuition, under that of Herr Neefe. He may +come and live with him after to-day. You are willing, Louis, to +come and live with this gentleman?" + +The boy's eyes were fixed on the ground; he raised them and +glanced first at Neefe and then at his father. The offer was a +tempting one; he would fare better and have more liberty in his +new abode. But there was his _father!_ whom he had always +loved; who, in spite of his severity, had doubtless loved him, +and who now stood looking upon him earnestly and sadly. He +hesitated no longer, but, seizing Beethoven's hand and pressing +it to his heart, he cried, "No, no! I can not leave my father." + +"You are a good and dutiful lad," said his highness. "Well, I +will not ask you to leave your father, who must be very fond of +you. You shall live with him, and come and take your lessons of +Herr Neefe; that is our will. Adieu! Herr van Beethoven." + +From this time Louis lived a new life. His father treated him no +longer with harshness, and even reproved his brothers when they +tried to tease him. Carl and Johann grew shy of him, however, +when they saw what a favorite he had become. +{526} +Louis found himself no longer restrained, but came and went as he +pleased; he took frequent excursions into the country, which he +enjoyed with more than youthful pleasure, when the lessons were +over. His worthy master was astonished at the rapid progress of +his pupil in his beloved art. + +"But, Louis," said he one day, "if you would become a great +musician, you must not neglect everything besides music. You must +acquire foreign languages, particularly Latin, Italian, and +French. Would you leave your name to posterity as a true artist, +make your own all that bears relation to your art." + +Louis promised, and kept his word. In the midst of his playing he +would leave off, however much it cost him, when the hour struck +for his lessons in the languages. So closely he applied himself, +that in a year's time he was tolerably well acquainted not only +with Latin, French, and Italian, but also with the English. His +father marvelled at his progress not a little; for years he had +labored in vain, with starvation and blows, to make the boy learn +the first principles of those languages. He had never, indeed, +taken the trouble to explain to him their use in the acquisition +of the science of music. + +In 1785, appeared Louis' first sonatas. They displayed uncommon +talent and gave promise that the youthful artist would, in +future, accomplish something great, though scarcely yet could be +found in them a trace of that gigantic genius whose death forty +years afterward filled all Europe with sorrow. + +"We were both mistaken in the lad," Simrock would say to old +Beethoven. "He abounds in wit and odd fancies, but I do not +altogether like his mixing up in his music all sorts of strange +conceits; the best way, to my notion, is a plain one. Let him +follow the great Mozart, step by step; after all, he is the only +one, and there is none to come up to him--none!" And Louis' +father, who also idolized Mozart, always agreed with his neighbor +in his judgment, and echoed, "None!" + + + +It was a lovely summer afternoon about 1787; numerous boats with +parties of pleasure on board were passing up and down the Rhine; +numerous companies of old and young were assembled under the +trees in the public gardens, or along the banks of the river, +enjoying the scene and each other's conversation, or partaking of +the rural banquet. + +At some distance from the city, a wood bordered the river; this +wood was threaded by a small and sparkling stream, that flung +itself over a ledge of rocks, and tumbled into the most romantic +and quiet dell imaginable, for it was too narrow to be called a +valley. The trees overhung it so closely that at noonday this +sweet nook was dark as twilight, and the profound silence was +only broken by the monotonous murmur of the stream. + +Close by the stream half sat, half reclined, a youth just +emerging from childhood. In fact, he could hardly be called more +than a boy; for his frame showed but little development of +strength, and his regular features, combined with an excessive +paleness, the result of confinement, gave the impression that he +was even of tender years. His eyes would alone have given him the +credit of uncommon beauty; they were large, dark, and so bright +that it seemed the effect of disease, especially in a face that +rarely or never smiled. + +{527} + +A most unusual thing was a holiday for the melancholy lad. His +whole soul was given up to one passion--the love of music. Oh! +how precious to him were the moments of solitude. He had loved, +for this, even his poor garret room, meanly furnished, but rich +in the possession of one or two musical instruments, whither he +would retire at night, when released from irksome labor, and +spend hours of delight stolen from slumber. But to be alone with +nature, in her grand woods, under the blue sky, with no human +voice to mar the infinite harmony--how did his heart pant for +this communion! His breast seemed to expand and fill with the +grandeur, the beauty, of all around him. The light breeze +rustling in the leaves came to his ear laden with a thousand +melodies; the very grass and flowers under his feet had a +language for him. His spirits, long depressed and saddened, +sprang into new life, and rejoiced with unutterable joy. + +The hours wore on, a dusky shadow fell over foliage and stream, +and the solitary lad rose to leave his chosen retreat. As he +ascended the narrow winding path, he was startled by hearing his +own name; and presently a man, apparently middle-aged and dressed +plainly, stood just in front of him. "Come back, Louis," said the +stranger, "it is not so dark as it seems here; you have time +enough this hour to return to the city." The stranger's voice had +a thrilling though melancholy sweetness; and Louis suffered him +to take his hand and lead him back. They seated themselves in the +shade beside the water. + +"I have watched you for a long while," said the stranger. + +"You might have done better," returned the lad, reddening at the +thought of having been subjected to espionage. + +"Peace, boy," said his companion; "I love you, and have done all +for your good." + +"You love me?" repeated Louis, surprised. "I have never met you +before." + +"Yet I know you well. Does that surprise you? I know your +thoughts also. You love music better than aught else in the +world; but you despair of excellence because you cannot follow +the rules prescribed." + +Louis looked at the speaker with open eyes. + +"Your masters also despair of you. The court-organist accuses you +of conceit and obstinacy; your father reproaches you; and all +your acquaintance pronounce you a boy of tolerable abilities, +spoiled by an ill disposition." + +The lad sighed. + +"The gloom of your condition increases your distaste to all +studies not directly connected with music, for you feel the need +of her consolations. Your compositions, wild, melancholy as they +are, embody your own feelings, and are understood by none of the +connoisseurs." + +"Who are you?" cried Louis in deep emotion. + +"No matter who I am. I come to give you a little advice, my boy. +I compassionate, yet I revere you. I revere your heaven-imparted +genius. I commiserate the woes those very gifts must bring upon +you through life." + +The boy lifted his eyes again; those of the speaker seemed so +bright, yet withal so melancholy, that he was possessed of a +strange fear. "I see you," continued the unknown solemnly, +"exalted above homage, but lonely and unblessed in your +elevation. Yet the lot of such is fixed; and it is better, +perhaps, that one should consume in the sacred fire than that the +many should lack illumination." + +"I do not understand you," said Louis, wishing to put an end to +the interview. + +{528} + +"That is not strange, since you do not understand yourself," said +the stranger. "As for me, I pay homage to a future sovereign!" +and he suddenly snatched up the boy's hand and kissed it. Louis +was convinced of his insanity. + +"A sovereign in art," continued the unknown. "The sceptre that +Haydn and Mozart have held shall pass without interregnum to your +hands. When you are acknowledged in all Germany for the worthy +successor of these great masters--when all Europe wonders at the +name of _Beethoven_--remember me. + +"But you have much ground to pass over," resumed the stranger, +"ere you reach that glorious summit. Reject not the aid of +science, of literature; there are studies now disagreeable that +still may prove serious helps to you in the cultivation of music. +Contemn not _any_ learning: for art is a coy damsel, and +would have her votaries all accomplished! Above all--_trust +yourself_. Whatever may happen, give no place to despondency. +They blame you for your disregard of rules; make for yourself +higher and vaster rules. You will not be appreciated here; but +there are other places in the world; in Vienna--" + +"Oh! if I could only go to Vienna," sighed the lad. + +"You _shall_ go there, and remain," said the stranger; "and +there too you shall see me, or hear from me. Adieu, now--_auf +Wiedersehen_." ("To meet again.") + +And before the boy could recover from his astonishment the +stranger was gone. It was nearly dark, and he could see nothing +of him as he walked through the wood. He could not, however, +spend much time in search; for he dreaded the reproaches of his +father for having stayed out so late. All the way home he was +trying to remember where he had seen the unknown, whose features, +though he could not say to whom they belonged, were not +unfamiliar to him. It occurred to him at last, that while playing +before the elector one day a countenance similar in benevolent +expression had looked upon him from the circle surrounding the +sovereign. But known or unknown, the "auf Wiedersehen" of his +late companion rang in his ears, while the friendly counsel sank +deep in his heart. + +Traversing rapidly the streets of Bonn, young Beethoven was soon +at his own door. An unusual bustle within attracted his +attention. To his eager questions the servants replied that their +master was dying. Shocked to hear of his danger, Louis flew to +his apartment. His brothers were there, also his mother, weeping; +and the physician supported his father, who seemed in great pain. + + +Louis clasped his father's cold hand, and pressed it to his lips, +but could not speak for tears. + +"God's blessing be upon you, my son!" said his parent. "Promise +me that throughout life you will never forsake your brothers. I +know they have not loved you as they ought; that is partly my +fault; promise me, that whatever may happen you will continue to +regard and cherish them." + +"I will--I will, dear father!" cried Louis, sobbing. Beethoven +pressed his hand in token of satisfaction. The same night he +expired. The grief of Louis was unbounded. + +It was a bitter thing thus to lose a parent just as the ties of +nature were strengthened by mutual appreciation and confidence; +but it was necessary that he should rouse himself to minister +support and comfort to his suffering mother. + + To Be Continued. + +------- + +{529} + + Lecky On Morals. [Footnote 155] + + [Footnote 155: _History of European Morals, from Augustus + to Charlemagne_. By William Edward Hartpoole Lecky, M.A. + London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1869. 2 vols. 8vo.] + + +Mr. Lecky divides his work into five chapters. The first chapter +is preliminary, and discusses "the nature and foundations of +morals," its obligation and motives; the second treats of the +morals of the pagan empire; the third gives the author's view of +the causes of the conversion of Rome and the triumph of +Christianity in the empire; the fourth the progress and +deterioration of European morals from Constantine to Charlemagne; +and the fifth the changes effected from time to time in the +position of women. The author does not confine himself strictly +within the period named, but, in order to make his account +intelligible, gives us the history of what preceded and what has +followed it; so that his book gives one, from his point of view, +the philosophy and the entire history of European morals from the +earliest times down to the present. + +The subject of this work is one of great importance in the +general history of the race, and of deep interest to all who are +not incapable of serious and sustained thought. Mr. Lecky is a +man of some ability, of considerable first or second hand +learning, and has evidently devoted both time and study to his +subject. His style is clear, animated, vigorous, and dignified; +but his work lacks condensation and true perspective. He dwells +too long on points comparatively unimportant, and repeats the +same things over and over again, and brings proofs after proofs +to establish what is mere commonplace to the scholar, till he +becomes not a little tedious. He seems to write under the +impression that the public he is addressing knows nothing of his +subject, and is slow of understanding. He evidently supposes that +he is writing something very important, and quite new to the +whole reading world. Yet we have found nothing new in his work, +either in substance or in presentation, nothing--not even an +error or a sophism--that had not been said, and as well said, a +hundred times before him; we cannot discover a single new fact, +or a single new view of a fact, that can throw any additional +light on European morals in any period of European history. Yet +we may say Mr. Lecky, though not an original or a profound +thinker, is above the average of English Protestant writers, and +compiles with passable taste, skill, and judgment. + +We know little of the author, except as the author of the book +before us, and of a previous work, on _Rationalism in +Europe_, and we have no vehement desire to know anything more +of him. He belongs, with some shades of difference, to a class +represented, in England, by Buckle, J. Stuart Mill, Frank Newman, +and James Martineau; and of which the _Westminster Review_ +is the organ; in France, by M. Vacherot, Jules Simon, and Ernest +Renan; and, in this country, by Professor Draper, of this city, +and a host of inferior writers. They are not Christians, and yet +would not like to be called anti-Christians; they are judges, not +advocates, and, seated on the high judicial bench, they +pronounce, as they flatter themselves, an impartial and final +judgment on all moral, religious, and philosophical codes, and +assign to each its part of good, and its part of evil. +{530} +They aim to hold an even balance between the church and the +sects, between Christian morals and pagan morals, and between the +several pagan religions and the Christian religion, all of which +they look upon as dead and gone, except with the ignorant, the +stupid, and the superstitious. Of this class Mr. Lecky is a +distinguished member, though less brilliant as a writer than +Renan, and less pleasing as well as less scientific than our own +Draper. + +The writers of this class do not profess to break with Christian +civilization, or to reject religion or morals, but strive to +assert a morality without God, and a Christianity without Christ. +They deny in words neither God nor Christ, but they find no use +for either. They deny neither the possibility nor the fact of the +supernatural, but find no need of it and no place for it. They +concede providence, but resolve it into a fixed natural law, and +are what we would call naturalists, if naturalism had not +received so many diverse meanings. In their own estimation, they +are not philosophers, moralists, or divines, but really gods, who +know, of themselves, good and evil, right and wrong, truth and +error, and whose prerogative it is to judge all men and ages, all +moralities, philosophies, and religions, by the infallible +standard which each one of them is, or has in himself. They are +the fulfilment of the promise of Satan to our mother Eve, "Ye +shall be as gods." + +Mr. Lecky, in his preliminary chapter, on the nature and +foundation of morals, refutes even ably and conclusively the +utilitarian school of morals, and defends what he calls the +"intuitive" school. He contends that it is impossible to found +morals on the conception of the useful, or on fears of punishment +and hopes of reward; and argues well, after Henry More, Cudworth, +Clark, and Butler, that all morality involves the idea of +obligation, and is based on the intuition of right or duty; or, +in other words, on the principle of human nature called +conscience. But this, after all, is no solution of the problem +raised. There is, certainly, a great difference between doing a +thing because it is useful, and doing it because it is right; but +there is a still greater difference between the intuitive +perception of right and the obligation to do it. The perception +or intuition of an act as obligatory, or as duty, but is not that +which makes it duty or obligatory. The obligation is objective, +the perception is subjective. The perception or intuition +apprehends the obligation, but is not it, and does not impose it. +The intuitive moralists are better than the utilitarians, in the +respect that they assert a right and a wrong independent of the +fact that it is useful, or injurious, to the actor. But they are +equally far from asserting the real foundation of morals; +because, though they assert intuition or immediate perception of +duty, they do not assert or set forth the ground of duty or +obligation. Duty is debt, is an obligation; but whence the debt? +whence the obligation? We do not ask why the duty obliges, for +the assertion of an act as duty is its assertion as obligatory; +but why does the right oblige? or, in other words, why am I bound +to do right? or any one thing rather than another? + +Mr. Lecky labors hard to find the ground of the obligation in +some principle or law of human nature, which he calls conscience. +But conscience is the recognition of the obligation, and the +mind's own judgment of what is or is not obligatory; it is not +the obligation nor its creator. +{531} +This mistake proceeds from his attempt to found morals on human +nature as supreme law-giver, and is common to all moralists who +seek to erect a system of morals independent of theology. Dr. +Ward, in his work on _Nature and Grace_, commits the same +mistake in his effort to find a solid foundation in nature of +duty, without rising to the Creator. All these moralists really +hold, as true, the falsehood told by Satan to our first parents, +"Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil;" that is, in order +to know good or evil ye shall not need to look beyond your own +nature, nor to recognize yourselves as subject to, or dependent +on, any authority above or distinct from it. It is the one +fundamental error that meets us in all Gentile philosophy, and +all modern philosophy and science, speculative, ethical, or +political, that holds itself independent of God. The schoolmen +understood by morals, when the term means duty, or anything more +than manners and customs, what is called Moral Theology, or the +practical application of speculative and dogmatic theology to the +offices of life, individual, domestic, and social or political. +Natural morality meant that portion of man's whole duty which is +prescribed by the natural law and promulgated by reason, as +distinguished from revelation. They based all morals on the great +principle of theology, and therefore they called theology the +queen of the sciences. We have made no advance on them. + +In morals, three things--first, the obligation; second, the +regula or rule; third, the end--are essential, and must be +carefully distinguished. Why am I bound to do one thing rather +than another? that is, why am I bound at all? What am I bound to +do, or to avoid? For what end? These three questions are +fundamental and exhaustive. The intuitionists hold that all +morals involve the idea or conception of duty; but they omit to +present the reason or ground of duty or obligation, and therefore +erect their moral fabric without any foundation, and make it a +mere castle in the air. They confound conscience with obligation, +and the rule or law with the reason or motive for observing it. +Suppose we find in human nature the rule or law; we cannot find +in it either the obligation or the motive, for the simple reason +that human nature is not independent, is not sufficient for +itself, does not belong to itself, and has in itself neither its +origin nor its end, neither its first nor its final cause. The +rule--_regula_--is the law, and the law prescribes what is +to be done and what is to be avoided; but it does not create the +obligation nor furnish the motive of obedience. Mr. Lecky himself +maintains that it does not, and is very severe upon those who +make an arbitrary law the ground of moral distinctions, or the +reason of duty. The law does not make the right or the wrong. The +act is not right because commanded, nor wrong because prohibited; +but it is commanded because it is right, and prohibited because +it is wrong. Whence then the obligation? or, what is it that +transforms the right into duty? This is the question that the +independent or non-theological moralists, no matter of what +school, do not and cannot answer. + +There is no answer, unless we give up the godship of man, give +Satan the lie, and understand that man is a dependent existence; +for an independent being cannot be bound or placed under the +obligation of duty, either by his own act or by the act of +another. If man is dependent, he is created, and, if created, he +belongs to his Creator; for the maker has a sovereign right to +that which he makes. +{532} +It is his act, and nothing is or can be more one's own, than +one's own act. Man, then, does not own himself; he owes himself, +all he is, and all he has, to his Creator. As it has pleased his +Creator to make him a free moral agent, capable of acting from +choice, and with reference to a moral end, he is bound to give +himself, by his own free will, to God to whom he belongs; for his +free will, his free choice, belongs to God, is his due; and the +principle of justice requires us to give to every one his due, or +what is his own. + +Here, then, in man's relation to God as his creator, is the +ground of his duty or obligation. It grows out of the divine +creative act. Deny the being of God, deny the creative act, deny +man is the creature of God, and you deny all obligation, all +duty, and therefore, according to Mr. Lecky's own doctrine, all +morals. + +The irrational cannot morally bind the rational. All men are +equal, and no man, no body of men has, or can have, a natural +right to bind or govern another. Only the Creator obliges, as the +owner of the creature; and if I owe myself, all I am and all I +have, to God, I owe nothing to another in his own right, and only +God has any right over me, or to me. Here is at once the basis of +obligation and of liberty, and the condemnation of all tyranny +and despotism. From this, it clearly follows that every system of +morals that rests on nature, the state, or any thing created, as +its foundation, is not and of itself cannot be obligatory upon +any one, and that without God as our creator, and whose we are, +there is and can be no moral obligation or duty whatever. +Pantheism, which denies the creative act, and atheism, which +denies God, both alike deny morals by denying its basis or +foundation. Either is fatal to morals, for obligation is only the +correlative of the right to command. Having found the ground of +obligation, and shown why we are morally bound, the next thing to +be considered is the rule by which is determined what we are +bound to do, and what we are bound to avoid. Mr. Lecky makes this +rule conscience, which, though he labors to prove that it is +uniform and infallible in all ages and nations, and all men, he +yet concedes varies in its determinations as to what is or is not +duty according to the circumstances of the age or nation, the +ideal or standard adopted, public opinion, etc. That is, +conscience assures us that we ought always to do right, but +leaves us to find out, the best way we can, what is or is not +right. Conscience, then, cannot be itself the rule; it is a +witness within us of our obligation to obey God, and the judgment +which we pass on our acts, usually, in practice, on our acts +after they are done, is at best only our judgment of what the +rule or law is, not the rule or law itself. The rule or +_regula_ is not conscience, but the light of conscience, +that by which it determines what is or is not duty; it is the law +which, according to St. Thomas, is "quaedam est regula et mensura +actuum, secundum quam inducitur ad agendum, vel ab agendo +retrahitur;" [Footnote 156] or, in the sense we here use the +term, the rule, or measure of duty prescribing what is to be +done, and what avoided. + + [Footnote 156: _Summa_ primae secundae, quest. xc. art. + I. incorp.] + +It is, as St. Thomas also says, an _ordinatio rationis_, and +as an ordination of reason, it can be only the rule or measure of +what is obligatory to be done or to be avoided. It defines and +declares what is or is not duty, it does not and cannot make the +duty, or create the obligation. The author and his school +overlook the fact that reason is perceptive, not legislative. +{533} +They confound the obligation with the rule that measures and +determines it, and assume that it is the reason that creates the +duty. They are psychologists, not philosophers, and see nothing +behind or above human reason, man's highest and distinguishing +faculty. Certainly without reason man could not either perform, +or be bound to perform, a single moral act; and yet it is not the +reason that binds him; and if he is bound to follow reason, as he +undoubtedly is, it is only because reason tells him what is +obligatory, and enables him to do it. + +Since only God can bind morally, only God can impose the law +which measures, defines, or discloses what independent of the law +is obligatory. The rule of duty, of right and wrong, is therefore +the law of God. The law of God is promulgated in part through +natural reason, and in part through supernatural revelation. The +former is called the natural law, _lex naturalis;_ the +latter, the revealed law, or the supernatural law. But both are +integral parts of one and the same law, and each has its reason +in one and the same order of things, emanates from one and the +same authority, for one and the same ultimate end. There are, no +doubt, in the supernatural law, positive injunctions, and +prohibitions, which are not contained in the natural law, though +not repugnant thereto; but these have their reason and motive in +the end, which in all cases determines the law. All human laws, +ecclesiastical or civil, derive all their vigor as laws from the +law of God, and all the positive injunctions and prohibitions of +either are, in their nature, disciplinary, or means to the end, +in which is the reason or motive of the law. Hence there is, and +can be, nothing arbitrary in duty. Nothing is or can be imposed, +under either the natural law or the supernatural law, in either +church or state, in religion or morals, that does not immediately +or mediately grow out of our relation to God as our creator, and +as our last end or final cause. As a Christian I am bound to obey +the supreme Pastor of the church, not as a man commanding in his +own name, or by his own authority, but as the vicar of Christ, +who has commissioned him to teach, discipline, and govern me. As +a citizen I am bound to obey all the laws of my country not +repugnant to the law or the rights of God, but only because the +state has, in secular matters, authority from God to govern. In +either case the obedience is due only to God, and he only is +obeyed. It is his authority and his alone that binds me, and +neither church nor state can bind me beyond or except by reason +of its authority derived from him. + +The law is the rule, and is prescribed by the end, in which is +the reason or motive of duty. The law is not the reason or motive +of duty, nor is it the ground of the obligation. It is simply the +rule, and tells us what God commands, not whence his right to +command, nor wherefore he commands. His right to command rests on +the fact that he is the Creator. But why does he command such and +such things, or prescribe such and such duties? We do not answer, +because such is his will; though that would be true as we +understand it. For such answer would be understood by this +untheological age, which forgets that the divine will is the will +of infinite reason, to imply that duties are arbitrary, rest on +mere will, and that there is no reason why God should prescribe +one thing as duty rather than another. What the law of God +declares to be duty is duty because it is necessary to accomplish +the purpose of our existence, or the end for which we are +created. Everything that even God can enjoin as duty has its +reason or motive in that purpose or end. The end, then, +prescribes, or is the reason of, the law. + +{534} + +The end for which God creates us is himself, who is our final +cause no less than our first cause. God acts always as infinite +reason, and cannot therefore create without creating for some +end; and as he is self-sufficing and the adequate object of his +own activity, there is and can be no end but himself. All things +are not only created by him but for him. This is equally a truth +of philosophy and of revelation, and even those theologians who +talk of natural beatitude, are obliged to make it consist in the +possession of God, at least, as the author of nature. Hence, St. +Paul, the greatest philosopher that ever wrote, as well as an +inspired apostle, says, Rom. xi. 36, "Of him, and by him, and in +him are all things;" or, "in him and _for_ him they +subsist," as Archbishop Kenrick explains in a note to the +passage. The motive or reason of the law is in the end, or in God +as final cause. The motive or reason for keeping or fulfilling +the law is, then, that we may gain the end for which we are made, +or, union with God as our final cause. This is all clear, plain, +and undeniable, and hence we conclude that morals, in the strict +sense of the word, cannot be asserted unless we assert God as our +creator and as our last end. + +Mr. Lecky and his school do not, then, attain to the true +philosophy of morals, for they recognize no final cause, either +of man or his act; and yet there is no moral act that is not done +freely _propter finem_, for the sake of the end. We do not +say that all acts not so done are vicious or sinful, nor do we +pretend that no acts are moral that are not done with a distinct +and deliberate reference to God as our last end. The man who +relieves suffering because he cannot endure the pain of seeing +it, performs a good deed, though an act of very imperfect virtue. +We act also from habit, and when the habit has been formed by +acts done for the sake of the end, or by infused grace, the acts +done from the habit of the soul without an explicit reference to +the end are moral, virtuous, in the true sense of either term; +nor do we exclude those Gentiles who, not having the law, do the +things of the law, of whom St. Paul speaks, Rom. ii. 14-16. + +Mr. Lecky overlooks the end, and presents no reason or motive for +performing our duty, distinguishable from the duty itself. He +adopts the philosophy of the Porch, except that he thinks it did +not make enough of the emotional side of our nature, that is, was +not sufficiently sentimental. The Stoics held that we must do +right for the sake of right alone, or because it is right. They +rejected all consideration of personal advantage, of general +utility, the honor of the gods, future life, heaven or hell, or +the happiness of mankind. They admitted the obligation to serve +the commonwealth and to do good to all men, but because it was +right. The good of the state or of the race was duty, but not the +reason or motive of the duty. The professedly disinterested +morality on which our author, after them, so earnestly insists, +closely analyzed, will be found to be as selfish as that of the +Garden, or that of Paley and Bentham. The Epicurean makes +pleasure, that is, the gratification of the senses, the motive of +virtue; the Stoic makes the motive the gratification of his +intellectual nature, or rather his pride, which is as much a +man's self as what the apostle calls concupiscence, or the flesh. +{535} +Intellectual selfishness, in which the Stoics abounded, is even +more repugnant to the virtue of the actor than the sensual +selfishness of the votary of pleasure. We care not what fine +words the Stoic had on his lips, no system of pagan morals was +further removed from real disinterested virtue than that of the +Porch. + +Mr. Lecky denounces the morality of the church as selfish, and +says the selfish system triumphed with Bossuet over Fénélon; but +happily for us he is not competent to speak of the morals +enjoined by the church. He does not understand the question which +was at issue, and entirely misapprehends the matter for which +Fénélon was censured by the Holy See. The doctrine of Fénélon, as +he himself explained and defended it, was never condemned, nor +was that of Bossuet, which, on several points, was very unsound, +ever approved. Several passages of Fénélon's _Maxims of the +Saints_ were censured as favoring quietism, already condemned +in the condemnation of Molinos and his adherents--a doctrine +which Fénélon never held, and which he sought in his +_Maxims_ to avoid without running into the contrary extreme, +but, the Holy See judged, unsuccessfully. His thought was +orthodox, but the language he used could be understood in a +quietistic sense; and it was his language, not his doctrine, that +was condemned. + +The error favored by Fénélon's language, though against his +intention, was that it is possible in this life to rise and +remain habitually in such a state of charity, or pure love of God +for his own sake, of such perfect union with him, that in it the +soul no longer hopes or fears, ceases to make acts of virtue, and +becomes indifferent to its own salvation or damnation, whether it +gains heaven or loses it. The church did not condemn the love of +God for his own sake, nor _acts_ of perfect charity, for so +much is possible and required of all Christians. The church +requires us to make acts of love, as well as of faith and hope, +and the act of love is: "O my God! I love thee above all things, +with my whole heart and soul, because thou art infinitely amiable +and deserving of all love; I love also my neighbor as myself for +the love of thee; I forgive all who have injured me, and ask +pardon of all whom I have injured." Here is no taint of +selfishness, but an act of pure love. Yet though we can and ought +to make distinct acts of perfect charity, it is a grave error to +suppose that the soul can in this life sustain herself, +habitually, in a state of pure love, that she ever attains to a +state on earth in which acts of virtue cease to be necessary, in +which she ceases from pure love to be actively virtuous, and +becomes indifferent to her own fate, to her own salvation or +damnation, to heaven or hell--an error akin to that of the +Hopkinsians, that in order to be saved one must be willing to be +damned. As long as we live, acts of virtue, of faith, hope, and +charity, are necessary; and to be indifferent to heaven or hell, +is to be indifferent whether we please God or offend him, whether +we are united to him or alienated from him. + +It is a great mistake to represent the doctrine the church +opposed to quietism or to Fénélon as the selfish theory of +morals. To act from simple fear of suffering or simple hope of +happiness, or to labor solely to escape the one and secure the +other, is, of course, selfish, and is not approved by the church, +who brands such fear as servile, and such hope as mercenary, +because in neither is the motive drawn from the end, which is +God, as our supreme good. +{536} +What the church bids us fear is alienation from God, and the +happiness she bids us seek is happiness in God, because God is +the end for which we are made. Thus, to the question, "Why did +God make you?" the catechism answers, "That I might know him, +love him, and serve him in this world, and be happy _with +him_ for ever in the next." _With him_, not without him. +The fear the church approves is the fear of hell, not because it +is a place of suffering, and the fear of God she inculcates is +not the fear of him because he can send us to hell, but because +hell is alienation from God, is offensive to him: and therefore +the fear is really fear of offending God, and being separated +from him. The hope of happiness she approves is the hope of +heaven, not simply because heaven is happiness, but because it is +union with God, or the possession of God as our last end, which +is our supreme good. + +Here neither the fear of hell nor the hope of heaven is selfish; +for in each the motive is drawn from the end, from God who is our +supreme good. It therefore implies charity or the love of God. +And herein is its moral value. It may not be perfectly +disinterested, or perfect charity, which is the love of God for +his own sake, or because he is the supreme good in himself; but +to love him as our supreme good, and to seek our good in him and +him only, is still to love him, and to draw from him the motive +of our acts. The church enjoins this reference to God in which, +while she recognizes faith and hope as virtues in this life, she +enjoins charity, without which the actor is nothing. + +If Mr. Lecky had known the principle of Catholic morals, and +understood the motives to virtue which the church urges, he would +never have accused her of approving the selfish theory, which +proposes in no sense God, but always and everywhere self, as the +end. He will allow us no motive to virtue but the right; that is, +in his theory, duty has no reason or motive but itself. No doubt +his conception of right includes benevolence, the love of +mankind, and steady, persevering efforts to serve our country and +the human race; but he can assign no reason or motive why one +should do so without falling either into the selfishness or the +utilitarianism which he professes to reject. The sentimental +theory which he seems to adopt cannot help him, for none of our +sentiments are disinterested; all the sentiments pertain to self, +and seek always their own gratification. This is as true of those +called the higher, nobler sentiments as of the lower and baser, +and, in point of fact, sentimentalists, philanthropists, and +humanitarians are usually the most selfish, cruel, heartless, and +least moral people in society. Men who act from sentimental +instead of rational motives are never trustworthy, and are, in +general, to be avoided. + +Mr. Lecky maintains that right is to be done solely because it is +right, without any considerations of its particular or general +utility, or regard to consequences. But he shrinks from this, and +appeals to utility when hard pressed, and argues that +considerations of advantage to society or to mankind, or a +peculiar combination of circumstances, may sometimes justify us +in deviating from the right--that is, in doing wrong. He contends +that it may be our duty to sacrifice the higher principles of our +nature to the lower, and appears shocked at Dr. Newman's +assertion that "the church holds that it were better for sun and +moon to drop from heaven, for the earth to fail, and for all the +many millions of its inhabitants to die of starvation in extreme +agony, _so far as temporal affliction goes_, than that one +soul, I will not say should be lost, but should commit one venial +sin, tell one wilful untruth, though it harmed no one, or steal +one poor farthing, without excuse." +{537} +This is too rigid for Mr. Lecky. He places duty in always acting +from the higher principles of our nature; but thinks there may be +cases when it is our duty to sacrifice them to the lower! He +supposes, then, that there is something more obligatory than +right, or that renders right obligatory when obligatory it is. + +But this doctrine of doing right for the sake of the right is +utterly untenable. Right is not an abstraction, for there are no +abstractions in nature, and abstractions are simple nullities. It +must be either being or relation. If taken as a relation, it can +be no motive, no end, because relation is real only in the +related. If being, then it is God, who only is being. Your +friends, the Stoics, placed it above the divinity, and taught us +in Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius that it binds under one and the +same law both God and man. But an abstraction which is formed by +the mind operating on the concrete can bind no one, for it is in +itself simply nothing. The weaker cannot bind the stronger, the +inferior the superior, or that which is not that which is. But +there is no being stronger than God or above him; for he is, in +every respect, supreme. Nothing can bind him, and right must +either be identified with him or held to grow out of the +relations of his creatures to himself. In the first case, right +is God, or God is right; and the obligation to do right is only +the obligation to do what God commands. Right, as being, cannot +exist distinct from God, and can bind men only in the sense in +which God himself binds them. Their sovereign, in such case, is +God, who, by his creative act, is their lord and proprietor. But +right and God are not identical, and, consequently, right is not +being, but a relation. What binds is not the right or the +relation, but he who, by his creative act, founds the relation. +Rejecting, then, right as an abstraction, we must understand by +the right what under this relation it is the duty of the creature +to do. Right and duty are then the same. Ask what is man's duty; +the answer is, what is right. Ask what is right, and the answer +is, whatever is duty. + +But right does not make itself right, nor duty itself duty. Here +is the defect of all purely rationalistic morals, and of every +system of morals that is not based, we say not on revelation, but +on theology, or the creative act of God. Right and duty are +identical, we grant; but neither can create its own obligation, +or be its own reason or motive. To say of an act, it is duty +because it is right, or it is right because it is duty, is to +reason, as the logicians say, in a _vicious_ circle, or to +answer _idem per idem_, which is not allowable by any logic +we are acquainted with. We must, then, if we assert morals at +all, come back to theology, and find the ground of obligation or +duty--which is simply the right or authority of God to command +us--in our relation to God, as our creator or first cause, and +the reason or motive in our relation to him as our last end or +final cause. + +No doubt the reason why the rationalistic moralists in modern +times are reluctant to admit this is, because they very +erroneously suppose that it means that the basis of morals is to +be found only in supernatural revelation, and is not +ascertainable or provable by reason. But this is a mistake, +growing out of another mistake; namely, that the creative act is +a truth of revelation only, and not a truth of science or +philosophy. The creative act is a fact of science, the basis, +rather, of all science, as of all life in creatures, and must be +recognized and held before revelation can be logically asserted. +{538} +That God is, and is our creator, our first cause, and our final +cause, are truths that do not depend on revelation to be known; +and the theological basis of morals which we assert, in +opposition to the rationalistic moralists, is within the province +of reason or philosophy. But the rationalists, in seeking to +escape revelation, lose God, and are forced to assert a morality +that is independent of him, and does not suppose or need him in +order to be obligatory. They are obliged, therefore, to seek a +basis of morals in nature, which in its own right has no +legislative authority; for nature is the creature of God, and is +nothing without him. + +The intuition of right, obligation, duty, which, according to our +author, is the fundamental principle of morals, is only, he +himself maintains, the immediate apprehension of a principle or +law of human nature, or of our higher nature, from which we are +to act, instead of acting from our lower nature; but our higher +nature is still nature, and no more legislative than our lower +nature. Nature being always equal to nature, nothing is more +certain than that nature cannot bind nature or place it under +obligation. + +Besides, when the author places the obligation in nature, whether +the higher or the lower, he confounds moral law with physical +law, and mistakes law in the sense in which it proceeds from God +as first cause for law in the sense in which it proceeds from God +as final cause. The physical laws, the natural laws of the +physiologists, are in nature, constitutive of it, +indistinguishable from it, and are what God creates: the moral +law is independent of nature, over it, and declares the end for +which nature exists, and from which, if moral nature, it must +act. It is supernatural in the sense that God is supernatural, +and natural only in the sense that it is promulgated through +natural reason independently of supernatural revelation. Natural +reason asserts the moral law, but asserts it as a law _for_ +nature, not a law in nature. By confounding it with physical +laws, and placing it in nature as the law of natural activity, +the author denies all moral distinction between it and the law by +which the liver secretes bile, or the blood circulates. He holds, +therefore, with Waldo Emerson that gravitation and purity of +heart are identical, and, with our old transcendentalist friends, +that the rule of duty is expressed in the maxims, Obey thyself; +Act out thyself; Follow thy instincts. No doubt they meant, as +our author means, the higher instincts, the nobler self, the +higher nature. But the law recognized and asserted is no more the +moral law than is the physical law by which the rain falls, the +winds blow, the sun shines, the flowers bloom, or the earth +revolves on its axis. Physical laws there are, no doubt, in human +nature; but the theologians tell us that an act done from them is +not an _actus humanus_, but an _actus hominis_, which +has no moral character, and, whatever its tendency, is neither +virtuous nor vicious. + +Mr. Lecky, as nearly all modern philosophers, denies God as final +cause, if not as first cause. The moral law has its reason and +motive in him as our final cause, and this is the difference +between it and physical law. The pagan Greeks denied both first +cause and final cause, for they knew nothing of creation; but +being a finely organized race and living in a country of great +natural beauty, they confounded the moral with the beautiful, as +some moderns confound art with religion. The author so far agrees +with them, at least, as to place duty in the beauty and nobility +of the act, or in acts proceeding from the beauty and nobility of +our nature--what he calls our higher nature. +{539} +We do not quarrel with Plato when he defines beauty to be the +splendor of the divinity, and therefore that all good, noble, and +virtuous acts are beautiful, and that whoever performs them has a +beautiful soul. But there is a wide difference between the +beautiful and the moral, though the Greeks expressed both by the +same term; and art, whose mission it is to realize the beautiful, +has of itself no moral character; it lends itself as readily to +vice as to virtue, and the most artistic ages are very far from +being the most moral or religious ages. The mistake is in +overlooking the fact that every virtuous or moral act must be +done _propter finem_, and that the law, the reason, the +motive of duty depends on the end for which man was made and +exists. + +But the author and his school have not learned that all things +proceed from God by way of creation, and return to him without +absorption in him as their last end. Morals are all in the order +of this return, and are therefore teleological. Not knowing this, +and rejecting this movement of return, they are forced to seek +the basis of morals in man's nature in the order of its +procession from God, where it is not. The intuition they assert +would be something, indeed, if it were the intuition of a +principle or law not included in man's nature, but on which his +nature depends, and to which it is bound, by the right of God +founded in his creative act, to subordinate its acts. But by the +intuition of right, which they assert, they do not mean anything +really objective and independent of our nature, which the mind +really apprehends. On their system they can mean by it only a +mental conception, that is, an abstraction. We indeed find men +who, as theologians, understand and defend the true and real +basis of morals, but who, as philosophers, seeking to defend what +they call natural morality, only reproduce substantially the +errors of the Gentiles. This is no less true of the intuitive +school, than of the selfish, the sentimental, or the utilitarian. +Cudworth founds his moral system in the innate idea of right, in +which he is followed by Dr. Price; Samuel Clarke gives, as the +basis of morals, the idea of the fitness of things; Wollaston +finds it in conformity to truth; Butler, in the idea or sense of +duty; Jouffroy, in the idea of order; Fourier, in passional +harmony--only another name for Jouffroy's order. But these all, +since they exclude all intuition of the end or final cause, build +on a mental conception, or a psychological abstraction, taken as +real. The right, the fitness, the duty, the order they assert are +only abstractions, and they see it not. + +It is the hardest thing in the world to convince philosophers +that the real is real, and the unreal is unreal, and therefore +nothing. Abstractions are firmed by the mind, and are nothing out +of the concrete from which they are generalized. A system of +philosophy, speculative or moral, built on abstractions or +abstract conceptions of the true, the right, the just, or duty, +has no real foundation, and no more solidity than "the baseless +fabric of a vision." Yet we cannot make the philosophers see it, +and every day we hear people, whose language they have corrupted, +talk of "abstract principles," "abstract right," "abstract +justice," "abstract duty," "abstract philosophy," "abstract +science;" all of which are "airy nothings," to which not even the +poet can give "a local habitation and a name." The philosophers +who authorize such expressions are very severe on sensists and +utilitarians; yet they really hold that all non-sensible +principles and causes, and all ideas not derived from the +senses, are abstractions, and that the sciences which treat of +them are abstract sciences. +{540} +Know they not that this is precisely what the sensists themselves +do? If the whole non-sensible order is an abstraction, only the +sensible is real, or exists _a parte rei_, and there is no +intelligible reality distinct from the sensible world. All +heathen philosophy ends in one and the same error, which can be +corrected only by understanding that the non-sensible is not an +abstraction, but real being, that is God, or the real relation +between God and his acts or creatures. But to do this requires +our philosophers to cast out from their minds the old leaven of +heathenism which they have retained, to recognize the creative +act of God, and to find in theology the basis of both science and +morals. + +Mr. Lecky proves himself, in the work before us, as in his +previous work, an unmitigated rationalist, and rationalism is +only heathenism revived. He himself proves it. He then can be +expected to write the history of European morals only from a +heathen point of view, and his judgments of both heathen and +Christian morals will be, in spite of himself, only those of a +respectable pagan philosopher and in the latter period of pagan +empire, and attached to the moral philosophy of the Porch. He is +rather tolerant than otherwise of Christianity, in some respects +even approves it, lauds it for some doctrines and influences +which it pleases him to ascribe to it, and to which it has no +claim; but judges it from a stand-point far above that of the +fathers, and from a purely pagan point of view, as we may take +occasion hereafter to show, principally from his account of the +conversion of Rome, and the triumph of the Christian religion in +the Roman empire. + +But we have taken up so much space in discussing the nature and +foundation of morals, to which the author devotes his preliminary +chapter, that we have no room for any further discussion at +present. What we have said, however, will suffice, we think, to +prove that rationalism is as faulty in morals as in religion, to +vindicate the church from the charge of teaching a selfish +morality, and to prove that the only solid basis of morals is in +theology. + +---------- + + Faith. + + Faith is no weakly flower, + By sudden blight, or heat, or stormy shower + To perish in an hour. + + But rich in hidden worth, + A plant of grace, though striking root in earth, + It boasts a hardy birth: + + Still from its native skies + Draws energy which common shocks defies, + And lives where nature dies! + + + Oratory, Birmington. E. Caswall. + +------- + +{541} + + + Religion Emblemed In Flowers. + + + "Wondrous truths, and manifold as wondrous, + God hath written in the stars above; + But not less in the bright flowerets under us + Stands the revelation of his love. + And with childlike, credulous affection + We behold their tender buds expand-- + Emblems of our own great resurrection, + Emblems of the bright and better land." + + +Of all the poetic and suggestive traditions that linger with us +from the early ages--those ages when art revived through +religion, and symbolized the truths of eternity by the creation +and application of such esthetics which, under the dominion of +heathendom, had been perverted to purely sensual enjoyment--of +all these traditions, then, we find few more beautiful in their +various types, more elevating in their idealization, or which +form a stronger connecting link between the soul's aspirations +and our material enjoyment, than those frailest children of the +beautiful that belong to the floral kingdom. Coeval with the +creation, the solace, companions, and delight of our first +parents, they shared the punishment, likewise, of man's +transgression, in the flood; but when the waters subsided, they +were the chosen symbols to announce to Noah the cessation of +omnipotent vengeance, and the first to greet the weary wanderers, +as their feet again touched the earth; raising their lowly heads +from around the tree-roots, and through the rocky fissures, as +emblems of the life immortal that springs from decay. + +Among those which seem to be the chosen ones, as most expressive +of religious sentiment, both in the Old and New Testament as well +as in early legendary lore, are the rose, the lily, the olive, +and the palm. + +To each of these has been given a significance, from the earliest +times, that has made them cherished with our households and +associated with our faith. Although the rose was perverted by the +heathen into a type of sensual love and luxury, yet, through the +marvellous beauty and variety of its creation, it was reclaimed +by the Christian poets, to be the attendant of the pure and holy, +wherever an ornament was needed to paint a moral victory, or +glorify decay. + +That this flower was largely cultivated by the Jews, and used in +their religious festivals as an ornament, is made clear by the +frequent use we find of it, as a simile in the Bible. Solomon, in +his song, compares the church to the "rose of Sharon and lily of +the valley." Again, in the book of Wisdom, we see their +appreciation in the admonition, "Let us crown ourselves with +rosebuds ere they be withered." Also, in Ecclesiasticus, occurs +this metaphor, "I was exalted like a palm-tree in Engaddi, and as +a rose-plant in Jericho." Again, "Hearken to me, ye holy +children, and bud forth as roses growing by the brook." + +It was a belief among the Jews, according to Zoroaster, says +Howitt, "that every flower is appropriated to a particular angel, +and that the hundred-leaf rose is consecrated to an archangel of +the highest order." The same author relates, that the Persian +fire-worshippers believe that Abraham was thrown into a furnace +by Nimrod, and the flames forthwith turned into a bed of roses. + +{542} + +In contradistinction to this in sentiment is the belief of the +Turk, who holds that this lovely flower springs from the +perspiration of Mohammed, and, in accordance with this creed, +they never tread upon it or suffer one to lie upon the ground. + +I think it was Solon who held the theory that the rose and the +woman were created at the same time, and in consequence thereof, +there sprang up a contest among the gods, as to which should be +awarded the palm of superior beauty. Certainly there may yet be +traced a close resemblance between these native queens, not only +in the matter of beauty, but also in the variety and fragility +for which the rose, above all others, is distinguished. +Everywhere has God planted this exquisite work of his hand. In +the bleak polar regions, where the days of sunshine are so short, +and so few, there is seen among the first breathings of the +summer zephyrs the "_Rosa rapa_," its slender stem covered +with pale double flowers, lifting its head to greet those +ice-bound prisoners as they issue from the stifling air of their +winter huts. Degraded as are that people in their tastes, the +magic of these silent messengers from God is so forcible, that +they greet them with a poet's joy, and deck their heads and rough +sealskin clothing with their tender blossoms. Even to the +broken-hearted Siberian exile, there come a few short days in his +life when these frail comforters rise from the frozen earth to +greet him, like messengers from his lost home and friends. ... It +is not to be wondered, then, with all the associations of Eden +ever clinging about these eloquent voices, that the early +Christians transferred their ornamental and suggestive beauties +from the saturnalian rites of heathendom to the honor of God and +his saints. Hence it is, that, in so many of the beautiful +legends that have come down to us, we find these frail memorials +so often associated as types of some noble deed accomplished, or +the given reward of some heavy human sacrifice. To those who look +upon these legends as myths, or simply religious fairy tales, we +can only say, with Mrs. Jameson, that we most sincerely pity all +such sceptics from our heart; for, where they outstrip the bounds +of even miraculous probability, there may yet be found in their +pages both entertainment and instruction. And after all, why +should not religion have her fairyland, as well as material life? +Why should not the soul enjoy the privilege of an occasional +transport into a world of poetical visions, as well as the +imagination, which finds in the fairy-dreams of childhood only a +dim vista of annual blooms, upon which the breath of heaven can +never blow? Weary with the turmoil of life, with the noise and +whirl of the shifting scenes that open continuously upon a vista +of pain, and sorrow, and unrealized hopes, such legends recall to +the soul auroral gleams of childhood's purity, and transport her +into fields that are redolent with the flowers of that eternal +land where earthly woes can never come. In this Dodona grove, the +soul hallows the heart; the impossible becomes the real; and as +all the aspirations for the higher life possess it, the skies +seem to open, we catch a flutter of the angels' robes, the +perfume of the flowers of paradise, and a glimmer even of the +golden gates shoots radiantly across the uplifted, tear-dimmed +eye; and we feel, for these few moments at least, that God and +heaven are very nigh, ay! even in our heart of hearts. +{543} +What matters it, then, if it be not all truth, since it serves +the purpose, and for the time being decks the soul in regal +splendor, and makes the unattainable and dim worth the longest +toil and hardest battle that the short span of human life can +compass? In those early ages, when the heathen idols were +tottering on their thrones, and the voice of Pan had died out in +a mighty wail at the sound of a feeble infant's cry--in those +dawning Christian days there was felt the need of mental food of +a nourishing and elevating kind for the masses. Heretofore, they +had been kept occupied by public games, periodical saturnalian +revels, gladiatorial combats, and other heathen abominations, in +order to allow the philosopher to pursue his subtle theories in +quiet, and the wheels of government to run smoothly on. As years +and numbers, however, increased the Christian fold, and the first +fervor began to abate under the influence of human passions and +the need of life's varieties, it became evident that some food +was necessary to meet the hunger of the craving mind. The time +and thoughts of the philosophers and theologians were too deeply +engrossed with the abstruse problems of the day--the esoteric and +exoteric--to give other time beyond that of the soul's immediate +requirements to the ignorant. Hence it was, that, as human blood +was poured out like water, in libations to the true God, when +beauty and innocence, rank and lowliness, wealth and poverty, +found a common centre wherein to pray and suffer--hence it was, +that the religious, poetic heart of the people idealized and +beatified these deeds of heroic sanctity; and the church, while +striving to repress extravagance, yet welcomed and fostered a +taste which she saw, in her mighty wisdom, would be productive of +elevating thought and emulative example. "And it is a mistake," +says Mrs. Jameson, "to suppose that these legends had their sole +origin in the brains of dreaming monks. The wildest of them had +some basis of truth to rest on, and the forms which they +gradually assumed were but the necessary results of the age which +produced them. They became the intense expression of that inner +life which revolted against the desolation and emptiness of the +outward existence; of those crushed and outraged sympathies which +cried aloud for rest, and refuge, and solace, and could nowhere +find them." Mrs. Jameson disclaims any idea of treating these +legends save in their poetic and artistic aspect. But as religion +is the root from whence all have their source, so it is +insensibly transmuted throughout the whole work. And how could +she do otherwise, Protestant though she was? For the great trunk, +the massive column, around which all these delicate fibres of +poesy cling, is religion. Without such support, they would fall, +and be trailed in the dust, and long, long ere this, their +ephemeral life would have been crushed out, as were the oracular +voices of the marble gods. + +This literature, then, "became one in which peace was represented +as better than war, and sufferance more dignified than +resistance; which exhibited poverty and toil as honorable, and +charity as the first of virtues; which held up to imitation and +emulation self-sacrifice in the cause of good, and contempt of +death for conscience' sake--a literature in which the tenderness, +the chastity, the heroism of woman, played a conspicuous part; +which distinctly protested against slavery, against violence, +against impurity in word and deed; which refreshed the fevered +and darkened spirit with images of moral beauty and truth, +revealed bright glimpses of a better land, where the wicked cease +from troubling, and brought down the angels of God with shining +wings, and bearing crowns of glory, to do battle with the demons +of darkness, to catch the fleeting soul of the triumphant martyr, +and carry it at once into a paradise of eternal blessedness and +peace." [Footnote 157] + + [Footnote 157: Mrs. Jameson's _Legendary Art_.] + +{544} + +Under the influence, then, of these new inspirations, art +likewise revived, and the brush and the chisel lent the aid of +their immortal touch to give force and perpetuity to these +creations; and birds, and flowers, and the elements were +introduced as types or allegories of the subjects thus +interpreted. Each one possessed a significance and symbolism that +united the soul to the eternal source of these gifts, and kept +alive in the common heart those principles which the people could +admire if not emulate. The rapidity with which artists multiplied +at this period belongs to the marvelous. God needed artisans for +his work, and truly the old masters seemed, judging from their +deeds and spirit, to have risen, like Adam, from the clay +moulding of the almighty hand. Possessed by a sense of the lofty +nature of their calling, they not only strove for perfection in +detail, but also for a religious spirit, which should so inspire +the work as to move every heart to piety, and embody for +instruction the full force of the solemn truths therein +portrayed. They emerged from the impure influences of the old +religion and literature, like the chrysalis, into the golden-hued +glory that shone in the lives of the ancient patriarchs and +prophets; in the auroral beams that hung like sea-foam over the +angels as they walked or talked as God's messengers on earth, +until, bathed in a glory borrowed from the very smile of the +Creator, they saw the divine Son descend like the morning star, +and dwell upon earth among men. + +In all their work a confession of faith lay embodied; and feeling +themselves called to this vocation, hearing the voice and seeing +in the enthusiasm of their fervor the burning bush, they purified +themselves by prayer, and fasting, and long meditation upon the +subject that was to grow into life under the glowing tints of the +brush or the magic stroke of the chisel. This mystical spirit so +elevated and ennobled the soul-work of those grand old masters +that faults in mechanical execution and anachronisms in details +are, even to this day, overlooked, for the sake of that _con +amore_ zeal which pervades the vital treatment of their +subjects. Fra Angelico, a Dominican monk, devoted his art life +exclusively to the religious mysticism of his subjects. "Whenever +he painted Christ upon the cross," says Jarves, "the tears would +roll down his cheeks as if he were an actual eyewitness of his +Saviour's agony. There is a celestial glow in all his beatified +faces that seem to radiate from his own soul." Lippo Dalmasio, an +early painter of Bologna, was also noted for his piety in art. + + "He never painted the holy Virgin without fasting the previous + evening, and receiving absolution and the bread of angels in + the morning after; and, finally, never consented to paint for + hire, but only as a means of devotion." [Footnote 158] + + [Footnote 158: Lord Lindsay's _Christian Art_.] + +Add to these, Luini, of Milan; Francia, of Bologna; Gentile and +John Bellini, of Venice; Fra Bartolomeo, the Florentine monk, and +friend of Savonarola; Perugino, and finally, Raphael--and we have +the list of those who led the vanguard in the perpetuity of those +heaven-toned idealizations that yet greet the eye with their +beauty and animate the heart with emotions of grateful homage. + +{545} + + "Such art has left us, and can never again be revived until + artists believe and pray as did those men of old; until they + can see and feel as they did at all hours, amid their + rejoicings or as they slept, holy personages, saints, and + virgins, apostles and evangelists, martyrs, and the symbolized + faith for which they died. Virtues, and not graces; angels, and + not muses; types of spiritual truths, and not expressions of + sensuous beauty or lustful passion--these were their daily + intellectual food. Amid all things--in church, shop, or + bedroom; on the roadside and by the palace; at every street + corner, and over every threshold--were the figures of the + Redeemer and his holy mother to direct their thoughts still + higher heavenward. Religion, at all events, in its external + form, and as _believed_, was confessed by all men and in + all places. Youth were taught to rely on spiritual powers for + their earthly support and sole sustenance. Charity, faith, the + due subjection of the body to the development of its perfect + strength, humanity, the succor of the oppressed, the relief of + the unfortunate, _devoir_, duty to all men--such were the + doctrines of chivalry in the middle ages." [Footnote 159] + + [Footnote 159: _Art Hints_, by Jarves.] + +Apart from the palm and olive, we find no mention in the New +Testament of flowers, save that exquisite simile of the lilies, +made by our Saviour himself; and there can be found no other +instance wherein such an illustration is rendered with more +beautiful pathos and force. That he appreciated these frail +emblems is not only made apparent in this, but is further proved +by his choice of the calm repose and soothing influence of these +silent sympathizers on Gethsemane's night of woe. No human +companionship, no human eye or voice, could aid him then, in that +fearful contest of humanity over divinity, as did nature's +voiceless comforters--the flowers that were bent down by the +weight of their tears, the great shifting sky above, with the +eloquent calm of its silver stars, through which floated clear +and luminous the angel comforters. Our Saviour proved in all the +suffering episodes of his life that lovely groves, and dim +funereal forests speak more forcibly to a heart in pain than do +the wilder and grander convulsions of nature. + + "It is in quiet and subdued passages of unobtrusive majesty, + the deep, the calm, and the perpetual; that which must be + sought ere it can be seen, and loved ere it is understood; + things which the angels work out for us daily, and yet vary + eternally; which are never wanting, and never repeated; which + are to be found always, yet each found but once--it is through + these that her lesson of devotion is chiefly taught and the + blessing of beauty given." [Footnote 160] + + [Footnote 160: Ruskin's _Modern Painters_. ] + +Nowhere have these beautiful accessories in life's pilgrimage +been more glowingly and successfully used, not only as an +abstract religious emblem, but as a divine allegorical poem, than +in the representations of the life and attributes of the blessed +Virgin. To this type of all that was pure and noble in woman; to +the humanity which was a link in the chain of divinity, a +partaker of all human woes, and yet the chosen of the Godhead--to +her were specially dedicated those early labors in revived art, +and of which she was the inspiration. Herein, as elsewhere, we +find the historical, mystical, and devotional treated with every +conceivable adjunct that can typify a being so elevated and +benign. The beauty and variety of the rose, the purity and +fragrance of the lily, were devoted to her special honor, +wherever her name was venerated and loved. Even before it was +safe for the early Christians to make an open profession of +faith, they expressed their devotion to the mother conjointly +with the Son, in the darkness and solitude of the catacombs. +{546} +Therein it was, that the first Christian artist dared give life +to his heart's belief; and therein it was, that her image with +that of her divine Son and the apostles were impressed upon the +walls and sarcophagi of that grand subterranean temple. + +As the Annunciation was the door through which all future +blessings flowed, so it became a most fruitful theme to the faith +and imagination of those great religious artists whose work was a +labor of love; and we find it treated from the fifth to the +sixteenth century by Byzantine, Italian, Spanish, and German art +with a variety, beauty, and significance that only an enshrined +saint could inspire. In the earliest representations of this +subject, the angel appeared holding a sceptre, but this mark of +authority gradually gave way to the more symbolic lily. This was +introduced universally, either held in the hand of the angel as +he salutes her, or seen growing in a pot placed in some part of +the room. Others again, represent an enclosed garden, upon which +the Blessed Virgin is looking from a window. In all, from the +crudest to the most finished, some floral adjunct gives beauty +and significance to the subject. The Assumption--that fitting +climacteric of a life whence sprung the Eternal Word--was +likewise a theme of devotional and sublimated art-worship, which +gathered pathos and beauty from the belief that her body was +worthy the care of the seraphim and cherubim, who transported it +with angelic harmonies into the home of her glorified Son. Here, +too, we find, according to the legend, her floral emblems +springing up in the tomb from whence her incorruptible body had +just been raised. + +In an Annibale Carracci, the apostles are seen below, one of whom +is lifting, with an astonished air, a handful of roses out of the +sepulchre. In another, by Rubens, one of the women exhibits the +miraculous flowers held up in the folds of her dress. Dominico di +Bartolo, who painted in 1430, (according to Mrs. Jameson,) omits +the open tomb, but clothes the holy mother in a white robe +embroidered with golden flowers. + +From the time of the Nestorian heresy, when the title of _Dei +genitrix_ was denied the Blessed Virgin, her votaries became +even more zealous to corroborate her right to the title and +privileges of mother of the man-God; and under the influence of +this test of devotion and faith sprang those multitudinous +representations of the woman glorified, as the enthroned Madonna. +From thence the descent was natural and gradual to those +characteristics which distinguished her life in its daily +ministrations to her divine Son; and so touchingly natural, so +beautiful in their tenderness, are many of these more human +portraitures, that the coldest heart cannot withhold its homage, +though it may its devotion. Even Mrs. Jameson, herself a +Protestant, says, "We look, and the heart is in heaven; and it is +difficult to refrain from an _Ora pro nobis_." In a large +number of these inspirations of faith and love, we meet the +various floral emblems that typify her beauty and purity. Some of +the earliest representations are found in many of the old Gothic +cathedrals, executed in sculpture. She is therein portrayed in a +standing position, bearing the child on her left arm, while in +the right hand she holds a flower, or sometimes a sceptre. In a +holy family in the academy of Venice, by Bonifazio, "The virgin +is seated in glory, with her infant on her knee, and encircled by +cherubim. On one side an angel approaches with a basket of +flowers on his head, and she is in the act of taking these +flowers and scattering them on the saints who stand below." + +{547} + +The Arcadian and pastoral life, with which many of the Italian +artists environ the mother and child, is certainly both poetical +and natural. Mrs. Jameson gives many instances of this treatment; +among them, one by Philippino Lippi, which is a beautiful idea. +"Here," she says, "the mystical garden is formed of a balustrade, +beyond which is seen a hedge, all in blush with roses. The virgin +kneels in the midst and adores her infant; an angel scatters rose +leaves over him, while the little St. John also kneels, and four +angels, in attitudes of devotion, complete the group." "But a +more perfect example," continues the same author, "is the Madonna +of Francia in the Munich gallery, where the divine infant lies on +the flowery turf, and the mother standing before him, and looking +down on him, seems on the point of sinking on her knees in a +transport of tenderness and devotion. With all the simplicity of +the treatment, it is strictly devotional. The mother and her +child are placed within the mystical garden enclosed in a +_treillage_ of roses, alone with each other, and apart from +all earthly associations, all earthly communions." + +Those who are familiar with the Raphael series of Madonnas will +recall, in this connection, his exquisite pastoral _La +Jardinière_. There is also one similarly entitled by a French +artist, though differently treated. The virgin is enthroned on +clouds, and holds the infant, whose feet rest on a globe. Both +mother and child are crowned with roses; and on each side, as if +rising from the clouds, are vases filled with roses and lilies. +Titian has also left many beautiful and some exaggerated works of +the Arcadian school. There is an old Coptic tradition which is +very beautiful, and bears somewhat on this subject of nature's +aid in glorifying these two lives. Near the site of the ancient +Heliopolis, there still stands a very pretty garden, in which +(runs the tradition) the holy family rested in their flight into +Egypt. Feeling oppressed with thirst, a spring of fresh water +gushed at their feet, and on being pursued into their retreat by +robbers, a sycamore-tree opened, and hid them from sight. "The +spring still exists," says a recent traveller, "and the tree yet +stands, and bears such unmistakable marks of antiquity as to make +this tradition and faith of the present generation of Coptics at +least plausible." But these floral emblematical tributes are as +inexhaustible as are the sentiments of love, homage, and tender +pity that fill the heart from the contemplation of the _Mater +Dei Genitrix_ down to the appealing anguish of the +_Dolorosa_. "Thus in highest heaven, yet not out of sight of +earth; in beatitude past utterance; in blessed fruition of all +that faith creates and love desires; amid angel hymns and starry +glories," we will leave enthroned the "blessed amongst women," +and turn to other legends, wherein the saints who followed her +stand crowned with flowers celestial, awaiting a share of our +praise and veneration. + + + Part Second. + +In Thuringia, one of the provinces of Germany, the traveller is +attracted by a species of rose that is universally cultivated by +the poorest peasant, as well as the richest land-owner. When the +question as to its origin is asked, the answer invariably is, +"Oh! that is the rose of the dear St. Elizabeth, our former +queen; and was grown from one of the sprigs given to her by the +angels." +{548} +One might as well try to turn the faith of these simple people +from their belief in the sanctity of her life as from the truth +of the miraculous roses. According to Montalembert and others, +thus runs the substance of the legend. Elizabeth loved the poor, +and was specially devoted to relieving their necessities, +frequently carrying with her own hands goods of various kinds, to +distribute among them. At one season, there was a great scarcity +of crops throughout the land, and caution and economy in the use +of the royal stores had been advised even in the palace. +Elizabeth could not bear to know of unrelieved suffering among +her people; so, by close economy in her own wants, she managed to +furnish food for many others. On one occasion, a very pressing +case of necessity reached her; and not wishing to encourage her +servants in disobedience to the general command, she started +alone on her errand of mercy, with some lighter articles of food +concealed in the folds of her dress. Just as she reached the back +steps of the chateau, however, she met her husband, with several +gentlemen, returning from the chase. Astonished to see his wife +alone, and thus burdened, he asked her to show him what she was +carrying; but as she held her dress in terror to her breast, he +gently disengaged her hands, and behold! "It was filled with +white and red roses, the most beautiful he ever saw." + +Wandering in thought over these scenes wherein the air is +redolent with their fragrance, the form of the young and lovely +Dorothea, with the radiant boy-angel at her side, rises in +diaphonous light before the vision. We see her as she stands +confronting her heathen judge Fabricius, who longs to possess her +charms; and to his command, "Thou must serve our gods or die." +she mildly answers, "Be it so; the sooner shall I stand in the +presence of _Him_ I most desire to behold." Then the +governor asked her, "Whom meanest thou?" She replied, "I mean the +Son of God, Christ, mine espoused. His dwelling is in paradise; +by his side are joys eternal, and in his garden grow celestial +fruits, and roses that never fade." And resisting all +temptations, all entreaties, she went forth to torture and to +death. "And as she went," (continues the legend,) "a young man, a +lawyer of the city, named Theophilus, who had been present when +she was first brought before the governor, called to her +mockingly, 'Ha! fair maiden, goest thou to join thy bridegroom? +Send me, I pray thee, of the fruits and flowers of that same +garden of which thou hast spoken. I would fain taste of them!' +And Dorothea, looking on him, inclined her head with a gentle +smile, and said, 'Thy request, O Theophilus! is granted.' Where +at he laughed aloud with his companions; but she went on +cheerfully to death. When she came to the place of execution, she +knelt down and prayed; and suddenly at her side stood a bright +and beautiful boy, with hair bright as sunbeams. In his hands, he +held a basket containing three apples and three fresh-gathered +fragrant roses. She said to-him, 'Carry these to Theophilus; say +that Dorothea hath sent them, and that I go before him to the +garden whence they came, and await him there.' With those words, +she bent her neck, and received the stroke of death. Meantime, +the angel went to seek Theophilus, and found him still laughing +in merry mood over the idea of the promised gift. The angel +placed before him the basket of celestial fruit and flowers, +saying, 'Dorothea sends thee these,' and vanished." +{549} +Amazement filled the mind of Theophilus, and the taste of the +fruit and fragrance of the roses pervaded his soul with a new +life, the scales of darkness fell, and he proclaimed himself a +servant of the same Lord that had won the heart of the gentle +maiden. Carlo Dolci, Rubens, and Van Eyck have given the most +poetical illustrations of this subject. Many other artists have +also treated it, but more coldly. + +With the name of St. Cecilia arise visions of angels poised in +mid-air, enthralled by seraphic music, which, through the power +of its voluminous sweetness, has pierced even the gates of +heaven. But the flowers of paradise, as well as its celestial +harmonies, are also associated with the name of this beautiful +virgin--flowers that were sent to her bridal-chamber, as a reward +for her angelic purity and the eloquence which had moved her +young heathen husband to respect her vow of chastity. Returning +from the instructions of St. Urban, to whom she had sent him, he +heard the most enchanting music, and on reaching his wife's +chamber he "beheld an angel, who was standing near her, and who +held in his hands two crowns of roses gathered in paradise, +immortal in their freshness and perfume, but invisible to the +eyes of unbelievers. With these he encircled the brows of Cecilia +and Valerian; and he said to Valerian, "Because thou hast +followed the chaste counsel of thy wife, and hast believed her +words, ask what thou wilt, it shall be granted thee." + +I stood, early one morning late in the month of June, looking +sadly upon the dead, white, upturned face of one who had seemed +to walk, while on earth, more with angels than with men. A +mystery of sadness had enveloped her life, but, like the cloud in +the wilderness, it proved a power that drew her in the footprints +of the "Man of sorrows." As I meditated upon the calm +etherealized beauty that now absorbed the old earthly pain, and +wondered what this secret of a heart-life could have been, her +mother entered with tear-dimmed eyes, and placed upon her brow of +auburn hair, through which glinted here and there a streak of +gray--"dawn of another life that broke o'er her earthly +horizon"--in her hands, and over the white fleecy robes, crowns +and sprays of mingled crimson and white roses, all glistening +with the morning dew. + +"Red roses for the dead!" I exclaimed in surprise. "White alone +can surely typify such a life and death as hers." + +"So you think, my friend, because you with others saw only the +outward calm that marked her way. But I--I who loved her so, knew +and saw the thorn-crown that pressed her brow, and the hard +stones and barbs that strewed every step of her way through +life--I place them then here, because she loved them, and because +they express, in conjunction with their sister's whiteness, the +sorrow and purity of the angelic life now closed to pain and open +only to joy. + + "Well done of God, to halve the lot, + And give her all the sweetness; + To us, the empty room and cot; + To her, the heaven's completeness. + For her to gladden in God's view; + For us to hope and bear on. + Grow, Lily, in thy garden new + Beside the rose of Sharon." + +I turned away sadly, marvelling upon the mystery of this life now +closed so happily, and involuntarily arose to my mind the +exquisite legend of the sultan's daughter. + +{550} + + I. + + "Early in the morning, + The sultan's daughter + Walked in her father's garden, + Gathering the bright flowers, + All full of dew. + And as she gathered them, + She wondered more and more + Who was the master of the flowers, + And made them grow + Out of the cold, dark earth. + In my heart,' she said, + 'I love him; and for him + Would leave my father's palace + To labor in his garden.' + + II. + + "And at midnight + As she lay upon her bed, + She heard a voice + Call to her from the garden, + And, looking forth from her window, + She saw a beautiful youth + Standing among the flowers; + And she went down to him, + And opened the door for him; + And he said to her,'O maiden! + Thou hast thought of me with love, + And for thy sake + Out of my father's kingdom + Have I come hither. + I am the master of the flowers; + My garden is in paradise, + And if thou wilt go with me, + Thy bridal garland + Shall be of bright red flowers.' + And then he took from his finger + A golden ring, + And asked the sultan's daughter + If she would be his bride. + And when she answered him with love, + His wounds began to bleed, + And she said to him, + 'O Love! how red thy heart is, + And thy hands are full of roses.' + 'For thy sake,' answered he, + 'For thy sake is my heart so red, + For thee I bring these roses. + I gathered them at the cross + Whereon I died for thee! + Come, for my father calls, + Thou art my celestial bride!' + And the sultan's daughter + Followed him to his father's garden." [Footnote 161] + + [Footnote 161: _Golden Legend_, by Longfellow.] + +Throughout all the early church legends, we find whatever is pure +and beautiful in sentiment and exalted in art carefully +cherished, and constantly presented to the contemplation of the +votary in some glowing form that could act as a counterpoise to +the corrupting influence of heathen passions and pursuits. + +When the holy mother stood on Calvary, her heart steeped in agony +unutterable, not the least cause of her anguish was to see the +waste of those precious drops of blood as they bedewed the hard +insensible ground. But behold! as she gazes, and her tears fall, +delicate bell-shaped crimson blossoms spring up, and absorb the +human dew; and thus, through these frail beautifiers of suffering +and consolers of grief, the heart of the mother was comforted, +and the soul is drawn to look upward, away from the agonizing +ignominy of the cross to the beatified glory to which he is +translated at the price of so much woe. + +Thus also, in the horrid details of the early martyrdoms, we +constantly meet these compensating, suggestive metaphors of the +glory won. The painful agony of the downward crucifixion of St. +Peter, the waste of blood from that congested head, springs into +a fountain of clear gurgling water, from which flows healing for +all suffering flesh that seek its miraculous aid. As St. Grata +bears the decapitated head of her friend St. Alexander to the +tomb, lo! flowers spring up as the blood falls, and are gathered +by the mourners to deck his grave. + +Among the little band that followed Mother Seton more than fifty +years ago, in her divine mission of self-abnegation and Christian +love, was a delicate young woman whose life had been spent in +ease, amid the devoted love and admiration of a large family +circle. Dreamy and poetical by nature, her talent, then rare +among American women, was revered and looked up to by seven young +brothers as something marvellous; and no implement more fatiguing +than the pen or needle was ever allowed to weary her dainty +fingers. One day as she sat amid her flowers and books, conning a +new inspiration, suddenly the open door of heaven seemed to stand +before her, and she felt a voice saying, "He who would come after +me must take up his cross and follow me." +{551} +And believing that her heavenly spouse had called, she closed her +books, and turned her face steadfastly away from her weeping +friends, and went cheerfully forth to privation and labor. +Faithful to her new vows, religion yet did not forbid the +exercise of the talent God had given her; only now her themes had +become more exalted, and the love and perennial sublimity of +heaven took the place of the perishable and annual blooms of +time. The privations and labors spent in the service of suffering +humanity soon reduced her delicate frame to patient helplessness; +but the beauty and love of God in his works and ways triumphed +over all her bodily infirmities, and her strength was never too +frail to raise a _sursum corda_ in his praise. Whitsuntide +of 1813 rose in the light of a glorious May morning, and the +sufferer lay panting for breath, after a night of exhausting +hemorrhage, and she knew that the angel, with palm in hand, stood +by her side ready to conduct her to God. In blissful hope of the +fruition that now dawned upon all those past sacrifices, labors, +and sufferings, she fell, to the music of those unseen, +undulating wings, into a sweet sleep. Mother Seton, who had left +the sufferer's bed for a breath of the fresh morning air, just +then returned from the garden, bearing in her hand the first rose +of the season, knowing how refreshing and suggestive such a gift +would be to the weary sufferer. Rejoiced to find her in repose, +she gently laid the flower upon her bosom, above the white, +folded hands, and quietly left the room. The fitful fever sleep +was soon ended, and as Mary opened her eyes, first the fragrance, +then the beauty of this heavenly symbol, caught her eye. Wasted +and dying though the earthly tenement was, the soul, the poet's +soul, yet glowed with vital power; and raising from a little +table at her side a pencil and paper, she thereon breathed her +last pean of poetic utterance in these lines: + + "The morning was beautiful, mild, and serene, + All nature had waked from repose; + Maternal affection came silently in, + And placed on my bosom a rose. + + "Poor nature was weak, and had almost prevailed, + The weary eyelids were closed; + But the soul rose in triumph, and joyfully hailed + The sweet queen of flowers--the rose. + + "Whitsuntide was the time, the season of love: + Methought the blest spirit had chose + To leave for awhile the mild form of a dove, + And come in the blush of a rose. + + "Come, Heavenly Spirit, descend on each breast, + And there let thy blessing repose, + As thou once didst on Mary, thy temple of rest; + For Mary's our mystical rose. + + "Oh! may every rose that blooms forth evermore, + Enkindle the spirit of those + Who see it, or wear it, to bless and adore + The hand that created the rose." + +When Mother Seton returned, she found the lines with the rose +still lying on her bosom; and looking into the sweet upturned +face, she saw the signet of death stamped upon the luminous eyes, +and knew by her short, heavy breathing that ere long she would be +singing her songs in the rose-gardens of paradise. + +Suggestive of peace and lowliness as are these creations, yet +even they have been perverted by the passions of man into +insignia of blood and shame. The thirty years' war of the houses +of York and Lancaster make the white and red rose ever associated +with the sorrows and humiliations, the heroic endurance, and true +womanly nobility of Margaret of Anjou. We see her as she stands +under her rose-banner, on the heights of Tewksbury, with +dauntless courage in her heart, and a mother's wild prayer upon +her lips; standing there, amid the wild havoc, unflinchingly, +until the wailing, weird blast of the trumpeters tells her that +her beautiful white rose is broken at the stem, and its leaves +scattered, trampled, and bathed in the life-blood of her only +son. + +{552} + +Tracing, then, these exquisite adumbrations throughout the +spiritual aspect of life, is it strange that we have learned to +look upon these frail children of the beautiful as one of the +connecting links with heaven? Of such every heart has its +conservatory; every home its storehouse of withered, scentless +mementoes, that recall, when the gates of the sanctuary are +unbarred, memories deep and voiceless, and faces whose beauty has +paled, like them, in dust. Here is the remnant of a cross of +white _immortelles_. It was taken from the breast of a loved +one who died far away in a foreign land, among strangers. It was +sent with the last spoken words to comfort and uplift the heart +of the mourners; and as we lift it from the sacred casket, the +echo of those words seems to take form in the rustle of its +blighted leaves, and the old, subdued sorrow breaks out afresh +before the multitudinous memories and images evoked by a withered +flower. + +Here lie together a sprig of orange blossom and a white rosebud, +double memorial of a happy bridal and an early grave. Ere the +perfume of the orange blossom had faded from her brow, the white +rose lay on her pulseless heart. Ere the echo of the wedding +march had died on the air, it was merged into a requiem dirge of +woe. + +Ah this spray of brown leaves! what memories lie folded in its +veins! A picture of a lone, far away grave rises, and by its side +kneel a wife and daughter, come from a great distance to pay some +tribute to a beloved one's last resting-spot in a land of +strangers. Desolate looked the bare, uncultivated mound; but at +the head some tender stranger's hand had placed a plain wooden +cross to mark the spot for the absent ones, and planted a wild +rose which twined its arms over and around the cross in graceful +beauty, as if to offer a poor substitute for the visits of loving +friends. How warmly the prayers of the widow went forth for that +unknown one who had thus filled the place and thoughtfulness of +the absent! + +A prisoner walks rapidly up and down the parapet of the Capitol +prison in Washington, the wild throbbings of his heart keeping +time to the tramp, tramp of his restless feet, which long for +space, for liberty, and the sound of the brother voices that send +their wild echo from the other side of the Potomac. Suddenly the +laughter of a child's voice sounds above him, and, as he in +surprise raises his eyes, lo! a cherub head looks from a window +down upon him, and the little hands drop at his feet a half-blown +rose. + +"War's wild alarum call" suddenly dies out, and the soldier's +dream of glory gives place to the man's warm love. The wide blue +sea no longer rolls between him and home, and over and above the +din of battle floats the voice of mother and sister in loving +prayer for the absent one, who, impelled by a noble people's cry +for aid, hastened to the rescue, and found instead of the +_élan_ of battle the cold, dark walls of a prison home. Lo! +the power and pathos of a little child and a fragile flower +within the walls of a dungeon. + +A father kneels in grief unutterable by the soulless body of a +little daughter. In the agony of his rebellious grief, he prays +to God to send him one ray of comfort, one gleam of light, to see +and know that the transition is at least well for her. As he +raises his head, his eyes fall upon the family Bible, and with +the prayer still in his heart he opens its leaves, and his +finger, as if guided by an angel, falls upon these lines, "And he +took the damsel by her hand, and said unto her, I say unto thee, +arise." +{553} +With the sacred verse, there came shining down into his heart a +clear, sweet perception of the fact that at that very moment our +Lord Jesus Christ, who alone is the resurrection and the life, +was raising up out of her cold and lifeless form that beautiful, +spiritual body in which little Lucy will exist as an angel for +ever. He plucked some white and green leaves from the flowers +which lay in the dead child's hands, and placed them on that +verse of the sacred volume. + + "Years have passed away, and they are there still, pale and + withered, sacred little mementoes of the consolation which came + like a voice from heaven in his hour of need. When he is + haunted by sorrowful memories, and falls into states of + desolation and despair, he opens that holy book, and kisses + those faded leaves, and his spirit is sometimes elevated into + that mount which the three disciples ascended with their Lord, + and there, by the permission of the same Redeemer who makes + every child an image of himself, he sees the body of his little + daughter transfigured in glory!" [Footnote 162] + + [Footnote 162: _Our Children in Heaven_, by W. H. + Holcombe, M.D. ] + +In a white alabaster box, yellowed by the mould of years, are +lying, side by side, a crisp, golden curl, a sprig of lily of the +valley, and a tuberose. Through the mist of tears that fill the +eye rise the angelic features of a little girl, the first-born of +her mother. The joyous laughter, the music of the little feet, +the endless activity of the waxen fingers, ere they closed +lifelessly over those tender lily sprays, all take form and life +in presence of these mute memorials. Other children God sent to +console the mother for the loss of this little one, and long, +long years have ripened them into men and women, and sent them +forth to fill the various missions of life that separate them +from mother and home. But to the long and early lost, the +maternal heart now yearningly turns, as still, above all others, +the child of her love. No stronger earthly ties stand between +them even now; the _mother_ holds her place supreme +_here_, and feels that for her, above all others on earth, +those little hands are folded in prayer, and that sweet-toned +voice raised in songs of supplication. + + "Yet still, in all the singing, + Thinks haply of her song, + Which in that life's first springing + Sang to her all night long." + +Comforted by such memories, +she kisses the mute and withered +mementoes, and, as she folds them +again reverently, lovingly away in +their casket, she prays that + + "When her dying couch about + The natural mists shall gather, + Some smiling angel close shall stand + In old Correggio's fashion, + And bear a _lily_ in his hand + For death's annunciation." + +------- + +{554} + + Catholicity And Pantheism. + + Number Seven. + + The Finite.--Continued. + + +We pass to the next question: What is the end of the exterior +action of God? + +God is infinite intelligence. An agent who acts by understanding +must always act for a reason, which is as the lever of the +intelligence. This reason is called the end of the action. +Therefore, the external act, being the act of an infinite +intelligence, must have an end, an object, a reason. So far +everything is evident; but a very difficult question here arises: +What can the end of the exterior action be? In the first place, +it cannot be an end necessarily to be attained; for the necessity +of the end would imply also the necessity of the means, and the +external act in that supposition would become necessary. But +suppose the end not necessary. God, in that case, would be free +to accept it; and in that supposition he would either act without +a reason, or have another reason or object for accepting an end +not necessary to be attained; which second reason would, in its +turn, be either necessary or not necessary. If the former, the +same inconvenience would exist which we have pointed out before; +if the latter, it would require a third reason to account for the +second; and so on _ad infinitum_. The answer to this +difficulty consists in the following doctrine. The reason by +which an agent acts may be twofold: one, efficient or +determining; the other, qualifying the action without determining +it. Ontologically speaking, every intelligent agent must act for +a reason, but not always be determined to act by the reason. This +is eminently true when the agent or efficient cause is the first +and universal agent. In this case there would be a contradiction, +if the first and universal agent were to act by a reason +determining him to the act. For then the predicate would destroy +the subject; that is, if the first and universal agent were to +act by a determining reason, he would no longer be first, but +second agent; no longer universal, but particular. Because in +that case the final cause would move him, and thus he would +neither be the first nor the cause of everything. This theory +resolves the question of the end of the external act. There +exists neither an intrinsic reason on the part of the agent to +determine him to act outside himself, nor an exterior reason on +the part of the term to impel him to act, as we have already +demonstrated. Consequently, there can be no determining reason +for the external act, and the act must determine itself. The +efficient or determining reason of the external act is the choice +of the act which is absolute master of itself; it lies in its +liberty: and here applies with strict truth that saying, "Stat +pro ratione voluntas." And necessarily so, since the first agent +either determines himself without any efficient reason, or he is +determined by the reason; and in that case he is no longer first, +but second. But then God acts outside himself without any reason? +Without any efficient and determining reason, independent of his +own act, it is granted; without a sufficient reason to make the +act rational, it is denied. +{555} +If there be a reason which qualifies the act, it is sufficient +and rational. Now, for instance, to create finite substances is +to create substantial good; hence the act of creating them must +be good, and therefore rational. And since every finite being, or +its perfection, is good, inasmuch as it resembles the infinite +goodness and perfection of God, it follows that, as St. Thomas +says, the goodness of God is the end of the external act. +_Divina bonitas est finis omnium rerum_. + +The determination of the end of the exterior act, which is the +goodness of God, as we have explained it, gives rise to another +question, which has occupied the highest intellects among +philosophers and theologians, and of which we must speak, to pave +our way to lay down the whole plan of the exterior action of God, +as proclaimed by the Catholic Church. + +Finite beings are capable of indefinite perfection. An assemblage +of finite beings would form a cosmos, or universe; and as they +are capable of indefinite perfections, we may suppose an +indefinite number of these, one more perfect than the other, all +arrayed in beautiful order in the intelligence of the Creator, in +which the intelligibility of all possible things resides. The +question arises here, suppose God has determined to act outside +himself, which of the whole series of the ideal worlds residing +in his intelligence shall he choose? Can he choose any of them? +Is he bound to choose the best? + +The reader will remark that this question is different from that +of the end of creation. The one establishes that God cannot be +forced by any reason to act outside himself, else he would not be +the first and universal cause. The other question that is +proposed now, supposes that God has determined freely and +independently of any reason to act outside himself, and asks +whether God can choose any of the possible ideal worlds residing +in his intellect, or is he forced to choose the best in the +series? + +Some philosophers, among whom are Leibnitz and Malebranche, +contend that God is absolutely free to create or not to create; +but once he has determined to create, he is bound to choose the +best possible cosmos in the series. We shall let them expound +their system in their own words. + + "God," says Leibnitz, "is the supreme reason of things, because + those which are limited, like everything which comes under our + vision and experience, are contingent and have nothing in them + which may render their existence necessary; it being manifest + that time, space, and matter, united and uniform in themselves, + and indifferent to everything, may receive every other movement + and figure and be in another order. We must, therefore, seek + for a reason for the existence of the world, which is the whole + assemblage of contingent beings, and seek it in that substance + which carries within itself the reason of its own existence, + and which is consequently necessary and eternal. + + "It is necessary also that this cause should be intelligent, + because the world which exists now, being contingent, and an + infinity of other worlds being equally possible, and equally + claiming existence, so to speak, it is necessary that the cause + of this world should have looked into all such possible worlds + to determine upon one. +{556} + This look or relation of an existing substance to simple + possibilities can only be the intelligence which possesses + their ideas; and to determine upon one, can only be the act of + a will which chooses. The power of such substance renders its + will efficacious. Power has relation to being; intelligence, + to truth; the will, to good. This cause, moreover, must be + infinite in every possible manner, and absolutely perfect in + power, in wisdom, in goodness; because it reaches all + possibility. And as all this goes together, we can only admit + one such substance. Its intelligence is the source of + metaphysical essences; its will, the origin of existences. + Behold, in a few words, the proof of one God with all his + perfections, and of the origin of things by him! + + "Now, this supreme wisdom, allied to a goodness no less + infinite, could not fail to choose the best. For as a lesser + evil is a kind of good, so a lesser good is a kind of evil; and + there would be something to correct in the action of God, if + there were a means to do better. And as in mathematics when + there is neither a maximum nor a minimum--in fact, no + difference at all--all is done equally, or, when this is + impossible, nothing is done, [Footnote 163] so we may say the + same in respect to perfect wisdom, which is no less regulated + than mathematics, that if there had not been a best one among + all possible worlds God would not have created any. I call + world the whole series and collection of all existing things, + that none may say that several worlds might exist in different + times and places. For in that case they would be counted + together as one world, or, if you prefer, universe. And + although one might fill all time and space, it would always be + true that they could be filled in an infinity of manners, and + that there is an infinity of worlds possible; among which it is + necessary that God should have selected the best, because he + does nothing without acting according to supreme reason." + [Footnote 164] + + [Footnote 163: If it is required, for instance, to draw the + shortest possible line from the centre to the circumference + of a circle, you may draw a line to every point of the + circumference, and there is no reason why a line should be + drawn to any one point rather than to another. Or, if an + object at the centre is attracted equally to every point in + the circumference, it cannot move in any direction, but + remains at rest.--ED.] + + [Footnote 164: Leibnitz. Theod. P. I., par 8.] + + Malebranche, in his ninth metaphysical conversation, after + having laid down the principle that the end of creation is the + glory of God, concludes that God must choose the best possible + cosmos, because thereby he would gain greater glory than if he + chose any of the series. "That which God wishes solely, + directly, and absolutely in his designs, is to act in the most + divine manner possible; it is to impress upon his conduct, as + well as upon his work, the character of his attributes; it is + to act exactly according to what, and to all he is. God has + seen from all eternity all possible works, and all possible + ways of producing them; and as he does not act but for his own + glory and according to what he is, he has determined to will + that work which could be effected and maintained by ways which + must honor him more than any other work produced in a + different manner." + +The principles of this theory are two. One is to admit a +necessity on the part of God to choose the best possible world in +the series; the other is to suppose from reason that there is a +best possible cosmos, as Leibnitz does; in other words, it is to +limit the question only to the creative moment, and not to the +whole external action of God. Now, we think that both +propositions are false. As regards the first, why should God +choose the best? For three reasons, according to the German +philosopher. +{557} +The first is as follows: A lesser good is a kind of evil, if it +be opposed to a greater good. But if God chose any world of the +series in preference to the best, he would prefer a lesser good +to a greater; hence, he would prefer a kind of evil to good, and +the world chosen would be a kind of evil. The major of the +syllogism might be granted, though not perfectly correct, if a +lesser good were opposed to a greater which must necessarily be +effected, but not otherwise. Suppose, among a number of actions, +one more perfect than the other, of which I am not bound to +perform any, I choose to perform any of the series, rejecting all +others; how would the action which I choose to perform be a kind +of evil? If I was bound to perform the best, and preferred one +which is less so, in a certain sense we might grant that the one +I select is a kind of evil. But when I am not bound to perform +any, the one I choose, though not the most perfect, cannot change +its nature of good because I might, if I preferred, perform a +more perfect one. The argument, therefore, of Leibnitz, supposes +what is to be proved, that God _was_ bound to effect the +best possible cosmos; for only in that case it might be said that +he preferred a certain kind of evil to good. His second reason is +not more solid than the first: If God did not choose the best, we +might find something to correct in his action, because there +would be a means to do better. We might find something to correct +in the action of God, if, in the world he chose in preference to +the best, there was something wanting in the attributes and +properties required by its nature. But if the world that God +chooses is endowed with all its essential attributes and proper +elements, certainly there would be nothing at all to correct in +it. When that great Italian artist drew a fly upon the picture of +his master, so true to nature that the master on coming home went +right up to the canvas to chase it away, if any one holding the +opinion of Leibnitz had told him, "There is something to correct +in your fly, because you could have painted a madonna or a +saint," the painter would certainly have been astonished, and his +answer would have been, "I might do a greater and better work; +but you cannot discover any defect in my fly, because you cannot +deny that, though a fly, it is a masterpiece of art." The same +reason holds good with regard to the subject in question. God +might certainly do better; but if he prefers not to create the +best possible cosmos, and selects any of the series, if the one +selected is endowed with all the elements its nature requires, it +is perfect in its own order; and no one could discover any flaw +or defect in it, but every one would be obliged to call it a +masterpiece. The last reason of Leibnitz has much less +foundation, and savors very strongly of pantheism: If there had +not been a best possible world in the series of all the possible +ones, God would not have created any. This means neither more nor +less than that the world, or the aggregate of all contingent +beings, unless it had a kind of absolute perfection, would be +impossible. It is tantamount to denying the very possibility of +creation. Because a best possible world cannot be had; for the +nature of all contingent beings is like number, which progresses +indefinitely, without ever reaching to a number beyond which you +cannot go. Consequently, the nature of contingent things, though +capable of indefinite progress, is altogether incapable, +ontologically speaking, of absolute perfection; a perfection +which would be required to effect a world truly the best. +{558} +If, therefore, such ultimate perfection is required in order that +God may create, it is evident that creation is impossible, and +that optimism runs into pantheism. The argument drawn from the +sufficient reason also fails. If God were to choose a cosmos less +perfect in preference to one more perfect, he would have no +sufficient reason for the preference. This argument fails, first, +because a cosmos, the very best and most perfect, cannot be had, +as we have hinted just now. Therefore, there is no necessity for +any sufficient reason for choice. Suppose a series of worlds, one +more perfect than the other, arrayed in the mind of God according +to numerical order. If God were to choose the tenth in the +series, there would be no sufficient reason for his preferring it +to the eleventh; and if he were to select this last, there would +be no sufficient reason for his preferring it to the twelfth, and +so on indefinitely; and as we cannot reach to a cosmos which +would be the last and the highest in perfection, so there never +could be a sufficient reason for the preference of any. +Consequently; there being no sufficient reason for preferring any +cosmos of the series, God is free to choose any. + +In the second place, even if there could be a best possible +cosmos, the reason alleged by Leibnitz would not, on that +account, oblige God to choose it. For a reason may be objectively +or subjectively sufficient; that is, its sufficiency may emerge +from the object to be created, or from the agent. Now, granting +the principle of the German philosopher, God might have a +subjective reason to make him act according to the requirements +of wisdom, even in preferring any cosmos of the series and +rejecting the best. This subjective reason might be to show and +to put beyond any possibility of doubt his absolute freedom and +independence in the creative act. No optimist can deny that this +may have been a sufficient reason for the creative act. +Consequently, even granting the possibility of a best possible +world, God was not bound to create it. + +The reason of Malebranche is not more conclusive than those we +have just refuted. God must prefer the best possible cosmos, +because this alone would manifest his glory in the best possible +manner. The argument would be conclusive if it were proven that +God does wish to, or must manifest his glory in the best possible +manner. But this the French philosopher does not and cannot +prove. Because the best possible manner for God to manifest his +infinite excellence is, to cause an infinite effect. Now, this is +a contradiction in terms. + +The second position of the optimists to which we object is, to +assume the possibility of a best possible cosmos, as Leibnitz +does, from _reason_. Now, we contend that reason alone, +unaided by revelation, proves decidedly the contrary; it proves +that, ontologically speaking, a best possible cosmos cannot +exist, and that if there be a way by which to raise the cosmos to +a certain ultimate perfection, or perfection beyond which it +could not be supposed to go, this is altogether outside and +beyond the province of reason alone, and must be determined by +revelation. We have already alluded to this in the examination of +the third argument of Leibnitz. The best possible cosmos implies +a certain ultimate and absolute perfection. Now, ontologically +speaking, this is impossible in finite beings. For the question +here is between two extremes, the finite and the infinite. +Between the two lies the indefinite. +{559} +The first extreme, or the finite, may be supposed to ascend the +ladder of perfection, or quantity of being, indefinitely, without +ever reaching the infinite; because its nature is essentially +immutable, as every other essence. Hence, suppose it as great in +perfection as you can, it will be always finite, and consequently +you may always suppose a greater still. Hence, admitting a series +of numberless worlds one ontologically more perfect than the +other, and you can never arrive at one of which you may say this +is the best, because you can always suppose a better still. + +St. Thomas with his eagle glance saw, centuries before, the birth +of optimism, and refuted it triumphantly, in the following +argument, similar to that which we have just given. Asking the +question, whether the divine intellect is limited to certain +determinate effects, he denies it thus: "We have proved," he +says, "the infinity of the divine essence. Now, however you may +multiply the number of finite beings, they can never approximate +the infinite, the latter surpassing any number of finite beings, +even if it be supposed infinite. On the other hand, it is clear +that, besides God, no being is infinite, because every being +comes under some category of genus or species. Therefore, no +matter of what quality the divine effects are supposed to be, or +what quantity of perfections they may contain, it is in the +nature of the divine essence infinitely to excel them, and hence +the possibility of an indefinite number of them. Consequently, +the divine intellect cannot be limited to this or that effect." + +This argument might be abridged thus: The nature of the infinite +and of the finite being immutable, the infinite must always +surpass, infinitely, the finite. Hence there can be no definite +term assigned to the perfection of the finite, and consequently +there cannot be a cosmos ultimate and absolute in perfection. Our +reason, therefore, does not support the optimists in supposing a +most perfect cosmos; on the contrary, it shows that, as to +essence and nature, there cannot be a cosmos the perfection of +which can be supposed to be ultimate, and in a certain manner +absolute; in other words, limiting the question to the creative +moment which effects ontological perfection only, a best possible +cosmos cannot be had. Moreover, if there be a way by which to +raise the cosmos to a certain ultimate and absolute perfection, +reason can tell us also that it must be altogether supernatural, +and to it superintelligible. In other words, this way must be a +moment or moments of the action of God, distinct from the +creative moment, and causing effects above and beyond the nature +and essential attributes of every possible cosmos, ontologically +considered. + +For if this way of raising the cosmos to an ultimate perfection +were the same moment of the action of God which creates essences +and proper attributes, it could not correspond to the effect +desired--that of raising the cosmos to a certain absolute +perfection. Because, when we speak of a creative moment effecting +essences and attributes, we consider the cosmos ontologically; +and ontologically the cosmos cannot have an absolute and ultimate +perfection. The creative moment creates substances and essential +attributes; hence if the moment of raising the cosmos to an +ultimate perfection were identified with the creative moment, it +would always effect substances and essential attributes--that is, +a cosmos indefinitely progressive--and could not give us a cosmos +absolute in perfection. Therefore the moment or moments of the +action of God raising the cosmos to a certain absolute perfection +must be distinct from the creative moment, and must produce +effects above and beyond every possible cosmos, ontologically +considered. + +{560} + +Now, that which implies a moment of the action of God, distinct +from the creative moment and causing effects above and beyond +every possible cosmos, is called supernatural, because beyond and +above nature or essence. Therefore, the way of raising the cosmos +to a certain absolute perfection must be supernatural in its +cause and in its effects. + +If supernatural in its cause and in its effects, it is evident +that this way is superintelligible to reason. Because reason, +being an effect of the creative moment, cannot understand that +which is above and beyond it in its cause and in its effects. + +Hence, reason cannot determine whether there is such a way, or +what this way is; and must necessarily leave these two questions +to be determined by revelation. + +Another problem, closely connected with the one which we have +just discussed, presents itself here. It is as follows: In the +supposition that God could find a way by which to raise the +cosmos to a certain ultimate perfection, it is asked whether the +divine goodness, which is the end of the exterior action of God, +contains in itself a principle of fitness and agreeableness to +incline it to effect this best possible cosmos. This question, as +the reader is aware, is altogether different from optimism. This +opinion contends that God _must_ create the best possible +cosmos. The question we propose now asks whether divine goodness, +which is the end of the external action of God, may be inclined +to effect it in force of reason of fitness and agreeableness +between divine goodness and the best possible production of it, a +reason of fitness which implies no manner of obligation or +necessity whatever. + +We answer it affirmatively; it having the support of all Catholic +tradition, and the proof of it is to be found in the very force +of the terms--God is infinite goodness; in acting outside +himself, he effects finite goodness. Now, finite goodness and +infinite goodness are agreeable to each other; therefore, if +there be a way of raising finite goodness to a certain absolute +goodness, it will be most agreeable to infinite goodness. +[Footnote 165] + + [Footnote 165: S. Th. S. T. p. 3. q. I.] + +Before we enter upon the explanation of the whole plan of the +exterior works of God, it is necessary to notice another point +altogether within the reach and province of reason; this is, to +assign some general laws which must govern the exterior action of +God. + +Reason, as we have seen, cannot of itself tell whether there may +be a way of exalting the cosmos to a certain ultimate perfection, +and thus rendering it the best possible cosmos; again, reason +cannot tell whether God has or has not chosen to effect it. But, +admitting the supposition that there is such a way, and that God +has preferred it, reason can assign some laws, which it conceives +must necessarily govern his exterior action, if he chooses to +effect the best possible cosmos. Nor is this going beyond the +sphere or province of reason, or infringing upon the rights of +revelation. Because, although the premises are superintelligible, +and to be declared by revelation, yet the premises once given, +reason may lawfully and safely deduce some consequences, +evidently flowing from those premises. In this case, the premises +would be superintelligible; the consequences springing from them +altogether intelligible. + +{561} + +Reason, therefore, affirms that if God chooses to make the best +possible cosmos, the effectuation of such cosmos must be governed +by the laws of _variety_, of _unity_, of +_hierarchy_, of _continuity_, of _communion_, of +_secondary agency_. The first imports that, if God intends +to effect the best possible manifestations of himself, to which +the best possible cosmos would correspond, he must effect a +_variety_ of moments, a _variety_ of species, of +individuals under each species, except when the nature and the +object of the moment admits no variety or multiplicity. St. +Thomas proves the necessity of such a law by the following +argument: "Every agent," he says, "intends to stamp his own +likeness on the effect he produces, as far as the nature of the +effect will permit, and the more perfect the agent, the stronger +is the likeness he impresses upon his effect." + +God is a most perfect agent; it was fitting therefore that he +should impress his own likeness on his exterior works as +perfectly as their nature would allow. Now, a perfect likeness of +God cannot be expressed by one moment or species of effects; +because it is a principle of ontology that, when the effect is +necessarily inferior in nature to the cause, as in the present +case of the cosmos with regard to God, the perfections, which in +the cause are united and, as it were, gathered together into one +intense perfection, cannot be expressed in one effect, but ask +for a variety and multiplicity of effects. The truth of this +principle may be seen in the following example. What is the +reason that we must frequently make use of a variety of words to +express one idea? The reason lies in the objective and +ontological difference of the nature of the two terms. The idea +is simple, spiritual, intelligible; words are a material sound. +The one in its nature is far superior to the other; the idea is +possessed of more being, more perfection than words. Hence the +one cannot be expressed and rendered by the other, except through +a variety and multiplicity of terms. Consequently this example +illustrates the principle that, when an effect is inferior in +nature to its cause, whatever perfections are found in the cause, +as united and simplified in one perfection, cannot be rendered or +expressed except by a multiplicity and variety of effects. What +we have said of language may be affirmed of every fine art, as +painting, sculpture, music, etc. The type which creates them is +always one and simple; it cannot be expressed except in a variety +and multiplicity of forms. + +The best manifestations, therefore, of God's transcendental +excellence cannot be rendered and mirrored except through a +variety of moments, of species, and of individuals. + +The law of variety asks for the law of _hierarchy_. For +variety cannot exist except by supposing a greater or less amount +of perfection in the terms composing the series, one being +varying from the other by possessing a greater amount of +ontological perfections. Now, by admitting a greater or less +amount of being, we admit a superiority on the part of that which +is endowed with more ontological perfection, and an inferiority +on the part of that which is endowed with less; and each being +composing the cosmos, keeping its own place according to the +general order, and in relation to other beings, it follows that +this superiority on the part of one, and inferiority on the part +of the other, founded on the intrinsic worth of their respective +essences, establishes and explains the law of hierarchy. + +{562} + +The third law is that of unity, which implies that the variety of +the different moments composing the cosmos must be brought +together so as to form a perfect whole. For, first, if the +variety of moments, of species and individuals, is requisite in +order to express the intensity of the ontological perfection and +excellence of the type of the universe, which is the infinite +grandeur of God, unity, also, is required, in order to express +the simplicity and entirety of the type. In the second place, +what would be the cosmos without unity but a numberless and +confused assemblage of beings? Hence, whatever may be the variety +of the moments and species of the cosmos, they must necessarily +be brought together as parts and components of one harmonic +whole. The nature of this unity will be gathered from the +explanation of the other laws. And first, it begins to be +sketched out by the law of continuity. This implies that there +should be a certain proportion between each moment of the cosmos, +between one species and another, and between the degrees and +gradations within the species, all as far as the nature of the +terms will permit. Hence, the law embraces two parts: + +1st. The necessity of the greatest number of moments and of +species, as much as possible alike to each other, without ever +being confounded. + +2d. The greatest possible number of gradations within the same +species, in proportion as individuals partake more or less fully +of the species. + +To give an instance: the first part of this law explains why +substantial creation is composed of, 1st, atoms which do not give +any signs of sensitive life; 2d, of brute animals; 3d, of +intelligent animals; 4th, of pure spirits. The second part of +this law explains why each of the four species just mentioned is +developed in gradations almost infinite--minerals composed and +recomposed in all possible ways, manifesting forms, properties, +and acts altogether different, and some so constantly as to defy +any change from the force of nature so far known to man; hence, +in force of that immutable type, they are taken by naturalists as +so many scientific species, and the fifty-nine or sixty elements +which chemistry so far enumerates; animals also, extending so +gradually that the ladder of fixed marks, taken by natural +philosophers as so many species, begins where the signs of life +are almost insensible and dubious, and ends with man; nor is +there wanting, as far as it may be known, any of the intermediate +steps. + +The pure spirits, as we know from revelation, are divided into +choirs and legions innumerable, whose successive gradations in +quality and number, to us unknown but certain, are unfathomable; +and it is most probable that the ladder of pure spirits is +higher, beyond measure, than that which we observe in the +sensible universe, and that one spirit is far more superior and +distant from another spirit than one star from another. + +The necessity of this law springs from that of unity. For, if the +type of the cosmos be one, each moment and species representing, +as it were, a side of that type, there must be as much affinity +and proportion between each moment and each species as to pave +the way for the law of unity to represent and mirror the entirety +and oneness of the type. We say as much affinity as it is +possible to produce, because between each moment and each species +there is necessarily a chasm which no continuity or affinity can +fill up. For instance, between pure animality and pure +intelligence there is necessarily a chasm. Man, placed between +the two, draws them together as much as possible; yet the +necessary distance marking the two distinct natures cannot by any +proportion be eliminated, else the natures would be confounded +and destroyed. + +{563} + +But variety, brought together by the law of continuity, cannot +sufficiently exhibit unity. Hence the necessity of a fourth law, +that of _communion_. + +This law implies, 1st, that the terms of the cosmos should be so +united together as to act one upon the other, and serve each +other for sustenance and development; 2d, that, founded on the +law of hierarchy, inferior beings should be so united to superior +ones as to be, in a certain sense, transformed into them, the +distinctive marks of their respective natures being kept +inviolate. + +This law, in both its aspects, we see actuated in the visible +universe. Thus man has need of food, which is administered to him +by brutes and the vegetable kingdom; he has need of air, to +breathe; of light, to see; of his kind, to multiply and to form +society. All other animals have need of beings different from +themselves to maintain their own existence; and of their like, to +multiply their species. The vegetable kingdom needs minerals, +earth, water, and the different saps by which it lives. If +vegetables did not expel oxygen and absorb carbonic acid, air +would become unfit for the respiration of animals; and these +sending back, by respiration, carbonic acid, supply that +substance of which plants stand in need. Everything, moreover, in +the world serves for the development and perfection of man, both +as to his body and as to his intellectual, moral, and social +life. Every inferior creature is transformed into man. The same +animal and vegetable kingdom which, transformed into his blood, +sustains his life, helps him for the development of his ideas and +his will. The reason of this law, which may be called the law of +life, is, that the unity of the cosmos should not be only +apparent and fictitious, but real. Now, a real union is +impossible if the terms united exercise no real action upon each +other, and do not serve for the maintenance and development of +each other. + +Finally, the law of communion calls for the law of secondary +agency; that is, the effects resulting from the moments of the +exterior action of God should be real agents. For no real union +and communion could exist among the terms of the external action +unless they really acted one upon another; any other union or +communion being simply fictitious and imaginary. Hence +Malebranche, in his system of occasional causes, where he +deprives finite beings of real agency, has not only undermined +the liberty of man, but destroyed the real communion among +creatures, and marred the beauty and harmony of the cosmos. To +represent the cosmos as a numberless series of beings united +together by no other tie than juxtaposition, and by no means +really acting upon each other, is to break its connection, its +real and living unity; is to do away with the whole beauty and +harmony of that hymn and canticle which God has composed to his +own honor and glory. + +We come now to the last question: What is the whole plan of the +exterior action of God? We have seen that if there be a way by +which to effect a cosmos endowed with a certain absolute +perfection, that it would be most agreeable to infinite goodness, +the end of the exterior action of God. We have seen, moreover, +that whether there be such a way, and what this way is, must be +determined by revelation. The Catholic Church, therefore, the +living embodiment of revelation, must answer these two problems. + +It answers both affirmatively. The most perfect cosmos is +possible. God has effected it, because most agreeable to his +infinite goodness. + +What is this cosmos? We shall give it in the following synoptic +table. + +{564} + + God's exterior action divided into: + The hypostatic moment; + The beatific, or palingenesiacal moment; + The sublimative moment; + The creative moment. + +The terms corresponding to each moment of the action of God are: + + The Theanthropos, or Jesus Christ, God and man, centre of the + whole plan; + Beatific cosmos; + Sublimative cosmos; + Substantial cosmos. + Individual terms of each cosmos: + 1. Beatified angels and men; + 2. Regenerated men on the earth; + 3. Angels, or pure spirits; + Men, or incarnate spirits; + Sensitive beings; + Organic beings; + Inorganic beings. + +As each moment of the action of God, as the creative, implies two +subordinate moments, preservation and concurrence, it follows +that each moment of the action of God implies its immanence and +concurrence, though in the Theanthropos it takes place according +to special laws. Hence, + + Hypostatic immanence and concurrence; + Beatific immanence and concurrence; + Creative immanence and concurrence. + +---------- + + To A Favorite Madonna. + + Lady Mary, throne of grace, + Imaged with thy Child before me! + Softly beams the perfect face, + Fragrant breathes its pureness o'er me. + + I but gaze, and all my soul + Thrills as with a taste of heaven. + Passion owns the sweet control; + Peace assures of sin forgiven. + + Oh! then, what thy loveliness + Where it shines divinely real, + If its strength has such excess + Feebly shadowed in ideal! + + From thy arms thy Royal Son + Waits to fill us past our needing: + Hears for all, denied to none, + Thy resistless whisper pleading. + + Dream, say they, for poet's eye? + _Thou_ a dream! Then truth is seeming. + Only let me live and die + Safely lost in such a dreaming! + + B. D. H. + +------- + +{565} + + Translated From The French. + + To Those Who Tell Us What Time It Is. + + +Before introducing our subject, my dear reader, let me give a +moment to a little person whose caprices equal those of any woman +living. + +Brilliant as the most fashionable beauty, she never goes without +her diamonds and rubies in their golden setting, and of which she +is equally proud. + +Her little babbling is heard continually; and while she boasts +her independent movements, like any prisoner or slave she always +wears her chain. + +I call her a little person, because she accompanies me +everywhere; though sometimes she stops while I walk, and goes +again when I am inclined to stop. + +This delicate, fantastical organization, so difficult to +discipline, and as subject to the influences of cold and heat as +any nervous lady or chilly invalid, is Mademoiselle--my watch. + +You have nearly all, my dear readers, a watch of silver or gold +in your vest-pocket, and you can have them of wood or +mother-of-pearl, with one great advantage: they cannot be pawned. + +Ladies wear watches whose cases shine with their diamonds like +the decorations of a great officer of the Legion of Honor. And +they can have them inserted in bracelets, in bon-bon boxes, and +in buckles for sashes and belts. + +But I must tell you, the first accurate instruments, after the +sun-dial and hour-glass of the ancients, were huge clocks; and +these clocks, so immense, led artists insensibly to construct +smaller ones for apartments, in form of pendulums, and which were +in the beginning very imperfect. + +Then others still more skilful conceived the idea of portable +clocks, to which they gave the name of _montres_, (watches, +in English,) from _montrer_, to show. + +But at first these ornaments were very awkward, and of +inconvenient size for the pocket to which they were destined. + +Finally, however, they were lessened to such a point that they +graced the heads of canes, the handles of fans, and even the +setting of rings, and were about the size of a five-cent silver +piece. + +It is to Hook, a physician and English philosopher, born in 1635, +died in 1702, that we owe the invention of pocket watches. + +In 1577, the first watches were brought from Germany to England. +They had been made at Nuremberg for the first time in the year +1500, and were called the eggs of Nuremberg, on account of their +oval form. + +At last a man appeared who, not content to enchain time, +endeavored to force matter to represent with greater accuracy the +flight of years. This was Julien le Roy, the most skilful +practical philosopher that France ever had. Always on the _qui +vive_ for everything useful and curious, as soon as he heard +of the watches of the celebrated Graham, he imported the first +one seen in Paris, and not until he had proved it would he +relinquish it to M. Maupertuis. Graham, in turn, procured all he +could from Julien le Roy. +{566} +One day my Lord Hamilton was showing one of these wonderful +repeaters to several persons. "I wish I were younger," said +Graham, "to be able to make one after this model." + +This illustrious Maupertuis, who accompanied the king of Prussia +to the battle-field, was made prisoner at Molwitz and conducted +to Vienna. The grand-duke of Tuscany--since emperor--wished to +see a man with so great a reputation. + +He treated him with respect, and asked him if he had not +regretted much of the baggage stolen from him by the hussars. +Maupertuis, after being urged a long time, confessed he would +gladly have saved an old watch of Graham's, which he used for his +astronomical observations. + +The grand-duke, who owned one by the same maker, but enriched +with diamonds, said to the French mathematician, "Ah! the hussars +have wished to play you a trick; they have brought me back your +watch. Here it is; I restore it to you." + +To-day, as formerly, the handling of watches is an art. It is +much more difficult to measure time than wine or cider. +Therefore, among the members of the Bureau of Longitudes, by the +side of the senator Leverrier, the marshal of France, (M. +Vaillant,) the Admiral Matthieu, is placed the simple +clock-maker, M. Bregnet. + +And for these artists who give us the means of knowing the hour +it is, there is a publication as serious as the _Journal of +Debates_, called the _Chronometrical Review_. It +certainly should be regularly sent to its subscribers. If the +carrier is late, it cannot be for want of knowing if he has +to-day's or yesterday's paper; and the subscribers are never +exposed to _chercher midi à quatorze heures_. + +M. Claudius Saurrier, the chief editor of this _Chronometrical +Review_, has also a clock-maker's annual almanac for 1869. +This appears very abstruse at the first glance; but if we examine +the little volume with the same nicety as a watchmaker his +mainspring--that is to say, with a powerful magnifying glass--we +will find some things to greatly interest us. For example, a +sketch of different attainable speed: + + Miles per hour. + The soldier in ordinary step makes, 2¾ + The soldier in a charge 4 + The soldier in gymnastic exercise, 7 + The horse walking, 3 + The horse on the trot, 7 + The horse on the gallop, 14 + The horse on the race-course, 30 + The locomotive at ordinary speed, 30 + The locomotive going rapidly, 60 + The current of the Seine, 3 + Steamboats, 4 to 14 + + A railroad train making thirty miles the hour would consume + about three hundred and fifty years in the journey from the + earth to the sun. More than a dozen successive generations + would have time to appear and disappear during the transit. + +But nothing can more surely measure speed than the man who says +to his watch, "Thou givest me sixty seconds a minute, and thou +canst go no farther." + +The little book which has so worthily occupied my attention is +not contented with simply describing professional instruments. It +plunges into old curiosity shops, and brings out the watch of +Marat! + +Evidently it does not tell us if this watch was hung in the +bathing saloon where the _friend of the people_ was struck +by the poignard of Charlotte Corday. But it gives us an exact +description of the jewel, or rather of the _onion_ of the +celebrated and redoubtable tribune. + +It was, indeed, a curious watch that Marat possessed; and, if we +cannot imagine the fashion of the epoch, which gave to every one +an immense gewgaw, requiring a counter-weight to support it, it +will be impossible to explain the oddity of its form. + +{567} + +It was a massive silver pear, opening into two equal parts. In +the lower part of the fruit was found the dial; the upper +contained engraved designs of foliage. The case of the pear +reproduced the same model; the artist evidently had but one idea. +Its size was that of an English pear of medium dimensions, and, +thanks to its density, this jewel has been able to pass without +any deterioration through the most stormy periods of the world. + +The almanac for clock-makers also contains its good stories. It +relates that a thief introduced himself into a watch-store as a +workman seeking employment, but with the design of abstracting +the pocket-book of the proprietor. The scene is dialogued as the +two parts of a clock containing the chimes of the north, the +solemn stillness of the night broken by question and response, +until they mingled in a _naïve contre-point_. + +"Thy purse," said the thief. + +"I have forgotten it." + +"Thy chain." + +"I only wear a ribbon." + +"Pshaw! no more ceremony. Look at thy watch. What hour is it?" + +"The hour of thy death!" replied the young man in a thundering +voice, presenting at the same time a double-barrelled pistol at +his head. + +"Oh! oh!" said the thief, "I was only joking." + +"So much the worse. Come, thy purse." + +The thief handed it to him. + +"Thy chain." + +And the chain followed the purse. + +"Thy watch." + +The thief, trembling from head to foot, drew out a package of +watches, entangled one in the other. + +"Oh! oh! I have you now. Get out, file to the left, turn thy +dial, and go." + +And the pickpocket withdrew. + +The young watch-maker, perfectly astonished, went immediately to +the mayor. They counted twenty-two watches; and the grateful +proprietors handsomely indemnified him for his trouble, while at +the same time he found himself, by this one stroke, with +twenty-two good jobs and a patronage. + +Had I time, I could extract many more interesting things from +this little work. + +For example, a description of a watch made by the grandfather of +the present Bregnet--the perpetual watch, so called because it +winds itself through some simple movement inserted by the maker. +And I could give, also, good advice to wearers of watches. + +Where to put them at night. + +The manner and time to wind them, and the management of the +little needle that makes them go slower and faster. + +Then, again, the injury done watches by trotting horsemen, +especially physicians, who thereby lose an accurate guide for the +pulse of their patients. + +Then I should like to consider how Abraham Bregnet made the +sympathetic clock, upon which it is only necessary to place +before midday or midnight a pocket repeating-watch, advancing or +retarding it a little to allow for the time consumed, and by +simple contact it regulates the pendulum. + +If M. Claudius Saurrier wants something curious for his almanac +of the coming year, he has only to take the chapter on +clock-making from _The Arts of the Middle Ages_, by Paul +Lacroix. There he will see the three primitive methods of +measuring time, namely, the sun-dial or gnomon that Anximandre +imported from Greece; the clepsydra, where the flowing water +indicated the flying minutes; and the hour-glass, where the sand +took the place of the water. + +{568} + +He will find there a watch of the house of Valois placed in the +centre of a Latin cross, and moving with it symbolical figures, +Time, Apollo, Diana, etc.; or, again, the Virgin, the apostles +and saints. + +Time has not always been lost through the instruments that +indicate its flight. Ages have changed even palaces; and the +Palais Royal, whose cannon gives us still the exact hour of +mid-day, once knew no hours for its _habitués_, and vice and +immorality consumed the time that virtue now gives to better +purposes. The poet of 1830 said: + + "The palace lives in better days, + And virtue holds its court supreme; + The sun that lent to vice its rays + Now gives to time its potent beam." + +But now that I have rendered every tribute to M. Claudius +Saurrier that his special science can demand, may I not be +equally frank with him? + +I don't like to know what time it is; I am seized with profound +melancholy when the clock strikes and as the hands of my watch +indicate the rapidity with which my life is passing. + +If there had never been an hourglass, a clepsydra, a clock, a +regulator, a Swiss cuckoo, or a French chronometer, what with the +variations of the seasons which are no longer regular--the trees +leafing in January, and the house-tops iced in April--we might +never be sure of anything, and lead the existence of those who +frequented the balls of the tenor Roger. With shutters closed and +curtains drawn, the sun excluded for four days, his guests could +have doubted whether time had anything to do with their +existence. + +Then we could so long believe ourselves young! The dreaded +question _How old are you?