Full text of "The Catholic world"

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THE 




CATHOLIC WORLD. 



MONTHLY MAGAZI 

AP 



OF 




v,73 



GENERAL LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. 



PUBLISHED BY THE PAUUST FATHERS. 




VOL. LXXIII. 
APRIL, 1901, TO SEPTEMBER, 1901. 



NEW YORK : 
THE OFFICE OF THE CATHOLIC WORLD, 

120 WEST 6oth STREET. 



1901. 



CONTENTS. 



" A Man's a Man." Mary Sarsfield Gil- 
more, 5 10 

Ascension, The, (Frontispiece.) 

Baraga, Bishop, the Apostle of the 
Chippewas. (Illustrated.) Rev. 
Walter Elliott, C.S. P., ... 78 

Book- Reviewers, The Responsibility of. 

Rev. William Sullivan, C.S. P., . 338 

Brook Farm Movement viewed through 
the Perspective of half a Century. 
(Illustrated.) Anna M. Mitchell, . 17 

Brothers of the Christian Schools in the 

United States, The, . . .721 

Canada's Commercial Metropolis. (Il- 
lustrated.) Samuel Byrne, . . 494 

Cardinal Newman, The Letters of. 

Rev. William Henry Sheran, . . 602 

Catechism and its Requirements, The. 

Rev. Alexander L. A. Klauder, . 803 

Catho4ic Devotion and the Nine First 
Fridays. Rev. Thomas Verner 
Moore, C.S. P., 137 

Chinese Question, A Missionary's View 
of the. Rev. Bertrand Cothonay, 
O.P 415 

Christian Constantinople, The Last 
Days of. (Illustrated.) Rev. F. 
X. McGowan, 153 

Christian Nun, The First. Nina De 

Garmo Spalding, . . . .617 

City of the Kings, The. (Illustrated.) 

M. MacMahon, .... 54 

Columbian Reading Union, The, 135, 274, 
410, 550, 688, 830 

Conferring the Biretta on his Eminence 
Cardinal Martinelli, in the Cathe- 
dral at Baltimore, The Procession 
at the, (Frontispiece.) 

Cremation Movement is Anti-Catholic, 
The. (Illustrated.) fames P. 
Murphy 453 

Editorial Notes, 134, 273, 549, 687, 829 

Encyclical on Christian Democracy Ana- 
lyzed, The, 360 

Eyes were Held," "Their. Eugenie 

Uhlrich 33 

Father Ephraim's Sea-Birds : An Epi- 
sode of the Irish Famine. Nora 
Rylman, 290 

Father Taunton's History of the Jesuits. 

/. F. X. Westcott, . . .483 

Father Walworth : A Character Sketch. 
(Illustrated.) Rev. Walter Elliott, 
C.S. P., 320 

" Grievous School Question " again Dis- 
cussed, The. Rev. P. R. McDtvitt, 695 

Harnack's "What is Christianity?" 

Rev. Thomas L. Healy, C.S. P., . 377 

Helena Modjeska. (Illustrated.) 

Charles J. Phillips, .... 609 

Holy See and the Council of Ephesus; 
The. Rev. Ward Hunt Johnson, 

777 



Human Side of a Saint, The. Father 

Cuthbert, O.S.F.C., . . . . 66 

India, Some Religious Temples in. (Il- 
lustrated.) Rev. S. Vas, . . 569 

Indians since the Revolution, The. 

William Seton, LL.D., . . . 641 

lona, the Isle of Columba's Cell. (Il- 
lustrated.) Agnes C. Storer, . . 746 

Jesuit Writer on Conversions, A. Rev. 

Joseph McSorley, C.S.P., . . . 88 

Leo XIII., The Intellectual Activity of. . 
fames Murphy, . ... . 238 

Library Table, 130, 269, 405, 546, 681, 824 

Madonna and Child, (Frontispiece.) 

Madonna and Child, A Modern, 

(Frontispiece. ) 

Manuscript Treasures, Some Lost. 

Georgina Pell Curtis, . . . 447 

Masiquen Laoak : A Chapter of Philip- 
pine Warfare. (Illustrated.) 
First Lieut. Paul B. Ma/one, . . 348 

May is on the Lawn, When. (Illus- 
trated. ) Mary F. Nixon-Roulet, . 293 

Melchisedech, Priest and King. Rev. 

Ward Hunt Johnson, C.S. P., . . 179 

Missions in Southern California, The 
Preservation of the. (Illustrated.) 

E. H. Enderlein, .... 626 
Mivart's Doubts against the Faith. /. 

F. X. Westcott, . . . .795 
Modern Madonnas, Types of, (Frontispiece.) 
Mrs. Meynell's Poems, A Study of. 

Thomas B. Reilly, . . . .521 

Music, The Pathological and Therapeu- 
tic Value of. Carina Campbell 
Eaglesfield, . . .. . . 44 

Nile, Sailing on the. (Illustrated.) F. 

M. Edselas, . . . . .711 

Nile Winter, A. (Illustrated.) F. M. 

Edselas, 190 

Old Document, An. Lelia Hardin 

Bugg, ^63 

Panama, Old and New, A Glimpse of. 

(Illustrated.) M. MacMahon, . 653 

Papal Independence and Italy's Pros- 
perity. A. Diarista, ... 97 

Paraclete and the Human Soul, The. 

Rev. Walter Elliott, C.S. P., . . 277 

Pasquale. Thomas B. Reillv, . . 735 

"Pasteur Institute" in Ireland, A 

Novel. James Murphy, . . . 597 

Philosophy of Pain, The. Rev. Ward 

Hunt Johnson, C.S. P., . . . 104 

Poet for the Winter Evening, A. 

Eneas B. Goodwin, .... 208 

Poets of the North, The. (Portraits.) 

E. Brausewetter, .... 477 

Poor Sir Anthony. (Illustrated.) 

Mary F. Nixon- Roulet, . . . 431 

Pre-Columbian America. William 

Stetson Merrill, .... 306 



CONTENTS. 



in 



Railroads in China.- (Illustrated.), . 225 

Reflections for an Ordinary Christian. 

By One of Them, . . . 428 562 

Roman Customs, Some Quaint. (Illus- 
trated.) Grace V. Christmas, . 371 

Roycrofters, The. (Illustrated.) An- 
na B. McGill 785 

Sculptor's Story, The Marie Dongan 

Walsh, 579 

Shaft No 6, The Mystery oi.John A. 

Foote, 170 

Taft Philippine Commission, The Re- 
port of the. Rev . fohn T. Creagh, 
/.C.D., 6 



Talk about New Books, no, 245, 391, 531, 

665, 814 

Technical Schools in the United States, 
The Need of. Carina Campbell 
Eaglesfield, ..... 760 

Tom Moore's American Trip. (Por- 
traits.) Rev. Joseph Gordian Daley, 768 

Van Dyck, Sir Anthony, (Frontispiece.) 

Woman and Posterity, The Higher 
Education of. William Seton, 
LL.D., 147 

Workingmen and Life Insurance. 

Thomas Scanlon, . . . .217 

World's Religious History, The Work of 

Races in the. H. C. Corrance, . 553 



POETRY. 



"Afterglow."^. T., . . . . 813 

Ajigels' Tryst, The. Albert Reynaud, . 758 

Beacon, A, 452 

Beauty. John Jerome Rooney, . . 292 

Christian Knight's Prayer, The. Al- 
bert Reynaud, ..... 664 

Dawn, The. John Jerome Rooney, . 482 

Driftin'. /. Francis Dunne, . . . 476 

Earth and Man, The. Albert Reynaud, 376 
Easter Day, For. Charles Hanson 

Towne, 32 

Easter Idyll, An. (Illustrated.) Alice 

F. Schmall, i 

Faith, 237 

Father Damien. (Illustrated.} E. C. 

M., 508 

Ford Madox Brown. Three Octaves. 

(Illustrated.) Arthur Upson, . 346 



Garden Brook, The. (Illustrated.) 

fames Buckham, . . . .151 
Gospel of the Fields, The. Arthur 

Upson, ...... 427 

House of God, The. (Illustrated.) 

Isabel G. Eaton, .... 709 
Memory. Bert Martel, .... 152 
Night in the South. W. S. Laurens, . 530 
Ordination Day, A Mother's Thought 

on. Margaret M. Halvey, . ' . 568 
Poverty's Child. (Illustrated.) Albert 

Reynaud, ...... 73 

Rest. William P. Cantzvell, . . . 652 
Rubric, A. Louise Imogen Guiney, . 520 
Sister of the Roses, A Little. Margaret 

M. Halvey, 287 

Tents of Silence, The. fohn Jerome 

Rooney 734 

Wedding Garb, The Making of the. 

Frank C. Devas, S./., . . .64 



NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



Ancient Hebrews, The Life and Litera- 
ture of the 398 

Ancient Peoples, Stories of, . . . 679 

Anting-Anting Stories, .... 677 
Before the Most Holy (Coram Sanctis- 

simo), 258 

Beginning, In the (Les Origines), . 119 

Beloved Son, The, 542 

Biblical Lectures, 397 

Blessed Sebastian Newdigate, . .818 

Books Triumphant, .... 265 

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, The Com- 
plete Poetical Works of, . . . 257 
By-ways of War, ..... 677 

Cardinal Wolsey, The Life and Death 

of, ....... 539 

Catholic Catechism for the Parochial and 

Sunday-Schools of the United States, 262 

Catholic Girl in the World, The, . . 817 
Catholicism upon the Sciences and Arts, 

The Influence of, .... 402 

Catholic Parochial Schools in the Arch- 
diocese of Boston, Historical Sketch 

of the 538 

Catholic Pioneers of America, . . 256 
Cave by the Beech Fork, The, . 113, 541 



Chatterton, Memoirs of Georgiana 
Lady, . . . . . . .251 

Christian Doctrine, Exposition of, . 120 
Christian Perfection, A Practical Trea- 
tise upon, 257 

Christian Science, The Deadly Error 

of 677 

Christianity ? What is, . . . 264 

Christopher Ferringham, The Making 

of, no 

Clearing the Way, 265 

Comparative Physiology of the Brain 

and Comparative Psychology, . . 115 
Confessor after the Heart of Jesus, The, 125 
Constitution de 1'Eglise, . . . 672 
Corpus Domini, . . . . 535 

Creed, Illustrated Explanation of the, . 121 

Crisis, The, 531 

Daughter of New France, A, . . . 539 
Days of First Love, .... 674 
De 1' Authenticite de la Legende de 
Saint Francois dite des Trois Com- 

pagnons, 124 

De 1'Habitation du Saint-Esprit dansles 
Ames Justes d'apres la Doctrine de St. 
Thomas d'Aquin, .... 671 



IV 



CONTENTS. 



Dimpling's Success, . - 
Disciple, The, . 

Divine Plan of the Church, The, . . 
Dominican Saints, Short Lives of the, . 
Ecumenical Missionary Conference of 

New York 

Education and Life, .... 
El Archipielago Filipino, . . . 
Elements of the Theory and Practice of 

Cookery, 

Eucharistic Sacrifice, The, . . . 
Every Inch a King, .... 
Evolution of Immortality, The, . . 
Evolution, The Ethics of, ... 

Faith and Folly, 

Father Hecker, 

Flower of Jesus, The Little, . . . 

Fourth Reading Book, . . . . 

Francis Mary Paul Libermann, The 

Spiritual Letters of the Venerable, . 

French Revolution, The, . . . 

Golden Legend, The ; or, Lives of the 

Saints, as Englished by William Cax- 

ton, 

Goops, and how to be them, . 
Hartford, History of the Diocese of, 

Heart and Soul, 

Heart of the Ancient Wood, The, 
Heath's Home and School Classics, 
Her Mountain Lover, .... 
Holy Living, The Rule and Exercises 

of, 

Hosts of the Lord, The, 

Irish History, A Reading Book in, 

Isaac Pitman's Complete Phonographic 

Instructor, 

James the Fifth of Scotland, The Page 
of, 



124 

121 
256 
680 
247 
6 79 

3Q6 

125 
in 

537 
544 

"3 

Jeanne d'Arc, 819 

Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, 254 
Joan of Arc, . . . ... . 818 

Jonathan Edwards : A Retrospect, . 118 
Journey to Nature, A, . . . 820 

Jubilee, The, 122 

Kindness, 819 

King of Honey, Island, The, . . . 249 
L'Ann<3e de L'Eglise, 1900, . . -S3 8 
Larger Life, I he : A Book of the Heart, 543 
Latin and Greek in the Secondary 

Schools, The Teaching of, . 
Les Infiltrations Protestantes et le Clerge 

Francais, 

Les Mconnus, Ce que sont les Religieux, 

Ce qu'Is font, A quo! ils servent, 
Life of Christ, Constructive Studies in 

the, 

Life of St. Gerlach, .... 
Life of Mrs. Booth, the Founder of the 

Salvation Army, 251 

Light of the World, The, . . .821 
Literature of the Bible, A Short Intro- 
duction to the, 

L'Ordre Surnaturel et Le Devoir Chre- 
tien, 

Louis Agassiz, ..... 
Magister Adest ; or, Who is Like unto 

God ? 

Manual of Sacred Rhetoric ; or, How to 

Prepare a Sermon, .... 

Mathematics in the Higher Schools of 

Prussia, The Teaching of, . 
Meditations on the Life, the Teaching;, 

and the Passion of Jesus Christ, 
Meditations on the Psalms Penitential, 
Mononia : A Love Story of 'Forty-eight, 
Month of Mary, The, .... 



ii3 Mother Mary Baptist Russell, The Life 
248 of, Pioneer Sister of Mercy in Cali- 

674 fornia, . 544 

123 Nan Nobody, . . ... 113 

New Epoch for Faith, The, . . . 400 

402 Nineteenth Century Science, The Story 

536 of, ....... 114 

266 Original Girl, An, 815 

Palace of the King, In the, . . . 673 

403 Parochial Schools in Chronological Or- 

118 der, Growth of, 538 

246 Passion, The, 265 

667 Pastorals of Dorset, .... 541 
262 Penelope's Irish Experiences, . . 395 
399 Philippines, Some Notes on the Bibli- 

391 ography of the, 122 

665 Physical Geography, A Reader in, . 536 
679 Pillar and Ground of the Truth, The, . 540 

Politics and the Moral Law, . . . 534 
676 Political Economy, .... 533 
254 Questions of History, Mootad, . . 254 

Raccolta, The, or, Collection of Indul- 
genced Prayers and Good Works, . 535 

Religion in Literature and Religion in 
Life, 260 

Religion of Democracy, The, . .116 

Richard Malcolm Johnson, The Auto- 
biography of, ..... 39 2 

Riddle of the Universe at the Close of 
the Nineteenth Century, The, . . 401 

Rome, The Story of 255 

Rosary Guide for Priests and People, 
The 258 

Rosary the Crown of Mary, The, . 

Russia, Expansion of, 

Sacerdos Rite Institutus piis exercita- 
tionibus menstruae recollectionis, 

St. Antoine de Padoue, . 

St. Francis of Assisi, 

St. Jean-Baptiste De la Salle, 

St. Louis, 



536 



261 
542 



St. Nicolas I 

St. Scholastica, The Prayer of, and other 
Poems, 

Sermons for Children's Masses, 

Sister Theresa, 

Social Betterment, Religious Movements 
for 

Socialism and Modern Science, 

Soft Side, The, 

Songs of all the Colleges, 

Special Devotions, 

Speech-Making, Notes on, 

Swedish Household, From a, 

Sweetheart Manette, .... 

Ten Months a Captive among Filipinos, 

Theology of Albrecht Ritschl, The, 

Thomas a Kenipis, Life of the Ven- 
erable, . 



398 

816 

252 

=59 
673 
264 



2 59 
675 
670 

535 



Threshold of Life, On the, . 
Tour in France, A Little, 

Up from Slavery, 

Veuillot, Louis, 

V car of St. Luke's, The, . ... 
V e de Sainte Gertrude, . . ./ ; ".' 
rgin Saints and Martyrs, . 
siting; the Sin, . . . .-''; 
>caiion, The Romance of a, 
Ward, Mary, a Foundress of the Seven- 
teenth Century, ..... 
Watson Girls, The, .... 
When Blades are Out and Love's Afield, 
Whilomville Stories, .... 
Wizard's Knot, The, .... 
World's Great Classics, The, 
Year of Life, A, 




"O MEMORY SWEET! AGAIN WE PRAY, 
ABIDE WITH us THIS EASTER DAY." 



THE 



CATHOLIC WORLD. 



VOL. LXXIII. APRIL, 1901. No. 433. 



N CAS^EI IDYLL. 



BY ALICE F. SCHMALL. 

I. 

JERUSALEM. 

The palm-tree lifts its feathered frond 

And gently waves a welcome fond 

To azure skies above, that bend 

In glad response, as friend to friend. 

While o'er the City, grand and old, 

The sunshine spills its liquid gold, 

And falls in many a flashing jet 

On stately tower and minaret. 

Lights, gardens, filled with odorous bloom, 

That shed abroad their rich perfume, 

And glitter in the fountain's play 

That heavenward flings its crystal spray. 

THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE IN THE STATE 
OF NEW YORK, 1901. 

VOL. LXXIII. I 



AN- EASTER IDYLL. 



[April, 




1 9<Di.] AN EASTER IDYLL. 

II. 

VIA DOLOROSA. 

Outside tbe Kortb Damascus gate, 
Cbeir frowning faces dark witb Date, 
Che mocking crowds with taunts pursue 
Cbeir deatb=doomed King tbe gentle Jew. 
6rieMnarked Bis face, Witb wigil spent 
his form beneatb its burden bent : 
Stung bp its cruel coronal 
his brow is wet witb drops tbat fall 
In crimson streams, and, downward sweep. 
Us, toiling up tbe rockp steep, 
fie nears tbe nd. bitter pain ! 
Co feel tbat ife and Cope are pain. 

in. 

CALVARY. 

Cbe rounded moon, a silcer wbeel, 
ooks downward wbere in mute appeal, 
Witb outstretcbed arms, tbree crosses rise 
In naked borror 'neatb tbe skies, 
Cbeir gbastlp burdens wan witb woe. 
fls pears creep bp tbe moments slow. 
Kow quipering tbro* tbe startled air, 
fl piercing crp of sbrill despair 
fraugbt witb fiis long=pent agonp- 
44 mp God! wbp bast forsaken me?" 
Is beard from dread Golgotba's bill. 
Once more Re calls. Cben all is still. 



AN EASTER IDYLL. 



[April, 




Ha is NOT HERE: HE u RISEN.' 



AN EASTEK IDYLL. 



IV. 

RESURRECTION. 

I Wo faithful hands receive jiis form 

e/ 

<A lily, broker) by the storrri 

And lay it in tf]e tomb to sleep, 
While tender Women Watch and Weep. 

<And as t\\e one, returning, came, 
|n loving tones TJe spoke her name, 

Yet put her yearning touch aWay 
1 h,at still might hold pirn to the clay. 

'And as a star recedes from \7ieW 
Dissolving in the ether blue, 

0r subtle sceqt of roses rare 
1 hat fills uqseen tr]e evening air, 

jie \?am'shed fronr] their earthly sight 
1 o regions of celestial light 

memory sWeet! <Again We pray, 
Abide With us this faster lijay. 




6 REPORT OF THE TAFT PHILIPPINE COMMISSION. [April, 



THE REPORT OF THE TAFT PHILIPPINE 
COMMISSION* 

BY REV. JOHN T. CREAGH, J.C.D. 

COWARDS the end of January of the current 
year, President McKinley transmitted to Con- 
gress a report relating to the condition and 
immediate wants of the Philippine Islands. 
This document has since appeared in print, and 
represents the results of an investigation conducted by a com- 
mission under the presidency of Judge Taft. It is the second 
government publication of the kind, the report of the Schur- 
man commission having appeared just one year previously. 
Thorough in treatment and judicial in tone, capable of vital 
and far-reaching influence, this presentation of facts in regard 
to the Philippines will be read with interest by all citizens 
who have at heart the honor of their country and who desire 
that our dealings with these new possessions be characterized 
by wisdom and justice. To maintain correct authoritative re- 
lations with a people whose genius and traditions differ essen- 
tially from our own is not an easy matter, and fullest knowl- 
edge must guide our every step if we would avoid mistakes 
and misunderstandings whose least disastrous consequence will 
be military conflict. 

Certain special conditions, verified in the Philippines, lend 
to the Taft report and all allied matters a very particular in- 
terest in the eyes of one class of American citizens those who 
are members of the Catholic communion. It is question of a 
people recognizedly Catholic.f Out of a- population variously 
estimated at from nine to twelve millions, 6,559,998 are en- 
rolled in the parish registers as loyal to the church.:}: The 
Moros are followers of Islamism ; the Negritos and a number 
of other tribes are still sunk in their native paganism ; but the 
vast majority of the inhabitants, that class which a civilized 
power must take into account, are united to us by that most 
intimate of bonds a common faith. That they have no inten- 
tion of discarding Catholicism is made clear by the testimony 
of strangers as well as by their own conduct. In a draft of 

* Washington: Government Printing-Office. 1901. f Taft Rep., p. 30. 

\ Ibid., p. 23. Senate document No. 432, p. 32. 



1 90 i.J REPORT OF THE TAFT PHILIPPINE COMMISSION. 7 

a constitution submitted to the Schurman Commission by cer- 
tain eminent Filipinos, while religious liberty is asserted, 
special countenance is given to the "Catholic worship."* 
These people are in contact for the first time with a govern- 
ment represented for the most part by adherents of an unsym- 
pathetic creed. If the entire nation was thrown into a high 
state of excitement through the anxiety of our Protestant 
brethren about the lives and property of a few missionaries 
in China, we may be allowed to entertain some solicitude lest 
the religious interests of millions of fellow-Catholics, resident 
within our own dominions, be in any way jeopardized. 

It is impossible for us to leave the church in the Philippine 
Islands to work out its destiny without the small tribute of 
American sympathy. We may recognize the total separation 
of church and state in our system of government, we may 
have the fullest confidence in the integrity of our official 
representatives, and place them far above any suspicion of 
bigotry or prejudice; but we are compelled, nolentes, volentes, 
to realize that the religious issue is vital in insular affairs, and 
will exercise the abilities of our statesmen. At every step are 
the agents of the government confronted with evidences of the 
fact that they have to do with a people which is thoroughly 
and devotedly Catholic. The liberation of captive friars and 
nuns, desecration of churches, despoiling of sacred vestments 
and vessels, early and repeatedly called attention to an essen- 
tial aspect of Filipino life. This same feature is necessarily 
emphasized again and again in the present Taft report. Eleven 
consecutive pages are given exclusively to Catholic matters, 
and through the entire document are found numerous refer- 
ences to the church, or religious, or property, or education, 
which demand recognition of the peculiar interests of the 
Catholic Church. f 

THE FRIARS. 

Judge Taft personally was entrusted with the special charge 
of investigating the topics, civil service, friars and public 
lands. He is spoken of as a man of unimpeachable character, 
and no one will read his treatment of these different subjects 
without a favorable impression of his statesmanship and of his 
endeavor to be just and impartial throughout. If anything 
causes us to hesitate in accepting his judgment as final in cer- 
tain particulars, it is the knowledge that in many countries 

* Schurman Report, vol. i. p 217. f Taft Rep., pp. 23-33. 



8 REPORT OF THE TAFT PHILIPPINE COMMISSION. [April, 

there appears on the surface a certain frothy sentiment which 
is by no means truly indicative of the national feeling that 
surges below, and which nevertheless first strikes the eye of 
the foreign observer. 

Judge Taft discusses the morality of the friars in a lengthy 
paragraph,* although he admits that their immorality as such 
would not have made them hateful to the people, and that 
therefore " such immorality as there was is largely irrelevant 
to the issue we are considering." The general tenor of this 
portion of the report is refreshingly contradictory of what we 
have been accustomed to read in magazine articles, in accounts 
brought back by Protestant visitors to the islands, and in the 
voluminous literature bearing on the Philippines. These sources 
of information, some of which have been used in Congress pre- 
sumably to furnish ground for legislation, have admitted that 
" a few friars " may have lived up to their high calling ; the 
Taft report assures us that " there were many educated gentle- 
men of high moral standards among the friars." The ordinary 
gruesome portrayals of Filipino clerical life are probably what 
the commission has in mind when it speaks of the " lurid and 
somewhat overdrawn pictures painted by anti-friar writers, 
speakers, and witnesses concerning the abuses of the friars." 

The report, therefore, offers some rebuke to the rumors 
which have seen so much service during the last few years. 
It asserts, however, that there were enough instances in each 
province to give considerable ground for the common report ; 
adding at the same time that the friar witnesses denied the 
charges of general immorality, admitting only isolated cases, 
which they said were promptly disciplined. Judge Taft dimin- 
ishes the immorality of the religious at a rate which must 
alarm the episcopal and unepiscopal investigators who preceded 
him, but even his estimate is narrowed considerably by a body 
of witnesses whose words must appear to any unbiased mind 
to have a special force. No Catholic would be pleased with 
the picture of a clergy thoroughly debased ; even individual 
clerical unworthiness is an ungrateful spectacle. We may con- 
sequently feel the profoundest interest in a matter which the 
church has most seriously at heart and concerning which her 
discipline is so uniform and unmistakable. A charge of such a 
nature should not be propagated, above all in such a way as 
to be capable of influencing legislation, unless it rests upon a 
secure foundation. The report says that " the friars denied 

*Taft Rep., pp. 27-28. 



190 1.] REPORT OF THE TAFT PHILIPPINE COMMISSION. 9 

the charges," that they would not even admit that foundation 
for the report which the commission claims actually existed. 
Under " the friars " in this sentence come the bishops and pro- 
vincials who appeared before the commission, men to whose 
integrity the report itself bears witness. They were, we pre- 
sume, on oath. Their long residence in the island, their inti- 
mate acquaintance with church life and government, afforded 
them means of learning real conditions which far surpassed 
any at the command of the Taft commission. Their words 
may well have a weight which even the language of the report, 
comparatively favorable as it is, is not strong enough to 
counterbalance. In fact, that the immorality of the friars had 
been greatly exaggerated was already certain without the con- 
firmatory testimony of the Taft commission. Much of what 
has been published on the matter is simply irresponsible repe- 
tition of what has been irresponsibly stated by some previous 
writer. A conscientious examination of the extensive Filipino 
literature in the Congressional Library reveals that the anti- 
friar writers have for the most part shown a receptivity like 
unto that of Kipling's " Tomlinson." 

" ' This I have read in a book,' he said, ' and that was told to 

me ; 

And this I have thought that another man thought of a 
Prince in Muscovy.' ' 

Our great distance from the scene of the events which are 
being judged and our consequent dependence on the evidence 
of others do not oblige us to accept as true every unwarranted 
statement that is put forward. Repetition is no guarantee of 
truth. Enemies of the church are only too willing to seize 
upon any argument which may be used against her, and their 
zeal to combat Popery may at times lead them to foster a 
calumny without examining too strictly its foundation or source. 

THE FRIARS' PROPERTY. 

The property possessed by the religious orders has furnished 
material for much comment, and we are not surprised that it 
is deemed worthy of serious treatment by the commission. 
There is no doubt that the real estate held by the friars is 
both valuable and extensive, and not a few anti-Catholic 
writers have been clamoring for confiscation. They say that 
the astute ecclesiastics have for centuries been quietly grabbing 
the choicest portions of the territory until now they stand 



io REPORT OF THE TAFT PHILIPPINE COMMISSION. [April, 

forth unjust, untitled possessors of millions of acres belonging 
rightfully to the people.* The truth is that a considerable 
part of the friars' land was given by the Spanish government 
in sparsely settled provinces in the hope that the country, 
until then left in its native condition of uncultivation and un- 
productiveness, might be improved.f Most of their valuable 
territory has been held by the orders for one or two centuries- 
The Taft report declares that their title is certain, and that 
prescription has remedied any defects which might possibly 
have accompanied original possession.^: A court of claims al- 
lowing all adverse claimants to institute action against the 
friars has been called upon to pronounce only in one case, 
with what issue we are not informed. 

The Augustinians came to the archipelago in 1565 ; the 
Franciscans in 1577; the Dominicans in 1587; the Recollets in 
1606. They were recognized as a great civilizing power. Is it 
strange that the government should seek to assist them -by 
grants of land ? The purest selfishness on the part of the civil 
rulers would prompt a liberality of this kind towards these 
men whose presence in the islands was so necessary. The 
generosity and faith of the people, also, led them to make 
pious dispositions in favor of a clergy that had sacrificed every- 
thing in order to serve them. After centuries of possession, 
with all the opportunities for self-enrichment implied therein, 
what do we find? Far from being owners of the country, the 
friars rank but seventh in the list of wealthy proprietors ; they 
possess only a comparatively small portion of the cultivated 
Philippine territory. No outcry is .heard against the members 
of the first six ranks of land-owners. The majority in Congress 
passed recently a measure which may put 73,000,000 acres in 
the Philippines into the hands of corporations and trusts, and 
no one seems to be greatly disturbed. Is it possible that those 
who have been heard on the land-question are " but mad north- 
north-west," and that when the friars are not under considera- 
tion, there is no desire to dispute universally titles of posses- 
sion and ownership ? It is interesting to note in connection 
with the holdings of the friars that the revenues from their 
lands were devoted to no selfish purpose. Large amounts were 
expended in furnishing proper irrigation and other improve- 
ments; schools of foreign missions were maintained in Spain 
to supply new recruits for arduous missionary labor in China, 

* Senate Document No. 432, p. 42 ; Foreman, History of Philippines. 
tTaft Report, p. 27. J Ibid., p. 27. Ib., p. 28. 



1901.] REPORT OF THE TAFT PHILIPPINE COMMISSION, u 

Tonquin, and Formosa, as well as in the Philippines ; numerous 
hospitals and colleges were endowed. Far from being a basis 
for the charge of avarice, the possessions of the religious 
orders rather demonstrate an apostolic unselfishness and de- 
votion. 

Confiscation of this property is declared illegal in the re- 
port. The treaty with Spain binds the United States to pre- 
serve inviolate all property rights of individuals and of civil 
and ecclesiastical corporations. High-handed interference with 
the exercise of unquestionable rights, dictation as to methods 
of administration or tenure, " a resort to condemnation pro- 
ceedings,"* even if they escape the name of confiscation, are 
equally excluded by justice, and are to be especially repro- 
bated at the present time, when the financial condition of the 
Filipino church is so precarious, and when one of the great 
difficulties confronting the prelates is the proper adjustment 
of resources needed to meet the wants of worship and clergy. 

JUDICIAL EXEMPTION. 

On page 28 of the report is a paragraph which will be read 
with considerable unction by those who are determined to be- 
lieve that nothing too bad can be said of the friars. It is 
there set down that the friars were exempt from trials for 
offences, except the most heinous, in the ordinary courts of the 
islands, and were entitled to a hearing before an ecclesiastical 
court. Even in the excepted cases trials had to be held first 
in the latter tribunal. No comment is made by the commission 
on this statement, and needless to say it will have no place in 
Americanized law. It is a souvenir of the Spanish domination, 
and some pious readers will doubtless behold in it another 
artifice of Rome wherewith to cloak priestly iniquity. Of 
course the presumption is that crimes were continually com- 
mitted by the religious, and that they always escaped punish- 
ment. 

In reality, we have brought to OUT attention in this pas- 
sage an institution which is most ancient ; which has divine 
warrant in the Old Testament, which early found a place in 
the venerable body of Roman law under the emperors Con- 
stantine, Theodosius, Valentinian, and Justinian, and which is 
not the peculiar product of the Spanish or Filipino church. 
It is perfectly intelligible to one who appreciates the distin- 
guishing character impressed on God's ministers in ordination. 

* Taft Report, p. 33. 



12 REPORT OF THE TAFT PHILIPPINE COMMISSION. [April, 

Priests constitute a spiritual soldiery ; and just as the Spaniards, 
in common with other nations, recognized a special military 
code for the army, and a naval code for those in the marine 
service, so also they found it natural to allow a special forum 
to the clergy. These dispositions of the Spanish law were 
known as military, naval, and ecclesiastical privileges ; but the 
term privilege in this connection was far from signifying 
exemption from legal retribution. It simply denoted that 
members of the army, navy, and church, in case of transgres- 
sion, became subject to the jurisdiction of judges other than 
those who presided in the ordinary courts. A priest was no 
more secure from punishment than was a soldier or sailor in 
the service of the sovereign. 

CHURCH AND STATE. 

We have heard much of the thraldom in which the natives 
were kept by their religious teachers. A writer for a Wash- 
ington newspaper,* whose correspondence has been raised to 
the dignity of a Senate document, refers repeatedly, after the 
example of Foreman, to the " domination of the friars." The 
Filipinos are represented as rejoicing exceedingly in their 
present liberty, and direst results are prophesied if they are 
thrown back again into subjection to their gowned tyrants. 
The Taft report seems rather inclined towards this view.f It 
holds that union of church and state under Spanish rule re- 
suited in a confusion of civil and ecclesiastical authority. The 
people seeing in the friars the representatives and agents of 
misgovernment, have come to cherish a bitter hatred for these 
ministers of religion. To assist the friars to return would be 
to foster revolt anew. 

This appreciation of the relations between the friars and 
the people may be correct. But there are most weighty rea- 
sons for questioning it. The friars may have been the agents 
of the Spanish government, and may have possessed considera- 
ble civil power. The report makes it clear that whatever part 
they played in the municipal councils was compulsory and that 
they never had any vote4 But whatever the friars may have 
been in the civil order, they were certainly teachers of religion 
in the spiritual order in fact, the only representatives of 
Catholicity that the natives ever knew. No one denies that 
the natives remain unwaveringly Catholic. "The Philippine 

* T. W. Noyes, editorial correspondence of the Evening Star. 
t Taft Report, p. 31. \ Ib., p. 25. 



REPORT OF THE TAPT PHILIPPINE COMMISSION. 13 

people love the Catholic Church. It may be doubted whether 
there is any country in the world in which the people have a 
more profound attachment for the church."* Does it not 
seem somewhat strange that these people should love the 
church so, and at the same time entertain a universal distrust 
and hatred of her ministers? Nothing can contribute more 
infallibly to the ruin of any ecclesiastical establishment than 
an unworthy and odious ministry, and yet after centuries of 
exclusive management the friars present to us a united, de- 
voted Catholic people. President McKinley in his inaugural 
address appealed to the loyal millions in the Philippines as in- 
dicative of the manner in which our government is received 
there, and declared that a disloyal few furnished no evidence 
of the real sentiments of the people. We fear that in refer- 
ence to the friars a contrary criterion is being invoked. The 
loyal millions of the Catholic population are not heard in the 
tumult raised by a few agitators. This is the contention of 
the bishops and friars who assert that the masses are friendly 
to them.f It is notorious that the Katipunan Society, which 
does not represent the people at large, started the antagonism 
to the friars.:}: The insurgents kept their friar prisoners under 
stricter guard than any other class, because they feared that if 
permitted to go among the people the religious would use the 
influence they possess to incite the natives against Aguinaldo's 
government.! What does this imply save that the body of the 
people are loyal to their religious teachers, and that the return 
of these latter at the present time would be far from exciting 
a general revolt? That the friars would be centres of disloy- 
alty is a proposition which hardly merits consideration We 
believe that if returned they would prove most efficient aids 
to the American government in re-establishing order. Whether 
they will return, whether they care to go back again to their 
old missions, we do not know. Determination of their course 
is a matter which pertains exclusively to church authorities, 
and interference with freedom of their pronouncement would 
furnish just cause for protest on the part of American as well 
as Filipino Catholics. Whatever the decision of the church 
will be in reference to the return of the friars, we are sure 
that it will be for the best spiritual interests of the natives 
and helpful to our government ; that it will be distinguished, to 
quote the words of the report, " by that same sagacity and 
provision which characterize all the church's important policies." 

* Taft, p. 30. f Ib. , p. 30. \ Schurmaa Report, vol. ii. p. 404. Senate Doc. No. 196, p. 13. 



14 REPORT OF THE TAFT PHILIPPINE COMMISSION. [April, 

EDUCATION. 

The matter of education is treated in an interesting chapter 
by Mr. Moses, another member of the commission, but not so 
exhaustively as in the Schurman report. Cause for criticism 
is found in a system which placed instruction in Christian doc- 
trine before aught else, but regarding this there may be honest 
difference of opinion. The religious are credited with quite a 
long list of higher institutions of learning. In primary educa- 
tion defects certainly existed, but they are in large measure to 
be attributed to lack of funds with which to make adequate 
provision for a teaching corps, and for this the Spanish govern- 
ment and not the church is responsible.* There has been a 
great deal of controversy over the amount of illiteracy in 
the Philippines. One writer maintained that the percentage of 
illiterates among the civilized tribes of Luzon was less than 
in Massachusetts, but recourse to statistics has disproved his 
statement. Judge Taft says that the desire for education among 
all the tribes is very strong.f but General Hughes, who at one 
time controlled education in Manila, doubts very much whether 
the Filipinos are extremely anxious for intellectual food. The 
Spaniard seems to have been of this mind. He was not over- 
solicitous about developing the mental faculties of his Philip- 
pine subjects, but he at least allowed them to live. He en- 
tered the islands some time before the settlements were made 
at Jamestown and Plymouth ; he has not been engaged in 
more numerous conflicts than have occurred between white and 
Indian in America ; and to-day we find millions in the Philip- 
pines, but where are the descendants of Massasoit and Pow. 
hatan ? There are at least as many educated and refined Fili- 
pinos as there are American Indians of the same class. Squeers' 
methods may have a good end in view, they may be intended 
to promote learning and conventional behavior, but they are 
not always the best for the subject. Many of those who were 
made to profit by them would have been far better off in 
ignorant and happy enjoyment of the free air of the fields. 

The general tone of the Taft Commission report is fair and 
statesmanlike. Its conclusions have been reached after much 
investigation and offer a serious corrective of many erroneous 
views which have hitherto been very generally received as true. 
But its pronouncements are not infallible, and we claim the 
right to reject some of them in presence of valid contradictory 

* Schurman Report, vol i. pp. 33, 34. -j- p. 32. 



.1901.] REPORT OF THE TAFT PHILIPPINE COMMISSION. 15 

evidence. Our right to exercise our discretion in reference to 
its conclusions is confirmed by the variance which exists in nu- 
merous details between this report and other works supposed 
to be the products of as great care and research. The reader 
may be surprised that a wise policy did not place a Catholic 
representative on the board, but perhaps this was unnecessary. 
Nevertheless, it would have given a certain reassurance to 
Catholics here and in the Philippines. It might at least have 
prevented some of the numerous mistranslations of ecclesiasti- 
cal terms which figure in congressional documents bearing on 
the Filipino problem. 

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 

The sacred character of the religious liberty of the Fili- 
pinos was incorporated in the treaty with Spain, has figured 
in numerous military and civil proclamations, and is mentioned 
in the instructions of both the Schurman and Taft commis- 
sions. What does this mean ? Does it not imply that they 
are to be allowed to practise their religion free from inter- 
meddling? Such is the clear and necessary interpretation of 
the term. But if anything will justify spontaneous protest it 
is the practical construction which is put on the clause relat- 
ing to religious liberty. We read ad nauseam of the opening 
up of a new land to the Gospel. Manila is overrun with 
preachers and evangelical carpet-baggers. The training of 
young Filipinos is taken from religious teachers and entrusted 
to a system which takes no account of religion, and many 
of whose representatives are hostile to the church.* Six mil- 
lions of people who are members of a communion which we 
regard as founded in the Gospel are pictured as groping in 
religious darkness. One of the witnesses before the first Phil- 
ippine commission referred to the influence and standing of 
the friars, and he was asked to suggest a remedy. He advised 
bringing in Protestant missionaries to combat the priests. Mr. 
Schurman said : " The idea, no doubt, is a good one." f There 
is a large field for evangelizers in the Philippines, but it lies 
outside Manila. The Gospel has already been preached in that 
city. The Mohammedans of the Sulu Islands are in deeper 
error than the people in the immediate vicinity of United 
States garrisons on the island of Luzon ; the Negritos are 
capable of vast improvement, spiritually and intellectually ; in 

* Taft and Schurman Reports, chapters on Education. " 
t Schurman Report, vol. ii. p. 421. 



16 REPORT OF THE TAFT PHILIPPINE COMMISSION. [April. 

fact, they are as low as human beings can well be ; in northern 
Luzon there are head-hunting tribes who have never seen a 
Bible or heard of a tract. Among such a rich harvest awaits 
the reaper. They cry out for men possessed with genuine 
missionary zeal. But the genuine missionary spirit cannot be 
said to animate those who are using the victory of Manila 
Bay to cloak an attack on our church ; nor does it inspire the 
Federal party, the close ally of the government, which is said 
to be exerting itself more strongly against Catholicism than 
against the insurgents. When legislative attention is directed 
to the Mohammedan Moros adherents of polygamy and 
slavery men say that it is better to follow a policy of tolera- 
tion, avoiding all intermeddling, rather than bring on a holy 
war. What holds good there applies with still greater force 
in the Catholic portion of the archipelago, where we find no 
Mohammedanism, no polygamy, no slavery ; where already 
exists a Christianity centuries old, where at present religious 
peace reigns. The Dutch entered Java, and left religion se- 
verely alone, with happy results ; the British did the same in 
Ceylon ; a contrary course in the Philippine Islands will 
foment that most potent and undying source of discord 
religious rancor. 





THE BUILDINGS OF BROOK FARM, WITH "THE HIVE" IN THE 3: iris. 




THE BROOK FARM MOVEMENT VIEWED 

THROUGH THE PERSPECTIVE OF 

HALF A CENTURY. 

BY ANNA M. MITCHELL. 

TANDING on the threshold of the twentieth cen. 
tury, and casting a retrospective glance over 
the landmarks that indicate the expiration of 
a hundred years of American life, we find, occu- 
pying a conspicuous place within the first fifty 
years, that socialistic venture known as the Brook Farm Move- 
ment. Regarded simply as a philanthropic experiment it would 
prove of surpassing interest ; but when we add to this the 
fact that many of those who were most prominent in the 
movement became eminent in American literature during the 
latter part of the century, it has for us a biographical as well 
as a socialistic interest. The chief actors in this little drama 
having now passed away, their work permits of more dispas- 
sionate inspection than if they still lived and moved among us, 
and their work can be better judged in its many-sided aspects 
when viewed through the perspective of fifty years. 
VOL. LXXIII. 2 



i8 BROOK FARM MOVEMENT VIEWED THROUGH [April, 

In the early part of the present century New England, then 
pre-eminent as a literary centre, began to vibrate with new re- 
ligious tendencies which threatened to prove a wide departure 
from the orthodox creed of the early Puritans. Unitarianism 
began to supplant Calvinism, and this religion of negations, as 
it has been called, rapidly acquired a strong hold upon the in- 
tellectual element. It is not surprising that this casting loose 
from doctrinal moorings in New England paved the way for 
the adoption of Speculative Philosophy as a substitute for re- 
ligion. In 1836, about ten years after the first Unitarian 
Society had been formed in Boston, we find Transcendentalism 
beginning to engross the attention of some of the leading 
spirits in the Unitarian Church. After Ellery Channing, the 
most prominent ministers in the church were probably George 
Ripley and Ralph Waldo Emerson. The latter resigned his 
pastoral charge on account of conscientious scruples, and be- 
came the prophet of the new philosophy. The Transcendental 
Club was organized, and its members began to devise means 
for propagating their ideas, which they were strongly convinced 
would better the condition of mankind. The- Dial, a quarterly 
publication, was issued for that purpose, and the members took 
turns editing it. This proved a slow means of making con- 
verts, and Mr. Ripley, who was one of the leading spirits in 
the club, maintained that the first step that must be taken 
was to devise some method by which man could be freed from 
the slavery of social customs. After much serious thought, he 
submitted to the club the following plan : In order to put 
their theories to a practical test, they were to locate on a 
farm where agriculture and education would be made the 
foundation of a new social life, and truth, justice, and ord< r 
were to be the governing principles. Manual labor was to re 
dignified by all participating in it. No religious creed was to 
be adopted, and the old and the sick were to be cared for by 
those who were strong and able to bear the burdens. The 
adoption of this plan he urged upon the members with great 
eloquence. Preaching, he argued, was not sufficient; there 
must be evidence of the preachers' willingness to lead the 
ideal Christian life. These were the initiative steps which re- 
sulted in the founding of the Brook Farm Association in the 
spring of 1841. The farm selected by Mr. Ripley for the ex- 
periment was situated in West Roxbury, about nine miles from 
Boston. It occupied a slight elevation in a beautiful rolling 
country. The locality was very familiar to him through his 



I90I.J 



THE PERSPECTIVE OF HALF A CENTURY. 



having summered there for several seasons. The community 
numbered at first about twenty people men and women of 
culture and good social position. Although Emerson had 
talked favorably of it, he declined to join the venture when it 
came to a practical test. A careful inspection of the constitu- 
tion gives ample evidence that these men and women were 
prompted by a high aim and pure motive, and surely nothing 
but strong convictions that they were pursuing the right course 
could have led them to sacrifice the comfort of their city 
homes and put up with the inconvenience that necessarily at- 
tended the life on a farm. 

The constitution pledged itself to provide such employment 
for the members as would be best adapted to their different 
tastes and habits. The members were to be paid for their 
labor at rates that should not exceed $i per day, and should 
not be allowed to work more than ten hours each day. The 
association was to furnish to the members house rent, fuel, 
food, and clothing at the actual cost, and no charge was to be 
made for education, medical attendance, or use of library. 
Those deprived by sickness of the ability to labor, and mem- 
bers over seventy years of age, 
were exempt from the required 
charges. The net profits re- 
maining in the treasury were 
to be divided into shares and 
distributed among the mem- 
bers, the amount given to each 
being gauged by- the number of 
actual days' labor performed. 

A pen picture of all the gift- 
ed men and women that com- 
prised this community would 
prove interesting, but we will 
confine ourselves to a descrip- 
tion of a few of the most 
prominent. Mr. Ripley, the 
leader of the movement, was 
a man of fine physical presence 
and scholarly attainments. His 
biographer tells us that he 
was no unbeliever or sceptic ; 
but a quiet student, devoted 

to his books. He had a hope- GEORGE RIPLEY. 




2o BROOK FARM MOVEMENT VIEWED THROUGH [April, 

ful, social, sunny temperament, and was absorbed in philosophical 
pursuits. His wife, Sophia Ripley, was a member of a fine old 
Cambridge family. She was finely educated and had an attrac- 
tive personality. I have heard a member of the community 
tell of the absorbing interest with which they always listened to 
Mrs. Ripley 's account of the persons and things that had come 
within her varied experience. Her adoption of the life at 






RALPH W. EMERSON. WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. 

Brook Farm was strongly condemned by the exclusive social 
set in which her family moved. 

A young man who soon made himself felt in the community 
life, and who was afterwards destined to become one of the 
foremost of American journalists, was Charles A. Dana. He 
was fresh from Harvard College, where he had distinguished 
himself in the study of languages. Mr. Ripley soon recog- 
nized his ability and gave him a position of responsibility. He 
gave lessons in Greek and German, which secured for him the 
title of "The Professor"; but he was very fond of spending a 
portion of his time on the farm, the tree nursery being the 
object of his special devotion. 

Nathaniel Hawthorne, idealist and dreamer, was one of the 
first of the Transcendentalists to be attracted to the Brook 
Farm life. He went there, thinking that a little manual labor 
would prove no impediment to attaining his youthful ambition, 
namely, to become a writer of stories. But the farm- work did 
not prove as idyllic as it appeared in the light of his glowing 
imagination. That he reached a very definite conclusion on the 
subject is evident from this sentence in The Blithedale Romance : 
"Intellectual activity is incompatible with any large amount of 
bodily exercise." His ascetic nature chafed under the buzz 
and hum that attended the busy life of such a large family, 
and at the end of a year he said farewell to his associates ; 



Igor.] 



THE PERSPECTIVE OF HALF A CENTURY. 



21 






but he always entertained toward them the kindliest feelings, 
and gives us abundant evidence of this in The Blithedale Romance. 
At first the little community found the original farm-house, 
which they had named "The Hive," quite sufficient for their 
wants ; but soon three additional buildings were added. The 
cottage which was known as the Margaret Fuller Cottage was 
constructed by private enterprise ; as was also the Pilgrim 
House, which received its name from the fact that it had been 
built by two brothers from Plymouth. The Eyry, perched on 
a ledge of rock behind " The Hive," was occupied by Mr. Ripley, 
and had the most attractive situation of any of the houses. 
One of the first things that the members naturally turned their 
attention to was the establishment of a school. There was 
fine material from which to draw a teaching corps, and the 
relations between teacher and pupil must have been quite 
ideal in such an atmosphere of unity of thought and purpose. 
It needed no other ad- 
vertising than that 
which was furnished 
by the names of those 
associated with it, and 
before long their limit- 
ed accommodations 
were taxed to their ut- 
most capacity, pupils 
coming from all parts 
of New England and 
New York. These 
teachers were like 
Chaucer's " Parson " 
while they taught they 
wrought. The hours 
between lessons were 
busily employed. The 
women had their vari- 
ous assignments in the 
domestic department. 
Mr. Ripley was a firm 
believer in^scientific agriculture, and gave much of his attention 
to the improvement of the farm land, while the magnificent trees 
that now abound about the place give evidence of how well 
Charles Dana must have attended to his hobby of tree culture. 
The men and women dressed in the simplest manner, so that 




DR. HOLMES. 



22 BROOK FARM MOVEMENT VIEWED THROUGH [April, 

the family exchequer was not taxed by tailors' and dress- 
makers' bills. The men wore blue tunics with black leather 
belts and checked trousers, and the women wore a species of 
short skirt, very much like the bicycle costume of to day. 
The table was simple in the extreme. An ordinary laborer to- 
day would have as many luxuries as were spread before the mem- 
bers of this little community. This simple life seemed to typify 
Wordsworth's idea of " plain living and high thinking." Mr. Rip- 
ley endeavored to impart to the assembly some of his intellectual 
enthusiasm. Evening classes were formed at which were given 
readings from Shakspere, Goethe, and Carlyle. 

This little family, sufficient unto itself, pursued the even 
tenor of its way, quite indifferent to the outside world, which 
might go on moving in the same old groove if it chose, but 
they were happy in the thought that they had found the de- 
sideratum of life. The outside world was not, however, so in- 
different to them. It first heard and wondered, and then became 
curious to look in upon them. Mr. Ripley would probably 
have resented any intrusion upon their privacy were it not for 
the fact that he felt this revolution in social science would be- 
come a part of public history ; so their doors were thrown open 
that all might come in and see. The erudite Margaret Fuller 
was a constant visitor, but was never a member of the com- 
munity, as has been erroneously stated. She loved to gather 
a group of admiring listeners about her and give full play to 
the brilliant conversational powers for which she was famous. 

Orestes Brownson, who had placed his young son in the 
school, was a frequent visitor. He had at this time hewn a 
pith for himself through several different Protestant denomina- 
tions, having bsen in turn Presbyterian, Universalist, and Uni- 
tarian. He had just begun to turn his attention toward 
Catholicism, evolving in his mind a plan by which he hoped to 
hive the church form an alliance with Protestantism on terms 
that would not be distasteful to the latter. As he generally 
appeared at the Farm with his battle-axe on his shoulder, his 
arrival was not always hailed with delight. One of his strong- 
ly disputatious nature could easily become uncomfortably 
dogmatic, and this was probably what led Mrs. Kirby to say 
of him that he was not considered "the prince of gentlemen 
in debate." One might easily infer from this that Brownson 
was not very popular in the community, and formed quite a 
contrast in this, respect to his friend Isaac Hecker. Father 
Hecker was at this time a young man twenty-four years of age, 



THE PERSPECTIVE of HALF A CENTURY. 



and had been induced to go to Brook Farm by Brownson, who 
recommended it as a desirable place for study. In January, 
1843, the young mystic made his first appearance there. He 
entered as a partial boarder, giving his services as a baker for 
his instruction. The duties of baker to the community con- 
sumed so much of his time 
that he soon felt obliged to 
give it up and become a full 
boarder. George William 
Curtis, who was a member 
of the community at this 
time, gives us the following 
reminiscences of him : "He 
had an air of singular refine- 
ment and self reliance, com- 
bined with half-eager inquisi- 
tiveness, and on becoming 
acquainted with him, I told 
him he was ' Earnest the 
Seeker,' which was the title 
of a story of mental unrest 
which William H. Channing 
was then publishing in The 
Dial. Among the many in- 
teresting figures at Brook 

Farm I recall none more sincerely absorbed than Isaac Hecker 
in serious questions. He entered into the working life at the 
Farm, as it seemed to me, with the same reserve and attitude 
of observation. He was the dove floating in the air, not yet 
finding the spot on which his foot might rest." One thing is 
certain, and that is that he was a great favorite in the com- 
munity, and although he only remained there about nine months, 
his charming amiability and simple, frank manners attracted 
every one to him. To Mrs. Ripley he seemed to have particu- 
larly endeared himself. Perchance it was the unconscious recog- 
nition in each other of that bDnd of spiritual sympathy which, 
unknown to bDth, was drawing them toward the same goal. 
The desire to lead a more ascetic and interior life than it was 
possible for him to lead at Brook Farm, led him to leave the 
community in the summer of 1843 and turn his steps toward 
Fruitlands, the ascetic retreat of Bronson Olcott. His diary 
bears testimony to the fact that he enjoyed the people he met 
at Brook Farm, and he felt that his stay there had been most 
beneficial in exercising a refining influence upon his life. His 




ISAAC HECKER AT BROOK FARM. 



24 BROOK FARM MOVEMENT VIEWED THROUGH [April, 

stay at Fruitlands was very brief, and after another year of 
spiritual wandering the dove at last found the spot on which 
his foot might rest. He entered the Catholic Church in 
August, 1844, and in October of the same year he was followed 
by Orestes Brownson. 

The first two years of the Brook Farm existence might be 
termed the experimental period, and the universal verdict, pro- 
nounced by those who had enjoyed its membership at the end 
of that time, was that ethically it was a great success. In fact, 
it was almost idyllic. The Utopia of Sir Thomas More's 
dreams seemed to have been realized in this happy congrega- 
tion of cultivated men and women. The community embraced 
about seventy people. Idealists and dreamers were there in 
abundance, but the hard-headed man of affairs was wanting, 
and so it was with some surprise that the management found 
that the little community was not paying its way. The ques- 
tion that now presented itself was, What method could be de- 
vised by which the ethical standard could be preserved and 
yet the community be made self-supporting ? The theories of 
Charles Fourier, the French exponent of industrial association, 
had been attracting the attention of some of the members, and 
it was suggested that the directors should engraft some of his 
ideas on their present system. A very serious objection to 
this was raised by some of the members. The introduction of 
the industrial element meant the letting down of the bars and 
the inundation of their sacred precinct by the hard fisted son 
of toil. It was at this juncture that the crucial test of Mr. 
Ripley's character was made, for he had to put seriously be- 
fore himself for decision this question : Should he endeavor to 
develop the educational side more fully, and so maintain the 
exclusive tone of culture that a number of the members 
thought was the proper atmosphere for the community, or 
should he put his books on the shelf and reach down and en- 
deavor to raise to a higher plane the earnest struggling soul 
that saw the Elysian fields afar and was reaching toward them ? 
It required a man of strong moral purpose to meet such a 
crisis, for he knew that on this decision depended the main- 
tenance or withdrawal of the support and sympathy of many 
of his fellow Transcendentalists. But the man who had taught 
that there was a divine equality of spirit at the base of all 
human lives, decided that there must be no inconsistency in 
his words and deeds, and so the final decision reached by him 
was, that the only passport required for entrance to Brook 
Farm must be earnestness of purpose and uprightness of life, 



THE PERSPECTIVE OF HALF A CENTURY. 25 




THE SCHOOL FLOURISHED FOR Two YEARS. 

and so the carpenter, shoemaker, and blacksmith came in at 
one gate, while the litterateur and philosopher went out at the 
other, and Emerson and his followers bemoaned " Ripley's fall." 
The Industrial Period became inaugurated by the adoption 
of the best features of Fourierism. Its objectionable element 
was never endorsed at Brook Farm. The system provides for 
the performance of labor by means of grouping. Three or 
more persons combined for the same object made a group ; a 
series consisted of three or more groups under one chief or 
head. These series were named, respectively, the Mechanical 
Series, the Farming Series, the Domestic Series. The chief of 
a group was elected weekly and the chief of a series monthly. 
Under the revised constitution any person wishing to become 
a member had to reside on the place, as an applicant, one 
month. If this term of probation proved satisfactory, he was 
made a candidate, in which capacity he served for another 
month, and if he continued to prove a desirable applicant, he 
was admitted as an associate. He was credited with every 
day's labor he performed ; the laboring day in winter being 
eight hours long and in summer ten hours. All articles fur- 
nished were charged, and a full settlement made to every 
member once a year. As Horace Greeley was at this time at- 



26 BROOK FARM MOVEMENT VIEWED THROUGH [April, 

trading much attention to the subject of social reform, 
through the columns of the Tribune, there was no dearth of 
applicants for admission to the Brook Farm Community, and 
the letters received at this time show a wide range in the 
character of those who were anxious to obtain admittance. 
Had Nathaniel Hawthorne remained during the Industrial 
^Period, it is possible that he would have become an exponent 
of the Idealistic school of fiction, as he certainly would have 
hatf . hind; abundant material for character-drawing. There 
was the genial Thomas Blake, whose nautical figure secured 
him ,'t^V title of "Admiral," and positive John Orvis, whose 
responsibilities were carried in such a weighty manner that he 
was dubbed "John Almighty." It would be almost impossible 
to conceive of this heterogeneous gathering of people without 
an Irishman, and he was there in the person of John Cheevers. 
He showed his Celtic loyalty by insisting that his tunic should 
be made of green cloth instead of blue. Although John made 
his entry into the community during the Transcendental Period, 
he was a hearty supporter of the levelling process, and used to 
refer to the members who had taken their departure at the 
beginning of the Industrial Period as " extinct volcanoes of 
Transcendental nonsense and humbuggery." All the accounts 
given by people who were members of the community at this 
time go to prove that the life there was a particularly happy 
one. As the men worked side by side in the field the ques- 
tions of the day were freely discussed, and many a joke was 
cracked as they tried to rival each other in the speed and ex- 
cellence of their work. Indoors the various groups of women 
in the Domestic Series performed their tasks with the same 
cheerful spirit. The Washing Group had the tedium of its 
toil relieved by the never-flagging encouragement of Mrs. 
Ripley, who entertained them as they worked without ever 
thinking that any work preferred by the others was too 
humble for her hands. The new-comer who was at first dis- 
posed to shy a little at some uncongenial task, soon caught 
the spirit of adaptation in the place, and before he realized it 
was working with a will. There was no danger of dulness 
being developed by all work and no play. The announcement 
at supper that there would be a dance in the evening was 
sure to be hailed with delight, and the work of transforming the 
fining room into a ball-room was performed with the greatest 
alacrity. The music was generally furnished by a solitary 
violinist brought from a neighboring town, but no full orchestra 
ever lei the steps of a merrier party. Promptly at ten o'clock 



THE PERSPECTIVE OF HALF A CENTURY. 



27 



the dancing ceased and the dining room was again made ready 
for the morning meal. When we contrast this picture of 
simple, healthy life with the environment of the toiler in our 
crowded cities, where the saloon and low theatres are the only 
means of diversion, one cannot help regretting that this social- 
istic experiment should have been so short lived. 




MARGARET FULLER COTTAGE TO-DAY. 

Three years after the industrial feature was introduced the 
management was obliged to acknowledge that the new experi- 
ment had not realized their expectations from a financial 
stand-point. The principal reason assigned for this was, that 
the ground was not adapted for farming and had necessitated 
considerable outlay which the return from it did not justify. 
The school, which had been so flourishing during the first two 
years, suffered considerably by the introduction of the indus- 
trial feature. The one hope now left was to attract to it peo- 
ple who had capital to invest, but who could not be induced to 
join the community unless there could be more convenient 
quarters provided for the maintenance of the family life. To 
meet this need sufficient money was raised to begin a new 
bjilding, which was to be arranged in suites, and every hope 
was entertained that on its completion a number of well-to-do 



28 BROOK FARM MOVEMENT VIEWED THROUGH 

families would take up their residence at the Farm The 
Phalanstery, as the new building was called, proved a 
veritable castle in Spain, for around it were woven bright 
dreams for the future prosperity of the association. The mem- 
bers, feeling that the financial cloud that had been hanging 
over them was about to be lifted, went about with light hearts, 
little dreaming how soon this castle was to fall. On the ever.- 
ing of March 2, 1846, while "The Hive " resounded with music 
and laughter, a fire broke out in the new building, which was 
at that time almost completed, and in a short time nothing was 
left of it but a heap of ruins. What made the catastrophe 
such a fatal one was the fact that the building was not in- 
sured, and, as the members looked in each others' faces the 
morning after the fire, they knew that Brook Farm was doomed. 

If co-operative associations had been as common then as now 
it would have been a comparatively easy thing to have secured 
capital enough to rebuild the Phalanstery and thus enable 
them to start anew; but as this was an untried venture in new 
fields, like all departures from the conventional lines, it was 
looked at askance by many wise heads. The founders felt 
from the first that they were handicapped by want of capital, 
as they had among them no rich men ; but they showed their 
belief in the cause they had espoused by venturing their all. 
Mr. Ripley expressed himself thus, in an article written about 
this time : " We have never professed to be able to represent 
the idea of association with the scanty resources at our com- 
mand, nor would the discontinuance of our establishment, or 
of any of the partial attempts now in progress, in the slightest 
degree weaken our faith in the associative system, or our con- 
viction that it will sooner or later be adopted, as the only 
form of society suited to the nature of man and in accordance 
with the Divine will." There is a strength of conviction in 
these lines that enables us to understand why George Ripley 
had been willing to abandon a life of comparative ease and 
comfort and assume responsibilities which entailed hours of 
anxiety and the loss of congenial friends. The disbandment 
of the community at Brook Farm left him a poor man ; even 
his cherished books had to be sacrificed, and as he saw them 
depart to wipe out the account of one of the creditors he 
said : " I can now understand how a man would feel if he 
could attend his own funeral." 

One by one the members of the little community bade a 
sorrowful farewell to the place to which they had become so- 
much attached, and went back again to the struggle and strife 



THE PERSPECTIVE OF HALP A CENTURY. 



29 




PULPIT ROCK. 

amidst selfish ambition, which had never entered within the 
boundary of Brook Farm. The association had been in ex- 
istence five years, and had during that time added three houses 
to the original farm-house, which they had also enlarged, and 
had improved a large tract of land. They had paid seventy- 
five per cent, of the cost. This does not bear evidence of such 
a gigantic financial failure as many people are led to suppose 
terminated the existence of the Brook Farm colony. 

Mr. Ripley assumed the personal responsibility for a num- 
ber of the debts, and set cheerfully to work to pay them off. 
He removed to New York and began writing for the Tribune 
at a very meagre salary. He r also became ^a contributor for 
Putnam's and Harper 's New Monthly. He was afterwards asso 
ciated with Charles A. Dana in editing the American Encyclo 
pcedia. As a literary critic he had few equals, his work being 
free from that carping element of fault-finding that mars the work 
of many critics He always looked for the good and generally 
succeeded in finding it. His noble wife walked bravely by 
his side for twelve years after they took up their residence 
in New York. She taught school for two years at Flatbush, 
N. Y., giving up her position as soon as her husband became 
well established in his literary career. In 1848 she entered the 
Catholic Church, and expressed her appreciation of the sense 



30 BROOK FARM MOVEMENT VIEWED THROUGH [April, 

of restfulness and the peace of mind that this step brought 
her by saying to her friends, "I have found my mother." 
Her husband respected her religious convictions, appreciated 
her devotion, and aided her in the works of chanty with which 
her days were filled. It does not seem at all strange that the 
theory of the divine equality of the spirit, which Mr. Ripley 
endeavored to inculcate by word and deed into the residents 
at Brook Farm, should have eventually led so many of them 
to yard the Catholic Church. It seems rather significant that 
Father Hecker, who was destined to become a spiritual guide 
for men, should have led the way, to be followed by Orestes 
Brownson, Mrs. Ripley, and later on by Buckley Hastings, v-ho 
was the purchasing agent for the Farm, and George Newcome, the 
High Churchman of the colony, who wrote a book called Dolan* 

When Father Hecker returned to America in 1851 he 
renewed his intercourse with his old friends of the Brock 
Farm days, and that the bond of friendship between him and 
the Ripleys strengthened with the years is very apparent from 
the affectionate manner in which he speaks of George Ripley 
in his diary. Mrs. Ripley died in 1861, after a somewhat pro- 
tracted illness, and was brought to Cambridge, Mass., for burial. 
The little church in Purchase Street, Boston, over which 
Mr. Ripley had presided as a Unitarian minister, had been 
converted into a Catholic church, and here the burial services 
were performed, her husband sitting in the same pew that she 
had so often occupied while listening to his preaching twenty 
years before. It was allotted to Mr. Ripley to work on for a 
full score of years before he laid down his pen for the last 
time. He had said to Father Hecker one day, shortly after 
the latter's return to this country, " Can you do all that any 
Catholic priest can do?" On receiving an affirmative answer, 
he said : " Then I will send for you when I am drawing toward 
my end." He kept his promise, and did send for him during 
his last illness; but the message was not delivered, and when 
Father Hecker reached his bedside he was beyond the reach 
of his assistance. An immense concourse of distinguished men, 
representing different walks in life, attended his funeral, bear- 
ing testimony to the high place held by him in the community. 

The most sanguine imagination could not have made a 
forecast of what was destined to be accomplished in the various 
fields of American literature by that small band of men who 

* Hawthorne, although he shows a decided leaning toward the church in the Marble Faun, 
never seemed to get beyond the shadow of the sanctuary lamp ; but his daughter became an 
ardent Catholic, and Mr. Ripley's niece also became a convert to Catholicism. 



1901.] THE PERSPECTIVE OF HALF A CENTURY. 31 

were identified with Brook Farm, in one way or another, dur- 
ing the brief period of its existence. Who could have fore- 
seen, for instance, that during the fifty years that succeeded 
the disbandment of this community such a journal as the 
New York Sun could have its rise and assume such gigantic 
proportions under the editorship of Charles Dana ? Who would 
have thought that George Ripley's versatile talent would have 
found such a happy outlet in the American Encyclopedia? 
From the Easy Chair of Harper s was to flow the dulcet tores 
of George W. Curtis, his sentences charming like the strains 
of an ^Eolian harp. The work of establishing an Apostolate 
of the Press for the dissemination of religious truths was to 
be accomplished through the zeal of Father Hecker, while 
Orestes Brownson, through the Quarterly Review, sent forth 
into the world of letters masterpieces of trenchant, vigorous 
prose, and Nathaniel Hawthorne made for himself the first 
place among American novelists. There were other minor 
lights, like Minot Pratt and John Dwight, whose contributions 
to literature seem very meagre in comparison ; but all acknowl- 
edge alike the impetus to high thought and noble endeavor 
which was generated at Brook Farm. 

On leaving this retrospect, what shall be our verdict on the 
experiment as we look at it through the distant perspective of 
fifty years? If we were to apply to it the material gauge by 
which things are largely measured to-day, we would declare 
that it was a failure because it did not pay ; but if we are to 
regard it in the light of an effective object lesson, which the 
present generation might study with profit, then it was far 
from being a failure. It illustrates very clearly the fact that 
the spiritual unrest of ardent souls is often calrr.ed and satisfied 
within the haven of the Catholic Church, in a way that proves 
her a sure and safe anchorage for the most restless minds. 

Half a century has given us .great material prosperity, but 
with it have come gaunt spectres which have been enthroned as 
household gods. A high premium is now put on every form 
of selfishness ; luxurious living is now threatening to efface 
entirely the virtues attendant upon simplicity in the home life, 
and the might of the dollar is pitted against the right of the 
individual. Thinking people see the necessity of administering 
an antidote, and so we are devising other methods of Settlement 
Work in all our large cities, which are nothing more nor less 
than the adaptation to our present conditions of the spirit 
that was nurtured at Brook Farm fifty years ago. 



32 FOR EASTER DAY. [April 



DAY. 



(gitfe me an [faster-tide Within my heart, 
<A resurrection from my tomb of sin. 
(Christ! let l^y great light this morn come in, 

<And all the darkness of my night depart. 

J\loW, at the <Apnl thrill, when Violets start, 
When 1 hy Wide earth, With new life Would begin. 
What better time for m,e Thy loVe to Win, 

I o roll t\\e stone bacl^, findiqcj where 1 FJOU art! 

bet my great rrjorning daWq at last for me, 
<nqd let me burst my sealed prison bars, 
pargetting all my tears arjd sin-Wrought scars 

@n this White day of peace aqd jubilee. 
And let ascension lilies hear th,e song 
Of one who triumphed o\?er sin and Wronq ! 

1 QJ 

CHARLES HANSON TOWNE. 




1901.] " THEIR EYES WERE HELD" 33 



'THEIR EYES WERE HELD." 

BY EUGENIE UHLRICH. 

DARKENING line of greenish gray marked the 
edge of the lake. It seemed to run into the blue 
of the April sky, with its flitting clouds. 

The soft wind that broke the surface of the 
water sent the little waves lilting on the shore 
and back again. Their murmur had been very sweet to Mar- 
garet Oliver the first time she came here to the great metropo- 
lis of the West to listen and to see. She was then fresh from 
the long stretches and the coppery skies of the prairie. How- 
ever, at that time she was not alone, nor was she the many 
other times that she came. 

She turned away and looked up and down the Park. But 
everywhere she turned there was somehow the impress of Lummis. 
There on that bench they had sat down to rest one day. 
There by that tree he had stopped to point to a light effect. 
Here they had been when a sudden wind made him insist 
on putting on the jacket he would carry after her. She 
threw her jacket open now, for, although it was but the first 
week in April, there was a south-west wind creeping across 
the prairie back of the city and it was warm as June. 

Lummis had given her her first lessons of the city the 
confusing, rushing, terrifying city, into which she had come, and 
since her coming had been as out of place as a meadow lark 
on State Street. 

A woman with a little child came along, and Margaret 
smiled at it and the little one came toddling toward her un- 
hesitatingly. " She wants to come now," thought the girl bit- 
terly, " but after awhile she would change her mind too, for 
I always miss the grace of things with everybody in the end." 

Had she not given her own people the choice of the days 
of her youth and the fruit of her hands steadily, with open 
eyes, counting the years ahead and the years past, laughing at 
the things that most women hold dear? It is such a little 
distance between laughter and tears that they sometimes do 
duty for each other. And all the time her consolation was, 
"At least the children will love me," for their mother was not 
her mother. Sometimes, when she first came to the city, the 
VOL. LXXIII. 3 



34 " THEIR EYES WERE HELD" [April, 

sight of a curly head brought the quick tears to her eyes. 
She wanted so much to take the wee thing in her arms. 
Lummis would marvel at these little gusts of emotion, but she 
never felt that she could tell him so that he would understand. 

Yesterday she had come back to the city from a visit 
home, and this morning, but an hour ago, she had met Fred 
Moran. Beginning as usual by telling her how charming she 
was, how distinguished she was becoming, how well she looked 
it would not have been exactly true to say beautiful of 
Margaret, and Fred s tact was fine he incidentally told her 
some things about Lummis which, as she must hear them any. 
way, he thought would come easier from him. And then 
she had come out here to find a little quiet and the old time 
solace of the place. But all she could do was to sit there and 
make a brief against Fate and tear her nerves with emotion. 

How had it grown and overcome her at last that intoler- 
able sense that she was giving Lummis her best and taking 
his leavings. For truly in itself it was a delight to her to do 
what she could for him, satisfying that passion of self-efface- 
ment which is the inner essence of a woman's deepest love. 

Yet little by little she had begun to feel that he thought 
of his career, his future, his ambitions and he was a man who 
could live up or down to them and there she did not enter. 
What was she but just an incident, a bit of putty to fill in the 
uneven places for the brilliant writer. Even Moran, who was 
Lummis' friend, had urged her to quit what Lummis called 
collaborating with him. 

But Lummis was so many-sided, there was so much that 
he could do with her brain and work joined to his, that it was 
like destroying the symmetry of his capabilities to leave him. 
And Margaret had that finely balanced sense which craves 
completion and loves harmony ; and even had she not cared 
for the man, it would have been hard for her to give up work- 
ing with him, for her individual ambition was not very keen 
and was easily lost in the satisfaction of the effect of their 
united work. And then, too, when she first came to the city 
his work had been her mainstay and had meant very much to 
her. So gratitude entered also into the bond to make it 
stronger, and make it hold even when it had come to mean 
the putting aside of better work. 

Her chosen female mentor, Mrs. Ryerson, was vehement and 
insistent in her objections. 

"There'll be a tragedy some day," said Mrs. Ryerson, 
"when you find that he is going to marry somebody else; and 



I9DI.] " THEIR EYES WERE HELD:' 35 

of course he will. You know how he is courted and made 
much of by millionaire packers' daughters and so on. And if 
that is all he's after, you are out of his class anyway. You 
are losing yourself, my dear girl, in his work; and no woman 
can afford to do that for any man unless he sets aside a life 
income for her, or is going to marry her." 

Margaret protested and steadfastly went her way. 

Yet things heard constantly have their subconscious effects 
and Margaret had an inflammable temper, and one day some 
of them broke away in spite of herself. 

"It is better for us to work apart," she had concluded her 
outburst. 

" Yes ? " said Lummis. " Well, if you think so, I cannot 
persuade you otherwise, I suppose. But what have you really 
to worry about here ? " 

"So far as I know," she retorted, " my family is long-lived, 
I should like to feel that I am getting a grip on things that 
would assure me of a reasonable future." 

" For how long in advance do you want assurance from 
Providence?" he asked, just a trifle maliciously. 

" Longer than I can get, doing as I have been doing." 

" I think you have been doing very well." 

" Really ? It is always so easy to be complacent about the 
affairs of our friends." 

He laughed, and then she turned on him. " Sometimes you 
make me very tired. I shall at least be glad when I do not 
have to depend on you any more in any way." 

After she had said it she could have bitten her tongue. 
The limitations of her childhood seemed suddenly to have 
taken possession of her, and formed themselves into bitter, 
ugly words given the more fluency only by her later training. 

He just looked at her in a boyish, hurt, wistful way that 
made her think of her little brother, and for a moment she 
could have cried out and begged him not to mind what she 
said. But she did not. 

And so she went away feeling that somewhere she must 
learn the bitter lesson of getting along without him. And that 
lesson was going to be worse for her than for the ordinary 
woman, for in her both the woman and the artist rebelled. 

After a few weeks, wondering each day that she was still 
successful even without him, she picked up her things and went 
home " on a visit," as she said. But deep down in her heart she 
admitted to herself that she was ready to take up life again in 
the squalid town, if it would only let her bury herself from 



36 " THEIR EYES WERE HELD." [April, 

the great world, which takes so much and gives so little, and 
where women and their tears are so light in the scale. It had 
come over her compellingly with the warmer weather to go 
back to the prairie the lush, warm earth, the sweep of the 
south west wind, the call of the meadow lark, the windflowers 
on the rolling hills, and the fresh air blowing through her hair ; 
the tinkle of the cow-bells across the wide river, swirling and 
hurling oceanwards its burden of ice from the North, and lick- 
ing up the brittle earth in its greedy maw, and to the story- 
and-a half house where they would soon plant the sweet-peas, 
and where Bubby was whittling whistles out of the maple 
twigs pliant with the fresh sap of spring. 

The train drew into the little town very early, and Mar- 
garet, feeling the sweep of the wind, fragrant from miles and 
miles of brown earth and thawing water standing in deep 
sloughs, drew a long breath of delight. She was glad to be 
back after all, and as she took her little hand-bag and started 
to walk up in the direction of the house for the one street- 
car line was not yet running her heart beat with a great 
exaltation. She forgot how fast she was walking until she 
reached the top of the little roll of hill beyond which was the 
house. She stopped for breath and looked around at the 
river. It was a silver line in the west, but eastward streamers 
of red ran over it. The sky was lighting with a far, clean, 
pale-edged pink. Suddenly a rosy touch flamed on a distant 
and higher hill to which a bit of snow still clung, then from 
one to the other leaped the pink gleam, and the sun at last 
broke out straight ahead of her and flowed over the river and 
tinted the mists hanging over the low places. Below her lay 
the lonesome story and-a half house, one of a scattered group 
still dull in outline against the pale west and the misty morn- 
ing air. How they would all be astonished when she came? 
She had not been able to send them much money from Chicago, 
and they would be glad to have her with them again. To pay 
her board at home made it so much easier for them and for her. 

Her step-mother had opened the door after long knocking, 
and stared at her, but said only " Well ? " 

"I thought you'd be surprised," said Margaret. 

" I am," she said ; " but I can't think what you 're coming 
this time of the year for. 'Tis n't pleasant now. Are you sick ? " 

She looked at Margaret sharply, and the while took the 
girl's hand-bag. 

"You can take the down-stairs bed-room": and she led 



IQOI.] " THEIR EYES WERE HELD." 37 

the way. " Hannah had it, but she is teaching, you know, 
over in Woodbine. She '11 be home for Easter though, and if 
you 're going to stay over you can sleep together. I took your 
bed down. It was only in the way." 

And the while she eyed Margaret's very neat boots and her 
trig gown with the unfriendly admiration of the obscurest 
corner of an obscure prairie town. 

"Well, I've been thinking," said Margaret, "of seeing 
whether the Daily Eagle could not give me something again." 

" Eagle ? " exclaimed her step-mother. " Why what can you 
be thinking of? They wouldn't pay over ten dollars a week." 

" Well, it would n't cost me so much for expenses here " 

"Huh!" said her step-mother. "I know you. You'll have 
the dressmakers wild trying to get a Chicago cut, and you '11 
have the front room all pulled up fixing it, and then you '11 
want to teach me new ways of cooking, and the Lord knows 
what not." 

Margaret's head drooped. Her step-mother tried to turn it 
off with a laugh. " You do have a way like that, you know." 

Then her brother, her dear Bubby, came down stairs rub- 
bing his eyes. 

"How are you getting along at school?" she asked after 
she had made him red with embarrassment by kissing him over 
and over again. 

" He isn't going to school," said his mother. 

Margaret's eyes opened. 

" I did n't think it was worth while telling you. He got a 
chance to get in at Benson's, at the hotel, as elevator boy, 
around Christmas " 

" What ? " And then Margaret looked down at the tips of 
her boots very hard and said no more much to the relief of 
her step-mother, who had rather expected a little passage at- 
arms about the matter. But Margaret was struggling with 
something much like a pang of conscience, made poignant by 
disappointment for Bubby. 

Bubby, her beloved Bubby, growing up into a tall, lank 
hanger on of hotels, while she was in Chicago, " climbing " ! 
"We are all climbers!" Lummis had said once, half jestingly, 
and she had resented the term and the snobism implied. But 
what had she to hold forth herself? If she had stayed with 
the Eagle she could have looked after Bubby and made a man 
of him, instead of wasting herself for the sake of Lummis. 

The next morning she did not go to the Eagle office. It might 
be better to wait a day or two and see how things were. So 



38 " THEIR EYES WERE HEJ.D" [April, 

she started to plant the sweet-peas she loved as a relief to the 
successive emotions of the day before. 

" They are too much trouble, along with the garden stuff," 
said her step-mother deprecatingly. 

Later she found that the Jersey cow was sold and a scrub 
in its place. "We needed the money just then," explained 
her step-mother, and she looked sharply at Margaret's boots. 

"Why didn't you write me," asked Margaret. 

But her step mother turned away and did not answer. 

Even Margaret's dog was dead. 

Her father sat outside on warm days, a doddering old man. 
"Now why," he wept, "did you leave me? You know how 
things go to rack when there 's none of us to look after them. 
Trie other children never were a bit like me anyway just took 
after their mother." 

Margaret said nothing, though somehow this selection of 
resemblance seemed rather recent, she never having heard of 
it before she went to the city. And who had helped her there 
if notLummis? Ah, if it could but have remained impersonal! 
B Jt then it could not have been as it was had it been impersonal. 

Neither did she go down to the Eagle the next day. She 
went over to see her sister in Woodbine instead. 

" I atn so glad you are getting along, Sissy. I have hoped 
for it so long." 

" I suppose you did. Well, I 'm glad too, so I won't have 
to depend on you," said her sister. " You always seemed to 
feel that you were everything." 

Margaret's face became white. It seemed to her she had 
been saying and thinking much the same, and perhaps as unfairly. 

" Have I not always tried to do the best possible for you 
the best I could, at least and who can do more?" 

" Maybe you did, but mamma says you always upheld papa?" 

" Well, what should I have done ? " 

" She says that if it had n't been for you he would have 
done something sensible, instead of speculating around with 
this thing and that; or maybe he would have just died " 

Margaret rose to her feet : " What are you saying ? Is he 
not your father too ? Take care ! " 

The next evening she walked up and down in the white 
prairie moonlight with Bubby. 

" Listen here, Madge," he said. " I would have liked to go 
to school. But I couldn't make it unless you came back, and 
I thought you would n't like to come back to Platteville. 
Would you really ? I only took that elevator job for awhile, 



" THEIR EYES WERE HELD" 39 

and where I'm going now to the foundry I 've got a show 
anyway. Maybe I wouldn't have been a good civil engineer." 

"God bless you, Bubby ! " she said. "But I wish I had 
never left you " ; and she hugged him. 

" That 's all right, Madge," he said, loosening her arms J 
"but you needn't say anything to mother about it." 

And Madge saw the point once more. 

But at least this much she had attained : the children had 
a fighting chance and she had had less. 

The next morning she decided at last to go down to the 
Eagle office, even if only for the visit she would have to make 
for old time's sake. Coming up the road, or rather street 
though it was not easy to tell where the road began and the 
street ended she saw a low-wheeled vehicle, a cross between 
a buggy and a lady's phaeton. 

She noted its feminine ease with a faint scorn for a second, 
and then started to turn into another street, for she knew the 
horse and the probable driver. But here he was even then, 
bDwiag and waving his hat. She stopped until he came up, 
quickening the lazy beast a little. 

He held her hand close and looked at her with a turn of 
the eyes which he had found very effective. " I am so, so 
glad to see you "; and his eyes travelled down her gown. 

She smiled a little. " It is pleasant to know that people 
are glad to see us." 

" I am just on my way down town early, as usual, you see ! " 
He smiled at what was meant to be a joke on himself; but 
it had a double action, and she only remembered that it was 
10:30 and that this was a small town. 

"On your way down town too?" he went on. "This 
horse can pull two " smiling again at this second witticism. 

She shook her head. " I am going to make a call first." 

"Too bad! Are you going to be in town sometime? I'll 
run in some evening." She smiled again as the only thing pos- 
sible, both polite and non-committal. 

He glanced approvingly down her gown once more, and it 
struck her how little he would stop to talk to her if it did not 
appear so distinctly correct, at least to the conceptions of that 
little town. 

He was about Lummis' age, and he was a handsome man. 
But the thick lids and coarse droop of the mouth under the 
mustache, and the 10:30 hours for beginning a supposed-to.be- 
rising young lawyer's day, and his complacent condescension 
as the feminine idol of the town, were almost pitiful to her 



40 " THEIR EYES WERE HELD" [April, 

now, though there was a time when she herself was not un- 
tainted by the worship of this same idol. He was probably 
still looking for a suitable match in which the dollars would 
save him from taking any more trouble than he was now. She 
had a sudden feeling that she could forgive Lummis many 
things as set up against this man, and in a burst of gratitude 
for that feeling she held out her hand. 

" Some evening when I am settled, perhaps "; and she 
smiled and he drove off looking not a little puzzled. 

Having started along this particular street she walked until 
she came to a little house set back under big maple-trees. 
There was a bent old woman sitting on the porch in the spring 
sunlight, where the still bare and interlacing branches made 
queer, trembling patterns over her. As she saw the stranger 
coming she rose feebly, tall and powerful as she must have 
been once. Her blinding eyes peered forward, and she asked 
in a bronchitic whisper " Who is it ? " 

"Do you not know me, Mrs. Gleason?" 

" No, I do not, child ; but your voice " she bent forward 
from the elevation of the porch and pushed the girl's hat back. 
" Ah, well, I know you now, child, and well I mind the first 
day I saw your mother. She was a good woman, a good wo- 
man to us all in the day of trouble or of sickness, and God 
bless you for being her daughter! I could never miss knowing 
you for her. It was in the big house your mother lived when 
I first saw her; and why ain't you married and living in a 
house of your own yourself?" she went on in her whisper, her 
hand still on the girl's forehead. " Don't ask too much of them 
of the men. The best of them leaves you lots to bear with." 

And Margaret went back to the house smiling happily for 
the first time since the morning she knocked at the door. 
" The best of them leaves you lots to bear with." She would' 
go back and try again, at any cost to her pride and vanity. 
And she went back, and then the tears began to roll down 
her cheeks now, and blur the lake and the sky and the sun. 
There did not seem possible this side of the grave a wilder 
pain than she had suffered when she met Fred. Moran that 
morning and he told her that Lummis was going to Europe 
with the commission for the State, to get ideas for the new 
hospital, and that he was going to be married to the niece of 
well of somebody with millions and to spare. 

Live as the air was with the glow of budding life, she her- 
self seemed to have lived too long. What was success when 



IQOI.] " THEIR EYES WERE HELD" 41 

the plastic mind of those whom it would have helped had taken 
the mould of an alien touch ? What was her art when she, a 
woman, had not praise nor love for the doing of it from the 
man she loved ? What if she could write a rhythmic and 
balanced sentence when she had nothing left to say ? Each 
new step had meant a new agony, and oh ! it was too dear a 
price for a woman to pay. This was Good Friday the day of 
our Lord's Passion; passion in the old sense of suffering! 
Well it might be that day for the darkness and misery in her 
own soul. She would find some place in the city, obscure and 
alone, and with the help of God after awhile, perhaps, she 
might find a way to be of use to the world, and Heaven might 
grant her peace again. She remembered a family she had 
visited, partly because the first time she came out there with 
Lummis they had wandered past the house and Lummis had 
stopped to talk to the children, and chucked them under the 
chin and called the little one a pretty baby. With the need of 
doing something for some one other than herself, she walked 
along the lake shore to the end of the Park and then followed 
on into a little cluster of foreigners. She liked them too be- 
cause they were German, and it was the tongue her mother 
had spoken, which, as Lummis was wont to say, accounted for 
her sentiment. 

She would give the children a little something for Easter. 
It is true she had but little money in her purse and Sunday 
was Easter. But what matter if she did wear her last summer's 
hat now? She would take good care not to go to church any- 
where where Lummis would see her. The oldest girl, Rosie^ 
ran out to meet her and threw her arms about Margaret's 
waist. Why had she been away so long ? Their papa had been 
very sick, but the nice man whom Margaret had sent was making 
him well. Now Margaret remembered that Rosie's father had 
had something he called rheumatism, and that she herself had 
told Lummis so. 

Was it charity, or a little bit to please her, to keep up 
some point of connection with her, that made him come all 
the way out here to take care of this poor man ? Then she 
remembered, too, a random sheet she had snatched from the 
waste-basket one day for a memorandum. It proved to be a 
fragment of a letter from Lummis' brother thanking him for 
sending their mother a gift that the brother could not afford 
to send, and sending it yet in the brother's name. 

Perhaps but what did it matter now, and what help was 
it to think of or to know all these things now ? 



42 " THEIR EYES WERE HELD" [April, 

She talked with Rosie's mother at the kitchen door, and 
then came back and saw where the children were planting the 
seeds they had gathered from the morning-glory vines, for 
which she had given them the seeds the year before ; saw 
where they were going to build the nests for the rabbit that 
brings the Easter eggs, and then finally started to leave. Against 
the steps of the tiny front porch Georgie, the youngest, had 
fallen asleep. 

" Is it not a little cold for him to go to sleep here, Mrs. 
Koehler?" asked Margaret, and she stooped and picked up 
the limp, warm little form in her strong arms and raised the 
flushed cheek to her own, smiling involuntarily as she did so. 
Then her eyes turned suddenly to the street, and there was 
Lummis himself crossing towards the little house. The de- 
light in her heart at sight of him flashed into her eyes for a 
moment in spite of herself, and then her face became cold, 
and she said stiffly " I am glad to see you. You are going to 
Europe, I hear. You are to be congratulated, indeed." 

" Oh, not particularly," he said, looking at her keenly. 

He seemed about to say something else, and Margaret, 
fearing it might be of his marriage, put Georgie into his 
mother's arms hastily and said " Good-by." For, indeed, just 
then she felt she could stand no more. 

Rosie, on the plea of walking a piece with her, came after 
her. Couldn't Miss Oliver come out on Sunday and see their 
nests and the Easter eggs ? Of course Rosie; at eight, knew 
who made the Easter eggs, but the little ones did not. And 
they had so much fun. They would make a nest for her too. 
And Margaret promised. 

On Easter Sunday afternoon, balmy and pulsing with the 
life of spring as it was, Margaret yet felt infinitely thankful 
that she had even Rosie Koehler's invitation to help her to 
escape from the intolerable pain of being alone with herself 
for a little while. She went, and in deference to her little 
friends arrayed herself as best she could in last year's plumage. 
When she came to the house Rosie ran to meet her, and 
led her round to the tiny garden; and there was Lummis talk- 
ing to the younger children, and looking hot too particularly 
astonished to see her. " They insisted that I must come, just 
for a minute; and, as they promised to build a nest for me, 
and no one else was doing as much, I came." 

" That hat," he went on, ' is most becoming. You look 
Easter-like " 



1901.] " THEIR EYES WERE HELD" 43 

" Dear, innocent man," she thought, smiling even in her 
misery. " He thinks it is new." 

They must break bread together and have an Easter egg 
this day, said Mrs. Koehler if they would not despise a cup 
of her coffee. And then in the little sitting room, temporarily 
a dining-room, on a spotless white linen cloth that looked like a 
piece of ancient homespun brought over from Germany, she 
laid out sweetened bread, " Kaffee-Kuchen," and elderberry 
jelly, and brought them coffee ; and Margaret smiled amiably 
at the children and her bustling goodness. Then Mrs. Koehler 
chased the children out. She talked but little English, but 
eyes can see in all languages, and she had an idea it would 
be well for those two to be alone. 

" You are going to be married too," said Margaret at last, 
thinking how flat and stupid it sounded after all the time she 
had spent searching for a phrase. 

"Well, yes, I hope so, some time," said Lummis rather 
ambiguously. 

"Before you leave for Europe?" 

" It would be well, perhaps," he said. " I have been very 
lonesome. Lately I find I do not work as well alone as I 
used to." 

"And she she is very congenial?" 

" Who ? " asked Lummis blankly. 

" Freddy Moran told me that you were going to marry 
Miss Salsbury." 

" I heard that too. I don't believe the lady wants me, even 
if I were a-wooing bent in that direction. There was a ques- 
tion of somebody else too, I believe somebody more probable." 

"Oh!" said Margaret, "people mix things so." 

"Only the people, Margaret?" He closed his hand over 
hers, lying on the edge of the little table. "What do you 
think, Margaret?" 

She drooped her head. 

"Our eyes were held," he went on. "But now we have 
broken bread together and they are opened; is it not so, dear? 
Surely we have been walking so close to happiness we cannot 
let it vanish." 

And when Mrs. Koehler opened the door again, Margaret's 
head was bent over her arms and Lummis was gently stroking 
her hair. So she shut the door. 

"So," she murmured. "It yet vill be a fine Eastern for 
dem two." 




44 THE PATHOLOGICAL AND THERAPEUTIC [April,. 



THE PATHOLOGICAL AND THERAPEUTIC 
VALUE OF MUSIC. 

BY CARINA CAMPBELL EAGLESFIELD. 

'HE scientific application of music to the healing 
art is yet in its infancy and its practical use 
has thus far rested entirely at the discretion of 
the physician. No medical school gives instruc- 
tion in music as applied to medicine, yet all 
physicians concede its influence and many make direct use of 
it. Reliable data have not yet been gathered in sufficient 
numbers to allow of the least dogmatism, and many reasons 
combine to make it probable that the science will remain em- 
pirical for some time to come. 

When we reflect how difficult it is to apply music to disease,, 
it is not strange that conservative practitioners have not at- 
tempted more. It requires on the physician's part an exact 
knowledge of the sensitiveness of the patient to musical sounds, 
besides some technical training as to the effect of different kinds 
of music and different keys upon the emotional nature. Whether 
we shall advance much further in uniting the two arts is a 
very interesting question, but it is likely to remain unsolved 
till the scientific spirit takes hold of it and collects reliable 
statistics of the practical working of the combined arts. 

ALIENISTS ON THE MUSIC CURE. 

Alienists have been curiously silent as to the effect of 
music upon the insane ; they simply touch upon music as an 
important method of recreation, and the annual reports of in- 
sane asylums are equally reticent. Yet we know that music is 
used, and has been for many years, in asylums, and the attend- 
ing physicians frequently report cases which have been greatly 
helped by its agency. Maudsley and other alienists dwell in- 
sistently upon the value of moral agencies in treating brain 
troubles, and lay great stress upon any employment or recrea- 
tion which distracts the patient's mind and turns his thoughts 
into other and less harmful channels. But music is not often 
directly mentioned, though it naturally falls under the latter 
head, and is indeed included in the practical working out of 



1 90 1.] VALUE OF Music. 45 

the theories of many superintendents of insane asylums. 
American physicians have undoubtedly held theories on this 
subject, but so meagre are the documents that one hails with 
delight any expression of opinion, and when that opinion is 
voiced by one of America's earliest physicians, we treasure it 
with respect. In this light we look upon an essay entitled 
" Music in Medicine," by Dr. Thomas Cadwallader, who was an 
ancestor of the famous Dr. Weir Mitchell's wife. This essay 
is now in the Philadelphia College of Physicians in MS., and is 
therefore not within reach of the public. It is one of the first 
American compilations, and so few Americans have written on 
the subject that it may be of interest to mention their names. 
E. A. Atlee wrote, in 1804, on "The Influence of Music in the 
Cure of Disease"; Mathews, in 1806, on "Is Music Curative?" 
and recently, in 1874, J. T. Whittaker on " Music as a Medi- 
cine." But we find the French far more eager to express 
their theories, and many famous French physicians have left 
works upon the subject. In 1817 Guillaume wrote on "Musi- 
cal Therapeutics"; in 1803, Dessessartz on "The Curative 
Value of Music " ; in 1819, Durand on same subject, and 
Robinat on "Musical Therapeutics" in 1835. In 1873 E. 
Columbat wrote on " The Influence of Music on the Public 
Health"; La Torre, in 1886, on " Music and Health"; but the 
famous Esquirol has left the most unequivocal statements of 
its value. He says : " Music acts most powerfully on the 
physical and moral nature, and I use it constantly in treating 
mental disease. It soothes and calms the patient's mind, and 
though it miy not cure, is a most precious agent and ought 
not to be neglected." Esquirol, who was for years director of 
the famous asylum "Bicetre," put his theories into daily prac- 
tice, and felt that much good was accomplished. Pinel, the 
equally celebrated French alienist, gives ample proof in his 
treatises of the value of music, but no other French physician 
has gone as far as Dr. Chomet, who spent twenty years ex- 
perimenting with the effect of music on the animal and human 
organism, and in 1873 brought out the results of his observa- 
tions in a book called " The Influence of Music." Like most 
enthusiasts, Chomet goes too far and attempts to prove his 
theories from what appear to us almost isolated cases. He seems 
to lay great stress also on the statements of the ancients, and 
cites them as proof of his own point of view. Statistics founded 
on the records of Greek and Roman medical practice are en- 
tirely too slight to be of practical value, and we regret that 



46 THE PATHOLOGICAL AND THERAPEUTIC [Apiil, 

Chomet allowed his devotion to his own theory to cloud his 
judgment. It is amusing when Dr. Chomet cites as a fact that 
" Penelope preserved her fidelity to her husband because of 
the gentle and chaste songs of the musician Phenius," though 
he ventures to doubt whether the same remedy would work as 
efficiently on the wives of to-day, and reflects sadly on the 
deterioration in morals and manners. 

FRENCH PHYSICIANS. 

The real value of Dr. Chomet's book lies in the theories 
which he advances, and the hints and suggestions he constantly 
makes, many of which have since his day been put into suc- 
cessful practice. He urgently advises the use of music for the 
insane, both as a curative agent and as a means of elevating 
the moral nature, and his observations on the quality and 
character of the music which should be used in different cases 
show broad technical knowledge of music, and an understand- 
ing of its practical application. Several of his cases have been 
recorded by the French Academy of Sciences. 

There seems to be an intimate sympathy on the part of 
French medical men for music, and they have left on record 
many cases which to the English and American would appear 
extremely doubtful. We have the testimony of Dr. Dodart 
that a case of violent fever was cured by means of music, but 
how is, unfortunately, not told. Bourdois de la Mothe also 
prescribed music as a last resort in case of a fever which had 
been running seventeen days. " The harp was used, and for 
thirty minutes no change was noted. Then in ten minutes the 
breathing improved, pulse became full and regular, and an 
epistaxis to the amount of eight ounces occurred, after which 
the patient recovered speech." Dr. Fournier-Pescay, in an 
article written for the Dictionary of Medical Science, relates a 
number of " well authenticated cases which were benefited by 
the use of music," and mentions among his own cases the ill' 
ness of his child, " who was relieved of constant pain and in- 
somnia by the sound of flute music." We are reminded that 
Pliny is said to have recommended the flute as a remedy for 
sciatica. 

DR. OSCAR JENNINGS. 

It is quite remarkable that so musical a people as the Ger- 
mans should have written less than the French on the thera- 
peutic value of music, since the interdependence of music and 



1 90i.] VALUE OF Music. 47 

medicine is undoubtedly recognized by their philosophers and 
medical men. Music is the element in which the average Ger- 
man lives and breathes, and it enters into every phase of his 
existence, yet the cases which have been made available to the 
public are rare. The most reliable data seem to have been 
contributed by an English physician, Dr. Oscar Jennings, who 
in 1880 wrote at length on the therapeutic value of music, and 
to him we also owe the most careful compilation of the theories 
of earlier experimentalists. Dr. Jennings says that " the thera- 
peutics of music have been much neglected. Concerts should 
be a standard treatment in all insane asylums, but, as usually 
conducted, they are considered part of the general hygienic 
and moral treatment, and differ entirely from the therapeutic 
selection of various kinds of melodies according to the particu- 
lar conditions of the patients." He agrees with Dr. Chomet 
in believing that the character of the music is very important 
in directing and controlling the emotions of the mind, and his 
suggestions are extremely interesting. As far as I can dis. 
cover, neither general practitioners nor alienists have paid 
attention to the specific character of the music which should 
be used, and to a musician this knowledge would appear im- 
perative. The definite application of music to mental disorders 
would require far more knowledge of music than the physician 
usually possesses, and would necessarily open up a new field 
for special study. When, however, exact knowledge was ac- 
quired and the physician had learned from experience the 
effect of certain kinds of music upon specific diseases, the most 
diverse effects might be educed, as the occasion demanded. 
Some styles of music would then be found which tended to 
arouse and excite the patient, while others could be used to 
quiet and soothe, and the practical good would be vastly in- 
creased. 

There have been many singular superstitions touching the 
curative value of music. Up to the end of the seventeenth 
century the Italians and other southern peoples held an un- 
shaken belief in the employment of music as a remedy for the 
bite of the tarantula. It was long customary for bands of 
musicians to traverse Italy curing the bite of this deadly 
spider by means of dances, composed and executed for this 
special purpose. On the authority of Drs. Hecker and Fournier- 
Pescay we learn that various kinds of dances were used for 
the different varieties of the disease, each characterized by a 
special name. The MS. of these singular and interesting 



48 THE PATHOLOGICAL AND THERAPEUTIC [April, 

dances is now in the library of the Sydenham Society, Lon- 
don, and a careful study of the score would doubtless throw 
much light on the subject. The rhythm of the dance called 
"Tarantella" is based on a study of these therapeutic dances, 
and the character is so fixed that one at once recognizes the 
" Tarantella " upon hearing the first wild measures. 

Music has been used tentatively for so many ages that it 
is singular so deep-seated a belief in its power should have 
developed so few authenticated facts. It seems to have been 
taken for granted that music should occupy the first place in 
the Grecian system of education, and it did not occur to them 
to collect statistics on so self-evident a truth. 

Many isolated cases are recorded of its efficacy in nervous 
and even organic disease, and Galen reports a case of the 
gout which was cured by the music of the flute. Theophrastus 
asserts that " diseases were either produced by music or miti- 
gated thereby," which shows some inkling of the theories held 
to day by Helmholz, Jennings, and Chomet. 

" THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY." 

The Greeks and Romans made music one of the liberal 
sciences, and we all know how large a portion of time was de- 
voted to musical instruction, all the learned professions having 
to pass the same course in music as professional musicians. 

Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholy has preserved the 
fullest collection of opinions held by the ancients, and his 
quaint and delightful old book is a perfect treasure trove. It 
is astonishing how strongly the Greek philosophers and physi- 
cians felt on the subject. Jacchinus calls music "a most forci- 
ble medicine"; Jason Pretensis, "a most admirable thing that 
can so mollify the mind and stay those tempestuous affections 
of it." Lemnius says: "Music is a roaring-meg against melan- 
choly, to rear and revive the languishing soul ; affecting not 
only the ears, but the very arteries, the vital and animal 
spirits, it erects the mind and makes it nimble." Giraldus 
touches upon every value of music when he says : " Music 
cheers up the countenance, expels austerity, mitigates anger, 
and informs our manners." Could the recognition be more 
complete in our day ? Cassiodorus in his Epistles says : " Music 
expels the greatest griefs, extenuates fear and furies, appeases 
cruelty, abateth heaviness, and to those who are watchful 
causeth quiet rest." Burton's own opinion is quite as strong. 
He says : " Besides that excellent power which music hath to 



1 90 1.] VALUE OF Music. 49 

expel many other diseases, it is a sovereign remedy against 
despair and melancholy, and will drive away the Devil himself." 

The singular theory of the existence of a musical fluid ad- 
vanced by Dr. Chomet seems to have occurred to Scaliger 
years before, for he gives this curious and entertaining reason 
for the powerful influence which music exerts upon the body : 
" Music may affect us because the spirits about the heart take 
in the trembling and dancing air into the body, are moved 
together and stirred up with it, or else the mind, being har- 
monically arranged, is roused up at the tunes of music." 

This incessant groping for the initial reason of the power 
of music shows how deeply men's minds have been concerned 
on the subject, and each hint, however inadequate, may some 
day be combined and utilized in solving the mystery. 

AS AN AID TO DIGESTION. 

The value of music as an aid to digestion seems always to 
have been appreciated. Epictetus calls "a table without music 
a manger"; More, in his Utopia, provides for music at every 
meal, and the Bible has many examples of the cheering and 
therapeutic value of sweet sounds. We read, " Wine and 
Music rejoice the heart." "The concert of musicians at a 
banquet is a carbuncle set in gold ; and as a signet of an 
emerald well trimmed with gold, so is the melody of music in 
a pleasant banquet." The Bible has also references to the 
power which music has to quiet a troubled and diseased mind : 
" When Elisha was troubled by importunate kings he called 
for a minstrel, and when he played the hand of the Lord came 
upon him." And, " When the evil spirit from God was upon 
Saul, then David took a harp and played with his hand. So 
Saul was refreshed and was well, and the evil spirit departed 
from him." Music has been tried many times in pronounced 
madness since the time of Saul, and we recall that George III. 
of England was always deeply sensible in his fits of melan- 
choly to the beautiful harmonies which were played and sung 
before him, and which always brought an atmosphere of tem- 
porary peace and rest to the poor distracted mind. 

From the Bible to a modern German scientist is something 
of a leap, yet Professor Helmholz ascribes the same powers to 
music as do the prophets of the Old Testament, and his trea- 
tise on " Sound Vibrations " exploits as many theories as the 
ancients themselves, only Helmholz arrives at his conclusions 
by careful reasoning and experiment. 
VOL. LXXIII. 4 



50 THE PATHOLOGICAL AND THERAPEUTIC [April, 

EXPERIMENTS OF LOWTH. 

It is too soon to speak positively of the experiments of 
the American electrician, James Lowth, of Chicago ; but a 
quotation from his recent utterances on the subject will give 
an idea of the possible scope of the work he has undertaken. 
He says: "I was led into an extensive study of the phenom- 
ena of emotions produced and excited in the brain by musical 
tones, and their transference by reflex action to the motor 
nerves and muscles. Following these studies came numerous 
experiments with instruments capable of heavily vibrating their 
frames, such as music-boxes, pianos, and pipe-organs. Through 
the stethoscope the frame and sounding-boards all vibrated in 
exact unison with the exciting tone, so that was settled upon 
as a basis. I selected the organ on account of its continuity 
of tone, and also for its positiveness of vibratory action. 

"A cot constructed of thin wood in the form of a sound- 
ing-board or box is supported by light wooden rods fastened 
in the sides of a full set of organ pipes, the upper ends of the 
rods being led into the bottom of the cot, giving it a position 
favoring its resonance. The person taking treatment is ex- 
tended full length on the cot, and a performer takes his place 
at the usual key-board. Selections are played to suit the 
patient ; the effect is immensely exhilarating, something curi- 
ous, like that produced by a hearty laugh. 

" The tone vibrations act upon every fibre, fluid, and part 
of the body, as sound permeates and passes through every 
body interposed between its source and the ear that finally 
distinguishes it. Beneficial changes may be produced in the 
diseased brains of insane persons by subjecting them to this 
vibratonic action, as there is no doubt of its efficacy in bring- 
ing about cellular changes that will induce healthy conditions. 

" All nervous troubles, such as paralysis, insomnia, neuralgia, 
sluggish circulation, etc., have been successfully treated thus 
far, and the field promises to enlarge itself." 

We know of two notable instances of the soothing effects 
of music, in the cases of Gladstone and Herbert Spencer, the 
neuralgia of the latter having been greatly alleviated by musi- 
cal sounds, and during Gladstone's severe paroxysms of pain 
he frequently called for his favorite hymns to be sung. 

These instances in themselves might not mean much, but 
taken with many others form proof of the value of music in 
pathology. It is, however, to the superintendents of insane asy- 



190 1.] VALUE of Music. 51 

lums that we look for further development of the subject, and it 
is a most encouraging sign that music is so widely appreciated 
by them. The late Dr. Eames, superintendent of the Cork 
(Ireland) Asylum, strongly advocated music, and considered 
dancing so beneficial that his patients danced four times every 
week, and all insane musicians were urged to use their particu- 
lar instruments. Dr. W. B. Fletcher, formerly superintendent 
of the Indiana Insane Asylum, in touching upon the require- 
ments for teachers of the insane, says : " It is absolutely neces- 
sary that they understand music," and the present superinten- 
dent, Dr. Edenharter, uses music with great frequency. 

EXPERIMENTS WITH THE ERGOGRAPH. 

But the greatest step towards attaining definite results was 
reached when the New York State Institute of Pathology recog- 
nized the pathological value of music, which it has recently 
done. In connection with the State Lunacy Commission ex- 
periments are now being made to discover the influence of 
music in certain forms of insanity. A series of tests have been 
made with the ergograph, which is an instrument to be applied 
to the muscles of the hands and arms, to induce and measure 
fatigue. Until taken up by neurologists the ergograph has been 
used in the psychological study of school children. It consists 
of two clamps designed to hold the wrist and forearm firm, and 
a tubular contrivance to hold all but one finger straight. The 
free finger is then hooked into a small strap having a weight 
at the other end. In the experiment the subject is instructed 
to crook the finger as long as he can. The vitality is shown 
by the length of time the subject can continue the exercise, 
and the capacity for being taught is supposed to be indicated 
by the pupil. 

And here comes in the influence of music, for it has been 
found by experimenting that music played during the tests has 
produced variations in the results which can be accounted for 
in no other way. For example, lively airs played on the harp 
seemed to invigorate the patient and enable him to keep up 
the exercise for a much longer time, but dreary melodies de- 
creased the vitality and rendered the patient's arm almost 
powerless. The deductions reached by the physicians interested 
in the experiments were that musical rhythm increased the 
physical well-being of the patients and might be rendered a 
powerful means of curing them. 



52 THE PATHOLOGICAL AND THERAPEUTIC [April, 

Among psychologists a theory of emotion has come to be 
generally accepted. Professor James, of Harvard, is the best 
known authority in this country ; and in the old, Professor 
Lang, of Scotland, shares the honors with Professor Riverra, 
of the University of Munich, The latter has devoted much 
time to the invention and manufacture of certain curious musi- 
cal contrivances which are intended to aid in the cure of ner- 
vous diseases. Professor Riverra is a well-known enemy to 
loud and discordant noises, and advocates the attempt to do 
entirely without them. 

MARRIAGE OF MUSIC AND MEDICINE. 

The therapeutic value of pleasant sounds is so well under- 
stood that to enlarge upon them is unnecessary. Nurses and 
physicians have long recognized the difference between the 
discordant noises of a large city and the soothing sounds which 
are heard in the country, and they can measure the effect of 
both on their patients' nerves. 

The French seem to be ahead of all other nations with 
their experiments in the therapeutic value of music and they 
have tested the subject thoroughly in many hospitals. The 
eminent French psychologist, Louret, employs it in the treat- 
ment of the insane ; Ribot, who is a professor in the College 
of France, uses music constantly in his practice, and the salu- 
tary effect of musical vibrations upon neuralgic and nervous 
troubles has been long known. Hospital superintendents in the 
great London hospitals have not been slow in following the 
lead of the French, and the London Temperance Hospital and 
those under the direction of Canon Herford and Dr. Black- 
burn have removed all doubt as to the benefit afforded to a 
certain class of patients by the right kind of music. 

In the Jardin des Plantes of Paris experiments have been 
undertaken upon elephants, and it has been found that their 
vitality was materially affected by the character of the musical 
vibrations employed ; but nothing definite has as yet been dis- 
covered in the treatment of animals by music. Dr. Gretry, 
who is an extreme advocate of the theories of Professors Lang 
and James, goes so far as to declare that the action of the 
pulse is affected by the changing rhythm of music, but the 
great nerve specialists of New York City do not entirely agree 
with him. 

The "Mechanical Treatment of Injuries" is based upon the 



1901.] VALUE OF Music. 53 

effect of vibrations upon the human system and is largely 
practised in the various health resorts on the Continent. The 
idea of doctoring by means of mechanical appliances was first 
thought of by the great Swedish physician, Dr. Zander, about 
fifty years ago, and the results in a large number of cases 
have been astonishing. The cure is still in its infancy, but it 
is based upon scientific principles, and the most conservative 
physicians have long since ceased to sneer at it. 

The ground has been broken, and it remains now for phy- 
sicians to use music constantly yet judiciously in their practice, 
for experience alone will show how it can best be employed. 
We trust that the day is not far distant when a knowledge of 
musical therapeutics will be sought by every alienist and super- 
intendent of the insine, and definite experiments be made in 
the new science. 

The opportunity which the superintendent of an insane 
asylum has to test the subtle influence which emanates from 
the harmonious union of sounds is so unrivalled that the scien- 
tific study promises to be fruitful of grand results, and the 
marriage of medicine and music, the two noblest arts, will no 
longer be a dream of musical enthusiasts but a practical reality. 





VIEW OF LIMA, PERU, FROM THE CATHEDRAL. 




THE CITY OF THE KINGS. 

BY M. MACMAHON. 

N our sister country, that great southern penin- 
sula extending from the Isthmus of Panama to 
the antarctic circle, with its lofty peaks of per- 
petual snow, its dense forests, its broad rivers, 
lonely deserts and dunes of sand that creep 
relentlessly on as if endowed with life, lie many fair cities, but 
none that so appeals to the imagination, from the historical 
and legendary memories that cluster around it, as the charm- 
ing city of Lima, Peru, " City of the Kings," as it was named 
by Pizarro. According to history, it was the 6th of January, 
I 535> Old Style, that the Spanish conqueror chose it as capital 
city of his dominions. That day was the festival of the Magi, 
the Wise Men who came from the East to adore the Saviour. 
In ancient chronicles they are called the Three Kings, hence 
the name of Pizarro's " Ciudad de los Reyes." Charles V. de- 
signed as arms of the city three golden crowns on a blue 
field, with a rayed star to indicate the Star of Bethlehem, 
which guided the Wise Men. The city lies upon both banks 
of the river Rimac, a tiny stream hardly two feet deep during 



1901.] THE CITY OF THE KINGS. 55 

the dry season, but swelling to a torrent when the winter rains 
on the mountain flood its branches. 

Leaving the gloomy little station at which we had arrived 
from Callao we took a carriage and were driven up the narrow 
street leading to Plaza de Armas. Passing on our way the 
flat-roofed houses, catching glimpses through half- opened gates 
of the inside gardens with their statues, fountains, and growing 
plants, we meet a young Peruvian, her beautiful dark face 
coquettishly framed by the lace mantilla they all wear so 
gracefully; her maid discreetly follows, wearing the " manto," 
or shawl like garment of the native women. We pass an Indian 
seated on a donkey trotting briskly to market, as the heavy 
baskets of early vegetables suspended from the blanket which 
forms her saddle, testify. Over her shoulder, from the folds 
of her " manto," peeps a tiny brown face ; another, still thinner, 
fixes its strange, unchildlike gaze upon the passer-by from its 
place on its mother's breast. Chinese, negroes, half-breeds 
throng the streets, and donkeys are everywhere. Like the 
patient dog of Flanders, they form part of the national life. 
Poor beasts of burden, they plod along, bending beneath their 
heavy loads, often with sides bleeding and torn from the cruel 
sharp sticks of their still more cruel drivers. A scarcity of 
grass, trees, and field flowers is noticeable; but the brightly- 
painted houses, vivid blues, reds, yellows, and greens, give a 
touch of color to a landscape which would otherwise look 
barren and dreary. The houses are rarely more than one story 
high and have the same general form. A wide " balcon " is in 
the centre, screened by curtains during the heat of the day, 
with rooms opening on either side. In the " balcon " the 
family congregate to read, sew, or visit with their friends. It 
is gay with cut flowers and potted plants ; its walls are often 
decorated with fantastic figures, nymphs, mermaids, impossible 
water or woodland scenes. The roofs are flat, with square 
openings to give light and ventilation ; there are no chimneys, 
the seasons being too mild to need fires. 

The households usually have many servants ; labor is cheap 
and help is easily found such as it is. It is not unusual for 
four races to live under the same roof. There is none of that 
formality so general in the lower class of Europe. The cere- 
monious use of the third person is disregarded, and the familiar 
thee and thou is employed regardless of age or social condition. 
The fruit vender who bespeaks attention addresses the mistress 
of the household as "nina" (child), the beggar on the street 



THE CITY OF THE KINGS. 



[April, 



who pleads for a " limoscita " (little alms) may employ the same 
caressing title. A word for these beggars : it is the exception 
when they ask charity with any plea of necessity; they have 
replied to a question, or, seeing a stranger, have volunteered 
information, or they wish a souvenir of your meeting, or you 
remind them of some one they have known ; any reason may 
be equally good. There seems little of that bitter poverty one 




" THE CATHEDRAL is A MOST INTERESTING PLACE." 

meets in our larger cities. Living is cheap and adobe houses 
are easily made. 

One of the most interesting places to visit in Lima is the 
cathedral, standing on the Plaza de Armas, a stone structure 
with lofty towers and a broad facade. Its corner-stone was 
laid by Pizarro, twelve days after the city was founded. Its 
interior is simple but most beautiful ; the decorations are in 
blue and gold. Pizarro is buried there. He lies upon the very 
spot where he and his handful of Spanish warriors met and 
conquered the mighty hosts of Athualpa. Looking at his tomb 
memory is busy recalling that tragedy which wrested from the 
" last of the Incas " his kingdom, with his life. And in fancy 
we see, down that narrow street facing the cathedral, sweep 
the cortege of the Indian king, his white-clad courtiers bearing 



1901.] THE CITY OF THE KINGS, 57 

their monarch on his throne of gold, around which waves the 
brilliant plumage of rare tropical birds, as with all pomp and 
ceremony he comes to visit his " friend and brother," the 
Spanish Pizarro. From those wide gateways opening into the 
square so closely resembling those doors of old, we almost 
expect to see the Spanish horseman spring forth at the given 
signal to carry death and desolation to the heart of Athualpa's 
people. A short distance from the cathedral is the church of 
San Francisco, where the funeral of Athualpa took place. 
And tradition tells how this solemn service was rudely dis- 
turbed by his widow, who, bursting into the church with cries 
and lamentations, attempted to bear away the body of their 
dead king that they might give him fitting burial according to 
their pagan rites and thus secure for him his entrance into the 
Palace of the Sun. The most beautiful painting in the Expo- 
sition gallery commemorates this circumstance. 

Close by San Francisco and fronting the chapel of the Vir- 
gin of Miracles there is a house of special architecture which 
offers no point of resemblance to any other in Lima. Not- 
withstanding its wide courts, the house is damp and exhales 
a damp vapor. It has the appearance both of cloister and 
of feudal castle. That the house belonged to one of the con- 
querors, companions of Pizarro, is proved by the stairway, 
placed fronting the street door, because that was one of the 
prerogatives of the conquerors. To-day ten such houses with 
their stairways cannot be found in Lima. The stranger pass- 
ing through the street of Milagro stops involuntarily in its 
doorway and casts upon the interior a scrutinizing glance, and 
a curious thing is that the people of Lima do the same. It is 
a house which speaks to the fancy. No one but would believe 
it had been the theatre of mysterious legends. And, moreover, 
the mysterious house has been known for centuries by a name 
calculated to excite the imagination. Generations in the past 
have called it " The house of Pilate," and so it will be named 
by those of the future. Why? This is the legend: 

The house was built in 1590; that is to say, a half century 
after the foundation of Lima. A rich Spanish merchant named 
Esquirel owned the ground. It was built, by the architect of 
San Pablo, out of the brick and wood left from the construc- 
tion of the church of San Francisco, so solidly that it has 
withstood the storms and earthquakes of centuries. After the 
death of Esquirel it passed into the hands of his descendants, 
and was leased by them to a body of Portuguese merchants. 



THE CITY OF THE KINGS. 



[April, 




THE CITY OF THE KIKGS. 



59 



The story goes that while _in their possession on a certain 
Friday night in the winter of 1635, as the clock was near the 
stroke of twelve, a lad returning from a festive gathering 
passed by it. The porter had probably forgotten to lock the 
door, for the outer gate was open. The boy, seeing the lights 
in the upper rooms, hearing the noise and murmur of people, 




A STREET VENDER. 

and thinking to find there boon companions with whom to 
pass the rest of the night, climbed the stone stairway which, 
as I have already said, is one of the curiosities of the build- 
ing. The intruder advanced through the corridors until he 
reached a window, behind whose lattice he placed himself. 
There he could at his ease examine a spacious room brilliantly 
lighted, whose walls were covered with a tapestry of black 
cloth. 

Beneath a canopy he saw one of the most wealthy men of 
the city, the Portuguese Don M. Perez ; about him were 



60 THE CITY OF THE KINGS. [April, 

grouped a hundred of his fellow-citizens. They were listening 
in attentive silence to a discourse delivered by Perez, the pur- 
port of which the boy could not understand. 

In front of the canopy, between rows of lighted wax can- 
dles, was a beautiful life-size crucifix When Perez had ceased 
speaking, one by one his guests arose from their seats, ad- 
vinced toward the Christ and struck it with a rod Perez, as 
did Pilate, authorizing by his unresisting presence this sacri- 
legious scene. 

The horrified boy, not wishing to witness greater profana- 
tion, fled as best he might, to tell what he had seen. The in- 
dignant people caused Perez and his companions to be put to 
death, and the house has since been called " The house of 
Pilate." 

If interesting, there is a certain savagery about the Peruvian 
traditions; they are still under the spell of the nations from 
whom they sprang, and this mark of a primitive race rests 
even to-day upon the people. Yet there is poetry in some of 
their quaint beliefs. We were much interested in the Indian 
maid who served one of our party, and were anxious that she 
should accompany us on our return voyage home. We prom- 
ised to show her wonderful and beautiful countries, to make 
her rich gifts, and that her life would be happy and free from 
care if she would come with us. " Ah no," she said in her 
soft Spanish and with a shake of her pretty head ; " I would 
have no rest, for the soul in sleep must retrace and gather 
up the steps passed over by the body, and it can have no 
peace as long as one is left unclaimed." 

Walking through the streets of Lima one often sees houses 
upon which are painted large black crosses, and, entering, one 
would find crape draped over pictures and other of the house 
furnishings. This indicates that death has entered here during 
the year. In the funeral notices large square cards sent to 
the friends of the family not only is the name of the de- 
ceased given, but the genealogy as well, going back three or 
four generations. 

In a quiet street in Lima, far from the busy stir of city 
life, is a modest little church. No rich and titled throngs 
crowd its portals when on Sunday morning the call of the 
bell summonses to divine worship, but the poor, the lowly, the 
unknown find before its altars peace and consolation. 

Yet once a year this tranquil retirement is broken ; then 
its doors are opened for the entrance of the proudest digni- 



THE CITY OF THR KINGS. 



taries of the 
state, the chant- 
ing of white- 
robed priests is 
heard mingled 
with the silvery 
voices of chil- 
dren, and a pec- 
pie assemble to 
do honor to the 
holy woman 
whose name it 
bears and who 
rests beneath 
its shadow. It 
is the church 
of St. Rose of 
Lima, venerat- 
ed as patron 
throughout the 
country. Upon 
the site where 
now it stands 
was once her 
father's palace. 
It was here the 
beautiful little 
Rose first open- 
ed her eyes to 
the light, in its 

wide courts she played, here she planted her little garden 
of bitter herbs which formed a part of her daily food, for 
from her ear'iest childhood she delighted in self-denial and 
acts of mortification. Much is told of her piety : how once 
her mother having placed on her head a garland of flowers, 
she secretly put in a thorn, which pricked her so deeply 
that in the evening it was with difficulty removed ; how 
again, when her beauty was praised, she disfigured her face 
and hands by rubbing over them the juice of the Indian 
pepper. She was called by the poor of Lima " our little Sis- 
ter." So closely did she enter into their lives that the Indians 
have a tradition that she was a member of one of their tribes. 
This history refutes. The little Rose was born of wealthy and 




PROCESSION ON THE FEAST DAY OF ST. ROSE OF LIMA. 



62 THE CITY OF THE KINGS. [April, 

noble parents, and her early years were passed in occupations 
usual to her rank. She early exhibited dislike for the vanity 
of the world and great charity for the poor something un- 
usual in her day, when the distinction of class was most 
rigorously observed. A tiny room is still shown which was 
her oratory and workshop ; in it she fashioned the garments 
for her " sisters." Near by is the well from which she drew 
water in which to bathe the unkempt and often diseased chil- 
dren of the street, who thronged to her doors, believing that 
in the touch of her hand lay miraculous power. The great re- 
ligious ceremony of the year is the feast day of the saint the 
3o:h of August. On that day her relics are borne in solemn 
procession through the streets of her native city. The white- 
robed choir boys lead ; the bishop richly vested, followed by 
the canons, priests, and monks, and the president, with the 
chief dignitaries of state in their official robes, wend their way 
from the church. The streets are thronged. The soldiers, 
drawn up in line, present arms as the procession passes, 
streamers float in the breeze, bands make music; suspended 
from one side of the street to the other are ropes of color, 
on which are hung dolls representing angels and carrying in 
their hands baskets of flowers; these dolls, by a touch from 
some one in charge, empty their baskets before the procession 
until the streets look like a carpet. Along the way altars are 
erected and Benediction is given ; clouds of incense fill the 
air as the bishop blesses his people. The music, the streets 
gay with flags, the houses festooned with flowers and green 
branches, the balconies with their blue, crimson, yellow, and 
gold decorations, the kneeling multitude, make a picture not 
soon to be forgotten, and speak eloquently of the faith that 
can raise such a spectacle to the living God and His Saint. 

Another impressive procession is in honor of San Pedro. 
Oil his feast day the statue of the saint is taken from the 
church with solemn ceremonies, and amid the odor of incense, 
the perfume of flowers, the musical chanting of hymns, it is 
carried to the border of the sea ; there it is placed in a boat 
and rowed out into the ocean. Here prayers are offered that 
the saint may intercede with God to make fruitful the products 
of the sea. A fisherman then puts a net in the statue's hand ; 
should it fill with fish it is believed that the harvest of the 
coming year will be abundant. 

To place the sea under the special protection of Heaven is 
the pious custom along the coast of Peru. In fishing hamlets, 



1901.] THE CITY OF THE KINGS. 63 

under the altars of the churches are niches in which are 
miniature boats bearing flags of all countries with which the 
natives have dealings. And Heaven's special blessing is in- 
voked for the protection of the harbor and the safe guidance 
of the ships. 

It is apparent that Catholicity has so moulded the habits 
and practices of the people that the spirit of religion enters 
into their daily avocations. So it is that the feast days of 
the saints become the festivals of the country. Judging from 
the crowded churches on Sundays and feast days, the Peruvians 
are a devout nation. This sentiment, especially among the 
women, shows itself in the often semi-religious character of 
their dress the close resemblance which the blue, brown, or 
purple garments bear to the religious orders with which they 
are for a time associated, either as a fulfilment of some vow 
or as an act of recognition for some favor accorded by Heaven. 
The last days of Holy Week are observed with great solemnity. 
From Holy Thursday until Holy Saturday the bells are silent, 
not only in the churches but in the city as well. All traffic 
stops, street-cars and tramways cease to run, even the whistles 
and bells of the steam cars are silent ; all persons appearing 
upon the streets are dressed in black, and Lima is a city of 
mourning and prayer. 

Many of the churches are beautiful, although their mode 
of decorating is distinctively foreign. Their statues of the 
Blessed Virgin and the saints are dressed in black or purple 
garments of silk or velvet, and look like Spanish dowagers 
of centuries ago. The crucifix is often crowned with real 
thorns. 

Political conditions in Peru are as unstable as the earth on 
which it rests ; upheavals are frequent. While the republican 
form of government exists, the president being chosen for a 
term of four years, each change of administration is the signal 
for revolt, which sometimes assumes the gravity of civil war. 
Such was the case when Pierola came into office five years 
ago. His opponent was General Caceres. Their rivalry had 
been of several years' duration. General Caceres had distin- 
guished himself in the war between Chili and Peru, and at the 
close of that war had been elected president. According to 
the law of Peru no president can hold office for two consecu- 
tive terms. At the expiration of his four years' term Caceres, 
assisted by the army and executive party, caused Bermudez to 
be placed in the presidential chair. He hoped thereby to re- 



6 4 



THE CITY OF THE KfA T cs. 



[April, 




ENTRANCE TO THE EXPOSITION GROUNDS. 

tain for himself the power and the succession at the end of 
Bermudez's term. 

This step was violently opposed by the people, who sup- 
ported Pierola. Under pretext that Pierola was exciting rebel- 
lion, he was seized and thrown into prison. His party, left 
without a leader, was easily defeated. Pierola afterwards es 
caped and took refuge in Panama. Bermudez died before the 
expiration of his term of office, and Caceres seized the reins 
of government. Lima was largely Cacerist, while the coast 
towns and mountain districts were for Pierola. The " Moun- 
tanards," as they were called, were the best material in Peru and 
devoted to Pierola. He inspired their confidence by his abili- 
ties; he had drilled them, and shared their privations and dan- 
gers. The Cacerists, greatly needing money, levied taxes, and 
upon the people's refusal to pay, the wealthy citizens of Lima 
were imprisoned. One night Pierola, favored by a fog, entered 



THE CITY OF THE KINGS. 



with his troops into the city and occupied the church towers 
and other commanding points. Then for days the streets of 
Lima were the scene of fierce fighting. The Pierolists were 
prepared to burn with petroleum or level by dynamite all ob- 
stacles in their way. Many soldiers deserted from Caceres' 
ranks, until he was obliged to press unwilling peons into his 
service. At last an armistice was declared, and the diplomatic 
corps interposed to prevent needless carnage and destruction, 
and the pestilence, the putrefying bodies of men and horses 
threatened to bring this upon the city. This corps requested, 
for peaceful measures, that Pierola and Caceres retire from the 
city until an election could take place. This Pierola did ; but 
Caceres, finding the feeling so intense against him, took refuge 
on a French man-of-war and has never since returned to his 
native city. Pierola was chosen president, and entered Lima 
amid the acclamations of the people. 

Lima abounds in traditions ; hardly a spot of interest or 
importance but has its history, sometimes sad, often terrible, 
rarely gay. The shadow of a past full of crime and bloodshed 
rests still upon it. 




VOL. LXXIII. 5 




66 THE HUMAN SIDE OF A SAINT. [April, 



THE HUMAN SIDE OF A SAINT. 

BY FATHER CUTHBERT, O.S.F.C. 

EW doctrines are so discouraging to earnest souls 
as the theory, more often implied than ex- 
pressed, that sanctity is a sudden transformation 
of life and character; that once the Holy Ghost 
begins to operate in a soul the whole man is 
quickly changed, the will becoming at once strong to avoid evil 
and to do good, self-love and the delight in the good things 
of earth rapidly turning to disgust and self-effacement, whilst 
the soul plunges unhesitatingly into the paths of divine love 
and religious abandonment. This mischievous error, for such 
it is, has been propagated in many of the devotional "Lives" 
of the Saints, where the saint is represented as suddenly con- 
verted, and as at once entering into the highest regions of 
sanctity. 

In these so-called " Lives " there is generally an abso- 
lute division between the period before the saint's conver- 
sion and the period that follows. After conversion the saint 
is not only not frivolous nor self-indulgent nor worldly, but 
one is led to imagine that there is no inclination even to 
frivolity or worldliness or self-indulgence, or at the very most 
that such inclinations, if at all present, are unhesitatingly re- 
pressed. Never again does the hot-tempered saint lose his 
temper ; never again does the saint who loved the glitter of 
jewels cast a loving thought towards the rings or necklace 
that she put aside in the moment of " conversion " ; all such 
tastes or inclinations are for ever repressed. Henceforth the 
saint walks towards heaven without ever casting back a regret- 
ful glance upon the forsaken earth. Is it surprising that the 
ordinary mortal finds but little stimulus or encouragement in 
such a doctrine ? He knows by sad experience that with him 
there is generally a tiresome struggle between the resolution 
and the accomplishment ; a slow process of honest desires and 
halting resolutions and baffled weakness, of attempts and 
defeats, before the final victory. The victory when it comes 
has none of the glamour of swiftness or of quick and mighty 
resolution. The recollection of frequent reverses tempers the 
exultation of success. Is such a victory, the ordinary mortal 



190 1.] THE HUMAN SIDE OF A SAINT. 67 

asks, worth fighting for ? Is it not, perhaps, itself a delusion ? 
The saints those recognized heroes of the perfect Christian 
life were always so swift to conquer. Is not the halting, slow 
development of our purpose a sign that we are attempting 
what is above our strength, and that God is not with us ? 

DISTORTED BIOGRAPHIES. 

Those unfortunate saints ! What a heap of discouragement 
their " Lives " are answerable for ! Yet we have happily suffi- 
cient proof that the saints themselves are not to blame, but 
only their biographers, and not all their biographers even, but 
more generally the modern biographer who writes " to edify." 
The mental attitude of some of these biographers it is not 
always easy to grasp. Sometimes it is clear that they have no 
mental attitude at all ; they are simply story-tellers of the most 
incompetent type. On the other hand, some of them set out 
to write up the history of a saint according to an a priori 
theory of what the saint ought to be ; and they produce a 
most lamentable caricature of the real saint. In how many of 
these biographies do we find a painted doll, when we sought a 
living creature! How often, too, we find a theory instead of 
a history ! 

Fortunately a new era seems to have begun in religious 
biography, and the saints have again a better chance of being 
understood. The spirit of modern criticism, which in many 
ways seemed determined to oust the saint's biography from the 
students' book-shelf, if not also from the sanctum of the de- 
vout, has in fact given it a new lease of life full of promise 
and inspiration. The critic has driven the biographer back 
upon original sources and unearthed for him primitive records, 
and now we are enabled to see not a few of the saints as they 
really appeared to their contemporaries. And how refreshing it 
is to get back to these primitive " legends " and contemporary 
documents ! 

Here we find, indeed, living human saints men and women 
with the warm blood of life flowing in their veins, even though 
their faces be pale and their bodies attenuated. The paleness 
and attenuation come of long inward struggle, of a thirst for 
life and a striving to attain to some noble ideal. It is not the 
pale passivity of a statue, nor the attenuation of one who sees 
life through a Puritan's formula. Most encouraging of all to 
the ordinary wayfarer is the discovery that the experiences of 
the saint are something like our own. 



68 THE HUMAN SIDE OF A SAINT. [April, 

HUMAN PROCESSES. 

They may be, these saints, of more heroic build than our- 
selves, more mighty in resolution and swifter in accomplish- 
ment, but they go through the human processes they know the 
bitterness of sacrifice and of faltering resolution, they feel the 
humiliation of failure in petty moral purposes even after they 
have taken the first grand step of "conversion." Nay, more, 
the final fulfilment of their purposes seems oftentimes forced 
upon them as much by external circumstances as by their own 
will, though of course it is a triumph of the will in such 
cases to accept the logic of circumstances. Francis of Assisi, 
sublimest of saints, might have gone on indefinitely seeking 
" Highest Poverty " without realizing his ambition, had not his 
father, Pietro Bernardone, in his impatience, forced him to 
choose between the profession of a wealthy tradesman and 
absolute renunciation of his inheritance. In that supreme 
moment Francis chose absolute poverty for his portion on 
earth. Yet, humanly speaking, it was the father's intolerance 
which forced the issue, and knowing what we know of Francis, 
we may reasonably doubt whether he otherwise would have 
had the courage thus far to set at naught his father's pre- 
judices. It is recorded how he shrank from facing his father's 
anger in an earlier instance. This shrinking sensitiveness re- 
mained with him all his life, and was manifested even in his 
last years in his dealings with certain refractory friars. 

BLESSED ANGELA OF FOLIGNO. 

But for simple slowness and hesitation even after " conver- 
sion ""the Blessed Angela of Foligno, whose confessions have 
several times appeared in an English dress, and have lately 
been in part again translated by Mr. Algar Thorold * (Catholic 
Mysticism. London : Kegan Paul), is a notable example. 
Franciscans regard her as one of their noblest saints. She 
was a worthy disciple of the Seraph of Assisi. This makes the 
slowness of her spiritual development the more remarkable. 

* These confessions of the Blessed Angela are part of the book of her "Visions and 
Instructions." They were written down at her dictation by her confessor, Friar Arnaldo. The 
complete text of this book has been done into English and is published by the Art and Book 
Company, London. For the ordinary reader, however, Mr. Algar Thorold's selections from 
the book will probably be better appreciated. He gives the chapters relating to her con- 
version. It should be added that Mr. Thorold prefaces his translation with a very thought- 
ful treatise on the nature of Catholic mysticism. 



1901.] THE HUMAN SIDE OF A SAINT. 69 

Born in A. D. 1248 at Foligno, in the beautiful valley of 
Spoleto, at that time freshly redolent with the spiritual atmos- 
phere of the great Franciscan movement, Angela at first 
seemed the incarnation of that very spirit of worldliness against 
which that movement was directed. Her youth was spent in 
luxurious gaiety. Married at an early age, the marriage vow 
put but little restraint upon her guilty pleasures. But the 
grace of God touched her soul and she began to reflect upon 
her sins and their eternal consequences. 

HER FIRST CONVERSION. 

Terrified at the thought of hell, she resolved to go to con- 
fession, but from, very shame shrank from doing so. Uncon- 
fessed as she was, she, however, received Holy Communion 
more than once. A strange beginning of a conversion, surely ! 
Yet in God's mercy it was a true beginning. The first seed of 
remorse was sown, and Angela, in great trouble of soul, con- 
scious of the weakness that caused her to conceal her sins, 
prayed earnestly to St. Francis, whose fame was then fresh in 
Umbria, to come to her aid and lead her to a confessor who 
would understand the state of her soul. " So that very night 
an old man appeared to her and said : Sister, hadst thou asked 
me sooner I would the sooner have heard thy prayer ; as it is, 
what thou hast asked is done." The next morning, whilst she 
was on her way to the Church of St. Francis, she found preach- 
ing in the Church of St. Felician " a friar who was a true 
chaplain of Christ," and when the sermon was over she made 
to him a complete confession of her sins and received absolu- 
tion. Angela in relating this event adds : " In this confession, 
however, I felt no love ; only bitterness, shame, and grief." 
It was some time two years, in fact before she received any 
great consolation from her conversion. With her it was truly 
a case of " going forth weeping " from her gay worldliness. 

As we have seen, it was the thought of eternal punish- 
ment which first made her pull up in her career of sinful 
pleasure. After her confession she began to reflect on the 
goodness of God, who " had drawn me from hell " ; and this re- 
flection on God's goodness intensified in her the consciousness 
of her own defects, so that she began to condemn herself 
all the more, and was filled with greater sorrow. These 
preliminary stages of development in her conversion were at- 
tained slowly and by effort. The recollection of her own 
difficulty made her ever afterwards compassionate towards 



70 THE HUMAN SIDE OF A SAINT. [April, 

"those souls that move slowly and with grief, going to God 
wearily and making but slight advance. " As for me," she 
writes, "I know that I delayed at each step and wept, not 
having the grace to advance at the time ; although it was a 
certain consolation to me to weep at each step : truly a 
bitter consolation." 

HER PROGRESS TO GOD. 

Her next step in spiritual advancement came with the per- 
ception that in offending God she also offended against all 
creatures. This new light filled her with great remorse and 
trouble of soul ; and she began to invoke the Blessed Virgin 
and all the saints that they would intercede for her and beg* 
the merciful Lord to have mercy upon her. " And I begged 
all creatures, all of whom I saw myself to have offended (in- 
asmuch as I had offended their Creator), not to accuse me be- 
fore God. And it seemed to me that all creatures had pity 
on me, as did also all the saints ; and then the grace was given 
me of praying with a great fire of love more abundantly than 
I had ever been wont to." 

After this she had a vision of the Cross with our Divine 
Lord hanging thereon dead for our sins. Far from deriving 
spiritual consolation therefrom, " this vision and contemplation 
were as yet insipid to me, and I conceived a great grief by 
means of them." At this time she did not seem to realize that 
an intimate connection existed between her sins and the death 
of Christ. So far she wept for sin because of the eternal 
misery it would bring upon her. But the time came when she 
recognized that by her sins she had crucified our Lord, and 
then the Cross gained a deep meaning to her. This knowledge 
of the Cross, and her own share of crucifying her Saviour by 
her sin, led her to the resolution of stripping herself of all 
earthly things and offering her whole self to him by way of 
reparation. 

"Then it was, too, that with trembling I promised to ob- 
serve perpetual chastity, . . . and I implored him to give 
me the grace of observing this promise, for I feared to pro- 
mise these things even whilst the fire of love urged me so that 
I could not do otherwise." Poor Angela! advancing even at 
this stage of her conversion in fear and trembling. She had 
indeed gone far now, " urged on by the fire of love." Having 
made the promise to strip herself of all vanities, she proceeded 
to put it into execution, still being urged on against her natural 



1901.] THE HUMAN SIDE OP A SAINT. 71 

timidity. She began to give up friends and relations, good 
clothes and delicate foods, " and also head dresses." 

PROCESS CTF DISENTANGLEMENT. 

" But as yet," she writes, and the page seems an echo of a 
piteous cry of the heart, " this was a cause of shame and 
suffering to me, because I did not feel much the love of God, 
and I was living with my husband, so that it was little to me 
when I heard or sustained any injury : I suffered, however, as 
patiently as I could." These latter words are worth noticing ; 
so also is the fact that her family seem not to have been alto- 
gether pleased with her conversion at least not at this stage. 
However, her husband and sons all died before long, and she 
was freed from family cares. Then she increased her penances, 
and was accorded many singular favors by God. But when 
she resolved to embrace holy poverty, after the example of St. 
Francis, she was again tormented by doubts and hesitations. At 
one time she would want to renounce her property forthwith, lest 
she should die before accomplishing her purpose ; then a reac- 
tion would set in and she would fear lest, if she carried out her 
purpose, she might die of hunger and cold. Worst doubt of all 
was whether poverty might not expose her to moral danger, since 
she was yet young. At length, however, " by God's mercy, 
my heart was enlightened, and with this illumination there 
came to me such fixity of purpose that I did not then think, 
nor do I think, that I can ever lose it for all eternity, and I 
disposed and determined myself that if it were necessary for 
me to die of hunger or nakedness or shame, if that pleased or 
could please God, I would in no way, on account of these pos- 
sibilities, give up my purpose." 

So, after much prayer, Angela made a bold bid for her 
soul's salvation and cut herself off from all attachments that 
might impede her spiritual progress. Still, even now she was 
by no means freed from temptations. Nay, by what seems a 
law in the development of sanctity, temptations increased in 
painful intensity. Not only was she tempted to return to the 
sins of her former life, but new temptations came to her. At 
the same time, however, she began to understand the deeper 
truths of God, and the fire of Divine Love began to burn 
more and more brightly in her heart. " O God," she exclaimed 
at this time, " even if I am to be damned for my sins, yet will 
I love thee always ! " an impossible supposition to a theo- 
logian, yet in the very strength of the paradox revealing the 



THE HUMAN SIDE OF A SAINT. 



[April, 



final triumph of grace in the soul of the weak, faltering 
Angela. 

I make bold to say that there is more edification in this 
artless record of a saint's long struggle with her natural weak- 
ness in the presence of a divine call to a more perfect life, 
than in nine-tenths of the biographies written to glorify the 
saints and to humble the patient reader. Our hearts go out 
to one who, whatever her glorious place may be in heaven 
now, knew in her earthly life the sorrow of frequent failure 
and the humiliation of timidity in the striving to follow the 
Master's call ; who wept not only over her sins but because of 
the very pain of sacrifice. And in our sympathy with her in 
her alternating efforts and failures before attaining the final 
triumph, and in the pain of her new birth, we find encourage- 
ment and inspiration in our own spiritual life, with its con- 
sciousness of the weakness of the flesh even when the spirit is 
most willing. 

The confessions of saints like St. Augustine or the Blessed 
Angela show us of what truly human material the Kingdom of 
Christ is formed. There will be found men and women of all 
imaginable varieties of character and tones of thought ; men 
as widely apart as St. Jerome and St. John of the Cross, or St. 
Columbanus and St. Francis de Sales ; but always you will 
find in them the ring of true humanity: for God's delight is 
to be with the children of men. Any presentment of their 
histories that deprives them of their essential humanity is a 
false presentment. Let us always remember that the saints of 
God were of our own human race, and we shall oftentimes 
find in their histories the key to the problems which disturb 
our own souls. 

Sussex, England. 






'S HILD. 



BY ALBERT REYNAUD. 
I. 

WRETCHED hut set in a lonely vale ; 

Stretched on a rough-made cot, a woman pale. 
Beside her lies a new-born babe, asleep 
After its first life cry and its first peep 
At the cold world to which 'twas ushering, 
Weak, naked, helpless, wanting everything. 
No gratulation will with friendly voice 
Greet the happ'ning ; nor Heritance rejoice 
An heir hath come, and with swelled pride proclaim 
Ancestral pomp perpetuate in a name. 
Naught save a ray of sunshine straying thro' 
The patch'd pane overhead, but bringing too, 
Adown its golden smile from far above, 
The blessing to new life of light and love 
While Earth forgets, Heaven's remembrances 
Where'er man's hand and heart leave entrances. . . . 
And tears are welling in the Mother's eyes, 
Dimmed by the day's strained anxieties. 
Her gaze falls softly at him by her side. . . . 
Alone she loves him. In the whole world wide 
Naught has he else, naught has she else, than this : 



74 POVERTY'S CHILD. [April, 

Her mother-love. With the first mother-kiss 
Was spent all wealth she owned upon earth's sod 
Save only faith in God. 

Sleep, Mother, rest thy anxious eyes ; 

Angels are singing lullabies. 

More than thou lovest, loveth One 

Whose love made light and life and love. 

More than we can here, He above 

Hath care and keeping of thy Son. 

Sleep, Mother, rest thy anxious eyes ; 

Angels are singing lullabies. 

More than we love here, they love there ; 

More than we dream is Heaven near. 

As dear as proudest monarch's heir 

To Him thy helpless babe is dear 

Within whose palm the whole world lies ! . . . 

Angels are singing lullabies ; 

Sleep, Mother, close thy weary eyes. 

II. 

Straying upon the scene a stranger came. 

Wealth cradled him, and he was proud of name. 

Living in pleasance, just so idling he 

Perchance fell on this woodland mystery. 

If pressed for his beliefs, he would have said 

'Twas time to have some well, when he was dead. 

Meanwhile ? Agnosticism suited well. 

Who knows? Here now. Hereafter, who can tell? 

Survival of the fittest was his creed ; 

His ethics : have a fill of all you need. 

But something calls for more, a tenderer rule 

To fit the wise man, also fit the fool. 

Altruism call it. Why ? 'Tis hard to say ; 

Conscience in some name still must have its way. 

Haply o'ershadowed there, let Science nod : 

But Charity smacks dogma and spells God. 

Sleep, Mother, rest thy anxious eyes ; 
Angels are singing lullabies. 
More than thou lovest, loveth One 
Whose love made light and life and love. 
More than we can here, He above 
Hath care and keeping of thy Son. 



POVERTY'S CHILD. 



75 




Angels are singing lullabies ; 

Sleep, Mother, rest thy anxious eyes. 

III. 

The stranger gazed, and gathered at a glance 
Of dire Poverty all the sad mischance. 
The pallid Mother, sleeping child beside, 
Want with vacant stare stalking at their side, 
And Loneliness like sent'nel at the door 
Lest Sympathy might soothe one sorrow more. 

Oh! Altruism, gaudy of garb and hue, 

In the glare what a splendid creature you. 

'Mid plauding eyes performing as you do 

Great shining deeds, yea, deeds of mercy too. 

But for the silence little loved of men, 

Soul secrets, heart sores, never known till when 



POVERTY'S CHILD. [April, 

The last great trumpet all assembles us 

From thy embraces, Lord, deliver us ! 

Alone for humble deed to sore or sin 

Nun Charity is hallowed to come in, 

And sounding our distresses in God's light 

Pour there God's love, not only man's delight. 

Sleep, Mother, rest thy anxious eyes ; 

Angels are singing lullabies. 

More than we love here, they love there; 

More than we dream is Heaven near, 

As dear as proudest monarch's heir. 

To Him thy helpless babe is dear 

Within whose palm the whole world lies. . . . 

Angels are singing lullabies ; 

Sleep, Mother, rest thy weary eyes. 

IV. 

God bless the heart, sweet partner of the brain ; 
Where one might err, oft safety in the twain ; 
Welded by good will in a happy whole 
To make that wondrous unity, the soul. 
The stranger's heart had melted at the sight, 
Unconsciously God's witness of such plight. 
Science would urge 'twas none of his affair, 
And Comfort asked what business had he there. 
If evolution made that child unfit 
To struggle on, then 'twas the end of it. 
If Mother's heart broke in the process too, 
On the same principle, just right. Why rue ? 
Why interfere with pure material laws, 
And interpose 'gainst Nature a purposed cause. 
But there 's a ghost which Science cannot lay : 
Conscience will still hold heart and brain at bay. 

The ray of sunshine quivered as it sped, 
Casting a halo on the Mother's head. . . . 

Angels are singing lullabies ; 
Sleep, Mother, rest thy weary eyes. 

V. 

To the poor Mother speaks the Stranger now, 
And so with softened accents asks he how 
Perchance he may minister to her needs. 



1901.] POVERTY'S CHILD. 77 

Her drooping hand, caressing as it heeds, 
Points but to the Child. Oh, the tenderness 
Of mother's first as of her last caress ! 
And the blessing in it. Unbidden tears 
Well thro* the flinty walls which Science rears. 
He bends now gently towards her lowly bed, 
And then : Who watches over you ? he said. 
Startling with faith the whispered answer came 
As on his knees he fell before the Name : 
God! 

The ray of sunshine quivering as it sped, 

Leaving a halo on the Mother's head, 

Lit up a tear that trickled to the sod. . . . 

Sleep, Mother, rest thy faith-lit eyes ; 

Angels are singing lullabies. 

More than thou lovest, loveth One 

Whose love made light and life and love. 

More than we can here, He above 

Hath care and keeping of thy Son. 

Sleep, Mother, rest thy love-lit eyes ; 

Angels are singing lullabies. 

More than we love here, they love there ; 

More than we dream is Heaven near. 

As dear as proudest monarch's heir 

To Him thy helpless babe is dear 

Within whose palm the whole world lies! . . . 

Angels are singing lullabies ; 

Sleep, Mother, close thy weary eyes. 





BISHOP BARAGA, THE APOSTLE OF THE 
CHIPPEWAS. 

BY REV. WALTER ELLIOTT, C.S.P. 

MONG the various nationalities contributing to the 
holiness of the church in America are the Bohe- 
mians, who have given us the venerable John 
Nepomuc Neumann, a member of the Redemp- 
torist Order, and Bishop of Philadelphia. His 
process of canonization has been already begun, and, doubtless, 
will end in placing him on our altars. Frederic Baraga, a very 
saintly Indian missionary, was the gift of a race kindred to the 




1 90 1.] BISHOP BARAGA, APOSTLE OF THE CHIPPEWAS. 79 

Bohemians, the Southern Slavonians. He is the subject of an 
interesting biography, full of appreciation, abounding in the 
highest kind of edification.* 

The author of this volume believes that Bishop Baraga is a 
fit subject for canonization. However calmly and judicially one 
may read the book, he cannot help but agree with this estimate. 

Frederic Baraga was born in 1796 of wealthy parents at 
Kleindorf, diocese of Laibach, Carniola, a province of the 
Austrian Empire. His birth-day was appropriate, the feast of 
Sts. Peter and Paul, June 29. His education was thoroughly 
good and every way Christian. He being the only male child 
and therefore the heir-at-law of his parents, they and every one 
else never doubted that he would inherit his family estate, 
which was a large one. But God alone was to be this bright 
young man's only inheritance God and immortal souls. 

Having made a very successful course of studies at Lai- 
bach, including a complete course in music, painting, and 
modern languages, Frederic at the age of nineteen went to the 
University of Vienna to study law. This was in 1816, and he 
spent five years in the Austrian capital, as innocent in morals 
as he was brilliant in scholastic pursuits. 

Baraga's fate was settled in Vienna by his acquaintance 
with Blessed Clement Hofbauer. This celebrated man of God, 
who may be called the second founder of the Redemptorist 
Order, became our young student's spiritual director. Thus 
placed under a saint's guidance the sensitive soul of Baraga 
soon chose for his career the sanctuary rather than the forum. 
But he finished his university course before entering the dio- 
cesan seminary at Laibach. He was ordained priest in 1823. 
He immediately deeded over his family property to his sister, 
refusing to accept even a trifling annuity. Having spent a year 
after ordination in further theological studies, he took his place 
in the noble work of the diocesan priesthood as assistant in a 
busy parish. 

From the very beginning he was devoured with zeal for souls. 
The worth of human souls and the meaning of Christ's re- 
demption of them was known by this young priest with a 
vividness peculiar to those exceptional spirits destined to be 
missionary saints. From the outset his labors for the salvation 
of souls were heroic. When his anxious sister protested that 

* Life and Labors of Right Rev. Frederic Baraga, First Bishop of Marquette, Mich. To 
which are added short sketches of the lives and labors of other Indian missionaries of the 
North-west. By P. Chrysostomus Verwyst, O.F.M. Milwaukee, Wis. : M. H. Wiltzius 
&Co. 



8o BISHOP BARAGA, APOSTLE OF THE CHIPPEWAS. [April, 

he was hurting his health, he replied in words which tell the 
motive of his whole life : " God's harvest-field is immeasurable ; 
the grain is high and ripe. The servant whom the Master has 
called to work in the harvest-field, should not stand by and 
look on idly whilst the wild birds are devouring the ripe grain. 
No, this I cannot do ; it was not given to me to act thus, even 
if I should have to give up my life right here " (p. 88). 

A volume might be written describing his conversion of 
hardened sinners, his really entire devotedness in serving the 
sick and the poor, his zeal for hearing confessions, his incessant 
preaching and instructing. Though but assistant priest, he soon 
transformed the parish. As early as 1829 he compiled and 
published a prayer-book for popular use, considered by good 
judges the best in that particular Slavonian dialect. " As 
to Baraga's personal wants in those days," says his biographer, 
" they were few and easily supplied. His meals were extremely 
frugal ; he seldom ate meat, and then but little ; he never 
drank wine. He generally slept on hard boards, and had very 
little furniture in his room. He gave all he had to the poor 
and for the beautifying of the house of God " (p. 93). 

In November, 1829, he revealed to his bishop a longing 
which he had cherished in secret for some years. He asked 
leave to go as a missionary to the North American Indians. 
To his unspeakable joy his good bishop granted his request. 
He at once wrote to Bishop Edward Fenwick, first Bishop of 
Cincinnati, for admission into his diocese, which embraced at 
that time most of the North-west above the Ohio and east of 
the Mississippi. Baraga was the first Indian missionary assisted 
by the Leopoldine Society, just then established at Vienna. 

The incidents of his long protracted journey through Europe, 
across the Atlantic, and into his final field of labor are inter- 
esting in the extreme, but our space will not allow us to dwell 
on them. It is curious that his first convert in America was a 
poor, desolate negro, whom he instructed and baptized in his 
last illness. While waiting at Cincinnati for the opening of 
the spring of 1831, he put to good use his fine linguistic ac- 
quirements, hearing confessions and giving instructions in 
English, German, Italian, and French. 

Bishop Fenwick was a member of the Dominican Order, 
and a prelate of truly apostolic zeal. He at once saw the 
treasure he had gained in young Baraga. He determined to 
go with him to the Indian tribes of the Upper Lakes and per- 
sonally instal him in his ministry. 



1901.] BISHOP BARAGA, APOSTLE OF THE CHIPPEWAS. 81 

The vastness and the variety of the missionary field in 
America came near making of Baraga an apostle of the non- 
Catholic whites. His biographer quotes from one of his letters 
home, telling of his journey through Ohio. " In the afternoon 
I preached in a Protestant church. There are many Germans 
here of all sects. It appeared to me very singular to preach 
in a Protestant church and before a Protestant congregation. 




THE COUNTRY OF THE CHIPPEWAS. 

Besides, the sermon was preached in my secular clothes, with- 
out surplice or stole. Alas ! it is really a misery the way 
religion fares in this country. In addition to the many sects 
that are found here, there are everywhere a great number of 
atheists. They are neither baptized, nor have they any kind 
of faith or religion. There are many good-natured people to 
be found among them who have grown up in this sad state 
solely through neglect on the part of their parents and through 
want of priests. And now they remain in their infidelity be- 
cause they know nothing better. Many of these unhappy 
creatures might easily be gained for God and the church, if 
there were but more priests to preach the Gospel to them. 
1 intended to ask my bishop Jor permission to let me ahvays travel 
around in the country to seek such lost souls, and stay with each 
one until he should be thoroughly instructed, baptized, and 
strengthened in his holy faith ; and then go on further. How 
many souls might I not gain for God ! When in Cincinnati I 
deliberated about this matter with Very Rev. Vicar-General 
Rese, but he told me it would be more useful and better for 
me to go to the wild Indians ; that the prospects there were 
VOL. LXXIII. 6 



82 BISHOP BARAGA, APOSTLE OF THE CHIPPEWAS. [April, 

brighter still. Hence in this regard all I can do is to pray 
God to soon send several laborers into this abandoned part of 
His vineyard, that so many immortal souls redeemed with His 
precious Blood may not perish" (p. 112). This heartfelt prayer 
is now being answered by the institution of bands of diocesan 
missionaries to non-Catholics, of which Apostdlate Baraga thus 
almost became the pioneer. 

On the 28th of May, 1831, Baraga arrived among the In- 
dians at Arbre Croche, Michigan. " Happy day," he wrote, 
" which placed me among the Indians, with whom I will now 
remain uninterruptedly to the last breath of my life, if such 
be the most holy will of God." His wish was gratified. He 
spent, priest and bishop, thirty-seven years on the Indian 
missions. 

The country of the Upper Lakes was at that period a 
veritable wilderness, vast portions of it being vacant even of 
roving bands of Indians, for these lived for the most part 
along the shores of Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Superior. 
It was among the Ottawa tribe, famous nearly a hundred years 
before for their great chief, Pontiac, that Baraga began his 
missions. He instructed and baptized seventy-two pagan 
Indians inside of the first two months, besides re-establishing 
the faith in the hearts and lives of a multitude of half Chris- 
tianized savages, all his communications with his people being 
as yet through an interpreter. Baraga had, of course, begun 
to learn their language. Although without any written or 
printed help, he made good progress, and meanwhile began 
composing an Ottawa dictionary and grammar. The next year 
he printed an Ottawa prayer-book. 

After more than two years of most fruitful labors at Arbre 
Croche, he moved some two hundred miles south to the banks 
of Grand River. But the United States government soon en- 
gaged in the deportation of the Ottawa tribe to the Indian 
Territory. Meanwhile, however, the zealous missionary set up 
his cross, built a chapel, and made many converts from pagan- 
ism. But paganism was a less deadly enemy than drunkenness. 
Baraga's total-abstinence pledge, taken in his poor cabin, listen- 
ing to the howls of a mob of drunken savages, is an incident 
of his experience at Grand River. 

His letters during this period to his sister Amalia (for 
whom he ever cherished a beautiful affection), as well as his 
reports to the Leopoldine Society, are spiritual reading of the 
most inspiring kind. Fortunately much of this correspondence 



1901.] BISHOP BARAGA, APOSTLE OF THE CHIPPEWAS. 83 




OVERLOOKING LAKE SUPERIOR. 

is extant, and our author makes excellent use of it. When 
we read these outpourings of a sensitive nature, its alterna- 
tions of ecstatic joy and unspeakable grief, we are at a loss 
to know how heart of man could stand the strain. Such a one 
is apt to concentrate the merit of many years into a brief 
space, and, consummatus in brevi, to go to his reward before 
the usual time. But Baraga's heart was at once very tender 
and long enduring. 

There is evidence that he was compelled to leave Grand 
River by the United States officials and certain land specula- 
tors, against whose schemes of land-grabbing he resolutely set 
his face. These enemies of the poor savages were aided by 
the traders, whose traffic in liquor Baraga never ceased to 
antagonize. It is a comfort to know that the governor of the 
Territory of Michigan, Stevens T. Mason, though not a Catho- 
lic, was in favor of the Catholic missionary in this mainly 
secret plotting. At any rate the Indians were soon to go 
West, and Baraga, obtaining a priest in his place in 1835, took 
his departure. He went to Lake Superior. 

And now Father Baraga had reached the scene of his 
greater Apostolate. For over thirty years he labored among 
the Indians of Lake Superior almost exclusively. For nineteen 
years he was the Indians' priest and the remainder of the 
time their bishop, always their tender father, devoted to them 
absolutely, worshipped by them with more than the love of 
children for their parents. 



84 BISHOP BARAGA, APOSTLE of THE CHIPPEWAS. [April, 

When he arrived at La Pointe, on the shores of Lake Supe- 
rior, he had three dollars left over from the expenses of his 
journey, and this little sum was, of course, soon gone. He 
spent the long, semi-arctic winter of that bleak climate (1835-6) 
literally penniless. This concerned him rather on account of his 
people than of himself. " That I have no money at all," he 
wrote, "is also very hard, for I would gladly clothe, at least a 
little, the poor Indian children, who even now run about half 
naked in winter, but I cannot give them a stitch of clothing " 
(p. 181). As late as June 7, 1836, there were blocks of ice 
floating along the lake shore : think of the many such winters 
this noble-hearted man was to spend upon these shores. 

He instantly set to work at learning the Chippewa language, 
and had a prayer-book in that difficult dialect ready for print- 
ing in September. This was the beginning of his philological 
work in the Chippewa tongue, on which he became and yet 
remains easily the best authority. That month he left for 
Europe to beg for his missions and get his Indian printing 
done, returning the following year. He found generous patrons 
among his friends and countrymen in Austria, and was en- 
abled to build a modest residence and to finish his church at 
La Pointe, situated more than three hundred miles west of the 
Sault Ste. Marie. This remained his headquarters for several 
years. From that as his starting point he ranged over the 
whole region, establishing missions, little by little building 
churches, gradually installing priests, some of them his own 
countrymen whom the Holy Spirit had led into this wilderness 
by the inspiration of Baraga's example. He finally won the 
whole Chippewa tribe to Jesus Christ and His Church. 

This had formerly been a prominent Indian " nation," 
though not, as a rule, hostile to the whites. The Chip- 
pewas had beaten the famous and formidable Dakotas in many 
pitched battles and expelled them from what is now the State 
of Wisconsin ; and even a great war party of the invincible 
Iroquois, who had ventured to invade the Lake Superior 
country, had been almost annihilated by the Chippewas. But 
the warlike glory of the tribe had long since departed. They 
were no longer the awful savages whom the Jesuit Fathers of 
the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century 
had known and loved and evangelized, and for whom, in some 
cases, they had offered up their lives. The Chippewas were now 
a broken spirited, poverty stricken, half starved race, scattered in 
small bands along the shores of Lake Superior, dependent 



1 901.] BfSHOP BARAGA, APOSTLE OF THE CHIPPEWAS, 85 

upon the government of the United States for a scanty dole 
of provisions and clothing, eking out by fishing and hunting a 
miserable existence. 

But Baraga loved them with an almost fierce intensity. He 
hurried from one squalid village to another, instructing, bap- 
tizing, comforting, and finally collecting together and housing 
these outcasts and almost outlaws of the human race. He 
thus not only saved a multitude of souls, but providen- 
tially preserved this poor people from extinction. For in 
the early fifties the copper mines, and a little later the iron 
mines, of that region filled it with a population of whites. The 
usual result would have followed the dispersion and destruc- 
tion of the natives but that, thanks to Baraga and his fellow 
missionaries, they were found in a position to keep what little 
was left to them of their primitive belongings and what their 
watchful spiritual father had provided for them of the rudi- 
ments of civilization. 

Sa passed his years of hardship and toil and victory. And 
what of his interior life ? Father Jacker, his vicar-general, 
said in his funeral sermon that, ' From four to five in the 
morning, or sometimes from three till five, you would find him 
kneeling, wrapt in his cloak, in sweet conversation with his 
Lord, and this under any and all circumstances. We have 
seen him giving the first hour to God in the dark forest and 
on the shores of lakes, amidst the roaring storms as well as in 
his private chapel, or in some hidden corner of the crowded 
stopping places while on his journeys. We have had occasion 
to observe how he persisted in following this rule even when 
he had been travelling the whole preceding day under great 
hardships, by water and by land ; sometimes when he had not 
been able to go to rest till after midnight" (p. 197). Nor was 
this practice of prayer abridged after he was made bishop, in 
1853, but rather he then gave more time to prayer, as the 
providence of God had laden him with more responsibility and 
deepened his sorrows by many more grievous trials and dis- 
appointments. In fact, during all his missionary career his 
soul was quite commonly united to the Spirit of God in that 
state of recollection which is the best kind of prayer. 
b.vB.jt our space is exhausted. With unfeigned earnestness we 
beg the reader to peruse this book, containing as it does the 
history of one of the most glorious servants of God ever 
vouchsafed to our church and country. The author is himself 
a distinguished Indian missionary, a member of the seraphic 



86 BISHOP BARAGA, APOSTLE OF THE CHIPPEWAS. [April, 

order of St. Francis. His narrative is all the more interesting 
from that fact, as well as from the artless grace with which 
he tells of the achievements of Frederic Baraga and his prede- 
cessors and successors in the Indian missions of the Lake 
Superior country. We conclude with the following summary 
of Bishop Biraga's personal and characteristic traits, mostly 
drawn from the concluding pages of this life. 
' Baraga was gifted with extraordinary natural talents, had a 




THE CATHEDRAL AT MARQUETTE. 

clear, logical mind, a remarkable memory, and great love for 
linguistic studies. He was pure-minded and innocent from 
childhood, and Father Chrysostomus does not hesitate to affirm 
that he died with his baptismal veil unspotted. He never 
knew what it was to be idle or lukewarm in his Master's ser- 
vice. He was simply consumed with zeal for souls from the 
first day of his ordination. As an Indian missionary he was 
second to none in the long line of heroes who have labored 
for God among that most hopelessly ruined of all the fallen 
races of mankind. As a bishop he was a marvel of pastoral 
devotedness. For many years his diocese was not only the 
Upper Peninsula of Michigan, but also a great part of the 
Lower Peninsula, Northern Wisconsin, Eastern Minnesota, and 
parts of Canada. Every year he visited almost every one of 
the missionary stations of this vast and dismal region. And in 
his incessant journeys as priest or bishop he often suffered 
untold hardships, and bore miseries of every description, being 



1 90i.] BISHOP BARAGA, APOSTLE OF THE CHIPPEWAS. 87 

several times in imminent danger of death. Nor did he flinch 
at the deadly cold of that climate, often travelling many weary 
miles on snow-shoes, packing on his back his personal baggage 
and all the articles necessary for the Holy Sacrifice, sleeping 
under the open sky or in some wretched Indian wigwam. 
Meanwhile his abstinence was simply miraculous. He would 
travel all day, paddling in a canoe from dawn to dark, or 
sliding painfully along on snow-shoes through the trackless 
forest, and first and last have for his daily nourishment but a 
little bread and crackers, cheese, and tea. For the last twenty- 
odd years of his life he never ate flesh meat. As to wine and 
all alcoholic drinks he was a total abstainer of the strictest 
kind, practising that virtue rigidly, and preaching and enforcing 
it among his Indians universally. 

His humility was that of the saints, proved by many an 
act of humble conformity to and patient acquiescence in the man- 
ners of the rudest and coarsest of human beings. But zeal 
for souls was, as we should expect in a missionary, his charac- 
teristic trait. Love of the immortal souls of the Indians was 
the passion of his life. He was so eager to reach them the 
sooner and save them the more quickly, that he grudged the 
hours of daylight to his breviary while travelling his dreadful 
journeys, and recited his office by the light of the camp-fire 
before and after the day's toilsome progress. 

In personal appearance Baraga bore a striking resemblance 
to the great Fnelon. He was grave and dignified, refined in 
manners, a model of a cultivated Christian ; but ever kindly 
and sympathetic in demeanor. Father Jacker told the writer 
of this article that when the saintly bishop lay in his coffin he 
was wonderfully beautiful, an air of holiness pervading his 
form and countenance. Several miraculous occurrences have 
been granted by God to attest his servant's heroic virtue. We 
have no doubt that those who are officially concerned with this 
highly important matter will soon take the necessary measures 
towards instituting the processes for his canonization.* 

* The reader is referred to a series of articles on Bishop Baraga by R. R. Elliott, which 
appeared in the American Catholic Quarterly Review for January, April, and July, 1896, 
July, 1897, and January, 1898. 



83 A JESUIT WRITER ON CONVERSIONS. [April, 




A JESUIT WRITER ON CONVERSIONS. 

U'.-tjCi :-n1 mbrtfj 
BY REV. JOSEPH McSORLEY, C.S.P, 

|N the new volume entitled L Inquietude Religieuse* 
thoughtful readers will find many interesting 
pages. Its author, Father Bremond, is a priest 
of the Society of Jesus, already favorably 
known in France through his contributions to 
L'Univers and the Etudes. Most of the contents of the present 
book originally appeared in the latter magazine, which is 
fortunate enough to be edited by Father Bremond. There 
is one characteristic of this writer that must certainly have 
been noticed by all persons familiar with the various articles 
published over his signature. This is his peculiar interest in 
the religious history of the English-speaking world, and his 
rather astonishing familiarity with our literature, for it is 
clear that he follows with care the movements of contempo- 
rary thought, studies current writings sympathetically and 
thoroughly, and brings to bear on the living religious issues 
of England and America the light afforded by a calm and 
generous philosophy. What a blessing it would be had he a 
vast army of rivals and imitators ! 

Seven essays and an Epilogue make up the present volume* 
The author studies such characters as Sydney Smith, Wise- 
man, Pusey, Ward, Newman, and Manning. A long chapter 
is devoted to the picture of English Catholicity presented in 
a recent Catholic novel. Only one Frenchman M. Brunetiere 
is made the subject of a study, and evidently he is intro- 
duced on account of his resemblance to a certain English 
type. 

In depth of thought and general worth the essays are far 
from uniform, yet, on the whole, the book may well be called 
remarkable. Its philosophy is' diluted sufficiently to be attrac- 
tive even to the unprofessional reader, and its presentation of 
theses is so skilful and unobtrusive that they are apt to be 
accepted quite unconsciously. Our honest opinion of the vol- 
ume is that it is a work of considerable value. For this reason 
we shall devote a few pages to a description of it, trusting 

* L'lnguietudi Religle >tse : Aubes et Lendemiins de Conversion. Par Henri Bremond, S.J 



1 90 1.] A JESUIT WRITER ON CONVERSIONS. 89 

that our readers will overlook the inadequacy of our summary, 
in recognition of the favor of an introduction to Father Bre- 
mond. 

AN ADMIRER OF NEWMAN. 

In the preface the author tells us that early in life he 
came under the influence of Newman, whose biographer and 
exponent he then hoped to become. Though this project has 
perforce been relinquished, another dream has been realized, 
namely, the hope expressed in the preface to the present 
volume, that on every page of it readers would discover the 
impress of the mind and heart of Newman. Since one of 
the essays is practically a vindication of Newman, to it we 
direct attention at the outset. 

The chapter mentioned takes the form of a review of the 
well known book in which M. de Pressense" attempted to mag- 
nify Cardinal Manning at the expense of " the infallible Ora- 
torian." Father Bremond declares his conviction that " it is 
quite possible to take up the gauntlet for Newman without 
derogating from the respect due to the second Archbishop of 
Westminster." He proceeds, then, to the accomplishment of 
this labor of love, and his concluding assertion is, that "when 
at last history comes to pronounce upon the respective merits 
of the two great cardinals, the judgment will not be unfavor- 
able to Newman." He is indignant that M. de Pressense" 
should have dared to contrast Manning and Newman as men 
" one of whom had become a thorough Catholic while the 
other remained at' heart a Protestant." He invites this short- 
sighted critic to enter the Oratory at Birmingham, and to ascer- 
tain if Newman is really one of those " who blush to practise 
Roman devotions." Several well-authenticated instances of New- 
man's perfect soundness in this regard are presented as " consti- 
tuting a proof stronger than the vague suspicion entertained by 
Manning." Coming to Monsignor Talbot's statement in his let- 
ter to Cardinal Manning, Father Bremond is horrified at the 
following phrase : " Newman is the most dangerous man in 
England." "Such a sentence," writes Father Bremond, "I 
have not the courage to translate " ; and he leaves in its 
native English "this enormity of the well-meaning but short- 
sighted Talbot." With deepest sympathy he then recalls the 
suspicion which followed Newman until the day when Leo 
XIII. ascended the Papal throne. " Imagine a man thus pas- 
sionately attached to the Roman Church (and which of us has 



$o A JESUIT WRITER ON CONVERSIONS. [April, 

sacrificed more for her than Newman did?), and experiencing 
during more than twenty years this cruel distrust from those 
for whom he has abandoned everything. At Rome he is not 
trusted, and he realizes that to some extent they doubt the 
purity of his faith. May we not well say he is suspected, 
when we see the discouraging persistency with which every- 
thing begun by him is interrupted ? By the wish of Pius IX. 
he engages to found the Catholic University of Dublin ; by 
the wish of the Synod of Oscott he commences a translation 
of the Bible ; by the wish of Cardinal Wiseman he reluctantly 
accepts the editorship of The Rambler ; by the wish of Mon- 
seigneur Ullathorne he purchases land at Oxford for the erection 
of an Oratory there : in each of these undertakings he is in- 
terrupted and disowned. How, then, can we blame him for 
the very frank and very chilling reception with which he met 
the various attempts at reconciliation?" 

INTELLECTUALLY A NEWMANITE. 

But the evidence of Father Bremond's regard for Cardinal 
Newman is not confined to these manifestations of personal 
sympathy. Intellectually, too, he is a Newmanite. The phi- 
losophy of The Grammar of Assent meets with this foreign 
disciple's keen appreciation. We learn this chiefly in the 
chapter devoted to M. Brunetiere, who is identified as one of 
the school of Newman. This chapter, we must not forget, was 
written in 1897 ; and its frank expression of sympathy with 
M. Brunetiere gains considerable significance from the fact 
that, at that time, the latter was looked upon by some as a re- 
ligious dilettante who would never find his way into the 
church. We cannot but presume that his recent conversion is 
in a certain degree to be credited to the encouragement and 
assistance he received at the hands of men like Father Bre- 
mond, bold enough to consider it desirable that unbelievers 
should be led into the church, even by a path not yet old 
enough to be called Via Traditionalis. Father Bremond, at 
least, is not an Apologiste malgre" lui. 

The publications which afforded Father Bremond this par- 
ticular opportunity of displaying his breadth of view and his 
tolerant spirit were M. Brunetiere's volume, Science et Religion, 
and his preface to the French translation of Mr. Balfour's 
Foundations of Belief. These writings contained an exposition 
of the nature and motives of faith. In them M. Brunetiere 
affirmed that the really efficient causes of believing were to 



1 90i.] A JESUIT WAITER ON CONVERSIONS. 91 

be found in great part in the moral rather than in the intel- 
lectual order. "The classical arguments of philosophers," he 
declared, "would never convince me had I not already dis- 
covered God through moral proofs." Again : " Without a 
heart that feels God one will never be led to him by argu- 
ment." And again : "If I wanted to know how an honest 
man should act in a difficult situation, or whether a God ex- 
ists, I would far rather trust my heart than my reason." 
These citations may serve to show the tendency of M. 
Brunetiere's teaching. As formulated by him it was indeed 
open to suspicion on the score of orthodoxy ; and many has- 
tened to declare that it could not be tolerated. Father Ere- 
mond, however, with a boldness worthy of his great master, 
assumed a different attitude. Instead of a studiously hostile 
criticism, he published an attempt to explain M. Brunetiere's 
statements in a sense easily reconcilable with Catholic doctrine. 
He cited the Gospel, St. Augustine, St. Gregory, Massillon, 
Pascal, Kleutgen, Newman, Ward, Olle'-Laprune, as witnessing 
to the perfect orthodoxy of those statements when rightly un- 
derstood ; for Father Bremond obedient son of St. Ignatius 
considers it a duty to study a man's meaning rather than 
his words, and to try to interpret obscure passages in a good, 
not in an evil sense, even though the writer may happen to 
be a man a little bit unlike the common run of men. In other 
words, Father Bremond has cultivated to good purpose the 
not very ordinary and not sufficiently valued ability to scent out 
traces of orthodoxy. 

The essay we are now considering contains long citations 
from Newman's University Sermons, The Grammar of Assent, 
and Ward's Philosophy of Theism. They serve not only to 
complete the demonstration of the author's thesis, but also to 
show his synthetic cast of mind. After reading this chapter, 
one is no longer at a loss to know why the title-page of the 
book bears the same motto as that chosen for The Grammar 
of Assent : Non in dialect tea complacuit Deo safonm facere popu- 
lum suum ; and in addition, Pascal's sentence: Tu ne me cher- 
cherais pas si tu ne mavais pas trouve. It is as if the author 
were to say: Reason and faith, the natural and the super- 
natural, are not two separate, independent, and unrelated 
orders, but they are two great realities woven into harmony in 
the human soul. The history of conversions, remarks Father 
Bremond, "often illustrates in a remarkable way the possibil- 
ity of getting along very well with very little logic, and thus, 



92 A JESUIT WRITER ON CONVERSIONS. [April, 

at first sight, seems to give ground to the theory of Pascal 
and M. Brunetiere." 

All this indicates that apologists should lay great stress on 
the fact of the Divine Immanence. God is within every soul 
that he has created. In a special way he is in the souls of 
all the just, whether within or without the visible church. Hu. 
man aspirations, affections, and longings are voices crying out 
to God, fingers pointing the way to him. The truth that 
Father Bremond's words recall is, then, that same principle of 
religious philosophy which has been long so familiar to us 
through the writings of Father Hecker ; for at bottom The 
Grammar of Assent proves to be the philosophy of an Apolo- 
getic based on the Aspirations of Nature and indicating in 
God the one satisfying answer to the everlasting Questions of 
the Soul. 

THE IDEAL CONTROVERSIAL 'TEMPERAMENT! ?f 

...' fil fr_.!i:. : H 

We turn now to the consideration of what might: be, called 
the ideal controversial temperament. The preceding paragraphs 
permit us to forecast Father Bremond's views on this very im- 
portant point. He believes in being tolerant and sympathetic 
to the uttermost limit, and in always cherishing the charity 
that thinketh no evil. He does not hesitate to recognize in 
Pusey an instance of one who came to the threshold of the 
church, and yet in perfect good faith remained outside until 
death. He speaks of " sa longu'e et sainte vie" and refers to him 
as " ce saint anglicain" He even goes to some trouble to explain 
how it may happen that a man of Pusey's character will re- 
main in heresy all his life, "with never the slightest cloud to 
darken his imperturbable serenity." 

Another indication of Father Bremond's bearing toward 
those not of this fold is to be seen in his approval of the kind- 
ly policy of Newman with regard to his acquaintances who 
were either altogether outside the church or else tainted with 
Liberalism. At considerable risk, and with the certainty of 
incurring serious censure from the narrow-minded, Newman 
consistently pursued a friendly course of conduct toward these 
with what results of souls saved, God alone can tell. 
Father Bremond makes it evident enough that he is not among 
those who discover in such patient charity the evidence of 
weak faith. Beautiful words are those that close the sketch of 
Wiseman : " Did he not follow the only model possible for 
those controversialists who wish not to, conquer the intellect. 



igoi'.]] A JESUIT WRITER ON CONVERSIONS. 93 

but to win the heart, the divine and yet thoroughly human 
method of Him who sat down by Jacob's well to listen to the 
Samaritan woman, and who rejected not the timid Pharisee 
visiting .him by night? Has there been found since Christ a 
more efficacious method, or rather has not the secret ever been 
to love, to seek, to await, to excuse the wanderer, and at last 
to welcome with trustful tenderness the prodigal and the 
convert? " 

There is another passage in which Father Bremond lets us 
perceive his dislike of " the almost Pharisaical rigor " with 
which some endeavor to instil pure Catholicity into new con- 
verts. It occurs in the description of an incident contained 
in that charming book by Mrs. Wilfrid Ward, One Poor Scruple. 
Janet's good cousin, Helen, has seized upon the nee-convert, 
and is proceeding to instruct her in Catholic doctrine. In 
quick succession Janet is warned that to read Adam Bede is a 
mortal sin, that morning meditation must necessarily be made 
before Mass and never after breakfast, that she is still un- 
aware how many indulgences she will be able to gain if she 
does things in the right way, and finally, that it is a very in- 
advisable measure to choose as director an ex-Protestant like 
Father Newman, who cannot possibly be quite up to the mark. 
Father Bremond, if we may judge from his tone, has little re- 
spect for such drastic methods ; evidently he would prefer to 
imitate nature's method of gradual growth; to leave much to 
time and grace; to place accidentals and minors in the second 
place, never elevating them above essentials. For all this is 
the course of conduct approved by those sanest of minds with 
whom he himself is in such perfect sympathy. 

j'3:r;;i!} >ijo };}.$ J. '!/>/ b. -3 ,? ; '.>.> o.O'? \\ \>'\ ->\-' .oi-f 0) ;r.. ; { 
,, rrn ,A i DEFENCE QF THE AN.TI-RIGORISTIC POLICY. 

And now for another point worthy of notice : Father Bre- 
mond's explanation and defence of the anti-rigoristic policy of 
the church. Here he quotes at length from Father Tyrrell's 
luminous exposition of the principles that justify a seemingly 
excessive patience with the weak-willed sinner. "The great 
majority," says the latter writer, "are not religious in the 
ordinary sense of the word ; but while the Protestant heaven 
seems to include no place for these, the Catholic Church, like 
a tender and prudent mother, accommodates herself to them, 
being solicitous for the salvation of all, even though all are 
not in sympathy with her own lofty spiritual ideals." It is 
with a kindly interest, therefore, that Father Bremond follows 



94 A JESUIT WAITER ON CONVERSIONS. [April, 

the movements of the fickle Madge, Mrs. Ward's personifica- 
tion of a frivolous Catholic. "O petite Madge," he writes, 
"let those cast the first stone at you who have never desired, 
and even vaguely expected, that a thing at the moment im- 
possible and forbidden might, in some way or other, become 
at some future day possible and lawful." So he rejoices when, 
after many days of wavering, Madge finally yields to grace 
and almost reluctantly dismisses the divorced man whose hand 
she had been about to accept. " Thus, indeed, are many of 
us saved," is Father Bremond's comment. "For, alas! at cer- 
tain moments, all of us, refined or otherwise, are of the crowd, 
and we have to be influenced either by hope or fear." 

AN OPPONENT OF PAGAN NOTIONS. 

We are warned, however, that solicitude for the salvation 
of the foolish and the weak can never justify a compromise 
with their gross and pagan notions. The writer goes on to 
indicate how this principle has been lost sight of by some 
persons " dans notre propre pays." " Had Madge been a Parisian 
of 1899 she would have had a very simple method of cutting 
the Gordian knot. It would have sufficed for her to make a 
novena to some popular saint, and she could then have had 
good hopes of seeing the obstacle disappear in short order 
that is, of seeing the wife of her suitor die." The reader 
would be apt to miss the significance of this apparently cyni. 
cal remark, did the writer not make his meaning unmistakably 
clear by citing an instance of superstition that points his criti- 
cism admirably. Here it is : "A poor nun, harassed and per- 
secuted by her cur, addresses herself to St. Joseph, begging 
him to procure for the good man an advantageous change 
of position which will deliver her from an insupportable 
tyranny. The affair was difficult, the cur not being exactly 
the kind of man about whom different parishes would dispute. 
The good St. Joseph goes about it in a different way: along 
comes a fine bronchitis (une belle bronchite} ; the cur6, after 
receiving the last rites of the church, piously departs to the 
other world, . . . and the poor little nun, while reciting 
her beads for him, takes care to say at the end of each Gloria 
Patri : ' Thanks, O my good St. Joseph.' " 

This account, Father Bremond gives us to understand, is 
taken from the pages of " a religious bulletin." " Leaving in- 
sinuations aside, we may at least consider it is a good thing 
to know that such paragraphs as the above are actually printed. 



1901.] A JESUIT WRITER ON CONVERSIONS. 95 

Fortunately, the ecclesiastical authorities have finally taken 
alarm at these abuses, and a writer in the Semaine religieuse of 
Paris has formally condemned them." 

Our author takes this occasion to mention that " though it 
is undoubtedly lawful to pray for temporal favors, still there 
is a perfectly pagan way of making these prayers " : and, after a 
quotation from Pere Grou on the subject, he concludes by 
saying : " In spite of everything, however, there will always 
be people bent upon confusing in the most distressing way the 
interests of earth and those of heaven." 

THE PROGRESS OF THE INNER SPIRIT OF RELIGION. 

Finally, in the Epilogue, the author recalls to mind the 
necessity of measuring the progress of the church less by ex- 
ternal achievements than by the advance of personal love of 
Jesus Christ in the hearts of men. He regrets that no one 
has yet undertaken to write upon the progress of the church 
in the nineteenth century from this point of view. For our 
age has progressed. More than ever before, Christ is reigning 
now in the souls of men. Christus vivit. "Absolutely no one 
is loved to-day as Jesus Christ. Without forgetting God, we 
go straight to what is most human in him, to what is least 
removed from us ; and the devotion of our day has developed 
a familiarity with the person of our Saviour greater than that 
known to the ages that have preceded us; in a word, the nine- 
teenth century has been the century of devotion to the Sacred 
Heart. Even outside the church this is apparent, for we find 
this devotion to the human heart of God among the Protestants 
of Germany and England, we find it spread abroad by the 
sermons of ministers who, perhaps, have never heard of the 
revelations of Blessed Margaret Mary. Unfortunately, thus far, 
only the external history of devotion to the Sacred Heart has 
been written : we have yet to be taught how deeply it has 
influenced our age, how it has modified the relation of the soul 
to God, what part it has played in the evolution of prayer, 
and how it has given a more intimate, a tenderer character to 
contemporary Christianity. When that study is begun, along- 
side of real fruits of progress we will discover certain abuses, 
and it must be shown that these are not the natural outgrowth 
of the new devotion." That such a study would be profitable 
is clear, for our best proofs of the growing love of Christ are 
to be found not in " the prettiness or the fervor of hymns," 
not in "the jumbling together of religious symbols," not in 



96 A JES.IJIT WRITER ON CONVERSIONS. [April, 

" the sentimental declamation of pious books," but rather in 
the multitude of those who, as Lacordaire puts > it, " are pene- 
trated with Jesus Christ to the very marrow of their bones." 

In general, thinks our author, too little recognition is given 
to the fact of Christ's implicit presence and action in the 
world. " A volume could be written upon this subject, show- 
ing the almost unconscious love of souls for Christ." The 
thought is one that has been touched upon by both Pascal 
and Newman, and developed by Father Tyrrell in a passage 
here quoted: " Lord, when saw we thee hungry, and fed thee? 
The just seem to have been as unconscious as the unjust of 
the identification of Christ and the needy. If they had seen 
Christ in the person of the poor, they would not ask, * When 
saw we thee ? ' It is as much a revelation to them as it was 
to Saul when he heard the words : ' Why persecutest thou 
me? ... I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest.' They acted 
from what some would contemptuously call ' natural motives ' 
of kindliness and sympathy ; even as Abraham when he ' enter- 
tained angels unawares,' and not as angels. Do we forget 
that natural kindness is a God-given instinct ; that it is God 
within us crying out to us, and to whom we may either hearken 
or turn a deaf ear? Perhaps our best and purest acts are 
those we do most directly, most instinctively, with least self- 
consciousness and self-praise. Whence comes this devil's doc- 
trine which gives us a God of nature and a God of grace at 
enmity with one another ? Many millions who have never 
heard the name of Christ will hear: 'I was hungry, and you 
fed me'; and they will say: 'Who art thou, Lord?' and he 
will say, * I am Jesus.' " * 

This extract from Father Tyrrell is followed by another of 
the same tenor from Pere Gratry, and then our author makes 
his comment: "These are beautiful words, and, without a 
doubt, there is more reality in this sort of poetry than in an 
over-pessimistic view of the religious history of the world." 

Here we leave Father Bremond. If our comments have 
been few, it is because to the intelligent his own words are 
the best possible recommendation. We no doubt express a 
very general wish when we say, let other books follow the 
present one, and let thousands learn of the author. He is a 
disciple of Newman, and he expresses ideas clearly and pleas- 
antly. What reader will require more ? 

* Nova et Vetera, by George Tyrrell, S.J., p. 162. 



PAPAL INDEPENDENC&*\^V> rv. 97 








PAPAL INDEPENDENCE AND 
PROSPERITY. V 

BY A. D'ARISTA. 



RENEWAL of the bread riots in Calabria, and a 
deeper abyss of confusion in the politics and 
finance of the country, are the latest significant 
development in the history of the unhappy land, 
which seems under a ban since the day when 
the successor of Peter and secular ruler of Rome was placed 
in a condition of virtual imprisonment. If there is a lesson in 
events and a philosophy in history, then it would seem that 
the hour is nigh when the untenable character of the Pope's 
present position and the urgency and inevitableness of a change 
therein must be recognized and encompassed. 

The hopeless political muddle in Italy is shown in the 
recent fall of the Saracco ministry, a ministry of moderation 
against which all parties in the Italian parliament turned their 
hand because, like its predecessors, it failed to accomplish the 
impossible : to bring order out of the existing chaos. And then, 
when the ministry was voted out of office, it was suddenly 
realized that there was no single statesman, in either Senate 
or Chamber, possessing sufficient influence and authority to 
justify the King in calling on him with confidence and en- 
trusting him with the task of forming a new ministry. 

AFTER ZANARDELLI THE DELUGE. 

The best of a bad job was made and Signor Zanardelli was 
chosen as premier, the nominee being an old man, popularly 
talked of as a brilliant jurist, a person of evil moral repute, a 
virulent and implacable hater of the Papacy, a radical of radi- 
cals, and consequently a practical enemy of the House of 
Savoy. But there was no one else to form a ministry. And 
Zinardelli chose as his right-hand man Signor Giolitti, who, 
when prime minister himself, had been besmudged by the 
Banca Romana scandal, who is frankly and bitterly hostile to 
the Vatican, and who was despised by the late King Humbert 
and is not likely to be differently estimated by the present King* 

This estimable pair heralded their coming by a bold bid 
for popularity as reformers, in announcing that they would see 
VOL. LXXIII. 7 



98 PAPAL INDEPENDENCE AND [April, 

that the proceeds of the sale of certain military lands, a mat- 
ter of some five million dollars, should be applied to the trea- 
sury instead of to military equipment. But even the permanent 
government newspapers can see no hope in the new cabinet, 
for the Italie queries doubtfully whether it will be able " to 
overcome the probable difficulties which the problem of its 
existence will call forth," and the Popolo Romano says that with 
a similar cabinet a policy of bold reform would be impossible. 
Crispi once said that the last ministry of the House of 
Savoy would be headed by Zanardelli, a sarcasm probably, but 
a phrase which Italians are now recalling and commenting, for 
after Zanardelli it is not easy to see anything but the meta- 
phorical deluge. The Marquis di Rudini, the only remaining 
Italian statesman who is uncompromised in the matter of cabi- 
net-forming, has absolutely and for all time refused to again 
interfere in such matters, and is now negotiating for the posi- 
tion of ambassador abroad. 

ACUTE SOCIAL DIFFICULTIES. 

Meantime bread riots have broken out in Calabria, and over 
three thousand iron-workers on strike have been parading the 
streets of Naples, their demonstration being irrepressible by 
police or military authority, because the public is with them 
and knows too well that their grievance endless and im- 
measurable toil without the remuneration of a living wage is 
pathetic and heart-rending. 

Bread riots, by the way, is a euphemism with the Italian 
governing authorities for anything in the nature of a popular 
revolt ; and the Italian government has a way of keeping mar- 
tinet watch over journalists and correspondents in Italy, so 
that, in a moment of crisis, no full or accurate description of 
passing events, whether cabled or mailed, shall be sent abroad. 
So it is that the history of the " bread riots," which a couple 
of years ago started in Calabria, and after smouldering awhile 
spread like wild-fire from the Straits of Messina to the Alps, 
and which in any other country would have been called a 
serious insurrection, has still to be written. 

How the then government dealt with those riots must be a 
fair index of the action that the new ministry will take should 
the present incipient revolt in Calabria show the old symp- 
toms and continue to spread. 

To begin with, Marquis di Rudini's cabinet was utterly un- 
prepared for the revolt. It tried to stem the torrent by 



1901.] ITALY'S PROSPERITY. 99 

removing the tax on imported grain. But this as a remedy 
was of no value. The economical condition of the country 
was so bad that the tax in itself was already a matter of in- 
difference. The people had no money to buy bread no matter 
how low the price. 

But the removal of the tax was worse than ineffectual. It 
was considered as an admission that an injustice was hereto- 
fore being committed, and it was taken as an act of weakness. 
The rioting, consequently, became more accentuated. Many of 
the toll-offices throughout the country were looted, and the 
grain stores were invaded and sacked. 

Then the prefect of Naples placed loaded cannon in all 
public squares and in the chief streets of that city, and the 
rumor of this act of energy momentarily quelled the disturb- 
ance throughout the land. 

But once more the act of the authorities had only defeated 
its own purpose. Howls of derision and rage now went up 
from the populace. " We ask for bread and they prepare for 
us cannon-balls. Let us avenge ourselves ! " And the move- 
ment went northward, and martial law had to be applied in 
Naples, Leghorn, and Florence, and to the provinces of which 
these cities were the centre. 

A REVOLUTION IN MILAN. 

Finally the evil spread to Milan, and here it took on a new 
aspect. Hitherto the revolt might in reality be characterized 
as a bread riot, but in Lombardy it assumed the nature of a 
revolution. The populace in Milan were not in need of bread. 
The city is wealthy and prosperous, and the poor well looked 
after. But this very prosperity involves a drain and a check 
on this big industrial city. Milan, which is rich, has to pay the 
taxes for the remainder [of the poverty-stricken peninsula. 
Long the Milanese protested against this, but now they re- 
solved to act. 

They had previously been organizing themselves in thorough 
democratic form, and it was no secret that they had gained 
the conviction that the fall of the Italian monarchy and the 
establishment of a republic was for their city the only hope of 
a redress for the grievances which its very activity and pros- 
perity entailed. 

The revolt in Milan was no petty riot. It was a veritable 
insurrection. And as such it was put down. For days cannon 
boomed in the streets, the barricades which the people had 






ico PAPAL INDEPENDENCE AND [April, 

raised were stormed by the cavalry, and from the roofs of the 
houses military sharp-shooters picked off the rioters below, and 
with them numbers of citizens whom necessity obliged to be 
abroad. Hundreds were thus shot dead in the thoroughfares, 
and then the uprising subsided. 

But hunger, as the people said, is not appeased by cannon- 
balls, and popular discontent is rarely quieted by the rifle and 
the bayonet. And hunger and discontent in Italy have only 
continued to endure. 

FORCED EMIGRATION. 

A census which has just been taken shows an even astonish- 
ing result. Where the population was generally estimated at 
about 31,000,000, 35,000,000 proves to be the actual figure, an 
increase since the last census, twenty years ago, of 7,000,000, 
or 25 per cent. But with the increase in population there has 
been anything but a propartionate increase in economic re- 
sources. This fact is clearly evinced in the importance now 
attached to the emigration question in Italy. Twenty-five 
years ago, in the first blush of a newly-united kingdom's 
semblance of juvenile vigor and promise, serious efforts were 
mide to discourage intending emigrants from leaving their 
own country. To-day, on the other hand, there is a bill be- 
fore the Italian Senate to practically encourage it and to facili- 
tate it, and to protect the emigrant against the wiles of his 
natural enemy, the unscrupulous agent. 

In the last twenty years Italy has lost 5,000,000 of its popu- 
lition by emigration. But despite this depletion it was admitted 
by the recent government that there are still millions too 
many mouths to feed. 

The present significant movement aroifnd Ravenna shows that 
some remedy must be applied and applied urgently. But here 
precisely the difficulty begins. On the former occasion the 
Marquis di Rudini relinquished office and gave place. to a soldier 
as prime minister. General Pelloux was regarded as a man 
capable of inaugurating radical reforms, being accustomed to 
command and obey, and, unlike the majority of civilian states- 
men, not hampered by party intrigue or by petty ambitions. 
The military premier even went so far as to affirm that if the 
nation's weal demanded it he was ready to propose that 
militarism should be swept bag and baggage from the land. 

GENERAL PELLOUX ET AL. 

The problems which he had to attack were those which 



1901.] ITALY'S PROSPERITY. 101 

confront his successor tc-day. The army is much too large for 
the exigencies and resources of the country. General Pelloux's 
remedy was to allow the soldiers who were quartered in the 
farming districts to help in tilling the soil in the spring and 
in the autumn. But this was only a trifle and ineffectual. 
Trifling and ineffectual also were his measures for dealing with 
the other burdens of the nation. The grievous system of tolls 
still exists. The individual cities still have a relatively free 
hand in the imposition of these entrance duties, and abuses in 
the matter are growing daily more serious. In the City of 
Rome, for instance, such commodities as salt, sugar, wine, oil, 
and coffee are actually doubled in cost by merely entering the 
city, and fish, flesh, wood, candles, and kerosene are also woe- 
fully affected by the tolls. 

Ever present also is the agricultural dead-lock, caused by 
the oppressive taxation of the soil even when it is not actually 
producing. General Pelloux desired to lay the axe to the 
root of this, the evil which causes so much of the land to lie 
fallow the taxation, say of vineyards, to their full productive 
extent from the very first day they are tilled, although in 
reality they do not begin to produce until three years after 
planting. 

But the public-spirited minister was thwarted by the de 
mands of the depleted and all-devouring treasury for more 
money. He was thwarted also in his project to economize on 
the civil service and provide labor for the disoccupied the 
repairing of roads, the building of bridges, the construction of 
light railways, and the like. So the soldier in bitter disap- 
pointment laid down the reins of power, and shortly after him, 
and seemingly with a view to exhaust any and every expedient 
and experiment in the matter of government, a sailor was 
called to the head of affairs. 

Admiral Canevaro, as premier, tried in his own way to 
tackle the immense problems of his native land, but it was 
the labor of Sisyphus once more, and the sailor gave way to a 
senator and a cabinet of parliamentarians. Recently Senator 
Saracco has been thrown from office, on the rather futile pre- 
text that a member of his ministry had introduced a bill 
against anarchists. As a matter of fact the Parliament was 
tired of him, realizing that he was incompetent to heal the 
nation's terrible sores. 

And now the radical and anti-clerical Zanardelli has put 
his shoulder under the burden, and the question going around 



102 PAPAL INDEPENDENCE AND [April, 

is, What will he do? Well, he will do nothing that is, noth- 
ing more than his predecessors or he will bring on the revo- 
lution. 

MILITARISM THE DANGER. 

It is suggested, for instance, that he break away from the 
Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria and secure a non- 
military and commercial alliance with France. This indeed 
would be a radical solution of the problem, for militarism is 
the canker that is gnawing at Italy's vitals, and militarism 
is a consequence of the Triple Alliance. 

But then what would be the result of Italy's putting away 
her rifles and cannon and sending her soldiers back to civilian 
life ? It would mean a subsidence from the rank of a first- 
class power, a sinking down to the rating level of Spain and 
Greece. It would call forth such a shriek of anguish from the 
people who for all those years had in vain suffered and sacri- 
ficed so much to keep up the pomp and glory of arms; and 
the throne of King Victor Emmanuel of the House of Savoy, 
which is erected on those arms and which is emblematic of 
the nation's armament, would be shaken to its base and irre- 
trievably overturned. 

For therein lies the dilemma. Militarism is sapping the 
nation's strength, and yet that militarism cannot be interfered 
with without the risk of pulling down the throne. It requires 
but little reflection, however, and but little knowledge of 
national economics, to realize that, where the alternative is 
national bankruptcy and beggary, the mere upholding of the 
gaudy bauble of monarchical supremacy will not long have 
much force with an entire people. 

And the establishment of a republican form of government 
is what is speedily predicted should the present bread riots 
take the course of those of a couple of years ago and ever 
get as far as Milan, and there, as before, assume the nature of 
a revolution. Milan is the headquarters of Italian republican- 
ism. The ferocious feeling aroused by the wholesale shooting 
down of its citizens during the last troubles has spurred its 
dissentients to a thorough organization of their forces; and 
the mDst flourishing city of Italy is now unquestionably in a 
to at any moment shake off the monarchical yoke. 