_ could be answered in all +sincerity, _I do not know_. + +One word more, however, for our pretty watch. How often has it +been the symbol of gallantry. + +A lady asked a poet why he used two watches. He replied +immediately: + + "Dear madam, shall I tell you why? + One goes too fast, and one too slow; + When near you I would fondly fly, + I use the first; the other, when I go." + + ---------- + + New Publications. + + The Catholic Doctrine Of The Atonement. + An Historical Inquiry into its Development in the Church. With + an Introduction on the Principle of Theological Development. + By Henry Nutcombe Oxenham, M.A., formerly Scholar of Balliol + College, Oxford. + Second Edition. London: Allen & Co. 1869. + +This is a very scholarly treatise on an important subject. It is +not a dogmatic work, but a work on the history of dogma. The +author possesses a remarkable insight into the deep and sublime +mysteries of faith, especially that of the Incarnation, and +writes like one whose whole mind and soul have become imbued with +the spirit of scriptural and patristic theology. His manner is +remarkably calm, impartial, and dignified; his method of +statement, clear and succinct; and his style is that of an +accomplished English and classical scholar, often rising to +passages of high poetic fervor and beauty. +{569} +So far as the exhibition of the true doctrine of the atonement is +concerned, beyond the critical statement of different schools of +opinion, its chief value consists in the refutation of the +Calvinistic doctrine, and its discrimination of the modern +prevalent Catholic opinion derived from St. Anselm from the dogma +properly so called. The essay on development is one of the ablest +portions of the book. Möhler, in his _Athanasius_, has +accused Petavius of overstating or pressing too far, in his +controversial zeal, the well-known points of his thesis +respecting the doctrine of the anti-Nicene fathers against Bishop +Bull. It appears to us that Mr. Oxenham has overstepped the mark +in the same way in regard to development in general, or at least +has used language liable to misapprehension. We think, also, that +the character of his mind, which is not adapted to metaphysical +or speculative inquiries, and the influence under which his +opinions have been formed, lead him to undervalue scholastic +theology. There are here and there, also, indications of a bias +toward the opinions of a certain class of French writers of the +last century, which appears to us to be out of harmony with the +genuine spirit of docility to the teaching of the church, and the +_pietas fidei_ with which the author is certainly animated. +We will specify one instance of this, where Mr. Oxenham has +exposed a most vulnerable spot in his defensive armor. It is on +page 11 of the introductory essay, where he is rebutting the +famous statement of Chillingworth, that there are "Popes against +popes, councils against councils," etc. In reply to this, he +says, "On this I have to observe, as to popes against popes, +waiving the question of fact, their judgments, when resting on +their own authority alone, if maintained by some theologians to +be infallible, are as strenuously denied to be so by others. It +is a purely open question. Councils are held by no one to be +infallible except in matters of doctrine, and there is no case of +doctrinal contradiction between councils universally received in +the church as ecumenical." The author, in this specimen of most +faulty logic, by waiving the question of fact respecting the +dogmatic judgments of the popes, concedes everything which +Chillingworth asserted on that point, and leaves him master of +the field. He confines himself to one point of defence, that +there are no dogmatic decisions of ecumenical councils which are +contradictory to each other. But suppose there are dogmatic +decisions of popes to which obedience is required as a term of +communion and under pain of excommunication, which are contrary +to dogmatic decisions of councils, what then? Suppose one pope +requires submission to a dogmatic decision as a term of +communion, and his successor requires the same to an opposite +decision, what then? Can Mr. Oxenham say _transeat?_ If Mr. +Ffoulkes should write a letter to Mr. Oxenham containing an +argument based on an affirmation that those suppositions are +facts, against the actual position of the holy see and the +Catholic episcopate, as against Constantinople and Canterbury, +could Mr. Oxenham answer it conclusively without defending that +point which he so easily gives up? That the question of the +infallibility of the pope is not entirely closed is, of course, +true; but it is not so wide open as an ordinary reader would +infer it to be from the author's very inconsiderate and +unsatisfactory way of stating the matter; nor has it ever been so +wide open at any time since St. Peter received from our Lord the +charge to confirm his brethren in the faith. Bossuet would never +have exposed his flank in the unguarded manner that our author +has done. The indefectibility of the Roman see in doctrine, and +the duty of obedience to its dogmatic judgments, were always +maintained by that great theologian, and by all orthodox +Gallicans. The doctrine of what may be called passive +infallibility is logically contained in this doctrine of Bossuet +and in that doctrine of Catholic faith, that the pope is always +the supreme head of the church. By passive infallibility, we mean +a security against the separation of the pope and the Roman +Church in doctrine from the universal church, either by apostasy +from dogmas already defined, or by the enforcement of any new and +false dogmas. +{570} +The active power of the pope, as the teacher and defender of the +faith which he perpetually proclaims to the world, and protects +by denouncing and condemning heresy, which no Catholic questions, +is necessarily secured by this indefectibility or passive +infallibility from being perverted to the service of heresy or +immorality. The only question that can be discussed between +Catholics regarding this matter relates to the conditions and +extent of the active infallibility of the pope. The gift of +infallibility must necessarily preserve the dogmatic unity of the +pope and the Catholic episcopate, and must therefore influence +both. They are both factors in the sum of infallibility. What is +precisely the force of each as distinct from the other is not yet +fully and clearly defined as a canon of faith, and we are willing +to await the result of the approaching council which will, +probably, at least consider the question of the propriety of +making such a canon, before applying any theological formula as a +criterion of the orthodoxy of writers, or written statements. +Nevertheless, we have a right to expect that every writer should +so guard his language and statements that they be not open to a +misconception that furnishes a convenient door for the enemy to +enter in by. + +Perhaps Mr. Oxenham will not essentially dissent from the view we +have expressed; and we have the best reason to expect that +whatever there may be that is defective or inconsequent in his +theological system will be filled up and harmonized by the result +of riper thought and study. His work, as a whole, is one of the +best and most valuable of those which have been produced by the +sound scholars and devoted sons of the church who have been won +to the ancient faith of England within the classic halls of +Oxford. Every clergyman or scholar addicted to theological +studies will find it well worthy of a place in his library, and +of a careful perusal. + +---- + + Alice Murray; a Tale. + By Mary I. Hoffmnan, authoress of _Agnes Hilton_. + 1 vol. 12mo. Pp. 490. + New York: P. O'Shea. 1869. + +We like this story for its perfect picture of American country +life. We get but one glimpse, and that a very imperfect one, of +the city. We have plenty of books, good, bad, and indifferent, +describing city life, its manners and customs, its frivolities +and follies, and even its vices. It was, therefore, with a +feeling of relief, that we read this volume; for, even if one can +but seldom visit the country, still one likes to read about its +green fields, rippling brooks, gushing springs and dark, cool +woods, the lowing kine, and bleating sheep, and in this book we +get a goodly dose. Miss Hoffman seems to be a practical farmer, +and is as much at home with the butter-ladle as with the pen, and +has a thorough disgust, as all good farmers must have, for what +city folk often cultivate as flowers--the "pesky white daisy." + +The first chapters of the story are a little dull, and the place +in which its scene is laid is not definitely stated; but further +on, we learn that it is in Western New York. There is nothing +extraordinary or intricate in the plot of of the story. Every +scene and incident may have occurred just as it is related. It is +the old story of innocence and virtue being outgeneralled for a +while by craftiness and vice. And while we have such timid girls +as Alice Murray, such acts of wrong are possible. It is very well +to follow the gospel precept, and when struck upon one cheek to +turn the other; but the gospel nowhere requires us to give in +addition our own hand with which to smite our cheek. + +Alice Murray was the niece of Mr. Elbray's first wife. Her +parents died while she was quite young, and Mr. Elbray brought +her up as his daughter, as he had no children of his own. He was +rich, a self-made man, and a worldly-minded Catholic, paid little +attention to the duties or requirements of his religion, but made +money his God. +{571} +He became acquainted with a strong-minded, designing widow, who +manages to make him marry her, and from that moment Alice Murray +had actually no home. The ambitious wife had her own daughter to +provide for, and her whole energies were bent on getting rid of +Alice, which she succeeded in accomplishing. From her adopted +home Alice went to her uncle Bradley--her mother's sister's +husband--who procured her a district school. Even here, though +miles away from her, the new Mrs. Elbray, beside intercepting all +letters between Alice and her uncle, got up a charge against her +of having stolen a gold chain presented to her by her _dear_ +departed husband. This was done to prevent Alice returning to her +uncle, who was ever regretting her absence. But the crafty woman +succeeded; Alice is discarded, and the result is, that Mrs. +Elbray's daughter makes a brilliant match, and all the Elbray +family move to New York, where old Elbray is ruined by his wife +and her daughter's husband, and has to go to the almshouse, where +he is discovered by a priest who knew him, and Alice is informed +of the poverty of her uncle. She hesitates not a moment, accepts +the hand of the lover she had previously refused, because she +wished to pay back her uncle all the money he had spent on her, +and the new-married couple go straight to New York, rescue the +uncle from the almshouse, and take him home with them, where he +lives in peace. + +The picture of the Bradley family is a beautiful one--just what a +good Catholic family should be; in fact, all of Miss Hoffman's +family pen-pictures are good. Her great weakness lies in her +dialogues; they need more animation and sprightliness; and her +very _bad_ characters are better drawn than her very +_good_ ones. For instance, in Mrs. Elbray, an ambitious, +proud, self-willed and worldly woman, we have decidedly the best +depicted character in the book. She labors for a purpose, a bad +purpose it is true, and succeeds, although the success was her +ruin. Had Alice used for a good purpose one half the energy Mrs. +Elbray did for a bad one, a world of suffering would have been +saved her, but then _Alice Murray_ would not have been +written. We wish the writers of our Catholic stories would allow +their good characters to act like living men and women, not mere +machines, throwing the responsibility of all their troubles and +tribulations upon God, and leaving it _all_ in his hands to +see justice done; but teach them to use the means God gave them +to help themselves. + +We have said that Miss Hoffman's descriptions of American country +life and scenery are good. There is one pen-picture on page 170 +that will remind many of similar scenes. The story is thoroughly +Catholic in tone and sentiment, but is not of the belligerant +class. There are no religious discussions indulged in for the +sake of displaying one's theological knowledge; but the whole +atmosphere of the book--the whole sentiment is Catholic, and the +reader feels it, just as one in reading à Kempis would know and +feel that the writer was a devout, practical Catholic. + +The typographical execution of the book might easily be improved +by employing a better proof-reader and the use of better type. + +---- + + Chips From A German Workshop. + By Max Müller, M. A. + 2 vols. crown 8vo, pp. 374, 402. + New York: Charles Scribner & Co. + +These two volumes consist of various essays, lectures, etc., +which Professor Müller has published from time to time during the +intervals of his long years of labor on the Rig-Veda. They are +all more or less closely connected with the great work to which +he has devoted his life, and are all illustrations of a +systematic religious philosophy. The first volume is devoted to +essays on "The Science of Religion." The author remarks that in +religion "everything new is old, and everything old is new, and +there has been no entirely new religion since the beginning of +the world." St. Augustine says that "what is now called the +Christian religion has existed among the ancients, and was not +absent from the beginning of the human race until Christ came in +the flesh;" and the design of these essays is to show how the +radical ideas of religion revealed by Almighty God at the +beginning have undergone various changes, corruptions, and +combinations, yet, though frequently distorted, tend again and +again to their perfect form. +{572} +Professor Müller traces these primitive ideas through the ancient +religions of India and Persia, and extracts from the forbidding +obscurity of Sanscrit literature a wealth of illustration, which, +with his charming style and incomparable happiness in selection, +he makes attractive to nearly all classes of readers. He studies +the matter not as a theologian but as a coldly critical man of +science; and his reasoning is, of course, directly in support of +the truths of revelation. The second volume contains an essay on +_Comparative Mythology_, and papers on early traditions and +customs, all bearing upon the subject of the first, and many of +them highly curious. At some future day, if opportunity permits, +we hope to recur to these valuable "Chips," and give our readers +a few specimens of their excellence. + +---- + + Pastoral Letter Of The Most Rev. Archbishop + and Suffragan Prelates of the Province of + Baltimore, at the close of the + Tenth Provincial Council. May, 1869. + Baltimore: J. Murphy & Co. + +This letter of the fathers of the council of Baltimore is a +renewed evidence of the paternal affection and ceaseless +vigilance with which the pastors of the church watch over their +flock. On many most important points, they have spoken out with a +clearness that must be gratifying to every Catholic heart. First +among them is Education. We quote a portion: + + "Bitter experience convinces us daily more and more that a + purely secular education, to the exclusion of a religious + training, is not only an imperfect system, but is attended with + the most disastrous consequences to the individual and to + society. Among Catholics, there cannot be two opinions about + this subject. And we are happy to see that this practical truth + is beginning to find acceptance also in the minds of reflecting + men among our separated brethren. + + "The catechetical instructions given once a week in our + Sunday-schools, though productive of the most beneficial + results, are insufficient to satisfy the religious wants of our + children. They should every day breathe a healthy religious + atmosphere in those schools, where not only their minds are + enlightened, but where the seeds of faith, piety, and sound + morality are nourished and invigorated. + + "Children have not only _heads_ to be enlightened, but, + what is more important, _hearts_ to be formed to virtue." + +The most reverend archbishop has been from the first one of the +most earnest supporters of the Catholic Publication Society, and, +with the prelates of the council, again commends it to the +patronage of clergy and laity. + + "We desire to renew," say they, "our cordial approbation of the + Catholic Publication Society, recently established in New York, + and we earnestly hope it may receive from our clergy and laity + all the patronage it so well deserves. + + "This society is laudably engaged in the publication of such + Catholic works as are peculiarly adapted to the wants of our + times, and it serves as a powerful auxiliary in the propagation + of Catholic truth. + + "Short religious tracts are also issued under the auspices of + the same society. These tracts are daily growing in popularity + and usefulness. In one year, about six hundred thousand of them + were printed and distributed. Their brevity recommends their + perusal to many who have neither leisure nor disposition to + read books treating of the same subject. Their short but + convincing arguments always make a favorable impression on + sincere minds; while their plain, familiar style renders them + attractive to the lowest capacity. The very moderate price at + which they are sold places them within the reach of all. + + "We trust that our zealous missionary clergy will adopt some + effectual and systematic means by which the books, and + especially the tracts of this excellent society may be + regularly circulated throughout their missions, and distributed + among the children attending our schools." + +{573} + +These words are very encouraging and opportune; for one thing is +sure, and that is, "The Catholic Publication Society," without +this co-operation and sympathy, both on the part of the clergy +and the laity, cannot accomplish the great work that is before it +in our country. + +Then follow some timely words of admonition to Catholics lest +they imbibe the loose notions which prevail among many around +them in regard to the crime of infanticide. + +Next, are condemned round dances, indecent publications, and the +obscene theatrical performances which are becoming so abundant. + +The remainder of the letter contains words of encouragement to +the clergy and laity in the various charitable works in which +they are engaged, as the erecting of protectories and orphan +asylums, the providing churches and schools for our colored +brethren, etc. + +---- + + Fénélon's Conversations With M. De Ramsai On The Truth Of + Religion, With his Letters on the Immortality of the Soul, and + the Freedom of the Will. + Translated from the French by A. E. Silliman. 1869. + +Fénélon was a genius and a saint. He had, moreover, the faculty +of expressing his thoughts in a remarkably clear style, and +throwing a peculiar charm about every subject he handled. The +conversations with Chevalier Ramsay form a short treatise, +proving that there is no medium between deism and Catholicism. It +is very admirable, and Mr. Silliman has done a good service in +translating it, with the two other short but excellent treatises +which are appended. The translator's preface, which is perfectly +calm and passionless in its tone, gives a brief but interesting +sketch of Fénélon's character, and of some of the events of his +life, and relates the circumstance which gave occasion to the +conversations with Chevalier Ramsay. As it alludes to the +condemnation of the _Maxims_ by the pope, and states that +this condemnation was given reluctantly and under threats from +the king of France, it may be well to explain this matter in a +few words. It is true that the accusation of Fénélon at Rome was +made through enmity against his person, and in a manner +discreditable to the parties concerned, and very displeasing to +the pope. It is not true, however, that the decision was given in +accordance with the wishes of the king on account of his +entreaties or threats. The pope did not wish to have the matter +brought before him, because he preferred to leave the errors of +Fénélon's book to be corrected by milder methods than a public +condemnation, and desired to spare so great and holy a +prelate--who had erred only through a mistaken judgment of the +true sense of certain statements of the most approved mystic +authors--the mortification of a public censure and a formal +retraction. The action of Fénélon's enemies made the matter so +public and notorious, and brought his erroneous statements into +such a clear light that it was impossible to avoid an examination +and judgment without scandal. The judgment was impartial, and was +necessarily against Fénélon, whose doctrine was clearly +irreconcilable with the teaching of the church. At the same time, +a sharp reproof was given to his accusers for the spirit which +they had shown in pushing matters to extremes, and the personal +respect and esteem of the pope for Fénélon were clearly +manifested. + +The translator has added a very judicious note to the treatise on +the immortality of the soul, justly censuring certain statements +of the author on the nature of the connection between soul and +body. Like many other writers of that time, Fénélon was too much +influenced by the philosophy of Descartes whose ridiculous theory +of occasional causes appears in the passages criticised by Mr. +Silliman. On this point, the language of the Protestant +translator is much more in accordance with the Catholic doctrine +that the soul is _forma corporis_ than that of the Catholic +archbishop. + +We recommend this most beautiful specimen of reasoning and +persuasive eloquence most heartily to all readers, especially to +those who fancy they can find a halting-place somewhere between +the rejection of all positive revelation and the acceptance, pure +and simple, of Catholicity. +{574} +The translation is well done, and the mechanical execution of the +book, which is a medium between a volume and a pamphlet, is +elegant. If the translator finds sufficient encouragement in the +reception which it meets with to induce him to continue, we +recommend to him the translation of Fénélon's admirable treatise +on the existence and attributes of God, as a work which we should +welcome as a timely and valuable addition to our English +religious literature. + +---- + + La Natura E La Grazia, + (Nature And Grace.) + Discourses on Modern Naturalism delivered in Rome during the + Lent of 1865. + By Father Charles M. Curci, S.J. + 2 vols. Rome, Turin, and Venice. + +We are greatly indebted to the courtesy of F. Curci in sending us +a copy of this admirable collection of discourses. With the +greatest modesty, the distinguished author apologizes in his +preface for the defects of his work. To his readers, however, his +name will be a sufficient guarantee of its excellence and +ability; nor will a careful examination give them any reason to +change their opinion. These are no ordinary Lent sermons upon the +commonplace themes of exhortation which preachers are wont to +handle during this holy season. They are profound, eloquent, and +classically written discourses upon all the great Catholic +doctrines and practices which are disputed or denied by modern +infidels and rationalists; a specimen of that high, intellectual, +philosophical, and, at the same time, thoroughly spiritual +preaching which is so necessary in our day for the educated +classes. If it were possible, it would be highly desirable and +beneficial to have these volumes translated into English. If we +are not able, at present, to have this done, it is only because +of the very great cost of translating and publishing in this +country a work of such a high class, the circulation of which +would be necessarily limited to the clergy and a small portion of +the most highly educated among the laity. + +----- + + Italy, Florence, And Venice. + From the French of H. Taine. + By J. Durand. + 8vo, pp. 385. New York: Leypoldt & Holt. + +This is a companion volume to M. Taine's book on _Rome and +Naples_, which appeared in an English dress about a year ago. +The author visited Italy in 1864, (though the date, by a strange +oversight, is not mentioned in the volume now before us,) and his +observations upon the political situation of the country and such +social peculiarities as arose from political causes, have now +lost much of their value. These observations are fortunately few, +nor were they ever very profound. M. Taine is not a student of +public affairs, nor a keen observer of popular characteristics. +Of Italian life and manners, he learned no more than the mere +guide-book tourist can see in hotels, galleries, and public +conveyances, and what he saw he tells no better than many have +told the same things before him, and not so well as at least one +or two American travellers whom we could mention. It is as a +critic of art that he demands our attention, and in this +particular he far surpasses nine tenths of all the writers on +such topics with whom English readers are familiar. The eloquence +and rapidity of his style, the refinement of his esthetic sense, +and the keenness of his philosophy, invest his pages with an +interest and a brilliancy which must charm every body. Yet there +is something lacking in his appreciation of paintings, there is a +coldness even in the midst of his enthusiasm, which leave the +mind unsatisfied. The fact is, he writes like a man of the world, +to whom the inner religious sentiment of art is only half +revealed. He judges of paintings only with the head; but there +are certain works--above all, for instance, those of Fra +Angelico--which must be judged by the heart. + +----- + + Love; Or Self Sacrifice: + a Story by Lady Herbert. + Published by D. & J. Sadlier & Co. + Price, 75 cts. + +The life of Gwladys, the heroine of Lady Herbert's story, is made +up of three important events; two marriages and the death of her +lovely boy; and it required all of Lady Herbert's experience as a +writer to fill a volume covering the space of eighteen years, +with the joys and sorrows of her monotonous life. +{575} +The book abounds in exquisite descriptive scenes and truthful +narratives of the fatigues and incidents of travel; but there is +a striking resemblance between many of the leading characters, +and the episodes, in general, are unnatural. + +These faults can only be accounted for on the supposition that +the overstrained mind of the heroine did not preserve a perfect +picture of each individual; their virtues and faults appearing to +Gwladys in proportion to the amount of kindness they heaped upon +her. Thus Lady Herbert was unable to paint them as they were in +reality and contented herself by coloring them to suit the ideas +of her much-loved friend. The external appearance of the book we +cannot praise. The proofs must have been read by the "printer's +devil," with _malice prepense_, for a more slovenly printed +book it has never been our misfortune, as a reviewer, to have +been compelled to read. + +----- + + Die Alte Und Neue Welt. + Vols. I. II. III. + New York and Cincinnati: Benziger Bros. + +We are indebted to the publishers for the three volumes, +beautifully bound, of this excellent German illustrated magazine. +We have already noticed the admirable character both of the +reading matter and of the illustrations of this periodical, which +is an instructive and at the same time highly entertaining family +magazine, decidedly the best of its class we have ever met with +in any language. For those who can read the German language, +these volumes form as pleasant a companion as one could desire of +a rainy afternoon, or in any leisure hour when one is desirous of +some pleasant and innocent mental relaxation. It is also +profitable as well as pleasant, chiefly on account of the +charming pictures it presents of Catholic life in ancient and +modern Germany. To all who read German, we cordially recommend +the purchase of these volumes, both for the sake of the reading +matter, and also of the excellent illustrations. As for our +German fellow-Catholics, they ought to be proud of possessing in +their own rich and grand mother-tongue a magazine which does them +so much honor, and ought to give it their universal support. For +the clergy, for parish libraries, for the family, and for young +people who have a taste for reading, it is invaluable. We fear +that the children of our German fellow-citizens are too much +disposed to forget the glorious fatherland of their parents, +which is in them a great folly, to be checked and discouraged in +every way. It is not necessary, in order to become good +Americans, to disown and forget the country and the literature of +one's ancestors. If it is worth while for those whose +mother-tongue is English to spend years in acquiring a knowledge +of the language and literature of Germany, it is surely a great +piece of folly for those whose early education has given them the +means of attaining this knowledge without any trouble to throw it +away as of no value. + +We think that the American part of the magazine, that is, all +that represents the life of the German population in the United +States, might be much better sustained than it is. We cannot +blame the editors for this defect, which is no doubt entirely due +to a lack of contributors living in this country; but it appears +to us that a more extensive and zealous co-operation of the +clergy here with the European editors would, without difficulty, +supply it, and make the _Alte und Neue Welt_ really, as its +name imports, a magazine of the new as well as of the old world. +We wish the enterprising firm of the Messrs. Benziger abundant +success in their laudable and skilful efforts to promote the +cause of Catholic literature in the German language. + +----- + + Winifred; Countess Of Nithsdale. + By Lady Dacre. + New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co. + +This story has appeared in _The Tablet_, and has nothing +remarkable in it to praise or blame, if we except the numerous +typographical errors, which are the more noticeable on account of +the dulness of the narrative, and the low order of the curious +dialogues. + +----- + +{576} + + Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, And Amy. + By Louisa M. Alcott. + Illustrated by May Alcott. + Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1869. + +This is a charming story, full of life, full of fun, full of +human nature, and therefore full of interest. The little women +play at being pilgrims when they are children, and resolve to be +true pilgrims as they grow older. Life to them was earnest; it +had its duties, and they did not overlook them or despise them. +Directed by the wise teachings and beautiful example of a good +mother, they became in the end true and noble women. Make their +acquaintance; for Amy will be found delightful, Beth very lovely, +Meg beautiful, and Jo splendid; that there is a real Jo somewhere +we have not the slightest doubt. + +----- + + Mental Photographs. + An Album for Confessions of Tastes, Habits, and Convictions. + Edited by Robert Saxton. + New York: Leypoldt & Holt. + +We have here an ingenious invention for the amusement of the +social circle, and one which is capable of affording a good deal +of merriment and interest, provided smart and sensible people +take part in it. The album contains places for photographs, and +by the side of each a series of forty questions, such as "What is +your favorite book? color? name? occupation?" etc., to which +answers are to be written by the original of the picture. In this +way, the editor says, as complete a portrait as possible is +obtained both of the inner and outer man. Most of the questions +are pertinent and suggestive. + +----- + + The Phenomena And Laws Of Heat. + By Achille Cuzin, Professor of + Physics in the Lyceum of Versailles. + Translated and edited by Elihu Rich. + 1 vol. 12mo. Illustrated. Pp. 265. + New York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1869. + +This volume belongs to the _Library of Wonders_, and its aim +is to present in a summary the principal phenomena of heat, as +viewed from the standpoint afforded by recent discoveries in +physics. The illustrations are excellent, and give the reader a +complete elucidation of the text. + +----- + + The Fisher-Maiden. A Norwegian Tale. + By Björnstjerne Björnson. + From the Author's German Edition, + by M. E. Niles. + New York: Leypold & Holt. 1869. + +"An artist, not a photographer, Björnson draws souls more than +faces." "In these times of blatant novelists, it is no ordinary +treat to get a story which affects one almost as finely as a +poem." + +----- + +The Catholic Publication Society will soon publish _The History +of the Catholic Church on the Island of New York_. By the Rt. +Rev. J. R. Bayley, D.D., Bishop of Newark. This work will contain +many important documents relating to the history of the church in +this city, not heretofore published. + +----- + + Books Received. + +From Charles Scribner & Co., New York: + + Waterloo; a Sequel to the Conscript of 1813. + Translated from the French of Erckmann-Chatrian. + Illustrated. 1 vol. 12mo, pp. 368. + + +From P. M. Haverty, New York: + + Speeches on the Legislative Independence of Ireland. + With introductory notes by Thomas Francis Meagher, and a + memorial oration, by Richard O'Gorman. + 1 vol. 12mo, pp.317. + + +From Lee & Shepard, Boston: + + The Gates Wide Open; or, + Scenes in another World. + By George Wood. Pp. 354. + +---------- + +{577} + + The Catholic World. + + Vol. IX., No. 53.--August, 1869. + +----- + + "Our Established Church." [Footnote 166] + + [Footnote 166: _Putnam's Monthly Magazine_. Our + Established Church. New York. G. P. Putnam & Son. July, + 1869.] + + +The title, Our Established Church, given by _Putnam_ to a +bitterly anti-Catholic article in its number for last July, is +too malicious for pleasantry and too untrue for wit. The writer +knows perfectly well that we have in this State of New York no +established church, and that, of all the so-called churches, the +Catholic Church is the furthest removed from being the state +church. In no city, town, or county of the State are Catholics +the majority of the population; and even in this city, where +their proportion to the whole population is the largest, they +probably constitute not much, if any, over one third of the +whole. Public opinion throughout the State, though less hostile +than it was a few years ago, is still bitterly anti-Catholic. In +this city, the numbers and influence of naturalized, as +distinguished from natural born citizens, is, no doubt, very +great; but these naturalized citizens are by no means all +Catholics, and a large number of those who may have been baptized +Catholics are wholly uninfluenced by their Catholicity in their +public, and, we fear, to a great extent, even in their private +life. It is simply ridiculous, even by way of irony, to speak of +our church as the established church, or as exerting a +controlling influence in the State or city. + +Moreover, no church can be the established church, here or +elsewhere, unless it concedes the supremacy of the state, and +consents to be its slave. This the Catholic Church can never do. +The relations of church and state in Catholic countries have for +many centuries been regulated by concordats; but in this country, +since the adoption of the Federal constitution, the civil +authority has recognized its own incompetency in spirituals, and, +as before it, the equal rights of all religions not _contra +bonos mores_, as also its obligation to protect the adherents +of each in the free and full enjoyment of their entire religious +liberty. The state guarantees, thus, all the freedom and +protection the church has ever secured elsewhere by concordats. +She much prefers freedom to slavery, and her full liberty, though +shared with hostile sects, to the gilded bondage of a state +church. She neither is the established church, nor can she +consent to become so; for a state church means a church governed +by the laity, and subordinated to secular interests, as we see in +the case of the Anglican establishment. +{578} +Her steady refusal to become a state establishment is the key to +those fearful struggles in the middle ages between the church and +the empire; and the secret of the success of the Protestant +Reformation is to be found in its ready submission to the secular +prince, or its practical assertion of the supremacy of the civil +power and the subordination of the spiritual. + +There is always great difficulty in discussing such questions as +the writer in _Putnam_ raises with our Protestant +fellow-citizens; for we and they start from opposite principles +and aim at different ends. We, as Catholics, assert the entire +freedom and independence of the spiritual order; but they, +consciously or unconsciously, assume that the state is supreme, +and that the spiritual should be under the surveillance and +control of the secular. We understand by religious liberty the +freedom and independence of the church as an organic body; they +understand by it the freedom of the laity from all authority +claimed and exercised by the pope and clergy as ministers of God +or stewards of his kingdom on earth. If each Protestant sect +claims, in its own case, exemption from secular control, every +one insists that the Catholic Church shall be subject to Caesar, +and all unite to deprive her of her spiritual freedom and +independence. Hence, they and we view things from opposite poles. +They regard them from the point of view of the Gentiles, with +whom religion was a civil function, and the state supreme alike +in spirituals and temporals; we, from the point of view of the +Gospel, or the New Law, which asserts the divine sovereignty, and +requires us to obey God rather than men. They would secularize +the church and education, abolish the priesthood, explain away +the sacraments, and reduce the worship of God to the exercise of +preaching, praying, and singing, which can be performed by +laymen, or even women, as well as by consecrated priests. What +they call their religion is a perpetual protest against what we +call religion, or the Christian religion as we understand, hold, +and practise it. It is especially a protest against the +priesthood, priestly functions and authority. + +Hence the difficulty of a mutual understanding between them and +us. What they want is not what we want. We are willing to let +them have their own way for themselves, but they are not willing +that we should have our own way for ourselves; and they try all +manner of means in their power to force us to follow their way +and to fashion ourselves after their model. They do not concede +that we have, and are not willing that we should have, equal +rights with themselves in the state. If the state treats us as +citizens standing on a footing of equality with them, they are +indignant, and allege that it treats us as a privileged class, +and to their great wrong. If it does not subordinate us to them, +they pretend that it makes ours the established church, and +places them in the attitude of dissenters from the state +religion. They are not satisfied with equality; they can see no +equality where they are not the masters. They cannot endure that +Mordecai should be allowed to sit in the king's gate. This is the +real sense of _Putnam's_ article, and the meaning of the +clamor of the sectarian and a large portion of the secular press, +against the State and city of New York, for their alleged +liberality to the church. + +{579} + +The complaint in _Putnam_ is, that the State and city of New +York have granted aid to certain Catholic charitable +institutions, such as hospitals, orphan asylums, reformatories or +protectorates for Catholic boys, etc., out of all proportion to +its grants of aid to similar Protestant institutions. Also, that +the Legislature has authorized the city to appropriate a certain +percentage of the fees received for liquor licenses to the +support of private schools for the poor, some portion, even the +larger portion, of which, it is assumed, will go to the support +of Catholic parochial schools, and therefore, it is pretended, to +the support of _sectarian_ schools; for in the Protestant +mind whatever is Catholic is sectarian. But is it true that the +State or the city does proportionably less for non-Catholic +charitable or educational institutions--not a few of which are +well known to be formed for the very purpose of picking up, we +might say kidnapping, Catholic poor children, and bringing them +up in some form of Protestantism or infidelity--than it does for +Catholic charitable institutions? Most certainly not. It does far +less for Catholic than for non-Catholic institutions; and yet, +because it does a little for institutions, though for the benefit +of the whole community, under the control and management of +Catholics, the State and city are calumniated, and we are +insulted by its being pretended that our church is made the state +church. + +In this matter of State grants or city donations, the Protestant +mind proceeds upon a sad fallacy. The divisions of Protestants +among themselves count for nothing in a question between them and +Catholics. Protestants overlook this fact, and while they call +all grants and donations to Catholic institutions sectarian, they +call none sectarian of all that made to Protestant institutions +which are not under the control and management of some particular +denomination of Protestants, as the Episcopalian, the +Presbyterian, the Baptist, or the Methodist; but this is a grave +error, and cannot fail to mislead the public. All grants and +donations made to institutions, charitable or educational, not +under the control and management of Catholics are made to +non-Catholics; and, with the exception of those made to the +Hebrews, to Protestant institutions. There are but two religions +to be counted, Catholic and Protestant. The true rule is to count +on one side whatever is given to institutions under Catholic +control and management, and on the other side all that is given +for similar purposes to all the institutions, whether public or +private, not under Catholic control and management. The question, +then, comes up, Have the State and city given proportionately +greater amounts to Catholic charitable and other institutions +than to Protestant institutions? If not, we have no more than our +share, and the Protestant clamor is unjust and indefensible. + +Of the policy of granting subsidies by State or city, to +eleemosynary institutions, whether Catholic or Protestant we say +nothing; for being, even now, at most not more than one fifth of +the whole population of the State, we are in no sense answerable, +as Catholics, for any policy the State may see proper to adopt. +But, if it adopts the policy of granting subsidies, we demand for +our institutions our proportion of the subsidies granted. Have we +received more than our proportion? Nay, have we received anything +like our proportion? We find from the official report made to the +State Convention, that the total of grants made by the State to +charitable and other institutions--including the New York +Institution of the Deaf and Dumb, the New York Institution for +the Blind, the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile +Delinquents of New York, State Agricultural College, State Normal +School, the Western House of Refuge for Juvenile Delinquents, +State Lunatic Asylum, the Asylum for Idiots, the Willard Asylum +for the Insane, academies, orphan asylums, etc., hospitals, etc., +colleges, universities, etc., and miscellaneous---have amounted, +for twenty-one years, ending with 1867, to $6,920,881.91. +{580} +Of this large amount, Catholics should have received for their +institutions certainly not less than one million of dollars. Yet, +all that we have been able to find that they have received out of +this large sum is a little less than $276,000; that is, not over +one fourth of what they were entitled to; yet _Putnam's +Magazine_ has the effrontery to pretend that our church is +favored at the expense of Protestantism. + +So much for the State subsidies. In passing to the city, we find +its donations to charitable institutions, from 1847 to 1867 +inclusive, amount to $1,837,593.27; of which, Catholic +institutions, including $45,000 for parochial schools, have +received, as nearly as we can ascertain from the returns, a +little over three hundred thousand dollars. All the rest has gone +to non-Catholic, and a large part to bitterly anti-Catholic +associations and institutions. Of the aggregate grants and +donations of the State and city of $8,754,759.18, Catholic +institutions, as far as we have been able to discover from the +official tables before us, received, prior to 1868, less than +$600,000, not, by any means, a fourth of our proportion. Yet we +are treated as the established church! + +But we have not yet stated the whole case. We do not know how +many millions are appropriated annually for the support of public +schools throughout the State; but in this city the tax levy, this +year, for the public schools, is, we are told, $3,000,000 or +over. Catholics pay their proportion of this amount, and they are +a third of the population of the city. The sum appropriated to +the aid of private schools, we are told, is estimated at +$200,000; and if every cent of it is applied in aid of our +schools, as it will not be, it is far less than the tax we pay +for schools which we cannot use. The public schools are +anti-Catholic in their tendency, and none the less sectarian +because established and managed by the public authority of the +State. The State is practically Protestant, and all its +institutions are managed almost exclusively by Protestants. St. +John's College, Fordham, or St. Francis Xavier's, in this city, +is not more exclusively Catholic than Columbia or Union is +exclusively Protestant. These latter are open to Catholics, but +not more than the former are to Protestants. We count in the +grants and donations to Protestant institutions the whole amount +raised by public tax, together with that appropriated from the +school fund of the State for the support of the public schools. +Thus we claim that Catholic charities and schools do not receive, +in grants and donations, a tithe of what is honestly or justly +their share--whether estimated according to their numbers or +according to the amount of public taxes, for sectarian charitable +and educational purposes levied on them by the State and its +municipalities. How false and absurd, then, to pretend that this +State specially favors our religion, and treats us as a +privileged class! The writer in _Putnam_ is obliged to draw +largely on his sectarian imagination for facts to render his +statements at all plausible. His pretended facts are in most +cases no facts at all. We wish his estimate of the value of the +real estate owned by the church were true; but he exaggerates +hugely the amount, and then says it is held, for the most part, +in fee-simple, by one or another of five ecclesiastics, which +shows how ill-informed he is. +{581} +We subjoin the brief but spirited contradiction, by the bishop of +Rochester, of several of his misstatements. + + "_To the Editor of the Rochester Democrat:_ + + "In your paper, of June 16, appears an article with the + caption, Our Established Church.' The article is based on one + with the same title in _Putnam's Magazine_ for July. I do + not wish to review the article in _Putnam_, but claim the + privilege of correcting some of its misstatements. + + "I am one of the 'five ecclesiastics' in the State of New York + holding property worth millions. Yet, strange to say, there is + not to my knowledge one foot of land in the wide world in my + name. All the church societies in the diocese of Rochester not + organized as corporate bodies under the laws of the State of + New York, previous to my appointment as Bishop of Rochester, + have organized or are completing their organization under + those laws. So soon as these societies comply with the law of + the State, Bishop Loughlin, of Brooklyn, will transfer to + them, by quit-claim deeds, whatever property of theirs he + inherited from the late Bishop Timon. Had I had ever so little + desire to hold property in my name, I might have held in + fee-simple the lots on which I am building the bishop's house; + but I have placed the title in the name of 'St. Patrick's + Church Society.' + + "The other 'ecclesiastics' in the State of New York, who have + not already transferred the property which they held in + fee-simple, are engaged in making such transfer of the 'fifty + millions' said to be held by them. + + "The chief trouble, it seems to me, is in the fact that the + Catholic Church is allowed to hold property in any shape or + form. But the Catholic Church does hold property, and she will + continue to hold it to the end of the chapter, and 'What do you + propose to do about it?' + + "'The (Catholic) Nursery and Hospital on Fifty-first street and + Lexington avenue,' is a Protestant institution. + + "The new St. Patrick's Cathedral stands on ground purchased by + Catholics about sixty years ago, and ever since in their + possession. This fact spoils Parton's compliment to the + Archbishop Hughes's foresight, and a nice bit of irony in + _Putnam's Magazine_. + + "The Catholics in New York City, in 1817, opened an orphan + asylum, which they maintained, without assistance from the city + or State, until some time after the year 1840, when they + received on a perpetual lease the block of ground between + Fourth and Fifth avenues and Fifty-first and Fifty-second + streets, at that time of very little value. On these lots they + have erected two vast and magnificent buildings, in which they + support over a thousand children, at an annual cost to them, + and not to the city or State, of from $70,000 to $90,000. + + "I make these corrections to show that the writer of the + article in _Putnam_ is far astray in his facts. There are + many other objectionable statements in the article, but a + magazine contribution without a little spice in it would be + tame and unreadable. Thus, the allusion to the church trouble + in Auburn, and the pretty play on the name of the church, would + lose their point if the history of that affair were properly + understood. + + "Catholics do not claim to have rights above any one else, but + they know they have equal rights with others. They have no + notion of their church ever becoming the 'Established Church,' + and they are just as certain that no other church shall ever + assume to be the 'Established Church' in the United States. + B. J. McQuaid, + "Bishop of Rochester." + +This is conclusive as far as it goes. We do not know the money +value of our churches, the sites and buildings of our schools, +colleges, orphan asylums, hospitals, religious houses, and +academies; but it is possible that in the five dioceses into +which the State is ecclesiastically divided it may be half as +much as the value of the real estate owned by Trinity Church in +this city; but be it more or be it less, the property of the +church has been bought and paid for, so far as paid for at all, +with very slight exceptions, by the voluntary offerings of the +faithful, and none of it has been obtained by the despoiling of +Protestant owners. Very little of it is due to public grants, and +the few lots leased us by the city at a nominal rent for a term +of years, though of great value now, were of little value when +leased. +{582} +Nor have these lots in any case been leased for sites of +churches, but in all cases for purposes in which the city itself +is no less deeply interested than the Catholics themselves. The +grants to the reformatory for Catholic boys, though apparently +large, are measures of economy on the part of the city; for we +can manage reformatories and take care of our juvenile +delinquents far more economically than the city or Protestant +institutions can. The industrial school of the Sisters of Charity +is a public benefit, and the city and the State would save money +were all their hospitals and asylums placed under the charge of +these good sisters, or of the kindred congregation of the Sisters +of Mercy. Our hospitals, again, are as open to Protestants as to +Catholics. It is never a Catholic practice to inquire what is a +man's religion before rendering him assistance. Whoever needs our +help, whatever his religion, is our neighbor. + +The city has made donations, as far as we are aware, only to such +Catholic institutions as are established for really public +objects, and which in their operations save the city from what +would otherwise be either a public nuisance or a public charge. +Take the case of Catholic orphan asylums. The orphans they +receive and provide for would otherwise be a charge on the city +treasury. Take the institute of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. +It has for its object a noble charity, that of rescuing and +reforming fallen women. These victims of vice and propagators of +corruption, received and cared for by the Sisters of the Good +Shepherd, and generally restored to health, virtue, and +usefulness, would, if not taken up by them, fall into the hands +of the correctional police, and the city would have the expense +of arresting, punishing, and providing for them in the house of +correction, the penitentiary, or its hospitals. Catholic charity +not only accomplishes a good object, confers a public benefit, +but saves a heavy expense to the Commissioners of Public +Charities and Correction. It is only such Catholic institutions +as tend directly to promote a public good, and to lighten the +public expense, that the city aids with its grants and donations. +It aids in the same way, and to a far greater extent, similar +Protestant institutions, such as the House of the Friendless, the +House of Mercy, the Society for the Protection of Juvenile +Delinquents, the Christian's Aid Society, the Magdalen Society, +the Nursery and Children's Hospital, etc., for the most part, +institutions founded with an anti-Catholic intent. + +The _Magazine_ asserts, the "State paid out, in 1866, for +benefactions under religious control, $129,025.49, ... of which +the trifling sum of $124,174.14 went to the religious purposes" +of the Catholic Church. We have not been able to find a particle +of proof of this, and the mode of reckoning adopted by +_Putnam_ is so false, and its general inaccuracy is so +great, that, in the absence of specific proof, we must presume it +to be untrue, and made only for a sensational effect. The writer +in _Putnam_ seems to count as Catholic such institutions and +associations as the Ladies' Mission Society, The New York +Magdalen Benevolent Society, Ladies' Union Aid Society, Nursery +and Children's Hospital, Ladies' Home Missionary Society, Five +Points Gospel Union Mission, Five Points House of Industry, Young +Men's Christian Association, and we know not how many more, all +Protestant, and not a few of them designed, under pretext of +charity, and by really rendering some physical relief to the poor +and destitute, to detach the Catholic needy, and especially +Catholic children, from the church, and yet all of them are +beneficiaries of the State or city. +{583} +No institution supported, even for proselyting purposes, by a +union of two or more evangelical sects, is reckoned by +_Putnam_ as Protestant or sectarian. We hold them to be +thoroughly Protestant, and rabidly sectarian. + +The sensational writer in _Putnam_ complains of the city for +leasing to Catholics valuable real estate, at a nominal rent, for +a long term of years. Only one such lease, that for the House of +Industry for the Sisters of Charity, has been made in this city +since 1847. The site of St. Patrick's Cathedral, which he +pretends is leased by the city, at a rent of one dollar a year, +has been owned by Catholics for over sixty years, and was bought +and paid for by them with their own money, as the venerable +Bishop of Rochester asserts. The only other instance named, that +of the Nursery and Children's Hospital, Fifty-first street and +Lexington avenue, is a Protestant, not a Catholic institution. +The writer should not take grants and donations made to +Protestants as grants and donations made to Catholics. Between +Catholics and Protestants there is a difference! + +The writer's statement of the huge endowments the church will +have, at the rate the city and State are endowing her, in 1918, +we must leave to the consideration of the future _Putnams_. +Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. We will only say that +the church has had, thus far, in this country, no endowment, and +has no source of revenue but the unfailing charity of the +faithful. The magnificent revenues of our churches, colleges, +hospitals, asylums, etc., so dazzling to the writer in +_Putnam_, are all in his eye. We have not a single endowed +church, convent, college, school, hospital, or asylum in the +Union! We do great things with small means, and what to +Protestants would seem to be no means at all, because He who is +great is with us, and because we rely on charity, and charity +never faileth. + +We have sufficiently disposed of the property question, and +vindicated the State and city from the charge of undue favoritism +to our church. No charge can be more untrue or more unjust. A few +words on the common school question, and we dismiss the article +in _Putnam_, which has already detained us too long. + +The writer in _Putnam_ attempts to be so ironical and so +witty, and so readily sacrifices sobriety and truth to point, +that he must excuse us from following him step by step in his +account of our relation to the common schools. We know well the +common school system of this and other States. We--we speak +personally--received our early education in the public schools, +were for five years a common school teacher, and for fifteen +years had charge of the schools in the place of our residence, as +school committee-man. We have not one word to say against them as +schools for the children of those who are willing to secularize +education. We make no war on the system for non-Catholics. If +they wish the system for themselves, we offer them no opposition. +Indeed, for those who hold the supremacy of the secular order, +and believe that every department of life should be secularized, +no better system can be devised. We oppose it not when intended +for them, but only when intended for us and we are taxed to +support it. We hold the spiritual order superior to the secular, +and wish our children to be educated accordingly. + +{584} + +We hold that education, or the instruction and training of +children and youth, is a function of the church, a function which +she cannot discharge except in schools exclusively under her +management and control. This education and training can be +successfully given only in the Catholic family and the Catholic +school. In this country, for reasons we need not stop to +enumerate, the Catholic school is especially necessary. We do +not, by any means, oppose what is called secular learning, and in +no country where they have not been prevented by a hostile or +anti-Catholic government, have Catholics failed to take the lead +in all branches of secular learning and science. All the great +literary masterpieces of the world, since the downfall of Pagan +Rome, are the productions either of Catholics or of men who have +received a Catholic training. Few as we are, and great as are the +disadvantages under which we labor in this country, Catholics +even here compare more than favorably, at this moment, in secular +learning and science, with non-Catholics. The religious training +they receive from the church, the great catholic principles which +she teaches them in the catechism and in all her services, tend +to quicken and purify the mind, and to fit it to excel even in +secular science and learning. The Catholic has the truth to start +from, and why should he not surpass all others? No! we do not +oppose, we favor secular learning and science; but we oppose +separating secular training from religious training, and can +never consent to the secularization of education. Here is where +we and the present race of Protestants differ. It is because the +common schools secularize, and are intended by their chief +supporters to secularize, education and to make all life secular, +that we oppose them, and refuse to send our children to them +where we can possibly avoid it. Even if religious education is +given elsewhere, in the family or in the Sunday-school, the evil +is only partially neutralized. The separation of the secular from +the religious tends to create a fearful dualism in both +individual and social life, to place the spiritual and the +secular in the relation of antagonism, each to the other, which +renders impracticable that concord between the two orders so +necessary to the harmonious development of the individual life +and the promotion of the well-being and progress of society. We +insist, therefore, on having our children and youth trained in +schools under charge of the church, that in them the spiritual +and the secular may be harmonized as necessary parts of one +dialectic whole. + +Such are our views and wishes, and such our conscientious +conviction of duty. Whether we are right or wrong, is no question +for the state or civil authority to settle. The state has no +competency in the matter. It is bound to respect and protect +every citizen in the free and full enjoyment of the freedom of +his conscience. We stand before the state on a footing of perfect +equality with non-Catholics, and have the same right to have our +Catholic conscience respected and protected, that they have to +have their non-Catholic and secularized conscience respected and +protected. We do not ask the state to impose our conscience on +them, or to compel them to adopt and follow our views of +education; but we deny its right to impose theirs on us, or even +to carry out their views of education in any degree at our +expense. The Catholic conscience binds the state itself so far, +but only so far, as Catholics are concerned. Non-Catholics are +the great majority of the population, at least five to our one, +throughout the State, and they have the power, if they choose to +exercise it, to control the State and to deny us our equal +rights; but that does not alter the fact that we have equal +rights, and that the State is bound to respect and cause them to +be respected. +{585} +The State no doubt is equally bound to respect and protect the +equal rights of non-Catholics, but no more than it is bound to +respect and protect ours. + +On this question of education, we and non-Catholics no doubt +stand at opposite poles. We cannot accept their views, and they +will not accept ours. Between them and us there is no common +ground on which we and they can meet and act in concert. They +feel it as keenly as we do. Now as the State owes equally respect +and protection to both parties, and has no right to attempt to +force either to conform to the views of the other, its only just +and honest course is to abandon the policy of trying to bring +both together in a system of common schools. Catholic and +non-Catholic education cannot be carried on in common. In purely +secular matters, Catholics and Protestants can act in common, as +one people, one community; but in any question that involves the +spiritual relations and duties of men, we and they are two +communities, and cannot act in concert; and as both are equal +before the State, it can compel neither to give way to the other. +This may or may not be a disadvantage; but it is a fact, and must +by all parties be accepted as such. + +The solution of the problem would present no difficulty, were the +non-Catholics as willing to recognize our rights as we are to +recognize theirs. They support secular schools, and wish to +compel us to send our children to them, because they hope thus to +secularize the minds of our children--_enlighten_ them, they +say; darken them, we say--and detach them from the church, or, at +least, so emasculate their Catholicity that it will differ only +in name from Protestantism. They regard common schools, in which +secular learning is diverted from religious instruction and +training, as a most cunningly devised engine for the destruction +of the church; and therefore they insist on it with all the +energy of their souls, and the strength of their hatred of +Catholicity. It gives them the forming of the character of the +children of Catholics, and thus in an indirect way makes the +State an accomplice in their proselyting schemes. Here arises all +the difficulty in the case. But, whether they are right or wrong +in their calculations, the State has no more right to aid them +against us, than it has to aid us against them. If it will, as it +is bound to do, respect and protect the rights of conscience, or +real religious liberty, the only solid basis of civil liberty, it +must do as the continental governments of Europe do, and divide +the public schools into two classes; the one for Catholics, and +the other for non-Catholics; that is, adopt the system of +denominational schools, or, rather, as we would say, Catholic +schools--under the management and control of the church--for +Catholics, and secular schools--under its own management and +control,--for the rest of the community. Let the system stand as +it is for non-Catholics, by whatever name they may be called, and +let the State appropriate to Catholics, for the support of +schools approved by their church, their proportion of the school +fund, and of the money raised by public tax for the support of +public schools, simply reserving to itself the right, through the +courts, to see that the sums received are honestly applied to the +purposes for which they are appropriated. +{586} +The State may, if it insists, fix the minimum of secular +instruction to be given, and withhold all or a portion of the +public moneys from all Catholic schools that do not come up to +it. + +This, if the State, for public reasons, insists on universal +education, is the best way of solving the difficulty, without +violence to the equal rights of either Catholics or +non-Catholics. The State would thus respect all consciences, and +at the same time secure the education of all the children of the +land, which is, no doubt, a public desideratum. Another way would +be, to exempt Catholics from the tax levied for the support of +the public schools, and give to the schools they maintain their +proportion of the school fund held in trust by the State, and +leave Catholics to establish and manage schools for their own +children in their own way, under the supervision and control of +the church. Either way of solving the difficulty would answer our +purpose, and we venture to say that one or the other method of +dealing with the public school question will ere long have to be +adopted, whatever the opposition excited. + +The American sense of justice already begins to revolt at the +manifest wrong of taxing us to support schools from which our +conscience will not permit us to derive any benefit. At present, +we pay our quota to the support of the public schools, which we +cannot with a good conscience use, and are obliged to support our +own schools in addition. This is grossly unjust, and in direct +violation of the equal rights guaranteed us by the constitution, +and the religious liberty which is the loud boast of the country. +The subsidies granted to some of our parochial schools in this +city are an attempt, and an honorable attempt, to mitigate the +injustice which is done us by the common school system. But the +sums appropriated, as considerable as they may seem, are far +below the sums collected from us, for the support of the public +schools. The principle on which the common school system is +founded is, that the wealth of the State should educate the +children of the State. One third, at least, of the children of +this city, are the children of Catholic parents, and belong to +the Catholic Church. The sum appropriated for the public schools +in this city, the present year, is, if we are correctly informed, +something over three millions of dollars, and Catholics are +entitled to one third of it, or to one million of dollars. They +do not receive for their schools even a third of one +million--even according to the most exaggerated statements of +_Putnam's Magazine_ and the sectarian press--and nothing +like the amount of the public school tax which they are compelled +to pay; yet it is pretended that ours is the established church, +and that Catholics are specially favored by the State and city! +We ask no favors, but we demand justice, and that our equal +rights with non-Catholic citizens be respected, and protected. + +There are other points, in _Putnam_, that we should like to +notice--points which are intended, and not unfitted, to tell on +the minds of ignorant anti-Catholic bigots and fanatics; but our +space, as well as our patience, is exhausted. The writer is +worthy of no confidence in any of his statements. He proves +effectually that it is untrue that figures cannot lie; for under +his manipulation they not only lie, but lie hugely. Even the +anti-Catholic _Nation_ has rebuked him for his levity, and +he has even disgusted all fair-minded and moderate Protestants. +He has quite overshot his mark. But be that as it may, we have +confidence in the justice and right sense of the great body of +our countrymen and fellow-citizens, and we do not believe, +however much they dislike the church, that they will persevere in +a course manifestly unjust to Catholics, and repugnant to the +first principles of American liberty, after becoming once aware +of its bad character. + +{587} + +As to the subsidies granted by the Legislature to Catholic +charitable and educational institutions, they have been far less +than are due--as the Hon. John E. Devlin justly remarked in the +Convention, not ten per cent of the amount granted. And it has +been no crime on our part to accept what has been offered us; for +we have received and accepted them only for purposes of public +utility and common humanity. Nor are we responsible for the +action of the State Legislature; for it is composed chiefly of +non-Catholics, and by a large majority elected by non-Catholics. +Catholics are by no means the majority of electors in the State. +We institute no inquiry into the motives that have influenced the +members of the Legislature; we never assign bad or sinister +motives, when good and proper motives are at hand. We presume the +motive has been a sense of justice toward a large and growing +class of the community, whose rights have for a long time been +trampled on or disregarded. To condemn them, is not at all +creditable to the rabid Protestant press, and, in our judgment, +is very bad policy. However it may be with the Protestant +leaders, the majority of the American people are sincerely and +earnestly attached to the American doctrine of equal rights, and +will no more consent to its manifest violation in the case of +Catholics than of non-Catholics. + +---------- + + Mark IV. + + "Why are ye afraid, O ye of little faith?" + + + As if the storm meant Him; + Or'cause Heaven's face is dim, + His needs a cloud. + Was ever froward wind + That could be so unkind, + Or wave so proud? + The wind had need be angry, and the water black, + That to the mighty Neptune's self dare threaten wrack. + + There is no storm but this + Of your own cowardice + That braves you out: + You are the storm that mocks + Yourselves; you are the rocks + Of your own doubt. + Besides this fear of danger there's no danger here, + And he that here fears danger does deserve his fear. + + Crashaw. +------- + +{588} + + Daybreak. + + Chapter XII. + + So As By Fire. + +When spring came again, the letters from Mr. Granger were less +frequent, and as weather and work grew warmer, the family had to +content themselves with a few lines at irregular and sometimes +long intervals. + +They were not to be anxious, he wrote, even if they should not +hear from him for several weeks. As the newspapers and the +speech-makers had it, we were making history every day, and he +must write his little paragraph with the rest. It took both hands +to wield the pen, and he must have a care to make no blots. Which +was a roundabout way of saying that his military duties required +all his time. They must remember that "no news is good news," and +try to possess their souls in patience. + +On his next furlough he would + + "Shoulder his crutch, + and tell how fields were won," + +or lost; but till then a hasty scrawl must suffice. He thought of +them whenever he lay down to rest; and sometimes, when he was in +the midst of the hurry and noise of battle, he would catch a +flitting vision of the peaceful fireside where friends sat and +thought of him. That home was to him like the headland beacon to +the mariner far away on the rough horizon, and threw its point of +tender light on every dark event that surged about him. + +"I shall be there before long. Meantime, good-by, and don't +worry." + +From Mr. Southard they had heard less frequently, and less at +length. His monthly letters to his congregation were usually +accompanied by a few lines addressed to Mr. or Mrs. Lewis, +telling them in rather formal fashion where he was, and as little +as possible of what he was doing. At present, the regiment of +which he was chaplain still had their quarters at New Orleans. + +"I am afraid he thinks that we don't care much to hear from him," +Margaret said, the three ladies sitting together, and talking the +matter over. "Suppose we all write just as freely as we do to Mr. +Granger? We can tell him all the little household events, and how +his chair and his place at the table are still called his, and +kept for him. I think he would be pleased, don't you, Aura?" + +"I do. It isn't a wonder that he writes formally to us when he +gets such ceremonious answers." + +"To complain of cold replies to cold letters is like the wolf +accusing the lamb of muddying the brook," retorted Mrs. Lewis. "I +shall waste none of my sweetness on the desert air, and you will +be a pair of simpletons if you do. We might expend ourselves in +those gushing epistles to him, and after a month or two we should +probably get about three lines apiece in return, each line cooler +than the last, and not an intimation that he wasn't bored." + +"But I think he would be pleased," repeated Margaret doubtfully, +beginning to waver. + +"What right or reason have you to think so when he never says +that he is?" Mrs. Lewis persisted. "For my part, I think that +friendship is worthy of acknowledgment from king or kaiser--that +is, if he wants it; and if Mr. Southard isn't an iceberg, then he +is a very selfish and arrogant man, that's all. +{589} +You may do as you like. But I shall never again try to get a +sunbeam out of that cucumber. I have spoken." + +The entrance of Mr. Lewis put an end to their discussion. He came +in with a very cross face. + +"Here I've got to start for Baltimore, with the thermometer at +eighty degrees, and the Confederates swarming up the Shenandoah +by tens of thousands, and ready to pounce on anybody south of New +York!' Why have I got to go?' Why, my agent is on the point of +absconding with the rents, and the insurance policies on my +houses are out, and I can't renew them in Boston or New York for +love or money; and if things are not seen to there, we shall be +beggars. You needn't laugh, madam! It's no joke. I've just seen a +man straight from Baltimore, and he says that rascal is all but +ready to start on a European tour with my money in his pocket. I +shall get a sunstroke, or have an apoplexy; I know I shall." + +"A cabbage-leaf in your hat might prevent the sunstroke," his +wife said serenely. "As to the apoplexy, I am not so safe about +that, if you keep on at this rate. When do you start?" + +"To-night; and now it is two o'clock. The rails may be ripped up +at any hour. You see now, Mrs. Lewis, the disadvantage of living +in one town and having your property in another. You would come +to Boston. Nothing else would suit you. And the consequence is, +that I've got to go posting down to Baltimore in July, to collect +my rents." + +Mrs. Lewis laughed merrily. + +"'The woman whom thou gavest me'--that's the way, from Adam +down. Who would think, girls, that this is the very first +intimation I ever had that Mr. Lewis would rather live in +Baltimore than Boston! But, bless me! I must see to his valise, +and have an early dinner. As for the raid panic, I will risk you. +I don't believe there's much the matter." + +Margaret had been looking steadily at Mr. Lewis ever since he +began speaking. She said not a word while the others exclaimed +and questioned, and finally went out to prepare for his journey; +but some sharp work was going on in her mind, an electric +crystallization of vague and floating impressions, impulses, and +thoughts into resolve. + +It had been weeks since they heard from Mr. Granger. She had not +been very much troubled about it--had, indeed, wondered that she +felt so little anxiety; but her quietude was by no means +indifference or security. She could not have defined her own +feelings. For the last week she had not uttered his name, had +shrunk with an unaccountable reluctance from doing so, and, worse +yet, had found it impossible to pray for him. + +Her other prayers she said as usual; but when she would have +prayed for his safe return, the words died upon her lips. She was +neither excited nor distressed; she was, perhaps, more calm than +usual. Her hands were folded, her face upraised, she had placed +herself in the presence of God; but if a hand had been laid upon +her lips she could not have been more mute. A physical weakness +seemed to deprive her of the power of speech. This was not once, +but again, and yet again. + +Margaret had the most absolute faith in the power of prayer. She +believed that we may sometimes obtain what we had better not +have, God giving for his word's sake to those who will not be +denied, but chastening the petitioner for his lack of submission +by means of the very gift he grants +{590} +She had said to herself, "If a sword were raised to strike one I +love, it could not fall while I prayed. He has promised, and I +believe." + +But now, if the sword hung there indeed, she could utter no word +to stay its falling. She felt herself forbidden, bound by a +restraint she could not throw off. "Well, Margaret," Mr. Lewis +said at length, "what are you thinking of? You look as if your +brain were a galvanic battery in full operation, sending messages +in every direction at once. The sparks have been coming out of +your eyes for the last five minutes." + +The crystallizing process was over, and her resolution lay there +in her mind as bright and hard as though it were the work of +years. + +"I'm going to Washington," she said. "I have been thinking of it +this week. I will go with you tonight, if you please." + +Of course there were wonderments, and questions, and objections. +According to all the canons of propriety, it was highly improper +for a lady to go South under the existing state of things, unless +there were bitter need. It was warm, and it was hard travelling +night and day, as he would have to do. He would like to have her +company, of course, but he didn't see-- + +"No matter about your seeing," interrupted Miss Hamilton, rising. +"If you won't have me with you, I'll go alone. Please don't say +any more. Cannot you understand, Mr. Lewis, that there are times +when trivial objections and opposition may be very irritating? We +will not discuss canons of propriety just now. I have something +of more consequence to attend to." + +"Well, don't be cross," he said good-naturedly. "I won't say +another word. If you can stand the journey, I shall be glad to +have you go. But you will have to be quicker in getting your +traps ready than my wife and Aurelia ever are." + +"I can be ready in fifteen minutes to go anywhere," was the +reply. "Now I will go tell Mrs. Lewis." + +Mrs. Lewis saw at a glance that opposition was useless. Moreover, +she was one of those persons who can allow for exceptional cases, +and distinguish between rashness and inspiration. + +"I know it seems odd," Margaret said to her; "but I must go. I +feel impelled. I would go if I had to walk. You will be good, and +take my part, won't you? Don't tell anybody where I have +gone--nobody has any right to know--and take care of my little +Dora. I'm going up to the State House now, but will be back by +the time dinner is ready." + +"I wouldn't venture to stop her if I could," Mrs. Lewis said. +"Margaret is not given to flying off on tangents, and this start +may mean something. She has perception at every pore of her." + +In the messenger's room at the State House a score of persons +were in waiting. + +"I would like to see the governor a few minutes," Margaret said. + +"You will have to wait your turn, ma'am," answered a very +authoritative individual. "The gov'ner's tremendously +busy--overwhelmed with work--hasn't had time to get his dinner +yet. Just sit down and wait, and I will let him know as soon as +there is a chance. If you tell me your business, I might mention +it to him." + +"Thank you! Which is his room?" + +He pointed to a door. "But you can't go in now. I'll tell him +presently, if you give me your name." + +{591} + +With the most sublime disregard for formalities, Miss Hamilton +walked straight toward the door indicated. + +"But I tell you you can't go in there," said the messenger +angrily, attempting to stop her. + +For answer, she opened the door, and walked into the room where +the governor sat at a table, with a secretary at each side of +him. He looked up with a frown on seeing a visitor enter +unannounced, but rose immediately as he recognized her. + +"That's right. I'm glad you did not wait," he said. Then as she +glanced at his companions, added, "Come in here," and led her +through a small ante-room where two young ladies sat waiting, and +into the vacant council-chamber. + +I will detain you but a minute," she said hastily. "I am going to +start for Washington to-night, and I want to visit the hospitals +there. Will you give me a letter to some one who will get me +permission? I am not sure that I shall find an acquaintance in +the city at this season, except the family to whose house I shall +go, and they are people of no influence. Besides, I do not wish +to have any delay!" + +"Certainly; with pleasure! I will give you letters that will take +you through everything without a question. But what in the world +are you going there now for? It is hardly safe. My autograph will +stand a pretty good chance of falling into the hands of Mosby." + +"I am uneasy about Mr. Granger," she replied directly. "We +haven't heard from him for weeks, and I must know if there is +anything the matter. He has been a good friend to me. He saved my +life once, and I owe him everything. We are only friends, you +know; but that word means something with me. Do you think there +is any impropriety in my going? Mr. Lewis goes with me as far as +Baltimore." + +"Not the least impropriety in life," was the prompt reply. "I +won't say a word against your going. I always think that when any +person, man or woman, gets that raised look that I see in your +face, slow coaches had better roll off the track. Come, now, and +I'll write your letters." + +"You are worth a million times your weight in gold!" Margaret +exclaimed. "You are one of the few persons who don't carry a wet +blanket about in readiness to extinguish people. I cannot tell +how I thank you!" + +The gentleman laughed. + +"Rather an extravagant valuation, considering the present +percentage, and my pounds avoirdupois. As for wet blankets, I +never did much believe in 'em." + +While the governor wrote, Margaret stood at his elbow and watched +the extraordinary characters that grew to life beneath his pen. + +"Are you sure they will understand what those mean?" she asked +timidly. + +"They will know the signature," he replied, making a dab over a +letter, to indicate that an _i_ was somewhere in the +vicinity. "You can use them as +_cartes_--well--_noires_, I suppose, on the strength of +which you are to ask anything you please. Choate and I"--here a +polysyllable was dashed across the whole sheet--"had a vocation +for lettering tea-boxes, you know. There! now you had better use +either of these first, if it is just as convenient, and keep Mr. +Lincoln's till the last. But aren't you afraid of being stopped +on the way? Everything is in a heap down there." + +"So I hear; but I feel as if we shall get through." + +"Don't mention to any one about my going, will you?" she +whispered, as they went to the door. + +{592} + +He laughed. "To nobody but the council. Good-bye. Good luck to +you!" + +An hour later she saw the city slowly disappearing as the cars +rolled out over the new lands. + +Mr. Lewis settled himself comfortably in his seat. "And now for +Maryland, my Maryland!" + +"By George!" he exclaimed presently, putting his hand into his +pocket, "here is a letter from Mr. Southard. It will serve to +amuse us; but I am sorry that the others hadn't seen it." + +He opened the letter, and they read it together. Mr. Southard had +been ill, he wrote, and was yet only able to dawdle about the +wards of the hospital and gossip with the patients. He had been +offered private quarters, but had preferred a hospital. It +chanced that the Sisters of Charity had charge of the one to +which he was sent, and they had given him the best of care. + +That was the gist of the letter. + +How will that read to his congregation, I wonder?" Margaret said. +"I fancy they won't half like it." + +"Perhaps not. But I call that a good letter. It is the best we +have had; not a word of religion, from first to last." + +"But it breathes the very spirit of charity," was the quick +reply. "How gently he mentions every one! Not a hard word even +for the enemy!" + +Mr. Lewis deliberately folded the letter. + +"I dare say; and that is the kind of religion I like. When I hear +a man continually calling on God to witness everything he says +and does, I always think that he stands terribly in need of a +backer." + +They reached New York the next morning, and learned there that +the panic was increasing rather than diminishing. The track was +yet open, but no one went South who had not pressing business. + +"What do you say, Maggie?" asked Mr. Lewis. "On to Richmond, eh?" + +"Do let us go!" she begged, her impatience growing with every +obstacle. + +"On it is, then. I like your pluck." + +"I should think that the lady would rather wait," the conductor +suggested. + +"Wait, sir?" said Mr. Lewis bluffly. "By no means! Don't trouble +yourself. She isn't one of the squealing sort." + +"Very well," the man replied doubtfully. "But we shall go pretty +fast." + +Margaret's heavy eyes brightened. "That is what I want. You +cannot go too fast for me." + +On they went again with steadily increasing speed, reaching +Philadelphia ahead of time. There fresh news of disaster awaited +them. On then to Baltimore, where they found the citizens arming, +and every one full of excitement. + +"I must and will go through!" Margaret said passionately, seeing +Mr. Lewis about to expostulate. + +He resumed his seat. "Then I shall go with you." + +They stopped only long enough to be assured that communication +with Washington was still open, then started on the last stage of +their journey, keeping a sharp lookout, since it was not +impossible that at almost any moment they might be saluted by a +volley of musketry, or thrown headlong over an unseen hiatus in +the rail. + +{593} + +"Seems to me we are getting over the ground at a tearing pace," +remarked one of the passengers in a lazy drawl. "For my part, I +don't know but I'd as lief stand my chance of a minie-ball as run +the risk of being knocked into railroad-pi. A slug is a neat +thing; but these smash-ups are likely to injure a fellow's +personal appearance." + +"There they are!" exclaimed an other, who had been watching +through a glass ever since they left Baltimore. "I should guess +that there's only a score of cavalry; but they may have more +behind. Do you see? Just over the hill. It's a pretty even thing +which of us reaches the crossing first. Not above a mile ahead, +is it?" + +He of the drawl, a cavalry captain, turned to Margaret. "Do you +object to fire-arms, ma'am?" he asked, in much the same tone of +voice he would have used in asking if she objected to +cigar-smoke. + +"Not when there is need of them," she replied. + +He pulled a beautiful silver-mounted revolver out of his pocket, +and carefully examined the barrels. + +"This has been like a father to me," he said with great +tenderness. "It's all the family I have. The barrels I call my +six little sisters. Each one has a name. They've got pretty sharp +tongues, but I like the sound of 'em; and they always speak to +the point. Jennie is my favorite--see! her name is engraven, with +the date--ever since she helped me out of a hobble at Ball's +Bluff. I was playing cat and mouse with a fellow there, he with +his rifle aimed, waiting to get a shot at something besides my +boot or the end of my beard, and I hanging on the off-side of my +horse, clinging to saddle and mane. I was brought up on +horseback, and have spent a good part of my time scouring over +the Southwest, Missouri, Texas, and thereabouts; but of course I +couldn't hang there for ever. Well, just as I was thinking that I +should have to drop, or straighten up and take my slug like a +man, I managed to spare a finger and thumb, and got Paterfamilias +here out of my belt. Where can one better be than in the bosom of +his family? says I. I didn't hurt the fellow much; I didn't mean +to. When two men have been dodging and watching that way for some +time, they get to have quite an affection for each other. I +spoilt his aim, though; and I fancy that he will never be a very +good writer any more." + +"Aren't you sorry now that you came?" Mr. Lewis asked Margaret. + +"No," she said brightly; "I feel as though we shall get through." + +A new spirit was beginning to stir in her veins. The speed of the +cars was of itself exciting--those long strides at the full +stretch of the iron racer, when the wheels, instead of measuring +the track with a steady roll, rise up and drop again with a sharp +click, as regular as verse; not that cantering line of Virgil's, +"Quadrupedante" and the rest, but a hard, iambic gallop. Besides +this, the sense of danger and power combined was intoxicating. +For, after all, danger is intolerable only when we have nothing +to oppose to it. + +There had been trees and rocks, but they were changed to a buzz, +the road became a dizziness, and the whole landscape swam. There +was something near the track that looked about as much like +horsemen as the shadow of the same would look in broken, +swift-running water; a few shots were heard, there was a little +rattle of shivered glass; then all the men broke into a shout. + +"Did you hear Jennie smile?" asked the captain, as he put +Paterfamilias carefully into his belt again. + +{594} + +Margaret laughed with delight, and gave her handkerchief a little +flutter out the window. "I can guess how chain-lightning feels," +she said; "only it can't go on minutes and minutes." + + + Chapter XII. + + The Court Of The King. + + +After their little adventure, our travellers rode triumphantly +into Washington, and Miss Hamilton found her friends glad to +receive her the more so that she came as a boarder, and their +house was nearly empty. + +The Blacks had, in their younger days, been humble followers of +Doctor Hamilton; and though their acquaintance with Margaret was +slight, as they felt a kind of duty toward all the connection, +they were proud to receive her. + +"I am anxious about friends whom I have not heard from for some +time," she explained; "and I have come here to look round a +little." + +"Who do you know in the army?" Mrs. Black inquired, not too +delicately, considering the reserve with which her visitor had +spoken. + +Miss Hamilton was not learned in the slippery art of evasion. She +simply ignored the question. + +"I am exhausted," she said. "Of course I did not sleep any last +night; and the ride has been fatiguing. I have but one desire, +and that is to rest. Can you show me to my room at once? I feel +as though I should drop asleep as soon as my head touches the +pillow. When I do sleep, please don't wake me." + +When she lay down to rest the afternoon sun was gilding the trees +in the square opposite, flaring on the long white-washed walls of +the hospital in their midst, and brightening momentarily the pale +faces pressed close to the window-bars of the jail beyond. When +she woke from the deep and dreamless sleep that seemed to have +almost drawn the breath from her lips, it was night. Some one had +set a star of gas burning in her room, and left a plate of cake +and a glass of wine on the stand at her bedside. + +Margaret raised herself like one who has been nearly drowned and +still catches for breath, gathered her benumbed faculties and +recollected where she was. All was quiet within the house; and +without there was stillness of another sort, a silence that was +living and aware, a sense as of thousands waking and watching. +Now and then there came from the hospital across the street some +voice of a sleepless sufferer, the long, low moan of almost +exhausted endurance, the broken cry of delirium, or the hoarse +gasp of pneumonia. + +After a while these sounds became deadened, and finally lost in +another that rose gradually, deepening like the roll of the sea +heard at night. + +Margaret went to her window and leaned out. The sultry air was +heavily-laden with fragrance from the flower-gardens around, and +in the sky the large stars trembled like over-full drops of a +golden shower descending through the ambient purple dusk. + +That sea-roll grew nearer as she listened, and became the +measured tramp of men. Soon they appeared out of the darkness at +the left, marching steadily line after line, and company after +company, to disappear into darkness at the right. They moved like +shadows, save for that multitudinous muffled tread, and save +that, at certain points, a street-light would flash along a line +of rifle-barrels, or catch in a flitting sparkle on a spur or +shoulder-strap. Then, like a dream, they were gone; darkness and +distance had swallowed them up from sight and hearing; and again +there was that strange, live stillness, broken only by the +complaining voices of the sick. + +{595} + +As Margaret looked, the dim light in one of the hospital-wards +flared up suddenly and showed three men standing by a bed near +one of the windows. They lifted the rigid form that lay there, +and placed it on a stretcher; two of the men bore it out, and the +light was lowered again, After a little while the men appeared +outside bearing that white and silent length between them, +through the dew and the starlight, and were lost from sight +behind the trees. When they returned, they walked side by side; +and what they had carried out they brought not back again. + +The watcher's heart sent out a cry: "O Father in heaven! see how +thy creatures suffer." + +In the excitement of the last part of her journey, and the +exhaustion following it, she had almost forgotten her object in +coming; but this sight brought it all back. She remembered, too, +that she had been dropping into the old way of taking all the +burden on her own shoulders; and even in crying out for pain, she +recollected the way of comfort. How sweet the restfulness of that +recollection! As though a child, wandering from home, lost, +weary, and terrified, should all at once see the hearth-light +shining before him, and hear the dear familiar voices calling his +name. She thought over the lessons learned during that blessed +retreat, that Mecca toward which henceforth her thoughts would +journey whenever her soul grew faint by the way. The +half-forgotten trust came back. Who but He who had set the +tangles of this great labyrinth could lead the way out of it? Who +but He whose hand had strung the chords of every human heart +could ease their straining, and bring back harmony to discord? +Where but with Him, the centre of all being, could we look for +those who are lost to us on earth? + +When, long after sunrise, Mrs. Black entered her visitor's +chamber, she found Margaret kneeling by the window, fast asleep, +with her head resting on the sill. + +There was plenty of news and excitement that morning. All +communication with the North was cut off, the President and his +family had come rushing in at midnight from their country-seat, +and there was fighting going on only a few miles out of town. It +was altogether probable that the Confederates would be in the +city before night. + +Mrs. Black told all this with such an air of satisfaction in the +midst of her terror that Margaret made some allowance for +embellishment in the story. Evidently the good woman enjoyed a +panic, and was willing to be frightened to the very verge of +endurance for the sake of having it to tell of afterward. She +went about in a sort of delighted agony, gathering up her spoons +and forks, and giving little shrieks at the least unusual sound. + +"If they should bombard the city, my dear," she said, "we can go +down cellar. I have an excellent cellar. It is almost certain +that they will come. We must be in a strait when the +treasury-clerks come out. And such a sight! They passed here just +before I went up to call you, all in their shirt-sleeves, and +looking no more like soldiers, dear, than I do this minute. Half +of them carried their rifles over the wrong shoulder, and seemed +scared to death lest they should go off. And no wonder; for the +way the barrels slanted was enough to make you smile, even if +there were a bomb-shell whizzing past your nose. +{596} +The muzzles looked all ways for Sunday, so to speak. There were +little boys with them, too. I don't see where their pas and mas +were, if they've got any. It's a sin and shame. Do eat some more +breakfast, pray! You may as well have a full stomach; for if we +should be obliged to hide in the cellar, we might not dare come +up to get a mouthful for twenty-four hours. I do hope it won't be +a long siege. If they've got to come in, let'em come. I'm sure +they would be too much of gentlemen to molest a houseful of +defenceless females. As for poor Mr. Black, he doesn't count. +Though he is my husband, I have seen braver men, not to speak of +women. I had to threaten him, this morning, within an inch of his +life, to prevent him from running a Confederate flag out of the +window. He keeps one in his trunk, in case it should be needed. +He declared he heard firing in the avenue. Bless me! What is +that?" + +"One of the servants has broken a dish." + +"The destructive minxes! But where are you going, dear? Over to +the hospital? Oh! they don't admit visitors on Sunday. Even on +week-days you can't get in till after the surgeons have gone +their rounds, and that is never before ten o'clock. It is +military rule, you know; as regular as clock-work. It won't come +ten till sixty minutes after nine o'clock, not if you perish. The +first time I went in there, the soldier on guard came near +running me through with his bayonet, just because I didn't walk +in a certain particular road. I tried to reason with him; but you +might as well reason with stocks and stones. There was the man in +the middle of the road, and there was the point of his bayonet +within an inch of my stomacher; and the upshot of the matter was, +that I had to turn about and walk in a straight road instead of a +curved one, for no earthly reason that I could see. You really +cannot get in to-day. Wait till to-morrow, and I will go over +with you." + +Margaret smoothed on her gloves. + +"Mrs. Black," she said, "did you ever hear of the man who said +that whenever he saw 'Positively no admittance' posted up +anywhere, he always went in there directly?" + +"Well," the lady sighed, "I can't say but you may get in. You are +your grandfather's granddaughter, and he never said fail. Only, +be sure you look your best. You remember the song your mother +used to sing about the chief who offered a boatman a silver pound +to row him and his bride across the stormy ferry; and the +Highland laddie said he would, not for the 'siller bright,' but +for the 'winsome lady.' Many's the time I cried to hear your poor +mother sing that, and how they all perished in the storm, and the +father they were running away from stood on the shore lamenting. +Your grandfather would wipe his eyes on the sly, and wait till +she had finished every word of it; and then he would speak up and +say that she had better be singing the praises of God. May be the +officers over there will be like the Highland boatman, and do for +you what they would n't do for an ugly old woman like me." + +Margaret closed her ears to that piercing sentence, "the song +your mother used to sing "--O silent lips!--and going out, +crossed over to the hospital. + +As she turned into a curved road that approached the door, a +soldier pacing there presented his bayonet, probably the same one +that had threatened Mrs. Black's plaited linen stomacher. + +"You must go the other way," he said with military brevity. + +{597} + +The smaller the warrior, the greater the martinet. Doubtless this +young man regarded his present adversary with far more fierceness +than he would have shown toward a six-foot Texan grey coat, with +a belt bristling with armor, and two eyes like two blades. + +Margaret retreated with precipitance, hiding a smile, and took +the other road. + +"Your pass, ma'am," said a second soldier at the step. + +"I haven't any," she said pitifully, and looked with appealing +eyes at an officer just inside the door. + +He came out immediately. + +"What is your pleasure, madam?" he asked, touching his hat. + +She told her errand briefly, and handed him the letters she had +brought. + +Mrs. Black had not overrated the power of the winsome lady. The +surgeon in charge, for this was he, merely glanced over the +letters to learn the bearer's name and State. He had already +found her face, voice, and gloves such as should, in his opinion, +be admitted anywhere and at all times. + +"Please come in," he said courteously. "It is almost inspection +time now, and I must be on duty. But if you will wait in my +office a little while, I shall be happy to escort you through the +wards." + +"Thank you! But cannot I go now, by myself?" said Margaret. + +He drew himself up stiffly, in high dudgeon at the little value +she set on his escort. "Certainly! You can do just as you +please." + +She thanked him again, and went up the hall, utterly unconscious +that she had been greatly honored. + +The hall was very long, so long that the door at the furthest end +looked as though only a child could go through without stooping, +and the wards were built out to right and left. She visited every +one, walking up and down the rows of beds, her eager glance +flashing from face to face. There was no face there that she had +ever seen before. With a faint voice she asked for the names of +those who had lately died. The names were as strange as the +faces. Finally she sat down in one of the wards to rest. + +The inside of the hospital was altogether less gloomy than the +outside had appeared. They were in a bustle of preparation for +inspection, putting clean white covers on the beds and the +stands, regulating the medicine-table and the book-shelves, +squaring everything, looking out that the convalescents were in +trim, belt-buckles polished, shoes bright, hair smooth, jackets +buttoned up to the chin. + +The ward looked fresh and cheerful. The white walls were +festooned with evergreen, green curtains shaded the windows, and +the floor was as white as a daily scouring could make it. Nearly +half of the patients were dressed, and eagerly talking over the +news; and even the sickest there looked on with interest, and +brightened occasionally. + +"Fly round here!" cried the ward-master, a fair-faced, laughing +young German. "They've gone into the next ward. Hustle those +clothes out of sight somewhere. Tumble 'em out the window! Kohl, +if you groan while the surgeons are here, I'll give you nothing +but quinine for a week. Can't somebody see to that crazy fellow +up there! He's pulling the wreath down off the wall. Pitch into +him! Tell him that he shan't have a bit of ice to-day if he +doesn't lie still. And there's that other light-head eating the +pills all up. I'll be hanged if he hasn't swallowed twenty-five +copper and opium pills! +{598} +Well, sir, you're dished. Long Tom, mind yourself, and keep your +feet in bed." + +"I can't!" whispered Tom, who seemed to be a mere boy, though his +length was something preposterous. "The bed is too short." + +"Well, crumple up some way," said the ward-master, laughing. +"I'll have you up next week, fever or no fever. If you lie there +much longer, you'll grow through the other side of the ward." + +"It isn't my fault," Tom said pitifully to Miss Hamilton, who sat +near him. "When I went to bed here, five weeks ago, I wasn't any +taller than the ward-master; and now I believe I'm seven feet +long. I believe it was that everlasting quinine!" And poor Tom +burst into tears. + +"Here they are!" said the ward-master. "Attention!" + +Instantly all was silence. Each convalescent stood at the foot of +his bed, and the nurses were drawn up inside the door. The little +procession of surgeons appeared, marched up one side of the ward +and down the other, and out the door; and the inspection was +over. + +As they passed by her, one of them, in drawing his handkerchief +from his pocket, drew with it a card, which, unseen by him, +dropped at Margaret's feet. She took it up, and saw the +photograph of the gentleman who had dropped it, dressed in the +uniform of a Confederate colonel. + +"Who was that last surgeon in the line?" she asked of Tom. + +"That's our surgeon, Doctor A----. He is a Virginian." + +"Who is his guarantee here, do you know?" she inquired. + +"He's a friend of Senator Wyly's," Tom said. + +An orderly came to the door. "Every man who is able to carry a +rifle get ready to go down to Camp Distribution," he said. "Don't +let any of 'em shirk, Linn. Send some of those fellows down to +the office to be examined. Every man is wanted." + +As Margaret went out, she saw Surgeon A---- hasten from one of +the wards, and look along the floor of the hall, as if in search +of something. His face was very pale, she saw, and he looked up +sharply at her as she approached him. + +"Perhaps you miss this photograph, Col. A---," she said, offering +it to him. + +His face reddened violently as he took it. "Has any one seen it +besides you, madam?" he asked. + +"No one." + +"Will you give me an opportunity to explain?" he asked eagerly. +"If you would permit me to call on you, or accompany you out +now--" + +"By no means," she replied coldly. "I do not wish to hear any +explanation. I am here on business of my own, and shall not, +probably, take any further notice of what I have seen. But if on +second thought I should consider myself obliged to mention it, +you can make your explanation to Mr. Lincoln." + +She left him at that, and went home to hear Mrs. Black's +compliments on her success. + +There were no more visits that day; but the next morning a close +carriage was sent to the door, and Margaret began her rounds. + +In the afternoon she found herself going out Fourteenth street +toward Columbia Hospital. There was a shower, and as the horses +plodded along through the pouring floods of southern rain, she +leaned her face upon her hand and wondered sadly what was to come +of this search of hers, and if that strange, irresistible impulse +on which she had been shot, like Camilla on her spear, over every +obstacle to her coming, had been, after all, but a vain whim. + +{599} + +Looking up presently, she found that they were in the midst of +what seemed to her an army, soldiers crowding close to the +carriage, and stretching forward and backward as far as she could +see. It was the Sixth corps, one of them told her, going out to +meet Early and Breckinridge. + +They were marching in a mob, without order, plodding wearily +through the rain that just served to wash from them the stains of +their last battle. Their faces were browned and sober, their +clothes faded and stained; many, foot-sore with long marches, +carried their shoes in their hands. They were little enough like +the gay troops she had seen march away from home. + +When they came to the college hospital, it was found impossible +to reach the side-walk through that crowd, and Margaret ordered +the driver to wait till they should pass. As she leaned back in +her carriage and watched the living stream flow slowly over the +hill, a gentleman came out of the hospital, and, standing on the +sidewalk opposite her, seemed to be looking for some one among +them. Presently his face brightened with a recognizing smile, and +he waved his handkerchief to one who was riding near. As the +horseman drew up between her and the sidewalk, Margaret's heart +seemed to leap into her mouth. He was wrapped in a cloak, and a +wide-brimmed hat, still dripping from the spent shower, shaded +his face; but she knew him at the first glance. + +"O Mr. Granger!" + +A shout from the convalescents collected outside the tent wards +drowned her glad cry, and the next instant she would not for the +world have repeated it. By a sudden revulsion of feeling, the +face that had flushed with delight now burned with unutterable +shame and humiliation. + +For the first time she looked on what she had done as the world +might look upon it--as Mr. Granger himself might look upon it. +Friends or foes, he was a gentleman, and she a lady, and not a +baby. She, wandering from place to place, unbidden, in search of +him, weeping, praying, making a fool of herself, she thought +bitterly, and he sitting his horse there gallantly, safe and +merry, within reach of her hand, showing his white teeth in a +laugh, stroking down his beard with that gesture she knew so +well, taking off his hat to shake the raindrops from it, and loop +up the aigrette at the side! + +She had time to remember with a pang of envy the quiet, guarded +women who sit at home, and take no step without first thinking +what the world will say of it. + +"If he should think of me at all," she said to herself, "he would +fancy me at home, trailing my dress over his carpets, making +little strokes with a paint-brush, having a care lest I ink my +fingers, or teaching Dora to spell propriety--as I ought to be! +as I ought to be! I need a keeper!" + +But still, with her veil drawn close, she looked at him steadily; +for, after all, he was going into battle, and he was her friend. +As she looked, he glanced up at one of the hospital windows, and +immediately his glance became an earnest gaze. He ceased +speaking, and his face showed surprise and perplexity. + +"What do you see?" his friend asked. + +{600} + +"Strange!" he muttered, half to himself. "It is only a +resemblance, of course, but I fancied I saw there a face I know, +looking out at me. It is gone now." + +Whatever it was, the sight appeared to sober as well as perplex +him. He took leave of his friend, and, drawing back to join his +regiment, brought his horse round rather roughly against Miss +Hamilton's carriage. + +"I beg your pardon, madam!" he said at once, taking off his hat +to the veiled lady he saw there. + +He must have thought her scarcely courteous; for she merely +nodded, and immediately turned her face away. + +He rode slowly on, looking back once more to the hospital window, +and in a few minutes was out of sight. + +"Will you get out now?" asked the driver. + +Margaret started. + +"Why, yes." + +She went in and seated herself in the hall. "I want to rest," she +said to a soldier who stood there. "I don't feel quite well." + +A slight, elderly lady in a black dress, and with her bonnet a +little awry, came down the stairs, and stood looking about as +though she expected some one. + +"Can you tell me where Miss Blank is to be found?" she asked of +the soldier to whom Margaret had spoken. "She has been out in the +tent wards, and there she comes," he said, nodding toward a young +woman who came in at the door furthest from them, and, with a +face expressive of apprehension, approached the waiting lady. + +"You wished to see me?" she asked tremulously. + +"Yes," was the reply. "You will be ready to return home +to-morrow, or as soon as communication is reestablished. I will +send your transportation papers to-night. You need not go into +the wards again." + +The young woman stared in speechless distress and astonishment, +her eyes filling with tears. + +"Is that Miss Dix?" Margaret asked of the soldier. + +"Yes," he replied. "She makes short work of it. That is one of +the best nurses, and the best dresser in the hospital." + +"Why is she dismissed?" + +"Miss Dix has probably heard something about her. She's a good +young woman, but the old lady is mighty particular." + +Margaret rose to meet Miss Dix as she came along the hall. + +"I am going to stay in Washington a few days," she said, "and I +would like to be useful while I am here. Can I do anything for +you?" + +"Who are you?" asked the lady. Margaret presented her +credentials, and Miss Dix glanced them over, then looked sharply +at their owner. + +"I am afraid you are too young," she said. + +"I am twenty-eight, and I feel a hundred," said Margaret. + +"Do you know anything about nursing?" + +"As much as ladies usually know." + +"Will you go to a disagreeable place?" + +"Yes, if it is not out of the city." + +"Come, then; my ambulance is at the door." + +In two minutes the carriage was dismissed, and Margaret was +seated in the ambulance, and on her way down to the city again. + +"You will be very careful who you speak to," the lady began; "you +will dress in the plainest possible manner, wear no ornaments, +and, of course, high necks and long sleeves. Your hair--are those +waves natural?" + +"Yes'm!" said Margaret humbly, and was about to add that perhaps +she could straighten them out, but checked herself. + +{601} + +"Well, dress your hair very snugly, wear clean collars, and don't +let your clothes drag. It looks untidy. Is that dress quite +plain?" + +Margaret threw back the thin mantle she wore, and showed a gray +dress of nunlike plainness. + +"That will do," the lady said approvingly. + +Here they turned into the square, and got out at the door of the +hospital Margaret had visited the day before. She was introduced +to the officer of the day, received an astonished bow from the +surgeon-in-charge in passing, caught a glimpse of Doctor A----, +and was escorted to her ward. + +"Be you the new lady nurse?" asked Long Tom. + +"So it seems; but I am not quite sure," she said. + +"I'm proper glad," said Tom, with an ecstatic grin. "I liked the +looks of you when I saw you yesterday." + +"And so here I am 'at the court of the king,'" she thought. + + + + Chapter XIV. + + Out Of Harm's Way. + +Common sense goes a great way in nursing; and when there is added +a sympathetic heart, steady nerves, a soft voice, and a gentle +hand, your nurse is about perfect, though she may not have gone +through a regular course of training. + +Ward six considered itself highly favored in having Miss +Hamilton's ministrations, even for a few days. The nauseous doses +she offered were swallowed without a murmur, fevered eyes +followed her light, swift step, and men took pride in showing how +well they could bear pain when such appreciative eyes were +looking on. + +Mrs. Black, rushing over to expostulate and entreat, became a +convert. It was certainly very romantic, she said; and since her +young friend was not treated like a common nurse, but had +everything her own way, it was not so bad. And without, perhaps, +having ever heard the name of Rochefoucauld, the good lady added, +"Anything may happen in Washington now." + +Moreover, Miss Hamilton would sleep and take her meals at Mrs. +Black's, which was another palliating circumstance. + +Mr. Lewis, with a fund of gibes ready, came also to see the new +nurse. But the sight of her silenced him. + +Bending over a dying man to catch the last whisper of a message +to those he would never see again; speaking a word of +encouragement to one who lay with his teeth clenched and with +drops of agony standing on his forehead; mediating in the chronic +quarrel between regulars and volunteers; hushing the ward, that +the saving sleep of an almost exhausted patient might not be +broken--in each of these she seemed in her true place. As he +looked on, he began to realize how impertinent are +conventionalities when life and death are in the balance. + +"I don't blame you, Margaret," he said seriously, "though I am +glad that you don't think of staying any longer than I do. I will +give you till Friday afternoon. If we start then, we can reach +home by Sunday morning. The track is open, and I am just off for +Baltimore. Good-by." + +She accompanied him to the door. "If you should see Mr. Granger, +or write to him," she said, with some confusion, "don't mention +why I came here. I am ashamed of it." + +{602} + +"Oh! you needn't feel so," he replied soothingly. "We have had a +nice little adventure to pay us for the journey; and you were +breaking your heart with inaction and anxiety." + +"Women should break their hearts at home!" she said proudly, her +cheeks glowing scarlet. + +That was Wednesday. Thursday morning, as she rose from a five +o'clock breakfast to go over to the hospital, a carriage stopped +at the door, and, looking out, she saw Mr. Lewis coming up the +walk. + +O God! The blow had fallen! No need even to look into his white +and smileless face to know that. + +He stopped, and spoke through the open window. "Come, Margaret!" + +Morning, was it? Morning! She could hardly see to reach the +carriage, and the earth seemed to be heaving under her feet. + +As they drove through that strange, feverish world that the sunny +summer day had all at once turned into, she heard a long, heavy +breath that was almost a groan. "O dear!" said Mr. Lewis. + +She reached out her hand to him, as one reaches out in the dark +for support. "Tell me!" + +"It is a wound in the head," he said; "and any wound there is +bad. I got the dispatch at Baltimore last night, and came right +back. They forwarded it from Boston. Why did not you tell me that +you saw him Monday?" + +"Saw him!" + +"Then you didn't know him?" Mr. Lewis said. "I thought it strange +you shouldn't mention it. Louis says that when they were going +out past Columbia College, he glanced up at one of the windows, +and saw you leaning out and looking at him. You were very sober, +and made no motion to speak; and after a moment your face seemed +to fade away. It made such an impression on him that he asked to +be carried there and to that room, though it isn't an officers' +hospital. He was almost superstitious about it, till I told him +that you were really here." + +It was true then. The intensity of her gaze, and the +concentration of her thoughts upon him at that moment had by some +mystery of nature which we cannot explain, though guesses have +been many, impressed her image on his mind, and thrown the +reflection of it through his eyes, so that where his glance +chanced to fall at that instant, there she had seemed to be. + +"You must try to control yourself, Margie," Mr. Lewis went on, +his own lip trembling. "There is danger of delirium. He is afraid +of it, and watches every word he says. He can't talk much. I'll +give you a chance to say all you want to; and whenever I'm +needed, you can call me. I will wait just outside the door. Give +your bonnet and shawl to the lady. There, this is his room, and +that is yours, just across the entry." + +Then they went in. + +The pleasant chamber was clean, cool, and full of a soft flicker +of light and shade from trees and vines outside. On a narrow, +white bed opposite the windows lay Mr. Granger. Could it be that +he was ill? His eyes were bright, and his face flushed as if with +health. The only sign of hurt was a little square of wet cloth +that lay on the top of his head. But in health, in anything short +of deadly peril, he would have smiled on seeing her after so long +a time, and when she stood in such need of reassuring. His only +welcome was an outstretched hand, and a fixed, earnest gaze. + +She seated herself by the bedside. "I have come to help take care +of you, Mr. Granger." Then smiling, faintly, "You don't look very +sick." + +{603} + +"I was in high health before I got this," he said, motioning +toward his head. + +Perhaps he saw in her face some sharp springing of hope; for he +closed his eyes, and added almost in a whisper, "It isn't as wide +as a barn-door, nor as deep as a well; but it will do." + +The room swam round before her eyes a moment, but she kept her +seat. + +Presently the surgeon came in, and she gave place to him. But as +he removed the cloth from his patient's head, she bent +involuntarily, with the fascination of terror, and looked, and at +the sight, dropped back into her chair again. She had looked upon +nature in her inmost mysterious workshop, to which only death can +open the door. It was almost like having committed a sacrilege. + +Mr. Lewis wet a handkerchief with cologne, and put it into her +hand. The others had not noticed her agitation. + +When the surgeon left the room, he beckoned Margaret out with +him. "All that you can do is, to keep his head cool," he said. +"Don't let him get excited, or talk much without resting. He has +kept wonderfully calm so far; but it is by pure force of will. I +never saw more resolution." + +There was nothing to do, then, but to sit and wait; to make him +feel that he was surrounded by loving care, and to let no sign of +grief disturb his quiet. + +She returned to the room, and Mr. Lewis, after bending to hold +the sick man's hand one moment in a silent clasp, went out and +left them together. + +After a little while, when she had resumed her seat by him, Mr. +Granger spoke, always in that suppressed voice that told what a +strain there was on every nerve. "I should have asked you to +marry me, Margaret, if I had gone back safe," he said, looking at +her with a wistful, troubled gaze, as if he wished to say more, +but could not trust himself. + +"No matter about that now," she replied gently. "You have been a +good friend to me, and that is all I ever wanted." + +"We could be married here, if you are willing," he went on. "Mr. +Lewis will see to everything." + +Margaret lightly smoothed his feverish hands. "No," she said, "I +do not wish it. I didn't come for that. We are friends; no more. +Let me wet the cloth on your head now. It is nearly dry." + +He closed his eyes, and made no answer. If he guessed confusedly +that his proposal, and what it implied, so made, was little less +than an insult, it was out of his power to help it then. And if +for a breath Margaret felt that all her obligations to him were +cancelled, and that she could not even call him friend again, it +was but for a breath. His case was too pitiful for anger. She +could forgive him anything now. + +"I shall always stay with Dora, if you wish it," she said softly. +"Do not have any fears for her. I will be faithful. Trust me. I +could gladly do it for her sake, for I never loved any other +child so much. But still more, I will take care of her for +yours." + +"I arranged everything before I came away," he said, looking up +again. And his eyes, she saw, were swimming in tears. "I looked +out for both of you. Your home was to be always with her, and Mr. +Lewis to be guardian for both." + +Margaret could not trust herself to thank him for this proof of +his care for her. + +"Have you seen the chaplain?" she asked, to turn the subject. + +{604} + +"Yes; but I don't feel like seeing him again. He does me no good, +and his voice confuses me. You are all the minister I +need"--smiling faintly--"and yours is the only voice I can bear." + +While he rested, she sat and studied how indeed she should +minister to him. + +Mr. Granger had never been baptized; and, though nominally what +is called an orthodox Congregationalist, he held their doctrines +but loosely. He had that abstract religious feeling which is the +heritage of all noble natures, the outlines of Christianity even +before Christianity is adopted, as Madame Swetchine says; but his +experience of pietists had not been such as to tempt him to join +their number. If a man lived a moral life, were kind, just, and +pure, it was about all that could be required of him, he thought. +Such a life he had lived; and now, though he approached death +solemnly, it was with no perceptible tremor, and no painful sense +of contrition. + +She watched him as he lay there, smitten down in the midst of his +life and of health. He was quiet, now, except that his hands +never ceased moving, tearing slowly in strips the delicate +handkerchief he found within his reach, pulling shreds from the +palm-leaf fan that lay on the bed, or picking at the blanket. It +was the only sign of agitation he showed. His face was deeply +flushed, his breathing heavy, and his teeth seemed to be set. + +Once he raised himself, and looked through the open window at the +treetops, and the city spires and domes. Margaret wondered if +they looked strange to him, and what thoughts he had; but she +never knew. + +After waiting as long as she dared, she spoke to him. "Can I talk +to you a little, Mr. Granger, without disturbing you?" she asked. + +"Speak," he said; "you never disturb me." + +She began, and without any useless words, explained to him the +fundamental doctrines of the church, original sin, the +redemption, the necessity and effects of baptism. What she said +was clear, simple, and condensed. A hundred times during the last +two years she had studied it over for just such need as this. + +"You know of course," she concluded, "that I say this because I +want you to be baptized. Are you willing?" + +"I would like to do anything that would satisfy you," he said +presently. "But you would not wish me to be a hypocrite? You +cannot think that baptism would benefit me, if I received it only +because you wanted me to. I don't think that I have led a bad +life. I have not knowingly wronged any one. I am sorry for those +sins which, through human frailty, I have committed. But if I +were to live my life over again, I doubt if I should do any +better. No, child, I think it would be a mockery for me to be +baptized now." + +She changed the cloth on his head, laid the ice close to his +burning temples, and fanned him in silence a few minutes. + +Then she began again, repeating gently the command of our Saviour +regarding baptism, and his charge to the church to baptize and +teach. + +"It is impossible to force conviction," he said. "I cannot +profess to believe what I do not." + +The words came with difficulty, and his brows contracted as if +some sudden pain shot through them. + +"I am not careless of the future, dear," he said after a while. +"I know that it is awful, and uncertain; but it is also +inevitable! It is too late now for me to change. But I wish that +you would pray for me. Let me hear you. Pray your own way. I am +not afraid of your saints." + +{605} + +Margaret knelt beside the bed, and repeated the Our Father. He +listened reverently, and echoed the Amen. She repeated the Acts, +and there was no response this time; the Creed, and still there +was no answer. She could not rise. In faltering tones she said +the Memorare, with the request, "Obtain for this friend of mine +the gift of faith, that though lost to me he may not be lost to +himself." + +Still he was silent. All the pent emotion of her soul was surging +up, and showing the joints in her mail of calmness. He was going +out into what was to him the great unknown, and she, with full +knowledge of the way, could not make him see it. One last, vain +effort of self-control, then she burst forth with a prayer half +drowned in tears. + +"O merciful Christ! I cannot live upon the earth unless I know +that he is in heaven. Thou hast said, Knock, and it shall be +opened unto you. With my heart and my voice I knock at the door. +Open to me for thy word's sake! Thou hast said that whatever we +ask in thy name, we shall receive. I ask for faith, for heaven, +for my friend who is dying. Give them for thy word's sake! Thou +hast said that whoever does good to the least of thy children has +done it unto thee. Remember what this man has done for me. I was +miserable, and he comforted me. I was at the point of death, and +he saved me. I was hungry, and he fed me. I was a stranger, and +he took me in. Oh! look with pity on me, who in all my life have +had only one year of happiness, but many full of sorrow; see how +my heart is breaking, and hear me for thy word's sake! for thy +word's sake!" + +As her voice failed, a hand touched her head, and she heard Mr. +Granger's voice. + +"I cannot make you distrust the truth of God," he said. "I do not +believe; but also, I do not know. I am willing to do all that he +requires. Perhaps he does require this. Such faith as yours must +mean something. Do as you will." + +"May I send for a priest right away? And will you be baptized?" + +"Dear little friend, yes!" he said. + +"O Mr. Granger! God bless you! I am happy. Doesn't he keep his +promises? I will never distrust him again." + +His grave looks did not dampen her joy. Of course it was not +necessary that he should have much feeling. The good intention +was enough. She wet his face with ice-water, laid ice to his +head, put the fan in his hand, in her childish, joyful way, +shutting his fingers about it one by one, then went out to send +Mr. Lewis for a priest. + +He stared at her. "Why, you look as if he were going to get +well," he said almost indignantly. + +"So he is, Mr. Lewis," she answered. "He is going to have the +only real getting well. I shall never have to be anxious about +him any more. He will be out of harm's way." + +She went back to the sick-room then, quiet again. "Forgive me if +my gladness jarred on you," she said. "I forgot everything but +that you were now all safe. You will go straight to heaven, you +know. And of course, since it is to be now, then now is the best +time." + +{606} + +He said nothing, but watched her with steady eyes, wherever she +moved. What thoughts were thronging behind those eyes, she could +never know. Nothing was said till Mr. Lewis came back with the +priest. + +It was sunset when he came, and the father staid till late in the +evening. Then he went, promising to say mass the next morning for +his new penitent, and to come early to see him. + +Mr. Granger was evidently suffering very much, and Margaret would +not talk to him. Only once, when he opened his eyes, she said, + +"You wish Dora to be a Catholic?" + +"Yes, surely! O my child!" with a little moan of pain. + +When the priest came up in the morning, they had some difficulty +in rousing Mr. Granger; and when at length he comprehended their +wishes, he looked from one to the other with an expression of +incredulity. + +"Communion for me!" he repeated. + +The priest sat beside him, and as gently as possible prepared him +for the sacrament. + +"What! it is really and indeed the body and blood of Jesus Christ +that is offered me as a viaticum?" he asked, now thoroughly +roused. + +"God himself has said so; and who shall dispute his word?" + +The patient raised himself upright. "After I have spent all my +life in forgetfulness of him, when I turn to him only on my +death-bed, will he come to me now, and give me all himself?" + +"Yes," the priest answered. "He forgives generously, as only God +can. He does not wait, he comes to you. 'Behold! I stand at the +door, and knock.'" + +The sick man lifted his face; "O wonderful love!" he exclaimed. + +The priest smiled, and put on his stole. + +"The angels wonder no less than you," he said. + +Left alone with him once more, Margaret knelt, praying +continually, but softly too, so as not to disturb one sacred +thought in that soul for the first time united to its Saviour. +When a half-hour had passed, she touched his folded hands. He had +always before opened his eyes at her faintest touch; but now he +did not. + +"He has lost consciousness," the surgeon said, when she called +him. "He will never speak again." + +"Oh! never again? What? never again?" + +Mr. Lewis took her by the hand. "Try to bear it, Maggie," he +said. "Think what comfort you have." + +"But he never said good-by to me! I wanted to say something to +him. I had so much to tell him; but I thought of him first!" + +Ah! well. When we go down to the valley of the shadow of death +with our loved ones, and find the iron door that admits them shut +in our faces, then indeed we know, if never before, how precious +is faith. And those who can see the pearly gates beyond the iron +one should take shame to themselves if they refuse to be +comforted. + +------- + +{607} + + Beethoven. + + His Youth. + +At eighteen, Louis Beethoven became conscious of new perceptions, +and new capacities for joy. A young kinswoman of his mother, a +beautiful, sprightly girl, whose parents lived in Cologne, came +on a visit to Bonn. The voice and smile of Adelaide called his +genius into full life, and he felt he had power to do as he had +never done. But Adelaide could not understand him, nor appreciate +his melodies, which were now of a bolder and higher, yet a +tenderer cast. He never declared his love in language; but his +brother Carl discovered it, and one evening, Louis overheard him +and Adelaide talking of his boyish passion, and laughing at him. +The girl said she "was half inclined to draw him out, it was such +a capital joke!" + +Pale and trembling, while he leaned against the window-seat +concealed by the folds of a curtain, Louis listened to this +colloquy. As his brother and cousin left the room, he rushed past +them to his own apartment, locked himself in, and did not come +forth that night. Afterward he took pains to shun the company of +the heartless fair one; and was always out alone in his walks, or +in his room, where he worked every night till quite exhausted. +The first emotions of chagrin and mortification soon passed away; +but he did not recover his vivacity. His warmest feelings had +been cruelly outraged; the spring of love was never again to +bloom for him; and it seemed, too, that the fair blossoms of +genius also were nipped in the bud. The critics of the time, +fettered as they were to the established form, were shocked at +his departure from their rules. Even Mozart, whose fame stood so +high, whose name was pronounced with such enthusiastic +admiration, what struggles had he not been forced into with these +who would not approve of his so-called innovations! The youth of +nineteen had struck out a bolder path! What marvel, then, that, +instead of encouragement, nothing but censures awaited him? His +master, Neefe, who was accustomed to boast of him as his pride +and joy, now said, coldly and bitterly, his pupil had not +fulfilled his cherished expectations--nay, was so taken up with +his newfangled conceits, that he feared he was for ever lost to +real art. + +"Is it so indeed?" asked Louis of himself in his moments of +misgivings and dejection. "Is all a delusion? Have I lived till +now in a false dream?" + + + +Young Beethoven sat in his chamber, leaning his head on his hand, +looking gloomily out of the vine-shaded window. There was a knock +at the door; but wrapped in deep despondency, he heard it not, +nor answered with a "come in." + +{608} + +The door was opened softly a little ways, and in the crevice +appeared a long and very red nose, and a pair of small, twinkling +eyes, overshadowed by coal-black bushy eyebrows. Gradually became +visible the whole withered, sallow, comical, yet good-humored +face of Master Peter Pirad. + +Peter Pirad was a famous kettle drummer, and was much ridiculed +on account of his partiality for that instrument, though he also +excelled on many others. He always insisted that the kettle-drum +was the most melodious, grand, and expressive instrument, and he +would play upon it alone in the orchestra. But he was one of the +best-hearted persons in the world. It was quite impossible to +look upon his tall, gaunt, clumsy figure---which, year in and +year out, appeared in the well-worn yellow woolen coat, +buckskin-colored breeches, and dark worsted stockings, with his +peculiar fashioned felt cap--without a strong inclination to +laugh; yet, ludicrous as was his outward man, none remained long +unconvinced that, spite of his exterior, spite of his numerous +eccentricities, Peter Pirad was one of the most amiable of men. + +From his childhood, Louis had been attached to Pirad; in later +years, they had been much together. Pirad, who had been absent +several months from Bonn, and had just returned, was surprised +beyond measure to find his favorite so changed. He entered the +room, and walking up quietly, touched the youth on the shoulder, +saying, in a tone as gentle as he could assume, "Why, Louis! what +the mischief has got into your head, that you would not hear me?" +Louis started, turned round, and, recognizing his old friend, +reached him his hand. + +"You see," continued Pirad, "you see I have returned safely and +happily from my visit to Vienna. Ah! Louis! Louis! that's a city +for you. As for taste in art, you would go mad with the Viennese! +As for artists, there are Albrechtsberger, and Haydn, Mozart, and +Salieri--my dear fellow, you _must_ go to Vienna." With that +Pirad threw up his arms, as if beating the kettle-drum, (he +always did so when excited,) and made such comical faces, that +his young companion, spite of his sorrow, could not help bursting +out laughing. + +"Saker!" cried Pirad, "that is clever; I like to see that you can +laugh yet, it is a good sign; and now, Louis, pluck up like a +man, and tell me what all this means. Why do I find you in such a +bad humor, as if you had a hole in your skin, or the drums were +broken--out with it? My brave boy, what is the matter with you?" + +"Ah!" replied Beethoven, "much more than I can say; I have lost +all hope, all trust in myself. I will tell you all my troubles, +for, indeed, I cannot keep them to myself any longer!" So the +melancholy youth told all to his attentive auditor; his unhappy +passion for his cousin; his master's dissatisfaction with him, +and his own sad misgivings. + +When he had ended, Pirad remained silent awhile, his forefinger +laid on his long nose, in an attitude of thoughtfulness. At +length, raising his head, he gave his advice as follows: "This is +a sad story, Louis; but it convinces me of the truth of what I +used to say; your late excellent father--I say it with all +respect to his memory--and your other friends, never knew what +was really in you. As for your disappointment in love, that is +always a business that brings much trouble and little profit. +Women are capricious creatures at best, and no man who has a +respect for himself will be a slave to their humors. I was a +little touched that way myself, when I was something more than +your age; but the kettle-drum soon put such nonsense out of my +head. +{609} +My advice is, that you stick to your music, and let her go. For +what concerns the court-organist, Neefe, I am more vexed; his +absurdity is what I did not precisely expect. I will say nothing +of Herr Yunker; he forgets music in his zeal for counterpoint; as +if he should say he could not see the wood for the tall trees, or +the city for the houses! Have I not heard him assert, ay! with my +own living ears, slanderously assert, that the kettle-drum was a +superfluous instrument? Only think, Louis, the kettle-drum a +superfluous instrument! Donner and--! Did not the great +Haydn--bless him for it!