THE WAY OUT. 

Trie same solution is also believed to be what the clerical 



1901.] ITALY'S PROSPERITY. 103 

forces the forces, namely, of Italian Catholics who are staunch 
adherents of the Papacy and in all things guided by the Vati- 
can regard as most practical. The return of the Holy Father 
to his temporal independence is by all Catholics regarded as a 
matter of necessity, but in Italy it is acutely felt that the 
necessity is of particular urgency. 

During the thirty years that have elapsed since the royal 
sceptre was forcibly snatched from the hands of Pope Pius IX. 
by the generals of Victor Emmanuel II., anarchists of the 
worst dye, as well as militant socialists, professional atheists, 
and other refractory characters, have established their head- 
quarters in Rome. They have rendered the governing of the 
city of such extreme difficulty that a temporal monarch, who 
is at the same time the head of the church, would find some 
difficulty in coping with the local insubordination. This, it is 
rumored in ecclesiastical circles in Rome, seems also to be 
the sentiment of Leo XIII. himself, and he does not proba- 
bly desire to have the former Papal States given back to him 
for his supreme dominance. The confederation of states, or 
cantons, after the manner of the Swiss and American repub- 
lics, which many influential members of the clerical party advo- 
cate for Italy, would seem to furnish a solution for the problem 
of Papal independence, inasmuch as over that canton, or sub- 
division, which had Rome as its capital, the Pope might domi- 
nate, not necessarily in the function of president or governor, 
but as an extra-legislative and extra-administrative power, 
dominating with a species of hierarchical precedence all other 
powers in the state, yet possessing absolute independence. 

As matters stand the Pope's position is untenable and is 
growing daily worse. To his claim for independence, for the 
liberty which he does not possess when in the same city with 
himself there is another potentate who claims supreme sway, 
and claims to regard the Pope as one of his subjects, heed 
must soon be given. And if the procuring of that independence 
should be accomplished coincidently with the relieving of the 
unhappy nation of Italy from the heavy chain that binds her 
to poverty and misery, then truly should Catholic Christendom 
marvel and rejoice in the merciful dispensations of Divine 
Providence. 




104 THE PHILOSOPHY OF PAIN. [April, 

THE PHILOSOPHY OF PAIN. 

BY REV. WARD HUNT JOHNSON, C.S.P. 

F one were to try to teach a child what gravita- 
te tion was, simply using words to do it and appeal- 
5f ing to his reason, one would find it, probably, 
impossible to make him understand. One could 
explain at length about an all-compelling force 
in the centre of the earth which draws everything to itself p 
but this would make little impression on the child. However, 
give the child a ball ; let him throw it into the air. He is 
not surprised that it comes down ; he does not expect it to- 
do anything else. Now you can make him understand what 
gravitation is. 

Now, we are all children in so far as the thing within 
our experience is the thing we really know. If God is to 
teach us, his children, of himself, he must do it adequately 
through our experience. Of course the external world tells us 
of God; we can know of his existence from our reason; we 
can learn something of his character. But to know him at all 
well at all as he really is, necessitates some more immediate 
appeal an appeal to our experience. God must find some 
common ground between himself and creatures on which he 
can meet them ; something appreciable by the universal ex- 
perience of mankind. 

But what is there that all men feel, and how can this ex- 
perience be common to themselves and God? Taking the 
first question, as to the common experience of mankind, we 
can find one thing which we are sure all have a personal 
knowledge of, and this common experience is the sensation of 
pain. Pain is universal. It begins, in some form, with man's 
earliest years ; it lasts all through his life. Of pleasure and 
joy we are not sure ; we cannot tell whether our neighbor 
feels them as we do, or feels them at all ; but pain we know 
he must suffer. Indeed we recognize it so much as the very 
badge of humanity that men or women who say they have 
not suffered are strange, uninteresting; we feel they lack 
something which belongs to the race. On the other hand, one 
who we kno>v has suffered deeply, to him our hearts go out; 



1901.] THE PHILOSOPHY OF PAIN. 105 

we feel for him a respect; he has been initiated; he knows 
the secret. 

PAIN IS THE PROCESS OF READJUSTMENT. 

We turn then and ask the question : " What is Pain ? " Of 
course we all know what it is concretely it is discomfort 
more or less acute; but in the abstract how can we define it? 
Perhaps this will do as a definition. Pain, let us say, is the 
feeling produced in creatures by lack of adjustment, either 
within themselves, or between themselves and the world. Ob- 
viously this lack of adjustment may concern the body or the 
soul. If the body, then pain arises because the organism is 
not in accord with itself or its environment ; some foreign 
element is introduced which has disturbed the balance, and 
nature instinctively is trying to get rid of it or, that being im- 
possible, trying to make the best of it ; in either case trying 
to form a new adjustment. 

The same is the case with man's soul. To be in perfect 
condition there must be an entire accord between the soul and 
its environment, which is God, in whom it lives and moves and 
has its being. Now, many things hinder that perfect agree- 
ment, yet the instinctive effort of the soul is always toward 
it. The soul is trying continually to be in union with God. 
However, since it is under the power of the will, it can do no 
more than struggle ineffectively unless the will supports its 
endeavor. 

Now, it is to be noticed that pain in this sense comprises 
two elements. First, there is the condition here and now 
of the creature ; second, there is the condition to which it 
would attain, which it is fitted naturally to attain the ideal 
and the lack of which, and the effort to gain which, make 
up the phenomenon that we call pain. Take the case of 
the soul. The soul being once set toward God, it does 
not stay still, nor can it. Life must go on in a series of 
changes unless it becomes extinct altogether a series of gra- 
dual changes in our relations to God, and each of these 
changes means a readjustment, and this, as I have said, 
means pain. Here are the two elements the Real and 
the Ideal. God, as it were, addresses the soul : " You are 
this ; this is your present state. Here is the state you must 
gain ; try and do it." Then he shows some evil to be re- 
moved, or he puts before the soul some trial, some affliction, 
some todily ache in enduring which the soul must needs re- 



io6 THE PHILOSOPHY OF PAIN. [April, 

adjust itself to God its knowledge to a fuller knowledge of 
him, its submission to a deeper submission, its trust to a blinder 
and more perfect trust. To gain these things the soul must 
make an effort, and the effort is pain. The old resting-place 
must be left, a new and better conception of God must be 
formed, a newer conception made of its own powers and deserts, 
and by these efforts the soul grows. But the work does not 
stop there. When this stage is gained God again addresses the 
soul; again he puts before it a new and different a higher 
ideal, and the process of readjustment begins over again. It 
is possible for the soul to refuse the new ideal, to refuse the 
pain of readjustment, to rest where it is in stolid selfishness. 
What then? Why, the soul is no more at ease than before. 
The ideal has been seen, and there is the instinctive 
yearning after the higher, the instinctive longing to be in 
accord with its environment, and, though the will may forbid 
the effort, the very balking of that instinct since the instinct 
is of nature brings a keener pang than would any suffering 
caused by readjustment to the newer relations opened to its 
sight. 

A BOND BETWEEN GOD AND MAN. 

If there is to be any common ground, any place of meeting 
for man and God, it must be in this : the oneness and com- 
munity of pain. Yet pain is impossible to the divine nature, 
and for this reason: pain, as we said, arises from the lack of 
adjustment between the thing here and now and that which 
should be; it is the strife between the real and the ideal. 
But in the divine nature that which is is that which should 
be ; there the ideal is realized. So you see that in God 
there can be no such conflict as vexes us. But it is possible 
for God to assume a created nature subject to pain in order 
to reach his creatures on their own ground, and thus to find 
a common meeting-place. And he did so ; he was made man. 
He took a nature which while perfect in itself was, as the very 
condition of its being human nature, one to which the possi- 
bility of suffering was inevitably attached. In order now to 
understand how pain, this bond between the incarnate God 
and our race, affects our relations to Christ and his to us, we 
must consider something as to the consequences or results of 
pain. 

THE RESULTS OF PAIN. 

Tne first result concerns the individual himself ; it is simple. 



1901.] THE PHILOSOPHY OF PAIN. 107 

It is, in a word, the desire to get rid of discomfort by making 
the necessary readjustment. This is the constant tendency of 
the body; this, too, is the tendency of the soul when not 
prevented by human will. Take bodily pain as an example. 
Some foreign element has penetrated into the organism and 
disturbed the nice balance of parts. Pain is felt and nature at 
once begins the expulsion of the foreign thing, or if that be 
impossible, she tries to make the best of it ; in either case 
thsre is an effort at readjustment. Then the man who suffers 
brings his will to bear on the matter; he does what he can to 
aid himself. If that fails, he turns to outside help. This 
turning, we can think, is the second consequence of pain. The 
man goes to a physician and lays the case before him. Then 
the physician, if his knowledge is extensive enough, prescribes 
the remedy. He is willing to help the patient because he 
knDws; he -understands the trouble either in theory or from 
his own experience; and this ready sympathy would seem to 
be almost as much an instinctive consequence of pain in 
another as the sufferer's appeal to outside aid when his own 
means of help are at an end. As the third result man turns 
to God ; he recognizes him as the great helper, the reality of 
which the physician is but the shadow, for God has perfect 
knowledge of the evil to be gotten rid of and also perfect 
power to aid the body's efforts. 

The same three results, I believe, follow from pain in the 
soul. There is the effort to expel the evil the sin which 
hinders oneness with God, or there is an effort to meet new 
conditions, and these may both be aided or not by man's will. 
There is the same turning for aid to one outside who knows, 
and there is the same turning to God. But it often happens 
that men do not know what is the matter; they seek ease for 
pain in wrong ways. They believe discomfort will cease only 
when the morbid appetite is gratified, and so through ignorance 
or through an evil will they prolong the unhealthy state and 
never turn to God at all. 

VICARIOUS SUFFERING. 

Let us come back now to the relations between man and 
God consequent on the fact that the latter has become able 
to suffer pain, and so reach a meeting-place with creatures. 
It became the Father, St. Paul says* (I am paraphrasing the 
Greek), in bringing many sons to glory to constitute his Son 

* Heb. ii. 10. 



io8 THE PHILOSOPHY OF PAIN. [April, 

their leader by means of suffering to initiate him, as it were, 
into his office in this way. So the Son, enduring that pain 
which is the badge of humanity, is not ashamed to call men 
his brethren. Leaving apart our Lord's physical suffering, how 
was it that he could have pain of soul? In him derangement 
could not be caused by sin, nor was there any place for a 
loftier ideal of goodness what was it, then ? Our Lord was 
not simply a man, he is The Man the representative of all 
others, and so he suffers not for himself but for his brethren. 
He sees in them the lack of adjustment between human na- 
ture and God. He beholds men tossed about and dis-eased by 
a thousand inspirations of good " the good that proves too 
high, the heroic for earth too hard " ; he beholds their souls 
choked and stifled with the foreign element of sin, paralyzed 
in their efforts to expel it. The man and misery which men 
feel he knows ; he bears it all as man, yet not as an individual 
man but if I can use such an expression as personified 
human nature ; he gathers into himself the woe of all men and 
of every age. 

Because he is God he understands to the full the concord 
which should exist between men's souls and the divine nature 
what the adjustment between the ideal and the real means. 
On the other hand, he understands how much this lack of 
consonance implies that is, he appreciates the infinite evil of 
sin. 

From this perfect knowledge comes sympathy; knowing, 
experimentally, all there is of woe, he can be touched by the 
feeling of our infirmities, he can feel for each man of us in- 
dividually, since in them he sees the travail of his own soul's 
sorrow shown. 

There is likewise another ground for his sympathy. He 
feels our pain ; but he knows also the difficulty of submission, 
of adjustment of our wills to the divine. Nothing, of course, 
could increase our Lord's trust or perfect his submission, and 
yet experience was able to add a something which these would 
not otherwise possess. It was able to make that submission 
and that trust such as only belongs to one who has himself 
endured. Therefore is it written,* that through obedience he 
learned submission, though he were the Son, and it was, if we 
may say so, a hard lesson for his human nature, gained only 
" by a strong cry and tears," by the " offering up of prayers 
and supplications." Yet having learned it, he thoroughly 



igoi.] THE PHILOSOPHY OF PAIN. 109 

understands the bitterness of men's struggle. As God he could 
know that this was hard ; as man he knows hoiv hard. 

HOW CHRIST CAN SUFFER PAIN. 

Such is the measure of Christ's sufferings. His pain, in its 
way, results as pain always does. First he seeks to alleviate 
it to effect the adjustment which should exist between men 
and God, since his pain arises from their sin. 

He turns to others ; he asks for men's pity, he asks men to 
help him by lessening that mass of human sin which rends his 
heart. And then he turns to God, and as the Mediator for the 
race begs from the Father of all grace for his brethren that 
the great adjustment between heaven and earth may come. 

Thus is Christ brought near to us. And we how are we 
related to Christ by this common pain? We know what pain 
is; and we see him suffering in the agony of that physical woe 
which at least we can understand something of, in that deeper 
spiritual woe among the olive-trees of Gethsemani which we 
may reverently guess. Our hearts are drawn to him in his 
suffering. We know that in every pain of our own he has 
suffered too, as he says: " Behold and see if there is any sor- 
row like to my sorrow." 

Again we recognize his pain as not for himself but for 
others ; if he for men can feel such sorrow, then should we 
feel for them too; if human woe is able to wring these tears 
from the eyes of God, how much more should our brethren's 
sorrows be our own? Then we begin to feel that pain is no 
selfish thing, but the great bond which makes all men one, 
which binds the race to God. 

Finally, in beholding our suffering Lord we see what the 
love of God should be. It is for GDd, to effect our readjust- 
ment with him, that Christ so suffers. If, then, the co-equal 
Son can so endure for the Father's glory, how much more 
should we mere creatures, how much more, willingly, should 
we suffer in this mystery of pain that all God's will may be 
fulfilled in us, and for his sake, if not for our own, we should 
bring about conformity between ourselves and him. Behold 
our Lord : he is our Peace ; he makes us one with God, and 
so eases human pain ; he does it for love's sake. Ah, truly 
greater love has no man than this, to lay down his life for his 
friends to lay down his life that GDd may receive due praise! 




i. Dix : Christopher Ferringham ; 2. Steele : Hosts of the 
Lord; 3. Burgess: Coops ; 4. Rayner: Visiting the Sin; 5. 
Crane : Whilomville Stories ; 6. Egan ; Waggaman ; Mulholland ; 
Spalding, S. A. C. : " Catholic Stories " ; 7. Williams : Nine- 
teenth Century Science; 8. Loeb : Physiology; 9. Ferguson: 
Democracy ; 10. Strong: Social Betterment; ir. Ferri: Social- 
ism; 12. Gardiner: Jonathan Edwards; 13. Mortimer: Eucharistic Sacrifice ; 
14. Guibert-Whitmarsh : In the Beginning ; 15. McVey : Christian Doctrine; 
16. Rolfus-Girardey : Creed Explained ; 17. Fontaine: Infiltrations Protestantes ; 
18. Belanger: Les\Religieux ; 19. Middleton : Philippine Bibliography; 20. Ju- 
bilee Instructions; 21. Proctor: Dominican Saints ; 22. Lepitre : St. Antoine de 
Padoue ; 23. Sabatier : Legendedes Trois Compagnons ; 24. Cherance-O'Connor : 
St. Francis of Assist ; 25. Caxton-Ellis : Golden Legend; 26. Taylor-Gollancz : 
Holy Living; 27. Guerra-Van der Donck : The Confessor; 28. Baring-Gould: 
Virgin Saints ; 29. Ledos : Sainte Gertrude. 



1, If The Making of Christopher Ferringham * does not 
circulate famously, then the public will miss a rare treat. 
True, it is not exactly the proper kind of a volume for the 
shelves of the Boston Public Library, nor will readers who 
think Treasure Island too wild a tale find this story to their 
liking. Nevertheless the book has a wealth of incident, a 
dramatic vividness, a strong and continued hold upon the 
reader's interest, that are certainly remarkable. The writer 
has conceived her characters well, and she keeps to her first 
conception with surprising fidelity. 

Many times where every one but an artist would soften and 
tone down details that seem unpardonably harsh she, without 
hesitation, fills in conformably to her original design, leaving 
us to admire the results of her keen perception and firm touch. 
The author's previous work evinced marked ability to deal with 
Colonial days and characters ; this book may be said to secure 
her fame. Despite all its crowded succession of wild carnivals 
and ^hair-breadth 'scapes, its generous measure of pistol-shots, 

* The Making of Christopher Ferringham. By Beulah Marie Dix. New York: The 
Macmillan Company. 



1 9oi.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. in 

sword-wounds, broken heads, and sudden deaths, its multitude of 
swashbucklers, privateers and pirates ; despite even an occasion- 
al sentence perilously near to vulgarity still it will serve both 
to interest and instruct. Many a reader far older than the 
author will turn page after page with hasty fingers all un- 
conscious that midnight is passed and the small hours are 
hurrying by while "the Kestrel" is working, and lying, and 
fighting, and swearing his way through the long chapters that 
precede his attainment of final respectability. 

Certainly Miss Dix has " arrived." Should she, however, 
care to correct what seems to us to mar her work, she must 
be a trifle less ready to quote coarse language, and to repeat 
at short intervals words like " sensed," " tense," " shotten." 

2. Another recent writer pictures the shifting sands upon 
which English supremacy in India is built, and reminds us 
that the great mutiny of '57 is still borne constantly in mind. 
The Vaisakh festival, the annual pilgrimage of the natives to 
bathe in the Sacred Pool of Immortality, whose source is far 
in the distant mountains, the Cradle of the Gods, suggests the 
title.* These poor creatures sacrificing comfort and even life 
to attain the boon of immortality ; the practical British officer, 
the Nonconformist missionary, and particularly the keen and 
universally beloved Catholic priest all are recognized as the 
Hosts of the Lord, striving, each in his own way, to realize 
that dream of absolute perfection which has haunted mankind 
since the beginning. Mrs. Steele manifests a most commend- 
able desire to discern and sympathize with the good in all re- 
ligions, but let us hope that she is more familiar with the 
Indian than she is with the Catholic religion, and that her 
readers in Hindustan will be better pleased with her presenta- 
tion of themselves than we have been with her portrait of 
things Catholic. Her "Jesuit" is a dream, yea, verily a 
nightmare. 

"Scenes" are evidently not Mrs. Steele's forte, though they 
do afford the reader some incidental amusement. It would be 
cruel to deprive any one of this choice bit : " Then, with a sort 
of suffocating rush to heart and brain, came the knowledge 
that his clasp was answered by that small hand so small, so 
clinging, so trustful, so dear, so absolutely dear so dear ! so 
very dear ! ! " 

A paragraph about the authoress that has appeared in The 

* 7 he Hosts of the Lord. By Flora Anna Steele. New York: The Macmillan Company. 



ii2 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [April, 

Bookman will bear repetition. At a lecture before a woman's 
club she told an anecdote of an incident that had happened at 
one of her previous lectures. Her brother wished to hear the 
address and asked the policeman at the door if men were 
admitted to the building. "No, sir," was the response; "the 
ladies as is meeting there ain't the sort as wishes to have any- 
think to do with men." 

3, Mr. Gelett Burgess and the Frederick A. Stokes Company 
have succeeded in doing a very enviable thing. They have, in 
their different capacities as author and publisher, given us 
Goops, and How to be Them* and we, in behalf of the public, 
are grateful. Mr. Burgess's " Goops " are so well known that 
generalization is not necessary ; sufficient, then, to say that the 
special mission of this collection of " Goops " is to show children 
what they will undoubtedly degenerate into if they permit their 
manners to be run away with by their juvenile instincts. The 
rhymes and drawings are inimitably their originator's, and ex- 
ceedingly humorous as well as useful. Mr. Burgess has taught 
in a clever way the psychological principle, underlying the 
moral ones in good or evil conduct, the same which Mr. 
Howells recently expounded in solemn editorial fashion from 
his throne in the " Easy Chair" of Harper s Magazine. Howells 
teaches to the grown-ups the same lesson that Burgess tries to 
inculcate in the juvenile mind in his stories about the 
" Goops." " There is something very strange in the effect of a 
man's manners upon his character. A man may say what he 
does not think, but by and by, if he keeps on saying a thing 
long enough, he begins to think what he says ; and then he 
begins to be what he thinks. His manners, if they are bad or 
null, end in vitiating his morals. He cannot behave rudely 
without ultimately becoming at heart a savage." Such a re- 
flection ought to be serious enough in import to the rude and 
vulgar-mannered to make them fear the consequences of their 
conduct for purely selfish reasons, if they are not able to rise 
to the obligations of courtesy and gentle ways in virtue of 
those strictly Christian motives which should be at the root 
of all human conduct. 

4. It is well that the author of Visiting the Sin\ warns us 
in a preface that the incidents found in these 450 pages are 

* Goops, and How to be Them. By Gelett Burgess. New York : Frederick A. Stokes 
Company. 

t Visiting the Sin. By Emma Rayner. Boston : Small, Maynard & Co. 



1901.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 113 

not the product of a " free flight of fancy." We have never 
before read a book teeming with such wild scenes as those 
that fill the present volume. They could have no other possi- 
ble excuse for existence than that of showing the character of 
tales told by the old residents of the mountain-districts of 
Kentucky and Tennessee. 

5. Perhaps, with the exception of James Whitcomb Riley 
and Eugene Field, no one has ever more graphically, humor- 
ously, and withal more tenderly depicted the quaking fears, 
small intrigues, and miniature tragedies of childhood than 
Stephen Crane has done in the Whilomville stories.* The 
volume is composed of thirteen short stories, each separate and 
distinct in itself, yet each dealing with the same set of char- 
acters and desperate characters at that. Using this material 
the author has placed before the reader the whole panorama 
of childhood with a humor that is irresistible. Stephen Crane 
well knew when and where to throw on his scenes words that 
gave forth spurts of sulphurous green and blue lights, as in 
The Red Badge of Courage, and with equal skill he has turned 
upon his scenes of child-life in Whilomville the bright search- 
light of humor, showing up clearly, but with a wonderful ten- 
derness, all the little foibles and rogueries of childhood. 

Throughout the stories one feels that the author has seen 
not only the humorous side of these childish adventures, but 
the romantic and tragic as well ; and who shall say that any 
experience in later life can equal in intensity or terror either 
the romance or tragedy of childhood ? This book, perhaps, 
more than any of his other works, shows the wonderful dra- 
matic instinct of its lamented young author. The youthful actor 
who could enact Jimmie Trescott " showing off " before the 
little girl in the red hood would immortalize himself, as Jimmie 
is surely immortalized in literature. 

Peter Newell, in his illustrations accompanying the stories, 
has fully caught the spirit of the text, and has added greatly 
to the value of the book. 

6. A group of new stories f will be welcomed by Catholic 
librarians and all others whose duty it is to select wholesome 
literature for the children. It must be said that of late the 

* Whilomville Stories. By Stephen Crane. New York : Harper Bros. 

t The Page of fames the Fifth of Scotland. Translated from the French by S. A. C. 
Nan Nobody. By Mary T. Waggaman. Dimpling^ Success. By Clara Mulholland. The 

Cave by the Beech Fork. By Rev. H. S. Spalding, S.J. New York : Benziger Brothers. 

Ths Watson Girls. By Maurice Francis Egan. Philadelphia : Kilner & Co. 
VOL. LXXIII. 8 



ii4 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [April, 

list of books eligible for the young has grown noticeably, a 
number of writers having directed their efforts very success- 
fully toward supplying the lack we used to complain of so 
frequently. 

7. In popularizing science great care must be taken that 
scientific conceptions are accurately represented. Dr. Wil- 
liams's new book,* though worthy of praise, is not. wholly free 
from blame on the score of inaccuracy. Nineteenth century 
science presents a very extensive field ; and it seems scarcely 
possible that a volume of some four hundred and fifty pages 
can possess that accuracy of description to which the popular 
mind is entitled. It must be owned, however, that Dr, 
Williams has succeeded considerably better than antecedently 
we should have expected. The most interesting points in the 
history of nineteenth century science are touched upon and the 
development of various scientific doctrines is outlined. These 
outlines are not always full, and the reader must understand 
that he cannot obtain from this book even a fairly accurate 
knowledge of the history of science in the century just closed. 

It would take a broad mind indeed to write the story of each 
science from the specialist's point of view. The author there- 
fore, perforce, writes as one outside the esoteric circle looking on 
a great many achievements with an amateur's eye for the mar- 
vellous. His outline of the history of chemistry especially 
must be judged as inadequate. He tells us almost nothing of 
the development of qualitative and quantitative analysis, and, 
strange to say, passes over in silence the great part played by 
chemistry in the development of nineteenth century industries. 
This chapter of his work is little more than a sketch of the 
theories of modern chemistry on the construction of matter. 
And, further, it is not always accurate. The writer seems to 
have acted on the theory that every new and startling idea 
met at first with opposition. He applies this principle at least 
once too often. " It is certain enough," he writes, " that Dai- 
ton's contemporaries were at first little impressed with the 
novel atomic theory" (p. 255). Let us contrast this statement 
with that of a standard authority on the history of chemistry, 
Mayer : " The reception which Dalton's atomic doctrine found 
among chemists was almost wholly favorable, although there 
were not wanting a few to depreciate the new theory, and 

* The Story of Nineteenth Century Science. By Henry Smith Williams. New York : 
Harper & Brothers. 



1901.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 115 

even to ascribe the merit of originating it to others " (Hist. 
Chemistry, English translation, p. 182). And, to mention a 
lesser point, we venture to suggest that Dr. Williams should 
not speak of "the molecule of ammonium" (p. 271). 

The chapter on the century's progress in biology seems to 
be little more than a condensation of a portion of the well- 
known work, From the Greeks to Darwin, by Dr. Osborne, of 
Columbia. The chapter in question is really a history of the 
theories of evolution during the nineteenth century not an 
outline of the progress of biology ; and it should bear a name 
indicative of its character. 

Probably the best part of the book consists of the two 
chapters on physical science, with perhaps the one on medicine. 
But the account of the discovery of the law of conservation 
of energy is imperfect. Leaving aside the discussion about 
the relative merits of Mayer and Joule, at least we may say 
that the author has given too much credit to the German 
physician, for it is certainly an error to state that Mayer was 
the first one who ever dreamed of the great principle under 
consideration. The notion of the indestructibility of matter 
and energy was firmly rooted in scholastic philosophy, and 
found expression in the writings of St. Thomas. Modern 
science has at most given experimental demonstration to the 
theory. 

To sum up, we would say that Dr. Williams's book is a 
most interestingly written story, but an incomplete and some- 
what inaccurate history. 

8, The purpose of Professor Loeb's recent contribution * 
to the Science Series is, as he tells us in the preface, to serve 
as a short introduction to the comparative physiology of the 
brain and the central nervous system. It contains the results 
of experiments carried on by himself and others on vertebrates, 
and which has been hitherto more uncommon in physiological 
experimental work on invertebrates, together with his inter- 
pretations of these results and criticisms and appreciations of 
the interpretations of others. His psychological views are our 
chief interest here. 

In his psychology there is no room for such conceptions as 
soul, will, consciousness, etc.; in fact, the author's opinion is 
that- these notions serve mainly to obstruct scientific study of 

* Comparative Physiology of the Brain and Comparative Psychology. By Jacques Loeb, 
M.D. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 



u6 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [April, 

the physiology of the brain. His theory is that association 
explains all psychic phenomena. What explains association ? 
The answer, implied if not stated in as many words, is, the 
material organism. But how? This is a question yet unan- 
swered by the author. Something else is needed, and this 
something we know is the soul. 

Professor Loeb graciously concedes that the mistake of 
metaphysicians is not that they devote themselves to funda- 
mental problems, but that their methods are wrong, and that 
they substitute a play on words for explanation by way of 
facts. To say that metaphysics is a mere play on words is to 
betray ignorance of metaphysics and its methods : an ignor- 
ance fully borne out by the absurd statement that the author's 
criterion " puts an end to the metaphysical ideas that all mat- 
ter, and hence the whole animal kingdom, possesses conscious- 
ness." 

The author makes an ungenerous and unscientific reference 
to Father E. Wasman, S.J., whose pamphlet raised the ques- 
tion often raised before as to the intelligence of animals. 
Indeed, many times in the course of the work the author is 
guilty of similar flings, displaying in the course of the book 
an animus unworthy of his position. 

Professor Loeb's book is the result of much thought and 
labor, but it is builded upon materialistic principles principles 
destructive of morality and totally out of harmony with man's 
nature and desires. 

9. As spokesman of the Zeitgeist Mr. Ferguson formu- 
lates the principles of the coming world-wide democracy which 
is to realize the dream of a Parliament of Man, a federation 
of the world. The present state of the world, if superficially 
considered, does not point towards any immediate appearance 
of this millennium ; " to-day the world is in the bond of law," 
but " to-morrow the gospel of Liberty shall be everywhere 
proclaimed." Mr. Ferguson's "to-morrow" is very expansive. 
It may, he tells us,* take thousands of years to establish the 
new Democracy. The extent of time postulated for the real- 
ization of Mr. Ferguson's prophecies deprives us of the hope 
of seeing their accuracy justified by verification ; and as he 
does not offer any demonstrations of their value, we are con- 
strained to accept them solely on his authority. But the fear- 

* The Religion of Democracy. By Charles Ferguson. New York : Funk & Wagnalls 
Company. 



TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 117 

lessness with which he scans the future and the confidence 
which he evinces in his own forecasts are well calculated to 
inspire the reader with faith. The style has the true prophetic 
cast. The language is - strong, bold, original, abounding in 
striking metaphors and novel turns of phrase, which strongly 
recall Carlyle. The thought is profound, vague, frequently dis- 
connected, and not seldom made very difficult to follow by 
the presence of many antinomies. But this presence of ap- 
parent contradictions must be accepted as showing a corre- 
spondence with the eternal verities ; for Mr. Ferguson says 
that at the heart of life there are primal and irreconcilable 
contradictions, and deep truths can be expressed only in 
paradox. 

10. If a man be an enthusiast on the subject of philan- 
thropy, shallow in religion, strongly influenced by prejudice, 
and a superficial observer, then he is in danger of writing a 
volume like Dr. Strong's latest production.* The author is not 
declamatory or vulgar this much must be said in his favor ; 
but he is partial. He gives some interesting information and 
displays a commendable love of social improvement. How- 
ever, he should not imagine that all the universe revolves 
around the single inspiration which is guiding him ; nor should 
he suppose that the striking events he happens to see are the 
most striking that occur. 

11, The appearance of a new translation of Ferri's work f 
is due to the effort which Socialism has made so often to 
attach itself to the philosophy of evolution. The latter seems 
to give promise of a lasting success which Socialism is anxious 
to share. As the pros and cons of the question have been 
extensively discussed, and the substance of the volume con- 
sists largely of prophecy and generalities, it is hardly necessary 
to take up the main thesis in a review. The translation shows 
defective knowledge of the English idiom, while the volume 
itself is poorly made up. 

12, On Friday, June 22, 1900, a memorial tablet to Jonathan 
Edwards was unveiled in the First Church of Christ, North- 
ampton, Mass. The addresses delivered on that occasion are 

* Religious Movements for Social Betterment. By Josiah Strong. New York : The 
Baker & Taylor Company. 

^Socialism and Modern Science. By Enrico Ferri. Translated by R. Rives La Monte. 
New York : International Library Publication Company. 



n8 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [April, 

now published in book form,* together with a study on " The 
Early Idealism of Edwards " by the editor of the' collection. 
A better list of subjects than those here presented could not 
have been selected, but unfortunately they are treated in a 
way that fails to give anything like an adequate appreciation 
of this great character one of America's foremost Protestant 
philosophers and theologians. If we except a few very pointed 
criticisms of the work and teaching of Edwards, the general 
tone of the essays is, despite an editorial disclaimer, too eulo- 
gistic to have any great critical value. In the subjects of 
the second and third papers, viz., " The Influence of Edwards 
on the Spiritual Life of New England " and " The Significance 
of Edwards To-day," there is abundant opportunity for a real 
contribution to the understanding of Edwards's true position 
in the history and theology of New England. It is to be re- 
gretted that this opportunity was missed. 

13. The Eucharistic Sacrifice \ is a study of the various 
theories which have been proposed to explain in what precisely 
the sacrificial character of the Mass consists, and what is its 
relation to the Sacrifice of the Cross. The author, who is an 
Anglican clergyman, states that his purpose is primarily eireni- 
cal. He wishes to unite all the religious beliefs which recog- 
nize the teaching of the church as authoritatively establishing 
the doctrine that the Holy Eucharist is a true sacrifice. A 
secondary purpose is to furnish an argument against Leo 
XIII.'s decision upon the invalidity of Anglican orders. The 
work shows a wide knowledge of theological literature, and 
we notice with gratitude the great pains taken to consult the 
reader's convenience by use of excellent indices, summaries, 
marginal notes, appendices, and similar devices. 

The author adduces the definitions of sacrifice, and the 
theories as to the essence of the Mass, offered by the 
Fathers, and by mediaeval and modern Catholic theologians. 
This section gives evidence of much careful and intelligent 
study of Catholic sources. He also discusses the views of 
various Anglican authorities, and treats at considerable length 
of what he calls the "modern" theory advocated by Mr. 
Brightman, which theory he condemns as derogatory to the 

* Jonathan Edwards: A Retrospect. Edited by H. Norman Gardiner. Boston : 
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

t The Eucharistic Sacrifice. An Historical and Theological Investigation of the Sacrifi- 
cial Conception of the Holy Eucharist in the Christian Church. By the Rev. Alfred G. 
Mortimer, D.D. New York : Longmans, Green & Co. 



1901.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 119 

Sacrifice of the Cross. The view defended by the author is no 
doubt the belief of a considerable number of individual Angli- 
cans, and probably is the one which would be formulated by 
the Anglican Church, if that church possessed the power of 
officially laying down a decision. It is a view which, generally 
speaking, is in harmony with sound Catholic teaching. One of 
the most interesting features of Dr. Mortimer's book is to be 
found in the printed correspondence on this matter conducted 
between himself and several Catholic theologians, notably Dr. 
Schanz and M. Lepin, S.S. 

Dr. Mortimer, however, seems to labor under a certain mis- 
apprehension as to the bearing of the point he is discussing, 
for he says: "We need an accurate knowledge of the history 
of the sacrificial conception of the Eucharist in the church in 
order to meet the arguments brought against our Orders on 
the ground that in our liturgy and ordinal the sacrificial char- 
acter of the Eucharist (and therefore of the priesthood) is not 
sufficiently understood." His main attempt to meet these 
arguments seems to be his producing " forty-two Anglican divines 
who teach the Catholic view." Such inadequate evidence is 
not likely to bring about a reversal of the verdict against 
Anglican Orders given by the Papal Commission. In the first 
place, it proves nothing as to "liturgy and ordinal," and, in 
the second place, what little weight it really has is more than 
counterbalanced by the British Coronation Oath and the 
Thirty-first Article of the Church of England, to mention only 
the first and most obvious arguments. 

14. We have before us the English translation * of a book 
written by a Sulpician, formerly professor of the natural sciences 
at the Seminary of Issy, and now superior of the Seminary 
of the Institut Catkolique of Paris. It is destined for the use of 
-ecclesiastical students and other readers interested in such 
questions as Cosmogony, Origin of Life, Origin of Species, 
Origin of Man, Antiquity of Man, etc. The writer makes no 
pretence of great depth; his desire is merely to expose certain 
scientific data, knowledge of which is indispensable to a cor- 
rect interpretation of the Scripture texts relating to the ques- 
tions indicated. 

The book answers its purpose most admirably. At the out- 
set the author imposes upon himself a triple obligation : 

* In the Beginning (Les Origines). By J. Guibert, S.S. Translated from the French by 
G. S. Whitmarsh. New York : Benziger Brothers. 



120 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [April,. 

ist, Honestly to explain systems ; 2d, To assert with firmness 
what is well established ; 3d, To leave open the questions 
which have not yet received a solution. And a thing so un- 
usual as to be worthy of notice and commendation he actually 
adheres to these rules. A calm, disinterested, courteous style 
is sustained throughout. The writer is able not only calmly to 
contemplate but even fairly to appreciate the opposite sides of 
a question, and if his pages bring no addition to the exist- 
ing store of scientific truth, they meet a far more imperative 
need, first in telling us what is known, and again, in giving 
unequivocal expression to the grave difficulties surrounding the 
interpretation of various texts of Scripture. This readiness to 
recognize difficulties and this patience in awaiting their solu- 
tion will come as a pleasant relief to the pupil acquainted 
with teachers who employ the " Shut-Eyes-And-Open-Mouth " 
method. The author's modesty, too, is in refreshing contrast 
with the characteristics of various writers on similar subjects. 

The translator's English is capable of considerable im- 
provement in the matter of idiom, yet on the whole is clear^ 
The style is popular, and many of the bibliographical indica- 
tions refer to books recent and to a great extent easily ob- 
tainable, though the majority, of course, are in French. We 
have commended the author's sympathetic, and impersonal 
method. It must be said, however, that sometimes this is not 
in evidence ; as, for instance, in the foot-note on page 22, which 
substantially reads as follows: "Father Hummelauer has de- 
clared that his system of interpreting Genesis is the only true 
one. But the systems he rejects have champions as worthy as 
himself and reasons which do not yield to his. ' Revelationism ' 
is his system, that much is certain ; but is it not possible 
there are other legitimate systems too ? " Such language is 
really equivalent to accusing the good Father Hummelauer o 
narrowness and dogmatism. 

15, The third part of the Exposition of Christian Doctrine* 
treats of Grace, Prayer, the Sacraments, and the Liturgy. When 
we say that it is fully equal to its predecessors for accuracy, 
clearness, and theological method, those who are familiar with the 
two preceding volumes will understand that we are paying it a 
high compliment. The entire work admirably serves the pur- 
pose for which the author intends it, that is, to provide reli- 

* Exposition of Christian Doctrine. By a Seminary Professor. Part III.: Worship. 
Philadelphia : John Joseph McVey. 



1901.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 121 

gious communities with a full and systematic summary of 
Catholic doctrine. We know of no English manual better suited 
for the educated layman who is desirous, as every Catholic 
should, of possessing such a thorough knowledge of Catholic 
belief and practice as will enable him, when the occasion arises, 
to intelligently explain and successfully defend the faith that 
is in him. The paper, press-work, and binding of the book are 
worthy of the contents. 

16. A short and cheap, yet methodical and comprehensive, 
manual of Catholic doctrine, suitable for family use, would be 
a very useful book. Many intelligent Catholics when called 
upon by circumstances are frequently at a loss to give a rea- 
sonable exposition of the faith which is in them, and of the 
scriptural basis upon which that faith rests. The two works in 
English which admirably cover the ground, Father Clarke's and 
Wilhelm and Scannell's, are too extensive and too dear to be 
at the service of everybody. The recently published adapta- 
tion *, of Dr. Rolfus' explanation of the Apostles' Creed will 
serve to meet the want, at least partially. It is a very com- 
pact, accurate epitome of the church's theology on the great 
fundamental doctrines. The articles on God, Jesus Christ, and 
the Church are full and systematic. Where the matter calls 
for it judicious citations from the Holy Scriptures and the 
Fathers are plentifully introduced. 

We notice that in the proof of God's existence, drawn from 
the universal belief of men, the author, complying with a time- 
honored tradition, has brought forward those well-worn quota- 
tions from Plutarch and Cicero. Their testimony on the point 
is of no more value than that of Strabo on the geography of 
Africa. Yet because it has been the fashion to quote these 
two worthies in the past, Catholic apologists blindly continue to 
give them a place, to the exclusion of the available testimony 
of modern authorities based on an immensely more extensive 
and accurate knowledge. The press-work of the book is good, 
but the illustrations are paltry and unworthy of the author's 
work, which they serve rather to disfigure than embellish. 

17. The unsophisticated will gather from Father Fontaine's 
book f that heresy is playing havoc with his countrymen on 

* Illustrated Explanation of the Creed. Adapted from the original of H. Rolfus, D.D. 
New York : Benziger Brothers. 

t Les Infiltrations Protestantes et le Clerge Frangais. By J. Fontaine, S.J. Paris : Vic- 
tor Retaux. 



122 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [April, 

account of the forgetfulness of Catholic principles by such 
men as Loisy, Lagrange, and their confreres scholars who have 
regenerated ecclesiastical learning in France. The cautious 
reader, however, will be apt to suspect that the present volume 
is a less accurate representation of actually prevailing condi- 
tions than of the author's state of mind. 

18. Writing in defence of the religious communities of 
France apropos of the Associations Bill, Father Belanger* 
handles some very live questions in a very lively manner, e. g. : 
" The Three Vows," " The Fabulous Wealth of the Congrega- 
tions," " Are the Congregations Rebels?" " Are the Congrega- 
tions hostile to the Republic?" "The Jesuits," etc. By the 
triple argument of fact, logic, and scathing irony the author 
clears the congregations of a number of false but widely ac- 
cepted charges. From the first page to the last the reader 
will perceive that the writer is smarting under persecution, 
calumny, and unjust oppression. 

19. Some months ago, at the request of the Polybiblion 
Club of Philadelphia, the Rev. Dr. Middleton, O.S.A., prepared 
a paper f on the literature of the Philippine Islands. This paper 
has been published by the trustees of the Free Library of 
Philadelphia. Dr. Middleton 's study, which is not a systematic 
or comprehensive bibliography, but rather a series of notes, 
dealing with the extent, character, and most important works 
of the literature which is extant, in Spanish and in native 
dialects, will prove a valuable help to those who wish to de- 
vote themselves to an investigation of the history, ethnology, 
antiquities, and linguistics of the Philippine people. It serves, 
too, incidentally to draw attention to the zeal, industry, and 
talent which from the earliest period of Spanish domination 
Catholic missionaries have displayed for the promotion of 
civilization and education among the Malayasian people whom 
they have converted. 

20, A very useful publication ^ is a pamphlet published 
by Herder explaining everything connected with the Jubilee 
and its recent extension to this country. It is published in 

* Les Meconnus, Ce que sont les Religieux, Ce gu'ilsfont, A quoi Us servent. By R. P. 
A. Belanger, S.J. Paris : Victor Lecoffre. 

t Some Notes on the Bibliography of the Philippines. By Rev. Thomas Cooke Middleton, 
(D.D., O S.A. Bulletin of the Free Library of Philadelphia, No. 4. 

\ The Jubilee. St. Louis : B. Herder. Das grosse Jubilaeum. Same. 



1901.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 123 

both English and German, contains the Papal Instructions and 
Prayers, and bears the imprimatur of the Archbishop of St. 
Louis. 

21, We find this book* delightful. As an object-lesson it 
is impressive beyond measure. For here are gathered together 
the lives of more than a hundred saints or "beati," all of them 
members of one order within the church the venerable Order 
of Preachers. But the lessons of such a monument as this are 
not for Dominicans alone. It will help any Catholic, and in- 
deed any non-Catholic, to understand something of what is 
meant by the " sanctity of the church in her members." We 
feel that if she had no more saints than those mentioned in 
the volume before us she might well lay claim to the note of 
sanctity ; but when we remember that all these, numerous and 
great as they are, represent the life-giving power of the sanc- 
tity of the church in its effects on one religious order alone, 
the lesson is really startling. 

So much for the book as a suggestion. In itself it is no 
less interesting and edifying. The biographies are short, but 
scarcely ever have we seen any more satisfactory. The style 
in which they are written is excellent curt, concise, clear-cut. 
We have read a great many of the lives and have found not 
one uninteresting. Not the least important part of the book is 
the thoughtful introduction by Father Proctor, provincial of 
the English Dominicans. He says many beautiful and striking 
things on which we should be pleased to comment if space 
permitted. As it is, we must content ourselves with a thor- 
ough-going recommendation of the book, and the expression 
of the hope that it will be widely read. The publishers, for 
their part, have given the volume a beautiful and durable dress. 

22. We have received, direct from the French publishers, 
the latest issue f in the series of " The Saints " the biogra- 
phy of one who is venerated to-day with a peculiarly deep and 
universal devotion. The many modern Lives of the Saint of 
Padua, with rare exceptions, have confined themselves to copy- 
ing more or less accurately the same incidents out of the same 
authorities. M. Lepitre's work is of quite a different char- 
acter. It is the result of scientific and conscientious labor that 
evidently has demanded of the author a generous expenditure 

* Short Lives of the Dominican Saints. By a Sister of the Congregation of St. Catherine 
of Sienna (Stone). Edited by Very Rev. Father Proctor. New York : Benziger Bros, 
f St. Antoine de Padoue. Par M. 1'Abbe Albert Lepitre. Paris: Librairie Victor Lecoffre. 



124 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [April, 

of time and patience, the subject being one not rich in original 
documents. On the whole the work partakes of a strictly 
academic character to a greater extent than any of its prede- 
cessors in the series. It is rather to be studied than to be 
read in leisure moments. The author is in no haste to accept 
eulogistic or wonderful narratives about the saint, and when he 
does accept a miraculous incident such as the mule's adora- 
tion of the Blessed Sacrament, or the fishes' attention to a 
sermon the reader is ready to regard them as credible to any 
honest mind. The book is well stocked with notes and its 
statements backed by the best of authorities. 

23. Although fault has been found with Paul Sabatier's 
work by the very men from whom one would look for grati- 
tude, nevertheless he keeps on in his critical investigations into 
Franciscan documents. His latest publication * is a brochure 
to prove that the Life of the Three Companions antedates 
Thomas of Celano's biography of St. Francis. He certainly 
seems to prove his point by his comparison of the two books, 
the first being by far the simpler and containing the germs of 
the wonders so magnificently developed by the later writer. 

The second part of M. Sabatier's thesis is directed against 
the Bollandists, maintaining his contention against them, for, 
while those savants have accepted some of his conclusions, 
others they have rejected. Who can decide when such doctors 
disagree? 

24, Father de Cheranc's new presentation f of the life of 
the Seraphic patriarch having been widely popular in the 
original, seems to be winning equal favor from English readers. 
This alone serves to show that the book deserves the generous 
commendations bestowed upon it by the authorities. The 
work is written in a very devotional strain, dwelling rather 
upon the mystical side of St. Francis than on his historical 
importance. 

25. With the publication of the seventh volume the " Tem- 
ple Classics " edition \ of The Golden Legend is concluded. We 
have already commended to our readers' attention this very 

* De P Authenticity de la Legende de Saint Francois dite des Trois Compagnons. Par 
Paul Sabatier. Paris. 

t Saint Francis of Assist. By Rev. Leopold de Cherance, O.S.F.C. Translated by 
R. F. O'Connor. (Third edition.) New York : Benziger Bros. 

\ The Golden Legend; or, Lives of the Saints, as Englished by William Caxton. Edited 
by F. S. Ellis. Vol. VII. New York : The Macmillan Company. 



icpi.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 125 

attractive presentation of a world-famous book. Mr. Ellis's 
editing has been carefully done, and the result leaves little to 
be desired. The Life of St. Erasmus which does not occur in 
the first edition of The Golden Legend has been reproduced here 
from the text of Wynken de Worde. A general index con- 
eludes the volume. The pictorial frontispieces in the series 
the one in this final volume represents St. Brandon and Ju- 
das Iscariot do great credit to Emily S. Ford, from whose 
drawings they were taken. 

26. Succeeding to 7 he Golden Legend comes the " Temple 
Classics " edition of Jeremy Taylor's Holy Living* Those who, 
like Newman, have learned to cherish the writings of the eru- 
dite and pious Anglican bishop will be gratified to see the 
book prepared for wide circulation in this novel and beautiful 
form. 

27. There is room on the shelves of many a priest for a 
book like Canon Guerra's.f If its instructions are taken to heart, 
the young presbyter will find his " ministry of reconciliation " 
all that he dreamed it to be in the fervor of his earliest aspira- 
tions. The principles here laid down are not different, indeed, 
from those exposed in manuals known to all, but the form is 
so plain, the directions are so indisputably wise, and the 
writer's balance is so true, that there is perhaps a considerable 
benefit to be gained by all who carefully read this short 
volume. It certainly should help the neo-confessarius in his 
attempts to learn the golden mean between rigor and careless- 
ness, coldness and sentimentalism. 

28. The latest work $ from the pen of Mr. Baring-Gould 
resembles most of his former writings in virtues and in defects. 
The virtues, it must be admitted, are not a few a great deal 
of historical and archaeological knowledge, the ability of intro- 
ducing it in a simple and interesting way, and a peculiarly 
vivid and expressive style. The defects are more important. 
Mr. Gould is badly bothered with a thesis and that thesis an 
objectionable one. It is this : all marvels and miracles should 
be eliminated from the lives of the saints. Mr. Gould does 
not state it in so many words, but it runs all through, or 

* The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. By Jeremy Taylor. Two ,vols. Edited by 
Israel Gollancz. 

t The Confessor after the Heart of fesus. Considerations proposed to Priests. From 
the Italian of Canon A. Guerra, by Rev. C. Van der Donckt. St. Louis : B. Herder. 
\ Virgin Saints and Martyrs. By S. Baring-Gould. New York : Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. 



126 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [April, 

rather it sticks out everywhere from his pages, and in some 
cases utterly spoils the effect of what might otherwise be very 
fascinating little biographies. We are willing to have omitted 
from the histories of the saints all that is demonstrably mythi- 
cal, but we object to having a man start out with the a priori 
judgment that every miracle is a myth, and to eliminate from 
his pages even those that are historically indubitable. This the 
author of the book in question does persistently, with a show 
sometimes of reason, sometimes of pure theorizing and guess- 
work. 

Another fault, which will tend to prevent Catholics from 
enjoying the book, is Mr. Gould's utter inability to understand 
the contemplative life or those who have led it. His remarks, 
for instance, on the fruitlessness of the life of St. Teresa are 
positively unreasonable. 

29. A biography of St. Gertrude * is an extremely dif- 
ficult work to accomplish with success. This saint's history is 
entirely a soul-history, broken by scarcely a single episode of 
external action. Entering the cloister at the age of seven, she 
lived and died a mystic and contemplative. Even in the little 
world of her convent-home at Helfta she was conspicuous only 
for her holiness, as she never held an office of any kind in her 
community. Now, so entirely spiritual a life, one so undefined 
by action and so scantily recorded in what we call achieve- 
ment, requires in its historian the rarest of abilities. It re- 
quires a deep understanding of something more than sanctity, 
or perhaps it would be better expressed, sanctity in its loftiest 
and subtlest phases ; of that astonishing life so purely of the 
spirit as to seem absolved from every least trace of sense and 
imagination, that life which the contemplative saints pre- 
eminently disclose to us. It requires a decided and pro- 
nounced and emphatic sympathy with that life in preference 
to other and different conceptions of saintliness. It requires 
beyond this an equally intelligent and loyal devotion to that 
spirituality which is in so many ways unique and by so many 
misunderstood and distrusted the spirituality of the contem- 
plative saints. The historian of a seraph in the flesh, as St. 
Gertrude was, has need of all these gifts, for his pen, having 
no incidents and no facts, at least none visible to human ken, 
to narrate, must seek to put into articulate expression the 
Excelsa ZWthat are Heaven's intercourse with a few elect. It 

. * Vie de Sainte Gertrude. Par Gabriel Ledos. Paris : Victor Lecoffre. 



190 1.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 127 

would be far too much to say that M. Ledos has realized so 
difficult an ideal. Still he has achieved a good work and a 
large measure of success. If his acquaintance with the mysti- 
cal life is not first-hand, if sometimes his dealing with lofty 
spiritual experiences seems an attempt at too great an under- 
taking, on the other hand he clothes his beautiful subject with 
genuine human interest, and in a great part of his work por- 
trays her so vividly and tenderly that we look through his 
pages to the old home of Cistercian nuns and catch glimpses 
of the holy virgin standing in the choir-stall and receiving 
revelations from the Most High. Perhaps we could expect no 
more from the biography of one like Gertrude. Certainly for 
even so much ought we to be grateful. For to know a soul 
so marvellous, so winning, so much a child, so inexpressibly 
sanctified that, as one of her sister nuns charmingly said, her 
fit place even in her life-time was in the reliquaries on the 
altar, for this we owe a great deal of gratitude to him who 
has given us the acquaintance, and we ought not to stint our 
expression of it. 

Our advice to readers of this life would be to read M. 
Ledos up to the chapter entitled " Gertrude the Mystic." 
Then it would be best, in our judgment, to close the book 
for in the remainder the author is hardly abreast with his 
task and take up St. Gertrude's own writings. Lecoffre has 
published these in a French version ; they are easily procured, 
and they alone are able to tell a story of awful sanctity and 
intimacy with God rarely matched for eloquence, for simplicity, 
for marvellousness, even in the divine annals of the saints. 
Only, let us add, we should read this on bended knees. 

As a concluding remark we cannot refrain from registering 
our protest against the author's position in making the timeli- 
ness of St. Gertrude's life to consist in the fact that she is a 
precursor in devotion to the Sacred Heart. Certainly this is 
a reason why we should know her better ; her influence in 
giving voice to that love for Jesus Christ which has taken the 
form of worship of and consecration to His Divine Heart, and 
in that form wrought so many miracles of grace. But to place 
all, or nearly all, the appositeness of St. Gertrude's life in this 
is, we think, a profound mistake. The pertinence to our times 
of the lives of contemplatives lies in their challenge to an 
age of matter and of machines, in behalf of the indestructible 
spirit. It lies in their "witness to august things" before sor- 
did motives and a blasphemous philosophy. It lies in their 



128 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [April, 

keen inspiration and exquisite consolation for souls that long 
for high altitudes, but are blinded with the smoke of the val- 
ley or tortured with the doubts of the schools. This is the 
.actnalitd which M. Ledos, unfortunately, has not seen to be 
possessed by the angelic career he narrates. A challenge to 
stammering academies, a defiance to the gold-lust of men, the 
laying of the hand of healing on souls whom God has made 
sensitive to the spiritual, an apology for the instinct of wor- 
ship, and a demonstration of the divine this is the lesson of 
the mystics, and to what age is it so necessary as to ours ? 
And in the face of this supreme significance, how feeble and 
far-off a view it is which would make the life of one of the 
highest of mystics interesting to this generation chiefly because 
she is an accessory in the development of a special devotion ! 



THE WORLD'S GREAT CLASSICS.* 

Perhaps no more difficult task could be set before any com- 
mittee of judges than to decide which are the world's great 
classics. Of course there have been some productions of hu- 
man genius concerning which the judgment of the world has 
rendered it unnecessary to appeal to any other tribunal. These 
are conceded by every one to be the great masterpieces of 
the human intellect. They have very often been like the 
blooming of the century plant the best flowering of an age. 
The reading and thinking public can no more forget these than 
they can ignore the great monuments of history. 

It is not a little significant of this age of books that there 
should be a demand for the production of these masterpieces 
in the convenient and uniform style that the Colonial Press 
presents them to us. We presume it is the promiscuous ap- 
pearance of books of all kinds good and bad alike, without 
any regard for character and the methods of production, that 
has awakened in the public the desire to possess the great 
classics in a befitting dress. The time was when the facile 
reader could devour all that the printing-presses could produce. 
Books were a valuable commodity then, and carried with them 

* The World's Great Classics. Library Committee : Timothy Dwight, D.D., LL.D., 
Richard Henry Stoddard, Arthur Richmond Marsh, A.B , Paul Van Dyke, D.D , Albert 
Ellery Bergh. Illustrated with nearly two hundred Photogravures, Etchings, Colored Plates, 
and full-page portraits of great authors. Clarence Cook, Art Editor ; Julian Hawthorne, 
Literary Editor. 40 vols. New York : The Colonial Press. 1899. 



1 90i.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 129 

the treasures of thought. Men read slowly and assimilated 
what they read. This happy period of a few books that were 
well thumbed, and of many men of deep learning and profound 
wisdom, has gone by, and we have fallen on the days when 
the cylinders must be kept revolving, and anything that con- 
sists of sentences grammatically strung together must be sent 
forth in book form. The wiser folks do not touch a book till 
it has lived a year. If it has survived through that period it 
is accounted to have in it something worth reading. On this 
same principle the books that have lived through many years 
are the ones that should be read, and then read again. 

The forty de luxe volumes which contain the world's great 
classics have been gathered in a spirit of broad wisdom. They 
comprise ten volumes of Oriental classics, literature and drama, 
ten volumes of classic orations and essays, ten volumes of the 
best treatises on political and philosophical questions, and then 
ten volumes of the great historical works. On the advisory 
committee we note the names of Frederick R. Coudert and 
Maurice Francis Egan, and among the essays are selections 
from Cardinal Gibbons and Archbishop Ireland. We note this 
in order to show the comprehensive nature of the selections. 

The art features of these volumes make them " a thing of 
beauty." The fac-simile reproduction of the specimens of early 
printing and engraving, and of mediaeval book illuminations, 
gives one all the pleasure of a visit to some of the world's 
famed museums where are hoarded up the precious treasures of 
the past, while the portraits of the great scholars of the world 
are an education in themselves to those who may read character 
in the lineaments of the face. 



VOL. LXXIII. 9 








North American Review (March) : Defending the Pope's claim to 
"civil princedom," Archbishop Ireland declares that once 
the Catholic idea of the Christian Church is admitted, 
the demand for the independence of the Holy See will be 
admitted, even by Protestants, to be the only logical one. 

The Biblical World (March) : The best article in the issue is 
Exegesis as an Historical Study, by Professor Benjamin 
W. Bacon. The author sets forth the position that study 
of the contents of the Scriptures must be made with 
reference to the times and the persons ; that only thus 
is seen the beauty of God's gradual revelation of himself 
to man. In this view human reason has a real and im- 
portant place as being the vehicle for the manifestation 
of divine truth. The article will repay careful study. 
There is also a well illustrated article on Ephesus by 
Professor W. M. Ramsey, which gives a clear descrip- 
tion of one of the most important of biblical localities. 

Nineteenth Century and After (Feb.): Herbert Paul criticises 
in a confused and incapable way Bishop Hedley's ex- 
planation of Indulgences given in the January number 
apropos of L. C. Moraint's recent blunder. 

The Tablet (16 Feb.): Shows inaccuracy of statements that 
Masses of Requiem were publicly offered for the late 
Queen of England. Rev. G. Angus indicates that belief 
in the Church's Divine Teaching Power is real reason 
of conversions. 

(23 Feb.): Insists that despite Mr. Balfour's demurrer, 
steps should be taken at once to alter the British Corona- 
tion Oath. Mentions a brochure in which Father Von 
Hummelauer, S.J., "going beyond many of the Higher 
Critics," states that chapters xii.-xxvi. of Deuteronomy 
form the original kernel of the book, to which additions 
were made later by a second writer. 

(2 March): Father Thurston, S.J., protests against the 
" unintentional misrepresentations " of which Father 
Lescher, O.P., has accused him. 

Weekly Register (15 Feb.): Wilfrid Ward says Newman "may 
prove to be the first of a New Series of Doctors who 
will combine essential teaching of Catholic Tradition 



1 90i.] LIBRARY TABLE. 131 

with the scientific and historical culture of nineteenth 
and twentieth centuries." " He has vindicated functions 
of intellectual freedom against Protestant conception of 
Catholicism as ecclesiastical absolutism." Father Thurs- 
ton, S.J., criticises the conservative stand taken by 
Father Pope, O.P., as to St. Dominic's relation to the 
Rosary. ''That position has been abandoned by the 
highest living Dominican authority on the Rosary." 
(22 Feb.) : Father Ryder, of the Oratory, censures the 
flippancy and shows the misstatements in Herbert Paul's 
article on Indulgences (see above : Nineteenth Century). 
Justin McCarthy gives high praise to Mr. Roosevelt's 
Oliver Cromwell. J. H. Williams, in a very narrow- 
spirited letter, attacks Wilfrid Ward's estimate of New- 
man made in the previous issue, 
(i March): W. J. Williams defends Mr. Ward's position. 

La Quinzaine (16 Feb.) : A. Bazailles criticises Mr. Balfour's 
philosophy as minimizing "the function of the heart" 
and making belief merely the outcome of social and 
historic necessity. H. Joly declares the necessity of 
limiting government inspection of its " adopted children " 
farmed out to families. H. Meuffells bids Catholic 
philosophers not to fear the word Neo-Scholasticisrh, since 
it means only sound philosophy brought up to date. G. 
Fonsegrive gives an interesting sketch of development of 
French Journalism. 

Le ^Correspondant (10 Feb.): Paul Allard writes on Le Due de 
Broglie as a historian and Pierre Morane writes of his 
private life. H. de Lacombe says " France has not yet 
learned sufficiently to appreciate Pere Gratry." 
(25 Feb.): P. Pierling declares if Russian Emperor 
Alexander I. did not as is probable die within the 
body of the church, he certainly belonged to the soul of 
the church. H. Joly describes the "popular universities " 
of Paris, by which Catholics direct the social studies of 
circles of young men. 

Monde Catholique (15 Feb.): The anonymous correspondent, 
Y, continues his attack on the reputation of Mgr. Dupan- 
loup. G. Fabre de Garrel gives well-deserved praise 
to the Jesuits for their devotion to the education of 
Catholic youth. 

Revue du Clerge" Franqais (15 Feb.) : Archbishop Mignot writing 
on the study of history says: "No wise controversialist 



132 LIBRARY TABLE. [April, 

confines himself to theological arguments of St. Thomas 
and the Fathers : he appeals to history, as was done by 
Newman, one of the most illustrious of our contempor- 
aries, whose great fame is yet to grow greater." Mgr. 
Pchenard describes the struggles and progress of his 
university (Institut Catholique de Paris) during its 
twenty-five years of existence. Dom Pierdait, prior of a 
Spanish Benedictine abbey, insists that religion in Spain 
is more decadent than we realize, the causes being 
natural indolence, imperfect clerical training, and preva- 
lent ideas that profession of the whole Creed is equiva- 
lent to a guarantee of possessing all the virtues, 
(i Mar.): G. Touzard, S.S., hits hard at the scholarship 
and the Latinity of a work published by a Doctor of the 
University of Coimbra. G. de Pascal declares his belief 
in the approach of the " free church in a free Catholic 
state " hoped for by the Italian Catholic patriots. Ch. 
Calippe writes that of all " raisons actuelles " for faith 
there are perhaps none more striking and universal than 
those which M. Brunetiere has called " moral or social 
reasons." 

L'Univers (4 Feb.): Reproduces from La Semaine Religieuse 
the allocution in which Bishop Isoard, of Annecy, con- 
demned Bourges Congress. The Archbishops of Besan- 
on and Bourges having complained to Rome, the Holy 
See instructed Mgr. Isoard that he had offended the 
archbishops and should give them " a satisfactory expla- 
nation." Mgr. Isoard then wrote a letter of excuse, and 
withdrew all reference to the archbishops, but maintained 
he had a right to criticise the Congress. 

Etudes (20 Feb.) : Father Prat discussing authority of sources 
used by inspired writers, denies that such use per se gives 
new value to those documents. Father Capelle indicates 
about a hundred documents issued in % the last twenty 
years and available as a defence for the Congregations. 

Vie Catholique (16 Jan.): G. Goyau. reviews Max Turmann's 
Social Catholicism since the Reritm Novarum, and says- 
nothing affords a more comprehensive view of life of the 
church during our epoch. 

Revue Ge'ne'rale (Feb.): C. de Launoy studying the criminal 
situation in Belgium, says improved methods of investi- 
gation demonstrate necessity of beginning corrective 
measures with youthful offenders. 



1901.] LIBRARY TABLE. 133 

Rassegna Nazio'iale (i Feb.): G. Guerghi describes Savonarola's 
affection for the youth of Florence and his good work 
among them. C. Paladini criticises the current Italian 
methods of learning foreign languages, whereby gram- 
marians make difficult the study of English, "one of the 
easiest and most logical of European languages." 
(16 Feb.) : F. Ramorino shows the great care of Sien- 
kiewicz to secure historical accuracy in Quo Vadis as 
to the burning of Rome, Christian martyrs, and simul- 
taneous presence of Sts. Peter and Paul in Rome. 
Records the public protest of the Milanese against their 
city government *for having prohibited school-prayers 
except during the weekly hour devoted to religious in- 
struction. 

Civilta Cattolica (16 Feb.) : Severely criticises the tone of a 
new Florentine magazine intended to support Catholic 
,; interests. Gives Latin and Italian texts of recent Papal 
Encyclical on Christian Democracy, and says upper 
classes must attend to it or look to see themselves 
crushed by popular revolt. 

(2 Mar.) : Sketches the revision of the Index and the 
new edition. Correcting the statement that Masses of 
Requiem were offered publicly for Queen Victoria, 
denies, too, that dispensations of this sort have been 
even requested in this case or others. Criticises errors 
in the Civil and Political History of Popes, by Vitelleschi 
(Pomponio Leto). 

Rivista Internazionale (Feb.) : G. Toniolo writing on the recent 
Papal Encyclical declares it the complement of the 
Rerum Novarum, and then sketches history of Catholic 
social action during last century. 

Nuova Antologia (16 Jan.) : Lombroso censures his countrymen's 
disinclination to admire things national they ape the 
other nations. 

Stimmen aus Maria-Loach (7 Feb.) : Father Pesch continues his 
criticism of Harnack's Essence of Christianity, showing 
that it accepts but a part of Christ and Christ's Gospel. 
Father Beiffel describes the mosaics in the chapel of 
Charlemagne at Aachen. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 

WHAT particularly characterizes the new report of the Tene- 
ment-House Commission in New York is a sane moderation. 
While there are many conditions that any good citizen would 
remove from the New York Tenement-house, yet the Commis- 
sion evidently believes that the best way to do so is to act con 
servatively. We must grow into better conditions. The Com- 
mission displays not a little sagacity. Among many things it 
bans the loathsome Air-shaft. 



The article on Italy and the Pope in this issue is worthy of a 
very close reading. It is from the pen of a newspaper man who is 
deeply versed in Italian politics. His long residence in the coun- 
try has enabled him to judge of the trend of affairs, and his 
intimate knowledge of men in public life makes his estimate 
of the Italian situation one of very great value. It is difficult 
to see how the status quo in Italy can be perpetuated, and yet, 
on the other hand, it is alarming to think what disasters may 
accompany a break-down of the civil authority. Italy needs 
at this time, above all, the moral support of the Holy Father. 
This may be secured, without a doubt, by an effort on the part 
of the Italian Government to give the Holy See its rights. 



It is generally conceded that the Report of the Taft Com- 
mission in the Philippines is a fairer document than the Schur- 
man Report. It is the outcome of better knowledge and a 
more searching investigation. We shall watch with interest 
whether the papers that have been clamoring for the expul 
sion of the friars and the sequestration of their property will 
revise their judgment in accordance with the information in 
the Taft Commission Report. We venture to predict that the 
very conservative statement of this Report, "that there were 
many educated gentlemen of high moral standards among the 
friars," will be followed, when a better knowledge of affairs is 
obtained, by a complete vindication of the character of the 
men who evangelized the Filipinos and made it possible for 
the Americans to enjoy the blessings of civilization there. 

Another important point is settled by the Taft Report, and 
it is well that the anti-friar papers should know it. The title to 
the property which is held by the friars is valid. The land was 
given originally by Spanish grants, with the hope that its un- 
productiveness might be improved. If perchance there should 
ever have been a flaw in the title, prescription has remedied 
any such defects, and now it is held on just as solid a basis as 
any parcel of property within the borders of the United States. 



190 1.] THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 135 

THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 

THE books that give detached portions of the history of education in the 
United States fail to mention the work of Catholics for free education. Here 
is a fact that will not be welcomed by many admirers of Horace Mann, viz.: 
that St. Peter's Free Schools were the first free schools established iri New York 
City. They were founded in 1800 and were built upon the site adjoining the 
church on Barclay Street, now occupied by St. Peter's Academy, in charge of 
the Sisters of Charity. Longworth's "Ameiican Almanack, New York Reg- 
ister and City Directory " of the year 1805, under the subject " Schools," con- 
tains the following information : 

" There are charity schools attached to most of the churches in the city, 
where the children of the poor members receive instruction and clothing gratis. 
The most considerable are those of Trinity, the Dutch, the Presbyterian, and 
the Roman Catholic churches. The scholars on the Trinity establishment 
amount to 86; those on the Dutch to about 70; those on the Presbyterian to 
50, and those on the Roman Catholic to 100. 

St. Peter's School for boys is now at 98-100 Trinity Place, and the school 
for girls adjoins it. The former is in charge of the Brothers of the Christian 

Schools, and the latter is in charge of the Sisters of Charity. 

* * * 

The University of Ottawa Review, published by the students, has had 
some articles of very considerable merit recently. The tribute to an honored 
alumnus, John A. McCabe, M.A., LL.D., is particularly noteworthy. It sug- 
gests a line of great usefulness for college journals to chronicle the success of 
distinguished graduates, as an encouragement to the younger generation. In 
many cases it is not known until after death that our prominent public men 
have had the inestimable advantages of a Catholic education. Another article 
on the poets of the Oxford movement is far beyond the average of college 
journalism. We hope that all the graduates and students will take to heart 
the good advice given in the following words : 

One of the benefits which a student should reap from his college education 
is a taste for reading. The college graduate may pass from the classic halls of 
his Alma Mater with a wealth of learning duly designated by many capital 
letters, but if he goes not forth with a decided taste for reading, his education 
so far as it has gone has been defective. A house is not finished when its 
foundations are laid; neither does a B. A. place the roof on the edifice of wis- 
dom : it indicates merely that a foundation has been laid. If a superstructure 
is ever to be reared on this foundation, the college graduate must possess a 
taste for reading. The taste for reading here alluded to is not that mania 
with which so many otherwise sensible young men are afflicted, which seeks 
only the sentimental or sensational in literature, and the end of which is not to 
inform the intellect nor to purify and exalt the imagination, but to ruin the one 
by superinducing mental atrophy, and to defile the other. The taste for read- 
ing which beseems a student is identical with the taste for learning; it seeks 
its gratification in serious topics, in matters of history and philosophy and re- 
ligion, in works upon science and art. 

It is sad to learn that to-day there is less demand for books on religion and 
philosophy than there was fifty years ago. Yet if the graduates of our Catholic 
colleges are to do the work which is waiting to be done, if they are to carry 
out their mission of leavening with truth the society around them, it is just 



136 THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. [April, 1901.] 

such works they must read. Nay, more : if they are to preserve the faith in- 
tact, if they are not to be deceived by fallacies and sophisms, if they are to 
stand firm on the rock of truth amid the wild sea of error, they must be firmly 
grounded in philosophy and in the knowledge of the Christian religion. Let 
no student, then, be so foolish, ay so guilty, as to look forward to the end of 
his course as being a release from further study; rather, let every student make 

his plans for a line of study to be pursued through life. 

* * * 

The late Marquis of Bute in an address delivered November, 1893, gave 
his ideal concerning historical writing as follows : 

I have always desiderated that history should be written with only an im- 
partial statement of absolutely certain facts, so that the reader may be able to 
take one view or the other, just as the contemporary did. The ideal history of 
Mary, Queen of Scots, composed upon this principle, certainly never has been 
written, and I strongly doubt whether it ever will be written. I myself have 
tried to deal thus with smaller matters, in my own small way, and I think not 
altogether without such success as I really coveted, namely, a testimony to my 
absolute impartiality. I once wrote an essay on the so-called Prophecies of 
Malachi of Armagh, in which I did my best to put the arguments both for and 
against their divine inspiration as strongly as I could. Some of my friends 
said to me afterwards that they wondered how I could believe in such rubbish. 
Others told me that, however I might believe these prophecies to be a forgery, 
they thought I might have done better to attack in less violent language a 
thing in which so many good people believe. A third friend told me that I 
had displayed an absolute impartiality, which deprived my essay of all interest. 
Then I wrote another essay upon the question whether Giordano Bruno was 
burnt or not. I put the historical arguments both ways as well as I could. My 
own impression at the time was that he really was burnt. But a newspaper critic 
remarked that I had strained every nerve to make out that he was not, and I 
had finally a sort of triumph over myself, because, when I re-read the article 
some years afterwards, I found myself a good deal shaken in my opinion of 

my own arguments. 

* * * 

The late Michael G. Mulhall, F.S.S., published, shortly before his lamented 
death in Dublin, a study of religious statistics which have been pronounced un- 
reliable by a writer in the San Francisco Monitor. In regard to the religions of 
the world the question is raised as to where he got the official returns on which 
to base his estimates. The non-Christian nations are prone to exaggeration. 
It has been stated that Confucius has taught nothing on the subject of veracity. 
From time immemorial savage tribes have always sought to magnify their 
numbers in order to terrify opponents. Where are the official documents con- 
cerning the Turks, the Chinese, and other Eastern nations ? Upon what 
authority must we accept the figures regarding the number of Buddhists and 
Mohammedans? M. C. M. 



NEW BOOKS. 

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & Co., Boston and New York : 

Jonathan Edwards : A Retrospect. Being the addresses delivered in con- 
nection with the Unveiling of a Memorial in the First Church of Christ in 
Northampton, Mass., on the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of 
His Dismissal from the Pastorate of that Church. Edited by H. Norman 
Gardiner. Pp. 168. 7 he Li%ht of the World. By Herbert D. Ward. 



138 CATHOLIC DEVOTION AND [May, 

go much farther. They speak in a tone little less than con- 
temptuous of the entire devotion to the Sacred Heart, and 
habitually carp at devotional practices in general. And hence 
a few words on the proper concept of devotion, and on devotion 
to the Sacred Heart in particular, may not be out of place. 

THE NINE FIRST FRIDAYS AND THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 

But first, we must say something about the special devotion, 
which the writer in the London Tablet criticised. As the editor 
of that paper pointed out, and as is commonly known, the 
origin and foundation of the practice is the promise made by 
our Lord to the Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque, that all 
who receive Communion on the first Fridays of nine consecu- 
tive months will be granted the grace of final perseverance. 
The promise has been preached throughout the world, 
proclaimed from the pulpit, scattered abroad through the 
press, and repeated again and again wherever a Jesuit priest 
has acted as the missioner of God and that means little 
short of the entire world. And the church, so watchful over 
the devotions of her children, has never uttered one word 
of warning or censure, even when this promise with the other 
revelations of the Blessed Margaret Mary were subjected to 
the closest scrutiny, that Rome might give an official verdict 
on the sanctity of the holy nun. 

Devotions, however, are sometimes subject to abuse and 
misunderstanding. And it may be well to quote here the 
words of the editor of the Tablet : * " While, therefore, we 
should not expect an authoritative declaration on the genuine- 
ness of this particular revelation, we may recognize that the 
church leaves us free to accept it, provided always we understand 
it in a sense which nowise contradicts her teaching. For the 
same Lord whom we may believe to have made this revelation 
is He who teaches us always through the mouth of His Church. 
Now, the i6th canon of the Council of Trent says : 

" ' If any one, who has not learned it by special revelation^ de- 
clares, with absolute and infallible certainty, that he is assuredly 
to receive the great gift of final perseverance, let him be anathema? 

" Those, therefore, who believe the Twelfth Promise to have 
been really made must take care to understand it in such a 
way as not to fall under the condemnation of this canon. In 
other words, their confidence in the promise must not be 
turned into presumption ; they must not declare, as with abso- 

* July 28, 1900. 



1901.] THE NINE FIRST FRIDAYS. 139 

lute and infallible certainty, that, whatever they may do dur- 
ing the remainder of their lives, after making the ' Nine Fri- 
days,' they will in the end be saved." 

Now, perhaps it is true that the superstitious use of this 
devotion on the part of a few has prejudiced the minds of 
many against it ; perhaps some do think that their salvation is 
absolutely secure when once they have " made the nine Fri- 
days," forgetting that such promises are subject to unexpressed 
conditions, which they may never fulfil. But this is not the 
only mistake made in connection with devotion to the Sacred 
Heart; and while a superstitious abuse of it is certainly very 
rare, the opposite fault occurs frequently enough among a class 
of Catholics who, looking askance at revelations, and promises 
made in visions, become through a false spirit of liberalism ever 
more and more separated from that inner supernatural world 
wherein the saints have lived in almost unveiled contemplation 
of the glorious being of God. Perhaps one reason of their dis- 
affection from the mind of the church is the influence upon 
their own minds of modern rationalistic principles. But why did 
such principles gain sway over their minds to the exclusion of 
Catholic piety ? Is Catholic devotion so sickly and weak as to 
be blasted like the birds of spring, when first it comes in con- 
tact with the icy winds of modern disbelief ? Not at all ! 
True Catholic devotion can be shrivelled by no wintry blast 
but that of sin ; destroyed by no contact unless a sympathetic 
one with the rational and naturalistic tendencies of the modern 
world. And if the devotion of a Catholic soul is blighted by 
chance associations, we usually find that the real cause is utter 
misunderstanding of what devotion truly is. For this reason 
it will be worth while to explain the Catholic idea of devotion. 

CATHOLIC IDEA OF DEVOTION. 

Man is destined by his very nature to union with God, and 
the virtue by which this union is accomplished we call religion. 
With religion devotion is blended inseparably. It is, so to 
speak, the fervent exercise of religion, the joyful enthusiasm 
of loving intercourse between the soul and God. We may de- 
fine it, with St. Thomas, as " a certain will of promptly giving 
one's self up to those things which pertain to the service of 
God " ; * or in the less technical and perhaps less exact 
words of St. Francis de Sales, as "nothing else but that spirit- 
ual agility and vivacity by which Charity works in us, or we 

* Sum. Th., 2, 2ae, q Ixxxii., a. i. 



140 CATHOLIC DEVOTION AND [May, 

work in it, with alacrity and affection."* It is absolutely 
necessary, then, that God should in some way enter into our 
devotion. If devotion to the saints and their relics were to 
exclude from our acts of veneration their elevation to God, if 
our acts of praise and love should find in creatures a final 
goal, then would our devotion be destroyed and become either 
a sinful superstition or an empty reverence, that could play no 
part in real spiritual life. 

Now, many ill-instructed persons are incapable of express- 
ing a higher conception of devotion than to describe it as a 
certain sentiment of joy aroused by the veneration of images 
and visits to the shrines of the saints. And it sometimes hap- 
pens that even the well instructed, accustomed to find devo- 
tion in the sanctified creatures of God, lose sight of its primary 
significance, and fail to refer to the honor and glory of God 
the love and praise they lavish on a saint. Such as these may 
find some difficulty in understanding the doctrine of the great- 
est of our theologians, St. Thomas Aquinas, who says that 
even the humanity of Christ, though worthy of divine adora- 
tion in virtue of its union with the Deity, is not the principal 
object of our devotion, which should transcend in its lofty 
flight all created things however sacred, and find in the heights 
and the depths of the infinite essence of God its true home, 
and the only haven in which it can peacefully and finally rest.f 

MINOR DEVOTIONS ARE BUT BY-WAYS. 

From this we see that devotion to particular saints, so 
much emphasized in the present age, does not represent devo- 
tion in its highest possible form. These customs are but so 
many types of a lower kind of devotion, which reaches God 
only through a succession of mediums. They are distinguished 
one from another by the very names, which indicate that they 
are at best but indirect means to the ultimate union which 
must be formed between the soul and God. If one fosters 
devotion to a saint or a relic, he has indeed a very laudable 
practice, which may stir up within him a feeling of loyalty and 
zeal to the standard which that saint has raised the banner 
of his service to God the emblem of Truth and Justice and 
Charity to God and man. But let such a one always remem- 
ber that at present he is following a path which will issue 
finally in a highway, and that this latter is to lead him into 
the presence of God. Let him take care that he does not 

* Introduction to a Devout Life, Book II. ch. i. t Sum. T/t., 2, 2, Ixxxii., 3 ad sec. 



1 90 1.] THE NINE FIRST FRIDAYS. 141 

tarry too long on the by-way, and waste the precious time 
that should have been spent in travelling onward along the 
royal road of direct communion 'with God. In fact the by- 
ways of special devotion are meant to be the shady, pleasant 
roads along which one may go with ease and pleasure, until 
finally he gains the royal highway, that leads directly to the 
throne of God. 

St. Ignatius has given us a precious rule for guidance in 
the choice of devotions. "Man," says he, "must make use of 
them [all creatures] in so far as they help him to attain his 
end [God], and in the same way he ought to withdraw himself 
from them in so far as they hinder him from it."* This is 
one rule, at least, which admits of no exception. With what 
profit it could be applied by a number of earnest souls, who 
burden themselves and impede their spiritual progress through 
the indiscreet practice of many special devotions, so that their 
precious time is spent wholly in culling flowers along the by- 
roads of devotional life ! Would that the universal application 
of this maxim of St. Ignatius were more clearly understood ! 
Would that all Catholics could fully appreciate that religion is 
essentially an internal thing, a virtue by which they offer a 
clean oblation of their whole selves to God ; and that devo- 
tion is the fervent act by which this offering is repeated time 
and time again, in countless varying ways, with enthusiasm, 
ardor, and holy joy ! Would that a steady hand were found 
somewhere diligently to apply itself to the labor of pruning, 
so that the useless and rotten branches of perverted devotion 
might be cut off and cast into the fire ! 

EXTERNAL PRACTICES SOMETIMES MISLEADING. 

And even though a soul has been properly guided in the 
choice of its devotional practices, another handle to misunder- 
standing and abuse is offered by the gaudy livery distracting 
to those of good taste with which modern devotions are too 
often clothed. Since devotion is of its nature an interior act 
of religion, the sodality, the prescribed prayer, the badge, ard 
the medal are only the external signs of interior sentiments, 
mere accidentals with which the Christian soul may on occa- 
sion altogether dispense, while in theory at least remaining 
absorbed in deep and loving communion with God and his 
glorious saints. True enough, we are not, therefore, justified 
in concluding that external practices are injurious or of little 
practical value to internal piety. Such a doctrine would be 

* The Text of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, Burns & Gates, London, p. 12. 



142 CATHOLIC DEVOTION AND [May, 

altogether out of harmony with the mind of the church, clearly 
manifested in her repeated sanction of innumerable sodalities, 
and in the offer of immense spiritual favors to those who 
enroll themselves in her various confraternities. The utility of 
the sodality is patent, and needs no defence ; but its proper 
function, as a bulwark to human weakness, is sometimes for- 
gotten, devotion is degraded into a system of props and stays, 
and sanctity becomes a flimsy and ill-balanced affair, ready to 
topple over the moment its multitudinous external supports 
are removed. It is not always easy to answer a hostile critic 
who complains that certain devotees should spend more time 
and energy in erecting a solid edifice of true piety, and less 
in the invention of ingenious devices for the support of a 
dozen shaky outhouses, weak from the foundations to the 
worm-eaten rafters of the roof. 

In an article entitled " Rights of the Temporal " of which, 
however, we cannot approve in all its particulars Orestes A. 
Brownson has expressed himself on this matter in terms that 
are strong perhaps too strong. But, at any rate, he was writ- 
ing against an evil not imaginary in his time, and we fear not 
altogether unknown even now. His words are as follows : 

" It cannot well be doubted that in our times faith with 
many is weak, and devotion pale and sickly. So many medi- 
cines as are made use of would not be needed if the faithful 
were in sound health and full strength. We see it in our de- 
votional literature for the people, when compared with that 
which has come down to us from earlier and manlier ages. In 
scarcely one of our popular and devotional works of modern 
date will you find a moderate space devoted to thoughtful and 
direct devotion to God. Indirect and external devotions pre- 
dominate over the internal and direct. We do the little and 
half mechanical things, and shrink from the greater and more 
intellectual. We fall into the condition of those who ' pay 
tithes of anise, cummin, and mint, and pass over justice, and 
judgment, and the weightier matters of the law,' forgetful that 
1 these we should have done, and not have left the other undone.' " 

PROTESTANT ACCUSATIONS AND MISUNDERSTANDINGS. 

The evil mentioned by Dr. Brownson is one that has always 
given rise on the part of many Protestants to a gross mis- 
understanding of Catholic devotion. Looking at us from with- 
out, and through prejudiced eyes, they see a people with intel- 
lects "slavishly fettered by the complicated bandages of 
dogmatic formality," a people " lost in the labyrinth of devo- 



1901.] THE NINE FIRST FRIDAYS. 143 

tional superstition," a people who, "vainly endeavoring to 
approach the meek and loving Christ through suite after suite 
of antechambers, in each one of which the image or relic of a 
saint is enshrined for their sinful adoration, and before which 
they feel a strange obligation to tarry while exhausting both 
body and soul with innumerable mutterings, genuflections, and 
prostrations, till they sink under the burden of their labors, or 
death overtakes them in the blind attempt to approach that 
Saviour who loves and pities them so deeply, but whom they 
know so little, think of so seldom, and love with so inter- 
mittent, weak, and languid an affection." Reflecting thus, our 
friends then proceed to boast of their undogmatic Christianity, 
of their love which knows not the shackles of faith, and look 
down upon the slavish orientalism of Catholic devotion, and 
on the Catholic people who " honor God with their lips, but 
whose heart is far from him " ; and their hearts are stirred by 
pity or hatred accordingly as their moods and dispositions vary. 
Now, perhaps we cannot declare that ill-instructed Catholics 
have never acted in a way to occasion such criticisms as these; 
but we can say that Protestants who look upon Catholic devo- 
tion in this way misunderstand the actual teaching of the 
church. They do not even examine it through colored spec- 
tacles; but rather limit their field of vision by putting a 
kaleidoscope before their eyes. They see not realities, but 
fantastic images. Blind to the solid root and branch, they per- 
ceive but the excrescences, the fungous growth. 

DEVOTION TO THE SACRED HEART A PRIMARY DEVOTION. 

Our comments are strikingly confirmed by the superficial 
view some take on the matter mentioned in the title of this 
paper. With regard to the devotion toward the Sacred Heart, 
no one in his sober senses can criticise anything but the acci- 
dental evils attached to a praiseworthy devotion. For no one 
can say that it keeps a soul away from the meek and loving 
Christ, unless that soul, instead of giving its main attention to 
real devotion, is distracted therefrom, and in spite of warning 
dissipates its energy in a multitude of sodality details which 
are not real devotion. And the reason of its worth lies not 
merely in the fact that the Sacred Heart of Christ is worthy 
of divine adoration in virtue of its hypostatic union with the 
Eternal Word, but also because our devotion is not directed to 
the isolated member, but to the Divine person of the Incarnate 
Word that is, to God Himself as possessing a human nature and 
a living Heart, which is the symbol of his Infinite Love for man. 



144 CATHOLIC DEVOTION AND [May, 

Even devotion to Christ's blessed Mother, holy and sublime 
as it is, must be reckoned as theologically inferior to the de- 
votion which we pay without any medium whatsoever to Jesus 
Christ in His Sacred Heart. For Jesus the man is a God-man. 
He is altogether unique in the scale of being, his human 
nature, soul and body, in whole and in part the nail-pierced 
Hands and Feet, the thorn-crowned Brow, the lance-opened 
Heart are all worthy of divine adoration in virtue of the 
divinity which assumed them. 

And when we address that Sacred Heart, which lives and 
beats in the bosom of our Lord, we may without uttering a 
single word hold personal converse with our Lord. For our 
souls may transcend the barriers of words ; and without even 
a personified use of the term heart, the imagination may 
behold that sacred symbol of Christ's infinite love, ,and the 
soul commune with Jesus Christ, its Saviour and its God. 

THE HEART OF CHRIST THE TRUE OBJECT. 

It has happened that some, wishing to abolish devotion 
to the real Heart of Christ perhaps because they ill under- 
stood the import of the hypostatic union put forth the doc- 
trine that our devotion is not to the Heart of flesh, but only 
to the symbolical Heart that is, to the love of Christ. For 
the examination and final settlement of this question the 
Catholic world is mainly indebted to the labors of Jesuit theo- 
logians, whose devout and scholarly writings have at last made 
it the universally accepted doctrine, that the true object of our 
devotion is not the so-called symbolical Heart, but that Sacred 
Heart which now beats in heaven in the adorable bosom of 
Christ, and which on earth was pierced on Calvary for our 
sins. Indeed, how could any true Catholic mind ever have 
conceived of a doctrine different from this ? 

Is it not strange that Catholics can be led to treat the 
devotion to the Sacred Heart with sneering scorn ? There are 
such Catholics, however, and we can account for their spirit 
of contempt only on the hypothesis that they have mistaken cer- 
tain external practices for the real devotion, never having been 
brought to realize the important function which this devotion 
is capable of performing in our spiritual life. But this would 
imply likewise that they never have understood the Incarna- 
tion. Just as, in turn, those who let devotion degenerate into 
superstition can never have realized that the end of man is 
the contemplation of God, and that the true aim of sanctity, 
even in this life, is the union between the creature and his 



1 90 1.] THE NINE FIRST FRIDA vs. 145 

Creator, between man and God. The Humanity of Christ leads 
us to this goal ; for, steeped as we are in the things of sense, 
our carnal nature is incapable of rising at once, even by the 
ordinary aids of grace, to the love and contemplation of the 
simple essence of God. And the means which God ordinarily 
takes to tempt us to venture upon our first faltering steps to- 
ward himself is sensible devotion. 

The Blessed Angela of Foligno, a Franciscan tertiary of the 
thirteenth century (describing the steps by which she ascended 
to God), after having told how she learned to know and detest 
her sins, passes on to tell of her progress along the path of 
sensible devotion in contemplation of the sufferings of Christ. 
And she speaks of a vision in which she saw the Heart of 
Christ. " In the thirteenth place," she writes, " persevering in 
this prayer and desire [of keeping in memory the passion of 
Christ] I fell into a dream in which the Heart of Christ was 
shown me, and it was said to me: 'In this Heart there is no 
falsehood, but all things are true.' " * Here is a valuable sug- 
gestion for those attracted to loftiest and most interior virtue. 

To us, even as to the Blessed Angela, the vision of the 
Heart of Christ may be a step by which to ascend to a deeper 
love and higher contemplation of God. Oh ! that this spirit of 
St. Francis, which animated her so powerfully, were to descend 
upon our languid souls, quickening and inflaming them with 
the love of Jesus Crucified. At the least, devotion to the 
Sacred Heart may well give us more of that saintly instinct 
which sees in every creature a lovely miniature of the inex- 
pressible beauty of God. If St. Francis could dwell in ecstatic 
contemplation of the commonplace things of nature, of the 
flowers, the trees, the birds, and the beasts, surely we can 
possess some tiny spark of that holy fire of love which makes 
of every creature "a mirror of life and a book of holy teach- 
ing." How can we, carnal-minded as we are, fail to find an 
ever-fruitful source of holy thoughts in that Sacred Heart of 
Christ, which rests at the apex of the material creation, en- 
shrining the most sacred mysteries of man's redemption ? 

THE HIGHER STATES OF CONTEMPLATION. 

And what closer threshold to the higher states of contem- 
plative prayer can we find than the spirit of true devotion to 
the Sacred Heart of Jesus? What soul, which has accustomed 
itself to address that Adorable Heart with aspirations of burn- 

* Catholic Mysticism, illustrated from the Writings of Blessed Angela of Foligno, by 
Algar Thorold, p. ico. 



146 CATHOLIC DEVOTION. [May, 

ing love, will fail to taste at least the lesser joys of contempla- 
tive union with God ? For the spirit that communes with 
Christ in humble adoration of his Sacred Heart will rise on 
the wings of love to ever higher and loftier heights of prayer, 
until in the beauty of Christ's humanity is revealed the glory 
of his divinity, and the soul flying on and on is lost to the 
world and itself in the sublime recesses of the Godhead. 

And this interior devotion is what Jesus mainly asks of us. 
It is not necessary though it may be helpful that we should 
bind ourselves to any confraternity or any set of practices. In 
fact, if mechanical details are apt to become burdensome and 
lead to formality it is better for us to remain free of obliga- 
tions. But that from which we cannot excuse ourselves is the 
duty of real interior devotion to the Sacred Heart, and to every 
other part, and to the whole, of the Divine Humanity. What 
Abbot Blosius wrote in the sixteenth century still remains 
true : The servant of God ought, moreover, to commend his 
works and exercises to the kind Heart, sweeter than honey it- 
self, of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he may amend and perfect 
them. For the Heart of Jesus is inseparably united to the 
Godhead, and all good flows continually from it." * To subject 
all our works, our whole life, to the Sacred Heart, this should 
be our highest ambition ; and in as far as external means 
help us to this, in so far should we use them and no farther. 
But let no Catholic carp at this sacred devotion ; let every Catho- 
lic heart re-echo the words in which the Holy Father has con- 
secrated all men, Catholic and non-Catholic, to the most Sacred 
Heart of Jesus ; let every Catholic mind perceive therein the 
indication of those changeless principles which make devotion 
to the Sacred Heart, rightly understood, a necessary consequence 
of faith in the Incarnate God. To-day especially, if we would 
be in full sympathy with the mind of the church, we cannot 
refuse to second on our part the official action of our Holy 
Father. He is guided from on high in speaking to us, and 
even utterances which are not ex cathedra are in some way 
prompted and shaped by the Holy Ghost guiding Christ's 
Vicar. Let criticism be stilled, then, when Leo speaks ; and let 
his beautifully-worded sanction of Devotion to the Sacred 
Heart be as the final touch to a long series of approvals. Now 
and for evermore let the Catholic, ambitious of spiritual growth, 
press close to the bleeding Heart of the Crucified Saviour of 
the world, the God-man, Jesus Christ our Lord. 

* A Book of Spiritual Instruction, ch. ix. p. 745. St. Louis: B. Herder. 1900. 



1901.] 



THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMAN. 




THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMAN AND 
POSTERITY. 

BY WILLIAM SETON, LL.D. 

HEN the nineteenth century was passing away 
many pens set to work to tell of the great 
things which had been accomplished, of the 
wonderful discoveries which had been made 
since the century dawned. Evolution, electric- 
ity, astronomy, medicine, all were brought in to prove that 
no other age had equalled the nineteenth. Yet was there 
not something left out in this well-merited chorus of praise ? 
We think there was ; and if we were asked to name the dis- 
tinguishing note of this dear, departed century, we should say 
that it was the birth of a new womanhood. For the first time 
in the history of the world woman had come to the front not 
only to assert her rights, but what was vastly more important, 
to oblige man to listen to her. In making this claim for the 
gentler sex we, of course, are aware that history tells us of 
women talented and learned who in the past have won for 
themselves high rank in different spheres of life : some were 
instructors, some were warriors, others were queens. But these 
women were marked exceptions ; we might compare them to 
beacon lights breaking through the surrounding darkness. 
They shone for a brief space. Men gazed upon them in wonder, 
and that ended it. Nor could it well have been otherwise. 
We are too apt to forget how much we are the creatures of 
surrounding conditions, of the environment. Take up any 
history and see how in former days war followed war with 
very little intermission : a whole lifetime might pass away with- 
out a war coming to an end. Man, during what may be called 
the ages of violence, was above all things a fighting animal ; 
and we honestly believe that our helmeted, iron-clad fore- 
fathers did thoroughly enjoy killing one another. Agincourt 
and Bosworth field were infinitely more enjoyable pastimes 
than playing at golf and foot-ball. 

And while the knight and his retainers were thus perform- 
ing their manly duties, woman necessarily stayed at home, hid- 
den in the castle and the hovel, and praying for the day when 
she might see again the gleam of her husband's battle-axe. 
But when man became less doggish, less pugnacious, when he 



148 THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMAN. [May, 

turned his thoughts more to trade and the arts of peace, 
woman little by little crawled out of her hiding-place and de- 
termined to become something higher than a mere drudge, a 
never-ending stocking-mender. 

And may we not truly say that it is in the United States 
that woman's voice has been most loudly raised to demand 
her rights? And is not the American woman to-day in a 
better position than in any other country ? Those who would 
gainsay this have surely not travelled abroad and marked the 
contrast in this respect between the old world and the new. 
And if woman does enjoy here what she does not enjoy in other 
lands, is it not thanks to her own courage in not resting meek and 
satisfied with the crumbs which her lord was willing to throw to 
her? And the result of her efforts is that we have among us not 
a few women of note in every profession ; and we have women's 
colleges where women may be fitted to compete with men in 
translating Greek as well as in measuring the parallax of a star. 

But in every great step in advance there may lurk some 
evil, and we hope and pray that woman with her new learn- 
ing, her expanded intellect, may still have the wisdom to stay 
what God has made her: not indeed man's plaything, not his 
serf, but his helpmate and his best beloved. And it is cer- 
tainly refreshing for a Catholic to behold alongside of our new 
University in Washington another institution namely, Trinity 
College, in charge of the Sisters of Notre Dame where a 
woman may aspire to the highest scholarship without losing 
her Christian womanliness. The evil at which we have hinted 
above as coming perhaps with woman's emancipation is a ten- 
dency to make the future woman more manlike, and the future 
man more womanly. More than one wife of late years has 
striven for the same political office as her husband, and she has 
beaten him too in the race. Here the man has manifested less 
virility than his grandfather, or even his father, possessed. He 
would rather be beaten at the polls than have trouble at the fire- 
side. Now, this convergence of characters, this approximation 
of the sexes, would, if long continued, seriously endanger the pro- 
gressive evolution of the race. It might lead to retrogressive 
development and except through a miracle to final extinction. 

It is true that one writer maintains that the more woman 
studies, and the more bookish she becomes, the more agreeable 
she will be, because through increased brain-work she will be 
apt to talk less. But may not this lead to more talkativeness 
on the part of the man ? Nor does this same writer object to 
female suffrage. He seems not to perceive that in claiming 



1 90 1.] THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMAN. 149 

the right to vote, woman who is a creature of the emotions 
is too often carried away by a single idea. She has in view, 
perchance, some great reform, such as universal temperance ; 
she does not look beyond immediate effects ; she does not 
perceive that the final outcome of equal rights in all things 
might be harmful to posterity. It would certainly change 
woman's present environment, and this change in her environ- 
ment bringing demands for increased activity would work a 
baneful psychical effect on the woman of the future. New 
duties added to those which the Creator has destined woman 
to bear, would make exhausting draughts on her nervous 
organism, and degeneration, albeit slow in making its appear- 
ance, would come in the end. We cannot, indeed, pay too 
much attention to the influence of the nervous system in vital 
processes, for it is through the nervous system that all experi- 
ences are registered and handed down to the offspring. But 
here some one may say that the principle of natural selection 
will come into play, and preserve the race from degenerating 
through elimination of the weaklings ; only those women will 
survive to wed and to become mothers who are able to 
bear the strain of increased intellectual activity. Well, we 
frankly admit natural selection to be the dominant factor of 
development. But we believe that what Lloyd Morgan tells us 
in Habit and Instinct (p. 334) is true : " . . . it would seem 
that, when we have to deal with civilized mankind, natural 
selection is no longer a factor of predominant importance." 
Conscious choice, in this age of the world, has largely super- 
seded natural selection : we have shaken off its bondage, and 
we make our own ideals in wedlock and parenthood without 
asking by your leave of Nature. The unfit nowadays are, as a 
rule, not eliminated. It is, therefore, of vital importance that 
the new woman should bear in mind that she is still a woman. 
Let her study as much as she pleases ; and we rejoice to see 
her reaching up for a high place in the arts and sciences. 
But she will gain nothing, she will lose much, by wishing to 
play man's part in life. Let him do the battling, let her be 
queen of the home. Above all, let her hold fast to the Chris- 
tian faith. And if, after graduating with highest honors, she 
insists on keeping up her study of well, let us say Astronomy, 
we doubt not but the telescope will not bother her husband 
half so much as it will the baby on her lap ; and we venture 
to predict that she will find more delight in its twinkling eyes 
than in all the planets of the solar system. 




"To MY GARDEN BROOK I STEAL." 



1901.] THE GARDEN BROOK. 151 

Cfi 6flRDR BROOK* 

BY JAMES BUCKHAM. 

Wbere tbe spicp briar=rose 

Buds and blows 
Jit mp garden's edge, tbere flows 

$uci) a brook as bards cxioi. 
It is neither deep nor wide ; 
you could span it witb a stride ; 
But tbe music of its tide 

Glads mp soul. 

Otter smootb or vexing tbings 

bow it sings ! 
how it laugbs in sunnp rings. 

$o content witb everp kind ! 
Corn bp ledges sbarp, or kissed 
Into pools of ametbpst 
Wbere a truer optimist 

Can pou find ? 

Often, wben mp coward beart 

Storks its part 
Or grows weak witb sorrow's smart, 

to mp garden brook I steal. 
Cbere tbe brauc, sweet, bopeful song 
Sbows me bow repining '$ wrong, 
Cbeers mp soul and makes it strong, 

fls I kneel, 

ittle messenger of good 

from tbe wood, 
from tbe mountain solitude ! 

fieao'n and eartb tbp gospel prove, 
music flows in euerp spot ; 
ife is blest in cverp lot. 
et '$ be glad, and grumble not, 

Crusting OIK ! 



152 



MEMOR Y. 



[May, 




MEMORY. 



BY BERT MARTEL. 

WEET as the dew in the heart of a rose, 
Pure as the mountain's highest snows, 
Gladdening as Dawn, sweet Memory goes 
Over the world in glee. 



Recalling friends who are far away, 

Telling of joy's ephemeral day, 

Whispering of hearts who will lovingly pray 

For all eternity. 

As mariner wrecked on a midnight sea, 

As a mother in dread for the babe on her knee, 

As a dying soul in its agony 

Looks for the Coming of Day: 

So memory yearns for the friends who were true, 
So memory speaks in your sorrow to you, 
Like the stars in the sky when hidden from view, 
Of life and love alway. 





1901.] LAST DAYS OF CHRISTIAN CONSTANTINOPLE. 153 



THE LAST DAYS OF CHRISTIAN CON- 
STANTINOPLE. 

BY REV. F. X. McGOWAN. 

'HE calamities that overthrow empires are only 
the chastisement of their sins. After Jerusalem, 
Constantinople has been and is to-day a terrible 
example of this fateful historic law. Ever fond 
of religious contention, the Byzantine city had 
warmed in its bosom all heresies, even when it had not given 
birth directly to them. It persisted stubbornly in schism, 
though God had employed all means to withdraw its people 
from it. Time and again, during the long lapse of eight 
hundred years, He sent the sword of the Turk to punish this 
stiff-necked nation, but it would listen to nothing. Herein lay 
Byzantium's ruin. 

A French writer, M. L. Christian, has drawn, in an ex- 
cellent historical study, a graphic picture of the last days of 
Christian Constantinople. 

The attempt at union between the Eastern and Western 
Churches, made in the Council of Florence (1439), was tne ^ as ^ 
grace offered the Greeks by Heaven, and they were faithless to 
it. The prelates who were delegated by the Patriarch of 
Constantinople subscribed to the profession of faith submitted 
by Pope Eugene IV., but the Byzantine soul had not changed. 
When the prelates were descending from the galleys which 
brought them back to the Golden Horn they perceived a large 
crowd hastening to meet them. " Has the Greek cause 
triumphed?" shouted the anxious multitude. The bishops 
avowed their submission to the council's decree, as one would 
confess his weakness. " We were afraid of the Franks," they 
said, " and that was why we signed." " But," asked somebody, 
" did the Franks use violence towards you? Did they beat 
you with rods or cast you into prison ? " " No," was the re- 
ply, "but since the hand has signed, let it be cut off; since 
the tongue has confessed, let it be plucked out." The hands 
were not cut off, nor the tongue plucked out. But with the 
stubborn, prejudiced people of Constantinople the decree of 
the Florentine Council was a dead-letter. The emperor, John 
VOL LXXIII. ii 



154 LAST DAYS OF CHRISTIAN CONSTANTINOPLE. [May, 



Palaeologus, did not urge its execution. " Some of the bishops," 
writes Michael Ducas, " acted with other aims in view. They 
exacted everything from the Latins in the way of sumptuous 

treatment, thus 
raising hope by 
their good graces. 
Consi d e rab le 
sums of money 
were expended 
on and for them. 
They sold their 
faith, but, more 
guilty than Ju- 
das, they did not 
bring back the 
money which 
had been given 
them." "The 

o 

E, celestial fi r e," 

g Ducasadds,"was 
p kindled in Jacob, 
and the divine 

K 

H H wrath arose in 
< Israel." The 

03 

% people, rebelli- 
^ ous against truth, 
were to be cruel- 
ly punished. 

Mahomet II. 
ascended the 
throne of thesul- 
t a n s. Amurat, 
his father, had 
left him at death 
a formidable em- 
pire, which ex- 
tended from the 
Taurus to the 
Danube, from 
the waters of 

Greece to the Euxine Sea. The crescent waved everywhere 
save at Constantinople. Impetuous, eager for military glory, 
impatient of obstacles, the young sultan could not look at the 




i90t.] LAST DAYS OF CHRISTIAN CONSTANTINOPLE. 155 

imperial city without groaning with envy. One sleepless night 
he sent for Khalil, his grand-vizier. The latter trembled, fear- 
ing the sultan's wrath and death. " Rest assured," Mahomet 
said to him, "it is neither your gold nor your life I want; 
what I want you to give me is Constantinople " ; and, pointing 
to his disordered couch after his vain efforts to find sleep, " I 
cannot sleep," he added, "if you do not promise at last to 
give me that about which I dream day and night." " You shall 
have it, my master," replied Khalil. " I have long divined 
your wishes in this respect. Everything is ready. Constanti- 
nople or my head shall be at your feet." Profiting by the 
dissensions that prevailed at the Byzantine court, Mahomet 
marched towards the capital, extending his possessions and 
displaying his bold and ambitious zeal so far as to build on 
the shores of the Bosphorus, at a distance of only two leagues 
from Constantinople, immense fortifications. Nobody was in 
doubt as to his intentions. 

Constantine XII., Palaeologus, trembled on his throne. He 
made a despiiring appeal to Pope Nicholas V., begging the 
latter to save him and to interest the Christian nations in his 
cause. Were the emperor conquered, Islam would penetrate 
into the heart of Europe and overrun all countries with its 
barbaric hordes. Nicholas V. brought to Constantine's notice 
the finger of God dominating this fearful condition of things. 
The pope promised his mediation and assistance, but he also 
demanded that the emperor should cease to postpone the re- 
turn to union under the most futile pretexts. It was urgent 
to appease God's wrath. 

" Do the Greeks imagine," wrote the Roman Pontiff, " that 
the Pope and the Western Church have their eyes closed, and 
that they do not understand what these excuses and delays 
mean ? They do understand, but they are patient, fixing their 
regards on the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Pontiff, who 
commanded that the unproductive fig-tree which the master 
wished to cut down should be spared until the third year." 
The pope's words were to be verified with all the severity of 
a prophecy. Spoken and written in 1451, they were ac- 
complished to the letter in the third year, 1453. Constantino- 
ple was cut off from the Christian nations like the barren fig- 
tree. Constantine Dragoses submitted and welcomed the pope's 
legate, Isidore of Russia, a Greek by birth, with all the respect 
and honor due the representative of the Holy See. But in 
the churches and monasteries there was a different aspect of 



156 LAST DAYS OP CHRISTIAN CONSTANTINOPIE. [May, 




CONSTANTINOPLE HAS'LANGUISHED UNDER TURKISH RULE. 

affairs. There the inmates murmured against the emperor, and 
the reconciliation was only apparent. A splendid ceremony 
with Grecian pomp and majesty was held in St. Sophia's to 
celebrate by a solemn act the union of the churches. The 
Papal delegate offered the Divine Mysteries in the presence of 
a vast throng, and the name of the reigning pontiff, together 
with that of the patriarch, was mentioned in the service. 
Constantine with his entire court assisted at the Holy Sacrifice, 
and the solemnity was most imposing. Alas ! it was to be the 
last festival celebrated in Justinian's famous basilica. This 
grand church, that had heard so many eloquent voices and 
had seen so many councils held within its sacred precincts, 
was soon to be the scene of frightful bloodshed and abomin- 
able sacrilege. 

Let us cast one lingering look on this sumptuous edifice in 
its last, supreme brilliance as God's holy temple. If we are 
to judge by what is left of it to-day, despite the devastation 
of the Moslems and the nameless stuff that covers its walls, 
how beautiful, at this period, must have been this grandiose 
edifice with all the splendor of its riches ! When Justinian 
looked in ecstasy at his magnificent monument completed, he 



1901.] LAST DAYS OF CHRISTIAN CONSTANTINOPLE. 157 

exclaimed: "Glory be to God, who hath judged me worthy to 
finish this work ! O Solomon ! I have surpassed thee." 

Wherever the eye wandered everything shone, sparkled, and 
glittered as in an enchanted palace. Nothing was too costly, 
too grand for this temple; there were precious marbles, ivory, 
mother-of-pearl, coral, and the reflection of mosaics in a 
thousand shades of color. Colossal images of angels and saints 
stood out detached from the golden groundwork of the vault- 
ing. Everywhere the sacred icons shone with their delicate tints 
and heavenly countenances. Here were immense candelabra of 
massive gold ; there sacred books, the Evangels, illuminated in 
the most varied style. Golden thrones, ornamented with fine 
pearls, were erected for the patriarch and the emperor, and 
prominently placed was that magnificent pulpit which was in- 
laid with forty thousand pounds of silver. Farther down in 
the church was the altar, whose richness was incomparable, and 
over it dominated the tabernacle under a massive cupola that 
was supported by four silver columns. But to the Christian 
kneeling in prayer the most impressive object was the gigantic 
figure of Christ, Divine Wisdom, which touched the pavement 
with its feet and reached with its head to the vault of the 
apsis. How quickly one's sight was lost in the immense dome 
with its sacred images, its floral decorations, its gold-work and 
large bays through which the light of the Orient penetrated 
and shone as if with a thousand fires. " Only the vault of 
heaven is worthy the Creator," Anthemius the architect said 
to Justinian, and he proceeded forthwith to throw up in the air 
a daring dome on which he did not fear to inscribe these words: 
<( God built it, God will uphold it." The wealth of the most 
illustrious monuments of antiquity was collected in this splendid 
edifice. Here might be seen eight columns of green breccia 
taken from the temple of Diana at Ephesus, and eight por- 
phyry columns, the grand remains of the Temple of the Sun 
at Hieropolis. The ancient temples of Cyzicus, Alexandria, 
Troas, Delos, Athens, and Egypt gave their treasures to this 
Christian church. Let us represent to ourselves the long 
galleries, the one hundred and seven columns whose shadows 
lengthened down the pavement of marble transported from 
the island of Proconesus, the one hundred bronze doors 
with their silver bas-reliefs ; then the maze of chapels, stair- 
ways, oratories, synod halls, etc., and add to this astonishing 
sight the sumptuous ornaments of the Oriental liturgy, the 
dazzling costumes of the courtiers, and the numberless throng 



158 LAST DAYS OF CHRISTIAN CONSTANTINOPLE. [May, 

in bright-hued robes with a mingling of purple capes, collars 
of precious stones, and silk gowns. See how that solid mass 




of living beings moves and presses its way under the huge 
nave lighted up by six thousand candelabra ! 

Notwithstanding the solemnities and magnificence displayed, 
the union was accepted solely to please the emperor. In the 



1901.] LAST DAYS OF CHRISTIAN CONSTANTINOPLE. 159 

monasteries and among the people the olden prejudice against 
the Latins still obtained and was daily fermenting. It promised 
to be more active than ever. People began to grumble at first 
in indistinct tones ; soon the arch-conspirator, the monk Gen- 
nadius, stirred up the populace, and tumultuous gatherings were 
to be seen in every part of the city. The very dregs of the 
community united in bands, like desperate conspirators, raising 
disturbances and swearing, as they drank, that they preferred 
to die by the cimeter to accepting an alliance and help from 
the Latins. St. Sophia was deserted. Many discontents affected 
not to enter it any more, and regarded it as impure as a Jew- 
ish synagogue because it had been profaned by the pope's 
legate. The Holy Sacrifice was no longer offered at its altars, 
and the priests, fearing to incur popular odium, avoided it. 
The Latin name was dragged in the dust. History has re- 
corded the foolish, but hateful, expression of the Grand Duke 
Notaras : " I would rather see the turban of the Turks in the 
city than the tiara of the Latins." His wish was to be soon 
realized. 

In. April, 1453, Mahomet II. appeared before the walls of 
Constantinople at the head of an army of 400,000 men, fol- 
lowed on sea by a fleet of 400 ships. He had with him 150 
pieces of artillery, without reckoning the balistae, catapults, 
and ancient engines of war. Deserters had betrayed the secrets 
of the place, and had given useful information concerning the 
preparations for the siege. A cannon-founder named Orban 
stole out of Constantinople and proceeded directly to the sul- 
tan's tent. "Can you," the Turk said to him "can you cast 
for me a cannon equal to the force of thunder, so that the 
balls thrown by it will crush to atoms the city's walls?" "I 
can cast one," said Orban, " which would raze the ramparts of 
Babylon." Orban did, in fact, cast a brass cannon the ammu- 
nition of which weighed twelve hundred pounds. Five hundred 
yoke of oxen were needed to drag this monstrous piece of 
warfare across Tnrace to the walls of Byzantium. The deploy- 
ment of forces used by the sultan was in reality necessary to 
reduce the city, which had hitherto been considered impreg- 
nable. 

Constantinople occupied a site unique in the military his- 
tory of the world. " It was," said Lamartine, " a capital written 
on the earth by the finger of Providence, not for an empire 
but for a hemisphere. Politically, it was the connecting link 



160 LAST DAYS OF CHRISTIAN CONSTANTINOPLE. [May, 




THE HOLY SACRIFICE 13 NO LONGER OFFERED AT ITS ALTARS. 

between the kingdoms of Asia and Europe ; militarily, it was 
a camp fortified for attack, an island for defence." Built, like 
Rome, on seven hills, it was protected on three sides by the 
sea, and on the landward side by a double dense wall of twenty 
cubits, which, surmounted by numerous square towers and 
guarded by a vast ditch, defended the city for a length of 
seven miles, from the Golden Horn to the citadel of the Seven 
Towers. But where were its defenders? The pope's appeal to 
the Christian nations was unnoticed. Anarchy was ravaging 
Germany and Italy, and the War of the Hundred Years still 
continued between France and England. Scanderbeg, a hero 
whose name was worth more than an army, found his advance 
arrested by the jealousy of the Prince of Servia, and John 
Hunyadi, " the White Knight," had lost his best troops in late 



1901.] LAST DAYS OF CHRISTIAN CONSTANTINOPLE. 161 



bloody defeats. Some Genoese and a troop of Venetians and 
Catalans, commanded by Justiniani, alone came to the empe- 
ror's relief. Constantine Dragoses was a brave man, but what 
could he do in the way of defending this immense though 
strongly fortified place, with a garrison of only nine thousand 
men ? The people, enervated by sloth and culpable indiffer- 
ence, did not want to fight. Discouraged by the declamations 
of sectarian monks, they looked on the emperor as a traitor 
to his country. Better let the Turks rule than the Latins. 
Again, nobody believed that the sultan would be victorious. 
Men had been accustomed to regard Byzantium as impregnable. 
Constantinople had, since its foundation, sustained twenty-nine 
sieges. Under its walls had battled heroes of all ages. The 
ancient Greeks, Pausanias and Alcibiades; the Roman empe- 
rors, Severus, Maxt- 
mus, and Constan- 
tine ; Chosroes, the 
Persian king ; and at 
later epochs, Dan- 
dolo, Bajazet, and 
Amurat had, all, at- 
tempted its reduc- 
tion. Twenty-o n e 
times Constantino- 
ple had triumphed. 
She was beautiful, 
this seven-hilled 
Queen city, laving 
her sturdy walls in 
the blue waters of 
the Bosphorus; 
splendid was the 
panorama that grad- 
ually unfolded from 
her golden glittering 
shores which sup- 
ported her palaces, 
domes, terraced 
abodes, surrounded 
by sombre-peaked 
cypresses and gardens of Oriental verdure and beauty. Here 
was the Pentargyrion, or citadel of the Seven Towers ; there the 
Acropolis, or dome of St. Sophia ; here and there stood the bel!- 




THE SULTAN OF TURKEY. 



162 LAST DAYS OF CHRISTIAN CONSTANTINOPLE. [May, 

towers of eight hundred monasteries. In the imperial quarter was 
seen the gilded roof of the palace of Blachernae, the emperor's 
residence, and at a distance the monumental arches of Cyne- 
gion loomed up solemnly. On all sides, in the public squares, 
were obelisks, statues, and spouting fountains. The sight of 
such magnificence stimulated the sultan's greed. 

Mahomet II. concentrated his troops in the vicinity of the 
gate of St. Romanus. Orban's celebrated cannon was placed 
in the middle of the soldiery ; along the sides eighteen bat- 
teries were drawn up, extending from the quarter Galata as far 
as the Propontis. On the seventh of April the firing began. 
Constantine was present, accompanied by Justiniani. While the 
heavy ammunition shook the ramparts the small Christian army 
resisted bravely. The emperor himself gave the example, and 
rolled with his own hands tons of stone and earth for use in 
closing the breaches. For ten days the fight continued hot and 
desperate, the towers and walls crumbling little by little under 
the terrible work of Orban's cannon. As that formidable 
piece became readily overheated by its fearful discharges, it 
could be worked but eight times in the day. Torrents of oil and 
water poured on it were not sufficient to cool this huge mass 
of brass in two hours. The cannon, wasted by its own force, 
finished by bursting, crushing with its remnants several sol- 
diers, and hurling into the heart of the city the mutilated mem- 
bers of its maker. Perceiving that his artillery was powerless, 
Mahomet essayed another kind of warfare that of mining. 
He attempted by means of trenches and tunnels to penetrate 
under the bastions, which were repaired every night by the 
defenders with insurmountable energy. At the same time roll- 
ing towers were drawn up in line, and the besiegers, protected 
by these moving fortresses, launched their weapons and endea- 
vored to throw bridges on the wall so as to contend hand-to- 
hand with the heroic defenders. 

Suddenly Christian sail were seen on the horizon, gliding 
over the waters of the Propontis. This flotilla of fourteen 
vessels was manned by Genoese, Venetians, Italian seamen, 
and Knights of Rhodes. It came to revictual and strengthen 
besieged Byzantium. The Greeks recovered their courage when 
they perceived the restlessness and anxiety of the Ottomans. 
The latter could not refuse battle, and one hundred and fifty 
galleys were ranged in line. With resistless impetuosity the 



1901.] LAST DAYS OF CHRISTIAN CONSTANTINOPLE. 163 

fourteen ships bore down in full sail on the low-lying galleys 
of the Turks. The shock was terrible. The Christian vessels, 
like so many floating fortresses, rained bullets, stones, and 
Greek fire on the enemy. The galleys were crushed to pieces 
like sea-shells. The defeat was complete. Mahomet watched 
from the shore the impotent evolutions of his fleet. Frantic 
with rage, he was seen urging his horse into the waves and 
threatening the Venetian vessels with his cimeter. Before his 
eyes the chains which closed the entrance to the harbor fell, 
and the Christian flotilla entered triumphant. " It is written," 
said the Turks, " that Allah has given the sea 
to the Giaours, but the land to the Ottomans." 
Mahomet, disconcerted in his hopes, endeavor- 
ed to sow dissension in the enemy's camp. He 
sent his son-in-law, Isfendiar Bey, with a flag 
of truce to the Christians. His proposal was 
that the lives of the Greeks would be spared ; 
their possessions in Greece and the Morea 
would be left to them, but Constantinople must 
be delivered to the sultan. The emperor an- 
swered with noble spiritedness : " I will save 
my capital or perish in its ruins." 

Mahomet had now recourse to another 
stratagem, one worthy a consummate general. 
With the assistance of a host of Bulgarian 
woodmen, he levelled a road and laid it with 
planks that were covered thick with tallow ; 
the road extended for more than two leagues 
in length, from the Bosphorus to the Golden 
Horn. The Greeks had but poorly guarded 
this highway. During the night the Turkish soldiers drew up 
their boats, the sails were furled, and, aided by the wind, the 
two hundred galleys, left after the naval battle of Balta-Oghili, 
slipped from the newly-devised plank causeway, as easily as a 
virgin ship from its cradle, out into the inward sea-road of the 
harbor. This manoeuvre on the part of the sultan was pro- 
tected by the Ottoman cannon, which kept the ships of the 
Christians at anchor by being brought to bear on them. At 
sunrise the astonished people of Constantinople saw near them 
an immense fleet that had been conjured up as if by magic. 
It carried 25,000 archers, and 100,000 men had improvised from 
its new station a highway that reached to the ramparts of the 




164 LAST DAYS OF CHRISTIAN CONSTANTINOPLE. [May r 

city. This road was wide enough to admit of one hundred 
combatants marching abreast. Constantinople was closely 
pressed on all sides. Justiniani proposed to burn the Ottoman 
fleet, but treachery made his plan abortive, and he himself was 
fated to perish in the siege. Undismayed by the successful 
tactics of Mahomet, Justiniani organized the last, supreme 
effort of defence. The splendid valor of this truly Christian 
warrior elicited words of admiration from the sultan: "Con- 
stantine is more happy in his feebleness than I am in my 
power. What would I not give to have such a lieutenant in 
my empire ! " Four hundred thousand torches lighted the 
Ottoman camp as if with a joyful illumination, making night 
day from the hills of the Asiatic and European Bosphorus to 
the hills of St. Theodosius, and as far as the sea of Marmora. 
Everybody understood from this preparation that on the mor- 
row, May 27, Mahomet would attempt a final, decisive assault 
on the city. The inhabitants were filled with terror, and at 
last turned to Heaven for relief. Constantinople was plunged 
in prayer. Processions were formed in which priests, monks, 
religious, and a vast multitude of people repaired to the 
Acropolis to implore the help of the Blessed Virgin (Hode- 
getria). But of what avail were the prayers of a nation that 
would not combat and was obstinate in schism ? The doors 
of St. Sophia were flung open, and Constantine appeared there 
for the last time. It was a touching spectacle to see the 
Byzantine monarch approaching the Holy Table. Address- 
ing the vast throng, that was entirely possessed by fear of 
the infidel invader, he begged pardon of God for everything 
in which he was guilty. Nothing but cries and sobs could be 
heard. From all sides arose the desolate, suppliant exclama- 
tion of woe, Kyrie eleison " Lord have mercy on us." " Chris- 
tians," continued the emperor, " forgive my sins, and may Gcd 
forgive yours." The people answered, " Be thou forgiven." 
Constantine bade farewell to his family, mounted his steed, and 
flew to the ramparts. The Turkish hosts advanced to the cry 
of Allah, a thousand times repeated. Two hundred thousand 
men rushed against the great wall like the ocean waves dash- 
ing against a rock. The Greeks received them with energy 
that seemed invincible. Constantine's ammunition mowed down 
those human masses and made immense gaps in the Turkish 
battalions, but as battalions fell others took their place, which 
pushed forward into the waters of the ditch, forming a bridge 
of dead bodies for those that followed. But these first victims 



1901.] LAST DAYS OF CHRISTIAN CONSTANTINOPLE. 165 

were only the scum of the army. The sultan sacrificed them 
to the valor of Constantine and Justiniani. After several hours 
of fierce combat the Greeks, already enfeebled by the terrible 
warfare, saw new troops advancing. These were the regular, 
well-disciplined columns of the Ottoman army two hundred 
thousand strong. The sultan encouraged his soldiers to fight 
by pointing out to them the imperial purple, which could be 
seen through the half-open breaches in the wall. The cannon 
of the enemy greeted them with terrible slaughter; boiling oil, 
stones, burning beams, and Greek fire were poured plentifully 
on the assailants. The Mussulmans recoiled before this in- 
fernal blast only to return to the attack. At every attempt, 
however, the Turks fell by thousands and confusion reigned 
supreme in their ranks. Mahomet was desperate. But one 
thousand Janizaries who had remained inactive up to this stage 
of the battle suddenly appeared in the midst of it. They had 
sworn to avenge the defeat. Mahomet flew to the head of the 
column. All his efforts were concentrated on the gate of St. 
Romanus, where the Christians were fighting like lions. Jus- 
tiniani fell, his cuirass pierced by a javelin. He was fatally 
wounded. It was now the decisive hour, and the soldiers had 
no chief. Constantine endeavored to rally them, but what 
could he do ? Fresh cohorts poured down from the heights of 
St. Mamas, thick as flies in a summer's day. The outer wall 
was soon destroyed ; the ditch was filled with the dead and 
the dying. Many breaches were opened in the inner wall, 
which were yet defended by the sword. All that now remained 
for the unfortunate Greeks was to succumb to inevitable de- 
struction. 

Constantine wished to die a hero, forward on the ramparts. 
He fought for some time without being recognized, though the 
number of assailants was large and it might be expected that 
some one of the host would have picked him out of the small 
band that he commanded. When the action became so deci- 
sive that hope abandoned the Greeks, he begged his soldiers 
to run him through the body, that he might not fall alive into 
the enemy's hands. But God gave him the grace to die by a 
hostile hand. He first received the blow of a pike on his face, 
and slew the Janizary who had wounded him ; but sinking 
under the crush of the numerous horde that fell upon him, he 
was stricken from behind and succumbed to the stroke never 
to rise again. His body was found under a heap of the slain. 
The moral grandeur of this hero-king forms a strange contrast 



166 LAST DAYS OF CHRISTIAN CONSTANTINOPLE. [May, 



to the sloth that surrounded him, and an eternal reproach to 
the character of his people. It was now all over with the 
Empire of the East. The Turks entered Constantinople one 
hour after midnight, May 29, 1453. 

The Greeks fled in defeat, and spread consternation every- 
where through the city. In a moment the streets were filled 
with a crowd half-maddened with fear and alarm. According 
to a wide-spread belief, the Turks would be crushed by thun- 
der-bolts from heaven if they attempted to pass the column of 
the Cross. An angel would descend with a sword and would 
hand this sword to an old man, saying: "Avenge God's peo- 
ple." The enemy would be then put to flight, and the Greeks 
would pursue them, strewing the road with their dead bodies, 
as far as Monaderes on the Persian frontier. The affrighted 
multitude hastened to St. Sophia. In a short time more than 
one hundred thousand people filled the vast edifice. Soldiers, 
senators, priests, virgins who had left their monasteries, the 

women of the lower 
class, children, patri- 
cian families, all 
thronged into the body 
and galleries of the 
church, making the 
building resound with 
their piercing cries and 
lamentations. When 
there was no more 
room the doors were 
closed and fastened. 
Now a frightful state 
of helplessness and 
inaction succeeded to 
the weeping and cry- 
ing of the people. 
Those who climbed up 
to the interior ground- 
work of the huge dome 
espied the approach of 
danger from the win- 
dows, while one hundred thousand pallid faces listened atten- 
tively for the least sound. The massed army of the invaders 
marched through the deserted streets of the city, and their ob- 




THE STREETS ARE FILLED WITH BEGGARS. 



1901.] LAST DAYS OF CHRISTIAN CONSTANTINOPLE. 167 

jective point was, doubtless, St. Sophia. It was slavery, worse 
than death, which advanced. The exterminating angel did 
not halt the soldiers at the column of the Cross. Divine 
wrath, so long stayed, was falling with certainty on Byzantium. 
The crowds trembled and women fainted. In a trice the doors 
of St. Sophia were battered down by Ottoman arms. Der- 
vishes, Janizaries, and timariots rushed on the crouching masses 
within. Drunken with blood, they paused for a moment as 
if dazed by the splendor of the golden naves and beautiful 
marbles. 

But how describe the scenes that followed, a horrid specta- 
cle of nameless cruelty and incessant bloodshed, of men and 
women falling under the sword, of bodies crushed and trampled 
on, cries of terrible woe and despair, such as no crowd of 
human beings uttered since the destruction of Jerusalem ? 
While some of the Turks chained senators, virgins, and noble 
matrons together like vile slaves, others pillaged the taber- 
nacles, profaned the altars, and broke the statues in pieces. 
The golden stones of which the mosaics were made, pearls set 
in precious vases, the crushed remnants of chalices and osten- 
soria were stuffed hurriedly into Turkish caftans. Soldiers 
toyed and played with the tiaras and sacerdotal vestments, and 
used the golden cinctures worn by pontiffs as cords wherewith 
to bind their slaves. Only a Jeremias could depict the deso- 
lation that had entered into the Holy Place. 

All at once, as if by magic, the immense din and tumult 
ceased. Mahomet II. appeared on horseback at the threshold 
of the basilica. He rode on, superb and imperturbable, in the 
midst of viziers and Janizaries. It was the Scourge of God 
who passed. Advancing as far as the profaned altar, Mahomet 
was the first to sound forth through the ravaged church the 
cry of triumphant Islam : " Allah is the Light of heaven and 
earth." He ordered that the standard of the Prophet should 
be set up in the dome. He trampled under foot the bodies of 
the Christian slain. He himself applied his hand, red with 
blood, to the church-wall, and what is said to be the mark of 
his bloody hand is pointed out to visitors even to-day. For 
two days Constantinople was delivered to the unbridled feroci- 
ty of the Turkish soldiery. The Grand Duke Notaras, who 
preferred the turban to the tiara, was slain by Mahomet's 
soldiers after he had seen his children put to death in his own 
presence. The other princes were as speedily massacred; their 
wives and daughters became captives of the harem, and the 



,i68 LAST DAYS Of CHRISTIAN CONSTANTINOPLE. [May, 




AN ANCIENT TEMPLE THAT BECAME THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH OF ST. GEORGE 
AND is NOW A MOSQUE. 

masses of the people were dragged into slavery. The number 
of the slain was so enormous that Byzantium looked like a de- 
serted city smitten by the vengeance of Heaven, and to re- 
people it thousands of the inhabitants of Thracian cities were 
driven by force to settle in the once Christian capital. Mean- 
while, schism was permitted to thrive in order to signalize bet- 
ter Mahomet's victory. One day the sultan complained that 
the Greek patriarch had not presented himself to do homage. 
He was told , that the patriarchal see was vacant, and that 
nobody presumed to ask permission to have it filled. The 
sultan allowed the election of a patriarch to be held. The 
monk Gennadius, called George Scholarius, who had turned the 
people from the union by his inflammatory speeches, and who 
had caused, by his unpardonable acts, the weapons of defence 



1901.] LAST DAYS OF CHRJSTIAN CONSTANTINOPLE. 169 

to fall from the hands of the Byzantines, was chosen for this 
high office. 

The pastoral staff was conferred by Mahomet in person, 
who had no difficulty in making use of the form repeated by 
the Greek emperors : " The Holy Trinity that has given me 
empire makes thee, by the authority which I have received, 
Archbishop of New Rome." After George Scholarius received 
his powers from the sultan he retired to Phanar, which has 
been ever since the residence of the orthodox patriarch. From 
that day the Greek Church has remained miserably crushed 
under the Turkish despotism. The Greeks had refused the 
tiara of the pope ; they had now the turban of the sultan. 
Byzantium ceased to exist, .and the Mussulman Stamboul took 
its place. Even to-day the sultan exercises his authority over 
the enslaved Eastern Church. 

Will not God have mercy on these woe-begone schismatics? 
At the present time fervent prayers are being offered in the 
Catholic Church for the Christians of the East. The Pope 
gloriously reigning, Leo XIII., has turned his eyes towards 
the unhappy schismatical countries of the Orient and has sent 
them apostles to bring them back to true religious life, which 
is Roman unity. A movement towards return to the authority 
of the Holy See is already apparent, and the fervent, zealous 
prayers of all true Christians will do much to promote it. A 
legend tells us that a Greek bishop was celebrating Mass in 
St. Sophia at the moment when the Turks invaded the sacred 
place. The pontiff disappeared miraculously in one of the 
columns, which is pointed out to the traveller to-day. A popu- 
lar belief has it that one day the basilica will be again restored 
to the worship of Christ. The colossal figure of the Saviour 
will be again set up on its former place, radiant over the 
golden mosaics. The bishop will depart from the column, 
chalice in hand, and return to the altar to resume the Holy 
Sacrifice that was interrupted. On that happy day life, civil- 
ization, and grandeur will be regendered in Constantinople. 




VOL. LXXIII. 12 




170 THE MYSTERY OF SHAPT No. 6. 



THE MYSTERY OF SHAFT NO. 6. 

BY JOHN A. FOOTE. 

HAVE always maintained that many, so-called, 
ghostly manifestations could be properly attri- 
buted to natural causes, if they were thoroughly 
investigated ; and it was this unyielding scepti- 
cism of mine that enabled me to solve the ap- 
parently preternatural mystery of Shaft No. 6. 

In the year 1867 I stepped out from the portals of an 
Eastern medical college with little else beside a brand-new 
diploma and a determination to work. The newly developed 
anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania seemed a promising 
field, and I decided to locate at the growing village of Car- 
bondale. I did so, and suffered the experience of nearly every 
young physician in trying to establish a practice. Time hung 
heavily on my hands, and as I was something of an amateur 
botanist, I passed some of my idle moments in wandering 
among the beautiful forests that surrounded the town, collect- 
ing specimens of plants and ferns. Of the latter I discovered 
and classified several hitherto unknown varieties. 

Several times during my wanderings I encountered a tall, 
gray-haired man who was invariably accompanied by a large 
St. Bernard dog. But my attention was more particularly 
drawn to this man by the peculiar expression of his face. He 
was very pale, and deeply pitted with small-pox marks. His feat- 
ures were irregular and coarsely moulded, and his eyes, deep 
set under beetling brows, had a furtive, sinister look that was 
intensified by a peculiar twitching of the muscles controlling 
his thin, bloodless lips. 

I made inquiries at the town, and found that this person 
was Captain William Gait, general superintendent of the mines 
of the Pennsylvania Coal Company, and one of the most 
wealthy and influential residents of Carbondale. My infor- 
mants also said that he was a most peculiar man, very taciturn 
and reserved, and that few of the people of the town had 
ever seen the interior of his residence. All agreed that he 
was highly valued by his emplo>ers. 

What I heard served to arouse my curiosity, and I only 
waited for an opportunity to form his acquaintance. I was 



1 90i.] THE MYSTERY OF SHAFT No. 6. 171 

not obliged to wait long. One day while in the woods I heard 
a dog barking violently, and when I stepped out of the thicket 
I saw Captain Gait's St. Bernard facing a large rattlesnake 
that had coiled ready to spring. I stepped behind the reptile 
and stunned it with a blow of my cane, so that its killing 
became an easy matter. The captain, who had come up just 
in time to witness the affair, thanked me with great sincerity 
for my timely action. 

So our acquaintance began, and after this incident I met 
him often and found him a well-informed man and an agree- 
able companion. We had many tastes in common, and I be- 
came a frequent caller at his residence, first to help him in 
same investigations which he was pursuing regarding the 
chemistry of mine gases, and later, at his expressed wish that 
I would continue my visits, " for the sociability of the thing." 

During the period of our acquaintance I was twice called 
to see him professionally. Each time I found him in an ex- 
treme state of nervous exhaustion, the twitching of his facial 
muscles much intensified, and his mental condition bordering 
on delirium, in which an overpowering fear seemed to be the 
dominating symptom. This led me to suspect that he had 
passed through a terrible mental ordeal at some former period ; 
but on inquiring I found that he had lived an apparently un- 
eventful life. 

On June fourth, 1870, I was hurriedly summoned to the 
captain's residence. I had not seen him for over a week, and 
I knew that he had been very busy superintending the drain- 
ing and pumping of some old, water-filled mines, in which a 
large amount of good coal had been left in the days of primi- 
tive coal-mining. This work had demanded close attention, 
and I was prepared to find that he had broken down under 
the severe strain on his energies. I made all haste to reach 
him, and was ascending the steps leading to his residence when 
I met T. J. Murray, the captain's legal adviser, coming down. 

"Is he dangerously ill?" I asked anxiously. Mr. Murray 
looked at me with surprise. 

"111?" he said. "Why no! I don't think I ever saw him 
looking better in his life. Don't look so disappointed," he 
added, laughingly, as I passed in. 

Murray's statements relieved my anxiety, and my fears 
were entirely dispelled when I greeted the captain in his 
library. He was seated at his desk, amidst a confusion of 
documents and papers of various kinds, and there were no 
signs of illness on his face. After a few commonplaces h.ad 



172 THE MYSTERY OF SHAFT No. 6. [May, 

been exchanged he said, in an abrupt manner, which was not 
uncommon with him : 

"You met Murray outside?" 

"Just as I was about to come in," I answered. 

" Did he tell you anything ? " 

" Nothing, excepting that you were in good health." 

"Hum?" said the captain, nervously chewing the end of 
an unlit cigar. "Well, he might have told you that I have 
just drawn up my will, and that you are named as the ex- 
ecutor." Then, noticing the look of surprise that had come 
into my face, he continued hastily : 

" Now don't say that you will not serve me, for there is 
more involved in this matter than you suspect." 

" I will gladly do anything that may be of service to you," 
I said. 

The captain thanked me, and then there ensued an uncom- 
fortable pause. After awhile he spoke again, saying : 

" Perhaps you remember telling me that I am likely to suc- 
cumb to one of my periodical nervous attacks. Did you notice 
that both of my past attacks began on June fifth?" 

" No," I answered, " but now that you speak of it I recall 
the coincidence. Do you think that you will have an attack 
to-morrow ? " 

" I am almost certain that it will come," he replied. " I 
know that you have a theory that these spells of nervousness 
are nothing more than physical manifestations of a severe 
mental strain that I am compelled to undergo at certain 
periods. Your theory is correct : I have placed greater confi- 
dence in you during our brief acquaintance than I have in 
many of my reputed friends whom I have known for years, 
and now that I have named you for my executor it will be 
necessary for me to make certain revelations to you, in order 
that you may fully understand the provisions of my will." 

" I trust that you may not find me unworthy of your con- 
fidence " I began; but the captain, seeming not to have 
heard me, continued : 

"You are a prudent man, and of course you will under- 
stand that what I am about to tell you must remain a secret 
between us until my death. After that you may act as you 
see fit. The incidents which I will relate occurred about fif- 
teen years ago, when I first came to Carbondale. At that 
time I was foreman in these mines, and I had for an assistant 
a young man named Thomas Burke. We were both of about 
the same age, and, as was natural, we became fast friends. 



1901.] THE MYSTERY OF SHAFT No. 6. 173 

Burke possessed a happy, even-tempered disposition ; he was 
the kind of a man that people call a ' good fellow.' Unfor- 
tunately for myself, I was not at all like him, being then, as 
now, excessively nervous and prone to fly into a passion at trifles. 

" It was a woman that caused all of the subsequent misery, 
and impelled me to the terrible act which I committed. Her 
name was Mary Miller, and she was the daughter of an old 
German shoemaker. I had earned for myself the reputation of 
being a woman-hater, and I will confess that I was not the 
kind of a man that would find great favor with the ladies ; 
but I fell desperately in love with this girl. 1 earned her 
gratitude by giving her father, who was very poor, a position 
as a pump engineer in the new mines. Her gratitude, I say 
now ; but at that time, unhappily, I mistook gratitude for love. 

" One day I brought Burke to Mary's home and introduced 
him to her. He was much better company than I, and I was 
glad when I found that Mary enjoyed his lively talk. After 
that he became a frequent visitor ; but, although the affair was 
town gossip, I did not suspect his motives until the fateful 
night of June fifth. 

" Mary's father was willing and anxious that I should marry 
her, and I felt that she did not dislike me ; so it was with a 
light and confident heart that I called at her home that night, 
with the purpose of asking her to become my wife. 

" I found her alone, and she seemed to have guessed the 
object of my visit by that subtle instinct which women pos- 
sess, for she wore an air of restraint that was totally unlike 
her usual manner. I will not weary you with details ; it is 
enough to say that she refused to marry me, and said that it 
would be impossible for her even to consider the matter. I 
was stunned with amazement, and I asked her for her reasons 
in thus treating me. She smilingly told me that, if I had 
patience, I would learn some day. 

"At this my devilish temper broke down my self-control, 
and I accused her, in heated language, of trifling with my 
affections. She laughed at my jealous rage, and told me that 
she had never loved me, or even liked me, and that she had 
promised to marry Thomas Burke. These last words of hers 
crushed out every feeling of humanity that was in me. Chok- 
ing with chagrin, I rushed from the house and tried to drown 
the recollections of my unhappiness in a near-by saloon, while I 
brooded in impotent rage on the perfidy of my treacherous friend. 

" I have no remembrance of what occurred after that until 
I experienced the thrill of horror that overcame me when 



THE MYSTERY OF SHAFT No. 6 [May, 

I found myself in a thicket near the Miller cottage, with the 
body of a man at my feet. The moon made it as bright as 
day, and a vague, terrifying instinct told me, even before I had 
seen its features, that the body was Burke's. Moved by an 
unaccountable impulse, I stooped down to smooth the tangled, 
yellow hair, and my hand became clotted with a warm, sticky 
fluid. It was blood ! 

" I was sick with fear, and horror, and regret when I realized 
the enormity of the crime which I had committed. I could 
not believe that he was dead, and I made frantic efforts to 
revive him ; but even while I worked with him, his body grew 
cold and his limbs began to stiffen. Then, as the fumes of 
what I had drunk began to pass away, all of my emotions 
were consumed in a terrible, overmastering fear. What if some 
other person had seen my deed ? My cowardly thoughts ren- 
dered me almost helpless, and I crouched in silence over the 
body, while I strained my ears to catch any sound that might 
betray the presence near by of another person. My teeth 
chattered with nervousness, and I felt impelled to shout, or do 
something to break the awful silence that prevailed. A cricket 
chirped behind me, and I leaped to my feet in alarm. Gradu- 
ally, my spasm of fear passed away, and I determined to hide 
the body. 

" I remembered that the opening to an abandoned water- 
filled mine was not far away, so I carried the corpse to this 
place and weighted it with several heavy stones. A sort of a 
shed had been built over this place, which was known as Shaft 
ND. 6; a roof-like structure of rough boards erected so as 
to prevent unwary travellers from falling into the old mine. 
With a strength that my fears stimulated, I tore two of the 
boards from the roofing and threw the body through the aper- 
ture which I had made. I was, by this time, fairly self-possessed, 
and I watched it as it sank feet downwards. For an instant 
the glassy eyes seemed to reproach me, and then the murky, 
yellow water closed over the head and it disappeared from view. 
I carefully fastened the boards in place." 

A spasm of nervousness, induced by his terrible recollec- 
tions, seized the captain at this point, and I could see that he 
was in the throes of another attack. 

" I cannot finish," he said weakly. " I cannot ! " 

I hastily laid him on the sofa, and gave him a hypodermic 
dose of morphia to quiet him. For nearly an hour he writhed 
in convulsions, but by degrees the soporific influence of the 
drug gained ascendency, and he dropped into a fitful slumber. 



1901.] THE MYSTERY OF SHAFT No. 6 175 

I left him then, and told his housekeeper to send for me if 
his condition should become critical during the night. 

The following morning I called to see him, and was sur- 
prised to learn that he was not at home. Late that night 
Mrs. Drew, his housekeeper, came to my office and told me 
that the captain had not yet returned. She was much alarmed 
about his absence, and she besought me to try and find him. 
I made an exhaustive search for him all that night and the 
following morning, but to no avail ; I could find no trace of 
him. Two days passed, and then I went to Scranton in the 
hope that I might find him at some of the hotels. I stopped 
at the Forest House, and at eight o'clock that night I received 
a telegram : 

"Come at once: captain found. 

" MRS. DREW." 

I left for Carbondale on the 8:20 train, and when I reached 
the town it was buzzing with the details of the story. The 
captain had been found in a branch of the old mine which had 
recently been pumped dry, and he was said to be in a critical 
condition. But when I saw him I was shocked at his emaciated 
appearance. A frightful delirium had seized him, and he 
shrieked almost continuously in a paroxysm of fright, and 
sought to shut out the fearful delusions of his brain by cover- 
ing his head with the pillows of the bed. Father Daly, the 
parish priest of Carbondale, was at his bedside, and assured 
me that he had done all that lay in his power for the captain's 
spiritual comfort. He left shortly after my arrival, promising 
to return as soon as possible. After about an hour the captain 
grew calmer, and recognized me. He was comparatively lucid 
for a little while, but seemed too weak to talk. Then, sud- 
denly, with a vigorous twist, he raised himself on one elbow, 
and his sunken eyes took on the despairing glare of a madman. 

" O God ! " he shrieked, " the conscience of a murderer is 
hell." Then he went on with feverish rapidity: "You re- 
member what I told you a few days ago ? I knew then that 
I would not live much longer. Was I not right ? What is 
death but peace ? peace from the fear, the haunting dread in 
which I lived ; the dread that I should see him as I saw him 
on that night ; the dread lest he should rise and accuse me of 
my hidden crime. And in the end of all / saw him ! " 

A soul-harassed wail came from the despairing man, and he 
rocked to and fro in the bed and placed his wasted hands 
over his eyes. He was silent for a few minutes, and then, 
with a fierce gesture, he grasped the lapel of my coat and 



176 THE MYSTERY OF SHAFT No. 6. [May, 

drew me towards him until his sallow, drawn face was close to 
me, and his sickly breath fanned my cheek. Talking eagerly, 
and in hoarse whispers, he went on ; 

" It was in the old mine the mine that is connected 
with Shaft No. 6. Some force that I could not resist im- 
pelled me to steal out at midnight and go. there. . . . So, 
stealthily, stealthily I crept through the new workings, and 
then I came to where the props were rotten and covered with 
strange growths, and the coal was slimy and yellow. . . . 
And I saw him, as he stood near a pool of putrid water, all 
dripping with ooze and slime ; and the coal was yellow, and 
the water dripped from his fingers as he pointed at me, and 

God, look ! " 

While he shrieked this out his features worked convulsively, 
and with a tetanic spasm he rose and pointed over my shoulder. 
Involuntarily I turned my head, and in that instant he fell 
back, limp and unconscious. The tell-tale rattle began in his 
throat ; in a little while he was dead ! 

After the funeral I opened his will, and found, not to my 
surprise, that the bulk of his property, aggregating nearly 
$40,000, had been bequeathed to Mary Miller, who was sup- 
posed to be living in Pittsburg. If it could be shown that she 
was dead, part of the estate would go to several charities and 
part to me. 

I found it a difficult matter to obtain any clue to the 
whereabouts of Mary Miller, and, after some well-nigh useless 
correspondence with a firm of Pittsburg detectives, I started 
for that city to conduct the inquiry in person. To guide me 
in my search I took a great part of the captain's letters and 
papers with me. Among the latter I found a clipping, taken 
from the Scranton Star, and evidently inspired by the captain, 
stating that " Thomas Burke, treasurer of the Miners' Accident 
Fund of Carbondale, had disappeared, with $232 belonging to 
the society." After ten days of unavailing inquiry at Pittsburg, 

1 secured evidence that Mary Miller had died in an almshouse 
some miles from the city. This accomplished, I returned to 
Carbondale. 

It was Lawyer Murray who first told me of the mystery 
of Shaft No. 6. He called on me shortly after my return 
frorti Pittsburg, and took the depositions and other papers I 
had obtained to prove the death of Miss Miller. When he 
was about to leave me he said, with a half-smile : 

" I suppose you heard the ridiculous story that some of the 



1901.] THE MYSTERY OF SHAFT No. 6. 177 

miners circulated, about having seen the captain's ghost in the 
workings under the old shaft ? " 

I said that I had heard nothing of it, and he gave me the 
particulars as he had learned them. Ordinarily a story of this 
kind would not have caused me a second thought ; but now 
the strange circumstances of the captain's death, and his vivid 
description of his experience in the mine, came back to me, 
and the miners' story seemed to confirm as truth what I had 
considered the ravings of a demented man. 

"You are not afraid of ghosts?" said the lawyer, as he 
noticed my abstraction. 

" No," I said, rather ashamed that I had shown such signs 
of mental perturbation; "not, at least, of imaginary ones." 

" It 's very likely that it 's all bosh," continued Murray. 
"Anything bearing the faintest resemblance to a human being, 
coupled with a little superstition, will make a ghost in a coal 
mine. But dead men tell no tales!" 

He laughed at his sombre joke and departed, but I could 
not dismiss from my mind what he had told me. " Dead men 
tell no tales!" I repeated to myself. Could it be true that 
Captain Gait had seen a dead man standing in the mine near 
the foot of the shaft ; a dead man preserved from decay through 
all these years that he might at last bear evidence to the grue- 
some tale of murder ? 

The more I thought on the matter the more I became con- 
vinced that the miners had seen, not a ghost but the body of 
Thomas Burke. It was only natural that they should connect 
the supposed apparition with Captain Gait, and say that his 
spirit was haunting the mine that had caused his death. 

That evening I sent for the two persons who were said to 
have seen the apparition. One was a driver boy about eigh- 
teen years of age ; the other an experienced and fairly intelli- 
gent miner. Both described accurately the location of the 
quarter of the mine in which they had encountered the sup- 
posed spirit, and both said that it was the figure of a man 
dripping with sulphurous water, and standing near a decayed 
prop. Both said they were certain that it could not have been 
the body of any human being, because the mine had been 
filled with water until the day preceding the disappearance of 
the captain. After considerable urging on my part, and the 
promise of a reward, the miner agreed to guide me to the place. 

Having secured two mine lamps, we immediately set out, and 
to quiet the nervous fears of my companion I told him all that 
I could reveal with safety of my theory regarding the sup- 



178 THE MYSTERY OF SHAFT No. 6. [May, 

posed mystery. The mine under Shaft No. 6 had been aban- 
doned because the coal was " rusty " that is, because it con- 
tained an unusually large amount of the sulphur salts of iron. 
Another, though less urgent, reason for its abandonment was 
the fact that pumps were needed to work continuously in or- 
der to prevent it from filling with water. All mine water con- 
tains some of these astringent mineral salts, but the water 
here was almost saturated with them. What he had seen, I 
told him, was, in all likelihood, the body of some unfortunate 
man who had fallen into the shaft, and had become imbedded 
in a thick layer of the sulphur and iron salts that collected in 
the bottom of the mine. The antiseptic and astringent proper- 
ties of these salts had preserved a certain resemblance to hu- 
man likeness in the body and prevented it from wholly decay- 
ing. When the mine was pumped dry the body was carried 
with the current of water from the bottom of the shaft toward 
the direction in which the pumps lay. 

But with all my assurances and explanations I could see 
that he did not feel at ease when we entered the mine. Pres- 
ently we came to the wet and slippery chambers of the old 
workings, where the mine water had dyed everything an ochre 
tint. We were now quite near to the baleful spot, and my 
companion refused to go any farther. I went forward alone, lamp 
in hand, and a moment later I stood, shivering with a strange 
terror, and looking at the mute witness to the captain's guilt. 

The sight was a horrible one. There was just the form of 
a man a bag of leathery skin and bone wrapped up in tat- 
tered rags, and all covered with the yellow sulphur-slime of the 
mine. It was in an upright position behind an old and fungus- 
covered wooden prop, where the outgoing waters had left it. 
While I looked a portion of the rotten prop gave way and 
the body fell towards me with an almost life-like motion. 
Thoroughly unnerved, I turned and ran, almost forgetting my 
companion in my strange terror. 

When I came out of the mine I lost no time in reporting 
the matter to the proper authorities, although I did not then 
reveal any of the knowledge I had obtained concerning the 
identity of the body with the murdered Thomas Burke. 

But in order that justice may be done to all, and in com- 
pliance with the wish expressed by Captain Gait to me shortly 
before his death, I, Arthur Phillips, have prepared this state- 
ment to be read when I, like the others, shall have passed be- 
yond human judgment. 




1901.] MELCHISEDECH, PRIEST AND KING. 179 



MELCHISEDECH, PRIEST AND KING. 

A STUDY OF GENESIS xiv. iS. 
BY REV. WARD HUNT JOHNSON, C.S.P. 

'HREE times in the narrative of the Scriptures, 
three times only during the thousands of years 
covered by the biblical history, is there allusion 
made to a certain man, and yet it is safe to 
say that no other whose name occurs in the 
sacred books has given rise to so much question or comment. 
This man is Melchisedech, King of Salem, Priest of the Most 
High God. 

As Abram returns weary and worn from the battle the 
aged Melchisedech meets and blesses him in the name of God, 
and, as a priest, brings forth an oblation of bread and wine. 
No more is told of him ; he is not spoken of before, and after 
this he falls back into the shadow whence he came. 

A thousand years pass ; then the writer of the logth Psalm, 
in a burst of prophecy concerning the great King who is to 
come, cries out "Thou art a priest for ever after the order" 
or, more literally, after the manner, of Melchisedech. 

Again comes silence and another thousand years. Once 
more, and for the last time in the Bible, Melchisedech's name 
is uttered ; now the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews 
cites him as a figure of Christ, since he is, like the Son of God, 
alone, unique, having neither beginning of life nor end of days. 

This is all there is about Melchisedech, and yet there is 
scarcely one of the Fathers, there is not a single theologian, 
who has not spoken of him ; there is almost no strange opinion 
concerning him which has not had supporters ; Jews and Chris- 
tians alike have disputed about him ; grotesque sects from the 
very beginning of Christianity have claimed him as their head. 

Who is he? What is he? That is the first question; then, 
What do the Fathers say of him ? How is he a type of Christ? 
and, finally, What is the exegesis of the Scripture passages 
wherein his name is found? 

WHO WAS MELCHISEDECH ? 

To the first question, " Who was Melchisedech ? " the an- 
swers given by commentators and theologians are many and 



:8o MELCHISEDECH, PRIEST AND KING. [May, 

curious. There was, in the early church, a strong tendency to 
believe that Melchisedech was more than man that at least 
he possessed an angelic nature. Some even went so far as to 
say that he was a theophany of the Holy Ghost ; others con- 
tended that he was the Logos in a human appearance, and St. 
Ambrose seems to have looked upon this last idea with favor. 
"Melchisedech," he says,* "was king of justice; he was also 
priest of the Most High God. What King of Justice is also 
priest of God save he of whom it is said, 'Thou art a priest 
for ever'; that is, the Son of God, priest of the Father who 
through his own body reconciled the Father to our sins?" 

A large number of lesser writers than St. Ambrose held 
this view, which does not appear ever to have been formally 
condemned, as was the preceding, for the objections against a 
theophany in human form of the Logos would seem not to hold 
when it was a question of the third person of the blessed Trinity. 

Speaking of St. Ambrose, he gives it as a Jewish belief 
that Melchisedech was an angel. This, St. Jerome says, was 
held also by Origen and Origen's disciple, Didymus, who, he 
observes, employ the same arguments as do those that identify 
Melchisedech with the Holy Ghost. f 

The common view at that time, however, maintained that 
Melchisedech was a man. According to St. Jerome,:}: the Jews 
held this, saying that he was the son of Sem, and that he 
lived until the time of Isaac ; that he exercised the priesthoed^ 
which was held by the first-born sons of Noe's family until its 
transference to Aaron. 

On the same lines is the view of Ephraem Syrus, who 
gives Melchisedech's life with some particularity. According" 
to him Melchisedech was not the son of, but was Sem himself. 
He was the ancestor of fourteen tribes, and with his sons lived 
in Arabia, " separating like a wall the chosen people from the 
race of Cham." He held the priesthood from Noe. Moreover, 
his life was prolonged until the time of Esau, and it was he 
from whom Rebecca learned of the two sons she was to bear 
when " she went to consult the Lord " (Gen. xxv. 22). This 
seems possible to St. Augustine, || "How did she receive an 
answer?" he asks. "Perhaps it was from a dream, or was 
Melchisedech still alive ? whose excellency was such that some 
have doubted whether he was man or angel ; or were there 
men through whom God could be consulted?" etc. 

* De Abr., lib. i cap 3, 16. t Ep. ad Evangel., lib Ixxiii. 2, 3, 5. 

\ Lib. Heb. qusst. in Gen., xiv. 18. In Gen , cap. xiv. |Quasst. in Kept., lib. i. 72.. 



1901.] MELCHISEDECH, PRIEST AND KING. 181 

The identification with Sem himself Jerome gives in his 
Epistle to Evangelus as being also held by some Jews. He 
shows that in Abram's time Melchisedech had reached the 
age of 390, which was not impossible at that period of the 
world, and, with the other writers, he attributes the priest- 
hood to Noe's sons. This, in fact, he says was their birth- 
right, and it was this which Esau sold. The Samaritans like- 
wise believed that Melchisedech was Sem, says Epiphanius* 
in his work against Heretics, "in which belief," he subjoins, 
"they are plainly ridiculous." If the writer of this article 
might venture an opinion, this agreement among the Jews 
seems to show a very ancient tradition, at least, though whether 
it be true or not is a question. Yet there would be a striking 
propriety in the King of Salem, the last of the older dispensa- 
tion who had kept the faith of God untainted, and who now, 
meeting Abram at the moment of the patriarch's great victory, 
hands over to him, the representative of the new dispensation, 
the blessing of the Most High God. Just as St. John the 
Baptist points to our Lord as he for whom he has prepared 
the way, he in whom all promises find their fulfilment, so 
Melchisedech gives Abram God's blessing, shows him the 
figure of the new sacrifice, and then withdraws into the shadow 
(for his work is done), saying, with St. John, " He must in- 
crease, but I must decrease." 

Epiphanius gives another Jewish opinion, vouched for by 
St. Chrysostom in his homily,f that Melchisedech was born of 
fornication, and hence is said to be "without father." No 
Jewish authority has been found for this statement; but if 
Epiphanius had any, the story would seem to be a late one, 
put forth after Melchisedech began to assume theologic im- 
portance as a type of our Lord's eucharistic priesthood. 

Yet another account of Melchisedech given by Epiphanius 
in this same book attributes to him a father and no less a 
father than Hercules. Hercules, it appears, married the Syrian 
goddess Astaroth, and the two, being in great poverty, retired 
to Sabe, or Salem, where one may suppose living was cheap, 
and here their son Melchisedech was born. This view, the 
reader will notice, not only gives Melchisedech parents, but 
nobly supplies the lack of genealogy whereof St. Paul speaks. 

St. Jerome, in the epistle quoted, makes no such bold flight 
as this. Some have supposed, he writes, that Melchisedech 
was of the ancient inhabitants of Palestine a Chanaanite, in 

* Lib. ii. torn. i. Hasres., Iv. t Horn, in Melch., 3. 



1 82 MELCHISEDECH, PRIEST AKD KIAG. 

fact and that this was held by Hippolytus, Eusebius of 
Cesaraea, Emisenus, Apollinaris, and Eustathius. To which list 
may be added Theodoret * and Philaster.f who avers that by 
the holiness of his life Melchisedech merited that God should 
reveal his mysteries to him. St. Ignatius:}: shows an even 
more intimate knowledge of Melchisedech's piety, for he sajs 
that the King of Salem had bound himself under a vow of 
virginity. 

There is nothing strange, St. Jerome goes on to say, " in 
the fact of Melchisedech, though a Chanaanite, being a priest, 
for Abel and Henoch and Noe pleased God and offered victims, 
and so did Job himself, as is said in his book, and yet he was 
not of the stock of Levi, but of Esau. Melchisedech was a 
type of Christ in the same way as was Noe and Samson." 

ROMANCE SPINS THE THREAD OF ITS STORY. 

Among the notices of Melchisedech there exists one most 
peculiar document. This is a life of the priest-king purporting 
to have been written by St. Athanasius and found in his 
collected works. But as a matter of fact it is considerably 
later than his time, for the Council of Nice is spoken of in the 
essay as an event of the quite distant past. What the story 
really is, is one of that class of religious romances which at 
various periods have been put together on a slight frame-woik 
of fact, and which were never taken literally by those for 
whom they were originally written, but were accepted for just 
what they were, as pious novels. 

The story begins in the regular way, " once upon a time." 
Once upon a time there lived a king, Melchi, and his wife, 
Salem, who were the parents of two sons, Melchi and Melchise- 
dech. The king was " a gentile, idolatrous, impure," and one 
day, desiring to offer sacrifice, he sent Melchisedech to bring 
him a lamb. As Melchisedech was proceeding on the errand 
he looked up to the sky, and seeing the sun, declared " Who- 
ever made the sun and the heavens and the stars and the 
earth to him men ought to sacrifice, for he is clearly above 
them." 

So he determines not to bring a victim to his father, and 
returns home empty-handed. Upon this the king is exceeding- 
ly wroth and swears that now he will sacrifice either Melchhe- 
dech or his brother. At the queen's suggestion lots are cast, 
and the lot falls on Melchi. Great preparations are immediately 

* In Gen., Ixiv. f De l^xres. , 120. J Ep. 4 ad Philadelph. 



1 90 1.] MELCHISEDECH, PRIEST AND KIXG. 183 

made; the neighbors join in, and fifty-three boys are contri- 
buted by the fathers and three hundred girls by their mothers, 
who are all to be slain with Melchi. " Do you not weep for 
your brother ? " asks Salem of her surviving son. But Melchise- 
dech has no time to weep, for he is busy getting ready to 
depart. He flees and arrives at Mount Thabor. There he 
prays to God : " Hear me now in this hour, and command 
that all who are present at this sacrifice may be swallowed up 
in hell."- 

Upon this the earth opens and the entire city disappears. 
" Neither man nor beast nor altar nor temple nor any creature," 
says the narrator, " was left in the place." 

Melchisedech now lived in the thick woods of the moun- 
tains for seven years, "his food berries; his drink the dew 
which he lapped up." He lives there, the author says, " naked ; 
his hair grew down to his middle, his nails became an ell in 
length, and his back became hard as the shell of a tortoise." 

At the end of seven years Abram hears a voice bidding him 
to go and seek " the man of God " ; so he saddles his ass and 
makes his way to Melchisedech. Arrived at the place, he 
calls, " Man of God, come forth ! " and Melchisedech appears. 
The patriarch is, not unnaturally, somewhat alarmed at the 
solitary's appearance. But Melchisedech reassures him, and the 
voice bids Abram to cut Melchisedech's nails and shave him. 
When these toilet operations have been concluded Melchisedech 
anoints Abram with oil and gives him his name, Abraham. 
The voice again speaks, saying that since all Melchisedech's 
family have perished, he shall be henceforth said to be with- 
out father, without mother, without genealogy. " I have loved 
him," the voice goes on, "as a beloved son because he hath 
kept my precepts and shall keep them for ever." 

When Abram returned from the slaughter of the kings 
Melchisedech met him and gave him to drink of a chalice of 
wine, " in which he had put secretly a particle of bread, 
whence," the narrator says, " the chalice is called boukakraton 
until now. In this way is he like the Son of God, though not 
according to grace. And this is the first type of our Saviour's 
bloodless oblation when Melchisedech bore the holy offering ; 
wherefore it is said, ' Thou art a priest for ever after the 
order of Melchisedech ' ; ard he gave it to Abram and his 
318 men." 

The story ends with the following words: "Just as many 
holy fathers were once found in Nicaea who established the right 



1 84 MELCHISEDECH, PRIEST AND KING. [May, 

faith, and their number was 318 holy bishops, like in number 
to Abram's 318 men. Glory be to God now and for ever." 

HERESIES ABOUT THE KING OF SALEM. 

I said in the beginning that the tendency to give Melchise- 
dech a supernatural origin had caused some to declare that 
he was the Holy Ghost. Such an opinion, of course, was 
wholly unorthodox, and it is not surprising to find that it 
landed its supporters in formal heresy. The doctrine, indeed, 
became the basis of a group of sectarians known, from their 
peculiar teaching, as Melchisedechians. Tertullian* says that 
the sect was founded by Theodotus, the money-changer, who 
was the disciple of another Theodotus of Byzantium. This 
latter f had denied Christianity during the persecution under 
Marcus Aurelius, and had been condemned by a synod of the 
Roman Church held during the pontificate of Telesphorus.;}: 
His defence was that he had only denied a man, since Jesus 
was the son of Mary. He held, however, according to Origen, 
that on Jesus had descended the Christ when he was baptized. 
The Byzantian, according to the same authority, was succeeded 
in the leadership of the sect by the money-changer, and to him 
was due the bringing in of Melchisedech. Melchisedech, 
Theodotus argued, was made like to Christ according to St. 
Paul, and hence, as ;he was the first in time, he must have 
been the greater. The exact relation, however, which Melchise- 
dech bore to God Theodotus does not seem ever to have 
defined, for he merely said that the King of Salem was "a 
certain power of God." 

It remained for Hierax of Egypt to elaborate the heresy 
and to teach that Melchisedech was the Holy Ghost, because, 
says Epiphanius, he was made like the Son. Now, as the Son 
is in the image of the Father, so there is none in the image 
of the Son but the Spirit, and Scriptures tell of no other 
" like to the Son " except Melchisedech. 

This is the form of the heresy as it was met by St. Jerome 
and St. Chrysostom, the last of whom devoted a homily to 
setting forth the faith of the church. 

But besides the belief in Melchisedech very little else is 
known of the sect, yet it appears, as time went on, to have 
adopted the ascetic practices of the Gnostics. St. John of 
Damascus notices these schismatics as existing in his 



* De prescript., 53. f Blunt, Dictionary of Heresies. J Harduin, t. v. 1494 D. 

Contra Hares., lib. vii. 35 seq. | Hippolytus, lib. viii. c. 24. 1 De Haeres., 55. 



1901.] MELCHISEDECH, PRIEST AND KING. 185 

They refer everything to Melchisedech's name, he writes. 
They observe the Sabbath and practise circumcision ; baptism 
they postpone until late in life though this in the early ages 
of the church could hardly be termed a distinctive custom and 
toward those who leave the sect to become Catholics they 
manifest a great indignation, even going so far as to anathema- 
tize them. These same men, he continues, were sometimes 
called Athigganoi because they would not suffer themselves to 
be touched by persons of any other religious belief, since such 
touch, they said, was defiling. 

After the age of the Damascene the sect appears to have 
fallen into obscurity, nor is it heard of again until the six- 
teenth century, when an anonymous leader revived it in a 
modified form. This man founded his teaching upon I. Cor. 
xv. 46 : " The first man was of the earth, earthy ; the second 
man of heaven, heavenly." Melchisedech is not of the earth, 
for he was like the Son of God, who is from heaven ; there- 
fore he is a being wholly supernatural. He was created before 
Adam ; as it is written, Before the morning star have I be- 
gotten thee. If Melchisedech is made like Christ, it follows 
that Christ, before he assumed flesh, had a celestial body too ; 
indeed it is to this that his words allude, " before Abraham 
was, I am." 

Such was the new opinion set forth and confuted at length 
by Petavius,* which he calls " a barbarous and stinking opinion 
that has been brought to light while we have been working." 

Finally, the last author of any note to publish views on 
Melchisedech was Pierre Cunaeus, a professor of the Univer- 
sity of Leyden, who in the seventeenth century wrote a work 
on the Hebrew Republic, wherein he maintained that Melchise- 
dech was the Logos, the Son of God. He was answered by 
many philosophers and theologians, among the first by Christo- 
pher Schlegel.f With this man the wild and extraordinary 
heresy seems to have come to an end ; at least after his time 
nothing more is heard of it from any writer of note. 

THE TEACHING OF THE JEWS. 

It remains to say a little as to Jewish opinion concerning 
Melchisedech. This seems to be stated correctly by Fathers 
and theologians at least so far as his being Sem and the son 
of Noe for as to Epiphanius' idea, that he was born of forni- 
cation, there is, as was said before, no Jewish authority. On 

* De op. sex die> lib. i. c. iv. 3. f Migne, Diet. Theo , t. iii. ; Diet. Hares., t. ii. 

i- LXX1II. 13 



i86 MELCHISEDECH, PRIEST AND KING. [May, 

the other hand, there is an abundance of authority in regard 
to his Noachic origin. Both the Targums of Jonathan and 
Jerusalem so call him, as do Raschius in his commentary on 
the passage in Genesis, and R. Eliezar* and Abarbanel. The 
last says : " For a long time our doctors have called Mel- 
chisedech Sem, the son of Noe," while Jonathan ben Uzziel 
writes : " . . . the king of justice, that is, the son of Noe, 
Sem, who met and brought forth bread and wine to Abram, 
and at the same time was ministering to God Most High." f 

THE EXEGESIS OF GENESIS XIV. 1 8. 

Going on now to the exegesis of the passage in Genesis 
xiv. 1 8, we find that these words have been made the basis of 
an argument by theologians as to our Lord's eucharistic 
priesthood. Now, such an argument can take two forms : 
either exegetical, depending for its value on the traditionary 
interpretation of the Fathers, or grammatical, depending simply 
on the words of the text. Let us take the latter argument 
first. Here there are two points : a, the meaning of the verb 
translated "brought forth," and b, the meaning of the noun 
" priest." As to a, the verb used in the Vulgate is proferre, 
which in meaning is inconclusive, and the word used by the 
translators of the LXX. is equally colorless. The Hebrew verb, 
which we can transliterate as Y Z A, may mean " bring forth 
for sacrifice," says Hummelauer in loco, but not necessarily. 
The clearest instance of its use with this meaning is Judges vi. 
18, 19. Here Gedeon is visited by an angel, and he says: 
" Depart not, I pray you, until I come unto thee, and bring 
forth my meat-offering and set it before thee, . . . and 
Gedeon brought it out and presented it." In this passage is a 
use paralleled to that of Genesis, for the offering of Gedeon 
is brought forth, just as was Melchisedech's, for the purpose of 
sacrifice. 

On the other hand, it is contended that there are Hebrew 
words, perfectly unambiguous, signifying to sacrifice, and that 
if here such an act were meant one of them would be used. 
This party maintains that refreshment of waniors arid travellers 
was a well-known religious duty of the Hebrews. So in Judges 
viii., Gedeon destroys those who refused him food when pur- 
suing his enemies. So the Moabites and Ammonites are re- 
fused entrance to the congregation of Israel (Deut. xxiii. 3-4), 
"because they met you not with bread and water on the way 

* In Pirke viii. p. 8, I. \ Thesaur. Sac., t. iii. 142 ; t. xx. p. 293. 



IQOI.] MELCHISEDECH, PRIEST AND KING. 187 

when you came out of the land of Egypt." This is Philo's in- 
terpretation of the passage. He says * that Melchisedech en- 
tertains Abram, giving the bread which Ammon and Moab 
were not willing to give. Nor has Josephus anything other to 
offer:f "Melchisedech furnished Abram and his army enter- 
tainment and a sufficiency of necessities." 

On the whole nothing decisive can be made out of this 
word, and so Hummelauer says that, with Lamy, he is willing 
to concede that the Hebrew verb does not prove sacrifice 
alone (comment, in loco}. But about the word priest Hummel- 
auer says: "To deny that cohen means priest is trifling, and 
does not meet the approval even of the rationalists." Although 
the etymology is uncertain, it probably comes from a root 
"to go between," and the writers of the LXX. had no doubt 
of its sacerdotal meaning, since they render it by a perfectly 
plain term one who does holy things, i.e., offers sacrifice. 

There are, Hummelauer goes on to say, three exegeses of 
the passage in Genesis : First, the usual Protestant one, which 
is that of Josephus, and also has Cajetan's approval, that 
Melchisedech simply sets a meal before Abram and his men ; 
second, the usual Catholic interpretation, that at Abram's re- 
quest Melchisedech offers a sacrifice of bread and wine and is 
paid by the tithes an indubitable interpretation, Hummelauer 
holds, to one who knows the customs of the East ; and third, 
an explanation of St. Ambrose, that there is a sacrifice fol- 
lowed by a sacrificial meal. 

The last would seem the best and most fitting explanation. 
It is one, too, which in its mystical sense touches the life of 
every man. For we, like Abram, war with dark, unknown 
foes mysterious forces of evil the prince of the powers of 
the air, and we come back wearied out from the victory. 
From our enemies we will take nothing nor will we share their 
evil riches.;}: Yet we need food ; we need strength. And then, 
as we go wearily along, One meets us who is both Priest and 
King King of Righteousness and Eternal Priest. He sacri- 
fices for us bread and wine, which is yet his body and blood ; 
he feeds us with the sacrifice, and so strengthened are we with 
that heavenly food that we feel fatigue no more. We become 
ready for a new strife, another struggle, another victory ; 
yes, in the strength of it we can go to the end, even to the 
mount of God. 

* De leg. alleg., iii. 25. t Ant., i. 10, 2. 

% St. Cyril Alex., Glaphyr. in Gen., lib. ii. 9 seq. 



1 88 MELCHISEDECH, PRIEST AND KING. [May, 

A STRIKING FIGURE OF OUR LORD. 

The Fathers and theologians see in Melchisedech a striking 
figure of our Lord, and almost all of them mention it; but 
Eusebius and Bellarmine seem to have worked out the type 
more carefully, more elaborately than have others. 

Melchisedech, they say, had no predecessor in his priest- 
hood, and no follower; he is alone; he appears for a space on 
earth and then departs for ever. So with Christ : he succeeds 
none ; none comes after him ; he is seen and then disappears.* 

Melchisedech was of no priestly family. No man had part 
in his consecration ; he was made a priest by God. Christ, too, 
from God alone derives his priesthood ; f he was not ordained 
by Aaronic rite, nor was his head anointed with the oil of the 
sanctuary, and yet hath God anointed him with the oil of 
gladness above his fellows.:}: 

No bulls nor goats did Melchisedech offer to God, but 
bread and wine; and this he offered, taught long before by 
the Holy Ghost, as an image of that future when our Saviour, 
and in the same way his priests after him, should exercise 
their office among all gentiles, and represent in the same ele- 
ments the mysteries of his body and his blood. So in Mel- 
chisedech's priesthood appears that sacrifice which Christians 
throughout the world now offer unto God. || In this way, says 
St. Jerome,*!" is our ministry signified, which consists not, as 
Aaron's, in the slaughter of beasts, but in the offering of an 
unbloody victim. 

Yet again, Melchisedech is without father, without mother, 
without genealogy. Even so our Lord on earth had no father; 
nor yet in heaven, in his divine nature, has he a mother ; 
whence Isaias says, . " Who shall declare his genealogy?"** 

A stranger was Melchisedech, uncircumcised, a priest of the 
gentiles. Behold our Priest ! a stranger to the race, a priest 
not to the Jews only but to the world, since for all his sacri- 
fice is made;tf not bound to one tabernacle or temple, but 
over the whole earth Christ's priesthood is exercised from the 
rising of the sun until its going down. ^ 

The union of royalty and priesthood in our Lord, which be- 
came manifest to men after his resurrection, is still another 
likeness between Christ and the priest-king of Salem. In his 

* Eusebius, demon. Evang., lib. v. 3. f Bellarmine, de Sac. Euch., lib. v. c. 6. 

t St. Jerome, Ep. ad Evang. St. Chrysos., horn, in Melch. 

| St. Aug., De Civit. Dei, lib. xvi. c. 22. f St. Jerome, Heb. quaest. in Gen. xiv. 18. 

* * St. Chrysos., ibidem. f t Euseb., ibid. \ \ Bellarm., ibid. 



1901.] MELCHISEDECH, PRIEST AND KING. 189 

great day of rising, when our Lord triumphed as king and 
conqueror of death and hell, when by that resurrection he is 
declared even as man to be the Son of God with power 
(Rom. i. 4), then too is his priesthood revealed. Then, says 
Tertullian,* was he clothed in the vestment of the pontiff, 
being called for ever priest of the Father. Then it was 
that " God, who has begotten him into the full glory of the 
royal power, makes him a priest with a priesthood inseparable 
from his kingship a priest after the order of Melchisedech."f 

But this same priesthood, then first openly exercised "on 
the day of perfection,":}: was his before the morning star; it is 
eternal, and as a priest he must have somewhat to offer, and 
that offering must be, like himself, eternal, without beginning 
and without end. 

There was, before creation, his offering in will of himself to 
the Father; but what of his offering in time? Christ's sacrifice 
upon the cross began and ended ; it is done. Where is his 
sacrifice, then, extending throughout all the age of man ? That 
is his body and his blood. Christ was slain in every victim of 
the Law, he sacrificed in the person of every priest. How 
much more now, in virtue of the cross actually accomplished, 
must he exercise his priesthood until the world shall end ? So 
has the Father named him and consecrated him a priest after 
the order of Melchisedech, one who offers bread and wine. 
Here he is the victim ; here he is the priest. But further, his 
priesthood lasts for ever in effect. The world shall end, use- 
less time shall run out. Christ's elect shall all be saved, and 
then the sacrifice of the altar shall be no more ; but in heaven 
the grace and glory of it, the thanksgiving for it, shall last 
for ever, and Christ, above his ransomed host, shall still be 
Priest offering the Father a sacrifice of gratitude which shall 
never have an end. || " For the Law made men priests, who 
had infirmity ; but the word of the oath, which was since the 
Law, the Son who is perfected for ever more " (Heb. vii. 28). 

* Adv. Judaeos, c. xiv. f Delitzsch, Ep. to Heb., chap. v. 5, 6. 

JSt. Cyril Alex., De ador., lib. xi. 401. Bellarm., Theol., cix. 

| Suarez, in iii. St. Thorn., q. xxii. art. 6. 




THE DAHABEAH ON THE NILE. 




A NILE WINTER. 

BY F. M. EDSELAS. 

}O deep and vivid were the impressions of a three 
months' trip down the Nile, including the return, 
that even after the lapse of time, glancing over 
notes then taken, scenes and events come back 
with the reality of the living picture. And 
though the life and wonders of that country, so passing strange, 
have been again and again related, yet as two persons seldom 
or never focus views alike, it is easy to find things new and 
interesting in the oft-told tale of the oldest civilized nation 
whose history is recorded. Thus may it prove in the sketches 
here made from life. 

Our party numbered only five. Being a family party was 
all the more enjoyable, linked as we were by kindred tastes 
and the intimate association of years, giving us a free and easy 
intercourse. 

It was early in December, after some months of European 
travel, that our steamer's prow was turned towards the Orient. 
Soon we had our first view of the low, sandy shore of Alexan- 
dria, with its light-house and the minarets of the city in the 
distance, and a summer palace of the Khedive somewhat nearer. 



1 90 1.] A NILE WINTER. 191 

This latter building is reproduced again and again in almost 
every town and city worthy of note. 

While waiting outside the bar for a pilot to take us over, a 
number of small boats appear making all haste to reach our 
steamer, but soon two of them distance all the rest and contend 
vigorously for the honor of being first at the goal; no easy 
matter in truth, since wind and wave threaten every moment 
to engulf them. They were obliged to tack continually to hold 
any little advantage gained. Shortly, the occupant in one of the 
boats with a few well-directed strokes outstrips his companion, 
and coming alongside, turbaned and gowned as he is, climbs the 
rope ladder. He is our pilot, and in a few minutes we are 
guided into the harbor, but not to a wharf. Soon we are sur- 
rounded by a crowd of small boats whose occupants, gaily 
dressed and clamorous, fail not to make their wants known. 

Some have come with parties to meet friends on the steamer, 
or with officials to escort a dignitary, clothed with the insignia 
of his authority ; others are agents from the hotels, who try 
to convince us that they are sent for our particular party. 
We were wise enough, however, to engage a dragoman in ad- 
vance to meet us here, really the only sure way of being 
properly cared for. 

But in the midst of all this jargon and confusion how are 
we to know who among the motley crowd is the one assigned 
to us ? While waiting for information we went through the 
usual ceremonies incident to the advent of custom-house and 
board-of-health officials. Soon a man was seen ascending the 
gangway bearing the open letter which we had despatched 
some days before to the proprietor of Abbott's Hotel, thus 
settling our doubts at once, leaving us at liberty to watch the 
dilemmas of others less fortunate, until we were rowed away 
from the brilliant scene. From his dress, our escort would 
have been readily taken for a European, had it not been for 
the inevitable red fez which is always worn even with the turban. 

A few minutes later we reached the custom-house, where 
we left dragoman No. I, with passports to secure our luggage 
and see it safely through, while, passing into the hands of 
dragoman No. 2, we were placed in a carriage for the hotel. 
En route we had ample opportunity to study the motley crowd 
through which we made our way as best we could. Men, 
women, and children literally swarmed around us, some in 
full dress with rich and flowing robes glittering with gold and 
jewels, and others wearing the very simplest attire of blue and 



192 



A NILE WINTER. 



[May, 



white cotton cloth. Often the men were barefooted, bestriding 
a donkey so small that the rider was forced to hold his legs 
almost at right angles to keep his feet from the ground. 

The women are said to be closely veiled, but not as we use 
the expression. A long cotton garment envelops the whole 
figure, including the head ; there is also a pointed piece pass- 
ing across the top, covering the face just below the eyes and 
connected with the head-covering by a hollow brass tube placed 
j? perpendicularly between the eyes. 

These women were usually mounted 
on donkeys and attended by a sai's, 
or donkey-boy, who often goads on 
the poor beast most unmercifully. In- 
deed this seems the chief employ- 
ment of the little Egyptian boys, 
who either attend the carriages or 
run before them to clear the way. 
Very graceful and picturesque they 
look at times, with their embroidered 
vests and full white Turkish trousers, 
contrasted with other lads dirty and 
but half clad ; yet even with these 
there is always a certain piquant at- 
tractiveness, of which their rude and 
simple attire cannot divest them. 

The streets were crowded with 
booths, stalls, and small shops where 
THE RUNNER BEFORE OUR CARRIAGE, eatables, so called, are for sale; but 
with the exception of fruit, none seemed appetizing enough to 
tempt a purchaser. 

The rest of the day was fully occupied in visiting beautiful 
gardens belonging to a palace indeed so beautiful that one 
could there have dreamed life away, so charming and restful 
was each spot with its shady nooks, its singing birds and fra- 
grant flowers, brilliant with tropical bloom. The ruins of the 
dead, dead past attracted us not less with their memories of 
the greatness and grandeur that made Eg>pt unrivalled in aits, 
arms, and science among nations ancient or modern. 

The place once occupied by Pompey's Pillar and Cleopatra's 
Needle is in the midst of a forlorn burial ground, where friends 
were weeping and wailing over graves of the departed. Yet 
this very spot must have been the most noted of this once 
famous city, since these obelisks tell us in their Greek and 




1 901.] 



A NILE WINTER. 



193 



Latin inscriptions that they were erected in front of the 
Caesareum at Alexandria in the eighteenth year of Augustus 
Caesar. 

In all these scenes the uncouth camel came crowding along, 
back and sides laden with bricks and mortar or with dry or 
green fodder ; his contemptuous and supercilious expression 
aptly described by Warner. How strangely foreign did all this 
seem ; but four months later, on our return, it appeared as 
tame and commonplace as a city at home. 

Noon of the next day found us in Cairo, whither we went 
by rail, having abundant entertainment in watching the fella- 
heen tilling the land in the fashion of centuries ago, thus 
carrying us back to the time when our 
Lord was verily like one of these peas- 
ants, among the poor and lowly toiling 
for his daily bread. How realistic, then, 
did that wondrous life appear ! The ru- 
dest instruments were still 
used ; often only a round 
stick for a plough, pointed 
at the end, shod or not 
with iron. To one of these 
a camel and donkey made 
the pair truly an unequal 
yoking that ! 

Irrigation is carried on- 
by canals intersecting the 
country, from which water 
was dipped in baskets. 
Farther on a railway was 
in course of construction, 
the men, at twenty-five 
cents per day, carrying the 
earth in baskets. 

Adobe houses of the 
country people are render- 
ed quite attractive. They 
are ornamented with turrets 
for the accommodation of 
pigeons, which are raised 
in large quantities express- ANTIQUE METHODS OF IRRIGATION. 

ly for fertilization. The villages consequently often look 
like fortified towns, to which groves of palm-trees make a 




194- A NILE WINTER. [May,. 

beautiful addition. While riding on to the hotel we caught 
our first glimpse of the Pyramids, though hardly able to realize 
the fact in those small, dim points above the horizon, twenty 
miles away. 

Our quarters proved much more comfortable than we had 
dared to hope, being conducted on the European plan, allow- 
ing for some variation. Bed-rooms were passable, but not 
specially restful unless one succeeded in getting safely under 
the mosquito-bar without taking along the brisk not always 
little fleas. A man with his fez and wearing a white cotton 
garment answered our call for a femme-de-chambre when one of 
our party stepped into the hall and gave the signal by clap- 
ping hands. We were not altogether unfamiliar with this 
variety of chamber-maid, but the dress and manner of calling 
had been different. 

Cairo had for some time been emulating Paris in the laying 
out of streets, and in the dress of the higher classes ; many of 
its narrow, irregular streets giving place to others, raying out 
like a star after the plan of the French capital. Still there is 
enough of the old city to make it look very Eastern to a 
stranger. Then the dress of the women whom we passed in 
their carriages resembles much that of our own full dress for 
evening entertainments: silks of delicate and exquisite shades, 
with white gloves and just the suspicion of a tissue veil across 
the lower part of the face. The style of the dress itself is not 
at all Parisian, reminding one rather of those worn by our 
grandmothers in our younger days. 

The devout Mussulman is loud in invectives against these 
foreign innovations, especially the almost unveiling of females ; 
but the Khedive, with progressive ideas, has a mind of his own, 
and he generally does as he pleases. 

Sunday and Friday are the favorite days for the ladies of 
his court or harem to take their airing ; though why I cannot 
say unless because one is the Christian's, and the other the 
Mohammedan's day of rest. At other times, when out for a 
drive, we met frequently, as advance couriers, two mounted 
horsemen, before which were two of the barefooted runners 
before mentioned, moving gracefully along, with sticks over 
their shoulders to be used when clearing the way. Then came 
the soldiers, followed by a coupe", in which were invariably 
seated two finely dressed women, evidently willing to see and 
be seen. Not one beautiful face, however, did we meet ; deli 
cately beautiful complexions, but no intelligence or nobility of 



1901.] A NILE WINTER. 195 

expression. Behind the carriage rode two gaunt, awkward 
black attendants in black coat and trousers, followed by two 
or more soldiers. 

From frequent descriptions given of bazaars in the Orient 
we are familiar with their general aspects ; but one who has 
never seen them can hardly realize the narrowness of the 
streets as we found them in the old quarter, contrasted with 
our spacious avenues and boulevards. Entering a street means 
continuing on to the terminus or a fortunate corner, for to 
turn around in the main part is out of the question. Then 
the lanes in the goldsmiths' quarters will hardly admit a 
donkey, unless going for his master who may have a shop 
there. These shops are the queerest imaginable, little more 
than niches in the outer wall of a building ; outside of this is 
a narrow platform on which the merchant sits cross-legged, 
smoking his chibouk, sipping coffee, chatting with a friend, or 
bargaining with a customer- the said friend or customer also 
mounting the platform. These goldsmiths are accommodating 
to a fault : if their wares do not suit you, they will make some- 
thing to order out of your own gold, if desired, often melting 
the same and beginning the work before your eyes. Emerging 
from the lane you will find these cupboard shops in the streets 
somewhat larger, while the strangest sights imaginable meet 
you on every hand. Such a motley crowd of bipeds and quad- 
rupeds fill every available space that the wonder is how any 
progress can ever be made. 

Sitting in the carriage one day, while the others had gone 
into a neighboring street, I really feared my eyes would have 
been put out by the fagots projecting from the back and sides 
of a camel crowding closely to me, so that it required all the 
efforts of our sats to keep the animal from pushing against the 
carriage. Imagine, then, a wedding or funeral procession in 
such a place ; the poor bride the most pitiful object of all, 
enveloped as she must be in camel's-hair shawls ; so that she 
can neither see nor hardly breathe, plodding her way on foot 
through the wet, muddy streets, her steps guided by two 
friends, while another walking backwards is continually fanning 
the poor bride, over whom a muslin canopy is borne; other 
friends also follow as musicians in attendance and perform on 
most discordant instruments. The victim of all this strange 
parade is meanwhile jostled and hustled about in anything but 
an agreeable manner. 

A funeral seems to have the advantage of being conducted 



196 



A NILE WINTER. 



[May, 



with more respect, though in itself very unique to a stranger. 
The body, in an open coffin borne on the shoulders of men, 
is invariably covered with camel's-hair shawls, accompanied 
by a procession of both men and women. Little attention is, 
however, paid to it by the passers-by, unless they are 
foreigners. 

One day when out for a drive our coachman suddenly 
sprang from his seat and began lashing most vigorously two 
men who were quarrelling, and this without himself being con- 
cerned in the matter ; but stranger still, the contestants showed 
no resentment, and instead of retaliating, cooled down at 
once. We were told, however, that the result would have been 
far otherwise had we not been English a general term for 
travellers. As a natural inference, our driver knew his ad- 
vantage, or he would not thus have administered justice. 

The confused babel of 
sounds on the streets is not 
less remarkable than the 
sights; the shrill cries of 
the water-carrier being very 
peculiar, to which is added 
the sound made by striking 
together his two little brass 
cups, to be filled when a 
customer appears. This he 
does from his reservoir, 
formed of the entire skin 
of a pig or goat thrown over 

the shoulder ; every part is filled with water, so that it looks 
like a living animal shaking with the motion of the carrier. 

These business streets are kept wet, and matting, or some- 
thing of the kind, is stretched across from roof to roof of the 
bazaars, making them quite cool and shady. Between twelve 
and two o'clock shopping is almost out of the question, that 
being the time for a general siesta. 

In rejuvenating the old city many new and handsome 
edifices have been built. A block going up opposite our 
hotel afforded us much amusement in watching the bricklayers, 
who presented a ludicrous and incongruous appearance in their 
turbans and flowing garments. Climbing a ladder with a full 
hod on the shoulder, and in such a dress, would seem to us a 
difficult feat, but these Egyptians were equal to the occasion. 
The many mosques, with their minarets of various designs, 




THE ACCOMMODATING MILKMAN. 



1901.] A NILE WINTER. 197 

are often fine specimens of architecture ; the older ones being 
specially attractive, as they are rich in marbles, mosaics, and 
arabesques. But it is a matter of wonder and regret that 
many through neglect are falling into ruins. They were built 
in most cases to contain the tomb of some sultan, whose 
sepulchre, like the remembrance of his greatness, soon becomes 
a thing of the past ; yet even when in ruins a few devotees 
may be seen there at the hours for prayer. Though some are 
kept in repair, yet others worthy of preservation seem sadly 
neglected ; this is especially true of the famous mosque of 
Omar, considered one of the most picturesque, and that of 
Touloon, regarded as the most ancient. The old Coptic in- 
scriptions on it add greatly to its interest and value ; but alas! 
how has it fallen from its high estate. The immense courts 
and buildings are used for a poor-house; indeed, the visitor 
feels almost in peril of his life from the attacks of beggars 
thronging around him at every step. Their appearance serves 
rather to repel than awaken pity and aid ; besides having 
maimed bodies and distorted limbs beyond anything seen else- 
where, they are filthy beyond description. 

Not far from this mosque we saw the real tombs of the 
Mamelukes, simple, square mausoleums, chastely sculptured. 
These same Mamelukes, as we know, were male slaves im- 
ported by the sultan from Circassia in the thirteenth century, 
who formed them into an armed body of guards, for which 
they were admirably adapted. But after a time, like many 
others in their condition before and since, conscious of their 
ability to obtain freedom and power, they rose in a body and 
by force of arms took the government into their own hands, 
holding the military sovereignty until 1517, when it was taken 
from them by Sultan Selim I. But again they gradually made 
their influence felt until it nearly equalled that of the pashas. 
However, the final death-blow was given the Mameluke suprem- 
acy in 1811 by Mohammed AH, who invited some four hun- 
dred of the officers to a banquet, and then most inhumanly 
massacred the entire band. Since then they have been in 
complete subjection. 

Near their mausoleums may be seen the tombs of the present 
reigning family, brothers, uncles, and other relatives of the 
Khedive, grouped together with separate domes over each. 
Beneath one was the vault for the wife of the Khedive. Pleas- 
ant enough were these places to visit, light, airy, ar.d handsome- 
ly carpeted, where, of course, one must enter only after re- 



198 



A NILE WINTER. 



[May, 



moving one's shoes. Con- 
nected with them are rooms 
where ladies of the court 
come at certain times of 
mourning. 

Mohammed Ali, founder 
of the present dynasty, lies 
alone in a beautiful mosque 
at the Citadel, the most ele- 
vated part of the city. It was 
a real disappointment to find 
that much of the apparently 
rich alabaster so profusely 
used here was only imitation, 
even though there is still some 
of the real article. The place 
has withal a very cheery and 
elegant appearance ; bright 
Turkey carpets and rugs with 
myriads of hanging lamps 
add materially to the pleas- 
ing effect. On an elevated 
place in one corner was a 
handsomely ornamented 
screen, enclosing the place set 
apart for the harem, to which 
there was a single private en- 
trance. 

On this same height of 
the Citadel is one of the many 
royal palaces, where Parisian 
damasks figure conspicuously 

with Turkish and Persian carpets, the former decorating the 
marble and alabaster fittings. This palace was built for Moham- 
med Ali, and is now kept up mainly for state ceremonies. In a 
distant quarter of the city may be seen a fine palace erected for 
Ibrahim Pasha. A portion of it surrounds a large court; in 
the centre is a lagoon, of which that at the Columbian Ex- 
position was very suggestive, the fountains, boats, and pagodas 
all realizing a dream of Eastern life in which flowers, birds, 
and houris had a part. 

The Khedive's summer palace, as all others visited, had the 
same general appearance, being elegant in rich damasks and 




1 90i.] A' NILE WINTER. 199 

velvet hangings. The suite of apartments expressly furnished 
for the ill-fated Empress Eugenie had the walls and drapery 
in blue tufted satin. 

Yet with all this display of wealth and luxury one always 
feels the great want of that true culture and literary taste to 
be secured only through books and pictures, the masterpieces 
of genius and art. With the exception of a few portraits of 
the Khedive, one of the Prince of Wales, a bust or two of the 
same, and a very beautiful representation in marble of electric- 
ity as applied by Franklin, no statues or pictures were to be 
seen. And yet in the far-away past we know that the Egyp- 
tians were the world's teachers in art, science, and litera- 
ture. 

What they once were, as we so well know, can be plainly 
read in monuments and temples, obelisks and pyramids, that 
have in ages past and will for ever challenge the world's 
wonder and admiration. 

The old Coptic churches, some of them older even than 
the mosques already mentioned, though sadly falling into 
decay, show exquisite work in different woods inlaid with 
carvings and stone mosaics. In some of these churches we 
were glad to find reliable traditions of the sojourn of the 
Holy Family during the time of their exile in Egypt, for 
Coptics, and Mohammedans as well, believe in this fact of our 
Lord's life. And well may the former cherish such tradition 
as sacred, being so closely united with us in faith and liturgy. 

The one great point of divergence is in the rejection by 
the Copts of the dual nature of Jesus Christ; hence their title 
of Monophysites, and their condemnation by the Fourth 
General Council of Chalcedon, under which ban came the same 
errors of Eutyches. We found them constituting about one- 
tenth of the Egyptian population and speaking the Arabic 
language ; Mass, however, is celebrated in the old Coptic 
tongue. Their supreme head, the Monophysite Patriarch of 
Alexandria, is chosen from the monks ; the other orders of the 
clergy being the same as with us. 

There are a few minor differences in their religious observ- 
ances, they having four fasting seasons very strictly observed. 
Lent with them commences nine days earlier than ours, during 
which they abstain from indulgence in eating, drinking, smoking, 
etc. One marked peculiarity in their ritual is the Sacrament of 
Extreme Unction, which is administered each time with that 
of penance, thus healing the diseases of the soul, even though 



200 A NILE WINTER. [May, 

there be none of the body. Circumcision is also practised, 
doubtless as a concession to Mohammedan prejudice. 

As the priests receive little or no support from the church 
under their charge, they are allowed to follow some trade. 
The common people among the Copts seem as miserable as 
the Mohammedans. An ancient feud between the two seems 
to be still preserved, judging by frequent outbreaks and atro- 
cities, even now more terrible than ever. 

The old Egyptian blood appears transmitted to them more 
fully than to any other people ; with them, as the surround- 
ing tribes, we find more or less an admixture of negro blood. 
Yet withal it is very difficult to obtain much definite informa- 
tion about these very ancient people, especially regarding their 
home life. It was, however, plainly evident that the status of 
women, whether of high or low estate, varied but little, being 
rather that of a slave or tool for man than companion and 
friend ; culture of mind and heart were wholly ignored, and 
their general condition anything but desirable. 

But we are moving on towards the Pyramids, now only 
twelve miles away, and of course one of the great objective 
points of our trip through the Orient. We made two excur- 
sions ; one by carnage, the other for a third of the way on 
donkeys, as we desired to take in a larger area than in our 
first visit, when we found the sand too deep and heavy around 
the remains of the famous temples and tombs near the Pyra- 
mids for walking or driving. 

Only one of our party a lady, too had the courage to 
make the ascent of Cheops, the greatest of these wondrously 
mysterious structures, and for some time it seemed doubtful if 
she should undertake so perilous a venture ; but arrangements 
were finally made and the courageous maiden set forth. 

We found two tribes of Arabs, under different sheiks, claim- 
ing the privilege of escorting travellers through the most noted 
parts of Egypt, all equally clamorous for a " job," so that it 
is necessary to be equally persistent in resisting their demands. 
But the young lady of our party who was preparing to ascend 
the great Pyramid, Cheops, proved equal to the occasion. She 
declared there should be only three attendants, and only three 
did she have, though another begged the privilege of carrying 
her shawl, a fifth some water, and still others I hardly know 
what. Thus the quartette finally set forth accompanied by our 
best wishes for a safe and pleasant trip, though not without 




1 90 1.] A NILE WINTER. 201 

anxious forebodings as to the result. 
It, however, proved all that could be 
<iesired. L - made good her pre- 
vious reputation of being an expert 
climber when she returned in the even- 
ing safe and sound. The effort was 
followed by no serious effect except 
a slight indisposition the next day. 

The ascent was made partly by 
pushing and partly by pulling, step 
by step, in which the guides were 
very efficient. These steps are regu- 
lar projections three or four feet high, 

in regular tiers around the pyramid ; indeed, quite a stretch for 
a lady, while gentlemen also require assistance. Originally the 
surface was perfectly smooth, blocks of stone being closely fitted 
in, and then highly polished ; but for the benefit of tourists 
these have given place to the steps already mentioned. 

Notwithstanding special arrangements had been made with 

our dragoman, each time L stopped to rest while taking 

her upward flight the guides improved the occasion to beg for 
backsheesh ; and so persistent did they become in asking that 
had she not been even more positive in declining, they would cer- 
tainly have got the better of her. She gained her point by tell- 
ing them that all had been fixed with Hassan, the dragoman, 
who would pay them well if they did their duty; if not, then . 
The spokesman finally accepted the inevitable, admitting that 
an appeal to Hassan would make matters rather the worse for 
them, as he would report to the sheik, who would "lick "them, 
as he said. For the rest of the trip all were models of ob- 
sequious civility. 

Arrived at the summit of Cheops the view was indeed novel 
and striking. Imagine the historic Nile with its windings on 
one side ; the desert, mighty and limitless as the broad ocean, 
on the other, over which a camel train was making its way ; 
while just below acres upon acres of sepulchres and temples, 
with the Sphinx in the midst, stretching away in the dim dis- 
tance far as the eye could reach. Other pyramids could also be 
seen, two approaching the size of Cheops and two much smaller. 

As a test of agility, an offer of five francs was made by a 

gentleman on the summit with L if one of the Arabs 

would descend their pyramid, cross the desert and ascend 
another in ten minutes. The offer was readily accepted, and 
VOL. LXXIII. 14 



2O2 



A NILE WINTER. 



[May, 



the feat accomplished in nine minutes, being the more remark- 
able as there was less foothold than on the Great Pyramid. 

We crawled into some of the tombs, which are roomy at 
the entrance, but being half filled with sand, progress is very 
much impeded ; but they seemed well preserved, even remark- 







" WE CRAWLED INTO SOME OF THE TOMBS." 

ably so, considering that they dated back to the time of Cheops, 
some 3000 B. c. 

But with the vision of all this and similar scenes, and the 
strong, deep impressions that come back again as vividly^ as 
the living picture of yesterday, the mere word description 
seems at best poor and meagre compared with pen-pictures 
that would fitly describe all that now remains to symbolize'.the 
grandeur and glory of Egypt's long-buried past. Words falter 
and fail when the heart is stirred by the strongest emotions F ;to 
its lowest depths. We of the present age, with our boasted 
civilization, seem but as the merest pigmies when brought^face 
to face with these monuments wrought by giants in the long, 
long ago. 

The pyramid excursion was truly one of the most exciting 
of our excursions ; perhaps I should say the most exciting were 
it not that of this we had previously some faint idea, while of 
others we had none. But we must hasten on, only briefly 
sketching one or two points of interest in this most fascinating 
portion of Egypt, or we shall never reach the dahabeah, our 
floating house serving us in our trip on the Nile. 

A fe,v miles from Cairo is Heliopolis, where lived as high- 
priest Jethro, father-in-law of Moses. Aside from this fact, the 
only attraction in such a desolate, barren country was an obe- 






1901.] A NILE WINTER. 203 

lisk, being one of two guarding the entrance of an avenue 
leading to the once famous Temple of the Sun. Its mate had 
been removed to Rome, where we had already seen it. Neither 
was as tall or as profusely sculptured as others which came in 
our way ; but we were greatly interested in the one still left 
in its original position as being the first whose hieroglyphics 
we had examined. We found some traces of a wall beneath 
the sand, but so little that the obelisk seemed utterly isolated 
from the past as well as the present, a striking comment upon 
the fallacy of. all human greatness. From reliable history we 
know, however, that it must have had surroundings in extent 
and grandeur as a worthy setting to this gem of ancient art 
and genius. 

We failed not to turn aside from the direct route to vener- 
ate the spot made sacred as a resting place for the Holy 
Family during their perilous flight into this land of exile. A 
very, very old sycamore-tree, as tradition tells us, lent them 
its grateful shelter from the burning tropical heat, under which 
we too halted through devotion. What touching and sacred 
memories were not there awakened ! 

While thus strolling about sight-seeing, our dragoman busied 
himself in fitting out our baat with all manner of comforts and 
luxuries for the three months' voyage on the Nile, constantly 
referring every detail, though ever so trifling, to our approval ; 




THE DIVINE CHILD is THE SOLUTION OF THE RIDDLE OF HUMANITY 

ASKED BY THE SPHINX. 

in fact there seems a regular competition between these guides, 
each vying with the others for the reputation of excelling 
in serving their patrons. Vainly did we insist that our tastes 



204- A NILE WINTER. [May, 

were few and simple ; Mohammed Adli was not to be moved 
from his determination of doing as he thought best, and I 
must do him the justice to say that no one could have taken 
better care of us in our floating home; but we were equally 
sure that he would have been even more pleased if we had 
been as anxious as he to give dinners, etc.; but as we were 
out for our own pleasure he was forced to submit. 

We went aboard our dahabeaJi two days before sailing so as 
to become accustomed to our surroundings, and to be sure that 
all needed supplies had been provided. We feared by this 
delay to lose the fair wind just then blowing, but Adli had 
not yet returned from the city, and on Christmas day the 
cause of his detention appeared in a massive cake covered with 
frosting and various curious devices, which he presented with 
such' a beaming countenance that we had not the heart to offer a 
word of reproach, impatient as we were to commence our voyage. 

Of course a little description of our " quarters " will not be 
out of place, at the same time giving a touch of realism to the 
scenes presented. The dahabeah was some seventy-five feet in 
length, its lower deck not more than two or three feet above 
water-line. In the fore part, just behind the bows, stood a sort 
of range ; though of a nondescript style, yet of wonderful 
capabilities, judging by the delicious courses brought from it 
by our Arab cook and his assistant dishes that would have 
done credit to any cook in New York or Boston. Near this 
range our captain had his post of honor, whence orders were 
issued for the benefit of all concerned. Between it and the 
cabin, in the centre of the deck, and hanging across it, was 
an odd-looking lateen sail, triangular in shape, ninety-eight 
feet long, but very narrow at base. For the management of this 
two men were always at hand, to shift instantly, as the sudden 
gusts to which the river is subject frequently do much damage. 

Every portion of the boat was utilized for some purpose, 
even to the floor of the cabin, which being movable, the place 
beneath answered as a storage room, and above the sailors 
sat while rowing on our return trip to Cairo. Pantry, state- 
rooms, and cabin occupied the rest of the boat, the latter being 
in the centre. The after-cabin in the stern was divided into 
sleeping-rooms, besides others for storing trunks, etc. An awn- 
ing over the upper deck made the place serve as sitting-room 
most of the time, alternating with the cabin. The after-part of 
the upper deck railed off answered for the stores of the crew. 
Here their bread, cut in slices, was spread to dry and then 



1 90 1.] 



A NILE WINTER. 



205 




"WE WENT ABOARD OUR DAHABEAH TWO DAYS BEFORE SAILING." 



2c6 A NILE WINTER. [May, 

placed in a huge chest. Behind this stood the helmsman manag- 
ing the rudder, near which stretched a mast for a small sail hung 
diagonally, like the large one. These two, spread " wing to wing " 
to catch the right breeze, gave our craft an odd appearance. 

In going up stream the wind is supposed always to come 
from the north, but unfortunately there is no certainty of this, 
as we often found to our sorrow later on. 

Towed at the stern of our dahabcah were two small boats, 
called feluccas : one for our use when going ashore at some 
point not accessible for the larger craft ; the other for the 
accommodation of our live stock, consisting of two or three 
sheep, fowls in crates, and sometimes a calf, that we might 
have a supply of fresh meat renewed from time to time ; 
pigeons were also added, being very abundant, although only 
used by the natives for fertilizing purposes, as already mentioned. 

Our crew included the captain, first and second mate, drago- 
man, steward, waiter, and cook, making, with eleven sailors, 
their cook, and a sort of major-domo, twenty persons all told, 
to care for four others. Two more of our home friends had 
at first intended joining us, but this plan did not prove feasible. 
In either case the same number of sailors would have been re- 
quired, as navigation on the Nile is not child's play, or an 
easy matter. When the wind is not fair in ascending, these 
" marines " must take a line ashore and tow, or " track," as it 
is termed ; then, if the wind is not too strong, when descend- 
ing they pull up the boards in the deck, sitting with their 
feet in the hold and row. Yet at times neither of these 
methDds proved available, so that for many days at a time we 
were obliged to rest on our oars, tied to the shore, it being 
too difficult to contend with adverse wind and wave; and this 
with not a habitation or any object of interest within sight. 

Another duty of the sailors was to " punt," as it is termed 
that is to feel their way with long poles when in shallow 
water ; then occasionally when we ran aground they were 
obliged to jump into the water and tug long and hard to set 
us adrift again. Besides these duties, they must be ready to 
attend us in making excursions ashore, as protectors from annoy- 
ance of the natives, or to assist when passing over difficult places. 

The operation of baking their own bread was quite an im- 
portant affair, which took place three times during our three 
months' trip. We were then obliged " to tie up " and wait till 
i: was finished. We always stopped at some town where there 
was an oven ; they must grind and mix their grain, making all 



1901.] 



A NILE WINTER. 



207 



the longer delay. A few genuine modern flour-mills might run 
a profitable business along this portion of the Nile. 

As we were under contract with the Reis at a fixed sum 
per day, it was for his interest to prolong the voyage as much 
as possible ; so we did not 
fail to be on the alert, in- 
suring no needless delay in 
the ninety days we had ar- 
ranged as the limit of our 
trip ; the contract bound us 
to this period even if ac- 
complished in less time. 

These Arabs who are the 
professional escorts of tour- 
ists have their own ideas 
regarding " the eternal fit- 
ness of things," which one 
may not easily gainsay. 
While arranging our outfit 
the dragoman insisted upon 
being provided with a quan- 
tity of colored lanterns " to 
make luminations" as he 
said, and I think felt ag- 
grieved that he must be 
limited to three hundred ; 
but so it was, and these, 
with an American and a 
Turkish flag, completed the list in this line. 

We were justly proud of our Reis and his splendid-looking 
company, though a somewhat motley crew in dress, size, 
figure, and feature ; but for that all the more picturesque, 
Whether turbaned in white or red, capped in drab or blue, 
gowned in varied styles and hues though not always gowned, 
but never without their full trousers of blue or white cotton 
all in all, I would not have exchanged them for any other 
crew on the river ; though one lady whom we met expressly 
conditioned that her " bronze statuary," as she termed it, should 
be handsome and fine singers. 




; OUR CREW INCLUDED THE CAPTAIN." 




208 A POET FOR THE WINTER EVENING. [May,. 

A POET FOR THE WINTER EVENING. 

BY ENEAS B. GOODWIN. 

'OJVEE books seem to have been written for the 
long winter evenings when the grate fire is 
burning brightly in the library, and the shaded 
lamp throws a soft light upon the rows of books 
lining the walls. The wind outside whistling 
round the corner of the house, and carrying the snow against 
the window-pane, makes the stillness of the study more im- 
pressive, and the curling smoke rising from the flames on the 
hearth takes on shapes familiar and strange, and leads the 
mind into a meditative mood. Into the memory then come 
again scenes and lines from experiences of a day and a life- 
time, or from books laid aside for awhile. In such a mood it 
is difficult to follow the thoughts of the great masters. The 
melody of their verse or prose may strike upon the mind's ear 

like- 

* 
" Sweet music here that softer falls 

Than petals from blown roses on the grass " ; 

but the very sweetness of the tone will cause the book to be 
closed, and send the mind wandering in the realms of fancy. 
The classic writers of literature Dante, Shakspere, Goethe 
even in their lightest lines convey here and there a thought 
too intense for the imagination only to develop, and too real 
and serious to form the subject of a winter evening's dreamy 
meditation. They are fitter for the early morning when the 
bright light of day, and the sounds of life and work, indicate 
the realness of things around, rather than for the hours when 
work is done, and the darkness and the stillness invite repose 
of body and mind. 

The Essays of Elia is a book for the lamp and hearth in 
the winter-time, and My Study Fire, by Hamilton Wright 
Mabie, is another. Mr. Ainger, in his introduction to the 
Essays of Elia, says that a " feature of Lamb's style is its 
allusiveness. One feels rather than recognizes that a phrase, 
or idiom, or turn of expression, is an echo of something that 
one has heard or read before." It is this allusiveness and 



1901.] A POET fOR THE WINTER EVENING. 209 

echo of what one has heard or read that make the Essays such 
pleasant reading. A few lines will often bring into the mem- 
ory recollections of pages of the old black-letter books, of 
quaint words of wisdom from good Sir Thomas Browne, and 
scenes from the Elizabethan dramatists, that will make the 
mind build up whole periods in early English literature, and 
meditate on the wisdom of the past, or see in imagination the 
old stage life of Ben Jonson, and Shakspere, and Webster. 
The style of Lamb, quaint, subtly humorous, reminiscent, and, 
as Walter Pater said, "informing a little, chiefly in a retro- 
spective manner, but in no way concerned with the turning of 
the tides of the great world," makes him one of the most sug- 
gestive writers on the little things of life. And the story of 
Lamb's own life, so unselfish, kind, and sad, becomes a fitting 
subject for quiet thought when the fire burns low and the 
embers on the hearth grow cold. As Mr. Ainger said of his 
style so may be said of his life-history, that it leaves an 
aroma like the perfume of faded rose-leaves in a china jar. 

Although Mr. Mabie's book is very different from the 
Essays of Elia, yet it is also a book for the winter evenings. 
It seems to have been written in a great arm-chair by the light 
of the study fire. In it are reflected the gleams of the warm 
flames and the happiness of the modern student's home. Its 
pages bear the impress of calm contentment, of domestic love, 
and the joy that comes from heart-to-heart talks with those 
bound together by long and intimate fellowship and affection. 
The essays making up the book are on thoughts suggested by 
the passing of the seasons, by the lives of men, and by the 
workings of the mind on the great poems of the past ; but the 
charm of the book lies in its delicacy, its homeliness, and 
unconscious manifestation of the personal qualities of the 
writer. The book brings a feeling of delightful companionship 
into the solitude of the study, like the sound of a friend's 
voice ringing in the ears after he has gone. And it is this 
quality, as much as the thoughts contained in it, which makes 
Mr. Mabie's book most suitable for winter evening reading. 

But prose, however charming and suggestive it may be, 
does not possess the peculiar charm and suggestiveness of 
poetry. The turns of expression required by the meter, the 
rhythmical melody of the verses, the thought only half re- 
vealed, make the imagination more active and the creations 
of the mind more real. Real poetry, moreover true, serious, 
and, according to the famous saying of Milton, simple, sensu- 



210 A POET FOR THE WINTER EVENING. [May, 

ous, and impassioned wields a power over the spiritual and 
physical man that no prose ever can. It enters the soul, and 
thence, like the life-blood flowing from the heart, goes forth 
penetrating and saturating the whole man. And this power is 
possessed not only by the great poems of the masters, but also 
by every poem that makes for the better development of the in- 
dividual. Such a poem may never appeal to the world ; it may 
be like a flower that withers the day it blooms ; but if it has made 
one human being better, then for him it is a true poem. The 
simple, sensuous, impassioned qualities of a true poem have, 
moreover, an aesthetic power that no prose can possess. The 
poetry of Keats has such qualities in an eminent degree. 
The world seems more beautiful after reading his poems, a 
delicate fragrance fills the air, and the imagination, if not the 
reason, can grasp the meaning of those famous lines : 

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty that is all 
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know." 

For a winter evening, when the world outside is cold and 
cheerless, poems beautiful, delicate, and suggestive have a 
charm that is half lost in other hours of the day. And when 
these poems are quatrains, little lyrics, and sonnets like those 
of Father Tabb the charm is increased, for the brevity of the 
poems impels the mind to develop the thought and the 
imagery, in order to acquire a mastery of the meaning. 

Father Tabb's poems have been published for some time, 
but, as an English critic wrote when his Poems first appeared, 
no American poet has shown such skill in delicate forms of 
expression, and in manifesting beautiful thoughts, since the 
days of Sidney Lanier. Delicacy, beauty, and brevity are the 
characteristics of these poems. And along with these char- 
acteristics is a suggestiveness which, like the perfume of a flower 
in a crowded room, leads the mind out into the warm sunshine, 
and the fair fields, and to the great moral truths behind all. 
Nature and the lessons contained in the flower, and field, and 
singing bird are the subjects of these charming little poems. 
But it is not Nature in her awful aspects the aspects so 
vividly portrayed by the old Hebrew singers but rather as she 
reveals herself here and there through a ray of sunlight. It is 
the fleeting phases of nature, the passing cloud, the summer 
wind, and the flash of the humming-bird through the flowers, 
that these poems reflect. 

In this kind of poetry the mind receives a suggestion that 



i pi.] A POET FOR THE WINTER EVENING. 211 

enables it to build up for itself a more lengthy poem. Thus 
on a winter's evening the poem "To a Rose" brings back 
memories sweet as the perfume of the flower itself. The flames 
on the hearth fashion themselves into petals delicate and 
swiftly fading ; and the hand unconsciously takes down some 
book closed long ago, and turning over the pages takes from 
between them a flower faded and frail, and crumbling into 
dust by being lifted from its long-time resting-place. The 
scenes and friendly faces of youth come back again, and the 
sound of youthful laughter seems so real that the falling snow 
is heard no more, and the stillness of the study is gone. But 
the withered rose, turning into dry dust at the lightest touch, 
makes the merry faces, and the bright lights, and the warm 
summer breeze fade away, and, as it is put back among the 
leaves of the old book, the words of the poet take on a 
meaning deep, and tender, and personal : 

"Thou hast not toiled, sweet Rose, 

Yet needest rest : 
Softly thy petals close 

Upon thy breast, 
Like folded hands of labor, long oppressed." 

Thoughts of the years gone by, and of the friends who 
have passed away with them, lead the mind to meditate on the 
transitory nature of earthly happiness. The leaping flames 
seem to contain within themselves images of human lives. 
They begin in a vague, shadowy way ; then comes the bright 
flashing light that lasts for a little while, and is followed by 
the broken smoke that quickly leaves no trace behind. And 
so it is with human life ; there is the unformed, half-uncon- 
scious time of childhood, then come the keen, active years of 
youthful manhood when life is very real and friends are dear, 
and then the days that seem always evenings fast speeding 
into the darkness of the night. For thoughts such as these 
there is a poem that carries the mind into the darkness and 
makes it see the ray of light far in the distance. It is the 
story of a flower striving to reach a dying human flower before 
it fades away from earth : 

" I knew she lay above me, 

Where the casement all the night 
Shone, softened with a phosphor glow 
Of sympathetic light, 



212 A POET FOR THE WINTER EVENING. [May,. 

And that her fledgling spirit pure 
Was pluming fast for flight. 

I waited, darkling, till the dawn 

Should touch me into bloom, 
While all my being panted 

To outpour its first perfume : 
When, lo ! a paler flower than mine 

Had blossomed in the gloom." 

The hope of seeing again those whose light has failed does 
indeed make their absence less painful to bear, but now and 
then the old grief will come again and the pain seems as in- 
tense as when first felt. At such times the depth of meaning, 
and the suggestion of a sorrow that cannot cease, contained in 
these lines will cause the book to be closed for awhile, and 
bring back the poignant pangs of a grief old yet deeply 
branded on the memory: 

" Old grief, new tears : 

Deep to deep is calling, 
Life is but a passing cloud 
Whence the rain is falling." 

The stillness of the study and the soft glow of the lamp 
are favorable for melancholy musings ; but the sound of the 
wind, and the snow beating against the windows, and the 
crackling of the fire as a new log is put on, makes one turn 
over the pages of the book to a poem that has the melody 
and rhythm of a happier mood. It is the " Fern Song." The 
charm in its lines seems to make the falling of the snow change 
into the fast falling drops of a summer shower. Summer skies 
and summer breezes cause the old griefs to depart, and the 
pleasures of the present make the heart feel again those that 
are past. Thoughts even of the warm sunshine, flashing on 
the leaves and dispelling the shadows on the grass, bring back 
the buoyancy and cheerfulness that are half lost in the winter- 
time. The contrast, too, between the thoughts and the cold 
white landscape swept by the winter winds adds to the plea- 
sure of entertaining them. The world after all would be a 
dreary place if there were no shadows on it. They bring out 
the poetry in the commonest life. Unalloyed pleasure is the 
ideal of a child mind. Work and sorrow are the realities of 
life, and it is only after them that idleness and pleasure can 
bring real happiness. In the " Fern Song " the necessity of 



1901.] A POET FOR THE WINTER EVENING. 213 

the cloud sometimes concealing the sunshine is beautifully ex- 
pressed : 

" Dance to the beat of the rain, little fern, 

And spread out your palms again, 
And say, ' Tho' the sun 

Hath my vesture spun, 
He hath labored, alas ! in vain, 

But for the shade 
That the cloud hath made, 

And the gift of the dew and the rain.' 
Then laugh and upturn 

All your fronds, little fern, 
And rejoice in the beat of the rain." 

Passing away from care, and coming into the bright light 
of hopefulness again, gives a new impetus to ambition and 
makes success seem nearer. After the rain cloud has melted 
away the sun shines forth warmer and brighter. And here in 
the library after the log has thoroughly ignited, and the mass 
of flame illumines the distant corners of the room, there comes 
the resolution of doing better work on the morrow, and of 
making greater efforts to grasp the phantom-like form of that 
on which are set the heart and brain. Light and cheerfulness 
are most conducive to resoluteness. By means of them the 
object of ambition develops, and the means needed for its 
attainment are more clearly seen. 

Every human life, how humble soever it may be, has some 
ideal toward which it tends, and, in its own way, labors to 
possess. And this ideal, this object of living, is formed, and 
grows, and develops silently, out of acts apparently uncon- 
scious, out of circumstances uncontrollable, out of contact with 
friends, until at last it is the dominating influence of life. 
There is no known time when it can be said to have begun. 
A word or an action may have started it, but so quiet was its 
growth that it seems to have come ready-made into the mind. 
There is much similarity between the growth of a life-dominat- 
ing ideal and a flower. Both are perfections of nature, and, as 
in all the workings of nature, there is a mysteriousness about 
both. The little seed placed in the ground and carefully 
covered over soon sends forth its tiny shoots, and the begin- 
ning of the rose or the chrysanthemum is seen. But the glory 
of the flower makes only plainer the marvellous mystery it 
contains : 



214 A POET FOR THE WINTER EVENING. [May, 

" Whence art thou ? From what chrysalis 

Of silence hast thou come ? 
What thought in thee finds utterance 

Of dateless ages dumb 
Outspeeding in the distance far 

The herald glances of a star 
As yet unseen." 

The ideal is the dominating influence on life because it is 
permanent. In this it differs from the whims, fancies, and 
imaginary apparitions that are continually diverting the mind 
from the one object it is destined for. They belong more to 
the time of immaturity, of youthful instability, than to the 
years when care and the duties of life have taken enthusiasm 
away. But, notwithstanding frequent diversions, the ideal re- 
mains, and the mind comes back to it, and the force impelling 
its attainment never ceases its activity. In this the ideal may 
be called 

" The blossom thoughts that here within 

The garden of my soul arise, 
Alike unheeding wintry skies; 

Or sun, or rain, or night, or day, 
And never hence to pass away." 

There is a solemnity in the thought of the permanence of 
the ideal. It is indeed a part of us, made up by our own 
selves ; yet so real is it that it seems to be something quite 
distinct from us. Its influence, too, is such as never to leave 
the mind at ease. The struggle to attain it is ceaseless ; but it 
is not a struggle in the dark. There is always time to pause, 
to review the efforts made, to measure the distance to success, 
and to meditate upon the actions that were useless and made 
a failure of our work. For the ideal always stands out lumin- 
ously, like a tall pine against the cold gray sky, and stumbling 
to attain it does not make it disappear. Its plainness, how- 
ever, before the mind's sight now and then brings on sadness. 
It seems to be always moving back just as the hands are about 
to grasp it. Although all the world may think a man has 
realized his ideal, yet when the evening of life comes and he 
cannot labor any more, he feels somehow that more should be 
done in order to clasp tightly within his arms the ambition of 
his youth. It is indeed an ideal, a dream thought; but so 
real that many a life has gone out in its pursuit. 

By this time the log on the hearth has begun to crumble 



1901.] A POET FOR THE WINTER EVENING. 215 

away, and here and there black spots may be seen indicative 
of the smouldering of the fire. The corners of the room have 
become dark again, the titles on the rows of books can scarcely 
be seen now, and even the lamp seems to burn with a softer 
glow. As the silver-tongued clock over the fireplace calls out 
the quarters nearing midnight, and ticks away the minutes that 
return no more, the eye wanders over the pages which contain 
poems that carry the mind beyond time and place, beyond any 
human ideal, into the world of spirit and immaterial thought. 

There is hardly any time of the year when the mind is so 
ready to receive thoughts about the unseen world as during 
the midnight hour of a winter evening. The darkness outside, 
the stillness within (broken only by the sound of the clock 
that seems strangely loud, ard now ard then the creaking 
doors that make one shrink back and shudder), are conducive 
to meditations in which the mind divests itself of the things 
that hold it down to earth, and penetrates far into the invisi- 
ble. For it is at midnight that 

"A flood of darkness overwhelms the land; 

And all that God had planned, 
Of loveliness beneath the noonday skies, 
A dream o'ershadowed lies." 

It is like a dream, too, that the great event which made holy 
for ever a winter midnight hour comes into the memory. The 
words of the Angels' song seem to ring out on the stillness of 
the night, not to tell the coming of the Divinity among men 
again, but to say that He is present now as really as He was 
centuries ago. And the angels do not sing alone any more 
while mankind listens wonderingly. The inhabitants of earth 
have taken up the words of the song, and utter them with 
voices strong and trustful, and from hearts filled with confi- 
dence and love. In a poem worthy of the Christmas midnight- 
time Father Tabb brings out the thought of the modern 
Dawn Song : 

" 'Tis Christmas night ! Again 

But not from heaven to earth 
Rings forth the old refrain, 

'A Saviour's Birth!' 
Nay, listen ; 'tis below ! 

A song that soars above, 
From human hearts aglow 
With heavenly love ! " 



2i 6 A POET FOR THE WINTER EVENING. [May, 

The thought of what has been endured by One who had 
no need to suffer does fill the soul with a love so pure and 
true that it may be called heavenly. In consequence of it 
there comes a quietness over the whole being, and a restfulness 
in the consciousness that that love is returned in an infinite 
degree by One who, infinite Himself, yet so loved men as to 
become one of them. And the thought that, although invisible 
now, He still looks kindly into the heart and silently directs 
the course of life, adds to the calm that comes over the mind 
in its reflective mood. Things take on a different aspect 
under the light of such a thought. The study seems no longer 
deserted, but it becomes a holy place, a terrible place indeed, 
for it is the house of God. Even the flowers fading in the 
jardiniere on the table have within them the divinity that 
makes the world bloom. As the poet wrote : 

"I see Thee in the distant blue; 

But in the violet's dell of dew 
Behold I breathe and touch Thee too." 

These are only a small number of the thoughts that Father 
Tabb's poems suggest. All of them in one way or another are 
replete with indications that direct the mind, when in a mus- 
ing mood, to the nobler sides of nature, and to considerations 
of nature's God. For Father Tabb's poems are intensely re- 
ligious : not the religion that makes this world dreary and 
ugly, but the religion that sees the beautiful in everything, 
and shows all the fairness to be but a manifestation of the 
beauty of God. There is a lesson, then, in every poem, and 
learning it helps one to understand the mechanism of the tiniest 
insect, the glory of the scented flower, the ideal influencing 
human life, and in a measure the great Being who permeates 
all. Lessons such as these make a winter evening's meditation 
fruitful, and cause one to forget the cold and the gloom outside, 
and to see again the fair fields, the bright sunshine, and the 
beauty in the humblest life. 




1 90 1.] WORKINGMEN AND LIFE INSURANCE. 21 / 

WORKINGMEN AND LIFE INSURANCE. 

BY THOMAS SCANLON. 

f* 

UPPOSE a man at the age of 30 makes up his 
mind to put by $23 a year. If he is a healthy 
man and does not take any undue risks, he will 
probably live another 30 years, and in that time 
he would have saved, exclusive of interest, $690. 
But he has only a probability and not a certainty to guide 
him, and consequently he never can tell how much he will be 
worth when he dies. Instead, however, of hoarding up the 
money, let us suppose that he pays it annually to an insurance 
office as a life insurance premium. He is no longer in doubt 
as to what his financial position will be at his death, at least 
approximately. For $23 a year he can take out a policy which 
will be good for $1,000 at death, whenever that event may 
happen. He has thus converted doubt into certainty, fear into 
confidence, shadow into substance. This he has done by sim- 
ply throwing in his lot with a group of others and averaging 
the results. The uncertainty which hangs over the fate of 
individuals tends to vanish when we take large groups into 
consideration, for so Nature has decreed 

" So careful of the type she seems, 
So careless of the single life." 

Tennyson 's "In Memoriam" 

THE PRESENT CONDITION OF LIFE INSURANCE. 

Life insurance is not more than a couple of centuries old. 
Like navigation and other applied sciences, it has had to start 
with charts which were largely false, and to make its correc- 
tions as it went along. Indeed, the parallel might be carried 
still further, for the perils of the sea are not more dangerous 
than are some of the financial perils associated with insurance 
management. Life insurance, to be safe and to be equitable, 
must be based upon extensive and accurate knowledge of all 
the elements of risk that enter into the undertaking ; the risk 
undertaken cannot be accurately measured ; it can but be 
approximately predicted, and that only by the closest observa- 
tion of past experience. Nowadays such a vast body of reli- 

VOL. LXXIII. 15 



21 8 WORK1NGMEN AND LIFE INSURANCE. [May, 

able data touching every conceivable form of risk has been 
accumulated, and the subject has received so much attention 
at the hands of skilled actuaries, statisticians, and financiers, 
that one may well feel embarrassed at the almost endless 
variety of ways in which those wishing to invest money against 
a given contingency can do so advantageously. For those who 
have the foresight and the means to lay by a certain sum 
every year there are plenty of excellent offices prepared to 
give handsome terms by way of insurance at death, endow- 
ments, and old-age pensions, with other dainty morsels thrown 
in, such as bonuses, cash dividends, paid-up policies, non-for- 
feiture benefits, etc. What are called the upper and middle 
classes, the mercantile and professional people, and the well- 
to-do tradesmen no longer fight shy of insurance, but appre- 
ciate its aims and are becoming its best customers. While, 
however, it is abundantly clear that the classes who are strong 
enough and intelligent enough to protect themselves are fully 
provided for in the way of life insurance protection, it may 
not be out of place to inquire what has been done towards 
carrying the same facilities into the homes of those unfoitu- 
nately the great bulk of the community who, without either 
the means or the intelligence which would enable them to take 
advantage of the terms offered to their richer brethren, are all 
the more in need of such facilities from the fact that many of 
them are separated only by a week's wages from absolute 
want. 

INDUSTRIAL INSURANCE. 

If life insurance was to be spread broadcast among the 
people, there was only one way to do it. The mountain would 
not go to Mahomet ; therefore Mahomet must go to the 
mountain. But neither Mahomet nor anybody else will under- 
take the trouble for nothing ; consequently the mountain must 
be debited with the expenses of the journey. Stripped of all 
allegory, the position is this : that the dearness of industrial 
life insurance, as compared with ordinary life insurance, arises 
from the fact that the former involves the maintenance of a 
large standing army of collectors who receive the premiums at 
the people's homes, whereas the latter does not. The term 
" industrial " insurance is well chosen. It means the insurance 
of the industrial classes. Where factories, workshops, furnaces, 
and warehouses spring up rapidly, necessitating the employ- 
ment of a large number of hands at weekly wages, and where, 



1 90 1.] WOKKINGMEN AND LlFE INSURANCE. 21$ 

as in the modern industrial towns on either side of the Atlantic, 
the temptations to spend money as fast as it is earned are 
difficult to overcome, the need of some social contrivance 
whereby the tide of good resolution could be caught regularly 
at its flood, and the few stray coins washed up (so to speak) 
by that tide might be collected and in some way made to 
minister to the later inevitable needs of their possessor or his 
family, must have been severely felt. Pauper funerals before 
the introduction of industrial insurance were numerous enough, 
but the contamination of town life and a hand-to-mouth exist- 
ence had not quite quenched the f elf-respecting spirit of the 
working classes, and accordingly a movement arose among 
them to render themselves independent of pauper burial by 
providing collectively for the inevitable contingency which in- 
dividually they could not face. 

Amongst the more intelligent and public-spirited of the 
working-classes the movement took the shape of "benevolent" 
or " friendly societies," under such quaint-sounding names as 
"The Ancient Order of Druids," " The United Order of Buffa- 
loes," the " Unity of Oddfellows," etc. The fantastic nomen- 
clature of those organizations, and the antiquarian pomp and 
symbolism which often was, and is to this day, associated with 
their public functions, may have drawn into their ranks a class 
of persons whom the more prosaic functions of providing for 
sickness and death benefits would not have attracted. Still 
there is no doubt that beneath their ceremony and affectation 
there lay a wealth of useful and laudable work. The idea of 
self-government was fostered ; authority and responsibility went 
together. While all lodges were affiliated to the order, each 
lodge was responsible for its own financial condition, and every 
member of such lodge had a direct interest in preventing the 
order from being cheated and imposed upon. Many such 
societies are still in existence, and some of them are wealthy 
and flourishing; and even when one of them is found to be 
insolvent it possesses remarkable recuperative powers in the 
loyalty, vigilance, and activity of its members. 

COLLECTING FRIENDLY SOCIETIES. 

But these societies touched only the higher strata of the 
industrial classes. To meet the wants of the other and more 
numerous sections of the working-class population other agen- 
cies had to be called into requisition. A class of organizations 
calling themselves "friendly societies," but widely different 



220 WORKINGMEN AND LlFE INSURANCE. [May, 

in their practical operation from the orders just mentioned, 
soon made its appearance in answer to the public needs. 
These were the "collecting friendly societies." The name 
" collecting," recently stamped upon them by the British 
Parliament, serves to distinguish them from the friendly so- 
cieties proper. The collecting societies were co-operative in 
form ; that is, all members had constitutionally equal rights, 
but in practice the self-interest of the collecting element was 
the dominating motive in the management. The collecting 
societies sent round thsir representatives from house to house, 
promising to each member not only a fixed amount at death 
for a given premium per week, but in addition a voice in the 
control of the society. They met with a considerable amount 
of success as far as membership was concerned. Their mem- 
bership to-day in the United Kingdom alone probably amounts 
to 4000,000, including a large proportion of juveniles. Hard 
canvassing, stimulated by the anticipation of resultant profit, 
has effected this realization. From the outset, however, it 
might have been clearly seen that these societies rested upon 
a very unsatisfactory footing. It was not likely that people 
who were either so lazy or so thriftless that they required a 
collector to wait upon them every week for their premiums 
would make good use of any powers of self-government with 
which the constitution of their society invested them. And it 
might easily have been foreseen that the powers which the 
members neglected to use would be eagerly seized by the 
dominant collecting factions, and used by them in their own 
sordid interests. This much is certain : that the self-govern- 
ment theory as applied to these societies has not stood the 
test of experience, and although the British legislature has, 
with the best of intentions, passed various enactments to en- 
courage the members to take a deeper interest in the manage- 
ment of the affairs of their societies, the dangers to solvency 
which arise from the cupidity and ignorance of amateur 
management have been proved to be not less real than those 
which are associated with the rule of a rapacious collecting 
" ring." 

THE NEXT COMPETITOR. 

The next competitor to enter the field took the shape of 
the industrial insurance company ; an organization managed 
avowedly in the interests of a small body of share-holders, and 
treating its clients as policy-holders only, not as members. 



190 1.] WORKINGMEN AND LIFE INSURANCE. 221 

Several of these concerns were originally collecting societies, 
the promoters of which, no doubt foreseeing the difficulty of 
reconciling theory and practice, wisely abandoned what they 
felt to be untenable ground, and took their stand upon the 
ground of private enterprise pure and simple. From their 
point of view, which events have since largely justified, an 
insurance policy is an absolute contract between two parties, 
and need not be surrounded with a show of benevolence or of 
fraternal spirit, any more than the purchase of a railway ticket 
or of an ounce of tobacco. What the people want, it is con- 
tended, who are not in a position to take up ordinary insur- 
ance, is not the illusory glory of a blind partnership in a con- 
cern that is nominally self-governed, but commercial solvency 
and security. A passenger takes a ferry ticket in order to 
cross the river ; he does not want in addition to take a turn 
at the wheel ; it would be worse for himself and for every 
other passenger if he did ; and in the same way it may be 
urged that the poor insurer only wants absolute security that 
his money shall be safe at death, and not that doubtful kind 
of security which is afforded by unskilled or haphazard 
management. 

Both these methods of insurance have flourished side by 
side in Great Britain for upwards of half a century, and the 
results to-day may fairly be taken as a test of their relative 
suitability to the wants of that country. It is estimated that 
half the population is insured in one or other of these two 
classes of organizations. One industrial company alone, viz., 
the British Prudential, claims to have one-third of the popula- 
tion on its policy roll, leaving one-sixth to be distributed 
amongst all the other companies and collecting societies. While 
two or three large collecting societies still survive and have a 
tolerably good membership, their success has been in direct pro- 
portion to the fidelity with which they have imitated the methods 
of the industrial companies, which, as we have seen, absorb the 
lion's share of the business. 

The conditions of life which in England made industrial 
insurance a necessity of the times were no sooner reached 
here than the system appeared and took root. Just as in the 
older country, the business here is mainly in the hands of a few 
large companies. Nor is this the outcome of what in so many 
other spheres of business is recognized as the " trust " tendency. 
The fact is that in insurance the best results can be reached only 
when operations are conducted on a large scale, for it takes large 



222 WORKINGMEN AND LIFE INSURANCE. [May, 

masses of units to give the law of averages room to work. 
There is nothing in common between the concentrative 
tendency in insurance, which is a permanent condition making 
for safety, and the concentrative tendency which in certain 
other fields of enterprise may proceed from the arbitrary 
manipulation of artificial conditions. There is here no raw 
material to be monopolized. Anything like the Standard Oil 
Company is impossible in the insurance world. There is no 
field more open to competition, and nothing to deter new com- 
petitors from entering beyond the sight of the wreckage of so 
many ambitious offices that have paid with their lives the 
penalty of their want of skill and knowledge. 

INSURANCE ON CHILDREN. 

Although the spread of industrial insurance has been truly 
phenomenal, it must not be supposed that there were not some 
tough battles to be fought before the system was allowed to 
take firm root in this country. Its utility and real beneficence 
were often disputed, and indeed are so still, though by a con- 
stantly dwindling proportion. The practice of insuring children 
for death benefits was a feature that was fiercely assailed, just 
as it was in Great Britain, on the ground that it constituted a 
temptation to bad parents to murder their offspring for the 
sake of the insurance money. Such a wholesale charge reads 
terrible in cold print ; yet it has often been made by philan- 
thropic and high-minded men against the masses of their 
countrymen. It only shows how one-eyed such philanthropy is 
liable to become, and how tyrannous a philanthropic govern- 
ment might become in practice. It may have happened in a 
very few rare instances that parents or guardians (?) have de- 
scended to this unnatural level of criminality, owing to corrupt 
social environments; but the masses of the human race, though 
they may hate each other, love their children and care for 
them, and to them insurance is a boon. And if such isolated 
cases have happened, at least some cases have also happened 
where adult persons have been murdered for the sake of the 
insurance money. Yet such cases are not cited as a reason 
for the suppression of adult insurance. A child's life is pre- 
carious under the best conditions, as insurance offices know to 
their cost, and their own self-interest, independent of philan- 
thropic considerations, is sufficient to dictate the limits ad- 
mittedly narrow ones within which child insurance should be 
conducted. It is not the practice of the companies to insure 



I9OI.] WORKINGMEN AND LIFE INSURANCE. 22$ 

children under 12 years of age for more than what a weekly 
premium of 5 or 10 cents will purchase, and the longer the 
child lives, till adolescence is reached, the more money is paid 
at death. 

INSURANCE COMPANIES AND THE COLORED PEOPLE. 

A mistaken sense of philanthropy has also intruded itself 
into the dealings between insurance offices and their colored 
clients. According to the experience of certain offices, the 
average black man is not near as good a risk as the average 
white man, and should consequently pay a proportionately 
higher premium for equal benefit. But certain State legisla- 
tures, imbued with the idea of racial equality, and possessing 
more power than knowledge, in relation to the subject in 
hand, passed enactments compelling the offices to give the 
colored policy-holders the same benefits as they gave the white 
people, for an equal premium. This is, from an insurance 
point of view, equivalent to ordering that men who insure at 
60 shall receive the same death benefits for a given premium 
as those who insure at 40 or 50. This placed the offices in a 
serious dilemma. They had either to cease canvassing for 
colored risks altogether, or to continue insuring them knowing 
them to be bad risks, and to let the deficiency which might 
arise in their cases be defrayed by the longer-lived white 
policy-holders. This latter arrangement would, of course, be 
unjust to the white people, and we learn without surprise that 
the former course was the one adopted. " Equal risk equal 
premium " is a good insurance motto, and the wonder is that 
any legislature should so far forget its true province as to 
declare certain things to be equal which have been found by 
actual measurement to be unequal. 

The number of industrial policies now in force in the 
United States is computed to exceed 10,000,000, or less than 
one-seventh of the population according to the last census. 
This is far short of the condition which has been reached in 
Great Britain, where, as we have seen, every second person is 
insured. To attain this result would require an additional 
issue of 27,000,000 policies, so that there is yet "ample room 
and verge enough " for the enterprising canvasser. The aver- 
age amount insured by each policy is about $130, enough to 
defray the funeral expenses of the insured and to leave a 
small balance. 



224 WORKINGMEN AND LIFE INSURANCE. [May. 

MAKING INSURANCE POPULAR. 

A prominent British government official once declared that 
insurance canvassers were a necessary evil. In order to prove 
how necessary they are, let us ask how many of those who 
now make provision for their future through insurance com- 
panies and societies would have done so had there been no 
canvassers. Surely an infinitesimal proportion. The British 
government several years ago, through its post-office system, 
tried to make life insurance popular with the masses. It in- 
troduced a scheme whereby any one, at a much cheaper rate 
than the industrial companies offer, could insure his life at the 
nearest post-office, by paying his premiums there annually. 
But the whole scheme is a dead-letter, notwithstanding the 
good things that were hoped from its introduction. While 
the big private concern already mentioned adds every year a 
million and a half policy-holders to its list, the post-office adds 
at the rate of a few hundreds. The art of the canvasser and 
the energy begotten of enlightened self-interest has made this 
gigantic difference. " Enlightened self-interest " is not a very 
captivating phrase, and as a cure for social ills it has long 
been banished from the reformer's pharmacopoeia. But the 
thing which it signifies is yet capable of much. In the single 
field of life insurance which we are considering it has been 
the means of diverting many million dollars from purposes 
which were useless or harmful to purposes which are praise- 
worthy and honorable. Governments have tried to do the 
same thing and have failed. It is only a conspicuous illustra- 
tion of the broad fact that, given free competition and no 
favor, the interests of all the human race are identical. An 
insurance manager may be only thinking of making his for- 
tune ; the idea of saving the nation may never have entered into 
his head. But the world is so constituted that in doing one 
he does the other. I speak, of course, only of fields of enter- 
prise where equality of opportunity is not denied. And as 
there is no field so open and free to all comers as the field of 
life insurance, so I think I can say without fear of contradic- 
tion that the half century just closed has been no less remarka- 
ble for the extraordinary prosperity of insurance offices, and 
the high profits of share-holders, than for the advantageous 
terms enjoyed by policy-holders, and the extent to which their 
requirements are met and provided for by the offices to which 
they have entrusted their savings. 




THE CANAL AT CANTON. 




RAILROADS IN CHINA. 

ESPITE the rivalries which always exist at Peking 
between the different powers and the violent 
struggle of influences engaged there, which have 
often compromised the end that each appeared 
to seek, it seems that all Europe, with her civil- 
ization, has at last united to break open the gates of the 
Celestial Empire. It is certain that great advancement has 
been made during the last four years. The treaty of Shimo- 
noseki afforded the opportunity of establishing manufactories 
in the open ports ; the birth of an industrial China through it 
was rendered possible. To this another concession was added, 
in 1898, not less important: that of opening to steam navigation 
all the rivers in the provinces having treaty ports; that is to 
say, in thirteen of the nineteen Chinese provinces, and in the 
entire basin of the Yang-tse-Kiang in particular, with the ex- 
ception of the inferior province of Kweichau. European ships 
are thus enabled to load and unload their cargoes much nearer 
the centre of distribution, avoiding costly transfers and the op- 
pressive exactions of collectors of internal customs. Eleven 
new treaty ports have been opened since the war, where for- 
eign merchants can establish themselves and be in close con- 
nection with the consumer. Better still, the internal customs 
will be collected regularly. The change from oppressive and 
arbitrary taxes to regularly collected duties is a real revolution. 



226 



RAILROADS IN CHINA. 



[May, 



The greatest event of the last four years is, however, the 
construction of a system of railways. Until recently China 
has not shown the least comprehension of the importance of 
railroads, and has resisted with great energy the introduction 
into her territory of the great emblem of modern civilization. 
The governing class was confused by the profound changes 
that would ensue in economic life, and, in consequence, in the 
political system of the Empire, by the establishment of means 
of rapid transit. Besides this, routine prevented the merchants 
themselves from comprehending the advantage ; and then popu- 
lar superstition, of which persons of the highest rank partake, 
was not to be offended. One could not say, after the war 
with Japan, which placed the Celestial Empire on the very 
brink of ruin, whether, instead of making concessions to the 
inventions of Western barbarians, it would not be better to 
offer a high reward to whoever would re-discover the secret 
of the phoenix rising from its ashes. Was it not recently 
said that the members of the Tsung-li-Yamen would tear 

down the embankments of the 
railway ; that the nails driven 
downward into the crossbeams 
were at the risk of wound- 
ing the dorsal fins of sacred 
dragons, inhabitants of the 
subsoil ? 

It is not surprising, then, 
that a short line of railway, 
constructed in 1876 by Euro- 
peans, between Shanghai and 
Wusung, was destroyed by 
the Chinese authorities the 
following year. A short time 
afterward, however, Li Hung 
Chang was persuaded to build 
a short railroad between his 
coal mines at Kaiping and the 
nearest navigable river, the 
Peitang, situated north of 
Peiho ; this road was after- 
ward extended to Tien-tsin for 
one terminus, and the other 
to Shanhai-Kwan, where the 
LI HUNG CHANG. Great Wall joins the sea. If 




RAILROADS IN CHINA. 



227 



the work had been resolutely pushed toward the north-east, 
no doubt it would have rendered great service during the war 
with Japan. Be that as it may, this short road of 175 miles 
was the only one existing in China as late as 1896. 

In deciding, after the war, to extend this road to Peking, 
the Chinese government had in view probably the throwing of 
dust in the eyes of foreigners ; the opening of 85 miles of 
railroad is nevertheless an interesting event, as an example of 
what awaits the railway in populous regions of China. In Sep- 




TYPES OF THE CHINESE PEASANTRY. 

tember, 1897, there was one train running daily each way, mak- 
ing the trip in five hours ; but in October a second was put 
-on, somewhat ambitiously qualified an express, which placed 
Tien-tsin less than four hours from the capital, travelling at 
the rate of twenty miles an hour. On the cane benches of the 
first-class carriages one had few neighbors, and there was suffi- 
cient space by the side of travellers to accommodate all their 
luggage, trunks included ; in the second-class carriages, the 
price was about one cent per mile, against one cent and a half 
in the first. 



228 RAILROADS IN CHINA. [May, 

At this time the receipts amounted to something like three 
hundred taels a day, or about two hundred dollars. Traffic 
his since increased. According to M. Kinder, superintendent 
of the road, the 200 miles of the Chili system, comprising an 
extension of 40 miles to the north of the Great Wall, returns 
to-day two million taels, or $1,400000, being $4,700 per mile 
yearly, at a cost of 1,200 ceo taels, $2800 per mile. The en- 
tire personnel, station employees, inspectors, and laborers, are 
Chinese, with the exception of the mechanics, who are English 
or American. These last are being quickly replaced by the 
Celestials. On the Japanese railways there are no European 
employees, and in Tongking, on the small line from Phu-lang- 
Thuong to Langson, there are native mechanics, although the 
Annamites are very inferior to the Chinese. 

The road from Tien-tsin to Peking is an encouraging ex- 
ample for the future of railways in China. " Besides," said 
Monseigneur Favier, Apostolic Vicar of Peking with the au- 
thority of his twenty-seven years of sojourn in China "besides, 
this is a precedent, and is therefore of enormous value. There 
was long hesitation before the first telegraph line was put up. 
To-day, the wires radiate toward all the frontiers of the Em- 
pire to Tongking, to Burmah, to the Amur, to Yarkand, and 
to Kashgar, to the end of Turkestan, a thousand leagues from 
Peking. There are now several hundreds of miles of railways, 
and nothing will oppose there soon being many thousands." 
There may be a little 'optimism in these words of the eminent 
missionary, but it is true, in China especially, that it is the first 
step that counts. 

If the concessions continue to go on as they have since the 
end of the war with Japan, and if all the railway lines con- 
ceded are constructed, it is certain that Monseigneur Favier's 
prediction will soon be realized. During the four years which 
have passed since the signing of the treaty of Shimonoseki, 
over 6,000 miles of railway in the Middle Kingdom have been 
conceded to Europeans, and a number of these, comprising 
more than 2,400 miles, are already under way. 

The concessions of railways, as well as of mines, have 
excited rivalries, and become the objects of complicated and 
laborious negotiations between China and the different powers. 

Among the 6,000 miles of railroads, to which ought to be 
added the 298 miles of the Chili system and the II miles from 
Shanghai to Wusung, re-established last year, the first to be 
conceded were the Russian roads of Manchuria, officially 



1901. J 



RAILROADS IN CHINA, 



229 




CHINESE MODE OF TRANSIT. 

qualified the "East-Chinese Railroads"; 885 miles for the sec- 
tion situated in the Chinese Trans-Siberian territory, which 
leads to Vladivostok by Tsitsikar, and in the neighborhood of 
Kirin ; about 500 miles for the branch which connects this 
section at Port Arthur; and another short branch, which leads 
to the treaty port at New-chwang, at the northern extremity 
of the Gulf of Pechili. These lines are entirely in the hands 
of the Russian government, the principal share-holders of the 
East-Chinese Company, of which the council of administration 
is, in fact, only a dependence of the Ministry of Ways and 
Communication of St. Petersburg. Constructed on the same 
broad gauge as the other Russian railroads and forming an 
outlet for the Trans-Siberian, the lines of Manchuria have an 
enormous strategic importance, and are assured of a very large 
passenger and freight traffic, as they constitute the extremity 
of the grand Siberian artery, which will be the shortest route 
from Europe to the Far East. The work upon the railroads 
in Manchuria, which was begun in 1897, is vigorously con- 
ducted to-day. Materials are transported by barges from Port 
Arthur and New-chwang, where locomotives and many thou- 
sand tons of rails from America are received. But there are 
many difficulties in railroad building in Northern Manchuria: 



230 RAILROADS IN CHINA. [May, 

two large mountain ranges, abrupt and rugged, nearly unex- 
plored up to the present time, are separated by a marshy plain, 
which is inundated in the rainy season, and it is not expected 
that this line will be opened before 1904 or 1905. 

The Russian system will be connected with that already exist- 
ing in Chili, and consequently with Peking, by the line from 
Shanhai-kwan to New-chwang, by a branch toward Moukden. 
The total length of construction is only 257 miles. It is con- 
trolled by a British and Chinese corporation, at the head of 
which is the house of Jardine & Matheson, one of the oldest 
houses in the foreign commerce of China and the first British 
bank in the Far East: the Hong-Kong and Shanghai Banking 
Corporation. The rails will be laid for the Chili system at the 
usual gauge in Europe and America (56.3 inches, instead of the 
59 73 inches of the Russian lines). There is no need to point 
out the strategic importance of this railroad, which has seri- 
ously compromised matters, for the time being, between Eng- 
land and Russia. A portion of the region which it crosses is 
the most populous and richest part of Manchuria, and pro- 
duces large grain crops. Travellers who go to Peking by the 
Trans-Siberian change at New-chwang ; the work on this line 
should be finished, according to the contract of concession, in 
1903. 

On the other side of the Gulf of Pechili, in the province 
of Shan-tung, Germany has been authorized by China to con- 
struct an entire system, the future of which appears as brilliant 
as the Russian or English lines of Manchuria. We enter here 
into China proper, and into one of the most populous provinces: 
more than 700 inhabitants to the square mile. In the interior 
of Shan-tung there is a mountain range, which possesses great 
mineral wealth and is surrounded by vast and thickly-peopled 
plains. These plains extend to the Yellow River, which often 
devastates a part of them, and are covered with extensive coal 
beds. Three railroads, about 600 miles all together, will be 
constructed by the Germans, and will form a triangle enclosing 
the mountainous region of the interior, going from Tsaou-chow 
to the Yellow River by Tsinan, capital of the province, from 
there to the important city Yank-chau, which will, in turn, be 
directly connected with Tsaou-chow. 

The line going to the Yellow River will become one of 
extreme importance, not only serving for transportation from 
the part of Shan-tung which it crosses, but will be the shortest 
route from the navigable part of the Yellow River to the sea, 



I 9 or.] 



RAILROADS IN CHINA. 



231 




RAILROADS IN CHINA. 



[May, 



and will thus drain traffic from the greater part of Shense, 
Shanse, and Honan. These three provinces, although not the 
most populous of China, yet count from forty to forty-five 
million souls; they have been the cradle of Chinese civiliza- 
tion ; the celebrated yellow soil, to a depth of more than 
thirty-seven feet, has been cultivated for thousands of years, 
without artificial fertilization ; but it is not the quality of the 
soil, but the abundance of minerals which it contains, that, in 




A CHINESE FLOWER BOAT ON THE YELLOW RIVER. 

the future, will be the source of great wealth to this part 
of the country. The presence of immense beds of anthracite 
coal and of iron ore, easily extracted, will, when the difficul- 
ties of transportation are overcome, transform this region into 
one of the greatest industrial centres of the world. 

Two great railroad lines have been proposed to unite the 
north with the centre of tne Middle Kingdom, going from 
Tien-tsin and from Peking to the valley of the Yang-tse, across 
the great Chinese plain : the first is that from Peking to Hang- 
chau. This is the first railroad that the imperial edict author- 
ized to be established in China ; but Jt has had many vicissi- 
tudes since 1889, when the celebrated Chang-Chih-Toung, who 
was the promoter, was charged with the construction and was 
nominated to this effect Viceroy of Hang-chau. Although 
very progressive, this great mandarin disliked foreigners, and 
especially their inventions, and wished to construct this line 
with native resources alone, the capital as well as the material 
being found in China. As might be expected, this exclusive- 
ness proved fatal. The forges that Chang established at Han- 
yan were able to furnish with difficulty a small quantity of bad 



1901.] RAILROADS IN CHINA. . 233 

steel ; and the Chinese capitalists ended by turning a deaf ear 
to the enthusiastic appeals of the promoter. So the project 
slept, and was not taken up again until after the war. A 
Franco-Belgian syndicate has since then demanded the conces- 
sion, and finally obtained it in 1898, after many changes, and 
a heavy diplomatic struggle between the representatives at 
Peking from France, Belgium, and Russia, upon one side, and 
those of England upon the other ; the necessary loan for the 
execution of the line was raised in April, 1899, at Paris and 
Brussels. The importance of this road is very great, and 
traffic prospects are brilliant. At one end is a capital, at the 
other the immense urban agglomeration of three million inhabi- 
tants, formed by the three cities of Han-kow, Wu-chang, and 
Han-yang at the junction of the Yang-tse and one of its most 
important affluents, the river Han. The centre of the tea com- 
merce, Han-kow, is, by its admirable position, the real heart 
of China. Situated but 932 miles from the mouth of the Yang- 
tse-Kiang, the largest ocean vessels can reach it without diffi- 
culty. All foreign nations envy the attributing of these con- 
cessions, this being, possibly, the city with the greatest future 
in all China. 

A group of Anglo-German capitalists propose to supply the 
funds necessary for the construction of the other great line, 
situated between the one already mentioned and the sea, from 
Tien-tsin to Chin-kiang, on the Yang-tse. This road, nearly 
600 miles in length, will be approximately the track of the old 
Imperial Canal from Peking to the Yang-tse, to-day sanded 
and choked up to the point of being useful only in certain 
parts for local transportation, but which was in former times 
an extremely important and frequented way of communication. 

The valley of the Yang-tse, which forms the central, and 
possibly the richest, portion of the Celestial Empire, is so rich 
in magnificent waterways that the need of railroads is less felt. 
Yet the British-Chinese Corporation has obtained a grant for 
two lines from Shanghai, one of which will direct its course 
north-east to Su-chu, Chin-kiang, and Nanking, and the other 
south-west to Hang-chau, and thence along the coast to Ning- 
po ; all these cities are treaty ports and important centres for 
many hundred millions of inhabitants. This region, which is 
very fertile, is particularly rich in silk and cotton culture, 
which the great manufacturing industry at Shanghai has aug- 
mented. Even if there are no mines found there in the future, 
this will probably be the most profitable of all the Chinese 
VOL LXXIII. 16 



234 



RAILROADS IN CHINA. 



[May, 






railroads, at least 
during the first years 
of their existence. 
The work is not yet 
commenced, but, 
once begun, it can 
be executed rapidly 
and with compara- 
tively small cost. 

In Southern 
China railroad con- 
cessions are not so 
numerous as in the 
northern part ; the 
country is more un- 
even ; a mountain 
range of no great al- 
titude, but very 
steep, crosses it from 
the frontier of Bur- 
mah to the F o r- 
mosa channel, and 
chains branching off 
from this reach near- 
ly to the sea on the 
south side, and to 
the Yang-tse on the 
north, ending ab- 
ruptly. The railroad 
from Canton to 
Han g-k o w, more 
than 600 miles, is the 
only great line yet 
conceded in this re- 
gion. An American 
syndicate will con- 
struct this road with 
the help of English 
capital. It is thought that there are large coal-fields to be 
found in'Hunan, but the country is not very well known, the 
inhabitants of this province being particularly hostile to for- 
eigners, andjonly preliminary studies have been made so far. 
It is sufficient simply to name the two great commercial 




RAILROADS IN CHINA. 



235 



centres, Hong-Kong and Canton, to see that a railroad con- 
necting them across a rich region will be extremely productive, 
in spite of the concurrence of navigation. It will start from 
Kowloon, on the continent, opposite Hong-Kong, and will be 
125 miles in length. 

The railroad grants which have so far been conceded by the 
Chinese government reach the respectable figure of more than 
5,500 miles, not including those projected in Shan-si and Honan 
by the English syndicate, which will exploit the mines of those 
provinces. Besides this, although it is difficult to know exact- 
ly what takes place at Peking because of the complicated ne- 
gotiations between representatives of rival powers and Chinese 
diplomats, the Tsung-li-Yamen is reputed to have consented to 
an extension of the Burmese roads across Yunnan to the Yang- 
tse-Kiang. This will necessitate the construction of 600 or 900 
miles of railroad across high mountains cut by deep gorges 
perpendicular to the general direction of the line, in a nearly 
desert country, because the western part of Yunnan, which 




GOVERNMENT HOUSE AT HONG-KONG. 

borders upon Burmah, is the least populated section of all the 
provinces which surround Tongking. An English traveller 
said that this road was not impossible, on the condition that a 
half-dozen tunnels, like the Mont Cenis, were built. Its com- 
mercial importance is small, but the English hold to it for 
strategic reasons. 

Analogous motives incited Russia to ask, last May, the con- 
cession of a line connecting their system in Manchuria with 



236 RAILROADS IN CHINA. [May, 




THE INDEFATIGABLE CHINESE CARRIERS. 

Peking, of very little commercial value, and expensive to exe- 
cute, although less difficult than the English line in Yunnan. 
Starting in the neighborhood of Moukden, nearly parallel to 
that from fTJien-tsin to New-chwang, but further in the interior, 
this railroad will open to the Russians, toward the capital of 
China, a way of access to the shelter of an enemy's fleet. It 
will be constructed on the same gauge as the Trans-Siberian, 
and entirely from Russian materials. 

The rapidity with which the Chinese have employed the 
new instrument of transportation shows that, though routine is 
too strong with them for the easy introduction of European 
inventions, they cannot long resist, once the inventions are 
there, making use of all the facilities at their disposal. This 
is the marked disposition of all who come in contact with the 
different material perfections which follow Western civilization, 
at all the treaty ports, or at any point where steamers put in. 

With railroads in common use in China, the indefatigable 
Chinese carrier, who trots up hill and down, stopping not for 
rocks nor marsh, his bamboo rod on his shoulders, trembling 
under the weight of the heavy panniers hanging from either 
end, is destined to disappear some day. The new economic 
organization will permit of utilizing his endurance to better 
advantage, and in time transform a beast into an intelligent 
worker. However, he will exist yet for a long time, but the 
road that he will follow will be changed: he will hereafter 



IQOI.] 



FAITH. 



237 



carry commodities to the railway station ; he will be the auxili- 
ary of the railroad, not its adversary, provided rates are not 
too high. 

In short, once constructed, the Chinese railroads which are 
at present conceded have a brilliant future before them, and 
the commercial genius of the Children of Han, far from neg- 
lecting the instrument of transportation, once perfected, will 
serve it with ardor. 

China will remain, for a time at least, a sort of common 
ground where the civilized nations will exercise simultaneous- 
ly their economic activity, as is the case in Turkey, with this 
difference, that the Middle Empire is more vast, has more 
wealth, and has a greater density of population. 

When the Chinese masses come in contact with the results 
of Western progress their practical sense -will speedily make 
converts of them to modern methods. The natural commercial 
instinct of the Chinese and their spirit of gain and trade will 
help in the conversion to European culture of these the most 
realistic and least ideal of all peoples. Railroads in China will 
be the best missionaries of civilization. 





AITH peered beyond the darksome Night, 

So far, so far away ; 
And seeing God enthroned in light, 
She whispered of the Day. 

HOPE. 

And weaklings looked and could not see, 

And other some denied ; 
Whereon Hope pointed to a tree 

And Jesus crucified. 

CHARITY. 

There Love cried out, with generous cry, 

" Forgive, forgive, forgive ! " 
While Faith and Hope in agony, 

" He died that you might live." 




238 THE INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITY OF LEO XIII. [May 
THE INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITY OF LEO XIII. 

BY JAMES MURPHY. 

'WAY beyond the utility of inventions that further 
the physical comfort and material prosperity of 
men is the value of the example that teaches 
them to labor and thus to work, whether for the 
mere fulfilment of their state of life, or for the 
perfection of the higher and more spiritual side of their nature. 
A parable to future generations in this field of noble showing 
of the way will be Leo XIII. In his eighteenth year he was so 
frail that he anticipated an early death, as is shown by some 
Latin verses written by him at the period, and through the 
successive years he was ever in delicate health and but the 
" mere shadow of a man," yet the work he has accomplished 
for public and private good, and for general and individual 
edification, has been prodigious. 

And if, as seems undeniable, the example of Napoleon 
Bonaparte's colossal energy, though employed in furthering hu- 
man ambitions, has been prolific of good in inducing men to 
huge endeavors and untiring perseverance, much more power- 
ful and beneficial have been Leo XIIl.'s threescore years and 
ten of tremendous energy directed to the highest good of 
humanity. 

No proof of the amazing breadth of intellect of Leo XIII. 
is more convincing thin his capacity for keeping abreast of the 
progress of the world in every domain of science. One would 
think that the mere fulfilment of the routine duties involved in 
administering and directing the gigantic and marvellously com- 
plex organization of the Roman Catholic Church, would surely 
be burden enough for the most active of men in the prime of 
years and vigor. When it is further considered that the Pope 
must simultaneously keep acquainted with the political and so- 
cial movements in every corner and quarter of the globe, that 
he is constantly being consulted and brought into diplomatic 
negotiations by all the great powers of Europe, and that he 
his to interest himself in alleviating the poverty of his own 
unhappily governed countrymen, it would certainly be no won- 
der if Leo XIII. gave no time or attention to the more subtle 



IQOI.] THE INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITY OF LEO XIII. 239 

and intellectual interests of modern civilization, to the latest 
progress of mankind in poetry, painting, and sculpture, in jour- 
nalism, in astronomy, geology, viticulture, medicine, surgery, 
electricity, magnetism, mechanics, and experimental physics in 
general, and the like subjects. And yet in no single range, or 
even detail, of these matters is Leo XIII. willing to remain 
even one week behind the latest discoveries and develop- 
ments. 

Attached to the Vatican are ecclesiastics and laymen who 
rank amongst the most cultured and expert in every branch of 
modern knowledge. It is their duty, within their several de- 
partments, to keep in touch with the greatest thinkers of the 
world, and to advise the Pontiff concerning every novelty and 
important modification of hitherto accepted theory or tenet. 
Every important contribution to science that is issued in lite- 
rary form is immediately forwarded to the Vatican, for ulterior 
incorporation in its world-famous library, but first of all for 
submission to the Pope himself, either directly or through his 
consultors or readers. 

Scientists from all quarters of the globe show a tendency, 
sooner or later, of finding their way to Rome. The Pontiff is 
frequently under the necessity of refusing audience to the 
" great ones " of this earth, great in the matter of rank and 
title ; but he invariably has a hospitable open door for the 
scientist, the thinker, and the discoverer. And the versatility 
of the man is apparent, when scientists, interested in the most 
varied and widely separated fields of research, depart from 
their interview with the Pontiff declaring amazement at the 
advanced and almost intuitive grasp of each broad and world- 
interesting subject which His Holiness evinces. 

A PATRON OF PROGRESS. 

An humble country priest, it sometimes happens, devotes 
the leisure that the care of souls allows him to study and re- 
search of a novel and interesting character, and comes by re- 
sults that are not only interesting to the scientist, but impor- 
tant and useful to the public. In that case it is the custom of 
His Holiness to summon the modest pastor and to cover him 
with honors and with encomiums, even though it may happen 
that the particular d amain of science or art in which he has 
labored has no proximate connection with the ministry of the 
altar. 

Thus, a village curate in the Island of Sicily has a turn for 



240 THE INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITY OF LEO XIII. [May, 

mechanical invention. He puts together a model for an auto- 
matic secret balloting machine ; he devises ingenious contri- 
vances for the signalling of trains long before they come in 
reach of the railway station, and he thinks out a number of 
other similar pieces of mechanism. All these are important, 
even though in a minor way, to the progress of civilization, and 
the Pope calls the young country curate Father Vito Letc 
to RDme, receives him in audience, and congratulates and en- 
courages him on the scientific secular work to which he de- 
votes his leisure. 

Father Lorenzo Perosi, another young priest in an obscure 
parish, reveals a genius for musical composition, and the Pope, 
holding that the world is profited by the musical creations of 
men, accords his favors to the young ecclesiastic, and urges 
him to develop the talent which Providence has accorded him 
in the interests of mankind. 

Father Candeo, another priest, has made a special study on 
the growth of vines. He has become the greatest expert in 
the matter in the kingdom of Italy, and possibly even in the 
entire civilized world. His studies and researches have evolved 
means of diagnosing and of curing phylloxera and other dread 
diseases of the vine, and, as a result of his discoveries, the pro- 
duction of grapes is once more facilitated, and an exceedingly 
important element of his country's agricultural industry and 
commerce is put in a flourishing condition. Leo XIII. invited 
the good priest to the Vatican, honored and treated him in the 
most friendly way, and now has him as a periodical visitor, at 
every opportunity going abroad with him in the Vatican gar- 
dens and discussing the problems and difficulties affecting viti- 
culture, and personally supervising experiments for the purpose 
of testing the good priest's theories. Father Candeo has as- 
serted that Leo XIII. is at this hour one of the most perfectly 
equipped and expert of viticulturists, and that, were he not Pope, 
he would be known to the world by his knowledge in this other 
direction. 

AS AN ASTRONOMER. 

One domain of science, the science of sciences, that from 
which the greatest things are expected for the enlightenment of 
human intelligence regarding the great secrets of the laws of 
nature the science, namely, of astronomy has ever been a 
predominant devotion of Leo XIII. This fact alone ought to 
be a significant repudiation of the charge not infrequently made 



1901.] THE INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITY OF LEO XIII. 241 

by the malignant and the ignorant, that the Catholic Church 
is rather afraid of science, that Faith might have to suffer by 
its revelations, and that, in a metaphor taken by an ingenious 
but unscrupulous modern writer from a pagan authority, 
"Tame birds are kept in a dim light lest, seeing the light and 
the freedom in which uncaptured birds exist, they desire to fly 
away." Astronomy, which is the science of the highest and 
most serene thinkers, would be the one science from which 
any one upholding a line of doctrine or dogma that ran any 
risk from the searchlight of truth, would naturally avoid. But 
astronomy precisely is the science which deserves best of the 
Catholic Church. The names of Galileo, Copernicus, and Lever- 
rier need only discursively be mentioned to bring one down to 
the greatest developments in astronomical research in our own 
day. 

The shining light in the field of astronomy during the cen- 
tury which has just elapsed was Father Pietro Angelo Secchi. 
The modern and violently anti-clerical Municipal Council of 
the City of Rome has erected in the most prominent part of 
the Pincian Hill a marble bust with a tiny perforation through 
it. Glancing along this perforation the human eye, on bright 
afternoons, can see the orb of day descending in the west over 
the cupola of St. Peter's. The bust is that of Secchi, the 
great Jesuit, who turned an eagle eye on the sun, and by study 
and research gave to the world the result of his investigations 
in a book which has become the classic on the subject. Every 
school-boy who now takes up the subject of astronomy quickly 
learns the number and character of the elements of which the 
sun consists nucleus, photosphere, and chromosphere. But 
before Father Secchi's time not merely the school-boy, but 
his professors and masters in the science were unaware of 
these facts. 

A little after this great scholar's demise Leo XIII. was able 
to give to the Vatican Observatory a director well worthy to 
continue the glorious scientific traditions of Father Secchi. 
This was Father Denza, under whom the observatory erected 
by the popes in their private gardens behind the Vatican 
Palace came to be recognized as one of the most important 
on earth for its magnificent experimental results. The direc- 
tor-general of French astronomical observatories, a former 
admiral in the navy, and a man who, as far as religious tenets 
were concerned, was not inclined to be particularly sympathetic 
towards the Catholic Church, frankly and publicly admitted on. 



242 THE INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITY OP LEO XIIL [May, 

visiting the Vatican Observatory that, in his belief, no other 
observatory on earth was more perfectly equipped or more 
scientifically conducted. 

The death of Father Denza a few years ago was momen- 
tarily regarded as an irrepirable loss, but when the question of 
filling his place came to be discussed, it was found that the 
difficulty actually existed in choosing from the midst of a 
superabundance of magnificent material. Father J. B. Boccardi, 
an Italian, was chosen for the position, and at present holds it. 

The name of this ecclesiastic is well known to experts in 
astronomy. Although still comparatively young, the work which 
he has already done gives him a right to rank among the very 
foremost astronomers of the day. He it was who four years ago 
determined the path of a new and important asteroid, which, in 
honor of Leo XIII. 's observatory, he named the " Vaticanum." 
He also has done remarkable work in the application of pho- 
tography to astral phenomena, and to him has been appor- 
tioned the preparation of a very important section of the new 
photographic map of the heavens, which is being prepared 
under the collaboration of the leading figures in astronomical 
science. Father Boccardi has also recently been honored with 
a special invitation to Berlin in order to give advice to the 
greatest of Germany's astronomers on the most advisable 
means of perfecting the national observatories and of carrying 
out astronomical researches. 

In all this Leo XIII. has had a direct and controlling hand. 
Every new discovery and new theory in the region of astronomy 
is discussed by him with the director of the Vatican Observa- 
tory and his assistants, and according to the declaration of 
Father Lais, the second in command at the Vatican Observa- 
tory, Leo XIII. could to-morrow go up to the observatory 
and, without a word of instructiDn, take the place of the direc- 
tor and continue with uninterrupted success the business at 
present in hand. 

IN THE FIELD OF JOURNALISM. 

The field of journalism is another in which Leo XIII. takes 
an active and constant interest. " In our times," he recently 
wrote, " the work of Catholic journalism is one of the most 
useful, nay, one of the most necessary of the whole world " ; 
and in furtherance of his practice of not only directing and 
guiding, but, as far as is possible for him, of personally and 
actively promoting all those things which he considers useful 



1901.] THE INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITY OF LEO XI II. 243 

and necessary to the world, Leo XIII. has kept himself to the 
forefront in the matter of advancing journalistic enterprise. 
The enemies of the church, he frequently remarks, are armed 
with newspapers and publications of every description ; Catho- 
lics must meet their enemies equipped in a like manner, and 
the Pope is always willing to encourage newspaper editors, 
and even to advance money for the purpose of giving reliable 
and modern newspapers to the world, and the Vatican printing- 
press, over which he keeps a constant personal supervision, is 
declared by experts to be a model in its kind. School-boys 
often have the theme set before them of discussing whether 
newspapers are good or bad, but Leo XIII. trenches the sub- 
ject with the urgent advice to his flock to read newspapers 
and periodical literature, but to be careful that those news- 
papers, reviews, and magazines be of good kind and beneficial 
to the spiritual welfare of man. 

In the domain of sculpture and painting Leo XIII. is ad- 
mittedly an expert judge, and he is also an enthusiastic patron. 
Not only does he encourage painters and sculptors in the 
works which they themselves have conceived and wrought, but 
he also makes it a point to do the thinking for them and to 
create new fields for their talent and exertions. Thus, in an- 
ticipation of the recent Exposition of Turin, he offered very 
large money prizes for the best paintings that would be there 
exhibited on a given subject. The choice of subject is indica- 
tive of the originality and keen perceptions of the man. The 
Holy Family is a subject which has been treated by myriads 
of artists for centuries back. The idea has been worked out 
with various degrees of excellence, and few, even of artists, 
could imagine that there was anything still left to be desired 
in the matter. And yet when Leo XIII. offered these prizes, 
and indirectly signified that no existing painting or sculpture 
of the Holy Family was adequately satisfactory or fitting to 
be copied and recopied for popular use, the idea seemed an 
original one, and yet it convinced all those who have given 
any thought to the matter as being eminently accurate and 
correct. 

In the Vatican galleries, museums, and library there are 
hundreds of the highest experts in the matter of art, men 
of all nationalities, laymen, monks, and secular priests, all de- 
voting their best energies to special subjects, and all in more 
or less direct communication and under the more or less per- 
sonal guidance of the Pope himself. At intervals he passes 



244. THE INTELLECTUAL ACTIVITY OP LEO XIII. [May, 

amongst them, reviews their work, offers suggestions, and be- 
stows encomiums and congratulations where they are merited. 
And when any one with a new and important invention comes 
along, as recently an American company with a perfected 
biograph, then the Holy Father is willing to go out of his way 
to lend his practical encouragement and endorsement of the 
discovery or invention in order that it may be taken up by 
the civilized world, and that men's intellects may be bent to 
the continual task of mastering the mysteries of nature, and 
drawing out from its bounteous abundance such ideas as may 
tend to further the progress of civilization. 

All this work is done by a man who is daily engaged in 
the field of politics and diplomacy ; in furthering, for instance, 
the submission of French Catholics to the existing form of 
government ; of opposing Carlist pretensions in Spain ; of 
arguing. with the Russian government for the more humane 
treatment of Catholics in the Muscovite Empire ; of seeking the 
reunion of dissident and schismatic Catholics of the Austro- 
Hungarian and Ottoman dominions; of writing personal letters 
to the potentates of Europe, and to the civilized and semi- 
civilized rulers of Asia and Africa ; of controlling and super- 
vising the work of the various sacred Roman Congregations ; 
of keeping account of the state of religion in his own particu- 
lar diocese that of Rome and of attending to myriads of 
other details, besides giving odd moments to the composition 
of encyclicals and apostolic letters, and even of Latin verses. 
All this, again, is performed by a man in his ninety-second 
year, daily receiving a multitude of visitors from all quarters 
of the globe, heiring their narratives and querying them, with 
a minuteness that involves the exercise of a prodigious memory, 
regarding the details of religion and the progress of civiliza- 
tion in their various districts. The fact assuredly would seem 
to justify the claim that the man who has accomplished and 
who accomplishes so much, and who was born in the first 
and lived through the other nine decades of the past hundred 
years, so fertile and prolific in great inventions and in the 
progress of humanity, is undoubtedly the greatest product of 
the nineteenth century. 




i. Lilly: A Year of Life ; 2. Sawyer : Every Inch a King ; 
3. Brady : When Blades are Out and Love's Afield ; 4. Roberts : 
Heart of the Ancient Wood ; 5. Barry: The Wizard's Knot; 6. 
Bourget: The Disciple; 7. James: 7 he Soft Side; 8. Thomp- 
son: King of Honey Island; Sweetheart Manette ; 9. Washing- 
ton: Up from Slavery ; 10. Deering: Georgiana Lady Chatterton 
ii. Stead: Life of Mrs. Booth; 12. Gould: Louis Agassiz ; 13. Maitland : St. 
Nicolas; 14. Delaire : St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle ; 15. Desmond: Mooted 
Questions of History ; 16. Jesuit Relations ; 17. Mathews : French Revolu- 
tion; 18. Young: Story of Rome ; 19. Murray: Catholic Pioneers of America; 
20. O'Donnell: Diocese of Hartford ; 21. Mrs. Browning: Poems; 22. Law- 
Soulsby : Christian Perfection; 23. Procter: Rosary Guide; Crown of Mary; 
24. Mother Mary Loyola: Before the Most Holy; 25. Ilg-Clarke : Meditations; 
26. Blount : Magister Adest ; 27. Petit: Sacerdos rite Inslitutus ; 28. Brooke: 
Religion in Literature ; 29. Lings : Sermons for Children ; 30. Burton and Ma- 
thews : Life of Christ ; 31. Groenings-Rockliff : Catechism; 32. Bixby : Ethics 
of Evolution ; 33. Mathews: Speech-Making; 34. Chamberlain: Songs of all the 
Colleges; 35. Harnack: What is Christianity? 36. Young: Teaching of Mathe- 
matics in Prussia; 37. Eaglesfield : Books Triumphant; 38. Ollivier: The Pas- 
sion ; 39. Xavier Sutton : Clearing the Way; 40. Sonnichsjn: Ten Months a 
Captive among Filipinos. 



1. Mr. Lilly's new novel* is an unlovely tale. Apparently 
the author's main purpose is to defend the use of different moral 
standards for men and women ; and in carrying it out he pro- 
duces numerous pages of very unwholesome reading. As to 
the accuracy of his descriptions, it is hard, despite the news- 
papers, to believe that lax morals do really obtain to so fear- 
ful an extent, even among the British nobility. And in any 
event, to find one of the most virtuous and amiable of the 
characters deliberately formulating and justifying the abomina- 
ble moral code indicated above will alienate from the author 
the sympathy of most of his co-religionists. Even in the few 
religious passages we discover at least a negative indication 
that the writer is not filled and brimming over with love of 
Catholic ideals. 

Artistically the book has merit. Although the plot lacks 
unity, the individual characters are cleverly done; the descrip- 

*A Year of Life. By William Samuel Lilly. New York: John Lane, The Bodley 
Head. 



246 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [May, 

tive part is just what it should be both in quality and quantity ; 
we have some strong scenes, and one or two that are pathetic. 
For the most part, though not consistently, the dialogue reaches 
a high grade of excellence, being bright and pleasingly original. 
But the literary style suffers at times from careless English, 
and very frequently from careful Latin and French. The 
reader quickly learns and is often reminded that the author 
has mastered the techniques of many arts ; in fact, that he is 
a quite competent critic of pretty nearly anything from a 
woman's gown to a mantel ornament or a French wine. 

2, We await with interest the reception by the reading 
public of Josephine Caroline Sawyer's new novel.* It is his- 
torical in character, and its purpose is to prove that Henry V. 
has been greatly misjudged. How it can be said to prove that 
such is the case it is difficult to see, as no authorities or 
references are given, and the reader must rely upon the author's 
statements. She herself declares that she has ample historical 
grounds for her contention. It will be remembered that the 
traditional opinion, immortalized by Shakspere, represents 
Henry's character in youth to have been far from savory ; in 
fact, that he was a dissolute libertine. But there has been 
some diversity of opinion as to the truth of this. Dr. Lingard 
seems to accept it because it was " perfectly in unison with 
the more ancient writers and the traditionary beliefs of the 
succeeding century " ; while C. S. Kingsford, writing in the 
Dictionary of National Biography, declares that it is not sup- 
ported by any contemporary tradition. 

This latter vie AT is the one which our author is bent on 
bringing out. It is curious enough, though, that while the 
latter writer claims that the Gascoigne incident is contrary to 
fact, Miss Sawyer, however, gives the anecdote as an instance 
of Henry's high-mindedness. It would be interesting to know 
on what grounds she accepts it. 

The details of the romance are interesting and, though partly 
imaginary, we are told that they are founded on fact. As is 
usual with a large class of non-Catholic writers, her treatment 
of things Catholic is a trifle offensive. 

3. Cyrus Townsend Brady's late novel f should add some- 
thing to his already brilliant reputation as a writer. Carolina 

* Every Inch a King. By Josephine Caroline Sawyer. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. 
t When Blades are Out and Love's Afield. By Cyrus Townsend Brady. Philadelphia : 
J. B. Lippincott Company. 






1 90i.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 247 

is the scene of the action, and the time is during the Revolu- 
tion. Plenty of excitement, an amusing romance, and a dash 
of humor make the reader reluctant to part with the charm- 
ing Isabel ; her friend the brave, pointed-tongued, match-making 
Sarah ; the hero Baird, the English officer Duane, and the 
always irate justice. 

The story is well written. One little inconsistency we have 
noticed, which detracts slightly from the perfection of the 
author's art. We can hardly conceive of two lovers fleeing at 
a break-neck pace from angry pursuers and at the same time 
carrying on an exceedingly tender and sustained conversation. 

4. There are those who compare Charles G. D. Roberts with 
Rudyard Kipling, and maintain that the comparison is not to 
the disadvantage of the former. Now they will have new 
matter for comparison, and, in our opinion, new ground for 
their conviction concerning the relative merits of these two 
geniuses. The new work of Professor Roberts, The Heart of the 
Ancient Wood* will inevitably be contrasted with Kipling's Jungle 
Books, and it need not dread the ordeal. But it must not be 
supposed that, because there are points for comparison between 
these two delightful pieces of literature, that they resemble 
each other. The truth, rather, is, that 7 he Heart of the 
Ancient Wood resembles nothing we have seen. It is unique 
a romance, of which the seat of action is the depth of the 
enchanting Canadian forest, and in which the principal figures 
are a maiden, a hunter, and a giant bear. There is a host of 
other characters, but with one exception the maiden's mother 
they are all of the "furtive folk" of the silent wood. And 
these, without breaking the primeval tradition of silence among 
their kind, make us know and sympathize with their point of 
view, their likes and dislikes, their feelings, all the psychology 
of the denizens of the wood, as nearly as it can be conveyed 
to us. Nature too, " inanimate " we call it, but still so living, 
so moving, in the pages of this unusual book speaks for her- 
self, or perhaps rather not for herself but by means of the 
intimately sympathetic interpretation of one who surely knows 
her through and through and loves her dearly. Only a poet 
and not every poet could have succeeded in a venture requir- 
ing such natural, easy, and yet romantic imagination. But, as 
everybody knows, Professor Roberts is a poet and a poet of 

* The Heart of the Ancient Wood. By Charles G. D. Roberts. New York : Silver, 
Burdett & Co. 



248 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [May, 

nature, and every one will grant that in this work he has 
achieved beautiful results. We shall look for something more 
concerning this new, fresh world now first disclosed, though, 
we feel sure, long since discovered and explored by the talented 
author of The Heart of the Ancient Wood. 

5. Dr. Birry, who attracted so much attention and drew 
so much praise from the higher literary world by his The Two 
Standards and Arden Massiter, has again achieved a remarkable 
success in The Wizards Knot* On the appearance of the first 
of these novels many marvelled at Father Barry's intimate 
knowledge of London society life ; in this, his latest work, he 
shovs no less deep and searching familiarity with Irish life. 
Herein, it seems to us, lies the principal excellence of this 
writer's literary work : he manages to make his readers see 
into the inner nature and motives of the classes and the in- 
dividuals who play the parts in his stories. Not that there is 
much ex-professo character-drawing or psychological analysis ; 
there is indeed very little such in The Wizard's Knot, but the 
souls of men and women reveal themselves in Dr. Barry's 
brilliant pages. Joan O'Dwyer, for example, is one striking 
type of the Irish character, Sir Philip Liscarroll is another 
widely different, and both stand out so clearly drawn, so sure- 
ly and so consistently developed, that we feel them to be true 
pictures. So with others of the characters in the present 
story: Joan's father, the pedantic schoolmaster, the "wizard" 
who weaves " the knot " ; Lady Liscarroll and Lisaveta 
O'Connor, all are strong types that abide clear and distinct in 
the mind. Beyond this, we remark that Dr. Barry's well-known 
literary grace and strength is no less in evidence here than in 
his former novels, while in conception and execution of plot The 
Wizards Knot shows a marked improvement over The Two 
.Standards. Not the least delightful feature of this story are 
the incidental touches of humor and pathos which help at 
once to enliven the tale and to illustrate the happier phase of 
the Irish character. We feel sure that those who have enjoyed 
and admired the author's former works will not be disappointed 
in his latest. 

6, The Disciple f of M. Bourget is now presented to Ameri- 
can readers in a form much more attractive than before. The 
new translator's work has been well done, and though one 

* The Wizard's Knot. By William Barry. New York : The Century Company. 
isciple. By Paul Bourget. New York : Charles Scribner's Sons. 



1901.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 249 

meets with a few evidences of forgetfulness, the English is 
really very readable. 

As for the story itself, its fitness remains something of a 
problem. Certainly it is not suitable for the young of either 
sex. And there is such an overflow of passion and tragedy, so 
much of the morbidly introspective, that even mature minds 
will be inclined to consider it too " French " to pass. Those, 
however, who can see beyond the mere disgusting details will, 
perhaps, profit by studying this terrible arraignment of the 
false prophets who unconsciously poison young minds by their 
own well-meant but vicious theorizing. 

7. Perhaps no writer has ever written so successfully 
about nothing as Henry James has done in many of his books 
in general, and in this volume of short stories * in particular. 
The naming of the book is an utter enigma. Why it should 
be called " The Soft Side " sets one wondering, but then one 
wonders also why he should have written such stories as, for 
instance, " Paste " or " Europe." In reading the stories in this 
volume, with the exception of one, " The Great Good Place," 
one feels all the sensations of sitting in a pleasure hall and 
watching an exciting scene thrown on the screen by a bio- 
graph. Each move, each look, each situation is of the most 
vital and intense interest, but suddenly it all ends and you sit 
staring into nothingness. The whole structure is a marvel of 
invention and skill, though sometimes, to be sure, the mar- 
vellous and delicate machinery whirrs and one blinks before a 
sentence like this : " Among his many friends, gilded also with 
greatness, were several to whom his wife would have struck 
those who knew her as much more likely to appeal." Leaving 
the question of substance aside, however, these stories as a 
paragon of style must surely be accepted as a valuable and 
serious contribution to literature. 

8. Alice of Old Vincennes was truly its author's swan-song, 
winning for him wide and enduring favor. Since we can hope 
for no more of this fine work from his pen, the publishers are 
re-editing his earlier stories, apparently with the view of en- 
couraging young writers by showing what crude efforts may 
precede the accomplishment of a master-piece. The King of 
Honey Island, previously published in 1892, is out in a new 
edition.f It is a melodramatic recital of a family history 

* The Soft Side. By Henry James. New York : The Macmillan Company, 
t The King of Honey Island. By Maurice Thompson. New York : G. W. Dillingham; 
Company. 

VOL. LXXIII. 17 



250 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [May, 

which was mixed up with the battle of New Orleans ; the plot 
is amateurish, the scenes rather poorly drawn, and the main 
character an utter impossibility, strongly resembling the type 
worshipped by the juvenile patron of cheap novels. Sweetheart 
Manette* has been re-edited too, a decade of years after its 
first appearance. In it the sentimental is done to death. 
Children may read it with perfect safety ; and we think that 
any intelligent woman would quite willingly lay it aside to eat 
her luncheon. 

9. Every one knows that one of the most vital concerns 
of the day for the people of the United States is the settle- 
ment of the race problem. The autobiography! of the man 
who, in the last thirty years, has done more than any other 
for the practical solution of this problem must, therefore, prove 
interesting and instructive. It is an important and even neces- 
sary book for all who would be well informed on the present 
conditions, difficulties, and promises of the work of uplifting 
the Southern negro. Although as a literary production it 
leaves much to be desired the style being very uneven and 
the plan, at times, badly confused its defects may be par- 
tially excused on the plea that it was written under very 
unfavorable circumstances. Even with these defects seldom have 
we enjoyed a book that afforded so much real pleasure and 
instruction. It holds the reader's rapt attention from the first 
word to the last without a single dull moment ; one is capti- 
vated by its simple, straightforward, honest tone, while the 
pure, noble, and unselfish soul which every page, almost every 
line, bespeaks must win our sympathy and praise and encour- 
agement. There is a keen sense of humor throughout the 
book which helps to lighten many a page otherwise saddening 
and depressing. Mr. Washington tells of his own success in 
life with a just and pardonable pride, but without giving the 
least suspicion of conscious superiority over the less fortunate 
of his race. On the contrary, he has repeatedly sacrificed his 
own greater success that he might "assist in laying a founda- 
tion for the race and a generous education of the head, hand, 
and heart." The best chapter by far in the book is the one 
which gives an account of the famous speech by Mr. Washing- 
ton at the Atlanta Exposition in 1895. One gets from it the 
best insight into Mr. Washington's character, principles, and 
motives, and finds too that he is not a dreamer or an enthu- 

* Sweetheart Mjnetfe. By Maurice Thompson. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 
t Up from Slavery. By Booker T. Washington. New York : Doubleday, Page & Co. 



.1901.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 251 

siast. His Atlanta speech was characterized by a leading 
Southern newspaper as " a platform upon which blacks and 
whites can stand with full justice to each other." 

In a word, the book itself is one of the most genuine auto- 
biographies we have ever read, and in it Mr. Washington 
shows himself to be the right man with the right idea. 

10 Reading the diaries of gifted persons is always a source 
of edification and pleasure, and we confess to have re- 
ceived not a little satisfaction from the present volume.* It 
is of peculiar interest as revealing to us one of the souls 
who, though reared outside the church and taken up with 
the many cares and distractions of an active social and literary 
life, are naturally Catholic and of a fine spiritual temper. 
Lady Chatterton's yearning after the higher and better things 
of life, her resignation in suffering, her impatience with the 
modern sceptical mind, all testify to the rare excellence of her 
soul ; and this testimony is supported by that of her husband, 
to whom the writing of this Memoir must have been a labor 
of love and of love such as only the truly devoted husband 
of a remarkable woman can feel. The volume contains, be- 
sides the diary, selections from her poetical works, several 
letters from Bishop Ullathorne, and also some from Cardinal 
Newman. The fact that the book has already passed through 
two editions indicates the lively interest it has excited. 

11, It was, we understand, by request that Mr. Stead under- 
took his biography f of Catherine Booth. His qualifications 
for the task included at least intimate acquaintance and per- 
sonal sympathy with his subject, and an enthusiasm for the 
propaganda to which her life was dedicated. The present 
sketch consists chiefly of a rsum of the two large volumes 
written some eight or nine years ago by Mrs. Booth's son-in- 
law. Mr. Stead has added some personal reminiscences of 
his own, invested certain portions of the story with a " psychic " 
glamour, and couched the whole in his very piquant, if occa- 
sionally shocking, style. The volume will give a fairly good 
insight into the soul of its subject, without being very ex- 
haustive. Mrs. Booth and her " children " form a phenomenon 
worthy of the study of sociologists and of the sympathy of 

* Memoirs of Georgiana Lady Chatterton. With some Passages from her Diary. By E. 
H. Deering. London and Leamington : Art and Book Company. 

^ Life of Mrs. Booth, the Founder of the Salvation Army. By W. T. Stead. New York, 
Chicago, Toronto : Fleming H. Revell. 



252 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [May, 

religious people. Their stand for principle deserves high honor, 
and their spiritual earnestness is most edifying. Though from 
our point of view they are to be classed among the " uncove- 
nanted," yet few of us would dare to cast the first stone at them. 
And let this much of a tribute be theirs, that the possession 
of certain of their qualities is a blessing enviable enough and 
none too common among ourselves witness our shrinking when 
unpleasant work confronts us. 

12. The short lives of famous Americans, now being edited 
in series under the name of The Beacon Biographies, are not so 
much formal biographies as they are monographs, aimed at 
providing in short space and in readable form a good idea of 
the lives and works of the men of whom they treat. In this 
aim they seem to be succeeding admirably. The latest of the 
series is devoted to Agassiz.* It is extremely interesting well 
done in every respect. The really wonderful genius of the 
great scientist is brought out as clearly as may be in so small 
a volume, and his natural character which everybody knows 
was kindly and generous and exceedingly attractive is brought 
to view. The result of this little book will be to send the 
interested reader to the larger lives of the great-hearted and 
large-minded Swiss who gave his soul and his work and his af- 
fection to America. 

13. The age in which St. Nicolas lived exhibited a great 
triumph in the development of Papal power and authority. It 
was a triumph which opened with the ceremony of the crowning 
of Charlemagne at Rome in the year 800, and closed some sixty 
years later with the splendid pontificate of Nicolas I., whose 
clear-headedness, vigilance, and firm sense of authority won for 
the Holy See a yet more formal and more general recognition of 
its complete supremacy in the Christian world. It is with the 
events in the latter part of this period that M. Roy's little 
volume f is concerned, and it presents a truly admirable study 
of the character of Nicolas as pope and of the principal issues 
of his memorable reign. 

The general character of the work is apologetic, vindicating 
Papal prerogatives by showing that Pope Nicolas neither drew 
the notion of his authority, nor based the exercise of it, on 

* Lout's Agasstz (The Beacon Biographies). By Alice Bache Gould. Boston: Small, 
Maynard & Co. 

\ St. Nicolas I. By Jules Roy. Translated by Margaret Maitland. New York : Benzi- 
ger Brothers. 



TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 



253 



the False Decretals, but rather depended on canons actually laid 
down by his predecessors, St. Leo and St. Gregory, as also on 
a noble conception of the supreme dignity and power of his 
office. 

The present volume, however, is open to the same criticism 
we have already passed upon several of the preceding numbers 
in " The Saints " series. It is scarcely to be called a hagiogra- 
phy. Antecedently the reader is under the impression that he 
is going to be told something about the sanctity of a holy 
man, but it turns out that he is reading only a history of the 
Pontiff, Nicolas I., which, though a most excellent and valuable 
study, is yet no more than purely historical in character and 
purpose. 

A publishers' note informs the reader that Father Tyrrell 
has discontinued his editorship of the series. The news is very 
unwelcome. His prefaces to the preceding volumes have been 
perfect gems, full of helpful thought exquisitely expressed. Let 
us hope we are right in understanding that his retirement is 
bat temporary, for the series can ill spare his assistance. 

14. The latest volume in the now lengthening series, The 
Saints,* is certainly one of the most interesting. All the 
Catholic world has been talking about the recently canonized 
founder of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, and now comes 
a ticnely, well-written, in every way attractive biography of him. 
It is really a wonderful story. Many, perhaps, will go to it 
from curiosity to find out whether a modern saint is like or 
unlike the ancient saints. They will find that the moderns 
take the same old, well-beaten road to sanctity : mortification, 
humiliation, poverty, all the folly of the cross, while yet they 
appeal particularly to the people of their own time as the best 
men of their time, not at all handicapped in the struggle of life 
by their adherence to the old traditions of what makes life 
truly great by making it holy. John Baptist De la Salle will 
thus be a revelation to many. He, like St. Vincent de Paul, 
dealt with the conditions of life as he found them ; he identi- 
fied himself with the work of the world ; he was successful, 
after much apparent defeat and much real discouragement, yet 
he compromised not at all with anything like the " modern 
spirit " of the world, in the evil sense of that term. 

This biography places him and those who came in contact 
with him before our eyes just as they were. It is evidently 

* St. fean-Baptiste De la Salle. Par A. Delaire. Paris : Victor Lecoffre. 



254 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [May, 

an honest account, valuable as history, accurate, scientific, 
done with good literary taste, and at the same time it is 
sympathetic and written with good understanding of the inner 
motives of its subject. 

15. We have at hand a new and revised edition of H. J. 
Desmond's well-known volume of ecclesiastico-historical ques- 
tions.* It needs no further recommendation than a mention 
of the previous edition's acceptance as a reliable and con- 
venient hand-book of historical polemics. It has been enlarged 
by the addition of several chapters and many quotations. It 
will supply the reader with compact and definite information 
on those eternally "mooted" questions, Galileo, the Inquisi- 
tion, St. Bartholomew Massacre, and the like. 

16. At length we have the concluding volume of the great 
work, The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents,^ recounting 
the labors, travels, and explorations of the society in New 
France, between the years 1610 and 1790. The value and in- 
terest of the work as a reliable record of history, geography, 
ethnography, and evangelization cannot be overestimated. 

It gives us an accurate and complete account of the gene- 
ral history of a section of our country and of Canada during 
the long and important period preceding the American Revo- 
lution. It conveys a better knowledge and a truer insight into 
primitive Indian life and character than will be found else- 
where. It furnishes in many cases the first accounts of great 
and important explorations. It tells finally the interesting 
story of some of the most courageous and devoted men of 
whom we shall ever hear ; while directly or indirectly it glori- 
ously demonstrates the truth and charity that reside in the 

Catholic Church. 



We can say of the editors that they have accomplished a 
splendid and scholarly task, one for which men will always be 
grateful. For a more extended review of the work, and a 
more particular idea of the " Relations " themselves, we refer 
our readers to the March issue of THE CATHOLIC WORLD 
MAGAZINE for 1897. 

17. It is true, as Professor Mathews says, in his latest 
book,:}: that the period of the French Revolution affords 

* Mooted Questions of History. By H. J. Desmond. Boston: Marlier & Co. 
t Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents. Vol. Ixxi. Cleveland: The Burrows Brothers 
Company. 1901. 

\ The French Revolution. By Shailer Mathews. New York : Longmans, Green & Co. 



TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 



255 



unequalled material for a study in "social psychology." The 
growing consciousness in the French people, during the cen- 
tury and a half preceding the Revolution, of individual rights 
and responsibilities, and the constantly increasing sense of 
natural privileges violated and great wrongs done, were at 
length to find their expression, if not their vindication, in the 
terrible upheaval at the end of the eighteenth century. 

The exposition of the causes and principal events of the 
Revolution itself is accurate, clear, and interesting, and while 
reasonably short, is yet quite complete. 

That the Revolution created or helped to effect improved 
social conditions is not denied; but that there is, as the 
author hints, a " revision of judgment " to be made in favor 
of some of the principal persons connected with that dreadful 
period, or that these individuals are to be credited in any way 
with the great changes for good which were to follow, is ex- 
tremely doubtful. The philosophers who -played so important 
a part in the beginning of the revolutionary outbreak were 
anything but "desperately in earnest," at least in any positive 
sense. Some of them, like Diderot, were eager only as de- 
structionists and nothing more. No one will say that this sort 
of earnestness works for "liberty and equality." 

Posterity will never change its opinion in regard to the 
majority of the revolutionists. Marat and Robespierre will 
always be remembered as infamous, atrocious figures. And if 
any good came from their unseasonable and unrighteous 
supremacy it must be attributed to circumstances which were 
beyond them, rather than under their control. 

However, this last criticism concerns a matter in which 
there is room for an opposite opinion, such as that the author 
has adopted. The book remains a creditable study of its sub- 
ject, and well suited to the general reader. 

18, The Story of Rome is the title of an extremely hand- 
some little volume* by Norwood Young. Beyond its appear- 
ance, however, there is almost nothing about it worthy of 
commendation. It is simply an abridgment of Milman and 
Hiibner, and a reproduction of their methods. It abounds, 
therefore, in inaccuracy of historical detail, and above all in an 
unjust and superficial philosophizing about things Catholic, 
whenever there is question of the Church or the Papacy. 

* The Story of Rome. By Norwood Young. London : J. M. Dent & Co.; New York : 
The Macmillan Company. 



256 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [May, 

One instance will be sufficient to illustrate the author's 
method. He quotes St. Ignatius as teaching, in his constitu- 
tions, that mortal sin must be committed if commanded by a 
religious superior. Of course there is no reference to show 
whence this quotation is taken, nor is there in the list of 
books consulted by the author mention of any work by St. 
Ignatius. Now, as a matter of fact, this charge has often been 
urged before, and has as often been shown to be utterly false 
so much the worse for the good faith of Mr. Young. But 
even had the calumny never been exposed, what phenomenal 
effrontery is apparent in this effort to put forth without veri- 
fication a statement affecting the very essence of a great man's 
teaching, and practically implying a charge against his personal 
honesty. The reader will find many another such blot in this 
work, and he may be relied on to recognize that Mr. Young 
is neither scholarly nor fair. 

19. The fact that the pioneers in American discovery, ex- 
ploration, mission and charity work, patriotism and statesman- 
ship were so largely Catholic, was made the inspiration, some 
years ago, of an interesting collection of biographical sketches* 
by Mr. J. O'Kane Murray. The author's object was to offset 
the partial and incomplete records of non-Catholic historians. 

The present revised edition, however, reveals no change in 
spirit or in method from the original edition ; arid in these 
days of critical and scholarly works, like The Jesuit Relations, 
must be ranked as passde. 

20, Some time ago a History of the Catholic Church in 
the New England States appeared in two very large volumes. 
The publishers are now bringing out this history in a more 
convenient and useful form, devoting a separate volume to 
each one of the different dioceses. We take great pleasure in 
recommending the history of the Hartford diocese,f written by 
Rev. James H. O'Dannell, a diocesan priest. The progress of 
Catholicity in the Hartford diocese (which includes the whole 
State of Connecticut) has been positively marvellous, and its 
record ought to be a source of interest and just pride to all 
Catholics. Father O'Donnell's presentation of this story is both 
scholarly and interesting; he brings to his subject all the re- 
quirements of intellect and sympathy necessary to assure a 

* Catholic Pioneers of America. By J. O'Kane Murray, M. A. Philadelphia: Kilner & Co. 
^History of the Dio:est of Hertford. By Rev. James H. O'Donnell, Boston : D. H. 
Kurd Company. 



1901.] 



TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 



257 



worthy treatment. Too much praise cannot be given to him 
for the absorbing devotion, the patience, the extreme thorough- 
ness, and the truly scientific method to which his pages testi- 
fy, and which make his work of lasting value. 

21. We are glad to welcome a new edition of Mrs. Brown- 
ing.* She is an eminently wholesome poet, and although her 
genius does not entitle her to the first rank of English writers, 
she has exerted a very wide and always a healthy influence on 
English verse. Her shortcomings are well known : perverse and 
innumerable violations of rhyme and rhythm (certainly no poem 
in the language of equal length can compare, in point of un- 
pardonably false rhymes, with the one which she herself seemed 
to consider her greatest work, " Pan is Dead ") ; an over-fond- 
ness for political themes, in treating which, as in passages of 
"Casa Guidi Windows," she sometimes becomes sublime, but 
oftener descends perilously near to the province of the dema- 
gogue ; finally, an unhappy weakness in handling blank verse, 
as illustrated in her ambitious " novel in verse," Aurora Leigh, 
a poem styled by Ruskin the greatest of the century. In one 
respect, indeed, Mrs. Browning is supreme : namely, in the 
writing of sonnets. They form her incomparably best work ; 
and in them, we think, she reaches the very highest merit that 
English verse can boast of in this department. Messrs. Hough- 
ton, Mifflin & Company are to be thanked for this new ser- 
vice added to many previous ones in behalf of our finest 
literature. 

22. A. beautiful little edition of Law's Christian Perfection^ 
is that just gotten out by L. H. M. Soulsby. No one needs 
to be informed of the high spiritual tone and unbending prac- 
tical piety of this famous work of the great Anglican divine. 
It is truly a helpful and edifying book looked at from any 
stand-point. We might compare it with St. Francis de Sales' 
Philothea and say that the latter work stands in about the 
same relationship to Law's book as the Catholic Church to the 
Anglican. This intimates at once its good points and its de- 
ficiencies. The present edition is not complete, but an adapta- 
tion, much of the text having been omitted as possibly out of 
harmony with modern conditions. 

* The Complete Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Boston : Houghton, 
Mifflin & Co. 

\A Practical Treatise upon Christian Perfection. By William Law. Edited by L. H. 
M. Soulsby. New York : Longmans, Green & Co. 



258 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [May, 

23, Timely publications at this season are two books on 
the Rosary. One * is a little pamphlet by an anonymous au- 
thor, who contrives in the course of 155 pages to impart a 
good deal of information concerning the various Rosary Indul- 
gences and similar matters about which all Catholics are apt 
to be questioned quite frequently. 

The second book,f which comes from the pen of the Eng- 
lish Provincial of the Dominicans, is larger and more thorough. 
Father Procter writes very instructively on the proper concep- 
tion of the Rosary as a prayer, and gives full consideration to 
that much-questioned point, how to combine meditation with 
recital of the beads. He also presents a summary of church 
legislation concerning the Rosary which will be helpful to many 
priests although he does seem to bring out in almost unde- 
sirably strong relief the special rights and privileges possessed 
by his own Community. Still these things are facts, and facts, 
perhaps, should offend no one. As to the history of the devo- 
tion, Father Procter holds and offers proof for the opinion that 
the Rosary originated with St. Dominic. This position, how- 
ever, at best, is open to question ; and in the light of recent 
discussion some corrections must be made in the arguments 
advanced in the present volume. It will not do, for instance, 
to cite Thomas a Kempis as witness to the formation of a 
Rosary Confraternity in 1475, for he died in 1471. And there 
is much to be said concerning the arguments drawn from cer- 
tain Papal Bulls, and from the Will of Antony Sers for on 
investigation, as Father Thurston, S.J., has shown, their evi- 
dence loses some of its apparent conclusiveness. 

24. Another welcome spiritual book \ from the Bar Con- 
vent, York ! This time it is a little volume on Visits to the 
Blessed Sacrament by the talented nun already most favorably 
known to us through her excellent works on Baptism and Con- 
firmation. There is nothing exaggerated, artificial, or impossi- 
ble in the pages before us ; they contain merely a collection 
of musings and devotional monologues written with a direct- 
ness and spontaneity that will appeal strongly to many who 
can get little profit out of less natural and more fervent writ- 
ing. Here and there every reader will meet a paragraph which 

* The Rosary the Crown of Mary. By a Dominican Father. New York : Benziger Bros. 

t The Rosary Guide for Priests and People. By the Very Rev. Father J. Procter, Provin- 
cial of the Dominicans in England. New York : Benziger Brothers. 

\Before the Most Holy (Coram Sanctissimo). By Mother Mary Loyola. Edited by 
Father Thurston, SJ. St. Louis, Mo. : B. Herder. 



1901.] 



TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 



259 



gives clear and fine expression to a favorite or impressive 
thought, and which helps to prayer. Father Thurston's brief 
introduction is graceful, and will be very suggestive to readers 
who think. 

25. Compiled by Father Ilg, Capuchin, and edited by the 
lamented Father Clarke, S.J., an old German meditation book, 
written in 1712, now appears in English.* The meditations 
follow the course of the ecclesiastical year, presenting each 
day three " points " of moderate size based on a scene in our 
Lord's life. A short and very clear rsum of the Ignatian 
method of meditation stands at the beginning. 

Despite the statement of the preface, the book seems fitted 
for people in the world as well as for religious ; it will sug- 
gest matter to preachers too. The text is simple and the style 
straightforward, though not all in " English undefiled." The 
illustrations used by the writer are copious, familiar, and 
pointed ; they help to impress and instruct the reader. If not 
up to the exceptionally high level of Crasset, the present 
work will nevertheless rank well among excellent books of 
meditation. Its two volumes together include more than a 
thousand pages. Unfortunately, the binding is not very good ; 
it is of the kind that cracks. 

26. The idea of Magister Adest\ is to afford supplementary 
matter, from the Old Testament, for meditation on our Lord's 
life and death, and on subjects connected with his advent. 
The texts quoted cover the greater portion of each page, 
while the words to which they are collated occupy a small 
marginal column. The pith of each text, or the particular 
words to which consideration is intended to be given, are 
heavily underlined. 

The author's work has been most acceptably done, so that 
one appreciates the deeper and more extensive spiritual and 
mystical meaning developed in the reading of the New Testa- 
ment, by this use of the Old Testament. 

The typographical appearance of the volume deserves no- 
tice, however, and in our opinion not an altogether favorable 
one. The class of devout persons likely to use this book will 
find the underlining unnecessary, for they will be able to pick 

* Meditations on the Life, the Teaching, and the Passion of /esus Christ. By Rev. 
Augustine Maria Ilg, O.S.F.C. Edited by Rev. Richard F. Clarke, SJ. New York : 
Benziger Brothers. 

t Magister Adest ; or, Who is Like unto God. By C. F. Blount, SJ. New York : Ben- 
ziger Brothers. 



260 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [May, 

out the substance of texts for themselves. Moreover, there ex- 
ists what seems to be a very just prejudice against underlining 
in general, as being akin to the offensive practice of explain- 
ing jests. 

With certain alterations in form the present volume would 
be a really welcome and valuable book. 

27. Five little volumes * before us make up a series of 
meditations compiled by a Belgian Jesuit. The first series ap- 
peared originally in the Etudes Ecclesiastiques, and was intended 
mainly for use in the monthly retreats of secular priests a 
custom almost universal in Belgium. Father Petit tells us that 
in the first series he aims to teach the priest how to die ; in 
the second he lays down the principles of the life of perfec- 
tion ; in the third he gives instructions in the contemplation 
of Christ's active life ; and in the fourth he outlines the mys- 
teries of our Saviour's passion and glory. The preface to the 
fifth series tells lis that it consists of three sets of medita- 
tions : , On the purgative way ; b, On the life of the Blessed 
Virgin ; c, On the parables with which Christ illustrated his 
doctrine. The lines of these divisions are not followed with 
anything like closeness ; perhaps because they were made after 
most of the meditations had been published. This, however, 
is of little moment. The meditations are pointed, thoughtful, 
and excellently adapted to attain their original purpose. Even 
a severe critic would be obliged to assign them a moderately 
high place among meditation books for priests. 

28. The two essays contained in Mr. Brooke's little 
volume f are remarkable both for their thought and manner of 
writing. In the first a wonderfully vivid picture is given of 
the intellectual history of the century. It really seems as if it 
could not be done better. The second is a noble plea for 
conduct as being the thing, after all, of real value in life. 

29. A book like Sermons for Children's Masses ^ suggests 
two things : that there should be in every parish a special 
Mass for children, and that sermons to children should receive 
at least as much care as those for adults. In all our large par- 

* Sacerdos Rite Institutus ptis exercitationibus menstrua recollectionis. Auctore P. 
Adulpho Petit, SJ. Quarta Editio. Vols. I., II., III., IV., V. Typis Societatis Sti. Augus- 
tini, Desclee, De Brouwer et Socii, Brugis et Insulis. M.C.M. 

t Religion in Literature and Religion in Life. By Stopford A. Brooke. 

J Strmons for Children^ Masses. By Very Rev. Dean A. A. Lings. New York: 
Benziger Brothers. 



1901.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 261 

ishes now the children have their Sunday morning Mass, and 
no doubt every child in attendance comes away convinced 
that " there was a sermon." But do the children remember a 
word ? do they know anything more of that divine life that 
had its sweet childhood too ? has the simple winning personality 
that said "Suffer little children to come unto me" made the 
least impression on their young lives? Ah, these are the 
questions that many a zealous pastor must ask himself after 
leaving the pulpit, during the " children's Mass." 

To fail in preaching to children does not necessarily mean 
tepid zeal, nor slovenly preparation. Many a zealful and 
love-wrought sermon has set the children to shooting marbles, 
in fancy. There is a knack in preaching to the young, and all 
those who have tried realize this well. Dean Lings has the 
knack. He puts in the market a volume that' is complete, 
convenient, and suggestive to all those in need of a leading- 
string to the child-mind. 

His work contains a sermon (from ten to fifteen minutes 
long) for each Sunday of the year and the feast days of 
obligation. Besides he gives two conferences, brief yet fully 
developed: one, "Advice to the Young on the Last Day of 
the Scholastic Year " ; the other, " Closing Advice to Young 
People after a Retreat." Few sermons are complete without 
Scripture and the Saints. In many of these sermonets Christ 
Himself speaks, so pregnant are they with Gospel- words ; and 
the saints talk familiarly of Jesus and Mary on nearly every 
page. The book is well and clearly indexed. 

30. A new book * " intended for the instruction of young 
people in academies and Sunday-schools," is peculiarly interest- 
ing as being the first in a series of attempts to apply modern 
historical methods to religious teaching. Our Lord is here set 
forth simply as an interesting figure in human progress, and 
one the contemplation of which " may contribute to the re- 
ligious well being " of those who use the book. 

The introductory chapters on Jewish politics and religion 
are clearly and intelligently written. There are many notes 
also which are sure to prove illuminating to the pupil; but, on 
the other hand, there are omissions which, it would seem, 
should have been supplied. An excellent instance of the first 
is the discussion concerning the name Petros (p. 154). But, on 

* Constructive Studies in the Life of Christ. By Ernest De Witt Burton and Shailer 
Mathews. The University of Chicago Press. 



262 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [May, 

the other hand, the words "binding and loosing" are de- 
scribed as "familiar Jewish terms" without a hint being given 
as to the interesting circumstances which made them " familiar." 
Again, in speaking of the woman with the issue of blood 
(p. 1 27) nothing is said as to the ceremonial uncleanness, which 
is really the whole point of the incident. Nothing is said not 
a word as to the punishment of scourging, or as to the mockery 
of our Lord ; no explanation is given in regard to the leg- 
breaking the crurijregium of the Roman executioners the 
omission of which in our Lord's case accounts for the piercing 
of his side. The list of books for supplementary reading is not 
perfect. Edersheim, of course, is excellent, but why Canon Far- 
rar should be recommended in such a volume as the present, 
it is difficult to say. 

Thus much can be said for this book from the Protestant 
stand-point. Looked at with Catholic eyes, it is altogether un- 
satisfactory, for it implicitly denies our blessed Lord's divinity. 

31. Father Rockliff's translation of A Catholic Catechism* 
introduces to English readers a carefully prepared text book 
for the use of classes in Christian Doctrine. It is simple, 
thorough, and well arranged. Though the subject-matter does 
not allow opportunity for the display of great talent, the work 
of both author and translator appears to have been careful and 
conscientious, and the result is satisfactory. A second smaller 
edition allows of the work being used to advantage in classes 
not yet far enough advanced to employ the complete text. 

32. Under a new title f Dr. Bixby reissues the volume 
which, about a decade ago, appeared as The Crisis in Morals. 
The change of title has been made, apparently, for the pur- 
pose of emphasizing the second part of the study as compared 
with the first. The latter is a very able and destructive 
criticism of Mr. Herbert Spencer's ethical theory ; the other 
part aims at constructing a more logical substitute on the 
Spencerian evolutionary basis. 

It would be damning with faint praise merely to say that 
Dr. Bixby's theory surpasses in logical consistency and in its 
correspondence with the facts of the moral life the views pro- 
pounded in the Data of Ethics. The doctor's exposition of 

* A Catholic Catechism for the Parochial and Sunday-Schools of the United States. By 
Rev. James Groenings, S.J. Translated by Very Rev. James Rockliff, S.J. (Large and 
small editions.) New York : Benziger Brothers. 

t The Ethics of Evolution. By James Thompson Bixby. Boston : Small, Maynard 
&Co. 



IQOI.] 



TALK ABOUJ NEW BOOKS. 



263 



morality has the positive merit of embodying some of the fun- 
damental principles of Catholic ethics the existence of God in 
whom are the origin and sanction of the moral law, and the 
identification of the moral law with the unchanging law of the 
universe, interpreted by consciousness. But in his endeavor to 
adjust these principles to Evolution, his theory becomes strongly 
pantheistic ; and consequently, if pursued to its logical con- 
clusion, involves the negation of personal responsibility and of 
the intrinsic distinction between good and evil. 

Fortunately, however, the doctor refrains from pursuing his 
principles to their logical conclusions. As an approximation to 
the truth, his position is a distinct improvement on the hope- 
lessly erroneous views of morality which have been propounded 
in the name of Evolution. 

33. An enticingly neat and interesting little volume is 
this* from the pen of Professor Mathews. It consists merely 
of two short essays, " The Four Ways of delivering an Address " 
and "The Real Secret of After-Dinner Oratory"; to which 
are added, in an appendix, practical suggestions on " How to 
be Heard in Public Speaking," etc. The essays are delightful 
reading, witty, sensible, practical. There are good points given 
for the man who speaks " because he has something to say," 
and for the unfortunate who " speaks because he has to say 
something." Those who are contained in either of these 
classes will find, especially if they be novices in public speak- 
ing, many helpful suggestions, many ways of lessening or doing 
away with the worry that attends the preparation and delivery 
of a speech. Not a few good anecdotes are sprinkled into the 
text, and the author shows evidence of an abundance of wit, 
while not injuring the actual seriousness of his purpose. He is 
to be commended for his sound sense and for his success in 
teaching while he entertains. 

34. Songs of all the Colleges^ is the title of a collection of 
the best known of the college songs, with the addition of a few 
new ones which we do not remember having seen or heard 
of before. Scarcely anything else is so universally a source of 
amusement and jollity as the college "ditty," and if things go 
as they certainly deserve to, the book will have a wide popu- 
larity. We understand that a further series is in press. 

* Notes on Speech-Making. By Brander Mathews, D.C.L. New York: Longmans, 
Green & Co. 

t Songs of 'all the Colleges. Compiled and arranged by David B. Chamberlain (Harvard) 
and Karl P. Harington (Wesleyan). Hinds & Noble, publishers. 



264 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [May, 

35. During the past year few works have attracted so 
much attention as Das Wesen des Christenthums, by Professor 
Harnack, of Berlin. We have just now received from the 
Messrs. Putnam's Sons an English version of the book;* it ap- 
pears as volume xiv. of The Theological Translation Library, 
and is to be had at a cost of three dollars. It will receive an 
extended review in our June number. 

36. A writer well qualified for his task has presented to 
the public a careful study f of the educational systems in 
America and Prussia. Though devoted primarily to a consid- 
eration of the teaching of mathematics (from arithmetic to 
conic sections), still it brings out not a few points which 
teachers of other subjects might ponder with profit. As the 
author says, a reproduction of Prussian high-school education 
might not be suited to American needs. But the fact to which 
we should attend is, that the Germans accomplish as good 
perhaps better results, with less expenditure of time, than 
we do. Surely something is faulty in our system. Most teachers 
of mathematics in this country will be surprised to learn that 
in a Germin gymnasium the time allotted for private work in 
mathematics ranges from one to two and a half hours per 
week, while the time given to it at the school is only three or 
four hours per week. The tendency in America is to cut down 
the time spent in the class-room, and to demand as much or 
more work at home than that devoted to mathematics in the 
school. In the German schools, too, a lesson is assigned in 
the text-book only after a thorough discussion of the matter 
in class. Many of our teachers first assign the lesson for study, 
and then in class are obliged not only to explain it but also 
to clear away the false ideas the pupil obtains from his private, 
unaided study. 

We trust that this little work will find its way into the 
hands of our Catholic teachers ; and do something to bring 
about the reform in our schools, the need of which has been 
indicated by our recent congresses of Catholic colleges. Those 
who read Professor Young's account of the training of the 
German instructor will surely regret that the teachers in many 
of our own schools are selected with such superficial tests of 

* What is Christianity ? By Adolf Harnack. Translated into English by Thomas 
Bailey Saunders. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons ; London and Edinburgh : Williams & 
Norgate. 

t The Teaching of Mathematics in the Higher Schools of Prussia. By J. W. A. Young, 
Ph.D. New York, London, and Bombay : Longmans, Green & Co. 



1901.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 265 

their knowledge and ability to teach. Especially in the teach- 
ing of mathematics should Catholic colleges look to their 
methods and men. The German gymnasium has many things 
to suggest and perhaps some to be copied. 

37. These papers* by Miss Eaglesfield are pretty little 
essays and will bs read with interest. Two have appeared in 
the columns of THE CATHOLIC WORLD MAGAZINE ; the rest 
are reprinted from Self-Culture and The Chautauquan. 

38. There is no more delightful reading than the story of 
the Passion f when it is rounded out by the erudition of scholar- 
ship and the information that comes from an intimate knowl- 
edge of the customs and habits of the people of the Holy 
Land. The Gospels are said to be meagre in detail. To one 
who is thoroughly conversant with the manner of living and 
doing in the time of our Lord this is not so, but to us who 
live at other times and in a different civilization the back- 
ground and the coloring of the pictures must be supplied. 
Father Ollivier has done it better than any one we know of. 
His translator, too, brings to his work an unusual ability in 
interpreting the French in good idiomatic English. 

39. The non-Catholic Mission movement is giving manifest 
signs of intellectual activity in the book world. Some years 
ago, when the movement started, the Catholic Book Exchange 
issued Ssarle's Plain Pacts for Fair Minds, and during these 
few years the demand for this book has been so heavy that 
to-day it has reached its 376th thousand. It ranks, for the 
demand there is for it, among the most popular novels of the 
day. 

Another book,:}: similar in its purpose and yet different in 
its methods, comes from the Catholic Book Exchange. It is by 
Father Xavier Sutton, the Passionist, one of the most success- 
ful of the missionaries who are devoting their energies to the 
giving of missions to non-Catholics. 

It is a simple and yet comprehensive exposition of Catholic 
teaching on many dogmatic points. It is published under the 
suggestive title of Clearing the Way. Its purpose is largely to 

* Books Triumphant. By Carina Campbell Eaglesfield. New York : F. Tennyson 
Neely Company. 

t The Passion. Historical Essay by R. P. M. J. Ollivier, O.P. Translated from the French 
by E. Leahy. Boston: Marlier & Company, ltd. 

\Clearingthe Way. By Rev. Xavier Sutton, Passionist. The Catholic Book Exchange, 
1 20 West 6oth Street, New York. 180 pages, paper, 10 cents. 
VOL, LXXIII. 18 



266 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [May, 

clear away the prejudices and misconceptions that prevent a 
thorough understanding of Catholic doctrine. 

40, Albert Sonnichsen, who went to the Philippines as 
quartermaster on the Zelandia, gives an intensely interesting 
narrative of ten months' captivity among the Filipinos.* He 
relates what he sees in a matter-of-fact, simple way, and his 
relations in many instances are to the credit of the " little 
brown people." However, at times he transcends the duty of 
a narrator and attempts to interpret things which he does not 
understand. In one case pages 44-45 he describes an in- 
strument like the old-fashioned stocks of colonial days, and he 
remarks that every convent was supplied with two or three of 
them. " Probably," he says, " they were utilized ' to convert the 
heathens.'" He repeats many of the stories that he had heard 
about the Friars from the natives, and because they were 
against the Friars he, with indefinite gullibility, believes them 
all. " I have entered secret chambers under their convents and 
seen hideous instruments of torture." He probably got into 
the wine-cellar and saw the bung-starter. His imagination did 
the rest. His own picture is printed as the frontispiece, and 
he looks as though he might be readily deceived. 



THE PHILIPPINE ARCHIPELAGO.f 

It is hardly possible to say too much in praise of the mag- 
nificent work lately printed by the Government Press at 
Washington, containing the results of the scientific work of 
the Jesuit Fathers in the Philippine Islands. Even our Prot- 
estant friends, whose indignation might at first be excited by 
the seeming identification of the Jesuits with our Government 
will, we think, have to suspend criticism at sight of these two 
splendid volumes, of about 700 and 500 pages respectively, and 
particularly of the atlas accompanying them. The atlas is the 
part of which the value is most obvious, for no one can even 

* Ten Months a Captive among Filipinos. Being a Narrative of Adventure and Observa- 
tion during Imprisonment on the Island of Luzon, P. I. By Albert Sonnichsen. New 
York : Charles Scribner's Sons. 

t El Archipielago Filipino. Coleccion de datos Geograficos, Estadisticos, Cronol6gicos 
y Cientificos Relatives & Filipinas. Washington : Imprenta del Gobierno, 1900. Two 
volumes in royal octavo. Volume I., xxvi.-yio pages, with 169 photo-engraved plates, 
bound in full American Russia leather ; Volume II., xx.-47O pages, with 118 engravings 
(maps and half tones), bound in full American Russia leather. Price of both works, $20. 
Address : Director of the Manila Observatory, Manila, P. I., or John J. Wynne, 27-29 West 
Sixteenth Street, New York. 



1901.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 267 

glance at one of the maps without seeing that it is much 
superior to anything that we have ; and it will soon be 
evident on examination that no improvement can be made 
on it for quite a long time. In time, of course, improvement 
will be made, but not until the regular work of the Coast and 
Geological Surveys have been extended to the islands. The 
maps, as they now stand, are superior to what most people in 
this country have been accustomed to regard as first class. 
This is true not only in regard to their mechanical execution, 
but also in the amount of information given by them, in mat- 
ters of physical science even more than in what concerns re- 
ligion. They show, also, the work that has been done by 
the fathers in the departments of meteorology and seismology, 
which are both of the greatest practical importance. 

When we begin, however, to examine the two volumes of 
letter-press, we find that their value is of even a higher order 
than that of the atlas. The first and larger volume is, no 
doubt, of the greatest general interest. It treats of every pos- 
sible subject of inquiry with regard to the islands and their 
inhabitants, giving in the first place the peculiarities of each 
region, and then taking up in a most exhaustive manner the 
subjects of race, language, religion, agriculture, commerce, 
education, public institutions in general, and history, and then 
passing to topography, hydrography, geology, mineralogy, bot- 
any, and zoology, giving all that is known on these matters, 
which is immensely more than most people imagine. Even by 
glancing at the numerous and excellent illustrations, without 
reading a word of the text, one may learn in a short time 
more than he probably supposed there was to be learned with 
regard to these new possessions of ours. To mention simply 
one point, the idea probably still entertained by many that 
there is such a being as a Filipino in general, or, to speak 
more precisely, that the shades of distinction between one 
Filipino and another are too slight to be of much importance 
will very soon disappear. It will be seen that we have to deal 
in these islands with a population of absolutely every degree of 
civilization, presenting varieties as great as are to be found 
through the whole length and breadth of our own continent. 
But this, of course, is comparatively a very small piece of in- 
formation, lying quite on the surface. 

The second volume is one rather for specialists ; that is to 
say, with regard to its details, though the results are of the 
highest practical importance and interest to all whose occupa- 



268 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [May, 

tions or interests may call them to the Philippines, or indeed 
to any place in that part of the world. It is principally oc- 
cupied with the subject of meteorology, a considerable part, 
however, being devoted to those of earthquakes and magnetics. 

In a country so subject to earthquakes as that whole por- 
tion of the world is, it is evidently of the highest importance 
to know the regions most liable to them, and to deduce all 
possible laws regarding them. In this respect the work already 
done by the Manila Observatory is equivalent, perhaps, to what 
would require a half century of observation with the means 
science now places at our disposal, and it is continually being 
prosecuted with all those means, in which constant improve- 
ments are being made. Even in this current year, the pres- 
ent writer has seen a new instrument devised by Father Algu^, 
who has recently been in this country. It needs hardly to be 
said that independently of the practical value of the science of 
seismology for the protection of life and property, the subject 
is one of the highest theoretical importance in our investiga- 
tion of the laws of the formation not only of our own planet, 
but also of other worlds. 

As to magnetics, the importance of the subject, even from 
a merely practical point of view, is sufficiently obvious, as 
every navigator necessarily must know the constantly changing 
variation of his compass, to make use of it. But it has a 
value quite independent of that, particularly in its possible, 
and we may say probable, connection with the subject of 
meteorology or climatology. 

It is in this last matter that the work at Manila of Father 
Algu6 and his predecessors has been specially conspicuous. 
Every one probably is aware of the liability of those regions to 
destructive typhoons, the course of which it is of the highest 
importfance, or seamen especially, to know. And considering 
the small number of stations it has been so far possible to occupy, 
the development and the accuracy of the Manila Weather 
Service is simply phenomenal, and has excited the highest 
admiration of the Weather Bureau of this country, which is 
anxious to co-operate with the work there done, and help to 
extend it with all the means in its power, and, by increasing 
the area of observation, make it possible to extend the pre- 
dictions not only to the Philippines and the immediate neigh- 
borhood, but to all the seas and lands of that part of the 
world. Father Algu's ingenious instruments for the prediction 
of typhoons (which are really the same as our hurricanes and 



LIBRARY TABLE. 



269 



cyclones) by private observers, are specially worthy of com- 
mendation. 

Now finally, if any one wants to know why this Jesuit work 
is so patronized by the Government, an examination of the 
work will or should soon convince him that it is not because of 
any wire-pulling or religious bias, but simply because really 
scientific men duly appreciate the highest order of science, 
wherever it is to be found. 

There is only one way in which the work, for our use, 
could be improved, and it is to be hoped that this improve- 
ment will be made. Spanish is a noble and excellent language, 
and in itself better for scientific expression than our own ; but 
unfortunately it is comparatively little known in this country. 
It would be very desirable that these volumes, with the im- 
mense stores of information they contain, should be translated 
into English, so as to be more available to the many who 
would be profoundly interested in them, but who cannot hope 
to acquire a sufficient knowledge of Spanish to thoroughly 
appreciate them in their present form. 




Catholic University Bulletin (April; : Dr. Pace writes upon the 
shortcomings in the present system of teaching philoso- 
phy, and indicates how an improvement may be begun. 

Atlantic _ Monthly (April) : Charles Dinsmore writing upon 
Dante's Purgatorio defends the doctrine of expiation. 

The Biblical World (April) : The best article is by Professor 
Milton S. Terry, D.D., a comment on Phil. ii. 5-11, The 
Great Kenotic Text. His exegesis is generally satisfac- 
tory, especially in view of the wild theories in late years 
set forth by Protestants concerning this passage. Lyman 
Abbott also contributes an article, " Are the Ethics of 
Jesus practicable ? " which he answers by saying that 
they are not only practicable " but that no other ethical 
principles are so." The article should be read in con- 
nection with certaia papers in late foreign magazines, 
where this position is emphatically denied. 



270 LIBRARY TABLE. [May, 

The Critical Review (March): Perhaps the most interestirg 
paper for Catholics in this month's issue is the review of 
Rev. Leighton Pullan's History of the Book of Common 
Prayer. In demolishing the argument of the author, who 
is a pronounced Ritualist, M. C. Anderson Scott shows 
the futility of the Anglican theory generally, and so far 
helps the Catholic side of the controversy without at all 
meaning to do so. 

The Month (April) : Father Rickaby, commenting upon the re- 
cent Pastoral of the English Bishops, says " it is better 
to forego for a generation what may appear to a man to 
be an excellent idea than to divide the church upon it." 
Father Thurston concludes his articles upon the Rosary 
with a history of the use of beads inside and outside 
the church. Father Gerard, who has just resumed the 
editorship of The Month, comments upon an ancient 
fraud lately resurrected the so-called " Jesuit Oath." 

The Tablet (9 March) : Describes the religious condition in 
Mysore, where "civil death " is the penalty of a Hindoo's 
conversion to Christianity. (16 March): Recounts how 
Mgr. Campbell having sued an Italian journalist for libel, 
the latter was forced to print an apology in all the 
pipers. Copies from the Daily Telegraph the account of 
an interview wherein Mgr. Mignot, Archbishop of Albi, 
declared the outcome of present condition in France 
would probably be the separation of church and state. 
(30 March) : Vindicates Cardinal Newman's scholarly 
accuracy against a criticism in The Spectator. Describes 
the recent controversy on the origin of the Rosary, and 
decides in favor of Father Thurston, S.J. 

Etudes (20 March) : P. Chrot begins to edit some correspon- 
dence of the Catholic philosopher De Bonald, communi- 
cated by the present viscount, his great-grandson. P. 
Briicker defends the justice of his criticism on the 
Bibliothdque Sulpicienne, and answers a writer in the Revue 
Thomiste by adducing evidence that Pope Innocent XI. 
never forbade the Jesuits to teach Probabilism. 

Revue du Clergj Pran$ais (15 March): P. Godet devotes thirty 
pages to the intellectual development and religious role 
of Cardinal Newman. P. Bricont, reviewing P. Gayraud's 
Crise de la Foi, declares there need be no fear of the 
soundness of the six or eight men who lead Catholic 
thought in France. To facilitate the return en masse 



igoi.] LIBRARY TABLE. 271 

to the church of the thinkers and the people, we need 
only to regain our intellectual and moral prestige. Re- 
prints from Revue politique et parlementaire part of P. 
Lemere's article on the Bourges Congress quieting the 
fears expressed by some that the assemblage was revolu- 
tionary in spirit. P. Birot defends himself against the 
criticism of the Bishop of Annecy passed upon P. Birot's 
speech at Bourges : "The criticism does not judge what 
I said, but denounces what I meant ; ... of that ele- 
ment I alone am the final judge." V. Giraud, reviewing 
Father Bremond's U Inquietude Religieuse (see THE CATHO- 
LIC WORLD MAGAZINE for April, 1901), says : " There are 
few books which do so much honor to a man and to an 
order." P. Boudinhon says that, arguing from analogy, it 
would seem that the First Friday of April should not- 
be counted as missed, and that those now making their 
nine First Friday Communions have simply to continue 
until they make up the requisite number, (i April) : P. 
Torreilles sketches the history of theology in France 
from the beginning. P. Bricont says there is thus far 
no better book than Bougaud's Christianisme et les 
temps presents to recommend for apologetical pur- 
poses. P. Leduc, writing on the history of Indulgences, 
says the charge that the church grants indulgences too 
easily should be a warning against a tendency to exag- 
gerate. P. Boudinhon writes on the Index : not all the 
works of an author are necessarily included in the 
general condemnation which seems to include all. 

Revue Thomiste (March): P. Lehu combats a new explanation 
of the transformation in the Eucharist based upon mod- 
ern discoveries in physical science. P. Gardeil quotes 
St. Thomas in support of some reservations necessary in 
dealing with " the limitations of positive law." 

Le Monde Catholique (i March) : Letters of Y to Z attacking 
Mgr. Dupanloup conclude. Mgr. Fevre explains the 
fallacy underlying the doctrine of the " free thinkers." 

La Quinzaine (i March): J. Guiraud deplores the "insipidity 
and pranks " which supporters of some modern devo- 
tions would substitute for the glory and dignity of the 
ancient liturgy. M. Sangnier describes the work done 
by the " popular universities," conducted by distinguished 
Catholics among working-classes of Paris. (16 March): 
G. de Goyau finds in the latest Papal Encyclical the 



272 LIBRARY TABLE. [May, 

call to united social action on the part of Catholics. 
M. Fonsegrive gives some most instructive lessons on 
the characteristics of the leading French journals. 

Le Correspondent (10 March): P. Thureau-Dangin describes at 
great length the Catholic revival in England succeeding 
Newman's conversion. J. Delaporte, reviewing Cairnes' 
The Coming Waterloo (a " Battle of Dorking " sort of 
affair), finds that in commenting on the French the 
author's "just criticisms are not new and his new ones 
not just." M. Bchaux, who replaces Claudio Jannet as 
the regular collaborator in economics, makes his first con- 
tribution, " Economists and Socialists in the Nineteenth 
Century." (25 March) : Continuing his article, M. Thureau- 
Dangin testifies to the real piety and holiness of certain men 
who did not come over with Newman e.g,, Pusey, Keble, 
Church, etc. P. Ragey contrasts Catholicism in Paris, 
where it is at home, and in London, where it is in exile. 

Civilta Cattolica (16 March): Treating of St. Peter's presence 
in Rome, explains the title to the earliest possessions 
of the Christian Church. Comments on the character of 
historical novels, and in particular the historical accuracy 
of Manzoni's I promessi Sposi. 

Rivista Internazionale (March) : Reviewing External Religion, 
by Father Tyrrell, S.J., Professor Costanzi declares the 
book to be opportune, instructive, luminous, and 
forceful. 

Rassegna Nasionale (i March): Barbara Allason describes the 
gradual religious evolution of Brunetiere's mind as 
evinced in his writings. 

Stimmen aus Maria Laach (March): P. Kneller contrasts Moses 
and Peter, the leaders of the old and the new people of 
God. P. Pesch continues his critique of Harnack, point- 
ing out his misstatements and false notions concerning 
the church. 

Ciudad de Dios (Feb.): P. Gonzales, commenting on the pres- 
ent "decadence of the Latin races," declares it is due 
to their departure from, rather than their fidelity to, 
the principles of Catholicism. 



1901.] EDITORIAL NOTES. 273 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 

THE "grievous School Question " will not down. A few years 
ago the suggestion of a religious school was tossed aside by a 
wave of the hand or an oratorical appeal to "the palladium of 
our liberties." It was considered a policy instituted by priest- 
craft to maintain a waning authority over the people. It was 
said the people were quite satisfied with the public schools, and a 
system of parochial schools was foisted on them against their 
will by designing priests. The discussion of the " private 
school amendment " to the Revised Charter of New York has 
revealed that there are others besides the priesthood who a v re 
asking that some policy be instituted whereby religion shall 
not be banished from the schools. 

It is coming to be very thoroughly understood that religion 
is after all the only real solution of the vexing social prob- 
lems, and hard-headed, practical men are coming to see that 
unless religious truths are in some way or other associated 
with the teaching of the children they will never mould their 
character or shape their lives. 



The School Question cannot be kept out of politics. It is 
too close to the heart of the Catholic people not to influence 
them at the polls. Men of wealth and social position, who 
know the restraining power of religion among the masses of 
the people, are insisting that there shall be some settlement of 
the question a little more favorable to religion. Ministers of 
the various denominations are compelled to acknowledge that 
the religious vitality of their people is so thoroughly depleted 
that they are unable to arouse them even with the strongest 
stimulants. "The Twentieth Century Awakening," on which 
they spent so much money and staked so many hopes, has 
been a flat failure. They are convinced that they must begin 
all over and with the children, otherwise they are doomed to 
extinction. Parents look around their families and see the 
growing children, without reverence for authority or submission 
to law, drifting away into evil lives. All these powerful agen- 
cies will force the school question into the political arena, and 
will throw the weight of their influence in the same scales 
with the teaching of the Church and the sentiments of the 
Catholic people. 



274. THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. [May, 

THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 

/CARDINAL MORAN has been the recipient of unstinted praise for his per- 
\j sonal work in organizing and bringing to a most successful completion the 
first Catholic Congress held, a short time ago, at Sydney, Australia. His opening 
a Idress was notable for the broad range of thought and the extensive learning 
which have distinguished his previous historical works. Few will be found to 
question his capacity to form an accurate judgment on matters pertaining to 
ancient or modern ecclesiastical history. In the course of his address he used 
these significant words : 

We now come to the United States of America. This, the youngest of the 
great nations of Christendom, has during the present century, the first century 
of her independent existence, advanced with giant strides and given proof of 
indomitable energy. Her vast resources and boundless territory, combined 
with the energy of her people and her more than seventy millions of inhabitants, 
cannot fail to assign to her a prominent place in moulding the future destinies 
of the world. Now, in this nourishing state, the Catholic Church throughout 
the century has held her own ; I should, perhaps, have said that bright and 
brilliant in the United States above most other countries has been her onward 
course. 

Cardinal Moran then proceeds to show, from the testimony of Bishop Spald- 
inj, that the difficulties against which the Church had to contend were mani- 
fold. He says : 

It would be difficult in modern times to find a parallel for the growth of 
religion in New York during the present century. New York was one of those 
States that persistently excluded Catholic priests till toward the close of the 
last century. And those anti-Catholic laws were not inoperative. We read of 
even a benevolent Quaker who, under the false accusation of being a Catholic 
priest, was led to the scaffold. When the new century was being ushered in 
there was only one priest, an Irish Capuchin, in the City of New York. Special 
toleration was extended to him as having been chaplain on board of a French 
frigate that had done good service during the war. There was only one 
Catholic church, and one school. As late as 1816 the Bishop of New York, 
Ri^ht Rev. Dr. Connolly, writes that there were only four priests in the diocese, 
which embraced the whole of the States of New York and New Jersey. The 
same prelate writes in 1818 that the number of Catholics was 16,000. "They 
are mostly Irish," he says ; " at least 10,000 Irish Catholics arrived at New York 
only within these last three years ; they spread throughout all the other States 
of this confederacy, and make their religion known everywhere." In 1822 the 
number of priests in the diocese had increased to eight, while there were two 
churches in the city and five others in the towns of Albany. Utica, Auburh, New 
Jersey, and Carthage, all in those days comprised in the Diocese of New York. 

What a contrast these statements present to the religious condition of 
things at the close of the nineteenth century! A few months ago the Arch- 
bishop of New York, when setting sail for Rome, published the statistics of 
the diocese accurately compiled up to date, and we must bear in mind that the 
Diocese of New York of to-day is only one of nine episcopal sees into which 
the Diocese of New York of 1822 has been distributed. This one diocese now 
reckons within its restricted limits 1,200,000 Catholics, with a thousand priests 
who zealously attend to their spiritual wants, whilst 48,000 children attend its 
parish schools. Many causes may be assigned for this wonderful growth of 



190 1.] THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 275 

religion in New York. There is one which should not be forgotten I mean 
the singular piety of the early emigrants who landed there. I will give but a 
single instance. Through the hardships to which the people of Ireland were 
subjected consequent on the disturbances of 1798, Irish emigrants began to 
flock in considerable numbers to the United States. Mrs. Seton, whilst as yet 
a Protestant, attested the singular piety which they displayed. In the year 1800 
some ship-loads of them arrived in New York suffering from the terrible scourge 
known as ship-fever. They were detained at Staten Island, the then quaran- 
tine station, where the lady visited them, accompanying her father, who was 
the Health Physician to the Port of New York. The piety of those emigrants 
led her thoughts to the Catholic Church, of which in after years she became a 
bright ornament. Stricken as the emigrants were with misery in its manifold 
forms, she writes: " The first thing these poor people did, when they got their 
tents, was to assemble on the grass, and all, kneeling, adored our Maker for 
his mercy ; and every morning sun finds them repeating his praise." The 
seeds sown with such piety could not fail to produce an abundant harvest of 
religion. 

Last year several things were said in some of the public journals against 
the Catholics of the United States as if they held those tenets which were 
brarided as Americanism, and which were most justly and opportunely con- 
demned by the Holy See. Americanism, however, may be truly said to have 
had more place in the imagination of hostile French writers than in the Ameri- 
can mind, and the condemnation by Pope Leo XIII. brought manifestly before 
the world the important fact that those erroneous tenets had taken no root in 
the American Church. A writer in the North American Review for May, 1900, 
sets the net result of the controversy in its proper light when he writes : " There 
are no more thorough, intense papists in the wide world than the Catholics of 
America. Their Catholicity, their loyalty and obedience to the Chair of Peter, 
are intensified instead of being weakened by their heretical, infidel, and atheist 
surroundings, all of which serve as a whetstone to keep their faith bright and 
keen and free from rust and dross. None know the value of faith so well as 
those who have before their eyes day by day the evil results of the loss of it. 
Health is never so highly appreciated as when disease is rampant." 

I have dwelt at some length on the progress of religion in the United 
States, because many writers at the present time extol the intelligence of the 
American people and the singular spirit of progress and liberty with which they 
are imbued. Nowhere, as those writers contend, is there a freer scope for the 
expansion of the human mind, and nowhere do the national institutions com- 
bined with the natural advantages of the country so favor a high development 
of intelligence and activity, and the formation of a great and noble race of men. 
Well, it is precisely in this so favored Republic, and among those privileged 
citizens, that the Catholic Church has won its most brilliant victories and 
achieved its grandest results in this very age of enlightenment and progress. 

We strongly commend this epitome of nineteenth century progress in the 
Catholic Church of the United States to the members of Reading Circles. They 
will find that Cardinal Moran's statement will bear the most critical investiga- 
tion, and can easily be supplemented for each diocese- by following the plan he 
has indicated for New York and Boston. The Catholics of Philadelphia are 
entitled to boast of the fact that at one time a priest was sent from the City of 
Brotherly Love to attend New York as an out-mission. At the present time it 
is stated that New York City has a larger population claiming Irish descent 
than any other city of the world, not even excluding Dublin. At the close of 
the eighteenth century, however, Philadelphia had the lead in the number of 
Irish exiles. M. C. M. 



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/IBoDern flfcafconna anD CbilD. 



THE 





VOL. LXXIII. JUNE, 1901. No. 435. 

THE PARACLETE AND THE HUMAN SOUL* 

BY REV. WALTER ELLIOTT, C.S.P. 

S ATHER LAMBING has rendered valuable ser- 
vices to religion by his devotional and historical 
writings, and this compilation, drawn from 
sources the most various, is equal in merit to 
any of his previous efforts. Many will thank 
him sincerely for his intelligent and zealous labors. He has 
placed within convenient reach a large number of the best 
contributions to the knowledge and love of the Divine Para- 
clete. First comes the Encyclical Letter of Leo XIII., issued 
on Pentecost Sunday, 1897, and this is followed by a very 
careful selection from the official, dogmatic, and liturgical 
utterances of Holy Church. The rest of the volume represents 
all orders and kinds of teachers, including prelates, preachers, 
ascetics, mystics, and religious founders. The industry and 
good taste of the compiler give us a real treasury of spiritual 
doctrine of the purest as well as most useful kind. 

Besides the editor's own preface we have one by Bishop 
Maes, of Covington, Ky., which is a marvellously clear and 
emphatic summary of the benefits, and we may say, the 
sovereign rights of this devotion. The reader will also profit 
by the remarks of the American Provincial of the Congrega- 
tion of the Holy Ghost, which precede the text of the volume. 
We bespeak for Father Lambing's book a wide circulation. 
Would that every priest and every family of the Catholic 

* Come, Holy Ghost ; or, Edifying and Instructive Selections from many Writers on De- 
votion to the Third Person of the Adorable Trinity. By A. A. Lambing, LL.D., author of 
History of the Catholic Church in the Dioceses of Pittsburg and Allegheny, etc. With 
Preface by the Right Rev. Camillus P. Maes, D.D., Bishop of Covington, Ky. St. Louis, 
Mo.: B. Herder. $1.50. 

THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE IN THE STATE 

OF NEW YORK, 1901. 
VOL. LXXIII. 19 



278 THE PARACLETE AND THE HUMAN SOUL. [June, 

Church in America had a copy. We should be glad if what 
we shall say about the great dogma, its necessity and its value 
in practical Christian life, should help to circulate this excel- 
lent work, drawing, as for the most part we do, from sources 
necessarily untouched by our author for want of space. 

THE HOLY SPIRIT THE LIFE-GIVER. 

The Christian faith teaches that all of God's works which 
are extrinsic to Himself are common to the Three Persons of 
the Holy Trinity, and that neither of the three Divine Persons 
does more or less than the others. But the Holy Scriptures, 
and the saints and theologians of the church, attribute some 
works to one Person, some to another: as power to the 
Father, wisdom to the Son, and love to the Holy Ghost ; and, 
again, creation to the Father, redemption to the Son, and 
sanctification to the Holy Ghost. 

Sanctifying grace, by which our very habit of life is made 
holy, and actual grace, by which our separate actions are done 
for God's sake, are attributed by Holy Church to the Third 
Person of the Godhead. "If," says the Council of Trent, 
" any one shall say that he can believe or hope or love or re- 
pent so that the grace of justification shall be given him, 
without the aid and inspiration of the Holy Spirit going before 
hand, let him be anathema." Thus the Holy Spirit and the 
grace of God are as cause and effect in the life of the justified 
soul; it may even be truly said that the gift of grace and the 
Divine Giver are one. The Nicene Creed amplifies this dog- 
matic truth by declaring the Holy Spirit to be " the Lord and 
the life-giver." 

Now, the grace of God is the elevation of the soul into a 
condition of virtue above its natural power. By it man is 
" indued with power from on high," a superhuman capacity to 
know and trust and love God. And this divine power, attri- 
buted to the operation of the Third Person of the Godhead, 
is that " newness of life " by which our motives are made one 
with those of our Blessed Redeemer, and ability is given to 
act on those motives, readily and with facility as occasion re- 
quires. Therefore the subjugation of sensuality to the do- 
minion of reason, followed by the subjugation of reason itself 
to the authority of God, and all this in the granting of powers 
essentially above nature, is the work of the Holy Ghost. 

TIMIDITY OF SOME CATHOLICS. 

Such is the wonderful significance of the Eighth Article of 



1 90i.] THE PARACLETE AND THE HUMAN SOUL. 279 

the Apostles' Creed, " I believe in the Holy Ghost." And yet 
some Catholics are afraid of this Article. They would make it 
a dogma subject to a rigid discipline of secrecy. Holy Church 
thinks differently. The Catechism of the Council of Trent 
quotes St. Paul to show that "a distinct knowledge of this 
Article is most necessary to the faithful. From it they derive 
this special fruit considering, attentively, that whatever they 
possess they possess through the bounty and beneficence of 
the Holy Spirit, they learn to think more modestly and hum- 
bly of themselves, and to place all their hopes in the pro- 
tection of God, which is the first step towards consummate 
wisdom and supreme happiness" (Cat. Rom. In Art. VIII. 
Sym.) The Catholic truth about this doctrine undoubtedly 
humbles the soul, as the Protestant error about it puffs one up 
with pharisaical pride. 

What, in God's name, should any Christian know better 
than the fulness of the doctrine about that divine Person, 
" who," to again quote this high Catholic authority, the Roman 
Catechism, " infuses into us spiritual life, and without whose 
holy inspiration, we can do nothing meritorious of eternal 
life"? No fact is so practically divine to us as that God is 
united to us more closely in the person of the Holy Spirit 
than our souls are united to our bodies ; no fact more sooth- 
ing, more humbling, and at the same time more heartening. 

It is not a doctrine for mystics alone, nor is it one full of 
fine-spun distinctions. It is, indeed, occasionally concerned 
with the obscure, because with the deep things of God. But 
fidelity to an enlightened conscience and strict loyalty to our 
interior better impulses are the every-day duty of the Chris- 
tian, whether learned or simple ; let him, therefore, realize that 
conscience and our inner life are the field of action of God 
Himself in the Person of the Holy Spirit. This makes reli- 
gion a personal matter instead of a machinery of laws. To 
many a soul the vital question of life is whether fidelity to 
conscience is a legal status or a personal relationship with 
God. Our appeal to conscience should be like the apostle's : 
" I speak the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing 
me witness in the Holy Ghost " (Rom. ix. i). 

A DEVOTION NOT FOR MYSTICS ALONE. 

That much of even the more mysterious parts of the doc- 
trine of the Holy Spirit is useful to the most ordinary Chris- 
tian, all competent authorities insist. We quote from a very 



280 THE PARACLETE AND THE HUMAN SOUL. [June, 

high one, a prelate whose practical and literary and devo- 
tional gifts were of equal value to religion Cardinal Wiseman. 
The following extracts are from his very valuable preface to 
Lewis's English translation of the works of St. John of the 
Cross : " We are mistaken if many readers, who have not cour- 
age or disposition to master the abstruser and sublimer doc- 
trines and precepts of the first [volume], will not peruse with 
delight the more practical and cheerful maxims of the second 
part, and even find exquisite satisfaction in those lessons of 
divine love, and in those aphorisms of a holy life, which are 
adapted for every devout soul." And earlier in the preface 
he speaks of God, as the object, indeed, of the mystic's con- 
templation, but also as the personal guide of the ordinary 
Christian in his individual spiritual existence : 

" God is a living, active power, at once without and within 
the soul. Every Christian believes that He deals as such 
with the individual man ; that in his natural life each one has 
received his destiny,- his time, and place, and measure of both 
by a special allotment ; that in his outward being, whatever 
befalls him, he is the ward of a personal Providence ; while in 
his inward and unseen existence, he receives visitations of 
light, of remorse, of strength, and of guidance, which can 
apply and belong to him alone." 

Men like Father Lambing would but urge a propaganda of 
fidelity to this guidance, and that the Catholic preacher and 
writer and confessor should aid each individual man to deal 
more and more directly with his Divine Guide, and should show 
him how to use Holy Church, her ministry, and her Sacraments, 
for the generation and growth of that absolute fidelity to the 
ever " active and living Power " of God within the soul. 

RELIGION IS PRIMARILY AN INTERIOR LIFE. 

Our Blessed Saviour exchanged His visible presence in this 
world for His sacramental presence in the Eucharist, and for 
the invisible presence of His Holy Spirit in every loving soul. 
He affirmed that this was more expedient. " A devout man," 
says St. John of the Cross (Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. III. 
chap, xxxiv.), " grounds his devotion chiefly on the invisible." 
The religion of Christ is dominantly a secret life. It is loving 
union with the unseen God. To perfect this union all the 
divine work of church authority, of preaching and of sacraments, 
and of vocal prayers, has been given us. Speaking of preach- 
ing, the author just quoted says that its " function is more 



THE PARACLETE AND THE HUMAN SOUL. 281 

spiritual than vocal." If this be true of so external a minis- 
try, how much rather is it true of the dealings of the soul 
with God in the Sacraments and in the Sacrifice of the Mass, 
in which the invisible God is so nigh to his creature. With- 
out the inner sense of God these holiest of things are cere- 
monies, and nothing more. Their fruit is too often no better 
than that of pious custom, sometimes not even that. 

It is well known to experienced confessors that many per- 
sons really called to a perfect life are hindered because they 
make use of spiritual things in the order of the outward senses 
only; and this results from ignorance about the office of the 
Holy Ghost in the soul's sanctification. 

The reader easily perceives that in this doctrine a Catholic 
learns nothing " novel." He learns simply what, or rather who 
it is that moves his inner life. There need not be the least 
danger to Catholic obedience, or to the integrity of holy faith. 
Our chief endeavor should be to advance the faithful a good 
long step in the direction of the interior life. Indeed, noth- 
ing could better help orthodox faith than the presence among 
the people of a goodly proportion of men and women with a 
well-developed taste for spiritual doctrine, a practical use of 
the more interior methods of sanctification. 

It is, to be sure, always in order to remind a people, whose 
lot is cast amid the very riot of doubt, to cling fast to holy 
faith. But will not that be all the more efficaciously done if 
they are taught to obey the inner " witness of the spirit," ever 
pleading for that same faith ? Are there no interior notes of 
the church's divine constitution ? 

THE ORDINARY LIFE OF 'A CHRISTIAN IS THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT. 

We are not now concerned with revelations, visions, locu- 
tions, or any such mysterious matters. We are considering 
the ordinary inner life of the Christian, his conscience and 
his temptations, his tendencies to good, his confessions and 
Communions, and his prayers and Masses. These are all plain 
ways. There are inner paths that are dim, even though very 
glorious, in which the divine Spirit leads with more secret 
touches ; let these be spoken of to the saintly few. Mean- 
while there are many who would be very devout did they but 
have a more vivid knowledge of the personal leadership of 
God. And there is none so simple as not to be able to under- 
stand (if only he be diligently instructed) that the voice of 
conscience, when it is enlightened by Catholic truth, is the 



282 THE PARACLETE AND THE HUMAN SOUL. [June, 

voice of God the Holy Spirit as truly as was that which issued 
from the summit of Sinai. It is true there is some danger of 
delusion. But is there no danger of formalism and legalism and 
routine in a teaching overbalanced towards the outward order? 
In St. Paul's time the Galatians were so sadly deluded that they 
were called " insensate." Yet the Apostle, besides reaffirming 
his outward mission, did not hesitate to drive them inward 
for a remedy : " And because you are sons, God hath sent the 
Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying : Abba, Father." 
And he insists on calling the common virtues of a Christian 
life "the fruits of the Spirit," and maintains that that life is 
both to live in the spirit and to walk in the spirit. What 
thus saved the Galatians saves us : a divinely appointed minis- 
try whose office of emergency is to claim obedience to authority, 
and whose regular teaching is the interior obedience due to 
the divine guidance within the soul. Thus it happens that the 
inner leadings may be tested by external divine authority, for 
in the last resort personal inspiration does not accredit it- 
self. 

" It is the indwelling Divine Presence of the Holy Spirit," 
says Father Hecker, " which from the day of Pentecost teaches 
and governs in the Church's hierarchy, is communicated sacra- 
mentally to her members, and animates and pervades, in so 
far as not restricted by human defects, the whole Church." 
This divine synthesis of the interior and exterior guidance is 
similarly described in the Meditations of Father Crasset, S.J.: 
" For how long a time " he appeals to the imperfect Christian 
" has not God called you by secret inspirations, by interior 
touches of grace, by the words of preachers, by the counsel of 
confessors, by good books, and by the example of holy men?" 
(Meditation for January 5). 

SAFEGUARDS AGAINST ERROR. 

Here, then, is the safeguard. No private illumination of 
whatever kind soever is to be taken as valid till it is tried 
and approved by the authority of God in His Church ; " for," 
says St. Francis de Sales, " when God gives us inspirations he 
begins with that of obedience." Herein the Christian has a 
plain because an external, accessible, audible criterion of the 
validity of his interior drawings ; and a divine one, because 
the church was founded by our Lord for the express purpose 
of infusing the Holy Spirit by her sacraments, of testing it by 
her authority, and finally but this is too often forgotten of 



1901.] THE PARACLETE AND THE HUMAN SOUL. 283 

urging us by her incessant admonitions to be wholly guided 
by it. Obedience to the outer order of God is never reliable 
till it is intelligent and motived by love : and who knows and 
who loves, in the religious meaning of the words, except one 
who is under God's interior spell ? 

The very life of the soul is in communing with God inter- 
iorly. Why so commune if not to obey Him in both the out- 
ward and inward order of His influence ? This produces a 
certain type of character, one capabte of the best obedience 
because sanctified by the best union with God the kind of 
men and women needed in our day. "Imperfect knowledge 
of God the Holy Ghost," says Bishop Maes in his preface to 
Father Lambing's book, "and of His enduring sanctifying 
work in the Church, accounts for the weakening of the faith 
of the many ; and lack of appreciation of His sanctifying grace 
in the soul explains the dearth of spiritual life in the Chris- 
tians of our generation." 

HIGHEST TYPE OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. 

We speak of "a man of principle," " a man square with his 
conscience," as the typical righteous man. Likewise we should 
look for a type of Christian character : " a man guided by 
God's love," " a man true to an enlightened Catholic con- 
science." Faith is too often a racial uniformity or a family 
loyalty, rather than that unshaken assent of the mind held firm 
by the instinct of divine love. And this happy condition offers 
a noble liberty to every variety of character. For there is 
something different in each one's way, and God is the author 
of that difference both in the order of nature and of grace, 
a variety which is as divine as is His holy uniformity in the 
church's sacraments and discipline. 

The motives that elicit obedience to external authority 
suffice for acceptance of God's immediate and interior author- 
ity. Submission to divine inspirations should be as to God 
face to face. Once the approval of proper counsel has been 
obtained we should be exceedingly careful lest we "ex- 
tinguish the Spirit." The soul then imitates St. Paul's conduct 
after receiving the inspiration of his conversion : " Lord, what 
wouldst thou have me to do ? " It is our only question. As 
soon as answered, immediately "he rose up" and, though he 
was blind, he had himself led into the city to the place ap- 
pointed. " Possessing such dispositions we may be fully satis- 
fied that God will not fail to speak frequently to our hearts 



284 THE PARACLETE AND THE HUMAN SOUL. [June, 

in order to manifest his will to us" (Bellecius, S.J., Solid 
Virtue, chap. iii. art. 3). 

NEGLECT NOT THE GRACE WHICH IS IN YOU. 

Nor is there any lack of interior signs of God's drawings ; 
even though these cannot stand alone, yet they are of great 
use. Suoh movements, if from God, are calm and tranquil. 
They impart a light and an understanding of a supernatural 
brightness. It is Satan that breeds the vapors of obscurity or 
the humors of discontent. He is also traced by dissension 
among brethren. The true inspirations enable us to fulfil our 
daily duties with alacrity greater than ever, even though they 
point to some notable change. They are not productive of 
melancholy. St. Bernard says: "The surest marks are fervor, 
humility, and peace." To find out their meaning we should 
wrestle in prayer as Jacob did at the ford of Jaboc with the 
angel till he overcame him and obtained his blessing. But 
God never guides souls away from but always towards a frank 
understanding with those who represent Him in the external 
life of the Christian. 

God must not be kept waiting. Delay, procrastination, 
timidity, overmuch counsel all such things may hinder a right 
choice of time, or of associates, or of circumstances and lo. 
calities. Prudence sometimes degenerates into cowardice. 
Caution becomes indecision. Counsel becomes pusillanimity and 
human respect. When Tobias thought only of running away 
from the monstrous fish the angel said calmly, " Seize the fish 
by the fin and drag him on to the shore." 

All that concerns sanctification is the subject of divine in- 
spirations a deeper repentance, an increase of penance, re- 
newed self-denial, additional fervor in prayer and spiritual 
reading, the more resolute curbing of an evil propensity: the 
sincere Christian has but to turn his glances inward and hardly 
a day will pass but that some plain admonition of the Holy 
Spirit will advance him farther along these open avenues to 
perfection. It is precisely this ordinary inner direction that is 
simplest to understand and most profitable, as well as easiest 
to follow. This current interior guidance was the subject of 
St. Paul's admonition to Timothy, recalling to his disciple his 
grace of Holy Orders : " Neglect not the grace which is in you" 
And, in due measure, it applies to all who have the graces of 
Baptism, and those of the other Sacraments, namely, all 
Christians. 



1 90i.] THE PARACLETE AND THE HUMAN SOUL. 285 

THE MAIN EVIL OF THE DAY. 

Neglect of the interior voices of the Spirit of God is the 
main evil of our day. This breeds externalism. Christians 
become what the venerable Benedictine writer, Father Augus- 
tine Baker, calls " extroverted livers." Religion begins and 
ends in the outer world. Among ordinary people this leads to 
utter worldliness, to sensuality, and not seldom even to loss 
of faith. Among priests and religious it leads to tepidity. All 
the fearful things said against lukewarmness are true of partial 
or total disregard of interior movements of grace. Inspirations 
of God are his immediate will for all classes of souls. Noth- 
ing is more miserable than the inner lethargy resulting from 
failure to respond to them. One may not wholly fall away at 
once, but instant hurt to the soul is inevitable. Constant dis- 
regard of the ordinary movements of grace is like reading in 
the twilight difficult reading is certain and sore eyes inevita- 
ble if the practice is continued. We quote again from Belle- 
cius's fine work (chap. iii. art. iii.) : " Holy inspirations and 
lights of grace are the indispensable means afforded us by God 
for the attainment of virtue. Every time that we contemn or 
slight these heavenly gifts, we neglect one of our most essen- 
tial obligations that of striving to become perfect." Relish 
for virtue and disgust for vice should be motived upon God's 
will, proclaimed within the soul's own sanctuary and enforced 
from his church's high throne. 

RESULTS OF THE DEVOTION. 

Obedience to the Holy Spirit intensifies all Christian life. 
It feeds the fires of fervor. It at once steadies and strengthens 
spiritual heart-action, for it is divine love. It is this interior 
life that is now needed, for we have many external devo- 
tions and pilgrimages. We would have not less of these 
but more of the hidden humility and intense allegiance of the 
soul to the Divine Paraclete. It adds to merit immeasurably. 
For what is the reason of merit ? Heaven-meriting action and 
suffering is due to the fact that we are inspired by God. The 
sense of the nearness of the inspiring Person purifies because 
it simplifies the motives of conduct. One objects and says, "A 
sermon made me do this good deed." I answer, Yes, as the in- 
strumental cause, not as the efficient cause, which is the 
interior grace of God. Interior life makes religion more real. 
Nothing is so much needed as to realize the invisible. Are 



286 THE PARACLETE AND THE HUMAN SOUL. [June, 

not all men who are fit to receive Holy Communion in need 
of knowing the " spirit and life " that is in that supersubstan- 
tial bread? Are not all children in need of knowing the 
deeper significance, the invisible force, of the sacraments of the 
Eucharist and Confirmation? Can we begin too early to in- 
struct a Christian that his very body is the temple of God, and 
that the Spirit of God dwelleth within him on account of those 
great sacraments? Do all children have an adequate explana- 
tion of this their dearest birthright? 

The following words of Father Hecker, indicating a mis- 
sionary aspect of the devotion to the Holy Spirit, will fitly 
close this article : " The explanation of the internal life and 
constitution of the Church, and of the intelligible side of the 
mysteries of faith and the intrinsic reasons for the truths of 
divine revelation, giving to them their due emphasis, combined 
with the external notes of credibility, would complete the 
demonstration of Christianity. Such an exposition of Chris- 
tianity, the union of the internal with the external notes of 
credibility, is calculated to produce a more enlightened and 
intense conviction of its divine truth in the faithful, to stimu- 
late them to a more energetic personal action ; and, what is 
more, it would open the door to many straying but not alto- 
gether lost children for their return to the fold of the Church. 
The increased action of the Holy Spirit, with a more vigorous 
co-operation on the part of the faithful, which is in process of 
realization, will elevate the human personality to an intensity 
of force and grandeur productive of a new era to the Church 
and to society an era difficult for the imagination to grasp, 
and still more difficult to describe in words, unless we have re- 
course to the prophetic language of the inspired Scriptures " 
(The Church and the Age, p. 40).* 

* The reader is referred to Father McSorley's article in THE CATHOLIC WORLD MAGA- 
ZINE for June last, published in pamphlet form, and to be had at this office. 




A LITTLE SISTER OF THE ROSES. 



287 



A LITTLE SISTER OF THE ROSES. 




BY MARGARET M. HALVEY. 

LITTLE lay Sister! They tell her tale 

In the convent once her dwelling. 

One pictures her aging, bent and frail, 

In days of which they are telling. 

Still there are countless tasks to do, 

And not many vowed to labor ; 
Pioneer she, of the tireless few, 

Toiling for God and their neighbor. 
Often the daylight hours are spent 

With never one free for praying, 
But the little lay Sister smiles content 

Her soundless " Aves " saying : 
Tho* thro' her fingers seldom slips 

The beads from her girdle swinging, 
Mary's praises are on her lips 

From dawn unto darkness ringing. 

One simple sorrow the Sister hath 

Who once was a country maiden, 
And yet rememb'reth a woodland path 

With treasures of Maytime laden. 
If she might be free an hour to stray! 
Oh, now her locks are graying, 

But the woods are young as they were that day 
When she and her mates went Maying : 

They crowned her there such a rosy maid ! 
(Ah ! pale little, frail lay Sister) 

The leaves on her curls, caressing laid 
And pink wild-roses kissed her. 

Would she might gather such blossoms now ! 
And stealing to Mary's altar 

Wreath it with bloom and screen it with bough ! 
For longing the tired hands falter 



283 A LITTLE SISTER OF THE ROSES. [June, 

But tasks await them. What tho' 'tis night 

And few are the watchers waking, 
There is wheat to winnow, that clear and white 

Be the flour for the morrow's baking. 
One frail hand seeks the winnowing wheel 

The while it is plying and guiding : 
See, thro' the other the decades steal 

Of a Rosary softly gliding. 
Her eyes on the wheel are bended, lest 

The pile grow to overflowing 
The beads on a stand beside her rest 

And around them swiftly growing, 
A burden whose fragrance fills the room 

As the white flour fills the measure, 
Whose brilliance lightens the murky gloom 

Toiler, behold thy treasure ! 

Little lay Sister, glance aside ! 

Let the frail hand cease its plying, 
Fit in truth for a princess-bride 

Are the blooms before thee lying. 
For every " Pater" and glad "Amen " 

Hath a red rose blushed and burned ! 
Scarce was an "Ave" murmured, when 

To blossoming snow it turned. 
" These for thy longings so hard repressed " 

A voice like a lute is saying 
" Gathered for thee at the Queen's behest " 

" Where the angels go a-maying." 
Humbly the Sister kneels beside, 

Her heart for gladness bounding ; 
They find her so when at Matin-tide 

The convent bells are sounding. 

Roses around her everywhere 

(Pale little, frail lay Sister !) 
White ones coifing the graying hair 

While red ones, crowding, kissed her ! 
Soon recalled from her ecstasy, 

Hasting with hands a-falter, 
She wreathes and piles them plenteously 

By the Mother's convent altar. 



IQOI.] A LITTLE SISTER OF THE ROSES. 

Many another year she spent 

In the self-same paths of labor, 
Always serving with sweet content 

Her Master thro' her neighbor ; 
Often when humblest tasks would claim 

And leisure was most denied her, 
Roses aswoon and roses aflame 

Dropped with her beads beside her. 
" Sister of roses " they call her still, 

Where softly her story is breathed, 
And they show her grave 'neath a lonely hill 

With roses screened and wreathed. 



289 





290 FATHER EPHRAIM'S SEA-BIRDS: [June, 



FATHER EPHRAIM'S SEA-BIRDS: AN EPISODE 
OF THE IRISH FAMINE. 

(Catholic Cameos done with a Pen.) 
BY NORA RYLMAN. 

[OME time ago, in an American magazine, I 'read 
of a devoted priest who went a long journey 
on foot in midwinter, alone, to get his starving 
people bread. Shortly afterwards a mission 
priest related to me the heroic deed of one 
whose actions "smell sweet and blossom in the dust," during 
the time of that great Irish famine which is known as The 
Famine, when the Spirits of Desolation and Tribulation 
stalked through Green Erin, from County Clare to Clonmel. 

In this hut Bryan cried in his anguish : " My son, my 
son ! would to God I had died for thee," in that Rachel re- 
fused to be comforted, and yet again in another Rizpah wept 
for the husband of her youth ! 

Ah ! Soggarth Aroon was to the fore then. He lifted the 
latch of the fever-stricken cabins. He it was who told Bryan 
that he would meet his boy again in the land of eternal 
youth ; he it was who said to Rachel, that though her child 
would not come to her, she would go to it ; he it was who 
reminded Mizpah that under the palms of paradise the Angel 
of the Resurrection reunited parted hands; and he it was who 
heard the last confessions the pale lips said, who spoke the 
solemn sentences of committal when the poor fever and famine 
stricken bodies were laid, like tired children, on the dark 
brown bosom of Mother Earth ; and he it was who welcomed 
them on the shores of another land, to which they were driven 
like wing-wearied swallows. 

On the bleak and sandy east coast of England, in that dis- 
trict wherein stands some of the noblest abbeys, built and 
endowed by Catholic Faith, was a small mission ; just a hand- 
ful of the faithful, gathered together to hear Mass, to say the 
Rosary, and to worship God in the grand and beautiful old way. 
They were very poor, almost as much so as was that widow 
of Tarshish of whom we have read. The church was merely a 



IQOI.] AN EPISODE OF THE IRISH FAMINE. 291 

temporary one ; just (I say it with reverence) a consecrated 
wooden shed. Water fell on the altar, on which was the Im- 
maculate Host ; no stone or mosaic floor was there it was of 
hardened clay only. It was a veritable Bethlehem manger, of 
which the glory was Christ. 

Now, one day to this poor mission priest, Father Ephraim, 
came fifty starving Irish emigrants, in need of food, physic, 
nursing, and shelter. And this servant of God received them 
in the Name of the Lord who had not whereon to lay his head. 
They were taken into the humble presbytery, into small 
homesteads and fishers' cots. The burning hand of fever was 
on some ; these were put by themselves, and nursed through 
the long hours of sickness by Father Ephraim. 

I think that Mary the Mother of Jesus must have stood 
beside him in the lone night-watches, and have cheered him, as 
their wives cheer men not called entirely to God. Some of 
these refugees died as he ministered unto them, and were laid 
in a wind-swept cemetery within sight of the steel-gray sea. 
Others recovered. And for these their friend in the cassock 
found work. 

There were children born in this place of refuge, and these 
our good pastor baptized in the little church. 

Think for a moment of his stern self-denial ! When the 
plate went round on Sundays it came back with half a crown 
on it, or sometimes even two shillings in coppers ! The well- 
to-do yeomen and the rich squires of the neighborhood went 
to hear the parson. The tithes were the parson's, as was the 
ancient parish church. Henry the spoliator, and his daughter 
Elizabeth, without mercy, had seen to that ! 

For the sake of these exiles of Erin, of these Irish sea-birds, 
Father Ephraim became a beggar. He tramped miles through 
dusty or muddy lanes to beg for work and succor. The 
country gentleman and the prosperous farmer often saw that 
bent, worn figure, in its shabby clerical attire, making its way 
through the leafy coppice, or the shady park ; and for the 
credit of human nature, their hearts very often warmed to 
him, and they made him welcome and helped him. For 

" Tears waken tears, and honor honor brings, 
And human hearts are touched by human things." 

Could Father Ephraim teach young Larry the duties of a 
goose-boy or goose-herd ? 



292 FATHER EPHRAIM'S SEA-BIRDS. [June. 

Of a surety he could ; he would show him how to use the 
clapper himself. 

Could he just slip this tiny frock for poor Kathleen's child 
into his pocket? 

Of course he could, with pleasure ; wee Deirdra had scarcely 
one to her back. 

These were some of the incidents on his rounds. 

When the tempest was overpast, those of the exiles who 
were left stayed on in their Chanaan. They helped to bring in 
the finny harvest of the sea. They were hewers of wood and 
drawers of water. They were reapers, tillers of the soil. 

One did one thing, one another. But one thing they all did 
alike. When the boats lay keel uppermost on the sand, and 
the ploughs and harrows were put by in the sweet Sabbath 
stillness, over sandy dunes, and desolate heaths, across corn 
fields and clover meadows, came Bryan and Margaret, Dermot 
and Eileen, to the little Catholic church on the marshland by 
the sea. And they knelt on the rough floor, and blessed God 
in his angels and in his saints. These were the Irish exiles 
Father Ephraim's sea-birds whom he fed and sheltered when 
the keening was loud, and pestilence stalked through the land. 

What of the good pastor, you ask ? Well, he rests from his 
labors and his works do follow him. He sleeps with the palm 
branch of self-denial in his anointed hand. 

Birmingham, England. 




BEAUTY. 

EAUTY is a passing flower 

Lives from hour to passing hour : 

Beauty only of the soul 

Masters Fate and Time's control ! 

JOHN JEROME ROONEY. 




FORERUNNER of glorious, glowing summer, bidding a 
last farewell to dreary winter's blasts and storms, the month 
of May has long been deservedly famous in song and story : 

" The voice of one who goes before to make 
The paths of June more beautiful is thine, 
Sweet May." 

So sang Helen Hunt, and Hood apostrophizes it as 

" The birthday of the world, 
When earth was born in bloom ; 
The light is made of many dyes, 
The air is all perfume. 
There 's crimson buds and white, 
The very rainbow showers 
Have turned to blossoms where they fell, 
And sown the earth with flowers." 

Wordsworth, king of English poets, wrote nothing daintier than 
his lovely Ode to May : 

" While from the purpling east departs 
The star that led the dawn, 
Blithe Flora from her couch upstarts, 
For May is on the lawn. 
A quickening hope, a freshening glee, 
Foreran the expected power, 
Whose first-drawn breath, from bush to tree, 
Shakes off the pearly shower"; 

and English rhymesters have long chanted of the graces of 
May, fairest of seasons : 

" Child of the dainty spring, 

With blossoms in her dimpled arms." 
VOL. LXXIII. 20 



294 



WHEN MA Y is ON THE LA WN. 



[June, 



Chaucer dreamed, " Me- 
thought that it was May," 
and Milton speaks of 

" The flowery May 
Who from her green 

lap throws 
The yellow cowslip and 

the pale primrose." 

Keats wrote a fragment 
which he called "An Ode 
to Maia," composed on 
May-day, 1818, and he 
appeals to May as the 

" Mother of Hermes and 
still youthful Maia!" 

Thomson, famed for "The 
Seasons," writes : 

" Among the seasons 
changing, May stands 

confessed 

The sweetest and in fair- 
est colors dressed"; 

and'quaint old Peter Pin- 
dar sings melodiously: 

" The daisies peep from 

every field, 
The vi'lets sweet their 

odor yield ; 
The purple blossoms 

paint the thorn, 
And streams reflect the blush of morn. 
Then, lads and lassies, all be gay, 
For May is Nature's holiday." 



For many centuries the month of May, the fifth month of 
the calendar, has been regarded as the season of beauty and 
freshness, when Nature awakens to new life. 

With the ancients, Maia, mother of Mercury, was the god- 
dess of increase, and the month was esteemed a particularly 




" CHILD 
WITH 



OF THE DAINTY SPRING, 
BLOSSOMS IN HER DIMPLED ARMS.' 



1901.] 



WHEN MA Y is ON THE LA WN. 



295 



festive season, as it began the time of the earth's fertility. 
The Latin nations held the month sacred to Apollo, and every 
day was a festival to commemorate something. On the ninth, 
eleventh, and thirteenth of the month was held a lemuria in 
honor of the dead. To this custom may be traced the super- 
stition that thirteen is an unlucky number, and also that mar- 
riages contracted in May are unlucky. The French say, " Noces 
de Mai, noces de mort" (Marriage in May is an unlucky mar- 
riage), and this superstition prevails in nearly every country of 




(From an old print.) 



Europe. The old English expression " to climb up May-day," 
meaning to surmount difficulties, may have arisen from the 
Latin superstition, or from the fact that in England May 
weather is uncertain and by no means to be counted upon. 

The Feast of Flora, goddess of flowers, called Floralia, was 
held by the Romans on May first, and among the Latin 
nations the custom of May-day celebrations seems to have been 
the outgrowth of this festive occasion, though antiquarians in- 
sist that the festival was originally East Indian. 

Virgil speaks of the Roman celebration, telling us that 
upon that day, sacred to Flora, houses, gates, and even tern- 



296 



WHEN MA Y is ON THE LA WN. 



[June, 



pies, were adorned with flowers and branches of olive and 
orange trees. To this day the Italians celebrate the first of 
May with great gaiety, calling it " Calendi di Maggio." The 
ancient Florentine ceremonies were the most beautiful imagina- 
ble. Villani writes: "In the year of Christ 1283, on the Feast 
of Flowers, the city of Florence being in a good and peace- 
able condition, 
very tranquil and 
useful for the 
merchants and ar- 
tisans, and espe- 
cially for those 
of the Guelf party, 
who were in pow- 
er, there were as- 
sembled in the 
suburb of Santa 
Felicita, on the 
other side of Ar- 
no, where dwelt 
the Rossi andtheir 
allies, a noble and 
rich company, 
dressed all in 
white, with a lead- 
er who was called 
Love. And in this 
party nothing was 
thought of but 
games and pleas- 
ures, dances of 
ladies and of cav- 
aliers and other 
honorable people, 
going about the 
city with trumpets 
and other instru- 
ments, in great joy 
and gladness, and 
with many guests 
assembled to dinner and to supper. No stranger of renown, 
worthy to be honored, passed through Florence who was not 
invited by these companies and detained as long as possible, 




MAY -DAY FESTIVAL AT FLORENCE (Wagrez). 



1901.] WHEN MAY is ON THE LAWN. 297 

and, accompanied on foot or horseback as he liked, passed 
through the city or the surrounding country as he liked." 

As Italy is a land of flowers, the flower-feast is a thing of 
beauty, and the Florentine ceremonial was unsurpassed. In 
France the old May-day customs still exist. As early as 1323 
the troubadours and trouveres of lovely, fertile Langue d'Oc 
were wont to assemble on May-day at a Court of Love, there 
to compete for the prize a golden violet awarded to the one 
singing the best chanson in praise of May. In 1540 one 
Cltnence Isaure left her whole fortune to perpetuate this cus- 
tom of fair Provence. Even to-day, in the French villages, 
some such ceremony is held, and one of the quaintest of French 
May-day doings is that of having " Mays." These are little 
girls, dressed all in white, wearing wreaths and carrying scep- 
tres of lilies. Each one is throned upon an altar, all in differ- 
ent parts of the village, and there is left in lonely grandeur, 
visited during the day by the little peasants, who consider this 
a method of honoring the Blessed Virgin, whose month it is. 

In ancient Britain the Druids lighted huge fires upon their 
cairns which crowned the hill summits, and from the earliest 
times in " Merrie England " May-day was the time for revelry 
and feasting, for laughter and song. It must have been a 
gladsome sight. As early as the times of King Arthur and 
his knights it was observed, for an old chronicle tells us : 
" Now, it befell in the moneth of lusty May that Queen Guine- 
ver called unto her the knyghtes of the Table Round, and 
gave them warning that early in the morning she should ride 
on Maying unto the woods and fields beside Westminster " ; 
and in Chaucer's time 

" All menne ande women faire 
Went out at dawn of daye 
To fetch the flowers f raise." 

Shakspere makes a yeoman in Henry VIII. 's time complain of 
the crowd at the christening of Elizabeth : 

" 'Tis as much impossible, 

Unless we sweep 'em from the door with cannons, 
To scatter 'em as 'tis to make 'em sleep 
On a May Morning." 

Hall's Chronicle says that Henry VIII. and Qaeen Catherine 
" rode a-maying with manye lordes ande ladyes from Green- 
wich to the htghe ground of Shooter's Hill"; and Stow in his 



298 



WHEN MA Y is ON THE LA WN. 



[June, 



Survey of London, written in 1603, says : " In the month of May, 
namely, on May-day, in the morning, every man, except impe- 
diment, would walk into the sweete meadows and greene woods, 
there to rejoice their spirites with the beauty and savour of 
sweete flowers, and with the harmony of birds praysing God 
in their kind." 

In London May-day was celebrated by various pretty chari- 
ties. Milkmaids had a holiday, and an old rhyme says : 

" In London thirty years ago, 
When pretty milkmaids went about, 
It was a goodly sight to see 
Their May-day pageant all drawn out. 




GARLANDED WITH FLOWERS THE MAIDENS RETURNED TO THE VILLAGE GREEN. 

" Themselves in comely colors drest, 
Their shining garland in the middle, 
A pipe and tabour on before, 
Or else a foot-inspiring fiddle." 

The maidens expected a douceur and the chimney-sweeps 
likewise looked for a present. They strutted about the streets 
like vain little peacocks, dressed in fanciful attire, to which 
was sewed strips of gaily colored paper. 



1901.] WHEN MA Y is ON THE LA WN. 299 

One Mrs. Montagu a charitable Londoner gave them a 
feast each May-day, and when she died a poet of the time 
wrote : 

" And is all pity for the poor sweep fled 
Since Montagu is numbered with the dead? 
She who did once the many sorrows weep 
That met the wandering of the woe-worn sweep ! 
Who once a year bade all his griefs depart, 
On May's sweet morn would doubly cheer his heart." 

In the metropolis the day was celebrated with feasting and 
jollity, and bonfires at night ; but in rural England the day 
was looked forward to all the year round and its festivities 
were a merry sight. 

At earliest dawn the lassies rose and hastened to the wood- 
land meads, fresh with primrose and cowslip, to bathe in May- 
dew to preserve their beauty, while less poetical and more 
practical dames gathered it to use for whitening linen, it being 
supposed to have remarkable qualities in that respect. Quaint 
old Pepys says : " My wife went down with Jane and W. 
Heever to Woolwich in order to a little ayre, and lie there 
to-night, so to gather May-dew to-morrow morning which Mrs. 
Turner has taught her is the only thing in the world to wash 
her face in." 

Laden with branches of the pink and white May, as the 
lovely hawthorn bush is called, and garlanded with wreaths 
and chains of the "rathe primrose," the "rare blue violet," 
the harebell slim and " daisy pied," the maids returned to the 
village green, there to bedeck the May-pole and choose the 
queen for the festivities. 

In the midst of the village green stood the pole, and it was 
wreathed with garlands, and streamers of gay silk were tied at 
the apex, the other ends being held by the dancers, who wove 
them in and out as they tripped charming figures in time to 
the village music. 

The earliest known picture of a May-pole is found in the 
Variorum Shakspere, and represents a pole at Betley, in Staf- 
fordshire, in the days of Henry VIII. The pole is painted in 
alternate stripes of black and yellow, is planted in a mound 
of earth, and has affixed to it Saint George's red-cross banner 
and a white, pointed pennon. 

Gertrude Atherton, in an article on " May-day with the 
Poets," writes : " Our ancestors held an annual assembly on 



3oo 



WHEN MA Y is ON THE LA WN. 



[June, 



May-day, and the column or pole of May was the great stand- 
ard of justice in the Eycommons, or field of May. Here it 
was that the people, if they saw cause, deposed or punished 
their governors, their barons, or their king. The judge's bough 

or wand, and the staff or rod of au- 
thority in the civil or the military, are 
both derived from May-day emblems ; 
also the mayor received his title from 
the month which is the synonyme of 
power. The crown, a mark of dignity, 
or symbol of power, is the equivalent 
of the garland or crown hung on the 
top of the May-pole." 

A May Queen was elected and 
crowned with a coronal of flowers by 
the queen of the preceding year, and, 
with her train-bearers and maids of 
honor, she held court through the day 
in a flower-bedecked arbor. Tennyson 
has immortalized the May Queen in 
verse by his well-known lines : 

" You must wake and call me early, 

call me early, Mother dear ; 
To-morrow '11 be the happiest day in 

all the glad New Year, 
THE EARLIEST KNOWN PICTURE In all the glad New Year, Mother, 

the maddest, merriest day, 

For I 'm to be Queen of the May, Mother, I 'm to be 
Queen of the May." 

A lord of the May there was also, and Fletcher says : 

"The shepherd boys who with the muses dwell 
Met in the plains their May lords new to choose, 
(For two they yearly choose) to order well 
Their rural sports the year that next ensues." 

And the lords' duties were to superintend the May-day sports : 
morrice dances, archery contests, etc., and arrange for the crown- 
ing of the queen. 

Different customs prevailed in different shires, every custom 
quaint and interesting. In Lincolnshire it was considered good 
luck to change servants on May-day, and bad luck for a maid 




i goi.] WHEN MAY is ON THE LAWN. 301 

to leave a place unless she had a new one into which to step 
immediately. 

Horns blown on the mountain tops ushered in May-day in 
the Isle of Man, and there the May Queen was attended by 
the Queen of Winter, a man dressed in woollen hood, fur tip- 
pet, and dark wool garments. A mock battle took place upon 
the village green, and Spring invariably conquering, she and 
her retainers drove drear Winter from the field, while the 
victors gaily disported themselves about the May Queen's 
throne. 

In Ireland the peasants used to drive the cattle between 
bonfires, as they did in Germany, and in Dublin the maidens 
placed a stocking filled with yarrow beneath their pillows and 
chanted : 

" Good morrow, good yarrow, good morrow to thee, 
I hope 'gain the morrow my lover to see ; 
And that he may be married to me ; 
The color of his hair and the clothes he doth wear, 
And if he be for me may his face be turned to me, 
And if he be not, dark and surly may he be, 
And his back be turned to me." 

In Lancashire the waits went about to sing May carols as 
they sang of the Christ-Child at Christmas, and one of the 
quaintest of these songs was sung on the eve of May-day, and 
is called the " Old May Song": 

" God bless this house and harbour, your riches and your store, 
For the Summer springs so fraise, greene, and gaye ; 
We hope the Lord will prosper you both now and evermore, 
Drawing near to the merry month of May." 

The music for this carol is simple and pretty. 

" I wish you the merriment of the May " was the pleasant 
greeting upon the May-day morning, and May festivities were 
the delight of all England until the grim and gloomy days of 
the Cromwellians. 

Those Puritans who, as Macaulay cleverly said, " disap- 
proved of bear-baiting, not because it hurt the bear but be- 
cause it gave pleasure to the bystanders," disapproved of the 
May-pole and its innocent delights for the same reason, and 
May-day celebrations were suppressed by act of Parliament 
April 6, 1644. Great was the indignation of the people, and 
one of the songs of the day complains : 



302 



WHEN MA Y is ow THE LA WN. 



[June, 







" Giy scenes and souads once blest my eyes 
And charmed my ears, but all are vanished ; 
On May-day now no garlands go, 
For milkmaids and their dance are banished." 

At the Restoration Charles II. annulled this act, and all 
England rejoiced. In London a May-pole was erected where 
now flows the teeming traffic of the Strand, and never had 
there bsen such a festival as that which greeted the return of 
the beloved Stuart to England's throne. 



190 1.] WHEN MAY is ON THE LAWN. 303 

How the Puritans should have objected to the festa upon 
the two-fold ground that it was " a Popish and an irreligious 
procedure," will always remain a mystery to logicians. Irre- 
ligious its innocent merriment certes was not, and many of the 
May songs have a distinctly religious element, as may be seen 
from the following, one of the quaintest and prettiest of all 
the old Chansons de Mai: 

THE MAYER'S SONG. 

Remember us, poor mayers all ; 
And thus we do begin 
To lead our lives in righteousness, 
Or else we die in sin. 

We have been rambling all this night, 

And almost all this day, 

And now returned back again 

We have brought you a branch of May. 

A branch of May we have brought to you, 
And at your door it stands ; 
It is but a sprout, but it 's well budded out 
By the work of our Lord's hands. 

The hedges and trees, they are so green, 
As green as any leek, 
Our Heavenly Father He watered them 
With His heavenly dew so sweet. 

The heavenly gates are open wide, 
Oar paths are beaten plain, 
And if a man be not too far gone, 
He may return again. 

The life of man is but a span, 

It flourishes like a flower; 

We are here to-day and gone to-morrow, 

And are dead in any hour. 

The moon shines bright, and the stars give a light, 
A little before it is day ; 
So God bless you all, both great and small, 
And send you a joyful May. 

" Popish " to some extent the festival certainly was, at least 
in later years, and especially so in its outgrowth. 



304 



WHEN MA Y is ON THE LA WN, 



[June, 




THE] QUEEN OF MAY. 

What is the exact origin of " May Devotions " no one 
seems to know, but it has for some years been a pious custom 
of the Catholic Church to regard the month of May as sacred 
to the Blessed Virgin, and to decorate her altars with flowers 
and candles during the month. 

The priests, who smiled upon all innocent pleasures, sought 
by means of them to turn the thoughts of their people to 
higher things, and in many places out of the old May-day 
customs grew the idea of celebrating that day with a proces- 



1901.] WHEN MA Y is ON THE LA WN. 305 

sion of white-robed maidens, bearing banners and garlands, 
which last they placed upon the Virgin's altar, singing hymns 
to Mary, Queen of May. 

The Catholic Directory says: "A custom has arisen of ad- 
dressing public prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mary, decking 
her altar with flowers, singing hymns in her honor, etc., daily 
during the month of May. The prayers used are from popu- 
lar books of devotion, for the church does not recognize this 
" Month of May " by any change in the Mass or Office. How- 
ever, Pope Pius VII., in a brief of March 21, 1815, granted an 
indulgence of three hundred days daily to those who practise 
this devotion at home or in church ; and a plenary indulgence 
on any one day in the month, on condition of confession, 
Communion, and prayer for the intention of the Pope." 

Much farther back than this was the Blessed Virgin re- 
garded as the patroness of the month of May. In art she is 
frequently represented as the Queen of May, while Spenser, 
Sidney, and several of the poets of Herrick's school mention 
her in this connection. Even old Dan Chaucer writes of her 
as " May," and of one of his characters : 

" To hevyns blys yhit may he ryse 
Thrugh helpe of Marie that milde May." 

In the " Man of Law's Tale" he says, referring to the Blessed 
Virgin : 

"Thou glorie of womanhehe, thou fayre May, 
Thou haven of refut, bryghte sterre of day." 

Emerson sings : 

" Wreaths for the May ! for happy Spring 
To-day shall all her dowry bring, 
The love of kind, the joy, the grace, 
Hymen of element and race, 
Knowing well to celebrate 
With song and hue and star and state, 
With tender light and youthful cheer, 
The spousals of the new-born year." 

All this is May ! 'Tis the month of blossoms and fragrance, 
of new-born joy and gladness, of sweetness and light. What 
could be more fitting than that it should be dedicated to one 
who brought joy to the world, and who was herself the Queen 
of all the flowers of Judea a Lily among thorns ? 




306 PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICA. [June, 



PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICA.* 

BY WILLIAM STETSON MERRILL. 

E are apt to think of America as first discovered 
in the fifteenth century, having previously lain 
unknown and unsuspected in the western ocean 
while dynasties rose and fell in the ancient 
world, and the times of the Crusades passed 
into the period of the Renaissance in Europe. The Icelandic 
sagas, indeed, have always had their tale of western voyages 
and settlements by the Norsemen ; but Europeans were long 
ignorant of these obscure traditions of the far North, and it is 
only recently that the discussions have passed into popular 
knowledge. 

Less widely known, again, have been the isolated claims 
made for discovery by other nations: by Irish, by Welsh, by 
Chinese ; while the speculations as to the origin of the abori- 
gines have interested few beside ethnologists or theologians 
seeking the lost tribes of Israel. These inquiries, moreover, 
have been published in monographs, not generally accessible to 
the general reader. 

We have now, however, the great mass of evidence relating 
to these matters gathered together and digested into a work 
called The History of America be J ore Columbus, written by P. 
De Roo, a Catholic priest, and a man of wide attainments and 
erudition. He has amassed references, allusions, narratives, 
and documentary evidence bearing upon the subject in all its 
phases, but especially in its religious aspect. This material he 
has obtained in the course of extended researches in public 
libraries of this country and Europe, and from manuscripts 
and documents preserved in the Vatican archives at Rome. 
The number of works cited by him in support of well-nigh 
every statement advanced in the text is two hundred, a list 
being given and serving as a valuable bibliography of his sub- 
ject. Besides these, over five hundred authors are quoted and 

* History of America before Columbus, according to Documents and approved Authors. 
By P. De Roo, member of the Archaeological Club of the Land Van Waes and of the United 
States Catholic Historical Society, Honorary Member of the American Catholic Historical 
Society of Philadelphia. Philadelphia and London : J. B. Lippincott Company. 1900 
Two volumes. 



1901.] PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICA. 307 

some fifty archives and manuscripts referred to. Exact page 
references are given in each case. 

The first volume is devoted to the American Aborigines, 
the second to European Immigrants all prior to Columbus, 
be it noted. " I have paid special attention," the author says 
in his preface, " to all such facts as are either difficult, or not 
at all to be found in former literature in any methodical form." 

WAS AMERICA KNOWN TO THE ANCIENTS ? 

Plato in his dialogue called TimcBus^ and again in his 
Critias, relates a wonderful tale of an island in the western 
ocean called Atlantis, once inhabited by a numerous people, 
who invaded the Mediterranean countries and were valiantly 
repulsed by the Athenians. Beyond this island, he says, is 
a land so large as to merit the name of a continent, and an 
elaborate description is given of the wonderful state of civiliza- 
tion of its inhabitants. 

Commentators have been divided in opinion whether to treat 
the story of Atlantis as a myth or as a true tradition, which 
latter is what Plato claims it to be. Our author holds that it 
embodies an ancient tradition, laid over with fanciful details ; 
that there was, moreover, knowledge of and communication 
between America and the ancient world over a great ridge of 
land stretching nearly from Africa to America, now submerged 
and traceable on the ocean bottom. The Sargasso Sea, a 
region of comparative shallows and floating vegetation, is in fact, 
he thinks, directly over a portion of the lost Atlantis. 

AMERICAN VOYAGES TO EUROPE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 

Passing now into later times, we find some curious legends 
of voyagers stranded upon the western coasts of Europe, and 
such incidents are given some plausibility by historic accounts 
of Esquimaux blown across to the British Isles and picked up 
by vessels. The language of the Basques, a people dwelling at 
the base of the Pyrenees, and quite isolated in speech and 
race from other European nations, bears a marked resemblance 
in grammatical structure to some American aboriginal lan- 
guages. It is possible, therefore, that they originally came 
from the American continent. 

ST. BRENDAN'S ISLE. 

A famous legend is told of St. Brendan, an Irish saint 
of the sixth century of our era, who is said to have sailed 



308 PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICA. [June, 

south-west with sixty companions in the year 535, and after 
forty days' sail westward from an island itself twelve days' 
distant from Ireland (Azores?), to have reached the shores of 
America. The account of this voyage includes a number of 
marvels, not to say fantastic absurdities, that no one claims to 
be true ; but our author claims for it an original basis of truth, 
and says that " if the voyage of St. Brendan is not a myth 
from beginning to end, it is probable at least that the saint 
has crossed the Atlantic Ocean and set foot on the American 
continent" (ii. 25). The Bollandists separate this story from 
the accounts of other voyages among the Hebrides very pro- 
bably made by St. Brendan and his companions, and admit 
it to be a fabrication. It seems arbitrary to select certain 
portions of the story as true and treat the rest as fable, mere- 
ly because they are marvellous. Why, we would ask, should 
the direction and the duration of St. Brendan's voyage be ac- 
cepted without question, while the story of his celebrating 
Easter on the back of a whale be treated as a fabrication ? 

These mysterious lands beneath the setting sun, Atlantis, 
St. Brendan's isle, Island of the Blessed, the Seven Cities, 
Brezill some without doubt to be identified with the Canaries, 
the Madeira Isles, and the Azores whether mythical or not, 
actually affected the course of discovery by directing it west- 
ward, and these ventures prepared the way for Columbus's far 
more daring exploit. 

PRIMITIVE INHABITANTS OF AMERICA. 

There are traces of several races in America ante-dating 
our Indians, or Red-Skins. Earliest is an ancient " Long 
Skulled " race of which we know nothing except the shape of 
their heads. Following them came a race which have left be- 
hind them, as evidence of their mode of living, great shell- 
heaps called Kitchen Middings really the refuse of the shell- 
fish upon which they subsisted. These heaps are found scat- 
tered along the Atlantic coast from Nova Scotia to Florida. 
Similar remains are to be found in Denmark, and this fact 
suggests community of origin in some mysterious way. To 
these succeeded the Cave Dwellers, who drew pictures of ani- 
mals upon fragments of bone. These drawings are quite 
remarkable when compared with the work of other races as 
low as they in the scale of culture. It is a curious fact that 
the Esquimaux of the present day possess this artistic faculty 
in a greater degree than any other of our American aborigines, 



1901.] PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICA. 309 

and it is possible that we have in them the descendants of 
those ancient and prehistoric people, the Cave Dwellers of 
Europe and America.* This supposition is supported by the 
allusions to them in the Norse sagas, which describe them as 
" Skraelings," " swarthy men and ill-looking, and the hair of 
their heads was ugly ; they had large eyes and broad cheeks ; 
when pursued they sank into the earth " t. e., fled to their 
cave dwellings. 

THE MOUND BUILDERS. 

The so-called Mound Builders have long figured in our his- 
tories. The numerous mounds scattered over Ohio, in the 
South, through the Mississippi Valley and elsewhere, have 
been thought to be the work of a long extinct race the view, 
also, of our author. While we find trees of great age growing 
upon some of these mounds, we know, on the other hand, of 
similar mounds constructed by our aborigines in historic times, 
some of whom were found inhabiting them by our early 
explorers. Moreover, the objects of art found in the mounds 
closely resemble the, handiwork of Indians. 

Major Powell, of the Bureau of Ethnology, holds, therefore, 
that there is no doubt that the builders of mounds were of 
one race with our Southern Red-Skins. We find that while 
the northern tribes were nomadic in their habits, the southern 
took to agriculture and to village life ; and the Pueblo Indians 
of the south-west to-day build great communal houses, some 
elevated above the plain on mounds similar to those of the 
ancient race. Our author has a rather naive view of the pur- 
pose of the so-called Animal Mounds that abound in the West. 
These have the shapes of animals the tortoise, the snake, 
birds, and beasts of prey, and our author finds here "an indi- 
cation that they were intended for pleasurable rather than for 
utilitarian purposes." But surely the view of Peet f and others, 
that they were emblematic, i. <?., represented the totems of the 
tribe, is the more scientific. 

Our author studies these questions too much, we think, 
from a literary point of view, rather than from archaeological 
and comparative scientific evidence. 

THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 

In New Mexico and Arizona, perched high up in the side 

*Fiske, Disc. Amer., \. 17, 18, referring to Dawson's view. 

t See his splendid work Prehistoric America, vols. i.-iii., 1892-99, He but partially 
shares Major Powell's view of the identity of the Mound Builders, however. 
VOL. LXX1II. 21 



310 PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICA. [June, 

of cliffs above the river bank, we find wonderful dwellings of 
stone built by the Cliff Dwellers, accessible only by narrow 
and steep paths from the plain below and guarded by watch- 
towers. Doubtless this peaceful people retreated to these 
strongholds when pressed by their fierce adversaries, the 
Apaches, and other wild tribes of the plains. 

MAYA CIVILIZATION IN YUCATAN. 

It is in Mexico and Central America, however, that we find 
the most remarkable architectural and sculptural remains of 
our aborigines. The early travellers in the dense forests of 
Yucatan were amazed to come suddenly upon great stone 
structures laid out upon an immense scale, built in several 
stories, and adorned with grotesque figures and undecipherable 
hieroglyphics.* They described them as palaces of some ex- 
tinct civilization. Morgan and Bandelier, after careful studies 
among the Village Indians of our South-west, believe these 
structures to be communal houses, the abodes each of a single 
tribe, but their view has not been widely accepted. 

CHRISTIANITY IN AMERICA BEFORE THE NORSEMEN. 

The civilizations found by the Spanish in Mexico, Central 
America, and Peru were described by their historians. The 
religious rites, ceremonies, and beliefs excited the amazement 
of the Spaniards by their remarkable resemblance to Christian- 
ity ; just as the early missionaries to Thibet found there an- 
other pope of a heathen religion, with convents and bells and 
rosaries. The Spaniards and the Jesuits who reached Thibet 
could not account for this remarkable fact unless, forsooth, 
Satan had himself taught these people Christianity out of spite ! 
We shall speak presently of some of these points of similarity. 

AN APOSTLE IN AMERICA. 

Our author's explanation of them is novel. He claims that 
Christianity was introduced into America before Columbus, 
before the Norse even, and introduced by the Irish monks, 
whose widespread missionary labors are so well known. He 
believes also that the Apostle St. Thomas actually visited our 
shores, and that St. Brendan in his famous navigation did the 
same. Through some one, or perhaps through all of these ager- 

*De Roo speaks of these inscriptions as still undeciphered (i. 88) in spite of the labors of 
Brinton and other Americanists who have found them to relate largely to the aboriginal 
calendar, religious festivals, and mythology. Brinton has lately published a Primer of Mayan 
Hieroglyphics, 1900 (University of Penn. Studies). 



1 90i.] PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICA. 311 

cies, the doctrines of Christ in fact of Catholic Christianity 
were introduced and taught to the natives, by whom they have 
been preserved. The following is a summary of the points of 
resemblance which De Roo claims to prove an early evangel- 
ization of America. 

THEISM AND PRIMITIVE TRADITION IN AMERICA. 

The Mexicans and Peruvians believed in one God, and 
there are traces of a belief in the Blessed Trinity. The story 
of the creation is told in their famous book called the " Popul 
Vuh " ; so also man's First Fall, the immortality of the soul, 
intercessory prayer for the dead, rewards and punishments 
hereafter, resurrection, and the Last Judgment. 

The account of the Deluge is wide-spread, and its very 
universality in America has been urged as proof of its actual 
occurrence ; in fact, the advocates of a partial deluge must 
square their theory with this tradition preserved in tribes 
separated by great oceans from the scenes to which they would 
restrict the Flood. Even the Tower of Babel figures among 
the traditions of the Nahuas, Cholulans, and tribes of Central 
America and California. 

CHRISTIAN FAITH AND PRACTICE IN AMERICA. 

Turning now to distinctively Christian teaching, one can 
almost reconstruct the life of Christ, in its theological aspects, 
from the aboriginal records. Yet more: we find the sacraments 
of Baptism ; Holy Eucharist, with its attendant fasting and 
Communion; Penance and auricular Confession, with its require- 
ments of contrition and its complement absolution. We find 
an organized priesthood, duly ordained, vested, and main- 
tained ; we find celibacy, religious orders, convents of nuns, 
hermits, pilgrimages, holy water, exorcisms ; nay, the New 
Fire and liturgical prayers. 

WIXIPECOCHA, THE REFORMER. 

It is to be noted that the Aztecs had some practices of a 
very different character from Christian celibacy and cloistered 
purity, and the latter practices were admitted by them to be 
anomalies in their system. According to the Zapotec tradition, 
they were really foreign features introduced by an early white- 
skinned teacher or apostle, " who came by sea, bearing a cross 
in his hand, and debarked in the neighborhood of Tehuan- 
tepec." This stranger, whom they called " Wixipecocha," is 
described as " a man of a venerable aspect, having a bushy 



312 PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICA. [June, 

white beard, dressed in a long robe and a cloak, and wearing 
on his head a covering shaped like a monk's cowl. Wixipe- 
cocha taught his disciples to deny themselves the vanities of 
this world, to mortify the flesh through penance and fasting, 
and to abstain from all sensual pleasures" (i. 503). 

QUETZALCOATL AND HIS WHITE COLONY. 

A similar tradition is that of the Aztecs relating to Quet- 
zalcoatl. A hero-god, he comes from a foreign land to Mexico, 
venerated under divers names all over Central America, nay, 
perhaps canonized in Europe, De Roo says. His name signifies 
" Beautifully feathered serpent." He is described as " a white 
or pale-faced man, of portly person, with broad forehead, great 
eyes, long black hair, and a heavy rounded beard " (i. 542). 
He was reserved in his manners, spent much time in prayer, 
ascetic and celibate. His date is perhaps the eleventh century 
or earlier, for aboriginal chronology is obscure. His works 
were converting the natives and teaching them the arts of 
civilized life. Accompanying him were a number of com- 
panions, or disciples, who imitated their master in mode of 
life. Their success may be measured by their fame preserved 
in wide-spread traditions, and by the reverence in which their 
memory is held. He taught the unity of God, the Creator and 
Lord of heaven and earth ; condemned idolatry, and especially 
human sacrifices. Peace and charity were the cardinal virtues 
of his creed. " From these few details of Quetzalcoatl's teach- 
ing one naturally feels induced to believe that all the vestiges 
of Christianity of which we have spoken had their beginnings 
from him and his disciples, or co-laborers, in the American 
mission" (i. 550). These reforms were not accomplished with- 
out opposition from the established priesthood, who finally 
forced Qaetzalcoatl to retire to a western province, where he 
passes from view. A belief in his future return lingered among 
the people, and some of the later Christian missionaries were 
received peacefully under' the belief that they were the great 
hsro-god with his disciples, returning to his own. 

Was this remarkable figure a mere leader of a colony from 
the north-east ? (so Bandelier) ; or was he a personification of a 
nature god in fact, a sun-myth? (so Brinton) ; or was he the 
Apostle St. Thomas? (so Sahagun); or, finally, was he an Irish 
monk with a colony from over sea ? The last is the conclusion 
of D.J Roo, who finds in these abDriginal traditions a confirma- 
tion of European allusions to the Irish occupancy of America. 



PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICA. 313 

A DANGEROUS LINE OF ARGUMENT. 

The points of resemblance outlined above between Chris- 
tianity and the American religions are certainly remarkable, 
and they establish the fact to our author of an early evan- 
gelization of America. Is he aware that precisely this line of 
argument has been followed to prove the derivation of Chris- 
tianity from Buddhism, from Mithraism, from Essenism, nay, 
from the Greek mysteries ? Does he claim that the Abb6 Hue 
was anticipated in his travels to Thibet when he found, to his 
amazement, a pope the Lama a hierarchy, religious orders, 
penance, bells, and rosaries? Let him read the following pas- 
sage relating to the religion of Mithras, an old solar deity, 
probably older than Zarathustra, who was worshipped in Persia 
in the time of Alexander the Great. 

" Like the Christians, the adherents of the Persian God 
[Mithras] lived in close relationship with one another, using 
the terms ' fathers ' and ' brothers.' Like the Christians, they 
had baptism ; a kind of communion ; they taught an impera- 
tive morality ; preached continence, charity, self-abnegation, 
and self-control. They speak of a deluge, believe in the im- 
mortality of the soul as well as the resurrection of the dead, 
in a heaven of blessed ones and a hell inhabited by the powers 
of evil." * 

We quote this passage, not to establish anything regarding 
the relations of Mithraism and Christianity for the discussion 
of these ethnic types of Christian truths, if the term may be 
used, cannot be introduced here but to show how dangerous, 
not to say illusory and baseless, it is to argue from similarities 
to origin. Our author's literary erudition is immense, but he 
seems to have paid less attention to the methods and advances 
in our knowledge attained by use of the comparative science 
of religions, in which Catholics have a name of greatest emi- 
nence the late lamented D'Harlez, of Louvain. 

We have no space left for discussions of such interesting 
topics as the origin of our aborigines, whether this is to be 
sought in Asia or Europe, as we wish to trace the fortunes of 
the Norsemen in our western hemisphere. 

ICELAND AND ITS LITERATURE. 

Iceland was discovered by the Scandinavians about 60 and 
settled in 874. In 930 the soil was tilled by Irish, Swedes, 
and Danes. Slavery formed part of the social system, and it 

*F. Comont in Roscher's Lex. d. Gr. u. R. Myth , quoted in Afom'st, April, 1900, p. 358. 



314 PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICA. [June, 

was by Irish slaves that Christianity was introduced. In fact, 
according to the sagas, the first Norse settlers found the Irish 
already in the island and proceeded at once to dislodge them. 
The Irish monks, or "Papas," as they were called, seem to 
hive retired so precipitately that they left behind them sundry 
books, bells, and staffs, articles of great value at the time, 
which they would not have voluntarily abandoned. 

Missionaries began to visit the island about 981, and Chris- 
tianity was established in 1000. Letters were introduced, and 
while the saga-men still recited the warlike deeds of their pagan 
ancestors, a Christian literature also arose, beginning with lives 
of the saints. There were schools, two Bsnedictine and four 
Augustinian monasteries, and two convents for Benedictine sis- 
ters. A line of bishops held the see up to 1580, when Jonas 
VI. Arassen suffered martyrdom at the hands of the Reformers. 
Such was the land whence came the early settlers to Green- 
land and the early explorers of our New England coast. 

GREENLAND SETTLED, 

If we take a map of the world represented in hemispheres, 
the two great continents of North and South America seem 
to be quite isolated and cut off from the lands of the eastern 
hemisphere excepting at the point where Asia touches Alaska. 
Greenland, laid down on the extreme north-east, appears 
far removed from Iceland and the British Isles. But turn now 
to a map of the globe known as Mercator's projection, by 
which the surface of the globe is delineated as a rectangular 
plane, and we see at a glance that Greenland is really nearer 
Iceland than Iceland is to Norway. Iceland and Greenland 
thus appear like stepping-stones across the Northern Atlantic, 
and 'it was by making these points in easy stages that the 
Northmen reached our own shores. 

About the year 876 a certain Icelander named Gunnbjorn, 
driven westward from Iceland, sighted a group of small islands 
off the east coast of Greenland. 

In 982 * Eric the Red, father of the famous Leif whose 
statue in bronze now stands in BDston, banished from Iceland 
for several murders, sailed for Gunnbjorn's rocks, but reached 
instead the coast of Greenland. He rounded the Southern 
Cape, now called Cape Farewell, and wintered at a point up 
the west coast. The next season he retraced his course to an 
inlet in 60 45' north, which he called Eiricksfiord, where he 

* De Roo (ii. 144), by a typographical error, reads 882. 



1901.] PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICA. 315 

established himself. After his three years of exile were passed, 
he returned to Iceland, and in 986 brought out with him a 
party of colonists. 

This was the beginning of Greenland's Ostrebygd, or East 
Settlement, later the location of the episcopal see of Gardar 
and the point of departure for several Catholic missionaries to 
the shores of American Vinland. Catholic missionaries in 
America in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries! Yet such is 
the record of the sagas and of the northern historians. 

THE CATHOLIC HIERARCHY IN GREENLAND. 

To Leif Ericsson, the Norse discoverer of Vinland, belongs 
also the honor of having introduced Christianity into Green- 
land. Converted to the faith by King Olaf Tryggvason while 
on a visit to Norway, he returned to the Greenland settle- 
ments accompanied by a priest named Thormod. By God's 
grace the neiv faith spread rapidly, and soon a " regionary 
bishop " was appointed for Greenland. 

The first " titular bishop," with his see at Gardar, was 
Arnold, consecrated in 1124. 

His successors continued to occupy or hold the see for 
nearly three hundred years, until the decline of the Greenland 
colonies. De Roo gives a valuable list of these bishops, num- 
bering thirty-three, with their dates; but the last bishop known 
to have visited Greenland .was Eskill, in 1394 ; he is said to 
have died there in 1410. 

GREENLAND'S PETER'S PENCE IN 1327. 

Settlers were attracted to Greenland by the favorable re- 
ports brought back to Iceland and Norway, and soon there 
was a second, or western settlement, called the Vestrebygd. 
We hive no means of estimating the earlier population of 
Greenland, but fortunately we have the data by which we can, 
by a curious calculation, ascertain the number of families in 
the year 1327. This we learn from an accounting of the Peter's 
Pence collected in Greenland in that year, preserved in the 
Vatican archives. We know from other sources that each 
family was expected to contribute one penny to the fund. 
Now, the document referred to states that the amount re- 
ceived by the Papal treasury was 6,912 pence. Hence we know 
that the number of families was not far from seven thousand. 

ANCIENT RESOURCES OF GREENLAND. 

How, we may ask, could so many colonists subsist in a 



316 PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICA. [June, 

country of glaciers, its southernmost point but six degrees 
south of the Arctic Circle ? The answer is : first, that the 
climate of Greenland as a whole has become much colder since 
the fourteenth century so much we know from scientific 
evidence ; secondly, the portion of the great island occupied 
by the colonists was the extreme south-west shore, which is 
washed, and thereby tempered, by the Gulf Stream. The 
central and eastern parts of Greenland are indeed the most in- 
hospitable, perhaps, in the world, if we except the Poles. 

The supplies of the colonists were limited in variety, but 
otherwise plentiful. They burned driftwood, and even coal \ 
there was abundance of game and fish ; pasture-land for their 
cattle, which they brought with them. Grass was found to 
some extent along the shore, and crops of hay could be raised 
during the brief summers. 

There was a flourishing trade in butter, cheese, furs, teeth 
of walrus and other fruits of the chase. Among the articles 
sent to the metropolitan see of Drontheim, as payment in kind 
for tithes, was a wood called "mosur" probably bird's-eye 
maple. Now, there was no wood in Greenland except drift- 
wood, hence " mosur " must have been obtained by the 
colonists from the neighboring coast of North America. And 
so, not only is this wood a confirmation of the visits of the 
Northmen to America, but it is evidence that there was a. 
regular trade, or at least trading voyages, to its shores. 

THE SCANDINAVIANS IN AMERICA. 

The first European to sight the American continent is said* 
to have been Bjarne Herjulfson, who in 986 was blown west- 
ward on his course, and is thought to have sighted Nantucket, 
Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland.* It was Leif, the son of 
Eric the Red, however, who first landed on the continent. 
Converted to Christianity by Olaf Tryggvason, he was sent by 
that zealous king to win over the little settlement at Eiricks- 
fiord in Greenland. He succeeded, and the next year 1001 
he set out upon an exploring expedition to the south-west. 
Ere long they made land, a stony coast that they called 
Helluland. This is thought to have been Labrador, and Little 
Helluland, reached next, to have been Newfoundland. They 
then coasted along Markland, usually identified as Nova Scotia, 
and gathered honey-dew on an island perhaps Nantucket, 

* This voyage is considered doubtful by some recent writers. See J. Dieserud, Norse 
Discoveries in America, 1901. 



PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICA. 



317 



where it is said to be found to-day. Passing westward between 
Nantucket and the Barristable peninsula, they entered Narra- 
gansett Bay in Rhode Island, and landed at the mouth of the 
Pocasset River, at a spot which they called Mont Haup. 
They erected "booths" and passed the winter here; the season 
is described as very mild, with no snow. Grapes had been 
found inland, and from that circumstance they called the land 
Vinland, or Wineland. 

This is De Roo's identification of the site of Leif's settle- 
ment, in which he follows the famous Danish historian Rafn. 
The latter's learned calculation of the latitude reached from 
the length of day described in the sagas has been accepted as 
one of the strongest proofs of his argument. Other localities 
have been as confidently named, however notably the Charles 
River by Professor Horsford, of Cambridge, Mass. Mr. 
Dieserud, in a paper read before the American Geographical 
Society, makes out a good case for Cape Breton Island and 
Nova Scotia as the localities described in the sagas. There 
are certainly some difficulties about Rafn's identifications which 
De Roo passes over in silence. 

LATER VOYAGES TO VINLAND. 

The colonists returned to Greenland the following spring, 
their vessel loaded with grapes and building timber. The 
same year 1002 Thorvald, a second son of old Eric, took 
his brother's ship, and with thirty sailors spent the winter at 
Leifsbudhir, where Leif had been the year before. In the 
spring of 1003 they explored the shores toward the south and 
west, and Rafn claims that they reached Maryland. No human 
habitations or inhabitants were found save " a shed or barn 
built of wood, and presumably destined to shelter corn or 
other produce, in one of the westernmost islands." 

On another exploring cruise, toward the east and north, 
Thorvald was blown upon a promontory, perhaps part of Cape 
Cod,* where he came upon natives " Skraelings," as the saga 
calls them " whom they fell upon and slew all but one, who 
escaped." But Thorvald was mortally wounded by an arrow, 
and his companions buried him on shore perhaps Point Aller- 
ton, north-east of Boston Harbor. In the spring of 1005 his 
sorrowful companions returned to Greenland. 

The next man to sail out to the new lands is the Icelander 
Thorfinn Karlsefne, who set out in 1007 with a crew of 160 

* We continue to follow De Roo. 



318 PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICA. [June, 

men, accompanied by his wife, whom he had recently married 
in Greenland, and six other women. Coasting along the Massa- 
chusetts coast, they reached Mont Haup. 

The Skraelings visit them and barter until frightened away 
by a bull belonging to the Norsemen, which suddenly comes 
bellowing out of the woods. They return in a hostile mood, 
and by the use of a machine consisting of a huge ball poised 
upon the end of a pole, they strike consternation into the 
settlers. One woman, named Freydisa, natural daughter of 
Eric, displayed an unexpected boldness and actually caused 
them to retire. We shall meet her again displaying her war- 
like spirit in a worse cause. 

A child is born to Thorfinn and his wife in 1008, and 
named Snorre. 

Dissensions arose among the colonists, and in 1011 Thorfinn 
returned to Brattalidha, Greenland, with a cargo of great 
value. 

The warlike Freydisa now takes her turn at colonization, 
and with a view of increasing the profits of the expedition, 
goes on shares with two brothers, Helge and Finnboge, with 
two vessels and crews of 65 men. They proceed to the old 
spot in Vinland, but the two Icelanders are crowded out of 
occupying Leif's booths by the unscrupulous Freydisa, and 
build separate huts. Estrangement follows between the two 
factions, and at length a terrible tragedy is enacted. Freydisa 
secretly asks both brothers to give her their ship ; the request 
proves to be only a pretext for a quarrel. For, although they 
consent at once, she goes home to her caitiff husband and ac- 
cuses them of having denied her request, and of having attacked 
her with violence. With the aid of her men she surprises the 
brothers, binds them, and has them massacred in her presence. 
She then orders the immediate death of the five women in 
their company; and when her followers refuse to obey her, 
she calls for an axe and murders the prisoners on the spot 
with her own hands. 

Her followers are horror-stricken at the crime, and when 
Freydisa resolves to return to Greenland, she divides her 
profits with them to procure their silence. Soon after their 
return, however, ugly rumors got afloat, and before long the 
whole story was out. 

Leif Ericsson, her brother-in-law, although ruler of the 
Greenland settlement, could not bring himself to punish her; 
but she and her husband " finished their days crushed by each 



1 90 1.] PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICA. 319 

other's contempt, and the abhorrence of their countrymen." 
Such was the fearful ending of the Norse attempts at settle- 
ment on the American coast. We read of a number of subse- 
quent voyages; in fact, European writers seem to refer to 
traders' voyages undertaken from Greenland for some time 
after. 

IRISH AND WELSH IN AMERICA. 

The voyages of the Norsemen are well authenticated. 
Claims of a prior occupancy of the country by the Irish are 
made, based upon incidental testimony afforded by the very 
sagas on which we rely for the Norse voyages. 

We have not space to mention these accounts, but our 
author observes that " there are no reasons wanting to make 
us accept as an actual historical fact the early discovery and 
settlement of the New World by the Irish nation." 

These early explorers are said to have given their name to 
a region called Irlani it Mikla, or Great Ireland, lying beyond 
Vinland perhips along the Middle Atlantic States. 

As the Irish were Christians at the time, the honor would 
seem to balong to them of having introduced the faith into 
this country. 

O;her claims have been made for pre-Columbian discoveries 
of America. D^ Roo thinks that of the Welsh, under Prince 
Madoc, is well sustained. Some of these discoveries by way 
of Bshring Strait, or the Pacific, belong rather to the question 
how the American Continent was populated. 

Father Di Roo has given us a work of erudition, less criti- 
cal in its treatment of sources and statements than we would 
like to see, but encyclopaedic in its stores of facts and refer- 
ences. Whether the author's conclusions are generally accepted 
or not is very .immaterial as regards the permanent value of 
the work, which might be called a literary history of pre- 
Columbian America, so full is it of authorities; while the ap- 
pendix of ninety-three original documents illustrating the sub- 
ject is a veritable boon to the student. We must the more 
regret the absence of an index to a work of this character. 

A-nerican Catholic scholarship is holding its own. Now that 
D> Costa* is one of us, we may name as the triumvirate of 
Catholic historians of America. Shea, De Costa, De Roo. 

* No author is more frequently quoted by De Roo, or in fact by any writer on the 
subject of the early voyages to America, than B. F. De Costa, LL.D., a recent convert to 
the Catholic Church. It is a pleasure for us to refer here to one of us who has long had 
among Protestants so great a name for scholarship. 




320 FATHER WALWORTH : A CHARACTER SKETCH. [June, 
FATHER WALWORTH : A CHARACTER SKETCH. 

BY REV. WALTER ELLIOTT, C.S.P. 

'N the evening of March 21 a public meeting was 
held in Albany* to commemorate the virtues 
and public services of the late Father Walworth. 
Many Catholics were present, but also many non- 
Catholics, one of the speakers being the Episco- 
palian Bishop of Albany. Father Walworth had labored for God 
and man many years, dying at the age of eighty, most of his 
long life having been spent in charge of St. Mary's parish, Al- 
bany. Those who knew him best loved him most, and those 
whom he had caused to know how staunch a Catholic he was, 
including his Protestant fellow-citizens, gladly bore witness to 
his services to his town and State as a public-spirited citizen. 
Clarence A. Walworth was born at Plattsburg, N. Y., May 
30, 1820, being fourth child and eldest son of Reuben H. Wal- 
worth, the last chancellor of the State of New York. His 
early education was received at the Albany Academy. He at- 
tended Union College, Schenectady, and was graduated in 1838. 
At the earnest wish of his father he studied law, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1841. But his religious tendencies were 
too powerful to 'be resisted by any human ambition however 
laudable, and after a brief period of law practice he entered 
the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in New York 
City, and studied there for three years. He was received into 
the Catholic Church in 1845, and soon after entered the Re- 
demptorist novitiate in Belgium, being accompanied by Isaac 
T. Hecker, who had come into the church about a year be- 
fore. In 1848 Clarence Walworth, having finished his studies, 
was ordained priest in Holland. The next two years were 
spent in England engaged in mission and parochial work as a 
Redemptorist ; after which, again accompanied by Father Hec- 
ker, he returned to America. These two young Redemptorists, 
joined by another convert, Father Augustine Hewit, began to 
give missions in the United States in 1851, being trained thereto 
by Father Bernard Hafkenscheid, a Dutch Redemptorist, and 
one of the most distinguished mission preachers of his age. 

* This article is an enlargement of.an address given by the writer at this memorial meeting. 



1901.] FATHER WALWORTH : A CHARACTER SKETCH. 321 




REV. CLARENCE A. WALWORTH. 

The band was afterwards joined by Fathers George Deshon 
and Francis Baker, both converts. In 1858 these five mission- 
aries became the first members of the Paulist Community, of 
which Father Hecker was chosen Superior. The excessive 
fatigues of his fifteen years of continuous Catholic missions 
were, Father Walworth believed, the means of breaking down 
his originally robust constitution. His continued ill-health, with 



322 FATHER WALWORTH : A CHARACTER SKETCH. [June, 

occasional attacks of very severe illness, finally led to his leav- 
ing the Paulists. Returning to his native diocese, he was for 
a time placed in charge of St. Peter's Church, Troy, and in 
1866 was made rector of St. Mary's Church, Albany. After 
a career in that parish, of remarkable usefulness both to his 
parishioners and to his fellow-citizens generally, Father Wai- 
worth departed to his eternal reward September 19, 1900. 

Such is a summary of the chief events of the career of a 
man of distinguished natural ability, priestly piety of the most 
edifying kind, and zeal for the virtue and good order of the civil 
community the like of which is seldom witnessed. 

HE WAS TENACIOUS IN FRIENDSHIPS. 

Father Walworth, though he spent his best energies in 
fighting vice and he always fought with the onset of a born 
soldier was yet naturally of a gentle disposition. His man- 
ners were kindly, his conversation was toned with deference 
for others. He was a positive man, but not self-opinionated, 
and no one could be a more pleasant companion among priests 
or laymen. His love of kindred was deep. He could, indeed, 
give them up, as in fact he actually did when he went abroad 
to the Redemptorist novitiate, for his supernatural motives were 
distinctly perceived in all his social relations ; as a Christian 
and a priest and a missionary Father Walworth had taken God 
for his father and his brother and his spouse. But this was 
not to the deadening of natural sentiment ; he loved his kin- 
dred with the Christian's motives, and was attached to their in- 
terests, enjoyed their company. Needless to say that they 
loved him well in return, but especially his niece, Miss Nelly 
H. Walworth, who was his secretary during many of his later 
years, having been given him by a manifest provision of divine 
Providence for his time of trial and suffering. 

His early friendships were very tender. They endured to 
the end. All who knew him intimately, listened with pleasure 
to his accounts of his school days, especially those spent at 
the old Albany Academy under Dr. Beck and other professors. 
His tendency was not naturally critical, and the better traits 
of old friends dwelt longest in his mind and were most fre^ 
quently recalled in his conversations about early years. He 
had a warm admiration for the solid Dutch character. Many 
of his school and college mates were of that stock, and we 
have heard him praise their earnest natures, their steady pur- 
pose, and their slow but resolute minds. 



1 901.] FATHER WALWORTH: A CHARACTER SKETCH. 323 




WHEN A STUDENT AT THE GENERAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, 
CHELSEA SQUARE, NEW YORK. 

What kind of friendship he was capable of is shown by A his 
life-long love for Edgar P. Wadhams.* This distinguished con- 
vert was Father Walworth's fellow-pilgrim in search of the 
truth even from the first painful suspicions of being deprived 
of its blessings. Along the narrow way and through the 
strait gate that led to the Catholic faith Walworth and Wad- 
hams journeyed on together, their loyalty to conscience, their 

* About ten years ago Father Walworth published in this magazine a series of articles, 
Reminiscences of Bishop Wadhams. These have been put into book form by Bishop 
Gabriels, who succeeded Bishop Wadhams in the see of Ogdensburgh (Benziger Brothers). 
Bishop Gabriels has added a preface which is eloquent and appreciative. The book is among 
the most valuable of its kind in our American Catholic literature. 



324 FATHER WALWORTH : A CHARACTER SKETCH. [June, 

iron will to be wholly right about God's church, their practical 
purpose as shown in daily efforts towards Christian perfection 
in all that is meant by the most painful processes of con- 
version these two were as one. Their souls were knit to- 
gether like David's and Jonathan's. Walworth worshipped 
Wadhams, who loved him as deeply in return. I know of no 
higher praise of one or of the other than that they were 
mutually worthy of such sacred affection. 

Courage, sincerity, and openness, candor almost to a fault, 
were characteristic of Father Walworth. In private life one 
of the most attractive of his personal gifts was that you saw 
to the bottom of his soul. Seldom would one meet so manly 
a nature. Although he fought for many years the trickiest of 
enemies, the liquor-dealers and their political representatives 
in high places and low, he never stooped to their methods. 
He never ambushed his foe, he always fought in the open as 
unflinching an enemy as he was an honorable one. But he 
was relentless against public wrong-doers, loyal to friends 
through thick and thin, fair to foes. 

God gave him a ' fearless heart which served a clear, calm 
mind. He valued peace indeed, but justice and right above 
all. God loves a man who, appointed to a public trust like 
that of the Catholic priesthood, never blenches in face of evil 
and never quits a good cause. Such a one was Father Wal- 
worth all his days. 

"'Tis conscience makes cowards of us all," says the drama- 
tist ; but this can be true only when we are meditating wrong- 
doing. Conscience in a man like Walworth makes heroes. 
This positive nature was the man of the Yea, yea, and Nay, 
nay of our Saviour. What was good had Walworth's instant 
"All hail!" and held his final allegiance. What was bad must 
suffer his anathema. Such men have to fight and to endure; 
but they do not fight against God's voice in a reproving con- 
science. Even the loss of old friends on account of fidelity 
to duty, is sometimes the painful lot of men like Walworth ; 
and in later life this is the saddest of all sorrows. But early 
and late a man must be true, even when compelled to resist 
the admonitions of timid prudence. 

But with right-minded men, such Catholics as Father Wal- 
worth and Bishop Wadhams stand for all that is best in our 
American character allied to the truest Catholic tradition. 
Courage to dare any foe for God and for the people, and yet 
with a conservative temper consulting the due forms of law 



1 90i.] FATHER WALWORTH : A CHARACTER SKETCH. 325 

and wary of the methods of fanatics ; candor so downright, 
truthfulness so candid as to shame timid associates in public 




life : these are traits that give public men peace of soul 
win them the applause of honest citizens of all religions, 
voi. LXXIII. 22 



and 



326 FATHER WALWORTH : A CHARACTER SKETCH. [June, 

Associated with his hearty square dealing with all the 
world, one may say as its reward, was Father Walworth's 
spontaneous and uniform good humor. The Psalmist's words 
applied to him : " Thou hast loved justice and hated iniquity, 
therefore hath God, thy God, anointed thee with the oil of 
gladness." He was ever an agreeable companion, always en- 
tertaining in conversation on graver and lighter topics, as well 
as a pleasant associate in common enterprises. But these 
qualities are, for the most part, inherent in all fine natures. 
It is as a Catholic, a parish priest, a missionary, that Father 
Walworth commends himself most to us and offers the best 
example for imitation. Strong as he was by nature, he knew 
our nature's weakness, and from his earliest childhood he 
sought God and His true religion. He valued natural gifts, he 
was conscious of possessing them, and he knew how to use 
them ; but we have seldom met any man who more clearly 
appreciated the shortcomings of our poor humanity, or who in 
his own case knew better how to substitute religious motives 
for merely human ones. His fine, natural endowments he 
dedicated unreservedly to the uses of religion and morality. 
His spiritual character was remarkable for downright personal 
loyalty to Jesus Christ as revealed in His Church. 

There are some to whom religion is a refuge and nothing 
more ; in it they seek to avoid personal responsibility, for if 
they strive to be self-reliant they are in danger of becoming 
rebellious ; and for such as these obedience is apt to be ser- 
vility. Not so Walworth. He was full of initiative and yet 
entirely submissive to lawful superiors. He lost nothing of 
his native independence of character in giving up the false 
liberty of Protestantism and entering the Catholic Church, nor 
yet in living many years under the rules of religious com- 
munities. 

Bred a Presbyterian, the young lawyer became an Episco- 
palian, being drawn that way by his perception of the divine 
truth in the idea of a church. He perceived that the religion 
of the Creator and Redeemer of all mankind should be an 
international society as well as a system of teaching, and that 
the organism should have the same divine guarantee as the 
faith itself, for the same Lord is the origin of both. In Wai- 
worth's youth the whole religious world was astir with that ques- 
tion. Newman was moving onward at the head of the Tracta- 
rians, with resistless force of reasoning, towards his conversion 
and that of many others. He left after him the present state of 



1901.] FATHER WALWORTH : A CHARACTER SKETCH. 327 

minds In the non-Catholic English-speaking world, viz.: a vast 
portion of Anglicanism penetrated with various Catholic truths 
hitherto violently impugned. The straight-out reasoners, New- 
man in the lead, passed over, and such minds are yet passing 
over into the full Catholicity of Rome. Walworth was one of 
these. He hung on to Anglicanism till conscience became 
peremptory. He finally tired of trying to revive "a breathless 
corpse by blowing a little wind into its nostrils," to use his 
own language. For him to remain an Episcopalian meant 
duplicity, a vice totally alien to Walworth's nature. Nor was 
it ever dreamed by friend or foe that either his loyalty or 
aversion could be half-hearted. He despised a trimmer. High 
views of duty and of principle always guided him. And so he 
took the final step. 

The following letter, written on the eve of his conversion, 
we give as a rarely beautiful specimen of friendship at its 
best, as well as of candor and humility : 

"YOUR STUDY, May 5, 1845. 

" DEAR WADHAMS : In a few minutes I shall be gone and 
oh, as I lean my breast against your stand, how wildly some- 
thing beats within ! It seems as if I were about to separate 
from everything I love, and my poor heart, faithless and un- 
conscientious, wants to be left behind among the Protestants. 
I am not manly enough to make a stout Catholic ; but it is a 
great privilege to be a weak one. Well, do not you forget 
me. Indeed you cannot you have been such a good, kind, 
elder brother to me, you would not be able if you tried to 
forget me. When hereafter you speak of me, speak freely of 
me for truth's sake, with all my faults ; but when you think of 
me alone, try to forget all that is bad for love's sake, and al- 
though your imaginations should in this way create a different 
person, no matter, so you call it by my name. We have 

stormy times before us, dear W ; but may God grant us 

the privilege to ride the storm together. Farewell until we 
meet again, and when and where shall that be ? 
" ' Lead Thou us on.' 

"C. W."* 

In a letter telling of his reception into the Church he writes 
that " the Creed of Pius IV. sounded most musically in my 
ears, and I took pleasure in repeating it very slowly and dis- 
tinctly. I was then freed from the curse of excommunication 

* From Reminiscences of Bishop Wadhams. 



328 FATHER WALWORTH: A CHARACTER SKETCH. [June, 




RIGHT REV. BISHOP WADHAMS. 

which you remember used so to trouble us. ... My in- 
ward joy and satisfaction at being in the very Church of God 
and communion of the saints, I cannot express. ... So 
far as I have learned, Puseyism is still alive at the seminary, 
wearing its own colors. It is scouring away at the outside of 
the cup and platter very bravely, as you remember it in our 
day there. The young Anglo-Catholics are acquiring [the 
dyspepsia by fasting, buying up rosaries and crucifixes, which, 
nevertheless, they have no idea of using, and enjoy the* satis- 



1901.] FATHER WALWORTH : A CHARACTER SKETCH. 329 

faction of knowing how frightened their mothers would be if 
they knew what their darlings were about. Perhaps this may 
seem to you somewhat cross, but indeed I am out of all con- 
ceit with Puseyism, whether ornamental, sentimental, or anti- 
quarian. Christ is one and undivided, and must be sought for 
in His undivided church, which He inhabits and inspires, God 
grant that you and I may soon meet upon that Rock which 
rests itself upon the Rock of Ages." * 

The following month he wrote: "Oh, what shall I say to 
you of the joys of Catholic communion, the frequent and the 
real Sacraments, the privilege of daily Mass, and constant ac- 
cess to a confidential director? How miserable do all the 
unrealities of Puseyite speculation appear to one who is a 
Catholic in fact and not in dreams ! " 

It was when he joined the Redemptorists that he first 
knew Father Hecker. Their meeting, as well as their depar- 
ture for Europe, is thus described in the Reminiscences : 

" Father Hecker was not one of our seminary set and had 
never been an Episcopalian. McMaster and I met him for the 
first time at the Redemptorist convent in Third Street, after 
our reception there. He was himself only a year old Catholic. 
He had hid nothing to do with Puseyism, and knew very 
little about it. His chief experience lay in the New England 
school of Transcendentalism. We little understood at first the 
full value that lay concealed under the long yellow locks that 
hung down over his broad shoulders and behind the bright 
eyes, which shone with an openness of enthusiasm which made 
us smile. On concluding to join us he had just sufficient time 
to hurry off to Baltimore, where Father de Held then was, get 
accepted, and hurry back again before the ship left port. We 
considered it as contrary to holy poverty to go as first-class 
passengers ; Hecker's brothers, however, took care to have a 
special room built up for all three in the second cabin." 

His journey was begun in mingled joy and sadness. "As 
happy as I am," he wrote to Wadhams, " to breathe the holy 
atmosphere of the Catholic Church, it is a bitter thing to leave 
my country which I love all the more dearly for its pitiable 
religious destitution and so many kind friends whom I may 
never see again in life." 

WALWORTH AS A REDEMPTORIST. 

His vocation to community life was indubitable, nor was it 

* From the Reminiscences. 



330 FATHER WALWORTH : A CHARACTER SKETCH. [June, 

at any time shaken, even when, most reluctantly, he left the 
Redemptorist Order. The following energetic expressions, 
written from his novitiate in Belgium to his friend Wadhams, 
describe his state of mind as a religious from first to last : 
" No, there is no romance about it. For a man who is not 
in earnest to save his soul, who has neither the fear of hell, 
the love of God, nor the desire of holiness, it is dull play. 
But for one who is disgusted with his sins and mourns the 
hardness of heart and sensuality which separates him from God, 
who loves the character of Jesus Christ, and burns with de- 
sire to imitate it, this Congregation of St. Alphonsus Liguori 
is a ' treasure trove,' to which he will cling as a drowning man 
clings to whatever will support him. . . . For my part I 
would shudder to submit the welfare of my body and soul to 
any other authority than that of God, and that authority we 
Catholic religious find in our superiors." 

A clue to the strength of his vocation is found in his words 
about the Puseyite monastic venture of himself and Wadhams 
in the North Woods: "I, who had no other property but my- 
self either in possession or in prospect, had only myself to be- 
queath, and I did it with a will." 

I have heard him describe his time of novitiate in Belgium 
as a period of unmixed joy. He was, to be sure, a typical 
American, self-reliant in character, full of open-eyed inquiry; 
so that his fellow-novices nicknamed him Brother Pourquoi. 
But he was also American in his submissiveness to authority. 
He could say, with his fellow-novice Isaac Hecker, that whilst 
he was under the Redemptorist rule he never had so much as 
a temptation against his vows ; and he was twelve years under 
that strict regimen. 

He was never guilty of the least aversion for any man on 
account of difference of race. There was a sense of the uni- 
versal brotherhood of the human kind in Father Walworth,. 
whose spirituality emphasized God's fatherly providence over 
all his children. This was what one would expect in a man 
changed from a separatist in religion into a Catholic ; and this 
sentiment was highly developed by his contact in the Redemp- 
torist community life with men of various nationalities. He 
loved them all, he appreciated all their good qualities, he 
found much to admire, much to pattern by, in all the Fathers, 
Englishmen, Flemings, Germans, Hungarians. He never dreamt 
of drawing racial lines across the fair unity of his religious 
affection, which was sunk deep in his inmost heart. The 



1 90 1.] FATHER WALWORTH : A CHARACTER SKETCH. 331 

same, of course, is to be said of Father Hecker and the other 
Arnerican Fathers. 

In consonance with this, Father Walworth was a favorite 
with all his brethren. No one was more in request for a com- 
panion at recreation, none could work better in harness with 
whensoever obedience or Providence associated him. He never 
had a single personal difficulty in the Redemptorist Order; 
and when the trouble came which led to the Holy See con- 
senting to the formation of the American Fathers into the 
Paulist Institute, he and all of them left their old associates 
with a regret which was quite as mutual as it was unfeigned. 

WALWORTH AS A MISSIONARY. 

On landing in America in 1851 Father Walworth at once 
displayed the powers of a great missionary. The band gave 
missions all over the country and in several cities of Canada, 
Father Walworth everywhere reaping a great harvest of peni- 
tent souls. It is literally true that many a time they who 
came to scoff remained to pray, ay, and what is infinitely more, 
remained to confess their sins with sobs of grief. The most 
abandoned wretches were melted into tears of penance under 
Father Walworth's preaching. His voice was marvellous. It 
was of medium pitch, clear, musical, but it had a quality of 
its own; it was wonderfully winged as if with a preternatural 
magnetism. His sermons cut to the division of the soul and 
the spirit. His manner, though unaffected, was yet full of 
dignity. Seldom was a preacher so eloquent by his looks and 
bearing as was Father Walworth ; and his action on the plat- 
form was a perfect match for his great themes, his ringing 
voice, and his well-chosen matter. If one can make the 
distinction, he was dramatic without being theatrical. Mean- 
while his sermons were models of missionary composition. 
Although he was steadfast in his loyalty to the traditions of 
St. Alphonsus, he used the liberty kindred to that supreme 
missionary's spirit in preparing his discourses. He suited his 
choice of matter to the times and the people, yet without de- 
parting from the sound forms of previous generations of mis- 
sionaries. But he could drive the fear of God into sinners' 
souls with more resistless force than, perhaps, any missionary 
we have ever had in America. His sermons broke the adaman- 
tine crust of self-assurance which vice had formed over the 
sinners' hearts, like an egg-shell. 

His voice was the best preaching voice I ever heard. 



332 FATHER WALWORTH: A CHARACTER SKETCH. [June, 

Father Walworth had a voice that could stop an army ; but he 
had a heart of grace to inspire his tones with priestly tender- 
ness. He could both affright sinners and soothe their despairing 
spirits with that organ of many divine strains. We have em- 
phasized his imperious power over his hearers, but it should be 
known that if he vanquished the sinner he did not fail to win 
him. The effect was religious fear, not slavish terror. The 
psalmist's words describe it : " All my bones shall say, who is 
like unto the Lord ? " We might add the words of the bride 
in the Canticle : " My heart melted when he spoke." To be 
afraid under his preaching was to be afraid of God, not of the 
preacher. Nor would the most panic-stricken of Walworth's 
converted sinners dread to go to him to confession. The most 
abandoned wretches, after sitting under his preaching pale and 
nerveless with terror, would often enter his confessional by 
preference. They had felt something of love vibrating amid 
the commanding tones of that voice. 

Nearly thirty years ago the present writer while serving at 
a mission in St. Mary's Church, Albany, had many conversa- 
tions with Father Walworth on mission sermons and instruc- 
tions, their matter and their delivery. He knew the whole 
subject perfectly. His knowledge was not only that of a care- 
ful student of our vocation but it was the very inspiration of 
the holy platform and the mission cross. I adopted every one 
of his suggestions, and, I am not ashamed to say, I still use 
some of his sentences word for word. They stand the test of 
long experience. But one may not hope to acquire the magic 
of his voice, the majesty of his bearing, the force of his resist- 
less appeal to sinners. 

Father Wai worth had the true stand-point of a missionary. 
He not only knew but he vividly realized that he stood for 
G)d. He was thrilled with the conviction that men's immortal 
destiny depended on how fitly he represented God's rights to 
their sinful souls. It is this state of mind, this mental, or 
rather this spiritual, attitude that really makes the missionary. 
It made Walworth an ideal one. He impressed the sinner not 
so much as an advocate as an ambassador of Christ, an am- 
bassador bearing the divine ultimatum. This sense of standing 
for Gad did infinitely more for his success than the noble 
beauty of his face and form, his splendid rhetoric, the amazing 
strength of action in his delivery. His tones were the perfec- 
tion of human vocal power, but they rang with a more than 
human power in the service of a heart inspired as his was. 



FATHER WALWORTH : A CHARACTER SKETCH. 333 




FATHER WALWORTH AS PASTOR OF ST. MARY'S, ALBANY. 

By the exhibition of this supernatural motive it was that 
many were led to say that they never knew a man who had 
so fully assimilated the rules of the divine art of winning 
sinful souls to God as Father Walworth. 

He owed much as a preacher to the lessons and example 
of the great Redemptorist Bernard Hafkenscheid, who was the 
missionary mentor of both Father Hecker and Father Hewit 
besides. The American Redemptorists took the missionary 
methods of their order as they found them, and although ready 
to improve them, they were more ready to perpetuate them : 
they stand to-day a monument to the genius and inspiration 
of St. Alphonsus, preserving as they do, and that very rigidly, 



334 FATHER WALWORTH : A CHARACTER SKETCH. [June, 

the proper setting of the divine topics, their order and relation 
to each other, while leaving undimmed the jewel of individual 
initiative amid the color and brilliancy of personal gifts. 

Father Walworth appreciated fully that a missionary can 
tolerate no compromise with vice, public or private. He must 
have no different treatment for sinners high and sinners low; 
no hesitation to lay the axe to the root of the tree ; that is to 
say, to cut deeper and deeper till the penitent soul was 
delivered wholly from his sin by being made not only sorry for 
the evil deeds themselves but equally repentant of their causes 
and occasions. As, for example, avarice and human respect 
notoriously minister to drunkenness and impurity, so does the 
true missionary launch the terrors of the divine wrath against 
not only these latter vices, but also against the saloons, and the 
dance halls, and the " variety shows " which, for the sake of 
noney-getting, are their occasions. 

It was not as a missionary preacher, however, that h$ was 
best known in his later life, but as a parish priest. He was a 
devoted father to his parishioners for thirty-four years. As a 
pastor Father Walworth was full of vigilance and of love, as 
was well shown by Father P. H. McDermott, an old and affec- 
tionate friend, in his funeral sermon. He made it his duty to 
know all the hard sinners in his parish, he loved them better 
than any other class, he sought every means to save them. 
He was ever kind to the poor, and no one could be more 
sympathetic with the sick, more affectionate and careful in the 
care of the children. 

It was while pastor in Albany that Father Walworth did 
his great work against public vice and against its political at- 
torneys. In union with Bishop Doane and other public-spirited 
citizens he waged incessant war against the liquor-dealers' 
lobby in the Legislature. 

Some Catholics objected. Why should a priest meddle in 
politics? they asked. Because God's enemies do so, was Wai- 
worth's answer, and we must follow them up and resist them 
everywhere. For a long series of years he thus labored among 
the members of the Legislature, and addressed committees at 
every or nearly every session. The good of it was manifest 
in the defeat of several bills whose purpose was simply the 
rule of rum, the very riot of vice. 

Father Walworth felt that in this line of action, and in his 
interference in the same spirit in Albany city politics, he was 
but fulfilling the duty of a Catholic citizen of prominent place 



1901.] FATHER WALWORTH : A CHARACTER SKETCH. 335 

and powerful influence. I am too good a Christian, he seemed 
to say, to allow my faith to narrow my sphere of usefulness ; 
I am too good a citizen to allow my citizenship to cripple my 
priestly zeal. The people of Albany will not easily forget 




FATHER WALWORTH IN HIS LIBRARY. 

Father Walworth's attack on a certain candidate for mayor. 
He was a big brewer, and his canvass was carried on, in ac- 
cordance with his trade, by processions of beer-wagons and 
the glorification of beer-drinking. It is a consolation to know 
that this high-priest of what Father Walworth called the god 
Gambrinus, achieved the infamous success of becoming chief 
law-maker and law executive of that city only after such a 
protest from the pulpit of St. Mary's Church as will never be 
forgotten. 

Unremitting industry gave his life the fulness of a zealous 
priest's reward. The laggard type of character was his very 
opposite. His leisure was occupied in writing for the press 
on religious and semi-religious topics, wandering over the 
hills in practical geological research, reading, nay, studying 
the classics of English and Latin literature. Although essen- 



336 FATHER WALWORTH : A CHARACTER SKETCH. [June, 

tially of an active temperament, he was fond of intellectual 
occupation, and his knowledge was accurate as well as widely 
extended. His style was like himself, positive, and, again ac- 
cording to his nature, it was illustrated by fine imagery as 
well as bright touches of humor and sarcasm. His spoken 
and written language was always the expression of a man 
who meant what he said, and knew how to say it vigorously 
and beautifully.* 

Father Walworth's life was prolonged, indeed, nearly to the 
extreme limit, but was full of much physical suffering. An 
affection of the eyes, with which he was troubled pretty seriously 
even as a young man, developed in his last years into almost 
total blindness. And to this affliction was added deafness. 
Finally, about eight months before his death, a stroke of paraly- 
sis almost destroyed that wonderful organ of his Master's love, 
that charm of all his living intercourse with men, his glorious 
voice. Upon occasions he could utter a few words, but this 
was rarely. Once, as he felt the vocal chords released for a 
moment from their fetters, he exclaimed: "Lost my voice!" 
Those who heard him will never forget the pathos of his tones. 
Blind and deaf and dumb what other. trial remained for this 
heroic soul ? 

His refuge was the Redeemer whom he had so ardently 
loved and so courageously served his whole life long. He re- 
ceived Communion frequently, and prayed as best he might 
vocally, and was recollected as well as his sufferings permitted : 
he could at least caress his crucifix and press it to his lips and 
to his heart. His physical deprivations but forced him, a will- 
ing victim, deeper into his own secret sanctuary, and gave him 
a more interior union with the Holy Spirit. 

More than once during his illness he spoke of John Henry 
Newman's death and of his characteristic last words, " All is 
light ! " Father Walworth had himself related the most edify- 
ing death of his friend Bishop Wadhams, especially calling at- 
tention to the Bishop's dying message to his clergy : " The 
priest is for the people, not the people for the priest." Father 
Walworth's career is an example of the manner of man that 

* The following is a list of Father Walworth's publications in book form : The Gentle 
Skeptic, Appletons, 1863 ; The Doctrine of Hell, Catholic Publication Society, 1873 ; Andia- 
torocte and Other Poems, Catholic Book Exchange, New York, 1888 ; Reminiscences of Edgar 
P. Wadhams, Benzigers, 1892 ; The Oxford Movement in America, Catholic Book Exchange, 
1895 ; The Walworths in America, The Weed- Parsons Printing Company, Albany, 1897 ; and 
a large number of pamphlets and sermons, which it is hoped will be edited and reprinted in 
book form, for many of them are of great and permanent value. Among the Sermons in the 
volumes by the Paulist Fathers, Appletons, 1861-65, some of the best are by Father Walworth. 



1 90 1.] FATHER WALWORTH : A CHARACTER SKETCH. 337 

God chooses in his priesthood for His own honor and the sav- 
ing of His people. 

May Father Walworth's heroic figure serve as an incitement 
to all Catholics to live and work in a spirit worthy of their 
faith. Especially may his example stimulate us priests to 
greater and greater courage in advocating right and in com- 
bating wrong. Let us not be deceived. Neither for citizen 
nor for Christian is it the main thing to be smooth, nor the 
chief aim to be respectable, nor the highest praise to keep out 
of notice. True men should be strong men. Men in a holy 
office should be leading men in all that helps holiness and hin- 
ders wickedness. Walworth's life lesson is that we should have 
convictions as well as opinions, that we should have obedience 
as well as conformity, and courage equal to conviction, as well 
as loyalty equal to obedience. To lie still and do no harm is 
indeed better than to advance and blunder. But it is no boast 
for one holding a public trust like God's priesthood that he 
has never blundered. God and man will ever demand of such 
a one, What good are you doing? Burying talents saves 
talents, but the Lord who gave the talent will demand not 
only its return but its increase. 

God rest the noble soul of Clarence Walworth ! As man, 
citizen, priest, missionary, he was faithful and true to God and 
Church and fellow-citizens. 





338 THE RESPONSIBILITY OF BOOK-REVIEWERS. [June, 
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF BOOK-REVIEWERS. 

BY REV. WILLIAM SULLIVAN, C.S.P. 

ECENTLY looking over the curiosa of a city 
book-shop we chanced upon a volume with the 
|i title: No 'Beginning' ; or, The Fundamental Fal- 
^ lacy. A common-sense Demonstration of the non- 
existence of a First Cause, thereby identifying 
God with Nature. Another glance disclosed that the book was 
in its second edition, and had received extraordinary encomi- 
ums from divers gentlemen with learned titles but no reputa- 
tion, and from various periodicals with learned names and a 
very respectable reputation. And so with a certain feeling 
that we had placed our finger-tips upon the pulse of a great 
thought-movement, destined perhaps to sweep away from many 
minds intellectual and spiritual convictions that we cherish, 
and to bear the race in a direction whither we should deplore 
to see it drift ; and besides having, ever since the days of our 
metaphysical infancy, when we wrestled with ens ut sic, an un- 
common fondness for speculation, we purchased the deadly 
volume, sat down and read it. 

A PSEUDO-PATHFINDER. 

The first printed words in the book are a salutatory: "To 
Liberals, Secularists, and Reformers," whereof the third para- 
graph stands thus: "We believe that supernaturalism is the 
source of most of those inhumanities and cruelties which have 
cursed the world in past ages and which, even to this day, 
make ' countless thousands mourn.' We believe it is inimical 
to governments, deriving their just powers from the ' free con- 
sent of the governed,' in that it encourages belief in written 
laws alleged to have been dictated by a power higher than men ; 
that by belittling human reason and producing an inflexible 
and intolerant state of mind among the people, it stands in the 
way of needed reforms and checks intellectual progress." And 
therefore the conclusion is irresistible though, lest we should 
remiin in the region of the transcendental and emotional and 
forget it, the author puts it down in black and white that 
every noble heart that beats for humanity and shrinks in hor- 
ror from superstition" should forthwith send to the author all 



1901.] THE RESPONSIBILITY OF BOOK-REVIEWERS. 339 

or part of the following : " price post-paid to all parts of the 
world: Single copy $0.75; 2 copies $1.20; 3 copies $[.50; 4 
or more copies $0.45 each. Special discount to agents and 
dealers." 

Now, but for one reason we should have thrown the thing 
aside and read no further, and made new resolutions to 
avoid book-stores whenever it happily betided us to have 
money in our pocket. For no man who can rave so is a fit 
object for a thoughtful man's attention, and a very difficult 
object for the charity of even the most devout. Let a man's 
belief or lack of it be what it will, we shall respect him always 
if, in the discussion of the vast problem of our origin and end, 
of God and the world unseen, his mind be cautious, his speech 
temperate, his spirit reverent, and his soul sincere. But a 
coarse atheist, a thumping-phrased demagogue, and an un- 
trained sophist with such there is no argument. With Kant 
and Fichte we never can agree, but both we hold in tender- 
ness and sympathy, for they trod as in a sanctuary and spoke 
their guesses at great mysteries in whispers of awe. But 
Ingersoll and all of the dehumanized sect that laugh with him, 
the jesters at what should make us tremble, the wits of the 
platform and the arrow-shooters of poisoned paragraphs, these 
sorely sadden the lovers of their race and the believers in an 
ineradicable goodness in every human heart that beats. But 
one reason, we say, stopped us in the very beginning from 
classing the author of " No Beginning " with this latter type 
of degenerates, and from flinging his book into the fire with 
disgust. And this reason was the language of the criticisms 
passed upon the work by the titled gentlemen and the preten- 
tious periodicals already referred to. When several physicians 
and lawyers, one Christian minister, the Review of Reviews, the 
Arena, Boston Ideas, the Chicago Herald, and the Critic write of 
a book as though it were a pathfinder for humanity unto 
regions of new thought and unattained civilization, one feels 
that there is need of caution in pronouncing judgment even 
when there seem to be plain reasons for severity, and one is 
willing to read on and on, despite many a shock and many an 
explosion of impatience at obvious stupidity, lest perchance 
one should miss the fine tracings of keen philosophy belauded 
by so many and such distinguished reviewers. And so we read 
the book, and herewith submit a few considerations on the 
author and his tilt at metaphysics, and a few animadversions 
on his critics and their attempt at philosophy. 



340 THE RESPONSIBILITY OF BOOK-REVIEWERS. [June, 

A DAUNTLESS COLUMBUS. 

The writer who would relieve the race of their yoke of super- 
stition and place upon the dunce's stool all thinkers from Aris- 
totle to Herbert Spencer, who have held that an uncaused 
First Cause is a necessity of reason, is, he tells us, ' one of the 
people," one who " risked his life voluntarily in war for union, 
freedom, and equality," " a law-abiding citizen," and one to 
whom " for years past one of the wonders of the world has 
been the fact that so many educated and good people were 
believers in the Apostles' Creed." This lordly astonishment 
that people should not all become atheists; this simpering 
wonder that he himself should be so far ahead of his fellows 
and his age, is a thoroughly disgusting characteristic of this 
author from his first page to his last. Thus he imperially in- 
forms us that the question of the origin of things is not 
intricate but easy, once we adopt his point of view. And he 
thus goes on in a passage fit to make a man's gorge rise : 
" It is, as will be shown further along, not really for lack of 
argument, but largely from a sort of superstitious fear of forming 
just and necessary inferences, that mankind do not even now 
quite generally accept the true solution of the question." So 
the majority of mankind are idiots, and a " law-abiding citi- 
zen " of Chicago is the dauntless Columbus who dares to sail 
the sea of sense and discover new continents of reason ! Stul- 
titia stultorum est infinita. 

A FALSE PHILOSOPHER. 

In the first ninety-five pages of the book there is not a 
word as to the First-Cause argument. What those pages do 
contain would be a wonderful and weird story to tell. For 
one thing, there is a dissertation on pure Being, wherein the 
author imagines that he has scored heavily against believers in 
God because he makes the point that pure Being devoid of 
all form and attributes, Being of which nothing can be pre- 
dicated, cannot exist. He seems to think that the God of the 
Christiin theist is Herbert Spencer's Unknowable and non- 
Related, and that the objections valid against the agnostic 
destroy likewise the fundamentals of theology. We suppose 
that the gentleman who has undertaken to write a book on 
philosophy would open his eyes if he were to be told that the 
mental abstraction which Spencer styles the Unknowable is as 
far from the God we worship as his own work is from the 
first fifty pages of St. Thomas's Sumnta. Doubtless he would 



1901.] THE RESPONSIBILITY OF BOOK-REVIEWERS. 341 

hesitate to credit us if we informed him that God can and 
must have relations with finite things; and possibly a new light 
might dawn upon his intelligence if we mentioned that it is 
not by relations of existence that the absoluteness of the 
Absolute is impaired, but by relations of dependence ; and 
that consequently our God is the very and true Absolute be- 
cause relations of dependence upon other beings He can never 
have. 

SOME VAGARIES. 

Of the other philosophical discoveries scattered generously 
along this introductory avenue to his magnum opus let us 
select a few. The author quiets the apprehensions possibly 
felt by " the deepest religious natures," whose eyes are opened 
by his book, by telling them not to worry because the Deity 
which he discloses to them is, instead of their old personal 
God, the impersonal "totality of things." For, he says, "the 
impersonal is necessarily greater than the personal." Now, as 
intelligence and free will constitute personality, our champion 
and liberator of reason is seen to defend the strange position 
that a Deity in possession of intelligence, in possession of free- 
will, is inferior to a Deity destitute of both ; though it is in 
the highest degree likely that by personality he means legs, 
arms, viscera, hair, and an apparatus for digestion. The fol- 
lowing luminous reflections decidedly supply long-felt wants : 
"A truth is a verity; a reality as distinguished from a con- 
jecture, a hallucination, or a belief." " A truth is a thought 
of God, if there is a thinking God ; and an imperishable 
souvenir from the depths of the illimitable ocean of time that 
will never decay, whether there is a God or not." " Some 
truths are self-evident, because in the present highly developed 
condition of the human intellect, they have become primary 
judgments of the mind and are universally accepted without 
proof." How happy our fate that we lived, not in ages of a 
less " highly developed condition of the human intellect," 
when the proposition, " The whole is greater than any of its 
parts," would not be accepted till we had covered a whole 
blackboard with proof ! And how thrilling a sense of human 
progress it gives to realize that nowadays we accept such 
statements and demand no more demonstration than if a man 
remarked it was a warm day ! Apropos of the proposition that 
the sum of the three angles of a triangle equals two right angles, 
our Socrates has a jeu cT esprit that is positively cute. Quoth 
he : " A triangle formed by a pope, the while praying his God 
VOL. LXXIII. 23 



342 THE RESPONSIBILITY OF BOOK-REVIEWERS. [June, 

to enable him to put to shame the reason of man by produc- 
ing a figure that would be an exception to the proposition 
before stated, would, as certainly as the one accidentally drawn 
by a child, be found to attest the truth of the foregoing pro- 
position as man had found it." And finally, tucked away in an 
obscure page, and neither capitalized nor double-leaded, is an 
obiter dictum which we must regard as the key to the entire 
production : " That a knowledge of the laws of thought is not 
essential to correct reasoning, needs no other proof than the 
fact that but few of the men who have given the world its great- 
est discoveries have been metaphysicians, and the further fact 
that the great masses of the people who reason correctly about 
the ordinary affairs of life know nothing of any such science. 
Very similarly, as good sight is entirely independent of any 
knowledge of optics, so is good reasoning independent of a 
knowledge of the modes of thought." Ergo, let us add, any 
" law-abiding citizen " can write a book on philosophy. Alas ! 
too true. But let us suggest to the sapient author that as de- 
fective sight is often vastly improved by consulting men who 
do possess a knowledge of optics, so might a man to whom the 
laws of thought are a realm unvisited and unknown derive un- 
told advantage for himself, and confer an inestimable boon on 
his contemporaries, by a brief association with men who have 
heard of Logic and could point out to him the danger-spots in 
the quicksands of philosophy. 

THE FUNDAMENTAL ARGUMENT. 

But now to the argument ; to the great " demonstration of 
the non-existence of a First Cause ! " Strange to say, this 
"demonstration" is given only five pages for its formal state 
ment, so strong is the author's bent to discuss things in 
general rather than anything in particular. We will follow his 
lead and despatch the matter as summarily as we can. The 
proof is simply the hoary and thoroughly threadbare " infinite 
series." It is " Parturiunt monies" over again, only this mouse 
is unusually ridiculous. Things have causes; those causes were 
themselves caused, and so on for ever, and where is any need 
of a creator? No finite thing, the author concedes, has in it- 
self a sufficient reason for its own existence, but scramble all 
finite things together, and straightway the lump has in itself a 
sufficient reason for its existence. Thus, ten blind men are 
blind of course ; but put uniforms on them, band them to- 
gether, and style them the Blind Men's Protective Association, 
and straightway they get sight. Of five hundred beggars not 



1901.] THE RESPONSIBILITY OF BOOK-REVIEWERS. 343 

one has a copper for the purchase of a bowl of soup ; but 
form them into half a regiment, and forthwith they possess 
wealth enough to live in independence for ever after. But 
with stuff like this we cannot waste paper and patience. Still 
there is one subterfuge employed by the Chicago sage so in- 
effably monstrous that we cannot pass over it without a gasp. 
While it is evident, he says, that each particular finite thing 
has a cause, the totality of things needs no cause, because the 
totality of things is not a thing. And why ? Because the 
totality of things is the sum of existence, and outside of it is 
nothing, and as nothing can produce nothing, why you must 
rest in the totality, and can never get beyond it. So the 
earth rests on the elephant, and the elephant rests on the 
camel, and the camel rests on the turtle ; but take earth, ele- 
phant, camel, and turtle all together, and they need nothing to 
rest on they just hang ! 

BLAME FOR IRRESPONSIBLE REVIEWERS. 

Now, we have not noticed this production for its own sake 
nor for its author's. We have no time to spend over every 
atheistic pamphlet written by unhappy men who imagine that 
they have found a light which will shed sunrise into the 
hitherto tenebrous minds of the race, and who presume to 
talk on profound metaphysics when they had better be reading 
the history of the United States, or something as harmless 
and as helpful. But we desire to call every thoughtful man's at- 
tention to the character of the reviews of books appearing 
in some of our notorious periodical publications. Here is this 
book styled " No Beginning," a work intended to destroy belief 
in God ; a piece of printed matter to strike dumb with won- 
der every thoughtful man ; the veriest lunacy, of which not 
one page discloses power to think deeply ; the shreds of philo- 
sophic rags cast to the rubbish heap centuries since, even by 
men who would eliminate the supernatural ; here is this un- 
speakable mess praised as profound and valid by magazines 
which appeal to the support of men of sense ! Says the Re- 
view oj Reviews: "He employs the resources of both logic and 
scientific discovery in a convincing and common-sense way, and 
ought not to offend the feelings of the most orthodox who is 
willing to argue honestly." Says the Arena: "The argument 
is unanswerable." Says the Saturday Evening Herald, of Chi- 
cago: "To all thinkers who are not content to attribute ex- 
istence to a great mystery that may not be solved without 
incurring divine displeasure, the book will be found as a well 



344 THE RESPONSIBILITY OF BOOK-RE VIE WERS. [June, 

in the desert" And Boston Ideas: "As a champion of rea- 
son one of the very strongest essays we have ever read." 
Finally, the Critic, of New York : " It is not necessarily athe- 
istic in its outcome. . . . The growing conviction of devout 
thinkers that the world is God manifesting Himself is gradually 
rendering obsolete what has been called the carpenter theory 
of creation." 

To characterize criticisms like these there can be no limit of 
severity. They are shameless and abominable, and are for ever- 
more enough to raise a smile among people of intelligence 
whenever the critical opinion of the journals in which they 
appeared is cited as an authority. Not that we would object 
simply because a magazine praised an atheistic work by no 
means. We ourselves have read many and many a book against 
revelation and religion, and expressed admiration for the au- 
thor's acumen, learning, and clever argument. But to advocate 
the circulation of a production that puts forward the exploded 
theory of the infinite series, and even this in four-term syllo- 
gisms ; that exploits the absurdity that a lumping together of 
finite things gives a result which is neither finite nor a thing ; 
that can perpetrate a paragraph like the following : " If ever 
there was a time when nothing was, we cannot, owing to our 
inability to conceive of nonentity as the antecedent of what 
now is, reasonably affirm such a proposition ; and if not, no 
first cause is demanded, and does not in reason exist"; that 
can assert the impossibility of an uncaused First Cause, be- 
cause " this would destroy the reality of the quality of causa- 
tion and undermine all reasoning on the question " ; that struts 
about with this vulgar bragging : " It has now been established, 
by proofs as incontrovertible as the universally accepted demon- 
strations of mathematics, that no ' first cause ' or ' beginning of 
things' . . . ever did in fact exist"; that stultifies itself 
with such definitions as : " To think is to know, and to think 
is to have our organism acted on by matter in motion. Knowl 
edge comes from and is produced by matter in motion." " Now, 
the senses deal with things ; consciousness with what is per- 
ceived through the senses," " Consciousness is content, for she 
feels only things, and their forces and relations " ; to advocate 
the circulation of such a monument of folly and such a colossus of 
disgusting arrogance, as though it were a classic of lofty specu- 
lation, is an everlasting disgrace. How any one who is either 
a man who respects his own intelligence or a Christian believer 
can ever have aught save contempt for the opinions of these 
journals, we should like to see some grounds for maintaining. 



1901.] THE RESPONSIBILITY OF BOOK-REVIEWERS. 345 

AN INDIGNANT PROTEST. 

It is fully time to protest publicly against such insults to 
good sense and religious convictions. When an empty pam- 
phlet against the most ineradicable and most elevating convic- 
tion of humanity is fostered by reputable periodicals, when 
every shallow employee of a newspaper who undertakes to write 
an editorial in which the name of our Saviour is mentioned 
cannot refer to that august Person without an incidental phrase 
thit covertly attacks the divinity of Jesus, there rests on men 
who despise the pretentious cant of " advanced " views, and 
there rests on Christians whose most sacred feelings are thus 
sported with, the duty of indignant protest. The sneerers at 
religion, and, what makes it so hard to endure without irritation, 
the ignorant sneerers, are doing entirely too much to form a 
public opinion and a public conscience. We must be prompt 
with voice and pen to expose their folly and resent their inso- 
lence. But proh dolor! where do we find some Christian 
ministers when we read the following eulogy of our atheistic 
" argument " standing at the very head of the two pages of 
praise ? " I consider it one of the greatest masterpieces along 
its line ever written. With one blow the author knocks out 
the First Cause theory for the material universe, and with the 
clearest and most logical reasoning he causes the veil of ortho- 
dox superstition to rend from top to bottom. Several laymen in 
my church have read the book, and all alike pronounce it a power 
for truth. Every liberal thinker ought to read it. ... In 
the nearly two hundred pages in the book the author clearly 
demonstrates the non-existence of a First Cause, proves Genesis 
a myth, and leaves theology as an empty dream " (Rev. P. M. 
Harmon, Ph.D., D.D., LL.D., Pastor of the People's Church 
at Spring Valley, Minn.) 

When we recovered after reading this, we found our curi- 
osity roused to indefinite activity regarding one point. It was 
not a curiosity to know what this " Christian minister's " be- 
lief is; or how miny atheists like him are occupying "Chris- 
tian " pulpits ; but to know this : From what university be- 
tween the five seas did that man receive the alphabet hitched 
to his name ? Vast in sooth ought to be the congratulation of 
the metropolis of Spring Valley, Minn., that it should have cap- 
tured and should enjoy so prodigious an intelligence as he, to 
the chagrin of less illuminated New York, or BDston, or Lon- 
don, or TimbuctoD. 




CQADOX Bl^OWN. HI^BE 



BY ARTHUR UPSON. 



I. THE PICTURE. 




HERE is a picture, you have seen it oft; 
The Master at unwilling Peter's feet 
Ennobling evermore and making sweet 
Eich humble service wrought with mind aloft. 



Such mystic splendor shines serene and soft 
('Twas dreamt out slowly and thus made complete 
From richest fancy) that it seems most meet 
You turn away and find your base self doffed. 



II. THE PALETTE. 



He who this limned is gone. They treasure still 
The wooden wafer once he loved to hold, 



1901.] FORD MADOX BROWN. THREE OCTAVES. 347 

Which can we question ? now his hand is mould, 
Yearns ever for that touch of tender skill. 
This ochre, longs it not to meet his will 
About the head of Jesus aureoled ? 
And that sad patch of umber some slight fold 
Of Peter's garment would so gladly fill ! 

III. THE ABSENCE. 

Even so our fancies' colors, keen of yore, 

When one we loved doth quit this earth-constraint, 

Upon our palettes do wax dull and faint, 

Fulfilling not commissions first they bore. 

For he is gone, and never holy lore, 

Nor shining nimbus of transfigured saint, 

May anywhere the fragment ochre paint ; 

And the rich umber waits for evermore. 

London, iqoo. 

NOTE. The famous Christ Washing the Feet of Peter hangs in the Tate Gallery, 
London. The artist's palette, just as he last used it, is preserved in the National Gallery, 
Trafalgar Square. 





THE PRADOS MEETING THEIR FATE. 




MAS1QUEN LAOAK : A CHAPTER OF PHILIPPINE 

WARFARE. 

BY FIRST LIEUT. PAUL B. MALONE. 

'HORTLY after the arrival in Dagupan, Luzon, 
P. I., of the first detachment of American 
troops Vicente Prado, native ex-insurgent gover- 
nor of the province of Pangasinan, presented 
himself to the commanding officer. 
He was kindly received and assured that his past relations 
to the insurgent government would not be considered against 
him if in the future he remained faithful. Protection was guar- 
anteed. He had but to ask, and a whole company would rush 
to his assistance and fight to the last ditch, if necessary, to 
shield him from the touch of a malicious hand. Finally he 
was urged to go among his people and bring about the pacifi- 
cation of the province. Poorly clad in a cheap native suit, 
the ex-insurgent chieftain, author of many books fanciful, 
erotic, imitations of florid Spanish sat upon the edge of his 
chair and leaned eagerly forward, as if anxious to catch every 
precious word of pardon and conciliation which fell from the 
commanding officer's lips. His bristling mustache stood straight 
out from his lips as he spasmodically drew back the corners 
of his mouth, revealing a line of long yellow teeth ; his eye- 
brows played rapidly up and down as he crooned in an almost 
servile tone his acquiescence in the officer's thoughts. There 



1901.] 



MASIQUEN LAOAK. 



349 



were yellow shades where the clear white should show in his 
eye, and his erect, bushy hair was slightly streaked with gray. 
A more malicious face I have never seen. Vicente Prado's 
childhood had been spent in a convent as servant to a fraile, 
his master and teacher. As a man he had become an atheist, 
a hater of religion, a fanatic, a dreamer. 

The interview terminated, Vicente Prado expressed his 




VICENTE PRADO AT HOME. 

thanks for the kindness of the reception in most fluent Span 
ish, and, bowing obsequiously, left the house. 

What ideas were revolving in his half-savage brain during 
those moments no one shall know, for Vicente Prado is dead ; 
was hanged in front of the very house he had left nearly a 
year before, a free man, and with brilliant prospects for the 
future. 

Two months after this interview news was brought to 
Dagupan that Vicente Prado was organizing a band of insur- 
gents, levying contributions, and vehemently preaching lawless- 
ness and disorder. Before him the ignorant native stood in 



350 



MASIQUEN LAOAK : 



[June, 



speechless fear, for Prado dared God and yet stood unscathed. 
Had he declared light darkness, the world his footstool, he 
himself God, a quaking multitude of natives would have 
moaned prostrate before him, " Yes, it is true. Spare us, O 
God ! " 

Prado had entered an outer barrio of Dagupan, and at 
night I went to capture him. Inaccurate information caused 
me to miss him by just one shack. He fled to Inlambo, a 
barrio of San Jacinto, and called his clans together. The low- 
land cities were too perilous. He must go to the mountains. 
There were fifty-nine rifles and about one hundred and fifty 
bolomen. To Inocencio Prado, his son in all probability, and 
his coachman, during the days of his civil governorship, was con- 
fided the immediate command of the troops, and to him he 
gave the title of " comandante de zona." Eugenic Fernandez 

and Benito Amanzec were made 
" lieutenants," while Juan Magaldan 
was styled " captain of bolos." 

Up in the mountains between 
Alava, Rosario, and Tubao there 
was a nook in which another rob- 
ber and assassin had found a safe 
retreat in the days of the Spanish. 
Here the new bandit chief decided 
to pitch his camp. Inocencio Prado 
went into Alava and seized Ciriaco 
Lagmay, Calistro Batarino, Am- 
brocio Pangonilo, Francisco Boada, 
the most expert workmen of the 
town, and some twenty laborers, 
and proceeded to the site, where 
buildings were begun for' 1 Macao- 
ley," the king. Leaving Ciriaco 
Lagmay, the master workman, with 
a few soldiers, Inocencio Prado and 
the rest of the marauders scattered 
over the province, killing, robbing, 
capturing. No marks of their call- 
Is ing appeared upon their person. 
To American soldiers they were 
harmless natives, laborers in the 
field, appealing to their protection. 
Once past, however, concealed 




V. 



A WATER-CARRIER. 



1 90i.] A CHAPTER OF PHILIPPINE WARFARE. 351 

rifles were pulled out, daggers appeared in the belts, and the 
innocent laborer became a demon. A reign of terror began. 
Every night natives were dragged from their houses, under the 
very noses of the soldiers, beaten into unconsciousness and 
carried off to Inlambo, where they were either killed or re- 




THE TRAIL OF THE REBEL CHIEF. 

tained as slaves to work on the new home of the bandit chief. 
Much of this was done under the pretence of punishing friends 
of the Americans, hence traitors to the Filipinos, and some 
were punished to such extremes that to escape further agonies 
and face the inevitable they falsely accused themselves of the 
crimes alleged, and implicated others who in turn were seized 
and punished. The terror-stricken families dare not speak, and, 
astonishing as it may seem, this kidnapping continued for two 
months before natives had the courage to appeal for help ; 
even then assistance was asked in a panicky fear, and nothing 
could elicit more than that their friends had been taken away, 
they supposed by Vicente Prado. 

Unaware of the dangers besetting the road, Private Kane, 
Company K, I3th Infantry, strayed away one night from the 
bull-train which he and others had escorted into San Jacinto, 
and he never returned. On the 2oth of March Private An- 
thony Gurzinski, Company C, I3th Infantry, alone, in violation 
of orders, attempted to ride from San Jacinto to Manaoag. 



352 MASIQUEV LAOAK : [June, 

He was but twenty minutes ahead of a large escort to a 
ration train. Dismounting, he asked a native for a drink of 
water, when suddenly two natives seized him by the wrists, 
two others fell upon his legs. Some ten, led by Pedro Acosta, 
bound him hand and foot to a bamboo pole and dashed away. 
Two natives, Pedro Meneses and Jacinto Retube, saw the act. 
The escort having passed, these two natives were seized and, 
with Gurzinski, were carried to Baraoas of San Fabian, where 
Inocencio Prado stood waiting, pistol in hand. " Oh, you sons 
of Americans!" he cried. "Oh, you sons of light!" (a terri- 
ble execration). " We have you dogs at last." And with 
Eugenic Fernandez he distributed rewards in money for the 
gallant service of the morning. 

The catch was greater than had been anticipated. The 
game to have been stalked was the Presidente of San Jacinto. 
Gurzinski passed before him, and thus he escaped a terrible 
death, for Masiquen Laoak had ordered that he be impaled 
upon a bamboo stick and roasted alive over a slow fire, like a 
pig. The excitement of getting an American drew off the 
assassins. 

Inocencio Prado decided that the two witnesses should be 
killed, but finally listened to their pleading and let them go. 
Gurzinski's clothing was distributed to his captors and he was 
sent on to Alava under charge of Pedro Acosta, while Ino- 
cencio went to Inlambo to report to his chief. 

The quarters in the. new camp being now ready for occu- 
pancy, on the last day of March the outlaws withdrew to the 
hills. From Alava to the Igarrotte pueblo of Esperanza there 
is the semblance of a road, which, beyond this point, breaks 
into a precipitous trail which only the most experienced can 
follow. There are high jutting peaks, and sudden gulches; 
stretches of some hundred yards run along the bed of precipi- 
tous mountain streams, and finally a clear ascent, scarcely 
marked on the edge of the precipice, defies the further pro- 
gress of the horse. 

Here Vicente Prado dismounted his fagged brute and ad 
dressed himself to his thoughts. Across this thread he would 
pitch his trenches, and before them he would pile the slain of 
any American troops that dared the ascent. Below in the 
valley lay San Jacinto, Pozorrubio, Alava, nests of traitors; be- 
yond lay Digupan, with the white gulf stretching out be- 
yond Bolinao to the Yellow Sea, and all that vast territory 
quivered at his touch, trembled at his name. His savage 



1901.] 



A CHAPTER OF PHILIPPINE WARFARE. 



353 




TYPES OF FILIPINO WOMEN. 

bosom heaved. On their knees natives and Americans alike 
would respect the name of Vicente Prado, King of Northern 
Luzon. And no king of ancient history breathed more proud- 
ly than Masiquen Laoak as he moved on to the heights a mile 
beyond. 

Within the arms of two small streams lay an open space 
some three hundred yards square. One tiny trail crept on 
beyond the bluffs and fell away miles beyond in the Igarrotte 
country. A Katipunan flag floated before a square bamboo 
building " the Government House," from which the king would 
rule his empire, and in which he would retain his prisoners. 
One hundred yards to the east stood a cuartel for his troops, 
adjoining a small unfinished house for himself. 

On the morning of April 2 the attention of Ciriaco Lagmay 
and his workmen on the roof of the cuartel was called to 
Inocencio Prado and Eugenic Fernandez entering camp with 
two American prisoners, with arms bound behind them. The 
prisoners were Gurzinski and, in all probability, Kane. Ino- 



354 



MA SIQUEN LA OA K : 



[June, 



cencio and his comrade went to report to Vicente Prado. 
Leaning over the batalan, or balcony, of his house, Vicente 
Prado peered down at the two American prisoners, stripped of 
all clothing except their shirts, and cried out, " Patayen mora 
ta sicaray contrario tayo " " Kill them because they are your 




ON THE BANKS OF THE STREAM. 

enemies." His two henchmen joined the crowd of dogs below, 
but they stood back, afraid to touch the white flesh, when 
from his seat the savage Vicente again shouted his command, 
and Inocencio Prado drew his sword and, striking his soldiers 
over the head and back, shouted "Kill them, kill them, I say! 
What are you afraid of ? Kill them, for such is the order of 
our chief." The lust of blood suddenly seized the multitude, 
for they fell savagely upon the prisoners and hacked them to 
death with bolos. Their feet were then bound, and they were 



1901.] A CHAPTER OF PHILIPPINE WARFARE. 355 

carried across the stream and buried within a hundred yards 
of Vicente Prado's house. 

A few days later Pedro Acosta arrived at the camp. "You 
have come late," said one of Prado's men; "you won't get 
any meat." 

"Did you kill a beef?" asked Acosta. 

" Yes," was the reply, " we killed two white bulls, and you 
are too late for the feast." 

Out along the Pozorrubio road another soldier had been 
murdered Dawson, of B Co. Benito Amanzec and his men 
had seized him, bound him to a tree, and forced one of his 
men to place his rifle underneath Dawson's chin and fire. 
Dawson's rifle and equipments were carried into Prado's camp, 
where Benito received the congratulations of his chief. 

Bruno Arcangel, who had figured in some of these escapades, 
fell under Prado's displeasure and was killed. 

These successes led to high aspirations. From his mountain 
den Prado wrote in the following strain to the Presidente of 
Pozorrubio: 

" MY DEAR LITTLE COUNTRYMAN : You wonder why I do 
not address you in Spanish, in which we used to converse in 
happy days of the past? Well, Americans can read Spanish, 
and we must be careful, my beloved countryman. You alone 
of all my subjects are truly faithful. You alone I can trust. I 
know your high-toned patriotism. I know how ardently you 
long to redress the wrongs of our land, my little countryman. 
Together we weep. 

" And now we must act. Easter is coming, and our faith 
ful subjects are at work on the church close to the quarters of 
our oppressors. They have bolos, axes. All will be ready. 
Act. Speak the word. My beloved friend I await jour 
achievement, your message that all is done and well. 

" MASIQUEN LAOAK." 

" Masiquen Laoak " (old desert !). What a pathetic pseudo- 
nym in real truth ! An old desert indeed was Vicente Prado, 
in which no oasis could be found of pity or mercy in all the 
wide range of his cruel, vicious view of life; a level stretch of 
blood-stained sands ; a waste of distorted imagination, decrepit 
intelligence, erotic fancy. 

The Presidente of Pozorrubio handed that note to the 
commanding officer and became an ally. The hunt for the 



356 



MASIQUEN LAOAK : 



[June, 



crow's nest began, but in all that town of slaves not one had 
the courage to say he knew where to find his master, even 
though his bones ached and his back bore the mark of the 
lash. 

The presidente received notice that he would be murdered 
at the first opportunity. 

And now Prado decided to burn out the Americans in San 
Jacinto his native town. 

Inocencio Prado and Eugenic Fernandez left camp on the 
2ist of April, and a Catling gun left Dagupan at the same 
time. It had scarcely reached San Jacinto when fire was 




BEFORE THE DEPREDATIONS OF WAR. 

opened. Unarmed men from Pozorrubio were forced by Ino- 
cencio Prado to advance, set fire to the houses, and stand this 
murderous fire and that of the Krag rifles, while he at a safe 
distance poured long-range volleys into the town. Aside from 
destroying over one hundred native shacks and terrorizing the 
inhabitants nothing was gained by this insane manoeuvre. 

Shortly afterwards a patrol caught some of Prado's men on 
the wing, killed a few and captured their rifles. Prado pro- 
fessed to believe that an Igarrotte and his wife had given the 
information which led to his loss. Inocencio Prado led them 



A CHAPTER OF PHILIPPINE WARFARE. 



357 



into camp on the 3d day of May. They were condemned to 
death without evidence, and hacked to pieces with bolos by 
Benito Amanzec and his soldiers. Benito was but twenty-one 
years of age, five feet in height, and weighed about one hun- 
dred pounds; but within that small frame were concentrated 
all the murderous instincts of a demon, combined with the 
activity, daring, and recklessness of his youth. Eight murders 
daring his brief career as a lieutenant of Prado were proved 
agiinst him, and he was hanged at Pozorrubio on December 14. 

On the night of May 3 Inocencio Prado left camp with all 
his soldiers and, under the orders of Macaoley, the chief, went 
to Rosario to bring back the presidente thereof ; " and if he 
resists," said Vicente Prado, " kill him." 

Inocencio surrounded the presidente's house about half-past 
twelve at night. The house was occupied by men, women, 
and children. Without warning of any sort Inocencio Prado 
bsgan pouring volleys through the floor of the building. The 
presidente ran to the window shouting " Tulisanes," and was 
shot dead. The assassins had already shot two of their own 
companions by their nervous fire, and ceased firing. 

Juan Alambra, a native of Santo Tomas de la Union, went 




MARCHING TO THE SCAFFOLD. 

to the door and begged that they shoot no more. He was 
ordered down stairs, where Inocencio Prado accosted him : 
"Ah, Juan Alambra of Santo Tomas! God has put you in 
our hands to punish you for your treatment of my father (re- 
ferring to Vicente Prado). You are my prisoner." (Juan Alambra 
VOL. LXXIII. 24 



358 MASIQUEN LAOAK : [June, 

and the people of Santo Tomas had repudiated the mad 
schemes of Masiquen Laoak and had attempted to capture him). 

The presidente's wife and all the rest of the household were 
carried prisoners to Prado's camp, and, with Juan Alambra, 
they were all witnesses of what occurred. Juan's clothing was 
saturated with the blood of Francisco Favia, the presidente's 
son, beside whom he was sleeping when the first volley through 
the floor killed the boy. Upon seeing this Masiquen Laoak 
hastened to; give him clean clothing. Before the commission 
which tried him, of which I was judge advocate, and which 
sentenced him to death, Vicente Prado endeavored to establish 
the impossibility of his guilt by dilating upon this act of kind- 
ness and consideration in getting rid of the bloody marks left 
by one of his victims. He was only a guest in the camp, he 
declared ; a subordinate to his coachman, whom he had created 
to the command of all his troops; a refugee begging protec- 
tion from the unexplainable persecution of both Americans and 
Filipinos. This declaration was, however, somewhat inconsis- 
tent with the fact that on the following day he sent Eugenio 
Fernandez to Alaoa to assassinate the presidente, lieutenant 
of police, and secretary of the town. Lieutenant Hughes, I3th 
Infantry, having received news of the presence of the murder- 
ers, hastily mounted a detachment of soldiers and policemen 
at midnight and succeeded in reaching these men in time to 
save them from being buried alive. 

This was Prado's last recorded outrage. On the 6th troops 
of the 48th Infantry attacked him from the north.. He, with 
several of his prisoners, fled to Pozorrubio, where Captains Styer 
and Wild, of the I3th Infantry, surrounded and captured him. 
An old man was found crouching upon his hands and knees in 
the corner. He was a prisoner taken in San Jacinto. Suspected 
of friendliness with the Americans, he was stripped, tied to a 
tree, and beaten with rattan until his body was raw from head 
to foot. He could rest only upon his hands and knees, and 
for three days he had been suffering these tortures without 
sleep. He was turned over for medical treatment and lived to 
testify against his torturers. 

Vicente and Inocencio Prado were tried and convicted, 
beyond the shadow of a doubt, of all these crimes, and were 
executed at Dagupan, November 30, 1900. Benito Amanzec 
was hanged December 14, 1900, at Pozorrubio. Before the 
proceedings in the case of Eugenio Fernandez had been pro- 
mulgated Juan Magaldan had been captured, and proofs of 



IQOI.] 



A CHAPTER OF PHILIPPINE WARFARE. 



359 



many additional murders were brought to light, for which 
Fernandez has stood a second trial. Results are not yet 
known. 

Reference has been made herein only to such atrocities as 
were established by the most complete proofs. The mind be- 
comes confused in following the intricacies of all the crimes 




THE END OF THE REBEL CHIEF. 

committed by these men, and the intelligence sickens as with 
the sight of a slaughter-house. It may be noted, however, 
that Prado caused the execution of a mother and a month old 
child in his camp, for which proofs were somewhat lacking, 
and in all about seventy-five natives were assassinated during 
the few months' reign of this one insurgent chieftain. The 
history of every insurgent camp in the islands is but a repeti- 
tion of the above, with slightly new settings, different modes 
of execution, and new names to fit the victims. The differ- 
ence is usually in the lesser intelligence of the leaders. 

And all this is done in the name of Independence, Liberty, 
while by the process the chief assassin rises from the rank of 
petty thief, or kitchen scullion, to that of insurgent general, 
colonel, or governor of a province. 

There can be no more eloquent argument upon the in- 
competency for self-government of the Filipinos of to-day than 
the records of the military commissions now and formerly sit- 
ting, of which this is a short extract from memory. 




360 THE ENCYCLICAL ON [June, 



THE ENCYCLICAL ON CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY 

ANALYZED. 

i 

HE impress which Leo XIII. has left already 
upon his times is positive and indestructible. 
Each encyclical letter, public allocution, or 
private talk touch with gentleness some festering 
sore on human life. He classifies with far-seeing 
acuteness the urgent problems of political government, religion, 
faith, and private action. No phase of philosophy, no theory of 
science, no interchange of relationship of persons has escaped 
the dissecting energy of his keen intellect. Whether he declares 
to the statesmen of France that no name or form of government 
is in conflict with the teachings of the Catholic Church, or pre- 
scribes the healing power of Christ to the advocates of Godless 
education ; or whether he calls the world back to Jesus Christ, 
the Way, the Truth, and the Life, or demands consideration for 
the rights of God from the Socialist clamoring for man's rights 
every spoken word or document of his carries an important 
message to mankind. 

THE FALLACIES OF SOCIALISM EXPOSED. 

In the encyclical Rerum Novariim, acknowledging the sincer- 
ity of those who called themselves Socialists, he recognized that 
the great mass would be moved by calm, sincere, earnest con- 
viction. Sincerity may be misdirected, but it must be respected. 
The Holy Father, therefore, put away mere denunciation, and 
treated his opponents as sincere. Clearly exposing the many 
fallacies of Socialism, he pointed out the remedies and, as was 
fitting, gave special approval and blessing to those zealous 
Christians and true lovers of their country and humanity who, 
in various parts of the world, had come together to study these 
social problems, and to further such harmonious action on the 
part of both governing and governed as would best promise 
remedy for existing evils. The exposure of Socialism in its 
destructive forms was a crushing blow to its advocates, while 
the approval given to social reform gave rise to various insti- 
tutions and organizations, among which were so-called Christian 
Socialism and Christian Djmocracy. Under these titles were 



1 90 1.] CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY ANALYZED. 361 

hidden many dangerous, anti-Christian deformities. But Leo 
XIII. was not to be deceived. Again he speaks to the people. 
In the encyclical De Re Sociali he reiterates his warnings 
against the dangers of Socialism. The confidence expressed in 
the previous letter, that the Gospel teachings provided remedies 
that were in every way efficacious for the defence of faith and 
justice, and for the removal of all conflict between the different 
ranks of citizens, had been strengthened. By the open con- 
fession of men of all creeds, convinced by facts, he was re- 
assured that to the church belongs the credit of looking pro- 
vidently to the " welfare of all social classes, and especially the 
outcast." That each one may do his part, he writes to clarify 
the mental atmosphere of the fog of doubts that has fallen 
upon it. He declares that the term Christian Socialism is a 
misnomer, and should not be used. Carping critics will say 
that this is too radical a position : it will impede progress in 
the work for the amelioration of mankind. But names do not 
mike works. The church, true guardian of social welfare, is 
the rightful exponent of Christianity. Christianity is not a 
political party, nor a labor bureau, nor a temperance propa- 
ganda, nor a society for the prevention of crime or suppression 
of vice. But it is all of these ; but not of these alone, nor of 
one more than the other. It everywhere buds, flowers, and bears 
fruit at last into everything that makes for human bettermer.t 
and for the final perfection of human society. Christianity is 
as wide as the needs of the world. 

CHRISTIANITY TENDS TO TRANSFORM AS WELL AS TO REFORM. 

A Christianity that aims directly and solely at mere sccial 
and civic ends never reaches the maximum of its power. Its 
spiritual dynamo is not powerful enough to generate the higher 
currents. The foremost work of Christianity is not to reform 
but to transform, not to evolve goodness out of men but to 
create it within them by supernatural help. The notion that 
Christianity is essentially socialistic, or, as Herr Todt expresses 
it, "Socialism has its root in Christianity," is often asserted. 
True, the communistic life of the Apostolic Church was, in fact, 
an outcome of Christianity ; but its real origin lay in the religious 
fervor which was abroad at the time. The idea of the Brother- 
hood of Man came with Christ, and Christian agencies have spread 
and protected it. Its leavening power has wrought mightily, 
and its latent force, once aroused, will accomplish much more. 
It is not to be wondered at, then, that eager natures, awakened 



362 THE ENCYCLICAL ON [June, 

to the existence of social distress, should attempt to enthrone 
this idea as supreme. Nor can it be thought strange that, 
after the telling exposure of Socialism by the Supreme Pontiff, 
these natures, prompted by loyal obedience to authority and 
as well by a desire to distinguish themselves from the Social- 
ist proper, should adopt the name Christian Socialism. The 
confusion of Socialism proper with social reform accounts in 
a measure for this anomaly. But the incongruity of the term 
is evident. For Socialism holds the laborer's right to the 
full product of his labor, the abolishing of all property rights, 
the overthrow of thrones and the disestablishment of ex- 
isting social order, and this the Holy Father has clearly and 
conclusively shown to be unjust. On the other hand, Chris- 
tianity not only implies justice but is in every way just. 
Therefore we ask, in the words of a former encyclical, " what par- 
ticipation has justice with injustice, or what communion light 
with darkness ? " Social justice may be the spring of clear 
water from which Socialism proceeds, but error or fallacy 
which makes turbid this clear water is really injustice. To 
muddy the pure water of Christianity with the injustice of 
Socialism is a violation of right. 

DIFFICULTIES WITH NAMES. 

The Holy Father then turns his attention to Christian De- 
mocracy. At the very outset he states the forebodings of 
" the some " to whom it was " a strange and evil sound." The 
etymology of the word gave cause of distrust to republic, 
empire, and monarchy. For, say they, what other is demo- 
cratic tenet than the overthrow of existing forms of govern- 
ment, the placing of the power into the hands of the people, 
a hidden purpose, under the name of the church, to establish 
a particular form of government. To others, jealous for the 
scope of Christianity, which is as wide as the needs of man, it 
was an effort to limit the arena by concentrating itself on the 
welfare of the masses. To narrow the borders of Christian in- 
fluence is contrary to Truth and Religion. Again, to the lover 
of obedient and loyal citizenship it savored of a complete cast- 
ing off of authority. That the energies of these good people 
should not be wasted by useless fears, and that the efforts for 
the betterment of social conditions may be more advantageous, 
the Holy Father points out clearly that there is nothing in 
common between Social Democracy advocated by Socialists 
and Christian Democracy. While both agree as to the lamenta- 



1901.] CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY ANALYZED. 363 

ble social conditions of the masses, and of the necessity of 
efforts to better these conditions, yet neither in the principles 
exploited nor in the means proposed is there any common 
ground. Social Democracy is political. It aims, through state 
control, to secure its end. It proposes the destruction or dis- 
mantling of existing forms of government, the making of a 
state of equality by legislative acts, the reducing of all the 
rights of man and God to a voting standard. " The struggle 
of the working classes against capitalists," says the Erfurt 
programme, "must of necessity be a political struggle. They 
can neither carry on nor develop their economic organization 
without being invested with political power." In contrast with 
this the Holy Father declares that Christian Democracy can- 
not be political. He reiterates the statement made to the 
French leaders, that the church, a fortiori Christianity, does not 
insist on any one particular form of civil government. For the 
very character of natural and divine law transcends all human 
acts and independence is necessary for it. 

CHRISTIAN VERSUS SOCIAL DEMOCRACY. 

Christian Democracy, therefore, is not narrowed by local 
strictures nor straitened by the ambitions of crafty statesmen, 
but seeks ever a union and harmony with all governments 
founded on the principles of honesty and justice. Social De- 
mocracy, he says, does not take any account of the super- 
natural. " Socialism " (a fortiori Social Democracy), says Rae,* 
" is not of a religious origin. Its advocates have turned their 
back on religion and the church, ' We are not atheists, we 
are simply done with God.' " The rights of man with nothing 
of his duties are the supreme consideration. The Creator is 
made second to his creature. In other words, Social Democ- 
racy would construct a human society without God, void of 
moral principle and conscience. While amid the " universal 
culture " of Bellamy, religion, the science and art of worship- 
ping God, the exponent of man's rights and duties, the reposi- 
tory of the kind and providential care of Almighty God reli- 
gion would be but a product of economic life. Against this 
Christian Democracy, from the very fact of its being Christian, 
is necessarily based upon supernatural faith. Its primary con- 
siderations are the rights of God. Its endeavor is to develop 
a world with God, a humanity created by God, belonging to 
God, and destined for God ; in fine, a humanity directed by 

* Contemporary Socialism. 



364 THE ENCYCLICAL ON [June, 

God and aiming for God. The evident burden of Socialism 
seems to be not only to separate man from God, but to sepa- 
rate man from man, to widen the breach existing between the 
masses and the classes. Ever asserting the hostility of Capital 
and Labor, the fulness of its zeal consists in advancing the 
welfare of the lower classes and neglecting the upper, although, 
as the Holy Father asserts, they are of no less importance for 
the preservation and perfection of society. 

THE VIRUS OF SOCIALISM. 

The half-truth contained in the Socialistic proposition, All 
men should be equal, and the conclusion deduced from it, that 
the inequalities which exist are manifestly unjust, the creation 
of the classes, is the naore dangerous because it is relatively 
true. Every one will grant that inequalities do exist, and will 
continue to exist among men with regard to their natural 
faculties, natural talents, moral qualities, and their personal 
uses of the liberty they possess. Nor can one reasonably call 
them minifestly unjust. That men are equally rational beings, 
endowed with equal supernatural privileges, created by the 
same Father, redeemed by the same Lord, destined for the same 
end, that humanity is one great family, no one will deny. In 
this sense, then, they are and should be equal, and the anomaly 
of caring for one and neglecting the other, the Holy Father 
declares, is contrary to the law of Christian charity. Christian- 
ity includes all mankind. Christian Democracy must, therefore, 
include all classes. The field of work must not be straitened. 
The good done must be for all, that the benefit may be to all. 
Hence mutual union, cemented by Christian charity, would do 
only that good for one which would be of advantage to the 
other. But no family or company of beings can attain to the 
highest good or secure the greatest advantages except in so 
far as it practises obedience to legitimate authority. Contempt 
for both civil and ecclesiastical authority is one of the dis- 
tinctive features of Socialism. It advocates the overthrow of 
existing civil powers because they are, they say, unjust, class 
governments. The Socialistic doctrine of man's rights prompts 
insubordination to those placed in authority over them. That 
this is contrary to natural and Christian law scarcely needed 
the assertion of the Holy Father to confirm it. Respect for 
and obedience to the different civil powers in their just com- 
mands is a fiat given by Christ Himself, and enjoined upon 
man by apostolic teaching. Obedience to and conformity with 



1901.] CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY ANALYZED. 365, 

the just laws of the government is the duty of all citizens, and 
he who refuses these forfeits the guarantee of his rights. 

HATRED OF THE CHURCH. 

However, it is against ecclesiastical authority that Socialism 
is most virulent. Hatred of the church is its watchword. 
Timely indeed is the warning of the Holy Father against those 
who, with Blatchford, proclaim : " As for the church, we will 
have none of her patronage or interference." Religious and 
profane history furnish us with many dark pages resulting from 
the spirit of obedience. Our first parents, revolting against 
God's authority, bequeathed hard labor and suffering to nran- 
kind ; Israel, forgetting God, despised the authority of Moses, 
and wandered and died in the wilderness ; a rebellious monk 
in the sixteenth century defied the authority of the Church of 
Christ, enthroned individualism, and gave to humanity the in- 
numerable divisions and lamentable disunity existing to-day in 
the religious world ; the South, disobedient to Federal author- 
ity, sacrificed a million lives by her act, to say nothing of 
homes destroyed and fortunes lost. The apostolic command, 
" Obey them that rule over you and be subject to them," is 
still in force and binds man to its fulfilment. Obedience is 
essential to successful reformation. 

ITS TRUE PROGRAMME IS MATERIALISTIC. 

Having shown the true sweep of Christian Democracy, and 
having clearly stated the absolutely different scope of its work 
from that of Socialism, the Holy Father proceeds to point 
out its true purpose and programme. He strikes at the vital 
point of Socialism when he affirms that the needed work of 
the age cannot be done by emphasizing only external things 
and means. Socialism seeks only material goods. Its efforts 
are only for the acquiring and enjoying of those goods 
which are the acme and fulness of human happiness. There is- 
but one life, and happiness, to be obtained, must be obtained 
here or not at all. All the evils common to man are the result 
of economic inequalities, say their advocates. Every treatise 
on the subject urges as the sole benefit, corporal and earthly 
good. " Indeed," says Ely,* " if the Socialistic ideas could be 
carried out panics would be impossible. All could live better." 
The welfare of the lower classes is summed up, according to- 
the Socialist, solely in being better clothed, better fed, betteu 

* French and German Socialism. 



366 THE ENCYCLICAL ON [June, 

employed, less governed. The question to them is purely one 
of economics, and the sole power of adjustment is economic 
force. To make every good dependent on economic forces is 
shutting one's eyes to other forces equally great, and indeed 
greater. He is blind to historical and actual facts who would 
make religion merely a product of economic life. Religion 
is an independent force sufficient, indeed necessary, to modify, 
and even to shape, economic institutions. Naturally, then, 
does the Holy Father affirm that it is mainly a moral and 
religious question. The two-fold nature in man confirms this. 
To procure for him the highest and most perfect development 
you must promote not only his material but also his spiritual 
welfare, must secure for him material and moral perfection in 
the order of those eternal blessings for which he was created. 
Bestow upon him all the blessings which Socialism seeks, in- 
crease his wages, reduce his hours of labor, make the purchas- 
ing value of his efforts greater, and allow him to forget God, 
to become saturated with doctrines which would 'destroy the 
respect and reverence due his Creator, and his added wealth 
and greater privileges will be as naught. Remove the incen- 
tives which Christianity offers, and the energy of production 
will be relaxed. Deprive man of his right to use his savings, 
to acquire property and improve his condition, and all the 
efforts you make to obtain for him the comforts of life will be 
worthless. In a word, Christian Democracy opposes the ma- 
terialism and revolution of Social Democracy with the spiritu- 
ality of Christianity that finds its actual vent in deeds of 
charity towards God and man. It defends the sacredness of 
property, while it protects the rights of the laboring classes. 

RELIGION THE REAL REMEDY. 

Because of its relation to morals and religion the Holy 
Father insists that its organization shall be founded under the 
auspices of religion. Religion is the storehouse of virtues, and 
of no one virtue more than charity. The divinely appointed 
guardian of religion proclaims the obligations of this virtue, 
a law unto mankind given by Christ Himself. Though he 
possess all else, St. Paul declares, without charity he is as 
sounding brass and tinkling cymbals ; indeed, that he is noth- 
ing. Charity is patient, is kind, without envy, dealeth not 
perversely, is not ambitious, seeketh not her own. And yet 
we hear Blatchford, speaking for Socialism, say : " We do not 
want charity; we want justice. Nor will we be bribed by 



1901.] CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY ANALYZED. 367 

charity"; though a little farther on he states that "charity is 
higher than justice." It must be a charity that finds expres- 
sion in deeds ; for though it be mainly exercised for men's 
souls, real charity, says the Holy Father, cannot be unmindful 
of the needs and comforts of life. It is well to remember 
that mere sympathy for the poor is not enough. Montesquieu 
has well said that the religion of Christ, which was instituted 
to lead men to eternal life, has contributed more than any 
other to promote the temporal and social happiness of man- 
kind. The Catholic Church in her mission of love and benevo- 
lence exemplifies this most strongly by her many charitable 
institutions. His Eminence Cardinal Gibbons, in a recent 
magazine article, writes: "She [the Catholic Church] has 
founded asylums for the training of children of both sexes, 
and for the support of the aged poor. She has established 
hospitals for the sick, and homes for the redemption of 
fallen women." These many institutions, increasing continu- 
ally, writes the Holy Father, are a brilliant and characteristic 
ornament of Christianity and civilization, especially considering 
that people are so much inclined to consult their own interests 
and not trouble about those of others. Have and Hold is not 
the supreme social law, but Give and Take. The relation is 
one of reciprocity, each giving according to his ability and 
receiving according to his worthiness. 

THE CHARITY THAT BLESSES. 

Reciprocity, exercised according to the spirit of the Gos- 
pel, fosters neither pride nor shame, but rather binds closer 
the bonds of mutual kindness. Charity neither degrades the 
donor nor the recipient, says the Holy Father ; it is, indeed, 
a fulfilling of a natural as well as Christian law. No man but 
needs the help that some other may give him. Christianity 
can never side with those who hold that such as in the natural 
struggle cannot maintain themselves ought to be allowed to 
perish. Yet indiscriminate charity is to be unconditionally 
condemned. Charity should be administered with prudence. 
It ought never to do for others what they can do, or be made 
to do, for themselves. It is not the aim of charity to rob its 
recipients of responsibility or to promote ease and indolence, 
but rather to infuse in those receiving it a spirit of thrift and 
economy. The benefits arising from these acts, says our Holy 
Father, are two-fold : they will lighten the burden of the rich 
with regard to the masses, and, on the other hand, they will 



368 THE ENCYCLICAL ON [June, 

stimulate the masses to prepare for the future, remove them 
from the many enticing dangers, restrain them from excesses 
of passion. It makes no difference under what name the 
work is done, so long as the rules laid down in the encyclical 
are obeyed in their integrity. But it does make for a great 
deal as to who shall do it. It is not a matter of choice 
whether the classes engage in the work or not. Freedom from 
concern about his fellow-men less fortunate is not given to 
man, either by divine or civil law. 

A COMMUNITY OF INTERESTS. 

Citizenship is not merely a privilege to be used or not as 
the citizen pleases. It is a duty with imperative obligations. 
If he neglect its claims, he is culpable and ought to be viewed 
as a criminal. No citizen lives for himself alone ; he lives for 
the community, reads the encyclical. Thus, upon him who has 
much or more devolves the responsibility to supply the meed 
of support to those having little or less, who are unable to do 
so. He is bound to do it, but with care and judgment. 
Charity should be taken out of the field of mere sentiment. 
True, there is a luxury in giving that may be a stronger im- 
pulse than the benefit derived by the recipient. But whether 
this is commendable or not, is not the purpose of this paper 
to discuss. The needs of our times demand a united effort. 
The supreme interests of society and religion necessitate it. 
Prudence insists on it. The Holy Father sounds the call. The 
stake is high, and calls for the strength and encouragement of 
union. Avoiding those subtile and practically useless questions 
which irritate and divide, under the impulse of one common 
force Catholic action should move. The influence of each 
society, still preserving its own autonomy, would be broadened, 
while the resultant influence would be greatly enhanced. 

The necessity for religious guidance and approval, with their 
co-ordinate qualities of obedience, charity, and unity, involves 
the attention of priests. A movement so closely connected 
with the interests of the Church and Christian people, in the 
judgment of the Holy Father, demands the interest of the 
ministers of religion. 

A MISSION FOR PRIESTS. 

The Catholic Church is on the alert respecting the tenden- 
cies of the age. A Protestant writer calls her " the mother 
that cares for all people." " She alone," he adds, " is a unit 



1901.] CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY ANALYZED. 369 

and compact organism. She is regarded as having more heart 
for the people, is said to give equal advantages to the poor 
and rich. Her priests take special vows to attend the needy. 
And they keep their vows." The priest, then, the alter Chris- 
tus, should bring the misses and classes into sympathetic 
and helpful relations with each other, and with the church. 
Hatred of the church is one of the characteristics of Social 
Democracy. Her services, institutions, methods, spirit, priests, 
and members are the subjects of its most brutal attacks. 

They declare that the Church has lost the simplicity, the 
tenderness, the beauty of early Christianity. Owing to this, the 
Chief Pastor says, the time has come for the priests to go to 
the people and work with and for them. Everywhere prelate, 
priest, and religious, so eminently qualified, should be intent on 
studying the great movement. He should seek to inculcate in 
the minds of the people the right doctrine of justice and charity, 
the inviolability of the marriage bond, the sacredness of pro- 
perty tenure, and that forgetfulness of the rights of God and 
of humanity is due to the prevailing misuse, made by society, 
of the earth and the fulness thereof. This demand on the 
priest arises from a two-fold reason. On the one hand, from 
his sacred office as the legitimate and validly ordained repre- 
sentative of Christ ; a teacher and leader sent to men by apos- 
tolic authority. Again, from his duty as a citizen : every priest, 
be it remembered, is a man before he is a priest ; every 
priest is a citizen before he is a minister. These relationships 
all antedate his sacred office, and his obligations, in so far 
as they do not conflict with his sacred office, are not annulled 
by it. Rather they add to the burden of responsibility. The 
priest, above all, must stand forth, like St. John the Baptist, 
as a preacher of repentance ; but in other ways, like him, his 
work is the work of social reform, even at the cost of liberty 
and life. However, in assuming these responsibilities he must 
act with great caution and prudence. Cultivating ever the as- 
siduity of the saints for the poor, avoiding specialties and in- 
temperate activity, he must forget to be jealous of all reforms 
save the one he prefers. 

ALL REFORM IS FOUR-SQUARE. 

"All reform is four-square. Society cannot be lifted up by 
a one-corner fulcrum." It must be a basic reform. In words 
more apt, the Holy Father declares they must apply themselves 
with undiminished ardor to the perfection of the spirit. The 



370 THE ENCYCLICAL ON CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY. [June. 

priest's field is the whole social world. By example and precept 
he must induce the people to cultivate peace, to avoid rabbles 
and riotings, to do justice willingly, to love domestic life, and 
above all to practise religion, in emulation of the perfect model, 
the Holy Family of Nazareth. The priest must urge the busi- 
ness man to do business in true, high, and incorruptible princi- 
ples ; from the stock-holder he must demand his vote, voice, and 
influence for the inviolable rights of his humblest employee ; he 
must insist that the public officer stand unflinchingly for public 
righteousness, and against all commerce with the devil in 
approving or licensing iniquity for public or private revenue ; 
he must convince judge, lawyer, teacher, and legislator that he 
is under vows to savor with Christian grace every secular func- 
tion he may be called upon to discharge. In a word, the priest 
by his very position is fitted and should reach the remotest 
muscle and nerve of the body politic and the body social. 
This vast body should be a united power for God and the 
Church. The priest, as a skilled pilot, should guide them safely 
through the dangerous channel, by the Charybdis of false 
hatred, by the Scylla of forbidden and heretical organization, 
into the safe and peaceful harbor of Mother Church. 

And now the Holy Father, fearing lest the desire of men 
to be charitable would cause them to neglect obedience, reiter- 
ates the warning already given against insubordination, exhort- 
ing all to a true filial obddience. Entire obedience to the 
authority placed over them is necessary. " Headlong charity," 
though it be well intentioned, which attempts to minimize the 
obligation to obedience is neither useful nor pleasing to God. 
Private desires should be sacrificed to public good. Sacrifice 
of this sort will receive the approval and fructifying influence 
of God. 

With a closing exhortation for a closer bond of union be- 
tween rich and poor in fraternal charity, inciting all, in the 
words of St. Paul, to be one with God and our fellow-men, 
one in joy and sorrow, one in distress and gladness, one in 
wealth and poverty, Leo XIII. again inspires the hearts of 
men with new courage. Religion, the hope of the world, is 
the necessary and efficacious factor in true social reform. 




A STREET SCENE IN ROME. 



SOME QUAINT ROMAN CUSTOMS. 

BY GRACE V. CHRISTMAS. 

'NLY a little sprig of faded lavender, but its faint 
perfume is sufficiently potent to conjure up a 
vivid memory of a bygone scene. 

As I write, the sky above the " Eternal 
City " is veiled in gray, and the rain is falling 
nth that persistency for which it is noted in this southern 
land, but my thoughts have wandered backwards to a " night 
in June," and are losing themselves amidst the mazes of a 
" Midsummer Dream." 




372 SOME QUAINT ROMAN CUSTOMS. [June, 

It is the eve of St. John the Baptist, and the moon, which 
has gazed unruffled on every form and phase of human folly, 
casts her silver radiance on a weirdly picturesque scene. The 
broad, grassy space which stretches between the basilicas of 
Santa Croce and the Lateran is lined with gaily decorated 
booths and stalls, and thronged with a crowd of people. 
Torches are flaring in every direction, colored lanterns gham 
here and there amongst the trees, and the mingled din of 
drums, pipes, and trumpets rise pandemonium-like upon the 
midnight air. Fire and noise were held to be indispensable 
adjuncts to the ancient pagan ceremonies, and it is evident 
that they are still considered important items in the festivities 
of to-day. 

The Fair of St. John, which begins with the first Vespers 
of the feast and ends with the dawn of Midsummer Day, is a 
custom of very ancient origin, dating from the time when the 
Romans celebrated the "festa" of the Ambarvalia, and dedi- 
cated it to the goddess Ceres. On these occasions, by way of 
protecting themselves from the wiles of evil spirits, they 
danced and shouted round blazing bonfires of hay and straw, 
and their descendants of to-day, although prompted by differ- 
ent motives, are by no means behindhand in the matter of 
noise. 

The refreshment stalls are extensively patronized, and roast 
pork and " ciambelli " are in brisk demand. Various miscel- 
laneous articles, neither useful nor ornamental, are being 
vociferously offered for sale, at the extreme pitch of Italian 
lungs, and masses of lavender and clusters of fast-fading car- 
nations, "St. John's pinks," lie heaped together in fragrant 
profusion. 

It is on this eventful eve that the dark-eyed Roman girls 
select a " compari," or valentine, for the year, and the univer- 
sal law of chaperonage is perhaps just a little relaxed in these 
msrry hours of "revelry by night." 

When dawn's rosy finger opens the gates of the East every 
one begins to make preparations for departure ; baskets are 
packed, sleeping children are aroused from their slumbers, and 
the majority of the merrymakers enter the basilica for the 
first Mass. The lofty walls of the Lateran are draped in silken 
hangings of crimson, white, and gold, and from four in the 
morning till the noonday sun is high in the blue heavens the 
Holy Sacrifice is offered up at every altar. This is essentially a 
Roman jesta; English and American visitors and residents 






SOME QUAINT ROMAN CUSTOMS. 



373 



have, as a rule, betaken themselves to cooler climes, and with 
the exception of the seminarists of various nationalities, who 
are to be seen on every side and in every variety of colored cas- 
sock, it is a purely Italian crowd which fills the spacious building. 

By five o'clock the church 
is once more thronged for 
the second Vespers, chanted 
by Rome's sweetest singers, 
and the Blessing of the 
Cloves, a ceremony which 
dates from mediaeval ages, 
takes place in the sacristy 
cloves, carnations, and laven- 
der, they are all irrevocably 
associated with the feast of 
St. John the Baptist, and 
their perfume brings a host 



of recollections in its train. 




IT is A DAY FOR SETTLING FAMILY DISPUTES. 
VOL. LXXIII. 25 



374 SOME QUAINT ROMAN CUSTOMS. [June, 

The 24th of June is a great day for settling all family dis- 
putes and making peace generally, and presents are usually ex- 
changed between friends and relations. This custom, by the 
way, is a remnant of the ancient festival of " Concordia." 
Relations-in-law, uncles, cousins, aunts, all meet to dine to- 
gether, and regale themselves, amongst other things, on dainty 
dishes of snails, the eating of which is popularly supposed to 
insure peace and good fortune. Fresh green figs also form an 
important feature at these banquets, and are partaken of at the 
beginning of dinner with the accompaniment of raw ham. 

Two days later, on the 26th of June, the quaint old Church 
of Saints John and Paul, on the historic Ccelian Hill, is lavish- 
ly adorned with masses of fragrant blossoms for the " festa " 
of the two heroic martyrs who laid down their lives for the 
faith in the reign of Julian the Apostate. 

There is an air of modernity about St. John Lateran which 
is lacking in this gray old building, inlaid with colored tiles and 
gleaming marbles and haunted by a hundred memories of the 
past. Here, when the world was many centuries younger, lived 
" Giovanni " and " Paolo," officers in the household of the 
Christian Princess Constantia, daughter of the Emperor Con- 
stantine, and here also, in their own house, were they be- 
headed privately so that the example of their well-known 
fortitude might not incite others to rebellion. Hence the in- 
scription on the spot hallowed by their execution : " Locus 
martyrii SS. Joannis et Pauli in sedibus propriis." The church, 
with its arcaded apse and lofty campanile, was built by 
Panunachus, the friend of St. Jerome, on the site of the 
martyred brothers' house. The portico, with its ancient granite 
columns, was erected in 1158 by the English Pope Nicholas 
Breakspear, and the interior, which is in the basilica form, can 
boast of a magnificent opus-alexandrinum pavement. The 
bodies of St. John and St. Paul rest in a porphyry urn under- 
neath the high altar, and on the anniversary of their death the 
iron railing round their place of execution is wreathed and 
laden with masses of roses. Yellow and crimson, faintly pink 
and creamy white, they form a glowing bank of color on the 
steps of the sanctuary, they deck each altar, and their perfume 
fills the air. On this day the old Roman chambers under- 
neath the church are illuminated and thrown open to the public. 
Here ttye excavations of 1887 have brought to light fifteen 
rooms with half-effaced frescoes on their ancient walls ; peacocks, 
wild beasts, sea horses, etc., as well as several scenes from the 



1901. 



SOME QUAINT ROMAN CUSTOMS. 



375 




IN THE CITY TO CELEBRATE A FESTA. 

Passion. These are the earliest instance of Christian frescoes 
found outside the catacombs. 

O.i the 29th of June, when "the month of roses" is almost 
at an end, the mighty basilica which rises over the tomb of 
the Fisherman of Galilee is crowded with worshippers and 
echoes to the strains of melodious music. 

It is the feast of the Apastles St. Peter and St. Paul, and 
from far and near, from Albano and from Tivoli, from the 
shady groves of Frascati and the steep, cobble-paved streets 
of Rocca di Papa, men, women, and children have assembled 
in the Eternal City to celebrate this joyful day. The pic- 
turesqueness and general impressiveness of the scene baffles 
description. Roman princesses, and "contadini" from the 
Canpigna, the latter in their gaily-colored costumes, kneel side 



3/6 



THE EARTH AND MAN. 



[June, 



by side before the eighty-six lamps which gleam like jewels 
round the " confession of St. Peter." The scarlet cassocks of the 
German College students, the future sons of St. Ignatius, form 
a glowing contrast to the sombre purple of the ermine-caped 
<( monsignori," the black cowl of the Benedictine, and the 
sober brown of the Franciscan's habit. A red-robed cardinal 
with a keen, intellectual face and stately presence passes in 
procession through the surging crowd, and the thrilling, soul- 
haunting refrain of " Felix Roma " rises and falls in waves of 
harmony upon the incense-laden air. 




THE EARTH AND MAN. 

BY ALBERT REYNAUD. 

OLL thou great globe, hung high in ether space, 
Prismatic with all colors of the sun ; 
Speed on thy hast'ning, seeming endless race, 
Circling, revolving ever never done. 
To me, a pigmy clinging to thy sphere, 
Same lights and shadows also come and go ; 
Like thee a-coursing, spinning to and fro, 
The same horizons daily reappear. 
Greater thy cycle and thy range more great : 
But limit marks the bounds of both our state. 
Ah ! there beyond thy most exceeding view, 
Beyond th' ultimate stretch thou travellest to, 
Farther than all thy wide peripheries, 
My weak glance flashes, and the atom sees 
A higher world, a purpose, and a goal ; 
Within me sound the travails of a soul 
And at a bound, O Giant, greater I 
Lisping the words: God and Eternity. 



June 




1901.] HARNACK" s " WHAT is CHRISTIANITY?" 377 



HARNACK'S "WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY?" 

(Das Wesen des Christenthitms.) * 
BY REV. THOMAS L. HEALY, C.S.P. 

'HE extraordinarily high reputation which the 
author of this work enjoys in the university 
and teaching worlds warrants our devoting 
some space to a brief sketch of his life, work, 
and methods. 

Harnack was^born May 7, 1851, in Dorpat, Baltic Provinces. 
In 1869 he began his theological studies in the university of 
his native town, where his father, Theodosius Harnack, was pro- 
fessor of practical theology. He left Dorpat in 1872, to go to 
Leipzig, where, after obtaining the degrees of licentiate in 
theology, and doctor in philosophy, he began a course of 
lectures on subjects connected with Church History. He was 
appointed assistant professor here in 1876. This position he 
kept for three years, and since then has held professorships at 
Giessen (1879-1886), Marbourg (1886-1889), and finally Berlin 
(1889), where at present he fills the chair of church history, 
the most popular professor in the most numerously attended 
university in the world. Harnack is also Rector of the Berlin 
University. Being only fifty years of age, he is still a com- 
paratively young man. In his twenty-nine years of professor- 
ship he has done monumental and magisterial work. A great 
portion of his works he has published in conjunction with 
other professors or with students. Among these works may 
be mentioned : Texts and Studies on Early Christian Literature, 
which he began while at Giessen and which remains to-day one 
of the most valuable collections of documents we possess on 
early Christian literature. Harnack is also the editor and chief 
contributor to the famous edition of the Greek Fathers now 
in course of preparation under the auspices of the Berlin Ro) a!- 
Academy. Finally, there is the classical work on the Histoiy 

* Das Wesen des Christent hums. Sechzehn Vorlesungen vor Studierenden aller Faculta- 
ten im Wintersemester, 1899-1900, an der Univershat Berlin gehalten, von Adolf Harnack. 

Dritte Auflage. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung, 1900. What is Christianity ? 

Sixteen Lectures delivered in the University of Berlin, during the Winter Term of 1899-1900, 
by Adolf Harnack- Translated by Thomas Bailey Saunders. London : Williams & Nor- 
gate ; New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1901. 



378 HARNACK' s " WHAT is CHRISTIANITY?" [June, 

of Dogma, in three volumes, which up to the present has held 
the first place among all modern historico-theological productions. 

Apart from his personal genius, Harnack's principal source 
of success is his magnetic power over his students. Twice a 
week he meets his students outside of regular class work : in 
the seminar at the university, and at his home, where he weekly 
extends to them the hospitality of his cheerful fireside or 
pleasant gardens. There his students gather about him, under 
most favorable and inviting circumstances, to learn something 
of his methods, to receive suggestions and problems for investi- 
gation, to obtain direction and help for present work, and to 
imbibe some of his wonderful spirit for genuine, hard-earned, 
and disinterested learning. It is thus that Harnack has deserved 
to enjoy and command the admiration and devotion of the 
largest and most enthusiastic coterie of disciples and pupils 
that has followed after any teacher of modern times. 

Harnack belongs to that school or class of thinkers and 
writers known to-day as Ritschlians, although Harnack has long 
since discarded many of Ritschl's peculiarities. Briefly, Kitsch- 
lianism with Harnack stands for (r) Thorough freedom in the 
study of the New Testament and Church History ; (2) Distrust 
of speculative theology ; (3) A profound interest in practical 
Christianity as a religious life and not as a system of knowledge. 
A few words on the development of this tendency in the 
study of dogma will bring us to the consideration of the exact 
subject of this paper. 

HARNACK'S METHOD. 

Without doubt Harnack is the greatest living exponent of 
of the so-called "historical" treatment of dogma. Thus, in 
the book bsfore us, when he asks the question, " What is 
Christianity ? " he adds : " It is solely in its historical sense 
that we shall try to answer this question ; that is to say, we 
shall employ the methods of historical science and the experi- 
ence of life gained by studying the actual course of history."* 
His theme, therefore, in the present work, is purely historical, 
and its apology rests on the contention that " a right and full 
estimate of the Christian religion is obtained only by a com- 
prehensive induction that shall cover all the facts of history."f 
The root-principle of this method, when applied to the specific 
study of dogma, is that dogmatic definitions, humanly speaking, 
are historical facts caused or rather occasioned by intellectual 

* What is Christianity? page 6. . tlbid., page n. 



HARNACK' s " WHAT is CHRISTIANITY?" 379 

activities, or, in other words, the product of a certain species 
of current and predominant thought, Greek or Latin as the 
case may be. 

The reasons which Harnack adduces for rejecting other 
methods we do not now examine, and as for the recommenda- 
tions of the historical method, we simply call attention to the 
pertinent facts that it is quite in accord with modern thought, 
and that it is especially suited to give a deeper and truer 
insight into the formation and actual significance of theology. 

True, the historical school has forced some Catholic theolo- 
gians to abandon more than one traditional position ; but surely 
the discovery of truth will be universally recognized as a bless- 
ing. We might delay long enough to insist that in view of the 
work already done by this school some sort of theory of doc- 
trinal developnant becomes absolutely indispensable a condi- 
tion which inclines many to favor the notion that Newman is 
the first in a new series of Church Doctors, and that his 
Essay on Development will yet rank beside the Contra Gentiles 
of Saint Thomas.* No doubt in pursuing the historical method 
there are the obvious dangers f of losing sight of the divine ele- 
ment in the formation and protection of Christian dogma, of 
giving science precedence over faith, and of regarding human 
reason and human causes as the natural and only efficient 
forces at work in the church's development. But when this 
danger is guarded against by sufficient precautions, there is no 
reason why the historical method may not be employed and 
with good results, in place of, or at least alongside of, the 
traditional and inadequate system of theological studies some- 
times employed in our Catholic seminaries^ 

That Harnack himself has pursued this method with results 
that are universally satisfactory we do not pretend, nor would 
we foster the delusion of expecting too much from him. When 
his Chronologie appeared a great furore greeted its publication 
bscause it was reputed to be " traditionalistic," a "reaction 

* See The Weekly Register, (London) 15 Feb., 1901, p. 196; "Cardinal Newman," by 
Wilfrid Ward. The London Tablet, 27 April, 1901 ; " Development and its Latest Critic," 
by the Very Rev. H. I. D. Ryder, p. 644. The Month (London), Aug. and Sept., 1900 ; " The 
Mind of the Church," by Rev. G. Tyrrell, S.J. The above-mentioned writers indicate that 
Newman's theory is one which it would be very imprudent to condemn as unorthodox, pace 
Mr. J. Herbert Williams in the Dublin Review, April, 1901. 

t Zeitschriftfur katholische Theologie. Bd. xxv., H. 2, S. 269. 

\ Revue du. Clerge Franfdis, 15 Avril, 1901, M. 1'Abba Vacant : L'enseignement de la 
Theologie dans nos Seminaires, par J. Bricout. Ibid., i et 15 Fevrier, 1901, S. G. Mgr 

Mignot, Archev. d'Albi : Sur 1'histoire. London Tablet, April 6, 1901, art. byFr. Cuthbert, 

O.S.F.C. : Non-Catholic Witnesses to the Faith. 



380 HARNACK' s " WHAT is CHRISTIANITY?" [June,. 

against the school of Strauss, et al." But this enthusiasm was 
ill-timed, for closer study revealed the fact that although Har- 
nack did save much to us it was not without some cost ; thus, 
he may have saved a date, but at the expense of authenticity, 
or for a pseudonym he gave us an anonym. Nevertheless, it 
must be conceded that we have much to learn from him, and 
have reaped no small profit from his labors. It is a remarka- 
ble fact that in his History of Dogma* there is the ablest and 
best summing up of facts that can be found anywhere to prove 
the existence of Papal Supremacy previous to the fourth cen- 
tury. A valuable testimony f is cited there which we venture 
to say had never before been used even in Catholic text-books. 
Of course Harnack does not admit the right of Papal Suprem- 
acy ; history may show the fact, but the fact sprang, he be- 
lieves, not from a right but from a usurpation. Our position 
is clear: let us accompany him as far as he gives us facts; 
the rights we can easily enough prove, and not unfrequently 
by the same method. 

To come now to our immediate task, we first submit a brief 
synopsis of his recent work, with the warning that the outline 
gives only the faintest conception of the merit and importance 
of the boDk, which must be read in its entirety in order to be 
properly appreciated. 

SYNOPSIS. 

The aim of the book is to return a critico-historical answer 
to the question, "What is Christianity?" to lay bare in the 
light of historical study and research the real essence of 
Christ's teaching. The exposition naturally falls into two main 
divisions: i, The Gospel in the Gospel: 2, The Gospel ia 
History. 

I. THE GOSPEL IN THE GOSPEL. 

Here Harnack studies what he calls the Message of Jesus, 
or His Gospel, and endeavors to disclose what he conceives to 
be its main features. What is fundamental and essential may 
be grouped under our Lord's utterances on (i) The Kingdom 
of God and its coming ; (2) God the Father and the infinite 
value of the human soul ; and (3) " The Higher Righteousness " 
and the law of love. 

The kingdom of God is something purely supernatural, a 

* Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte ; Excurs zum 2 und 3 Kapitel : Katholisch und Romisch, 
Bd. i., S. 400. 

t The Epistle of Eusebius of Dorylasum to Pope Leo I., quoted in a footnote at end of 
chapter just referred to. 



HARNACK' s " WHAT is CHRISTIANITY?" 381 

gift from above ; it is the interior, spiritual union of the soul 
of man with the living God "the kingdom of God is within 
you," and its coming is principally through the forgiveness of 
sin. The two-fold idea of the fatherhood of God and infinite 
value of the human soul expresses Christ's message in its clear- 
est and best light indeed, to it the whole Gospel ultimately 
may be reduced. Finally, in the love of God and observance 
of His commandments, and in the love of our neighbor, our 
Lord has completely and characteristically summed up all true 
practical religion, and therefore true practical Christianity. 
After epitomizing the Gospel-content in this fashion, Harnack 
then discusses the bearing of the Gospel on particular prob- 
lems. Six chapters are taken up, as follows : (i) The Gospel 
and the world, or the question of Asceticism; (2) The Gospel 
and the poor, or the Social question ; (3) The Gospel and law, 
or the question of Public Order; (4; The Gospel and work, or 
the question of Civilization; (5) The Gospel and the Son of 
God, or the Christological question ; and (6) The Gospel and 
doctrine, or the question of Creed. The first of these chapters 
we may say, en passant, contains a totally incorrect statement 
of Catholic doctrine, and displays a deceptive and autocratic 
interpretation of Scripture texts and arguments. The secord, 
third, and fourth chapters are admirable treatises on their re- 
spective subjects, giving concise and aptly worded responses 
to the questions implied. In the fifth chapter Harnack inter- 
prets the two Gospel names of our Lord : " The Son of Man," 
or Messias, and " The Son of God." His interpretation of the 
latter, it is important to notice. Christ is the Son of God, he 
admits, but his sonship is only a sonship through knowledge 
of the Father, a sonship to which all Christians are called, 
though not in the supereminent degree in which Christ enjoys 
it. The sixth chapter presents a thesis which we shall discuss- 
later : viz., the religion of the Gospel is an experience, and 
not a religion of doctrine. 

II. THE GOSPEL IN HISTORY. 

In the second main division Harnack treats of the Gospel 
in History, in five chapters, as follows: The Christian Religion 
(i) in the Apostolic Age ; (2) in its Development into Catholi- 
cism ; (3) in Greek Catholicism ; (4) in Roman Catholicism ; and 
(5) in Protestantism. The characteristics of Christianity in the 
Apostolic Age were, first, the recognition of Jesus as the risen 
Lord ; second, the belief in religion as an actual experience and 



HARNACK'S " WHAT is CHRISTIANITY ?" [June, 

involving the consciousness of a living union with God ; and 
third, the leading of a holy life in purity and brotherly fel- 
lowship, and the expectation of Christ's return in the near 
future. By the year 200 A. D. this primitive Christian body 
had given way to a great ecclesiastical and political com- 
munity ; in other words, to " Catholicism." This was brought 
about by the disappearance of the original enthusiasm and 
freedom, by the introduction of the spirit and civilization of 
the Graeco-Roman world, and by the struggle with Gnosticism. 
The prominent features of Greek Catholicism are Traditional- 
ism, intellectualism (which means " orthodoxy " and intolerance), 
ritualism, and lastly, the counteracting influence of monasti- 
cism. Roman Catholicism which means " Catholicism" the 
Latin Spirit and Roman World-Empire, and Augustinianism is 
a total " perversion of the .Gospel idea," at least as far as it 
claims a foundation for an outward and visible church of 
divine dignity; but, thanks to its Augustinianism, "it still 
possesses in its orders of monkhood and in its religious societies 
a deep element of life in its midst." In Protestantism, which 
was a Reformation, and at the same time a Revolution, reli- 
gion was again reduced to its essential factors, to the word of 
God and to faith. By emphasizing "inwardness and spiritual, 
ity, the fundamental thought of the God of grace, his worship 
in spirit and truth, and the idea of the church as a community 
of faith," the Gospel was in reality re-won.* Consequently 
Protestantism, when freed from intruding and discordant 
Catholicizing tendencies, is the evangelical Christianity. 

COMMENT. 

It would require a work many times the size of the original 
to treat properly and completely all the points that it brings 
up for discussion. Ever since the book appeared in German, 
foreign magazines and papersf in England, France, and Ger- 
many have bsen reviewing it and criticising it on particular 
points. For our own present purpose, instead of following 
this plan we prefer to take up and discuss two ideas which the 
reader notices running through the entire book rather than 
confined to any special chapter, which are in the spirit more 

* Nevertheless Protestantism, he admits, destroyed the unity of Western civilization ; for 
the ecclesiastical state which it displaced it gave birth to a state church, its doctrine of justifi- 
cation by faith alone was followed by a general laxity of morals, and finally, it has after all 
followed pretty closely in the steps of the Catholic Church by its " systems of doctrine." 

t Worthy of msntion among these are : Stimmen aus Maria-Laach (Jan. i et seq.), Revue 
du ClergZ Franftzis (15 Avril, 1901), Revue Binidictine (Oct., 1900), Weekly Register (Lon- 
don), March 29, 1901. 



HARNACK' s " WHAT is CHRISTIANITY?" 383 

than in the text, which may be read between the lines, and 
therefore are more necessary to be considered because less open 
and explicit. These ideas are, first : the denial that Christian- 
ity is a religion of doctrine; and secondly, the denial that it 
is an external religion. 

Before proceeding further, we must recognize and praise the 
strong and warm religious sentiment which Harnack displays 
almost constantly. If he is sometimes irreverent when speak, 
ing of Catholic worship and ceremonies, it is because he is 
convinced that they are corruptions of pure and primitive 
Christianity. As far as his faith goes, he is profoundly rever- 
ent. The work too, as a whole, bears the stamp of the author's 
genius, inasmuch as he has succeeded in condensing into less than 
two hundred pages in the German text a complete, compact, and 
concise summary which faithfully represents the thought and 
labor and study of nearly thirty years on the subjects treated. 
The greater part of the book, however, is far from being new 
matter ; one will find all that he says on Asceticism in his bro- 
chure on " Monasticism," the chapters on Christology and the 
whole of the second half of the book are reproductions from 
his History of Dogma, while his analysis of Christ's teaching will 
be found to a great extent in his course of lectures on the 
"Oar Father." Nevertheless the book is an original contribu- 
tion, on account of having utilized all these various results of 
study in answering, or at least throwing great light on the 
central question, What is Christianity ? 

I. CHRISTIANITY NOT A RELIGION OF DOCTRINE. 

Harnack assumes the absolute alienation of theology, specu- 
lative theology, that is, from practical Christian morality 
rather a common position nowadays. 

From among leaders of theological thought in this century 
we select two with whose words we may compare Harnack's : 
the first for the sake of likeness, the second for the sake of 
contrast. Some years ago Channing wrote : " Love of Jesus 
Christ depends very little on our conception of his rank in the 
scale of being. On no other topic have Christians contended 
so earnestly, and yet it is of secondary importance. To know 
Jesus Christ is not to know the precise place he occupies in 
the universe; it is something more; it is to look into his mind, 
it is to approach his soul, to comprehend his spirit, . . . 
etc."* The key to the situation in Channing's case is that in- 

* Quoted by Liddon : The Divinity of our Lord, i4th ed., page 38. 



384 HARNACK'S " WHAT is CHRISTIANITY?" [June, 

difference to the exact expression of our Lord's Divinity arises 
from a pre-established conviction of its falsehood. And what 
the Divinity of Christ was to the Unitarian Channing, that the 
whole scheme of Catholic dogma is to the Ritschlian Harnack. 
We shall not insist on this argument ; but conceding a point, 
and attributing Harnack's objection rather to a deep and keen 
sense of the liberty in Christ Jesus which St. Paul speaks of, 
we shall then compare his position with that of Cardinal New- 
man. In 1833, Newman wrote that it was his belief that " free- 
dom from symbols and articles is abstractedly the highest state 
of Christian communion, and the peculiar privilege of the 
primitive church."* Assuming that Newman's principle is like- 
wise the moving spirit of Harnack's argument, we may regard 
his book as a plea for the " freedom wherewith Christ has 
made us free " (Gal iv. 31), and his statement of the case to be 
this: freedom was characteristic of primitive Christianity, it 
has been lost to later ages through a dogmatizing tendency, it 
will continue lost so long as this tendency remains, but it may 
be regained by those who rid themselves of this yoke, which 
makes their state a state of serfdom. The following passage 
expresses most forcibly Harnack's appreciation of " enslaved 
and fettered" Christianity: "The living faith seems to be 
transformed into a creed to be believed, devotion to Christ in- 
to Christology, the ardent hope for a future life into a doc- 
trine of immortality and deification, the ministers of the Spirit 
into clerics, the brothers into laymen in a state of tutelage, 
miracles and miraculous cures are priestly devices, . . . 
the 'spirit' becomes law and compulsion."! The strain is pes- 
simistic. Harnack has brought himself to look on all dogmat- 
izing as totally perverse; he firmly believes that the specula- 
tive theology of the Catholic Church is the work of an 
intolerable, secularizing element, her discipline a tyrannizing 
temporal code, and her Supreme head, the Pope, purely and 
simply " Caesar redivivus." Little wonder is there, then, that 
he regards " creeds " as abominations, and goes to extreme 
lengths in condemning the theology of the Catholic Church as 
a yoke weighing down her members and preventing them from 
enjoying the freedom of the Gospel. 

Cardinal Newman's view-point is ever so different. He real- 
ized, indeed, that "technicality and formalism are in their 
degree inevitable results of public confessions of faith," but at 

* The Arians of the Fourth Century, chap. i. page 36. New edition. London, 1891. 
f What is Christianity? page 193. 



1901.] HARNACK' s ' WHAT is CHRISTIANITY ? " 385 

the same time he saw that what was after all a hazardous 
ideal must yield to urgent and imperative necessity. Unwill- 
ingly this conviction was forced on the leaders of the Early 
Church; " they were loth to confess that the church had grown 
too old to enjoy the free, unsuspicious teaching with which 
her childhood was blest."* Can Harnack guarantee the inno- 
cence and immunities of this childhood to an age which has 
grown already too wise with the wisdom of the world ? Further- 
more, under present conditions this theory of "liberty" is 
philosophically and psychologically unsound. There is art 
ordinary restlessness of the human intellect, an irrepressible 
demand for fixity of knovledge, a mental inquisitiveness, and 
a natural tendency to exict expression, which demand formal 
statement of truths in religion, as well as in any other sphere, 
even though this demand be the manifestation of a weakness. 
Moreover unity of belief requires creed-formulae. A Pantheist 
will admit that there is a God, and a Unitarian can say that 
Christ is God, provided they are allowed to say so without 
explanation ; but are they really one in faith with the Catholic 
who believes in the Divinity of Christ ? Harnack himself 
believes that Christ is the Son of God, yet he denies his 
divinity. The paradox disappears when he explains his terms. 
It is a matter of history that it was such differences as 
these, only on a greater scale and accentuated a thousand 
times more strongly by reason of impending dangers, that 
wrung dogmatic definitions from the church. The church has 
always realized the fact and the value of the liberty of the 
Gospel, but she has always known as well that liberty never 
means license ; hence she has drawn the line by the formula- 
tion of creeds. They are the price she pays for unity. Never- 
theless they have not proved to be hindrances to the full en- 
joyment of the Gospel freedom. Nor has the devotion to 
speculative theology, however metaphysical and abstract, which 
marks the development of every dogma ever stunted religious 
growth. Karnack thinks it remarkable that such men as 
Clement, Tertullian, and Origen, types of the "doctrine, or creed 
Christians" of their times, should still find peace and joy in 
the Gospel ! There is no reason whatever for surprise. In 
every age of the church those who have been chiefly instru- 
mental in framing and systematizing Catholic doctrine and 
theology, have been the church's brightest lights, morally and 
devotionally as well as intellectually. Witness Athanasius, Leo, 

* The Arians of the Fourth Century, chap i. page 37. 



386 HARNACK'S ' WHAT is CHRISTIANITY f" [June, 

Augustine, Anselm, Bonaventure, Thomas of Aquin, and a 
host of others. Nor is the story different for the body of the 
faithful, who would never know the burdensomeness of dogma 
but for the testimony of unbelievers who stand by and picture 
for them ths horrors of religious and doctrinal serfdom! 

All this time we are conscious of a two-fold evil in connec- 
tion with that use, or rather abuse of dogma, which Harnack's 
words call to mind and warn us against. That at times an un- 
desirable element has manifested itself in the church distorting 
the genuine Catholic sense of dogma, and even endeavoring to 
inflict an unauthorized dogmatism on the faithful, we do not 
deny. This element would destroy every vestige of real Chris- 
tian independence by an absolutistic intellectual monarchism, 
it would devitalize the soul of true religious life, it would per- 
vert teaching power into a mill for grinding out formulae, and 
thus realize that condition which Harnack complains of, which 
makes religion first and foremost a system of doctrine and 
creeds. Despite Harnack's misgivings, it is certain that such 
a tendency never has and never will dominate the sentiment 
of the universal church, for these dogmatizers after all have 
been a minority, and will never be more, and their spirit is one 
for which honest and healthy Catholicism is not responsible, 
and much less does it tolerate it. 

And if there are Catholics who seek in the multiplication 
of creeds the satisfaction of an abnormal craving, this comes 
not from sound Catholic instinct but from a mistaken notion 
of the true spirit of the church's authority. Resting in the 
knowledge of the church's infallibility, they thrive and grow 
fat on it, substituting the " vim inertias " for the manly exer- 
cise of individuality and personal activity. In a word, they are 
parasites living at the expense of the church's organism, with- 
out any real growth of their own. But the very fact that 
such Catholics deserve the epithet of parasites is proof that 
they do not represent the normal condition of the Catholic 
body. No ; dogmatism, in the bad sense of the word, and 
parasitism are neither approved nor sane forms of Catholicity, 
however difficult it may be to realize the golden mean between 
the exercise of the church's certain and undisputed authority, 
and the enjoyment of the no less certain and undisputed liberty 
of the individual. 

EXTERNALI^M. 

The counterpart of dogmatism is externalism ; at least this 
is Harnack's appreciation of the development of Christianity 



1901.] HARNACK'S " WHAT is CHRISTIANITY?" 387 

into the two forms of Catholicism, Roman and Greek. Briefly, 
his position is this : As dogma has superseded living faith, so 
external forms and ceremonies have been identified with true 
worship. The elaboration of forms of common life and com- 
mon public worship was inevitable, once Christianity began to 
spread. In this very fact, however, there lay hid a secret and 
deplorable danger, viz., that "the value of that to which the 
forms ministered, would be insensibly transferred to the forms 
themselves";* or, as he elsewhere states the same difficulty, 
they come to ,be " regarded as though they contained within 
them the very substance of religion, nay, as though they were 
themselves that substance. "f When he comes to speak of the 
character of the external religion of Greek Catholicism he is 
extreme, and we quote him at some length, because what he 
says of Greek Catholicism on this point differs only in degree 
from what he says of Roman Catholicism. He writes: "In- 
tercourse with God is achieved through the cult of a mystery, 
and by means of a hundred efficacious formulas great and 
small, signs, pictures, and consecrated acts, which if punctili- 
ously observed communicate divine grace and prepare the soul 
for eternal life. For ninety-nine per cent, of these Christians 
religion exists only as a ceremonious ritual in which it is ex- 
ternalized. There is no sadder spectacle than this transforma- 
tion of the Christian worship of God in spirit and truth into 
a worship of God in signs, formulas, and idols ? It was to de- 
stroy this sort of religion that Jesus Christ suffered himself to 
be nailed to the cross, and now we find it re-established under 
his name and authority.":}: It would seem on reading this pas- 
sage that his utter contempt for the " traditional, ultra-con- 
servative, and lifeless Orient " had allowed him to take up 
with the pessimistic fanaticism of a Tolstoi. Yet he regards 
the condition of worship as little better in the West, and 
thinks that Protestants are to be congratulated that they pos- 
sess a religion " without priests, without sacrifices, without 
fragments "of grace, without ceremonies a spiritual religion ! 
The Reformation is to be praised for having been the means 
of abolishing "all traditional worship, with its pomp, its holy 
and semi-holy articles, its gestures and processions, and finally 
all sacramentalism," and for " declaring that in God's worship, 
whether private or public, only the Word of God and prayer 
have any place." 

* What is Christianity ? page 181. f What is Christianity ? page 198. 

\ Ibid., page 238. Ibid., page 268. 



388 HARNACK'S " WHAT is CHRISTIANITY?" [June, 

TRUE EXTERNAL RELIGION. 

And so he involves principle and fact in his condemnation 
of the " externalism " which has enshrouded the Christianity 
of the GDspel as it is found to-day in Catholicism. The book 
abounds in insinuating and condemnatory remarks on " eccle- 
siasticism," " ritualism," and on " statutory " and " particular- 
istic " religion. We have a few words to offer both as to 
principle and facts. The Catholic religion is an external reli- 
gion; it must be so if it is to be a true religion. The religious 
instinct in man can no more remain without interpretation by 
external expression, than can the immaterial faculties of his 
soul ; unless indeed we suppose every individual to be a self- 
sufficient, independent unit in the order of being. Such an 
isolation is nothing short of fatal to the perfection of man's 
nature ; even more fatal in the supernatural order is the notion 
of a purely internal religion. As a recent writer* has cleverly 
and forcibly developed the idea : " Purely internal religion is 
contrary to the meaning of the Incarnation, to the purport 
and method of Christ's ministry on earth, and to his intention 
of perpetuating that ministry." Just as surely, then, as man 
is composed of body as well as soul, so his religion, if natural 
and practicable, must be exterior as well as interior, visible as 
well as invisible. When, therefore, the Catholic religion is ex- 
ternal as well as internal, it is so because such a condition is 
necessary and natural. This is its best vindication. A purely 
philosophical or spiritual religion is unnatural and certain of 
failure. 

The Catholic religion, as far as it is external, manifests this 
character by holding out help to her members. These helps, 
summarily, are of two kinds, helps of the intellect and helps 
of the will. The former she supplies through her infallible 
teaching, the latter through her sacramental system. We have 
spDken already of the first kind of help, it remains to say 
something of the second. 

The fundamsntal idea of all external religion is that what 
is external is for the sake of the internal. The purpose and 
proper effect of the sacraments, therefore, is not only to con- 
fer grace but to stimulate us to greater and greater activity 
in the spiritual life an idea well brought out by Father 
Tyrrell. Far from hiding the spirit of Christ and his Gospel, 
as Harnack would suppose, the sacraments should open up a 

*Rev. G. Tyrrell, SJ. : External Religion, its Use and Abuse. 



1901.] HARNACK'S " WHAT is CHRISTIANITY?" 389 

broader view of this very Gospel, should give us a keener in- 
sight into things spiritual, and should generate a more pro- 
found desire for perfect imitation of Christ. This, and only 
this, is the right view of the external religion of the Catholic 
Church as far as the sacraments represent its external charac- 
ter. Substantially the same ideas hold good for those other 
means intended to serve the same end as the sacraments, at 
least ultimately if not immediately and directly. It has been 
charged sometimes, particularly in recent years, that abuses 
have sprung up through the ill-regulated and indiscreet use of 
multitudinous devotions, societies, medals, sacred objects and 
the like, which actually contravene the end for which they 
were instituted. 

Yet these abuses are utterly distasteful to all who have the 
welfare of true Catholic devotion at heart. In fact, the ten- 
dency in question has been censured by the distinguished author 
quoted above, who sharply rebukes " the ready dupes of any 
one who pretends to have found out some trouble-saving method 
of salvation " ; and blames those who " clutch eagerly at a miracu- 
lous medal, a girdle, an infallible prayer, a scapular, a novena, 
a pledge, a vow all helps in their way, all excellent if used 
rightly " but if wrongly, " then no longer helps, but most hurt- 
ful superstitions."* That his sentiment is a general one has 
been demonstrated by the welcome his words have received in 
England, America, France, and Italy. 

After all, we must be honest in matters of this kind. In 
fact our only hope of satisfactorily meeting the objections of 
outsiders is to distinguish between the rightful use of external 
helps and their wrongful abuse, so that whatever odium at- 
taches to the latter shall not injure in any way the name of 
genuine Catholic devotion. This is the only answer we can 
give, for instance, to some of Harnack's exaggerated state- 
ments about " externalized religion." What he is attacking is 
not true external Catholicism. 

From what we have said regarding both " dogmatism " and 
" externalism," in Harnack's use of the terms, it is clear that 
when fundamental principles are examined, the terms do not 
apply tD Catholic Christianity; abuses may deserve them, but 
once more, abuses should never form the basis of a comparison 
such as Harnack has instituted in answering the question, 
What is Christianity ? 

* External Religion, page 89. 
VOL. LXXIII. 26 



390 HARNACK'S " WHAT is CHRISTIANITY?" [June. 

CONCLUSION. 

In conclusion we have a word to offer concerning the merit 
of the whole book as appreciated by Catholic and Protestant 
writers. The former have seen clearly enough that Harnack's 
Christianity has very little substance. It is a Christianity with- 
out the Incarnation, without a Church, without Sacraments, 
without any real indication that it is a religion (or "the whole 
man." Among Protestant reviewers, on the contrary, there 
has been a good deal of over-eager and enthusiastic praise. 
These men vie with one another in their blind admiration of 
whatever Harnack does, fancying that he is the assured de- 
stroyer of Catholicism. To tell the truth, the situation at pres- 
ent is this : while these Protestant writers and leaders are un- 
controlled in their rejoicings over the scene of the Catholic 
Church and her whole system being swept away and. swamped 
in an imaginary flood, they themselves are unmindful or igno- 
rant of the silent waters that are actually washing away the 
sands from beneath their own feet. 




i. Sedgwick: Life of Father Hecker ; 2. R. M. Johnston: 
Autobiography; 3. Scully: Life of Thomas a Kempis ; 4. Perry: 
Life of St. Louis ; 5. Lagerlof: From a Swedish Household ; 6. 
Wiggin: Penelope's Irish Experiences; 7. Garland: Her Moun- 
tain Lover ; 8. Inglesant: 7 he Romance of a Vocation; 9. Gigot : 
Biblical Lectures ; 10. Moulton : Literature of the Bible ; n. Ab- 
bott: Life and Literature of Ancient Hebrews; 12. Vaughan : Faith and Folly ; 
13. Gordon: The New Epoch for Faith; 14. Haeckel : Riddle of the Universe; 
15. Monteiro : Catholicism in Science and Art ; 16. - - Ecumenical Missionary 
Conference. 



1. One of the most interesting of recent publications is a 
dainty little biography* of Father Hecker, by Henry D. Sedg- 
wick, Jr. The writer named will be remembered by many as 
the author of rather a remarkable article in the Atlantic 
Monthly in 1899, which showed an unusually keen percep- 
tion of the essential character of the great Catholic World- 
Church. The volume before us gives new evidence of Mr. 
Sedgvick's true and sympathetic judgment of things Catholic. 
As to the facts narrated, the book is in the main a resume of 
Father Elliott's exhaustive biography; still, it is something 
more than a slavish reproduction of a story already well told. 
Clearly enough, the author is giving out to his readers im- 
pressions gathered from a careful study of Father Hecker's 
career. His words, therefore, possess the value of an indepen- 
dent and impartial criticism. 

Oae is tenpted to moralize over this little volume far 
more significant than the chance reader will suspect. Its 
appearance at this moment indicates that finally Father Hecker 
is coming into his own ; that he yet speaketh to this genera- 
( tion ; that, like Cardinal Newman and St. Ignatius, he has 
been less honored by the age in which he lived than he is to 
be by that which he foresaw and prepared for. Mr. Sedgwick's 

* Father Hecker. By Henry D. Sedgwick, Jr. (The Beacon Biographies, edited by M. 
A. De Wolf Howe.) Boston : Small, Maynard & Co. 



392 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [June, 

judgment is probably no bad sign of the way in which the 
story of Isaac Hecker's life affects the average American non- 
Catholic. For that which Father Hecker always claimed to be 
true of the church is true in great measure of himself; he 
needs only to be known in order to be accorded an admiring 
welcome by the representatives of what is best in contem- 
porary civilization. The one fatality which could have arrested 
the success of his mission was inattention. For the first few 
years after his death it did, indeed, seem as though there were 
but little chance of his ever obtaining that world-wide pub- 
licity which was a condition necessary to the realization of his 
dreams. Yet that condition is now perfectly fulfilled. By an 
unlooked-for combination of strange circumstances, the last 
few years have seen the character of Isaac Hecker and the 
principles for which he stood become an object of interested 
study to very nearly the whole civilized world. He is known 
and revered to-day as never before in fact, to an extent that 
hardly seemed possible before. What is infinitely more desira- 
ble, he is now universally recognized as the exponent of the 
truths he loved best. At present we find Americans, English- 
men, Frenchmen, and Italians, Catholics and non-Catholics, 
Jesuits, Franciscans, and Dominicans, vying with one another 
in defence of principles for which Father Hecker's name has 
become almost a synonyme. Curiously enough, too, the very 
trial that would have been bitterest to the soul of this fervent 
priest and loyal Catholic the imputation of heterodoxy has 
served in the mysterious designs of Providence to bring him 
to the notice of the people he most desired to influence. It 
is their demand for more intimate acquaintance with him which 
has now been met by a non-Catholic writer and a secular pub- 
lishing house ; and Father Hecker's biography has been in- 
serted by a competent and disinterested judge among " the 
lives of those Americans whose personalities have impressed 
themselves most deeply on the character and history of their 
country " (Editor's Notice). 

2. The Autobiography of Colonel Richard Malcolm Johnston * 
how he got the title of colonel does not appear, as he was 
strictly non-combatant during the Civil War is a slender 
volume now running through its second edition, from the press 
of the Neal Company, Washington. Considerabjy less than 
one-half of the volume is autobiographical. The remainder is 

* The Autobiography of Richard Malcolm Johnston. Washington : The Neal Company. 



1901.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 393 

reminiscent of lifelong friends, chiefly Toombs and Stephens. 
This is disappointing to a lover of Colonel Johnston, for what 
he tells of the two famous public men has small bearing upon 
his own career. Towards the end of the book, however, is a 
self-confession so true to Colonel Johnston's personality that 
it compensates for the mass of irrelevant matter: "Several 
times Stephens had long, dangerous spells of sickness, and not 
unfrequently suspected that he was near his end. During 
these seasons I went, at his pathetic request, to Washington 
at night, returning in time for my school next morning." The 
school was at Baltimore. Later Colonel Johnston made this 
journey daily to fulfil his duties in the Department of Educa- 
tion. "Sometimes," he says, cheerfully adding, "but only 
during the summer months, I have felt right heavily pressing 
the daily eighty miles travel between Washington and Balti- 
more." Those who caught glimpses of his tall, spare form, 
bowed with age, in the streets of Washington at this time, 
wondered how he ever could have borne it at all, especially 
under the stress of school duties coupled with night-watches 
at the bedside of his friend. This gracious, beautiful spirit of 
self-abnegation, which was lovingly recognized by his literary 
compeers, his distinguished friends, his home people, his busi- 
ness associates, his casual acquaintances, manifests itself in his 
autobiography, here as elsewhere made doubly delightful by 
his own absolute unconsciousness of it. A good example is 
his account of his conversion, a subject we would much have 
rejoiced to find discussed at length. Being a sincere lover of 
his fellow-men, he had a true genius for education ; and as he 
looked to school-teaching for his livelihood during his early 
mirried life, he inaugurated humane, character-building methods 
at the place and time revolutionary which a subsequent 
generation has seen established throughout the English-speak- 
ing world. The calamities of the Reconstruction period com- 
pelled him to remove his school from Georgia to Baltimore. 
" The school prospered as before," he says, " and lost none of 
its good name. Tnus it was when an important change occurred. 
This was my conversion to the faith of the Roman Catholic 
Church. This, as I foresaw that it must, caused the boarding 
department to dwindle. Although the matter had been re- 
volved in the minds of my wife and myself during a consider- 
able time, it was known to few outside of the family, and 
when the change became public it occasioned much surprise, 
and indeed many regrets, among our friends and acquaintances. 



394 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [June, 

I continued the school with annual lessening attendance for 
two or three years, then, declining to receive the few boarding 
pupils who offered, I opened and kept a small day-school in 
Baltimore. This I gave up in a short time and taught a few 
pupils in private." Such is the whole of his story, as heroical- 
ly simple as the fact itself was heroic. The sacrifice had its 
almost immediate temporal compensation in the discovery and 
development marvellous at his advanced age of a talent for 
literary composition which has made the author of the Dukes- 
borough Tales a well beloved benefactor of all who prize the 
masterpieces of English literature. The merit of his work is 
that he has put himself in literature. And he will be worth 
knowing and reading and loving and reverencing and remem- 
bering as long as the human heart will quicken at the artless 
self-portrayal of a noble, childlike man. 

3. Any man who writes a biography of Thomas a Kempis* 
starts with the assured advantage of having a host of readers. 
There is scarcely any one but will seize upon it with avidity. 
But, unfortunately, one must also open such a volume with a 
foreboding of disappointment. We are pretty well settled in 
the unwelcome conviction that little can be known about 
A Kempis personally. When we have read the short account of 
his life as given by Charles Butler in the preface to Challoner's 
translation of the " Following," we have practically all we can 
know about the saintly writer of "the greatest book that ever 
came from the hand of man." Still, there is reason for a book 
like the present, for we may by its means come to understand 
better the sort of life A Kempis led, and who and of what sort 
were his brothers in religion, his friends and his contemporaries, 
and with these data we can perhaps form a little better 
acquaintance with himself. It is this only that Father Scully 
has enabled us to do, for he has rather edited the biographies 
of Thomas's companions, as written chiefly by the venerable 
chronicler of the monastery of Windesheim, than given us any 
new facts concerning him whom the biography purports to con- 
cern. Those who are willing to follow this somewhat round- 
about course to an acquaintance with A Kempis will be well 
satisfied and pleased with the volume in hand. 

4. The writer of the new biography of St. Louis of France f 

* Life of the Venerable Thomas a Kempis. By Dom Vincent Scully. London : R. & T. 
Washbourne. 

t St. Louis. By Frederick Perry, M.A. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 



1901.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 395 

does full justice to the life and influence of that great and hoi)' 
monarch. The historical treatment is full and clear ; the style 
notably attractive ; the appreciation of the subject thorough ; 
the estimite of character honest and discriminating, even in 
the case of those traits and dispositions the spiritual significance 
of which appeals little to a non-Catholic historian. 

Among the things to be complained of for there are some 
is the stiff, unsympathetic tone which characterizes the au- 
thor's treatment of the pope and of things Catholic, subjects 
frequently mentioned. No one denies that there was at that 
time, as there always has been, a human side to the church's 
life, but an undue emphasis of this fact, together with an un- 
due suppression of the fact of the spiritual element of her ex- 
istence, misrepresents the truth about her, and is unfair and 
uncandid in any author. 

5, We have sometimes been disposed to maintain but 
never so much as after reading these stories* that the lack of 
a sense of reverence often makes a botch of what might have 
been a work of art. For if ever there was an illustration of 
that fact, it is here, in this work of Selma Lagerlof. Especially 
in the stories founded upon sacred legends there is a woefully evi- 
dent absence of all instinct of religious propriety. And the pity 
is, that with the touch of the artist's hand what is now grossly 
offensive might have been delightfully simple and naive. Per- 
haps, however, the blame belongs to the translator rather than 
to the author. We imagine so, and the reason for it is this : 
frequently, in the stones to which we take exception, we find 
an expression, repellent as it stands in bald English, which 
none the less suggests a thought or a fancy that might be 
beautiful if transformed by a writer with th requisite delicacy 
of touch. 

Still, we are somewhat doubtful that the distressing ignor- 
ance and coarseness of expression so often visible in this volume 
could be so easily remedied. We regret this serious defect, 
for a part of the work, notably the first story, bears witness 
to a remarkable imaginative skill on the part of the author. 

6. The first two volumes of Penelope 's Experiences have been 
well received by the reading public. The third, \ fittingly bound 

* From a Swedish Household. By Selma Lagerlof. Translated by Jessie Brochner. New 
York : McClure, Phillips & Co. 

\ Penelopes Irish Experiences. By Kate Douglas Wiggin, Boston and New York 
Houghton, Mifflm & Co. 



396 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [June, 

in green and ornamented with shamrocks, bids fair to meet with 
like success. The same fun-loving trio whom we met in England 
and Scotland continue their travels to Ireland, where full play is 
allowed to their tendency toward merry-making. In these chap- 
ters the narrative is mostly concerned with travel. Whether de- 
scribing places and persons, or narrating beautiful Irish legends 
or events in Irish history, Penelope always preserves her charming 
style. Not the least entertaining part of the volume is a spright- 
ly little romance in which the heroine Salemnia is taken captive 
by the charms of an Irish lover. The author has entered 
thoroughly into the spirit of the country, and consequently her 
Irishman is not the caricature we too often meet with in our 
reading. There are several passages which should be read and 
pondered by all persons suffering from anti-Hibernianism. One 
of these is so suggestive that we cannot refrain from quoting 
it. Telling of a Protestant clergyman who accompanied the 
travellers for a part of the way, and who was making observa- 
tions for a volume on The Relations between Priests and Pau- 
perism, Penelope makes this comment: "It seems, at first 
thought, as if the circular coupon system was ill-fitted to fur- 
nish him with corroborative detail ; but inasmuch as every 
traveller finds in a country only, so to speak, what he brings 
to it, he will gather statistics enough. Those persons who start 
with a certain bias of mind in one direction seldom notice any 
facts that would throw out of joint those previously amassed ; 
they instinctively collect the ones that ' match,' all others hav- 
ing a tendency to disturb the harmony of the original scheme." 
Penelope knows something about that particular variety of the 
species human which visits a nation on the chance of collecting 
evidence against it and invariably collects. 

7. Her Mountain Lover* is a story confined principally to 
the adventures of a Colorado cow-boy trying to sell his gold- 
mine in London. It is unique, rather original, and as doubt- 
less intended decidedly a study in the unconventional. Though 
the probability of the theme may be questioned, there can be 
no doubt as to its interest. The strongest feature of the book 
is the sympathetic delineation, born surely of experience, of 
the hero's love and pathetic longing for his own land of the 
Rockies the "high country" of the trails and the caftons. 
The startling revelations of English society life, as seen from 
his point of view and presented in his own forcible slang, are 

* Her Mountain Lover. By Hamlin Garland. New York : The Century Company. 



1901.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 397 

amusing in the extreme. The book, while breezy and interest- 
ing, forms one more of the ephemeral type calculated to while 
away agreeably the tedium of a railway journey or the drowsy 
hours of a summer day. 

8. The writer of The Romance of a Vocation * gives evi- 
dence of some talent, and yet is not free from certain serious 
faults. Presumably a new author, Aleydis Inglesant may con- 
fidently hope to produce a story of real merit before long at 
the expense of slow work, careful revision, and docility to 
able criticism. The present volume is simple and edifying, and 
inspired with much true sentiment; just for these reasons it 
demands most careful workmanship. In some instances this 
requisite is not discoverable. Still, the thoroughly Catholic 
tone of the book, its encouraging moral, and its well-sustained 
interest will make it pleasant reading. It shows how firm 
resolutions, aided by divine grace, will triumph over all obsta- 
cles that confront a real vocation. 

9. We note with a good deal of gratification that Father 
Gigot's published works on Scriptural subjects are growing 
apace. We have come to look for a valuable volume from his 
pen at short intervals, and the fact that he does not disap- 
point us, is proof positive of the range and solidity of his 
biblical learning, as well as of his tireless activity. This, his 
latest volume,f is somewhat out of the line of his three former 
exclusively didactic works. He has popularized a mass of in- 
formation on the Bible, condensed it into " ten essays on 
general aspects of the Sacred Scriptures," and published it in 
excellent form. In his usual clear, scientific manner he has 
treated of such subjects as " The Dogmatic Teaching of the 
Bible," "Morality and the Bible," "The Bible a Book of De- 
votion," " The Inspiration of the Bible," etc. No one ought 
to read the Bible without having at his elbow some such 
work as this, and if we were to recommend one, we could 
name none better than Father Gigot's in fact, we are of the 
opinion that there is none like it in scope, in method, or in 
quality. 

Incidentally inevitably we might say the author has 
touched upon most of the popular difficulties connected with 
the sacred writings, notably in the " Essays on the Historical 

* The Romance of a Vocation. By Aleydis Inglesant. New York : Benziger Bros. 
\ Biblical Lectures. By the Rev. Francis E. Gigot, S.S. Baltimore: John Murphy- 
Company. 



398 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [June, 

Aspect of the Bible," " Morality and the Bible," and " The 
Bible and the Miraculous." If there be some of his conclu- 
sions that do not bring real satisfaction to the mind, yet his 
statements are always frank and his treatment unambiguous, 
and for that by no means too prevalent excellence he is to 
be thanked. The last essay, "The Bible the Inspired Word 
of God," taken together with Father Gigot's treatise on " Bib- 
lical Inspiration," in the appendix to his " General Introduc- 
tion," recently published, is the clearest and most satisfying 
short treatment we have seen on the vexed question of the 
nature of inspiration and the import of the dogmatic pronounce- 
ment of the Council of the Vatican concerning the divine in- 
fluence in the composition of the Bible. 

These lectures, then, must prove immensely helpful to stu- 
dents and to the ordinary reader of the Holy Scriptures. We 
could hope, too, that they might prove stimulating to other 
Catholic authors; there is room for a thousand such works on 
the shelves of Catholic students, now overcrowded with Prot- 
estant and infidel treatises. 

10. Moulton's work* represents a strong effort to set forth 
the Bible as a literature merely, as separate from its theological 
and devotional characters. Whether or not one is able or 
willing in his Bible reading to draw this rigid line of demarca- 
tion, he will find Professor Moulton's book most illuminating. 
The author describes the various literary forms in use among 
the Hebrews and gives analyses of the more complicated books 
of the Sacred Scriptures. He treats the subject in a popular, 
often elementary way, keeping free from technical and scien- 
tific terms, yet manifesting no lack of accurate knowledge, or 
scholarly method. His book might well be taken as a ground- 
work for an extensive literary study of the Bible. The author 
evidently has had this end in view, for he has supplied in 
appendices very comprehensive analyses and full suggestions 
for systematic reading. 

11 Dr. Lyman Abbott's book,f while not containing much 
that is original, is a good summary of the conclusions of 
modern scholars respecting important questions of the Old 
Testament. This summary is well and judiciously written, and 

* A Short Introduction to the Literature of the Bible. By Richard G. MdVilton. Bos- 
ton : D. C. Heath & Co. 

t The Life and Literature of the Ancient Hebrews. By Lyman Abbott. Boston 
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 



1901.] TALK ABOUJ NEW BOOKS. 399 

will give the reader a clear idea of the entire matter. Where 
Dr. Abbott gives his own opinion his work is less valuable, for 
his attitude is distinctly partisan, and he seems inclined to read 
his own meaning into the words of Scripture. An example of 
this is the chapter treating of the Mosaic sacrificial system, 
where Dr. Abbott insists on looking at the whole matter from 
an entirely modern and Protestant stand-point. The chapter 
on the code of the Covenant is one of the best things in the 
book, although one cannot help suspecting that the Jew had 
no such profound and philosophical conception of law as Dr. 
Abbott attributes to him. The effort, which is clearly the 
result of modern thinking, to regard the Old Testament, as a 
whole, as the story of national progress in religion and gov- 
ernment, when once made gives a new and peculiar value to 
Scripture study as showing God's training and discipline of his 
people to fit them for their great work. This effort the present 
work aids a man to make. 

Dr. Abbott's book, it is believed, could be read by Catho- 
lics with great profit, although, of course, there are many 
points which we should hardly concede and some where we 
should be forced frankly to take issue with him. But at all 
events the book is certain to prove suggestive of new thought 
and helpful to the readjustment of old conclusions. 

12. Monsignor Vaughan's new book* has been handsomely 
bound; its alliterative title stimulates curiosity, and its table 
of contents includes several interesting and timely topics. 
Still, it attains to but an average grade of excellence. It will 
not be easy to discover what particular class of reader the 
author intended to address. For the most part his ideas are 
very similar to those already in circulation among the Catholic 
public ; and his sharp, unsympathetic tone forbids us to sup- 
pose that he wishes to persuade readers who are not of the 
faith. His style is rather too flowery to be philosophical, and 
too linguistic for a popular work ; he quotes in six languages. 
Nor are his pages altogether free from solecisms, <?. g., " even 
the narrowest-necked bottles have a certain reputation for elo- 
quence after their kind" (italics by the author). We submit 
the following passage for the reader's judgment concerning its 
accuracy : 

" The Pope of the scientific world, Sir I. Newton, had 

* Faith and Folly. By the Right Rev. Monsignor John S. Vaughan. New York : Ben- 
ziger Brothers. 



400 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [June, 

fulminated his decree (i. e., the Law of Gravity) and promul- 
gated a new definition urbi et orbi, and every head bowed in 
humble obedience to his decision. Far be it from us to quar- 
rel with such scientific faith for it is most reasonable. The 
precise point of our complaint is, that men who believe the 
laws Gravity (sic) on such grounds should deem it unreasona- 
ble of us to believe on exactly parallel and similar grounds the 
teaching of Faith regarding the Supreme Being, a world be- 
yond the grave, and the final rendering to each man according 
to his works" (pp. 112-113; italics by the author). 

13. Contemporary Protestant literature is characterized by 
the almost complete disappearance of all doctrinal basis, and 
an impassioned affirmation of humanitarianism. Some writers 
make a plea for retaining a few of the old terms, not as sig- 
nifying the old truths, but as cherished souvenirs of the past, 
or they employ the words and adapt them to a new significa- 
tion. The volume* of the Reverend Mr. Gordon is of this 
kind. He sees in the present prevalence of humanitarian sen- 
timents a return to the faith of Jesus Christ. The conscious- 
ness of itself to which humanity is awakening is, he says, the 
realization of the full import of our divine Lord's teaching. 
To purge the Gaspel of all dogmatic meaning, and to reduce 
all its religious and ethical teaching to the rule of benevo- 
lence, might seem to any one who reads it a hopeless under- 
taking. But this operation may easily be managed if we 
approach the New Testament with the determination of seeing 
in it only what suits our views. This is Dr. Robinson's 
method ; and with its help he works out his conclusion. He 
concedes to Christ something more than most of his school 
will grant ; but of course, in his hands, the divinity of our 
Lord becomes but a metaphor. 

It is impossible not to admire the calm courage which 
claims that we have a return to Christianity in the humani- 
tarianism which, in vast numbers of minds, is associated with 
positivism, agnosticism, and every other form of anti-Christian 
unbelief. 

If Protestants will but look facts in the face, they must see 
that to abandon all their ancient creed at the bidding of mod- 
ern scepticism, to reduce the authority of Christ to essentially 
the same character as that of Socrates or Confucius, and to 

* The New Epoch for Faith. By George A. Gordon, Minister of the Old South Church, 
Boston. Boston and New York : Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 



1901.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 401 

restrict Christianity to a rule of conduct which is endorsed by 
every one whose ethics has any place for altruism, is not the 
inauguration of a new epoch for faith, but the proclamation of 
its total disappearance. The recognition of universal brother- 
hood a recognition which many ugly facts tell us is far from 
being as universal and real as Dr. Robinson believes is cer- 
tainly a gain for righteousness. But only those who refuse to 
see things as they are can interpret it as the triumph of the 
Gospel. Dr. Robinson writes in an earnest and religious spirit. 
His style, though somewhat diffuse, is clear and elegant ; and 
a tone of agreeable optimism pervades his interesting though 
not convincing volume. 

14. If The Riddle of the Universe* had been published 
anonymously, or with the name of somebody whose philosophic 
creed was less known than is that of Professor Haeckel, the 
book might pass for a piece of sustained and well disguised 
satire upon a school which has had its day and ceased to be. 
Twenty years ago, when the magic word Evolution was supposed 
to furnish the answer not only to the How, but also to the 
Whence and the Whither, of all things, the monism which iden- 
tifies intellectual consciousness with molecular motion, and 
makes the All nothing more than the sum of material energies, 
was supposed, by many men of eminent ability, to be the 
logical conclusion from the development of physical science. 
But further reflection, leading to a recognition of the true 
limits of science, has forced home the conviction that con- 
sciousness, however intimately associated with nervous and 
cerebral change, defies all attempts to resolve it into that 
iorm of activity. Scientists see, too, that however profoundly 
they may investigate the universe, scientific discovery fails to 
solve the question of the origin or the destiny of the Cosmos. 
Many illustrious compatriots and fellow-scientists of Professor 
Haeckel held, twenty years ago, the opinions which he holds 
now. But, as he says, one by one they have recanted. 
Haeckel, like another Casabianca, stands upon the burning 
deck whence all but he have fled. He is undaunted by their 
defection, which he ascribes either to their failure to grapple 
with increasing knowledge, or to the loss of brain power con- 
sequent upon the approach of old age. The professor, uncon- 
scious of suffering from either of these calamities, with an 

* The Riddle of the Universe at the Close of the Nineteenth Century. By Ernst Haeckel. 
Translated by Joseph McCabe. New York and London : Harper & Bros. 



402 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [June, 

assurance which grows in proportion to his isolation, reiterates 
the discredited arguments, and proclaims once more the dis- 
carded theory. His book is made up of two elements, one a 
survey of scientifically established facts, with here and there 
a theory which still lacks confirmation. The other and more 
characteristic element is a series of extra-physical conclusions 
which he professes to deduce from the facts. When he deals 
with the former element, he usually speaks with the authority 
of science behind him. In the other sphere he speaks for 
himself. Without considering any of his innumerable fallacies, 
false assumptions, or the general inconclusiveness of his argu- 
ments, we may estimate the value of his views from the fact 
that scientific men leave him a monopoly of them ; and either 
declare that reason is incapable of solving the problems which 
Haeckel has solved, or come to conclusions contradictory to 
those which he so dogmatically preaches. 

15. The Influence of Catholicism iipon the Sciences and Arts* 
consists of a series of essays translated from the Spanish, in- 
tended to meet and offset a common prejudice " that Catholi- 
cism, by its very nature, is opposed to the sciences and arts." 
The subject presents an opportunity to bring out in relief the 
latent beauty of our religion, as well as to prove that the 
Catholic Church and Catholic teaching have ever exercised a 
highly beneficial influence upon thought. The book, however, 
touches only the surface of its subject ; it possesses more of a 
devotional than a philosophical character. Although it adopts 
a somewhat apologetic air, the treatment of the various topics 
shows that the original has been directed to minds already 
favorable to Catholic beliefs and Catholic influence. From the 
title one would infer that science and art were the points in 
questian. Science, however, is forgotten, and in its place are 
substituted essays on the authority of the church and the con- 
formity of faith with reason. Occasionally the language is in- 
accurate, a fact due perhaps to erroneous translation. 

16. Two volumes f of 1,044 pages make up the Report of 
the Ecumenical Conference on Foreign Missions held in 
Carnegie Hall, New York, 21 st April-ist May, 1900, and at- 
tended by delegates from " all Protestant Christendom." The 
Report contains a history of the Conference and presents in 

* The Influence of Catholicism upon the Sciences and Arts. Translated from the Spanish 
by Mariana Monteiro. St. Louis : B. Herder. 

t Ecumenical Missionary Conference of New York. New York : American Tract Society. 



1 90i.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 403 

extenso the hundreds of speeches delivered on that occasion by 
American and foreign representatives. At the end of the 
volume come a statistical summary and a bibliography of Mis- 
sionary Literature in the Nineteenth Century. In this biblio- 
graphy, however, "there is naturally very little material bearing 
upon Catholic missions" (II. 435). The lectures make really 
interesting reading, but we must record our regret that several 
of the speakers did not have wisdom enough to imitate the 
bibliography and keep silent about Catholic missions. Of 
the several allusions to Catholics that we have noticed some 
are ridiculous, and some malicious. The remainder are merely 
stupid. 



THE TEACHING OF COOKERY.* 

A text-book on the Art of Cookery is an unusual thing, 
and we do not know that we have ever met one until Mrs. 
Williams's book was brought to our notice. We have met with 
cook-books filled with recipes for all kinds of wonderful dishes. 
Mrs. Rorer and others of her peers have been before the 
public for many years as the past-masters of the culinary art, 
educating the public in the refinements of cooking and serving, 
but Mrs. Williams's book pre-empts a new field and covers it 
well. It seems to take hold of the real elements of wholesome 
living and co-ordinates them into a science. 

It is not possible to say over-much of the real value of 
the movement of which this book is a guide. It is only within 
a few years that practical cooking has been taught in the public 
schools. Too often has it been said that the curriculum of 
teaching in the public schools is so limited that its natural 
product is the mediocre clerk. It is notorious that useful arts 
have been neglected and practical avocations have been ignored 
by the common school instruction, and it is only when one 
has left school that one can turn his attention to a trade or 
profession that might be a means of livelihood. Our parochial 
school system, in many instances, has laid itself open to a 
similar charge by so implicitly following the standards set 
by the public schools as to ignore what is practical in life. 

* Elements of the Theory and Practice of Cooke r y. A Text-Book of Household Science 
for use in Schools. By Mary E. Williams, Supervisor of Cookery in the Public Schools of 
the Borough of Manhattan and the Bronx, New York City, and Katherine Rolston Fisher, 
formerly Teachar of Cookery in these Schools. New York : Macmillan Company. 



404 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [June, 

There are now many signs of a counter-movement in educa- 
tional systems. Some hours in the week are given among the 
girls to sewing and cooking, and among the boys to practical 
tradesmanship. Mrs. Williams's book on cooking is the out- 
come of this new movement. It is good to give recognition to 
the work that has been done, for a great deal of it is of the 
nature of pioneering, and yet this book in its completeness 
bears all the earmarks of thorough experience and painstaking 
research. 

One reason for segregating this book from the rest and 
giving it the dignity of a separate notice, is the desire to 
intensify the movement in our own parish schools which will 
give greater recognition to the practical side of life. 

The Catholic Church has always stood for the preservation 
of the home, and in the natural order there is nothing that 
contributes so much to the peace and contentment of a good 
home as good, plain healthy cooking. It is only a commonplace 
to affirm that virtue and vice to some extent are the conse- 
quences of good or bad digestion, and digestion largely de- 
pends on the way one's food has been cooked. It has been 
frequently said that bad cooking and intemperance are twin 
evils, holding to each other in many instances the relation of 
cause and effect. It is not to be at all wondered at that a 
man should go out to seek the strongest stimulant he can get 
in the near-by saloon when he has with voracious appetite de- 
voured a meal that has been cooked in defiance of all the 
laws of the culinary art. 

The remedy for much of the discord in the home-life is a 
knowledge of and a conformity to certain laws of home-making 
and house-keeping. 

We are glad, then, to have the opportunity of recommend- 
ing to the sisterhoods of the country who are practically en- 
gaged in conducting schools, this very useful work on the 
theory and practice of cooking. It may be the means whereby 
cooking classes may be started in the academies as well as in 
the parochial schools. In any case it will do its share in turn- 
ing the attention of our religious communities more and more 
to the practical side of educational work. 



Psychological Review (March) : G. Patrick writes that the stamp 
of vulgarity and social disapproval rests upon the user 
of profanity, the oath being immoral because advanc- 
ing civilization teaches self-control, and " because of 
the unfortunate but inevitable connection between pro- 
fanity and the sacred names of religion." 

The Biblical World (May) : In a sketch of Simon Peter by 
Shailer Mathews, the author traces the development of 
the saint's belief in our Lord in an interesting way and 
tries to give a picture of his various mental stages. Rev. 
Arthur Metcalf writes on the Evolution of the Belief in 
the World beyond the Grave, in a convincing manner 
tracing the several stages of Hebrew thought concerning 
the soul's life after death and showing the steady pro- 
gression in belief under God's guiding providence. 

Dublin Review (April) : Miss Clerke writes that " for the pro- 
gress and prosperity enjoyed under her rule, twelve 
million Catholics have reason to look back with grati- 
tude to the reign of Victoria as a golden age of the 
church throughout her empire." 

Father Kent, O.S.C., writes on the Catholic literature of 
France during the past century, and adds that in Eng- 
land too we can regard with satisfaction the advance 
toward revival. 

J. H. Williams writes of Newman's Essay on Development 
as a Protestant work, " having no authority." 
Father Howlett says that no one nowadays could venture 
to defend the Davidic authorship of all the Psalms ; 
though in the fourth century some considered a denial of 
that thesis to be heretical. 

T. F. Willis specifies as among the needs of English con- 
vent schools : A higher intellectual standard ; Elimination 
of incapable teachers ; Organization of each school staff. 

The Tablet (6 April) : " The alleged institution of the Rosary 
by St. Dominic is, to say the very least, open to question." 
The great interest in St. Francis of Assisi evinced of 
late has been revived, or rather created, mainly through 
the labors of M. Paul Sabatier, a Protestant scholar. 
Father Cuthbert, O.S.F.C., says the Reformation was 
permitted by God as a punishment and a v purification for 
the church, and that Protestant theologians are now 
VOL. LXXIII. 27 



406 LIBRARY TABLE. [June, 

doing such thorough and original work as has not been 
experienced "since the golden period of scholasticism." 
We ought to recognize that outside the Church God is 
working in the minds and hearts of men. 
(20 April): A very severe critique of Father Taunton's 
English Jesuits appears. 

(27 April) : Father Taunton defends his work and is 
answered by the Reviewer. Father Ryder, of the Ora- 
tory, censures very strongly Mr. Williams's article in the 
Dublin Review on Newman's Development. 
(4 May) : Father Gerard, S.J., takes up some of Father 
Taunton's statements as to Father Garnet's relation with 
the Gunpowder Plot. An article on the constant and 
growing tendency among Anglicans toward belief in 
Transubstantiation. As The Guardian has been publish- 
ing severe criticisms on Catholics over the signature "A 
Catholic," The Tablet turns the tables by printing a. 
counterblast purporting to come from " An Anglican." 

The Month (May) : Father Gerard points out that the anti- 
Catholic protestations in the British Accession Oath did 
not have their origin in the instinct of self-defence but was 
devised for offensive purposes. 

Father Thurston tells of the development of the custom 
of consecrating the month of May to Our Lady. 
Father Pollen indicates a number of deficiencies and 
errors in Father Taunton's new History of the Jesuits in 
England. 

Bulletin de la Litttrature Ecclesiastique (March) : A severe criti- 
cism is published on the Infiltrations Protestantes of P. 
Fontaine, SJ. (See CATHOLIC WORLD MAGAZINE, April, 
1901, p. 121), and incidentally condemns the spirit of 
" hyperconservatism." 

Revue L'Institut Catholique de Paris (March-April) : P. Many 
declares that despite all theologians and canonists the 
Popes have the right to designate their successors as 
has been done seven or eight times in history. 

Revue des Questions historiques (i April) : P. Charnand declares 
that the Apostles' Creed was composed by the Apostles 
that " its apostolic origin is a fact the certitude of which 
imposes itself on our minds as an a priori necessity," 
and the witness of antiquity confirms this opinion. 

Revue des Questions scientifiques (20 April) : Dr. Surbled, review- 
ing Dr. Puj ode's recent work on tuberculosis, formulates 
its conclusions thus : The disease is always an acquired 



igoi.] LIBRARY TABLE. 407 

one, it can almost always be prevented, and often can 
be cured. 

Revue Be'ne'dictine : P. Leclerq describes how the fury of the 
early persecutions was due to the wide-spread and deep- 
rooted worship of the emperors. P. Gaisser continues 
his learned essay upon the musicaj system of the Greek 
Church. 

Revue du Clerge 1 Francais (15 April): P. Godet writing upon 
Newman describes his life after his conversion, including 
the Kingsley incident. P. Labourt criticises certain 
errors in Harnack's latest book, but says there are many 
things in it to be pondered, and some criticisms which 
we can attend to with profit. P. Duboisset noticing P. 
Bremond's book (see THE CATHOLIC WORLD MAGAZINE, 
April, 190 r, p. 88), says it will teach an understanding 
of the religious wants of this age and thus help to do 
God's work more efficaciously. 

(i May) : P. Torreilles continues his sketch of the his- 
tory of theology in France. P. de Pascal reviewing the 
Pope's Encyclical on Christian Democracy says it com- 
pletes that body of social teaching whereby Pope Leo has 
shown the social virtue hidden in the Gospel, and while 
avoiding both rashness and pusillanimity has tried to estab- 
lish a harmonious social action among Catholics. The 
criticism of P. Fontaine, S.J. (noted above), is reproduced. 

La Revue Centrale (April) : Ch. Woeste takes the occasion 
of the appearance of three biographies of the recently 
canonized Jean-Baptiste de La Salle to summarize and 
eulogize the saint's work in behalf of primary education. 
He particularly draws attention to the most striking 
feature of the saint's life: his genius for organization, 
bearing fruit in a prodigious success for the Christian 
Schools against fierce and universal opposition. L. Bossu 
reviews Largent's Life of the Abb6 de Broglie recount- 
ing his valuable services to modern apologetics. 

Le Correspondant (April 10) : E. Keller attributes the present 
campaign against the religious orders to the " 25,000 
Freemasons who are preying upon France " ; enumerates 
the ostensible reasons for the opposition, and vigorously 
confutes them, point by point. Gabriel Prevost discusses 
the means of preventing the loss of the art of polite- 
ness in spite of the influence of democracy on manners, 
and thinks that since the external props of politeness, 
the social and political hierarchy, have been knocked 



4o8 LIBRARY TABLE. [June, 

away, the internal support, respect for the dignity of 
human nature, must be strengthened. B. de Lacombe 
writes upon the committee formed in France for the 
purpose of collecting and preserving manuscripts relat- 
ing to the religious history of the country during the 
sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. 
(25 April) : A. Leger writing upon Coventry Patmore, 
says his influence was second only to that of Newman, 
and that the very story of his consistently virtuous and 
sincere life is a precious boon to the world. 

La Quinzaine (i April) : P. Piolet, S.J., writes on the work 
done by French missionaries, insisting that for France 
to abandon them means for her to abandon herself. 
G. Dumesnil treats of the evolution of literature during 
the Middle Ages, the lyric poetry of which is on the 
whole second to that of no other period. 
(16 April) : George Fonsegrive, continuing his interest- 
ing articles on " Comment Lire les Journaux," writes on 
" The technique of journalism." He gives a remarkable 
description of a true journalist, a man having rather the 
nature and qualities of an orator than of a mere writer, 
a man who " deals with conclusions, who has no right 
to doubt, hesitate, or to waver," a man " whose only 
authority is derived from the good-will of his readers," 
and whose aim in life is to please those who favor him 
with a hearing. 

(i May): G. Goyau writes on the social role of the 
ancient monasteries ; saying that what is sound and just 
in modern progress has grown from seeds sown long 
ago seeds which still preserve their virtue. P. Chauvin 
describes P. Gratry's ideal of the Oratory a work-shop 
of scientific apologetics; "a sort of Port-Royal, minus 
schism and error." 

Etudes (5 April) : Reproduces a letter of approval (by Mgr. 
Isoard, of Annecy) for P. Fontaine's book. P. de Bigault 
describes Mgr. de Ketteler's combination of firmness in 
essentials with a spirit of conciliation. 
(20 April) : P. Roure writes on spirit-photography, say 
ing that not all the phenomena are frauds, and that 
great caution is needed in deciding. P. Dudon writes 
on Napoleon's attitude toward religious congregations. 
P. Bremond commences a study of John Keble, analyz- 

^ ing the causes why his conversion to Catholicism never 

came about. 



1 90i.] LIBRARY TABLE. 409 

Civilta Cattolica (6 April) : An article on Gioberti sneers at 
the Rassegna Nazionale for wishing to honor one who 
was a disloyal citizen, a hurtful and calumnious writer, 
and a Catholic all of whose books were placed on the 
Index. Annunzio's poem on Verdi is commented on as 
being a very poor specimen, neither new nor beautiful, 
and as unworthy of Verdi. A very favorable notice is 
given of a treatise on Justice by P. Vermeersch, S.J., 
written in obedience to the wish expressed at the last 
General Congregation of the Jesuits in 1892, viz.: that 
moral questions should receive strict scholastic treatment. 
(20 April): The editor of the Studii Religiosi having re- 
plied to the criticism of the Civilta, ten pages are de- 
voted to a defence of the criticism. 

An interesting article on the Modern Novel in England 
considers Ouida, Corelli, Thackeray, Dickens, Kipling, 
Lytton, George Eliot, Lew Wallace, and others. 

Rassegna Nazionale (16 April): L. Franceschi criticises an 
article in the Civilta Cattolica (i Dec., 1900) "in which 
an anonymous writer tries to blot the finest pages of 
modern medical science and to destroy with words the 
facts ascertained by experience and the studies of 
Pasteur, Lister, Koch, and a thousand others. . . . 
The means employed is that so justly criticised in the 
case of Voltaire and the encyclopaedists, ' always deride : 
sometimes calumniate.' ' 

G. de Revel, speaking of the English Accession Oath, 
takes occasion to note that the Italians, while copying 
many English institutions, have not yet acquired the 
sentiment of cool discussion and impersonal discussion 
and peaceful change. 

Divus Thomis (F. 2): A. P. C. M. writing on inspiration de- 
fends the opinion that the very words of the sacred 
writers are inspired. L. de Sombreville criticises views 
lately advanced as to the share the human body may 
have in the beatific vision. 

Stimmen aus Maria-Laach (22 April): P. Nostitz-Rieneck con- 
tinuing his study of the development of the church, 
writes of the unfailing permanence of the apostolate. 
P. Braun writes upon Gothic architecture as displayed in 
the English cathedrals. P. Hilgers writes on the founda- 
tion of the Vatican Library. 



4io THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. [June, 



THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 

AT Cliff Haven, N. Y., on Lake Champlain, the Catholic Summer-School 
will hold its decennial session during nine weeks, frem July 7 to Septem- 
ber 6. The work of preparation assigned to the Board of Studies is nearing 
completion, and the report from the chairman, Rev. Thomas McMillan, C.S.P., 
contains the following announcements: 

Three special studies in logic, Shakspere, and theme-writing; thirty hours 
for each, covering a period of six weeks, arranged to meet the requirements of 
Superintendent Maxwell of New York City, for license No. 2, Grade A, and the 
head of department license. 

The recent circular from City Superintendent Maxwell respecting the 
several kinds of licenses for teachers contains these words : 

" Each course considered with a view to the granting of a license No. 2, 
or of a Head of Department License, must have amounted to at least 30 hours, 
and must have been terminated by a successful examination. Each 3<>heur 
course must have extended over at least 15 weeks, or over the 6 weeks of a 
summer session. Applicants must present certificates of attendance and of 
successful examination. Note-books will be accepted as supplementary evi- 
dence of the character and amount of work done." 

The course in logic will be under the direction of the Rev. Francis P. 
Siegfried, professor of philosophy, St. Charles' Seminary, Overbrook, Pa., as- 
sisted by the Revs. John D. Roach and Mortimer E. Twomey. The course 
will centre in the study of the laws of thought as such. It will consist essen- 
tially of four parts: 

A psychological introduction on the cognitive powers in general and the 
intellect in particular. 

The correctness of thought. A study of the logical forms of thought and 
their laws : The elementary thought-forms (concept, judgment, reasoning) ; 
Methodology (definition, division, demonstration, scientific systematization). 

The truth and certitude of thought : States of the mind in respect to truth ; 
possibility and existence of certitude; sources of truth and certitude ; the ulti- 
mate criterion of certain truth. 

The relation of thought to its object: Criticism (empiricism, idealism, in- 
natism.ontologism, mysticism, traditionalism) ; positive doctrine (beginning and 
development of intellectual knowledge; objective validity thereof ; reason and 
faith). 

Whilst all these divisions are organically connected, and together constitute 
mental philosophy, an essential branch of a philosophical system, yet each por- 
tion will be given a certain completeness in view of the interest of students who 
are unable to attend the entire course. 

In developing these outlines the needs and tastes, on the one hand, of 
those who aim merely at general culture, and on the other hand, the more 
practical requirements of the professional teacher, will be kept in view. In 
order to satisfy the latter, the pedagogical aspects of logic will be emphasized. 
The lectures will therefore be both theoretical and practical, and as untechnical 
as the matter will permit, yet not so far as to dilute its scientific character into 
mere popular talks. Teachers, especially, who intend following the course, 
would do well to familiarize themselves in advance with some such manual of 



THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 411 

logic as that by Hiil-Jevons (New York : Sheldon & Co.); Davis (New York: 
American Book Company) ; William Poland, S.J. (New York, Silver, Burdett 
& Co.) ; R. Clarke, SJ. (New York: Benziger Bros.) 

The course in Shakspere will follow the lines on which so successful a 
beginning was made last summer. Six plays will be treated in a thorough and 
detailed manner, one each week. The principle of selection has been to take 
such as rank among the supreme dramatist's greatest works, excluding those 
which have already been treated, and which, besides representing the various 
periods of the development of his genius, include an equal proportion of subjects 
and styles. Thus, there will be two tragedies, Romeo and Juliet and King 
Lear; two comedies, Twelfth Night and The Tempest; and two historical 
plays, King John and King Henry V. As during last year, the method followed 
will be rather that of informal class-work, affording an opportunity for minute 
and careful examination of the subject, rather than that of formal lectures. The 
three plays first named will be treated by Thomas Gaffney Taaffe, M.A. (Ford- 
ham), and the last three by Alex. I. du P. Coleman, B. A. 

A new course of study will be introduced, which cannot but appeal to many 
students: the writing of English. During the six weeks devoted to thisuseful and 
popular study, thirty practical lectures will be delivered on the theory and prac- 
tice of English composition. The text-books will be Superintendent Maxwell's 
recent work, and Professor Barrett Wendell's English Composition. To give 
the course a thoroughly practical turn, special attention will be paid to those 
forms of English writing most in demand among journalists and other profession- 
al writers, the easy, short story, editorial, novel, magazine article, and literary 
critique. Thus, not only teachers and students but also persons who are be- 
ginning a literary career will find this course of great benefit. It will be directed 
by Rev. John Talbot Smith, and will consist of thirty instructions of one hour 
each, on the topics indicated by the following outline : 

The Essay and Its Mechanism, The Editorial Note, The Editorial, The 
News Article, News in Literary Form, The News Letter, Dramatic Criticism, 
Book Reviews, Description of Nature, Description of Character, Description 
of Art, The Short Story: Its Mechanism, The Romantic Story, The Realistic 
Story, The Psychological Story, The Story of Adventure, Dialogue and Charac- 
ter, Incident and Scenery, Style in General, Forming a Style, Aid to Style : 
Reading, Observation ; Aid to Style: Analysis. 

SCHEDULE OF LECTURES FOR SESSION OF 1901. First Week, July 8-12. 
Five lectures by Thomas A. Mullen, of Boston. Subject : Constitutional His- 
tory of the United States. Evening lectures by the Rev. Herbert F. Farrell, 
V.F., diocese of Brooklyn, and Walter Phillips Terry, of New York City. 

Second Week, July 15-19. Three lectures by Professor W. C. Robinson, 
Dean of the Law Department, Catholic University, Washington, D. C. Sub- 
jects : Pre-Historic Law ; Religion as a Social Force ; Capital Punishment. Two 
lectures on Edmund Burke, by the Rev. M. J. Fallen, O.M.I., University of Otta- 
wa, Canada. Evening lectures by the Right Rev. Mgr. Thomas J. Conaty, D.D., 
Rector of the Catholic University, Washington, D. C. 

Third Week, July 22-26. Five lectures by the Rev. James J. Fox, S.T.D. 
Subject : Phases of Contemporary Rationalism. Evening lectures on the Popes 
of the Nineteenth Century, by the Right Rev. Mgr. James F. Loughlin, D.D., 
Chancellor of Philadelphia. 

Fourth Week, July s^-Aug. 2. Five lectures on the Relation of Buddhism 
to Christianity, by the Rev. Charles F. Aiken, S.T.D. , Catholic University. Even- 



412 THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. [June, 

ing lectures by the Rev. Morgan M. Sheedy, Altoona, Pa., and Herbert S. Car- 
ruth, Boston. 

Fifth Week, August 5-9. Five lectures on Fundamental Concepts, by the 
Rev. John T. Driscoll, S.T.L., diocese of Albany, N. Y. Evening lectures by 
James J. Walsh, M.D. (University of Pennsylvania). General Subject: The 
Scientific Achievements of the Nineteenth Century, as shown by Progress of 
Astronomy and Meteorology ; Chemistry and Physics ; Geology and Paleontolo- 
gy ; Scientific Medicine. 

Sixth Week, August 12-16. Five lectures by James J. Walsh, M.D., on the 
following subjects : The Rise and Progress of Biology in the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury. First Period. Second Period. Significance of Biology in various ways of 
thoughts and knowledge. Evolution and the Evolutionists. Present Status of 
Evolution. The Practical Side of Biology. Its Relations to Medicine, Agricul- 
ture, Manufactures, Sanitation. Future Biology. Some unsolved Problems in 
Biological Science. Evening lectures on the Inferno and Purgatorio of Dante, 
by Rev. P. J. Mahoney, D.D., New York City. 

Seventh Week, August 19-23. Five lectures on Practical Applications of 
Ethical Teaching, by Rev. Thomas I. Gasson, S.J., Boston College. Evening 
lectures (illustrated) by the Rev. Charles J. Kelly, diocese of Newark, N. J. 

Eighth Week, August 26-30. Five lectures by Charles P. Neill, Ph.D., 
Catholic University. Subject : The Field of Economic Study. Evening lectures 
on Paradiso of Dante, by the Rev. Joseph F. Delany, D.D. One lecture by the 
Rev. Philip R. McDevitt, Superintendent of Parish Schools in Philadelphia. 

Ninth Week, September 2-6. Five lectures by Henry Austin Adams, M.A. 
Evening lectures by the Rev. William O'Brien Pardow, S.J., Gonzaga College, 
Washington, D. C. Subject: The Study of the Bible at the Beginning of the 
Twentieth Century. 

The special studies in Logic, Shakspere, and Theme-Writing will extend 
over a period of six weeks, from July 15 to August 23. 