--undertake a noble symphony expressly +with reference to the kettle-drum? What could you do with +'_Dies irae, dies illa_,' without the kettle-drum? I played +it at Vienna in _Don Giovanni_, the chapel-master Mozart +himself directing. In the spirit scene, Louis, where the statue +has ended his first speech, and Don Giovanni in consternation +speaks to his attendants, while the anxious heart of the appalled +sinner is throbbing, the kettle-drum thundering away--" Here +Pirad began to sing with tragical gesticulation. "Yes, Louis, I +beat the kettle-drum with a witness, while an icy thrill crept +through my bones; and for all that the kettle-drum is a useless +instrument! What blockheads there are in this world! To return to +your master--I wonder at his stupidity, and yet I have no cause +to wonder. Now, my creed is, that art is a noble inheritance left +us by our ancestors, which it is our duty to enlarge and increase +by all honest and honorable means. My dear boy, I hold you for an +honest heir, who would not waste your substance; who has not only +power, but will to perform his duty. So take courage, be not cast +down by trifles; and take my advice and go to Vienna. There you +will find your masters: Mozart, Haydn, Albrechtsberger, and +others not so well known. One year, nay, a few months in Vienna, +will do more for you than ten years vegetating in this good city. +You can soon learn, there, what you are capable of; only mind +what Mozart says, when you are playing in his hearing." + +The young man started up, his eyes sparkling, his cheeks glowing +with new enthusiasm, and embraced Pirad warmly. "You are right, +my good friend!" he cried. "I will go to Vienna; and shame on any +one who despises your counsel! Yes, I will go to Vienna." + +When he told his mother of his resolution, she looked grave, and +wept when all was ready for his departure. But Pirad, with a +sympathizing distortion of countenance, said to her, "Be not +disturbed, my good Madame van Beethoven! Louis shall come back to +you much livelier than he is now; and, madame, you may comfort +yourself with the hope that your son will become a great artist!" + +Young Beethoven visited Vienna for the first time in the spring +of the year 1792. He experienced strange emotions as he entered +that great city; perhaps a dim presentiment of what he was in +future years to accomplish and to suffer. He was not so fortunate +this time as to find Haydn there; the artist had set out for +London a few days before. He was disappointed, but the more +anxious to make the acquaintance of Mozart. Albrechtsberger, +Haydn's intimate friend, undertook to introduce him to Mozart. + +{610} + +They went several times to Mozart's house before they found him +at home. At last, on a rainy day, they were fortunate. They heard +him from the street, playing; our young hero's heart beat wildly +as they went up the steps, for he looked on that dwelling as the +temple of art. When they were in the hall, they saw, through a +side-door that stood open, Mozart, sitting playing the piano; +close by him sat a short, fat man, with a shining red face; and +at the window, Madame Mozart, holding her youngest son, Wolfgang, +on her lap, while the eldest was sitting on the floor at her +feet. + +The composer greeted Albrechtsberger cordially, and looked +inquiringly on his young companion. "Herr van Beethoven from +Bonn," said Albrechtsberger, presenting his friend; "an excellent +composer, and skilful musician, who is desirous of making your +acquaintance." + +"You are heartily welcome, both of you, and I shall expect you to +remain and dine with me to-day," said Mozart; and taking Louis by +the hand, he led him to the window where his wife sat. "This is +my Constance," he continued, "and these are my boys; this little +fellow is but three months old"--and throwing his arm around +Constance's neck, he stooped and kissed the smiling infant. + +Louis looked with surprise on the great artist. He had fancied +him quite different in his exterior; a tall man, of powerful +frame, like Handel. He saw a slight, low figure, wrapped in a +furred coat, notwithstanding the warmth of the season; his pale +face showed the evidences of long-continued ill-health; his +large, bright, speaking eyes alone reminded one of the genius +that had created _Idomeneus_ and _Don Giovanni_. + +"So you, too, are a composer?" asked the fat man, coming up to +Beethoven. "Look you, sir, I will tell you what to do; lay +yourself out for the opera; the opera is the great thing!" + +Louis looked at him in surprise and silence. + +"Master Emanuel Schickaneder, the famous impressario," said +Albrechtsberger, scarcely controlling his disposition to laugh. + +"Yes," continued the fat man, assuming an air of importance, "I +tell you I know the public, and know how to get the weak side of +it; if Mozart would only be led by me, he could do well! I say if +you will compose me something--by the way, here is a season +ticket; I shall be happy if you will visit my theatre; to-morrow +night we shall perform the _Magic Flute_, it is an admirable +piece, some of the music is first-rate, some not so good, and I +myself play the Papageno." + +"You ought to do something in that line," said Mozart, laughing, +"your singing puts one in mind of an unoiled door-hinge." + +The impressario took a pinch of snuff, and answered with an +important air, "I can tell you, sir, the singing is quite a +secondary thing in the opera, for I know the public." + +Here several persons, invited guests of the composer, came in; +among them Mozart's pupils, Sutzmayr and Holff, with the Abbé +Stadler and the excellent tenorist, Peyerl. After an hour or so +spent in agreeable conversation, enlivened by an air from Mozart, +they went to the dinner-table. Schickaneder here played his part +well, doing ample justice to the viands and wine. The dinner was +really excellent; and the host, notwithstanding his appearance of +feeble health, was in first-rate spirits, abounding in gayety, +which soon communicated itself to the rest of the company. After +they had dined, and the coffee had been brought in, Mozart took +his new acquaintance apart from the others, and asked if he could +be of any service to him. + +{611} + +Louis pressed the master's hand, and without hesitation gave his +history, and informed him of his plans; concluding by asking his +advice. + +Mozart listened with a benevolent smile; and when he had ended, +said, "Come, you must let me hear you play." With that, he led +him to an admirable instrument in another apartment; opened it, +and invited him to select a piece of music. + +"Will you give me a theme?" asked Louis. + +The master looked surprised; but without reply wrote some lines +on a leaf of paper, and handed it to the young man. Beethoven +looked over it; it was a difficult chromatic fugue theme, the +intricacy of which demanded much skill and experience. But +without being discouraged, he collected all his powers, and began +to execute it. + +Mozart did not conceal the sur prise and pleasure he felt when +Louis first began to play. The youth perceived the impression he +had made, and was stimulated to more spirited efforts. + +As he proceeded, the master's pale cheek flushed, his eyes +sparkled; and stepping on tiptoe to the open door, he whispered +to his guests, "Listen, I beg of you! You shall have some thing +worth hearing." + +That moment rewarded all the pains, and banished all the +apprehensions of the young aspirant after excellence. Louis went +through his trial-piece with admirable spirit, sprang up, and +went to Mozart; seizing both his hands and pressing them to his +throbbing heart, he murmured, "I also am an artist!" + +"You are indeed!" cried Mozart, "and no common one! And what may +be wanting, you will not fail to find, and make your own. The +grand thing, the living spirit, you bore within you from the +beginning, as all do who possess it. Come back soon to Vienna, my +young friend--very soon! Father Haydn, Albrechtsberger, friend +Stadler, and I will receive you with open arms; and if you need +advice or assistance, we will give it you to the best of our +ability." + +The other guests crowded round Beethoven, and hailed him as a +worthy pupil of art! Even the silly impressario looked at him +with vastly increased respect, and said, "I can tell you, I know +the public-well, we will talk more of the matter this evening +over a glass of wine." + +"I also am an artist!" repeated Louis to himself, when he +returned late to his lodgings. + +Much improved in spirits, and reinspired with confidence in +himself, he returned to Bonn, and ere long put in practice his +scheme of paying Vienna a second visit. + +This he accomplished at the elector's expense, being sent by him +to complete his studies under the direction of Haydn. That great +man failed to perceive how fine a genius had been intrusted to +him. Nature had endowed them with opposite qualities; the +inspiration of Haydn was under the dominion of order and method; +that of Beethoven sported with them both, and set both at +defiance. + +When Haydn was questioned of the merits of his pupil, he would +answer with a shrug of his shoulders--"He executes extremely +well." If his early productions were cited as giving evidence of +talent and fire, he would reply, "He touches the instrument +admirably." To Mozart belonged the praise of having recognized at +once, and proclaimed to his friends, the wonderful powers of the +young composer. + +------- + +{612} + + Sauntering. + + NO. 11. + + +Among the churches of Paris which I visited in my saunterings, +whose very stones seemed to have a tongue and cry aloud, was the +interesting one of St. Germain des Près. + + "Each shrine and tomb within thee seems to cry." + +Here were buried Mabillon and Descartes, and also King Casimir of +Poland, who laid aside his crown for a cowl in 1668, and died +abbot of the monastery in 1672. He is represented kneeling on his +tomb offering his crown to heaven. Two of the Douglases are +likewise buried here, with their carved effigies lying on their +tombs clad in armor. One was the seventeenth earl, who died in +1611. He had been bred a Protestant, but, going to France in the +time of Henry III., was converted to the faith of his fathers, +those old knights of the Bleeding Heart, by the discourses at the +Sorbonne. He returned to Scotland after his conversion, but was +persecuted there on account of his religion, and had the choice +of prison or banishment. So he chose to be exiled, and went back +to France, where he ended his days in practices of piety. He used +to attend the canonical hours at the abbey of St. Germain des +Près, and even rose for the midnight office. It was no unusual +thing in the middle ages for the laity to assist at the night +offices, and the church encouraged the practice. There was a +confraternity in Paris, in the thirteenth century, composed of +devout persons who used to attend the midnight service. This was +not confined to men, but even ladies did the same. Many people +used to pass whole nights in prayer in the churches, as, for +example, King Louis IX. and Sir Thomas More. + +There is in this church a statue of the Blessed Virgin, under a +Gothic canopy all of stone, at the west end of the edifice, and +looking up the right aisle. It pleased me so much that I never +passed the church afterward without turning aside for a moment to +say my Ave before it. Tapers were always burning before it, and +there was always some one in prayer, who, like me, would +doubtless forget for a few moments the cares and vanities of life +at the feet of the Mother of Sorrows. This statue was at St. +Denis before the revolution, having been given to that church by +Queen Jeanne D'Evereux. + +King Childebert's tomb formerly occupied a conspicuous place in +this church, but it is now at St. Denis, where he is represented +holding a church in his hands, and with shoes which have very +sharp and abrupt points at the ends, like an acuminate leaf. He +was the original founder of this church and the abbey once +adjoining. It was called the Golden Church, because the walls +outside were covered with plates of brass, gilt, and inside with +pictures on a gold ground. It took its name from St. Germain, +Bishop of Paris, who was buried here, and was the spiritual +adviser of Childebert. St. Germaine l'Auxerrois was named from +the sainted bishop of Auxerre of that name, renowned for his +instrumentality in checking Pelagianism in England. He visited +that country twice for that purpose. And at the head of the +Britons he was the instrument of the great Alleluia victory in +430. + +{613} + +Whatever other people discover, I found a great deal of piety in +Paris. The numerous churches and chapels are frequented at an +early hour for the first masses; and all through the day is a +succession of worshippers. I particularly loved the morning mass +in the Lady Chapel at St. Sulpice, at which a crowd of the common +people used to assist and sing charming cantiques in honor of the +Madonna or the Blessed Sacrament. And at Notre Dame des +Victoires, one of the most popular churches in the city, and +renowned throughout the world for its arch-confraternity to which +so many of us belong, there is no end to the stream of people. +The wonderful answers to prayer and the many miracles wrought +there draw needy and heavily-laden hearts, not only from all +parts of the kingdom, but of the world. The altar of Notre Dame +des Victoires looks precisely as it is represented in pictures. +The front and sides are of crystal, through which are seen the +relics of St. Aurelia, from the Roman catacombs. Seven large +hanging lamps burn before it, and an innumerable quantity of +tapers. On the walls are _ex voto_ and many marble tablets +with inscriptions of gratitude to Mary; such as: "_J'ai invoqué +Marie, et elle m'a exaucé._" "_Reconnaissance à Marie_," +etc. It is extremely interesting and curious to examine all +these, and they wonderfully kindle our faith and fervor. + +Among them is one of particular interest---a silver heart set in +a tablet of marble fastened to one of the pillars of the grand +nave. On it are the arms of Poland and a votive inscription. This +heart contains a portion of the soil of Poland impregnated with +the blood of her martyred people--hung here before her whom they +style their queen, as a perpetual cry to Mary from the bleeding +heart of crushed and Catholic Poland. This was placed here on the +two hundredth anniversary of the consecration of that country to +the Blessed Virgin Mary, by King John Casimir, on the first of +April, 1656. On the same day, 1856, all the Polish exiles in +Paris assembled at Notre Dame des Victoires, to renew their vows +to Mary and make their offering, which was received and blessed +by M. l'Abbé Desgenettes, the venerable curé, and founder of the +renowned arch-confraternity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. A +lamp burns perpetually before this touching memorial, emblem of +the faith, hope, and charity of the donors. + +In the national prayer of the Poles is the following touching +invocation: + + "Give back, O Lord! to our Poland her ancient splendor. Look + down on our fields, soaked with blood! When shall peace and + happiness blossom among us? God of wrath, cease to punish us. + At thy altar we raise our prayer; deign to restore us, O Lord! + our free country." + +This prayer is a _Parce nobis_ which will be echoed by every +one who sympathizes with the down-trodden and oppressed. + +Coming out of the church of Notre Dame des Victoires I heard the +words, "Quelques sous, pour l'amour de la Sainte Vierge," and +looking around I saw an old man holding out his hat in the most +deferential of attitudes--one of the few beggars I met in the +city. I could not resist an appeal made in the holy name of Mary, +and on the threshold of one of her favorite sanctuaries. I +thought of M. Olier, the revered founder of the Sulpicians, who +made a vow never to refuse anything asked in the name of the +Blessed Virgin--a resolution that would not often be put to the +test in the United States, but one which in Catholic countries is +less easy to be kept, where the name of Mary is so often on the +lips. +{614} +M. Olier never left his residence without encountering a crowd of +cunning beggars crying for alms in the name of the Sainte Vierge, +and, when he had nothing more, he would give them his +handkerchief or anything else he had in his pocket. + +Some do not approve of indiscriminate charity; but if God were to +bestow his bounties only on the deserving, where should we all +be? Freely ye have received; freely give. + +The Sainte Chapelle has peculiar attractions. It was built in the +middle of the thirteenth century for the reception of the +precious relics connected with the Passion of our Lord, given by +Baldwin II., Emperor of Constantinople, to Louis IX., in 1238. +There is a nave with four windows on each side, and a +semi-circular choir with seven windows, all filled with beautiful +old stained glass, representing the principal events of the life +of St. Louis and of the first two crusades. + +Among the relics enshrined here was the holy crown of thorns. The +king sent two Dominican friars, James and Andrew, to +Constantinople for it. When it approached Paris, St. Louis, Queen +Blanche his mother, with a great many of the court, went out +beyond Sens to meet it. Entering Paris, the king and his brother +Robert, clad in woollen and with feet bare, bore the shrine on +their shoulders to the church. The bishops and clergy followed +with bare feet. The streets through which they passed were +sumptuously adorned. In 1793, the holy crown was transferred to +the Hotel des Monnaies, where it was taken from its reliquary and +given with other relics to the commission of arts under the care +of Secretary Oudry, from whom the Abbé Barthélemi obtained it in +1794. He was one of the conservateurs of the antique medals in +the Bibliothèque Nationale, where the sacred relic remained till +1804, when the Cardinal de Belloy, Archbishop of Paris, reclaimed +the relics from the ministre des cultes. Every proper means was +taken to identify them, which being satisfactorily done, the holy +crown was transported with great pomp to Notre Dame, August 10, +1806. + +A portion of the holy cross, once in the Sainte Chapelle, was +saved in 1793 by M. Jean Bonvoisin, a member of the commission +des arts and a painter. He gave it to his mother, who preserved +it with veneration during the revolution and restored it to the +chapter of Paris, in 1804, after M. Bonvoisin and his mother had +sworn to the truth of these facts in order to authenticate the +relic. It was then allowed to be exposed in the reliquary of +crystal in which we see it. + +There were at Paris other portions of the holy and true cross on +which our Saviour was crucified. One was the Vraie Croix +d'Anseau, so called because it was sent in 1109 to the archbishop +and chapter of Paris by Anselle or Anseau, _grand-chantre_ +of the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, who had +obtained it from the superior of the Georgian nuns in that city, +the widow of David, king of Georgia. In 1793, M. Guyot de St. +Hélène obtained permission to keep the cross of Anseau. He +divided it with Abbé Duflost, guardian of the four crosses made +of the part he kept, of which three only have been restored to +Notre Dame. M. Guyot took the precaution to have them +authenticated, and they were restored to the veneration of the +faithful in 1803. + +{615} + +Another portion of the true cross was called the Palatine cross, +because it belonged to Anna Gonzaga of Cleves, a Palatine +princess, who left it by her will to the Abbey of St. Germain des +Près, attesting that she had seen it in the flames without being +burnt. This relic was enclosed in a cross of precious stones, +double, like the cross of Jerusalem. This cross had belonged to +Manuel Comnenus, Emperor of Constantinople, who presented it to a +prince of Poland. It is eight inches high, without measuring the +foot of _vermeil_ of about the same height, ornamented with +precious stones. It has two cross-pieces, like the crosses of +Jerusalem, which are filled with the wood of the true cross. It +is bordered with diamonds and amethysts. The Palatine princess +received it from John Casimir, King of Poland, who took it with +him when he retired to France. It was preserved by a curé in +1793, and restored, in 1828, to Notre Dame. + +There are two portions of the holy nails at Notre Dame de +Paris--one formerly at the abbey of St. Denis, and the other at +St. Germain des Près. The first was brought by Charles the Bald +from Aix-la-Chapelle, it having been given Charlemagne by the +Patriarch of Jerusalem. + +In 1793, M. Le Lièvre, a member of the Institute, begged +permission to take it from the commission des arts to examine and +analyze it as a specimen of mineralogy. He thus saved it from +profanation, and restored it to the Archbishop of Paris in 1824. + +The second portion was given to St. Germain des Près by the +Princess Palatine, who had received it from John Casimir of +Poland. + +There are many curious old legends respecting the wood of the +cross. Sir John Mandeville says it was made of the same tree Eve +plucked the apple from. When Adam was sick, he told Seth to go to +the angel that guarded paradise, to send him some oil of mercy to +anoint his limbs with. Seth went, but the angel would not admit +him, or give him the oil of mercy. He gave him, however, three +leaves from the fatal tree, to be put under Adam's tongue as soon +as he was dead. From these sprang the tree of which the cross was +made. + +One of the first portions of the holy cross received in France +was sent by the Emperor Justin to St. Radegonde. It was adorned +with gold and precious stones. When it arrived with other relics, +and a copy of the four Gospels richly ornamented, the archbishop +of Tours and a great procession of people went out with lights, +incense, and sound of holy chant to bear them into the city of +Poitiers, where they were placed in the monastery of the Holy +Cross founded by St. Radegonde. The great Fortunatus composed in +honor of the occasion the Vexilla Regis, now a part of the divine +office. I quote two verses of a fine translation of this +well-known hymn: + + "O tree of beauty, tree of light! + O tree with royal purple dight! + Elect on whose triumphal breast + Those holy limbs should find their rest! + + "On whose dear arms, so widely flung, + The weight of this world's ransom hung, + The price of human kind to pay, + And spoil the spoiler of his prey!" + +One pleasant morning I took the cars to visit St. Denis, the old +burial-place of the kings of France. As Michelet says, "This +church of tombs is not a sad and pagan necropolis, but glorious +and triumphant; brilliant with faith and hope; vast and without +shade, like the soul of the saint who built it; light and airy, +as if not to weigh on the dead or hinder their spring upward to +the starry spheres." + +{616} + +Mabillon was at one time the visitor's guide to the tombs of St. +Denis. I do not know whether I should prefer his learned details +and sage reflections over the ashes of the illustrious dead, or +be left as I was to wander alone with my own thoughts through the +church of the crypts. What a great chapter of history may be read +in this sepulchre of kings! What a commentary on the text, +"_Dieu seul est grand,_" is that stained page of the +revolution, when the bones of the mighty dead were torn from +their magnificent tombs and cast into a trench! It was then earth +to earth and ashes to ashes, like the meanest of us. What a long +stride may be made here from King Dagobert's tomb at the +entrance, all sculptured with legendary lore, to the clere-story +window, all emblazoned with Napoleon's glory; from the recumbent +Du Guesclin to the tomb of Turenne, and from the chair of St. +Eloi to the stall of Napoleon III.! A fit place to moralize, +among these statues of kneeling kings and queens, with their +hands folded as if they had gone to sleep in prayer. + + "For heaven's sake, let us sit upon the ground, + And tell sad stories of the death of kings." + +I sought out the tomb of one of my favorite knights of the middle +ages--that of Bertrand du Guesclin, who, by his devotion to his +country and his prowess, merited a place here among kings and to +have his ashes mingled with theirs in 1793. There are four of +these knights of the olden time in this chapel, all in stone, +lying in armor on their tombs. I sat down at the feet of Du +Guesclin to read my monographie before going around the church. + +My visit was in the octave of the festival of St. Denis and his +companions, and their relics were exposed on an altar covered +with crimson velvet. Huge wax tapers burned around them, and the +chancel was hung around with old tapestry after the designs of +Raphael-- + + "Whose glittering tissues bore emblazoned + Holy memorials, acts of zeal and love + Recorded eminent." + +This church is a monument of the genius and piety of Suger, one +of the most noble and venerable figures in French history, the +Abbot of St. Denis, and a statesman. He has been styled "the true +founder of the Capetian dynasty." He was one of those eminent men +so often found in the church of the middle ages who were raised +from obscurity to positions of authority. In his humility, when +regent of France, he often alluded to his lowly origin, and once +in the following words: "Recalling in what manner the strong hand +of God has raised me from the dunghill and made me to sit among +the princes of the church and of the kingdom." + +The princes of France used to be educated in the abbey of St. +Denis, and it was here Louis VI. formed a lasting friendship for +Suger, which led him afterward to make him his prime minister. + +The monk Suger was on his way home from Italy in 1122 when he +heard of his election as abbot of St. Denis. He burst into tears +through grief for the death of good old abbot Adam, who had cared +for him in his youth. That very morning he had risen to say +matins before leaving the hostelry where he lodged, and, +finishing the office before it was light, he threw himself again +on his couch to await the day. Falling into a doze, he dreamed he +was in a skiff on the wide raging sea, at the mercy of the waves, +and he prayed God to spare and to conduct him into port. He felt, +on awakening, as if threatened with some great danger, but, as he +afterward said, he trusted the goodness of God would deliver him +from it. +{617} +After travelling a few leagues, he met the deputation from St. +Denis announcing his election as abbot. + +When Louis le Jeune, with a great number of nobles, decided to go +to the Holy Land, it was resolved to choose a regent to govern +the kingdom during his absence. The Holy Spirit was invoked to +guide the decisions of the nobles and bishops. St. Bernard +delivered a discourse on the qualities a regent should possess. +The Count de Nevers and Abbot Suger were chosen. The former +declined the office, wishing to enter the Carthusian order. Suger +accepted this office with extreme reluctance, and only at the +command of the pope. He showed himself an able statesman. St. +Bernard reproached him for the state in which he lived while at +court, but he proved his heart was not in such a life by resuming +all his austerities when he returned to his monastery. + +He rebuilt the abbey church of St. Denis in a little more than +three years. He assembled the most skilful workmen and sculptors +from all parts. But he himself was the chief architect. The very +people around wished to have a share in the work, believing it +would draw down on them the blessing of Heaven. They brought him +marble from Pontoise, and wood from the forest of Chevreuse, +sixty leagues distant. But he himself selected the trees to be +cut down. Bishops, nobles, and the king assisted in laying the +foundations, each one laying a stone while the monks chanted, +"_Fundamenta ejus in montibus sanctis._" While they were +singing in the course of the service, "_Lapides pretiosi omnes +muri tui,_" the king took a ring of great value from his +finger and threw it on the foundations, and all the nobles +followed his example. + +When the church was consecrated, the king and a host of church +dignitaries were present. Thibaud, Archbishop of Canterbury, +consecrated the high altar, and twenty other altars were +consecrated by as many different bishops. + +Suger had a little cell built near the church for his own use. It +was fifteen feet long and ten wide. When he built for God his +ideas were full of grandeur, but for himself nothing was too +lowly. This little cell beside the magnificent church was a +continual act of humility before the majesty of the Most High. +"Whatever is dear and most precious should be made subservient to +the administration of the thrice holy Eucharist," said he. We +read how Peter the Venerable, Abbot of Cluny, came to visit St. +Denis. After admiring the grandeur of the church, they came to +the cell. "Behold a man who condemns us all!" exclaimed Peter +with a sigh. The cell had neither tapestry nor curtains. He slept +on straw, and his table was set with strictest regard to monastic +severity. He never rode in a carriage, but always on horseback, +even in old age. + +When Abbot Suger felt his end approaching, he went, supported by +two monks, into the chapter room where the whole community was +assembled, and addressed them in the most solemn and impressive +manner on the judgments of God. Then he knelt before them all, +and with tears besought their pardon for all the faults of his +administration during thirty years. The monks only answered with +their tears. He laid down his crosier, declaring himself unworthy +the office of abbot, and begged them to elect his successor, that +he might have the happiness of dying a simple monk. There is a +touching letter from St. Bernard written at this time, which +commences thus: + +{618} + + "Friar Bernard to his very dear and intimate friend Suger, by + the grace of God abbot of St. Denis, wishing him the glory that + springs from a good conscience, and the grace which is a gift + of God. Fear not, O man of God! to put off the earthly man + --that man of sin which torments, oppresses, persecutes + you--the weight of which sinks you down to earth and drags you + almost to the abyss! What have you in part with this mortal + frame--you who are about to be clothed with glorious + immortality?" + +Toward Christmas Suger grew so weak that he rejoiced at the +prospect of his deliverance, but fearing his death would +interrupt the festivities of that holy time, he prayed God to +prolong his life till they were over. His prayer was heard. He +died on the twelfth of January, having been abbot of St. Denis +twenty-nine years and ten months, from 1122 to 1152. His tomb +bore the simple inscription: + + "Cy gist l'Abbé Suger." + +The charter for the foundation of the abbey of St. Denis was +given by Clovis. It was written on papyrus, and among others the +signature of St. Eloi was attached to it. Pepin and Charlemagne +were great benefactors of the abbey. Pepin was buried before the +grand portal of the old church with his face down, wishing by his +prostrate position to atone for the excesses of his father +Charles Martel. Charlemagne with filial reverence built a porch +to the church, as a covering over his father's tomb, and that he +might not lie without the church. In rebuilding it, Suger had the +porch removed and the body transferred into the interior. + +The treasury of the abbey was once exceedingly rich. The old +kings of France left their crowns to it, and on grand festivals +they were suspended before the high altar. Here were the cross +and sceptre of Charlemagne, and the crown and ring of the holy +Louis IX. Philip Augustus gave the abbey in his will all his +jewels and crosses of gold, desiring twenty monks to say masses +for his soul. The chess-board and chess-men of Charlemagne were +kept here for ages. Joubert, the Coleridge of France, says: + + "The pomps and magnificence with which the church is reproached + are in truth the result and proof of her incomparable + excellence. Whence came, let me ask, this power of hers and + these excessive riches, except from the enchantment into which + she threw all the world? Ravished with her beauty, millions of + men from age to age kept loading her with gifts, bequests, and + cessions. She had the talent of making herself loved and the + talent of making men happy. It is that which wrought prodigies + for her, it is thence she drew her power." + +Sixty great wax candles used to burn around the high altar of St. +Denis on great festivals. Dagobert left one hundred livres a year +to obtain oil for lights, and Pepin allowed six carts to bring it +all the way from Marseilles without toll. + +In the middle ages there were fairs near the abbey which lasted +for a month. Merchants came from Italy, Spain, and all parts of +Europe, and, to encourage them to be mindful of their souls as +well as of their purses, indulgences were granted to all who +visited the church. + + + +These are a few notes of my saunterings. Each one of these holy +places, as well as every church in those old lands, has its +history which is interesting, and its legends that are poetical +and full of meaning. They would fill volumes. Travelling is like +eating; what gives pleasure to one only aggravates the bile of +another. Some only find tyranny in the authority of the church, a +love of pomp and display in her splendor, and superstition in her +piety. Thoreau says, "Where an angel treads, it will be paradise +all the way; but where Satan travels, it will be burning marl and +cinders." + +------- + +{619} + + Spiritualism and Materialism. + +Professor Huxley, as we saw in a late number of this magazine, in +the article on _The Physical Basis of Life_, while rejecting +spiritualism, gives his opinion that materialism is a +philosophical error, on the ground of our ignorance of what +matter is, or is not. There is some truth in the assertion of our +ignorance of the essence or real nature of matter or material +existence, though the professor had no logical right to assert +it, after having adopted a materialistic terminology, and done +his best to prove the material origin of life, thought, feeling, +and the various mental phenomena. Yet we are far from regarding +what is called materialism as the fundamental error of this age, +nor do we believe that there is any necessary or irrepressible +antagonism between spirit and matter, either intellectual or +moral. In our belief, a profound philosophy, though it does not +identify spirit and matter, shows their dialectic harmony, as +revelation asserts it in asserting the resurrection of the flesh, +and the indissoluble reunion of body and soul in the future life. + +The fundamental error of this age is the denial of creation, and, +theologically expressed, is, with the vulgar, atheism, and with +the cultivated and refined, pantheism. Atheism is the denial of +unity, and pantheism the denial of plurality or diversity, and +both alike deny creation, and seek to explain the universe by the +principle of self-generation or self-development. What is really +denied is God THE CREATOR. + +There are, no doubt, moral causes that have led in part to this +denial, but with them we have at present nothing to do. The +assertion of moral causes is more effective in preventing men +from abandoning the truth and falling into error than in +recovering and leading back to the truth those who have lost it, +or know not where to find it. We lose our labor when we begin our +efforts, as philosophers, to convert those who are in error by +assuring them that they have erred only through moral perversity +or hatred of the true and the good, the just and the holy, +especially in an age when conscience is fast asleep. We aim at +convincing, not at convicting, and therefore take up only the +intellectual causes which lead to the denial of creation. Among +these causes, we shall, no doubt, find materialism and a +pseudo-spiritualism both playing their part; but the real causes, +we apprehend, are in the fact that the philosophic tradition, +which has come down to us from gentilism, has never been fully +harmonized with the Christian tradition, which has come down to +us through the church. + +Gentilism had lost sight of God the Creator, and confounded +creation with generation, emanation, or formation. Why the +gentiles were led into this error would be an interesting chapter +in the history of the wanderings of the human mind; but we have +no space at present for the inquiry. It is enough, for our +present purpose, to establish the fact that the gentiles did fall +into it. The conception of creation is found in none of the +heathen mythologies, learned or unlearned, of which we have any +knowledge; and that they do not recognize a creative God, may be +inferred from the fact that in them all, so far as known, was +worshipped, under obscure symbols, the generative forces or +functions of nature. +{620} +In no gentile philosophy, not even in Plato or Aristotle, do you +find any conception of God the Creator. Père Gratry, indeed, +thinks he finds the fact of creation recognized by Plato, +especially in the _Timaeus_; but though we have read time +and again that most important of Plato's dialogues, we have never +found the fact of creation in it; all we can find in it bearing +on this point is what Plato, as we understand him, uniformly +teaches, the identity of the idea with the essence or _causa +essentialis_ of the thing. As, for instance, the idea of a man +is the real, essential man himself; and is simply the idea in the +divine mind, impressed on a preexisting matter, as the seal upon +wax. God creates neither the idea nor the matter. The idea is +himself; the matter is eternal. Aristotle does not essentially +differ from Plato on this point. The individual existence, +according to him, is composed of matter and form; the form alone +is substantial, and matter is simply its passive recipient. The +substantial forms are supplied, but not created by the divine +intelligence. In no form of heathenism that existed before the +Christian era have we found any conception of creation. The +conception or tradition of creation was retained only by the +patriarchs and the synagogue, and has been restored to the +converted gentiles by the Christian church alone. + +St. Augustine, and after him the great medieval +doctors--especially the greatest of them all, the Angel of the +schools--labored assiduously, and up to a certain point +successfully, to amend the least debased gentile philosophy so as +to make it harmonize with Christian theology and tradition. They +took from gentile philosophy the elements it had retained from +the ancient wisdom, supplied their defects with elements taken +from the Christian tradition, and formed a really Christian +philosophy, which still subsists in union with theology. + +This work of harmonizing faith and philosophy, or, perhaps, more +correctly, of constructing a philosophy in harmony with faith and +theology, was nearly, if not quite completed by the great western +scholastics or medieval doctors; but, unhappily, the East, +separated from the centre of unity, or holding to it only loosely +and by fits and starts, did not share in the great intellectual +movement of the West. It made little or no progress in +harmonizing gentile philosophy and Christian theology. It +retained and studied the gentile philosophers, especially of the +Platonic and Neoplatonic schools; and when the Greek scholars, +after the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, in 1453, sought +refuge in the West, they brought with them, not only their +schism, but their unmitigated gentile philosophy, corrupted the +western schools, and unsettled to a fearful extent the confidence +of scholars in the scholastic philosophy. We owe the false +systems of spiritualism and materialism, of atheism and +pantheism, to what is called the Revival of Letters in the +fifteenth century, or the Greek invasion of western Christendom. + +The scholastics, especially St. Thomas, had transformed the +peripatetic philosophy into a Christian philosophy; but the other +Greek schools had remained pagan; and it was precisely these +other schools, especially the Platonic, and Neoplatonic, or +Alexandrian eclecticism, that now revived in their +unchristianized form, and were opposed to the Aristotelian +philosophy as modified by the schoolmen. +{621} +Some of the early fathers were more inclined to Plato than to +Aristotle, but none of these, not Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, +or even St. Augustine, had harmonized throughout Plato's +philosophy with Christianity, and we should greatly wrong St. +Augustine, at least, if we called him a systematic Platonist. + +With the study of Plato was revived in western Europe a false and +exaggerated spiritualism, and a philosophy which denied creation +as a truth of philosophy, and admitted it only as a doctrine of +revelation. The authority of the scholastic philosophy was +weakened, a decided tendency in pantheistic direction to thought +was given, and the way was prepared for Giordano Bruno, as well +as for the Protestant apostasy. We say _apostasy_, because +Luther's movement was really an apostasy, as its historical +developments have amply proved. With Plato was revived the +Academy with its scepticism, Sextus Empiricus, and after him +Epicurus; and before the close of the sixteenth century, Europe +was overrun with false mystics, sceptics, pantheists, and +atheists, who abounded all through the seventeenth century, in +spite of a very decided reaction in favor of faith and the +church. What is worthy of special note is, that in all this +period of two centuries and a half it was no uncommon thing to +find men who, as philosophers, denied the immortality of the +soul, which as believers they asserted; or combining a childlike +faith with nearly universal scepticism, as we see in Montaigne. + +Gradually, however, men began to see that, while they +acknowledged a discrepancy between what they held as philosophy +and the Christian faith, they could not retain both; that they +must give up the one or the other. England, in the latter half of +the seventeenth century, swarmed with free thinkers who denied +all divine revelation; and France, in the eighteenth century, +rejected the church, rejected the Bible, suppressed Christian +worship, rebuilt the Pantheon, and voted death to be an eternal +sleep. But the eighteenth century was born of the seventeenth, as +the seventeenth was born of the sixteenth, as the sixteenth was +born of the revival of Greek letters and philosophy, thoroughly +impregnated with paganism, supposed by unthinking men to be the +most glorious event in modern history, saving, always, Luther's +Reformation. + +In the seventeenth century, Descartes undertook to reform and +reconstruct philosophy after a new method. He undertook to erect +philosophy into a complete science in the rational order, +independent of revelation. If he recognized the creative act of +God, or God as creator, it was as a theologian, not as a +philosopher; for certainly he does not start with the creative +act as a first principle, nor does he, nor can he, arrive at it +by his method. God as creator cannot be deduced from _cogito, +ergo sum;_ for, without presupposing God as my creator, I +cannot assert that I exist. Gentilism had so far revived that it +was able to take possession of philosophy the moment it was +detached from Christian theology and declared an independent +science; and as that has no conception of creation, the tradition +preserved by Jews and Christians was at once relegated from +philosophy to theologian, from science to faith. Hence we fail to +find creation recognized as a philosophical truth in the system +of his disciple Malebranche, a profounder philosopher than +Descartes himself. The prince of modern sophists, Spinoza, +adopting as his starting point the definition of substance given +by Descartes, demonstrates but too easily that there can be only +one substance, and that there can be no creation, or that nothing +does or can exist except the one substance and its attributes, +modes, or affections. Calling the one substance God, he arrived +at once at pantheism, now so prevalent. + +{622} + +That Descartes felt a difficulty in asserting creation in its +proper sense, may be inferred from the fact that he always calls +the soul _la pensée_, thought; never, if we recollect +aright, a substance that thinks, which was itself a large stride +toward pantheism, for pantheism consists precisely in denying all +substantive existences except the one only substance, which is +God. Spinoza developed his principles with a logic vastly +superior to his own, and brought out errors which he probably did +not foresee. Indeed, we do not pretend that Descartes intended to +favor or had any suspicion that he was favoring pantheism; but he +most certainly did not recognize any principle that would enable +his disciples to oppose it, and in former days, before we knew +the church, we ourselves found, or thought we found, pantheism +flowing logically from his premises, and we escaped it only by +rejecting the Cartesian philosophy. + +Descartes revived in modern philosophy that antagonism between +spirit and matter which was unknown to the scholastic philosophy, +and which renders the mutual commerce of soul and body +inexplicable. The scholastic doctors had recognized, indeed, +matter and form; but with them matter was simply possibility, +existing only _in potentia ad formam_, and was never +supposed to be the basis or substratum of any existence whatever. +The real existence was in the form, the _forma_ or the +_idea_. They distinguished, certainly, between corporeal and +incorporeal existences; but not, as the moderns do, between +spiritual and material existences, and the question between +spiritualism and materialism, as we have it to-day, did not and +could not come up with them. The distinction with them was +between sensibles and intelligibles, the only distinction that +philosophy by her own light knows. _Spirit_ was a term very +nearly restricted to God, and _spiritual_ meant partaking of +spirit, living according to the spirit; that is, living a godly +life begotten by the Holy Spirit, as in the inspired writings of +St. Paul. + +Even the ancients did not distinguish, in the modern sense, +between spirit and matter. Their gods were corporeal, but +ordinarily impassible. The spirit was not a distinct existence, +but was the universal principle of life, thought, and action, and +the spirit of man was an emanation from the universal spirit, +which at death flowed back and was reabsorbed in the ocean from +which it emanated. Their ghosts were not disembodied spirits, as +ours are, were not departed spirits, but the umbra or shade--a +thin, aerial apparition, bearing the exact resemblance of the +body, and had formed during life, if I may so speak, its inner +lining, or the immediate envelope of the spirit. It is the body +that after death still invests the soul, according to Swedenborg, +who denies the resurrection of the flesh. According to ancient +Greek and Roman gentilism it was not spirit, nor body, but +something between the two. It hovered over and around the dead +body, and it was to allay it, and enable it to rest in peace that +the funeral rites or obsequies of the dead were performed, and +judged to be so indispensable. The Marquis de Mirville, in his +work on _The Fluidity of Spirits_, seems to think the umbra +was not a pure imagination, and is inclined to assert it, and to +make it the basis of the explanation of many of the so-called +spirit-phenomena. +{623} +He supposes it is capable of transporting the soul, or of being +transported by the soul, out of the body, and to a great distance +from it, and that the body itself will bear the marks of the +wounds that may be given it. In this way he also explains the +prodigies of bilocation. + +But however this may be, the ghost of heathen superstition is +never the spirit returned to earth, nor is it the spirit that is +doomed to Tartarus, or that is received into the Elysian Fields, +the heathen paradise. Hades, which includes both Tartarus and +Elysium, is a land of shadows, inhabited by shades that are +neither spirit nor body; for the heathen knew nothing, and +believed nothing, of the resurrection of the flesh, and the +reunion of soul and body in a future life. The spirit at death +returns to its fountain, and the body, dissolved, loses itself in +the several elements from which it was taken, and only the shade +or shadow of the living man survives. Even in Elysium, the ghosts +that sport on the flowery banks of the river, repose in the green +bowers, or pursue in the fields the mimic games and pastimes that +they loved, are pale, thin, and shadowy. The whole is a mimic +scene, if we may trust either Homer or Virgil, and is far less +real and less attractive than the happy hunting grounds of the +red men of our continent, to which the good, that is, the brave +Indian is transported when he dies. The only distinction we find, +with the heathen, between spirit and matter, is, the distinction +between the divine substance, or intelligence, and an eternally +existing matter, as the stuff of which bodies or corporeal +existences, the only existences recognized, are formed or +generated. + +But Descartes distinguished them so broadly that he seemed to +make them each independent of the other. Why, then, was either +necessary to the life and activity of the other? And we see in +Descartes no use that the soul is or can be to the body, or the +body to the soul. Hence, philosophy, starting from Descartes, +branched out in two opposite directions, the one toward the +denial of matter, and the other toward the denial of spirit; or, +as more commonly expressed, into idealism and materialism, but as +it would be more proper to say, into intellectism and sensism. +The spiritualism of Descartes, so far as it had been known in the +history of philosophy, was only the Neoplatonic mysticism, which +substitutes the direct and immediate vision, so to speak, of the +intelligible, for its apprehension through sensible symbols and +the exercise of the reasoning faculty. From this it was an easy +step to the denial of an external and material world, as was +proved by Berkeley, who held the external world to consist simply +of pictures painted on the retina of the eye by the creative act +of God; and before him by Collier, who maintained that only mind +exists. It was an equally short and easy step to take the other +direction, assert the sufficiency of the corporeal or material, +and deny the existence of spirit or the incorporeal, since the +senses take cognizance of the corporeal and the corporeal only. +Either step was favored by the ancient philosophy revived and set +up against the scholastic philosophy. It was hardly possible to +follow out the exaggerated and exclusive spiritualism of the one +class without running into mystic pantheism, or the independence +of the corporeal or material, without falling into material +pantheism or atheism. These two errors, or rather these two +phases of one and the same error, are the fundamental or mother +error of this age--perhaps, in principle, of all ages--and is +receiving an able refutation by one of our collaborateurs in the +essay on Catholicity and Pantheism now in the course of +publication in this magazine. + +{624} + +It is no part of our purpose now to refute this error; we have +traced it from gentilism, shown that it is essentially pagan, and +owes its prevalence in the modern world to the revival of Greek +letters and philosophy in the fifteenth century, the discredit +into which the study of Plato and the Neoplatonists threw the +scholastic philosophy, and especially to the divorce of +philosophy from theology, declared by Descartes in the +seventeenth century. Yet we do not accept either exclusive +materialism or exclusive spiritualism, and the question itself +hardly has place in our philosophy, as it hardly had place in +that of St. Thomas. It became a question only when philosophy was +detached from theology, of which it forms the rational as +distinguishable but not separable from the revealed element, and +reduced to a mere _Wissenchaftslehre_, or rather a simple +methodology. True philosophy joined with theology is the response +to the question, What is, or exists? What are the principles and +causes of things? What are our relations to those principles and +causes? What is the law under which we are placed? and what are +the means and conditions within our reach, natural or gracious, +of fulfilling our destiny, or of attaining to our supreme good? +Not a response to the question, for the most part an idle +question, How do we know, or how do we know that we know? + +Many of the most difficult problems for philosophers, and which +we confess our inability to solve, may be eluded by a flank +movement, to use a military phrase. Such is the question of the +origin of ideas, of certitude, and the passage from the +subjective to the objective, and this very question of +spiritualism and materialism. All these are problems which no +philosopher yet has solved from the point of view of exclusive +psychology, or of exclusive ontology, or of any philosophy that +leaves them to be asked. But we are much mistaken if they do not +cease to be problems at all, when one starts with the principles +of things, or if they do not solve themselves. We do not find +them, in the modern sense, raised by Plato or Aristotle, nor by +St. Augustine or St. Thomas. When we have the right stand-point, +if Mr. Richard Grant White will allow us the term, and see things +from the point of view of the real order, these problems do not +present themselves, and are wholly superseded. Professor Huxley +is right enough when he tells us that we know the nature and +essence neither of spirit nor of matter. I know from revelation +that there is a spirit in man, and that the inspiration of the +Almighty giveth him understanding, but I know neither by +revelation nor by reason what spirit is. God is a spirit; but if +man is a spirit, it must be in a very different sense from that +in which God is a spirit. Although the human spirit may have a +certain likeness to the Divine spirit, it yet cannot be divine, +for it is created; and they who call it divine, a spark of +divinity, or a particle of God, either do not mean, or do not +_know_ what they literally assert. They only repeat the old +gentile doctrine of the substantial identity of the spirit with +divinity, from whom it emanates, and to whom it returns, to be +reabsorbed in him--a pantheistic conception. All we can say of +spiritual existences is, that they are incorporeal intelligences; +and all we can say of man is, that he has both a corporeal and an +incorporeal nature; and perhaps without revelation we should be +able to say not even so much. + +{625} + +We know, again, just as little of matter. What is matter? Who can +answer? Nay, what is body? Who can tell? Body, we are told, is +composed of material elements. Be it so. What are those elements? +Into what is matter resolvable in the last analysis? Into +indestructible and indissoluble atoms, says Epicurus; into +entelecheia, or self-acting forces, says Aristotle; into +extension, says Descartes; into monads, each acting from its +centre, and representing the entire universe from its own point +of view, says Leibnitz; into centres of attraction and +gravitation, says Father Boscovich; into pictures painted on the +retina of the eye by the Creator, says Berkeley, the Protestant +bishop of Cloyne, and so on. We may ask and ask, but can get no +final answer. + +Take, instead of matter, an organic body; who can tell us what it +is? It is extended, occupies space, say the Cartesians. But is +this certain? Leibnitz disputes it, and it is not easy to attach +any precise meaning to the assertion "it occupies space," if we +have any just notion of space and time, the _pons asinorum_ +of psychologists. What is called actual or real space is the +relation of co-existence of creatures; and is simply nothing +abstracted from the related. It would be a great convenience if +philosophers would learn that nothing is nothing, and that only +God can create something from nothing. Space being nothing but +relation, to say of a thing that it occupies space, is only +saying that it exists, and exists in a certain relation to other +objects. This relation may be either sensible or intelligible; it +is sensible, or what is called sensible space, when the objects +related are sensible. Extension is neither the essence nor a +property of matter, but the sensible relation of an object either +to some other objects or to our sensible perception. It is, as +Leibnitz very well shows, only the relation of continuity. Whirl +a wheel with great force and rapidity, and you will be unable to +distinguish its several spokes, and it will seem to be all of one +continuous and solid piece. Intelligible space as distinguished +from sensible space is the logical relation of things, or, as +more commonly called, the relation of cause and effect. When we +conform our notions of space to the real order, and understand +that the sensible simply copies, imitates, or symbolizes the +intelligible, we shall see that we have no authority for saying +extension is even a property of body or of matter. + +That extension is simply the sensible relation of body, not its +essence, nor even a property of matter, is evident from what +physiologists tell us of organic or living bodies. There can be +no reasonable doubt that the body I now have is the same +identical body with which I was born, and yet it contains, +probably, not a single molecule or particle of sensible matter it +originally had. As I am an old man, all the particles or +molecules of my body have probably been changed some ten or +twenty times over; yet my body remains unchanged. It is evident, +then, since the molecular changes do not affect its identity, +that those particles or molecules of matter which my body +assimilates from the food I take to repair the waste that is +constantly going on, or to supply the loss of those particles or +molecules constantly exuded or thrown off, do not compose, make +up, or constitute the real body. This fact is commended to the +consideration of those learned men, like the late Professor +George Bush, who deny the resurrection of the body, on the ground +that these molecular changes which have been going on during life +render it a physical impossibility. This fact also may have some +bearing on the Catholic mystery of Transubstantiation. +{626} +St. Augustine distinguishes between the visible body and the +intelligible body--the body that is seen and the body that is +understood--and tells us that it is the intelligible, or, as he +sometimes says, the spiritual, not the visible or sensible, body +of our Lord that is present in the Blessed Eucharist. In fact, +there is no change in the sensible body of the bread and the +wine, in Transubstantiation. The sensible body remains the same +after consecration that it was before. The change is in the +essence or substance, or the intelligible body, and hence the +appropriateness of the term _transubstantiation_ to express +the change which takes place at the words of consecration. Only +the intelligible body, that is, what is non-sensible in the +elements bread and wine, is transubstantiated, and yet their real +body is changed, and the real body of our Lord takes its place. +The nonsensible or invisible body, the intelligible body, is +then, in either case, assumed by the sacred mystery to be the +real body; and hence, supposing us right in our assumption that +our body remains always the same in spite of the molecular +changes--which was evidently the doctrine of St. Augustine--there +is nothing in science or the profoundest philosophy to show that +either transubstantiation or the resurrection of the flesh is +impossible, or that God may not effect either consistently with +his own immutable nature, if he sees proper to do it. Nothing +aids the philosopher so much as the study of the great doctrines +and mysteries of Christianity, as held and taught by the church. + +The distinction between seeing and intellectually apprehending, +and therefore between the visible body and the intelligible body, +asserted and always carefully observed by St. Augustine when +treating of the Blessed Eucharist, belongs to a profounder +philosophy than is now generally cultivated. Our prevailing +philosophy, especially outside of the church, recognizes no such +distinction. It is true, we are told, that the senses perceive +only the sensible properties or qualities of things; that they +never perceive the essence or substance; but then the essence or +substance is supposed to be a mere abstraction with no +intelligible properties or qualities, or a mere substratum of +sensible properties and qualities. The sensible exhausts it, and +beyond what the senses proclaim the substance has no quality or +property, and is and can be the subject of no predicate. This is +a great mistake. The sensible properties and qualities are real, +that is, are not false or illusory; but they are real only in the +sensible order, or the _mimesis_, as Gioberti, after Plato +and some of the Greek fathers, calls it in his posthumous works. +The intelligible substance is the thing itself, and has its own +intelligible properties and qualities, which the sensible only +copies, imitates, or mimics. All through nature there runs, above +the sensible, the intelligible, in which is the highest created +reality, with its own attributes and qualities, which must be +known before we can claim to know anything as it really is or +exists. We do not know this in the case of body or matter; we do +not and cannot know what either really is, and can really know of +either only its sensible properties. + +We know that if matter exists at all, it must have an essence or +substance; but what the substance really is human science has not +learned and cannot learn. We really know, then, of matter in +itself no more than we do of spirit, except that matter has its +sensible copy, which spirit has not. +{627} +Matter, as to its substance, is supersensible, and as to the +essence or nature of its substance is superintelligible, as is +spirit; and we only know that it has a substance; and of +substance itself, we can only say, if it exists, it is a _vis +activa_, as opposed to _nuda potentia_, which is a mere +possibility, and no existence at all. Such being the case, we +agree with Professor Huxley, that neither spiritualism nor +materialism is, in his sense, admissible, and that each is a +philosophical error, or, at least, an unprovable hypothesis. + +But here our agreement ends and our divergence begins. The Holy +See has required the traditionalists to maintain that the +existence of God, the immateriality of the soul, and the liberty +of man can be proved with certainty by reason. We have always +found the definitions of the church our best guide in the study +of philosophy, and that we can never run athwart her teaching +without finding ourselves at odds with reason and truth. We are +always sure that when our theology is unsound our philosophy will +be bad. There is a distinction already noted between spirit and +matter, which is decisive of the whole question, as far as it is +a question at all. Matter has, and spirit has not, sensible +properties or qualities. These sensible properties or qualities +do not constitute the essence or substance of matter, which we +have seen is not sensible, but they distinguish it from spirit, +which is non-sensible. This difference, in regard to sensible +qualities and properties, proves that there must be a difference +of substance, that the material substance and the immaterial +substance are not, and cannot be one and the same substance, +although we know not what is the essence or nature of either. + +We take matter here in the sense of that which has properties or +qualities perceptible by the senses, and spirit or spiritual +substance as an existence that has no such properties or +qualities. The Holy See says the _immateriality_, not +_spirituality_, of the soul, is to be proved by reason. The +spirituality of the soul, except in the sense of immateriality, +cannot be proved or known by philosophy, but is simply a doctrine +of divine revelation, and is known only by that analogical +knowledge called faith. All that we can prove or assert by +natural reason, is, that the soul is immaterial, or not material +in the sense that matter has for its sign the mimesis, or +sensible properties or qualities. We repeat, the sensible is not +the material substance, but is its natural sign. So that, where +the sign is wanting, we know the substance is not present and +active. On the other hand, where there is a force undeniably +present and operating without the sign, we know at once that it +is an immaterial force or substance. + +That the soul is not material, therefore is an immaterial +substance, we know; because it has none of the sensible signs or +properties of matter. We cannot see, hear, touch, smell, nor +taste it. The very facts materialists allege to prove it +material, prove conclusively, that, if anything, it is +immaterial. The soul has none of the attributes or qualities that +are included, and has others which evidently are not included, in +the definition of matter. Matter, as to its substance, is a +_vis activa_, for whatever exists at all is an active force; +but it is not a force or substance that thinks, feels, wills, or +reasons. It has no sensibility, no mind, no intelligence, no +heart, no soul. But animals have sensibility and intelligence; +have they immaterial souls? Why not? We have no serious +difficulty in admitting that animals have souls, only not +rational and immortal souls. +{628} +Soul, in them, is not spirit, but it may be immaterial. Indeed, +we can go further, and concede an immaterial soul, not only to +animals but to plants, though, of course, not an intelligent or +even a sensitive soul; for if plants, or at least some plants, +are contractile and slightly mimic sensibility in animals, +nothing proves that they are sensitive. We have no proof that any +living organism, vegetable, animal, or human, is or can be a +purely material product. Professor Huxley has completely failed, +as we have shown, in his effort to sustain his theory of a +physical or material basis of life, and physiologists profess to +have demonstrated by their experiments and discoveries that no +organism can originate in inorganic matter, or in any possible +mechanical, chemical, or electrical arrangement of material +atoms, and is and can be produced, unless by direct and immediate +creation of God, only by generation from a preexisting male and +female organism. This is true alike of plants, animals, and man. +Nothing hinders you, then, from calling, if you so wish, the +universal basis of life _anima_ or soul, and asserting, the +psychical basis, in opposition to Professor Huxley's physical +basis, of life; only you must take care and not assert that +plants and animals have human souls, or that soul in them is the +same that it is in man. + +There are grave thinkers who are not satisfied with the doctrine +that ascribes the apparent and even striking marks of mind in +animals to instinct, a term which serves to cover our ignorance, +but tells us nothing; still less are they satisfied with the +Cartesian doctrine that the animal is simply a piece of mechanism +moved or moving only by mechanical springs and wheels like a +clock or watch. Theologians are reluctant chiefly, we suppose, to +admit that animals have souls, because they are accustomed to +regard all souls, as to their substance, the same, and because it +has seemed to them that the admission would bring animals too +near to men, and not preserve the essential difference between +the animal nature and the human. But we see no difficulty in +admitting as many different sorts or orders of souls as there are +different orders, genera, and species of living organisms. God is +spirit, and the angels are spirits; are the angels therefore +identical in substance with God? The human soul is spiritual; is +there no difference in substance between human souls and angels? +We know that men sometimes speak of a departed wife, child, or +friend as being now an angel in heaven; but they are not to be +understand literally, any more than the young man in love with a +charming young lady who does not absolutely refuse his addresses, +when he calls her--a sinful mortal, not unlikely--an angel. In +the resurrection men are _like_ the angels of God, in the +respect that they neither marry nor are given in marriage; but +the spirits of the just made perfect, that stand before the +throne, are not angels; they are still human in their nature. If, +then, we may admit spirits of different nature and substance, why +not souls, and, therefore, vegetable souls, animal souls, and +human souls, agreeing only in the fact that they are immaterial, +or not material substances or forces? + +It perhaps may be thought that to admit different orders of souls +to correspond to the different orders, genera, and species of +organisms, would imply that the human soul is generated with the +body; contrary to the general doctrine of theologians, that the +soul is created immediately _ad hoc_. +{629} +The Holy See censured Professor Frohshamer's doctrine on the +subject; but the point condemned was, as we understand it, that +the professor claimed _creative_ power for man. But it is +not necessary to suppose, even if plants and animals have souls, +that the human soul is generated with the body, in any sense +inconsistent with faith. The church has defined that "anima est +forma corporis," that is, as we understand it, the soul is the +vital or informing principle, the life of the body, without which +the body is dead matter. The organism generated is a living not a +dead organism, and therefore if the soul is directly and +immediately created _ad hoc_, the creative act must be +consentaneous with the act of generation, a fact which demands a +serious modification of the medical jurisprudence now taught in +our medical schools. Some have asserted for man alone a vegetable +soul, an animal soul, and a spiritual soul, but this is +inadmissible; man has simply a human soul, though capable of +yielding to the grovelling demands of the flesh as well as to the +higher promptings of the spirit. + +But we have suffered ourselves to be drawn nearer to the borders +of the land of impenetrable mysteries than we intended, and we +retrace our steps as hastily as possible. Our readers will +understand that what we have said of the souls of plants and +animals is said only as a possible concession, but not set forth +as a doctrine we do or design to maintain; for it lies too near +the province of revelation to be settled by philosophy. All we +mean is that we see on the part of reason no serious objection to +it. Perhaps it may be thought that we lose, by the concession, +the argument for the immortality of the soul drawn from its +simplicity; but, even if so, we are not deprived of other, and to +our mind, much stronger arguments. But it may be said all our +talk about souls is wide of the mark, for we have not yet proved +that man is or has a soul distinguishable from the body, and +which does or can survive its dissolution, and that our argument +only proves that, if a man has a soul, it is immaterial. The +materialist denies that there is any soul in man distinct from +the body, and maintains that the mental phenomena, which we +ascribe to an immaterial soul, are the effects of material +organization. But that is for him to prove, not for us to +disprove. Organization can give to matter no new properties or +qualities, as aggregation can give only the sum of the +individuals aggregated. Matter we have taken all along, as all +the world takes it, as a substance that has properties and +qualities perceptible by the senses, and it has no meaning except +so far as so perceptible. Any active force that has no mimesis or +sensible qualities, properties, or attributes, is an immaterial, +not a material substance. That man is or has an active force that +feels, thinks, reasons, wills, we know as well as we know +anything; indeed, better than we know anything else. These acts +or operations are not operations of a material substance. We know +that they are not, from the fact that they are not sensible +properties or qualities, and therefore there must be in man an +active force or substance that is not material, but immaterial. +Material substance is, we grant, a _vis activa_; but if it +has properties or qualities, it has no faculties. It acts, but it +acts only _ad finem_, or to an end, never _propter +finem_, or for an end foreseen and deliberately willed or +chosen. But the force that man has or is, has faculties, not +simply properties or qualities, and can and does act +deliberately, with foresight and choice, for an end. Hence, it is +not and cannot be a substance included in the definition of +matter. + +{630} + +That this immaterial soul, now united to body and active only in +union with matter, survives the dissolution of the body and is +immortal, is another question, and is not proved, in our +judgment, by proving its immateriality. There is an important +text in Ecclesiastes, 3:21, which would seem to have some bearing +on the assumption that the immortality of the soul is really a +truth of philosophy as well as of revelation. + + "Who knoweth if the spirit of the children of Adam ascend + upward, and if the spirit of the beasts descend downward?" + +The doubt is not as to the immortality of the soul, but as to the +ability of reason without revelation to demonstrate it. +Certainly, reason can demonstrate its possibility, and that +nothing warrants its denial. The doctrine, in some form, has +always been believed by the human race, whether savage or +civilized, barbarous or refined, and has been denied only by +exceptional individuals in exceptional epochs. This proves either +that it is a dictate of universal reason, or a doctrine of a +revelation made to man in the beginning, before the dispersion of +the human race commenced. In either case the reason for believing +the doctrine would be sufficient; but we are disposed to take the +latter alternative, and to hold that the belief in the +immortality of the soul, or of an existence after death, +originated in revelation made to our first parents, and has been +perpetuated and diffused by tradition, pure and integral with the +patriarchs, the synagogue, and the church; but mutilated, +corrupted, and travestied with the cultivated as well as with the +uncultivated heathen. With the heathen Satan played his pranks +with the tradition, as he is doing with it with the spiritists in +our own times. + +But if the belief originated in revelation and is a doctrine of +faith rather than of science, yet is it not repugnant to science, +and reason has much to urge in its support. The immateriality of +the soul implies its unity and simplicity, and therefore it can +not undergo dissolution, which is the death of the body. Its +dissolution is impossible, because it is a monad, having +attributes and qualities, but not made up by the combination of +parts. It is the form of the body, that is, it vivifies the +organic or central cell, and gives to the organism its life, +instead of drawing its own life from it. Science, then, has +nothing from which to infer that it ceases to exist when the body +dies. The death of the body does not necessarily imply its +destruction. True, we have here only negative proofs, but +negative proofs are all that is needed, in the case of a doctrine +of tradition, to satisfy the most exacting reason. The soul may +be extinguished with the body, but we cannot say that it is +without proof. Left to our unassisted reason, we could not say +that the soul of the animal expires with its body. Indeed, the +Indian does not believe it, and therefore buries with the hunter +his favorite dog, to accompany him in the happy hunting grounds. + +The real matter to be proved is not that the soul can or does +survive the body, but that it dies with the body. We have seen +that it is distinguishable from the body, does not draw its life +from the body, but imparts life to it; how then conclude that it +dies with it? We have not a particle of proof, and not a single +fact from which we can logically infer that it does so die. What +right then has any one to say that it does? The laboring oar is +in the hands of those who assert that the soul dies with the +body, and it is for them to prove what they assert, not for us to +disprove it. +{631} +The real affirmative in the case is not made by those who assert +the immortality of the soul, but by those who assert its +mortality. The very term _immortal_ is negative, and simply +denies mortality. Life is always presumptive of the continuance +of life, and the continuance of the life of the soul must be +presumed in the absence of all proofs of its death. + +We have seen that the immateriality, unity, and simplicity of the +soul prove that it does not necessarily die with the body, but +that it _may_ survive it. The fact that God has written his +promise of a future life in the very nature and destiny of the +soul, is for us a sufficient proof that the soul does not die +with the body. That God is, and is the first and final cause of +all existences, is a truth of science as well as of revelation. +He has created all things by himself, and for himself. He then +must be their last end, and therefore their supreme good, +according to their several natures. He has created man with a +nature that nothing short of the possession of himself as his +supreme good can satisfy. In so creating man, he promises him in +his nature the realization of this good, that is, the possession +of himself as final cause, unless forfeited and rendered +impossible by man's own fault. To return to God as his supreme +good without being absorbed in him, is man's destiny promised in +his very constitution. But this destiny is not realized nor +realizable in this life, and therefore there must be another life +to fulfil what he promises, for no promise of God, however made, +can fail. This argument we regard as conclusive. + +The resurrection of the flesh, the reunion of the soul and body, +future happiness as a reward of virtue, and the misery of those +who through their own fault fail of their destiny, as a +punishment for sin, etc., are matters of revelation or theology +as distinguished from philosophy, and do not require to be +treated here, any further than to say, if reason has little to +say for them, it has nothing to say against them. They belong to +the mysteries of faith which, though never contrary to reason, +are above it, in an order transcending its domain. + +We have thus far treated spiritualism and materialism from the +point of view of philosophy, not from that of psychology, or of +our faculties. The two doctrines, as they prevail to-day, are +simply psychological doctrines. The partisans of the one say that +the soul has no faculty of knowing any but material objects, and +therefore assert materialism; the partisans of the other say that +the soul has a faculty by which she apprehends immediately +immaterial or spiritual objects or truths, and hence they assert +what goes by the name of spiritualism, which may or may not deny +the existence of matter. Descartes and Cousin assert the +cognition of both spirit and matter, but as independent each of +the other; Collier and Berkeley deny that we have any cognition +of matter, and therefore deny its existence, save in the mind. +The truth, we hold, lies with neither. The soul has no direct +intuition of the immaterial or intelligible. We use +_intuition_ here in the ordinary sense, as an act of the +soul--knowing by looking on, or immediately beholding; that is, +in the sense of intelligible as distinguished from sensible +perceptions--intellection, as some say, as distinguished from +sensation. This empirical intuition, as we call it, is very +distinct from that intuition _a priori_ by which the ideal +formula is affirmed, for that is the act of the divine Being +himself, creating the mind, and becoming himself the light +thereof. +{632} +But that constitutes the mind, and is its object, not its act. No +doubt, the intellectual principles of all reality and of all +science are affirmed in that intuition _a priori_, and hence +these principles are ever present to the soul as the basis of all +intelligible as well as of all sensible experience. Yet they are +asserted by the mind's own act only as sensibly represented, +according to the peripatetic maxim, "Nihil est in intellectu, +quod non prius fuerit in sensu." The mind has three faculties, +sensibility, intellect, and will, but it is itself one, a single +_vis_ or force, and never acts with one faculty alone, +whether it feels, thinks, or wills; and, united as it is in this +life with the body, it never acts as body alone or as spirit +alone. There are then no intellections without sensation, nor +sensations without intellection; purely noetic truth, therefore, +can never be grasped save through a sensible medium. + +We have already explained this with regard to material objects, +in which the substance, though supersensible, has its sensible +sign, through which the mind reaches it. But immaterial or ideal +objects are, as we have seen, precisely those which have no +sensible sign of their own--properties or qualities perceptible +by the senses. For this order of truth the only sensible +representation is language, which is the sensible sign or symbol +of immaterial or ideal truth. We arrive at this order of reality +or truth only through the medium of language which embodies it; +that is to say, only through the medium of tradition, or of a +teacher. So far we accord with the traditionalists. We do not +believe that, if God had left men in the beginning without any +instruction or language in which the ideas are embodied, they +would ever have been able to assert the existence of God, the +immateriality of the soul, and the liberty or free will of +man--the three great ideal truths which the Holy See requires us +to maintain can be _proved_ with certainty by reason; and we +do not hold that, like the revealed mysteries, they are +suprarational truth, and to be taken only on the authority of a +supernatural revelation. If God had not infused the knowledge of +them into the first of the race along with language, which he +also infused into Adam, we should never by our reason and +instincts alone have found them out, or distinctly apprehended +them; but being taught them, or finding them expressed in +language, we are able to verify or prove them with certainty by +our natural reason, in which respect we accord with those whom +the traditionalists call rationalists. + +We have studiously avoided, as far as possible, the metaphysics +of the subject we have been considering, and perhaps have, in +consequence, kept too near its surface; but we think we have +established our main point, that neither spiritualism nor +materialism, taken exclusively, is philosophically defensible. We +are able to distinguish between spirit and matter, but we can +deny the existence or the activity, according to its own nature, +of neither. We know matter by its sensible properties or +qualities, We know spirit only as sensibly represented by +language. Let language be corrupted, and our knowledge of ideal +or non-sensible truth, or philosophy, will also be corrupted, +mutilated, or perverted. This will be still more the case with +the superintelligible truth supernaturally revealed, which is +apprehensible only through the medium of language. Hence, St. +Paul is careful to admonish St. Timothy to hold fast "the form of +sound words," and hence, too, the necessity, if God makes us a +revelation of spiritual things, that he should provide an +infallible living teacher to preserve the infallibility of the +language in which it is made. +{633} +We may see here, too, the reason why the infallible church is +hardly less necessary to the philosopher than to the theologian. +Where faith and theology are preserved in their purity and +integrity, philosophy will not be able to stray far from the +truth, and where philosophy is sound, the sciences will not long +be unsound. The aberrations of philosophy are due almost solely +to the neglect of philosophers to study it in its relation with +the dogmatic teaching of the church. + +Some of our dear and revered friends in France and elsewhere are +seeking, as the cure for the materialism which is now so +prevalent, to revive the spiritualism of the seventeenth century. +But the materialism they combat is only the reaction of the mind +against that exaggerated spiritualism which they would revive. +Where there are two real forces, each equally evident and equally +indestructible, you can only alternate between them, till you +find the term of their synthesis, and are able to reconcile and +harmonize them. The spiritualism defended by Cousin in France has +resulted only in the recrudescence of materialism. The trouble +now is, that matter and spirit are presented in our modern +systems as antagonistic and naturally irreconcilable forces. The +duty of philosophers is not to labor to pit one against the +other, or to give the one the victory over the other; but to save +both, and to find out the middle term which unites them. We know +there must be somewhere that middle term; for both extremes are +creations of God, who makes all things by number, weight, and +measure, and creates always after the logic of his own essential +nature. All his works, then, must be logical and dialectically +harmonious. + +Whether we have indicated this middle term or not, we have +clearly shown, we think, that it is a mistake to suppose the two +terms are not in reality mutually irreconcilable. Nothing proves +that, as creatures of God, each in its own order and place is not +as sacred and necessary as the other. We do not know the nature +or essence of either, nor can we say in what, as to this nature +and essence, the precise difference between them consists; but we +know that in our present life both are united, and that neither +acts without the other. All true philosophy must then present +them not as opposing, but as harmonious and concurring forces. + +We do not for ourselves ever apply the term spiritualism to a +purely intellectual philosophy. We do not regard the words spirit +and soul as precisely synonymous. St. Paul, Heb. iv. 12, says, +"The word of God is living and effectual, ... reaching unto the +division of the soul and the spirit," or, as the Protestant +version has it, "quick and powerful, ... piercing even to the +dividing asunder of soul and spirit." There is evidently, then, +however closely related they may be, a distinction between the +soul and the spirit. Hence there may be soul that is not spirit, +which was generally held by the ancients. The Greeks had their +[Greek text] and [Greek text], and the Latins their _anima_ +and _spiritus_. The term spirit, when applied to man, seems +to us to designate the moral powers rather than the intellectual, +and the moral powers or faculties are those which specially +distinguish man from animals. St. Paul applies the term spiritual +uniformly in a moral sense, and usually, if not always, to men +born again of the Holy Ghost, or the regenerated, and to the +influences and gifts of the Holy Spirit; that is, to designate +the supernatural character, gifts, graces, and virtues of those +who have been translated into the kingdom of God and are +fellow-citizens of the commonwealth of Christ, or the Christian +republic. +{634} +Hence, we shrink from calling any intellectual philosophy +spiritualism. If it touches philosophy, as it undoubtedly +does--since grace supposes nature, and a man must be born into +the natural order before he can be born again into the +supernatural order, or regenerated by the Spirit--it rises into +the region of supernatural sanctity, into which no man by his +natural powers can enter; for it is a sanctity that places one on +the plane of a supernatural destiny. + +But even taken in this higher sense, there is no antagonism +between spirit and matter. There is certainly a struggle, a +warfare that remains through life; but the struggle is not +between the soul and the body; it is, as is said, between the +higher and inferior powers of the soul, between the spirit and +concupiscence, between the law of the mind, which bids us labor +for spiritual good which will last for ever, and the law in the +members, which looks only to the good of the body, in its earthly +relations. The saints, who chastise, mortify, macerate the body +by their fastings, vigils, and scourgings, do not do it on the +principle that the body is evil, or that matter is the source of +evil. There is a total difference in principle between Christian +asceticism and that of the Platonists, who hold that evil +originates in the intractableness of matter, that holds the soul +imprisoned as in a dungeon, and from which it sighs and struggles +for deliverance. The Christian knows that our Lord himself +assumed flesh and retains for ever his glorified body. He +believes in the resurrection of the body and its future +everlasting reunion with the soul. Christ, dying in a material +body, has redeemed both matter and spirit. Hence we venerate the +relics of our Lord and his saints, and believe matter may be +hallowed. In our Lord all opposites are reconciled, and universal +peace is established. + +---------- + + Translated From The German Of + Conrad Von Bolanden. + + Angela. + + Chapter I. + + Crinoline. + +An express train was just on the eve of leaving the railway +station in Munich. Two fashionably dressed gentlemen stood at the +open door of a railway carriage, in conversation with a third, +who sat within. These two young men bore on their features the +marks of youthful dissipation, indicating that they had not been +sparing of pleasures. The one in the carriage had a handsome, +florid countenance, two clear, expressive eyes, and thick locks +of hair, which he now and then stroked back from his fine +forehead. He scarcely observed the conversation of the two +friends, who spoke of balls, dogs, horses, theatres, and +ballet-girls. + +In the same carriage sat another traveller, evidently the father +of the young man. He was reading the newspaper--that is, the +report of the money market--while his fleshy left hand dallied +with the heavy gold rings of his watch-chain. He had paid no +attention to the conversation till an observation of his son +brought him to serious reflection. + +{635} + +"By the by," said one of the young men quickly, "I was nearly +forgetting to tell you the news, Richard! Do you know that Baron +Linden is engaged?" + +"Engaged? To whom?" said Richard carelessly. + +"To Bertha von Harburg. I received a card this morning, and +immediately wrote a famous letter of congratulation." + +Richard looked down earnestly and shook his head. + +"I commiserate the genial baron," said he. "What could he be +thinking of, to rush headlong into this misfortune?" + +The father looked in surprise at his son; the hand holding the +paper sank on his knee. + +"Permit me, gentlemen," said the conductor; the doors were +closed, the friends nodded good-by, and the train moved off. + +"Your observation about Linden's marriage astonishes me, Richard. +But perhaps you were only jesting." + +"By no means," said Richard. "Never more earnest in my life. I +expressed my conviction, and my conviction is the result of +careful observation and mature reflection." + +The father's astonishment increased. + +"Observation--reflection---fudge!" said the father impatiently, +as he folded the paper and shoved it into his pocket. "How can a +young man of twenty-two talk of experience and observation! +Enthusiastic nonsense! Marriage is a necessity of human life. And +you will yet submit to this necessity." + +"True, if marriage be a necessity, then I suppose I must bow to +the yoke of destiny. But, father, this necessity does not exist. +There are intelligent men enough who do not bind themselves to +woman's caprices." + +"Oh! certainly, there are some strange screech-owls in the +worlds--some enthusiasts. But certainly you do not wish to be one +of them. You, who have such great expectations. You, the only son +of a wealthy house. You, who have a yearly income of thousands to +spend." + +"The income can be enjoyed more pleasantly, free and single, +father." + +"Free and single--and enjoyed! Zounds! you almost tempt me to +think ill of you. Happily, I know you well. I know your strict +morality, your solidity, your moderate pretensions. All these +amiable qualities please me. But this view of marriage I did not +expect; you must put away this sickly notion." + +The young man made no answer, but leaned back in his seat with a +disdainful smile. + +Herr Frank gazed thoughtfully through the window. He reflected on +the determined character of his son, whose disposition, even when +a child, shut him out from the world, and who led an interior, +meditative life. Strict regularity and exact employment of time +were natural to him. At school, he held the first place in all +branches. His ambition and effort was to excel all others in +knowledge. His singular questions, which indicated a keen +observation and capacity, had often excited the surprise of his +father. And while the companions of the youth hailed with delight +the time which released them from the benches of the school and +from their studies, Richard cheerfully bound himself to his +accustomed task, to appease his longing for knowledge. +Approaching manhood had not changed him in this regard. +{636} +He was punctual to the hours of business, and labored with zeal +and interest, to the great joy of his father. He recreated +himself with music and painting, or by a walk in the open +country, for whose beauties he had a keen appreciation. The few +shades of his character were, a proud haughtiness, an unyielding +perseverance in his determinations, and a strength of conviction +difficult to overcome. But perhaps these shades were, after all, +great qualities, which were to brighten up and polish his +maturity. This obstinacy the father was now considering, and, in +reference to his singular view of marriage, it filled him with +great anxiety. + +"But, Richard," began Herr Frank again, "how did you come to this +singular conclusion?" + +"By observation and reflection--and also by experience, although +you deny my years this right." + +"What have you experienced and observed?" + +"I have observed woman as she is, and found that such a creature +would only make me miserable. What occupies their minds? +Fineries, pleasures, and trifles. The pivot of their existence +turns on dress, ornaments, balls, and the like. We live in an age +of crinoline, and you know how I abominate that dress; I admit my +aversion is abnormal, perhaps exaggerated, but I cannot overcome +it. When I see a woman going through the streets with swelling +hoops, the most whimsical fancies come into my mind. It reminds +me of an inflated balloon, whose clumsy swell disfigures the most +beautiful form. It reminds me of a drunken gawk, who swaggers +along and carries the foolish gewgaw for a show. The costume is +indeed expressive. It reveals the interior disposition. Crinoline +is to me the type of the woman of our day--an empty, vain, +inflated something. And this type repels me." + +"Then you believe our women to be vain, pleasure-seeking, and +destitute of true womanhood, because they wear crinoline?" + +"No, the reverse. An overweening propensity to show and frivolity +characterizes our women, and therefore they wear crinoline in +spite of the protestations of the men." + +"Bah! Nonsense; you lay too much stress on fashion. I know many +women myself who complain of this fashion." + +"And afterward follow it. This precisely confirms my opinion. +Women have no longer sufficient moral force to disregard a +disagreeable restraint. Their vanity is still stronger than their +inclinations to a natural enjoyment of life." + +"Do you want a wife who would be sparing and saving; who, by her +frugality, would increase your wealth; who, by her social +seclusion, would not molest your cash-box?" + +"No; I want no wife," answered the young man somewhat pettishly. +"And I am not alone in this. The young men are beginning to +awaken. A sound, natural feeling revolts against the vitiated +taste of the women. Alliances are forming everywhere. The last +paper announced that, at Marseilles, six thousand young men have, +with joined hands, vowed never to marry until the women renounce +their ruinous costumes and costly idleness, and return to a plain +style of dress and frugal habits. I object to this propensity to +ease and pleasure--this desire of our women for finery and the +gratification of vanity. Not because this inclination is +expensive, but because it is objectionable. Every creature has an +object. But, if we consider the women of our day, we might well +ask, for what are they here?" + +{637} + +"For what are women here, foolish man?" interrupted Herr Frank. +"Are they to go about without any costume, like Eve before the +fall? Are they to know the trials of life, and not its joys? Are +they to exist like the women of the sultan, shut up in a harem? +For what are they here? I will tell you. They are here to make +life cheerful. Does not Schiller say, + + "'Honor to woman! she scatters rife + Heavenly roses,'mid earthly life; + Love she weaves in gladdening bands; + Chastity's veil her charm attires; + Beautiful thoughts' eternal fires, + Watchful, she feeds with holy hands.'" + +Richard smiled. + +"Poetical fancy!" said he. "My unhappy friend Emil Schlagbein +often declaimed and sang with passion that same poem of +Schiller's. Love had even made a poet of him. He wrote verses to +his Ida. And now, scarcely three years married, he is the most +miserable man in the world--miserable through his wife. Ida has +still the same finely carved head as formerly; but that head, to +the grief of Emil, is full of stubbornness--full of whimsical +nonsense. Her eyes have still the same deep blue; but the +charming expression has changed, and the blue not unfrequently +indicates a storm. How often has Emil poured out his sorrows to +me! How often complained of the coldness of his wife! A ball +missed--missed from necessity--makes her stupid and sulky for +days. In vain he seeks a cheerful look. When he returns home +worried by the cares of business, he finds no consolation in +Ida's sympathy, but is vexed by her stubbornness and offended by +her coldness. Emil sprang headlong into misery. I will beware of +such a step." + +"You are unjust and prejudiced. Must all women, then, be Ida +Schagbeins?" + +"Perhaps my Ida might be still worse," retorted Richard sharply. + +Herr Frank drummed on his knees, always a sign of displeasure. + +"I tell you, Richard," said he emphatically. "Your time will come +yet. You will follow the universal law, and this law will give +the lie to your one-sided view--to your contempt of woman." + +"That impulse, father, can be overcome, and habit becomes a +second nature. Besides--" + +"Besides--well, what besides?" + +"I would say that the time of which you speak is, in my case, +happily passed," answered Richard, still gazing through the +window. "For me the time of sentimental delusion has been short +and decisive," he concluded with a bitter smile. + +"Can I, your father, ask a clearer explanation?" + +The young man leaned back in his seat and looked at the opposite +side while he spoke. + +"Last summer I visited Baden-Baden. On old Mount Eberstein, which +is so picturesquely enthroned above the village, I fell in with a +party. Among the number was a young lady of rare beauty and great +modesty. An acquaintance gave me an opportunity of being +introduced to her. We sat in pleasant conversation under the +black oaks until the approaching twilight compelled us to return +to the town. Isabella--such was the name of the beauty--had made +a deep impression on me. So deep that even the detested crinoline +that encircled her person in large hoops found favor in my sight. +Her manner was in no wise coquettish. She spoke with deliberation +and spirit. Her countenance had always the same expression. Only +when the young people, into whose heads the fiery wine had risen, +gave expression to sharp words, did Isabella look up, and a +displeased expression, as of injured delicacy, passed over her +countenance. +{638} +My presence seemed agreeable to her. My conversation may +have pleased her. As we descended the mountain, we came to a +difficult pass. I offered her my arm, which she took in the same +unchanging, quiet manner which made her so charming in my sight. +I soon discovered my affection for the stranger, and wondered how +it could arise so suddenly and become so impetuous. I was ashamed +at abandoning so quickly my opinion of women. But this feeling +was not strong enough to stifle the incipient passion. My mind +lay captive in the fetters of infatuation." + +He paused for a moment. The proud young man seemed to reproach +himself for his conduct, which he considered wanting in manly +independence and clear penetration. + +"On the following day," he continued, "there was to be a +horse-race in the neighborhood. Before we parted, it was arranged +that we would be present at it. I returned to my room in the +hotel, and dreamed waking dreams of Isabella. My friend had told +me that she was the daughter of a wealthy merchant, and that she +had accompanied her invalid mother here. This mark of love and +filial affection was not calculated to cool my ardor. Isabella +appeared more beautiful and more charming still. We went to the +race. I had the unspeakable happiness of being in the same car +and sitting opposite her. After a short journey--to me, at least, +it seemed short--we arrived at the grounds where the race was to +take place. We ascended the platform. I sat at Isabella's side. +She did not for a moment lose her quiet equanimity. The race +began. I saw little of it, for Isabella was constantly before my +eyes, look where I would. Suddenly a noise--a loud cry--roused me +from my dream. Not twenty paces from where we sat, a horse had +fallen. The rider was under him. The floundering animal had +crushed both legs of the unfortunate man. Even now I can see his +frightfully distorted features before me. I feared that +Isabella's delicate sensibility might be wounded by the horrible +sight. And when I looked at her, what did I see? A smiling face! +She had lost her quiet, weary manner, and a hard, unfeeling soul +lighted up her features! + +"'Do you not think this change in the monotony of the race quite +magnificent?' said she. + +"I made no answer. With an apology, I left the party and returned +alone to Baden." + +"Very well," said the father, "your Isabella was an unfeeling +creature granted. But now for your application of this +experience." + +"We will let another make the application, father. Listen a +moment. In Baden a bottle of Rhine wine, whose spirit is so +congenial to sad and melancholy feelings, served to obliterate +the desolate remembrance. I sat in the almost deserted +dining-room. The guests were at the theatre, on excursions in the +neighborhood, or dining about the park. An old man sat opposite +me. I remarked that his eyes, when he thought himself unobserved, +were turned inquiringly on me. The sudden cooling of my passion +had perhaps left some marks upon me. The stranger believed, +perhaps, that I was an unlucky and desperate player. A player I +had indeed been. I had been about to stake my happiness on a +beautiful form. But I had won the game. + +{639} + +"The wine soon cheered me up and I entered into conversation with +the stranger. We spoke of various things, and finally of the +race. As there was a friendly, confiding expression in the old +man's countenance, I related to him the unhappy fall of the +rider, and dwelt sharply on the impression the hideous spectacle +made on Isabella. I told him that such a degree of callousness +and insensibility was new to me, and that this sad experience had +shocked me greatly. + +"'This comes,' said he, 'from permitting yourself to be deceived +by appearances, and because you do not know certain classes of +society. If you consider the beautiful Isabella with sensual +eyes, you will run great danger of taking appearances for +truth--the false for the real. Even the plainest exterior is +often only sham. Painted cheeks, colored eyebrows, false hair, +false teeth; and even if these forms were not false, but true--if +you penetrate these forms, if, under the constraint of graceful +repose, we see modesty, purity, and even humility--there is then +still greater danger of deception. A wearied, enervated nature, +nerves blunted by the enjoyment of all kinds of pleasures, are +frequently all that remains of womanly nature. + +"'Do you wish to see striking examples of this? Go into the +gaming saloons--into those horrible places where fearful and +consuming passions seethe; where desperation and suicide lurk. Go +into the corrupt, poisonous atmosphere of those gambling hells, +and there you will find women every day and every hour. Whence +this disgusting sight? The violent excitement of gambling alone +can afford sufficient attraction for those who have been sated +with all kinds of pleasures. Is a criminal to be executed? I give +you my word of honor that women give thousands of francs to +obtain the best place, where they can contemplate more +conveniently the shocking spectacle and read every expression in +the distorted features of the struggling malefactor. + +"'Isabella was one of these exhausted, enervated creatures, and +hence her pleasure at the sight of the mangled rider.' + +"Thus spoke the stranger, and I admitted that he was right. At +the same time I tried to penetrate deeper into this want of +sensibility. Like a venturesome miner, I descended into the +psychological depth. I shuddered at what I there discovered, and +at the inferences which Isabella's conduct forced upon my mind. +No, father, no," said he impetuously, "I will have no such +nuptials--I will never rush into the miseries of matrimony!" + +"Thunder and lightning! are you a man?" cried Herr Frank. +"Because Emil's wife and Isabella are good-for-nothings, must the +whole sex be repudiated? Both cases are exceptions. These +exceptions give you no right to judge unfavorably of all women. +This prejudice does no honor to your good sense, Richard. It is +only eccentricity can judge thus." + +The train stopped. The travellers went out, where a carriage +awaited them. + +"Is everything right?" said Herr Frank to the driver. + +"All is fixed, sir, as you required." + +"Is the box of books taken out?" + +"Yes, sir." + +The coach moved up the street. The dark mountain-side rose into +view, and narrow, deep valleys yawned beneath the travellers. +Fresh currents of air rushed down the mountain and Herr Frank +inhaled refreshing draughts. + +Richard gazed thoughtfully over the magnificent vineyards and +luxurient orchards. + +{640} + +The road grew steeper and the wooded summit of the mountain +approached. A light which Frank beheld with satisfaction glared +out from it. Its rays shot out upon the town that, amid rich +vineyards, topped the neighboring hill. + +"Our residence is beautifully located," said Herr Frank. "How +cheerful it looks up there! It is a home fit for princes." + +"You have indeed chosen a magnificent spot, father. Everything +unites to make Frankenhöhe a delightful place. The vineyards on +the slopes of the hills, the smiling hamlet of Salingen to the +right. In the background the stern mountain with its proud ruins +on the summit of Salburg, the deep valleys and the dark ravines, +all unite in the landscape: to the east that beautiful plain." + +These words pleased the father. His eyes rested long on the +beautiful property. + +"You have forgotten a reason for my happy choice," said he, while +a smile played on his features. "I mean the habit of my friend +and deliverer, who, for the last eight years, spends the month of +May at Frankenhöhe. You know the singular character of the +doctor. Nothing in the world can tear him from his books. He has +renounced all pleasure and enjoyment, to devote his whole time to +his books. When Frankenhöhe entices and captivates the man of +science, so strict, so dead to the world, it is, as I think, the +highest compliment to our place." + +Richard did not question his father's opinion. He knew his +unbounded esteem for the learned doctor. + +The road grew steeper and steeper. The horses labored slowly +along. The pleasant hamlet of Salingen lay a short distance to +the left. A single house, separated from the village, and +standing near the road in the midst of vineyards, came into view. +The features of Herr Frank darkened as he turned his gaze from +Frankenhöhe to this house. It was as though some unpleasant +recollection was associated with it. Richard looked at the +stately mansion, the large out-houses, the walled courts, neat +and clean. + +"This must be a wealthy proprietor or influential landlord who +lives here," said Richard. "I have indeed seen this place in +former years, but it did not interest me. How inviting and +pleasant it looks. The property must have undergone considerable +change at least, I remember nothing that indicated the place to +be other than an ordinary farmhouse." + +Herr Frank did not hear these observations. He muttered some +bitter imprecation. The coach gained the summit, left the road, +and passed through vineyards and chestnut groves to the house. + +Frankenhöhe was a handsome two-story house whose arrangements +corresponded to Frank's taste and means. Near it stood another, +occupied by the steward. A short distance from it were stables +and out-houses for purposes of agriculture. + +Herr Frank went directly to the house, and passed from room to +room to see if his instructions had been carried out. + +Richard went into the garden and walked on paths covered with +yellow sand. He strolled about among flower-beds that loaded the +air with agreeable odors. He examined the blooming dwarf +fruit-trees and ornamental plants. He observed the neatness and +exact order of everything. Lastly, he stood near the vineyard +whence he could behold an extensive view. +{641} +He admired the beautiful, fragrant landscape. He stood +thoughtfully reflecting. His conversation made it evident to him +that his feelings and will did not agree with his father's +wishes. He saw that between his inclinations and his love for his +father he must undergo a severe struggle--a struggle that must +decide his happiness for life. The strangeness of his opinion of +women did not escape him. He tested his experience. He tried to +justify his convictions, and yet his father's claims and filial +duty prevailed. + + + Chapter II. + + The Weather-cross. + +The next morning Richard was out with the early larks, and +returned after a few hours in a peculiar frame of mind. As he was +entering his room, he saw through the open door his father +standing in the saloon. Herr Frank was carefully examining the +arrangements, as the servants were carrying books into the +adjoining room and placing them in a bookcase. Richard, as he +passed, greeted his father briefly, contrary to his usual custom. +At other times he used to exchange a few words with his father +when he bid him good-morning, and he let no occasion pass of +giving his opinion on any matter in which he knew his father took +an interest. + +The young man walked to the open window of his room, and gazed +into the distance. He remained motionless for a time. He ran his +fingers through his hair, and with a jerk of the head threw the +brown locks back from his forehead. He walked restlessly back and +forth, and acted like a man who tries in vain to escape from +thoughts that force themselves upon him. At length he went to the +piano, and beat an impetuous impromptu on the keys. + +"Ei, Richard!" cried Herr Frank, whom the wild music had brought +to his side. "Why, you rave! How possessed! One would think you +had discovered a roaring cataract in the mountains, and wished to +imitate its violence." + +Richard glanced quickly at his father, and finished with a +tender, plaintive melody. + +"Come over here and look at the rooms." + +Richard followed his father and examined carelessly the elegant +rooms, and spoke a few cold words of commendation. + +"And what do you say to this flora?" said Herr Frank pointing to +a stepped framework on which bloomed the most beautiful and rare +flowers. + +"All very beautiful, father. The doctor will be much pleased, as +he always is here." + +"I wish and hope so. I have had the peacocks and turkeys sent +away, because Klingenberg cannot endure their noise. The library +here will always be his favorite object, and care has been taken +with it. Here are the best books on all subjects, even theology +and astronomy." + +"Frankenhöhe is indeed cheerful as the heart of youth and quiet +as a cloister," said Richard. "Your friend would indeed be +ungrateful if this attention did not gratify him." + +"I have also provided that excellent wine which he loves and +enjoys as a healthful medicine. But, Richard, you know +Klingenberg's peculiarities. You must not play as you did just +now; you would drive the doctor from the house." + +"Make yourself easy about that, father; I will play while he is +on the mountain." + +{642} + +Richard took a book from the shelf, and glanced over it. Herr +Frank left him, and he immediately replaced the book and returned +to his own room. There he wrote in his diary: + + "12th of May.--Man is too apt to be led by his inclination. And + what is inclination? A feeling caused by external impressions, + or superinduced by a disposition of the body. Inclination, + therefore, is something inimical to intellectual life. A vine + that threatens to overgrow and smother clear conviction. Never + act from inclination, if you do not wish to be unfaithful to + conviction and guilty of a weakness." + +He went into the garden, where he talked to the gardener about +trees and flowers. + +"Are you acquainted in Salingen, John?" + +"Certainly, sir. I was born there." + +"Do strangers sometimes come there to stop and enjoy the +beautiful neighborhood?" + +"Oh! no, sir; there is no suitable hotel there--only plain +taverns; and people of quality would not stop at them." + +"Are there people of rank in Salingen?" + +"Only farmers, sir. But---stay. The rich Siegwart appears to be +such, and his children are brought up in that manner." + +"Has Siegwart many children?" + +"Four--two boys and two girls. One son is at college. The other +takes care of the estate, and is at home. The oldest daughter has +been at the convent for three years. She is now nineteen years +old. The second is still a child." + +Richard went further into the garden; he looked over at Salingen, +and then at the mountains. His eye followed a path that went +winding up the mountain like a golden thread and led to the top. +Then his eye rested for a time on a particular spot in that +yellow path. Richard remained taciturn and reserved the rest of +the day. He sat in his room and tried to read, but the subject +did not interest him. He often looked dreamily from the book. He +finally arose, took his hat and cane, and was soon lost in the +mountain. The next morning Richard went to the borders of the +forest, and looked frequently over at Salingen as it lay in rural +serenity before him. The pleasant hamlet excited his interest. He +then turned to the right and pursued the yellow path which he had +examined the day before, up the mountain. The birds sang in the +bushes, and on the branches of the tallest oak perched the +black-bird whose morning hymn echoed far and wide. The sweet +notes of the nightingale joined in the general concert, and the +shrill piping of the hawk struck in discordantly with the varied +and beautiful song. Even unconscious nature displayed her +beauties. The dew hung in great drops on the grass-blades and +glittered like so many brilliants, and wild flowers loaded the +air with sweet perfumes. Richard saw little of these beauties of +spring. He ascended still higher. His mind seemed agitated and +burdened. He had just turned a bend in the road when he saw a +female figure approaching. His cheeks grew darker as his eyes +rested on the approaching figure. He gazed in the distance, and a +disdainful flush overspread his face. He approached her as he +would approach an enemy whose power he had felt, and whom he +wished to conciliate. + +She was within fifty paces of him. Her blue dress fell in heavy +folds about her person. The ribbons of her straw bonnet, that +hung on her arm, fluttered in the breeze. In her left hand she +held a bunch of flowers. On her right arm hung a silk mantle, +which the mild air had rendered unnecessary. +{643} +Her full, glossy hair was partly in a silk net and partly plaited +over the forehead and around the head, as is sometimes seen with +children. Her countenance was exquisitely beautiful, and her +light eyes now rested full and clear on the stranger who +approached her. She looked at him with the easy, natural +inquisitiveness of a child, surprised to meet such an elegant +gentleman in this place. + +Frank looked furtively at her, as though he feared the +fascinating power of the vision that so lightly and gracefully +passed him. He raised his hat stiffly and formally. This was +necessary to meet the requirement of etiquette. Were it not, he +would perhaps have passed her by without a salutation. She did +not return his greeting with a stiff bow, but with a friendly +"good-morning;" and this too in a voice whose sweetness, purity, +and melody harmonized with the the beautiful echoes of the +morning. + +Frank moved on hastily for some distance. He was about to look +back, but did not do so; and continued on his way, with +contracted brows, till a turn in the road hid her from his view. +Here he stopped and wiped the sweat from his forehead, His heart +beat quickly, and he was agitated by strong emotions. He stood +leaning on his cane and gazing into the shadows of the forest. He +then continued thoughtfully, and ascended some hundred feet +higher till he gained the top of the mountain. The tall trees +ceased; a variegated copsewood crowned the summit, which formed a +kind of platform. Human hands had levelled the ground, and on the +moss that covered it grew modest little violets. Near the border +of the platform stood a stone cross of rough material. Near this +cross lay the fragments of another large rock, that might have +been shattered by lightning years before. A few steps back of +this, on two square blocks of stone, stood a statue of the Virgin +and Child, of white stone very carefully wrought, but without +much art. The Virgin had a crown of roses on her head. The Child +held a little bunch of forget-me-nots in its hand, and as it held +them out seemed to say, "Forget me not," Two heavy vases that +could not be easily overturned by the wind, standing on the upper +block, also contained flowers. All these flowers were quite +fresh, as if they had just been placed there. + +Richard examined these things, and wondered what they meant in +this solitude of the mountain. The fresh flowers and the +cleanliness of the statue, on which no dust or moss could be +seen, indicated a careful keeper. He thought of the young woman +whom he met. He had seen the same kind of flowers in her hand, +and doubtless she was the devotee of the place. + +Scarcely had his thoughts taken this direction when he turned +away and walked to the border of the plot, and gazed at the +country before him. He looked down toward Frankenhöhe, whose +white chimneys appeared above the chestnut grove. He contemplated +the plains with their luxuriant fields reflecting every shade of +green--the strips of forests that lay like shadows in the sunny +plain--numberless hamlets with church towers whose gilded +crosses gleamed in the sun. He gazed in the distance where the +mountain ranges vanished in the mist, and long he enjoyed the +magnificence of the view. He was aroused from his dreamy +contemplation by the sound of footsteps behind him. + +{644} + +An old man with a load of wood on his shoulders came up to the +place. Breathing heavily, he threw down the wood and wiped the +sweat from his face. He saw the stranger, and respectfully +touched his cap as he sat down on the wood. + +Frank went to him. + +"You are from Salingen, I suppose," he began + +"Yes, sir." + +"It is very hard for an old man like you to carry such a load so +far." + +"It is indeed, but I am poor and must do it." + +Frank looked at the patched clothes of the old man, his coarse +shoes, his stockingless feet, and meagre body, and felt +compassion for him. + +"For us poor people the earth bears but thistles and thorns." +After a pause, the old man continued, "We have to undergo many +tribulations and difficulties, and sometimes we even suffer from +hunger. But thus it is in the world. The good God will reward us +in the next world for our sufferings in this." + +These words sounded strangely to Richard. Raised as he was in the +midst of wealth, and without contact with poverty, he had never +found occasion to consider the lot of the poor; and now the +resignation of the old man, and his hope in the future, seemed +strange to him. He was astonished that religion could have such +power--so great and strong--to comfort the poor in the miseries +of a hopeless, comfortless life. + +"But what if your hope in another world deceive you?" + +The old man looked at him with astonishment. + +"How can I be deceived? God is faithful. He keeps his promises." + +"And what has he promised you?" + +"Eternal happiness if I persevere, patient and just, to the end." + +"I wonder at your strong faith!" + +"It is my sole possession on earth. What would support us poor +people, what would keep us from despair, if religion did not?" + +Frank put his hand into his pocket. + +"Here," said he, "perhaps this money will relieve your wants." + +The old man looked at the bright thalers in his hand, and the +tears trickled down his cheeks. + +"This is too much, sir; I cannot receive six thalers from you." + +"That is but a trifle for me; put it in your pocket, and say no +more about it." + +"May God reward and bless you a thousand times for it!" + +"What does that cross indicate?" + +"That is a weather cross, sir. We have a great deal of bad +weather to fear. We have frequent storms here, in summer; they +hang over the mountain and rage terribly. Every ravine becomes a +torrent that dashes over the fields, hurling rocks and sand from +the mountain. Our fields are desolated and destroyed. The people +of Salingen placed that cross there against the weather. In +spring the whole community come here in procession and pray God +to protect them from the storms." + +Richard reflected on this phenomenon; the confidence of these +simple people in the protection of God, whose omnipotence must +intervene between the remorseless elements and their victims, +appeared to him as the highest degree of simplicity. But he kept +his thoughts to himself, for he respected the religious +sentiments of the old man, and would not hurt his feelings. + +"And the Virgin, why is she there?" + +"Ah! that is a wonderful story, sir," he answered, apparently +wishing to evade an explanation. + +"Which every one ought not to know?" + +"Well--but perhaps the gentleman would laugh, and I would not +like that!" + +{645} + +"Why do you think I would laugh at the story?" + +"Because you are a gentleman of quality, and from the city, and +such people do not believe any more in miracles." + +This observation of rustic sincerity was not pleasing to Frank. +It expressed the opinion that the higher classes ignore faith in +the supernatural. + +"If I promise you not to laugh, will you tell me the story?" + +"I will; you were kind to me, and you can ask the story of me. +About thirty years ago," began the old man after a pause, "there +lived a wealthy farmer at Salingen whose name was Schenck. +Schenck was young. He married a rich maiden and thereby increased +his property. But Schenck had many great faults. He did not like +to work and look after his fields. He let his servants do as they +pleased, and his fields were, of course, badly worked and yielded +no more than half a crop. Schenck sat always in the tavern, where +he drank and played cards and dice. Almost every night he came +home drunk. Then he would quarrel with his wife, who reproached +him. He abused her, swore wickedly, and knocked everything about +the room, and behaved very badly altogether. Schenck sank lower +and lower, and became at last a great sot. His property was soon +squandered. He sold one piece after another, and when he had no +more property to sell, he took it into his head to sell himself +to the devil for money. He went one night to a cross-road and +called the devil, but the devil would not come; perhaps because +Schenck belonged to him already, for the Scripture says, 'A +drunkard cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.' At last a suit was +brought against him, and the last of his property was sold, and +he was driven from his home. This hurt Schenck very much, for he +always had a certain kind of pride. He thought of the past times +when he was rich and respected, and now he had lost all respect +with his neighbors. He thought of his wife and his four children, +whom he had made poor and miserable. All this drove him to +despair. He determined to put an end to himself. He bought a rope +and came up here one morning to hang himself. He tied the rope to +an arm of the cross, and had his head in the noose, when all at +once he remembered that he had not yet said his three "Hail! +Marys." His mother who was dead had accustomed him, when a child, +to say every day three "Hail! Marys." Schenck had never neglected +this practice for a single day. Then he took his head out of the +noose and said, 'Well, as I have said the "Hail! Marys" every +day, I will say them also to-day, for the last time.' He knelt +down before the cross and prayed. When he was done, he stood up +to hang himself. But he had scarcely stood on his feet when he +was snatched up by a whirlwind and carried through the air till +he was over a vineyard, where he fell without hurting himself. As +he stood up, an ugly man stood before him and said, 'This time +you have escaped me, but the next time I will get you.' The ugly +man had horses' hoofs in place of feet, and wore green clothes. +He disappeared before Schenck's eyes. Schenck swears that this +ugly man was the devil. He declares also that he has to thank the +Mother of God, through whose intercession he escaped the claws of +the devil. Schenck had that statue placed there in memory of his +wonderful escape--and that is why the Mother of God is there." + +{646} + +"A wonderful story indeed!" said Richard. "Although I do not +laugh at it, as you see, yet I must assure you that I do not +believe the story." + +"I thought so," answered the old man. "But you can ask Schenck +himself. He is still living, and is now seventy. Since that day +he has changed entirely. He drinks nothing but water. He never +enters a tavern, but goes every day to church. From that time to +this Schenck has been very industrious, and has saved a nice +property." + +"That the drunkard reformed is the most remarkable and best part +of the story," said Frank. "Drunkards very seldom reform. But," +continued he smiling, "the devil acted very stupidly in the +affair. He should have known that his appearance would have made +a deep impression on the man, and that he would not let himself +be caught a second time." + +"That is true," said the old man. "But I believe the devil was +forced to appear and speak so." + +"Forced? By whom?" + +"By Him before whom the devils must believe and tremble. Schenck +was to understand that God delivered him on account of his pious +custom, and the devil had to tell him that this would not happen +a second time." + +"How prudent you are in your superstition!" said Frank. + +"As the gentleman has been kind to me, it hurts me to hear him +speak so." + +"Now," said Richard quickly, "I would not hurt your feelings. One +may be a good Christian without believing fables. And the flowers +near the statue. Has Schenck placed them there too?" + +"Oh! no--the Angel did that." + +"The Angel. Who is that?" said Frank, surprised. + +"The Angel of Salingen--Siegwart's angel." + +"Ah! angel is Angela, is it not?" + +"So she may be called. In Salingen they call her only Angel. And +she is indeed as lovely, good, and beautiful as an angel. She has +a heart for the poor, and she gives with an open hand and a +smiling face that does one good. She is like her father, who +gives me as many potatoes as I want, and seed for my little patch +of ground." + +"Why does Angela decorate this statue?" + +"I do not know; perhaps she does it through devotion." + +"The flowers are quite fresh; does she come here every day?" + +"Every day during the month of May, and no longer." + +"Why no longer?" + +"I do not know the reason; she has done so for the last two +years, since she came home from the convent, and she will do so +this year." + +"As Siegwart is so good to the poor, he must be rich." + +"Very rich--you can see from his house. Do you see that fine +building there next to the road? That is the residence of Herr +Siegwart." + +It was the same building that had arrested Richard's attention as +he passed it some days before, and the sight of which had excited +the ill-humor of his father. Richard returned by a shorter way to +Frankenhöhe. He was serious and meditative. Arrived at home, he +wrote in his diary: + + "May 13th.--Well, I have seen her. She exhibits herself as the + 'Angel of Salingen.' She is extremely beautiful. She is full of + amiability and purity of character. And to-day she did not wear + that detestable crinoline. But she will have other foibles in + place of it. She will, in some things at least, yield to the + superficial tendencies of her sex. Isabella was an ideal, until + she descended from the height where my imagination, deceived by + her charms, had placed her. The impression which Angela's + appearance produced has rests on the same + foundation--deception. A better acquaintance will soon discover + this. Curious! I long to become better acquainted! + +{647} + + "Religion is not a disease or hallucination, as many think. It + is a power. Religion teaches the poor to bear their hard lot + with patience. It comforts and keeps them from despair. It + directs their attention to an eternal reward, and this hope + compensates them for all the afflictions and miseries of this + life. Without religion, human society would fall to pieces." + +A servant entered, and announced dinner. + +"Ah Richard!" said Herr Frank good-humoredly. "Half an hour late +for dinner, and had to be called! That is strange; I do not +remember such a thing to have happened before. You are always as +punctual as a repeater." + +"I was in the mountain and had just returned." + +"No excuse, my son. I am glad the neighborhood diverts you, and +that you depart a little from your regularity. Now everything is +in good order, as I desired, for my friend and deliverer. I have +just received a letter from him. He will be here in two days. I +shall be glad to see the good man again. If Frankenhöhe will only +please him for a long time!" + +"I have no doubt of that," said Richard. "The doctor will be +received like a friend, treated like a king, and will live here +like Adam and Eve in paradise." + +"Everything will go on as formerly. I will be coming and going on +account of business. You will, of course, remain uninterruptedly +at Frankenhöhe. You are high in the doctor's esteem. You interest +him very much. It is true you annoy him sometimes with your +unlearned objections and bold assertions. But I have observed +that even vexation, when it comes from you, is not disagreeable +to him." + +"But the poor should not annoy him with their sick," said +Richard. "He never denies his services to the poor, as he never +grants them to the rich. Indeed, I have sometimes observed that +he tears himself from his books with the greatest reluctance, and +it is not without an effort that he does it." + +"But we cannot change it," said Herr Frank; "we cannot send the +poor away without deeply offending Klingenberg. But I esteem him +the more for his generosity." + +After dinner the father and son went into the garden and talked +of various matters; suddenly Richard stopped and pointing over to +Salingen, said, + +"I passed to-day that neat building that stands near the road. +Who lives there?" + +"There lives the noble and lordly Herr Siegwart," said Herr Frank +derisively. + +His tone surprised Richard. He was not accustomed to hear his +father speak thus. + +"Is Siegwart a noble?" + +"Not in the strict sense. But he is the ruler of Salingen. He +rules in that town as absolutely as princes formerly did in their +kingdoms." + +"What is the cause of his influence?" + +"His wealth, in the first place; secondly, his charity; and +lastly, his cunning." + +"You are not favorable to him?" + +"No, indeed! The Siegwart family is excessively ultramontane and +clerical. You know I cannot endure these narrow prejudices and +this obstinate adherence to any form of religion. Besides, I have +a particular reason for disagreement with Siegwart, of which I +need not now speak." + +{648} + +"Excessively ultramontane and clerical!" thought Richard, as he +went to his room. "Angela is undoubtedly educated in this spirit. +Stultifying confessionalism and religious narrow-mindedness have +no doubt cast a deep shadow over the 'angel.' Now--patience; the +deception will soon banish." + +He took up Schlosser's History, and read a long time. But his +eyes wandered from the page, and his thoughts soon followed. + +The next morning at the same hour Richard went to the weather +cross. He took the same road and again he met Angela; she had the +same blue dress, the same straw hat on her arm, and flowers in +her hand. She beheld him with the same clear eyes, with the same +unconstrained manner--only, as he thought, more charming--as on +the first day. He greeted her coolly and formally, as before. She +thanked him with the same affability. Again the temptation came +over him to look back at her; again he overcame it. When he came +to the statue, he found fresh flowers in the vases. The child +Jesus had fresh forget-me-nots in his hand, and the Mother had a +crown of fresh roses on her head. On the upper stone lay a book, +bound in blue satin and clasped with a silver clasp. When he took +it up, he found beneath it a rosary made of an unknown material, +and having a gold cross fastened at the end. He opened the book. +The passage that had been last read was marked with a silk +ribbon. It was as follows: + + "My son, trust not thy present affection; it will be quickly + changed into another. As long as thou livest thou art subject + to change, even against thy will; so as to be sometimes joyful, + at other times sad; now easy, now troubled; at one time devout, + at another dry; sometimes fervent, at other times sluggish; one + day heavy, another day lighter. But he that is wise and well + instructed in spirit stands above all these changes, not + minding what he feels in himself, nor on what side the wind of + instability blows; but that the whole bent of his soul may + advance toward its due and wished-for end; for thus he may + continue one and the self-same without being shaken, by + directing without ceasing, through all this variety of events, + the single eye of his intention toward me. And by how much more + pure the eye of the intention is, with so much greater + constancy mayest thou pass through these divers storms. + + "But in many the eye of pure intention is dark; for men quickly + look toward something delightful that comes in their way. And + it is rare to find one who is wholly free from all blemish of + self-seeking." + +Frank remembered having written about the same thoughts in his +diary. But here they were conceived in another and deeper sense. + +He read the title of the book. It was _The Following of +Christ_. + +He copied the title in his pocketbook. He then with a smile +examined the rosary, for he was not without prejudice against +this kind of prayer. + +He had no doubt Angela had left these things here, and he thought +it would be proper to return them to the owner. He came slowly +down the mountain reading the book. It was clear to him that +_The Following of Christ_ was a book full of very earnest +and profound reflections. And he wondered how so young a woman +could take any interest in such serious reading. He was convinced +that all the ladies he knew would throw such a book aside with a +sneer, because its contents condemned their lives and habits. +Angela, then, must be of a different character from all the +ladies he knew, and he was very desirous of knowing better this +character of Angela. + +In a short time he entered the gate and passed through the yard +to the stately building where Herr Siegwart dwelt. He glanced +hastily at the long out-buildings--the large barns; at the +polished cleanliness of the paved court, the perfect order of +everything, and finally at the ornamented mansion. +{649} +Then he looked at the old lindens that stood near the house, +whose trunks were protected from injury by iron railings. In the +tops of these trees lodged a lively family of sparrows, who were +at present in hot contention, for they quarrelled and cried as +loud and as long as did formerly the lords in the parliament of +Frankfort. The beautiful garden, separated from the yard by a low +wall covered with white boards, did not escape him. Frank +entered, upon a broad and very clean path; as his feet touched +the stone slabs, he heard, through the open door, a low growl, +and then a man's voice saying, "Quiet, Hector." + +Frank walked through the open door into a large room handsomely +furnished, and odoriferous with a multitude of flowers in vases. +A man in the prime of life sat on the sofa reading and smoking. +He wore a light-brown overcoat, brown trousers, and low, thick +boots. He had a fresh, florid complexion, red beard, blue eyes, +and an expressive, agreeable countenance. When Frank entered he +arose, laid aside the paper and cigar, and approached the +visitor. + +"I found these things on the mountain near the weather-cross." +said Frank, after a more formal than affable bow. "As your +daughter met me, I presume they belong to her. I thought it my +duty to return them." + +"These things certainly belong to my daughter," answered Herr +Siegwart. "You are very kind, sir. You have placed us under +obligations to you." + +"I was passing this way," said Frank briefly. + +"And whom have we the honor to thank?" + +"I am Richard Frank." + +Herr Siegwart bowed. Frank noticed a slight embarrassment in his +countenance. He remembered the expressions his father had used in +reference to the Siegwart family, and it was clear to him that a +reciprocal ill feeling existed here. Siegwart soon resumed his +friendly manner, and invited him with much formality to the sofa. +Richard felt that he must accept the invitation at least for a +few moments. Siegwart sat on a chair in front of him, and they +talked of various unimportant matters. Frank admired the skill +which enabled him to conduct, without interruption, so pleasant a +conversation with a stranger. + +While they were speaking, some house-swallows flew into the room. +They fluttered about without fear, sat on the open door, and +joined their cheerful twittering with the conversation of the +men. Richard expressed his admiration, and said he had never seen +anything like it. + +"Our constant guests in summer," answered Siegwart. "They build +their nests in the hall, and as they rise earlier than we do, an +opening is left for them above the hall door, where they can go +in and out undisturbed when the doors are closed. Angela is in +their confidence, and on the best of terms with them. When rainy +or cold days come during breeding time they suffer from want of +food. Angela is then their procurator. I have often admired +Angela's friendly intercourse with the swallows, who perch upon +her shoulders and hands." + +Richard looked indeed at the twittering swallows, but their +friend Angela passed before his eyes, so beautiful indeed that he +no longer heard what Siegwart was saying. + +He arose; Siegwart accompanied him. As they passed through the +yard, Frank observed the long row of stalls, and said, "You must +have considerable stock?" + +{650} + +"Yes, somewhat. If you would like to see the property, I will +show you around with pleasure." + +"I regret that I cannot now avail myself of your kindness; I +shall do so in a few days," answered Frank. + +"Herr Frank," said Siegwart, "may the accident which has given us +the pleasure of your agreeable visit, be the occasion of many +visits in future. I know that as usual you will spend the month +of May at Frankenhöhe. We are neighbors--this title, in my +opinion, should indicate a friendly intercourse." + +"Let it be understood, Herr Siegwart; I accept with pleasure your +invitation." + +On the way to Frankenhöhe Richard walked very slowly, and gazed +into the distance before him. He thought of the swallows that +perched on Angela's shoulders and hands. Their sweet notes still +echoed in his soul. + +The country-like quiet of Siegwart's house and the sweet peace +that pervaded it were something new to him. He thought of the +simple character of Siegwart, who, as his father said, was +"ultramontane and clerical," and whom he had represented to +himself as a dark, reserved man. He found nothing in the open, +natural manner of the man to correspond with his preconceived +opinion of him. Richard concluded that either Herr Siegwart was +not an ultramontane, or the characteristics of the ultramontanes, +as portrayed in the free-thinking newspapers of the day, were +erroneous and false. + +Buried in such thoughts, he reached Frankenhöhe. As he passed +through the yard, he did not observe the carriage that stood +there. But as he passed under the window, he heard a loud voice, +and some books were thrown from the window and fell at his feet. +He looked down in surprise at the books, whose beautiful binding +was covered with sand. He now observed the coach, and smiled. + +"Ah! the doctor is here," said he. "He has thrown these unwelcome +guests out of the window. Just like him." + +He took up the books and read the titles, _Vogt's Pictures from +Animal Life, Vogt's Physiological Letters, Colbe's Sensualism._ + +He took the books to his room and began to read them. Herr Frank, +with his joyful countenance, soon appeared. + +"Klingenberg is here!" said he. + +"I suspected as much already," said Richard. "I passed by just as +he threw the books out of the window with his usual impetuosity." + +"Do not let him see the books; the sight of them sets him wild." + +"Klingenberg walks only in his own room. I wish to read these +books; what enrages him with innocent paper?" + +"I scarcely know, myself. He examined the library and was much +pleased with some of the works. But suddenly he tore these books +from their place and hurled them through the window." + +"'I tolerate no bad company among these noble geniuses,' said he, +pointing to the learned works. + +"'Pardon me, honored friend,' said I, 'if, without my knowledge, +some bad books were included. What kind of writings are these, +doctor?" + +"'Stupid materialistic trash,' said he.' If I had Vogt, +Moleschott, Colbe, and Büchner here, I would throw them body and +bones out of the window.' + +"I was very much surprised at this declaration, so contrary to +the doctor's kind disposition.'What kind of people are those you +have named?' said I. + +{651} + +"'No people, my dear Frank,' said he.' They are animals, This +Vogt and his fellows have excluded themselves from the pale of +humanity, inasmuch as they have declared apes, oxen, and asses to +be their equals.'" + +"I am now very desirous to know these books," said Richard. + +"Well, do not let our friend know your intention," urged Frank. + +Richard dressed and went to greet the singular guest. He was +sitting before a large folio. He arose at Richard's entrance and +paternally reached him both hands. + +Doctor Klingenberg was of a compact, strong build. He had +unusually long arms, which he swung back and forth in walking. +His features were sharp, but indicated a modest character. From +beneath his bushy eyebrows there glistened two small eyes that +did not give an agreeable expression to his countenance. This +unfavorable expression was, however, only the shell of a warm +heart. + +The doctor was good-natured--hard on himself, but mild in his +judgments of others. He had an insatiable desire for knowledge, +and it impelled him to severe studies that robbed him of his hair +and made him prematurely bald. + +"How healthy you look, Richard!" said he, contemplating the young +man. "I am glad to see you have not been spoiled by the seething +atmosphere of modern city life." + +"You know, doctor, I have a natural antipathy to all swamps and +morasses." + +"That is right, Richard; preserve a healthy naturalness." + +"We expected you this morning." + +"And would go to the station to bring me. Why this ceremony? I am +here, and I will enjoy for a few weeks the pure, bracing mountain +air. Our arrangements will be as formerly--not so, my dear +friend?" + +"I am at your service." + +"You have, of course, discovered some new points that afford fine +views?" + +"If not many, at least one--the weather cross," answered Frank. +"A beautiful position. The hill stands out somewhat from the +range. The whole plain lies before the ravished eyes. At the same +time, there are things connected with _that_ place that are +not without their influence on me. They refer to a custom of the +ultramontanists that clashes with modern ideas; I will have an +opportunity of seeing whether your opinion coincides with mine." + +"Very well; since we have already an object for our next +walk--and this is according to our old plan--tomorrow after +dinner at three o'clock," and saying this he glanced wistfully at +the old folio. Frank, smiling, observed the delicate hint and +retired. + + To Be Continued. + +---------- + +{652} + + Antiquities of New York. + + +It is as true of nations as it is of individuals that they "live +more in the past and the future than in the present;" and when +either are young and have a very limited past, their thoughts +dwell most upon the future. This is one marked difference between +the peoples of the old world and us on this continent. Our past +is so small in comparison with theirs, that antiquarian +societies, so common with them, are quite unknown among us, and +it is not often that we throw our thoughts back. + +Yet in that respect, as in others, we are daily improving, and we +begin, now and then, to find something to think upon in the days +of our forefathers. + +These thoughts have arisen in our mind from having come across a +book recently published by the State of New York: "Laws and +Ordinances of New Netherlands, 1638-1674, compiled and translated +from the original Dutch records in the office of the Secretary of +State. Albany, N.Y. E.B. O'Callaghan." From that book a good deal +can be learned of the manners and customs in our goodly city some +two hundred years ago, that cannot fail to be interesting. + +It was in 1621 that the States General of the United Netherlands +incorporated a West India Company, with power to establish +colonies in such parts of America as were not already occupied by +other nations. + +Under this authority, the company established a colony embracing +the land from the present State of Maryland to the Connecticut +River, and called NEW NETHERLAND. + +The Amsterdam Chamber of the company exercised supreme government +over this colony until 1664, when it was captured by the English, +but recovered by the Dutch in 1673, but was finally ceded to the +English. + +It was in 1609 that Hendrik Hudson discovered the country, and in +1623 it was that the West India Company sent its first colony of +families, who settled at what was then Fort Orange, now Albany, +and settled a colony of families at New Amsterdam, now New York. + +The colonial government, including legislative and executive +powers, was administered by a director-general and council; and +it is from the laws which they enacted that we can gather much +knowledge of the manners and customs of our Dutch progenitors and +from which we now proceed to make some extracts. + + + Slavery. + +On the 7th of June, 1629, the West India Company granted what we +would call a charter to all settlers in the new world, but which +they called "freedoms and exemptions," to all patroons, masters, +or private persons who would plant colonies in New Netherland. + +They consisted of thirty-one articles; and among them was that +which, if it may not be considered the origin, in this country, +of that slavery which it took us some two hundred and fifty years +to get rid of, was, by one of the articles, not only tolerated, +but was actually established, with a covenant on the part of the +home government to supply the settlers with slaves. + +{653} + + Article XXX. + + "The Company will use their endeavors to supply the colonists + with as many Blacks as they conveniently can, on the conditions + hereafter to be made, in such manner, however, that they shall + not be bound to do it for a longer time than they shall think + proper." + +On the 19th of November, 1654, the Amsterdam board allowed the +importation of negroes direct from Africa, by the ship Witte +Paert, and on the 6th of August, 1655, the director-general and +council of New Netherland imposed an _ad valorem_ duty of +ten per cent on the exportation of any of the slaves brought in +by that ship. + + + The Yankees. + +The discord between the quiet, stolid Dutchmen of those days, and +the restless "Yengees," of whom they had so much dread, soon +began to show itself, and every once in a while we find a paper +bomb-shell fired off at them, in the shape of a law, and hitting +them in a tender spot, by forbidding trade. + +Take this, the first instance: + + "Ordinance + Of the Director and Council of New Netherland, prohibiting the + purchase of produce raised near Fort Hope.