During the week beginning August 26, Round Table Talks, on Home Life 
in Tenement Houses, will be given by Miss Eugenie Uhlrich, of New York City, 
in conjunction with Conferences for Sunday-School Teachers, under the direc- 
tion of Mrs. B. Ellen Burke, of Malone, N. Y. Reading Circle day is assigned 
for August 30. 

Arrangements are under way to secure the co-operation of the Champlain 
Choral Union, recently organized at Plattsburgh, under the direction of Profes- 
sor C. F. Hudson. At a later date will be announced the names of distinguished 
public men who are expected to be present during the coming session at Cliff 
Haven ; also the complete list of preachers. The opening sermon on July 7, at 
the Chapel on the Assembly Grounds, will be delivered by the Rev. Father Fide- 
lis, C.P. (James Kent Stone). 

The College Camp, under the personal direction of Dr. John Talbot Smith, 
proved very attractive to boys since its inception. An extensive programme of 
athletic exercises has been arranged by Mr. James E. Sullivan, which will be 
conducted under the supervision of Professor George Salmon, who will also be 
the instructor for the Cliff Haven Golf Club. 

Mr. Daniel J. O'Conor, who for several years has managed the opening ex- 
cursions of the Summer-School, is prepared to again lend his services to the 
friends and patrons of the institution. 

The excursion will leave New York by the Albany boat, Saturday evening, 
July 6, arriving at Cliff Haven about 2 o'clock in the afternoon of Sunday, July 



1 90 1.] THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 413 

7. Rates will be about the same as last year. Those who intend to join the 
party will confer a favor by addressing at once D. J. O'Conor, 123 East Fiftieth 
Street, New York City. 

* * * 

The discussion started by Archbishop Corrigan regarding the proposed ex- 
tension of the New York Free Library system has proved very timely. While 
allowing due praise to Mr. Carnegie for his generosity, there is need to safe- 
guard the young against the influence of pernicious books. The yellow-book 
literature is often found in public libraries supported by taxation, where the 
managers feel unable to refuse the unreasonable demands of injudicious 
readers. It is safe to say that in the long run the loyal co-operation of the 
numerous private libraries will prove of greater value to the reading public than 
the donations of millionaires. Then, again, these libraries organized by 
churches and philanthropic societies have certain claims based on past service. 
The Paulist Fathers for over thirty years have had a free circulating Parish 
Library sustained entirely by the generosity of their people. By changing to 
some extent the conditions of his gift Mr. Carnegie can secure justice to all 
concerned, and promote the greatest good for the greatest number of intelli- 
gent readers in Nevv York City. M. C. M. 



NEW BOOKS. 

BENZIGER BROTHERS, New York: 

A Catechism of Catholic Teaching. By Rev. Alexander L. Klauder. Com- 
plete in three numbers. The Life of St. Gerlach. By Frederick A. 
Houck. Pp. 97. 55 cts. net. In Faith Abiding. By Jessie Reader. 
Pp. 173. 55Cts.net. The Great Supper of God ; or, Discourses on Weekly 
Communion. By Stephen Coube, S.J. With an appendix of Historical 
Doctrine and other important statements pertaining to the subject. 
Translated from the French by Ida Griffiss. Edited by T. X. Brady, S.J. 
Pp.255. $i- 03 - The Scale (or Ladder) of Perfection. By Walter Hil- 
ton. With an Essay on the Spiritual Life of Medias/al England. By the 
Rev. J. B. Dilgairns, Priest of the Oratory. A new edition. Pp. 355. 
$1.75 net. Faith and Folly. By the Right Rev. Monsignor John S. 
Vaughan. Pp.485. $i.6onet. The Divine Plan of the Church : Where 
Realized and Where Not. By the Rev. John MacLaughlin. Pp. 324. 
In covers, 70 cts. net; in paper, 45 cts. net. Meditations on the Passion 
and Resurrection of Our Lord. By Thomas a Kempis. Edited by Grace 
H. M. Simpson. Pp. 106. 30 cts. net. The King's Secret : A College 
Drama in Five Acts. By Rev. T. P. S. Kuse. Pp. 48. 25 cts. net. 

ART AND BOOK COMPANY, London: 

A Mirror for Monks. By Louis Blosius, Monk of St. Bennet's Order. 
New and Revised Edition. Pp. 94. 6d. net. 

LITTLE, BROWN & Co., Boston: 

A Daughter of New France: with some Account of the Gallant Sieur Cadil- 
lac and his Colony on the Detroit. By Mary Catherine Crowley. Illus- 
trated by Clyde O. De Land. Pp.409. $1.50. 

DODD, MEAD & Co., New York: 

The Beloved Son. By M. Rye. Pp. 141. 

THE CENTURY COMPANY: 

Her Mountain Lover. By Hamlin Garland. Pp. 396. $1.50. 

THE ABBEY PRESS, New York: 

From Clouas to Sunshine; or, The Evolution of a Soul. By E. Thomas 
Kaven. Pp. 182. $i. 

McCLURE, PHILLIPS & Co., New York: 

From a Swedish Homestead. By Selma Lagerlof. Translated by Jessie 
Brochner. Pp. 376. 



NEW BOOKS Continued. 

]. S. HYLAND & Co., Chicago: 

The Pillar and Ground of Truth. A Series of Lenten Lectures on the 
True Church, its Marks and Attributes. By Rev. Thomas E. Cox. Pp. 

253- $i- 
THE M/OMILLAN COMPANY, New York : 

Policies and the Moral Law. By Gustav Ruemelin, late Chancellor of 
the University of Tubingen. Translated from the German by Rudolf 
Tombo, Jr., of Columbia University. Edited, with an Introduction and 
Notes, by Frederick W. Holls. Pp. 125. 75 cts. The Evolution of Im- 
mortality. By S. D. McConnell, D.D., D.C.L. Pp. 204. 
HOUGHTON, MIFFLINT & Co., Boston and New York : 

The New Epoch for Faith. By George A. Gordon, Minister of the Old 
South Church, Boston. Pp. 402. $1.50. Penelope's Irish Experiences. 
By Kate Douglas Wiggin. Pp.327. $1.25. 
PETER F. CUNNINGHAM & SON, Philadelphia: 

The New Raccolta ; or. Collection of Prayers and Good Works. To which 
the Sovereign Pontiffs have attached Holy Indulgences. Published in 
1898 by order of His Holiness, Pope Leo XIII. From the third Italian 
edition. Authorized and approved by the Sacred Congregation of Holy 
Indulgences. To which is added an appendix, containing prayers for 
Mass and Vespers for Sundays. Pages 684. 
J. H. YEWDALE & SONS Co., Milwaukee: 

Robert the Canadian: A 7^ale of the American Revolution. From the 
French bv Rev. J. M. Toohey, C.S.C. And other stories. Published for 
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VAN DYCK IN ENGLAND BECAME THE LION OF THE HOUR. 

(See page 431.) 



THE 



CATHOLIC WORLD. 



VOL. LXXIII. 



JULY, 1901. 



No. 436. 




A MISSIONARY'S VIEW OF THE CHINESE 
QUESTION. 

BY REV. BERTRAND COTHONAY, O.P. 

HAVE read the article of the Rev. Arthur H. 
Smith, in the Outlook, * on Roman Catholics in 
China. I find it very perfidious, inasmuch as he 
gives occasional praise to the Catholic Church 
and would like his readers to believe him impar- 
tial and of good faith. He may be of good faith, but he is 
terribly blinded by his prejudices. 

The Reverend Mr. Smith knows, of course, that the Church 
of God " the Mother Church," as he calls it has received a 
command from her divine Founder to go into the whole world 
and to preach the Gospel to all nations, the Chinese included ; 
he knows that the Catholic Church has fulfilled this commis- 
sion, and has tried in the past ages to win the Chinese people 
to the Gospel. She did not wait until the ports were opened 
by the cannon of the Western nations to send her missionaries 
there. Mr. Smith knows that the stern morality taught by 
the church, especially the things forbidden by the sixth and 
seventh Commandments, militate against the passions of 
heathens, and that the Chinese being so shrewd, so cunning, 
so false, it would be only natural to see them attacking the 
church and persecuting her. But he knows also that the 
Catholic Church, having a divine mission from God, withstands 
the persecution, and bids her children die, if necessary to be 
witnesses of Jesus Christ amongst the nations. 

* See Outlook, March 16, 1901. 

THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE IN THE STATE 

OF NEW YORK, 1901. 
VOL. LXXIII. 28 



416 MISSIONARY'S VIEW OF THE CHINESE QUESTION. [July, 

The Catholic Church in China had a very difficult task to 
accomplish ; she has tried to fulfil it nobly for hundreds of 
years with the most awful odds against her. How mean it is 
on the part of the Reverend Mr. Smith to misinterpret her 
acts and her words, to distort certain facts, and to give the 
assertions of a political agent of England or of America as a 
statement of truth, and the memorandum of the Tsung-li- 
Yamen thirty years ago as a rule of conduct for the Catholic 
Church. 

I am very sorry, Reverend Mr. Smith, if I must persist in 
believing that the church is right if, after more than one hun- 
dred years of study, she declares that the Chinese rites aie 
idolatrous, even when a pagan emperor, as K'ang-Hsi, is not of 
the same opinion. Nero was not of the opinion of St. Peter. 
He crucified Peter ; and still the world holds that Peter was 
right. 

CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES NOT POLITICAL AGENTS. 

Mr. Smith knows well that if the Catholic priests are now 
under the protection of the French government, they went to 
China and shed their blood there hundreds of years before 
France sent a consul to the Middle Kingdom. They accept 
the protection of France because they hope this protection 
will help them to extend the Kingdom of God, to protect 
their neophytes when persecuted and they are always perse- 
cuted but is it not a perfidy to hint that they are the political 
agents of France, that they are ambitious and arrogant ? I am 
indignant at this accusation. I have seen many bishops and 
priests in China, but I have never seen them usurping the in- 
signia of mandarins. If on certain occasions they go in cere- 
monial sedan chairs, especially when paying visits to officials, it 
is because this is a moral necessity. Otherwise they would be 
despised. 

They are accused of meddling in secular affairs in righting 
the wrongs of their Christians, and in doing so they go so far 
as to use the good offices of their consul. But it is their 
duty. Are they not the pastors of their people? Their people 
are poor and few, and always oppressed by the heathen, who 
knoiv that by denouncing them they will be agreeable to the 
authorities, and perhaps they will extort from them a parcel 
of land and a sum of money. 

The opposition of the mandarins, occult or manifest, is con- 
stant, almost universal, against the Catholic priests; it is a 



IC.OE ] MISSIONARY'S VIEW OF THE CHINESE QUESTION. 417 

fact. When they incite a mob to burn a church, when they 
refuse permission to build a chapel under the pretext that in 
digging the foundations the dragon protector of the empire 
would be hurt, when they oblige a priest to demolish his 
house because it stops the "wind of happiness" from blowing 
on the people ; when they do these things and many others t,o 
annihilate the apostolate of the priests of God, will these be 
blamed if they try amicably, or if they use the influence of a 
consul, to get redress or a compensation for their loss ? 

They are accused of having immense possessions in China. 
Indeed! Mr. Smith has a fat salary; but in the province in 
which I have been the priests were obliged to be satisfied 
with $180 a year! and silver dollars they were i.e., scarcely half 
American dollars. If they try in some few places to acquire 
pieces of land in order to maintain their churches and their 
schools in the future and extend the kingdom of Gcd, are they 
wrong in doing so? It is only common prudence. 

Mr. Smith accuses Catholics in China of provoking the 
government by building orphan asylums and rescuing poor lit- 
tle children that their cruel parents had thrown in the street ; 
he blames them for giving baptism to infants, extreme unction 
to the sick, etc. Well, I say, in a word, that such things are 
the glory of the Catholic Church. She has received the mis- 
sion of saving souls, and she will accomplish this mission in 
spite of heathen governments and Protestant ministers. 

Catholic priests are said to be guilty of many grievous 
wrongs against Protestants in China. It is not so. They were 
there hundreds of years before the Protestants ; they are too 
busy trying to convert pagans to pay much attention to the 
doings of the separated brethren. Some facts may be men- 
tioned ; but it is so easy to distort them, to misrepresent 
them, passing in silence the guilt of the Protestant party and 
exaggerating the acts of the Catholic side. In my experience 
I could cite some interesting cases ; but enough. I think it 
better to give your readers a general view of the situation, as 
I am intimately acquainted with it. 

ORIGIN OF THE CHINESE PEOPLE. 

The Semitic tribe of " the 100 families," * which arrived at 
and settled near the banks of the Yang-tse-Kiang some 5,000 
years ago, brought with it from the cradle of humanity pre- 

* Old traditions say that this tribe was made up of 100 families, or about. In their 
literature the Chinese call themselves " the one hundred families." 



418 MISSIONARY'S VIEW OF THE CHINESE QUESTION. [July, 

cious traditions, which are still found scattered here and there 
in its antique books. These writings, the oldest in the world, 
reveal to us that this race carried to the confines of Asia sur- 
prising energy, undaunted courage, wisdom and perseverance, 
by which it was enabled to conquer former inhabitants, free 
the country from wild beasts, clear and cultivate it. 

The leaders of this tribe were men of talent and even of 
genius. They gave to the people just laws and founded a 
society which has had long periods of peace and prosperity. 
During this succession of ages, the one hundred primitive 
families, which have become millions, have had revolutions, 
which oftentimes overthrew dynasties ; wars of extermination, 
w iich depopulated entire provinces ; but, all in all, the ensemble 
of the nation had a longer and happier existence than is re- 
lated of any other people. 

From antiquity agriculture was the occupation of the great 
majority of the Chinese. Their country, cultivated, even in our x 
day, as a garden as far as the shoulders of the mountains, 
admirably graded by the patient hands of past generations, 
has witnessed the greatest energy of man in his effort to over- 
Gome opposition, to protect, to fertilize, and to extend the 
productive area. The country was infested with wild animals, 
which even now are far from being exterminated. It was neces- 
sary to destroy them with inadequate weapons ; skilful traps 
were resorted to. There were wide rivers to keep within 
bounds; to do so gigantic levees were erected. The most 
viluable lands for the culture of rice were immense marshes, 
which were partly inundated and then drained by opening 
canals. On the north nomadic tribes were continually invad- 
ing the country, and by their incursions disturbing the peace. 
Tiie Chinese people, to prevent this, erected the great wall 
perhaps the most gigantic work of man on earth. 

The Clinese people have been and are a laborious people, 
sober and peaceful. They have a respect for authority that 
amounts to a veneration ; and this not only for the Emperor's 
(Son of Heaven) supreme authority but for that of the manda- 
rins, and especially for that of the head of the family. 

The title " Son of Heaven," given to the emperor, generally 
provokes a smile on the lips of Westerners. The old Chinese, 
however, attached to it a very beautiful and, I would say, a 
Christian meaning. They were not then pantheists, as they 
are to-day. They understood by Heaven the Supreme Being, 
who from above governs everything ; their emperor commanded 



1 90 1.] MISSIONARY'S VIEW OF THE CHINESE QUESTION. 419 

in his name, as a son in his father's name ; he was, therefore, 
the Son of Heaven, and the empire he ruled was naturally 
called "the Celestial Empire." 

THE FAMILY IN CHINA. 

The family in China is strongly constituted. The father 
has absolute authority over his wife and children, and he ex- 
ercises it till death, in a patriarchal way, over all his posterity. 
He is a little monarch. In some cases he may become tyranni- 
cal ; but this seldom happens, for, though this authority is much 
greater than is exercised by parents in Europe, it is, however, 
controlled by customs, traditions, the neighbors and relatives, 
and, when abuses occur, by provincial and imperial laws. When 
children have for generations been brought up in this respect 
for the father's authority, even when white-haired, they have 
no idea of escaping from it. 

The peculiar practice of binding women's feet, which may 
be called absurd, inhuman, barbarous, is not without some 
advantage. By confining the women forcibly to their homes, 
it compels them to look after their domestic duties more at- 
tentively. Girls especially, till their marriage, are brought up 
under the eyes of their mothers, who, when handing them to 
their future husbands, can generally say to them, as one is 
once reported to have said : " I have watched over my 
daughter as the pupil of my eye, day and night ; take her, she 
is worthy of you ; she is a virgin whom I entrust to you '* 
(one of the Chinese classics). 

The various families of a place form ,the village, which in a 
large measure provides for its own administration. It is really 
a small republic. The council of the chiefs of families settle 
amicably most of the disputes and differences. It is responsible 
for the good order in the village, takes proper means to en- 
large the village, to beautify it and to protect it. It defrays 
the expenses of the children's education, of worship, and of 
popular festivities. It is, moreover, held responsible for the 
collection of taxes by the treasurer of the province. 

The town, divided into wards or sections, may be com- 
pared to an agglomeration of villages, and it is administered in 
a similar manner. The presence of some government officers, 
called mandarins, renders possible the working of this rather 
primitive administration, even in populous cities ; though they 
have at their service but few policemen or soldiers. 



420 MISSIONARY'S VIEW OF THE CHINESE QUESTION. [July, 

CHINESE LITERATURE. 

The assertion will probably surprise many it is, however, 
the simple expression of truth that in China government 
employees for the preservation of order are scarcely one per 
cent, of the number of employees for the same purposes in 
Eirops; and yst we boast of unrivalled civilization and call 
ths Chinese savages. It must also be borne in mind that the 
Celestials return the compliment. They think and say that 
they are the civilized ones and that we are barbarians. Who 
is right ? The Romans also thought that they were the 
only civilized people and all other nations barbarians. At the 
time of the greatest Roman splendor China had already been 
for many centuries at the apex of its grandeur. When Horace 
and Virgil were lisping in metres China boasted of poets who 
for many generations were admired by the people. China, 
moreover, has had writers in all the branches of human learn- 
ing who compare favorably in many respects with Greek and 
Roman authors. They surpass them greatly in number and in 
the bulk of their productions, and what is more to the point, 
their literature is less sullied by immorality. It can be said, 
also, that it has been more useful to the people. It has taught 
them many things conducive to their well-being, their security, 
contort, and dignity, and has enabled them to endure over 
four thousand years in a state of general order and prosperity 
better than the Roman Empire ever knew. And, though mani- 
festly on the decline, it would, however, last for many centuries 
still, if the tumultuous clashing with opium merchants, with 
drummers of occidental civilization and greedy European na- 
tions, had not intervened to disturb it. 

CHINESE CIVILIZATION. 

Compared to the civilization which is the outcome of the 
Gospel teachings, the Chinese civilization, of course, is very 
imperfect, for it tolerates polygamy, divorce, infanticide, and 
leaves woman in an inferior condition, akin to slavery ; but it 
is superior in many aspects to any pagan civilization we have 
known. 

In past ages the Chinese people made a remarkable use of 
primitive traditions and natural lights, which enabled them to 
impregnate their laws, their institutions, their customs in a 
word, their civilization with a wonderful character of mild- 
ness and moderation. 



1901.] MISSIONARY'S VIEW OF THE CHINESE QUESTION. 421 

For some centuries, it must be admitted, the Chinese civil- 
ization has been hardly holding its own. It is even now in a 
lamentable state of decadence. Is this huge rotten tree, which 
seems depri/ed of sap, destined to crumble in pieces, or is 
there any ground of hope that it may grow again and bear 
flowers and fruits? The hope is very dim if China is to be 
left to herself; she is poisoned in her spirit by her intense 
pride, refusing to believe, in spite of evidence, that the world 
his moved around her. She is poisoned in her body by the 
opium of England She is supremely irritated by the aggres- 
sion of Western nations, against whom she nourishes an intense 
hitred and manifests occasionally an unwise and disordered 
rage. She shows her obduracy by persistently shutting her 
eyes to the light of the Gospel, which alone can save her. 

Interesting traditions authorize us to believe that an echo of 
the preaching of the Apostles was heard in China. An inscrip- 
tion of the second century and another of the seventh leave no 
doubt concerning both the time and the event. We know from 
letters of sovereign pontiffs that in the thirteenth century there 
were in the Middle Kingdom at least four bishops, with hun- 
dreds of thousands of the faithful. However when, in the 
sixteenth century new missionaries landed on those distant 
shores, they did not find a single Christian. And since the 
sixteenth century, how many times has not China attempted 
to drown the church in the blood of her missionaries and of 
her children ! 

THE REMEDY FOR DECADENCE. 

What, then, is the remedy for this lamentable condition of 
the great nation ? I know but one : it would be the frank and 
sincere acceptation of the Catholic truth. Undoubtedly the 
church would soon raise the Chinese people from their state 
of depression and degeneracy. She would infuse into the 
hearts of the rulers a superior wisdom, which would enable 
them to cope with intricate difficulties and heal the many evils 
which have fallen on their subjects. Not one of the people 
would resist the influence of the evangelical doctrine if the 
laws and customs were impregnated with it. 

We know by experience that the baptized Chinaman feels 
the awakening in his soul of a tenderness which was before 
unknown to him, and that the thought which haunts so many 
heathens will not even occur to him, namely, of coldly mur- 
dering new-born children because forsooth to let them live 
would entail some inconvenience and labor! 



422 MISSIONARY' s VIEW OF THE CHINESE QUESTION. [July, 

The doctrine of monogamy would suppress a vast amount 
of dissensions in families. There would be fewer divorces, 
suicides, murders, brigandages, and uprisings. The spirit of 
the church suggesting to the state measures rigorously pro- 
hibitive of the sale of opium would stop its cultivation. Its 
importation would be diminished, and consequently its use. If 
by the law of treaties England should invoke the rights of 
commerce, Christian China would invoke against her the 
superior right of public security and of national health. If, 
again, she insisted on preserving her privilege, acquired by her 
big guns, of keeping open her dishonest shops and selling her 
poison, China would be free not to enter into the ill-famed 
house and not to buy from such unscrupulous merchants. 
Unprincipled as England is, she would not go so far as to 
shell the gates of the Middle Kingdom in order to increase 
the use of opium. She did impose its use on China. It is to 
her shame, and it is one of her numerous public sins ; she would 
not dare to continue the nefarious traffic in the face of an 
enlightened Christian opinion. There is no human power, nor 
are there any efficacious means, to cure China of the deadly 
opium habit outside of the Catholic Church. This evil has 
already so far corrupted the body that civil death is imminent, 
and Western nations are waiting like hungry wolves for the 
end to come, that they may pounce on their victim. It seems, 
then, a question of vital moment for China whether she will 
cast aside the deadly peril before it is too late. 

The teaching of the first truths of the Christian faith would 
dispel the ignorance of the literati, and would heal their im- 
measurable pride by showing them that they know nothing of 
the great and important theological questions. Their own 
literature teaches them nothing of God, of the eternal destiny 
of man, of his duties towards his Creator, or of prayer. The 
Holy Scriptures would be, for the alert and keen Chinese un- 
derstanding, the substantial food which is necessary to enable 
it to rise from the state of abasement in which it is now 
plunged, and the revealed truths of Christ would lead it to- 
the bright summits where, becoming conscious of its strength, 
it would prepare itself for combat with evil. 

How profitable would it be, could China understand that, 
once in possession of the celestial truth, the Emperor and his 
councillors would no longer follow that perfidious policy which 
has been for China the cause of so many difficulties. 



igoi.] MISSIONARY' s VIEW OF THE CHINESE QUESTION. 423 

THE INFLUENCE OF THE CHURCH. 

This severe but just word has been said of China : "She 
has no men, but is a nation of children and of old men." 
The Catholic Church has the commission of guiding the child-like 
people and of leading back a degenerate people to the ma- 
turity of age, to the virility of thoughts and works. She is by 
excellence the human power which gives to humanity its per- 
fect stature. Men are formed and grow robust in her schools. 
Soon a choice cohort, an aristocracy in the best sense, is de- 
veloped among the neophytes. In these select men would be 
found the builders of a society regenerated in both a religious 
and a civil point of view. They would be a leaven to arouse the 
mass of the people to better living. The admirable patience and 
docility of the Chinese render it an easy task for wise rulers to 
lead them into newer and higher fields of activity. With the 
awakening of this new spirit among the Chinese we might be justi- 
fied in believing that the era of great calamities to the nation 
would come to an end. Henceforth the people would be less 
frequently abandoned by an equitable and merciful Providence 
to the fury of the elements, or to the yet more formidable fury 
of men. It is sure that men would be less wicked, legions of 
bandits would not rise so easily from the masses to spread 
throughout the land theft, conflagration, murder, and countless 
other evils. The people, better protected by their natural lead- 
ers, would have more confidence in the future ; scourges would 
lose partially their calamitous power. The forces of nature are 
not blind and fatal, as impiety is pleased to say. We know, 
on the contrary, that their harmful power depends on and is 
subject to another Power, which quells and curbs them, or ex- 
tends them, according to its divine wisdom. Sin causes catas- 
trophes, and repentance disarms the justice which punishes it. 
God does not permit those who hope in him to fall into ex- 
treme affliction. If the land of China were more faithful to 
God, there is room to hope that it would be less burnt and 
withered by a scorching sun, and that the uncontrollable waters 
would be more often forbidden to flood its lands. 

But who will publish these salutary truths of the Gospel, 
the only ones which can save China ? Who will give a taste 
for this heavenly wisdom to the men who have in their hands 
the destinies of the Middle Kingdom? Bishops and priests, 
now numbering about a thousand, will, of course, raise their 
voices; but their messages will fall on deaf ears, or their voices 



424 MISSIONARY'S VIEW OF THE CHINESE QUESTION. [July, 

will be stifled by the noise of European armies and by the 
clamors of Western ambition, which has sent forth its merchants, 
its engineers, its knaves, in the hope of great profits. 

RELUCTANCE TO ACCEPT THE CHURCH. 

Till now, alas ! the evangelical doctrine, by reason of the 
austerity of its moral teachings, has frightened the leaders of 
the Chinese people. They know too well that this doctrine 
would put a restraint on their dearest passions, and for this 
motive it is much to be feared that they will do as in the 
past: sacrifice to their hearts' depraved instincts their eternal 
interests and their people's salvation. It will always be easy 
for them to find pretexts and to deceive their rather unscrupu- 
lous conscience. They will continue to say that the doctrine 
of Confucius is easier than the doctrine of the Gospel. They 
will persist in looking on the Catholic missionaries as the politi- 
cal agents of other nations ; they will wilfully mistake them for 
vulgar speculators, in order to dispense themselves from listen- 
ing to their teaching and to reserve the right of persecution 
every time it may be possible. 

The invasion of the Protestant ministers in China is not of 
such a nature as to open the eyes of the mandarins to the 
light of faith. Mistaking more or less wilfully these apostles 
for the representatives of the true faith, they have said to 
themselves, and will undoubtedly continue to say for a long 
time to come : " Let them first agree among themselves, and 
then we may examine their doctrine " It must be borne in 
mind that this objection is very serious, for Protestant minis- 
ters are twice at least as numerous in China as Catholic 
priests. They have at their disposal immense sums of money, 
which have enabled them to establish hospitals and dispen- 
saries, schools, colleges, and churches in great number. 

Their proselytes are few ; for, in order to transform 
Chinese into true Christians it seems, indeed, that an impor- 
tant element, divine grace, with which they appear to be 
poorly provided, is absolutely necessary. There are some 
Catholic priests in China so optimistic as to think that the 
efforts of Protestants in the Middle Kingdom are not to be 
feared by the church. They will be incapable, they say, of 
founding churches that will last, and they may prepare the 
ways for Catholicism. They batter the old walls of prejudice 
and help us to make them crumble. We shall reap the benefit 
-of their labors. And, in fact, they point out different places 



1 90i.] MISSIONARY'S VIEW OF THE CHINESE QUESTION. 425 

where Protestants were the cause or the occasion of establish- 
ing new Catholic centres All the same, it must be confessed 
that this extraordinary activity of Protestantism in China is a 
grave symptom, and perhaps a serious obstacle, I do not say 
to the conversion en masse of China, but even to the conver- 
sion of a notable portion of the Chinese people. 

THE HOPES FOR THE FUTURE. 

The very idea of finding fault with or criticising the designs 
of Divine Providence must, of course, be shunned ; it is better 
to adore them, and anticipate consolation and joy in interpret- 
ing favorably certain signs and waiting for more auspicious 
times. 

Children of the church, we know that God wishes the sal- 
vation of all men, and we delight to meditate on some words 
of the Lord Jesus, hinting that the day will come when there 
will be morally one flock, guided by the one true Pastor. Ac- 
cording to the expression of a recent writer on China, Father 
Leroy, God, who jumbles men as the letters of an alphabet, is 
getting ready manifestly to write in the world. Indeed, for 
those who know how to read, he has written already many elo- 
quent pages. Wnen his powerful hand puts down barriers, 
suppresses distances, reveals the universe to itself, the only de- 
sign worthy of his infinite wisdom is to lead men towards unity 
and to harken to the prayer of our Saviour on the eve of his 
Passion. Bat it is plain that unity can take place with us only 
in the domain of truth, in the bosom of its only repository, 
the Citholic Church. It is to realize this plan, and not to 
open factories, mines, or railways, that men are on the move 
everywhere and, according to the energetic expression of De 
Maistre, " entrent en fusion." 

Africa the dark continent, is opened to the true light on 
every side ; the Cross has been planted on almost all the 
islands of O-eanica ; the greatest of all, Australia, a veritable 
continent, has nearly a million of Catholics, whom this century 
will probably see multiplied to ten times this number. The two 
Americas have more than 60,000,000. During the nineteenth 
century Catholics have increased considerably in old Europe, 
where we see, as well as in America, heretical sects gradually 
crumbling to pieces or drifting away into the abyss of indiffer- 
entism or infidelity. 

The hierarchy established in the East Indies governs and 
increases every day a flock of 2,000,000 of Catholics. Indo- 



426 MISSIONARY'S VIEW OF THE CHINESE QUESTION. [July, 

China, Japan, China, and other countries have been systemati- 
cally divided into apostolic vicariates, where the progress of the 
church is consoling. Heretical and schismatical countries of 
the East have been listening to the words of the successor of 
St. Peter addressed to them. They acknowledge in him the 
chief of the first and most ancient Christian confession. Who 
knows if the events of the near future will not lead the Chinese 
to proclaim him the only pastor of the one flock? Let us enter- 
tain this hope. 

It is probably what is causing this increasing rage of hell, bat- 
tering now more frantically at the gates of Holy Church. Satan 
also knows how to read what God is writing in this world, and 
he trembles, foreseeing a coming defeat. He makes desperate 
endeavors to avert it. Is not this an explanation of this re- 
newed fury against CathDlic nations, and especially against 
France, the chief centre whence the army of the apostolate is 
recruited ? 

No doubt the cursed one would like to rob the Christian 
nations of their faith ; but he would as much prefer, and more 
perhaps, to prevent them from carrying the light of the Gospel 
to the heathen peoples over whom he is tyrant, and who yet 
form the great majority of the human race. 

To-day the Catholic Church counts about 280,000,000 of 
children. By adding the other Christians, Protestants and 
schismatics, of whom many belong to her, we are not far, proba- 
bly, Irom 500,000,000. Well, it is the third of the human 
family. If Satan can still call_himself the tyrant of two human 
beings out of three, can we not hope, leaning on the signs 
that we see, that before the new century is over the enemies 
of God will be in the minority? 




1901.] 



THE GOSPEL OF THE FIELDS. 



427 



HE GOSPEL OF THE FIELDS. 



BY ARTHUR UPSON. 




AVE you ever thought, my friend, 

As daily you toil and plod 
Through the noisy paths of man, 
How still are the ways of God? 



Have you ever paused in the din 
Of traffic's insistent cry 
To think of the calm in the cloud, 

Of the peace in your glimpse of sky ? 

Go out in the growing fields, 
That quietly yield you meat, 

And let them rebuke your noise 
Whose patience is still and sweet. 

They toil their aeons and we, 
Who flutter back to their breast, 

A handful of clamorous clay, 
Forget their silence is best ! 





423 REFLECTIONS FOR AN ORDINARY CHRISTIAN. [July, 
REFLECTIONS FOR AN ORDINARY CHRISTIAN. 

BY ONE OF THEM. 
DEUS CAF1TAS EST. 

I. 

HE most awe-full of divine facts is the infinite 
goodness of God. Terrifying, because we must 
ultimately share it, not as recipients only but as 
actual exponents and reflectors of it. 

Et dixi : Vos estis Dii. 
And I have said it : You are as Gods. 

This is the condition of supernaturalization in the other 
life. Heaven without it were a mere Nirvana. It absent, union 
with God would be a fiction. That absence makes, means, and 
spells Hell. 

" We know that we have passed from death to life, because 
we love the brethren. He that loveth not, abideth in death." 
If I dared to say that we must participate in it in kind, I 
would dare to say we must participate in extent short of that 
transcendent reality which our lips stutter at when we say 
infinity. 

Oh ! human speech, how inadequate to intimate even ; oh ! 
human mind, how unequal even to reflect a minimized phantasm 
of the shadow of the Infinite Love ! We may strain with 
titanic struggles to tear the ligaments that keep us tongue- 
tied, only to find our lips babble out at best the thoughts of a 
child. 

And so we merely say, and let us at least kneeling say : 

God is Love. 

II. 

Lean over the heart of that woman grasping to her bosom 
her dying child the fruit of her womb, the flesh of her body, 
the blood of her veins. Let the hot iron of her mother-love 
burn into the marrow of your bones ; the insanity of her dis- 
tress shrivel you to the very soul. Earth, life I had said 



1901.] REFLECTIONS FOR AN ORDINARY CHRISTIAN. 429 

Heaven, but words are vacuous she would give for love of it, 
with love for it, instantly, cheerfully, madly. 

We have touched one bound, one horizon, of human affec- 
tion : Mother-love. Speech fails, sense fails there is nothing 
left but sobs. 

Then listen to the Voice that said : 

" And if a woman should forget her child, still will I not forget 

you." 

There is no word of human tenderness, there is no feeling 
of human affection, there is no thought within the conception 
of human capacity there is naught earthly or created, that 
may, that can, that dare love speak love, think love, feel love, 
like the Bridegroom of the Canticles, the eternal and infinite 
God. 

III. 

Sorrow, sufferings, trials; phases of what we call life (and 
who knows that what we call pleasures, successes, satisfactions 
bear not the same label to angels' eyes ?) are these not only 
excuses for new tendernesses from God ? The lineaments of 
His love may be hidden. Faith proclaims them. Sins atoned, 
averted; punishments commuted, glories won directly, indi- 
rectly ; soon, late ; near by, afar off ; for ourselves, our friends, 
our community, our race. Who spans God's reach ; who mea- 
sures His glance; who overrules His purpose; who reads His 
Heart ? 

Time turns a few leaves of years. 'Twas yesterday. It is 
still to-day above. And has God changed ? He loves. Did 
He not love then ? Blinded by tears then, we read the page 
awry which now spells golden words, and always love. The 
purposes, the lights, the graces, the means, the results, can we 
know them ; shall we judge them ? Was anything left out 
that love should do ? 

Read. In the Book it is written : 

" My people, is there anything which I should have done, 
and which I have not done?" 

Close the Book. It is all the same : 

God is Love. 

IV. 

He loves all. Ah ! there it touches us whose little lives 
are spelt in words, numbered by letters, limited by kin, near- 



430 REFLECTIONS FOR AN ORDINARY CHRISTIAN. [July. 

ness, service, reward, circumstance. He loves all. Terrific 
thought : that is what we shall have to learn and to do. 

Vos estis Dii. 
You are as Gods. 

No love, no godliness. No love, no Heaven. No love, no 
happiness. No love, no eternity. 

"He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother, is 
in darkness even until now." 

All or none : 

The man that wronged me, 

The man of intolerable deeds, 

The man with gross or vulgar habits, 

The man of poor and despicable circumstances, 

The savage with incredible debasement, 

The sage with impossible arrogance, 

The neighbor with every angle set on edge to mine, 

The stranger with no interest that ever linked to mine, 

The human being in all his shapes and moods and degrees 
of ignorance, selfishness, meannesses, injustices, cruelties, nasti- 
nesses, and obnoxiousness, 

God loves all. 

We must learn to love. Have we learnt in life ? Can we 
learn in death? Shall we learn in a moment? 

Yet God said : 

" This is my commandment : that you love one another, AS I 
HAVE LOVED YOU." 

Is it not so, that the most awe-inspiring truth is the infinite 
goodness of God which we are called actively to share, or 
for ever to forswear. 





O wonder the women of England fell in love with 
poor Sir Anthony," said a contemporary of the 
great Van Dyck, and, gazing upon his portrait, 
one does not wonder that the original was the 
possessor of many fascinations for the fair sex. 
Painted by himself, Van Dyck's likeness as a young man shows 
a handsome, debonair, courtier-like cavalier, fascinating of 
glance, captivating of air, with all the graces of the followers 
of King Charles ; his curling locks pushed away from a broad, 
high foreheid his best feature his mustachios well trimmed, 
his linen spotlessly white and in the prevailing mode, his cloak 
velvet, his chain of golden links. Such was Sir Anthony, suc- 
cessful, feted, dined, flattered by the English court ; the favor- 
ite of the fair queen, Henrietta Maria, knighted by his royal 
patron, King Charles the Martyr. A few years later his por- 
trait shows the likeness of a disappointed man. The gay 
witchery has given place to dreamy sadness ; the smiling 
mouth droops at the corners, the eyes gaze into futurity with 
a wondering disappointment in their liquid depths. And yet 
the piinter won for himself more than a modicum of success 
as the world counts it. 

Barn in Antwerp in 1599, a lad of a peculiarly artistic 
temperament, he was fortunate in the auspices which attended 
the opening of his career in this mundane sphere. Sixteenth- 
century Antwerp was a city eminently fitted to foster a genius 
for the fine arts. The thrifty Flemish bourg was by no means 
given up entirely to the trade which had made it famous. 

The city of Van Balen, Jordaens, Vranck, and of the great 
master of color, Rubens, Antwerp was the home of culture 
and artistic taste. From its Spanish masters it perchance im- 
bibed something of Southern warmth, romance, and grace to 
add to its homely Flemish sturdiness and painstaking, and its 
art of that date shows evidences of cultivation as well as 
natural talent. 

Van Dyck's people were peculiarly suited to encourage his 
genius. His father Franz van Dijck was a silk manufac- 
turer, a wealthy man, inheriting his business from his ances- 
tors, and since Antwerp was a maritime centre a man of 
VOL. LXXIII. 29 



432 



POOR SIR ANTHONY. 



[July, 




VAN DYCK PAINTED BY HIMSELF. 

the world, with the culture and breadth which comes of con- 
tact with men of occupations widely differing from his own. 
His wife, the youthful painter's mother, was a woman of rare 
character. She was moreover, in a purely feminine way, an 
artist of no slight pretensions. Under her skilled fingers the 
needle became a brush, a bit of cloth a canvas, and her 
embroidery was marvellous. A piece preserved to the present 
day in the Antwerp museum shows Susannah and the Elders, 
surrounded by a border of interlacing boughs and leaves, a 
perfect masterpiece of delicate shading. 

Between mother and son there was the closest sympathy, 
and until he was eight years old the boy scarcely left her 
side, her well stored mind and artistic taste supplementing 



1 90 1.] POOR SIR ANTHONY. 433 

the instructions of his tutors. Had she lived, Anthony's life 
might have been different, freer from the youthful faults which 
he lived bitterly to repent. His mother was a devout Catho- 
lic, his brother Theodore became canon of the Abbey of St. 
Michel, three of his sisters took the veil in the Beguinage, 
while Anne, his favorite sister, became a Facontine nun. 
After his mother's death young Van Dyck devoted himself ex- 
clusively to the study of art, and when but ten years old was 
sent to the studio of Hendrik van Balen, a historical painter of 
mark who had studied under Van Noort. 

Like a bright-hued flower Anthony nourished in the atmos- 
phere of art in which he found himself, rapidly distancing his 
colleagues, and becoming so proficient that even the great 
master Rubens, upon his return from Italy at the very zenith 
of his fame, noticed the aspiring lad and admitted him to 
intimacy when Van Dyck was but fifteen years old. How 
pleasant must have been the hours spent in the magnificent 
Rubens house in quaint old Antwerp ! There were gathered 
together the greatest minds of the Flemish bourg, the most 
noted artists, and Van D/ck's quick perceptions aided him in 
imbibing much useful knowledge from his superior friends. 
Rubens regarded him as his first and favorite pupil, and trusted 
him to prepare the sketches of his paintings from which the 
engraver worked. A copyist must not only be exact in every 
stroke but must be in complete sympathy with the spirit of 
the mister whose work he endeavors to reproduce, and Rubens 
must have felt great confidence in the ability and good will of 
his young friend and pupil. 

One day, when Rubens was absent from his studio, two 
of his pupils began a wrestling match, and one of them, 
Diepenbeck, was pushed against a freshly painted picture, 
rubbing out the throat and chin of the principal figure. Con- 
sternation fell upon the merry crowd until one of them pro- 
posed that Van Dyck try to repair the damages. He quickly 
set to work, and restored the flesh tints so well that the boys 
resolved to risk deceiving Rubens. Next morning the great 
master, scrutinizing his picture complacently, remarked : " This 
throat and chin are by no means the worst piece of work I 
did yesterday." Upon examining it more closely he detected 
a strange hand, but Van Dyck immediately confessed the 
whole incident, and generous Rubens forgave the offenders, 
pleased with his pupil's skill. 

When the clever young painter was only nineteen he was 



434 POOR SIR ANTHONY. [July. 

enrolled as master in the Guild of St. Luke, Antwerp's famous 
society of arts and crafts, a great honor for one so young. 
He began to be successful, selling his pictures well. The 
Jesuits ever ready patrons of arts and sciences mentioned 
his name especially in their contract with Rubens to decorate 
their church with thirty-nine pictures to be painted by Rubens' 
pupils and retouched by the master's hand. 

In a letter dated July 17, 1620, indited by an unknown 
agent of the Earl of Arundel, the writer says: "Van Dyck 
lives with Rubens; his works are beginning to be scarcely less 
esteemed than those of his master " ; and shortly after this 
Anthony was invited to visit the English court. While there 
he painted a portrait of James I., the first in a long line of 
ancestral portraits, aristocratic likenesses of princes, nobles, 
scholars, brave men and fair women, so many of which 
canvases are to-day the most priceless heirlooms of the famous 
homes of England. 

Returning from London, Van Dyck went to Haarlem, where 
he visited Franz Hals, the eccentric genius who was always "not 
at home " to visitors. Wishing to play a joke upon him, and 
aware of his peculiarities, Van Dyck represented himself as a 
rich patron desiring a portrait, and Hals was promptly fetched 
from the neighboring tavern, where he was generally to be 
found worshipping at the shrine of Bacchus. Anthony in- 
formed him that he had but two hours in which to sit for his 
portrait and Hals began to paint with his accustomed skill. 
In less time than that named the portrait was ready and Van 
Dyck eyed it critically. 

" Very good, mynheer," he said patronizingly. " But this 
painting must be easier than I had thought, since you do it 
so fast. Let me try to paint you, and see what I can do." 

Hals could not refuse, and handed his brushes and palette 
to the stranger. When the second portrait was finished and 
proved to be as good as the first, a light dawned upon the im- 
petuous little Dutchman. Rushing up to his guest he flung 
his arms about Van Dyck's neck, crying : " The man who can 
do that is either Van Dyck or the devil." 

In 1622 Van^D/ck's father died, and upon his death-bed 
the pious old man exacted a promise from his son that he 
would paint a picture for the chapel of the Dominican nuns, 
who had nursed him through his last illness. This promise 
Van Dyck redeemed by giving them his marvellous Crucifixion, 
painted after his return from Italy. 



1901.] POOR SIR ANTHONY. 435 

This is one of the most remarkable of all the artist's paint- 
ings, and is of such rare merit that one wonders that any 
one could have supposed its artist unable to paint religious 
pictures. 

Ths Crucifixion in the Mechlin Cathedral has been compared 




THE PlETA NOW IN THE ANTWERP MUSEUM. 

frequently to the one at Antwerp, and by many is regarded 
as the greiter of the two. A critic says: "The composition 
is finely balanced and the moment of the Saviour's death most 
touchingly given. The various forms of sorrow, from the pro- 
found pathos of the Blessed Virgin to ths passionate feeling 
of the Magdalen, are admirably characterized. Also the ex- 
pression of the bslieving centurion on horseback, The drawing 
is fine and the gloomy, harmonious keeping of the whole with 
the sudden darkness has a striking effect." 

Different in tone is the Antwerp Crucifixion. The chiaro- 
oscuro is fine, the light being managed so that the figure of our 
Lord is the one thing to which everything points, an effect 
of centralization which Van Dyck always had well. The flesh 
tints are marvellous, and upon a rude cross is stretched the 
Saviour of the world, majesty in his features, grace in every 
line of his body. Anatomically this is wonderfully correct, the 
only flaw being in the painting of the arms, which are too 



POOR SCR ANTHONY. [July. 

much curved, as the weight of the body resting entirely from 
them would have drawn them tense. 

St. Dominic, founder of the order for whose convent the 
picture was painted, stands to the side, his face upturned, his 
hands outspread, as if he were exclaiming at so horrid a deed. 
Clasping the feet of the crucified Saviour is St. Catherine of 
Siena, mystic bride of Christ, weeping bitterly. An angel turns 
djwn the fading torch of life, and lovely cherubs hover in the 
clouds, as if awaiting their dying Lord, " the consummation of 
whose pain was yet the perfection of his victory." The sub- 
limity of conception, the forceful delicacy of handling, the re- 
finement of feeling displayed in this one painting, place Van 
D/ck in the front rank of religious painters. 

Van D/ck has frequently been compared to Rubens, to the 
younger man's detriment. Geniuses so different can scarcely 
be compared. The sphere of both is somewhat the same, but 
each had his virtues, each his faults. Rubens had the fire and 
intensity to grasp and grapple with the most terrible scenes ; 
his color is powerful and brilliant, his handling masterly. Van 
Dyck had none of Rubens' coarseness, his expression of pro- 
found and intense emotion was elevated and refined. His 
feeling for nature was keen, and his mastery of treatment 
equals Rubens as fully as his correctness of detail surpasses 
and his coloring falls short of him. 

la many of his paintings to-day the coloring seems faulty 
because the red background has unfortunately come through. 
Tnis is caused by his having, at the time of his visit to Italy, 
adopted the then prevailing fashion of painting upon a very dark 
ground, and this caused, also, too heavy tones in the shadows. 

The influence of his Italian studies is apparent in the 
Pieta, now in the Antwerp museum. Depth of coloring he 
learned from Glorgione and Titian, and full and solemn effects 
and dark draperies throw into greater effect the white tones 
of his paintings. The Pieta is full of refined feeling and devo- 
tion : the Blessed Virgin, almost dramatic in her grief, is as 
beautiful as some of the high-bred Madonnas of Del Sarto ; the 
St. John is an artistic blending of boyishness and intellect, the 
hidden face of the Magdalen serves to heighten the intense 
feeling expressed in her figure, the hovering angel expresses 
worship and pity, while in the figure of the dead Christ there 
is wonderful relaxation. Every line is dead, as it were, and in 
the portrayal there is such majesty that one feels with the 
centurion: "Surely this man was the Son of God!" 



ipoi.] 



POOR SIR ANTHONY. 



437 




THE MYSTICAL MARRIAGE OF ST. CATHERINE (BUCKINGHAM PALACE). 

Among the most famous of Van Dyck's religious paintings 
are two of the Blessed Virgin and Holy Child, a favorite sub- 
ject with him. In one, now in Buckingham Palace, the " Mys- 
tic Marriage of St. Catherine," the Blessed Virgin holds a 
wreath of roses for the fair bride of her Son, and gazes lov- 
ingly at the Divine Child, who is about to place the nuptial 
ring upon the finger of the saint. The latter, leaning upon 
her wheel and holding the palm branch of martyrdom, is a 
graceful figure, though not so markedly so as is the Blessed 
Virgin, whose delicate, pensive face is among the painter's 
best Madonnas. Not so beautiful is it, however, as the famous 
Our Lady in the Brera at Milan. With the baby Our Lord 
in her arms she is enthroned above St. Anthony, who, in cowl 
and gown, kneels adoringly before his Lord. There is a sub- 
tle sympathy about this picture, a refinement in the lines, a 
naturalness in the manner in which the baby pats St. Anthony's 
face, a high-bred reserve in the very pose of the Blessed Vir- 
gin, a graceful dignity in her aristocratic features those of 



438 POOR SIR ANTHONY. [July> 

the artist's wife, a lady of the noble Scottish family of Ruth- 
ven. She is ver)' different from the Raffaelesque Madonna of 
the " Holy Family " in the Munich gallery, or the beautiful 
maiden of the " Madonna, Child and Donators," in the Louvre. 
The Virgin in the last named is said to have been painted 
from an early sweetheart of Van Dyck's, one Anna van Ophem, 
of Saventhem, " Mistress of the Infanta Isabella's Hounds," 
and the male and female figures are said to have been taken 
from the parents of Van Dyck's inamorata. This painting is 
the more interesting because it is regarded as the one which 
marks the transition of the artist from a religious to a portrait 
painter, in which last role he made his greatest reputation. 

Before Sir Anthony visited Italy he had painted a few por- 
traits, but while in that land of flowers and sunshine he was 
influenced largely by Titian, the world's greatest portrait 
painter. The young Dutchman painted worthy portraits of 
Brignole, Balbi, Spinola, Pallavicino, and, as a result of a visit 
to the cardinal's hospitable mansion, a superb likeness of Car- 
dinal Bentivolio, a picture showing that perfection of coloring 
and marvellous insight into the characteristics of the sitter 
which made Van Dyck's portraits famous. 

From this time on the painter devoted himself almost ex- 
clusively to portraits, and executed likenesses of infantas of 
Spain, princes of France, royalty of England, bishops, abbs, 
and a most interesting series of his fellow-artists. These last 
are among his best works. Many of them were engraved by 
Van der Enden, many more etched by the artist's own hand, 
and as an etcher he shows the same fine traits which he has 
as a painter, delicacy and precision, wedded to ease of action. 
Into many of his pictures of the great worldly motives may 
have entered. The " almighty dollar " was as needful in those 
days as now, especially to one of Van Dyck's luxurious habits,, 
and he could scarcely paint an unflattering portrait of a man 
who would pay unlimited pistoles for it, if he liked it ! Conse- 
quently, the artist's royal portraits must be taken " cum grano 
salis " as likenesses, though as works of art they are superb. 
No such motives could influence him with his fellow-artists 
men of his own class, devoted to art for art's sake, and to 
truth for the sake of art. Here his genius was untrammelled. 
The sitters were his friends, men of sense and artistic spirit, 
and their portraits are sympathetic and life-like. One of the 
most remarkable of Van Dyck's portraits of men is that of 
Mynheer Van der Geest, an art-lover and patron. The 
painting, erroneously marked " Portrait of Gevartius," is now 



POOR SIR ANTHONY. 



439 




MYNHEER VAN DER GEEST, AN ART-LOVER. 

in the National Gallery, London, and combines the luminous 
coloring of Rubens and Titian's humanity with Van Dyck's 
truthful and refined observance of forms. The Dutch mynheer 
is represented upon a dark background, against which his 
strong-featured face, with its deep-set eyes, its dome-like fore- 
head, its full, rather humorous mouth stand out in strong relief. 
A contrast to this still picture, whose only action is in the 
expressiveness of the life-like features, is the fine equestrian 
portrait of Seflor Francisco de Moncado, Marquis of Aytona, 
generalissimo of the Spanish forces in the Netherlands. Van 
Dyck greatly admired Velasquez, and it is quite within the 
bounds of possibility that the great Spaniard may have in- 
fluenced him at some time during his continental travels. 
One seems to detect in this equestrian portrait a soup^on of 



440 



POOR SIR ANTHONY. 



the style of Velasquez, though Van Dyck's portraits are done 
always in his own peculiar manner. This particular painting 
is his finest equestrian portrait ; indeed, by many it is deemed 
the finest in the world ever painted by any artist. It is espe- 
cially remarkable for its chiaro oscuro, its action and a certain 
proud repose very attractive and quite in keeping with the 
Spanish character. 

In full armor the marquis is seated upon a fiery gray 
charger, a spirited fellow who arches his proud neck and 
seems ready to step over the frame, so keenly alive is he. 
Much of the picture is in the shadow, serving to throw into 
bolder relief the aristocratic, haughty features of the generalis- 
simo, who, baton in hand, gazes straight before him. 

Van Dyck's spirit was rather prone to rise upon short 




SENOR FRANCISCO DE MONCADO, MARQUIS OF AYTONA. 



IQOI.] POOR SIR ANTHONY. 441 

notice, and he did not readily brook anything which his proud 
na'ure construed into a slight. The story is told of him that 
at one time he was sent for to paint the portrait of a French 
bishop, as to whom nothing is known but that his Christian 
name wis Anthony and that he was very corpulent. 

Van Dyck was always exacting as to little attentions, and 
was displeased when he saw that there was no servant ready 
to wait upon him, adjust his easel, and hand him his tools. 
He sat still and waited. 

" Make haste!" cried the bishop, somewhat irritated. "Do 
you want me to get your tools for you ? " 

'* From the absence of your servants I supposed you wished 
to reserve that honor for yourself," said naughty Anthony, dis- 
respectfully. 

The bishop rose to dismiss the insolent layman, saying : 
" Anthony, Anthony, you are a little creature, but you contain 
plenty of venom ! " 

To this Van Dyck wickedly replied : " Anthony, Anthony, 
you are big enough, but, like the cinnamon-tree, the outside is 
the best part of you ! " a fair sample of the would-be wit of 
the day. 

Vin Dyck's visit to England, in 1632, seems to have been 
at the instigation of the Earl of Arundel, that delightful 
nobleman whom Evelyn calls "the great Maecenas of all 
politer arts and the boundless amasser of antiquities." He 
was the devoted friend of the king, whose love for the fine 
arts was great and whose knowledge of them was only as 
wonderful as was his ignorance of political craft. The earl 
soon brought Sir Anthony to the notice of his royal master, 
and, knighted by the king, a favorite with the queen, Van 
D_,ck became the lion of the hour. His manners were courtly; 
he was handsome, talented, with a charm which endeared him 
to old and young. In his black velvet suits, which style of 
dress he mich affected, his pointed lace collars, his curly 
blonde hair brushed and tied with ribbon, he became the 
fashion ; so much so that collars and beards cut in the pointed 
style were named from him, and the nobility vied with royalty 
to be painted by the skilled hand of the Flemish painter. 

Fair women he painted well. Though not idealizing them, 
he showed none of Rabins' grossness ; but his feminine por- 
traits are by no means equal to his pictures of men, and not 
so fancifully charming as Gainsborough's grandes dames. A 
fair example of Van Dyck's skill in this line is seen in his 
famous " Lidy in the B'ack Gown," a most striking painting. 



4*2 



POOR SIR ANTHONY. 



[July, 




FAIR WOMEN HE PAINTED WELL. 

Very erect, stately, well groomed is the velvet-gowned dame r 
with her ropes of pearls, her lace frills, her collar cut in the 
prevailing Van Dyck points. Her face like those in so many 
of the artist's portraits is aristocratic, interesting, attractive 
rather than pretty, and the effect of the striking figure against 
the dull reds of the background is in marvellously good taste. 
Very noticeable are the hands, peculiarly slender and artistic, 
and it is said to be an eccentricity of the artist to introduce 
into his portraits such hands (copies of his own, of which he 
was rather vain) whether the painting was of knight, warrior, 
court-dime, or child. 

As a painter of children Van Dyck is equalled by Sir 
Joshua Reynolds only, and his most noted paintings of the 



POOR SIR ANTHONY. 



443 



little folks those of the children of Charles I. are absolutely 
charming. There are many of these portraits, all different but 
all well-nigh perfect. The one in the picture gallery at Turin 
shows Prince Charles in a gorgeous scarlet robe, Princess Mary 
in white satin, and tiny Prince James in a quaint little robe of 
blue silk, all standing in charming attitudes, with a splendid 
big dog beside them. In the painting in the Dresden Gallery 
the children are older and they are attended by two dear little 
King Charles spaniels ; but the picture is equally charming. 
There is about the little faces an air of high-bred innocence 
exceedingly attractive, and the grouping is uncommonly good 
that, as a rule, not bein^ one of Van Dyck's best points. 




As A PAINTER OF CHILDREN VAN DYCK is EQUALLED ONLY BY 
SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 

The striking features and marked personality of King 
Charles I. readily lent themselves to the artist's skill, and none 
of Van Dyck's portraits is so justly famous as those of the 
martyr king. There was expended upon them not only the 
utmost skill of the artist, incited thereto by the honor of 
painting royalty, and gratitude for the princely favors showered 



444 



POOR SIR ANTHONY. 



[July, 




PORTRAIT OF KING CHARLES. 

him by his royal master, but they were painted con 
amore. Sir Anthony loved the king with that intense devo- 
tion which the Stuarts seem ever to have inspired, and his 
portraits of the little-understood monarch show deep insight 
into the character of the noble but ill-fated king. In his face, 
as Van Dyck portrayed it, there is combined with the fine 
nobility, the pardonable pride of birth, the unmistakable air of 
breeding found in all the king's likenesses a sorrowful dignity, 
a brooding melancholy, a hint of troubled foreboding for the 
future; this last so marked that upon first seeing one of Van 
Dyck's portraits of King Charles, Bernini said: "Ecco! il volto 



1901.] POOR SIR ANTHOKY. 445 

funesto!" a speech well-nigh prophetic when one recalls the 
poor king's melancholy fate. 

In the magnificent portrait: in the gallery at Dresden the 
king, robed in velvet, with his royal insignia, his elegant point 
laces, his dark, curling, cavalier locks in artistic and becoming 
confusion, looks proudly but mournfully from out the picture, 
every inch a king. So flawless seems the picture that one 
feels the artist was one who, 

" Poring on a face, 

Divinely through all hindrance finds the man 
Behind it, and so paints him that his face, 
The shape and color of a mind and life, 
Lives for his children, ever at its best 
And fullest.' 1 

A writer says that there can be little doubt that the passion- 
ate attachment in which King Charles I. was held by so many 
of the people of England, for so many years after his death, 
was fostered by the portraits of him painted by his devoted 
servant, Sir Anthony Van Dyck. 

The misfortunes of his royal master preyed upon the ar- 
tist's mind. He had been severely mortified that upon grounds 
of expense the king was unable to decorate the walls of the 
superb banqueting hall at Whitehall, for which Van Dj ck had 
submitted sketches, and the disappointment had a bad effect 
upon his health. He went to Antwerp in the endeavor to re- 
cuperate, and hearing that Louis XIII. was planning to adorn 
the Louvre with mural paintings, he hurried to Paris, only to 
find that Poussin had forestalled him. Returning to England, 
the victim of the gout, his health rapidly became worse. All 
London was in a state of fierce discontent. The queen, Hen- 
rietta Maria, was compelled to flee to France, Parliamentarians 
laying to her " Popish " influence the king's too great leniency 
toward his Catholic subjects. Hampton Court, that ideal 
palace where Van Dyck had spent so many delightful hours 
with his royal patron, was closed, and the king and Duke of 
York compelled to flee to York, still loyal. In May poor 
Strafford, one of Sir Anthony's closest friends and one of the 
greatest men of the age, was sacrificed to popular prejudice, 
expiating upon the scaffold those so-called offences against 
the fetich the English Constitution which his devotion to 
his sovereign had induced. 

From the shock of his death Van Dyck never rallied. Life 
in England amidst the embroilments of the sullen Parliamen- 



446 



POOR SIR ANTHONY. 



[July, 




AT THE COURT OF THE KING. 

tarians was little worth living to the Catholics of the day, and, 
fretted 

"'Neath the load 
Of petty cares, which gall great hearts the most," 

unable to combat disease, the great painter expired on the 
9th of December, 1641, at the early age of forty-two. 

He had many faults, but his death was a good one, and 
his will showed a disposition to atone for the errors of his 
life. After providing for his wife and daughter, he left money 
to charity, for Masses, to his sister the Beguine nun, and for 
the support of an illegitimate child, whom he had never neg- 
lected. In spite of his apparently successful life he died a 
disappointed man. 

"All praise the likeness by his skill portrayed," and as a 
portrait painter Van Dyck is scarcely excelled. Yet this did 
not satisfy him, and his ambition to paint more original works 
was largely ungratified, since his historical and religious paint- 
ings were never popular in his own day, however much they 
may have added with posterity to the fame of " Poor Sir 
Anthony." 




1901.] SOME LOST MANUSCRIPT TREASURES. 447 

SOME LOST MANUSCRIPT TREASURES. 



BY GEORGINA PELL CURTIS. 

HITTIER says: "Of all sad words of tongue or 
pen, the saddest are these, ' It might have 
been.' " We may apply the words in a sense 
not meant by the poet, by saying that one of 
the greatest losses the world has known are 
not the things which might have been, and which, if we had 
had them, might not have proved so precious ; but rather the 
things that have been and are not. Chief among these are the 
manuscript writings and poems which are known to have ex- 
isted in past ages, but which are now irrevocably lost. 

Many believe that we have not got all the Sacred Scriptures 
that were written. It is certain that we have all that it was neces- 
sary for us to have ; but nevertheless the belief seems general 
that certain epistles of the Apostles were lost. All down the 
ages, from most ancient times to the present day, numerous 
valuable manuscripts have been destroyed either by accident, care- 
lessness, or ignorance;, in many instances also by malice. The 
Reformation saw the monasteries plundered of fialf their liter- 
ary treasures manuscripts that generations of monks had 
spent time and labor in producing. Going back to ancient 
times, we find a great deal of classic literature that has dis- 
appeared. In the time of Aristophanes, the Greek comedian, 
two thousand dramas had been written ; only forty-two of 
them are now extant. ^Eschylus is known to have written 
seventy plays ; only seven have come down to us. The same 
number of Sophocles' writings have been preserved out of 
over a hundred that he wrote. Menander, one of the greatest 
of comic writers, wrote innumerable plays ; hardly a scrap -of 
his writings is ours at the present time. In the few lines we 
possess there is such undoubted genius that Goethe said he 
would gladly have given half the Roman poetry extant for a 
single play of Menander. Of the writings of Sappho, the 
greatest of lyrical poets, only two odes and a few lines of 
fragmentary poetry are left. The hymns and dirges of Pindar, 
and the songs of Alcaeus and Ibycus, have utterly perished, 
although the most cultivated men and women of their day 
VOL. LXXIII. 30 



448 SOME LOST MANUSCRIPT TREASURES. [July, 

delighted in their poetry. Only a few cdes and stanzas have 
been preserved for our use. The father of Roman poetry, so 
called, was Ennius, and as. late as the thirteenth century a 
complete copy of his poetry was in existence ; now almost 
nothing of it remains. 

Of the great tragedians only half a dozen words are left of 
the " Thyestes " of Varius, which Quintilian said was the great- 
est tragedy of ancient Greece ; and two lines are all that is 
left of Ovid's " Medea." 

Many of these priceless manuscripts were lost in the invasion 
of Europe by the Goths and Vandals, and some were burned in 
the successive fires at Alexandria. When Julius Caesar laid 
siege to Alexandria a library of four hundred thousand manu- 
scripts, collected by the Ptolemys, was destroyed by fire. A 
library in the same city, called the Serapeum, and given by 
Mark Antony to Cleopatra, was lost in the same way during 
the reign of Theodosius, when the Christians stormed the tern 
pie of Jupiter. Later a new library of seven hundred thou- 
sand manuscripts was established in Alexandria, but it would 
seem as if the city were peculiarly unfortunate, for in 640 
A. D. the Saracens, under the Caliph Omar, invaded Alexan- 
dria. The caliph reasoned that "if these writings of the 
Greeks agree with the book of God, they are useless, and need 
not be preserved ; if they disagree, they ought to be de- 
stroyed "; so he burned the beautiful library, and sent the 
manuscripts to heat the four thousand public baths. It is said to 
have taken nearly a year to thus use up all these treasures of 
literature. 

At Cremona, in 1569, twelve thousand books printed in 
Hebrew were burned;, and the same fate befell five thousand 
copies of the Koran at the taking of Granada, by order of 
Cardinal Ximenes. There is a story that in the Middle Ages a 
merchant bought two handsome libraries for forty shillings and 
used them as waste-paper; while 'manuscripts taken by force 
from the monasteries were used to light candles, clean boots, 
and stop up the cracks in broken windows and doors. 

Coming down to later times, the great fire of London in 1666 
destroyed many manuscripts of the Elizabethan era ; and at the 
beginning of the nineteenth century a servant of Warburton 
took a number of celebrated plays of Massinger, Ford, George 
Chapman, Robert Greene, and others to light fires and make 
into paper frills for pies. It is even said that three plays of 
Shakspere " Duke Humphrey," and Henry I. and II. per- 



IQOI.] SOME LOST MANUSCRIPT TREASLRES. 449 

ished in this way. The last six books of Spenser's " Faerie 
Queene " were lost by one of his servants when travelling from 
Ireland to England. Many of the letters of Lady Mary 
Wortley Montagu, and the Memoirs of Mrs. Inchbald, which 
are said to have filled several volumes, have disappeared. 

By far one of the greatest losses to book-lovers is Thomas 
Heywood's " Lives of the Poets." Heywood was an English 
dramatist and writer, a contemporary of Shakspere and a 
friend of his and of the men of his time, and it seems quite 
certain that if we had this book it would throw much light on 
Shakspere's early life and antecedents. Cases are also on 
record where great authors have destroyed one or more of 
their own works, under the influence of caprice or temper. 
Paps, at the advice of Lord Bolingbroke, burnt a book of his 
on the " Immortality of the Soul." 

George Crabbe destroyed several of his prose works be- 
cause a friend told him a treatise on botany ought to have 
been written in Latin and not in English. This was too much 
for the temper of Crabbe, who forthwith proceeded to make 
way with books that had cost him years of hard work. 

Nathaniel Ha/rthorne burned a number of his earlier writ- 
ings, which we would fain wish he had left for us. The French 
writer Moliere had almost finished a translation of " Lucre- 
tius " when his hair-dresser took some leaves of the MS. for 
carl-pipers to beautify his wig. This threw Moliere into such 
a transport of rage that he pitched the whole manuscript into 
the fire. 

The gentle Sir Isaac Newton met with a somewhat similar 
loss. A pet dog named Diamond upset a lighted candle on 
his study table, and a number of valuable writings were de- 
stroyed. Newton, with more fortitude than Moliere, merely 
shook his finger at the dog and said : " Ah, Diamond, Dia- 
mond, thou little knowest what damage thou has done." 

Turning now to the Scriptures, we find that in Acts xix. 19 
St. Luke gives us an account of the Ephesians who brought 
their books together and burned them in the sight of all 
present. The loss in money amounted to 50,000 pieces of sil- 
ver, or $90000. These Ephesians, before they were converted 
by the preaching of St. Paul, were steeped in superstition and 
in heathen practices, of which the burnt writings were a record : 
Devil worship, serpent and sun worship, astrological and chemi- 
cal practices, symbols and charms against all evil, and particu- 
larly the evil eye, were some of the subjects of their treatises. 



45o SOME LOST MANUSCRIPT TREASURES. LJ ulv 

They derived their arts of necromancy from the Egyptians 
and Persians. Their books were in the form -of small parch- 
ment scrolls, and the Ephesians carried them wherever they 
went. 

In a glass case in the British Museum is a little heap of 
scorched leaves, all that is left of the Cotton MSS., destroyed 
by fire in 1731 at Ashburnham House, Westminster. 

Oiher disastrous fires, where much valuable literature was 
burned, were two great fires at Moscow in 1547 and 1739, and 
the burning of the Strassburg library during the Franco-Prus- 
sian war. In the latter many priceless works were destroyed. 
Among others were the first printed Protestant Bible and records 
of the lawsuit between Gutenberg and his partners, which set- 
tled the question as to whether he did or did not invent the 
art of printing. 

The forces of nature have also destroyed many valuable books 
and manuscripts. In one of the libraries attached to a great 
English cathedral a pane of glass was broken in a window near 
the shelves, and some ivy came through the opening and grew 
and grew over the books, drawing in water whenever it rained, 
which soaked the leaves and ruined many valuable books be- 
fore the harm was discovered. 

In another library the rain came in through a sky-light and 
nearly destroyed some rare editions of Caxton and other early 
English writers ; one of these books, in spite of its damaged 
condition, sold for one thousand dollars. 

Damp also injures books, causing mildew and making the 
paper rot and crumble away when touched. 

There are records of countless manuscripts lost at sea or cap- 
tured by pirates. In 1600 there died one Vincentio Pinelli, who 
owned what was then considered the most magnificent library in 
the world. A London bookseller purchased the whole collection, 
which had been in process of formation for many decades. There 
were manuscripts dating from the eleventh century, and rare 
works in Greek, Latin, and Italian. The book-buyer chartered 
three vessels for these treasures, to bring them to London. One 
of these ships was captured by pirates, who threw all the books 
into the sea ; the other two escaped unhurt. 

In 1698 a Dutchman named Hudde went to China dressed 
as a mandarin. He must have been a very clever mimic, for 
he travelled thirty years through the empire without being dis- 
covered or suspected, and during that time collected manuscripts 
and books of great value. Finally he put them all in a ship 



1901.] SOME LOST MANUSCRIPT TREASURES. 451 

to convey them home ; but the vessel foundered, and eveiy 
single MS. was lost. 

Perhaps the most exasperating method in which great 
literary works have been lost to us is through ignorance. 
Fire and flood and shipwreck are natural events in the his- 
tory of the world, and usually are not preventable; but to see 
the labor of years, the manuscripts and books that have been 
so carefully preserved, destroyed in a few moments by dense 
ignorance, is trying indeed. Some such instances are on 
record. 

A copy of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales with fine wood-cuts, 
worth at least two thousand dollars, was used to light the fire 
in the French Protestant Church in St. Martin's-le-Grand, 
London, about the year 1860. Prior to the French Revolu- 
tion a valuable first edition of the Golden Legend was used to 
light a librarian's fire. A shoemaker of London, John Bagford 
by name, spent a life-time in collecting title-pages, which he 
tore out and mounted all together in book-form. He collected 
about twenty-five thousand title-pages in all. This collection, 
in sixty folio volumes, is now in the British Museum. Bagford 
gave as his reason for such wanton mutilation that he was 
collecting data to write a history of printing; which, by the 
way, he never wrote. 

We would certainly think that in the present age an Eng- 
lish chancellor of the exchequer would have some idea of the 
literary value of old manuscripts and records ; but in 1840 a col- 
lector of antiquities found out the contrary, to his own profit. 
He was buying some soles of a fish-monger in old Hungerford 
Market, Yarmouth, and noticed that the fish-monger wrapped 
the soles in some stiff paper torn from a book at his side. 
The antiquarian went home, and on unwrapping the fish dis- 
covered the paper bore the signatures of Lauderdale, Godolphin, 
Ashley, and Sunderland. The wrapper proved to be a bill for 
feeding prisoners in the Tower in the reign of James II,, 
and the signatures were those of James II. 's ministers. Much 
excited, the antiquarian hurried back to the fish-monger, and 
by judicious and careful inquiry discovered the man had a 
quantity of similar paper, ten tons in all, which he had bought 
at seven pounds a ton at Somerset House. 

The antiquarian secured more of the paper and found ac- 
counts of the exchequer office in the reigns of Henry VII. 
and Henry VIII., wardrobe accounts of Queen Anne, a trea- 
tise on the Eucharist written by Edward VI., and another on 



452 



A BEACON. 



[July. 



the Order of the Garter in the handwriting of Queen Eliza- 
beth, besides numerous other valuable papers dating from 
Henry VII. to George III. Little by little the antiquarian 
acquired all the paper he could, when the secret leaked out, 
and the government woke up to a sense of what they had lost. 
The public demanded an inquiry ; but by this time the papers 
were lost, destroyed, or scattered. 

In our own day a great deal has been said about the Catholic 
Lady Burton having destroyed her husband's MS. translation 
from the Arabic of the "Scented Garden." She was offered six 
thousand guineas for the work, and at a time when she greatly 
needed the money, but, actuated by the highest motives, she 
burned the whole MS. The literary world heaped a storm of 
abuse on her head, and termed her act vandalism ; but all right- 
thinking people who know what the " Scented Garden " was 
must ever commend her for conscientious and loyal obedience 
to the right. It was a case where a lost MS. of a certain 
literary value might better remain for ever lost. 




A. 




not those efforts failures 
Whose ends you cannot see ; 
Let life's deep, frustrate moments 
Blest crucifixions be- 
So may the Love-sent trinity 
Of gall and nail and thorn 
Show the aspiring spirit 
Its resurrection morn. 




ENTOMBMENT, BETTER THAN OTHER METHODS, HAS MET THE DEMANDS OF AFFECTION. 




THE CREMATION MOVEMENT IS ANTI-CATHOLIC. 

BY JAMES P. MURPHY. 

RECENT Pastoral Letter of the Archbishop of 
Montreal, recalling to his flock the severe man- 
ner in which the Catholic Church forbids crema- 
tion as a normal means of disposing of the 
dead, is timely inasmuch as it coincides with a 
renewal of an attempt to spread and popularize this treat- 
ment of the human body when the soul has left it. 

Along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and about New 
Orleans in particular, efforts are being made to win the public 
to look with sympathy on this "progressive" idea. In those 
regions the soil is low-lying and subject to inundation. Inhu- 
mation, or interment below the surface of the ground, is prac- 
tically out of the .question. Bodies are consequently buried 
above ground. " Burn them ; destroy them by fire," say the 
zealous advocates of cremation. But the people of New Or- 
leans turn a deaf ear. They will have none of this expedient, 
which they consider an offence to reverent and tender senti- 
ment. What amazes them, however, is the zeal of the outsider 
in persisting to almost force cremation upon them." What may 



454 THE CREMATION MOVEMENT is ANTI-CATHOLIC. [July, 

be the ulterior explanation of this strange zeal it will be the 
purpose of this article to examine. 

THE QUESTION OF HYGIENE. 

It may be noted that while the consensus of the human 
race is against cremation, the Catholic Church alone takes up 
a positive and vigorous attitude in the matter. No other body 
in the community seems able to formulate a definite and con- 
crete policy in its regard. Thus Dr. Potter, the Episcopalian 
Bishop of New York, in reply to a circular of the President 
of the United States Cremation Company requesting an ex- 
pression of his views on cremation, writes: "I beg to say that 
I have no prejudice unfavorable to cremation, and indeed, in 
view of the curiously inadequate and singularly unintelligent 
arguments, attacks, and denunciations which have been em- 
ployed by those who are hostile to it, I have been rather dis- 
posed to sympathize with those who are seeking to introduce 
it. But the argument of most effect in its behalf is one which 
must be made by scientific men, and especially by physicians. 
I wait to hear more explicitly and more fully from these, for 
when it can be shown that any such plan best conduces ta 
the health and well-being of large communities, it will be likely 
to find general acceptance." 

Here we have the somewhat singular case of one who 
knows of no definite and convincing argument in favor .of 
cremation, but who is inclined to sympathize with the move- 
ment in favor of it merely because it is the object of 
attack and obloquy. The argument in its behalf, hinted at as 
possibly destined later on to be furnished by scientific men, 
and especially by physicians, is apparently the question of 
hygiene. This point, in fact, is the only one that has ever 
been held up as a valid argument in favor of cremation. 

Inhumation of bodies, it is said, is liable to be injurious ta 
the health of those living near the place of interment. But 
even this does not make necessarily for cremation, against 
which there are objections of a doubly serious character. Cre- 
mation is not the alternative of inhumation, nor is it by any 
means the natural remedy where conditions unhygienic or 
otherwise objectionable would follow burial in the ground. 

At New Orleans they have the obvious solution of the 
problem in entombment, and the cemeteries of that city are 
amongst the most beautiful and interesting in the world. 
The Campo Santo at the Basilica of St. Lawrence outside the 



igoi.] THE CREMATION MOVEMENT is ANTI-CATHOLIC. 455 




SANITARY ENTOMBMENT IN GREENWOOD CEMETERY, NEW ORLEANS. 

walls of Rome, which was begun by Pope Gregory XVI. and 
completed by Pius IX., and is ore of the most perfect of its 
kind in existence, furnishes primary and ample accommodations 
for entombment. On this subject the Rev. Charles R. Treat, 
who has studied the matter most exhaustively, has the follow- 
ing remarks to make: "Better than any other method of dis- 
posing of the dead that has ever been devised, entombment 
has met the demand of affection. Never has any other mode 
so commended itself to men as this. There may have been at 
times a general adoption of cremation, at times a general 
prevalence of earth-burial ; but the one has not long satisfied 
the sorrowing survivors, and the other has owed its beginning 
and continuance to the apparent absence of alternative. 
Wherever the living have been able, and the dead have been 
dearly loved or highly esteemed, the tendency to entomb and 
not to bury has been constantly manifested. To call atten- 
tion to this tendency is enough to prove it, so easily accessi- 
ble is the evidence and so familiar is its operation in the 



456 THE CREMATION MOVEMENT is ANTI-CATEOLIC. [July, 

human heart. The most natural reference will be first to the 
Mausoleum, the tomb of Mausolus, that was erected by his 
sorrowing queen, Artemisia, at Halicarnassus, upon the ^Egean's 
eastern shore ; and that became at once one of the few great 
wonders of the ancient world. This was intended to do honor 
to the loved and illustrious dead ; and this it did, as no grave 
or pyre could do. This was also intended to protect the life- 
less form from ruthless robbery and reckless profanation, and 
it performed this task so well that for near two thousand years 
no human eye beheld the mortal part of Mausolus and no 
human hand disturbed its rest. At a far earlier time Abraham, 
the Father of the Faithful, while he illustrated this tendency 
to entomb the dead, also offered an influential example to all 
who would do him reverence, as, in the hour of his great sor- 
row, he sought the seclusion and the security of Machpelah's 
cave for the last resting-place of his beloved wife. There he 
buried Sarah ; there he and his son and his son's son and 
their wives were all laid to rest, and the place of their repose 
has not been violated even at this distant day. To this con- 
stant tendency constant testimony is borne by the massive 
and magnificent tombs in which India abounds, the tombs and 
pyramids that make marvellous the land of the Nile, the 
tombs that stand thick upon the Appian Way and that rose 
superb upon the Tiber's shore, the modern use to which the 
Pantheon is put, the Pantheon at Paris and the Crypt of the 
Invalides, the Abbey of Westminster matchless in memorials, 
the sepulchres within the hills that gird Jerusalem, and the 
sepulchre in which the Nazarene was gently laid when His 
agony was ended. That entombment can be made sanitary is 
evident from the fact that, in countless instances, in many 
lands and through long periods of time, it has been made sani- 
tary by the ingenuity of man or by unassisted nature ; and it 
is also evident from the fact that decomposition and disease 
germs are the dangers to be guarded against, and that against 
these both ancient and modern science have been able to 
guard." 

On the one hand, human reason refuses to see in the 
corpse an abnormal condition of the body, and refuses to 
despoil it of the human dignity that previously belonged to it. 
On the other, the light of faith reveals therein an expiatory 
chastisement, and the teaching of the church regarding the 
origin, duty, and destiny of the human body in life and death, 
in time and eternity, stamps upon the corpse a mark of nobil- 



THE CREMATION MOVEMENT is ANTI-CATZCLIC. 457 

ity which renders it in some degree a participator in the spiri- 
tuality and immortality, and even in the holiness and benedic- 
tion, that are the lot of the soul. 

THE SENSE OF THE LITURGY. 

Touching and interesting in the extreme were the funeral 
rites lavished on the bodies of the early Christians, as we learn 
from St. Augustine's work on Care to be Given to the Dead. 
The liturgy of the church is one solemn profession that the 
orpse of the faithful departed is sacred and inviolable in her 
eyes. In accordance with the full ceremonial the clergy are 
instructed to go processionally to receive the body. The priest 
must sprinkle holy water on it, and, having recited the De 
Profundis, must intone that antiphon of most comforting hope 
which recalls that a day will come in which that body, humbled 
now by death, will return alive and will exult in its God. 
Then, with the accompaniment of psalmody and of waxen 
lights, the body is to be brought to the sacred edifice. Here 
prayer is made that the eternal peace of the Lord be ac- 
corded to the departed, and on the completion of the obsequies 
the minister of the church accompanies the body to the 
tomb, invoking on it the blessing of the Lord and praying 
that an angel may be sent to guard it. When he finally leaves 
the scene" of sepulture the joyous hope of the resurrection of 
the body is recalled in the antiphon, " I am the resurrection 
and the life." 

The day of burial itself is called in church liturgy dies 
depositionis , the day when the body is consigned in temporary 
deposit to the tomb, and the imagery is evoked which repre- 
sents the earth as a maternal womb receiving the body and 
covering it with its mantle of mercy. Furthermore, in all the 
prayers that are recited in the office for the dead and in all 
the inscriptional records of the church the buried body is re- 
ferred to as a sleeper a sleeper who will repose for a given 
period, to the hour, namely, when, awakened by the sound of 
the omnipotent word, he will revive to new and eternal life. 
St. Jerome, on this account, speaks of the dead as the " sleepers 
who will one day revive " The very name of cemetery, given 
to the place of sepulture, in its Greek original (ccimetericn) 
means a place to sleep. And as a dormitory signifies a place 
where those who seek rest are not dead, so the word cemetery 
should recall that bodies therein laid will one day return to life 
and animation. 



458 THE CREMATION MOVEMENT is ANTI-CATHOLIC. [July, 

ADVOCATES OF CREMATION INIMICAL TO THE CHURCH. 

The whole sentiment of the Catholic Church, it will thus be 
seen, must necessarily and a priori be opposed to the idea of 
cremation. This fact is fully realized by the zealous advocates 
of the combustion of dead bodies, and their published litera- 
ture on the subject is for the most part less an array of argu- 
ment than a blind attack on the Catholic Church. Thus, Mr. 
Louis Lange, President of the United States Cremation Company, 
gives vent to the following: "There are no crematories in 
Russia, Spain, Prussia, and Turkey. There State and Chuich 
sleep in twin cradles. If the pope of Rome could have his 
way, there would be no crematory in Italy ; now there are 
twenty-seven (one in the holy city) because the king wants 
what the pope wants not ; and above the sounds of discord 
between temporal and spiritual power the voice of the people 
is heard : ' We are Catholics, but we want to be cremated/ 
Says the state: 'So be it.' Says the pope: 'You go without 
my blessing'" and more conversation of the like inane and, 
as will be seen, utterly groundless character. 

The same writer elsewhere says : " The Archbishop of 
Santiago de Cuba could easily tell under what particular dis- 
pensation during the Spanish-American War many hundreds of 
dead Catholic Spaniards were cremated in very rough fashion 
in a consecrated cemetery of the city. Upon inquiry General 
Leonard Wood wrote that religious services were held over 
these bodies." Needless to say, if the writer had really been 
searching for truth and not merely seeking to spread malign 
misrepresentations regarding the Catholic Church, he would 
readily have found authoritative information to the effect that 
under stress of major force, such as in times of war or pesti- 
lence, the church makes no objection to combustion or other 
expeditious means of disposing of human remains that may 
become a danger to the rest of the community. 

Mr. Lange finally pens the following highly instructive 
sentence : " It seems, therefore, as if we were indebted to the 
Freemasons of Italy, pronounced opponents of the Catholic 
Church, for a good share of its ill will towards cremation in 
this country." The president of the United States Cremation 
Company deserves the thanks of Catholics for this statement, 
faulty as it is in the logic of the facts. He admits a co-rela- 
tion between religion, Freemasonry, and cremation that it will 
be well for Catholics never to lose sight of. 






THE CREMATION MOVEMENT is ANTI-CATHOLIC. 459 

As a matter of fact the Civilta Cattolica and other organs 
of Catholic opinion in Italy have over and over again affirmed 
that the attempt to introduce cremation in our time is primarily 
and above all things a blow aimed at the Catholic Church by 
the Freemasons, who hold the conviction that having once dis- 
sipated the profound reverence and piety of Catholics towards 
the dead they will more easily sap the faith in an eternal life 
and strike at the very roots of religion. 

In the Rivista della Massoneria Italiana (Italian Masonic 
Review), published February 16, 1874, in Rome, "with the 
written permission of the most potent grand master," we read 
the following words: "The key-stone of the entire system 
which is opposed to Masonry was, and is, that ascetic and 
transcendental sentiment which transports men beyond the ex- 
isting world, makes them regard themselves as travellers of 
very brief sojourn on this earth, and induces them to sacrifice 
everything in order to acquire felicity in a life which would 
begin in the cemeteries. This whole theory must be destroyed 
by the hammer of Freemasonry." 

And how is the destruction to be effected ? Above all by 
nullifying the religious character of cemeteries and by inducing 
municipal councils to adopt the cremation of corpses. This, 
in fact, is the very proposal that we read in the following num- 
ber of the Italian Masonic Review. It states that by a unani- 
mous vote, on May 26, 1874, of the representatives of the 
Masonic lodges of Italy and of the Italian colonies, assembled 
in the Valley of the Tiber at the Orient of Rome, it was re- 
solved that: "Italian Freemasonry emits the desire that ceme- 
teries become exclusively civil, without distinction of belief or 
rite, and proposes to urge upon municipal councils the use of 
cremation in substitution of interment. It therefore recom- 
mends this resolution to all lodges and to each and every 
brother." When the cemetery should be divested of its quality 
of sacred place, and cremation substituted for interment, the 
Christian burial-ground would be a thing of the past, and the 
41 ascetic and transcendental " sentiments of religion would 
cease to grate upon the sensitive nerves of the Masons such 
would seem to be the reasoning. 

The Italian legislation, dominated as it has been for thirty 
years by the Freemasons, was naturally the willing tool of the 
sect. As far back as April, 1873, when the Senate was discuss- 
ing the new sanitary code, the following article, 185 of chap- 
ter i., under the heading Cemeteries, was passed : " The Minis- 



460 THE CREMATION MOVEMENT is ANTI-CATHOLIC. [July, 




ITALIAN FREEMASONS DEMAND CREMATION AS A SUBSTITUTE TO INTERMENT. 

ter of the Interior may permit other means of inhumation, of 
preservation or of destruction of corpses, including cremation, 
in exceptional cases and for exceptional motives." 

This was the thin end of the wedge, for it would have been 
imprudent to administer all at once too severe a shock to the 
susceptibilities of the average Italian Catholic. Then, on June 
14, 1877, a decree was issued permitting cremation to all who 
should desire it, irrespective of case or motive. Four years 
later the condition was added that the ashes taken from cre- 
matories should be kept in a cemetery, or in other suitable 
and safe place designed for the purpose. Finally, in 1888, cre- 
mation was formally sanctioned by the following law : " The 
cremation of bodies must be performed in crematories approved 
by the doctor of the province. Communes must gratuitously 
furnish the necessary site for the erection of crematories in the 
cemeteries. Cinerary urns, containing the remains after com- 
plete cremation, may be placed in cemeteries or in chapels or 
temples belonging to moral entities recognized by the state, or 
in private columbaria of stable destination, and in such a way 
as to be secure from all profanation." By this last clause the 
law obviously desired to approve the proposal made by the 
Italian Freemasons that " Urns containing the ashes of Masons, 



1 90 1.] THE CREMATION MOVEMENT is ANTI-CATHOLIC. 461 

or of their families, should be placed in the Masonic temples, 
or in their appurtenances, as in a family sepulchre." 

When attention is directed to the date of this law it will 
be quickly seen what value attaches to the oft-repeated declara- 
tion of the Italian government, that it is " always reverential 
towards religion in its relations with the church." 

As a matter of fact, this law permitting and sanctioning 
cremation was made and approved practically on the very mor- 
row of a solemn condemnation and prohibition of the practice 
by the church. 

LEGISLATION OF THE CHURCH. 

A number of bishops had requested a formal statement 
from the Holy See on the subject, and a decree was issued de- 
claring : " i. It is not licit to subscribe one's name to societies 
that advocate cremation, and if these societies are affiliated to 
Freemasonry they incur the same penalties; and 2. It is not 
licit to arrange for or order the cremation of one's own or any 
other person's body." The assessor of the Holy Office, when 
communicating this decree to the bishops, added the declara- 




A RIGHT TREATMENT OF THE DEAD is A TESTIMONY OF ONL'S FAITH. 

tion that " the matter being reported to the Sovereign Pontiff, 
Leo XIII., His Holiness approved and confirmed the resolu- 
tions of the very eminent fathers, and commanded that they 
be communicated to the bishops ordinaries in order that they 
duly instruct the faithful regarding the detestable abuse of ere- 



462 THE CREMATION MOVEMENT is ANTI-CATHOLIC. [July, 

mating human bodies, and that with all their power they re- 
strain their flock from the practice." 

Later on. it may be interesting to here add, and precisely 
on August 6, 1897, the Holy Office, replying to a query on 
the subject, laid down the general rule that wherever possible 
and practicable even the amputated limbs of the baptized 
faithful should not be burned, but should be buried in a con- 
secrated place. 

But the law sanctioning cremation was, even by lay Italians, 
denounced as sinctioning a "detestable abuse," and was ar- 
raigned on social, historical, economic, and hygienic grounds. 
Anti-clericals, like Professor Paolo Montegazzo, were amongst 
the most bitter in attacking it. They quoted the words em- 
ployed by Minutius Felix nearly seventeen centuries ago : " It 
is not that we fear any loss from this mode of final dissolution, 
but we prefer the older and better practice of interment." 
And though the " hammer of Freemasonry " undertook to 
"destroy the Catholic system," the result proved that crema- 
tion was destined to find but few adepts. In fact, the num- 
bers cremated are annually decreasing. In 1897, while 9,323 
persons were buried, 37 were cremated ; but in the following 
year only 26 were cremated, as against 9 882 interred. This 
fact disposes of the balderdash disseminated by the United 
States Cremation Company : " Say the Italian people : ' We 
are Catholics, but we want to be cremated.' " Even the Ital- 
ian Freemason does not want cremation. 

The custom of burial, introduced by the Apostles and pre- 
served throughout the centuries by the church ; the funeral 
liturgy, founded on the custom of burial, as seen in the bless- 
ing of cemeteries and in the rites both within and without the 
sacred edifice, and finally, the testimony of the dogma of the 
resurrection and the speculative and practical sense of Catho- 
lics, all make unreservedly and uncompromisingly against cre- 
mation. 

Whoever believes, writes St. Augustine, that the dead body 
will again come forth glorified from the tomb to participate in 
eternal beatitude, to reign with Christ, cannot abstain from 
doing it solemn honor, not only through a sentiment of hu- 
manity or through affection for relatives, but above all through 
the motive of religion. A right and dutiful treatment of the 
dead is a testimony of one's faith. 



OLD DOCUMENT. 



463 




AN OLD DOCUMENT. 

BY LELTA HARDIN BUGG. 

HEN the train, which runs at a dignified rate of 
speed through the sedate old State of Virginia, 
reached Washington and emptied its passengers 
on the station platform, there was but one 
occupant left in the parlor car at the rear, a 
benign elderly gentleman dozing over a disorderly collection 
of the morning papers. 

He stood up, rubbed his eyes, and started towards the door 
to get a breath of the hot, still air of Washington in June. 

His progress was arrested by three delightfully pretty girls 
and a handsome youth of nineteen or twenty, just entering the 
car, followed by the bebuttoned porter carrying five bags and 
a bandbox. 

The old gentleman, who was gifted with a scientific turn of 
mind, was so intent on trying to discover the art by which a 
human being with two normal arms had increased their carry- 
ing capacity to the degree reached by the porter, forgot that 
he was barring the way of the gay procession. When recalled 
from his absent-mindedness he blushed vividly and compressed 
himself into the smallest possible space against the opposite 
door, whilst the young beauties filed gracefully into the car. 

When he returned to his seat he found them comfortably 
ensconced just behind the litter of papers that seemed to boast 
arrogantly, from two chairs and the floor, " Possession is nine 
points of law." 

The old gentleman gathered his papers into a modest com- 
pactness, and then went forward to the smoking-room, leaving 
the car to the sole tenancy of the Washington young people. 

These were cousins ; that is, Sally and Elizabeth Gary were 
the cousins of Annie Page and her brother Tom, and they were 
all going down to their grandmother's country place in Virginia 
to spend the long, hot Southern summer. 

Sally Gary, the only real young lady of the party, who had 
made her bow to society two winters before and was near the 
mature age of twenty, had in prospect the month of August 
at Narragansett Pier. This round of gaiety in the summer 
capital of Southern bellehood was supposed by her doting 
VOL. LXXIII. 31 



464 AN OLD DOCUMENT, [July, 

parents to compensate her pleasure-loving soul for the seclusion 
of the colonial homestead in Virginia. 

Her picture had already been in the newspapers, to her 
father's outspoken disgust, among the beauties of the Old 
Dominion, and she was described as a pure type of the 
American girl. This seemed rather indefinite, considering the 
widely varying kinds of American girl, but it was meant to be 
complimentary. She was of medium height, slender without 
being angular, with fair skin, gray eyes, brown hair, even, 
white teeth, red lips, and two dimples in her cheeks. Her 
gowns fitted her to ravishing perfection, although made by a 
little seamstress at two dollars a day, and their trig beauty 
bore out the theory of young Mrs. Winthrop : "Some figures 
look well in anything, and others would lack style and distinc- 
tion even in a creation straight from the Rue de la Paix." 

Elizabeth Gary, a golden-haired fairy of eighteen, had un- 
selfishly given up her right to " come out " in society, although 
she had come out of school, and was studying French litera- 
ture and political economy under a private teacher, in order 
that her sister might have the gowns and gloves considered 
essential to the rdle of a modern belle. 

For the Carys were not rich, not even according to the 
standard of an earlier and simpler era, and from the point of 
view of the modern plutocrat they might have received assist- 
ance " delicately rendered " as poor relations. 

Nevertheless Mr. Gary, who was a clever lawyer, born and 
brought up in Washington, and allied to its best by the ties of 
blood, tastes, and culture, was able to give his little family a 
comfortable home, and to his pretty daughter a sufficient 
quantity of feminine furbelows to make her charmingly pre- 
sentable in the most exclusive drawing-rooms. She was seldom 
seen in any other. As for the " Congressional set," as distin- 
guished in a descending scale from the " Official set," the 
Carys, entrenched behind a gallery of family portraits, and a 
hale and hoary family tree, looked upon them with politely in- 
different eyes as upon a race quite apart. 

The young girl was descended collaterally with that Sally 
Gary who glides down the pages of history in her patrician 
beauty and charm as the beloved of Washington, although 
only an expert in genealogical tangles could have told the 
exact degree of relationship. 

" People are always asking me if you are any relation of 
the Sally Gary," complained her cousin, Tom Page. 



1901.] AN OLD DOCUMENT. 465 

" Tell them that I intend to be a THE myself," she an- 
swered with engaging candor. 

" Oh, I don't know about that ! " said Tom with cousinly 
frankness. "You might marry an Englishman easily enough, 
but where would you find a Washington ? " 

" My dear boy, there are different sorts of thes" retorted 
Sally Gary. 

The wholesome, healthy, happy-looking group chatted away, 
bubbling with youth and high spirits, as the train bore them 
southward. 

41 Of course I love the old place," Sally was saying. " I 
would n't have it go out of the family for anything in the 
world. Only as a summer resort it is not dazzlingly lively." 

" If there were any young men you 'd like it well enough," 
drawled her cousin, Annie Page. 

" Young men are about the most charming addition to a 
summer landscape that I can think of just now," replied Sally, 
unabashed. " Of course if I were like you and Elizabeth, 
going about under a hideous blue umbrella hunting for wild 
flowers and Indian arrows, I might pass the time very well ; 
but I *m just an ordinary girl, and I 've not had the time to be 
clever there are too many parties for that in the winter, and 
in the summer it is too hot. The prospect of two whole 
months with never a man is not alluring." 

" You forget Major Phelps," put in Elizabeth wickedly. 

" Ah, to be sure, there is the major. I suppose he will kiss 
my hand and bend like a cavalier, and say that I am growing 
more and more like my distinguished ancestress which shows 
him to be romantically imaginative, since there never was a 
scrap of a picture of the lady. Perhaps she thought that 
tradition was more likely to be flattering than Peale's paint- 
brushes. The major's bow, however, is a real tribute of the 
spirit over the flesh, now that he has rheumatism. I wonder 
how he manages it?" 

"They say he used to be sweet on Aunt Emily," put in 
slangy Tom. 

" Never quote ' they say/ Tom, and do be more choice in 
your expressions ! One wonders where you were brought up ! " 
said Sally judicially. 

Their journey was not very long, and when the brakeman 
called out " Farmingdale " they gathered up their belongings 
and confessed their pleasure at having arrived at their destina- 
tion. 



466 AN OLD DOCUMENT. [July, 

"There's Lucullus with the trap," announced Tom, craning 
his neck out of the window. " Sally, you will have to walk 
there is room for only four." 

The glimpse of the village from the little brown station 
revealed nothing to justify a name of three syllables. 

An old darky was standing by an ox-cart filled with apples, 
and at intervals he called out : " Fine June apples, only five cents 
a quaht"; and this duty being performed, he left the result 
with the buying public. 

A rusty buggy was hitched to a post, and near, in shining 
contrast of fresh varnish and polished harness, was a smart 
turnout, with Lucullus rigged out in some approach to a livery, 
awaiting the newly arrived party. The three girls compressed 
themselves, not very gracefully, in one seat, and Tom sat with 
the driver. 

Dare Hall, their destination, was two miles away. The 
dignified old Virginia mansion, standing in a park-like lawn 
with a long avenue of maples leading to the Ionic portico 
painted white, was built a century and a half ago by an an- 
cestor of Sally's father. It seemed an ideal spot at which to 
pass a lazy holiday. Even Sally Gary, who cared far less about 
the society of young men than she pretended, waxed enthusiastic 
as they approached the noble demesne. 

Its sole tenants now were the widowed grandmother of this 
happy quartet, and her spinster daughter ; but there was a 
large family connection, not counting some thirty grand- 
children, who came and went at their sweet caprice in the old 
home, so that there was seldom a season that did not bring a 
succession of guests to the big red brick dwelling. 

Mr. and Mrs. Gary would follow later as soon as Mr. Gary 
could get away from some tiresome cases ; and the Senior 
Pages, and a brood of cousins from New York, and perhaps a 
great-aunt from New Orleans; so, after all, they were really 
not going to a hermitage. 

There were several other fine old places in the neighbor- 
hood ; but one was occupied by a scientific recluse who de- 
tested women ; another was owned, but seldom inhabited, by 
a gay young matron to whom it had come by way of inherit- 
ance, who preferred Europe to her native Virginia; and a third 
had been leased to a vulgar parvenu family from Brooklyn, 
whom it was quite impossible to know. 

A week after the arrival of the cousins a steady rain set 
in, and for two days no one except Tom had ventured be- 



1901.] AN OLD DOCUMENT. 467 

yond the colonnaded gallery which extended half around the 
house. 

"This is simply desperation !" exclaimed Sally on the morn- 
ing of the third day of rain. "I shall turn pirate, or -do 
something else equally dreadful, if this weather continues." 

" It gives you a chance to improve your mind by devoting 
your time to instructive and edifying literature," returned 
Annie Page, who was deep in the thrilling chapters of an old 
copy of Helen 's Babies. 

" As you are doing, for instance," retorted Miss Gary 
ironically. 

Then it was that Sally betook herself, in quest of an emo- 
tion, to the garret. 

The garret of Dare Hall was simply the perfection of its 
species large, irregular, with dormer windows and gabled ends. 
It sheltered the accumulated trash of generations a hybrid 
collection of things too good to throw away, impossible to 
bestow on the deserving poor, yet incapable of any known 
use. There were tarlatan and organdy ball gowns, boxes of 
faded artificial flowers, trays of soiled gloves, bits of lace and 
embroidery; there were backless bocks and headless dolls, a 
Noe's ark with glass windows surely an improvement on the 
original an elephant with three legs, and a woolly dog with 
none ; there were a pair of cracked dolphins, their tails ending 
in candlesticks; a bronze lamp, the top of a mahogany table, 
one brass andiron, pictures in broken frames, more clothes 
clothes for men, women, and babies; the Amateur Horticul- 
turist for five years, back in the seventies, cumbered one cor- 
ner; rough pine shelves were filled with magazines and highly- 
colored fashion periodicals, mute witnesses to the absurd edicts 
that women have followed at the behest of that strange deity, 
and that they will continue to follow until the end of time. 

"Our present styles never could look so hideous as these," 
cried Sally, as she turned the dusty leaves, pausing at hoop- 
skirts, grecian bends, ruffles, crinolines, big sleeves, little sleeves, 
no sleeves, curls, bangs, pompadours veritably a passing show 
of fashion, an incarnate synonyme for folly. 

At the far end of the garret were several old trunks filled 
with letters and papers and yellowing documents ; these the 
children were warned annually that they were never to touch. 

On this morning Sally, being now grown up, had borrowed 
the keys from her Aunt Emily, intent upon examining this 
family tabularium. 



468 AN OLD DOCUMENT. [July, 

" Be careful, my dear, not to misplace anything," cautioned 
her grandmother; "some of those papers are family docu- 
ments, you know." 

Sally hid visited the garret at least once every summer since 
she had first been able to toddle up the stairs. 

She had announced at breakfast that she was going to 
bring down from this treasure-house the bound volumes of 
The Ladys Pictorial, a London publication which her great- 
aunt Aurelia, now a sedate matron with grandchildren, had 
subscribed for and read with avidity in those charmed days 
" before the war." 

" I commenced a serial story in one of those ancient tomes 
the summer that I was fifteen, but I never could find the con- 
tinuation. My curiosity can be restrained no longer," con- 
fessed Sally. " I must see whether ' he ' and ' she ' I have 
forgotten their names ever married." 

" Why of course they did ; it 's only in real life that they 
don't," said heedless Tom, and Aunt Emily blushed faintly. 

With the keys dangling from her slender fingers Sally 
passed by the array of magazines and went at once to the 
trunks. She was not more romantic than any other healthy- 
minded, imaginative young girl, but as she handled these old 
papers the spirit of past ages seemed to rise out of the old 
trunks to stand guard over their treasures. 

Package after package proved to be bills ; these were not 
especially interesting after the first sensation of reading words 
penned by hands long dead. There was a list of things pur- 
chased for a Marjory Dare, in London, in 1779: four pairs 
white silk stockings ; one pair pink ditto ; one pair blue ditto ; 
white silk mitts; a Lushing Sicque; a Pink " Sattin " quilted 
petticoat ; a Fashionable Stomacher ; green leather Pumps ; 
blue " Sattin " Pumps ; white " Sittin " Pumps ; one pound Pins. 
"A pound of pins phew ! What would Aunt Emily say to that 
item ? She declares that pins are not ladylike, and surely my 
dear aunt, who secretly worships the shades of her ancestors 
like a Chinaman, would not say that this Marjory Dare, so 
particular about her feet they must have been pretty ones 
was not ladylike! I wonder if Miss Marjory ever studied 
spelling, horrid columns of words out of a book s-a-t-t-i-n ! " 

There was another bill in the same bundle for the finery 
of a Henry Lawrence Dare: Nankeen breeches; white silk 
waistcoat; lead-colored coat ; black silk breeches; gold buckles; 
two pairs half boots. 



1901.] AN OLD DOCUMENT. 469 

"I wonder what relation this Dare is to us? Papa's great- 
uncle, perhaps. My beloved uncle, three degrees removed, 
you must have been a great swell in your day." 

There was a bundle of letters, so faded as to be almost in- 
distinguishable, that Sally reckoned to be the production of 
her great-great-grandfather. In more than one place he spoke 
bitterly of somebody's contemplated secret marriage, as "against 
good Moralls and Family Pride." 

"Spelling, evidently, doesn't run in our family. Papa was 
very wrong in punishing my failures in this useful accomplish- 
ment when I was a small girl ; he should have recognized the 
fact that it was a case of ata something atavism, the return 
to an earlier type, when sounds, and not an arbitrary collection 
of letters, were used to express thought." 

Continuing her researches, Sally found wedding invitations, 
recipes for toothsome dainties, and a generous variety of 
drinks ; a mother's eulogy of a baby whom Sallie suddenly 
identified as her father. Truly these old trunks were proving 
a mine of delight. Sally was getting tired, but she could not 
bring herself to abandon her investigations. 

She picked up a long blue envelope which, from its pro- 
truding sides, seemed to promise a change from the thin little 
letters she had been perusing. The first document pulled out 
proved to be a marriage certificate, dated in 1780, of Mar- 
garet Dare Conway and Reginald James Anson, eldest son of 
Sir Reginald Anson, of Anson Park, Blankshire, England, 
united in holy matrimony by the Reverend Charles Manning, 
of Maryland, with Henry L. Dare and Mary Colter as wit- 
nesses. 

Folded with it was a letter, or, rather, a memorandum, in 
which Henry L. Dare set down in detail the reasons why he 
had reluctantly consented to aid and abet the aforesaid couple 
in being secretly married. Sally's eyes shone like stars at the 
mention of a secret marriage, and a marriage, too, of her very 
own ancestress to the son of a baronet. 

Margaret Conway, it went on to state, was a Catholic, and 
the daughter of an American patriot, whilst Reginald Anson 
was a captain in the British army, and a member of the 
Church of England surely good and sufficient reasons to for- 
bid any thought of marriage except that the world-old rea- 
son, love, had proved stronger, as the certificate went to 
show. 

Sally carried these documents down-stairs to find out from 



470 AN OLD DOCUMENT. [July, 

her grandmother the details of this family romance, so much 
more interesting than any in the Lady's Pictorial. 

Curiously enough, her grandmother knew absolutely noth- 
ing of the couple ; not a vestige of tradition had come down 
in regard to them. Even Aunt Emily, a cyclopaedia of South- 
ern genealogy, had no knowledge of Margaret and her English 
husband. It was as if they had sailed away to England, and 
had been cut off completely from the family at Dare Hall. 

Henry Dare was her father's great-uncle, but of the identity 
of Margaret Dare Conway there was not the faintest clue. 

Why had Henry Dare kept the marriage certificate, and 
why had it never been reclaimed by the bride ? 

Only the walls, that had perhaps echoed the silvery laugh- 
ter of Margaret, or a tenor love-song of Reginald, could have 
answered these questions, and walls, to which a proverb 
ascribes ears, have not been known to have tongues. 

"Ah, well! they have both been dead these many years," 
sighed the grandmother. " A century and more has gone by 
since that wedding, and many things can happen in a hundred 
years." 

" I suppose this document doesn't mean anything to any- 
body now," said Annie Page. " If there was a great estate 
involved, or a handsome heir kept out of his rights, or some- 
thing like that, it would be interesting, like a play." 

They talked much about the certificate, and invented numer- 
ous descendants of the couple, all handsome and well placed, 
who would receive them royally on their visit to England, and 
introduce them rapturously to the very nicest people in Lon- 
don as kinsfolk from America. 

But within a fortnight a picnic at Lee's Cove drove lesser 
things out of mind, and the secret marriage lost its prestige 
except with Sally Gary. This damsel never tired of build- 
ing pretty romances around the faded certificate, perhaps be- 
cause she had found it. 

Shortly after the picnic Mrs. Gary had occasion to send a 
messenger to Washington, and as Sally was unusually self- 
reliant for a Southern girl, not minding in the least the short 
journey alone, she was deputed to go. Tom Page was seri- 
ously aggrieved at this slight put upon him as the man of the 
family. 

" There are some commissions that a boy cannot perform," 
was the only comfort vouchsafed him by Aunt Emily. 

Indeed, one of the errands was to match a lock of Aunt 



igoi.] AN OLD DOCUMENT. 471 

Emily's own tresses in a silky "switch" of curly genuine 
human hair on a short stem. All this would have been so 
much jargon to Tom. 

Sally executed her commissions faithfully, and then she stole 
into the Congressional Library and asked for Burke's Peerage. 

She had often heard of this volume, but had not before 
found it necessary to consult its pregnant and closely-printed 
pages. 

Her face flushed when she came to the " ans," and an 
involuntary exclamation escaped from her lips, attracting 
to herself the angry glances of her neighbors, when she 
found " Anson, Sir Reginald, Bart., of Anson Park, Blankshire, 
England." 

This Sir Reginald, the fifth of the name, was sixty-six years 
of age, a widower and childless, whose heir was James Her- 
bert Anson, a second cousin. Sally gave a little shiver of de- 
light, it was so like a play. 

"A widower and unmarried! Of course the baronet and 
his cousin hate each other ardently. Now is the time for a 
long-lost heir from America to put in appearance and defeat 
the schemes of the wicked cousin, and the curtain could fall 
on a pretty family reunion, with the old baronet in the centre 
of the stage joining the hands of the lovers." 

Silly spent the night at home, her parents not yet having 
closed their establishment for the summer. Before going to 
sleep she penned with much care a letter to Sir Reginald 
Anson. The next day she returned to Dare Hall. 

She counted the diys that must elapse before her letter 
could reach its destination, and in imagination followed its 
voyage across the Atlantic. 

Just a week from the day it was penned Sally's missive was 
in the hands of the lonely, childless old baronet. 

He was sitting in his library, lined with books to the ceil- 
ing, many of them rare and costly ; bound volumes of agricul- 
tural reports were on the floor ; the sun was streaming in 
through the long east window, and from where he sat at his 
desk his eyes could dwell on a wide sweep of velvet lawn, a 
lordly avenue of elms, and the glint of a crystal lake where 
swans disported such a lawn as only a hundred years of clip- 
ping and English dews can produce. The house was a spacious, 
irregular pile, built at different periods, with a tower dating 
from the reign of Elizabeth. The wing containing the private 
apartments of the baronet was modern, almost new, according 



472 AN OLD DOCUMENT. [July, 

to English reckoning, for it had been built by his father two 
years after her gracious majesty Victoria came to the throne. 

The letter with the feminine superscription and the Ameri- 
can stamp was on top of the pile of mail ; it hid been placed 
there purposely by Andrew the butler, who detested Ameri- 
cans and had an uncurbed curiosity in regard to them. He 
hoped that his master, who sometimes consulted him, on the 
score of long service, might give some clue to this letter ; but 
in this he was disappointed. 

The old man gave his attention to the mail, and came 
finally to Sally Gary's letter. He opened it listlessly and then 
read it twice with eager interest, and afterwards sat a long 
time with the sheet held between his wrinkled fingers. 

"How futile are human calculations!" he mused. "So that 
boy is to win, after all. I'm not especially sorry poor devil! 
Jimmie maintained that he was an impostor, and I thought 
that he was a lunatic. It turns out that he is neither. If 
this letter prove true, the American ancestress is not a myth." 

Sir Reginald was not always a model Christian, but he was 
a just man according to his lights, and he never questioned the 
mysterious ways of Providence. After a little time he too 
wrote a letter. 

"Young mm," he said aloud, as he sealed and directed this 
epistle, " it is lucky for you that this document came to light 
in my time, or this amiable and startling American letter might 
have been quietly dropped into the fire. Cousin Jimmie is very 
good, a very good man, indeed ; but there is no use in hitch- 
ing a ton to a rope intended by nature to pull but eighteen 
hundred pounds. I suppose my old age will see a lively scrim- 
mage for Anson Park, and that will be bad for my liver ; but 
what has to be will be." 

" One's uprightness of character depends sometimes on the 
absence of temptation. Not that I have any reason to distrust 
you, Cousin Jimmie, but I think that you would not have 
grieved if the allotted three-score-and ten of man had been 
curtailed in my behalf, at least the ten, to say nothing of the 
third score. 

" Now whether anything comes of this or not, I have done 
my duty," concluded the baronet, pushing the letter aside. 

It was directed to Reginald Anson, Esquire, Temple Inn, 
London ; and London not being a great way from Anson Park, 
at about the same hour the next morning the young man 
received this letter from the hands of the postman. 



1901.] AN OLD DOCUMENT. 473 

It found him on the top fl^or of an inn made historic by 
the great men who had begun their careers beneath its ven- 
erable roof. 

But it had not seen a genius graduated into success since 
Mortimore had roused the nation with his brochure, America s 
Message to England, and won for himself a seat in the Com- 
mons. Young Anson in a pessimistic mood had named the 
place the B. B. D., which translated means the Briefless Bar- 
rister's Den. 

He sometimes wondered if the race of genius, at least in 
Temple Inn, were not extinct. 

Reginald Anson was not naturally pessimistic, but fortune 
had dealt him some rather hard blows, and they had left 
little scars on his soul. He had been brought up by a well- 
to do uncle and educated for the bar. His widowed mother 
had a pension on which she managed to live, being blessed 
with a phenomenally small appetite, adjustable to weak tea 
and tarts. She was a very clever woman who in her youth 
had been beautiful, and her friends, remembering her and the 
Attic salt she could bring to the feast, asked her continually, 
without any thought of a return of hospitalities. 

On the days that she dined out she dined so well that she 
felt she might safely risk not dining at all on the days that 
intervened. 

Reginald was, in many respects, his mother's son. His good 
looks, his ready speech, and his self-reliance came from her; 
to those who had known his father, an officer in the Indian 
service, the generous, sunny soul, the chivalrous honor, the fine 
courtesy, seemed but his natural birthright. 

The learned who have studied the subject, and might, 
therefore, be supposed to know all that there is to know about 
it, claim that it is a wise provision of nature that a child in- 
herits traits from two people who are in most cases of oppo- 
site temperaments. They adduce all sorts of very learned and 
very dull reasons to prove this theory. Reginald Anson ought 
to have delighted their souls, for he was of a finer type than 
either of his parents. Physically he was very good-looking, 
tall, straight, athletic, with dark hair and eyes, a beautiful sen- 
sitive mouth, a square jaw like Napoleon, and a chin pointed 
with determination. 

He meant to do many things in the world ; but he meant 
to be a gentleman first of all, and he also meant to be a suc- 
cessful man. 



474 AN OLD DOCUMENT. [July* 

There was a tradition in his family that theirs -was the 
elder branch, and that the Anson baronetcy was their rightful 
heritage. 

When Reginald reached manhood he harried his uncle into 
setting on foot a legal investigation, but it ended in nothing. 

Their side of the story was this: During the Revolutionary 
War the eldest son of the Ansons had secretly married an 
American, and had died before acknowledging his marriage. 
His father had lived to a great age, over ninety, and at his 
death the child of his second son rather than the great-grand- 
son, whose claims had never been allowed, had come forward 
as the heir, the eldest son being regarded as having died un- 
married. 

Reginald Anson, the fifth in descent from the American 
Margaret Conway, had never been able to find out why the 
claim of her descendants had not been tested in a court of 
law. It was the dream of his life to gain what he called his 
rights. No one, not even his mother, sympathized greatly with 
his ambition. 

"Let sleeping dogs lie, my son," had counseled his worldly- 
wise mother. 

Reginald went down to Anson Park that same afternoon, 
and was received almost warmly by the baronet. 

" I shall be very glad if you can establish your right to 
my shoes when I have finished with them, that is," he said^ 
with a humorous gleam in his faded old eyes. 

" You 'd better go to America and get all the documentary 
proof you can. I '11 lend you the money, and if you can 
establish your claim, I fancy there will be no further trouble. 
Cousin Jimmie will know a dead goose when he sees it, I 
suppose." 

And thus it happened that Miss Sally Gary was at once 
glorified into a heroine in her own estimation, and that of her 
family, when the card of Mr. Reginald Anson was brought 
to her in the midst of the August gaieties at Narragansett 
Pier. 

Secretly she felt unfairly dealt with when her brightest 
smiles failed to keep the young man at the Pier longer than 
twenty-four hours. 

He had come after something that meant to him the 
measureless distance between success and failure, and all the 
girls in forty States would have been powerless to chain his 
fancy. 



1901.] AN OLD DOCUMENT. 475 

Mr. Gary met the young man in Washington, for the papers 
had been transferred to his safe-deposit vault in that city. 
Armed with these proofs young Anson returned immediately to 
England, and was at once acknowledged as the legal heir. 

These business details all accomplished, then it was that 
romance sprung up in his heart, and he began to think of the 
winsome maiden to whose impulse he owed his fortune. He 
could not tell her of all the grateful sentiments that were 
flooding his soul, telephone communications not yet having 
been established between London and Washington, but he 
could write them, and this he did at great length. 

Sally had to reply to congratulate him, and to tell him that 
he exaggerated the service she had rendered him. This letter 
called for an instant answer, to say that words could never 
measure the service. After that they corresponded without 
attempting to find any excuse for so doing, except pure 
pleasure in each other's letters. 

Elizabeth noticed that Sally did not seem to care so much 
for young men as she had during her first winter in society. 

" Young men are well enough in their places," vouchsafed 
Miss Gary loftily. "All young girls like them, I believe; but 
when one grows older of course more serious things occupy 
one's mind." 

In the following spring the old baronet died. 

Sally expressed her well-phrased sympathy, not without the 
aid of the dictionary. 

" A misspelled word in a letter of condolence would be 
simply appalling," she said to herself. " It might pass in con- 
gratulations." 

Early in the winter Sir Reginald Anson paid his second 
visit to Washington. His marriage to Sally Gary occurred after 
the Christmas holidays. 

The pretty American bride was presented at the May 
drawing-room, and immediately had great vogue among what 
is known as the clever set in London. 

In August the couple went for a few days to Bath. Sally, 
with her husband, sought out an old-fashioned brick dwelling 
in a crescent-shaped row, where once had dwelt that other 
Sally Gary during the closing years of an eventful life. 

Tom Page is quite willing to admit that present-day 
chronicles, at least in the family, will concede the definite 
article the to his cousin, Lady Anson of Anson Park, still 
spoken of pleasantly as pretty Sally Gary of Washington. 



DRIFTIN'. [July, 




BY J. FRANCIS DUNNE. 

LIKES ter sit alone at night, 

Driftin' ; 
In the shadow of the firelight, 

Jes' driftin'. 
When all the boys ha' gone ter bed 
En I 've heard the pray'rs they said, 
I sits and dreams with drowsy head, 
Driftin', jes' driftin'. 

En when the wind is whistlin' low, 

Driftin', 
En on the winders lays the snow, 

Jes' driftin' ; ' 

The storm a-ragin' at the door, 
The chimney sounds with cracklin' roar, 
Then through the flames come days of yore, 

Driftin', jes' driftin'. 

There I sits with moistened eyes, 

Driftin'. 
A-thinkin', wishin', heavin' sighs, 

Jes' driftin'. 

The shady form of her I wed, 
Ah, happy me ! but now she 's dead ! 
En dreamin' there, I droops my head, 

Driftin', jes' drifting 

It makes me sad to sit alone, 

Driftin'. 
For when I hears the wild winds moan, 

Jes' driftin', 

There steals into my heart a pain 
As if my life from me was ta'en. 
No more the Sun, but always Rain, 

Driftin', jes' driftin'. 



1 90 1.] THE POETS OF THE NORTH. 477 




THE POETS OF THE NORTH. 

BY E. BRAUSEWETTER. 

jCANDINAVIA is still young, so far as her poetry 
is concerned, and is little known in the history 
of literature. But that it is developing is indi- 
cated not only by the important works of an 
Ibsen, so novel in form, but by a considerable 
group of poets, of eminent talent, who are inspired by pure 
love of art. Putting aside Ibsen, Bjornson, and Ola Hansson, 
who have been already much talked of, we will undertake to 
speak of the most interesting of the other poets. 

Auguste Strindberg occupies the first place among Swedish 
writers, although he is more of a thinker and observer than a 
poet. As the result of his introspection, he finds in himself, 
as in humanity at large, the dual forces of the aspirations of 
the soul and the desires of the instinct, the struggle between 
good and evil thoughts. His will, his love of justice, pushes 
him down toward the masses; his aspirations, his feeling of 
affinity, raise him among the Mite. The solution of the prob- 
lem is such as would result from the doctrine of Nietzsche on 
a superior man; as a member of "the nobility of nerve and 
spirit," he raises himself above sensual humanity. 

He develops his conceptions of woman in direct contrast to 
the laws laid down for himself, and while placing her among 
the creatures of instinct, adores her, nevertheless, as a mother 
and Madonna, whom education cannot improve. Although he 
may not know it, this adorer of woman is an enemy of the 
whole sex; there is in Strindberg's poetry a rare science, an 
intimate knowledge of nature, which gives to his comparisons 
a signification entirely revolutionary. 

Victor Hedberg has a melancholy tendency so often to be 
found in Swedish poets. He tries to deepen and display, by 
the exposition of human destinies, the aim and purpose of life. 
Although his poetry reveals his aspiration after happiness and 
joy, one feels beneath the troubling question, How shall this 
happiness, once acquired, be preserved ? Still Victor Hedberg 
is not a pessimist ; he finds a solution in love. His poetry is 



4/3 THE POETS OF THE NORTH. [July, 

sweet, yet profound; he has a realistic touch which he sub- 
merges in the light of a radiant beauty. 

Gustave Geijerstam entered upon his poetic career by way 
of realistic novels, strictly natural, partly tragic and partly 
humorous. In Erik Grane he believes that he has found the 
means of supporting a banal existence without etiolation, but 
in Medusas Hufvued he recognizes the superiority of the ideal- 
ist, even though the spirit may be weighed down by the 
misery and injustice of the world. This is the tragic ending 
of a mediocre victory, of the abasement of everything noble 
and grand. The mystical relations of the moral being are 
popular to-day, and Geijerstam devotes more and more of his 
time in analyzing the new tendencies of his art. 

Alfred de Hedenstjerna is the poet of the people. He 
knows how to make this one smile, and to make that one 
weep tears of emotion. He tells of the happiness of love, of 
the easy existence of the good ; he speaks of struggle and 
suffering, but with sentimental melancholy, as of things left 
far behind in the golden twilight of memory. Or, better, he 
treats suffering on the comical side, and effaces it by the 
laugh he provokes, changing the tragic things of life into 
a farce. There is something superficial, affected, grotesque 
even, about his fun, which possesses also a certain naive origin- 
ality. His astonishing fertility, his inexhaustible humor, causes 
his work to be handled very severely by the critics. 

Peter Halstrom must be mentioned among the younger 
poets. He is an impressionist, whose soul is finely strung, like 
the strings of a musical instrument. All the art of such a poet 
is in style ; he sees in the resonance of a phrase the material 
symbol of a sensation ; he feels the struggle of the individual 
for independence in our modern life to be a dissonance, an 
obstacle to the harmony of society, and in his heart recalls, 
with regret, the olden times of humble faith and obedience; 
but his intellectual being smiles at these fancies. Thus alter- 
nating between despairing scepticism and generous exaltation, 
he finds the tone of burlesque and of sentimental humor ; he 
rejects also the decaying psychology, the fancies of stern ro- 
manticism, and the stale and distressing picture of reality. 

Charles A. Tavaststjerna is the best known author of Fin- 
land. He is also a sceptic, and he contemplates society with 
an irony which he makes personal. It is not the struggle of 
ideas in humanity which interests him, but the complicated 
mechanism of the soul. He considers two types primordinate 



THE POETS OF THE NORTH. 



479 





AUGUSTE STRINDBERG. 
(Born in 1849.) 



VICTOR HEDBERG. 
(Born in 1861.) 



in the dual nature, the man of the world, easy, elegant, and 
sceptical, who has every chance to conquer in social life, and 
the isolated sentimentalist, brusque of manner, but of weighty 
thought and great depth of soul, calm and untroubled by triv- 
ialities in reality the type of Finland and this latter type 
has all his sympathies. 

Jonas Lie, after Ibsen and Bjornson, holds the first place 
among Norwegian writers. His nature is complex, and both 
in his character and his poetry his double origin shows itself ; 
the Norwegian, cold, practical, and sarcastic, contrasting with 
the Fin, overflowing with fancies. When he became aware of 
this latter tendency Jonas Lie began to write ; he described, 
with an original beauty, the terror impressed on the soul by 
the landscapes of the North whence he came, and the life there, 
in which his vivid imagination discovered, in the course of the 
harsh struggle, the heroes and geniuses of civilization. Then 
he turned to the problems of modern society ; among them the 
woman question, in which he took the part of Hymen, preach- 
ing the " cornpanion-to-man " doctrine, and satirized humorously 
the emancipators. His pDetry is modern, full of mystical 
faith in nature and the soul. 

Alexander Kielland is also of a satirical vein, seeking for 
the typical side of things, but he is not psychological. His 
study in France of the opposition of classes helps him to throw 
a satirical light on the society of his own country ; on the hypoc- 

VOL LXXIII. \2 



48o 



THE POETS OF THE NORTH. 



[July, 





PETER HALSTROM. 
(Born in zSbd.) 



CHAS. TAVASTSTJEFNA. 
(Born in 1860.} 



risy, the narrow vein, the moral perversion of the higher, and 
on the misery and labor of the lower, classes, who, rustic and 
naive, never take account of their situation. He is not a po- 
lemic, seeking to convince, but a humorist, dry and sarcastic, 
trying to frighten ; yet in spite of his bitter laughter, there is 
also to be found in his writings the tender sigh of compassion. 

Arne Garborg is also, in the highest degree, a painter of 
civilization, less of the exterior social life than of the intel- 
lectual life of the Norwegian of the present time. He submits 
the personal characteristics to the same strong light that a 
naturalist does to the object he studies ; and, although his 
characters are natural, there is about them something so human, 
so typical, that they seem to have been selected from among 
his acquaintances. He enters into the struggle of the Nor- 
wegian peasant, and battles forcibly against the weariness of 
spirit and the religious hypocrisy and political corruption of his 
country ; he preaches a more ideal, more liberal union of the 
sexes, an education that will produce complete, robust individ- 
uals. 

Holger Drachmann is a lyric poet, revealing a personality 
essentially genial and vastly gifted. He has the true tempera- 
ment of an artist, impressionable, easily excited, and as easily 
deceived, stern to unconsidered brutality, yet of a dreamy 
tenderness, of delicate feelings and compassion, of unlimited 
presumption, and, at the same time, of puerile modesty, always 



1901.] 



THE POETS OF THE NORTH. 



481 





JONAS LIE. 
(Born in 1833.} 



ALEX. KIELLAND. 
(Born in 1849.) 



discontented with his work, and yet sure of his vocation as a 
poet. His sense of justice makes him a revolutionist, an ad- 
vocate of the poor and oppressed, a satirist full of sarcasm for 
the leaders. Notwithstanding his aim at realism, he is really 
a believer in the fantastic and unreal. 

Charles Gjellerup, inclined first toward the sentimentality of 
Germany, then toward its music, and, finally, toward every- 
thing German, the author of An Idealist, is not wholly exempt 
from Danish scepticism, but with more depth in the sentiment, 
and with the evident desire to allow no illusions, no sweet 
dreams. His poems display the richness and breadth of a 
beauty-loving soul, and are full of delicate depths, betraying 
an infinitely artistic view of things. 

Charles Larsen is the typical representative of modern 
decadence in Danish literature ; of the low conception of life, 
which makes sport of everything, half ironically, half plain- 
tively, which extols nothing, condemns nothing, because, all 
illusions being lost, one believes no more in anything. 

To this list of poets other names might be added, because 
there are other lutes which vibrate, other gifted souls who play 
an important part in the literature of the Scandinavian penin- 
sula. 



482 THE DA WN. [July* 



the 

(ON THE PASSING OF A GOOD MAN.) 

Deatb batb no terrors for a coucb like tDis ! 
terrible to mortal beart bis coming seems 
\Vben glorp=crowned endeavor rules tbe dap 
Jlnd dreams of splendor crowd tbe fevered nigbt, 
\Vben ove is poung and life is all in all ! 
3>>et, unto one wbo knows tbe bidden igbt, 
Wbo knows tbe Sun sball rise, tbo* pet 'tis dark, 
he comes as comes tbe dawn upon tbe sea : 
now first a little line of silverp cloud, 
now two, now tbree and lo, a toucb of gold 
Cben, in bis glorp, leaps tbe risen Sun 
tbe sbadows rip tbeir Conqueror, tbe stars 
Cbat seemed so brigbt so beautiful and brigbt 
Jade in tbe surer splendors of tbe dawn ! 
$o, to tbe just man comes tbe dawn of Deatb, 
Kot as tbe fading of bis eartblp stars, 
tbe Pleiads of ambition and tbe moon, 
Cbe cbanging moon, of eartblp fears and loves, 
But as tbe golden coming of tbe Sun 
Cbat rules tbe Cosmos tbro' tbe eternal pears ! 

So broke tbe morning on our brotber's epes- 
So came tbe hidden Splendor from tbe sea 
Jlnd reddened all tbe windows of bis soul 
6od give bim ligbt in otber dawns tban ours ! 

JOHN JEROME ROONEY. 



1 90 1 .] FA THE R TA UN TON' s HIST OR Y OF THE JE s ui TS. 483 




FATHER TAUNTON'S HISTORY OF THE JESUITS.* 

BV J. F. X. WESTCOTT. 

HISTORICAL work has recently appeared in 
England which seems to have stirred up not a 
little controversy. The discussion of its merits 
has called out a whole host of letters from the 
most prominent as well as from the most unusual 
sources. The prominence that has been given to the matter 
in the English-speaking world will not permit us entirely to 
ignore the controversy, but it rather demands at our hands an 
elaborate and extensive review of the historical question. 

There are two opinions abroad as to the true character of 
history ; some regard it as a natural, others as a manufac- 
tured product. The one opinion conceives the first duty of 
the historian to be the manifestation of the whole truth ; 
the second asserts that an essential part of the office of 
history is to conceal whatever might tend to scandalize the 
lay reader. Looking with some suspicion upon the adage, 
Veritas liber abit vos, the more timid school of writers endeavor 
to keep on record as few scandalous events as possible. At 
times they have been driven to attain their purpose by means of 
interpolating, mutilating, and forging ; means which were com- 
mon enough among some of the chroniclers of the Middle Ages 
and are not altogether unknown among the mediaevalists of our 
own day, means, moreover, which frequently have been em- 
ployed, " that the Church may be edified." It is to be remarked, 
at the outset, that men of this school will not be pleased by 
Father Taunton's book, which, as its title suggests, contains 
the record of a good many unsavory and " disedifying" inci- 
dents, and is ex professo a volume justifiable, if at all, only on 
the principle laid down by Leo XIII., that in the long run 
truth can do no harm. Supposing that, like the throwing open 
of the Vatican archives and the writing of Pastor's History of 
the Popes, its production meets with enthusiastic praise from 
some, it will be equally certain to be censured by others. 

* The History of the Jesuits in England, 1580-1^3. By Ethelred L. Taunton. Methuen & 
Co., 36 Essex Street, W. C., London. 1901. 



484 FATHER TAUNTON'S HISTORY of THE JESUITS. [July, 



FRANKNESS IN HISTORICAL RESEARCH. 

"It has been my endeavor," writes Father Taunton, "to 
steer clear of ... extremes. We profess to want Truth ; 
and Truth is not served by party-spirit. Hence I neither sup- 
press anything nor explain anything away" (p. x.). " I am pre- 
pared to hear regrets that I have introduced what some may 
call ' contentious matter.' This is unavoidable, and must, in 
the interests of truth, be approached with fearless steps. . . . 
I have felt considerably at times an inclination to get relief 
from the task I accepted ; and it has been only the serious 
nature of the principles at stake that has enabled me to carry 
it to completion " (p. ix.) 

Be it said that the persons most interested, the English 
Jesuits themselves, by no means shrink from an appeal to 
facts. They are quite content that their career should be pre- 
sented in a strictly historical way. " We come across them 
(the unfortunate dissensions of the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries) in the documents, and it is quite impossible to avoid 
discussing them if we are to write our English Catholic history 
faithfully. . . . We engage in such investigations only to 
ascertain the truth." So wrote, in October, 1898, the editor of 
The Month, in the note with which he prefaced a Benedictine 
writer's presentation of the story of the scandalous quarrels at 
Valladolid. Another Jesuit writes : " Whatever be the short- 
comings of the Society (and her most loyal sons will be the 
first to say there are many), they are, etc., etc." And Father 
Gerard, S.J., has said : " It may well be doubted whether the 
policy of ignoring what is disagreeable in history can ever be 
right or wise. Truth is a great solvent of mhconceptions and 
misunderstandings. ... Scandals, we know, must come 
and they must be faced." 

Father Taunton's method will, therefore, meet with no cen- 
sure or reproof from the subjects of his study on the score of 
frankness. It is clear, however, that the execution of his plan 
must involve the writing of many a line sure to make unpleas- 
ant reading ; for there is more than one incident in this story 
which old-fashioned chroniclers would have attempted yes, and 
actually did attempt to eliminate. Yet one may trust that in 
the event, the revelation of truth in all its fulness and naked- 
ness will be for the best. 






1901.] FATHER TAUNTON'S HISTORY OF THE JESUITS. 485 

LACK OF DISINTERESTEDNESS. 

Our author, then for no one will apprehend his falling 
short of his promise in the matter of openness possesses one 
very desirable qualification, and should be in a fair way to 
execute a fine piece of historical work. Nevertheless, frank- 
ness, while necessary, is not sufficient to qualify one as a his- 
torian. In Father Taunton's case frankness is partly counter- 
balanced by the lack of a second no less indispensable quality, 
disinterestedness. Notoriously, he is far from being an admirer 
of the Society a portion of whose history he is engaged in 
tracing. In fact, he scruples not at showing himself thorough- 
ly out of sympathy with what he considers to be the vital 
principle of the Jesuits. Moreover, he is convinced that they 
have exercised a most hurtful influence upon English Catholi- 
cism. Within his soul rankles the consciousness that " for three 
hundred years we have suffered for their misdeeds."* In fair- 
ness, then, we must recognize that there is danger of the per- 
fect balance of Father Taunton's judgment being disturbed by 
a sense of grievance. 

All in all, we begin the book with the anticipation that 
while absolutely clear from any suspicion of over-delicacy, it 
may not exhibit perfect freedom from bias. Both of these 
anticipations are realized. But we must mention other notice- 
able qualities in the volume a beautiful specimen of book- 
making of which the publishers may well be proud. Its five 
hundred pages give evidence of an enormous amount of 
labor on the writer's part ; and his topic being one to which 
he has devoted years of study, he is in possession of an easy 
style such as usually comes only to those who have thoroughly 
assimilated the knowledge they have to impart. On the other 
hand, his work evinces a certain lack of symmetry. The title 
too, it must be said, is over-ambitious for anything short of a 
series of folios. The book, perhaps, might be correctly looked 
upon as a biography of Robert Parsons, with the insertion of 
a complementary chapter on " Gunpowder Plot," and a post- 
script of eighty pages on " After Events." True, the author 
forewarns us that " the personality of Robert Parsons over- 
shadows the whole book " ; but certainly it is an exaggeration 
to say that " he is the history of the English Jesuits." Indeed, 
it seems occasionally as if the author's fascination for study of 
the too dominant personality of Father Parsons had induced 

* Letter to The Tablet (London), April 27, 1901. 



486 FA THER TA UNTON'S HISTOR Y OF THE JESUITS. \ July, 

him to dispose of his material in a way that prevents the reader 
from quickly grasping the real succession of important events. 

DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING ENGLISH CATHOLIC HISTORY. 

Still we must not forget certain difficulties which surround 
his subject, and therefore serve to augment his merit. The 
history of Catholic England, we recall, is as yet in a backward 
stage. As the events of the last three centuries were anything 
but conducive to the careful collection and preservation of 
Catholic libraries, students are greatly hampered by lack of those 
materials which, under other circumstances, would have been 
worked up generations ago. Lingard left many gaps and 
omissions which, unfortunately, have not yet been supplied by 
men of equal scholarship ; while Challoner presents and only 
in meagre detail but one aspect of an immense and varied 
subject. All this is best realized when we reflect on the advance 
made within recent years, aided not a little by the work of 
Protestants, but due also to Catholic scholars, Benedictines,. 
Jesuits, Redemptorists, Oratorians, and others of whose ability 
and achievements we may well be proud. These have made 
good use of resources only lately become available : the volumes 
of Spanish Records previously unpublished, and other priceless 
publications in the Government Calendars of State Papers; 
the immense number of transcribed Vatican MSS. recently 
placed in the Record Office ; the valuable collections reported 
upon by the Historical MSS. Commission; the College and 
Monastery Archives Downside, Stonyhurst, and Oscot, for ex- 
ample that only gradually have received their true value. 
And Father Taunton is to be numbered among those who- 
have profited by these new opportunities to put forth new 
energy. We propose now to give an account of some of the 
subjects taken up in his latest volume, and to comment briefly 
upon his treatment of them. 

A STATEMENT OF THE QUESTION. 

When the first Jesuit missionaries landed in England the 
condition of that country was not an inspiriting one. Eliza- 
beth had been at work making the nation Protestant and had 
met with no small measure of success. Incredible as it may 
seem, nine-tenths of the clergy are said to have apostatized. 
" Speaking roughly," writes Father Morris, S.J., " forty-nine 
out of fifty priests in England let Elizabeth dissever them once 
more from the Holy See." * The laity, left without the 

* Dublin Review, April, 1890, p. 245. 



1901.] FA THER TA UNTON'S HISTOR Y OF THE JESUITS. 487 

strengthening influence of good example, were under fearful 
pressure to conform at least outwardly. The children were 
growing up in total ignorance of their faith. Pius V. had ex- 
communicated the queen in 1570. There was little hope for 
the establishment of a hierarchy. The remnants of the Marian 
priests were fast disappearing. Just at this dark hour came 
the first attempts at mission work. 

In 1568 the English College at Douai was established for 
the purpose of training priests for the English mission. Two 
years later a similar institution was begun in Rome. To both 
these seminaries the young but powerful Society of Jesus lent 
aid; and, in 1580, the English students at Rome, revolting 
against their superiors, asked that the Jesuits, instead of merely 
assisting as heretofore, might be put in entire charge. 

PARSONS AND CAMPION. 

About the same time the Jesuits were requested to send 
men to assist on the English mission. Fathers Campion and 
Parsons arrived in London in the summer of 1580. They 
found there a clergy composed of about eighty " seminary- 
priests " and a number of "Marians" i. e, men ordained dur- 
ing the preceding reign. The English clergy showed them- 
selves to be rather distrustful of the Jesuits. For one thing, 
the latter were then considered to be great innovators ; and 
for another, their finely developed organization made the Eng- 
lish clergy suspicious of "Jesuit domination." Again, the 
impression was abroad that the Society was working in the 
Spanish interest, and the clergy, however persecuted, were still 
patriotic enough to be prepared to resist foreign invasion. It 
was said, too, that attempts had been made to entice the more 
brilliant of the English seminarians into the Jesuit novitiate. 
So it happened that the two missionaries who came on the 
English mission at the risk of their lives received but a cold 
welcome. For a year they went about propagating the faith ; 
and it was reckoned by Dr. afterward Cardinal Allen that 
within twelve months the number of English Catholics was 
increased by twenty thousand. 

Then the government grew suspicious and began to deal 
more sternly with recusants. Campion was seized and mar- 
tyred. Parsons was confronted by a number of the clergy who 
accused him of having brought on this new persecution by his 
intrigues with the Spanish. He was threatened with denun- 
ciation to the government, if he remained longer in England ; 



488 FATHER TAUNTON'S HISTORY OF THE JESUITS. [July, 

so he left for France. That same year there came two other 
Jesuits on the English mission, and afterwards a few more 
joined them. Though remaining but a handful for a long 
time, they soon acquired and retained a powerful influence 
over both priests and people. 

" WISBEACH STIRS." 

In 1595 happened the " Wisbeach Stirs." A number of 
priests had been confined for many years in Wisbeach Castle, 
on the Isle of Ely. Complaints were made that many of them 
had fallen into a riotous mode of life ; and one of the prison- 
ers, a Jesuit, Father Weston, proposed that a rule of life 
should be drawn up and a superior elected. The majority 
assenting, Father Weston was made superior ; but as the rest 
denied the charges and would not recognize the new regula- 
t ons, the house was divided into two factions which for nine 
months held no intercourse with each other, even refusing to 
eat at a common table. Though these parties were finally 
reconciled by means of outside intervention resulting in a 
compromise, the results of the quarrel spread far and wide. 
In the English College at Rome the students rebelled and 
demanded the expulsion of the Jesuits, absolutely refusing to 
allow Father Parsons' anti-English Book of the Succession to be 
read in the refectory. Finally the rector, Father Creswell, was 
removed ; and the storm was quieted by Father Parsons, who 
assumed the government of the college himself, and afterward 
resided there while directing the movements of the Jesuits on 
the English mission. 

Meanwhile ecclesiastical affairs in England were in a most 
wretched condition. The clergy sought for the re-establishment 
of the hierarchy ; and, after concluding that this plan would 
be frustrated by Father Parsons, they projected the formation 
of an association with a code of rules and an elective head. 
Cajetan, Cardinal Protector of England, however, instead of 
acceding to this request, decided upon another plan, and ap- 
pointed George Blackwell, Archpriest, with jurisdiction over 
the secular priests of England. The clergy bitterly protested, 
claiming that Blackwell was both incapable and a " devotee of 
the Jesuits, who would use him as they chose." They were 
the more indignant because the new archpriest had been offi- 
cially instructed by Cajetan " to take no step of importance 
without the advice of Father Garnet, Superior of the Jesuit 
Mission in England." After considerable discussion, two repre- 



1901.] FATHER TAUNTON' s HISTORY OF 7 HE JESUITS. 489 

sentatives of the clergy went to Rome, but were taken in 
charge by Father Parsons, imprisoned in the English College, 
and then sent home, unsuccessful. Finally, in 1602, Clement 
VIII., on receipt of an Appeal, signed by thirty-three priests, 
reprimanded Blackwell and, for the sake of peace, forbade him to 
consult the superior or the general of the Jesuits on official matters. 

FATHER TAUNTON'S ACCOUNT NOT WELL PROPORTIONED. 

Such is the painful incident in outline. In Father Taun- 
ton's presentation of it there is, we think, scarcely enough 
consideration given to the possibility of blame attaching to 
those who were against the Jesuits. In point of fact, there 
were grave faults on both sides, as Jesuit writers are quite 
willing to allow. A number of good men among the clergy 
^. g.. Haddock, Array, and Sicklemore supported Parsons. 
Some among his opponents, such as Watson and Cecil, were 
not much to boast of; though others, to be sure, were men 
widely respected ; for instance, Colleton, the future vicar- 
apostolic, Mush, Bluet, and Gifford, of whom Father Gerard, 
S.J., says : " Gifford, a man otherwise of exemplary character, 
who became Archbishop of Rheims, was an unrelenting enemy 
of the Jesuits."* Though Father Taunton suppresses nothing 
of all this, yet his account is not well proportioned ; it does 
not give such a perfectly adequate notion of the pros and cons 
as may be grasped readily. It is rather unfair, too, for him to 
intimate (page 367, note) that the main difference between 
Cecil's and Parsons' loyalty was that the former succeeded, 
and the latter failed, in an attempt to ingratiate himself with 
the government as an informer and spy. And if Parsons 
abused the clergy with inexcusable violence and grossness, the 
Jesuits, in turn, had to suffer from such absurd charges as that 
they were the sole causes of all the discords in England, and 
that more than a third of them had actually become Protest- 
ants. The accusations made a few years later, when Mary 
Ward's case was being tried at Rome, prove that rash judg- 
ment and unjust suspicion were not altogether unknown to 
the enemies of the Jesuits.f 

THE DISTURBANCES IN THE SEMINARIES. 

Another unpleasant chapter in English Catholic history is 
made up of the disturbances in the seminaries; the echo of 
the quarrels mentioned above. Upon the revival of the Bene- 

* The Month, vol. Ixxxix. p. 48, note. 

^ Life of Mary Ward, by Mary C. E. Chalmers, Book V. c. iii. London : Burns & 
dates. 1885. 



490 FATHER TAUNTON' s HISTORY OF THE JESUITS. [July, 

dictine Order, many of the English students displayed an in- 
clination to desert the Jesuit seminaries and enter the Bene- 
dictine novitiate. Some succeeded in doing so and others 
were prevented, the upshot of the matter being that the Holy 
See forbade each community to interfere with students desirous 
of applying to the other community. Here again, however,. 
Father Taunton does not represent as strongly as he might 
the difficulties in which the Jesuits were placed; difficulties 
which explain, if they do not excuse, the conduct of Father 
Creswell, " one of those confident Britons who are ready lo 
teach every one his duty, be he pope, king, cr cow-boy." * 
The Jesuits were under a cloud at the time, in consequence of 
the pope's dislike of the Constitution of the Society and of 
the theological positions of some of its members. It was 
rather a hard thing for them to stand by quietly and see their 
students going away in large numbers ; more especially when, 
as was probably the case, the Benedictines were inclined to 
encourage these defections. " We cannot conceal our impres- 
sion," writes the Benedictine Dom Bede Camm, " that there 
must have been a good deal to say on the other side. It was 
manifestly against all discipline, and very injurious to the 
seminary, to permit young men (some of whom' were possibly 
moved by a mere passing attraction or by dissatisfaction with 
their surroundings or superiors) to run away without leave, on 
however good a pretext." . . . It " does not appear that 
the Benedictine authorities acted with that suavity and discre- 
tion which might have been expected. "f 

THE INCOMPLETE HISTORICAL PRESENTATION. 

Instead of laying stress upon these palliating circumstances, 
Father Taunton rather minimizes. When quoting (p. 339) from 
Father Blackfan's Annals of the English College at Valladolid 
(a most important document for the defence of the Jesuit 
superiors of the seminary, discovered about three years ago, 
in a cupboard at Ushaw College), Father Taunton is careful 
to fill up the lacuna in this narrative " from other unimpeach- 
able and personal sources " (p. 334). We cannot help thinking 
he should have been equally careful to print in full the follow- 
ing sentence, which is among the most significant in the Black- 
fan MS.: "The Benedictine Fathers, emulous of our glory, 
and desiring also to put their sickle into this harvest, and the 

* Father Pollen, S.J., in The Month, vol. xciv. p. 351. 

t A Benedictine Martyr in England: Dom fohn Roberts, O.S.B., by Dom Bede Camm, 
O.S.B., London: Sands & Co., p. 136. 



1901.] FATHER TAUNTON' s HISTORY OF THE JESUITS. 491 

more so, that they had had a martyr among those who had 
passed to them from this college, sent secretly persons to 
entice the students to them, placing copies of the Rule of St. 
Benedict in the hands of some, and moreover making splendid 
promises to allure the ambitious minds of the young men." 
Father Taunton presents but a summary of this statement, and 
in a way which indicates that he doubts its accuracy ; never- 
theless, as Dom Camm observes ; " Some support is given to 
this allegation by the terms of the decree of Paul V. (through 
the Holy Office, December 10, 1608), which forbade the Bene- 
dictines, under grave penalties, to induce the students of the 
seminaries to join their religion (i e. t order), while it equally 
forbade the Jesuits to prevent those who wished to go."* 

In regard to this affair, then, Father Taunton appears to 
have been rather hard on the Society. There are extenuating 
circumstances which he fails to bring out in sufficient promi- 
nence. True, he may maintain that it is not his business to 
apologize, or to institute possibly odious comparisons. Yet, 
on occasion, he does introduce these features, though seldom, 
if at all, in a way that favors Father Parsons and his brethren. 
Better, perhaps, to tell a simple story of facts than to be look- 
ing about for excuses and motives which, if presented, will 
endanger the objective value of the representation ; but this 
plan, if once adopted, must be followed impartially and con- 
sistently. 

THE CHARGE OF PURITANISM. 

We have said above that the English Jesuits are not averse 
to a thorough investigation of this portion of their history. 
They prove their sincerity by frankly accepting some very 
unpleasant conclusions. " Far be it from us," writes Father 
Pollen, SJ., " to adopt . . . language of indiscriminate 
praise, or the tone of panegyric, which in ages less critical 
than ours was frequent among historians. The exigency of 
the case before us requires that we should recognize faults in 
the Jesuits in their conduct towards others, and faults not of 
human frailty only."f But the Jesuits cannot be expected to 
accept criticisms which have received a subjective coloring. 
At times our author is unduly severe. Parsons becomes for 
him a sort of bete noir. He waxes enthusiastic over the dis- 
covery of a key to Parsons' whole life in an abiding strain of 
Puritanism; and this theory is thrust into prominence, at 
times, in a way that certainly borders on the ridiculous. 
Again, our author occasionally indulges in that very danger- 

* The Month, vol. xcii. p. 375. t The Month, vol. xciv. p. 242. 



492 FATHER TAUNTON'S HISTORY OF THE JESUITS. [Ju'y, 

ous diversion of attributing motives and reading intentions ; and 
sometimes makes comparisons which though based on fact are 
pretty certain to mislead. As to his representing Parsons as a 
political intriguer, the picture is, as Father Morris, S.J , allows,* 
true to life. Father Parsons did work, heart and soul, for the 
Spanish cause, and, no doubt, had much to do with the crea- 
tion of that fatal breach between religion and patriotism which 
English Catholics are still lamenting. Still his acticn was not 
absolutely without precedent among great and good English- 
men ; and, at any rate, Father Taunton, in writing a history 
of the Jesuits, should have dwelt with more emphasis on the 
fact that Parsons was plotting treason in the very face of in- 
structions from his superiors, for the Society in 1580, 1593, 
and again in 1606, gave most unequivocal expressions to the 
wish that "none of Ours should mix themselves in anyway in 
affairs of this kind " ; and actually obtained papal confirmation 
for that decree by having it incorporated in the Bull of Paul 
V., Quantum Religio Societatis 

" THE GUNPOWDER PLOT." 

The chapter on " The Gunpowder Plot " is worthy of more 
attention than can now be devoted to it. With a good deal 
of praise for Father Garnet, it contains some strictures upon 
his conduct, and concludes with entering a strong demurrer to 
the suggestion that he was a martyr for his religion, or for 
the seal of confession. The matter is one which has been re- 
ceiving the attention of careful and competent students during 
recent years, and soon, if ever, ought to be set right. 

Here it may be mentioned that Father Taunton's treatment 
of this point has thus far attracted more attention than any 
other feature of his book ; for it was condemned first by a 
writer in the London Tablet of May 7, and further censured by 
Father Gerard, S.J., the present editor of The Month, who con- 
tributed a signed criticism to the pages of The Tablet (May 14). 

The other notices of Father Taunton's volume that have 
appeared are numerous and interesting. In the May issue of 
The Month, Father Pollen, S.J., devoted nearly twenty pages 
to a general review of the book, declaring it cannot be 
called a history in the true sense of the word. Throughout 
the past five or six weeks a steady stream of letters has been 
pouring into the correspondence columns of The Tablet, written 
by critics and apologists of Father Taunton, not a few of the 
letters being from the author himself, who wrote also to the 

* See Dublin Review article cited above. 



igoi.] FATHER TAUNTOM'S HISTORY OF THE JESUITS. 493 

Weekly Register (May 10) in reply to various unfavorable criti- 
cisms which had occurred in that magazine's review of his 
book (May 3). The Athenceum of London comments on Father 
Taunton's "inaccuracies of detail" and "partisanship," and 
declares the main defects of his work to be " its one-sidedness 
and its suppressions " ; and it will be recalled as evidence of 
The Athenceums disinterestedness that at the time the English 
Black Monks of St. Benedict appeared this magazine spoke 
very favorably of that volume We ought not, perhaps, to 
omit to mention Father Taunton's claim in his letter to the 
Weekly Register (May 10) that " The soberness and coldness 
of the tone throughout the book have struck most reviewers." 
At any rate this much is clear: that with various grave aid 
well-founded charges others have been made that were unfair, 
and others again that were untrue. There has been something 
like an inclination to indulge in what the Ave Maria names 
"dust-throwing"; caused, no doubt, by the intensely personal 
nature of the interests involved. Considerable excitement has 
been manifested on both sides ; and a disinterested observer 
would be apt to conclude that neither party is actuated by 
motives perfectly unselfish and unimpeachable. It is not 
amazing, then, that we come upon general statements made 
which are as mutually contradictory of each other as the fol- 
lowing : The critic in The Tablet declares that the book " must 
needs put a weapon into the hands of the more bitter and less 
scrupulous of our anti-Catholic adversaries"; while Father 
Taunton expresses the opinion that " Anti-Catholics will regret 
the book; for it is now perfectly clear that the church is not 
compromised by the Spanish intrigues of a mere handful of 
English Jesuits." 

Here we may conclude, mindful above all else, at the 
present moment, of the horribly fatal result of differences be- 
tween good men, and most especially between members of the 
priesthood. Truly these things are the curse of the House of 
God. During the days of persecution in England, frightful 
torments were borne and many lives laid down ; and yet it 
almost seems as if the blood of those martyrs were shed in 
vain, because sweet Charity abode not with the survivors. 
Who is not pleased to think that circumstances are different 
now, and that such bitter hatred is only a memory ? But 
what a lesson it recalls ! And how terrible is the warning for 
us to beware lest we too, by mutual bickerings and conten- 
tions, should arouse the wrath of God ! 




THE FOUNDATION OF MONTREAL. 

Matsonneuve, Father Otter, M. De la Dauversiert, and M. D. Aillebout projecting in Paris 

the founding of the City. 




CANADA'S COMMERCIAL METROPOLIS. 

BY SAMUEL BYRNE. 

ONTREA.L, Canada's very picturesquely situated 
mercantile metropolis, and its largest and most 
important city, presents, in several of the psy- 
chological phases of the modern life of its 
populace, no less than in many of its architec- 
tural aspects, one of the most interesting urban individualities 
in the New World. 

There is hardly a street in it which does not suggest, in 
some form or other, historical reminiscences of a past with 
which France and England and the United States are asso- 
ciated. Within its boundaries are also to be seen the remarka- 
ble effects of the blending of two great civilizations the French 
and the British. There are still visible, however, distinct traces 
of the sullen and passive antipathy which might be expected 



1 90i.] CANADA'S COMMERCIAL METROPOLIS. 495 

to exist between descendants of a conquered race for the 
French-Canadians may now be considered as a separate race 
and those of its vanquishers. But these traces are happily 
disappearing under the potent influence of a calculating pru- 
dence which has its chief source in self-interest. 

The first white man who visited the island of Montreal, on 
which the city bearing that name is located, was Jacques 
Cartier, the discoverer of Canada, who arrived there in the 
fall of 1535. It was he who gave a name to the forest-clad 
mountain the romantic beauty of which imparts to the city its 
principal charm, and from which at a later period it took the 
name it now bears Mount Royal ("Mont Re"al"). Eminently 
appropriate was the name he bestowed upon the mountain. 
The view from its summit, especially in summer, discloses a 
panoramic scene truly majestic. Below, on one side, lies the 
city, with its three hundred thousand of a population, its five 
miles of wharfage, its almost countless churches, its educational 
institutions, public buildings, factories, and tree-surrounded 
villas, with the broad St. Lawrence sweeping by on its journey 
to the ocean, seven hundred miles away. On every other side 
are variant landscapes of mountains, rivers, forests, and fields. 
And on a gently-descending slope of the Mount itself are two 
white marble cities of the dead : the Protestant and the Catho- 
lic cemeteries. In 1611 Samuel de Champlain, who had 
already founded Quebec City, visited the island for the pur- 
pose of establishing a trading post, and also, as some historians 
say, of erecting a settlement. 

It was Paul De Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, who went 
over expressly from France and chose the site of Canada's 
chief port, taking possession of the Island of Montreal in the 
name of the French "company" or association of Montreal, 
to whom it had been ceded by the King of France. This 
company, of which he was himself a member, was composed 
of thirty-five persons, including several Jesuit fathers and two 
ladies, the famous Mademoiselle Jeanne Mance, "the first Sister 
of Charity," who was accompanied across the Atlantic by a 
female attendant ; and Madame de la Peltrie, who had joined 
them at Quebec. The object of the company was to colonize 
the island, which is thirty-two miles long and ten and a half 
miles in width, and to convert its Indian inhabitants to Chris- 
tianity and bestow upon them the comforts of civilization. 

When Maisonneuve and his companions arrived at Quebec 
from France, in two small ships, the governor of that city, De 
VOL. LXXIII. 33 



49<5 



CANADA'S COMMERCIAL METROPOLIS. 



[July, 




Montmagny, and the colonists under him besought them to 
remain there, offering them as an inducement the adjacent 
Island of Orleans on which to found the projected city and 
colony. The 'Island of Montreal, it was pointed out, which 

was many leagues up the 
river, was swarming with 
ferocious Iroquois. Mai- 
sonneuve's reply, which is 
engraved on the handsome 
monument recently erected 
to his memory by the citi- 
zens of Montreal, was 
characteristic of the man. 
Having expressed his thanks 
for the flattering offer he 
said : " Honor and duty 
alike impel me to accom- 
plish my mission ; and I 
will do so, even if every 
tree on the Island of Mon- 
treal turns into an Iroquois." 
On the 24th of May, 
1642, the city was formally 
and solemnly founded, and, 
after the celebration of 
Mass by Father Vimont, 
S.J., it was placed under 
the special protection of 

" Our Lady, Queen of Angels," the name then given to it 
being " Ville-Marie " "The City of Mary." Parkman the his- 
torian, in his Pioneers of France in the New World, thus de- 
scribes the event : " Maisonneuve sprang ashore, and fell on 
his knees. His followers imitated his example ; and all joined 
their voices in songs of thanksgiving. Tents, baggage, arms, 
and stores were landed. An altar was raised on a pleasant 
spot near the landing ; and Mademoiselle Mance, with Madame 
de la Peltrie, aided by her servant, Charlotte Barr6, decorated 
it with a taste which was the admiration of the beholders. 
Now all the company gathered before the shrine. Here stood 
Vimont in the rich vestments of his office. Here were the 
two ladies with their servant ; Montmagny, no very willing 
spectator ; and Maisonneuve, a warlike figure, erect and tall, 
his men clustering around him. They kneeled in reverent 



MLLE. JEANNE MANCE, THE "FIRST SISTER 
OF CHARITY" TO CROSS THE ATLANTIC. 



1901.] CANADA'S COMMERCIAL METROPOLIS. 497 

silence as the Host was raised aloft ; and when the rite was 
over the priest turned and addressed them : ' You are a grain 
of mustard-seed that shall rise and grow till its branches over- 
shadow the earth. You are few, but this work is the work of 
God. His smile is upon you, and your children shall fill the 
land.' " The historian continues : " The afternoon waned, the 
sun sank behind the western forest, and twilight came on. 
Fireflies were twinkling over the darkened meadows. They 
caught them, tied them with threads into shining festoons, and 
hung them before the altar. Then they pitched their tents, 
lighted their fires, stationed their guards, and lay down to 
rest. Such was the birth-night of Montreal." According to 
another historian, the reason why fireflies were caught was that 
there was no oil for the lamp which must be kept burning 
before the Blessed Sacrament, which Father Vimont had ex- 
posed at the time. The flies were imprisoned, says the 
writer, in a large vial of glass, and they flashed forth a brilliant 
light throughout the night. 

Next day Maisonneuve, who had been appointed governor 
of the island, felled the first tree, and with his followers pro- 
ceeded to protect their encampment. Sandham relates that 
they worked with such energy that, by the evening, they had 
erected " a strong palisade, and had covered their altar with a 
roof made of bark." Alluding to this work, the Jesuit father 
who wrote the chronicles for that year says : " This enterprise 
would seem as desperate as it was brave and holy had it not, 
as its foundation, the might of Him who never fails those 
who undertake nothing save that which is in harmony with his 
will." 

Mademoiselle Mance had taken out with her from Paris a 
large sum of money with which to help forward the building 
up of the city. It was equal to $250,000 in modern money, 
and had been given to her for the purpose named by Madame 
de Bouillon, the widow of a former finance minister of France. 
The money was devoted to the erection of a large stone build- 
ing consisting of a hospital, a convent, and a church. The 
building operations were begun at once. This institution the 
" Hdtel Dieu " remained intact until forty years ago, when 
the demands upon its accommodations, which had been in- 
(ireasing year by year, determined the sisters to remove to 
another site and set up a more commodious building. The 
foundations of the new Hotel Dieu, which is the largest reli- 
gious edifice in America, were laid in 1859. It is situated in a 




[July, 



PAUL DE CHOMEDEY, SIEUR DE MAISONNEUVE. 

very extensive space of ground, in the northern portion of the 
city. The circumference of the enclosure, which is surrounded 
by a high and massive stone wall, is over a mile long. No 
distinction is made as to the religion of the patients ; and 
many of the Protestant residents prefer, when ill, to be nursed 
in its private wards rather than in their own homes. The sick 
poor are admitted and attended free of charge. Before Canada 
became a British colony the Hotel Dieu was furnished with 
medicine and other requisites by the French government ; but 
now it is self-supporting, save for a small annual grant from 
the Provincial Legislature. The fact may not be unworthy of 
mention that a daughter of Ethan Allen, of Vermont, the 
leader of the " Green Mountain " boys, died a member of the 
sisterhood which has charge of this institution. It is related of 
her that during her girlhood, some years before she embraced 
Catholicity, she was attacked by a wild beast as she was walk- 
ing by a river ; and that an old man, of benevolent aspect, 



CANADA'S COMMERCIAL METROPOLIS. 499 

came up to drive it away. The features of her deliverer, so 
the story runs, were indelibly fixed in her memory. On visit- 
ing the convent of the Hotel Dieu she saw an old picture of 
the Holy Family hanging on one of the walls of the sisters' 
church, and with a cry of surprise she informed those who 
were with her that the features of St. Joseph were exactly 
those of her rescuer. The picture may still be seen in the 
church attached to the present Hotel Dieu. 

The Hotel Dieu and a strong fort formed the nucleus of 
the present city. For fully a year Maisonneuve and his tiny 
band of colonists got along in peace. Then they were dis- 
covered by a party of Algonquins, who, assisted by a number 
of their erstwhile enemies, the Iroquois, made a fierce attack 
upon them. From that time forward, for a period of about a 
hundred and fifty years, the history of Montreal is but a record 
of Indian attacks and repulses, with an occasional victory for 
the red man. During one of the conflicts Maisonneuve's fol- 
lowers beat a retreat to the fort, leaving him far in the rear. 
He bravely followed the redskins, a pistol in each hand. The 
Iroquois did not fire, their object being to capture him alive, 
and then torture him to death. Their chief ordered them to 
halt and went forward 'to fight the governor single-handed. 
Maisonneuve fired, but missed. He was immediately grasped 
by the throat by the chief, amid a chorus of whoops from his 
dusky followers. The Frenchman, however, was too quick for 
him. The pistol in his left hand had not been discharged. 
In the position in which they were at this moment Maison- 
neuve's left hand was behind the shoulder of the Indian chief. 
Aiming the barrel of the pistol at the back of his foeman's 
head, he fired, and the burly Iroquois fell on the sward a 
corpse. That ended the conflict of the day. The Indians, 
dumbfounded at the death of their intrepid leader, carried away 
his body in mournful silence. 

Maisonneuve was a sagacious administrator as well as an 
intrepid warrior. He drew up a short and simple code, com- 
posed of ten rules, for the preservation of law and order in 
his colony ; and these he rigorously enforced. His was a 
blameless, an exemplary life. The close of his career in 
Montreal was marked by an incident as pathetic as it was 
sublime. When he had, after years of toil and struggle and 
heroic self-sacrifice, firmly established the colony of the Island 
of Montreal, the governor of New France (as the Canada of 
that early day was termed), unmindful of the great work he 



5oo 



CANADA'S COMMERCIAL METROPOLIS. 




M. DE LA DAUVERSIERE, WHO CONCEIVED THE IDEA OF FOUNDED MONTREAL. 

had accomplished, issued unexpectedly a decree ordering him 
to return to France. On receipt of the order his face assumed 
a look of sadness which it never afterwards lost. He made no 
complaint ; he uttered no protest. All the money that was 
owing to him by the government some six thousand pounds 
sterling he ordered to be distributed amongst the poor; and 
he set sail for France, where he died on September 9, 1676. 

In 1644 the Island of Montreal was deeded over by the 
" company " to the Sulpician Fathers of Paris, who in 1657 
sent the Abb Queylus and several other priests to take pos- 
session of their newly-acquired estate and to found in Ville- 
Marie the Seminary of St. Sulpice, for the purpose of training 
missionaries to preach the Gospel to the Indians. The old 



CANADA' s COMMERCIAL METROPOLIS. 501 

seminary, which is in the Romanesque style of architecture, is 
still intact, with its quaint-looking clock, surmounted by bells 
that strike every quarter of an hour, and with the old loop- 
holed wall in front of it which was originally built for protec- 
tion against the Indians. It is situated beside the Church of 
Notre Dame, on Notre Dame Street, one of the busiest 
thoroughfares in the city. But other needs than the spiritual 
wants of the white men, as well as of the red, grew so press- 
ing as to necessitate the erection of the extensive structure 
known simply as " The Montreal College," or " Grand S6minaire," 
which attracts ecclesiastical students from almost every diocese 
in the United States. By a deed approved by the King of 
France on April 20, 1664, the authorities of the Sulpician 
Seminary in Paris granted to the fathers of their society in 
Ville-Marie " the lands and seigniory of Montreal." 

A treaty of peace was signed in Montreal in 1700 between 
representatives of the Five Nations and the French; and after 
Quebec City had fallen into the hands of the English, Mon- 
treal became what a recent writer aptly terms "The last strong- 
hold of French power in America." The existence of this 
stronghold was of brief duration, for a few months afterwards, 
being invested by the British on all sides, it was forced to 
capitulate. Three years later the Treaty of Paris placed the 
whole colony of Canada under the flag of Great Britain. 

THE CHATEAU DE RAMEZAY. 

One of the most interesting, albeit one of the least impos- 
ing, of Montreal's historical buildings is that which still bears 
the name of the Chateau de Ramezay. It is to-day the Cha- 
teau de Ramezay in name only. In reality the chateau is but 
a memory. The original structure is almost intact, it is true; 
but the vandal hand of modern utilitarianism has been laid 
upon it. The front part of it is now a saloon, another portion 
was until recently a barber-shop, still another is a colonization 
office, and the remainder is used temporarily as the nucleus of 
a museum. It was built in 1705 by the Sieur de Ramezay, 
governor of Montreal. Within its low, massive walls have 
been enacted scenes that have run through the whole gamut 
of dramatic interest. Here have been arranged the stern de- 
tails of military expeditions, and the less guileful stratagems 
of the gentler campaigns of love. The banquet, with its 
" feast of reason and flow of soul," its sparkling wit and 
brilliant repartee; the ball, with its courtly cavaliers and 



502 CANADA' s COMMERCIAL METROPOLIS. [July, 

comely dames, in the picturesque costumes of the France of 
their day ; the council of state ; the gayly-decked bridal suite, 
and the sombre chamber of the noble dead of spectacles such 
as these the old castle keeps remembrance for the passer-by 
who is not unmindful of its brief but varied story. Governor 
de Ramezay died in 1724, and the chateau was occupied by 
his family until 1745, when it was sold to the " Compagnie des 
Indes de 1'Ouest," who made it a storing-house for furs and 
skins. Five years later the chateau and lands were purchased 
by a family named Longueuil. Out of their hands it passed 
on the surrender of Montreal to the British, who chose it as 
the residence of their governor. After General Montgomery 
had captured Montreal, the chateau became the head-quarters 
of General Wooster and General Benedict Arnold, the latter of 
whom was destined to sleep in one of its rooms afterwards, 
when he had chosen the path of the traitor. It was here too 
that Benjamin Franklin held his conference with the Ameri- 
can generals, who were retreating from Quebec. And it was 
here also that Franklin set up the first printing-press ever seen 
in Montreal. He was assisted in this work by a printer named 
Fleury Masplit, whom he had brought with him from Philadel- 
phia, and who, in 1778, founded the Gazette, a small newspaper 
printed partly in English and partly in French. Later on, when 
the American soldiers evacuated the city, it resumed the char- 
acter of the gubernatorial residence, and remained as such 
until 1784. Then it was bought by Baron St. Leger, who 
occupied it for some years as a private residence. When the 
Constitutional act of 1791 divided the colony into Upper and 
Lower Canada, Montreal was selected as the capital of the 
latter ; and the Chateau de Ramezay once more became the 
official dwelling-place of the governor. In 1819 the remains of 
the Duke of Richmond, which had been brought down from 
Ottawa, reposed for several days in one of the rooms of the 
chateau, after which they were taken to Quebec, where they 
repose beneath the altar of the English cathedral. Since then 
the building has been utilized for different purposes, until the 
main portion of it has been put to the base uses already men- 
tioned. 

The oldest church in Montreal is that dedicated to Notre 
Dame de Bonsecours. Its foundation, originally intended for 
a nunnery, was laid in 1658 by Sister Marguerite de Bourgeois, 
who obtained for the church a small image of the Blessed 
Virgin said to be endowed with miraculous virtue. It was 



CANADA'S COMMERCIAL METROPOLIS. 



503 




A CHURCH OF FORMER DAYS. 

given to her by the Baron de Faucamp during one of his 
visits to France; and at that time it had been revered for 
over a hundred years. It is still preserved in the church. 
The building was destroyed by fire in 1754, and re-erected 
seventeen years later. A few years ago an apse was added 
to it, surmounted by a large too large in proportion to the 
edifice statue of the Virgin, with 'hands upraised, invoking a 



504 CANADA'S COMMERCIAL METROPOLIS. [July, 

blessing upon the mariners who in the river underneath man 
the ships that carry on the trade of the port. 

One of the most extensive structures in the city is the 
Hopital Gnral. or " Grey Nunnery," as it is popularly called. 
It was founded and endowed in 1692 by M. Charon, a Nor- 
man, under letter patent granted by Louis XIV., and was 
afterwards given over to the charge of a religious sisterhood, 
founded by the celebrated Madame de Youville in 1737, the 
members of which are known as Les Sceurs Crises, on account 
of the color of their garments. There are 320 rooms and 
over 200 sisters and novices in the institution, which comprises 
a hospital for the sick of all creeds, and an asylum for found- 
lings. 

The Church of Notre Dame de Lourdes is a comparatively new 
building, in the combined Byzantine and Renaissance style, such 
as one sees in Venice: and it was erected ancf decorated for the 
pious purpose of expressing in symbolic form the dogma of the 
Immaculate Conception. The frescoes in the interior are very 
fine. One of them represents the promise of the Redemp- 
tion made to Adam and Eve, on the occasion when the Lord 
said to the Serpent : " She shall bruise thy head." Another 
represents the arrival of Rebecca before Isaac. On the right 
of the nave are the prophets who foretold of the Virgin, 
Isaias, Jeremias, David, and Micheas ; on the left are Scrip- 
tural types of the Virgin Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Ruth. 
There are also frescoes of the Salutation and the Nativity. A 
beautiful statue over the altar illustrates the text : " A woman 
clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet " (Apoc. 
xii. i). Light is thrown on the statue through a hidden win- 
dow behind and above it, by day, and at night by a concealed 
lamp. The effect is really astonishing, the beholder imagining 
that he is gazing upon a vision of celestial loveliness. 

Historical tablets have recently been placed on houses 
connected with the city's past. These include the fol- 
lowing : 

" Here lived Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle," whose dis- 
coveries in America have rendered him illustrious, and of 
whom a distinguished writer says : " Never under the impene 
trable mail of paladin or crusader beat a heart of more in- 
trepid mettle than within the stoic panoply that armed the 
breast of La Salle. . . . America owes him an enduring 
memory, for in this masculine figure she sees the pioneer who 
guided her to her richest heritage." 



IQOI.] CANADA'S COMMERCIAL METROPOLIS. 505 

" In 1694 here stood the house of La Mothe Cadillac, the 
founder of Detroit." 

" In 1675 here lived Daniel de Gresolon, Sieur Du Lhut, 
one of the explorers of the Upper Mississippi, after whom 
the City of Duluth was named." 

" Here was born, in 1661, Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d'lber- 
ville, Chevalier de St. Louis. He conquered Hudson Bay for 
France, 1697 ; discovered the mouths of the Mississippi, 1699. 
First Governor of Louisiana, 1700. Died at Havana, 1706." 

"Jean Biptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville ; born in 1680. 
In company with his brother d'Iberville he discovered the 
mouths of the Mississippi, 2d March, 1699 ; founded New 
Orleans in 1717; and was Governor of Louisiana for forty 
years. Died at Paris, 1768." 

" Here lived the family of Daniel Hyacinthe Marie Lienard 
de Beaujeu, the hero of the Monongahela, at which battle 
Washington was an officer in the Army defeated." 

During the five months' winter the St. Lawrence is frozen 
over to a depth of from one to two feet, and sometimes more ; 
and roads are made from the city across the ice to the differ- 
ent villages on the opposite side. An excellent race-track is also 
laid out ; and few Montrealers seem to realize the vast climatic 
change involved in the fact that in summer ocean-going steam- 
ers of five thousand tons burthen pass up and down where 
this very ice track is situated. One glides almost insensibly 
from the summer into the frigid season ; and the transition seems 
so natural, so much a matter of course, that little note is 
taken of the sharpness of the contrast. When the first cold 
wave comes along the Montrealer instinctively dons his heavy 
woollen undergarments, and listens for the merry tinkle of the 
sleigh-bells. Long though it is, the winter period is never 
monotonous. Snow-shoe tramps to Mount Royal, trips down 
the Mammoth toboggan slide on one of its slopes, sleighing 
parties along the road that winds spiral-wise up to its summit, 
hockey matches and curling bonspiels in the numerous rinks, 
skating and other winter sports these operate efficaciously to 
keep away whatever feeling of ennui might otherwise be ex- 
perienced. A very pretty sight on the river is an ice " shove," 
or jam. These shoves occur when the ice is beginning to thaw 
or move down with the current, on the approach of warm 
weather. Sometimes the large masses of broken ice are piled 
up to a great height. 

Although a good deal of intermarrying has been going on 



506 



CANADA'S COMMERCIAL METROPOLIS. 



[July, 




A TYPICAL HOUSE OF A CENTURY AGO. 

during the last century, more especially of late years, between, 
the French and the British in Montreal, there is still a certain 
aloofness observable on the part of the French in regard to 
their fellow-citizens of other racial descent. Where such inter, 
racial blends have taken place the results have been happy ; a 
combination of the polish and politeness and charmful gaiety 
of the Gaul and the plodding cool-headedness and sturdy 
enterprise of the Briton. Marriages are more frequent be- 
tween the French and the Irish than between the French and 
the British. A certain congeniality of temperament is the 
cause of this. In cases of intermarriage where the wives are 
French the offspring is, as a rule, thoroughly Gallicized ; and 
it is amusing to meet with gentlemen bearing unmistakably 
Irish, Scotch, and English cognomens who are nevertheless 
hopelessly French, so to speak, in accent, in manners, in tastes, 
and in surroundings. It may not be uninteresting to add that, 
in referring to themselves, the French-Canadians always use 
the word " Canadians," while in referring to their compatriots 
of other national descent they describe them as Irish, English, 
Scotch, German, and so forth, as the case may be. They con- 
sider themselves to be Canadians par excellence. French-Cana- 



1 90i.] CANADA'S COMMERCIAL METROPOLIS. 507 

dian women are remarkably good-looking, with a type of pretti- 
ness peculiarly their own. 

Nowadays the French-Canadians are for the most part ex- 
tremely conservative in disposition ; and thus, while they excel 
in culture, they lag behind in the race for wealth and commer- 
cial supremacy. Forming but one-third of the population of 
the city, it was Britons who constructed the two great railways 
of the country, the Grand Trunk and the Canadian Pacific ; it 
is Britons who transact by far the larger proportion of trade ; 
it is Britons who own the Canadian ocean-going steamers. 

The relative positions of the French-Canadians and their 
English-speaking fellow-citizens in the field of commerce in 
Montreal and, indeed, in the whole Dominion, are well illustrated 
by the fact that the French-Canadian Board of Trade La 
Chambre de Commerce occupies only a couple out of the hun- 
dred offices in the immense stone structure erected a few years 
ago by the English Board of Trade. As if conscious of the 
contrast suggested by this circumstance, La Chambre de Com- 
merce has leased a couple of offices elsewhere. 

A large number of French-Canadians cherish the dream of 
an independent Canada, a great and growing nation working 
out its own national destiny. I have frequently heard Sir Wil- 
frid Laurier, the late Mr. Mercier, and the later Sir Adolphe 
Chapleau declare their belief in its realization. The French- 
Canadians are, as a rule, loyal to Great Britain. If you ask 
one of them why he is so he will tell you that, under the 
Union Jack, he enjoys more freedom than he would had his 
province remained a French possession ; that he has escaped 
the horrors and baneful consequences of the Revolution ; that 
he enjoys perfect civil and religious freedom, and his children 
attend Catholic schools supported by the state, according to 
the solemn compact of Confederation ; and that his language 
is as " official " as is the English tongue in his province. 



Cbe work is done : tbe hundred pears are told. 
Coiler and dreamer, warrior, saint and sage, 
find all wbo earned tbe crimson and tbe gold, 
must hatK due glorp on illumined page. 
Cbe master Craftsman cometb to his own : 
"If tbou art fired witb tbis bonored name, 
Cben work as for tbe bone of tbine own bone, 
find put bis storp into living flame/' 
Old as tbe bills tbe tale of miserp- 
" Unclean! Unclean! We die beneatb tbe ban/' 
Cbe leper's crp, piercing tbro' land and sea, 
Was answered bp tbe life=gift of a man. 

Cbe Passion found tbp soul a cbannel free 
Damien, tbou Bapard of tbe Century I 

E. C. M. 




MONUMENT TO THE LEPER PRIEST OF MOLOKAI 
IN LOUVAIN. 



5io 



" A MAN 's A MAN" 



[July, 




(Ontario. 



"A MAN'S A MAN." 

* 
BY MARY SARSFIELD GILMORE. 

" The rank is but the guinea's stamp, 
The man's the gowd, for a' that. 

Gi'e fools their silks, and knaves their wine, 
A man 's a man for a' that ! 

The man of independent mind, 
He looks and laughs at a' that. 

The pith o' sense, and pride o' worth, 
Are higher ranks than a' that ! " 




'RIVATE PHIL BURNS, u. s. A., son of the 

people, cheerfully humming his favorite snatches 
of his favorite song, marched to the front as a 
"common soldier" one of the poor, untitled 
rank and file.! But like all men of Celtic blood, 
high or lowly, he was born to rise above his original status, 
instinctively as the blackbird soars toward heaven, as the thrush 
and linnet strain skyward from nest of birth. Phil Burns's 
ascent from obscurity to eminence was a three-winged flight 
toward fortune, fame, and happiness. Heroic service at a 
crisis of battle won him immediate martial promotion ; the 
patriotic associated press of the country simultaneously estab- 
lished his national fame ; and third, last, and best, came his 
infinitely sweetest guerdon a beautiful ycung girl's love! 

The girl in the case was Madge, only child of General 
Gastonridge ; a born and bred patrician, a social belle, a famous 
beauty of sumptuous brunette type, conservative and haughty 
as only a Southern girl can be. Yet, when the General's 
spoiled and wilful motherless daughter, in spite of paternal 
warnings of hardships and peril, and imperative official pro- 
hibition, followed the protesting General to the seat of war, 
the sick and wounded soldiers to whom she devoted her service 
detected no sign of pride or aversion, but only tenderest wo- 
marvpity, in her beautiful, high-bred face. Many a brave 
fellow sank peacefully into his last long sleep, holding her soft 
white hand ; many a so-called reprobate died with his eyes on 
her face, sobbing of angels and heaven. When the new-made 



"A MAN'S A MAN." 511 

but alreidy famous Lieutenant Burns, convalescent from well- 
nigh fatal wounds, took sick-leave passage on the identical 
transport by which the ailing General, considerately recalled 
by the War Department, returned on unwelcome furlough, the 
same touch of nature which had harmonized the girl of society 
with the tragic men of the battle-field, made her and Phil 
Burns kin ! Before they met, the martial blood of the General's 
daughter hid thrilled at her father's account of the humble 
soldier's valor. Face to face with the simple, self-respecting, 
unconsciously dignified as well as handsome her.o from the 
ranks, it was her woman heart that quickened; and^t cardiac 
pulsations are no less subtly responsive than " minA-w^ves," 
seldom awakening save when reciprocity has leapt to-s*pt>htane- 
ous birth! Before the voyage was well begun, the promoted 
private knew that he loved his General's daughter. In sight 
of port the man, pur et simple, was graciously allowed to make 
the incredible, tempting, sweet-bitter discovery that, stript of 
the mask of an arbitrary social conservatism, the woman of 
his heart loved him ! Then Phil Burns had a good quarter-of- 
an-hour with Madge, followed by a correspondingly bad 
quarter-of-an-hour with himself, from the torture of which he 
escaped by force of manly resolution, with the desperate pur- 
pose of facing the General and defying the fate of war! 

The forward deck chanced to be deserted, momentarily, by 
all save the invalided veteran. Games and smugglers and pipes 
were in session in saloon and smoking-room, monopolizing 
the sociable voyagers' attention. The swish of the waves against 
the sides of the ship, undertoned human voices rising in 
various vocal and emotional keys from the quarters of festivity 
below. Human voices, what were these, compared with the 
voice of the deep, and the eloquent silence of the eternal 
stars? Puny, transient, tinkling things they seemed to Phil 
Burns, in that love-inspired hour of revelation ; even as the 
codes of a mercenary world seemed suddenly false and ignoble, 
pitted against the primeval law of the supremacy and domi- 
nance of Man, per se, monarch of material matter ! Measured 
by the soul and brain of humanity, by its vital heart and its 
strong right hand, what were pride of birth, pomp of gold, 
shibboleth of social position, that their phantoms should dare 
to divide human creature from creature, heart from heart, man 
from his complemental woman ? 

" The man of independent mind. 

He looks and laughs at a' that ! " 
VOL. LXXIII. 34 



512 "A MAN'S A MAN" [July, 

hummed the young socialist, by force of inveterate habit, as he 
forward marched toward the General. Yet the " windows of 
his soul " turned a look of wistful appeal rather than of flash- 
ing defiance upon the autocrat of his fate ; and the laugh of 
his proud young heart knew its own bitterness ! 

Perhaps the alert old server of Mars had not been as blind 
to Cupid's signals as his juniors had taken for granted. In any 
case, he scented approaching battle as the young soldier ad- 
vanced, and braced his heart to resist it. That his herculean 
frame shrined a heart, was the General's closet-skeleton ; vo- 
ciferously denied by word of mouth, while betrayed by deed 
with the most unconscious ingenuousness. The discrepancy 
amused his daughter, and touched the world ; but the General 
lived on in blissful ignorance that he hoodwinked and terrified 
nobody. He was a man of powerful physique and command- 
ing presence, with a leonine head of iron-gray hair, dark eyes 
flashing with the unquenched fires of immortal youth, and a 
military moustache which bristled fiercely when its owner's 
mood was aggressive. The initiated Madge would have post- 
poned action, recognizing the danger-signal ; but Phil Burns 
rushed to his fate. 

" General," he announced, without preface or apology, 
"General, I love your daughter!" 

The night-wind sang through the sails, and sailors charged 
watch, and paced the lookout monotonously. Their footsteps 
beat a deafening refrain in the General's stunned ears. The 
sea took it up, and the winds ; and the mute stars traced it in 
fire. "7 love your daughter, your daughter, your daughter ! " 
Sky, sea, air, all alike pulsated with the impassioned rhythm of 
audible human heart-beats. Love, all Love, only Love, thrilled 
the voice of creation. But the General defied the primeval 
lyric, in allegiance to Gastonridge pride. 

" May I request you to repeat what you were condescend- 
ing enough to remark, young man?" he inquired, finally, with 
scathing irony. 

" With pleasure, General. I reported that I love your 
daughter." 

"And a deuced presumptuous, impertinent, intrusive, alto- 
gether unpardonable report it is, you shoulder-strapped young 
beggar on horseback," bluffed the General, working himself in- 
to a passion. " I consider you guilty of a breach of faith, sir. 
You have taken undue advantage of your position, of my trust 
in you. What is your excuse for venturing upon such an un- 



1901.] "A MAN'S A MAN." 513 

justified liberty with my daughter's name, what is your excuse, 
sir ? " 

The impetuous young Celt could be deliberate when the 
stake was life or death. The repose of the Vere de Veres is 
the heritage of courage. He ran his hand slowly through the 
bright brown ripples framing his temples, stared at the scowl- 
ing General meditatively, with calmly surprised blue eyes, gave 
his heavy moustache an adjusting tug, and admired the vamps 
of his well-shaped boots ; dispassionately considering his com- 
mander's challenge. But once roused to action, the young 
soldier's methods were always decisive. In this case they 
routed the General. 

" My excuse is your daughter's love for me, sir," he ex- 
plained, simply. 

"Pah! Bah! Bosh! You conceited, presuming, deluded 
young jackanapes!" sputtered the haughty Gastonridge. 

But he was wasting his vocabulary on the ocean-air. With 
a military salute, his subordinate officer had withdrawn. The 
General was left the field, but not the victory ! 

Port was reached in the morning; and in consideration of 
an arrival which a patriotic populace was pleased to regard as an 
occasion for national ovation, the generous General waived his 
private grievance, to crovn by his personal tribute of social com- 
pliment the honors greeting the hero from the ranks. With a 
royal-heartedness typical of the grand old South, the veteran 
shared every laurel of the hour ; and in consequence, the 
former private found himself whirling Washingtonwards, side 
by side with his commander, in a railroad-king's private car. 
But the luxurious journey was to be no thornless bed of roses 
for the recruit to the realms of capitalism. Even the General's 
generosity had its limits. With malice prepense he renewed the 
charge that a noble expediency had interrupted. The proxim- 
ity of the alert-eared Madge, in her state-room adjoining the 
main saloon, was as a spark to the gunpowder of paternal 
assertion. 

" Did I understand you to affirm last night, you inflated 
'Tommy Atkins/" he demanded, with sudden loud-voiced 
ferocity, " that my daughter my daughter, sir authorized you 
to avow your impossible matrimonial pretensions ? " 

" Yes, General," assented the junior idol of the hour, with 
modest but invincible firmness. Already established in the 
hearts of the great American people as the General's co-equal 
rival of war, domestic rivalry in the name of love, even upon 



514 "A MAN'S A MAN." [July, 

the Gistonridge hearthstone, seemed a less hopeless cause 
than heretofore. 

"Incredible, sir, incredible! Do you dare to tell me to 
tell me, sir that my daughter my daughter, sir demanded 
no pass- word fro TI a slinking, spying, traitorous intruder within 
my private lines?" 

" There was no slinking, no spying, no treachery in ques- 
tion, General. And my pass-word was NAture's, Love!" 

"'Love/ LOVE!" scorned the man of warfare. "No daugh- 
ter of mine of mine, sir gave the countersign to any such 
fool-pass as love ! ' 

" Yes, General, begging your pardon ! Love's own sweet 
countersign, a kiss ! " 

" Madge ! MADGE ! " thundered the incensed General. " Pre- 
sent arms, miss, and refute this young miscreant to his im- 
pertinent face. He insists that you want him for my son-in- 
law my son-in-law ! Tell him it 's all a mistake on his part, my 
girl, and considering his pluck on the field of war I'll I'll 
let him off and down easy ! " 

" Dear old Paw ! " laughed Madge, in Southern patois, 
emerging from her fortress, and obeying military orders in the 
letter if not in the spirit, by flinging caressing arms about the 
General's apoplectic neck; " I'm right sorry to confess that I 
just can't get to oblige you ; but but but it is n't a mistake, you 
see ! I warned Phil that you 'd fire all your bomb-shells at 
first ; but who cares, you dear old darling ? We all know your 
awfullest cannon-balls are only blank cartridges ! " 

" But, my darling," expostulated conscientious Phil, heroi- 
cally rushing to the discomfited General's rescue, " your 
father's objections are valid and justified remember that! 
There is every possibility of mistake for you in what all the 
world will agree in calling a social mesalliance. You know 
you are of the CLASS, while I am distinctively and typically of 
the human mass " 

" ' The rank is but the guinea's stamp,' " 

quoted Madge; who, with the miraculous adaptability of a 
loving woman, had mastered her lover's mental weapons, and 
now turned them against himself. 

"Ah, but /lack the guineas as well as the 'rank,' more 's 
the pity, dear," admitted Phil, sadly; "and, as the General 
will tell you, Madge, you have no conception of what strait- 



1901.] "A MAN'S A MAN." 515 

ened finances practically imply ; the daily sacrifices of luxuri- 
ous habit, of dainty taste and desire " 

" ' Gi'e fools their silks, and knaves their wine,' " 

scorned Madge, magnificently. 

" But but will the pride of my American princess not yet 
regret that, socially speaking, she has 'stooped to conquer'? 
Sooner or later, perhaps, the plain man is fated to cut a sony 
figure in a gentlewoman's eyes ; contrasted with the white- 
handed sons of leisure and wealth, conventionally called 
'gentlemen!'" he finished, bitterly. 

" ' The pith o' sense, and pride o* worth, 
Are higher ranks than a' that ! ' " 

trilled Madge, incorrigibly. " Well, Lieutenant Phil, have you 
finished for ever and ever? Because if you haven't, I shall 
suspect you of ' proposing in haste and repenting at leisure,' 
which would be a nice record indeed for a military man of 
honor; wouldn't it, now, Paw General Gastonridge ? " 

" I refuse my consent to your marriage ! " announced the 
unrelenting General. 

" Then we '11 elope! " proclaimed Madge, rising like a Queen 
of Sheba in her oriental draperies of subdued old gold and 
reds. " Now I must ' be gwine to my ole brack mammy,' to 
be made lovely for my engagement-dinner ! You 've got to 
elope with ' ole brack mammy,' too, Phil ! If you were even 
to suggest parting mammy and her ' bestest HI' white chile,' 
you 'd be only ' poo' white trash ' to us both, for ever after ! " 
,.?- " Poor white trash ! " echoed Phil's thoughts, when the 
laughing Madge had departed, and the worsted General re- 
treated to the smoking-room. Was he not but social " trash," 
indeed, in comparison with the rich old Gastonridge family ? 
Under Madge's girlish frivolity, he knew, existed a strong, 
sweet woman-nature. Yet, being what he was by birth and 
breeding and material circumstances, had he not done selfishly 
to take advantage of her susceptible maiden affection ? But 
the manly heart of Phil Burns cried, "No/" and the heart- 
voice is ever truthful. Pure and holy natural selection is the 
manifestation of a higher will than worldly match-making 
dreams of! It is the perversion of instinct, not obedience to 
it, that brings about fatal human conflict with the creative 
plan of God ! 

The outnumbered yet unsurrendering General, meanwhile. 



516 "A MAN'S A MAN" [July, 

was facing his domestic Waterloo. Well he knew that the 
man chosen by Madge for husband must be his own " Hob- 
son's choice " ; but Phil Burns in the character of a Gaston- 
ridge by alliance still seemed the illusion of a dream, rather 
than the conquering hero of wide-awake reality ! True, he 
was goodly to look upon a young, hardy, handsome specimen 
of manhood, scarcely less evidently sans peur public heroism 
notwithstanding than likewise sans reproche : for the cleanly 
and pure carry visible credentials ; and the open glance and 
fresh glow and inspiring personal atmosphere of chaste-lived, 
moral, high-principled youth are never successfully counterfeited 
by unworthy pretenders, nor unrecognized by the kindred pure 
of heart. Nevertheless, the General could not soar instantane- 
ously above traditions inherited from generations of ancestors 
born and bred to all the class-prejudices of fortune's heritage 
and social prestige. That such so-called blue-blood as ran in 
his own veins was too often tainted with evils that the red 
blood of the masses escaped, that the glitter of gold was by 
no means synonymous with the sterling radiance of moral 
manly merit, and that the law of precedence whereby, at each 
and every function of his social life, the General had sat at 
the right of his hostess, was but a mockery of the natural 
supremacy of virtuous, honorable, heroic human manhood, the 
General did not deny ! Yet it was no easy thing for him to 
put his theories into practice ; and perhaps he must have 
failed to attain the miracle but for the transient resurrection, 
under the spell of war, of his youth's unworldly ideals. Just 
for the patriot-hour, while flags were waving and cannon 
booming, and regiments of brave men marching to the front, 
dearer to the General than gentle birth, than golden fortune, 
than the social autocracy that were the inglorious idols of 
peace, was the soldierly attribute of manly heroism ; and Lieu- 
tenant Phil Burns had stood a hero in face of death ! Then 
how could any woman even a Gastonridge be other than 
crowned by this man of honor's love? The General's noble 
capitulation was his defeat as a worldling ; but, as he realized 
later, his triumph as God's image, man ! 

The depot at Washington was crowded to suffocation. An 
immense throng awaited the returning officers. Bands played, 
and the Stars and Stripes floated. Political, financial, and 
social celebrities officially welcomed the heroes of the field, 
while the mob cheered national approval. Madge, radiant in 
her grace of sex and grand young beauty, stood like a prin- 



1901.] "A MAN'S A MAN" 517 

cess royal encircled by courtiers. Her poise was regal, her 
simple gown worn with the air of a robe of coronation. But 
the queenliest woman, at heart, is ever but queen-consort! In 
her maiden thoughts, the imperial Madge was hailing Phil 
Burns as king ! 

Suddenly there was a disturbance in the throng. A woman 
was forcing her way through it a shabby little old woman 
with thin gray hair, and a plain, worn face, and gloveless 
hands clasped nervously before her. Her bonnet of rusty 
mourning, eloquent of long and impoverished widowhood, her 
dowdy black shawl, her humble black skirt revealing well-worn 
shoes, even the pathetic stoop of her frail little figure bowed 
by the burdens of life, told the common old story of middle- 
class struggle and poverty ! Yet her face, in spite of its tears 
of emotion, was transfigured by a supreme glory. As she 
emerged from the crowd her arms strained tremulously toward 
the lieutenant of the distinguished group. 

"My boy!" she sobbed, rapturously. "My boy! My 
boy!" 

From the exquisitely curled and perfumed attach^ of one 
of the foreign embassies, Phil Burns turned sharply. One ap- 
pealing look he flashed upon Madge as he sprang forward, a 
look of love's faith, in whose flame yet flickered potential re- 
nunciation ! Then an immortal light dawned in his Celtic-blue 
eyes the light of filial love and fidelity as he folded the 
plain little woman to his heart. 

"Mother!" he cried, between his kisses; "dear, dearer, 
dearest little old mother!" 

The General and his daughter started simultaneously, in 
common discomfiture. Phil Burns's mother? this poor, shab- 
by, typical woman of the populace, never by any necromancy 
of gold or fashion to be adapted to the patrician Gastonridge 
mould? What was to be done? Upon the irrevocable action 
of the present moment hinged Madge's future ; since the Gas- 
tonridge line was a line of honor, abiding by its word. The 
General, as a gentleman, lifted his hat to the woman and 
mother ; but as a father, he stood aside for Madge's initiative. 
At this crisis of her life he would influence her by no glance 
or word. In the tense suspense of the moment, he turned his 
eyes in an unconsciously ferocious stare upon the shoulder- 
shrugging attach^. The dapper and flippant diplomat's flow of 
persiflage suddenly languished. He adjusted his eye-glass with 
vague resentment. Why was the old war-horse ogling him so 



5i8 "A MAN'S A MAN:' [July. 

belligerently? After all, these savage Americans were a bour- 
geois set ! 

Madge, meantime, was dallying with the decision which 
must make or mar her life. Useless to say that no ignoble 
sentiments tempted her. The human respect and sensitive 
vanity inseparable from the unconscious snobbishness of daz- 
zled youth, joined forces with racial pride and caste-traditions 
against the nobler ideals of girlhood's heart. The pride and 
pomp and material glory of the world seemed to her, of a 
sudden, Life's single reality! From all save the glittering gilt 
and tinsel of convention's standards she shrank as from barren 
dreams. With the humble, the poor, the socially obscure, what 
had she in common she, proud, rich, beautiful Madge Gaston- 
ridge ? Nothing, indeed, by acquired habit ; but what by the 
divine law of nature, making young hearts akin ? What tittle 
of worth boasted all the gilded baubles of her Gastonridge 
birthright, compared with the joy in her woman-heart because 
manly Phil Burns loved her ? A sudden tenderness thrilled 
her soul, looking on Phil's old mother! Here was the primi- 
tive type of motherhood, a type she did not know. The 
wedded beauties and belles to whom marriage means social 
leadership, the coquettish matrons of a society where venerable 
womanhood is an anomaly, the selfish young wives slaying 
love on the altar of vanity, the flippant girl-brides jilting true 
Christian manhood for Mammon, the unmaternal mothers of 
the fashionable whirl, resentful of sacrifice and responsibility, 
and untender in heart and spirit, all these were her familiar 
social chaperons, her dead mother's substitutes ; but not to 
one among them all, as to this humble woman of the people, 
was motherhood the crown of feminine life ! A prophetic 
tremor quickened her maiden heart-beats ; the half-sweet, half- 
sad " shadow cast before," of the pain and glory entwined at 
love's meridian, the zenith of woman's life ! 

" O Phil," she cried, softly, impetuously surrendering to 
her soul's divine impulse, "aren't you going to present me to 
our mother ? " 

" God bless you, Madge," whispered happy Phil. " Mother " 

But the rest of his speech fell on ears unheeding. Woman 
and woman, mother and maiden, were blending heart with heart ! 

The diplomatic attache mistook the situation. He divined 
romance; but taking it for granted that the General disap- 
proved it, ventured a delicate hint that the conservatism of 
Old Europe espoused the paternal side. 



1901.] "A MAN'S A MAN" 519 

"Your America, General, is a great country, socially" he 
emphasized, with a disparaging glance of contemptuous signifi- 
cance at the plebeian old person in the rusty weeds, when 
Madge and Phil, by simultaneous impulse, had presented the 
General to her. 

But -if he expected gratitude, the condescending foreigner 
was unpleasantly surprised. The American General turned on 
him like an exploding cannon, even as he courteously offered 
his chivalrous escort to the mother of brave Phil Burns. 

"Yes, sir!" he thundered, leading the way to the carriage. 
" My America is a great country, socially and nationally ! 
And why is it great, sir? Not because of its great men, alone 
or primarily ; no, sir ! but because it is the country of noble 
mothers, of the pure, earnest, selfless, maternal women of the 
people, whose virtues, sir, the best and grandest sons of the 
great American Republic but reflect!" 

The disconcerted attach^ hastily lifted his hat and retreated 
in silence. It was the " common soldier's " plain old mother 
who rose to the occasion, leaning back against the luxurious 
cushions like one to the manner born. 

"In the name of your own dear mother, alive or dead," she 
said to the General, "I thank you, sir! That a good mother 
is the first best thing in the world, just stands to nature. You 
and my son Phil, with your swords and cannon, may be mak- 
ing the history of the nation ; but it *s the loving lives of us 
wives and mothers that make the history of the nation's men ! " 

" ^-men, mother!" laughed the embarrassed lieutenant, 
flushing furiously. 

But the General was bending toward Madge. 

" The daughters of the Gastonridges have always been 
ladies" he was saying ; " but it is left for you, Madge, to imi- 
tate shining alien example, and prove that the lady may reach 
the loftier stature of simple WOMANHOOD ! " 

"Well," gasped the amazed Miss Gastonridge, "of all the 
utter routs, the abject surrenders, the ignominious defeats I 
ever did hear of " 

But the General interrupted her. 

"On the contrary, my love," he corrected, "it is a case of 
all-round victory, attesting Right's supreme achievement, ' the 
triumph of failure / ' " 

And who shall say that the General was not right ? 