--Passed 3 April, + 1642. + + "Whereas our territory which we purchased, paid for, and took + possession of, provided in the year 1633 with a Blockhouse, + Garrison, and Cannon, on the Fresh River of _New + Netherland_, a long time before any Christians were in the + said river, hath now, for some years past, been forcibly + usurped by some englishmen, and given the name of Hartford, + notwithstanding we duly protested against them; who, moreover, + treat our people most barbarously, beating them with clubs and + mattocks even unto the shedding of blood; cut down our corn, + sow the fields by night which our people ploughed by day; haul + home by force the hay which was mowed by our people; cast our + ploughs into the river, and forcibly impound our horses, cows, + and hogs, so that no cruelty, insolence, nor violence remains + which is not practised toward us, who yet have treated them + with all moderation; Yea, even at great hazard, have redeemed + and sent back home their Women, who were carried off by the + Indians; And although we are commanded by the States-General, + his Highness of Orange, and the Honorable West India Company to + maintain our Limits and to assert our Right by every means, + which We, also, have the power to do, yet rather have We chose + patiently to suffer violence, and to prove by deeds that we are + better Christians than they who go about there clothed with + such outward show, until in its time the measure shall be + entirely full. + + "Therefore, our order and command provisionally is, & We do + hereby Ordain that our Inhabitants of _New Netherland_ be + most expressly forbidden from purchasing, either directly or + indirectly, by the third or second shipment, or in any manner + whatsoever, any produce which has been raised on our land near + _Fort Hope_ on the Fresh River, on pain of arbitrary + correction, until their rights are acknowledged, and the + sellers of the produce which shall arrive from our _Fresh + River_ of _New Netherland_ and from _New England_ + shall first declare upon oath where the produce has been grown, + whereof a certificate shall be given them, and thereupon every + one shall be at liberty to buy and to sell." + +And finally the quarrel went so far as to give rise to the +following + + "Ordinance + + Of the Governor-General and Council of New Netherland further + prohibiting the entertainment of Strangers, forbidding + intercourse or correspondence with the people of New + England.--Passed, 12 December, 1673. + + "Whereas, it is found by experience that notwithstanding the + previously published Ordinance and Edicts, many Strangers, yea + enemies of this State, attempt to come within this government + without having previously obtained any consent or passport, and + have even presumed to show themselves within this city of + _New Orange_; also that many Inhabitants of this Province, + losing sight of and forgetting their Oath of Allegiance, + presume still daily to correspond, and exchange letters with + the Inhabitants of the neighboring colonies of _New + England_ and other enemies of this State, whence nothing + else can result but great prejudice and loss to this Province, + and it is, accordingly, necessary that seasonable provision be + made therein. + +{654} + + "Therefore, the Governor-General of _New Netherland_, by + and with the advice of his Council, reviewing the aforesaid + Ordinances and Edicts enacted on that subject, have deemed it + highly necessary strictly to order and command that all + Strangers and others, of what nation or quality soever they may + be, who have not as yet bound themselves by Oath and promise of + fealty to the present Supreme government of this Province, and + have not been received by it as good subjects, do within the + space of four and twenty hours from the publication hereof + depart from out this province of New Netherland, and further + interdicting and forbidding any person, not being actually an + inhabitant and subject of this government, from coming within + this government without first having obtained due license and + passport to that end, on pain and penalty that the contraveners + shall not be considered other than open enemies and spies of + this State, and consequently be arbitrarily punished as an + example to others. And to the end that they may be the more + easily discovered and found out, all Inhabitants of this + Province are interdicted and forbidden from henceforth + harboring or lodging any strangers over night in their houses + or dwellings unless they have previously given due + communication thereof to their officer or Magistrate before + sun-down, under the penalty set forth in the former Edict. + + "Furthermore, the Inhabitants of this Province are strictly + interdicted and forbidden, from this day forward, from holding + any correspondence with the neighboring Colonies of _New + England_, and all others actual enemies of our State, much + less afford them any supplies of any description, on pain of + forfeiting the goods and double the value thereof, likewise + from exchanging any letters, of what nature soever they may be, + without having obtained previous special consent thereto. + Therefore all messengers, skippers, travellers, together with + all others whom these may in any wise concern, are most + expressly forbidden to take charge of, much less to deliver, + any letters coming from the enemy's places, or going thither, + but immediately on their arrival to deliver them into the + Secretary's office here in order to be duly examined, on pain + of being fined One hundred guilders in Beaver, to be paid by + the receiver as well as by the deliverer of each letter which + contrary to the tenor hereof shall be exchanged or delivered." + + + Their Currency. + +Gold and silver were scarce among them. The modern device of +paper money had not then come in vogue, and so they had to use +wampum--the Indians' currency or medium of exchange. + +This was made from oyster-shells, and was worn by the natives as +ornaments, and had no intrinsic value, but only a conventional +one. And it seems to have been hard work to keep it up to its +standard. Every body could make it that could catch oysters, and +its plenty or scarcity causing a fluctuation of prices, gave them +a great deal of trouble, especially when their old rock of +offence, "the Yankees," began to manufacture it and buy away from +them all they had to sell, for what was actually of no value. + +So we find every once in a while "Ordinances" passed on the +subject, which in their quaint and simple way show the state of +things. Between April 18th, 1641, and December 28th, 1662, we +find in this book twelve different ordinances on the subject; +some of them fixing their value, some punishing frauds, some +making them a legal tender, some declaring them merchandise, some +providing that they shall be paid out by measure, some exempting +them from import duty, and some providing for their depreciation. + +The following extracts will afford an idea of their difficulties +on the subject. + + "Resolutions + + Of the Director and Council of New Netherland respecting loose + Wampum.--Passed, 30 November, 1647. + + "_Resolved_ and concluded in Council at _Fort + Amsterdam_, that, until further Order, the loose Wampum + shall continue current and in circulation only that, in the + mean while, all imperfect, broken, or unpierced beads can be + picked out, which are declared Bullion, and shall, meantime, be + received at the Company's counting-house as heretofore. + Provided that the Company, or any one on its part, shall, in + return, be at liberty to trade therewith among the Merchants or + otter Inhabitants, or in larger parcels, as may be agreed upon + and stipulated by any individual, or on behalf of the Company." + +{655} + + "Ordinance + Of the Director and Council of _New Netherland_ further + regulating the currency.--Passed 14 September, 1650. + + "The Director-General and Council of _New Netherland_, To + all those who hear, see, or read these presents, Greeting. + Whereas, on the daily complaints of the inhabitants, we + experience that our previous Ordinance and Edict relative to + the poor strung Wampum, published under date 30 May, A° 1650, + for the accommodation and protection of the people, is not + observed and obeyed according to our good intention and + meaning; but that, on the contrary, such pay, even for small + items, is rejected and refused by Shopkeepers, Brewers, + Tapsters, Tradespeople, and Laboring men, to the great + confusion and inconvenience of the Inhabitants in general, + there being, at present, no other currency whereby the + Inhabitants can procure from each other small articles of daily + trade; for which wishing to provide as much as possible, for + the relief and protection of the Inhabitants, the Director and + Council do hereby Ordain and command that, in conformity to our + previous Ordinance, the poor strung Wampum shall be current and + accepted by every one without distinction and exception for + small and daily necessary commodities required for + housekeeping, as currency to the amount of Twelve guilders and + under only, in poor strung wampum; of twelve to twenty-four + guilders half and half, that is to say, half poor strung and + half good strung Wampum; of twenty guilders to fifty guilders, + one third poor strung and two thirds good strung wampum, and in + larger sums according to the conditions agreed upon between + Buyer and Seller, under a penalty of six guilders for the first + time, to be forfeited on refusal by contraveneor hereof; for + the second time nine guilders, and for the third time two + pounds Flemish and stoppage of his trade and business, pursuant + to our previous Edicts. + + "Thus done and enacted in Council by the Director and Council, + this 14 September, 1650, in _New Amsterdam_." + + + "Ordinance + + Of the Director-General and Council of _New Netherland_ + regulating the currency.--Passed 3 January, 1657. + + "The Director-General and Council of New Netherland, + + "To all those who see or hear these presents read, Greeting, + make known. + + "Whereas they, to their great regret, are by their own + experience daily informed, and by the manifold complaints of + Inhabitants and Strangers importuned, respecting the great, + excessive and intolerable dearness of all sorts of necessary + commodities and household supplies, the prices of which are + enhanced from time to time, principally among other causes, in + consequence of the high price of Beaver and other Peltries in + this country beyond the value, which, by reason of the great + abundance of Wampum, is advanced to ten, eleven and twelve + guilders for one Beaver; And Wampum being, for want of Silver + and Gold coin, as yet the most general and common currency + between man and man, Buyer and Seller, domestic articles and + daily necessaries are rated according to that price, and become + dearer from time to time; the rather, as not only Merchants, + but also, consequently, Shopkeepers, Tradesmen, Brewers, + Bakers, Tapsters, and Grocers make a difference of 30, 40, to + 50 per cent when they sell their wares for Wampum or for + Beaver. This tends, then, so far to the serious damage, + distress and loss of the common Mechanics, Brewers, Farmers and + other good Inhabitants of this Province, that the Superior and + inferior magistrates of this Province are blamed, abused and + cursed by Strangers and Inhabitants, and the Country in general + receives a bad name, while some greedy people do not hesitate + to sell the most necessary eatables and drinkables, according + to their insatiable avarice; viz., the can of Vinegar at 18 @ + 20 stivers; the can of Oil at 4 @ 5 guilders; the can of French + wine at 40 @ 45 stivers; the gill of Brandy at 15 stivers, and + two quarts of home brewed Beer, far above its price, at 14@15 + stivers, &c., which the greater number endeavor to excuse on + the ground that they lose a great deal in the counting of the + Wampum; that it is partly short and partly long; that they must + give 11@12 and more guilders before they can convert the wampum + into Beaver." + +So that, at last, the home government took it up, and in 1659 +they wrote to the council at New Amsterdam, among other things: + +{656} + + "From this particular reduction of the Wampum a second general + reduction must necessarily follow, if the depreciation thereof + is to be prevented. This arises in consequence of the great + importation of Wampum from New-England, which barters therewith + and carries out of the country not only the best cargoes sent + hence, but also a large quantity of beaver and other peltries, + whereby the Company is defrauded of its revenues and the + merchants here of good returns, while the Factors and + inhabitants there remain with chests full of Wampum, which is a + currency utterly valueless except among New Netherland Indians + only," etc. + +The rate of depreciation may be discovered from the fact that an +ordinance passed in April, 1641, fixed it at 4 polished and 5 +unpolished for one stiver, while another, passed in December, +1662, fixed it at 24 for one stiver; and that in 1650 it was +fixed at 6 white and 3 black for one stiver, and twelve years +afterward at 24 white and 12 black for one stiver--making what +President Johnson would call a depreciation of 400 per cent in +that short time. + + + Religion. + +The government interfered very much in religious matters, seeming +to aim not so much at protection against molestation as to +produce conformity of opinion, by making the people view such +things as the Director and Council did. + +Between April, 1641, and November, 1673, fourteen ordinances were +passed concerning Sunday. And between June, 1641, and November, +1673, there were sixteen ordinances as to religion. + +As to Sunday, the laws were: + + 11 April, 1641.--"No person shall attempt to tap beer or any + other strong drink during divine service, nor use any other + measure than that which is in common use at Amsterdam." + +This law was preceded by a recital: + + "Whereas complaints have been made to us that some of the + inhabitants here are in the habit of Tapping Beer during Divine + Service, and of making use of small foreign Measures, which + tends to the dishonor of religion and the ruin of this state." + + + 13 May, 1647.--"None of the Brewers, Tapsters and + Tavern-keepers shall on the rest day of the Lord by us called + Sunday, before two of the clock when there is no sermon, or, + otherwise, before four o'clock in the afternoon, set before, + tap or give any people any Wine, Beer or strong liquors of any + kind whatever, and under any pretext, be it what it may," etc. + +That law has this preamble: + + "Whereas we see and observe by experience, the great disorders + in which some of our inhabitants indulge in drinking to excess, + quarreling, fighting, and smiting, even on the Lord's day of + rest, whereof, God help us! we have seen and heard sorrowful + instances on last Sunday," etc. + + +10 March, 1648.--After reciting that the former edict is +disobeyed, they say, + + "The reason and cause why this our good Edict and well meant + Ordinance is not obeyed according to the tenor and purport + thereof, are that this sort of business and the profit easily + accruing therefrom divert and lead many from their original and + primitive calling, occupation and business, to resort to + Tavern-keeping, so that nearly the just fourth of the city of + New Amsterdam consists of Brandyshops, Tobacco or Beer-houses." + +And they enact, among other things, that tapsters and +tavern-keepers shall not + + "sell nor furnish Beer or Liquor to any person, travellers and + boarders alone excepted, on the Sunday, before three o'clock in + the afternoon, when Divine Service is finished." + +{657} + +29 April, 1648.--After complaining again of non-observance of +former laws, they renew and amplify previous edicts, and declare +that, + + "having for the stricter observance thereof, with the preadvice + of the Minister of the Gospel, deemed it expedient that a + sermon shall be preached from the sacred Scriptures, and the + usual prayers and thanksgivings offered from this time forward + in the afternoon as well as the forenoon," etc., and forbid all + tapping, fishing, hunting, and business during divine service. + +26 October, 1656.--Repeating their complaints, they enact an +ordinance against performing on Sunday any work, such as +ploughing, mowing, building, etc., and, as they term it, + + "much less any lower or unlawful exercise and amusement. + Drunkenness, frequenting Taverns or Tippling-houses, Dancing, + Playing ball, Cards, Trick-Track, Tennis, Cricket or Nine-pins, + going on pleasure parties in a boat, car or wagon, _before, + between or during Divine Service_," and forbidding the sale + of liquor "_before, between or during the sermons_," etc. + +12 June, 1657.--They forbid all persons, "of what nation or rank +he may be," to entertain any company on Sunday or during divine +service. + +18 November, 1661.--They forbid all work on Sunday under "the +penalty of £1 Flemish for the first time, double as much for the +second time, and _four times double as much_ for the third +time." (Silent as to the fourth time.) + +And they forbid all entertainments in taverns, and any giving +away or selling any liquor. + +10 September, 1663.--The director-general and council of New +Amsterdam passed an ordinance against which the burgomasters and +schepens of New Amsterdam rebelled, and which they refused to +enforce, for the reason that it was "too severe and too much in +opposition to the Freedoms of Holland." + +That law extended the former laws to the whole of Sunday from +sunrise to sunset, and in addition prohibited any riding in cars +or wagons, any roving in search of nuts or strawberries, and the +"too unrestrained and excessive playing, shouting and screaming +of children in the streets." + +16 June, 1641.--They began by securing to all Englishmen who +might settle with them "the free exercise of Religion." + +16 November, 1644.--They granted to the town of Hempstead the +power of using and exercising "the Reformed Religion with the +Ecclesiastical discipline thereunto belonging." + +10 October, 1645--They granted to the town of Flushing the +"Liberty of Conscience according to the Custom and manner of +Holland, without molestation or disturbance from any magistrate +or any other Ecclesiastical minister." + +19 December, 1645.--They made the same grant to Gravesend. + +At a later day a change seems to have come over them, as witness +the following: + + "Ordinance + + Of the Director and Council of New Netherland against + Conventicles.--Passed 1 February, 1656. + + "Whereas the Director and Council of _New Netherland_ are + credibly informed and apprized that here and there within this + Province not only are Conventicles and Meetings held, but also + that some unqualified persons in such Meetings assume the + ministerial office, the expounding and explanation of the Holy + word of God, without being called or appointed thereto by + ecclesiastical or civil authority, which is in direct + contravention and opposition to the general Civil and + Ecclesiastical order of our Fatherland; besides that many + dangerous Heresies and Schisms are to be apprehended from such + manner of meetings. Therefore, the Director General and Council + aforesaid hereby absolutely and expressly forbid all such + conventicles and meetings, whether public or private, differing + from the customary and not only lawful but scripturally founded + and ordained meetings of the Reformed Divine service, as this + is observed and enforced according to the Synod of Dordrecht," + etc. + +{658} + +On 21 September, 1662, they enacted that "beside the Reformed +worship and service, no conventicles or meetings shall be kept in +the province, whether it be in houses, barnes, ships, barkes, nor +in the woods nor fields." + +In December, 1656, they enacted an ordinance containing this, +among other things: + + "Further, whenever, early in the morning or after supper in the + evening, prayers shall be said, or God's word read, by any one + thereunto commissioned, every person, of what quality soever he + may be, shall repair to hear it with becoming reverence. + + "No man shall raise or bring forward any question or argument + on the subject of religion, on pain of being placed on bread + and water three days in the ship's galley. And if any + difficulties should arise out of the said disputes, the author + thereof shall be arbitrarily punished." + +They repeatedly passed ordinances requiring their officers to be +of the reformed religion. + + "Ordinance + + Of the Director-General and Council of New Netherland + prohibiting the bringing of Quakers and other Strollers into + New Netherland.--Passed 17 May, 1663. + + "The Director-General and Council of New Netherland, To all + those who shall see or hear these Presents read, Greeting, make + known. + + "Whereas we daily find that many Vagabonds, Quakers and other + Fugitives are, without the previous knowledge and consent of + the Director General and Council, conveyed, brought and landed + in this Government, and sojourn and remain in the respective + Villages of this Province without those bringing them giving + notice thereof, or such persons addressing themselves to the + government and showing whence they come, as they ought to do, + or that they have taken the oath of fidelity the same as other + Inhabitants; the Director General and Council, therefore, do + hereby Order and command all Skippers, Sloop Captains and + others, whosoever they may be, not to convey or bring, much + less to land, within this government, any such Vagabonds, + Quakers and other Fugitives, whether Men or Women, unless they + have first addressed themselves to the government, have given + information thereof, and asked and obtained consent on pain of + the importers forfeiting a fine of twenty pounds Flemish for + every person, whether Man or Woman, whom they will have brought + in and landed without the consent or previous Knowledge of the + Director General and Council, and, in addition, be obliged + immediately to depart out of this government with such + persons." + +17 March, 1664, they ordained that the schoolmasters shall appear +in church with their scholars, on Wednesday before divine +service, and be examined after service by the minister and +elders, "as to what they have committed to memory of the +Christian Commandments and Catechism, and what progress they have +made." + +On 1 October, 1673, 8 November, 1673, and 15 January, 1674, they +passed ordinances that the sheriff and magistrates, or the schout +and magistrates, each in his quality, take care that the reformed +Christian religion be maintained in conformity to the Synod of +Dordrecht, (or Synod of Dort,) without suffering or permitting +any other sects attempting any thing contrary thereto, or +suffering any attempt to be made against it by any other +sectaries. + +On 12 November, 1661, they passed a law imposing "a land tax at +Esopus to defray the expense of building a Minister's House +there." + +On 13 February, 1657, the court of Breuckelen (Brooklyn) imposed +an assessment on that town to pay "the Rev. Minister De J. +Theodorus Polhemius fl 300," as a supplement of his promised +salary and yearly allowance. + + + Miscellaneous. + +A few more instances of the manner in which our staid and quiet +Dutch progenitors managed their affairs will suffice for this +paper, already long enough. + +{659} + +_The Ferry_.--In an ordinance regulating the ferry at the +Manhattans, passed 1 July, 1654, it was among other things +enacted: + + "Item. The Lessee shall be bound to accommodate the passengers + on summer days only from 5 O'clock in the morning till 8 + O'clock in the evening, provided the windmill [Footnote 167] + hath not taken in its sail. + + [Footnote 167: The windmill here spoken of stood on the old + Battery, and seemed to serve as a barometer or indicator of + bad weather to all the people.] + + "Item. The Lessee shall receive ordinary Ferriage during the + Winter from 7 O'clock in the morning to 5 O'clock in the + evening; but he shall not be bound, except he please, to convey + any one over in a tempest, or when the windmill hath lowered + its sail in consequence of storm or otherwise." + +_Wages_.--In 1653, the director and council of New +Netherland passed an ordinance fixing the rate of wages to be +paid to carpenters, masons, etc. But the directors at Amsterdam +disapproved of it "as impracticable." + +_Fast Driving_.--Here, now, is a law which would illy enough +suit our times, and which shows us how queer were the times when +such a regulation could exist. + + "Ordinance + + Of the Director and Council of New Netherland regulating the + driving of Wagons, Carts, etc., in New Amsterdam.--Passed 27 + June, 1652. + + "The Director-General and Council of _New Netherland_, in + order to prevent accidents, do hereby Ordain that no Wagons, + Carts or Sleighs shall be run, rode or driven at a gallop + within this city of _New Amsterdam;_ that the drivers and + conductors of all Wagons, Carts and Sleighs within this city + shall not sit or stand on them, but now henceforth within this + City (the Broad Highway alone excepted) shall walk by the + Wagons, Carts or Sleighs, and so take and lead the horses." + +_Danger from Fire_s.--They passed quite a number of +ordinances on this subject. + +In January, 1648, they recite that the people do not keep their +chimneys clean, whereby "greater damage is to be expected in +future from fire, the rather as the houses here in New Amsterdam +are, for the most part, built of wood, and thatched with reed, +beside which the chimneys of some of the houses are of wood, +which is most dangerous;" and they forbid any more wooden +chimneys, but those already built may remain. + +They appoint as fire wardens to see that the chimneys are kept +clean, "from the Hon. Council, Commissary Adriaen D'Keyser; from +the commonalty, Thomas Hall, Marten Crigier and George Wolsey." + +On 28 September, 1648, they direct the fire wardens to visit +every house, "and see that every one is keeping his chimney +properly clean by sweeping." + +And finally, on 15 December, 1657, they passed a law which +complains, as usual, of the non-observance of former laws, and +recites that "divers calamities and accidents have been caused, +and are still to be apprehended, from fire; yea, a total ruin of +this city, inasmuch as it daily begins to be compactly built," +etc.; + +And enact that "all thatched roofs and wooden chimneys, Hay ricks +and hay stacks within this city shall be broken up, and removed +within the time of four consecutive months," "to be promptly put +in execution for every house, whether small or large, Hay rick, +or hay stack, or wooden chimney, hen houses, or hog pens," etc.; + +And then, after reciting that "whereas, in all well ordered +Cities and Towns it is customary that Fire Buckets, Ladders, and +Hooks be found provided about the corner the streets and in +public houses," they authorize the burgomaster, "to send by the +first opportunity to Fatherland for one hundred to 150 Leather +Fire Buckets," etc. + +{660} + +_Marriages_.--On 15 January, 1658, after reciting that "the +Director General and Council not only are informed, but have even +seen and remarked that some persons, after the proclamation and +publication for the third time of their bans, or intention of +marriage, do not proceed further with the solemnization of their +marriage, as they ought, but postpone it from time to time, not +only weeks, but some months, which is directly contrary to, and +in contravention of, the good order and custom of our +Fatherland:" + +They enact that marriage must be solemnized within one month +after the last publication, or appear in council and show cause: + +And that "no man and woman shall be at liberty to keep house as +married persons before and until they are lawfully married, on +pain of forfeiting one hundred guilders, more or less, as their +quality shall be found to warrant, and all such persons may be +amerced anew therefor every month by the officer, according to +the order and the custom of our Fatherland." + +---------- + + The Charms Of Nativity. + + +In this day, when a spirit of restlessness seems to have seized +upon the various peoples of the world, and operates to produce +great movements from one locality to another, or from one country +to another, we propose to devote some pages to the discussion of +this interesting subject. The world may be said to be grossly +material; for surely no land of flowering beauty, however rich in +the wealth of nature's charms, can, to a sentimental and +spiritual soul, be at all comparable to those heavenly flowers of +love which bloom in the vicinage in which we were reared. In +leaving a cold and bleak country even, we may go to one where +nature has stamped her own warmth, as she is sure to do, on the +hearts of her inhabitants; but those scenes to which we were +earliest used are, by far, dearer to the sensitive soul, than +others which, in distant lands, crop out more gorgeously; and the +playmates, the associates of our hearts, our early lives, even +though it may be in the very chill and frost of barren rocks and +dreary plains, are far dearer to us than the welcome of +strangers, let it be as warm and as sunny as genial and glowing +hearts can make it. The stranger, with soul, in a strange land, +has fully felt the truth of these remarks. These are +considerations which should operate powerfully with us to bind us +to our homes and our own communities. But the benefits of staying +at home, or of enlarging the area of "civilization" and of +settlement but slowly, are not confined, by any means, to our +feelings. To prevent the loneliness which we naturally feel in a +strange country is not the only object to be gained by migrating, +when we migrate at all, slowly, and but little at a time, (say a +few miles only,) and by making our habitations as permanent as +possible. There are, perhaps, weightier considerations, even, +which should govern in the matter than the loneliness and the +estrangement which we must suffer for years, when we make distant +removals. + +Home is, in its full meaning, a most heavenly word. It is a word +that is allied with every principle of our natures. It is the +nursery in which our spirits are trained. It is the seat of our +religion and the abode of our loves. There can be to us but one +home, that is, in the full sense of the term. +{661} +And that home is a locality, a place, where, with the kindred +ideas, elements, and social and spiritual partnerships of our +earlier lives and beings, we can enjoy life pure and perfect as +we at first received it. Any local or social estrangements from +these pure elements of life, no matter how complete the +surrounding appointments of comfort may seem to be which draw us +away from them, do not constitute and make up the bulk of what, +properly, is to the human spirit to be considered home. + +The loss of home, then, by removal to a distance from those +earlier scenes, localities, peoples, ideas, and customs of which +we are a part, is a far greater loss to us, considered in the +aggregate, than is at first apparent by any mere feelings of +loneliness or estrangement which we may suffer in a strange +community. Because, while these feelings undoubtedly indicate to +us the part of our lives with which we have parted in leaving +those scenes and associations of which we were a part, they do +not always reflect back to us the painful vacuum which is created +at home by our absence; and therefore, our feelings are not +always an accurate measurement of the full injury done by the +detaching of human elements from their proper places, to be +thereafter located in strange and distant lands. And it may +properly be said that the suffering of these feelings by those +who have removed is not the greatest injury done by such +removals. For, while feelings represent some of the injury done +to us by such removals, they certainly do not represent all of +it. The strongest powers of a man, naturally considered, are in +the locality or in the society in which he was raised. He may, in +distant communities, where social life is just taking root, or +where, indeed, it has already taken root, be, to outward +appearances, a more prominent person than at home, where he was +raised. He may be called into public life oftener, and be made to +assume offices of trust which at home he never would have +assumed, and, perhaps, never could have assumed. But, after all, +he is really not so important a personage in his new locality, +and in his new offices, as he would have been at home in his +natural offices. This statement may appear, to some minds, +paradoxical. But it really is not so, examined by the light and +the law of uses and of natural adaptations. We shall not go into +any extended discussion, however, of this particular question, +but we shall assume, at the outset, that the circle of +"civilization" or of settlement, should be but slowly and +gradually enlarged. There are a great many strong reasons for +this plea of widening and enlarging the circle of "civilization" +or of settlement. The same reasons which operate to show that no +single individual can be as useful (in the scale of nature) in a +community distant and remote from his birthplace, as he could in +serving out his natural uses in his birthplace, will operate +equally to show that such distant removals are not healthy for +whole communities of people. Our border States, some of which are +very far out from the centres of settlement, have been peopled by +persons leaving the older and denser communities where they were +born and raised, and repairing to these new "settlements." The +effect of it has been, in many instances, to change the wheel of +individual fortune, and to place some in high positions who, in +their native communities, would never have reached those +positions. But we shall argue that this result has not always +been beneficial to the parties so elevated. +{662} +The natural growth of communities, that is, the growth by +enlarging the circle of settlement but slowly and connectedly, is +sustained by every healthy law of economy. Even in the gross +matter of material wealth, the bulk of the people are better off +in an old than in a new community. We venture the assertion that +this remark will hold good even as between the outer border +States of the West, and the inhabitants of those countries from +whose populations these States have, in a large measure, been +settled. But it will especially hold true as between the people +of those outer border States and the people of a corresponding +class of our older States. + +But what is the moral exhibit? What do the facts here prove? They +prove, incontestably, that the standard of law, of morals, of +religion, and of society, in all the vast multitude of its +meaning, is, in the "new settlements," incomparably below what it +is in the old communities. These are grave proofs, and of +importance enough, in our judgment, to settle a national policy +against the building up of new communities at great distances +from the old ones. + +If it were physically possible to detach one half of the +territory of an old state, and to send the detached portion, with +its entire population, to some distant and remote country, and +there locate it, even this huge mass of matter and of peoples +would greatly suffer by the shock of the new situation. The earth +has its affinities as well as people have theirs, and no +considerable portion of the earth (that is, if such a thing were +possible at all) could be detached from its proper place, where +all of its connections are natural and healthy, and could be +transported to another portion of the globe where the materials +and the fashions of nature are not exactly of the same kind, +without suffering by the change. How much more, then, will human +beings, who are more subject to influences, suffer by a +corresponding change? The laws of affinity and of sympathy must +be preserved in the commonest things even; and if such a change +as we have spoken of were possible in any considerable portion of +the earth's surface, the peoples carried along with the detached +portion would, for a time, have the same laws, the same customs, +the same religions--would see the same scenery, and would, to +some extent, breathe the same air to which they had all along +been accustomed; but, in the course of time, they would find +themselves laboring and struggling in full sympathy with the +earth so detached for sympathy with the new objects and new +external surroundings of the new situation, until a perceptible +change would take place in their feelings, and in the very ardor +of their religious worships. + +We have put the case in this strong form to show what will be +done by change. Change in one thing necessarily involves change +in another thing. We cannot change our habitations and our +abodes, without also changing all in us which is peculiar to +locality and the law of locality; and in this alone there is a +large volume of life. That society is always the best which holds +the closest together, and in which the work of adaptation and +assimilation has been carried on the longest between its members. +The superior frame of English society, which is the growth of an +old community, and the sturdy world of the English people, will +demonstrate this. There is a certain morality in locality, too, +and the morality developed by a particular locality is always the +healthiest for its people. We do not, however, mean to say that +the morality of locality is _sui generis_--that it is +something which is peculiar to particular localities independent +of the people of those localities. +{663} +This is an absurdity which we will not utter. But we merely mean +to say that the morality of localities, or of the people of +particular localities, is influenced, more or less, by the +surrounding circumstances of locality. This remark will be +strongly verified in the different social habits and moral +sentiments of people whose occupation, from natural causes, +differs; circumstances, for instance, of different situation, +such as make some people nautical and seafaring, while others are +agricultural and domestic. It is in this wise that locality may +be said to have its morality, and that the peculiar phases of +morality developed by the natural and unavoidable circumstances +of situation are the best for the people of that locality. This +is a proposition which we imagine no one will dispute. But there +are very often carried into a particular locality certain phases +of morality, or rather the want of it, which have no connection +with the locality, and with which the genius of the locality has +nothing to do. These are positive conditions of vice and +immorality which may be engendered in any community. + +Sensibilities are the most delicate and refined things +conceivable. They are the result of the most delicate nurture of +the feelings, the associations, and the relationships of life. +The peculiar modes of association of a people--the peculiar frame +and structure of their domestic relationships--has a great deal +to do with the type and kind of their sensibilities. In a new +country, where everything is rough, the sensibilities cannot be +as nice and as refined as in an older community where they are +nursed. Sensibilities, then, depend for their flexibility, and +for the grain of their qualities, on the fineness--on the +niceness--of the social food on which they have been fed. This is +constantly being illustrated to us in the treatment of animals, +even, which certainly have sensibilities of a certain kind. + +Where the finer threads of society, then, are preserved, and +where there are close-knit sympathies between the people, without +too much of the rough work of a rough country to harden them and +to dry up the fountains of the sensibilities, we may always there +expect to find the flowers of love blooming in the greatest +abundance. New countries, then, are not as favorable to the +development of these feelings as older ones are, and the moral +havoc in such countries is, usually, very great. But, apart from +the rough circumstances of a new country, which have upon the +feelings a hardening effect, the mental sensibilities are greatly +influenced by scenery, and by the natural effect of air, +temperature, etc. These refined elements are just as much a part +of the mental food on which we feed as anything else is. All our +ideas of comfort, of beauty, and of healthiness do not come from +artificial surroundings and from the frame-work of society which +we may have constructed. Mental emotions are excited in us by +scenery; and that of the particular kind to which we have been +used, though in reality it may, to some extent, be barren and +bleak, is to us the most charming. The appearance of things in +nature is indissolubly associated with our earlier lives, +memories, incidents, occurrences, and sentiments; and so we, in +the very nature of things, must love this earlier record better +than any subsequent one which we may make. It necessarily follows +that we love those peculiar features in nature the best which are +the closest associated with our earlier experiences of life. +{664} +The analyzing spirit will detect, at a slight glance, even the +minute and particular differences between the outward features of +different localities. The eye of the student of nature will at +once perceive the smallest shades of difference in the leaves of +trees of the same class in different localities. To the sensitive +mind the rain, even, of different localities will have a +different spirit, and its falling will make a different +impression upon the mind. We are a wonderfully constructed +battery, and the effect of these manifold things in nature upon +the organism cannot be estimated, or correctly judged of, by any +but those who, by living in new and strange countries, have had +full experience of it. The chemistry of the soul is more +marvellous than that of flesh and matter, and the effect of +scenery, of air, of the spirit of the air, and of all the vast +and grand combinations of matter on the brain, and on the life +principles of man, cannot be judged of until, to him, some +foreign country has written its strange history on his organism, +and he discovers that, though in reality he is the same +individual, still he does not see nature through the same eyes +through which he was wont to see it, and does not feel its +refreshing spirit as he was wont to feel it. These are some of +the sad mental impressions made by great changes from one distant +locality to another. Could anything be more hurtful or injurious +to the human spirit? Could anything be more obliterative of +morality, than not to respect and act out, every day of our +lives, its sacred lessons in close connection with those old +school associations with which we linked life the fondest, and +through which we enjoyed it the dearest? The early dawn as it +came to us shaded by the hills and the forests common to the +localities in which we were born and reared; our parting with the +great companion of the day, influenced by the same surroundings; +the familiar notes of the night-birds common to our localities; +the peculiarities of the very gusts of wind there; the peculiar +haze of the atmosphere; the methods in which the very trees droop +their branches; these, these are all familiar scenes and things +to us all, and are, we may say, the school-house associates of +our earlier lives, when our spirits were first learning the great +lessons of life--those lessons under which life in us was +organized and under which it has spread its richest and its +grandest panorama. Change these localities and these scenes, and +we feel as though we had parted with dear friends whose +association is necessary to our lives, and for years afterward, +they form, in our minds, an ever present picture of their +appearance. These familiar scenes are the old oaken trees, so to +speak, under whose umbrageous bowers we learned our first lessons +of virtue and of life; and we cannot give them up, and part from +them, without also surrendering some of the sacred lessons which, +in their midst and in their hallowed shadow, we learned. But, +throughout, the parting with home, and going into new localities, +makes a new era in our lives. The village boy, who is the object +of charity, and who has no ties to bind him but those of the +guardian public, feels it. He even feels, when he parts with the +dear scenes of his nativity, almost as though he had taken leave +of the very God, whom he had been taught to worship, and that he +lay launched out upon a great wide ocean of uncertainties, there +to hunt for another God, and other friends. How must it, then, be +with those who are a part of the household and the inheritance of +human affections? Mother, father, brothers and sisters are +gathered for the sad parting. +{665} +Tears of deep grief fall thick and fast. There is, indeed, +occasion for them. The heir of the possession, or the mate of +fraternal friendship and love, is about to become a stranger. He +is about to seek a home! (ah! sad word, in this connection,) it +may be in the midst of olive-groves and of vineyards--away from +the home of his inheritance, and the family are summoned to +bemoan their loss. Years are to pass between him and them before +they meet again, and when they do meet they are to each other +strangers. This is indeed a sad picture. Can the growth and the +building up of "a new country" compensate for it? I say not. I +say that the planting of empire even, in the name and under the +titles of the home government, it may be in some grandly tropical +country, will not repay for these losses and for these +sacrifices. Political grandeur is not the only object to be +attained in this world. In fact, it is but an epitome of the +grand and the beautiful objects of life. The comforts of home, +and its solid connections, are worth more to us than all the +offices in the world could be without them. And how few are there +who nowadays appreciate and enjoy the comforts of home, even in +their own natural communities, who are weighed down with the +shackles and the plunder of office? How much more deplorable, +then, the fate of the poor office-holder at a distance from his +natural home, and those associates of his early life, found +nowhere outside of home, which make life agreeable, and give to +it its charms and its zest? His fate must indeed be pitiable and +deplorable in the extreme. It is only, then, viewed generally, in +the interests "of the public," (a most false "public interest,") +that we heretofore have been enabled to find so much heroism in +the spirit of venture and of distant emigration that the almost +entire press of the country have lauded it, and have praised it +"as a spirit of public enterprise;" which praise has done much +toward exciting in the people of the world that restlessness and +feverish spirit of excitement, which has led so many men and +families to leave their natural attachments, and to seek location +either in foreign and distant countries, or in States, at least, +remote from those in which they were reared. These removals have +always, when viewed in a moral and social light, been more +productive of harm to the parties concerned than of good. Avoid +them, in the future, would be our earnest advice to all good +people. The best and greatest men of the world have invariably +staid at home. + +But are not the boundaries of civilization to be extended, may be +asked? Most assuredly they are; but only slowly and by degrees, +like waves as they spread and enlarge from a centre of disturbed +waters. This is, undoubtedly, the true method of enlarging the +area of settlement and of "civilization." + +The parties immediately concerned are not alone the parties +injured by distant removals. They affect, more or less, the world +at large. The bad morals, engendered by innumerable people +leaving their homes, where the sediments of society have settled +to the bottom, and repairing to new and remote localities where +there is no strongly constructed web of society, are not confined +alone to the localities where the social connections are loose; +but they spread like some terrible plague, and seize upon the +minds of people of the denser and older communities. +{666} +A reciprocal interchange in morals is finally established between +these remote and unlike communities, until the tone of the one is +measurably improved, while that of the other is gradually +reduced, and made worse by the interchange than it was before. +These are some of the damaging effects of "new settlements," at a +distance from the older ones. The law perfected is to be found +only in the close and tight connections of society, with all of +the social interests well defined, and with social rights so +clear that one person will not interfere with those of another. +This degree of social security and comfort is the perfection of +the law; and no civilized government has any interest in +upholding a system of "settlement" and of colonization which +impairs the strength of the social structure. + +Society has been built under the guardianship of the church, and +any system either of "settlement," or of politics, which +threatens the integrity of society, is against the interests of +government, and equally against the interests of the Christian +religion. Government is the secular means which we employ to +enforce those wholesome moral inspirations of the church which +have constructed society on sure foundations. Anything which +attacks this wholesome system is at war with the Christian +religion, and, consequently, against the higher civilization of +the age. The sacred affinities and congenialities of home should +not be disturbed, and society debauched, by a mania amongst the +people for separations and removals. "Those whom God hath joined +together let no man put asunder," applies also to the firm +welding together of those whose lots he has made similar by +nature, as it does to that holy matrimonial alliance by which a +man takes to himself a consort and a mate, and by which a woman +takes to herself a husband. That government is not truly and +reliably built on the foundations of the Christian religion which +disregards any of these sound maxims of social life, and which +makes provision for scattering those members of society who are +the most natural to each other, and which holds out to them the +very strongest inducements to scatter and to form new +associations. Such is certainly not a healthy law of society, and +is in direct contravention of the great natural order. We must +pay attention, in this as in all other things, to the +associations made by nature. It is a monstrosity to suppose that +there is not power enough in nature to adapt those to each other +who were born together. It is a faith in this sort of power which +associates people together in family groups, and which upholds +the vast system of paternal and fraternal relations established +throughout the world. If it were not for the belief in the +perfect natural adaptation to each other of persons born of the +same parents, we would not have so strong a system for rearing +them together, and for imposing upon those who are responsible +for their being so large a duty to keep them together whilst +taking care of them. Nature, it is true, would suggest this duty, +but society has strengthened it. It is the perfect fitness, +naturalness, and adaptation of beings for each other, who were +born together, which makes the family system strong, and which +imposes upon parents the moral duty of keeping their offspring +together while they take care of them; by which means the +beautiful and sacred relations of brother and sister are +established in something more than in the mere name. But we will +not discuss a proposition which is so plain. It is not necessary +for us to do it. The main feature which, in this connection, it +is the most necessary for us to notice, is the necessity for some +system by which violent separations between members of the same +community and family may be avoided, and by which society may be +strengthened in its foundations. +{667} +For, if these separations tend, as they most assuredly do, to the +weakening of the family ties, it is necessary for us to take some +strong measures in order to bind families more closely together; +or else, the whole system of society, through these very means of +neglect, will ultimately be disorganized, and will go to pieces. +Indeed, we are rather verging on such a condition in this country +now. We have what we call homes, it is true; but we now have +really very little of the true family system. Nearly one half of +the time of the younger members of the family--if not more--is +not now spent, in the great majority of cases, under the paternal +roof; and there is now in American society a perfect mania for +being anywhere else except at home, and there may be said to be +no family law. This is certainly a most deplorable state of +things, and if pushed to further extremes, will ultimately +disorganize society altogether. Whenever that may be done, +government will then be impossible. So it behooves the public men +of this country to look about for some remedy for this most +distressing evil. Where can it be found? is the important inquiry +of to-day. Our opinion is, that emigration, the restless spirit +of movement, which our system of legislation has developed, is +the fruitful source of the evil, and consequently, to correct it, +we must change our migratory habits and policy. We have organized +too many "territories," and have encouraged the building of too +many railroads in far distant and remote regions from the centres +of settlement, thereby causing our people to emigrate and to move +about from one place to another. We have not sufficiently +encouraged stability in the people. We have pursued a course of +legislation which has made them restless, speculative, and +venturesome. In this way we have not developed the real wealth +which we might have developed had our people staid at home, and +preserved their even, temperate avocations. But the material +injury done by this system of removals has not been the principal +evil of it by any means. Society has been unhinged by it. The +strong attachments of home have been violently rent asunder, and +by that means, our people have been compelled to look for their +amusements, their enjoyments, and their entertainments, more in +public than in private. This has had upon their dispositions, +their habits, and their morals a most unbalancing effect, until +now very little indeed is held by them to be any longer secured. +These are the gigantic evils of the day with which we now have to +battle, and the important question of the hour is, How are they +to be met? + +The question is much more easily asked than answered. A huge evil +is upon us, however, and we must devise ways of ridding ourselves +of it. Indeed, we do but develop the strength of the human, by +devising means for the overthrow--the complete overthrow--of all +of our evil conditions. No condition, then, however bad, may be +supposed to be too gigantic for our efforts. Let us but keep +steadily in view the great and important aims of life, and we +certainly can make all else succumb to them. In working out the +great problem of life, we must expect often to have to go back, +and work it over again. We must often undo much of the work which +we may suppose ourselves to have done, and must do it over again, +in order to avoid errors and to correct mistakes. +{668} +It may be a hard task for us to perform; but nevertheless, we +must do it. We know that there is a common error that in national +affairs God is at the helm, and that we cannot steer wrong; that +everything that has been done in the national "destiny" has been +rightly done, and that God is certainly with us there in every +step that we may take. This is certainly a most fatal error. God +is no more with us in our national course than he is in our +individual business, and in this we very often find it necessary +to retrace our steps, and to correct errors. If we were to accept +every individual misfortune, and every individual piece of bad +management, as the direct work of God, and should make no effort +to correct it, our private fortunes would be in a most deplorable +condition. Without, then, being irreverent, we must recognize God +in ourselves, in our national as well as in our individual +matters, and must understand that good results are invariably the +offspring of good motives and of good efforts, and that bad +results are invariably the offspring of bad motives and bad +efforts. We must understand this, and we must make results the +guide and the criterion of divine will and divine favor. If +results are good, we must suppose that God favors them; if they +are bad, we must suppose that he disapproves them; and, as we +honor him, we must set about correcting them. This, in my +judgment, is the true criterion by which to judge of the divine +will and the divine favor. Under this rule, then, we are at +liberty, and we are expected to scrutinize every act of national +conduct, and to see whether or not it is full of the seeds of +good results; and if we find that it is not, then, at whatever +cost to us the thing may have been done, to expunge it, and +correct the error. This is sound national wisdom, as it would be +sound individual wisdom. We have, then, already, too many +railroads extending into far, remote regions of our country, +distant from the centres of settlement, inviting our people to +leave their homes and their families, and to emigrate in quest of +fortune and of new honors. These invitations by our government +are like so many snares set by the tempter to tempt us into sin +and wickedness. I would say that all of the sacred interests of +society would dictate to us the policy of abandoning the building +of these roads, and equally to abandon the policy of organizing +"new territories," to thereby tempt our people to hunt for new +fields of "settlement." Let us make that strong which we already +have. Let us refine and civilize as we go, and let us make but +slow haste in extending the boundaries of our "settlements." This +would seem, to our mind, to be the suggestion of wisdom. We must +not conclude, either, that because money has been spent, and +labor has been performed, that therefore we may not abandon +altogether huge enterprises of "settlement" which have already +been begun, and that our people now in remote "settlements" may +not, in a great measure, return to their former homes. Such a +course, undertaken on a large scale, might be productive of the +best results, and perhaps, in the course of time, would be. But +we must not anticipate too much. We must reach this proposition +by degrees. We must, in a matter so grave as this, be, as in the +process of settlement, slow. We must not proceed with it too +fast. + +The degrees of civilization are remote from each other. Indeed, +government would be of but little use if it were not productive +of the best results, where it is applied in the best spirit and +under the soundest administration. +{669} +We cannot, from the very nature of the circumstances, expect +these results for it in distant and remote regions from the +centres of settlement, where the population is sparse, and where, +on account of the formidable difficulties of a new country and +new fields of labor, there is but little time on the part of the +people to devote to social improvements. These are difficulties, +certainly, to be considered, in estimating the scale of +civilization of a people. We naturally look for a much healthier +tone in an old community than we do in a new one. In an old +community there is a much larger surface from which to choose an +occupation, and the various interests of society are much better +connected than they are in the new communities. These are +important things to be considered by the adventurer after a +home--if so paradoxical a thing is to be allowed as that a home +may be found by adventure! In fact, the thing is impossible. +Adventure can never make a home. A home is the product of +continuing possession, and of careful culture. It is not +necessarily a particular house, or a particular piece of land, +which has been in the same hands for generations, which makes a +home. But it is a continuous abiding of the same family and its +members for several generations in the same neighborhood, the +same locality, which makes, in the fullest sense, a home. They +are then a part--incorporated as such by nature--of the community +and of the locality in which they may chance to dwell. It is +this, more than the continuous possession of a particular house +or a particular piece of ground, which makes home. The woods, the +streams, the outer walls of nature to which people have been +accustomed, must have been the same, or similar and kindred ones, +for at least several generations, in order to make for them a +home. Where this has been the case, there nature is fully +incorporated in those beings. There is not, then, in their own +peculiar locality, a leaf, or a tree, or a flower, or a bird, +that is not fully understood, and interiorly possessed by them. +Through the manifold processes of nature, they, in this time, +have made acquaintance with things in nature, and have become a +much stronger part of the creation. Any traveller will tell us +that, when he first begins to wander, things in nature at a +distance from home appear strange to him, and that he never does +become as well acquainted with them as he is with those +corresponding things which he has left behind, that have been not +only his, but also the familiar associates of his parents before +him. This, we will venture to say, will be the testimony of all +travellers. There is, in this testimony, a great lesson to be +learned by us. It is the lesson that, if we want to be a +part--absolutely a part--of creation, so as to have immediately +under our control, at all times, a commanding sense and +consciousness of our power in nature, and over it, as a part of +it, we must stay where our organisms command the elements the +best, and where, by long residence, they have become the strong +masters of things in nature. This is certainly no new philosophy. +If it has not been fully heretofore eliminated as a philosophy, +in this form, it certainly has in other forms, just as +substantial and far more practical. What are our feelings +connected with our return to the earth but a confirmation of this +doctrine? Every man who has a soul in him loves his own native +soil; and when the solemn hour of dissolution approaches, he +feels, as one of the last of his earthly hopes, that he would +like to be gathered to the graves of his fathers, in the land of +his and of their wanderings. +{670} +This is an event which is capable of testing the matter, and of +proving the attractions which our earliest homes have for our +spirits. When all nature is dissolving in us, we naturally look +for support to those localities where life was organized in us, +and which have fortified us the strongest with those forces on +which we must rely the most to ward off dissolution. Thus our +minds and our affections are naturally carried back to the land +of our birth, in a way to make us love it above all other spots +of earth, and in a way to cause us to desire it as our last +resting-place. If these last trials do not show to the human +spirit--drawing upon all of its resources for support--where its +chief strength in nature lies, whether in the new home, or the +old one, then perhaps our theory that we lose many of the +essential elements of life by migrating, and by going to a great +distance from the home of our nativity, may not, indeed, be a +sound one. But we must take the case of the normal spirit to +prove it. The moods of the spirit that has been debauched and +made common; that has lost the love of its sanctuaries by +dishonorable and aimless wanderings, are not a fair test of our +philosophy. We must take some spirit who has gone into a distant +land seeking fortune, with the love of home in his heart, and +with the responsibilities of family upon him; and let the trial +of dissolution come upon him, even after years of absence, and +see if his last thoughts are not directed to the home of his +childhood, and if the last appeals which he makes in his mind to +nature to save him are not addressed to the genius, the +localities, the scenes, the cherished associations, of his +earlier home. This must be so. It is unavoidable. The cool stream +from which we drank in our boyhood thirst often has power, when +vividly called to mind, to abate the rage of some terrible fever; +and the maternal hand, as we see it in imagination laid upon us, +long years, even, after that hand has been stilled, has power to +soothe us. Thus fancy makes medicine from the past, and the +chosen spots of the spirit's earlier wanderings are the places to +which she goes for her healing arts. + +The maternal breast has attractions for us as long as we live. +Its sorrows are our sorrows, and it is upon the same principle +and by the same laws of correspondence that we love our earlier +homes the best, and that they have over our morals a stronger +control and a more salutary influence than any other society or +community can have. In fact, a removal from our own community and +our own home is too often looked upon as a license to do as we +please, and is interpreted as a relaxing of the social traces in +which we had been bound. It is not worth while, at present, to +explore the philosophy of this fact, but it is a fact, and we +therefore deal with it accordingly. We know that the white man is +the representative of civilization, and that he carries with him +a Christian inheritance wherever he goes. We know that in any +situation in which he may be placed, he will strive to ally +himself with his God. We know that he has fixed the cross of his +worship upon many a bleak mountain of this land, and that he has +planted the vineyard of peace in the remote regions of the +wilderness. We know that he has established government, erected +schools, built churches, and planted the seeds of society in far +and distant regions from the centres of civilization. We know all +this, and yet we know, or believe, that if this same potent mass +of human beings, thus scattered and toiling separate and apart +from each other, had held together under the strong covenants of +a powerful society, and had advanced in a body to occupy and +possess the land, holding together at every step, the rainbow of +God's favor would have spanned over them in such luminous light +that we of this continent would now have been a strong and +powerful and united people, in the enjoyment of a civilization +and in the possession of a purity of social life neither enjoyed +nor possessed by any other people on the earth. + +{671} + +It may be supposed by some that this position assumes too much; +but our own opinion is, that it may be brought almost down to a +demonstration. Such a social wreck as follows the violent +segregation of members of the same family or community, to form +in new communities, must be followed by a corresponding civil +prostration. But wild and incoherent ideas of government will be +entertained, and the strength of the masses in such communities, +or in old ones, either, that have been much affected by these +separations, may, upon any wild and great excitement, although in +reality springing but from trivial causes, be organized to +overturn rather than to sustain a government. Without intending +in the least to be sectional, or even to verge, in the slightest +degree, on the brink of politics, we will venture to say that the +history of events in this country within the last few years will +sustain this position. Too much liberty--such as is usually +enjoyed in new communities free from proper social +restraints--confuses the reason. Law, as a centre of action, is +the only safeguard of any people; and to be law, it must be +firmly planted in constitutions beyond the reach of the passions +of the populace. To maintain law as a centre, there must not be +too many flying forces connected with it at a distance from those +regular and steady communities which have developed it. For, +unless the system of law is equally developed, and the structure +of society (upon which the law is founded) is equally perfected +in every part of a country where the central source of labor is +equally controlled by law-givers from every part, we must expect +a general deterioration of morals, corresponding to the mixture +of good and bad elements which are the active forces of the +lawmaking power. Too many "territories," and too many new States +at a distance from the older communities, tend, in our judgment, +to unsettle the morals of the country, and, through the morals, +the laws, and ultimately through the laws, the government itself. +We have divided our people into fractions too fast. It would have +been better for our own, and for the interests of humanity, if we +had held more firmly together in better connected and more +contiguous communities. Our people would not then have had the +same wild ideas about "law" that many of them have to-day, and +the better united interests of the country would have made a more +loving and united people. + +Unity, in the affairs of men, is certainly a great desideratum. +Immense geographical and social divisions between people usually +produce a spirit of alienation, and, in many instances, of +absolute hostility. Mere navigable streams of water and railroad +connections cannot so connect a people at the distance of many +hundreds of miles from each other as to make them but one people. +The nearest possible approach that can be made to a close social +and sympathetic connection between peoples who are separated from +each other by so much space, is to bridge the space over by +densely packed masses of human beings, and then we establish +lines of mental and social sympathy which will make them but one +people. This is the only method, aside from the bond of religious +unity, by which a close and hearty cooperation can be secured +between people even of one blood and living under the same laws. +The human bridge connecting together remote parts of a country is +the most complete. + +{672} + +The true policy, then, is not to plant colonies or "settlements" +at distances from the centres of settlement, and to bridge over, +with human beings, the intervening space, by degrees. But on the +contrary, for us to advance in a body, closely connected, and to +carry, unbroken, our civilization with us as we go. There will +then be no spasmodic disturbances of the law. The wild passions +of the wild tribes who roam our borders will not then be +incorporated (as is now too often the case) by our people, who go +in fragmentary bodies to great distances from the solid +settlements, and there make their dwellings amidst the rude +timbers of nature. There would be, under this plan of settlement, +an equipoise and a balance. It would be regular, steady, and not +as now fragmentary. The arrangement of the State divisions--as a +form of government--would not, in the least, be interfered with. +We only propose that, instead of disjointed masses of human +beings going off by themselves at great distances from the main +settlements, people hold, as they go, more together as a body, +and that we encourage wild schemes of emigration less. They have +had upon our people, upon our laws, and upon society, a most +disastrous and unsettling effect. The policy which we propose +does not interfere with commerce or with healthy travel, but is +only against the wild spirit of emigration which has seized upon +the world, and which moves those not engaged in commerce to seek +new homes. + +The charms of nativity will be greatly increased by educating the +mind to look upon our earlier homes as the theatres in which we +are to act our parts in life. It will develop in us a more +conformatory spirit in life, and will secure for us the +measureless blessings of a compact and united society. A +different training and a different practice are the fruitful +sources of those wild idiosyncrasies in society which teach us +that all men should be to us alike, and that there are no sacred +fountains of the affections where the faith of the heart ever +beams bright, and where the hallowed altars of love and +confidence have established their holiest worship. In a word, the +home-training, continuing through a life, and ending, for the +most part, where begun, that is, under the genius of the same +state laws, and amongst people of a kind, is indispensable to +happiness, and to the natural enjoyment of life. It is equally, +alas! indispensable to a full understanding of the genius of law +and to the development of that conservative spirit in us which +will teach us to value the blessings of social life far too much +for us ever to interfere in their sacred enjoyment by other +people. The man of home, then, as against the emigrant and the +wanderer, is a man of peace, a man of law, a man of religion, and +a man of society. He does not go with his rifle to destroy, nor +with his individual will to make it the law of the surrounding +country; but he is content to stay at home, and he accepts the +developments of society there as he finds them, and labors +conscientiously, when improvement is needed, to improve them; but +always within the boundaries of those barriers which Christianity +and conscience have set up as the landmarks of his labors. +{673} +If we would preserve our stability, then, as a people, and make +our government and society what they ought to be, we must change +our wandering habits, and must cultivate the flowers of home-love +as the only sure guarantee of peace and happiness. We must not +allow our wandering ambitions to stretch away into other domains; +but we must put upon ourselves the bridle of wisdom, and must be +content to people our fields at home with the laborers which we +now offer to other lands, to other climes, and to other states. +This policy will make us _truly_ great. + +---------- + + A Mother's Prayer. + + The regent of a goodly realm, + A sovereign wise and fair, + Gazed fondly on her youthful son, + And breathed her earnest prayer; + The one wish of her loving heart, + Her ceaseless, solemn thought, + Sole boon her love had craved for him, + The only prize she sought. + + Was it new conquests? blood-bought gems + To deck his kingly hand? + Fair realms by cruel triumphs wed + Unto his rightful land? + Rich trappings? robes of royal state? + A fawning courtier throng? + Or minstrels' ringing lays, to pour + The flatteries of song? + + Nay, nay, no earthly leaven base, + No worldly dross could cling + Unto that pure, maternal prayer + For France's youthful king. + 'My precious son! more dear than life, + More prized than aught on earth, + In all this false and fleeting world + My only gift of worth! + +{674} + + "Oh! loved and treasured as thou art, + Far rather would I weep + Above the bier where thou wert laid + In thy last, dreamless sleep, + Than live to know this form of thine + Held, foully shrined within, + A tarnished gem, a soul defiled, + By _e'en one mortal sin._." + + Well answered was that mother's prayer: + No foul, polluting taint + E'er marred the white and shining soul + Of France's royal saint. + His pure baptismal robe of grace + Unstained through life he wore; + The lily sceptre of the just + King Louis brightly bore. + + O Christian matron! in thy heart + This lesson fair enshrine; + And let the blest, heroic prayer + Of holy Blanche be thine. + For what are all the gifts of earth, + The charms of form and face, + If the immortal soul hath lost + Its bright, baptismal grace? + + Ay! what avails the wealth of worlds, + If, lured by syren vice, + God's heir hath sold his birthright fair, + His only "pearl of price"? + In vain may proud ambition grasp + Vast realms to tyrants given, + If from his guilty hand hath passed + The heritage of heaven. + +------- +{675} + + Two Months In Spain + During The Late Revolution. + + +MADRID. + +Monday, Oct. 19. + +We visit the "Museo" to-day--the richest picture-gallery in the +world. Ten Raphaels, forty-six Murillos, sixty-two Rubens, +sixty-four Velasquez, forty-three Titians, etc. But even +Raphael's "Perla," (that holy family called the Pearl,) even his +"Spasmo de Silicia," (Christ falling beneath the cross,) even +Guido's exquisite Magdalen and Spagnoletto's "Jacob's Dream," +even these great pictures sink to nothingness beside Murillo's +"Annunciation," his "Adoration of the Shepherds," "Eleazar at the +Well," "The Martyrdom of St. Andrew," the "Divine Shepherd," the +Infant Saviour giving St. John to drink from a shell, called "Los +Niños de la Concha," the "Vision of St. Bernard," and those +wonderful "Conceptions" which embody "all that is most sublime +and ecstatic in devotion and in the representation of divine +love." + +The more one sees of Murillo, the more one is convinced that he +is the greatest painter of the world. Others may have points of +excellence superior to his; but his subjects are so full of piety +and tenderness, so fascinating in coloring, and appeal so at once +to the heart and the common sense of mankind, that they please at +once the learned and the unlearned. The Spaniards say of him that +he painted "Con leche y sangre," with milk and blood, so +wonderful are his flesh tints. + +The "Spasmo de Silicia" is so called from the convent for which +it was painted, "St. Maria della Spasima," in Palermo. "The +Virgin's Trance on the way to Calvary" is considered by some +critics only second to the "Transfiguration." + +The "Perla" is so named because Philip IV., beholding it for the +first time, exclaimed, "This is the pearl of my pictures." It +belonged to the Duke of Mantua, was bought by Charles I., and was +sold with his other pictures by the "tasteless puritans and +reformers." + + +Tuesday, Oct. 20. + +Spend another hour in the "Museo," looking at the pictures of the +Flemish and Dutch schools--fifty-three Teniers, twenty-two Van +Eycks, fifty-four Breughels, twenty-three Snyders, ten +Wouvermans, etc. A wonderful gallery, so rich in great masters. + +We then go to see the "House of the Congress," which is +handsomely decorated. The ministers' bench is here blue, while +the others are red. + +The library is small but very handsome. From this we go to the +interesting artillery museum, and then to see the coach-houses +and stables of the palace, begun by Charles III. and finished by +Ferdinand VII. One felt more than ever sorry for the poor +fugitive queen, at sight of all this majesty. Beautiful Arabian +and Andalusian horses and mules, over a hundred carriages of +every hue and shape, from the black, cumbrous thing in which poor +Jeanne la Folle carried about the coffin of her handsome husband, +to the beautiful modern carriage in which the lovely Infanta went +so lately to her bridal! All had a personal sort of interest; but +most touching of all was the sight of the little carriages and +perambulators which bore evidence of having been long used by the +royal children. + +{676} + +The state carriages are very grand, many of them gifts from +crowned heads: one from the first Napoleon; another from the +present emperor to Queen Isabella; and a handsome plain English +coach from Queen Victoria to her majesty. But even more than the +carriages do the saddles and embroidered housings, the plumes, +and harness, and trappings, and liveries, give one an idea of +this splendor-loving court, especially those belonging to the +days of Charles III. and Philip V. Above all these stood the +crowned lion, with his feet on two worlds, significant of the +greatness of Spain. And where is she, so lately the mistress of +all this grandeur? The people told us that there had been +thirteen thousand people dependent upon the queen's privy purse; +that she had a school in the palace for all the children of her +servants; and that there was no end to her generosity and +kindness; and that, had she not been away, the revolution would +never have occurred. + +And just here we meet a long line of troops, horse, foot, and +artillery, who proved to be the men who had fought so bravely for +their queen at Alcolea, and at such fearful odds. The men of +Novaliches! + +And no man cried, "God bless them!" as they passed, weary and +dispirited, through the streets; their enemies would not do them +honor, and their friends dared not. + +When we reached the hotel, General Prim was making a speech to a +ragged, dirty mob, who were shouting for "Libertad." He told them +it was his saint's day--that they need not work, he would give +them money. So, after distributing some coppers, he got into a +fine carriage and drove off. While we struggled to get in, one of +our party heard some of the poor women exclaim softly, "Our poor +queen!" and then the usual piteous exclamation, "Ay Dios mios!" +"Ay Dios mios!" + + + +Wednesday, Oct. 21. + +Go this morning to "finish" the pictures in the Museo--if such a +thing could be done--but the more one looks, the more one feels +it impossible ever to finish with them. + +The sculpture-gallery (gallery of Isabella II.) is very handsome, +but contains only a few antiques of interest and a beautiful +modern statue of St. John of God carrying a sick man out of his +burning hospital. Next we go to the gallery of the Belli Arti, +where, among other good pictures, are four of Murillo's, and +first of these "St. Elizabeth of Hungary washing the Lepers," one +of the greatest pictures in the world--by some considered +Murillo's very best. It was painted for the "Caritad" of Seville, +for which its subject made it peculiarly appropriate. The +beautiful saint is the centre of a group of nine persons plainly +dressed in black, an apron before her, the crown upon her head, +and above and around a soft luminous halo seems to beam from her +whole person. Her white hands are washing the head of a ragged +boy who leans over the basin, and writhes with pain. A lovely +young girl holds a pitcher, another the ointments, and an old +woman with spectacles peers between them. In front of the +picture, a beggar-man is taking off the dirty bandage from his +leg, ready for his turn to be washed. On the other side, a +withered old crone, with stick in hand, gazes eagerly on the +saint, who speaks with her. A lame beggar on crutches is behind, +and in the distance is the palace and a dinner-table upon the +terrace, surrounded by beggars, upon whom the queen waits, +showing her charity in another form. +{677} +An artist who was copying the picture made us remark the +wonderful variety and harmony in the figure, the tender pity of +the saint's expression, the natural and graceful grouping, and +the soft light over all. Many critics find the sores too truly +painted to be agreeable to look upon; but (as some Protestant +traveller says of it) "her saint-like charity ennobles these +horrors, on which her woman's eye dares not look; but her royal +hand does not refuse to heal, and how gently! The service of love +knows no degradation." + +In another room are two semicircular pictures, taken also from +Seville, (from the church of St. Maria de la Blanca,) +representing the legend of the founding of the great church of +St. Maria Maggiore in Rome, in the year 360. + +The first picture represents the "Dream" of the Roman patrician +and his wife, in which he sees the Blessed Virgin in the heavens, +pointing out the spot where the church shall be built--upon which +spot the snow will fall in August. In the companion picture, the +founder and his wife are kneeling before the pope relating the +vision, while in the dim distance is seen a procession advancing +to the appointed place. + +Coming from the Museo, we go to see the palace of the Duke of +Medina Coeli, one of the richest nobles of Spain and one of the +highest in rank. A regal establishment, with a greater air of +comfort than prevails in most palaces. Gardens and +picture-galleries, a theatre, suites of magnificent rooms--one in +rose-colored satin, with walls hung in gray silk. + + +Thursday, Oct. 22. + +Set out for Toledo; pass the palace of "Aranjuez," the St. Cloud +of Spain, as la Grandja, built by Philip V., is its Versailles. +We mistake our way, and are left on the plains of la Mancha in a +miserable "posada," or rather a "venta," (the lower grade of +inn,) where we remain all day with nothing visible save one of +Don Quixote's windmills, which we are sorely tempted to battle +with after the fashion of that redoubtable hero. How truly it has +been said of this sterile-looking country, the "old Castile of la +Mancha," by a witty traveller--" the country is brown, the man is +brown, his jacket, his mantle, his wife, his _stew_, his +mule, his house--all partake of the color of the saffron, which +is profusely cultivated, and which enters into the composition of +his food as well as his complexion." + +At length we are cheered by the arrival of a lovely Spanish woman +and her daughter, who are returning from their estate near by, +and come, like ourselves, to wait the train for Madrid. + +The daughter had been educated in the Sacré Coeur Convent near +Madrid. Spoke French well. She told us in her lively way that, +though these plains looked so brown and desert-like, they brought +good crops and "put money in the pocket," and that back from the +roads were fine plantations of olive and vine. + + + +Saturday, Oct. 24. + +Some Spanish friends come to show us some of the hospitals and +other great charities of Madrid, which numbers forty in all. +First, to the general hospital, attended by the Sisters of +Charity--a city in itself, where are over eighteen hundred sick +poor. It covers an immense extent of ground, and, like all +Spanish hospitals, has shady courts, and gardens, and corridors +running around the courts. All was clean and comfortable, the +sisters tenderly feeding the sick children and old people, and +reading or praying beside the beds. + +{678} + +From this we go to the most interesting of all, called the +"Maison de la Providence," supported by the ladies of rank in +Madrid, and under the care of the French Sisters of Charity, who +wear the familiar "cornette." Here, besides _enfants +trouvés_ and orphans, they have (or had) six hundred poor +children, taken out of the streets. Many of these are kept for +the day, the parents seeking them at night: all of them are +taught gratuitously. We were shown a room in which forty of the +smallest (not one over two years) had been put to bed for the +noonday sleep, perfect little cherubs, side by side, on the +tiniest and whitest of beds, with fringed curtains above them. +The sister opened the window-shutters to give us a look at this +lovely picture; and the light woke many of them, who sat up +rubbing their bright eyes, and looking with wonder at the +strangers, but not one cried. In one corner were great basins and +towels showing why the faces were so clean and rosy. + +The sister then took us to the playground, where hundreds of +little things, from the ages of three to six years, were playing; +the boys on one side, the girls on the other; the sisters with +them. We were invited to remain and see them go into school, that +we might see the system of uniting instruction with amusement, +which has been so successfully employed by these charitable +teachers. At the sound of an instrument, (something like a +castanet,) the little things fell into ranks, one behind the +other, the hindmost holding on with both hands to the shoulders +of the one who preceded him. In this way, and slowly keeping time +with their little feet, they marched into the room, marching and +countermarching with admirable precision. Three divisions of +eight, headed by a "captain," (a well-drilled soldier,) form, and +go to their seats; each captain helps to seat his division, and +then counts to see if he has the correct number. The children +then rise to say the Lord's Prayer, all in concert, slowly and +reverently, preceding it with the "sign of the cross," made with, +some, such tiny fingers! The sister next proceeds to give a +lesson. Great black letters, on wooden blocks, (so large as to be +seen by all,) are one by one laid in grooves upon an inclined +plane, the children all (together) calling out the letter as it +is placed, spelling the word, then reading (or rather, singing) +the sentence. If the sister makes a mistake, a dozen little +voices correct it. A child of six is next chosen to spell a +sentence, and severe were the little critics when he misplaced a +letter. Next came a lesson in Scripture history. A book of +colored prints was opened here and there, and the stories were +told by the children in their own pretty way, of Adam and Eve, +David and Absalom, etc. We were presently shown the children old +enough to be taught to work, little things of five and six years, +knitting or sewing; and then a class making plain sewing; and +then the larger orphan girls, working the finest needlework and +embroidery. + +And this is one of eight such institutions in Madrid! It is kept +up by individual charity; and the fear is, that it must be +curtailed if not closed on account of the revolution; the ladies +who contributed most to it having been forced to leave with the +queen's party, or having absented themselves from fear of getting +into trouble. These high-born ladies have had also many schools +in different parts of the city, where they taught the poor every +Sunday, as in our Sunday-schools. The provisional government has +stopped all these, on the pretext that they are "incendiary," as +they have also that of the "Conferences of St. Vincent de Paul"! + +{679} + +Our Spanish friends tell us of the closing, yesterday, of the +"royal school," (founded many centuries ago by one of the kings +of Spain, and supported from the privy purse of the reigning king +or queen,) for the daughters of the nobility who have met with +reverse of fortune, orphans and others of good birth but of no +means. Yesterday these poor girls were turned out, homeless, +houseless; and as they passed along, the brutal rabble insulted +them with cries of, "Come out, you thieves; you have eaten our +bread long enough; come out, and let us have place." To-day, we +see them tearing down the building. And this is "progress!" + +We hear that the carriage of the Duchess Medina Coeli has been +assaulted to-day, the crown upon her carriage pelted, the glasses +broken, with the cry of "Down with the aristocrats!"--that fatal +cry, which (with many other bad things) they borrow from the +French, and which was the signal to spill so much "good" blood. + + + Toledo. + +October 25. + +Only three hours' time (by rail) separate Toledo and Madrid, the +old and new world of Spain! What a contrast between the two! +Toledo towers like an eagle's nest on the steep rock, the "dark, +melancholy" Tagus winding below, with walls and Moorish gates and +steep crags, with Roman and Gothic and Arabic ruins, with +glorious memories of the fierce and warlike Goths, and of its +imperial renown under Charles V.; while the modern upstart, +Madrid, has nothing of which to boast, save fine houses, and +shops, bustle and traffic, noise and dirt, "progress" and +revolution! + +Toledo is said to have been a Phoenician or Grecian colony, then +conquered by the all-absorbing Romans, 146 B.C., and the favorite +resort of the Jews who fled from Jerusalem after its fall, and +who became here rich and powerful, and exercised an important +influence in the history of the country until expelled by +Ferdinand and Isabella, in 1492. + +In the fifth century, the Goths conquered Spain and founded that +splendid and powerful kingdom which, after three hundred years, +ended with Roderick in 712, when the Moors, under Taric, +overthrew the Goths in the battle of the Guadalete, and overran +all Spain. In 1085, it was reconquered by Alonzo V., and Toledo +was the seat of the court until removed by Philip II. to Madrid +in 1560, and (for a few years) to Valladolid. + +Our first duty is to the cathedral, considered by many persons to +be the finest building in the world. It was commenced by St. +Ferdinand in 1227, on the site of a mosque, which, in turn, had +been built upon a church founded in 587 by St. Eugenius, the +friend and disciple of St. Denis, who introduced Christianity +into Spain. It employed one hundred and forty-nine of the +greatest artists of the world two hundred and sixty-six years to +complete and render it the masterpiece it now is. The cathedral +of Seville is grander, higher, more impressive from its austere +simplicity; but this, from its greater lightness, the mingling of +the early Gothic with the later and more florid style, from the +Moorish carvings on the white stone of which it is built, is more +graceful and beautiful; and from the thousand memories of great +men and great deeds with which it is associated, its royal tombs +and statues, its Muzurabic chapel, its great relics, its grand +treasures, is infinitely more interesting. + +{680} + +We arrived in time to hear the high mass--the glorious organs, +and fine voices, while the morning sunlight streamed through +seven hundred and fifty stained windows and among eighty-eight +colossal pillars. Picturesque groups knelt before the different +shrines. We chose the chapel of St. Ildefonso, raised upon the +spot where, according to the legend, he received the chasuble +from the hands of the Blessed Virgin, which Murillo has made the +subject of one of his finest pictures. + +Near this chapel is the altar at which Ferdinand and Isabella +heard mass after the conquest of Granada. The grand retablo of +the main altar extends from the altar to the ceiling, and is +considered a marvel of exquisite carving, representing the scenes +in the passion of our Lord--the work of twenty-five artists, of +whom John of Bologna was one. + +On either side of this, (in niches,) are the tombs of Sancho the +Brave, Alfonso VII., and Sancho the Wise, and, below these, that +of the great Cardinal Mendoza. On each side of the altar are +screens, of which the carvings in marble are exquisite, as are +the seventy stalls of the choir, which are divided by jasper +pillars. The two pulpits are of gilt metal resting on marble +columns, and are of the finest workmanship. The chapels are +exceedingly rich, especially that of Santiago, built by that +worthless favorite of John II. of Castile, Don Alvaro de Luna, as +the burial-place of his family. Upon his tomb was originally a +statue which was contrived so as to rise and kneel at the time of +the "elevation" during mass; but Queen Isabella, the wife of John +II., (who was the means of bringing him to justice,) had it +changed. He lies quietly enough now, with his sword between his +legs, while kneeling figures of knights pray at each corner of +the tomb. + +The chapter-house contains portraits of all the archbishops of +Toledo, many pictures, and a superb carved and inlaid ceiling of +alerce wood. Here have been held all the important councils of +Spain. There is a chapel filled with interesting relics, and the +treasures of the church surpass those of all Spain in value. +Among these is the cross which Cardinal Mendoza carried in +procession at the surrender of Granada, and planted on the walls +of the Alhambra; a custodia of gold and silver, weighing +twenty-five arobas--about six hundred pounds--nine feet high, and +covered with myriads of statuettes and exquisite ornaments. It +was given by Queen Isabella, and made from the first gold sent by +Columbus from America. There was one vestment covered with +eighty-five thousand pearls; another with as great profusion of +coral; a crown, and other ornaments of diamonds and other jewels; +a missal, given by St. Louis; some silver plate carved by +Benvenuto Cellini; and in the vestuario is the grandest display +of vestments in the world. Those at St. Peter's are not so fine. +Many of these were given by cardinals Mendoza and Ximenes, by +Queen Isabella, and other sovereigns; and most of them many +centuries old, yet preserving the brightness of the gold and +silver work, and the colors of the embroidery. There were the +chairs used by these great dignitaries, and the hangings used to +adorn the church on the occasion of the thanksgiving for the +victory of Lepanto. + +{681} + +But above all this is the interest felt in the "Muzarabic +Chapel," built by Cardinal Ximenes, (_Cisneros_, as they +call him in Spanish,) to preserve the ancient liturgy of the +Muzarabes, (Muzarabes--mixed Arabs,) who were the Goths who, +after the conquest of Spain by the Moors, agreed to live under +the Moslem rule, retaining the Christian worship. This is the +oldest ritual in Spain, introduced here by the apostles of this +country, St. Torquatus and his companions. It was at first, in +most respects, similar to the Roman liturgy; but underwent many +changes after the conquest of Spain by the Visi-Goths and +Vandals, who were Arians, and brought with them to Spain their +liturgy, which was Greco-Arian, written in Latin. + +This Gothic liturgy was almost exclusively adopted in Spain, +after the fourth council of Toledo in 633, when St. Isidore of +Seville and other celebrated Spanish bishops of this period, to +put a stop to the disorders in the churches, arranged the ritual +and obliged all to follow it. Even after the introduction of the +Gregorian liturgy, the Spaniards retained their own, and it was +universal up to the eighth century, when the Moors conquered +Spain. By those Goths who submitted to the Moors, and who were +promised freedom of their religion, it was guarded with the +utmost vigilance; and even after Spain was conquered by the free +Spaniards, (who had meantime adopted the Gregorian rite,) the +Muzarabes retained their own Gothic rite, and it was allowed to +them in six parishes, just as it had existed during the six +hundred years of Moorish domination. + +But as the Muzarabic families disappeared or mingled with others, +their venerable and ancient liturgy gradually disappeared; and +but for cardinals Mendoza and Ximenes, it must have been lost +entirely. The first formed the design which Ximenes carried +out--gathered up all the manuscripts of their liturgy, had them +revised by their own priests, and printed a great number of the +missals, and built this chapel in his own cathedral, (called "ad +Corpus Christi,") and founded a college of thirteen priests to +serve it, confiding to the chapter of the cathedral the +protection of this religious foundation. Other bishops followed +his example, and in the sixteenth century a chapel was founded in +Salamanca, and another in Valladolid; but the one in Toledo seems +to be the only one now existing: here the mass is said every day +at nine o'clock; but few attend it, and it has become a mere +liturgic curiosity. + +It commences with a prayer very little different from the Roman +liturgy; then the same psalm "Judica me," the introit, the +"Gloria in Excelsis," a lesson from the Old Testament, then the +gradual and epistle. The prayers of the offertory are almost +identical with those of the Roman liturgy; then follow prayers +like the Greek and Milanese liturgies; then the preface. But the +canon of the mass is different; the trisagion is followed +immediately by the consecration, and the credo is said at the +"elevation." The host is divided into two parts; the priest then +divides one part into five, and the other into four small bits; +places them upon the paten, upon which is engraved a cross +composed of seven circles, so that seven pieces of the host are +placed in the seven circles. He then places (on the right) at the +side of the cross upon the paten, the other two parts; each of +these nine parts has a name corresponding to a mystery in the +life of Christ, and they form, placed upon the paten the +following figures, + + Incarnation, Passion, + Nativity, Death, + Circumcision, Resurrection, + Epiphany, Ascension, + Eternal Kingdom. + +{682} + +After this division, follows the "Pater," a prayer for the +afflicted, for prisoners, the sick and the dead. The priest then +takes a particle of the host corresponding to the words, "Eternal +Kingdom," and lets it fall into the chalice, pronouncing the +appropriate words; then he blesses the people, and communicates; +then the particle of the host corresponding to the word +"Ascension," recites a prayer for the dead, says the "Domine, non +sum dignus," and communicates with the particle of the host just +mentioned, and so successively with all the others; empties the +chalice, takes the ablutions, says the post-communion, the "Salva +Regina," blesses the people, and leaves the altar. + +Over the altar of the Muzarabic chapel is a picture of the taking +of Oran, (in Africa,) which Ximenes conquered at his own risk and +his own expense, and made a gift of it to the crown of Spain. + +Opposite the cathedral is the archbishop's palace, where is a +library open to the public, and adjoining this is the "Casa del +Ayuntamiento," house of the municipality, built by Del Greco, a +Greek who came to Toledo in 1577, where he became famous as +painter and architect. + +We now travel through the narrow, precipitous streets, visiting +curious and beautiful architectural remains of the Gothic and +Moorish times, found in public and private buildings, strange +projecting door-posts, with cannon-ball ornaments; traverse the +"Zocodover," the market square, which is most Moorish looking, +with irregular windows and balconies, and is as well the +fashionable promenade, and lounging place as place of traffic. +Among the many churches, two are especially interesting in +arabesque remains--St. Maria de la Blanca and El Transitu, built +in 1326, which were once synagogues; the latter was afterward +given by Queen Isabella to the order of Calatrava. + +Next to the cathedral in interest is the church of St. Juan de +los Reyes, (St. John of the Kings,) St. John being the special +patron of the kings of Spain. This was built by Ferdinand and +Isabella in 1496, in thanksgiving for the victory of Toro, where +they defeated the king of Portugal, who had set up a rival to the +throne of Castile, in the person of Jeanne Beltranea, the natural +daughter of Jeanne of Portugal, wife of Henry II., the elder +brother of Isabella. Upon the outside walls of this church hang +the chains taken off the Christians found in captivity in +Granada. The interior has been much changed; but there still +remain the high tribunes used by the royal family, and much of +the curious and elaborate carving, whose richness was once past +all description. The cloisters of the adjoining convent of +Franciscans, now in ruins, were once one of the most splendid +specimens of florid Gothic art in the world. The fine pointed +arches and delicate arabesque carvings are now half covered by +passion-vine and ivy, and the pretty garden is a desert wild. In +this convent the great Cardinal Ximenes made his novitiate as a +Franciscan monk, from which retirement he was called, by Cardinal +Mendoza, to be the confessor of Queen Isabella; and this +wonderful woman, who had the discernment to know and choose men +who could aid her in her great designs, when Mendoza died, named +as successor to the "great cardinal" the poor monk Francis +Ximenes, who became at one time bishop of Toledo, primate of +Spain, and grand chancellor of Castile; and though, in this +position, the first personage of the court, and the greatest +grandee of the kingdom, he still retained the simple habits of +the Franciscan; and it was necessary to have an order from the +pope to induce him to assume the appendages belonging to his +rank. +{683} +Indeed, it is said that under his robes of silk and velvet he +wore the "cilice" and the coarse brown habit of his order; and +after his death was found the little box with the needles and +thread with which the great primate of Spain mended his own +garments. He concluded the treaties which made Spain at this time +the greatest power of the world; and it is wonderful how this +man, already old--for he was sixty when he assumed the +primacy--how he could at once attend to the various and +multiplied duties of which he is said never to have neglected +anything. He lived in the age of great men, of Mendoza, (el gran +cardinal,) of Gonzales de Cordova, (el gran capitan,) of +Christopher Columbus, and many others, and took part in all the +great events of this great age. Immediately upon the invention of +printing, he had printed the celebrated polyglot Bible of Alcala, +which cost him 500,000 francs of our money, and was in itself +enough to immortalize him. He founded universities, built +colleges, endowed professorships and scholarships, and built +convents and schools for the education of poor children. Raumer, +in his _History of Europe_, says of him, "His sagacity and +his activity were equal to his sanctity. Embracing all the +branches of administration, nourishing the grandest plans and +projects, he neglected for these neither piety nor science. As a +warrior, he commanded in 1509 the crusade which made a descent in +Africa, and conquered Oran. He founded, upon principles which do +honor to his intelligence, the university of Alcala, and directed +the printing of the celebrated Bible to which this city gives its +name. He is the only man admired by his contemporaries as a +politician, a warrior, and a saint at the same time." + +From the esplanade in front of the church of St. Juan de los +Reyes is a fine view. The great manufactory of the "Toledo +blades" lies below upon the wild and melancholy Tagus, which +winds through the plain; beyond are the mountains. The bridge of +St. Martin spans the Tagus on one side, with its Moorish towers +at either end. The tower of Cambron, one of the great Moorish +towers, is in front, in which is a lovely statue of St. Leocadia, +and near the bridge of St. Martin, on the city side, is the site +of the palace of the Gothic kings. Here are some arches of a ruin +called "Los Vaños de Florinda"--she who was the daughter of the +apostate Don Julian, and with whose unhappy fate is involved that +of the last of the Gothic kings. + +The Alcazar, which overlooks the whole city, was a Moorish +palace, then a fortress, with additions made by Alonzo VI., in +1085. Improved by Don Alvarado de Luna, and then by Charles V. in +1548, and by Philip II.'s great architect, Herara, there only +remains the great patio, with its fine columns and the +magnificent staircase for which Philip sent directions from +England. Burned in the war of the succession, it was repaired by +Cardinal Lorenzana, a munificent patron of arts, and whose whole +life was devoted to good works, who made it a silk factory for +poor girls. The French injured it again in 1809, and it has been +a ruin until now, when some repairs seem to be going on by order +of the queen. + +{684} + +The esplanade in front commands a fine view. Just below is the +military college, formerly the great hospital of Santa Cruz, +founded by Cardinal Mendoza. On a height near are the ruins of +the castle of Cervantes, not the author Cervantes, but one which +belonged to the Knights Templars. We pass through the Puerta del +Sol, one of the great Moorish gates, follow the steep and winding +way by the remains of an old Roman bridge and fortress, cross the +bridge of Alcantara, and so--leave Toledo. + +---------- + + All For The Faith. + + +There is a mystery, an evangel, in suffering; and this fiery +evangel, God's message to our immortality, prepares and perfects +the soul for the long hereafter. + +In a humble room sat Sir Ralph de Mohun and the Lady Beatrice. +The soft sunlight of Provence was fading, and athwart the rose +leaves the dying flush rested on this fairest type of girlish +loveliness. Absorbed in her rosary, she sat at the open window; +while, bending near, Sir Ralph watched the gorgeous heavens, +gazing with no thought of the surroundings, and +thinking--thinking as we so often do in the hours that fate +allows us for decision. + +Glimpses of his proud English home stole upon the old man's +vision; of the shadowy oak-lined halls and stately corridors +where, as a boy, he had looked with childish pride upon portraits +of a brave line that had passed their own childhood there; the +cross of the old chapel glittered in his dreams, for beneath it +the mother of his children slept. But now, homeless and an alien, +he would never again see the white cliffs of the land his heart +loved best. + +The battle of the Boyne had crushed the lingering hopes of the +Cavaliers who had forsaken home and kindred to follow the last +Stuart king. If James had only possessed average tact, he might +have retained the affection of his subjects; but strong-willed +without discrimination, zealous without wisdom, his whole reign +was a succession of errors which could not but alienate the +middle classes, all ways practical and struggling against the +encroachments of the aristocracy. Nobly did the Cavaliers rally +to the rescue of this last Catholic king, when, forsaken even by +those of his blood, he stood alone, held at bay by the same +subjects who had sworn him fealty. All through the darkness of +his mistaken flight, through the changeful, disastrous campaign, +and, so trying to their haughty spirit, even unto the court of +Louis, where sneering courtiers dared to greet them with slights +and contumely, they neither swerved nor varied. All this had +tested their loyalty, tried their faith; yet they neither changed +nor forsook him: and of this band none had suffered more than +gallant Sir Ralph de Mohun. + +A very pleasant life was that of the Catholic gentry in England; +they hunted, they were jovial at their meetings, but devout in +the chapel; and no class of the English subjects were more +orderly and refined. But when the old crown rested on other than +the brow of a Stuart, they left the broad moors and sunny downs, +and fled with the monarch who represented not only their +government, but their faith, in old England. + +{685} + +Stripped of the wealth that had given him comfort, despoiled of +all that makes a man's position a blessing, the brave knight +steadily, defiantly met an adverse fate. "_Noblesse +oblige!_" spoke in every phase of his stormy life; he would +suffer, ay, die, as a gentleman, with no murmur to the world of +the sorrow and strife within. But an uncontrolled, unsubdued +feeling warred with the iron resolve which supported him, and +this was his devotion to the last bairn left him by his fair +Scottish wife. + +Twenty summers had deepened her girlhood into that rare +womanhood, refined through suffering, strengthened by discipline; +and the sweet eyes shone with a softer light, a more earnest +loveliness, as they gazed from under the long, dark lashes; while +the gentle, low voice owned a subdued tone, very different from +the lightsome carol that had gladdened bluff Sir Ralph at the gay +meet in old Suffolk. But times were different now, and the table +was becoming scantier, while the silver grew very low; and the +soldier who had rallied the dragoons at the Boyne, had stood +unmoved when advancing squadrons of the English, his own blood in +the front ranks, swept on to attack him, felt his eyes dim as he +watched his frail, last blossom, and knew that soon she would be +in a strange land all alone. + +The afternoon faded into night, and the scanty fire could not +warm the chill and bare chamber in which the old man lay. He was +dozing in the great arm-chair, and Beatrice was crouched on a low +cushion near, when softly the door opened. Was the young girl +dreaming, as with her large eyes larger still, she rose +instinctively, rose as though swayed by an unseen spirit, and +walked out upon the terrace? + +"Beatrice, I have risked life, almost honor for this." + +"Philip Stratherne, life belongs to honor, and honor should never +be risked." + +The speech cost her an effort, for her voice was faint and very +low. + +"I have come to offer peace and comfort, my darling, and--dare I +whisper the story which you used to listen to, under the elms at +home?" + +"Sir Philip Stratherne, you forget the past; you will not +remember the blood that lies between us." + +"My darling! my darling! we have no past save what you gave to +me. Life belongs to honor, your own sweet voice has told me, and +we are commanded to 'love without dissimulation;' therefore the +logic of courts and battle-fields shall claim no power here." + +"Philip! Philip!" was all the maiden could find speech to answer, +uttered in a tone meant to be reproachful. + +Two years of sorrow had passed since the fatal battle of the +Boyne, and the heart of the maiden was very sore, very lonely, +very hungry for the one love that made her life. + +"Beatrice!" called from the room, and she entered. + +"Come and sing to me, little one; for I have been dreaming sad +dreams of the old home." And so she sat on her cushion at his +feet, and sang in her soft alto: + + "It was a' for our rightful king, + We left fair Scotia's strand; + It was a' for our rightful king, + We e'er saw Irish land, + We e'er saw Irish land! + + "The sodger frae the war returns, + The sailor frae the main; + But I hae' parted frae my love, + Never to meet again, + Never to meet again. + + "When day is done, and night is come, + And a' things wrapt in sleep; + I think o' one who's far away, + The lee lang night, an' weep, + The lee lang night, an' weep." + +"Will Sir Ralph Mohun welcome the son of an old friend?" + +{686} + +The old man turned hastily, and Philip Stratherne stood before +him. + +"The time was, Sir Philip, when I should have grasped your hand +with all the feeling which my love for the boy inspired. Now, you +are under the roof of what is left me, and therefore I am +silent." + +There was a stately courtesy in all this which embarrassed and +wounded the young man. + +"This, certainly, is not my former welcome; but the times have +changed the manners, Sir Ralph, and we must accept the change." + +"True, Sir Philip. There is little that I can offer you now; yet +methinks there is a seat for you." + +The young man hesitated, and then sat down. + +"I have not learned diplomacy on battle-fields, Sir Ralph, +therefore I will without preamble tell you what is heavy on my +heart. First, to be selfishly eager, I have come to ask you for +what you promised years ago--your daughter. Sir Ralph de Mohun, +you were once young, and blood coursed as fiery then as now. Can +you find it in your heart to separate us? Then, secondly, your +old friends at court offer entire restitution and pardon, if you +will accept the new _régime_, with England's faith." + +"If I have been true to my country, then must I still be true to +my God! Philip Stratherne, if I had not loved you from your +boyhood, the words that would come to my lips would tell you what +my heart wills to speak to _all_ who have proved false! For +the rest, my daughter has the Mohun blood, and she knows what her +church teaches." + +And Beatrice sat silent, crushed as a lily powerless from the +storm. She knew her duty, she felt her love. Reason--honor told +her that even love could not span the chasm through which the +blood of her gallant brothers flowed. They, too, had followed the +fortunes of the Stuart king, and one lay dead before the bastions +of Londonderry, while another gave up his young life with the +war-shout on his fearless lips, in the van of his father's +regiment at Newtown-butler. + +It was Philip Stratherne who led the detachment of Enniskillen +horse that rode down the mere handful of Irish dragoons, inspired +by Guy Mohun's ringing cry; and Sir Ralph had listened to Philip +Stratherne's voice, as, clear and steady, it rallied the +Enniskilleners to the charge that had snatched that last son from +him. Not only for the Stuart had he yielded his glorious life, +but for the cross, for the faith, in the defence of which +centuries had borne brave testimony for the Mohuns, not only in +bonnie England, but on every battle-field in Christendom. + +A stern self-control subdued the old man; but the girl, the woman +was suffering; honor commanded, duty pleaded, but a wilder, +stronger, stormier feeling fought within her now. The color +crimsoned the fair face, and the sweet eyes turned, rested for +one moment on the young man with all the girl's tenderness, all +the woman's passion--a mute appeal, a dying cry for help; then +with the delicate hands clasped tightly over her breast, as +though to keep down the heart's mad struggling, she spoke so low +that the words seemed almost inarticulate, yet to the man +listening with such painful eagerness each sound knelled the +death which knows no "resurgam!" Only the simple words came +faltering forth, came sobbing as the wind soughs the prelude to +destruction, ere the lightning scathes its fiery death; and so in +this whisper he heard, + +"Were I a false Mohun, I could not be a true Stratherne." + +{687} + +Then without a word she left them; and when the old man sought +her, he found her lying as one dead before her crucifix. Tenderly +he raised her, and from his lips sounded the prayer: + +"May the Lord receive the sacrifice from thy hands, to the praise +and glory of his name, and to the benefit both of us and of his +holy church." + +"Amen!" whispered a low voice, and the soft eyes unclosed all dim +with tears. + +No murmur escaped her lips, no regret was ever spoken, but fairer +and frailer in her rare loveliness, the old man trembled as he +watched her, and he cried in the bitterness of his agony, + +"Save me, O God! for the waters are come in even unto my soul." + +It was Holy-week, the most solemn of the Lenten season, and +Beatrice Mohun knelt in the old cathedral during the impressive +_Tenebrae_, and as the fourteen candles were extinguished, +and the solemn _Miserere_ rose, from the depths of her heart +came the prayer: + +"Let not the tempest of water drown me, nor the deep swallow me +up." + +And the pervading gloom corresponded with her own spirit; her +life owned no brightness, and the one tie left her seemed fast +wearing away. Trouble had weakened the iron constitution of Sir +Ralph; for more exhausting than mere physical pain is the +ceaseless care that preys upon the vitals, claiming life as its +tribute. + +He felt that he could buy back ease and comfort for his darling, +and he knew that for him earth held but a very few years; but to +obtain all this, he must barter his honor, yield his creed, and +the old blood still owned the fierceness of a changeless +fidelity. No Mohun had ever swerved, not even in the dark days of +the last Tudor, nor after, when his graceless daughter held the +sceptre. And now, though bereft of home, with his gallant sons +lying far from their kindred, his fair young daughter +life-wrecked, his own existence a burden, when even starvation +mocked them, the loyal spirit knew no change; but staunchly by +the old faith, true to the weak king, the brave knight still +fought his adverse destiny. + +And Beatrice came back through the darkness, and leaned against +the couch on which her father lay. + +"Come to me, little one; for I fear that you are not as strong as +in the days when wild Bess bore you to the hunt. Have you any +regrets for the past, my darling?" + +"Duty gives us discipline, papa, and it would not be right to +question Providence." + +"Bravely spoken, my daughter; you nerve a courage which was +growing too human to be strong. But you grieve at the choice +which has kept you the slave of an old man's caprice?" + +"O papa!" and a low quick sob stopped her; then with more control +she quietly said, "You forget that it was not only to be with +you, but to remain firm and loyal to holy church; and papa, I +often think that earth is only the high road to a better world; +therefore I only pray that the end may be very near." + +"Little one, bring the light nearer--let me look upon your face; +hold it nearer, darling. Ah God! this is the dimness which brings +my warning. Quick, daughter mine, send for Father Paolo. Now, O +God! my eyes, darkened with the mist of death, fix their last +dying looks on thy crucified image. Merciful Jesus, have mercy on +me!" + +{688} + +Father Paolo did come, and in the gray dawn of Good-Friday the +old knight lay dying. + +"Kyrie Eleison!" said the clear voice of the holy father, and, +clasping closer the blessed crucifix, the old man's voice was +steady as he responded, "Christe eleison!" And alone in her agony +the young girl knelt. + +A clattering of hoofs sounded in the court-yard, and a quick +step, that startled her even then, broke the solemn stillness. + +"In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum," prayed the +priest. + +"Domine Jesu Christe, suscipe spiritum meum," in clear, earnest +tones rung out the old man's voice; then the door was flung open, +and Philip Stratherne entered. + +"Not too late, thank God! Hold her not away from me. Say now that +you die William's subject, and all your own shall be hers." + +The closing eyes opened, the old strength came back to them, and +a sweet smile illumed his face, as the words came, + +"Maria, mater gratis, mater misericordiae, tu me ab hoste +protege, et in hora mortis suscipe!" And with a long low sigh the +spirit passed away to God. + +With a sob that rent her heart in twain, Beatrice threw herself +beside her father. + +"My darling, come with me; the last obstacle has passed away, and +God has given you as my legacy." + +She made no answer. The solemn monotone of the priest alone was +heard, "Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat +ei." + +But to all this the man was deaf; he only saw the prostrate girl, +and listened to her sobs of agony. + +"My waif has drifted to her haven, and I will guard her with my +life." + +His strong arms were around her, and the voice that thrilled her +soul was sounding in her ears. How could she send him from her? +"Ah! God help me!" she cried. + +"Et ne nos inducas in tentationem," came in deep, sonorous tones +from the priest. + +"Sed libera nos a malo," sounded the response. + +And further, "Domine, exaudi orationem meam!" + +"Et clamor meus ad te veniat!" and Beatrice fainted with these +words upon her lips. + +"Son, leave her to us," urged the priest, but he would not go +till she opened her sweet eyes. + +"Daughter!"--and she caught the hand of Father Paolo, as in the +desperation of agonized despair. A shadow darkened Philip +Stratherne's brow. + +"The cursed priest again!" he muttered between his closed teeth. +"Tell me when I may see you again, Beatrice, free from these +fearful surroundings." + +"The Monday of Easter-week," was all she replied, and he left +her. + +And when the Monday dawned, bright with the carol of birds, he +sought her; but the old chateau by the valley was silent, the +shutters barred, and the flowers drooping and dead. An aged woman +came hobbling to him, who said, with the tears dimming her old +eyes, "Ah! the sweet bird has flown, master, and St. Ursula +guards her from behind the bars." + +"God of heaven, save me! Here is gold if you will prove this +false." + +"Keep your gold for charity, master; for the truth is strong; and +our holy Mother keeps her safe from all evil." + +{689} + +Wild with the horror of losing her, he strode across the valley +to the convent near. The angelus was sounding, and over the +hills, up the broad river, the holy prayer-call echoed, for the +Easter season rejoiced the earth; her _jubilate_ for the +blessed link connecting the God-man with humanity. + +Blade, and leaf, and blossom gloried in the new life, and the +spring sun spread over the natural world the same light with +which the resurrection gladdened the soul; but to all this was +the young man blind and deaf and dumb--for surging and beating +within his heart was the stormy, o'er-mastering human feeling. He +only knew that the woman to whom he bent the knee in this mad, +idolatrous love was lost to him, he only felt that fate had +snatched her from him for ever! The sister started, as his +deathly face presented itself. With scarcely human utterance, he +asked for the Lady Beatrice, and after a few moments, the +messenger returned, and a folded paper was put in his hand. He +read: + + "The Lord keepeth thee from all evil: + may the Lord keep thy soul!" + +And she, with her intenser passion, clinging steadily, loving +unselfishly, as only a woman can, gave him up; yielded her costly +tribute to the faith which taught her that loyalty to God +demands, if need be, all that life and love can give. Then, faint +and weary, bruised and suffering, yet staunch and true to her +faith as she was, the holy church opened its arms to her, +comforting the broken spirit, healing the bleeding heart, and +blessing her with the precious benediction that brings its calm +to those who seek the life that dieth not. In deeds of unselfish +love and sacrifice, she passed her days; all the strength within +her clinging to the cross, all the human passion purified, +glorified into the worship of the Lamb whose blood had made her +whiter than snow. And safe in her haven, the dove of peace rested +upon her heart; for the "fellowship of the Holy Ghost" had +sanctified her: and thus, when her summers were yet in their +flush, she passed away to God. + +But he forgot her in the years that came after, and found +happiness in the fair English Protestant, whose children heired +the broad lands of the brave Mohuns. Verily man's love is +fleeting, but in God is eternal life; and while we pay our +tribute to one who was so strong in resisting, we pray that all +who are thus tempted may likewise prove ready to yield all for +the faith. + +------- +{690} + + The Struggle Between Letter And Spirit In The Jewish Church. + Conference Preached In The Cathedral Of Notre Dame, + In Paris, By R. Pere Hyacinthe, January 3, 1869. + + + Littera occidit, spiritus autem vivificat. + + "The letter killeth; but the spirit giveth life." + + + [It is due to R. P. Hyacinthe to say that the following + translation is made from a short-hand report, published in the + _Semaine Religieuse de Paris_. In style, in development of + ideas, the _compte rendu_ is incomplete. But to us who + cannot listen to the great Carmelite's eloquence, in the nave + of Notre Dame, even an outline of this conference, so full of + fresh and healthy thought, will be acceptable.--TRANS.] + + +Rev. P. Hyacinthe takes this text from St. Paul, at once as the +basis and the summary of his entire conference. On previous +occasions he had pointed out two elements in the Jewish Church, +opposed to each other yet equally essential to the aims of that +church; the one exclusive, securing the preservation of the +sacred deposit of revelation; the other universal, insuring the +diffusion of this deposit throughout the whole human race. These +two elements he now calls, in the language of the apostle, +_letter_ and _spirit_. According to the letter, the +Bible--that is to say, the Old Testament, is exclusive; according +to the spirit, it is universal. The internal struggle of these +two elements forms the history of Judaism, thoughtfully viewed. +Their startling rupture during the life of Jesus Christ +introduced the Christian era, inaugurated the Catholic Church. As +sons of that holy and infallible church, we need not fear the +triumph of the letter; but as members of a church composed of and +governed by imperfect men and sinners, we should not disregard +the struggles of the letter for predominance. Let us, then, +review the profitable history of these combats between letter and +spirit in the bosom of Judaism, considering successively the +representatives of the letter and the representatives of the +spirit in the Jewish Church. + + + + I. The Representatives Of The Letter. + + +These were the kings and priests. The kings represented the +letter in the political order; the priests, in the religious +order. + +I. David prophesied, "He shall rule from sea to sea, and from the +river unto the ends of the earth. And all kings of the earth +shall adore him; all nations shall serve him." And discerning in +the far-off radiance that one among his sons whom he called the +Anointed, the Christ _par excellence_, he said, or let the +Lord say by his lips: "Sit thou at my right hand until I make thy +enemies thy footstool. With thee is the principality in the day +of thy strength: in the brightness of the saints: from the womb +before the day star I begot thee." + +{691} + +In the throne of the son of David, the God-engendered, two +royalties were united: a temporal royalty, created to reign over +the house of Jacob, confined within the narrow limits of its own +blood, _regnabit in domo Jacob_; and a royalty destined to +extend throughout all humanity, within the wide boundary of the +faith of Abraham, _regnabit in aeternumn_. + +The danger lay in confounding these two royalties, in absorbing +the celestial in the terrestrial royalty--an error so frequent in +similar unions. To this danger succumbed the synagogue. + +In a national church, or in a religious nation, no peril is more +imminent, none more fatal, than the confusion of religious and +political forms. [Footnote 168] Already great while remaining +human, for such it is in character and origin, political thought +becomes still greater in ascending to the heavenly spheres of +morality and religion. But religion shrinks in dimensions, +abdicating its true position, revolting against human instinct, +and wounding the attributes of Divine Majesty, when it assumes +political forms, adopting the ideas, the habits, the paltry +interests of politics. + + [Footnote 168: Lest those who may be unacquainted with + previous conferences of Père Hyacinthe should interpret this + passage as referring to the temporal power, we subjoin a + quotation from a conference delivered by him in Notre Dame in + the year 1867. Speaking of the complications caused by + placing political power and religious power in the same + hands, R. P. Hyacinthe says: "Nowhere under the sun of the + Catholic world do I find this dreadful confusion. If you bid + me look toward Rome, it is not the confusion, it is the + exceptional alliance of the two powers that I hail in that + place, itself exceptional as a miracle. Beneficent alliance, + knot of the liberty of conscience, never to be united, + because it unites there what it must separate elsewhere, + never were you more fearfully necessary to us than now! You + have received the testimony of French blood, shed by those + who have been called mercenaries while they are simply + heroes! You are defended by the eloquent words, the national + words of our orators, by the energetic and loyal declarations + of our government." + + In a conference preached at Rome during the Lent of 1868, R. + P. Hyacinthe compares those who urge the church to throw + aside the temporal power, and lead a purely supernatural + existence, to Satan tempting Christ to cast himself from the + pinnacle of the temple, that angels may bear him up.] + +Such, however, was the kingdom which kings, and the partisans of +kings, persistently dreamed of giving to humanity. For one single +instant, under David, that prophetic ideal foreseen and pictured +by the prophet king shone with unblemished purity, soon to be +veiled under the worldly, (we will speak in plain terms,) under +the pagan ideal of Solomon. + +Solomon was a great king, especially at the outset of his career. +He was always great, even in his errors and crimes. But +intoxicated with the science of nature, which he possessed, says +the inspired text, from the cedar growing on the summit of +Lebanon to the hyssop piercing the cracks of the walls, Solomon, +not content with knowledge leading to God, wished to possess all +the riches and the loves of earth. He built him palaces bearing +little resemblance to the palm-tree beneath which Deborah +administered justice, or to the tents where David camped with his +soldiers; palaces so sumptuous that the queen of Sheba came from +the depths of Arabia to admire them. He had harems filled with +women, chiefly foreigners and idolaters; seven hundred sultanas +and three hundred concubines! Then letting this inebriation +mount, I will not say from heart, but from sense to brain, he +fell down with his women at the feet of all their idols, +venerating, under poetic symbols, that great nature which is the +work of God and so easily takes the place of God. + +Such was the spectacle presented by Jerusalem under the successor +of David--a hideous spectacle, but made less repulsive in the +days of Solomon by a glory he had no power to bequeath to his +heirs in Judah and to his Israelitish emulators. He left them +only his pride, his sensuality, his idolatry; and when the two +inimical yet analogous monarchies succumbed at last beneath the +blows of powerful neighbors, of those northern conquerors whose +favors they had so often solicited, and whose arms they had so +often braved, they left behind them, in the history of the holy +nation, a long track of mire and blood. + +{692} + +Such was the royalty of Judea, such the royalty of Israel; +promised to the world under the name of the kingdom of God! + +So perverted were the Jews by their kings--or, to speak more +justly, for we must not misjudge these kings, so perverted were +they by national pride, that they could not throw aside this +gross ideal, but contemplated still, under the profaned name of +the kingdom of God, the domination of races with the sword and +with a rod of iron. When the true Messiah, Jesus, came to them, +they misunderstood him, chiefly because he rejected this low and +narrow royalty, proclaiming the true principle of the kingdom of +God--a spiritual kingdom which should be in the world, but not of +the world; _regnum meum non est de hoc mundo;_ a spiritual +kingdom which comes to bear witness of the truth, _ego in hoc +natus sum et ad hoc veni in mundum, ut testimonium perhibeam +veritati._ They preferred, before him, the seditious Barabbas, +who had fought in the streets of Jerusalem, shedding blood to +deliver them from the Romans. They preferred, before him, all the +false Messiahs, all the impotent and treacherous Christs, who +closed their mad career by precipitating the ruin of the nation, +the city, and the temple they had pretended to save. + +Break, then, vase of Jewish nationality! formed so lovingly by +God through the hand of Moses; royal and sacerdotal vessel, +break! since thou wilt have it so. Thou wert formed to keep the +treasures of religious life for all humanity; thou didst close +upon thyself in jealous egotism; break! and let thy shivered +atoms, scattered through the world, spread abroad the balm which +shall intoxicate all nations. "The vase was shattered," says Holy +Writ, "and the whole house was filled with the odor." _Et domus +impleta est ex odore unguenti._ + +What kings effected in the political order, priests accomplished +in the religious order. Indeed, fatal as is the mistake of +confounding religious with political forms, still more lamentable +is the error of identifying, within the very heart of religion, +accidental and accessory forms with essential forms. Every +religion--above all, the true religion, the Christian +religion--going back to Moses, Abraham, Adam, is not merely a +religious idea, a religious sentiment, as it pleases contemporary +rationalism to call it. It is a fact, and therefore has positive +forms; it is a living fact, and therefore has a determined +organism. But, placed amid time and space, the fact of religion +must consider the varying conditions of space, the changing +conditions of time. Its organism must discharge its functions +amid dissimilar or even contradictory surroundings. Therefore, +side by side with substantial, permanent forms, we find variable, +accessory forms, clothing the first, so to speak, according to +the exigencies of races and centuries. By trying to confound +religion with accessory forms peculiar to certain countries or +races, we should isolate it from the great current of humanity in +the present. By trying to bind it to worn-out forms, we should +isolate it from the great current of humanity in the future. We +should misinterpret St. Paul's words to the ancient synagogue: +"_Quod autem antiquatur et senescit, prope interitum est_." +No worse service could be rendered to religious unity. On this +shoal the Jewish priesthood stranded. + +{693} + +I would speak respectfully of that priesthood. Last Sunday we +inhaled the perfume of its censers, we listened to the harmony of +its canticles. The rod of Aaron had not blossomed in his hands in +vain, and in the ancient tabernacle we almost adored the body of +Christ Jesus prefigured in the manner, the word of Christ Jesus +prepared in the decalogue. But however respectable in origin and +essence the Levitical priesthood, it no longer merits respect, +corrupted as it now is; or, at least, corrupted as are most of +its members. This corruption bears a special name, pharisaism. + +Is pharisaism hypocrisy? No. Whatever the dictionary may say, in +the biblical sense pharisaism is not hypocrisy, unless in that +subtle form, at once most innocent and most fatal, that +unconscious hypocrisy which believes itself sincere. Jesus often +said, "Pharisees, hypocrites," _pharisaei, hypocriae_; but +he explained this expression by another, "Blind guides," +_pharisaee caece_. And the great apostle Paul, himself a +pharisee, reared, as he says, at the feet of the pharisee +Gamaliel, bears witness in a striking manner to their sincere +zeal for God, _habent zelum Dei_, but not according to +knowledge, _sed non secundum scientiam_. + +Pharisaism, thoughtfully considered, is religious blindness, the +blindness of priestly depositaries of the letter, who think they +guard it best by explaining it least; blindness bearing on all +points of the sacred deposit--blindness in dogma, predominance of +formula over truth; blindness in morals, predominance of external +works over interior justice; blindness in worship, predominance +of external rites over religious feeling. Blindness in dogma. +They taught the truth. "The scribes and pharisees sit on the +chair of Moses," said Christ; "all, therefore, whatsoever they +shall say to you, observe and do: but according to their works do +ye not; for they say, and do not." + +There is no revealed idea enlightening and vivifying the world +that has not words to contain it: _lucerna verbum tuum, +domine_. But when speech compresses itself, when it encloses +the idea as in a jealously narrow prison, obscuring and choking +it, that is pharisaism. That is what the apostle Paul called +guarding the word, but keeping it captive in iniquity. That is +what forced from the meek lips of our Saviour Jesus the terrible +anathema _Vae vobis!_ "Wo to you who have taken the key of +knowledge, and will not enter, and all those who would try to +enter, you prevent." + +In morals, it is exterior works, it is a multiplicity of human +practices, resting like a despicably tyrannical load upon the +conscience, making it forget, in unhealthy dreams, that it is an +honest man's conscience, a Christian conscience. The pharisees +said to Jesus Christ, "Why do thy disciples transgress the +traditions of the ancients? for they wash not their hands when +they eat bread." And our Saviour replied, "Why do you trample +under foot the commandments of God, to keep the commandments of +men?" Rites are essential to worship, as formula is essential to +dogma--wo to him who tears the formula of biblical revelation, or +the formula of the definitions of the church; and, since works +are essential to morality, wo to him who sleeps in a dead and +sterile faith, without works. + +Worship! but worship is the expansion of the religious soul; it +is the heart's emotion rising odorous and harmonious to God. It +is action working from within outward; it is, also, the not less +legitimate reaction from without inward. Rites elevate religious +feeling, and arouse inspiration in heart and conscience. + +{694} + +But when there is no religious feeling, when heart and conscience +bend beneath the weight of exterior practices; "Yea, verily," +said Jesus Christ again, (for the gospels are full of these +things; the gospels are the eternal reprobation of pharisaism,) +yea, verily, the prophet Isaias spoke truly when he said, "This +people honoreth me with their lips, and with their hands, but +their heart is far from me." + +This is the yoke of which St. Peter said, "You would impose it on +the head of nations; neither our fathers nor we have been able to +bear it." This is the smothered and exhausted breath with which +they thought to renew the world. This is not the Judaism of +Moses, but the decrepit Judaism of the scribes and pharisees. +When the entire world, by the eloquent lips of Greece and Rome, +asked of the East salvation; when, by the sudden stir of +barbarians quivering in the depths of Germany and Scythia, the +world demanded light and civilization, this was offered to them! +Judaism became the more inadmissible as the world had more need +of it. Pharisaism, in its blind fanaticism, stood before the +gates of the kingdom of heaven to prevent generations from +entering. + +Away! men of the letter; away! enemies of humanity. +_Adversantur omnibus hominibus_, says St. Paul. And thou, +Jesus, arise, my Saviour and God!--thou who wert moved by wrath +twice only in thy life! Jesus felt no anger against poor sinners. +He sat at their table; and when the woman taken in adultery fell +at his feet, burning with shame and weeping with remorse, he +raised her up, thinking only of absolving her: "Go in peace, and +sin no more." He felt no anger against heretics and schismatics. +He sat by Jacob's well, beside the woman of Samaria, announcing +to her, with the salvation which comes from the Jews, _quia +salus ex Judaeis est_, worship in spirit and in truth. But +Jesus was moved with wrath on two occasions: once, scourge in +hand, against those who sold the things of God in the temple, and +again, with malediction on his lips, against those who perverted +the things of God in the law. + +Arise, then, meek Lamb! arise in thy pacific wrath against the +enemies of all men, and against the true enemies of God's +kingdom! Arise and drive them from the temple! Thus did the +synagogue perish, and the Christian Church come to life. + + + II. The Representatives Of The Spirit. + +I have said (and you already knew it) that we have nothing to +fear from the triumphs of the _letter_. Yet we cannot +overlook the struggles and temptations, not only of every +priesthood, but of all pious persons; the temptation of the +faithful, as well as of priests, to allow the letter to +predominate over the spirit. Let us glorify God because we are +born in a holy and infallible church, which Jesus Christ +protects, and will protect until the consummation of his work, in +the course of ages, against the ignorance of our minds and the +weakness of our wills. + +But what voice strikes my ear? These are no longer the coarse +tones of earthly domination, nor of carnal legislation. Nor yet +is it a Christian voice, the voice of Christ speaking to us a +moment ago; but, though anterior to Christ, how like to him it +sounds: + +{695} + + "Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear to the + law of our God, ye people of Gomorrha," saith the voice; and + yet it is speaking to the church of Sion. "To what purpose do + you offer me the multitude of your victims, saith the Lord? I + am full; I desire not holocausts of rams, and fat of fatlings, + and blood of calves, and lambs, and buck-goats. Offer sacrifice + no more in vain: incense is an abomination to me. The new + moons, and the sabbaths, and other festivals, I will not abide; + your assemblies are wicked. My soul hateth your new moons, and + your solemnities: they are become troublesome to me; I am weary + of bearing them. And when you stretch forth your hands, I will + turn away my eyes from you: and when you multiply prayer, I + will not hear: for your hands are full of blood. + + "Wash yourselves, be clean, take away the evil of your devices + from my eyes: cease to do perversely, learn to do well: seek + judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge for the fatherless, + defend the widow. And then come and accuse me, saith the Lord: + if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as + snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as + wool." + +This is the voice of Mosaic spirituality in all its energy and +light. How different from the pharisaism we were speaking of just +now; from the letter, smothering beneath its murderous weight +reason, conscience, and heart! How like the gospel, the law of +Christ, with its two commandments: an insatiable hunger, an +inextinguishable thirst after righteousness, and a heart ever +open to mercy! Ah! I feel that this is no local law, no national +organization, no restricted or temporary code. It is the law of +all people and of all ages. It needs but the breath of St. Paul +to bear it from one end of the world to the other. + +But the voice of the Spirit still speaks--no longer, now, of the +carnal law, but of the earthly _kingdom:_ + + "And in the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord + shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and it shall be + exalted above the hills: and all nations shall flow into it, + _fluent ad eum omnes gentes_. And many people shall go, + and say: Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and + to the house of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we + will walk in his paths: for the law shall come forth from Sion, + and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, _quia de Sion exibit + lex et verbum Domini de Jerusalem._ Come, let us break our + swords and make ploughshares; let us shatter our lances and + turn them into sickles, for the anointed of the Lord will reign + in justice and peace; all idols shall be broken, _et idola + penitus conterentur_, and in those days the Eternal shall + alone be great." + +Such was the future _disfigured_ by kings and the successors +of kings. Understand it well; this is not oppression, but +deliverance! It belongs to the letter to impose itself by force; +this is its necessity; it has no other way, if this can be called +a way. To the spirit belongs the appeal summoning us to the +liberty of man and the liberty of God. _Ubi spiritus, ibi +libertas_. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is +liberty." Therefore, I do not see in the Messiah's hands a sword +besmeared and gory. I see nations rise up spontaneously, like a +sea shuddering to its deepest abysses. _Fluent ad eum omnes +gentes;_ this is not servitude; it is deliverance. This is not +the reign of the Messiah victor; but it is the reign of the +Messiah liberator. + +But you ask me whose is this voice preaching a spiritual kingdom +to priests, a divine royalty to kings and nations? The voice +shall interpret itself; it shall tell its origin and mission. + +Here Père Hyacinthe relates the famous vision in which Isaiah +receives his mission after a seraph has purified his lips with a +burning coal. This is prophecy. + +And were not prophets and saints; necessary to the Jewish Church, +as they are necessary to the Catholic Church? The two beggars in +the dream of Innocent III. upholding the crumbling Lateran +basilica, as if symbolizing the decadence of the hierarchical +church in the middle ages; those two mendicants, Dominic de +Guzman and Francis of Assisi, what were they but prophets of the +New Testament, sprung not from the hereditary tradition of ages, +but from the living kiss of Jehovah? +{696} +Yes, we need saints, we need prophets--that is to say, men of +love, martyrs; men of vision who read not only according to the +letter but according to the spirit, who see God in the vision of +their reason enlightened by faith; in the ecstasy of their +conscience elevated by grace. "I have seen the Lord with my +eyes"--_Oculis meis vidi Dominum_. We need men who speak to +him face to face like Moses, and, above all, men who love him +heart to heart, and pass through the struggles of days and ages, +struggles only to be fully understood by contemplating them in +the final future. _Vidit ultima, et consolatus est lugentes in +Sion._ Such men were the prophets. + +They were _seers_. They saw the future. They did not look +only upon the present, so accurately fitted to the measure of +narrow minds and hearts. They did not return with cowardly tears +toward the past, never to be born again. It was for Gentiles, for +pagan antiquity, to dream of a golden age for ever lost. The +prophets, gazing into the future, saw the golden age of Eden +reappear, under a form more full and lasting, at the gates of +heaven, yet still upon the earth. + +The prophets believed in the future because they believed in God. +They believed in progress; they were in all antiquity the only +men of progress. Antiquity did not believe in it, not even +knowing its name. But the prophets believed in the most +incredible and the most necessary of all progress, moral and +religious progress. They believed in it despite the fall, or +rather because of the fall and of the redemption. To them evil +did not lie in radical vice, essential to our nature, or in the +inflexible decree of destiny; it was in the liberty of man, and +must find its remedy in the liberty of God. If God had allowed +the starting-point of man to recoil, be cause of sin, into the +abyss, it was in order to raise, through the redemption; his goal +to the very heavens. From the summits to which their faith lifted +them, they saw salvation spread from individuals to nations, from +nations to the human race, from the human race to all nature. + +Such was progress to the prophets; such the future universal Sion +they hailed in the future? Isaiah prophesied it in the existence +and in the relative prosperity of Jerusalem. Jeremiah mingled it +with tears shed over the smoking ruins of his beloved city. +Ezechiel in the bosom of captivity pictured Sion, no longer +Jewish, but humanitarian, where all nations were to find their +place. He engraved upon the pediment of the gates this immortal +device, "The Lord is there;" _Dominus ibidem_. + +II. This was what the prophets, men of faith in vision and men of +vision in faith, believed and respected. This was the object of +their love, for they were men of understanding, and also men of +heart. + +I do not love Utopians, I do not love thought which dwells +exclusively in the future, feeding on sterile and chimerical +dreams. I love men of the future who are also men of the present; +contemplatives, but workers too. The prophets were workers. They +did not love the future in the future, but in the present where +it germinates. They did not love humanity in humanity--too +abstract if it be an idea, too vast if it embrace all +individuals; they loved humanity in their nation; they loved the +typical Jerusalem of their vision in their terrestrial Jerusalem +of their existence. + +{697} + +I love to follow them in their writings; to see them rise up in +the face of every national fact, every religious fact of that +gross people--rise up to meet every evil deed with anathema, to +consecrate in the Lord's name every moral or religious act +tending toward true progress. I love to see them go down into the +deep ravines, to the borders of the torrent of Cedron, where the +Messiah was to drink before lifting up his head; climb the abrupt +acclivity to the citadel, to the temple where Jesus was to teach; +traverse the public squares where ever and anon the wind from the +desert, as if to mock their hopes, caught up the dust beneath the +burning sun and flung it in their faces. + +Now, in the ravine, in the citadel, and in the temple of Sion, in +the streets possessed by the whirlwind, everywhere in that city +environed with their love and their devotion, they saw that Sion +which was to grow up in its bosom and embrace the world. They +loved the future; they loved humanity in God; they loved them in +the house of Abraham and in the church of Jesus Christ. + +In the presence of these great examples, let me say to you of the +love of country all that I have said of domestic love. We no +longer know, or rather we no longer rightly know, what it is to +love country and people; to see and love, in them, the city of +humanity, the city of Jesus Christ, the city of time and +eternity. + +III. Men of vision and of love, the prophets were also men of +combat, and, when necessary, martyrs, soldiers, and victims. No +man passes without effort that Red Sea which separates present +and future. The prophets crossed it bearing with them on their +vigorous shoulders the ark of God and the ark of mankind. But +what combats and struggles!--struggles majestic as their visions +and their love. They shrunk from them in their infirm human +nature; they dreaded these struggles. They knew that the word of +God ends by slaying those who hear it: "I have slain them, saith +the Lord, in the word of my mouth." "Ah Lord God!" cried +Jeremiah, "behold I cannot speak, for I am a child;" and the Lord +answered, "Say not, I am a child; for thou shalt go to all that I +shall send thee: and whatsoever I shall command thee thou shalt +speak. Behold, I have given my words in thy mouth. Lo, I have set +thee this day over the nations, and over kingdoms, to root up and +to pull down, and to waste and to destroy, and to build and to +plant. For, behold, I have made thee this day a fortified city, +and a pillar of iron, and a wall of brass, over all the land, to +the kings of Judea, to the princes thereof, and to the priests +and to the people of the land. And they shall fight against thee +and shall not prevail, for I am with thee to deliver thee." + +And to Ezechiel, colleague and successor of Jeremiah, God ever +spoke the language of struggle: "Fear not; I send thee to an +apostate people that hath revolted from me, _ad gentem +apostatricem;_ but I have made thy face stronger than their +faces, and thy forehead harder than their foreheads; I have made +thy face like an adamant and like flint. I will set thee up like +a wall of iron and like a city of brass, for I will be with +thee." + +Thus did the prophets struggle for that Sion which fought against +them, repudiating them. They never forsook it, they always loved +and always served it. + +We are about to part for another year. Let me entreat you now to +unite yourselves with me in a consecration to that kingdom of +God, to that church whose courts we have traversed. Christianity +is not of today nor of yesterday. It belongs not merely to the +historical period of Jesus Christ and his apostles. +{698} +It comes from David, from Abraham, it comes to us from Adam, our +father, our king, our pontiff. In this unique religion, this +church changeable in form, immovable in foundation, friends, +brothers--let me use words which come from my heart--let us +consecrate ourselves, following the example of the prophets, to +the love and service of God's kingdom. The kingdom of God is for +ever established in Christianity, in the Catholic, Apostolic, +Roman Church. But, as I said just now, this church must ever pass +from form to form--_de forme en forme_-from brightness to +brightness--_transformamur claritate in claritatem_--until +her pacific empire shall cover the whole earth, until with +humanity she shall attain the age of the perfect man in Christ +Jesus. + +Do we not wish to work for this kingdom? What are we to do if not +that? What are the works of our public and private life if they +do not relate finally to the kingdom of truth, justice, charity, +to all which constitutes Christianity, to the Catholic and +Apostolic Roman Church? I do not ask you to love her as she does +not wish to be loved--to love her as a sect is loved, as the +gross Jews loved the synagogue, with a heart and mind restricted +to the letter. I do not ask you to love our grand Catholic Church +by glorifying the infirmities of her life, which are your +infirmities and mine; or by condemning all the truths professed +and all the virtues practised outside of her by men who are often +her sons without knowing it. No; let us have no sectarian love! I +ask you to love the church with the heart of the church herself; +with a heart commensurate only with the heart of Jesus Christ, +_dilatamini et vos_. "You are not straitened in us," said +St. Paul to the Corinthians; "but in your own bowels you are +straitened. But having the same recompense, (I speak as to my own +children,) be you also enlarged." _Dilatamini et vos_. + +Before leaving you, let me tell you the secret of my youth. Let +me speak to you of the day of my priestly consecration, when in +this nave, less crowded then than it is to-day, stretched upon +that icy pavement, filled with burning palpitations, I was +sustained, I was inebriated with one thought--the conviction that +I had but one love and one service, the kingdom of God and +humanity. + +Yes, let us love the church in every man, and every man in the +church! What matters condition? Rich or poor, ignorant or +learned, _omnibus debitor sum_, I am every man's debtor, +says St. Paul. What matters country? Whether Frenchman or +foreigner, Greek or barbarian, _omnibus debitor sum_, I +answer with St. Paul. I am the debtor of barbarism as of +civilization. In a certain sense, what matters even religion, if +we would love a man? + +Ah! if he is not a son of the Catholic Church in the body, by +external union, he is so, perhaps--he is, I hope, in the soul, by +invisible union. If he is a son of the Catholic Church neither +according to the body nor in the spirit, nor in the letter, he is +so at least by preparation in the design of God. If the water of +baptism is not on his brow, I grieve to know it; but I see there +the blood of Jesus Christ, for Jesus Christ died for all, opening +wide his arms to all the world upon the cross! The world belongs +to Jesus Christ, therefore the world belongs to the church, if +not in act, at least in power. Let me, then, love all men; and +you, too, love all men with me--not only in person, not only in +their narrow earthly individuality, but in the great Christian +community, in the great divine community which summons each and +all. + +{699} + +When Moses, founder of the Jewish church, died on the mountain +within sight of the land of promise, the Hebrew text says that he +died in the kiss of Jehovah. Before dying let us learn to live in +the kiss of Jehovah, which is also the kiss of all humanity. O +holy Church! thou art more than man and thou art more than +God--than God alone in heaven, than man alone on earth. O holy +Church! thou art the kiss of God to man, the kiss of man to God; +the embrace of all men, all races, all ages, in the flame of +universal and eternal love. "He who abideth in love abideth in +God, and God abideth in him." + +---------- + + A Sketch Of Leo X. And His Age. + + +In the annals of literature and art, the name of Florence peers +above that of any other Italian city, Rome excepted. Here were +the poets who tuned the Italian language and made it the most +musical of modern idioms; here was the illustrious astronomer, +who was not the discoverer of a planet, but the revealer of the +whole celestial machinery; and here, too, were the artist and +politician who were not only the first sculptors and statesmen of +their time, but the inventors of the very art and craft in which +they excelled. Every day the pilgrim scholar arrives at her gates +and requests to be shown the monuments of her great men, and +every day genius worships at the shrine of genius. + +At the time of which we write, the middle ages had seen their +palmiest days, when a Charlemagne courteously entertained +ambassadors from the Mussulmans of Florence and the Caliphs of +Bagdad, and when the flower of chivalry, headed by a valiant +Philip, a lion-hearted Richard, and a sainted Louis, rushed to +the plains of the east to battle with the Moslem foe; they had +presided over the erection of those great Gothic piles whose +sublime architecture towered to the clouds, and had beheld the +pontiffs of Rome issuing orders for the foundation of +universities not only in Italy, but on the very outskirts of the +civilized world; [Footnote 169] and finally they had seen the +laborious and prolific genius of the schoolmen multiplying +inventions and discoveries, fathoming the profound depths of +theological science, and disserting on those great metaphysical +problems, which, like so many apples of discord, have caused +endless dissension and controversy among modern philosophers. +[Footnote 170] + + [Footnote 169: Gibbon tells us in a foot-note to his _Decline + and Fall of the Roman Empire_ that, "at the end of the + fifteenth century, there were about fifty universities in + Europe." Though this is indeed a glorious tribute, considering + from whom it came, paid to the mediaeval ages, we are, however, + more inclined to believe with the _New American + Cyclopaedia_ that, "before the year 1500, there were over + sixty-four universities in Europe."] + + [Footnote 170: Mackintosh says, "Scarcely any metaphysical + controversy agitated among recent philosophers was unknown to + the schoolmen." (_Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical + Philosophy_.)] + +But before these great medieval ages had reached their terminus, +they again shone forth with brilliant splendor. That, indeed, was +a glorious epoch in the world's history, when the most important +invention recorded in the annals of mankind came forth from the +brain of Guttenberg; when the stormy Atlantic was first ploughed +by adventurous keels, and new worlds discovered; when letters, +philosophy, and the fine arts were cultivated in such schools as +the Medicean palaces, and were patronized by such men as Cosmo +and Lorenzo de' Medici. + +{700} + +Under the enlightened patronage of these princely merchants, +Florence became the Athens of Italy, and one of the favorite +retreats of the muses. Her public halls were crowded with youths +eager to listen to an eloquent hellenist, expatiating upon the +beauties of Homer; her poets sang in the idiom of the great +Mantuan; her philosophers were smitten with love for the divine +Plato; and her scholars were so well read in antiquity, that +students from every country came thither, to slake their thirst +at what was then considered the fountain-head of ancient lore. +The gardens of the Medici recalled the groves of the Academies in +which the Athenian philosopher descanted upon human and divine +things, and the shady porches of the Lyceum, in which the +Stagirite perambulated whilst delivering his sublime lessons. + +A great bustle might have been observed in these gardens on the +11th of December, 1475; artists and humanists were vieing with +one another in congratulating Lorenzo the Magnificent on the +birth of his second son, who, in memory of his paternal uncle, +was christened Giovanni. Lorenzo was proud of his little +Benjamin, and he listened with complacency to those who admired +his keen, restless eye, his pure and noble forehead, his flowing +hair and snowy neck. In contemplating the sweet expression of his +countenance, the poet declared that he would revive classic +literature; and the Neoplatonician predicted a bright era for +philosophy; whilst a fugitive Hellene read in the Greek profile +of the infant happy days for his dispersed countrymen; and an old +sage, endowed with Simeon-like prophecy, exclaimed, "My soul, +praise the Lord! Giovanni shall be the honor of the sanctuary." + +The education of the young child's heart and the embellishment of +his mind were, for his enlightened parents, objects of supreme +importance. The former duty necessarily devolved upon themselves; +and how well they succeeded was best shown by the mild and +placable temper, polished manners, and kind and affable +disposition of their little favorite; the latter they entrusted +to scholars whose names even then were running through the +schools of Europe, especially to Politiano, one of the best +classical writers of the _renaissance_, and the preceptor of +a pleiad of illustrious men. Naturally docile, well endowed with +parts, in constant intercourse with men of rank and talent, +Giovanni acquired a dignity of deportment, a facility of +conversation, and a fund of knowledge, much beyond his years. At +sixteen, he had completed the curriculum of Pisa, was graduated +doctor and invested with the insignia of the cardinalate, and +thus entitled to take his seat among the princes of the church. +These precocious acquirements and early preferments ought to have +ripened into days of serenity; but no, they were more like the +calm that precedes the storm. Brought up in the school of +prosperity, he was to acquire his last finish amidst the rude +trials of adversity. Before attaining the highest dignity that +can adorn the brow of man, he was destined to experience the +instability of human affairs and the fickleness of men. The death +of his father, and the demise of his munificent protector, +Innocent VIII., inflicted deep wounds on his sensitive heart. +{701} +In the mean time, a terrific storm was gathering in Florence. The +inhabitants of this metropolis, exasperated at the seemingly +unpatriotic conduct of Piero de' Medici, his elder brother, +expelled from within their walls even the last scion of their +noblest family; something like the ungrateful Athenians, who +ostracized the very man on whom they had conferred the title of +just. To cheer the dreary hours of exile, no less than to enrich +his mind with useful knowledge, the expatriated cardinal resolved +upon visiting the principal cities of Europe. Even here, +difficulties and disquietudes unforeseen lurked in the background +of the smiling ideal that he had formed of his itinerary. The +suspicious authorities of Ulm and Rouen arrested the little +caravan, and ordered him and his companions to confinement; the +foaming billows deterred him from proceeding to England, and thus +deprived him of the pleasure of visiting the land of Bede and of +King Alfred. On his return, he was cast by a storm on the Genoese +coast, and, thinking it advisable to relinquish his voyage, +proceeded by land to Savona, where he met the celebrated Cardinal +Della Rovere--a remarkable coincidence, if we consider that Della +Rovere, Giulio de' Medici, and he himself were afterward raised +to the dignity of the tiara. Notwithstanding all the afflictions +that poured in on him, the future pontiff invariably preserved +that equanimity of mind and amenity of manners which were the +prominent features in his character. Better and brighter days +were now about to dawn. The premature death of Piero, partially +disarmed the hostility of the Florentines, and they finally threw +open their gates to the illustrious representative of the +time-honored family of the Medici. A year had hardly elapsed +after his restoration before Rome was plunged into mourning by +the death of that wary and energetic pontiff, Julius II. The +conclave assembled immediately after the obsequies, and Cardinal +de' Medici was called by the unanimous vote to the see of St. +Peter. Giovanni de' Medici was now Leo X., and the choice of that +name, as Erasmus spiritually remarks, was not without its +significance. If Leo I. saved the eternal city from the ravages +of the "scourge of God;" if Leo IV. again repelled from her walls +the barbaric bands of Saracens, Leo X. was to make her the +capital city of the republic of letters, as she was already the +starry centre of the Christian world. + +Italy had already taken the lead in the restoration of ancient +learning, and supplied the fire from which the other nations +lighted their torches. [Footnote 171] As may easily be fancied, +the elevation to the pontificate of the son of Lorenzo the +Magnificent spontaneously awoke the most sanguine expectations of +the artists and literati. In their fervor, they imagined that +genius, worth, and talent could not remain unnoticed or +unremunerated. "Under these impressions," says a Protestant +writer, [Footnote 172] + + [Footnote 171: Hallam, _Literature of Europe_, vol. i. + ch. i.] + + [Footnote 172: Roscoe, _Life and Pontificate of Leo_, + vol. i. p. 306.] + +"Rome became, at once, the general resort of those who possessed +or had pretensions to superior learning, industry, or ability. +They all took it for granted that the supreme pontiff had no +other objects of attention than to listen to their productions +and to reward their labors." That their hopes were to be +realized, was evident to all from the very first act of the new +pontiff's administration, the selection as apostolic secretaries +of Bembo and Sadoleti, two scholars who resume in themselves the +intellectual life of the time--Sadoleti, a profound philosopher +and the best exegete of his age; and Bembo, who emulated Virgil +and Cicero with equal success, and recalled in his writings the +elegance of Petrarch and Boccaccio. [Footnote 173] + + [Footnote 173: Bettinelli. It is to Bembo that we are + indebted for the restoration of the long-lost art of + abbreviated or shorthand writing.] + +{702} + +A new era in literature and art was about to dawn; its first +bright rays were for Italy, that "land of taste and sensibility." +With a pontiff who could say, "I have always loved accomplished +scholars and _belles-lettres_; this love was born with me, +and age has but increased it; for literature is the ornament and +glory of the church; and I have always remarked that it knits its +cultivators more firmly to the dogmas of our faith;" with such a +pontiff, the intellectual movement that then pervaded Italian +society was nobly sustained and enlivened, until at last the +golden age again reappeared on earth. All sorts of +encouragements, such as honorary employments, lucrative offices, +pecuniary gratuities, and even ecclesiastical preferments, were +lavished upon talent and genius. Every latent energy luxuriantly +budded forth and blossomed in the genial sunshine of such +munificence. + +The academies of literary men philosophized on the banks of the +Tiber or in the cool recesses of a fragrant villa. The lovers of +the arts, the votaries of the muses, and the cultivators of +polite literature sat side by side at the sumptuous banquets +frequently given in the Vatican. At these grand entertainments +all topics were convivially canvassed, and fancy soared aloft to +delight the guests by her sublime improvisations. Popular +favorites, like the poet of Arezzo and the "celestial" Accolte, +read their productions in public halls to admiring multitudes; +while the best scholars of the age, yielding to the invitation of +Leo, filled the professorships of the great universities. Italy +was then, in the beautiful words of Audin, "the promised land of +the intellect;" [Footnote 174] and Rome the centre of learning +and the nursery of great men. No wonder, then, that the +snow-capped Alps presented but a feeble barrier to the +transalpine scholar, and that every day some new Hannibal +descended their craggy flanks and pushed forward to the +seven-hilled city, to pay a courteous visit to the accomplished +pontiff, and gratify a long-entertained desire of conversing with +the celebrities of the age. The whole world thus recognized that + + "The fount at which the panting mind assuages + Her thirst of knowledge, quaffing there her fill, + Flows from th' eternal source of Rome's imperial hill." [Footnote 175] + + [Footnote 174: _Vie de Luther_, vol. i. p. 179.] + + [Footnote 175: Byron, _Childe Harold_, Canto III.] + +Since the days of Petrarch, the Italian muse had all but hushed +her lovely strains; her lyre was silent and unstrung. Politiano +came, swept its music-breathing chords, and sent its sweet notes +on the wings of the zephyrs throughout the Italian peninsula. All +listened with rapture to the enchanting strains of the Tuscan +siren, and, after a moment of hesitation, prepared their pens to +write on every theme and to illustrate every department of +science and letters. The classic models of heroic poetry, fresh +from the Aldine presses or half consumed by the dust of ages, +were taken down from their shelves and studied with passionate +ardor. The children of song were delighted with the epic muse, +and were now hard at work at their great poems. +{703} +Mozarello elaborates his _Porsenna_; Querno, the archpoet, +cadences the twenty thousand verses of his _Alexias_; Vida, +like Horace of old, draws up the rules of the metrical art, and +sings his _Christiad_ in verses of Augustan purity and +elegance; Ariosto, the Homer of Ferrara, condenses into his +_Orlando Furioso_ a vein of poetry so remarkable for its +grace and energy as to leave it doubtful whether the palm of +superiority should be awarded to him, or to the author of the +_Jerusalem Delivered_. [Footnote 176] The terrible +eventualities of tragedy and the more pleasing casualties of +comedy were brought upon the stage by Trissino, Ruccellai, and +Bibbiena; the protean burlesque assumed its most humorous forms +under Berni's magic pen, and the shafts of satire were keenly +pointed by Aretino, whose virulent epigrams drew upon him such an +amount of physical retaliation that a contemporary writer calls +him "the loadstone of clubs and daggers." [Footnote 177] + + [Footnote 176: Laharpe. _Cours de Littérature_, vol. i. + p. 435.] + + [Footnote 177: See Addison, _Spectator_, No. 23.] + +Guicciardini wrote the history of his country with the elegant +diction of the great historians of Rome; Giovio's periods were so +flowing as to make Leo X. declare that next to Livy he had not +met with a more eloquent writer. The _Prince_ of +Macchiavelli enjoys a world-wide reputation, and his _History +of Florence_ is so remarkable for the beauty of its style, +that it is said to have had more influence on Italian prose than +any other work, except the _Decameron_ of Boccaccio. Besides +these reigning stars, there was a host of other literary +celebrities who shed a brilliant lustre on Leo's golden reign. +There was Fracastoro, who, at the early age of nineteen, had won +the highest academic degree of the Paduan university, and was +nominated to the professorship of logic; Navagero, whose aversion +to an affected taste was so intense that he annually consigned to +the flames a copy of Martial; Aleandro, who was only twenty-four +when the celebrated Manuzio dedicated to him his edition of the +_Iliad_, alleging as a reason for conferring this honor on a +person so young, that his acquirements were beyond those of any +other person with whom he was acquainted, and it is well known +that the Venetian typographer was the friend and correspondent of +almost all the literary characters of the day; Augurelli, whom a +contemporary historian calls the most learned and elegant +preceptor of his time; Castiglione, who was called by Charles V. +the most accomplished gentleman of the age; Leonardo da Vinci, +who, long before the philosopher of Verulam, proclaimed +experiment the base of the physical sciences, and, before the +astronomer of Thorne, taught the annual motion of the earth; and +Calcagnini, who wrote an elaborate work to defend this startling +thesis. The correction of the calendar was investigated by +Dulciati, and even hieroglyphics found an expounder in the +encyclopedic Valeriaro, who wrote no less than fifty-eight books +on that abstruse subject. Literature, indeed, was a universal +hobby; it was the royal road to distinction in an age when the +love of the well-turned period and the mellifluous sonnet was +epidemic. The lady cultivators of polite letters were numerous, +and not only accomplished proficients but formidable rivals. The +sonnets of Veronica Gambara rank among the best; Vittoria +Colonna, in lively description and genuine poetry, excelled all +her contemporaries with the sole exception of the inimitable +Ariosto; and Laura Battifera is represented as the rival of +Sappho. + +{704} + +Notwithstanding this general enthusiasm for the amenities of +literature, great attention was bestowed upon the more arid study +of languages. Already the Latin muse had come to dwell again +beneath the beautiful sky of Ausonia; and the humanists, fleeing +from the savage fury of the triumphant Ottomans, sang, in the +gardens of Florence and on the banks of the Tiber, the fall of +Troy and the adventures of Ulysses. Leo X. was not only a Latin +scholar, he was also a refined hellenist. Moreover, he knew what +vast treasures of patristic lore are contained in the Greek +fathers, and hence, as a lover of sacred and profane literature, +he lavished his treasures on the revival of that beautiful +tongue. A little colony, fresh from the Morea, was installed in a +magnificent mansion on the Esquilian hill, and a Greek seminary +was opened to impart to the Italians the true pronunciation and +the very genius of the Homeric idiom. The famous Lascaris, at the +invitation of Leo X., relinquished his position at the French +court, in order to direct the studies of his young countrymen and +superintend the editions of the Greek classics that were issued +from the Roman press. The Hebrew was taught at Rome by +Guidacerio, who published a grammar of that language and +dedicated it to Leo X.; the Syriac and Chaldaic were taught at +Bologna by Ambrozio, a regular canon of the Lateran, who at +fifteen could converse in Greek and Latin with as much ease and +fluency as any of his contemporaries, and who subsequently +mastered eighteen languages. A useful and authentic lexicon was +first given to the learned world by Varino. A new Latin version +of the Bible from the Hebrew having been announced by Pagnini, +Leo X. requested an interview with the author, and was so well +pleased with his competency as well as with the elegance and +accuracy of the work, that he defrayed all the expenses of +transcription and publication. Erasmus, who corresponded with +Leo, and, more than any one else, knew his great desire to +promote biblical studies, inscribed to him his _New +Testament_ in Greek and Latin with corrections and +annotations. Giustiniani commenced, in 1516, a new edition of the +Bible in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, and Chaldaic. If to this +we add that the famous Cardinal Ximenes dedicated to Leo X. his +herculean work, the Complutensian Polyglot, we shall have some +idea of the efforts made in the beginning of the sixteenth +century toward the promotion of scriptural and philological +studies. [Footnote 178] + + [Footnote 178: It may here be remarked, in passing, that, + before the Reformation, the Bible was translated into not + only the classic and oriental languages, but also the + vernacular of every nation of Europe. For particulars, see + Cantu, _Histoire Universelle_, vol. xv. p. 12.] + +It has been said that a genuine love of literature invariably +evinces its existence by an insatiable thirst for books, "those +souls of ages past." This love Leo X. possessed to an eminent +degree; he was a second Nicholas V. At his request and under his +patronage, sterling bibliophiles set out from Rome to overrun the +world in quest of manuscripts. The monasteries of Britain and +Germany and the ruins of the Byzantine libraries were diligently +searched; ample pecuniary remuneration was everywhere offered for +unpublished works; and as kings and princes encouraged this hunt +after books, it may easily be fancied that volumes teemed in from +every quarter. The Vatican was made the recipient of these +literary treasures; and, thanks to the zeal of the popes, it now +possesses the most valuable collection of manuscripts in the +world. + +{705} + +Leo X. was not only a man of letters, he was also well versed in +antiquities. Prior to his elevation to the pontificate, his +greatest delight was to shut himself up in his library or museum, +and there pore over his hoarded treasures. This antiquarian taste +he inherited from his illustrious ancestors, whose collections +were famous throughout all Italy. One day, while he was yet a +cardinal, a statue of Lucretia was exhumed; his joy was supreme, +and in the heat of his enthusiasm, he strung his lyre and +commemorated the happy event in beautiful iambics. On another +occasion, a piece of sculpture, representing the ship of +AEsculapius, was, owing to his exertions, discovered in the +Tiber. This was considered by his omen-liking friends as an +augury of his future dignity. The discovery of the famous group +known as the Laocoön was an epoch in Rome. That evening, the +bells were rung to announce the event; the poets, among whom was +Sadoleti, lucubrated all night, preparing their hymns, sonnets, +and canzoni, to welcome the reappearance of the masterpiece. Next +morning, all Rome was on foot, and the public works were +suspended while the antique statue, festooned with flowers and +verdure, was carried processionally to the capitol, amidst the +sound of vocal and instrumental harmony. Such was the joy of the +Roman artists on the discovery of a relic of ancient art. + +The twin arts painting and sculpture shared largely in the +munificence of the pontiff. Bramarte, Michael Angelo, Raphael, +and Leonardo da Vinci, the princes of modern art, were the worthy +emulators of Phidias and Apelles. In immortalizing their names +and that of their patron, they immortalized their age and their +country. At their call, genius again returned to earth, and +exhibited, in the chiselled marble and on the glowing canvas, +such animated representations as filled the eye with wonder and +stirred the deep foundations of the heart. Bramarte planned and +commenced St. Peter's, which, in the estimation of the sceptic +Gibbon, is the most glorious structure that has ever been applied +to religion; for + + "Majesty, + Power, glory, strength, and beauty, all are aisled + In the eternal ark of worship undefiled." + +Michael Angelo, whose very fragments have educated eminent +artists, continuing the noble structure, placed the pride of +Roman architecture in the clouds, and drew the design of the Last +Judgment, which connoisseurs pronounce a miracle of genius. +Raphael covered the Vatican with his inimitable frescoes and +sketched his Transfiguration, which was hailed by the Roman +people as the type of the beautiful, a paragon of art, and the +masterpiece of painting. The profound Da Vinci painted the Last +Supper and thus afforded Christian families a neat ornament for +their refectories and a piece of artistic finish for their +drawing-rooms. Sansovino's productions, according to the +historian of the arts, were among the finest specimens of the +plastic art, and Romano's were worthy of his "divine" master. + +Such was the flourishing state of the arts and the great impulse +given to all branches of learning just before the memorable epoch +when the fetters of the human intellect were, forsooth, burst +asunder by the great Saxon hero, the unfrocked monk of +Wittemberg, against whom Leo X. hurled the bolt of +excommunication. If this grand impetus was not followed up, if +the pen was forgotten for the sword, and the altars of Apollo +were deserted for those of the homicide Mars; if the era of the +reformation "was truly a barbarous era," [Footnote 179] it most +certainly was not owing to incapacity on the part of the Roman +pontiffs, since sectarians themselves proclaim them "in general +superior to the age in which they lived," [Footnote 180] while +historians of the depth of Neander are struck with admiration to +find the popes "ever attentive to the moral and religious wants +of their people;" [Footnote 181] but it must be attributed to the +immediate effects of the so-called Reformation, that spirit of +blind fanaticism which was equalled only by the wholesale +brigandage and all-destroying vandalism of the sainted +evangelicals. + + [Footnote 179: Schlegel, _Philosophy of History_.] + + [Footnote 180: Roscoe, _Life and Pontificate of Leo X_.] + + [Footnote 181: Neander, _General History of the Christian + Religion and Church_.] + +{706} + +A kind dispensation of Providence it was, that saved Leo X. the +sight of the harrowing scenes that Europe then presented. He had +already occupied the throne of St. Peter eight years, eight +months, and nineteen days, during all which time he had +faithfully guarded the interests of the church against royal +encroachments, and the liberty of his dominions against foreign +aggression; he had presided over the last seven sessions of the +oecumenical council of Lateran, and conferred on an English +monarch the title of _Defensor fidei;_ and now, in the +forty-seventh year of his age, cruel death takes him from the +affection of his subjects, the love of his cardinals, and the +veneration of men of letters. Sad was the day when it was told +that Leo X. was no more. Artists and humanists dropped a tear for +their friend and benefactor; the sculptor and the painter +commemorated their deceased Maecenas in the virgin marble and on +the glowing canvas, while the historian wrote the annals of his +reign and the poet embalmed his memory in immortal verse. Rome +erected his monument, and posterity, admiring the virtues of the +Christian, reverencing the eminent qualities of the pontiff, and +idolizing the protector of letters and art, has called the age in +which he lived the golden age of Leo the Tenth. + +---------- + + Translated From The Spanish. + + Little Flowers Of Spain. + + By Fernan Caballero. + + + "Humble flowers of religious poetry, and derivations of popular + expressions and proverbs," is the title given by the authoress + to the article headed "Cosas (humildes) de España" + --_Humble Things of Spain_. + + +If there exists an individual who has read all that we have +written--and the case, though not probable, is nevertheless not +impossible--he must have noticed that our zeal, our labor, and +our specialty is to find out origins and causes, draw inferences +and conclusions, and trace things to their why and wherefore. We +are really apprehensive lest in this branch we may become too +notable. + +Our system is the same that is followed nowadays by writers of +history. Let it be understood that we do not meddle with such +weighty subjects, nor venture into profound depths, and that our +employment of the aforesaid modern system is solely in questions +of the humble schools. Our information is all obtained from +popular traditions, romances, and beliefs. The data which it is +our delight to place in relief, all the world has handled as the +Indians did gold before their conquerors gave it value; as future +generations will give value to the things of which we treat when +they lament their loss. + +{707} + +Our explorations in these rich mines have been rewarded. We have +ascertained that the first tree that God planted was the white +poplar; therefore the white poplar is the most ancient of +trees--the vegetable Adam. We have learned that the serpent went +straight, erect, and proud of his triumph in Paradise, until the +flight into Egypt, when, encountering the Holy Family, he +attempted to bite the child Jesus, and the indignant St. Joseph +prevented him with these words, "Fall, proud one, and never rise +again!" From that good day to this he has crawled. We have +learned, moreover, that snakes and toads are permitted to exist +solely for the purpose of absorbing the poisons of the earth. We +have found out that the evergreen trees are endowed with their +privileges of life and beauty in recompense for having given +shelter and shade to the Mother and Child whenever they stopped +to rest in their flight from the sword of Herod; that the +rosemary enjoys its fragrance and always blossoms on Friday, the +day of Our Lord's Passion, because the Blessed Virgin, when she +washed the little garments of the babe, used to hang them to dry +upon its branches; also, that for this very reason it has the +gift of attracting peace and good-hap to the dwellings that are +perfumed with it on Holy-night. That everybody has sympathy, +affection, and even reverence for the swallows, because +compassionately and with such sweet charity they pulled out the +thorns that were piercing the temples of the divine Martyr. That +the red-owl, which, grieved and appalled, witnessed the cruel +crucifixion of the God-man, has done nothing ever since but +repeat the melancholy cry "Cruz! Cruz!" That the rose of Jericho, +which was white before, owes its purple hue to a drop of the +wounded Saviour's blood that fell into its cup. That on Mount +Calvary, and all along the way of agony, the gentle plants and +fresh herbs wilted and died when our Lord passed by bearing his +cross, and that these places were presently covered with briers. +That the lightning loses its power to hurt in the whole +circumference that is reached by the sound of praying. That at +High Mass on Ascension-day, at the moment of the elevation, the +leaves of the trees incline upon each other, forming crosses, in +token of devotion and reverence. When newborn infants smile, in +dreams or waking, we know that it is to angels, visible only to +them. A murmur in the ears is the noise made by the falling of a +leaf from the tree of life. When silence settles all at once upon +several persons forming a company, it is not, as the wise ones +say, because "the carriage is running upon sand," but because an +angel has passed over them, and the air that is moved by his +wings communicates to their souls the silence of respect, though +their comprehension fails to divine the cause. Likewise, we have +ascertained that the tarantula was a woman extravagantly fond of +the dance, and so inconsiderate that when, on one occasion, she +was dancing, and His Divine Majesty [Footnote 182] passed by, she +did not stop, but continued her diversion with the most frightful +irreverence. For this she was changed into a spider with the +figure of a guitar delineated upon its back, and possessed of a +venom that causes those who are bitten by it to dance and dance +until, fainting and exhausted, they fall down in a swoon. + + [Footnote 182: The Blessed Sacrament.] + +In effect, we have learned many other things: some of them we +have already written; the rest we mean to write; that is to say, +"If the rope does not break, all will go on as usual." + +{708} + +But, among these things, there is one which we are going to +communicate immediately, for fear lest we die of cholera, and it +descend with us into the tomb; for it barely survives at present, +and with it would perish its remembrance. + +In times when faith filled hearts to overflowing, offerings and +_ex-votos_ were brought by thousands to the house of God. +Now that we are enlightened, we have other uses for our gold, our +rare objects, and fine arts; for, as the poet says, + + "En el sigh diez y nueve + Nadie á tener fé se atreve, + Y no huy que en milagros cred." [Footnote 183] + + [Footnote 183: In the nineteenth century, no one dares to + have faith and there is no one who believes in miracles.] + +It is well--or, better said, it is ill. + +The first ostrich eggs procured by the Spaniards, in their +voyages to Africa, were regarded as marvels, and deposited, +either as offerings or _ex-votos_, in the churches, where, +bound and tied with gay ribbons, they hung before the altars and +were looked upon as ornaments of great value. And even now, +before modest altars in humble villages are sometimes seen these +enormous eggs; presenting with their worn and faded decorations +the appearance of porcelain melons. By whom were they brought? +where were they found? who hung them here? are questions that +assault the mind of the beholder, and send his thoughts and fancy +into the vast field of conjectures impossible to verify, but all +sweet, romantic, and holy. + +The imagination of the Spanish people is an _instinct_. They +cannot see a material object without attaching to it an ideal. +Out of the fervor of their own heart they made a symbol of this. + +The belief adapted to the ostrich egg, hung in front of the +altar, is one that will be sagely qualified by sanctimonious +devotees of literal truth as superstitious and fanatical. We +offer it to the Protestant missionaries who favor us with their +propaganda, as a killing weapon against the benighted and +malignant papists. + +It is said that the mother-bird cannot hatch these eggs, which +appear to be of marble, because it is impossible for her to cover +them, and because there is not heat enough in her body to warm +them through; but that she has in her look such fire, kindled by +her great desire to free her offspring, that by keeping her eyes +continuedly and without distraction fixed upon the eggs, the +ardor and concentration of her love penetrates the hard shell and +delivers her little ones. And they hung these eggs before the +places where the holy sacrifice of the mass is offered, to teach +us to keep our eyes fixed upon the altar with equal desire, equal +love, and exclusive attention and devotion. O poets! if you would +fulfil your mission, which is to move the heart, learn less in +palaces, and more from the people who feel and believe. + +Among sayings and proverbs that have been accepted everywhere +without having to show their parentage, is the well-known +expression, _Ahi me las den todas:_ May I get them all +there. + +One of the creditors of a certain dishonest fellow, that owed all +the world and paid nobody, laid his complaint before the judge, +who sent an alguacil to suggest to the debtor the necessity of +paying at once. + +For response to the intimation, the debtor gave the alguacil, who +was a very dignified man, a slap on his face. The latter, +returning to the tribunal, addressed the magistrate thus: "Sir, +when I go to notify an individual on the part of your worship, +whom do I represent?" "Me," answered the judge. "Well, sir," +proceeded the alguacil, touching his cheek, "to this cheek of +your worship they have given a slap." "May I get them all there," +replied the judge. + +{709} + +Here is the etymology of another saying, _Quien no te conozea +te compre:_ Let some one buy you that don't know you. Three +poor students came to a village where there was a fair. "What +shall we do to amuse ourselves?" asked one as they were passing a +garden in which an ass was drawing water from a well. "I have +already hit upon a way," answered another of the three. "Put me +into the machine, and you take the ass to the fair and sell him." +As it was said, so it was done. When his companions had gone, the +student that had remained in the place of the ass stood still. +"Arre!" [Footnote 184] shouted the gardener, who was at work not +far off. + + [Footnote 184: Geho!] + +The improvised ass neither started nor shook his bell, and the +gardener mounted to the machine, in which, to his great +consternation, he found his ass changed into a student. "What is +this?" he cried. "My master," said the student, "some ill-natured +witches transformed me into an ass, but I have fulfilled the term +of my enchantment and returned to my original shape." + +The poor gardener was disconsolate, but what could be done? He +unharnessed the student, and, bidding him go with God-speed, set +out sorrowfully for the fair to buy another beast. The very first +that presented itself was his own, which had been bought by a +company of gipsies. The moment he cast his eyes upon it, he took +to his heels, exclaiming, "Let some one buy you that don't know +you." + +_Yo te cono cí ciruelo_--I knew you when you were a +plum-tree--is a common saying. The people of a certain village +bought a plum-tree of a gardener, for the purpose of having it +converted into an effigy of St. Peter. When the image was +finished and set up in the church, the gardener went to see it, +and, observing the somewhat lavish coloring and gilding of its +drapery, exclaimed: + + "Gloriosisimo San Pedro, + Yo te cono cí ciruelo, + Y de tu fruta comi; + Los misagros que tu hagas + Que me me los cuelgan á mi!" + + "Most glorious Saint Peter! + I knew you when you were a plum-tree, + and ate of your fruit; + the miracles you do, + let them hang upon me." + +_Ya saco raja_--He has got a share--is often said, and we +trace it to Estremadura, where the live-oak groves are divided +into rajas; _raja_ being the name of an extension yielding +acorns enough to feed a given number of hogs. When the +_rajas_ are public property, they are distributed at a +trifling rent to the poorer householders, who are, as will be +supposed, very anxious to have them. But to obtain one is +difficult, for the _ayuntamientos_, or town councils, +generally give them to their _protégés_ and hangers-on; and, +from this circumstance, "He has got a hog-pasture," has come to +be said of any person that by skill, cunning, audacity, or good +luck succeeds in obtaining an advantage difficult to get, or of +which the getting depends upon some one else. + +_El que tiene capa escapa_--He that wears a cloak +escapes--dates from the giving way of the new bridge at Puerto +Santa Maria, under the weight of the great crowd that had +collected upon it. To prevent thefts and disturbances, +Captain-General O'Kelly issued an order to the effect that no +person wearing a cloak should be allowed to cross the bridge. In +consequence of this order, no one wearing a cloak fell into the +river. + +{710} + +It is usual to indicate that a person is poor by saying, _El +esta á la cuarta pregunta_--He is at the fourth question. This +assertion is derived from the interrogation of witnesses for the +defence in suits when, among other circumstances, that of poverty +is wished to be proved. This extreme being comprehended in the +fourth question, as follows: "Does the witness know, of his own +knowledge, that the party he represents is poor, and possesses +neither landed property nor income; so that he has absolutely no +means of support except the product of his own labor?" + +---------- + + The Pearl And The Poison. + + From The French. + + + Chanced it, where along the strand + Softly foaming broke the sea, + Lay an oyster on the sand + 'Mid her neighbors merrily: + And her shelly doors, ablaze + With the sapphire's thousand rays, + She had opened to the sigh + Of the zephyrs flitting by. + Fell into her bosom there + Just a single drop of rain-- + Just a rain-drop dull and plain: + When, behold! a jewel rare-- + A sudden pearl exceeding fair! + + Chanced it on the heath hard by + That a viper, lurking dread, + Uttered then her hissing cry-- + To the zephyr raised her head: + When upon her dart accurst + Fell a rain-drop like the first: + Just a drop of poison more + To recruit her venom's store. + + With twofold nature are our hearts endued, + Nor open less to evil than to good: + Responding kindly to the tiller's care, + The soil becomes what skilful hands prepare. + Dear parents, take you heed. If yours the will + To guard your children's sacred innocence, + Be timely care and foresight the defence; + And drop by drop instil + Into their little spirits thoughts of good, + To be their daily food. + If you are wise, through years to come + A pearl of a child will make you blest: + If not, you'll cherish in your home + A very poison to your rest. + +------- + +{711} + + Foreign Literary Notes. + +The testimony of so distinguished an authority as M. E. Littré, +of the French Institute, is now added to that of Digby, Maitland, +Montalembert, and so many others, to show that the middle ages +were not "barbarous." M. Littré, as is well known, is very far +from being a Catholic; but, treating the subject with his great +erudition from a purely historical point of view, he shows, in +his _Etudes sur les Barbares et le Moyen Age_, that, after +the frightful degeneration of the Roman world--a degeneration +aggravated and precipitated by the violent immixtion of barbarous +peoples--the period of the middle ages was an era of renovation +in institutions, in letters, and in morals; a renovation, slow, +it is true, but certain and continuous; a renovation entirely due +to Catholicity, revivifying by powerful and fecund impulsion the +antique foundation formed by pagan society, and augmenting it by +all that Christianity possesses superior to paganism. On this +beneficial and constantly civilizing influence of the church, +which formed the moral unity of a world whose material unity had +disappeared, re-educating people fallen into infancy, rescuing +letters by her schools, clearing the forests by her monks, +founding social and political institutions worthy of the name, +and the like of which the Roman empire had never seen--for the +reason that all its conceptions of man and of liberty were false, +and it could never raise itself to the idea of a spiritual power +that was independent of the lay power--on all these points, so +worthy the attention of the historian, there are, particularly in +the first two chapters, some admirable pages. M. Littré speaks +with admiration of the spread of monachism in the west, and +distinctly recognizes the many great blessings that followed in +its train. He (p. 3) reproaches Gibbon with having ignored the +importance of the religious fact of Christianity. And yet his +"naturalism" has led him astray from the conclusion to which the +invincible logic of his own presentation of facts must bring him. + +---- + +A valuable addition to biblical criticism is, unquestionably, the +lately published _Saint Paul's Epistle to the Philippians_. +A revised text, with introduction, notes, and dissertations. By +J. B. Lightfoot, D.D., Hulsean Professor of Divinity, and Fellow +of Trinity College, Cambridge. London, Macmillan. 8vo, 337 pp. +This book forms the second volume of an exegetical work that is +to embrace all the epistles of St. Paul. Galatians has already +been published. The present volume is particularly valuable for +its introduction of the results of the latest archeological and +historical research. The commentaries on Seneca and the doctrines +of the Stoics are interesting, as also the remarks on the [Greek +text] in verse 13 of first chapter. + +---- + +A distinguished priest of the Oratory, H. de Valroger, has +recently published an able and learned disquisition on biblical +chronology. He terminates it thus: "No more than the Bible has +the church laid down a dogmatic system of precise dates strictly +connected and confining the primitive history of the world and of +man within narrow and inflexible limits. No more than the Bible +does the church deprive astronomers, geologists, paleontologists, +archaeologists, or chronologists of the liberty of ascertaining +scientifically the period of time elapsed since the creation of +the world and of man, or since the deluge, which terminated the +first of the reign of humanity." + +---- + +In the Foreign Literary Notes of our number for June, we noticed +an important publication by the Abbé Lamy on the Council of +Seleuciae, a translation from one of the numerous productions of +early Syrian literature, so rich in works relative to the church, +its history, its discipline, and its dogmas. And, in this +connection, it may be proper here to note a typographical +transposition seriously interfering with a correct reading of the +notice in question, namely, the six paragraphs of the first +column of p. 432 that precede "Concilium Seleuciae et +Ctesiphonti," etc., should follow the second paragraph on the +second column of the same page. + +{712} + +This work of the Abbé Lamy is one out of many recent publications +showing the great attention lately given to the monuments of +early Syrian literature by theologians of Europe. Especially in +Germany is the activity great in this new field. It has long been +known that a serious chronological break existed in this +literature, covering a period of nearly three hundred years, +stretching from the translation of the Scriptures to the +classical period of Syrian patristic literature. + +Only of late years has this void been partially filled by the +important work of Cureton, (W.,) entitled, _Ancient Syriac +Documents relative to the earliest Establishment of Christianity +in Edessa_. With a preface by W. Wright. London: Williams & +Norgate. 1864. This work of Cureton was preceded by his +_Spicilegium Syriacum_, containing remains of Bardesan, +Meliton, Ambrose, and Mara bar Serapion. London: Francis & +Rivington. 1855. + +In connection with these may be mentioned Cardinal Wiseman's +_Horae Syriacae_, Rome, 1828; Pohlmann, _S. Ephraemi Syri +Commentariorum in S. Scripturum;_ Lamy, _Diss. de Syrorum +fide et disciplina in re eucharistica; S. Ephraemi Syri Rabulae, +Balaei aliorumque opera selecta_. Oxford, Clarendon. 1865. + +---- + +An interesting historical controversy has for some time been +going on between M. Cretineau Joly, of Paris, and the Rev. Father +Theiner, Prefect of the Archives of the Vatican, concerning the +authenticity of the memoirs of Cardinal Consalvi, published by M. +Cretineau Joly, in 1864. Father Theiner, in his History of the +Concordat, throws serious doubts upon the genuineness of these +memoirs. On the other hand, M. Joly, in his lately published +_Bonaparte, the Concordat of 1801, and the Cardinal +Consalvti_, defends his position, and declares that he +translated with the most conscientious exactitude the memoirs in +question, "such as they were confided to me at Rome, such as I +now possess them in MSS. at Paris, such as any one is free to +test by examination." + +---- + +_Logicae, Metaphysicae, Ethicae Institutiones quas tradebat +Franciscus Battaglinius, Sacerdos, Philosophiae Lector_. +Bologna, typogr. Felsinea. 1869. 1 vol. in 8vo, 712 pp. This work +is a collection of the lectures delivered at the Seminary of +Bologna, by Professor Battaglini. The spirit of the learned +professor's philosophy is, as he himself states, _secundum divi +Thomae doctrinas_. No slight task, certainly, to bring the +"Angelic Doctor" within the grasp of the young theological +student. + +The work has attracted the attention of many of the French +clergy, and is highly approved by them. + +---- + +There appears to be serious danger that the French people are in +a way soon to know all about the Bible. Besides the numerous +copies of the sacred Scriptures already in existence in France, +the publisher Lethielleux now has in press the first volume of a +new edition of the entire Bible, which will give the Latin text +of the Vulgate, with the French translation, and a full body of +commentaries--theological, moral, philological, and historical, +edited so as to include the results of the best works in France, +Italy, Germany, and elsewhere, with a special introduction for +each book, by the Abbé Drach, D.D., and the Abbé Bayle, Professor +of the Faculty of Aix. + +---- + +The mantle of Mai and of Mezzofanti has fallen upon Cardinal +Pitra, recently appointed to the important position of librarian +of the Vatican. The office could not be filled by one more +erudite and worthy of it in every respect, and his holiness could +hardly have made a better choice. Cardinal Pitra is well known as +the author of several learned works in theological and canonical +science. Like a true Benedictine, his life has been devoted to +study and scientific + +{713} + +A succession of articles lately given in the _Revue des Deux +Mondes_, by M. d'Haussonville, [Footnote 185] has thrown fresh +light on the long and interesting struggle between Pope Pius VII. +and Napoleon; between moral and physical force, between the +inspiration of heaven and the inspiration of the world. M. +d'Haussonville, by the publication of numerous documents until +now unpublished, and by the letters and despatches of Napoleon +the First, lately given to the world by the present imperial +government, has added a new interest to the sad story of the +captivity of the holy father, and the negotiations at Savona. + + [Footnote 185: Lately elected a member of the French + Academy.] + +The dignity, firmness, and elevated piety of the noble pontiff +stand out in more striking relief from their necessary comparison +with the rude and merciless tyranny of his oppressor, and have +wrung the strongest expression of admiration from sources the +most unexpected. In an article entitled, "The Papacy and the +French Empire," the _Edinburgh Review_ (October, 1868) says: + + "The meek resistance of Pius VII. to the overwhelming force + which had crushed every independent power on the continent of + Europe, was therefore a protest worthy of the sacred character + of the head of the Latin Church in favor of the dignity and + liberty of man; and, by the justice of Heaven, the victim + survived the conqueror, the feeble endured, the mighty one + perished." + +---- + +Great activity prevails throughout Europe in the search for and +publication of documents, long buried in libraries and private +collections of MSS., which are calculated to throw light upon the +history and workings of the so-called Reformation. And this +activity is probably greatest in Switzerland, where every canton, +separately or with an adjoining canton, has its historical +society in active and industrious operation. German and French, +Catholic and Protestant, vie with each other in their +praiseworthy efforts to rescue from decay and ruin old +parchments, chronicles, protocols, and letters, that are +calculated to throw any light on the events of past centuries. In +this direction works the Protestant Berner in the _Helvetia +Sacra_, and the _Pius Verein_ promises great results in a +collection of which the first volume has lately appeared, +entitled, _Archiv für die Schweizerische +Reformnationsgeschichte. Herausgegeben auf Veranstaltung des +Schweizerischen Piusvereins_. Erster Band. Solothurn. 8vo, 856 +pp. The central committee of this society consists of Count +Scherer Beccard, of Lucerne, and Prebendary Fiala and Professor +Barmwart, both of Solothurn. The volume announced contains +chronicles, monographs, and extracts from the archives of +Lucerne, the mere enumeration of which would be too much for our +space. + +---- + +The old Benedictine abbey of La Cava, in Italy, has long been +known to possess in its archives a mass of documents and MSS. +said to contain treasures of diplomatic and archaeological +erudition. They cover the period from Pepin le Bref to Charles V. +Father Morcaldi, one of the most distinguished savants of Italy, +has undertaken their classification and publication. They will +fill, when printed, eight or ten folio volumes, and require from +five to seven years for publication. + +---- + +A recent number of the _Literarischer Handweiser_, edited at +Münster by Dr. Franz Hülskamp and Dr. Herrmann Rump, contains an +article on Catholic journalism in the United States. Here is an +extract: + + "Since the cessation of the well-known Quarterly, edited by Dr. + Brownson, American Catholics possess but one really first-class + periodical, namely, _The Catholic World_, founded some + four years since, and published at New York, in handsomely + printed monthly numbers. This monthly, founded by Father + Hecker, of the Congregation of the Paulists, a zealous convert, + distinguished for his effective dialectic and polemic ability, + is one of the most welcome manifestations in the field of North + American periodical literature. Already, during the short + period of its existence, it has gained numberless friends, and + bears favorable comparison with the best productions of the + European press. The influence and writings of Father Hecker and + his collaborators are sufficient warrant that _The Catholic + World_ has an important future before it in the field of + defence and polemics, and that it will most probably be for + many the guide to the bosom of the church." + +---- + +{714} + +Among new English books announced is _Mary, Queen of Scots, and +her Accusers; embracing a Narrative of Events from the Death of +James V., in 1552, until the close of the Conference at +Westminster, in 1569_. By John Hosack, Barrister in Law. The +work is to contain the "Book of Articles" produced against Queen +Mary at Westminster, which, it is said, has never hitherto been +printed, and will be published by Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh. + +If this work be in Mary's defence, it is not the first one--to +their credit be it said--produced by the Protestants of Scotland. +We confess to some surprise that some one of the many English +Catholic writers, with their peculiar facilities for reference to +authorities, have not taken up and exposed the scandalous malice +of Mr. Froude's attack on the memory of the unfortunate queen. +His desperate attempt to advocate the genuineness of the silver +casket letters, bold and ingenious though it be, is nevertheless +a failure, and its unfairness and sophistry should be exposed. + +---------- + + New Publications. + + Life Of Mother Margaret Mary Hallahan, O.S.D., + Foundress of the English Congregation of St. Catherine of + Sienna, of the Third Order of St. Dominic. + By her religious children. + With a preface by the Right Rev. Dr. Ullathorne. + New York: The Catholic Publication House, + 126 Nassau street. 1869. + +All who are interested in the extraordinary, not to say +miraculous, revival of the Catholic faith in English-speaking +countries, will hail with delight the appearance of this book. It +is a simple and evidently a truthful narrative of the life of one +of those providential personages who, in all great movements, +stand out as beacon lights to mark their progress. Margaret Mary +Hallahan was born in London in 1802, of Irish parents, who had +fallen from a respectable position in life to honorable poverty. +She was their only child, and became a complete orphan at the age +of nine years. Her education had been provided for, as well as +circumstances would permit, by her kind-hearted father, in the +schools established in London by the Abbé Carron, a refugee +priest of the French revolution. Slender, indeed, were the +prospects of a poor Catholic orphan girl in the capital of a +country so full of bigotry as was England in 1811. Having spent a +short time in the orphan asylum at Somerstown, she was placed +under the care of a Madame Caulier, whose harsh discipline was +hardly compensated by occasional acts of kindness. In her +twentieth year, she was introduced by this lady to the family of +Doctor Morgan, once physician to George III. Being then an +invalid, he was attended by Margaret during the last six months +of his life; and after his death she became the bosom friend of +his daughter, Mrs. Thompson, whom she served, rather as a sister +than as a domestic, for twenty years. Five years of this time +were spent in England and fifteen in Belgium. In the latter +country she became a member of the Third Order of St. Dominic, on +the feast of St. Catherine of Sienna, in the year 1835. + +On her return to England, in 1842, she took charge of the +Catholic schools of Coventry, where Father Ullathorne, of the +Benedictine order, was pastor. Her days were spent in the +education of young children, and her evenings in the instruction, +religious and secular, of the poor factory girls of the place. +{715} +In a short time, there was a visible improvement in the Catholic +community of Coventry; and Sister Margaret had the happiness of +beholding a religious procession, the first of the kind seen in +England since the change of religion, at the head of which was +borne her own image of the Blessed Virgin, the only treasure she +had carried with her from Belgium. A few pious companions, having +united with Sister Margaret in the performance of good works, she +and three others, by the advice of Father Ullathorne, and with +the authorization of the general of the Dominican order, received +the habit of the Third Order of St. Dominic, with a view to +living in community, on the 11th of June, 1844. On the 8th of +December, 1845, they made their religious profession. Soon after +this, Father Ullathorne was appointed by the holy see vicar +apostolic of the western district; and, having established his +residence at Bristol, it was deemed advisable for the young +community, of which he was the father and protector, to remove to +Clifton, near his episcopal city. This was in 1848; and when, in +1850, the Catholic hierarchy was reestablished in England, Bishop +Ullathorne, now transferred to Birmingham, founded the second +convent of the Dominican Sisters at Stow. This became the general +novitiate of the order in England, and here were established by +Mother Margaret her boarding and free schools, her orphanage, and +hospital for incurables. In 1858, she went to Rome to obtain of +the holy see the canonical erection of her community into a +congregation governed by a provincial prioress. Her request was +granted by a brief given in 1859, by which she was named +provincial prioress, which office she retained until her death, +in 1868. Here we may be allowed to quote the words of her friend, +Bishop Ullathorne, in his preface to her life: + + "And now behold this lonely and poor woman, made ripe in + spiritual wisdom and in human experience, returning, a stranger + and unknown, to the land of her birth. Yet God has already + prepared a way for her, and she begins a spiritual work which + slowly rises under her hands, from humble beginnings, into the + highest character, and surrounds itself with numerous + institutions of mercy and charity. Foundress of a congregation + of the ancient Dominican order, she trained a hundred religious + women, founded five convents, built three churches, established + a hospital for incurables, three orphanages, schools for all + classes, including a number for the poor; and, what is more, + left her own spirit in its full vigor to animate her children, + whose work is only in its commencement." + +The history of her life will amply repay perusal. It is a +continual exemplification of her great maxim, _All for God_. +The most prominent feature in her administration of the affairs +of her order was, that she never allowed external employments, +undertaken for the benefit of her neighbor, to encroach in the +least upon the hours assigned for prayer and meditation. Her zeal +in decorating altars, and in providing all things necessary for +the decency of divine worship, knew no bounds. + +We heartily recommend the life of Mother Margaret Mary to all our +readers. + +---- + + Die Jenseitige Welt. + Eine Schrift Über Fegefeuer, + Hölle Und Himmel. + Von P. Leo Keel, Capitular des + Stiftes Maria Einsiedeln. + Einsiedeln, New York, + and Cincinnati: Benziger. 1869. + +The first two books of this work are out, and we anxiously expect +the third, on Heaven, a topic on which it is very difficult to +write anything worth reading, and on which very little has been +written in our modern languages. German books are generally +better than others, and a work which merits the praise of German +critics is sure to be solid. The present work is highly esteemed +in Germany, and we have examined the part which treats of +purgatory sufficiently to convince us that the author has written +something far superior in learning, and vigor of thought, to the +ordinary treatises on religious doctrines which are to be met +with. To those clergymen who are Germans, or who read the +language, we can recommend this book as well worth its price. It +is printed in the neatest and most attractive style. + +{716} + + Warwick; + or, the Lost Nationalities of America: A Novel. + By Mansfield Tracy Walworth. + New York: Carleton. 1869. + +This novel is a remarkable production, exhibiting vivid +imagination, extensive and curious research, descriptive power of +a high order, chivalrous sentiments, and a lofty moral ideal, in +the author. Its principal scenes, events, and characters belong +to an ideal world entirely beyond the possibilities of real and +actual life, with an intermingling of some minor sketches drawn +from nature which show the author's power to depict the real if +he pleases to do so. It seems to us that the serious arguments +which are interspersed through the book, and the curious +speculations respecting the original inhabitants of America, +which are not without at least historical and scientific +plausibility, would be presented with far greater effect if they +were detached from a plot which is too absorbing to leave the +mind leisure to give them due attention. The moral effect +intended to be produced by the story itself would be also greater +if the characters were more real, the events more natural and +probable, and the scenes drawn more from real life. The great +praise, so seldom deserved, must be given to the author, that he +inculcates high moral and religious principles in an eloquent and +attractive manner, and will therefore undoubtedly exercise a +refining and elevating influence over the mind of many a young +reader who would reject graver lessons. Highly-wrought works of +fiction have become a necessity to a large class of readers, and +here is one which will give their imagination a wild ride on a +racer over a safe road. The young and accomplished author of +_Warwick_, will, we trust, follow up his literary career, +and produce other and maturer fruits of his genius, which will +add more renown to the illustrious name he bears. + +---- + + The Life Of John Banim, the Irish novelist, + author of _Damon and Pythias_, etc., and one of the + writers of _Tales by the O'Hara Family_. + With extracts from his correspondence, general and literary. + By Patrick Joseph Murray. + Also selections from his poems. + New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co. 1869. + + The Ghost-hunter And His Family. + By the O'Hara Family. + New York: D. & J. Sadlier& Co. 1869. + +John Banim was born in the city of Kilkenny, on the 3d day of +April, 1798. His parents were in humble life, but, through +industry and economy, were enabled to bestow upon their son the +inestimable advantage of a good literary education, while their +precepts and example united to secure for him a thorough +Christian training. His genius for novel writing manifested +itself at an early age. While in his sixth year, his ready fancy +gave birth to a story of no little merit. + + "He was not sufficiently tall to write conveniently at a table, + even when seated, and having placed the paper upon his bedroom + floor, he lay down beside it and commenced the construction of + his plot. During three months he devoted nearly all his hours + of play to the completion of his task; and when at length he + had concluded, the writing was so execrable that he alone could + decipher it. In this dilemma he obtained the assistance of his + brother Michael, and of a school-fellow; they acted as + amanuenses, relieving each other when weary of writing from + John's dictation. When the tale was fully transcribed, it was + stitched in a blue cover, and John determined that it should be + printed. But here the important question of expense arose to + mind, and, after long deliberation, the youthful author thought + of resorting to a subscription publication. Accordingly the + manuscript was shown to several of his father's friends, and, + in the course of a week, the subscribers amounted to thirty, at + a payment of one shilling each. Disappointment was again the + lot of our little genius; for in all Kilkenny he could not + induce a printer to undertake the issuing of his story. This + was a heavy blow to his hopes; but honorable even as a child, + he no sooner found that he could not publish the tale than he + waited upon his subscribers for the purpose of restoring to + them their shillings. +{717} + All received him kindly and refused the money, telling him that + they were quite satisfied with reading the manuscript." + +In this little incident of his boyhood, the salient features of +the character of John Banim, the man and the author, are easily +discernible. His extreme facility of conception, his hurrying +energy of execution, his confidence in the merits of his +productions, his indomitable persistence in commanding public +attention, his patience and courage under defeat and +disappointment, and his scrupulous honesty of purpose, which +controlled alike his writings and his business relations, are all +contained and foreshadowed in the circumstances of this almost +infantile enterprise. Maturer years darkened the shadows, +deepened the lines, heightened the lights of Banim's character; +but such as he was, when he ran home from his school-mates in +their hours of play, "to see that 'Farrell the Robber' had not +stolen his mother," such also was he, till, in his last hours, he +begged of his brother, + + "That I would stand by while his grave was digging, and that, + when his body was lowered to its last resting place, I should + be certain the side of his coffin was in close contact with + that of his beloved parent." + +Of the literary life and achievements of Banim, of his privations +and discouragements, of his physical sufferings, and his +premature decay and death, the pages of Mr. Murray's book contain +a tolerably full description. It is to be regretted, however, +that the task did not fall into the hands of Michael Banim, his +brother and co-laborer in the O'Hara Tales. The work before us is +too evidently the accomplishment of "an outsider"--of one who +draws his information from letters, from books, from the accounts +and descriptions of others, and not of one who "knew his man," +and delineates the results of his own personal sight and hearing. +John Banim was a man whose biographer should have been his most +intimate and dearest friend, whose choicest qualities those who +knew him most thoroughly could alone adequately value, and whom a +distant public can be taught fully to appreciate only by a writer +who himself has learned the lesson through long and close +association. + +Of the works of Banim, (one of the best of which we have also +just received,) it is needless for us to make particular mention. +They are worthy to be classed among the standard fictions of the +century, whether for their rhetorical or dramatic power, and are +almost wholly free from the loose sensationalism which disgraces +the pages of so many modern tales. We have found them to +inculcate virtue and industry, to do honor to purity and +devotion, to abound in filial affection and religious fidelity to +duty; and there is no half-heartedness in our wish that they, and +such as they, may supplant, at least among Catholic readers, the +noisome volumes which come swarming faster and faster both from +the American and English press. + +---- + + Problematic Characters: A Novel. + By Freidrich Spielhagen. + New York: Leypoldt & Holt. 1869. + +It seems unnecessary, to say the least, to translate from the +German pictures of life like those contained in this romance, +since there are innumerable English and American novels, filled +with the same sensuous details, and teeming with shameless +descriptions of illicit love. In all the family life introduced +to our notice in the course of this thick volume, the only +married pairs that are described as living comfortably together +are objects of ridicule, while men who make love to their +neighbors' wives, and the married women who respond to these +advances, are made to appear exceedingly interesting and lovely, +and their wicked words and deeds justified on the ground, so +popular in these days, _incompatibility_ in the conjugal +relations. + +As might be expected from such immoral teaching, utter infidelity +follows in its wake. + +{718} + +Responsibility to God or man is ignored throughout these pages, +though much is said about the great eternal laws of nature, which +seems to mean, according to this author, unbelief in the God of +revelation; since the only persons who profess to have any faith +in the life beyond are proved arrant hypocrites, and excite only +our disgust by their assumed piety. + +Such reading should be condemned without qualification, although +the style may be, as in this volume, graceful and polished, the +language vigorous, often piquant, the descriptions of natural +beauties glowing with light and warmth, social questions +discussed with equanimity and calmness--but the trail of the +serpent is over them all. We unhesitatingly pronounce this a +dangerous book--not _problematically_, only, but positively +bad reading. + +---- + + Walter Savage Landor. A Biography. + By John Forster. + 8vo, pp. 693. + Boston: Fields, Osgood & Co. + +Mr. Forster has led us to expect so much from him, by his +excellent biography of Goldsmith and other works, that we are not +only disappointed but a great deal surprised by the defects of +the present bulky volume. Landor's life was a tempting theme to +one who knew it so well as Mr. Forster. Stretching far beyond the +ordinary limit of human longevity, crowded not perhaps with very +stirring incidents, yet with figures of deep historical and +literary interest, and curious for its extraordinary +manifestations of a strong character, it was a subject of which +an accomplished writer might have made one of the best +biographies in the language. Mr. Forster has committed a grave +fault, however, in being too diffuse, and, valuable as his book +must be to the student of Landor's history and times, it +certainly cannot be called very interesting. What with the +prolixity of the narrative, and the prolonged summaries and +analyses of Landor's writings, the reader is too often tempted to +close the book from utter weariness. Yet there is a remarkable +attraction in the life of that violent, wrongheaded, wonderful +old man of genius, who left so many enthusiastic friends, though, +it has been truly said, nobody could possibly live with him, and +who has enriched English literature with poetry worthy of the +classic ages of Greece, and prose among the purest and most +eloquent in the language, though there is probably no other +author of equal pretensions of whom the mass of readers are so +completely ignorant. For this reason, Mr. Forster's biography, +cumbrous as it is, deserves an extensive circulation, and it +contains so much merit, that we hope he may be induced to bring +it into better shape. + +---- + + Wandering Recollections Of A Somewhat Busy Life: + An Autobiography. + By John Neal. + Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1869. + +If the Messrs. Roberts had desired to issue a book "_for the +season_," they could hardly have selected one more appropriate +than this pleasant autobiography of John Neal. Like the life of +its author and subject, it is full of variety, "everything by +starts, and nothing long," and runs as naturally from the piling +up of bricks and mortar in the resurrection of Portland from the +ashes of 1866, to the traditions and incidents of two centuries +ago, as Mr. Neal himself seemed to slip from shop-keeping into +authorship, and from peddling into law. + +It is a book that one can take up anywhere, and find somewhat of +amusement and instruction; and can lay down anywhere without +fearing to lose the train of thought or the thread of narrative. +There is method enough in it to entitle it to be called an +autobiography; there is also a complete justification of the +title which its author has appropriated to it. It is the pleasant +chat of an old man of seventy-three, over events and personages +into contact with whom extensive travel and a long life have +brought him; a "_potpourri_" of the memories and +observations of two continents and of over three-score years. Its +publishers have done for it in print and paper what the matter +and the manner of the work deserved; and if it finds its way into +the portmanteau of the summer tourists whether by mountain-side +or sea-side, it will hardly fail to be read, and so put to good +use otherwise perhaps wasted hours. + +---- + +{719} + + Sogarth Aroon; Or, The Irish Priest. + A Lecture. By M. O'Connor, S.J. + Baltimore: Murphy & Co. 1869. + +The author of this lecture was once the bishop of Pittsburg, a +prelate hardly second to any member of the American hierarchy in +learning and all the highest qualities of a bishop; and, as all +know, he resigned his dignity to become a simple Father in the +Society of Jesus, where, in spite of his broken health, he has +ever since been zealously laboring for the salvation of souls. +Father O'Connor has always been remarkable for his intense +devotion to his native country and to the best interests of +Irishmen. More than once, his learned and powerful pen and voice +have been employed in their cause. In this lecture he has once +again given a just and glowing tribute to the Irish priesthood. +There are some, both here and in Ireland, who are fearing lest +the tie which has bound the Irish people to their priests should +be weakened by the efforts of demagogues seeking political +influence, and by other causes of like nature. We trust this may +never be the case; but it behooves all who love the Irish people +truly to imitate Father O'Connor, and do everything in their +power to strengthen this tie, and keep alive the spirit of +Catholic faith in the bosoms of the children of the Martyr Church +of Ireland. We recommend this lecture to general circulation both +here and in Ireland, as an antidote to the poison which some +traitors to their race and their religion are seeking to +disseminate. + +---- + + Young Christian's Library, containing the lives of more than + eighty eminent saints and servants of God. + 12 vols. + Philadelphia: Henry McGrath. 1869. + +This miniature library should be found in every Catholic +household. While necessarily abbreviated, "The Lives" it contains +are by no means mutilated condensations, and can be read, not +alone with much spiritual benefit, but with real pleasure, in so +admirable a manner has the editor performed his allotted task. +Hence, although specially designed for youth, we have no +hesitation in recommending it to persons advanced in years as an +excellent substitute for the Rev. Alban Butler's more elaborate +work, from which they are severally abridged. The series is very +beautifully got up, and reflects great credit on the taste and +liberality of the publisher. + +---- + + Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia For 1868. + +This well-known annual sustains its reputation as a valuable +repertory of contemporaneous history. One great merit it has, is +the careful manner in which authentic documents are reproduced +_in extenso_. In regard to Catholic matters, it is, as +usual, guardedly respectful, evidently intending to be impartial +to every body. This is, of course, attempting the impossible, and +it is easy to see which way the drift and current of the work do +run. We say this in order that the younger and more inexperienced +Catholic students may understand that works of this kind, +proceeding from non-Catholic sources, are only to be used as +lexicons and books of reference, but never to be trusted as +guides or authorities for forming their opinions. + +---- + + The Habermeister. + Translated from the German of H. Schmid. + New York: Leypoldt & Holt. + Price, $1.50. + +In this novel we have a vivid picture of German peasant life. The +plot rests upon the assumption of unlawful authority, in the name +of an ancient custom, the necessity of which has long since +disappeared; and the catastrophe is brought about by the use made +of it by infamous persons. The characters are well delineated. +The rag-picker's ride and the grave scene will be found to +exhibit to advantage the talents of an author whose greatest +success lies in his description of men. The denouement is +satisfactory, although brought about by slightly distorting the +truth in regard to the convent reception-room. But the changes in +the butcher's character were impossible, if we regard terror as +the cause, for terror brings only degradation. + +---- + +{720} + + The Irish Brigade, And Its Campaigns: + with some account of the Corcoran + Legion, and sketches of the principal officers. + By Capt. D. P. Conyngham, A.D.C. + Boston: Patrick Donahoe. Pp. 559. 1869. + +In this, the second edition of Captain Conyngham's well-known +work, the publisher has left nothing to be desired, but has given +us a book which, with its clear type, good paper, handsome and +substantial binding, will compare not unfavorably with any recent +issue of the press. + +---- + +THE CATHOLIC PUBLICATION SOCIETY will have ready, in a few days, +a new edition of _St. Liguori's Way of Salvation_, and a new +edition of the Douay Bible, 12mo, printed on fine paper. Also an +8vo edition, on superfine paper, illustrated. + +---- + +THE CATHOLIC PUBLICATION SOCIETY is now printing a cheap edition +of Challoner's _Catholic Christian Instructed_, 24mo, to be +done up in strong paper covers, and sold at 20 cents per copy, or +_ten dollars_ for _one hundred copies_. This will +enable clergymen and others to distribute this valuable book +among non-Catholics. The Society will also print a cheap 12mo +edition (large type) of the some book, which will be sold at a +low price. At the same time, cheap editions will be issued of +_The Poor Man's Catechism_, (two editions,) _Poor Man's +Controversy_, Bossuet's _Exposition_. Gallitzin's +_Defence of Catholic Principles_, and Gallitzin's _Letters +on the Bible_. Also cheap editions, bound, of _The Following +of Christ_ are in press. These, with several other new +editions of valuable books, will be printed during the fall. The +new edition of Bishop Bayley's _History of the Church on New +York Island_ will be enriched by several new notes, and +portraits on steel of Bishops Concannon, Connolly, Dubois, and +Archbishop Hughes. + +---- + +Messrs. John Murphy & Co., +Baltimore, will soon publish _The Life of the Very Rev. +Frederick W. Faber, D.D._ + +Mr. Patrick Donahoe, +Boston, has in press a _Life of Christopher Columbus_, +translated from the French. + +D. & J. Sadlier & Co. +are preparing for publication _Ten Working Designs for Catholic +Churches_. The work is highly recommended by several +archbishops and bishops. + +---- + + Books Received. + +From Leypoldt & Holt, New York: + Stretton. A Novel. + By Henry Kingsley. + With illustrations. Pp. 250. 1869. + +From Lee & Shepard, Boston: + Credo; an American Woman in Europe. + Patty Gray's Journey from Boston to Baltimore. + +From Benziger Bros., New York and Cincinnati: + Cantarium Romanum. + Pars Prima. + Ordinariun Missae. + +---------- + +{721} + + The Catholic World. + + Vol. IX., No. 54. September, 1869. + +---------- + + Daybreak. + + Chapter XV. + + "The Coming Of The Messenger." + + +All through that terrible day, the two staid by Mr. Granger's +bedside, holding his hands, cooling his fevered face, and +watching for a sign of consciousness that came not. At evening +there was a struggle, short but sharp, and before they had +breathed forth the breath they caught as he started up, the soul +had broken loose, and a lifeless form sank back upon the pillow. + +Do they listen to us when they are gone? Could he, in the first +surprise of sudden freedom, hear the cry, like that of a bereaved +Lear, that sought to follow him, "Oh! stay a little!" or the +weeping testimony of the other, "There stopped the noblest, +kindest heart that ever beat"? + +But, listen though he might, from one he heard no word of +mourning or appeal after that. Since he was happy, and had no +longer any need of her, and since she had done all in her power +to do for him, she could now remember herself. That his +humiliating offer of an empty hand had been kindly meant, did not +lessen her resentment, but rather increased it. However confident +he had been that his interpretation of her perfectly frank +conduct was the true one, he should never have allowed her to +know it, she said. Her heart seemed hardened toward him, and all +her friendship dead. "How I have wasted myself!" was the bitter +comment with which she turned away from taking her last look at +him. + +More than once, in the first days of their loss, that fiery anger +of an insulted heart broke forth. On their way home, as she sat +on the steamer-deck at night, slowly touching bead after bead of +her rosary, not praying, but waiting for a prayerful feeling that +might come, there came, instead, a recollection of the year +before. It rose and painted itself, like a picture, between her +and the wide, cool shade and sparkle of midnight sea and sky. +There was the home parlor, the window where she sat that day +after her retreat was over, so happy, half with heaven and half +with earth, the curtain fanning her, the vines swinging in and +out in the light breeze. She saw Mr. Granger come to her side and +drop a rosary into her hands, saw the silver glitter of his +pretty gift, and heard the words that accompanied it, "And +indeed, it should have been of gold, had not Jupiter been so +poor." + +{722} + +The words caught a new meaning as she recollected them. + +"If not gold, then nothing!" she exclaimed; and, leaning over the +rail, flung his gift as far as she could fling it out over the +water. + +The waning moonlight ran around the frosted chain and pearl +beads, as if some spirit hand had swiftly told every Pater and +Ave of them in expiation of that rash act. Then the waters caught +them, and they slipped twinkling down through the green deeps. + +Margaret left the deck, and went down to where Mr. Lewis walked +to and fro, keeping his mournful watch. His face was pale, and +his eyes heavy. He looked perfectly grief stricken. + +"What is the matter?" he asked. "Has any one spoken to you?" + +"No; but I have been thinking." She leaned on his arm, and looked +down upon the casket at their feet. "That man thought that I +wanted him to marry me. Is it only a wicked pride, I wonder, that +rises up in revolt when I remember it? Should not there be a +better name? I could not be angry then, because he was dying; and +I forgot it till the next night, after all was over, when I went +in to see him. I was full of grief then, and had some silly +notion, just like me! of telling him, and that he would hear. The +wind had blown the hair over his forehead, and just as I started +to put it back, I recollected, and caught my hand away and left +him. I had nothing to say to him then, nor since. What did he +want to kill my friendship so for? His memory would have been +sweet to me. + +It is poisoned." "Well," Mr. Lewis said, with a sort of despair, +"women are queer beings, and you are ultra womanish. One day you +will risk your life for a man, and the next you will look with +scorn upon him in his coffin. A better name than pride, do you +say? I call it the most infernal kind of pride. Where is your +gratitude, girl, toward the man who never had any but a kind word +and thought for you? He arranged everything for you, that first +night, just as much as he did for Dora, and made me promise that +you should never want for a friend while I live. You ought to +humble yourself, Margaret, and beg his pardon." + +"Do you think so?" she asked faintly. "I hope that you are right. +I would rather blame myself than him." + +"Of course I think so!" he answered indignantly. "Did he ever +give you one unkind look, even? Did he ever prefer any one else +before you? Did he ever allow any one to speak against you in his +presence? I never, before nor since, saw him take fire as he did +once when some one criticised you to him." + +"Did he? Did he?" exclaimed Margaret, kneeling by the casket, and +laying her cheek to the cold wood. "Ah! that was indeed +friendship!" + +In that softened mood she reached home. + +When death, in visiting a household, is unaccompanied by sordid +cares, the lost one being necessary to our hearts alone; when the +living have no remorse for the past and no terror for the future +of their friend; when the silent face is peaceful; and when the +earth that opens to receive it is warm and full of life, like the +bosom of a mother where a sleeping child hides its face--then +death is more beautiful than life. + +{723} + +Thus this celestial visitant came to the Granger household; and +if an angel had alighted visibly in their midst, and folded his +white wings to tarry there a day, the presence could not have +been more sacred or more sweet. Every sign of gloom was banished. +The light was no more shut out than it always was in summer; all +the rooms were perfumed with flowers; and the master of the house +was not left alone, but lay at the front end of the long parlor +suite, in full sight of the family as they came and went. + +Among the many callers who came that day was the Rev. Dr. +Kenneth, the old minister with whom we have seen Mr. Southard +taking theological counsel. This gentleman listened with +astonishment and indignation while Mrs. Lewis told him that Mr. +Granger had died a Catholic, and would have a requiem mass the +next morning. + +"He must have been unduly influenced, madam!" said the minister +excitedly. "Mr. Granger would never have taken such a step of +himself. It is impossible!" + +Somewhat embarrassed, Mrs. Lewis drew back, and disclosed Miss +Hamilton sitting in the shadow behind her, and, at the first word +of reply, gladly left the room, having no mind to stand between +two such fires, though the doctor's opponent looked too pale and +quiet to be very dangerous. + +"With God all things are possible, Dr. Kenneth," was what +Margaret said. He regarded her sternly; yet after a moment +softened at sight of the utter mournfulness of her face. + +"O child of many prayers!" he exclaimed, "whither have you +wandered?" + +"Please don't!" she said. "I can not bear anything; and we don't +want any harsh words while he is here." + +The doctor hesitated, and turned to go; but she stopped him. + +"While I saw you standing out there and looking at him, I +remembered how often you used to come to my grandfather's, and +how you petted me when I was a little girl. One day I was trying +to carry you the large Bible, and I fell with it. Grandfather +scolded me; but you patted my head when you saw that I was on the +point of crying, and said that the Highest and the Holiest fell, +not once only, but thrice, under his burden. And you pulled my +curls, and said, laughing, that if strength dwelt in length of +locks, then I ought to be able to carry not only the Bible, but +the house. What makes the difference now? Are you harder? or am I +in less need of charity?" + +"You have your friends," he said coldly, "those for whom you left +us." + +"Not so," she replied. "I have those in this house; but in the +church I had only him out there. My church, here, at least, does +not receive converts as yours does. I suppose it must be because +they know that we are only coming home to our own Father's house, +and they think it would be presumptuous in them to come to meet +us, as if we needed to be welcomed." + +"What! was no courtesy, no kindness shown you?" he asked +incredulously. + +"Scarcely a decent civility," she replied. "But no matter about +that. Only, I want you to remember it, and to send my old friends +back to me. If they will not come, then their talk of religious +freedom is hardly sincere; and if you do not tell them, then I +shall think you unchristian. Indeed, doctor, when you have passed +me ill the street, without any notice, I haven't thought that you +were very good just then." + +{724} + +The doctor looked at her keenly. "I will be friends with you on +one condition," he said. + +"And that?" + +"Let Mr. Southard alone!" he said with emphasis. + +Before she could utter a protestation, he had left the room. + +The day crept past, and the night, and another day; and then +there was nothing for them to do but take up their life, and try +to make the best of it. + +The first event to break the monotony came in September, when +Dora was baptized. All the family attended the ceremony, for the +time putting aside whatever prejudices they might feel. Then they +began to look eagerly for Mr. Southard's return. + +He might be expected on the first Sunday of October, he wrote +most positively, but, for the rest, was very indefinite. He wrote +so vaguely, indeed, that his congregation were rather displeased. +His leave of absence had expired, yet he seemed to consider his +coming home a furlough. Rather extraordinary, they thought it. + +Mr. Southard was not one of those pastors who live in a chronic +deluge of worsted-work from their lady friends. On his first +coming to the pulpit, there had been symptoms of such an +inundation; but he had checked them with characteristic +promptness, representing to the fair devotees the small need he +had of four-score pairs of pantoufles, even should his life be +prolonged as many years, and suggesting that those who had so +much leisure might profitably employ it in visiting and sewing +for the poor. But the repulse was given with such simplicity and +candor, and so utterly unconscious did he appear that any motive +could have prompted their labors save a profound conviction that +their pastor was shoeless, that even the most inveterate +needle-woman forgave him. He was not in the least sentimental, he +was indeed strict, and often cold, though never harsh. + +Still, though he lacked many of the qualities of a modern popular +minister, his people were much attached to him. They trusted him +thoroughly, and they were proud of him. He had talent, culture, +and a high character and reputation. He was not a sensational +preacher; but his directness and earnestness were unique, and +occasionally his hearers were electrified by some eloquent +outburst, full of antique fire kindled at the shrines of the +prophets. It also did not go against him that he was the +handsomest man in the city, a bachelor, and rich enough in his +own right to dispense with a salary. + +Great, therefore, was their delight when his return was +positively announced, and they set about preparing for it with a +good will. + +The church was renovated, a new Bible and a sofa were purchased, +and a beautiful Catharine-wheel window, full of colored glass, +was put in over the choir. Receptions were arranged, flowers +bespoken, committees appointed, the barouche which was to take +him home from the depot was chosen, and the two dignitaries who +were to occupy it with him were, after due deliberation, +selected. All this was done decently and in order. Mr. Southard's +people were far from being of the vulgar, showy sort, and prided +themselves on being able to accomplish a good deal without any +fuss whatever. Even the newspaper chorus which proclaimed each +progressive step of the minister's homeward journey, as +Clytemnestra the coming of the sacred fire, sang in subdued +language and unobtrusive type. At last, all that was wanting was +the final announcement, in the Saturday evening papers, that the +reverend gentleman had arrived. +{725} +Indeed, the notice had been written, with all particulars, the +evening before, and had almost got into print, when it was +discovered that Mr. Southard had not arrived. The barouche had +returned from the depot without him, the two dignified personages +who went as escort suffering a temporary diminution of dignity +and an access of ill-temper. It is rather mortifying to see +people look disappointed that it is only you who have come, and +to know that not only have you lost the glory which was to have +been reflected on you from the principal actor in the scene, but +that your own proper lustre is for the time obscured. + + +It was found, however, that a letter had been written by Mr. +Southard, not a pleasing one, by any means, to his disappointed +masters of ceremonies. He would be in his pulpit on Sunday +morning, he informed them; and after Sunday would be happy and +grateful to see any of his dear and long-tried friends who would +be so kind as to call on him. But till that time he did not feel +equal to the excitement of any formal reception. He had scarcely +recovered his strength after a long illness, he was fatigued with +travel, and also, he was returning to a house made desolate by +the death of one of his oldest and dearest friends. + +"They are terribly wilted," Mr. Lewis said, as the family sat +around the centre-table that evening. "You never saw anybody so +grumpy as the deacons are. They are scandalized, moreover, in +view of the only way in which he can come now. Of course, he will +have to travel all night, and come into town Sunday morning. +There's Sabbath-breaking for you." + +"One good thing," Mrs. Lewis said; "they have stopped ringing the +door-bell. I do believe there have been a hundred people here +to-day to ask if Mr. Southard had come." + +"Auntie," said Aurelia, with a look of mild horror, "you don't +know what uncle said to the last gentleman who came. He told him +that when the minister made his appearance, he would hang out a +flag over the portico, and fire rockets from the front windows." + +The three ladies were sewing, and Dora sat beside Margaret with a +catechism in her hand, learning the Acts. + +"Aunt Margaret," whispered the child, "what do you think God told +me when I said, 'O my God! I firmly believe'? Says he,' Oh! what +a lying little girl you are!'" + +"Why should he say that?" was the grave inquiry. + +"Because I told him that I believed all the sacred truths; and +how can I believe when I don't know 'em? This is what I did; I +said, 'Please don't listen to me now, O Lord! I'm not talking to +you. I'm only learning my lesson.'" + +"Come to bed now, my dear," said Margaret, "and we will talk +about it." + +"I did not expect Mr. Southard to show so much feeling," Mrs. +Lewis said, when the two had gone out. "He received the news of +Mr. Granger's change of religion with such silent displeasure +that I supposed he would discard even his memory. He shows +courage, too, in still speaking of him as a friend; for some of +his people will be displeased." + +"I'm sure, aunt," Aurelia replied rather hastily, "no one can say +that Mr. Southard ever lacked the courage to utter his +sentiments." + +"No," Mrs. Lewis said in a very moderate tone, but looked sharply +into her niece's drooping face. + +{726} + +Aurelia had not looked up in speaking, and seemed to be engrossed +in her work; but there was a glistening of tears through the +thick lashes, and the delicate rose in her cheeks had grown +crimson-hearted. She seldom spoke with spirit; but when she did, +it always woke that rich bloom. + +The bell rang again, and in a few minutes the parlor-door opened, +and the Rev. Doctor Kenneth came in. + +"The servant told me that Mr. Southard has not arrived," he said; +"but as she did not absolutely forbid me, I came in to see the +rest of you." + +They welcomed him cordially. The doctor had got in the way of +dropping in occasionally, and they were always glad to see him. +The venerable gentleman was something of a courtier, and knew how +to make himself all things to all men. + +"I have my colleague at last," he said, "and to-morrow I promise +myself the pleasure of hearing Mr. Southard, if he comes." + +Margaret returned to the parlor, and was pleasantly saluted by +the doctor who made room for her to sit beside him. She took the +place willingly, being especially pleased with him just then; +for, by his influence, her old friends were beginning to gather +about her, coldly at first, it is true, but that would mend in +time. + +They resumed the conversation which her coming had interrupted. + +"I have never denied that Mr. Maurice Sinclair might possess some +noble qualities," the doctor said, in his stateliest manner. "And +I have never said nor thought that he could rightly be called a +base man. But I have said, and I still think that he was a +dangerous man; and moreover, that last letter of his, instead of +softening my judgment, makes me condemn him all the more; for it +shows unmistakably what light he sinned against." + +"But, doctor," interposed Aurelia's soft voice, "he seemed to be +a Christian at last." + +"By no means, my dear," the doctor answered decidedly. "His +unbelief was nobler, that is all. The Christian soul strains +upward, and drops off the earthly; the pagan soul strains +outward, and grasps what is greatest on earth. He was a pagan. I +have always, during my whole ministry, had more fear of those who +stand on the border-lands between good and evil, than of those +who are clearly in the enemy's country. Do you want to take wine +with a drunkard? Certainly not. The faithful can resist a glaring +tempter; but let one of these gallant chieftains come up with his +mouth full of fine sentiments, and presto, + + 'All the blue bonnets are over the border!' + +But what can we preachers do when the ladies decide to canonize a +man? I'm afraid they are disposed to believe that a fine head +must deserve a fine crown." + +"There's one exception, doctor," Mr. Lewis said, pointing to his +wife. + +The lady appeared not to notice the allusion to herself, but +spoke in a musing, silvery voice, her eyes fixed dreamily on +space. + +"What a wise arrangement of Providence it is, that interesting +masculine penitents should awaken the gushing philanthropy of +ladies, gentlemen standing aloof; while interesting feminine +penitents almost as invariably excite the pious charity of men, +ladies, in their turn, holding off. In both cases, there are the +feast and the skeleton quite correct. I recollect, doctor, +hearing you preach, years ago, a sermon on the Magdalen. It was +very edifying; but I was sorry that you found it necessary to +mention her golden hair. Indeed, I have always thought that the +old painters would have made a better point if they had +represented her as a plain, middle-aged woman, with great haggard +eyes, like pits of darkness through which the soul was +struggling, only a spark, but kindled to a conflagration which +should consume with holy fire that poor, desecrated clay of hers. +That is the true Magdalen; not your light Correggio, who might be +a _danseuse_ reading a French novel after the ballet." + +{727} + +The lady had dropped her careless air, and was speaking almost +vehemently. It seemed, indeed, that some personal experience lent +a poignancy to her convictions on the subject. + +"I am glad of the chance to express my opinions," she said, "and +glad that you have made me angry enough to have courage to speak. +I protest against this pernicious indulgence which latter-day +Christians show to vice, persuading themselves that they are +charitable.'Swear him, and let him go,' as the soldier said of +the rattlesnake. When I see these sentimentalists seek out real +penitence where it hides speechless and ashamed, then I will call +them charitable, and not before. But no; real penitence is not +interesting. It cannot attitudinize, it stammers, it has red and +swollen eyes, it shrinks almost from being forgiven, it never +holds its head up again." + +"But, madam," said the doctor, somewhat disconcerted, "all are +liable to mistakes; and in being too strict with doubtful +penitents, we may discourage the true ones." + +"They are easily distinguished," she said curtly. "Besides, you +lose sight of another risk you run. You appear to take for +granted that none are tempted save those who fall. How do you +know how many may be holding on to their integrity by a mere +thread, struggling desperately but silently, needing every help, +in so precarious a condition that a breath, a word, may destroy +them? Such people do not speak; you hear nothing of them but the +crash of their fall. Or, if they fall not, you never know. To me, +that conflict is more pathetic, more tragical, than all the +paraded sighs and tears of those who have found that dishonesty +doesn't pay. Those who do right simply and purely for God's sake +are few and far between. Most people need the support of public +opinion and the approbation of those whom they look up to. Let it +be seen that, do what they may, if only they can excuse +themselves prettily and plausibly, they will be easily forgiven, +and set still higher than before, and what will be the result? +You can see it in society to-day. Charity, so-called, has +increased; has virtue increased?" + +"If good women would not make themselves so disagreeable, as they +often do," Mr. Lewis said gruffly. + +"Try to please them," his wife replied. "Praise them a little; be +agreeable yourselves, and see if they don't improve in that +respect. Meet a person with a glum face, and if that person is +sincere and sensitive, you are not likely to get smiles in +return." + +Aurelia leaned toward her aunt, put an arm around her, and +whispered, "Dear auntie, you're an angel; but please don't say +any more." + +"I do not like to hear men and women criticise each other," the +doctor said calmly, introducing a switch into the track of the +conversation. "They are neither of them fitted to think for and +judge the other. They, in the moral universe, are like earth and +sea in the physical. And as air is common to earth and sea, so +spirit, and all higher influences, are common to man and woman +alike." + +{728} + +"Yes," Miss Hamilton said, "and while the earth has gold, and +silver, and iron, and gems, the sea has only pearls, and they are +tears, woman's proper _parure_. And while the earth +maintains its place, and is not moved, the sea goes moaning +about, breaking itself on rocks, and climbing even to heaven, +only that it may fall again upon the land." + +"Blessed showers!" said the doctor, who had watched her smilingly +while she spoke. "Be sure, Margaret, sooner or later those for +whose sakes you and your sisters have climbed to heaven with such +toil and pain will see some heavenly likeness in you, and hail +you as welcome messengers. Don't lose courage, dear. Don't join +the bitter waves that break themselves against the rocks, or the +sly, insidious waves that steal away the land and drag it down. +But let your part be with those who visit us by the way of +heaven. Wouldn't you rather we should look up when we want you, +though it were seldom, than look down, though it were often?" + +She looked up, bright and blushing for a moment, like her old +self, trembling with gladness, she knew not why. It seemed to be +a prophecy of good tidings. + +Into the silence that followed a deep sigh broke. They all looked +up, then rose, speechless, changed suddenly into a group of +mourners. For Mr. Southard stood before them with that in his +countenance which showed how much more plainly than even their +living faces he saw the shadow of one who was gone for ever. + +Pallid with sickness, fatigue, and trouble, he came forward to +receive their almost voiceless welcomes. + +"God knows," he said, "that if the choice had been with me, my +place, rather than his, should have been made vacant." + + + Chapter XVI. + + A Deserted Flock. + + +Bostonians have been accused of putting too much Sabbath into +their Sundays; but long may it be before the noisy waves of +business or pleasure shall wash away that quiet island in the +weary sea of days. There is a suggestion of peace, if not of +sacredness, in the silence almost like that of the country, in +the closed doors and empty streets; and when the bells + + "Sprinkle with holy sounds the air, as the priest with the hyssop + Sprinkles the congregation, and scatters blessings upon them," + +he must be insensible indeed who does not--at least, +momentarily--remember that there is another world than this. + +On the morning after his return, Mr. Southard resumed his old +Sunday habit of breakfasting in his own room, and none of the +family saw him before service. He always went to his church +early, and alone, and never spoke to any one on the way. + +"Margaret, you really ought to go with us this time," Mrs. Lewis +said. "I think you might unbend for once." + +"To stoop from the presence of God to the presence of a creature +is bending too far," was the reply. "Such bending breaks. I and +my pet are going to see the heavens open, and the Lord descend; +are we not, Dorothea, gift of God?" + +Mrs. Lewis turned herself about before the cheval-glass to see +the effect of a superb toilet that she had made in honor of the +occasion. "Ah! well," she said. "You may be right. I have indeed +a faithful heart, but a woefully skeptical head; shall we go +now?" + +{729} + +The night had been very sharp for the season; but when they all +went out together, the sun was shining warmly through the morning +haze, the air was still, and the dripping, splendid branches of +the October trees were hesitating between hoarfrost and dew, and +glittering with both. People in holiday attire, and with holiday +faces, went past, the bells clanged out, then paused, and left +only a tremulous murmur in the air, the very spirit of sound. Far +away, a chime rang an old-fashioned hymn, in that quaint, stiff +way that chimes have. + +At a street-corner the party separated, and went their several +ways. + +As the Lewises entered their own church, they involuntarily +exchanged a smile. Nothing could be prettier than that interior. +The side-lights were all shut out, and for the first time the new +window was unveiled, and threw its rich light over the choir, and +up the nave, kindling the flowers that profusely draped the +pulpit and platform, and edging with crimson the garnet velvet +cushions. The people in this church had usually easy elbow-room, +but to-day they permitted themselves to be crowded a little by +visitors. There were even chairs brought into the galleries; and +when the hour for service arrived, there was a row of gentlemen +standing behind the last pews. But there was no sound save the +soft rustle of ladies' dresses, and now and then a hushed +whisper. There was the most perfect decorum and composure, and a +silence that was respectful if not reverential. No belligerent +mutterings ever rose through the voice of prayer or praise within +these walls; no belated worshipper ever went tramping up to the +very front after service had begun; and moreover, neither in +this, nor in any other Protestant church, did visitors come with +opera-glasses and chattering tongues, to turn what was meant as a +place of worship into a place of amusement. + +Quite late, Dr. Kenneth came up the aisle, and seated himself in +the Lewis pew; and while every one looked at him, the door +leading back from the platform to the vestry was opened, and +almost before they were aware, Mr. Southard had entered and taken +his place. + +There was a soft stir and rustle all through the church, and the +choir sang an anthem--that beautiful one of Brasbury's: + + "How beautiful is Zion + Upon the mountain's brow, + The coming of the messenger, + To cheer the plains below." + +Mr. Southard sat with his eyes fixed on the cornice-wreath, and +let his congregation stare at him, and they did not scruple to +take advantage of the opportunity. The impression was not the one +they had expected to receive. He was too pale and spiritual, and +his expression was too much that of some lofty martyr fronting +death unmoved, a St. Sebastian, pierced with arrows, his soul +just pluming itself for flight through those lifted eyes. + +Moreover, not only were all their flowers invisible to him, but +he never looked at their new window, though the light from one of +its golden panes streamed full in his face as he sat. Where was +the smiling glance that might, surely, have made one swift +scrutiny of their familiar faces, unseen so long? Where was the +prayer of thanksgiving that he had been brought safely back to +his people, after such an absence, and through so many dangers? +Where was the joyful hymn of praise? + +When Mr. Southard rose, he repeated only the Lord's prayer; and +the first hymn he read was anything but joyful: + + "Nearer, my God, to thee, + Nearer to thee, + E'en though it be a cross + That raiseth me." + +{730} + +"Dear me! doctor," Mrs. Lewis could not help whispering, "I do +wish that for to-day, at least, he could have hidden the cross +under the crown." + +The text was unexpected: "_Little children, love one +another._" + +Not a single war-note, not a word of that Aceldama from which he +had but just come, but an impassioned exhortation that, casting +aside all differences, dissensions, and uncharitableness, they +should love each other even as Christ had loved them. + +Mr. Southard seldom displayed any strong feeling except +indignation or a lofty fervor; but now he seemed deeply moved, +and full of a yearning tenderness toward those whom he addressed. +And they, after the first, forgot their disappointment, and were +almost as much affected as he. + +"Why do I choose for my text words which recall the sufferings of +our divine Lord?" he asked. "And why do I select words of parting +exhortation rather than words of greeting? Because the passion is +not yet ended; because Christ is no more a king to-day than he +was nineteen centuries ago; because even among those who call +upon his name, his commands, his entreaties are disregarded. +Still his sceptre is but a reed, his purple still covers the +marks of the lash, his brow still bleeds under its crown. Lastly, +because I am not a pastor returning joyfully to his flock, hoping +for no more partings, but one who comes sorrowfully to say +farewell, scarcely daring to hope for any other meeting with you. + +"A pastor? And who is he that leadeth the flocks of the Lord? He +to whom the divine Shepherd hath given the charge, bidding him +go. Brethren, he has not spoken to me, save in rebuking. Instead +of green pastures, I have led you in the desert. For still +waters, I have brought you to the banks of Marah. Who is he in +whose hands the baptismal waters are cleansing, who can bind man +and woman as husband and wife, who can consecrate the bread and +wine, who can loosen its burden from the penitent soul? He who, +looking up the line of his spiritual descent, sees the tongues of +fire alighting upon his ancestors in the Lord. Bear with me, my +friends! At the head of my line stands the traitor who sat at +meat with Christ, and ate the bread he broke, and drank the wine +he blessed, and then betrayed him." + +The congregation were too much startled and puzzled by this +sudden turn to notice that Doctor Kenneth's head was bowed +forward on the front of the pew, and that Aurelia Lewis was +leaning with her face hidden on her aunt's shoulder. + +But Mr. Southard saw them, and grew yet paler. When he spoke +again, it was with difficulty. + +"This is no place for me to stand and advocate doctrines denied +by you. Yet surely it is no treason to the trust you reposed in +me when you invited me to become your pastor, if I ask, if I +entreat that you will examine fairly and prayerfully before you +condemn my course. + +"I dare not trust myself to thank you for all your past +friendship for me, to utter my wishes for your future good, or to +tell you how my heart is torn by this parting. I have only +strength to go. + +"Do you ask whither I am going? After years of mental torment +unsuspected by you, and when at last my strength was deserting +me, and the waters were going over my soul, where did I find +refuge and safety? In that glorious old ship whose sails are full +of the breath of the Spirit, who has faith for an anchor, the +cross as her ensign, and St. Peter at the helm. Brethren, I am a +Roman Catholic, thank God!" + +{731} + +Immediately the congregation were in confusion, and one gentleman +stood up and called, "Stop, sir!" + +The light that had sprung to Mr. Southard's face at the last +words dropped out again. He leaned over the pulpit, and commanded +silence with a gesture at once imploring and imperative. + +"One word more!" he said. "Believe in my unaltered affection for +you; and believe also that though my hands are not anointed to +give benediction, I fervently pray that God may bless you now and +for ever. Farewell!" + +He turned away from them, and walked slowly toward the +vestry-door. Before he had closed it behind him, a silence fell, +and he heard Doctor Kenneth's trembling voice exclaim, "Let us +pray!" Glancing back, Mr. Southard saw the old minister standing +with upraised hands in his deserted pulpit. + +Where he passed the rest of that day, the family did not know. It +was early twilight when they saw him coming up the street toward +the house. By that time they had recovered from their first +excitement, all but Aurelia. She still kept her room. + +Mr. Southard walked with a firm and dignified step, and his face +was perfectly serene. He even smiled when he saw Margaret +standing in the parlor window, watching for him. + +"No servant shall open the door for him this time, at least," she +thought, and hastened to open it herself. + +"Welcome home!" she said exultingly, holding out both hands to +him. "You did that nobly! A thousand times, welcome!" + +Mr. Southard closed the door, then looked at her boldly, putting +her hands back. "Do not mock my empty life with so slight a gift +as mere kindness," he said. "If you give me your hand, give it to +me to keep." + +She stood one instant wavering, then gave him her hand again. +"Keep it," she said. + +Lingering behind him as he went to meet Mr. and Mrs. Lewis, +Margaret flung her pledged hand upward as if she flung a gauge. +"Louis Granger, you shall not look down and think that I am +breaking my heart for you!" + + + Chapter XVII. + + In Exitu Israel. + + +Some one tells of a wind so strong that he could turn and lean +his back against it, as against a post. Mr. Southard found some +such effect as this in the excitement caused by his change of +religion. For there are times when a strong opposition is +wonderfully sustaining. It fans the flame, and keeps the soul in +a lively glow, without any expenditure of our own breath. + +Being thus saved the pains of maintaining his fervor, the new +convert took up tranquilly his religious studies, viewing from +the inside that church which heretofore he had seen only from the +outside. The study was an ever fresh delight; and as, one after +another, new beauties were revealed, and new harmonies unfolded +themselves, the miracle seemed to be, not that he should see now, +but that he should have been blind so long. + +No one knows, save those who have been born away from this home +of the soul, the full delight of that succession of surprises and +discoveries in the search made by him who comes late to his +father's house. The first dawn or flash of faith, come as faith +may, shows only the door, and a dim and long-stretching +perspective. But once inside, with what wonder, what curiosity, +what incredulity, even, we wander about examining the treasures +of this new-found inheritance of ours. +{732} +Surely, we say, here we shall be disappointed. Here there will be +a shade on the picture. But, looking closely, we find instead a +still more eminent beauty. Nor are these varied discoveries +exhausted in a few months, nor in a few years, nor in many years. +Even when the noon of life has been spent in the quest, and +twilight comes, still there are + + "such suites to explore, + Such closets to search, such alcoves to importune." + +But the most spiritual of us are not all spirit; and when, after +a few weeks, the storm of denunciation against him subsided a +little, weary of its own violence, Mr. Southard began to feel the +vacuum left by his loss of occupation, and to depend more on the +home life. + +Here the prospect was not without shadows. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis had +behaved nobly, and, after the first shock, had stood by him +through every trial. "Not that I am so fond of Catholicism," Mr. +Lewis said. "But I like to see a man who has a mind of his own, +and isn't afraid to speak it." + +The shadow in this case was Mr. Lewis's niece, who showed an +unconquerable coldness toward her former minister. This was not +to him a matter of vital consequence, certainly, though it +troubled him more than he would have expected. She had always +looked up to him with undoubting faith as her religious guide. +Now he perceived with pain and mortification that he had not only +destroyed her respect for his own authority, but had made her +distrustful of all authority. + +He attempted to justify himself to her; but she stopped him. + +"I do not occupy myself in criticising your conduct and opinions, +Mr. Southard," she said; "and I would rather say nothing about +it." + +For the first time, it struck him that Miss Lewis had a very +stately manner. + +Neither was Miss Hamilton just what Mr. Southard wished his +promised wife to be to him, though he could scarcely have told in +what she was lacking. Her evident desire that for the present the +engagement should be unsuspected, even by their own family, he +did not find fault with, though it prevented all confidential +intercourse between them; but he would have preferred that she +had not been quite so positively friendly, and no more. It seemed +a little odd, too, that he should never, even by accident, find +her alone, though they had frequently met so in the old times. + +Weary, at length, of waiting on chance, he requested an +interview, and stated his wishes. He would like to go to Europe +as soon as possible, and stay there a year. He could not feel +himself settled in the church, till he had been in Rome a +Catholic, having once been there an unbeliever. Of course he +would expect to take his wife with him. Why should they delay. +Why not be married at Christmas, and start so as to reach Rome +before Easter? + +Margaret grew pale. "It is so soon," she said in a frightened +way. "And you know I cannot leave Dora. You might go without me." +Then, as his countenance fell, she added, trying to smile, "I +love my freedom, and want to keep it as long as I can. But when I +do take bonds on myself, I shall be very dutiful." + +"I do not think that you will lose any freedom which you need +greatly desire to keep," he said gently, but with a shade of +disapproval. "And as to Dora, Mrs. Lewis would take good care of +her." + +{733} + +"Dora is a sacred charge to me, Mr. Southard," Margaret said +hastily; "not only her person, but her faith. I cannot intrust +her to any one else. Besides, she would break her heart if parted +from me. No one else can comfort her when--when she needs +comfort." + +Mr. Southard considered awhile. + +"I approve of your being careful to do your duty by the child," +he said presently. "But, you know, some priest could have her +religious education under his supervision while we are gone. I +would not, on any account, urge you to violate a scruple of +conscience. Possibly, however, if you should consult your +confessor, he might decide that your duty to the child should +bend to your duty to me." + +Margaret's face blushed up crimson, and her eyes emitted a spark. +"The confessor whom I shall consult when I name my wedding-day, +will be my own heart," she said, in anything but a humble tone of +voice. + +Mr. Southard looked at her searchingly. "Can it be," he asked, +"that a lack of affection on your part is the cause of this +reluctance?" + +"I esteem you highly, Mr. Southard," she replied faintly, +shrinking a little. "But I am not very reasonable, and you must +have patience with me. Please don't say any more now. This is +very sudden. I will think of it." + +"Very well," he replied. "Perhaps when you have thought, you may +accede to my first proposal. It is not worth while to delay, you +know, when one's mind is made up." + +"I must go now with Dora to make her first confession," Margaret +said, anxious to change the subject. "Will you excuse me? I am +afraid the storm may grow worse. The rain is falling gently now; +but you know the old proverb: + + 'When the wind comes before the rain, + You may hoist your topsails up again; + But when the rain comes before the winds. + You may reef when it begins.'" + +"And a true proverb it is in more ways than one," Mr. Lewis said, +appearing at that moment. "When my wife begins by flying at me +and tearing my hair out, and then goes to crying afterward, I +hope for fair weather soon. But when she starts with a gentle +drip of tears, I always look out for squalls before it is over. +Remember that for your future guidance, Mr. Southard." + +Margaret escaped from the room, and in a few minutes was on her +way to the church, with Dora half hidden under her cloak, and +nestled close to her side. As she rode along, feeling, some way, +as if they were flying from pursuit or from a prison, she +experienced one of those tender touches of recollection with +which the Spirit, ever following us, seeks to recall our wayward +hearts. "What should I do if I had no church to go to?" was the +thought that came; and as it came, the altar toward which she was +approaching, glowed through the chill November rain like the fire +in happy homes. + +Outside, in the corridor leading to that familiar chapel of St. +Valentine, endeared by so many sacred and tender memories, they +paused a moment and recollected themselves. + +"My dear little one, Christ Jesus the Lord is in there!" + +"Do you truly think that he likes me?" whispered Dora +apprehensively, glancing askance at the lambent little flame that +burned inside. + +"Oh! yes," was the confident answer. "He is very fond of you when +you are good." + +The sweet face smiled again. + +"Then I an't afraid of him, auntie. Come." + +{734} + +After an act of contrition on her own account, and a prayer for +the child, Margaret led Dora to the confessional, placed her on +her knees there, and, dropping the curtain behind her, retired to +wait at a distance. + +Verifying the proverb, it was blowing quite violently when the +two started for home again. Margaret went directly up to her +chamber, having need to be alone. What was it striving within +her, what memory, almost at the surface of her mind, yet unseen, +like a flower in spring just ready to burst through the mould +that feels but knows it not? On her table was a bunch of English +violets that some one had left there for her. At the sight of +them, her trouble sharpened to pain that had yet some touch of +delight in it. The wind was full of voices, it caught the rain, +and lashed the windows, it shook the doors, and called sighingly +about the chimneys, and swung the vines against the panes. As she +leaned there wondering and troubled, a faint, sweet perfume from +the violets stole into her face. It was magical. She sank on her +knees and drew the flowers to her bosom. + +"O my friend! how could I ever dream of forgetting you?" + +How it came back, that rainy day at the seaside, the terror of +the tempest, the fire she had kindled, the watch she had kept, +the presentiment of sorrow, then the muffled figure coming down +the road, the rain, the wind, and his smile, all meeting her at +the door, and the perfume of the violets he had brought her! + +Who knows not the power that perfumes have over the memory? The +influence of sound is evanescent, that which the eyes have seen +the imagination changes in time; but a perfume is the most +subtile and indestructible of reminders. You have walked in the +world's beaten ways many a year, till the country home of your +childhood is a picture almost effaced from your mind. Its tones +echo no more, its faces are faded, its scenes forgotten. + +Some sultry summer day, wandering from the city, but only half +weaned from the thoughts of it, your listlessly straying feet +crush the warm, wild herbage, and a thick perfume of sweet-fern +rises about you. What does it mean? Thrilling to your +finger-tips, you bend and inhale that strange yet familiar scent. +Its touch is as potent as the touch of the rod of Moses. + + "A score of years roll back their tide + Of mingled joy and pain; + Dry-shod I cross the torrent's bed, + And am a child again." + +Old scenes come up: gray rocks start out, lichen-jewelled; there +are billows of butter-cups, mayweed, and clover, over which your +young fancies sailed moth-winged, and brought rich freights from +every port; the long lines of pole and stone fences are built up +again in a twinkling; the boiling spring leaps bubbling into the +heart of the sunshine; in the woods the cold, bright waters run +hurrying over the pebbles; there is the homestead, the smoke from +the chimney, the open windows, some one standing in the door, +some one calling you with a voice as real as your breath; there +are faces with eyes that see you, every feature plain, there are +hands stretched out. + +How it rises and tramples on your present, that past that hides +but never dies! How your heart-strings strain with the vain +longing to stay for ever in this bright, recovered country, and +look no more on the desert and the land of bondage! + + "Flow back, O years! into your channel, + Flow, and stop the way! + Let me forget how vain the fancies + Of that childish day." + +{735} + +If we did not know that every hope and sweetness in the past were +but seeds for future blossom and fruit; if we did not know that +childhood is but a bee's load of honey, but a babe's sip of milk, +to those flowing streams in the promised land; if we did not +believe that God's denial is brief, his bounty endless; that +surely he sees and marks every pain; and that he holds the +fulfilment of our utmost wish just at the verge of our utmost +endurance--if we were not sure of this, could human nature bear +the cross that sometimes is laid upon it? It could not! + +Miss Hamilton did not appear at the dinner-table that day; but in +the evening Mr. Southard was summoned to her in the library. She +met him with an April face full of a grieved kind of joy, or a +joyful grief, crossed the room toward him when he came in, and +held out her hands to him. + +"Forgive me!" she said hurriedly. "But, Mr. Southard, I cannot +marry you. I made a mistake. Don't be angry with me. I cannot +help it. And I think, too, that you mistook also." + +"I do not understand this," he said, dropping her hand. + +"I should never have thought of marrying, if I had not been angry +with him," she said. "That was wicked and foolish, and I have got +over it now. We are reconciled. I shall never forget him." + +"Am I to understand that your remembrance of Mr. Granger is a bar +to your union with me?" asked Mr. Southard, regaining his +composure. + +"An insurmountable bar!" + +He bowed gravely. "Then there is no more to be said. I wish you +good-evening." + +She watched him go; and when the door had closed, broke into a +soft laugh. "In exitu Israel;" she said. "I am free!" + +The door opened again, and Mr. Lewis came in. "You here?" he +said. "I want to get the first volume of--But what's the matter +with you? I just met Mr. Southard going into his room. Have you +promised to marry him?" + +"No, I have promised not to," Margaret said, smiling. + +Mr. Lewis looked at her with a softening face, and eyes that grew +dim. + +"I'm glad of it, Maggie," he said. My wife and Aurelia were sure +that you and he would make a match; and I couldn't say anything +against it. But I hated the thought of your forgetting +_him_." + +There was no danger, indeed, of her forgetting him. It was +impossible for her. She had not one of those facile hearts that +rest here and there, on whatever offers, growing worn and +threadbare at last, till there is nothing left to give. Hers was +an imperious constancy which, having once chosen, did not know +how to change, and perpetually renewed itself, like a fountain, +as fresh to-day as it was a century ago. Such affection does not +absolutely need the happiness of earth; for its root is in the +soul, not in the flesh, and the time of its perfecting is +hereafter. + + + Chapter XVIII. + + Daybreak. + + +As there are plants that need crushing to bring out their +perfume, so there are natures that become thoroughly amiable only +through pain and humiliation. Mr. Southard's was one of these. +Every blow that struck him made some breach in his puritanic +severity, and revealed some hidden grace of mind or heart. He had +possessed an intellectual humility, and had submitted himself +with all the force of his reason. +{736} +But such humility is like the weight of snow that in winter +presses the head of the slender sapling to earth, whence it is +ever ready to spring back again at the first fiery sun-touch. It +savored too much of the arrogant self-accusation of those who, as +Mr. Lewis said, think they are the sun because they have spots on +them. Now, he seemed really humble, he distrusted himself, and he +accepted kindness with a gratitude that touched the hearts of +those who gave it. + +To Mrs. Lewis's surprise, he made a confident of her, and spoke +quite freely of his disappointment. + +"I do not blame Margaret," he said. "It was ungenerous of me to +take advantage of her first moment of enthusiastic sympathy for +me to exact a promise from her. But the temptation was strong. +Existence with her would never be mere vegetation. She always +gets at the inside of life. However, since God has willed it +otherwise for me, I shall try to act like a Christian and like a +sensible man. All the difference it makes in my plans is that I +shall go away a little sooner." + +They were sorry to have him go; for their esteem for him had +insensibly grown into affection, and their affection constantly +increased. + +"I declare, I had no idea that I should feel so bad about it," +Mr. Lewis said when the time came for good-byes. "Give me your +shawl to take out. I am going to the depot with you." + +Margaret and Dora had taken leave of Mr. Southard, and were +standing in one of the front windows, watching to see him off. +Mrs. Lewis walked slowly out of the parlor with him. + +"Where is Aurelia?" he asked, looking about. "I have not seen +her." + +"Oh! she told me to say good-by for her," answered Mrs. Lewis +carelessly. He hesitated, and looked hurt. "I suppose she doesn't +care to take the trouble to see me," he said. "Tell her I said +good-by, and God bless her." + +"I will do nothing of the kind!" said the lady, with emphasis. + +Mr. Southard stared at her in astonishment. + +"'Doesn't care to take the trouble!" she repeated indignantly. +"It is rather you who haven't cared to treat her with common +gratitude or civility. You have had eyes for only Miss Hamilton, +who didn't care a fig for you; while Aurelia, the poor simpleton! +who made a hero of you, and broke her heart because you were in +disgrace with the world and disappointed in love--you hadn't a +glance for. No; I won't say good-by to her. I will let her +believe that you went without remembering her existence, as you +came near doing. It will help her to forget you. There, take that +with my blessing, and good-by. The carriage is waiting." + +"Where is she?" he exclaimed, his whole face changed, and become +alive all at once. "I shall not stir from the house till I have +seen her, if I have to wait a year." + +"What will Miss Hamilton think of your constancy?" asked Mrs. +Lewis with a toss of the head. + +"Madam," said Mr. Southard, "for me there is but one woman in the +world, and that is she who loved me without waiting to be asked. +Will you be so good as to tell Aurelia that I wish to see her in +the library?" + +He went toward the library, and Mrs. Lewis leisurely returned to +the parlor, a curious little smile on her lips. + +{737} + +Aurelia Lewis was seated before the library fire, with her hands +folded in her lap. + +As Mr. Southard paused an instant at sight of her, then came +hastily in and shut the door after him, she rose and looked at +him with an air of dignified composure. Her face was perfectly +colorless. + +"Is it true," he began at once, "that you have sympathized with +me more than I knew? Tell me! A disappointment now would be too +cruel." + +Aurelia's full bright eyes opened a little wider, and a faint +color warmed her cheeks; but she seemed too much astonished or +too indignant to speak. Yet after the first glance, she drooped a +little, and leaned on the back of her chair, as if, like that +fair Jewish queen, _for delicateness and overmuch tenderness, +she were not able to bear up her own body_. + +How pure and sweet she was! Silent as dew. How utterly womanly +her untainted loveliness! + +"Esther!" exclaimed Mr. Southard. + +After ten minutes Mr. Lewis put his head out of the carriage +door, and made a sign to his wife, who was benevolently +contemplating him from the parlor. She raised the window. + +"Where is Mr. Southard?" he asked. + +"He is saying good-by to Aurelia," was the reply; and the window +went down again. + +Minutes passed, but no Mr. Southard appeared. It was the day +before Christmas, and the air was too sharp to make a long +tarrying out doors agreeable. + +"I've heard of eternal farewells, but I never before had the +honor of assisting at one," muttered Mr. Lewis; and having waited +as long as endurance seemed a virtue, he went into the house. + +"Where is Mr. Southard?" he asked, looking round the parlor. + +"In the library, saying good-by to Aurelia," replied his wife +suavely. + +Mr. Lewis looked at Margaret. + +"Will you tell me what she means? I don't believe her. She always +puts on that truthful look when she tells a lie." + +Margaret laughed. "I think you may as well dismiss the carriage," +she said. + +In something less than half an hour Mr. Southard and Aurelia made +their appearance. They were received with great cordiality. + +"I hope you liked your journey to Europe," said Mr. Lewis with +immense politeness. "Is the pope in good health?" + +Mr. Southard was beyond the reach of mocking. "I have postponed +my journey till this lady can be ready to accompany me," he said. +"And I have convinced her that four weeks will be enough for her +preparation." + +Aurelia went to lean on Margaret's shoulder. She was trembling, +but her face showed full contentment. "I would rather be Esther +than Vashti," she whispered. + +"I'm delighted enough to forgive you even a greater impertinence +than that, if greater could be," was the whispered answer. "I am +not Vashti, though you are Esther." + +The next day, after coming home from early mass, Margaret sat in +her chamber toward the east, with Dora and her two friends, Agnes +and Violet, leaning on her lap, and watching her face. She had +been telling them the story of that miraculous birth, and, +finishing, looked up into the morning sky, and forgot them; +forgot the sky, too, presently, with all its vapory golden +stretches, and glimpses of far-away blue, and saw instead her +life past, present, and to come. Looking calmly, she forgave +herself much, for had not God forgiven her? and hoped much, for +there was no room for despair; and grew content, for all that she +could desire was within her reach. + +{738} + +Beginning at the lowest, she had an assured home, kind friends, +and a dear and sacred duty in the care of this child. So far, all +was peace. + +One step higher then. Could the friend who still lived on in her +heart forget her in that heaven to which her love had led him? +And, weak and childish though she was, with her impatience, her +scarcely broken pride, her obstinately clinging affection, could +she be altogether unlovely to him? Some strong assurance answered +no. + +Higher yet her thought took its stand. There was faith, that +second sight by which the soul sets her steps aright as she +climbs, never missing the way. There was an unfading hope, and a +charity that embraced the world. There was God. And all were +hers! + +As Margaret sat there, the three children leaned motionless, +hushing themselves lest they should break that beautiful trance. +It was no momentary glow of enthusiasm, no mere uprising of +feeling; for mounting slowly, through pain, and doubt, and +weakness, she had reached at last the heights of her soul, and +saw a wide, bright daybreak over the horizon of a loftier life. + +---------- + + A Glimpse Of Ireland. + + +I had long cherished the desire to visit Ireland, a country for +many reasons so interesting to every American Catholic. The +opportunity of making a brief tour in Europe during a summer +vacation having unexpectedly presented itself, I determined, +therefore, to leave the steamer at Queenstown and make the +journey to London by way of Dublin. On the 29th of July, 1867, +after a remarkably pleasant passage, we found ourselves, at an +early hour of the morning, in sight of the famous Skellig +rocks--called by sailors the Bull, Cow, and Calf--and thus gained +the welcome advantage of sailing all day in sight of the Irish +coast. The first impression one receives from the appearance of +the country between Valentia and Cork is sad and desolate; in +harmony with the tragic history of the suffering, oppressed race, +whose home is seen for the first time, by the voyager from the +New World, under one of its most barren and lonely aspects. The +only interest which can attract the eye and the mind is that of a +sort of wild and rugged grandeur, coupled with the historical +associations which give a charm to the names of Bantry and +Dingle. The lonely waters, where scarcely a sail was to be seen +during the live-long day, told of the suppression of the +industrial and commercial life of the Irish nation by the +long-continued tyranny of that power which absorbs all its +resources to feed its own greatness. + +The long, barren stretches, showing scarcely a sign of vegetable, +animal, or human life, where for miles one could see only here +and there a little shealing and a few sheep cropping the brown, +scanty herbage, seemed to give the lie to the well-known, and, as +I afterward saw, well deserved appellation of "the Emerald Isle." +{739} +Expressions of surprise escaped from some of my +fellow-passengers, agreeable and intelligent American gentlemen, +who, like myself, were on their maiden trip to Europe; and from +some others of the party who were children of Irish parents, +looking for the first time on the land of their exiled ancestors. +The coast is frequently steep and precipitous, suggesting to the +memory the many tales of shipwreck in wild nights of tempest one +has read in boyhood. The Martello towers stand at intervals along +the horizon, like gigantic watchmen looking out seaward to spy +the smuggler or the foreign invader, and in the distance the line +of the Kerry Mountains completes the view of the wild, desolate +landscape. The heights of Bantry are rendered for ever sacred and +memorable by the martyrdom of the Franciscan fathers, Donald and +Healy, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. They were revisiting the +ruined monastery of Bantry, for the purpose of ministering to the +spiritual wants of their poor, persecuted flock, when they were +seized by the agents of the glorious reformation, tied back to +back, and hurled headlong down the precipice into the ocean. What +a wonder that the Irish people are so insensible to the value of +a gospel brought to them with so much pains and trouble, so +kindly presented to them, enforced by such lovely examples of +Christian virtue, and supported so long, notwithstanding their +obstinacy, at such great expense! + +Early in the morning, we stopped our engines off the Cove of +Cork, a little steamer boarded us, the freight and baggage were +speedily, though, in the case of rocking-chairs, not very safely, +tumbled aboard of her decks, under the herculean direction of our +fat boatswain. Three cheers went up from the City of Paris, which +steamed off grandly for Liverpool, and we puffed in, not grandly +but very pleasantly, toward Queenstown. The Cove of Cork is +world-renowned for its beauty and excellence as a haven for +ships, but desolate-looking from the fact that it is better +supplied with fortresses, cannon, and ships of war than with the +peaceful, plenty-bringing steamers and sailing-vessels of +commerce. I once heard a little American boy utter the +exclamation, as we were entering the port of Havana and espied +the soldiers on duty, "How afraid they must be, guarding +everything that way!" It appears to be the same case in Ireland. +The English government is very much afraid of its Irish subjects, +if we may measure its fears by the display of force which meets +the eye everywhere. The only consolation which a sincere lover of +the Irish people can find in looking upon this state of things +is, that, since the endurance of this coercive tyranny is for the +time a necessary evil, the force is so very irresistible as +effectually to prevent the bloody horrors which would follow a +general insurrection. A young English officer, whom I met at the +hotel in Cork, expressed his regret that an open rebellion had +not broken out, which, he said, would have been an affair of a +month, and which of course would only have increased the miseries +and riveted the chains of the Irish people. For myself, I could +not help shuddering at the thought of the fearful tragedy which +would have been enacted if the people had been goaded by +demagogues to such an attempt, and blessing God that the efforts +of these madmen had failed. It is plain enough that Ireland +cannot be governed in this way much longer. +{740} +There is but one hope and one method for the English crown to +retain Ireland as a portion of the British empire; which is, to +win the willing loyalty of the people by an ample redress of +their grievances, and the inauguration of a policy which has in +view the real good of the Irish people. + +Our little steamer landed us at about eight in the evening; the +officers were very polite and obliging, and we were soon ashore +on the sacred soil, with our luggage in the hands of a couple of +lively gossoons, and our steps free to go anywhere we pleased. + +As soon as one steps ashore on the Irish soil, he feels that he +is in the land of frolic and drollery. The irrepressible and +indomitable spirit of the Celtic race rebounds under the strokes +of adversity like an india-rubber ball under the blows of a bat. +"The harder you do knock him down, the higher he do bounce." My +fellow-voyagers who came ashore at Queenstown fell into a state +of hilarity at once which was wonderful to behold, and which +continued during their whole stay in Ireland. They held their +sides and laughed uproariously, not, be it understood, with any +feeling of contempt or ridicule--for they were gentlemen, and +altogether free from snobbish prejudice or religious bigotry--but +from pure, genial sympathy with the comedy which was going on in +the crowd that pressed eagerly around the welcome passengers from +America, contending for their luggage. Old women whose vivacity +old age had only sharpened, and little boys who were so many +Flibbertigibbets in fun and smartness, with huge cars drawn by +diminutive donkeys, on which they piled pyramids of trunks, if +they were lucky enough to get them; boys with barrows, and boys +with only hands and shoulders--struggled and jibed and danced and +scolded, and rushed upon every passenger as he emerged from the +barrier, in a good humored and tumultuous manner that can only be +appreciated by one who has seen it. We pushed off for the last +train to Cork, followed by a dozen runners of the Queenstown +hotels, vociferating the praises of their several houses, +assuring us that the train had left five minutes before, and +urging us most affectionately to go up the next morning after a +good night's sleep, by the boat, that we might enjoy the scenery +of the beautiful river Lee. This piece of advice was good, and I +recommend every traveller to follow it. We turned a deaf ear to +it, however, reached the train in time, and in half an hour were +comfortably deposited in the well-known and most excellent +Imperial Hotel of Cork. + +The rather singular English name of Cork is not, as one is apt to +suppose, our common word designating a certain very light +substance, and applied without any reason or propriety that +anybody can see to a very substantial city and county. It is a +corruption of the Irish word _Carroch_, signifying a valley, +which has been Anglicized, like many other foreign words, by a +most perverse and stupid English custom of changing them into +English words of somewhat similar sound. The first beginning of +the city was a monastery founded in the seventh century by St. +Finnbar, whom I recognized as an old acquaintance, from the +cathedral dedicated to his honor at Charleston, S. C., by the +illustrious Bishop England, who was a native of Cork. The old +cathedral of St. Finnbar, which was rebuilt in 1735, has been +demolished, to make way for a new one, which I most devoutly hope +may never be built on the sacred spot consecrated by the ancient +Irish monk until this shall revert to its rightful possessors. +{741} +Another holy site, that of Gil Abbey, which is extremely +picturesque and beautiful, is occupied by the Queen's College. +The Sisters of Mercy are fortunate enough to possess another +pleasant spot, rising to a wooded hill, which was also the seat +of an ancient monastery, and where is now situated their very +neat and commodious convent. There are three very good Catholic +churches in the city--St. Patrick's, St. Mary's, and Holy +Trinity; the latter founded by F. Matthew, and containing a +stained glass window as a memorial of O'Connell. The Mardyke, an +avenue shaded with elms for the distance of a mile, is a pleasant +walk, and I passed an hour there in company with a small party of +friends, from New York, in a most amusing and agreeable manner, +surrounded by a group of children with whom we soon established a +most intimate friendship by means of plums. The Irish children +are remarkable for their beauty, their blooming health, and for a +mixture of fun and innocence, of brightness and simplicity, of +boldness and modesty, indicating a state as near to that of +unfallen childhood as I can imagine. The pranks of the young +Corkonians afford a source of unfailing amusement to the stranger +within their gates; but I was most amused by the boys with +donkeys, who were to be seen riding in state to school in the +morning, and, in the afternoon, all about the environs scattered +in groups on the grass, ready to exchange a biting sarcasm with +every passing coachman, while their dear little friends, the +donkeys, fed quietly near by. It would be useless, however, to +attempt to describe all that is droll and comic in the population +of Cork, for it seems as if it were the business of their lives +to be as funny as they can, for their own delight and that of the +beholder. + +Cork is a fine, well-built town, of 90,000 inhabitants, the third +in importance in Ireland. The environs are extremely beautiful. I +was there at midsummer; the weather was perfect, and I could see +to the best advantage the tilth and verdure which make the +Emerald Isle so famous. Certainly, they have not been +exaggerated, and no one can wonder at the praise which the +Irishman bestows upon his soil, or the intense love which he +cherishes for it. I only wonder that those who were born and bred +there can ever be contented elsewhere; and surely nothing but the +most unendurable poverty and want would ever drive such numbers +of them into exile. Perhaps the most picturesque objects which +meet the eye, in the country, are the white farm-houses with +thatched roofs, standing in their neat little flower-gardens, +their walls covered with honeysuckle or other creeping vines. The +only thought which mars the pleasure of looking on the rich +meadows, the waving fields, the herds of superb cattle, and +flocks of fat sheep, is, that the outward show of beauty and +prosperity is obtained by the sacrifice of the poor people, and +enjoyed by a small number only. If you drive out, your carriage +is followed by a troop of ragged, fleet-footed young beggars; and +if you chance to pass a factory when the hour for stopping work +has come, you may see a long procession of young women, +bareheaded, barefooted, ragged, and emaciated, who are glad to +work for a shilling a day. + +The most interesting place to visit in the neighborhood of Cork +is Blarney Castle. I am ashamed to say that I was afraid to go on +a jaunting-car, although at Dublin I made the experiment with +great success and pleasure. It seemed to me, when I looked at the +jaunting-car for the first time, that it would shake one off as +soon as it turned a corner. +{742} +We accordingly drove out to Blarney in an open carriage, going by +the road to Kanturk, and returning by Sunday-Well road. Aside +from the merely jocose associations of the Blarney-stone, the +old, ivy-clad tower is an extremely interesting and picturesque +object, and the grounds of the demesne, so celebrated in Irish +lyrics, are charming. The cromlech and pillar stones, on which +are inscriptions in the ancient Ogham characters, carry back the +imagination to an antiquity almost without limits, and suggest +the thought that perhaps as long ago as the time of King David, +or even the Exodus, Druids may have performed their sacred rites +in these still groves. Our guide was a poor little sickly +humpbacked boy of sixteen rejoicing in the _sobriquet_ of +Lord John Russell, and possessing very sharp wits and +inexhaustible good-humor. Every one about the castle seemed to +take especial delight in a standing joke at his expense, that he +was an old man with a heavy family. The poor fellow seemed to +enjoy our company very much, and expressed the intention of +emigrating to America. The only reason he could give was that the +weather was too warm in summer at Blarney. At the castle gate his +jurisdiction terminated, and we were handed over to another +amusing original, the lame old gardener, who has many a story to +tell of Walter Scott, and Tom Moore, and Father Prout. As for the +Blarney-stone, I will not say how many of our party kissed it. In +Lord John Russell's opinion, there was no need of our doing so; +he was sure we had one of our own in America which we had all +kissed frequently before leaving home. Whoever has spent an +afternoon at Blarney, in genial company, will admit that it was +one of the pleasantest days of his life, if his soul is not too +full of steam and railroads to be capable of simple and natural +enjoyments. + +The journey by rail from Cork to Dublin is a most tantalizing +one. Flying at full speed through several counties, one catches +glimpses at every moment of places and scenes of historic +interest and natural or artificial beauty, which he longs to +visit and inspect at leisure. The distance is one hundred and +sixty-five miles; the railway is an admirable one; everything +about the way stations is neat and attractive, and the route +passes in a direct line through the counties of Cork, Limerick, +Tipperary, King's, Queen's, and Kildare. Among the objects of +interest which are passed are the abbeys of Mourne, Bridgetown, +Kilmallock, Knocklong, Holy Cross, Thurles, Templemore, Moore +Abbey, Old Connell, Kildare Cathedral, with St. Bridget's chapel; +the castles of Barrett, Carrignacenny, Kilcolman, which the poet +Spenser received as his share in the spoliation; Charleville; the +Rock of Dunamase, with the ruins of Strongbow's Castle; the Rock +of Cashel; the Hill of Allen, where Fin McCoul lived; several +round towers; the famous bog of Allen; the Curragh of Kildare; +and quantities of others--which keep one perpetually, and to a +great extent vainly, looking out of window, first on one side, +then on the other, while you are hurried over a country every +step of which is rich in history, poetry, and legend, and should +be slowly traversed on foot and at leisure. Three of my agreeable +companions of the voyage were with me in the same carriage; a +very pleasing gentleman, with his son, a bright youth of sixteen, +joined us an hour or two before reaching Dublin, and they were as +curious about America, especially Indians, and our sea-voyage, as +we were about the antiquities and curiosities of Ireland. +{743} +Our trip was therefore wanting in nothing to make it lively and +agreeable, and we were finally deposited at the Gresham Hotel, +Sackville street, Dublin, in high good humor, and quite ready for +a good dinner. + +As I had only that evening and the following day to remain in +Dublin, I was obliged to content myself with a superficial view +of the city, and a visit to a few places of particular interest. +In its general features, Dublin is at least equal to our finest +American towns of the same class, although more quiet, and +showing signs of stagnation in commercial prosperity. Its +agreeable climate makes it a delightful place of residence at all +seasons of the year, especially in the summer. + +My first visit was made to the scene of the life and labors of +the saintly Catherine McAuley, foundress of the Sisters of Mercy, +the convent in Baggott street, where also repose her mortal +remains--a lovely spot for the cradle of a religious order, and +suggestive of the time, I hope not far distant, when Ireland +shall once again be full of these sacred homes of the monastic +life, as she was before the spoliation of her holy places by the +ruthless minions of Henry and Elizabeth. I visited also Clontarf, +the scene of Brian Boru's decisive victory over the Danes, and +death, and went to see what is said to have been his harp, and is +undoubtedly a relic of very ancient times, at the museum of +Trinity College. The college is a most attractive place, and +delightfully situated, on ground of course originally stolen from +the Catholic Church, and endowed out of the spoils of +monasteries. Quite in keeping with its origin is the fact that +its library contains a large number of valuable manuscript +records, originally stolen from the papal archives. The learned +body which rules within its classic halls has also made itself +remarkable by sustaining a claim, perhaps the most absurd ever +advanced by persons professing to be scholars, namely, that the +Protestant Church of Ireland is the lineal and legitimate +successor, in a direct, unbroken line, of the ancient church of +Saint Patrick. This is adding insult to injury. As if it were not +enough to rob the Irish people of their property, to persecute, +torture, exile, and massacre them by millions, on account of +their fidelity to their hereditary faith, their title to the very +name of Catholic must be denied to them, and arrogated for the +intruders who have forced themselves into their heritage by the +point of the bayonet and the violation of treaties. Two terrible +antagonists have arisen, however, out of their own camp to smite +these pretenders; Dr. Maziere Brady, an Irish Protestant +clergyman, and Froude, the English historian. The former +gentleman, in several learned and unanswerable works, has +demonstrated the regular, unbroken succession of the present +Catholic hierarchy and people of Ireland, from the bishops and +faithful who preceded the reign of Henry VIII., and has shown +that the Irish Protestant Church is nothing but an English +colony. The learned and accomplished Dr. Moran, also, whom I had +the pleasure of meeting, has written with great ability and +research upon the same topics. + +Stephen's Green, which is near by Trinity College, witnessed the +burning of the heroic martyr Archbishop O'Hurley, tortured and +put to death, at the instigation of the infamous Loftus, +archbishop of Dublin. A few days later, I saw in the private +chapel of Archbishop Manning, at London, a cloth stained with the +blood of Archbishop Plunkett, another illustrious martyr, who was +publicly executed by the English government on false charges. +{744} +I venerate the relics of the older martyrs, and the places made +sacred by the hallowed memories of other countries and ages far +remote; but nothing stirs my blood like the holy mementoes of the +men who suffered in Ireland and England, for the faith, under the +tyranny of the apostate sovereigns and bishops of Great Britain. +These men are our fathers in the faith, the heroes who fought our +battles, from whom we have received the precious heritage we +enjoy in comparative peace. Their memory ought to be kept alive +and honored among us, in every possible way, as a powerful +incitement to imitate their example, and a means of endearing to +our people that religion which has been handed down, bathed in +the blood of so many noble Christians. + +St. Patrick's Cathedral is the most interesting and venerable +monument of antiquity in Dublin. My fellow-travellers were +astonished at seeing a Protestant St. Patrick's, with a statue of +the great apostle over the principal door. Probably most +Americans who have not made themselves specially familiar with +Irish history fancy that most of the fine churches of Dublin are +Catholic churches. Perhaps many of them are not aware that every +church, graveyard, glebe-house, abbey, every rood of land, every +building, and every farthing of revenue belonging to the Catholic +Church in Ireland, has been confiscated by the English +government. In Dublin, out of eighty-four churches, forty +belonged to the English church, and only twenty to the Catholics, +in 1866. At the close of the last century there was not a +Catholic church in Dublin, nor could there be one according to +law. All the churches and other institutions in Dublin are +therefore the creation of the present century, the fruit of the +free-will offerings of the poor people, and a few wealthy +persons, such as Catherine McAuley, who consecrated her handsome +fortune entirely to religion. + +St. Patrick's dates from the year 1190, though the spire was +added in the fourteenth century. It has been thoroughly repaired +and renovated, at a cost of one hundred thousand pounds, which +was given by the well-known brewer, Mr. Guinness. It contains one +of St. Patrick's holy wells, which is visible through an opening +in the floor, and guarded with great respect. Tradition says that +the saint baptized the first Irish convert in this fountain. This +is probably not true; but it is very likely that he did use it +for baptism, and perhaps baptized in it the first converts in +that part of the country. There are some ancient monuments of +bishops and knights, and some modern ones of persons who have +figured during the Protestant ascendency--Brown and Loftus, +Swift, Stella, and the late Dr. Whately, who was Dr. Trench's +immediate predecessor. It is painful enough to see the old +churches and abbeys of England in the hands of aliens from the +faith, although the mass of the people have fallen away and +cannot appreciate the fearful loss they have suffered, in the +substitution of a creature of parliament in the place of the +spouse of Christ. In Ireland, where the people remain fervently +and devoutly Catholic, it is a far more painful sight to witness +their ancient shrines and holy places in the hands of the +descendants of their spoilers, who are unable to make any use, +even for Protestant worship, of the greater part of them. +{745} +While the respectable sexton, whose appearance was that of a +faded dean, was showing me the church for the consideration of a +shilling, I was busily occupied in my own mind invoking St. +Patrick to take his own again, bring back the altars, restore the +unbloody sacrifice, and cause the chants of High Mass to resound +once more within the walls of the venerable cathedral dedicated +to his honor. It is a great consolation to reflect that since +then the death-blow has been levelled at the state church by the +same power which created it. And although justice has not yet +been done to the Catholic people of Ireland, or any step taken to +restore to them the sacred property of which they have been +robbed, there is the greatest reason to hope that, in the course +of events, they will yet regain it by fair and peaceable means, +without violence or revolution. + +Two other objects which interested me greatly, were the chamber +of the Irish House of Lords, preserved still in the same state as +when the last session was held in it, and the tomb of O'Connell, +at the beautiful cemetery of Glasnevin. + +The next morning I bade adieu to Ireland from the deck of the +Kingstown and Holyhead steamer, and although it was only a +passing glimpse I had obtained of this fair island, I shall +always be thankful to have had even this glimpse. + +Ireland has the strongest claims on the love and gratitude of all +Catholics throughout the English-speaking world. Her Celtic race, +although distinct in character, language, and history from the +people whose mother tongue is English, has been brought into such +close relations with it, and is now blending with it to such a +remarkable extent in this country, and other British colonies, +that its history becomes as interesting to us as the early +history of England. Moreover, although a handful of English and +Scotch remained true to the faith during the revolution of the +sixteenth century, it is to Ireland that is due the honor of +holding aloft the banner of religion, around which are now +grouped one fifth of the bishops owning allegiance to St. Peter. +American converts are especially bound to gratitude to that Irish +people who, above all others, have been the founders of the +Catholic Church throughout the largest portion of our republic. +For fourteen centuries, that people has handed down and witnessed +to the faith which St. Patrick brought from France and Rome in +the fifth century, when St. Augustine was yet scarcely cold in +his grave. Without disparaging the great services which other +nationalities have rendered to religion in our country, it is +undoubted that, in our portion of it, it is through the Irish +succession chiefly that we communicate with past ages, and +through their rich life-blood that our Catholicity has become +vigorous. As Catholics and as Americans, we are the natural +friends of Ireland and the Irish. One very good and pleasant way +of showing this friendship is, for those who have money enough to +travel, to spend a portion of their time and money in Ireland. +The advantage will be mutual. Those who are in search of health, +pleasure, and improvement, cannot spend a month or two more +delightfully or beneficially than on such a tour. On the other +hand, the money spent, whether in purchases or in alms to the +poor, will do great good, and the sympathy, kindness, respect for +their religion and themselves, manifested toward the people so +long borne down by the _peine forte et dure_ of oppression +and contempt, will be fully appreciated by their warm hearts, and +encourage them to hope for the full coming of that better day +whose dawning already appears in the horizon. + +{746} + +It is much to be desired that the good beginning already made by +several excellent writers, in publishing books on the religious +history of Ireland, should be actively followed up. A +well-written, popular history, with illustrations, of all the +principal places of interest in the secular and ecclesiastical +history of the country, with sketches of the monastic +institutions formerly flourishing; of the old churches, and +episcopal sees; and lives of the saints and great men who have +flourished, especially the martyrs, would be of the greatest +service to religion. Such a volume would enable the Catholic +tourist to visit the country with the greatest possible advantage +and pleasure, beside the more important help it would give in +strengthening the faith and devotion of the rising generation in +Ireland, and the countries to which she has sent her colonies. +The richest and most abundant field is open to literature of all +kinds, both of the lighter and the more solid character, and it +is to be hoped that it will be thoroughly explored and well +worked by those who are true and faithful to the ancient, +valiantly defended faith of the Island of Saints. + +---------- + + Primeval Man. + [Footnote 196] + + [Footnote 186: _Primeval Man_. An Examination of some + Recent Speculations. By the Duke of Argyll. New York: + Routledge & Sons. 1869. 16mo, pp. 210.] + + +There are few more active or able members of the English House of +Lords or of the British ministry than the Scottish Duke of +Argyll, and, if we could forget the treason to the Stuarts and +the Scottish nation of some of his ancestors, there are few +scholars and scientific men in the United Kingdom whom we should +be disposed to treat with greater respect. He is at once a +statesman, a scientist, and a theologian; and in all three +capacities has labored earnestly to serve his country and +civilization. In politics, he is, of course, a whig, or, as is +now said, a liberal; as a theologian, he belongs to the Kirk of +Scotland, and may be regarded as a Calvinist; as a man of +science, his aim appears to be to assert the freedom and +independence of science, without compromising religion. His work +on the _Reign of Law_, reviewed and sharply criticised in +this magazine for February, 1868, was designed to combat the +atheistic tendencies of modern scientific theories, by asserting +final causes, and resolving the natural laws of the physicists +into the direct and immediate will of God. + +In the present work, quite too brief and sketchy, he treats of +the primeval man, and maintains man's origin in the creative act +of God, against the developmentists and natural selectionists, +which is well, as far as it goes. He treats, also, of the +antiquity of man, and of his primeval condition. He appears +disposed to allow man a higher antiquity than we think the facts +in the case warrant; but, though he dissents, to some extent, +from the theory of the late Anglican Archbishop of Dublin, we +find him combating with great success the savage theory of Sir +John Lubbock, who maintains that man began in the lowest form of +barbarism in which he can subsist as man, and has risen to his +present state of civilization by his own spontaneous and +unassisted efforts--a theory just now very generally adopted in +the non-Catholic world, and assumed as the basis of the modern +doctrine of progress--the absurdest doctrine that ever gained +currency among educated men. + +{747} + +The noble duke very properly denies the origin of species in +development, and the production of new species by "natural +selection," as Darwin holds, and acceded to by Sir Charles Lyell +and an able writer in _The Quarterly_ for last April. The +duke maintains that man was created man, not developed from a +lower species, from the tadpole or monkey. But, while he asserts +the origin of species in the creative act of God, he supposes God +supplies extinct species by creating new species by successive +creative acts; thus losing the unity of the creative act, placing +multiplicity in the origin of things, and favoring that very +atheistical tendency he aims to war against. His _Reign of +Law_, though well-intended, and highly praised by our amiable +friend, M. Augustin Cochin, of _Le Correspondant_, showed us +that the noble author has failed both in his theology and +philosophy. In resolving the natural laws into the will of God +enforcing itself by power, he fails to recognize any distinction +between first cause and second cause, and, therefore, between the +natural and the supernatural. God does all, not only as first +cause, or _causa eminens_, as say the theologians, but as +the direct and immediate actor, which, of course, is pantheism, +itself only a form of atheism. Yet we know not that his grace +could have done better, with Calvinism for his theology, and the +Scottish school, as finished by Sir William Hamilton, for his +philosophy. To have thoroughly refuted the theories against which +he honorably protests, he must have known Catholic theology, and +the Christian view of the creative act. + +We have no disposition, at present, to discuss the antiquity +either of man or the globe. If the fact that God, _in the +beginning_, created heaven and earth, and all things therein, +visible and invisible, is admitted and maintained, we know not +that we need, in the interest of orthodoxy, quarrel about the +date when it was done. Time began with the externization of the +divine creative act, and the universe has no relation beyond +itself, except the relation of the creature to the creator. +Considering the late date of the Incarnation, we are not disposed +to assign man a very high antiquity, and no geological or +historical facts are, as yet, established that require it for +their explanation. We place little confidence in the hasty +inductions of geologists. + +But the primitive condition of man has for us a deeper interest; +and we follow the noble duke with pleasure in his able refutation +of the savage theory of Sir J. Lubbock. Sir John evidently holds +the theory of development, and that man has been developed from a +lower species. He assumes that his primitive human state was the +lowest form of barbarism in which he can subsist as man. With +regard to man's development from lower animals, it is enough to +say that development cannot take place except where there are +living germs to be developed, and can only unfold and bring out +what is contained in them. But we find in man, even in the lowest +form of savage life, elements, language or articulate speech, for +instance, of which there are no germs to be found in the animal +kingdom. We may dismiss that theory and assume at once that man +was created, and created man. But was his condition in his +primitive state that of the lowest form of barbarism? Is the +savage the primitive man, or the degenerate man? +{748} +The former is assumed in almost every scientific work we meet; it +is defended by all the advocates of the modern doctrine that man +is naturally progressive. Saint-Simon, in his _Nouveau +Christianisme_, asserts that paradise is before us, not behind +us; and even some who accept the Biblical history have advanced +so little in harmonizing their faith with what they call their +science, that they do not hesitate to suppose that man began his +career, at least after the prevarication of Adam, in downright +savagism. Even the learned Döllinger so far falls in with the +modern theory as to make polished gentilism originate in +disgusting fetichism. + +The noble duke sufficiently refutes the theory of Sir John +Lubbock, but does not seem to us to have fully grasped and +refuted the assumptions on which it is founded. "His two main +lines of argument," he says, (page 5,) "connect themselves with +the two following propositions, which he undertakes to prove, +First, that there are indications of progress even among savages; +and second, that among civilized nations there are traces of +barbarism." + +The first proposition is not proved or provable. The +characteristic of the savage is to be unprogressive. Some tribes +may be more or less degraded than others. The American Indian +ranks above the New Hollander; but, whether more or less +degraded, we never find savages lifting themselves by their own +efforts into even a comparatively civilized state. Niebuhr says +there is no instance on record of a savage tribe having become a +civilized people by its own spontaneous efforts; and Heeren +remarks that the description of the tribes eastward of the +Persian Gulf along the borders of the Indian Ocean, by the +companions of Alexander, applies perfectly to them as we now find +them. No germs of civilized life are to be found among them, or, +if so, they are dead, not living germs, incapable of development. +The savage is a thorough routinist, the slave of petrified +customs and usages. He shows often great skill in constructing +and managing his canoe, in making and ornamenting his bow or his +war-club; but one generation never advances on its predecessor, +and the new generation only reproduces the old. All the arts the +savage has have come, as his ideas, to a stand-still. He is +stern, sad, gloomy, as if oppressed by memory, and exhibits none +of the joyousness or frolicsomeness which we might expect from +his fresh young life, if he represented the infancy or childhood +of the race, as pretended. + +Even in what are called civilized heathen nations we find a +continual deterioration, but no indication of progress in +civilization, or in those elements which distinguish civilized +from barbaric or savage life. Culture and polish may be the +concomitants of civilization, but do not constitute it. The +generations that built the pyramids, Babylon, Nineveh, Thebes, +Rome, were superior to any of their successors. No subsequent +Greek poet ever came up to Homer, and the oldest of the Vedas +surpass the powers of the Indian people in any generation more +recent than that which produced them. The Chinese cannot to-day +produce new works to compare with those of Confucius. Where now +are the once renowned nations of antiquity whose ships ploughed +every sea, and whose armies made the earth tremble with their +tread? Fallen, all have fallen, and remain only in their ruins, +and the page of the historian or song of the bard. +{749} +If these nations, so great and powerful, with many elements of a +strong civilization, could not sustain themselves from falling +into barbarism, how pretend that the lowest and most degraded +savages can, without any foreign assistance, lift themselves into +a civilized state? + +The second proposition, that civilized nations retain traces of +barbarism, proves nothing to the purpose. These traces, at most, +prove only that the nations in which we detect them have passed +through a state of barbarism, as we know modern nations have; not +that barbarism was, in any form, the primitive condition of the +race. It is not pretended that no savage tribe has ever been +civilized; what is denied is, that the race began in the savage +state, or that, if it had so begun, it could ever have risen by +its own natural forces alone to civilization. There is no +evidence that the cruel and bloody customs, traces of which we +find in civilized nations, were those of the primeval man. The +polished and cultivated Romans were more savage in their customs +than the northern barbarians who overthrew their civilization, +much to the relief of mankind. When the late Theodore Parker drew +a picture of the New Zealander in order to describe Adam, he +proceeded according to his theory of progress, but without a +shadow of authority. We find a cruelty, an inhumanity, an +oppression, bloody and obscene rites, among polished nations--as +Rome, Syria, Phoenicia, and modern India--that we shall look in +vain for among downright savages; which shows that we owe them to +cultivation, to development, that is, to "development," as the +noble duke well says, "in corruption." + +But these traces of so-called barbarism among civilized nations +are more than offset by remains of civilization which we find in +savage tribes. Sir J. Lubbock and others take these remains as +indications of progress among savages; but they mistake the +evening twilight deepening into darkness, for that of the morning +ushering in the day. This is evident from the fact that they are +followed by no progress. They are reminiscences, not promises. If +germs, they never germinate; but have been deprived of their +vitality. To us, paganism bears witness in all its forms that it +has degenerated from its _normna_, or type; not that it is +advancing toward it. We see in its incoherence, its incongruities +and inequalities, that it is a fall or departure from something +higher, more living and more perfect. Any one studying +Protestantism, in any of its forms, may see that it is not an +original system of religion; that it is a departure from its +type, not an approach to it; and, if we know well the Catholic +Church, we see at once that in her is the type that Protestantism +loses, corrupts, or travesties. So paganism bears unmistakable +evidence of what we know from authentic history, that, whether +with polished gentiles or with rude savages and barbarians, its +type, from which it recedes, is the patriarchal religion. We know +that it was an apostasy or falling away from that religion, the +primitive religion of the race, as Protestantism is an apostasy +or falling away from the Catholic Church. Protestantism, in the +modern world, is what gentilism was in the ancient; and as +gentilism is the religion of all savage or barbarian tribes, we +have in Protestantism a key for explaining whatever is dark or +obscure in their history. We see in Protestant nations a tendency +to lose or throw off more and more of what they retained when +they separated from the church, and which before the lapse of +many generations, if not arrested, will lead them to a hopeless +barbarism. The traces of Catholic faith we find in them are +reminiscences, not prophecies. + +{750} + +We find with the lowest and most degraded savages, language, and +often a language of great richness, singular beauty and +expressiveness. Terms for which savages have no use may sometimes +be wanting, but it is rare that the language cannot be made to +supply them from its resources. In the poorest language of a +savage tribe, there is always evidence of its having been the +language of a people superior in ideas and culture to the present +condition of those who speak it. Language, among savage tribes, +we take to be always indicative of a lost state far above that of +barbarism; and it not only refutes the theory of natural +progress, but, as far as it goes, proves the doctrine of +primitive instruction by the Creator, maintained by Dr. Whately, +and only partially accepted by his Grace of Argyll. + +Language is no human invention, nor the product of individual or +social progress. It requires language to invent language, and +there is no individual progress out of society, and no society is +possible without language. Hence, animals may be gregarious, but +not sociable. They do not, and never can, form society. Max +Müller has disposed of the bow-wow theory, or the origin of +language in the imitation of the cries of animals, and also of +the theory that supposes it to originate in the imitation of the +sounds of nature, as buzz, rattle, etc.; for if a few words could +originate in this way, language itself could not, since there is +much more in language than words. The more common theory, just +now, and which has respectable names in its favor, is that God is +indeed the author of language, but as _causa eminens_, as he +is of all that nature does; that is, he does not directly teach +man language, but creates him with the power or faculty of +speaking, and making himself understood by articulate speech. But +this theory will not bear examination. + +Between language and the faculty of using it there is a +difference, and no faculty creates its own object. The faculty of +speaking could no more be exercised without language, than the +faculty of seeing without a visible object. Where there is no +language, the faculty is and must be inoperative. The error is in +supposing that the faculty of using language is the faculty of +creating language, which it cannot be; for, till the language is +possessed and held in the mind, there is nothing for the faculty +of speech to operate on or with. To have given man the faculty of +speech, the Creator must have begun by teaching him language, or +by infusing it with the meaning of its words into his mind. We +misapprehend the very nature and office of language, if we +suppose it can possibly be used except as learned from or taught +by a teacher. Man, as second cause, can no more produce language +than he can create something from nothing. If God made us as +second causes capable of creating language, why can we not do it +now, and master it without a long and painful study? Since the +faculty must be the same in all men, why do not all men speak one +and the same dialect? + +We will suppose man had language from the first. But there is no +language without discourse of reason. A parrot or a crow may be +taught to pronounce single words, and even sentences, but it +would be absurd to assert that either has the faculty of +language. To have language and be able to use it, one must have +knowledge, and the sense of the word must precede, or at least be +simultaneous with the word. Both the word and its meaning must be +associated in the mind. +{751} +How then could the Creator give man the faculty of language, +without imparting to him in some way the ideas and principles it +is fitted to express, and without expressing which it cannot be +language? He must do so, or there could be no _verbum +mentis_, and the word would be spoken without meaning. +Moreover, all language is profoundly philosophical, and conforms +more nearly to the reality of things than any human system yet +attained to, not only by savages, but by civilized and cultivated +men; and whenever it deviates from that reality, it is when it +has been corrupted by the false systems and methods of +philosophers. In all languages, we find subject, predicate, and +copula. The copula is always the verb _to be_, teaching +those who understand it that nothing existing can be affirmed +except by being and in its relation to being, that is God, who is +QUI EST. Were ignorant savages able distinctly to recognize and +embody in language the ideal formula, when no philosopher can +ever apprehend and consider it unless represented to him in +words? Impossible. + +We take language, therefore, as a reminiscence among savages of a +previous civilization, and a conclusive proof that, up to a +certain point at least, the primeval man, as Dr. Whately +maintains, was and must have been instructed by his Maker. As +language is never known save as learned from a teacher, its +existence among the lowest and most degraded barbarians is a +proof that the primeval man was not, and could not have been an +untutored savage. The Anglican archbishop, having, as the +Scottish duke, no proper criterion of truth, may have included in +the primitive instruction more than it actually contained. An +error of this sort in an Anglican should surprise no one. Truth +or sound philosophy from such a source would be the only thing to +surprise us. We do not suppose Adam was directly instructed in +all the mechanic arts, in the whole science and practice of +agriculture, or in the entire management of flocks and herds, nor +that he had steam-engines, spinning-jennies, power-looms, +steamboats, railroads, locomotives, palace-cars, or even +lightning telegraphs. We do not suppose that the race, in +relation to the material order, received any direct instructions, +except of the most elementary kind, or in matters of prime +necessity, or high utility to his physical life and health. The +ornamental arts, and other matters which do not exceed man's +natural powers, may have been left to man to find out for +himself, though we have instances recorded in which some of them +were taught by direct inspiration, and many modern inventions are +only the reproduction of arts once known, and subsequently lost +or forgotten. + +It is not difficult to explain how our modern advocates of +progress have come to regard the savage as the primeval man, and +not as the degenerate man. Their theory of natural progress +demands it, and they have always shown great facility in +accommodating their facts to their theories. They take also their +starting-point in heathenism of comparatively recent origin, and +study the law of human development in the history of gentilism. +They forget that gentilism originated in an apostasy from the +patriarchal or primitive moral and religious order, and that, +from the first, there remained, and always has remained, on earth +a people that did not apostatize, that remained faithful to +tradition, to the primitive instruction and wisdom. +{752} +They fail to consider that, language confounded and the race +dispersed, those who remained nearest the original seats of +civilization, and were separated by the least distance from the +people that remained faithful, became the earliest civilized or +polished gentile nations, and that those who wandered further +into the wilderness--receding further and further from light, +losing more and more of their original patrimony, cut off from +all intercourse with civilization by distance, by difference of +language, and to some extent, perhaps, by physical changes and +convulsions of the globe, degenerated gradually into barbarians +and savages. Occasionally, in the course of ages, some of these +wandering and degenerate tribes were brought under the influence +of civilization by the arts, the arms, and the religion of the +more civilized gentile nations. But in none has the gentile +civilization, in the proper sense of the term, ever risen above +what the gentiles took with them from the primitive stock, when +they apostatized. Protestant nations are below, not above, what +they were at the epoch of the Reformation. The reformers were +greatly superior to any of their successors. + +But our philosophic historians take no account of these things, +nor of the fact that history shows them no barbaric ancestors of +the Egyptians, Indians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Syrians, +Phoenicians, etc. They find, or think they find, from the Greek +poets and traditions, that the ancestors of the Greeks and +Romans, each a comparatively modern people, were really savages, +and that suffices them to prove that the savage state is the +primeval state of the race! They find, also, that a marvellous +progress in civilization, under Christianity has been effected, +and what hinders them from concluding that man is +_naturally_ progressive, or that the savage is able, by his +own efforts, to lift himself into civilized life? Have not the +northern barbarians, who overthrew the Roman empire of the west, +and seated themselves on its majestic ruins, become, under the +teachings and the supernatural influences of the church, the +great civilized nations of the modern world? How, then, pretend +to deny that barbarians and savages can become civilized by their +own spontaneous efforts and natural forces alone? + +Whether any savage tribe was ever civilized under gentilism is, +perhaps, doubtful; but if the philosophers of history would take +the right line, instead of a collateral line or bastard branch of +the human family, and follow it from Adam down, through the +patriarchs, the synagogue, and the Catholic Church, they would +find that there has always been a believing, a faithful, an +enlightened, and a civilized people on earth, and they never +would and never could have imagined any thing so untrue as that +man began "in the lowest form of barbarism in which he can +subsist as man." We have no indication of the existence of any +savage or barbarous tribes before the flood; nor after the flood, +till the confusion of language at Babel, and the consequent +dispersion of the human race; that is, till after the gentile +apostasy, of which they are one of the fruits. Adam, by his fall, +lost communion with God, became darkened in his understanding, +enfeebled in his will, and disordered in his appetites and +passions; but he did not lose all his science, forget all his +moral and religious instruction, and become a complete savage. +Besides, his communion with God was renewed by repentance and +faith in the promised Messiah, or incarnate Son of God, who +should come to redeem the world, and enable man to fulfil his +destiny, or attain his end. + +{753} + +We do not by any means deny progress. We believe in it with St. +Paul, and struggle for it in individuals and in society. We only +do not believe in progress or perfectibility by the simple forces +of nature alone, or that man is naturally progressive. Existences +have two movements or cycles: the one, their procession, by way +of creation, from God as first cause; the other, their return, +without absorption in him, to God as their final cause or +beatitude, as we have on several occasions very fully shown. In +the first cycle, man is explicated by natural generation, and his +powers are determined by his nature, or the physical laws of his +existence. In the second cycle, his explication is by +regeneration, a supernatural act; and his progress is directed +and controlled by the moral law prescribed by God as final cause, +and is limited only by the infinite, to which he aspires, and, by +the assistance of grace, may attain. The first cycle is initial, +and in it there is no moral, religious, or social progress; there +is only physical development and growth. It is under the natural +laws of the physicists, who never look any further. The second +cycle is teleological, and under the moral law, or the natural +law of the theologians and the legists. In this teleological +cycle lies the whole moral order, as distinguished from the +physical; the whole of religion; its means, influences, and ends; +and, consequently, civilization, in so far as it has any moral or +religious character, aims, or tendency. + +Civilization, we are aware, is a word that has hardly a fixed +meaning, and is used vaguely, and in different senses. It is +derived from a word signifying the city--in modern language, the +state--and relates to the organization, constitution, and +administration of the commonwealth or republic. It is used +vaguely for the aggregate of the manners, customs, and usages of +city life, and also for the principles and laws of a well ordered +and well-governed civil society. We take it chiefly in the latter +sense, and understand by it the supremacy of the moral order in +secular life, the reign of law, or the subjection of the passions +and turbulent elements of human nature in the individual, the +family, and society to the moral law; or, briefly, the +predominance of reason and justice over passion and caprice in +the affairs of this world, and therefore coincident with liberty, +as distinguished from license. The race began in civilization, +because it began with a knowledge of the law of human existence, +man's origin and destiny, and of the means and conditions of +gaining the end for which he exists; and because he was placed in +the outset by his Maker in possession of these means and +conditions, so that he could not fail except through his own +fault. Those who reject, neglect, or pervert the moral order, +follow only the natural laws, separate from the communion of the +faithful, and remain in the initial cycle, gradually become +barbarians, superstitious, the slaves of their own passions, +cruel and merciless savages, even if still cultivated, refined, +and mild-mannered. + +We place civilization, then, in the second cycle or movement of +existences, under the moral law, and must do so or deny it all +moral basis or moral character. What is not moral in its aims and +tendencies, or is not in the order of man's return to God as his +last end, we exclude from civilization, as no part of it, even if +called by its name. There is no civilization where there is no +state or civil polity; and there can be no state or civil polity, +though there may be force, tyranny, and slavery, out of the moral +order. +{754} +The state lies in the moral or teleological order, and is under +the moral law--the law prescribed by God as final cause. It +derives all its principles from it, and is founded and governed +by it. Its very mission is the maintenance of justice, freedom, +and order; and, as far as it goes, to keep men's faces towards +the end for which they are created. And hence the concord there +is, or should be, between the state and the church. + +Most of those things, it will be seen from this, after which the +gentiles seek, and which the moderns call civilization, may be +adjuncts of civilization, in the sense of our Lord, when he says, +"Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and _all these +things shall be added_ unto you;" but they do not constitute +civilization, are not it, nor any part of it. Here is where +modern gentilism errs, no less than did the ancient. Take up any +of the leading journals of the day, and you will find what with +great emphasis is called modern civilization is in the initial +order, not the teleological; and is only a development and +application of the natural laws of the physicists, not the +natural or moral law of the theologians and legists. The press +and popular orators called, a few years ago, Cyrus W. Field, who +had taken a leading share in laying a submarine telegraph from +the western coast of Ireland to the eastern coast of +Newfoundland, a "second Messiah." When, after much urging and +some threats, President Lincoln proclaimed, as a war measure, the +emancipation of the slaves in certain States and parts of States +then at war with the general government, the press and orators +that approved, both at home and abroad, forthwith pronounced him +also a "second Messiah," and without stopping to inquire whether +the emancipation would be any thing more than the exchange of one +form of compulsory physical labor for another, perhaps no better. +Now, when a new Atlantic cable is laid from France to +Massachusetts, we are told in flaring capitals and lofty periods +that it is another and a glorious triumph of modern +civilization--of mind over matter, man over nature. If our San +Francisco friend succeeds in constructing an aerial ship, with +which he can navigate the air, it will be a greater triumph still +of modern civilization, and the theologians and moralists will +have to hide their heads. All this shows that civilization, by +the leaders of public opinion in our day, is placed wholly in the +physical order, and consists in the development and application +of the natural laws to the accomplishment of certain physical +ends or purposes of utility only in the first cycle of our +existence, and without the least moral significance. So +completely have we become devoted to the improvement of our +condition in the initial order, that we forget that life does not +end with it, or that the initial exists only for the +teleological, and that our development and application of the +physical laws of nature imply no progress in civilization, or the +realization of a moral ideal. + +But whatever success we may have in developing and applying to +our own purposes the physical laws of man and the globe he +inhabits, we must remember that no success of that sort initiates +us into the second cycle, or the life of our return to God. To +enter that life we must be regenerated, and we can no more +regenerate than we can generate ourselves. Here, we may see why +even to civilization the Incarnation of the Word is necessary. +The hypostatic union of the divine and human natures in the +divine person of the Word carries the creative act to its summit, +completes the first cycle, and initiates the second, into which +we can enter only as we are reborn of Christ, as we were born in +the first cycle of Adam. +{755} +Hence, Christ is called the second Adam, the Lord from heaven. +Civilization, morality, salvation, are in one sense in the same +order and under one and the same law. + +Progress being possible, except in the sense of physical +development, only in the movement of return to God as final +cause, and that movement originating in the Incarnation only, it +follows that those nations alone that are united to Christ by +faith and love, either united to him who was to come, as were the +patriarchs and the synagogue, before the Incarnation, or to him +in the church or the regeneration, as are Catholics since, are or +can be progressive, or even truly civilized nations. They who +assert progress by our natural forces alone, confound the first +cycle with the second, generation with regeneration, and the +natural laws, which proceed from God as first cause, with the +natural or moral law which is prescribed by God as final cause. +It is a great mistake, then, to suppose, as many do, that the +mysteries of faith, even the most recondite, have no practical +bearing on the progress of men and nations, or that it is safe, +in studying civilization, to take our point of departure in +gentilism. + +In accordance with our conclusion, we find that gentile nations, +ancient or modern, are really unprogressive, save in the physical +or initial order; which is of no account in the moral or +teleological order. We deny not the achievements of Protestant +nations in the physical order; but, in relation to the end for +which man exists, they not only do not advance beyond what they +took with them from the church, but are constantly deteriorating. +They have lost the condition of moral and spiritual progress, +individually and collectively, by losing communion with Christ in +his church; they have lost Christ, in reality, if not in name; +and by losing the infallible word preserved by the church alone, +they have lost or are losing the state, civil authority itself, +and finding themselves reduced to what St. Paul calls "the +natural man." They place all their hopes in physical success, +always certain to fail in the end, when pursued for its own sake. + +We have raised and we raise here no question as to what God might +have done, or how or with what powers he might have created man, +had he chosen. We only take the plan he has chosen to adopt; and +which, in his providence and grace, he carries out. In the +present decree, as say the theologians, he has subjected the +whole teleological order to one and the same law; and +civilization, morality, and Christian sanctity are not separable +in principle, and depend on one and the same fundamental law. +Gentilism divorces religion and the state from morality; and +modern heresy recognizes no intrinsic relation between them. It +tells us religion is necessary to the stability of the political +order; that Christianity is the basis of morality, and that it is +the great agent of progress; but it shows us no reason why it is +or should be so, and in its practical doctrine it teaches that it +is not so. Every thing, as far as it informs us, depends on +arbitrary appointment, and without any reason of being in the +system of things which God has seen proper to create. Hence, +people are unable to form to themselves any clear view of the +relation of religion and morality, of morality and civilization, +or to arrive at any satisfactory understanding of the purpose and +law of human existence; and they either frame to themselves the +wildest, the most fanciful, or the most absurd theories, or give +the whole up in despair, sink into a state of utter indifference, +and say, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." +{756} +They simply vegetate in vice or crime, or, at best, only take +themselves to the study of the physical sciences, or the +cultivation of the fine arts. We have shown that their +difficulties and discouragements are imaginary, and arise from +ignorance of the divine plan of creation, and the mutual relation +and dependence of all its parts. One divine thought runs through +the whole, and nothing does or can stand alone. We study things +too much in their analysis, not enough in their synthesis. + +---------- + + Translated From The German + Of Conrad Von Bolanden. + + Angela. + + + Chapter III. + + Quod Erat Demonstrandum. + + +On the following day, Richard went to the weather-cross. He did +not meet Angela. She must have been unusually early; for the +flowers had evidently just been placed before the statue. + +He returned, gloomy, to the house and wrote in his diary: + + "May 14th.--She did not meet me today, and probably will not + meet me again. I should have left the book where it was; it + might have awakened her gratitude; for I think she left it + purposely, to give me an opportunity to make her acquaintance. + + "How many young women would give more than a book to get + acquainted with a wealthy party. The 'Angel' is very sensitive; + but this sensibility pleases me, because it is true womanly + delicacy. + + "She will now avoid meeting me in this lonely road. But I will + study her character in her father's house. I will see if she + does not confirm my opinion of the women of our times. It was + for this purpose alone that I accepted Siegwart's invitation. + Angela must not play Isabella; no woman ever shall. Single and + free from woman's yoke, I will go through the world." + +He put aside the diary, and began reading Vogt's Physiological +Letters_. + +At three o'clock precisely, Richard with the punctual doctor left +Frankenhöhe. They passed through the chestnut grove and through +the vineyard toward Salingen. The doctor pushed on with long +steps, his arms swinging back and forth. He was evidently pleased +with the subject he had been reading. He had, on leaving the +house, shaken Richard by the hand, and spoken a few friendly +words, but not a syllable since. Richard knew his ways, and knew +that it would take some time for him to thaw. + +They were passing between Siegwart's house and Salingen when they +beheld Angela, at a distance, coming toward them. She carried a +little basket on her arm, and on her head she wore a straw hat +with broad fluttering ribbons. Richard fixed his eyes attentively +on her. This time, also, she did not wear hoops, but a dress of +modest colors. He admired her light, graceful movement and +charming figure. The blustering doctor moderated his steps and +went slower the nearer he came to Angela, and considered her with +surprise. Frank greeted her, touching his hat. She did not thank +him, as before, with a friendly greeting, but by a scarcely +perceptible inclination of the head; nor did she smile as before, +but on this account seemed to him more charming and ethereal than +ever. She only glanced at him, and he thought he observed a +slight blush on her cheeks. + +{757} + +These particulars were engrossing the young man's attention when +he heard the doctor say, + +"Evidently the Angel of Salingen." + +"Who?" said Richard in surprise. + +"The Angel of Salingen," returned Klingenberg. "You are surprised +at this appellation; is it not well-merited?" + +"My surprise increases, doctor; for exaggeration is not your +fashion." + +"But she deserves acknowledgment. Let me explain. The maiden is +the daughter of the proprietor Siegwart, and her name is Angela. +She is a model of every virtue. She is, in the female world, what +an image of the Virgin, by one of the old masters, would be among +the hooped gentry of the present. As you are aware, I have been +often called to the cabins of the sick poor, and there the quiet, +unostentatious labors of this maiden have become known to me. +Angela prepares suitable food for the sick, and generally takes +it to them herself. The basket on her arm does service in this +way. There are many poor persons who would not recover unless +they had proper, nourishing food. To these Angela is a great +benefactor. For this reason, she has a great influence over the +minds of the sick, and the state of the mind greatly facilitates +or impedes their recovery. + +"I have often entered just after she had departed, and the +beneficial influence of her presence could be still seen in the +countenances of the poor. Her presence diffused resignation, +peace, contentment, and a peculiar cheerfulness in the meanest +and most wretched hovels of poverty, where she enters without +hesitation. This is certainly a rare quality in so young a +creature. She rejoices the hearts of the children by giving them +clothes, sometimes made by herself, or pictures and the like. Her +whole object appears to be to reconcile and make all happy. I +have just seen her for the first time; her beauty is remarkable, +and might well adorn an angel. The common people wish only to +Germanize 'Angela' when they call her 'Angel.' But she is indeed +an angel of heaven to the poor and needy." + +Frank said nothing. He moved on in silence toward the +weather-cross. + +"I have accidentally discovered a singular custom of your +'angel,' doctor. There is at the weather-cross a Madonna of +stone. Angela has imposed upon herself the singular task of +adorning this Madonna, daily, with fresh flowers." + +"You are a profane fellow, Richard. You should not speak in such +a derisive tone of actions which are the out-flowings of pious +sentiment." + +"Every one has his hobby. What will not people do through +ambition? I know ladies who torture a piano for half the night, +in order to catch the tone of the prima-donna at the opera. I +know women who undergo all possible privations to be able to wear +as fine clothes, as costly furs, as others with whom they are in +rivalry. This exhaustive night-singing, these deprivations, are +submitted to through foolish vanity. Perhaps Angela is not less +ambitious and vain than others of her sex. As she cannot dazzle +these country folk with furs or toilette, she dazzles their +religious sentiment by ostentatious piety." + +"Radically false!" said the doctor. "Charity and virtue are +recognized and honored not only in the country, but also in the +cities. Why do not your coquettes strive for this approval? +Because they want Angela's nobility of soul. +{758} +And again, why should Angela wish to gain the admiration of the +peasants? She is the daughter of the wealthiest man in the +neighborhood. If such was her object, she could gratify her +ambition in a very different way." + +"Then Angela is a riddle to me," returned Richard. "I cannot +conceive the motives of her actions." + +"Which are so natural! The maiden follows the impulses of her own +noble nature, and these impulses are developed and directed by +Christian culture, and convent education. Angela was a long time +with the nuns, and only returned home two years ago. Here you +have the very natural solution of the riddle." + +"Are you acquainted with the Siegwart family?" + +"No; what I know of Angela I learned from the people of +Salingen." + +They arrived at the platform. Klingenberg stood silent for some +time admiring the landscape. The view did not seem to interest +Richard. His eyes rested on Angela's home, whose white walls, +surrounded by vineyards and corn-fields, glistened in the sun. + +"It is worth while to come up here oftener," said Klingenberg. + +"Angela's work," said Richard as he drew near the statue. The +doctor paused a moment and examined the flowers. + +"Do you observe Angela's fine taste in the arrangement of the +colors?" said he. "And the forget-me-nots! What a deep religious +meaning they have." + +They returned by another way to Frankenhöhe. + +"Angela's pious work," began Richard after a long pause, "reminds +me of a religious custom against which modern civilization has +thus far warred in vain. I mean the veneration of saints. You, as +a Protestant, will smile at this custom, and I, as a Catholic, +must deplore the tenacity with which my church clings to this +obsolete remnant of heathen idolatry." + +"Ah! this is the subject you alluded to yesterday," said the +doctor. "I must, in fact, smile, my dear Richard! But I by no +means smile at 'the tenacity with which your church clings to the +obsolete remnants of heathen idolatry.' I smile at your queer +idea of the veneration of the saints. I, as a reasonable man, +esteem this veneration, and recognize its admirable and +beneficial influence on human society." + +This declaration increased Frank's surprise to the highest +degree. He knew the clear mind of the doctor, and could not +understand how it happened that he wished to defend a custom so +antagonistic to modern thought. + +"You find fault," continued Klingenberg, "with the custom of +erecting statues to these holy men in the churches, the forest, +the fields, the houses, and in the market?" + +"Yes, I do object to that." + +"If you had objected to the lazy Schiller at Mayence, or the +robber's poet Schiller, as he raves at the theatre in Mannheim, +or to the conqueror and destroyer of Germany, Gustavus Adolphus, +whose statue is erected as an insult in a German city, then you +would be right." + +"Schiller-worship has its justification," retorted Frank. "They +erect public monuments to the genial spirit of that man, to +remind us of his services to poetry, his aspirations, and his +German patriotism." + +"It is praiseworthy to erect monuments to the poet. But do not +talk of Schiller's patriotism, for he had none. But let that +pass; it is not to the point. The question is, whether you +consider it praiseworthy to erect monuments to deserving and +exalted genius?" + +{759} + +"Without the least hesitation, I say yes. But I see what you are +driving at, doctor. I know the remorseless logic of your +inferences. But you will not catch me in your vise this time. You +wish to infer that the saints far surpassed Schiller in nobility +and greatness of soul, and that honoring them, therefore, is more +reasonable, and more justifiable, than honoring Schiller. I +dispute the greatness of the so-called saints. They were men full +of narrowness and rigorism. They despised the world and their +friends. They carried this contempt to a wonderful extent--to a +renunciation of all the enjoyments of life, to voluntary poverty +and unconditional obedience. But all these are fruits that have +grown on a stunted, morbid tree, and are in opposition to +progress, to industry, and to the enlightened civilization of +modern times. The dark ages might well honor such men, but our +times cannot. Schiller, on the contrary, that genial man, taught +us to love the pleasures of life. By his fine genius and his odes +to pleasure, he frightened away all the spectres of these +enthusiastic views of life. He preached a sound taste and a free, +unconstrained enjoyment of the things of this beautiful earth. +And for this reason precisely, because he inaugurated this new +doctrine, does he deserve monuments in his honor." + +"How does it happen then, my friend," said the doctor, in a +cutting tone that was sometimes peculiar to him, "that you do not +take advantage of the modern doctrine of unconstrained enjoyment? +Why have you preserved fresh your youthful vigor, and not +dissipated it at the market of sensual pleasures? Why is your +mode of life so often a reproach to your dissolute friends? Why +do you avoid the resorts of refined pleasures? Why are the +coquettish, vitiated, hollow inclinations of a great part of the +female sex so distasteful to you? Answer me!" + +"These are peculiarities of my nature; individual opinions that +have no claim to any weight." + +"Peculiarities of your nature--very right; your noble nature, +your pure feelings rebel against these moral acquisitions of +progress. I begin with your noble nature. If I did not find this +good, true self in you, I would waste no more words. But because +you are what you are, I must convince you of the error of your +views. Schiller, you say, and, with him, the modern spirit, +raised the banner of unrestrained enjoyment, and this enjoyment +rests on sensual pleasures, does it not?" + +"Well--yes." + +"I knew and know many who followed this banner--and you also know +many. Of those whom I knew professionally, some ended their days +in the hospital, of the most loathsome diseases. Some, unsatiated +with the whole round of pleasures, drag on a miserable life, dead +to all energy, and spiritless. They drank the full cup of +pleasure, and with it unspeakable bitterness and disgust. Some +ended in ignominy and shame--bankruptcy, despair, suicide. Such +are the consequences of this modern dogma of unrestrained +enjoyments." + +"All these overstepped the proper bounds of pleasure," said +Richard. + +"The proper bounds? Stop!" cried the doctor. "No leaps, Richard! +Think clearly and logically. Christianity also allows enjoyment, +but--and here is the point--in certain limits. Your progress, on +the contrary, proclaims freedom in moral principles, a disregard +of all moral obligations, unrestricted enjoyment--and herein +consists the danger and delusion. I ask, Are you in favor of +restricted or unrestricted enjoyment?" + +{760} + +Frank hesitated. He felt already the thumbscrew of the +irrepressible doctor, and feared the inferences he would draw +from his admissions. + +"Come!" urged Klingenberg, "decide." + +"Sound reason declares for restricted enjoyment," said Frank +decidedly. + +"Good; there you leave the unlimited sphere which godless +progress has given to the thoughts and inclinations of men. You +admit the obligation of self control, and the restraint of the +grosser emotions. But let us proceed; you speak of industry. The +modern spirit of industry has invoked a demon--or, rather, the +demoniac spirit of the times has taken possession of industry. +The great capitalists have built thrones on their money-bags and +tyrannize over those who have no money. They crush out the +work-shop of the industrious and well-to-do tradesman, and compel +him to be their slave. Go into the factories of Elfeld, or +England; you can there see the slaves of this demon +industry--miserable creatures, mentally and morally stunted, +socially perishing; not only slaves, but mere wheels of the +machines. This is what modern industry has made of those poor +wretches, for whom, according to modern enlightenment, there is +no higher destiny than to drag through life in slavery, to +increase the money-bags of their tyrants. But the capitalists +have perfect right, according to modern ideas; they only use the +means at their command. The table of the ten commandments has +been broken; the yoke of Christianity broken. Man is morally and +religiously free; and from this false liberalism the tyranny of +plutocracy and the slavery of the poor has been developed. Are +you satisfied with the development, and the principles that made +it possible?" + +"No," said Frank decidedly. "I despise that miserable +industrialism that values the product more than the man. My +admissions are, how ever, far from justifying the exaggerated +notions of the saints." + +"Wait a bit!" cried Klingenberg hastily. "I have just indicated +the cause of this wretched egotism, and also a +consequence--namely, the power of great capitalists and +manufacturers over an army of white slaves. But this is by no +means all. This demon of industry has consequences that will ruin +a great portion of mankind. Now mark what I say, Richard! The +richness of the subject allows me only to indicate. The +progressive development of industry brings forth products of +which past ages were ignorant, because they were not necessary +for life. The existence of these products creates a demand. The +increased wants increase the outlay, which in most cases does not +square with the income, and therefore the accounts of many close +with a deficit. The consequences of this deficit for the +happiness, and even for the morals of the family, I leave +untouched. The increased products beget luxury and the desire for +enjoyment; the ultimate consequences of which enervate the +individual and society. Hence the phenomenon, in England, that +the greater portion of the people in the manufacturing towns die +before the age of fifteen, and that many are old men at thirty. +Enervated and demoralized peoples make their existence +impossible. They go to the wall. This is a historical fact. Ergo, +modern industry separated from Christian civilization hastens the +downfall of nations." + +{761} + +"I cannot dispute the truth of your observations. But you have +touched only the dark side of modern industry, without mentioning +its benefits. If industry is a source of fictitious wants, it +affords, on the other hand, cheap prices to the poor for the most +necessary wants of life; for example, cheap materials for +clothing." + +"Very cheap, but also very poor material," answered Klingenberg. +"In former times, clothing was dearer, but also better. They knew +nothing of the rags of the present fabrication. And it may be +asked whether that dearer material was not cheaper in the end for +the poor. When this is taken into consideration, the new material +has no advantage over the old. I will freely admit that the +inventions of modern times do honor to human genius. I +acknowledge the achievements of industry, as such. I admire the +improvements of machinery, the great revolution caused by the use +of steam, and thousands of other wonders of art. No sensible man +will question the relative worth of all these. But all these are +driven and commanded by a bad influence, and herein lies the +injury. We must consider industrialism from this higher +standpoint. What advantage is it to a people to be clothed in +costly stuffs when they are enervated, demoralized, and +perishing? Clothe a corpse as you will, a corpse it will be +still. And besides, the greatest material good does not +compensate the white factory-slaves for the loss of their +liberty. The Lucullan age fell into decay, although they feasted +on young nightingales, drank liquified pearls, and squandered +millions for delicacies and luxuries. The life of nations does +not consist in the external splendor of wealth, in easy comfort, +or in unrestrained passions. Morality is the life of nations, and +virtue their internal strength. But virtue, morality, and +Christian sentiment are under the ban of modern civilization. If +Christianity does not succeed in overcoming this demon spirit of +the times, or at least confining it within narrow limits, it will +and must drive the people to certain destruction. We find decayed +peoples in the Christian era, but the church has always rescued +and regenerated them. While the acquisitions of modern +times--industrialism, enlightenment, humanitarianism, and +whatever they may be called--are, on the one hand, of little +advantage or of doubtful worth, they are, on the other hand, the +graves of true prosperity, liberty, and morality. They are the +cause of shameful terrorism and of degrading slavery, in the +bonds of the passions and in the claws of plutocracy." + +Frank made no reply. + +For a while they walked on in silence. + +"Let us," continued Klingenberg, "consider personally those men +whose molten images stand before us. Schiller's was a noble +nature, but Schiller wrote: + + "'No more this fight of duty, hence no longer + This giant strife will I! + Canst quench these passions evermore the stronger? + Then ask not virtue, what I must deny. + + "'Albeit I have sworn, yea, sworn that never + Shall yield my master will; + Yet take thy wreath; to me 'tis lost for ever! + Take back thy wreath, and let me sin my fill.' + +Is this a noble and exalted way of thinking? Certainly not. +Schiller would be virtuous if he could clothe himself in the +lustre of virtue without sacrifice. The passionate impulses of +the heart are stronger in him than the sense of duty. He gives +way to his passions. He renounces virtue because he is too weak, +too languid, too listless to encounter this giant strife bravely +like a strong man. Such is the noble Schiller. In later years, +when the fiery impulses of his heart had subsided, he roused +himself to better efforts and nobler aims. + +{762} + +"Consider the prince of poets, Goethe. How morally naked and poor +he stands before us! Goethe's coarse insults to morality are well +known. His better friend, Schiller, wrote of him to Koerner, 'His +mind is not calm enough, because his domestic relations, which he +is too weak to change, cause him great vexation.' Koerner +answered,' Men cannot violate morality with impunity.' Six years +later, the 'noble' Goethe was married to his 'mistress' at +Weimar. Goethe's detestable political principles are well known. +He did not possess a spark of patriotism. He composed hymns of +victory to Napoleon, the tyrant, the destroyer and desolator of +Germany. These are the heroes of modern sentiment, the advance +guard of liberty, morality, and true manhood! And these heroes so +far succeeded that the noble Arndt wrote of his time, 'We are +base, cowardly, and stupid; too poor for love, too listless for +anger, too imbecile for hate. Undertaking every thing, +accomplishing nothing; willing every thing, without the power of +doing any thing.' So far has this boasted freethinking created +disrespect for revealed truth. So far this modern civilization, +which idealizes the passions, leads to mockery of religion and +lets loose the baser passions of man. If they cast these +representatives of the times in bronze, they should stamp on the +foreheads of their statues the words of Arndt: + + "'We are base, cowardly, and stupid; too poor for love, too + listless for anger, too imbecile for hate. Undertaking every + thing, accomplishing nothing; willing every thing, without the + power of doing any thing."' + +"You are severe, doctor." + +"I am not severe. It is the truth." + +"How does it happen that a people so weak, feeble, and base could +overthrow the power of the French in the world?" + +"That was because the German people were not yet corrupted by +that shallow, unreal, hollow twaddle of the educated classes +about humanity. It was not the princes, not the nobility, who +overthrew Napoleon. It was the German people who did it. When, in +1813, the Germans rose, in hamlet and city, they staked their +property and lives for fatherland. But it was not the enlightened +poets and professors, not modern sentimentality, that raised +their hearts to this great sacrifice; not these who enkindled +this enthusiasm for fatherland. It was the religious element that +did it. The German warriors did not sing Goethe's hymns to +Napoleon, nor the insipid model song of 'Luetzows wilder Jagd,' +as they rushed into battle. They sang religious hymns, they +prayed before the altars. They recognized, in the terrible +judgment on Russia's ice-fields, the avenging hand of God. +Trusting in God, and nerved by religious exaltation, they took up +the sword that had been sharpened by the previous calamities of +war. So the feeble philanthropists could effect nothing. It was +only a religious, healthy, strong people could do that." + +"But the saints, doctor! We have wandered from them." + +"Not at all! We have thrown some light on inimical shadows; the +light can now shine. The lives of the saints exhibit something +wonderful and remarkable. I have studied them carefully. I have +sought to know their aims and efforts. I discovered that they +imitated the example of Christ, that they realized the exalted +teachings of the Redeemer. You find fault with their contempt for +the things of this world. But it is precisely in this that these +men are great. +{763} +Their object was not the ephemeral, but the enduring. They +considered life but as the entrance to the eternal destiny of +man--in direct opposition to the spirit of the times, that dances +about the golden calf. The saints did not value earthly goods for +more than they were worth. They placed them after self-control +and victory over our baser nature. Exact and punctual in all +their duties, they were animated by an admirable spirit of +charity for their fellow-men. And in this spirit they have +frequently revived society. Consider the great founders of +orders--St. Benedict, St. Dominic, St. Vincent de Paul! Party +spirit, malice, and stupidity have done their worst to blacken, +defame, and calumniate them. And yet, in a spirit of +self-sacrifice, the sons of St. Benedict came among the German +barbarians, to bring to them the ennobling doctrines of +Christianity. It was the Benedictines who cleared the primeval +forests, educated their wild denizens, and founded schools; who +taught the barbarians handiwork and agriculture. Science and +knowledge flourished in the cloisters. And to the monks alone we +are indebted for the preservation of classic literature. What the +monks did then they are doing now. They forsake home, break all +ties, and enter the wilderness, there to be miserably cut off in +the service of their exalted mission, or to die of poisonous +fevers. Name me one of your modern heroes, whose mouths are full +of civilization, humanity, enlightenment--name me one who is +capable of such sacrifice. These prudent gentlemen remain at home +with their gold-bags and their pleasures, and leave the stupid +monk to die in the service of exalted charity. It is the +hypocrisy and the falsehood of the modern spirit to exalt itself, +and belittle true worth. And what did St. Vincent de Paul do? +More than all the gold-bags together. St. Vincent, alone, solved +the social problem of his time. He was, in his time, the +preserver of society, or rather, Christianity through him. And +to-day our gold-bags tremble before the apparition of the same +social problem. Here high-sounding phrases and empty declamation +do not avail. Deeds only are of value. But the inflated spirit of +the times is not capable of noble action. It is not the modern +state--not enlightened society, sunk in egotism and gold--that +can save us. Christianity alone can do it. Social development +will prove this." + +"I do not dispute the services of the saints to humanity," said +Frank. "But the question is, Whether society would be benefited +if the fanatical, dark spirit of the middle ages prevailed, +instead of the spirit of modern times?" + +"The fanatical, dark spirit of the middle ages!" cried the doctor +indignantly. "This is one of those fallacious phrases. The saints +were not fanatical or dark. They were open, cheerful, natural, +humble men. They did not go about with bowed necks and downcast +eyes; but affable, free from hypocrisy, and dark, sullen +demeanor, they passed through life. Many saints were poets. St. +Francis sang his spiritual hymns to the accompaniment of the +harp. St. Charles played billiards. The holy apostle, St. John, +resting from his labors, amused himself in childish play with a +bird. Such were these men; severe toward themselves, mild to +others, uncompromising with the base and mean. They were all +abstinent and simple, allowing themselves only the necessary +enjoyments. They concealed from observation their severe mode of +life, and smiled while their shoulders bled from the discipline. +Pride, avarice, envy, voluptuouness, and all the bad passions, +were strangers to them; not because they had not the inclinations +to these passions, but because they restrained and overcame their +lower nature. + +{764} + +"I ask you, now, which men deserve our admiration--those who are +governed by unbounded selfishness, who are slaves to their +passions, who deny themselves no enjoyment, and who boast of +their degrading licentiousness; or those who, by reason of a pure +life, are strong in the government of their passions, and +self-sacrificing in their charity for their fellowmen?" + +"The preference cannot be doubtful," said Frank. "For the saints +have accomplished the greatest, they have obtained the highest +thing, self-control. But, doctor, I must condemn that +saint-worship as it is practised now. Human greatness always +remains human, and can make no claims to divine honor." + +The doctor swung his arms violently. "What does this reproach +amount to? Where are men deified? In the Catholic Church? I am a +Protestant, but I know that your church condemns the deification +of men." + +"Doctor," said Frank, "my religious ignorance deserves this +rebuke." + +"I meant no rebuke. I would only give conclusions. Catholicism is +precisely that power that combats with success against the +deifying of men. You have in the course of your studies read the +Roman classics. You know that divine worship was offered to the +Roman emperors. So far did heathen flattery go, that the emperors +were honored as the sons of the highest divinity--Jupiter. +Apotheosis is a fruit of heathen growth; of old heathenism and of +new heathenism. When Voltaire, that idol of modern heathen +worship, was returning to Paris in 1778, he was in all +earnestness promoted to the position of a deity. This remarkable +play took place in the theatre. Voltaire himself went there. +Modern fanaticism so far lost all shame that the people kissed +the horse on which the philosopher rode to the theatre. Voltaire +was scarcely able to press through the crowd of his worshippers. +They touched his clothes--touched handkerchiefs to them--plucked +hairs from his fur coat to preserve as relics. In the theatre +they fell on their knees before him and kissed his feet. Thus +that tendency that calls itself free and enlightened deified a +man--Voltaire, the most trifling scoffer, the most unprincipled, +basest man of Christendom. + +"Let us consider an example of our times. Look at Garibaldi in +London. That man permitted himself to be set up and worshipped. +The saints would have turned away from this stupidity with +loathing indignation. But this boundless veneration flattered the +old pirate Garibaldi. He received 267,000 requests for locks of +his hair, to be cased in gold and preserved as relics. Happily he +had not much hair. He should have graciously given them his +moustaches and whiskers." + +Frank smiled. Klingenberg's pace increased, and his arms swung +more briskly. + +"Such is the man-worship of modern heathenism. This +humanitarianism is ashamed of no absurdity, when it sinks to the +worship of licentiousness and baseness personified." + +"The senseless aberrations of modern culture do not excuse saint +worship. And you certainly do not wish to excuse it in that way. +There is, however, a reasonable veneration of human greatness. +Monuments are erected to great men. We behold them and are +reminded of their genius, their services; and there it stops. It +occurs to no reasonable man to venerate these men on his knees, +as is done with the saints." + +{765} + +"The bending of the knee, according to the teaching of your +church, does not signify adoration, but only veneration," replied +Klingenberg. "Before no Protestant in the world would I bend the +knee; before St. Benedict and St. Vincent de Paul I would +willingly, out of mere admiration and esteem for their greatness +of soul and their purity of morals. If a Catholic kneels before a +saint to ask his prayers, what is there offensive in that? It is +an act of religious conviction. But I will not enter into the +religious question. This you can learn better from your Catholic +brethren--say from the Angel of Salingen, for example, who +appears to have such veneration for the saints." + +"You will not enter into the religious question; yet you defend +saint-worship, which is something religious." + +"I do not defend it on religious grounds, but from history, +reason, and justice. History teaches that this veneration had, +and still has, the greatest moral influence on human society. The +spirit of veneration consists in imitating the example of the +person venerated. Without this spirit, saint-worship is an idle +ceremony. But that true veneration of the saints elevates and +ennobles, you cannot deny. Let us take the queen of saints, Mary. +What makes her worthy of veneration? Her obedience to the Most +High, her humility, her strength of soul, her chastity. All these +virtues shine out before the spiritual eyes of her worshippers as +models and patterns of life. I know a lady, very beautiful, very +wealthy; but she is also very humble, very pure, for she is a +true worshipper of Mary. Would that our women would venerate Mary +and choose her for a model! There would then be no coquettes, no +immodest women, no enlightened viragoes. Now, as saint-worship is +but taking the virtues of the saints as models for imitation, you +must admit that veneration in this sense has the happiest +consequences to human society." + +"I admit it--to my great astonishment, I must admit it," said +Richard. + +"Let us take a near example," continued Klingenberg. "I told you +of the singular qualities of Angela. As she passed, I beheld her +with wonder. I must confess her beauty astonished me. But this +astonishing beauty, it appears to me, is less in her charming +features than in the purity, the maidenly dignity of her +character. Perhaps she has to thank, for her excellence, that +same correct taste which leads her to venerate Mary. Would not +Angela make an amiable, modest, dutiful wife and devoted mother? +Can you expect to find this wife, this mother among those given +to fashions--among women filled with modern notions?" + +While Klingenberg said this, a deep emotion passed over Richard's +face. He did not answer the question, but let his head sink on +his breast. + +"Here is Frankenhöhe," said the doctor. "As you make no more +objections, I suppose you agree with me. The saints are great, +admirable men; therefore they deserve monuments. They are models +of virtue and the greatest benefactors of mankind; therefore they +deserve honor. '_Quod erat demonstrandum_.'" + +"I only wonder, doctor, that you, a Protestant, can defend such +views." + +"You will allow Protestants to judge reasonably," replied +Klingenberg. "My views are the result of careful study and +impartial reflection." + +{766} + +"I am also astonished--pardon my candor--that with such views you +can remain a Protestant." + +"There is a great difference between knowing and willing, my +young friend. I consider conversion an act of great heroism, and +also as a gift of the highest grace." + +Richard wrote in his diary: + + "If Angela should be what the doctor considers her! According + to my notions, such a being exists only in the realm of the + ideal. But if Angela yet realizes this ideal? I must be + certain. I will visit Siegwart to-morrow." + + To Be Continued. + +---------- + + From The German + + The Flight Into Egypt. + + + Greenwood tent, new splendors wear, + Let thy festal tree-tops glisten; + Stag, come here to look and listen; + For the world's joy draweth near! + Flowers, unclose your lids, that clearer + Light your dew-wet eyes may mirror. + Blossom! blossom! + On her bosom + Lo! the mother bears the Child! + + Glad-winged birds, from forest dim, + Hither fly, where peace long-sought is; + Sing melodious jubilates, + With the blessèd cherubim. + Morning airs, come quick! with tender + Thrill breathe on the branches slender; + Breathe and hover! + Rough ways over + Comes the mother with the Child! + + Stag, birds, trees, and breezes blest, + Triumph in harmonious numbers-- + Fear not to disturb the slumbers + Of the Babe upon her breast. + Gently lull him with your voices, + O'er whom all the world rejoices! + Sing, adore him! + Bend before him! + Hail the mother with the Child! + +---------- + +{767} + + Hon. Thomas Dongan, Governor of New York. [Footnote 187] + + [Footnote 187: Authorities: O'Callaghan's _Documentary and + Colonial Histories of New York_. Bancroft's _History of + the United States_. Lingard's _History of England_. + Bishop Bayley's _History of the Catholic Church in New + York_. O'Callaghan's _Journal of the Legislature of New + York_, especially a note thereto, by George H. Moore, Esq. + Shea's _History of the Catholic Missions_. Campbell's + _Life and Times of Archbishop Carroll_. DeCourcy and + Shea's _Catholic Church in the United States_, etc.] + + +The student of Catholic history may be permitted to recall, with +an honorable pride, the illustrious name and recount the eminent +public services of Colonel Thomas Dongan, who, while the only +Catholic, was one of the most able and accomplished, of the +colonial governors of New York. His life and exploits are but +little known, even among Catholics; and while his merits place +him without a superior in the honored list of our governors, it +yet remains, for the Catholic historian especially, to rescue his +fame from obscurity, and to weave together, from scattered +historical fragments, the story of a career at once brilliant and +useful, checkered and romantic. As soldier, ruler, exile, +nobleman, or Christian gentleman, he is equally entitled to a +distinguished place among the remarkable men of his age. His +position was a most difficult and delicate one--a Catholic ruler +over Protestant subjects, at a time when religious rivalries and +animosities formed the mainspring of public and private political +action. It is no small achievement that, in so trying an office, +he acquitted himself to the satisfaction of friend and foe; and +that Protestant and Catholic historians unite in commending his +wise and honorable course. As a patriot, he has won our national +gratitude; for it is to his courage and address that we are +indebted for the invaluable service of having extended the +northern frontier of our republic to the great lakes. His +devotion to civil and religious liberty places his name with that +of Calvert, in the hearts of Catholics; while both should be +hallowed together by all lovers of free government. + +The subject of this memoir was descended from a noble and ancient +Irish family, distinguished for an energy of character and +enterprising spirit which he did not allow to expire with his +ancestors. His father was Sir John Dongan, baronet, of +Castletoun, in the county of Kildare, Ireland. He was also nephew +to Richard Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnel, who figured conspicuously +in the reign of Charles II., as he did in that of James II. This +Earl of Tyrconnel, uncle to Governor Dongan, was one of those +against whom Titus Oates informed. He was made +lieutenant-governor of Ireland, and afterward lord deputy, on the +recall of Clarendon, by James II.; and he aimed at rendering +Ireland independent of England, in the event of the Prince of +Orange succeeding in his efforts to gain the throne. In +furtherance of his patriotic designs, Earl Tyrconnel solicited of +James permission to hold an Irish parliament; but that monarch, +suspecting his purpose, rejected the measure. + +Thomas Dongan was born in 1634; and, after being well-grounded in +his religion, and in secular learning, was trained to the +profession of a soldier. He entered the military service of +France, and served as colonel of a French regiment, under Louis +XIV.[Footnote 188] + + [Footnote 188: We find his name rendered in French documents + as _Colonel D'Unguent_.] + +{768} + +His services there were so highly prized that it was with great +difficulty and at considerable sacrifice that he was able to +withdraw from it. In 1677-8, after the English parliament had +forced Charles II. to break with Louis XIV., an order was issued +commanding all British subjects in the service of France to +return home. Colonel Dongan obeyed the order of his own +sovereign; and he himself informs us that he was obliged to quit +"that honorable and advantageous post, and resisted the +temptations of greater preferment, then offered him, if he would +continue there; for which reason the French king commanded him to +quit France in forty-eight hours, and refused to pay him a debt +of sixty-five thousand livres, then due him for recruits and +arrears, upon an account stated by the intendant of Nancy." No +subsequent efforts of Colonel Dongan succeeded in appeasing the +French king's resentment, or in securing the payment of his +claim. + +On his return from the French service to England, he was +appointed, by Charles II., a general officer in the English army, +then destined for Flanders, and had an annual pension of £500 +settled on him for life, in consideration of his losses in +France. But it is regarded as quite certain that he did not go to +Flanders under this appointment, to defend and support the +English garrisons in that country, then menaced by the French; +for, in the same year, he was appointed lieutenant-governor of +Tangier, a position which he accepted, and continued to fill +until the year 1680. + +At this time, the American province of New York was under the +proprietary government of James, Duke of York, whose deputy's +administration of the affairs of the colony had produced great +discontent among the people. His governor, Andros, had been +recalled to answer the charges of the people; had returned to New +York, acquitted by the duke, and resumed the imposition of the +heavy system of taxation which had weighed so heavily on the +citizens, and produced such discontent. But the resistance of the +people, not stopping short even of calling in question the +supreme authority of the duke, seconded by the remonstrances of +William Penn, finally had the desired effect. Andros was +recalled, and Colonel Dongan appointed to succeed him as governor +of New York. His commission from the Duke of York, bearing date +September 30th, 1682, contains the following appointing clause: + + "And whereas, I have conceived a good opinion of the integrity, + prudence, ability and fittness of Coll. Thomas Dongan, to be + employed as my Lieutent there, I have therefore thought fitt to + constitute and appoint him ye said Coll. Thos to be my Lt and + Govr within ye lands, islands, places aforesaid (except the + said East and West New Jersey) to performe & execute all and + every the powers wch are by the said lettrs pattents granted + unto me to be executed by me, my Deputy, Agent or Assignes." + +The written instructions received by the new governor from the +Duke of York, bearing date January 27th, 1683, direct him: First, +to call together the council of the duke, consisting of +Fredericke Phillipps, Stephen Courtland, and other eminent +inhabitants, not exceeding ten councillors. Second, and most +important of all, to issue warrants to the sheriffs of the +counties for an election of a general assembly of all the +freeholders of the province, to pass laws "for the good weale and +government of the said Colony and its Dependencyes, and of all +inhabitants thereof." +{769} +The assembly was not to exceed eighteen members, and was to +assemble in the city of New York. Third, to give or withhold his +assent to such laws as the general assembly might pass, as he +might approve or disapprove of the same, etc. Fourth, the laws so +passed to be permanent. Fifth, "And I doe hereby require and +command you yt noe man's life, member, freehold, or goods, be +taken away or harmed in any of the places undr yor government but +by established and knowne laws not repugnant to, but as nigh as +may be agreable to the laws of the kingdome of England." Sixth, +to repress "drunkennesse and debauchery, swearing and blasphemy," +and to appoint none to office who may be given to such vices; and +to encourage commerce and merchants. Seventh, to exercise general +discretionary powers, except that of declaring war, without the +duke's consent. The eighth relates to assessment of the estates +of persons capable of serving as jurors. Ninth, to establish +courts of justice, and to sell the royal lands. Tenth, to pardon +offences. Eleventh, to erect custom-houses and other public +buildings. Twelfth, to organize the militia. Thirteenth, to +settle the boundaries of the province. Fourteenth, to encourage +planters, and to lay no tax on commerce, except according to +established laws. Fifteenth, to purchase Indian lands. Sixteenth +relates to the granting of a liberal charter to the city of New +York. Seventeenth, to send reports, by every ship, of the +progress of the colony, and to regulate internal trade; and +eighteenth, to devote his life, time, etc., to the faithful +discharge of his duties. + +The admirable document of which the foregoing is a brief +synopsis, containing as it does the general principles of all +good government, was, no doubt, designed to meet the former evils +complained of by the people of New York. That the influence of +Colonel Dongan, during the eight months or so that he remained in +England between his appointment and departure for New York, was +wholesomely exerted in impressing a liberal and enlightened +character upon the policy and instructions of the home +government, cannot be doubted. No one was better fitted by +experience, good judgment, and inclination, for such a task. The +document itself, the most just and liberal that ever emanated +from an English sovereign, goes far to vindicate the name and +character of James II. + +The new governor arrived at New York on the 25th of August, 1683, +and entered upon the duties of his office--duties rendered more +delicate and embarrassing by the excitement through which the +community had just passed, the high and extravagant expectations +built upon a new appointment, made with the view of remedying old +complaints, and by the fact that he himself was a professed and +zealous Catholic, while the community whose destinies he was +commissioned to guide were almost without exception Protestants, +and peculiarly inclined, at that time, to look with distrust and +hatred upon all "Papists." That such was the case, we are told by +all the historians of the state and city; but that, by his +address, good government, and enlightened policy, Governor Dongan +soon removed this difficulty, we have the same authority for +asserting. Smith says of him, "He was a man of integrity, +moderation, and genteel manners, and, though a professed papist, +may be classed among the best of our governors;" and adds "that +he surpassed all his predecessors in a due attention to our +affairs with the Indians, by whom he was highly esteemed." +{770} +Valentine writes, that "he was a Roman Catholic in his religious +tenets, which was the occasion of much remark on the part of the +Protestant inhabitants of the colony. His personal character was +in other respects not objectionable to the people, and he is +described as a man of integrity, moderation, and genteel manners, +and as being among the best of the governors who had been placed +in charge of this province." And Booth also writes of him, "He +was of the Roman Catholic faith, a fact which rendered him, at +first, obnoxious to many; but his firm and judicious policy, his +steadfast integrity, and his pleasing and courteous address, soon +won the affections of the people, and made him one of the most +popular of the royal governors." Colden, in his history of the +Five Nations, calls him an "honest gentleman," and "an active and +prudent governor." + +The governor at once organized his council, which, as well from +necessity as from prudent policy, was composed of gentlemen of +the Dutch Reformed and English churches. Regarding his functions +as purely civil, he did not, in the government of the colonists, +who were Protestants, advance his views upon subjects not +connected with civil government offensively before them, as they +feared he would do. He might have induced over from the old +country members of his own church to form his council; but +neither duty nor prudence recommended this measure. Catholics, +however, were no longer excluded from office, nor from the +practice of their religion. The governor had a chapel, in which +himself, his suite, his servants, and all the Catholics of the +province, could attend divine service according to their own +creed. A Jesuit father, who accompanied him from England, was his +chaplain. + +He proceeded at once, according to his instructions, to issue his +warrants for the election of a general assembly. This was an +auspicious beginning of his administration, as it was a +concession from the Duke of York for which the people had long +struggled. This illustrious body, consisting of the governor, ten +councillors, and seventeen representatives elected by the people, +assembled in the city of New York, on the 17th of October, 1683. +As he was the first, so he was the most liberal and friendly +royal governor, that presided over the popular legislatures of +New York; and the contests between arbitrary power and popular +rights, which distinguished the administration of future +governors, down to the Revolution, did not have their origin +under his administration. The first act of the general assembly +was the framing of a charter of liberties--the first guaranty of +popular government in the province; and Governor Dongan, as he +was the first governor to sign the charter of civil and religious +liberty in New York, was, not many years afterward, the first +citizen persecuted for his religion after its adoption. This +noble charter ordained, + + "That supreme legislative power should for ever reside in the + governor, council, and people, met in general assembly; that + every freeholder and freeman might vote for representatives + without restraint; that no freeman should suffer but by the + judgment of his peers, and that all trials should be by a jury + of twelve men; that no tax should be assessed, on any pretext + whatever, but by the consent of the assembly; that no seaman or + soldier should be quartered on the inhabitants against their + will; that no martial law should exist; that no person, + professing faith in God, by Jesus Christ, should, at any time, + be in any way disquieted or questioned for any difference of + opinion in matters of religion." + +{771} + +It was provided that the general assemblies were to convene at +least triennially; new police regulations were established; +Sunday laws were enacted; tavern-keepers were prohibited from +selling liquor except to travellers; children were prohibited +from playing in the street, citizens from working, and Indians +and negroes from assembling, on the Sabbath; twenty cartmen were +licensed, on condition that they should repair the highways +gratis, when called on by the mayor, and cart the dirt from the +streets beyond the limits of the city. The inhabitants were +required to sweep the dirt of the streets together every Saturday +afternoon, preparatory to its removal by the cartmen. On the 8th +of December, 1683, the city was divided into six wards, each of +which was entitled to elect an alderman and councilman annually, +to represent them in the government of the city. The appointment +of the mayor was reserved to the governor and council, and was +not made elective by the people until after the American +Revolution. + +In 1685, on the death of Charles, the Duke of York succeeded to +the English crown, under the title of James II. Governor Dongan, +by special orders from the home government, proclaimed King James +throughout the province. Indian and French disturbances having +ceased, all was now quiet along the northern frontier, and the +governor, skilfully availing himself of the opportunity, caused +the king's arms to be put upon all the Indian castles along the +Great Lake, and they, he writes to Secretary Blathwayt, submitted +willingly to the king's government. In 1686, Governor Dongan +received a new commission, bearing date on the 10th of June of +that year. This was a very different document from his first +commission, and manifests the change in favor of arbitrary power +which took place in the sentiments and policy of James on his +accession to the throne. The general assembly was abolished and +the legislative power was vested in the governor and council, +subject to the approval of the king; they were also authorized to +proclaim and enforce martial law, to impose taxes, etc. It has +been erroneously stated by one of our historians that James, in +this document, instructed Governor Dongan "to favor the +introduction of the Roman Catholic religion into the province--a +course of policy which the governor, himself a Catholic, was +reluctant to adopt;" whereas, the only provision therein relating +to religion is in these words: + + "And wee doe, by these presents, will, require, and command you + to take all possible care for the Discountenance of Vice and + encouragement of Virtue and good-living, that by such example + the Infidels may bee invited and desired to partake of the + Christian Religion." + +According to this commission, the general assembly was dissolved +on the 6th of August, 1685, and no other was convened during the +reign of James. Notwithstanding this radical change in the +organic law of the province, the mild, liberal, and judicious +administration of the governor caused the exercise of arbitrary +power to be but lightly felt by the people. + +In 1686, Governor Dongan signalized his administration by +granting, in the name and by the authority of the king, the +celebrated charter of the city of New York known as the _Dongan +Charter_, bearing date the 22d of April of that year. This +document constitutes to this day the basis and foundation of the +municipal laws, rights, privileges, public property, and +franchises of the city. It was confirmed and renewed by Governor +Montgomery, on the 15th day of January, 1730, in the reign of +George II. +{772} +This charter was granted on the petition of the mayor and common +council of the city of New York, addressed "To the Right +Honorable Colln. Dongan, Esqr., Lieutennant & Governor & Vice +Admirall under his Royall Highness, James Duke of York and +Albany, &c., of New York and Dependencyes in America." In this +petition are recited the ancient privileges and incorporation of +the city, and especially the fact that the whole island of +Manhattan had been made a part of the corporation, and all the +inhabitants thereof were subject to the government of the city; +and praying a re-grant and confirmation of the same, and of all +their ancient rights and privileges. The charter itself confirms +all the ancient franchises and grants to the city, and confers +many new ones upon it; it grants to the city the waste or +unappropriated lands on the island, and concedes the right of +local or municipal legislation, the ferries, markets, docks, +etc., and covers thoroughly the whole ground of municipal +government. It would seem, from an endorsement made on the +petition in the office of the home government, by the secretary +through whose hands it passed, that the new charter should be +granted on the express condition that the old charter be +surrendered; "otherwise, they may keep all their Old Priviledges +by virtue of that, and take ye additions by this new one, without +Subjecting their Officers, &c., to the approbation & Refusall, +&c., of ye governors." + +Among other public measures and acts of Governor Dongan may be +mentioned, that he proposed to the home government the +establishment of post-offices, or "post-houses," as they were +called, all along the Atlantic coast within the English +dominions, and the establishment of a mint. French Protestants, +resorting to the colony for trade or business of any kind, were +not to be molested. The fort was supported for one year at his +private expense, during the insufficiency of the public revenue +under Collector Santen. He obtained a release from the Ranseleers +to the lands in Albany, and then granted a charter to that town; +and he endeavored to bring about the union of New Jersey and +Connecticut, under one and the same government with New York, as +a measure of public safety and strength. In 1686, the governor's +salary was raised from £400 to £600 per annum. The governor's +residence was at the fort, and there was attached to the office +the products or rents of a farm, called, at various times, the +governor's, duke's, or king's farm, and of another smaller piece +of land, called the queen's garden, which were subsequently +granted to and remain to this day the property of the corporation +of Trinity Church. It may also be mentioned, as an evidence of +Governor Dongan's popularity, that there is to be found, in a +list of the titles of acts passed by the general assembly in +1684, the following title, "A Bill for a present to the +Governor." + +We are told by the historians that "considerable improvements +were made in the city in Governor Dongan's time." [Footnote 189] + + [Footnote 189: Valentine.] + +The city wall, erected in 1653, on the present line of Wall +street, which derived its name from this circumstance, ran +through the farm of Jan Jansen Damen; and from Broadway to Pearl +street, the lands north of the wall were, in Governor Dongan's +time, in possession of Damen's heirs, who were now induced to +part with the same, so that the wall was removed and these +valuable lots brought at once into the market, and were soon +improved. +{773} +Afterward, Governor Dongan determined still further to enlarge +the city, to demolish the old fortifications, which were in a +state of decay, and to erect new defences further out. Wall +street was laid out on the site of the old city wall. "The street +was afterwards favored by the erection of the city hall on the +site of the present custom-house, and of Trinity Church, facing +its westerly extremity, and soon became one of principal streets +of the city." In 1687, a new street was laid out between +Whitehall street and Old Slip, and the corporation sold the lots +on condition that the purchasers should build the street out +toward the water and protect it against the washing of the tide. +These improvements were not carried into effect until several +years afterward. This is the present Water street. In the second +year of Governor Dongan's administration, 1684, the vessels of +New York consisted of three barques, three brigantines, +twenty-six sloops, and forty-six open boats; facts which convey +some notion of the commerce and prosperity of New York at that +time. + +Governor Dongan manifested great activity and energy in the +conduct of public affairs. His report on the condition of the +colony is a document replete with intelligence, vigor, and +practical experience, and shows that no part of the colony, +however remote, escaped his attention and care; and no branch of +the public service was neglected by him. Mr. Santen, the +collector of the port, became a defaulter to the amount of £3000, +and was the occasion of great embarrassment and loss to Governor +Dongan, who, however, on his part, acted promptly in the +premises, by seizing the books of the delinquent official, +causing him to be arrested and brought before the council for +trial, and, on his proving refractory, sending him to England. +While in England, the displaced collector preferred charges +against Governor Dongan, who defended himself in that able and +conclusive document, or report, on the condition of the colony, +addressed to the lords of the home government, to which allusion +has just been made. The following extract will show how +characteristically he defended himself against one of Mr. +Santen's charges: + + "To the Tenth: Concerning my Covetousness, as hee is pleased to + term it. Here, (if Mr. Santen speaks true, in saying I have + been covetous,) it was in the management of this small Revenue + to the best advantage, and had Mr. Santen been as just as I + have been careful, the King had not been in debt, and I had + more in my pocket than now I have." + +This document also shows how active Governor Dongan was to secure +the beaver and other Indian trade for the province; his zeal +would not stop short of confining the French to the other side of +the great lakes, and William Penn and his people south of a line +drawn from a point on the Delaware "to the falls in the +Susquehanna." [Footnote 190] + + [Footnote 190: Wyalusing Falls, Bradford County, + Pennsylvania.] + +The report is also full of valuable suggestions on the future as +well as the past and present government of the province, and +contains valuable statistics relating to the courts of justice, +the public revenues, trade and commerce, population, the Indians, +shipping, agriculture, and every other public interest. + +Governor Dongan distinguished his administration in an especial +manner by his attention to the relations and interests of the +province connected with the Indian tribes within and adjoining +it; and he is admitted by historians to have surpassed all his +predecessors in this department of public affairs, and to have +been held in the greatest esteem by the Indians themselves. +{774} +While seeking their alliance, their trade, and their submission +to his government, he ever treated them with frankness, +generosity, and true friendship. The grateful savages always +addressed him by the friendly name of "Corlear;" [Footnote 191] +"and the name of 'Dongan, the white father,' was remembered in +the Indian lodges long after it had grown indifferent to his +countrymen at Manhattan." His master-stroke of Indian policy was +in gaining the alliance of the Five Nations, securing their +submission to the English government in preference to that of +France, and carrying our northern frontier to the great lakes. + + [Footnote 191: This was the name of one of the old Dutch + inhabitants, who had conferred a great boon upon the Indians, + and by his timely intervention saved a large number of them + from a contemplated massacre in one of their wars. Whenever + afterward they wished to address a person in terms of strong + attachment and confidence, they called him "_Corlear_."] + +The Five Nations were a confederacy of the five most powerful +Indian tribes of the north: the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the +Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas. They were usually +called, by the French, by the name of "Iroquois." Their +confederation dates back beyond the limits of their history, as +known to the white race; and both, like that of other nations in +their origin, are only known to us through dim traditions and +fabulous exaggerations. They were united when the French came to +Canada; for we are told, that, "when Champlain arrived in Canada, +he found them united in a war against the Adirondacks, or +Algonquins; and, as he settled in the country of the latter, he +accompanied them in one of their hostile incursions, and, by the +assistance of the French, a body of the Five Nations was +defeated." They long felt a resentment for this act of hostility, +although they received missionaries from the French, and, in a +great measure, embraced the Christian faith. On the arrival of +the Dutch, a trade sprang up between the inhabitants of New +Amsterdam and the Indians of the Five Nations; and the latter, by +exchanging their furs for fire-arms, became more powerful and +more terrible to their enemies. It does not seem that the Dutch +government laid any claim to their country, or to their +allegiance; though Governor Dongan, in his controversy with the +French, claimed that his pretensions were based upon a Dutch +title. Their form of government was federal, like our own. Each +nation had its own separate government, for the regulation of +their local and individual affairs, and a general government in +all things relating to their common interests. They were the most +powerful, the most permanent, and the most capable Indian +organization in America. Like the Romans, they incorporated the +nations they conquered into the confederacy, with equal rights; +or, if this were impracticable, they destroyed their enemies +entirely. Such was their power that they exacted tribute from +neighboring tribes. In 1715, the Tuscaroras of North Carolina +were aggregated to the original confederacy, which was thereafter +known by the name of the Six Nations. + +Governor Dongan soon perceived the importance of securing the +friendship and alliance of these powerful and warlike tribes. The +Dutch had made a treaty of peace with the Five Nations, which had +never been openly broken; but as it was necessary to keep +treaties with the Indians constantly renewed, in order to prevent +them from being forgotten; and, as the Indians had considered +themselves, on several occasions, slighted by the English +governors, they had more than once invaded the territories of the +latter. +{775} +The French in Canada, as the first Europeans who had visited +their country, claimed it and the allegiance of the tribes. +French missionaries, men of heroic self-sacrifice and profound +piety, were among them, preaching the Gospel, receiving their +confessions of faith, offering up the Christian sacrifice in +their midst, and doing all in their power to improve their +temporal and spiritual condition. It was natural, it was probably +necessary, that these pious missionaries should bring their +flocks in contact with their own government; and, while their +mission and holy office among the Indians were utterly divested +of all political or worldly motives, they could not avoid being +powerful instruments, with the French government, in securing the +advancement of French interests among those nations. Governor +Dongan, on the other hand, had by his kindness and frankness +completely gained their confidence, and was succeeding well in +cementing the relations between himself and the Five Nations. He +soon discovered the presence of the French missionaries in their +midst an obstacle to this policy; and, at the same time, as a +Catholic, he felt a profound interest in their religious +enlightenment, and in their adherence to the church of which he +was himself a devoted member. To avoid the conflict which might +arise between the duty he owed, on the one hand, to his church +and his conscience, and, on the other, to his king, he resolved +on the plan of insisting upon his claim to the allegiance of the +Five Nations, claiming the country to the great lakes, and upon +the withdrawal of the French missionaries, and the substitution +of English Jesuit missionaries in their place. Though receiving +little encouragement from the home government in these measures, +Governor Dongan carried them so far into effect as to secure the +withdrawal of the French missionaries from three of the Five +Nations, and to obtain the services of English Jesuits at New +York, destined for the Indian missions, in the place of French +priests. Father Harrison arrived in New York in 1685, and Father +Gage arrived there in 1686. But, in consequence of their +ignorance of the Indian language, they were compelled to remain +in the city while studying it and preparing for the mission. War, +too, soon rendered the field of their missionary zeal and labor +inaccessible to them, and the sequel of events shows that it was +neither their own nor the good fortune of the Indians that they +should ever reach it. A Catholic writer [Footnote 192] thus +alludes to Governor Dongan's position on this, to him, delicate +subject: + + "There can be no doubt that Governor Dongan, on coming among + the New Yorkers, found that if the measures for converting the + Indians were to proceed, the political interests of his own + country required that English missionaries should take the + place of the French Jesuits, some of whom were incorporated + among the Five Nations. The historians of New York assert that + no previous governor had made himself so well acquainted with + Indian affairs, or conducted the intercourse between the + settlers and Indians with so much ability and regard to the + interests of the subjects of Great Britain; while, at the same + time, he was held in high esteem by the Indians themselves. And + it is mentioned, to his honor, by the same historians, who are + unsparing in their condemnation of his religion, that he did + not permit the identity of his faith with that of the Catholic + missionaries of France to prevent him from opposing their + residence among the Indian tribes in his province; their + influence being calculated to promote the interests and policy + of France, and weaken the authority of the English. But it was + loyalty to his own government, and a just regard for the + interests confided to him, and not indifference to the pious + work of Christianizing the Indians, that induced Governor + Dongan to oppose the missions of the French." + + [Footnote 192: Campbell's _Life and Times of Archbishop + Carroll_.] + +{776} + + +Another Catholic author [Footnote 193] thus writes on the same +subject: + + [Footnote 193: Shea's _Hist. Cath. Missions_.] + + "The English colony of New York had now passed under the sway + of Colonel Dongan, one of the most enterprising and active + governors that ever controlled the destinies of any of the + English provinces. His short but vigorous administration showed + that he was not only thoroughly acquainted with the interests + of England, but able to carry them out. A Catholic, who had + served in the French armies, he was biassed neither by his + religion nor his former services in the duties of the station + now devolved upon him. ... Claiming for England all the country + south of the great lakes, he it was who made them a boundary. + His first step was to extend the power of New York over the + five Iroquois cantons, and bind those warlike tribes to the + English interest. His next, to recall the Caughnawagas to their + ancient home, by promises of a new location on the plains of + Saratoga, where a church should be built for them, and an + English Jesuit stationed as their missionary. In this plan he + found his efforts thwarted by the missionaries, who, French by + birth and attachment, looked with suspicion on the growing + English influence in the cantons, as fatal to the missions + which had cost so much toil, and who relied little on Dongan's + fair words, and subsequent promise to replace them by English + members of their society." + +The same author, in another work, expresses his confidence in the +sincerity of Governor Dongan's intentions and promises, and +points to the three English Jesuits brought to New York by him, +as proof of both. [Footnote 194] + + [Footnote 194: _New York Doc. Hist._ Letter of Mr. Shea, + iii. 110.] + +The French government of Canada was equally bent on reducing the +Five Nations to subjection to the king of France. It required no +serious pretexts to induce the French to carry their plans into +effect by open war; and pretexts were not long wanting. The +murder of a Seneca chief at Mackinaw; an attack by the Iroquois +on a French post in Illinois; the seizure of a flotilla--fanned +the embers of war into a flame, and the subjugation of the Five +Nations seemed to be at hand. A large Canadian army was organized +for this purpose. It is said by historians, and with probable +truth, that the French king had remonstrated with James II. +against Colonel Dongan's interference with the French missions, +and that James had instructed his governor to desist from this +policy; also, that James, on hearing of the designs of the +Canadians on the Five Nations, supposing that these warlike and +refractory tribes, either as subjects or enemies, would be always +a thorn in the side of his province, while within its limits, +ordered Colonel Dongan not to interfere with those designs. But +Colonel Dongan entertained very different views on these +subjects. Not only did he insist on replacing the French Jesuits +with English members of the same society, but he also proposed, +both to the home government and to the governors of Maryland and +Virginia, that these two provinces should unite with New York in +resisting the encroachments of the French. He also proposed to +the home government a plan of emigration from Ireland to New +York, and that one of his own nephews should be appointed to +conduct and manage the enterprise. He wrote to the home +government on this subject as follows: + + "It will be very necessary to send over men to build those + forts [the proposed forts along the northern frontier.] ... My + lord, there are people enough in Ireland, who had pretences to + estates there, and are of no advantage to the country, and may + live here very happy. I do not doubt, if his majesty think fit + to employ my nephew, he will bring over as many as the king + will find convenient to send, who will be no charge to his + majesty after they are landed." + +{777} + +Governor Dongan, notwithstanding his instructions to the +contrary, "was far too honorable to see his allies, (the Five +Nations,) murdered in cold blood, in obedience to the will of his +superiors." He sent his messengers to warn the Iroquois of the +impending danger, and invited them to meet him at Albany, to +renew the old treaty of peace, which had been long ago made +between them and the Dutch, and which had almost faded from the +memories of the chiefs. + +Both met punctually at the appointed rendezvous; and Colonel +Dongan made one of his most characteristic and effective speeches +to them, in which he explained his claims upon them, demonstrated +the hostility of the French and his own friendship for them, made +promises of future aid, and proposed an alliance. The treaty here +entered into "was long respected by both parties." The clouds of +war now burst upon the Five Nations, but found them not +unprepared. Two invasions of the French were repelled, and +finally the invaders, weakened by sickness and unacquainted with +the Indian modes of war, returned with scattered ranks to their +own country, to await the terrible retaliation of an injured foe. +The warriors of the Five Nations burst with fury on the Canadian +settlements, "burning, ravaging, and slaying without mercy, until +they had nearly exterminated the French from the territory. The +war continued until, of all the French colonies, Quebec, +Montreal, and Three Rivers alone remained, and the French +dominion in America was almost annihilated; Governor Dongan +remaining," says the historian, "a firm friend of the Indians +during his administration, aiding them by his council, and doing +them every good office in his power." [Footnote 195] + + [Footnote 195: Booth's _History of the City of New + York_.] + +By his bold and independent course, so much at variance with the +views of his royal master, Governor Dongan incurred the +displeasure of James II., who suspended him from his functions, +and about April, 1688, the governor resigned his office. The +functions of the office of governor then devolved upon the +deputy-governor, Nicholson. Smith, the historian, says of +Dongan's removal from the office which he had graced so well, and +in which he had done so much for the good of his king and his +fellow-citizens, that "he fell into the king's displeasure +through his zeal for the true interest of the province." + +The voluminous correspondence between Governor Dongan and Mons. +Denonville, governor of Canada, on the relations of the two rival +English and French colonies, published in the _Colonial_ and +_Documentary_ histories of New York, is replete with +interest, as containing valuable information concerning the +affairs of the day, and as fairly illustrating the character of +our governor. Though frequently running into bitter personalities +and irreconcilable conflict, the letters of these two officials +were not devoid of personal courtesies and amenities. Thus, we +see the French governor acting as a mediator with his sovereign +in behalf of Governor Dongan, in order that he might recover his +claim for services rendered in the French army; and we find +Governor Dongan, at one time, regretting that distance prevented +him from meeting and interchanging social civilities with his +rival; and, at another, sending to the Canadian governor a +present of oranges, which, he had heard, were a great rarity in +Canada, and regretting that the messenger's want of "carriage" +prevented him from sending more. + +{778} + +There was one point, however, upon which Governor Dongan was ever +uncompromising; this was his determination to claim the great +lakes as his boundary, and to submit to nothing short of this. He +carried his point even in his own day; for the royal arms of +England were emblazoned on the Indian castles along that border, +English forts defended it, and the Five Nations recognized the +king of England as their father. Though wars intervened, this +boundary was afterward recognized, by solemn treaty, as the line +dividing the English and French dominions in our day, the visitor +to the great lakes, and the tourist at the falls of Niagara, sees +the American flag floating where Governor Dongan planted its +predecessor, the standard of our English ancestors. Then, + + "Proudly hath it floated + Through the battles of the sea, + When the red-cross flag o'er smoke-wreaths played + Like the lightning in its glee." + _Hemans_. + +Now, + + "When Freedom from her mountain height + Unfurled her standard to the air, + She tore the azure robe of night, + And set her stars of glory there." + _Drake_. + +After his retirement from office, Governor Dongan spent his time +in New York and on Staten Island, in both of which places he had +acquired some property, but resided mostly on his estate on +Staten Island. He was offered the commission of a major-general +in the British army, and the command of a regiment in the service +of James II., all of which he declined to accept. + +From the time that James II. ascended the English throne, +discontents began to arise among his Protestant subjects, on both +sides of the ocean, at the transfer of power from the Protestants +to the Catholics. The appointment of Governor Dongan, "a +professed papist," was offensive at first to the people of the +province of New York; but his upright administration, his +devotion to the best interests of the colony, and his personal +popularity, quelled all actual disturbance during his term of +office. We have seen that, soon after his arrival, civil and +religious liberty were guaranteed, and that he selected the +council from members of the Dutch Reformed Church, in order to +disarm all prejudices. He certainly was not disposed, however, to +debar himself and his fellow-Catholic subjects from the enjoyment +of that religious liberty which he had done so much to secure for +others. He had been accompanied to New York, in 1683, by Father +Thomas Harvey, S.J., who performed the divine services in the +governor's chapel, in the fort, and attended to the spiritual +wants of the governor, and of such Catholics as were in New York +during his administration. Fathers Harrison and Gage were sent +for, and arrived in New York afterward, with the view of +superseding the French missionaries among the Indians. It does +not appear that large numbers of Catholics emigrated to New York, +during his administration, for his plan for encouraging +emigration from Ireland was not carried into effect; yet it is +reasonable to suppose that the number of Catholics increased +somewhat under the favorable auspices of a Catholic governor. +And, although Matthias Plowman, the successor to Mr. Santer, the +late collector, was a Catholic, we do not find that Governor +Dongan filled many of the public offices in his gift with +Catholics. Mr. Nicholson, the deputy-governor, into whose hands +Governor Dongan resigned his office, was not appointed by him, +but was the deputy of Governor Andros, who had been appointed by +the home government governor of New England and New York, and +whose headquarters were at Boston; this Mr. Nicholson was said to +have been "an adherent of the Catholic faith." Religious +controversies ran high, however, during this period, and +historians generally inform us that plots were formed by the +Protestants, not only in England, under James, but also in the +province of New York, under Governor Dongan. +{779} +This seems probable from the readiness with which the people on +both sides of the Atlantic rose on their Catholic rulers as soon +as the opportunity presented itself. This opportunity was +afforded not long after Governor Dongan's retirement from office, +in 1689, on the invasion of England by William Prince of Orange, +and the abdication and flight of James II. from England. + +The tone of public sentiment in New York in 1689 is thus +described by Bishop Bayley, in his treatise on the _History of +the Catholic Church on the Island of New York:_ + + "Smith, describing the disposition and temper of the + inhabitants of the colony at the time, shows that, + notwithstanding the personal popularity of the governor, the + increase of Catholics was looked upon with a suspicious eye. 'A + general disaffection,' he says,'to the government prevailed + among the people. Papists began to settle in the colony under + the smiles of the governor. The collector of the revenues and + several principal officers threw off the mask, and openly + avowed their attachment to the doctrines of Rome. A Latin + school was set up, and the teacher strongly suspected for a + Jesuit; in a word, the whole body of the people trembled for + the Protestant cause.' The news of the revolution in England, + and the subsequent proceedings under Leisler, probably caused + such Catholics as were in a situation to get away, to withdraw + at the same time with the governor. The documents connected + with Leisler's usurpation of authority, as published by + O'Callaghan in his _Documentary History of New York_, show + how studiously he appealed to the religious prejudices of the + people, in order to excite odium against the friends of the + late governor, and establish his own claims. The 'security of + the Protestant religion,' and the 'diabolical designs of the + wicked and cruel papists,' are made to ring their changes + through his various proclamations and letters. Depositions and + affidavits were published, in which it was sworn that + Lieutenant-Governor Nicholson had been several times seen + assisting at mass; that the papists on Staten Island 'did + threaten to cut the inhabitants' throats,' and to come and burn + the city; 'that M. De La Prearie had arms in his house for + fifty men; that eighty or a hundred men were coming from Boston + and other places, that were hunted away, (no doubt, not for + their goodness,) and that there were several of them Irish and + papists; that a good part of the soldiers that were in the fort + already were papists,' etc. Among other depositions, is one of + Andries and Jan Meyer, in which they declare that, 'being + delivered from a papist governor, Thomas Dongan, they thought + that the deputy-governor in the Fort would defend and establish + the true religion; but we found to the contrary. There was a + cry that all the images erected by Col. Thomas Dongan in the + fort would be broken down and taken away; but when we were + working in the fort with others, it was commanded, after the + departure of Sir Edmond Andros, by said Nicholson, to help the + priest, John Smith,' (supposed to be a name assumed for the + sake of safety by one of the Jesuit fathers of New York,) 'to + remove, for which we were very glad; but it was soon done, + because said removal was not far off, but in a better room in + the fort; and ordered to make all things ready for said priest, + according to his will, and perfectly, and to erect all things + as he ordered, from that time,'" etc. + +Mr. Graham says of the state of public feeling prevailing at this +time in New York, that + + "An outrageous dread of popery had invaded the minds of the + lower classes of the people, and not only diminished real and + substantial evils in their esteem, but nearly extinguished + common sense in their understandings, and common justice in + their sentiments." + +Deputy-Governor Nicholson took possession of the government in +August, 1688. On the 24th of that month, Governor Andros issued a +proclamation for a general thanksgiving throughout the English +provinces for the birth of a prince, the son of King James, and +heir to the English throne. But by the next mail news of quite a +different character arrived: the invasion of England by the +Prince of Orange, the flocking of the people to his standard, the +abdication and flight of King James, and the proclamation of +William and Mary as king and queen of England. +{780} +Mr. Nicholson and his followers recognized the authority of +William and Mary, and, claiming that the commissions issued under +James II. still held good, proposed to exercised the functions of +the public offices under them, until instructions should be +received from the new government at home. They were supported by +the more respectable and wealthy part of the citizens. But the +popular party took the opposite ground, and contended that all +the commissions were now invalid, and that the people should take +the government into their own hands until the will of their +present majesties should be heard from. They were led on by one +Jacob Leisler, a successful merchant, but a bitter bigot and +ambitious demagogue, and the leader of such as refused all social +intercourse with Catholics. Leisler had been appointed as early +as 1683, by Governor Dongan, commissioner of the Admiralty; but, +while holding this office, he was deeply disaffected, and had +previously gained some notoriety by his opposition to Rensselaer, +an Episcopal minister and suspected papist, at Albany, who had +been sent to the province by the Duke of York. + +The revolution commenced in New York by the refusal of Leisler +and others to pay revenue and taxes to Mr. Plowman, the +collector, because he was a Catholic. The people of Long Island +deposed their magistrates and elected new ones, and despatched a +large body of militia to New York, "to seize the fort, and keep +off popery, French invasion, and slavery." The public money, +amounting to £773 12s., had been deposited, for safe keeping, in +the fort which was garrisoned by a few soldiers commanded by a +Catholic ensign. In order to secure this treasure, the popular +party assembled on the 2d of June, 1689, and seized the fort. +Leisler, who had refused to lead them to attack, on hearing of +its seizure, went, with forty-seven men, to the fort, was +welcomed by the citizens, and acknowledged as their leader. At a +meeting of the people, a so-called "Committee of Safety" was +appointed for the immediate government of the province, and +Leisler was appointed to the chief command. Then followed the +reign of terror described by Smith, Graham, and other historians. +Catholics were hunted down in every direction, and many +Protestants, suspected of being "papists" at heart, were treated +in the same manner. Orders were issued for the arrest of Governor +Dongan--who, since his retirement from office, had been quietly +residing on his estate at Staten Island--and all other Catholics, +who were compelled to fly for safety. Governor Dongan and other +Catholics took shelter on board of a vessel in the harbor, where +they remained for weeks, during the height of the excitement. He +probably was obliged to keep himself concealed. He fled to Rhode +Island, and soon afterward returned to Staten Island; his +servants were arrested, his personal effects--charged, in the +frenzy of the hour, to embrace a number of arms--were seized at +his mill on Staten Island; and all who pretended to hold +commissions under him were ordered to be arrested. So effectually +were the Catholics driven from the province that, in 1696, seven +years afterward, on a census of Catholics, taken by the mayor of +the city by order of Governor Fletcher, only nine names were +returned, namely, Major Anthony Brockholes, William Douglass, +John Cooley, Christiane Lawrence, Thomas Howarding, John +Cavalier, John Patte, John Fenny, and Philip Cunningham. + +{781} + +Whether Governor Dongan returned to England, and again came out +to the province after the excitement had abated, or remained +concealed in the province or neighborhood, seems not to be clear. +It is certain, however, that he was in New York in 1791 [sic]. It +need only be added here that the "Charter of Liberties," passed +in 1683, under a Catholic governor, was, with all other laws +passed by the late general assembly, repealed by the Protestant +assembly of New York, in 1691, and a so-called "Bill of Rights" +passed, which expressly deprived Catholics of all their political +and religious _rights_. In 1697 this "Bill of Rights" was +repealed by King William, "probably as being too liberal," says +Bishop Bayley; and, in 1700, an act was passed which recited that +"Whereas, divers Jesuits, priests, and popish missionaries have, +of late, come, and for some time have had this province, and +others of his majesty's adjacent colonies, who, by their wicked +and subtle insinuations, industriously labored to debauch, +seduce, and withdraw the Indians from their due obedience to his +most sacred majesty, and to excite and stir them up to sedition, +rebellion, and open hostility against his majesty's priest, etc., +remaining in or coming into the province after November 1st, +1700, should be "deemed and accounted an incendiary and disturber +of the public peace and safety, and an enemy of the true +Christian religion, and shall be adjudged to suffer _perpetual +imprisonment_," that, in case of escape and capture, they +should suffer _death_, and that harborers of priests should +pay a fine of two hundred pounds, and stand three days in the +pillory. If it is alleged that the law of 1691 was the result of +high party excitement and public alarm, what excuse, it may be +asked, is to be alleged for the more illiberal and persecuting +law of 1700? It is but justice to James II., to point to the +"Charter of Liberties" of 1683, passed with his own approbation, +and at his suggestion, and then to the laws of 1691 and 1700, +passed under William and Mary, and remark that, though the +revolution gave the colonies William and Mary in the place of +James, it also gave penal and odious laws, and a deceptive "Bill +of Rights," in exchange for a "Charter of Liberties" that gave +what its title professed to confer. In Maryland, too, whose +Catholic founders proclaimed civil and religious liberty as the +basis of their commonwealth, the same scenes, on a more extended +scale, were at the same time being enacted; the persecutors in +New York were in intimate correspondence with their co-laborers +in Maryland and New England. + +In 1691, when Governor Dongan saw, from the passage of the "Bill +of Rights," that Catholics were excluded from the benefits of +government, and subjected to persecution, he returned to England. + +While he was governor of New York, in 1685, his brother William, +who had, in 1661, been created Baron Dongan and Viscount Claine +in the Irish peerage, was advanced to the earldom of Limerick, +with remainder, on the failure of direct issue, to Colonel Thomas +Dongan. On the breaking out of the revolution and the flight of +James II., William, Earl of Limerick, adhered to that monarch, +and followed him into France; whereupon his estates were +forfeited, and granted to the Earl of Athlone, an adherent of +William. +{782} +This grant was confirmed by an act of the Irish parliament, but +with a clause saving the right of Colonel Thomas Dongan. Colonel +Dongan, on his return to England, made every effort to recover +some portion of his brother's estates. His brother, the Earl of +Limerick, died at St. Germain in 1698, whereupon Colonel Dongan +was introduced to William III. as successor of the late Earl of +Limerick, and the new earl did homage to the king for his +earldom, and, according to the feudal custom, kissed the king's +hand on succeeding to the rank. He was allowed by the government, +about the same time, £2500, in tallies, in part payment for +advances made by him for public purposes while governor of New +York. His persevering efforts to recover the estates of his +deceased brother so far finally succeeded as to induce the +passage of an act of parliament for his relief, on the 25th of +May, 1702. He subsequently offered himself for service in the +American colonies, but it does not appear that he was ever in the +service of the crown after his return to England. He died in +London, on the 14th day of December, 1715, and was interred in +the church-yard of St. Pancras, Middlesex. The inscription on his +tombstone reads as follows: + + "The Right Honble Thomas Dongan, + Earl of Limerick. + Died December 14th, + aged eighty-one years, + 1715. + Requiescat in Pace. Amen." + +In addition to the encomiums passed upon him both by Catholic and +Protestant historians, the following, from De Courcy and Shea's +_Catholic Church in the United States_, is here inserted: + + "This able governor was not long enough in office to realize + all his plans for the good of the colony, where he had + expended, for the public good, most of his private fortune. In + this, as in many other points, the Catholic Governor Dongan + forms a striking contrast with the mass of colonial rulers, who + sought their own profit at the expense of the countries + submitted to them. To Dongan, too, New York is indebted for the + convocation of the first legislative assembly, the colony + having been, till then, ruled and governed at the good pleasure + of the governor; and this readiness to admit the people to a + share in the government is a fact which the enemies of James + II. should not conceal in their estimate of that Catholic + monarch." + +Mr. Moore gives us the following particulars in his note, cited +among the authorities to this article: + + "This nobleman died without issue. His estates in America were + settled chiefly on three nephews, John, Thomas, and Walter + Dongan. Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Vaughan Dongan, of the third + battalion of New Jersey Volunteers, who died of wounds received + in an attack on the British posts on Staten Island, in August, + 1777, was son of the last-mentioned gentleman. John Charlton + Dongan, another collateral relative of the Earl of Limerick, + represented Richmond County in the New York Assembly, from 1786 + to 1789. Representatives of this ancient family are still to be + found in New York." + + [NOTE.--The above article is condensed from a forthcoming work + of Mr. R. H. Clarke, to be entitled, _Lives of Eminent + Catholics of the United States_.] + +---------- + +{783} + + Beethoven. + + His Warning. + + +Years passed on, and Beethoven continued to reside at Vienna with +his two brothers, who had followed him thither, and took the +charge of his domestic establishment, so as to leave him entirely +at leisure for composition. His reputation had advanced gradually +but surely, and he now stood high, if not highest, among living +masters. The prediction was beginning to be accomplished. + + + +It was a mild evening in the latter part of September, and a +large company was assembled at the charming villa of the Baron +Raimond von Wetzlar, situated near Schönbrunn. They had been +invited to be present at a musical contest between the celebrated +Wolff and Beethoven. The part of Wolff was espoused with great +enthusiasm by the baron; that of Beethoven by the Prince de +Lichnowsky, and, as in all such matters, partisans swarmed on +either side. The popular talk among the music-loving Viennese +was, everywhere, discussion of the merits of the rival candidates +for fame. + +Beethoven was walking in one of the avenues of the illuminated +garden, accompanied by his pupil, Ferdinand Ries. The melancholy +that marked the composer's temperament seemed, more than ever, to +have the ascendency over him. + +"I confess to you, Ferdinand," said he, apparently in +continuation of some previous conversation, "I regret my +engagement with Sonnleithner." + +"And yet you have written the opera?" + +"I have completed it, but not to my own satisfaction. And I shall +object to its being produced first at Vienna." + +"Why so? The Viennese are your friends." + +"For that very reason I will not appeal to their judgment; I want +an impartial one. I distrust my genius for the opera." + +"How can that be possible?" + +"It is my intimacy with Salieri that has inclined me that way; +nature did not suggest it; I can never feel at home there. +Ferdinand, I am self-upbraided, and should be, were the applause +of a thousand spectators sounding in my ears." + +"Nay," said the student, "the artist assumes too much who judges +himself." + +"But I have not judged myself." + +"Who, then, has dared to insinuate a doubt of your success?" + +Beethoven hesitated; his impressions, his convictions, would seem +superstition to his companion, and he was not prepared to +encounter either raillery or ridicule. Just then the host, with a +party of the guests, met them, exclaiming that they had been +everywhere sought; that the company was all assembled in the +saloon, and every thing ready for the exhibition. + +"You are bent on making a gladiator of me, dear baron," cried the +composer, "in order that I may be mangled and torn to pieces, for +the popular amusement, by your favorite Wolff." + +{784} + +"Heaven forbid I should prejudge either combatant!" cried Von +Wetzlar. "The lists are open; the prize is not to be awarded by +me." + +"But your good wishes--your hopes--" + +"Oh! as to that, I must frankly own I prefer the good old school +to your new-fangled conceits and innovations. But come--the +audience waits." + +Each in turn, the two rivals played a piece composed by himself, +accompanied by select performers. Then each improvised a short +piece. The delight of the spectators was called forth in +different ways. In the production of Wolff a sustained elevation, +clearness, and brilliancy recalled the glories of Mozart's +school, and moved the audience to repeated bursts of admiration. +In that of Beethoven there was a startling boldness, an impetuous +rush of emotions, a frequency of abrupt contrasts--and withal a +certain wildness and mystery--that irresistibly enthralled the +feelings, while it outraged, at the same time, their sense of +musical propriety. There was little applause, but the deep +silence, prolonged even after the notes had ceased, told how +intensely all had been interested. + +The victory remained undecided. There was a clamor of eager +voices among the spectators; but no one could collect the +suffrages, nor determine which was the successful champion in the +contest. The Prince Lichnowsky, however, stood up, and boldly +claimed it for his favorite. + +"Nay," interrupted Beethoven, advancing, "my dear prince, there +has been no contest." He offered his hand to his opponent. "We +may still esteem each other, Wolff; we are not rivals. Our style +is essentially different; I yield to you the palm of excellence +in the qualities that distinguish you." + +"You are right, my friend," cried Wolff; "henceforth let there be +no more talk of championship between us. I will hold him for my +enemy who ventures to compare me with you--you so superior in the +path you have chosen. It is a higher path than mine--an original +one; I follow contentedly in the course marked out by others." + +"But our paths lead to the same goal," replied Beethoven. "We +will speed each other with good wishes; and embrace cordially +when we meet _there_ at last." + +There was an unusual solemnity in the composer's last words, and +it put an end to the discussion. All responded warmly to his +sentiment. But amidst the general murmur of approbation, one +voice was heard that seemed strangely to startle Beethoven. His +face grew pale, then flushed deeply; and the next moment he +pressed his way hastily through the crowd, and seized by the arm +a retreating figure. + +"You shall see me in Vienna," whispered the stranger in his ear. + +"Yet a word with you. You shall not escape me thus." + +"_Auf wiedersehen!_" And shaking off the grasp, the stranger +disappeared. + +No one had observed his entrance; the host knew him not, and +though most of the company remarked the composer's singular +emotion, none could inform him whither the unbidden guest had +gone. Beethoven remained abstracted during the rest of the +evening. + +{785} + +The opera of _Leonore_ was represented at Prague; it met +with but indifferent success. At Vienna, however, it commanded +unbounded applause. Several alterations had been made in it; the +composer had written a new overture, and the _finale_ of the +first act; he had suppressed a duo and trio of some importance, +and made other improvements and retrenchments. Not small was his +triumph at the favorable decision of the Viennese public. A new +turn seemed to be given to his mind; he revolved thoughts of +future conquests over the same portion of the realm of art; he no +longer questioned his own spirit. It was a crisis in the artist's +life, and might have resulted in his choice of a different career +from that in which he has won undying fame. + +Beethoven sat alone in his study; there was a light knock at the +door. He replied with a careless "come in," without looking up +from his work. He was engaged in revising the last scenes of his +opera. + +The visitor walked to the table and stood there a few minutes +unobserved. Probably the artist mistook him for one of his +brothers; but, on looking up, he started with indescribable +surprise. The unknown friend of his youth stood beside him. + +"So you have kept your word," said the composer, when he had +recovered from his first astonishment; "and now, I pray you, sit +down, and tell me with whom I have the honor of having formed +acquaintance in so remarkable a manner." + +"My name is of no importance, as it may or may not prove known to +you," replied the stranger. "I am your good genius, if my counsel +does you good; if not, I would prefer to take an obscure place +among your disappointed friends." + +There was a tone of grave rebuke in what his visitor said that +perplexed and annoyed the artist. It struck him that there was +affectation in this assumption of mystery, and he observed +coldly, + +"I shall not attempt, of course, to deprive you of your +_incognito_; but if you assume it for the sake of effect, I +would merely give you to understand that I am not prone to listen +to anonymous advice." + +"Oh! that you would listen," said the stranger, sorrowfully +shaking his head, "to the pleadings of your better nature!" + +"What do you mean?" demanded Beethoven, starting up. + +"Ask your own heart. If that acquit you, I have nothing to say. I +leave you, then, to the glories of your new career; to the +popular applause--to your triumphs--to your remorse." + +The composer was silent a few moments, and appeared agitated. At +last he said, "I know not your reasons for this mystery; but +whatever they may be, I will honor them. I entreat you to speak +frankly. You do not approve my present undertaking?" + +"Frankly, I do not. Your genius lies not this way," and he raised +some of the leaves of the opera music. + +"How know you that?" asked the artist, a little mortified. "You, +perhaps, despise the opera?" + +"I do not. I love it; I honor it; I honor the noble creations of +those great masters who have excelled in it. But you, my friend, +are beckoned to a higher and holier path." + +"How know you that?" repeated Beethoven, and this time his voice +faltered. + +"Because I know you; because I know the aspirations of your +genius; because I know the misgivings that pursue you in the +midst of success; the self-reproach that you suffer to be stifled +in the clamor of popular praise. Even now, in the midst of your +triumph, you are haunted by the consciousness that you are not +fulfilling the true mission of the artist." + +His piercing words were winged with truth itself. Beethoven +buried his face in his hands. + +{786} + +"Woe to you," cried the unknown, "if you suppress, till they are +wholly dead, your once earnest longings after the pure and the +good! Woe to you, if, charmed by the syren song of vanity, you +close your ears against the cry of a despairing world! Woe to +you, if you resign unfulfilled the trust God committed to your +hands, to sustain the weak and faltering soul, to give it +strength to bear the ills of life, strength to battle against +evil, to face the last enemy!" + +"You are right--you are right!" exclaimed Beethoven, clasping his +hands. + +"I once predicted your elevation, your world-wide fame," +continued the stranger; "for I saw you sunk in despondency, and +knew that your spirit must be aroused to bear up against trial. +You now stand on the verge of a more dreadful abyss. You are in +danger of making the gratification of your own pride, instead of +the fulfilment of Heaven's will, the aim--the goal of your life's +efforts." + +"Oh! never," cried the artist, with you to guide me." + +"We shall meet no more. I watched over you in boyhood; I have now +come forth from retirement to give you my last warning; +henceforth I shall observe your course in silence. And I shall +not go unrewarded. I know too well the noble spirit that burns in +your breast. You will--yes, you will fulfil your mission; your +glory from this time shall rest on a basis of immortality. You +shall be hailed the benefactor of humanity; and the spiritual joy +you prepare for others shall return to you in full measure, +pressed down and running over!" + +The artist's kindling features showed that he responded to the +enthusiasm of his visitor; but he answered not. + +"And now, farewell. But remember, before you can accomplish this +lofty mission, you must be baptized with a baptism of fire. The +tones that are to agitate and stir up to revolution the powers of +the human soul come not forth from an unruffled breast, but from +the depths of a sorely wrung and tried spirit. You must steal the +triple flame from heaven, and it will first consume the peace of +your own being. Remember this--and droop not when the hour of +trial comes! Farewell!" + +The stranger crossed his hands over Beethoven's head, as if +mentally invoking a blessing--folded him in his embrace, and +departed. The artist made no effort to follow him. Deep and +bitter were the thoughts that moved within him; and he remained +leaning his head on the table, in silent revery, or walking the +room with rapid and irregular steps, for many hours. At length +the struggle was over; pale but composed, he took up the sheets +of his opera and threw them carelessly into his desk. His next +work, _Christ in the Mount of Olives_, attested the high and +firm resolve of his mind, sustained by its self-reliance, and +independent of popular applause or disapprobation. His great +symphonies, which carried the fame of the composer to its highest +point, displayed the same triumph of religious principle. + + + The Last Hours Of Beethoven. + +Once more we find Beethoven, in the extreme decline of life. In +one of the most obscure and narrow streets of Vienna, on the +third floor of a gloomy-looking house, was now the abode of the +gifted artist. For many weary and wasting years he had been the +prey of a cruel malady, that defied the power of medicine for its +cure, and had reduced him to a state of utter helplessness. +{787} +His ears had long been closed to the music that owed its birth to +his genius; it was long since he had heard the sound of a human +voice. In the melancholy solitude to which he now condemned +himself, he received visits from but few of his friends, and +those at rare intervals. Society seemed a burden to him. Yet he +persisted in his labors, and continued to compose, +notwithstanding his deafness, those undying works which commanded +for him the homage of Europe. + +Proofs of this feeling, and of the unforgotten affection of those +who knew his worth, reached him in his retreat from time to time. +Now it was a medal struck at Paris, and bearing his features; now +it was a new piano, the gift of some amateurs in London; at +another time, some honorary title decreed him by the authorities +of Vienna, or a diploma of membership of some distinguished +musical society. All these moved him not, for he had quite +outlived his taste for the honors of man's bestowing. What could +they--what could even the certainty that he had now immortal +fame--do to soften the anguish of his malady, from which he +looked alone to death as a relief? + +"They wrong me who call me stern or misanthropic," said he to his +brother, who came in March, 1827, to pay him a visit. "God +knoweth how I love my fellow-men! Has not my life been theirs? +Have I not struggled with temptation, trial, and suffering from +my boyhood till now, for their sakes? And now if I no longer +mingle among them, is it not because my cruel infirmity unfits me +for their companionship? When my fearful doom of separation from +the rest of the human race is forced on my heart, do I not writhe +with terrible agony, and wish that my end were come? And why, +brother, have I lived, to drag out so wretched an existence? Why +have I not succumbed ere now? + +"I will tell you, brother. A soft and gentle hand--it was that of +art--held me back from the abyss. I could not quit the world +before I had produced all--_had done all that I was appointed +to do_. Has not such been the teaching of our holy church? I +have learned through her precepts that patience is the handmaid +of truth; I will go with her even to the footstool of the +eternal." + +The servant of the house entered and gave Beethoven a large +sealed package directed to himself. He opened it; it contained a +magnificent collection of the works of Handel, with a few lines +stating that it was a dying bequest to the composer from the +Count de N----. He it was who had been the unknown counsellor of +Beethoven's youth and manhood; and the arrival of this posthumous +present seemed to assure the artist that his own close of life +was crowned with the approval of his friend. It was as if a +_seal_ had been set on that approbation, and the friendship +of two noble spirits. It seemed like the dismissal of Beethoven +from further toil. + +The old man stooped his face over the papers; tears fell upon +them, and he breathed a silent prayer. After a few moments he +arose, and said, somewhat wildly, "We have not walked to-day, +Carl. Let us go forth. This confined air suffocates me." + +The wind was howling violently without; the rain beat in gusts +against the windows; it was a bitter night. The brother wrote on +a slip of paper, and handed it to Beethoven. + +{788} + +"A storm? Well, I have walked in many a storm, and I like it +better than the biting melancholy that preys upon me here in my +solitary room. Oh! how I loved the storm once; my spirit danced +with joy when the winds blew fiercely, and the tall trees rocked, +and the sea lashed itself into a fury. It was all music to me. +Alas! there is no music now so loud that I can hear it. + +"Do you remember the last time I led the orchestra at Von ----'s? +Ah! you were not there; but I heard--yes, by leaning my breast +against the instrument. When some one asked me how I heard, I +replied, '_J'etntends avec mes entraillies._'" + +Disturbed by his nervous restlessness, the aged composer went to +the window, and opened it with trembling hands. The wind blew +aside his white locks, and cooled his feverish forehead. + +"I have one fear," he said, turning to his brother and slightly +shuddering, "that haunts me at times--the fear of poverty. Look +at this meanly furnished room, that single lamp, my meagre fare; +and yet all these cost money, and my little wealth is daily +consumed. Think of the misery of an old man, helpless and deaf, +without the means of subsistence!" + +"Have you not your pension secure?" + +"It depends upon the bounty of those who bestowed it; and the +favor of princes is capricious. Then again, it was given on +condition I remained in the territory of Austria, at the time the +king of Westphalia offered me the place of chapel-master at +Cassel. Alas! I cannot beat the restriction. I must travel, +brother--I must leave this city." + +"You-leave Vienna?" exclaimed his brother in utter amazement, +looking at the feeble old man whose limbs could scarcely bear him +from one street to another. Then, recollecting himself, he wrote +down his question. + +"Why? Because I am restless and unhappy. I have no peace, Carl! +Is it not the chafing of the unchained spirit that pants to be +free, and to wander through God's limitless universe? Alas! she +is built up in a wall of clay, and not a sound can penetrate her +gloomy dungeon." + +Overcome by his feelings, the old man bowed his head on his +brother's shoulder, and wept bitterly. Carl saw that the delirium +that sometimes accompanied his paroxysms of illness had clouded +his faculties. + +The malady increased. The sufferer's eyes were glazed; he grasped +his brother's hand with a tremulous pressure. + +"Carl! Carl! I pardon you the evil you did me in childhood. Pray +for me, brother!" cried the failing voice of the artist. + +His brother supported him to the sofa and called for assistance. +In an hour or two, his friend and spiritual adviser, summoned in +haste, had administered the last rites of the church, and +neighbors and friends had gathered around the dying man. He +seemed gradually sinking into insensibility. + +Suddenly he revived; a bright smile illumined his whole face; his +sunken eyes sparkled. + +"I shall _hear_ in heaven!" he murmured softly, and then +sang in a low but distinct voice the lines from a hymn of his +own: + + "Brüder! über'm Sternenzelt, + Muss ein lieber _Vater_ wohnen." + +In the last faint tone of +the music his gentle spirit passed away. + +Thus died Beethoven, a true artist, a good and generous man, a +devout Catholic. Simple, frank, loyal to his principles, his life +was spent in working out what he conceived his duty; and though +his task was wrought in privation, in solitude, and distress, +though happiness was not his lot in this world, doth there not +remain for him an eternal reward? + +{789} + +The Viennese gave him a magnificent funeral. More than thirty +thousand persons attended. The first musicians of the city +executed the celebrated funeral march composed by him, and placed +in his heroic symphony; the most famous poets and artists were +pall-bearers, or carried torches; Hummel, who had come from +Weimar expressly to see him, placed a laurel crown upon his tomb. +Prague, Berlin, and all the principal cities of Germany, paid +honors to his memory, and solemnized with pomp the anniversary of +his death. Such was the distinction heaped on the dust of him +whose life had been one of suffering, and whose last years had +been solitary, because he felt that his infirmities excluded him +from human brotherhood. + +---------- + + The Assumption Of Our Lady. + + + If sin be captive, grace must find release; + From curse of sin the innocent is free. + Tomb prison is for sinners that decease; + No tomb but throne to guiltless doth agree. + Though thralls of sin lie lingering in the grave, + Yet faultless corse with soul reward must have. + + The dazzled eye doth dimmèd light require, + And dying sights repose in shrouding shades; + But eagles' eyes to brightest light aspire, + And living looks delight in lofty glades. + Faint-wingèd fowl by ground do faintly fly: + Our princely eagle mounts unto the sky. + + Gem to her worth, spouse to her love ascends; + Prince to her throne, queen to her heavenly king; + Whose court with solemn pomp on her attends, + And choirs of saints with greeting notes do sing. + Earth rendereth up her undeservèd prey: + Heaven claims the right, and bears the prize away. + + Southwell. + +---------- + +{790} + + The Conversion of Rome. + [Footnote 196] + + [Footnote 196: + 1. History of European Morals, from Augustus to Charlemagne. + By W. E. H. Lecky. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1869. 2 + vols. 8vo. + 2. History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of + Rationalism in Europe. By the same. From the London edition. + New York: Appleton & Co., 1868. 2 vols. 8vo.] + + +Two irreconcilable systems of morals have disputed the empire of +the earliest times. The one is founded on the fact that God +creates man; the other on the assumption that man is himself God, +or, at least, a god unto himself. The first system finds its +principle in the fact stated in the first verse of Genesis, "In +the beginning God created heaven and earth;" the second finds its +principle in the assurance of Satan to Eve, "Ye shall be as gods, +knowing good and evil." The first system is that of the Biblical +patriarchs, the synagogue, the Christian church, and all sound +philosophy as well as of common sense--is the theological system, +which places man in entire dependence on God as principle, +medium, and end, and asserts as its basis in us, HUMILITY, +"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of +heaven." The other system is the gentile or pagan system, or that +which prevailed with the Gentiles after their falling away from +the patriarchal religion. It assumed, in its practical +developments, two forms, the supremacy of the state and the +supremacy of the individual; but in both was asserted the +supremacy of man--or man as his own lawgiver, teacher, and +master, his own beginning, middle, and end, and therefore, either +individually or collectively, man's sufficiency for himself. Its +principle or basis, then, is PRIDE. + +Mr. Lecky adopts, as we have shown in our former article, the +pagan, or, more properly, the satanic system of morals, at least +as to its principle, though in some few particulars he gives the +superiority to Christian morals, particulars in which Christians +advanced further than had advanced the best pagan school before +the conversion of Rome, but in the same direction, on the same +principle, and from the same starting-point. He nowhere accepts +the Christian or theological principle, and rejects everywhere, +with scorn, Christian asceticism, which, according to him, is +based on a false principle--that of appeasing the anger of a +malevolent God. He accepts Christianity only so far as reducible +to the pagan principle. + +The only points in which Christian morals--for Christian dogmas, +in his view, have no relation to morals, and are not to be +counted--are a progress on pagan morals, are the assertion of the +brotherhood of the race and the recognition of the emotional side +of human nature. But even these two points, as he understands +them, are not peculiar to Christianity. He shows that some of the +later Stoics, at least, asserted the brotherhood of the race, or +that nothing human is foreign to any one who is a man--that all +good offices are due to all men; and whoever has studied Plato at +all, knows that Platonism attached at least as much importance, +and gave as large a scope to our emotional nature, as does +Christianity. Christian morals have, then, really nothing +peculiar, and are, in principle, no advance on paganism. The most +that can be said is that Christianity gave to the brotherhood of +the race more prominence than did paganism, and transformed the +Platonic love, which was the love of the beautiful, into the love +of humanity. +{791} +This being all, we may well ask, How was it that Christianity was +able to gain the victory over the pagan philosophers, and to +convert the city of Rome and the Roman empire? + +Mr. Lecky adopts the modern doctrine of progress, and he +endeavors to prove from the historical analysis of the several +pagan schools of moral philosophy, that the pagan world was +gradually approaching the Christian ideal, and that when +Christianity appeared at Rome it had all but attained it, so that +the change was but slight, and, there being a favorable +conjuncture of external circumstances, the change was easily +effected. The philosophers of the empire had advanced from +primitive fetichism to a pure and sublime monotheism; the +mingling of men of all nations and all religions in Rome, +consequent on the extension of the empire over the whole +civilized world, had liberalized the views, weakened the narrow +exclusiveness of former times, and gone far towards the +obliteration of the distinction of nations, castes, and classes, +and thus had, in a measure, prepared the world for the reception +of a universal religion, based on the doctrine of the fraternity +of the race and love of humanity. + +All this would be very well, if it were true; but it happens to +be mainly false. The fact, as well as the idea of progress, in +the moral order, is wholly foreign to the pagan world. No pagan +nation ever exhibits the least sign of progress in the moral +order, either under the relation of doctrine or that of practice. +The history of every pagan people is the history of an almost +continuous moral deterioration. The purest and best period, under +a moral point of view, in the history of the Roman republic, was +its earliest, and nothing can exceed the corruption of its morals +and manners at its close. We may make the same remark of every +non-Catholic nation in modern times. There is a far lower +standard of morals reached or aimed at in Protestant nations +to-day than was common at the epoch of the Reformation; and the +moral corruption of our own country has increased in a greater +ratio than have our wealth and numbers. We are hardly the same +people that we were even thirty years ago; and the worst of it +is, that the pagan system, whether under the ancient Greco-Roman +form or under the modern Protestant form, has no recuperative +energy, and the nation abandoned to it has no power of +self-renovation. Pagan nations may advance, and no doubt, at +times, have advanced, in the industrial order, in the mechanic +arts, and in the fine arts, but in the moral, intellectual, and +spiritual order, never. + +Mr. Lecky confines his history almost entirely to the moral +doctrines of the philosophers; but even in these he shows no +moral melioration in the later from the earlier, no progress +towards Christian morals. In relation to specific duties of man +to man, and of the citizen to the state, the Christian has, +indeed, little fault to find with the _De Officiis_ of +Cicero; but we find even in him no approach to the Christian +basis of morals. The Greeks never have any conception of either +law or good, in the Christian sense. The [Greek text] was only a +rule or principle of harmony; it had its reason in the [Greek +text], or the beautiful, and could not bind the conscience. The +Latins placed the end, or the reason and motive of the moral law, +in the _honestum_, the proper, the decent, or decorous. The +highest moral act was _virtus_, manliness, and consisted in +bravery or courage. +{792} +The rule was, to be manly; the motive, self-respect. One must not +be mean or cowardly, because it was unmanly, and would destroy +one's self-respect. We have here pride, not humility; not the +slightest approach to the Christian principle of morals, either +to the rule or the motive of virtue as understood by the +Christian church. + +Yet Mr. Lecky tells us the moral doctrines of the philosophers +were much superior to the practice of the people. He admits the +people were far below the philosophers, and were very corrupt; +but we see no evidence that he has any adequate conception of how +corrupt they were. What the people were we can learn from the +satirists, from the historians, Livy, Sallust, and Tacitus, +especially from the _De Civitate Dei_ of St. Augustine, and +the writings of the early Greek and Latin fathers. Our author +acknowledges not only that the philosophers were superior to the +people, but also that they were impotent to effect their moral +elevation or any moral amelioration of their condition. Nothing +more true. How, then, if Christianity was based on the pagan +principle of morals, was in the same order with paganism, and +differed from it only in certain details, or, as the schoolmen +say, certain accidents--how explain the amelioration of morals +and manners which uniformly followed whenever and wherever it was +received? + +If, as the author holds, Christianity was really only a +development of the more advanced thought of the pagan empire, why +did it not begin with the philosophers, the representatives of +that advanced thought? Yet nothing is more certain than that it +did not begin with them. The philosophers were the first to +resist it, and the last to hold out against it. It spread at +first among the people, chiefly among the slaves--that is, among +those who knew the least of philosophy, who were least under the +influence of the philosophers, and whose morals it is confessed +the philosophers did not and could not elevate. This of itself +refutes the pretence that Christianity was an offshoot of heathen +philosophy. If it had been, and its power lay in the fact that +the empire in its progress was prepared for it, its first +converts should have been from the ranks of the more advanced +classes. But the reverse was the fact. "You see your calling, +brethren," says St. Paul to the Corinthians, "that not many are +wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but +the foolish things of the world hath God chosen, that he may +confound the wise; and the weak things of the world hath God +chosen, that he may confound the strong; and the mean things of +the world, and the things that are contemptible, hath God chosen, +and things that are not, that he might destroy the things that +are; that no flesh should glory in his sight." [Footnote 197] So +said the great teacher of the Gentiles, as if anticipating the +objection of modern rationalists. Evidently, then, the pretended +preparation of the Roman empire for Christianity must count for +nothing, for Christianity gained its first establishments among +those whom that preparation, even if it had been made, had not +reached. + + [Footnote 197: Cor. i. 26.] + +We cannot follow step by step the author in the special chapter +which he devotes to the conversion of Rome, and the triumph of +Christianity in the empire. We have already indicated the grounds +on which he explains the marvellous fact. +{793} +He denies all agency of miracles, will recognize no supernatural +aid, and aims to explain it on natural principles or by natural +causes alone. Thus far he has certainly failed; but let us try +him on his own ground. We grant that the breaking down of the +hundred nationalities and fusing so many distinct tribes and +races into one people, under one supreme political authority, did +in some sense prepare the way for the introduction of a universal +religion. But it must be remembered that the fusion was not +complete, and that the work of amalgamating and Romanizing the +several nations placed by conquest under the authority of Rome +was only commenced, when Christianity was first preached in the +capital of the empire. Each conquered nation retained as yet its +own distinctive religion, and to a great extent its own +distinctive civilization. Gaul, Spain, and the East were Roman +provinces, but not thoroughly Romanized, and it was not till +after Christianity had gained a footing in the empire that +provincials out of Italy were admitted to the rights and +privileges of Roman citizenship. The law recognized the religion +of the state, but it tolerated for every conquered nation its own +national religion. There was as yet nothing in the political, +social, or religious order of the empire to suggest a universal +religion, or that opened the way for the introduction of a +catholic as distinguished from a national religion. All the +religions recognized and tolerated were national religions. +Christianity was always catholic, for all nations, not for any +particular nation alone. If, then, at a subsequent period, the +boasted universality of the empire favored the diffusion of +Christianity, it did not favor its introduction in the beginning. +In all other respects there was, as we read history, no +evangelical preparation in Rome or the Roman empire. The +progress, if progress it may be called, of the Gentiles, had been +away from the primitive religion reasserted by Christianity, and +in a direction from, not towards, the great doctrines and +principles of the Gospel. What of primitive tradition they had +retained had become so corrupted, perverted, or travestied as to +be hardly recognizable. They had changed, even with the +philosophers, the true basis of morals, and the corrupt morals of +the people were only the practical development of the principles +adopted by even the best of the Gentile philosophers, as +rationalism is only the development of principles adopted by the +reformers, who detested it, and asserted exclusive +supernaturalism. Even the monotheism of some pagan philosophers +was not the Christian doctrine of one God, any more than simple +theism--the softened name for deism--or even theophilanthropy is +Christianity. The Christian God is not only one, but he is the +creator of the world, of all things visible and invisible, the +moral governor of the universe, and the remunerator of all who +seek him. The God of Plato, or of any of the other philosophers, +is no creative God, and the immortality of the soul that Plato +and his master Socrates defended had hardly any analogy with the +life and immortality brought to light through the Gospel. The +Stoics, whom the author places in the front rank of pagan +moralists, did not regard God as the creator of the world, and +those among them who held that the soul survives the body, +believed not in the resurrection of the flesh, nor in future +rewards and punishments. Their motive to virtue was their own +self-respect, and their study was to prove themselves independent +of the flesh and its seductions, indifferent to pleasure or pain, +serene and unalterable, through self-discipline, whatever the +vicissitudes of life. +{794} +The philosophers adopted the morality of pride, and aimed to live +and act not as men dependent on their Creator, but as independent +gods, while the people were sunk in the grossest ignorance and +moral corruption, and subject to the most base and abominable +superstitions. Such was the pagan empire when Christianity was +first preached at Rome, only much worse than we venture to depict +it. + +Now, to this Roman world, rotten to the core, the Christian +preachers proclaimed a religion which arraigned its corruption, +which contradicted its cherished ideas on every point, and +substituted meekness for cruelty, and humility for pride, as the +principle of morals. They had against them all the old +superstitions and national religions of the empire, the religion +of the state, associated with all its victories, supported by the +whole power of the government, and by the habits, usages, +traditions, and the whole political, military, social, and +religious life of the Roman people. They could not move without +stepping on something held sacred, or open their mouths without +offending some god or some religious usage; for the national +religion was interwoven with the simplest and most ordinary +usages of private and social life. If a pagan sneezed, no +Christian could be civil enough to say, "Jupiter help you," for +that would recognize a false god. Yet the Christian missionaries +did succeed in converting Rome and making it the capital of the +Christian world, as it was, when they entered it, the capital of +the heathen world. You tell me this mighty change was effected, +circumstances favoring, by natural and human means! _Credat +Judaeus Appelles, non ego_. + +The cause of the success, after the preparation named, which +turns out to have been no preparation at all, were, according to +the author, principally the zeal, the enthusiasm, and the +intolerance or exclusiveness of the Christians, the doctrines of +the brotherhood of the race and of a future life, and their +appeals to the emotional side of human nature. He does not think +the conversion of Rome any thing remarkable. The philosophers had +failed to regenerate society in the moral order, the old +religions had lost their hold on men's convictions, the old +superstitions were losing their terrors, and men felt and sighed +for something better than any thing they had. In fact, minds were +unsettled, and were ready for something new. This description, +not very applicable to Rome at the period in question, is not +inapplicable to the Protestant world at the present time. +Protestants are no longer satisfied with the results, either +dogmatic or moral, of the Reformation, and the thinking portion +of them wish for something better than any thing they have; yet +not, therefore, can we conclude that they can easily, or by any +purely human means, be converted to the Catholic Church; for they +have--with individual exceptions, indeed--not lost their +confidence in the underlying principle of the Reformation, or +opened their minds or hearts to the acknowledgment of the +principle, either of Catholic dogma or of Catholic morals. It is +not so much that they do not know or misconceive that principle, +but they have a deep-rooted repugnance to it, detest it, abhor +it, and cannot even hear it named with patience. So was it with +the pagan Romans. The whole pagan world was based on a principle +which the Christian preacher could not speak without +contradicting. +{795} +The Christian ideal was not only above, but antagonistic to the +pagan ideal, and, consequently, the more zealous the Christian +missionary, the more offensive he would prove himself. His +intolerance or exclusiveness might help him whose faith was +strong, yet little heeded in practice; but when faith itself was +not only wanting but indignantly rejected, it could only excite +anger or derision. + +The apostle had no _point d'appui_ in the pagan traditions, +and it was only rarely that he could find any thing in heathen +authors, poets, or philosophers that he could press into his +service. The pagan, no doubt, had natural reason, but it was so +darkened by spiritual ignorance, so warped by superstition, and +so abnormally developed by false principles, that it was almost +impossible to find in it anything on which an argument for the +truth could be based. The Gospel was not in the pagan order of +thought, and the Christian apologists had to support it by +appealing to a line of tradition which the Gentiles had not, or +had only as corrupted, perverted, or travestied. The only +traditions they could appeal to were those of the Hebrews, and +they found it necessary, in some sort, to convert the pagans to +Judaism, before they could convince them of the truth of the +Gospel. This was any thing but easy to be done; for the Gentiles +despised the Jews and their traditions, and the Jews themselves +were the most bitter enemies of the Christians, had crucified the +founder of Christianity, and rejected the Christian +interpretation of their Scriptures. + +The doctrine of the brotherhood of the race taught by the church +was something more than was taught by the philosophers, in fact, +another doctrine; and, though it had something consoling to the +poor, the oppressed, the enslaved, yet these are precisely the +classes with whom old traditions linger the longest, and +prejudices are the most inveterate and hardest to be overcome. +They are the classes the most opposed to innovations, in the +moral or spiritual order. The Protestant reformers proved this, +and the peasantry were the last to accept the new gospel they +preached, and rarely accepted it at all but through the influence +or compulsion of their princes and nobles. We see, also, now, in +Protestant countries, that, the peasantry having become +Protestant, are far more difficult to convert than persons by +birth or education belonging to the upper classes. Yet, it was +precisely among the lower classes, or rather the slave class, +that the Christian missionary had his greatest success; though +the emancipation and equality he preached were spiritual only, +not physical or social. + +The doctrine of future life the church taught was coupled with +two other doctrines hard for pagans to receive. The mere +continuance of the spirit after the death of the body was, in +some form, no doubt, held by the whole pagan world, a few +sceptics excepted; but the resurrection of the body, or that what +had once ceased to live would live again, was a thing wholly +foreign to the pagan mind. Plato never, to my recollection, once +hints it, and could not with his general principles. He held the +union of the soul with the body to be a fall, a degradation from +its previous state, the loss of its liberty; regarded the body as +the enemy of the soul, as its dungeon, and looked upon death as +its liberation, as a restoration to its original freedom and joy +in the bosom of the divinity. The pagans had, as far as I can +discover, no belief in future rewards and punishment in the +Christian sense. +{796} +They believed in malevolent gods, who, if they failed to appease +their wrath before dying, would torture them after death in +Tartarus; but the idea that a God of love would doom the wicked +to hell, as a punishment for their moral offences or sins, was as +hard for them to believe as it is for Mr. Lecky himself. Yet +Christianity taught it, and brought the whole empire to believe +it. Christianity, while it delivered the pagans from the false +terrors of superstition, replaced them by what to the pagan mind +seemed even a still greater terror. + +In what the author says of appeals to the emotional side of our +nature, he shows that he has studied paganism with more care and +less prejudice than he has Christianity. The emotions, as such, +have for the Christian no moral or religious value. The love the +Gospel requires is not an emotional love, and Christian morals +have little to do with the moral sentiment which Adam Smith +asserted, or the benevolence which Hucheson held to be the +principle of morality. There is no approach to the Christian +principle in the fine-spun sentiment of Bernardine Saint-Pierre, +Madame de Staël, or Chateaubriand. Sentimentalism, in any form, +is wholly foreign to Christian morals and to Christian piety, and +neither has probably a worse or a more dangerous enemy than the +sentimentalism so rife in modern society, and which finds its way +even into the writings of some Catholics. The sentiment of +benevolence may be a _mobile_, but it is never the +_motive_ of Christian virtue. No doubt, one of the great +causes of the success of Christianity was the inexhaustible +charity of the early Christians, their love for one another, +their respect for and tenderness to the poor, the forsaken, the +oppressed, the afflicted, the suffering. But that charity had not +its origin in our emotional nature, and though it may be attended +by sentiment, is itself by no means a sentiment; for its reason +and motive was the love of God, especially of God who had assumed +our nature, and made himself man for man's sake, and died on the +cross for man's redemption. The Christian sees God in every +fellow-man who needs his assistance, or to whose wants he can +minister. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my +brethren, ye have done it unto me." The Christian finds his Lord, +the Beloved of his soul, wherever he finds one for whom Christ +died, to whom he can be of service. + +This charity, this love, may be mimicked by the sentiment of +benevolence, but it does not grow out of it, is not that +sentiment developed or intensified; it depends on the great +central mystery of Christianity, that of "the Word made flesh," +and can never be found where faith in the Incarnation is wanting, +and faith is, always and everywhere, an intellectual act, not a +sentimental affection. If it were a natural sentiment or emotion, +why was it to be found among Christians alone? The heathen had +all of nature that Christians have; they even recognized the +natural brotherhood of the race, as does the author; how happens +it, then, if Christianity is only a development of heathenism, +and Christian charity is only a natural sentiment, that you find +no trace of it in the pagan world? There is no effect without a +cause, and there must have been something operating with +Christians that was not to be found in paganism, and which is not +included even in nature. + +The pagans, like modern Protestants, worshipped success, and +regarded success as a mark of the approbation of the gods. +Misfortune, ill-luck, failure was a proof of the divine +displeasure. Cromwell and his Roundheads interpreted uniformly +their victories over the royalists as an indisputable proof of +the divine approval of their course. +{797} +It never occurred to them that the Almighty might be using them +to chastise the royalists for their abuse of his favors, or to +execute vengeance on a party that had offended him, and that, +when he had accomplished his purpose with them, he would break +them as a potter's vessel, and cast them away. The heathen looked +upon the poor, the needy, the enslaved, the infirm, the helpless, +and the suffering, as under the malediction of the gods, and +refused to offer them any aid or consolation. They left the poor +to struggle and starve. They did not do even so much for them as +to shut them up in prisons called poor-houses. They looked with +haughty contempt on the poor and needy, and if they sometimes +threw them a crust, it was from pride, not charity, without the +least kindly sympathies with them. As with modern non-Catholics, +poverty, with them, was regarded and treated as a misfortune or +as a crime. + +Yet the Christians looked upon the poor with love and respect. +Poverty, in their eyes, was no misfortune, no crime, but really a +blessing, as bringing them nearer to God, and giving to the +Christian more abundant in this world's goods an opportunity to +do good, and lay up treasures in heaven. The Christian counts +what he gives to the poor and needy as so much treasure saved, +and placed beyond the reach of thieves and robbers, or any of the +vicissitudes of fortune. Whence this difference between the pagan +and the Christian, we might say, between the Catholic and +non-Catholic? It cannot come from the simple recognition of the +natural brotherhood of the race, for the natural ties of race and +of kindred fail to call forth a love so strong, so enduring, so +self-forgetting as Christian charity. Indeed, Christian charity +is decidedly above the forces of nature. The brotherhood that +gives rise to it is not the brotherhood in Adam, but the closer +brotherhood in Christ; not in generation, but in regeneration. +Give, then, as large a part as you will to Christian charity, in +the conversion of Rome, you still have offered no proof that the +conversion was effected by natural causes, for that charity +itself is supernatural, and not in the order of natural causes. + +Mr. Lecky wholly fails to adduce any natural causes adequate to +the explanation of the conversion of Rome and the triumph of +Christianity over paganism. He cannot do it, for this one +sufficient reason, that paganism was impotent to reform itself, +and yet it had all the natural causes working for it that +Christianity had. The Christians had no more of nature than had +the pagans, while all the natural advantages, power, wealth, +institutions, human learning and science, the laws, habits, +customs, and usages of the entire nation, or aggregation of +nations, were against them. How, then, not only do by nature what +the same nature in paganism could not do, or by nature alone +triumph over nature clothed with so many advantages, and +presenting so many obstacles? Why should nature be stronger, and +so much stronger, in Christians than in Pagans, that a few +illiterate fishermen from the lake of Genesareth, belonging by +race to the despised nation of the Jews, could change not only +the belief, but the moral life of the whole Roman people? +Clearly, the Christians could not succeed without a power which +paganism had not, and therefore not without a power that nature +does not and cannot furnish. + +{798} + +The author denies the supernatural, and seeks to combat the +argument we use by showing that several eastern superstitions, +especially the worship of Isis, were introduced into Rome about +the same time with Christianity, and gained no little currency, +in spite of the imperial edicts against them. This is true, but +there was no radical difference between those eastern +superstitions and the state religion, and they demanded and +effected no change of morals or manners. They were all in the +order of the national religion, were based on the same principle, +only they were a little more sensual and corrupt. Their temporary +success required no other basis than Roman paganism itself +furnished. And the edicts against their mysteries and orgies were +seldom executed. It needs no supernatural principle to account +for the rapid rise and spread of Methodism in a Protestant +community, for it is itself only a form of Protestantism. But +Christianity was not, and is not, in any sense, a form or +development of paganism; in almost every particular, it is its +direct contradictory. It was based on a totally different +principle, and held entirely different maxims of life. A +worshipper of Bacchus or Isis could without difficulty conform to +the national or state religion, and comply with all its +requirements. The Christian could conform in nothing, and comply +with no pagan requirements. He could take no part in the national +festivities, the national games, amusements, or rejoicings, for +these were all dedicated to idols. There is no analogy in the +case. + +Mr. Lecky denies that the conversion of Rome was a miracle, and +that it was effected on the evidence of miracles. He admits that +miracles are possible, though he confounds miracles with +prodigies, and says there is five times more proof in the case of +many miracles than would be required to prove an ordinary +historical fact; but he rejects miracles, not for the want of +proof, nor because science has disproved them, but because the +more intelligent portion of mankind have gradually dropped them, +and ceased to believe in them, as they have dropped the belief in +fairies, dwarfs, etc. The enlightened portion of mankind, it must +be understood, are those who think like Mr. Lecky, and profess a +Christianity without Christ, moral obligation without God the +creator, and hold effects are producible without causes. We +confess that we are not of their number, and probably shall never +be an enlightened man in their sense. We believe in miracles, and +that miracles had not a little to do with the introduction and +establishment of Christianity. As the author admits them to be +possible, and that many are sustained by far greater proof than +is needed to prove ordinary historical events, we hope that it +will be allowed, that, in believing them, we are not necessarily +involved in total darkness. But we have no space, at present, to +enter upon the general question of miracles--a question that can +not be properly treated without treating the whole question of +the natural and the supernatural. + +The author tells us that the early Christians at Rome rarely +appealed, if at all, to miracles as proofs either of their +doctrines or their mission. Yet that they sometimes did would +seem pretty certain from the pains the pagans took to break the +force of the Christian miracles by ascribing them to magic, or by +setting up analogous or counter miracles of their own. Certain it +is, however, that they appealed to the supernatural, and adduced +not only the miracle of the resurrection of our Lord, which +entered into the very staple of their preaching, and was one of +the bases of their faith, but to that standing miracle of +prophecy, and of a supernatural providence--the Jewish, people. +{799} +The very religion they preached was supernatural, from beginning +to end, and they labored to prove the necessity of faith in +Christ, who was crucified, who rose from the dead, and is Lord of +heaven and earth. There is no particular miracle or prophecy +adduced to prove this that cannot, indeed, be cavilled at; but +the Hebrew traditions and the faith of the Jewish people could +not be set aside. Here was a whole nation whose entire life +through many thousand years had been based on a prophecy, a +promise of the Messiah. This prophecy, frequently renewed, and +borne witness to by the national organization, the religious +institutions, sacrifices, and offerings, and the entire national +and moral life through centuries, is a most stupendous miracle. +When you take this in connection with the traditions preserved in +the Hebrew Scriptures, which go back to the creation of the +world--developing one uniform system of thought, one uniform +doctrine, one uniform faith, free from all superstition; one +uniform plan of divine providence, and throwing a marvellous +light on the origin, duty, and end of man--you find a +supernatural fact which is irresistible, and sufficient of itself +to convince any unprejudiced mind that Christianity is the +fulfilment of the promises made to Adam after his expulsion from +the Garden, to the patriarchs, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and +to the Jewish people. + +We have no space here to develop this argument, but it is the +argument that had great weight with ourselves personally, and, by +the grace of God, was the chief argument that brought us to +believe in the truth of Christianity, and in the church as the +fulfilment of the synagogue. The apostles and early apologists +continually, in one form or another, appeal to this standing +miracle, this long-continued manifestation of the supernatural, +as the basis of their proof of Christianity. They adduced older +traditions than any the pagans could pretend to, and set forth a +faith that had continued from the first man, which had once been +the faith of all mankind, and from which the Gentiles had fallen +away, and been plunged, in consequence, into the darkness of +unbelief, and subjected to all the terrors of the vilest, most +corrupt, and abominable superstitions. They labored to show that +the Gentiles, in the pride of their hearts, had forsaken the God +that made them, creator of heaven and earth, and all things +therein, visible or invisible, for Satan, for demons, and for +gods made with their own hands, or fashioned by their own lusts +and evil imaginations. They pursued, indeed, the same line of +argument that Catholics pursue against Protestants, only modified +by the fact that the Protestant falling away, so clearly foretold +by St. Paul in his Epistles, is more recent, less complete, and +Protestants have not yet sunk so low as had the Gentiles of the +Roman empire. + +But it was not enough to establish the truth of Christianity in +the Roman mind. Christian morals are above the strength of nature +alone; yet the pagans were not only induced to give up their own +principle of morals, and to accept as true the Christian +principle, but they gave up their old practices, and yielded a +practical obedience to the Christian law. Those same Romans +changed their manner of life, and attained to the very summits of +Christian sanctity. The philosophers gave many noble precepts, +preserved from a purer tradition than their own, but they had no +power to get them practised, and our author himself says they had +no influence on the people; yet they enjoined nothing above the +forces of nature. +{800} +The Christians came, taught the people a morality impracticable +to nature even in its integrity, and yet what they taught was +actually practised even by women, children, and slaves. How was +this? It was not possible without supernatural aid, or the +infusion of grace which elevates the soul above the level of +nature, enabling it at once to act from a supernatural principle, +and from a supernatural motive. All who have attempted the +practise of Christian perfection by the strength of nature alone, +have sadly failed. Take the charitable institutions, societies +for relieving the poor, providing for the aged and infirm, +protecting the fatherless and widows, for restoring the fallen, +and reforming the vicious or criminal, established by +non-Catholics--they are all comparative, if not absolute +failures. Though modelled after institutions of the church, and +supported at lavish expense, none of them succeed. They lack some +essential element which is efficacious in Catholic institutions, +and that element is undoubtedly supernatural grace, for that is +all Catholics have that they have not in far greater abundance. +They have humanity, natural benevolence, learning, ability, and +ample wealth--why do they not succeed? Because they lack +supernatural charity, and the blessing of God that always +accompanies it. No other reasons can be assigned. + +Mr. Lecky thinks the persecutions by the state, which the early +Christians had to endure, or that the spread of Christianity in +spite of them, are not worth anything in the argument. In the +first place, he pretends that the persecutions were not very +severe, and were for the most part confined to particular +localities, and rarely became general in the empire; they were of +brief duration, and came only at distant intervals, and the +number of martyrs could not have been great. In the second place, +the persecutions rather helped the persecuted religion, as +persecution usually does. Rome, in reality, was tolerant, and +most of the pagan emperors were averse to harsh measures, and +connived at the growth of the new religion, which they regarded +as one of the innumerable superstitions hatched in the East, and +which must soon pass away. + +Rome tolerated for conquered nations their national religion, or +worship, but no religion except the state religion for Romans. +The national gods recognized by the senate, and whose images were +allowed to stand by the side of the Roman gods, might be +worshipped; but no Roman citizen was allowed to desert the state +religion, and nowhere in the empire was any religion tolerated +that was not the national worship of some people subject or +tributary to Rome. Now, Christianity was no national religion, +and was hostile to the state religion, and utterly irreconcilable +with it; for it there was no toleration; it was prohibited by the +laws of the empire as well as by the edicts of the emperors. The +Christians might at first be overlooked as too insignificant to +excite hostility, or they might have been regarded, since they +were chiefly Jews, as a Jewish sect; they might also, as they +were a quiet, peaceable people, obeying the laws when not +repugnant to the law of God, performing all their moral, social, +and civil duties, and never mingling in the affairs of state, +have been connived at for a time. But they had no legal +protection, and if complained of and brought before the +tribunals, and proved to be Christians, they had no alternative +but to conform to the national religion or suffer death, often in +the most excruciating forms; for the Romans were adepts in +cruelty, and took delight in watching the writhings and +sufferings of their victims. +{801} +Even Trajan, while he prohibited the search for them, ordered, if +accused and convicted of being Christians, that they should be +put to death. Such being the law, the prefect or governor of a +province could at any time, without any imperial edict, put the +law in force against the Christians, if so disposed; and that +they did so in all the provinces of the empire, frequently and +with unsparing severity, we know from history. The Christians +were safe at no time and nowhere in the empire, and it is +probable that the number of victims of the ten general +persecutions were by far the smaller number of those who suffered +for the faith prior to the accession of Constantine. We place no +confidence in the calculations of Gibbon or our author, and we +have found no reason for believing that the Christian historians, +or the fathers, exaggerated the number of those who received the +crown of martyrdom. + +It is a great mistake to suppose that paganism had lost its hold +on the Roman mind till long after the Christians had become a +numerous body in the empire. There were, no doubt, individuals +who treated all religions with indifference, but never had the +pagan superstitions a stronger hold on the mass of the people, +especially in Rome and the western provinces, than during the +first two centuries of our era. The republic had been transformed +into the empire, and the government was never stronger, or the +worship of the state more intolerant, more fervent, or more +energetically supported by the government. The work of Romanizing +the various conquered nations was effected under the emperors, +and the signs of decline and dissolution of the empire did not +appear till near the close of the third century. The Roman state +and paganism seemed to be indissolubly linked together--so +closely that the pagans attributed to the rise and progress of +Christianity the decline and downfall of both. Certain it is, +that paganism lost its hold on the people or the state only in +proportion to the progress of Christianity; and the abandonment +of the heathen gods and the desertion of the heathen temples were +due to the preaching of the Gospel, not a fact which preceded and +prepared the way for it. Converts are seldom made from the +irreligious and indifferent classes, who are the last, in any +age, to be reached or affected by truth and piety. + +The fact is, that paganism fought valiantly to the last, and +Christianity had to meet and grapple with it in its full force, +and when supported by the strongest and most effective government +that ever existed, still in the prime and vigor of its life. The +struggle was harder and longer continued than is commonly +supposed, and by no means ended with Constantine. Paganism +reascended the throne--in principle, at least--under Constantius, +the son, and avowedly under Julian, the nephew of the first +Christian emperor. Every pagan statesman saw, from the first, +that there was an irrepressible antagonism between Christianity +and paganism, and that the former could not prevail without +destroying the latter, and, of course, the religion of the state, +and apparently not without destroying the state with it. The +intelligent and patriotic portion of the Roman people must have +regarded the spread of Christianity very much as the Protestant +leaders regard the spread of Catholicity in our own country. They +looked upon it as a foreign religion, and anti-Roman. +{802} +It rejected the gods of Rome, to whom the city was indebted for +her victories and the empire of the world. We may be sure, then, +that the whole force of the state, the whole force of the pagan +worship, backed by the passions and fanaticism of the people, +whether of the city or the provinces, was exerted to crush out +the new and offensive worship; and, whether the numbers of +martyrs were a few more or a few less, the victory obtained by +Christianity against such fearful odds is not explicable without +the assumption of supernatural aid--especially when that victory +carried with it a complete change of morals and manners, and the +practice in not a few who underwent it of a heroic sanctity, or +virtues which are confessedly above our natural strength. + +No false or merely natural religion could have survived, far less +have vanquished, such opposition as Christianity encountered at +every point. The very fact that it thrived, in spite of the +fearful persecution to which it was subjected, is a proof of its +truth and divinity. We grant the blood of the martyrs was the +seed of the church, but persecution fails only when it meets +truth, when it meets God as the resisting force. We know the +strength of superstition and the tenacity of fanaticism; but we +deny that persecution has ever increased or multiplied the +adherents or aided the growth of a false religion. There is no +example of it in history. It is only the truth that does not +succumb; and even they who profess the truth, when they have lost +the practice of it, have yielded to the spirit of the world, and +have ceased to be faithful to God, fail to stand before +persecution, as was seen in the almost entire extinction of +Catholics in the European nations that accepted the Protestant +Reformation. The inefficacy of persecution to extinguish the +doctrine persecuted is a commonplace of liberalism; but history +proves the contrary, and hence the fact that Christianity, +instead of being extinguished by the heathen persecution, spread +under it, and even gained power by it, is no mean proof of its +truth and its supernatural support. + +The author obtains his adverse conclusion by substituting for the +Christianity to which Rome was actually converted, and which +actually triumphed in the empire, a Christianity of his own +manufacture, a rationalistic Christianity, which has nothing to +do with Christ Jesus, and him crucified; a Christianity despoiled +of its mysteries, its doctrinal teachings, its distinctive moral +precepts, and reduced to a simple moral philosophy. It is with +him a theory, a school; not a fact, not a law, not an authority, +not a living organism, nor of an order essentially different from +paganism. His Christianity has its starting point in paganism, +and only marks a particular stage in the general progress of the +race. He does not see that it and paganism start from entirely +different principles, and come down through separate and hostile +lines, or that they have different ancestors. He does not +understand that Christianity, if a development at all, is not the +development of paganism, but of the patriarchal and Jewish +religion, which placed the principle of duty in man's relation to +God as his creator and final cause, not in the assumption of +man's own divinity or godship. Hence he finds no need of +supernatural aid to secure its triumph. + +The author, placing Christianity in the same line with paganism, +supposes that he accounts sufficiently for the conversion of Rome +by the assumption that the Christians placed a stronger emphasis +on certain doctrines held by the pagan philosophers, and were +actuated by a greater zeal and enthusiasm than were those +philosophers themselves. +{803} +Yet he does not show the origin of the greater zeal, nor its +character; and he entirely misapprehends the enthusiasm of the +early Christians. They were, in no received sense of the word, +enthusiasts, nor were they, in his sense of the word, even +zealots. They in no sense corresponded to the character given +them in _The Last Days of Pompeii_. They were neither +enthusiasts nor fanatics; and their zeal, springing from true +charity, was never obtrusive nor annoying. We find in the earlier +and later sects enthusiasts, fanatics, and zealots, who are +excessively offensive, and yet are able to carry away the simple, +the ignorant, and the undisciplined; but we never find them among +the early orthodox Christians, any more than you do among +Catholics at the present day. The early Christians did not "creep +into houses and lead away silly women," nor assault people in the +streets or market-place, and seek to cram Christianity down their +throats, whether they would or not, but were singularly sober, +quiet, orderly, and regular in their proceedings, as Catholics +have always been, compelling not people to hear them against +their will, and instructing in the faith only those who +manifested a desire to be instructed. The author entirely +mistakes both the Christian order of thought and the character of +the early Christians who suffered from and finally triumphed over +the pagan empire. + +---------- + + Translated From The French. + + Paganina. + + + I. + +Master Aloysius Swibert was an organist in a small Austrian town; +but from afar his perfect knowledge of harmony, and freshness and +delicacy of inspiration, were known and praised; and many a +stranger artist, having heard him, wondered that he did not seek +renown and even glory in larger cities, and saw with astonishment +how his art and his simple friendships contented and ornamented a +life requiring nothing more. + +He gave his time to the study of the great masters, a study full +of pure enjoyment, but laborious and difficult, and, with a +singular simplicity of character, he never approached them +without the greatest reserve and respect. + +Obstinately he worked, allowing himself but little respite to +indulge the flights of his fancy, or the inspiration which, now +and then, came to him so luminously, so brightly that the brave +artist cried out his thanks in ecstasy, in the fulness of his +joy. + +His musical thoughts are all in a tiny volume. No long +fantasies--half pages mostly--sometimes only lines, short and +excellent and original; blessed originality, not coarse or +confusing, but healthy and true--the daughter and messenger of +inspiration! + +{804} + + II. + +Thus rolled the weeks, returning ever the Sunday so ardently +desired; for to Master Swibert each Sunday was an event. He +thought of the one passed, and looked forward to the coming one; +all were equally dear. From the Saturday evening previous, all +things sang to him his feast-day songs, and the next morning, +collected and serious, in his best clothes, he sought his church +and his organ. + +He had his own ideas, considered extreme by some, on the ministry +of the musician in the services of the church, on the respect due +the place and the instrument. His heart beat when he approached +the organ, and he played, following his conscience, sometimes +well, sometimes better, never seeking success--on the contrary, +dreading it. + +His work accomplished, he walked with his sister, serious and +happy. The people loved to see them pass, and, from the doors of +their houses, saluted them amicably. In return, they gave each a +pleasant smile, and rejoiced that men and things should wear +their holiday robes, their Sunday colors. If the trees were green +and the weather fine, their happiness was complete. It made the +good man sad, though, if men or children worked, or even planned +their occupations. "Poor creatures!" he said, "is not even Sunday +for them?" And his heart beat as he spoke. But when he met whole +families enjoying themselves, the fathers important, the mothers +busy and happy, and the children gay and prattling, he entered +his lodging so happily, kissed his sister, and awaited his +friends. + + + III. + +He had but two--that is too many--and these could only remember +having passed one Sunday evening away from Master Swibert. On +their arrival, there were three just men under the same roof--one +more than is necessary in order that our Lord may be in the midst +of them. + +They supped, and the organist's sister, twelve years younger than +he, a fresh and graceful girl, waited on his guests, and offered +them some nice white cakes, prepared the day before. Each one +paid her his heartfelt compliments, while, smiling and silent, +with pleasure she received them. + +After supper, Master Swibert seated himself at his piano and +played for his friends his studies of the past week. The music +was mingled with conversation, and art and philosophy beguiled +the hours. Seated around a good-sized pot of beer, with +consciences at ease, with active bodies and cheerful spirits, +these companions pursued endless conversations in all that +interested their honest hearts until, as night closed round them, +their souls were elevated and they spoke of heaven. There seemed +to be a marvellous contact between their natures and all that is +spiritual. + +Such was Master Swibert's interior on Sunday evenings. Could +chance have led thither some growing youth, all ardor and +enthusiasm, and had he essayed the eternal temptations of love +and glory, his answer would have been a smile. There they had no +place. The three friends were happy. + + + IV. + +But in this world every thing passes, happiness especially. The +day came when Master Swibert had to part from all he loved--his +quiet habits, his home, and his country. + +He was tall, and looked strong and healthy; yet his friends were +disquieted about him, for he seemed restless, like a tree which +outwardly appears vigorous, but at heart decayed and liable to +fall with the first rough wind. His physicians gave a reason for +their uneasiness, and ordered him south. + +{805} + +The organist and his sister set out one day, hurrying their +adieus as people who run away. When they were at the foot of the +Alps in Italy, they stopped at a sunny little town, a day's +journey from Milan, which we will call Arèse. Master Swibert was +then forty-four. + +How this man, who, till now, had lived more like a priest than a +man of the world, could be led by his passions to marry an +Italian and a singer, is difficult to explain. Besides, it is +superfluous to look for a reason for any unreasonable act. +Perhaps the good old sun was the cause, laughing behind the trees +at the follies of which he makes us guilty. + +But the girl was pretty, reputed good, and dedicated to her +parents every moment her vanity did not require. So the organist +married her. + + + V. + +They say love lives by contrasts; the god of such a union should +have been well fed. But his life was short, for, after a few +months only, he died. Perhaps of a fit of indigestion. + +The Italian did not like the retired and exclusive life demanded +of her, and the German could not accept the free behavior of his +wife. He could not believe in the purity of a soul that sought +vulgar homage and common admiration. + +He was wrong to judge her by the ideas of his own country. His +name there had been so honorably borne that, if it was for the +singer too heavy a burden, death only could release her. This +death took place under peculiar circumstances. + +Paganini was just then being heard at Milan, and exercising that +singular fascination that made his artistic personality the most +characteristic of our time. + +This age, which believes in no thing, accords him a legend, and, +in truth, his power with the instrument he used was surprising +and unequalled. + +The fascination he possessed by his eccentric and well-executed +performances is well known; how, for instance, he only appeared +in a demi-obscurity, in some romantic scene; or, in some fit of +inspiration, broke rudely the three strings of his instrument, +and performed on the remaining one his most astonishing +variations. + +Whether it was skill, or a want of genius, no matter; the effect +produced was marvellous. On the wife of Master Swibert the result +was astonishing. Her child was born before its time, and in one +of the side-scenes of the theatre of La Scala. + +Its life seemed so feebly assured that it was baptized +immediately with the name of Rose Marie; but Paganini, flattered +by the adventure, insisting upon being godfather on the occasion, +the little one was only known by the name of Paganina. + +Thus was born the singular artist whose history we relate. We +know the exterior facts, the accidents, we may say, of her life. +Popular imagination has made of them an interesting legend; but +these facts were produced by interior emotions little understood, +and would be perfectly unintelligible could we not trace in her +the two tendencies, the two natures, which she inherited from her +parents. + +Master Swibert arrived in time to say adieu to his wife, who did +not survive her confinement. Then, as a miser with his treasure, +he carried off his daughter. The child was feeble, but the +organist felt within himself such an intensity of paternal love +that he could not doubt she would live; "for," said he, "the +vital forces of a creature are not wholly in itself, but in the +love of its parents." + +{806} + +The sister of Master Swibert had married and left him. Therefore +alone with his daughter, he entered an unoccupied house, where +their new lives should develop themselves. + + + VI. + +Happy the children born of Christian parents! They alone +understand the integrity of affection that addresses itself to +the soul, the delicacy of love which envelops the infant, from +the bosom of its mother, conducting it through every danger, and, +even in spite of maternal instinct, to the port of safety. + +The organist could put in practice no personal theories of +education. He thought a father and mother (he was both) have but +one thing to do--to love and love on, to watch on their knees +near the cradle of their child, to observe attentively the +movements of the soul in its dawning light, to direct it on high, +always on high, guard it from all that is impure, (triviality, +even, he considered so;) and so, in fine, enforce the impressions +of a saintly and ideal character, before even the child has +consciousness of its perceptions. + +Give your imagination to the interior of a family where such +sentiments prevail; one sees marvellous things, that no painter +can paint in colors true enough to render public. O pure and holy +family joys! If we hesitate to describe you, it is from respect. +We know with what discretion we should touch on holy things, and +we hardly dare to make ourselves understood, to those who are +fathers, by sketching the scenes of these first years of +childhood between Master Swibert and his daughter. + + + VII. + +Night has come; the child is going to sleep. Her father, pursuing +his studies, is seated at the piano near the little being who has +all his heart, and is now his inspiration; the waves of harmony +go out into the night, white apparitions encircle the cradle, +graze the earth, and fly away. The child sleeps. + +Attentive and listening, her angel looks at her, opening slightly +its wings to better protect her, and throwing over her closed +eye-lids the bluish and transparent veil. The little face smiles +sweetly. + +In the morning she awakes, her soul filled with the joys of the +night. She hears the birds sing, and the bright morning sun with +heavenly rays gilds the cover of her little bed. She watches it +play on her white curtains and turns toward her father, her eyes +filled with tears, a weight on her heart. "Why do you weep, my +daughter?" "Because, my father, I love you dearly, and I am too +happy." + +Yes, well may we discuss the joys of childhood. To sing them, +poets lose their breath; to paint them, exhaust the colors of +their palettes; and heap image upon image as their heated fancies +may suggest, yet what have they done? Nothing. Yet the subject is +worth their study. And how is it that there are so many who have +known these joys in all their purity, who in their manhood gaze +on into the future, and so seldom look to that past which made +them so happy? Would they not, at times, give worlds to be again +that little child at its mother's knee? + + + VIII. + +Paganina was nearly seven years old, when she found a companion; +the organist's sister died, leaving her only child to the care of +her brother. + +{807} + +The little boy, named André, seemed to be of a gentle and even +weak character. He was the same age as his cousin, but never was +presented a more perfect contrast. + +Paganina had not yet acquired that marvellous beauty that +afterward became so celebrated, but something there was about her +very strange and very attractive. + +She was reticent and retiring, nonchalant in gesture and careless +in behavior. Her face was always sad, an indescribable, almost +ferocious _ennui_ seeming completely to overpower her. But +if some recital, some sudden expression touched her imagination, +or music entranced her, her deep black eyes threw out a violet +flame, and even sparkled. But that was all. The calm of an +affected, scornful carelessness returned immediately. + +Restlessness is the common host of the domestic hearth. + +Master Swibert trembled to see the worldly and theatrical genius +of the mother develop in the child; he knew well that, in a +nature strong and deep as hers, such tastes would make terrible +ravages. And the development of each successive year was not +calculated to dispel his fears. + +Everything in the child alarmed him, from her habitual +concentration to her fits of passionate tenderness--the outburst +of the moment, volcano-like, a jet of brilliant flame which +sparkles and goes out. + + + IX. + +Master Swibert could boast in his dying hours of never having +deserted the child for an hour even. After having devoted the +early hours of the day to her and her cousin's education, he +superintended and guided their recreations--an important part, in +good hands, of the training of a child. + +He had the habit of taking every day a long walk. The route they +loved best he called the German road. It was that by which the +organist had come to Italy. The sight of it revived his memories, +and flattered the melancholy love he gave his country. + +On the way, the children listened to the stories of the good +musician, who so willingly related them. They spoke of Germany; +for on this chapter Master Swibert never tired. He led his little +auditors into the world of ballads and legends, and we can +readily imagine the pretty curiosity and happy astonishment +which, at their age, he awakened. Their favorite legend was that +of the great emperor Barbarossa, who slept so many centuries in +an obscure grotto, leaning on a table of stone into which his +beard had grown. These stories were better than our nurses tell; +for the organist related them, not to impose on the credulity of +his youthful auditory, but to extract the poetry they contained; +and this he did wonderfully. Poetry never did harm to any one. + +But the children loved, even better than the legends, the +recitals suitable for them from the German poets. The story of +Mignon delighted them. What could be told them sufficed; and they +loved the little girl who had no other language than song, who +took the face of an angel and aspired to heaven, where she went +without scarcely having lived on earth. + +Their imagination was inflamed. They longed to see the country of +their dreams. Sometimes, at the turn of the road, they began to +run, in the unavowed hope of seeing, at last, what was behind the +mountain; but, the circuit passed, and only a long road, +apparently without end, presenting itself, the poor little things +cried with disappointment. +{808} +Their father, ready to weep with them, took them in his arms to +control them, and told them for the hundredth time one of his +pretty ballads. + + + X. + +The route into Germany is through a beautiful country. After +traversing a plain for some distance, one enters into a deep +gorge in the mountain and then begins to ascend. + +This gorge gives passage to a torrent, dry in summer, but, +becoming furious during the rains of autumn, uproots trees, +carries away bridges, and, undermining the stones at their base, +lowers, each year, the level of the neighboring elevations. The +route accommodates itself poorly to this terrible neighbor, and +follows it as far off as possible. Around on the left shore, it +turns quickly at a certain height, and crosses the torrent over a +very high bridge. There, continuing to ascend, it makes a circuit +over a plain of moderate extent, while a narrow and badly +constructed road, bordering the sides of the ravine, leaves it to +descend to the magnificent residence which, from time immemorial, +belongs to the family of the Ligonieri. It is called the Château +Sarrasin. + +A view unequalled presents itself from this elevation. Below it, +on the first ladder of the heights, is seen the black mass of the +chateau, so near that one can almost penetrate into the interior +of the edifice; and beyond, the plain, displaying under the +silvery net-work of its water-courses the richness of its +vegetation; and finally, on the left, the wooded slopes of the +mountain, crowned with glaciers, and developing into a gigantic +hemicycle. When the dazzled eye is at rest, or gazing afar, it +ever returns to the Chateau Sarrasin; and worthy is it of the +closest regard. + +Its name indicates its antiquated pretensions; but it has no +uniformity of style; each age has given it a stone, and from the +labor of centuries has resulted a whole of a character grand and +majestic. + +Proudly encamped on a perpendicular rock, accessible only on one +side, it commands the plain and defies the mountain with its +black and menacing tower, that seems to have been placed there to +protect the other less hardy constructions. + +From the road, the traveller raises his eyes to this eagle's +nest; he contemplates with pleasure the terraces which shelve +below, suspending over the precipice their flowering groves and +massive oaks, and, naturally, he demands its history. Yet this +history was not always to be praised. The chronicle credits those +who inhabited it in past ages with a series of adventures more +curious than moral, and enough to fill a book of legends. + +The Ligonieri have followed the progress of civilization. In our +day, they respect the laws, and even make themselves respected. +They serve the state in the highest ranks of the administration, +the army, and diplomacy. Yet it would seem that, after all, the +devil has not lost much; for they tell wild stories of the +castle's being fatal to conjugal love, of its reigning queens +ever suffering in silence the affronts of some rival under its +cursed roof. Popular recitals represent them isolated, lifting to +heaven their innocent hands, and mingling their prayers with the +noise of orgies and the songs of feasts. The favorites of the +Chateau Sarrasin belonged mostly to the theatre, and among them +was she who reigned a certain evening when the scene took place I +am going to relate. + +{809} + + XI. + +This evening, then, the organist and his two children had arrived +on the elevation that commands the residence of the Ligonieri, +and were looking about them. There was a _fête_ at the +Château Sarrasin. + +The grand _salon_ of the ground floor was illuminated, and +crowded with a brilliant assembly of guests. Long waves of light +came from the windows and doors, and showed the crowd pressing +around every opening, and in the shadows revealed groups seated +attentively at cards. + +All heads were turned toward one point; all looks were in the +same direction, and attached themselves to a woman standing in +the centre of the light, and surrounded by a chorus and a +numerous orchestra. + +This woman was clothed in green, and wore a crown of ivy, the +ornament of the old bacchantes. A green diamond threw its +lustrous rays from her impure forehead. She sang--not the songs +that carry tired souls into the regions of the ideal, and make +them forget for a moment the sadness of earth; but guilty joys +and culpable pleasures were her theme. The metallic voice sang in +response to her chorus; and, becoming more and more excited, the +quick, passionate notes mounted into a demoniacal laugh. How sad, +how true it is, that the human soul, once beyond the bounds of +purity, rejoices in and receives new excitement from the delirium +of blasphemy. + + + XII. + +Attracted by the light, Paganina advanced toward the precipice. +The passionate music had turned her brain. Her growing agitation +became extreme, and she betrayed it in gestures and ardent words. +When Master Swibert called her, she refused to obey. + +Understanding at last, her father rose, pale as a corpse. + +"Unfortunate child!" he cried, "thy bad angel is approaching +thee. Now comes the hour when I regret thy birth. God grant that +I may not be punished for having shown thee the spectacle of evil +thou comprehendest so quickly." + +The child advances, her father follows, and she begins to run. +Wildly through the midst of the rocks she risks her life at every +step. Her father, breathless, pursues her, frightened, and +covered with a cold perspiration. His eyes, grown large already +with fear, see his daughter precipitated into an endless abyss; +and discover, also, in the future another abyss still more +shadowed and more horrible, where, perhaps, will be lost the +deeply-loved soul of his child. + +The guests of the Château Sarrasin heard two cries mingle with +the joyousness of their _féte_. The organist seized his +child just at the moment when, from the edge of the precipice, +she would have plunged into eternity. + +He had saved her life, but not regained her soul. That evening, +the child separated herself from him in a spirit of revolt which +almost broke his heart to witness. + + + XIII. + +Master Swibert slept but little, and badly. When he awoke, he +wondered how he had been able to omit to Paganina his usual +good-night. His eyes fell instinctively on the door where, every +morning, she came, half-clothed, to salute him. The sun's rays +gilded the sill, and the good father's heart beat, thinking how +happy he would be if at that moment she would appear. He said, +"She is coming;" but she came not. + +{810} + +The organist walked up and down his room, interrupting, from time +to time, his monotonous promenade, to listen, in hopes of hearing +a word, a creaking, a fluttering of a robe. He heard nothing but +the uncertain step of André, wandering sad and lonely in the +parts of the house least occupied. + +The hours passed. The organist still waited, his suffering +becoming anguish. Sometimes he felt he must call out, "My child! +my child!" Already he opened his arms to receive her; but his +sense of duty prevailed, and he waited for her. + +The night again returned, and Paganina had shown no signs of +life. A bitter sadness, drop by drop, was accumulating in the +heart of her unfortunate father. The most mournful thoughts took +possession of him. He dreamed of his approaching death, and saw +his child alone, abandoned to interior and exterior enemies, and +in his weakness he reproached himself for having brought her into +this world. + +Already more than half the night had gone. Overwhelmed with +sorrow, exhausted, he threw himself into an arm-chair, wondering +if he could bear to suffer more, when Paganina entered +noiselessly, on tiptoe, lest she should awaken her father, whom +she believed asleep. She approached him gently, knelt by his +side, and, taking one of his hands, covered it with silent tears. + +What a change for our poor organist! An immense joy overflowed +his heart, and spread over his whole being in delicious emotion. +He forgot all past suffering and future inquietude. He lost all +consciousness of the present but the knowledge that his daughter +was there, pressed to his heart, and palpitating midst her sobs. + +He leaned over, and two tears, the first shed by this austere +man, fell on the young bowed head--her baptism of peace and +pardon. Grief, repentance, the love of the child, obscured for a +time, now manifested themselves violently. She hung convulsively +on the neck of her father, and begged his pardon. They exchanged +kisses, stifled cries, and little words of tenderness, that are +the first elements of that pure and passionate, delicate and +violent language of the domestic hearth, so little capable of +description. + + + XIV. + +The stars sparkled peacefully in a cloudless sky. The breath of +the night, with its penetrating odors, came noiselessly, and +mingled the white hair of the father with the black curls of the +child. It refreshed their burning foreheads. + +Peace has descended into their souls. Now and then a sob from +Paganina is the only witness of the past storm. + +Master Swibert, with his head inclined, speaks in a low voice. He +says: + +"My daughter, my tenderness for you knows no bounds. Trust to me. +Arrived at the summit of life, I, whose head is whitening toward +eternity, will tell you that, in this world, the only happiness +given man is in the affections of his family. You cannot tell, +before being a mother, what paternal affection is, and still less +will you understand mine. I was ignorant of it myself until +yesterday." + +The child standing, her little feet united, pressed her head +against the heart of her father. + +The organist continued: "The angel of a woman never leaves the +domestic hearth. If she lives in the world, her angel has +forsaken her. A woman's crown is formed in shadow and silence; +the gaze and admiration of a crowd will wither it. Your soul I +love, my daughter; and our mutual love must never end. Do you +understand me? Never! provided our souls rise together toward the +abode of infinite love." + +{811} + +The child listens attentively; divining, by a sort of intuition, +the sense of these teachings, engraving themselves, in letters of +fire, on her heart; and which she will understand, each day, more +and more. + +Little by little, lulled by the whispering of her father; +refreshed, as if bathed in such admirable tenderness, she fell +asleep. Her father held her in his arms, and, raising his eyes, +he prayed. + +Day has come. The aurora awakes in its humid splendor, and throws +its first rays over the mountain violets. The bells of the town +dance into the air their clear and joyous notes. + +"My father," said Paganina in a low voice, and without opening +her eyes, "what do those bells say? Their ringing sound makes me +tremble with joy." + +"My daughter, they celebrate, as they may, the day of the +Ascension, when Christ ascended into heaven." + +"To heaven! my father;" and she added, in so weak a voice that he +could scarcely hear her, "It seems that I am there now--that I +repose in your arms." + +The organist looked at his daughter, whose closed eyes seemed to +enjoy interior contemplation; while his pale face expressed his +delight. He raised her; held her up, as if to offer her to God; +then laid her quietly on her little bed, and let her sleep. + + + XV. + +From that day, the organist possessed perfect control over his +daughter. If she seemed disposed to escape from his influence, he +recalled the night of the Ascension, and that sufficed. Paganina +was still a little girl; but soon she would cease to be one. Her +future beauty was crystallizing. The features could be seen; but +they had not yet blended into their after harmony. There was +something surprising about her. + +Morally, the incomprehensible little creature was all dissonance +and violent contrasts, promising to be equally powerful for good +or evil, as she should be led by superior or inferior influences. + +The distinctive character of her nature, habitually concentrated +and sometimes impetuous to excess, was her passion for every +thing beautiful. Music exercised an extraordinary influence over +her. It was, properly speaking, her language; and she understood +in it what others could not. Already she spoke in it wonderfully. + +Her father taught her his instrument; and she gave herself with +love to the study. However, it was easy to see that the demon of +song would make her his; so Master Swibert hesitated to give her +a master, restrained by his personal ideas on the subject. He had +his theory, which appeared singular, no doubt, and he revealed it +to his daughter, saying, "Too perfect an instrument is a snare +for a musician; for when he has at his service an organ of this +kind, he forgets too often to raise it to the ideal, and gives it +to matter. Where are those who can disengage themselves from +matter to arrive at an idea? Where are those who know that the +beauty of the body is the shadow of the beauty of the soul? To +pursue exclusively the first is to lose both. + +"Look at the immortal composers of my country, whose genius will +radiate unto the last of posterity. The shrill notes of the piano +are the most common expression of their glorious thoughts. The +musicians of this nation find voices neither pure nor powerful +enough to express their pitiful imaginations. When I see such +anxiety for the sign, I esteem poorly the thing signified, and I +think that its beauty is, above all, material. + +{812} + +"I love the human voice. What an admirable instrument! But I +tremble to see how it is used to express the passions of earth +and the enchantments of pleasure. It is dangerous to possess it. +I warn you of your danger, my daughter." + +I have already said that this theory was singular. The word +appears weak, perhaps; but it came from Germany. + +However, it had no influence on the destiny of Paganina; for, +having finished his reasoning, her father gave her a master. +Happily, logic alone does not govern the world. + +The little one then learned to sing. Her success in this study +was rapid, and passed all foresight. Sometimes Master Swibert was +confounded when he heard her, and trembled before this power +which had come from himself. + + + XVI. + +The moment came when André was to be submitted to the proof of a +public education. His uncle considered such a course necessary to +make him a man. It was decided that he should receive at the +conservatory of Naples the classic traditions of Italian art. The +organist and his daughter wished to accompany him to his +destination. + +They travelled by short stages. Master Swibert proposing, +according to his habit, an elevated result, communicated to his +children the riches of his erudition. They stopped wherever they +could hope to gather some fruit, curious to visit every place of +which they knew the history, and he desirous to give them a +living knowledge which would be for ever impressed upon them. + +His studies and affections induced him to neglect the mere +vestiges of antiquity to seek with greater love the souvenirs of +Christianity and the relics of the saints. We know if they abound +on this illustrious earth. + +Every day, then, the travellers turned a new leaf of the book +which they had lisped from their childhood. The history of the +martyrs particularly seized upon the imagination of Paganina. She +never tired of listening to it on the very places they had +sanctified by such sublime acts as the world rarely knows. + +We may scoff at or disdain the wonders of interior sanctity, but +indifference is arrested by the heroism of martyrdom. + +The martyrs wear the double crown of divine and human glory. +After their God, they are the vanquishers of death. Inspired +courage burns on their faces; and when are added to their ranks +the grace and beauty of woman and child, why refuse to their +memory the homage of love and admiration, if even not to be +Christian is considered worthy of worldly honor. + +Paganina had the intelligence of greatness; she loved courage and +true nobility. The recitals of her father drew tears from her +eyes; and in traversing the arenas made memorable by some bloody +triumph, she felt within her every inspiration to celebrate them. +Here she was true to her Italian nature; but she spoke with an +elevation of accent and depth of emotion which are the privileges +of northern nations. + +One evening she was at the Colosseum. She felt an enthusiasm +within her, an inspiration unaccountable, and pictured in +life-colors the crowd of excited people, watching and crying out +to the poor Christian martyrs struggling and dying, in the +brightness of a supernatural light. She entirely forgot herself. + +{813} + +Something like a hymn breathed from her oppressed heart; +eloquence overflowed from her lips. The passers-by were attracted +toward her, and her father listened overcome and astonished. +While she appeared transfigured, standing in the light of the +setting sun, which seemed to throw around her the bloody purple +of which she chanted, a ray of the glory of her ancestors rested +on the forehead of this grandchild of the martyrs. + +That evening, her father, in taking her home again, said to her, +"Go on, my little one; many have passed for eloquent who had not +your inspiration; many have sought for poetry, and great they +were; but they have not found the fruit your tiny hands have +gathered. Mignon sang: you sing and speak; and if you use your +power for good, Mignon may not compare with you." + +Excuse the blindness of a father, if you please. + + + XVII. + +When the time came for the children to part, André was overcome +in a manner which seemed incompatible with his nature, so +ordinarily tranquil. The father and daughter returned alone, and +lived afterward with no other company than themselves. They felt +no need to seek their diversion among their neighbors. The simple +ties of friendship or convenience to them were unnecessary, and +the organist preserved with the outside world only the +acquaintance that strict politeness demanded. + +Paganina's affection increased daily. A profound sentiment +without display, and only recognizable by certain mute signs that +might have escaped an indifferent eye. Her father, however, could +not be deceived. + +So these two beings were never separated. They worked together; +the organist conducted his daughter into the highest regions of +music, and was astonished, in teaching her, to discover horizons +hitherto unknown. Paganina made wonderful progress. + +Those who find in art their happiness in this world, and seek the +depths of those mysterious tongues of which so many speak and +know nothing--those alone can form an idea of the happy moments +passed in their solitude. + +At times these two souls rose together, mounted even to the pure +heights where, to those who attain to them, is given a +supernatural felicity. + +To these joys Paganina aspired with an immoderate ardor; but in +attaining them she experienced a reaction of extreme sadness. +This disquieted her father; so, in the language of parable which +he liked to use, and which sometimes proved more original than +gracious, he said, "My daughter, my daughter, drink with +precaution; at the bottom of the purest streams are hidden the +most dangerous reptiles. Be prudent, or you will swallow the +leech. There is only one fountain to quench your thirst, and +where, with your impetuous humor, you may drink with safety: it +is that which gushes toward eternal life." + + To Be Continued. + +------- + +{814} + + [Transcriber's note: This discussion is impressive, considering + that quantum theory and the internal structure of the atom + appears many decades in the future.] + + Translated From The Etudes Religieuses. + + Recent Scientific Discoveries. + + By Fr. Carbonelle. + + +The hypothesis of an ethereal medium everywhere diffused, is +still, in spite of some vague objections urged against it, +universally received, and the most recent theories and researches +have not suggested its abandonment or modification in any +important respect. On the contrary, they point to its more exact +establishment, and to its application to large classes of +phenomena in which, until lately, it was hardly supposed to be +involved. There is no longer any branch of natural philosophy +which can dispense with it; and in the theory of heat as a mode +of motion, which will soon be the basis of a new system of +physics more full and clear than the previous one, the motion +must probably be explained by the principle of ethereal +undulations or vibrations. + +These vibrations show themselves by three different effects, +namely, heat, chemical action, and color. The first two were for +a long time neglected, but the third offered quite a large field, +in which many very beautiful discoveries were made. It was known, +for instance, that the oscillations were made with prodigious +rapidity. Thus, the red of the spectrum is produced by vibrations +repeated four hundred and eighty-three trillions of times in a +second; while for the violet, more than seven hundred and eight +trillions are required. Between these limits all the visible rays +are contained, and, taken successively, they produce all the +shades of the spectrum, and, by their combination, all possible +colors. But as there are vibrations in the air too rapid or too +slow to give the sense of sound to the ear, so there are, in the +ether, slower than the red, or quicker than the violet, and hence +invisible. The first have been detected by their calorific, the +second by their chemical effects. The spectrum has thus been +considerably extended at both ends, and we cannot be sure that +its true limits have even yet been found. + +These facts have been known for some time, and are found in all +treatises on physics. We only speak of them in order to explain +better the theories proposed by modern science to explain the +three effects of ethereal radiation. + +The hypothesis of three essentially different kinds of rays has +now been abandoned. The solar beam, for example, which causes six +hundred and thirty trillion vibrations a second, has the three +properties of producing in the eye the sensation of blue, of +heating Melloni's thermo-electric pile, and of decomposing the +chloride of silver used in photography; but it does not appear +that three different rays vibrating with this velocity are sent +to us, each the cause of a separate effect. Notwithstanding the +most careful experiments, no one of these properties has ever +been diminished in a ray without diminishing the rest in the same +proportion. Of course, these properties are differently +proportioned in the different rays of the spectrum; but in two +rays from the same part, and hence having the same velocity of +vibration, these properties always consist in the same relative +intensity. +{815} +At the red end of the spectrum, the heating power predominates; +at the other extremity, the chemical; in the middle, the +luminous. The reason of this seems to be merely the difference of +vibratory velocities; and we shall see that this will suffice to +account for it. + +Let us first explain how we conceive the production of the +phenomena of chemical action and of heat. For clearness, we must +advert to a theory familiar to all, according to which ponderable +matter is composed of excessively small volumes, called atoms, +which, though perhaps theoretically divisible, are never divided +by any physical or chemical action. In the constitution of +bodies, these atoms are supposed to be grouped in some manner, +each group forming what is called a molecule. These, unlike the +atoms, are decomposed in chemical changes, though not in physical +ones, by which we understand such as evaporation, melting, +crystallization, heating, magnetizing, electrifying, etc., unless +these happen to affect the chemical constitution as well as the +physical condition of the substance. All these do not alter the +arrangement of the atoms in the molecule, but only the position +or distance of the molecules with regard to each other. A +collection of molecules may be called a particle; physical action +then alters the constitution of the particle as chemical does +that of the molecule. It may be remarked that our senses give us +no direct evidence of the existence of molecules, much less of +that of atoms, and they are supposed to be so extremely small +that it will probably never be possible to detect them in this +way. + +In the application of this chemical theory to that of light, a +new hypothesis is made, namely, that the ethereal fluid, whether +itself continuous or composed of separate elements, penetrates +all the interstices between the atoms of a molecule, as well as +those between the molecules. The motions of this fluid, and of +the matter which it penetrates, are communicated to each other, +according to laws not yet ascertained, but of which we already +have some glimpses. Thus, in treating of the effects of the +ethereal vibrations on ponderable bodies, great importance is +probably due to what is called _isochronism_, or equality of +times; that is, the agreement of the rapidity of vibration of the +ether with that of which the matter is susceptible; for in all +known communications of vibratory movements, this isochronism +plays a very notable part. If, for example, we place upon the +same stand two clocks, having pendulums of the same length, and +consequently swinging in the same time, and start one of them, +the slight impulses communicated by this to the other will +finally set the latter also in motion. If, on the other hand, the +pendulums are not isochronous, no such effect will be produced. +In the same way, a stretched cord will vibrate if one of the +sounds of which it is capable is produced near by; but it will +not be affected by other notes, even though much louder--showing +that isochronism is more important than intensity. Another +illustration of the same thing struck me forcibly some ten years +ago. I had ascended with some photographic apparatus to the top +of an old square tower, very high and massive, to take some +views. The tower belonged to a church, the bells of which were +rung several times while I was there. The great bell, though of a +very considerable size, shook the building very slightly; it +hardly caused any tremor in the image of the landscape. +{816} +But a second and much smaller bell could not be rung without +giving to the tower, after two or three minutes, a strong swaying +movement like that of a tree shaken by the wind. This was owing +to the isochronism between the oscillations of the tower and of +the small bell, which more than compensated for the difference of +mass. + +We have here an explanation of the physical and chemical +phenomena produced by the ethereal rays. A few vibrations of this +medium, probably, would produce no perceptible effect on a mass +of matter; but these movements are repeated hundreds of trillions +of times in a second, and however feeble their influence at +first, isochronism may finally give it great power. Let us +consider, first, the molecules, which have some connection +between them, as yet unknown, but probably only allowing a +certain set of vibratory velocities, (as a cord will only vibrate +so as to produce a definite series of musical notes.) If, then, +these are isochronous with those of the surrounding ether, the +movement of the latter will be communicated to the molecules; or, +according to the new theory of heat, the body will be warmed. +These movements may even become so violent as to permanently +modify the manner of union of the molecules--that is, to change +the state of the body from solid to liquid or gaseous; and, by +this change of state, the molecules may become insensible to the +vibrations which previously affected them; for the set which they +can now perform may have been entirely altered. The phenomena of +heat are then well accounted for by this theory. To explain +similarly the chemical ones, we have only to suppose ethereal +vibrations, such that the movement affects the atoms separately, +instead of the whole molecule, so that, after they have been +sufficiently prolonged, the connection between the atoms will be +destroyed. According to this, the chemical action of light should +always be one of decomposition; it is so undoubtedly in most +cases, and in the rest, where a combination is produced--as, for +instance, in the formation of chlorhydric acid by the action of +the violet rays on a mixture of chlorine and hydrogen--we shall +adduce hereafter some facts which explain them, and show that +even here the real action of the rays is a decomposing one. It +may be remarked that the introduction of these ethereal +vibrations, whose dimensions and velocities are well known, into +the region, still so mysterious, of atoms and of molecules, +promises to lead to results long unhoped for. If, for example, +the theory above stated is correct, it would appear that the +union of the atoms is such that their necessary time of +oscillation is shorter than that of the molecules; since the red +rays, which have the greatest heating power, vibrate more slowly +than the violet, which are the most active chemically, as stated +some distance back. + +The luminous action of the rays is no doubt the most important +for us, but also the most difficult to study; we have, however, +something to say about it, for real progress has lately been made +in this department. In the first place, since we are speaking of +sensations, it is necessary to notice that this subject has two +very different parts, one of which belongs to natural science, +and the other to psychology. We shall here speak only of the +first, that is, of three classes of phenomena which are produced +at the exterior extremities of the nervous fibres, on the line of +the fibres, and in the brain respectively. +{817} +It has been said, in a previous paper, that each of these +requires a certain time, and the experimental results as to these +times were there given. But this is all, or almost all, the +knowledge, unfortunately, which we yet have as to what takes +place in the brain. The conjecture has been made that the +different kinds of sensations are due to different modifications +of the cerebral extremities of the various nerves; or that at the +interior extremity of the optic nerve, a different action occurs +from that at the nerve of hearing, which seems probable, since +there are good reasons for believing that the action of the main +body of the nerve itself is precisely the same for all the +sensations. In more than one way, our nervous system would then +resemble the telegraph. All the wires are traversed by similar +currents, but the registering apparatus is different in each. In +one, the dispatch is read off upon a dial; in another, it is +printed on a moving band; in a third, a facsimile is given of it, +etc. The sending is also accomplished by different means; but in +all cases the same agent, the electric current, is employed. + +Since we are treating of the sensation of sight only in +connection with the external vibrations, we need here only +discuss the first of the three classes of phenomena mentioned +above, those which correspond to the transmission of the +dispatch. In explaining this, we shall follow the celebrated +professor of Heidelberg, M. Helmholtz. + +The use of the spectroscope, and the analysis of light as now +made in physics, chemistry, and astronomy, might induce the idea +that color is an intrinsic property of the rays, depending +entirely upon the length of the undulation in each, and +inseparably connected with it; but this is not the case. Color is +an organic phenomenon, only produced in the living animal; and, +in one sense, is very independent of the length of the wave, +since it can even exist without the presence of any luminous ray. +Its laws are admirably exhibited in a figure called Newton's +circle. This circle has been modified by recent experiments, and +has received three enlargements, which make it a sort of triangle +with rounded corners; but it is very well to preserve its name, +for, as yet, the claims of Newton in optics have not been +contested in any "_Commercium epistolicum_." Let us briefly +describe this figure. The red, green, and blue of the spectrum +occupy the three corners respectively. Passing round the +circumference, we go from red to green through yellow, from green +to blue through greenish blue, and from blue to red through +violet and purple. If we draw a straight line from any point of +the circumference to the centre, we find the same color on all +points of the line, but more and more diluted, so that the centre +itself is perfectly white. This figure contains all possible +shades of color, and has the following remarkable property, +established by experiment. If we wish to know what color will be +produced by the mixture of any others, we have only to mark upon +this figure the points where the several colors are found, and +place weights there proportional to the intensities in which the +different colors are to be used in the combination; at the centre +of gravity of these weights, that is, at the point on which the +circle (supposed itself to be without weight) would balance when +thus loaded, we shall find the resulting shade. This point does +not need to be found by experiment, being more easily calculated +mathematically. + +{818} + +Now it is evident from this that color is a mere matter of +sensation; for it is obvious that the same centre of gravity can +be obtained by an infinity of arrangements of the original +colors, notwithstanding the diversity of their wave-lengths; and +it will also be found that these various mixed rays, though +having precisely the same color--that of the centre of +gravity--will differ entirely in their other properties. They act +variously upon the thermometer and on the sensitive photographic +plate, and give different tinges to colored objects which they +illumine. But upon the retina the action of all is the same. How +is this result to be explained? We will answer without stating +the proofs, which the limits of this article would forbid. + +From what has been said, it will be seen that all colors can be +produced by the mixture of the three fundamental or primary ones, +red, green, and blue, which were placed at the three rounded +corners of Newton's circle. It will also be supposed that, as in +the theory of Thomas Young, nervous fibres of three kinds are +found at every point of the retina. When these are excited in any +way, whether by the vibrations of the ether, by lateral pressure +on the ball of the eye, by a feeble electric current, or by any +other means, they transmit the excitement to the brain; but the +red fibres, (so to speak,) if they should act alone, would only +produce, however they were irritated, the uniform sensation of a +red such as we hardly ever actually see, more _saturated_ +than the ordinary red, and which would be found in our figure at +the extreme summit of the rounded corner. The two other kinds of +fibres would, of course, act similarly, producing colors more +pure than are usually seen; since, in our usual sensations, the +three are always mixed, each predominating in its turn; and this +is the case even in the spectrum itself. The effect of the pure +colors in the latter may, however, be heightened as follows: Let +us fix our eyes, for instance, for a few moments on the +blue-green. This is the complementary of the red. The fatigue +will produce a momentary insensibility in the fibres +corresponding to the blue and green, and, turning the eyes to the +red part of the spectrum, the slight admixture of these colors +there present will fail to excite sensibly the corresponding +nerves, so that the red will be seen for a few seconds in great +purity. But to return. The stimulus of the first set of fibres, +though found more or less in all parts of the spectrum, will +predominate at the red end, where the vibrations are slowest; +that of the second set in the middle, where the green is found; +that of the third, at the blue extremity. Why these inequalities? +Why, also, do the dark rays, preceding the red and following the +violet, fail to act on the retina? No certain reason can be +assigned, but there are two very plausible ones: first, the media +which the rays have to traverse in the eye before reaching the +nerves have, like all other transparent bodies, the power of +absorbing the vibrations, not all uniformly, but some in +preference to others. This elective absorption would destroy or +diminish the effect of the rays on the nervous fibres. The second +reason, as will readily be surmised, is the want of isochronism +between the vibrations of the rays and those of the nervous +fibres. + +In confirmation of this theory, a remarkable anatomical fact, +noticed among many birds and reptiles, may be cited. These +actually have in the retina three kinds of fibres: the first +terminated by a small, oily red drop, the second by a yellow one, +while the third have no perceptible appendage. +{819} +Evidently, the red rays will arrive most purely at the first, the +central rays of the spectrum at the second, while the blue and +violet ones will act freely only on the third. It must be granted +that no such thing has been observed in man and the other +mammalia; but something similar may be found in the singular +pathological phenomenon to which the chemist Dalton has given his +name. Daltonism is most frequently an inability to perceive red. +For eyes thus affected, the chromatic triangle or circle just +mentioned is considerably simplified; but sad mistakes are the +consequence. "All the differences of color," says Helmholtz, +"appear to them as mixtures of blue and green, which last they +call yellow." This disorder would be, according to the above +theory, a paralysis of the first, or red fibres. The simplicity +of this explanation is certainly in favor of the theory which +gives it. But we had determined not to bring up arguments. Let +us, then, pass on; remarking, however, one respect in which the +eye, otherwise so superior to the rest of the senses, is inferior +to the ear. Sounds, though combined to any extent in harmonies or +discords, can readily be separated by an experienced ear. The +eye, on the other hand, only sees the result of mixed colors; it +needs instruments to rival the ear; and it is only by means of +the prism that it can separate and classify the various +vibrations which reach it. + +But, provided with this prism, or _spectroscope_, it has +lately done wonders. It has discovered and measured a whole world +of new phenomena, which, according to the theory just developed, +must be attributed to reciprocal exchanges of movement between +the ether and the ponderable molecules. The light given by these +has disclosed to us many secrets of chemistry, and especially of +astronomy. + +Before specifying the most recent of these discoveries, we will +profit by what has already been said to explain very briefly the +fundamental principles of spectral analysis. Transparent bodies, +whether solid, liquid, or gaseous, exercise upon the rays an +absorption which is called elective, because some undulations are +allowed to pass, while others are stopped, according to their +velocities; and one of the effects of this absorption is the +color of such bodies. This is to be explained by the principle of +isochronism. Those vibrations which, for want of it, cannot be +imparted to the surrounding matter, pass freely; the others are +absorbed. But it is remarkable that gases and vapors only absorb +a small number of them, while solids and liquids retain a great +many. Thus, supposing that we have obtained, in any way, a +continuous spectrum--that is, one with no breaks--containing all +the known rays, not only the visible ones between the red and +violet, but also the rest outside of these limits, a liquid or +solid body intercepting this light will entirely destroy, or +considerably weaken, large portions of this spectrum; whereas a +gas or vapor generally will only efface a few small ones, whose +absence is detected in the luminous part of the spectrum by the +dark, transverse lines which have been so long known in that of +the sun. This is certainly quite extraordinary, since it would +suggest the inference that in gaseous bodies, the molecules, +though less condensed, or further from each other, than in solids +or liquids, have a much smaller range of possible vibrations. +Besides this, the researches of Mr. Frankland on flames have +lately shown that, even in gases, this range increases as the +density augments. These results must undoubtedly be considered as +strange; but what, after all, do we know of the connection of the +elements of matter? +{820} +Without dwelling further on this point, we will mention the most +important fact learned by these experiments: that this elective +absorption is a complete test of the chemical composition of +gases. In given conditions of temperature and pressure, each gas +is perfectly distinguished from all others by the special +absorption which it exercises upon the luminous rays. The +principle by which chemical analysis is performed +spectroscopically is thus evident. To find if any particular gas +is to be found on the path of the ray, it is only necessary to +develop the latter into a spectrum, and to see, by the position +of the particular dark lines produced in it, if the absorption +due to this gas has been effected. + +But this is not all. Bodies sufficiently heated become luminous. +According to the theory, this means that the molecules of matter, +in their turn, communicate their vibrations to the ether; and +here again we should find the influence of isochronism. The +ether, it is true, is susceptible of vibrations of any velocity +within certain very wide limits; but the molecules can give it +none which are not isochronous with their own. Let us see what +will result. Evidently, that the light which is emitted will, +when developed into a spectrum, be concentrated in brilliant +lines at those points where the velocities of undulation are the +same as those of which the gas is capable; and, further, these +lines should also evidently be in the same places, as the dark +lines which this gas produces, as explained above, in a +continuous spectrum, by absorption. This actually takes place in +most cases, but some exceptions must be expected; because +variations of temperature and pressure change the mutual +connections of the gaseous molecules, and hence should also +change the velocities of their oscillations. Thus, it is often +found that the same gases change their systems of brilliant lines +as their temperature or pressure changes; and Mr. Frankland has +even obtained gases giving continuous spectra, sometimes +attaining this result by pressure alone. The influence of heat +also explains why solid or liquid bodies, when incandescent, give +continuous spectra; while, at a low temperature, their +interposition produces an elective absorption. For it is known +that transparent solids or liquids become opaque when heated +sufficiently to shine; the reason apparently being that, like the +ether, they are capable of vibrations of any degree of rapidity +within the usual limits, and hence allow no ethereal ones--or, in +other words, no light--to pass through them, but absorb them all. +Most flames or incandescent vapors, on the contrary, do not +entirely lose their transparency. This property is of inestimable +value in our investigations of nature. + +Gases, by the combination of their elective absorption with their +equally elective emission, produce results which at first sight +might appear singular, but which can now readily be explained. +Suppose that a flame is situated on the path of some rays which, +without this interposition, would give a brilliant continuous +spectrum. This flame only absorbs the ray having vibrations +isochronous with its own; on the other hand, it emits rays +similar to those which it absorbs. The resulting spectrum will +vary according to the relative intensity of the emitted and +absorbed rays. If these two intensities are equal, the spectrum +will remain continuous; but if the absorption predominates, there +will be dark lines in it; if the emission, brilliant ones. +{821} +Similar phenomena of reversal have been often met with in the +recent examinations of different parts of the sun. + +The principles just explained have been known for several years, +and were sufficient for astronomy as long as it restricted its +investigations to the chemical analysis of the atmospheres of the +heavenly bodies. But it was soon perceived that much greater use +could be made of the spectroscope. Information is now beginning +to be acquired by means of it which had previously appeared to be +unattainable, regarding, for instance, the rapidity of the motion +of stars the distance of which is still unknown; the great +movements which are continually taking place in the great masses +of gas in the solar photosphere, and the pressure of these masses +at different depths; and it is even hoped that a direct +determination of their temperature may be made. Let us speak +first of the observations of stellar velocities. Their +possibility may easily be shown by means of an acoustic +phenomenon which the reader must frequently have noticed. Let us +suppose two trains of cars to be moving rapidly in opposite +directions, and that one of them whistles as it passes the other. +If we are seated in the latter, we shall perceive that the pitch +of the whistle suddenly falls as it passes us. The reason is +manifest. A certain time is necessary for the sound to reach us; +and while the train is approaching, this time is sensibly shorter +for each succeeding vibration, so that the interval between the +vibrations is apparently diminished, and the note is higher than +it would be were the trains at rest. On the other hand, as the +whistle recedes after passing, its pitch is lowered for a similar +reason. Of course, no such effect is produced by that of our own +train, which always remains at the same distance from us. By the +amount of flattening of the sound, it is quite possible to +calculate the velocity of the train, as compared with that of +sound. [Footnote 198] + + [Footnote 198: Suppose the sum of the velocities of the + trains to be one-ninth of that of sound, and that the whistle + is, at a given moment, 1140 feet (which is about the distance + travelled by sound in a second) from our ear. The vibrations + emitted at this instant will reach us in one second; and all + those emitted in the nine seconds required for the train to + arrive will be condensed into the remaining eight. Their + frequency will then be nine-eighths of what it would be + without the motion. It will be diminished in nearly the same + ratio after the passage; since the vibration emitted nine + seconds afterward will require an additional second to reach + us; thus, the frequency will now be nine-tenths of what it + would be without the motion, or four-fifths of what it was + before meeting; corresponding to a flattening of two whole + musical tones. This would require a relative velocity of 127 + feet a second, or 87 miles an hour; which gives the rule, + that, for every half-tone of flattening, the sum of the + velocities, or the velocity of the moving train, if we are at + rest, is 22 miles an hour.] + +It is very easy to apply what has just been said of the waves of +sound to those of light. The motion of the sonorous body +displaces its sounds on the acoustic scale; in the same way, the +motion of the luminous body will displace its light on the optic, +placing any particular line, dark or brilliant, in the spectrum +nearer to the violet or rapid end, if the body is approaching; +and nearer to the red, if it is receding. And we are not obliged +to wait till the change has taken place in the character of the +motion, as in the case of the train, since we can always obtain +lines similar to those thus displaced, and having the same +velocity of vibration, from some terrestrial substance, +relatively at rest, and put the two side by side in the same +field; and by this means we obtain at once the difference between +the apparent number of vibrations in a second of the ray from the +moving body, and the real number, and thus the velocity of the +moving object. This observation has the advantage of being +independent of the distance of the objects observed, being as +accurate for the most distant stars as for the nearest. +{822} +We may notice, in passing, also a singular consequence. If the +motion were rapid enough, it would change the colors of objects; +and, since outside the visible spectrum there are dark rays, it +would even be possible for a luminous body to become invisible, +by the mere effect of movement away from or to us. But the +prodigious velocity of light places such a result among mere +metaphysical possibilities. Indeed, it was thought, for a time, +that the effect of motion on the spectral lines would never be +perceptible. The first trials only gave negative results, either +because the bodies observed were moving too slowly, or because +the instruments used were not sensitive enough. This is no longer +the case, as we shall soon see. + +To conclude this explanation of principles, it only remains to +say a few words on the spectroscopic observations of temperature +and pressure. But here we shall indeed be obliged to be brief; +since Messrs. Frankland and Lockyer, who have undertaken +investigations on these important points, have not yet finished +their labors; and what they have as yet communicated to the Royal +Society of London, and the Academy of Sciences of Paris, is not +sufficiently detailed. In 1864, Messrs. Plücker and Hittorf +discovered that variations in temperature of some of the chemical +elements, such as hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur, and selenium, +caused sudden changes in their spectra. At a certain degree of +heat, their former lines instantly disappeared and were succeeded +by new ones. This is evidently somewhat analogous to what takes +place in a sonorous pipe when it is blown more forcibly. At +first, the sound only becomes louder, then its pitch is suddenly +raised. But here we know the relation of the new note to the old +one; but the connection between the successive spectra has not +yet been ascertained. As regards pressure, Messrs. Frankland and +Lockyer inform us that one of the lines of hydrogen increases in +breadth with increased compression of the gas. We have also +already said that under very high pressures the gases have not +only shown broader bright lines, but even continuous spectra. (It +will be remembered that the usual spectrum given by a luminous +gas consists of isolated bright lines.) Father Secchi, whose +attention has lately been turned to composite rather than to +simple substances, has observed, among other things, that the +spectrum of benzine vapor is gradually modified with a gradual +increase of density. + +Let us pass to the recent applications which astronomers have +made of these various principles. The eclipse of the 18th of +August, 1868, and the beautiful discovery of M. Janssen, have +naturally turned their attention to the sun, and some most +interesting discoveries have been made. To study its various +portions, an image of it is first produced in the focus of a +large telescope, which image is afterward enlarged by a lens +similar to those used for the objectives of microscopes; and its +different parts are successively placed upon the slit of the +spectroscope. (The slit is the small aperture of that shape +through which the light enters before falling upon the analyzing +prism.) This slit thus receives light from only a part of the +sun's disc; for the light diffused in our atmosphere and falling +upon it, although coming indeed from all parts of the sun, is too +feeble to interfere with the observations. Suppose, then, that +our eye is at the spectroscope, and that the slit is receiving +rays from the centre of the sun. +{823} +The movement of the heavens will bring all the points of the +solar radius successively upon it, from the centre to the edge; +and if the slit is placed perpendicular to this radius, it will +come out, of course, tangent to the edge. Under these conditions, +and if the atmosphere is steady, the phenomena will be as +follows. + +As long as we are upon the disc, we shall see nothing but the +usual solar spectrum with its colors and its numerous dark lines. +The region from which this light comes is called the photosphere; +and its spectrum would be continuous were not its light absorbed +by the interposed vapors of a great many substances. These vapors +produce the dark lines; but where are they? It was for a long +time supposed that they formed an immense atmosphere round the +sun, only visible during total eclipses under the form of a +brilliant aureola. This hypothesis seems now to have been +abandoned, for reasons which will soon be given. It is generally +thought that these absorbing vapors form the atmosphere in which +the luminous clouds float, or, at least, that they are in +immediate contact with the photosphere. + +Secondly, when we have nearly arrived at the edge, the spectrum +is covered with a number of bright lines. According to Messrs. +Frankland and Lockyer, these probably indicate a very thin +gaseous covering of the photosphere, the elective emission of +which has no effect for want of sufficient thickness, except upon +the borders of the sun, where it is seen very obliquely. Upon the +rest of the surface it only acts by its elective absorption, and +perhaps may be the only cause of the dark lines. This conjecture +certainly agrees with the principles just developed. + +Thirdly, at the moment of passing off the disc, the lines all +disappear, and the spectrum becomes continuous. Father Secchi, +who informs us of this fact, naturally ascribes it to a +particular layer enveloping the photosphere. He adds that this +layer is very thin, so that tremulousness in the air suffices to +prevent its observation, on account of the mixture of lights. It +is not found on the whole circumference of the disc; but we shall +give an explanation of this. He supposes that it is the seat of +the elective absorption which produces the dark lines; but how +can this be reconciled with the continuity of the spectrum which +it emits? + +This spectrum soon disappears, and some brilliant lines take its +place, particularly a red, a yellow, a green, and a violet one. +At this moment the slit is illumined by the famous rose-colored +layer, now called the _chromosphere_, upon which rest the +protuberances, formerly so mysterious, seen in total eclipses. We +cannot see it in the ordinary way, on account of the atmospheric +light; but it comes out in the spectroscope, its light being +concentrated in a few bright lines, while that of our atmosphere +is spread out in a long spectrum, and consequently much weakened. +It has been found that the mean thickness of this gaseous +envelope of the sun is more than 5000 kilometres, (3107 miles,) +or about four tenths of the earth's diameter, and that its +contour is very variable; it is often agitated like the waves of +a stormy sea, while in some places it sometimes has a very +uniform level. It is now regarded as forming the outer limit or +coating of the sun. The only reason which formerly supported the +belief in a gaseous atmosphere outside of it, the elective +absorption of which gave the dark lines of the solar spectrum, +was the phenomenon of the aureola, already mentioned. But the +thin layer discovered by F. Secchi will probably account for +this; and there are, on the other hand, very strong reasons for +rejecting the idea of such a vast exterior envelope. +{824} +One is the appearance, mentioned above, of the numerous bright +lines which Messrs. Frankland and Lockyer attribute to a thin, +gaseous coating of the photosphere. The light of these ought +seemingly to be absorbed by a thick atmosphere, and the lines +reversed to dark ones. Besides, these same observers consider +that the change of breadth of the lines shows that the pressure +is insignificant at the summit of the chromosphere, and that even +at the base it is less than that of our own air. Lastly, no +traces have been found of the bright-line spectrum which this +envelope ought itself to give in the vicinity of the disc. + +To return to the chromosphere: of what gases is it formed? It +certainly is principally composed of hydrogen, perhaps in many +parts entirely so. When a series of electric sparks is passed +through a tube containing pure hydrogen at a very low pressure, +the tube is illumined with a light of the same color as that of +the protuberances. If this light is examined with the +spectroscope, it shows a fine spectrum with a number of brilliant +and very fine lines, among which four are conspicuous, broader +and brighter than the others. The first is red, the second green, +the third and fourth are violet; but this fourth is much the +faintest, and even the third is not so bright as the other two. +The first is called C, the second F, because their positions +exactly correspond to those of the two dark lines thus designated +by Fraunhofer in the solar spectrum. The third is very near the +dark line G of the sun, which is produced by the vapor of iron. +Now, the two first are always found among the lines of the +chromosphere; the third also is often visible; and M. Rayet has +recently seen the fourth. Hydrogen, then, exists in this layer; +for though its other lines are not seen, this may easily be +ascribed to their faintness. But there is one line of the +chromosphere which is still unexplained, the yellow one between C +and F. It would at first seem to be the well-known double line of +sodium, called D, which is so frequently met with in +spectroscopic experiments; but it is certain that it is somewhat +more refrangible than this; and it is not yet known to what +substance it is due; it may, perhaps, also belong to hydrogen, +under a different pressure or temperature from any under which it +has been observed here. + +It has been said that the outline of the chromosphere is +generally very irregular. Immense columns rise from it, the +celebrated protuberances, the height of which is sometimes as +much as eleven diameters of the earth, (or 85,000 miles.) It +must, therefore, be subject to great agitation, to which the +spectroscope bears witness. Mr. Lockyer has observed several +times that foreign substances were projected into it; for +example, magnesium into one protuberance as far as the sixth part +of its height; barium and sodium, and probably other bodies also, +were seen, but at smaller elevations. We now understand the +breaks in the thin layer detected by F. Secchi; it is probably +torn by the upward movement of various substances toward the +protuberances. It is, in fact, wanting near the bright spots on +the sun, called faculae, and it is now known that these faculae +are always covered by protuberances. + +Near these bright spots are also usually found the dark spots +which have been observed for more than two centuries. Some +discoveries have just been made regarding these which are perhaps +the most interesting of any yet made in the sun. +{825} +Every one knows that they are composed of two distinct parts--the +nucleus, which appears black in a telescope, but which is really +quite bright, since it gives a spectrum of its own; and the +penumbra, which surrounds this nucleus. The latter consists of +portions of the photosphere, drawn out in the form of threads +toward the centre of the nucleus; these threads sometimes unite +with each other and form bridges, as it were, over the dark +space. All the spectral observations confirm the idea previously +entertained, that these spots are really cavities in the +photosphere; also they indicate that these cavities are filled +with absorbing vapors, whose high degree of pressure is manifest +by the broadening of their lines. Mr. Lockyer has seen in them +sodium, barium, and magnesium; F. Secchi, calcium, iron, and +sodium. Above these spots the hydrogen of the chromosphere +appears in quantities sufficient for its elective emission to +destroy the black lines produced by its absorption upon other +parts of the disc, and even sometimes to change them into bright +ones. But there are many other peculiarities in the spectra of +the spots; and F. Secchi, in examining them, has hit upon an idea +which seems to us very suggestive. It was already known by +observations of their frequency and size, that the sun is a +slightly variable star, with a period of ten and one third years. +We now find a new resemblance between it and the other variable +stars. It may be remembered that the Roman astronomer has lately +divided the stars into four classes, according to the general +character of their spectra. He has just compared the different +portions of the sun with these four groups, and finds that if its +surface was all like the nuclei of the spots, it would have to be +put in the class whose type is Betelgeux, all of which are more +or less variable; that the penumbras are like Arcturus, and the +general surface of the photosphere like Pollux. He has also +concluded, from the presence of many of the dark lines in the +nuclei, that the vapor of water exists in these regions of the +sun; and the appearance of others not yet named has caused him to +suspect the presence of many other compound bodies. Up to this +time, hardly any thing but the simple substances has been looked +for, as the heat of the sun would seem to be so great as to +separate all the composite ones; but this temperature probably is +not so high in the spots. It became, therefore, of interest to +examine the faint red stars which form his fourth group; and in +doing so, F. Secchi has obtained the surprising result that the +vapor of a compound substance, namely, benzine, gives, when +incandescent, a spectrum having bright lines exactly +corresponding to the dark ones of one of the stars of this group. +This star, then, appears to have an atmosphere of benzine. + +Finally, the spectroscope has demonstrated the movement of at +least one star. Mr. Huggins has found that the hydrogen lines in +the spectrum of Sirius do not exactly coincide with those of this +gas when at rest, but are displaced toward the violet; this +observation was confirmed at Rome. It would follow from this that +Sirius is rapidly approaching us. This is the only observation of +this description which seems yet to be well established. But may +it not be possible to make others, and even elsewhere than among +the stars? The chromosphere is, as we know, the scene of very +rapid movements; and may not these be visible by the displacement +of the spectral lines? +{826} +The following remark of Mr. Lockyer, in one of his communications +to the Royal Society, would induce us to hope for this: "In the +protuberance of which we are speaking, the line F was strangely +displaced. It seemed that some disturbing cause altered the +refrangibility of this line of hydrogen _under certain +conditions and pressures_." But is it really to pressure that +this displacement is due, when we know that rapid movement +produces this effect, which has never been known to follow from +pressure? But let us hasten to acknowledge that, in a subsequent +communication of the same author, we find a sentence much more to +the point, and which only needs to be a little more developed to +answer our question. Mr. Lockyer is here speaking of movements in +the vapors which fill the cavities of the spots. "The changes of +refrangibility," says he, "of the rays in question show that the +absorbing matter is rising and falling relatively to the luminous +matter, and that these movements can be determined with great +precision." Let us hope that this will be verified by +observation, and that exact measures will show the fertility of +such a promising theoretical principle. [Footnote 199] + + [Footnote 199: The rapidity of some of these movements has + been said to be about one hundred miles a second.] + +The length of this bulletin is beginning to alarm us; but since +it should include all the last scientific developments concerning +the subject of ethereal vibrations, a word must be added on some +curious experiments of Mr. Tyndall. The chemical action of these +vibrations had hardly been examined hitherto, except in the +nutrition of plants, in the formation of chlorhydric acid, and in +the transformation of various substances, principally used in +photography. The successor of Faraday has recently studied their +effects upon vapors, and has applied the curious results of his +investigations to some as yet unexplained facts of meteorology +and astronomy. Passing a cylindrical beam of light down a long +glass tube full of the vapor which he wished to examine, he found +that the vapor soon ceased to be completely transparent. An +incipient cloud, as he calls it, soon appeared, so thin that it +could only be seen by the light of the beam producing it, but +became invisible in the full light of day. Some vapors +undoubtedly will not produce it; but the experiment succeeds +perfectly with many different ones, especially with nitrite of +amyle, bisulphide of carbon, benzine, etc. The following +explanation of this phenomenon seems quite probable. The +vibrations of the ethereal medium, or at least some of them, are +communicated to the _atoms_ of which the composite +_molecules_ of the vapor are formed. Owing to isochronism, +the movement becomes strong enough to break up the molecule, the +atoms of which are formed into new combinations, which are better +able to resist the action of light. If the new substance cannot +remain under the given pressure and temperature in the gaseous +state, it will be precipitated in liquid particles, which are at +first extremely small, but gradually increase in size, so as to +intercept the light and become visible. If the vapor employed +satisfies these conditions, the experiment ought to succeed. The +chemical analysis of the products has, we believe, in some cases +confirmed this explanation; we will now confirm it by some facts +of another kind. + +In Mr. Tyndall's experiments, the vapor examined was never +unmixed; when it was put into the tube, some other gas was also +introduced, usually atmospheric air; but other gases were also +employed. With hydrogen, a remarkable effect was produced. On +account of its small density, it failed to sustain the liquid +particles, and they slowly settled in the bottom of the tube. +{827} +By a suitable diminution of the pressure of these mixtures of gas +and vapor, the chemical action of the rays could be retarded at +pleasure. The "incipient cloud" could then be seen to form +gradually; and whatever was the character of the vapor used, the +cloud had always at first a magnificent blue color. Continuing +the experiment, the brilliancy of the cloud increased, but its +blue tinge diminished, until it became as white as those usually +formed. The natural explanation of this change is found in the +gradual growth of the liquid particles. + +The cloud was not usually formed all along the course of the +rays. After having traversed a certain thickness of vapor, the +rays, though seeming as bright as ever, lost their chemical +power. This result might easily be predicted by the theory. Only +a few of these rays had the proper length of wave to act by +isochronism upon the atoms of the vapor. These would be absorbed +shortly after entering; and the others, though vastly more +numerous and escaping absorption, would produce no chemical +effect. It was even probable that, by passing the light at the +outset through a small thickness of the liquid, the vapor of +which was contained in the tube, all its active rays could be +taken out; and experiment confirmed this conclusion. It is to be +regretted that the light was not examined with the prism before +being employed; the wave-length of the active rays would then +have been known. It is no doubt very probable that they are +toward the violet extremity, either among the visible rays or +beyond. But the colored glasses, which the English physicist +interposed, only partially resolve the question. The prism would +undoubtedly have shown that the wave-length of the active rays +varies with the substance exposed to them. + +Some vapors taken alone are almost insensible, while their +mixture is immediately affected by the passage of the rays. Such +is the case of that of nitrite of butyle with chlorhydric acid. +This is very easily explained theoretically. The disturbance +communicated to the atoms by the ethereal vibrations, though very +decided, may be insufficient to break up the molecules. But if +another cause, though itself insufficient alone, comes to its +assistance, the atoms may be separated. Such another cause is +that which chemists have long known as _affinity_, the +manifestations of which are very numerous; but which has not yet +been submitted to a precise analysis. In the case just mentioned, +the affinity of the elements of the nitrite of butyle for those +of the chlorhydric acid conspires with the vibrations to destroy +the molecules of the two substances and form a new one, which is +precipitated. The phenomenon is like that observed in the growth +of plants. Light alone is not sufficient to decompose the +carbonic acid of the air; neither are the leaves when in the +dark. But when the sun's rays fall upon them, the carbonic acid +is decomposed, its oxygen uniting with the atmosphere and its +carbon with the plant. It is now easy to justify what was said in +the beginning as to the formation of chlorhydric acid by the +action of the rays on a mixture of chlorine and hydrogen. It is +only necessary that the molecules of these gases, or, at least, +of one of them, should be composed of several atoms. Affinity +alone could only break the union of these very slowly; but the +light would shake them apart, and enable the affinity to act +immediately. + +{828} + +So far Mr. Tyndall's experiments agree perfectly with the theory; +they confirm it, but they do not extend it. He has, however, made +others, which seem to disclose new points in the theory of +exchange of movements between the ether and ponderable matter. It +might no longer be the atoms or the molecules which would have to +be considered in respect to the ethereal vibrations, but even the +particles, if sufficiently small. In fact, these particles +reflect the rays not absorbed, according to entirely new laws. In +the first place, although belonging to colorless liquids, they +reflect the blue rays much better than the others. This is true +of all the vapors tried, without exception. This elective +reflection only holds when their dimensions are small, since it +disappears as the size of the particles increases. This is quite +a new fact, and, it must be acknowledged, as yet quite +unexplained. Secondly, they polarize light according to laws +which must also be called new, being entirely different from +those given by theory and experiment for polarization by +reflection. In one respect these laws are not new; for they have +been long observed in atmospheric polarization; but this has +always been one of the knotty points of the undulatory theory. +Evidently, Mr. Tyndall's experiments do not clear it up entirely; +but they have made an important advance in that direction, by +showing to what physical circumstance this polarization is +probably due. It would appear, that is, that in the higher +regions of our atmosphere there are vapors which, instead of +condensing in particles large enough to form ordinary clouds, are +precipitated like those used by Mr. Tyndall, and fill the air +with extremely small particles and with incipient clouds. This +hypothesis is certainly very probable. It accounts at once for +the blueness of the sky, and for its polarization of light. + +Here is, then, a problem for theorists, in a better condition +than previously. We hope to return to it shortly, in a subsequent +bulletin. In conclusion, let us point out a new application of +these experiments to the physical theory of comets. Mr. Tyndall +considers the cometary matter to be a vapor on which the sun's +rays act physically and chemically. These two actions would be +somewhat contrary to each other; for the first would tend to +evaporate the liquid particles and expand the vapor, while the +second would precipitate this vapor in the form of incipient +cloud. As the comet approaches solar action, forming an immense +volume, of which the visible part will be only a small fraction, +the head being the most condensed portion. If, now, we suppose +the head to absorb the heating rays more abundantly than the +remaining ones, in the cool shadow behind it the chemical action +may prevail, and form an incipient cloud, which will be the tail +of the comet. Elsewhere, the calorific action will predominate, +and the vapor will remain invisible. Such is substantially the +new theory of comets. It certainly satisfies the general +conditions of the problem, and especially it explains very +naturally the enormously rapid movements observed in the tails of +these bodies. But will what is still undetermined in it enable it +to be accommodated to the numerous facts already observed, and +hereafter to be so? Here, also, it may be regretted that the +spectroscope was not employed by the English physicist. The +spectra of the incipient clouds might have been compared with +those of comets' tails; and would have given an excellent test of +the theory. Perhaps, however, he has reserved this part of his +researches for a future publication. + +---------- + +{829} + + St. Oren's Priory. + Or, Extracts From The + Note-book Of An American In A + French Monastery. + + "Pour chercher mieux." + --Device of Queen Christina of Sweden. + + + PART I. + + "I hear a voice you cannot hear, + Forbidding me to stay: + I see a hand you cannot see, + Which beckons me away." + + +Such were the words on my lips, my dear friend, when I bade you +farewell and promised that I would, from time to time, give you a +picture of my convent life, that you might in spirit follow me +closely into the sealed garden of the Beloved, though forced by +circumstances to remain far from me in body. + +Fatigued with my long journey, you can imagine I was very glad +when I reached this city. I hastened to find the _Rue du +Prieuré_, a narrow, gloomy street, paved with cobble-stones, +cheerless and uninviting. But about half-way down, I saw a statue +of Mary Most Pure, in a niche over a large doorway, with her +all-embracing arms extended in welcome. That was a _sursum +corda_ which reassured me. The place where Mary is honored is +always a home for her children. The sight of her image brings +peace and repose to the soul, and I turned aside to rest under +her shadow. It was the grand portal of St. Oren's Priory, an +arched passage through the very building, wide enough to admit a +carriage. I stopped before the ponderous door that was to open +for me a new life. This was the door I had so often heard +compared with another portal which bears the inscription: + + "All ye who enter here, leave hope behind." + +But above my head was the Madonna which meant love and peace. +_Peace_; yes, that was what I sought, like the Tuscan poet +at the Italian monastery: + + "And as he asks what there the stranger seeks, + My voice along the cloister whispers, Peace!" + +The door opened just wide enough to admit me, and, passing +through the arch, I found myself in a small paved court, enclosed +by the monastery on all sides, where the sun only comes for a +short time at midday--a grateful refuge from its heat. In it is a +fine large linden-tree, under whose wide-spreading branches I +found a group of nuns--it being the hour of daily reunion. I felt +bewildered by the sight of so many strange faces, but my first +impression was one of general kindness and cordiality. I could +not have asked for a kinder welcome, and surely hope and peace +were on every face. One of the mothers, seeing my fatigue, took +me to the chapel for a moment, and then, through long corridors, +to a small cell; thus giving me a general glance at my foreign +home. I found thick stone walls, long passages, paved floors, a +dim old chapel, and narrow cells. You will think this fearful; on +the contrary, it is charming because monastic. One of the narrow +cells is mine; furnished with a table, chair, bed, and +_prie-dieu_. On the latter stands a crucifix, and on the +wall hangs a print of Notre Dame de Bon Secours. There is one +window in it, + + "Looking toward the golden Eastern air." + +{830} + +It opens in the middle, longitudinally, like all the windows +here; each part swinging back like a folding-door. Looking +through it upon the convent garden, the first thing I saw was a +lay-sister, bearing on her head an antique-looking jar, which she +had just filled from a huge well. There are two of these immense +wells in the garden, dug by the monks of old! Yes, _monks_, +for our monastery was once a Benedictine abbey, and dates from +the tenth century. There's hoary antiquity for you, which has +such a charm for us people of the new world. These first days, +while resting from my fatigue, I have been looking over the +annals of this old establishment, and must give you an outline of +them. + +Do you remember reading, in the _Chronicles_ of Sir John +Froissart, of the Armagnacs, so long at enmity with the house of +Foix? The first Count of Armagnac, was the founder of St. Oren's +Priory. He was known by the name of Bernard _le Louche_. He +made this city the capital of his _comté;_ and one of his +first acts, after his establishment here, was to build this +monastery. The old parchment in the archives of the priory, quite +in accordance with the spirit of the times, runs thus: + + "Bernardus Luscus, mindful of his sins, unable to fulfil a vow + he had made to visit the Holy Places at Jerusalem, and desirous + of liquidating his debts to Divine Justice, resolved, by the + counsel of his wife, the Domina Emerina, and the advice of the + magnates, his lieges, to found a monastery _in honorem + Sanctorum Joannis Baptistae et Evangelistae et Beati + Orentii_, that therein prayer might be daily offered for his + sins and for those of his posterity." + +The site selected for the erection of this monastery was on the +banks of a branch of the Garonne, at the foot of an old city +known in the time of the Caesars as Climberris, and built _en +amphithéatre_, with superb terraces, upon the side of an +elevation. It was fitting that the abbey, which Count Bernard had +founded for the spiritual weal of himself and his posterity, and +endowed with "lands and livings many a rood," should find shelter +beneath his fostering eye at the very foot of his crescent-shaped +city, which was itself surmounted by the embattled walls of his +own stronghold. Thus enclosed by hills on the north and west, and +the peaceful, sluggish Algersius on the east, threading its way +toward the Garonne--its current soft-gliding and calm as the life +of the cloister--what spot more suitable could Count Bernard have +found on which to build a house of prayer? The warm sun of France +to which it thus lay exposed was tempered by the keen, +invigorating winds that came from the snowy Pyrenees, which +glitter away to the south. + +In this very place, before the advent of the Messiah, in +mythological times, a temple had stood in honor of Diana, the old +ideal of a people's reverence for purity, and one of nature's +foreshadowings of the Christian exaltation of chastity. The +Auscitains being early converted to Christianity, their zealous +apostles overthrew the high places of the Gentiles, and thereon +set up the victorious ensign of the cross--_Vexilla regis +prodeunt!_ + +On the ruins of Diana's temple was erected an altar to the true +God, and a baptistery, named, as all baptisteries are, after the +precursor of Christ, where came the warlike Ausci to be +regenerated at the holy hands of the zealous St. Taurin, and the +fearless, idol-demolishing St. Oren, who in turn fixed their +abode hard by. Other saints too have lived on the same spot, and +their bodies were enshrined hereon after their spirits had passed +away. +{831} +St. Taurin, St. Oren, St. Léothade, St. Austinde, names ever +venerable to the heart of an Auscitain, living in the shadow of +your shrines, sheltered by your votaries who merit for me your +protection, I should be ungrateful to you, untrue to my own +heart, did I not often murmur your potent names and praise you to +those afar off! + +St. Taurin was the fourth successor of St. Paterne, whom St. +Sernin, the great apostle not only of Toulouse but of all this +part of France, consecrated first bishop of Eauze, then the +metropolis of Novempopulania, as Gascony was called. Forced by +barbarians, who came in search of spoils, to quit Eauze, St. +Taurin took refuge in Climberris, bringing with him, among other +relics, the bodies of his four sainted predecessors in the +episcopacy: St. Paterne, St. Servand, St. Optat, St. Pompidien. +At that time, there were two distinct cities here--Climberris, a +Gaulish city, on the side and crest of the hill, and Augusta +Auscorum, on the eastern bank of the Algersius, which last +received its name from the Emperor Augustus, who passed through +it on his return from Spain, and gave it the rights of a Roman +city. St. Saturnin had first preached the gospel here, and built +a church under the invocation of St. Peter in the city of +Augusta; and at the foot of Climberris, where our priory now +stands, was a church of St. John. St. Taurin chose the latter as +his metropolitan church--a rank it retained for a long +period--and there enshrined the holy bodies he had brought with +him. + +The zeal of St. Taurin was not confined to his own flock. Hearing +of a great Druidical celebration in the woods of Berdale, he +repaired thither. The unholy rites had commenced, and a profound +silence reigned, when all at once a loud voice was heard. It was +that of St. Taurin, denouncing their idolatry and calling upon +the multitude to turn to the true God. The crowd was at first too +much astonished at his boldness to move, but after some +hesitation, incited by the Druids, overwhelmed the apostle with a +shower of stones. Finding he still breathed, they cut off his +head. His feast is solemnized with the utmost pomp in this +diocese, on the fifth of September, which is believed to be the +day of his martyrdom. + +St. Oren belonged to a Spanish family of high rank, his father +being the Duke of Urgel and Governor of Catalonia. He early +renounced his right of heritage, but, after the death of his +brother, succeeded to the family estates. He sold all his +property, distributed the money among the poor, and retired to a +hermitage amidst the mountains of Bigorre, where he led an +angelic life, giving himself up to severe austerities and the +contemplation of divine things. The renown of his virtues and his +reputation for learning caused his nomination to this see, of +which he reluctantly took possession in the year 400. He +displayed extraordinary energy and zeal in rooting out the +vestiges of idolatry still lingering in his diocese, and in +reviving true piety among the lukewarm of his flock. + +St. Oren was a learned man and a poet. The great Fortunatus, +Bishop of Poitiers, who lived in the sixth century, mentions his +poems, of which some fragments have come down to us. His +_Nomenclature_, in particular, has always been known and +quoted. It is more extensive than any other ancient list of the +symbols of the God-Man. Sylvius, in the fifth century, gives +forty-five of these symbolical names in seven verses. Clement of +Alexandria, in his hymn to our Saviour, gives ten. St. Cyril +mentions twelve, in a sermon. +{832} +The list of St. Phébade of Agen, in the fourth century, comprises +twenty-one. The _Nomenclature_ of Constantinople mentions +twelve; that of Rome, twenty-two; but that of St. Oren, composed +in his solitude of Bigorre, gives, in five distichs, fifty-two of +these emblematical names of our Saviour. I quote it entire: + + De Epithetis Salvatoris Nostri. + + Janua, + Virgo, + Leo, + Sapientia, + Verbum, + Rex, + Baculus, + Princeps, + Dux, + Petra, + Pastor, + Homo, + Retia, + Sol, + Sponsus, + Semen, + Mons, + Stella, + Magister, + Margarita, + Dies, + Agnus, + Ovis, + Vitulus, + Thesaurus, + Fons, + Vita, + Manus, + Caput, + Ignis, + Aratrum, + Flos, + Lapis angularis, + Dextra, + Columba, + Puer, + Vitis, + Adam, + Digitus, + Speculum, + Via, + Botryo, + Panis, + Hostia, + Lex, + Ratio, + Virga, + Piscis, + Aquila, + Justus, + Progenies regis, + regisque Sacerdos; + Nomina Magna Dei, + major at ipse Deus. + +"These are the great names of God, but he himself is still far +greater!" says the last line. + +St. Oren never lost his love for solitude, and this attraction, +added to the burden of his episcopal duties, induced him at last +to resume his hermit's staff and set out for the grotto, which +had been the witness of his former austerities and was the +never-ceasing object of his regret. His flock, in consternation, +pursued him and brought him back to his post, where his piety, +his talents, and the miracles he wrought, gave him preeminence +among all the bishops of Aquitaine. When Theodoric I., King of +the Visigoths, was besieged at Toulouse, by Lictorius, lieutenant +of the celebrated Aétius, the former sent St. Oren, with several +other bishops, to arrange terms of peace with the Roman +commander. Lictorius received them with haughty contempt, and, +sure of victory, rejected all their propositions. Then Theodoric +humbled himself before the Lord of Hosts. He covered himself with +sackcloth, prostrated himself in prayer, and then went forth to +battle and to victory. + +Shortly after this embassy, St. Oren felt his end approaching, +and armed himself with the holy sacraments for the last earthly +combat. His soul passed away, with a sweet odor, on the first of +May, and his body was enshrined in the church of St. John, which +subsequently took his name. He has always been greatly venerated +in this country, and is invoked in all diseases of the mind. +Count John I. of Armagnac gave a magnificent silver bust as a +reliquary for the skull of St. Oren. His feast is still +religiously celebrated, and is a great holiday among the common +people, who assemble after vespers to dance their _rondeaux_ +in the open air. + +The church of St. John, where reposed a long line of holy +apostles and prelates, was, with the two cities, destroyed by the +Saracens, in the eighth century. But in the year of grace 956, as +I have said, Bernard le Louche, inspired by God, built on the +same spot a magnificent church with three naves, to which he +joined a Benedictine abbey. They were built of the stones of the +city walls, which, two centuries before, had been levelled to the +dust by the Moors. A hundred years later, this abbey was reduced +to a priory by St. Hugo, and affiliated to his abbey at Cluny. +The names of a long succession of abbots and priors are recorded +in the chronicles of St. Oren's Priory, most of whom belonged to +the noblest families of the country. During the French Revolution +of 1793, the abbatial church and a part of the monastery were, +alas! destroyed; but there is a quadrangular tower--a part of the +original abbey--still standing, and a fine Gothic chapel, which +dates from the fourteenth century, besides a more modern, and +still large, edifice, with long dim corridors leading away to +austere cells, or to spacious sunny _salons_. These were +taken possession of by a venerable community of Ursuline nuns, +who had been dispersed during the Reign of Terror, but who, as +soon as permitted, hastened like doves to find a new ark. + +{833} + +A steep spiral staircase, of hewn stone, lighted only by long +narrow chinks left purposely in the thick walls, leads to the top +of the old tower, which commands a delightful view of the valley +of the Algersius. At the foot, toward the south, lies the convent +garden, with its wells, its almond-trees, acacias, vines, and +rose-bushes--loved haunts of the nightingales, which I heard +there for the first time in my life. On the east passes the +_route impériale_, beneath the very convent walls, and +beyond, parallel with it, flows the river which gives its name to +the _département_. Centuries ago, when the country was more +thickly wooded, it is said to have been a navigable river, and +merited to be sung by Fortunatus, who was a poet as well as +bishop. The eastern bank is shaded by a long grove of noble +trees--a public promenade--where, at due hours, may be seen all +the fashion, valor, and sanctity of the city. Through the trees +may be caught a glimpse of an old Franciscan monastery, now an +asylum for the insane, where once stood a temple of Bacchus, +whose memory is still perpetuated in this land of vineyards. +There, in the fourteenth century, was buried Reine, niece of Pope +Clement V., and wife of John I., the thirteenth Comte d'Armagnac. +Near by is the airy tower of St. Pierre, first built by St. +Saturnin, in the third century, and rebuilt several times +since--the last time, after its destruction by the Huguenots in +the civil and religious disturbances of the sixteenth century. +The music of its _carillon_ floats through the valley at an +early hour every morning, summoning the devout to mass. + +Cradling the valley toward the west is the quaint old city. Its +houses of cream-colored stone with red tiled roofs rise one +behind the other on terraces, and, crowning all, are the towers +of one of the finest cathedrals of France. + +Due east from the tower, in the background, rises a high hill, +called in the time of the Romans Mount Nerveva, but which now +glories in the more Christian appellation of Mount St. Cric. +There our glorious St. Oren battered down a temple of Apollo, but +its summit is still lit up by that god at each return of hallowed +morn. + +Away to the south stretch the Pyrenees, hiding Catholic and +chivalric Spain, and gleaming in the sun like the very walls of +the celestial city. Even Maldetta, with its name of ill omen, +looks pure and holy. + +This old tower is for me a loved haunt on a bright sunny day. I +often betake myself to its top to enjoy all the reveries inspired +by the scene before me. Its venerable, almost crumbling walls, +its curious recesses and carvings, speak loudly of the monks of +old. There I seem nearer to heaven; I breathe a purer, a more +refined atmosphere, which exalts the heart and quickens its +vibrations. + +There is a large sunny apartment in the tower in which I +witnessed a most affecting event--the death of a nun. So +impressed was I by this flight of an angelic soul to the +everlasting embraces of the Spouse of virgins, that I cannot +refrain from giving you a sketch of its closing scenes. + +{834} + +When I first arrived at the priory, poor Sister Saint Sophie +wandered around like a ghost, already far gone with pulmonary +consumption. She entered the cloister while only seventeen years +of age, wishing to offer the flower of her life to him who loves +the fragrance of an innocent heart. Now, at the age of +twenty-eight, she was called to exchange the holy chants of the +choir for the divine _Trisagium_ of the redeemed above. Her +health had long been delicate; but the innocence of her soul, the +natural calmness of her disposition, her strong religious faith, +and her detachment from earth, made her look forward to death +without the slightest apprehension. She spoke of the event as she +would of going to the chapel where dwells the Beloved. + +About a week before her death, she went to the infirmary, by her +own request--to die. The infirmary is a commodious apartment in +the second story of the tower, a room which most of the nuns +shrink from approaching, for there they have seen so many of +their sisters die. I went every day to see poor Sister Sophie. +The room was adorned with religious engravings, a crucifix, a +statue of the Madonna, and a holy-water font. On the mantel were +some books of devotion, among which I noticed the New Testament +in French. I always found this dying sister calm, excepting one +evening, when her cheeks glowed with a burning fever. It was only +a few days before her death, and was caused by her last struggle +with earth. When that was past, she was ready to die. Her sister, +longing to see her once more, had obtained permission of the +ecclesiastical superiors to enter the monastery. But Sister +Sophie, wishing to avail herself of this last opportunity of +self-sacrifice, opposed her entrance; and it was this struggle +between natural affection and a sense of duty which produced so +violent a fever. This act of self-denial affected me deeply. + +One Saturday, at about half-past eight in the morning, I was +hastily summoned by the Mère St. J---- to go to the infirmary, +for Sister Sophie was dying. I hurried down. Poor Sophie lay, +ghastly white, with her crucifix in her hands. Her rosary and +girdle lay, on the bed, at the foot of which was placed an +engraving of the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the +opening of which reposed a dove--emblem of the soul that trusts +in the Saviour. She was perfectly calm. There was not a sign of +apprehension. Her brother-in-law, who was her physician, stood by +her bedside, and said she could not survive the day. Her +confessor, the Abbé de B----, a venerable priest of more than +four score years, asked if she had any thing on her conscience. +She shook her head. Her soul was clad in its pure bridal robe, +ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb. All went to the +chapel, and, with lighted tapers, two and two, followed the holy +viaticum to the infirmary. It was borne by the _curé_ in a +silver ciborium, and placed on an altar erected in the middle of +the room. It was a most solemn scene--the nuns kneeling all +around with wax tapers in their hands, their heads bowed down in +adoration, and their black robes and veils flowing around them, +all responding to the priest, who, in white surplice and stole, +brought comfort to the dying. He demanded of the dying nun a +profession of her faith; if she died in charity with all mankind; +and if she were sorry, and begged pardon of God, for all her +sins--to which she faintly but distinctly responded. He then gave +her the divine viaticum, and prepared to administer to her the +sacrament of extreme unction. +{835} +As he anointed each organ, he said, before repeating the formula +of the church, "O God! forgive me the sins I have committed by +_such an organ_," (of sight, hearing, etc.) After this +sacrament he accorded her the plenary indulgence of Bona Mors. I +was very much affected by these holy rites, and the more so as I +then witnessed them for the first time. + +I went to see the departing sister several times in the course of +the day. The death-struggle was long, but there was no appearance +of suffering. + +At eight o'clock in the evening, while we were reading the +meditation for the following morning, a nun came in haste. +"Quick! quick! pray for Sister Sophie. She is dying!" In a moment +the infirmary was crowded with nuns. Sister Sophie was in her +agony. The crucifix was still in her hand. A blessed candle of +pure white wax was burning beside her, and the sub-prioress was +reading solemn prayers for the departing soul, to which the nuns +sobbingly responded. At the head of her bed stood a sister, who +sprinkled her from time to time with holy water. Near her stood +another prompting pious aspirations: "Jesus! Mary! Joseph! may I +breathe out my soul with you in peace!" + +At half-past eight she had given up her soul as calmly as if +going to sleep. The _Sub-venite_ was said, and then we all +went to the chapel to pray for the departed. + +The next morning, (Sunday,) on my way to the chapel, I stopped at +the infirmary. Sister Sophie was lying on a bier, clad in her +religious habit, with the sacred veil upon her head, and in her +clasped hands a crucifix, and the vows which bound her to the +Spouse of virgins. Her countenance was expressive of happiness +and repose. A wax candle burned on each side of her head. A +holy-water font stood near, and some nuns knelt around, praying +for their departed sister. That day, masses were offered for her +in every church and chapel in the city, and at a later hour the +nuns said the office of the dead in choir. At four o'clock, I +went again to the infirmary, to see her placed in her coffin. I +have witnessed among those who are vowed to a life of holy +poverty many examples of detachment from every thing the world +deems essential, but I have never seen any thing which so went to +my heart as when I saw Sister Sophie's coffin. It was simply a +long deal box, unpainted and without lining. The body was placed +therein, still in the religious costume. The black veil covered +the face, and on her head was a wreath of white flowers. How +bitterly did the nuns weep as they placed their sister in her +narrow cell--even more austere than that in which she had lived! +I too wept profusely to see one buried thus humbly, but perhaps +suitably. The lid being nailed down, the coffin was covered with +a pall, on which was a great white cross, and on it the novices +spread garlands of fresh white flowers mingled with green leaves. + +The nuns are buried in the cemetery of St. Oren's parish, and +nothing is more affecting than when, at the portal of the +convent, the coffin is entrusted to the hands of strangers; the +nuns not being able to go beyond the limits of the cloister. It +is then conveyed to the exterior church. Several priests received +Sister Sophie at the door, and sprinkled the coffin with holy +water, chanting meanwhile the _De Profundis_ and _Requiem +aeternam_. How awfully solemn are these chants of the dead! +Every tone went to my very heart. The coffin was then borne to +the centre of the church, where it was surrounded by lights, and +the priests chanted the office for the dead, at the close of +which they went in procession to the cemetery. +{836} +First were three acolytes, the middle one bearing an immense +silver cross, which gleamed aloft in the departing sunlight; and +the other two bore the censer and the _bénitier;_ then came +the priests, two and two, chanting the _Miserere_. The +coffin followed, borne on a bier by six peasant women dressed in +white, with curious white caps and kerchiefs. Their sepulchral +appearance made me shudder. Then went four young ladies bearing a +pall, on which was the great white cross and the significant +death's-head. Many other ladies followed in procession. Arriving +at the cemetery, the grave was blessed, while we all knelt about +it. Water that had been sanctified with prayer was sprinkled on +the fresh earth; clouds of incense rose from the smoking censer, +and _Ego sum resurrectio et vita_ burst in solemn +intonations from the lips of the priests. Then the coffin was +lowered into the grave; the young ladies threw in garlands of +flowers which were soon covered. Poor Sophie was at rest, and her +soul was enjoying the reward of her sacrifices. I bedewed her +grave with my tears. Never was I so peculiarly affected by any +death as by this, every circumstance of which is fastened most +vividly in my memory. The _De Profundis_ and the +_Miserere_ still ring in my ear, and poor Sister Sophie, as +she lay in her agony, surrounded by the spouses of Christ, +praying amid their sobs, for her admittance into Paradise, will +never be forgotten. "_Requiescat in pace!_" + +But of all parts of the priory, I love best the antique chapel of +the Immaculate Conception. It is entered through the cloister by +a low, dim vestibule, supported by "ponderous columns, short and +low." A few steps, and the arches spring lightly up, forming a +perfect gem of a Gothic chapel, with its altar faithful to the +east-- + + "Mindful of Him who, in the Orient born, + There lived, and on the cross his life resigned, + And who, from out the regions of the morn, + Issuing in pomp, shall come to judge mankind." + +Three ogival windows in the chancel throw on the pavement the +warm gules of an escutcheon emblazoned on the glass. They diffuse +not too strong a light--only enough for a glow around the +tabernacle, leaving the rest of the chapel in a shade that +disposes the heart to contemplation and prayer. In the morning, +at mass, the rising sun streams through, mingling with the light +of the tapers, like that of nature and grace in the hearts of the +worshippers. Over the altar, in a niche, is a statue of Mary Most +Pure, with the divine Babe in her arms--as I love to see all her +statues, that the remembrance of the Blessed Virgin may never be +disconnected from that of the Incarnation. "The Madonna and +Child--a subject so consecrated by antiquity," says Mrs. Jameson, +"so hallowed by its profound significance, so endeared by its +associations with the softest and deepest of our human +sympathies, that the mind has never wearied of its repetition, +nor the eye become satiated with its beauty. Those who refuse to +give it the honor due to a religious representation yet regard it +with a tender, half-unwilling homage, and when the glorified type +of what is purest, loftiest, holiest, in womanhood stands before +us, arrayed in all the majesty that accomplished art, inspired by +faith and love, could lend her, and bearing her divine Son, +rather enthroned than sustained, on her maternal bosom,'we look, +and the heart is in heaven!' and it is difficult, very difficult, +to refrain from an 'Ora pro nobis!'" + +{837} + +In this chapel Mary has been honored for ages. The chronicles of +the priory tell us that in the days of the monks of St. Benedict +crowds of the faithful filled, as now, this chapel on the eighth +of December, its patronal _féte_. The deep-toned voices that +then chanted the praises of Mary have died away, but the notes +have been caught up and continued in softer, sweeter tones by the +lips of the spouses of Christ. + +I can never enter this chapel without a thrill. I love to linger +beneath its vault of stone, the arches of which spring from +corbells quaintly sculptured, and form, at their intersection, +medallions of Jesus and Mary, who look benignly down on the +suppliant beneath. Prostrate on the pavement which holy knees +have worn, and breathing an air perfumed by the prayers of +centuries, my mind goes back to former times, and I think of the +cowled monks who once bowed in prayer before the same altar, and +murmured the same prayers I so love to repeat: + + "Their book they read and their beads they told, + To human softness dead and cold, + And all life's vanity." + +I must tell you something of St. Mary's Cathedral, which is the +glory of this place. You should see it from our garden, crowning +this city built upon a hill, with its towers and pinnacles. It is +perfectly majestic. There, on the same spot, before the +Incarnation, stood a temple of Venus. Christianity, which always +loved to sanctify these high places, made the lascivious Venus +yield to the Mother of pure love. Toward the end of the third +century, St. Taurin brought a venerated statue of our Lady from +Eauze, and erected a chapel here in her honor. It was not till +about the year 800 that a cathedral was erected in the same +place. It has been four times demolished, and as often rebuilt. +In 1793, it was preserved with great difficulty. During that time +it served as a prison for many of the _noblesse_, and was +stripped of many of its most precious ornaments. The holy image +of Mary was superseded by the Goddess of Reason, and horses were +stabled in its chapels. But one does not love to linger over such +profanation. + +This cathedral is particularly remarkable for the carvings of the +choir and for the fine stained-glass windows of the Renaissance. +Wishing to examine it minutely, I obtained permission to visit it +at those hours when it is closed--that is, from noon till three +o'clock. Accompanied by a servant, I was there precisely at +twelve. The Angelus bell pealed forth just as I entered the +church, and + + "Sprinkled with holy sounds the air, as the priest with his hyssop + Sprinkles the congregation and scatters blessings upon them." + +The _Suisse_, who was an old soldier under Napoleon I., and +was in the Russian campaign, locked us in, free to wander at will +and unremarked in this vast cathedral, with the excellent +_Monographie_ by the learned Abbé Canéto in hand. At the +very portal we passed over the tomb of an old archbishop, who +wished through humility to be buried under the pavement of the +principal entrance to the church, that he might be trodden under +foot by all men. Perhaps there was something of natural instinct +in this choice. I know not whether I should prefer some quiet and +shady nook for my grave, or a great thoroughfare like this, with +the almost constant ring of human feet above my head. This +prelate has lain there about two centuries, "awaiting," as the +inscription says, "the resurrection of the dead." + +We entered the church beneath the tribune of the organ, a fine +instrument--the master-piece of Joyeuse, a famous organ-maker of +the time of Louis XIV. On its front panels are beautifully +carved, _en relief_, St. Cecilia and the Royal Harper. + +{838} + +The whole building is over three hundred feet long. Four rows of +pillars divide it into three naves and collateral chapels, which +are twenty-one in number, extending quite around it, each with +paintings, and statues, and altars of marble, and its oaken +confessional, + + "Where the graveyard in the human heart + Gives up its dead at the voice of the priest." + +The baptismal font, in the first chapel to the left, is of a +single block of fine black Belgian marble. One lingers +reverentially before it, to think of all the souls that have +there been regenerated, and of the holy joy of the guardian +angels around it. + +The windows are glorious in their effect. Thereon are represented +all the principal characters of the Bible, beginning with Adam +and Eve; interspersed are the sibyls _(Teste David cum +sibylla)_ and saints of the middle ages. The bright sun, +streaming through these "storied windows richly dight," revealing +in brightest hues "many a prophet, many a saint," casts a rich +light of purple and crimson and gold over altar and saint and +shrine; not the _dim_ religious light of the poets, but +bright and glorious as the rainbow that spans the Eternal Throne! +I could sit in their light for ever. What a beautiful missal, +gorgeously illuminated, they form for the common people, and a +book ever open, full of the beauty of holiness! I envy those who +have worshipped in such a church from infancy, whose minds and +tastes have been formed, in part, by its influences, whose +earliest religious associations are connected with so much that +is beautiful as well as elevating. There must be a certain tone +to their piety, as well as to their minds, wanting to those who +have only frequented the humbler chapels of the new world. I can +never enter the plainest Catholic church without emotion. The +very sight of a humble altar surmounted by the rudest cross, goes +to my heart; how much more a magnificent church like this, where +every thing appeals to the heart, the soul, the imagination! + +Over the doors leading to the transepts are the rose-windows. + + "Flamboyant with a thousand gorgeous colors, + The perfect flower of Gothic loveliness!" + +Beyond the transepts is the choir--a church within a church; for +it is enclosed by a high wall with a screen and rood-loft in +front. Here the canons chant the divine office seven times a day. +The stalls in which they sit are fit for princes--each one a +marvellous piece of workmanship, like the handiwork of a fairy +rather than of man. + +The panels with their large figures in relief, the Gothic niches +with their statuettes, the desks all covered with carved animals +and plants almost in the perfection of nature, the canopy with +its hangings, beautiful as lace, are all perfectly wrought in +black oak, and surpass all conception. I have heard it said the +wood was kept under water twenty years, and the carver was fifty +years in completing his work; and you would believe it could you +see the effect. I have seen finer churches, in some respects, but +no carvings to surpass these. One is never weary of examining +every inch of this exquisite choir, so full of perfection is +every part. Sacred and profane history, mythological and +legendary lore, the fauna and flora, are all mingled in these +stalls. There are one hundred and thirteen of them--sixty-seven +superior, and forty-six inferior; and three hundred and six +statuettes in wonderful little Gothic niches. Each superior stall +has its large panel, on which in demi-relief is the image of some +saint or sibyl. +{839} +One of them represents St. Martha of Bethany, with an +_aspersoir_ in her hand and the _Tarasque_ at her feet, +alluding to the old legend so popular in Provence, of her +subduing a monster which ravaged the banks of the Rhone by +sprinkling him with holy water. The city of Tarascon commemorates +the tradition. A magnificent church built there, under the +invocation of St. Martha, was endowed by Louis XI. + +At three o'clock the canons came for vespers, after which we went +to the tower to see the view and examine the bells, the largest +of which is covered with medallions of the apostles and the +Blessed Virgin, and with mottoes. It bears the name of Mary. + + "These bells have been anointed + And baptized with holy water." + +Perhaps you do not know that in the ceremony of consecrating a +bell, the bishop prays that, as the voice of Christ appeased the +troubled waters, God would endow the sound of the bell with power +to avert the malign influence of the great enemy; that it may +possess the power of David's harp, which dispelled the dark cloud +from the soul of Saul; and that at its sound hosts of angels may +surround the assembled multitudes, preserve their souls from +temptation and defend their bodies from all danger. The smaller +bells are rung daily for the Angelus and ordinary occasions. The +tones of the great Bourdon are reserved for the grand festivals +of Christmas, Easter, etc. I was curious to see them, for they +are like friends from whom we have had many kind tokens, but have +never met. They are always ringing above the priory; and their +tones say so many things to our hearts--solemn and funereal, or +tender, or joyful. "There is something beautiful in the +church-bell," says Douglas Jerrold--"beautiful and hopeful. They +talk to the high and low, rich and poor, in the same voice. There +is a sound in them that should scare away envy and pride and +meanness of all sorts from the heart of man; that should make him +look on the world with kind, forgiving eyes; that should make the +earth itself seem, to him at least, a holy place. Yes, there is a +whole sermon in the very sound of the church-bells, if we only +have the ears to understand it." As Longfellow says: + + "For the bells themselves are the best of preachers; Their + brazen lips are learned teachers. From their pulpits of stone + in the upper air, Sounding aloft, without crack or flaw, + Shriller than trumpets under the law, Now a sermon and now a + prayer. The clamorous hammer is the tongue; This way, that way, + beaten and swung, That from mouth of brass, as from mouth of + gold, May be taught the Testaments, New and Old: And above it + the great cross-beam of wood Representeth the holy rood, Upon + which, like the bell, our hopes are hung. And the wheel + wherewith it is swayed and rung Is the mind of man, that round + and round Sways, and maketh the tongue to sound! And the rope, + with its twisted cordage three, Denoteth the scriptural Trinity + Of morals, and symbols, and history; And the upward and + downward motions show That we touch upon matters high and low: + And the constant change and transmutation Of action and of + contemplation, Downward, the Scripture brought from on high; + Upward, exalted again to the sky; Downward, the literal + interpretation, Upward, the vision and mystery!" + +In the undercroft of the cathedral reposes, among other saints, +the body of St. Léothade. He was of royal blood, being a near +relative of Eudes, Duke of Aquitaine, who was of the race of +Clotaire II. He was also related to Charles Martel, and to the +well-known sylvan saint, Hubert, who was contemporary with St. +Léothade, and a native of this part of France. St. Léothade +embraced the monastic state early in life, and, after being abbot +at Moissac, was called to govern this diocese, which he did for +twenty-seven years. In the wars between Charles Martel and Eudes +he retired into Burgundy, his native place, where he died at the +beginning of the eighth century. His body was reclaimed by the +Auscitains. +{840} +His tomb is all sculptured with the symbols of our Saviour--the +fish, wine, etc. + +St. Léothade is invoked in various diseases, particularly for +epilepsy. + +Through the kindness of the _mère prieure_ I had the +privilege of assisting at the office of Holy Week at St. Mary's +Cathedral. I witnessed all those affecting rites from the +_jubé_, or rood-loft, which is reached by a dark, winding +stairway in one of the huge pillars. My position was one of +seclusion, and yet overlooked both the choir and the nave. To +fully appreciate the ceremonies of the church, one must witness +them in one of these old churches of the middle ages, to which +they seem adapted. The long procession of white-robed clergy, +through the forest of columns, with palm branches in their hands; +"Hosanna to the son of David!" resounding through the arches; the +tapers, rich vestments, the heavenly light streaming through the +stained-glass windows, not dimly, but like a very rainbow of hope +encircling us all--impress the heart with sentiments of profound +devotion. + +I was particularly struck by the vivid picture of the Passion +given in the gospel of Palm-Sunday, as sung by the choir. One +priest chanted the historical parts in a recitative way; a +second, the words of our Lord; and a third, the words of the +disciples and others. The insolent cries of the multitude, the +confident tones of St. Peter, the loud bold tones of Judas, were +well reproduced; while the sacred words of Christ were repeated +in the clearest, calmest, most subdued and plaintive of accents, +that sank into my soul and moved me to tears. That voice seemed +to sweep over the sea of surging hearts that filled the church, +like the very voice of Jesus calming the tempest on the lake! It +rung in my heart for days. It rings there yet, a sermon more +powerful than any man could preach. When the priest comes to the +words, "_and gave up the ghost_," the sight of the vast +multitude prostrating to the ground is most impressive. + +The gospel of the Passion, succeeding the triumphant procession +with the palm branches, becomes doubly impressive by the +contrast. "Oh! what a contrast," cries St. Bernard, "between +'_Tolle, tolle, crucifige eum_,' and '_Benedictus qui +venit in nomine Domini, Hosanna in Excelsis!_' What a contrast +between '_King of Israel_,' and '_We have no king but +Caesar!_' Between the green branches and the cross! Between +the flowers and the thorns! Between taking off their garments to +cast before him, and stripping him of his own and casting lots +for them!" + +The nave was one forest of waving green branches, and the common +people seemed to enter into and enjoy the ceremonies very +heartily. These grand services give such a vivid idea of the +great events of the life of Christ that they must be very +beneficial to the people, who come in throngs to witness them; +and there are no pews here, with their invidious distinctions, to +shut them out. The peasant and the nobleman are brought on a +level in that place where alone is to be found true +democracy--the Church. + +The archbishop presided at these ceremonies, a venerable, +austere-looking prelate, who moved about with gravity, always +attended by his servant, a pale, cadaverous-looking man in black, +with a white cravat, reminding me so forcibly of one of our New +England ministers that I never could resist a smile when my eye +fell on him, as he obediently followed the dignified prelate. + +{841} + +St. Mary's Cathedral was once one of the richest in France, being +endowed by the kings of Arragon, Navarre, and of France, and by +the Counts of Fezensac and of Armagnac. In those days the +archbishop was a magnate in the land. The Counts of Armagnac paid +homage to him, and when he came to take possession of his see, +the Baron de Montaut, with bared head and one limb bare, awaited +him on foot at the gates of the city, took his mule by the +bridle, and so conducted him to the cathedral. He was then, as he +styles himself now, primate of Novempopulania and of the two +Navarres. + +One of the old archbishops, of the race of the Counts d'Aure, +accompanied Richard the Lion-hearted to Palestine in 1190, and +died there the next year. + +On Holy Thursday all business was suspended. The streets were +crowded with people going to visit the different churches where +the Blessed Sacrament was exposed. I visited fourteen churches +and chapels. At every turn in the streets were boys erecting +little altars and chapels by the way-side, and importuning the +passer-by for a _sou_ to aid in fitting them up. Of course, +I saw the greater part of the city, which is picturesque, as seen +from the valley, but rather ugly when one has mounted the weary +flights of steps, and gained its heart. The streets are mostly +narrow and treeless, but there are two promenades with fine old +trees, and the public buildings are a credit to the place. There +is a _grand_ and _petit séminiaire_ here, a lyceum, +normal school, two boarding-schools, besides several day and free +schools; so there is no lack for means of instruction. + +The famous Nostradamus, renowned for his _Centuries +prophétiques_, was once a professor in this place. And St. +Francis Regis was regent of the Jesuits' college which was here +before the suppression of that order in the last century. + +On Good-Friday I went to the chapel of the Carmelites, for the +Three Hours' Agony. Daylight was wholly excluded. The altar was +fitted up like a Calvary, with a large crucifix on the summit. +Tall wax candles burned around it as round a bier. The rest of +the chapel was in darkness. The black grating that separates the +chancel from the choir of the nuns was so closely curtained that +they were wholly invisible. The agony was a paraphrase of the +last words of our Saviour upon the cross, making it like seven +discourses, or rather meditations. At the end of each part all +knelt, while the preacher made an extempore prayer, and then rose +a sweet solemn wail of music. One by one the lights around the +Calvary were extinguished--a deeper gloom shrouding the chapel +and settling on our hearts. At last, only one light was left, +emblematic of Him who came to give light to the world. That, too, +went out at three o'clock, leaving us in utter darkness. Then the +preacher cried: _Jesus is dying!--Jesus is dead!_ All fell +on their knees. The most profound silence reigned. When +sufficiently recovered from the awe and solemnity which pervaded +every heart, all prostrated themselves, and softly left the +church. The effect was indescribable. Nothing could so powerfully +incite the heart to repentance for sin, and unite it to the +sufferings and death of Christ, as this three hours' meditation +on his agony upon the cross. + + "Holy Mother, pierce me through; + In my heart each wound renew + Of my Saviour crucified!" + +{842} + +After the weight of sorrow that had been accumulating on the +heart during the great week of the Passion, you cannot imagine +the effect when, on Holy Saturday, the joyful Alleluias rang out +with all the bells of the city, which had been hushed for days, +announcing the Resurrection. A great rock seemed rolled away from +the heart, and hope and joy rose triumphant over sorrow, and +anguish, and fear. + +On Easter-Sunday I saw something at St. Mary's quite new to me. +After mass, a basket of bread was blessed, broken in pieces, and +passed around the church. All took a piece, made the sign of the +cross, and said a short prayer before eating it. This _pain +bénti_ is in commemoration of the _Agapae_ of the +primitive Christians, I suppose. It is a common custom here. +While still at our devotions, a man came around with a dish, +saying in a queer, sing-song tone, _Pour les ámes du +Purgatoire_, (For the souls in purgatory,) and offered the +dish as if doing you a favor to receive your mite, which, +perhaps, was right enough. + + + +Last Sunday evening I went to St. Oren's parish church, to assist +at the month of Mary. On each side of the pulpit is a large +statue. One is of Moses, the Hebrew lawgiver, with two horns. He +is often represented so by the old masters, because the same word +which expresses the brightness of his face when he descended from +the mount, may also be rendered horns. They give him a comical +look, any thing but saint-like. Such a statue would seem more +suitable, to my unaccustomed eyes, for some rural spot. Then it +would look like some link between man and the lower animals, and +so have some claims to our sympathy. + +I went into the sacristy to see the ivory horn said to have been +used by St. Oren, in the fifth century, to call the people to the +holy mysteries. It was still used, last century, during Holy +Week. It is curiously carved in the Byzantine style, with leaves, +birds, beasts, etc., upon it. It is popularly believed to have +the power of restoring hearing to the deaf. In the sacristy was +an old statue of St. Jago in a pilgrim's garb. In former times +there was a hospice in this city for the reception of pilgrims to +his shrine at Compostella. + + + +In making some excavations in our grounds, where once were the +cloisters of the monks, the workmen have found many old graves, +and also some curiosities. The other day a marble slab was found, +on which is a Latin inscription in quaint old characters, stating +that it was erected by Amaneus II., an archbishop of this diocese +in the thirteenth century. Beneath the inscription was carved a +cross, on one side of which was a crosier, and on the other a +leopard lion, the cognizance of the house of Armagnac. It bore +the date of 1288. The said Amaneus was of the celebrated house of +Armagnac, the head of which founded this priory. I should not be +a true daughter of the house did I not, with pious memory, love +to recall our benefactors, for, replacing the old monks, we take +upon ourselves their sweet debt of gratitude. I will give you, +then, an outline of this once proud family, that you may share +all our glorious memories. + +The counts of Armagnac descended from the Merovingian race of +kings. They were connected by marriage with the proudest families +of Europe, and at one time they gave their name to a faction of +France against the Burgundians. Their proud name and royal blood +were fit to merge again into a race of kings. +{843} +The first Count d'Armagnac was Bernard le Louche, who, through +Charibert, sovereign of Toulouse and Aquitaine, descended from +Clotaire II. Count Bernard was distinguished for his piety and +his benefactions to the church. The third count of Armagnac +divested himself of his worldly goods, and became a monk of the +order of St. Benedict. + +The famous contest of the Armagnacs with the house of Foix began +in the time of Bernard VI., the twelfth count. The pope in vain +endeavored to reconcile them. Philippe of Navarre finally decided +their differences, and peace was declared in 1329. The war was +renewed some years after, in the time of Count John, who was +taken prisoner, and had to pay a ransom of one thousand livres. + +Count Bernard VII. is the most famous of the Armagnacs. He was +the fifteenth count. His daughter Bonne married Charles, Duke of +Orleans, then only nineteen years of age, and the son of the Duc +d'Orléans who was killed by Jean-sans-peur, Duke of Burgundy. +Count Bernard became, by the youth of his son-in-law, the head of +the Orleans faction against the Burgundians. He was made +constable of France in 1415. To the dignity of supreme commander +of the army was added in a short time that of prime minister. +Descended from the old French monarchs, he had great sway in the +south of France, and was one of the greatest warriors of his age. +He displayed remarkable talents in remedying the frightful evils +which broke out throughout the kingdom. His efforts would +doubtless have been successful, had he not had to struggle +against the Burgundian party. By his experience and firmness he +established discipline among his troops, and kept them constantly +ready for action. Active, intrepid, gifted with a bold and +elevated character, he became a fearful rival for Jean-sans-peur. + +The numerous partisans of the latter, having succeeded in +deceiving the vigilance of the constable, introduced the +Burgundian troops into Paris in the middle of the night. The +massacre of the principal royalists was the consequence, and the +Count of Armagnac himself was slaughtered in the most frightful +manner, on the 12th of June, 1418, in the fiftieth year of his +age. He was concealed in the house of a mason. The Burgundians +threatening the partisans of the Armagnacs with death and +confiscation, the mason treacherously denounced his guest, who +was immediately imprisoned in the _conciergerie_, amid the +imprecations of a multitude of his enemies. Forcing themselves +into the prison, they slew the count. In their fury they cut off +a piece of his skin, two inches wide, from the right shoulder to +the left side, in ridicule of the scarf which was the +distinguishing badge of the Armagnacs. He was buried at St. +Martin des Champs. + +His successor, Count John IV., greatly aided Charles VII. against +the English, but finally offended him by desiring to marry the +daughter of the King of England, and by styling himself, "_by +the grace of God_, Count of Armagnac," though his ancestors +had used the expression for six centuries. + +The haughty pretensions of the counts of Armagnac were the cause +of their final ruin. King Louis XI., ever jealous of the claims +of the nobility, decreed the downfall of their house. Count John +V. was besieged at Lectoure, and obliged to capitulate. The +soldiers entered the palace, ascended to the count's chamber, and +slew him on the first Saturday in Lent, 1473. At the third blow +he died, invoking the Virgin. All the people of Lectoure were +massacred, and for two months wolves were the only inhabitants of +the place. +{844} +The lands of Count John were united to the crown of France. His +brother Charles, who had been kept prisoner for fifteen years, +was finally restored to liberty, and to the possession of the +Comté d'Armagnac in 1483. He married Jane of Foix, who had no +children; but he left a natural son, the Baron de Caussade, whose +only son, George d'Armagnac, embraced the ecclesiastical state, +and became a cardinal. He was the last of the male line of the +Armagnacs. + +The Comté d'Armagnac was afterward given by Louis XII. as the +dowry of his niece, Margaret of Valois, when she married Charles +d'Alençon, the grandson of Marie d'Armagnac, daughter of Count +John IV. Charles dying without children, Margaret married Henri +d'Albret, King of Navarre, who descended from a daughter of Count +Bernard VII. of Armagnac. Henri Quatre, King of France, was their +grandson, and from his time the Comté d'Armagnac has been +permanently united to the crown. + +Louis XIV., after consummating his marriage at St. Jean de Luz, +returned to Paris through this city, where he assisted at the +divine office in St. Mary's Cathedral, and, in quality of Count +of Armagnac, took his place in his exquisitely carved stall as +_chanoine honoraire_. + +The stronghold of the Armagnacs was long since laid low. Their +very name and blood are lost in those of another race, and their +lands given to another; but still in the green valley of the +Algersius rise the gray walls of a remnant of St. Oren's abbey to +propitiate the mercy of God in behalf of Count Bernard and his +lady Emerina, and still for them and their posterity goes up from +the nuns in choir the daily "_Oremus pro benefactoribus +nostris!_" + + + +Last evening I went to the cathedral to hear Hermann improvise +upon the organ, or, I should say, Frère Augustin, for he is a +barefooted Carmelite monk. He was the favorite pupil of Liszt, +under whose instructions he became a celebrated musical artist +and composer. He was miraculously converted at Paris some years +since, by some particular emanation from the blessed sacrament, +the full particulars of which he has never given. "_Secretun +meum mihi_," he says, when speaking of it. He had gone to +church, at the request of a Christian friend, to play on the +organ. His conversion was succeeded by the desire of becoming a +monk, that he might daily receive our Lord in the blessed +sacrament, to which, from the first, he felt the most tender +devotion. He now belongs to a monastery in Agen. You should have +heard him last night, as I did, amid a crowd of all ranks. I do +not enjoy music scientifically, but it gives expression to a +thousand emotions and desires which are floating in the soul, and +which the tongue knows not how to express. That of Hermann +partakes of the enthusiasm and tenderness of his nature. + +I stationed myself at the baptismal font, that I might see the +frère as he came down from the tribune. He was dressed in the +costume of his order, which is of the natural color of the wool. +His cowl was thrown back. His head was shaven closely with the +exception of a circlet of hair, as we see in pictures. He is an +Israelite and his features are of the Jewish type, but not too +strongly marked. His face was pale. In fact, he is out of health +and on his way to a place of rest. His manner was refined but +unpretending, and he seemed quite unconscious of the curiosity +and interest displayed by the crowd. +{845} +He is a poet as well as musician, and some of his +_cantiques_ in honor of the blessed sacrament are very +beautiful, particularly the one entitled _Quam dilecta +Tabernacula Tua!_ I quote two verses from it: + + "Ils ne sont plus les jours de larmes: + J'ai retrouvé la paix du coeur + Depuis que j'ai goûté les charmes + Des tabernacles du Seigneur! + + "Trop long-temps, brebis fugitive, + Je m'eloignai du Bon Pasteur. + Aujourd'hui, colombe plaintive, + Il l'appelle--il m'ouvre Son Coeur!" + +A friend sent me this morning a pamphlet containing the +dedication of a collection of his hymns, which is a flame of +love. I give you an extract, which is only the echo of my own +heart: + + "O adorable Jesus! as for me, whom thou hast led into solitude + to speak to my heart--for me whose days and nights glide + deliciously away in heavenly communications with thy adorable + presence; between the remembrance of the communion of to-day + and the hope of the communion of to-morrow, I embrace with + transport the walls of my cherished cell, where nothing + distracts my only thought from thee; where I breathe only love + for thy divine sacrament. ... If the church did not teach me + that to contemplate thee in heaven is a still greater joy, I + should never believe there could be more happiness than I + experience in loving thee in the holy eucharist, and in + receiving thee in my heart, so poor by nature but so rich + through thy grace!" + + To Be Concluded Next Month. + +---------- + + The New Englander On + The Moral Aspects Of Romanism. + + +In _The Catholic World_ of April last, we vindicated the +fair fame of the Catholic Church from some foul aspersions of a +Protestant minister, the Rev. M. Hobart Seymour, contained in a +book of his entitled, _Nights among the Romanists_. + +The matter was a very simple one. This reverend gentleman, in the +opening chapter of his book, gave us the "moral results of the +Romish System," as he elegantly, in accordance with the +exigencies of modern controversy, styles the Catholic Church. +This "moral result" was, that Catholics are, everywhere, beyond +comparison, more unchaste than Protestants--say from three or +four to twelve times as much so. We do not exaggerate in the +least. Every reader who reads this book will draw this +conclusion. As _The New Englander_ says, "The effect of this +exhibit on the mind of the reader is overwhelming. To the +Protestant reader it serves to close the case, at the outset, +against the pretensions of the Roman Catholic Church to be the +institution ordained of Christ to destroy the works of the +devil." + +This conclusion was reached by a comparison of the statistics of +many Roman Catholic countries of Europe with Protestant England, +in regard to homicide. + +Then by comparing the amount of illegitimacy in certain Catholic +_cities_ with that in certain other Protestant _cities_ +in Europe. Passing by the first branch of the subject for reasons +which we assigned, and which prevent us from taking up the matter +now, we considered the second very fully and completely. We +examined, with the utmost care and fidelity, the statistics of +illegitimacy of all the leading countries of Europe, including +the whole population of both city and country, and found Mr. +Seymour's conclusions, in this respect, were utterly and +completely false. +{846} +The complete exhibit showed that, taking the number of +illegitimate births as a standard of comparison, Catholic +countries are not in any degree more unchaste than Protestant, +but, on the contrary, the difference is in their favor quite +decidedly, though not with that overwhelming preponderance +claimed by Mr. Seymour in favor of Protestantism. + +He states that he has taken his figures from official documents, +(and we have not disputed this,) but these same documents give +the account for the countries as well as for the cities, and Mr. +Seymour cannot be allowed to plead ignorance in reference to +them. He cannot, therefore, be excused from wilful and deliberate +deception, when he suppresses these statistics so necessary to +form a judgment in the case, and only gives such portions of them +as shall seem to sustain a false conclusion. This is the true +_suppressio veri_ and _suggestio falsi_, which is +certainly one of the meanest and most cowardly forms of lying +known. + +We felt a natural indignation at being made the victims of such +treatment, and denounced the Rev. Mr. Seymour as a calumniator, +and called on the Rev. L. W. Bacon, who had warmly recommended +him and his book, to withdraw his recommendation, and cease to +abet the circulation of a vile calumny, even though the Catholic +Church were the object of it. + +Mr. Bacon, in reply to our article, comes out in _The New +Englander_, endorsing not only the statements, but the unjust +and wicked conclusions of Mr. Seymour, and claims to have refuted +the statements of _The Catholic World_. We will now proceed +to show in what fashion he has done this. + +The conclusions of Mr. Seymour in regard to the "moral results of +the Romish system," rest mainly in a comparison of the city of +London with the capitals of four Catholic countries, showing that +while the rate of illegitimacy is only 4 per cent in the former, +it varies from 33 to 51 per cent in the latter. This is +reinforced by tables of ten Prussian cities (of which, by the by, +the best two are Catholic cities) with ten Austrian; another of +five English cities with the same number of Italian, with +similar, though by no means such striking results. Then, lest +countries should seem to get the go-by, various Protestant +countries are compared with provinces of the Austrian empire, +which, it is needless to say, make a bad show in the comparison. + +As we have said before, we did not impugn in _The Catholic +World_ the accuracy of these figures, but we pointed out that +we could not trust them as indicating the morality of London, +Liverpool, and the English cities, because the rate of +illegitimacy in them was lower than in the whole of England; and +it is a most violent and incredible supposition, that cities +acknowledged to be the hotbeds of vice should be purer than the +countries in which they are situated. We suggested that other +forms of impurity had probably replaced illegitimacy, and that, +after all, London, Liverpool, etc., were not much, if any, better +than the continental cities. We quoted some figures in reference +to the amount of what is called the "social evil" in London, +etc., from _The Church and the World_, a ritualistic +journal. This, and this alone, Mr. Bacon attacks, of all that is +contained in our article. Our other reasons in regard to the +morality of London, etc., are left entirely unnoticed. We gave +also some, as we conceived, very grave and strong reasons why the +figures of illegitimacy should not be regarded as conclusive in +regard to the continental cities. +{847} +We pointed out the existence of very large establishments in them +for the reception of foundlings, receiving all infants deposited +in them; and suggested that, for this reason alone, the +illegitimacy of whole districts of country would all show itself +in the city. This is obvious enough; for example, if a large +hospital of this kind existed in New York City, no one doubts it +would receive infants from New Jersey, Connecticut, and all the +adjacent country, and the rate of illegitimacy would represent +all this part of the country, rather than the city alone. Mr. +Bacon has not vouchsafed to give one word of reply to all this, +or to discuss the matter at all. Now, as it concerns the good +name of a large class of his fellow-men, and is evidence in +rebuttal of a very grave accusation against them, this really +seems more like the conduct of a partisan determined on victory +at any rate, rather than of a Christian gentleman seeking to +vindicate a fellow-Christian from an imputation against his +character. + +But whatever might be said about the comparative morality of +certain cities, we vindicated the Catholic Church from the charge +of having produced a moral result incomparably worse than +Protestantism, and completely destroyed the overwhelming effect +calculated to be produced on the Protestant mind by Mr. Seymour's +conclusions, by giving one complete table of the percentage of +illegitimacy in all the chief countries of Europe, both +Protestant and Catholic, as follows: + + _Catholic Countries._ + 1825-37, Kingdom of Sardinia, 2.1 + 1859, Spain, 5.6 + 1853, Tuscany, 6. + 1858, Catholic Prussia, 6.1 + 1859, Belgium, 7.4 + 1856, Sicily, 7.4 + 1858, France, 7.8 + 1851, Austria, 9. + + _Protestant Countries._ + 1859, England and Wales, 6.5 + 1855, Norway, 9.3 + 1858, Protestant Prussia, 9.3 + 1855, Sweden, 9.5 + 1855, Hanover, 9.9 + 1866, Scotland, 10.1 + 1855, Denmark, 11.5 + 1838-47, Iceland, 14. + 1858, Saxony, 16. + 1857, Wurtemberg, 16.1 + +Every item of which was taken by ourselves, after a patient and +minute examination, from the _Journals of the Statistical +Society of London_, in the Astor Library, taking the latest +accounts of each country in every case. + +Here the whole question lies in a nut-shell. As Mr. Bacon says, +"the criterion is in the number of illegitimate births." This +table gives a complete view of this criterion, and therefore it +requires to be refuted before it can be said that any refutation +has been made of _The Catholic World_. How does Mr. Bacon +meet it? + +He does not meet it at all. He says that the figures of _The +Catholic World_ are "outrageously false," and "that he shall +presently prove it." We have looked in vain for the proof that +any figure of this table is either "outrageously false" or false +at all. We do not see that he has said one word to bring any of +them under even the least shadow of suspicion. We will give the +substance of his arguments against the truth of our statements: + +1. Mr. Seymour's book appeared, and no answer was made to it for +many years, and therefore it must be presumed to be truth, as to +its facts and conclusions. + +{848} + +To this we reply, that it makes no difference what presumptions +may exist when they are upset by positive proof. Whether Mr. +Seymour has been answered or not, does not change the rate of +illegitimacy in any country of Europe in the least. Catholics may +not deem it more worth while to reply to Seymour than to the +McGavins and the Brownlees. The obviously sinuous and unfair +selection of Mr. Seymour's statistics is a sufficient reason for +allowing them to slide along with a thousand other calumnies so +obviously false as not to be worth the trouble of refuting. +However that may be, we have given the refutation, and that ends +all the presumptions. + +2. Mr. Bacon tries to produce an impression on the minds of his +readers that we shall add up and arrange the figures to suit our +convenience, and are not to be trusted because we profess +confidence, in the outset, of the result of the investigation, on +account of our belief that the Catholic Church is the church of +Christ. + +We will give an extract, that our readers may judge: + + "But _The Catholic World_ for April last crushes these + formidable allegations with one single stroke of _a + priori_ argument: 'We know that she (the Roman Church) is + Christ's church, and that just in proportion as she exerts her + influence, virtue and morality must prevail; and that it is + impossible to prove, unless through fraud and + misrepresentation, that the practical working of her system + produces a morality inferior to that of any other.' This, of + course, is 'the end of controversy.' To go into details of + argument would be superfluous, not to say ridiculous, after a + demonstration so sweeping. But scorning criticism and ridicule, + straightway down into details and figures marches _The + Catholic World_. Having at the start announced it as _de + fide_ that the figures must be so found and so added up as + to show a satisfactory balance in favor of his side, or else + the foundations of the faith were destroyed and the hope of + salvation cut off, he proceeds to the statistical business with + that eminently fair, candid, and philosophical spirit which + might be expected to result from such convictions." + +The Christian, then, according to the reasoning of the Rev. Mr. +Bacon, who, firmly believing in the divinity of the religion of +Christ, expresses confidence in the result of any investigation +as to the moral result of Christianity, is to be deemed a rascal +who will not hesitate to employ any unworthy arts in selecting +and adding up his figures so as to make the result come out in +accordance with a foregone conclusion. We dismiss insinuations +like this with the contempt they deserve. If we have done any +thing of this kind let it be proved; if not, do not insinuate it +to our prejudice. + +3. Mr. Bacon says: "The gist of the article in _The Catholic +World_ is taken from one in _The Church and the World_, +an ultra-ritualist journal, London, 1867." + +This is entirely untrue. The "criterion" of the "moral results of +the Romish system" was illegitimacy, and the "gist of the +article" is in the comparison embraced in the tabular statement +of the Roman Catholic and Protestant countries of all Europe, of +which nothing whatever has been taken from _The Church and the +World_. We cited the statistics of Ireland from this journal, +warning our readers of the fact that we could not verify it out +of the statistical journals, and therefore we did not include it +in our table, as can be seen by referring to the article itself. + +Besides this, nothing is taken on the authority of _The Church +and the World_, except some statistics in relation to a side +issue, the amount of prostitution in London, and other English +cities. Mr. J. D. Chambers, M.A., Recorder of Salisbury, the +author of the article in _The Church and the World_, states +that there are 28,100 bad women in London, known to the +Metropolitan Police, while it should be, that number, in all +England, known to the Metropolitan Police. +{849} +He also gives a table of the number of houses in other English +cities _where abandoned women resort_, and this number does +not correspond at all with the number of _brothels_ reported +by the police. It seems to us that Mr. Chambers may have been +misled by the term "Metropolitan Police," in setting down the +number of abandoned women to London rather than to England, +without attributing to him any wilful falsification. And if these +women are so well known to the Metropolitan Police, it may be +inferred that, wherever they belong, they must carry on their +nefarious occupation in London a good part of the time, and thus +Mr. Chambers be substantially correct in his statement, after +all. Mr. Bacon roundly asserts that Mr. Chambers has given the +number of _brothels_ in the leading English cities. This is +incorrect, and, when the object is to fasten a brand of infamy on +another's character, an inexcusable proceeding. Mr. Chambers has +not given the number of _brothels_, but the number of +_houses_ to which bad women resort. There are many such +resorts in New York City, which would not be reported as +_brothels_ in the police returns. + +We wish the public to understand this fully. Mr. Bacon accuses +Mr. Chambers of a gross exaggeration in the number of +_brothels_ in the English cities. He gives the table as +follows: + + Brothels in According to CATHO. WORLD in Fact + Birmingham 966 183 + Manchester 1111 410 + Liverpool 1573 906 + Leeds 313 63 + Sheffield 433 84 + +and hence deduces that Mr. Chambers is a wilful liar, to be +branded as such. + +Now, Mr. Chambers never stated the above number of +_brothels_ in those cities, but that number of _houses +where prostitutes resort_, a very different thing. + +We find in _Thom's Almanac_ of 1869 the following table, for +England and Wales, of _houses of bad character:_ + + Receivers of stolen goods, 2230 + Resorts of thieves and prostitutes, 5689 + Brothels and houses of ill-fame, 6614 + Tramps' lodging-houses, 5614 + +The last three figures may well be added up to give us the number +of _houses where prostitutes resort;_ the tramps' +lodging-houses, according to Mr. Kaye's description of them, (in +his _Social State of England_,) being little better than +brothels. The public may now form an intelligent judgment which +is the most guilty of misrepresentation, Mr. Bacon or Mr. +Chambers, and which most deserves to be branded as a calumniator +of his neighbor. + +He thus finishes up the unlucky Mr. Chambers: + + "The witness is impeached and kicked out of court with a very + ugly letter burned too deep in his forehead to be rubbed out. + We are glad to acknowledge that _The Catholic World_ is + not the guilty author of these impostures, and to express our + unfeigned and most willing belief that that every way + respectable magazine would be incapable of contriving such + tricks." + +Alas Mr. Bacon! we fear that in your inconsiderate haste to brand +another, the ugly letter will be burned so deep in your own +forehead that you will find it very hard to efface it. + +4. Having finished up Mr. Chambers in this style, he considers +that his refutation of _The Catholic World_ is complete. He +says: + + "The figures with which _The Catholic World_ attempts to + vindicate the superior morality of Romish over Protestant + countries, are taken from a discredited and refuted writer in + _The Church and the World_... We have given facts enough + now to discredit without any particular refutation whatever + else of assertion may be contained in the article on the + 'comparative morality of Catholic and Protestant countries' in + _The Catholic World _ for April, 1869. We do not need to + rebut the testimony of this article point by point." + +{850} + +These facts given relate exclusively to Mr. Chambers and the +statistics of prostitution, as we have shown above, and do not +affect those relating to the "criterion" of illegitimacy. + +The substance--as Mr. Bacon calls it, the gist--of the article of +_The Catholic World_ remains as yet intact; it has not even +been examined by the critic. Who gave Mr. Bacon the right to say, +as he does, that the substance of our article was taken from +_The Church and the World?_ There is an unblushing +effrontery about this statement which is astonishing. There is +nothing in the article to warrant it. Whenever we quoted _The +Church and the World_, the reference is made at the foot of +the page, and we distinctly state, there, that our figures on +illegitimacy are taken from the _Journals of the Statistical +Society of London_. Our readers can judge of this proceeding +for themselves. + +But Mr. Bacon criticises us in severe terms for using these +_Journals_, and says: + + "If we had been in search of truth, how much easier and better + to go to the census returns, and get facts that can be trusted. + But when the object is, as with _The Catholic World_, to + find figures which shall tally with a conclusion already + determined by theological considerations, doubtless it is well + to keep clear of authoritative documents, and take only such + figures as have been manipulated in a succession of magazine + articles, constructed to serve a purpose." + +What better authority can we have in this country, on statistics, +than the _Statistical Journals of London?_ It is all an idle +pretence to speak of getting the governmental returns in any +great public library. We hunted for them in the Astor Library, +and could not find one of them. The Society of London is composed +of Protestants. Mr. Lumley, the author of the principal article +on statistics, is probably one too. He has taken his information, +he tells us, in regard to Great Britain, from the Registrar's +Reports; the others, from reports made to parliament, and from +the _Annuaire de l'Economie et de la Statistique_, of Paris. +We have not a shadow of reason to doubt either the accuracy or +fairness of the returns, or that they have been taken from the +best governmental census returns. It would have been more +creditable if Mr. Bacon had favored us with a table taken from +these same returns, which he says are so easy to be obtained, to +show the "outrageous falsity" of our statements, rather than to +attempt to refute us by the method of pure insinuation. + +We challenge Mr. Bacon or any one else to produce a table of +illegitimacy embracing all or nearly all the Protestant and +Catholic countries of Europe, from the latest governmental +returns, which shall differ essentially from ours, or from which +any one may not draw precisely the conclusions we have drawn in +respect to the moral results of Protestantism and Catholicity. + +This is all we need say on the main issue in question. + +We will now explain what was stated about the rate of +illegitimacy in Ireland. Had we been inclined to proceed in the +unscrupulous manner which Mr. Bacon insinuates in regard to us, +we could have given this rate of three per cent from _The +Church and the World_ without remark, as it is simply given +there among the other figures; but as we could not verify it in +the _Statistical Journals_, we said so, in order to warn the +public, and we stated that probably Mr. Chambers had access to +the Registrar's Report, which we had not. +{851} +For this, Mr. Bacon pitches into us in this style: + + "What will be the amazement of the reader to be informed that + there are no 'Registrar's Reports' for Ireland; that the Romish + priests and the Romish party have constantly succeeded in + preventing, for reasons satisfactory to themselves, any act of + parliament for securing such returns from Ireland; and that the + supposed 'Registrar's Report' of three per cent of illegitimate + births is a mere fiction!" + +Hold on, Mr. Bacon! do not go ahead quite so fast. There are +Registrar's Reports for Ireland, plenty of them, to be seen in +the _Statistical Journals_ in the Astor Library. In Thom's +_Official Almanac and Directory_, Dublin, 1869, we read, +"The act for the registration of births and deaths in Ireland +came into operation on the 1st of January, 1864." Then follows +registrar's returns of these for 1864, 1865, 1866, and 1867. + +The first return of illegitimate births has just been published. +Our supposition was, that these returns were in existence, though +not perhaps complete enough to warrant publication, and that they +were known in England to Mr. Chambers and others, and this seems +to be the truth. The rate for Ireland is 3.8 per cent, not so +different from the figure of _The Church and the World_. We +take the following from +the _Catholic Opinion_, London, June 19: + + "Statistics Of Illegitimate Births. + + "_The Scotsman_, one of the leading organs of Presbyterian + Scotland, gives the following: + + "'We come next to a very painful and important point, and shall + get away from it as soon as possible. The proportion of + illegitimate births to the total number of births, is, in + Ireland, 3.8 per cent. In England, the proportion is 6.4; in + Scotland, 9.9. In other words, England is nearly twice, and + Scotland nearly thrice worse than Ireland. Something worse has + to be added, from which no consolation can be derived. The + proportion of illegitimacy is very unequally distributed over + Ireland, and the inequalities are such as are rather humbling + to us as Protestants, and still more as Presbyterians and as + Scotchmen. Takings Ireland according to registration divisions, + the proportion of illegitimate births varies from 6.2 to 1.9. + The division showing this lowest figure is the western, being + substantially the province of Connaught, where about + nineteen-twentieths of the population are Celtic and Roman + Catholic. The division showing the highest proportion of + illegitimacy is the north-eastern, which comprises or almost + consists of the province of Ulster, where the population is + almost equally divided between Protestant and Roman Catholic, + and where the great majority of the Protestants are of Scotch + blood and of the Presbyterian Church. The sum of the whole + matter is, that semi-Presbyterian and semi-Scotch Ulster is + fully three times more immoral than wholly Popish and wholly + Irish Connaught--which corresponds with wonderful accuracy to + the more general fact that Scotland, as a whole, is three times + more immoral than Ireland as a whole. There is a fact, whatever + may be the proper deduction. There is a text, whatever may be + the sermon; we only suggest that the sermon should have a good + deal about charity, self-examination, and humility."' + +So that, after all, now that the truth is at last out, the +"Romish priests and the Romish party" have no reason to be +ashamed of it. Probably their reason is best known to themselves; +for it would puzzle any one else to devise any earthly reasons +why they should oppose the publication of the Registrar's Report, +so honorable to the Catholic people of Ireland. + +Mr. Bacon is "happy to announce" that, as a result of the attack +of _The Catholic World_, a new edition of Seymour's book, +with its opening chapter, is soon to appear. So, all the old +calumnies and falsehoods are to be circulated with redoubled +activity, and the commandment, "Thou shalt not bear false witness +against thy neighbor," conveniently be thrust aside. The +statistics of London are to be reproduced, while those of England +are kept in the dark. +{852} +Paris is to be compared with London, to produce, as Mr. Bacon +says, "an overwhelming effect on the mind of the Protestant +reader," while not a word is to be breathed of England and +France. Five Italian cities are still to be compared with five +English, to show that the Italian Catholics are four times as +depraved as the English Protestants, while the rate of +illegitimacy in all Italy is considerably less than that of +England. + +And the tell-tale official reports of the census of Scotland, of +Catholic and Protestant Prussia, are to be passed over in +complete silence. The countries of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, are +to be offset by provinces of the Austrian empire in which, as we +showed in _The Catholic World_, a grinding law of the +government hinders us from getting any real knowledge of the +statistics of illegitimacy, and while the whole empire shows a +rate smaller than any of those different countries. But we are +tired of this disgusting enumeration of the fraud and trickery of +the Rev. M. Hobart Seymour. The republication of his book cannot +hurt us, and only tends to increase the growing distrust on the +part of the public of the thousand and one calumnies so +unscrupulously circulated concerning Catholics. + +We have only to add that _The New Englander_ very +appropriately finishes its article against us by bringing out a +very infamous falsehood of Mr. Seymour's about the morality of +the city of Rome, which we shall not fail to pay our respects to +in the next number of _The Catholic World_. + +---------- + + Sick. + + My brother, o my brother! how my heart, + Uncertain, sad, doth yearn for thee to-day! + And my deep soul her earnest prayer doth say, + That God not yet will loose the fearful dart; + Not yet, sweet mercy, call on thee to part, + Prepared so scantily for the long, long way; + Nor till his lamp lights with her blessed ray + The narrow line along the shadowy chart. + Dear Lord, a stranger, far away he lies, + Where fevered pestilence about him leers; + His breath the yellow death! And yet my cries + Are not for that loved body whose weak sighs + First warmed _her_ breast--'tis nine and twenty years-- + The soul, poor soul 'tis needs these prayers and tears. + +------- + +{853} + + + Translated From The Spanish. + + How Matanzas came to be called Matanzas. + [Footnote 200] + + Or, Uncle Curro And His Club. + + [Footnote 200: Matanzas signifies murders or slaughters.] + + +_Fernan Caballero._ Here I am, Aunt Sebastiana, with a fixed +intention to make you tell me a story. + +_Aunt Sebastiana_. Say that to my Juan, señor; he can tell +no end of stories, and when he don't remember them, he makes them +to suit himself. + +_Fernan_. Here comes Uncle Romance, who, if he wants a cigar +and desires to give me pleasure, will tell me the story you have +promised me in his name. + +_Uncle Romance_. You must know then, señor, that there was +once a man who lived gayly, without thinking of to-morrow; and, +since to spend, to owe, and not to pay, is the way to the +poorhouse, our man soon found himself without _hacienda_, +and with but thirty days to the month for possessions, and +nothing to eat but his finger-nails. He grew so spiritless that +his wife used to beat him, and his children insult him, and say +impertinent things to him when he came home bringing no +provisions for the house. + +He got so desperate at last that he borrowed a rope of his +gossip, and went away to a field to hang himself. He had fastened +the rope to an olive-tree; but just as he was going to put it +around his neck, a little fairy-man appeared to him, dressed like +a friar. "What are you doing, man?" said the friar. "Hanging +myself, as your worship sees." "So, then, Christian, you are +going to do like Judas. Go away from there. It wouldn't be well +for you. Take this purse, which is never empty, and mend your +fortune." + +Our man took the purse, and drew out a dollar, then another, then +another, and saw that it was like a woman's mouth, that pours out +to all eternity words, and words, and still words, and its words +are never exhausted. Seeing this, he untied the rope, wound it +up, and started for home. There was an inn on the road; he +entered it and began to ask for whatever they had to eat and +drink, paying when it was brought; for the innkeeper, seeing him +so greedy, would not trust him for all he wanted. He ate so much +and drank so much that he fell under the table, and lay there +more sound asleep than the dead in Holyfield. + +The innkeeper, who had perceived that the purse was none the +lighter, told his wife to make one just like it, and while Uncle +Curro slept, went and stole the enchanted purse out of his pocket +and put the other in its place. + +When Uncle Curro woke up, he took the road again, and reached his +house more jolly than a sunshiny day. + +"Hurrah!" he shouted to his wife and children, "here's money and +to spare; our troubles are over." + +He put his hand into the purse and drew it out empty; put it in +again; but what was there to take out? When his wife saw that, +she flew at him and beat him into a new shape. + +{854} + +More desperate than ever, he snatched the rope and went back to +hang himself. He went to the same place, and tied the rope to a +branch of the olive. "What are you going to do, Christian?" said +the little fairy-man, appearing in the form of a cavalier, in the +crotch of the tree. "Hang myself like a string of garlics from a +kitchen ceiling," answered Uncle Curro quite composedly. "So you +have lost patience, again?" "And if I have nothing to eat, +señor?" "' It is your own fault, your fault; but--go away. Take +this table-cloth, and while you keep it you will never find +yourself without something to eat." Then the little fairy-man +gave him a table-cloth, and disappeared among the branches. + +Uncle Curro unfolded the cloth upon the ground. The minute it was +spread out, it covered itself with dishes, some of them good and +the rest better than the king's cook could have made them, if he +had tried his best. + +After Uncle Curro had stuffed himself till he could hold no more, +he gathered up the cloth and set out for his house. When he got +as far as the inn, he felt sleepy and lay down to take a nap. The +innkeeper knew him, and guessed that he had something valuable; +so, as cool as you please, he pulled the cloth away from him, and +put another in its place. + +Uncle Curro reached home, and shouted to his wife and children, +"Come, come to dinner; I'll take it upon me to see that you get +your fill this time." Thereupon he undid the cloth, but only to +behold it covered with stains of all sorts and sizes. + +At him she went. Mother and children all fell upon the poor man +at once, and an object of charity they left him. + +Uncle Curro seized the rope once more and went off to hang +himself. He was determined to do it this time, and the fairy-man +was determined he shouldn't. He gave Uncle Curro a little club, +and told him that with it he would be able to possess his soul in +comfort; for that he had nothing to do but say, "Bestir yourself, +little club!" to make all the world run away and leave him in +peace, with a wide berth. + +Uncle Curro set out for home with the club, as happy as an +alcalde with his stick. As soon as he saw the young ones coming +toward him demanding bread with insults and impertinences, he +said to the club, "Bestir yourself, little club!" and before the +words were fairly out of his mouth, it began to deal about it in +a way that speedily routed the children. Their mother ran out to +help them, but, "_At her!_" cries Curro, "_at her with all +your might!_" and with one rap the club killed her. + +They gave notice to the magistrate, and presently the alcalde +made his appearance with his officers. "Bestir yourself, little +club!" ordered Curro, and the club came down on them as if it had +been paid at the rate of a dollar a thump. It killed the alcalde, +and the others ran away with such might that not one of them had +a sole left to his foot. Then they sent a messenger to let the +king know what was going on, and the king sent a regiment of +grenadiers to take Uncle Curro of the little club. + +But, "Bestir yourself, club!" bawled Uncle Curro, as soon as they +came in sight, and threw the club in the midst of the files. The +club begun its dance upon the ribs of the grenadiers, with a +sound like a fulling-mill. It crippled this one's leg, and that +one's arm; knocked out one of the captain's eyes, and, in short, +the grenadiers threw away their muskets and knapsacks, and took +to their heels, in the full belief that the devil was running +loose. + +{855} + +Free from care, Uncle Curro lay down to sleep, with his club +hidden in his bosom, for fear that somebody might steal it. + +When he awoke, he found himself tied hand and foot, and on the +way to prison. They sentenced him to ignominious death. The next +morning they took him out of the dungeon, and, when they had +caused him to ascend the scaffold, untied his hands. Out he drew +his little club, and as he said, "Bestir yourself!" threw it at +the executioner, who speedily yielded up the ghost under its +blows. "Free that man," commanded the king, "or he'll finish with +every one of our subjects. Tell him that he shall have an estate +in America if he will leave the country." + +Uncle Curro consented, and the king made him lord of lands in the +island of Cuba, where he built himself a city, and killed so many +people in it with his club that its name was called, and has +remained, Matanzas. + +---------- + + + Correction Of A Mistake. + +The writer of the article on "Spiritualism and Materialism," in +the Magazine for August, page 627, says, "The Holy See says the +_immateriality_, not _spirituality_, of the soul is to +be proved by reason." This is a mistake. The language of the Holy +See is, "Ratiocionatio Dei existentiam, animae +_spiritualitatem_, hominis libertatem cum certitudine +probare potest--Reasoning can prove with certainty the existence +of God, the spirituality of the soul, and the liberty of man." +The writer wishes us to say that he is wholly unable to account +for his blunder; for in writing, he had the words of the Holy See +before his eyes, and certainly thought he read +_immaterialitatem_; but in re-reading the words since a +friend called his attention to the mistake, he finds that the +word is plainly printed _spiritualitatem_. Of course the +misstatement was wholly unintentional, and whatever in the +article rests on it must be withdrawn, and the writer fully and +explicitly retracts it. + +Yet the writer requests us to say that he thinks the doctrine +maintained in the article is not affected by this mistake, +blunder, or misstatement. The writer does not question the +_spirituality_ of the soul, but maintains that the soul's +spirituality, save in the sense of its immateriality, is not +provable by reason without revelation. He thinks +_immateriality_, in the sense he explains it, covers all +that is really meant by _spiritualiy_ in the decision of the +Holy See. We certainly do not, by reason alone, know what either +spirit or matter is in its essence. We can prove by reason the +substantiality, activity, unity, simplicity, indissolubility, and +immateriality of the soul, or that it is not matter. Does the +Holy See decide that we can do more, or go further? Does the +spirituality of the soul, as provable by reason, mean any thing +more? If not--and the writer, till better informed, must think it +does not--he has erred only in using one word when he should have +used another, and mistaking the word actually used by the Holy +See. So much the writer of the article wishes us to say for him, +which we do cheerfully; for we are well assured of his devotion +to the Holy See and his loyalty to the Holy Father. + +---------- + +{856} + + New Publications. + + + Cantarium Romanum, Pars Prima, Ordinarium Missae. + Studio et sumptibus Monachorum Ord. S. Benedicti. + Conv. St. Meinradi, Ind. 1869. + Cincinnati and New York: Benziger Bros. + +This publication purposes to give, in modern notation, the +melodies of Gregorian Masses; that is, those portions which are +common to all masses--the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus +Dei, with the Responses. We hail this as a step in the right +direction, but are forced to find some fault with this volume. + +In the first place, we do not find the notation at all in +conformity with the Roman Gradual or Missal, and suppose that it +is according to one of those numerous "propers" which, in course +of time, have been patched up for the use of various particular +dioceses and religious orders. The spirit of the church to-day is +one which inspires a return to unity in even minor points of +discipline, of which the unity of the chant is, in our judgment, +not the least. Again, the division of the words, their adaptation +to the notes, and the length of notes given, makes horrible work +in some places with the accent of the Latin, and destroys the +majestic march of the melody. The effeminate sharp reigns +supreme, and fancy responses take the place of those given in the +Missal. + +---- + + Meditations On The Sufferings, Life, + And Death Of Our Lord Jesus Christ. + Translated from the French by a Sister of Mercy. + Part First. + Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co. 1869. + +This is a very excellent book of meditations, well translated, +and published in the best style; to be completed in thirteen +numbers. The proceeds are to be devoted to the building of a +church annexed to the Convent of the Sisters of Mercy, in +Cincinnati, to be called "The Church of the Atonement," and to be +devoted especially to the adoration of the Sacred Heart of our +Lord, in reparation of the injuries and outrages which it suffers +from the neglect of tepid Christians and the more open sins of +the wicked. The book is one which will be very useful to those +who desire to practise meditation, and the object to which the +good sisters intend to devote the profits, which we hope they may +receive from it abundantly, is one that must commend itself to +the heart of every good Catholic. We give them our best wishes +for their complete success, and recommend their book most +heartily to general circulation. + +---- + + An American Woman In Europe. + By Mrs. S. R. Urbino. + Boston: Lee & Shepard. + +A journal of two years and a half sojourn in Germany, +Switzerland, France, and Italy, in only 338 duodecimo pages, is, +as things go and as people write, really very moderate. It is a +simple, straightforward story of what the authoress saw and +heard, with a variety of practical information that many +Americans on a first European tour might find useful. + +There is no affectation of style or sentiment in the book, and +the authoress may be said to belong to the realistic school of +travellers, who keep a bright lookout for railroad fares, hotel +bills, and the prices of things in general. + +With disquisitions on art, Mrs. Urbino does not trouble us much, +although she admires the works of that queen of Jarleys, Madame +Tussaud, whose name she ungratefully prints Trousseau. At p. 228, +the authoress indulges in this reflection: "How out of place +crosses look in the Coliseum! +{857} +I cannot see why they were put there, since there are a +sufficient number of churches in the city." The good lady does +not appear to be aware of the fact that if the cross had not been +placed in the Coliseum, we people of the nineteenth century would +never have seen the noble ruin of that grand monument. + +---- + + Service Manual; + for the instruction of newly-appointed Officers, and the Rank + and File of the Army, as compiled from Army Regulations, the + Articles of War, and the Customs of the Service. + By Henry D. Wallen, Brevet Brigadier-General United States + Army, and Commander of the General Service Department, Fort + Columbus, New York Harbor. + 1 vol. 8vo, pp. 166. + New York: D. Van Nostrand. 1869. + +General Wallen has compiled this excellent manual from the +authorized sources, and added to it the fruit of his mature +experience and intimate practical knowledge of the subject. The +work possesses value, not only as an authentic guide to the young +officer in all the details of company, camp, and garrison duty, +his relations of subordination and responsibility, and his duties +and obligations to those above and below him in the military +order, but also is mellowed and animated by a spirit of kindness +and good-will, and that genuine characteristic of the good +soldier and thorough gentleman to whom duty is honorable, and +both command and obedience acceptable for their own sakes and the +inherent virtue they imply. This spirit animates this work +throughout, and gives to it a character far superior to ordinary +dry regulations. General Wallen is well qualified for the task he +has undertaken. He is an old and faithful officer, and intimately +acquainted with the service in all its branches and +ramifications. He served with credit in the war with Mexico, and +was one of the pioneers of the settlement of Oregon. Owing to the +fact of having been born in Georgia, General Wallen was +distrusted during the late war by Mr. Stanton, and ordered to New +Mexico. General Grant, who is his life-long friend, as soon as he +came into power, ordered him to the East, and did what he could +to repair the injury he had experienced from the suspicious +disposition of the late secretary of war. + +This work is of equal value to soldiers and officers, and will +have a tendency to promote that mutual goodwill and cordial +sympathy between the two classes growing out of the faithful +performance of their respective duties, which we alone need to +make our military system perfect, and absolutely invincible in +war, as well as an example of honor and fidelity in peace. + +---- + + A Report On The Excisions Of The + Head Of The Femur For Gun Shot Wounds. + By George A. Otis, M.D., + Assistant Surgeon and Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel U.S.A. + Being Circular No. 2 War Department, + Surgeon-General's Office. + Jan. 1869. 4to, pp. 141. + Washington: Government Printing Office. + +It is not our purpose, in calling the attention of the readers of +_The Catholic World_ to this work, to enter upon any +discussion or details of a purely surgical character, which would +be obviously out of place. _The Catholic World_ is +essentially _Catholic_, and while strictly and purely so, +aims to embrace within the scope of its critical observation +every subject of interest and importance to society; and +especially to award its cordial praise to those efforts which +have for their object genuine science, true humanity, and +national and individual honor and intellectual and moral +advancement. + +The work before us is of the character indicated. In reverting to +the public calamities and private miseries of the late war, it is +a matter of satisfaction to know that out of the eater has come +forth some meat; out of the strong, some sweetness. +{858} +With the exception of the doubtful advantage of the knowledge +which we have gained of our brute strength, some improvement in +gunnery, and the familiarization of the public mind with battle, +murder, and sudden death, we have reaped no substantial benefit +excepting in the department of military surgery. The medical +profession gave during the war an extraordinary example of +courage, devotion to duty, labor, and self-sacrifice, which we +fear is not fully appreciated either by the country or the +government. They rose as a body above the political issues +involved, and the personal passions evoked, and, acting on the +great principle of charity underlying their vocation, saw, in +many a sick and wounded man, a friend and brother. + +This principle was acted upon on both sides, it was the most +humanizing element which entered into the conflict, and aided and +seconded the chivalric spirit which animated the graduates of +West Point. These two qualities redeemed the late war from utter +barbarism. + +There was, on the part of the medical officers, an earnest, +conscientious, and zealous determination to ascertain the best +methods of treatment in all cases, and an ardent desire to +relieve suffering, save life, and preserve limbs in the best +possible condition for future usefulness. The publications of the +Medical Department and the admirable museum collected at +Washington bear testimony to the accuracy of this statement, and, +while they are a terrible and sickening commentary on man's +inhumanity to man, they are also a sublime and beautiful +illustration of that power which turns temporary calamities into +permanent benefits, and of that humanity and science which are +both motives and objects of the profession of medicine. + +The reports issued from time to time by the surgeon-general are +the concentrated and distilled expression of multitudes of crude +and detached observations, carefully elaborated, compared, +analyzed, and corrected, till they come to express the precise +knowledge and experience of the present day on a given subject. + +The portion of this great work before us is prepared by Doctor +George A. Otis, Assistant Surgeon and Lieutenant-Colonel U.S.A., +and is a model of patient labor, exact knowledge, just +discrimination, and acutely intelligent appreciation. It presents +all that is known in regard to a class of terrible and +exceedingly fatal injuries. The facts, evidence, and opinions are +carefully and impartially weighed and estimated, and the +conclusions are such as will be accepted by every discriminating +surgeon throughout the world. + +The voice of the medical profession will, we believe, endorse the +opinion which we somewhat apodictically express. + +Society and the country owe Doctor Otis a debt of gratitude for +his great work, and also the medical bureau which aids and +directs his labors. Such works belong to the class of benefits +whose value cannot be expressed by human standards. They reflect +honor upon the age and country which produce them, and are an +invaluable legacy to the future. + +We cannot conclude this imperfect notice without expressing the +hope that Congress, influenced by the universal sentiment of the +country, will give all the material aid required to the +Surgeon-General's Department in prosecuting its great and most +fruitful labors. + +---- + + Silver Jubilee Of The University + Of Notre Dame, June 23d, 1869. + Compiled and published + by Joseph A. Lyons, A.M. + Chicago: E. B. Myers & Co. + +This is a tastefully gotten-up volume, designed as a "memorial" +tribute to the students, past and present, of the University of +Notre Dame, in Northern Indiana, on the occasion of the +celebration of the twenty-fifth or _silver_ anniversary of +the corporate existence of that now large, flourishing, and +important Catholic institution of learning. It gives a brief but +interesting history of the university, from its humble +beginnings, a quarter of a century since, under the zealous and +effective labors of the Very Rev. Father Sorin and his +well-chosen and able co-workers, to its present wide and ample +proportions. +{859} +This is followed by an account of its internal economy or +arrangements; its study, discipline, and amusements; its +societies--religious, literary, and others; its library, museum, +etc., etc. Sketches are also given of the lives of its +presidents, vice-presidents, professors, and teachers, as well as +of its alumni, with a full account of the exercises of its recent +_Jubilee_ commencement. Altogether, the volume must prove a +very interesting and acceptable one to the numerous graduates, +pupils, and friends of Notre Dame. + +---- + + Nora Brady's Vow, And + Mona The Vestal. + By Mrs. Anna H. Dorsey. + Boston: Patrick Donahoe. 1869. + +The first of these stories is of modern times, and the other is +of the time of St. Patrick. Mrs. Dorsey, like all writers not to +the _Irish manner_ born, makes fearful work with what some +persons are pleased to call the _Irish brogue_. This is, +however, a small fault, with which we do not wish to quarrel. The +stories are presented to the public in a beautifully printed and +elegantly bound volume, and will, we doubt not, be welcomed in +many an Irish-American household. + +---- + + The Way Of Salvation, + in Meditations for all times in the year. + By St. Alphonsus Liguori. + Translated from the Italian by the Rev. James Jones. + New York: Catholic Publication Society, + 126 Nassau St. + +One of the best signs of the present time, and a sign most +encouraging to Catholics of all classes and professions, is that +books of genuine piety are more and more in demand every day. It +was this fact that induced the Catholic Publication Society to +bring out in a neat and very convenient form the celebrated +_Way of Salvation_, by St. Liguori. It is one of the most +popular works of that sainted author; and the mere announcement +of its publication is sufficient recommendation. + +---- + + The Two Schools. A Moral Tale. + By Mrs. Hughs. + New York: The Catholic Publication Society. 1869. + +This book presents in a striking manner the results of two +systems of home education. In it we have a vivid picture of the +consequences of wealth, recklessly lavished on an only daughter, +contrasted with the encouraging way in which the virtue of a +much-injured girl triumphs over the designs of base and cunning +enemies. The authoress possesses a happy talent of describing +persons in an easy and remarkably concise style, and she succeeds +in causing her characters to act and speak in a natural manner. +The book will be read, by girls especially, with the keenest +enjoyment. The conduct of Mary will seldom fail to draw forth +their approval, and all readers will agree that this is a good +story. + +---- + + A German Reader. + In Prose and Verse. + With Notes and Vocabulary. + By William D. Whitney. + New York: Leypoldt & Holt. + +The text of this Reader has at length reached us; and in regard +to accuracy, arrangement, and clearness of type it is all that +can be desired. The selections are very good, although many of +them have already done service in German educational works. +Originality is only claimed for the vocabulary and notes, which +have not yet been published, so that we may only remark that the +volume will enjoy a very high reputation, if the forthcoming part +be prepared with the same attention that has been devoted to the +text. + +---- + + The Poetical Works Of Samuel Lover. + London and New York: George Routledge & Sons. + +A most beautiful edition of the beautiful songs of Lover, written +mostly, as all know, about love and lovers. Yet not all. We are +indebted to him for many charming ballads, of sweetest melody and +deepest pathos, to which indeed Lover owes his fame as a poet. + +---- + +{860} + + The Irish Widow's Son; + Or, The Pikemen Of Ninety-eight. + A story of the Irish Rebellion, embracing an historical account + of the Battles of Antrim and Ballinahinch. + By. Con O'Leary. + Boston: P. Donahoe. 1869. + +This book is interesting, and free from the coarseness which is +found in so many stories of Ireland. The author has succeeded in +producing a readable tale of that epoch in Ireland's history when +secret associations became the controlling power of that +misgoverned country. + +---- + + Essay On Divorce And Divorce Legislation, + with special reference to the United States. + By Theodore D. Woolsey, D.D., LL.D., + President of Yale College. + New York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1869. + +This book, by one of the first scholars of our country, is a very +learned and laudable effort to effect a reform in our divorce +legislation. It would require a long and elaborate article to do +justice to the work and the subject. At present we can only say +that the community ought to thank Dr. Woolsey for the labor he +has performed in their service, and which he has done as well as +it can be done by one who stands on the Protestant platform. + +---- + +THE CATHOLIC PUBLICATION SOCIETY has in preparation, and will +publish early in October, _The Illustrated Catholic Family +Almanac_ for 1870. It will contain the astronomical tables, +calendars, a great amount of valuable statistics, as well as +several well-written sketches of places and things in various +countries. It will be illustrated with over twenty splendid +wood-cuts, and will be sold for 25 cents per copy. Orders from +the trade should be sent in at once. + + +P. O'SHEA, New York, has in press, and +will publish this season, + Lacordaire's _Sketch of the Order of St. Dominic;_ + + _Memoir, Journal, and Correspondence of Mrs. Seton,_ + by Mgr. Seton, in 2 vols. 8vo; + + _Love of our Lord Jesus Christ_, by St. Jure, vol. 2; + + Library of Good Examples, 12 vols. + + +John Murphy & Co., Baltimore, announce _A Memoir of the Life +and Character of the Rev. Demetrius Augustin de Gallitzin, +Founder of Loretto and Catholicity in Cambria County, Pa., +Apostle of the Alleghanies._ By Very Rev. Thomas Heyden, of +Bedford, Pa. + + +Patrick Donahoe, Boston, has in +press + + _Mary and Mi-Ka_, a story of "The Holy Childhood;" + + _Five Years in a Protestant Sisterhood, + and Ten Years in a Catholic Convent;_ + + and a _Life of Christopher Columbus._ + + +Kelly, Piet & Co., Baltimore, +announce the republication of the +Roman periodical, + _Acta ex Iis decerpta quae apud Sanctam Sedem geruntur. + The Double Sacrifice: a tale of Castelfidardo. + The Life of Madame Louise de France, Daughter + of Louis XV., in religion Mother + Terese de St. Augustin. The Day + Sanctified_; being meditations and + spiritual readings for daily use. + + _Popular Tales_. By Maria Edgeworth. + + _Moral Tales_. By Maria Edgeworth. + +------- + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Catholic World, Vol. 09, April, +1869-September, 1869, by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 57439 *** |