520 A RUBRIC. [July, 



| hougt] Wonder in some shepherd's heart arise 
Why th a t old footpath should be blossom -streWn 

<Abo\?e aught other of his Windy zone, 
I'll sh,are it not: for while in longing Wise, 

(Being three life-times late,) 'neath ||)e\?oq skies, 
li)ear punitive! my steps pursued thine oWn., 

J\|or met With any [ike t^ee, sa\?e the lone 
Wild-floWerincj JManch, sad Valor in, her eyes: 

I Was then 1 bade her spill thereby, W^at 

But soldier's laurel, eloquent of thee; 

^11 brook^side stars : crowfoot ; forget-me-not, 

And daffodil, a brilliance against death ; 
<And With Valerian's pure secular breath, 

JVlyrtles, that are for immortality? 

LOUISE IMOGEN GUINEY. 




1901.] A STUDY OF MRS. MEYNELL'S POEMS. 521 

A STUDY OF MRS. MEYNELL'S POEMS. 

BY THOMAS B. REILLY. 

OT least among gifts from one national period to 
another is the remembrance of the higher quali- 
ties of art enduring morality and aesthetic worth. 
The recent prompt remonstrance of artists against 
the misdirected vigilance that forbade presenta- 
tion of Christian truths to the young was of import and promise. 
It was valuable because it declared for the inspiration and need 
of Christian thought ; its promise is that the brotherhood of 
arts will not be weaned from the primal source of strength. 
It is not consistent to practise higher persuasion in an atmos- 
phere of moral oubliance. To read His word in assembly and 
deny visible reminders of His life, is to forswear a vital prin- 
ciple of education. If such censorship would cease at painting 
or sculpture, protest might be waived ; but it is already trench- 
ing the field of literature, and young intellects may be per- 
verted into channels of taste that are questionable if not false. 
At this point appreciation can be a help to criticism, by luring 
readers from idols of imposture and platitude, and scorning 
work wherein duties are vague or undefined. 

Literature is violent with the young. The spell of impres- 
sionism is not easily shaken ; its freedom and obligations are 
too little known, arraignments of its dangers too seldom made. 
Its sacrilegious severance of the bond of duty engenders a mis- 
trust almost irremediable. That is a perverse theory that per- 
mits a man, in search of the beautiful, to enter slums, bring 
back filth, and call it art. In novel, painting, or poem we are 
concerned not so much with outward appearance as with quali- 
ties of mental and moral nourishment. The expression of great 
thoughts leads to heroic deeds ; therefore should art be moral. 
Paganism is not undone when public defence is made of 
work which, aside from its several virtues, is impure at core. 
There is no excuse for a man, standing in the path of multi- 
tudinous beauty, to lead forth a beast crowned with lilies and 
call it good. True art touches nothing but the beautiful. It 
is m:>re than a result of intellect and imagination ; it is a shape 
of life in a worker's conscience, tempered by an aspiration and 



522 A STUDY OF MRS. MEYNELL'S POEMS. 

sustained by a faith. Its purpose is not so much to retrieve 
the more difficult truths of life as to intensify the common and 
give larger and more intelligent views of social relations. That 
art is best which yields rational delight with suggestions of the 
highest order. In it we find not only the real qualities of life, 
but the added perfection of memorable beauty. It calls a 
temporary truce to the preoccupations of life ; lifts us to ideal 
situations where, forgetting the dust of the journey, we remem- 
ber only the scent of the wild rose drifting upward from the 
wayside. 

In our judgments of art we are prone to a criterion of sen- 
timent, and are unmindful of a moral standard. Right choice 
depends largely on activity of spirit, an activity that leads 
from simple understanding to a sense of the ideal. Work not 
inducing good thought, or waking emotions, is futile. Good 
music, novels, or poems lead us where we of ourselves would 
never have gone. They inspire faith and turn a generous 
heart toward the best in life. Their mission is not merely to 
please ; they should unfold and uplift, luring us from clamorous 
paths into the presence of the Fair. Thus may we feel the 
goodness of a work, and come to know why we feel it. And 
Lessing wrote no greater truth than this : " Beauty gives plea- 
sure, and pleasure comes only when we understand." This is 
the knowledge that gives recognition to the worth of common 
things, to show the beauty of which requires a tact most rare 
and delicate. 

The creation of wonder and sympathy is not all, for tran- 
sient satisfaction is the sign-post of refreshment, not of repose. 
It is the moral element that sits longest with memory. 'The 
poet, above others, will be judged for what he thinks as well 
as how he thinks. Of all arts his comes into the child's life 
first, for every parent is the singer of beautiful thoughts, and 
there is no translation for the music in a young mother's soul. 
By the virtue of art we remove some blur on vision: once, 
in the pause of centuries, we see clear-eyed with a Dante. 
By it youth breaking through the hedge is startled with its 
own note, and age nearing the final lapse is sustained by a 
renaissance of faith. The heart will follow seaward sails, but 
thought is married to the sand and shore. The ideal is not 
just beyond but within us; and in its pursuit we are always 
retrieving something of our lost inheritance. 

Experience unfolds tenderness and power. If it does not, 
it is of men who forget to seal the heart at noon. Of such as 



i pot.] A STUDY OF MRS. MEYNELL'S POEMS. 523 

deny that out of the South the same choirs drift, or that the 
sea, as of old, runs thundering out of the West. That we fail 
to value gifts of the present hour is not a weakness, else a 
heritage from the past Were futile, and ours to the future im- 
possible. Charm would cease, and the sweet bloom of distant 
things would merge in dusk and darkness. Good Art is always 
priceless ; and wherever found, there may appreciation be of 
worth to a higher criticism. 

Modern poetry, in miny instances, is the retailored thought 
of a younger world. Yet the song is no less true, nor less 
agreeable. And old truths come home earlier when voiced in 
a mother-tongue; for the memory of May is behind them. A 
rose in the garden of the king is no greater than its brother 
in the hedge. The heart will not forswear allegiance to the 
beautiful. Through all the indifferent moods of life the weep- 
ing of the rain, the breath of the sun it will run to the asy- 
lum of art for healthful stimulation and the prophecies of 
faith. 

A love of nature brings us tilt against the inscrutable ways 
of a Mister. And so frail a thing as a daisy is veil to the 
greatest mystery. 

" Slight as thou art, thou art enough to hide, 
Like all created things, secrets from me, 
And stand a barrier to eternity." 

A woman's thought ; made beautiful when she asks : 

"... what will it be to look 
From God's side even of such a simple thing ? " 

Tnis same singer,* an Englishwoman, gives evidence of an 
adnirable insight to natural and spiritual beauty. You will 
not catch the full melody at first, nor will the real depth of 
thought be apparent. The imaginative quality, though pro- 
found, is always subordinate to a simplicity born of sacrifice 
and vigil. Again, there are sudden lapses into unexpected 
measures that betray the tongue, but create an admiration not 
foreseen. In the "Song of the Spring to the Summer" is a 
use of metres which lifts the verse from common rhythm to 
swell in fair strains at the close : 

* In 1825 Mrs. Meynell, then Miss Alice Thompson, published a volume called Preludes. 
John Ruskin is credited with saying that in it were some of the finest things he had seen or 
felt in modern verse. Preludes is now out of print,; the gist of its contents, together with 
work of maturer years, is contained in a volume entitled Poems, published in 1898. She is 
the writer of three other volumes : The Rhythm of Life, The Colour of Life, The Children 
a trinity worthy of separate study. 



524 A STUDY OF MRS. MEYNELL'S POEMS. [July, 

" And if thy thoughts unfold from me, 
Know that I too have hints of thee, 
Dim hopes that come across my mind 
In the rare days of warmer wind, 
And tones of summer in the sea." 

You remember those March mornings when young winds 
stormed about the house, and driving rain broke in streams on 
the window glass. Along the valley legions of stubborn mist 
shouldered way in silence toward the gorge and sea. A storm- 
chant thrilled your own soul in minors. And looking open, 
eyed, you were as unconscious of the land and tumult as the 
quiet dead beneath the friendly cedars. And so she sang: 

" Beloved, thou art like a tune that idle fingers 

Play on the window-pane. 
The time is there, the form of music lingers ; 

But O thou sweetest strain, 
Where is thy soul? Thou liest i' the wind and rain." 

And in the lamentable dawn, with heart hungering for a strain 
of the beloved dead, she turns from the gloom to light : 

" Poor grave, poor lost beloved ! but I burn 

For some more vast To be. 
As he that played that secret tune may turn 
And strike it on a lyre triumphantly, 
I wait some future, all a lyre for thee." 

This is hardly a draught of melancholy ; rather one of resigna- 
tion and chaste longing. Hers is not the bitter wine of sorrow 
but the sweet. Her emotion is healthy and needs no stimu- 
lant. Whatever appeals she makes to our sympathy they are 
involuntary. Her imagery is sharp and purposeful; and under- 
running the thought is rare tenderness and belief. Her tran- 
scription of natural beiuty is reverent. The artistic intention 
is evident, at times it surmounts the purpose ; but, and this is 
worthy of note, she is never once on the unsafe verge of ex- 
travagance. This is a direct contradiction to the French 
criticism : " Les artistes ne pchent pas par exces de modestie." 
JHer doctrine of rejection " il gran rifiuto " she names it 
is rigidly observed. It is this quality that makes for memor- 
able simplicity; the ancient simplicity of the Father so rare in 
the art of nations. The Japanese painter seeks it. In a few 
sweeps of India-ink you have color and light ; the heat of 
deserts, the cool surface of rice-fields. There is present a 



1901.] A STUDY OF MRS. MEYNELL'S POEMS. 525 

quality of reticence, or fulness, or modelling, or air. And 
Millet in a single stroke for horizon gives a breadth of land 
measurable in leagues. And Mrs. Meynell has written : " I could 
wish abstention to exist, and even to be evident in my 
words." From this creed come the vital leap and lapse of her 
thoughts. Again, in an 'essay, she says: "Doing will not avail 
him who fails in being " ; a truth which Bishop Spalding turns 
thus : " Individuals and nations are brought to ruin not by 
lack of knowledge but by lack of conduct." And suns ago, 
Seneca, looking at his royal pupil, exclaimed : " Now that the 
world is filled with learned men, good men are wanting." So, 
for years, the human heart has been answering a question 
found in The Imitation : " What availeth knowledge without the 
fear of God?" 

From a livable faith comes that intense religious spirit of 
her work. She also recognizes the fact that at best we are, 
all of us, builders of ruins: 

" We build with strength the deep tower-wall 
That shall be shattered thus and thus ; 
And fair and great are court and hall, 
But how fair this is not for us, 
Who know the lack that lurks in all." 

Nature is for ever chiding us, for ever lighting with the laugh of 
flowers our studied pavement, and screening with its wild veil the 
bulk of walls. And though our task be purposeful and dear, yet 

" The stars that 'twixt the rise and fall, 
Like relic-seers, shall one by one 

Stand musing o'er our empty hall; 
And setting moons shall brood upon 

The frescoes of our inward wall. 

" And when some midsummer shall be, 

Hither will come some little one 
(Dusty with bloom of flowers is he), 
Sit on a ruin i' the late long sun, 
And think, one foot upon his knee." 

I have seen paintings in the homes of men not for a 
moment comparable with the picture of those words. It is an 
example of that suggestive reticence used by Wordsworth in 
painting the mountain daisy : 

" The beauty of its star-shaped shadow, thrown 
On the smooth surface of this naked stone." 



526 A STUDY OF MRS. MEYNELL'S POEMS. [July, 

And Chaucer gives the agony of death in the words : 

"And bled into his armor bright." 
Dante, the tragedy of passion : 

"Quel giorno piu non vi leggemo avante." 

There is an art of concealment as well as of exhibition, 
which is the well-kept secret of nature. The attempt to imi- 
tate it leads to impressionism, where apparent truth becomes 
mockery. 

All great art has a touch of sorrow in it ; the sadness of a 
sympathy for lost innocence and spring. And Shelley strikes 
a truth when he sings to the skylark : 

" Yet if we could scorn 

Hate, and pride, and fear; 
If we were things born 

Not to shed a tear, 
I know not how thy joy 
We ever should come near." 

Because of our imperfect conquering there is born weariness 
and fear, and the heart, with its plea for an ideal redemption, 
lapses into resignation and sadful peace. The poet, " God's 
.almoner of the beautiful," has more reason for sorrow than 
we who sit without the gate. His path is always hillward, 
where he climbs to meet the music of the rain, and frost, and sun. 

"And if e'er you should come down 

To the village or the town, 
With the cold rain for your garland, 

And the wind for your renown, 
You will stand upon the thresholds with 
A face of dumb desire, 

Nor be known by any fire." 

Though time and again betrayed, he never forsakes the search 
for blessed thoughts that heal and the cadences that soothe. 

Outside of Mrs. Meynell's sonnets I find few fairer lines 
than in " A Letter from a Girl to her own Old Age." The 
emotion jutting from the lines is sincere. The acute feeling 
is under control ; the thought is never wayward, the tender- 
ness is complete. As a bit of womanly divination it is keen 
and remarkable. To stand in the white dawn and picture the 
hour when splintered pines make rare intaglios against a red 
west ; to look, in the pause of star-birth, into the uncertain 



1901.] A STUDY OF MRS. MEYNELL'S POEMS. 527 

gray of night is, at most, heroic. And, despite the whole- 
someness of the deed, we shun it. Easier far, with a sprig of 
rosemary, to turn pastward for remembrance. 

There are finer shadings in the chords of this woman's soul 
than in the souls of a score of men ; little solitudes of delight ; 
countless hollows left brimming when dreams and the sea recede. 
These are the pools whence stream her tenderness and insight, 
constancy and faith. Her judgment and gentleness come only 
in the peace that follows storm ; and her simplest thesis 
argued from experience is eloquently brief. And that experi- 
ence who so brave to dare its echo in the one chamber of 
the heart ! Well for peace that farewells to the past are 
always lessening, and that garishness is merged in dreamful 
nights a care half lost in cares. 

" Hide then within my heart, oh, hide, 

All thou art loath should go from thee, 
Be kinder to thyself and me. 
My cupful from this river's tide 
Shall never reach the long sad sea." 

Somewhere she sings : 

" A poet of one mood in all my lays, 

Ranging all life to sing one only love, 
Like a west wind across the world I move, 
Sweeping my harp of floods mine own wild ways." 

Yet in the whole range of her work there is no trace of in- 
trusive sympathy. Hers is the rare admiration of common 
truths that revives our faith in the harder tasks, and yields 
love for the familiar things of a day. Stevenson writes : 
" Life is hard enough for poor mortals without having it in- 
definitely embittered for them by bad art." And Mrs. Mey- 
nell, practising the charity of that thought, quickens with a 
fortitude much needed in common life. Good art, being full 
of interest, begets knowledge, and the latter discovers new 
corners of the perfect life. Shocking impressions of reality 
are the result of an artistic evil that dies of its own wound. 
They neither point a way, inject courage, nor bestow tradition. 
This singer believes in gathering beauties, not in concourse 
but in relation. The Italian theory that beauty was " il piu 
nell' uno" is made secondary in her work to this truth, that 
highest beauty is multitude in simplicity. Hence the spiritual 
quality of her lines. And from her science of beauty comes, 
VOL. LXXIII. 35 



528 A STUDY OF MRS. MEYNELL'S POEMS. [July, 

not the waxen bud but the rose that sways in the wet dawn. 
And, like Coventry Patmore, the magnetism of her work is 
largely in its moral tendency; its odor clinging to the lines as 
the breath of a thurible lingers when the sacrifice is ended. 
In the negative side of her labor lies another charm, where 
the promise has more significance than the deed. With aus- 
tere and delicate choice she enthrones, from countless thoughts 
the few. 

A poetic mind once thought : " Sorrow, like rain, makes 
roses and mud." A truth. And in the soil of resignation, for 
ever stirring unseen, are virtues unguessed the flowers of mid- 
winter time. So in a poise of the soul, where hungering and 
thirst trespassed the tranquil vow, a woman sang: 

" I must not think of thee ; and tired yet strong, 
I shun the thought that lurks in all delight 
The thought of thee and in the blue Heaven's height, 
And in the sweetest passage of a song. 
Oh, just beyond the fairest thoughts that throng 

This breast, the thought of thee waits, hidden yet bright ; 
But it must never, never come in sight ; 
I must stop short of thee the whole day long. 
But when sleep comes to close each difficult day, 
When night gives pause to the long watch I keep, 

And all my bonds I needs must loose apart, 
Must doff my will as raiment laid away,- 
With the first dream that comes with the first sleep, 
I run, I run, I am gathered to thy heart." 

That was worth the labor of years, a sonnet that will 
scarcely fade ; for it is the poignant expression of a tragedy 
constant to the human heart. It is the story of renounce- 
ment ; the revelation of a soul that could endure without be- 
moaning. And what greater than heroism in the face of life ? 

In this sonnet you find her exhibiting a well-developed re- 
straint. The moral purport, high as it is, yields to an artistic 
treatment seldom seen in modern verse. Its music swells and 
falls more tender than the plaint of winds through northern 
pines at sunset. There is no trace of illusion ; no disblossom- 
ing of thought by a storm of words. She strikes a note of 
experience with the braveness of mid-life, for abjuration and 
charity are truant till then. You may not take issue with 
that expression of seeming weakness in the last line. Perse- 
verance is yet a virtue, and in none is willingness of spirit a 



igoi.] A STUDY OF MRS. MEYNELL'S POEMS. 529 

pledge of fleshly obedience. And most of us, I fancy, are for- 
ever homing pastward through a gateway of dreams. 

Mrs. Meynell's style is never heavy or commonplace. Seri- 
ous she is ; but, especially in her essays, the lines leap with 
wit. And her protest, dignified and recollected, leaves no 
sting. She hints that literary excellence is a matter of sacri- 
fice, which alone can shrive work of blemish, rescue indepen- 
dence from sacrilege, and stand a barrier to digression and 
robustiousness. It is a reparative process the last and most 
difficult to master. 

In ranging her work there comes home the fact that she 
considers, not the final victory of truth, but its prevalence for 
her, the age and people. She impels confidence through rever- 
ence, and the strength of her work lies in that virtue by which 
we are inspired. 

" Chi non vuol delle foglie 
Non ci venga di Maggio." 

"He that wants more than leaves had better not go to May" 
an advice of Michael Angelo urging us to seek, even in 
art, something more substantial than pleasure. But then in- 
sight, and power, and reliability are autumnal fruits ; a truth, 
now and then, considered dtmodt by some impatient writers. 
Not so with Mrs. Meynell, whose conquest of art is due as 
much to moral gifts as to the aesthetical. Her temperament is 
not cramped by a commonplace soul ; she has things to say 
which few others have perceived and felt in quite the same 
fashion. And beyond all technical perfection lives her lovable 
personality. 

A certain generosity is the cue in papers of this kind, and 
the disadvantages in its style should be reckoned with. Ardent 
appreciation is not indicative of perfection in the object. Its 
primary purpose if to lure the reader to personal study and 
reflection. It should not be thought an anodjne but an ex- 
citant to the labor of individual judgment. It is a bait, vulgar 
perhaps to some minds, but needful to others, to aesthetic 
appetite. One disadvantage is the demand for a certain accen- 
tuation of the value of work considered. Yet it may not 
praise falsely nor foolishly, nor become boisterous with the 
strength of the wine. Its conditions should be taken with a 
certain readiness and yet reserve. It is the view of one pass- 
ing through royal gardens, and startled by the beauty of the 
blooms. It is not the cool scrutiny of the king's gardener. 



530 NIGHT IN THE SOUTH. [July. 

It yields promise, not confirmation. Beyond its limits wait 
sophistry and cant. It seeks graces rather than faults ; a task 
beloved by that gentle exile of the South Seas, who wrote : 
11 It is best to dwell on merits, for it is they that are most 
often overlooked." That was a heart made to love, and one 
knowing anger only in the presence of vanity, intolerance, and 
cowardice in the face of life. He believed : " Gentleness and 
cheerfulness these come before all morality ; they are the 
perfect duties." And from this sympathy, this appreciation of 
the Father's goodness in life, came the belief that the end of 
his art was to please. But his work bears him beyond this 
creed, and reveals the unwritten dogma that merit rests not in 
passive but in active joy-giving. And this channels way for 
the truth that morality is the pledge not only of full life 'but 
of a perfect art. 



IN THE SOUTH. 



BY W. S. LAURENS. 




hour for adoration ! The still air 
Breathes from the mounded hills a velvet sigh 
That weaves a dream of breezes ere it die 
Among the petals of the dell. And fair 
The moon-sea's lustrous waves that worldward 

bear 

Billows of pearly blessings from their far 
Cold coasts. And lo! like to a sentinel-star, 
Yon convent-crowning cross a frozen prayer. 

Peace and Repose : Repose and blessed Peace 

Fare through the murmurous night with silence shod, 

Lest rapt Earth's contemplation have to cease 
For desecrating sound ; their holy red 

Uprist in potent spell ; like floating fleece 

Their hushed command : " Adore Almighty God ! " 




i. Churchill: The Crisis; 2. Devas : Political Economy; 3. 
Ruetnelin: Politics and the Moral Law ; 4. Renaudet : The Month 
of Mary ; 5. Faber: Selections from " The Blessed Sacrament" ; 
6. The Raccolta ; 7. Baker: Education and Life; 8. Bur- 
nett : Teaching of Latin and Greek ; 9. Dodge : Reader in Physi- 
cal Geography ; 10. Joyce: Reading-Book in Irish History; n. 

Rambaud : Expansion of Russia ; 12. Egremont : L Annee de L' Eglise ; 13. 

Walsh: Parochial Schools in Boston; 14. James: Little Tour in France; 15. 

Simpson: Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey ; 16. Crowley: A Daughter of 

New France; 17. Cox: Lenten Lectures ; 18. Spaulding : Cave by the Beech Fork ; 

19. Lindsay: Po'ms ; 20 Blundell: Pastorals of Dorset ; 21. Houck: Life of St. 

Gerlach ; 22. Rye: The Beloved Son ; 23. Huckel : The Larger Life : a Book of 

the Heart ; 24. Pitm in : Phonographic Instructor. 



1, The Crisis ,* by Mr. Winston Churchill, is a sequel to 
his popular novel, Richard Carvel. Its scenes are laid in the 
city of St. Louis, and its heroine is the great-granddaughter of 
Dorothy Manners. The title refers to those most eventful, 
most fearful years of American history when our national life 
was at stake. During that crisis heated argument and fierce 
campaigns were the order of the day ; bitter personalities were 
freely exchanged ; and at last the South stood against the 
North in open war a war of brother against brother, of father 
against son. Mr. Churchill chooses to tell of all these things 
as they happened in a border State, for in such States bitter- 
ness and hatred were greater than anywhere else. The de- 
scription of the facts of general interest the gathering of the 
clouds, the bursting of the storm, and its terrific fury is mas- 
terly and effective. We would mention particularly the descrip- 
tion of the famous Freeport debate ; the account of the Ger- 
man colony in St. Louis ; the story of the saving of Missouri 
to the Union, and the narrative of the siege of Vicksburg. 
Through all these and other well-known events of national his- 
tory is woven a plot in which Stephen A. Brice figures as hero, 

* The Crisis. By Winston Churchill. New York : The Macmillan Company. 



532 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 

Miss Jinny Carvel as heroine, and Mr. Hopper as villain. Mr. 
Hopper's character is drawn with remarkable skill. Mr. Silas 
Whipple, in spite of the author's evident admiration, must have 
been an unpleasant sort of crank. 

There is nothing strikingly new in the plot of the story. 
The hero and heroine have misunderstandings and suffer much 
at first ; the villain seems triumphant. But virtue and true 
love conquer, as we know they will, and we are made happy 
accordingly when the Southern girl, Miss Jinny Carvel, marries 
the Northern soldier, Stephen Brice. And in the story of this 
happy marriage may be discerned the aim of Mr. Churchill's 
book the complete reconciliation of the North and the South. 
It is unfortunate that so many of our Civil War heroes are in- 
troduced into the tale. History is history and always matter- 
of-fact. If it is to have any value it must remain so. The 
novelist must be very careful when he attempts to dress it up 
as entertaining fiction. Moreover, in this story Mr. Churchill 
is led time and again into the most glaring sort of hero-worship. 
He seems unable to touch upon a historical personage without 
being guilty of it. Even the hero of the novel itself some 
worship of whom would be excusable is really quite too an- 
gelic for this world. We would feel that we were getting more 
of the truth if, now and then, we read of some of his mistakes 
or human weaknesses. But particularly in the case of Abraham 
Lincoln does Mr. Churchill forget himself and overstep all due 
limits. Lincoln was a great and an exceptional man ; but he 
no more deserves to be called " divine " than he merited those 
grotesque epithets which were hurled at him so often in the early 
sixties. Again, in Christian ears many of Mr. Churchill's words 
ring unpleasantly. The title of Man of Sorrows belongs, both 
in justice and in history, to Christ alone ; yet there is a chap- 
ter under that title, and it concerns Abraham Lincoln alone. 
Good taste and accuracy are offended, too, when we are told 
that " Abraham Lincoln gave his life for his country, even as 
Christ gave his for the world." The indications are that Mr. 
Churchill has not yet liberated himself from one of the very 
common infirmities of youth exaggeration. 

The new book is, of course, bound to be popular its au- 
thor's name guarantees that. Probably it will not attain so 
enormous a circulation as its predecessor, Richard Carvel ; yet, 
on the whole, we think the newer volume gives greater justifi- 
cation to the writer's claim for literary rank. 



1901.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 533 

2. Careful reading of the new edition * of Mr. Devas' 
Political Economy ought to come very near being a demonstra- 
tion of the thesis that ethics and economics are inseparable. 
For the student will quickly perceive that the writer's firm 
grasp and intelligent application of moral truth has been an 
essential element in the construction of a truly admirable 
work. While turning over these pages one recalls with a great 
deal of satisfaction that their author's uncompromising stand 
for the necessarily ethical character of economic science has 
now become widely recognized, and that to-day there is very 
general acceptance of a principle which was formerly scorned. 
It is plain enough that this happy change has been brought 
about in great measure by a growing conviction that sound 
teaching on Consumption is of the very first importance, a truth 
sufficiently realized only within recent years and far more 
popular now than when Mr. Devas first set himself resolutely 
against the erroneous opinions current on this subject. We 
have grown to understand that, as Ruskin says, " The vital ques- 
tion, for individual and for nation, is never ' How much do they 
make?' but 'To what purpose do they spend?' 1 

Mr. Devas' volume is one of the Stonyhurst Philosophical 
Series, the Psychology volume of which was noticed in our 
March issue. Both of these manuals have been so completely 
revised and enlarged that the present editions are practically 
new works, and add immensely to the value of a series already 
precious to Catholic students. In fact, Mr. Devas' book in its 
new form is simply without rival. His information is wide and 
accurate, his judgment unbiassed, cautious, and objective, his 
conclusions sound both theoretically and practically. The 
volume deserves especial praise as affording evidence of very 
careful attention to the wants of students ; every help is pro- 
vided, with the regrettable exception of a bibliography. Late 
developments in economic science, changes in legislation and 
current opinion, recent growth in economic literature, all re- 
ceive due consideration. The writer's clearness of exposition 
is enviable. On such topics as monoplies, co-operation, liquor 
legislation, and in fact on all points where ethical considera- 
tions weigh most, he shows himself masterly. His strictly 
scientific temper always remains in evidence, and a calm and 
tolerant discussion of problems does no less credit to his sense 

* Political Economy. By Charles S. Devas. Second edition. Rewritten and enlarged. 
New York : Longmans, Green & Co. 



534 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [July, 

of justice than his conclusions do to the soundness of his philoso- 
phy. He knows how to be positive without being unfair. We 
venture to say his book is in little danger of being surpassed 
in general excellence for a long, long time to come. 

3. In his introduction to Politics and the Moral Law* 
Dr. Rolls explains that the publication of this address of Pro- 
fessor Ruemelin has seemed timely in view of the problems of 
international ethics that now confront the peoples of America 
and Europe. The chief of these problems is that one arising 
from a conflict between public and private morals. What is 
to be done when the ordinary principles of the moral law 
stand opposed to the dictates of high statesmanship? The 
answer given by Professor Ruemelin is at least simple and 
clear. The political actions of statesmen, he says, are not 
subject to the moral law of private life, but have an inde- 
pendent guiding principle, namely, the welfare of the state. 
Tne preservation of the state is the supreme good, rising 
superior to every commandment. For the sake of the higher 
interests of the state the rights both of individuals and of 
other nations may lawfully be ignored. Such are the ethical 
principles that Professor Ruemelin's doctrine offers for the 
guidance of our statesmen. A recent writer (Reinsch, " World 
Politics ") has declared that the keynote of international poli- 
tics among all the great nations has changed from nationalism 
to imperialism, and that the methods and ideals of world poli- 
tics at present are the methods and ideals of Machiavelli. In- 
stead of poisoning and crude prevarication, we have the use of 
tremendous power and skilful deception. To those who believe 
in and employ these methods the teaching of Professor 
Ruemelin will no doubt be useful. To those who have not 
advanced so far, and who may be still engaged in a mental 
struggle to get rid of the superstition of the moral law, it will 
afford much relief. One cannot but regret that Dr. Holls, who 
had such a large and commendable part in the Peace Confer- 
ence at the Hague, should have thought it worth while to put 
before American readers principles so pernicious principles 
that are not only contrary to justice, but hostile to the perma- 
nent peace and welfare of nations. 

* Politics and the Moral Law. By Gustav Ruemelin. Translated from the German by 
Rudolph Tombo, Jr. Edited, with an Introduction and Notes, by F. W. Holls, D.C.L. New 
York : The Macmillan Company. 



1901.] TALK ABOVI NEW BOOKS. 535 

4, Father Renaudet's Month of Mary* is a book of short 
meditations intended exclusively for priests and seminarians. 
Those who spend the month of Mary in accordance with the 
precepts that we read in 'his preface will certainly reap great 
spiritual profit from their exercises. The first meditations are 
on vocation to the ecclesiastical state. Several others follow 
on the ceremony of tonsure, on minor and major orders. The 
rest are on the virtues, death, and eternal reward of the priest. 
Mary's life is made to yield examples of all the different steps 
and virtues of the ecclesiastical life. The book is in good, 
readable English, well printed, and neatly bound. 

5. Another pleasing booklet f is composed of several 
well chosen extracts from Father Faber's Blessed Sacrament. 
The passages selected show the writer at his best, being full 
of beautiful suggestions and quite free from the blemishes 
which do occasionally mar his style. The little volume is pre- 
sented in a vest-pocket edition, just the thing for those who 
like to read when travelling, or who are fond of picking up a 
book for a few moments during chance intervals of free time. 

6, The Raccolta\ is a book which ought to seem indis- 
pensable to every pious Catholic, at any rate for reference 
and occasional use. It does not in every way take the place 
of a regular prayer-book, though by the Appendix containing 
prayers for Mass, and Vespers on Sunday, it partially does so, 
and would even more completely if forms were added for 
morning and evening prayer. Still, if we wished to use only 
one book, this would seem to be the best of all. For indul- 
genced prayers, as such, are evidently to be preferred to 
others. It is often a sacrifice of spiritual good to use a prayer 
which is not indulgenced, when an indulgenced one, otherwise 
equivalent to it, can be substituted with perfect ease. The 
present volume contains about 370 prayers, and has the peculiar 
merit of being the only authorized collection of all the indul- 
gences granted by the Holy See. 

About one-quarter of those contained in it are not to be 

* The Month of Mary : for the Use of Ecclesiastics. From the French of G. Renaudet, 
S.S. New Edition. New York : W. H. Young & Co. 

t Corpus Domini. From The Blessed Sacrament, by Father Faber.. Selections by J. B. 
(compiler of Our Lord in the Eucharist). New York : Benziger Brothers. 

\ The Raccolta ; or, Collection of Indulgenced Prayers and Good Works. Philadelphia: 
Peter F. Cunningham & Son. 



536 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. I July* 

found in previous issues. It is also complete up to a very 
recent date, being translated from the third Italian one, pub- 
lished in 1898 by order of the Sacred Congregation of Indul- 
gences. It is plain, therefore, that it should be procured, if 
possible, even by those who have a previous edition. 

7. Ideals of education and life furnish, after all, some- 
thing besides a mere theme for commencement-day exercises. 
This fact finds its latest proof in the work* in hand. 

The first part presents some practical and theoretic peda- 
gogics ; it treats of the relations and unification of secondary 
with primary and higher education. The second part sets be- 
fore the student ideals of life and incentives to study ; it 
gives the modern gospel of work. The manner of treatment 
is charming, instructive ; the style anecdotical, teaching by ex- 
ample. The dominant note sounds for spiritual training, since 
sacred and profane science properly constitute a parallelism. 
Were it not for the earnestness evinced throughout we should 
take the following as a conscious effort on the part of the 
author to be facetious : 

" A course in theology, scientific theology, should be found 
in every university, including the state university and some 
dare to think the latter is the place for it. Yet who will dare 
to think that such a course will be otherwise than it invariably 
is, a cloak for the inculcation of a particular creed ? " 

8. Among recent works of pedagogical interest we note 
that of Professors Burnett and Bristol.f In it are discussed 
the various problems met with in teaching these branches : pro- 
nunciation, prosody, sight-reading, beginners' books, choice of 
works and of the order in which they should be read, etc. 
The chapters on the defence of Latin and Greek as education- 
al instruments are especially interesting, and teachers will profit 
by many useful and practical hints upon method. 

9. The constantly growing perfection of means and 
methods of education is evidenced in a volume \ intended for 
beginners in the study of physical geography. A cursory 

* Education and Life. By Baker. New York : Longmans, Green & Co. 

f The Teaching of Latin and Greek in the Secondary School. By C. E. Burnett and G. 
P. Bristol. New York : Longmans, Green & Co. 

t A Reader in Physical Geography. By R. E. Dodge. New York : Longmans, Green 
& Co. 



1901.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 537 

reading of the book gives proof likewise of how interesting 
even such a matter-of-fact science as geography may become 
in the hands of a careful and skilful teacher. 

The facts given are mostly of a specific and local character, 
while the principles are^illustrated by examples of many familiar 
scenes and practical phenomena common to the experience of 
every one. Special mention is due the splendid half-tone illus- 
trations representing real scenes in various parts of the world. 
Some fault might be found, however, with the distribution of the 
subject matter. The advanced reader may be able to under- 
stand that the fourth, fifth, and sixth chapters, which treat of 
the centres of life, occupy a foregoing position, in order that 
the following chapters, which deal with the agencies and con- 
ditions making these centres of life possible, may be seen to 
have a more practical interest and significance. The beginner, 
however, will not so readily see the meaning of this arrange- 
ment, and will look for the sections treating of the centres 
of life in the latter part of the book, where they would 
naturally come. 

10. Here is an excellent little book,* one that ought to 
find its way into all the parochial schools of the country. It 
is a collection of short reading-lessons in the history, mode of 
life, religion, stories, poems, legends, etc., of the Irish people, 
pagan and Christian. A more interesting book of the kind for 
children it would be difficult to find. While not by any means 
professedly or principally treating of religious topics, it con- 
tains very fitting lessons in the lives of the greatest of the 
Irish saints Patrick, Brigid, and Columkille. It seems to be 
a new idea in school " Readers " and it deserves good success. 

11. An essay on Russia which appeared last year in the 
International Monthly Magazine has been reprinted in book 
form.f It is an excellent historical rsum6 of the beginnings 
and territorial development of the Russian Empire, written in 
the style of one who is himself interested in the subject, and 
who knows how to make it attractive to his readers. A rather 
bad impression is made by the introduction of such side re- 
marks as " Those two scourges, journalism and theology." The 

*A Reading-Book in Irish History. By P. W. Joyce, LL.D. New York : Longmans, 
Green & Co. 

^Expansion of Russia. By A. Rambaud. The International Monthly, Burlington, 
Vt. 1900. 



538 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [July. 

author's meaning here is not quite clear, and at any rate, as 
the phrase can have no particular bearing on the matter in 
hand, it could very conveniently be altered. 

12. Since 1899 M. Charles Egremont,* with the aid of 
several distinguished collaborators, has issued annually a volume 
descriptive of current events in the Catholic Church through- 
out the world. Germany, Hungary, Sweden, Turkey, Canada, 
the United States, every country, is represented therein by a 
contributor who indicates the religious events and currents of 
thought that have attracted attention during the previous 
twelvemonth. The chroniclers tell of changes in the hier- 
archy,, incidents affecting the relations of church and state, 
noted publications, and the like. As is evident, the resume's 
cannot aspire to great thoroughness, yet they contain a good 
deal of information likely to interest those who are attentive 
to the progress the church is making throughout the world at 
the present time. 

13. We have received two pamphlets \ giving a brief his- 
torical sketch of the parochial schools of Boston diocese. 
These interesting documents are the work of Rev. Louis S. 
Walsh, Diocesan Supervisor of Schools. They exhibit a rare 
power of condensing facts and figures scientifically and effective- 
ly. It will surprise many to learn that the parochial schools 
of Massachusetts are an annual saving of $2,000,000 to that 
State. Any one who reads Father Walsh's pamphlets must be 
impressed with his fair and sensible presentation of the cause 
of the parochial schools to the people and legislators of Mas- 
sachusetts. 

14. One of the most delightful books of the season is 
Henry James's A Little Tour in France^. a new edition, with 
about seventy drawings by Joseph Pennell. It is difficult to 
conceive of anything more delicate or artistically perceptive 
than the eye with which Mr. James views his subject or the 
method in which he describes it ; during the reading one 

* U Annie de L?6gli$e, iqoo. Par Ch. Egremont. Paris: Librairie Victor Lecoffre 

t Historical Sketch of the Catholic Parochial Schools in the Archdiocese of Boston. By 

Rev. Louis S. Walsh. Press of St. John's Industrial Training School, Newton, Mass. 

Growth of Parochial Schools in Chronological Order. 

% A Little Tour in France. By Henry James. Boston : Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 



1 90i.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 539 

breathes and basks in the very air and color of France so 
psychological is he in his observation of places, things, and 
people. The illustrations show Mr. Pennell at his best. 

15. Anything relating to the life of Cardinal Wolsey is 
certain to be received by readers of history with especial favor 
on account of the controverted points in the character of the 
famous Lord Chancellor. The new edition of the life which 
was written by one of his servants * is, therefore, an accepta- 
ble addition to our historical literature. It is not a biography 
in the strict sense, but rather a sketch of the great church- 
man's public life. While it lacks, consequently, the complete 
treatment that would have been given by a writer interested 
in all Wolsey's concerns, both public and private, and able to 
estimate and judge of the work he did and the reforms he 
proposed, and competent to outline and criticise his general 
policy and fairly represent his motives, it gives us neverthe- 
less a faithful portrait of the Cardinal as seen in the promi- 
nent events of a brilliant career, and in the hour of final ruin. 

16. Another suggestion as to how the study of history 
may be intelligently and delightfully aided is offered in Miss 
Crowley's very recent historical romance.f The historical 
framework of this story lies in the stirring first days of New 
France its pomp and pageantry, its picturesque chevaliers, 
noble ladies, missionaries, soldiers, and sturdy courreurs de bois t 
all so focalized as to present a brilliant picture. The book 
possesses a decided advantage in that it deals with a compara- 
tively unused theme the settlement of Detroit from the older 
city, Quebec. Fully appreciating the value of her setting, the 
author reproduces for her readers much of the picturesque 
beauty of that fascinating time. She shows, however, no ten- 
dency to subordinate human interest to scenery or the exciting 
episodes of pioneering ; but rather rests the interest upon 
"the unchanging fashions of the human heart." 

The narrative takes its real start from the introduction of 
the famous De Cadillac, who shares with the hero the interest 
of the story. That the principal characters of a historical 

* The Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey. Written by One of His Own Servants, being 
His Own Gentleman Usher. Edited by Grace H. M. Simpson. New York : Benziger Bros. 

t A Daughter of New France. By Mary Catherine Crowley. Illustrated by Clyde O. De 
Land. Boston : Little, Brown & Co. 



54O TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [J u ty 

novel should not themselves be historical, is said to be a 
canon ; nevertheless, it must be admitted that the delineation 
of the Sieur Cadillac and his ambitions challenges the atten- 
tion of the reader to an equal, if not greater, extent than the 
various vicissitudes of the hero's love-story. The latter, dain- 
tily told, brings into view perhaps the prettiest pen-picture of 
the book the Daughter of New France herself. She is a 
rescued captive of the Indians, a Bostonaise, the child of Eng- 
lish parents who have been killed ; and in the home of her 
foster parents, the amiable Guyons, she grows from babyhood 
to ideal young womanhood beautiful, pure, and dainty as the 
arbutus and violets of the Canadian wilds. 

Though showing vividness of coloring and action, with per- 
ception of the dramatic, the book is graceful rather than 
strong ; there is more facility than warmth. The love-story is 
not breathlessly absorbing, but is pervaded by a high senti- 
ment ; and many delicate, gentle touches throughout manifest 
the artistic instinct of the authoress. In tone the romance is 
most healthy ; no page of it can offend the most fastidious 
taste. 

17. The Lenten lectures * which Father Cox has recently 
published were first delivered for the instruction of a Catholic 
congregation. Though their primary end was not controversial, 
they deal with the cardinal point of religious discussion the 
church. The present volume, therefore, will not only be use- 
ful to Catholic readers, but may also perform a missionary's 
part among Protestants. It contains seven lectures. The first 
is on the Idea, Existence, Authority, and Visibility of the 
Church. Four others follow on the marks of the Church, and 
the two remaining lectures are devoted to the Infallibility and 
Indefectibility of the Church. The Scriptural texts are abun- 
dant. In fact, our chief objection is, that the author has 
quoted so many texts that he had no space to bring out their 
force by the proper development and analysis. Writers too 
often forget that Scriptural texts are common property. It is 
in the interpretation of Scripture that difficulties and contro- 
versy arise. It is also to be regretted that too many of the 
colloquialisms of pulpit delivery have been allowed to survive 
in printed form. Barring the unnecessary use of technical 

* The Pillar and Ground of the Truth : A series of Lenten Lectures on the True Church, 
its marks and attributes. By Rev. Thomas E. Cox. Chicago : J. S. Hyland & Co. 



1 90i.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 541 

theological phrases, at times without necessity, the book is to 
be commended as a clear, simple exposition and forcible de- 
fence of Catholic doctrine. 

18. The Cave by the Beech Fork* is a story both healthful 
and exciting two characteristics often lacking in juvenile 
works. The scene is laid in Kentucky and the time is the 
year 1815. Owen Howard, Martin Cooper, and Coon Hollow 
Jim are characters that will surely excite the admiration of 
our manly Catholic youths, while two of the moonshiners, oc- 
cupants of the cave, Stayford and "Jolly Jerry," will receive 
their share of interest, and even sympathy. The adventure in 
the cave and the mystery connected with it, the prowess of 
Owen with his rifle, his escape from his pursuer while carrying 
papers containing news of the American victory over the 
British, and the other incidents of the story, will delight all 
boyish hearts. Incidentally one receives a little insight into 
the trials of the early missionaries of whom Father Byrne is 
a fair representative in those early times. Henry S. Spauld- 
ing, S.J., is a new name to us and we hope to see more from 
his pen. 

19, Lady Lindsay's high rank among the English poets of 
to-day has been recognized by all the critics in England. The 
introduction of her works into American circulation will serve 
to strengthen a well-merited position. The present very neat 
little volume f from her pen gives ample testimony of her 
poetic genius, graced as it is by pure English, nicety of ex- 
pression, true play of the imagination, and delicacy of senti- 
ment. It must be confessed that a few of the poems in the 
collection are but indifferently good. Still we would be will- 
ing to excuse the presence of a far greater amount of alloy for 
the sake of so many lines and pages full of Catholic feeling 
artistically and effectively phrased. 

20, The special charm of Mrs. Blundell's new collection of 
short stories \. lies in their great simplicity of matter and form. 
The subject, rural life in the south of England, possesses a 

* The Cave by the Beech Fork. By Henry S. Spaulding, S.J. New York : Benziger Bros. 

t The Prayer of St. Scholastica, and other Poems. By Lady Lindsay. Boston : Small, 
Maynard & Co. 

% Pastorals of Dorset. By M. E. Francis (Mrs. Francis Blundell). New York: 
Longmans, Green & Co. 



542 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [July* 

certain freshness, too, which should tempt readers cloyed with 
old themes that have been written up many times too often. 
The chief element of interest in the volume is intended to be 
the delineation of provincialisms of speech and manner. The 
author's fidelity to life, however, does less to reconcile us to 
rustic abuses of English than does her own peculiarly graceful 
style of story-telling. Let us have more such work from Catho- 
lic pens. 

21. If there is any assurance to be had of the reality of 
an individual's sanctity, or again, if there is any confirmation 
required of the church's privilege and commission to approve 
and venerate saints, it is to be found in the faithful and en- 
during devotion of the Catholic people towards their saints. 
St. Gerlach * is one of whom we have an assurance of this 
kind. For seven centuries and a half this comparatively 
obscure anchorite has been lovingly venerated in the district 
of southern Holland where his mortal life was spent. 

He was a knight of the Holy Roman Empire founded by 
Charlemagne, given much to worldliness before his conversion. 
When the grace of God came to him, however the occasion 
of its coming having been a severe visitation it changed him 
suddenly, radically, and permanently. The strong spirit of 
penance and charity that took hold of him abided in his soul, 
and continued to grow, till in the end it made him perfectly 
ready for heaven. 

The holiness of his life is further substantiated by the steady 
devotion, as was said, to his name, and the power of his in- 
tercession, which those invoking it often experienced. 

The author's work has been acceptably done. One might 
object that some of the imaginative portions, the presence of 
which is presumed in a life in which the material is so scant, 
were sometimes a little injudiciously chosen. A date given on 
page 8 is an evident misprint. 

22. M. Rye's little volume \ contains the Gospel story 
briefly and simply narrated for the benefit of youthful readers. 
The life of our Saviour is beautifully told ; the significance of 
His words and actions clearly and sympathetically revealed ; 
the practical lessons of His teaching inculcated with no little 

* Life of St. Gerlach. By Frederick A. Houck. New York : Benziger Bros. 
t The Beloved Son. By M. Rye. New York : Dodd, Mead & Co. 



1901.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 543 

skill. The solid doctrinal ground-work, however, which a 
Catholic reader would look for and require, is not visible. 
The fundamental truth of our Blessed Lord's divinity is kept 
hidden from view, nor are there manifest other vital practical 
teachings of our Redeemer, such as, for example, that of eter- 
nal retribution. 

23. At a time when so much morbid and unhealthy verse 
is published, it is a real pleasure to read such a book as this 
of Oliver Huckel.* The poetry is uplifting and optimistic, 
bringing out and emphasizing what is best in man and human 
nature. Without being at all imitative, there is much in Mr. 
Huckel's volume which reminds the reader of Browning at his 
best. Such especially is the fine poem "Victuri Salutamus," 
and also " Eternal Melodies " and " The Heritage of Knowl- 
edge." 

Mr. Huckel is particularly happy in his use of rhythm. 
While there is not, perhaps, a great deal of originality in this 
department, still " May Days," the first poem in the volume, 
and "Sunrise Hymn" (p. 138), seem to show a grasp and feel- 
ing for melody which verse-writers of the past few years have 
certainly not equalled. In this connection a certain indebted- 
ness may be noticed of Mr. Huckel to Whitman. We doubt 
whether a man not unacquainted with Whitman could have 
written "The Nation that Shall Be," and still, at the same 
time, there is an entire originality about Mr. Huckel's work 
and a finish which Whitman's does not possess. There is the 
same Whitman feeling about the noble "A Man has been 
Born " a feeling we say, because there is nothing in the verses 
themselves which are in the least reminiscent. 

Mr. Huckel jhas succeeded particularly well in his transla- 
tions and to translate well is a gift in itself. There are but 
two such from Theocritus' second idyl and three sonnets from 
Dante's Vita Nuova, but they are enough to show how 
thoroughly Mr. Huckel has entered into the spirit of the 
poems, and how remarkably he has produced the very atmos- 
phere of the originals. 

Altogether it must be said that we have here in this unas- 
suming volume a real contribution to contemporary literature, 
and one which cannot but exert an influence for good upon 
the reader's mind and heart. 

* The Larger Life: A Book of the Heart. By Oliver Huckel. Baltimore: The 
Arundel Press. 

VOL. LXXIII. 36 



544 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 

24. A short-cut to results is demanded nowadays in every 
department of activity. Isaac Pitman has presented to the 
public a system of short-hand writing that avoids many of the 
defects of the older systems, and renders the work of report- 
ing an accurate accomplishment. It is founded on a scientific 
analysis of vocal sounds represented by brief signs that are 
easily acquired. Mr. Pitman has put into his system the ex- 
periences of a life-time. We note that the work has been 
adopted in the public and high schools of Greater New York. 

A. companion volume * will be ;found useful in connection 
with the short-hand system in business life. 



BIOGRAPHY OF MOTHER BAPTIST RUSSELL.f 

Father Matthew Russell's biography of his sister, Mother 
Mary Baptist Russell, the founder of the Sisters of Mercy in 
California, is quaint in its homeliness. There are very few 
who will think that he has done justice to the subject of his 
sketch. It seems more like a bit of biography that one would 
pass round among his own kin than a complete portrait of 
an eminent woman. Some reason for this may be found in 
the dearth of materials. Another reason may be found in the 
kindly good-natured way in which Father Russell looks out on 
the world. His sister was not the least remarkable member of 
a most remarkable family. Another member of it, as is known, 
climbed, in spite of trammels of race and religion, to the 
highest position at the English bar, and became the Chief- 
Justice of England Lord Russell of Killowen. 

Mother Baptist was a woman of sturdy character. Her 
appearance was that of a woman of a sensible, practical, and 
energetic nature, with good business talent, and with a keen 
insight into human affairs. There certainly was very little 
sentiment about her, and in the casual meeting one would not 
be impressed with the fact that she was at all sympathetic. 
But the numerous little anecdotes that are related of her pro- 

* Isaac Pitmarfs Complete Phonographic Instructor. New edition, revised to date. New 

York : Isaac Pitman & Sons, 33 Union Square. Pitman's Twentieth Century Business 

Dictation Book and Legal Forms. New York : 33 Union Square. 

t The Life of Mother Mary Baptist Russell, Pioneer Sister of Mercy in California. By 
Her Brother, the Rev. Matthew Russell, S.J. New York : The Apostleship^of Prayer. 



1 90i.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 

found sympathy for the poor and the wretched seemed to 
show that she had a great, deep woman's heart for suffering. 
She was not an emotional woman in temperament. With reli- 
gious very often the training and reserve of demeanor conceal 
a strong emotional nature. But Mother Baptist's sturdy traits 
overawed her emotional side. When she was but a young 
woman of twenty-five, and a young religious of three years' 
profession, she was selected by her superioress to lead a band 
of nuns to California in the early days. She accepted the 
position, evidently, without the clutching at the heart or the 
pallid face that an ordinary mortal would undergo in the same 
trying circumstances. This same imperturbable demeanor car- 
ried her through many of the anxieties of the trying times in 
San Francisco when the mining-camp civilization reigned 
supreme, and made her a tower of strength to many of the 
more feminine natures who clung to her for support. 

She arrived in San Francisco the very day the dogma of 
the Immaculate Conception was proclaimed in Rome, Decem- 
ber 9, 1854, and through nearly fifty years of service her 
thoughts by day and her dreams by night were to relieve the 
poor, to lift up the fallen, and to build up an institute that 
would continue her work after she had been gathered to her 
own. There can be no better testimony to her deep spirit of 
piety, as well as to her administrative ability, than the flour- 
ishing religious community she has left behind her. 

There is a quaint bit of humor, possibly a dash of some- 
thing else, in a passage in one of her letters which speaks of 
her relations with Archbishop Alemany. She says : " From 
the first we felt we had a saint to deal with in the Arch- 
bishop." 



The Tablet (n May): Publishes a joint letter of the Canadian 
hierarchy protesting against the anti-Catholic expressions in 
the Royal Declaration. The correspondence concerning 
Father Taunton's History of the English Jesuits is continued 
(and in fact appears in every number during May, with 
little prospect of being ended in the immediate future). 
(18 May): In response to Lord Halifax's article on Infalli- 
bility in the May Nineteenth Century, a writer shows the rea- 
son of " metaphysical distinctions " in the theology and defi- 
nition of the Church concerning the Blessed Sacrament. 
(25 May) : Lord Halifax repudiates the interpretation 
put upon his words. 

(i June) : An account is given of the attempts made to 
restore Plain Chant as rendered by the Benedictines of 
Solesmes. 

The Weekly Register (26 April) : Father Thurston, S.J., regrets 
that some people attach importance to " that hoary im- 
posture the so-called prophecy of St. Malachy." A cor- 
respondent writes that the article in the April Month 
by Father Rickaby, S.J., on Liberal Catholics shows the 
confusion in the mind of its author, who includes "under 
the same condemnation " worldings who take pleasure 
in criticising the Church and earnest Catholics whose 
very life is poured forth in defence of her, and who 
therefore cannot be branded as worldly and disobedient. 
Robert Edward Dell likewise contributes a severe criti- 
cism upon Father Rickaby's article. 

(ro May): Some correspondence is begun concerning the 
justice of criticisT* passed upon Father Taunton's History 
of the English / nits. 

(17 May): D jannell writes that the "degeneration of 
the clergy ' , traceable to the fact that under present 
conditions tue priest who cannot raise large sums of 
money must make way for one who can ; and he says : 
*' I have often known of priests being praised in pastor- 
als and synods for making money, never for writing 
books." An editorial demurs to the accuracy of Dr. 
Scannell's explanation. 

(24 May): Commenting on an article in the May Monthly 
Review, by the author of Pro Christo et ecclesia, a writer 
contrasts Luther with genuine reformers. 



1901.] LIBRARY TABLE. 547 

Through the recent issues of the Weekly Register there 
has been running a very interesting series of letters defend- 
ing and assailing the extreme position assumed by that 
magazine on the question of Papal Infallibility in reply- 
ing to Lord Halifax's article in the Nineteenth Century. 

The Critical Review (May) : Dr. Hayman comments rather 
unfavorably on the recently published Sermons on Faith 
and Doctrine, by the late Master of Balliol, Dr. Jewett. 
Two notable and praiseworthy recent works on Scottish 
history are reviewed. An interesting review is that of a 
book on Luther's teaching concerning the Real Presence. 

Biblical World (June) : An editorial insists on study of the 
Bible as a factor in personal religion. Professor Jordan 
writes on the twentieth century outlook for Old Testa- 
ment study, and hopes the studies of the past will help 
to give the Old Testament its rightful place as a source 
of light, joy, and peace to many struggling souls. The 
" Constructive Studies on the Priestly Element in the 
Old Testament " are continued. 

Nouvelle Revue (April) : M. Roz treats briefly of Father Hecker 
and the ideas with which he has been identified, insist- 
ing on the fact that his writings showed no tendency to 
minimize either the dogmatic or the moral teaching of 
the Catholic Church. 

Revue Thomiste (May) : P. Pegnes contributes a rather belated 
article on the defunct Americanism controversy, pointing 
out just what the matter was and telling just what the 
Holy Father meant. The remaining articles are contin- 
uations of those already noticed in this department. 

Revue du Clerge" Fran^ais (15 May): P. Hemmer describes the 
history of rural parishes from the fourth to the eleventh 
century. P. Ermoni, criticising M. Harnack, explains the 
weakness of the Protestant concept of the church, 
(i June) : Mgr. Mignot, resuming his papers on clerical 
studies, devotes nearly fifty pages to Biblical Criticism and 
Apologetics, and says that the progress of criticism need 
alarm no one, and that the "Jewish miracle" will always 
remain one of the most convincing of demonstrations. 

Etudes (5 May): P. Bremond, writing on the failure of John 
Keble to enter the church, finds the explanation in a 
surrender to considerations of sentiment and affection. 
P. Prat writes on lilies in the Bible. 

(20 May) : P. Bigault writes of Mgr. Ketteler as of a man 
who did more than any one else to impel German Catholics 



548 LIBRARY TABLE. [July* 

to the defence of religious liberty and the propagation 
of Catholic works. P. Capelle criticises an article in the 
Nouvelle Presse Libre (Jewish) by an anti-Jesuit writer, 
Prez Gold6s, the author of the play " Electra," which 
caused the excitement against religious orders and the 
street-riots in Madrid. P. CheVot continues his study of 
Bonald's inedited letters. 

Le Correspondent (10 May) : Ph. Dunard, treating of the pre- 
tended abjuration of Joan of Arc, presents proof that the 
text of the abjuration is a forgery, and that acquaintance 
with the true facts brings out her heroism and sanctity 
in a most striking way. A writer declares that a coali- 
tion of employers is necessary unless the industries of 
the nations are to be left to the mercy of agitators. 

La Quinzaine (16 May) : M. Fonsegrive speaks of the depopu- 
lation of France, and in view of latest census reports 
declares that the only remedy is to alter the conditions 
existing in the middle classes, and to inspire them with 
confidence in life. M. Salomon traces the conflict be- 
tween science and moral philosophy which has been 
characteristic of this last century. G. Dumesnil, writing 
on the literature of the Middle Ages, points out that the 
theatre played an important part in the emancipation of 
the individual. 

Mjnitore Ecclesiastico : This magazine, which is under the direc- 
tion of Cardinal Gennari, formerly Assessor of the Holy 
Office, publishes an article which, in opposition to the teach- 
ing of some other theologians, teaches that it is never 
lawful to offer Mass for the soul of a deceased heretic. 

Rassegna Nazionale (i May) : Under the heading " La Ques- 
tione Romana e Mons. Ireland " a writer who signs him- 
self G. V. presents a lengthy and carefully prepared 
reply to the plea for the Temporal Power of the Pope, 
delivered in Washington last year. E. S. K. comments 
on his Grace^s article in the North American Review. In 
all some fifty pages are devoted to answering the 
arguments presented by Archbishop Ireland. 

Nao:a Antologia (i April) : Professor Negri, without deciding, 
discusses the interesting question of the authenticity of 
a letter from the Bishop of Vercelli to Edward III. of 
England, which relates the story of Edward II. 's escape 
from Berkeley Castle and finally his adoption of a reli- 
gious hermit's life. 



1 90 1.] EDITORIAL NOTES. 549 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 

A SIGN of the pagan spirit that pervades the intellectual 
life outside the church is the deliberate discussion in The 
ColoradD State Medical Association of the advisability of 
putting imbecile children to death. Dr. Denison's contention 
was that "humanity in general would be benefited." The 
report goes on to say that if the suggestion is adopted a 
petition will be presented to the Legislature with the view of 
making such a practice a law. 

The deliberate discussion of a practice that Christian civil- 
ization has universally condemned among the pagans, and now 
condemns among the Chinese, is very strong evidence that the 
principles of a supernatural religion are losing their hold on 
the minds and hearts of non-Catholics. It is the legitimate 
outcome of the banishment of religion from the educational 
life of the country. Fifty years ago, when the system of irre- 
ligious schools was inaugurated, there was a large infusion of 
the religious spirit among the people. But two generations 
have now been educated without any knowledge of God and 
the supernatural life, and the second generation is beginning 
to show a decided lack of a knowledge of Christian principles. 
The church and the home are no longer the auxiliaries to 
religious education they formerly were. The lack of positive 
doctrine on the great fundamental truths, the obscuration of 
the teaching concerning the rewards and punishments of the 
next life, which are the sanctions of the moral law these 
have broken down the barriers against crime and vice. Sui- 
cide was never so common as it is now. Respect for the life 
of the soul is being supplanted by a care for the body, and 
the custom of the medical profession of administering ano- 
dynes on approaching death is becoming very prevalent ; all 
these are but signs of a growing unchristian spirit. 

We must get back to Christian standards again. It is not 
less religion but more that we want ; we must begin with 
the children, by instilling into their hearts the great funda- 
mental truths without which there can be nothing but paganism. 



550 THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. [July, 



THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 

IT has been suggested that a very profitable discussion might be started deal- 
ing with certain sections of the New York City Charter as revised by the 
Legislature of 1901. The people at large had little opportunity to examine the 
work of the revision committee. A few editors, especially the editor of the 
Brooklyn Eagle, were bold enough to claim that they fully understood some of 
the questions involving the correct interpretation of the New York State Con- 
stitution and other weighty matters, although eminent lawyers are not yet 
agreed on some of the points at issue. As a specimen of the difficulty of getting 
at the correct meaning the following passage is given in evidence, which may 
serve to indicate a very low standard of taste in the choice of language: 

"Religious sects and dogmatic books excluded ; Bible retained. 

"1151. No school shall be entitled to or receive any portion of the 
school moneys in which the religious doctrines or tenets of any particular 
Christian or other religious sect shall be taught, inculcated, or practised, or in 
which any book, or books containing compositions favorable or prejudicial to 
the particular doctrines or tenets of any particular Christian or other religious 
sect shall be used, or which shall teach the doctrines or tenets of any other re- 
ligious sect, or which shall refuse to permit the visits and examinations provided 
for in this chapter. But nothing herein contained shall authorize the board of 
education or the school board of any borough to exclude the Holy Scriptures, 
without note or comment, or any selections therefrom, from any of the schools 
provided for by this chapter ; but it shall not be competent for the said board 
of education to decide what version, if any, of the Holy Scriptures, without note 
or comment, shall be used in any of the schools; provided that nothing herein 
contained shall be so construed as to violate the rights of conscience, as secured 
by the constitution of this State and of the United States." {From Revised 
Charter for New York City.} 

It will be interesting to discover whether Agnostics will approve such a 
confused declaration of principles. While the Bible is not to be excluded, the 
board of education is rightly declared to be incompetent to decide what version 
of the Holy Scriptures shall be used in the enlightened city of New York. 

The London Guardian of March 27, 1901, gave the news that the Birming- 
ham School Board, in England, had decided to change its traditional policy and 
abandon the reading of the Bible without note or comment in favor of Scriptural 
lessons of a simple character, the singing of hymns, and the repetition of the 
Lord's Prayer. The editor of the Guardian has shown keen discrimination in 
protecting the religious instruction approved by the Church of England. It 
may be stated that he voiced the general opinion of intelligent Christians of all 
denominations in these words: 

" It is difficult to imagine that the practice of reading the Bible without 
note or comment to a class of children can have any great spiritual or educa- 
tional value for the average pupil. It is a procedure which would not be 
dreamed of in the case of any other subject in which instruction is given, and 
it is calculated to inspire the child with the idea that the Bible has no meaning, 
or that nobody knows what it means, or that nobody cares. And of those who 
advocate the system many probably do not care." 

* * * 

Rev. J. C. Bloomfield is a Methodist pastor in Pittsburg. Here is a speci- 



1901.] THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 551 

men of his historic method : " This is peculiarly a Protestant country, dis- 
covered by Protestants the Cabots." The editor of the New York Freeman's 
Journal ha.s kindly instructed the Methodist pastor by stating the true facts of 
the case as follows : 

The mainland of the American continent was discovered by the Cabots 
John and Sebastian in 1497. At that time Luther was only fourteen years old, 
and Henry VIII. only six. The Cabots made their voyage of discovery under a 
commission granted by Henry VII. in March, 1496, to " John Cabot, citizen of 
Venice ; to Lewes, Sebastian, and Santius, sonnes of said John." At that time 
the English king and people were Catholics in communion and unity with the 
See of Rome. Now, the question arises : As Protestantism had not on the face 
of the earth a local habitation and a name in 1497, when the Cabots discovered 
this continent, how did they come to be Protestants ? At that time Luther was 
a Catholic, and remained so for eighteen years after becoming a monk and a 
priest ; and Henry VIII. was a Catholic, and remained so for thirty-two years 
after. There are several other egregious errors in Rev. Bloomfield's lecture. 
The one we have given is a specimen brick. 

* * * 

The " Records and Studies " of the United States Catholic Historical 
Society voliyne second contains an instructive paper by Edward J. McGuire, 
LL.B., formerly librarian of the Catholic Club in New York City. He has made 
a curious collection of obsolete laws bearing on the relations of Church and 
State in the early period of New York history, which furnish abundant evidence 
to prove the religious intolerance of the dominant majority. 

The early Dutch settlers of New York about 1621 passed very rigorous 
laws against the practice of the Catholic religion. When the English assumed 
the authority later they added to the Dutch intolerance of Catholicity active 
measures against the persons of priests, which the Dutch had not attempted. 
For the few years that Col. Thomas Dongan, who was a Catholic, was governor 
of New York, there was a respite, and New York State had a charter of liber- 
ties which, among other grand things, provided that " No person or persons 
professing faith in Jesus Christ should at any time be in any way molested, 
punished, disquieted, or called in question for any difference of opinion or mat- 
ter of religious discernment." 

With so much cruelty and bigotry preceding it and following it in the 
legislative history of New York, Col. Dongan's charter of liberties guaranteeing 
freedom of worship to everybody is something to be proud of, just as the Catho- 
lic legislation of Maryland was conspicuous in a long stretch of bigotry that 
characterized the early history of our country. With Col. Dongan died reli- 
gious liberty in New York. In 1691 Henry Sloughter was sent from England, 
became governor, and immediately called a general assembly to fix the religion 
of the colony. One of the first enactments was for this purpose. After a series 
of boastful phrases about the religious liberty they were extending to so many 
sects, it ends this way : 

" Always provided that nothing herein mentioned or contained shall extend 
to give liberty for any persons of the Romish religion to exercise their manner 
of worship contrary to the laws and statutes of their majesties' kingdom of 
England." 

This was bad enough, but their zeal against the church was not satisfied 
yet. In 1700 the General Assembly reached out to the confines of the province 
to drive the priests from among the neighboring tribes of Indians. 



552 THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. [July, 1901.] 

In a long and wordy enactment, beginning with 

" Whereas, Divers Jesuits, priests and popish missionaries have come into 
and have had their residence in remote parts of this province and other his 
majesty's adjacent colonies, who by their wicked and Subtle Insinuations Indus- 
triously labour to Debauch, Seduce," etc., etc., etc. [The capitals are found in 
the original documents]. 

" Be it enacted that all and every Jesuit priest, missionary or other Spirit- 
uall or Ecclesiasticall person made or ordained by the authority, power or juris- 
diction derived, Challenged or Pretended from the Pope or See of Rome now 
residing within this Province or any part thereof shall depart from and out of 
the Same at or before the first day of November next in this present year 
seventeen hundred." 

Perpetual imprisonment was decreed as the penalty for any priest found 
after November i, and death should he attempt to escape. A series of severest 
fines were also enacted at the same time for any one sheltering a priest. 

And here was an inducement to them : 

" Also it shall and may be lawful for any person or persons to apprehend 
without a warrant any Jesuit, Seminary Priest, or other of the Romish Clergy, 
as aforesaid, and to convent him before the Governor, or any two of the Council 
to De examined, and imprisoned in order to tryall unless he give a satisfactory 
account of himself ; and as it will be esteemed and accepted as a g good service 
<lone for the King by the person who shall seiz and apprehend any Jesuit Preist, 
missionary or Romish Ecclesiastick as aforesaid, so the Governor of this Pro- 
vince for the time being with the advice and consent of the Council may suit- 
ably reward him as they think fitt." 

This infamous act was repealed only after the evacuation of New York by 
the British in 1783. 

* * * 

In the study of An Old New England 7 own, by Frank Samuel Child, pub- 
lished by Scribner, 1895, dedicated to the Daughters of the American Revolution, 
the author narrates how the presence of a few Episcopalians in the town of Fair- 
field, Conn., disturbed the orthodox citizens. For a time the atmosphere was 
religious in the sense that moral, ecclesiastical, and theological questions were 
uppermost in the minds of the leading people. Against the protest of his dear- 
est friends a certain Mr. Johnson, of Yale College, had joined the Episcopal 
ministry. When he presumed to establish Trinity Church for the Church of 
England service, in accordance with the dictates of his conscience, he was made 
to feel the intolerant spirit of the majority. A petition to the court at Hartford, 
dated May 15, 1727, affirms " that ten of the Fairfield Episcopalians had been 
lately imprisoned for non-payment of taxes to support, the Congregational 
Church." 

The town voted, July 27, 1738, that liberty be granted to the members of the 
Church of England to erect a house for public worship in the highway near Old 
Field Gate. Those living within a mile of this edifice were allowed the privilege 
of paying to the support of their own church ; but " other Episcopalians were 
for a long time compelled to pay their taxes to the support of the Congrega- 
tional Church " Cpp. 85-89). 

* * * 

The Aquinas Circle of Maiden, Mass., the Rev. Mortimer E. Twomey, presi- 
dent, began a course for 1900-1901 embracing a study of great Biblical charac- 
ters, as Adam and Eve, Noe, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, 
Ruth and Judith. 

Interspersed with the evenings devoted to these important subjects there 
were studies of three of Shakspere's plays: Julius Csesar, Hamlet, and Macbeth. 

The Circle meets every Monday evening. The president is assisted by these 
efficient officers : Miss Mary Farmer, vice-president ; Miss Lavinia Smallwood, 
secretary; Mis=; Grace Sheehan, treasurer. The literary and social committee 
-are Misses Mary Dolan, Josephine O'Neil, and Nellie Sullivan. M. C. M. 




Photo by American View Co., Baltimore, Md. 

Cbe procession at tbe Conferring tbe JBtretta on f>is Eminence 
Cardinal Aartinellf in tbe CatbeOral at ^Baltimore. 



THE 




VOL. LXXIII. 



AUGUST, 1901. 



No. 437. 



THE WORK OF RACES IN THE WORLD'S 
RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 

BY.H. C. CORRANCE. 

|HE records of mankind from the 
dawn of history present clear evi- 
dences that different races have 
played distinct parts, of varying 
degrees of importance, not only in 
the social and moral but in the 
religious training of the world. 
The whole course of the history 
of the Jews, as written in their 
sacred books with the inspired 
commentaries of prophet and seer, 
shows more plainly than that of 
any other nation the direct action 
of God in the affairs of man. In this instance we see a patri- 
archal family, conscious from the first of a future destiny which 
it proceeds to fulfil in ways and under circumstances that, a 
priori, would never have been expected, and, in the ordinary 
course of things, would have been impossible. Apart even from 
the more directly miraculous portion of its history, the whole 
process of its shaping into a nation is marked with the hand 
of God. 

THE MAKING OF THE JEWISH NATION. 

A tribe of slaves, which, even after its deliverance, looks 
back to the flesh-pots of Egypt as preferable to freedom, 
is taken from its surroundings and isolated in the desert, un- 
til the next generation, brought up in this free atmosphere, 

THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE IN THE STATE 

OF NEW YORK, 1901. 
VOL. LXXIII. 37 




554 RACES IN THE WORLD'S RELIGIOUS HISTOXY. [Aug., 

became an army of brave and self-reliant warriors. Thus, 
against its will and against what seemed the natural force of 
circumstances, it is furnished with an independent national ex- 
istence and esprit de corps. And the same principle is observa- 
ble in its subsequent history. Left to itself, its natural ten- 
dency was, as history shows, to become merged in the sur- 
rounding Semitic nations by intermarriage and the adoption 
of heathen customs and worship. In this case the Jewish 
nation would have been no more than a memory, like many 
others, instead of a living and present fact. So strong were 
these disintegrating tendencies that it seemed, indeed, at many 
points of its career as if it must have been absorbed among 
the Gentiles. At several periods it seemed as if Israel and 
Juda had at last become heathen nations and had finally re- 
jected Jehovah. Prophet after prophet arose and combated 
these tendencies solely by the power of the Spirit. Even as it 
was, but a small portion of the whole nation came through 
the ordeal, that remnant of which the prophets were ever 
speaking. The seventy years' captivity did the final sifting, 
and the national and religious life of the few who returned 
became henceforth compact and unyielding. Outwardly at 
least, after this, they were strict observers of the law. They 
had at length been fashioned into an instrument by which 
the unity of God should be proclaimed to the world, which 
should give birth to the Messias, and should hand over to the 
Gentiles their sacred books full of the rich spiritual experience 
and prophetic insight of many generations. This is the great 
work which that nation has been called to do, and which it 
has done. In other respects, as in arts and in science, it was 
merely a barbarous people compared with others of higher 
culture ; nor did it politically play an important part, being 
always surrounded by more powerful neighbors to whom it was 
subject one after the other in turn. 

The Jewish nation, then, has been either one of God's 
chief messengers to the world or else nothing at all. What 
further part, if any, it may be called upon to play in the re- 
ligious history of mankind it is impossible to say with certainty. 
But at least the continued presence amongst us of that ancient 
nation, as it were preserved and handed down to the present 
age while all its former oppressors and competitors have per- 
ished, and scattered among all nations in fulfilment of its 
prophecies, is still a witness to the thoughtful and spiritually- 
minded of the truth of God. 



1901.] RACES IN THE WORLD'S RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 555 

THE GREEKS AND THE LATINS. 

The history of the ancient Greeks is, again, a remarkable 
one. They played a part in the world altogether out of pro- 
portion to the size of their population or territory, and of the 
petty republics into which it was divided. Their contributions 
to the world's art and literature are indeed incalculable, having 
been practically the fountain-head of such to future civiliza- 
tions. And even from a religious point of view their contribu- 
tion has not been small. For they supplied the church in the 
early ages with the language of her creeds and doctrinal defi- 
nitions, and their philosophy has had an immense influence 
upon the general body of her theology. 

The other great race of antiquity which has most influenced 
the Christian Church, and therefore the religious thought and 
practice of European nations, is undoubtedly the Latin. The 
world-wide empire of Rome was still flourishing at the rise of 
Christianity, though it had begun to show the premonitory 
signs of decay. It afforded a ready means, through its vast 
system of intercommunication and colonization, by which the 
faith could be quickly planted in the farthest parts of the em- 
pire. Its organization, its discipline, and its legal code pro- 
vided, as it were, a mould into which the Christian system 
should run and take the form of its unity, extension, complete- 
ness, and stability. Undoubtedly these properties, so conspicu- 
ous in Catholicism, are due to its inherent principles ; but it 
was the Roman system which at least largely contributed to give 
them the particular form which they assumed. When the mould 
was broken by the decay of the Roman Empire the spiritual 
organization of the church remained. Thus, under God's provi- 
dence, the material and secular empire of Rome was used as 
the scaffolding of the spiritual empire of the Catholic Church. 

There are those, it seems to the writer, who are inclined 
to draw too hard-and-fast a distinction between those results 
which are assigned to what they call the direct action of God 
in history, as in the case of the Jews, and those which are 
traceable to what are called purely natural causes. Without 
doubt a distinction must be drawn, but not so as to exclude 
the fact that God directs the tide of all human affairs to his 
specific purposes. 

THE FINGER OF GOD IN THE AFFAIRS OF MEN. 

I 

If the inspired Jewish prophet could see in Cyrus* the 

* Isaias xliv. 28 ; xlv. i. 



5 $6 RACES IN THE WORLD'S RELIGIOUS HISTORY. [Aug., 

chosen of God, if " the Assyrian [was] the rod of his an- 
ger," * if Pharao was raised up to show forth his glory,f if 
" He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and 
among the inhabitants of the earth," \ then can it be doubted 
that the conditions in external heathendom which favored the 
growth of the church and contributed towards its external 
shaping and internal development were due to the action of 
his providence ? Protestants, e. g., think that if, in the history 
of the church, they can point to certain so-called natural 
causes which contributed to make Rome prominent as the 
spiritual centre of Christendom and to favor the development 
of the Papal prerogatives, they have shown that these facts in 
the church's life are in no sense divine and essential principles 
of her being. Such a notion can only be founded on the 
assumption that God interferes but rarely in the affairs of 
men, instead of his self-revelation being in a certain sense 
continuous. It is part of that same theory which underlies 
the assumption that miracles are no longer possible, though 
they were so once, contrasting with the church's claim that in 
her such powers are in every age inherent and continuous. 
The Christian who holds the wider view of God's providence 
will recognize that the Latin nations have had a very important 
part to play in the religious history of the world, and that, in 
spite of their lessened political power, the importance of their 
spiritual position and work is in no degree diminished. The 
Protestant Saxon often throws it as a taunt against the church 
that so large a portion of her members belong to what he is 
pleased to call " the decaying nations," by which he means 
those that have not been so successful in the race for com- 
mercial wealth (with its many dangers and doubtful advan- 
tages) or in the field of mechanical inventions and improve- 
ments. But if he had considered the history of the world 
from a spiritual stand-point he would have escaped falling into 
this error by duly reflecting on the significance of the small- 
ness, from a political or artistic point of view, of the Jewish 
nation, which yet has done such an immense work for religion. 
He would remember that " God hath chosen the weak things 
of the world to confound those that are mighty." 

THE CHURCH'S DEBT TO THE LATIN RACE. 

Anyway, from the Catholic stand-point it must be admitted 
that the work which the Latin nations have done for the 

* Isa. x. 5. f Exod. ix. 16. J Dan. iv. 35. I. Cor. i. 27. 






1901.] RACES IN THE WORLD'S RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 557 

church is incalculable. Besides that which has been already 
mentioned, the very formation of the church in her young 
and plastic condition, it is the Latin nations which practically 
saved the faith at the time of the " Reformation." It is mainly 
due to them that so much of the noble edifice of the past was 
left standing amid the rack and ruin, the rebuke and blas- 
phemy of that troublous period. It was owing to them that 
the church was able to recover from the terrific blow she then 
received and thereafter by missionary effort to extend her 
bounds to all quarters of the earth, so that there- is not a 
nation, tongue, people, or language in which she is not repre- 
sented, thus showing herself to be indeed the Catholic Church 
in fact and not merely in name, in the present no less than in 
the past. The writer is not here considering the question as 
to whether it is better or worse for the church that the Latin 
element should be preponderant. He merely recognizes the 
fact that it has been so throughout the main course of her 
history. Some good natural traits the Anglo-Saxon people 
undoubtedly possess which are not so prominent among the 
Latin as, e. g., the love of liberty, fair play, and justice even 
as they also have their special vices, such as drunkenness. 
But to one who believes that God reveals himself through a 
living church, which delivers through the ages the same clear 
and unvarying message, and not through a book or individual 
opinions, it must always appear that the debt which the world 
owes to those nations to whom the preservation of the church 
is mainly due is simply immeasurable. To the Latin nations 
principally has been committed this great grace of being the 
human instruments by which the church has been kept organi- 
cally one and preserved from general disruption. 

From our short-sighted human stand-point it often seems 
to us that the loss of such a considerable portion of the Saxon 
and Teutonic elements was nothing but a great evil. Yet he 
who trusts in God, and has faith in a divine Providence order- 
ing all things for the best, cannot but believe that in some 
way this great catastrophe will be made to serve the wider 
purposes of God, even as the rejection of their Messias by the 
Jews. There are those who would seek to lay the blame of 
this catastrophe in a great measure on the Latin element in 
the church. But while such an opinion depends upon a more 
or less disputable view of historical events, and while a soberer 
and juster view would distribute the blame with less partiality, 
the broad fact that, when the blow fell, the Latin element 



558 RACES IN THE WORLD'S RELIGIOUS HISTORY. [Aug., 

kept the church together and preserved a large nucleus around 
which those outside can once more gather to the centre of 
unity, cannot be denied. And, if it be for the good of the 
church and of the world at large ; if, in short, it be the Divine 
Will, Protestant Christendom can and will be gathered in once 
more. 

A MISSION FOR THE ANGLO-SAXON. 

We cannot tell what designs God may possess in his 
hidden counsels for the religious future of the great Anglo. 
Saxon race. Even now in those places where it prevails it 
affects the church in various ways, as, in the nature of things, 
is bound to be the case. And this effect will probably grow 
more and more marked as the hold of the church grows 
stronger upon the educated members of that race. What 
exactly may be the part it is destined to play in the future 
of the church it is impossible to foresee. But it is not so 
difficult to see that in some way it must do so. For the reli- 
gious condition of Protestantism has changed vastly since the 
days of "the Reformation," at the time when its leaders 
thought, even though divided amongst themselves, that it was 
possible to establish a fixed system of belief and practice, on 
their own principles, which should rival, if not destroy and 
displace, that of the Catholic Church. The changes and dis- 
tortions which those principles have since undergone, and the 
consequent ever-increasing divisions and subdivisions, the wide- 
spread unbelief, or at least religious apathy and indifference, 
and the effects of destructive criticism upon the Protestant 
theory of the Scriptures, have now combined to make it evi- 
dent to the thoughtful that Protestantism is but a broken reed 
on which to rest the religious aspirations, and that if God has 
given a revelation it is at least not to be found there. 

Coincident with this is seen in the Anglican Church that 
curious phase called Ritualism, of which some exponents go 
so far in the imitation of Catholic rites and devotions, " seek- 
ing after God if haply they might find him." 

DECAY OF PROTESTANTISM AS A RELIGIOUS FORCE. 

There can be no doubt that as a religious force Protest- 
antism throughout the world is broken, since its failure to 
satisfy the spiritual and devotional instincts, no less than the 
intellect, is ever becoming more and more apparent. Its lead- 
ing and most thoughtful teachers have for some time past 
been proceeding steadily on the " down-grade " in their beliefs 



1901.] RACES IN THE WORLD'S RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 559 

i. f., verging towards Unitarianism or Deism. It would 
seem, then, as if the ultimate goal of Protestantism was ex- 
tinction as a religion, if indeed in any real sense it can be 
called such now. Formerly one of the chief reasons given by 
dissenters for their aversion to the worship of the Church of 
England was that her preachers dwelt too exclusively on the 
moral law. Their idea of " Faith " was meagre enough, but 
at least they recognized the necessity of some spiritual activity 
as distinguished from mere morality. They did not look upon 
the latter as all-sufficient. But the scene has changed, and the 
leaders of most of the Protestant sects seldom now make any 
appeal to the purely spiritual side of man, but vary discourses 
on moral subjects with advertised secular addresses. But man 
is a creature possessing not moral instincts only but also 
spiritual, and the latter are the more important. He has not 
only a consciousness, which, though in a much higher degree, 
he possesses in common with the lower animals, but an immortal 
spirit as well, which the latter have not. And at the same 
time, in his case, the one depends in a great measure upon 
the other. To these the church appeals most powerfully in 
her ordered scheme of faith and morals, and in her devotional 
system. 

A FORECAST OF WHAT WILL BE. 

At the present time inherited prejudices, the heirloom of 
the past, and the force of circumstances material and other- 
wise, hinder many from feeling the full force of this attractive 
power. But as the former hard-and-fast systems of Protestant 
belief become broken up into ever smaller fragments and give 
way to that general tolerance springing (alas !) to a great ex- 
tent from indifference (a process which is already to be seen 
going on), these barriers will be broken down. Then will men 
be set free from their former thraldom to follow their spiritual 
instincts. Where these are strong, they will seek elsewhere 
that satisfaction for them which they can no longer find in 
the wreck of Protestantism, and will thus be brought face to 
face with that ancient system which has outlived all its younger 
rivals and seems destined to continue as long as the world lasts. 

And if this forecast is correct, if in the future it is decreed 
that the church shall gather once more into her bosom in- 
creasing numbers of the Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic races, 
what will be the effect of this upon the church at large ? 
Deep and far-reaching effects it must indeed have, of which 



560 RACES IN THE WORLD'S RELIGIOUS HISTORY. [Aug., 

we are even now beginning to see the premonitory symptoms. 
Some of those effects may be such as many would not alto- 
gether anticipate ; such, indeed, as some might not think desir- 
able. But the church in her human aspect cannot escape that 
universal law of life, the necessity of adaptation to environ- 
ment. In the first ages the action of this law was seen in the 
effect upon her doctrines, discipline, and organization of the 
forces in surrounding heathendom. That effect did not, indeed, 
consist in altering her principles, but in modifying and shaping 
their mode of presentation to the world. One of the very 
charges that her adversaries have brought against her is il- 
lustrative of this; to wit, that she did not seek to destroy i>ut 
to fulfil the speculations of pagans and directed their beliefs 
and practices into Christian channels.* That Protestants can 
point to certain aspects of her beliefs and practices as akin to 
some of those in paganism is really a proof of her catholicity, 
and that she has had the wisdom, courage, and insight to 
recognize and utilize the scattered fragments of truth which 
are to be found in every human religion agreeably to the fact 
that men are all of one blood and have souls of similar origin, 
to all of which God has spoken at one time through nature 
and conscience. 

It is one of the glories of the Catholic Church, one of the 
great proofs of her truth, that she alone has been able to har- 
monize all that is positive in human beliefs and to adjust this 
in its right relations to the central facts of Christianity. It 
may be that, with the improved means of communication by 
which the world is ever being knit closer and its exchange of 
ideas rendered more rapid, that the great religions of the East 
will have some message for the Catholic Church. But it is 
certain at least that nearer home the increasing inflow of the 
Anglo-Saxon element must affect her in more ways than one. 
And whatever form this may take, however and whenever it 
come to pass, that influence will certainly be for good and ac- 
cording to the purpose and will of God. Believers in Divine 
Providence can hold nothing else. 

It may be that even now God is searching His Church, pre- 
paring her, leading her on by seeming trials to that wider task 
he has designed for her, even as he also seems to be leading 
and preparing Protestantism to the same great issue. " His 
ways are not our ways " ; " The wisdom of the world is fool- 
ishness with God." 

*St. Matt. v. 17; Acts xvii. 23. 



1901.] RACES IN THE WORLD'S RELIGIOUS HISTORY. 561 

THE DESIGNS OF GOD ARE SOMETIMES PERVERTED BY MEN. 

Yet, after all, man, being endowed with free-will, has it 
always in his power by pride and short-sightedness to hinder 
the work of God in the immediate present, though he cannot 
alter his ultimate purpose. This was the case at the Reforma- 
tion, and it is necessary that both the church's rulers and those 
outside her should lay to heart the lessons of the past. The 
characteristic differences between the Latin and the Saxon 
races were some of those causes which contributed powerfully 
to that catastrophe, in regard to which the impartial reader of 
history will not acquit either side of blame. It may be hoped 
that the lessons of the past will not be entirely without effect 
in the present and future, and that the opportunity which cir- 
cumstances seem now to be creating, of in some degree retriev- 
ing that great disaster, will not be thrown away through jeal- 
ousy, arrogance, or want of wisdom on either side. The church 
is a unique spiritual organization, her doctrinal and devotional 
system is perfect. But in order that these may have their due 
effect in attracting outsiders, not only must old prejudices be 
broken down but new ones must not be set up in their place. The 
church was never intended by Christ as an engine to be used for 
political purposes. He said, " My kingdom is not of this world." 
That her rulers have sometimes mistaken her true vocation 
and have intruded religion into the field of politics or science, 
has been the cause of her most conspicuous failures in the past. 

Yes, it is not only on the side of the Anglo-Saxon and Teu- 
tonic races that ignorance and prejudice have to be combated, 
for these are common to men of all nations, and each nation, 
as well as each individual, has its own particular weaknesses in 
this respect. But the greatest danger is when such prejudices 
are not only engrained in the minds of individuals by inheri- 
tance, education, and surroundings, but when they are formu- 
lated into a policy, organized into a system, and decked up as 
fetiches to be worshipped. It should be the prayer of all true 
Catholics who are aware of the movements of thought in this 
critical period of the world's religious and social history, and 
who wish well for the future of the church as God's visible 
kingdom upon earth, that all, especially our rulers, may be 
guided by that spiritual wisdom which is superior to all fixed 
ideas and a priori reasonings, which alone can enable men to 
" read the signs of the times " and to " know the day of their 
visitation." 



562 REFLECTIONS FOR ORDINARY CHRISTIANS. [Aug., 



REFLECTIONS FOR ORDINARY CHRISTIANS. 




BY ONE OF THEM. 

DEVOTION. 

I. 

ERSONAL experiences are not a broad basis for 
general inductions. Still, when years have more 
or less measured our stature, and contact with 
others has brought the chastening sense that 
we are, bye and large, criss-cross, up and 
down, about the size of ordinary people not exceptional in 
kind or degree it may be good, it may do something to re- 
lieve others, to give expression to the thoughts of an average 
man. 

But enough of preliminary verbiage: right to it. 
Now here 's the subject of devotion. Let 's broaden it for 
the benefit of us ordinary folk, for whom if too tightly drawn 
it would feel like a Sunday-go-to-meeting suit of clothes on a 
countryman. 

We 've had it, lots of us, once on a time, or once in 
awhile ; or rather, a sneaking suspicion that at least we ought 
to have a try. It might be youth oh ! those ingenuous days 
of sweet unabashfulness ! or again, missions ; or remorse ; or 
sorrows ; or the wondrous instability of human appetence. 
Anyhow, we have some time or other felt like it. We 'd like 
to be good real good. Now, if carried out, that 's devotion, 
isn't it? There! that brings us right to the heart of our diffi- 
culties, abstract and concrete, natural and artificial, and per- 
haps added to for us poor ordinary aspirants after better 
things. 

II. 

What is devotion? See us rise up in all our various shapes 
and moods : the dry-as-dusts, and the sentimental ; the ideal- 
ists, and the practicalists ; those with a touch of morbidness, 
and the over-sane, horse-sense sort of fellows ; the ones with 
highly sensitized tear-ducts, and those congenitally innocent 
of the chemistry of tears. How differently the awful thought 



1901.] REFLECTIONS fOR ORDINARY CHRISTIANS. 563 

strikes us devotion ; and yet really how all at sea every one 
of us is at its first foreshadowings. How? What? Which? 
Can I ? Will I ? What shall I do about it ? And then, alas ! 
after a little, the sequela. Let our actual lives answer. 

Verily doth dread own worse than that first fit? 

Forgive me, especially you dear tender hearts amongst us, 
with whose sighs and anguish such rough words play rude 
sport ; gentle damosels and sentimental Tommies I share, 
I 've shared your woes ; but I can't help it. Is there any bet- 
ter word to express that sporadic, spasmodic, ephemeric, dis- 
tressing attack ? Well, let 's compromise, and call it a misfit. 
The men act as if they had got on something between a cas- 
sock and a night-gown ; and the women, dear girls, might feel 
more comfortable in bloomers. 

Ah ! if it would only last. Then it might be all right, be- 
come the proper article, the correct thing. But I 'm speaking 
of those occasional (perhaps repeated) spasms which most of 
us know. They are what the doctors call self-limited, they 
run out of themselves, and medicine seems useless either to 
kill or cure. 

Why? 

Ignorance of mind and ignorance of will. We have learnt 
like parrots a lot of true and holy things, but we don't under- 
stand them ; and if we did, worse luck, we never schooled our 
wills to like them for what they really mean. 

The evil, I say, is ignorance : we have been wrongly taught 
perhaps, or at least deficiently taught ; and we are encouraged 
in our ignorance by good-natured but misguided tolerance. 
We became matriculated and are graduated in error. 

We have repented of our sins, have we ? if we have any 
(the if here is exclusively feminine); good. We want to be 
good ; better. We wish to be very good ; best. So far we 
are getting along swimmingly. Then what do we do ? Imme- 
diately begin to be too good to live in our mind. 

Oh ! the deep introspections, the grave moodinesses, or the 
perfervid practices ; or, all together, especially the practices. 
Hinc ilia lachryma, scruples ; or the fussy effusiveness of 
habitudinal religiosity. 

III. 

Here and quickly, a mea culpa though not for that last 
phrase. Mea culpa if I have vaguely disturbed in any one 
the tenderest and secretest impulses of our nature. Thanks to 



564 REFLECTIONS FOR ORDINARY CHRISTIANS. [Aug., 

the good Lord for those impulses ; thanks for the manifold 
methods in which they find vent with us. Let me not be 
mistaken. I am not picking flaws in any devotions in the 
plural too, mind you. On the contrary, may God in His 
mercy enmesh me in them more and more, and hold me faith- 
ful. To me the lowliest woman mumbling a half understood 
but piously intended formula is a more consoling spectacle 
than many vainglorious of us. Nor should there be read be- 
hind these lines any vague intimations towards new or sublime 
knowledge, nor towards self-illuminations or self-guidance, 
under any or the holiest of names or principles. 

We don't belong to that school, if it be a school, we 
ordinary Christians. For us, there never was and there never 
will be any other supreme touchstone, any esoteric principle, 
or more sublimated doctrine and mediation, than the adorable 
sacrament of Incarnate Love, Christ our Lord. This we grasp 
with clinging, knowing hands: to this we hold. And sweet 
and dear to us are all and every one of the devotions hal- 
lowed by the assent of His Church and by the practice of 
myriads of her children. 

That is not what I meant by ignorance. 

Ignorance ... to put it better, it is greater instruction 
in the true meaning and right motives of devotion ; greater 
light in right-doing ; greater might in right-willing. It is better 
education of both mind and will in religious truth and practice 
as affecting both faith and conduct. It is to nerve us up, 
ourselves ordinary Christians, in this age of more diffused in- 
telligence, to a more generally diffused, mt>re intelligent real- 
ization of true devotion. 



THE SUPERNATURAL. 

I. 

Ah ! there we leap across the great abyss. Thought itself, 
peering over, sees no sounding, and fancy fails even to picture 
up the further shore. No wonder we object, we ordinary 
mortals, with feet of clay and dizzy at any cleaving from 
Mother Earth. 

The very word, dare we say it, sounds to us uncanny. 

Forgive, d-ear Lord, if with such uncouth musings Thy 
creatures many of them in tke secret places of their heart 



1901.] REFLECTIONS FOR ORDINARY CHRISTIANS. 565 

thus meet, thus face, the unfathomable mystery of a destiny 
to a seat beside Thee ; of a call to make us : 

Divince consort es naturce : 
Partners of the Divinity. 

II. 

God ! oh, before that name all humanity has bowed down 
and adored. God ! above, around, within us, there is a hymn 
that sings, there is a chord that echoes, there is a sense that 
feels " His presence near." 

But to share His life, hereafter, and here ; not in figure 
but in fact ; with all it entails in mind and heart, in belief 
and conduct, in hopes and desires, in relations with and to- 
wards Him then, and now, that is the supernatural : and at 
that, all the swellings of our petty vanities, and all the intoxi- 
cations of our present enjoyments, shudder and turn pale. 

This is the true touchstone of religion ; the stumbling-block 
of incredulity ; the omitted sign-post of the indifferent ; the 
great dividing line the test of faith. 

That known, accepted, grasped, all the misgivings and hesi- 
tations, the little doubts and fears, like black bats take flight. 
Faith rules all our lesser questionings ; we sail on placid seas 
for so, even here and now : 

"Then we have crossed the bar." 

III. 

If the supernatural had not become incarnated for us 
if there had not been One who personally came here from 
there to tell us, the vestiges of whose physical presence are 
as patent in the life of humanity as any fact of history known 
to us ; One who knows the Father ; who pointed the way 
and set the sail ; who has kept it hoisted visibly through all 
the wrecks of human sailings; who guides the bark even now 
with an audible voice that calls us to join Him ; with a super- 
naturalized presence almost sensible in all the holies where 
men seek Him unswervingly: if He, the Word made flesh, had 
not invented and left us a living memorial, the supernatural 
abiding, of His very humanity made our personal food ; if 
since His coming a fragrance of holiness, in myriads of be- 
lieving souls, had not pervaded the earth and the centuries; 
if all this accumulation of testimonies did not surround, in- 



566. REFLECTIONS f OR ORDINARY CHRISTIANS. [Aug., 

vade, incite us : then, of our doubt or rejection of the super- 
natural, we had almost dared to say : we have not sinned. 

Listen : 

"If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not 
have sin : but now they have no excuse for their sin." 

O God our Lord! we hear Thy voice again: 

" I confess to Thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, 
because Thou hast hidden these things from the wise and pru- 
dent, and hast revealed them to little ones." 



CREDO. 
I. 

It is a strange thought, and yet I think a true one, that 
most of us, if put to it, would give our life for the faith. 
That is: were the issue such, cowardice aside, we would give 
that supreme testimony of our belief. 

Oh! that splendid phrase of the gospels: "give testi- 
mony"; and what evidence of our real convictions: life; and 
how many times it has in fact been given. With nineteen 
centuries of such evidence, well may it be hoped, indeed, that 
as others, if need be, so would we. 

Yes, we ordinary Christians, who scarcely give a passing 
thought to the vows of Baptism, who are at scant pains to 
keep them in daily conduct, and perhaps at less still to be 
well instructed in them, if called upon to testify, to affirm or 
to deny, solemnly, once for all, as indeed comes with Death 
for questioner, we would answer and deny it not : 

Credo I do believe. 

II. 

We believe ! Yea truly ; such is the impress of truth once 
graven on us, somewhere, somehow ; notwithstanding the reck- 
lessness of our journeyings; the smouldering of our remem- 
brances ; our indifferent, neglectful uninformedness not, as 
infidels would have it, merely because of some unknown dread 
at death, testifying to a lie but in face of death, with life 
the stake away down deep: we do believe. 

Sobering thought to flash across a heedless life ! 

" Dim light 
Like distant star o'er darkening night." 






1901.] REFLECTIONS FOR ORDINARY CHRISTIANS. 567 

Is it the echo of a sorrowing voice estops vainglorying even 
here ? 

" Do you now believe ? " 

Aye so. Another scene and another thought loom up on 
the mind. Those nineteen centuries ago, on which side had 
we been? Would our answer then have been: I believe? 



III. 

'Tis a brief picture of a real people. As before, and so we 
now, they did eat and drink, they bought and they sold, they 
planted and built, they married wives and were given in 
marriage. 

" And whereas he had done so many miracles before them, 
they believed not in him " 

Some said : He is a good man. 

And others said : No, but he seduceth the people. 

Some said : This is the Prophet. 

Others said : This is the Christ. 

But some said: Doth the Christ come out of Galilee? 

And many of them said : 

He hath a devil and is mad. 

Others said : These are not the words of one who hath a 
devil. 

The Pharisees therefore answered : 

Has any one of the rulers believed in him, or of the 
Pharisees ? But this rabble that knoweth not the law is a 
cursed set. 

Truly, on which side would we have been then ? Shall our 
lives give answer? 

IV. 

Man of business, man of the world, man of many prejudices, 
habits, interests; who even deem such subjects irksome my 
neighbor : are we not afraid to think it out ? 

At least, as we pass by with averted glance, let our pulse 
quicken a moment at this thought : that, in some depths of our 
being, now lies, dormant perhaps, but not dead, the baptismal 
spirit that will one day clamor out, with us or against us : 

Credo I believe. 



A MOTHER'S THOUGHT ON ORDINATION DAY. 

THY Son and my son, Mary ! 

Master and servitor! 
Thy Son and my son, Mary ! 

Linked for evermore ! 

Ah, could a creatnre kneeling at., the CREATOR'S Feet 
Hear, amid chant and pealing, tidings more strangely 

sweet ? 

Still thro' the bells' glad ringing, soundeth this one re- 
frain 

Still thro' the choir's soft singing, only this changeless 
strain : 

Thy Son and my son, Mary ! 

Master and servitor! 
Thy Son and my son, Mary ! 
Linked for evermore ! 

Thou, most bereaved of mothers bent 'neath Calvary's 

Tree, 

That I and countless others, thus should uplifted be ! 
Thine eyes thro' blood-mist gazing there on the Smitten 

FACE, 

That mine should here upraising, see from this altar's 
base 

My son to thy Son, Mary ! 

Bonded as servitor ! 
Thy Son and my son, Mary ! 
Linked for evermore ! 

Nor saint nor angel pleading wast ever as thou ait, 
Tender and sure in reading a human mother's heart 
Lend of thy gentle gif ting-voice thou its grateful bliss ! 
Help it to meet uplifting for boon divine as this ! 

That my son by thy Son, Mary, 

Is chosen servitor ! 
Thy Son and my son, Mary! 

Linked for evermore ! 

MARGARET M. HALVEY. 




THE KADRI TEMPLE AT MANGALORE.- 




SOME RELIGIOUS TEMPLES IN INDIA. 

BY REV. S. VAS. 

NDIA, or Hindustan, as its very name implies, is 
the land of pagans. Although the Catholic faith 
has shed its rays on this benighted land, yet 
it can be said that paganism still keeps it under 
sway, as it has done for centuries past. True, 
the forces of modern civilization have done much in the way 
of enlightening the minds of the people, and the consequence 
is, that many of the absurdities which once formed the tenets 
of their belief are no longer regarded as such. The Hindus, 
in general, can be said to be a religious sort of people. Con- 
sequently buildings dedicated to religious worship are extreme- 
ly numerous in India. There is hardly a village which has 
not its temple. Besides the temples with which all villages 
are provided, one finds many erected in isolated spots, in 
woods, on the highways, in the middle of rivers, on the banks 
of tanks and large reservoirs, and especially on the summit of 
steep rocks and mountains and hills. 

The district of South Canara has many famous pagan 
VOL. LXXIII. 38 



570 SOME RELIGIOUS TEMPLES IN INDIA. [Aug., 

temples, but I will confine myself to a few. Written accounts 
of them are rare, and as they differ from modern buildings, it 
is not quite so easy to give an exact description of them. 

The Kadri temple at Mangalore is situated at the foot of a hill 
nearly a mile outside the city, and is dedicated to Manjunatha, 
one of the pagan gods. The temple looks majestic enough, and 
the dome especially shows much artistic skill. It is surrounded 
by a court-yard about two feet broad throughout. In front of it 
is a large and high pillar, to which nearly a hundred lights are 
fixed, one over the other. At the annual festival held here 
people from all parts of South Canara flock together, and the 
concourse is something tremendous. Just above the temple 
are situated the seven tanks, much frequented by the people 
for bathing purposes. When the famous traveller Pietro della 
Valle (1620) visited this place, it is said to have been in a 
magnificent condition. Since then much of its former gran- 
deur has vanished. The chief of the Kaufete Jogis now resides 
there, but the temple officials are Tulu Brahmins and the 
affairs are managed by a board. On the ascent, and to the 
left of the road, a fountain issues from the rocks and pours a 
considerable stream of the purest water. The south of the 
temple is a regular forest of cocoanut-trees. A flight of steps, 
which commence just at the main door of the temple, leads 
one to the Kadri hill, from which one can enjoy a beautiful 
scenery. The extreme summit of the hill is occupied by a 
number of small cells built of stones, eight or ten feet square. 

Among Jain temples the first worthy of mention is the 
splendid stone Basti of Moodbidri, which is twenty-one miles 
away from Mangalore. It is very extensive and magnificent, 
containing, it is said, on and about it, a thousand pillars, and 
no two alike. It is the greatest of Jain temples, built nearly 
five centuries ago, all of solid stone. In the propylseum are 
several pillars of great size, the lower halves square, the upper 
round and lessening, recalling Egyptian forms, and all covered 
with a wondrous wealth of sculptured gods, monsters, leaf and 
flower work, and astonishing arabesque interlacement cut with 
admirable clearness. One quadrangular face bears a hymn 
graven curiously in twenty-five small square compartments, con- 
taining four compound words, which may be read as verses in 
all directions, up or down, along or across. On the outer 
pediment there is a long procession of various animals, living 
and mythical ; among them the centaur and mermaid, and an 
excellent representation of a giraffe. The temple is of three 



1901.] 

stories, rising over one another in a curious Chinese fashion, 
the uppermost covered with copper sheets, laid on like slates. 
A vary beautiful pillar stands in front, inferior in height only 
to that at Karkal, and surmounted with a capital and canopied 




THE TEMPLE OF ONE THOUSAND PILLARS, MOODBIDRI. 

entablature of delicate open stonework ending in a highly en- 
riched flame-like finial. 

Waile one sits in the propylaeurn amongst the wonderful 
columns, themselves most elaborately carved, the ponderous doors 
may be pushed back and a dark interior is disclosed. Entrance is 
forbidden, but presently down in the gloom a light glimmers and 
small lamps are lit, encircling a high arched recess and reveal- 
ing a polished brass image, apparently eight or ten feet in 
height, standing within. This is Chandranath, the eighth Tir- 
thankara, bearing all the invariable Buddha forms and lineaments. 
The tall brazen image seen far down in the mysterious gloom 
wears a strange unearthly appearance, and after gazing for 
some time the limbs and features seem as though moving 
under the flickering play of the light. 

The Jain temple at Karkal, though inferior in size to that 
at Moodbidri, is not without interest. In plan and general 
appearance it differs considerably from most of the Jain tem- 
ples in the district, and seems to bear a greater resemblance 



572 SOME RELIGIOUS TEMPLES IN INDIA. [Aug., 

to the old Jain temples found in other parts of India. It 
bears the earliest inscription which has been found, 334 A. D., 
and is built wholly of stone. It is situated on a broad, rocky 
platform below the hill, on the side next the town ; square, 
with a projecting columned portico facing each of the four 
quarters. The columns, quadrangular for a third of their 
height, pass into rounded sections separated by cable bands, 
and have the sides and sections richly decorated with deities 
and most graceful and elegant designs rosettes and stars, leaf 
and scroll work, in endless combination, all made out of the 
carver's brain, wrought almost as finely as Chinese ivory work. 
The friezes and pediments round the porticoes and temples 
are ornamented in like manner, and frequently a stone in the 
wall displays some quaint, wonderfully well-cut device a hun- 
dred-petalled flower disc, two serpents inextricably entwined, 
or a grotesque head surrounded with fruitage. The temple is 
roofed with immense overlapping flagstones, and it bore some 
sort of cupola now ruined in the centre. On the massive fold- 
ing doors of one of the four portals being rolled back, a 
strange sight is disclosed. In a large, dark, square recess im- 
mediately facing the entrance stand three life-sized images of 
burnished copper, the counterparts of the great statue on the 
hill above, each resembling each, and looking weird and un- 
earthly in the gloom of the adytum as the light through the 
opening doors falls upon them. A like triad stands within 
each of the other three entrances. 

Next to the temples the most beautiful of the architectural 
remains of Canara are the stambhas, or pillars, which are gen- 
erally to be seen in front of large temples. The finest stambha 
is at Haleangadi, close to Karkal. 

It is a single shaft of stone, thirty-three feet in height, 
standing on a high pedestal composed of three stages, square 
at the base, each side of which bears a large four-sided panel, 
filled with an indescribably intricate design of interlaced lines, 
cut sharply in relief ; each different and framed with a differ- 
ent quilloched border. A band of scroll-work and monsters 
runs round beneath, differing in design on each side, and above 
there is a deep fringe of tasselled ornament, over which the 
figure on the hill is cut in relief. Above this the monolith 
rises in eight segments, separated by mouldings, the first 
octagonal, each face bearing a different arabesque ornament ; 
the next two segments are sixteen sided, with every alternate 
face decorated, and the following two each "with thirty-two 



1901.] SOME RELIGIOUS TEMPLES IN INDIA. 



573 




IN FRONT OF THE JAIN TEMPLE, HALEANGADI. 

sides, one in four being engraved. Then comes a segment left 
smooth and plain, next one with a deep tassel and fringe pat. 
tern, and lastly the capital rests on a segment slightly narrow, 
ing, then swelling, richly adorned with fretwork and beaded 
mouldings. It is not easy to describe the capital ; a broad con- 
cave moulding, ribbed on the surface, bends round umbrella-like 
over the neck of the shaft, and above this are two other solid 
round mouldings, the upper and larger supporting a solid 
square abacus, from whose corners depend stone pomegranates. 
The whole is crowned with an elegant shrine of four short pil- 
lars carrying a voluted canopy, under which is an image of the 
deity. Nothing can exceed the stately grace and beautiful 



574 



SOME RELIGIOUS TEMPLES IN INDIA. 



[Aug., 



proportions of this wonderful pillar, whose total height may be 
fifty feet. 

It would not be out of place here to say a few words about 
the deities which are worshipped in the pagan temples. The 
principal idol is placed in a niche. It is clothed with garments 
more or less magnificent, and on great festivals is sometimes 
adorned with rare vestments and rich jewels. A crown of gold 
set with precious stones often adorns its head. For the most 
part, however, the idols of stone wear a cap like a sugar-loaf, 
which imparts to the whole figure the appearance of a pyramid. 
The Hindus, by the way, appear to have a special fancy for 
the form of a pyramid, which perhaps is due to some symboli- 
cal notion. We know that various nations of antiquity, among 
others the Egyptians, regarded the pyramid as the symbol of 
immortality and of life, the beginning of which was represented 
by the base, and the end, or death, by the summit. The pyra- 
mid was also the emblem of fire. 

The illustration below is a specimen of a pagan god. It is said 
to be adDrned by eighty thousand ornaments of gold, of all shapes 

and sizes, including beads, 

|^J|> : *^?^^%-"-%i"| heads, coins, flowers, pet- 
als, stars, chains, hung in 
all profusion and confu- 
sion. In fact, Hindu idols 
are in vain decked with 
rich ornaments ; they 
are not thereby rendered 
less disagreeable in ap- 
pearance. Their physiog- 
nomy is generally of 
frightful ugliness, which 
is carefully enhanced by 
daubing the images from 
time to time with a coat- 
ing of dark paint. Some 
of the images have their 
mouth, eyes, and ears of 
gold and silver, but this 
makes them, if possible, 
more hideous. The at- 
titudes in which they are 
represented are either 

VENKATARAMANA TEMPLE GOD. ridiculous Or grotesque. 




SOME RELIGIOUS TEMPLES IN INDIA. 



575 



In short, everything is done to make them objects of disgust 
to any one not familiar with the sight of these strange mon- 
sters. The idols exposed to public veneration in the temples 
are of stone, while those carried in procession through the 
streets are of metal, as are also the domestic gods which 
every Brahmin keeps and worships in his house. It is for- 




SWAMI OF KASI MUTT, BENARES. 

bidden to make idols of wood or other easily destructible 
material. It is true one often sees statues of clay or of 
masonry, but these are not of much account and inspire very 
little veneration. No idol can become an object of worship 
until it has been duly consecrated by a number of ceremonies. 
New temples are also subjected to a solemn inauguration. 
Both temples and idols are liable to be desecrated on many 
occasions. If, for example, a European, a Mohammedan, or a 
Pariah entered a sanctuary or touched an idol, that very in- 
stant the divinity would take its departure. 
. In close connection with the subjects above treated come 
the Swamis (literally Lords), who are charged with the manage- 
ment of the temples and hold high temporal and spiritual 
powers. The illustrations are of the two Swamis of Benares and 
Gokern, two famous temples of Northern and Southern India. 



576 SOME RELIGIOUS TEMPLES IN INDIA. [Aug., 

Their power is exercised over the whole caste. It consists in 
regulating its affairs, in keeping a strict watch that all its cus- 
toms, both those for use in private as well as in public, are 
accurately observed ; in punishing those who disregard them, 
and expelling from caste those who have deserved this indig- 
nity ; in reinstating the penitent, and several other no less 
important prerogatives. They also exercise very extensive 
spiritual power. The Sashtanga, or prostration of the eight 
members, when made before them, and followed by their 
asirvadam, or blessing, will obtain the remission of all sins. 
Any prasadane, or gift, from them, though usually some per- 
fectly valueless object, such as a pinch of the ashes of the 
cow-dung, the fruits or flowers that have been offered to idols, 
the remains of their food, the water with which they have 
rinsed out their mouths, or washed their feet or face, and 
which is highly prized and very often drunk by those who 
receive it ; in short, any gift whatever from their sacred hands 
has the merit of cleansing both soul and body from all im- 
purities. 

On the other hand, while the beneficial effects of their 
blessings or their trivial presents excite so large an amount 
of respect and admiration from the dull-witted public, their 
maledictions, which are no less powerful, are as greatly feared. 
The Hindus are convinced that their curses never fail to pro- 
duce effect, whether justly or unjustly incurred. Their atten- 
dants, who are interested in making the part which their master 
plays appear credible, are always recounting ridiculous stories 
on this subject, of which they declare they have been eye- 
witnesses ; and in order that the imposture may be the less 
easily discovered, they always place the scene in some distant 
country. Sometimes they relate that the person against whom 
the curse was fulminated died suddenly whilst the Swami was 
still speaking ; that another was seized with palsy in all his 
limbs, and that the affliction will remain until the anathema 
has been removed ; or that a laborer saw all his cattle die 
suddenly at the moment when the malediction was hurled at 
his head ; or that one man was turned to stone and another 
became a pig ; in fact, they will relate a thousand similar ab- 
surdities quite seriously. 

The Swamis never appear in public except in magnificent 
state. They like best to show off their splendor when they 
are making a tour in their districts. They either ride on a 
richly caparisoned elephant or in a superb palanquin, sur- 



1901.] 



SOME RELIGIOUS TEMPLES IN INDIA. 



577 




SWAMI OF GOKERN MUTT, NORTH CANARA. 

rounded by guards, both mounted and on foot, armed with 
pikes and other weapons. Bands of musicians playing all sorts 
of instruments precede them, and numberless flags of all colors, 
on which are painted pictures of their gods, flutter in the 
midst of the cavalcade. The procession is headed by heralds, 
some of whom sing verses, while the rest go on ahead and 
warn the passers-by to clear the way and to pay the homage 
and respect that are his due. All along the route incense and 
other perfumes are burnt in his honor ; new cloths are per- 
petually spread for him to pass over ; triumphal arches, made 
of branches of trees, are erected at short intervals. This mag- 
nificent spectacle attracts great crowds of people, who pros- 
trate themselves' before the Swami, and after having offered 
him their respectful homage, join the rest of the crowd and 
make the air ring with their joyful shouts. 

The final illustration is of the different masks used by Hin- 
dus during their numberless dancing parties. Hindu dancing 
bears no similarity to that of the European. Stage-acting in 
the shape of comedies and tragedies is hardly to be found 
among the Hindus. The chief characteristic of their dancing 
is their dress, which very often is horrible and grotesque to 



SOME RELIGIOUS TEMPLES IN INDIA. 



[Aug., 



look at. Their dances consist in wrestling, jumping, and mov- 
ing the shoulders, heads, hands, legs, as if agitated by violent 
convulsions, to the sound of musical instruments. The Hin- 
du taste for music is so marked that there is not a single 
gathering, however small, which has not some musicians at 
its head. The instruments on which they play are, for the 
most part, clarionets and trumpets ; they have also cymbals 
and several kinds of small drums. The sounds produced by 
these instruments are far from pleasing, and may even appear 
hideous to European ears. The nattuva, or conductor, is the 
most remarkable of all the musicians. In beating time he taps 
with his fingers on a narrow drum. As he beats, his shoulders, 
head, arms, thighs, and in fact all the parts of his body, per- 
form successive movements ; and simultaneously he utters in- 
articulate cries, thus animating the musicians both by voice 
and gesture. 




COSTUMES USED DURING THE DANCING PARTIES. 




1901.] THE SCULPTOR'S STORY. 579 

THE SCULPTOR'S STORY. 

BY MARIE DONGAN WALSH. 

'HE world is growing a small place nowadays; 
for with their discoveries they are bringing to- 
gether the furthermost parts of the earth ; and 
we in the old, old city, which has seen the birth 
of countless nations and kingdoms, feel the 
change most of all. Men have come indeed, throughout the 
ages, to gaze on the wonders of eternal Rome and pray by 
the Tomb of thfe Apostles; but not in their thousands, as they 
do now, from lands unheard-of and unknown to our grand- 
fathers. These strangers linger by our art-treasures ; then 
carry away copies to their distant homes, where they learn to 
love and appreciate them better, perhaps, than our own peo- 
ple, whose ancestors fashioned them and who have grown up 
among them from childhood. 

And not only do I speak of the " capi-lavoli " ; of our 
Riffaello, our Michelangelo, and our Fra Angelico ; but of 
our modern statues and paintings, poor and inferior as are 
the best of them compared with those of the golden age. But 
to those eager northern eyes, keen with the enthusiasm of 
nations still in their youth and promise, our art is touched 
with all 1 the ineffable charm and romance of an Italian sky. 
Even when they have come to my studio, down there in the 
Via Margutta, their admiration for my poor efforts has shamed 
me into wishing it had been bestowed on a more worthy 
object. Once, indeed (a day I must ever remember, for the 
incident led me to the decision of putting this all too true 
story on paper), the shame was more than momentary. I was 
passing through the Sculpture Gallery of the Palazzo Moro- 
sini, on my return from an interview with Cardinal Morosini, 
who had called me to consult about some statuary. A group 
of strangers stood there before my statue of St. Bernard ; and 
as they turned away a young girl with a spirituelle face (who 
needed but the lamb to render her a perfect copy of Carlo 
Dolci's Sant* Agnese) said enthusiastically to her father, in 
English (I know the language fairly well, so I understood all 
they were saying) : " Father, it must have been not only a 



580 THE SCULPTOR'S STORY. [Aug., 

great but a good man who carved that statue, don't you think 
so? Surely he gave the world a little of his own goodness in 
completing such a work." My God! what a mockery! 7 
great, / good ! Poor child, if she had only known the truth, 
and the history of the man who passed beside her, she would 
have shrunk from me and from my statue as a thing polluted. 
But no ! perhaps I wrong her ; for in their unspotted inno- 
cence the angels pity and weep over earth's sinners ; and this 
maiden surely carried the mark of the childlike purity of heart. 
But in the sense of guilt and utter unworthiness with which 
the comment left me, and the consciousness that this, perhaps, 
was the impression I gave the world, the idea took complete 
possession of me that I owed it to myself and to my neighbor, 
as some feeble reparation, to put my story in writing and 
leave it after me, so that at least my memory may not be like 
the living man a hypocrite acting a deception, pretending to 
be what I am not. 

I know what men would say men who have never known 
the white heat of passion and its life-long remorse; that if 
guilty of a crime, it should have been proclaimed long ago in 
a court of justice ! But human nature is weak ; and now in 
my old age, when my little world has learned to know me as 
an honest man, I am not equal to divulgirfg my secret for the 
few short years that remain, especially as by its revelation 
no human atonement can be made for the sin of long ago. 
It is an effort even to write of it ; for though its remembrance 
has burnt into my mind like a searing-iron ; though youth 
and manhood and failing years, time one of God's mercies to 
the aged has softened the spot; and though the scar remains, 
the wound has healed; only to be reopened as I write these 
memories with a sting of keenest pain. . . . 

They say every statue has its story ; but I trust few pos- 
sess a record like the statue which critics are pleased to call 
my finest work (in which criticism I entirely agree with them ; 
for though the work of my chisel, it was the inspiration of 
another, a purer and more gifted soul and genius than mine 
could ever have been, even if undefiled by crime). I shall try 
to write it all calmly ; not softening, exculpating, or exaggerat- 
ing ; for God knows, I would not appear worse in the eyes of 
my fellow-men than I am, for the reality is bad enough. But 
the task is difficult. Now and then my feelings overcome me, 
and the pen is all too slow for my thoughts, which run like 
lightning to accomplish the hateful task of unearthing a past 



1901.] THE SCULPTOR'S STORY. 581 

laid underground for years. It seems strange to think that 
my hand could be slow and feeble I, who always had such a 
contemptuous pity for weakness, and whose vigorous strength 
was a by-word, in the days of the youth I am about to record. 
There are few, perhaps none, of the old comrades now, who 
remember me in my youth the wildest, maddest lad who ever 
plagued the art schools, but whose passionate temper was ever 
near the surface, surging under the reckless gaiety like a 
whirlpool. There was never a piece of daring or of folly too 
wild for me, never an adventure that smacked of enterprise or 
danger but that I must be in it ; and Guido Guidi was another 
name for deviltry among all my artist comrades. But woe to 
the man who roused my evil jealousy or vindictive passion ! 
for then I was indeed the " diavolo " they called me in sport. 
These, however, were the merry, careless days, before the 
real stress of life had begun ; and so far my exploits had been 
but boyish follies with no grave consequences. Afterwards 
things began to look more serious, when I had set up my own 
studio to begin work as a sculptor in earnest (if the work I 
did then could be said to have anything earnest about it). 
True I had a certain ability great ability, friends told me if 
I had only chosen to use it ; and I knew within myself I was 
born for a sculptor and nothing else ; for from a baby I had 
done naught but model in sand, in clay, in whatever could be 
found. But I would only work when the spirit moved me ; 
now feverishly, then lazily ; then not for weeks at a time ; for 
in a fit of irritation I would often destroy the work of months. 
As time went on the natural result of my ill-regulated life fol- 
lowed. I drank, I gambled with the money earned by an 
occasional fit of hard work ; and little by little I fell into bad 
company and the way of a thoroughly dissipated life. Reli- 
gion I had lost long ago ; the tendencies of atheism found a 
ready reception in my proud brain and overwhelmingly arro- 
gant will, impatient of all control and self-restraint. I fully 
agreed with the demagogues who preached the doctrine that 
no men of brain and spirit should be under the guidance of 
priest or church. Casting off every restraint, I went as far as 
the worst of them, reckless and impulsive in this as in every- 
thing without belief in God, a future, or anything else pure 
and noble and holy. Gradually the mode of life began to tell on 
me and on my art ; uncertainty clouded the power of ability ; 
and I knew myself, what I never would have acknowledged to 
others ..(for I hold what many pe'ople do not that a sculptor 



582 THE SCULPTOR'S STORY. [Aug., 

or artist, if not deluded by too much vanity or too much 
modesty, is the best judge of his own efforts), that the quality 
of my work was going down. It was a faithful reflection of 
myself: wayward, uncertain, doubtful; now apparently full of 
strength and power, then feeble and futile as a girl's first 
efforts. Good people, nay, even respectable people, began to 
look askance at my wild doings and my idleness, but worst of 
all (to me at that time) sculptor-friends would look at one 
of my gesso models critically ; then turn away from it with- 
out the joking, yet often frank and true, criticism of its bad- 
ness or the tribute of jealous praise for its perfection. It was 
a bad sign, for I knew the fraternity and what that silence 
meant utter disappointment, and maybe pity for my ina- 
bility. . . . 

Only one man of the better set had until now no blame 
but encouragement for me always a man who had been my 
friend from boyhood, and who had first started me on an 
artistic career. Everyone knows the sculptor Francesco Lorenzi 
and his work. His splendid statues have gone over the world 
far and wide ; and his name was already celebrated when he 
lent a hand to a passionate, headstrong boy, whom he always 
declared " not only had the artistic face, but still worse, the 
artistic temperament all ups and downs ! " " Figlio mio, it is 
not good, but you can do better," he was wont to say at first, 
when my failures were only the result of boyish carelessness or 
negligence ; for his faith in my talent was as unbounded as his 
generosity. But when he saw my life was going from bad to 
worse, my art in consequence following its footsteps, Lorenzi 
spoke to me seriously, and rebuked and blamed me unsparing- 
ly for the wilful losing of talent and soul. Arrogant always, 
I brooked control or advice from no man, even my life- 
long friend. First contemptuous, then passionately angered 
by his plain speaking, I told him to leave my studio ; that I 
wanted no saints or preachers there, and that he could keep 
his wisdom for priests or old women, instead of wasting it on 
men of the world, who had thrown off the trammels of con- 
science once and for ever. 

After my curt dismissal Francesco Lorenzi never came to 
my studio again. An estrangement arose between us, and we 
seldom met ; for his way of life and his companions were very 
different to mine. Indeed, I tried to avoid him, for somehow or 
other I dreaded the full, honest glance of the kind face ; and 
with the capacity of an evil nature to corrupt good into bad, 



1901.] THE SCULPTOR'S STORY. 583 

I was beginning to hate the sculptor as much as I had loved 
him formerly. On the rare occasions on which we met, he had 
looked at me with a grave, almost pitying, look which mad- 
dened me. Then poor blind fool that I was ! I would redouble 
my reckless talking, and pile on all the bitter, revolting cyni- 
cism I was capable of; content if I could, as I fondly imagined, 
shock him into turning away, pained and serious. But now I 
know better. " Maestro ! " you with your wide, great-hearted 
knowledge of the world of men and things, were not shocked, 
nor even yet impressed, with my parrot-like puerilities, but your 
good heart yearned with unavailing pity for a foolish lad who, 
like so many other young idiots, was ruined by men believing 
themselves not one atom of the foul doctrines they preach, yet 
leading others to the brink of damnation. Certain it is that 
my new friends did little for me in return for my devotion to 
their cause ; and the one commission I obtained from being 
favorably known as a promising member of the advanced anti- 
religious sect, came like a thing accursed into my life ; bring- 
ing me, through my own blind jealousy, to the deed which no 
repentance can blot out from time's avenging record. 

My first large commission that of a monument for a public 
square was an important one for a young sculptor just be- 
ginning his career. My nomination for its execution caused 
me a considerable amount of gratification ; for it showed a 
confidence in my abilities I had begun to lack sadly myself of 
late. It was the statue of one who might stand for the 
patron saint of the sect I elected to follow a renegade and 
apostate monk, whom the false sentiment of a materialistic age 
would fain embellish and erect into a martyr ! For awhile I 
put all my powers of conception and execution in my subject. 
Heaven knows I had ideas evil enough to create a thing 
breathing forth the fallen soul of Lucifer ; but how to combine 
it with power and nobility ; above all, to render it convincing 
enough to be held up as an ideal, a martyr of the intellect, 
to the people ? This was the obstacle that rose like an iron 
wall between me and success a task to puzzle cleverer brains 
than mine. Harder and harder I worked at the statue ; 
destroying model after model in dissatisfaction, and toiling 
with a frenzy of industry not known for months. But all in 
vain. The day came at last when I saw my model was a 
total failure ; weak, faulty in every line, lacking in conception, 
realization, and abave all in virility. I failed to infuse even 
the soul of evil into my mirble renegade ; and not all the 



584 THE SCULPTOR'S STORY. [Aug., 

angry, surging passion of mortified pride lent one touch of 
power to the chisel with which I wrought so feverishly. Even 
the monkish draperies hung stiffly from the rigid wooden 
limbs of the dummy. Fairly beaten, I flung down my tools 
hopelessly, giving myself up to an access of despair. 

The time was drawing near now when the commission must be 
finished ; yet all the long weeks passed in futile endeavor saw 
the work absolutely no nearer completion. All my dreams of 
fame and distinction vanished. The creative power had gone 
from me for ever ; and in imagination I saw myself fallen to 
be one of those aimless, unoccupied beings who haunt the 
studios in hopes of obtaining a few stray jobs. What added 
most to the fury of impotent passion was the fact that the 
artist-world rang with the praises of a successful statue 
Francesco Lorenzi was completing. A " capo-lavolo," a 
triumph of pure idealism this and other praises, couched in 
terms of wild extravagance, made me long with a sick, jealous 
longing to see the thing which had evoked such a storm of 
approval. I knew he had had a commission from Prince 
Morosini, about the same time as mine, for a statue of some 
saint or doctor of the church, for the sculpture hall of the 
great palace ; and that he had been asked to go to the palace 
to do the work. But since then I heard nothing more of the 
matter till the news of his extraordinary success came to me, in 
the day of my own bitter failure. Well, he had succeeded where 
/ had failed; he, the rich man, who needed no more laurels to 
add to his fame, while /, who might have made a name just 
by the one success, was destined only for miserable failure. 

All the hot envy rose rampant within me at the thought. 
Never taking into consideration Lorenzi's years of patient, 
steady work contrasted with my own hit-and-miss efforts ; his 
superior genius and character with my ill-regulated life ; his 
pure ideals with my unworthy aims, I brooded, nursing my 
envy ; finally persuading myself that my former friend had 
done me a positive injury by his success. I drank deeply to 
drown the thoughts which filled my brain, and from being gay 
and devil-may-care turned daily more moody and morose. I 
was left much alone; for the merry lads of the studios were 
afraid of me, none daring to arouse me from sullen apathy 
into the fits of passion which were its only alternative. 

One evening I overheard some sculptors talking in a 
" caffe," where I spent my nights as usual drinking; and the 
very truth of their carelessly-pungent Roman wit made me 



1901.] THE SCULPTOR'S STORY. 585 

long to draw a coltello from under my cloak and stick it in 
them, though their words only increased the longing to see 
my rival's masterpiece. 

" Young Guidi 's going down the hill fast, is n't he ? " said 
the elder of the two ; " drinking himself to death, they say. 
But he always was a mascalzone (good-for-naught) ; that race, 
with a temper like his, never come to a good end." 

" Gia," assented the other; "his artistic career is about 
ended now with the mess he has made of Sor' Carmano's 
statue ! Small wonder he threw the work up, for a worse at- 
tempt I never saw. Per Bacco ! his renegade monk resem- 
bled a timid novice more than an apostle of the new regenera- 
tion, looking as if he had n't the courage even to be a com- 
mon heretic! Lorenzi's statue is worth a dozen of it. Well, 
well, caro mio, give me the saints instead of the sinntrs, if that 
is the way they make them." 

Then they both laughed, and, dismissing the subject of 
my poor statue contemptuously, launched into a paean of 
praise on Lorenzi's, until my blood, heated with drink, fairly 
boiled over with passion ; and it was all I could do to keep 
my head enough to get out of the place before doing the gos- 
sips some harm. 

That night, returning to my lodging, I cogitated as to how 
I could manage to secure a glimpse of Lorenzi's statue ; to 
judge for myself what manner of a marvel had so aroused 
Rome's critical enthusiasm. I had no mind to humble myself 
to the man after our quarrel, pandering to his no doubt 
already overflowing self-satisfaction by asking to see his statue. 
But see it I would, by hook or by crook. At last a plan sug- 
gested itself. The studio where Lorenzi worked was in a kind 
of outbuilding in the Palazzo Morosini ; and if I went there 
at a time when the sculptor was temporarily absent there 
would be no difficulty about getting the porter to admit me 
for a moment ; if not, well, there was always the window, and 
I could climb like a cat. My mind was made up. " Diamene ! 
I would go that very night and risk it. So, turning from the 
direction of my home, I dived back again into the narrow, 
winding streets of old Rome that lie towards the Tiber ; 
emerging at last upon the Sant' Angelo Bridge. The night 
was dark as yet, though the moon was slowly rising; and the 
lights on the grand old Angel Fortress and the exquisite turn 
of the river gleamed out brilliantly. But my mood was not 
one for picturesque effects, as I strode on swiftly through the 
VOL. LXXIII. 39 



586 THE SCULPTOR'S STORY. [Aug., 

darkness, evading gay bands of carnival revellers making their 
way homeward. 

Passing the bridge and the grim shadows of the Borgo, I 
reached Palazzo Morosini at last. The portone was closed ; 
but the side-way through the gardens was still accessible once 
the wall was scaled, and I had climbed fully as high in 
many a boyish freak. The quiet street was utterly deserted ; 
the old and rotten masonry of the wall, with its many foot- 
holds, aided my attempt, and in a few seconds I was up and 
over, dropping lightly into the soft turf around the orange- 
trees in the court-yard garden. A sound of voices made me 
remain quietly in the shadows. One of the voices sounded 
strangely like Lorenzi's ; but probably this was only imagina- 
tion, as long before this he had gone home to the queer old 
nest near Trajan's Forum where he had his studio. Finally 
the voices grew fainter, then ceased altogether, followed by 
the sharp bolting of a door ; and I ventured out to reconnoitre 
the chances of doors and windows. My blood must have 
cooled down somewhat by now with the long walk in the keen 
night air, for I began to feel altogether a fool, to be lurking 
about another man's premises like some thief or criminal, to 
gratify a jealous whim. What would be Prince Morosini's 
opinion if he found me peering in at his windows or trying to 
force my way in at midnight? The explanation of wanting to 
see Lorenzi's statue would appear but a bald one looked at in 
the light of clear common sense; and it is more than likely I 
might find myself to-morrow with a doubtful reputation added 
to a ruined art career. But, God help me ! I was never one 
to stop to think before acting ; I only begin to think after the 
harm is done. However, now that I had forced my way in, I 
would see this thing through and catch a glimpse of the 
statue, even if I were to be caught. I crept past the three 
windows of the studio building; they were all closed; then by 
the door, trusting as a last resource to force the lock. The 
darkness was dense in the shade of the ilex-trees, but putting 
out my hand cautiously at the doorway to feel for the lock, I 
found to my astonishment that the door-knob yielded to pres- 
sure and opened. Could the sculptor be still at work? But 
there was no sound or light. Nevertheless the fact of his 
having gone away and left the studio open seemed incredible ; 
even though, practically speaking, the statue was safe once the 
outer portone of the palace was closed, as no one could pos- 
sibly steal so colossal an object. Still I hesitated. What if 



1901.] THE SCULPTOR'S STORY. 587 

he should be inside ? the man of all men in Rome that I least 
wanted to see. However, this was no moment for delay. So 
far luck had favored me, but at any moment I might be forced 
to escape without accomplishing my purpose. 

With a cowardice unusual and unaccountable, I pushed the 
door open and entered. All was darkness; and I had to light 
a wax taper, shading it with my hand so that no ray of light 
should be seen from outside. Then by the feeble, uncertain 
glimmer I groped my way to the statue, which stood revealed 
at the farther end of the great empty chamber on a stone 
pedestal, veiled by a cloth. My goal was in sight. With a 
trembling hand I tore off the covering, the sudden draught 
raised by the movement extinguishing the taper. Simultane- 
ously a burst of moonlight clear as day flooded the high- 
barred windows, and fell full and searching upon the pure mar- 
ble of the sculptured form ; revealing in that coldly-clear and 
merciless light every exquisite grace of its chiselling and its 
perfect execution of which no smallest part escaped my 
trained eye ! And this was the thing they had called merely 
beautiful, with their painful meagreness of speech! Beautiful? 
Gran* Dio ! it was a revelation ; a dream of peerless beauty 
worthy of the master Greeks ; and gazing spell-bound, I was 
fain to lift my hat from my head involuntarily as one does in 
a church (I, who had never entered a church for years nor felt 
one sentiment of pure emotion !). It stood there towering 
above me in awful majesty, like the form of some avenging 
angel, with hand outstretched in denunciation, an unearthly 
calm depicted on the chiselled ascetic features, the deep-set 
eyes blazing forth a scorn which seemed to blast and scorch 
me. Such must have been the aspect of the Angel of the 
gates of Paradise, driving back sin-stained humanity from the 
golden portals. 

Softened but momentarily, however, with unwilling admira- 
tion called forth by this vision of unearthly purity, my mad 
jealousy returned a hundredfold. A storm of bitterest hate 
and passionate resentment broke over my soul, in which ten 
thousand evil demons whispered in my ear ! 

Looking back upon it now, the thing seems incredible ! 
I was mad, we would say nowadays, with the pitiful sentimen- 
talism which screens every crime on the plea of inherited or 
temporary insanity. Yes, mad, truly ; but with evil passions, 
long unrestrained, burning like a hell of fire within my breast. 
For a second I stood there irresolute ; for each one even the 



588 THE SCULPTOR'S STORY. [Aug., 

worst of us has his moment of mercy. Then the spell was 
broken. Absolutely startling myself with my own sneering 
laugh, which reverberated eerily through the solitude, I mut- 
tered : " Frightened by a moonbeam on the face of a marble 
saint ! Bah, Guido, thou art but a coward ! What is saint or 
devil to thee ? At any rate, if thou starvest in thy garret, Fran- 
cesco Lorenzi will not crow over thy failure ; his own troubles 
will keep him busy." My jealous passion overflowed with a 
sudden burst of homicidal fury ; and as I would have killed 
the man in cold blood if he had stood before me at that mo- 
ment, I took out my vengeance on the unoffending marble. 
Snatching a hammer from the heap of tools and muffling it in 
some sacking, / struck repeated, heavy blows at the statue ; hack- 
ing, marring, and disfiguring it into a shapeless torso, 

The fiendish work took but a few moments to accomplish ; 
and when I paused before the marble fragments littering the 
floor my white heat of frenzy cooled instantaneously, leaving 
only despair like that of a lost soul, to be replaced in turn by 
the animal instinct of self-preservation, engendered by the dread 
of discovery. . . . 

A slight rustling of the curtains which hung across the 
doorway made me start as if shot ; then remain rooted to the 
spot, when they were drawn slowly backward and a figure ap- 
peared in the opening that of Francesco Lorenzi ; his face 
strangely aged and drawn, and ghastly pale in the streaming 
moonlight ! Like one in a nightmare I stood confronting him, 
my eyes fixed on his face, my feet weighted with lead ; una- 
ble even to move or speak, much less to escape from the place. 
The sculptor made one step forward, with agonized eyes turned 
upon the ruin of his work the master-piece of his old age 
and on its destroyer his once dearly-loved friend and pupil ! 
Then, with a terrible cry which rang out in the stillness, throw- 
ing up his arms as if in acute physical agony, Lorenzi fell 
heavily to the ground not many yards away from me ! 

Throughout this heart-breaking scene I had looked on dumb 
and frigid as the marbles around me. But with the dull thud 
of that falling body life and, as it were, consciousness awoke 
within me of overwhelming guilt and consternation. My mad- 
ness had passed but too late, too late ! For as in an agony 
of remorse I knelt beside the prostrate figure, striving to raise 
the gray head on my knee, it fell back helpless and inert. 
Again and again I felt for the heart it had ceased to beat ; 
and, knowing little as I did of death, I realized that this was 



1901.] THE SCULPTOR'S STORY. 589 

no swoon or unconsciousness. Lorenzi was dead ; killed as 
surely as if I had murdered him with my own hand, and the 
mark of Cain stood out branded on my brow where all men 
could read it. 

It must have been long that I knelt there, calling him by 
name, chafing the marble-cold hands fast stiffening in death 
whose icy touch brought a cold thrill of horror through every 
nerve of my body and striving by every means in my power 
to restore life to the inanimate frame from which it had fled. 

The moonlight had faded into the black darkness which 
precedes the dawning ; and presently morning would break in 
cheerful sunshine, when they would find me here keeping a 
vigil by the dead ; the murderer and the victim, with the ham- 
mer and the mutilated statue to act as witnesses of my crime. 
Then they would take me and lead me to the prisons by the 
river, stigmatized as a base, foul murderer, a monster of vil- 
lany and blackest ingratitude. And for ever, between me and 
the eternity of misery awaiting me, would arise that pale, hor- 
ror-stricken face in the moonlight, and the bitter cry of mortal 
anguish ring unendingly in my ears ! Again the instinct of 
self-preservation asserted itself, too strong to be resisted ; and 
without one look backward I rose and fled swiftly like one 
already pursued. 

No one detained me, no one witnessed my rapid flight, as 
I scaled the wall, dropping into the street again. But cold 
drops of sweat stood on my forehead, and my heart beat wildly 
and tumultuously, loud as if its hammer-beats would rouse the 
echoes of the stony street. Strange, jeering voices sounded in 
my ears, and pursuing footsteps rushed along beside me in the 
shadows. But never pausing till I reached my humble lodging, 
I locked myself safely in ; to pass through long days and 
sleepless nights of mental torture, to which death would have 
come as a welcome relief. Nor could the old reckless unbelief, 
the scepticism of all things in heaven and earth, be called 
in to aid me in this refined torment of remorse. It, too, had 
failed me. My unwilling " Credo " had been said the instant 
after the consummation of my crime ; for as I knelt by my 
friend's murdered body I knew once and for ever that there was 
a God whase infallible justice would pursue me beyond the 
grave. 

Weeks elapsed before I ventured abroad again, pleading 
illness as an excuse for absence from the studio ; and indeed 
my appearance substantiated the statement to the comrades 



590 THE SCULPTOR'S STORY. [Aug., 

who forced their way into my retirement, anxious to be the 
first to tell of the tragedy with which the art-quarters of Rome 
were ringing. And for fear of their suspicions I dared not 
deny them admittance. No exaggeration is it to say that mine 
was the torture of the rack the inward guilt and the en- 
deavor to keep an outward calm so strangely at variance with 
my passionate, impetuous nature, as one after another came to 
relate with morbid avidity and interest "every detail of the 
mysterious story ; which alas ! I the only witness knew too 
well : how Francesco Lorenzi (who had stayed late at the 
Palace Morosini on the night of the murder) had been found 
lying dead in the studio, by the fragments of his ruined statue, 
a hammer by his side. Then they would argue and discuss 
the subject from every point of view, till I felt my brain reel- 
ing with the strain. Some opined that the sculptor destroyed 
the statue himself in a fit of morbid discouragement; then 
died with grief at the result. Others asserted it was a deed 
of vengeance a deliberate murder ; though no signs of vio- 
lence (beyond a blowr on the head which might have been 
caused by the fall) had been found on the body. But one and 
all agreed in wondering what hidden enemy a man like Fran- 
cesco Lorenzi could have had. Afterwards followed unending 
speculation as to the possible capture of the murderer and his 
identity. Strange to say, suspicion never for one instant fell 
on me ; even though they knew of my erstwhile friendship 
with Lorenzi and its subsequent rupture, for fortunately my 
brooding jealousy about his statue had been kept to myself. 
Indeed, they wondered that I took the thing so hardly, when I 
could not keep the horror out of my face; for sometimes they 
looked at me curiously, till I wondered if the deep furrowed 
lines in my face, and the white threads that came into my hair 
after that night of horror, had not betrayed my secret to the 
world. 

But no; thoughtless and unseeing, the crew of reckless 
youths never guessed that each careless word on the subject 
cut like a stab ; each conjecture and repetition smarted like 
a touch on the raw wound of my quivering sensibilities. But 
with the first resolution and endurance of my life I forced 
myself to go through it all the torture of the day in public, 
and the unspeakable solitary nights, till, in sheer desperation, 
I would rush into the streets and pace them incessantly till 
morning anything, everything, to save me from the one tor- 
ment of the lost thought. As I passed old Tiber in these 



1901.] THE SCULPTOR'S STORY. 591 

midnight vigils, its dark turbid depths appealed to me to end 
the struggle ; but like all murderers I was a coward. Each 
time I essayed it Lorenzi's white face seemed to rise from the 
river's misty surface to warn me back, till I fled in cold 
horror from that vision which so haunted my waking and 
sleeping hours; but most of all, mark you, when I contem- 
plated any desperate deed, or gave myself over to darkest 
despair. 

One day I heard a man saying, " Francesco Lorenzi's death 
was going to make a man of that ne'er-do-well Guidi ; it made 
such an impression on him that he sowed the last of his wild 
oats the day he heard of this terrible deed " (which, little though 
they knew it, was indeed the truth). But it would have taken 
keener minds and more observing than those of the artist fra- 
ternity to penetrate the mask of iron I learned to wear. 

And with that strange human capacity for forgetfulness, 
the nine-days wonder over the tragedy passed. Be it saint or 
emperor or best-beloved those whom we deemed most neces- 
sary and powerful are alike forgotten. Before the summer 
heats poured blindingly on the streets, driving Rome panting 
to the shadowed byways, the world had ceased to comment on 
Lorenzi's fate. He had passed into the dim region of immor- 
tal shadows, whose work only lives after their personality is 
forgotten. 

And I ? . . . After a long summer spent in the moun- 
tains, where I carried my dark burden with me into the soli- 
tudes, alone with God and nature, fighting the battle with 
despair, I returned to the city, and did what I thought never 
to have done again plunged into genuine hard work. My old 
haunts knew me no more. Between them and me there was 
an impassible gulf of distance like that of years my crime and 
my newly-awakened conscience. 

This new attitude caused much amusement to my cynical 
friends of the past, who nicknamed me "Simon Stylites" and 
the " Sculptor-Saint " ; taunting me that the " clericals " had 
got hold of me and made me a coward. In the old days ridi- 
cule instantly aroused me to shamefacedness or resentment, 
but now I pursued my way heedless alike of sneers or laugh- 
ter ; for neither seemed to touch me. Occasionally I felt as if 
I illustrated one of those strange psychological problems one 
hears of, in which a man's whole personality has been changed 
into that, of another! The reckless, passionate youth, so full 
of the pride of life, had gone for ever, as well as the boyish 



THE SCULPTOR'S STORY. [Aug., 

scapegrace Lorenzi had once loved ; and in their place was a 
sombre, silent man whom I myself scarcely recognized, with a 
grim secret darkening his life with an ever-present shadow. 
Oh, it was strange, strange ! I the uncontrolled, the passion- 
ate, to become impassive to sternness, possessing a self-control 
seldom to be met with in our southern land, where storm and 
laughter are ever near the surface. Sometimes, but seldom, 
the old fits of sudden anger welled up and would almost over- 
flow, over some wilful carelessness of the scarpellini or a more 
than usually bitter taunt of my comrades ; but I had but to 
glance at the gesso model of the renegade monk, kept as a 
" memento homo " in a corner of the studio. Then my hand 
would fall at my side and the fierce words die away unuttered 
on my lips, to be instantly replaced by the stony calm which 
had become second nature ; the habitual feeling that I had 
done with life's petty vexations and troubles on my own ac- 
count. 

Oily one touch of human comfort came to me during that 
period of poignant remorse. I was talking to Francesco 
Lorenzi's old friend and doctor with the brave face I showed 
the world in discussing the event, though even yet the mere 
mention of it sufficed to drive the very life-blood from my 
guilty heart. After many lamentations over his friend's un- 
timely fate the old man ended : " Well, poor fellow, they 
may say what they will; for my own part I hold it was no 
murder but disease that brought him to his death. Aye, disease! 
stare as you will, Guido, with those great sombre eyes of 
yours! Some one may have ruined his statue out of jealousy 
or pure wickedness (for that galantuomo had no enemies), or 
even he himself may have destroyed it in a fit of discour- 
agement, such as you artistic geniuses are capable of ; but, 
Dio lo sa ! it was n't like the man." ... I, the silent lis- 
tener, winced as if he had pierced my armor with a sword- 
thrust, and my lips and hands clinched in a supreme effort 
for self-control. But the good old man noticed nothing. He 
was full of his subject and went on, meditatively : " Yes, his 
death was bound to come suddenly sooner or later; so the 
loss of his statue was not altogether to blame, though the 
shock may have hastened it. For years he suffered from 
heart-disease, and suspected it himself too, even before I told 
him. Quel povero Francesco ! ever thoughtful for others even 
in his own troubles. Methinks I can hear him now, as I tried 
to break ths fact to him gently, saying in that cheery way of 



1901.] THE SCULPTOR'S STORY. 593 

his : ' Thank you, old friend, for trying to spare me ; I have 
guessed as much for years. God has been good to me in this 
as always ; for it is the death I would have chosen. The lin- 
gering agonies of a mortal sickness or a helpless old age are 
things to be dreaded ; and besides this, men with heart-disease 
often outlive the rest. Anyhow, He knows best for us all.'" 

" But the agony, the sorrow, to see his beautiful creation 
ruined before him ? " I queried. " Surely to him it was the 
agony and pangs of death." 

" Fig Ho mio, it was but momentary," said the old physician, 
laying his hand on my shoulder and speaking gently and 
reverentially, "that sharp shock of horror; then the instant 
realization of the ' One perfect Beauty ' opening before the 
eyes of the soul who so loved the pure and beautiful on 
earth! Nay, Guidi, do not think that one regret for earth 
clouds his happiness, or that it does not repay him for that 
instant's purgatory here." 

So I treasured up this slight glimmer of light in the dark- 
ness of my sin, though avenging conscience rose up in judg- 
ment before me, repeating, "Yours was the hand that struck 
the blow that gave the fatal shock." 

Soon after this a new difficulty beset me. A commission 
came from the princely owner of Palazzo Morosini, asking me 
to take up my dead friend's work ; to commence another 
statue to replace the one destroyed. My first instinct was to 
unconditionally refuse the commission. Was / to benefit by 
the ruin my own dastardly hands had wrought ? mine the 
name to perpetuate the history of the crime? The thought 
was too awful in its grim irony ; and yet a strange hesitancy 
seemed to drag me back from refusing, something within me 
urging me to accept it. I had even commenced the letter of 
refusal, when once more came the old haunting vision which 
had driven me from death and the river Lorenzi's ghastly, 
haggard face. 

Anguish and perplexity tore me with conflicting emotions, 
and at last I know not how or why I accepted the com- 
mission ; but with the agreement that it should be undertaken 
without payment, and as a memorial of Francesco Lorenzi. 
But the work was to be done in my own studio. Even my 
iron nerves could not face the thought of working in the spot 
where Lorenzi had labored and died ; and where my guilty 
passion had perpetrated the crime of a life-time. Monstrous 
enough it seemed that the murderer should take up the work 



594 THE SCULPTOR'S STORY. [Aug., 

of the victim ; too terrible the mockery that the hypocrite 
be posing as the devoted friend of the murdered man. So 
with hands heavy and unwilling I commenced the task. Who 
knows but what this burden was to be part of my expiation ; 
part of the debt of blood-guiltiness which still hung over my 
head? Quickly the statue grew under the tireless chisel, for, 
leaving all other labor aside, I worked at it unceasingly ; and 
more and more my heart was in the work. Cost what it may, 
the expiation should be complete ; and resolutely stamping out 
my repugnance, I strove to reproduce, as far as possible from 
memory, the lineaments of the saintly face ; moonlit-illuminated 
as it appeared before my desecrating hammer fell upon it. 

But try as I would the features and expression of my St. 
Bernard were different to Lorenzi's. They became softened, 
less spiritually severe, and less full of the triumph of the spirit 
than of its renunciation. The likeness of the avenging angel 
was merged into the pity of a sorrowing spirit, who feels for 
frail humanity and its struggles, and longs to atone for sin by 
its own perfection. The head in Lorenzi's statue had been 
grandly thrown back as if listening to heaven-sent inspiration, 
while the power flashing from the brow and eyes accentuated 
the gesture of the outstretched hand, full of the unspeakable 
majesty which had cowed even my sinful recklessness. But 
in mine the whole attitude was different ; it seemed to shape 
itself in opposition to all efforts to render it a copy of 
Lorenzi's ; for the head was cast down as if in deep humility, 
the hands lightly crossed on the breast a very embodiment of 
silence and mortification. . . . 

At last the statue was finished, and falling short as it did 
in every particular of the perfect model of which I had robbed 
the world so ruthlessly, I saw that it would stand ; if not as 
a great work of sculpture, yet as a memorial of atonement. 
. . . My friends crowded around me to congratulate me on 
my success. This was the portion which in my cowardice I 
had dreaded ; to stand by and listen to their comments on its 
history, and the memories of the half-forgotten story it was 
sure to evoke. Nor was I wrong in these surmises. It at- 
tracted much attention ; and people came from far and near, 
Romans and strangers alike, curious to see the work which 
memorized a tragedy. They gazed, wondered, and admired; 
asking me questions about the story till I could have fled from 
the place to escape them ; and I often fancied when I heard 
people reading out the simple lettering engraved on the pedestal, 



1901.] THE SCULPTOR'S STORY. 595 

"FRANCESCO LORENZI. IN MEMORIAM .-ETERNAM. G. G.," 

what horror I could spread among them did I but whisper in 
each ear, " That statue was carved by Lorenzi's murderer ! " 
The unanimous admiration might have moved me to satisfac- 
tion had I still any feeling left ; but as it was it left me so 
impassive that the public must have wondered what manner of 
man I could be, to take such an ovation of enthusiasm so 
coldly. Only for the sculptors' comments I listened keenly, 
willing to accept the judgment on my work from their hands. 
Their critical eyes dwelt long upon it, perhaps in realization 
that this was no ordinary effort, but that heart and soul were 
in it. Their final verdict was satisfactory ; and I was content, 
not for my own sake but for the sake of the man whose 
ideal it had been, and for whom I only acted as worker. " It 
seems to me," remarked one gray-haired sculptor, who had 
most admired it, " that Guidi's marble hath a resemblance to 
Lorenzi ; his very features and his gentle look, so kind and 
compassionate. Amico mio (turning to me), thou hast robbed 
my very idea from me, for I 've often thought myself to make 
him a model for a symbolic statue of charity!" " Nay, rather," 
softly spoke a young religious painter, whose face (like those 
of the Catacomb saints he loved to paint) had all a Raffaello's 
pure serenity of feature, " it is no face of saint or visionary, 
but the impress of the Divine Compassion of the Godhead ; 
the dying Christ on Calvary, as he breathed forth that most 
sublime of utterances, ' Father, forgive them, for they know 
not what they do.' ' 

I turned to glance gratefully at the speaker, whose words 
had aroused the first spark of feeling within my breast ; but 
he had forgotten us all. His dreamy eyes were riveted on the 
marble figure, his thoughts far away in the land of his pure 
ideals. " God grant it may be so ! " I sighed, when they had 
all gone at last and left me alone with my statue in the dark- 
ening twilight ; for in those words lies all my hope. The 
past is gone with all its fiery passion, and no repentance can 
recall it ; but something within tells me that my dear old 
friend forgave me, as he hoped to be forgiven ; and his kind 
face not drawn and agonized as I saw it last ; as I see it 
still in waking and sleeping dreams, but full of happiness and 
gentle compassion will be the first to greet me on the other 
side, if I live to expiate my sin. God's peace has come to me 
in these later years, after all the storms and troubles a peace 



596 THE SCULPTOR'S STORY. [Aug., 

I have little deserved ; but won for me, I know, by the prayers 
of the man I so deeply injured. He gave his life cheerfully 
for mine ; and like a guardian angel has helped me to live ! 
Else why did I believe as I knelt by his dead body ? Why 
had I not perished miserably by my own hand, or had grace 
to fight the battle with despair the power to work, and drown 
the thoughts which were leading me to madness ? No ! Fran- 
cesco Lorenzi deemed his life well sacrificed to purchase the 
salvation of one wayward, erring soul. 

My work, too, has prospered ; my statues have made a 
name ; but their reputation brings no moment of self-praise, 
or pride of power ; and adulation is but gall and wormwood, 
knowing as I do that it is the price of blood. 

I am an old man now : I work no longer in the studio, for 
my eyes are weak and my hands tremble too much to guide 
the chisel. The lads do all the work for me ; and when I go 
in to give them a few suggestions, they listen to me with 
deference. Young people are more sensible nowadays ; they 
recognize the claim of the elders to an experience wider than 
their own, brilliant as may be their abilities. And I think with 
a sigh of my own hot-blooded youth, and how ill I requited 
the kindly hand and heart to which I owed so much. Ah, 
well ! life, long as it is, is too short for my repentance. . . . 
I only creep out when the brilliant sunshine floods our grand 
old city, to make my favorite pilgrimage to the tomb of the 
Apostle, whose life-long penitence bids me hope the most for 
my own sinful past. For at St. Peter's feet I feel great peace 
and hope, and near St. Peter's dust I trust one day to rest, 
in the quiet little " Campo Santo " behind [the Basilica, where 
Francesco Lorenzi lies. 

The story of my life is told, and after all it has been more 
of a relief than a penance to put it into words. It is the story 
of a moment of fierce, unbridled passion in the heat of a god- 
less youth ; followed by a remorse so deep and bitter that no 
penalty of human justice could exceed in severity. Far be it 
from me, in my poor judgment, to speculate on the punish- 
ment for sin in the world to come ; but I sometimes feel that 
no purgatory could be more searching or more all-devouring 
than the wages of my sin, paid in the baptism of conscience- 
fire through which I came back to God. 

GUIDO GUIDI. 




ipoi.] A NOVEL" PASTEUR INSTITUTE" IN IRELAND. 597 
A NOVEL "PASTEUR INSTITUTE" IN IRELAND. 

BY JAMES MURPHY. 

*N a rather comfortable farm near the town of 
Belturbet, in the county of Cavan, Ireland, lives 
James Magovern, "the man who cures hydro- 
phobia." 

At the farm-house there is generally a num- 
ber of patients, men, women, and children, who have been 
bitten by mad dogs, and who come here for a preventive cure 
of hydrophobia. Not from Ireland alone do these patients 
arrive. Scotland, England, America, Australia, South Africa, 
all at different times furnish their contingent. 

In whatever part of the globe Irishmen reside they are, as 
a rule, well aware that in a remote district of the old country 
lives a man who has a secret cure for the awful affliction of 
rabies. 

When I visited the farm there were ten persons under 
cure; two of them were children, a boy and a girl, seven and 
ten years old respectively. Two others were butchers' assis- 
tants from the town of Fleetwood in Lancashire, England. A 
fifth was a resident of Cape Colony. And the remaining five 
were from the County Fermanagh, where a short time previ- 
ously rabies had spread from a number of dogs to an ass and 
a great many head of cattle. 

The patients who are under treatment roam about at their 
own free will. There was no inoculation of any kind, no clini- 
cal treatment ; merely a simple course of the most ordinary 
dietetic care, accompanied by a slight invasion into the domain 
of necromancy, probably with the sole purpose of impressing 
the patients. 

Magovern himself had nothing of the manners associated 
with professional men. Obviously he is but a prosperous Irish 
farmer. To more than this he does not lay claim ; he is a 
tiller of the soil, his chief preoccupations being the sale of his 
cattle and the cultivation of his fields ; and he talks most 
freely and willingly of the prospect of the crops, of the weight 
of his young pigs, and of the number and condition of his 
poultry. The fact that he cures hydrophobia is merely an in- 



598 A No VEL "PASTEUR INSTIT u TE " IN IRELAND. [Aug., 

cidental event of his career. He advertises not for patients, 
he seeks not wealth out of his cures, and accepts without at- 
tending to its quantity the sum of money which each one in 
his generosity may choose to leave him as a token of grati- 
tude for the results obtained. 

Sometimes for whole months Magovern has not a single 
person under his care ; and again, and this mostly in the 
autumn, hundreds of people are in daily attendance on him ; 
his own commodious farm-house does not suffice to furnish 
them lodging, and they have to rely on the hospitality of the 
other farms for miles around. 

The course of treatment to which Magovern subjects his 
patients lasts at least three days, and usually five. 

On the day of arrival the party who has been bitten by a 
hydrophobic animal is simply submitted to some preliminaries, 
the connection of which with an ultimate effective cure it is 
not easy to understand. 

A little bridge spans a limpid rivulet that tosses sparkling 
from crag to crag, as it bounds down the slope of the hill on 
which the farm is situated, to mingle its fresh waters with 
those of a larger stream in the plain below. Fulfilling a rite 
which Magovern invariably adopts and to which he seems to 
attach considerable importance, the patient is blindfolded and 
led backwards and forwards over the little bridge while 
Magovern or his aged mother stands near and repeats a mystic 
formula relative to the fear of mad animals for water, and the 
effectiveness of this liquid in warding off the fell disease. 
This is on the first day; the patient on that night eats a sup- 
per prepared in accordance with special prescriptions of 
Magovern. 

On the following day a fast is enjoined. The patient is 
rigorously forbidden to indulge in solids or fluids of any de- 
scription, other than a drink prepared by the medicine man 
himself. This drink is supposed to be a decoction of barley. 
It is light and agreeable to the taste ; but, in accordance with 
the statements of those who have gone through the cure, 
it seems to stimulate rather than to assuage the pangs of 
hunger. 

The fast lasts for three whole days, and those who have 
gone through it declare that of all the agonies to which it is 
possible for the human being to be subjected, this assuredly is 
the most intensely painful. Magovern distinctly explains that 
it is an important part of his formula. The patient, it has 



1901.] A NOVEL "PASTEUR INSTITUTE " IN IRELAND. 599 

been said, is left largely to himself if he is grown to adult 
age. He consequently knows the risks he incurs if he breaks 
the fast, and the restraint which he is obliged to put upon 
himself during these three days is a tax upon his moral ener- 
gies which rarely in life finds its equivalent. 

On the fifth day the fast is terminated ; the patient still 
drinks copiously of the decoction prepared by the healer, but 
he is now free to eat and drink at his will. He is again taken 
to the little bridge, this time without any bandage on his eyes, 
and he is led backwards and forwards while other mystic 
words are repeated by some bystander. The patient is now 
cured, and with a hearty God-speed from Magovern and from 
his venerable mother, a really delightful and interesting type 
of a high-spirited and benevolent old lady, the sufferer leaves 
the farm-house, usually carrying with him some bottles of the 
barley-water preparation, as well as a radical conviction that 
his cure has been effected. 

Magovern and his mother are the simplest and most 
straightforward persons that any one could desire to meet in 
life. They will tell you frankly all about their cure, except 
certain little formulas which they maintain involve the secret 
of this cure that Providence has wished to be theirs alone. 
The story of its origin reads like a legend. 

In the beginning of this century, they relate, the grand- 
mother of the present head of the family once, as a little 
girl attending her sheep on the banks of the Shannon near 
its sources, after falling asleep, suddenly awakened as if 
by the rustle of passing winds, and looking around her in be- 
wildered surprise was astonished to perceive no one near. On 
the ground, however, hard by she perceived a carefully folded 
paper, and on picking it up found that it contained what 
seemed mystic tracings and letterings drawn out apparently in 
explanation of some formula or plan. 

Instinctively she felt that this paper was for some time yet 
to be kept by her as a secret. She accordingly hid it, and it 
was only ten years later, when she married Philip Magovern, 
-that she entrusted to him this document. Magovern read and 
understood. It was a cure seemingly dropped from heaven by 
an angel and destined to alleviate the woes of those attacked 
by incipient rabies. The secret was to be transmitted from 
father to son in the young girl's household, and was not to 
be made public property. 

Singularly enough the cure, if such it be, has proved quite 



600 A NOVEL " PASTEUR INSTITUTE " IN IRELAND. [Aug., 

astonishingly effective. Not only has Magovern prevented 
hydrophobia where the disease seemed inevitable, but he has 
also invariably made good his claims to cure it when his 
services are resorted to within three days after the symptoms 
of the disease have broken out. Sometimes it is true the 
patient, even after adopting the preventive cure, is attacked 
by the disease. But in no case does this seem to have occurred 
where the patient himself did not admit that he had violated 
the prescriptions regarding the fast. 

The question arises, Does Magovern really effect a cure, 
and is this cure other than by mental suggestion ? 

It really seems as if the fast, and possibly also the liba- 
tions of the barley-water mixture which Magovern secretly 
prepares, actually effect the cure of rabies. The three genera- 
tions of Magoverns may safely be said to have treated more 
patients than the Pasteur Institute of Paris and its various 
branches throughout the world. The Pasteur Institute during 
its existence has only cured something over eighty per cent, 
of its patients, while the Magoverns have given freedom from 
disease to probably a fraction over ninety-nine per cent, of 
those who have called at their residence. 

It may naturally be objected that in the case of similar 
important results the entire world should by this time be 
acquainted with the Magoverns and their marvellous aptitudes, 
and that men of science should already have investigated the 
entire circumstances. The fact is, that the physicians in Ire- 
land are well aware of the events. The Magoverns do not 
advertise themselves, and Irish people in general have such 
a facility in admitting the existence of extra-medical cures 
that it does not occur to them to publish abroad many inci- 
dents that are of a character to astonish the world. 

Relatively to some facts in connection with Magovern's 
cures I myself can personally vouch : 

One night in the charming town of Enniskillen, on Lough 
Erne, in company with two tourist friends, I was walking up 
East Bridge Street when a big dog came tearing along from 
the opposite direction. The younger of my companions, not 
suspecting that the animal had the disease, held out his hand 
as if to caress it when it approached. The mastiff stopped 
and bit him deep in the thumb. With our third friend we 
belabored the dog with sticks and beat him into unconscious- 
ness, but not until another of the party had been bitten in the 
leg through the trousers. 



1901.] A NOVEL "PASTEUR INSTITUTE " IN IRELAND. 601 

Previously to this the dog had bitten a tailor and his little 
son, both in the hand. 

All the parties who had been attacked repaired to Ma- 
govern's place for treatment except the tailor's child. His 
hand had merely been scratched, and his condition was thought 
by his parents not sufficiently serious to warrant treatment. 
The man who had been bitten through the cloth was examined 
first by Magovern, and was rejected as not needing the cure, 
inasmuch as it was clear to the experienced medicine man 
that the virus had been removed from the tooth in passing 
through the cloth. My other acquaintance, who had been 
bitten through the thumb, went through the treatment, as 
also did the tailor. 

The latter was effectively cured and had no more after- 
trouble with the wound. The same may be said of the one 
whom Magovern had decided did not require treatment. 

The little boy whose case had been neglected, through the 
fault of his parents, within a week had symptoms of the 
disease. Magovern was hastily summoned, and by his aid the 
child was restored to perfect health. 

My travelling acquaintance, who had been bitten in the 
thumb, likewise developed symptoms of rabies. His relatives 
afterwards told that he had come away from Magovern's 
moody and oppressed. He admitted that he had violated the 
prescriptions of the rigid fast. The sensation of hunger, he 
said, was so terrible that if he had to lose even life itself at 
the moment, he would have greedily devoured any edible that 
came in his way. As a matter of fact he had gone into a 
turnip-field and had eaten some young Swedes, and had also 
voraciously devoured some raw cabbage. His people were not 
aware that Magovern could still treat the disease after it had 
broken out. The services of a local medical practitioner were 
requisitioned, but in a few days the unhappy young man's 
vitality was exhausted and the end came. 



VOL. LXXIII. 40 



602 THE LETTERS OF CARDINAL NEWMAN. [Aug., 




THE LETTERS OF CARDINAL NEWMAN. 

BY REV. WILLIAM HENRY SHERAN. 

"N the value of letters Cardinal Newman wrote as 
follows : " It has ever been a hobby of mine, 
though perhaps it is a truism, not a hobby, 
that the true life of a man is in his letters. 
Not only for the interest of a biography, but 
for arriving at the inside of things, the publication of letters 
is the true method. Biographers varnish, they assign motives, 
they conjecture, they interpret Lord Burleigh's nods ; but con- 
temporary letters are facts." Fully one thousand of these 
facts, which illumine and reveal so much in the early life of 
Cardinal Newman, were collected and published by Anne 
Mozeley in 1897; they are letters written during his member- 
ship in the English Church, and the collection, by no means 
complete, forms two large volumes of reading matter, as in- 
teresting, perhaps, as any ever laid before the modern public. 
It would be a serious mistake if the letters written after his 
conversion to Catholicism were allowed to remain unpublished. 
However, the volumes in question, covering the formative 
period of his life, may always appeal more strongly to the 
public. At any rate they will claim the special glory of re- 
vealing Newman, not as a great theologian or controversialist 
but as a youth whose dominant impulses lay in the direction 
of poetry and Romanticism. 

If we compare the pen-picture in these Letters with another 
more elaborate and complete, in the Apologia, the peculiar 
charm of the former will become apparent. It is true that in 
the Apologia the method he employs in order to win his 
readers is admirably conceived ; he puts himself vitally and 
almost dramatically before them ; he brings them, as it were, 
within the actual sound of his voice and the glance of his eye ; 
he lets them follow him through the long course of his years 
as student, tutor, preacher, and leader, until they know him as 
intimately as those few friends with whm he had lived most 
freely. And after putting his personality before them with all 
the intense persuasiveness of a dramatic portrayal, he asks 



190 1.] THE LETTERS OF CARDINAL NEWMAN. 603 

whether they are ready to believe the foul charges of Kingsley. 
He reveals himself to the world and trusts to the conciliating 
effect of this self-revelation before entering a specific denial of 
the charges brought against him. So that the Apologia is an 
elaborate and ingenious piece of special pleading ; whereas the 
autobiography in the letters is conspicuously free from any 
ulterior purpose or any artificial restraint; it bears the uncon- 
scious simplicity, the charm and freedom of youth; it is in 
the strictest sense a self-revelation, but it contains not a trace 
of the dramatic element. There is, however, plenty of fancy 
and idealization the play of that faculty which gives to airy 
nothing a local habitation and a name. As the life-stream is 
traced, pure and sparkling, to its hidden mountain spring, we 
see above it the uprolled clouds of the morning and the trans- 
figuring light as it glances upon the thousand objects with 
which youth comes in contact. 

NEWMAN A ROMANTICIST. 

Cardinal Newman was born a poet, and bred a Romanticist; 
and poetry and romance inspire his earliest letters. Walter 
Scott, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, and Shelley were the study 
and meditation of his childhood ; in imitation of these he be- 
came identified with the Romantic movement, which has given 
birth to the best and most vital literature of our day and gen- 
eration. It was the Romantic movement that led Newman to 
a serious study of Catholic history ; for, like all Romanticists, 
he wished to enrich our dull, modern life with new emotions; 
he wished to come into imaginative touch with distant times 
and places ; he delighted in the artistic and ennobling life of 
the Middle Ages, in their rich blazonry of passion and their 
ever-changing spectacular magnificence ; he wished to feed the 
senses and the imagination which were starved by the blank 
walls of the Church of England, the slated hideousness of Lon- 
don streets, and the regulation diet of systems, formulas, syl- 
logisms, and generalities, prescribed by the eighteenth century. 
And so Newman goes out in search of the image, the specific 
experience, the vital fact ; in later years he aims at recon- 
structing the English Church according to the Romantic ideal ; 
but in early life the Romantic spirit led him away from Eng- 
land to behold the historic treasures of the Continent, and 
especially of Sicily, which always had for him a strange fasci- 
nation. The account of his foreign travels forms, perhaps, the 
most thrilling and entertaining part of his early correspon- 



604 THE LETTERS OF CARDINAL NEWMAN. [Aug., 

dence ; entertaining because it records his youthful impressions 
of the ancient cities, cathedrals, the art and life, and natural 
beauty of the southern countries of Europe; and thrilling be- 
cause of the almost tragic ending of his life in Sicily. It was 
this journey to Sicily that inspired the most delightful hymn 
in English literature, " Lead, Kindly Light." The following 
letter may bs taken as typical of his Romantic sympathies : 

John Henry Newman to his Sister Jemima. 

"ROME, April ii, 1833. 

" I find myself in a foreign land for the first time in my 
life. How shall I describe the sadness with which I am about 
to leave the tombs of the Apostles. Rome, not as a city but 
as the scene of sacred history, has a part of my heart, and in 
going away from it I am as if tearing it in twain. I wandered 
about the place after the Froudes had gone. I went to the 
Church of Santa Maria, which Dionysius founded A. D. 260 ; I 
mounted the height where St. Peter was martyred, and for the 
last time went through the vast spaces of his wonderful 
Basilica. I am going among strangers into a wild country to 
live a wild life, to travel in solitude and to sleep in dens of 
the earth and all for what ? For the gratification of an im- 
agination, for the idea of a warm fancy cherished since boy- 
hood, drawn by a strange love of Sicily, to gaze upon its 
cities and mountains. 

" I have to-day made my preparations for my journey : a 
set of cooking utensils and tea-service, curry-powder, spice, 
pepper, salt, sugar, tea, and ham ; cold cream, a straw hat, and 
a map of Sicily. I shall want nothing from the island but 
macaroni, honey, and eggs." 

Among natural objects that engaged his attention one finds 
volcanoes, and it is noteworthy how he describes Vesuvius. 
In a letter to Jemima, Newman pens the following description 
of the crater : 

" I will give you some account of my going up Vesuvius 
yesterday. Mr. Bennett and myself started about half-past 
eleven. We mounted mules and asses which brought us up to 
the foot of the mountain. You go a long way between two 
walls, the boundaries of vineyards ; then over the lava, which 
is like a ploughed field, in color and shape, petrified. On dis- 
mounting you address yourself to the task of ascending the 
cone, which does not seem much too high to run up, though 
certainly it is steep ; however, it is eight hundred feet high. 



1901.] THE LETTERS OF CARDINAL NEWMAN. 605 

We set to, and a tug it was. At length we were landed on 
the first crater ; and sitting down on the ashes at the top, 
which are so dry as not to soil, we cooked some beef and 
drank some wine most delicious wine. Then we began our 
rambles. The crater was truly an awful sight ! The vast ex- 
panse of the true crater broken into many divisions and re- 
cesses, up and down, and resplendent with all manner of 
the most beautiful various colors from the sulphur, white clouds 
of which are ever steaming and curling from holes in the 
crust. The utter silence increased the imposing effect, which 
became fearful when, on putting the ear to a small crevice, 
one heard a rushing sound, deep .and hollow, partly of wind, 
partly of the internal trouble of the mountain. The view is 
very striking and romantic. The vast plain of Naples, which 
is covered with innumerable vines, was so distant as to look 
like a greenish marsh. We could see Pompeii and its amphi- 
theatre very distinctly, and in the same direction various streams 
of lava, their age indicated by their shade of blackness, coursing 
down to the mountain's foot. It was grand to look down the 
sheer descent ; and I must say that it is the most wonderful 
sight I have seen abroad." 

The description of Etna is equally vivid, and the country 
around it was found equally charming: "At Etna the transi- 
tions from heat to cold are very rapid and severe ; in the 
same day I was almost cut in two, and exhausted with the 
scorching and dust of lava, though I never got chilled." Con- 
cerning his visit to Sicily Newman writes : " I had two objects 
in coming, to see the antiquities and to see the country. I have 
seen much of the country, and can only say that I did not 
know before nature could be so beautiful. It passes belief. It 
is like the Garden of Eden, and though it ran in the line of 
my anticipations, it far exceeded them." 

Again, he writes from Syracuse : " I never saw anything 
more enchanting than this spot. It realized all one had read 
of in books about scenery a deep valley, brawling streams, 
beautiful trees, the sea in the distance. But when after break- 
fast on a bright day we mounted to the ruins of the ancient 
theatre, and saw the famous view, what shall I say : to see 
that view was the nearest approach to seeing Eden. It was 
worth coming all the way from England, to endure sadness, 
loneliness, weariness, to see it; yet it is but one of at least 
half a dozen, all beautiful, close at hand. I find, back of us, 
the hills are receding, and Etna in the distance is magnificent. 



6c6 THE LETTERS OF CARDINAL NEWMAN. [Aug., 

Yesterday the scene was sombre with clouds, when suddenly, 
as the sun descended upon the cone, its rays shot out between 
the clouds and the snow, turning the clouds into royal cur- 
tains, while on one side there was a sort of Jacob's ladder. 
I understood why the poets made the abode of the gods on 
Mount Olympus." The ruins as well as the landscape at- 
tracted the attention of Newman : " I have seen here (in the 
neighborhood of Syracuse) the fountain of Arethusa ; I rowed 
up the Anapus to gather the papyrus and to see the re- 
mains of the temple of Minerva, and I looked at the remain- 
ing columns of Jupiter Olympius. I have been conning over 
Thucydides, particularly yesterday and this morning, and am 
at home with the whole place, only I have not seen the am- 
phitheatre." 

It was natural that the Romantic spirit, gratified in the 
midst of so much beauty, should find expression in verse as 
well as in prose. Walter Scott and Wordsworth and Coleridge, 
not to mention other Romanticists, adopted verse rather than 
prose, and the lyric form of verse, inasmuch as lyric poetry 
allows the largest freedom to emotion, and treats nature with 
the greatest fulness, sympathy, and insight. Accordingly, 
throughout the letters of Newman we find scattered many a 
gem of lyric poetry. Only a few examples can be quoted, and 
these not in full. In a letter to his mother from Gibraltar he 
adds these verses on the voyage thither : 

" Whence is this awe by stillness spread 

O'er the world-fretted soul? 
Wave reared on wave its boastful head 
While my keen bark, by breezes sped, 
Dashed fiercely through the ocean bed, 
And chafed towards its goal. 

" But now there reigns so deep a rest 

That I could almost weep. 
Sinner! thou hast in this rare guest 
Of Adam's peace, a figure blest ; 
'Tis Eden seen, but not possessed, 

Which cherub flames still keep." 

After concluding his travels in Sicily Newman penned the 
following lyric, in which religion and Romanticism are com- 
bined : 



THE LETTERS OF CARDINAL NEWMAN. 607 

" Say, hast thou tracked a traveller's round, 

Nor visions met thee there, 
Thou couldst but marvel to have found 
This blighted world so fair? 

" And feel an awe within thee rise 

That sinful man should see 
Glories far worthier Seraph's eyes 
Than to be shared by thee. 

" Store them in heart ! thou shalt not faint 

'Mid coming pains and fears ; 
As the third heaven once nerved a saint 
For fourteen trial-years." 

It is difficult for us, who are accustomed to regard New- 
man as a great theologian and dialectician, to appreciate his 
deep and abiding love of nature a love essentially Romantic 
in character. The relation of Newman, and of his Oxford 
friends and fellow-converts, to Nature was closely akin to that 
of the Romanticists. On this point Professor Gates remarks : 
" Newman, like Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Shelley, found 
Nature mysteriously beautiful and instinct with strange signifi- 
cance, a divinely elaborated language whereby God speaks 
through symbols to the human soul." Keble's Christian Year 
is full of this interpretation of natural sights and sounds as 
images of spiritual truth, and with this mystical conception of 
Nature Newman was in sympathy, as is evidenced continually 
in his lyric poetry. Nature was for him as rich in its spiritual 
suggestiveness as for Wordsworth or Shelley. But in inter- 
preting the emotional value of Nature Newman had recourse 
to a symbolism drawn ready-made from Christianity. The 
mystical beauty of Nature, instead of calling up in his imag- 
ination a Platonic ideal world, as with Shelley or becoming a 
visible garment of God, as with Goethe or Wordsworth, sug- 
gested the presence and power of seraphs and angels. Of the 
angels Newman writes : " Every breath of air and every ray 
of light and heat, every beautiful prospect is, as it were, the 
skirts of their garments, the waving of the robes of those whose 
faces see God. What would be the thoughts of a man who, 
when examining a flower or an herb or a pebble or a ray of 
light, suddenly discovered that he was in the presence of some 
powerful being God's instrument who was giving them their 



6o8 



THE LETTERS OF CARDINAL NEWMAN. 



[Aug., 



beauty, grace, and perfection ? " Hence it is not surprising 
that in his letters he would refer to " our blighted world so 
fair," and feel " an awe within him rise " at the sight of those 
glories of Nature which were rather intended for the eyes of 
seraphs .than for sinful men. As the " third heaven once 
nerved a saint," so Newman believed that a right interpreta- 
tion of Nature should nerve and strengthen us a cardinal 
doctrine in the creed of the Christian Romanticist. 

The trains of thought to which the letters of Newman give 
rise are so various and interesting that it is impossible to 
treat more than one or two of them in a single essa) 7 . It is 
easy to imagine how Newman might have become the first 
poet of his age, if he had not aimed at becoming its greatest 
prose-writer; and although he succeeded in the task, we may 
feel some regret that this success was gained at the expense 
of poetry. For in the poetic work scattered through his let- 
ters he reveals his kinship with the great masters of imagina- 
tive and emotional writing ; all the charm of all the muses 
often flowers in some lonely lyric published, like " Lead, Kindly 
Light," in the mass of his correspondence. However, the liter- 
ary world may be thankful that he wrote so many letters 
letters filled with the delightful story of his childhood, a charm- 
ing chronicle of every mood and fancy of youth, an unmistaka- 
ble promise of that wonderful religious and literary career 
which has practically changed the Faith of England and built 
a monument of her art for all time. 

St. Paul Seminary. 





HELENA MODJESKA. 609 

HELENA MODJESKA. 

BY CHARLES J. PHILLIPS. 

[HAKSPEREAN drama during the past year was 
marked by many revivals, and none more nota- 
ble than Madame Modjeska's " King John," the 
initial production of which was given in Orange, 
N. J., early in October, preliminary to the ex- 
tensive tour which has since been so successfully carried out. 
The tragedy of "King John" has always been a vehicle 
for the talents of the greatest stars of the stage. In the early 
days of English drama Mrs. Siddons won glory by it, and 
many more of the greatest names since have added laurels to 
their fame by its means. But it has been unknown to this 
generation of America, a quarter of a century having passed 
since its last production here, when, in 1874, Junius Booth 
played the title-part. But, just as in " Macbeth " interest in 
the character of Lady Macbeth is all-absorbing, so in " King 
John" the dominant interest lies in the "sweet Lady Con- 
stance," with the story of whose wrongs is woven some of the 
history of the reign of the usurper John. This character of 
Constance, played in the production of 1874 by Agnes Booth, 
was never again portrayed on the American stage until the 
present day, when the great Polish actress, encouraged by the 
financial success which marked the London revival by Beer- 
bohm Tree in 1899, brought about its presentation here. It 
had long been the desire of Madame Modjeska to portray the 
character of Constance, so strongly did it appeal to her in all 
its beauty of motherhood and womanliness ; but her ambition 
to do so was never before gratified. Knowing its possibilities, 
and urged by the interest which it aroused in England, she 
went forward with her project, determined to make this re- 
vival a success; and the appreciation the public has tendered 
her shows conclusively that the world is not yet all lost to 
the greatest in drama and literature. 

In her portrayal of Constance Madame Modjeska displayed 
to perfection her great gifts. There is not in all Shakspere's 
dramas a more exacting character than this ; for, being a most 
perfect picture of true womanliness and motherhood, it calls 



6io 



HELENA MODJESKA. 



[Aug., 




MODJESKA AS CONSTANCE. 



1901.] HELENA MODJESKA. 611 

for a play of the affections and emotions which only the fer- 
tile imagination of a genius could supply. It is a character of 
such sweetness and maternal love, and such fierce resentment 
for the wrongs heaped upon the queen-mother whose every 
right is usurped, that only the power of an artist could do it 
justice, and only the power of this greatest artist could make 
it real, consistent, and true. 

Yet one can hardly say that this is Madame Modjeska's 
greatest triumph, for it is an impossibility to pick from the 
long list of her achievements one that may be styled the best; 
but this much can be said : she has never essayed the imper- 
sonation of a character that is more becoming to her char- 
acter, or one that offers greater opportunities for the reaching 
of the highest points of art. 

Of her many roles perhaps the two best known to-day are 
Mary Stuart and Lady Macbeth. As the ill-fated Queen of 
Scots she has established a renown never surpassed. The 
pathetic story of Mary has always appealed to every heart ; it 
possesses a charm that no other story knows, and none of this 
charm is lost to Madame Modjeska, for it is her favorite, if 
she may be said to have a favorite. Her heart and soul are in 
deep sympathy with the exiled queen, so deprived of all her 
rights ; for she herself, an ardent patriot, has gone well through 
the school of sorrow. 

Since the days of Mrs. Siddons there has been no Lady 
Micbeth so powerful, so terribly grand and impressive, as 
Madame Modjeska. There is no Lady Macbeth to-day but this 
one high-priestess of tragedy. She is a revelation, a fear, a 
terror, and a human heart. 

Of the more than two hundred characters Madame Mod- 
jeska has portrayed, her Shaksperean productions have won 
her, perhaps, the greatest fame. She has played eighteen in 
all, and among them, first, after those already mentioned, 
Juliet must be placed. Cleopatra, Ophelia, Rosalind, Katharine, 
Beatrice, Portia, Imogen, and the list of others too long to 
name, follow, each in itself a master-piece. Of her more 
recent roles, that of Marie Antoinette was added to the list in 
1899. 

Interest in a play awakens interest in its actors, especially 
when they stand for all that is great in histrionic art. The 
life of Helena Modjeska holds that absorbing interest which 
marks that of all who have reached the heights, for, like the 



612 HELENA MOD/ESKA. [Aug., 

lives of all the great, it is the story of a struggle. Poverty, 
that seed from which such mighty hearts have sprung, may 
claim Helena Benda, the maiden name of the actress, as 
a choice fruitage. She was born of poor parents in the 
city of Cracow, Poland, and no doubt her childhood's heart 
imbibed from the old fortresses of Poland's ancient capital 
much of that strength of character which served as rampart 
and battlement in her after life. At the early age of seven- 
teen she was married to a Modezejewski, of which name that 
by which she is now professionally known is a contraction. 
Poverty continued to be her lot, and it was during these try- 
ing years that her instinctive goodness of heart was the means 
of bringing her before the eyes of the world. Poor herself, 
she was ever ready to assist her comrades in distress ; and 
being fond of the drama " stage-struck," many called it an 
amateur play was proposed by which to realize some material 
aid. The story of her recognition by a theatrical manager, 
who chanced to witness the performance, and her subsequent 
appearance soon afterward, in 1861, on the professional stage, 
for the details of which we are indebted to her kindness, reads 
quite like a romance. But it is very real, as were the hard- 
ships she underwent for devotion to the art of which she had 
always been fond, and which, now within her grasp, had be- 
come her passion and hope. 

After six years of earnest endeavor, which did not go 
unrewarded, she won the laurel she had struggled for so faith- 
fully a hearing in the Imperial Theatre of Warsaw. This 
took place in 1868. Her husband having died in 1865, after 
three years of widowhood she now became the wife of Count 
Charles Bozenta Chlapowski. She continued in her beloved 
work, and gained greater favor year by year with her inter- 
pretations of the characters of Moliere, Goethe, Schiller, and 
Shakspere. She had created a sensation upon her dJbut, and 
never losing prestige, step by step she mounted the ladder of 
fame. 

In 1876, what might ,be termed the turning point of her 
life occurred. In that year she and her husband came to the 
United States with a party of their countrymen, among whom 
the now famous Sienkiewicz was numbered. Many circum- 
stances, chief of which was the political position held by her 
illustrious husband in their afflicted native land, had enforced 
her to retire from public life. They journeyed to California, 
their present home, and settled there with the intention of 



1901.] HELENA MODJESKA. 613 

living a retired and restful life. But the career of Helena 
Modjeska, as far as the English-speaking stage was concerned, 
had only begun. 

With that same undaunted courage by which she had won 
the plaudits of Europe, she set about, first, to learn the Eng- 
lish language ; mainly, she has said, that she might speak the 
great Shakspere's lines in his native tongue. Then followed in 
their course those trials and ordeals through which she had 
once before struggled, and by which she now won a place on 
the American stage, making her dtbut with John McCullough 
in San Francisco, in 1877, only a year after coming to this 
country. Her success was instantaneous and great. 

She next appeared in the Fifth Avenue Theatre, New York, 
and continued through the series of successes which had 
marked her old-country career until she again made her dtbut 
across the seas, the scene of this triumph being the Court 
Theatre, London, in 1880. After a year's sojourn in Europe she 
returned to America, which she finally adopted as her home. 

Madame Modjeska or more properly, the Countess Bozenta, 
as she is known in private life is personally a most charming 
woman, possessing all the grace and culture which such a life 
as hers could inculcate in a gentle heart. 

In the preparation of this sketch the writer was privileged 
in meeting Madame Modjeska, and the interview was neces- 
sarily very interesting as well as somewhat unique. 

I first presented myself to the actress's manager, who re- 
ceived me cordially. It had taken almost an hour to find him, 
and I had grown rather doubtful of success, though hardly yet 
despondent. Yes, this was the manager; and would he kindly 
tell me if he could arrange an interview with Madame Modjeska 
the following day, or give me some suggestions as to how to 
procure an interview ? 

" To-morrow is Sunday," he said ; " then I am afraid " 
with a dubious shake of his head, " I am afraid it will be a 
little] difficult, if not impossible. Madame Modjeska will 
never transact business of any nature whatever on Sunday. 
She positively declines to do it. Many and many a time I 
have gone to her and asked her to do this or that ; but she 
always says, ' I will do it any other day, but not on Sunday. 
Sunday I will spend as if I were at home.' She will be at 
church, however, in the morning with the count, and you 
might see them there. If you present yourself to the count, 
he will receive you most graciously, I am sure." 



614 HELENA MODJESKA. [Aug., 

The next morning found me on the look-out at the cathe- 
dral, but neither Madame Modjeska nor her husband appeared. 
Concluding that they had attended some more convenient 
church, as later proved the case, I had almost given up my 
project, when I recalled a reference the manager had made to 
the " Private Car." 

In the afternoon I went in search of the Private Car. It 
was a little late, to be sure ; but as this was not to be exactly 
a fashionable call, I did not lose heart at the hour until I 
reached my goal. There every curtain was drawn and not a 
glimmer of light could be seen. However, I tried one door 
and found it locked. Then I went to the other entrance, and 
lo ! the door opened. Feeling a little startled, if not guilty, I 
stepped in. The room an observation apartment and office 
was in darkness ; there was no sound and not the faintest light 
was visible. I rapped ; a door opened at the end of a hall 
revealing a lighted room within, and a maid took my card to 
the count, who soon himself appeared. He gave me a most 
gracious and hearty greeting, and, having made a light, in- 
vited me to a seat. 

Over an hour of interesting book and stage talk ensued, the 
count proving to be a very fund of information and jovial good 
nature. Sienkiewicz and his novels, Heine, Martini, Hugo, 
Spanish novelists of the present day, and many kindred sub- 
jects he touched upon, remarking particularly the great loss 
we suffer in having to take the works of these authors through 
translations where worlds of expression and beauty are lost. 

My hopes began to sink, when he looked quite as doubt- 
ful over the possibility of my seeing Madame Modjeska as had 
the manager ; and when he returned from her apartments with 
apologies, I began to lose heart. But the apologies were fol- 
lowed by a cordial invitation to meet Madame, with Mr. R. D. 
MacLean and Miss Odette Tyler, her leading support in this 
tour, the same evening in the theatre. 

"You see," he explained, "it is so seldom we spend an 
evening not travelling, when Madame my wife does not play, 
and she enjoys so much seeing a play, for it is rarely she can, 
we have decided to go. Then we have heard a great deal 
abDut this young actor, Tim Murphy, and we could not let 
the opportunity pass." 

When I reached the theatre and inquired for the Count 
Bozenta I learned he had not forgotten me. As I was ushered 
into the box he greeted me in his hearty way and called 



1 90 1.] HELENA MODJESKA. 615 

Madame, who was enjoying the sight of the audience. My 
heart stood quite still as she approached, murmured the name 
in that accent that is known so well, and gave me a hearty 
welcome, extending her dainty hand. As some one has said, 
" Feeling exalted in the presence of the high," I felt the swirl 
of greatness about me in the presence of this wonderful wo- 
man whom I had admired so long before I ever saw her. 

Madame Modjeska surprised me. On the stage she is 
wonderful, but on this side of the footlights she is more won- 
derful. She is no longer the actress that is the most indeli- 
ble impression my meeting with her left me but a beautiful 
woman with a face, unmarked by years of toil, as sweet as her 
manner. It is a radiant face in fact, the word radiant de- 
scribes most aptly her whole personality; such a face, the 
poets would say, "the soul shines through." But above 
all it is strong ; the clear lines of the profile bespeaking un- 
daunted will force, a sort of powerful beauty that is rather 
awe-inspiring in its soft severity. 

I had abundant opportunity to study every expression and 
feature of the distinguished actress. She seemed to enjoy ex- 
tremely the sensation of being before instead of behind the 
foot-lights. 

4 Ah, I do love to go to the theatre ! " she said enthusiasti- 
cally. "She likes it when she is not working herself," the 
count joked merrily. She applauded joyously, and her fresh, 
bright smile and radiant eyes were a picture of perfect pleasure. 
It was indeed a great treat for her, whose life-work had been 
the stage, to see a play. She would hear no criticism what- 
ever. " I am not in a critical mood at all," she said, sitting 
bick luxuriantly in her chair. "I just sit here and enjoy it 
very, very much." 

Daring the last intermission I approached the subject of 
my errand, though loath to mar her enjoyment by intruding 
any suggestion of her daily work ; but she responded most 
graciously. 

" I came to this country in 1876, twenty-four years ago, and 
have since played eighteen Shaksperean parts. The count and 
I were just going over them the other day. Ah! Shakspere 
he is the master. He is so grand, so different from the others. 
When I was in Poland I wished to learn English above all 
other things, that I might read Shakspere in his own tongue, 
the language he wrote in. Ah, he is sublime ! 

" Bat it is different to learn a part in the English ; it takes 



6i6 



HELENA MODJESKA. 



[Aug., 



such very careful study, for me, so that I may make no mis- 
takes. 

"How long a time does it require to prepare a rdle? Per- 
haps two months, perhaps a year; I do not know how long, 
for you must think so much always. To learn the lines, even 
to have them ' trippingly on the tongue,' is easy. It is not 
the memorizing that is difficult ; it is to become the part, to 
have it as I wish it, as I feel it ought to be, to make it be- 
come a part of me, to get the spirit of it that is difficult. 

"Take the role of Juliet, for instance. When I was study- 
ing that I could not sleep at nights, but paced up and down, 
restless, always excited with it. In the morning I was out at 
four o'clock to see the sunrise ; and at night I often went to 
the graveyard to be alone with Juliet, to study and think. 

" King John was new, and at first I dreaded it for fear I 
could not give it all the expression it should have. I love the 
Lady Constance, and indeed I am happy that I am playing 
the role. 

" No, I will not return to Poland after I retire. We will 
live in our Californian home, where it is very beautiful. You 
should see the flowers we have in the mountains there." 

The ringing up of the curtain cut short the conversation, 
and after the play was over there was little time for anything 
but formalities. 

When I parted with my friends, Madame Modjeska turned 
back and, waving her little hand, called " Au revoir" I caught 
a glimpse of the disappearing figure wrapped in its exquisite 
silks and furs, the queenly poise of the head, and the fresh 
face with its radiant smile lighting it with the light of genuine 
good. Then the crowd before the theatre hurried me along. 



THE FIRST CHRISTIAN NUN. 



617 




THE FIRST CHRISTIAN NUN. 

BY NINA DE GARMO SPALDING. 

/, HE sun was shining softly in the atrium 
of a Pompeian house, and lingered in the 
red-gold, waving hair of a young girl who 
was kneeling by the marble impluvium 
watching the gold-fish that flashed to the 
surface in that same sunlight. The sound 
of a cithara was heard from one of the 
rooms opening onto the court. She was 
listening and thinking. 

She had just come home from a drive 
along the shores of the bay. The sun had 
glittered on the blue water and touched 
the hills with gold. She had been very happy. It was the 
fashionable hour for driving ; all the gay youths in their gilded 
chariots had been returning from the baths. There were many 
greetings on the way, and it was of one of these youths that 
Plotina was now thinking and wondering if the young Valerian's 
heart had really been given to the stately Julia. She thought 
that he looked like a god as he dashed furiously past her in 
his graceful bronze chariot, with the silver bells jingling. He 
had been leaning forward, watching intently his spirited horses 
as their delicate hoofs hardly seemed to touch the earth ; he 
had not seen her. 

She rippled the clear water with her fingers and watched 
the startled fish dart to the other side of the basin. She heard 
a step on the mosaics, and thought it was the atriensis whose 
duty it was to care for this open hall. A deep, musical voice 
said : " I sought your father, fair Plotina, but I find a beauti- 
ful substitute." She 'rose and turned and saw Valerian, who 
was standing behind her, as perfect in face and form as a young 
god, it seemed in answer to her thought. On her fair skin, un- 
der which was a network of almost imperceptible blue veins 
giving to it a startling whiteness, sometimes the accompaniment 
of that red-gold hair, crept a rosy flush. She looked very 
beautiful to the impetuous young Roman as she stood there in 
the soft light. The long folds of her peplus, fastened on the 
VOL. LXXIII. 41 



618 THE FIRST CHRISTIAN NUN. [Aug., 

shoulder with an emerald buckle, and hanging loosely to the 
mosaic floor, revealed the firm, white throat and arms. The 
water was dripping from her small, pointed fingers. She raised 
her blue eyes, which told of her Greek origin. 

''Yes, we are alike, my father and I, although I tell him 
that it is only the color of our hair that is the same." And 
she smiled with a gleam of mischief that made her still more 
charming because more human. 

" When I left Pompeii Plotina was still a child, and I re- 
turn to find her a young woman to fill the Roman beauties with 
envy." His openly expressed admiration brought a light cloud 
over her face, for, as he said, the motherless child had suddenly 
grown into a young woman of great beauty, to all of .which the 
father, absorbed in his music, had been blind ; so she had not 
been satiated with the praise which the young gallants showered 
upon the Roman women. 

A few crystal drops still clung to her fingers. She clapped 
her hands, and one of the drops leaped through the air and 
lighted on the gold-embroidered sleeve of his tunic. He looked 
at it gravely while she told the slave to summon her father to 
the tablinum, where Valerian would await him. 

"You have baptized me, fair priestess, with the mystical 
rite of the fanatic Nazarenes, and my soul is thine as truly as 
they pledge their lives to the impostor, Christus." 

She looked up at him with startled eyes and started to 
speak, but checked herself and walked around the impluvium 
towards the tablinum. 

" By Hercules ! " he said to himself as he followed her, " her 
soul is as gentle as a dove's, and she must be wooed in a 
manner far softer than the eagle-hearted Romans." And so 
thinking, he spoke to her impersonally of a new song that he 
had brought to her father, in which he himself was much in- 
terested. 

They walked slowly side by side, and through the tablinum 
they could see the red pillars of the peristyle with its tall 
vases of rare flowers, and beyond that, through a mosaic tri- 
clinium, the rich green of the garden made the bright mosaics 
still brighter and the gleaming marbles whiter. Opposite the 
entrance on some rocks reclined a marble maiden, and from 
the urn in her hands gushed forth a stream of clear water 
which trickled down the sides of the rocks with a musical 
sound. The cithara was still tinkling in the distance, and the 
warm southern air, trembling with sweet sounds, filled the soul 



igoi.] THE FIRST CHRISTIAN NUN. 619 

of the young Roman, so susceptible to pleasing impressions, 
with happiness. 

The music ceased, and when the old Flavius joined them 
Plotina withdrew into the garden, where they could hear her 
happy voice as she talked with her maidens or sang a bit of 
song. 

Flavius saw the eyes of the younger man follow her grace- 
ful steps through the peristyle and into the garden, where she 
was lost to view. He sighed and said : " She is a good daugh- 
ter, Valerian; but I fear that she is no longer a child." 

He looked his surprise, however, when the young man an- 
swered : " You would hardly take her for a child with that 
beautiful, womanly head and stately carriage." 

Flavius passed his hand over his forehead and sighed 
again. " I had not realized it. I am afraid that I keep her 
too much with me, and she has few pleasures such as young 
people enjoy." And Valerian vowed to himself by Hercules,, 
his favorite god, that before many moons had risen and set 
he would bring some of those same pleasures before that fair 
shrine. 

As a means to that end he talked with the old enthusiast 
about the music of Rome as compared to that of Greece, and 
brought forward the new song, which really had been his ob- 
ject in coming. He talked so eloquently and so well that when* 
he rose to go the half had not been said by Flavius, and he 
eagerly cried, putting his hand on the young man's shoulder : 
"Come to me again, Valerian, and, by Minerva, I '11 convince 
you yet that the world has never heard the equal of the Odes 
of Horace. Come and dine with us to-morrow. There will be 
no other guests." 

He had dined with Flavius that night and many other 
nights, and there had been many moonlight excursions on the 
biy and the Sarnus. For young Valerian, the wealthy son of 
a wealthier Roman father, who preferred the soft southern air 
to that of Rome, had yet to learn that anything could op- 
pose his will. He was the product of the times, and with the 
eximple of a profligate court before him he gratified his every 
desire. 

There was something about this young Greek girl, some 
subtle power, which held him, yet repelled him. His thoughts 
were all of her, and h's gay young friends found him a poor 
companion. He would feel a great love in his heart, and with 



620 THE FIRST CHRISTIAN NUN. [Aug , 

the love-light in his eyes he would seek her only to find the 
burning words grow cold on his lips. He could not explain 
this nor, in the days that followed, what it was that drew 
him again and again to her side, if it was not a love that he 
could tell. 

One evening they were sitting in the garden. Flavius had 
been called into the atrium by some clients. The water 
rushed down from the urn over the rocks and the air was full 
of the odor of flowers. She had grown more lovely than ever, 
in the young Roman's eyes. He was lying on the soft grass 
at her feet, as she sat on a low marble seat with her hands 
lightly clasped in her lap. He lifted his head, which was rest- 
ing on his hand, and looked at her so intently that her eyes 
drooped. 

" Plotina," he said softly. 

" Yes." 

" Look at me." For an instant their eyes met. There was 
a whole world of sweetness in the gaze of the blue that was 
caught and melted into the glad light from the brown. He 
sat up and leaned forward until his face almost touched her 
clasped hands. 

" Plotina," he said again. She did not answer. He looked 
up into her face, but she closed her eyes so that they should 
not speak the love that filled them. He bent his head and 
pressed his lips to her hand. Again he looked up, and now 
her eyes were open wide. 

" Plotina, beloved, I love thee." He almost whispered, and 
taking one of the small hands in each of his he placed them 
against his face. He felt them tremble, and he could hear her 
quickened breath above the sound of falling water. She 
leaned over closer and closer until her lips touched his hair. 
It thrilled his sensitive being through and through. He 
pressed the little hands closer and murmured again : 

" I love thee, Plotina." 

" And I thee, Valerian," she whispered. He rose to his 
feet, still holding her hands in his, and drew her up from the 
carven seat, close to him. He put a hand lightly on either 
shoulder, and looking down into the beautiful eyes he said : 

"O my Plotina! I love thee more than life itself; .it is 
thou who hast taught me what truly is love. Thou hast been 
to me a goddess .to be worshipped. At thy shrine, fair one, I 
have long poured out the offerings of my heart. I have come 
to thee miny times, beloved, to confess my love, but ever there 



1 90 1.] THE FIRST CHRISTIAN NUN. 621 

has been some mysterious force which held thee from me and 
stopped my words ; but now thou art mine, mine ! " 

A tear of happiness, which could not find expression in 
words, hung on her long brown lashes and brushed against his 
face. He spoke lightly: 

" See, beloved, thou hast baptized me again." She drew 
away from him, and sitting down on a low seat made room 
for him beside her. 

" Dost thou believe in the gods, Valerian ? " 

" As my life, and my love for thee," he replied wonder- 
ingly. 

" Dost thou remember what thou saidst to my father about 
the Arena ? " 

" That I would like to see every one of the new sect of 
the Nazarenes thrown to the beasts and killed as mercilessly 
as they crucified the mad Carpenter. Is that what thou speak- 
est of, Plotina?" She shrank from the arm that would en- 
circle her. 

" Wouldst thou see me the prey of wild beasts?" He 
started and the color left his lips. He was impulsive and 
sensitive, and whatever he did or believed he did and be- 
lieved with his whole soul. He said slowly and with horror : 

"Art thou a Christian?" 

"As I live and love thee, Valerian." 

He bowed his head in his hands and sat with his eyes 
fixed on the mosaic floor. Slowly he lifted his head and 
looked at her. 

But his great love was stronger than his horror, his deter- 
mined lips relaxed and, drawing her to him, he said : 

*' Plotina, I love thee more than all else in the world ; 
more than my religion, more even than the gods." 

When Flavius came back to them his surprise was no greater 
than his pleasure, for he had already loved Valerian as a 
son. 

The days passed in happiness for the gentle Plotina and 
her lover. The happiness was not unmixed with sadness, 
however, for the young girl had embraced with her whole soul 
the doctrine of the new religion. Living as she had without 
young companionship, when her old Roman nurse first had 
hinted at the faith which kept her from sacrificing to the 
gods and made her always tender and happy, she had listened 
eagerly, and gradually the light of Christianity was shed over 
the pagan maiden's life. 



622 THE FIRST CHRISTIAN NUN. [Aug., 

It was a great sorrow to her that her God was not Va- 
lerian's god, and many times since they were betrothed she 
had tried gently to win him to her faith ; but the young 
Roman, deeply as he loved her, was intolerant of her belief, 
and he hoped that she would of her own free will come back 
to the religion of her fathers. 

He awoke one morning with a feeling of great foreboding. 

" By Pollux ! " he exclaimed, " Justinian's dinner ran too 
richly with wines last night. I will go to my Plotina, and in 
her beauty and grace forget myself and my ills." The pall 
which smothered Vesuvius seemed strangely ominous and 
weighed upon his spirits. 

He found her where he first began to love her, and where 
the image of Julia died in his heart. She knelt by the side of 
the marble basin throwing some food to the fishes. This time 
she knew his step and rose smiling. 

" I was thinking of thee, Valerian." 

" Ah, when do I cease to think of thee, Plotina ! " he ex- 
claimed, bending to kiss her warm little hand. " I was sad 
and I came to thee, and already I feel that sadness leaving 
me ; for who can feel sorrow with thee, beloved ? " And he 
looked at her fondly. 

" What tasks occupy thee, Plotina, when thy Valerian is 
not with thee?" he said, drawing her down beside him on the 
seat, all inlaid with pearl and covered with soft cushions. 

" I think of thee, Valerian, and I pray often that thy heart 
may be inclined to the true faith ; that the love of that same 
Christus who died for us, for thee, Valerian, may fill thy 
heart." 

" Thou knowest not what thou askest. I love thee and I love 
the gods, and only they have the power to save ; but if thou 
wilt believe in an unknown God, my love is so great, as great 
as life itself, that even this cannot bring a shadow between us, 
and in my house shall be placed an altar to thy God." So 
engrossed were they, they had not noticed a suddenly increas- 
ing darkness. He was interrupted by a slave with a fright- 
ened face, who rushed into the chamber shouting : 

" Fly ! Save yourselves ! Pluto is raining fire and stones 
upon the city ! " 

Springing up and drawing aside the curtains, Valerian saw 
that the slave was right. Fine ashes and stones were ccming 
down in the peristyle like rain. Together the lovers ran to 
the entrance. Frightened slaves with cries and groans were 



1 90 1.] IHE FIRST CHRISTIAN NUN. 623 

rushing past them out into the street, where all was confu- 
sion slaves calling upon each other and the gods for help. 
Terrified horses, becoming unruly, dashed past and flattened 
the people against the shaking walls. Shrieks of fright from 
children, loud cries from men and women, mingling with the 
snorts of terror from the animals, filled the air. Great stones 
were falling from no one knew where, walls were suddenly 
crashing inward and the cries became groans of pain. 

Plotina took the cross from about her neck with trembling 
finger and murmured, " O Christ ! save us ; save Thy people 
by Thy holy cross and suffering." As though in answer to 
her prayer old Domitilla, her nurse, cried out to her above 
the terrible sounds : 

" The bay, the bay ! The fire comes from the mountain ; 
let us fly to the bay." 

" Christ, I thank thee ! " Plotina said before she ran through 
the deserted house, calling for her father. 

Together the four made their way through the confusion of 
the streets, passing the shops so gay but an hour before. It 
grew darker. Before the temple of Juno, into whose doors 
poured a stream of believers imploring the protection of the 
goddess, stood an old man. one of the sect of the Nazarenes, 
crying in a loud voice : 

"The wrath of God, the Father of Christ, is fallen upon 
an unbelieving city. O ye idolaters ! your marble goddess 
cannot save ye." He stood in their path with threatening 
arms uplifted, the light of a fanatic burning in his eyes. 

"Give way, old blasphemer!" cried Valerian. ''Give way, 
I say ; Juno will save her people." 

" Woe to thee, young man ! Repent ere it is too late. 
Leave thy false images and turn to the true God." In his 
Christian zeal he would not let them pass, and this and his 
words fired the young Roman's blood with a sudden an- 
tagonism. 

" Listen, oh listen, Valerian ! " pleaded Plotina, desperately. 

" Come," he cried, almost roughly forcing her toward the 
temple; "Juno will protect us." And, followed by the others, 
he made his way through the throng. 

"O Valerian! Father!" implored Plotina, when she could 
make them hear her voice above the din about them. " Come 
to the bay, away from the mountain. Come with me to 
safety." 

But already Flavius was prostrating himself before the altar 



624 THE FIRST CHRISTIAN NUN. [Aug., 

in an agony of supplication ; Valerian, encircling her with his 
arm and drawing her to him, said gently, " Wilt thou not pray 
to Juno now, Plotina?" And so standing there in the midst 
of idolaters he repeated with them their entreaties to their 
deity, while the prayer of this Christian maiden rose from the 
degradation about her as purely and truly as the thin flame 
rises from a rubbish heap high up into the clear air. 

A sudden hush fell upon these terrified people as a white- 
robed priest of Juno appeared before them. Valerian, with 
those about him, fell on his face before his sacred person. 
Even Domitilla, with a servant's humility, bowed low before 
him in respect, perhaps, to his white hairs. It was like the 
sound of reeds blown by a sudden wind. The stricken people 
were prostrated ; only one remained standing upright, with 
hands clasped before her and her rapt, beautiful face upturned 
and glorified with a look of perfect trust. 

Slowly the priest raised his arm and, pointing to Plotina, 
took one step towards the unconscious maiden. With a cry 
Domitilla sprang to her side. 

At the sound of crashing walls it was as though a whirl- 
wind had caught the reeds and tossed them wildly about, 
breaking themselves upon one another, standing upright only 
to be hurled back again. The one moment of awe and calm 
had passed, and again the din of terrified men and women 
filled the air and all was confusion. 

When Valerian struggled to his feet Plotina was no longer 
by his side. 

Domitilla had gathered her up in her arms, and with one 
hand over Plotina's mouth, silencing her cries, she muttered to 
herself : " If they think that marble woman is going to keep 
these walls from falling on their heads they can stay here until 
she crushes them ; but Domitilla prefers a surer safety, and is 
going to save her child." 

With a superhuman effort she made her way to the shore 
with her now unconscious burden. 

When Plotina's eyes opened again she was floating on the 
troubled waters far from under the dark and awful cloud. 

The red glare from that mountain of death lighted the bay 
with its many small boats filled with fugitives like herself. 
She was alone save for her nurse. The falling walls of the 
temple, with the molten lava, had buried the two hundred wor- 
shippers for centuries from this world. 



1901.] THE FIRST CHRISTIAN NUN. 62$ 

The warm sun was shining into a little room in Rome a& 
softly as though a beautiful town had not become a "city of 
the dead." 

The room was bare save for its narrow couch and its table, 
holding a silver ewer and basin. Before a rude cross made of 
twigs tied together with fibres knelt the white-robed figure of 
a young girl, her long, soft hair, almost as white as the gar- 
ment she wore, waving over its loose folds ; her eyes looking 
up with hope and with a deep happiness that pierced sorrow, 
a happiness not of this world but as one who sees a vision 
above and beyond it. She prayed. 

" Day and night I will pray unto Thee, O Christ, Son of 
God. Thou divine man, who with us did suffer and for us was 
crucified that ue, with Thee, might live not for this life alone, 
but for the eternal happiness of the hereafter, grant to me, O 
God, the souls of my beloved and my father ; grant to me 
life on this earth that I may pray continually unto Thee, that 
for ever we may dwell with Thee in happiness, until Thou hast 
pardoned their souls the blindness which kept them from Thee 
in this life, and gather them to Thy loving bosom. Then, my 
task on earth being finished, let me too die and come to Thee 
and to them." 

She rose to her feet and, walking to the window, looked 
out across the Campagna, toward the southland where her 
home and love lay buried. The western light, streaming 
across the white house-tops of Rome, caught her window, 
lighting and glorifying the wistful face of the first Christian 
Nun. 





THE GRAND GRAY RUIN AFTER THE DEVASTATION OF EARTHQUAKE AND TIME. 




THE PRESERVATION OF THE MISSIONS IN 
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. 

BY E. H. ENDERLEIN. 

California Missions, twenty-one in number, 
lie along the famous and romantic old trail, El 
Camino Real The King's Highway which was 
established by Carlos III. and his successors, 
Carlos IV. and Fernando VII., when California 
was part of Spain. El Camino Real was the recognized high- 
way of official travel which, entering San Diego on the south, 
led to the Missions, which were located about a day's journey 
apart and formed a cordon in California, a continuation of the 
cordon in Lower California, and ended on the north at San 
Francisco. 

Along the cordon of the King's Highway lay the civilization 
of a life purely Spanish. Upon this trail rode the couriers of 
the three kings, bearing the royal rubrica. Upon it, in zerape 
and sombrero, rode the Spanish don, his carved leather saddle 
inlaid with silver by the Indian armorers of Santa Inez. Upon 
it also travelled the Franciscan friars in the brown habit of 
their order, girded about the waist with a knotted cord. 
These Franciscan fathers were the founders of the Missions. 
Full of absolute self-abnegation, they were loved by the people, 



1 901.] 



MISSIONS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. 



627 



for they were spiritual democrats. Possessing nothing they 
could call their own, they were free to pray, to help, to com- 
fort, with no distinctions of place or person. 

The story of the founding of the Missions is full of romance. 
The greatest activity of this early colonization was contempor- 
aneous with the American Revolution, and the two movements, 
so widely apart in distance and character, have found close re- 




MONUMENT TO FATHER JUNIPERO SERRA AT MONTEREY. 

lationship as the long procession of years has united the 
interests of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. 

The Mission buildings to-day are among the few monuments 
of antiquity upon this continent. Rich in romantic association, 
picturesque and beautiful, they have stood for a century of 
time, the tangible remains of the works of the Spanish padres, 
who had severed their connections with civilization and pene- 



623 



THE PRESERVATION OF THE MISSIONS 



[Aug., 




trated into new and untried regions to make converts to their 
faith. SD long ago as 1767 the Missions in Lower California 
were given to the Franciscans of the College of San Fernando 
in Mexico, and there was appointed to take charge of 
the work a little band of twelve friars under the leadership of 
Father Junipero Serra. It was the desire of the government 

at the time to colonize 

U Upper California, and 

almost before the friars 
had commenced their 
work there came an 
order from the king to 
send a colony to the 
harbor of Monterey or 
to San Diego, and ar- 
rangements were at 
once made for the expedition, with Father Serra in charge. 
This priest was one of the most remarkable men of whom the 
history of the church gives any account. Full of learning and 
zeal, with wonderful administrative ability, Father Junipero be- 
came the spiritual and temporal leader, the first in rank of 
apostolic missionaries. The unselfishness of his life was abso- 
lute. He was filled with fervor and insatiable passion. At Santa 
Birbara, among the treasures of the Franciscan College, is an 
old daguerreotype which was taken from a portrait of a cen- 
tury agp, a beautiful likeness of the face of this eighteenth 
century spiritual enthusiast, the foremost and grandest figure 
in Mission history. 

Nine of the Missions were founded by Father Junipero. 
All were built, under the direction of the padres, by the Indian 
converts. The method of founding each was the same in all 
cases. A cross was planted upon the spot to be consecrated 
a booth built of the spreading boughs of the trees, and then 
with the sprinkling of holy water the spot was christened with 
the name of a saint. Mass was celebrated, the Indians being 




1901.] 



IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. 



629 




WITHIN THE WALLS OF SAN FERNANDO THE TREATY OF PEACE WAS SIGNED 
WHICH YIELDED CALIFORNIA TO THE UNITED STATES. 

summoned by the clangor of the bells which were swung above 
the rude altar. Two friars were appointed to take charge of 
the holy spot, to win converts, to baptize and teach and bring 
into the fold all the Indians in the vicinity, and later the Mis- 
sions themselves were erected. 

The first Mission founded was at San Diego in 1769, where, 
upon July 16, Father Serra and his band chanted the grand 
hymn of " Veni Creator" and laid the corner-stone of civiliza- 
tion in California. Only a pile of crumbling ruins, a few olive- 
trees and waving palms, are left to-day to show where this 
sainted friar commenced his heroic labors. 

San Juan Capistrano, founded also by Father Serra in 1776, 
has been a pile of ruins since the year of the great tremlor, 
1812. This edifice, stately in its desolation, splendid even in 
ruins, was built of stone in the form of a Latin cross. Its 
walls were five feet thick, its dome eighty feet high, and in 
its belfry with four arches hung the consecrated bells. With 
its round tower and Roman arches, and Jts long, covered corri- 
dors, it was by far the most imposing in its architecture of all 
erected by the Franciscan fathers. It was almost exactly like 



630 



THE PRESERVATION OF THE MISSIONS 



[Aug., 



J\ 



that of San Francisco Antigua, in Guatemala also an earth- 
quake ruin. 

In the interior may still be seen brilliant frescoing, Byzan. 
tine patterns of superb red, pale green, and soft grays ; also 
the niches in which the statues stood behind the high altars, 
as well as bits of carving in the stone capitals, or pilasters. 
In the centre of the dome-shaped ceiling of the sacristy is a 
curious head of Indian workmanship, and the long, arched cor- 
ridors are still paved with the large, square tiles which were 
used in the century past. 

This grand gray ruin may be seen to-day by the tourist 
who speeds in the palace car past the little hamlet of San 

Juan. If he visits 
the spot he may 
wander through 
room after room, 
court after court, 
through the long 
corridors with 
their broad Ro- 
man arches, over 
fallen pillars and 
through many 
carved doorways, 
and he cannot but 
shudder as he 
thinks of the great 
earthquake which 
destroyed this 
stately edifice, and 
which under its 
crumbling walls buried thirty-three kneeling worshippers, who 
upon that day were celebrating the feast of the Immaculate 
Conception. Since that time the orchards of olives, the stately 
palms, the flowing fountains, the aqueducts, the cisterns, the 
zanjas have all disappeared. The stone carvings are defaced, 
the confessionals worm-eaten, and in the quadrangle the sum- 
mer suns and winter rains have covered with vegetation the 
many untrodden thresholds. In the superb arches still hang 
the bells, full of legend and story ; the bells that have rung 
for war, for peace, that have seen the rise and fall of Mission 
life, and now hang silently in the ruins. Besides the bells but 
little else has been sacred to time or its spoilers, yet the ruin 




IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, 



631 




has a grandeur 
and beauty most 
appealing, and is 
often called the 
" Melrose Abbey 
of the West " 

The Mission of 
San Fernando 
Rey was founded 
in 1797 in honor of 
Ferdinand V., 
King of Aragon. 
It is one of the 
Missions built after the death of Father Serra, and "became 
so prosperous that it was the belief that his soul passed directly 
into heaven, and that this great wave of concession was the 
result of his prayers." 

The Mission is twenty-one miles from Los Angeles. Until 
1820 San Fernando was in a flourishing condition, but it is now 
almost in ruins. Around this venerable pile lie mounds of de"- 
bris, but it is quite easy to trace the original scope of the 
buildings. The old church, the protecting walls and ranges of 
cells, the pillared walks, the beautiful arched corridors, the 
famous fountain, and high-walled olive groves and gardens, are 
all easily located, while the old palms rise high where they 
have waved their rustling leaves for a century of time. Near 
by is the monastery, which is 240 feet long by 60 feet wide. 
The old cloisters, the red tiled roof, the quaint window-grill, 
and the great chimney form details of a whole which is indeed 
an architectural treasure. The out-buildings, now gone, once 
measured a linear mile, and were grouped in patios. Here are 
still traces of the aqueducts, cisterns, and the store-house, which 

at one time, it was 
said, held $100,000 
worth of produce 
within its walls. 
Even a larger sum 
than this must have 
been represented by 
the great extent of 
buildings. Many of 
the beautiful altar 
ornaments are kept 




632 THE PRESERVATION OF THE MISSIONS [Aug., 

in the chapel, which is well preserved : quaint silver censers, 
carved wooden figures of the saints, and fine old paintings, all 
of which came from Spain and are beautiful in design and 
workmanship. The historic value of this Mission is augmented 
by the fact of its occupation by General John C. Fremont, who 
signed within its walls the armistice which established peace 
between the United States and California at the close of the 
Mexican War. 

The Mission of San Luis Rey is in the Santa Margarita 
Valley, forty miles from San Diego. It is located upon a 
small hill, thus becoming a dominant feature of the landscape 
for many miles around. This Mission was founded in 1798, 
and is the one Mission which remained prosperous long after 
secularization. The church, with its tower, open belfry, and 
long rows of arches, is still very beautiful and well preserved. 
It has not materially altered iince the days of the early Fran- 
ciscans. Here is the grave of Father Zalvidera, even yet cared 
for, and strewn at times with fresh flowers. The court-yard 
still contains its fountain, though the long corridors and arches 
have fallen and are in various stages of dilapidation. The 
church proper, however, is in serviceable condition. In 1893 
it was made a Franciscan college for preparing boys for the 
priesthood. Upon May 12 of that year three boys from Mexico 
were invested with the habits of the order as postulants. At 
this interesting service there was a great concourse of people, 
tourists, Mexicans, Indians, besides church dignitaries, including 
the -Bishop of Monterey and Los Angeles, the Vicar-General, 
the Commissioner-General of the Franciscan Order of Mexico, 
with three fathers from the College of Nuestra Seflora de 
Guadalupe in Zacatecas, who brought with them the novices. 
The services were of the deepest interest. Father O'Keefe, of 
Santa Barbara, visits this point regularly, and four padres are 
permanently stationed here. 

Pala, an assist encia of San Luis Rey, 'founded in 1816, is 
a chapel twenty-four miles from Oceanside. While the build- 
ings, which formed a square enclosure of about two hundred 
and fifty feet, are in ruins, yet the quaint bell-tower, which 
stands some distance from the Mission buildings, is perfect. 
It has two stories besides the foundation, and each contains a 
bell, the bells hanging from arches. A short flight of steps 
built in the foundation leads up to the lower bell. Around 
this quaint landmark is a lonely cemetery, and simple black 
and white crosses mark the spot where lie those who once mur- 



igoi.] 



IN SOUTHERN CALIPORNIA. 



633 




Miss TESSA KELSO, ONE OF THE FIRST WORKERS IN THE PRESERVATION OF 

THE MISSIONS. 

mured a Pater Noster within the walls of the crumbling struc- 
ture. Mass is celebrated in the chapel every other Sunday by 
a priest from San Luis Rey. 

The Missions of San Fernando and San Juan Capistrano, 
being located near Los Angeles, have long been objects of 
great interest to its citizens, who at different times and sea- 
sons made pilgrimages to these historic spots. They looked 
with dismay upon the disintegration of the noble structures, 
keenly alive to the fact that they were monuments of energy, 
of courage, of religious fervor, and of an advancing civilization 
that should not perish. It was lamented that the hungry 
VOL.- LX xiii 42 



6 j4 THE PRESERVATION OF THE MISSIONS [Aug., 

tooth of decay had so long been permitted to gnaw upon them 
undisturbed and unhindered, and it was felt that the people 
of to day owed to the past, to the brave, heroic conquering 
force of the old padres, that the structures be preserved. 

In 1892 this sentiment crystallized into an organization 
known as the " Association for the Preservation of the Mis- 
sions." The chief worker in this organization was Miss Tessa 
Kelso, then the Los Angeles City Librarian. She had able 
coadjutors in the Very Rev. Father Adam, rector of the Cathe- 
dral of St. Vibiana, V. M., Los Angeles, and vicar-general ; 
also Dan Antonio and Seftora Mariana Coronel, all of whom 
have been intimately and prominently associated with the 
annals of California. Mrs. Mary E. Stilson was elected secre- 
tary, and more than one hundred names were recorded by 
her on the membership rolls of the new organization. Although 
plans were formulated and some considerable money was raised, 
yst no definite wjrk was accomplished. Excursions were made 
to San Luis Rey and San Juan Capistrano, and plans outlined 
for their restoration, Miss Kelso being chairman of the acting 
board and most enthusiastic in her efforts to advance the 
work, which, however, moved slowly. In 1895 Miss Kelso re- 
signed her position as librarian in Los Angeles, accepting an 
off ^r from Scribner's Sons in New York. Don Coronel passed 
away, and others who were most interested in the association 
were scattered. Thus, for a time, the work for the preserva- 
tion of the Missions languished. 

In 1896 a new impetus was given to the work, and an or- 
ganization was effected and incorporated under the name of 
The Landmarks Club, with Charles F. Lummis at the head. 
Tne articles of incorporation stated that it was " for the sys- 
tematic 'and permanent preservation from vandalism and decay 
of the historic remains, monuments, and landmarks of Southern 
California, chief of these being the seven venerable Missions 
and their dependent chapels, from Santa Barbara on the north 
to San Diego on the South " The province of the club was 
to "raise and apply funds with every safeguard of business, 
legal, and artistic care." The club was most happy in secur- 
ing for its head Mr. Lunmis, who is a well-known author and 
authority upon Spanish civilization. With Mr. Lummis' inti- 
mate knowledge of the Indians and the Spanish people, and 
his closeness of sympathy with the work of the preservation 
of the Missions, he has proved a most able head, and he has 
had the effect of bringing in touch with the club people from 



IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. 



635 



all parts of the 
United States. 
Through h i s 
magazine, The 
Land of Sun- 
shine, Mr. Lum- 
mis has pre- 
sented most 
vividly the 
value of these 
beautiful o 1 d 
structures of a 
past century, 
lying along the 
cordon of the 
King's H i g h- 
way, with all 
their tragic and 
romantic h i sf- 
tory, and their 
struggle be- 
tween the years 
o f barbarism 
and civilization. 
Mrs. Stilson 
was elected sec- 
retary of the 
new club, being 

fairly in touch with the work of the other organization, and 
the funds which had been raised by that society were turned 
over by Miss Kelso to The Landmarks Club. The requisite 
for club membership was simply the payment of the annual 
dues of one dollar. There were no outside expenses of any 
kind, so that all the money collected went at once into the 
treasury to be applied upon the work of the restoration of the 
Mission buildings. Father Adam was also greatly interested in 
The Landmarks Club, and, through his influence and that of 
Bishop Mora and others, leases were secured for a term of 
years upon the Missions of San Juan Capistrano and San Fer- 
nando, with the preference to the club as purchaser should the 
property ever be sold. Each movement made was practical, 
each step was taken with "the concurrent judgment of the 
historical student, the architect, the lawyer, the business man, ' 




CHARLES F. LUMMIS, HEAD OK THE LANDMARKS CLUB. 



636 



THE PRESERVATION OF THE MISSIONS 



[Aug., 



and thus the 
work of The 
Landmarks 
Club was com- 
menced. Peo- 
ple from all 
parts of the 
Union have 
sent the one 
dollar annual 
dues, thus be- 
coming mem- 
bers of the 
club, and the 
membership 
rolls record 
names of many 
distinguished 
men and wo- 
men, as well as 
ass o c i a t i o n s 
and societies, 
in practical 
sympathy with 
this work. 

Sin Juan Capistrano w,as considered in many ways the 
most important of the landmarks, and therefore the initial 
work of the club was at this Mission, it being directly under 
the supervision of Judge Richard Egan, of Capistrano, whose 
personal efforts have been most valuable to the club. Rev. 
Father O'Keefe, of Santa Barbara, has also been in close 
sympathy with the movement from its incipiency. Generous 
was the response when the work of the club became fairly 
known. Railway officials contributed transportation, lumber 
merchants gave material, artists, engravers, notaries, journalists 
freely added their services. Society inaugurated a series of 
entertainments, the tourist and the stranger assisted, and many 
Eastern publications helped in the good work. 

At San Juan Capistrano the simple and most pressing 
needs were studied. The fallen roofs on various portions of 
the buildings were replaced with roofs of Oregon pine covered 
with tiles, so that the general appearance is just as in the old 
days when the Mission was the centre of California life. The 




MRS. MARY E. STILSON, SECRETARY OF THE 
LANDMARKS CLUB. 



IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. 



637 




breaches were 
repaired with 
solid masonry, 
new door and 
window frames 
put in, and the 
stone vault se- 
cured with 
iron tie-rods. 
Scrupulous 
care was taken 
to preserve al- 
ways the orig- 
inal character 
of the building. 
Colonnadesand 
room walls 
were tied with 
bolts from side 
to side, and the 
stone pillars 
restored to 
their original 
beauty, which 
before were a 

menace to the two noble domes, which were all that remained 
of the great stone church. To-day the chief buildings, which 
cover several acres of ground, are saved. They have sub- 
stantial roofs, their walls are sound, and they are ready to face 
another hundred years of time. 

The next point of attack made by The Landmarks Club 
was at San Fernando. Upon September 9, 1897, the anniver- 
sary of "Admission Diy" in California, The Landmarks Club 
commemorated the centennial of the founding of the Mission 
by an excursion to this spot. Hundreds of people went upon 
this excursion, and the day marked a new impetus in the club 
work, as the impression of the historic value of the pile was 
greatly augmented by visiting the ruins. Speeches were made 
touching the history of the building and its founding by Fray 
Fermin Francisca de Lasuen, father president of the Missions 
of California, and its dedication to San Fernando, King of 
Spain, more than one hundred years ago. Upon this day the 
great cloisters were most beautiful in the brilliant sunshine, 



FATHER ADAM GAVE EVERY ASSISTANCE TO THE LANDMARKS CLUB. 



638 



THE PRESERVATION OF THE MISSIONS 



[Aug., 



and through the venerable arches the distant purple peaks and 
the patches of blue sky were full of picturesque beauty. 
Many people lingered in the old chapel, admiring the brilliant 
frescoing, the quaint altar ornaments and the pictures of the 
saints; others wandered through the old olive orchard, or traced 
the outline of aqueducts and vaults and cisterns in the 
quadrangle. 

Valuable work has been done at San Fernando since that 
day. The main buildings have all been repaired, and the dis- 
integrating work of summer heats and winter rains has been 
stayed. While of course the minor buildings cannot all be 
preserved, yet many have come in for a share of attention. 

Some work has also been done by the club at San Diego 
de Alcola, where rests the martyr, Father Jaume, in whose 
blood California was baptized in 1775. But this Mission is too 
much of a ruin to do more than protect the main roof and 
certain portions of the walls from crumbling further. 




MANY PEOPLE LINGERED IN THE OLD CHAPEL. 

The work of The Landmarks Club has been of the greatest 
value from an archaeological and historical stand-point. From 
its incipiency it has had the cordial co-operation of the Catho- 
lic fathers. Two years ago Father Adam's failing health 
made a change of climate necessary, and he is now in Barce- 
lona, his native city. In his going The Landmarks Club lost a 



IQOI.] 



IN SOUTHERN 



639 




valuable worker. With time the membership rolls of the club 
are gaining new names. The work is moving on for the pro- 
tection of these venerable piles, which represent, on the Pacific 
coast, an energy as forceful and a courage as true as that 
manifested by the Puritan Fathers upon the bleak and inhos- 
pitable shores of New England. Their restoration and preser- 
vation is a labor of love with the people, who are advancing 
its progress with zeal and devotion. 

Los Angeles. 




640 THE MAKING OF THE WEDDING GAKB. [Aug., 



c&e mflKine o? cfie WCDDIRG GJIRB. 

WDen I was weeping, 

In my pain I said: 

" I wearp or mp life would I were dead, 

In silence sleeping, 

WDere troubles are no more, nor cares, nor tears, 

nor visionarp Dopes, nor fears 

ike dark nigDt=$Dadows all around us creeping,- 

Would I were dead ! " 

Were deatD tut sleep, 

Small harm to wisD into tDe grace to creep, 

flnd no more weep ; 

But were death life, 

?ar truer life than that men live on earth : 

Were deatD but birtb 

Co life where cares, and tears, and toil, and strife 

no longer are, 

But which tDe Just alone 

WitD otDer 3ust map sDare, 

Could I still dare, 

Whose daps so little justice pet Dace shown. 

Co seek an entrance tDrougD deatD's golden gate ? 

Hap ! Rather for long season let me wait, 

flnd witD tDe embroiderp of lot>e and praper, 

find Dolp deeds, and suffering, prepare 

Che wedding garment for tDe wedding feast, 

CDat I be not tDe lowest or tDe least 

In tbat great tDrong. 

nor 'sDamed tDe Ropal Bridegroom's guests to greet 

WDose voices sweet 

Catch up tDe angelic song 

Jlnd 6olp, fiolp, Bolp, witDout end repeat. 

FRANK C. DEVAS, S.J. 

Mount St. Mary's College, Chesterfield, England. 



1901.] THE INDIANS SINCE THE REVOLUTION. 641 




THE INDIANS SINCE THE REVOLUTION. 

BY WILLIAM SETON, LL.D. 

HATEVER may be said of the injustice and 
cruelty which have too often marked the con- 
duct of the whites as individuals in their deal- 
ings with the Indians since the Revolution, our 
government has tried to treat them considerately 
and justly. Hardly had peace been proclaimed in 1783 when 
Congress ordered the secretary of war to inform the different 
tribes on the frontier that the United States wished to make 
treaties of friendship with them. This we did when our fron- 
tier line ran only about three hundred miles west of the sea- 
board and with the massacre of Wyoming Valley very fresh in 
our memories. 

The first formal treaty was made with the Delawares, a 
tribe which had formerly lived on the Delaware River. But 
the Dutch had bought so much of their land that they had 
been obliged to move inland in order to procure game, and 
at the time of which we speak there were no Delawares east 
of the Alleghanies. By the treaty lands were reserved to them 
along the Miami, in what is now Ohio. The treaty system 
thus inaugurated, with tribes as separate nations, continued 
for almost a century, resulting in 360 treaties and not a little 
confusion, so that Congress has finally decided no longer to 
deal with the Indians in this manner, but to view them all as 
wards of the nation. 

In 1785 Congress passed an ordinance for the regulation of 
Indian affairs, by which ordinance two districts were created, a 
northern and a southern, each provided with a superintendent 
to act in conjunction with the authorities cf the State; and 
all transactions between the superintendents and the Indians 
were to be " held, transacted, and done at the outposts oc- 
cupied by the troops of the United States." The clause relat- 
ing to " authorities of the States " was inserted to allay any 
jealousy in regard to States' rights. 

By an act passed two years later the States were authorized 
to appoint Indian commissioners, and these commissioners 



642 THE INDIANS SINCE THE REVOLUTION. [Aug., 

sometimes united with the federal superintendents in making 
treaties. And as the latter were under the orders of the War 
Department, this branch of the government, thus early in our 
history, found the red man placed in its charge. From 1798 to 
1834 the Indian superintendents, and those who were to act as 
agents and traders, received their appointment from the 
President, although after 1818 they had to be confirmed by 
the Senate. 

Government trade with the Indians, duly authorized by 
Congress, began in 1786. By this trade the Indians were to 
have their wants supplied without profit, furs being taken in 
exchange for the goods furnished them, and the official in 
charge of all the trading stations was appointed by the Presi- 
dent and called the " Superintendent of Indian Trade," whose 
office was at Georgetown, D. C. It was he who named the 
agents who were to carry on the trade, and what the Indians 
required was bought in open market, the government furnishirg 
the capital about $300,000. The furs taken in exchange for 
goods were sold by the superintendent of Indian trade, and 
the proceeds went into the treasury. In 1821 there were 
trading stations at Prairie du Chien and seven other points 
on the frontier. But they were occasionally changed from ore 
spot to another to suit the Indians' convenience. 

The root idea of this government trading system was to 
protect the red men against unjust traders. It served a good 
purpose, and the profit was wholly on the side of the Indians. 
But in 1822 it was abolished, the American Fur Company and 
the Missouri Fur Company wealthy and responsible private 
organizations taking its place. In 1832 the office of Com- 
missioner of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Affairs 
were created by Congress. This bureau was attached to the 
War Department. But it was thought to be too expensive 
and irresponsible, and in 1834 an act was passed " to provide for 
the organization of the Department of Indian Affairs." This 
department divided the Indian country into three districts, 
each in charge of an officer of the army. This division and 
control of the Indian country lasted until 1849, when the 
Indian Bureau in the War Department was transferred to the 
Department of the Interior, which had just been created ; and 
it nov renains in this department, with a commissioner under 
the general charge of the Secretary of the Interior. 

This may be an improvement on the past, yet it must be 
allowed that the management of the Indians by the Wtr 



1901.] THE INDIANS SINCE THE REVOLUTION. 643 

Department for well-nigh three-quarters of a century was de- 
serving of high praise. 

Having given this brief account of the relations between 
the government and the red men since the Revolution, it may 
be interesting to see what the church has done for them in 
the same period. 

John Gilmary Shea, the historian, has graphically described 
the labors and sufferings of Catholic missionaries among the 
Indians in Colonial times ; and it is a tale more full of roman- 
tic interest than any novel. We are not surprised to learn 
that for many years after the missions had been destroyed 
the Black-Gowns were fondly remembered by some of the 
poor red men. They believed that the black-gowns would one 
day return, and here and there in Indian burial grounds were 
seen little wooden crosses. 

The last of the old band of Jesuit missionaries in the 
West was Father Peter Potier. We find him at St. Joseph's 
in 1751, and he often preached in the Illinois country. He 
died at Detroit in 1781. 

At the close of our War of Independence Father Flaget, 
afterwards Bishop of Louisville, was laboring among the 
Pottawatomies and Miamis. This mission had been founded a 
hundred years before by the Blessed Marquette, and although 
many of the Indians had relapsed into paganism, they had a 
tradition that black-gowns were powerful medicine men, and 
when Father Flaget appeared he was warmly welcomed and 
he baptized a great many. 

At about the same time Father Rivet, who had been driven 
out of France by the Revolution, was preaching to other tribes 
in Indiana and Illinois, and once he crossed the Mississippi 
and preached to the Sioux. 

But it was not until 1815, when Dubourg was made Bishop 
of New Orleans, that work among the Indian tribes was 
systematically renewed. This zealous prelate sent La Crcix 
(at that time chaplain to the Ladies of the Sacred Heart at 
Florissant, near the junction of the Mississippi and Missouri) 
to found a mission among the Osages. In i82:|. the Lazarists 
founded a mission at Prairie du Chien and a Lazarist father 
began to preach on the Arkansas River. 

In the same year the Jesuits opened a school for Indian 
boys at Florissant ; and it was now that Father Van Quicken- 
borne, first superior of the Jesuits in the West, drew up, at 



644 THE INDIANS SINCE THE REVOLUTION. [Aug., 

the suggestion of the government, a plan for the civilization 
of the Indians. Although it was never put in operation, it was 
well thought out, and had it been realized the fate of the red 
man might have been a happier one. The plan was as follows : 
" 1st, Our little Indian Seminary (at Florissant) should con- 
tinue to support the present number of boys from eight to 
twelve years of age, while the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, in 
our neighborhood, should bring up about as many girls of the 
same tribe. They should be taken young, from eight to 
twelve years of age, to habituate them more easily to the cus- 
toms and industry of civil life, and impress more deeply on 
their hearts the principles of religion. 2d, After five or six 
years' education, it would be good that each youth should 
choose a wife among the pupils of the Sacred Heart before 
returning to his tribe. 3d, Within two or three years two mis- 
sionaries should go to reside in that nation to gain their con- 
fidence and esteem, and gradually persuade a number to settle 
together on a tract to be set apart by government, agricul- 
tural implements and other necessary tools for the new estab- 
lishment to be furnished. 4th, As soon as this new town was 
formed, some of the married couples from our establishments 
should be sent there with one of the said missionaries, who 
should be immediately replaced, so that two should always be 
left with the body of the tribe till it was gradually absorbed 
in the civilized colony. $th, Our missionaries should then 
pass to another tribe, and proceed successively with each in 
the same manner as the first. 6th, As the number of mission- 
aries and our resources increased, the civilization of two or 
more tribes might be undertaken at once." 

In 1828 Father Van Quickenborne set out from St. Louis 
and made an extensive tour through what is now the Indian 
Territory. Tribes were already being sent thither by the gov- 
ernment, and in almost every tribe he found one or more 
Catholics. In the course of his journey he fell in with two 
Flatheads, whom he baptized ; and when they got back to 
their distant home, in Oregon, they spread a report that the 
black-gowns were coming. In 1834 Rev. F. N. Blanchet left 
Canada for Oregon. It was he who conceived the idea of the 
"Catholic ladder," which represented on paper the truths and 
mysteries of the Faith in chronological order, and which was 
admirably suited to the Indian mind. In 1836 Father Van 
Quickenborne, with Father Hoecken and two lay brother?, 
founded a mission among the Kickapoos, on the Missouri ; 



THE INDIANS SINCE THE REVOLUTION. 645 

and in the same year Father De Smet began his long labors 
in the Rocky Mountains. 

In 1841 Madame de Galitzin, provincial of the order of the 
Sicred Heart in America, opened a school among the Potta- 
watomies on Sugar Creek, one of the tributaries of the Osage 
River. In 1843 Father Blanchet was appointed vicar-apostolic 
of Oregon Territory. There were 6,000 Catholic Indians in the 
territory. He had under him 26 clergymen and 7 female re- 
ligious. The total number of Indians in Oregon was estimated 
at 110.000. 

In 1846 the Sisters of Loretto opened a school for Indian 
girls among the Osages, in what is to-day the Indian Terri- 
tory. 

In 1874 the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions was estab- 
lished. The principal work of the Bureau is the establishment 
of boarding and day schools among the Indian tribes and the 
procurement of funds for their maintenance. It was by decree 
of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore officially recognized. 
In 1894 the old committee of prelates was superseded by a 
corporation chartered by an Act of the Assembly of the State 
of Maryland. 

There were in 1867, exclusive of Alaska, 306,475 Indians in 
the United States. In 1887 there were 247,761, exclusive of 
Alaska. These figures tell their own story. Forty years ago 
Father De Smet wrote: "The same lot that the Indians east 
of the Mississippi have experienced will, at no distant day, 
overtake those who dwell on the west of the same river." 
And more than forty years ago Black Hawk, in a celebrated 
speech, said : " Like serpents the pale faces have glided in 
among us ; they have taken possession of our hearthstones. 
The opossum and the deer have disappeared at their approach. 
We are overwhelmed with misery. The very contact of the 
pale faces has poisoned us." This Indian, who was born on 
Rock River, Illinois, in 1767, belonged to the finest tribe, 
physically and morally, on the continent, viz., the Sacs and 
Foxes. In July, 1830, at Prairie du Chien, Keokuk, another 
leader of the same tribe, seeing the inevitable, made a treaty 
in which it was agreed to sell their hunting grounds to the 
government and move further west. Black Hawk held aloof 
from the council, loudly expressing his anger ; and but for 
Keokuk he might have persuaded all the Sacs and Foxes to 
join him in making one last, desperate stand for their rights 
on the line of the Mississippi. 



646 THE INDIANS SINCE THE REVOLUTION. [Aug., 

It was well for the whites that Keokuk's influence was 
greater than Black Hawk's. "Braves, I am your chief," said 
Keokuk. " It is my duty to rule you as a father at home, 
and to lead you to war if you are determined to go. But in 
this war there is no middle course. The United States is a 
great power, and unless we conquer that great nation, we 
must perish. I will lead you instantly against the pale faces 
on one condition ; that is, that we shall first put all our 
women and children to death, and then resolve that, having 
crossed the Mississippi, we shall never return, but die among 
the graves of our forefathers rather than yield to the white 
man." 

When Black Hawk, in the spring of 1832, began the war 
which is called by his name, he had only a third of the war- 
riors with him. But the whole frontier was panic-stricken. 
General Scott hastened with regular troops to Fort Dearborn 
(Chicago), and Governor Reynolds, of Illinois, called for volun- 
teers. The place of rendezvous was John Dixon's ferry, on 
Rock River, Illinois ; and in camp at the ferry were several 
men who in after years became noted: viz, Lieutenant-Colonel 
Zichary Taylor, Lieutenant Robert Anderson, Lieutenant Jef- 
ferson Davis, and a volunteer named Abraham Lincoln. 

On August 27, 1832, Black Hawk was defeated and taken 
prisoner at the battle of Bidaxe. He was sent first to Jeffer- 
son Barracks, Missouri, then to Fortress Monroe. But his 
spirit was unbroken, and when brought into the presence of 
President Jackson he exclaimed : " I am a man and you are 
another." When he was set free he returned to the West and 
made his home on the Das Moines River, Davis County, Iowa. 
Black Hawk never had but one wife, an unusual thing with an 
Indian, and she was devoted to him. He died in 1838. "His 
feet were to the east and his head to the west. He had no 
coffin; but was laid at full length on a board, with four fine 
blankets around him." Black Hawk's head was finely shaped; 
he had a Roman nose, and stood five feet eleven inches in his 
moccasins. Bat in spite of his widow's watchfulness his grave 
was desecrated. First the head was taken away, and on 
another winter's night the rest of the bones disappeared. But 
they were subsequently got together and placed in the rooms 
of the Burlington Geological and Historical Society, where 
they were consumed by fire in 1855. Keokuk's fate was dif- 
ferent. He was rewarded by General Scott for having kept 
tw3-thirds of the Sacs and Foxes neutral during the Black 



1901.] THE INDIANS SINCE THE REVOLUTION. 647 

Hawk war, and he made several visits to Washington, where 
he was loaded with presents. He had seven wives, and was 
distinguished for an inordinate love of money. Mr. Catlin, 
who saw him in 1834 and 1838, was much impressed with the 
influence he wielded over his tribe. He died in 1848. Keo- 
kuk's portrait hangs in the gallery of the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion, and his bust is in the Marble room of the United States 
Senate. The late General Dodge, of Iowa, said of him : 

"I knew Keokuk very well. . . . It was a long-cherished 
idea of his to unite the Indian tribes in a great confederation, 
each band having a distinctively defined territory, and all to 
be kept at peace by arbitration of great councils. Two things 
stood in the way of this : the unsteadiness of the Indians 
themselves for such a method of life, and the desire of the 
whites for the lands east of the Missouri River." In October, 
i8$3, by permission of the Sscretary of the Interior, Keokuk's 
remains were brought from the reservation in Kansas to the 
city of Keokuk, Iowa, where they now lie under a beautiful 
monument in Rand Park, on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi. 
The monument can be seen from three States Iowa, Illinois, 
and Missouri. 

We believe the best account of the North American Indi- 
ans is to be found in the Notes of George Catlin, written half 
a century ago, and included in "Smithsonian Report, 1885, 
Part II." 

Living in a country where bison were numerous, the Indi- 
ans generally made their lodges or wigwams of the skins of 
these animals. After being dressed, the skins were arranged 
in the form of a tent supported by twenty or thirty poles 
twenty-five feet high, with an opening at the top for the 
smoke to escape. When they wanted to move the village to 
another spot, it took the squaws but a few minutes to take 
down the wigwams ; and they generally moved half a dozen 
times during the summer, following the wanderings of the 
bison. The skins of the lodges were sometimes dressed as 
white as linen and ornamented with porcupine quills and scalp- 
locks. O.i one side might be seen a rude painting of the 
Great or G}od Spirit, on the other side a representation of 
the Evil Spirit. 

When the chief had made up his mind to change the site 
of the village, he despatched his runners of whom he always 
kept several in his employment to give notice of his inten- 
tion, abDut an hour before the time to move. When the time 



648 I 'HE INDIANS SINCE THE REVOLUTION. [Aug., 

came the poles of the chief's wigwam were taken down by his 
squaws, and the skins flapping in the wind was the signal for 
five or six hundred other wigwams to fall likewise. In two 
minutes they were all flat on the ground. Then the poles of 
every lodge were divided into two bunches, the smaller ends 
of each bunch being attached to the shoulders of a pony, 
while the butt ends dragged behind. The poles were kept to- 
gether by a brace, and securely fastened to them was the 
household furniture. On top of the furniture sat the children 
and all the wi/es except one. This one straddled the horse, 
with a good pack on her own back, and sometimes she had a 
papoose at her breast. Behind the horse came the dogs of 
the family, each dog that was old enough, or not too cunning 
to hide himself, having also something to carry. And in this 
way, stretched out sometimes for miles, with the men riding 
in front and in the rear, the village crept over the prairie on 
tha trail of the bison. Waen the children were very young 
the mothers carried them on their backs, often in pretty cra- 
dles. Trie infant was tied to a straight board, its feet resting 
on a hoop which formed the base of the cradle, and the cradle 
was held by a strap passing across the mother's forehead, 
while a little toy of some kind hung within easy reach. The 
child was carried thus until it was about six months old ; and 
if during this period it died, the mother, after burying it, filled 
the cradle with black quills and feathers, then continued to 
carry it on her back wherever she went for a twelvemonth, 
with Tas much care as if the young one were still in it; and 
when busy sewing or at some other indoor work, she would 
set the cradle against the side of the wigwam and then lov- 
ingly prattle to it. An Indian woman seldom had more than 
two or three children, and the most probable reason for this 
was the uncommon length of time they suckled them, keeping 
them at the breast generally to the age of two, sometimes 
even four years. The first thing an Indian did in the morn- 
ing was to bathe, if there was a lake or river near, after which 
his body was rubbed from head to foot with bear's grease, to 
protect it from the bite of mosquitoes. There was a separate 
spot for men and women to bathe, the women's bathing place 
being guarded by sentinels. In swimming, instead of parting 
the hands under the chin, an Indian threw his body first on 
one side, then on the other, lifting one arm entirely out of the 
water and reaching with it as far forward as possible. 

Every village had its vapor bath. It was a lodge made of 



1 90 1.] THE INDIANS SINCE THE REVOLUTION. 649 

skins tightly sewed together. In the middle of the lodge were 
two walls of stone six feet long, three feet high, and two and 
one-half feet apart. Across this space were laid a number of 
sticks, and on the sticks was placed a bathing tub or crib, 
made of willow boughs, large enough for a person to lie in. 
Just outside the lodge was a small furnace, and when any one 
wanted a bath, a squaw kindled a fire and heated to a red 
heat some large, round stones kept at hand for the purpose. 
When all was ready the bather got into the tub, while the 
woman, seizing one of the hot stones between two sticks, tied 
together somewhat like a pair of tongs, thrust it under the 
side of the tub, then ran out for another and another, until 
presently the tub was lined with hot stones ; and while she 
was doing this another squaw kept dashing cold water upon 
them, which caused a cloud of steam to rise and the bather 
was soon drenched in perspiration. 

An Indian woman never ate with her husband. At a feast 
men formed the first group : squaws, children, and dogs all 
trooping in together when they had finished. Polygamy ex- 
isted among all the Indian tribes. A chief would sometimes 
have a dozen wives ; for, as it was necessary for him to be 
liberal and entertain in order to keep up his popularity, the 
more handmaids and drudges he had in his wigwam the better. 
His table was sure to be most bountifully supplied, and at the 
end of the year he had the greatest number of robes to sell to 
the fur company, for it was his squaws who prepared them for 
market. There was little courtship among the Indians, the 
young woman being generally won by making presents to her 
father. The latter seated himself in the midst of a group of 
his friends and kinsmen, while the lover laid the gifts at his 
feet, and when these got to be sufficiently numerous he allowed 
his daughter to be taken away. 

As among white people, every Indian village had its fop or 
dude. He strutted about in beautiful robes adorned with quills 
of ducks and plaits of sweet-scented grass, and with a fan in 
his right hand made of a wild turkey's tail. But there were 
no scalp-locks or grizzly bear's claws dangling from his waist. 
He was little respected, and yet the young squaws could not 
help looking at him. 

Mr. Catlin says thit among the forty-eight tribes he visited 
eighteen men out of twenty were by nature without beards ; 
while the very few who were born with beards plucked them out 
at the age of puberty, using a pair of clam-shells for tweezers. 

VOL. LXXIII. 43 



650 THE INDIANS SINCE THE REVOLUTION. [Aug., 

The Indian word signifying medicine, or medicine bag, was 
a word of great import, and its exact meaning should be un- 
derstood. The word here means mystery, and Catlin became 
a great medicine man because of his mysterious art portrait 
painting. Every Indian carried his medicine bag religiously 
closed, and seldom if ever opened. He looked to it for safety 
through life, for it contained, he believed, a supernatural charm, 
a gift from the Great Spirit. When a boy got to the age of 
fourteen or fifteen he was said to be " forming his medicine." 
He now left his father's wigwam and stayed away for several 
days, hidden in some secluded nook, fasting and appealing to 
the Great Spirit. When he fell asleep during this time of fast- 
ing and prayer, the first beast, bird, or reptile he dreamt of 
he believed to be the thing designated to be his guardian 
through life. 

As soon as he returned home he took his bDw and arrows 
and set out to procure the creature he had seen in his dream, 
and out of its skin he made his medicine bag. For no price 
would he sell this, and if he lost it in battle he was disgraced 
until he had got another one from an enemy killed by his own 
hands. 

Wnen an Indian died the body was dressed in its finest 
robes, painted and supplied with bow and arrows, pipe, flint, 
and enough provisions to last him during his journey to the 
Happy Hunting Grounds. Then, having placed his medicine 
bag in his hand, a fresh bison skin was bound tightly round 
him, and around this were wrapped other skins soaked in water 
so as to exclude the air. A scaffold of four upright posts, 
about ten feet high, was now erected, and on this the body 
was put, always with its feet toward the rising sun. The ceme- 
tery was called " The village of the dead." 

Under these scaffolds might be seen fathers, mothers, wives, 
and children howling and tearing their hair. When in time a 
scaffold rotted and fell down, the nearest kinsman to the dead 
^,crson buried all the bones except the skull. This he placed 
in a circle of other skulls on the prairie all the faces looking 
inward resting it on a bunch of wild sage. To this spot the 
squaws would come with their needle-work, and sit for hours 
sewing and talking to the skulls of their husbands or children ; 
and sometimes they would fall asleep with their arms around 
them. 

For a very full and interesting account of the Indian dances 
and games of ball we refer the reader to Mr. Catlin's Notes. 



igoi.] THE INDIANS SINCE THE REVOLUTION. 651 

The Indian has been called cruel, and when on"? the war- 
path he no doubt was. But the white man who found in him 
an enemy, hid too often been himself in the wrong and had 
struck the first blow. 

In 1805 Lewis and Clark ascended the Missouri, crossed the 
Rocky Mountains, went as far as the Pacific, visited thirty of 
the most warlike tribes, and returned, making a journey of 
eight thausand miles, without ever having been obliged to use 
a weapon ; every Indian was their friend. Clark said years 
afterwards: "We visited more than 200,000 of these poor peo- 
ple, and they everywhere treated us with hospitality and kind- 
ness." 

An old army offi:er, who has spent the best part of his life 
in the far West, writes to us : "I believe it to be true that 
eight out of every ten Indian wars in the last forty years have 
been brought on by some act of cruelty perpetrated by the 
white man on the red-skin." He then goes on to speak of the 
immense emigration that he saw crossing the plains to Califor- 
nia; and he adds : "As a rule the Indians treated the emigrant 
pissing through their country with kindness, often supplying 
him with the means of subsistence. It was only after some 
white mm (drunk possibly), believing himself strong enough to 
do so with impunity, committed some gross act of cruelty upon 
them, that the Indians retaliated ; unfortunately not always 
upon the immediate author of the outrage." Father De Smet 
tells the same story. 

The last bison in Illinois crossed the Mississippi in 1821. 
The bison has now disappeared, excepting a small herd pre- 
served in the National Park. The Indians are following the 
bison. But while a, few still remain, let us judge them with 
charity and be kind to them. They are the only Native 
Americans. 




652 REST. [Aug., 



I. 

JV|y eyes are Weary of the glare of day, 
The pomp of sunshine mock^s my heatfy h,eart ; 

pain Would 1 turn far from the crowded Way 
<A footsore pilgrim from, the jostling rqart. 

II. 

por I am tired of all the fickle sipW 
1 he tinselled splendor of wh,at men call life 

I he rose | plucked has Withered as go, 
1 he peace I sought is still but constant strife. 

III. 

-And noW | yearn for rest. LfoW Voices call, 
And beckon ghostly hands, as on 1 press 

I o teqt With death,. | he soothing shadoWs fall 
Y\nd gen,tly fold me in, their soft caress. 

WILOAM P. CANTWELL. 



1 90i.] A GLIMPSE OF PANAMA, OLD AND NEW. 



653 



A GLIMPSE OF PANAMA, OLD AMD NEW. 

BY M. MACMAHON. 

FOR a certain inspiration poet or artist 
i could hardly find a more suitable spot than 
Panama, old and new, and it would be a 
long time before he could free himself from 

the spell of its 
charm. 

We are at 
Colon. Our 
voyage from 
New York has 
been pleasant, 
if uneventful. 
I was awakened 
in the night by 
the babble of 
strange ton- 
gues, unintelli- 
gible cries, and 
hurrying on 
deck I saw in 
the distance the 
gleaming lights 
of what seemed 
quite a town. 
The morning's 
dawn brings 
disillusion ; the 
town resolves 

itself into a collection of scattered huts. Tropical verdure 
greets the eye on every side, the air is delightful with its 
odor of millions of wild flowers ; while the open sheds and 
slightly built houses tell very plainly we have reached a 
region where frosts are unknown. The town, named Colon 
(Spanish for Columbus) after its great discoverer, who is said 
to have touched here on his third voyage to America, is 
built upon the small coral island of Manzanillo. Part of the 




A REGION WHERE FROSTS ARE UNKNOWN. 



654 



A GLIMPSE OF PANAMA, OLD AXD NEW. [Aug., 



land has been reclaimed from the sea by fillirg in with earth 
dredged from the Panama Canal. It was a place of small im- 
portance until the discovery of gold in California made rapid 
communication between the Atlantic and Pacific greatly to be 
desired. 

In the parlance of the tourist, Colon may be " done " in 
half an hour. There is but one principal street, if indeed it is 
not a misnomer so to term it. There is one drive-way, " Paseo 
Coral." This encircles the island close upon or through the 
tropical forest, and affords charming glimpses of the ocean on 
one side, and the dense swamps, the islands lying between them 
and the mainland and the distant mountains, on the ether." 
Were it not for the funeral trains' that daily ascend to Mount 
Hope, the cemetery near by, one would be apt to forget in 




LUXURIANT UNDERGROWTH OF THE TROPICS. 

this terrestrial paradise that giim death lurks behind each grow- 
ing plant and flowering shrub. Yet the Isthmus has been called 
the ' Grave of Europeans," and a bright physician of Colom- 
bia has thus divided the year: "From the i$th of April to 
the I5th of December is the wet season, when people die of 
yellow fever in four to five days; and from the 15th of Decem- 
ber to the 1 5th of April is the dry season, when they die of 



190 c.] A GLIMPSE OF PANAMA, OLD AND NEW. 655 

Chagres fever in twenty four to twenty-six hours." Imperfect 
sanitary conditions are largely to blame. 

We have tarried as long as we may. The express train is 
waiting to take us to the city of Panama ; we enter and are 
rapidly whirled across the Isthmus. What more charming than 
this morning ride in the heart of the tropics ! The early rays 
of the sun lightly tint the stately palm trees, the rich ferns, the 
luxuriant undergrowth. There are mangroves, canes, orchids, 
and creeping, climbing, and hanging plants almost without num- 
ber. Hardly a tree is without a parasite ; many are covered 
from base to topmost limb with foliage not their own. Bright- 
hues tropical birds flit from place to place, monkeys chatter in 
the trees or swing from the branches ; a purple haze rests up- 
on the distant hills ; beneath them the marshes gleam like silver 
lakes in the morning light. The train speeds along, following 
in its course the Chagres River, a stagnant stream, whose 
waters emit the malaria which causes the fatal and much-dreaded 
Chagres fever. Hundreds of deaths have taken place here in a 
single day. What wonder the Panama Railroad was constructed 
at such cost of life that it is said to have been built upon hu- 
man bones? What wonder the digging of the canal, which we 
see from the car window, had to be abandoned? workmen not 
being found to withstand the severity of the climate. Well 
was the prediction of M. Leblanc verified, who, when the cut- 
ting of the canal was first proposed, said to De Lesseps : 
" There will not be trees enough on the Isthmus to make 
crosses for your laborers' graves." 

Many are the crosses marking the resting-places of these 
unfortunate men, and many are the graves left unnumbered. 
We fly past tiny cabins lifted on heavy stakes high above the 
ground, serving as shelter both for man and beast ; for the 
native, living in his hut, stables his cattle in the shelter formed 
by the floors of his dwelling. We pass brown, naked children 
playing by the roadside, white-robed natives balancing high 
baskets of fruit on their heads or slung across their shoulders, 
women ankle-deep in the streams leisurely washing, all with an 
air of perfect if indolent content. Time, with the seasons, 
seems at a stand-still ; here there is no winter for which to 
mike provision; and Dime Nature has been wonderfully lavish 
to these her children. She has filled their forests with game, 
their streams with fish, their trees bend beneath their weight 
of fruit. They have but to put forth a hand, and their wants 
are supplied. Should they require bread, the banana or plan- 



656 



A GLIMPSE OF PANAMA, OLD AND NEW. [Aug., 



tain furnishes a nutritious, natural food, very pleasing to the 
taste ; one tree yields soap, another sponge. They may even 
indulge at her expense in the vices of civilization ; the sap of 
a certain tree fermented gives a delicious milky drink resem- 
bling punch and called " Chichi." Their clothing consists of a 
single garment woven by the women, who excel in this art ; 




A NATIVE HUT ON THE ISTHMUS. 

they go bareheaded and barefooted, hats and shoes being luxu- 
ries almost unattainable, and quite unnecessary. The mother 
of the Isthmus leaves also to nature the clothing of her 
babies, for until a child is six or seven years of age he goes au 
naturel. 

We pass some pretty stations where the train stops a few 
moments. At one a young man of our party changed into 
Colombian currency our prized American dollar, and was sur- 
prised and rejoiced at his apparent riches. 

Here was seen the beautiful Flor del Espiritu Santo 
Flower of the Holy Ghost, so called from its resemblance to 
a dove. It was regarded with almost reverent feeling by the 
early Spaniards, who would not allow it to be transplanted. 
It is one of the orchid family, a white blossom like a tulip, in 
the inside of which is the figure of a dove. There it rests, its 



1901.] A GLIMPSE OF PANAMA, OLD AND NEW. 657 

wings outstretched, its head bent forward almost touching the 
breast, its bill tipped with red. 

At Matachin we pass near the once famous hill Cerro 
Gigante, from whose crest Balboa first saw the Pacific Ocean. 
At Culebra (Serpent), the highest point of the railroad, we 
reach the divide and begin the descent, until we come 
within sight of the ancient city of Panama with its moss and 
ivy covered ruins. 

The city of Panama is six miles south-west of Old Panama, 
which was burned in 1670 by buccaneers under the English 
Morgan. The term old is applied to distinguish it from the 
present city, which seems antiquated enough to our modern 
eyes with its narrow, tortuous streets, its small and squalid 
houses. It is the oldest European city in America, having 
been founded in 1518, and in the earliest years of its history 
was one of Spain's most powerful strongholds. Its position, 
holding as it were the mighty ocean at its command, gained it 
the title of " Key of the Pacific." The massive granite ram- 
parts, in some places forty feet hi^h and sixty feet broad, 
were built at an expense of millions of treasure. The story is 
told of a king of Spain who, looking one day from the win- 
dows of his palace, shaded his eyes with his hand. A minister 
remarked the action. "I am looking," said the king, "for the 
walls of Panama, for they cost enough to be seen even from 
here." These once splendid monuments to human genius are 
being rapidly worn away by the relentless waters of the sea,, 
and the still more corroding tooth of time. In places only 
ruins remain to tell the story of a glorious, almost forgotten 
past. 

The houses of Panama are built in the Spanish style, court- 
yards in the centre. Three-storied buildings, the two upper 
stories projecting, give the city a distinctive appearance. 

Facing the Plara Mayor is the Cabildo, or Town Hall. 
The people point to it with pride, as it was here the Declara- 
tion of Independence was signed, throwing off their allegiance 
to Spain. The bishop's palace is opposite. This is a modern 
red tiled building three stories high, and occupies a whole 
block. The bishop and his clergy live on the third floor ; the 
first is rented to stores. It is here the most important traffic 
of the city is conducted. 

Modern Panama is rich in materials for students of eccle- 
siastical architecture ; its churches are both numerous and 
interesting. Foremost among them is the cathedral, built by 



658 



A GLIMPSE OF PANAMA, OLD AND NEW. [Aug., 




THE CHURCHES ARE STUDIES IN ARCHITECTURE. 

one of the early bishops of Panama ; the son, it is said, of a 
negro. It is of stone, brought many miles from the interior 
on the backs of men. The church has two towers, Moorish 
style. So lofty are they, and so easily to be seen far out at 
sea, that they were formerly set down in sailing directions as 
a guide to mariners. The roof is of red tile, and the domes 
are covered with red Spanish cement, in which has been em- 
bedded hundreds of pearl-shells forming different designs. 
One can imagine how beautiful must gleam these pearly towers 
under the rays of the southern sun. The interior fittings of 
the church are rich and chaste. The roof is of dark red wood, 
supported by rows of white columns surmounted by arches, 
upon some of which are carved the coat-of-arms of Leon and 
Castile, in former days the cathedral was very rich ; its altar 
service was of purest silver and gold, its statues covered with 
precious stones ; but it was despoiled of its wealth, which was 
confiscated by the state when the religious orders were ex- 
pelled from Panama. Some of this it has regained, but most 
was lost beyond hope of restoration. 

The church having the distinction of being the oldest in 
Panama is San Felipe Neri ; over its massive doors it bears 
the inscription 1688. With its heavy walls five feet thick, its 



1901.] A GLIMPSE OF PANAMA, OLD AND NEW. 659 

high recessed windows, it could well withstand a siege, and 
was no doubt built to be used as a place of refuge in the 
early troublesome days of the colony's history: Next in point 
of age to San Felipe is La ' Merced. It is also bullet-proof, 
and has heavy doors with brass ornamentation. It is of Moorish 
style, and was built largely of material from its namesake in 
Old Panama. On its walls are carved titles in honor of the 
Blessed Virgin. In its tower hang the bells that, beaten with 
rods, wake the echoes in the early morning with their rot too 
melodious call to divine worship. One of the greatest reli- 
gious ceremonies of the year is that of Neustra Sefiora de la 
Merced (Our Lady of Mercy). Great processions are held in 
her honor, in which thousands of the faithful, bearing lighted 
candles in their hands, wind through the narrow streets. The 
Church of San Francisco, a fortress-like building, is made of 
stone resembling sandstone quarried from the volcanic rock 
Ancon. Adjoining it are the ruins of the sea-wall, and from 
the upper windows a magnificent view of the bay may be had. 
Along the roof, resting upon the outer walls of the church, 
rooms have been built which are occupied by the clergy. 
This church contains a kind of pew, a convenience which many 
of the churches lack. It is no unusual sight to see families 
returning from divine service followed by their " Criados " 
bearing the pries-dieu used by the different members ; even the 
smallest child has his tiny chair. 

Oatside the city, in a suburb of Santa Afla, is the church 
of that name. It was built by a nobleman whose body is 
buried here. The high ground on which it stands commands 
the city. It is noted chiefly as the rallying point of the insur- 
gents in the local rebellions. 

Ruins of churches and convents occupy large areas ; those 
of the Jesuit College are the most imposing. This building 
was destroyed by fire in 1737, and nothing remains of the 
once magnificent edifice but the arch with its bleeding heart. 
The ivy-covered ruins of San Domingo, which was built soon 
after the city was founded and burned more than a century 
ago, are very interesting. The arch, considered a wonderful 
piece of work, much admired by architects, still remains. The 
story told of how the bells of San Domingo came to the 
New World is worth repeating. Soon after Panama was 
founded the Queen of Spain called upon the ladies of her 
court to contribute what money they could to the building of 
the Church of Sin Domingo. She collected a large amount, 



66o 



A GLIMPSE OF PANAMA, OLD AND NEW. [Aug., 



which was used for that purpose. When the time came to 
make the bells people of all classes were invited to witness the 
casting and assist with their donations. They came in crowds, 
and also the queen and her court in true royal attire. The 
crucibles were placed before them ; the queen threw in a 
handful of gold, her ladies and gentlemen did the same ; the 
poor people gave their silver, or copper, and so the metal 
increased. The queen then threw in the jewelled ornaments 
she wore ; her ladies did likewise. The excitement became in- 
tense ; rings, bracelets, and other valuables, many of them 
family relics and costly heirlooms, were contributed, and so 
ths bells for the New World were made. Their tone was said 
to be of the purest, and they are much prized by those 
having them in charge. 

A stranger should not miss a visit to the Panama market; 
it is an education just to see the products of the country. 
Huge piles of bananas, plantains, pine-apples, cocoa-nuts, 
guavas, melons, oranges, mangoes, and kindred fruits, and 
vegetables, are here seen. Also fish of many varieties known 
and unknown to us (the name Panama means abounding in 
fish, and it is not a misnomer). There are land crabs the size 
of a half-grown chicken, and considered an excellent article of 
food, and the iguana, a kind of lizard whose meat is said to 
b2 very delicate. Since to our foreign palates it would hardly 
prove appetizing because of its genealogy, the wily native calls 
it Panama lobster, and under that title it has no doubt been 

often much relished by unsuspecting 
" Estranjeros," who supposed they 
were eating an old acquaintance, or 
at least its first cousin. This goes 
to prove that while " a rose by any 
other name might smell as sweet," 
the same is not true of the more 




A NATIVE WATER-CARRIER. 



1901.] A GLIMPSE OF PANAMA, OLD AND NEW. 



661 



material pleasures. The eggs of the iguana are much praised. 
They are taken from the animal while alive ; a slit is made in 
its side, and they are drawn out, and then hung in the sun 
and dried. Beef cut in strips, salted and dried in the sun, is 
a staple article of food. 

Hovering over the market-place, circling at times so near 




OUR WAY BORDERS THE SEA. 

they might be touched by the hand, or resting upon some pile 
of refuse, are large black birds, "Gallinasas" best known 
to us by the familiar name of buzzard. These are protected 
by law, and their mission is the very useful one of scavengers. 
How useful they are may be better imagined when it is known 
that the refuse is simply dumped in heaps in the streets or 
in vacant fields. 

If ice is to be found in these countries I never saw it, 
which may account for provisions being bought only for the 
day. The servants return to their homes with the day's 
marketing tied in a handkerchief a scrap of meat, a little fish, 
a few leaves of lettuce. But thanks to the ingenuity of the 
native cooks, under their skilful fingers provisions multiply, 
and from materials which would be the despair of an American 
housewife they can evolve a savory repast. Surely this must 
be the paradise of housekeepers, where the most trying of 
domestic problems is solved. The meals consist of, at eight 
o'clock in the morning, " Desayuno," coffee and rolls ; at eleven, 
"Almuerzo," at which usually is served consuelo (a soup in 
which a large piece of meat, a potato, and some olives are 



662 A GLIMPSE OF PANAMA, OLD AND NEW. [Aug., 

given to each person), tortilla (a sweetened omelet), rice made 
hot with curry, beef, and preserved fruit ; at three o'clock in 
the afternoon, tea; at seven, dinner similar to Almuerzo, the 
courses being more numerous and the serving more elaborate. 

Following the English style, dinner is a full dress and 
ceremonious affair. After dinner comes the promenade along 
the Esplanade a charming walk around the old battery over- 
looking the prison. Our way borders the sea ; behind us lies 
the city, with its Moorish towers, its red-tiled roofs ; back of 
it rises Mount Ancon ; to our left is the little Indian hamlet 
of La Boca, at the mouth of the Rio Grande, and the green 
hills of the Andes in the distance ; along the horizon ocean- 
ward stretches the bay. What words can describe it ? a study 
in color as the rays of the setting sun turn to crimson, green, 
and gold its ever-changing waters, and throw into deeper re- 
lief the emerald green of its islands ; the stately palmetto- 
trees that fringe its banks, the white beach, and far away the 
ancient towers of San Anastasius, sole landmark of the once 
powerful city of Old Panama. The story of this beautiful city, 
Old Panama, reads like one of the romances from the Arabian 
Nights, that so delighted our childhood. Its houses of aro- 
matic wood, hung with costly tapestries, adorned with paint- 
ing and sculptures that a king might envy ; its eight hundred 
magnificent churches, with their services of silver and gold, 
their frescoes of pearls and precious stones ; its pleasure gar- 
dens ; its broad drive-ways, chief of which was the king's 
highway, over which the royal horses bore the treasures of the 
mines to Puerto Bello, and the ships ready to sail with them 
to Spain. Into the midst of this Asiatic splendor came Mor- 
gan and his buccaneers ; and this struggle, one of the most 
memorable on our continent, the first of white against white, 
led to the destruction of the flower of Spanish chivalry and 
the capture of Panama. So passes the glories of the world ! 

We turn from this salutary and moral reflection naturally to 
our first visit to a South American cemetery. It was early 
morning and a cool breeze was blowing from the sea, so part 
of our journey we made on foot. Truly a White City might 
this silent resting-place of the dead be called. White walls 
are built eight feet deep and twelve feet high, with square 
openings rising row upon row, large enough to hold a coffin. 
I could only think of a gigantic post-office, with its letter- 
boxes. As these openings are filled they are sealed, and the 
name of the deceased is painted in black letters on the out- 



1901.] A GLIMPSE OF PANAMA, OLD AND NEW. 



663 




STATELY PALMETTOS SHADING THE STREETS. 

side. Here the body remains for eighteen months; then, if 
the family does not see fit to buy the receptacle, the dead is 
taken out, and the opening serves for another occupant. I 
have been told the coffins are sometimes used for a second or 
even third time, depending upon their durability. It is only 
the middle classes that aspire to the honor of eighteen months' 
rest in these white walls. The poor are placed uncoffined, 
wrapped in a sheet, in a trench, which may already contain 
several dead, and may again be opened to hold as many more. 
"May they rest in peace!" here has a double signification. 
I thought of the tranquil beauty of our Cities of the Dead, 
where, over each grass-grown grave, each springing blade and 
budding flower seems to whisper of the Resurrection. Sweeter 
thus to lie under the pines and the hemlocks, awaiting in hope 
the glad summons: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess 
the kingdom prepared for you." 



664. THE CHRISTIAN KNIGHT'S PRAYER. [Aug., 



HE HI^ISJFIAN ^NIGHT'S 

LORD ! God of Hosts as well as mercies too ; 

Lord ! Who vouchsafed us : I have chosen you ; 

Lord ! Who so oft didst utter : Do not fear : 

Prompt at Thy call, behold Thy vassal here. 

Not with tears only, not alone in sighs 

Our homage to Thee craven ministries ; 

Not caitiffs blanching . at each storm or pain : 

But for the edge of battle fit again. 

Our ills to friends do we fot ever bare ? 

Of hurt and sore, misery and despair, 

Do we for ever bring but whimp'ring tale 

In manly fortitude for ever fail ? 

Nay : to the stature of Thy high estate 

Up! Soul, and forward; God the Lord is great. 

Up ! in the manhood where His might hath traced 

His image on thee, where His trust He placed 

In thy youth's prowess, or thy later years' 

Resolution: To GocTs enemies the Jears. 

As Saul, struck down, did not mere mercy sue, 

But bravely sought : What wilt Thou have me do ? 

So by God's guerdon to His service plighted, 

By His grace knighted, 

I '11 do not cowering bear : 

For Christ, with Christ, in Christ, I'll dare! 

ALBERT REYNAUD. 



i. Dziewicki: Little Flower of Jesus ; 2. Creed: Vicar of St. 
Luke's; 3. McConnell : Evolution of Immortality ; 4. McCar- 
thy: Love Story of 'Forty-eight; 5. Froget: De V Habitation du 
Saint- Esp* it ; 6. Planeix : Constitution de VEglise;'']. Craw- 
ford: Palace of the King ; 8. Feeney : Manual of Sacred Rhetoric ; 
9. Dix : Days of First Love ; 10. MacLaughlin : Divine Plan of 
the Church; n. - - Meditations on the Psalms Penitential; 12. Grunenwald : 
Spiritual Letters of the Venerable Libermann ; 13. Roche: By-ways of War; 
14. Kayme: Anting -An ting Stories ; 15. - - Deadly Err or of Christian Science ; 
Spiritual Danger of Occultism ; 16. - Special Devotions ; 17. Guibert : On the 
Threshold of Life ; 18. Heath: Home and School Classics ; 19. Vlymen : Fourth 
Heading Book, Columbus Series ; 20. Arnold: Stories of Ancient Peoples; Mc- 
Master: Primary History of the United States ; 21. Skinner: Heart and Soul '. 



1. One of the most delightful spiritual works it has been 
our pleasure to read is the present translation of the Histoire 
(Tune Ante, under the title of The Little Flower of /esus.* It 
is the life of a young Carmelite, written by herself at the' re- 
quest of her mother prioress, and recounts in a candid, modest, 
and simple way the events in the career of a truly saintly 
soul. Her father and mother had at one time aspirations 
towards the religious life, but God, having his own wise ends 
in view, did not accept their sacrifice. They met and married, 
and their union was blessed with nine children, four of whom 
died very young. The five remaining children became nuns, 
four of them, among whom was Threse, entering the Carmel- 
ite order. The story of Sister Threse's childhood, as told by 
herself, is very interesting. From the beginning it was evi- 
dent that she was destined for God's service alone, and though 
she had a few trivial defects, for her confessor declared that she 
had never committed a mortal sin, she early began to mortify 
them, and grew constantly in the love of God. Of the great- 
est event in her life, her First Communion, she tells us very 

* The Little Flewer of Jesus. The autobiography of Sister Therese, Carmelite Nun. 
Translated from the French Histoire (Tune Ante by M. H. Dziewicki. New York : Benziger 
Brothers. 

VOL. LXXIII. 44 



666 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. (Aug., 

little, since " some thoughts when translated into language lose 
their heavenly meaning." What she does tell us, however, 
may well be read with profit by all. At fifteen she entered 
the Carmelite convent, and the story of her efforts to enter is 
amusing and instructive. She applied first to the Carmelite 
superior, and was refused. Then she went to the Bishop of 
Bayeux, and finally to the Pope himself. She knelt at the 
feet of Leo XIII. and asked him to permit her to enter Car- 
mel. Such an ardent desire as this could not long be left 
unsatisfied, and to her unspeakable bliss she entered. 

From the beginning her path was strewn with thorns. Her 
prayers became arid, heavenly and earthly consolation was de- 
nied her. She even had doubts about her salvation. She had 
not been able to believe that there could be any real infidels; 
but one Eastertide God made her realize that there were such 
by plunging her into the blackest darkness, so that the thought 
of heaven, formerly a consolation, became a torture to her. She 
was given to understand that infidelity was the practical result 
of the abuse of God's grace. To add to all her trials illness over- 
took her and bodily pain was added to mental anguish. Jesus, 
indeed, slept in her boat. She gave little heed to trials, but 
used her sufferings as a means to become more and more 
united to God and to carry out her mission. She was a Car- 
melite nun; "yet," she wrote, "I feel that I have other voca- 
tions besides. I would be Thy warrior, Thy priest, Thy 
apostle, a teacher of Thy law, a martyr for Thee." All these 
she could not be ; nevertheless she had a mission to save souls, 
especially by praying for the clergy. Jesus taught her that 
souls were best won by the cross, so the more crosses she 
met the better she was pleased. Well might she exclaim, with 
St. Teresa, " Aut pati, aut mori" : "Let me either suffer or 
die." Meanwhile our Lord was nurturing his little flower for 
himself, and she experienced more than once ecstasies of love 
for him. At length in the full bloom of her spiritual beauty 
she died and went to his bosom. 

We heartily wish the little volume a good circulation, for 
it presents to the world the spectacle of a soul leading in the 
last decade of the nineteenth century a contemplative life, yet 
aiding by her prayers and sufferings her struggling brothers 
and sisters. It will disprove the ideas of those who think that 
the spiritual life is all gloom and that suffering is an ur/miti- 
gated evil, and it will show to all what sanctity is possible 
even in our day. 



1 90i.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 667 

2. Sibyl Creed's story * is really a composite of two dis- 
tinct episodes, so distinct that, despite some ingenious plot- 
building for the blending of the two, we may call them in a 
literal sense parallel. One narrative is a love-affair, the other 
the process of a conversion. And the latter we declare with 
emphasis we like vastly the better. The denouement of the 
heart-affair is made to hinge upon the moral ruin of one of the 
characters, and we cannot bring ourselves to like that sort of 
thing presented as literature. But as the history of an Angli- 
can vicar's struggles, lights, trials, and final ending up in a 
Jesuit novitiate, the book is an admirable piece of work. Es- 
pecially well done is it in its avoiding of polemics. It seems 
not in accord with any preconceived controversial purpose, but 
rather as the most natural outcome of a situation, that the 
vicar is first made to turn his mind away from the Anglican, 
and then toward the Catholic Church. In the construction of 
this evolution the author scatters by the way many a weighty 
saying, and one or two delightful descriptions. The book 
would be worth reading if for nothing else than the scene of 
the parish meeting to vote on the question of allowing altar 
lights an inimitable chapter. Near the end of the book the 
reflections aroused in the convert's mind at the sight of the 
ancient church, now become his mother, form a passage of 
noble eloquence and of many profound and philosophic obser- 
vations. We wish we could forget that incident which, as has 
just been said, we bear ill. It is hardly fit for what, without 
it, would be a far more than ordinarily creditable performance 
as the history of a human soul. 

3. There is a growing tendency nowadays among thinkers 
to regard the question of Immortality either as settled in one 
way or the other, or else as incapable of solution at all, and 
hence to devote themselves to more special and less momen- 
tous psychological problems. Notwithstanding this tendency, 
we meet with works treating of Immortality, sometimes from 
old and sometimes from new points of view. The theory ad- 
vocated by Dr. McConnell in his recent volume,f while not 
new, is nevertheless novel. The first chapters are devoted to 
a general clearing the way for, and the rest to exposing his 
theory. At the outset the dogma of the Resurrection of the 
body is discussed, and, as we might expect, is rejected. The 

* The Vicar of St. Luke's. By Sibyl Creed. New York : Longmans, Green & Co. 
t The Evolution of Immortality. By S. D. McConnell, D.D., D.C.L. New York : The 
Macmillan Company. 



668 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [Aug., 

soul is the subject of consideration in several following chap- 
ters. The author's opinions on this point may be summed up 
in the following words of Ernst Haeckel : " All the phenomena 
of the psychic life are, without exception, bound up with cer- 
tain material changes in the living substance of the proto- 
plasm. We do not attribute any peculiar essence to its soul. 
We consider the psyche to be merely a collective idea of all 
the psychic functions of protoplasm." 

Dr. McConnell declares that the notion of a soul, far from 
being true Christian doctrine, crept into Christianity from 
Paganism. He denies, too, that the belief in a future life is 
universal; the Jews did not believe in it, neither do great 
masses of savage and semi-civilized men. Between reason and 
instinct there is a difference of degree and not of kind. The 
one is the evolution of the other. All this would seem to 
close the question of Immortality as far as Dr. McConnell is 
concerned. However, it does not. He is not among those 
who would seek solace in joining the " Choir Invisible." This 
were fine sentiment, but poor philosophy. Although man is 
not naturally immortal, he is immortable. Eternal existence 
will be a possibility to him only when he attains to a life of 
moral goodness ; when he becomes " as a god, knowing good 
and evil." In morality lies the secret of immortality. This is 
the author's belief and, he claims, it is the drift of the teach- 
ing of Christ and the Apostles. Whatever intimations of the 
natural immortality of man are contained in the New Testa- 
ment are simply forms of thought and speech which the authors 
had not fully cast off after their conversion to Christianity. 
Furthermore the Gospel teaching is " biological." " The imagery 
is drawn almost exclusively from processes and phenomena of 
nature. The reason is evident : the illustrations are deter- 
mined by the theme. The question is not of rewards or pun- 
ishments, but of living or perishing." The whole New Testa- 
ment is but a continuation of the same biological theme. 

The enduring life of the individual then, if attained at all, 
must be reached through his highest faculty conscience, 
which is the result of evolution. What is the nature of this 
thing that endures? Not the present body, nor yet a spiritual 
soul, but an ethereal body the movements of which neither 
earth, nor fire, nor water can impede. This ethereal body is 
the result of the action of the " soul " upon the body. The 
theory is not original with Dr. McConnell, and he admits it is 
only an hypothesis, but one which will bring known facts into 



1901.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 669 

coherence, and which, he maintains, fits the language of the 
New Testament. 

To discuss the numberless issues raised in this volume, in- 
volving, as they do, questions in theology, philosophy, Scrip- 
ture, and [the sciences, would necessitate the writing of trea- 
tises on all these branches. Many of the objections offered 
have been urged and answered over and over again. Dr. 
McConnell's spirit is not at all times one which can be justly 
called scientific. His terminology is loose and his logic any- 
thing but accurate. We find the statement, for instance, that 
all animate matter possesses " mind," or something very much 
"akin to mind." What he means by mind here we can only 
surmise. Again, we can only surmise what he means by the 
" soul" that builds up the ethereal body within the body. We 
are told that the soul, " instead of being an independent entity, 
living in the body and dominating it, appears to be but a con- 
venient word to designate the complex sum total of the final 
and highest output of the organized body" (p. 15). Further 
down on the same page our author says : " Whatever we may 
find the soul to be over and above, this fact we must reckon 
with, that it is as dependent upon matter for its being as 
matter is dependent upon it for its organization." In the one 
place the soul is said to be the product of the organized body, 
and in the other that the organization of the body is dependent 
upon the soul. Surely this is questionable logic. With the 
hypothesis proposed by Dr. McConnell to take the place of 
the soul we have nothing in common. It is a theory for 
which we can see no proof, and the arguments advanced in its 
favor are weak. One fundamental objection to the whole theory 
may be mentioned here. Dr. McConnell makes no mention in 
his book of the freedom of the will, and we do not know 
whether he believes in it or not. Consistently with his princi- 
ples, however, and following the example of scientific men 
Haeckel and the rest we should expect him to deny it. 
How, then, is morality possible, and how are we to convince a 
man who is not a free agent that he should lead a moral life ? 
The author has anticipated the objection that he has read into 
Scriptures what is really not there. Whether this is true or 
not he has, in our opinion, misinterpreted Scripture, nor can 
we see how his is the plain and obvious meaning of Scripture. 

The fact that Christ saw fit to use imagery drawn from 
processes and phenomena of nature is no evidence that his 
theme was " biological." We deny that conscience is a de- 



670 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [Aug., 

velopment or an evolution, and that whole masses of savage 
and semi-civilized men do not believe in a future life. Both 
are universal, and to assert the contrary is to fly in the face 
of facts. Dr. McConnell expresses his sympathy for those 
little ones of Christ who were kept out of the kingdom by 
those within. He does no better, and yet their lives are to be 
the models for ours if we are to enter Paradise. 

4. Anything from the pen of Mr. Justin McCarthy, 
whether it be purely historical or else romantic, is sure to be 
received as a notable contribution to literature. His latest 
novel * is no exception to this rule, and the author's brilliant 
reputation and its own intrinsic merits should insure its success. 
Its purpose seems to be that which Mr. McCarthy tells us 
was once in the mind of one of his characters, Phillip, namely, 
" to picture Irish life as he thought it ought to be pictured, and 
to convince the world that the comic Paddy of the stage was 
not the complete and all-sufficing representation of the Irish 
Celt"; no light undertaking when we consider the notions that 
are all too prevalent concerning Ireland and the Irish. MT. 
McCarthy, however, is equal to the task, and comes to it with 
a knowledge born of experience with the men of whom he 
writes, the Young Irelanders, and the stirring events of 'Forty- 
eight. It will be something of a surprise to many to read 
that there existed in those days in Ireland young men quite 
as intelligent as any in our own time and country; who studied 
the classics both ancient and modern, who had their debating 
societies, and who were able to speak intelligently of the diffi- 
culties confronting Ireland and their solution. Yet such were the 
patriotic and heroic Phillip Colston and the no less patriotic, if 
less heroic, Maurice Desmond, two of Mr. McCarthy's characters. 

The story is written in that simple, though brilliant, style 
which characterized the History of Our Own Times, and con- 
tains that same delicacy of sentiment for which the author's 
fiction is noted. Mononia Desmond is a charming type <Jf 
pure, true-hearted Irish womanhood, and by remaining faithful 
to her lover Phillip, even to following him in his exile to 
America, proves herself to be the opposite of fickle, hero- 
worshipping Kathleen Fitzwilliam, who forsakes Maurice 
Desmond and his principles for Captain Jerningham and his 
gallantry. The character sketching is good. One misses the 
presence of the jovial and sympathetic priest, without whom 

* Mononia : A Love Story of ' "Forty-eight. By Justin McCarthy. Boston : Small, 
Maynard & Co. 



1901.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 671 

no Irish novel has heretofore been complete ; but if he him- 
self is absent, his influence is surely present in whatever is 
true or good in the lives of the characters. 

The reader, besides gaining some knowledge of the nature 
of the Young Ireland movement, may also glean much from 
the numerous bits of information that Mr. McCarthy has 
scattered through his book. 

5. This is a second edition of a work* designed to ally 
the intellectual with the devotional life. We are glad that the 
distinguished author has won the prize of solid success by 
selling his first edition ; for this indicates a reading public in 
France of exceptional spiritual taste and discernment. And, 
besides, Leo XIII. has given him cordial approval. "This article 
of the Catholic faith " (meaning the indwelling of the Holy 
Spirit in the souls of the just), writes the Holy Father to 
Pere Froget, " so capital and so consoling, we have ourselves 
urgently recommended, in our Encyclical Divinum illud munus, 
to the zeal of those who have the charge of instructing and 
directing souls. It is, as a matter of fact, supremely impor- 
tant that ignorance among the Christian people about these high 
truths should be dissipated, and that all should be brought to 
know and love and implore the Gift of the Most High God, 
from whom flow so many precious favors. Your book has 
already greatly helped towards attaining this end. We con- 
gratulate you ; and we are glad to hope, as we earnestly desire, 
that this your good work may always continue and produce 
yet further good results." 

The supernatural psychology of the soul living in God's 
love is a topic too little thought of and hardly ever studied by 
those who devote their intellectual labors to the sacred 
sciences. Such was not the case with the early Fathers of the 
church, notably St. Augustine. And the leader of the church's 
later learning, St. Thomas Aquinas, has fully treated of the 
relation of the justified soul to the Divine Spirit. Our author 
has made this teaching popular without losing any of -its 
scientific accuracy, and at the same time preserving the singu- 
lar devoutness of the Angel of the Schools, a savor of holy 
love being never absent from even his most profound philo- 
sophical writings. 

Two things we earnestly wish. One, that our clergy and 

* De r Habitation du Saint-Esprit dans les Ames /ustes d'aprts la Doctrine de St. 
Thomas d 1 Again. R. P. Bart. Froget, Maftre en Theologie, de 1'Ordre des Freres Precheurs. 
Paris : P. Lethielleux. 



672 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [Aug., 

educated laity may obtain this excellent and wholly rational, 
while perfectly Catholic, treatise on the secret life of heavenly 
grace ; the other, that it may be brought within the reach of 
all by a competent translator. 

6. The Abb Planeix's recent work the second in a series 
Constitution de FEglise* consists of twelve lectures, or con- 
ferences, on various subjects connected with the material and 
spiritual organization of the church. After devoting one funda- 
mental lecture to a proof and description of the church as a 
complete society, the reverend author considers more in detail 
the constituent parts of that society : the papacy (seven of the 
conferences are concerned with the pope, his power and au- 
thority), the episcopate, the priesthood, and the religious orders. 

Apologetic as the work is in its substance, it is in its 
general tone rather expository than argumentative. The author 
adopts the now favorite idea that the church has only to be 
known as she is in order to be recognized as true, and ac- 
cepted at her real value, as a religious, social, and civilizing 
organization. Still, argument is by no means lacking from 
these pages. The first two lectures in particular are little 
more than a resume of the old, incontrovertible arguments as 
found in the standard works of dogma. A rhetorical style helps 
to render the arguments attractive by concealing to some ex- 
tent the formality and regularity of the text-book, yet at bot- 
tom there is no deviation, or very little, from the rigid sequence 
of proofs followed by the more ex professo doctrinal treatises. 

From these facts the purpose of the book may be easily 
surmised. It is an attempt to popularize the ordinary teach- 
ing concerning the origin and nature of the church ; it sacri- 
fices exhaustiveness of discussion to straightforwardness and 
brevity of explanation ; it will be valuable, therefore, rather for 
those who come to it with some ignorance of the claims of the 
church than with previously developed difficulties against the 
usual apologetic. As such, however herein we agree fully 
with the author it will have a wider usefulness than one 
would suppose, for, to use the words of the Abb6 Planeix himself : 
" It is a lamentable fact, but one that appears to be only too 
certain a precise and reasonable acquaintance with the founda- 
tions of the faith is rare, not only among unbelievers but with 
a great number of those who acknowledge the church as their 
teacher of morals." 

* Constitution de T Eglise : Conferences Apologetiques. Par 1'Abbe R. Planeix. Paris: 
P. Lethielleux. 



1901.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 673 

Most of the lectures, as we have indicated, are dogmatic 
and expository ; yet a few for instance, those on the strife of 
the papacy and the church against the evil forces of the world, 
material and intellectual are historical. One conference on 
the authority of the pope, and another on his infallibility, will 
be found probably among the most useful and necessary for 
the ordinary reader. 

To give the characteristic of the work in a word : it aims 
rather at summarizing and rendering acceptable the ordinary 
proofs for the church than at presenting new or extraordinary 
information. It combines very well with this the usual and 
older manner of treatment, something of the newer kind of 
apologetic, the rejection of controversy and an appeal to the 
reason and heart of man, rather than the exclusive insistence 
on the hard-and-fast arguments that are supposed to produce 
conversion by the subjugation of the intellect. 

7. There has been some diversity of opinion as to the 
merits of Mr. Crawford's late novel.* Some think that it has 
fallen below his standard, while others contend that it is equal 
to his best in cleverness, style, and interest. However this 
may be, it seems to us quite worthy of his pen. It is histori- 
cal to some extent and the scene is the royal palace of old 
Madrid, and the events took place in a single night. Philip 
the Second of Spain and Don Juan of Austria are the princi- 
pal characters. Mr. Crawford's sketches of these two men are 
well done, though with what degree of fidelity to history he 
has represented Philip may be matter for discussion. We are 
not prepared to vindicate for Philip any special claims to 
sanctity, but we are loath to believe that he was the cold- 
blooded monarch Mr. Crawford paints him. 

8, Father Feeney's new manual f for the use of preachers 
is a well-written, clear, and effective treatise on sermon-writ- 
ing. Evidently the author is full of familiarity with his topic 
and acquainted with the literature on it. The book is meant, 
of course, for priests and clerical students, and it serves its 
purpose so admirably that we are almost ready to say it 
would serve as a fit companion volume to Dr. Hogan's Cleri- 
cal Studies. There is, however, evidence of a lack of care in 
some parts, as if the author were pressed for time and unable 

* In the Palace of the King. By F. Marion Crawford. New York : The Macmillan 
Company. 

t Manual of Sacred Rhetoric ; or, How to Prepare a Sermon. By Rev. Bernard Feeney. 
St. Louis: B. Herder. 



674 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [Aug., 

to bestow proper attention to finish of detail. He is rather 
impatient of views that differ from his own always an irritat- 
ing fault ; but partly compensates for this by two other rather 
" good " faults, viz., he is a purist on pulpit proprieties, and 
he is most exacting as to the necessity of careful preparation. 
Now and again he seems to be less than reverent toward time- 
honored methods a mistake ; for even in art traditions count 
for something. Finally, as to instruction in gesticulation, we 
have serious doubts if a pupil can be taught more than what 
he should not do how not to be awkward. These are the 
reserves in our commendation, and they detract very slightly from 
the book's value. It is a well planned, well made, useful book. 

9. With high encomiums from many ecclesiastics and from 
many literary organs there conies to us a booklet* with the 
title " Days of First Love." It is a religious poem in honor 
of our Blessed Lady, and, as can be easily seen by one who 
reads, it is written out of deepest love. While many have 
given unstinted praise to the merit of the work as a poem, it 
appears to us that the author's powers of poetic expression 
fall very far short of what is adequate to the treatment of his 
theme. We welcome it as a tribute, and as no mean tribute, 
to the Mother of our Blessed Saviour. 

10. It has become a commonplace in modern apologetics 
that, if non-Catholic Christians are to be led quickly and securely 
to the knowledge of the true faith, they should be invited to 
suspend, if not to abandon, examination into all the minute and 
puzzling details of ordinary controversy and direct their atten- 
tion to the solution of one fundamental question : Did Christ 
found a specific religious society, and if so, what is its nature? 
That question settled, the recognition of the true church ought 
to follow almost as a matter of course. For to all who pro- 
fess the name of Christian, it is evident that the true church 
is none other than the church which is according to the mind 
of Christ ; and if it can be shown that any religious society, 
now existing, corresponds to his divine idea of what his church 
should be, then ought the candid inquirer to confess that all 
search is at an end. It is in view of these facts that Father 
MacLaughlin has written his work on The Divine Plan of the 
Church.^ 

* Days of First Love. By W. Chatterton Dix. London : Barclay & Fry, ltd. 
t The Divine Plan of the Church : Where realized and where not. By the Rev. John 
MacLaughlin, author of Indifferentism. New York : Benziger Brothers. 



TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 675 

One soon discovers that the book is of unusual merit. He 
has planned his work wisely and built it well. The main pur- 
pose of the book is never lost sight of by the author; stiff- 
ness and dryness are avoided by the use of a pleasing style 
rich in illustrations. For those who are well disposed, who 
are docile and submissive to instruction, this is the kind of 
book to effect conversion to the church. 

From a controversial point of view, however, the treatise is 
not so admirable. The single but vital difficulty here is the 
impossibility of showing by argument that the divine plan of 
the church necessarily included all that the author specifies. 
Reasons of congruence may be found, and, indeed, these are 
presented forcibly ; but possibly the author is inclined to 
attribute to them a little more conclusiveness than they actu- 
ally possess. 

The infirmity we have indicated is counterbalanced to some 
extent when the author though almost inconsequently turns 
from his a priori path and presents solid historical evidence 
for the thesis that Christ really did cherish and publicly 
manifest a plan of the kind specified. Of course this position 
is not capable of rigid demonstration, but the arguments in 
its favor are of such a kind as to deserve at least most care- 
ful consideration from all fair adversaries. And in this part of 
the work in the part, that is, which runs along the old lines, 
rather than in what is new Father MacLaughlin's exceptional 
ability is most evident, reminding us of the very excellent 
service he has already rendered the church in his volume on 
Indifferentism. 

Needless to be said, our author is at once courteous and 
emphatic throughout. His writing shows he is a man of 
earnestness and zeal ; he is of independent mind and up to 
date, as well. More, he is modest and almost invariably plain- 
spoken, and tolerant. 

11, " Infinite riches in little room " can be said with justice 
of certain modest little volumes which are usually given to 
the world unsigned, but which are found to contain either a 
novel presentation of some old theme, or to open to the mind 
new and wide vistas of thought. In this class we have no 
hesitation in placing this little book of meditations on the 
Penitential Psalms.* It is a treasure to the soul that seeks 
to approach to God by the saving way of penance, as well as 

* Meditations on the Psalms Penitential. By the Author of the Psalms of the Little 
Office. St Louis, Mo.: B. Herder. 



676 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [Aug., 

to those who aspire to the higher altitudes of perfection ; to 
both it brings a message of consolation and of hope. 

The matter is usefully arranged. In a parallel column with 
the Latin text of the psalm is printed the Douay translation, 
supplemented by a paraphrase and such additions or correc- 
tions as are required when the Douay is obscure, or does not 
properly convey the real or the complete sense of the original 
or of St. Jerome's text. To text and paraphrase is added a 
critical exposition of the psalm as a whole, giving evidence, 
in our opinion, of acquaintance with the most commonly re- 
ceived results of sane scholarship, even though there are posi- 
tions assumed by the author which are at this day regarded 
by some as, at least, adhuc sub judice. 

But the book is primarily devotional, and it is in the medi- 
tations which follow that we find it particularly worthy of praise 
and commendation. These meditations are pointed, sufficiently 
ample, suggestive and convincing; so that the will is readily 
moved to the affective prayers and aspirations which are added. 
These prayers are full of unction ; full, too, of the honey of 
Holy Scripture. Indeed, the acquaintance with and apt use 
of the inspired Word is amazing, and is a noteworthy feature 
of the book. One meditation, taken at random, exhibits no 
fewer than thirty-five citations from the Scriptures, skilfully 
woven into the text. We feel confident that this little volume 
will be prized by all who use it, and will do much to deepen 
in earnest souls dispositions of contrition, faith, and love. 

12. The Fathers of the Holy Ghost in this country are 
doing a good work in publishing a translation * of the spiritual 
letters of their Venerable Founder, Francis Mary Paul Liber- 
mann. When complete the collection will comprise three 
volumes, of which the first has already appeared. The letters 
in this volume are almost exclusively taken from his corre- 
spondence with seminarians and priests, consequently their in- 
terest is chiefly for ecclesiastics. At the same time there is 
very much in them that people in the world striving after 
perfection will find to be of positive value and assistance. 
The primary object of all the letters is the direction of souls, 
either by personal counsel, admonition, and correction, or by 
pious reflections and meditations on fundamental truths of the 
religious life. Besides gaining an immeasurable spiritual profit 

* The Spiritual Letters of the Venerable Francis Mary Paul Libermann, First Superior- 
General of the Congregation of the Holy Ghost and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Trans- 
lated by the Rev. Charles L. Grunenwald, C.S.Sp. Detroit : The Fathers of the Holy Ghost. 



1901.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 677 

from the careful reading of these letters, one also obtains a very 
faithful idea of the deeply spiritual character of their author, 
whose humble and intensely devout soul is mirrored in every 
page. Like his patron, St. Paul, the Venerable Libermann 
was a vessel of election. His conversion from Judaism, his 
vocation to the priesthood, the untold trials and obstacles to 
the fulfilment of that vocation, and finally his success and the 
establishment of the Congregation, and the work that it has 
done, all show this most plainly. We await with interest the 
appearance of the next two volumes of letters, which will 
make us more intimately acquainted with the inner develop- 
ment of the character of this man of God, and we trust that 
the translator will show the same judicial temper in the com- 
pletion of his work which has marked the introduction. 

13. The rise and fall of American filibustering is told of 
interestingly by Mr. Roche in the present volume.* The learned 
editor of the Pilot has brought to his task a keen historical 
sense and an ability to seize on picturesque points which is 
the result of newspaper training at its best. And he has suc- 
ceeded in making a most interesting story, which is at the 
same time a real contribution 'to American history. The fili- 
buster now is extinct, it is a species which is no more ; but 
that " brave, lawless, generous anomaly " had no small in- 
fluence upon our country, and has left a name which is well 
worthy of remembrance. 

14. Any book of tales the scenes of which are laid in the 
Philippines, and which describe the customs, superstitions, and 
general life of those islands, is interesting. This may be said with 
some little emphasis of Sargent Kayme's stories, f There is an 
abundance of local color, and the stories are well told. The edi- 
tor makes a rather unfortunate comparison between this series 
of tales and Mr. Kipling's Indian stories unfortunate because, 
while Mr. Kayme writes well enough, he is not to be com- 
pared with Kipling either in his knowledge of people or in 
his ability to tell a story. However, the present book is well 
worth reading and can most certainly be recommended. 

15. Catholics as well as Protestants owe a real debt to the 
publishers of these two little books.:}: The curious resurrection 

* By-ways of War. By James Jeffrey Roche. Boston : Small, Maynard & Co. 
t Anting- Anting Stories. By Sargent Kayme. Boston : Small, Maynard & Co. 

t The Deadly Error of Christian Science. The Spiritual Danger of Occultism, or 

Sorcery. Philadelphia : Church Literature Publishing Company. 



678 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [Aug., 

in these days of the ancient Gnosticism by that preposterous 
old lady Mrs. Eddy, under the name of " Christian Science," 
would not be anything more than amusing did it not lead 
necessarily to the denial of our Lord's incarnation. And so 
wide-spread is this error now become that Catholics are often 
asked about Christian Science, and it is well that they should 
be able to give an answer to its crude and exaggerated ideal- 
ism. Every reason against it will be found clearly set forth 
in this excellent little tract. 

Another modern error is the appeal to other supernatural 
power than God. It is this which causes men to be led astray 
by spiritism, hypnotism, and theosophy. An excellent anti- 
dote is given in this second publication of the Church Litera- 
ture Publishing Company, which clearly sets forth the great 
sin involved in all "these unclean and defiling things." 

16. A prayer-book * compiled for pupils of the Sacred Heart 
is sure to be popular because it contains spiritual exercises 
which have been well proved by years and experience. There 
are various novenas, a number of acts of consecration, and a 
particularly good set of prayers for Mass. Altogether a dili- 
gent use of this little book must tend to deepen the spiritual 
life. 

17. Parents or teachers who wish to put a good book into 
the hands of those who are just passing from childhood to 
youth could hardly choose anything better than the present 
volume by Father Guibert.f Most boys pass this stage in life 
with little help or advice. They have a natural reticence 
which keeps them from speaking to parents, and the only 
solution of the difficulties they meet is gained from their com- 
panions, who are as blind as themselves. The author dwells 
on the need of faith for young men and their obligations as 
Catholics. This is important certainly, but we could wish that 
in addition more stress had been laid on those difficulties 
which beset young men and are peculiar to the period of youth. 
It is quite true that many fall into sin not so much from 
malice or ill-will as from ignorance of the true end of their 
manhood, and through the excitement of conditions which 
they have not been prepared for. 

18. When children from the time they begin to read are 

* Special Devotions. New York : Cathedral Library Association. 

t On the Threshold of Life. By Rev. J. Guibert, S.S. New York : Christian Press 
Association Publishing Company. 



1901.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 679 

encouraged to read what is really worth reading a great step 
is taken toward implanting in them a love of books and litera- 
ture which will last all their lives. The present series,* pub- 
lished by Messrs. Heath, is the best thing yet done, we ven- 
ture to think. Thirty-six numbers have been published, beau- 
tifully printed and attractively illustrated. The matter of the 
books is not the usual subject matter which is found in chil- 
dren's reading books, but is from the works of well known or 
famous writers. We note such works as these: Ruskin's King 
of the Golden River, Thackeray's charming story The Rose and 
the Ring, and Jean Ingelow's Fairy Tales. Then there is Mrs. 
Ewing's Jackanapes and Miss Mulock's pathetic tale The Little 
Lame Prince, Harriet Martineau's Crojton Boys which we dare 
to think is the best boy's story in English and Lamb's Tales 
from Shakspere. We could wish that Lewis Carroll's stories 
of Alice found a place here, but perhaps they will come in 
time ; but as it is, it is doubtful if a better selection for chil- 
dren's reading could be made. 

19. Another admirable reading book for children is the 
fourth in the Columbus Series. f It contains a wide variety of 
most admirable selections. Some are religious ; among them, we 
are glad to see, are passages from the New Testament. It is 
a good thing that Hans Andersen is largely represented, since 
it would seem that scarcely any other author is better able to en- 
gage a child's imagination, and this, we think, is one of the most 
important points of education. For the same reason we wel- 
come our old friend Alice. It is a good thing, too, that many 
pieces of verse are given, and those real poetry which are sure 
to be a treasure in the child's mind, which with the passing 
years will become ever more highly prized. Hardly too much 
praise can be given the illustrations ; they really illustrate, and 
withal are works of art. On the whole we think the publishers 
are to be congratulated on getting out such a fine book. 

20. It is remarkable how much real ability is expended in 
the production of books for the young. These two books,:}: 
published by the American Book Company, are an interesting 
sign of what is being done for children's education at present. 

* Heath's Home and School Classics. Boston : D. C. Heath & Co. 

^Fourth Reading Book. By W. T. Vlymen. Columbus Series. New York : Schwartz, 
Kirwin & Fauss. 

\Stories of Ancient Peoples. By Emma J. Arnold. Primary History of the United 

States. By John Bach McMaster. New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago : American Book 
Company. 



68o TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [Aug. 

The first gives a brief introduction to the study of ancient 
Oriental history. As a supplementary reader, it presents for 
children a series of interesting sketches which are well fitted 
to awaken a desire for further knowledge in regard to the 
civilization of the East. There are chapters on such unusual 
subjects as How the Ancient Egyptians Wrote, The Cuneiform 
Writing, and the Language and Literature of the Chinese. 
These are written in such a way as to be readily comprehen- 
sible by children, and are most attractively presented, both 
verbally and pictorially. 

Professor McMaster's book aims to give a general knowl- 
edge of American history in a year's work. Among its dis- 
tinctive features we note that it is short, and leaves unnoticed 
such questions as are beyond the understanding of children ; 
that in a simple and interesting style it affords a vigorous nar- 
rative of events and an accurate portrayal of the daily life and 
customs of the different periods ; and that it is well propor- 
tioned, touching on all matters of real importance for the 
elementary study of the founding and building of our country. 

21, Those who read Mrs. Skinner's first story, Espiritu 
Santo, will be sure to read her second book,* and they will 
not find it inferior to the first. Indeed, her technique is de- 
veloped and broadened, and her ability to work out a plot 
seems greater than in her former venture. The scenes are 
laid in various parts of this country, chiefly in Detroit during 
the early days of the past century, and there are many vivid 
pictures of phases of American life which have hitherto not 
been touched on by any writer. Withal the book is Catholic 
not that religion is dragged in and all the characters in the 
final chapter enter convents but there is a genial and whole- 
some religious atmosphere all through which, without being 
insistent, is strongly felt by the reader. Again, the book is 
thoroughly sane and healthy; there is nothing of that some- 
what morbid sentiment which is to be found in passages in 
Espiritu Santo, but all through Heart and Soul is a thoroughly 
good book and one which can be confidently recommended to 
any reader. 

* Heart and Soul. By Henrietta Dana Skinner. New York : Harper & Brothers. 



The Tablet (8 June) : The Anglican theory of Continuity is 
considered, and then tried by the test of belief in 
Transubstantiation. 

(15 June): Contains a criticism of Canon Gore's book on 
the Holy Eucharist. 

(22 June): The Propaganda decides that the sending of 
Catholic boys to Protestant public schools "cannot be 
without a grave danger to faith and morals." Publishes 
a leader on Father Taunton and his History of the 
English Jesuits. 

(29 June) : The Catholic Union declares that it will 
simply follow the Vicar of Christ in the matter of the 
Temporal Power. 

Tne correspondence that has arisen over Father Taunton's 
History of the Jesuits in England, and that over the 
pronunciation of Latin, continues through the month. 

The Month (June): Father Gerard, S.J., gives the state of the 
question and the original evidence as to whether or not 
Father Garnet had such a knowledge of the Gunpowder 
Plot as made it criminal on his part not to reveal it. 
Virginia M. Crawford gives a sketch of the life of Maria 
Gaetana Agnesi. Father Sydney F. Smith, S J., criticises 
Lord Halifax's article in the Nineteenth Century and 
After on the Joint Pastoral. Among other things he 
says that the function of the Sacred Congregations is to 
investigate Catholic tradition and see whether or not 
the church is committed by this tradition to any doctrine 
incompatible with the truth of the new theory. Investiga- 
tion into the scientific or historical grounds of the 
adverse theory may be desirable, but is always subor- 
dinate, and can at best be useful only as affording an 
outside precaution, to impress on the investigators the 
importance of investigating their own province of Catho- 
lic tradition with the utmost care. Father Thurston, 
S.J., continues his papers on " Our Popular Devotions," 
and traces the rise of Benediction of the Blessed 
Sacrament. 

The Catholic University Bulletin (July) : In an article on " The 
VOL. LXXIII. 45 



682 LIBRARY TABLE. [Aug., 

Fallacy in Evolution " Dr. Shanahan discusses the 
question : " What is there in the real world correspond- 
ing to the universal ideas we are accustomed to frame 
of it ? " and in the light of his principles shows that evolu- 
tionary explanations of phenomena are "purely verbal 
in character and of little, if any, real value." He illus- 
trates his point with instances drawn from modern 
comparative methods. Dr. Maguire contributes an inter- 
esting article on Virgil's Fourth Eclogue ; Dr. Hyvernat 
has a paper on the Talmudic Jewish primary schools; 
Dr. Green continues his papers on "Some Literary 
Aspects of Botany," and the discourse of Mgr. Conaty 
at the Catholic College Conference is published. 

The International Monthly (July): W. De W. Hyde, in his article 
on " Academic Freedom in America," investigates the 
rights and duties of the parties to university instruction. 
The founder may determine the general purpose and 
scope of the institution he founds, subject to the ap- 
proval and acceptance of the state. Mr. Hyde says that 
" the attempt of a donor to dictate the views which a 
professor shall teach is to arrogate to himself the attributes 
of omniscience, omnipotence, and immortality." Salvatore 
Cortesi, writing on " The Vatican in the Twentieth 
Century," treats of the various innovations introduced 
into the Sacred College during the past century, notably 
the increased number of foreign cardinals. The influence 
of the foreign element will be especially evident during 
the conclave for the election of a successor to Leo 
XIII. Speaking of the temporal power, he says that all 
the past troubles of the church arose from a desire to 
maintain and augment it, and that now the Pope is 
freer and stronger, because, in the full exercise of his 
spiritual ministry, he has never enjoyed so much inde- 
pendence as at present, when he cannot be coerced 
with threats against his territory. 

International Journal of Ethics (July) : H. R. Marshall claims 
that if the considerations in his article on " Our Rela- 
tions with the Lower Races " have weight, they should 
influence our attitude towards the races we consider our 
inferiors and should lead us to oppose the contentions 
of the " imperialists " current in our day. Let the 
bonds between the higher and the so-called lower races 
be multiplied and strengthened by peaceful commerce, 



i$oi.] LIBRARY TABLE. 683 

interchange of thought ; by education and religion, but 
without any effort to crush the weaker. R. H. Bray de- 
clares that the three kinds of unity, viz., of action, of 
purpose, and of belief, are sufficient as a basis for a 
National Church, and proposes as a substitute unity of 
spirit, which he defines to be " the unity of the spirit 
of enthusiasm, of humanity carrying with it a belief of 
the divine in man." For unity of belief an infallible 
authority is necessary. But since the Catholic Church 
alone claims infallibility, and since she has steadily set 
her face against science, and has no room for such men 
as Dollinger and Mivart, she can never become that of 
which we are in search. Unity of belief, implying as it 
does belief in the Catholic Church, must be rejected be- 
cause it lacks breadth. 

The Monist (July): Professor J. A. Craig contributes an article 
on "The Earliest Chapter in History," and Professor J. 
H. Leuba another on the " Contents of Religious Con- 
sciousness." 

Revue du Clergt Franqais (15 May): P. Dubois compares the 
supernatural to the natural life, showing how inertia is 
the opposite of each. P. Ermoni indicates the faults in 
Harnack's views about the early church, 
(i June): Archbishop Mignot contributes a fifth letter 
on ecclesiastical studies. 

(15 June): P. Torreilles, continuing his sketch of the 
history of theology in France, treats of the writers, or- 
thodox and heterodox, during the seventeenth century. 
P. Calvet, presenting an interesting study of Pascal's 
Letters to Mile, de Roannez first published in this cen- 
tury by Cousin describes the "deplorable results" of 
Pascal's method of direction, more hurtful by its severity 
than the laxity of certain casuists. P. Joly reviews the 
Life of Sister Thtrtse (see the Book Talk in our present 
issue, page 665), and makes many striking remarks on 
the relation of the active and the contemplative voca- 
tions. The editor writes upon the need and the means 
of arousing interest in religious studies among young 
college students. P. Fontaine in a letter to the manage- 
ment complains of the injustice of the recent criticism 
of his book, Les Infiltrations Protestantes. 
In view of the publication of a French translation of 
"the most remarkable writing of a'prelate very famous 



684 LIBRARY TABLE. [Aug., 

in the United States, and already well known in Europe, 
Mgr. Spalding, Bishop of Peoria," there is published in 
French the bishop's lecture on the higher education of 
the clergy. 

Etudes (5 June) : P. Bremond writes upon the obstacles to the 
vocation of the Abb de Broglie, and speaks impressively 
of the unifying power of grace and love even in souls 
separated by doctrinal differences. P. Chrot writes 
upon the relations of Bonald with Lamartine and Cha- 
teaubriand as seen in their correspondence. P. Bainvel 
criticises l'Abb Martin's book Saint Augustin as "a 
study made in a false light." 

(20 June) : P. Prelat and P. Burnichon write upon the 
Waldeck Bill, now become a law. P. Harent resumes 
his controversy with P. Vacandard concerning peniten- 
tial discipline in the early church and the method to be 
used in treating this question. P. Bremond writes on 
the pictures of children, analyzing the impressions im- 
parted by painters and writers. P. Che>ot speaks of 
certain defects in P. Gregory's new translation of St. 
Teresa's Letters, and finds fault with the reviewers who 
declared that it superseded the translation by P. Bouix, 
S.J. 

Revue du Monde Catholique (i June and 15 June): P. de Be'ne'- 
jac continues his defence of miracles against the attack 
of modern "science." L. Armand describes the growth 
of Protestantism in the South-west and why the efforts 
to spread it are not fruitful in results. 

Le Correspondent (25 May) : P. Baudrillart, who is preparing 
the biography of Mgr. d'Hulst, writes upon the charac- 
ter of that prelate, at once soldierly and apostolic. P. 
Klein contributes a sketch of the career, character, and 
ideas of Bishop Spalding, of Peoria, a translation of the 
latter's works being now in press with Lethielleux, of 
Paris. 

(10 June) : A. Bchaux writes upcn the educaticn cf 
young women, and how far it is possible and wise to 
conform to the views of the feminists. A. de La Gorce 
describes M. Amdie de Margene's new metrical transla- 
tion of the Divina Commedia as a beautiful and noble 
book, the fruit of long and conscientious studies, an 
honor to its author, and a thing of interest to all those 
sensitive to hig*h art. 



1901.] LIBRARY TABLE. 685 

(25 May): Paul Thureau-Dangin, continuing his "Catholic 
Revival in England during the Nineteenth Century," treats 
of Puseyism, its origin and its blunders, the Gorham 
case, etc. J. Latappy shows how different is the spirit 
of present French legislation concerning Catholic univer- 
sities from that of Napoleon. J. Teincey writes of Gilbert 
Parker and his place in Canadian letters. 

La Quinzaine (i June): M. Jules Legrand gives a sketch of 
the relations between Church and State in France since 
the signing of the Concordat. Gabriel Hudiat, writing 
on the " Soul of a Song," apropos of Th. Botrel, writes 
that songs in France have been the signal for all revolu- 
tions and popular movements. 

(16 June): P. Laveille, writing of the two La Mennais, 
says that they possessed the ability, so rare in a ration- 
alistic age, to give interest and life to ecclesiastical 
studies, and on this account they were imitators and 
still remain models. M. Solomon, sketching the rela- 
tions between Science and Philosophy during the cen- 
tury, writes that the restoration of spiritualism is effected 
even by science, reputed to be its enemy. M. Eugene 
Flornoy, reviewing the work of the Catholic Working- 
men's Circles, states that they have anticipated the wish 
of the Holy Father that there be union of hearts and 
wills. Louis Flanderin writes on the " Salon of French 
Artists." 

La Voix du Siecle (June) : H. L. contributes a sketch of Mgr. 
Latty, Bishop of Chalons, prominent in forwarding the 
scientific formation of the French clergy and an enthu- 
siastic friend of the Bourges Congress, than which 
" nothing better harmonized with the views and wishes 
so often expressed by hirn in public." 

Revue Ecclesiastique (i June): Publishes extracts from the new 
judgment of the Superior Court of Montreal pertaining 
especially to the relations between Church and State in 
the matter of marriages between Catholics. 

La Revue Central (June) : Henry Davignon writes on " Moliere 
and Women." H. Primbault concludes his review of M. 
Vallery-Radot's Life of Pasteur. 

Echo Religieux de Belgique (16 May): Asking himself the two- 
fold question, What should be the role of the Catholic 
Church in the civil and political life of the modern 
world ? and, What are the duties she imposes on her 



686 LIBRARY TABLE. [Aug., 

children in this regard ? Father Caruel answers that 
the church, being a moral force of the first rank, can 
neither, on the one hand, remain apathetic, nor, on the 
other, suffer herself to be a mere " sub-department of 
the gendarmerie, a sort of spiritual police," but she must 
take her natural place as an authoritative and indepen- 
dent teacher of the state in things spiritual. Not that 
she claims any dictatorship. She asks only to work as 
opportunity provides. 

Civilta Cattolica (15 June): An interesting article upon the 
modern Spanish novel represented by Pereda, " the 
Spanish Manzoni," and Luigi Coloma, the Jesuit, writers 
less well known than they merit. A criticism of two 
recent conservative-liberal writers, Ellero and Fornari, 
the first of whom laments the passing of idealism even 
in the church, " which preserves in the Roman Curia the 
last remnants of pagan religiosity"; and the latter of 
whom declares the future issue to lie between Christian 
Socialism and anarchy. 

Rissegna Nazionale (16 June): C. Paladini writes upon St. 
Francis of Assisi in the art and history of Lucca. 
G. Schnitzer, already known as opposed to Pastor's views 
of Savonarola, declares that Pastor's opinion is based 
upon evidence obtained at second hand and is contrary 
to truth. 

Rivista Internazionale (May) : G. Provano writes upon liberty 
of teaching, showing how the so-called liberal govern- 
ment contradicts itself, violates the natural rights of 
parents, and favors socialism and oppresses the Catholics. 
P. P. writes upon the deplorable increase of Italian emi- 
gration, especially to Germany. 

Studi Religiosi (May- June) : A. Arnelli writes upon a treatise 
by St. Jerome, recently discovered in the archives of 
Monte Cassino. F. Scerbo presents a study of the 
psalm " Dixit Dominus," based upon the original He- 
brew. The editor S. Minocchi, writing upon Franciscan 
documents, describes his visit to Verna, which he found 
less rich in MSS. than Sabatier believed it to be. 

Der Katholik : M. Paulus, reviewing the now famous volume 
Un Siecle, praises the condition of Catholic learnirg in 
France. " At Paris alone there appear at least ten Catho- 
lic scientific reviews which are the peers of similar Ger- 
man periodicals." 



1901.] EDITORIAL NOTES. 687 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 

IN the Steel Stiike two of the most gigantic forces of the 
industrial world are in conflict. One of the strongest argu- 
ments that induced the capitalists to combine was the one 
which affirmed that 'it would be impossible for any coalition 
of labor forces to shut up all the steel mills of the country; 
and if by the organization of some local labor unions they 
were able to shut up a few, the non-union mills could still 
furnish the needed product. The fight that is now on is to 
demonstrate that the Steel Trust cannot throttle the labor 
union. It is a battle of the giants, and all the energies of 
both contestants will be called upon before the conflict is 
settled. 



The too frequent recurrence of these pitched battles in the 
industrial world will ultimately lead to the establishment of a 
Court of Arbitration which will have supreme power in the 
premises, and whose decisions will be final and obligatory on 
both parties in the dispute. It is very good to arbitrate, but 
it has been found that when the arbitration is only voluntary, 
the party who anticipates defeat will be anxious to have re- 
course to it, while the party who expects victory will spurn 
it. The only arbitration that can be effective will be a legally 
established court which can compel the presence of witnesses, 
the production of books, and which is so constituted that its 
decisions will be clothed with justice and authority. 



The fundamental reason for compulsory arbitration is the 
fact that there are many others besides the immediate con- 
testants who are interested parties in the strike. There are 
all those who may be comprised under the name of "the 
public " storekeepers whose business is damaged, the strikers' 
wives and children who are thrown on the charity of others, 
the peace-loving citizen who prizes the quiet of his home and 
the honor of his city. All these and others are damaged in 
their rights by a strike, and inasmuch as they have rights in 
the premises they will ultimately insist that there shall be 
established a Court of Arbitration which will adjudicate all 
labor disputes and put an end to strikes. 



688 THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. [Aug., 



THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 

1T7HATEVER may be the charges to the contrary, it is a pleasure to claim 
W that the English-speaking races in general have never entirely forfeited 
their Christian heritage. In a very powerful article published in the Canadian 
Magazine Mr. Martin J. Griffin, Librarian of the Parliament of Canada, has 
summarized the power and influence of the forces that have appeared in opposi- 
tion to Christian teaching. During the nineteenth century the intellectual 
leanings of great masses of thinking people were guided by a comparatively 
small number of men of strong character and striking views. They were either 
scientists using that word in its popular and well understood sense or rren 
who had so far yielded to the influence of the scientists that their views of 
literature and its object, of life and its purpose, of religion and its sanction, were 
deprived of all notion of certainty, of finality, of authority. Man, in their esti- 
mation, was a being destined to continually investigate without discovering 
anything ; to think perpetually without arriving at any definite conclusions ; to 
wander always in a valley of shadows in pursuit of an unapproachable mjstery. 
These men expressed themselves in the language of practical science, the 
language of philosophic discussion, the language of literary criticism, and the 
language of poetry. They appealed to the receptive minds of the young. They 
created schools of thought. They had a following. They influenced the studies 
of many thousands. The terminology of their various forms of thought perme- 
ated the literature of our age. To doubt them was futile; to decry them was 
bigotry ; to agree with them was the note of emancipated intellect. 

Revelation was on the defensive in their presence. Historic Christianity 
was a mass of narrative futilities. The saints and sages, martyrs and doctors, 
the guides of mankind during a thousand years, were persons with inadequate 
knowledge of scientific data. And so for half a century these new lights of a 
scientific dispensation lorded it over their adherents with a security of intel- 
lectual tenure surpassing the sternest claims of the feudal barons or the pontiffs 
of the middle ages. 

Most of them have passed away. Their influences, though diminishing, re- 
main with us still. The great body of their work has suffered some wrong. 
Time, " that gathers all things mortal, with cold immortal hands," has heaped 
much of it with dust. But each of them has in some fashion not always of 
set purpose but only by accident or incidentally left us what we may call a 
dying speech and confession indicating what when we put all the confessions 
together may be asserted to be the final failure of all they attempted to do, all 
they tried to teach, all they hoped to establish. We propose to gather all these 
dying speeches and confessions and place them briefly before the reader with a 
few obvious comments. They may refresh the memory of seme. They may 
serve as a warning to others. They will in any case serve to show how ilender 
was the claim to so much vogue and authority. 

Few men of the past generation had such temporary authority over a large 
part of the educated public as John Stuart Mill. In the region of politics a 
wide and varied area he exercised by his writings great influence. He pro- 
bably influenced, directly or indirectly, the course of legislation in the United 
Kingdom. With that part of his life-work we have no present concern. 



1 90 1.] THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 689 

But he also exercised his great logical faculty in undermining, so far as he 
could, the popular belief in revealed Christianity. He had no animosity towards 
it ; he tells us he occupied the singular position of never having had any belief 
in it at all. When he carre to sum up the results of his lile-woik in both 
directions and to leave his message to posterity, what was it that he had to say ? 
On the subject of public affairs this is the message : 

" In England I had seen and continued to see many of the opinions of my 
youth obtain general recognition, and many of the reforms in institutions, for 
which I had through life contended, either effected or in course of being so. 
But these changes had been attended with much less benefit to human well-being 
than I should formerly have anticipated, because they had produced very little 
improvement in that on which all real amelioration in the lot of mankind depends,, 
their intellectual and moral state; and it might even be questioned if the 
various causes of deterioration which had been at work in the meantime had 
not more than counterbalanced the tendency to improvement." 

Another of the band of distinguished men who impressed themselves upon 
the minds of students, and inculcated purely materialistic views of life, was Pro- 
fessor Tyndall. He was aggressive at times and fought his battle stoutly with 
all who came forward to confront him. His last message of importance was de- 
livered in the Belfast address, in 1874. Running into seven editions in one year, 
this famous address had a circulation rarely given to scientific lectures, and has 
not yet been wholly forgotten. It was prepared with great care, and was the 
result of a life of scientific study. It contained the last word which a confessedly 
great thinker had to say regarding the hopes and destiny of man. " I thought 
you ought to know," he said with some degree of condescension, " the environ- 
ment which, with or without your consent, is rapidly surrounding you, and in re- 
lation to which some adjustment on your part may be necessary." And what, 
in fine, is this environment ? It consists, to all appearance, in the first place, of 
a claim on the part of science to supreme authority. He says: 

" The impregnable position of science may be described in a few words. 
We claim, and we shall wrest from theology, the entire domain of cosmological 
theory. All schemes and systems, which thus infringe upon the domain of 
science, must, in so far as they do this, submit to its control and relinquish all 
thought of controlling it. Acting otherwise proved disastrous in the past, and 
it is simply fatuous to-day." 

Twenty-five years of discovery and discussion have rendered readjustment 
necessary not so much on the part of theology as on the part of science. The 
notice to quit, which Professor Tyndall so peremptorily gave to theology, has 
proved to be not enforceable by ejectment. The tenant continues to be the 
holder of the fee. 

The grounds on which the man of science dictated terms of surrender to 
theology were not very strong. " The whole process of evolution," he admitted, 
" is the manifestation of a Power absolutely inscrutable to the intellect of man " ; 
nevertheless it is " simply fatuous " for theology to interfere with this inscruta- 
ble mystery. Ultimate conception of the origin of man, he asserts, is " here un- 
attainable," and " each succeeding age must be held free to fashion the mystery 
in accordance with his own needs "; but theology must remain an Uitlander 
still. Science must indeed discuss its problems " without intolerance or bigotry 
of any kind " except insistence on the fact that " theology results in intellectual 
death," which is not bigotry at all ! " No exclusive claim is made for science; 



690 THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. [Aug., 

you are not to erect it into an idol," he says; still, the position of science is " im- 
pregnable," and " we claim the entire domain of cosmological theory " which 
is, of course, not an exclusive claim at all. Science, he alleges, claims "unre- 
stricted right of search " on debatable questions ; but in the region of 
"cosmological theory" Theology must not stake out any claim. It is cer- 
tain, he admits, that the views of Lucretius and Bruno, of Darwin and Spen- 
cer, " will undergo modification " ; meanwhile Theology must please stand aside 
while the process of modification goes on, while each scientific dogmatist ex- 
communicates his brethren in turn, abandons theory after theory, and passes un- 
convincing and unconvinced " into the infinite azure of the past." From the last 
speech and confession of Professor Tyndall it is obvious that humanity can 
gather little to encourage it in a world full of trials, temptations, and sorrow. 

There was a time when Matthew Arnold took himself very seriously and 
was taken seriously by his disciples, as the exponent of theories of literature, 
science, theology, and the conduct of life, which were to be substituted for the 
overthrown and outdated orthodoxies of our own age. The affable condescen- 
sion with which he infotmed the upper classes that they were baibarians, the 
middle classes that they were materialized, and the lower classes that they were 
brutalized ; the sad scorn with which he assured the middle class which has 
produced nearly all our best literature that what they needed was educa- 
tion ; the calm assurance with which he asserted, regarding paganism and Chris- 
tianity, that both were faiths and both were gone were paralleled only by the 
self-confidence with which he offered his own final solution of the vexed 
problem of intellectual humanity. Here is his last dying speech and con- 
fession : 

" More and more mankind will discover that we have to turn to poetry 
to interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain us. Without pcelry our 
science will appear incomplete ; and most of what now parses with us for ieJi- 
gion and philosophy will be replaced by poetry. Science, I say, will appear in- 
complete without it. For finely and truly does Wordsworth call poetry 'the 
impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all science'; and what 
is a countenance without its expression ? Again, Wordsworth finely and truly 
calls poetry ' the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge'; our religion, parad- 
ing evidences such as those on which the popular mind relies now; our philoso- 
phy, pluming itself on its reasonings about causation and finite and infinite 
being; what are they but the shadows and dreams and false shows of knowl- 
edge ? The day will come when we shall wonder at ourselves for having 
trusted to them, for having taken them seriously; and the more we perceive 
their hollowness the more we shall prize ' the breath and finer spirit of knowl- 
edge ' offered to us by poetry." 

Here we have, if possible, a more hopeless and unacceptable substitute for 
any form of religion than all the others. If Mr. Arnold had for a moment re- 
flected on the vast masses of mankind, on the diversities of race, on the ignor- 
ance, the barbarity, the low civilization of the mass of mankind, on the absolute 
impossibility of their being approachtd in any foim by poetry such as he had in 
his mind, he would surely have had sufficient sense of humor to refrain from 
such an expression of serious opinion. But that was all he had to offer us, to 
interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain us, to create in us a new heart and 
renew a right spirit within us. The pity of it ! 

One more name, still living among us, remains to be noted. In 1896 Her- 



igoi.] THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 691 

bert Spencer completed the purpose of his life by publishing the last volume of 
his system of Synthetic Philosophy. An industry hardly ever surpassed, learn- 
ing acquired by earnest labor, honesty as to facts never challenged, ingenuity 
in comparison and interpretation quite beyond compare in our time all these 
good qualities his work exhibits; and his object, like that of Arnold, is to inter- 
pret life for us, to sustain us, to console us, by means of science, not poetry. 
And what is the last message that, after six-and- thirty years of thought and 
labor, he has to leave to his followers, who are to be found all over the world in 
great numbers ? This is part of it : 

" Those who think that science is dissipating religious beliefs and senti- 
ments seem unaware that whatever of mystery is taken from the old interpreta- 
tion is added to the new. Or, rather, we may say that transference from the 
one to the other is accompanied by increase; since for an explanation which 
has a seeming feasibility, science substitutes an explanation which, carrying us 
back only a certain distance, there leaves us in presence of the avowedly inex- 
plicable." 

That is, in effect, science is more religious than religion, because while the 
explanation of religious mysteries has a certain feasibility, the explanation of 
the mysteries of science is no explanation at all. Scientific reasoning is an 
obvious mystery itself. The conclusion of the message is as follows: 

" But one truth must grow ever clearer the truth that there is an If scruta- 
ble Existence everywhere manifested to which he (the man of science) can 
neither find nor conceive either beginning or end. Amid the mysteries which 
become more mysterious the more they are thought about, there will remain the 
one absolute certainty, that he is ever in presence of an Infinite and Eternal 
Energy, from which all things proceed." 

Surely, after so many years of thought and labor on his own part, assisted 
by the thought and labor of so many others, his predecessors of the eighteenth 
as well as the nineteenth century, Herbert Spencer ought to have been in a 
position to give us a more robust and definite creed, especially in view of the 
notice-to-quit given by his fellow Commander in Science to the saints and sages, 
the martyrs and doctors of historic Christianity. Was it worth while to labor 
so long to produce so little ? The Dutchman in " Knickerbocker," in his 
famous attempt to jump over a mountain, took a preliminary run of two miles to 
get up speed, but was obliged to sit down at the foot of the mountain to take 
breath ! 

All the scientists in turn refer to Mr. Darwin with reverence as their mas- 
ter. Professor Tyndall, in his Belfast address, tells us that Darwin overcomes 
all difficulties and crumbles all opponents with the passionless strength of a 
glacier. Let us consider for a moment what is the final message and confession 
that Mr. Darwin has left to humanity for its consolation and hope. First he 
tells us (1873) that"! have never systematically thought much on religion in 
relation to science, or on morals in relation to society," and this, in the case of 
most men of good sense, would have prevented further declarations. But your 
scientist likes to have opinions, and so, in 1879, being pressed by a correspon- 
dent, he formulates an opinion : " Science has nothing to do with Christ, except 
in so far as the habit of scientific research makes a man cautious in admitting 
evidence. For myself I do not believe that there has ever been a revelation. 
As for a future life, every man must judge for himself between conflicting vague 
probabilities." The mental process is clear enough ; the habit of scientific 
research made him cautious about admitting evidence as to Christ, though not 



692 THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. [Aug., 

as to corals; doubt as to Christ naturally induced doubt as to Revelation; 
and doubt as to both rendered the question as to a future state one of extreme 
dubiety. At times Mr. Darwin's doubts took a different form. " The Uni- 
verse," he wrote in 1881, " is not the result of chance " ; but the fact that man's 
brain was developed from that of a monkey rendered him doubtful whether his 
opinions were at all trustworthy on that subject though, of course, on ques- 
tions of science said brain was of infallible authority. In reply to the Duke of 
Argyll's remark that his own volumes on Earthworms and Orchids made it 
clear that these things and their uses were " the effect of and expression of 
mind," Mr. Darwin replied, " Well, that often comes over me with overwhelm- 
ing force ; but at other times," and he shook his head vaguely, " it seems to go 
away." It is obvious, of course, that Mr. Darwin was right when he said that 
he had never given much thought to science in relation to religion. It is not so 
obvious that Professor Tyndall was correct in describing Mr. Darwin as "the 
most terrible of antagonists." 

The summary of scientific confessions would, perhaps, be incomplete with- 
out at least a pas ing reference to Professor Huxley, whose Life has been so 
recently published. He was a great master of scientific data and demonstra- 
tion. In point of industry, sincerity, and ability he was conspicuous. But he 
posed also as a theologian, and no man was so little fitted for the office. The 
strictest of disciplinarians in the use of language for scientific purposes, he 
permitted himself and others the most loose and ineffective use of words in dis- 
cussing theological questions. He was even fierce and vindictive in his defiant 
denials of the doctrine of immortality. But the careful reader of the Life will 
see that his mind was often hovering about that doctrine and half disposed at 
times in its direction. Thus, writing to Charles Kingsley in 1860, he uses these 
words : " I neither deny nor affirm the immortality of man. I see no reason for 
believing it ; but, on the other hand, I have no means of disproving it." And 
again : " It is not half so wonderful as the conservation of force or the inde- 
structibility of matter." Ideas like these kept agitating his mind ; and like Dar- 
win, whom we hare quoted, he had moments of doubt and disquiet. Finally, 
in 1883, writing to Mr. John Morley (vol. ii. page 62), he says : " It is a curious 
thing that I find my dislike to the thought of extinction increasing as I get 
older and nearer the goal. It flashes across me at all sorts of times with a sort 
of horror that in 1900 I thall probably know no more of what is going on than 
I did in 1800. I had sooner be in hell a good deal, at any rate in one of the 
upper circles, where the climate and company are not too trying. I wonder if 
you are plagued in this way?" The words have been much discussed, ex- 
plained, defended, and put aside by some as a mere bit of petulance. But they 
go to prove that the scientific dogmatist was not more sure of his negative posi- 
tion than were his scientific brethren, and that his last d^ ing speech and con- 
fession, like theirs, was a confession of failure and confusion. 

In discussing these eminent men and their teachings as to science in rela- 
tion to Christian society, one is conscious that there is an undercurrent of ridi- 
cule in the discussion which is ever struggling to come to the surface. The 
mental attitude assumed by them their confessions of ignorarce and their as- 
sumption of authority; their claims for freedom of discussion, and their con- 
stant insolence towards theology ; their declarations as to the progress of 
science, and their admissions that everything is a mystery still; their sneers at 
Christian dogma as an exploded wreck, and their uneasy conscicusness that 
they are, nevertheless, constantly on the defensive against it. all these uneaf y 



1 90i.] THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 693 

attitudes and unconscious revelations have a tendency to make serious minds 
refuse to treat them seriously. Nor is this disposition confined to those who 
resist and resent the conclusions of science so far as these are opposed to the 
doctrines of revealed Christianity. Their own friends and followers are, at 
times at least, afflicted with the like tendency towards ridicule. In his notable 
but probably a little overlooked "Valedictory," John Morley expressed with a 
certain reserve, yet a certain degree of ridicule also, the general feeling of sen- 
sible men regarding the general failure of agnostic propagandism. He said: 

"Speculation has been completely democratized. This is a tremendous 
change to have come about in little more than a doze^i years. How far it goes, 
let us not be too sure. It is no new discovery that what looks like complete 
tolerance may be in reality only complete indifference. Intellectual fairness is 
often only another name for indolence and inconclusiveness of mind, just as 
love of truth is sometimes a fine phrase for temper. To be piquant counts for 
much." 

Mr. Morley was forced, or felt free, to confess that the foe was not broken 
at all; and that the forces of scientific agnosticism were in many respects even 
sham forces. But even sham forces may be dangerous. Those who in a freak 
of fashion pretend to disbelieve, may, and often must, in the end, become 
actual disbelievers. In any case they lose their hold on the certitudes of faith, 
and grow cold in right thinking and well doing. Across the centuries there 
comes to us a message of more authoritative moment, and with a promise and 
a menace which give us a stronger assurance of truth and a higher sense of our 
destiny and duty : for our assurance, " I am the Lord thy God"; for our guid- 
ance, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him"; 
and for our consolation and reward,"! am the resurrection and the life; he 
that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whoso- 
ever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." 



The late Charlotte Yonge has a shrine in the heart of thousands of girls for 
The Daisy Chain, The Dove in the Eagle's Nest, and many other sweet and 
wholesome stories. Miss Yonge did not write for glory or for finery, as so many 
later scribblers do. Religious romances proved as profitable to this good lady 
as to the successors of her own sex, to agnostic and metaphysical fictions of to- 
day. She was aptly called ' a clerical Jane Austen." Altogether Miss Yonge 
wrote more than a hundred novels. Of the $7,500 Brought her by her first and 
most famous story, part was given to fitting out for Bishop Selwyn the missionary 
schooner Southern Cross. The Daisy Chain yielded $10,000, with which was 
built and endowed a missionary college in New Zealand. 

Miss Yonge 's charming works did not appeal to revolted daughters, for the 
Daisy of her writings was a stay-at-home and-make-it-comfortable sort of 
heroine, preferable still in old-fashioned eyes to the Yellow Aster and Green 
Carnation of the gadabout type. Let not, however, the "young person" of 
these decadent days, to whose callous cheek no blush is raised by the pernicious 
problem play, imagine in her scorn that Miss Yonge's books had no higher 
place in literature than on the shelves given to fiction. Her books have been 
accepted by the most judicious readers in public and parish libraries. The 
Heir of Redcliffe still has power to arouse intense interest and give delight to 
the mind.' 



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THE 

CATHOLIC WORLD. 

VOL. LXXIII. SEPTEMBER, 1901. No. 438. 



THE "GRIEVOUS SCHOOL QUESTION" AGAIN 

DISCUSSED. 

BY REV. P. R. McDEVITT (Superintendent of Parish Schools in Philadelphia). 

HE following words are taken from an editorial 
in the New York Tribune, and are quoted here 
because they are indicative of a growing ten- 
dency to treat the question of educational 
methods in a broad spirit of liberality : 

"Mr. Miles O'Brien, the president of the Bjard of Education, New York 
City, has put forward and is advocating with his usual earnestness a plan for 
bringing practically all the schools of the city save the select private and 
boarding schools' under municipal control as a part of the public-school sys- 
tem. There are now many schools maintained by charitable organizations and 
churches which are working on lines largely parallel with those of the common 
schools. Some of them receive aid from the public funds and are subject to a 
measure of public supervision, while others are entirely independent thereof. 
Mr. O'Brien's proposal was at first understood to apply only to the former class, 
but now appears to apply equally to the latter. He would have the city pur- 
chase at a fair price such of the private school buildings as it could advanta- 
geously utilize, and even retain the teachers, or such of them as could pass the 
necessary examinations, and would thus transform private into public schools 
with no change in plant and little or none in personal organization. 

" Mr. O'Brien is an intelligent and ambitious friend of the public school, 
who wants to make New York's school system the best in the world. He has 
done much good work, and is doubtless entirely sincere in his belief in the prac- 
ticality and beneficence of the great change he is now advocating. More than 
that, we may say that in principle his plan is to be commended and its execu- 
tion is to be desired." 

Then the editorial continues by suggesting some difficulties 
which are after all not of an insurmountable nature. There is 
so much good will indicated in the statements quoted that it 
should not be difficult to find a way of solving the problem. 

THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE IN THE STATE 

OF NEW YORK, 1901. 
VOL. LXXIU. 46 



6c,6 THE " GRIEVOUS SCHOOL QUESTION" [Sept., 

In the Report for 1899-1900 of the Commissioner of Edu- 
cation, Hon. W. T. Harris, the following interesting and valua- 
ble statistics are given. There are in the 

. Public. Private. 

Elementary Schools, . 14,662,488 1,193,882 pupils. 

Secondary Schools, . . 488,549 166,678 

Universities and Colleges, . 30,050 73, 201 

Professional Schools, . . 8,540 46,594 

Normal Schools, . . . 44808 23.572 



15 234435 i.503.9 2 7 

ENROLLMENT IN SPECIAL SCHOOLS. 

City Evening Schools, . . 185,000 
Business Schools, .... 70,686 
Indian Schools, .... 23,500 
Schools for Defectives, . . . 23,691 
Reform Schools, .... 24,925- 
Orphan Asylums and other Benevo- 
lent Institutions, . . . 14,000 
Schools in Alaska, .... 1,369 
Kindergartens, . . . 93,737 
Miscellaneous, 50,000 



486,908 

Summarizing, then, we find total enrollment was 17,225 270, 
distributed as follows : 

In Public Institutions, . . 15,234,435 
In Private Institutions, . . 1,503 927 
In Special Schools, . . 486,908 

Under the term " Common Schools " the Report includes 
public schools of elementary and secondary grades ; the former 
including all pupils in the first eight years of the course of 
study, and the latter the pupils of the next four years of the 
course usually conducted in high-schools or academies. 

In educating the vast number that attend the " Common 
Schools" (15,151,037), 415,660 teachers were employed, and to 
meet the expenses of these schools the sum of $204,017,612 was 
raised; the average expenditure for each child being $1899. 
This enormous outlay, as well as the vast number of pupils 
enrolled, clearly demonstrate the high place that popular tdu- 



1901.] THE " GRIEVOUS SCHOOL QUESTION" 697 

cation holds in the estimation of the American people ; this 
fact is emphasized when we compare with it the correspond- 
ing data shown by other countries. 

THE CATHOLIC-AMERICAN IS NO LAGGARD. 

That the Catholic-American is no laggard in this great edu- 
cational work is proved by statistics of our Catholic educa- 
tional institutions during the year 1899-1900, which give 3,812 
parish schools with an enrollment of 903,980 pupils, 183 col- 
leges for boys, and 617 academies for girls; the enrollment in 
the latter not being given. 

It is safe, then, to say that nearly 1,000000 pupils of all 
grades are being educated under distinctly Catholic influences. 

While, therefore, other private educational institutions out- 
side of the Catholic Church are important in number, char- 
acter, and enrollment of pupils, it is clear that the Catholic 
schools contain double the number that are being educated in 
all the other schools not of distinctly public character. 

In the education of the youth of our country, then, we find 
two clearly defined agencies working side by side : one, the 
creation of the state ; the other, the offspring of private en- 
terprise. The state supports hers from a revenue obtained by 
the taxation of all classes without exception ; the other is 
maintained by the generosity of private individuals, and re- t 
ceives no financial aid, and very little professional recognition, 
from state authority. 

The dominating thought and purpose of both agencies are 
the same the formation and development of character and 
the instilling of those principles which beget the highest ideal 
of true womanhood and manhood. Though this high end is 
the aim of all educators, there is some variance of opinion as 
to the means best suited to accomplish the end. 

The vast majority seem to believe that that end can, under 
existing circumstances, be best attained by the plan of educa- 
tion offered to all children in the common or state schools, 
while others find in that same plan a lack of what to them is 
essential in the development of a human being, namely, the 
religious instruction so wholly ignored in the public-school 
system. This difference of opinion accounts for the existence 
of both public and private schools. A few private institutions 
of learning owe their existence to the desire of some parents 
for social distinction, and their disinclination to allow their 
children to frequent schools wherein the lines of social caste 



698 THE " GRIEVOUS SCHOOL QUESTION" [Sept., 

lose effect ; these schools differ from the public schools only 
in their exclusiveness. 

The majority, therefore, of private schools exist because 
conscientious and God-fearing parents recognize the necessity 
of daily religious instruction ; and, as a result, parish schools 
are not merely private but distinctly Catholic, and the differ- 
ence between them and the state school consists in the presence 
or absence of a religious atmosphere. 

DIFFERENT VIEWPOINTS OF EDUCATORS. 

All educators who believe in Christianity agree that re- 
ligion and morality must have a share in the education of 
youth ; they differ, however, as to the manner and time and 
place in which religion and morality are to be taught. 

Education in its true and complete acceptance is the bring- 
ing out of all the powers of man. It means the training of 
the heart, the cultivation of the mind, and the development 
of the physical powers. A system of education which ignores 
any of these is defective, and becomes disastrous in propor- 
tion to the dignity and relative importance of the part that is 
neglected. I take it that, in the main, non-Catholics hold that 
moral training should be a part of the daily curriculum. Thus, 
in the Boston course of study for the high-school we read : 
" In giving instruction in morals and manners, teachers will at 
all times exert their best endeavors to impress on the minds 
of youth the principles of piety and justice, and a sacred re- 
gard to truth ; love of their country, humanity, and universal 
benevolence ; sobriety, industry, and frugality ; chastity, mode- 
ration, and temperance." This moral instruction, however, it 
is declared, shall have no trace or shadow of sectarian or 
doctrinal teaching, for in the course of study for primary 
schools of the same city it is said : " In giving this instruc- 
tion teachers should keep strictly within the bounds of man- 
ners and morals, and thus avoid all occasion for treating of 
or alluding to sectarian subjects." 

Again, I say, it is evident all agree as to the necessity of 
moral and religious teaching ; there is no agreement as to the 
manner, places, and times wherein it is to be given. Outside 
of the Catholic Church it is almost universally maintained 
that, though morality may be inculcated in the school-room, 
all religious teaching is to be relegated to the church and the 
family circle. 



1901.] THE " GRIEVOUS SCHOOL QUESTION:' 699 

THE CATHOLIC IDEA OF EDUCATION. 

Catholics hold that as ever and always the child's soul and 
his duties to God are the highest and greatest, so there is no 
place, time, or method from which the teaching of morals and 
religion may be eliminated. They hold that as the knowledge 
of the relations of the creature to his Creator is the most 
sacred and essential of all subjects, the most imperative of all 
obligations, these relations shall receive at least as much atten- 
tion as is given to any secular branch ; that as a child cannot 
become proficient in reading, writing, or arithmetic without 
daily instruction therein, so neither can he acquire the neces- 
sary knowledge of God, his laws, his rewards and punishments, 
without the daily presentation of these truths. Nor do they 
believe that morality and religion are separable ; that men 
will revere the law, if they ignore the law-giver. Now, since 
morality has Divine sanction, to attempt to teach its princi- 
ples without reference to the Divinity is to ignore the law- 
giver; yet just as surely as you speak of the Law-giver, so 
surely do you trench on the ground of doctrinal teaching. 
But even should any one hold that religion and morality are 
separable, the Catholic Church, with her ages of experience, 
with her realization that religion and morality must be united ; 
and knowing from the same experience that the instruction 
given her children at church and at home is inadequate for 
the requisite religious training of the child, has created a sys- 
tem of schools wherein religious, moral, and secular training 
shall go hand-in-hand for the perfecting of the whole human 
being. As says one of the ablest Catholic educators : 

" However, we do not hold that religion can be imparted 
as is the knowledge of history or grammar; the repetition of 
the catechism or the reading of the Gospel is not religion. 
Religion is something more subtle, more intimate, more all- 
pervading ; it speaks to the heart and the head ; it is an ever- 
living presence in the school-room ; it is reflected from the 
pages of our reading books. It is nourished by the prayers 
with which our daily exercises are opened and closed ; it is 
brought in to control the affections, to keep watch over the 
imagination ; it forbids to the mind any but useful, holy, and 
innocent thoughts ; it enables the soul to resist temptation, it 
guides the conscience, inspires horror for sin and love of vir- 
tue. It must be an essential element of our lives, the very 
atmosphere of our breathing, the soul of every action. 



700 THE "GRIEVOUS SCHOOL QUESTION" [Sept., 

" This is religion as the Catholic Church understands it, 
and this is why she seeks to foster the religious spirit in every 
soul confided to her, at all times, under all circumstances, 
without rest, without break, from the cradle to the grave " 
(Brother Asarias). 

In the maintaining of her parish school the Catholic Church 
not only contends for the union of secular learning and re- 
ligious training, but, furthermore, in the very contention, em- 
phasizes the conscientious duty of Catholic parents to thus 
educate their offspring. 

DANGERS OF STATE PATERNALISM. 

There is undoubtedly at the present time a more than mere 
tendency towards state " paternalism." It is a fact, however 
much it may be deplored, that many parents are only too 
willing to relegate to the state the rights, duties, and respon- 
sibilities that devolve on them in this matter of education. 

The result of this shirking of duty on one side, and the 
assumption of it on the other, must, ultimately, be harmful to 
both. The family is the basal unit of the state ; any weak- 
ness, much more any unsoundness, in the foundation or in any 
of the component parts imperils the whole of the edifice. 

If the parent does not fulfil his duty far worse if he de- 
liberately ignores it the resultant moral and civic weakness 
must show itself in the character and stability of the state. 

Let me not be misunderstood on this point. I would not 
derogate one iota from the right of the state to look after the 
well-being of its citizens. But this right has its legitimate 
limits; neither do I admit the state's right of absolute control 
of the character of the education to be imparted to a pupil, 
any more than I would accord it the privilege of determining 
that pupil's religion. 

The state surely may, and should, insist that her citizens 
should be fitted for the discharge of their duties to the com- 
monwealth. If parents fail in their duty to their children, let 
the state step in and become father and mother to the outcast 
and neglected ones ; but, in the name of natural right, let us 
remember that the state is not the natural but only a foster 
parent, and that the first duty and privilege as regards the 
child belongs to its parent by nature. 

CHURCH STANDS FOR LAW AND ORDER. 

More firmly than any other teaching body, the church has 



1901.] THE " GRIEVOUS SCHOOL QUESTION" 701 

ever stood for law and order. Her enemies make it a reproach 
that her conservatism at times stifles the aspirations of an op- 
pressed people for natural freedom. But, guided by the Holy 
Spirit, and rich with the experience of nineteen hundred years 
among the nations of the earth, she insists that her children 
shall respect and obey all civil power, because all authority 
comes from God. 

She may both see and feel the tyranny and oppression that 
are weighing down the people, but she knows that sometimes 
it is better to bear the ills we have than to attempt to escape 
to others we know not of. 

The simple fact that the child lives in a little world, 
whether in a state school or in any private school, wherein it 
sees order, discipline, and self-restraint, exercises a deep influ- 
ence on its whole being. Even in schools from whose curricu- 
lum all religious instruction is eliminated, if the cultivation of 
natural virtues from even purely natural motives be there em- 
phasized, habits of mind and heart are developed that will 
have much to do with the character of the future citizen. 

When, however, this wholesome influence is intensified by 
positive religious instruction that demands the acquisition and 
cultivation of virtues, not merely from natural but from super- 
natural motives also, then a mighty power works in the heart 
that will develop a deep and lasting reverence for all legiti- 
mate authority, and eventually give to the state a faithful 
citizen, a strong upholder of right and order. 

Well do we know that the more faithful a Catholic is to 
his faith and its teaching, the more loyal is he to the laws of 
the land ; the God-fearing man must necessarily be the up- 
right, law-abiding citizen. God and Fatherland are the domi- 
nant notes of Catholic teaching. 

In the words of her Divine Founder, she bids her children 
" Render to Csesar the things that are Caesar's." If any one 
bearing the name of Catholic be found a law-breaker or a 
traitor to his country, he is a Catholic but in name. And to 
the same extent that he breaks the laws of the land, in so far 
does he ruthlessly defy the teachings of her whose name he 
bears. 

LIBERTY TO EDUCATE AS IS DEEMED BEST. 

As the very fact of our having Catholic schools has at 
times aroused comment, and even ill-feeling, I shall here ad- 
vert to some facts that ought to be taken into consideration. 



702 THE " GRIEVOUS SCHOOL QUESTION" [Sept., 

One is the constitutional right of Catholics or any body of 
citizens to establish schools, provided such schools be not in- 
compatible with public morality, or not opposed to public 
welfare. 

Citizens have a right to use the public schools ; if they 
renounce that right, it is no privilege to allow them to estab- 
lish their own educational institutions. We often hear the 
self-constituted defenders and justifiers of the state system use 
emphatically the term " our schools," and " our public-school 
system." Allow me to remark that it is an impertinence for 
any individual to refer to the public schools as " our " schools, 
to the exclusion of Catholics, or any other members of the 
commonwealth. 

If the state schools do not, in Catholic estimation, afford 
all the facilities necessary for the acquisition of the highest 
moral virtue, we have the liberty of stating this fact and of 
providing other means ; for it is also the constitutional right 
of any citizen, whether Catholic or Protestant, Jew or infidel, 
to criticise, condemn, approve or disapprove any institution 
which is the creation of the state and supported by general 
taxation. 

Those outside the church sometimes declare that the Catho- 
lic laity are not in sympathy with the policy of the church in 
the matter of education ; that it is bishops and priests alone 
that are unreservedly insistent on the question. 

Certainly it is true that some Catholic laymen think the 
position of the church on education extreme and unnecessary. 
But to say that the Catholics of America are not substantially 
united on the Catholic Parish School question is to be sadly 
ignorant of the actual state of affairs. Catholics would indeed 
rejoice were they able in conscience to partake of the educa- 
tional advantages provided by the state, for they are taxed to pro- 
vide those advantages, yet they are also eager to support their 
parish school ; and should they desire for their children an 
academical or collegiate education, they are willing to bear the 
additional expense incurred thereby. To their credit be it 
said, when the question of a choice between an education with- 
out religion and an education with religion is put plafnty before 
them, there is no mistaking their position, even though they 
thereby burden themselves with financial sacrifice and self- 
denial. 

The history of Catholic education shows that the most ear- 
nest advocates of its undying, unchangeable principles have 



IQOI.] THE "GRIEVOUS SCHOOL QUESTION" 703 

been laymen, and, were any distinction to be made, the honor 
should go to laymen who are converts to the Catholic faith 
and have had personal experience of the disastrous effects of 
education without religion. 

Were this not the condition of affairs, neither the church 
nor any other organization could force upon the people an 
institution as broad, as far-reaching, and as expensive as the 
parish-school system. 

CATHOLICS NOT ALONE IN OPPOSITION TO EDUCATION WITH- 
OUT RELIGION. 

The opponents of Catholic education also say that we are 
practically alone in our opposition to purely secular training 
which eliminates religion. 

If they are at all conversant with current facts and opinions, 
such a contention is false ; for among the most earnest defenders 
of religion in education are found men, non-Catholics, who voice 
their protest in no doubtful terms. I might cite many proofs 
of this, but shall content myself with the words of one who is 
an esteemed minister of religion one who has been an educa- 
tor for many years, has occupied a chair in one of our largest 
universities, and at present is president of the high-school of 
a city that boasts of nearly a million and a half population. 
I refer to Rev. Robert Ellis Thompson, president of the Cen- 
tral High-School of Philadelphia, who says : 

"As to the sufficiency of religious instruction in church 
and Sunday-school, we reply that one of the first practical 
dangers of society is that the greatest truths that bear on 
human life shall come to be identified in the public mind with 
Sundays, churches, and Sunday-school." 

" We certainly are helping that when we provide that the 
most aroused activities of a boy's mind shall be divorced from 
those truths, and that the subjects of science, literature, and 
history, with which church and Sunday-school cannot deal, 
shall be taught with a studied absence of reference to ' the 
Divine Intelligence at the heart of things.' " 

" What is this but a lesson in the practical atheism 
that shuts God out of all but certain selected parts of life 
with which the young man may have as little to do as he 
pleases." 

" What would be the effect upon a child's mind of exclud- 
ing studiously all mention of his earthly father from his work 
and play for five or six days of the week, of treating all his 



704 THE "GRIEVOUS SCHOOL QUESTION" [Sept., 

"belongings and relations without reference to the parents to 
whom he owes them, and permitting such reference only on 
stated times when they are declared in order." 

" But the monstrosity and the mischievousness of such an 
arrangement would be as nothing to the scholastic taboo of 
the living God, to whom the child owes every breath of its 
daily life, who lies about it as a great flood of light and life 
seeking to enter in and possess its spirit, and who as much 
feeds its mind with knowledge and wisdom as its spirit with 
righteousness, and its body with earthly food, in providing 
' food convenient for it ' " {Divine Order of Human Society, pp. 
189, 190). 

Now, has any Catholic priest or layman spoken more* 
emphatically on this subject than has Dr. Thompson ? Again, 
he says : 

" The church, through its clergy, can bring to bear an 
authority in education of a highly ethical kind, which it is not 
easy for laymen to exert. It can supplement or replace paren- 
tal authority more readily than a force of lay teachers. And 
it is less likely than they to be swayed by the intellectual 
fashions of the time, and the place ; less likely to accept as 
its divinity the spirit of the age, because committed to a pre- 
ference for what Jean Paul calls 'the spirit of all the ages.' ' 

There is no reason why the state should desire or claim 
the sole right of educating the youth of the country ; to assert 
that it alone can properly carry on this work is to ignore or 
condemn the splendid history of the past, when the church or 
private energy were the only agencies that looked after the 
education of the masses. 

THE STATE PRACTICALLY IS UNABLE TO EDUCATE ALL THE 

CHILDREN. 

In many parts of this country the state is either unable or 
refuses to carry on alone, the work. It is noteworthy that in 
the City of Philadelphia there are not adequate school accom- 
modations for thousands of children who are not Catholic, and 
this is only one instance of the existing state of affairs in 
other sections of the country. With such a shameful truth 
confronting it, the state should welcome the aid of other 
agencies in this great work. 

I may remark here, incidentally, that as the parish schools 
are educating 35,000 children in Pniladelphia alone, were these 
schools to be closed 35.000 more would be on the streets. 



i90.] THE "GRIEVOUS SCHOOL QUESTION" 705 

The most dangerous of all monopolies is that of education. 
Catholics are not singular in seeing danger in the state arro- 
gating to itself the exclusive work of education. 

Says Dr. Thompson : 

"Nor do we really escape from the narrowing influence of 
class in setting aside the church's ministry in educational work. 
We only create another class, more certain to be narrow, 
professional, and, in the long run, obstructive to sound 
progress." 

"The teaching profession, in those countries of Europe in 
which the state system has been longest established, constitutes 
a new clergy, not behind any other clergy in dogmatism and 
intolerance, even while it claims to be pervaded by the ' liberal ' 
and the ' modern ' spirit. And those who are familiar with the 
teaching class in America, I think, must be aware of the 
tendency to move in the same direction, to regard teachers as 
a distinct bady governed by an f sprit de corps of their own, 
and bound to act together against every opposing interest, on 
the assumption that their ideas of the right and the fit are 
coextensive with sound principles of educational policy." 

""We may yet have a new clergy on our hands in America, 
and one whose numbers and unity may make them as inimical 
to the public interests as any priesthood of any church could 
be." 

By judicious encouragement, by helpful sympathy, just 
financial aid, and proper supervision of private schools the 
state can accomplish all that can be achieved by its assuming 
complete control of education ; yet by this mode of procedure 
it would avoid interfering with the parental rights and con- 
scientious belief of her citizens. 

I might touch here on the widely discussed policy of state 
recognition of Catholic schools. A stranger to our institutions 
and methods of government coming to this country and read- 
ing certain articles bearing on the school question might be- 
lieve, were he a merely superficial observer, that arrayed on 
one side were the followers of the Catholic Church, insignifi- 
cant in numbers and influence, hostile to existing state institu- 
tions, and out of harmony with the progressive spirit of the 
age ; on the other were their opponents, influential in num- 
bers, wealth, and intelligence ; representative of all that is 
best and noblest in this broad land. 

He might also be led to think that Catholics were so un- 
reasonably exacting, so unjustly insistent for recognition, that 



7c6 THE " GRIEVOUS SCHOOL QUESTION." 

they were striving to force by law their non-Catholic fellow- 
citizens to support Ca'tTiolic educational institutions. 

CATHOLICS ARE NOT AN UNIMPORTANT MINORITY. 

Yet Catholics are not an unimportant minority : they com- 
prise from ten to fifteen millions of the population, they are 
an integral part of this great country, and history demonstrates 
their loyalty to the land of their birth or adoption, since in 
every crisis of our history their patriotism and fidelity have 
been in evidence. 

They look for no favor, privilege, or charity; they do de- 
mand a constitutional right to have a voice in the affairs of 
government. In seeking some financial recognition for their 
schools they are but asking that their own money, not other 
people's, shall be applied to the education of the children of the 
nation. Who shall dare say they ask more than their right ? 
The state is not the absolute master of all moneys in its treasury. 
It is the custodian only, and justice requires that the moneys 
raised by general taxation be distributed according to the 
reasonable and just wishes of the tax-payers. . Our opposition 
to the existing state of affairs proceeds from no sinister, self- 
ish purpose. 

The history of the agitation concerning " denominational " 
schools cannot but make Catholics think that partisan feeling 
and religious prejudice, and not the merits of the question, 
have brought about the present state of public opinion the 
unwillingness to look calmly and justly on the claims of the 
Catholic minority. 

It is a notorious fact that the so-called " non-sectarian " 
character was given to our state system of education only when 
Catholics asked, in justice, for such consideration as was ac- 
corded to the Protestant sects. 

One who is far from being just, much less partial, to the 
Catholic Church writes : " Many may be surprised to learn that 
the first appeal for a division of the public funds in the coun- 
try was made by a Protestant denomination, and the first sec- 
tarian division actually made was to that body. The other 
Protestant churches, instead of objecting, attempted to obtain 
their share of the public schools fund " (Romanism vs. Public 
School System, p. i). 

TO EXCLUDE RELIGION IS TO PROFESS IRRELIGION. 

A common objection to the appropriation of any money 



1901.] THE " GRIEVOUS SCHOOL QUESTION'" ;o? 

from the public treasury to denominational schools is that 
such an act would be a violation of the fundamental law of 
the land, which recognizes no religion or sect. 

" The government's basis is broad, ignoring party and 
creed." Does it ever occur to those who insist on this view 
that the very policy of excluding religious instruction from 
schools maintained by a general taxation is a de facto class 
legislation in favor of unbelievers and agnostics, and utterly 
opposed to the principles of Christian denominations? 

Unbelief is actually some kind of belief. Consequently, 
may not the mass of Christians justly protest against a system 
which permits any state institutions becoming tacitly an agency 
for the spread of infidelity ? 

It is said that the official machinery required to carry out a 
system which recognizes denominational schools would be so 
complicated as to be practically impossible because of the mul- 
titude of sects in the country which would claim recognition. 
Any agency which will meet the requirements of the state in 
the amount and character of the education demanded ought to 
receive recognition. The difficulties incidental to such recog- 
nition should not rule out of court any just claimant. Does 
the national government refrain from collecting its revenues 
simply because from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, a thoroughly disciplined army 
of revenue officers must be drafted into service ? Does the 
insignificance of the tribute render the humblest citizen in the 
remotest town of the Union free from the tax-gatherer's de- 
mands? 

THE CATHOLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM CANNOT BE IGNORED. 

All that is asked is simply the recognition of results secured 
in good educational work. It is a good policy, affirmed over and 
over again in municipal administration, to utilize existing agen- 
cies. A hospital, though it be under denominational control, 
yet has facilities to treat accidents. The city authorizes it 
to run a public ambulance, and pays it for the public service 
it renders. Why not apply the same principle in matters of 
education ? It makes no difference to a municipality what par- 
ticular form of religion is taught, as long as good citizenship 
is cultivated ; and if a corporation of men will give as good 
an education when tested by examination as the common 
school, why not compensate them for the work done ? 

There is no argument against the system. What is done in 



;o8 THE " GRIEVOUS SCHOOL QUESTION" [Sept., 

England, Germany, and Canada should not be impossible in 
the United States. In all these countries denominational 
schools are recognized. No unanswerable argument has ever 
been adduced which destroys the justice of the Catholic claim 
in the matter of education. There is a just solution of the 
difficulty. Catholics are not clamoring for what is unjust or 
unreasonable. 

The Catholic school system cannot be ignored by the state. 
It is a fact, a mighty fact, and one that has come to stay. 
The Catholic Church is contending for a principle, from which 
she can never recede. 

Whether recognition come or not, she will continue her 
mission of educating a million children. If the state be sincere 
in the declaration that it'looks to the welfare of the whole 
people, Catholic education will yet receive proper consideration. 

It should be recognized, because recognition of the reason- 
able demands of the minority has ever characterized broad 
statesmanship and wise leadership. Fair treatment harmonizes 
and makes loyal the minority of a country. 

The summary dismissal of every Catholic protest and peti- 
tion with wild charges of sinister designs upon the govern- 
ment by the Catholic Church is no answer to a just conten- 
tion, and is not calculated to strengthen in the hearts of 
Catholics loyalty and respect for the laws and Constitution of 
their country. 

May the day soon dawn when America and Americans will 
clearly see what the Catholic Church has done in her parish 
schools for the family and the state by jealously safeguarding 
the moral, religious, and intellectual welfare of the child, and 
when all will recognize the necessity and the permanence of 
the Catholic parish school ! 



I90I.J 



THE HOUSE OF GOD. 



709 




SHE F?OUSE OF GOD. 

1KB House of God hath royal 

plenishings, 
Both rich and rare. 
Meet for the service of the King of 

kings, 

Who dwelleth there. 
All glorious within, the Church, His 

Bride, 

In beauty waits 
The coming of her Lord, who opens 

wide 

Her pearly gates, 
That all may enter there and find 

content, 

Rest, pardon, peace ; 
In praise and prayer, in song and sacrament, 
And sin's surcease. 

Not with uncertain sound her symbols speak 

To soul of man. 
To eye and heart they plead, though faith be weak. 

The heavenly plan, 
In nave and transept, choir and bay revealed, 

And carved ambone, 
Teaches of Him who is her tower and shield 

And corner-stone. 

'Neath pillared arch and vaulted dome arise, 

'Mid incense dim, 
Low litanies to Christ in Paradise, 

And vesper hymn. 
And priestly hands, beneath the Eastern Rose, 

Absolve and bless 
Sinner and saint, who, burdened with life's woes, 

Their sins confess \ 



710 



THE HOUSE OF GOD. 



[Sept. 



The House of God hath royal plenishing, 

And gifts of price. 
The House that is from Heaven foreshadowing. 

The Sacrifice 
Of Love untold is offered o'er and o'er, 

In lowly faith. 
" Who drinketh of My Blood shall Thirst no more," 

The Master saith. 

Lord, I believe, help Thou mine unbelief ! 

Thy Temple fair 
Enshrines the offering of my soul's deep grief 

And gray despair. 
The silver and the gold are Thine, but more 

To us is given ; 
Thy Sacraments unlock the golden door, 

Through which is Heaven. 

ISABEL G. EATON. 





SAILING ON THE RILE. 



BY F. M. EDSELAS. 




'T last we were fairly under way, having a thor- 
oughly enjoyable sail of" some six hours before 
tying up for the night. The shore, low and 
green, was also varied by a wall of cream-colored 
rock probably a branch of the oft stony Nile 
taking at times the form of huge boulders, rendering naviga- 
tion far from easy or safe readily proved when breasting the 
famous Cataracts, which tested the skill of expert boatmen, 
and our courage as well. 

Towns and villages dotted the plains shoreward, which, with 
groves of palm and other tropical trees, formed a scene truly 
picturesque, and of never failing interest ; this being varied by 
mounds and pyramids, which with camels and donkeys, pelicans 
and geese, ever and anon crossed our line of travel. A narrow 
strip of land along the shore was almost the only fertile por- 
tion visible, depending, as we know, upon the Nile's annual 
overflow for irrigation. 

The wind here being master of the situation, proved such 
an uncertain factor that we never knew what its freaks might 
be from day to day nay, from hour to hour. Sometimes, 
being in good humor, we advanced steadily for two or three 
days; then followed a tie-up of as many more. However, 
this was not wholly lost, being improved by studying the 
" lions in the way." Some stations we found deserted, hav- 
ing been washed away by the floods still sweeping over the 
land as in ages past, when King Moeris constructed that 
VOL. LXXIII. 47 



SAILING ON THE NILE. [Sept, 

famous lake bearing his name, regulating the overflow of the 
Nile. 

Other more prosperous towns showed some degree of thrift 
in well-kept streets and bazaars, shaded, as with us, by mat- 
ting hung from the buildings, the places being attractive for 
novelty. In the less frequented villages, where we awaited a 
favoring breeze, wretched persons were often seen squatted 
a la Turc, hugging their knees, sorry pictures of abject misery. 
In fact, the condition of the Nile Egyptians can hardly be 
otherwise while so shamefully oppressed by the government. 
Taxation, drafting for the army, with compulsory labor on the 
public works, so drain their shallow purse, time, and even their 
very life's blood, as barely to leave them the dregs of exist- 
ence. Over and over again, when lamenting their sad fate, 
did we rejoice at our more prosperous lot cast in free 
America. 

Worse even than this was it to see so many of these 




A GROUP OF THE PEOPLE. 

wretches not only drafted, but torn from their homes by the 
rjugh soldiers and carried away in boat-loads, while their wives 
and mothers lamented, as we had heard them in funeral pro- 
cessions, their fate being far more deplorable than if separated 
by death at home. 



190 1.] SAILING ON THE NILE. 713 

Christmas day dawned, the seventh day of our boating experi- 
ence, filled with glad memories of dear ones far away. Adli, 
as host, most courteously honored this our great festival at 
least as to the temporals, leaving us to manage as best we 
could the spirituals, which, with our little Bethlehem Crib, 
proved far from being what we desired. 

Under our good captain's direction the steward decorated 
our craft with the Turkish and American flags entwined with 
palm-leaves and bright-colored paper cut in fanciful designs. 
In compliment to each a special remembrance awaited us at 
table, the dinner being a very elaborate affair, though in truth 
not half so enjoyable as an every-day meal, en famille. 

Early in the day, while passing a Coptic convent perched 
high on a cliff, we became much interested in watching the 
inmates, swimming towards our boat, throwing out their arms 
in a peculiar manner, until alongside, so as to lay hold of the 
vessel. They were expected, as we had been notified of their 
custom to levy alms on all travellers in this way. 

Whatever was received they carried in their mouths ; the 
clothing, being made in a bundle, borne on the head. So per- 
sistent were they, that after the first gift they invariably clam- 
ored for more, until the sailors rapped their knuckles in no 
gentle manner, thus forcing them to release their hold. 

At times they even, came on board ; their cry being " Ana 
Christian, O howadji ! " meaning, " I am a Christian, gentle- 
men !" One returned a second time, soliciting for his father, 
who he said was running along the shore, being unable to 
swim. That may have been, though evidence was against him, 
since he looked much younger than the son ! 

Adli hoped to reach a neighboring town before night ; but 
failing to do so, he " luminated " at a sand-bank, without even 
a single habitation to witness the spectacle ; but here, as usual, 
crowds of mosquitoes and fleas came to greet us. Later a few 
Arabs appeared from some unknown quarter, seeming to enjoy 
the display of lanterns. Adli, however, was grievously disap- 
pointed in not being able to shine to a larger assembly. 

In the evening we found much amusement while watching 
the sailors, sitting as usual on deck, singing and telling stories. 
This night games were added, as a special favor. In one ap- 
peared a joker, fantastically dressed, mounted on a table, per- 
sonating the governor or pasha. In the course of his antics he 
frequently introduced two or three English words which he had 



SAILING ON THE NILE. 



[Sept., 




WATER-CARRIERS IN EGYPT. 

mastered, probably for our benefit, rendering the scene all the 
more ridiculous. 

The grand finale was reached when the clown had his false 
beard torn off and set on fire; at this he sprang into the water, 
being very angry with the one who played the trick. How- 
ever, he soon recovered his good nature, as these children of 
the desert seldom long resent an injury. 

When approaching a village we were sure of a crowd be- 
sieging us for backsheesh, boys often running along and turn- 
ing somersaults by way of bait. Besides mosques with minarets, 
there are also seen in every village the dome-shaped tombs of 
a sheik, or other dignitary, the latter being scattered along the 
shore where there are no dwellings. 

Tombs are also seen cut in the rocky cliffs; but, being hun- 
dreds and thousands of years old, have long since been de- 
spoiled of their treasures. However, we often came upon cu- 
rious passages, where are found ever and anon frescoes and re- 
mains of sculpture not unworthy of note. 



1 90 [.] SAILING ON THE NILE. 715 

These proved of special interest, as showing in detail the 
manners, customs, dress, etc., of the people, thus linking us 
with the long buried past, sometimes explained by hierogly- 
phics : those of Beni-Hassan serve as fine examples. Traces 
of Roman occupation in fortified towns could also be seen. A 
palace of the Khedive, and a sugar factory here and there, 
served to vary the scenery and bring us in touch with modern 
civilization. 

All tourists agree that navigation of the Nile is attended 
with dangers and trials peculiarly its own. Speed is such an 
uncertain, almost unknown quantity among Arabs in general, 
and with those of this region in particular, that an up-to-date 
time-table would be oat of the question. Verily, if never before, 
one could not fail to learn by sore experience, and by obser- 
vation too, the beautiful virtue of patience ; for not once dur- 
ing the entire trip did we see our dusky attendants show by 
look, word, or gesture the least annoyance at our mishaps or 
delays. That one refrain,' " Allah wills it ! " was the quietus 
placed upon all comment or complaint. 

Distance, measured by the river, is far greater than by 
" air-line," owing to sharp curves ; then the cliffs often meet at 
these points, and add much to the ordinary peril if a sudden 
gust of wind takes a freak to salute you rather too freely. 
Hence the wise man thinks twice before boating it by night. 
But, at whatever time, the cautious traveller never fails to 
have two skilled sailors at hand in charge of the main-sail, 
ready to shift with change of the too fickle wind. Over-eager 
travellers, however, have taken the risk of a night sail, only to 
repent at leisure. 

Arriving at Aiout, or Assgoot, quite a pretentious town, 
answering to both names, two or three hundred miles from 
Cairo, we were most kindly received by the native consul, a 
convert of the mission there. 

Being able to speak only Arabic, his more fortunate brother 
served as interpreter, as he understood English. Both were most 
courteous, not alone placing a carriage at our disposal, but 
also donkeys, taking us to a venerable tower, and tombs where 
carriages were useless. Indeed, this was the only place above 
Cairo where any other means of transportation was available. 
This consul had improved his chance for acquiring great 
wealth, through trade in ivory and ostrich feathers, besides 
other articles of commerce. He gave each of us a whisk made 



SAILING ON THE NILE. 



[Sept., 




1901.] SAILJNG ON THE NILE. 717 

of ivory and palm, and to R a handsome ostrich-feather 

fan. His cordial attentions would have been further extended 
by an entertainment of ghawazee dancing but for a recent 
death in the family. We had no regrets, however, when later 
in Thebes an opportunity occurred for witnessing one of these 
questionable performances, of which we had previously no idea. 
Every traveller at the time was supposed to include this among 
the "lions" of an Oriental trip. It is well that wisdom comes 
with experience ! 

Twelve weary days of tedious sailing at last gave us the 
sight of Thebes, that most famed among the wondrous cities 
of the Orient. But far more welcome than even this was the 
greeting through our first home letters, being brought on foot 
a long distance from Sais, the terminus of the railway from 
Cairo. Eagerly as hungry travellers did we devour these mes- 
sages from loved ones so far away. 

Limited time and means at hand could give us at best but 
tantalizing glimpses of the world of wonders around. The his- 
toric fame stamping each one gave it a voice, mutely eloquent, 
that no mere human speech can reproduce. 

Of course the Temples of Thebes and of Luxor claim first 
attention ; vivid descriptions already given by abler pens must 
more than suffice for any comment here. Nearly as attractive 
were the ruins of those other grand edifices of Haboo, Rame 
seum Gooneh, Dayr el Medeeneh, Dayr el Bahree, side by 
side with the tombs of the kings, wondrous in size and 
grandeur. 

Then, as worthy companion-pieces, we come to the Colossi 
of the Plain, one, as we know, being the vocal Memnon, though 
many centuries have passed since its mysterious voice uttered 
forth the fate of nations and their rulers. 

Rebecca drew our attention to two sitting figures guarding 
the entrance to a long avenue leading to what was once a 
magnificent temple, now only a mass of ruins. Yet in their 
grim, silent majesty these massive statues formed a marked 
feature on this beautiful plain, so green with cultivation, while 
mid-winter with us in the States. Across this we had many an 
enjoyable donkey ride, so invigorating is the air and attractive 
the sights. These temples were all within a radius of five or 
six square miles : the first two being on the right bank of the 
river, that may, as supposed, have been east of the entire 
group included in ancient Thebes. Then farther on, between 



S41LTNG ON THE NlLE. 



[Sept., 




A GLIMPSE OF EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE. 

Karnak and Luxor, a magnificent avenue of ram-headed 
sphinxes crios-sphinxes led its majestic way directly from 
one of the grand propylae on towards Karnak, which we found 
to b; a collection of temples built by successive kings, thus 
commemorating their respective reigns. 

Wonder and admiration held us speechless before this mas- 
terpiece of Egyptian grandeur. Filling in the gaps from ruins 
here and there, just imagine this hall of columns, its two cen- 
tral rows thirteen and one-half feet in diameter, the smaller 
ones in proportion. In their mute language they seem to say: 
" Pigmies that you are, see what the giants of our age and 
nation could produce ! " If these ruins speak thus to us, what 
must have been the wondrous effect wh*n courts, obelisks, and 
other propylae, in all their massive grandeur, led on to avenues 
of still other sphinxes, with exquisite sculpture upon wall and 



1901.] SAILING ON THE NILE. 719 

column and statue, all so many monuments to the glory of the 
monarch reigning over countless conquered peoples. 

Within the walls of Luxor is an entire Arab village, with 
its mosque. We found the so-called English consul, an Arab, 
as is also our own, employed to carry on reciprocal relations. 
After a rambling trip of some hours, returning to our boat, 
we found the British official giving an entertainment in honor 
of Prince Arthur, to which were bidden all the occupants of 
the dahabeahs then at the landing. As the guest of honor did 
not arrive until a day later, we had the ghawazees to our- 
selves. 

Though decorations of palm-leaves, flags, and lanterns 
seemed rather incongruous, yet the courtly old consul received 
us with such evident marks of esteem and honor that 
we truly appreciated the kindly courtesy. Medinet has the 
only temple bearing traces of a king's palace, I believe; all 
others are supposed to have served the double purpose of for- 
tresses, being used as places of refuge in time of siege. 
Strange as it may seem, no trace of any habitation remains. 
At this place, Medinet Haboo, one remarkable object attracted 
our notice : this was a court around which were Osiride columns, 
so called in honor of the god Osiris, each in human form and 
bearing the face of that deity. 

This court had been converted into a Christian church by 
placing an inner row of Doric columns. All are, however, 
much defaced, or partially destroyed. In the lavish sculpture 
now remaining, with frescoes as well, one can readily trace 
the manners, customs, and religious rites of the people. The 
same records may also be seen upon the tombs. 

Oae especially attracted our admiration, that of the Kings, 
and at a short distance another, that of the Queens. Each is 
situated in a mountain gorge cut from the solid rock, upon 
which can be seen not a particle of vegetation. That of Seti, 
or Sethi I., dating back to some 1300 B. c., is a most mar- 
vellous work of art, gigantic in extent. Imagine it cut into 
the mountain 417 feet, where such a mass of debris had fallen 
as to bar further progress. 

The entrance opens into a narrow gallery, long and ex- 
quisitely sculptured, from which, descending one or two lengthy 
flights of steps, you are brought into a spacious hall with 
columns, on either side of which are many rooms, and also 
more beyond the obstructed passage. Below were still other 



72O 



SAILING ON THE NILE. 



[Sept., 



rooms reached by stairways ; ceilings and walls all beautifully 
sculptured and colored. We noticed that some of the work 
had been left unfinished, showing the lines of correction by the 
master-workman in a different color from that used by the 
employee. 

Tracing here the history, thoughts, and ideals of these peo- 
ple is most fascinating, but still confusing in its rich and rare 
abundance. Now I can in a measure understand the enthusi- 
asm of those who give up years, if not a life-time, to the study 
of these masterpieces of a so long buried art, even envying 
them the knowledge necessary to undertake such a task. 




BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS. 



721 




THE BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 

HALF A CENTURY OF WORK. 

I. 

IFTY years of earnest, persevering effort in any 
work of charity or of religion by an individual 
or an institution is indeed a noble record ; we 
love to unite in offering congratulations and in 
testifying our joy and admiration at such a note- 
worthy achievement. 

If we entertain such an exalted idea of the heroism of one 
individual, what must be the worth of fifty years of vitally 
important work by a religious order whose institutions may be 
numbered by the hundred and its members by the thousand ? 
The Brothers of the Christian Schools have labored for more 
than half a century in the United States, and a brief history 
of the origin, development, and growth of their institutions 
will not be without interest. 

It is to Maryland, the cradle of religious liberty, and to 
Baltimore, the Monumental City, that the credit belongs of 
having been the first to secure the establishment of the Chris- 
tian Brothers in the United States. 

Among the steps taken by Archbishop Eccleston to pro- 
mote Catholic education was that of inviting the Brothers of 
the Christian Schools to open an institution in his archiepis- 
copal city ; it had already been decided to build an academy 
for young men on the site of Baltimore's first church, Arch- 
bishop Carroll's pro-cathedral. The corner-stone was laid in 
1842, and the academy was named Calvert Hall, after Leonard 
Calvert, the first governor of Maryland, and son of Sir George 
Calvert, Lord Baltimore. 

The arrival of the Brothers is thus recorded in Shea's his- 
tory : "On the I3th of November, 1846, Archbishop Eccleston 
announced to his flock that the Brothers of the Christian 
Schools had opened a school in Calvert Hall, Brother Leopold 
being director. A novitiate was also' established for any pious 



722 BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS. [Sept., 

persons who wished to devote their lives to Christian educa- 
tion under the rule of the Blessed de La Salle." 

Calvert Hall College of to-day is a magnificent granite 
structure opposite the Baltimore Cathedral ; it was erected in 
1890 to meet the constantly growing demands of higher edu- 
cation. The successors of Archbishop Eccleston, the Most 
Revs. Francis Patrick Kenrick, Martin John Spalding, James 
Roosevelt Bayley, and the present Primate of the United 
States, his Eminence James Cardinal Gibbons, have favored 
the Brothers with all possible protection and encouragement 
in their efforts to promote Christian education. 

New York was the second city in the United States to se- 
cure schools of the Brothers. Previous to his death in 1842 
Right Rev. John Dubois, Bishop of New York, had taken 
means to obtain Brothers from France, and his successor, 
the Most Rev. Archbishop Hughes, spared no efforts in the 
same direction ; but the difficulties of communicating with 
Europe at that time and other unlooked-for obstacles delayed 
their coming for some years. Finally the Brothers arrived, 
and the following from Shea's history tells of the beginning of 
their work in New York : " In 1848 Providence, by indirect 
means, endowed the diocese of New York with the sons of the 
Blessed de La Salle, the Brothers of the Christian Schools. 
During the spring of 1848 a colony of the Brothers took up 
their residence on East Canal Street (No. 16, near Broadway), 
and they soon had English-speaking novices. It was a feeble 
beginning, but with the blessing of God it prospered. The 
school of St. Vincent de Paul proved their ability as teachers, 
and their judgment in adapting their course to the exigencies 
of the country." 

In addition to St. Vincent's school the Brothers conducted 
an academy for boarding students ; both institutions progressed 
very satisfactorily under the management of Brother Stylian, 
the director. In 1853 the increased number of boarding stu- 
dents necessitated removal to more spacious quarters at Man- 
hattanville, where, under the title of "Academy of the Holy 
Infancy," the work continued to flourish under the direction 
of Brother John Chrysostom. In 1855 Brother Stylian was 
appointed to preside over the new academy, which he did with 
remarkable success until 1861, when Brother Patrick assumed 
charge as director. 

On the 2d of April, 1863, the name of the institution was 
changed to "Manhattan College," as it had been incorporated 



1901.] BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS. 723 

by the Regents of the University of the State of New York. 
The large increase in the number of students and the higher 
standard of scholarship required by the faculty to meet the 
wishes of patrons made this important step advisable. 

Since 1866 the college has had as directors Brothers Paulian, 
Humphrey, Anthony, Clementian Justin, Chrysostom, James, 
Potamian, Aelred, and lastly Brother Charles, whose appoint- 
ment was made in 1900 

How well Manhattan College has fulfilled its destiny is elo- 
quently attested by the hundreds of priests, professional men, 
and hosts of skilled workers in all the callings of life who claim 
Manhattan as their Alma Mater. 

The annual courses of lectures to the undergraduates by 
members of the Manhattan College Alumni Society; the late 
series of scientific lectures at Carnegie Lyceum, under the au- 
spices of the alumni, by five of the most prominent inventors 
and scientists of the day ; and lastly, the financial aid sponta- 
neously provided by members of the alumni all this is con- 
vincing proof of a loyalty and a generosity above all praise. 

An interesting chapter could be written on the many valued 
favors, the protection, and the encouragement received by the 
Christian Brothers from the distinguished prelates who have 
governed the Archdiocese of New York for the past fifty years : 
the Most Rev. John Hughes, his Eminence John Cardinal Mc- 
Closkey, and his Grace the Most Rev. Michael Augustine Cor- 
rigan. 

The West was not to be without Brothers' schools. Hardly 
had the Brothers obtained a footing in New York when they 
were invited by Archbishop Kenrick, of St. Louis, to estab- 
lish themselves in his extensive archdiocese. His request was 
complied with, and it is worthy of note that the Brothers ar- 
rived in St. Louis on August 25, 1849, the feast of the patron 
saint of the city and its cathedral. 

The Brothers began their work by opening the cathedral 
school in the early part of September, only a few days after 
their arrival. Brother Gelisaire was the director in charge. In 
the following year the Brothers opened a boarding-school, and 
they were invited to take charge of schools in other parishes 
of St. Louis. 

The progress which the Brothers had made in three years 
after their arrival in the city of St. Louis is told in the following 
extract from Shea's history : " The Brothers of the Christian 
Schools were the next accession to the diocese of St. Louis. 



724 BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS. [Sept., 

By 1852 they had a boarding-school on Sixteenth Street near 
Market, and directed the parish schools for boys at the Cathe- 
dral, St. Francis Xavier's, St. Vincent de Paul's, and St. Patrick's 
churches. They had even been encouraged to open a novitiate 
on Eighth Street to receive applicants for admission to the 
order. In his pastoral letter, promulgating the Jubilee granted 
by the pope, Archbishop Kenrick impressed on his flock the 
necessity of zeal and sacrifice for the Catholic education of 
youth, and specially commended the Brothers of the Christian 
Schools who had recently begun their labors in his diocese." 

Among the interesting phases of the spread of their work 
from St. Louis to distant points is the account given by Broth- 
ers still alive of their experience during long weeks of travel 
in caravans from Kansas City to Santa Fe, New Mexico, for 
the purpose of opening an institution. The excitement caused 
by pursuing and attacking Indians has not been forgotten by 
the Brothers. 

His Grace Archbishop Kain, of St. Louis, like his illustrious 
predecessor, Archbishop Kenrick, has always favored the Chris- 
tian Brothers to the utmost of his ability. 

The Pacific coast had no Brothers until August, 1868, when 
eight of them arrived as a result of the persevering efforts of 
the Most Rev. Joseph S. Alemany, Archbishop of San Fran- 
cisco, who having personally visited New York and the mother- 
house in Paris without having been able to obtain Brothers, 
in person besought Pope Pius IX. to intervene in his behalf. 
The Holy Father graciously interested himself in the matter, 
and thus it was that in 1868 the Brothers at last took charge 
of St. Mary's College in San Francisco. Owing to the in- 
jurious winds and fogs beyond Bernal Heights during the 
summer, the college was transferred to Oakland in 1870. 
The success of the Brothers in the college, as well as in 
their other institutions on the Pacific coast, has been all 
that the Most Rev. Joseph Sadoc Alemany and his distin- 
guished successor, the Most Rev. Patrick William Riordan, 
could have hoped for. The Brothers naturally feel gratified 
to find their work blessed by the Almighty, and appreciated 
by the church and the people. 

Brother Philippe was superior-general of the order at the 
time the Brothers first arrived in the United States ; since his 
time Brothers Jean-Olympe, Irlide, Joseph, and Gabriel-Marie 
have governed the society; the last-mentioned general having 
<been elected at the general chapter, 1897. Brother Anselme, 



1901.] BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS. 725 

assistant-general, was in charge of the Brothers' schools in 
Canada and the United States for some years after 1846, and 
Brothers Aidan and Facile were successively provincials (visi- 
tors), with residence in Montreal, Canada. 



II. 

In the course of years each one of the cities, Baltimore, 
New York, St. Louis, and San Francisco, became a head cen- 
tre of one of the four provinces, or districts, into which the 
United States are divided. 

About the year 1861, Brother Facile having been elected 
assistant-general, the New York province was organized, and 
was successively governed by Brothers Ambrose, Patrick, 
Paulian, Justin, Quintinian, and lastly by Brother D. Joseph, 
who was appointed to this responsible position in 1898. The 
New York province includes all the institutions of the Brothers 
in the archdioceses of Boston and New York, and in the 
dioceses of Albany, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, 
Manchester, Portland, Providence, Springfield, and Syracuse. 
The Brothers' schools in the Archdiocese of Halifax, N. S., 
are likewise affiliated with those of the New York province. 

The province of San Francisco was begun in 1868, and 
has been successively governed by Brothers Justin, Bettelin, 
and the present visitor, Brother Theodorus, with headquarters 
at St. Mary's College, Oakland, Cal. The establishments be- 
longing to this district are in the archdioceses of San Fran- 
cisco and Oregon City, and in the dioceses of Los Angeles, 
Nesqually, and Sacramento. 

St. Louis was formed into a province in 1870, and was suc- 
cessively under the direction of Brothers Edward, Romuald, 
Lothaire, Paulian, and its present visitor, Brother Gerardus. 
It includes the schools of the Brothers in the archdioceses of 
Chicago, St. Louis, St. Paul, and Santa Fe, and in the dio- 
ceses of Kansas City, Mo., Nashville, and St. Joseph. 

The province of Baltimore was formed in 1878, and has 
been successively governed by Brothers Christian, Reticius, 
Quintinian, Romuald, and the present acting visitor, Brother 
Austin. 

The Brothers have schools in the archdioceses of Balti- 
more and Philadelphia, and in the dioceses of Newark, Rich- 
mond, and Scranton. 

In each province there is special provision for the religious 



726 BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS. [Sept., 

formation, literary and scientific instruction, and pedagogic 
training of new members. Each of these establishments in- 
cludes a scholasticate, a novitiate, a preparatory institute for 
young candidates, and a department for aged and infirm 
Brothers. There is a director, with the requisite number of 
instructors for each of these distinct communities. For these 
houses of formation and training there is a provincial-visitor 
to whom these institutions are responsible. Brothers Armin- 
Victor, Reticius, and Edward of Mary successively held this 
position until 1898, when Brother Imier was delegated by the 
general to attend to the important interests of these institu- 
tions. These normal colleges and institutes are at Amawalk, 
N. Y.; Ammendale, Md ; Glencoe, Mo.; and Martinez, Cal. 
There are more than 250 young men in these establishments, 
who are receiving instruction and training for the duties of 
the religious and Christian educator. 

In 1873 Brother Patrick was elected assistant-general, and 
after his death, in 1891, Brother Clementian succeeded to this 
important position, which he holds at the present time. 

A summing of statistics shows that the normal institutes, 
colleges, high-schools, academies, parish schools, protectories, 
industrial schools, and orphanages of the Brothers are dis- 
tributed through 30 archdioceses and dioceses in the United 
States, where they have about 35,000 students under their 
care and instruction. 

It would require volumes to record the details connected 
with the foundation, growth, and development of the Brothers' 
institutions ; of the obstacles that had to be removed and of 
the difficulties that had to be overcome; of the hardships 
of various kinds endured by the Brothers; of the results ob- 
tained and successes achieved ; of the many and heroic sacri- 
fices made by prelates, priests, and benefactors to found and 
maintain schools, and finally of the great good that has re- 
sulted to religion and to society during all these years. 

With the exception of but three of their institutions, the 
Christian Brothers have not received any large benefactions to 
aid them in the erection or extension of buildings, or for the 
supplying of apparatus, libraries, etc. From this it will be 
easy to understand that the greatest of sacrifices and efforts 
were required on the part of the Brothers to build up and to 
maintain so many institutions. 



1901.] BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS. 727 

III. 

Pope Benedict XIII., by the Bull of Approbation " In 
Apostolicae dignitatis solio," raised the Brothers of the Chris- 
tian Schools to the rank of a religious congregation, and or- 
dained that its members "should instruct youth in all things 
necessary to lead a truly Christian life and to attain salvation." 
Thus has the Church given the Brothers a share in that "divine 
mission of teaching" which she herself had received from Jesus 
Christ in its full plenitude and power. This mission requires the 
Brothers to educate youth religiously, intellectually, and physically. 

How the Christian Brothers have fulfilled this mission in 
the United States during the past half-century is attested by 
the following excerpts: 

The Most Rev. John J. Kean, Archbishop of Dubuque, 
preached in St. Patrick's New York Cathedral, November 15, 
1888, at the close of the triduum in honor of the beatification 
of St. John Baptist de La Salle. The following extract from 
the sermon gives his high appreciation of teaching orders, and 
a beautiful tribute most gratifying to the Christian Brothers : 

" I have repeatedly said, and I now reiterate the assertion, 
that I am more solicitous for the multiplication and diffusion 
of the teaching orders of the church than even for the spread 
of the priesthood ; for education is to-day the greatest work 
which the church has in hand. 

" I thank God for the privilege granted me this morning 
of speaking these words ; for one of those things in my life 
that I am specially thankful for is that I am one of the boys 
of the Christian Brothers' training, that I had the happiness 
of being their pupil in St. Vincent's School and Calvert Hall, 
in Baltimore. There are Christian Brothers in this noble edi- 
fice to-day from whose lips I learned words of eternal wisdom, 
and to recall whose memory is a bliss without alloy. The 
first thing, then, that I am thankful for to-day is the privilege 
of paying this tribute to the glorious and blessed Founder of 
the Christian Schools." 

The late Right Rev. Michael J. O'Farrell, Bishop of Trenton, 
towards the close of a great sermon on Christian Education, said : 

"Whatever I am to-day I owe, in its beginning, to the 
admirable teaching received from the Christian Brothers. 
Never, so long as I live, shall I cease to pay my debt of grati 
tude; and I pray God to touch the hearts of thousands of 
young men to join that noble band of Christian teachers who 
VOL. LXXIII. 48 



728 BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS. [Sept., 

leave home and all that it holds dearest, who leave every- 
thing at the foot of the altar of duty to devote themselves 
unreservedly to the salvation of the rising generations." 

About the former pupils of the Brothers, the Right Rev. 
Denis M. Bradley, Bishop of Manchester, in his sermon dur- 
ing the New York triduum, said: 

" By the fruit we should judge of the tree, and by these 
pupils shall we know the Brothers of the Christian Schools. 
Their pupils are above all noted everywhere for their lively, 
practical, yes, aggressive faith; for their respect for and de- 
votion to their teachers, and their disposition, yes, and prac- 
tice, to ^always turn, at every period in life and of whatever 
station, to the Brothers as children to a well-loved parent ; 
for their ability to think and say on their feet, and that in 
assemblies of all kinds; for the evidence which they give of 
having received an education fitting them for all the duties of 
life religious, social, political, and commercial." 

The following from a veteran missionary priest is note- 
worthy: "I have given missions all over the United States, 
from Maine to California and from Duluth to Mexico, in large 
cities, in small towns, and in country places, and, as a rule, I 
have found our Catholic people about the same everywhere ; but 
whenever I came to a city in which the Christian Brothers had 
schools, I there found the staunchest Catholics, with a strong, liv- 
ing, practical faith and devotedness such as I saw nowhere else." 

The Rev. Walter Elliott, C.S.P., in one of his sermons 
recounted his experience at the Christian Brothers' school 
in these words : 

" It is now many years since I was a little boy attending 
the Christian Brothers' school. The Brothers proved them- 
selves competent to manage us. They knew how to teach, 
and they taught us well. Their system was intelligent, their 
discipline strict almost military their affection for us deep 
and religious. But of course I love them best for the Chris- 
tian doctrine course they gave me. No word describes it so 
well as the word ' thorough.' It was given us by men who 
knew well what they taught, and had the gift of teaching in- 
telligently. It embraced a full summary of the whole dog- 
matic system of Christian truth; a practical, working knowledge 
of Christian morality ; much ecclesiastical ^history, especially 
concerning the early and heroic age of the church and the 
acts of the martyrs ; together with a wonderfully full equip- 
ment of controversial matter. When, in after years, I swung 



1901.] BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS. 729 

off into the world and was beset with its false maxims, the 
Brothers' maxims held me fast in the true religion. This had 
more than anything else to do with keeping alive in me the 
elements of divine faith. I have no hesitation whatever in 
saying that the fact that I spent those years of my boyhood 
in the Brothers' school has been the main reason why I have 
remained a Catholic and have valid hopes of finally saving my 
soul. I will also bear .testimony that in the study of theology 
in later years, and in acquiring the principles of Christian perfec- 
tion, their instruction laid the foundation for my whole course, 
or, rather, gave to my mind distinct outlines which had but to be 
completed and filled out in a more elaborate course of study. 

"I sincerely hope that all the Brothers to-day are as good 
men and as competent teachers as were those who taught our 
school. I have known many and various communities of re- 
ligious men and women since then, but I must say that the 
Brothers of our school were the most austerely religious I 
have ever known. Yet they were not gloomy, and they were 
anything but womanish. Their poverty gave them an air of 
'independence, their self-restraint made them manly, their 
obedience gave them one of liberty. These are virtues at 
once natural and supernatural, and in our teachers they were 
sanctified by an intelligent piety which elevated them to \ihat 
I have ever thought was an extremely high state of religious 
perfection. Every time in my life that I have seen men and 
wDmen quite devoted to God, they seemed like our Brothers. 
If I wished to emphasize any quality in them it would be 
their manliness. They were courageous, generous, honorable 
men, and their influence was all bent on making us manly 
Catholics. I state the impressions I have always had, and I 
am full sure that many thousands of Catholic men in America 
would give testimony of the Brothers' schools which they at- 
tended tallying substantially with my own." 

At the close of the great triduum in St. Patrick's Cathe- 
dral, New York, November 15, 1900, in presence of over 5, ceo 
former students of the Brothers, Rev. Father Elliott, C.S.P., 
uttered this beautiful tribute : 

" Brothers of the Christian Schools ! this vast assemblage 
of your old pupils greet your founder and yourselves with 
hearty congratulations. We are, indeed, but a small portion 
of the unnumbered multitude your order has trained to be 
good Christians and useful members of society, but we are 
types of your educational work. Some of us finished at your 



730 BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS. [Sept., 

schools fifty years ago, others but yesterday. Some occupy 
high stations as judges, and lawyers, and doctors, and prosper- 
ous men of business ; not a few of us stand daily on the 
altars of Jesus Christ, the better fitted for that holy place on 
account of your labors; the mass of us are workmen of vari- 
ous kinds, honest citizens, and true Catholics, men of the 
people whom you love by special preference. 

"And in the name of all, I thank God and your founder 
and yourselves for what your order did for us. According to 
your own manly spirit you fitted us for the struggle of life, 
discipline, and intelligence, and love blending to form a system 
of training thoroughly adapted to make self-reliant men and 
devoted followers of Jesus Christ and His Church. 

" You have well earned the name of our Christian Brothers. 
You were brothers in Christ and for Christ unto all of us 
when we were the little ones of Christ. No words can ade- 
quately express our thanks for your patient toil for us in our 
school days ; your stern solicitude for our immortal souls in 
that perilous era of our lives unselfish, resolute, untiring, de- 
voted Christian Brothers. 

" We pledge you our sincere allegiance to your Saint, our 
unshaken loyalty to your order. For its future career, now but 
advancing into its fuller usefulness, you shall have our strongest 
words of encouragement, our material and financial assistance, 
our hearty endeavors to send our best young men to your noviti- 
ate. We will always pray that, as an order and as individuals, 
the Christian Brothers may enjoy God's choicest blessings." 

IV. 

The foregoing sufficiently attests the religious and moral 
element in the education imparted by the Brothers. The fol- 
lowing will bear testimony to its intellectual and practical worth. 

Referring to the literary and scientific instruction given by 
the Christian Brothers, the Right Rev. Bishop Bradley, of 
Manchester, said : 

" The Brothers neglect no department of secular knowl- 
edge, for everything has been made by God, and everything, 
therefore, can be studied with a view to his glory. Their suc- 
cess as educators is evidenced by the numerous and high grade 
honors and encomiums bestowed on them by the officials of 
the present Paris Exposition, by the officials of the Chicago 
World's Fair, as well as of the London Exposition of many 
years past, and of educational experts in all parts of the 



1901.] BROTHERS OF 'THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS. 7^1 

world. Their number and their rapid spread in every part of 
the known earth attest their ability as masters in the training 
and teaching of the young." 

The fact that the students of the Christian Brothers' col- 
leges have nearly always taken rank among the highest, when 
immediately after graduation they entered ecclesiastical semi- 
naries, schools of law, medicine, civil engineering, pedagogy, 
etc., is very strong evidence of the intellectual and practical 
element in the education given by the Christian Brothers. It 
may not be out of place to note that, with the probable ex- 
ception of a purely ecclesiastical college for the training of 
candidates for the priesthood, Manhattan College enjoys the 
proud distinction of having given a larger number of priests to 
the church than any other Catholic college in the United States. 

Every college of the Brothers holds a charter under the 
laws of the State in which it is situated, and the courses of 
studies lead to the bachelor's degree in arts, in science, in 
architecture, and in civil engineering ; courses in pedagogy 
prepare students for teachers' state certificates ; commercial 
diplomas are granted to those who, on examination, are found 
worthy of this distinction. 

The following extract from a review of educational work is 
a strong tribute to the methods of the Christian Brothers : 

" The Brothers are, above all things, systematic, clear, and 
plain. They desire not to cram, but to expand the mind, make 
it thoroughly receptive, and put the pupil in possession of the 
fundamentals, so that in after years he can ' hoe his own row ' 
without fear or anxiety as to opposition or competition. If 
the boy is to become a civil engineer, he is taken step by step 
along the difficult road, and is held firmly under direction and 
control until he feels and knows himself to be equal to any 
task within the limits of his line. And so it is with a boy 
who desires to be an architect, a lawyer, a physician, a book- 
keeper, or a business man. The ground-work for all of these 
professions is laid broad and deep, and according to methods 
of instruction that are being more and more simplified every 
year. To the Brothers, whose sole occupation and care is the 
education of the young, every day's lesson brings its special 
experience. These experiences they note, and out of them de- 
velop new and simpler plans of impressing and strengthening 
the youthful mind. 

" The most abstruse studies and problems are by their easier 
methods made so plain that learning is no longer a task, but 



732 BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS. [Sept., 

a pleasure. It is this adaptation, this readiness to overcome 
difficulties, this ability to make smooth roads to educational 
progress, that has enabled the Christian Brothers to make such 
wonderful progress themselves, not only in Europe, but in this 
country, where they entered upon their work in 1846. 

" The Brothers are enthusiastic in their work, and are 
heartily identified with their pupils in all their studies. Edu- 
cation is the business of their lives and monopolizes all their 
waking hours. They are always on kindly and intimate terms 
with the pupils, and are constantly devising measures and means 
for advancement. Object lessons they make a specialty of, and 
they carry the principle, as much as possible, up through all their 
grades of instruction. They have no puzzles, and they seek to 
simplify every problem, their special aim being to give technical 
strength without destroying the spirit of the pupil or impair- 
ing his powers of observation or application." 

After viewing the educational exhibits of the Christian 
Brothers at the Cotton Centennial Exposition, New Orleans, 
i88:j.-5, Colonel J. T. Murfree, president of Howard College, said 
that " he had never in his life spent so little money, learned 
so much, and was so highly entertained in so short a time as that 
he spent in viewing the exhibits, which it would take a volume, 
and a large one, to contain anything like a full review of." 

The request made by the archbishops in 1891, through his 
Eminence Cardinal Gibbons, for a Christian Brother to under- 
take the management of the Catholic Educational Exhibit at 
the World's Fair, Chicago, 1893, under the direction of Bishop 
Spalding, was an expression of their supreme confidence in 
the order of the Christian Brothers as educators ; and all the 
world knows that the archbishops were not disappointed. 

The Brothers of the United States had exhibits from about 
one hundred of their institutions at the Columbian Exposition, 
Chicago, 1893. The Hon. John L. Eaton, Ph.D., LL.D., ex- 
commissioner of the United States Bureau of Education, among 
other things, wrote : " The Catholic exhibit of education was a 
surprise for those who believe that the Catholic Church seeks 
its ends by concealed means. Here, for the examination of 
every one who came, was the work of the students in every 
subject taught, from those in the kindergarten to the most ab- 
struse in the professions. . . . The whole was an appeal to 
American boasted fairness. It was saying to all the world, 
' Here is what we do ; judge ye ! ' . . . The exhibit is phe- 
nomenal. . . . No statement, no statistics, no discussion 



1901.] BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS. 733 

ever conveyed such an idea of Catholic education as was here 
disclosed." 

The foregoing excerpts are but a fraction of the strong tes- 
timony as to the completeness and the high character of the 
Christian education given by the Brothers to their 35,000 pupils 
in all kinds and grades of their institutions. 

V. 

As for the physical element in education, the Brothers are 
obliged by their rule to take every care and precaution for 
the health of their pupils; they must exercise supervision on 
the playground, encourage students in proper exercise and un- 
objectionable sports. Wherever possible, athletic and gymnas- 
tic apparatus are provided, as far as means can be found. The 
Brothers' students all over the country have a splendid record 
wherever they have cadets at competitive drill, base-ball games, 
field sports, etc. The healthy appearance of their well-devel- 
oped students is a sure indication that the physical welfare of 
those under their charge receives due attention. 

In conclusion it may be said that, with the possible excep- 
tion of the quadricentennial of the discovery of America by 
Christopher Columbus, there has been no other event in the 
history of the past hundred years that has caused such univer- 
sal gratification and such wide-spread interest throughout the 
entire world as the canonization of Saint John Baptist de La 
Salle the Teacher Saint. 

This, however, is readily explained : ist. The Brothers of 
the Christian Schools have institutions in nearly every part of 
the globe; 2d. Their pupils are not only to be found every- 
where, but a large proportion of them are leaders among men 
in church and state, in the professions and arts, in literary and 
scientific pursuits, and in every department of agricultural and 
commercial life ; 3d. Saint de La Salle's system of organizing 
and classifying schools, and his method of simultaneous in- 
struction, are in use in nearly every school in the civilized 
world. These facts give us a faint idea of the far-reaching in- 
fluence of the Saint's life and work in promoting the spread 
of religion, education, and civilization. 

The canonization solemnities at Rome, and their echo in 
the many triduums of unsurpassed fervor and splendor in 
honor of Saint de La Salle, have been for the Christian Broth- 
ers a true and fitting GOLDEN JUBILEE CELEBRATION after their 
half a century of work in the United States. 



734 THE TENTS OF SILENCE. [Sept., 



Cfi CCKCS 07 



When tbe strife of tbe dap i$ over 

find stiira is tbe bugle sound 
I sball sleep in tbe Cent or Silence 

On tbe ancient camping ground, 

Rot alone sball I bave mp slumber- 
for around me, taking tbeir rest, 

Sball repose mp brotber soldiers 
from tbe utmost ast and West : 

from tbe Rortb and Soutb tbep sball muster, 

acb worn witb tbe battle beat, 
Wearied, and some defeated- 

y>et brave in tbe last retreat ! 

for tbep know tbat, after tbe burden 

flnd tumult of tbe frap, 
must come tbe peace of evening 

Jlnd tbe beatxn's sbining wap ; 

Cbe battle=$moke sball be lifted, 

Cbe flags of war be furled, 
Jlnd onlp tbe stars eternal 

Sball ligbt tbe sleeping world, 

But I know wben tbe morning bugle 
Sball sound for our sleeping men 

We sball find our Captain waiting 
Co form our lines again, 

We sball marcb from tbe Cents of Silence- 

acb soldier tried and true- 
Co wbere our Captain is watcbing 

Watcbing tbe great review. 

JOHN JEROME RODNEY. 



PASQUALE. 



735 




PASQUALE. 

BY THOMAS B. REILLY. 
"Whispering we went, and love was all our theme." 

I. 

ID-MORNING in a land where daisied earth sends 
fragrance through a clear November day, straight 
down upon the Roman streets the scorching heat 
of the sun drips, untempered by breath of hill or 
tide. 

In a corner of the square, near the church of the " Gesu," 
stands a match-vender. His drawling cry has been silent for 
some time. He prefers to lean against the cool stones rather 
than move toward the Spanish steps, where business is always 
fair. As he shifts his position with the sun, a wine-cart, rum- 
bling down the narrow street, forces him into the glaring heat. 
The watch dog on the driver's seat barks shrilly. Santissima ! 
what rights have the poor? and that wine, it would keep life 
in his blood for days ; but not a drop shall be his unless he 
pay for it with hard-earned centessimi. As the cart passes two 
of the king's officers in brilliant raiment stroll by. The clink 
of their swords on the pavement has something of oppression 
in it. Misericordia ! how they strut. Yet, why not? their 
stomachs are full, their bodies decently clothed, and they are 
able to laugh. No cold night winds for them. They might 
squander the profits of his day and still have wherewith to eat 
and drink. R vero, e verissimo, truly were they lords of the 
earth ! 

This particular vender, hungry and thirsty, might have gone 
on venting his grievances had not a clamor reached his ears. 
It swelled from a street ahead. There was mirth and good-will 
in the cries. A crowd rounded into sight ; the seller braced 
himself. It was a bridal party. Ebbene, here was luck and 
generosity too, for in less than the asking he was richer by 
half a lira half a day's work wonderful fortune ! The good 
St. Anthony must have touched the souls of the signori. 

With lighter heart, because of heavier purse, the vender 
followed the merry ones even to the door of the church. And 



736 PASQUALE. [Sept., 

he sang. Why not ? Was not Lucia, the keeper's daughter of 
the Palazzo Chigi, to become a bride? Think you that be- 
cause he sold matches, and shivered in the shadows at 
night, that his heart could feel no warmth? Ah! now heaven 
be praised, it was a rare sight. And Lucia, was she not radiant? 
ma die ! divine was the word. And he nudged his neighbor, 
Giovanni, and challenged him to name anything half so beau- 
tiful as she. As for himself, he could think of nothing. He 
was no poet, but she made him think of the laughter of blos- 
soms in spring on the Alban hills. But this he knew : it was 
a splendid match. Luigi, the bridegroom, was a man of promise, 
being clerk at the banker's on the Corso. Theirs should be a 
pleasant future ; was it not so ? But his companion had reached 
no definite conclusion, since he made the broad remark " Chi 
lo sa ? " 

At the moment when the bridal party mounted the church 
steps a man on the skirts of the crowd clutched his neighbor's 
arm and, leaning forward, peered earnestly at the bride's face. 
She passed with a laugh, unconscious of his act. Then his 
face grew white, like the stones under his feet. His eyes fol- 
lowed the woman until the twilight of the church hid her from 
sight. With slow steps, like one uncertain of his way, he 
crossed the square and passed into the shadows. As the crowd 
entered the " Gesu " the breathing of organ pipes was heard, 
and from the throat of the church flowed strains of a wedding 
march. Its tender cadence reached the ears of the man in 
shadow ; the echoes, like unwelcome guests, became lodged in 
his soul for ever. 

In less than half an hour the bridal party poured into the 
square, and set their faces toward the wedding feast and home. 

The last notes of the Angelus, on that Roman day, were 
just passing into echo when the match-seller and his friend 
Giovanni entered a shop on the Corso. And there in the can- 
dle-light, with the red wine between them, they retold the story 
of the wedding feast, and pledged anew the future of the 
bride and groom. But neither of them said aught of the man 
who, with bowed head, was speeding southward to Naples and 
the sea. The vintage he drank was bitter, though the cup was 
sweet. Like the music of a dawn in June a woman had once 
stepped into his life. And as gold mist on the far hills of 
morn gives promise of the day to be, so did Lucia's presence 
make dreamful his empty life. When a man loves he hopes, 
and hoping, plans. Thrice brilliant his dreams because of the 



1 90i.] PASQUALE, 737 

inevitable dusk that follows. So this fugitive found a trace of 
bitterness in the uprising of his past. It was wonderful to 
think that he, a mere clout of a gardener, had once the voice 
of this woman in his soul. It was so ; and therein was the 
sting of regret. She had even given him reasons to hope. 
But they were all forsworn, and with them his heart and its 
pleading. 

All that night the Roman express rattled southward. The 
air was sharp, chilled as the night wind of the province is^with 
a penetrating, numbing keenness. The fugitive did not feel it, 
for his heart was hot. A month later Pasquale was lost in the 
crowds of a city beyond the sea. 

And the bridal party? It passed, like all such events, into 
oblivion, except for Lucia ; for who of womankind forgets her 
marriage morn ? And Luigi, with the burden of the day now 
doubled, found the sheen of his romance dulled by the tragedy 
of living. And because he had never learned the need of sacri- 
fice, nor possessed the virtue of renouncement, bore a grievous 
load. Once Lucia dared advise, but the sharp answers on his 
tongue chilled the woman's soul to silence. 

That home on the Via di Ripetti was a woman's life, and 
a man's ruin. To it at close of one gray day he crept in shame 
and fear. His creditors were upon him like wolves, and the 
coming blow had the sting of death within it. They said the 
strong wine urged him to it ; but, whencesoever his counsel, 
the following night his debts were cancelled. But every day 
the gold pieces stung him in the handling, and mocked him 
like yellow devils in their glittering rattle and fall. A week 
later Lucia, her pride cast to the winds, crept home to her 
father's house. 

Months later, and she heard Luigi's name on the lips of 
men, the harshness gone from their voices as he was gone 
from her life. Men spoke bitterly of how the royal troops in 
a far land had met with stinging defeat. And there, under 
alien skies, they said Luigi found a soldier's grave. With him 
slept many others, for the tribes of Abyssinia showed no mercy. 

Thus was a woman's heart shrived by the terror in pride's 
fall and chastened by remembrance. And passers-by, at sight 
of a sad face framed in the window-glass, said to one another : 
"She'll grieve herself to the Campo Santo for sake of the 
wretch." Public judgments are harsh, sometimes false ; as you 
will learn in the aftermath. Lucia's vigil, however, was not 
without its star. And the brown-faced postman, with his 



738 PASQUALE. [Sept., 

missive from a foreign port, wondered much and ventured 
far in guessing. " Si, si, it was true " ; so he told his wife. 
" Had not Lucia smiled at his coming, and did she not once 
call him a messenger of peace ? Did she not receive orders 
for the precious francs in each letter? And but now, per 
Bacco ! it was as plain as the nose on your face that Luigi 
was not slain, but was living and thriving in the western 
world. But it was no business of a postman no, davvero f 
And, by the good St. Anthony, it would never be said that he, 
Guido Lobello, had ruined a brother's life by loud-mouthed 
suspicion. And, now that he thought of it, Luigi was not a 
bad fellow at heart, and no doubt he was living decently 
enough in the new world." But the good wife was asleep, so 
much did she care for the troubles of a neighbor, or for the 
husband's story. She had deep confidence in that husband, 
for she remarked to a visitor : ' Ebbene, he 's not a bad man ; 
but his tongue is like the wagging water-stream in the fountain 
of the Piazza di Spagna." 

Despite the vow of the postman, his suspicions found a 
place in the minds of his fellows; and in the lapse of a week 
the public tongue rolled it about with relish. Gossip is a shrewd 
hag with little charity in her bones. Soon her finger was 
pointed in scorn to the house on the Via di Ripetti, and at a 
woman whose sin was the reception of letters from a distant 
land. 

Blessed be those letters! tokens of a dead past, pledges 
of a living remembrance. Five there were in all the harvest 
of almost a year and their lines burned themselves into the 
core of her soul. She guarded them with passionate jealousy ; 
read and reread them, despite the remorse engendered. They 
became as food and drink to her; retainers of faith in life; 
signs of loyalty and hope. With the advent of the sixth came 
the plea she feared yet hungered for. Now was spring-tide in 
her soul. He had written the words himself ; there they were 
" la primavera nell' anima mt'a." And when the violets were 
old enough to drink starlight and the morning dews she would 
hear the word from his own lips, and be with him. There 
were only the ashes of pride in her soul now, and the promise 
of sweet redemptions. And so in the timid candle-light she 
fed her heart with another reading. vero, he would see her 
again, his Lucia ; was it not enough ? Blessed be the saints 
in memory, it was too much ; for she loved him, and had 
deemed him lost. 



190 1.] PASQUALE. 739 

II. 

" The worst of woes a scorn in solitude." 

April sunshine is life to these tenement alleys, where 
through pinching days of winter cruel winds and storms hold 
carnivals of suffering and death. The narrow, gloomy rooms 
are not as habitable as my lord's stable ; and some writers 
seem to think the dwellers therein are little better than my 
lord's thoroughbreds. It is true they sometimes receive less 
consideration. If you think as these, do not enter. The air 
is musty and thick despite the sunshine. The faces that peer 
from the loop-holes they call windows are thin and drawn. 
Some of them show forgetfulness, some vice, a few despair; 
but all are stamped with lines of poverty and want. It is not 
a pleasant place to visit. If your feet have been wont to 
tread soft carpetings, if your eyes have been accustomed to ob- 
jects of refinement, your nostrils fed with odors of June roses 
or exotic blooms, it were best to go your way. There is noth- 
ing of all these here. You might not understand, and your 
heart might fail you. But, one word before you go ; in this 
alley, among the " dust-heaps " (a cruel word) of humanity, 
may be found, perhaps, the chalice of a soul as great as yours 
or mine, and nobler for its heroism in the face of life. 

The sunlight, in odd patches, lies upon an uneven flagging. 
In its free warmth are ragged children, half-clad and shivering. 
The faces are sharp and scant. The eyes are quick and rest- 
less ; quick to sight a crust of food, restless from a hunger 
never fully appeased. Even the men and women are unkempt. 
Their voices are rough and thick. Some cough in keen dis- 
tress. But what would you? Warm flannels are not to be 
had for the asking. Newspapers stuffed in broken windows 
are poor protection against the fateful draughts. And the 
landlord, sir, is not a man of sentiment, but a scavenger of 
dollars and cents. 

If you are careful, your feet can find a fairly safe way 
along the alley. That is an evil door; the mouth of a beast. 
Look through this barred window and you can see the length 
of the shop. That dim light is the outer street. It is always 
gloomy. They that haunt the place fear light. The benches 
will be filled by gas-light. Then your eyes could scarce count 
the victims, and your ears would burn with the coarse din. 
This door would more than once be flung open and the use- 
less vomited forth. Law ? the eyes of the law are fashioned 



PASQUALE. [Sept., 

from the sheen of gold. Charity ? well yes. Charity and 
death sometimes work changes in the alley. 

This slanting stairway leads to the rookeries above. Law- 
less people ? A few. The others are Christ's poor, with their 
shoulders to the great stone of want, which for ever bears 
against them, and which they for ever oppose with heroism 
and faith. 

There it is. Pasquale's room ; the poorest in the place. 
For long months he existed there, shunned by the tenants 
because he lived a miser's life. It was a wrong judgment of 
the world. And its hatred was so bitter that in the end the 
morning light would find the man, not in the court-yard but 
far off on city streets waiting the hour of work. During the 
last few months Pasquale did not carry on his shoulder the 
shovel that had earned for him the dollars he so coveted. A 
premature blast had robbed him of an arm, many days of 
labor, and a goodly portion of his savings. That was a cruel 
blow, yet the tenants looked upon it as God's punishment for 
greed. At that time the man would have died had not Father 
John's charity smelled him out and saved him. 

It was a doubtful day when Pasquale, with a hand-organ 
strapped to his body, began to lure subsistence from city 
throngs. It was a cruel trial at first made up of refusals, 
scorn, and discouragement ; but in time there came to be 
woven among these three a thread of gold the children's cry 
of delight as they gave him welcome to their midst. And the 
curbstone became his throne and child hearts his subjects, his 
sceptre a music-box. 

In time Pasquale won for himself a patronage yielding as 
much as seventy cents a day magnificent sum ! And his 
heart was lifted. The daily tramp became less difficult. By 
dint of sharp economy his ratio of savings became equal to 
that when his two strong arms swung a shovel in the trenches. 
At intervals, in the secrecy of his barren room, the careworn 
face lightened with an expression of hope, and a touch of 
fervor roused the color to his cheeks. 

Day by day the canvas bag that hung about the man's 
neck grew heavier ; and each night when the noise of the 
alley eased, for it was never silenced, Pasquale unlaced 
the treasure-sack, and in the yellow light greedily counted 
the coins. The light in his eyes was ravenous and impatient. 
Misericordia ! what long days it tock ! Would it never come? 
and looking through the dusk the face would soften. Some- 



1 90i.] PASQUALE. 741 

times into his eyes crept that which was like a love-light in 
the eyes of youth. 

One day Pasquale made an investment. He bought a 
cylinder of new music for his beloved organ. Silently and 
with light heart he toiled through the long evening, removing 
the old tunes, inserting the new. He would like to play them ; 
but the hour was late, and santissima ! the sleepers would have 
stormed his door in wrath. So he child-like patted the glass 
face of the box ; promised himself a full harvest on the mor- 
row, and threw himself down on the couch to sleep. 

He woke with a start. The room was flush with morning 
light. He was startled, not that he might have lost a few pen- 
nies though that indeed were a misfortune but because the 
alley would be alive with tenants, and he must brave their 
scorn to gain the outer street. Ma chef what did it matter 
for once ? To-day would end his labors. He would soon bid 
farewell but there, he must be out of it quickly. 

Pasquale drew the strap a bit tighter, and with his burden 
stepped outside. He did not lock the door. There was no 
need. The room held nothing that would be of worth to the 
meanest thief in the ward. Yet, hold, there was something. 
It hung upon a nail above the couch of powdered straw. At 
the close of each day, when he climbed in silence the stairway 
and entered his room, it was the first object to meet his eyes. 
The glare of a street lamp played upon it in the darkness. 
And sometimes when his shoulder pained him more than 
usual, or the day had been more harsh, he would look at that 
image of sublime patience, and forget his own trial. Dio sia 
benedetto ! Why should he groan ? Had he not much to be 
thankful for? much indeed therefore, again, blessed be God! 

Once on the stairway, in the full high light, Pasquale paused. 
He had not been there at such an hour for long days. Some- 
thing, however, was amiss. He heard no jeering cry. The 
alley was silent ; two boys, beleaguering a spent cur, were the 
only ones in sight. Not pausing to seek the reason, he hurried 
down the steps and toward the street beyond. After a meal 
of fair measure he made his way to the district where the children 
waited. Heaven be blessed ! he had new tunes for them this 
day ; even he himself did not know their strains. 

" Here 's the music-man ! " And they hedged him about at 
the corner. He smiled ; a pleasant light stood in his eyes as 
he placed the organ gently on the curb and lifted the cover 
of faded green. His heart felt the enthusiasm of a child creep 



742 PASQUALE. [Sept., 

in his nerves as his fingers touched the crank. Clear and 
strong came the notes of a popular march the children, catch- 
ing its rhythm, pranced the flagging. Young mothers, too, 
swayed in time to the melody. And baby-eyes, opened wide 
in wonder, gazed steadily at the brown face of Pasquale and 
at his arm moving round and round at the side of that myste- 
rious bDx. The player's face grew tender as he watched 
them. 

"More! play some more!" It was useless to-day, for Pas- 
.quale did not attempt to leave the spot. Again and again he 
played. The chiming of the notes sang in the man's soul as 
they sang in the youngsters' ears. And at that hour the alley 
was full of tumult. A bridal party, which had emptied the 
yard just before Pasquale woke, had now returned with swollen 
crowds. All that day merry-making was king. Out on the 
city pavements Pasquale played his last tune. The children 
wondered at his generosity. Never before had any one given 
them such a treat. Never had any " music-man " forgotten to 
ask for money. And so, when they saw . the crank turned 
once more, they stood in wonderment and listened. It was a 
sweet, sad melody. You have heard it, perhaps, within more 
artistic precincts, from the lips of famous singers ; you may have 
caught the sentiment, but the meaning never went home to 
your heart as it did to Pasquale's that spring morning on a 
city street. That cry from the soul of " La Traviata " cut 
into his guarded past with keenness and a bitter-sweet remem- 
brance. And he found himself repeating the words of the 
song : 

" Addio del passato bei sogni ridenti." 

No one saw Pasquale's eyes as he picked up the organ-box 
and moved swiftly away. And none knew why the "music- 
man " had played so long and made no plea for pennies. 

Late that afternoon Pasquale came from a banking house, 
but the cinvas big was empty; its treasure had been sent 
across seas. 

That night in the darkness of the alley a light shone 
through the crevices of Pasquale's door. Could you have 
looked within you would have seen him laboring bravely with 
pen and ink fashioning a letter. Now would the thought es- 
cape him ; now would the words outrun the speed of his hand ; 
now were his eyes closed, now opened and piercing the crouch- 
ing shadows in the corner. Once his face, uplifted to the wan 



1 90i.] PASQUALE. 743 

figure in the candle-light, had upon it a light of wonderful 
peace. 

And now the letter was finished. He donned cap and coat, 
quenched the light, withdrew softly, and passed down the stair- 
way. Before entering the street he stopped for a second to 
listen. At the far end of the alley was tumult the wedding 
aftermath ; then through an iron grating before him filtered 
streaks of yellow light. He looked within the shop and saw 
a sea of wicked faces; and he heard the rank mouthings of 
crime swell and fall like the snarling of a beast. He drew 
away in terror. Out on the street he went quickly to a mail- 
box and gave his letter to its keeping. That done, he hurried 
alleyward and to his room. The clamor had eased a bit and 
soon toned to the ordinary sounds of the alley. Just as a 
neighboring bell boomed the hour Pasquale rose from his knees, 
threw himself on the pallet and slept. 

III. 

" An epitaph lies better on the heart than on a tomb. 1 ' 

Italy and spring: the fields pale with the dust of flowers; 
the sea flashing faint in the distance ; the round hills misty 
with the smoke of buds ; and in dim floods of light, with the 
ages gathered about her, the glory of her towers aflame in the 
mist the imperial city of Rome! Along the Via di Ripetti 
shadows lie clear-cut and deep. The fountain-stream curves 
to a steady fall, unswayed by any wind ; its whispering splash 
in perfect time with the pulse of its source on the hills. Up 
on the Pincian mount a royal band makes melody through 
pine and cypress, and the crowd drinks deep of the harmonies. 
On the Via di Ripetti the shadows are now creeping roof- 
ward. At their coming a woman's heart is filled with joy and 
fear. The strains of music float softly to her ears ; but in 
her soul is a melody unknown to art, and quite estranged 
from all expression. While Lucia keeps her vigil the shadows 
flood the streets, and through the Roman dusk bells are inton- 
ing the Angelus. The woman reluctantly draws the shutters 
inward. Night swells from the east. The day is over and 
gone ; but the watch is kept by candle-light. 

The quietude of death lurks in the room. Somewhere, in 

a neighboring cortile, a shutter bangs noisily ; the woman's 

hand leaps to her heart, and she listens. Then again is slier ce. 

In the pause that follows she draws from her bosom a written 

VOL. LXXIII. 49 



744 PASQUALE. [Sept., 

sheet and, smoothing it upon her knee, reads it slowly to her- 
self. A light is born of the reading and lingers in the heart 
of her eyes. With the last words upon her lips, the candle- 
light sputters into darkness. The woman's head sinks on her 
arms crossed on the table ; the tired eyes droop and close. 

IV. 

The hour was hard on three, and the alley deserted. High 
above the roof-line was -intermittent gloom where rain-clouds 
scurried along in broken masses, spurred by a breeze from the 
sea. At intervals a sharp wind swept through the narrow 
passage, and lifting shreds of paper, and the lighter refuse, 
shook them in its teeth and scattered them with a growl. The 
air was cold, and sagging with mist. The officer on post 
sought the protection of a doorway, and beat his hands to 
rob their numbness. Once he leaned outward, and glanced 
along the street ; a few rain-drops spattered in his face. He 
fell back again to the recess and the shadows, bemoaning the 
luck of such a tour. Then came the rain. It poured in steady 
slant, started innumerable pools upon the pavement and 
streams in the gutter. The wind drove it against the window- 
glass with violence ; the alley was drenched in floods. 

A light still glimmered in the darkness of the ccurtyaid. 
It filtered through the grated window where Pasquale had 
seen the face of wickedness. Honest men were long since 
wrapped in slumber ; but behind these walls night is day, and 
mischief hobnobs with the consciences of men. In the uncer- 
tain shadows, with stools drawn close together, two evil-doers 
sat. They conned each other's eyes with sharp scrutiny, for 
partnership in crime makes the heart crafty and suspicious. 
And it was no small deed they were proposing. 

The keeper of the "beast" was busy with other patrons 
when these two creatures passed through the rear entrance 
into the rain and darkness of the alley. The swelling of the 
wind shook the rookery above them, and rattled up and down 
the loose planking of the stairs. The two paused a moment, 
shivered, drew themselves together and mounted the steps. 
On the landing above there was a halt and a whispered coun- 
cil. A moment later they disappeared within the hallway. 

Pasquale was a heavy sleeper, and he did not hear the 
guarded footfalls, nor feel the soft groping of hands. So far 
the thieves had found nothing but a steamship ticket for an 
eastern port. They threw it aside. Once the search was 



1 90i.] PASQUALE. 745 

broken. One of the men started at sight of a crucifix gleam- 
ing in the street light above the head of his victim. The re- 
pulse was momentary ; its effect was sinister. The sight be- 
trayed his nerves, and made the hand clumsy. A false move ! 
and down with a crash fell the organ-box. Pasquale half rose. 
A swift blow sent him down. There was a sound of scurrying 
feet; a creaking of stairs; a hurried flight then a steady 
beating of rain. 

Pasquale was found in the early dawn, still alive but 
quite beyond the hope of life. The city surgeon shook his 
head to the inquiry of a priest. A bell ' clanged madly on 
the noisy streets. The crowd thinned out ; and among the 
tenantry that lingered it was whispered, with wise shaking of 
heads, that the judgment of God was among them. 

That night " Father John " sent to the post a letter. Its 
address was a home on the Via di Ripetti ; but what was 
written therein or its import to a woman's life were best un- 
told. 

V. 

When the shadow lifts from Abyssinian hills and bares 
them to the flush of dawn, it stands westward of a rough 
mound where an alien soldier sleeps. He and the multitude 
with him are heroes on the roll of Italy, sent to their death 
by Baratieri, who planned the holocaust of Adowa. And they 
who died were victims of political ambition. 

When day fades and the mounds are merged in gloom 
and the dews of night, the sunshine slants on another grave. 
On a wooden cross that lifts to the arrowed light some friend- 
ly hand has written in letters of black the word 

PASQUALE. 

In a living heart that word was written in fire. And 
though his country's lips are mute, a woman claims him for a 
hero. 

Sometimes a woman kneels in the tranquil twilight of the 
Gesu. The glow of the chancel-lamp falls promiseful of 
memorable peace; its shadow makes a cross upon the floor; 
but it is not so deep nor so constant as that upon the wo- 
man's heart, where remembrance is for ever laying up the 
heavy wages of pride. 




ST. COLUMBA. 



IONA, THE ISLE OF COLUMBA'S CELL. 

BY AGNES C. STORER. 

" Isle of Columba's cell, 
Where Christian piety's soul-cheering spark 
(Kindled from heaven between the light and dark 
Of time) shone like the morning-star, farewell ! " * 

HE preliminary trip from Glasgow to Oban 
abounds in beauty and interest. After leaving 
the Clyde our steamer calls at several charm- 
ing watering-places, among them famed Rothe- 
say Bay. 
"It's a bonnie bay at morning, 

And bonnier at the noon, 

But bonniest when the sun draps, 

And red comes up the moon ; 

When a mist creeps o'er the Cumbraes, 

And Arran's peaks are gray, 

And the great black hills, like sleeping kings, 

Sit grand round Rothesay Bay." 

* Wordsworth : sonnst composed or suggested during a tour in Scotland. 




ION A, THE ISLE OF COLU MBA'S CELL. 



747 



A two hours' sail follows through the Crinan Canal, the 
steamer's procrastinating way winding between green meadow 
banks, along which scamper bare-legged lads and lassies cry- 
ing their tempting wares of raspberries and heather bloom. 
Two Highland pipers, gorgeous to behold, in bonnets, and 
plaids, and tartan kilts, accompany us through the locks, skirl- 
ing their pipes to such martial airs as "Bonnie Dundee" and 
" MacGregor's Gathering," the strange, unaccustomed music 
lending a touch of excitement to this novel experience. The 
passage through the canal over, a change of steamers is made 
for by far the most interesting portion" of the journey. From 
hence on, as we plough our way northward, the scenery be- 
comes almost momentarily even grander and more rugged, 
and afar we hear the waves roaring in Corryvreckhan's whirl- 
pool, that dread maelstrom to which Columba and his mis- 
sionaries must often have listened as they sailed these watery 
wastes so many centuries ago. Thus ever steaming northward, 




THE SCENERY BECOMES MOMENTARILY GRANDER. 

we pass Jura and Scarba and the long stretch of Argyleshire 
coast, and at 'last, in the sunset's glow, ten hours after em- 
barking from Glasgow, we enter the harbor of Oban, the High- 
land's gay little metropolis. Ah, the surpassing glory of this 
first sunset in the Highlands ! Before us, in the near fore- 



ION A, THE ISLE OF COLUMBA'S CELL. [Sept., 




FROM DUNOLLIE CASTLE THERE is A SUPERB VIEW. 

ground, the sheltered bay is dotted by the silvery sails of 
many yachts, countless white-winged gulls darting and gleam- 
ing and circling in wild career among them ; beyond, built in 
a semi-circle along the bay's margin, stretches picturesque 
Oban itself, while behind and above rise a bold range of hills, 
the sweet, cool fragrance of their mantling heather comming- 
ling with the salt odors of the sea. The entrancing beauty 
of the panorama extending in every direction is indeed un- 
speakable. The wild hills above seem fairly aflame in this 
marvellous sunset light ; here and there against their sable 
background are outlined the ruins of romantic castles "old in 
story"; the very waters shimmering and glistening in the 
deepening light seem floods of molten gold ; while over all 
the ever-changing Scottish sky tinges and transforms all the 
nether world with a mysterious glamour impossible to describe. 
The succeeding day proves all that heart could desire for 
the long anticipated trip to lona. Embarking at an early 



1901.] 



ION A, THE ISLE OF COLU MBA'S CELL. 



749 



hour, we steam out of Oban Bay, pass Dunollie Castle and 
Kerrera, and by the Lady Rock, which latter figures so con- 
spicuously in Campbell's spirited ballad "Glenara." From this 
point extends a view unequalled, even in Scotland, for com- 
mingled grandeur and loveliness. Before us are the hills of 
Morvern and Mull ; looking backward we see Ben Cruachan 
towering above the Argyleshire hills ; to the left Ben Nevis, 
the Peaks of Glencoe, with the waters of Loch Linnhe and 
Loch Etive, and to the right the Island and Paps of Jura and 
Colonsay. While the view here is most impressive, others to 
follow are as intensely interesting and quite as characteristic 
of Scotland. Rocky coasts, hills clad with heather, peaceful 
bays with tiny cottages scattered among the rocks, and fishing 
boats at anchor, and occasionally, rising mysteriously from 
sheer ser-girt crags, such ruined towers and battlements as fire 
imagination with all manner of romantic fancies. The waters 




WE ROUND THE RUGGED HEADLANDS. 

of the Sound of Mull, and even of the broad Atlantic, are un- 
stirred by a ripple, while overhead the cloudless sky an 
unusual sight in Scotland arches us serene and untroubled. 
We are deeply impressed by the stillness brooding over these 
lonely wastes. Everywhere utter silence reigns save for an 
occasional sea-gull's scream or cormorant's melancholy cry. 



7$o IONA, THE ISLE OF COLUMBA'S CELL. [.Sept., 

Before landing at lona a brief visit is to be made at its 
neighboring island, curious Staffa ; hence making our way 
through 

" All the group of islets gay 
That guard famed Staffa round,"* 

we anchor off that remarkable island. Picturesque red life- 
boats quickly bear us within Fingal's Cave.f the mighty " Hall 
of Nature's Columns," whose floor is the unfathomable ocean, 

" Where, as to shame the temples deck'd 
By skill of earthly architect, 
Nature herself, it seem'd, would raise 
A minster to her Maker's praise!":}: 

The first impression received is one of wonder and delight 
at the maze of color greeting our astonished sight. The 
ocean's heaving bosom, colored by the violet-hued rocks from 
which, as from a base, rise the basaltic columns, hung with 
gleaming sea grasses, forming the cavern, reflects with mar- 
vellous effect the tender and brilliant hues of the stalactites. 
some white, some yellow, and others wine-red and crimson 
which fill the vacancies between the broken pillars And 
even as we exclaim at the cavern's wondrous coloring, we feel 
that to give this place any name save its original 'Gaelic ap- 
pellation, Vlaimh Biin, " the musical," is the veriest misnomer. 
Here ever resound "the noise of many waters," awful in stu- 
pendous majesty as they surge and swell far, far within the 
mighty vault, their music mingling with its deep-toned echoes, 
and yet more unutterably soul-subduing as with mournful 
cadence the wild waves retreat. Age after age the wondrous 
harmony has chanted unceasingly, and so shall proclaim unto 
the end : " Thy way, O God, is in the sea, and thy path in 
the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known. "| 

* " Lord of the Isles," canto iv. 

t There are six great caverns in the island. Fingal's Cave, so called from Ossian's King 
of Selma; the Clam-Shell, the Herdsman, the Causeway, the Boat, and the Cormorant, or 
MacKinnon's Cave. . 

| " Lord of the Isles," loc cit. 

It is needless to remark that Staffa, the " isle of columns," presents special attractions 
to the geologist. To the ordinary visitor unversed in the science, who in his ignorance can- 
not divine where the " conglomerated tufa" begins, the " columnar basalt" enters, and the 
'amorphous basalt " ends, it may yet be of interest to note that this basaltic formation is 
supposed to continue under the sea, reappearing at the Giant's Causeway in Ireland. 

I Psalm Ixxvi. 20. 



ION A, THE ISLE OF COLU MBA'S CELL. 751 

Again embarking, the run to lona is made in a short half 
hour. A thoughtful writer has observed : " No two objects of 
interest could be more absolutely dissimilar in kind than the 
two neighboring islands, Staffa and lona, lona dear to 
Christendom for more than a thousand years; Staffa known 
to the scientific and the curious only since the close of the 
last century. Nothing but an accident of geography could 
unite their names."* And so, indeed, it is. Staffa reveals 




PICTURESQUE RED LIFE-BOATS BEAR us WITHIN FINGAL'S CAVE. 

natural wonders only, while lona's associations are connected 
with the very acme of all created greatness the souls and 
minds of men. 

From the American point of view lona proves a very small 
island, being but about three miles in length by one in breadth, 
and we marvel anew at the place this bit of mother earth 
holds in the world's history. While walking to its holy of 
holies, the spot where stood the original monastic foundations, 
we may profitably recall something of the island's history after 
Columba's death and previous to the erection of the later 
monastic buildings, whose ruins we are about to examine. 
From the endjof ^the sixth to the end of the eighth century 
lona's fame was scarcely second in importance to any in the 

* The Duke of Argyle, An Historical Guide to lona. 



752 



I ON A, THE ISLE OF COLUMBA^S CELL. 



[Sept., 




THE MIGHTY "HALL OF NATURE'S COLUMNS." 

British Isles. It was this brilliant era in its existence which 
doubtless arose in Dr. Johnson's mind when he described 
"that illustrious island, once the luminary of the Caledonian 
regions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the 
benefits of knowledge and the blessings of religion." But 
alas ! neither holiness nor learning availed to save lona from 
the ravages of the fierce Norsemen. They swept down upon 
this defenceless spot as upon all the islands and 'the coasts of 
Britain, plundering, burning, and slaying with such merciless 
savagery it seemed as if whole localities must again lapse for 
all time into their former desolation. An ominous record in 
the ancient chronicle for the year 794 A. D. tells the first 
mournful story: " Vastatio omnium insularum a gentilibus " 
(devastation of all the islands by the heathen), and during the 



IQOI.] 



ION A, THE ISLE OF COLU MBA'S CELL. 



753 



two succeeding centuries the chronicles repeatedly contain 
descriptions of the dreadful martyrdom suffered by Columba's 
spiritual descendants. During this 'period the bones of lona's 
great abbot were carried for safe-keeping to Kells in Ireland 
and Dunkeld in Scotland, though the exact date is not 
known.* 

On Christmas Eve, 986, lona was laid waste for the last 
time, and from henceforth the Norse spoilers troubled the 
blessed isle no more. In the following century St. Margaret, 
the devoted Queen of Malcolm Canmore, erected on the site 
of Columba's cell St. Oran's Chapel, which, though low-vaulted 
and inconspicuous in appearance, is, from its hallowed associa- 
tions, by far the most interesting ruin on the island. On the 




THE MIGHTY KINGS OF THREE FAIR REALMS HERE ARE LAID. 

way hither the remains of an Augustinian nunnery are passed, 
and we enter the Reilig Odhrain, the ancient burial-place, 

" Where rest from mortal coil the Mighty of the Isles." 

Never was there a more impressive place of sepulture. Here 
for more than a thousand years were brought kings and chiefs, 
the great ones from neighboring and far distant lands, that 

* After the destruction of lona the monastery at Kells became the mother-house of the 
" family of St. Colum-Kille," as Columba's spiritual children were afterwards called. 



754 



I ON A, THE ISLE OF COLUMBA'S CELL. 



[Sept., 



their dust might mingle with that of the Blessed Isle. Here 
it is said 

" The mighty kings of three fair realms are laid," 
kings of Scotland, Ireland, and France, beside several Nor- 
wegian princes, innumerable lords of the isles, abbots, bishops, 




RUINS OF ST. MARY'S CATHEDRAL AT IONA. 

monks, and chiefs of many clans. The last king buried at 
lona was Duncan I. of Scotland, whom Macbeth murdered. 

"Rosse: 'Where is Duncan's body?' 
Macduff : Carried to Colm's-Kill, 

The sacred storehouse of his predecessors, 
And guardian of their bones." 

(" Macbeth," act ii. scene iv.) 

Many of the tombs are carved in relief with rude effigies 
of ships and animals, while there are several full-length figures 
representing warriors clad in armor. Very near the impressive 
God's acre we ascend the Torr Abb, the " little hill," from 
whence St. Columba gazed upon his dear island the day be- 
fore his death. Then it was that, blessing lona for the last 
time, the great abbot uttered the memorable prophecy of its 
future: "Unto this place, albeit so small and poor, great 
homage shall yet be paid not only by the kings and peoples 



I ON A, THE ISLE OF COLU MBA'S CELL. 



755 



of the Scots, but by the rulers of barbarous and distant 
nations, with their people also. In great veneration, too, shall 
it be held by the holy men of other churches." 

Near by stands the famous cross of the MacLean, a noble 
monument over eleven feet high. Archaeologists fix its date 
as erected in the sixth century, and the traceries representing 
our Lord on the Cross and emblematic designs of the life- 
giving Sacraments are unusually delicate. St. Oran's Chapel 
is next visited, its fine Norman doorway, very like that of 
St. Margaret's Chapel at Edinburgh Castle, and a beautiful 
triple arch within proving the most interesting features. The 
ruins of St. Mary's Cathedral stand near by. Built in the 
usual form of a cross, it consists of a nave, transepts, and 
choir, with sacristy and side chapels. The combination of 




NEAR BY STANDS THE FAMOUS CROSS OF MACLEAN. 

architectural styles indicates different periods of erection, 
ranging from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries. Many 
of the carvings upon the columns are remarkably graphic and 
well defined, and the capitals exhibit bas-reliefs similar to 
others found in Ireland. " Four square to all the winds that 
blow," the noble old cathedral dominates every aspect viewed 
at lona, and nothing could be finer than the ruins' warm-red 
and gray coloring and their rare beauty of proportion. Op- 



756 



ION A, THE ISLE OF COLUMBA'S CELL. [Sept., 




A STREET IN MODERN IONA. 

posite the western entrance stands the famed lona, or St. 
Martin's Cross, which, with that of the MacLean, alone remain 
of the three hundred and sixty memorial crosses said to have 
once been scattered over the island. Thirty of these sepulchral 
crosses are still in existence in Argyleshire, having been re- 
moved from lona when the so-called Reformers sought to" 
destroy in the isles all signs of Christian art. Though lona 
itself is perhaps deficient in natural features of unusual in- 
terest, compared with other portions of Scotland that is, this 
is more than compensated for by the exquisite views obtained 
from every point on the island. To the north and west dim 
sketches of distant islands are outlined like long clouds along 
the horizon ; to the eastward, but a mile away, rises the Ross 
of Mull, its range of hills, upon which the lights and shadows 

" March and countermarch in glorious apparition," 

a never-ceasing vision of loveliness, while over all, embracing 
all, stretch the Hebridean worlds of enchantment, the ever- 
changing infinite skies and sea. Truly, here about Columba's 
isle one hears, as nowhere else, the message chanted alike by 
sea and mountains, " each a mighty voice " : " Non nobis, 
Domine, non nobis: sed nomini tuo da gloriam."* Perhaps 

* Psalm cxiii. 9. 



90i.] 



ION A, THE ISLE OF COLUMBA' s CELL. 



757 



we shall feel that blessed conviction at no moment of our 
visit more strongly than when we enter the Martyr's Bay and 
recall the scenes enacted here long ago in great Columba's 
time. How the realization bridges over the centuries and 
gives sense of nearness, of kinship with the glorious saints of 
God, weak and timorous followers though we be in "the 
royal way " where they were conquerors ! Here in the 
Martyr's Bay entered the stately galleys of long ag.o bearing 
the dead, 

" Their dark freight a vanished life." 

From Ireland, from Scotland, from far distant Norway they 
came, Columba and his monks going forth in solemn procession 
to meet and bless and chant over each silent form the De 
Profundis, that funeral psalm of penitence and deathless hope 
unchanging Mother Church chants now, as then, over all her 
children who have fallen asleep in Christ our Lord. 




THE DOG STONE. 



HE ANGELS' 




BY ALBERT REYNAUD. 
" For their angels see the Father's face." 

'OODLAND ! I love you and your covered shade; 
With here and there a break of sunbeam 

sheaves 

A listening 'neath innumerable leaves 
For sudden sounds of strange footsteps half 

afraid ; 

Throbbing for him who hath the pulse to know 
The myriad lives that in your shadows glow. 
Oh ! the nature-secrets, the storied spell, 
The Forest holds for him who loves it well. 

There rose a murmur thro' the quiet trees; 

Fluttering, each leaf against its neighbor leaned, 

To whisper doubtless wondrous mysteries 

Which the thick trunks one from the other screened. 

Majestic loomed the great limbs all around, 

Uplifted, strong in faith, afar the ground. 

'Twas evening : whim-drawn to this elfin spot 

I sat a-dreaming of what I wit not. 

Glory to God in the highest, 
Glory to Him, all praise ; 
Yet to the lowly nighest 
Glory to Him always. 

What sounds are these ? and whose the voice 
Bids thus e'en Darkness to rejoice, 
And Silence for its echoes to make room ? 
Startled, I peer thro' the now gathered gloom : 
Meseems along each hidden forest track 
Come slippered footfalls' nearing answers back. 
Yea truly, between brush and brier go 
Forms flitting, tenuous more than mortals know. 

Hither all neighb'ring angels hie ; 
Coming a nightly tryst to keep, 
While deep in dreams their charges sleep : 
Trembling, a-hiding, still, I lie. 

I left a man a first voice said 
And mighty in the land 'twould seem ; 



1901.] THE ANGELS' TRYST. 759 

For though no halo lights his head, 
He struts and others bow. His dream 
Is power. Thus he holds himself 
In what they call his higher mood ; 
Tho' watching I each attitude 
Much fear it simply to be pelf, 
And that he thinks him greater through 
The lessening others appear in view. 

I left a maid. The men all call her fair, 

Bask in her smiles and seem to worship there. 

E'en a proud rose I 've seen appear confused 

Beside her cheek with a slight blush suffused : 

And God made roses beautiful, we know, 

As erst in Eden we set them long ago. 

Yet, what 's the vesture round a frivolous heart 

But a foreign garment, no real part 

Of the wearer's aspect to the Spirit's glance 

Which sees no splendor save in virtue's radiance. 

I left a child, and culled his prayers this eve 
Sweet pledge of those who see not yet believe 
Fragrant with lowly innocence, fit to grace 
An angel's worship 'fore the Father's face 
Who bade me 'gainst the morrow's needs to keep 
Provision for his footsteps. Now asleep 
My little cherub lies. So wish him ye 
Each some gift. 

Then, the pearl Purity, I. 
And from me, Trust. 

From me, Simplicity. 

From me, to see things with an angel's eye. 
Then I, his guardian and the angel smiled 
Wish him for ever to remain a child. 

Flight of fluttering wings. 

Light in the eastern sky. 
Dream-echoes lessening, 

Marvelling still hear I. ... 

Glory to God in the highest, 
Glory to Him, all praise ; 
Yet to the lowly nighest 
Glory to Him always. 
VOL. LXXIII. 50 



760 THE NEED OF TECHNICAL SCHOOLS. [Sept., 




THE NEED OF TECHNICAL SCHOOLS IN THE 
UNITED STATES. 

BY CARINA CAMPBELL EAGLESFIELD. 

'5 a nation we Americans pay less attention to 
technical education than any other people in the 
world, and the success we have heretofore achieved 
in manufacturing has been, not so much the result 
of our expert work as of the skilled labor which 
has come to us from Europe. 

We show the greatest executive ability in organizing our 
factories and in putting the right men in the right place, but 
if we had been obliged to draw workmen from native Ameri- 
cans alone it would have taken many more years to attain the 
present results. 

We have, however, now reached the point in our industrial 
development when it is necessary and most advisable to make 
use of our own sons, and in order to educate them we must 
have the opportunities and the schools. There must be ade- 
quate means of educating the workers of any country before 
its manufacturing interests can be fully developed, and the 
manufacturers of the United States have found from experience 
that in many departments they must look to Germany when 
they wish the best of skilled workmen. We have certainly fine 
technical schools in the United States, and the last ten years 
have seen an immense growth in public interest ; but the num- 
ber is still very small compared to our population, and the 
best workers in the higher trades still come from Germany, 
where the schools are the finest in the world. 

AMONG THE GERMANS. 

If we wish to compete successfully with Germany, we must 
give more attention to technical and industrial education, for 
their interest in such schools is constantly on the increase, and 
the ambition and energy of the entire nation are directed to- 
wards making them more perfect. 

The Germans realize that herein lies their only hope of 
holding their own against America, for they are willing to con- 



1901.] THE NEED OF TECHNICAL SCHOOLS. 761 

cede that in our country the natural adaptability of the people 
is greater than with them. 

Our people are more practical ; they depend upon no theo- 
ries in fact, know little of them and the American way, gen- 
erally speaking, is to try till success crowns the effort. 

In Germany technical and industrial education is aided in 
every direction, by the government, by mercantile corporations, 
and by municipalities. Public spirit is far more active than in 
the United States in fostering national development. The feel- 
ing of national unity and pride has been growing steadily ever 
since its birth in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, and since 
the Kaiser's efforts towards colonial growth it has taken on 
enormous proportions. Personal feelings are entirely lost sight 
of when the growth of the beloved Fatherland is concerned, 
and the best practical example is found when the German will 
buy an inferior article of his own manufacture in place of a 
better one from abroad. 

This fever for national development is not limited to the 
industrial classes alone, for one encounters it also among the 
agriculturists, who would absolutely rather live poorly upon 
the products of their own soil than comfortably upon the 
cheaper produce of the American market. This, better than 
any other reason, explains the universal dislike to our Ameri- 
can corn-meal, which, though cheaper and more healthful than 
their rye, makes no headway with them, since it hurts the 
national pride to feel that it might have to depend, as England 
does, upon foreign markets for its food. Germany is not 
divided, as with us, into two parties, those who advocate pro- 
tection with the object of fostering the manufacturing interests, 
and those who are devoted to the theory of free trade ; and, 
though rent by many other parties, it is a unit on this question 
of national development. 

The American is by birthright and surroundings an optimist, 
and this universal trait of the national character is shown most 
strikingly in his attitude towards technical education. He feels 
so sure of succeeding in everything he undertakes that he 
rather scorns the slow and laborious methods of the German 
schools. Every man is so deft and quick with his fingers that 
he underestimates the difficulties in the way of really master- 
ing a trade. His natural ability and general intelligence are 
going to help him out, so he thinks, and it seems almost a 
waste of time to spend years in acquiring enough special knowl- 
edge to place him at the very head, when it is so very easy to 



762 THE NEED OP TECHNICAL SCHOOLS. [Sept., 

do fairly well a little lower down. So he lets the trained and 
skilled artisan from Germany fill such places, and in the bottom 
of his heart thinks that he might, by an extra effort, do the 
same work. 

The industrial schools which have been established in con- 
nection with our public-school system will no doubt aid greatly 
in developing the generation now growing up ; but they are in 
no sense institutions which fit directly for practical wage-earn- 
ing, and we cannot expect our factories to be recruited from them. 

Our great trade centres have no connection with any school 
system, and we are just beginning to realize that these are the 
points where industrial and technical education is most needed. 
In Germany, on the contrary, every great trade centre has its 
schools, where all the details entering into the manufacture of 
various classes of goods are taught, and the latest discoveries 
in science and practical experience are employed. Almost any 
school of the innumerable ones for teaching trades, as spinning, 
weaving, stra-w-plaiting, etc., might be taken as a model, but I 
will cite the Weaving School of Gera as an example of what 
may be done. 

THE WEAVING SCHOOL OF GERA. 

Wealthy manufacturers have taken a deep interest in this 
school and aided it by donations and bequests. It is also sup- 
ported by the fees of the students and by an annuity of two 
thousand marks granted by the government. It has a princi- 
pal and seven teachers, who are themselves skilled weavers. 
The board of administration consists of five expert merchants, 
who watch over the progress, examine the work, and report to 
the municipal association of manufacturers. 

The pupils are partly young workmen and partly young 
merchants, engaged in the weaving mills. School is open twice 
a week, and on Sundays from seven to ten in the morning, and 
two evenings are also devoted to teaching. The course lasts 
four years, and instruction is given in the following branches : 
In the first year lessons are given in pattern designing, practi- 
cal sorting, classifying, rating and pricing of raw material. In 
the second year instruction in the weaving of jacquards, and 
the designing, nature, and properties of various wools. In the 
third year machine construction is taught, and the fourth year 
teaches the construction of various hand-looms, technical de- 
signing, and the weaving of fancy articles. Theoretical in- 
struction is given from books and a large collection of designs 



THE NEED OF TECHNICAL SCHOOLS. 763 

and models, and thirteen power and seventeen hand looms are 
used in practical instruction. A large library also becomes a 
valuable factor in the promotion of technical knowledge. Ex- 
hibitions are frequently given, in which woven articles, sketches, 
designs, and writings of the pupils are displayed. These ex- 
hibitions show the diligence and skill of the pupils, and the 
advance they have made in industrial education. Prizes are 
awarded also, consisting of mathematical instruments, books 
on technical subjects, etc. The fees are very low, only averag- 
ing $1.50 per year, and hence entrance is always easy for the 
poorest of the working-classes. When we stop to consider 
and compare the knowledge which our average factory hands 
in our weaving mills possess, the enormous educative value of 
such a school is seen. 

Such methods as are used in these German schools could 
be employed by our American manufacturers, and they appear 
to me the only way to strengthen and develop our industries. 
The work in a factory is so subdivided that a boy can work 
for years and yet know little of the construction of the entire 
article, and less even of the principles underlying it ; and in- 
stead of growing more intelligent, he often becomes a mere 
machine, capable only of doing so much work per hour. 
Schooling in his line, on the other hand, would train all his 
faculties, arouse his interest in mechanics, and develop any 
latent talent for special work. 

HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT. 

The realization that in educating the working-classes lies 
the ultimate success of the manufacturing interests is compara- 
tively new in Germany, though of so much longer standing 
than with us. The higher technical education of the sons of 
the middle and upper classes was first thought of and planned, 
and the first Polytechnical School was established, in Berlin in 
the year 1799, modelled after that founded in Paris just five 
years earlier. In 1821 the first Industrial School was founded 
in Berlin, and it was some time before others followed. Be- 
tween 1825 and 1860 higher Technical Schools were established 
in Karlsruhe, Dresden, Darmstadt, Hanover, Augsburg, Munich, 
Nuremberg, Stuttgart, and Aix. Karlsruhe was the first school 
in which our modern ideas on industrial education for the 
masses was considered. Since then industrial schools have 
sprung up all over the empire, but nowhere in greater number 
than in Saxony. These schools teach a great variety of trades 



764 THE NEED OF TECHNICAL SCHOOLS. [Sept., 

and embrace instruction in weaving, carving, engraving, straw- 
plaiting, metal-working, and recently schools have been opened 
for the teaching of all branches of railroad mechanics, where 
the sons of the lesser officials can be educated in their fathers' 
trade. 

Saxony is the greatest manufacturing country of Germany, 
and a review of her schools leads one to conclude that every 
one is going to school there. The facilities for technical edu- 
cation are nowhere surpassed. We find 112 schools for the 
teaching of special industries, with 10 ooo students ; 39 indus- 
trial schools, with another 10,000 ; 44 mercantile schools, with 
4,800 students, and n agricultural colleges, with 1,000 students. 
The education of the girls is also amply provided for, since 
most girls have to work in Germany, and they find the neces- 
sary instruction in seven industrial schools, with 1,570 pupils, 
and in 18 technical schools for special work, containing 2,500 
girls. 

One can say that every industry is represented by a school 
where the underlying principles of each industry are taught. 
Under such mental and manual training a class of highly in- 
telligent workmen has been developed, in which their special 
lines are nowhere surpassed. 

RESULTS ARE SHOWN IN SUPERIOR SKILL. 

The Germans are also constantly improving their machinery, 
and they do not disdain to learn much and buy much of the 
Americans. Our methods are conceded by them to be superior, 
our tools the best in the world, if our workmen are not as a 
whole, and in the efforts which we have made to brighten 
the home life of our workmen we are confessedly ahead of 
them all. 

Englishmen have recognized more quickly than Americans 
that these schools are worthy objects of study, and every year 
many are sent from the great factory towns into Germany to 
investigate and take back to England their ideas and methods. 
The work done by many of our consuls is of the greatest 
value; but consular reports are not studied half as thoroughly 
as they deserve, and many suggestions of the greatest impor- 
tance remain hidden in the archives in Washington. 

The different countries of Germany take great pride also in 
their fine industrial buildings and the beautiful setting they 
have given them. The new Industrial School in Nuremberg 
cost over $230,000; that in Chemnitz nearly as much; the In- 



1901.] THE NEED OF TECHNICAL SCHOOLS. 765 

dustrial Museum in Stuttgart $1,000,000, and the Technical 
College in Charlottenburg $2,250,000 dollars ; and these are but 
a few among many equally fine. 

The establishment and constant improvement of these 
schools have revolutionized the scientific industries of Ger- 
many, and they now outstrip their rivals in France and Eng- 
land. The German workman is in most cases a scientifically 
as well as practically educated man, and the combination has 
improved his handiwork a hundred-fold. The increase of im- 
ports out of Germany can be ascribed to this fact and no 
other. 

The progress in many branches of manufacturing during the 
last decade is wonderful. Germany is indeed making enormous 
strides, notably where superior knowledge, technical skill, and 
the agency of the expert chemist can be employed. This is 
true to a remarkable degree in the electrical trades and the 
cognate branches of electrical engineering, and the latest ex- 
periments in chemistry have been most successfully used in 
the manufacture of new colors. 

That the industries of Germany have made immense head- 
way must be acknowledged by every one ; but it may not be 
so clear that the two principal factors in this marvellous 
growth are the educational advantages which lie within reach 
of the poorest, and the steady and intelligent assistance of the 
general government. 

THE COMING INDUSTRIAL WARFARE. 

The warfare of the coming century will be an industrial 
one, and that nation which has the best educational advan- 
tages will be the one best prepared to wage it successfully. 
It is not alone the education to be had in our colleges and 
universities which is needed in America, but that training 
which develops the great masses of the people and fits them 
to better earn their daily bread. 

There is an intimate connection between science and indus- 
try, and our great industries will have to depend more and 
more upon the successful application of the latest scientific 
discoveries, and less and less upon our natural resources. 
These are, however, so great that we have in them another 
advantage over the old world, and our grand and inexpressi- 
bly rich country is only awaiting the time when the trained 
and skilled American will take these mighty forces and bend 
them to the service of mankind. 



766 THE NEED OF TECHNICAL SCHOOLS. [Sept., 

It does not behoove us to copy German methods blindly, 
for the needs of our own country should first be studied and 
our technical schools adapted to our peculiar conditions. But 
that our working-classes need far more tuition and schooling 
than they receive ought to be acknowledged by every one. 
Our system of public-school education, unless combined with 
an industrial department, gives no special training, and our 
boys and girls leave school entirely unfit to earn their own 
living. If the percentage of the young people who feel under 
the necessity of assisting their parents to support the family 
is not so large as in Germany, it is constantly growing, and in 
many cities the care of the older children has already become 
a heavy burden to the father. 

If we had such schools as are now found everywhere in 
Germany, in which apprentices could attend certain hours 
every week, study the theory of their trade and see the prac- 
tical working of every branch in it, they would be inspired to 
do better work, and real fondness for their trade would there- 
by be inculcated. We now feel that a boy's school education 
is closed if he enters a factory, and in many cases the interest 
and pleasure in study, aroused in the lower grades, are allowed 
to die out because of lack of nurture. 

THE FACTORY LAWS OF GERMANY. 

The factory laws of Germany are also worthy of careful 
study, and in every case they consider the education and de- 
velopment of the factory hand. Every manufacturer is re- 
quired by law to send in a list of all children under thirteen 
or, in some cases, fourteen years of age, who are working for 
him, and he is obliged to send these to the school which 
teaches their trade. If they fail to attend, he is fined ; and he 
must also see that the hours of work in school and factory 
allow of an interval of rest between. If the school opens in 
the morning, the children must work afternoons in the factory, 
or vice versa. 

Everybody knows that Germans lead the world in many 
if not all kinds of leather, and their success in this trade is 
undoubtedly the result of their first-class tanning schools. In 
Germany a young man intending to become a tanner goes to 
the tanning school quite as regularly as to his place in the 
tan-yard, and the daily lesson in technical education goes 
hand in-hand with practical work, giving him a complete mas- 
tery of his trade. The practical chemist stands side-by side 



icpi.] THE NEED OF TECHNICAL SCHOOLS. 767 

with the practical worker, and the successful experiments of 
the one are carefully investigated by the other. 

One of the best tanning schools is at Freiberg, Saxony, 
and the science of tanning, which has so long been experi- 
mental, is there based upon exact data and definite experi- 
ment. 

But the Germans, with all their patience, education, and 
skill, have so much less inventive genius than the Americans, 
that the Freiberg school is obliged to be fitted with machines 
which were invented and perfected in the United States, and 
it is a most suggestive fact that the head director over these 
American machines was formerly for fifteen years a foreman 
in a Milwaukee tannery. 

CAUSES OF GROWTH IN TECHNICAL INDUSTRY. 

The enormous growth of technical industry in Germany is 
owing to three causes the temperament of the people, the 
educative facilities, and the methodical adaptation of scientific 
research to industrial practice. We may not be able to so 
discipline our national temperament as to acquire the plod- 
ding, staying power and slow patience of the German char- 
acter ; but we can improve our educational advantages, and we 
must establish a closer union between practical and scientific 
technical work. If we can found such schools as they now 
have in Germany, and educate our large number of young 
men of native inventive and mechanical genius, we can easily 
compete successfully with the trade of the whole world and 
win over every competitor. 

Social conditions are so much easier with us than they are 
in Germany that our artisans ought to lead happy and con- 
tented lives. Our wages are higher in every line of work, and 
the cost of living very much lower; so the k annual savings are 
always in favor of the American workmen. 

The absence of class distinctions is a spur to constant en- 
deavor, and the American workman, providing he is frugal 
and temperate, is bound to better his lot. 

What the workingmen need above all else are just such 
schools as are found all over the German Empire, and with 
these educative facilities they are bound to discover the 
superiority of their own social conditions and environment 
over those of the old world. 




THE iMooERN BARD OF IRELAND. 



TOM MOORE'S AMERICAN TRIP. 

BY REV. JOSEPH GORDIAN DALEY. 

N the year 1801, when the national bard of Ire- 
land was but twenty-two years of age, he pub- 
lished, under the pseudonym of Thomas Little, 
his first original poems the juvenilia which Byron 
so successfully satirized in English Bards and 
Scotch Reviewers. 

Two years later Moore, 

" Young Catullus of his day, 
As sweet, but as immoral in his lay," 

having completed the humanities at Trinity College, Dublin, 
and wearied through a course of law at Middle Temple, Lon- 




igoi.] TOM MOORE'S AMERICAN TRIP. 769 

don, was offered a government position in the British tributary 
of Bermuda, an island situated, as every one knows, at a dis- 
tance of several hundred leagues off the southern coast of our 
country. The office was technically known as the Registry of 
the Admiralty ; and for this employment, requiring, as it did, 
a matter-of-fact, mathematical mind, Moore, though undeniably 
gifted in many another branch, had scanty love and meagre 
talent. " We needed an accountant, and they gave us a 
dancer," was the satirical comment of Beaumarchais when he 
learned that Calonne had been appointed to the finances of 
France. A remark of a similar kind would not have been out 
of place anent the poetical registrar of Bermuda; for the 
figures he was versed in were rhetorical figures, and the books 
he was aptest at keeping were not the folios of a cashier's 
desk, but the tomes, old and dusty, that serve to burden a 
library shelf. It is on record that his mother sought hard to 
dissuade him from accepting the colonial donative ; and it is 
known that generally he was not slow in conforming with her 
sensible wishes. Upon this occasion, however, he questioned 
the wisdom of his mother's advice. The merest gift from the 
governmental hand was, in his eyes, a matter of value. It 
might, he reasoned, become a stepping-stone to ulterior promo- 
tion ; so, with this consideration in mind, he decided, against 
all counsel, to accept the station at Bermuda. 

The ship in which he sailed away toward his first American 
destination was the Phaeton, a frigate, which really belonged to 
the marine service of Britain ; and the roundabout course which 
it took led southward at first toward the shores of Portugal, 
thence along by the tropic Azores, and from there outward across 
the seas of the West. Upon the voyage over the young, un- 
daunted songster, looking back to the dear ones, began to 
pipe in reminiscent couplets. The first of his melodies is an 
epistolary nocturne, suggested by the moonlight off Madeira, 
and addressed to a Waterford viscount, Lord Strangford. 

There is no doubt but that Moore's official preferment was 
obtained from the government through his friend Lord Moira. 
This scholarly peer, laudably proud of his new-found protege^ 
was desirous of opening a future to one so gifted ; he was 
charmed by the flow of the young man's poetry, and was fas- 
cinated even more by the grace of Moore's personal manners. 
Lord Moira had obtained high political distinction ; he stood 
near the throne, and nearer yet to the Crown Prince. It was 
through him that the Dublin genius was made acquainted with 



770 TOM MOORE'S AMERICAN TRIP. [Sept., 

Carlton House and the Prince of Wales ; and it was this ac- 
quaintance, ripening into something like intimacy, that led on 
to the post at Bermuda. If " Little Tommy loved a lord," as 
Byron cruelly averred, no wonder that he would go into rhap- 
sody over a prince of the blood ! 

Moore, youthful and confident, had translated the love lyrics 
of. Anacreon with something like Anacreon's own tenderness ; 
and when he went to London the dream of his heart was to 
publish these translations. Publishers' doors repulsed him, and 
his only hope lay in bringing out the work by subscription. 
He succeeded. The subscribers were from the aristocracy; 
and the Anacreon came out, dedicated, by permission, to the 
Prince of Wales. Censures and praise alike rewarded it ; but 
the censures passed harmlessly, while the praises lingered and 
redoubled. Ballads followed successfully ; and the songs of the 
Irish groceryman's son were sung in the drawing-rooms of Eng- 
land's Four Hundred. Lionized and flattered, Thomas Moore 
had all the danger of becoming a spoiled child. This fact he 
realized himself ; for in a letter to his mother, arguing against 
her objections to the Bermuda recognition, he says : " If I do 
not make a shilling by it, the new character it gives to my 
pursuits, the claim it affords me upon government, the absence 
I shall have from all the frippery follies that would hang upon 
my career for ever in this country all these are objects in- 
valuable of themselves." 

Though his life's years ran on eventually to three score 
and ten, this colonial appointment was the only government 
position that Moore ever held. 

The office turned out to be after all no great sinecure : it 
was worth just $2 ooo a year ; yet he retained it for fourteen 
years, administering it at first for a short period himself, and 
afterward acting entirely through a clerk, whom he left on the 
island as his deputy. Four months of actual residence at Ber- 
muda seem to have sickened Moore himself of the humdrum 
monotony of the official post ; so he lost no time in securing 
the agent who was to replace him, and whose business it 
would be to attend to the practical routine duties of the 
office. This deputy, however, turned out later on to be a 
thievish scoundrel. Peculations to the amount of $30,000 were 
brought to light in 1815; and Moore, then in the height of 
his career, and in years approaching the close of the thirties, 
was cited by the court to answer for the defalcation of his 
dishonest deputy. The crisis was eventually terminated by a 



1 90i.] TOM MOORE'S AMERICAN TRIP. 771 

compromise ; but for awhile the clouds looked dark over 
Moore's life of roses. 

Four months of Bermuda, as we have said, were all the 
poet wanted. Putting the office in the hands of his substitute, 
he started eagerly for home. Prior, however, 'to making a 
decisive voyage, he determined to take an extended trip on 
the mainland and to visit the young United States. The jour- 
ney which he made was a slow, zigzag jog ; and for ten 
months he continued this manner of touring. It is a fact of 
which Irishmen may be lavishly proud, that of all the illustrious 
personages who have linked their names imperishably with 
English literature Tom Moore was the first to pay a visit to 
the United States. 

After entering our Republic at Virginia, he came northward, 
visited Washington, at that time a little city and but five years 
the capital. Crossing through Jersey, he made his way to the 
Rhine of America, passed on along the Hudson to Cohoes and 
Albany, crossed the Mohawk valley, continued on in a stage- 
coach overland from Utica, visited Niagara's sublime torrent, 
passed on into Canadian territory, and, touching here and there 
at various cities along the St. Lawrence, completed his ram- 
bling by journeying to Halifax and then home to England. 

All along the route the crude civilization failed to satisfy 
the longing of his sybaritic heart ; for if, in the theories of his 
youth, he leaned sincerely toward democracy, the practical 
tastes now of his riper manhood were unquestionably aristo- 
cratic. We hear him declaring : 

" Even now, wandering upon Erie's shore, 
I hear Niagara's distant cataract roar ; 
I sigh for England oh ! these weary feet 
Have many a mile to journey ere we meet." 

The virgin beauty of the country through which he passed 
appealed to the poetic side of his heart ; but ever and anon 
came the recurring^ feeling of unrest, the impatient hand reach- 
ing out for hands across the sea. It has been said by Charles 
A. Dana's Sun that the pleasantest thing in Boston is to take 
a train for New York; now certainly it was some such feeling 
as this that Moore experienced upon embarking at Nova Scotia 
for the homeward bound. 

The start was propitious and five weeks later we find him 
leaving the ship at Plymouth, and, to use his own frenzied 



772 TOM MOORE'S AMERICAN TRIP. [Sept., 

words, " almost crying with joy to be able once more to write 
on English ground." No terra Jirma for him until his feet were 
treading the drawing-rooms of Belgravia! 

From Norfolk, Va., is written to a lady the first of his 
poems on America. In a prose note he adds that Norfolk is 
an unfavorable specimen of our land, and was then particu- 
larly so, owing to a recently ravaging yellow fever. In a way 
ordinary enough he remarks : 

" The warrior here in arms no more 
Thinks of the toil, the conflict o'er; 
While peace, with sunny cheeks of toil, 
Walks^ o'er the free, unlorded soil." 

From Norfolk he voyaged on to the celebrated Dismal 
Swamp; and unlovely as the surroundings were, they served 
to suggest a string of stanzas in the old ballad metre. At 
Washington he wrote two poems, and in Philadelphia an equal 
number. They are mildly descriptive, hurriedly written, and 
doubtless indited as indeed the rest in the collection con- 
fessedly were in order to fill up a volume and meet the 
handsome inducements of a publisher. 

The most familiar form in which he wrote his American 
verses is that of rhyming epistles ; but though their prolixity 
detracts at times from their merit, we cannot fail to discern 
here and there the grace of the rhetorician, the imagination of 
the poet, and the warm teeming sympathy of the man. 

The practical republicanism of our country was far from 
being akin to Moore's aristocratic likings. He had regarded 
through English eyes the tumultuous epoch of the French 
Revolution ; and he censured the wide-spread rampancy among 
us of what he mistook for French ideas and French philoso- 
phy. He did not seem to realize that beneath all that is ex- 
travagant in our national house lay a strong ground-work of 
firm common-sense ; and that if Uncle Sam is hearty in cheer- 
ing for the rights of man, he is equally as loyal in insisting 
on the duties of man. Moore declaims with righteous vehe- 
mence against the mercenary politician, for he asserts: 

" Even here already patriots learn to steal 
Their private perquisites from public weal, 
And, guardians of their country's sacred fire, 
Like Afric's priests, let out the flame for hire." 



TOM MOORE'' s AMERICAN TRIP. 



773 




MOORE SYMPATHIZED DEEPLY WITH IRELAND'S WRONGS. 

The glaring inconsistency of slave-holding in a land whose 
dearest boast is her liberty impressed the poet with veritable 
disgust. It caused him to burst out in a prophecy of pessimism 
concerning a country where, as he puts it, 

" Freedom waves 
Her fustian flag in mockery over slaves." 

Lyrics of love and landscape are sprinkled through the 
collection ; and the prettiest lines of all are those which he 
wrote in the neighborhood of the now prosaic Cohoes : 



774 TOM MOORE'S AMERICAN TRIP. [Sept., 

" From rise of morn to set of sun 
I Ve seen the mighty Mohawk run ; 
Rushing alike untried and wild 
Thro' shades that frown'd and flowers that smil'd ; 
Flying by every green recess 
That wooed him to its calm caress, 
Yet sometimes turning with the wind, 
As if to leave one look behind." 

Other poems followed as he jogged across through central 
New York. In reference to one of them he remarked, in 
what has become an amusing note : " The idea occurred to 
me in passing through the very dreary wilderness between 
Batavia, a new settlement in the midst of the woods, and the 
little village of Buffalo on Lake Erie. This is the most 
fatiguing part of the route to Niagara." 

At the Horseshoe Falls Moore met with the British general 
whose virtues our Canadian neighbors have loved to honor, 
and whose tall gray monument on Queenstown bluff, surmount- 
ing the Niagara, looks down defiantly on the river's bold 
current. " To Colonel Brock, of the 48th, who commanded at 
the fort," said the Irish poet, " I am particularly indebted for 
his kindness to me during the fortnight I remained at Niagara. 
Among many pleasant days which I passed with him, that of 
our visit to the Tuscarora Indians was not the least interest- 
ing. They received us in all their ancient costume ; the young 
men exhibited for our amusement the race, the ball-game, etc., 
while the old and young women sat in groups under the sur- 
rounding trees." 

Moore's return voyage to England was uneventful. He 
arrived in 1804, and little more than a year later his poems 
bearing on America were published. In the same volume he 
included the love-songs which up to that date had appeared 
only over the nom-de plume of Thomas Little. Thus, as John 
Francis Walker states in his excellent remarks on Moore, the 
poet " avowed an authorship which indeed nobody doubted." 
The new book met with caresses in the world of roses ; but 
from the reviewers its sensual verses called forth the cry of 
" Shame ! " Jeffrey opened fire in the Edinburgh of July, 1806, 
characterizing the volume as " a public nuisance." " Its 
author," he said, " may boast, if the boast can please him, of 
being the most licentious of modern versifiers, and the most 
poetical of those who, in our times, have devoted their talents 



1901.] TOM MOORE'S AMERICAN TRIP. 775 

to the propagation of immorality, in which he labors with a 
perseverance at once ludicrous and detestable." 

In Moore's own private Memoirs we have a candid state- 
ment of how this censure provoked him, and how promptly he 
sent his cartel to the Scotch reviewer ! 

" After adverting to some assertions contained in the 
article, accusing me, if I recollect right, of a deliberate inten- 
tion to corrupt the minds of my readers, I thus proceeded : 
' To this I beg leave to answer, You are a liar ; yes, sir, a 
liar; and I choose to adopt this harsh and vulgar mode of 
defiance in order to prevent at once all equivocation between 
us, and to compel you to adopt for your own satisfaction that 
alternative which you might otherwise have hesitated in afford- 
ing to mine.' " 

The outcome of this challenge was the notorious "bloodless 
duel " at Chalk Farm, near Hampstead. The usual array 
duelists, seconds, friends, surgeons, and pistols were present ; 
but just at the critical moment a squad of policemen from Bow 
Street appeared on the scene and carried off the principals. 
In the privacy of the lock-up Moore and Jeffrey began to con- 
verse amicably enough, and from this conversation grew up a 
profound and mutual esteem, which lasted to the end of their 
lives. " In one of the most formidable of my censors," wrote 
Moore long subsequent to the hostile meeting, " I have since 
found one of the most cordial of my friends." The proof of 
this is, that when Moore got into trouble through the dis- 
honesty of his Bermuda substitute Jeffrey was the first of 
many kind friends who volunteered immediate help. In a 
prompt letter he offered him $2,500, and adds very generously : 
" No living soul shall know of my presumption but myself." 
Moore himself even lived to become a contributor to Jeffrey's 
Edinburgh; and in one of the numbers for 1814 he reviews 
Lord Thurlow's poetry in a very caustic article. 

The weak fibre in Thomas Moore's character was his ex- 
cessive adulation of the English nobility. This deferential 
tendency is all too manifest in his poems on America ; it is 
apparent both in the high-strung ideas which they present and 
in their dedications, which are generally to the high grandees 
of Britain. It seems unnatural for an Irishman born and 
bred to be so subservient. Clarence Mangan, as true a poet 
as Moore and as firm a patriot as ever lived, preferred the 
rags of hard poverty to the pampering caresses of soft- 
headed lords. Yet, speaking of patriotism, we do not question 
VOL. LXXIII. 51 



776 TOM MOORE'S AMERICAN TRIP. [Sept., 

the depth of Moore's loyalty. In his young days he was a 
friend of the two Emmets, and contributed generously to the 
Press, the organ which they had established in the interest of 
the United Irishmen of 1798. One of his early letters was so 
vehemently outspoken against English injustice that it attained 
the distinction of being publicly read in the House of Com- 
mons, and used by the Tories as an argument for the neces- 
sity of taking repressive measures against Irish free speech. 

His national lyrics, too, evince the warmth of his feeling 
for the native land ; and it is evident also from his various 
prose works that he sympathized deeply with every effort for 
Irish amelioration, and that in every work for his country's 
betterment he was ready to lend a hand and a voice. 

The extreme amiability of the man, and the rock-bottom 
honesty of his soul, were no doubt the reason why he made 
friends so easily and kept them so long. Byron, who was con- 
ceited and hard to please, trusted no man as he trusted 
Moore consigning to him his private journal and the request 
that Moore should write Byron's biography. It was not alone 
with grandees either that Tom Moore was popular. The 
Countess of Blessington recounts in her Memoirs how, going 
to the theatre one evening with Moore, she was surprised to 
see the people rise up with one common impulse and cheer 
him lustily as he entered. A pleasant narrative comes from 
another source, and relates to Moore's visit to Walter Scott. 
When Moore was departing, Scott, with Lockhart and the lat- 
ter's wife, accompanied him to Edinburgh, and that evening 
all four went to the theatre. For some time the party escaped 
observation ; but suddenly some one began to call out from 
the pit: 

" Eh ! Eh ! Yon 's Sir Walter wi' Lockhart and his wife ; 
and wha 's the wee body wi' the pawkee een ? Wow, but it 's 
Tarn Moore just ! " " Scott ! Scott! " " Moore ! Moore ! " be- 
gan to resound from all quarters. Scott would not rise 'at 
first, but Moore stood up and gracefully bowed. Scott then 
in turn rose and acknowledged the plaudits ; and the orches- 
tra played Irish and Scotch airs alternately for the rest*of the 
evening. 



THE HOLY SEE AND THE COUNCIL OF EPHESUS. 777 




THE HOLY SEE AND THE COUNCIL OF EPHESUS. 

BY REV. WARD HUNT JOHNSON, C.S.P. 

OWEVER near those outside the church may 
come to comprehending Catholic theology there is 
always one point beyond which they cannot go : 
they cannot understand the existence of the 
Apcstolic See and the prerogatives attached to 
it. Indeed, from the Protestant point of view the dogma is 
an excrescence, a thing foisted on the faith, a thing for which 
there is no logical use or reason. Now, we venture to say 
that the Primacy of Peter, with all it involves, is bound up 
with the very existence of the church ; and so far from being 
an addition, it follows as an inevitable necessity, given such 
an institution as the church at all. 

The book before us, by Mr. James Chrystal,* is a striking 
evidence of this Protestant inability. This gentleman is oc- 
cupied in translating the acts of the first six oecumenical 
councils into English and the documents bearing upon the 
councils. 

In the present volume he takes up the documents after the 
first Act of the Council of Ephesus and continues through the 
third. Of these various documents the most important is the 
letter addressed by Pope Celestine to the assembled bishops 
concerning Nestorius and the speeches of the Apostolic legates. 
And these are interesting, not because they have great bearing 
on the case of Nestorius but because they give an excellent 
idea of the relations of the Roman See to a general council, 
and the attitude of the synod toward that see. They furnish 
a strong proof of Catholic claims just because, without any 
argument or discussion, pope and fathers use language and 
perform acts which would be impossible if every claim urged 
by the Roman Church to-day was not implicitly acknowledged 
then. Yet this is exactly what neither Mr. Chrystal nor any 
Protestant can appreciate. Therefore it may not be unpro- 
fitable to show why it is so : what the theory of the Apostolic 
See is in Catholic theology, and why there exists the same 

* Authoritative Christianity : The Third Ecumenical Council. Part I., acts ii. and iii. 
James Chrystal, Author and Publisher, Jersey City, N. J. 



7/3 THE HOLY SEE AND THE COUNCIL OF EPHESUS. [Sept., 

belief, practically, in the church of the fifth century assembled 
at Ephesus and that of the nineteenth met in the Vatican 
basilica. 

We must, in the first place, distinguish two spheres of 
knowledge the created and the uncreated. The first, of course, 
embraces those things which man and other beings with reason 
can naturally know ; the other those things which are super- 
natural and known only to God. Now, between the natural 
and the supernatural is a great gulf; no created intelligence 
can pass over it, and if man is to have any understanding of 
the divine it must come from without, it must be given him 
in some way by God ; and yet, since man is man, since he 
learns only through creatures, the supernatural matter must be 
conveyed to him by natural and created means. 

Now, God has given man supernatural knowledge, and he 
gives it by means of the church which he wills to be the 
teacher of the human race. The function of teaching, we 
must remember, is two-fold ; it implies matter of instruction 
and also the power of interpretation. According to the Prot- 
estant theory a written revelation is made to man by God 
the meaning of which, wherever it be obscure, is discovered by 
the individual through internal enlightenment. The Catholic, 
on the other hind, while acknowledging the validity of the 
written word, accepts, as of equal authority, tradition. Also 
the Catholic believes that there must be a supernatural inter- 
preter of this deposit of faith, and such an interpreter must 
be some living power, external to himself, always ready to an- 
swer when difficulties arise, and to answer with authority. 

So far a certain section of Protestants agree with us, and 
they profess to find this interpreter in general councils of the 
church. The very fact, however, that they will only accept 
six out of the twenty oecumenical gatherings which the church 
knows is an evidence that a mere gathering of bishops is not 
enough in itself, nor has the church ever regarded it as 
enough. Something more is necessary to constitute a teacher 
something more explicit, more personal. 

There is necessary the presence of Christ himself directing, 
speaking in the midst of his Apostles, even as he did on 
earth. There is necessarily a head which shall rule the body, 
a brain which shall direct, a mouth which shall speak. God 
gives his supernatural gifts by created means that is an axiom 
of his dealings with his creatures and so here we find the 
created means in a man who represents him, through and by 



THE HOLY SEE AND THE COUNCIL OF EPHESUS. 779 

whom he acts. This, of course, is his vicar, the Bishop of the 
Apostolic See. And he alone fulfils the necessary conditions ; 
he is a living voice, always ready, able to speak with authority. 

The functions of the church can be considered as three- 
fold : (i) to teach, (2) to administer the sacraments, and (3) to 
exercise jurisdiction. Primarily the business of the church is 
to make known supernatural truth concerning God, his nature, 
his disposition toward creatures. From this disposition there 
arises certain relations with God which can be perfected by 
men through sacraments. Yet in order to either teach or ad- 
minister these sacraments there is need not only of a super- 
natural ability (if I can use such an expression), but given 
that, a field for exercising it which is technically called juris- 
diction. Our Lord sends forth his Apostles and says : " Go 
forth and teach all nations as I have commanded you, bap- 
tizing them." Now, here is found in Christ's commission ex- 
actly these three functions : the Apostles are to go forth to 
all nations this is their jurisdiction ; they are to teach this is 
the second apostolic work ; they are to baptize that is, they 
receive authority to administer the sacraments. Our Lord 
sends them forth in virtue of the fact that he is head of the 
church, in whom the three powers reside in absolute plenitude. 
In him is all wisdom as God ; in him is the full virtue of all 
sacraments; to him as man was perfect jurisdiction imparted 
" the uttermost ends of the earth for his possession." So to his 
representative on earth our Lord imparts all these things full 
teaching power, perfect jurisdiction over all the earth, and 
the administration of all sacraments, so that as a wise steward 
acting for his Lord he may distribute to his brethren power 
and means to fulfil that Lord's whole work. 

Such we conceive to be the reason for the prerogatives 
attached to the See of Peter. The perfect recognition of them 
was a matter of slow growth in the church of gradually 
clearer realization. For the church is not a mechanism, as 
some would have us believe, but a living organism which, just 
because it is living, must proceed in an ever more lucid self- 
consciousness. So in the beginning the bishops of the church 
knew that somewhere resided among them an infallible 
teacher and source of jurisdiction. As time went on, guided 
by the Spirit, more and more was reliance placed upon the 
opinion of Rome's bishop. In God's providence political con- 
ditions tended toward his pre-eminence; circumstances placed 
him over others while, at the same time, the episcopate came 



780 THE HOLY SEE AND THE COUNCIL OF EPHESUS. [Sept., 

to realize that with him, as Peter's successor, did Christ par- 
ticularly abide, that his it was to confirm the opinions of his 
brethren, and that without such confirmation those opinions 
were void. 

The realization of the truth was a slow unfolding in the 
church, and step by step as the past is studied do we see 
more nearly that ever-growing consciousness. It is expressed 
as early as the fifth century, and the Council of Ephesus dis- 
plays already a full-grown, though not yet defined, knowledge 
of the papal prerogative. And yet the church moves with so 
little haste, so cautiously in her teaching, that it was not until 
1870 that it was formally declared that to the Papal See was 
annexed the teaching power of the church and the power of 
jurisdiction. 

We have dwelt at length on these powers of the Holy See 
because they really embrace the other prerogatives, of sum- 
moning and confirming councils, and of canonizing saints. Of 
course, few Catholics are ignorant that the power of teaching 
is limited ; its quality is negative. Not in virtue of it can the 
Roman pontiff put forth any new revelation, or can he be 
said, strictly speaking, to be inspired ; no, he has the assis- 
tance of the Holy Ghost whereby he is preserved from error; 
and this assistance by no means makes him independent of 
human means: he must use the same care, the same methods 
of arriving at the truth, that other men use ; and hence it is 
that general councils are not vain. Their deliberations are the 
means in part, at least whereby the Holy See arrives at the 
truth. Besides, it is in conjunction with the council the head 
j lined with and informing the body of the church, it is then 
that most perfectly is that assistance of the Holy Ghost en- 
joyed (Franzelin, De div. trad., corol. i ad thesis 12). 

The infallibility of the pontiff, then, is strictly, bounded. 
He is only prevented from error when he teaches as pastor of 
all Christians and doctor with supreme authority. The matter 
of the teaching must concern faith and morals, and in this he 
does not warn or advise, but defines, that he may put an end 
to controversy ; that is, theologians debate two or more 
opinions concerning some truth for instance, Mary's concep- 
tion : was she sanctified in the womb or at the instant of con- 
ception ? Men debate and argue the question. Then when it 
is time the church speaks; the matter is decided. And this 
is a very good instance; for here is nothing new. Men had 
believed for ages that Mary was the holiest of creatures, vaguely. 



1901.] THE HOLY SEE AND THE COUNCIL OF EPHESUS. 781 

Then arose the question, how holy? Was it in this way, or 
was it in that way? So the decision of Truth is finally 
given, in this case, as in all others, concerning some existing 
opinion. 

Finally, in his teaching the Pontiff must define something 
to be believed by the Universal Church, something which con- 
cerns not a few nor a class, but is binding on the consciences 
of all. 

Turning now to Mr. Chrystal's book, let us see how this 
recognition of the papal prerogative shows itself at Ephesus. 
The legates from Rome, Arcadius, Projectus, and Philip, ar- 
rived in Ephesus in time for the second session of the coun- 
cil, on July 10, 431, the first having been held on June 22. 
These men announced that Pope Celestine, " the most holy 
and blessed pope, Bishop of the Apostolic See," had made 
decision in a letter to Cyril, and now had sent through them a 
letter "to strengthen the universal faith " (Hardouin, Cone., 
torn. i. col. 1465). Projectus asked that the letter from " the 
Holy Father Celestine, who is to be named with bowing of the 
head," should be read forth. 

Celestine's letter was then read both in Latin and in Greek. 
To a Catholic the letter needs no explanation ; it is exactly 
the sort of document which he should expect the supreme 
pastor to address to a council, exhorting and commanding 
it to keep the faith and the truth of the church. Finally 
Celestine says : " By way of maintaining our care we have sent 
our holy brethren to you, who will present the things decided 
by us some time ago, to which, we do not doubt, co-assent 
will be given by your holinesses." 

The letter was received by the fathers with shouts of ap- 
plause. 

Now, the language of the letter is not that of an equal 
writing to equals, but of a superior; it is the language of a 
Pope, and Mr. Chrystal so evidently feels its force that he 
does not even attempt to palliate it. 

The Papal position is even more clearly set forth in the 
speech of Projectus which follows. Celestine, he says, "would 
teach you, not as though you were ignorant, but he reminds 
the synod in order that those things which he some time ago 
decreed and has now deemed it proper to remind you of, ye 
may order brought to a more complete termination " by pass- 
ing that is, the necessary decrees in correspondence to the 
Papal letter. This evidently was the view of Archbishop 



782 THE HOLY SEE AND THE COUNCIL OF EPHESUS. [Sept., 

Firmus of Cappadocia, who said "the apostolic and holy throne 
of Celestine already put forth some time since to the bishops 
a vote and form on the matter," and the council, following 
this, condemned Nestorius. 

Mr. Chrystal here makes a tremendous fuss, accusing Hefele 
of " gross perversion of the fact " because that author trans- 
lates psephon kai tupon as " sentence and direction." Assum- 
ing that there is a mistake in translation, the fact still remains 
that the Roman bishop did issue some sort of document for 
the council to follow, whatever name one may give the thing ; 
and this is the really important point. 

The next document which bears on our argument is the 
speech of Philip. He begins by thanking the fathers for 
" their holy acclamations to their holy head " i. e., to Celes- 
tine "for you are not ignorant," he explains, "that the 
Blessed Peter the Apostle is head of the whole faith, and even 
of the Apostles." Philip next asks that the minutes of the past 
session be read, so that he, " following the form of Celestine, 
who put this case into our hands, may confirm the decisions 
of your holinesses." Here Mr. Chrystal explains that Philip 
merely wants to add Rome's vote to that of the Eastern 
churches, but the reader must evidently see that the legate in- 
tends much more than that ; he is going to " confirm " by 
Rome's vote what has been done and so give it the valid sanc- 
tion which it otherwise would not have. 

The minutes having been read, Philip continues : " It is 
doubtful to no one, but rather has been made known for all 
ages, that the holy and most blessed Peter, the leader and 
head of the Apostles, the pillar of the faith, the foundation of 
the universal church, received the keys of the kingdom from 
our Lord Jesus Christ, . . . who until now and always 
lives and exercises judgment in his successors." After this 
fine beginning, which Mr. Chrystal tries vainly to make mean 
nothing, Philip goes on : " Therefore Peter's successor in 
order, our holy and blessed Father Celestine, has sent us as 
representatives of his own presence to this synod." Then he 
details how Nestorius was summoned and refused to appear, 
and when " the period of delay granted him by the Apostolic 
See had passed " he was condemned " according to the form of 
all churches when priests present from both the Eastern and 
Western churches stood together in this synod, in person or 
through ambassadors." 

Such we conceive to be the correct translation of the pas- 



1901.] THE HOLY SEE AND THE COUNCIL OF EPHESUS. 783 

sage of Coleti Corjc., torn. iii. col. 1156, a passage which Mr. 
Chrystal prints in leaded capitals as being peculiarly hostile to 
papal claims. 

Then follows a speech by Projectus in the same tenor, and 
at last Cyril, as spokesman of the Eastern Church, sums up 
the matter, saying that the statements of the Roman legates 
are now before the synod, and " they have made these state- 
ments as filling the place of the Apostolic See, and also of all 
the holy synods ... of the West. Therefore they have 
executed already the decrees of ... Celestine " ; and so 
he calls on all present to " make manifest their canonical agree- 
ment " to the decision of Rome. 

Why this speech should be printed by our friend Mr. Chrys- 
tal in capitals we are at a loss to say ; certainly nothing could 
be more opposed to his hypothesis that Rome had no more 
to do with the decision of the synod than any other see, for 
St. Cyril lays down as a precise reason for agreement the fact 
that they have just heard the word of Rome. 

Poor Philip does not get off easily, for Mr. Chrystal de- 
votes ten pages at the end of his volume to "a warning on 
Philip's haughty and boastful Roman language." He quotes 
from such unprejudiced and non-partisan authorities as Dr- 
Philip Schaff, McClintock and Strong's Cyclopaedia, and the 
long-forgotten Quirinus of the Vatican Council to show the 
hollowness of Roman Catholic claims. He does say one thing, 
however, in the first paragraph : " The remarks of Philip [as 
to rank and claims of the Apostolic See] are not the themes 
on which the council was gathered ; . . . they are mere 
obiter dicta, . . . passing, incidental sayings, . . . and 
the council rightly and wisely gave them the go-by." Now this,. 
we submit, is not likely nay, it is impossible. If this was not 
language which every bishop agreed in, which he knew was 
orthodox, a tumult would at once have ensued, so strong was 
the political feeling between the Eastern and Western divisions 
of the empire. But "the council gave it the go-by" just be- 
cause they admitted Roman claims as a matter of course. 

Such an idea as Mr. Chrystal's we must think has no foun- 
dation, and the one explanation is that Philip knew what the 
position of the Apostolic See was, and the fathers knew and, 
as orthodox Catholic bishops, subscribed to it. That position, 
if the reader will refer back, shows Rome as claiming the 
power to give a deciding vote in matters of faith, as confirm- 
ing with validating approval what already has been done ;. 



784 THE HOL Y SEE AND THE COUNCIL OF EPHESUS. [Sept. 

that position makes Rome head of the church as being Peter's 
successor, who received power from Christ. All this was in 
the fifth century, and all this .shows that what the Catholic 
Church was then she is now. 

For the accuracy of his -translation we thank Mr. Chrystal ; 
the work is done well and in a scholarly way. But we cannot 
but regard with horror his notes and commentary. In these 
he habitually speaks of Catholics as " Romanists " " Roman- 
ists who defile churches with their idolatries " (p. 3). The 
Pope he knows as a " foreign and idolatrous prelate " (p. 9), 
and St. Thomas as " an Italian idolater." He links together 
in the usual coarse Protestant way " the rule of the grog-shop 
and the Romish Church." Our Blessed Lady he calls, not the 
mother but "the bringer forth " of God, and sneers at "the 
myth of the Assumption" (p. 15). Worse than all, with real 
blasphemy he mocks Catholics as " cannibals," referring to the 
adorable mystery of the Eucharist, and " man-worshippers " 
because we adore the humanity of our Blessed Lord insepar- 
able now from his divinity. 

These things are not only blots on Mr. Chrystal's work, 
but they derive a certain importance from the fact that his 
book is published by voluntary subscription and the list of 
contributors is given. Among them are the names of most of 
the Protestant Episcopal bishops, and of many eminent 
ministers. These men, we suppose, must agree in his opinions. 
It is a curious thing, because their church or rather, a section 
of it is now making desperate efforts to change its name, so 
that it may bear outwardly, at least, a certain likeness to the 
truth, it is a curious thing, I say, that a church which con- 
tains such opinions, such hatred of God's revelations, should 
try to believe itself, or make otners believe, that it has any 
real love for or part in the Catholic and Apostolic Faith. 





THE SHOP is MODELLED AFTER THE QUAINT CHURCH AT GRASMERE. 




THE ROYCROFTERS. 

BY ANNA B. McGILL. 

[T would surely have comforted that earnest man 
who so melodiously bemoaned his own ineffi- 
ciency, that self-styled idle singer of an empty 
day, William Morris, if he could have projected 
his vision into the future to see the many evi- 
dences now proving that at least one of his endeavors, the 
Kelmscott Press, was not to be futile, but on the contrary was 
to become an international influence, to be to-day the inspira- 
tion of nearly all artistic, conscientious book-making. 

Though the achievements of other presses are more fully 
realizing his ideals of good printing and binding, few book- 
factories, as imitation is the pleasantest flattery, would perhaps 
gratify him to such a degree as would the Roycrofters' Shop 
in East Aurora, N. Y , where Elbert Hubbard and his hun- 
dred and seventy-five associates are attempting to build up an 
American Kelmscott, and to reproduce the English institution, 
not only in its artistic but also in its sociological character. 

The inspiration for the Roycroft colony was gained directly 
from William Morris when Hubbard visited him several years 
ago, and returned to America fired to establish here a com- 
munity which would co-operate in making beautiful books and 
things, as their philistine parlance hath it. 



/86 THE ROYCROFTIRS. [Sept., 

The name and another influence were taken from that old 
English book-maker of the sixteenth century, Thomas Roycroft, 
whose great volume, Sacra Biblia Polyglotta, bearing the date 
1576, was one of the most interesting of the many treasures in 
the late exhibition of books at the National Arts in New York, 
and whose good black ink, fair types, and long-lived paper and 
bindings are a sad commentary on much of our present-day 
hasty book-making. 

But judging from the design of the Roycrofters* buildings, 
which is somewhat ecclesiastical, the Shop itself being modelled 
after the quaint church at Grasmere where Wordsworth is 
buried, one would surmise that Hubbard's most potent influence 
was derived not altogether from William Morris nor Thomas 
Roycroft, but also from an earlier source than either from 
the Middle Ages, when in the quiet and seclusion of a cloister 
delicately fingered nuns worked lovingly upon an ancient mis- 
sal, or when the adorning of some already golden text was a 
skilful monk's life-labor ; that era of the scriptorium which 
Austin Dobson, fervent laudator tcmforis acti, praises : 

" When a book was yet a book 
Where an earnest man might look, 
Finding something through the whole 
Beating like a human soul." 

Mr. Hubbard's effort to reproduce the monastic atmosphere 
in his colony is prime testimony to the debt book-making owes 
to the church, and is an eloquent reminder of the heritages we 
have derived from the Middle Ages, whose influence, so ob- 
viously apparent in modern culture and civilization, has been 
perhaps nowhere as perduring as in the art of printing. 

To those who stand for the Apostolate of Literature, who 
hold the high privilege and office of the Press to be its power 
to disseminate Truth and ennobling interpretations of Beauty, 
there lies a gratifying significance in the fact that in the 
shadow of the mediaeval church is to be found the source of 
that stream through whose channels modern life expresses its 
noblest convictions, its most exalted idealizations. 

A trite story is the record of the monks' endeavors to pre- 
serve and transcribe literary treasures, those devoted scholars 
whose history gives the lie to the old sophism about the utter 
intellectual night of those ages wherein only the consecrated 
toilers of the scriptorium were steadfast in guarding the sacred 
fires of learning and religion. Venerable Alcuin's exhortation 



THE ROYCROFTERS. 



787 




FRA ELBERTUS, ARCH PHILISTINE, AND THE LITTLE DE LUXE. 

to the fraternities of his day throws light on the earnestness 
of the pious bookman and his associates, whom he besought 
to apply themselves assiduously to copying " a work more 
meritorious, beneficial, and healthier than working in the fields, 
which profiteth only a man's body, whilst copying profits his 
soul." What books they made illuminated, bound in costly 
materials, encrusted with agates, emeralds, and other precious 
stones, inlaid with ivory, fit bodily habiliments for some rare 
and sacred tome ! Small wonder the gift of such a volume 
was deemed an act of piety deserving everlasting remembrance. 
And the prints those primitive illustrators made, which, de- 
spite their quaint crudities, fascinate bibliophile and collector 
more than a Whistler or a Turner ! The most ancient, and one 
of the most valuable of the mediaeval prints, the Saint Christo- 



;88 THE ROYCROFTERS. [Sept., 

pher, whose excellent design Albert Diirer might well have 
envied, was one of the monks' productions. Discovered in Bux- 
heim, Germany, in an old Chartreuse, it was said to have been 
donated to the abbey by Anna Buchan, a canoness of sterling 
artistic sense. 

Many of the prints whose discovery in Germany has thrillecl 
the collectors were gifts of the famous Ionian monks, who be- 
tween the sixth and the ninth centuries sent forth numerous 
missionaries to Germany and Switzerland, and who were reli- 
gious and literary apostles of the press in European, especially 
Anglo-Saxon, civilizations They taught the Anglo-Saxons to 
ornament books in a way which became known as the Anglo- 
Saxon style. Their copying was accurate and careful, as many 
of her early printers' work was not. Their achievements in 
the sixth and ninth centuries were rivalled in the fifteenth by 
that famous Brotherhood-of-Life-in-Common whose members, 
though asking no alms and accepting only just profits for their 
work, built at Weiden, in 1419, the great church solely with 
the money gained by their publishing house. In this interest- 
ing establishment Caxton, Jenson, and other pioneer printers 
served an apprenticeship. 

When the full tide of the Renaissance set in and secular 
publications began to appear simultaneously with the great 
Bibles and books of sacred lore, the printers' ranks became 
gradually filled by those beyond abbey gates. But printing 
did not lose evidences of its origin, nor of the atmosphere in 
which it first came to life, nor has it yet. In the colossal 
presses of the twentieth century the terms and technicalities of 
the printer's Art (considering its noble inspiration, art it should 
remain not trade) are identically those employed when the 
dignity, and indeed sanctity, of its uses invented such nomen- 
clature. So is the editor's domain the holy spot, the sanctum ; 
the place where work is done and the printers' lodges are still 
"chapels"; an assortment of types is a font this by a happy 
similitude, since the types should convey salutary grace to 
men's minds, even as the blessed water did to their souls ; 
while besides these felicitous and enduring names, the small, 
blundering boy so often abused in lurid prose, by Bobby Burns 
in verse, who sets grave thoughts awry till a man sometimes 
fails to recognize his own utterances, is the "devil,' as he was 
first called by the good brethren of the monasteries, on whose 
walls the legends say maleficent spirits used to sit in legions. 

Hubbard seems to have harked back directly to the 



THE ROYCROFTERS. 



789 




OLD UNCLE JOHN, WOOD-WORKER AND HORSE-TRAINER. 

manasteries, whose atmosphere he has striven to reproduce, 
not only in the architectural design of his buildings but like- 
wise in their unique materials, which are rough field stones 
whose grave gray tones of color, blended with sombre terra- 
cottas, give the buildings a venerable abbey-like appearance. 
The interiors, panellings, floors, and furniture are dark oak 
and walnut; so what with massive, old-time uncovered beams 
in all the rooms, a pictured Madonna or two upon the walls, 
one is tempted to pause almost expectant of murmured chants 
or echoed Misereres. To boot, the master workman is familiar- 
ly called Fra Elbertus; and there too, making beautiful books 
like his illustrious namesake Fra Jerome, is Geronimus 
O'Connor, a broad-shouldered Hibernian, erstwhile blacksmith's 
son, how Roycrofter, sculptor, moulder of wonderful andirons, 
what you will. 



790 THE ROYCROFTERS. [Sept., 

One waits in vain, however, for chants or Misereres, for 
this fraternity seems bent rather on jollity, fun, and frivolity, 
as is often obstreperously proven by some lusty voice singing 
as its owner plies busy fingers printing, bindirg, or illuminat- 
ing the wisdom of literary masters. The Roycrofters are 
indeed a merry company. Cheerfulness and industry are their 
two mottoes. A unique plan strives for this former virtue : 
every morning and afternoon for fifteen minutes all hands 
rest, the whole colony relaxes and recreates, so the young 
employees are not liable to injure their physical systems by 
too close application. 

Though assuredly one cannot say amen to all Fra Elbertus, 
arch philistine that he is, says, especially sometimes in the 
organ of his guild, The Philistine, and though some declare, as 
did a book-maker emeritus recently, that the Roycroft volumes 
are not worthy to stand beside worshipful tomes of Sheraton 
shrines, sacred to perfect type and good durable bindings, it 
is not possible to close one's eyes to other achievements of 
the Roycroft colony especially the sociological one, which is 
both interesting and commendable. There is nothing marvel- 
lous in the fact that in England and other European countries, 
where quiet, steady workmen have been following the same 
trade for generations, artisans might be found to accomplish 
Morris's scheme ; but in America, where the factory system 
grinds out machine products no more rapidly than it crushes 
and mars the human nature it employs, it is impressively in- 
teresting and singular that a community of people can be per- 
suaded to use their hands, slowly doing things day by day, 
but doing them, as the Roycrofters' homely motto puts it, 
" as good as they can." The human materials Hubbard began 
with were no more malleable than those offered by the 
ordinary small town, whose condition is usually far from 
idyllic. Though the high culture of many individuals in quiet 
hamlets be in nowise disputed, it seems to be generally and 
pitiably true that in the majority of small towns there prevail 
narrowness of view, paltriness of standards, blindness to artistic 
and aesthetic ideals. From whatsoever cause this condition 
arises, the fact remains that it exists. And the East-Aurorans 
were no better and no worse when Mr. Hubbard went among 
them than ordinary villagers. Whereas their complete intel- 
lectual regeneration has not been accomplished, nor their 
metamorphosis into consummate artists and philosophers, 
much certainly has been done and generously for the broaden- 



1901.] THE ROYCROFTERS. 791 

ing of their views, the improving of their standards, and the 
elevation of their ideals. 

Hubbard began his work among them by gathering into 
his Shop girls and young men whose social and intellectual 
conditions might gain them entrance into factories, mills, dress- 
making, or similar industries. Despite the wisdom of those 
who stand for letting such people follow their drift, stay in 
"their own sphere," surely Hubbard's plan is better to intro- 
duce them into what is truly a purer air, where the labor of 
their hands is dignified not only into earnest, industrious 
endeavor, but even into artistic achievement, with which the 
sordid drudgery of the factory in its present system can- 
not be compared. Speaking from a purely sociological stand- 
point, it is superfluous to dwell upon the efficacy of the 
artistic atmosphere as a refining and ennobling influence; 
an effort to supply such environment, to give young people a 
means of obtaining their livelihood, and simultaneously to 
rouse in them a sensibility to the higher and more beautiful 
side of life, can scarcely fail to be a worthy one, though 
Hubbard's methods do not escape tart criticism. An issue of 
a new magazine takes him to task poetically : 

41 Dear printers, said Fra the Philistine 
(And he smiled like the cherubim Sistine), 
Learn to work without wages 
Like monks of Dark Ages, 
Then shall we make books that are pristine." 

The charge has been several times made that the Roy- 
crofters are underpaid. Perhaps this is true if man lives by 
bread alone ; but when there is taken into consideration the 
fact that the employees receive an intellectual and aesthetic 
development superior to that of others of their class, their com- 
pensations seem sufficient. Furthermore, they are one of the 
few co-operative organizations in the United States ; over and 
above their stipulated emoluments they receive a yearly dis- 
tribution of profits, and prizes are given at Christmas-time. 
The result of this unusual arrangement is a strong interest in 
the Shop on the part of the workers, a more intimate connec- 
tion with it than if they were employed on the usual basis. 

This copartnership is deviously emphasized throughout the 
Shop. From one corner of the first room to another hangs 
a fetich-string on which are pendent all kinds and conditions 
of trophies : the well-nigh soleless boots that Samuel Warner 

VOL. LXXIII. 52 



792 



THE ROYCROFTERS. 



[Sept., 



familiarly Sammy the Artist wore, as the legend runs, when 
he trudged into East Aurora ; the walking-sticks that were 
the travelling staffs of two pedestrian brothers who tramped 
all the way from Missouri, and high above everything hangs a 

tankard labelled 
Inspiration, which 
AH Baba, one of 
the most interest- 
ing and famous 
Roycrofters, dis- 
penses when the 
m elancholy fit 
falls upon his as- 
sociates. 

The Roycroft 
colony has a fairly 
good library, free 
art classes, two 
monthly concerts, 
participated in 

2Kii^P!K 1319 H*KrT sometimes b ? the 
/ 5Br*^ : good musical tal- 

'^ ent of Buffalo, 

and many meet- 
ings round the 
great open fire- 
place where Fra 
Elbertus and his 
confreres discuss 
their philosophies. 
What an influence 
the colony may 
make in East Aurora may be estimated from the fact that 
one-third of all the village families are represented therein* 
But the working force consists not altogether of East-Auror- 
ans. Many others have permanently or temporarily cast their 
lot with these young American Utopians. It is said that no 
one is ever refused employment ; that something is always 
found for those who seek it. A loose system of superinten- 
dence prevails ; there is, strangely enough, no evidence of 
superior officers all seem to have some kind of intuition what 
to do next ; though as a matter of fact Elbert Hubbard's gui- 
dance appears in everything. An ideal relation exists between 




ROYCROFT ARTISTS IN IRON. 



1901.] THE ROYCROFTERS. 793 

those who really are in authority and the young people. No 
one, according to the records, has ever been dismissed from 
the ranks of the workers since the organization began. 

It is said when the young people first affiliate themselves 
with the Shop they wish one and all to begin in the illuminat- 
ing departments; gradually they fall into the places they aie 
able to fill, either in the bindery or the studios. All are 
allowed freedom to a great extent in the working out of their 
ideas from Mr. Samuel Warner, an F. R. S. A., whose ex- 
quisite illustrations and borders aptly interpret the great texts 
of literature the Roycrofters wisely choose to reprint, to the 
Leipzig carpenter, Albert Banner, a huge Teuton who makes 
great polished oak tables round which Wotan and Thor might 
sit at ease. Even Ali Baba, the wit and handy man of the 
community, may dig post-holes and mow lawns after any novel 
fancy or preconceived notion that suits his mood. Just why 
he has fallen heir to the name of the valorous hero in the 
Arabian Nights is one of the Roycrofters' whimsical secrets. 
As a natural result of this individual freedom, some of the 
Roycroft work is crude ; yet it seems invidious to condemn 
the granting of the liberty which in some of their productions 
makes for unique charm and independence of artistic ex- 
pression. 

As a final word concerning the Roycrofters, there is 
assuredly an atmosphere of earnestness and correctness in the 
Shop which makes a strong appeal to those whose sensibilities 
are often wounded by the frequent vulgarity and Bohemian- 
ism of the philistine an atmosphere that makes one regret 
that Hubbard sometimes goes astray, like all who seek to 
quench the thirst of the philosophic spirit at fountains other 
than those clear-running streams immemorial!)' ordained and 
provided for men's gratification and sustenance. 

The man himself suggests a combination of his two apostles, 
Whitman and Ruskin, with something of the former's wild 
primitive spirit, much of the latter's sweetness, together with 
a dash of Morris's altruism. He seems doomed to much criti- 
cism, and even misinterpretation, as many men in that im- 
portant and precarious position popularly known as the "pub- 
lic eye." But after all, in a final estimate the truest and most 
generous judgment of a man is to be sought from his inti- 
mates. Judged from this standard, no easy one either, since 
no man is great to his own valet, Hubbard is no insignificant 
personality among good men and true. 



794 



THE ROYCROFTERS. 



[Sept., 




ALI BABA, Wir AND HANDY MAN OF THE COMMUNITY. 

Doubtless much of the censure the Roycrofters have re- 
ceived is due to the fact that some have assumed for them an 
undue prominence both as a sociological and as a book-making 
organization. In comparison with the highest standards of 
either class they will fail to win unqualified applause; seen, 
however, in their right perspective as merely a humble, ordin- 
ary coterie working " as good as they can," which so many 
careless, uninspired artists and artisans fail to do, they must 
win some approval. When one works as well as he can, he is 
surely not ignobly living up to duty ; he adds somewhat to 
the general striving, since, after all, as the lines go in Brown- 
ing's " Last Ride Together " I once watched skilful Roycroft 
fingers illuminating 

" What hand and brain went ever paired, 
What heart alike conceived and dared ? " 




1901.] MIVART'S DOUBTS AGAINSJ THE FAITH. 795 



MIVART'S DOUBTS AGAINST THE FAITH. 

BY J. F. X. WESTCOTT. 

| ; FEAR," an intelligent Catholic once said to me, 
\\ "that I do not possess true faith. Often it 
\\ seems as if my belief were the fruit of self- 
deceit, a mere pretence, a fiction sustained only 
by my wish to believe. Of late this conscious- 
ness has become a cause of great anxiety ; so that I some- 
times doubt if I have any right to call myself a Catholic, or 
if I am honest in reciting the Creed. In the schools they say 
'the certainty of faith is the greatest of all certainties'; and 
clearly this is not the case with me. Were I to wake after 
death and find everything just as I have been taught to believe 
it, I am sure my sentiment would be one of unmitigated sur- 
prise; which seems to show that at heart I do not really believe." 

The difficulty felt by the speaker is one common enough 
to justify brief consideration of it here ; for a few are 
troubled in soul at the apparent discrepancy between their 
own actual state of mind and what they imagine to be faith. 
The phrase, "Maxima certitndo fidei" becomes a stumbling- 
block to them and sets them questioning their own Catholicity. 

What was, perhaps, an illustration of just such an attitude 
of mind occurred in a letter once published by Dr. Mivart. 
Speaking of the statement that the certainty of divine faith is 
the highest certainty of all, he said : " Such certainty has 
never been to me a matter of experience, much as I have 
heard and read about it." These words seem to indicate that 
their writer had not caught the true meaning of the phrase in 
question ; and it is not at all impossible that a misunderstand- 
ing of this kind would quickly generate and nourish the germs 
of unbelief. 

MISTRANSLATION OF WORDS. 

As a matter of fact, the statement that the certainty of 
faith is the highest of all, higher than the certainty that fire 
will burn, or that the whole is greater than the part, is an ad- 
mirable instance of the danger of translating technical into 
popular terms without much regard for the genius of the lan- 
guage in question ; of supposing that the certitude of scholas- 



796 Miv ART'S DOUBTS AGAINST THE FAITH. [Sept., 

tic philosophy may always and indiscriminately be rendered 
"certainty" in English; of forgetting that the former refers 
usually to the absolute stability of the fact, whereas the latter 
refers to the strength of our hold upon that fact ; and, indeed, 
more usually to the hold of our mind and intelligence upon 
it, than to the hold of our will and affections. Hence, though 
true in scholastic Latin, the axiom that " The certainty of 
faith is greater than the certainty that two and two make 
four" is in common English, if not altogether false, at least 
quite misleading. 

I have intimated that the conviction that faith implies the 
highest possible certainty sometimes causes grave harm. We 
sometimes, though not very often, come across Catholics and 
others who are seriously troubled as to the sincerity of their 
faith ; and whose trouble on examination is found to be rooted 
in this very misapprehension that unless they feel toward the 
mysteries of faith all, and more than all, that sense of helpless, 
irresistible mental persuasion that they feel in regard to their 
own existence, there is something wrong, something untruthful 
and insincere, in their professing a certainty which they know 
they have not got. The fallacy is one which occasionally drives 
people out of the church, and far more often prevents their 
coming into it. It is, of course, by no means the only cause 
of decay of faith, but at least it is of sufficient importance 
to merit attention. 

When people begin by forgetting that faith is a voluntary 
act, they are apt to end by remaining supine under the as- 
sault of temptation ; and as faith never survives the will to 
believe, it is apt to perish in the circumstances specified. This 
show? the harm that can come of misapplying technicalities, 
of giving the impression that a believer is not free, that he 
cannot doubt the truths of faith any more than he can doubt 
the axioms of geometry. 

FAITH LARGELY A QUESTION OF THE WILL. 

Our people suffer, moreover, from the nowada>s inevitable 
intercourse with rationalistic Christianity, to which the idea of 
faith as a voluntary certainty is quite foreign; which assumes 
that to believe means to hold a firm personal opinion with 
regard to some religious question ; denying meanwhile that 
opinion in such obscure matters can ever reach the firmness 
obtainable in th; region of mathematical truth. One meets 
with Catholics who speak as though they shared this notion ; 



1 90i.] Miv ART'S DOUBTS AGAINST THE FAITH. >$? 

as though, in reciting the Credo, they meant to give a sum- 
mary of their own personal opinions, stating conclusions they 
had arrived at after exhaustive study, and not rather making 
a solemn promise or vow to stand by these truths through 
thick and thin. They seem to forget that the Credo is the 
expression of a resolve on the part of the will, far more than 
the expression of a conclusion on the part of the mind. Their 
mistake is encouraged by the prominence necessarily given in 
our age and country to apologetical instructions, oral and 
written ; to defences of Catholicism against Protestantism, and 
of religion against secularism ; to controversy and argumenta- 
tion of all kinds whereby an impression is insensibly created 
that faith depends upon arguments as upon its cause, that it 
stands or falls therewith. True, the faithful are sometimes 
told that these arguments are but a condition, and that the 
will, aided by grace, is the real effectual cause of faith ; but 
this statement is too occasional and too indistinct to obliterate 
the deeper impression created by the ceaseless din of contro- 
versy. Hence comes the disposition on the part of educated or 
half-educated Catholics to rest their belief directly upon argu- 
ments, and thus to slip unconsciously from faith into rationalism. 

THE PART THE WILL PLAYS. 

The only remedy for this disease is a clear and frequent 
reassertion of the part played by the will in the act and habit 
of faith. Perhaps we do not advert sufficiently to the fact 
that the English language and literature have for the last 
couple of centuries been saturated by a philosophy which 
holds that a man is as passive and helpless in regard to his 
beliefs as in regard to his stature or the color of his hair ; 
that a free and voluntary assent is either impossible a mere 
verbal pretence or else a perversion and abandonment of 
reason. Further, the whole trend of modern thought is 
toward the view that necessary passive beliefs are the only 
valuible furniture of the mind ; just as toward making habitual 
and mechanical action the great end to which all conscious 
and intelligent action should be directed. This double error 
has gradually worked its way into the common manner of 
speech and thought of the partially educated millions. Yet 
our official teachers, thanks to their theological training, are 
so free from it that in dealing with others they usually do 
not suspect nor allow for its presence. 

As to the share of the will in faith, Catholic theology 



798 Mi v ART'S DOUBTS AGAINST THE FAITH. [Sept., 

teaches not merely that we must will to apply our mind to 
considering the motives and grounds of believing ; not merely 
that certain moral dispositions and sympathies are needed for 
the intelligence and appreciation of these grounds ; but that, 
given all this application and intelligence, the act of faith re- 
quires further a free assent to the truth revealed an assent 
elicited not passively under compulsion of evidence, but ac- 
tively under compulsion of the will. Faith is "an act of the 
intellect as moved by the will to assent." It is, then, not a 
passive and forced belief, but an actively sustained free belief. 
In the presence of evidence our mind is passive and receptive 
like a mirror, or like our eyes under the influence of objects 
brought into the range of vision. When evidence that is to 
say, demonstrative proof is put before us clearly, we cannot 
resist or withhold our assent even if we would. But in a free 
assent, like that of faith, we have to exert ourselves. It is 
not a case of " letting go," but of " holding on " ; not of 
drifting down stream, but of beating up against the current. 
It is an occasion for energetic action ; for asserting our per- 
sonality by opposing ourselves to, and resisting natural causes, 
instead of an occasion for losing our identity and becoming 
part of the machinery of nature by passively submitting. It 
is just in these free beliefs that we are most human and least 
mechanical ; it is in them that we determine our own char- 
acter and life and end in some sort creating ourselves and the 
world we choose to live in ; it is by them and for them that we 
shall be judged at the last, as worthy of eternal life or death. 

THE NOBLEST FURNITURE OF OUR MINDS. 

These free beliefs are, as such, the noblest furniture of our 
mind ; far nobler than those forced assents that we have to 
yield to necessary and natural truths, general or particular. 
This latter class of forced assents may be compared to those 
instincts and acquired habits to which we commit the greater 
part of our conduct ; not because semi-conscious, mechanical 
action is better in itself, but merely because hereby our at- 
tention is liberated for the exercise of those free, conscious, 
intelligent acts which are proper to man as man, and dis- 
tinguish him from an automaton. Similarly, the natural and 
necessary beliefs that are forced on us by evidence are wholly 
subservient to and for the sake of those free and self-chosen 
beliefs which are the fruit of our own action and mental life. 

*St. Thomas, Sum. Theol , ii. Has. q. ii. a. i. et. ii. et q. iv. a. 2. 



1901.] Miv ART'S DOUBTS AGAINST THE FAITH. 799 

This view of the matter s is sustained by sound philosophy, 
though, as was said above, it is directly opposed to an opinion 
current among modern thinkers. 

Now, what seems most important to observe is that a 
certain sense of unreality, one might almost say of pretence, 
is the normal and natural accompaniment of these freely- 
chosen, actively-sustained beliefs. Yet this sense of unrest 
and infirmity is in nowise incompatible with the deepest and 
most genuine faith. St. Thomas says as much when he tells 
us that the certainty of faith is not the greatest if certainty is 
to stand for rest and satisfaction on the part of the intellect ; 
" for the believer assents to the truths of faith not because his 
intellect is determined by principles but because it is inclined 
to assent by the will : . . . hence it comes that in matters 
of faith the believer can be disturbed by the movements of 
doubt."* While, then, our necessary beliefs are self-support- 
ing, our free beliefs need to be supported by the continual 
exercise of our wills ; the former are like the things we see, 
the latter are like the pictures we construct in our imagina- 
tion that depend on our will for their maintenance. 

For when for one reason or another we choose to believe, 
it means that we take and treat as a fact what, relatively to 
our perception, is not a fact. It means not only that we 
speak and act as though we saw it to be true (though often, 
to be sure, we do not live up to our faith), but that we think 
and reason and argue in our own minds as though we saw it 
to be true. Yet all the while we do not see it to be true, 
but hold it to be true by an act of the will. It is somewhat 
as when a mathematician assumes a certain value of X and 
builds up all his calculations on that assumption. So with 
faith: what my natural reason would proclaim to be bread, I 
believe to be the Body of Christ. I not only worship it and 
receive it as such, but in my reasonings and reflections I 
build on that assumption ; and I bring the rest of my mind 
into agreement with this belief. 

Does there not seem to be in all this the same element of 
pretence and unreality that comes into mere fictions and work- 
ing hypotheses? Do I not seem to be saying from the teeth 
outward that a thing is white, while all the time in my heart 
I know it to be black? Yet there is a difference between 
faith and a mere hypothesis ; and it lies in this, that in the 
case of hypotheses and fictions, and other freely adopted pro- 

* De Verit., q. x. art. 12, ad 6. 



8oo Miv ART'S DOUBTS AGAINST THE FAITH. [Sept., 

positions, the matter of our choice is not such as to involve a 
supreme moral obligation ; whereas in the case of faith we 
hold the belief in obedience to the command of God and the 
voice of conscience. And furtherwise, we hold it with that 
degree of willingness which God requires. Did we see the 
truth as it lies in God's mind our intellect would be more ir- 
resistibly forced to assent to it than to any naturally perceived 
truth ; but since we do not, and cannot, we throw our whole 
will, without any reserve, into the act of belief, that it may 
hive as much certainty for us as our will can possibly give to 
it. We thus arrive at a state of absolute conviction in regard 
to the truth of what has been revealed ; though we can never 
prevent that seeming to us to be black which God tells us, 
and which we sincerely believe, to be white ; and which we 
treat as though it were white in our conduct and our reason- 
ings. Therefore it is that a certain sense of unreality, of 
fiction, is an essential part of the trial of faith. But it is 
equally present in the case of those moral principles and ideals 
whose value we accept on testimony before we have come to 
prove it by experience. It holds, too, even in the case of 
physical and scientific truths so far as we take them on 
authority without seeing the reasons for them. A striking 
instance is afforded by the fact that there are numbers who 
believe firmly that they must die, who regulate their conduct, 
speech, and thought by this belief, and yet to whom it is such 
a fiction and unreality that death comes as a surprise and 
shock in the end. 

MIVART'S FEARS. 

In the light of what has been said we can perceive how 
vain was the fear expressed by the speaker with whose words 
this article opened. To be astonished at the verification of his 
belief, he thought, would show that his faith had not been 
real. It would show nothing of the kind ; any more than a 
man's surprise at death would show that he had not really 
believed in his own mortality. It would indicate only that the 
actual disposition and passive tendency, the constitutional 
temper of this mind, was contrary to what was imposed on it 
by faith ; that the man was so made that a certain thing 
always appeared to him as black even while he believed it to 
be white ; and that when faith gave place to vision and the 
thing suddenly appeared as white he was struck with a very 
natural amazement. 



Miv ART'S DOUBTS AGAINST THE FAITH. 801 

GROWTH OF MENTAL HABITS. 

It must not be forgotten, however, that a free belief which 
at first cost us some effort to sustain, to live up to, in process 
of time comes to be woven into the very fabric of our thought 
and life, so that even were our will to change and our faith 
to weaken, it would need some effort for us to cast aside the 
belief and free ourselves from its influence. To a large ex- 
tent this is due to the natural growth of mental habits ; and 
the apparent reality and firmness that it gives to our faith is 
not due to any strengthening of the will to believe, or to 
what deserves the name of virtue. At best it is the removal 
of a certain natural difficulty in believing, for which relief we 
ought to be thankful, while careful at the same time that we 
never turn it to an occasion of slothfulness in the active and 
personal element that enters into the act of faith. Thus, 
manual labor, which at first calls for self-conquest and will- 
effort, eventually, through the mere strengthening of the 
muscles, ceases to make any such demand ; and still this mus- 
cular habit must not be confounded with virtue, which means 
an increased readiness of will, a habit of self-conquest. So 
neither must the negative easiness of faith which comes from 
custom, imitation, or even thoughtlessness, be confounded with 
that easiness which comes from an increased goodness and 
strength of will subduing the mind in obedience to the will of 
G )d. This latter is compatible with all that feeling of un- 
reality, dreaminess, and pretence which so needlessly disturbs 
those who are frightened at hearing that "the certainty of 
faith is the highest of all certainties," and who falsely con- 
clude that doubt about faith should seem to them as impossible 
as doubt about their own existence ; which, of course, it does 
not, ought not, and cannot seem else were faith not free. * 

THE VIRTUE OF FAITH. 

There is some danger is there not ? lest we who have 
for so many years, perhaps from infancy, been accustomed to 
speak and think and act on the supposition of faith ; who 
have lived chiefly in the society of those governed by like 
beliefs ; who have had the adventitious support that educa- 
tion, custom, tradition, example can lend to faith, there is 
sone danger lest we confound this negative facility in believ- 

* Alio modo potest considerari certitude ex parte subjecti ... ex hac parte fides est 
minus certa. That is to say, looked at from the stand-point of the believing intellect, the 
truths of faith seem less certain than the truths of science. St. Thomas, Sum. TJteol., 2. 2ae. 
q iv. art. viii. in corp. 



802 Mi 'v ART'S DOUBTS AGAINST THE FAITH. [Sept., 

ing, due to the removal of difficulty, with that positive facility 
due to the personal conquest of difficulty, that strengthening 
of the will to believe implied in the growth of the virtue of 
faith. In truth, the causes that make for facility of belief 
provide no guarantee of its reality, for they operate no less 
effectually to confirm the errors of unbelievers than the faith 
of believers ; and are therefore a curse or a blessing accord- 
ing to circumstances. The crutches provided for faith by 
natural disposition, habit, education, and the like may spare 
us from putting too great a tax on our legs, may support us 
where else our strength would fail; but it is the support of a 
wooden prop, not the vital support of intelligence and virtue; 
and it may well be that the faith of those who lack this 
facility is stronger than our own for the very reason that it 
needs to be stronger. 

The more our religious beliefs have become customary to 
us and have been wrought into the tissue of life and mind, 
the more they have become independent of the exercise 
of our free will and of the spiritual virtue of faith, the less 
are we able to sympathize with the difficulties of those whose 
belief is the fruit of faith and of faith alone. Still, if we 
cannot feel, at least we can try to understand their state of 
mind, and so far minister to its necessities. 

To conclude, then, where we began : while in Latin it is 
exactly true to say, Certitudo fidci est maxima certitude; to say 
in English, "The certainty of faith is the highest of all cer- 
tainties," is so misleading and needs so much qualification as 
to be almost more false than true. Hence we may properly 
question the advisability of using the phrase at all except in 
purely technical scholastic discussions. " I will have nothing 
to do with statements," says Newman, " which can be ex- 
plained only by being explained away." In our living language 
" certainty " has come to bear a subjective and not an objec- 
tive sense ; that is to say, it refers not to the nature of the 
truth, but to the nature of our grasp of it ; further, it signi. 
fies almost exclusively a logical inability to doubt on the part 
of the mind, and can only violently be used to express a 
moral inability on the part of the will. We may be sure, 
then, that in popular language faith and its maxima certitiido 
can be quite consistent with what people call " doubts against 
faith," the motus dubitationis of St. Thomas ; nor need our 
failure to realize the truth of things revealed at all imply 
that we are to be numbered among those of little faith. 




igoi.] THE CATECHISM AND ITS REQUIREMENTS. 803 



THE CATECHISM AND ITS REQUIREMENTS. 

BY REV. ALEXANDER L. A. KLAUDER. 

rHERE seems to be a general demand for a 
common catechism of Christian doctrine for 
this country. It was this demand that prompted 
the Fathers of the late Plenary Council of Bal- 
timore to issue the present authorized man- 
ual, known as the Baltimore Catechism. This manual, how- 
ever, as it is well known, has not met with general favor as a 
work viewed in the light of strict catechetic science. What- 
ever the defects of the work itself may be, it must be ad- 
mitted, nevertheless, that the movement inaugurated with the 
issue and authorization of a common manual was a good and 
necessary one. It is one that ought to receive the firm sup- 
port of all promoters and well-wishers of solid Catholic inter- 
ests in this country. But some who were dissatisfied with the 
authorized catechism refused to introduce it in their schools ; 
others who had adopted it, but looked for an improvement of 
it, became impatient over the delay and replaced it with 
manuals of their own selection. The result is that at the 
present time there is a great variety of catechisms used all 
over the country. 

THE BALTIMORE CATECHISM A GOOD GROUNDWORK. 

The questions that suggest themselves now are these : 
Shall the employment of this variety of catechisms be toler- 
ated, or shall the plans of the bishops of the Plenary Council 
be carried out? In the latter event, shall the Baltimore Cate- 
chism be withdrawn and an entirely new catechism take its 
place, or shall not an improvement of the present authorized 
manual be preferred ? There are those who maintain that the 
Baltimore compilation is so utterly deficient that it cannot be 
improved. We think there is more prejudice in this assertion 
than reason. With the defects of the Council Catechism plain- 
ly in view, we nevertheless insist that the groundwork of a 
good American manual, such as is needed to meet the main 
requirements of the American mind, has been formed ; and 
this was, no doubt, all caviling aside, the distinct work of the 
Holy Spirit, who placed the bishops to rule the church of God. 



804 THE CATECHISM AND ITS REQUIREMENTS. [Sept , 

The present writer has used the Baltimore Catechism ever 
since its issue by the council. He has used it in the largest 
parochial schools and Sunday-schools, and in the remote rural 
districts. He has used it among American children of almost 
every extraction. We have, indeed, often sighed for a more 
intelligible and complete manual ; and we ourselves have finally 
labored hard and long to improve this catechism according to 
the best examples and the principles of the best catechetic writers. 

The obstacles that present themselves to the introduction 
of a uniform manual of religious instruction in this country 
are many and peculiar. These are due to the varied condi- 
tions of instruction in a country as large as ours, and covered 
with a multitude of races of different languages and customs. 
But as this divergency of even Catholic interests increases, 
the demand for a uniform text-book of religious instruction 
becomes all the more urgent, if unity of Catholic faith and 
interests is to be secured. In delay there- is both danger and 
loss. Hence we advocate that the work once inaugurated under 
such sacred auspices as a Plenary Council should be maintained 
at all hazards. 

NEED OF IMPROVEMENT. 

That the Council Catechism needs improvement no one 
will dispute ; indeed, there is not a catechism extant that does 
not demand improvement, not only in view of national and 
ever-changing conditions, but from a view-point of strict cate- 
chetic science. According to the consensus of the best cate- 
chetic writers the ideal catechism has not yet been written. 
And we shall say right here, even though by way of a slight 
digression for we cannot well afford to say it elsewhere that 
any text-book of religious teaching is after all only a make- 
shift for oral teaching. " Faith cometh from hearing " is a 
biblical saying as true and vital as any contained in the 
great Book. The child that does not obtain its religious in- 
struction daily at the knee of a pious mother and weekly from 
the lips of a zealous priest, remains after all a poorly instructed 
and a badly trained Catholic. The questions and answers of 
any catechism are but a dry skeleton that is liable to produce 
repugnance rather than interest. They must be filled out 
with the meat of the living word supplied by assiduous and 
earnest teachers. This is the oft-repeated saying of one who 
is justly styled the Master of Catechetics, John Baptist Hir- 
scher, who deplores the too great dependence in our day 
upon catechetic manuals of instruction. The more catechisms 



ioo,i.] THE CATECHISM AND ITS REQUIREMENTS. 805 

published, and the better they are adapted to convey a com- 
plete knowledge of religion, the more patent becomes the 
neglect of personal instruction by both parent and priest. 
Everything is left in the end to the mere memorizing and 
recitation of the catechism. 

If this exclusive dependence upon a catechetic manual for 
religious instruction may be said to be an evil in parochial 
schools and in parishes with resident priests, what shall we 
say when we consider the overwhelming balance of territory 
in this country where people are left to the exclusive instruc- 
tion of incompetent and unprofessional teachers, not to speak 
of the thousands and tens of thousands of children who are 
necessarily dependent upon the catechism as the sole means 
for both the learning and explanation of their religion ? A 
glance at some of the returns of the late census, at the Catho- 
lic Directory, at the last report of the Indian and Negro Mis- 
sions, must convince the most casual observer that the balance of 
catechetic instruction in this country is not in favor of a normal 
system by any means, but knowledge is rather picked up in divers 
and slipshod ways in thousands of missions, stations, and over 
vast territories, where regular and frequent instruction by the 
priest is out of the question, and where the only hope of hav- 
ing some knowledge of our religion imparted at all is through 
the medium of a simple and intelligible catechism. The needs 
of this preponderating class of catechumens cry louder than 
do those of the children of the parochial schools and of the 
city Sunday-schools. Or shall we have two catechisms, one 
for the school and one for the country home ? We maintain 
that a uniform catechism can be compiled for this country 
that will fill the needs of the home as well as of the school, 
and be suitable also for converts of the most ordinary educa- 
tion. Hence, in view of the abnormal conditions that prevail 
in this country, we say, if we must have a common catechism, 
let it be such an one as will apply to the national conditions, 
and not merely to those of the schools for which the average 
catechism of the past seems to have been compiled ; other- 
wise we cannot but go on deploring an ever-growing leakage 
from the Catholic ranks because of the neglect of an adequate 
and far-reaching instruction of the American youth. When we 
have acquitted ourselves of the manifest duty of supplying a 
good catechism, according to the best of our opportunities, 
we can then look to the Lord to supply the increase of faith 
that otherwise comes from hearing. 



806 THE CATECHISM AND ITS REQUIREMENTS. [Sept., 

THE CATECHISM MUST INCLUDE CURRENT ISSUES. 

The matter required in an American catechism must, be- 
sides embracing the teachings in common with all other ele- 
mentary catechisms, include such issues as affect the religious 
and moral welfare of the American people in particular. We 
have been severely criticised for inserting in our Catechism of 
Catholic Teaching such matters as the payment of taxes, vot- 
ing, bribery. A catechism, writes Spirago in his Method of 
Religious Instruction, that says nothing of duelling, socialism, 
cremation, government, voting, the press, etc., is of little use 
in our day. We feel convinced that security for the govern- 
ment of this country, for the political rights of Catholics, lies 
in the proper instruction and training of our Catholic children. 
Further matter for an American catechism, considering our 
limited opportunities for general uniform instruction, are, the 
prayers in general use both public and private, a short cate- 
chism for the illiterate as a requisite for the valid reception 
of the sacraments, the manner of making the sign of the 
cross, the manner of making confession, of receiving Holy 
Communion, an examination of conscience both for large and 
for small children ; also pictorial illustrations of the different 
articles used at divine service. All these matters are impera- 
tive in a manual that must be used frequently, in many a 
rural home and elsewhere, as a sole means of instruction in 
the doctrines and practices of the faith. No other catechism, 
to our knowing, contains all these things and gives the student 
such a condensed and complete knowledge of the Catholic 
religion without dependence upon other sources of instruction. 

The matter of a catechism must withal be kept within 
prudent bounds. Considering especially the many wants of 
American instruction, the observance of this rule becomes all 
the more peremptory. The average text-book with its finely 
printed pages, used and explained daily in the school-room, 
becomes a perfect bugbear to children who have not like ad- 
vantages in a country home or average Sunday-school. The 
mere moralizing in so many catechisms and padding to fill in 
the artificial chapters planned must be avoided in a practical 
manual such as the American Church requires. It is far bet- 
ter to have strikingly short lessons contrasted with dispropor- 
tionately long ones in order to simply state the teaching and 
the practice, than to make the chapters equally long by 
preaching platitudes. 



1901.] THE CATECHISM AND ITS REQUIREMENTS. So; 

IT NEED NOT ENTER INTO FINE THEOLOGICAL DISTINCTIONS. 

If a catechism must be complete, it is, on the other hand, 
not expected to be a manual of theology. In stating a theo- 
logical truth it is not necessary to give all the divisions and 
distinctions of theologians. Only familiarity with catechetical 
manuals can guide the compiler in this matter. Critics who 
have little experience in this field are frequently unjust to a 
compiler in this respect. Some demand a complete division of 
grace, for instance, as made by theologians. But no catechism 
of repute gives any further division of grace than that of 
sanctifying, actual, and sacramental grace. If a compiler, in 
view of the peculiar wants of the American student, lays down 
a rule to employ no difficult word in the manual without giv- 
ing at least some explanation of it, he does not thereby oblige 
himself in every case, in defining such a term, to state the full 
theological doctrine involved. Hence, if in the definition of 
inspiration only the general meaning of the term is given, the 
student is put into a partial and incipient understanding of 
the word used at least, with no danger of getting a false idea 
of inspiration because all the various notions claimed by theo- 
logians for the true character of inspiration are not included 
in the word-meaning given by the compiler. No elementary 
catechism treats the matter of inspiration, although all of them 
use the word in the definition of Sacred Scripture. There are 
the extremes of defining no terms and of taking the knowledge 
of Latinic words on the part of the child for granted, or of 
asking the compiler, because he endeavors to be helpful to the 
child, to turn the child's catechism into a manual of theology. 

If even the excellent catechism of Deharbe is admittedly 
too abstract even for the children of Germany, what shall we 
say of those manuals of recent publication that are little more 
than a translation of the former? German abstractions and 
the plethora of German definitions and divisions, in the testi- 
mony of Spirago, will not do for the practical and matter-of- 
fact minds of the American people. What the American child 
needs particularly in its catechism are definitions of the Latinic 
words in their general sense rather than fine theological dis- 
tinctions. Just what words require a general definition or a 
specific definition in a catechism is best known to one who 
combines a familiarity with catechetic manuals with a long 
experience of actual teaching. The lack of sufficient apprecia- 
tion of the terms used in the catechisms in vogue is largely 
VOL. LXXIII. 53 



8o8 THE CATECHISM AND ITS REQUIREMENTS. [Sept., 

responsible for the childish repugnance to learn them, for the 
common ignorance of ecclesiastical language, and for the bane- 
ful apathy of American Catholics towards Catholic literature. 
English-speaking Catholics as a rule are not sufficiently 
grounded in the terminology of their religion. 

If the reviser of the Baltimore Catechism has been pro- 
nounced inexact by a few of his critics, it is because these are 
not familiar with the sphere and with the formulae of cate- 
chetic teaching. If the criticism of a catechism is not made 
from the stand-point of strict catechetics, but rather from that 
of theology or of mere literature, it must necessarily be unjust 
and derogatory to the compiler and implicating to the critic. 
If the Immaculate Conception as paraphrased by the compiler 
is taken to be passive sumpta and severely criticised as such by 
a late reviewer, it is because the latter does not seem to 
understand the character of the doctrine. If the same reviewer 
finds fault that in our catechism priests are made assistants to 
the bishops, he shows unfamiliarity with Deharbe's catechism 
and other popular catechisms, as well as with the propositions 
of Jesuit theologians, and with the definition of the Council 
of Trent. When he again finds fault that the church is made 
to derive her knowledge of doctrine from the Scriptures and 
tradition, he again betrays ignorance of the language of De- 

harbe and other catechists as well as of the sphere of cate- 

* 

chetic teaching generally. 

THE APPORTIONMENT OF SUBJECT-MATTER. 

A necessary arrangement of the catechism is its appor- 
tionment of matter in several numbers for the different grades 
of scholars. But these numbers, whilst differing in the quantity 
of matter treated in them, should nevertheless be identical in 
the character of the text. The observance of this rule is im- 
perative both for the easy memorizing and for a clear under- 
standing of the subject-matter. A change in the text of a given 
question and answer in a higher number of a manual both con- 
fuses and disheartens the average pupil. Whatever is to be 
added to a subject in a higher manual should be done by 
way of a new question or special explanation. In this point 
again some American compilations are at fault, and the writer 
has taken special care to correct this same fault in the 
Baltimore manual, so that the three numbers of the present 
revised edition read identical as far as the matter goes in 
each of them with the higher numbers. At the same time 



i9>i.] THE CATECHISM AND ITS REQUIREMENTS. 809 

each number is made to read logically and completely for 
itself. This arrangement has entailed considerable labor, and 
has necessitated certain observances not liable to be under- 
stood by the superficial reader, but appreciated as a distinct 
advantage by the careful catechist and professional teacher of 
children. If the higher numbers under the above-mentioned 
arrangement include the identical matter of the lower numbers, 
which to some seems superfluous, it must be remembered that 
the higher numbers are intended also for the use of teachers 
who should be enabled at a glance to distinguish the exact 
matter of each number. We must not forget also that many 
teachers of Ciiristian doctrine in this country are far from being 
trained and professional teachers, and will find the combined 
information of the three numbers a distinct advantage to them. 

A QUESTION OF DIVISIONS. 

All catechists agree that the more simple the division of a 
catechism the greater its utility. The genius that is largely 
responsible for the minute scientific treatment of catechetics 
is also responsible for a reprehensible endeavor to cut up the 
simple catechism into forced divisions and subdivisions. The 
Bible, which is the word of God itself, is not treated in that 
manner. The Roman Catechism is very simple in its arrange- 
ment of matter. The catechisms of St. Peter Canisius and of 
Deharbe are more forced in this respect. Yet these same 
divisions may be employed in a catechism without being pro- 
nounced. The arrangement of the Baltimore Catechism into 
consecutive lessons without being forced into parts, or more 
general heads, is an admirable one and has this advantage, 
that matters can be treated more easily where it is natural 
without obliging the scholar to wait for an information that is 
necessary, whereas the artificial divisions of the book demand 
treatment of it under another head further on in the book. 
The treatment of the four last things at the end of the 
catechism, whereas they really belong to the Apostles' Creed, 
is a purely sentimental arrangement. Both Hirscher and Gruber 
deplore this artificial and strained method. Their contention 
that the whole divine economy should be interwoven in the 
catechism and be treated parallel, as it were, with every lesson, 
and not merely gradually and piecemeal in disjointed chapters, 
finds its application in the Baltimore Catechism more easily 
than in the more scientific and artificial manuals in vogue. In 
the revised edition of the Council Catechism the writer has 



8io THE CATECHISM AND ITS REQUIREMENT s. [Sept., 

inserted references to their proper heads of all matters not 
previously or not immediately treated in the lesson in hand. 
This arrangement we consider indispensable. It helps to a 
complete understanding of the matter under treatment, and 
meets the contention of Hirscher as closely as it is possible in 
a rudimentary hand-book of religion. If we are taken to task 
for not observing certain stereotyped divisions, we are fully 
aware of what we have done and why we have done it, and 
can console ourselves that we have acted upon a well pre- 
pared plan, even if it is not appreciated by the average book- 
, reviewer. We were fully prepared for the -severe criticism of 
many of our arrangements, for having displaced certain 
matters, for repeating certain definitions, for asking apparently 
tautological questions. But all these departures are supported 
by .deeply underlying principles, which the size of this article 
will not permit us to explain in these pages, and were more- 
over prompted by the peculiar wants of American children at 
large independently of any one locality, nationality, or particu- 
lar scholastic opportunity. 

The treatment of the sacraments before the commandments 
is that of the Roman Catechism, and is justified in this 
country particularly, where so much depends upon text-book 
instruction. Our small children cannot be well prepared for 
an intelligent reception of the sacraments, if these are treated 
at the end of the book which they have not as yet mastered. 
The sooner the sacraments are treated the better. The knowl- 
edge of the commandments is imparted in easier and in many 
more ways than is that of the valid reception of the sacraments. 

But if any species of division is detested by catechetic 
writers, and no doubt every experienced teacher will concur in 
this, it is the division of the answers. There are certain 
answers in the catechism, of course, that require an enumera- 
tion of heads, such as the answers in reference to the number 
of sacraments, commandments, certain sins and certain virtues. 
But as for the forcing of ordinary answers into numbered 
heads as a catechetical method, it is not only useless, but bad, 
and betrays on the part of the compiler a lack of practical 
experience in teaching children especially the children of 
this country. That such answers help the memory of the 
child for the morning recitation, we would not call into ques- 
tion ; but that they leave much or anything for the average 
child to remember in after life, is extremely doubtful. And 
yet some catechisms abound with this style of answer. If they 



ic,oi.] THE CATECHISM AND ITS REQUIREMENTS. 811 

are employed by Deharbe and have been unwittingly copied, 
and even multiplied, by some recent compilers, they are never- 
theless faulty and severely criticised by the catechists generally. 

DIFFICULT WORDING OF THE BALTIMORE CATECHISM. 

One of the main defects of the Baltimore Catechism is its 
difficult wording. The compiler of the revised edition has 
endeavored to remedy this defect by framing the language in 
short and smoothly running sentences ; avoiding as much as 
pDssible the divided answers referred to. Children remember 
sentences couched in simple and rhythmic language longer 
than the numbered divisions of an answer. To help the 
memory of the child still more he has also employed that 
comnon rule of catechists, to repeat the wording of the ques- 
tion as much as possible in the answer. 

The author of the revised edition of the Baltimore Cate- 
chism has sought also, as much as possible, to observe the gol- 
den mean between the exalted language of ecclesiastical writing 
and the popular language of the people. Whether he has gone 
too far in the latter respect may be matter of opinion. 
But those who have studied the conditions of the American 
Church may be better able to appreciate his designs. The 
slender opportunities of vast portions of the faithful to obtain 
a technical knowledge of the language of their religion, the 
rapidly vanishing use of Latinic words among the people in 
the sense in which they are employed by the church, but more 
than all, the multitudes of children of foreign parentage in 
this country who have little appreciation of the meaning of 
Latin words, as they are used in classical English all these 
considerations, and that of the salvation of immortal souls 
whose knowledge of God and of his religion is mainly depen- 
dent upon an intelligible manual of religious instruction, has 
urged the writer to employ a language as simple as it could 
be written, and to do all in his power to impart at least a 
partial knowledge of the difficult terms that must of necessity 
be employed in a manual of Catholic teaching. We must not 
forget also the intention of the Third Plenary Council, that 
the children of all nationalities shall learn the catechism in 
the common language of the country. 

A CATECHISM MUST BE SUITABLE TO THE PEOPLE. 

If the present writer has laid himself open to severe criti- 
cism for the wording of his catechism, it is because he has had 



812 THE CATECHISM AND ITS REQUIREMENTS. [Sept., 

the above-mentioned conditions steadily in view during the 
preparation of his work. To him the salvation of souls was 
paramount to purity of English style, for he makes bold to 
affirm against all assertions to the contrary that the number of 
helpless children and ignorant Catholic people who are exclu- 
sively dependent upon a plain and intelligible catechism for 
obtaining the bulk of their religious instruction in the English 
language is, in a missionary country like ours, overwhelmingly 
great against the few who have the advantage of schools in 
which both religion and the English language are taught by 
the regular methods. Hence the eternal welfare of the majority 
must be preferred to the literary tastes of the few. If it is a 
part of religion to bear one another's burdens, we Catholics of 
this country have the appalling burden of ignorance and help- 
lessness on the part of the majority of our co-religionists to 
put up with for the sake of the one necessary thing of all 
education, the salvation of souls. It would be only blindness 
or consummate pride to resent these assumptions, and the 
height of uncharitableness and dereliction of duty to shirk this 
fearful burden and responsibility for the keeping of our 
brethren of the faith. We must have, in a word, a catechism 
that the vast and helpless majority of our American Catholic 
people can understand, can interpret for themselves, and can 
explain to their children. 

To obviate the difficulties still more which frequently pre- 
sent themselves to both teacher and scholar through the diffi- 
cult terminology of the catechism, the author has moreover 
added an index to each number of the catechism, and arranged 
the wording in such a manner that neither teacher nor scholar 
need be left with an inadequate knowledge of any matter 
treated in the catechism within the domain of catechetic teach- 
ing. Thus the catechism becomes at the same time a practical 
manual for the teacher and a small encyclopaedia of doctrinal 
information. 

We trust that, with all these arrangements and their under- 
lying principles in view, we have done our utmost to improve 
the Baltimore manual and to adapt it to the needs of the 
American people. We feel confident that we have earnestly 
endeavored to preserve the Council Catechism rather than re- 
place it with a still more defective manual. We had sent out 
an abundance of type-written copies, as stated in the preface 
of the book, and we are at all times willing to receive sugges- 
tions for the further improvement of the work. We believe 



IQOI.] "AFTERGLOW" 813 

that no other course is better calculated to secure a proper 
catechism for this country. But we expect, at any rate, after 
the publication of a work of such importance, to be treated 
from a technical stand-point. If we are guided by a spirit of 
fairness in our estimate of a work of this kind, we must call 
attention not only to its defects, but also to its merits. These 
merits must be considered, moreover, in the light of true cate- 
chetic science, and of the true and studied wants of the Ameri- 
can people. We are willing for any one else to take up the 
work we have engaged in, and desirous that they bring it to 
that perfection of which the Baltimore Catechism is both capa- 
ble and deserving. We close this paper with the earnest words 
of St. Peter Canisius when he beheld his famous catechism and 
labor of love torn to pieces by his critics and imitators : 
" Would to God there came another who was both able and 
willing to explain the teachings of our faith in a still shorter, 
clearer, and more advantageous manner!" 



BY A. T. 




WEET is the peace of " Afterglow,." 
When the vesper-bell has ceased to throw 
Its notes o'er purpling vale and hill, 
As the birds are hushed and the air is still, 
And the soft susurrus of the breeze 
With gentle music wakes the trees 
Till their murmurs seem like an Even-prayer, 
That lifts the soul from its weight of care ; 
In the deep'ning blue the glowing sun 
Sinks to rest with its mission done, 
And one fair star supremely bright 
Heralds the fast-approaching night 
When thoughts from earth to heaven go 
Ah ! sweet is the peace of " Afterglow." 



August 4, IQOI. 




ii. Mowbray 



i. M. Salome: Mary Ward, a Foundress of the Seventeenth 
Century; 2. Faber: An Original Girl; 3. Bourgeois: L'Ordre 
Surnaturel et Le Devoir Chretien; 4. Veuillot: Louis Veuillot ; 
5. Avis : The Catholic Girl in the World ; 6. Catnm : Blessed Se- 
bastian Newdigate ; 7. De Julleville : Joan of Arc; 8. Sadlier: 

Jeanne d' Arc ; 9. Faber: Kindness; 10. Moore: Sister Theresa ; 

: A Journey to Natute; 12. Ward : 7 he Light of the World. 



1, It seems quite impossible that any one could read 
Mother Salome's life of Mary Ward * without developing a 
firm conviction that this foundress of the seventeenth century 
was truly a saint. It is even possible that her office will some 
day be found in the Roman Breviary. Her type of sanctity is 
well calculated to attract the love and admiration of this age, 
for the modern character is not naturally in sympathy with 
that cast of spirituality which proceeds by over-cautious steps, 
making sure of all the byways and approaches in the circuitous 
advance towards the great citadel of religious perfection. This 
age loves to attain its ends with a Napoleonic swiftness and 
directness of action. And when this modern spirit is sancti- 
fied and turned to religious channels it finds in the old Bene- 
dictine mysticism that directness of spiritual activity which it 
craves. As Bishop Hedley remarks in his preface, Mary Ward 
came " under the spell of that seventeenth century mysticism 
of which we have Catholic and English examples in Baker and 
Southwell." 

At the same time that the spirit of true independence finds 
a sanctified example in Mary Ward, licentious liberty is re- 
buked. She was a devoted child of the church and completely 
submissive to the discipline of Rome even when its rigors 
were imposed by narrow-minded men with cruel injustice. It 
is frequently a duty meekly to suffer persecution though we 
know it is entirely unmerited, and proceeds from those who 
are bound to befriend us. Mary Ward understood this. When 

* Miry Ward, a Foundress of the Seventeenth Century. By Mother M. Salome. With 
an Introduction by the Bishop of Newport. New York : Benziger Brothers. 



TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 815 

the Congregation of Cardinals ordered the suppression of the 
order she had founded, and her own imprisonment as a heretic, 
she submitted to this unjust persecution, not only with silence 
and meekness but with joy, although she knew perfectly well 
that the Roman authorities had been misled by the calumnies 
of her unscrupulous enemies. Considering the natural tem- 
perament of this noble English lady, we must own that her 
quick, easy, and complete submission on this occasion, and her 
subsequent conduct, evince a conquest of self thorough enough 
to place her among the saints. 

Following their usual policy, the Roman authorities did not 
rescind their decree suppressing the Institute, but pursued a 
more dignified course. The pope, after disowning the order 
for Mary's imprisonment, allowed her nuns to continue in a 
limited way their noble work of educating young girls. And 
then, when time had dissipated the clouds of prejudice, the 
Institute of English Virgins (almost identical with the old 
foundation) received papal sanction, first from Clement XI. in 
1703, and finally and fully from Pius IX. in 1877. 

Mother Salome has an easy, simple style. She has given 
us an intensely interesting biography. There is not a dull 
chapter in the whole book. We see Mary Ward as she really 
was in the sunshine of her daily life, and not an idealized 
portrait, surrounded by the halo of the past. We earnestly 
recommend this book to every class of readers ; for the exam- 
ple of a vigorous, free-minded Englishwoman leading the life of 
a saint will be edifying to all, and most especially to Catholics 
of her own sex and race. 

2. A suggestive title followed by seven hundred odd pages 
devoted to the working out of a mystery might naturally 
incline the average reader to great expectations. Perhaps it 
would be well, therefore, to suggest the probability of disap- 
pointment in connection with An Original Girl* in spite of 
the encouragement aforesaid and so save the exertion atten- 
dant upon solving the mystery. 

The book is faulty in construction, there is a marked crude 
ness in the character delineation, and the length of the story 
seems unpardonable from more than one point of view. 

A hard, haughty, wealthy woman, Bedilla Burram by name, 
living entirely alone, except for two servants, in a lonely house 
by the sea, adopts a young child, Rachel Minturn, under 

*An Original Girl. By Christine Faber. New York : Benziger Brothers. 



8i6 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [Sept, 

rather peculiar circumstances. Who is Miss B.'s charge, 
why she is such, and whence she comes are mysteries to all 
but Miss B., and as a matter of course the source of much 
village gossip and speculation. She is bound, it would appear, 
from significant correspondence between herself and a myster- 
ious unknown, who signs himself " Terry," to care for her 
charge through a period of five years despite a defiant indif- 
ference and real aversion to the child. Numerous other per- 
sonages appear throughout the story, every event of which 
prolongs the mystery of Rachel's identity and her guardian's 
incessant rage. 

At the expiration of the allotted time a certain mysterious 
'Tom" who has promised to come for Rachel, and the 
memory of whom has been the one bright spot in her hard 
life, is cast upon .the shore near her home from a teirible 
wreck, and lives only long enough to remind Rachel that he has 
been true to his promise. More anguish, more mystery follow, 
until finally all is made clear, though not before Miss B. 
and her charge nearly lose their reason. The strain of the 
situation is relieved here and there by touches of village humcr, 
but the characters seem overdrawn and unreal, and the sequel, 
as has been intimated, proves the whole affair a veritable much 
ado about nothing. 

3. The fact that we are destined to a life that is above 
the natural gives us a reason why we should subject ourselves 
totally to Jesus Christ in a union of perfect love. Pere 
Bourgeois,* proceeding on this principle, takes up the chief 
dogmas of religion and tries to explain how these great truths 
are not mere speculations, but practical doctrines which should 
have a great influence in shaping our lives. The plan is a 
laudable one and has been carried out with no little success. 
Comparatively few Catholics appreciate as they could and 
should the moral and spiritual significance of the great body of 
dogmatic truths, and any book which will help to a better 
understanding of this aspect of religious doctrine deserves a 
hearty welcome. Pere Bourgeois' style is attractive ; but clear- 
ness is sacrificed at times in the attempt to set forth abstract 
truths in a pleasing and elegant form. 

4. The second volume of the life of Louis Veuillot f deals 

* L'Ordre Surnaturel et Le Devoir Chrlti n. Par le R. R. Th. Bourgeois, O.P. Paris: 
P. Lethielleux. 

t Louis Veuillot. Par Eugene Veuillot. Paris: Victor Retaux. 



190'.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 817 

with a most interesting period in the career of its subject ; a 
time, too, of vital importance in the history of French Catho- 
lics. Public affairs, therefore, rather than personal or family 
history, constitute the subject of the present pages, which are 
worthy of being carefully studied not only by those who are 
interested in the subject of the biography, but by all who 
would understand the curious complications in the Catholic 
situation in France during the second quarter of the nine- 
teenth century. The story of the period in question is replete 
with interest and instruction for those who are watching the 
present course of events in France ; and the volume before us 
imparts valuable information, not otherwise accessible, concern- 
ing the ins and outs of several very interesting denouements. 
Needless to say the writer, Eugene Veuillot, present editor of 
L'Univers>\s perfectly competent to handle his subject; during 
the time in question he was actually laboring shoulder to 
shoulder beside his famous brother. He speaks with frankness 
and decision ; though, of course, being so deeply interested a 
party, he writes less as an impartial critic than as an advocate 
upon such questions as his brother's differences with Monta- 
lembert and Dupanloup. 

5. The Catholic young lady who will reflect on the con- 
siderations advanced in the present series of papers* cannot 
fail to derive much benefit from them. They differ from most 
treatises of the sort in that they are not lectures on ideals in 
the sense that they teach something to be reached for and 
never grasped, but are eminently practical, and the result of 
studying them is something tangible and attainable. The con- 
duct they are presumed to teach may be practised by any girl 
who has an efficacious will to attain it. The first paper is in 
the nature of a rebuke to the pretensions of the " New 
Woman " and her demand to be put on an exact equality with 
man. The author's observations on this point are both sensi- 
ble and convincing. She insists on the worth and dignity of 
woman's home-life and her incalculable influence for good on 
the family and society. The second paper treats of the Strong 
Woman, the mutter fortis of Holy Scripture, combining true 
strength of character, reliability and simplicity, qualities as 
admirable as their contraries are despicable. Then follow 
papers on the Woman of Culture and the Woman of Influ- 

* The Catholic Girl in the World. (Second series.) By Whyte Avis. With a Preface 
by Dom Gilbert Higgins, C.R.L. New York : Benziger Brothers. 



8i8 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [Sept., 

ence. What the author has to say on the choice of a profes- 
sion is adapted to European conditions rather than to those in 
America. Throughout the first eight papers she adheres to her 
rule not to touch upon the spiritual side of her subjects, though 
of course all that she says is based upon Catholic teaching. 
The last paper, however, is a beautiful one on " Strength and 
Weakness," and proposes the contemplation of the Hidden 
Life of the Holy Family at Nazareth as a remedy for the 
'' mania for foremost places," and the pride and vanity agi- 
tating the minds of so many girls of the present day. 

6. The courage required by the English Catholics of the 
reign of Henry VIII., in order to face persecution and death, 
was truly heroic. At a time when there was so much uncer- 
tainty, and misunderstanding, and misdirection, on account of 
the misrepresentations of the wretched king and his ministers ; 
when the people high and low were lapsing in such numbers 
from the old faith ; when so great inducements were held out 
to those who would confess the supremacy of the crafty king ; 
and when, on the other hand, such dreadful alternatives were 
threatened to those adhering to the Church of Rome, it was 
a trying time indeed for the few faithful who had the spirit 
and the determination to persevere in the truth. Among this 
number was the subject of this sketch,* one who had fre- 
quented and tasted the delights of the gay court of Henry, 
but who, when the silent call came to serve his Lord, re- 
sponded with so generous a will that he shortly embraced the 
severe life of the Carthusians ; and with such loyalty as won 
for him in the end the martyr's crown. The narrative of the 
author reflects in charming style the simple and beautiful life 
of Blessed Newdigate and his companions in their Carthusian 
retreat. An interesting feature of the volume is its pleasing 
little description of the famous old London Charterhouse 
where the monks lived. 

7. The revival of interest in and devotion to Joan of 
Arc in recent years has made it expedient to provide thorough 
and authentic accounts of the wonderful "Maid of Orleans"; 
so this latest volume f of the "Saints" series is most oppor- 
tune in point of time. Moreover it is splendidly calculated to 

* Blessed Sebastian Newdigate. By Dom Bede Camm, O.S.B. London: Art and Book 
Company. 

^Joan of Arc. By Petit De Julleville. New York : Benziger Brothers. 



1 90i.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 819 

satisfy the judgment of the most inquiring and critical, as 
well as to stimulate the love and veneration of the most de- 
vout reader. It confines itself pretty generally to the record 
of Joan's life, her singular vocation, her brief and extraordi- 
nary career, and her tragic death, and omits, as far as possi- 
ble, considerations on contemporaneous history. 

The subject is accorded the scholarly treatment usual in 
the volumes of this series. Careful work and fidelity character- 
ize the translation. 

A study of the life here presented induces the ready re- 
flection that if the mission of Joan of Arc, so unique in Chris- 
tian history, merits a tribute of honor, it should beget also a 
fear, at least in the hearts of that people among whom she 
lived, and for whom she died. For one discovers an unmis- 
takable sign of a certain divine election in the fact that there 
an instrument was used, and a commission directly given, to 
preserve the national integrity of the French people. That 
nation should be fearful, then, lest it lose sight of the destiny 
for which, through the instrumentality of Joan of Arc, it was 
preserved. 

8. Appearing almost simultaneously with the work of De 
Julleville comes an American life of Joan of Arc,* preceded 
by an introduction which outlines the general history of the 
period. Objection might be made to the practice of quoting 
without references ; otherwise the author's work has been ac- 
ceptably done. The work compares favorably, in accuracy and 
completeness, with the standard histories of Joan of Arc, and 
the book has the advantage if advantage it may be called 
of being written in a more popular and imaginative style than 
any other of the contemporary lives. 

9. It is a decided pleasure to see another handy reprint 
of Father Faber's famous conferences on kindness.f Nothing 
need be said of their worth. Every one who knows Father 
Faber has read and reread them. But a word might well be 
said in recommendation of two good points in this present 
edition. First, the neatness and prettiness of the little volume 
itself; second, the memoir of Father Faber, prefixed to the 
conferences, but being really part of them ; for the lesson of 
his life and the lesson of the conferences are the same the 
power and beauty of the Christ-like quality of kindness. 

* Jeanne <TArc. By Agnes Sadlier. Baltimore : John Murphy Company. 
t Kindness. By Father Faber. New York : Benziger Brothers. 



820 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [Sept., 

10. In George Moore's latest novel* there is evidence 
enough of power and skill and knowledge of the craftsmanship 
of fiction, but these good gifts are spent in this instance on 
nothing noble, exhilarating, or even wholesome. For the story 
is a character-study of hideously incongruous elements. The 
heroine, an opera-singer, becomes a religious in a contempla- 
tive order, and spends her time in vacillating whether she shall 
remain in the convent or shall yield to a domineering and very 
base passion, and return to the world. 

The book is a study of sex, with a background of religion ; 
a morbid, unhealthy analysis of the fleshly as trespassing in 
some unaccountable way upon the premises of the spiritual. It 
is a pity that the author's unquestionable ability were not 
more loftily educated. He might have written an analytic 
novel that would disclose the best in a human soul ; instead 
he has given us another chapter in the literature of degeneracy 
and disease. 

11, J. P. Mowbray's book f is a delicious idyl a poem in 
prose ; and exquisite prose it is. It tells of a Wall Street 
man's turning his back upon the Stock Exchange and plung- 
ing into grove and hamlet, where he came face to face with 
God's work in nature and within his own soul. The glory of 
autumn sunsets is made captive in the charming pages, and in 
the rippling of their delightful humor there echoes the laughter 
of tiny cascades. Then, in order to confront his nature-scenes 
with a full measure of the human, the author has deftly woven 
the unobtrusive threads of a love-story into his texture of rumina- 
tion and description. It is a sweet, wholesome book, filled with 
the philosophy of an almost devout mind which sees above it, 
about it, and deep within it, an omnipresent loveliness that 
speaks worshipfully the name of God. Perhaps we could re- 
mark of the work what we so frequently feel like saying when 
we read books that deal with Nature ; namely, that we would 
wish for an occasional direct and unambiguously Christian men- 
tion of God. Fear to rhapsodize about created beauty and not 
give at least a glance to the uncreated type which it distantly 
-expresses is irritatingly like spelling out the separate letters of 
a word, going into ecstasies over them, and never combining 
them into a coherent and reasonable meaning. Still, we hardly 
wish to press this criticism upon the author under review. He 

* Sister Theresa. By George Moore. Philadelphia: Lippincott Company. 

t A Journey to Nature. By J. P. Mowbray. New York : Doubleday, Page & Co. 



i90i.J TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. ' 821 

has done so well, his mind and temperament are so reverential 
and sober, and his artistic skill is so splendid, that we welcome 
his book as a fair and ennobling one, as a place of refresh- 
ment and rest amid the Sahara of contemporary light litera- 
ture. 

12. Herbert D. Ward's little brochure* recounts the 
imaginary experiences of a lens-maker who, having completed 
a remarkable telescope, suddenly dies and is transported to an- 
other sphere. There he meets Kepler, the astronomer, who re- 
proaches him for his past unbelief. He conceives a sorrow for 
his error and resolves to seek the truth wherever he may find 
it. He is carried back to the scenes of the Tragedy at Jeru- 
salem ; he sees the sufferings and death of Christ ; he watches 
at the tomb and beholds the risen Saviour. Like Thomas, he 
prostrates himself before Him, crying : " My Lord and my 
God!" He, seeing, believes. The spirit of the book is at 
least in contrast with the irreligious tendency of many of our 
present-day works ; the story is fanciful and original, though 
there is ground in theology for censuring it for assigning a 
period of repentance and meritorious change of heart beyond 
the grave. 



THE THEOLOGY OF RITSCHL, f 

In a remarkable paper published in the London Tablet 
some few months ago Father Cuthbert, O.S.F., advised that 
Catholic theologians should pay greater attention to con- 
temporary movements in theology outside the church. Among 
non-Catholics, said he, theology is receiving most careful and 
scholarly treatment. Caird and Harnack were mentioned as 
men whose work must, of necessity, be considered by all 
serious students of theology. Albrecht Ritschl, too, might 
well have been numbered among those whose writings de- 
serve attention, for perhaps no modern Protestant theologian 
has attained greater prominence or been the centre of wider 
discussion. 

* The Light of the World. By Herbert D. Ward. Boston and New York : Houghton, 
Mifflin & Co. 

t The Theology of Albrecht Ritschl. By Albert Temple Swing. Together with Instruc- 
tion in the Christian Religion, by Albrecht Ritschl. Translated by Alice Mead Swing. New 
York : Longmans, Green & Co. 



822 TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. [Sept., 

Within the last half decade Ritschlianism has been promi- 
nently before the English public, yet criticism and discussion 
rather than translation seemed to be the main concern of 
those who entered upon this field. It is not at all surpris- 
ing, then, that we should find a recurrence and increase in 
this country of the misunderstandings and controversies begun 
in the land of Ritschl's birth. Professor Orr, who until recently 
has been regarded as the authoritative exponent of Ritschlian- 
ism, has now become, to a greater or less extent, discredited 
in that respect ; and Professor Wenley's criticisms of the 
Ritschlian theology have been denounced as shallow and un- 
fair. Garvie's recent volume seems to have given the impetus 
to new and serious efforts to ascertain what the great German 
theologian really stood for. The present book is an attempt 
to expose Ritschlianism briefly and sympathetically, and, as 
far as possible, in the words of its author himself ; the latter 
part of the volume containing the translation of a short 
treatise of Ritschl's entitled Instruction in the Christian Religion, 
a work of some importance for an appreciation of the author's 
ideas about methods of theological teaching. 

Indications, hints, and outlines are about the sum of what 
may be gathered from the book before us ; its size prevents 
the attempt to provide more. The divisions are good, and the 
translation excellent, all things considered. The subject- 
matter is treated with as much success as could be expected 
under conditions which forbid really satisfying and conclusive 
handling. Professor Swing seems indeed to have rendered im- 
portant service in correcting very general misconceptions of 
Ritschl's position on the question of reality, and again on the 
question of the use of metaphysical demonstrations in theology. 
He seems to have fairly well proven that, at least, there is 
room for Ritschlianism which rejects neither reality nor the 
validity of metaphysics. We are hindered from conceding 
further conclusiveness to Professor Swing's really admirable 
presentation, by the consciousness that he has given us no 
more than excerpts, and by the recollection of Professor 
Pfleiderer's claim that careful comparison between Ritschl's 
later and earlier editions shows a distinct advance in the direc- 
tion of scepticism. 

The general impression derived from a survey of Ritschl's 
line of thought is, however, favorable, inasmuch as it betrays 
the persistence of theology in the very vortex of rationalism. 
During recent years higher criticism, biblical archaeology, the 



icpi.] TALK ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 823 

history of religion, and scientific discoveries have been making 
momentous changes in the world's store of knowledge and 
altering the mental attitude of many with regard to cherished 
opinions. Upon some minds these%developments have wrought 
disastrously ; as if Comte's prediction were to be verified, and 
theology were to prove to have been but in a stage of transition. 
But Rttschl, it appears, is less extreme in certain respects than 
Harnack ; even as Harnack receded from some of the advanced 
positions of the early Tubingen school facts that should en- 
courage the fearful. 

The truth is that both disciples and teachers, of an orthodox 
type, are apt to be thrown into a panic by the determined ad- 
vance of methods and men professedly hostile to the old opinions, 
if not to the very existence of theology. But fair attention 
to new problems and frank acceptance of newly discovered 
facts will do far more to save the credit of theology than will 
any amount of dogged insistence upon antiquated opinions, or 
the rash use of quasi-authoritative censures. Harshness, high- 
handedness, narrowness will inflict immense harm upon minds 
acutely distressed by the pressure of hostile scholarship. 
When, on the contrary, we condescend to investigate, we are 
apt to find that, after all, the accredited results of solid re- 
search are not so very startling, and that a little wise adapta- 
tion to environment, a kindly translation of consecrated phrases 
into modern equivalents, and a willing exchange of venerable 
for effective weapons will be all that is needed to make the 
ancient truth prevail. So, as for Ritschl, many of his posi- 
tions are impossible of acceptance to a Catholic, and the ultra 
rationalizing methods of the whole German school carry with 
them many dangers. 



Note. See tne announced series of articles on Art subjects. 
They -will begin In the October number. 



VOL. LXX.III. 54 



The Tablet (6 July): Father Angus writes in answer to the 
statement made by Lord Halifax that it was "not dis- 
tinctive Roman doctrine, the claims of the Holy See in 
themselves," which led De Lisle and Newman to enter 
the church. Publishes Father Thurston's reply in the 
Saturday Review to Mr. Conybeare's " Roman Catholi- 
cism as a Factor in European Politics." 
([3 July): Reviews the debate on the Royal Declaration. 
Canon St. John lays down conditions under which the 
emigration of Catholic children can be successfully con- 
trived. 

(20 July): Lord Halifax in a letter to The Tablet ex- 
plains and defines his position in regard to Transub- 
stantiation. 

(27 July) : Examines the letter of Lord Halifax regard- 
ing his position on Transubstantiation, and gives the 
true Catholic doctrine concerning it. 

The Month (J uly) : Fr. Rickaby contributes a " Study of St. 
Ignatius." Fr. Gerard continues his defence of Fr. Gar- 
net. Fr. Thurston continues his historical study of Bene- 
diction of the Blessed Sacrament, this number being de- 
voted to " Exposition." 

Revue du Clerg/ Fran^ais (i July): P. Torreilles sketches the 
recent history of theology in France. P. Berthout laments 
the decay of parish life and suggests means for its re- 
suscitation. C. Calippe, who presents to the readers of 
the Revue a study of social activity every third month, 
describes recent events and books bearing on this sub- 
ject. P. Morel narrates the history of the University of 
Tubingen. 

(16 July): C. Lecigne reprints his conference delivered 
at Saint-Omer on M. J, Lemaitre, president of the Patrie 
Fran^aise, poet, critic, dramatist, and orator. P. Ennoni 
comments upon recent publications in theology, Catholic 
and Protestant. 

Etudes (5 July;: P. Roure indicates the similarity of hypnotic 
suggestion with phenomena of every-day life. P. Ch6rot 
writes upon the Marquis de Vogu6 as a historian, apro- 



1901.] LIBRARY TABLE. 825 

pos of his recent election to the Academy. P. Griselle, 
writing upon the anecdote of Bourdaloue in a court ser- 
mon pointedly denouncing the king's crimes with " Tu es 
ille vir," decides against its historical truth. 
(20 July) : P. H. C. points out certain defects in a new 
life of Joan of Arc by J. E. Choussy, who thinks that 
her mission ended with the siege of Rheims. 

Le Correspondent (10 July) : Publishes, at the instance of Count 
de Mun, a letter addressed to M. Pichon, the French 
minister, by the chiefs and representatives of the Catho- 
lic missions in China, in which they protest against the 
oft-repeated accusation that they were responsible for 
the recent disturbances. Paul Thureau-Dangin, continu- 
ing his " Catholic Revival in England during the Nine- 
teenth Century," writes on Manning's conversion. Henri 
Joly, discussing " Liberty of Alms-giving," protests against 
the increasing tendency of the French government to sup- 
press the activity of private benevolence and make charity 
' a function of the state. 

(25 July): M. Piolet proves against the infidels of France 
that French Catholic missionaries are of immense moral 
and political advantage to the mother country. J. Latap- 
py continues his considerations on " The Church and the 
University " in reference to the Law of Associations. 

La Quinzaine (i July) : Abbe" S. Clement gives some of his 
recollections of George Sand. Baron J. Angot Des 
Rotours writes on the part played by France in the 
evangelization of the world during the nineteenth cen- 
tury. 

(16 July): Paul Thirion, in an article entitled Le Trans- 
saharien, speaks of the benefits and importance of the 
union of equatorial Africa to the home government, 
making France and its possessions beyond the Mediter- 
ranean " a vast and coherent empire." Victor du Bled 
contributes an article on " Physicians and French Society 
before 1789." George Fonsegrive, writing on "Solidar- 
ity, Pity, Charity," examines the question as to whether 
the idea of " solidarity " possesses all the advantages 
attributed to it, and is superior to charity as the basis 
of our obligation to assist our fellows, as has been pre- 
tended ; or whether it is, as he believes, powerless to 
supply the place of charity. 

La Revue Central (July) : Ch. Woeste writes appreciatively of 



826 LIBRARY TABLE. [Sept., 

Pere de Ravignan. Edm. Carton de Wiart writes on 
" The Brazil of To-day," which, he says, " is too badly 
known." Alfred Nerinx reviews Justin MacCarthy's 
" Reminiscences." J. P. Waltzing contributes a transla- 
tion of J. Semeria's " Literary and Apologetic Study of 
Quo Vadis" 

Revue Thomiste (July) : Du Grasset writes at some length on 
the " Limits of Biology." R. P. C16rissac writes on Fra 
Angelico as the great exponent of the supernatural in 
painting. 

Echo Religieux de Belgique (June) : Abb6 H. Bolby writes on 
" The Reading of the Gospels in Christian Families." 
Commences the publication of R. P. Louis Mennier's 
" Introduction to Ecclesiastical History " ; also a series 
of apologetical papers, the first of which treats of 
" Spiritualism and Materialist Doctrines," by L. Peeters, 
SJ. 

(July) : P. Halflants, writing apropos of Huysman's re- 
cent Vie de Sainte Lydwine de Schiedam, defends' the 
sincerity of the author's conversion. V. De Brabandre 
in his article " Religion, Science, and Morals " criticises 
the position of M. Ferdinand Buisson. A. Vermeersch, 
S.J., discusses the " Eternity of the Positive Pains of 
Hell." H. Minal, C.SS.R., writes on the merits of St. 
Alphonsus as a dogmatic theologian. 

Revue des Questions Scientijiques (July) : The present number is 
a souvenir of the jubilee fetes of the Scientific Society, 
and publishes the proceedings of that society in its 
meetings held on the ninth, tenth, and eleventh of April 
last. M. M. G. Lemoine, J. J. Van Biervliet, and the 
Vicomte R. d'Adhmar contribute papers respectively on 
" French Chemists," " The Evolution of Psychology," 
and " The Work of Mathematics," in the nineteenth cen- 
tury. P. Duhem writes on some recent extensions of 
" Statics and Dynamics," and J. H. Fabre writes on 
Les Pentatomes. 

Revue Benedictine (July) : D. Morin transcribes and comments 
upon certain unedited letters of St. Augustine contained 
in MSS. of the Royal Library of Munich. D. Rottman- 
ner shows how a careful study of the writings of St. 
Augustine in their chronological and historical order mani- 
fests that Father's belief in the Pauline authorship of the 
epistle to the Hebrews. D. Besse sketches the beginnings 



1 90i.] LIBRARY TABLE. 827 

of monastic life in Gaul. D. Baltus gives high praise to 
a newly published edition of the New Testament by P. 
Didon. 

Bulletin de Litte'rature Ecclcsiastique (May) : P. Guibert presents 
a dissertation upon the meaning attached by the Old 
Testament writers to the phrase " Spirit of God." 
(June): Criticises P. Loisy's Etudes Bibliques as not cal- 
culated to remove the impression that his work is of 
a rather undecided character. 

Revue des Deux Mondes (15 June): G. Goyau writes on the 
policy of Jules Ferry, whose efforts to continue in the 
colonies the work of Richelieu and Colbert will be con- 
sidered and discussed more in the future than it has 
been in the past. 

La Semzine Religieuse de Paris (29 June) : P. Broussolle writes 
on M. Huysman's new Life of Saint Lydwine of Schiedam, 
a touching exhortation to accept suffering as a providen- 
tial necessity. 

Bulletin trimestriel des Anciens Eleves de Saint-Sulpice (15 May): 
P. Bruneau presents a translation of Fr. Sheehan's 
" Celts and Saxons." 

LVnivers (8 June): Pierre Veuillot defends the Roman Index 
against some criticisms of Le Matin. G. d'Azambua in- 
dicates how great benefits the proletariat is deriving from 
the Jesuits, both by means of the latter's social work 
and of their indirect influence. 

La Voix du Siecle (20 June): G. G. writes upon Bishop Spald- 
ing, the proper province of whose apostolate would seem 
to be the halls of a university rather than industrial cen- 
tres. 

Revue d'Histoire et de Litte'rature Religieuscs (May-June): P. 
Loisy takes up the theory of P. Hummelauer, S.J., about 
the authorship of Deuteronomy, and says Samuel had 
no more to do with Deuteronomy than P. Hummelauer 
himself ; and the opinion in question, if advanced by 
certain writers, would immediately be denounced as a 
" Protestant infiltration." 

Stimmen aus Maria Laach (i July): P. Lehmkuhl writes in 
defence of the science of Moral Theology. P. Kneller 
begins a sketch of Andre Marie Ampere. P. Beiffel 
describes the oldest church in Germany at Trier. P. 
Hilgers continues his description of the Vatican Library, 
treating of the period of Nicolas V. 



828 LIBRARY TABLE. [Sept., 

Civilta Cattolica (6 July): Concurs in the judgment of the 
Azione Muliebre magazine of Milan, in condemning the 
romances of Fogazzaro. Presents the statistics on sui- 
cide in Italy, showing a frightful increase, and welcomes 
a new book published by an Italian magistrate advo- 
cating civil measures against the crime. 
(20 July): Treating of liberalism, defines its cardinal 
principle to be State independence of all authority 
whatsoever independent of itself, and especially of 
church authority. Sketches the history of superstition, 
showing that only the true religion avails to suppress it. 

Rassegna Nazionale (l July): E. S. Kingswan comments upon 
Sedgwick's Life of Father Hecker as a book which shows 
what progress has been made by the ideas defended by 
Father Hecker, " of whom can be said, in a measure, 
what he himself said of the church, 'Make her well 
known and every one will run to her.' ' Another note 
referring to Raffaele Cesare's reply in the North Ameri- 
can Review (June) to Archbishop Ireland's article on 
the Temporal Power (North American Review, April), de- 
clares the writer's arguments to be efficacious, but takes 
exception to the final phrase suggesting the substitution 
of national churches for the one Catholic World Church. 
G. Rondoni gives high praise to the Storia civile e 
politica del Papato of Nobili-Vitelleschi (Pomponio Leto), 
as a book badly needed in Italy, which lacks reliable 
histories of the Catholic religion. (The Civilians criti- 
cism of the book has been already noticed by us.) 
G. Gnerghi adds an article on Savonarola's aesthetic and 
literary character to the three already published. 
(16 July): L. Vitali writes upon the grounds for faith 
in our Lord. Alice Schanzer enumerates the works of 
English writers who nave studied Giacomo Leopardi, 
the Italian poet. E. S. Kingswan comments upon Father 
Taunton's History of the English fesuits and says it will 
do good, since the story of past errors will act as a 
preservative against others in future. Writing upon 
Canon Boni's book against Evolution, Fio declares the 
author to be bent upon always opposing the three first 
chapters of Genesis to scientific discoveries. 



1 90i.] EDITORIAL NOTES. 829 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 

THERE is a well-defined movement in ecclesiastical circles 
having for its purpose the betterment of Christian Art. To 
voice this movement and at the same time to intensify it we 
have planned a series of articles on art subjects. The first of 
the articles will be published in the October number, and it 
will be written by Charles de Kay, the eminent art critic. Mr. 
de Kay's opinions on art, particularly in its relations to church 
architecture and decoration, have been accepted as the canons 
of artistic judgment. The succeeding articles will be written 
by such eminent art specialists as John La Farge, Charles 
Albert Lopez. Frederick S. Lamb, Charles D. Maginnis, and 
others. It is hoped that the outcome of this series of articles 
will be the development of a deeper interest in church build- 
ing and adornment and the raising of the standards of church 

art. 



The French Law of Associations is about to receive the 
signature of President Loubet. While we cannot but deplore 
the fact that the legislature of France has deemed it necessary 
to intensify the antagonism of the Catholic people, still we are 
not without the hope that some good may yet come from this 
pernicious measure. When the law was enacted that con- 
scripted the French seminarian it had its good results. It 
brought a whole generation of priests in closer touch with the 
people. It eliminated from the ranks of the priesthood many 
unworthy subjects, ard the presence of the earnest and devout 
levite in the ranks of the French soldiery did not a little to 
elevate the standards of morality among the soldiers. 

So, too, out of the intended persecution of the " Law of 
Associations " many benefits will come indirectly to the 
church in France. The authority of the bishops over the 
clergy, both secular and regular, will be intensified. The par- 
ish church, as an important element in diocesan organization, 
will be emphasized. It was said that in some French cities 
the parish church was simply a bureau for the registration of 
births and marriages and deaths. Then, finally, opposition is 
always healthy, and the church thrives under the lash of per- 
secution. 



830 THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. [Sept., 



THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 

AMONG the so-called standard books relating to the science and the art of 
education there has been no authority recognized as competent to fix a 
standard for the use of terms. Much that is now classified as belonging to 
pedagogy was taken from philosophy, and in the English language there is 
still needed a philosophical vocabulary with exact definitions. Writers employ 
the same words with varied meanings. An attempt is to be made to assist in 
removing some of the verbal difficulties, especially in ps}chology. It is an- 
nounced that we are to have a dictionary on the subject, or, rather, an encyclo- 
paedia, giving the terminology, not only in English, but also in French, German, 
and Italian. It will be in three volumes, edited by Dr. James Mark Baldwin, 
Stuart Professor in Princeton University, and written by over one hundred of 
the greatest scholars of the age. The first volume is now in press at The 
Macmillan Company's. Professor Baldwin thus describes the aims of the 
work, the conception and execution of which should contribute much honor to 
American scholastic enterprise : " To understand the meanings which our 
terms have, and to render them by clear definitions this on the one hand; 
and to interpret the movements of thought through which the meanings thus 
determined have arisen, with a view to discovering what is really vital in the 
development of thought and term in one this on the other hand." 

* * * 

Christian Carl Bernhard, second Baron von Tauchnitz, who recently cele- 
brated his sixtieth birthday, is the son and sole successor in business of the 
founder of the famous publishing house in Leipsic. The firm was established 
in 1837, when the first Baron, then plain Herr, was only twenty-one years of 
age. His son joined him in 1866, and since 1895, the date of his father's death, 
the Tauchnitz editions of European celebrity have been entirely his own affair. 
At the present day the Collection of British and American Authors numbers 
about 3.500 volumes, and increases at the rate of rather more than one a week. 
Bulwer Lytton's Pelham and Dickens's Pickwick (with portraits of the authors) 
set the series going. The Tauchnitz editions are set up entirely by German 
compositors, but the baron's staff of readers for the press includes several 
highly educated Englishmen. Baron von Tauchnitz speaks English fluently 
and writes it correctly in very charming letters to his English and American 
authors. During a long visit to England in 1864 he met Tennyson, Browning, 
Carlyle, Froude, Kinglake, Dickens, Gladstone, Disraeli, Kingsley, Charles 
Reade, Trollope, and indeed almost everybody worth knowing. He has his 
father's gift of engaging the regard of every author with whom he treats. He 
is his own chief literary adviser, and keeps a vigilant eye upon the literary out- 
put on both sides of the Atlantic. He owns an ancient estate near Dresden and 
much property in Leipsic. 

* * * 

St. Raphael's Reading Circle, Hyde Park, Mass., held its annual reception 
last June. A.fter a patriotic chorus, Miss Elizabeth MeKeon.the secretary, read 
an admirable sketch of the purposes of the Circle which is to adrance along the 



1 90 1.] THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 831 

lines of study which are usually abandoned at the end of school-life, and to make 
ourselves in some degree familiar with the literature of our language. She 
also described the season's work. In the excellent programme which followed, 
the religious part of this work was represented by an essay, St. Teresa, by Miss 
Katherine E. Broderick, and an Ave Maria, by the Reading Circle choir. For 
the rest, as the study of Tennyson chiefly occupied the year, it was an evening 
with Tennyson. The essays, all well written and well read, were: Alfred 
Tennyson, by Miss Nora L. Coveney; Idylls of the King, Miss Marietta Cullen ; 
Mediaeval Knighthood, Miss B. B. Daly ; The Catholic Spirit of the Idylls, Miss 
M. J. Foley. The songs were: Ring Out, Wild Bells, three-part song, by 
Reading Circle choir ; Break, Break, Break, Miss Helen A. Loftus ; Sweet and 
Low; then a reading, Lady Clare, by Miss Anna Murray. The programme con- 
cluded with the chorus, Holy God, We Praise Thy Name. 

The Circle is officered as follows: Miss Mary J. Rooney, president; Miss 
Katherine E. Broderick, vice-president; Miss Elizabeth McKeon, secretary; 
Miss M. Josephine Foley, treasurer; executive committee, Miss Sadie A. 
McDjnough, Miss Margaret F. Daley, Miss Agnes T. Houston. The Rev. 
George A. Lyons is the director. 

* * 

Reading Circles and other societies will have a wide range of choice in the 
following lectures by Conde B. Fallen, LL.D., now residing in New York City : 

I, Dante; 2, Shakespeare ; 3, Wordsworth ; 4, Tennyson ; 5, Francis Thomp- 
son (the above given in series or singly) ; 6, The Inferno ; 7, The Purgatorio ; 
8. The Paradiso (the above singly or in series) ; 9, The Novel ; 10, Reading ; 

II, The Nature of Poetry; 12, Something about Versification; 13, Goldsmith 
and his Times; 14, Spanish Pioneers; 15, French Pioneers; 16, Columbus; 17, 
Tennyson's In Memoriam ; 18, Tennyson's Idylls of the King ; 19, Hamlet; 20, 
Mac >eth and King Lear; 21, The Tempest. Subjects suggested for lectures 
will be given on request. 

* * * 

Copies of the list of Catholic Authors published by Messrs. Houghton, 
Mifflin & Co., and the notable Catholic books from the catalogue of Messrs. 
Longmans, Green & Co., may be obtained by sending ten cents in postage to 
the Columbian Reading Union, 415 West 59th Street, New York City. 

Letters relating to Catholic Authors and the introduction of their books to 
Parish and Public Libraries are always welcomed, as well as accounts of work 
accomplished by Catholic Reading Circles. Send two cents in postage for 
pamphlet relating to the formation of Reading Circles. Do not send postal 
cards. M. C. M. 



NEW BOOKS. 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, New York : 

A Dictionary of Architecture and Building, Biographical, Historical, and 
Descriptive. By Russell Sturgis, A.M., P.L.D., Fellow of American 
Institute of Architects, and many Architects, Painters, Engineers, and 
other expert writers, American and Foreign. In three volumes. Vol.11., 
F-N. The Philosophy of Religion in England and America. By Alfred 
Caldecott, D D. 
BENZIGER BROTHERS, New York: 

Beyond these Voices: A Novel. By Mrs. Egerton Eastwick. $1.35 net. 
The Catholic Girl in the World (Second series). By Whyte Avis. 
With a Preface by Dom Gilbert Higgins, C.R.L. $i.oonet. Kindness. 
By Father Faber. 30 cts. net. 
VICTOR RETAUX, Paris : 

Louis Veuillot. Par Eugene Veuillot. Tome deuxieme (1845-1855). 7 

fr. 50. 
A. C. McCLURG & Co., Chicago: 

Aphorisms and Reflections: Conduct, Culture, and Religion. By J. L. 

Spalding, Bishop of Peoria. 80 cts. 
J. H. YEWDALE & SONS, Milwaukee, Wis. : 

Hildegard : A Story of the French Revolution. From the German, by J.M. 
Toohey, C.S.C. The Princess of Poverty : St. Clare of Assist, and the 
Order of Poor Ladies. By Father Marianus Fiege, O.M.Cap. Published 
by the Poor Clares of the Monastery of St. Clare, Evansville, Ind. 
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY, New York: 

Elements of Plane Geometry. By Alan Sanders. 75 cts. 
ART AND BOOK COMPANY, London: 

Passion Sonnets, and Other Verses. By R. Metcalf e. 
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. Washington, D. C. : 

. Fifteenth Annual Reports of the Commissioner of Labor. Vols. I and II. 

1900. 
D. H. McBRiDE & Co.. New York : 

The McBride Literature and Art Books. Books I., II., and III. By B. 
Ellen Burke. 



PUBLISHER'S PAGE. 

ISAAC PITMAN & SONS, 33 Union Square, New York, have jus<t 
issued a greatly improved presentation of the Isaac Pitman system in an en- 
tirely new edition of their "Complete Shorthand Instructor." The rules of 
the system have been entirely recast, and are arranged in what, it is believed, 
will be found the best order for teaching. The advanced style for the first 
time is so arranged as to give an orderly presentation of the abbreviated prin- 
ciples which have rendered the Isaac Pitman shorthand the system par 
excellence for verbatim reporting. As a guarantee of the excellence of the 
printing and binding of the new " Instructor " which is entirely an American 
production it is only necessary to mention that the same is printed by Messrs. 
J. J. Little Co., New York, printers of the Standard Dictionary, etc. While 
the type-pag'e of the " Instructor " will be the same as heretofore, the size of 
the book will be somewhat increased to give wider margins, and permit the 
book to open more freely. 

A. W. B. BOULEVARD VELVET is the leading grade of Velveteen, 
and will be found on the counters of all the leading dry-goods houses through 
the country. See that each yard is stamped on the selvage " A. W. B. Boule- 
vard Velvet." These goods will be the leading fabric the coming season for 
dresses, waists, and costumes. The fashion journals of this country and 
Europe show principally velvet and velveteen costumes for the fall of 1901. 

THE McSHANE BELL FOUNDRY is the best equipped and largest 
establishment in the country manufacturing chimes, peals, and single bells. 



AP The Catholic world 

2 

G3 

v.73 




UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY