THE
CATHOLIC WORLD.
A
MONTHLY MAGAZINE
OF
GENERAL LITERATURE AND SCIENCE
BY THE PAULIST FATHERS.
(i)atarto
VOL. LXXXI.
APRIL, 1905, TO SEPTEMBER 1905.
NEW YORK :
THE OFFICE OF THE CATHOLIC WORLD.
120 WEST 6oth STREET.
1905.
THE
CATHOLIC WORLD
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CONTENTS
Afterthought, An. Ben Hurst, . . 208
Allouez, Father, and the Fox River.
D. B. Martin, .''.., . . 199
" And Who is My Neighbor ? " M. F.
Quintan, ...... 327
Blake, Was he a Poet ? Percy Cross
Standing, ...... 445
Bruges. Ellis Schreiber, . . . 790
atholic and the Bible, A. Rev. fames
f. Fox, D.D., . . .72, 185, 370, 512
Catholicism and the Japanese. R. F.
O'Connor, ..... 591
Cervantes and His Work. fames f.
Walsh, Ph.D , 344
Christian Doctrine, The Teaching of.
Rev. John F. Brady, M.D., . .671
Christ, The Mystical Body ol.Rev.
foseph McSorley, C.S P , . . 307
Columbian Reading Union, The, 137, 281
424, 569, 710, 852
Croatia, Modern, The Founder of.
Ben Hurst, . . , 773
Cura Animarum. Vincent McNabb,
O.P., 7Si
Cure of Ars, The. R. F. O'Connor, . 44
Current Events, 105, 268, 383, 557, 681, 823
Development Theory, The Limits of
the George Tyrrell, S./., , . 730
Doane, Bishop, 1 he Strange Reasoning
oi.fohn T. Creagh, D. D. , /. U. D. , 287
Dublin Castle in 1798. William F.
Dennehy, . . . -'''. . 431
Foreign Periodicals, 132, 262, 412, 552,
702, 846
Fountains Abbey. Ellit Schreiber, . 162
France, Race Suicide in. /. C. Mona-
f*an 575
Ganymede and Lady Disdain. A. W.
Corpe, 238
Gasquet's New Book. Ethelred Taun-
tjn, 802
Germany, Parcel Post System of. /. C.
Monaghan, .... 353, 476
Gould Bible Contest, The. Rev. /. F.
Fenlon, D.D., 217
Her Ladyship. Katharine Tynan,
49'. 636, 755
Hospital, An Ancient : The Paris Hotel-
Dieu. The Countess de Courson, 451
" In the Shadow of Death." M. F.
Quinlan, ...... 25
Irish Family, A Great. Katharine
Tynan, . . . . .315
Japan and Catholicity. - Darley Dale, 362
Madame. Clare Sorrel Strong, . . 94
McKim, A Further Answer to. Rev.
Bertrand L. Coniuay, C.S. P., . . II
Miranda and Juliet. A. W. Corpe, . 469
Miss Ferrill's Diploma. feanie Drake, 157
New Books, 117,244,393,527,692,832
Panama Canal, The. Bart E. Linehan, 176
Patricia, The Extrication of. M '. T.
Waggiman, ..... 485
Persecution, In Days of. William
Francis Dennehy, .... 228
Pessimism in its Relation to Asceticism.
M. D. Petre, . . 33
Psychology, Modern, and Catholic Edu-
cation. Edward 4. Pace, Ph.D., 717
Religious Education Association, The.
Rev. Thomas I. Gasson, S.f., .' i
Religious Knowledge and American
Schools. Rev. Thomas McMillan,
C.S. P., 84
Rose of May, The. A. W. Corpe, . 813
Servia and Russian Diplomacy. Ben
Hurst 615
'Social Reform, Principles in. Rev.
William f. Kerby, Ph.D., . . 65
Son of Man, The. Rev. foseph McSor-
ley, C.S.P., 54
Sterrett, Professor, on " The Freedom
of Authority." Rev. fames /. Fox,
D.D., ...... 657
The Weaver. .V. F. Degidon, . . 745
Thompson, Francis, The Poetry of.
/Catherine Bregy, .... 605
Tobias Green, Tonsorialist. feanie
Drake, 623
Underpaid Laborers of America, The ;
Their Number and Prospects. Rev.
fohn A. Ryan, 143
iv
CONTENTS.
POETRY.
At Eastertide. Charles Hanson Towne, 64
June. /tattle Drake, .... 483
The Flower./*. /. Coleman, . . 382
The Widow. Katharine Tynan, . 175
The Wren. Edward F. Garescht, S /., 526
Vox Scientiae. M. T. Waggaman, . 772
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
Abbess of Vlaye, The, .... 256
.Kquar.ir.mas, 546
Aleman, Le Cardinal Louis, President
du Concile de Bale, . . . 120
Apocalyptical Writers, The Messages of
the 248
Beardsley, Aubrey, Last Letters of, . 250
Bell in the Fog, The 129
Blessed Virgin in the Nineteenth Cen-
tury, The, '*'.', . . . 259
Blockaders, The, 408
Brakelond, Chronicle of, ... 408
Buch der Bucher, Das, .... 123
Burden, Emmanuel, .... 407
By What Authority ? 403
Cardome, 261
Cenacle, I he, 645
Chicago Daily Review, .... 845
Christian Gentlewoman, The, and the
Social Apostolate, . . . .410
Christ, La Divinitedu, .... 840
Church of God on Trial, The, . . 538
Constitutional Law in the United States, 543
Crucible, The, 411
Divine Fire, The, 129
Dorset Dear, 543
Englishmen of the Sixteenth Century,
Great, 549
Eternal Life, The, 537
Faithful Soul, The Sanctuary of the, . 393
Faith, I he Light of 53
Fotheringay, The Tragedy of, . . 092
Friendship's Fragrant Fancies, . . 845
Garden of Allah, The, . . . .545
German People, History of the, . . 117
Girls, Stray Thoughts tor, . . . 402
Glenanaar, ...... 832
Holy Confidence ; or, Simplicity with
God, ...... 694
Homeric Study, Handbook of, . . 842
House of God, The, . . . .532
Immortality of the Soul, . . . 259
Infaillibilite et Syllabus. Reponse aux
" Etudes," 839
Intemperance, 124
Justin : Apologies, .... 255
Juvenile Round Table 405
Knox, John, and the Reformation, . 693
Leecroft, Nora, The Temptation of, . 130
L'Eglise Catholique, la Renaissance, le
Protestantisme, . . . .118
L'Eglise et 1'Etat LaTque, ... . 398
Lethe, The Waters of, . . . .261
L'Etude de la Sainte Ecriture, . . 551
Livre d'Isale, Le 246
Love of Books, 408
Lynch Law 543
Man-God, The Suffering, . . . 410
Martyrs of the Primitive Church, His-
toric, . . .
Mirror of a Mystic, Reflections from the,
Missions, A Short Handbook of, .
Moral Education,
More, Thomas, Knt., Life of,.
Morning of Life, In the,
Nazareth et de Ses Sanctuaires, Histoire
de
New York Review, The, . . 130,
Nut-Brown Joan,
Objections against the Catholic Reli-
gion, Answers to, .
Old Land, For the, ....
Old Testament, Historical Criticism and
the
Pascal, Selon, La Vraie Religion,
Pathfinders of the West,
Politique Religieuse et Separation,
Portraits de Croyants au XlXe. Siecle,
Poverty
Psalmody, Rules for, ....
Red Branch Crests. The,
Reforme, Les Origines de la,
Religion and Art,
Religion and the Higher Life,
Religion, Certainty in, .
Religion of Duty, The, ....
Religions et Societes, ....
Renan, Ernest,
Sacred Heart, The Devotion to the,
Sacrifice in the Religious State, The
Spirit of,
Sacrifice of the Mass The,
St. Columban (540-615),
St. Francis of Assisi, Little Flowers of,
Saintly Women, A Dictionary of,
Saints and Festivals of the Christian
Church,
St. Teresa of Jesus of the Order of our
Lady of Carmel, The Life of,
3ecret Woman, The, ....
Sermons Preached in St. Edmund's Col-
lege Chapel on Various Occasions,
Seton, Elizabeth,
Seventeenth Century, Portraits of the,
Socialism.
Socialism and Christianity, . ...
Solesmes Plain-Chant, A Complete and
Practical Method of the, .
Souvenirs Politiques 1871-1877, .
Spencer, Herbert,
Spiritual Despondency and Tempta-
tions,
Spoiled Priest, A. .....
Visitation Order, Jubilee Gems of the,
Walking Delegate, The,
357
394
55i
126
408
126
841
411
122
256
244
4OI
128
8 3 6
539
399
257
130
249
529
J25
251
696
252
527
369
540
533
834
542
843
256
122
550
I2 7
844
533
409
400
697
838
254
128
407
406
400
THE
CATHOLIC WORLD.
VOL. LXXXI. APRIL, 1905. No. 481.
THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION.
BY THE REVEREND THOMAS I. GASSON, S.J.
|HE Third Annual Convention of the Religious
Education Association was held in Boston from
February 12 to 16 of the current year. So
important was this gathering, both from the
position of those who participated in the vari-
ous meetings and from the nature of the topics discussed,
that a brief survey thereof will assuredly interest all readers of
THE CATHOLIC WORLD. It may be stated at the outset, by
way of explanation, that this association came into existence
in Chicago in February, 1903. At that time the American
Institute of Sacred Literature, one of the many organizations
affiliated with the Chicago University, called a meeting ot
prominent educators to consider the grave moral problems
dealing with the modern training of the young. Over four
hundred persons, eminent in many walks of life, accepted the
invitation, and for three days closely discussed the moral needs
of our times. The outcome of these meetings was the forma-
tion of the Religious Education Association, which was planned
to meet the ethical difficulties of our time in somewhat the
same way as the National Education Association strives to
meet the nation's educational needs.
The charter membership of the association was 1,276, each
member paying a $i enrollment fee and $2 annual dues. By
Copyright. 1905. THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE
IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
VOL. LXXXI. I
2 THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION. [April,
the close of the first year the membership had reached over
1, 600. The Second Convention was held in Philadelphia, March
2 to 4, 1904. During this session one hundred addresses on
religious and moral education were delivered by men and
women of national reputation and influence. By the close of
the second year the roll-book showed a membership of 2,oco,
made up of leaders and workers in every branch of religious
and moral activity. Since then there has been a steady ad-
vance in number, until we may say that the association repre-
sents the highest form of non-Catholic thought on this weighty
subject. I say non-Catholic, because the few Catholics who
are members of this organization are not strong enough to in-
fluence the general views held by the majority of the mem-
bers.
The meetings in Boston showed a steady increase in num-
bers and a deep note of earnestness. This open interest in
matters of religious thought is all the more consoling on
account of the prevalent indifference which meets us every-
where. Of the members who took an active part in the lec-
tures and discussions, nearly all had achieved distinction in
some line of mental or moral activity, and hence a peculiar
weight must be attached to their utterances. Moreover, by far
the larger number of those in attendance were men and women
whose age bespoke mature judgment and broad experience. In
this respect the meetings of the Religious Education Associa-
tion were in marked contrast with those of the Christian En-
deavor Movement in which the youthful element was so
prominent. Among the distinguished men present were Dr.
Shahan, of the Catholic University, Dr. Lawrence, the Episco-
palian Bishop of Boston, Professor Peabody, of the Harvard
Divinity School, L. Wilbur Messer, general secretary of the
Young Men's Christian Association, and a number of others
who have helped to create a healthy public sentiment and to
vitalize practical plans for the bettering of the race.
For us Catholics the importance of the meetings will be
weighed by the nature of the subjects discussed. A glance
merely at the titles will be sufficient to show us that these,
indeed, were matters in which we have a more than ordinary
interest. Take the following, for example :
"How can we bring the individual into conscious relation
with God?"
1905.] THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION. 3
" The place of formal instruction in Religious and Moral
Education."
" What Co-operation is now possible in Religious Education
between Catholics and Protestants?"
" Educational aims of the Church."
" The Foundations of Religion and Morality."
"Tested Methods of inculcating Religion and Morality."
"The Training of Sunday-School Teachers."
"The Boy in the Country."
"The Boy in the City."
While much that was said was very superficial, much that
was sentimental, nevertheless there ran through the greater
number of the addresses two dominant notes, which must be
especially gratifying to us, because they are an implicit admis-
sion that our contention with regard to the education of the
young is not only the correct view, but the only one which
will safeguard the country in the perils which threaten its very
existence. These two notes were a frank acknowledgment
that our present system is a failure from many standpoints, and
that the only sound system is that which combines religious
instruction with training in secular branches. It was perfectly
evident from the speeches of these able men and women, that
there is something radically defective in the present methods
of training our future citizens. The anomalous plan of divid-
ing the child, as it were, into several compartments, and of
endeavoring to develop one, while neglecting the others, was
amusingly and pointedly described by Bishop Lawrence in a
speech singularly thoughtful and suggestive :
There is a tendency in all work and enterprise to a
division of labor. Even the child had been divided into
parts. Family prayer had been largely dropped, and the
teaching of the religious life had been driven into the
Church basement.
A little while ago it was discovered that, in the division
of labor, patriotism was forgotten. Then flags were run
up on the schools. Patriotism is now associated with the
schools. Then it was felt that temperance was not properly
taught in the home ; so the schools took in temperance.
Now what we are discovering is that the child is not
built in compartments ; and that compartment building, on
the whole, is weak.. The thing falls to pieces. The child
4 THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION. [April,
needs unity. You can no more separate the religious ele-
ment from the intellectual element, or from the physical
element, than you can tear apart a rosebush and divide it
into color and fibre and scent.
The home must work with the Church, and the Church
must work with the school ; and you can no more keep
religion out of the school when you send a Christian teacher
into the schoolroom than you can keep intelligence out of
the home when the children come back with their books
under their arms.
. . . Religion and mental powers interlace. It is true,
is it not, in the nation ? Why is it that we are sometimes
afraid of the enormous increase of wealth ? Why, increase
of wealth is one of the great opportunities of this country ;
and we ought to glory in it and rejoice in it, just as any
man ought to rejoice in the increase of his physical strength,
provided he has got the mind and the heart and the char-
acter to handle his physique.
And so with the country, provided it has the intelli-
gence and the spiritual force and the character to handle
its wealth. The bigger the giant, the greater the man,
provided the character be gigantic and refined and inspired.
What this nation needs is a realization of the unity of
human life. It needs, also, not to fear the increase of
wealth, but to fear the loss of the inspiration of religion
and of the intelligence which ought to go with it.
Not less emphatic were the statements of a leading Baptist
clergyman, the Rev. Francis H. Rowley, of the able Professor
Frank K. Sanders, of Yale University, and of Professor Clyde
W. Votaw, of the University of Chicago, all of whom repre-
sent large and important sections of the country. In fact,
Professor Votaw declared that he saw no difference between
the terms education and religious education, except that the
latter phrase is a protest against the limitation of methods of
training to one part of the child. "Education," he said, "is
a unit. It stands both for morality and intellectuality, and it
is impossible to separate one from the other in any system
which aims to give a harmonious development to the child's
entire nature. . . . It is most unfortunate that the 16,000,-
ooo children who attend the public schools of the country are
failing to receive that moral and spiritual education to which
they are entitled."
1905.] THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION. 5
It is impossible, when reading the addresses delivered dur-
ing this gathering, not to be deeply touched by the wail of
grief over the sad results acid over the incompetent methods
of modern American training. Equally striking is the absence
of all reference to principle in these speeches. It does not
seem to have occurred to any one of the speakers to go back
to the principles which should guide a nation in the solution
of the problems of education. Yet one would naturally think
that, if the present arrangement is so defective, as results
undoubtedly show, it must rest on a false principle, since it
would scarcely be possible for true principles to lead to so
unsatisfactory an end. In this point there is a wide difference
between the consideration of this topic by Catholics and by
non-Catholics. Take, for example, the thorough and funda-
mental treatment of principle involved in the education ques-
tion by Mr. Thomas F. Woodlock, in a recent number of THE
CATHOLIC WORLD ; by Father James Conway, in his excel-
lent booklet, The Rights of Our Little Ones ; and by the
many writers whose able productions are to be found in The
Messenger. No lasting remedy can be applied until the prin-
ciples underlying the whole matter are accurately defined and
established.
A matter which will interest all thoughtful Americans was
that discussed by the eminent Dr. Shahan, of the Catholic
University, under the title: "What Co-operation is now pos-
sible in Religious Education between Catholics and Protest-
ants ? " The straightforward and clear consideration of this
extremely knotty problem demands reflective reading, and for
that purpose we give a considerable portion thereof:
Religious education with Catholics is something positive,
systematic, and exclusive, in accordance always with the
doctrines and precepts of the Church. It is impossible to
establish any system of immediate co-operation in religious
education with those who cannot accept these doctrines and
precepts, or the authority of the Church by which they are
maintained. Experience has shown the futility of inter-
mediate combinations made up of concessions, or based on
mutual minimizing and sacrifices. In the matter of religious
doctrine everything is in one way or another essential, or
may be easily made to take on that character. We should
find it, therefore, impossible to construct manuals of religious
THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION. [April,
doctrine that would satisfy both Catholic and Protestant
parents and authorities.
But it does look as if we ought to be able to produce
a manual of morality that would express certain principles
and criteria of conduct that have long been looked on as
our common inheritance, either from the Jewish law or from
immemorial Christian experience. Roman Catholics believe
firmly that there is no variable morality without religion,
without doctrinal convictions, and apart from the sanction
and co-operation of the Church. They could not accept as
final the authoritative handbooks of morality constructed
in the sense and temper of Theism, or of an artificial and
colorless Christianity, without a foundation in facts, and,
therefore, without influence over the hearts of men.
The large proportion of Hebrews in the public schools
of our great cities is making it daily more difficult to
provide any manual of religion and morality that shall
satisfy the general Christian conscience and not offend a
people which does not accept, as such, any principles of
Christian belief or life. The impossibility of an imme-
diate co-operation seems still greater when we come to Con-
sider the teacher. The teacher is the necessary interpreter
of all things taught, the very pivot of the school. What-
ever formulae of religion or morality we might, hypotheti-
cally, agree on, would have to be explained and illustrated
by the living voice of the teacher.
"There is one other reason, perhaps not quite so insuper-
able, why an immediate co-operation in religious education
is impossible between Catholics and Protestants. I refer to
what may be called the school atmosphere. In our modern
life, for many reasons, the school has come to stand in loco
parentis. For a multitude of children it takes the place
formerly filled by the home ; for too many it is the only
approach to a home, in the traditional sense of the word,
that they will ever see, at least, in childhood. For this
and other reasons we believe that the entire school, in all
its elements and workings, should exercise a continuous
influence of a religious and moral character.
Everything about the school should be calculated to
evoke and confirm those natural but weak germs of religiosity
and ethical sentiments that are in the heart of every child,
but only too easily get crushed or crippled amid ruder con-
tending forces. We find in the public schools too marked
and exclusive an attention to the material and the temporal
1905.] THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION. 7
interests of life, the purely transitory and inferior elements
of education. But if an immediate co-operation be impossible
in the matter of religious education between Catholics and
Protestants, is there no form of mediate or less close co-
operation that would be acceptable ? As a matter of fact,
such a co-operation does exist in Germany and Austria,
in Ireland and elsewhere. The schools are national and
common, the pupils, Catholic and Protestant, attend the
same scholastic courses and are taught by the same teachers,
who are legally appointed without regard to religious pre-
ference, and after fulfilment of all civil requirements.
But the religious instruction is furnished according to
the expressed wishes of the parents, by ministers of their
faith, at fixed hours, and all children are required to attend
the instructions of their own religious denomination. In
some places, as at Frankfort, there are occasionally two
professors of history, so that in this important matter, the
delicacy of the child's conscience need not be violated.
In places where the political and social contact of Catholics
and Protestants has been and is very close, ways have been
found of co-operation for the common welfare in the matter of
religious and moral education. The attitude of the Catholic
authority is not so absolutely uncompromising as has been
sometimes stated. In all those delicate questions that belong
to the borderland between the Roman Catholic Church and
the civil society, her supreme authority will always be found
quite moderate and conciliatory, bent on saving the essentials
of Catholic interests, but willing to go a long way in order to
encourage and confirm national and municipal concord and
amity in all temporal matters.
In the present temper of the great majority of our American
people we shall all have to go on as we are going, thankful
that there is nothing in our written constitutions or in the
habits of our people to interfere with the natural and rightful
liberty of the parent-citizen to educate his children as he sees
fit, without any interference from a doctrinaire bureaucracy.
We can emphasize our many points of agreement among the
broad and fundamental considerations that confirm this gen-
eral thesis of the great need of scholastic reform in the sense
of religious and moral education. We can habituate ourselves
to recognize a common peril in a dechristianized American
soul, equipped as man never was before, with all the powers
and opportunities that our mighty State has called forth and
developed, or rather has only begun to call forth and develop.
8 THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION. [April,
We can teach with more earnestness the common and tra-
ditional Christian doctrines concerning God, the soul, the
moral law, sin, moral responsibility, prayer, divine provi-
dence, the divinity of Jesus Christ, and the traditional char-
acter of the Scriptures.
We can insist upon the worth of a Christian discipline of
character, even for the affairs of this world, on the sacredness
and seriousness of human life, on the Christian constitution of
the family, on the duties of parents in general and in detail,
on the obligation of a public worship and the Sunday rest.
We can instruct ourselves first, and then instruct others, on
the true and solid reasons why abortion, suicide, divorce,
corrupt conduct in business and politics, inordinate greed of
wealth and distinction, personal arrogance and contempt of
the poor and lowly, are wrong and conducive to the detriment
of the State and society,
We owe Dr. Shahan a deep debt of gratitude for this lucid
statement of our position and for the suggestions made anent
possible arrangements, in view of the complicated conditions
which we have to face in the United States. It is very help-
ful to have the truth brought home to the thinkers of the
country that a solution of this problem is not only possible,
but has actually been adopted in the leading nations of Europe.
The peculiar difficulties which beset boy life in our days
received careful consideration, though the remedies proposed
were of a somewhat hazy nature. How little the members
knew of the effective methods adopted by the noble-hearted
Catholic gentlemen of New York in their boys' clubs. An
address that attracted notice was one upon "The Problem of
the Country Boy," in which among other wise remarks the
speaker said :
i
The electricity in him constitutes the boy problem, and this
problem besets the village no less than the city. Self-reliant
when lost in the woods, the country boy is awkward or terror-
stricken in a crowd. His vitality suffers from scarcity of
boyish avenues along which to travel ; and he is, in conse-
quence, often an adult before his time. Peril comes to the
country boy from the drifting possibilities of a nature where
the physical has outstripped in development the imaginative
and idealistic. He does not attempt enough things either
good or bad. To save the country boy you dig new channels
1905.] THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION. g
into which his surging strength can be directed. A badly
started boy goes to the bad as readily in a sequestered valley
as in a turbulent metropolis.
The most alarming feature of the country boy problem is
that for the most part it is as yet a problem unattacked.
The country boy has neither been systematically studied,
nor has altruistic enthusiasm annexed him to its province.
For him there are no boys' clubs, gymnasiums, game cen-
tres, free baths, juvenile libraries, social settlements, or
trade schools. The towns are slower than the metropolis ;
the majority of them neglect both grass and boys. Some-
thing or some person must be found capable of fulfilling
the promoter function for the boy-power of our country
towns. There are agencies already on the field, but they
are not coping with the problem. Either new agencies must
be devised, or else the now-existing agencies must be in-
creased in efficiency.
It must be confessed that grave as are the difficulties at-
tendant upon boy life in cities, the difficulties in remote
and sparsely settled districts are far graver and call for the
exercise of great ingenuity, vigilance, and self-sacrifice. The
other speeches, while containing many excellent ideas, do not
seem to warrant special notice in an article which purports to
touch upon certain points only. In taking a general view of
these meetings we cannot help regretting the fact that, as
stated above, so little attention was paid to principle, and that
the speakers seemed so indefinite with regard to the specific
nature of the remedy against existing evils. These evils were
frankly admitted and deeply deplored; but the reader will
search the addresses in vain for a definite outline of a plan,
or for practical suggestions for coping with present miseries.
It was this vagueness, this uncertainty, that made Dr. Sha-
han's paper, in which everything was so precise, so luminous,
so pointed, most welcome. For Catholics, however, the work
of the association must, in general, bring joy. For its mem-
bers are, in great measure, battling for the principles which are
of so much moment to us, and they carry on their campaign
under extremely favorable conditions. That Americans are
strongly wedded to prevailing educational methods is so well
known as to need no comment. To the majority it seems to
be a perfect system, and the mere suggestion that it has grave
io THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIATION. [April.
defects, or that a better system could be devised, is sufficient
to call forth a volley of abuse, especially when the critic is a
Catholic, who is sure to be saluted as a traitor, as a person
about to undermine the basis of free government. The posi-
tion of the majority of the members of the Religious Educa-
tion Association saves them from this imputation. They are
not directly connected with us, and hence their remarks are
received without suspicion. On this account they are able to
secure a friendly hearing and to give testimony where our own
would be rejected. There is no point in which our people
need to be educated so much as in the principles of a true
and solid education. Turning aside from the natural and
divinely appointed custodians of the child's welfare, the parents,
many have come to regard the State as the sole authority in
matters of education, as though the parents in this momentous
matter had no voice whatever. Moreover, blinded by the dis-
play of a merely material equipment, and of inflated language,
too many have come to regard these as of primary importance
forgetting that after all nothing can take the place of a well-
planned systematic development of mind, body, and will,
nothing can supply for a rigid training in sound reasoning,
and in the general knowledge that must be the basis of all
intellectual excellence. It is the peculiar mission of the Re-
ligious Education Association to unfold the defects of the
national favorite, and to convince our people that not only is
it not accomplishing its duly-appointed task, but that, as mat-
ters now stand, it is really a source of danger to the country.
The immortal Washington left us a sacred legacy, when in his
farewell address he said : " Reason and experience both forbid
us to expect that national morality can prevail in the exclu-
sion of religious principles."
A FURTHER ANSWER TO DR. McKIM.
BY THE REVEREND BERTRAND L. CONWAY, C.S.P.
|N Dr. McKim's first letter to the New York Sun*
he declares that the members of the late Con-
vention of the Protestant Episcopal Church
"would also be in hearty agreement with your
(Cardinal Gibbon's) further statement that ' the
only effective remedy is to go back to the Gospel.'" But as
Dr. McKim belongs to a Church which officially f denies, as
Luther f did of old, the sacramental character of marriage, it
follows logically that he also considers the marriage contract
dissoluble. With regard to our Savior's teaching on this point,
he writes : " But when your Eminence goes on to say that the
Gospel prohibits all divorced men and women, who are validly
married, from entering into second nuptials, they (i. e. the men
who voted for the compromise,^ divorce canon) would find
themselves unable to follow you, because on two of the three
occasions when ou-r Lord spoke on this subject (recorded in
the fifth and nineteenth chapters of St. Matthew's Gospel) it
appears || that he laid down an exception to the rule of indis-
solubility, when he said: "Whosoever shall put away his wife,
and shall marry another committeth adultery," he added, they
urge, this exception, "except for fornication."
Dr. McKim forgets that our Lord spoke on the subject of
divorce not on three but on five occasions: Matt. v. 31, 32;
Matt, xix., 3-9; Mark. x. 2-9, 10-12; Luke xvi. 18. This
omission is especially suggestive, when we reflect that, in three
of these instances, our Savior's testimony is clear and explicit
regarding the absolute indissolubility of the marriage bond.
The words are these : " And the Pharisees coming to him,
asked him : Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife ?
* New York Sun, January 8, 1905. t Article XXV.
t Walch's edition of Luther, Vol. XIX., p. 113.
$ The Living Church, November 26, 1904, and December 10, 1904, p. 204.
|| This does not appear to other Protestant Episcopalians The Living Church, April 23,
September 24, October i, 1904.
12 A FURTHER ANSWER TO DR. MCKIM. [April,
tempting him. But he answering, saith to them : What did
Moses command you ? Who said : Moses permitted to write
a bill of divorce, and to put her away. To whom Jesus answer-
ing said: Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you
that precept. But from the beginning of the creation, God
made them male and female. For this cause a man shall leave
his father and mother ; and shall cleave to his wife. And
they two shall be in one flesh. Therefore now they are not
two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together,
let not man put asunder" (Mark. x. 2-9).
Words could not express more clearly the unity and indis-
solubility of marriage. Our Lord reminds his hearers that the
Mosaic bill of divorce was merely a temporary concession
granted " on account of the hardness of their hearts," that
went counter to the primitive perfection of marriage. He then
lays down the new Christian law, and restores the primitive
indissolubility of the marriage contract. " What therefore God
hath joined together, let not man put asunder."
The disciples, thinking that perhaps they may have mis-
understood his public answer to the Jewish teachers, questioned
him again privately "concerning the same thing."
"And in the house again his disciples asked him concern-
ing the same thing. And he saith to them: Whosoever shall
put away his wife and marry another, committeth adultery
against her. And if the wife shall put away her husband, and be
married to another, she committeth adultery " (Mark x. 10-12).
By these words our Savior clearly teaches his Apostles that
the Mosaic bill of divorce is abolished forever, and that the
Christian man and wife cannot remarry after being divorced
without being guilty of adultery.
The Gospel of St. Luke sets forth the same doctrine :
" Every one that putteth away his wife, and marrieth another,
committeth adultery; and he that marrieth her that is put
away from her husband, committeth adultery" (Luke xvi. 18).*
Could the condemnation of divorce be put more strongly ?
A (the husband) is validly married to B (the wife). If A divorce
B and marry C (another woman), this second marriage is
declared an adulterous union; if D (another man) attempt to
* It is interesting to find both these texts quoted by the H3th Protestant Episcopal
Council of South Carolina to show that the Gospel confirms the State law against remarriage
after divorce The Living Church, September 24, 1904.
1905.] A FURTHER ANSWER TO DR. Me KIM. 13
marry the repudiated wife (B), this union is also declared
adulterous.
Before discussing the disputed passages in St. Matthew's
Gospel, let us first consider St. Paul's inspired commentary on
the Savior's teaching. Surely his interpretation is of more
value than that of the modern schismatic Greeks, or the leaders
of the Anglo-German revolt of the sixteenth century, whom
Dr. McKirn and his school follow.
St. Paul says : " But to them that are married, not I but
the Lord commandeth, that the wife depart not from her hus-
band. And if she depart (i.e., if she be divorced from bed
and board on account of adultery, or some other grave cause),
that she remain unmarried, or (if she choose to condone the
offense) be reconciled to her husband. And let not the hus-
band put away his wife" (I. Cor. vii. 10, n).
In the same letter he teaches that the consummated Chris-
tian marriage can be dissolved only by the death of one of
the marri'ed couple. "A woman is bound by the law as long
as her husband liveth ; but if her husband die, she is at liberty ;
let her marry to whom she will; only in the Lord" (Ibid. 39).
He teaches the same doctrine in his letter to the Romans :
" For the woman that hath an husband, whilst her husband
liveth is bound to the law. But if her husband be dead, she
is loosed from the law of her husband. Therefore, whilst her
husband liveth, she shall be called an adulteress, if she be
with another man ; but if her husband be dead, she is de-
livered from the law of her husband ; so that she is not an
adulteress, if she be with another man" (Rom. vii. 2, 3).
It is a universal law of Scriptural interpretation, that ob-
scure and doubtful passages ought to be viewed and interpreted
in the light of clear and certain texts.* Bellarmine f pointed
out long ago that the early Christians, who possessed only the
Gospels of St. Mark and St. Luke (and we may add the Epis-
tles to the Romans and Corinthians), would surely have been
deceived by the Evangelists if, as the modern Protestants
maintain, the marriage bond was dissoluble.
It may be well to state that Catholics do not pretend to
arrive at their infallible certainty on this important doctrine
by mere critical arguments or mere private opinions about
This principle is maintained by The Living Church, October I, 1904, p. 719, in view of
these very texts. t De Mat., Cap. xvi. n. 6.
14 A FURTHER ANSWER TO DR. Me KIM. [April,
certain Bible texts. The history of the past four hundred
years is ample proof that the Bible interpreted by the indi-
vidual can be brought forward to deny in turn every single
teaching of Christianity and theism. As Mr. Mallock once
said : " To make it (the revelation of God) in any sense an
infallible revelation, or, in other words, a revelation at all, to
us, we need a power to interpret the testament that shall have
equal authority with that testament itself." * With an inter-
preter divine, infallible, and authoritative, even as Jesus Christ
was, Catholics alone can have divine certainty on this question
of divorce.
We have seen f that from the earliest ages the Fathers of
the Church were unanimous in declaring that adultery did not
dissolve the marriage bond. The same doctrine was taught by
innumerable councils provincial and general from the fourth
century till the sixteenth, e. g., Elvira, 313 A. D., Aries, 314
A. D., Milevis, 416 A. D., Hertford, 673 A. D., Soissons, 744
A. D., Friuli, 791 A. D., Florence, 1439 A. D., Trent, 1545-
63 A. D.
But as our Protestant brethren will not admit the existence
of an infallible guide to interpret the Sacred Scriptures, let us
meet them on their own ground, and see if the two obscure
texts of St. Matthew's Gospel cannot readily be reconciled
with the Savior's teaching in St. Mark and St. Luke. The
first text, Matt. v. 31, 32, is as follows :
" And it hath been said : Whosoever shall put away his
wife, let him give her a bill of divorce. But I say to you,
that whosoever shall put away his wife, excepting for the
cause of fornication, maketh her to commit adultery; and he
that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery."
Some interpreters 1 ^ have called attention to the fact that
in both the classical Greek and the Greek of the Old (Septua-
gint) and New Testament the sin of unchastity before mar-
* Is Life Worth Living? Ch. xi. p. 267. Putnam, 1879.
\Cf. CATHOLIC WORLD, March, 1905.
Jit may be interesting to quote the views of some of the members of the Protestant
Episcopal Convention, who hold the Catholic interpretation: " The passage in St. Matthew,
'aken on its face, gives permission for divorce for one cause only. It gives no permission for
a man or woman to remarry under any circumstances " (Rev. Dr. Oberly, of New Jersey).
"A proper reading of Matt. xix. 9 will show that our Lord did not make an exception by
implication of adultery as a cause of divorce" (Rev. Robert Richie, of Pennsylvania). The
Living Church, October 22, 1904, p. 847.
$Dollinger, The First Age of the Church. Appendix.
1905.] A FURTHER ANSWER TO DR. MCKIM. 15
riage is generally called porneia, and after marriage moicheia.
As the word porneia is used in the above passage, they main-
tain that our Lord, speaking only to Jews, told them it was
lawful to put away a wife who was found guilty of ante-nup-
tial sin. With the Jews this was not regarded as a dissolving
of the marriage bond, but as a declaration of nullity, for
among them marriage with a virgin was alone regarded as
valid.* "When Christ, however, laid down the Christian law
of marriage (Mark x. 2-12; Luke xvi. 17), he forbade divorce
under all circumstances.
The most common and most natural interpretation, how-
ever, grants that porneia does mean adultery, and that our
Lord was speaking of marriage in general, and not merely of
marriage under the Jewish law ; but it declares that he does
not speak of divorce with the right to remarry, but divorce
in the sense of a perpetual separation on account of adultery.
The meaning of Matt. v. 32, therefore, is : " Whosoever shall
put away his wife and refuse absolutely to live with her again,
which he may not do unless she is an adulteress, maketh her
to commit adultery, by exposing her to the danger of living
with another in an adulterous union."
To realize that this is not a forced interpretation, let us
consider the scope of our Lord's teaching, and the context.
Now it is evident that Christ is opposing a new and higher
legislation to the old Mosaic law of divorce. (" It hath been
said." " But I say to you.")
But if according to our Savior's teaching adultery is to
dissolve the valid Christian marriage, wherein lies the superior-
ity of the new law ? On the contrary, it would appear to be
far more lax than the old. The Mosaic law permitted divorce
only to the husband, f and decreed death to the adulteress.!
The Christian law, from the Protestant standpoint, would allow
both husband and wife to sue for divorce, and would put a
premium upon adultery, by declaring the adulteress free of the
bond that had become irksome to her.
Dr. McKim would, no doubt, object to this last statement,
and maintain that the guilty party has no right to remarry.
But we remember that he quoted with approval the following
in The Living Church of July 30, 1904: "Adultery is the one
* The same idea is held to-day by the natives of the West Coast of Africa,
tjosephus. Antlq. Lib. XV. , c. vii. n. 10. JDeut. xxii. 22.
1 6 A FURTHER ANSWER 70 DR. McKiM. [April,
cause which destroys marriage physically by confusion of
blood. It is the one cause which takes away the very ground
of the mutual contract, and makes its continuance impossible.
It is the one cause which destroys the social or civil contract,
etc."
But if " adultery destroys marriage," and makes the con-
tinuance of the mutual contract impossible, why illogically
teach that the innocent party is free to remarry, while the
guilty one is not free ? Surely this modern theory is fraught
with strange consequences. For suppose that a man commits
adultery without his wife's knowledge, and still continues to
live with her no impossible case it would follow that she a
good woman is, despite herself, living in adultery with one
whom she supposes to be her husband. Her children born
after her husband's adultery would be also illegitimate ! *
This is surely a reductio ad absurdum.
Again, if we carefully consider the context, we will dis-
cover that the Savior plainly declares the marriage bond un-
broken after the separation for adultery, for he says that the
repudiated wife who remarries is guilty of adultery (" maketh
her to commit adultery "), and the man who marries her is also
an adulterer ("and he that shall marry her that is put away,
committeth adultery ").
Does it seem probable that our Savior would desire to
favor an adulteress rather than an innocent wife ? Yet on the
Protestant hypothesis, he would have done so. For if an
innocent woman be put away without cause by her wicked
husband, she would be denied the right to remarry, whereas
to obtain that privilege she has only to commit adultery.
Such a doctrine is unworthy of the Son of God.
The other alleged exception is found in Matt. xix. 3-9 :
" And there came to him the Pharisees tempting him, and
saying : Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every
cause ? Who answering, said to them : Have ye not read,
that he who made man from the beginning, Made them male
and female ? And he said : For this cause shall a man leave
father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife and they two
shall be in one flesh. Therefore now they are not two, but
one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no
man put asunder. They say to him : Why then did Moses
* The Living Church, September 10, 1904.
1905.] A FURTHER ANSWER TO DR. MCKIM. 17
command to give a bill of divorce, and to put away ? He
saith to them : Because Moses by reason of the hardness of
your heart permitted you to put away your wives; but from
the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, that whoso-
ever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and
shall marry another, committeth adultery ; and he that shall
marry her that is put away committeth adultery."
Here our Savior replies to the Pharisees' question, by teach-
ing that marriage was in the beginning absolutely indissoluble;
indeed so much so that husband and wife formed one moral
unity (" in one flesh "), which no human power could dissolve.
When the Pharisees objected to this doctrine, which went
counter to the teaching of both their schools,* and pointed to
the Mosaic bill of divorce,! our Lord replied that divorce was
only a temporary concession of Moses, granted " by reason of
the hardness of their hearts," and contrary to the primitive
law, " from the beginning it was not so." The whole context
is unintelligible, if our Savior allowed divorce. The words of
the disciples also prove clearly that they found this new severe
law against divorce very hard to flesh and blood. " If the case
of a man and his wife be so, it is not expedient to marry."
Christ does not correct them, but repeats his teaching, as he
always did when his audience understood him correctly: "All
men take not this word, but they to whom it is given. "|
The meaning of the disputed passage therefore is: "Who-
soever shall put away his wife (which shall not be lawful, ex-
cept for fornication), and shall marry another, committeth
adultery." By these words, our Savior permits a man a per-
petual separation because of adultery, but the right to remarry
is denied, inasmuch as the marriage bond still holds.
The fact that the Greek Church allows divorce for adultery,
instead of weakening the Catholic position, only brings out
more clearly the absolute inability of a schismatical or hereti-
cal body to enforce the divine law and doctrine of Jesus Christ.
Only the one divine society that is governed by the infallible
vicar of Christ can give faithful witness to the Gospel, and
command the respect of its followers. It is, however, not true
to say that the Greeks allowed divorce " from the earliest
times." On the contrary, the early Greek Fathers held the
* Keim, Geschichte Jesu, II. 248. Schuerer, The Jewish People in the Time of Christ, Vol.
IV., p. 123. t Deut. xxiv. i. (Matt, xix. 10, n.
VOL. LXXXI. 2
1 8 A FURTHER ANSWER TO DR. Me KIM. [April,
absolute indissolubility of the marriage bond; it was only after
the Greek Church had become subject to the State as the
Anglo-German phase of Christianity did in the sixteenth cen-
tury that the Roman civil laws of divorce became the norm
of their unchristian practice.
Perrone,* shows clearly that in all the negotiations for re-
union between the East and West this question never was
brought into controversy. When the Reformers strove to ob-
tain the support of the Easterns, Jeremias the Patriarch of
Constantinople, plainly set forth the Catholic teaching, although
the weakness of schism ever prevented the Easterns from
enforcing the law of Christ on this point.
Unlike other ministers of the Protestant Episcopal Church,
who give due meed of praise to the Catholic Church for her
firm and decided stand on the divorce question, Dr. McKim
seems determined to deprive her of all claim to the world's
respect on this point. We remember how Luther of old railed
against the ecclesiastical laws of marriage, calling the Church's
impediments and dispensations " impious human laws," and the
Pope anti-Christ for declaring marriages contracted with diri-
ment impediments null and void.f
Dr. McKim writes: "To our mind it appears that the dis-
tinction | between these numerous cases of annulments of mar-
riage, and the dissolution of marriage, is theoretical rather than
practical. . . . Such a principle seems to us to strike at the
very heart of the family, etc." Catholics who are accustomed
to the vagaries of private judgment in the Protestant Episco-
pal Church, are naturally prepared to find anything, from the
infallibility of the Pope to the denial of the divinity of Christ,
appear true "to the mind" of the individual member of that
denomination. But surely the average logical mind can see
both a theoretical and practical distinction between a contract
declared null and void on account of some inherent defect and
a perfectly valid contract set at naught by some incompetent
authority.
For example, the Church's declaration of the nullity of a
marriage may be compared to the State's declaring a contract
* De Mat. Christ., Vol. III., p. 393 seq.
\ Lutheri opera laiina, 7 vols. Viteberga, 1539. Vol. II., p. 86.
tOf course other Episcopalians do not agree with Dr. McKim Living Church, October i,
1904, p. 7'9-
$ Advocated by the editor of The Lamp, Garrison, N. Y.
1905.] A FURTHER ANSWER TO DR. Me KIM. 19
of sale null and void because the vendor is proved to have
had no legal title to the property in question ; whereas, the
Protestant dissolution of a valid marriage may be compared to
the usurped power of a persecuting State confiscating a man's
rightfully possessed property, because of his non conformity to
the State religion.
The difference, therefore, between the Protestant divorce
and the Catholic annulment of marriage is one of principle ;
the true Church of Christ can forbid, and for centuries has
forbidden, the dissolution of a valid marriage ; she cannot,
either as the interpreter of the natural law, or as the divine
society instituted by Jesus Christ, prevent the possibility of
marriage being sometimes invalidly contracted.
And first, with regard to the natural law, let us consider
the diriment impediment of force and fear. The efficient cause
of marriage is the mutual consent of the two parties. If,
therefore, it be judicially proven that a woman was forced
to go through the marriage ceremony through the grave fear
of death, the canon law* following the dictate of reason must
declare the contract null.
The marriage of the Duchess of Hamilton, often brought
forward as an objection in the Question Box during our mis-
sions to non-Catholics, is a case in point. She asked for an
annulment of her marriage on the ground of fear destroying
her consent, and in the trial of her case the Ecclesiastical
court sustained her contention. Leo XIII. himself examined
her case, and declared her marriage contract void from the
beginning.
But Dr. McKim seems rather to object against the diriment
impediments that are enacted by the Church, viz., consanguinity,
affinity, spiritual affinity, difference of worship, clandestinity,
and the like. These especially appear to his Protestant private
judgment "to place the great Church in a rather equivocal
position," for " these various annulments are no better than so
many divorces."
Of course we can readily see that a human society, which
denies the sacramental character of marriage, has no right
whatsoever to legislate regarding the validity or non-validity
of the marriage contract. But the Catholic Church claims the
right, as the sole representative of Jesus Christ, and the one
"Grat., C. xxxi. q. 2. Decretal, Lib. I., XL., and IV. Cap. 6, 13-15, 21, 28.
20 A FURTHER ANSWER TO DR. MCKIM. [April,
divine guardian of the unity and perpetuity of the sacrament
of matrimony, to declare under what circumstances the mar-
riage contract can be validly performed. Her laws are not
arbitrary, but are made to safeguard the welfare of the indi-
vidual and of society.
A moment's reflection will convince a fair-minded man of
the Church's wisdom in her impediments of consanguinity and
affinity. She wishes to keep essentially distinct the love a man
has for his wife, and the love he has for his kinsfolk, and
consequently forbids his future marriage with one who, through
the close ties of blood or marriage, happens to live under the
same roof with his family. Besides she knows from experience
that close intermarriage is frequently harmful to the mental
and physical well-being of the children born of such unions.
When she prohibits the marriage of one baptized and one
not baptized,* she is prompted solely by her great love for
souls. She knows the evils caused by the husband being a
practical pagan, and the wife a practical Christian. She as
the representative of Christ is bound to prevent as far as pos-
sible this woman's apostasy, and to safeguard the faith of her
children. How can true peace reign in a household, when a
father maintains the right of race suicide, while the Catholic
mother detests it with her whole heart, and believes, with St.
Paul, that a woman is "saved through childbearing." f
But when Dr. McKim professes to see no practical difference
between the annulments of such marriages, can it be that he is
ignorant of the fact that when the necessary dispensation is
granted by the bishop for such marriages, they are thereby
validated, and hold till death ? If a Catholic marry one un-
baptized in presence of a minister or alderman, he has him-
self to blame if he is living in concubinage. It is the penalty
he incurs by deliberately violating the law of the divine
society to which he belongs.
It is false to state " that a powerful school of Roman
theologians regard Protestant marriages as simple concubinage."
If two baptized Protestants are married in England, Scotland,
Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Ireland, or these United States,
their marriage is always recognized as valid, and no Catholic
* Some Protestant Episcopalians consider such marriages "not invalid, although unlaw-
ful," Mortimer, Christian Faith and Practice, ii. 40, while others declare them invalid unless
the necessary dispensation has been received, Percival, Digest of Theology, p. 160.
1 1. Tim. ii. 15.
1905.] A FURTHER ANSWER TO DR. Me KIM. 21
theologian would dream of styling it concubinage. It is true,
of course, that the Tridentine law of clandestinity does apply
to all babtized Christians in Belgium, Italy, Central and South
America, etc. *
This may seem a rather stern law, but it rests on the
principle that baptism renders one a subject of the Church of
God. The law was passed by the Council of Trent only to
counteract the great evils of clandestine marriages. The prin-
ciple is set forth by the early Fathers and writers. St. Igna-
tius says: "It becomes both men and women who marry to
form their union with the approval of the bishop, that their
marriage may be according to the Lord, and not after their
own lust."f And Tertullian : "Accordingly, among us, secret
marriages also that is, marriages not first professed in presence
of the Church run the risk of being judged akin to adultery
and fornication."| To run this risk is one of the penalties of
schism and heresy.
In a word, the diriment impediments are all based on the
highest possible reverence paid by a divine Church to a divine
sacrament, whereas divorce rests on an utter contempt for the
sacramental character of marriage, and substitutes for the
simultaneous polygamy of the pagan or mormon the successive
polygamy which is just as heinous in God's sight. "Beware
how you enter into so sacred a state," says the Catholic
Church, "for it is a union that holds till death." "Do not
worry," says the non-Catholic, "for if you find the bond irk-
some, you can easily be freed from the yoke."
Dr. McKim brings forward the annulment of Napoleon's
marriage with Josephine, by an incompetent ecclesiastical tri-
bunal, as proof of the Catholic Church's approval of the em-
peror's adulterous union with Marie Louise of Austria. Does
the learned doctor forget the annulment of Henry VIII. 's
marriage with Catharine of Aragon by an incompetent Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, which gave rise to the Protestant Church
of England. Let us quote the Protestant writer, Gairdner :
"On Good Friday, April n, the new Archbishop of Canter-
bury (of course under secret orders) wrote to the King, humbly
requesting to be allowed to determine his matrimonial cause
in a court of his own. Needless to say, he received a com-
* De Sponsalibus et Mat. De Becker, p. 121.
t Epistle to Polycarp, Ch. v. \On Modesty, Ch. iv.
22 A FURTHER ANSWER TO DR. MCKIM. [April,
mission to do so. ... On the 23d he gave sentence that
the king's marriage was invalid. Then, by a like mockery of
law and justice, he held a secret inquiry at Lambeth, on the 28th,
as to the king's marriage with Anne Boleyn, which, of course,
was found to be lawful. On what evidences he came to this
conclusion, the world was not informed. . . . On July i r
the Pope pronounced Henry excommunicated, and his divorce,
and remarriage null."*
The facts in the Napoleon case are these : Napoleon was
married to Josephine de Beauharnais March 9, 1796, by a civil
ceremony only, which was invalid because of the Tridentine
law of clandestinity, which required the marriage before the
parish priest and two witnesses. On December I, 1804, the
day preceding the coronation, Josephine mentioned this fact to
Pius VII, who had shared the common belief that she had
been married according to the laws of the Church. Napoleon
was greatly incensed at this, but was obliged to consent to
the religious marriage, which was performed by Cardinal
Fesch with the needed dispensation of the Pope. Metternich,
the Austrian prime minister, asserted afterwards that Napoleon
had never been sacramentally united to Josephine, but that
was a diplomatic falsehood, to cover the shame of the Catholic
Hapsburgs in allowing Marie Louise to live in an adulterous
union. Prince Jerome Napoleon says : " Napoleon and Josephine,
who had been only civilly married in the time of the Directory,
were united religiously by Cardinal Fesch, in order to satisfy
the scruples of Josephine, on the evening preceding the conse-
cration, in the presence of Talleyrand and Berthier, in the
Chapel of the Tuileries. I know this from the traditions of my
family." f
The subservient French bishops who declared the diocesan
officialty of Paris competent in the case, had no authority, and
well knew that the Pope was the judge in the matrimonial
cases of sovereigns. At this mock trial, Cardinal Fesch de-
clared that he had received the necessary dispensation from
the Pope,} which should have settled the matter at once.
Talleyrand, Berthier, and Duroc testified they had heard Na-
poleon say he only intended to go through a mock ceremony
* A History of the English Church in the Sixteenth Century. Joseph Gairdner, pp. 141,
242. The First Divorce of Henry VIII. Mrs. Hope, p. 308 seq.
\Napoleon and his Detractors. \ CATHOLIC WORLD. Vol. II. p. 14.
1905.] A FURTHER ANSWER TO DR. Me KIM. 23
to please the Pope and Josephine. On the testimony of these
naturally interested witnesses, who were acting under orders
from their imperial master, this incompetent ecclesiastical court
declared that the consent necessary to a valid marriage was
lacking, although, as a matter of fact, they declared the mar-
riage with Josephine null and void on account of the absence
of the parish priest and the needed witnesses. They, an inferior
court, declared that the general dispensation granted by the
highest ecclesiastical court, the Pope, was not sufficient ! Of
course the metropolitan officialty confirmed this decision, and
the final decision of the Lyons court was naturally favorable,
the Archbishop being Cardinal Fesch.*
Dr. McKim fails to state that Napoleon purposely saw to
it that Pius VII. should not give sentence, although he was
the only one competent to do so. He also fails to mention
the fact that thirteen of the French cardinals absented them-
selves from the marriage, as a protest against this travesty of
canon law. He also fails to mention that when Napoleon
wished Pius VII. to annul the marriage of Napoleon's brother,
Jerome, with Miss Patterson, of Baltimore, the Pontiff declared
the marriage valid in the sight of God.
Napoleon did have a precedent in the case of Philip
Augustus and his wife, Ingelberga. This valid marriage was
also annulled by some subservient French court prelates, but
it is well to recall the fact that two popes, Celestine III. and
Innocent III. declared the marriage valid, even though all
France had to be placed under an interdict to force the king
to take back his lawful wife.f
As for Dr. McKim's insinuation that the homes of the
Catholics of Mexico, South Arqerica, the Philippines, France,
Spain, and Italy are not "purer and better than the average
(Protestant) home in England and the United States," we will
remind him that the ignorant days of old A. P. A. ism are over
now, and that thinking men are not influenced in the slightest
by the hearsay evidence of a certain unknown " gentleman of
the highest character who lived in Rome thirty years," or the
ipse dixit of an ordinary Washington rector. Quod gratis
asseritur, gratis negatur is a good old maxim. We might ask
the learned doctor whether he or his friend ever read Rev.
Divorce et Second Marriage de Napoleon. R. Duhr.
t Alzog, Universal Church History, Vol. II., p. 577.
24 A FURTHER ANSWER TO DR. MCKIM. [April,
Mr. Seymour's Evenings with the Romanists. If so, we would
recommend as an antidote to the poison, the discussion of
the morality of the city of Rome as found in Father Young's
book on this very question.*
Dr. McKim declared that his aim in writing an open letter
to Cardinal Gibbons was, " incidentally, to vindicate his Church's
claim to be as conscientious and effective a guardian of the home
and the sacredness of the family relation as any Church on
earth." We ask the doctor to ponder over the following words
in one of his own Church papers, that go counter to his state-
ment: t
"We feel that the Church (the Protestant Episcopal) has
seriously lowered the moral standard that she ought to hold up,
so long as by canon she permits her marriage office to be used
for the joining together of persons who are forbidden by that
office itself to be married. Having prevented this, the Church
will have stamped her disapproval upon such marriage. She
will no longer be in complicity with those who unlawfully enter
the marriage state. When her children are turned away from
her Church doors with the statement that they cannot twice
be married with her sanction, until death has first separated
husband from wife, she has given her warning to them not to
venture into such a union."
It is needless to say that this writer's call to a "higher
moral standard " was of no avail at the late General Conven-
tion, and in future, although some individual ministers, like the
rector of Trinity, New York City, may refuse to perform what
they deem adulterous marriages, the Protestant Episcopal
Church, as a whole, sanctions them with a religious ceremony.
Of course in this matter it is consistent with the teachings of
Luther and Calvin, who denied the sacramental character of
marriage.
Only one Church the Church Catholic dares teach clearly
and authoritatively on this burning question of the day, and
command her children, under the penalty of eternal loss, to be
absolutely faithful to the words of the Savior : " What God
hath joined together, let no man put asunder."
* Catholic and Protestant Countries Compared, p.' 533, seq. Cf. CATHOLIC WORLD,
October, 1869.
t The Living Church, September 17, 1904, p. 678.
" IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH."
BY M. F. QUINLAN.
" A tree hath hope: if it be cut, it groweth green again, and the boughs thereof sprout.
If its root be old in the earth, and its stock be dead in the dust ; at the scent of water it shall
spring, and bring forth leaves, as when it was first planted. But man when he shall be dead,
and stripped and consumed, I pray you where is he? " (Job xiv. 7-10).
[HE woman in the hovel was ill. At times she
could sit up, but for the most part she kept her
bed. She had been ailing thus for years. For
two years had she spent each day alone, never
stirring beyond the hovel door.
Her husband was away all day, and both her daughters
worked at the factory. At noon they returned to have their
dinner and to tend their mother; then they hurried back to the
jam factory, leaving the sick woman to her lonely vigil. She
was waiting for death.
The door of the hovel was always bolted. She preferred it
so to be locked in with her thoughts ; she said it felt safer.
For her nerves were wrecked with suffering and she feared what
lay beyond. So the weeks and the months crept by ; and still
the angel tarried.
Sometimes she used to wonder, as she sat with her eyes
fixed on the one grimy window that faced the blank wall, if death
had not forgotten her. He had knocked at other doors. down
the Court. Why did he never beckon to her? She was weary
of watching.
There was not much sunshine in the alley. The blank wall
opposite was always gray ; but in the twilight it became grayer,
and then black pitch black. It shut out the stars, that dreary
blackness, and it crept into the hovel, filling it with night. Then
the woman knew that another day had passed. There was nothing
to choose between them ; one day was the same as the last, and
each was twelve hours long. Then the darkness came and swal-
lowed it; and the jaws of eternity stood agape for the morrow.
She could just see it from where she lay. First the blank gray
26 " IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH." [April,
wall with the shadows creeping up and then blotting it out;
and lo ! the passing day was gone gulped down by Time, the
devourer.
It was an eerie occupation, to watch the passing of the days;
but the sick woman had nothing else to do. She was always
glad when twilight fell glad, because that day could never
return. But after awhile the darkness in the hovel would frighten
her. It used to twist itself into horrible shapes, while flaming
eyes would glare at her through the bolted door, and ghastly
arms endeavored to entwine themselves round the lonely brain.
Then the woman would cower down trembling and cover her
head. At such times she felt forsaken of God and man. How
long, she murmured, must she keep tally of the days? Must she
watch forever the gray shadows creeping up the blank wall ?
How many nights more must she listen to the human curses and
the staggering footsteps that filled the evil Court. With a sigh
of utter weariness she turned her face to the wall and sobbed.
The tears helped to shut out the darkness. She felt less lonely
when she cried; and in another hour her daughters would
return to her.
But if there was sin in the Court there was also charity. I
was passing through the alley one day when I saw a woman
listening outside the door of Number 5. It was a wild, blustery
day and the woman's ragged dress was blown in the wind.
"'Tis fancy, p'heps," said the waiting figure, "but whin the
wind do be rough, seems like as if I 'ears the sound o' sobbin*.
An' Gawd 'elp 'er ! she's all be 'erself, poor soul ! " The
woman jerked her thumb over her shoulder; " an' mebbe she'll
die, wid n'er a priest, an' niver a friend by 'er."
"And the door is always locked?"
The woman nodded. " If 'twasn't fur thet, the neighbors
wud look arter 'er, an' tidy up the place a bit."
"Can nothing be done?" I asked.
"Well, I was thinkin' as mebbe 'tis yersilf as cud git in.
I've see'd yer knockin' more'n once," she added, "but thet ain't
no manner o' use. But look 'ere ! You tell me wot day yer'll
come, an' I'll git 'er 'usband ter leave the door on the latch.
Fur I'd wish yer jes' to see 'er. It's like on me mind as no
one never comes nigh 'er. An' 'tis likely," said the woman
under her drawn shawl, " as we're all nearer death nor we
think fur."
1905.] ''IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH." 27
I nodded. "When shall I come?"
"Say yer come fust on Sund'y," she suggested, "an* see
'er 'usband, too ? I'll tell 'im yer kin trust me. Twelve
o'clock. An' yer won't be late? fur they'll be expectin' yer."
So I promised.
On the following Sunday morning a church clock was strik-
ing when I knocked at the hovel door. But, as usual, no one
came. And in the length of the alley there was no sign of
life.
It seemed a fruitless enterprise getting to the other side
of that door and I was about to give up the attempt. Then
softly the door handle turned from within. And after a minute
or two the door opened a few inches, and a girl peered out.
" May I see Mrs. McDermott ? " I asked.
With vacant eyes the girl stared at me through the aper-
ture.
" I have an appointment with her, and I promised not to
be late."
Still the factory hand said nothing.
Puzzled at her seeming indifference, I wondered if I had
mistaken the door. But just then I saw " Number five "
scrawled in white chalk over the entrance.
"She does live here, does she not?"
" No ; she don't." The answer was brusque and the girl's
eyes hard fixed. " She's dead, thet's wot she is." She opened
the door and stared vacantly at the blank wall Then she undid
the neck of her dress and did it up again. " Dead," she mut-
tered. She passed her hand across her forehead and paused.
"Dead!" The cry rang out through the alley and the girl
burst into a wild flood of tears.
So this was the dead woman's daughter the girl from the
jam factory, who hurried home at noon to tend her. And now
she stood in the doorway and leaned her head against the
doorpost, sobbing as if her heart would break.
I waited until her sobs had lessened, and then I asked her
to tell me about it. It seemed a relief to unburden her grief,
and bit by bit, with the tears trickling down her cheeks and
her voice broken with sobs, she told me of the end. For the
last few days, she said, her mother had been better. Only
that morning she seemed almost well. 'Twas but an hour ago
that they thought she was sleeping. . . . But the sleep
28 "IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH:' [April,
was of death and the dream eternal. And the factory girl
leaned her head on her arm and sobbed again.
In the tiny room above, the dead woman was being laid out
by a neighbor; for in the Devil's Alley no one lays out their
own dead. This is the last service ; the inalienable privilege
of friendship ; nay more it is the hallowed tradition of Mark's
Place.
And because one of their number had that day left their
ranks gone forth at the summons to join the great majority
the East End Court was hushed, and the living spoke in whis-
pers. For the Angel of Death stood in the alley ; and the
shadow of his wings reached from end to end.
It was a fortnight later when I again went down the alley.
This time it was to inquire for the living. So I stopped at
Number 5.
In the open doorway sat an old man. He was chopping
sticks with a kitchen knife. There were hard lines about his
face, together with a week's stubble, while on his head was a
dilapidated bowler hat that came down over his ears.
"Are you Mr. McDermott?" I asked.
" I am," said he curtly. And he went on chopping sticks.
As a first meeting it was not promising, and I was rather
at a loss how to proceed. It was not for a stranger to offer
sympathy. So I stood and watched him while the sticks fell
on the paving stones, and the alley was filled with silence.
" I believe you are an Irishman," I said presently. The
remark was thrown out more or less as a fly to a salmon. I
hoped he would rise to it. This he did with unexpected
vigor. Indeed, had I lighted a dynamite bomb the explosion
could hardly have been greater.
"An Irishman, is it?" he ejaculated and the half- chopped
stick dropped from his hand. "An Irishman! Shure I am
that ; an' glory be ter God fur the same. 'Tis fr'm the County
Cork I am, an' divil take the North ! "
The old man threw back his head and looked at me defi-
antly. Standing in the doorway of the hovel with the flash of
Celtic fire in his eyes, and the kitchen knife in his hand, he
stood for the country that still struggled to be free.
To him I was one of the Saxons who had accompanied
Strongbow into Ireland. Worse than that, I was a follower of
Cromwell, who had murdered their women and children at
1905.] "IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH:' 29
Wexford and Drogheda. And, hardest of all to the old man,
I represented the race that had framed the penal laws. Was
the persecution of centuries to be wiped out by a morning
call in the alley ? It was not thus with the Celt. So the son
of Erin stood in his doorway and glared at me.
"Yis; 'tis from Ireland I come," said he with rising
patriotism, " the land o' heroes an' o' saints. An' 'tisn't me
that '11 be denyin' me religion neither," he ejaculated, "fur I
come fr'm the old stock as suffered an' "
" And pray, where do I come in ? " I interrupted.
The effect was instantaneous. Checked midway in a flight
of patriotic eloquence, he gazed at me open-eyed, as if I had
dropped from the clouds.
" Tis niver fr'm ? "
I nodded.
" Musha ! musha ! " .His tone was incredulous. But as the
novel position dawned upon him, the hard lines softened and
the scowl gave place to a smile.
" Theoretically," I said, " I'm from Tipperary."
" Shure 'tis a fine part," he murmured. " 'Tis almost as
good as Cork."
" Hush man ! " I said, " you must have seen Tipperary in
the dark ! " There was an answering light in the old man's
eye.
" No matter," said I ; " which ever part it is, there's no
other like it."
"Thrue fur yez ! " He held out his hand and seized mine.
" God save Ireland, sez we." And then with some difficulty,
for it seemed like part of his anatomy he doffed the dilapi-
dated bowler. It was Cork's tribute to the County Tippeiary.
" Fur 'tis theer," he said generously, " that the finest boys
an' the handsomest girls come fr'm."
Here my heart smote me sore, for that I had not been
born on Tipperary soil, but had inherited my nationality as a
family heirloom.
" May the Almighty have ye in his keepin', an' may the
hivens be yer bed ! " It was thus, with a lavish hand, that
he scattered blessings upon me in the deserted alley, while my
sympathy went out to the old man who stood at the hovel
door where death had so lately been.
Then he told me of himself and of his sorrow; and because
30 "IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH" [April,
of the death of his wife how his life was overshadowed with
his grief. He was silent awhile ; after which he tried to
throw off his gloom.
" Come along in," he said, " Come in an' welcome ! An'
'tis yersilf as '11 be surprised whin yer see."
So picking up my skirts I stepped over the sticks that
strewed the doorway, and followed him in. As I did so I
wondered if it were a corpse or a writ I was to be shown
that day. But having given a cursory glance round the poor
little room, I could see nothing worthy of note.
Then the old man turned round. And with a comprehen-
sive sweep of his hand, which took in the room in general
and nothing in particular, he asked with some majesty :
" What d'ye think o' that, now ? "
In truth I knew not what to think still less what to say.
A false step here, and even the County Tipperary could not
save me. The ice was dangerously thin, and forthwith I com-
mended myself to the saints.
Hoping for an inspiration, I took another glance round the
hovel and my eye fell upon two gaudy oleographs one of
Robert Emmet, the other of St. Patrick. Meanwhile the old
man stood immovable, waiting for the verdict, while I, trem-
bling, hesitated. After all, I reflected, I can but fail. Ah, but
if I failed, the hovel door would never open again, and I should
have lost caste in the alley.
"What d'ye think, now?" reiterated my fellow Celt.
" Mr. McDermott," I answered, with vague impressiveness,
"your taste is uncommon."
" Ah ! " said the man from Cork, " now yez have it ! " and he
beckoned me across the grimy floor. First he introduced me
to Robert Emmet, whose hair was brushed up until it shone ;
and then he led me to where St. Patrick occupied the place
of honor.
It was wonderfully realistic, this print of St. Patrick. First
there were tufcs of shamrock starting out of the red brown
earth, and right on top of these stood the saint. He was
arrayed in a green cope and a mitre that was greener, and
under his foot he held down a snake. This particular snake,
I fancy, must now be extinct. It was of indigo blue, mottled
with orange. Given wings it might have flown about the Gar-
den of Paradise. But it had no wings. And in view of its
1905.] " IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH" 31
orange markings, I was inclined to think it had crawled down
from "the North" the artistic talent being as assuredly fos-
tered in "the South." Be that as it may, St. Patrick and the
blue snake shared between them the poor frame together they
divided honors in the gaudy oleograph.
"Have yer ever seen the like of it?" The old man stood
beside me.
" Never ! " said I. And it was the truth.
My friend was satisfied. As he turned towards me his
voice rose in a rich crescendo.
" Now," said he in honest self-appreciation ; " now yer kin
form some idea of the man as stands afore yer ! "
He drew himself up in silent hauteur, and it seemed to me
at that moment as if the converging lines of all the Irish kings
had met in one point all focussed into the person of Mr.
McDermott, of Mark's Place.
"I suppose," I said hesitatingly, "that you are the greatest
art connoisseur in the alley ? "
" Shure, that's the very word," answered the essence of the
Irish kings without knowing in the least what the words meant.
"An' well may ye say it," he added as he gazed at the two
precious prints. He walked first to one and then to the other,
musing as he went.
Under one of the pictures there was a ricketty old chest of
drawers, on top of which stood a candle-stick; it was broken,
but in its socket there was a half-burnt candle. Nor was that
all; for the tallow had guttered, and down one side clung "a
wraith."
Knowing something of the old superstition I noticed it and
smiled. Not so the old man. No sooner did he see it than
his mood changed. . His eyes glistened feverishly, and his
fingers trembled as they detached the tallow appendage ; this
piece of curled up wax was blown by no mortal gust. For
the wind may blow down the chimney, and the candle may
gutter every night of the year, but it cannot make a wraith.
This is a sign from the spirit world. To the material mind
there are no pixies; neither do faries dwell in Irish dells; but
the Celt is a visionary, he sees what is hidden from the cynic.
And on a stormy night, when the peat fire burns bright in the
mountain cabin, he can hear the pixies flitting across the bog,
and his flesh creeps when they blow through the chinks of the
32 "IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH." [April.
cabin. It is then that they whisper in his ear. For though no
mortal eye may look upon a pixie, they can speak o' nights to
humans. And sometimes the good people give a sign. What!
does the Saxon not believe it ? Then look at the wraith on
the candle! Seethe old man bending over the piece of curled
up tallow.
<f 'Tis the winding sheet," he whispered. And placing it
gently in the palm of his hand, he uncovered his head out of
respect for the unseen. Then he listened.
Hark ! what sound was that ? Was it the soughing of the
wind ? or the wail of a banshee down the alley ?
It was getting dark in the hovel. And as I watched him
in the half light, I won.dered if the " wraith " was potent to
foretell misfortune, or merely to chronicle disaster ? Whether
the old man saw in the sign his own approaching end, or
whether in his eyes the winding sheet enveloped the dead wife
he had recently buried ?
" In the shroud is death," he repeated softly.
And while the twilight shadows were filling the Court, the
old man stood in the hovel lost in reverie. For the winding
sheet lay in his wrinkled hand, and his thoughts were with the
dead.
PESSIMISM IN ITS RELATION TO ASCETICISM.
BY M. D. PETRE.
[HE title of this article was one of the main themes
of a great philosopher, who has largely influenced
modern thought, even though he may not be, at
least by English and American writers, directly
read and known in proportion to this influence.
The philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer has so filtered into
the general mind, from a thousand different sources, that there
are many who talk Schopenhauer and who think Schopenhauer,
though they may hardly know his name. For the benefit,
however, of those who have no immediate acquaintance with
his works, we will preface our theme by a brief account of the
leading ideas of his system, in particular of those which directly
bear upon the subject of the following pages.
Under all the varying phenomena of the universe, from
inert material existence up to the highest forms of organized
life, Schopenhauer believed that there lay one great reality, one
" Ding an sich Thing in itself," of which all these changing
forms were but the objectification or manifestation. This great
reality was Will ; not will as most of us have been taught to
understand it, a higher spiritual faculty inseparably connected
with intelligence; but a blind irresponsible force, a "will to
live" without any regard to the consequences of living. The
world with all its phenomena is subject to the law of causality,
to the conditions of space and time; the "Will in itself" lies
behind and beyond all such laws and conditions. It works
its way blindly and ruthlessly throughout the universe; reckless
of all individual joy or suffering ; caring only for the species,
nothing for the specimen. In the world of the inanimate, and
likewise in vegetable and brute nature, it follows its purpose
without any possibility of opposition. The individual brute
lives, begets brutes of its own kind, devours brutes of
another kind, and passes away to make room for what is to
follow ; all without any intelligence of the end it is serving.
According to its limited knowledge it labors for itself, but
VOL. LXXXI. 3
34 PESSIMISM IN ITS RELATION TO ASCETICISM. [April,
the real end of all its efforts is the life, not of itself, but of
the type to which it belongs, and, through that type, of the
blind Will of which it is the plaything. Only in man does
intelligence at last come on the scene, and reveal, though
dimly and imperfectly, the reality and purpose of the whole
dreary comedy.
But man too, like the rest of the universe, is governed by
this blind will to live, at any cost; and he, too, rushes on to
his own misery and destruction in obedience to its behest.
But, in a greater or lesser degree, man can come to know
the fate to which he is subjected, and, by knowing, can con-
quer it.
How, from blind, unintelligent will, can come forth knowl-
edge and intelligence, is one of the many inconsistencies of
Schopenhauer's philosophy, which his friends acknowledge as
well as his enemies. The whole of his beautiful and most
illuminative theory as to ideas and knowledge, art and con-
templation, is, in a sense, an excrescence, when we regard the
tree from which it grows. We cannot here attempt any exposi-
tion of this side of Schopenhauer's philosophy, which does not
directly concern the matter of this article. But this only we
may say, that we owe perhaps a good deal to what may be
called the inconsistencies of our philosopher, to the fact that
he presented a truth as he saw it, without endeavoring to
reconcile it with another truth, and that thus he has given us
light on many points, even to the detriment of his own system.
To return, however, to man, as he depicts him, with the
sad privilege of understanding his own deplorable condition.
He is driven, on the one side, by the same blind force which
manifests itself in the lower creatures ; a force which seeks to
live, to increase and multiply, and which seeks nothing more.
On the other side, the Will in him has attained to a certain
consciousness of itself, and through this consciousness deliver-
ance is to arise.
What is this deliverance ? Here again we are met by
evident contradictions; the haven of rest seems, at one moment,
to be pure nothingness, at another an existence of light and
knowledge, which is at last freed from the restless strivings of
the unenlightened will. In all this part of his teaching,
Schopenhauer is largely influenced by Oriental philosophy.
But, on the whole, it is the more positive aspect which pre-
1 905.] PESSIMISM IN ITS RELATION TO ASCETICISM. 35
vails, and his hints of immortality represent him more truly
than that notion of pure extinction, which would be the legi-
timate outcome of the sum of his teaching.
But the means of deliverance he has stated with all the
plainness and force of which he is capable, it is deliberate, en-
lightened " denial of the will to live " as opposed to the blind
assertion of that same will. Man, through intelligence, comes
to recognize the endless trouble and misery and wretchedness
of his life and condition ; he sees how he passes, successively
and repeatedly, through the two conditions of want and
weariness, or ennui as want is satisfied, tedium supervenes
and at last he takes his destiny in his own hands, and denies
the blind will by which he has been governed. And thus he
opposes to the " will to live " the " will not to live," and
reaches the state of the blessed. Not many attain to such a
height, he who does so is the " saint," a man of perfect de-
tachment from all selfish desire.
Needless to say we might indefinitely prolong our account
of this philosophy. But we want only to indicate so much as
is necessary for the understanding of the theme which we
have chosen, and this theme is, mainly, just that of the " de-
nial of the will to live" as opposed to the "will to live," and
opposed also, we may add, to the "will to die," which latter
wins no praise from the pen of Schopenhauer. The " will not
to live " is the achievement of the saint, the " will to die,"
expressing itself in suicide, is but a dressed up presentation
of the brute " will to live," in its inverse form.
Not that Schopenhauer would have condemned suicide for
the standard reasons of the Christian creed ; such arguments
would have lacked foundation in his philosophy. But suicide
would be foolish and cowardly, because futile and inadequate.
Impregnated as he was with the Buddhist philosophy, he saw
that creatures too weak to control their own destiny, could
hardly be endowed with the power of ending it; that the force
which brought them into one life could bring them into
another; and that their condition might be equally helpless
and more miserable if death proved, not the end, but only the
passing away of one set of circumstances and the beginning of
another.
Hence, for Schopenhauer, as for the Eastern sages, victory
lay in the spiritual mastery of our destiny, and not in the
36 PESSIMISM IN ITS RELATION TO ASCETICISM. [April,
destruction of our physical being ; the " denial of the will to
live" resulted in asceticism and not in suicide.
All bodily and outward self-denial is only of value in so
far as it is the consequence or cause of a more real and
spiritual self-denial; a self-denial which consists in the check-
ing and controlling of the most intimate sources of life.
Hence this self-denial was finally directed, in the system of
our philosopher, to a consummation even more solemn than
the end of earthly existence. For Schopenhauer's last aim was
the extinction of personality itself, an extinction which was to
be obtained not by the cutting of life, but by the quenching
of desire. To destroy the life of the body is to destroy what
is merely accidental, but to eradicate the very desire for life
is to dry up individual existence at its source. A continued
individual post-mortem existence is, in his eyes, a conception
both absurd and monstrous. It would be the prolonging of just
that which it is most desirable to end. The characteristics of
personal life are alternations of want and tedium, and if we do
not realize the full wretchedness of our condition, it is only
because " most men are pursued by want all through life,
without ever being allowed to come to their senses," and "in
middle-class life ennui is represented by the Sunday, and want
by the six week days."*
Hence that you and I should desire a continued personal
existence is just a part of that universal illusion which it is
the object of the philosopher to dissipate.
" For blessedness it were by no means enough to trans-
pose man to a ' better world,' but it were also needful that a
fundamental change should take place in himself, so that he
should no longer be what he is, but should become what he
is not."t
When Schopenhauer's saint, the man of lofty mind and
strong soul, comes to realize all that human life signifies,
when he sees that he is being forced on by unreasoning
desire, to his own continued misery and the unhappiness of
others also, whom he strikes and wounds in the heat and vio-
lence of competition, then, at last, he makes the supreme
effort, and frees himself from his thialdom, by a deed more
deadly and supreme than any corporal suicide.
As we have already said, it is difficult to get a clear con-
* Vol. I. The World as Will and Idea, pp. 424, 426. f Ibid., Vol. II., p. 578.
1905.] PESSIMISM IN ITS RELATION TO ASCETICISM. 37
ception of what Schopenhauer conceived to be the actual
result of this great " Denial." That it was positive annihila-
tion we can certainly refuse to believe, and he refers con-
tinually to that life of the species, that endurance of the Idea,
which are independent of all personal forms.* There is a life
within us which cannot die, whatever may be our individual
fate. This is the life we share with men and beasts, tree from
struggle and competition ; -a life whose conditions are not
material and limited, not lessened by universal participation.
But whatever may be the definite character and nature of the
immortality at which he hints, it is, at least, not immortality
in the Christian sense; it is strictly impersonal. To him, the
great crime of individual man is to have been born ; in the
words of Calderon which he loves to quote:
"El mayor delitto del hombre es de haber nacido."
The brute will, which we all feel stirring within us, and
which the Christian is called upon to hold under, to check,
to guide, to control, is, to Schopenhauer, the very personality
itself ; or rather, the latter is its mere objectification. To
become holy is to become impersonal, and the final achieve-
ment of sanctity is to free us altogether from our own selves.
The element of Christianity which so strongly appealed to
the sympathies of Schopenhauer, and which distinguished it,
in his eyes, so markedly from Judaism, was its frank accept-
ance of the sorrow of life, with its corresponding call to re-
nunciation. And, all said and done, is it not to be fear<d
that we have too much watered down those words of Christ,
in which he tells us to hate and lose our own soul, if we will
find it again ? Have we not often thought to satisfy the great
command of renunciation by surface acts of denial, followed by
prompt and liberal compensation? Yet the demand is funda-
mental and admits of no half fulfilment. We can set it alto-
gether aside, we cannot bargain with it. For there is in truth,
in the centre of our very being, and diffused through every
part of it, a "will to live" which must be denied, even though
*" My philosophy assumes a negative character as it reaches its climax.it ends with a
negation. For at this point it can only deal with that which we deny and renounce; as for that
which wegain, we can only term it nothing, though we may add a hope that this nothingness
is relative and not absolute." The World as Will and Idea. Vol. II. " Denial of the will
to live."
38 PESSIMISM IN ITS RELATION TO ASCETICISM. [April,
we still rightly desire an everlasting personal existence. This
is a "will to live" which is reckless of the consequences of
living, indifferent to the moral and spiritual worth of life, abso-
lutely selfish, and utterly immoderate in its desires. Its
colossal egoism is, as Schopenhauer most truly tells us, a
result of the conjunction of the boundless with the finite; the
hunger of all nature is within us, while our rights and capaci-
ties are limited.
In ordinary work-a-day life we pass quietly from one occu-
pation to another, there is nothing to make us realize the
force that is slumbering below. But a moment arrives when
some cause, external or internal, works on the hidden depths ;
the soil is upheaved and riven and it is given us to gaze into
the abyss beneath. And then we ask ourselves, is it indeed
my own soul into which I am looking this seething caldron
of fierce pride and voracious self-love? We are terrified at
ourselves; or, rather, at this force within us that seems to be
more than ourselves. Can we control it ? Is it our own to
control ? Or is it indeed, as Schopenhauer tells us, that power
itself in virtue of which we are what we truly are, but in re-
lation to which our petty personality is as the foam which the
ocean casts up and reabsorbs ?
Nothing explains Schopenhauer's theory better than an
experience like this, and it is an experience which those who
live with any spiritual intensity must at some time undergo.
It is the meeting of the limited with the unlimited, of the lit-
tle with the immense. We are in contact with a force which
seems to be of us and yet beyond us, and we are bewildered
and terrified at the monster we seem to have begotten. This
is indeed the " will to live " that must be quelled, and which
cannot be quelled by the death of the body, but only by the
harder and sterner death of self-mastery and self-denial. For
it is, in itself, truly a brute will, without care for anything but
its own immediate good. It has no regard for the place of
the person in the universe, the relations of the person to the
universe, the work of the person in the universe. It would
enfold all within the rim of the individuality in which it is
manifested ; to it all creation is little, but the ego is great.
It knows of no check to its voracity, but will lust, devour,
and kill with a sole view to its own separate well-being. Only
in isolated and awful instances has this will found the exter-
1905.] PESSIMISM IN ITS RELATION TO ASCETICISM. 39
nal opportunity to show itself as it really is. There have
been monsters in whom the waves of this inward hell have
boiled upwards, filling the heart and soul, and deluging the
rest of mankind. As madness is the completed fulfilment of
countless slighter mental weaknesses and aberrations, which
are to be found in all of us, so this colossal selfishness is the
completed presentation of that inchoate voracity of self-love
which slumbers within every soul. To men, such as Nero and
Napoleon, all other men are puppets for the accomplishment
of their designs. And if they meet with a power capable of
resisting them, whether it be of God or man, they will rather
dash their own being to pieces against it, than accept its hos-
tile existence. The brute will to live will pass into the brute
will to die ; the intellect will add to the animal passions that
force they need to carry them on to their own destruction.
In its lesser, its daily, and ordinary manifestations, this
will follows the same course, but not with so great violence.
It is neither reckless enough, nor passionate enough, to burst
through the moral law, and startle humanity by its crimes.
But, in its quiet, mediocre way, it also finds in itself a god, a
supreme god, and all the rest of the world is but its creature.
It cannot destroy its enemies, it is too puny to do so ; but it
does the next best ignores everything but itself. To it all
creation is a cathedral, of which itself is the central shrine.
And if the veil of self-illusion be torn, if it come to realize
that much exists which cannot be enclosed within its own nar-
row compass, then, though it will not dare the path of violent
self-destruction, it will, in its own way, be transformed into a
4t will to die" an indifference to its own life and sustenance;
like the monstrous specimens, it will refuse to take its own
place in relation to the rest, and will die of inanition though
not by violence.
At the opposite pole of our being we meet with an analo-
gous, yet directly contrary, experience. For it is given us
sometimes to feel the pressure of infinite love, as at other
times we have felt the pressure of infinite hate. There are
moments when we are conscious of more light than our sight
can absorb, more love than our heart can hold. As we fell
back in terror from the black abyss of brute passion, so we
strain forward with longing to those golden heights of knowl-
edge and love they too are in us and yet beyond us there
40 PESSIMISM IN ITS RELATION TO ASCETICISM. [April,
is a spring bursting up into life everlasting, as there is a
whirlpool which would suck us down into its depths ; in pres-
ence of both we stand weakly amazed, wondering at the force
within us, fretting at our own powerlessness to deal with it.
" It was," says a modern writer, " as if the principle of
life, like a fluid, were being poured into her out of the vials
of God, as if the little cup that was all she had were too
small to contain the precious liquid. That seemed to her to
be the cause of the pain of which she was conscious. She
was being given more than she felt herself capable of pos-
sessing."*
To Schopenhauer, as the former experience was the mani-
festation of universal will in limited personality, teaching us
that the one great achievement of which we ate capable is to
end the strivings of that will by quenching the personality in
which it has embodied itself, so this latter experience is im-
personal and superpersonal, culminating in pure contemplation,,
in which distinction is effaced, and subject and object are one.
We dare not, in this limited space, enter upon this most beau-
tiful side of his philosophy. But here again we may be
grateful for his profound and delicate analysis of the experi-
ence, though we differ from him, at least in part, as to his
conclusion. He has roused us to a fuller sense of the peren-
nial struggle between the finite and the infinite, a struggle of
which our poor personality is the field ; he has raised life
from the ignoble and the commonplace, and made us realize
the extremes between which we continually waver, tottering
from side to side like men who are drowsy or drunk. But
though we may sigh, with him, to be delivered from the body
of sin and death, we may still believe that our " Redeemer
liveth," and that " in our flesh we shall see our God."
Schopenhauer dwelt on the restrictions of personality, until-
he came to think that personality consisted only in those
restrictions. Nor is this a strange and unlikely conclusion for
a man of his stamp, whose soul was at once tormented by the
forces below, and enamored of the truth above. It was not
because he was a lesser creature that he felt the torment of
all brute creation surging in his nethermost depths, while his
soul was, at the same time, inundated with the light of glory
from unattained mountain summits. He longed to be freed
* Garden of Allah, p. 430.
1905.] PESSIMISM IN ITS RELATION TO ASCETICISM. 41
from the tyranny of the former, he yearned to compass the
joy of the latter, he desired old age that his passions might
be weakened, he sighed for death that the soul within him
might be freed.
The average man will not fret against his personality and
its limits, because he may perhaps never, in the course of his
plain and placid life, feel the tumult of hell from below, nor
catch any glimpse of the glory of heaven from above. He
feels not the pressure of the infinite, which strives to burst the
walls of his narrow self from within, and to batter them down
from without. The restless discontent of a nature like that of
Schopenhauer is, to him, disease and madness. But if we are
to save the idea of personality, in its nobler sense, it is not
by the philosophy of the commonplace. Our salvation will not
be in the shallow optimism, which has never explored the
depths of life, any more than in the pessimism which has never
looked towards its heights. Only the man who has drunk
deeply of life, both in its sorrows and its joys, can say at last
if life be worth living or not; and only he who has felt both
the narrowness and weakness as well as the power of personality
can say if this personality is worthy to be preserved or not.
Schopenhauer was right, in so far as the limitations of per-
sonality are the death of personality if they become fixed and
permanent and rigid ; but he was wrong in thinking that those
boundaries could not be dissolved without personality itself
vanishing along with them. It is restricted because it is not
infinite; but it could not be, in any sense, aware of its restric-
tions, unless it have some relation to the infinite. It is a special,
a unique life, a "will to live," if Schopenhauer will have it
so, but a will to live, not only in the whole universe, but in
this individual mind and heart and soul. In this mind is a
never-to-be-repeated view of the infinite; in this heart is a
unique love of it; in this soul a particular striving towards it.
It is not by where it ends that it is to be judged, but by
where it is and continues. The beauty of a statue is not in
its lines regarded as outer terminations and boundaries, but in
those lines as an expression of the meaning and life within.
The end of anything is a spatial conception, a qualifying of
a being from its outward aspect; its true form springs from
its own intimate being and qualities. It is because our facul-
ties are sense-bound that we understand a thing by its termina-
42 PESSIMISM IN ITS RELATION TO ASCETICISM. [April,
tion, and not by its essence ; and it is for the same reason
that we distinguish things according to their proportions of
lesser and greater, and not by those qualities which bear no
comparison, because in each one they are unique. Finite, in-
deed, is each human personality, but, none the less is it made
up of thoughts no other has thought, deeds no other has
done, love no other has felt. To destroy the personality, even
though the infinite that was behind it should remain, were to
blot out of the universe a chain of spiritual events which
could never be lived again, for to rob them of their personal
element would be to rob them, not of a mere accident of their
being, but of their source and intimate qualification. It was
because I was so that I acted so, and because I acted so that
I became so ; I am a sequence, however broken and uneven,
and the infinite in me is also the personal; the two are inex-
tricably interwoven.
There was an idiosyncracy in Schopenhauer which made his
doctrine more bearable to him than it could be to many other
men, and that was the fact that personal love and friendship
played but a small part in his life. To those who love, the
instinct to defend the existence and sacredness ot personality
is far more than doubled ; it is a struggle of life and death.
Perhaps, quite unconsciously, Schopenhauer's intense hatred
for women was based on his instinct that this was a point on
which they stood ranked in solid opposition to him. The
instinct of a woman is to be personal, too personal, in all her
conceptions ; and a widely-spread instinct, even were it an
irrational one, should find due recognition in a large-minded
philosophy. Schopenhauer was weary of himself, and he cared
little for others; his doctrine brought him salvation from that
misery, out of which alone his self-knowledge had been evolved.
He regarded his best moments as his impersonal ones, and this
was, in great part, because his best moments were those of
pure thought, in which the heart had no share, or at least, to
him, no conscious share. His was a divided nature, with
strong contrasts of good and evil. He made the unhappy mis-
take of devoting his intellect to the highest and abandoning
his heart to the lowest instincts of his nature. Had his con-
templation been blended with love his philosophy would have
been at once more human and more personal.
But what is the great lesson we can learn from Schopen-
1905.] PESSIMISM IN ITS RELATION TO ASCETICISM, 43
hauer, in spite of all these important differences ? It is the
doctrine of renunciation, which he has put in a way all his
own, but, just for this reason, peculiarly emphatic and impres-
sive. The "denial of the will to live" is, in a certain sense,
a commandment of Christ as well as of Schopenhauer. We
have to resist those brutal instincts which would compress the
infinite into the narrow space of our limited personality, which
would efface and destroy, at least as far as self is concerned,
everything that cannot be thus contracted. We must break
down the barriers of self-love to let in the larger life, and be
rather everlasting pilgrims, in pursuit of the infinite and eter-
nal, than petty lords of whatever we can cram into the limits
of our narrow capacity.
And thus the "denial of the will to live'/' becomes not a
will to die, but a denial of all that would obstruct and contract
the infinite power of living ; fixing it within narrow and selfish
limits; giving a short-lived peace with eternal dishonor.
It is a denial which will imply not less but more activity
and intensity of personal existence. It will result in a " will to
live," not at all costs or on any terms, but to live for the
highest and die for it too, if need be. We shall be ready to
take up our life, but we shall also be ready to lay it down ;
we shall live as members of a greater whole, and we shall
bring the blind forces within us into subjection to our per-
sonal knowledge and love of that whole. We shall not attempt
to confine the infinite within our own narrow limits, but shall
make of our personality a point of never-ending tendency, an
everlasting response to God and all creation.
THE CURE OF ARS.
BY R. F. O'CONNOR.
i|T has been fittingly reserved for Pius X., a Pon-
tiff of peasant parentage, and once a country
parish priest, to raise to the honors of the altar
one who, like himself, was peasant born and
had charge of a country parish. There is a
sympathetic association in this linking of two personalities
illustrative of che essentially democratic character of the great
Christian Republic, which unites in a certain equality before
God princes and peasants, peers and proletarians.
Even more than this is implied in the beatification of the
Cure of Ars. Sprung from peasants, and born at a time when
the neglect of the agricultural classes was one of the causes which
hastened the downfall of the Bourbon monarchy, involving
the hierarchy and clergy, as well as the aristocracy, in its fall,
the Cure of Ars was to illustrate in his own person and by
his own action the best methods the only methods by which
the Church is to win back the democracy, many of whom have
long been estranged from it. Reinstaurare omnia in Christc
the keynote which Pius X. struck with no uncertain sound
in his first encyclical was the keynote of the life, action, and
influence of the Cure of Ars.
Though the fury of the great revolutionary storm, which
had swept away throne and altar, had somewhat abated, and
though some of the proscribed priests and religious had
stealthily returned, the state of the country was still more or
less disturbed when Jean Baptiste Vianney, the son of a small
farmer of Dardilly, near Lyons, was growing up. He used to
tell in after years of the loaded wagons of hay drawn up
against the door of the barn which served as a chapel, to screen
the worshippers from malicious observation. The description
his biographer, the Abbe Alfred Monnin, gives of these secret
religious services forcibly reminds one of the Masses in the
mountains and glens of Ireland during the penal times.
"The altar," says M. Monnin, "encircled only by the parents
and some few friends, upon whose fidelity entire dependence
1905.] THE CuRf: OF ARS. 45
could be placed, was usually prepared in the granary, or seme
upper chamber, to be out of the reach of observation. There,
before daybreak, in the strictest secrecy, the Holy Sacrifice
was offered. There was something in the precautions necessary
to keep suspicion and hostile observation at bay, and in the
mystery which accompanied all the preparations for the great
day, which told of a time of persecution, and breathed of the
air of the Catacombs. The soul of the young communicant
could not but be deeply and permanently impressed by all the
circumstances attending his first participation of the Bread of
the strong in those days of trial and apostasy."
Ars, a small sequestered village in the midst of the wooded
vales of Les Dombes, dominated on the North by an old feudal
castle, reminiscent of the far-off days when the Dombes con-
stituted an ancient principality, was in a poor way when the
Abbe Vianney arrived on February 9, 1818, to take over the
pastoral charge in succession to the Abbe Berger, who had
been appointed Cure on the restoration of religious worship in
France. "Go, my friend," said the Vicar General; "there is
but little of the love of God in that parish ; you will enkindle it."
The new Cure, who, after his ordination in 1815, at the
age of twenty- nine, had been formed to the sacerdotal life
while curate to the saintly Abbe Bailey, parish priest of
Ecully, came in most apostolic poverty, without script or staff
or money in his purse. When he first caught sight of his
parish, he knelt and implored a blessing which it sorely
needed; and finally the village did prove worthy of it. When
the good Cure arrived it was in a state of utter spiritual des-
titution, and its people were noted among the neighboring
villagers for their headlong and reckless passion for pleasure.
He found his little Church as cold and empty as the hearts of
the worshippers, he made it, by self-denying labors, not only
a model parish a model to France and all the world but a
place of pilgrimage, a sanctuary, a source of spiritual life and
light. The noisy revelry of the tavern and the dance, and the
desecration of the Sunday, were gradually abolished, the per-
petual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, frequent Communion,
and confraternities were established ; the people were brought
to love the beauty of God's house, and the place where his
glory dwelleth, and to delight more in sacred melodies than in
secular songs. " Only grant me the conversion of my parish,
46 THE CUR OF ARS. [April,
and I consent to suffer whatever thou wilt for the remainder
of my life," was the prayer the Cure addressed to our Lord.
That prayer was answered. Success astounding success
was purchased by sufferings equally astounding. The Cure
predicted that a time would come when Ars would not be able
to contain its inhabitants, and that prediction was likewise
amply fulfilled, when, for thirty years, pilgrimage after pilgrim-
age added innumerable multitudes to its congested population.
The influx of pilgrims necessitated the erection of houses, the
building of new roads, new public conveyances by land and
water, and a packet-boat service on the Saone. It was
calculated that, on an average, more than twenty thousand
persons visited Ars every year. During the year 1848 the
omnibuses which plied between the village and the Saone de-
posited eighty thousand. Pilgrims came from all parts of
France, Savoy, Belgium, Germany, and England. They
numbered all sorts and conditions the blind, the lame, and
the halt; all, in fact, who were suffering in soul or body,
drawn by the strange tidings that miracles were wrought by
an obscure country priest in a little village near one of the
chief cities of France, and in the midst of a sceptical age
which denied the possibility of miracles. The origin of these
pilgrimages is chiefly ascribed to the Cure's prayers for the
conversion of sinners. " The grace which he obtained for
them," says Catherine Lassagne, his co-operator in the founda-
tion of the " Providence," an asylum for orphans and destitute
girls, "was so powerful that it went to seek them out, and
would leave them no rest till it had brought them to his feet."
But the Cure himself ascribed them, and all the graces and
wonders which contributed to the celebrity of the pilgrimages,
to his "dear little saint," the child- martyr, St. Philomena.
One of the secrets of the Cure of Ars' power, if secret it
could be called, was that he thoroughly identified himself with
his parishioners " All his thoughts," says the Abbe Monnin,
" were concentrated upon them ; their peace was his peace ;
their joys his joys; their troubles his sorrows; their virtues his
crown." It was this thoroughness, this identification, this total
absence of any aloofness or mere perfunctory performance of
duties, this wide sympathy with all, that made the people at
once recognize in him the type-priest, the true shepherd of
the flock of God, not the hireling. The Cure realized that the
1905.] THE CUR OF AKS. 47
parish is the unit of the Church and the priesthood the sum of
Christianity. " Leave a parish for twenty years without a
priest," he said, "and it will worship the brutes. When people
want to destroy religion, they begin by attacking the priest;
for when there is no priest, there is no sacrifice ; and when
there is no sacrifice, there is no religion." It was with this
thought in his mind that he devoted two hundred thousand francs
to the work of missions, and provided for a thousand annual
Masses at an expense of forty thousand francs.
" This poor priest," says M. Monnin, " so poor that he used
to say that he had nothing of his own but his ' poor sins,'
enriched all the world around him by his bounty. Gold and
silver flowed into his hands from France, Belgium, England,
and Germany, by a thousand imperceptible channels. He had
but to will it to obtain immediately the sum necessary for a
foundation or a work of charity." It was generally believed
that he supported a number of families, who had fallen from
better circumstances. To relieve the poor he would sell every
thing he possessed, even his clothes. The twenty thousand
francs he got for his share of the Dardilly farm was used to
buy the house in which he established the "Providence"; and
when the orphans increased, and it became necessary to build,
he made himself architect, mason, and carpenter. He made the
mortar, cut and carried the stones with his own hands, and
spared himself no labor, only interrupting his work to go to
the confessional. The Cure was, in very truth, a martyr to the
confessional, where he spent sixteen hours a day. He never
began his labors later than two o'clock in the morning, often
at one; and when the numbers waiting were very great, at
midnight. Except when saying Mass or preaching, or snatch-
ing a hasty, frugal meal, he lived almost entirely in the con-
fessional, remaining there from midnight or early morning till
nine at night; then retiring to say his Office; and giving only
a couple of hours to rest. Penitents would lie all night on the
grass, fifty at a time, either in order to gain the earliest ad-
mission to the Church and the confessional, or because the
houses in the village were overcrowded. For more than thirty
years the Cure heard no less than a hundred penitents daily.
This was labor enough, and more than enough, for one man ;
but there were sick to be visited, spiritual direction to be
given, and daily catechetical instructions to the pilgrims
48 THE CUR OF ARS. [April,
from various countries; instructions full of unction and deep
insight, in which truths as old as humanity were presented in a
new light, the maladies of the soul diagnosed, and the science
of moral therapeutics unfolded by one whose penetrating glance
read and revealed what was hidden in consciences. Such was
the illuminating influence of grace upon intellect in this poor
priest who, as a student, was so deficient in the necessary
studies that, but for the intercession of his friend and teacher,
the Abbe Bailey, he would have been sent back to till his
father's fields.
When Lacordaire, who deplored the fact that there were so
few great souls and prayed God from the pulpit of Notre Dame
to send France a saint, visited Ars in May, 1843, to find his
prayer answered, the learned Dominican disdained not to ask
and receive the oracles of spiritual science from the lips of the
lowly village pastor, and the most eloquent pulpit orator of
the day listened in silent reverence to words of wisdom uttered
in the rustic patois of the peasant's son.
A distinguished, but somewhat sceptical, philosopher exclaimed,
with an enthusiasm inspired by the Cure, " I do not believe
anything like this has been seen since the stable at Bethlehem ! "
" The philosopher," observes the Abbe Monnin, who heard the
remark, "was mistaken; he had not read the history of the
Church ; but he spoke truth in this sense, that the life of the
Cure of Ars, as the lives of all the saints, was but the continua-
tion of the life of our Lord. One of the never-failing notes
of this continuity is the evidence of the truly miraculous, the
evidence that the power delegated by Christ to the Apostles is
inherent in the Christian priesthood. We do not wonder, then,
that the miracle of the marriage feast at Cana was repeated in
the k life of the Cure of Ars, or marvel when we read of the
multiplication of loaves to feed the eighty hungry orphans."
"The one great truth taught us by the whole history of
the Cure of Ars," said Cardinal Manning, " is the all- sufficiency
of supernatural sanctity." Those who think that the best way
to combat the intellectual forces marshaled against Catholicism
in this age is to appeal solely to the intellect by logical argu-
ments, and not to move and to win the sympathies of the
heart; to be content simply with meeting higher criticism on
its own ground, or to abuse scientists of the delusion that the
Church is opposed to science, might study the life of the
1905.] THE CUR OF ARS. 49
Cure of Ars with advantage to themselves and to others.
What the age wants is not so much theology or philosophy in
learned disquisitions, but theology in action as we find it in
the life of the Cure of Ars and of the saint he most resembled,
the Saint of Assisi ; for assuredly the most Franciscan personal-
ity of the nineteenth century was Jean Baptiste Vianney. A
favorite saying of his was: "When the saints pass, God passes
with them." Among the many mendicants who came, one
sultry July day in 1770, to beg food and a night's lodging from
his charitable parents for the Vianneys were noted for keep-
ing open house for the poor was the beggar-saint, Benedict
Joseph Labre, canonized by Leo XIII., a Franciscan tertiary
like the present Pontiff. St. Benedict Labre was a member of
the Archconfraternity of the Cord of St. Francis, and the Cure
of Ars was a tertiary priest, born in the course of the very
year when miracles were wrought at Labre's grave. The spirit
of St. Francis possessed him. " We will eat the bread of the
poor the friends of Jesus Christ and we will drink the good
water of the good God," was his greeting to a few friends
when he invited them to what he called "a feast," at which
he regaled them with some of his favorite black bread. Does
not this bring to mind the incident of St. Francis and one of
his companion friars resting, after having begged their food, by
the side of a well, drinking the pure water out of the hollow of
their hands, and eating what he called "the bread of angels"?
Hearing the birds singing before his window, the Cure ex-
claimed with a sigh: "Poor little birds! you were created to
sing, and you sing ; man was created to love God, and he loves
him not!" "One spring morning," says the Cure again, "I
was going to see a sick person ; the thickets were full of little
birds, who were singing their hearts out. I took pleasure in
hearing them, and I said to myself : ' Poor little birds, you
know not what you are singing, but you are singing the praises
of the good God.' " How forcibly this reminds us of St. Francis
preaching to the birds ! And when the Cure was dying, in
1859, and they wished to drive away the flies for it was a
sultry August he would not use a fan, considering it a luxury,
but said: "Leave me to my poor flies." "Our good God has
chosen me," he said, like another St. Francis, "to be the instru-
ment of his grace to sinners, because I am the most ignorant
and the most miserable priest in the diocese. If he could have
VOL. LXXXI. 4
50 THE CUR OF ARS. [April,
found one more ignorant and worthless than myself, he would
have given him the preference."
Catherine Lassagne said any one who met the Cure going
through the streets, with his little earthen pipkin, would take
him for a beggar who had just received an alms. " Are you
the Cure of Ars, of whom every one speaks ? " asked an
ecclesiastic who had gone to Ars on purpose to see him, and,
to his great astonishment and disgust, met him thus eating his
dinner as he went along. "Yes, my good friend," he replied,
"I am, indeed, the poor Cure of Ars." "This is a little too
much," said the priest. " I had expected to see something
dignified and striking. This little Cure has no presence or
dignity, and eats in the street like a beggar. It is a mystery
altogether."
Like the Poverello of Assisi the Cure was small in stature.
His face was pale and angular, his gait awkward, his manner
at first shy and timid, his whole air common and unattractive;
nothing in his appearance, except his asceticism and the singu-
lar brightness of his eyes, impressed an ordinary observer.
When the congregations began to desert the neighboring
churches, and to frequent that of Ars, the other priests be-
came alarmed and jealous. Some threatened to refuse absolu-
tion to any of their parishioners who should go to confession
to the Cure of Ars; others publicly preached against him.
"In those days," he said himself, "they let the Gospel rest in
the pulpits, and preached everywhere on the poor Cure of
Ars." This was his crux de cruce, the opposition of good but
mistaken men priests like himself. But, like St. Francis, a
true lover of the Cross, the Cure rejoiced, rather than repined ;
and when one day he received a letter from a priest who
wrote, " when a man knows as little of theology as you do,
he ought never to enter a confessional," he immediately re-
plied : " What cause have I to love you, my very dear and
very reverend brother ! you are the only person who really
knows me. Since you are so good and so charitable as to
take an interest in my poor soul, help me to obtain the favor
I have so long asked, that, being removed from a post for
which my ignorance renders me unfit, I may retire into some
corner to bewail my miserable life." The writer of the letter
afterwards repaired his fault by asking on his knees the holy
man's pardon. Still, some of the most influential of the clergy
met and resolved to make a formal complaint to the Bishop
1905.] THE CUR OF ARS. 51
of Belley, " of the imprudent zeal and mischievous enthusiasm
of this ignorant and foolish Cure." One of them wrote to the
Cure himself in the bitterest and most cutting terms. " I was
daily expecting," said the Cure, " to be driven with blows out
of my parish; to be silenced; and condemned to end my
days in prison, as a just punishment for having dared to stay
so long in a place where I could only be a hindrance to any
good." A letter of accusation happening to fall into his hands,
the Cure endorsed it with his own name, and sent it to his
superiors. "This time," said he, "they are sure to succeed;
for they have my own signature." They only succeeded, how-
ever, in throwing into brighter relief his saintliness, deep-rooted
in humility and detachment.
All were not color-blinded like these French ecclesiastics.
The late Dr. Ullathorne, Bishop of Birmingham, who visited
Ars in May, 1854, has left on record, in his Pilgrimage to La
Salette, his impressions of the Cure who made his parish
famous all over the world. "The first object on which my
eyes fell," he says, "was the head, face, and shrunken figure
of the Cure straight before me; a figure not easily to be for-
gotten." Having heard him preach for twenty minutes, the
bishop adds: "It was as if an angel spoke through a body
wasted even to death. If I had not understood a syllable, I
should have known, I should have felt, that one was speaking
who lived in God." Men of the world accustomed to the
power of far different spells, have acknowledged that, after
they had seen him, his image seemed to haunt them, and his
remembrance to follow them wherever they went. " It would
have been difficult, indeed, to image to one's self a form more
clearly marked by the impress of sanctity," writes M. Monnin.
" On that emaciated face there was no token of aught earthly
or human ; it bore the impress of Divine grace alone. It was
but the frail and transparent covering of a soul which no
longer belonged to earth. The eyes alone betokened life; they
shone with an exceeding lustre. There was a kind of super-
natural fire in M. Vianney's glance, which continually varied
in intensity and expression. That glance dilated and spaiklcd
when he spoke of the love of God; the thought of sin veiled
it with a mist of tears; it was by turns sweet and piercing,
terrible and loving, childlike and profound." And this was a
man whose only fear was of appearing before God " with his
poor Cure's life," who wanted to go into a corner to weep
52 THE CUR OF ARS. [April,
over "his poor sins," and twice tried to get away from his
parish !
The Cure's life was passed in six phases of French later
history. Born under the First Republic, he lived through the
transition epochs of the First Empire, the Restoration, the
Citizen Monarchy, the Second Republic, and the Second
Empire. He had witnessed the efforts under the Restoration
to stimulate a Catholic revival, when the zeal of many outran
their discretion. He doubtless saw that there was much in the
movement which was superficial, if not artificial. He went
deeper, and, by his example, showed that there was yet a more
excellent way. As it was not learned scholiasts and the syllo-
gistic method which moved the mediaeval world and effected a
wide-reaching and much-needed reformation in the ecclesiastical
and social order, but a small group of self-denying men in the
Umbrian Valley, bareheaded and barefooted, and clad in the
coarse, humble garb of the Apennine peasantry, so it will be
priests, modelled more or less on the Cure of Ars, men who
will regard the priesthood as an apostolate not as a profession,
who will cause the Church in France to triumph over antagon-
istic elements within and without and restore that now Masonic-
ridden country to the place it once occupied in Christendom,
when Christendom was a solid, concrete fact and not an empty
expression.
" It is a wholesome rebuke to the intellectual pride of this
age, inflated by science," observes Cardinal Manning, " that
God has chosen from the midst of the learned, as his instru-
ment of surpassing works of grace upon the hearts of men,
one of the least cultivated of the pastors of his church." At
the seminary the fellow-students of the Cure at first treated
him as a simpleton, and he failed in his entrance examination
at the great Seminary of Lyons, but as he was even then
universally regarded as a model of piety, the Vicar General,
M. Courbon, in admitting him, predicted that "divine grace
would do the rest." His whole life was a justification of that
judicious forecast. Through all its harmony we hear the same
ground-tone; through all there breathes the same spirit, sweet
as an angelic strain; through all strikes the same keynote, the
dominant note of simplicity simplicity in the spiritual sense of
the word, the vital essence of holiness.
It is this salient chararteristic which so often suggests a
parallel between him and St. Francis, as the lives of the sera-
1905.] THE CUR OF ARS. 53
phic saint of Assisi and his first companions have been likened
to those of our Lord and the chosen Twelve. The Cure's life,
almost from start to finish, was lived amid scenes of pastoral
beauty and simplicity like Palestine and Umbria. The dawn
of his vocation, when he thought " If I were ever a priest, I
would win many souls to God," was marked by an incident
which reminds one of the son of Pietro Bernardone. On his
way one day from Ecully to Dardilly, the Cure met a poor
man without shoes; he immediately took off a new pair which
he had 'on, gave them to him, and arrived at home without
any, to the great dissatisfaction of his father, who, charitable as
he was, was not inclined to carry things quite so far as his son.
It was in the clear light vouchsafed to those who view
things, particularly the higher things, with a simple eye, that
the Cure perceived, with intense appreciation, the sanctity re-
quired in priests. " If you want to convert your diocese," he
said to Mgr. Devie, "you must make saints of your parish
priests"; "albeit," he remarked on another occasion, "that
the breviary is not overburthened with canonized cures." Sim-
plicity was likewise the characteristic of that unclouded,
unhesitating faith which made itself so manifest in his extra-
ordinary devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, in his preaching
and method of direction. " What a man this is ! " exclaimed
one of the world, who began by declaring he had no faith, and
ended by making his confession, " what a man this is ! No-
body ever spoke to me in this way before."
" Go to Ars," said the Parisian litterateur to Louis Lacroix,
" and you will learn how Christianity was established, how
nations were converted, and Christian civilization was founded.
There is a man there in whom dwells the creative action of
the saints of old, who makes men Christians as the Apostles
did, whom the people venerate as they did St. Bernard, and
in whose person all the marvels are reproduced which we
know only in books." Lacroix went, saw, and was conquered,
and the spectacle he witnessed seemed like a page out of the
Gospels, penetrated to his heart's core, and affected him even
to tears.
We have often heard priests discuss the question, how to
win the people, as if it was some difficult recondite problem
of which they were seeking the solution. The solution is to
be found in the life of the Cure of Ars.
THE SON OF MAN.
BY THE REVEREND JOSEPH McSORLEY, C.S.P.
'T is a solemn moment when the soul awakens to
a sense of its spiritual possibilities. Something
of awe, of course, attends all beginnings whether
the launching of a ship, about to venture forth
into seas unknown and brave the measureless
furies of the tempest; or the first shot of a war, ringing
round the world, and warning men of mighty interests and
precious lives destined for sacrifice; or the faint little cry of
a new-born infant, setting out on that most perilous of all
careers called life. And whatever suggestion of sublimity there
is in any of these beginnings, recurs in an intense degree at
the solemn hour of a soul's moral awakening, in the moments
"Sure though seldom,
When the spirit's true endowments
Stand out plainly from its false ones,
And apprise it, if pursuing
Or the right way or the wrong way,
To its triumph or undoing."
These, indeed, are the awful moments of life; they are
fraught with terrible dangers and immense responsibilities;
they determine whether God's image in a man shall be made
or marred.
Whatever the occasion may be, therefore the turning of
an unbeliever toward the God he has denied, or the entrance of
a convert into the Church he has ignored, or the first long, deep
breath of new resolve in the heart of a Catholic on whom the
true ideals of life are at last commencing to dawn whatever
the occasion be, it is a solemn crisis when we heed the trumpet-
call, gird ourselves, and step forth to the making of a godlike
man.
It would truly be a hard fate, had we to carve out the
1905-] THE SON OF MAN. 55
pathway of progress alone, and guess unaided at God's ideal ;
or had we only the men and women chance throws in our
way to reveal to us the high possibilities of human nature.
Every creature we meet falls short of that perfection which the
least of us is justified in striving for ; from no man do we get
the full measure of inspiration that we need. But God has given
us a model about whom all agree One who is perfect, flawless,
without defect. Every noble life is a needle pointing to him ;
every pure soul an image of his ; every good deed a gem that
gleams and sparkles in the shining of his light. Our homes
are radiant with the glow of a beauty he created; his peace
is in our hearts; his holiness is beaming from our innocent
children's eyes. He is God; he is perfect as God; and still
behind his forehead throbs a human brain, and a human heart
is beating in his bosom. He can recognize each emotion of
ours in some feeling of his own; in the longings of his
heart echoes a response to every noble aspiration of mankind.
Yes ; if it be possible to receive what we looked and hoped for,
if it be, indeed, the plan of Providence that one from heaven
should come and lead us Godward, our hearts assure us that
Jesus Christ is he the Son of Man, God's ideal of a man.
Very striking in the life of Christ is the vivid contrast be-
tween the Jewish anticipations of him and the reality. The
chosen people had learned to cherish a vision of physical
majesty as the picture of the Messiah ; he was to ride forth
to battle at the head of an army of kings and conquer all the
earth, to beat down the nations under his iron hoofs and
blind them with the glory of his brightness; he would reign
from sea to sea, so that the dwellers of the wilderness would
bow down before him and all peoples serve him ; he would
rule over the nations with his iron sceptre, and dash them in
pieces as a potter's vessel ; he would restore Israel's greatness
and give heavenly splendor to a new Jerusalem, the mistress of
the world. Purple and cloth of gold and jewels and fine linen
would adorn his person; and neither for him nor for his
people would there be weakness or tribulation any more.
With all this expectation contrast the fact. Christ brought
no material comforts and no adornments; he steadily refused
to secure them. Though faint with fasting, he would not
turn stones into bread. He had not whereon to lay his
head. Austere himself, he wished none but austere followers;
56 THE SON OF MAN. [April,
and to those drawn by his teaching he said: "Give what
you have to the poor." He won no mind by the display of
external magnificence; he regarded the cities of all the world
as an offer to be spurned. He wore no crown ; he held no
sceptre ; the only cause he was ever heard to plead was
the Kingdom of God within the soul. Those who watched
him saw no miraculous crushing of the enemies of God and
Israel, but patient submission to buffeting and scourging and
death. For homage he had insults; and thorns for a diadem.
The spittle cast upon his brow signified in what esteem
men held him ; his triumphal procession consisted of a weary
march under the cross up the hill of Calvary ; and the an-
gelic legions of Michael were replaced by the ruffian soldiers
of brutal Rome.
The contrast was intensified by the evidence that Christ pos-
sessed the power to reverse all this. He himself said that he had
but to ask his father and all he desired would be granted him.
Already, as was clear, all the resources of nature lay at his
command. From a few loaves he created food for five thou-
sand ; with a word he stilled the tempest; he burst the bars of
death and called forth the buried from the tomb.
So striking, indeed, was the contrast of expectation and
reality in Christ's life, that did we not know John the Baptist
well, we would almost be led to fancy we could detect
an echo of the popular disappointment in the blunt question
his messengers put to Jesus: "Art thou he that art to come;
or look we for another ? " But while that question did not
express the disappointment of John, it did furnish the provi-
dential opportunity for an answer which was a key to the
enigma of Christ's life, and a solution of the problem already
beginning to puzzle the earnest minds among the Jews : " Go
and relate to John what you have heard and seen: the blind
see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the
dead rise again, the poor have the Gospel preached to them."
When men heard this, they could understand the mission
of the Savior as never before : he had come in human form
that they might have a visible image of the gracious God to
study and love and fashion themselves upon. He revealed the
divine perfection in an aspect and with a clearness which ren-
dered mistake impossible; which made it plain that to be like
God man must love his fellow- man the neighbor, the poor,
1905.] THE SON OF MAN. 57
the stranger, the enemy. " Love your enemies," he said, "that
you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven."
Those who were closest to him during life caught that lesson
and gave it forth again to all who would listen, as the distin-
guishing mark of the Gospel message: "Religion pure and
undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit the widow
and the orphan, and to keep one's self unspotted from this
world." " If we love not our brethren, whom we have seen,
how can we love God whom we have not seen ? " " If any
man say I love God and hateth his brother, he is a liar."
What did it all mean ? What but this that as we must
be religious before being Christian, so we must love man
before we can love God ! Who will venture to affirm such a
principle ? Who will dare lay down that a man offering his
gift at the altar and remembering that his brother has
something against him, should leave there his gift before the
altar and go and be reconciled with his brother, and then come
and offer his gift ? Who will dare say that ? Who, indeed, but
the Lord Christ? And upon his lips the words are found.
O Man ! force your way into the Federal Treasury, with its
locks of brass and its bars of triple steel ; storm a modern
fortress, with its mines and entrenchments and monster guns ;
defy and overcome the very laws of nature if you can ;
but never suppose that the love of God can be driven into a
heart where the love of man does not dwell. O Priest ! preach
the need of intellectual training and the observance of exter-
nal forms; but remember that he who loves his neighbor is
not far from the kingdom of heaven and not altogether unlike
Christ, God's ideal of a man. The heart and centre of reli-
gion is the heart and centre of humanity, love. And God is
love. Man can resemble God only when his life is a life
of love.
A wondrous picture of such a life do we receive from
Christ ! When shall time dim the beauty of the scenes he
stamped so deeply on the memory of the human race ! The
Good Shepherd traversing hill and dale in search of the lost
sheep and carrying it home in his arms ; the Good Samaritan,
going to the helpless traveler that Priest and Levite had
passed by, binding the wounds of the unfortunate and caring
for him at the inn; the Father of the Prodigal Son, receiv-
ing back again the reckless boy whose health and youth and
58 THE SON OF MAN. [April,
fortune had been wasted in the ways of sin, welcoming him
home with a father's loving kiss, killing for him the fatted
calf, robing him in splendid vestments, and circling his finger
with the ring of peace and joy.
When shall the human heart cease to thrill at the echo of
the words Christ spoke to those who listened for his revela-
tion of the ideal ! " Blessed are the poor ! " " Unto these
least ! " " As one that serveth ! " " Not to be ministered
unto, but to minister." " Receive ye the Kingdom of God as
a little child."
Have we forgotten can we ever forget the story of the
Magdalen and of those who spurned her? the men who
pointed the finger of scorn as she passed through the
market-place; the women who swept by with a rustle of
skirts, then as now loathing the sin and the sinner ! Ah ! the
grace and the tenderness and the love of him who went to
this creature, and made of her a glorious saint of God ! And
then, the thing he did and the words he said when, at an-
other day, they set him up as judge face to face with a woman
taken in adultery ! Bring back to mind the pardon he gave the
penitent thief in the hour when his own body was shattered
and his soul wrung with torture ! See his face shine as he is
kissed by the traitor Judas ! Hear him whisper a prayer for
his executioners. In truth, it is but one long, uninterrupted
lesson of love for man that we learn from the whole story of
his goings out and his comings in ; his healings and his cleans-
ings ; his comfortings and his pardonings. O Christ ! if thou
art indeed he who is to come, and thy name is indeed Mes-
siah, then truly art thou the strangest king that ever reigned
and the hardest to dethrone. Thou dost save others ; thyself
thou wilt not save. From thee we learn that to live and
die for another is always nobler than to live and die for self.
To do things for men; to do hard things; to do them for the
worst and meanest of humanity, this is the burden of thy
words and thy example. Service unremitting and unto death,
this is thy measure of nobleness. This then, is God's ideal
of the relation between man and man.
It is almost needless to say that such an ideal could scarcely
have found a lodging place in the breasts of the Israelites of
olden time, whose conduct offers so strong a contrast to that of
Christian saints. The records of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and
1905.] THE SON OF MAN. 59
their contemporaries, leave us, if not puzzled and dismayed, at
least convinced that such men could not easily have assimilated
Christian ideals. Their conception of duty toward neighbor
and wife and brother and fellow-townsmen, and especially their
view of the attitude to be adopted toward stranger and
enemy, indicate the great development that had to precede
their acceptance of the standard of Christ. As we go along
through the centuries we see, like occasional gleams of light,
the intimations that this growth is taking place. The days
of the Philistine wars give place to the sympathetic relations
of the captivity and the restoration; the savage necessities
of the early settlements to the high ideals prevailing in the
schools of the prophets. Ruth and Tobias and Elias and
Eleazar appear like the glimmering rays that precede the
dawn. As the whims of the wandering tribes fade into oblivion,
we have the noble conceptions of Job and the Psalms and the
last chapters of Isaias. The road was a long one and hard to
travel; many fell by the wayside during the march, and not a
few forgot the new lessons soon after learning them. Selfish-
ness and sensuality worked against the leaven wherewith God
was leavening the mass. But in the end the leaven prevailed.
When the time was ripe, and the people ready, the heart of the
Jew was made into the heart of the Christian, and the zealots
of the law became the vessels of election of Christ.
That slow process of growth showed how incapable gross,
sensual minds must ever be of appreciating the teachings of
Christ ; and the same impossibility holds now among us.
Never can a selfish soul be the proper raw material of a
Christian. The religion of Jesus Christ will strike root only in
a heart harrowed by self-denial, worked over by the slow,
painful attempts to dig up and loosen the hard soil of the
natural man. The higher the type to which a soul belongs,
the fitter it is to receive and to develop the seed of the Gos-
pel message. He who would be a Christian must be no slave
of food and drink; must be the master of sensual passion;
must be energetic and vigilant, and industrious and brave;
must be weeded free of the root of all evil, the love of money.
As the man begins to be Christlike, the ape and the tiger
must die ; the wild beasts that prowl about within him must
be tamed, if need be, even with fire. The neophyte must
learn that though all creatures are for man's enjoyment, yet
60 THE SON OF MAN. [April,
the temperate use of them is a precept of the moral law. He
must go through an education similar to that by which the
race is taught the necessity of sternly prohibiting the coarser
forms of self-indulgence, of basing the highest social institu-
tions upon the restraint of primal appetites. The wild excesses
of the youth in the first mad fling of freedom must settle
down into the graver carriage and saner speech of the mature
man, ere he will be trusted by his fellows ; something similar
must take place before the heart can become the fit dwelling-
place of God. Taken all in all then, it seems we can truly
say that the interval between animal standards and human
laws is hardly so great as that which separates the Christian
from the pagan.
Which of us shall deny that much growth is necessary for
each of us before we can in very truth be Christians; that we
are still children in selfishness and savages in cruelty ? As we
review the incidents of each day's history, we must remember
that we are both largely responsible for and largely affected by
our surroundings ; that we are not aliens to the society in the
midst of which we live ; that we bear our inevitable share in
the burden of its every crime. Hence rightly does a sense of
shame sweep over us when we read the crimes listed in our
daily press; when we visit the homes of our city poor; when
we listen to tales of cynical harshness and maddening extrava-
gance, too frequent and too well authenticated to be ignored
or disbelieved. .
God's ideal of a man the selfless Christ ! How strange
and far away from it are we ; and how clear this is in the
moments when our better nature is deeply stirred. The head
of the nation is shot down by an assassin and expires with a
prayer on his lips; the fire demon leaps forth in a crowded
theatre and, while men are hurrying to the rescue, five hundred
die an awful holocaust; an excursion steamer, with its freight
of singing children and light-hearted parents, meets with a
sudden mishap, and a thousand perish miserably under the
very eyes of the mother city out of whose womb they all
came forth. These things shock us; and for the moment we
act like Christians. Great pity chokes a man; the tears well up;
the human heart asserts itself in the worst of us. We go so
far as, for a moment, to suspend our business, to devote our
goods recklessly, to forego opportunities of gain, to risk our
1905.] THE SON OF MAN. 61
very lives. For one divine instant we sound the note of
charity; the music of Christ's love re-echoes in our souls as
the Chicago dead are cared for and the Slocum victims are
carried by. It is good for us thus to be moved, even though
at such dreadful cost. It tells us what we could be, what we
ought to be. It will remain a help to tjs all our lives, even
though, after a day or two, the lesson seems to be forgotten.
We shall do well to recall it, to multiply the moments which
make us feel as we felt then, to extend som'ething of the same
spirit into the smaller and more frequent events of life; for
just as truly as a surrender to our brutal instincts is a checking
of Christianity's progress, so surely, to be pitiful, sympathetic,
kindly, is to bring the spirit of Christ among men, and to
strengthen his presence in souls. To turn away from an invit-
ing opportunity for evil-doing, to relinquish the chance of
sinful pleasure, to resist a seductive temptation, though with a
pain at the heart and a groan on the lips ; and to do all
this because we are unwilling to hurt neighbor, race, enemy,
any fellow- creature, born or unborn this is to become for
the moment, and in some little measure, like unto Christ's ideal
of a man.
Yes ; the love of mankind is a preparation, a necessary
preparation for Christianity. It is a sentiment which measures
by its development all growth of the soul; which, in its in-
creasing purity, reveals every advance from the selfish pas-
sion of youth to the matchless sacrifice of a mother's love ;
which registered the progress of the Israelites from the begin-
ning to the end of sacred history ; which has marked all the
stages of man's evolution from sin to sanctity, from savagery
to civilization. It is a sentiment which must, at least in some
degree, always be present in order that a soul may obtain even
the first weak grasp of Christianity ; and must grow strong and
deep before any real and hearty assimilation of Christ's spirit
can take place.
What would the prevalence of such love among us not
imply ! At its coming dishonesty and corruption would dis-
appear, and unjust trials and unfair legislation as well; the
systematic and legal oppression of the poor would cease, so
too, the crime of the betrayer who purchases a moment's pleas-
ure at the cost of another's soul, and the selfishness that de-
grades marriage into a mere means of sensual satisfaction. At
62 THE SON OF MAN. [April,
its coming would flower forth the spirit which calls it wicked
to save one's self at the cost of another, which lays upon the
best and noblest as a supreme duty the obligation to throw
away life for the sake of the meanest and weakest of his
brethren ; the spirit, so essentially Christian, which has kept
pace with the progress of Christianity, grown with its growth,
and strengthened with its strength, and made the final measure
of a nation's advance from barbarism, its loyalty to the law
which dictates that women and children must be looked after
first in the fire or the shipwreck, and placed in safety before the
great ones, most valuable to humanity, dare even think of saving
themselves.
We may not say that the study of the spirit of Christ will
at once render us able to pursue all these ideals faithfully and
successfully, nor may we say that any one of us alone can do
much toward making them prevail; but this is true, that only
in proportion as men aim at and earnestly strive after these
ideals can they hope to be fashioned into the image of God and
recognized by Christ as the children of his inspiration.
But all this will interfere with our comfort, says some one.
Why of course it will interfere undoubtedly and most de-
cidedly. And therefore Christ gave us not only an example of
service, but a lesson in renunciation. He taught us that the
Christian ideal can be attempted only by those who are will-
ing to deny themselves ; he made us understand that Chris-
tianity can easily be shaken out of souls which have not
been made firm by pain, and tempered like fine steel in the
furnace of renunciation. To do all Christ bids us do, we must
be as children, indeed, but we must have more than the
strength of children; for to be a Christian is a great life work,
no mere child's play. It is a crown we must win by effort,
a pearl for which we must pay a great price. Much physical
comfort must be surrendered by him who is striving for an
ideal which is divine. Renunciation is foremost in the scheme
of salvation proposed by Christ and shown in his life for our
imitation. We should never forget the disappointment and
failure of the materialistic Jews, brought face to face with our
Lord, but having nothing in their selfish souls wherewith to
lay hold of the treasure he proffered them. The same oppor-
tunity, the same danger, the same issue, is always ours. We
can have Mammon if we wish that is many of us can, and
1905.] THE SON OF MAN. 63
for a time at least but we cannot have God and Mammon.
The bread of angels will not be savory to him who has been
feeding on the husks of swine.
Every great institution, every nation, has its symbol : Eng-
land, its Lion and Unicorn ; Russia, its Great Bear ; France,
its Fair Lilies ; the United States, its Soaring Bird of Free-
dom. The symbol of Christianity has ever been the Cross.
Oh ! it is no longer a sign of shame to be hidden and con-
cealed. In the life of every day it meets us again and again ;
it jingles at the wrist of fashion; it dangles from the golden
watch-chain of wealth; it hangs upon the bosom of light-
hearted beauty ; it stands clear-cut against the sky as it crowns
the spire under which people meet to kneel and pray. But un-
less it be branded into the mind and seared into the individual
heart, then has the soul not yet begun to be Christian.
We must remember this as we seek to prepare ourselves for
growth in the knowledge of Christ, and increase in the love of
him ; as we pray for the grace to assimilate his spirit and to ,
imitate his conduct. The true symbol of Christianity is the
Cross. And the figure that hangs upon it, naked and suffer-
ing for the sins of others, is the Son of Man, God's Ideal of
a man.
AT EASTERTIDE.
BY CHARLES HANSON TOWNE.
O Thou who hast arisen now, with bloom and blade and leaf,
Thou who hast conquered Sin itself, shattered the gates of Grief,
Show me the way this Easter day to scourge mine unbelief !
Thou who has risen, calm and glad, from Death's tumultuous
night,
Thou who hast triumphed over pain and made us see the light,
Let me this morn, unbruised, untorn, rise, sinless, Lord, and
white !
Give me the faith of little flowers that rise amid the Spring,
Breathing the larger life and hope, silent, unquestioning ;
Unloose my bars that toward Thy stars my heart, Lord, may
take wing !
Thou who hast made the road to Death a way to peace and life,
The midnight an illumined joy with stars and beauty rife,
Take Thou my hand ; I understand no more of fear and strife !
PRINCIPLES IN SOCIAL REFORM.
IV.
BY THE REVEREND WILLIAM J. KERBY, PH.D.
fT is not to be supposed that the cause of reform
enjoys universal sympathy. Many imprudent
reforms will, it is true, be attempted, and many
shortsighted, impulsive men will engage in re-
form work. But when we have eliminated these,
we find still that useful, sensible reform work, undertaken in
the name of the people and inspired by love of them, will
meet opposition which may at times hinder it from successful
issue. Hence it is well that the reformer look carefully into
obstacles and resources before undertaking any work ; that he
adapt, for the time, the end sought to the means at command,
that he plan his campaign in a way to aim at only such
results as his resources promise.
The reformer is not much gifted with the talent of seeing
and measuring adverse facts. He is impulsive, and very often
not a trained and successful business man. Hence he may
lack sense for organization and patience for detail, while both
gifts are essential to any successful social leadership. We are
so often sadly reminded of our divine Savior's question, when
we study the history of reform effort. " For which of you,
having a mind to build a tower, doth not first sit down and
reckon the charges that are necessary, whether he have where-
withal to finish it ; lest after he hath laid the foundation, and
is not able to finish it, all that see it begin to mock him say-
ing : this man began to build and was not able to finish."
Unfortunately, many who have welcomed failure in reform, by
not reckoning the charges, have invited the ridicule that is
dealt out with such depressing effect to the average reformer.
The clear-seeing eye of the organizer, and the practical sense
of the business man who understands human nature, are
necessary in any reform work, as may be seen from even a
superficial glance at the situation.
VOL. LXXXI. 5
66 PRINCIPLES IN SOCIAL REFORM. [April,
i . In undertaking any reform, one should compute in advance
the resistance which one may meet.
Social laws are real laws. Bigotry, indifference, and pre-
judice are as real obstacles to a movement for reform, as a
great rock on the track is to a railroad train, or a bolt is to
one wishing to open a door. Just as the rock must be re-
moved, or the bolt drawn, so ignorance or prejudice must be
undermined or overridden, as circumstances demand, if one
would accomplish a work against which they militate. To
ignore these is a blunder, to underrate them is fatal. Hence
the reformer should understand that social obstacles must be
dealt with systematically, and he must recognize their laws
without question or self-deception, if he would succeed. Some
phases of the resistance to be expected are suggested here.
(a) Resistance will be met in the mere inertia of fact.
We find a clique in control of a city, saloons supreme in a
town, unsanitary homes, sweatshops, carelessness of representa-
tives and officers, and many similar conditions. Conditions are
adjusted to them and the people are accustomed to them. They
may be wrong and bad, it is true, but, one will say, they are
there, why not let them alone ? One would rather tolerate
these conditions than take the endless trouble of appealing,
organizing, reforming. No individual feels that he in particu-
lar suffers much ; it is easier for him to let things go as they
are than to take part in a movement. Thus, we find wide-
spread indifference, which dulls ears to all appeals and deprives
the good cause of the support of which it has such need.
We find a similar condition in the problem of personal morality.
Many men will allege, as a reason for not reforming here and
now, the fact that they are doing wrong, and, while they much
prefer correct life, still the effort to get into correct ways is
distasteful, and they remain as they are. When a community
knows the evils from which it suffers, and yields to the inertia
which the condition causes, it will be slow to arise in its
might and inaugurate reforms.
(b) Resistance will be met from those whose interests are
attacked by the reform.
When we attack the sweatshop, we may expect antagonism
from the sweater who profits by the oppression and degrada-
tion that we seek to terminate. The dealers who sell the
sweatshop garment, the property owners who derive income
1 90S-] PRINCIPLES IN SOCIAL REFORM. 67
from the business, possibly the banks with whom all of these
deal, have an interest, and may be led to oppose the intended
reform. When we undertake to suppress saloons, the brewers,
distillers, property owners, bankers with whom these do busi-
ness, newspapers in which they advertise or hold stock, law-
yers who are retained by them, are aroused. Money, legal
talent, careful organization make it possible to develop a system
of opposition that is much more powerful than one would
imagine, and more threatening than the reformer would sus-
pect. This aggressive opposition can easily hinder public
opinion from coming to expression; it can threaten, bribe,
boycott, and punish in a way to hinder almost any reform.
The same may be observed in any movement which affects the
material interests of any class in a community. When the
reformer studies carefully, and measures accurately, the resist-
ance he may meet, he necessarily becomes cautious. He need
not withhold all activity in the face of strong opposition, but
he must adapt his activity to the situation, and work to head
off quietly and effectively the main forces of resistance before
undertaking battle. The wisest course may be in patience, in
a quiet educational propaganda, in awakening the religious lead-
ers of a city to their real duty. One need not give up all
struggle, one need only organize, plan, and learn. Such work
and such wisdom, too seldom found among even the noblest
reform leaders, promise as much success as one can reason-
ably hope for in any given time.
The role that lawyers play in enabling business interests to
fight reform legislation, and the power against frank respect
for law found in their manner of dealing with law, should
not be overlooked in following out this thought. The follow-
ing from Collier's (March u, 1905,) is to the point:
Are lawyers more moral than business men ; ordinary men
of affairs than trust magnates ; journalists than politicians ;
and so on through the grades and divisions of society ?
Such questions arise constantly in discussion. Formerly
the politicians were blamed exclusively for much bad legisla-
tion that is now charged in part to the business men who
influence legislation. The role taken by the ablest lawyers
in making legislation ineffective is being more vividly
expounded than it ever has been before. Our laws to
take an example forbid rebates and all kinds of discrim-
68 PRINCIPLES IN SOCIAL REFORM. [April,
ination between shippers. The railway men in general
admit the desirability of such law. Yet they, and the
shippers, and the attorneys for both, devote themselves to
discovering devices for outwitting the law. There is no
moral standard which restrains either lawyers or business
men from any secret practice intended to help them escape
from laws the passage of which they favor. The public
faces the necessity of contriving laws so drawn that the
very ablest minds in the country can invent no trickery to
beat them, but probably public opinion on such matters
is being educated by all the experiments now being made.
The struggle for money is losing something relatively, and
moral standards slowly make a corresponding gain.
(c) Resistance will be met from the very victims whom one
seeks to serve.
The laborer who does not believe in the Union is its worst
enemy, and yet the Union has undeniably accomplished great
results for the laborer. Those who live in unsanitary homes,
surrounded by uncleanness, foul air, disease, and vice, tend to
lose the very impulse of discontent which might aid the re-
form of such conditions. Tenants have been known to be in-
dignant when forced from unsanitary to sanitary dwellings.
In Belgium this indifference of victims is overcome by a society
under the patronage of the King, which distributes annually,
among workingmen's families, prizes for cleanliness, good order
and judicious use of income. Many men, if not the majority,
prefer to be comfortable, and when they are adjusted to even
bad surroundings, they tend to look upon the situation with
indifference. If the victims in any social situation kept thtm-
selves blameless, and eagerly co-operated with those who wish
to aid them, success would meet the efforts. But when one
rs compelled to threaten arrest or resort to violence in order
to force suffering men and women to love what is noble and
just and clean, and to demand it, the tragedy of reform be-
comes half comedy. In the whole problems or series of prob-
lems which confronts modern society, this is perhaps the most
disheartening feature; the tendency of the victim to lose his
higher sense and nobler aspiration ; his inclination to lose his
dislike of the situation in which he may be placed, the
danger of indifference and then of even attachment to his
degradation or deprivation, and finally, the possibility of total
1905.] PRINCIPLES IN SOCIAL REFORM. 69
loss of desire for better, loss of all sense of contrast between
what he is, what he might be, and what others are. When
this stage is reached, one is beyond the reach of social re-
form, if not beyond the reach of the grace of God.
The social danger of this tendency is not rightly measured.
When any slave begins to love his chains, he will never fight
for emancipation. When society is producing classes of men
and women and children, whose condition presents grave
social, moral, and spiritual problems, delay to improve them
gives opportunity to the victims to grow contented with degra-
dation or wrong doing, and to lose all sense of contrast.
Every day that reform is delayed but adds to the difficulty of
the work because of this tendency.
(d) Resistance may be met from interests and individuals
which professedly stand for law and order.
If reform activity, zeal in purifying city life, tend to
give to a city undesirable n'otoriety, and make it known gener-
ally that taxes are high, values are unstable, capital is apt to
become timid. Industries may be driven from the city, and
industries that might have come in may be frightened away.
When this happens, business interests are apt to fall out
with reform movements, and may even try to suppress them.
Recent periodical literature, devoted to an exposition of the
evils of city government, contain illustrations of this paradox.
Scarcely a reform is undertaken against which some deter-
mined opposition from any one of many sources does not
develop. One political party may not wish to see another
inaugurate a successful reform ; one church may be reluctant
to give the quiet aid which would enable another to effect
some reform to which it is pledged. There are many strong
and good men and organizations which withhold aid and sym-
pathy from reform work, simply because all such work seems
hopeless. They see the problems, understand their gravity,
but the impression which they receive is that of helplessness,
not that of strength. They do not advocate reforms, do not
support them when attempted, do not even encourage others
to undertake them.
Any one who is at all acquainted with the large class of
quiet, noble men and women to be found everywhere, who
look for reform, hope for it, and pray for it, will surely be
struck by the sense of helplessness found among them. Their
70 PRINCIPLES IN SOCIAL REFORM. [April,
thoughts and aims are noble and true, yet they are prevented
by practical insight from complete abandon to the despair
which hovers around them. But they talk helplessness and
feel it, and thereby show us, by inference, what great strength
reform might win could the prospect of success but be held
out.
It should not be forgotten that reform is sometimes unfor-
tunate in its representatives, and that opposition to reformers
is not necessarily opposition to reform. It has been said that
socialism would be most welcome, except for the socialists.
Similarly we find at times that reform would be welcome,
except for the reformer. The lawyer, the banker, the business
man generally will show, in all important transactions, fore-
sight and accurate appreciation of means at command. Such
men mistrust impulse, rarely mistake enthusiasm for judgment,
await results patiently, and govern themselves by practical
sense. While they may themselves meet disaster in personal
affairs, they will judge others by these traits. And when, as
is often the case, they find in the reformer bounding impulses
corrected by no practical experience, and judgment tested by
no complex problems, they are inclined to withhold the sym-
pathy and support that might otherwise be given.
2. One should ascertain, in advance, the resources at one's
command when undertaking a reform.
The thoughts here suggested are implied largely in the
preceding. Not all well-minded persons, not all the moral and
spiritual forces of a community, may be counted on for active
support of a reform movement. It needs ability, organization,
plan, money; it must educate and, if necessary, fight. Some
men will give money, but not personal attention ; some will
lend the influence of their names, and others refuse it, through
fear of injuring business. The organizing and directing of the
movement is a question of business arithmetic which the leader
should work out before attempting anything.
Those who read the newspapers and periodicals with any
care, are familiar with the history of reform work and with
the facts of life which reform aims to modify. It is gratify-
ing to note that periodical literature and newspapers give
unlimited space to news of this kind, and that the readers
eagerly look for it. It is a misfortune that the people at large
1905.] PRINCIPLES IN SOCIAL REFORM. 71
have not yet acquired the habit of interpreting the social facts
about them. Radical movements, such as socialism, are built
upon interpretations of these facts. While the socialist can
tell us in a moment the meaning, to his mind, of our corrupt
politics, tenements, sweatshops, social immorality, and like
problems, we stop with the knowledge of the fact and fail to
interpret it by linking it in its relations to past and to
present.
The habit of interpreting social facts, of discovering their
meaning and relation to progress, will come only from judi-
cious training. Hence, while the thought is not closely related
to these papers, which have a practical aim, it may not be
out of place to refer to it. A generation can solve the prob-
lems of the following generation more easily than it can solve
its own. Attempts to remedy present problems will result to
some extent in makeshifts. But wise foresight, careful calcula-
tion of the trend of things, will enable a generation to secure
to its successor the advantages of preparation for problems to
come. If this be true, education assumes at once a command-
ing role. It and religion have a specific social duty to the
future. Our best wisdom, our holiest influences, our dearest
treasures should be concentrated in the schoolroom, and our
noblest characters, conscious of a splendid mission, should there
mould hearts and minds to meet the duties of life with wis-
dom and strength. If Church and School and State commence
to-day the solution of to-morrow's problems, we can tolerate
the evils which we now see, in the hope that they at least who
follow us may see goodness universal, social service a re-
spected law, and brotherhood a fact.
A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE.
ill.
BY THE REVEREND JAMES J. FOX, D.D.
MY DEAR SIR :
The argument against the Bible, drawn from the existence
of irreconcilable passages in the text itself, is not a new one.
It had been raised before the time of St. Justin Martyr, who
in treating of it wrote: "I will never dare to think or say
that the Scriptures contradict themselves ; but if any place in
Scripture seems to be of this kind, and wears such an ap-
pearance, I, persuaded that no part of Scripture can contradict
any other part, shall rather declare that I do not understand."
Ever since, theologians and scripturists have followed in St.
Justin's footsteps; and by recurring to some sound general
principles, or, in the case of some particular puzzles, to various
less satisfactory resources, they very rarely found themselves
reduced to his final alternative.
The first and most inclusive fact that we may invoke is
that there is no existing text which we can be sure is abso-
lutely conformable to the original as it left the hand of the
inspired author. Innumerable transcriptions intervene between
us and him. Again, we depend, to a great extent, on transla-
tions. Hence many of the apparent contradictions may be the
result of carelessness or ignorance on the part of the tran-
scribers, or of inaccurate work done by translators. Such mis-
takes may have easily occurred, and, doubtless, did occur,
especially in the case of numbers, dates, and proper names,
precisely the subjects which provide most of the difficulties.
The Scriptures as they exist to day,* "Have behind them a long
history, and have undergone many vicissitudes. Faults of care-
less copyists, faults of unskilful correctors, involuntary errors,
and voluntary ones, too; I know that all this sort of thing
exists in the Sacred Books; I know that these variations
multiply, the further we get from the originals, and that God
has not intervened miraculously to prevent natural causes from
introducing corruptions into the text, provided that religious
* La Bible et I'Histoire, p. 60,
1905.] A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. 73
truth is not endangered." When the Church answers for the
substantial accuracy of the Vulgate, she does not assert that
it is absolutely exact in every detail. This plea alone bars out
many of the objections.
But others remain. The older exegetes disposed of all, by
hook or by crook. But their successors, who have to deal
with a well-informed, critical age, admit that many of the
solutions are merely verbal, and that after all legitimate deduc-
tions are made for errors of transcribers and copyists, when all
is said and done, in many cases text stands in conflict with
text, and narrative clashes with narrative.
Facing the situation boldly and straightforwardly, our
present scholars, as strongly convinced as were their ancestors
that the Bible is inspired and, therefore, the word of God, but
convinced, also, that to meet the opponents of the Bible with
ineffectual denials, gratuitous assumptions, or disingenuous
evasions, is ruinous to the cause of truth, have sought and
found a more excellent way. As we have seen, the scientific
notions reflected in the Bible cannot be reconciled with the
acknowledged science of our day, nevertheless the Bible is to
be held free from error, because the erroneous notions are not
affirmed or taught by the sacred writer. In like manner, when
approaching the places that seem to offer grounds for the
charge of self-contradiction against the Scriptures, we must'
distinguish between what is merely related, recited, quoted,
and what is categorically affirmed by the writer. We must
examine whether the author is merely drawing from some
document, the veracity of which he does not guarantee, or is,
on the contrary, making a statement for which he assumes full
responsibility.* " The historian," observes Father Prat, " does
not always speak in his own name ; he often relates the
opinions or the sayings of others. His role is then confined
to being a faithful reporter, and, while he is always bound to
be truthful, it is not necessary that all the things related by
him be true. To impute to him the errors in some false state-
ment, which he is merely reciting on the responsibility of
another person, is to ignore the laws ol history, and the
nature of the human mind." An instance which just occurs
to me will help to bring out the idea. The other day I
picked up an old book of sermons, in which texts of Scripture
* Ib., p. 40.
74 A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. [April,
are extensively employed with good effect. In one place the
preacher says : My brethren, the Holy Ghost tells us that
" The congregation of the hypocrite is barren, and fite shall de-
vour their tabernacles, who love to take bribes " (Job. xv. 34).
Now the ethical import of this declaration is unexceptionable ;
the threat it carries has, sometimes, been made good. But the
Holy Ghost, or the inspired writer, does not assert it. He
merely states that it was part of the equivocal consolation ad-
ministered to Job by his friend Eliphaz the Themanite. Now,
this preacher's method of handling this text is only a little less
critical than that of many assailants of the Bible, and, if the
truth is to be told, of just as many defenders. Two incom-
patible texts are put side by side. Behold, says the rationalist,
the Book of God asserting two contradictories. No, no ; replies
the orthodox opponent, these statements are not contradictories
and he talks of errors of copyists and mystic meanings,
falls back upon a maybe, or, if driven to desperation, with a
fine disregard for the meaning of words, he will, to borrow
the example used by Cardinal Newman, prove to you that one
blind man is two blind men, and coming out of Jericho is the
same as going into Jericho. Neither party to the quarrel
thinks of asking whether the inspired writer makes himself
responsible for the conflicting statements; and the rationalist
has the best of the argument.* " The historian," says Father
Prat, " makes a narrative his own only when he approves it
expressly, or implicitly. When he does not thus pledge him-
self, the words recited may be true, they may be false ; and
this is for the reader to decide according to the ordinary laws
of historical criticism ; for ' while it is true that they were
said, it is not sure that they are true.' The expression is from
St. Augustine."
The principle, therefore, is old enough, in itself, but it never
before received the wide application that is made of it by the
new exegesis, for it is now extended to cover not only the
passages and narratives which the writer explicitly declares to
be citations or compilations, but many others, where no source
is mentioned. An instance of each kind from Father Prat
will suffice to set forth the positions of the new and of the
old school, with their respective values. " An enormous
amount of erudition has been spent in solving the antilogies
Ib., p. 42.
1905.] A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. 75
of the Book of Machabees. The intention was good, the task
praiseworthy, but it might have been simplified by neglecting
the objections, which fall of themselves. Is the eulogy passed
on the Romans excessive, is the capture of Antiochus en-
tirely unknown to profane historians controverted ? Perhaps.
But how will you prove that all this was not told to Judas
Machabeus ? The reputed victory of six thousand Jews over
one hundred thousand Galatians appears to you incredible.
Very good ; but the account of this feat is found in a dis-
course of the commander- in-chief who speaks on hearsay, or,
perhaps, with a note of exaggeration. The story about the
ark and the sacred fire preserved by Jeremias smacks, we are
told, of the legendary. That is of no importance. The in-
spired author is not responsible for it. He confines himself to
transcribing a letter addressed to the Egyptian Jews by their
Palestinian brethren referring to some writing authentic, or
spurious, it matters not of the prophet Jeremias." The con-
tradictory stories concerning the death of Epiphanes, a diffi-
culty that floored honest commentators of the old school, dis-
appears with the same explanation. This is a case of explicit
citation.
But there are irreconcilable texts, it can be urged, in many
places, where there is no mention, by the writer, of any docu-
ment or oral authority. The difficulties in your friend's list
are of this kind the contradictory accounts of the meeting of
Saul and David, and conflicting dates in the Books of Kings
and Paralipomenon. The list might be indefinitely increased.
It is true that the authors do not declare, in so many words,
that they are merely citing, but, the new school holds, there
are implicit citations. That is to say that, though very often,
owing to translations and obscurities of language, and, on our
part, want of knowledge that was common property in the
time of the sacred writer, the indications have become almost
obliterated for us, there did exist for his contemporaries ample
notice that, in the places providing our difficulties, the sacred
author was not making statements on his own account, but
merely repeating what somebody else had said or written.
The name of Cainan in the patriarchal genealogy, as given by
St. Luke, is not found in the corresponding list in Genesis.*
"This has been," says Father Prat, "a veritable Chinese puz-
zle for the exegetes; they send the reader from Genesis to St.
/*.,p.54.
;6 A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. [April,
Luke, and from St. Luke to Genesis. If they touch the diffi-
culty, it is often to tell us that they see no way out. And
that is the last word of the honest Pereira on the subject."
What is Father Prat's solution ? Simply that St. Luke copies
from the Septuagint without offering any guarantee for the
accuracy of that translation of the original Hebrew. Implicit
citations is the open sesame, which solves the problem of his-
torical contradictions that refuse to be got rid of in any other
way.
The new school then, as you are now able to see, can
meet victoriously all the attacks made on the Bible in the
name of science, history, or criticism. To accept it, however,
is to admit that modern criticism, much of which has been the
work of non-Catholics, and even of non-Christians, has made
good a great many of its contentions against traditional inter-
pretation. No wonder, then, that with the strong tendency to
conservatism everywhere dominating our theology, many should
eye the new leaders with suspicion, and consider their method
a dangerous concession to the enemy, if not indeed an intro-
duction of the fateful horse within the walls of Ilium. Hence
the ideas of the school have been assailed with mutterings
about "Protestant infiltrations"; "disguised rationalism"; and
other cognate reproaches. So the leaders when presenting
their methods are compelled frequently to speak in a key that
suggests the surgeon urging that some proposed operation is
safe ; and warning the friends of the sick man who refuse
their consent that unless decayed matter is removed the patient
cannot regain his health. Father Lagrange reminds the ultra-
conservative that when St. Thomas introduced Aristotelianism
he, too, was accused of innovation and of bringing the wolf
into the fold. The Archbishop of Paris solemnly condemned
the innovator, and the Dominican habit worn by the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury did not impede that prelate's arm when
he, too, launched a bolt against his audacious Sicilian brother.
Replying to a scholastic theologian who attacked him,
Father Prat defines the logical situation : * " Naturally he (the
theologian) will not hear of implicit citations. If the word itself
is offensive to him, I shall not obstinately stick to it. But he
forgets to tell us what he is to substitute for the thing, and*
notwithstanding the repugnance he would feel in facing the
real facts of the case, the reader expected him to do so. It is
* 16., p. 40.
1905.] A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. 77
not a matter for spinning phrases, for shifty tricks and shuf-
fling, if there are no explicit citations in the Bible, there are
errors. Will the learned theologian accept this second alter-
native ? " And the critics claim the right to take into their
hands the delicate and momentous task of determining, except
in any case where the Church herself may have settled the
question, when implicit citations are present: * "These questions
belong less to the theologian and the exegete than to the critics
and the philosophers, for they concern the rules of literary
form and the general laws of discourse. When the critics and
the philosophers will have pronounced their verdict, there will
be nothing for the theologians to do but acquiesce in the decision,
unless they mean to deny the assertion of Leo XIII. that the
Scriptures address men in a human language." f
When discussing the legendary character of some parts of
the Pentateuch, Father Lagrange, as I told you, states that
the history of the fall is to be distinguished from the other
histories and considered on a different plane. I need hardly
tell you the reason of this discrimination. When the critic
turns to this subject, he is in presence of a dogma of the
Church. Such topics as Lot's wife and the Dead Sea marvels
do not directly involve any dogmatic doctrine. Provided that
the critic safeguards the doctrine of inspiration, he may, shod
in his historical and linguistic learning, run over the whole
of this field, inoffenso pede, in full liberty. But when he ap-
proaches the fall, from the burning bush comes the supernal
voice bidding him put off the shoes from his feet, for the
ground on which he treads is holy. Faithful to his duty and
his professions, Father Lagrange remembers that where dogma
is concerned the critic and the exegete must, before every-
thing else, consult the Church's teaching and be guided by it.
This is the specific difference, the fixed, ineradicable character-
istic, which profoundly differentiates Catholic from rationalistic
criticism, however frequently a careless or defective eye may
fail to perceive it. So, Father Lagrange declares that he
places by itself the history of original sin.f "Not," he adds,
*/J.,P. 56.
tAn able article in the Catholic University Bulletin, for January, from the pen of Pro-
fessor Poels, a member of the Biblical Commission, advocating the views of Father Lagrange's
school, concludes with the following words: " To weight Christianity with a view of biblical
history which, when confronted with the facts, is at once seen to be refuted by them, is a
responsibility which no Catholic would take upon himself if he realized it."
\ La Methode Historique, p. 217.
78 A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. [April,
"that I desire to affirm that all the circumstances of the
account are historic." For his opinion on this point he refers
his reader to his article in the Revue Biblique (1897, p. 341).
As he had, in the course of his exposition, shown purely oral
tradition to have very limited powers for preserving, without
distortion, through a long period of time, the memory of a
fact, he warns his readers not therefore rashly to conclude that,
in the present matter, he denies the power of tradition to have
preserved the essential fact, for he believes it quite possible
that tradition may have preserved the memory of a fall for
thousands of years. " But," he proceeds,* "if we suppose, for
argument's sake, data, non concesso, that such a transmission
was impossible, we have then to see whether original sin j
which eludes any proof by history, is, or is not, part of reve-
lation. It is part of revelation; this is certain. We must
therefore conclude that it has been revealed." And he explicitly
formulates his position: "I believe, then, in original sin,
because of the declaration of the Church, I believe in it, ac-
cording to the sense in which she understands it; but, this
dogmatic point placed on one side and established on the
immovable rock of revelation, there is no difficulty in the way
of assigning to primitive history its proper character, although
this was not understood by the ancients."
Thus, while ready to appreciate the fruits of sound criti-
cism, where criticism has a legitimate field, and looking to the
infallible Church for direction in all that appertains to the unity
of faith, our critics use the liberty which the Church accords,
and, through the mouth of Leo XIII., exhorts them to exercise.
They exercise it not in a spirit of wantonness, but with a
sobriety befitting the sacred interests engaged, which they
believe are to be best protected, to-day, by the withdrawal
from circulation of a quantity of opinions that, after having
long been accepted as legal tender, are now seriously depre-
ciated. Who doubts that the process will but enhance the
Church's own sterling gold, and place her credit beyond sus-
picion ? If drafts drawn upon her have been dishonored, it can
be shown that she never endorsed them.
I have dwelt on this matter in order to show you how
misleading is the charge made by your friend, Professor M ,
who, indeed, only repeats the words of countless others, "that
the Church, from Galileo's time, has committed herself, all along
* lb., pp. 218, 219.
1905.] A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. 79
the line, to the veracity of the Bible as science and history."
No infallible authority was compromised, we maintain, when
the Inquisition declared that the theory of the earth's diurnal
motion was heretical. No infallible voice ever confirmed the
views of theologians, scripturists, prelates, or congregations,
who taught that the Bible, from Genesis to Machabees is strictly
historical, wherever it wears the appearance of history. To the
instructed Catholic nowhere is there clearer evidence of the
divine providence that watches over the Church than in the
history of theology and biblical interpretation. When we
observe that the entire world for hundreds of years accepted
without a suspicion of the truth the ancient notions about the
universe, and that they were woven, at a thousand points, into
the network of theology ; that, more than once, powerful in-
terests strove for dogmatic confirmation of opinions that are
now undermined ; that councils and popes, in circumstances
where the infallible prerogative was not in play, lent their
names to views that have not stood the test of time; and yet,
after all this age-long "clash of Yea and Nay," occurring often
in an atmosphere charged with the fiercest domestic odium
theologicum, the Church can still, with serene confidence, say
to scientist and historian and critic : Which of you can convict
me of error? When we remember all this we see the fulfilment
of the unfailing promise.
Where, however, the Church has guarded silence theologians
have often spoken in peremptory tones ; only to provide, in
the long run, demonstration that if the Church is infallible,
men are not, however zealous and learned. The world at
large, not having the knowledge necessary to distinguish be-
tween the infallible and the non-infallible magisterium, usually
takes for granted that whatever is taught in the Church is
taught authoritatively by the Church. Strangers learn, from
oral exposition, or through books and publications, carrying
more or less official approbation, that something or other is
supposed to be Catholic doctrine. They may have had occa-
sion to observe that some Catholic, who has ventured to con-
trovert the point, is summarily dealt with by his superior.
They understand how thorough is the organization of the
Church, how great the vigilance exercised over doctrine ; and
they assume that the teaching in question carries the full sanc-
tion of the highest authority. All the while it may be but an
opinion. It finally turns out to be incorrect, and the Church
8o A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. [April,
is made to bear the obloquy. The business of showing that
the Church had never sanctioned it is turned over to the next
generation of apologists. Meanwhile, however, another telling
fact is furnished to counsel for the prosecution in the case
of SCIENCE versus CATHOLICISM. I shall show you easily that
although sometimes attended by these disadvantages, the con-
servative spirit of theology, speaking generally, has been, not
alone useful, but absolutely necessary. Meanwhile, however,
we might with profit compare the past and present of some
historically important opinion which exemplifies the process
that has supplied our assailants with specious arguments against
the Church. Let us take the Mosaic authorship of the Penta-
teuch, or first five books of the Bible. We shall not go back
to the days when criticism was in its cradle, when Bossuet,
faigle de Meaux, swooped down upon old Richard Simon and
tore him to pieces for daring to publish a " mass of impieties,"
one of which was the opinion that Moses was not the sole
and exclusive author of the Pentateuch. By the year 1885
criticism had asserted itself. Through a long series of battles
with science, over such questions as the formation of the earth,
the age of man, and the universality of the deluge, theologians
had learned, again and again, that "to fight involves the risk
of being beaten" the expression is from Father Clarke, S.J.,
In that year, when Gladstone, in the name of orthodox Prot-
estantism, was making a final and ineffectual stand, in Eng-
land, for the scientific accuracy of Genesis, there appeared in
France an elaborate defense of the Bible. The author, a
learned member of an order devoted to the education of the
clergy, professed to meet the critics of the Bible on their own
ground. In the first volume of his work he announced that
he would foil rationalism with its own weapons; he would, if
the expression is not beneath the dignity of the subject, keep
strictly to the rules of the game.* "Betaking ourselves," so
ran his challenge, "to the field of battle, we shall close with
our adversaries, employing the same arms as they use to attack
us. They appeal to criticism, to archaeology, to history ; we
do the same. Our rule shall be to follow the most rigorously
scientific method. We shall not invoke the authority of the
Church, since we have to do with those who deny it. We
shall study the text itself with all the resources that are at our
* Les Livres Saints et la Critique Rationaliste. Par F. Vigouroux. Tome I., p. 57
(Ed. 1890).
I905-]
A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE.
81
disposal, and we shall prove that, in spite of difficulties and
obscurities, which are sometimes insoluble, from causes which
we have indicated above, there is not a single objection solidly
established against the Bible and capable of casting doubt on
its divine origin." The work was hailed with joy. The author
was thanked for having so victoriously accomplished the task
he had undertaken. The bishop who gave the necessary im-
primatur declared that it demonstrated how every new dis-
covery but bore fresh testimony to the veracity of everything
related by the sacred authors. Furthermore, he affirmed that
the work, " serieuse et harmonique avec les vraies donnees de
la science," reduced the whole vain structure of criticism,
English, German, and French, to a heap of ruins. The highest
honors had frequently been conferred for apologetic services
much less esteemed. But the rules of his congregation in har-
mony with his own character forbade any of its members to
accept ecclesiastical dignities. He acquired, however, a prestige
and an academic authority which has imposed the necessity
of exercising extreme prudence and circumspection on later
writers who do not see eye to eye with him in many problems.
Now, the very first thesis that the author undertakes to
establish is that, with the exception of the account of the
patriarch's own funeral, and a very few other absolutely insig-
nificant trifles, Moses wrote the Pentateuch, " dans sa substance
et dans sa totalite." Then the two hundred odd pages which
contain the proof are ushered in with the strongest assurance
that the question is a capital one : " The Mosaic origin of the
Pentateuch is the foundation on which stands the whole bibli-
cal edifice, and, consequently, the Jewish and the Christian
religion." To give it up, the author says in an amplified way,
would be to abandon the entire reasonable basis of our faith
at the bidding of rationalism. Christian tradition, so runs the
proof, all the Fathers and all the doctors, all Catholic com-
mentators in all ages, the Council of Trent, the Church, and
our Lord himself, all testify in unmistakable terms that Moses
is the author of the Pentateuch." The work passed as a
satisfactory, accurate exposition of Catholic teaching; for no-
body rose then to protest that the question of the Mosaic
authorship is of no such vital importance to Christianity ;
a non-Catholic consulting it would assume that in it he had
the teaching of the Church; and if he should afterwards find
VOL. LXXXI. 6
82 A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. [April,
that belief in the Mosaic authorship was given up by Catholics,
he would note the fact as another instance of variation
on the part of the Church. It has been given up ; for it
was a mere exegetical opinion. The composite authorship
of the Pentateuch is now looked upon by our scholars as
established beyond dispute. In 1900 Father von Hummelauer
declared, before a Catholic congress, that even some parts of
Deuteronomy were written by the prophet Samuel, that is to
say, three hundred years after the death of Moses. The exclu-
sively Mosaic authorship is an opinion that has gone to join
St. Augustine's belief about the incorruptibility of the peacock's
flesh. Yet the vigilant eye of the High Priest delects no rent
in the veil of the Temple; no Jeremias announces that the
stones of the sanctuary are scattered at the head of every street.
Nevertheless, out of the incident a Draper or a White will manu-
facture another empty charge against the unchanging Church.
Somebody, commenting on the views presented to the
Catholic Congress at Munich by our leaders concerning the
composite authorship of Deuteronomy, remarked that, if one
wished to take the affair au tragique, one might make over it
a fine apostrophe to Bossuet, the gendarme of tradition. Who,
however, shall say that there is not a tragic side to the drama?
Literature holds few deeper tragedies than the pages in which
Renan relates the loss of his faith a tragedy not merely of
an individual soul, but of countless others who have been in-
oculated with the virus of unbelief by the arch-rationalist.
He has told the world that he lost his faith in the Church
because his philological studies led him to conclusions at vari-
ance with the opinions held by his teachers upon many biblical
points: "It is no longer possible," he said, "to maintain that
the second part of Isaias is really of Isaias. The book of
Daniel, which orthodoxy refers to the time of the Captivity,
was composed in 169, or 170, B. C. The Book of Judith is a
historical impossibility. The assignment of the Pentateuch to
Moses cannot be sustained. And to deny that several parts
of Genesis resemble myths is to commit one's self to taking as
rigorously historical the accounts of the terrestrial paradise,
the forbidden fruit, and the Ark of Noah." " Now," he goes
on, "no one is a Catholic who departs, on even one of these
points, from the traditional thesis." How far the man was
responsible for this erroneous reasoning, and for the fatal step
1905.] A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. 83
which, he says, resulted frcm it, is not a question for human
judges to decide. One thing is certain. If his studies proved
to him clearly and convincingly that some theological or exe-
getical interpretation was erroneous, he ought to have concluded,
not that the Church was teaching error, but that the incrimi-
nated opinion was a merely human one, for which the Church
had never made herself responsible, and that, in due time, the
error would be relegated to its proper place. In fact, to-day,
understanding the term " resemble myths " in Father Lagrange's
sense, there is not one point in the catalogue of instances
above mentioned on which sound Catholic exegetes do not
accept the view which Renan imagined to be incompatible with
orthodoxy.*
The Scriptural interpretations of any particular time re-
semble theology, which, as the late Father Hogan wrote,
"comprises a great variety of elements of very unequal value
dogmas of faith, current doctrines, opinions freely debated,
theories, inferences, conjectures, proofs of all degrees of cogency,
from scientific demonstration down to intimations of the
feeblest kind." The work of sifting the chaff from the wheat,
in this mass, is carried on incessantly, and with special vigor
at present when new knowledge pours in on all sides. In the
prosecution of this work the Catholic critic looks primarily to
the Church for guidance. When he finds that some obsolete
conviction of merely human origin is to be laid aside, instead
of saying to the Church, as did Renan, you have misled me,
his words are: They shall perish, but thou remainest; and all
of them shall grow old like a garment ; and as a vesture thpu
shalt change them, and they shall be changed, but thou art
always the self-same, and thy years shall not fail.
We are now close upon the other point on which I
promised you some remarks the opposition of the Church to
science. But they must be deferred till another occasion.
Meanwhile Believe me,
Yours fraternally,
* The Benedictine scholar, Dom Hildebrand Hopfl, cites, with approval, from Father
Christian Pesch, S.J., the following statement: "The question whether Judith and Esther
are historical works, or merely didactic and prophetic writings in the semblance of history, is
to be decided by the literary critic, and is not to be solved by any theory of inspiration." He
says of Tobias, Judith, and Esther: " We should be inclined to regard them as history, out
of reverence for tradition ; but we should not hold out stubbornly against criticism if it proves
that they are not real history." Das Bitch der Ditcher. Freiburg im Breisgau, 1904, pp.
162, /.
RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE AND AMERICAN SCHOOLS.
BY THE REVEREND THOMAS McMILLAN C.S.P.
PS a powerful advocate of Home Rule for Ireland,
the Right Honorable John Morley, M. P.,
showed a commendable sense of justice, com-
bined with an accurate knowledge relating to
the welfare of the British Empire. For this
reason it seems unfair to charge him with a desire to please
his non-Conformist friends at any cost by a statement calculated
to strengthen them in their unwise and unjust hostility to the
law of England, which permits the recognition of Church
Schools together with a proportionate share of the public funds.
Such an accusation, however, may be fairly put forth in view
of the report of his speech to his constituents after his return
from America, published January 18, 1905, in the London
Times as follows :
Mr. Morley said there was no country where religion
was more genuine or more earnest. The Common Schools
of the United States were practically confined to secular
instruction, yet nowhere in the world was religious knowl-
edge more general.
This is a sweeping declaration for a man to make who
knows fully the meaning of words, and is not a member of
any Church. His previous studies at home and abroad have
not been in the direction to qualify him for deciding on the
requisite conditions to promote religious knowledge throughout
the whole world. The facts of the case are against the state-
ment made by the distinguished biographer of Mr. Gladstone;
and his constituents, as honest men, should seek elsewhere
more reliable information than was given to them by their
representative in Parliament.
Some of the facts not discovered by Mr. Morley were stated
by the editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, January 29, 1905, who
is a sturdy advocate of Protestant ascendancy, though quite
willing to enroll Catholics among the supporters of his paper.
1905.] RELIGION AND AMERICAN SCHOOLS. 85
Evidently he had in mind abundant material based on present
conditions when he wrote these words :
DECLINING FAITH, INCREASING CRIME.
Although the average of men behave better than they
used to do, and although the average of right conduct
makes the infraction thereof more noticeable 'and obnoxious,
it is not to be denied that in this country, at least, the
moralities are less strict than they were half a century ago.
If it is objected that few of the many murders are com-
mitted by Americans, it is none the less true that a moral
obtuseness is shown by Americans of a class that would
once have committed suicide if discovered in the plots and
rogueries which have been promulgated and shared by men
of the highest financial standing. . . . We cannot close
our eyes to those measures in the legislatures of the states,
and even of the nation, which have for their object the
personal enrichment of men who frame the bills. The
revelations of moral rottenness that have been made in
New York, Chicago, St. Louis, San Francisco, Pittsburg,
and Philadelphia have been discouraging to preachers of
the ascendant tendencies of democracy, and in our Senate
seats have been notoriously bought, and held after their
occupants have been repudiated by the entire body.
These manifestations have been attributed to the lax
and partial enforcements of the law, but that merely shifts
the blame from the wrongdoers to the bar, the judiciary,
and the agencies for prosecution, reform, and punishment.
The courts will be pure where the people are pure. It is
the entire American people that is at fault. But it is
observable that as crime has increased Church-going has
decreased. This again may not instance the decay of faith,
but only of discontent with Church methods, and of conces-
sions to the world's lures that are cast out so freely on
Sunday, but that in themselves imply nothing of the irre-
ligious. It is to be feared, however, that religious faith
has lost its hold on. millions, and that among those millions
are many who need the corrective of fear. . . .
It is hard to believe that men who sincerely believed
in the felicity or the pains of a hereafter should go so low
as men have done in finance, in politics, in business, for the
gain of a few years. Men organize ship building trusts
that are swindles, and not one of them is indicted or punished.
Manufacturers of food products . . . injure the health
86 RELIGION AND AMERICAN SCHOOLS. [April,
of the community without a seeming twinge of conscience.
Men about to undertake a crime take expert legal advice
in advance, and secure expensive counsel with the profits
of their undertaking, and it is seldom that public opinion
expresses contempt for them. Officials elected by the
people prove false to their trusts, and it is impossible to
bring them to trial. Graft is everywhere, and the dollar
is above the Deity.
Hitherto the Churches have concerned themselves largely
with matters of doctrine. . . . But now the Church con-
fronts a real evil, and there is need of union to suppress it.
Mere lack of faith does not concern the people of a free country,
but crime does, whether it arises from this lack or other-
wise. We want less killing, less stealing, less of Wall
Street, less rowdyism and obscenity, less corruption in
politics, less carelessness on moral questions in society. If
ethics are a slow growth of the socialized state, their
destruction is appallingly facile, and they must be recon-
structed at a cost of centuries of effort, unless the moral
effects of faith are restored to us. For that restoration the
Churches of all faiths should work in harmony.
Similar declarations to the above have been published in
previous years by the Brooklyn Eagle, whose editor holds a
high position in the educational department of New York State.
The most notable was on the occasion of an alarming exhibit
of youthful depravity in a select residence district of Brooklyn,
which provided the background for the following editorial:
Right and wrong in the affairs of conduct are not mat-
ters of instinct ; they have to be learned, just as really in
fact as history or handicrafts. Is this knowledge being
imparted to our children in any efficient way and by any
efficient teachers ? Is the public school doing it ? Is the
Church doing it ? Are fathers and mothers doing it ? We
are compelled to say No to all these queries. . . . The
truth is, we are taking for granted a moral intelligence
which does not exist. We are leaning upon it, depending
upon it, trusting to it, and it is not there.
Our whole machinery of education, from the kindergarten
up to the university, is perilously weak at this point. We
have multitudes of youths and grown men and women who
have no more intelligent sense of what is right and wrong
than had so many Greeks of the time of Alcibiades. . . .
1905.] RELIGION AND AMERICAN SCHOOLS. 87
The great Roman Catholic Church . " . . is unquestion-
ably right in the contention that the whole system as it now
exists is morally a negation. . . '.
The great company of educators and the whole Ameri-
can community need to be sternly warned that if morality
cannot be specifically taught in the public schools without
admitting religious dogma, then religious dogma may have
to be taught in them. For righteousness is essential to a
people's very existence. And righteousness does not come
by nature any more than reading or writing does. . . .
We are within measurable distance of the time when society
may for its own sake go on its knees to any factor which
can be warranted to make education compatible with and
inseparable from morality, letting that factor do it on its
own terms and teach therewith whatsoever it lists.
The Century Magazine, November, 1903, published the arti-
cle which contained these words:
Indeed, the number of crimes committed by the highly
educated is an alarming feature of the situation. The list
ol defaulting bookkeepers, bank-tellers, clerks, and college
graduates constantly lengthens, reflecting a lurid light upon
the theories of those who attempt to account for the origin
of all sin, vice, and crime by ignorance.
Reasons for dissatisfaction with the results of the education
of the negro were presented by Governor Candler, of Georgia,
in his annual message. Strict justice demanding only that the
negro shall have expended on his schools his own share of the
taxes, the Governor attempts to show that philanthropy and
interests of the State do not require greater expenditure. He
says:
If by education in the text-books taught in the schools
crime was diminished, as many of us at one time hoped
would be the case, there might be some reason for im-
posing even heavier taxes upon our people for the support
of schools. But this is not true, for it is a startling fact,
established by the experience of thirty years, that, while
under our system of free schools illiteracy has rapidly de-
creased, especially among our colored population, crime has
much more rapidly increased among them. . . . Ninety
per cent of the crimes committed by negroes are committed
by those who have had the opportunities of free schools,
and only ten per cent by the ex-slaves, who are illiterate,
88 RELIGION AND AMERICAN SCHOOLS. [April,
while ninety per cent of the property acquired by the race
since emancipation is in the hands of the ex-slaves and not
in the hands of those educated in the free schools.
Further testimony bearing on the point raised by Mr.
Morley, on the relations between secular instruction and reli-
gious knowledge, is here given from very competent witnesses.
Rev. Hamilton Schuyler, Rector of Trinity Church, Trenton,
New Jersey, December, 1902:
Another point, which it seems to me calls for our
admiration, is the supreme importance attributed by Roman
Catholics to the religious education of their children. View-
ing the matter from this standpoint, we must admit that
they are justified in establishing their own schools, where
their children may be taught the religion which they profess.
The absolute necessity of inculcating the truths of religion
while the child is yet in its most impressionable stage is one
which is generally recognized by all parties. Bodies other
than Roman Catholic attempt to do this in Sunday-School.
Roman Catholics believe that such teaching of religion is
not sufficient. They desire that religion shall enter into the
daily life of their child, and that a knowledge of it shall go
hand in hand with secular studies. Who shall say that they
are wrong ? Certainly the fact that they willingly bear the
great expense of supporting their parish schools, when
they might send their children without cost to the public
schools, is the best evidence that they are animated by
purely conscientious motives.
The Methodist writes editorially:
In our judgment the denominational schools of the land,
as compared with the purely secular or State schools, are
on moral grounds incomparably the safer. Our State 'insti-
tutions, as a general thing, are the hotbeds of infidelity not
less than of vice. That unbelief should be fostered and
fomented therein is not unnatural. We thoroughly believe
that our Church should invest at least ten millions of dollars
in the next ten years in denominational schools. Why?
Because we belive this system is the AMERICAN ONE AND
THE ONLY SAFE ONE. Literary Digest, Vol. VII., No. 7.
President Hyde, of Bowdoin College, before the Massachu-
setts Teachers' Association of Boston, November, 1896:
The public school must do more than it has been doing
1905.] RELIGION AND AMERICAN SCHOOLS. 89
if it is to be a real educator of youth and an effective sup-
porter of the State. It puts the pen of knowledge in the
child's hand, but fails to open the treasures of wisdom to his
heart and mind. Of what use is it to teach a child how to
read, if he cares to read nothing but the sensational accounts
of crime? These people who know how to read and write
and cipher, and know little else, these are the people who
furnish fuel for A. P. A. fanaticism ; who substitute theoso-
phy for religion, passion for morality, impulse for reason,
crazes and caprice for conscience and the Constitution.
From the Educational Review, February, 1898:
A little less than fifty per cent of all the children of our
country frequent any Sunday-School. The meaning of these
figures is simply overwhelming. More than one-half of the
children of this land now receive no religious education.
. . . Even this feature does not show all the truth. It
seems to admit that those who attend Sunday- School are
receiving proper religious instruction ; but every one knows
this cannot be granted. Dr. Levi Seeley, of the State Normal
School, 7 r en ton, N. /.
Dr. Wallace Radcliffe (Presbyterian) :
In our Church-life we recognize the Trinity : home,
school, and Church, a triple cord not easily broken. The
home is a school, the school is a home. It is an unintelligible
Christianity which loses sight of this important factor (the
school) in our Church. . . . It is something that your
children go to school ; it is more that they go to a school
of your own religious belief. Therefore we summon you to
bring up your children in your own faith. L,et us establish
schools . . . and teach our religious convictions.
Washington, D. C., October 7, 1900.
Rev. Dr. E. T. Wolf, Professor at Gettysburg Theological
Seminary, before the Evangelical Alliance:
Moral training has, for the most part, been cast out of our
public schools. Every faculty, except the highest and
noblest, is exercised and invigorated ; but the crowning 1
faculty that which is designed to animate and govern all
others is contemptuously ignored ; and, unless its education
can be secured, our young men and women will be graduated
from our schools as moral imbeciles. This country is facing
a grave social problem. The Philadelphia Press, December
4, 1901.
90 RELIGION AND AMERICAN SCHOOLS. [April,
Professor William James, of Harvard, received that univer-
sity's degree of LL.D., and made a speech after the com-
mencement dinner, which has attracted wide attention. The
following passages have an especial interest for those who
hold to Catholic educational ideals :
The old notion that book-learning can be a panacea for
the vices of society, lies pretty well shattered to-day. I
say this in spite of certain utterances of the president of
this university to the teachers last year. That sanguine-
hearted man seemed then to think that if the schools would
only do their duty better, social vice might cease. But vice
will never cease. Every level of culture breeds its own
peculiar brand of it, as sure as one soil breeds sugar cane
and another soil breeds cranberries. If we were asked that
disagreeable question : What are the bosom-vices of the level
of culture which our land and day have preached ? we
should be forced, I think, to give the still more disagree-
able answer, that they are swindling and adroitness, and
the indulgence of swindling and adroitness and cant, and
sympathy with cant natural fruits of that extraordinary
idealization of success in the mere outward sense of getting
there, and getting there on as big a scale as we can, which
characterizes our present generation. What was reason
given to man for, some satirist has said, except to enable
him to invent reasons for what he wants to do ? We might
say the same of education. We see college graduates on
every side of every public question. Harvard men defend
our treatment of our Filipino allies as a masterpiece of
policy and duty. Harvard men, as journalists, pride them-
selves on producing copy for any side that may enlist
them. There is not a public abuse for which some advo-
cate may not be found.
In the successful sense, then in the worldly sense, in
the club sense, to be a college man, even a Harvard man
affords no sure guarantee for anything but a more educated
cleverness in the service of popular idols and vulgar ends.
The influence of the Hebrew people in the secular school
system of the United States has been very potent in certain
places, and, owing to vigorous protests from their religious
leaders, the selections for Bible reading are limited exclusively
to the Old Testament. Non-Conformist advocates of the Bible,
and the Bible only, in England and elsewhere, should consider
1905.] RELIGION AND AMERICAN SCHOOLS. 91
this important fact, that the children of Christians in many
schools may never hear the words of Christ read aloud. From
this source a more aggressive movement may be expected in
the near future. According to information which has reached
the editor of the Ave Maria:
The school question may still be far from settlement ; but
interest in it is evidently becoming more intense, since Jews
now array themselves against Protestants, and a Jewish editor
is found to advocate some constitutional amendment for the
preservation of our educational system against its Catholic
and Protestant opponents.
The non-orthodox Jews, who see no reason why moral in-
struction should be given in American schools, are, naturally
enough, opposed to any change in the existing system. That
Catholics, besides educating their own children, should be
taxed for the education of others, does not strike them as being
in the least unjust. Their own religion is not much to them,
but this does not at all lessen their antagonism to other
religions.
A writer in the Chicago Israelite, of recent date, thus de-
clares himself:
The Roman Catholic Church is only fighting for the control
of a portion of the money raised by taxation for school pur-
poses ; the Protestant bigots want the whole of it. The
Catholic priests would be content to control the primary
schools or, rather, to give the children primary education in
their own way ; the Protestant pastors want to be in control of
the whole educational system primary, intermediate, and
high schools, and the universities in addition. They will not
accept defeat, and no sooner are Protestant religious exercises
abolished in a school than they try to sneak them back
under the guise of unsectarian hymns, prayers, etc. . . .
It is the Protestant fanatics, with their sectarian hymns and
prayers, which they insist upon children of other denomina-
tions listening to, who are a menace and a nuisance.
The editor of the Israelite writes very frankly in these
words :
A considerable number of Protestant Christian representa-
tive bodies have apparently come to the conclusion that their
Catholic brethren arrived at some time ago i. e., that, un-
less they can control the primary education of the children,
92 RELIGION AND AMERICAN SCHOOLS. [April,
they will not be able to keep up their Church membership ;
and are therefore seeking to reintroduce religious worship,
Bible reading, singing of sectarian songs, and repeating of
sectarian prayers in the public schools. In this they are less
honest than the Catholics, who admit that it would be wrong
to force the children of adherents of one faith to receive in-
struction in another, and therefore boldly and openly ask for
a division of the school fund among the various sects. These
Protestant bodies, who are clamoring against the godless
schools, are not half so decent. They are opposed to any
division of the public school fund, but they want the whole of
it used for their exclusive interest, for the ultimate increase
of the membership of their Churches.
The Educational Review for February, 1905, edited by
Nicholas Murray Butler, the President of Columbia University,
contains a notable article by the Rev. James Conway,' S.J., in
which it is estimated that, out of the seventy- five or eighty
millions who inhabit the United States, not more than twenty-
three millions profess any definite form of Christianity ; and
of these a considerable number are unbaptized. If the number
of Catholics be deducted from this total there will remain only
about ten millions who have anything more than an external
bond of union with the Christian Churches. These figures
should convince Mr. Morley that he was far away from the
facts when he stated that nowhere in the world is religious
knowledge more general than here in the United States. Such
a statement, like many others made recently by returning
English visitors, is not founded on correct information.
Some good men among the non- Conformists of England,
who are known to have a sensitive conscience though variable
in its dictates, could easily have been led astray by the rose-
colored descriptions given to them of religious conditions here
across the sea by those claiming to be specialists in education.
In one of the most extensive of these accounts, by an English ex-
pert,* there was no adequate mention of the one million or more
children educated in the Catholic Parish Schools, now officially
recorded by the United States Commissioner of Education in
his latest report. A manifest purpose seems to dominate
much of the fulsome laudation of the " glorious system " of
* Parliamentary Reports on Educational Subjects : Moral Education, in American Schools.
By Mr. H. Thiselton Mark, of Owens College, Manchester.
I9Q5-]
RELIGION AND AMERICAN SCHOOLS.
93
unsectarian schools, described a short time ago by a loyal
American as a legalized form of " endowed agnosticism."
While there has been much alarmist writing, welcomed by
certain editors for reasons best known to themselves, it still
remains an invincible truth that no part of the American Con-
stitution would be endangered by a just recognition of the
Parish Schools in their valuable work for public education.
General taxation to secure free schools would still remain
in full operation as a necessary measure of safety for uni-
versal suffrage. The acceptance of examination and inspection
under State control would amply safeguard the secular studies
required for citizenship. Catholic citizens stand ready to give
the largest scope to patriotism, while providing for children,
at their own expense, a definite and dogmatic system of re-
ligious knowledge in accordance with the teaching of Christ.
Under the direction of the Right Reverend Joseph F.
Mooney, V.G., Chairman of the New York Catholic School
Board, a report* has been prepared showing number of pupils
and teachers, and an estimate of the annual cost of mainte-
nance about $500,000 for 55,629 children and close to the
sum of $10,000,000 invested for Parish School property and
buildings. For the first time the official report just issued of
the State Department of Education at Albany, contains a dis-
tinct mention of the attendance at Catholic Schools in New
York State. This recognition has been long desired, though
persistently refused. From the figures here given students of
educational statistics may now more accurately observe the
indications of American intellectual and moral progress, espe-
cially those coming from Europe who have formed erroneous
conclusions from previous reports.
FROM CATHOLIC DIRECTORY OF 1905 :
Parish School
Students of Colleges
Catholic
Pupils.
and Academies.
Population.
New York,
55,629
6,094
1,200,000
Brooklyn,
35^52
i,334
500,000
Buffalo,
25,112
2,015
195,000
Rochester,
17,231
323
115,000
Albany,
15,370
376
172,755
Syracuse,
5,100
688
117,500
Ogdensburg,
3,958
83,500
158,052
10,830
2,383,755
* The Parish Schools of New York. A pamphlet of 32 pages. New York : The Columbus
Press, 120 West Sixtieth Street. See advertising page for full announcement.
MADAME.
BY CLARE SOREL STRONG.
" Unto a low sad strain he set his tale,
And sang, ' Durch Erdensturm nach Himmelsfried.' "
Anon.,
WANT to tell you about Madame ; and about the
place in which Jane and I met her. You must
not look for a sensation story. There is incident,
heaven knows how tragic ! But all the mystery
for Jane and me, and all our guesses, were of
soul-story motives. I cannot bear to do more than just touch
upon the tragedy.
The invalid world, at Meran, is made up of all sorts and
conditions of men; but most of them have been busy, in their
various ways, when sickness has laid hold on them, broken
the ties of daily work and habit, and driven them off to " con-
valesce " here if convalescence be still possible to them, poor
souls ! The butterflies of the world are not interesting acquain-
tances compared to these, who have led wholesome, thoughtful,
human lives.
And then, in every Meran gathering, there is the shadow
of a great Presence one that sweetens and sobers society
marvelously. I mean the shadow of King Death.
You see that I do not think King Death an unmixed evil.
Ah, no ; with me he is long a familiar presence, an accustomed
thing and homely; and, moreover, he softens the manners of
the crowd here as no one else can. He gives us that precious
thing, a sense of proportion. To take in the notion of him
widens our minds ; and ever afterwards trifles have room to
look small. Then, again, the Shadow almost kills that ugly
form of self-love called wounded feelings; and also personal
vanity, and extreme selfishness and frivolity.
They tell me were it not for this terrible, but beneficent
Presence, Meran would be quite unbearable, because of klatsch
(unkindly chatter is the nearest English expression to that
formidable untranslatability).
But I was going to tell about Madame ! Monsieur and
1905.] MADAME. 05
Madame de Belfort arrived one hot afternoon, when the grape-
cure was just beginning. The sky and the distances, as you
looked down the Etschthal, had what in Devonshire is called the
" blueth " of Italy. The bare, protruding bones, the very frame-
work of the grand, yellowish-gray mountains that hang over
Meran, shimmered in the heat. I wished for a white dress for
Madame ; but she was warmly clad ; at least, her colors were
those of the quiet wood- pigeon grays and fawns, without the
touch of "livelier iris" and that coloring always looks warm.
"A mere girl has no right to produce such an effect of
sweetness and gravity," said Jane, quite indignantly. " It is time
alone that mellows."
"Perhaps ill-health " I ventured to say. But the girlish
grace, the fine rose-mottled alabaster of her cheek, and a look of
strength were all against my suggestion.
" She is helping some one to alight," Jane said ; " a stiff old
gentleman ! Perhaps her father ! "
" Or grandfather," I put in. He had only just come within
sight of my couch in the balcony- corner.
The new arrivals, escorted with many bows by our host and
his staff, were slowly entering, Madame now ostensibly resting on
'the old gentleman's arm.
An English guest at our hotel ran up to us an hour later on
the Gisella promenade. " Do you know who the newcomers
are ? " she cried. " What a handsome old man ! And a lovely
girl! All the same, an ill-assorted couple as ever I saw!
They're French, too, which makes it all the more odd. One
good thing about mariages-de-convenance is that they're gen-
erally planned so that the people are of a suitable age ! They're
from Paris ; so I suppose small bonnets aren't really the fashion.
Her's is distinctly large. Our concierge told me there were
more than a dozen papers or books not letters, for I asked
waiting here for the gentleman. He has ordered his grapes,
so as to begin his 'cure' to-morrow. But now I must leave
you. I see Mrs. de Montfort Jones."
I did not see Madame again for many days ; because, as
often happens, I was not well enough to leave my room ; but
Jane brought me impressions from the table d'hote. The
grave young beauty was like a nun, she had a quiet walk,
a subdued laugh, the sweetest smile, and a concentrated,
attentive air. Monsieur was full of an old-world courtesy
96 MADAME. [April,
for his beautiful wife. They kept much apart from the other
guests ; but the Viennese professor often had a chat with
Monsieur; and Jane found, notwithstanding Madame's perfect
French, she could speak perfect English.
Madame's beauty made her the observed of all observers.
A "lane" would be formed to see her leave the room. Vol-
unteers were ever at hand to perform small services. To one
and all she responded with the same gracious sedateness.
Jane's own " impression " was that Madame's greatest charm
was the surprise with which she accepted kindnesses. She
acknowledged politeness with a quick pleasure and gratitude,
that our host, his servants, and the guests alike, felt to be a
touching amiability on her part.
I next saw Madame the evening I reappeared in the Salon.
Jane insisted on taking me to a sofa. We were obliged to
pass by Monsieur's armchair, and he made way for me. I could
not but be thankful to him, at that first moment, for making
me welcome to the sofa, for even putting out his feeble hand
to help me ; and above all, for his gentleness ; and I was so
glad, so glad, when I found I could, in my turn, be useful to
him !
I had a little friend, a Danish boy, and he crept past the
table on which Monsieur and Madame were playing backgam-
mon, to come to me with some story about of all things in
the world a beetle ! The child and I were often at a loss for
a word, and my resource under the circumstances was to take
out my tablets and draw the thing I thought he meant, to see
if I were right. We chattered and laughed a good deal, you
may be sure, on the sofa. Between their games, Madame
turned towards us.
"I am longing to see," she whispered. "May I not?"
She held out a hand. The sofa was close to their table. The
queer scraps of drawings pleased her. " If I might show them
to my husband ? " she pleaded.
He left off arranging the men on the board, and had an
undertone conference. I heard Madame say: "You must not
quite forbid my asking her"; and she bent towards me.
"Will you be offended?" she asked. "You must refuse at
once, if the request is unreasonable. But you seem to draw
so easily ! Do forgive me in advance. I cannot draw at all,
unhappily; and and my husband's hand is, still, rather un-
1905.] MADAME. 97
steady. He cannot, therefore, make little illustrations that
ought to be done at once. Would you do them for him ? It
would be a great favor."
"If only I can " I sighed; hoping, yet fearing.
Madame glided rapidly away in search of Monsieur's un-
successful attempts, while he made many courteous little
speeches. The Danish child begged to be told if pictures of
beetles were coming, and was wofully disappointed when he
heard I was only going to "draw" the "patterns in stones."
A dance was about to begin in the next room, and a
"jingling of piano strings " made itself heard. The polite
Austrian, causing his body, by his ceremonious bow, to de-
scribe two sides of a quadrangle, " entreated the honor of a
valtz with Madame."
She looked almost pained. Thanking him, she said she
"had not waltzed since she was a girl not for years."
"Years?" he repeated, not without a suspicion of vexa-
tion, or incredulity, in his tone.
"Three years," she corrected, with her perfectly candid
eyes on his.
"You do not dance, and you play dominoes; Schachspiel,
tric-trac, Madame," he mused, and his face expressed no vexa-
tion, and no doubt, now.
Afterwards, when we were in our own rooms, Jane said :
" You declare every one is like some flower or other, or like
some living creature. Madame is like two flowers a San
Giuseppe lily and a dark rose; the dear, old-fashioned Jacque-
minot rose. Now, confess that is Madame in flowers."
" No ; I have found something still better."
"You're provoking not to see her as white lilies and red
roses. Scent is to the flower what wit is to the woman.
The lily wants her richness besides being heavily sweet.
Those dark roses have a spiced fragrance and freshness
about them. But what do you say ? "
" Lilium Auretum."
" Ah ! white, glittering white, like my lily, and with dark,
velvety, mixed patches of color, and the fine, penetrating scent.
Your guess is not so bad," assented Jane, " but her setting is
wrong. The dark gowns are unflowerlike. They're a false
note."
VOL. LXXXI. 7
98 MADAME. [April,
"To the girl false as to the flower. I always want to see
her in a white garment, or a diaphanous ' Undine ' dress."
At first the task was easy ; I had only to look carefully at his
stones and put down what I saw, accentuating sundry details,
according to his very clear instructions. But something harder
awaited me. Monsieur had promised a learned society a paper
on Animal Mechanism, and he needed large drawings to show
pulleys and levers at work in the slightest movements of a
cat. In vain I borrowed an excellent American dictionary,
with pictures of fulcrums and fly-wheels and all the terribly
unfamiliar things that I had to connect with graceful feline
motion ; and a big French-English dictionary too. I still
could not get on without constant explanations from the
learned author. *
At an early stage in these almost daily conferences Jane
proposed that, instead of "making audience" in my balcony,
Madame and she should take some of the lovely walks that
are one of the prime glories of Meran. Thus Madame, with
Jane, began to see a good deal of that beautiful country.
After every excursion Jane had something good to tell of
Madame, though at first she was not enthusiastic enough to
please me.
" I don't, of course, mind a gossip like Mrs. Woods," said
Jane, "but young girls generally marry graybeards for money;
and you'll admit, it must argue ill for anybody's judgment to
make so, ill-assorted a match as Madame has done."
" People marry for such odd reasons, not exactly bad rea-
sons, though strange. But pity, Jane, would be almost a fair
excuse for matrimony, wouldn't it?"
" But he wasn't ill when they married," Jane objected.
" However, he must have been quite old much past sixty.
Her topics are not personal ; she talks neither of herself nor
of him ; but, as she is perfectly frank and open, one can't
help putting two and two together. She left her convent-
school at sixteen, three and a half years ago. Just think of
the disparity."
Perhaps my ardent admiration for Madame excited, at first,
Jane's spirit of contradiction. Soon, to my great joy, she
became warm in her praises of the companion of her walks;
as warm as even I could desire.
1905.] MADAME. 99
Jane told me that, with Madame, a prime object in the
walks was to bring home what she called a story. It might
be some little trait of the friendly peasants ; or it might be a
big bit of porphyry ; or even the mere description of some
country sight, such as the vintage - wagons ; or a story might
be some archaeological curiosity, like the chapel- door- carvings
at Schloss Tyrol ; in short, stories were anything to amuse
the invalid.
The first Saltner they met delighted Madame. The Saltner
is a rarity. He guards the vines, and has a right to exact a
minute toll from those who use the paths that cross his vine-
yards. Saltners are grandly barbaric fellows, their ruddy, honest
faces surmounted by an extraordinary heap of cock's feathers,
and the brushes of a dozen foxes ; their knees are bare ; their
leathern breeches are braced with broad bands of brightest
green, made in a sort of yoke; their absurdly short- waisted,
snuff- colored jackets are slashed with scarlet; they have a
black leather belt of fanciful shape, embroidered thickly with
white horse-hair, and in one hand they hold a mediaeval hal-
berd, while the other often rests on a pistol in their capacious
belts.
Madame told a Saltner story one day. Jane and herself,
after paying their toll of little copper kreutzers to the guar-
dian of the vines, and admiring the decorations (several dozens
of wild boars' tusks) that ornamented his broad chest, wound
their way up the steep hillside, emerging from under the trel-
lised vines at a point almost directly over the Saltner, but very
high above him. It is the way of his kind to lie low ; and
the gay-colored, armed man, rising suddenly close to unaccus-
tomed eyes, is a sufficiently startling apparition. His crown of
fur and feathers gives him the air of a giant ; and he invaria-
bly has, at his heel, a sharp-looking dog, to make him the
more formidable. As they stood upon their coign of vantage,
the pedestrians exclaimed at the beauty of the view ; the
" greeneth " of the lowlands ; the unsurpassed richness of the
autumn coloring higher on the hills; the fantastic outlines of
the Dolomite Mountain summits. Far below them an odd
figure caught their attention. Jane said: "Is it only English-
women who walk, all at once, on the whole undersurface of
large feet ? " When lo ! the Saltner emerged from among the
leaves, right in the duck-like march of the wanderer, his spear
ioo MADAME. [April,
erect, the knowing dog, alert, beside him ; and the air was
rent by three sharp, discordant screams. Meantime, the Tyro-
ler's rich baritone, firmly but quite respectfully pleading his
right to exact " footing," reached the listeners on the height.
Jane could not help laughing. Madame, making a speaking-
trumpet of both her hands, called down to the stranger, in
English, " not to be frightened " ; it was a " local custom to
claim payment from passers-by, in the vineyards " ; and other
words of comfort. But she cried to deaf ears. She saw the
frightened dame throw something at the Saltner, then turn,
and fly down the steep and rugged footway. The man doffed
his plumes, and passed his hand often over his bewildered
head, before he stooped to pick up the missile. He then
slowly examined it.
" Oh, just see how far away she is already, and still run-
ning!" cried Jane, as her eyes followed the gauze veil that
bobbed about among the vine-leaves, far down the path towards
Meran.
" But she has slackened her pace a little," Madame re-
marked. "Shall we try and tell him that he frightened her?"
At the instant a mighty roar from the gorgeous giant, and
a yapping chorus from the dog, sent the luckless intruder
speeding on with renewed vigor.
The spectators could not but laugh at sight of such
bootless terror. But when they saw the Saltner at last set
off in hot pursuit, they would have stopped him if they
could. He did not, however, heed their cries and remon-
strances, possibly did not even hear them ; and they watched
the ill-fated gauze-clad head pursued at an ever decreasing
distance by the shouting wearer of the cock's feathers, till
bDth runners neared the leading thoroughfare of Meran. Then
the Saltner dropped into a walk. In an hour the whole of
the little health resort knew that a newly arrived English-
woman had gone out among the vines nearest the town
she "liked to look about her," she said when suddenly,
" the most savage, outlandish figure eyes ever rested upon,"
rose before her. She heard the creature speak, and jumped
to the conclusion that he demanded " her money or her
life"; "for," she asked, "who but a brigand would wear
those plumes and things ? " Not reflecting that it would be
against a brigand's interest to make himself so conspicuous !
1905.] MADAME. 101
" Of the two," she cried, " let it be my money ! " And, forth-
with, she flung him her purse ; turning, and flying by the way
she had come. She was astonished that she could be so fleet
of foot, when the sharp stones hurt her so! The good Saltner,
in pity and surprise, set her down for a lunatic. Being an
honest man, he wished to restore her purse; hence his tre-
mendous shout after the retreating figure. Hearing that cry,
she said, she knew he wanted her " life as well as her money."
Fear gave her wings; she was running, now, truly for dear
life, and faster than ever. The good fellow, unwilling to lose
sight of her before restoring her property, called again and
again, and ran after her, till he saw her reach the hotel.
There more dead than alive she flung herself upon the hall
porter's breast, as the swing-doors closed behind her. Pres-
ently, the Saltner and our hall porter had a very curious con-
versation; from which it resulted that the Tyroler went back
to his vines convinced that all the English were "like that,"
which meant, not precisely mad, as he had at first supposed.
He was quite unable to grasp the concierge's notion that his
feathers had frightened the lady.
"My husband would have sketched it all, long ago," said
Madame, "in little, spirited, pen-and-ink jottings; a dot tell-
ing ever so much; and an artful smudge with the feather-
end of his quill suggesting a whole volume. I do so long for
his hand to be steady again. How our story, to-day, will
amuse him. I feel grateful to you ; for I am so much better
able to cheer and brighten him, through these delightful walks
with you. Do you think he has gained much ? You know, he
has made more than a quarter of his ' cure,' here, already."
Thus, between Jane's excursions and my drawing, it came
about that my sister and I, of all the guests in our hotel,
alone penetrated a little below the surface had a very small
part in the inner life of the French couple. The fact brought
us a certain amount of undesired notice. Mrs. Woods would
waylay me, in hopes of learning something to gratify her
curiosity.
Jane, too, was often attacked. " What do you think ? "
she cried one day. "Mrs. Woods has been cross- questioning
me, and I must be better worth the trouble than you, my
dear, for between my admissions, and those of the concierge,
she has made out the de Belfort's Paris address; and she finds
io2 MADAME. [April,
that she knows people who live in the same Avenue; so she
is quite happy, as she can now write and ' get at the whole
history,' she says." "Dreadful busybody," added my sister.
Madame's Austrian officer, too, would come to my wheeled-
chair on the Promenade, and exercise his English. He had
undoubtedly grown a much graver man in these short weeks.
I think that it was Madame's unconscious influence that had
put to flight a certain conceit and frivolity, his most notable
characteristics when he came to Meran.
" I had not thought it possible for such a life to be," he
ruminated, somewhat incoherently, one day. " I explain my-
self ? No? Well, it is this way: The gracious lady, your
friend, lives a life that I had not imagined. So beautiful ; and
not coquette. Is it possible? Full of brightness; can you
say, brightness ? Thank you. Brightness, and yet none of
the feminine interests. How do you call? No toilet-arts, I
mean ; and no entourage ; no emulations rivalities. These
are the things that are like the air that beautiful ladies of
society breathe, while they are young. Is it not so ? Yet,
they exist not for your friend. Wonderful ! Ah, yes, of
course. Duty ! Austrian ladies, also, feel the claims of
duty. But we don't ask them to combine the roles of wife
and daughter. 'And private secretary,' you add? Merciful
heavens! And 'sick nurse'? Du lieber Gott ! More and
more unthinkable. It is admirable ; and I should have be-
lieved it beyond the strength of human nature, had I not
seen. Her life is full, with all the essentials left out."
" What are the * essentials,' besides ' rivalities ' and ' toilet ' ? "
I ventured to ask.
" Gnadiges Fraiilein ! That I should have to instruct you ! "
he almost moaned. "You are of the North, all of you cold.
Love ! love should be the very spirit and fount of a lovely
young life like hers."
He was speaking in a low, concentrated tone. I suppose
he talked because he felt he must. He was, evidently, per-
fectly candid. When a soul lays itself bare in your grasp,
you naturally touch it gently. I told him contradicting him,
but doing it as kindly as I was able that her life was full of
love.
" Love such as one may give to one's great-grandfather,"
he put in, almost angrily.
1905.] MADAME. 103
" No, Herr Lieutenant ; not at all ! The tender love one
may give to one's baby- child that wholly depends on one; and
the warm affection one gives to one's best friend and there is
nothing, nothing, so close and strong as that love; and a host
of loves, besides, that lie between these two distant poles of
tenderness. And, remember, a human being does not live by
the heart only. We have, or we ought to have, a life of the
brain. If that be a full life, so much the better and happier
for all of us. I am glad you talked to me. Let me ask you,
very gently, did you ever before think of women as human
broadly human?"
After a long, long, pause, he said : " It may not be abso-
lutely dull to live for nothing but the serious. Our sober
German neighbors feel so ! " His bright blue eyes had a cloud
in them no tear, only a reflection of mental fog. It was a
peculiarity of his liquified-turquoise eyes that, when he was
puzzled, their pupils vanished in a kind of misty grayness.
Again we sat silent. The noisy Passer stream hurried by
us to join the Etsch, which becomes the Adige farther on, in
soft-tongued Italy. There is not much need of conversa-
tion for those who rest by a brawling little river. Lower down
on the Promenade the band was playing Strauss music ; oxen
were dragging creaking wains across the bridge from Untermai's;
and peasants, here and there, made even a braver show in
their bright costumes, than the fashionable strangers, clustered
about the band- stand. My chair-man smoked a furtive pipe,
half hidden by a neighboring tree; and probably marveled at
the long and silent visit paid me.
At last something, possibly the magnetism of my chair-
man's eye, awoke a recollection in the Herr Lieutenant's mind,
and he sprang to his feet, made his rectangular bow, and
apologized for being "distracted, distraught, how do you say ?"
He thought I "was certainly going somewhere" when we met;
and he "impeached, prevented. Pardon; pardon." In the
courtly fashion of his nation he stooped to kiss my glove, and
was gone in a trice; gone, to join my friendly Danish child,
to whom the young officer was always so good, actually play-
ing with him by the half-hour together; gone, just at the
wrong moment; for Mrs. Woods came hurrying up to me, with
all the importance of one bearing great news. Her gossip,
for once, was deeply interesting.
104 MADAME. [April,
" I've just heard from Paris, my dear," she cried. " I
have friends actually living next door to the de Belforts.
Alice Cunningham writes she has known the Vansiddarts for
years, and they have a flat under the same roof with your
friends. Have I mislaid Alice's letter ? Ah, no ; it's all right.
' I hope the old gentleman was not selfish. But I dare say he
did not know how to get out of a difficulty.' Well, the long
and short of it is, when the ward came home from school ' for
good,' Monsieur de Belfort had been a year or two a widower;
and I can see, by the way Alice tells her story, she doesn't
love the Vansiddart sisters too well. She says they hoped,
first of all, that he would marry the eldest ; or perhaps it was
rather that the eldest, and each of the others, hoped to marry
him. And then they rather quarreled among themselves about
him; and finally they all united in a determined effort to secure
him for the youngest and best-looking. Alice says: 'They
were passees, every one of them.' By way of a supreme stroke
of diplomacy, Miss Vansiddart first said to Monsieur de Belfort
that his ward would soon need some one to take her to par-
ties and to matronize her generally I'm quoting Alice almost
word for word but he wouldn't ' see it,' as people say. The
next thing was that Miss Rose threw herself at the head of
the ward of sixteen, cultivating the girl's friendship assiduously,
till the elder sister judged the time ripe, and she went, ' as an
old friend,' to suggest that Monsieur de Belfort should give
the girl a companion of her own age. (The ' own age ' delights
Alice Rose must have been about forty !) Well, Alice says,
'the chaperon idea did not catch on' (like most people in the
very best society, Alice is fond of slang, my dear); 'neither
did the youthful companion " catch on," (there it is again).
' Before Miss Vansiddart saw him again, Monsieur de Belfort
and his ward were off to Switzerland. Pending his return,
Rose had the sweetest toilets planned and put together; and
her elders were rather less well-dressed than in other years.
In fact they were combining their forces, you see, for an
ordered attack on the old gentleman. But a great surprise
awaited them. Monsieur met them immediately on his return
and introduced his wife ! ' Alice here takes a backward glance :
'The girl and her guardian had always been the best of good
comrades. In her holidays, since she had been a mite of a
thing, her main delights had been pony- riding beside his cob,
1905.] MADAME. 105
and natural history ' very #natural for a girl, I call it, don't
you ? 'They were so engrossed by their pursuits that they
had no time for society, except the society of some people of
like tastes. It would appear,' she says, ' that he told his ward,
as soon as he got her away to Switzerland, that the gossips
would either separate them, or saddle them with a duenna, or
marry them ; and she was to take a whole fortnight to think
which would be the least unpleasant solution. "Nous
separer?" cried the girl, in grief and fear. "Ah, bonpapa,
won't you marry me?" and she kissed him. You see, she was
the merest child. She had her fortnight to consider; but her
mind was made up in that first moment. Bonpapa should not
be afflicted with a duenna. That matter settled, she devoted
her thoughts to the best way of disguising the regrettable fact
of her youth. It was certainly wonderful what dress and de-
portment did in the way of aging her. She was simply the
schoolgirl, with a suspicion even of the tomboy about her, when
she left Paris three years ago ; but she returned staid and
demure, and looking three, to five-and-twenty, a month after
her wedding. What do you think of that?"
" I find it pathetic, Mrs. Woods," I said.
" Oh, well, I don't know about ' pathetic ' ; but isn't it in-
teresting ? So, it was all news to you ? With your oppor-
tunities, dear, I should have found out a good deal more than
you appear to have done. Bye-bye."
A fortnight afterwards there was a sad procession to the
railway station, to see our Paris friends start on their home-
ward journey.
It is a great mistake saying good-by; a mistake, too, see-
ing people off; but Jane, and the Herr Lieutenant, and the
hotel proprietor, and the Viennese professor, and everybody
who had more than a bowing acquaintance with Monsieur and
Madame, came upon the platform.
It was absolutely true to Madame's character that she
should be as watchful of her husband, as helpful towards him,
as if he were her sole thought at the moment ; and, at the
same time, as graciously observant of her obsequious courtiers
on the platform, as if her role were simply that of a queen on
some great ceremonial occasion. For each she had some fare-
well word, grave, or sweet, or thankful, that the hearer received
io6 MADAME. [April.
as a thing specially, personally applicable, and therefore most
precious. A manner like her's, and the power to coin her
happy phrases, are royal gifts.
And do you know that we never more saw our sovereign
lady?
The papers, three days later, had a telegraphic announce-
ment of a terrible railway accident in France. The Herr Lieu-
tenant brought it me, saying hoarsely, with his finger on the
paragraph: "Is there any danger any chance ?"
I answered with a question: "Could they have got so far?
They were to stop at Innsbruck; and at some Swiss town ?"
And then it became clear to us, if they carried out their
plan, they would have been in the ill-fated train ! But they
would only travel on, if Monsieur were not very tired. How
we prayed that they might have been delayed !
There was suspense, till Gaglinani's Messenger, or some
London paper, brought us horrible news; telling us that an old
valet, himself almost unhurt, had identified Madame among the
killed. She was shot out of the train, as was the servant, in
the collision. He saw, and spoke one moment with her. She
must, then, have gone back to try to extricate her husband,
before part of the wreck of the train, which had been tottering
on the edge, went rolling down with the crumbling embank-
ment ; for the rescue party found Madame's dear hand fast
held in that of her insensible husband.
A month later we heard from old Victor, the valet, that
Monsieur still lived, might live long, now, Dr. Berthelet said,
but had wholly lost his memory, and was, in fact, childish.
The life that was taken !
And the worn, ailing remnant of life that was left !
One other thing we know; the Herr Lieutenant offered his
services for the winter to Monsieur, as German and English
reader or secretary. His health obliged him to seek an exten-
sion of leave. He could as well spend the winter in Nice, he
said, as in Meran. Would Monsieur de Belfort make any use
he could of an idle man, whose time would hang very heavily
on his hands ?
But Monsieur ailing and childish would never again need
a secretary. That was the sorrowful answer Victor sent.
Current JEvente.
Russia remains, as heretofore, the
Russia. centre of interest. The misfor-
tunes of the war are more strik-
ing, but are of importance only in so far as they affect the
internal situation. Of the bad condition of Russia internally,
there are very full and manifest indications. It is, of course,
easy to form an exaggerated idea by reading the newspapers,
for these give only startling incidents, and leave untold the
quiet, everyday life which is led by the vast mass of the
people, as they afford no material for the sensation-monger.
But this quiet life seems quite impossible in Russia, so great
is the misery resulting from the economical and political con-
dition of the country. The effects of the unnatural subjection
of a whole nation of millions of people to the supreme authority
of one man are revealing themselves in the deterioration not
so much of the masses of the people, but of those who look
upon themselves as the superior classes. The dissensions in
the ranks of the officers have largely contributed to the failure
of the war. The worst of it is that the burden and the punish-
ment fall upon those who least deserve them.
The following incidents are, we do not say typical, but at
all events indicative of the existing state of things. They rest
upon the evidence not of an enemy, but of a Russian. An
officer enters a store, and asks the proprietor to let him use
his telephone. He stays a full hour, although ten minutes is
the. allotted time, and thereby puts to great inconvenience the
storekeeper and his customers. When informed of the rule he
draws his sword and cuts off three fingers of the attendant's
hand. No redress is possible. A little boy puts out his tongue
at a Cossack officer. We cannot fully approve such conduct,
but then the boy was only eight years old. The officer in this
case, too, draws his sword, and hacks the little fellow's head.
The boy dies, the officer goes free. The mere possibility of
such events shows the degrading effects of the present system.
Over-centralization is the cause of these evils. Experience
is showing that it is impossible for one man, were he even a
saint and endowed with the wisdom of Solon, to be the abso-
lute ruler, both in spiritual and temporal things, of so many
io8 CURRENT EVENTS. [April,
millions. For among Christian countries Russia affords the
sole example of a system in which the Head of the State is
also and eo ipso the effective Head of the Church. Before the
time of Peter the Great the Orthodox Church had for its Head
a Patriarch, and although the Church had been closely united
with the State, it was not merged into it. But Peter, wishing
to have all power in his own hands, abolished the Patriarch,
constituted the Holy Synod as a special department of State,
and in this way made himself the Head of the Church. From
that time the Church has been paralyzed and completely under
the government. Those who suffer from the State find no
consolation in the Church, and hatred of the State involves
hatred of the Church ; wrong-doers and oppressors have made
the Church their ally. In fact, the recent massacre in St.
Petersburg has been publicly sanctioned by the Holy Synod,
and the advocate of the workingmen pleading for justice has
been excommunicated. Moreover, all teaching is in the hands
of the Government and the professors appointed by it. The
result is seen in the frequent disorders and tumults among
the students. The wisdom of the divinely constituted order in
which Church and State are distinct, the spiritual and temporal
powers being in due alliance, the temporal being subject to
the spiritual in spiritual things, and the spiritual to the tem-
poral in its own proper sphere, is being manifested by the
breakdown of that power where the identification of the two
powers has been established. Gigantic strikes, wholesale shoot-
ings, political riots, pillage and arson, arbitrary arrests, depor-
tation, floggings of wounded men and even of women, such are
the events which form the dismal record.
How far the peasants have been affected we do not know.
These constitute the main bulk of the population, and they
have a tradition of loyalty to the Little Father unbroken for
centuries; but they are silent, and the newspaper does not
reveal their thoughts, if they have any. The disaffected are
an infinitesimal fraction, a few thousands, according to Count
Tolstoy, against, as he reckons, 120,000,000 of peasants. But
the few thousands may include the wise men of the nation.
In fact their influence is sufficiently powerful to keep the Tsar
and his advisers faithful to the consideration at least and the
elaboration of the reforms promised in the Rescript of last
December, and even to the enlargement of the scheme. From
1905.] CURRENT EVENTS. 109
time to time, in the past history of Russia, an assembly has
been called of representatives of the four estates of nobles,
clergy, burghers, and peasants. This assembly had no legisla-
tive or controlling power; it only enabled the Tsar to find a
somewhat more solemn support for his projects in troublous
times, than that abject submission which is given when things
go well. In it the peasant class had, on account of their
numbers, a preponderating influence. It was a purely consulta-
tive assembly, summoned for some one determined purpose,
and when it had given its reply, it was dismissed by the same
power which summoned it. The earliest recorded Zemski
Sobor for that it was styled was called together by Ivan the
Terrible in 1550; the last by Alexis Mikhailovitch in 1653.
Since that time no full assembly of the Zemski Sobor has been
held. Between 1550 and 1653 it met sixteen times. From that
time the Tsars have felt themselves strong enough to do with-
out it, and the people of Russia have not had power sufficient
to maintain even this semblance of a popular assembly. Yet
this attenuated form of popular power is serving as an example
or precedent for the Tsar in his present difficulties. On
the eve of the 4th of March, the anniversary of the day on
which the serfs were emancipated by Alexander II., the Tsar
addressed to the Minister of the Interior a Rescript announc-
ing the momentous decision that he " was resolved henceforth,
with the help of God, to convene the worthiest men possessing
the confidence of the people, and elected by them to participate
in the elaboration and consideration of legislative measures."
The Tsar declares himself convinced that the experience of
life and the well-weighed and sincere speech of those elected
will assure fruitfulness to the legislators for the real benefit of
the people. The immutability of the fundamental laws of the
Empire is to be preserved, and autocracy is declared to be
one, indeed the chief, of these fundamental laws. It is recog-
nized that to reconcile the old with the new will be a task of
great difficulty. To effect this reconciliation the Minister of
the Interior is charged with the duty of presiding over
Conferences. Who are to be the members of the Conferences
we are not informed.
It will be seen how great a step has been taken, what a
great advance has been made. The principle of election of
representatives of the people is conceded by the new Re-
no CURRENT EVENTS. [April,
script; this, however, is not strictly speaking an innovation,
for the ancient Zemski Sobors were elected bodies. But the
new Rescript is to confer upon those elected power to legis-
late or to influence legislation, and that not merely for one
definite thing, but for everything which may be for the bene-
fit of the people. Such at all events is the proposal in gene-
ral, how it will appear when the details have been elaborated
by the Conferences remains to be seen. The Tsar has been
criticized for declaring the inviolability of his absolute power.
But he was bound to do this; he could not be expected- to
abrogate it, any more than we can expect that Mr. Roosevelt
would abrogate the Constitution of the United States. By
conceding the election of legislators, however, he concedes
that which, if the Russian people are worthy their salt, will
eo ipso limit the absolute despotism.
Of the Russian Empire Poland is
Poland. by far the most Catholic part ;
and as usual a large part of the
suffering of the present time has fallen to their lot. The man-
ner in which they have acted is very instructive. Strong in-
ducements have been held out to them to rise in insurrection.
The leading society of Poland, the National League, was ex-
pected to lead the nation in a struggle for independence at a
time which seems so favorable. The purely constitutional
party, as well as the revolutionary party, wished them to
adopt this course. This they refused to do, believing that the
reforms necessary lor Poland will be obtained by means not
opposed to Christian teaching, and refusing to take part
in revolutionary methods, however promising they may at
first sight appear. The yoke which the Poles have to bear is
rendeied the heavier, because two powers, Prussia and Russia,
are banded together in oppressing them ; and if one of the
two grants relief, in any the least degree, the other power is
thereby offended. The position of the Poles under Prussia is
particularly hard. So much the better do Poles succeed in
industry and commerce, when freedom of competition is al-
lowed, that they are driving out the German settlers from
Poland, and becoming stronger in numbers and more wealthy.
This is due to their greater energy. The Prussian Government,
therefore, adopted a year or two ago very harassing restric-
1905.] CURRENT EVENTS. in
tions in order to secure by force that superiority which they
could not maintain by any other means ; but these measures
have not secured the desired results.
Commercial Treaties have been the
Germany. chief concern of Germany for some
time past. The problem has been
to secure a right adjustment of the conflicting claims of the
industrial and commercial classes, on the one hand, and of the
agricultural interest on the other. Treaties have been made
with seven States securing stability for a dozen years to come,
and while merchants and manufacturers complain that their
interests have been compromised in favor of the landowners
and the agriculturists, they yet console themselves because the
question is settled ; for nothing is so adverse to commercial
prosperity as uncertainty. As population grows the chief
interest of statesmen is in providing maintenance for the in-
creasing numbers. This is a somewhat prosaic occupation for
Kings and Emperors and Presidents, however necessary it may
be. Time was when religion or conquest occupied the minds
of rulers, and undoubtedly those interests were higher and
excited greater attention. We may not regret the old days,
but it must be admitted that it is hard to place a high value
on present-day conditions when we see two Empires and a
Republic contending with one another to secure orders from
the Turk for the privilege and profit of making guns for him.
Christians in Macedonia and Armenia are left to his tender
mercies ; but prompt and efficacious measures are taken when
France thinks Germany is to have the privilege of lending
money to Turkey a privilege which carries in its train the
advantage of making its guns which are to be employed in
maintaining that loathsome domination which has for so long
been the blot of Europe. The French Ambassador at Constan-
tinople threatened to leave if Turkey did not give France a
larger share of his custom, and thereby secured the Sultan's
patronage. When such is the character and such the aims of
Christians, it may be as well as not that the Turk should be
suffered to remain, for there is not much to choose between
them.
Some time ago Catholics were pleased to read of the visit
paid by the Kaiser to the Holy Father and of the respect
ii2 CURRENT EVENTS. [April,
thereby shown to the Pope. Rumors went abroad that the
German ruler wished to revive the Holy Roman Empire, and
to become himself its head ; and that the Pope was to resume
under his auspices, that relation to Europe which once was his.
These rumors were of course absurd. And we now see that
all the German Emperor was seeking to attain was what every
politician seeks support for his own schemes. For the Emperor
has shown an equal or even greater regard to the Protestant
Church by presiding at the opening of the new cathedral in
Berlin. This cathedral owes its origin to the desire of the late
Emperor Frederick, when Crown Prince, to erect a building
worthy of Protestant Germany. Public money was voted for
it by the Prussian Diet; no less a sum than two million five
hundred thousand dollars. The central cupola, with the cross
by which it is surmounted, reaches a height of 374 feet, nearly
79 feet less than the height of the dome of St. Peter's, and
over nine feet more than the dome of St. Paul's, London. The
total length of the building is 374 feet, its breadth 80 feet.
Outside of the building are statues of our Lord and of the
Twelve Apostles. The statues of Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and
Melancthon, together with those of the four German Sovereigns
who promoted the Reformation, have been placed in the interior
of this Protestant sanctuary. Present at the consecration were
many princes and potentates, together with a contingent of
Protestant ministers from the United States. The Church of
England was officially represented by the Bishop of Ripon,
sent presumably by its head the King. The papers say noth-
ing about the Archbishop of Canterbury, whether he was con-
sulted or not. It would be interesting to have his opinion,
and to learn what his Grace thinks of this official recognition
of the purest Protestantism. It would be still more interesting
to learn what Lord Halifax and the English Church Union
think.
The Reichstag has been discussing the proposed increase
of the army; for the feeling in favor of arbitration is not
strong enough to lead to any change in warlike preparations,
especially in Germany, where there is little zeal for arbitra-
tion. The Catholic members, who constitute the Centre, dis-
tinguish themselves by their moderation. They aim at exer-
cising a control over the extremists of every party, and their
numbers are sufficient to give them the decisive voice in many
1905.] CURRENT EVENTS. 113
questions. Outside the Reichstag a strong agitation is being
carried on for a large increase in the Navy, and the not very
wise remarks of a member of the English Government have
been used by certain newspapers as indicating the determina-
tion, on the part of Great Britain, to make an attack on
Germany. It is doubtless true that of all continental countries
Germany is the one which is looked upon by the British with
the least friendly eyes, not even Russia, we think, being ex-
cepted. But it is not Great Britain's way to make war unless
forced to do so. The existing unfriendliness serves, however,
the purpose of those who wish largely to increase the number
of warships. The Navy League goes so far as to demand the
execution of the present navy scheme by the year 1912, in-
stead of 1917, and to set up a further programme of a third
double squadron with its complement of reserves and torpedo
boats.
Of Austria there is little to chroni-
Austro-Hungary. cle. This is a sign that the con-
tention of the various nationalities
is for the time being suspended. A spokesman of the Pan-
Germans the object of whom is the union of all the Germans
now included in the Austrian Empire with their fellow country-
men in the German Empire made a proclamation in the
Reichsrath of the principles of the party. The German pro-
vinces of Austria are to adhere to Germany, the Austrian
Emperor is to be at their head and to become a Federal
Prince. Hungary is to become independent, as also the
southern Slavs ; for the northern Slavs special laws are to
guarantee them from being Germanized. This is the scheme
of adhesion to a Protestant German Empire which is to thwart
the present efforts of the Austrian Imperial House to estab-
lish a purely Catholic Austrian Empire.
In Hungary the situation is very critical. In consequence
of his defeat, Count Tisza resigned, but has had to carry on
the government because no successor could be found. The
opposition is stronger as a whole, but is divided into several
subdivisions. Yet it has agreed upon a programme which is
constitutional, not anti-dynastic, and which contains nothing
incompatible with the existing laws. It includes neither the
abrogation of the laws of 1867, nor the establishment of a
VOL. LXXXI. 8
ii4 CURRENT EVENTS. [April,
merely personal union between Austria and Hungary. Those
two demands form part of the programme of the most numer-
ous of the parties which form the Coalition majority, but it
realizes that until it obtains an absolute majority these de-
mands must be held in abeyance. The Crown, however, re-
jects this programme, thereby showing how far the Hungarians
are from having self-government. As to what the outcome of
the present state of things is to be, the answer of M. Kossuth
is: "Chaos."
The conflicts of nationalities under
Norway and Sweden. one common sovereign are not con-
fined to Southeastern Europe, the
extreme Northwest has for many years witnessed a similar con-
flict. Norway and Sweden are united under one King. They
have, however, but little in common except a Council of State
for the administration of common affairs, and a single consular
and diplomatic service. Each has its own parliament and ministry,
its own laws and customs ; each manages its own internal
affairs. For Norway, however, the existing system appears to
involve a want of recognition of her national dignity, and for
some fifteen years an agitation has been going on for a con-
sular service distinct from that of Sweden. Sweden is willing
to concede a separate consular service to Norway, provided it
can be established in such a form as not to interfere with a
single united diplomatic representation ; so that the two nations
may be and appear to be one in dealing with foreign nations.
Norway, on the other hand, demands that the arrangement
shall be such as to maintain her rights as a sovereign state,
and if the existent compact between the two does not admit of
such a recognition then a new compact must be made instead
of the existing one. Negotiations have been going on for
some time, but to so little purpose that to the last answer of
Sweden, Norway has replied that she has nothing more to say,
and a deadlock has ensued. A manifesto has been issued by
the Norwegian Arctic explorer, Dr. Nansen, who for the first
time in his life intervenes in political matters. He declares
that the demands of the Swedish prime minister are such as
no self-respecting or self-governing country can even consider,
involving as they do undisguised contempt for the sovereignty
of Norway as guaranteed by the King. On the other hand
1905.] CURRENT EVENTS. 115
the Crown Prince, who is now Regent of the two kingdoms,
in order to avoid what may prove a disruption of the two
kingdoms, has issued a communique addressed to the Special
Committee of the Storthing appointed to deal with this matter,
in which he declares that the influence of the Crown has never
been opposed to Norway's having a separate Consular service.
He urges upon the Committee, in this critical season, to ke<p
the welfare of Norway and that only before their eyes. The
Norwegian ministry had resigned before the publication of this
document, in order, we presume, to facilitate a settlement of the
question.
The Prime Minister of the Italian
Italy. Government, Signer Gioletti, has
resigned, serious ill-health being
given as the reason. He had been in office for nearly eighteen
months. A new ministry has been constituted, with Signer
Fortis at its head, and a majority of the ministers who served
with Signer Gioletti remain in office. No change of policy is,
therefore, to be looked for, nor do there seem to be at present
in Italy any questions of supreme importance or interest which
enter into practical politics ; several, however, are looming
upon the horizon. The State acquisition of the railway is the
chief point of interest. Arrangements to effect this transfer
were made by the late ministry, and will presumably be car-
ried out by the present. For a poor country like Italy to go
to the expense of buying up the railways of the whole coun-
try seems a very rash experiment ; the people are crushed to
the ground by the present taxes. And for the 'State to become
the employer of so large a number of persons seems still more
rash, at a time when the Socialists have become so powerful.
Italian astuteness is not confined to the governing ranks.
The railway servants having their grievances, and looking upon
a strike as too brutal a way of settling them, attempted
to obtain redress by a method which has of late been adopted
in various parliaments obstruction. Their tactics consisted in
performing all operations connected with the service with the
utmost slowness and deliberation, a slowness and deliberation
which they justified by an appeal to the rules and regulations
under which they were employed. In this way they threw the
railway service of the country into more or less hopeless con-
ii6 CURRENT EVENTS. [April.
fusion. They also succeeded in alienating the sympathy of the
public, and thus strengthened the railway authorities, who by
fines and dismissals have restored order.
In France the Bill introduced by
France. the Ministry for the abolition of
the Concordat has been referred
to a Commission for consideration. They have made their
Report. In some respects the Bill is less unjust, in others its
provisions are intolerably harsh. In the Bill introduced by M.
Combes, the Associations to be formed for religious purposes,
and which are to take the place of the State in supporting
religious worship, were limited to the respective departments,
thereby rendering it more difficult for poor places to carry on
public worship. The new government allowed ten departments
to be united together ; the Commission has removed all limi-
tations, and so far has given greater strength to the Church.
On the other hand, the residences of the bishops and clergy,
as also all Seminaries, are left for two years at the gratuitous
disposal of their present occupants ; after two years the Bill,
as revised by the Commission, gives power to the local
authorities to do as it pleases with those buildings ; does not
even require them to lease them at a rental to their present
possessors ; gives them power to rent them to private persons,
or even to sell them; and after twelve years, the Churches
themselves may be treated in the same way. The Bill will now
go to the Chamber for final revision and decision. The
present Ministry of M. Rouvier has not the same enthusiasm
for evil as that of M. Combes. While there is little hope
of its doing much good, there is some ground to anticipate
that before the elections next year it will not do so much
evil as its predecessor would have done. It is, however, main-
taining that rivalry with Germany in the preparation for war,
the cost of which is bleeding to death most of the continental
countries. Many Germans, as we have seen, are agitating for
a large increase of their Navy. This has alarmed not merely
the French nation but its legislature, and with practical unan-
imity the Chamber has voted' money for such a proportionate
increase of the French Navy as shall keep the French naval
power in the same relative position towards that of Germany
as it occupies to-day.
Bew
Two additional volumes * of the
THE GERMAN PEOPLE. English translation of Janssen's
By Janssen. History of the German People have
appeared, and surely it would be
superfluous to praise them. This monumental work is established
among the classical historical writings of the last century, and
no one, whether Catholic or Protestant, can in future pretend
to. a thorough knowledge of the German Reformation, and of
the times just preceding, who has not studied it. It would be
disgraceful for any Catholic institution of learning not to pos-
sess it, and it would be unpardonable in any priest or educated
layman, who can afford the price, not to have it on his shelves.
These two volumes cover the period between the years 1550
and 1580. It will be seen at a glance, therefore, how impor-
tant are the subjects with which they deal. For within those
thirty years fell such events as: The religious conference at
Worms in 1557, the Diet of Augsburg in 1559, the Grumbach-
Gotha conspiracy for a Lutheran empire, the effects in Germany
of the religious wars in France and the Netherlands, the war
against the Turks, the establishment and progress of the
Jesuits in Germany, and the concluding sessions and gertral
effect of the Council of Trent. These great events and many
others of similar moment are treated with Janssen's well- known
fulness of detail, abundance of scholarship, and sturdy Catholic
spirit. We must not omit a special mention of the chapter on
the labors of the first Jesuits in Germany. They were mighty
men, learned, holy, zealous, and tactful. To no four men that
ever lived in any other single period of her history does the
Catholic Church owe more than to Faber, Bobadilla, Jajus, and
Canisius. They were marvelously prudent in dealing with the
Lutherans. They saw that the age was sick of violent con-
troversy, of calling bad names, and of exchanging ribaldry, and
perceived that a calm statement and dispassionate defence of
Catholicity, joined to sanctity of life and serenity of temper,
were the only efficient instruments for the non-Catholic missions
of their day.
See the spirit of Faber in the following words written to
History of the German People. By Johannes Janssen. Vols. VII. and VIII., 1550-1580.
Translated by A. M. Christie. St. Louis : B. Herder.
Il8 NEW BOOKS. [April,
Lainez his Superior-General; they contain a lesson even for
us: "Those who wish to be of service against the present-day
heretics must above all things be distinguished by large-hearted
charity toward them, and must treat them with high esteem.
. . . We must begin not with what separates hearts in
discord and schism, but with all that draws them closer
together." These men tell us over and over that the Church
can do nothing with the Germans until she understands them
and knows how to take them. Says Canisius, writing to Lainez
in 1559: "Rome might do anything she wishes in Germany, if
only the German character is properly treated " ; and then he
goes on to declare that the mode of publishing ecclesiastical
penalties must be modified, and the severity of the Index of
prohibited books mitigated, if Church authority is to be sub-
mitted to in Germany. Finally he cautions a sarcastic theologian
thus: " Men of distinction and learning agree with me in think-
ing that much in your writings might be more suitably put.
Your witticisms on the names of Calvin and Melancthon and
other similar things may be suitable for a platform orator, but
conceits of speech do not become a theologian at the present
day. We do not heal the sick by such medicine ; we only
render their disease incurable. In defending the truth we must
observe charity, considerateness, and moderation." We have
testimony as sad as it is abundant that these counsels of the holy
Jesuit of the sixteenth century are acutely needed to-day.
In conclusion we must thank both the translator and the
publisher of Janssen's great work for making it accessible to
English and American readers.
M. Alfred Baudrillart, of the
CATHOLICISM AND Catholic University of Paris, has
PROTESTANTISM. published ten lectures on Catho-
By Baudrillart. Hcism and Protestantism* which
make interesting reading, and will
doubtless be found useful in popular apologetics. It is already
in its fifth French edition, although published much less than
a year ago, and we should not be surprised if its circulation
among English-speaking Catholics would turn out to be corre-
spondingly large. The book contains three lectures on the
Renaissance, and follows them up with chapters on the origin
* L'glise Catholique, la Renaissance, le Protestantisme. Par Alfred Baudrillart. Paris :
Librairie Bloud.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 119
and character of the Reformation, religious persecution, and
the comparative influence of Catholicity and Protestantism on
learning, morals, and general civilization. These are questions
which call first for extensive historical information, secondly
for wide and philosophical principles, and thirdly for an im-
partial, uncontroversial, and candid mind. M. Baudrillart pos-
sesses scholarship of unusual extent ; he often displays a just
and critical temper; and to the extent of these two qualities,
he has written a creditable book. But in the matter of large
views and comprehensive judgments we dare not say that he
is so successful. He is apt to look merely at the origins or
the originators of historic movements rather than at the move-
ments themselves in their full sweep and mature development.
In considering, for example, the influence of Protestantism on
civilization, he bases his inquiry chiefly on the opinions of
Luther and the other early leaders of the religious revolt.
And because he finds Luther an intemperate foe of universi-
ties, and Calvin a stern upholder of persecution, he is prone to
apply to the movement which began with these men conclu-
sions which can logically be predicated only of the men them-
selves. Granted that Luther styled reason the bond servant of
Satan, and wrote coarse invective against schools of higher
learning, what has this to do with the deeper historical prob-
lem of the intellectual influence of Protestantism ? Every great
current of human history flows immeasurably further than
those could see who stood at its source and saw it as a nar-
row rivulet. Islam is more than Mahomet; the Crusades be-
came something vaster than Urban II. foresaw; and who will
confine the revolutionary power of the critical philosophy or
of evolutionistic science to the personal views of Kant or
Darwin ?
We are obliged to make one other animadversion upon this
generally worthy volume. M. Baudrillart, wishing to score a
point against the unwarranted license into which the higher
criticism of the Bible has sometimes degenerated, has treated
modern biblical science itself with unpardonable lack of fair play.
In the two or three pages that are 'concerned with the matter,
he implies that the labors of Scripture-criticism have had no
other method or motive than to destroy every definite reli-
gious creed. This is another instance, and a peculiarly flagrant
instance, of the lack of large and unprovincial views which is
120 NEW BOOKS. [April,
the chief limitation of this book. The critical process, as
applied to the Bible, has made blunders, as every one knows,
and has produced some men who have been as intemperate in
this field as Haeckel has been in the department of evolution.
But biblical criticism as such is too momentous a thing to be
confounded and condemned with its accidental errors and its
unworthy spokesmen. Perhaps no single movement of the
human mind has been of such importance for the lives and
souls of men. And to despatch it with a gesture of contempt
is fatal to any man's claim to wisdom of judgment or breadth
of view. The deep tides of history are not to be sounded
with a syllogism or swept back with a shibboleth. But in
passing these criticisms we would not be understood as dis-
paraging M. Baudrillart's book in substance. For in substance
it is good, keen, honest, and to a high degree practically use-
ful. Priests and educated laymen will find it full of fruitful
suggestion and profitable information.
A biography of the man who
CARDINAL ALEMAN. presided over the schismatical
By Perouse. council of Basle would have to
be poorly written indeed not to
be intensely interesting. That wonderful assembly of recalci-
trant prelates, monks, and clerks that sat for eighteen years in
council defying the appeals and excommunications of the Roman
Pontiff, that stood out so stubbornly for the principle bequeathed
by Constance, of a general council's supremacy over the Pope,
that deposed the lawful Pope and created the last of the anti-
Popes, and finally dwindled to pitiable insignificance and died
out in ignominy, must ever be accounted a momentous event,
whose influence continued long after every man who took part
in it had passed away. It began its sessions just after Con-
stance had closed its great career, and wrote the last words of
its proceedings at Lausanne only half a century before the
outbreak of the mighty revolt which was to lose half of Europe
to the ancient Church Basle was a proximate preparation for
the Reformation. Constance was a preparation for it too, but
remoter. At Basle astounded Europe saw mitred churchmen
summon to their tribunal a Pope about whose election there
had never arisen a shadow of doubt, and when he answered
this unheard of impudence with censures, pronounced him a
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 121
schismatic and deposed him. The debates and they were in-
terminable turned upon the one revolutionary idea that a
general council is absolutely autonomous, and that it has
power to do what it wills with the chief Bishop of the Church.
Such an example was not without profound effect in every
State upon the continent. Forty years afterward Savonarola
justified his disobedience of Alexander VI. on the conciliar and
papal theories of Constance and Basle. And when fifteen or
twenty years after Savonarola, another monk preached the
utter abolition of the Papacy, he announced a message for
which the minds of men were not unprepared. To the historian
Basle and Constance are the seed-time; the Reformation is
the harvest.
The president of the schismatical sessions of the council of
Basle, whose life has just been conscientiously and ably written
by M. Gabriel Perouse,* was Cardinal Louis Aleman, a French-
man whom Martin V., at the end of the Great Schism, had
raised to high honors, but who had fallen into disfavor under
Eugenius IV. Aleman stood out pertinaciously in the council
for the deposition of Eugenius, and was the means of electing,
as anti-Pope, Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, who took the name of
Felix V. Aleman was by natural disposition moderate and
conciliating. But in pushing on to extreme measures at Basle
he was a radical of radicals. This was because he maintained
so passionately the supremacy of Council over Pope. To this
principle he gave himself up heart and soul, and doubtless
held to it as firmly at the hour of his death as at the sessions
of the council. Even when the schism had faded almost to
extinction, and Felix V. had become a rather ridiculous figure,
Aleman gave way not an inch. He was by the side of Felix
to the end. Fortunately that end was peaceful ; for owing to
the efforts of the King of France, Felix abdicated his dubious
dignity, and the refractories of Basle acknowledged the real
Pope, Nicholas V.
It is astonishing that within seventy-five years from this
reconciliation a Pope should have beatified Cardinal Aleman.
Yet beatified he was, and he is commemorated to-day in his
old diocese of Aries. History has dealt kindly with his virtues,
but harshly with his theories. M. Perouse is to be congratu-
lated on his excellent biography.
Le Cardinal Louis Aleman, President du Candle de Bdle. Par Gabriel Perouse. Paris :
Alphonse Picard et Fils.
122 NEW BOOKS. [April,
Every one knows what great suc-
ANSWERS TO NON-CATHO- cess Mgr. Segur had in popular-
LIC OBJECTIONS. izing the science of apologetics.
By Mgr. de Segur. j n a n O f his various little works
in defense of religion, and of the
true faith, he certainly does meet the ordinary man-of-the-
street on his own ground. Consequently, these little volumes
have done an immense good. The present one, Answers* is on
a par with the others, and is a good book to place in the
hands of the many unfortunates who, being half- educated or
poorly educated, have proved themselves unable to withstand
the ordinary cheap arguments against religion and the Church.
It is a pity that the publishers should choose such a lurid
cover-page design, and it is questionable whether the rather
melodramatic pictures sprinkled through the text, will . attract
readers with any power of discrimination. But the text is
solid and substantial and sensible, and every Catholic might
do well by reading it, and then do better by sending it
abroad among his non-Catholic friends.
The latest reprint of St. Teresa's
LIFE OF ST. TERESA. autobiography f will be a benefit
Translated by Lewis. to two classes of readers espe-
cially ; those hitherto dismayed
by the more or less repellant character of the only editions
accessible to the English public will find their hesitation over-
come by the attractions of the new edition ; and those until
now unacquainted with this truly great work will be able to
familiarize themselves with it under the most favorable circum-
stances. When all is said, it remains true that no small share
of one's impressions about a book is due to its external ap-
pearance, and to the ease with which the text can be read ;
and the pleasant looking volume before us printed in new pica
type and bound in octavo certainly offers every inducement
to the reader that the publisher could supply. As for the
contents of the book, apart from the statement that the pres-
* Answers to Objections against the Catholic Religion. By Mgr. de Se"gur. Shermerville,
111. : The Society of the Divine Word.
t The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus of the Order of Our Lady of Carmel. Written by her-
self. Translated from the Spanish by David Lewis. Third Edition Enlarged. With addi -
tional Notes and an Introduction by Rev. Father Benedict Zimmerman, O.C.D. London:
Thomas Baker.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 123
ent edition has been very carefully and helpfully edited by
Father Zimmerman, there seems little excuse for saying any-
thing. It is the story of the inner life of one of the most
remarkable women and greatest saints that ever lived told,
as the biography of such a one should be told, in her own
words. A great many lessons on prayer, and indeed lessons
on all the virtues of the Christian and religious life, are to be
learned out of this book. It may safely be recommended as
one of the classical pieces of spiritual literature.
We strongly advise all of our
THE BOOK OF BOOKS. readers who can get through a
By Hopfl. German book with some degree
of ease, to read Dom Hildebrand
Hopfl's small volume on the Bible.* It is the best manual of
introduction to the study of Holy Writ that we at present
possess. It deals with Inspiration, Principles of Interpretation,
the Devotional, Ascetic, Homiletic, and Scholastic use of the
Scriptures, the Nature and Problems of Criticism, and the His-
tory of Biblical Study among Catholics. Each of these topics
is treated with competent erudition, a loyal Catholic spirit, and
an open-minded readiness to adopt untraditional methods and
to accept new conclusions. Dom Hopfl, as readers of his
Die Hohere Kritik will remember, holds fast with one hand to
conservative theology, and offers the other in no unfriendly
greeting to modern criticism. Thus, for example, in the pres-
ent volume, he maintains robustly the doctrine of the " Provi-
dentissimus Deus " that there are no errors in the Bible, and
at the same time he concedes that the sacred writers wrote
both their science and their history according to the imperfect
methods and in the feeble knowledge of their time. He would
make no objection to the position that the patriarchal narra-
tives embody a large amount of folk-lore and tribe- saga, and
he cites with approval the opinion of C. Pesch, S.J., that
Judith and Esther may not be historical books, but only ex-
tensive parables. And in the question, now in the true sense
of the word a burning question, as to the relation between
the religion of Babylon and the religion of Israel, he is not
less judicious. For while he considers it extreme to hold that
Das Buck der Bilchtt. Gedanken uber Lektiire und Studium der Heiligen Schrift.
Von P. Hildebrand Hopfl, O.S.B. St. Louis: B. Herder.
124 NEW BOOKS. [April,
the first chapters of Genesis are purely allegorical and sym-
bolic, and founded upon religious ideas which the Hebrews
borrowed from Chaldea, he admits that the inter-relation of
these two Semitic peoples has been of greater moment than
orthodox students of the Bible have yet realized. He con-
cludes his remarks upon this subject with an earnest wish,
which will find an echo in many hearts, that Catholics should
throw themselves into the strife of biblical study in greater
numbers and with better equipment. The very existence of
traditional Christianity is at stake in the struggle, and Catho-
lic scholars are not in the place of honor which in the nature
of the case they should occupy.
We have mentioned only one or two of the features which
make Dom Hopfl's little book a valuable addition to our litera-
ture. We might have spoken of other excellent qualities; but
all who are au courant with the drift of scholarship will under-
stand, .from what we have said, that tb.is is a work to be pro-
cured and read and studied.
The Anglican Bishop of Croydon
INTEMPERANCE. has written a little work on Tem-
By Pereira. perance* which is eminently cred-
itable to his ability, his piety,
and his zeal. In fourteen short chapters he considers some of
the chief aspects of the drink problem, gives a large amount
of useful information, and offers many valuable suggestions for
temperance workers. His tone is earnest but moderate. He
does not dogmatize, he launches no denunciations, and excites
no animosities. But he displays a spiritual fervor, a love of
souls, and a trust in God that charge his pages with persua-
siveness and power. We are certain that his book will do great
good; our wishes for success attend it.
Some of the more striking matters brought out by Dr.
Pereira are the splendid reform work accomplished by the Sal-
vation Army, the excellent fruit of inebriates' homes, the fine
opportunity for the crusade among military and naval men,
and the great importance of systematic temperance teaching
among children. On such topics as these this small volume
gives hints, directions, and statistics which are of unusual
value. Not the least admirable pages of the book are those in
* Intemperance. By Henry Horace Pereira, Bishop of Croydon. Handbooks for the
Clergy Series. New York : Longmans, Green & Co.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 125
which he reminds the clergy of their privilege and their duty
to be in the forefront of the battle-line of temperance.
President Harper's addresses * to
THE HIGHER LIFE. university students have many
By Harper. qualities which are admirable, and
others which no believer in a fixed
Christian creed can approve. Dr. Harper is a strong, earnest,
and sincere man, heartily holding to religion as he sees it, and
honestly desirous to do good to others. His moral counsels,
admonitions, and warnings are simple and straightforward, his
tone is natural, his language without pretence. He deals can-
didly with difficulties, and does not close his eyes to obstacles,
drawbacks, and doubts in the Christian life. But when he comes
to creed, a Catholic must part company with him. For hie
learned doctor is of opinion that the day of priesthoods, of
final dogmas, and irreformable theologies is over. He says this
respectfully, it is true, but decisively for all that. He believes
that an unchangeable standard of orthodoxy is logically im-
possible, and that each man's mind and conscience are the
supreme seat of religious authority. This is the modern develop-
ment of non-Catholic Christianity, of course, and we have ceased
to be astonished at hearing it stated. This is not the place for
the refutation of such an opinion, and we shall not delay upon
it. It is a logical outcome of the denial of Christ's Divinity.
If our Lord is God, his word must be irrevocably fixed and
forever immutable ; but because belief in his deity has so
widely disappeared, he is regarded not as the end, but as only
the beginning of the religious life of mankind.
One thing Dr. Harper says which is encouraging. That is,
that religion is not decreasing in our greater universities.
Denominationalism, he admits, is on the wane among advanced
students, but belief in God is striking deeper root than during
the preceding generation, and there is a notable growth in the
conviction that the higher life of man must be based upon the
character and teachings of Christ. We trust that this is so.
For if the intellectual leaders of the country retain so much ol
the religious sense as these two convictions imply, we need not
fear that ultimately the American people will grow out to the
full stature of the truth of God.
"Religion and the Higher Life. By William Rainey Harper. Chicago: The Chicago
University Press.
126 NEW BOOKS. [April,
Father Lucas' conferences* to
CONFERENCES TO BOYS, the Stonyhurst boys are simple,
By'Father Lucas. straightforward, earnest talks
which must have done good to those who heard them, and
will do, we trust, still greater good to the larger circle that
will read them This collection' contains thirty- one brief ser-
mons on the chief duties of the Christian life prayer, penance,
the thought of God, vocation, resistance to temptation, etc.
Admirable as we found them in substance, there is a deficiency
in them which we regret. Not much is said of duty, con-
science, interior and personal spiritual power, and the sacred
idea of honor as applied to the religious side of life. So far
as we can see this omission is very common in our spiritual
literature, and it is a fatal omission. In a country like Eng-
land or America the whole tendency of civil- and social life
makes for the deepening of individual responsibility. Men are
free, and the anchor that holds freedom back from the current
of license is the sense of duty. So deep down in the heart of
every freeman lies a love of duty, and a conviction that through
duty leads the way of salvation. And when this persuasion
is supernaturalized and religion is brought out of the region of
mere observance, and into the region of individual honor, it
gains a power of appeal that is as efficacious as it is noble.
Let us have in our Catholic books and in our Catholic preach-
ing vastly more about conscience, religious fidelity, and spiri-
tual manliness.
Those who are familiar with the
MORAL EDUCATION. philosophy of the author of Moral
By Griggs. Education,^ will scarcely need to
be told that his latest book says
very little, either good or bad, on the subject of revealed re-
ligion ; and, nevertheless, religion is a force of immense sig-
nificance and value in the process of moral training. Taken
as the utterance of a writer concerned exclusively with the
non-religious aspect of the question, the volume is one which
well deserves to be considered by all who are interested,
theoretically or practically, in the educational problems con-
fronting the present generation. It should do something to
elevate the standards, to clarify the ideals, and to stimulate
/ the Morning of Life: Considerations and Meditations for Boys. By Rev. Herbert
Lucas, S.J. St. Louis: B. Herder.
t Moral Education. By Edward Howard Griggs. New York : B. W. Huebsch.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 127
the moral enthusiasm of those who depend on bright and
hopeful thoughts for their inspiration ; though it falls es-
sentially short of being a substitute for the tried and
efficient influences upon which the Christian world has re-
lied in the course of its struggles toward spiritual greatness.
This consideration apart, much that is good may be claimed
for the book. The author has pretty well covered the litera-
ture of popular pedagogy, and, to his credit be it said, he
gives careful references and a most satisfactory bibliography.
He writes with beauty and almost invariably with marked
clearness ; he develops very instructively and applies to the
work of ethical formation the leading results of modern educa-
tional investigation. Sometimes, it is true, he pushes an idea
a little too hard and displays a tendency to forget counter
considerations ; and to one who has pondered the big prob-
lems of philosophy long and earnestly, the readiness of Mr.
Griggs' answers will suggest a fluency which is akin to light-
ness ; but on the whole it must be said that the book before
us is really a good one to lead and that it should do much
to assist the thoughtful mother or the earnest teacher in the
accomplishment of their sacred duties. It will hardly exercise
a harmful influence on any one's faith, and it may serve to
remind many believers that they do wiong in letting slip those
opportunities of using the laws of nature, which the real edu-
cator reckons among his most precious resources.
Fourteen sermons preached in the
SERMONS. English College of St. Edmund,
between the years 1847 ano> I 904
have just been published.* Many of the preachers are names
that have lived and will live in history: Cardinals Wiseman,
Manning, and Vaughan, Bishops Ullathorne and Hedley, Canon
Oakeley, and some others of less repute. Like most sermon-
collections, this one contains discourses good and discourses
middling. We do not propose to designate the division in
greater detail. Let it be enough to say that as the literature
ot homiletics stands at the present time, this volume has. a
fair share of meritorious work. The subjects of the sermons
are such high and useful topics as: The Christian Vocation,
* Sermons Preached in St. Edmund's College Chapel on Various Occasions. With an Intro-
duction by Most Rev. Francis Bourne, Archbishop of Westminster. Collected and Arranged
by Edwin Burton, Vice-President. New York : Benziger Brothers.
128 NEW BOOKS. [April,
The Holy Ghost, and but here a glance at the title page dis-
closes that all the others are on St. Edmund, or else have to
do with the opening of Provincial Synods and the burial of
local celebrities, matters which cannot fail to interest any one
who has ever been a student at St. Edmund's.
More absorbing than the most
PATHFINDERS OF thrilling romance of imaginary
THE WEST. heroes is Agnes C. Laut's Path-
By Laut. finders of the West* It tells the
story of the men who discovered
and explored the great Northwest. First among the explorers
of the land west of the Mississippi the author places Pierre Radis-
son, claiming precedence for him over Marquette, Joliet, and La
Salle. These names have been so long associated with the
discovery and exploration of the great Northwest that this
championship of the almost unknown Radisson and Groseillers
comes with almost iconolastic significance. The discovery of
an account of Radisson's voyages, written by himself, the
authenticity of which has been generally admitted by scholars,
has induced the author to popularize the story of his life in
the West and rescue his name from oblivion. Miss Laut's
book, or rather the substance of it which appeared first in
magazine form, has given rise to considerable controversy and
some antagonism. If the discovered manuscript be authentic,
and if Radisson be credited with speaking the truth, there
seems no reason why Miss Laut should not be congratulated
upon her effort to write history true. Surely the work in this
country of the Jesuits has been monumental enough to lose
nothing by this late acknowledgment of our debt to Pierre
Radisson.
Directors of souls are probably agreed that " spiritual de-
spondency " is not a disease that is alarmingly prevalent among
the masses of the people. We are given to over-confidence
rather than to despair. But none the less it is certain that
among the comparatively few who try genuinely to make pro-
gress in the spiritual life there are many who, sooner or later,
meet with this chief difficulty of the pious, a tendency, or
even a fixed habit of soul, to disbelieve in the possibility of
achieving anything like success in the struggle for perfection.
t Pathfinders of the West. By Agnes C. Laut. New York : The Macmillan Company.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 129
To such as these, the first part of Father Garesche's volume *
will doubtless be helpful.
Others, that is those who have never experienced this
dreadful tendency of mind, and who consequently will scarcely
appreciate the importance of the author's words on the sub-
ject of despair, may pass quickly to his very helpful chapters
on temptation. They may read with especial comfort the
chapter on the means of recognizing whether or not one has
consented to temptation, a very clear and very encouraging
statement of the usual teaching on the matter.
The Divine Fire t ^ by May Sinclair, is unmistakably the
work of an unusually gifted writer, and one does not hesitate
to pronounce this book literature. The story is of a young
London Cockney who begins life in his father's secondhand
bookshop, and who finally becomes one of the great poets of
his time not an extraordinary theme for a story, and yet one
which offers opportunity for a great book. May Sinclair, who-
ever she may be, has developed her story with admirable
skill and sustained power. A keen understanding, an ethical
interpretation, and a lyric style have combined to produce one
of the noblest, most inspiring, and absorbing books we have
read in years.
The Bell in the Fog\ takes its name from the initial story
of the volume. Some of the tales in the book are entirely
new, and others appeared previously in magazines. From a
Catholic standpoint the simplicity of the peasants mentioned in
the volume as living on the estates of the Count, of Croisac,
and whose dead were disturbed by the roar and rumble of the
new steam-railway is, to say the least, rather far-fetched. We
have no doubt, however, that the author had a real founda-
tion, on which, by her vivid imagination, she has built up these
interesting but rather uncanny series of events. The dominant
note of the book is uncanny. The stories, needless to say,
are told by one who can tell them well, but they are the result
of introspection rather than of observation. The volume has a
certain charm of interest, and, although in places weird and
unsatisfactory, will hold the average reader to the end.
* Spiritual Despondency and Temptations. By Rev. P. J. Michel, S. J. Translated from
the French by Rev. F. P. Gareschd, S.J. New York : Benziger Brothers,
t The Divine Fire. By May Sinclair. New York : Henry Holt & Co.
\ The Bell in the Fog. By Gertrude Atherton. New York : Harper Brothers.
VOL. LXXXI. 9
130 NEW BOOKS. [April,
The Temptation of NoraJi Leecroft* by Frances Noble, is a
delightful little story set in the picturesque scenery of North
Devon. The author is no amateur, and this latest book bears
all the charm of her earlier stories. A young girl just out of
school takes a position as nursery governess to the motherless
children of a wealthy Englishman. His first marriage had been
an unhappy one, so his love is given unreservedly to the little
governess. However he is violently anti- Catholic and insists
that their marriage ceremony shall be simply a legal one. As
a true Catholic, though loving him devotedly, she withstands
the temptation to yield to his plea, and breaks off all com-
munication with him. Happily the story ends, as every one
would wish it, in good fairy tale fashion. The book is simply
and convincingly written and deserves only praise.
Somewhat more than a hundred years ago certain very
learned men, in the Edinburgh Review, unwittingly preached a
sermon to critics for all time by their memorable obtuseness in
the case of a poet, whose rank now is beyond dispute. With
this lesson in mind, it becomes difficult to pass judgment on
any piece of work which is uneven in its merits. The Red
Branch Crests^ by Charles Leonard Moore, bears these uneven
characteristics. Lines of singular beauty and true poetic ring
are succeeded by whole passages of merest verse, or doggerel.
Naturally the impression left is a dubious one. The possibili-
ties of the old Gaelic legends of Deidre, Meve, and Cuchu-
lain have been appreciated by the author, and he gives much
evidence of his power of dramatic insight.
It is with a sense of unusual pleasure that we announce
and welcome the advent of a new contemporary into the field
of Catholic literature ; on the first of June next, the initial
number of The New York Review will be issued under the edi-
torship of Father James Driscell, President of Dunwoodie Sem-
inary. The new publication has been undertaken in obedience
to the urgently expressed wish of Archbishop Farley, and in
response to repeated demands on the part of Catholic readers
* The Temptation of Norah Leecroft. By Frances Noble. Dublin : M. H. Gill & Son ;
New York : Benziger Brothers.
t The Red Branch Crests. By Charles Leonard Moore. Philadelphia : Printed for the
author.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 131
for a periodical to meet needs not sufficiently provided for by
any of our existing magazines. It will be scholarly, not popu-
lar, in tone, and will be concerned mainly with the considera-
tion of current Scriptural and philosophical questions which
affect the favorable presentation of the Catholic faith. As in-
tended by the Archbishop, as outlined by the editorial staff,
and as ensured by the published names of pledged contrib-
utors, the policy of The New York Review will be thoroughly
broad and sufficiently advanced to keep its readers abreast of
all the sound conclusions of modern scholars. In view of this
fact, and by reason of the immense prestige borrowed from
connection with so weighty an authority as Archbishop Farley,
and so profound a scholar as Father Driscoll, a reasonable
measure of success should be assured to the new magazine from
the very first hour of its existence. As the months pass and
the actual nature of the work accomplished by the Review
becomes known, the circle of its readers will widen, we hope,
until, by means of it, the attitude of the Church toward cur-
rent scientific thought will be adequately understood in many
quarters where misapprehension has too often reigned. The
new magazine will be a bi monthly. Subscriptions at the rate
of two dollars per annum may be addressed to the Very
Reverend James Driscoll, St. Joseph's Seminary, Dunwoodie,
Yonkers, N. Y.
The Catholic Truth Society, of San Francisco, has just pub-
lished a handy manual of 128 pages on Holy Week. The
little book is carefully edited, and contains the entire Morning
Office of Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and
Holy Saturday. An explanation of the ceremonies of the
Church for these days is included.
The same Society has published a manual of the Forty
Hours which contains an explanation of the ceremonies, history,
and the indulgences attached to the devotion of the Forty
Hours.
The price of each of these manuals is ten cents a copy,
or five dollars per hundred. They may also be ordered from
the International Catholic Truth Society of Brooklyn.
jforeign periodicals*
The Tablet (18 Feb.): An article on the French Government
Bill for the separation of Church and State, gives a
translation of the Bill and compares it with former
measures. The series of papers on Biblical Inspira-
tion, by the Abbot of Downside, has called forth inter-
esting letters from several correspondents, notably Mr.
Luigi Cappadelta and Dr. Joseph MacRory. The
letter from France contains extracts from the speeches
of the Abbe Gayraud and M. Ribot, explaining why
they favor the movement for separation.
(25 Feb.) : Father Thurston, S.J., begins a series of
articles on the practice of confession in England before
the Norman Conquest. His object is to disprove the
conclusions of Dr. H. C. Lea, as they have been adopted
and modified by some Anglican scholars, particularly by
Dr. Augustus Jessopp. Fr. Thurston summarizes the
principal points in Dr. Jessopp's statements. Another
article of especial interest in this issue is a description
of the revolutionary elements in Russia.
(4 March) : There are two important articles in this
number, one is a discussion of the Catholic school ques-
tion in the Canadian Northwest, and the other is the
second paper on confession in Englandjbefore the Nor-
man Conquest. In this paper Fr. Thurston answers the
question: Was absolution given to private penitents?
The Month (March) : Examines the grounds on which " Science "
rests her claim to be our one and only guide to any
knowledge worthy of the name. Presents and criticizes
the doctrines of Continuity and Causation as Romanes
and Huxley understood them. States (with reference to
the Law of Continuity) that we are forced to suppose
" that neither Mr. Romanes, when he speaks of an
a priori truth, nor Professor Huxley, when he speaks
of an axiom, rightly expresses his own meaning."
Finds these writers using inaccurately, also, the term
"Law of Causation." Comments on the attitude of
the modern secular historian (as Mr. Murdoch) studying
the work of the early missionaries to Japan. Notes a
1905.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 133
tendency on the part of this author to insinuate that
the partial acceptance of Christianity was entirely ex-
plicable by natural causes, and that this Christianity was
hardly ever accepted as a matter of rational conviction.
Considers the charge of intolerance alleged against the
missionaries; recounts their labors and successes; and
describes the impression made by Christianity upon the
people of Japan.
Le Correspondant (25 Jan.): Mgr. Touchet, Bishop of Orleans,
opens the number with a eulogy addressed to the com-
munity of St. Sulpice, Paris, now proscribed through
the hatred of M. Combes. " Mystiques et Primitifs,"
by Louis Gillet, continues his history of the ancient
school of Cologne.
(10 Feb.): The opening article, " Le Budget de 1'Ouvrier
au XIX. et au XX. Siecle," by A. de Foville, member
of the Institute, is encouraging reading. From reliable
statistics the writer shows that the wage of working-
men in France to-day is double what it was a hundred
years ago; that a low wage to-day is the exception and
not the rule. He adds that science, which has procured
so many advantages for the people, has not been able
to render them more contented ; for it has raised the
standard of comfort and added to the complexity of
life. Nor can science, nor physical well being, do the
work of simple faith in creating or fostering love of
duty, peace of soul, mutual forebearance, confidence, and
hope, in the family circle.
La Quinzaine (16 Feb.): A. Koszul, in reviewing Mr. Morley's
Life of Gladstone, pays particular attention to the religi-
ous life and influence of the great English premier.
His early training was carefully attended to, later on
he came under the influence of Dr. Chalmers, and all
through his life played an important part in the religious
affairs of England. He was a great friend of Manning's.
In regard to Catholic belief he agreed with us in believ-
ing in the Real Presence, also in auricular confession ;
yet could not take our view- point of Church authority.
Gladstone's inner life was deeply spiritual. The article
concludes by saying that " religion was the great, per-
manent, and solemn affair of his life."
134 FOREIGN PERIODICALS. [April,
Reviie Thomiste (Jan.-Feb.) : M. Coconnier, in a learned arti-
cle entitled " Charity according to St. Thomas Aquinas,"
seeks to expose the true thought of the master of the
schools upon this first and most noble virtue. "To
what Happiness are we Destined ? " is the title of an
article by Fr. Hugueny, O.P., in which the writer under-
takes " to utilize Criticism without neglecting Scholasti-
cism," in discussing the question of man's destiny.
Other articles: " Les Conditions de la Certitude et la
Critique," by T. Richard; and "Les deux Principes de
la Thermodynamique," by Fr. Hedde.
Annales de la Philosophic Chretienne (16 Jan.): This number
opens with a sympathetic appreciation of M. Brunetiere's
recent volume, De r Utilisation du Positivistne, which
forms the first part of his apologetic work, Sur le
Chemin de la Croyance. The manner in which M. Bru-
netiere indicates how Catholicism finds points of contact
with the positivism of Conte, opens a way, thinks M.
Baumann, ot which our apologists ought to take advan-
tage. M. Denis congratulates M. Brunetiere, first for
his services, and, secondly, for the immunity which his
prestige and position have assured to him from such
attacks as have been made by ultra ultramontanists upon
MM. Blondel, Fonsegrive, Laberthonniere, Denis him-
self, and other leaders of the movement. M. Roger
Charbonnel, too, comments favorably on M. Brunetiere's
Utilisation Apologetique du Positivisme. A seminary
professor, who assumes as certain that in the Gospels of
Matthew, Mark, and Luke a large amount of idealization
has been thrown around the historical kernel, discusses
the indications offered for this theory. Though the
work of analysis may, he says, disturb persons of little
faith, it can only result in setting forth more splendidly
the work of God and the teachings of our Lord.
The editor concludes his fine historical study of Prot-
estantism in France.
(Feb.) : M. Albert Leclere opens a series of papers on
Dante, to place in relief the affinities and the unex-
pected contrasts to be found in the tendencies of Dante's
mysticism when compared with that of the most repre-
sentative of other Catholic mystics since the period of
1905.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 135
the first Renaissance. The nature, date, authenticity,
Christology, and eschatology of the Clementine Homily
is discussed by M. Turmel, who controverts many of
Professor Harnack's findings on the subject. M.
Blampignon concludes his essay on Jean Jacques Rous-
seau. The editor replies to the attack made on him
and his friends, Abbe Naudet and Abbe Lefranc, in a
Belgian " anti apologetic " periodical by the Reverend
Pere Fontaine, S.J., who applies some very severe terms
to the new school of biblical critics, whom he accuses
of being rebels to spiritual authority. M. Denis defends
the orthodoxy of the movement, emphasizes the neces-
sities which have created it, and begs his adversary to
remember the dictates of Christian charity. As an
introduction to a future analysis, by M. Bernard, of a
recently published synopsis of Kant's philosophy, M.
Denis offers a few pages of observations on the histori-
cal position of the German philosopher.
La Revue Apologetique (16 March) : Reviewing the progress of
exegesis, regarding the long- debated questions in the
Pentateuch, M. C. De Kirwan, without committing him-
self very deeply, is inclined to make some concessions
to scientific criticism. He would abandon, for instance,
the old opinion concerning the age of man, and the uni-
versality and miraculous character of the deluge. But
he contends for the exactitude of the account of the
dial of Achaz ; for the phenomenon did not exceed the
power of Omnipotence. 1. Vosters attacks the brochure
of Professor Viollet directed against the infallibility of the
Syllabus. The Syllabus, argued the professor, cannot be
infallible; it declares, for example, that matrimony is in-
dissoluble by natural law; if so it never could be dissolved
by ecclesiastical authority ; but we have cases where it has
been thus dissolved. Ergo. The defender of the Sylla-
bus would save its veracity by recurring to the old dis-
tinction between primary and secondary precepts of the
natural law. Against Father Lagrange's view con-
cerning the later origin of Daniel, Chanoine Memain
continues his repetition of the traditional arguments.
M. H. Appelmans defends the reasonableness of faith.
136 FOREIGN PERIODICALS. [April.
Civilta Cattolica (18 Feb.): Describes how the Italian govern-
ment, when guaranteeing to the Pope the maintenance
of his Pontifical dignity, recognized that this must in-
clude a guarantee of the rights of the Cardinals. De-
scribes the Educational Exhibit at the St. Louis Fair,
mentioning the Medical Exhibit of the Universita Gio-
vanni Hopkins, and concludes with some considerations
on the opinion entertained by outsiders generally as to
the worth of Catholic philosophy : It is true that to
expose the errors of science is the highest service which
philosophy can render to science ; but would this ser-
vice not be immensely more valuable, if our writers
were always loyal in recognizing all the truth and the
good with which science is to be credited ? Reviews
the first volume of the monumental work, The Acts of
the Council of Trent, and takes occasion to speak of
the superior accuracy of Pallavicino as compared with
Sarpi.
(4 March): Records a movement on foot among some of
the Italian journals to establish a law of temperance
with regard to the publication of details about filthy
and vicious crimes. Reviews the collection Science et
Religion (known to readers of the review columns of
THE CATHOLIC WORLD), a series of brochures, now
numbering over three hundred, which instruct Catholics
on the latest questions in history, philosophy, Scrip-
ture, and theology; the series is being translated into
Italian by the publishing house of Desclee.
Stimmen aus Maria Laach (Feb.): Fr. Krose, S.J., in a paper
dealing with the religious condition of Switzerland,
shows that Catholicism is rapidly regaining ground in
that country. Fr. Knabenbauer, S.J., in an article
entitled "The Author of the Fourth Gospel and Loisy,"
refutes the arguments advanced against the genuinity of
St. John's Gospel.
THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION.
DR. CHARLES G. HERBERMANN, editor-in-chief of the new Catholic
Encyclopedia, has received from many prominent ecclesiastics warm
letters of commendation for the work. Cardinal Gibbons writes as follows:
I have heard with great pleasure the proposal to publish a Catholic ency-
clopedia. The need of such a work has long been recognized. For English-
speaking Catholics especially it is necessary to have the concise and authentic
statements regarding the Church which the encyclopedia will give. And I
am convinced that non-Catholics also will welcome a publication in which the
doctrine, practice, and history of the Church are clearly set forth. The char-
acter and ability of the scholars who have undertaken this work guarantee its
success. I shall look forward to the appearance of the first volume, and
meantime I shall gladly commend the Catholic Encyclopedia to our clergy and
people.
From his Grace Archbishop Farley Dr. Herbermann has received the
following letter:
Your arrangements for publishing the Catholic Encyclopedia fulfil a desire
which I have cherished for over twenty years. The work is planned on the
broadest possibie lines. With a board of editors and numerous contributors
thoroughly representative of the best scholarship in every part of the world,
the encyclopedia will be eminently Catholic in scope and spirit.
It augurs well for the interests of religion in English-speaking countries
that we are to have a work which will be an end to much useless and often-
times painful controversy, and be a source of valuable information for all
serious readers, non-Catholic as well as Catholic.
You are fortunate in having a business organization in which the public
can have entire confidence. You may rely upon me always for whatever
assistance I can give in this enterprise.
While wishing you and the editors associated with you godspeed in the
work, I think I can predict that you will meet with so much encouragement
and co-operation on every side that your success is already assured.
* * *
Outside the domain of faith and morals, there are many questions open
for discussion among Catholics. Certain historical events may be distorted
by the personal bias of the writer, or by racial antipathies. On both sides of
controverted points Catholics have been known to exaggerate and misrepre-
sent other Catholics of good standing and most loyal to the faith.
To illustrate the Catholic idea as to how history should be written and
taught, Bishop O'Dwyer, of Limerick, re-told this story in the course of his
evidence before the Royal Commission on University Education in Ireland :
As to history I might give the Commission a story that goes the rounds;
whether it is true or not, it expresses our view on the matter. It is said that
the very learned Father Pastor, who was writing a history of the Popes,
138 THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. [April,
obtained access to the secret archives of the Vatican for the purpose of study-
ing unpublished papers, and he asked Pope Leo XIII. as to how he should
deal with certain inconvenient incidents in some of these documents. The
Pope said : Simply tell the truth; write the history; tell the truth. I verily
believe that there are some Catholic men now who, if they were writing the
Gospels, would leave out the denial of St. Peter in the interests of the Papacy.
Well, for my part, Bishop O'Dwyer continued, and speaking for my brother
bishops, if we had a professor of history we should never dream of asking him
to falsify his own judgment, to suppress the facts of history; we would ask
him to teach his history truthfully and honestly as he found it.
If history were taught and written everywhere and always in this Catholic
spirit, there would be a great deal less bitter controversy and bigotry in
relation at least to the historical aspect of religion.
The trustees of Adelphi College, Brooklyn, N. Y., have considered the
objections presented against Professor 'E.-merlori's History of Meditval Europe,
and rightly decided to reject it as an unreliable text-book. Out of five hun-
dred and ninety-two pages, a Catholic critic found sixteen glaring errors within
three pages 542, 543, 544, of which this is a specimen:
At the age of puberty he (the child) was received into the full member-
ship of the Christian community of potential sinners by the act of Confirma-
tion, whereby his sinlessness for the moment was established. Emerton,
page 544.
*
The recent death of General Lew Wallace, at Crawfordsville, Ind. , has
given opportunity for discussion of his career as an author. His books, The
Boyhood of Christ and The Prince of India, were properly censured for many
doctrinal and historical errors. His best known book, Ben Hur, is a fine
specimen of narrative writing, though containing allusions to the divinity of
Christ not approved by orthodox teaching. A story often told, which was
never denied by Wallace, was that he had a conversation with Colonel Robert
G. Ingersoll one day on a train, and during the talk Ingersoll advised him to
do some thinking on the question of religious belief. Ben Hur was the result.
It is stated that General Wallace wrote only by laborious study and pains-
taking toil. He was his own best critic, and scrutinized every line before he
let it appear in his final copy. His habit was to write the rough draft of his
ideas on a slate, so that erasures could be made easily, then to transfer the
writing with a soft pencil to paper, and finally, when all was to his satisfac-
tion, to copy the book in ink with the precision of a clerk. When Ben Hur
was sent to Harper's it was beautifully executed in purple ink, every line of
exact length, every page of writing almost identical in the number of words
with an ordinary printed page. This was the book that the publishing house
hesitated for a time about accepting, fearing that it might not prove a finan-
cial success. It is said that Ben Hur has been translated into every impor-
tant tongue in the world.
The General had a fine home in Crawfordsville, Ind., an old fashioned
rambling house with acres of ground. His library was in a beautiful stone
building in the rear. In the library hangs a portrait in oil of the Sultan
Abdul Hamid, painted by the General. It was produced from secret sketches
1905.] THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 139
made by Wallace while Minister to Turkey, though the Mohammedans regard
such a thing as a sacrilege.
Thousands of Indiana people made annual pilgrimages to Crawfordsville.
Whenever possible General Wallace shook hands with everyone. In 1852
he married Susan Elston, of a well-known Hoosier family of pioneers.
Miss Josephine Lewis, a devoted worker for the Columbian Reading
Union in past years, was invited by the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences to
give an account of her recent trip to Mexico, which is here condensed :
The first impression in landing at Vera Cruz is of the wonderful atmos-
pheric brilliancy, color and light drown everything else. The turquoise
sky, the blue and green water, the glowing flowers, light-toned buildings, all
give a curious feeling of a sudden transposition from a low-toned harmony to
one in the upper keys. There, to one who paints the natives with dark skins
and white or colored loose garments, are models that one wants at once to
put into a picture. Our men in black clothes are contrasted with black men
in white clothes. And those animated bronze beings, who came out in quaint
little boats to take us ashore, give one an unearthly feeling, as if some statues
with sinewy, lithe figures, began to move around us.
Vera Cruz is an Oriental city, both buildings and people proclaim the
fact. As we go into the interior of Mexico one sees, beyond the marvelous
mountain ranges, plains with narrow winding lanes outlined by high walls of
dried mud. And as we look at the novel scene, a man in native costume
comes dashing down on his prancing horse, the silver trimmings flashing in
the light, and it seems impossible that we are really in this picturesque coun-
try. We feel like the little old lady in Mother Goose, who says if this be I, as
I think it be, I have a little dog at home and he'll know me.
The native women of the poorer class move shyly about, covered to the
eyes with the long blue scarf, or rebosa, the men in wide-rimmed hats and
gay scrape. They glance respectfully at the Americans. We see an Indian
woman moving along with the tall earthen jar on her head in the old biblical
fashion. Now we see a group of black-haired Indian girls washing some
clothes on the flat stones at the edge of a stream and spreading the pieces on
a cactus plant to dry. Again we see a town with narrow cobble-paved streets,
swept with dust-pan and brush, the open market place, the sparkling fountain
falling into carved basins, all blend in one picturesque harmony that sets the
nerves tingling with delight.
And the courtesy of the people is charming, because the Americans are
loud in their praise of the lovely flowers. At Cordova a Mexican on the
train at once bought the finest boquet of camelias and presented it with a
deep bow to the stranger who was for once speechless with surprise and plea-
sure. These bouquets are swung from the bundle racks overhead, and give
sweetness for the long journey from Vera Cruz to Mexico City. As the train
swings along, and the paintable quality of it all gives perfect delight, we begin
to think of the history of art in the old land.
Miss Lewis closed her talk with a charming description of the Cathedral
and Churches of Mexico, relating a number of the pretty legends that are
140 THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. [April,
handed down from the old Spanish days. Then over one hundred views were
shown.
*
The Aquinas Reading Circle, of Mobile, observed its eighth anniversary
with a " Shakespeare evening," and an interesting programme was rendered
as follows :
Overture, Salutation, orchestra; Vocal solo, Miss M. M. McGettrick.
Casket scene from "The Merchant of Venice." Cast : Bassanio, Joseph
A. Diemer; Lorenzo, T. P. Norville ; Gratiano, William Airey ; Salarino,
Edward Hickey; Nerissa, Miss Mary McCafferty; Portia, Miss Pansy Ravier.
Vocal solo, William O. Daly; Piano solo, Miss Marietta Green; Vocal
solo, Miss Anita Herpin.
Court scene from " The Merchant of Venice." Cast: Shylock, Joseph
A. Diemer; Duke of Venice, John Goodman; Antonio, John McAleer;
Bassanio, T. P. Norville; Gratiano, William Airey; Salarino, E. Hickey;
Nerissa, Miss May McCafferty; Portia, Miss Teresa McAleer.
The entertainment was under the stage direction and management of
Joseph A. Diemer.
The officers of the Circle are: President, Mrs. M. E. Henry-Ruffin ;
Vice-President, Mrs. Lee N. Ward ; Secretary, Miss Jensina Ebeltoft ;
Treasurer, Mrs. May Le-Baron; Musical Director, Miss Frances S. Parker.
* *
Miss Mary Boyle O'Reilly gave a very interesting talk to the members of
the Young Women's Catholic Union, of Charlestown, Mass.; her subject, a
most appropriate one, " Meanings we miss from the Gospel Story," was the
result of a close study of the Gospels in connection with her impressions of
the country of Palestine and the manners and customs of the people.
Beginning with a charming portrayal of the lilies of the field, which, to
her surprise, were found to be large, gorgeous red flowers with purple hearts,
she referred to all the familiar incidents in the life of our Lord, throwing new
light upon many of them. The reference to the high estimation in which the
carpenter's trade was held, the picture of the Boy Jesus, with his seamless
robe of royal hue, in the Temple, the interpretation of the entry into Jeru-
salem on Palm Sunday, and of the Crucifixion between two malefactors
were all made more real from Miss O'Reilly's familiarity with the Holy Land
and its customs.
Connected with the Union is a Reading Circle, which presented a pro-
gramme on Longfellow's life and character, and some of his short poems were
read and discussed, including the sweet Catholic poem, "The Legend Beau-
tiful."
Another meeting was devoted to history, the programme including papers
on Columbus ; Isabella the Catholic; the novel, Mercedes of Castile, a tale of
the days of Columbus ; and readings from Irving of the discovery of America
and the first landing of Columbus.
* * *
The twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the Chicago Press Club
was celebrated with a banquet in the clubrooms. In after dinner speeches
1905.] THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 141
statesmen and authors of national reputation, invited guests and newspaper
men, praised the power and influence of the American press in the highest
terms. The principal speakers of the evening were Colonel George Harvey,
of New York, and Governor Albert E. Cummins, of Iowa. Two hundred and
forty members of the club, with their guests, were present. Homer J. Carr,
President, was toastmaster. Colonel Harvey, in responding to the toast, The
Freedom of the Press, depicted this wonderfully high standard of excellence :
There is no press in the world comparable to that of America in freedom
from influence, political or social, from venality, from contamination of any
kind whatsoever. In France, a newspaper's opinions are a matter of francs;
in England, too often of titles: in Germany, Austria, and Spain, of imperial
favor ; in Russia, of absolute censorship. In America, thanks to the tra-
ditions of the past, the fundamental integrity of the press cannot be impugned.
It is faultful, but it is free. We have our sadly exaggerated headlines on
week days, and our monstrosities on Sundays ; we have amazing productions
of no less amazing art ; we have columns and columns of crime, and pages and
pages of waste. Finally, not least, at any rate, in numbers, we have our red
and white papers, sometimes referred to as yellow journals.
Personally, I should be of the last to defend or make apology for this
latest manifestation of commercialism, misdirected ambition, and false doc-
trines in the American press. But, however seriously we may regret and
resent the ebullition, we cannot ignore the irresistable conclusion that this
particular channel, and this alone, affords a vent for unexpressed beliefs and
suspicions which can be dissipated only by the clear rays of reason following
any form of expression.
As contrasted with our own country, Russia to-day stands forth a vivid
example of the effect of suppressed opinion. Discontent would better burn
than smoulder. The continuous hissing of offensive gases escaping is not
pleasant, but it is preferable to the otherwise inevitable explosion. Yet more
important, more vital to the permanance of a government of a whole people
by themselves, is absolute freedom of expression. Upon that all depends.
Restrict it, or create the impression in suspicious minds that it is being
restricted, and you sow the wind.
With this general dictum few if any would have the hardihood to disa-
gree. But it is often, and I regret to say often truly, urged that liberty is
subverted to license. Freedom of speech, freedom of publicity, yes; all
admit the wisdom and necessity of preserving both. But how frequently is
added, especially by men in public office, a vigorous declamation against
unfair criticism, and how almost daily is uttered, sometimes a violent and
unwarranted, sometimes a dignified and justifiable, protest against invasion
of privacy, encroachment upon personal rights, and like offenses.
Only those behind the curtain of the editorial sanctum can fully appre-
ciate the proportion of insincerity contained in the virtuous avowals of shy
and retiring, though weak and human beings of both sexes. In nine cases
out of ten, the most vociferous protest may be attributed safely to self-suffi-
ciency, snobbishness, or a guilty conscience. There is so little of malice in
American newspapers as to be unworthy of notice, but it is unquestionably
142 THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. [April, 1905.]
true that too little heed is paid to the fact that unwilful misrepresentation is
often quite as serious in effect.
Worst of all is the refusal to rectify a known error. Cursed be the man
who initiated the policy of never making a retraction in the columns of his
journal ! The mere fact that an individual, whether right or wrong, is vir-
tually voiceless and helpless in controversy with a newspaper, should and
does morally vest him with the right to exceptional consideration. A lie
once started can never be stopped, but the one responsible for its circulation,
directly or indirectly, who fails to exert every possible endeavor to that end
is unworthy of association with decent men. An American newspaper should
be an American gentleman.
To see the right is genius; to do it is courage. Unite the two under the
banner of sane idealism, and the most potent force in the cause of progress,
enlightenment, and good will lie in the free press of America.
Quite recently Pope Pius X. received a Catholic journalist, and in the
course of conversation he took a pen from the hand of his visitor, blessed it,
and gave it back with the following words:
Nowadays there is no more exalted mission in the world than that of a
journalist. I bless the symbol of your profession. My predecessors pio-
nounced their blessings on the swords and weapons of Christian warriors. I
count myself happy to invoke heaven's blessing upon the pen of a Catholic
journalist.
We could well wish that the example of the Holy Father were adopted
in Catholic circles generally. If it were, the Catholic newspaper would be
better appreciated and its representatives would be treated with more cour-
tesy. But it is too much to expect the same large view or the same good
taste or the same wisdom and Catholicity of spirit in other quarters, as the
Catholic journalist finds in the Pope, who considers himself happy to have an
opportunity of invoking a blessing on the Catholic journalist's pen.
M. C. M.
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THE
CATHOLIC WORLD.
VOL. LXXXI.
MAY, 1905.
No. 482.
THE UNDERPAID LABORERS OF AMERICA; THEIR
NUMBER AND PROSPECTS.
BY THE REVEREND JOHN A. RYAN.
investigation has ever been made which shows
the total number of workingmen in the United
States employed at any given rate of wages.
There was, indeed, an attempt made in this direc-
tion by the officials in charge of the Eleventh Cen-
sus, but it was not successful. From the results of various partial
investigations, however, we can form a fairly accurate and
sufficiently definite estimate of the number and proportion of
the underpaid. By " the underpaid " are meant those adult
male wage-earners who get less than $600 per year, or, allow-
ing an average of 8 per cent for lost time, $2.10 per day.
Readers who wish to examine the grounds upon which this
estimate of a minimum living wage is based, are referred to
the April, 1902, issue of THE CATHOLIC WORLD.
The Eleventh Census (1890) gives the weekly rates of wages
and the : number of persons employed at each rate in fifty
leading industries of 165 cities. The investigation from which
these results were obtained was the most extensive of its kind
that has ever been made, as it covered one-fourth of the em-
ployees in the manufacturing and mechanical industries. The
number of establishments investigated was 44,225, and the
number of males 16 years of age and over for whom rates of
wages were obtained was, 757,865. The report does not tell
us what proportion of these were minors, but the Twelfth
Census shows that in 1900, n per cent of this class of males
Copyright. 1905. THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE
IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
VOL. LXXXI. 10
144 THE UNDERPAID LABORERS OF AMERICA. [May,
in these industries were under 21 years.- Assuming that the
proportion of minors was no higher in 1890 than in 1900, and
deducting from the 407,693 workers who received less than
$12 per week II per cent of 757,865, we find that the propor-
tion of underpaid male adults was 48 per cent. But the wage
returns upon which this estimate is based represent not merely
wage receivers in the ordinary sense, but company officers and
firm members. The Eleventh Census informs us that when
the latter classes were included in the tables, the average in-
come of males above 16 in the manufacturing and mechanical
industries was 9 per cent higher than when they were omitted.
This fact, and the number of income receivers in the highest
paid group of the table that we are considering, make it over-
whelmingly probable that the per cent of adult male wage-
earners that failed to get $12 per week was at least 51.
According to the Seventh Annual Report of the Commis-
sioner of Labor (1891) 73 per cent of 28,127 employees in
typical establishments of the iron and steel and glass indus-
tries were paid less than $2.01 per day. An examination of
the occupations filled by these employees, and of their indi-
vidual earnings, indicates that less than 8 per cent of them
were boys, and that few, if any, were females. The proportion
of adult males obtaining less than a living wage was, there-
fore, 70 per cent. The returns here discussed represent wage
conditions in 1891, and industries not covered by the statistics
above given from the Eleventh Census.
The Fifth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor
gives the results of an investigation of all classes of railway
labor. Of the 224.570 employees represented in the returns,
85 per cent received less than $2.01 per day. From the
character of the various occupations it is evident that 6 per
cent is a liberal allowance for females and boys. Hence the
per cent of underpaid adults was 85. The investigation from
which these figures were obtained was made in 1889.
In the special report of the Twelfth Census (1900) on
" Employees and Wages," returns are presented from what
was undoubtedly the most careful investigation that has yet
been made of the rates of wages obtained by different classes
of workers. Representative establishments were studied in 34
" stable and normal industries," classified under the more gen-
eral heads of textile, wood-working, metal-working, and miscella-
1905.] THE UNDERPAID LABORERS OF AMERICA. 145
neous. As the chief purpose of the investigation was to show
the movement of wages in the manufacturing industry between
1890 and 1900, statistics were obtained for both of these
years. The returns for 1890 indicate that 69 per cent of
105,106 males 16 years of age and over received less than
$12.50 per week. Allowing 8 per cent for lost time, this is
less than $600 annually. When II per cent is deducted on
account of minors, the proportion of underpaid adult males
appears as 66 per cent.
So much for the wages prevailing in 1889, 1890, and 1891.
Of the condition of industry in 1900 the report of " Manu-
factures" of the Twelfth Census says: "It was a time of
special activity and productivity of manufactures"; "The vol-
ume of industry had nearly reached its high- water mark";
and furthermore, " The same general conditions prevailed in
1890"; "There has been no decade in which business condi-
tions were so nearly alike at its beginning and at its end."
The language of the Census report is confirmed by the
" Aldrich Report " and the monthly bulletins of the Bureau
of Labor, which show that in 1889, 1890, and 1891 the general
level of wages was higher than the average of the decades
immediately preceding and following.
The special investigation discussed in the last paragraph
but one, found that 68 per cent of 160,267 males of 16 years
and over were paid less than $12.50 per week in 1900. Elimi-
nating 1 1 per cent for minors, we see that the proportion of
adult males that failed to get a living wage in typical estab-
lishments in the manufacturing industry was 64 per cent.
Another table based upon this same investigation, contain-
ing returns from some establishments not represented in the
table just considered, and omitting some of those included in
the latter, discloses the fact that 66 per cent of 156,552 males
16 years and over obtained less than $12.50 per week. With
ii per cent deducted for minors, the proportion of underpaid
male adults in this group in 1900 was 62 per cent.
According to the Thirteenth Annual Report of the Inter-
state Commerce Commission on the Statistics of Railways, 81
per cent of the whole number (1,017,653) of persons engaged
in this industry in the United States received, in 1900, wages
that averaged less than $2.05 per day. The language of the
Report and the nature of the occupations indicates that prac-
146 THE UNDERPAID LABORERS OF AMERICA. [May,
tically none of the employees were women, and not more than
6 per cent minors. Eliminating females and boys, and also
the 9,585 officers of the roads, we find that the per cent of
underpaid male adults remains 81. It must be noted that this
estimate is based on the Commission's statement of the average
rates paid to the different classes of employees. Many persons,
in some of the classes in which the average rate was under
$2.05 per day, received a higher remuneration ; on the other
hand, many members of classes whose average was above that
rate, for instance, individual firemen, received less. One group
probably balances the other. The Sixteenth Annual Report of
the Commission indicates that in 1903 the number of adult
males in the railway service was 1,224,344, of whom 67 per
cent received less than $2.09 per day.
A partial confirmation of these estimates of the proportion
of underpaid male adults at the beginning and end of the last
decade of the nineteenth century is obtained from statistics
presented by several of the state labor bureaus. A noteworthy
feature of these returns is that they represent a much larger
proportion of all the employees in their respective States than
do the foregoing statistics with regard to the country at
large. Moreover, they are all from States in the North and
West, in which wages are at least up to the average rates for
the whole United States. Only a summary will be given of
the estimates based on State statistics. For the sake of a
more satisfactory and comprehensive view of the entire field,
there is included in the table a summary of the estimates
already submitted.
Employees and Years Number of Adult Per cent of Adult
Represented. Males Represented. Males Underpaid.
In 50 Manufac. Industries,
1890, . . 757,865 51
In Iron, and Steel, and Glass,
1891, . . 25,877 70
In Railway Occupations, 1889, 211,096 85
In 34 Manufac. Industries,
1890, 93,544 66
In 34 Manufac. Industries,
1900, .... 142,638 64
In 34 Manufac. Industries,
1900, .... 138,331 62
1905.] THE UNDERPAID LABORERS OF AMERICA. 147
Employees and Years Number of Adult Per cent af Adult
Represented. Males Represented. Males Underpaid.
In Railway Occupations, 1900
and 1903, . 2,171,371 73
In Manufactures, Mass., 1890
and 1891, . . 367,3H 59
In Manufactures, Wis., 1891, 70,326 61
In Manufactures, Mass., 1899
and 1900, . . . 511,727 64
In Manufactures, Minn., 1899
and 1900, . . . 99,872 53
In Manufactures, Wis., 1899,
1900, and 1901, . . 217,522 75
In Manufactures, N. J., 1899,
1900, and 1901, . . 387,903 60
In Manufactures, 111., 1900
and 1901, . . . 135,890 58
No attempt is made to estimate the total number of under-
paid workers indicated in the table, because many of them are
counted more than once in the summaries, and the entire
number represented is small relatively to the whole number of
underpaid in the United States. The important feature of the
table is the percentages, which may be taken as fairly repre-
sentative of average wage conditions in manufacturing and
railway industries. And the general level of remuneration in
these two fields is undoubtedly quite as high as the average
of all the other urban occupations. It is to be noted, more-
over, that these percentages reflect the conditions of 1890,
1900, and 1903, when wages were about as high as they are
at present, fully as high as the average of the last 15 years,
and higher than that of the last 25 years.
The majority of the percentages are above 60, while the
only notable percentage below that figure is the first one in
the table. The Eleventh Census indicates that only 51 per
cent (approximately) of the male adults employed in manu-
facturing industries in 1890 received less than $12 per week.
Yet the special investigation undertaken by the director of the
Twelfth Census shows that the proportion obtaining under
$12.50 per week in the same industry the same year, was 66
per cent. The investigation from which the smaller figure was
drawn covered a much larger number of men than did the one
148 THE UNDERPAID LABORERS OF AMERICA. [May,
just mentioned, but there is every reason to believe that it
was less scientifically and carefully carried out. Moreover, in-
vestigations of the manufacturing industries of Massachusetts
and Wisconsin for this same year of 1890 developed the fact
that the per cents of underpaid in these States were respec-
tively 59 and 61. It is probable, therefore, that 66 per cent
is nearer the actual figure than 51. When due weight is given
to all the percentages in the table, the conclusion seems justi-
fied that at least 60 per cent of the adult male workers in the
cities of the United States are to-day receiving less than $600
annually.
What of the future ? Do the wages of the poorest paid
classes show any tendency to increase ? All students of the
subject admit that wages, as a whole, have greatly increased
since 1850. The necessaries and comforts of life, on the other
hand, seem to be at about the same price-level that prevailed
at that date. The net result, therefore, is a considerable im-
provement in the condition of the laboring classes generally
since the middle of the last century.
There are, however, serious reasons for thinking that the
upward movement of wages has been very much smaller during
the last 25 years than it was during the preceding 30 years.
The Census of 1890 gives us no definite information concerning
the course of wages during the decade immediately preceding
that date, because it differed in the scope and form of its
inquiry from the Census of 1880. Hence we are warned by
those in charge of the former that the wage statistics of the
two censuses cannot be compared. The Aldrich Report declares
that the rise on wages during this decade amounted to 12 per
cent. This estimate has been severely criticised. It has been
asserted that the establishments selected for investigation were
not truly representative of their respective classes. For example,
one dry goods store and one grocery store, employing together
less than thirty clerks, were taken as typical of the whole
retail business; and the exceptionally high wages that they
paid as representative of the remuneration of the whole of this
class of workers. Again, it is charged that the statisticians
who summarized the returns of the investigation were in
sympathy with its political aim, which was to show the greatest
possible increase in wages. Thus, in computing the average
wages paid in a certain brewery the only establishment in
1905.] THE UNDERPAID LABORERS OF AMERICA. 149
that industry from which returns had been secured they put
the head brewer, who received $23.96 per day, in a series i>y
himself. Accordingly, as much weight was given to him in de-
termining the average for the whole establishment as to each
one of the other classes of workmen. One of these classes con-
tained 33 men. In consequence of this method, the average
wage of the brewery appeared as $4.12 per day, although a
majority of the employees actually received less than $2. A
further and more far-reaching result was that the quotations
for the brewing industry presented in the Aldrich Report are
70 per cent too high. As Professor Bullock remarks: "This
typical brewer, who received over $6,000 per year, . .
was certainly worth that amount for statistical purposes."
Finally, an investigation made by the United States Bureau of
Labor into the wages of 25 occupations in a few of the lead-
ing cities of the country, showed an increase for this decade
of 8 per cent. After due allowance has been made for the
various defects of the three sources of information considered
in this paragraph, the conclusion seems valid that a real rise
in general wages took place between 1890 and 1900, but that
it did not amount to 12 nor, in all probability, to 8 per cent.
The Aldrich Report states that prices fell 9 per cent during
the same period.
According to the table given above, the number of male
adults receiving less than $12.50 per week in 34 manufacturing
industries was 66 per cent in 1890, and 64 per cent in 1900,
a gain of 2 per cent for the decade in the proportion of those
getting a living wage. An investigation made by the United
States Bureau of Labor of 67 manufacturing and mechanical
industries shows that wages increased 1 1 per cent, and the cost of
living nearly 8 per cent, between 1890 and 1903. Since the latter
date both wages and the cost of living have suffered a slight
decline. The net gain to labor between 1890 and any year in the
present century seems, therefore, to have been inconsiderable.
The incomplete and in some respects unreliable statistics at
hand indicate, therefore, thai, the immense improvements in
production that have been brought about within the last
quarter of a century, have not been followed by a correspond-
ing improvement in the condition of the laborer. His wages
have risen, indeed, during this period, but neither so steadily
nor to such an extent as might with reason have been expected.
These statements refer to general wages. Since the greatest
150 THE UNDERPAID LABORERS OF AMERICA. [May,
advances in remuneration have occurred among . the organized
who are also the better paid workmen, there is some reason
to think that the wages of the poorest paid have not kept
pace with the general increase.
Now those features in the evolution of the processes of
production, which seem to have restricted the upward trend of
wages in the recent past, will in all probability show the same
tendency for a long time to come. The first of them is the
prevalence of monopoly. In his Minority Report, as member
of the Industrial Commission, Mr. Phillips estimates the value
of the industries of the country, that are more or less monopo-
listic in character, at $17,000,000,000 "or probably one-fifth
of what the present census will find to be the estimated true
value of all property in this country." As a matter of fact,
the great combinations formed in recent years have paid at
least as high wages as their independent rivals. This, however,
is but one phase, and very probably a temporary one, of the
situation. Because of their more economical organization, the
so-called trusts can turn out a given amount of product with
a much smaller labor force than is required in a regime of
competition. Unless they make their output larger than it
would have been under the old system, they will consequently
be able to reduce the number of their employees. They can-
not profitably increase the output without reducing prices to
the consumer, and this, as experience shows, they will not do.
Their usual practice runs in the opposite direction. The result
is that men are thrown out of employment, to enter into com-
petition with their fellows both within and without the combina-
tions, and thus bring down the wages of all. On the other
hand the increased cost of living which follows a monopolistic
organization of industry affects the laborer precisely as it
affects other consumers.
The second disquieting fact in the present tendencies of the
productive process is the displacement of men by machines.
Professor Smart tells us that we are only at the beginning of
the machine age, and that the need for man is for the moment
becoming less and less in all fields where machinery is enter-
ing. If the need for man grows less, will not the proportion
of unemployed grow greater? One obvious answer to this
question is a reference to the experience of the past. Up to
the present time the substitution of machinery for hand pro-
cesses does not seem to have caused any permanent increase
1905.] THE UNDERPAID LABORERS OF AMERICA. 151
in the proportion of unemployment. The number of idle men
is probably no greater, relative to the whole working popula-
tion, than it was before the coming of the machine regime.
And yet, it must be borne in mind that this result is a mere
accident, for there is no necessary connection between the in-
troduction or extension of machine production and the continuity
of employment. On the contrary, there is reason to fear that
a more or less direct ratio exists between the increase in the
rate of machine substitution, and the increase in the rate of
unemployment. Assuming that the former will be quite
marked for some time to come, we must, it would seem, ex-
pect the percentage of the unwillingly idle to increase likewise.
Every time a new labor saving machine is introduced, some
men are thrown out of work; consequently the greater the
amount of such machinery that is put into operation in a given
year, the greater is the number of men that are unemployed
during some part of that year. Ultimately they may all be
absorbed in the old industry or in related occupations, but
there is at least an increase in the number of those who are
temporarily unemployed; and the more rapidly their number
is augmented, the larger will be the sum total of unemploy-
ment, for the process of readjustment will not keep pace with
the acceleration of machine substitution. Thus, if the new
forms of machinery brought into use in a community this year
supplant one thousand men, whereas those introduced last year
displaced only five hundred, it is more than probable that the
amount of unemployment will be greater this year than last.
Each of the one thousand men will be out of work for more
than half the number of days during which each of the five
hundred was idle. Any decrease in the rate at which men are
displaced by machines, therefore, increases unemployment, and
thus tends to lower wages.
In addition to the rapid introduction of new forms of
capital, the unnecessary multiplication of existing forms seems
liable to impede the upward movement of wages by augment-
ing unemployment. We save too much and consume too
little. Too much of the annual product of the nation is con-
verted into machinery. " In a given stage of the arts, and
with given habits of consumption, a certain amount of ma-
chinery can be advantageously utilized; a larger amount than
this is waste. We have for generations been cultivating
notions which should make individuals reduce their consump-
152 THE UNDERPAID LABORERS OF AMERICA. [May,
tion and increase their investment until we could obtain the
required amount ; and we have apparently overdone the
matter." The influence of over- accumulation of capital upon
employment is so well described by Mr. Hobson that his
words are worth quoting at some length.
In order to test the case, take a community with stable
population where there has existed a right economic relation
between forms of capital and rate of consumption. Suppose
an attempt is initiated to increase saving by abstention from
consumption of some class of goods, say cotton. . . .
Since no trade requires increase of capital, the new savings
may as well be invested in the form of new cotton mills as
in any other way. I^et us suppose that the over-saving of
the first year is capitalized in this form. What has occurred
during this first year is that an increased employment of
capital and labor in making cotton mills has balanced a
diminished employment in making cotton goods. Assuming
an absolute fluidity of capital and labor, the net employ-
ment for the community is not affected by the change. Peo-
ple have simply been paid to make cotton mills instead of
to make cotton goods. At the end of the year there exists
an excess of cotton mills over what would have been required
if consumption of cotton goods had stood firm, a double
excess over what is needed to supply the now reduced
demand for cptton goods. If it seems unfair to any one
that I should apply the over-saving to the only trade where
the demand is absolutely reduced, I can only reply that it
simplifies the argument and makes no real difference in its
validity. If we assumed the saving to be equally distributed
among all trades, then at the end of the year all trades
would be, to a minor degree, in the same condition as the
cotton trade is according to my illustration.
If savers were mad enough to continue this policy, pre-
ferring the growing ownership of useless cotton mills to the
satisfaction of consuming commodities, the process might
continue indefinitely, without reducing or affecting in any
way the aggregate employment of labor and capital. It
would simply mean that a number of persons take their satis-
faction in seeing new cotton mills rising and going to decay.
But it is conceivable that in the second year of over-
saving, the savers instead of continuing to pay people to
put up more mills might employ people to operate the ex-
cess of cotton mills, lending their money to buy raw material
and to pay wages. Cotton goods which ex hypothesi can
find no markets are thus accumulated. If the savers choose
1905.] THE UNDERPAID LABORERS OF AMERICA, 153
to take their pleasure in such a way, they might go on
indefinitely without the aggregate of employment of capital
or labor being affected. If they continued this impolicy
for a twelve month, we should say that whereas in the
first year [they saved useless mills, in the second they saved
useless cotton goods. In neither the first nor the second
year is there any net increase or decrease of employment
due to the new policy of saving. In fact, assuming sanity
of individual conduct, affairs would work out differently.
Admitting an attempt to work the surplus mills, the actual
over-production of goods could not proceed far. Let us
assume savers to use, throughout, the agency of banks, which
are to find investment for their savings. Suppose the
banks, not realizing the mode of this new saving, have in-
vested the first year's savings in superfluous cotton mills.
These cotton mills or others in the next year cannot con-
tinue to work without advances from banks, since they are
unable to effect profitable sales. Soon after the beginning
of the second year the banks refuse to make further efforts
for over-production ; markets being congested and prices
falling, the demand for, bank accommodation will grow, but
banks will not be justified in making advances. Now the
weaker mills must stop work, general short time follows, and
the result is unemployment of labor and forms of capital.
This is the first effect of the attempt to over-save upon
employment. We have now for the first time a reduction
of the aggregate of production. The result of reduced em-
ployment (under-production) will be a reduction of real
incomes. This will tend to proceed until the reduced re-
ward of saving (real interest) gradually restores the right pro-
portion of saving to spending a very slow and wasteful cure.
It thus appears that so long as saving can be vested in
new forms of capital, whether these are socially useful or
not, no net reduction of employment is caused, the portion
of income which is saved employs as much labor as, though
not more than, that which is spent, but when the machinery
of production is so glutted that attempted saving takes
shape in the massing of loanable capital unable to find in-
vestment, the net production and the net employment of
labor in the community is smaller than it would have been
had saving been confined to the minimum required by the
needs of the society.
From the standpoint of employment the injury done by
over-saving is thus seen to consist not in the over-produc-
tion of plant or goods, but in the condition of under-produc-
154 THE UNDERPAID LABORERS OF AMERICA. [May,
tion which follows the financial recognition of this glut. The
real waste of power of capital and labor is measured by the
period and the intensity of the under-production in which
forms of capital and labor stand idle.
Over-production induced by over-saving is, of course, most
widespread, as it is most striking, during an industrial crisis.
But it may exist to a more limited extent during periods that
are regarded as substantially normal. There may be an excess
of productive instruments in the greater number, or even in
all, of the industries of a country at all times except those of
extraordinary prosperity. Something very like this seems to
have become true of the United States. Between 1886 and
1896 the average product of more than two thousand manu-
facturing establishments in Massachusetts was only 50 to 70
per cent of their full capacity. It has been estimated that
with their existing equipment of capital and labor, the shoe
factories of the country could meet the current annual con-
sumption by running steadily for four months In the absence
of larger statistics, no precise estimate of the extent of the
phenomenon can be attempted, but if every-day observation
may be relied upon, the amount of productive power that is
unused is enormous. At every turn we seem to see efficient
machinery abandoned or running on short time, and the cause
is almost never a scarcity of labor. Now if the idle or partially
idle capital instruments were the worst of their kind, and if the
new machinery invariably and immediately crowded out all the
poorer instruments that were not needed to supply the current
rate of consumption, the excessive accumulation of capital
would cause neither over-production of goods nor diminution
of employment. The savings that might have been exchanged
for consumption goods would have been expended in making
machines that were allowed to perish as fast as new machines
adequate to the current demand were put in operation. Thus
labor would be kept employed and excessive production re-
stricted. But the industrial mechanism does not work so
smoothly. The owners of the older instruments of production
are not doing business on this lofty plane of philantrophy.
They continue to produce, and to compete for a share in a
market that is beginning to be over supplied. The directors of
production see prices, and therefore profits, declining, and en-
deavor to recoup by lowering wages. Profits, however, continue
to diminish, until some of the industries are closed, others are
1905.] THE UNDERPAID LABORERS OF AMERICA. 155
running only a part of the time, unemployment has increased,
and wages are further reduced.
This theory is at variance, obviously, with one of the com-
mDtiplaces of the older political economy. We have been
assured very frequently that general over-production is an
absurdity, since a supply of goods always means a demand for
goods, and since the wants of men are never fully satisfied.
Undoubtedly the existence of goods implies the power to pur-
chase other goods, and the existence of unsatisfied wants
means a desire to purchase; but what Adam Smith called
" effective demand," the only kind of demand that will take
the surplus goods off the market, requires that the purchasing
power and the desire exist in the same persons. As things
are, those who can consume more have not the desire, and
those who have the desire have not the power. And there is
assuredly nothing in the nature of our industrial mechanism to
prevent this condition, which is obviously possible in one or
two lines of production, from being realized in all. This failure
of production and consumption to function harmoniously in the
economic organism seems to have escaped the notice of so
able a writer as Professor Clark, when he wrote : " The richer
the world is in capital, the richer the worker is in productive
power." Richer in productive power, yes; but what if the
condition of consumption, the actual demand for products, does
not call for the full exercise of this power? The very excess
of productive power relatively to the needs that are combined
with purchasing power, means an excess of supply of labor,
which in turn means unemployment and low wages.
The three forces of combination, rapid introduction of new
forms of machinery, and excessive multiplication of existing
forms, seem likely to continue operative for a long time to
come. In a general way they are mutually helpful in their
detrimental effects on labor. The powerful and highly or-
ganized industrial combinations are able to put in new forms
of machinery on a more extended scale than would be possible
in a regime of small industries. It is true that these combina-
tions will check over- supply of capital in the fields in which
they are supreme, but in so doing they limit the opportunities
for the investment of new capital. Outside of the province
dominated by the great industries, therefore, the danger of a
too abundant supply of capital instruments is increased ; it has
gained in intension what it has lost in extension.
156 THE UNDERPAID LABORERS OF AMERICA. [May.
To sum up, sufficient data have been presented to justify
the conclusion that the proportion of adult male wage earners
(outside of agriculture, where the remuneration is much lower,
but the cost of living not so high) obtaining less than $600
per year, is at least 60 per cent. This is a fact fully as dis-
quieting as Mr. Robert Hunter's estimate that, "not less than
10,000,000 persons in the United States are in poverty";
that is, " they may be able to get a bare sustenance, but they
are not able to obtain those necessaries which will permit
them to maintain a state of physical efficiency." Of course,
the requisites of physical efficiency as a worker are much less
than the requisites of a decent livelihood for the head of a
family ; consequently Mr. Hunter's estimate is not equivalent
to the statement that only two million male adults (on the
assumption that these form one-fifth of the total number of
persons below the poverty line) fail to get a family living
wage. Explaining further what he means by physical efficiency,
Mr. Hunter says: "No one will fail to realize how low such
a standard is. It does not necessarily include any of the in-
tellectual, aesthetic, moral, or social necessities ; it is a purely
physical standard, dividing those in poverty from those who
may be said to be out of it." If there are two million men
in this country beneath even this materialistic level, it is not
at all improbable that 60 per cent of the men wage- earners
among the twelve and one-half million men engaged in general
occupations other than agricultural and professional, are getting
less than $600 annually. As to the prospects of the underpaid,
wages have increased less rapidly during the last quarter of a
century the period of our greatest industrial improvements
than during the previous thirty years. Whence the inference
seems valid, that side by side with the progress of production
there have existed forces which have prevented the laborer
from obtaining his full share of the results of that progress.
Three of these forces, namely, monopolistic combinations, rapid
displacement of labor by machinery, and excessive multiplica-
tion of the instruments of production, will in all probability be
with us for many years yet, increasing the rate of unemploy-
ment, and restricting the upward movement of wages. From
these evils the poorest paid, being the least able to resist a
reduction or to utilize the possibilities of a rise in their re-
muneration, will naturally be the greatest sufferers.
MISS FERRILL'S DIPLOMA.
BY JEANlE DRAKE.
fHEN a man is the fortunate exception to an
ancient proverb, some exaltation of spirit is
inevitable. But even the rare prophet honored
in his own country should wear his laurels
meekly. If in shining inexperience he solemnly
trifles with the wise saws and modern instances respectfully
permitted to venerable and prosy age, he is apt to come to
grief. At least, this is what happened to Mr. Winthrop Had-
den in an hour of anticipated triumph.
Though not yet thirty, he had done his native town good
service as representative, for which, when he returned to pursue
a successful law practice, it elected him mayor. Even in a
very small place this is a responsible office ; but it may be
that he took it too seriously, and was over conscientious or
conscious of his dignity. Older men said with indulgence : "It
will wear off, and meanwhile he does good work." Younger
intimates made light remarks about the size of his head ; and
Miss Olivia Ferrill told him that she " was not the least afraid
of him even if he was Lord High Executioner, or something
of the sort." Also "that she preferred him when he was more
amusing." In spite of which he continued rightfully to regard
this young lady as the fairest flower in his life path, she being
very pretty, very bright, very charming, and his promised wife.
She was about to be graduated with distinction from the
Boxbury High School, and with sedate satisfaction and grave
delight the Mayor, Mr. Winthrop Hadden, in fine Himself, had
accepted an invitation to officiate at this function. He was to
present the diplomas and incidentally to make a speech a
continuous speech, if he chose, the audience being quite at his
mercy, as is customary at these affairs.
There was fluttering and there was whispering in the grace-
ful group of white-robed girls when he came upon the stage
on the appointed evening.
" He is certainly handsome," murmured one fair creature.
" Especially in evening dress," supplemented her friend.
158 Miss FERRILL: s DIPLOMA, [May,
" How can you look so unconcerned, Olivia ? " exclaimed a
third. And though their tribute did not reach the young man
in words, it floated as a subtle incense towards him, and at the
nymphs' approving smiles he radiated benignity. His own
particular nymph, as valedictorian, sat foremost, her brilliant
beauty deepened by the crimson roses he had sent. She was
in quite a bower of others he had not sent, but any slight un-
easiness at this was quickly forgotten as the assemblage greeted
htm with enthusiasm, the Boxbury String Band burst into
" See the Conquering Hero," and he overheard, an elderly
citizen remark to a stranger: "Yes, sir, our Mayor. Youngest
we have ever had. Very able fellow, and we're proud of him."
And he very naturally felt that his greatness surely was
a-ripening. These are the moments in which a freakish Fate
delights.
The young lady deputed to salute the audience did so with
the usual kindliness, assuring them that they were welcome,
which they doubtless believed or they would not have come.
Then six or eight of her companions tall and short, slender
and plump, dark and blond, but all appealingly attractive in
the freshness of youth delivered their views on such easy
subjects as: "The Destiny of Nations"; "Epic Poetry";
"The Influence of the Italian Renaissance on the World-
Spirit"; "The Greek Dramatists"; "Buddhism or Christian-
ity " ; and so on. Proud parents gazed, their eyes glistening
happily, and listened to the final word of Maude, Flora, or
Agnes on these matters. The rest of the large and fashionable
audience adjusted itself comfortably to a not unpleasant drowsi-
ness; and only a cynic here and there muttered ironically:
" When, oh, when will Progress put an end to this distracting
custom as a close to studies called serious ! "
As the pretty valedictorian came forward, her dark eyes
sparkling at them over the red roses, Frank Thurby, a friend
of the mayor, remarked to his companion : " Ye that have tears
to shed " and drew out his own handkerchief.
" Olivia Ferrill is not that kind," said the lady. In which
she was right, for Miss Ferrill possessed her share of humor,
and gave them by no means that depressingly pathetic fare-
well to Alma Mater and generally to the " Spring-Time of
Life," which seems darkly to presage hopelessly arid deserts as
henceforth the student's only footway. On the contrary !
1905.] Miss FERRILL'S DIPLOMA. 159
"We know," said she, "how much we owe to these our
guides. Also, how much we owe each other. But I venture
to confess that we look forward happily and with healthful
curiosity to the hidden ways and byways of the future. Some
of us may tread them as business or professional women,
and these hope for much success with a little enjoyment.
Others will move in domestic or social walks only, and these
hope for much enjoyment with a little success." Then she
sketched lightly and amusingly some possible careers for the
modern woman, and ended amid applause and laughter from
the hearers ; her address, as crowning merit, being quite brief.
At its conclusion she moved slightly aside, but continued stand-
ing; for it was her lover's turn to speak, and she was first to
receive her diploma from him.
He drew himself to his full height of five feet eleven, and
began : " It deeply gratifies me to be chosen to utter a few
words of counsel to young spirits on the eve of their life's
voyage." One "Young Spirit," with head demurely bent, was
not heeding him closely, her mischievous sidelong glance tak-
ing note of a friend here and there in the front row. He
frowned a little, for he had not approved " the twentieth cen-
tury tone " of her remarks, and went on : " The modern woman
has strayed so far from the pursuits and surroundings which
her nature and limitations clearly indicate as her legitimate
sphere, that it may be well for a friendly voice now and then
to raise itself in timely warning." At the word "limitations"
Miss Ferrill's roving gaze was suddenly arrested, and he flat-
tered himself that she was impressed. " I would have these
fair girls, standing in life's vestibule, remember that no success
in the business office, the forum, or the studio can equal that
of the gentle household spirit. Not the meretricious charms of
a Cleopatra, nor the gifts of a Sappho or Aspasia, may com-
pare with those of the homemaker and the thrifty housekeeper.
Believe me, dear graduates, our sex would gladly see you cease
vain, restless striving after the impossible, and emulate the
domestic virtues of women in the past. To become faithful
and devoted wives and helpmates such as they, should be your
chief ambition. A well-ordered household is a greater work
of art than Rosa Bonheur's 'Horse Fair.' It is more important
that a woman should be a good cook than anything else."
The audience had now waked up to the situation, and was
VOL. LXXXI. II
160 Miss FERRILL'S DIPLOMA. [May,
enjoying itself very much. Miss Ferrill's cheeks were of a
damask rivaling her roses, and her eyes held a light awakened,
Mr. Hadden fondly hoped, by his eloquence as, indeed, it
was. "Ah, my fair young friend,'' continued the orator, flour-
ishing Miss Ferrill's diploma.
"Great Caesar!" muttered Frank Thurby. '"Whom the
gods would destroy ' '
" The idea of taking advantage " said his companion, with
feminine exasperation " to to preach at his sweetheart in pub-
lic ! Poor Olivia ! "
" Poor Hadden ! " corrected Mr. Thurby, with a chuckle.
"Hear him rambling! And you wouldn't think what a
straight business talk that man can put up. What's he at
now? Milton! ' My auther and disposer what thou bids't un-
argued I obey. To know no more is woman's happiest knowl-
edge and her praise.' Oh Jemima ! "
The mayor was really too polite to have kept any lady
standing ordinarily ; but, being warmed with his subject, ambled
unheeding to his doom, while Olivia changed her attitude
twice or thrice in ostentatious weariness. Then: "This is in-
tolerable ! " she decided. Which reflection so strange is
woman caused her pent up indignation to give way to an
inscrutable serenity. In the very midst of this beautiful para-
graph: "Yes, ladies; for softness was she formed and sweet
attractive grace. Most revered when reverent, most admired
when meek " Miss Ferrill suddenly advanced a few steps,
calmly took her diploma out of the astonished mayor's hand,
and, leaving him transfixed, turned and walked to her seat,
into which she sank with an engaging smile. There could be
no question that Olivia had made the hit of the evening, the
storm of mirthful applause which followed this being renewed
again and again. And it was harsh, but perhaps excusable, in
her lover mentally to characterize as "effrontery" the grace
with which she bowed her acknowledgment. When he was
permitted to hand diplomas to the other graduates, he con-
tented himself with shedding upon them a fixed and artificial
smile instead of the previous torrent of bland platitudes.
"An excellent mayor," said the elderly citizen to the much
amused stranger, "but he has some things to learn yet."
" I wouldn't be in his boots," said Frank Thurby, as the
audience went forth in high good humor not always dis-
1905.] Miss FERRILL' s DIPLOMA. 161
cernible after a Commencement; "I wouldn't be in his boots
this evening for one of Miss Olivia's roses, though I should
like to have that, too."
The subject of these remarks never knew how he got
through the supper given to .the graduates, at which he again
presided. But his scattered thoughts were slowly crystallizing,
and when he missed Olivia from the room for a few moments,
he made a dash for his hat and overcoat. Her carriage was
about to drive off when he reached the pavement.
" I didn't mean to keep you. waiting," he said, with as-
sumption of a cheerful confidence which was far from him.
" I was not waiting," replied Miss Ferrill, with clear-cut
distinctness. She added quite sweetly : "If I had lived four
or five centuries ago, and my name happened to be Griselda,
I might be abject enough to wait meekly and thankfully for
an escort who monopolizes the privilege of annoying me pub-
licly. As it is " she signalled the coachman, who drove on.
A half-hour afterward he was stalking about and gnashing
his teeth in his own apartment, when a messenger boy brought
him a package of books. He discovered them to be a pon-
derous " History of England " sent by him to Miss Ferrill,
with a view to improving her mind. He opened a volume
mechanically at a ribbon mark and found a description of the
crowning amenity of William the Conquerer's courtship, when
that enterprising warrior won his bride by pulling her off her
horse, beating and trampling upon her. The historian's com-
ment on this was delicately underlined. " How he ever dared
venture into her presence again after this outrage, tradition
does not inform us."
"Compares me to that unspeakable, mediaeval brute!" de-
duced Mr. Hadden gloomily, and flung the book across the
room where it damaged a valuable curio. And this was an
evening on which he had promised himself both glory and
pleasure.
FOUNTAINS ABBEY.
BY ELLIS SCHREIBER.
ESIDES her stately cathedrals, noble monuments
of Pre-Reformation times, which, though de-
spoiled in a great measure of their pristine
splendor, are kept in repair to serve for the
purposes of Protestant worship, England pos-
sesses other memorials of the past in the ruins of many an
ancient abbey, that bear silent witness to the grandeur and
architectural beauty of the religious houses once so numerous
in that land. At Glastonbury, " A broken chancel and a
broken cross " are the sole relics of the graceful edifice erected
on the spot where the earliest missionaries constructed the
first chapel in Britain, and planted the white thorn which still
blossoms at Christmas-tide. The ruins of Tintern Abbey,
doubly fair when seen by moonlight, have furnished a motive
to the pencil of many an artist, the pen of many a poet.
Again, on the heights overlooking the Yorkshire coast, stand
the remains of Whitby Abbey, where in days of yore the
famous Abbess Hilda held sway over both nuns and monks.
Of all these and similar ruins, Fountains Abbey is perhaps one
of the most remarkable, both because a considerable portion of
the original structure has escaped the disintegrating action of
time, enabling the beholder to form an idea of its former mag-
nitude and magnificence, and also because ample information
can be obtained concerning the history of the community,
since a contemporary narrative of the foundation is still extant,
besides the official annals of the house, and a chronicle of the
administration of the various abbots who ruled there. From
these and other sources the routine of monastic life in mediaeval
times may be learnt with a fulness of interesting detail which
has rarely been equalled.
The monks belonged to the Cistercian Order, whose monas-
teries were usually placed in situations of great natural beauty,
in well-watered, well-wooded valleys, and these foundations
1905.] FOUNTAINS ABBEY. 163
gradually acquired vast possessions in England and abroad.
Fountains Abbey, at the time of its dissolution, owned a hun-
dred square miles in a ring fence in the district of Craven,
although its commencement was simple and lowly in the
extreme.
Stephen Harding, the founder of the Cistercians, was an Eng-
lishman. He spent his early days in the Benedictine monastery
at Sherborne; but, dissatisfied with the laxity which had
crept into the order, went abroad, and meeting with a few
brethren like-minded with himself, desirous to devote them-
selves more perfectly to God, settled at Citeaux, in Burgundy,
a wild place in the woods, with a deep stream running through
the midst of it. There St. Benedict's Rule was kept in all its
rigor; the brethren lived in holy simplicity. Rich and power-
ful friends built them a Church; Stephen was made Abbot;
Abbot of Cistercium, the Latin for Citeaux. For a time it
appeared that the severity of discipline would bar the door
against newcomers; brethren died, and no postulants took
their places. However, in the year 1113, thirty men one day
applied for admission. Their leader was the great St. Bernard,
after whose accession the Cistercian monastery grew speedily
into the Cistercian Order, and in due time was introduced
into England.
At the request of Turstin, Archbishop of York, St. Bernard,
then head of the order, sent a colony of monks to Rievaux.
The example of their simple and devout life inspired thirteen
monks of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Mary of York with dis-
taste for the comfort and ease enjoyed in that vast and
wealthy house. They quitted the monastery and took refuge
with the Archbishop, who established them, on a portion of
his own land in the valley of the Skell. The deed of gift of
this land the charter of foundation is still preserved. The
place, the narrative says, was a long way out of the world
locum a cunctis retro seculis inhabitatum ; it was full of rocks
and thorns and seemed a better dwelling for wild beasts than
for men. But the brethren accepted it with gratitude. In the
midst of the valley was a spreading elm tree, beneath which
they constructed a thatched hut, and having chosen one of
their number to be their abbot, began with contented minds to
lead the life of devotion and austerity for which they had
longed. They named their rustic monastery De Fontibus, from
164 FOUNTAINS ABBEY. [May,
the springs that abounded in the valley. "O ye wells, bless
ye the Lord," they sang ; "Benedicite, fontes Domino"
In the following spring the brethren sent messengers to St.
Bernard at Clairvaux, asking to be admitted to the Cistercian
Order. He received them with kindness, sending them back
with a gracious letter, which has been preserved, and a monk
of his own monastery, a man of ability and experience, to form
them according to the strict Rule.
Presently their number increased ; seventeen new brethren
came, seven of whom were priests. But though their number
was increased, their resources, we are told, were by no means
augmented. The archbishop continued to aid them, and
friendly neighbors occasionally sent provisions; they also
earned a little by making mats. That year, however, there
was a famine in the land. The Abbot went about in the en-
virons in quest of alms, but found none; and the monks were
reduced to such straits that for a time they lived on leaves
boiled with salt in the water of the stream the friendly elm,
as the narrative says, affording them food as well as shelter.
One day it is said, our Lord himself knocked at the door in
the guise of an ill-clad, hungry beggar, asking an alms in the
time of scarcity when they had but two loaves and a half,
and no prospect of more. At first they thought it pru-
, dent to refuse him, but when he renewed his petition, one
loaf was given to him. And behold, within half an hour, two
men appeared from Knaresborough Castle carrying an abun-
dant supply of bread.
At last the situation became intolerable. The brethren had
chosen and desired to practice poverty and privation, but
starvation was a different matter. In the following year the
Abbot journeyed to Clairvaux, to beseech St. Bernard to give
them lands in France, or elsewhere, where they could live.
He consented to give them a dwelling place near his own
abbey. Happily the gift was not needed. On his return, the
Abbot found the fortunes of the house had changed for the
better. Hugh, Dean of York, who had seen and admired the
courage of the monks who had left the monastery in that city,
had resigned his position and cast in his lot with the destitute
brethren. He was rich, and brought books with him, and
money, part of which was employed to pay the workmen who
were building the church and cloister. Serlo, a Canon of York,
1905.] FOUNTAINS ABBEY. 165
also became one of the community, which then counted five
years of existence ; it is to him that we owe the contemporary
account of the foundation, written, or rather dictated, when he
was far advanced in years. Lands were given to the brother-
hood, and they were exempted from payment of taxes and
tithes. "From that day," says Serlo,* "the Lord blessed our
valleys with the blessing of heaven above and of the deep that
lieth under, multiplying the brethren, increasing their possessions,
pouring down showers of benediction, being a wall unto them
on the right hand and on the left. What perfection of life there
was at Fountains ! What emulation of virtue ! What stability
of discipline ! The house was enriched in wealth without ; still
more in holiness within. Its name became famous, and the
great people of the world reverenced it."
Within the space of less than twenty years no less than
eight new foundations were made from Fountains Abbey. It
was feared at Clairvaux that the order was growing too quickly ;
the General Chapter, held in 1152, discouraged the founding
of new monasteries. Consequently no more colonies went forth
from the valley, where the lowly hut had been replaced by a
group of noble buildings, arranged in accordance with the plan
prescribed for Cistercian monasteries. In the centre was a
wide open square of green, round which were the cloisters; on
the north the Abbey Church; on the east the chapter-house
with library and parlor, and dormitory above; on the south
the refectory and kitchen ; on the west the long range of the
cellarium.f or store house, while outside were the infirmary, the
mill and workshops, the bakehouse and malthouse. These
buildings were constructed partly of wood, partly of stone
quarried from the banks of the valley ; the laborers were the
monks themselves, assisted by their neighbors, some of whom
were hired, while others gave their day's work for the love of
God. The little band of poor monks, rich in faith, laid the
foundations of their Church upon the grand lines on which it
stands to-day, constructing it in the sweat of their face; in
suo sudore constrncta. The completed monastery the work of
a whole century had a stout stone wall about it, with an
outer and an inner gate. At the outer gate the Almoner dis-
pensed his alms, and there the porter, at the sound of a knock,
* Narratio de Fondationt Fontanis Monasterii.
t So called because it was under the charge of the cellarer or steward.
1 66 FOUNTAINS ABBEY. [May,
opened to the stranger with the greeting : Deo gratias, and
hastened to apprise the Abbot of the arrival of the guest.
The Sons of St. Benedict have ever been famed for their
hospitality, and the guest houses, of which there were two
probably for the use of different classes of visitors, in a day
when social distinctions were scrupulously observed were
arranged for the comfort of those who were entertained there.
They were in fact a hostelry where travelers, " both noble and
gentle, and of what degree soever that came thither as stran-
gers, were made welcome and entertained for three days free
of expense."
The Church of Fountains Abbey was divided by three
stone screens. The first, the rood-screen, formed the east end
of the portion of the Church which was assigned to the lay
brothers. The space between that and the choir-screen, called
the retro-choir, was intended for the aged brethren and con-
valescents from the infirmary. In it stood two altars, one on
the north side dedicated to our Lady, the other on the south
side to St. Bernard. Beyond the choir-screen was the central
part of the sanctuary, with twenty stalls on either side and
three to the right and left of the entrance, facing east. Below
the stalls of the choir-monks were seats for the novices. Before
the reredos hung a splendid piece of tapestry, Arras work.
Above the north transept rose a noble tower of four stories;
the inscriptions carved on the outside are still in great part
legible. They are these :
" Blessed be the name of Jesus Christ."
"Benediction and glory and wisdom and honor and power
be to our God forever and ever."
"To the King eternal who only hath immortality, whom
no man hath seen, be honor and empire everlasting."
"To God alone, to Jesus Christ, be honor and glory forever."
This last was thrice repeated.
These inscriptions were probably intended as an apology
for the beautiful tower, since it was prohibited by the regula-
tions of the order. The Cistercian chapel was to have only a
modest tower of one story, rising but little above the roof, to
indicate that the desire to be known, the pride of position,
was banished from the house of God. Thus the Abbot who
built the lofty tower was fain to assert emphatically that it
was raised solely to the greater glory of God.
1905.] FOUNTAINS ABBEY. 167
At the beginning of monasticism most monks were laymen.
They separated themselves from the world, thinking that they
could hold fellowship with God best in solitude and seclusion.
A monk, monos, is a man who lives alone. But after a time
the individuals were aggregated in communities; the convents
being lay fraternities, having only such priests as were needed
for the rites of the Church. The lay brothers were monks, in
that they were subject to the monastic vows; they were
thus named, conversi, not to distinguish them from the religious
who were in Holy Orders, but from the choir monks, monachi,
the more literate members of the community, who recited the
Divine Office. The lay brothers, many of whom were of good
birth, but ignorant of letters, performed the humble'r tasks
under the direction of the cellarer, although, like the others,
they rose at night and went down to the Church for their
devotions. The dormitory at Fountains Abbey was a long
room over the cloisters, then called walks, on the east side.
It had two long rows of beds from end to end, like a ward
in a hospital. The beds were of straw which was emptied out
of its blue ticking and renewed once a year. At two o'clock
in the morning a great bell rang in the tower, answered a
little one in the dormitory ; then every brother rose and de-
scended the stairs at the end of the room into the dark
Church, in which one light burned in the organ-loft, for the
psalms were chanted with organ accompaniment, another at the
reader's lecturn, and a third at the precentor's stall. Other-
wise the vast edifice was in darkness, the psalms being sung
from memory.
After this service, we are told, the monks came out into
the north walk of the cloister, where cressets affixed to the
walls shed a flickering light, and there remained until dawn,
reading or meditating, their hoods thrown back that it might
be seen that they were awake. This hour was short in sum-
mer, but long in winter; if the weather was very bad the
monks took refuge in the chapter house, as but little of the
open stonework of the cloister was glazed. Cold and exposed
as it was, it was nevertheless the study and living room of the
monks who were engaged in literary work, transcribing MSS.
and illuminating prayer books. The books were stored in cases
fixed in recesses in the wall. Below the shelves on which the
volumes were laid, not stood upright, were desks for the stu-
1 68 FOUNTAINS ABBEY. [May,
dents. The lives of the saints and other spiritual books were
lent to the brethren to be read by them in private. Every
year, in the first week of Lent, all the books were laid on a
carpet spread upon the floor of the chapter house, and a list
of them read aloud to see that none was missing. Each monk
was called upon by name to return the book assigned to him
the year before ; if he had not read it through, he was expected
humbly to confess his negligence. The books were then dis-
tributed anew, with strict injunctions to handle them with great
care, and keep them scrupulously clean. In order to prevent
the precious volumes from being soiled, the Rule enjoined that:
" When the religious are engaged in reading in cloister or
Church, they shall hold the book in their left hand, wrapped
in the sleeve of their tunic, and resting on their knees."
At the dawn of day the brethren left the cloister and
repaired to the Church again for Lauds. After that they re-
turned to the dormitory to wash their face and hands before
Prime, the first psalm of which, according to the gracious
arrangement of St. Benedict, was said very slowly, for the
sake of late comers. Then Mass followed, at the close of which
the monks proceeded to the chapter house, a large hall round
three sides of which were rows of stone benches, on which
the community seated themselves, the Abbot, Prior, and other
officials sitting at the other end. After a sermon, or reading
of a portion of the Rule, faults were confessed, accusations
made, and punishments, if necessary, imposed ; of these, flogging
was the most usual, inflicted there and then. Finally, once a
week, the duty-tasks allotted to the brethren were specified,
homely duties being assigned to them in turn ; cooking the
dinner, waiting at table, or work in garden or outhouses.
The day's labor would begin about seven o'clock. In winter
it was continued until three in the afternoon ; in summer it
was suspended for two or three hours during the heat of the
day, and after dinner the brethren took an hour's rest upon
their beds. Although breakfast was not a regular meal in
monastic houses in the Middle Ages, yet the inmates of the
cloister were not required to fast all the forenoon. A slight
repast, called mixtum "a piece of bread and somewhat where-
with to wash it down," small beer most probably was served,
before the work of the day began, to the younger monks, and
others whose age or infirmity rendered it necessary. In winter
1905.] FOUNTAINS ABBEY. 169
time the one meal was served after three, in Lent not until five
o'clock. At the proper hour a bell was rung in the cloister, or
a board struck with a mallet answered the purpose of a bell,
to announce to all that dinner was ready. When the welcome
sound was heard, the brothers washed their hands in the stone
troughs outside the refectory, or in a big stone basin in the
middle of the cloister, wiping them on a roller towel which
hung beside the door, before entering the noble dining-hall,
lofty as a church with ceiling of wood and floor of stone, hav-
ing a row of pillars down the midst. "At the end opposite
the door," the compiler of an interesting account of the
foundation at Fountains tells us,* " and along the wall on
both sides, were stone benches, and in front of them tables of
oak, covered with a linen cloth. The Prior commonly pre-
sided, the Abbot dining in his own rooms. All stood in
silence until the Prior was in his place, and remained standing
while he rang a little bell during a time sufficient for saying
the Miserere. When the bell stopped the priest of the week
said grace, and all sat down.
"In the 'fair gallery of stone' in the west wall, lighted
by great windows, the reader stood, accompanying the silent
meal with the words of some ancient author or ascetic writer.
The kitchen adjoined the refectory, having huge ovens in the
middle; a service door, or turn, communicating with the re-
fectory. The bill of fare consisted of bread and vegetables,
fruit, fish, and fowls. Sometimes there was meat, but this
was cooked in the kitchen of the infirmary and served in
the misericord, or house of merciful meals, for invalids. The
flesh of no quadruped was dressed in the cloister kitchen,
or served in the refectory. But fowls were eaten, and eggs
were a staple diet. The monks had wine and beer for
drink. In the book of signs, De Signis, which shows how they
indicated their wants at the silent table, four gestures are set
down to mean beer, which was of four kinds: good beer,
bona cervisia ; small beer, mediocris cervisia ; smaller beer,
debilis cervisia ; and a very common kind called skagmen.
He who desired an apple was bidden : ' put thy thumb in thy
fist and close thy hand, and move afore thee to and fro'; for
milk, 'draw thy left little finger in the manner of milking';
for mustard, ' hold thy nose in the upper part of thy right
Vide Fountains Abbey, the Story of a Mediceval Monastery. By Dean Hodges, D.D.
1 70 FOUNTAINS ABBEY. [May,
fist, and rub it'; for salt, ' philip with right thumb and his
forefinger over the left thumb ' ; for wine, ' move thy fore-
finger up and down on the end of thy thumb before thine
eye.' "
Monastic meals, though somewhat monotonous, were varied
by the different manner of preparing the aliments. St. Ber-
nard, in his day, complained of the ingenuity with which eggs
were cooked. "Who can describe," he cries, "in how many
ways the very eggs are tossed and tormented, with what eager
care they are turned over and under, made soft and hard, beaten
up, fried, roasted, stuffed, now served with other things, and
now by themselves ! The very external appearance of the
thing is cared for, so that the eye may be charmed as well as
the palate."
The Rule permitted no brother to leave his place until the
meal was ended. He was forbidden to wipe either his hands
or his knife upon the table- cloth, until he had first cleansed
them on his bread. When he took salt, it must be with his
knife ; when he drank, he was to hold the cup with both
hands. "Eyes on your plates, hands on the table, ears to the
reader, heart to God," thus ran the Rule. On the Prior ring-
ing his bell, two and two they marched into the Church, say-
ing the Miserere. In the summer a collation consisting of
bread and fruit was served late in the afternoon.
The Cistercians were agriculturalists and gardeners, thus
much of their time was spent in the open air. Everything
needed in the monastery was produced upon their lands; this
implied a garden for vegetables, an orchard for fruit, a field
for corn, ponds for fish, and woods for fuel. Coal was found
on the land when recent researches were made. A mill, bakery,
and brewery were necessary adjuncts. The heavier work was
done by the lay brothers, but the choir-monks, had their share
also, and went out daily with ax or spade, with fishing rod or
barrow, to accomplish their appointed tasks. For others there
was studying and writing, the care of the library or the sac-
risty. The ideal of the monastic life is a day in which every
moment is employed. Indolence, St. Benedict declares, is an
enemy of the soul. All the work was done, as far as was
possible, in silence ; but the silent workers were not without
amusement in their hours of recreation. In the south walk
was the warming house, the abbey fireside, where in cold
1905.] FOUNTAINS ABBEY. 171
weather the monks came to warm their hands. "The Abbot,"
v/e are told, " had a fireplace of his own ; the cellarer had
one in his office ; the infirmary and guest houses were com-
fortably warmed, but the community in general had but this
one hearth. Here was concentrated all the heat of the place,
in two huge fireplaces. One of these great openings is now
blocked up, having been disused before the suppression, when
the number of monks was diminishing, but the other is still
ready to receive a load of logs, whose smoke would pour out
of the tall chimney. Two large openings in the wall imparted
some measure of heat to the refectory. In the warming house,
in Advent, the old chronicle narrates, ' the brothers kept a
solemn banquet of figs and raisins, cakes and ale, in which
there was no superfluity or excess, but a scholastical and
moderate congratulation amongst themselves.' '
From the book of accounts of the bursar, preserved in the
muniment room at Studley Royal, it appears that there were
"a pair of clavichords," the pianoforte of the Middle Ages,
at Fountains Abbey in the fifteenth century. Hence it may be
supposed that music formed part of the recreation. In the
same book are entries showing that entertainments of a secular
kind were provided for the relaxation of the monks ; fees being
paid to itinerant minstrels and showmen, conjurers or story-
tellers Jhe fabulatores who wandered about the country, tell-
ing tales for the diversion of the inmates of castle or abbey,
of manor house or cottage. Such visitants were doubtless
gladly welcomed to break the monotony of the long winter
evenings, when darkness caused the work to be suspended,
and were, besides, liberally regaled and rewarded.
A long corridor connected the cloister with the infirmary,
a fine group of buildings, now entirely in ruins. Still the
dimensions of the great hall can be seen, one of the finest in
the kingdom, with a fireplace at each end, the aisles being
partitioned into small rooms. Behind it was a two-storied
structure, the upper apartments of which were reserved for
guests of unusual distinction. There the Abbot of Clairvaux
was lodged, when he made his visits of inspection of the
Cistercian monasteries. Adjoining this house was the chapel,
a flight of stairs leading into it from this guest room. The
base of the altar still remains in situ among the ruins of the
chapel. Thither the occupants of the infirmary doubtless re-
172 FOUNTAINS ABBEY. [May,
paired, if their state of health permitted, to hear Mass. Not
only were the sick cared for in the infirmary, it was also the
home of the aged and infirm, the old men who had been
monks for half a century. There, remote from even the peace-
ful but busy life of the monastery, no longer required to ful-
fil the duties and conform to the regulations of the house,
they awaited the end of their days, in the quiet and comfort
dear to the heart of the aged. Thither also the brethren came
regularly, a fourth part of them at a time, for the periodical
minutio, or letting of blood, which was considered necessary
by the medical practitioners of those days.
To the north was the cemetery, where the monks were laid
for their last, long sleep. When the time approached for one
of the brethren to leave the peace of the monastery for his
eternal rest, the Abbot came to administer the last Sacraments,
all the choir monks being assembled in the infirmary. A cross
of ashes was traced on the floor, with a covering of straw
upon it, and a quilt over that ; there the dying man was laid.
When he entered upon his agony, and the moment of his
departure was evidently near, blows were struck with a mallet
on a board in the cloister, and at this signal all hastened to
their brother's side, to join in the prayers for the departing
soul. Thus he breathed his last, surrounded by the fellow-
religious amongst whom his days had been passed.
"This quiet end of life," the historian concludes, "was
symbolized in the quiet ending of the monastic day. Late in
the afternoon vespers were sung, somewhat elaborately. After
wards, in the twilight, the monks sat in the cloister, about the
refectory door, whilst one read aloud from a pious book. On
Saturday afternoons, during the reading, the brothers by turns
sat in a row on the stone benches which were over the lava-
tory troughs, and had their feet washed in the running water
by the cooks of the week. Then Compline was said, in the
summer about seven, in the winter about eight o'clock; after
which every monk pulled his cowl over his head and went to
bed."
As the years went on, the possessions of the monks of
Fountains Abbey increased. In the neighborhood of Ripon,
we are told, their lands stretched in one direction for thirty
uninterrupted miles. The Church was embellished and the
beautiful tower built. The Abbot became an important per-
1905.] FOUNTAINS ABBEY. 173
sonage; in the fourteenth century he had a seat in Parliament,
where he wore his mitre. Early in the fifteenth century he
attended the Council of Constance, where Wyclif's heretical
doctrines were condemned. But all this peace and prosperity
was soon to end ; the time came when the glorious abbey was
to be pillaged and left a ruin ; and its inmates turned adrift on
the world.
As is well known, in the reign of Henry VIII., Parliament
suppressed the lesser monasteries, partly on the pretext of
their being " places of evil living," the home of idlers ; partly
on the ground that "their revenues were needed for the bene-
fit of the people." Although the greater abbeys were exempted
from accusations of irregular conduct, yet their wealth proved
too tempting to the king and his covetous counsellors. It is
expressly stated that no charges of undue luxury, corruption,
or immorality were brought against the monks of Fountains
Abbey; yet the place could not be saved from the hand of
spoilers. At the demand of the royal commissioners, the Abbot,
in 1539, surrendered the abbey to the king, "yielding up into
his majesty's hands the monastery, with all the lands, posses-
sions, jewels, plate, ornaments, and other things belonging to
the .same." As elsewhere, an inventory was made of the abbey
treasures ; rich copes, six made of cloth of gold, four of white
velvet, twenty -six of white damask, many of them beautifully
embroidered, "very well wrought with images, others worked with
flowers and stars, eighty in all," the chronicler narrates, besides
other splendid vestments, chalices, and patens of gold and silver;
jewelled reliquaries containing precious relics, silver images of
our Lady, St. James, and other saints, and most precious of
all, a cross of solid gold set with gems, having in it a piece
of the true cross.
The gold and silver of the rich altars and all things of
value that could be removed, were carried away to swell the
king's exchequer, while the servants of the commissioners ap-
propriated to themselves no small share of the booty. "The
windows were taken out, so carefully that scarce a handful of
the colored glass remained in the ruins, and were disposed of,
nobody knows how or where. The bells were taken down and
carried off; finally the roofs were stripped off and the lead
brought into the dismantled church, and there, between the
broken altars of our Blessed Lady and St. Bernard, it was
174 FOUNTAINS ABBEY. [May.
melted into convenient shape for the market, in a fire whose
fuel was the carved work of the choir-stalls." The ashes of
those fires could be plainly seen until the last century, amidst
the general wreck.
The Abbot, it is recorded, betook himself to Ripon, where
he held a prebendal stall. The Prior and thirty monks were
driven out, compelled to divest themselves of their habits, and
given suits of secular clothes, to find what shelter they could.
The big elm tree, beneath which the monks first congre-
gated, has disappeared, but of the yew trees which stood upon
the hill two or three are still there. They have witnessed
many changes. They saw, seven hundred years ago, the
erection of the thatched hut under the elm tree, the only shel-
ter which the brethren at first enjoyed. They saw it gradually
grow into the magnificent abbey, taking its name from the
clear, cool springs that watered the valley. They saw mitred
abbots and prelates, noble knights and princely guests walk
beneath their shade. They saw the beginning and they saw
the end of this great establishment. They saw the days
"when the hymn was no more to be chanted in the Lady
Chapel, and the candles no more to be lit upon the high
altar ; when the gate was closed forever against the poor, and
the wanderer was no more to find welcome rest and refresh-
ment within the hospitable walls." All these things have passed
away, but the venerable yew trees still look down upon the
moss-grown stones and broken arches.
THE WIDOW.
BY KATHARINE TYNAN.
Between her tears that run like rain,
Streaking her roses with their stain,
Her pretty smiles break forth and play
In her drowned eyes the old sweet way,
And find a dimple near her lip.
From the old, dear companionship
Fond memories she recalls, gay jest,
And innocent laughter happiest.
Again she weeps, and for her part
Praises the Will that breaks her heart,
And finds but L,ove for him and her,
Although the Will hath stripped her bare.
Already, o'er the waste of Death
She plants her flowers of Hope and Faith,
Heartsease with lyove lies bleeding, sees
Her days so many rosaries
That must be told before they meet.
Yet seeing her feet run to his feet,
What matter if they travel fast
Or slow, so they arrive at last?
Again the smile breaks happily,
The Promise of God in a wet sky
Because Time goes; yea, Time and Space
That bring her nearer his embrace.
She hopes God will forgive her even
That her lost darling makes her heaven
That, as she strives upon her road,
She thinks on him more than on God ;
Nor blessed saint, nor seraphim
Allure her thoughts that are of him,
Nor that sweet Mother of all grief
Who gives the broken hearts relief;
Across that waste she sees him live
Surely the kind God will forgive.
So her rod flowers like Aaron's Rod.
These be Thy tender mercies, God !
VOL. LXXXI. 12
THE PANAMA CANAL.
BY BART. E. LINEHAN.
The following account, written by one who personally investi-
gated the work, and who is himself a railroad man of wide experi-
ence and acknowledged ability, will prove, we believe, of particular
value at this time when widespread public interest is manifested in
the building of the Panama Canal. Many may be of the opinion
that actual work has not yet begun, and many more may have but
indefinite notions of the problems and the great labor that the
building of the Canal involves. This article will, to some extent,
answer both these inquiries, at least.
Since Mr. Ljnehan's article was submitted to, and highly praised
by, important Government officials, a new Isthmian Canal Commis-
sion has been organized by President Roosevelt. In the letter made
public which announced the names of the new Commissioners,
Secretary Taft states: "It is conceded even by its own members
that the present Commission has not so developed itself into an
executive body as to give hope that it may be used successfully
as an instrumentality for carrying on the immense executive bur-
den involved in the construction of the Canal."
The personnel of the new Commission makes it clear that to
the mind of the President the building of the Canal is pre-eminently
a business proposition of railroad building and water transporta-
tion. The Chairman of the new Commission is Mr. Theodore P.
Shonts, President of the Toledo, St. Louis, and' Western Railway.
Mr. John F. Wallace, so highly spoken of in the following article >
is retained as Chief Engineer. Secretary Taft has given it as his
opinion, "that the best form of canal will be a sea-level canal,
with a tidal lock only at one end, and that the cost of it may
exceed the $200,000,000 in the mind of Congress by at least
$100,000,000 more." Mr. Linehan's. recommendation regarding a
reduction in the freight rates of the Panama Railroad has already
been acted upon. The Executive Committee of the Isthmian
1905] THE PANAMA CANAL. 177
Canal Commission, at a meeting in Washington, April 12, expressed
its intention of establishing a flat rate of much less than $5 a
ton for freight transportation across the Isthmus. EDITOR.
CARIOUS accounts of general discontent and dis-
satisfaction among the employees of the Isthmian
Canal, written by General George W. Davis and
others, had come to' my notice, and having the
time at my disposal I determined to visit the ter-
ritory personally, to meet the foreman in charge of the work
and the men who are laboring under him, and to investigate
thoroughly the whole situation.
My observations began at Colon. Here I interviewed first
the foreman of the water and sewer pipe construction.
This man informed me that he had been sent there by one of
the commissioners, with the promise of first-class accommoda-
tions, but when he arrived with his family he was greatly dis-
appointed at being compelled to take three rooms in the upper
floor of a two-story building without any water or sanitary
connections. He had to live in this house with his family
three months before any water connection was made. One of
his subordinates informed me further that he had been forced
to sleep in a small room with eight men for six weeks be-
fore better quarters were provided. The delay in putting in
the water pipes and sewer systems was due to the fact, he
informed me, that the Government had not sent, up to date,
the iron and sewer pipe ordered as early as September 2, 1904.
This pipe was to be used in completing the water works in
Colon and Panama, but less than one-third of the material
had been received up to the time of my visit early in March.
A civil engineer who came from Jamaica had also been
promised suitable quarters. After a few days at surveying he
was sent to a mere shack a quarter of a mile distant from the
place of his labor. This shack had but a straw roof, was open
to the weather, yet on its small floor, measuring about twenty by
twelve feet, fourteen men had to sleep, with nothing but the rude
boards and blankets for beds and bedclothing. Complaints o-f this
kind were common among the laborers and the people all along
the Canal zone. The complaints further included the insufficient
salary which was paid for a day's work for ten hours ; all
1 78 THE PANAMA CANAL. [May,
the more insufficient because the cost of living in Panama is
twice that in the States.
Further investigations about the delay in the delivery of this
water pipe showed that the contract for all the pipe to be used
in the construction of the water plants at Colon and Panama
had been given to a Birmingham mill on September 21, 1904.
The contract stipulated that all pipes should be delivered on
or before February 2, 1905. Up to the date of March 2 not
over one-third of the pipe has been received. The Company
that received the contract in order to get lower freight rates
sent the pipe by schooner from Mobile, Alabama. If it had
been shipped by steamer it would have arrived at Colon
within five days. This non-delivery has caused extreme dis-
tress to the people of Colon. Surely if the men who have
the responsibility of its delivery knew of the distress, and if
they had any heart or soul, they would make an effort to
get it there much quicker. The Hon. H. A. Gudger, U. S.
Consul General (the dean in the Consular Service, having re-
ceived his first appointment from President Lincoln three days
before the latter's death), informed me that most of the poor
people of Colon depend on cisterns for their water supply,
and .that the long continued drought of late had caused ex-
treme suffering. The very official who has charge of measur-
ing out the water to the people at the water station gave me
the astounding information, that the stockholders of the Panama
Company, who own both the water plant and all the franchises
in the city of Colon, charge five cents per gallon for water,
and will not permit any family to buy more than one bucket-
full each day. Water is given free only to the employees of
the Railroad Company, and they must present an order be-
fore they can obtain a drink. How do the Standard Oil and
the Beef Trust compare with this ?
It does not seem that the Commission in Washington,
appointed by President Roosevelt to look after the send-
ing of supplies and construction material, realized at all
existing conditions or present needs on the Isthmus. Univer-
sally, the Consul General informed me, discontent prevailed
about the Government's dilatory action and seeming negligence.
The material and supply department had ordered, on Septem-
ber 21, 1904, forty million feet of lumber. As late as March
1905.] THE PANAMA CANAL. 179
but a very small portion of this had been received. Medical
and surgical supplies also had been ordered about the same
time; a like exasperating delay was experienced with these.
Similar complaint might be made concerning orders for
all material necessary in pushing the work of this gigantic
problem undertaken by our Government. Nor has the value of
the excellent machinery left by the French in this territory
been fully appreciated. The United States Government paid
forty million for this machinery, but it is worth five times that
amount. Scattered along the Canal, and coming under the
category of this material left by the French, are twenty-two
hundred houses, ten hundred locomotives, thirty- nine hundred
dump-carts, two hundred and fifty miles of railroad, scores of
steamboats, barges large and small, steam shovels, numerous
well-equipped steam shops and warehouses. All these are sadly
in need of repair; but according to mechanical engineer C. S.
Strum, the one thousand locomotives left here by the French
could not be duplicated in the States for less than nine thou-
sand dollars each. It will require from six hundred to eight
hundred dollars apiece to put them in first-class working order.
Their present good condition is owing to the fact that the
French put several barrels of black oil in the boilers of each,
which serves to keep them practically as good as new.
Several hundred new houses will be needed to shelter the
large number of laborers and mechanics, some of whom unfor-
tunately have brought their families here with them. It is true
that five sixty-room hotels are in process of construction at
different points along the Canal zone, but these are not suffi-
cient to meet present demands, and such demands can only be
met by prompt action on the part of the Commission.
As the men in charge here on the ground have great
responsibility, so also they should have liberty of individual
initiative, and not be compelled to work with their hands tied,
and subject to investigation regarding every petty detail. The
head of every department should unquestionably have author-
ity to discipline the men immediately under his charge, and to
discharge them if necessary when they are not able to do the
work for which they are paid. A serious difficulty all along
the Canal zone is that many men were sent here to fill posi-
tions for which, mentally and physically, they are absolutely
unfitted. They have received and have held their positions
i8o THE PANAMA CANAL. [May,
because they carry letters from some prominent official in
Washington. This state of affairs is, of course, a serious draw-
back to the efficiency of the department foreman, for the men
who hold their positions simply through political favor will tell
a superintendent that they do not wish to receive his orders,
and that he did not hire them. The men at the head of this
work, that is those in charge of every department from the
executive down to the engineering and constructive, are men
of force, energy, and vigor, and are responsible to the Govern-
ment for the work done. They should not be handicapped in
their labors by any of the weaklings born of political favor.
It should also be absolutely insisted upon that men who
come here to labor should be strong, not only physically and
mentally but morally. They should be strong particularly
against any inclination to indulge in strong drink. Tempta-
tions to drink, to buy lottery tickets, to take up with other
vicious habits will beset the men just as soon as they land
in Colon. In Colon alone there are twenty- five saloons and
wine rooms to every business house, and almost in the. same
proportion these drinking places are scattered in the little towns
along the Canal zone to Panama. This also is a duty urgent
upon our Government, namely, to grapple with this great evil
at once, to control and to regulate it, since the evil is the most
weighty moral danger, and also a serious physical one, that
will beset the great army of men who will come here to work.
In San Jose, C. R., the Government allows only one saloon for
every one thousand people, and every saloon pays the Govern-
ment two thousand dollars annually for a license.
The scale of wages now .paid for work on the Canal docks,
buildings, etc., to common laborers, is twenty to twenty-five
cents per hour; to foremen thirty- five cents per hour; and to
mechanics forty five cents per hour, all for a ten-hour day.
After my investigation I have concluded that the Govern-
ment ought to authorize the men in charge of the construction
of the Canal to pay the laborers who come here from the
States double the wages which they had received in the
States, because the expense of living here is increased in
just about that proportion. Nor will this mean an excessive
outlay in the digging of the Canal. Since the work was
started in the Culebra cut, the increase of cubic yards of
excavated earth has been rapid. In October, the first month,
1905.] THE PANAMA CANAL. 181
18,000 yards were excavated; November, 28,000 yards;
December, 42,000 yards ; January, 70,000 yards ; February, a
short month, 75,000 yards; this month, March, the amount will
reach to over 125,000 yards. This same work in the same cut
cost the French seventy- nine cents per cubic yard. It has
cost the present management only forty-five cents, and the
presumption is, among the officials, that this amount will be
doubled when more steam shovels and supplies are furnished.
One of my first visits while in Panama was made to the
able Minister, the Honorable John Barrett. Through the kind-
ness of Mr. Barrett, I met his Excellency, President Maure
Amador Guerrero, whom I found to be a man of commanding
position for usefulness, and well-informed on all matters of
national concern. His Excellency informed me that he was
anxious to do all in his power to assist our Government in
the stupendous undertaking of building the Isthmian Canal,
and he was particularly pleased that our Government had
decided to adopt the sea-level plan. While he thought this
plan would cost much more than the high level, which would
necessitate the passage of vessels by a system of locks, his
Excellency believed that the former plan would eventually
result in less expense, since the continued care of the Canal
would be less onerous, the passing through of vessels more
expeditious and less expensive. His Excellency paid the high-
est tributes to our Minister, Mr. Barrett, on the candid, intelli-
gent, and trustworthy manner in which he, Mr. Barrett, had
helped his Government to decide finally the momentous pro-
blems involved in the concession of territory and the financial
propositions that had been under negotiation for so long a
time between the Governments.
The pleasure also was given me, while in Panama, of meeting
the distinguished and learned Archbishop Javier Junguito, S.J., of
Panama. The Archbishop, I was informed, has more influence
than any other man in the States of Central America. While very
much displeased at the action of our Government in expelling the
French Sisters of Mercy from the hospitals of Colon and Panama,
where they had charge since the French company started to
build the Canal, and in which duty many of them heroically
sacrificed their lives while serving yellow-fever patients, the
Archbishop, nevertheless, takes a bioad and comprehensive
view of the great and beneficial task which the United States
1 82 THE PANAMA CANAL. [May,
has undertaken, looks with peace into the future, and witnesses
with gratitude the great improvements made by our Govern-
ment in water supply, sanitary systems and regulations, and
brick-paved streets, all leading to the sea, which mean so
much for the physical well-being of his people. These sanitary
improvements, together with the sanitary staff which our Gov-
ernment has appointed over the city, will prevent the exten-
sive spread of the yellow fever and other dread diseases, and
in time, according to the word of the Archbishop, wipe them
out entirely.
The Archbishop is a sincere admirer of our President, as a
man who believes he was born to govern the American people
at the present time ; as one highly intellectual, resolute, and
determined to help and save the American people from the
clutches of lawless money kings, who are endeavoring to crush
the middle and poorer classes of our great nation. The Presi-
dent's persistent efforts to have our Government undertake the
building of this waterway for the world's commerce, mtt with
much praise from the Archbishop. A pleasant memory also
to his Grace was the visit paid him by Secretary Taft while
the latter was in Colon. Of the latter's personal honor and
diplomatic ability, of his good work under difficult circumstances
in the Philippine Islands, the Archbishop had naught but words
of warmest commendation. To Secretary Taft the Archbishop
attributed the credit for the perfect harmony that now exists
between the United States and Panama.
Towards the end of my investigating trip, I received an
invitation, from Chief Engineer Wallace and his wife, to join a
party that were to visit the historical Culebra cut. The invi-
tation was eagerly accepted. The trip was made in Chief
Wallace's observation car, and among the guests were many
distinguished men and women. The day was beautiful in its
clearness, and a fair breeze blew from the ocean. The Culebra
cut is eight miles in length, of which the French have exca-
vated to a depth of 250 feet. In order to use the sea-level
canal it will be necessary to dig 190 feet deeper still, or to a
depth of 450 feet from the centre line of the upper level.
The present width of the top of the level is 740 feet. The
contemplated width of the cut averages from $00 to i,6oo
feet. No railway system in the United States ever excavated
anything like the number of cubic yards which will be removed
1905.] THE PANAMA CANAL. 183
from the Culebra cut. Approximately 2,400 men are working
in the cut, with 28 locomotives, 896 cars running over 81
miles of railroad, within the cut, leading to the dumping
grounds. According to Mr. W. E. Dauchy, the Division
Engineer, the excavation planned to be made in this cut
means the removal of more than 100,000,000 cubic yards of
earth and rock. This in itself is such an enormous under-
taking as to be quite beyond our comprehension. The excava-
tion taken from this cut will fill up 25 miles of the surround-
ing valley, and contribute to the building of a dam at Bohio
which will provide for the overflow from the Chagres River.
Plans are under way also to secure water power sufficient
to light by electricity the whole length of the Canal route,
from Colon to Panama, a distance of fifty miles. This will
enable the work to be carried on during all the twenty- four
hours.
Various estimates have been given as to the length of
time required to complete this work. Much, very much, de-
pends upon the readiness and punctuality of our Government
in furnishing food, shelter, and constructing supplies. If no
unforeseen obstacles present themselves, I firmly believe that
the Canal can be completed and made ready for the recep-
tion oi ships within ten years. The work of building this
Canal, with all its supplementary problems, is absolutely, em-
phatically, and undeniably a railroad and transportation problem
from beginning to end.
The selection of Mr. John F. Wallace, as the man who is
to plan and build the Isthmian Canal, was an evidence of
President Roosevelt's excellent judgment.
Mr. Wallace and myself labored together in the transporta-
tion business some twenty-five years ago. When Mr. Stuyve-
sant Fish and Mr. Harahan sought for a man who would put
the Illinois Central Railroad in good physical condition, their
choice fell upon Mr. Wallace. He answered their require-
ments. As General Manager of the Illinois Central, to which
position he was gradually promoted from the office of Chief
Engineer, Mr. Wallace signed vouchers to the amount of over
$30.000,000 per year. It was his duty to see that every one
of these vouchers was correct. He had, moreover, to superin-
tend the labor of 45,000, and see to it that they worked faith-
fully, and further see that the earnings of the road gave the
1 84 THE PANAMA CANAL. [May.
stockholders a fair return for their investment. $30,000,000 a
year is more than Mr. Wallace will have to pay on the Canal
construction each year, and 45,000 is 20,000 more than the
number of men to be employed on the Isthmian Canal at any
one time.
According to the agreement made by our Government
with the Panama Railroad Company and a steamship line, the
Canal and surrounding territory become the property of the
United States after April I. It will then be an easy task to
double-track the road from Panama to Colon. When this is
done, and the 550 new fifty-ton cars put into service, the
warehouses at each terminal enlarged, and the roadbed per-
fected, trains may be run under a ten-minutes headway, and
there will be no congestion of freight nor delaying in trans-
porting it. Our Government may then show her generosity
by advertising that the present excessive rates of the Panama
Railroad no longer exist, but that a flat rate of $2 per ton
has replaced the former charge of $4.50. This will throw the
business of the Isthmus open to all parts of the world, for this
road has, up till now, been a barrier to the proper develop-
ment of commerce from Eastern and Gulf seaboard points.
Our Government may well afford to be magnanimous with
this little 47 miles of railroad, for it will carry more tonnage
per mile than any other railroad in the world.
A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE.
IV.
BY THE REVEREND JAMES J. FOX, D.D.
January 12, 1905.
MY DEAR FATHER:
How am I to thank you for the pains you have taken to
furnish me with so much interesting and useful information 'on
the nature of Catholic teaching concerning the Bible ? You
have not alone relieved me of the trouble that I had, but you
have also anticipated, I am sure, any future ones. If you
could have witnessed Professor M 's reception of your last
two letters you would, I fancy, have been in a manner repaid
for the labors you have undertaken. He kept your manuscript
for two days. When he handed it back to me he said :
" It is very remarkable, very remarkable indeed. I suppose
your man is sure of his ground. But it is a complete backdown.
But it is the same old story ; just when you have Rome
pinned down, she wriggles through your fingers, and, after
having for ages been swearing that something is white, she will
turn .round coolly and tell you that when she said white she
never meant that it might not be black all the time." On my
return from the holidays he piled on my table an armful of
periodicals, magazines, newspapers, and pamphlets concerning
Professor Mivart, together with some other articles, from
Catholics, on the Bible. These were annotated carefully (I
enclose you a list of the principal articles) ; and he told me
to read for myself. He said I would find that ten years ago
Romanists were piping another tune, and because Mivart refused
to dance to it they killed him. "They tried," he said, "to cram
Moses, the tower of Babel, and the whale down Mivart's
throat, and when he would not gulp, Vaughan read him out of
the Church with bell, book, and candle; then they outraged
his family's teelings by refusing him decent burial."
I have read most of the articles with great interest. The
one by a Catholic, entitled seems to be very
186 A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. [May,
effective in defending the Church. He lays the blame for all
mistakes on the Roman Congregations, and shows that Catholics
are not bound to believe in the decisions of these bodies. I have
taken this ground successfully in some warm discussions with my
friends here. They are cramming up on the histories of the In-
quisition and the Index. Is White's statement true, that not only
the Congregations but also two popes condemned the doctrine of
the earth's motion (Vol. I. p., 163) ? He seems to make rather a
strong case against the rulers of the Church for having re-
sisted science. Personally his arguments do not affect me, for
I take it that the answer mentioned by Macaulay holds good ;
viz., that in deciding questions of science at all, the Church
exceeded her powers, and so was left destitute of the super-
natural assistance which she enjoys in the exercise of her
legitimate functions. I hesitate to impose further on your
kindness. If you would indicate to me some trustworthy books
on this subject of the Church and science, I should be very
grateful, and I believe that my friends would gladly read them.
Believe me, my dear Father,
Gratefully yours,
X. X.
MY DEAR SIR :
In response to your request, I enclose a list of books that
will be of service to you. None of them treat exclusively of
the topic. But they have all a good deal to say that bears
on it, and lay down principles which, fairly applied, are amply
sufficient for the defense of the Church herself against the
often-repeated accusation. You will find Newman's Idea of a
University, Hogan's Clerical Studies, Ward's Problems and Per-
sons especially helpful, for they guage more faithfully the
strength of the attack. A hint or two may be useful to guide
your study of them. The relation of the Church to modern
science is a very broad question, involving, both historically
and doctrinally, many complex considerations. Like all com-
plicated problems arising from the conflict and interaction of
ideas, institutions, and forces through long periods of time, it
cannot be satisfactorily disposed of by some brief categorical
verdict in one sense or the other. Sweeping general assertions,
that take no notice of exceptions, that know nothing of reser-
vations, qualifications, or explanations, are usually worth little.
1905.] A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. 187
When contending parties propose, respectively, the thesis and
the antithesis The Church obstructed science; the Church
did not obstruct science it frequently happens that so diver-
gent are the senses in which they employ the words Church
and Science, that the contestants are, practically, speakirg two
different languages; and the debate ends where it began.
The readings that I have indicated to you will assist you to
get to correct conclusions, and enable you to revalue and ar-
range in true proportion and perspective the array of testi-
mony brought forward by writers like Lecky and White.
That more than once ecclesiastical authority did, for a
time, repress results of investigation, which were afterwards
acknowledged and accepted by the whole world, it is impossi-
ble to deny. That this repression has been greatly exagger-
ated in the accounts of some writers is equally undeniable.
And what is ignored by most of the Church's assailants, as
well as by those apologists who confine themselves to shutting
their eyes to the evidence and flatly denying the charge, is
that authority had the right to exercise, within certain limits,
at certain times, a control over the indiscriminate dissemina-
tion of scientific and critical knowledge. In his contribution
to a recently published discussion of the relation between
scientific and religious ideals,* Mr. Wilfrid Ward has handled
the subject with candor and force. Before, however, entering
into a vindication of the dead past, let us turn to a practical
issue of the living present, that is, to set forth the duty of a
Catholic, who, like yourself, must stand fast amid intellectual
currents that put a heavy strain on his religious moorings.
The case of the late St. George Mivart lends itself as an
object lesson.
You will have observed, in reading the documents of the
controversy, that though, in the end, Dr. Mivart narrowed his
intellectual non serviam down to the matter of Bible science
and history, he had, in the course of the discussion, gone far
beyond this point and, regarding dogmas of the Church,
given expression to views that could not be tolerated. Then
his ecclesiastical superior, without answering either yes or no
to the biblical crux propounded by the professor, called on
him to subscribe to the authoritative formula of Catholic faith.
* Ideals of Science and Faith. Edited by the Rev. J. E. Hand. New York : Longmans,
1904.
1 88 A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. [May,
As to the question of biblical inerrancy, it seems impossible to
read the professor's utterances, and to survey the fictitious
dilemma that he created for himself, without arriving at the
conviction, reached by many of his friends, that the mind
which had given such brilliant testimony of its philosophic in-
sight and logical acumen was passing through some pathological
eclipse. He admitted he was no theologian, yet he insisted
upon defining the meaning of inspiration in the Church's pro-
nouncements, a task over which theologians have not yet been
able to agree. He insisted that the Church's doctrine obliges
Catholics to take Bible science, and all that wears the appear-
ance of history in the Bible, as being affirmed and taught by
God. He argued that a papal encyclical must, ipso facto, be
considered by Catholics as an infallible document. After
quoting the declaration of Leo XIII., concerning "no errors
in the. Bible," he wrote: "It is an indisputable fact that no
Roman Catholic acquainted with the above papal declaration
and the Vatican conciliar decree can explain away any biblical
narrative or historical statement without being guilty, materially
at least, if not formally, of heresy." He passes on to take up
several of the narratives that were stumbling blocks for him.
How sad all this is in the light that comes from the pages of
Lagrange and Prat and Hummelauer and all the others !
They show all deference to Leo's teaching, yet they show, too,
that it is allowable to interpret the Bible in a way that leaves
no obstacle to its adjustment with science and historical
criticism.
But, you will perhaps say : Why was he not told so then ?
or, The teachings of the present exegesis were not in Mivart's
time, and so he knew nothing of the liberty of to-day. I will
not say that he could not have compiled from professional
theologians and scripturists a great deal of testimony to sup-
port his interpretation of Catholic duty. But, on the other
hand, I am sure that he had before him a volume that would
'have disabused him of his false impressions, had he but con-
sulted it more thoroughly than he seems to have done. Sev-
eral times in one of his papers he cited Clerical Studies, and
accepted the author of it, very rightly, as a competent expo-
'nent of Catholic doctrine. Well, in this very volume, expressed
.in language clear and unmistakeable, there are passages after
passages which, like a spell, would have caused the scales to
1905.] A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. 189
fall from the professor's eyes, had he but attended to them.
Discussing the restrictions imposed by Pope Leo's encyclical on
apologists, Father Hogan, writing with lull consciousness of the
extreme reserve and conservatism which his position as head
of a great seminary imposed upon him, declared : * " More
freely than ever before do we find them admitting in the in-
spired pages loose and inexact statements, side by side with
what is strictly accurate ; figurative language of all kinds,
metaphors, hyperboles, rhetorical amplifications, facts veiled in
poetic forms, seeming narratives which are only allegories or
parables, all the ordinary modes of human speech, in a word,
all the literary peculiarities of Eastern peoples." Furtheimoie,
he says : f "In fact one of the most ordinary sources of diffi-
culties, and of general misapprehension of the ancient Oriental
books which constitute nearly the whole Bible, is found to be
the habit of interpreting them by our own modern rules
and standards. For the errors ours, not theirs to which
this gives rise, surely the sacred writers cannot be made re-
sponsible." Again, we have in the next passage succinctly
expressed the principles which I have drawn your attention to
in the pages of Fathers Prat and Lagrange, who only state
them in a more amplified form : " By another application of
this same principle several of our apologists exonerate from
the reproach of error the sacred writers who give divergent
accounts of the same fact. They claim that in such cases
only substantial accuracy was ever intended or expected, not
exactness of detail. Or, again, they consider the sacred writers
as borrowing their information from the best accessible sources,
and giving it faithfully as they found it, without warranting a
literal accuracy of which its value was really independent. To
put it in general terms, they hold that God in the Bible
teaches only what is taught by the sacred writer, and that
the latter teaches only what he means to teach. So that ulti-
mately the whole question resolves itself into that of the mind
of the human author, which has, in turn, to be gathered from
the nature of what he writes, the literary methods of his
time, etc."
Elsewhere this same judicious author points out that the
older interpretations to which Professor Mivart objected in the
name of modern science, and which he insisted to be still
* P. 473. ' " t P. 474-
190 A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. [May,
Catholic teaching, because he found them still drifting around
in the backwaters of Catholic thought, have been given up,
precisely through the influence of modern science. Speaking
of the mixture of conjectural, uncertain, opinionative elements,
mingled with what is certain in mystical, theological, and
apologetic writers, he says : * " Nowhere is it more striking
than in the notions which for centuries were gathered from
the Bible. For, whilst admitting readily that many expressions
in the sacred writings should not be taken literally, yet instinc-
tive reverence for the Word of God led Christian minds to
accept in their obvious sense all the statements they found in
it, so long as they had no positive, cogent reason to depart
from such an interpretation. In this way, for example, they
were led to believe that the whole visible world was created
in the space of six ordinary days, about six thousand years
ago; that the earth was the principle part of the divine work;
and that the sun, moon, and stars were created in view of it ;
that Noah enclosed in the ark specimens of all living creatures
incapable of sustaining life in the waters of the Deluge; that
the Deluge itself extended over the whole surface of the earth ;
that the various tongues spoken since the flood were all miracu-
lously originated at the Tower of Babel, etc. If we take
up any of the older exponents of the Bible, or of theology,
Catholic and Protestant, this is what we find unhesitatingly
stated in them, not indeed as part of the Catholic faith, but
as the obvious meaning of the sacred narrative, from which
they did not feel at liberty to depart; because they saw no
sufficient reason to do so. But the reasons came. Modern
science proved the old positions to be untenable ; and gradu-
ally the Catholic mind withdrew from them, or continued to
state them only in a loose and hesitating way." On reviewing
how Professor Mivart insisted upon taking the "older expo-
nents" as the true index of Catholic teaching, when he had
such testimony as the above under his hand, one can only
recall the old Scotch proverb with which you are, I presume
from your patronymic, familiar :
" Wha' wull to Cupar maun to Cupar."
Before taking leave of Mivart's name, let me tell you, for the
* P. 115.
1905.] A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. 191
benefit of Professor M , that, to the deep satisfaction of
all Catholics who gratefully appreciate the high services which
St. George Mivart rendered to the Church in his day, his body
rests in consecrated ground.
History forbids us to deny that, though Mivart's case was
different, it can happen that a scientist or a scholar may find
ecclesiastical authority I use the word in its widest sense
resisting views which he knows to be thoroughly well fourcid.
His patience and loyalty will be exercised all the more severely
if, as may also happen, he knows that those who condemn his
^findings are scarcely in a position to give due consideration to
the evidence. A man may attain the rank of a profound
theologian or scripturist at least it was so formerly and yet
know no more about modern science than a Bedouin knows
about shipbuilding. Through his eminent piety, the etiquette
which distributes to the various bodies a due proportion of the
important offices in the ecclesiastical administration, or through
one of many other causes, such a man may exercise a power-
ful influence at the council board where scientific or critical
publications are weighed and found wanting. He may succeed
in counteracting the representatives of progressive thought on
some critical occasion. Then, for a time at least, the scientist
or scholar will find himself called upon to display an obedience
nothing short of heroic. " It is impossible," writes Father
Lagrange, "to think without a parg of the situation of savants
placed between what they consider a scientific conclusion and a
judgment, not indeed definitive, but official, such as, we are
rightly told, bind the conscience and impose on us the duty
of submitting, in some measure, our reason, at least out of
respect for the source from which they emanate." Hard, it is
true ; but not harder than many other sacrifices which fidelity
to our religion imposes on us. And grace can where nature
cannot.
Here we touch the prime factor in the problem of the
Church's relation to science the action of non- infallible
authorities. The first thing to be done is to premise a warn-
ing, that is all the more necessary for you since you have
been introduced, through the publications you have mentioned,
to some writers from whom you may acquire an unduly narrow
view of the duty we owe to authority in matters intellectual.
It is not uncommon, nowadays, to find Catholics speaking as
VOL. LXXXI. 13
192 A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. [May,
if an acceptance of defined dogma, decrees of Ecumenical
Councils, and indisputably ex cathedra pronouncements of the
Supreme Pontiff, is all that can be exacted from Catholics in
the name of faith and religious obedience. They go out of
their way to make a case against all the non-infallible organs
of the Church. They never let Galileo rest in his grave.
They delight in reciting a litany of the estimable books that
have figured, or still figure, on the Index. They have at their
fingers' ends the case of Pope Honorius excommunicated and
anathematized as a heretic, after his death, by the sixth Ecu-
menical Council of the Church. They sketch, gleefully, and
usually with a sarcastic pen, the line of retreat followed by
the theological host for the last hundred years ; and they gloat
over every abandoned position, from the expectation of the
second advent by the early Christians, down to the cessation
of the thunders that reverberated for ages against the taking
of interest, or to our present modified estimate of Bible science.
By dwelling exclusively on instances of doctrinal or constitu-
tional development, of change in non-essentials, and, at the
same time, ignoring the continuity witnessed in essentials, they
draw a caricature of Catholic doctrine and call it a photograph.
Professing submission to the Pope when he speaks in virtue of
his infallible prerogative, they assume that his other pronounce-
ments, as well as the doctrinal decrees of bishops and Roman
Congregations, are sufficiently honored by being received with
a perfunctory silence ; and they demonstrate, too often, by their
own behavior, that with an accompanying wink or shrug such
silence can become little better than outspoken derision. Over
against the benign spirit of the present day theologian, who
sees in every man of good will and upright life a member of
Christ's spiritual kingdom, they set the grim mediaeval inquisitor
hieing forth to slay, with a sword in one hand and the Atha-
nasian Creed in the other. But they ignore our apologists who
maintain that it is but the world's condition that has changed
since the days of the Albigenses, not Catholic teaching on the
necessity of faith.
Now this is all wrong. The duty of a Catholic, in intellect-
ual affairs, extends far beyond acceptance of the truths in
which we are bound to make an act of faith. He is not quit
of his loyalty towards the Supreme Head by assenting merely
to the edicts issued under the seal of infallibility, and reserving
1905.] A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. 193
to himself the right to pick and choose in all other teachings.
He is bound to restrict ourselves to the point we are dealing
with to give an intellectual assent to the teaching of subor-
dinate authorities. The nature of this assent and the strictness
of the obligation varies, of course, in proportion to the dignity
of each authority. The Catholic scientist must remember, too,
that the interests of faith and the spiritual welfare of the many
are of more importance than the immediate diffusion of some
scientific discovery, the hasty promulgation of which, in minds
unprepared for it, might gravely injure their religious ideals;
and the Church has been constituted to watch over, not science,
but salvation. Hence the reasonableness of the right which the
Church has exercised of controlling the publication of scientists
and scholars. The natural law itself requires that knowledge
shall be circulated with such precaution as the higher goods of
morality and religion call for. Even agnostics recognize this
principle as sound. Replying to an imaginary objector who
asks why, if evolutionists believe in their view of religion, they
do not go around and preach it, the late John Fiske replies:*
if Since men's theologies are narrowly implicated with their
principles of action, the taking away of their theology by any
other process than that of slowly supplanting it by a new
system of conceptions equally adapted to furnish general- -princi-
ples of action, would be to leave men trivial and irreligious,
with no rational motive but self-interest, no clearly conceived
end save the pleasure of the moment. The evolutionist, there-
fore, believing that faith in some controlling idea is essential to
right living, and that even an unscientific faith is infinitely
better than aimless scepticism, does not go about pointing out
to the orthodox the inconsistencies which he discerns in their
system of beliefs." . . . And shall the Church show her-
self less tender of the little ones and the unlearned than an
agnostic? Is it her duty to turn herself into a scientific
academy, and, even at the risk of hurting irreparably the
minds of her children, be always on the alert to tear up every
belief, however ancient and however innocuous, the moment
it ceases to be in harmony with the latest bulletin from the
Royal Society or the Musee Guimet ? The question answers
itself.
The justice of this claim is nowise impugned by the fact
Cosmic Philosophy, Vol. II., p. 500.
194 A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. [May,
that sometimes, through the fallibility of the agents engaged
in its application, mistakes have been made, and individuals
have been subjected to needless and useless suffering. Few
pretend, to-day, to exonerate from all blame the extent to
which hostility to the heliocentric theory, for example, was
carried. No interests of religion required that books teaching
it should be retained on the Index till the year 1835. A little
more attention to science, a good deal less prejudice in favor
of Aristotle and ancient wisdom, and that struggle would have
been kept within such limits that nobody reasonably could
have found fault with the part played [by authority. On the
other hand, it is conceded by impartial non-Catholics that the
ecclesiastical interference was justified in the initial stage of
the episode. One citation, from a Protestant scientist and
professor, will suffice to represent many similar admissions.
A Harvard professor has written as follows regarding Galileo:*
" He had many friends among the most influential of the
clergy ; and there can be no question that he would have
been left to teach as he pleased, and even been honored for
his innovations, if only he had avoided theological issues ir-
stead of rushing into them. There was no need of forcing
that greatly irritated lion caged at the Vatican to show its
claws. Neither truth nor honor required it. And though one
may not think that a scholar can honorably hold an equivocal
position in regard to facts of demonstration, yet the distinc-
tion betweed ' ex hypothesi* and ' ex animo' was one which he
avowedly accepted. And when he violated his pledges, and
again revived the old issues, we cannot wonder that his conduct
provoked censure; and it may be questioned whether he was
treated any more harshly than is many a man at the present
day for a much less departure from prescribed creeds."
The deference exacted by discipline for the rulings of non-
infallible authorities is nowise incompatible with the intellectual
honesty which, as the above writer affirms, no man may justly
or honorably sacrifice. The religious obedience and respect
due to such pronouncements do not require that a man should
abdicate his reason. Let me offer you from a conservative
theologian a passage which will make this truth clear. Father
Pesch, S.J., treating the question in his work intended as a
* The Credentials of Science the Warrant of Faith. By Josiah Parsons Cooke, LL.D.,
Erving Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy at Harvard University. New York, 1888, p. 77.
1905.] A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. 195
text-book for students, lays down the teaching:* "Just as
we have already said that we must obey our bishops when
they give orders in matters of faith and morals, so in similar
wise we maintain that we must yield a religious assent to the
decrees of Roman Congregations, that is to say, that supreme
religious authority has spoken in these decrees, albeit not in-
fallibly." Does it follow, then, that a scientist who has ar-
rived at some solidly based conclusion incompatible with this
or that decree of a Roman Congregation, or any other organ
for which infallibility is not claimed, must, as misrepresenta-
tions of us pretend, make an act of faith in something that he
knows to be false ? By no means. " On the negative side,"
says Father Pesch, " we are not free to withhold assent to
Congregational decisions just on the plea that they are not in-
fallible ; and, on the positive side, we must continue to assent
to them " Permanently ? No ; but " until we get clear proof
that the Congregations have blundered in making the decisions.
Because the Congregations do not, in themselves, confer abso-
lute certainty on any doctrine, the reasons for the doctrine
may, and, with due caution (respective), ought to be investi-
gated. This will be done in order that either the doctrine
shall be gradually accepted by the entire Church, and so raised
to the region of infallibility, or else, the error which, possibly,
it contains shall be detached. For the religious assent that
we owe to Congregational rulings, founded as these are, not in
absolute but in a looser moral certitude, does not exclude all
apprehension of error, and therefore, when sufficient reason for
doubt appears, a prudent suspension of assent is in order;
but as long as there is no reasonable ground for doubt the
authority of the Congregations is adequate to impose assent."
For an excellent brief exposition of Catholic doctrine and
duty regarding religious teaching, I may refer you to an arti-
cle published in the Ave Maria for January of the current
year. The writer fortifies himself with copious extracts from a
recent pastoral of the English bishops. They show how amply
the liberty of the scientist is harmonized with the prudence
which forbids rash and dangerous impatience :f "As points of
discipline may be decreed at one time, and modified or set
aside at another, so may novel theories and opinions, advanced
* Preelections Dogmaticet Auctore Christiana Pesch, S.J. I., p.,.312.
t Avt Maria, January, 1905, p. 47.
196 A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. [May,
even by learned men, be at one time censured by the Roman
Congregations, and at a later time tolerated and even accepted.
For instance, the Holy Office in a case of a disputed text of
Scripture or any similar point, after careful consideration, cus-
tomary in matters of this importance, may declare that the
arguments brought forward do not warrant the conclusion
claimed for them by certain students. Such a decision is not
immutable, and does not prevent Catholic students continuing
their research, and respectfully laying before the Holy See any
fresh or more convincing arguments they may discover against
the authority of the text. And thus it becomes possible that,
in time, the tribunals of the Holy See may decide in the
sense which the earlier students had suggested, but could not
at first establish by satisfactory arguments as a safe conclusion.
In such a case loyal Catholics should accept her decision by
virtue of ' religious obedience ' as one to be followed for the
present. But while they gratefully accept such guidance in a
matter that concerns religion, they will be careful to distinguish
between this guidance and the Church's definition of faith."
These principles are not the result of mere abstract reason-
ing, but the formulated inductions drawn from the history of
systematic Catholic thought. Numberless instances might be
cited of congregational, conciliar, and papal non- infallible rul-
ings that, after having been vigorously asserted for long periods,
gradually began to be questioned ; critical examination per-
sisted; time furnished new arguments to the opposition. The
upshot was that the doctrine was not indeed abruptly aban-
doned or formally rescinded, but was allowed to sink gently
and silently into oblivion. There was no recantation of the old;
but the new that was incompatible with it was, first tolerated,
and next incorporated by authority. .In many instances there
were theologians, devoted to everything traditional, to argue
that the infallible guarantee covered the teaching. But the
outcome proved them to be mistaken. Frequently the process
of transition was smoothed by the retention of old forms modi-
fied in meaning you understand that I speak only ot non-
dogmatic tenets. It is, probably, some of these cases which
your professor had in mind when he spoke of the wrigglings of
Rome. It is a common weakness of us all to let our preju-
dices dictate our selection of the words in which we clothe our
judgments, and the opulence of the English language provides
1905.] A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. 197
us with terms of disparagement for which, in truth and justice,
we might often substitute others less depreciatory. And Rome
is a word which in polemics is often used to cover a multitude
of logical sins. In one sentence it will stand for some theo-
logian occupied in sweeping back the advancing tide of knowl-
edge with his syllogistic besom ; in the next, it will mean the
highest authority in the exercise of its highest prerogative ;
and thus, by the perpetration of what logical pedantry calls
the fallacy of undistributed middle, the ineptitudes of indi-
viduals are ascribed to the organization.
Are we to presume that the process of elimination, selec-
tion, and assimilation that has always gone on in the past is
now at an end ? To say so would be to assert that the devel-
opment and growth of the Church have ceased ; that her intel-
lectual life has come to an end ; and that the immanent vital
principle which has enabled her to carry on her organic func-
tions in victorious adaptation to an ever changing environment
has at length reached the closing phase of exhausted senility.
Never, on the contrary, has the work of adaptation been car-
ried on with more vigor. Every one who examines the present
attitude of authority and scholarship towards expert knowledge
and criticism must admit that they are ready to listen to any
representative of thought who speaks in the name of ascertained
science. The dogmas of faith, resting on the authority of the
Church, and, for the most part, consisting of truths transcend-
ing reason, are beyond the range of physical science. Criti-
cism, fairly exercised, can but make them stand forth in more
majestic outline, by clearing them of the faded human opinions
which are hanging in tatters around them. The discoveries of
the scientist or the scholar can come into collision only with
the occasional, the accidental, the ephemeral. Authority, while
treating with reverence all that is traditional, concedes that there
are tares among the wheat. But it resists the arrogance of
the irresponsible who in the name of science, of which they
are seldom acknowledged spokesmen, insist upon rushing in to
devastate wheat and cockle alike. " Give us," says authority
to the exponents of science, history, and criticism, "your
thoroughly ascertained facts, not your immature theories, your
provisional guesses, or your unverifiable speculations, which
you yourselves may be throwing aside to-morrow, and we shall
cheerfully, nay gratefully, accept them. But leave us to make
198 A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. [May.
the adjustment with the gravity and deliberation that the sacred
interests of souls, or, as you would say, the religious ideal
demands."
If the scholar or scientist is a Catholic, is he to be per-
turbed when he finds truth controverted by representatives of
that section of theologians or apologists who know nothing of
the actual situation, and think that theology and biblical criti-
cism said their last word hundreds of years ago ? Must he
rush forth into secular prints and clamor for an immediate
ex cathedra decision, or ask congregations to imperil their
authority with the unreflecting by admitting that they were
mistaken yesterday, or the day before ; and, if this is refused,
throw himself out of the Church ? Evidently not. He can,
with an easy conscience, and without compromising" his intel-
lectual liberty, sit tight and wait. Authority must pursue
a Fabian policy; let him do the same and that policy will
repeat its old achievements cunctando restituit rem.
Just a word, in conclusion, for the present, concerning the
idea of Macaulay, to which you have given too much credit,
regarding the relation of the Church to science. With science
v he Church has no direct concern. But, as the guardian of
revealed truth, she may be called upon, in the legitimate exer-
cise of her functions, to pass judgment on scientific theories
which touch on matters of revelation. The unity of the human
race, for example, is intrinsically connected with the doctrine
of original sin ; she will, therefore condemn any ethnological
theory which on this point runs counter to her dogmatic
teaching. Believe me,
Fraternally yours,
FATHER ALLOUEZ AND THE FOX RIVER.
(1669-1687.)
BY D. B. MARTIN.
[HE site on the shore of Fox River, Wisconsin,
where stood the Mission House of St. Francis
Xavier two hundred and thirty years ago, has
never, as in many similar instances, been wholly
lost. Through reminiscence and tradition, and
the writings of Fathers Allouez and Dablon, almost the exact
location of this pious retreat can be traced. The early Ameri-
can settlers found still visible the foundations of Chapel and
dwelling house; for although burned by hostile Indians, in
1687, the stout timbers were not entirely destroyed, and have
defied time's ravages. So the great name of its founder, Claude
Allouez, and the work accomplished by him, withstand the
waves of oblivion that have swallowed up other and less strong
personalities.
It was in the month of November that Father Allouez
began his journey to the great bay of the Puants, leaving his
mission at Sault St. Marie in charge of a brother priest. It
is a season that in our northern latitudes means blustering
north winds, with a strong skimming of ice, as the days shorten,
on the borders of creek and river. Allouez had steadfastly
purposed to reach the extremity of the bay before winter set
in. Indians of many tribes congregated at the head of this
long, sheltered stretch of water, and for this reason, and also
because of the great number of valuable fur-bearing animals
that filled the streams in the vicinity, the place had become a
Mecca for coureurs de bois. To the eastward, beyond the
two mighty lakes of Michigan and Huron, dwelt that dreaded
confederation of Iroquois, known as. the league of the Five
Nations, a scourge to other and less powerful tribes; but Green
Bay, ninety miles in length and shaped like a mammoth
pocket, formed, in its leagues of unfamiliar waters, a barrier
that the eastern Indians feared to traverse. To the westward
200 FATHER ALLOUEZ AND THE Fox RIVER. [May,
the equally strong and warlike Sioux were deterred from
sending out attacking parties by the distance to be traveled,
and also by a great river, as yet unknown to the white man,
and not to be made common property until four years later,
when Father Marquette and his companion, Louis Joliet,
floated their canoe on its waters.
So the isolated valley of the Fox, and the shores of Baye
des Puants, were thickly settled by diverse tribes of Indians
belonging to Algonquin stock with but one exception, an
alien tribe of Sioux extraction, the Winnebagoes, " men of the
sea " so called, and also nicknamed by the French " Puants,"
from whom the Bay derived its name.
Two French voyageurs accompanied Allouez in his bark
canoe ; hardy Canadian boatmen, skilful in the use of the
paddle. All their experience was called into requisition, for
the journey was a dangerous and terrible one. On the twenty-
ninth of November ice began to form, cutting their perishable
bark craft ; snow fell and their garments were drenched. At
intervals they landed to mend their canoe, and make friends
with the Indians camped along the shores ; for the most part
Pottawottomies, who also were short of provisions, for there
was no game and it was too early in the season to spear
the sturgeon. On the travelers labored, Father Allouez ever
encouraging his companions, and invoking the aid of St.
Francis Xavier, while his crew implored the protection of St.
Anne, patron saint of all voyageurs.
When they reached the mouth of the river, where they
were to join a little band of French fur-traders, they found it
closed by ice, but that night a tempestuous wind arose and
cleared the channel, so that they were able to enter. On the
second of December, 1669, they made port, landing a short
distance up a stream on the west side of the bay, identified
now as Oconto River.
Six Frenchmen had camped here for purposes of trade,
and these, with the two voyageurs, formed the worshippers at
the first Mass offered on these isolated shores. It was for
Father Allouez a service of thanksgiving that his life had
been spared through so many dangers, and that he had been
enabled to gain this goal of his pious hopes.
During the winter Allouez visited various tribes in the
vicinity, and made one particularly difficult trip across the bay
1905.] FATHER ALLOUEZ AND THE Fox RIVER. 201
to the Red Banks, a distance of ten leagues, where a mixed
village of Pottawottomies and Winnebagoes was situated. The
latter Indians were, Father Allouez wrote, the most wandering
and wretched of all the western tribes.
In this twentieth century, Red Banks has become a con-
ventional summer resort, with picturesque cottages gleaming
through woody glades. Its Indian name, Kish-ke-kwa-te-no,
has been revived, signifying in the Menominee language "the
place that slopes to the cedars." Its winding paths still re-
call the forest primeval, and at night one can hear far off on
a rocky ledge to the eastward a weird complaining cry, the
call of wild cats who find safe hiding in remote caves and
stony fastnesses.
After giving instruction to the dwellers in this encampment
of some seven lodges, in all perhaps one hundred and sixty
persons, Father Allouez began his difficult return journey to
the Oconto. The cold on the open bay was so intense, with
mercury below zero and the unsheltered expanse swept by a
cutting wind, that the missionary was nearly overcome, and
was forced to sink down on the snow. His nose was frozen,
his strength well nigh exhausted, but in telling of this perilous
trip he says, that " through Providence he found in his cassock
a clove," and the pungent spice so revived him that he was
enabled to continue his journey.
When the ice broke up, under the rough winds of March,
Father Allouez prepared to carry on his mission work to the
southward. Passing to the head of the bay he entered the
River of the Puants, a water highway that became only a few
years later, and continued to be for nearly two centuries, the
most important route connecting the Mississippi with the Great
Lakes. Allouez promptly rechristened the beautiful stream,
Riviere Saint Francois, a name that it retained until wars be-
tween the French and the warlike Fox nation, in the eigh-
teenth century, made this section of country the peculiar ter-
ritory of these aggressive Indians, and this waterway a source
of contention between the combatants.
To one who passes up Fox River to-day the journal kept
by Father Allouez, with its minute memoranda of people and;
places encountered by him in that early period of our history,
is of absorbing interest. Although a tremendous water power
has made the stream a centre for manufacture and modern
202 FATHER ALLOUEZ AND THE Fox RIVER. [May,
industries, still one may even now float for miles along its
waters and view practically the same general landscape as did
Allouez on this first memorable journey the steep, overhang-
ing banks, fringed thickly by apple and other low growing
trees, woodlands rising in the background with wide open
spaces between, and the calm, even flow of the river, unvexed
for leagues by modern improvement.
Allouez made but a hasty review of the field at this time,
and in May he was back at his Oconto Mission. He stopped
there but a short time, for in June he must meet at the
Sault St. Marie 'Sieur St. Lusson, emissary of Louis XIV.,
empowered by royal authority to claim for France this wide
western territory. With imposing ceremonies, including ad-
dresses by St. Lusson and Father Claude Allouez, the arms of
France were raised on high and fastened to a solidly planted
pole, while St. Lusson in a commanding voice took possession
of the land in the name of the " most high, mighty, and re-
doubted monarch, Louis, Fourteenth of the name, King of
France and Navarre."
In September, 1670, Allouez again made the voyage up
Fox River in company with Father Dablon, newly appointed
Superior of all the Canadian missions. It was a pleasant
journey, in congenial companionship, full of variety and inci-
dent. Where the city of Kaukauna now overruns island and
commanding bluff, the travelers found set up on the river bank
a grotesque idol of stone, to which every passing red man
made homage, and propitiated with offerings of tobacco.
Without ceremony the missionaries tumbled this gayly painted
image into the water, where it doubtless still rests.
The Indians were uniformly docile, and gave glad welcome
to the kindly "black robe," as they called the visiting priest,
but Father Allouez was inexpressibly shocked that they
should treat him as a deity, and lay offerings of tobacco at
his feet. "Take pity on us," they cried, "thou art a Manitou.
We give thee tobacco to smoke. We are often ill, our chil-
dren are dying ; we are hungry. Hear us Manitou ; we give
thee tobacco to smoke," while Allouez in horror called upon
them to give up their idolatries, and listen to him as he told
them of the true and only God.
In the winter of 1671-72 a permanent mission house was
built on a projection of land, around which the last series of
1905.] FATHER ALLOUEZ AND THE Fox RIVER. 203
rapids eddy before Fox River makes its final sweep towards
Green Bay. It was a level plateau, a prairie Father Allouez
calls it, with a sandy beach skirting its borders some five feet
below. To the eastward the place was sheltered by high
banks covered from base to crown by a heavy growth of
forest.
The river narrows where its rapids rush and hurry, and at
this point the Indians had constructed an ingenious though
primitive fish weir, that zigzagged its irregular line across the
stream. From this picturesque though somewhat unsteady
structure the Indians could skilfully spear the fish that were
stopped in their rush down the rapids by the closely set stakes.
The chapel and dwelling house occupying this accessible and
pleasant spot were solidly framed of logs, stout enough to resist
savage attack or inclement weather. Associated with Allouez
were Fathers Louis Andre and Gabriel Drouillette, men well
fitted for the work assigned them, and to the mission there
constantly drifted, as guests, those wandering traders who made
life difficult for the deputies of Louis XIV. in this western
world.
The story of the coureurs de bois, those Robin Hoods of
New France, forms a separate chapter in wilderness chronicles,
but men prominent in this wood ranging fraternity are so
identified with the daily life of St. Francis Xavier's Mission,
that it is impossible, in sketching its history, to ignore them.
The influence of the Church was the only check on forest
lawlessness and wild dissipation, and that the missionary could
correct with authority the misdeeds of these banditti, gave him
high -place in savage esteem. Not all coureurs de bois were
renegades, but the name became a synonym for everything
loose and undisciplined. In many cases these unlicensed traders
reaped the large profits that the King and his Fur Company
wished to control, and paddled inland waterways with the
spirit of adventure strong within them. With swagger and
determined air of command they intimidated double their
number of savages, and gave the missionaries no little trouble
by debauching the Indians with brandy and stirring up strife
among -them.
Life at St. Francis Xavier's Mission House was varied and
busy enough, to judge from the journal of Father Allouez,
and the record of contemporary writers. Service in the chapel,
204 FA THER ALLOUEZ AND THE Fox RIVER, [May,
attendance at Indian councils, visits to separate cabins, and
instruction given to their inmates; careful noting of astronomi-
cal data, as when Father Allouez makes minute mention of an
eclipse of the sun which occurred on the i6th of April, 1670,
and lasted for over two hours. Father Andre, in his cabin on
the bay shore, kept accurate record of the curious tides that
for many years puzzled students of inland water phenomena;
and all this exploration and investigation of an unknown land
must be put in convenient shape and sent to the Superior of
the Jesuit Order in Paris, to be stored in the Society's archives
for future reference, and to prove in these later years a mine
for historical research.
Many visitors came to St. Francis Xavier whose names are
familiar now through history and romantic tale. Greysolon
Duluth, coureur de bois and gallant soldier of fortune, a typi-
cal outgrowth of that reckless life and age; Baron Lahoritan,
courtier and dillettanti, whose blithe chronicle of his travels
and adventures in these strange parts savors of Baron Mun-
chausen ; and brave Nicholas Perrot, who, when all other
resource failed, and a general massacre threatened the French
throughout the northwest, stood a bulwark of defence against
English stratagem and Indian treachery.
In the spring of 1673, Father Jacques Marquette and his
sturdy companion, Louis Joliet, stopped at the mission on
their way to that great and unexplored stream "that flows
toward the south, and empties into the Sea of Florida, or Sea
of California as we believe." In the fall the same travelers
returned, Marquette broken in health, and content to take a
much needed respite from labor among his brethren at the
Rapides des Peres. Sending Joliet to Canada with news of
their great discovery, the priest settled down for the winter in
the little mission station; a haven of rest for the delicate,
overworked apostle. Here during the short winter days, in the
log cabin banked high with great snowdrifts, Marquette inscribed
a careful record of summer wanderings along the mighty Mis-
sissippi, living over again the discovery and exploration of that
hitherto unknown stream.
Rumors of disaster to the French by field and flood grew
rife throughout New France. The Indians became insolent, and
threatened to enter into a league with the English of Manhat-
tan. Up and down the length and breadth of the St. Lawrence
1905.] FATHER ALLOUEZ AND THE Fox RIVER. 205
valley went Nicholas Perrot, preventing by sheer force of
individual courage and diplomacy a general revolt of the
western tribes. What Perrot's successful efforts meant to the
harrassed missionaries of St. Francis Xaxier we can well imagine,
and his fidelity to them and to his Mother Church is shown
by a beautiful silver ostensorium presented by him to the
mission in 1686. The monstrance is beautifully wrought, prob-
ably by foreign workmanship, and bears upon the base these
words: " Ce soleil a este donne par M. Nicholas Perrot a
la mission de St. Fran9ois Xavier en la Baye des Puants,
1686."
Father Claude Allouez passed on to other fields, leaving a
competent helper to carry on the work so well begun. Like
St. Paul he was ever the one who sowed the seed, and, after
making certain that it had taken root, left to others the fruit
of his labors. Those who followed him found how strong an
impression was made by the good priest's teachings, as when
Father Marquette went to the mission of St. Esprit on Lake
Superior, founded also by Pere Allouez. " The Indians were
very glad to see me at first," he writes, "but when they
learned that I did not know the language perfectly, and that
Father Allouez, who understood them thoroughly, had been
unwilling to return to them because they did not take enough
interest in prayer, they acknowledged that they were well deserv-
ing this punishment, and resolved to do better."
In the summer of 1687 Nicholas Perrot, in his stockaded
fort, in the Trempeleau valley, received word that the mission
buildings of St. Francis Xavier had been burned to the ground
by treacherous savages, Outagamies, Kickapoos, and Miamis.
This included a trading house in which had been stored all of
a season's harvest of furs, in preparation for shipment to
Canada. By hasty marches Perrot returned to La Baye, only
to find smoking ruins where for so many years had stood a
religious home for wanderers in these western forests. Financial
ruin stared the coureur de bois in the face, but there was no
time to remain inactive, for a general uprising of Indians was
feared, and a massacre of the French throughout the north-
west.
The Fathers in charge of the mission had been forced to
flee for their lives to Mackinac, but warning of the impending
disaster must have reached them in time to permit them
2o6 FATHER ALLOUEZ AND THE Fox RIVER. [May,
to bury below the foundations of the Chapel Perrot's pious
gift, the silver ostensorium. Doubtless the missionaries hoped
to return and recover their treasure when less troublous
times should ensue, but for more than a hundred years the
ostensorium remained concealed where its original owners
had buried it. La Baye successively passed through the
ownership of France and England to that of the United
States; wars and treaties changed the map of our country,
exploration opened up wide new stretches of territory, yet
the traditions of Father Allouez and his confreres were still
vividly in mind with a later generation when, in 1803, a
French habitant, digging a foundation for a cabin near the
Rapides des Peres, unearthed this beautifully wrought relic of
early faith in Wisconsin.
Thus ends the story of St. Francis Xavier's Mission ; one
of the most interesting and important episodes in western his-
tory. Three separate places received the name, for Father
Allouez made careful exploration and investigation before
establishing a permanent retreat. It was first given to the
Oconto Mission, in the winter of 1669 and 1670. In that
same season a cross was planted on the heights of Red Banks,
among the Pottawottomies and Winnebagoes, which Allouez
afterward speaks of as St. Francis Xavier. Finally the well-
built house and adjoining buildings on the shore of Fox River
were erected; the place that always comes to mind when
Father Allouez' work and St. Francis Xavier's Mission are
mentioned.
Others took up the burden of evangelization among the
Indians of the west, but in a different spirit from Father
Allouez. War unremitting, harrassing, marks the page of sev-
enteenth century history in Wisconsin. The French, early in
that period, established a fort at the mouth of Fox River, and
military rule rather than religious teaching sought to hold the
now thoroughly rebellious Indians in subjection. Here the his-
torian of New France, Charlevoix, found Father Chardon in
charge, in 1721, occupying a house within the stockade and
adjoining that of the commandant, but the days when mission-
aries passed fearlessly to and fro along western waterways were
at an end.
Still engaged in mission labors, death overtook Father
Allouez on August 6, 1689, two years after the religious house
1905.] FATHER ALLOUEZ AND THE Fox RIVER. 207
established by him at La Baye was reduced to ashes. To-day
the town of Depere holds in its name the anglicized fragment
of the French " Rapides des Peres." Railroad tracks and manu-
factories crowd the river front, where two hundred and thirty
years ago only a solitary Jesuit mission house reared its log
walls. In place of a primitive fish weir, zigzagging across the
rapids, where dusky, painted savages speared sturgeon and
muskelonge, a solid bridge spans the stream, and a great paper
mill shows, when evening falls, its hundred electric eyes of
light.
Yet on the grassy banks of the government lock, and look-
ing up the river, it is comparatively easy to bring again to
mind the setting for that far-off picture of an early century,
and close to the steel tracks, and where traffic is busiest a rough
boulder stands, and on a bronze tablet we read :
" Near this spot stood the Chapel of St. Francis Xavier,
built in the winter of 1671-72 by Father Claude Allouez, S.J.,
as the centre of his work in christianizing the Indians of Wis-
consin. This memorial tablet was erected by the citizens of
Depere, and unveiled by the State Historical Society of Wis-
consin, September 6, 1899."
VOL. LXXXI. 14
AN AFTERTHOUGHT.
BY BEN HURST.
|N the darkening library Father Ambrose had put
aside his books, and arose to his feet at the same
moment that the door, opening from the veranda^
admitted a flood of sunlight and a youth on
whose head it seemed reflected.
" Sit down, Lionel," said the priest. " Why so late ? "
" Well, it was a sudden notion, Father. I have been want-
ing to ride over all these days "
" Not so sudden, then," remarked the priest.
" No ; of course not. The fact is I made up my mind
only a quarter of an hour ago."
"Ah! Then you must have ridden hard."
" No ; I did not take the road, but came right through the
park and over the stubble fields to give Marko a few jumps."
"There goes my impulsive Lionel!" said the priest with a
smile. " There goes the fellow who would have jumped a
continent, and abandoned his ancestral estates to evangelize
Japan, if he had not been restrained for a surer test of his
vocation."
The young man moved uneasily in his chair. "Yes"; he
said, with some reluctance, " I now see you were wise. It was
wiser to delay."
" Ah," returned the priest quizzingly, " we may make a com-
promise as far as Mangalore, or even nearer home, perhaps ? "
The young man kept his eyes on the floor.
" Father," he said at last, " you have always doubted my
vocation to the religious life. And I myself have come to the
conclusion " He stopped.
" Who is she ? " asked the priest.
The youth flushed to the roots of his hair, and stood up.
" Now, Father, you are too quick," he protested.
" Not at all," said the priest. " When I cannot lift my
eyes in my morning walk without seeing a couple of eques-
trians, of whom one is my former pupil and the other a young
1905.] AN AFTERTHOUGHT. 209
lady, slowly riding to or from the Manor day after day well,
it occurs to me that, however devoted a son one may be, he
does not forego his usual morning gallop for the sake of enter-
taining his mother's guest, if she is uninteresting. Frankly,
Lionel, you cause me distractions."
"Why, Father," laughed Lionel, "I thought to give you
a great surprise. But you seem to know everything."
" About you, my son ? I hope so. But I do not yet know
the name of the future Lady Scarris."
Lionel took a turn up and down the room before he answered.
Then he stopped before the priest, and said :
"She is an Anglican."
Father Ambrose made no comment.
"And through her I have learned what human love is.
Father, she has become part of myself. I love her with all
the strength of my heart." _
" They make good Catholics," said the priest meditatively.
"And is she prepared to join us?"
"Now, Father," cried Lionel, "just here comes my vindi-
cation "
"Yes"; said the priest good-humoredly, "for a young man
who, a bare year ago, wanted to lay his celibate bones in
Japan to further the cause of Mother Church to devote himself
to a heretic! Well, it's rather stiff, eh?"
" But, Father, you would not have me and she's not a
heretic. At least she won't be so much longer. It is just
here the miracle comes in. This summer my mother met her
in Scotland, and grew interested in her on account of her
inclination to Catholicity. She asked her down here "
"Wise woman, Lady Scarris," murmured the priest.
" And I assure you, Father, that I regard my attachment as
providential. She belongs to us heart and soul. Outward
conformity alone is wanting. And I shall have no other wife."
The priest reflected for some moments, and then said :
" This is your first affection, Lionel, I think ? "
" Father, you know all my life. It is my first and my last."
"Your last, if she responds," thought the priest, "otherwise
it must not, should not be." Then aloud he said : " I wish
you success in your wooing, my dear boy. I am pleased to
hear of this, and I shall pray God- to bless you both."
"Thank you, Father," said the [young [man fervently. "I
210 AN AFTERTHOUGHT. [May,
wanted to ask you if May consents to undertake her final
instruction and her reception into the Church. But though I
have sometimes thought she likes me I am not sure."
" I would advise you to relieve your mind about that as
soon as possible," said the priest. " Go straight and ask her."
"Yes"; said Lionel, as he took up his gloves. But at the
door he lingered. The priest waited.
" Father," said Lionel at last in a low voice, " you don't
despise me, think me fickle, because I changed my mind?"
" My dear boy," answered the priest gravely, " I always
knew that your vocation was here among your own people.
Your impulses of last year do you honor. But we are in need
of laymen such as you. You can serve the Church better by
fulfilling the duties of your station than by abandoning them.
There; good-by ! Marko will be getting restive. God bless you."
" What a sweet, peaceful day, just as all the days are
here " ; said May, as she and Lionel paced up and down the
terrace in the gathering dusk.
" A day that will be memorable for me," he replied in a
low voice. " May, I can wait no longer. Up to now I have
been unable to glean anything definite from your answers to
my tentative questions. I mean to make things clear to-
night."
" But do I ? " asked May coquettishly. " We are very
well as we are. I have told you that I appreciate your inland
scenery ; that I do not miss the sea the sea always makes me
restless ; that I have enjoyed my visit immensely ; that I hope
to come again. What more could you ask ? "
"Will you come to stay ?" he asked. "But I cannot speak
to you here. However much I love nature, there are moments
when I prefer the enclosure of four walls. Come into the
library, where I can turn on the light and see your face."
" You know, you must know so well, what I am going to
say," he said tremulously as he stood before the deep arm-
chair in which she sat perfectly self-possessed, it seemed to
him.
She looked up at him in a provoking way and laughed.
"Why should I help you?" she asked. "Can I divine
your thought ? If I make a wrong guess, I shall look fool-
ish ; so I refrain."
1905.] AN AFTERTHOUGHT. 211
The light glimmered on her fair hair, on the sweet mouth,
on the firm, shapely chin he loved to contemplate. Their eyes
met. Down he went on one knee, and held out his hand.
" Is this plain ? " he asked.
" A man is very sure when he does that," she remarked
reproachfully, but she laid her hand in his.
And then he felt that she was trembling. A great wave of
joy broke over him. He kissed the hand he held again and
again before he released it. Then he drew up a chair and sat
down before her.
"What a difference a moment can make!" he exclaimed,
smiling. " I am no longer afraid of you, dearest."
" But I am rather afraid of you," she murmured, withdraw-
ing the hand he had taken again. " Tell me, when did you
first know I cared for you?"
" Never, till now," he answered truthfully. And she gave
a deep sigh of relief.
"I should have waited," he went on, "till the evolution
was complete, and you had in fact, as well as in conviction,
become one of us; but see how selfish I am! The longing
to know my fate overcame every other consideration."
The girl smiled with very evident satisfaction. "Are you
sure you will never regret it ? " she asked. " Remember you
once supposed you had a call to the religious life."
"Yes"; he acknowledged. "I was so presumptuous. I
have told you all about that. It was before I had met you."
And he sighed.
" So marriage with you is an afterthought," she mused,
" You, May, were the afterthought," he said. " After-
thoughts are good sometimes."
"You must teach me to be good," said May earnestly,
" It is because I felt you were good that I began to love
you, Lionel."
" Don't make me ashamed," he said [in much confusion,
" Dear May, let us be practical. You are your own mistress.
My father and mother will welcome you with joy. Let us be
married at once after your reception into the Church. Why,
the wedding could take place on the following day."
The girl knitted her brows and reflected.
" I dislike the idea of appearing to change my religion
with a view to marriage," she said.
212 AN AFTERTHOUGHT. [May,
" But, my dear May, that you were favorably disposed
towards the Church was well known before you knew of my
existence," he said reassuringly.
" To a small circle, yes " ; she answered. " Our engage-
ment, however, would put things in a different light to the
world."
"Who cares for the world?" said Lionel.
May knitted her brows once more, and then spoke with
decision.
" I shall embrace your faith when I am your wife not
.before ! " she declared.
Lionel rose to his feet. He was very pale.
_ .r "I could not marry any but an avowed Roman Catholic,"
he said.
The hot blood rushed to her face. " After a proposal it
seems to me I have got a refusal ! " she exclaimed.
" No, dear May," he said earnestly. " You will not let
such a quibble come between us. Is our marriage, then, a
bar to your conversion?"
" Is my conversion, then, to be the condition of our mar-
riage ? " she demanded.
He was silent.
" Answer me, Lionel ! " she insisted.
"Yes"; he said gravely. "Decidedly, yes."
" And this is your love ? " she exclaimed bitterly. " Do
you doubt my word ? You know, whether I marry you or
not, that I will become a Catholic."
"I do not doubt your word," he said. "It is not that.
But I could not kneel and pledge my vows to one who did
not adore with me. Oh May! At such a moment could you
in public deny what in secret you revere ? Do you not know
.what marriage means to Catholics ? "
She now also stood up. Tears were in her eyes.
"You exact every sacrifice from -me," she said. "And
you make no allowance for my pride. Not only will people
say that I changed my faith in order to become Lady Scarris,
but that you married me in order to convert me. All this
could be avoided by postponing my public profession of faith
until after our marriage. Thus neither of us could be accused
of an unworthy motive, and you would prove to me how truly
you loved me."
1905.] AN AFTERTHOUGHT. 213
He took both her hands in his.
"You know I love you," he said passionately. "It is ter-
rible, the empire you have over my whole being ; but I loathe
mixed marriages."
"It is not a mixed marriage," she maintained. "You
know I accept gratefully and reverently every word of your
creed. It is you who will not conquer your pride for my sake."
He did not reply at once, but pressed her hands in deep
agitation. Then suddenly he let them fall, and moved away.
" It is not pride with me, but principle," he said firmly.
" I will not marry one that does not bow before my Lord in
the presence of all men."
"You are right, perhaps," she said, "and the idea of a
union between us is all a mistake. I cannot rise to your
heights. Forget your afterthought. Good-bye "
" May, my love, do not be cruel ! " he begged. " I cannot
live without you. In pity you must yield. May, my sweet,
come to me ! "
He held out his arms, but she put up her hand in protest.
" Do not touch me again, Lionel. I forbid it," she said.
He drew back. " Is this your last word ? " he asked.
"Yes, dear"; she answered sorrowfully. "I do not want
a husband who could not take me just as I am."
She paused, but he was motionless ; and the door closed
softly behind her, leaving him in anguish of heart.
"You see, Father Ambrose," said Lady Scarris a year
later, " It is no wonder that we are getting desperate. He
won't look at another girl, and heaven knows he has had plenty
of nice girls from whom to choose. Many of them are hand-
somer, more clever and more amenable than that wretched
May, girls that are ready to make him happy any day. What
a great mistake mine was, that unlucky invitation, and all that
came of it."
" It remains to be seen," said the priest. " Have you no
trace of her ? "
" I met her uncle, Sir Reginald Wyllis, in London a month
ago. He said they were traveling in Italy still. And I thought
she loved Lionel ! Well, Father, it was a sore disappointment
birth, wealth, beauty, a fascinating personality, and such
harmony in their tastes. If at least he could forget her, or "
AN AFTERTHOUGHT. [May,
she looked questioningly at the priest " there is another way,
of course. He could yield."
"That will not be," said Father Ambrose. " I have discussed
it with him several times. She has, doubtless, the prejudices of
relatives to overcome. But he assures me it is not a mere
religious scruple that stands in the way. It is simply that he
would feel dishonored before his own conscience if he did, as
so many others do, in taking a wife. He has lofty ideas of
the spiritual bond between those joined in matrimony. Their
souls must be one, he says, or he could not feel happy. And
one marries to be happy."
" True ; but it is very unfortunate," said Lady Scarris,
putting a filmy handkerchief to her eyes. " My poor Lionel !
I regret, while I admire his too strict views. And his father
is so anxious that he should marry ! It is really too vexatious
that he should lose his heart to such a girl, while there are
plenty willing to adopt the creed of the heir to Scarris."
"But would you wish such a daughter-in-law?" smiled the
priest. " And would she make Lionel happy ? "
"Father," asked Lady Scarris, as she rose to go, "does
Lionel ever allude to his first idea of entering the priesthood ? ''
" Never," said Father Ambrose emphatically. " That was
quite done with from the time he first met Miss Wyllis."
"You do not know her, I believe?"
" I never met Miss Wyllis," said the priest diplomatically,
"but I think the best thing we can do is to pray that she
may relent, for surely both are unhappy. You have a big
shooting party this season, I believe ? "
" Yes ; not that it helps. Nothing distracts him. Good-
bye, Father. We must leave it in God's hands. Nothing that
we can do is of any avail."
It was Saturday afternoon, and Lionel slipped off when his
visitors got to their rooms. He crossed the meadows, and was
soon knocking at the Father's door. As it opened to admit
him, a burst of choral music from somewhere down the pas-
sages thrilled him. " Never, now, can I hope to join them,
to live in holy, ecstatic peace, or work for the ideal cause ! " he
thought with a pang. "I am doomed to dream of her all my life."
" Any sport, Lionel ? " asked the priest as he offered him
a chair.
1905.] AN AFTERTHOUGHT. 215
" Father, I don't know. I come here to escape from it. I
can think of only one thing. And you must tell my mother
that I mean to get away from here, and see what travel can
do to help me to forget, if that is ever possible."
" Now, now ! " said the good priest soothingly ; " we have
not come to that just yet, I hope. Poor mother ! How her
heart will bleed when she hears of your starting for the Rockies."
" She understands my trouble," said Lionel. " She has
given up the idea of diverting me from it. As soon as the
house is empty next week I'll be off. I cannot stay on
watching for the postman who never brings an answer to my
letters."
"When people are moving about " began the priest.
"Yes, yes; I've counted all that," interrupted Lionel, im-
patiently. " I no longer expect any answer."
He paused for a moment, and then went on vehemently ;
" Listen to me, Father. You think because I changed my
mind once, my fancy, as you might term it, can turn again "
But the priest made a gesture of dissent.
" Well, others think so. And I am sick sick, I tell you,
of all the talk it occasions. They judge me as if T were a
fool or a beast of the field. It is always a question of mar-
riage Marriage ! Here is my father "
" Lionel," said the priest warningly.
"Well, yes; they will not understand that it is not marriage,
it is May that I want. If they would only leave me alone ! "
" My poor Lionel," said the priest in tones of deep com-
passion. "My poor boy. I shall never ask you to give her
up. And we will storm heaven with our prayers. Come to
me to-morrow after Mass; we will talk it all over again."
"Father, will you write, will I write once more?" he
asked brokenly.
" We shall see," said the priest evasively. " Now go to
your guests."
The morning sun shone out brightly, dispersing a melan-
choly drizzle, as the people of the Manor, with a fair number
of their guests, attended the holy Sacrifice at Father Ambrose's
chapel.
"O God, thou who hast given me this human heart," prayed
Lionel all through the service, "lead me as thou wilt, but let
216 AN AFTERTHOUGHT. [May.
me not separate from thee, the God of my youth, my Lord
and my All. Give her to me, if it be thy will; or quench in
me all earthly desires. O God, help me out of this tribula-
tion, or teach me how to suffer. Guide me, enlighten me,
that I may know and follow thy adorable will."
As he stood up at the last Gospel, the young man for the
first time lifted his eyes to the congregation around him, and
there he saw the answer to his prayer. May was among the
villagers, close to the altar rails. Lionel sat down and closed
his eyes. Then he opened them again, fixed them on the
vision, and falling on his knees, buried his face in his hands.
Lady Scarris watched him and two bright tear-drops fell on
her prayer book. As he rose, the eyes of mother and son
met, and together they waited at the door for May.
"Yes," said Lady Scarris to her guests as she rejoined
them, "Miss Wyllis arrived last night, but she went to early
Mass this morning, and I have not seen her since. Converts
are so fervent, you know; they often shame us. By the way,
my son is over head and ears in love with her. I hope she'll
accept him."
" May ! " said Lionel. And then he stopped short. What
could he say ? She had, indeed, proclaimed herelf a Catholic
before the eyes of their world. This was her answer to his
letters of despair.
" May ! You were a Catholic all this time," he exclaimed.
"Of course," she answered, "Did you suppose that your
proposal would delay my conversion ? "
"And what have you been doing ever since?" he asked
reproachfully.
" Reflecting, comparing, testing your vocation and writing
to Father Ambrose."
"You don't mean it! laughed Lionel. "So it was he"
"No"; said May seriously. "It was not he. May not I,
too, have an afterthought ? "
He pressed her hand gratefully.
"That reminds me," said the young man. "I was to meet
him after Mass."
"Yes; had you been less distracted it was there you would
have first seen me to-day," said May. " But let us go to him
together."
THE GOULD BIBLE CONTEST.
BY THE REVEREND J. F. FENLON, D.D.
CONTEST of a character like that whose results *
are now laid before us can seldom be anything
but a mistake. It brings into unfriendly rivalry
feelings too deep and opposed, too sacredly
guarded, to permit ordinary contestants to view
things clearly and describe them dispassionately. Too likely
the aim will be victory rather than truth ; insinuations, hard
hitting, perhaps slurs and sneers will be too prompt to usurp
the place of facts. A one-sided view seems inevitable. Reli-
gious controversy is rarely the mother of truth, more rarely
still, of kindly feeling. They are born of other parentage,
the offspring of patient and disinterested study. In questions
like those here involved, we look for solutions and a fair pre-
sentation of facts not to controversialists, but to painstaking
scholars. They are doing such work to-day; and on the special
topics of these papers the most fruitful contemporary workers,
we freely acknowledge, are Protestants. From them have
come, of late years, and are now coming, the best studies on
the Hebrew and Greek texts; nay, on the text of the Vulgate
itself and of our English Catholic Versions. But the strife of
controversy was no stimulant to their activity, nor would it
have improved their temper or their impartiality.
This particular contest came into being with the original
sin of unpleasant feeling stamped upon it ; and, despite good
intentions and efforts, the stain has never been entirely blotted
out. Catholics have been criticised for holding themselves aloof,
for refusing either to enter the lists as competitors or to serve
as judges ; as if their action savored of intolerance or lack of
enterprise. Opinions may differ regarding the wisest course to
have been pursued; some may think good would have resulted
if able Catholic scholars entered the race ; but no apology, at
least, is needed for the attitude taken. Many would, in the first
* Roman Catholic and Protestant Bibles Compared. The Gould Prize Essays. New York,
1905.
218 THE GOULD BIBLE CONTEST. [May,
place, consider good feeling to be better promoted by abstain-
ing altogether from such a controversy ; at any rate, the un-
pleasantness out of which the contest grew sufficiently explains
and justifies the general attitude of Catholics. Few intending
Catholic competitors, moreover, knowing that the contest was be-
ing conducted under the auspices of the Bible Teachers' Training
School, would be attracted by this official announcement: "The
Board of Judges is to consist of nine persons, four of whom are
to be members of the Faculty of the Bible Teachers' Training
School." And these four, Miss Gould had directed, were to
choose the remaining five. Judges are human ; however honest
and anxious to be fair, they are liable to the influence ot their
prepossessions. This arrangement, therefore, could hardly satisfy
our American sense of fair play, and Catholics may be excused
for not looking with favor upon it. The fact that it was finally
discarded, only one professor of the Training School serving as
member of the jury, apparently shows that it was later seen
to be unwise.
These circumstances alone were of a nature to keep Catho-
lics from the field ; but the particular color given to the con-
test itself was even more of a deterrent. The first proposition
of Miss Gould called for a simple inquiry into the origin and
history of the two versions; she wished "to stimulate investi-
gation and to secure a brief, yet thorough and popular, state-
ment of the facts " ; in itself, no doubt, a most praiseworthy
desire. When, however, the conditions of the contest were
published, its character had changed ; it was no longer an
inquiry, but a controversy. "Contestants," the second condi-
tion read, " should keep in mind the two statements made by
Father Earley." This was an unhappy blunder. Dr. White,
who was in charge of the contest, tried to remedy it later by
earnestly deprecating a " prejudice or even a prevailingly *
polemical attitude." But our blunders, as well as our faults,
follow us ; and his blunder, the essays plainly show, changed
and spoiled the whole character of the contest. He had intro-
duced a personal element that should have no place in a
historical inquiry ; the statements, as interpreted by him, were
plainly false and absurd, and so the contest took on the aspect
not of a pure desire of truth, but of a desire likewise of getting
even, of holding the assertions up to ridicule. We do not
Italics ours.
1905.] THE GOULD BIBLE CONTEST. 219
believe that the condition was inserted with this purpose; it
was a mistake of the judgment; but were it an act of the will,
the result would have been no different.
The statements which play so conspicuous a part in this
contest merit to be placed before the reader; without them
its character cannot be understood :
I take this opportunity, wrote Father Earley to the secre-
tary of Miss Gould, of correcting an erroneous assertion
contained in the end of your note, and which so many non-
Catholics, knowingly or otherwise I do not say, persist in
falsely asserting and spreading; viz. t "The Church you
represent discourages the reading of the Scriptures by the
people." The Catholic Church has never prohibited any
of her members reading the Scriptures or Bible. In every
family whose means will permit the buying of a copy, there
you will find the Authentic Version of God's words as
authorized by the .Church, and which has come down to us
unchanged from the time of Christ himself. But the Catho-
lic Church does object to the reading of the Protestant Ver-
sion, which goes back only to the days of Henry VIII. of
England, and was then gotten up for obvious reasons.
Neither will the Catholic Church allow private interpreta-
tion of the Scriptures.
This passage, which is a dignified reply to a statement
acknowledged to be untrue by the writers of all three essays,
became an essential element of the contest. From it two
propositions were extracted, which were to be borne in mind
by all contestants: I. "The Authentic Version of God's
words as authorized by the Church has come down to us
unchanged from the time of Christ himself"; 2. "The Prot-
estant Version goes back only to the days of Henry VIII.,
and was then gotten up for obvious reasons." The statements,
unquestionably, admit of more than one interpretation, and
could easily be improved in clearness and precision ; but they
were written, let it be remembered, not in a scriptural essay,
but in a private letter in answer to a definite charge. Their
author, declining to be drawn into public controversy, has never
explained the meaning he had in mind. All hinges on the
interpretation of the word " version." Taken in its scientific
sense of " translation," it leads one to unheard-of absurdities ;
these a Catholic scholar would be the first, not to refute, for they
220 THE GOULD BIBLE CONTEST. [May,
are unworthy of refutation, but to put aside with a smile. Un-
derstand the word in a broader sense, which includes originals
as well as translations, and you have an intelligible assertion,
which scholars have defended. This, no doubt, is not a
scientific, but it is a popular, use of the word ; as one might
say: "The Hebrew Version of Daniel agrees with the King
James, but not with the Douay Version"; or, "The same
version of Daniel exists in the Hebrew and King James." And
so we conceive that Father Earley, writing, not a treatise on
texts and versions, but a casual answer in a letter to an untrue
and rather nettling assertion, uses the word in this broad sense.
He refers simply to the Catholic Bible, whether in Latin, He-
brew or Greek, English or German, which is identical with,
or corresponds to, the Vulgate, the authorized Bible of the
Church ; and he claims that this Bible, so far as concerns the
point in question, the Catholic- Protestant controversy, has ever,
since the age of Christ, been the same ; whereas the Protest-
ant version, which was influenced by the circumstances of its
rise, was biased in its renderings, and so is rightly objected
to by the Catholic Church.
This position is intelligible, and the chief facts on which it
is based are admitted by many non-Catholics. But Father
Earley's words were not left simply to speak for themselves in
their original setting ; the organ of the contest officially inter-
preted " Authentic Version" as referring to the "English Catho-
lic Bible." If we make this exchange of terms in the above
sentence, we arrive at this most interesting form of a proposition
which all contestants must keep in mind during their investi-
gations : " The English Catholic Translation of the Bible has
come down to us unchanged from the time of Christ himself."
Evidently nothing could be more ridiculous than such a
proposition except to treat it seriously and call upon scholars
to investigate it. It is unworthy, of course, of a moment's
consideration ; it needs only to be stated to show that Father
Earley could never have meant such an absurdity. The writers
of the Prize Essays themselves cannot consistently apply
that interpretation. Of a like character is the meaning which
seems to be attributed to the " unchanged " condition claimed
for the Catholic Bible. Nothing could have been further from
the writer's mind at the time than disputes concerning the
minutiae of textual variations. The aim he had in view was
1905.] THE GOULD BIBLE CONTEST. 221
to explain why the Catholic Church objected to the reading
of the Protestant Bible; the reason, he implied, was that while
the Catholic Bible always preserved the truth of revelation,
this had been tampered with in the Protestant translations. It
was important dogmatic truths, not details of criticism, that
were in controversy at the period of the Reformation, and influ-
enced the Church's legislation regarding the reading of the Bible.
The historical accuracy of this position of Father Earley's
may be a matter of debate ; but the position itself is far re-
moved from the one he is supposed to have taken. The pur-
pose of the statement and the circumstances in which it was
made being clean forgotten, it is treated as if it were an ex-
cerpt from a handbook on textual criticism. Father Earley is
supposed to claim that there never has been a revision of our
English Bible ; that the Vulgate remains, word for word, like
the autograph copy of St. Jerome, and corresponds, to the
last jot or tittle, to the original Greek and Hebrew. So, at
least, these writers understand him. " It passes comprehension,"
says the author of the second essay, in all gravity, " how any
intelligent person, remembering the uncertainties of the Hebrew
text, the looseness of the Septuagint, the amplifications and
omissions of the Western Greek text, the varieties of the Old
Latin Version, the checkered history of the Vulgate itself, and
then the variations in the Catholic English versions of the
Vulgate, could speak of Challoner, Douay, or Vulgate as an
'Authentic Version . . . which has come down to us un-
changed from the time of Christ himself."
Given the interpretation, nothing is truer; but what are we
to think of a contest that would take it for its guiding star?
that gravely calls for the best modern scholarship to employ
itself on a proposition that no scholar ever thought of enter-
taining ? And yet we see the writers of these papers dealing
with it most solemnly; not a sentence or a half- sentence is lit
up with the faintest smile or twinkle of the eye ; one absurd-
ity after another is taken up and refuted. Will it be believed
that the winner of the first prize thinks it necessary to inform
us that no part of the Gospels, except the inscription on the
cross, was current in the time of Christ? A lesser display of
erudition, and a more keenly developed sense of the ridiculous,
we cannot help thinking, would have been more in keeping with
the character of the refutation needed for these supposed asser-
222 THE GOULD BIBLE CONTEST. [May,
tions. Either, then, as seems clear, they have been wrongly
interpreted ; or, if rightly, they could be fittingly disposed of,
only giving them an honored place in the Gallery of Curi-
osities of Literature.
It is now sufficiently plain, we trust, why the personal ele-
ment introduced should disincline Catholics to enter the con-
test. But there was another feature yet more displeasing, an
injustice done not simply to a priest, but to the Catholic body,
to the Catholic Church. Granting again that the interpretation
of Father Earley's statements was correct; we should consider
THAT the very reason for casting them aside.
Did not the president of a Bible Teachers' Training School
know that all Catholic scholars would smile at the assertions
which he believed Father Earley to make ? Surely nothing
faintly resembling them can be found in Comely or Loisy, in
Maas or Kaulen, in Gigot or Vigouroux. Yet the whole world
is invited to consider them ; by the popular mind they would
be regarded as representative of Catholic opinion; by the con-
ditions of the contest, their author is almost elevated to the
papal chair, and his assertions, poma non sua, invested with a
dignity and importance due to ex cathedra pronouncements.
Any discredit thrown upon them will be pretty generally re-
garded as reflecting likewise upon the Catholic Church ; and
now, as a consequence, most of those who will read the results
of this competition, will lay down the book, exclaiming :
"Well, the ignorance of Catholics! How can any intelligent
man believe as they do ? " And we are supposed to regard
all this with complacency, or fall under the censure of narrow-
mindedness. Truly, when we are in question, a veil seems to
be over the heart of some non-Catholics, and they say and do
the most wounding things without knowing they wound.
The correctness of the proposed interpretation, therefore,
would only aggravate the offence of making these assertions
an essential element of the contest. Nor can this be excused
on the plea that a Catholic priest publicly attacked the Prot-
estant Bible; the attack, if such it be considered, though it
was only a retort, was contained in a private letter which was
given to the press, we are informed on good authority, with-
out the knowledge of its writer.
The contest, then, by reason of its origin and character,
could prove attractive neither to Catholics nor to scholars.
1905.] THE GOULD BIBLE CONTEST. 223
When we turn to view its results, and open the pages of the
book it produced, we find ourselves in an unfrequented world
a world, for the most, part, untouched by the great influences
at work to-day. There the Protestant Tradition, as Newman
calls it, which is dying away in the great outside world, still
holds firm root and pushes forth vigorous branches ; the mem-
ory of
old, unhappy, far-off things
And battles long ago
is kept ever green; the asperities that marked the rise of the
great struggle have softened somewhat, but still exist; the Re-
formers are still worshipped as devoutly as of yore ; the Catho-
lic Church of the Middle Ages and the- Reformation is well
nigh as black as she was painted; historians, during the past
thirty years, have not been delving into the old records, or
have discovered little to disturb old views; nor has a great
movement been in progress which has changed the attitude of
Protestant scholars towards the Bible. There is little new
under the sun; all remaineth as it hath been of old time;
Mount Zion standeth firm and shall not be moved forever.
The spirit of this world has plainly breathed upon our essay-
ists, and in varying degrees they still feel its influence. Their
work, as a whole, must be condemned as partisan, not so much
because it misstates facts, as because it frequently gives only one
side of the case, enlarges with pleasure on whatever seems to
tell in favor of its own side; for it clearly has a side, or against
its opponents, begrudges praise or merit to anything Catholic,
and indulges in uncalled-for disparaging remarks. It keeps
within the limits advised in not being " prevailingly polemical,"
yet a polemical drift is frequently evident. On the other hand,
the essays present much useful information that has not else-
where, so far as we know, been brought together in so small
a compass ; * with no striking literary merit, they at least tell
their story in a style intelligible to all. Nothing new has been
brought to light, f and could hardly be expected in a popular
* The reader will find most of it, however, more satisfactorily and thoroughly presented
in Gigot's General Introduction.
\ The third writer speaks of having collated 1,233 passages of the Douay with the Author-
ized and Revised Versions. For the Authorized New Testament the work has been already
done ; we hope that the rest of his work will be given to the public.
VOL. LXXXI. 15 .
224 THE GOULD BIBLE CONTEST. [May,
treatment of topics that, in great part at least, have been pretty
thoroughly investigated.
The writers, however, differ among themselves in spirit and
attainments, and the author of the first essay does not deserve
the full force of the above censure. He has been signalled
out in a leading New York daily for his " bigotry," but we
consider the criticism severe.* He has his prejudices, plainly;
but he is free from many views often found in Protestant
writers of the day, and has far more of the scholar's tone than
his companions. Contrast, for instance, his broad and intelligent
treatment of the Sixtine and Clementine Editions with the
treatment accorded them in the second paper; the writer of
that considers papal infallibility compromised because Clement
corrected some textual errors in the edition of his predecessor.
The first essay, with a few additions and a number of changes,
chiefly concerning the Canon where it shows great unfairness,
might be used as a text-book in a Catholic college. The second
writer is less well informed, less open minded, and ,more in-
clined to be sharp ; it is his delight to give a keen thrust in
passing, which he can do rather deftly. The winner of the
third prize, who is almost dominated by the influence of the
authorities, Protestant or Catholic, that he happens to be follow-
ing on the topic in hand, gives at the same time more that
is offensive and more that shows a fair, even at times a gener-
ous, disposition.
One concession he grants us will perhaps be too quickly
snatched up in some quarters. Contradicting his two Com-
panions, and agreeing with Father Earley, he "disposes at once
of that, part of the letter which refers to the reading of the
Bible by the individual or family in private." The letter states,
it will be recalled, that in centuries past, as well as at the
present day, the Church has forbidden the reading of Holy
* This judgment of a disinterested outsider on the contest and its result is worth recording.
In its column of book reviews, March 25, the New York Sun says : " Whatever the object of
Miss Helen Gould's sporting offer of prizes for the best essays on ' The Origin of the Bible
Approved by the Roman Catholic Church,' and that on the ' American Revised Version,' it
certainly seems as though an excessive price had been paid for the three prize winners. . . .
The chief discovery seems to be that the Catholic Scriptures include some books which are
regarded as apocryphal by Protestants, a fact which might have been ascertained without
awarding $1,000 prizes. The essays are mainly bibliographical ; the one that took first
prize is marked by a bigotry which fully explains the refusal of Catholics to serve on the
committee of award, and justifies Catholics in their general abstention from the competition."
1905.] THE GOULD BIBLE CONTEST. 225
Writ to none of her members. To prove this, our writer quotes
a recommendation from a pastoral letter issued by the Third
Plenary Council of Baltimore, 1884, strongly urging the use of
the Holy Scriptures. Evidently this advice, given in 1884 to
the Catholics of America, does not prove that the Catholic
Church of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries forbade none
of her children to read the Bible ; but perhaps the writer's
words go beyond his thought. At any rate, it is certain that
the Church, for reasons that were thoroughly commended by
so enlightened a mind as Fenelon,* did prohibit the reading of
the Bible to those whom she deemed it more likely to injure than
benefit. Reasons existed for this action then that are no longer
of force ; and the old regulation of the Church, for those who
understand the times and her motives, needs no apology.
One position modern criticism is making clear, that in biblical
science, as in any other branch of knowledge, only experts are
entitled to opinions on knotty questions; and there the knotty
questions are precisely the important questions of dogma. On
these, able interpreters are little nearer to agreement now than
their predecessors of old. Plainly, then, where doctors disagree,
the man in the street is not and never was competent to de-
cide; and in times of keen controversy, when private judg-
ment was made the rule of faith, the Church was wise in act-
ing upon this view.
We cannot, therefore, accept the gift of this writer, who is
here, as on so many points, misinformed. We deem it only
just and fair, moreover, to call attention to the degree of his
competence for dealing with the topics in question. His sur-
prising manner of approaching a historical inquiry, which de-
mands a judicial frame of mind, is revealed in his opening
sentence: "'If God spares my life,' said William Tyndale,
' ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth a plow to
know more of the Scriptures than the Pope does ! ' That this
was no idle boast, etc." For judicial temperament, this re-
sembles not distantly the opening scene in the most celebrated
of modern trials, as recorded by a popular writer : " Let us
pro-ceed," says th' impartial an' fair minded judge, "to th'
In his classical Lettre & M. L'Evtque d' Arras sur la Lecture de I'Ecritvre Sainte en Lan-
gpe Vulgaire. (CEuvres, Tome III., Paris, 1854.) It was published in English by John
Murphy, Baltimore, in a volume entitled Bible Question Fairly Tested.
226 THE GOULD BIBLE CONTEST. [May,
thrile of th' haynious monsther Cap. Dhry-fuss." Our judge,
however, though prejudiced, has none of the bitter spirit of
his rival; yet we cannot look to him for a just verdict. His
degree of familiarity with the problems of Old Testament
Criticism may be estimated from the dates he ascribes to the
books of the Hebrew Canon ; all these, according to him, were
in existence in the year 400 B. c., which is wide of the truth,
very likely, by about two centuries. In the New Testament,
likewise, he places all the Gospels before 70 A. D., and all the
Epistles before 67 A. D., including, apparently, the Gospel and
Epistles of St. John, which were written haidly less than
twenty years after the dates he ascribes. His idea of the al-
most perfect preservation and transmission of the Hebrew text
appears from these words : " In the [Hebrew] Bible we have
a more correct text than that of any other ancient book.
. . . . This is due to the precautions taken by the Jews.
. . . One writer copied the consonants, another put in the
vowel points and accents, while the whole was scrupulously
revised by a third." This was an effective method, certainly ;
but, unhappily it was not invented till the Hebrew manuscripts
were in transmission, if we accept his dating, the latest about
one thousand, the oldest about two thousand years. This
writer may not have intended to make these statements ; they
may simply be examples of the loose, inexact style of com-
position that characterizes his essay throughout; which leads
him, for example, to say that the Douay Bible has "been
altered . . . to agree . . . with the Authorized or
Revised Version."
We have dealt more at length with this writer, not be-
cause of the importance of his work, but for the light which
it throws upon this contest. He reveals, in truth, far more than
he ever intended. The fact that the eminent men who served
as judges selected this paper for a prize says much, very much,
of the character of the 262 unsuccessful essays. We cannot
but regret the absence of scholars of note from among the com-
petitors; though, naturally averse to any such contest, they
were hardly to be looked for. Most probably, they would
have treated the subject in a broader spirit, and sent forth
essays, not as now, on a polemical, but on an irenic mission.
The prefatory note of the editor, Dr. Jacobus, who seems more
1905.] THE GOULD BIBLE CONTEST. 227
anxious to point out the agreements than the differences be-
tween the two Bibles, has the character of moderation and
fairness that should mark the whole work. Now, however, in
.its present form and spirit, this little book will find its way
into the home of many a religious Protestant family, there to
perpetuate misconceptions and hostile sentiments regarding us
and our Church; while Catholics, who may open its pages,
will not, we fear, be moved to kindlier thoughts of the circle
from which it emanated. Every Catholic must regret that that
section of the American people which still clings to something
like a definite creed and so is nearest to us in principle
shou-ld yet show towards us a narrowness and lack of liberality
that do not, happily, characterize their less orthodox brethren.
In a succeeding paper we will say a further word concern-
ing the Canon of Scripture which is the chief difference found
between the Catholic and the Protestant Bible.
IN DAYS OF PERSECUTION.
BY WILLIAM FRANCIS DENNEHY.
SNE of the latest volumes issued by the English
Historical Manuscripts Commission is mainly
composed of documents preserved at Rushton
Hall, Northamptonshire, which cast much light
on the condition of those Catholics who, during
the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and James I., while stoutly
maintaining the principles of their faith, yielded secular allegi-
ance to their Protestant sovereign.
The story of the discovery of the papers in question is very
interesting. So far back as the year 1828 they were found
built up in a recess cleverly constructed in a very thick par-
tition wall which had to be removed in order to facilitate some
improvements then being made at the Hall. The papers were
wrapped up in a large linen sheet, which contained also a num-
ber of Catholic religious works. It is assumed, from the fact
that the letters and other manuscripts all bear dates ranging
from 1576 to November, 1605, that they were secreted imme-
diately after the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, at a time
when most of the Catholics of England were trembling for
their safety. The probability of this theory being correct is
attested by the fact that the papers were the property of Sir
Thomas Tresham, owner of Rushton Hall during the period
named, and whose eldest son, Francis Tresham, was arrested
for complicity in the famous conspiracy. Sir Thomas, happily
for himself, had died only a few weeks previous to this occur-
rence, which would have deeply afflicted so stout an upholder
of Crown and Throne. On all questions connected with reli-
gion, Sir Thomas was a staunch Catholic, but he hated French-
men, Italians, and Spaniards with a hatred as intense as that
borne them by any of his Protestant fellow-countrymen. The
Rushton Hall manuscripts are mainly valuable because of the
light they cast on the social conditions which affected Catho-
lics at the close of the sixteenth century and the beginning of
1905.] IN DAYS OF PERSECUTION. 229
the seventeenth. As to the absolute loyalty of Sir Thomas
Tresham, there appears to be no room for doubt. In a letter
which he addressed to Sir Christopher Hatton, in 1582, he
protested his determination to defend Queen Elizabeth against
foreign foes or domestic traitors with as much fidelity as any
of his forefathers " did bear to- her Highness' most worthy
progenitors, under whom they were dignified with many noble
offices and advancements, and lived in high prosperity." The
great-great-grandfather of Sir Thomas was Comptroller of the
Household to Henry IV., and was taken prisoner by the York-
ists at Tewkesbury. The brave 'old knight was executed by
his captors. It will be observed, from the words we have
quoted, that Sir Thomas entertained no scruples regarding the
legitimacy of Elizabeth's descent. That he may have been
merely playing a part is, of course, possible, but if he were,
his patience must have been indeed remarkable, seeing that he
maintained the same attitude throughout the whole of a long
life, wherein he was constantly exposed to all the exactions
and vexations which his co-religionists had to bear. The let-
ters now reprinted show him to have been a man of strong
religious feeling, who found consolation, when troubled and
persecuted, in prayer.
On the igth of August, 1581, Sir Thomas Tresham was
committed a prisoner to the Fleet by order of the Privy Coun-
cil, because he had refused to testify one way or the other as to
whether Father Campion had stayed at his house. Lord Vaux,
his brother-in-law, was committed with him for the same
offence. It would seem that Sir Thomas, at any rate, was
quite innocent of any knowledge as to whether or not Father
Campion had been sheltered in his residence, and his bewil-
derment may be imagined when his jailers assured him that
Campion had, under torture, confessed that he had been so
received. That the holy Jesuit ever made any statement to
this effect is incredible, but Tresham had no means of know-
ing what had or had n<jt taken place. In his perplexity, he
addressed a letter to the Lords of the Council, portion of which
is worth quoting. In this communication, dated 1st Septem-
ber, 1581, he wrote as follows:
May it please your Honors that whereas at my late
230 IN DAYS OF PERSECUTION. [May,
being before your lordships, I did I greatly doubt not
only move your displeasure towards me, in that I was not
willing to depose to M. Campion's being at my house,
which I did in regard of not laying myself were I never so
innocent wide open to be detected of perjury ; but also I
dread that thereby it may be gathered that I have had the
managing of some secret and undutiful action either with him
or some like ; whereof to yield a clear testimony, to free
me from all such suspect whatsoever being necessarily
occasioned thereunto have here enclosed drawn down
sundry and I hope sufficient articles to prove myself both
loyal and faithful towards her Majesty, my native country,
and the Lords [of her Highness' Council, both by my ever
exterior words and deeds and also secret thoughts unto the
very writing hereof.
There is not a word in any of the "articles" enclosed in
Sir Thomas' letter indicating the least wavering of fidelity to
the principles of the Catholic faith. He did not recognize the
Queen as Head of the Church, nor did he deny the authority
of the Pope, but on the contrary he declared that he believed
that to accuse himself or any other Catholic in matters of
conscience were "to commit mortal sin," which he would not
do to gain the whole world, but would rather content him-
self with " whatever torture may justly be imposed " upon
him.
It is evident from statements contained in some of the let-
ters now published that the treatment of the Catholic prison-
ers in the Fleet varied considerably. Sometimes they dined
together, while each had his own sleeping room. The dinner
in common had one undeniable advantage, inasmuch as it en-
sured their receiving that important meal. Sir Thomas com-
plained bitterly that his jailer often forgot to bring him food,
though he never forgot to lock him up. Even when he was
released from the Fleet, after payment of heavy fines and
entering into still heavier bail bonds, his circumstances were
little better. He was liberated on condition that he would
remain at a residence to be assigned him, and would not come
within four miles of London. That the accommodation pro-
vided was in no degree unduly luxurious is made plain by a
description of it given by his wife, in a letter written to the
1905.] IN DAYS OF PERSECUTION. 231
Countess of Bedford, beseeching her influence in order to
secure her husband's release. In this it was pointed out that :
He is now under a very wayward warden, very badly
entertained, and too, too badly lodged, as with extremity of
daily smoke bitterly annoyed, and with continual heat ready
in this hot, wet season to be sweltered, his chamber being
allotted over a noisome kitchen, rudely and disjointedly
boarded and not a whit ceiled, that my husband were as good
to lie in the kitchen as over the kitchen, in respect of noise,
smoke, and loathsome savors, and that which is worse, in oft
hearing ungodly, lascivious, and blasphemous speeches.
Lady Tresham added that, owing to the circumstances of
" this vile chamber," when she stayed therein with her
husband, as she was permitted to do, " I was always forced
to send my daughter into the town to lodge, where I may
provide her with a bed," and where she would not be " pestered
with enormities." It seems, moreover, that when the captives
were allowed to dine together in the Fleet, it was only to sub-
ject them to theological bombardment at the hands of Protest-
ant clerics, who were called in to convince them of the error
of their creed. Sir Thomas, however, rather prided himself on
his skill as a controversialist, and set down with much satis-
faction the arguments by which he overthrew his assailants.
Eventually, the prisoner was permitted to reside at Hags-
den, but not in his ancestral home, which was in the vicinity
of that place. He was obliged to rent a cottage " erst a tip-
pling house " as a temporary abode. The purpose of this
piece of needless cruelty was probably to impress upon him
the social disadvantages inseparable from adherence to th r e
creed of his forefathers.
As was to have been expected, there are many gaps in
the correspondence with which we are dealing and it is, con-
sequently, impossible to say how long Sir Thomas remained
under the conditions just described. Bad as these were, how-
ever, he was fated to endure even worse.
As soon as tidings reached England of the vast prepara-
tions which were being made in Spain for the equipment of
the Armada, Elizabeth and her advisers came to the conclu-
sion that the wisest course to adopt was to imprison all the
232 IN DAYS OF PERSECUTION. [May,
leading Catholics of the country, against whom even the least
tinge of suspicion could be alleged. The old charge laid
against Sir Thomas Tresham and Lord Vaux was sufficient to
order their re-arrest. On March 25, 1590, the former pre-
sented a petition on his own behalf and that of his co-reli-
gionists to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lords of
the Privy Council. In this petition the writer described their
attitude at the time of the threatened invasion ; and among
many other interesting matters wrote as follows :
We Catholics, for number not few, for calling, degree, and
antiquity not of the basest or vulgarest sort, and for faithful
deserving to the State and just demeaning ourselves towards
all men, I hope, without offence, may appeal to your lord-
ships. . . . That her Majesty and your lordships, thor-
oughly resolved of our faithful hearts towards her Majesty
and realm, yet for frustrating the enemy's conceived expecta-
tions, hath disposed of us to be shut up again in safe cus-
tody, we without repining at all, according to humble sub-
jects' duty, do offer ourselves to be bestowed where authority
shall think convenient for the more good of our country.
Never, surely, was captivity more cheerfully accepted ; but
Sir Thomas went on to point out that he and his friends
would have much preferred to take their stand with their
fellow-countrymen in opposing the hated Spaniard. He
showed how they had pleaded to this effect, how they had
besought permission to serve against the invader, and how, in
the last resort, they had asked to be placed in the first ranks
of the defenders of their native land, even v/ithout arms, so
that their death upon the battlefield might attest their loyalty
to their country. The document is one of no small historic
interest, because of the light it casts upon the terrible nature
of the embarrassments created for patriotic English Catho-
lics by the adroitness with which Spanish ambition had
seized upon spiritual conflicts as aids to the extension of its
own dominion. It was not only natural but inevitable that
the overwhelming majority of the people of England should
have been deeply stirred by the project which was afoot to
subject them to the rule of the foreigner. The greater number
of Elizabeth's Catholic subjects felt as strongly upon this point
as did those who had submitted to her imperious and heretical
1905.] IN DAYS OF PERSECUTION. 233
will in matters pertaining to the sphere of religion. It must
be remembered, to his credit, that never once did Sir Thomas,
even in his most exuberant declarations of loyalty, recognize
the claim of the Queen to exercise spiritual authority.
Sir Thomas Tresham was regarded by the greater number
of his co-religionists as their most capable leader. Like all
of them he, of course, recognized Elizabeth's illegitimacy, but
he could not help also perceiving, what every man of sense
must have perceived, that the accession, in her stead, of Mary
Stuart would place England under the rule of the stranger.
That his conduct and policy were guided and inspired by pro-
found principle is quite certain. He gained nothing by his
protestations of loyalty towards the "Virgin" Queen. He was
repeatedly imprisoned, rapaciously fined over and over again,
bound and re-bound in bail bonds, and compelled to pay a
continuous tribute of 20 a month to the Crown throughout
the life-long continuance of his recusancy. Despite these
things, his fidelity to the Church of his fathers never wavered.
He declared, in one of the letters from which we quote, that
his "triple prenticeship of one and twenty years in direct ad-
versity " had terribly reduced his estate and fortune, but that
he was willing to " serve a like long prenticeship " once more
than abandon his " beloved, beautiful, and graceful Rachel."
It is impossible not to venerate the memory of such a man.
In common with the majority of the Catholics of England,
Sir Thomas Tresham based great hopes on the succession of
James I. Pervert though the Stuart King was, it was difficult
to believe that he did not cherish some kindly feeling towards
the followers of the faith in which his martyred mother died.
Some of the earlier declarations of James, immediately after
the death of Elizabeth, afforded ground for believing that the
period of persecution of Catholics was about to end. How
grievously the anticipations thus created were to be disap-
pointed the records of history attest. As illustrative of Sir
Thomas Tresham's personal characteristics, it cannot be without
interest to quote in full one of his many letters to his children.
That which follows was written to his daughter, Lady Stourton:
RUSHTON, June 2, 1601.
Jesus, Maria ! Though I was in some hope to have seen
you here this week who to me should have been welcome
234 IN DAYS OF PERSECUTION. [May,
guest yet should I have wished it to have been without
tedious toiling in so long a journey. Albeit I, absent in
person, do notwithstanding daily visit you in mind, and re-
member your lord (husband) you and yours in my prayers,
when I forget not to pray God for myself.
Your London journey might better yield you content than
Rushton journeys. There, atter a sudden and unexpected
desperate danger, you behold no unspeedy delivery thence of
your brother ; and here you should have been an eye-witness
of not only my wedging in myself deeper and faster by easing
of your brother, but also, otherwise, I drenched up as it
were in a world of adversities. What my estate hath been
you well know, but what it now is I most feel. With the
Apostle I may say that I have heretofore known to live and
abound in plenty. I wish that with the said Apostle I may
say that I now know to endure and suffer penury. Truly
my estate is greatly impaired, mightily impoverished through
manifold adversities. Nevertheless, I have more left to
maintain me and mine in some poor plight than I can
challenge of due, or would, without offence to God. He who
hath given all may take away all, his holy will be done. Had
I none to care for but myself, much less yea, just none a t
all should my care be in respect of worldly actions concern,
ing myself. But when those whom I am careful to keep
credit with and provide for others, that I shall fail therein,
by unexpected thwarts of adverse fortune, I have great cause
to sorrow. Needy and poor am I, saith the royal prophet, O
I^ord help me ! Mine may make benefit of this great altera-
tion of my fortunes, that they thereby may behold what trust
is to be reposed in this vale of miseries, though happily little
shall they see worthy the hearing, following of me. In the
well-being of you and your good lord I have great and very
great cause for joy, which I wish may contribute to both your
hearts' desire.
Farewell, my dear beloved daughter. Almighty God bless
you and all yours, even so my daughter Monteagle, and
my daughter Webb, to whom and to your lord, and to M.
Webb, let me be lovingly commended.
On March 25, 1603, Sir Thomas Tresham, having received
news of the death of Elizabeth, proceeded into Northampton to
proclaim James as King of England. He did this without any
actual authority, and apparently solely because of the enthu-
1905.] IN DAYS OT PERSECUTION. 235
siasm engendered by the belief that the opening of the new
reign would secure freedom from persecution for his co-religion-
ists. At the same time, he was sore beset by anxiety lest the
tidings which had reached him were incorrect, and that he
might be incurring the dread penalty of treason. Amongst his
papers are many memoranda descriptive of the dangers he in-
curred at the hands of a disorderly mob and hostile soldiery,
who refused to believe that the great Queen was really dead.
The Mayor of Northampton a " paltry fig seller," he styles
him was grossly discourteous to the brave old knight, who,
notwithstanding every opposition, persisted in fulfilling his
self-imposed mission. More than once during the day his life
was in peril, but he cowed his opponents by the authority
and vigor of his bearing, as well as by repeated threats to
arrest them all as traitors to King James. Eventually, he
secured the support of a number of local peers and gentlemen,
and the work was carried to a successful issue. Soon after-
wards he proceeded to London, in order to be amongst the
first to welcome James on his arrival in the capital. Here he
composed the following address from the Catholic body for
presentation to the King :
Most mighty prince, and our true and undoubted sov-
ereign, we, your Majesty's Catholic and faithful subjects,
humbly on our knees do beseech your Highness to give us
leave to present you with these few lines as the true messen-
gers of the faithful and zealous duty which we do bear to
your Majesty, it being our best means how to signify the
same.
We are the rather constrained hereunto lest our loyal and
faithful hearts now and evermore borne to your Majesty's
title to this Imperial Crown might be calumniated by sinister
informations, which our loyal, dutiful affection we have shown
in our forwardness in proclaiming your Majesty the lawful
King of the realms of England, Scotland, France, and Ire-
land, to the great joy and comfort of all us your faithful
Catholic subjects, which our loyalty we would also have at
this time as willingly manifested in our persons if we were
not by the late made laws restrained as any others of your
Majesty's loving subjects. The great hope which we have
conceived of your princely lenity and benign nature doth in
a ^manner assure us, that your Majesty, coming to this Im-
236 IN DAYS OF PERSECUTION. [May
perial Crown, will give happy end to our miseries and
troubles. Our humble petition to your Majesty is that you
would have that opinion of us as of others, your Majesty's
good subjects, who are and ever will be ready to spend the
best blood in our bodies for your Majesty's service. And so,
prostrate at the feet of your Majesty, we most humbly be-
seech the same to pardon this our boldness in adventuring to
address these few lines to your Highness, and benignly to
accept them as a declaration of our zeal and duty until
further time and better opportunity serve us to manifest the
same in more ample manner. Almighty God be he that bless
and preserve your Majesty in our inestimable joy and your
endless felicity.
Now, however, came the mad "Bye" plot, or "treason of
the priests," as in the jargon of the time it was styled in order
to distinguish it from the "Main" conspiracy against the King
which was set afoot by Raleigh, Cobham, and Grey, with other
Protestants. Lingard, in his History of England, has told us
all that need be now recalled regarding what can only be de-
described as an act of suicidal insanity. He declares that the
"Bye" plot was "under the direction of Sir Griffin Marktam
and of George Brooke, the brother of Lord Cobham. Discon-
tent made them conspirators, and the successful attempt of the
Scottish lords, on a former occasion, suggested the forcible
seizure of the royal person. With the King in their posses-
sion, they would be able to remodel the government, to wreak
their vengeance on their enemies, Cecil and Sir George Hume^
and to secure to themselves and their friends the principle
offices in the State. It was not, however, pretended that with
this plot Cobham and Raleigh had any concern. They were
satisfied to know of its existence, and cherished a hope that,
'if one sped not, the other might.'" Markham and Brooke
went about their unwise work with some degree of wisdom.
They were penniless and unimportant personages, who could,
not raise a corporal's guard, but they turned to the Catholics
and to the Puritans alike, and amongst both they found adher-
ents. Two priests joined the conspiracy, knowledge of which
was, however, conveyed to the Privy Council by fellow- Catho-
lics M. John Gage and Father Gerard, SJ. The King, with
all his faults, was too astute a man not to realize that the
1 905 . ] IN DA YS OF PERSECUTION. 237
Catholics, as a whole, had no part in the treason which was
afoot, but it must be recognized that the mere fact that Catho-
lics had a share in it rendered it difficult for him, even if he
had been so inclined, to give effect to the promises which he
had held out to leading adherents of the old faith. England
then, as in the days of Charles I., Cromwell, Charles II., and
James II., was not merely aggressively but ferociously Prot-
estant. There can be but little doubt that this fact was
largely due to the circumstance that her Continental enemies,
and especially France and Spain, had constantly endeavored to
make her fall from Catholicity, the excuse >for their own at-
tempts against her national independence and to check the
growth of her expanding power.
Sir Thomas Tresham died in September, 1605, and almost
immediately afterwards his son was engaged in those dealings
with Fawkes and his own cousin Catesby, from which the
counsels of his father, if heeded, would have preserved him.
The story of his connection with the Gunpowder Plot, however,
does not come within the scope of a paper which has relation
only to the life and character of one who was not only a
faithful Catholic, but a loyal Englishman.
GANYMEDE AND LADY DISDAIN.
;BY A. w. COOPE.
JHE infinite variety of Shakespeare is not less
remarkable in the delineation of characters pos-
sessing certain points in common but placed in
diverse circumstances, than in those, perhaps
more conspicuous cases, which he seems to de-
light in presenting, where characters of different temperaments
are made the subject of the same circumstances. Perhaps no
better illustration of this occurs than that of Rosalind and Bea-
trice; each alike remarkable for her exuberant and ready wit,
and yet their wit so different that it would be scarcely possi-
ble to transpose a passage from one to the other, without being
sensible of the incongruity. It may be interesting to attempt
a slight study of these two characters in this respect.
As in Rosalind we have Shakespeare's most completely
elaborated example of the favorite device of women passing
under the disguise of male attire, it may be of assistance to
refer for a moment to the simpler cases in " The Two Gentle-
men of Verona," and "Twelfth Night."
In Julia, the page's dress is assumed for her protection on
the journey, and in this consists nearly the whole of the dis-
guise ; there is so little pretence of impersonation, that but for
this her lines might almost as well be spoken in her own
proper person. This lovely character, to whom Shakespeare
has given some of his most harmonious verses, is, Schlegel
observed, " as it were, a light sketch of the tender female
figures of a Viola and an Imogen, who, in the latter pieces of
Shakespeare, leave their home in similar disguises on love ad-
ventures, and to whom a peculiar charm is communicated by
the display of the most virgin modesty in their hazardous and
problematical situation."
In Viola the assumption is more developed. She seems to
intend her disguise to be a more or less permanent one, to
enable her to become a regular member of Orsino's household.
1905.] GANYMEDE AND LADY DISDAIN. 239
On her introduction to Olivia she not only enacts the charac-
of the Duke's page, but she affects to be reciting a part which
she has studied in that character ; and in the fine scene with
Orsino the assumption is so complete, that she fearlessly ven-
tures upon such pregnant expressions as
" Ay, but / know
Too well what love women to men may owe."
" My father had a daughter loved a man,
As it might be, perhaps, were I a woman,
I should your lordship."
" I am all the daughters of my father's house
And all the brothers, too."
And this notwithstanding Orsino has already remarked her
face and voice as " semblative a woman's part." Even in the
duel scene, frightened as she is, she entertains no fear of dis-
covery.
In " As You Like It " the impersonation is the main pur-
pose of the play ; and it is so complete that, while with Viola
we are throughout fully conscious of the assumption, with
Rosalind we are in danger of forgetting the daughter of the
banished Duke in the sprightly Ganymede.
The play introduces us to Rosalind at the usurping Duke's
Palace. From some expressions of Charles the Wrestler it
might at first be inferred that the banishment of the rightful
Duke was a recent event : " They say he is already in the
forest of Arden " ; but it is evident from the scene between
the Duke, Celia, and Rosalind that some years must have
elapsed, for Celia says :
" I was too young that time to value her,
But now I know her."
The banished Duke also speaks of "old custom" having
made their forest life more sweet than that of painted pomp.
Rosalind is presented to us as still dejected by reason of
her father's banishment ; she would naturally suffer permanent
anxiety on his account, and she would also feel the difference
VOL. LXXXI. 1 6
240 GANYMEDE AND LADY DISDAIN. [May,
in her own position. To Celia's remonstrance she protests
that she already shows more mirth than she is mistress of;
her dejection, however, is not so deep but that she is able by
an effort to throw it off; she declares she will henceforth be
merry and devise sports, and suggests forthwith the eternal
theme of Comedy falling in love. Presently she finds that
words spoken in sport may come to be fulfilled in earnest.
They see the wrestling, and Rosalind herself (no leas than
Phebe later on) experiences the might of Marlowe's saw.
Before the contest she expresses the liveliest concern for
Orlando's safety, and after his victory, and on learning who
he is, she presents him with a chain from her own neck with
an expression of singular gracefulness; indeed throughout this
scene she is represented as full of tenderness.
This side of her character is put in a still stronger light in
the next scene. The Duke has determined to banish Rosalind,
and alleges as a ground that she stands in Celia's light:
" She is too subtle for thee ; and her smoothness,
Her very silence, and her patience
Speak to the people, and they pity her.
She robs thee of thy name.
And thou will show more bright, and seem more virtuous,
When she is gone."
So far. Rosalind at the Court of the usurping Duke ; let us
now see her in the forest of Arden. It is impossible not to
be struck with the contrast. Not only has she suited herself
" at. all points like a man," but she has bidden all womanish
softness lie hidden in her heart, and will outface it with " a
swashing and a martial outside." She at once assumes the
lead and makes it her business to take care of Celia and
"comfort the weaker vessel."
In the forest she is brought into contrast, in turn, with
Corin and Silvius; with Orlando (upon whom she plays off
the delightful conceit of making pretence that she is his
Rosalind and that he shall make love to her); with Phebe; and
with Jaques ; and it also appears she has met the banished Duke,
her father. It were superfluous to go through all the scenes;
everywhere she exhibits the same pungent wit, gay repartee,
1905.] GANYMEDE AND LADY DISDAIN. 241
and lively fancy; and the presentation is so full of charm that
we are almost tempted to doubt whether this is not the real
Rosalind come out in her true colors. And yet we are con-
scious of missing the tenderness she has exhibited in the earlier
scenes ; instead of the " silence and the patience " for which
she was noted at the Court, she presents what Hazlitt did not
scruple to call a " provoking loquacity " ; and the quips with
which she receives the news of Orlando being in the forest,
and, as far as we are enabled to gather, her behavior on meet-
ing her father, suggests something very like a want of sensibil-
ity. Even Celia remonstrates with her. "Cry holla! to thy
tongue, I prithee; it curvets unseasonably"; and at another
time she is constrained to say that she has misused her sex (of
which, of course, Celia is always conscious) in her love-prate,
" we must have your doublet and hose plucked over your head,
and show the world what the bird hath done to her own nest."
The key to this apparent inconsistency is, I think, to be
found in the consideration that Rosalind has so completely
identified herself with the part she is acting that in imagina-
tion she is what she represents, and that in portraying a wo-
man's notion of a man's sentiments she now and then oversteps,
to use Hamlet's phrase, the modesty of nature; by an impulse
natural enough she overdoes her part; she thinks it "mannish"
to suppress all exhibition of emotion ; and thus even while
protesting that she has no doublet and hose in her disposition,
she exhibits volubility and flippancy when her real emotions
would naturally have found expression in a very different
manner.
A momentary glimpse of the real woman breaks out when
she says in deprecation of Celia's reproof " O coz, coz, coz,
my pretty little coz, that thou didst know how many fathom
deep I am in love ! " But not till the end does nature assert
herself. Orlando has sent to the shepherd youth, he in sport
called his Rosalind, a napkin stained with the blood from a
wound he has received from a lioness while endeavoring to
rescue his brother Oliver. Oliver, who is himself the bearer
of the napkin, relates how it befel, and Rosalind swoons not
at the sight of the blood, but on hearing of Orlando's bravery
and danger, and how in fainting he had called upon her who,
by this token, she knows is indeed his "very very Rosalind."
242 GANYMEDE AND LADY DISDAIN. [May,
She presently recollects herself, and endeavors to pass off
her swoon as a counterfeit. This is too transparent to de-
ceive any one, and indeed she seems for the moment to have
forgotten that it was no part of the character to swoon at the
sight of blood, still less to pretend to do so. Oliver bids her
take a good heart and counterfeit to be a man. " So I do,"
she says, " but, i' faith, I should have been a woman by
right."
It is not the least happy of Rosalind's passages of wit that
when she next meets Orlando, having his arm in a sling, she
pretends that she thought it was his heart that was wounded.
" O, my dear Orlando, how it grieves me to see thee wear thy
heart in a scarf." However both their hearts, if not in scarfs,
are wounded, and the inevitable climax, of course, follows.
The situation of Beatrice so far resembles that of Rosalind,
that she also is niece to the reigning prince, and has his
daughter fora foil; but whereas in the case of Rosalind there
was the rankling sense of injustice, in the case of Beatrice her
position was that which she naturally occupied. In the one
case the outcome is resignation, in the other the sense ol her
dependent position has developed a certain asperity which
finds utterance in witty speeches. And while Rosalind's wit
is uniformly kindly even with Phebe she is cruel only to be
kind Beatrice's wit is not unfrequently bitter, sometimes, as
in her intercourse with Benedick, almost justifying Johnson's
strange estimate of this character. But, whether sarcastic or
not, her wit has no malice in it. Leonato calls the passages
between her and Benedick a " merry war." Her disposition is
well indicated in her answer to Don Pedro : " In faith, lady,
you have a merry heart." " Yea, my lord, I thank it, poor
fool, it keeps on the windy side of care."
But, as with the Rosalind of the forest, there is a deeper
self behind ; she is noble-hearted and true as steel. When
Claudio has so readily listened to Don John's slander; when
all her friends, even her own father, have turned against Hero,
she has no doubt, " O, on my soul, my cousin is belied."
Her earnestness wins over Benedick : " Surely I do believe
your fair cousin is wronged." "Ah," says she, "how much
might the man deserve of me that would right her ! " How
characteristic are her high-spirited if grotesquely expressed
1905.] GANYMEDE AND LADY DISDAIN. 243
exclamations: "Kill Claudio." "O God, that I were a man!
I would eat his heart in the market place." Of course, the
spectator has seen from the first that, although Benedick's
affectation vexes her, Beatrice is really more nearly in love with
him than she imagines; and the same thing conversely is true
of Benedick, notwithstanding his vanity is wounded by Bea-
trice's sarcasms. The contrivance of their friends has opened
their eyes, and the slander of Hero, through Beatrice's protest-
tation of her innocence, has brought about the avowal. An
admirable touch is given in the conversation between Don
Pedro, Claudio, and Benedick. Don Pedro is telling how
Beatrice, after affecting to depreciate Benedick, concluded with
a sigh that he was the properest man in Italy. " For the
which," says Claudio, " she wept heartily, and said she cared
not."
When we contrast Beatrice's frank surrender in her soliloquy
in the garden scene with the conceit in Benedick's correspond-
ing soliloquy, we feel disposed to doubt if he is worthy of
such a woman ; but Shakespeare has taken care to let us know
that under his affectation Benedick has the right stuff in him ;
and we may be sure so shrewd a lady as Beatrice would not
be ignorant of his real character.
Although they may be too wise to woo peaceably, Beatrice
will tame her wild heart to his loving hand, and she will no
longer fancy she is sunburned, and may sit in a corner and
cry heigh-ho for a husband.
IRew Boofce.
A book which we have three
THE OLD TESTAMENT, times reviewed in its original
By Lagrange. French, and have long been eagerly
looking for in English, Pere La-
grange's La Methode Historique, is at last at hand in a thor-
oughly good translation.* We welcome the version as, all
things considered, the best book available for a sane, careful,
and progressive introduction to modern biblical methods, as
these stand with regard to the Catholic Church. Pere La-
grange is a man whom both unorthodox and orthodox must
listen to with respect ; the one because of his scholarship, the
other because of the official positions which he holds as a
great Catholic teacher. The eminent Dominican, by his pub-
lished works on Semitic religions, the book of Judges, and
his studies in the Revue Biblique, has won high rank among
critical students of Scripture; and by his distinguished place
as head of the School of St. Stephen at Jerusalem, and as
member of the Biblical Commission, he stands before Catho-
lics as a man amply guaranteed by authority to lead them by
safe and wholesome ways. P. Lagrange is fearlessly modern
in his methods, and at the same time is reverentially obedient
to every de fide utterance of the Church. He has had his
antagonists of course. Every man who makes the admissions
which this book contains the non- Mosaic authorship of the
Pentateuch, the precarious nature of patriarchal history, the
close relationship between Genesis and Babylonia, the enor-
mous doctrinal development in the Old Testament, and the
lax view of history-writing prevalent among Orientals must
expect opposition from the good but not prudent conservatives
who tremble for the faith at the sound of every explosion of
merely human theories of which great theologians of the past
happen to be the authors. These admissions must be made.
The biblical question wears an entirely new look in these days
from the profusion of light thrown upon it by modern learn-
ing. And the best friends of revealed religion will not be the
Historical Criticism and the Old Testament. By Pere Lagrange, Q.P. Translated by
Edward Myers, Priest of the Diocese of Westminster. London : Catholic Truth Society.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 245
men determined to hold, per fas et nefas, to this or that view
of Bellarmine, Suarez, or some other theologian, despite every
accession of new fact; but rather the scholars who will wel-
come and adopt criticism in its legitimate field, and will cheer-
fully abandon, if they must, many a theological opinion of
the past, in the confidence that the final and essential dogmas
of faith are safe beyond the possibility of harm. That this
latter method is needed, is helpful, and can be employed,
moderately and respectfully, P. Lagrange's present little vol-
ume is proof positive. It will bring reassurance and peace to
souls that have been perplexed, like, for example, the univer-
sity student whose difficulties are being now so ably dealt
with in this magazine by Dr. Fox; and we wish for it the
widest possible circulation.
Appended to the original six lectures is P. Lagrange's
open letter to Mgr. Batiffol on the New Testament criticism
of the Abbe Loisy. We are not certain that we would have
inserted this addition, if we had had anything to say in the
matter. For while, of course, this letter contains useful sug-
gestions and scholarly principles, it is too brief an examination
of M. Loisy to be satisfactory. This latter scholar propounds
in L? vangile et V glise both particular critical views of cer-
tain New Testament phrases and phenomena, and also a great
comprehensive philosophy of Christian dogmatics. Now, neither
of these two features of his work can be at all justly esti-
mated in thirty printed pages. It is true P. Lagrange gives
us admonitions which are serviceable for the guidance of all
criticism, and which may, taken roughly, point out some un-
satisfactory features in the work of the scholar whom he criti-
cises. These admonitions are chiefly two. The first bids us
remember the subjective character of textual reconstructions;
and the second insists that in case of doubt whether a certain
text or institution really originated with Christ, we may find
a definitive solution in the tradition of the Early Christian
Society. Both these observations are in the highest degree
valuable ; but they are not enough to demolish M. Loisy.
They are too summary a treatment of a vast dispute; and
we may be permitted to say that they leave behind as many
difficulties as they remove.
We must not omit a word of congratulation to the trans-
lator. La Methode Historiquc was an exceedingly difficult book
246 NEW BOOKS. [May,
to translate, being full of those fine nuances, and those half-
affirmations, half-interrogations which sit so well in French
costume, but which it is next to impossible to make presenta-
ble in English dress. If there is an occasional obscure sen-
tence in the translation, Father Myers is not to be blamed,
since he did not write the original. He has done a hard task
in a highly creditable manner.
A translation of and commentary
ISAIAS. on the book of Isaias is at hand
By Condanim. f r0 m the competent pen of P.
Condanim, S.J.* The work is
done in the best style of modern critical scholarship. P. Con-
danim's erudition is deep and thorough, his critical sense has
a turn for the original and the independent, and at the same
time his reverence for tradition is generous and instinctive.
Whether one agrees with all his positions or not, one must
recognize in him a masterful student of Scripture, and must
assign to his work a place of honor in the very front rank of
Isaian studies, by the side of the great classics of Cheyne and
Duhm. What we especially had in mind, in speaking of P.
Condanim's originality, is his comprehensive scheme of the
strophic structure of Isaias. He considers that the prophecies
of this book are built upon a symmetrical arrangement of
strophe, anti-strophe, and intermediary strophe ; so that a
strophe of a certain number of verses dominated by the same
idea, shall be followed by an anti-strophe of parallel or otherwise
symmetrically corresponding construction. P. Condanim carries
his study of the book ratfher further along this line than has
hitherto been done, and the results of such an investigation
are important enough to call for a good deal of expert investi-
gation. These results do not lie merely in the technical field
of literary criticism, but extend into the graver problems of
text and interpretation, which in the book of Isaias are so
many and so momentous. For, evidently, if we can rely on
the strophic arrangement proposed by P. Condanim, we have
an immense help directly at hand for the elucidation of texts
which, taken by themselves, are obscure, and a help further-
more for the readjustment of texts which, by the common
fortune of manuscripts, have become transposed and thrust out
*Le Livre d' Isaie. Traduction Critique avec Notes et Commentaires. Par le P.Albert
Condanim, S. J. Paris : Librairie Victor Lecoffre.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 247
more or less remotely from their original setting. As to the
ultimate value of this contribution to Isaian criticism, it is im-
possible just yet to decide. P. Condanim himself sets an ex-
ample of moderation, both in recommending it to the attention
of scholars, and in circumscribing the province in which it may
be useful.
The commentary on the text is clear and illuminating,
brief where brevity is best, and lengthened out where as
in the Emmanuel prophecy of chapter vii., and the prophecy
of the "Suffering Servant" of chapter, liii.- it would net be
wise to be brief. In these latter instances the commentary
gives a history of the interpretation of the passages in dispute,
outlines the present theories of critics, and vindicates from
objections the view which the author himself maintains. In
regard, to the Sublime Sufferer of chapter liii., it is, perhaps,
needless to remark that P. Condanim upholds the traditional
Catholic interpretation. We wish that he had given some con-
sideration, in studying this probably insoluble problem, to the
argument from analogy.' To interpret this momentous chapter
in a manner which to us seems the best, it is necessary first
to make a painstaking examination of the general idea, scope,
and spirit of Old Testament prophecy, and next of the
" argument " of Deutero-Isaias. This analogical process would,
we venture to say, be even more valuable as a step toward
a solution than merely literary and textual investigations.
We are not prepared, however, to state that this process
would add to the strength of the traditional opinion.
Unfortunately, but inevitably, P. Condanim does not in this
volume discuss the problems of the higher criticism of Isaias
the great questions as to authorship, date, etc. To take up
these controversies adequately, would require as much space
as the text and commentary themselves occupy. So our
author reserves all these inquiries for a special volume of in-
troduction to Isaias which will not, we trust, be long denied
us. When that volume appears we shall be able to estimate
more decisively than we can do now, the full value of P.
Condanim's contribution to Isaian literature. But from the
portion already in our hands we can declare with certainty
that the work will be equal to the best that we have in this
field, and will be indispensable to all future students of the
greatest of the biblical prophecies.
248 NEW BOOKS. [May,
Professor Porter's handbook * on
JEWISH APOCRYPHA. the Jewish apocalyptic writings is
By Porter. an excellent manual, and one that
we sorely needed in English. The
apocalypses which appeared in such abundance in Judaism,
from the Book of Daniel in 170 B. c., to the visions of Esra and
Baruch toward the end of the first Christian century, are being
studied now with fresh interest by scholars, since we perceive,
better than ever before, how great a light they can shed upon
many a hotly disputed problem of the Gospels. It seems
hardly too much to say that the greatest New Testament sub-
ject for either devout or critical study is the mind and self-
consciousness Selbstbewusstsein of our Lord. To understand
his mental attitude, to penetrate, so far as we may, to the
constituent elements of his characteristic thoughts, is the high-
est hope of devotion, and the holiest ambition of criticism.
Now, in the pursuit of this purpose, we can take hardly a step
until we know profoundly and accurately the current ideas in
our Lord's environment. For he clothed his thought, of course,
in the forms that lay at hand, familiar to his Jewish com-
panions and contemporaries. And only now do we adequately
understand how much of these thought- forms may be recovered
from the apocalypses which succeeded prophecy among the
Jews. These mysterious writings, most of them not in our
canonical Scriptures, are our chief source for later Jewish escha-
tology, and for the momentous matter of Messianic dogmatics.
No one can read the similitudes of Enoch, the Apocalypses of
Esra and Baruch, and even portions of the Book of Jubilees
and the Sibylline Oracles, without being astonished at the in-
fluence which such works must have had upon the New Tes-
tament Scriptures. Almost the entire phraseology of such
canonical apocalypses as the twenty fourth chapter of St. Mat-
thew, and the visions of that remarkable book which closes our
Canon, may be paralleled in Esra, Baruch, and Enoch.
Eminently deserving, therefore, of our study are these frag-
ments of late Jewish literature, and they are, in our judgment,
destined to take on more and more importance, with every
fresh investigation of their contents. Professor Porter's intro-
duction to the study of these writings is done in a clear, sys-
* The Messages of the Apocalyptical Writers. By Frank Chamberlin Porter, Ph.D., D.D.
New York : Charles Scribner's Sons.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 249
tematic, and erudite manner. He gives a summary view of
their nature and subject-matter, and analyzes, at considerable
length, the books of Daniel and Revelations. In smaller space
he studies the apocalypses of Enoch, Esra, and Baruch. A
few words on the apocalyptic passages of Jubilees and the
Sibyllines would not have been out of place. Professor Porter
holds a rather broad view of biblical criticism, but his tone
throughout is scholarly and objective. We regret the expression
"Romish Church"; and we notice that the bibliographical
appendix does not include Wellhausen's essay on the apocalyp-
tic Jewish writings published in the sixth volume of his Skiz-
zen und Vorarbeiten.
M. Imbart de la Tour has written
THE REFORMATION IN a volume of the greatest value on
FRANCE. the origins of the Reformation in
By De la Tour. France.* His purpose is to de-
scribe the state of society, poltical,
economic, educational, and religious, out of which proceeded
the great religious agitation of the" sixteenth century. This
aim is somewhat similar to that of Janssen's History of the
German People ; with this difference, however, that M. de la
Tour pays greater attention to the social and secular side of
his subject. Some of the features of the present volume are
chapters on the absolutist and feudal principles in pre Reforma-
tion France ; the situation of the great seigneuries of the king-
dom; the growth of cities; public order; taxation and fiscal
system; commerce and industry; capital and labor; the aristo-
cracy, the bourgeoisie, and the common people; and the con-
dition of education. The ecclesiastical aspect of the work is
provided for in two chapters on the Church's gradual subjec-
tion to the monarchy, and on the place of the clergy in the
national life. All these topics are dealt with in an objective
and impartial manner, and with extensive erudition.
From works like this it is clear that the state of European
society toward the end of the fifteenth century must have led
inevitably to violent changes of some sort. The economic
conditions were often deplorable. M. de la Tour shows that
about the year 1500 poverty and misery had so increased in
France that neither the subventions of the public treasury nor
the largesses of Christian charity could cope with the indigence
*Les Origines de la Rtforme. Par P. Imbart de la Tour. Paris : Librairie Hachette et Cie.
250 NEW BOOKS. [May,
of the lower orders. The monarchical idea was fast hardening
into absolutism. And, saddest of all, the Church in France
had come to such an extent under the sway of royalty, that it
was beginning to be estranged from the people as a whole.
This latter danger the popes had always dreaded as by instinct ;
and their long quarrels with the heads of the States of Europe
had, for their constant end and motive, the liberation of reli-
gion from the tyranny of crowns. However much historians
may censure the extent to which clerical immunities were
carried in the Middle Ages, they must admit that these strenu-
ously asserted benefits of clergy made for a free and popular
Church as against an Erastian and aristocratic one. At all
events in the state of France, in the year 1500, we can see in
the popular discontent with the drift of political and ecclesiasti-
cal management, the germ- spirit of the Revolution. It is of
utmost importance to history to know thoroughly this period
of preparation and travail. Only by knowing it can we under-
stand adequately what sprang from it. Consequently M. de la
Tour has done a real and considerable service to historical
science, and we wish for his book a success corresponding to
its merit.
Aubrey Beardsley, the artist, died
LETTERS OF at Mentone, France, in his twenty-
BEA.RDSLEY. sixth year, a twelve-month almost
to a day from his reception into
the Catholic Church. He was a gifted soul, a pious eonvert,
and a brave and patient sufferer. Some of his letters to one
or two intimate friends during the last year and a half of his
life have been put into a volume, for which a priest of the
archdiocese of St. Andrew's and Edinburgh has written an in-
troduction * There is not a great deal in these brief notes,
written generally from the bed of sickness, that is of bio-
graphical interest. Many of them, such as acknowledgments
of invitations to tea, should not have been published. Still, in-
the underlying sense of resignation which characterizes them,
there is something pathetically interesting. The incidents con-
nected with Aubrey Beardsley's conversion are mentioned with
considerable reserve. Enough is said, however, to let us know
that the young artist, face to face with an untimely death,
* Last Letters of Aubrey Beardsley. With an Introduction by the Rev. John Gray. New
York: Longmans, Green & Co.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 251
found in the Catholic religion the greatest peace of his whole
life, and the best sustenance of fortitude and hope. He alludes
to his conversion in these graceful words: "I feel now like
some one who has been standing waiting on the doorstep of a
house upon a cold day, and who cannot make up his mind to
knock for a long while. At last the door is thrown open, and
all the warmth of kind hospitality makes glad the frozen
traveler."
The veteran Paulist Missionary,
A NEW MISSIONARY Father H. H. Wyman, has placed
MANUAL. before earnes_t seekers after truth
a book* of really convincing
power. Himself a convert from New England Protestantism,
he is sympathetic of current doubts and difficulties, and meets
them with equal power and kindliness. The matter is arranged
and treated wholly in the interests of clearness and force, the
arguments put aptly, the illustrations suggestive of the writer's
many years of active life as a preacher and guide of souls.
One must not think from the title of the book, Certainty
in Religion, that this is a dry, philosophical treatise. It has,
indeed, a strong tincture of that order of reasoning, as befits
its author, at one time professor of ethics; but it is closely
adjusted to the comprehension of ordinary men. Let it be re-
membered that multitudes of so-called uneducated, even of
common workingmen and women, are nowadays perplexed
with questions formerly known only among the educated
classes. Without failing to interest a cultured enquirer, Father
Wyman's book is fitted to instruct the less fortunate. How
hapless is the lot of a man or woman, whose toilsome days are
made darker by the shadows of doubt as to Christ, his truth,
and his salvation. There are simply millions of such souls
among us, many of them living right among instructed Catholic
people, and readily drawn to our churches to hear the truth.
Such a book as Father Wyman's will immediately relieve their
mental misery, and give them convincing reasons for bearing
their burdens with patience, and will lead many of them into
the bosom of that gentle mother who consoles all aching
hearts.
Father Wyman has met many doubters in his long mission-
Certainty in Religion. By Rev. Henry H. Wyman, Paulist. New York: The Columbus
Press, 120 West 6oth Street.
252 NEW BOOKS. [May,
ary career, and this book is a summary of his most persuasive
arguments with them. It will serve, we trust, as a manual for
many other zealous priests. The publishers have placed it
within reach of pastors and missionaries for free distribution
by offering a paper bound edition at extremely low rates. It
will doubtless take its place with Father Conway's Question
Box, Father Searle's Plain Facts, and other such books, as the
printed word now universally associated with the spoken word
in our American Apostolate.
Seven lectures on religion, given
RELIGION AND SOCIETY. originally at the cole des Hautes
Etudes Sociales, have been put to-
gether into an unusually valuable volume. * The authors are
the eminent scholars, Theodore Reinach, A. Peuch, Raoul
Allier, Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu, Baron Carra de Vaux, and
Hippolyte Dreyfus ; and the subjects treated are : Progress in
Religion; Early Christianity and the Social Question; The
Free-Spirit Brethren of the Middle Ages ; Christianity and
Democracy; Christianity and Socialism; Islam and Modern
Civilization ; Babism and Behaism. Every one of these essays,
whether one agrees with the author's principles or not, is full
of information and fruitful suggestion. The names of the
authors are a guarantee of that. Every one, for example,
knows beforehand that an essay on Islam, by so deep an
Arabic scholar as the Baron Carra de Vaux, will be of precious
use to every student of religions, or of history. A high tone
of dignified scholarship runs through all the lectures, as we
should expect from the tribune of an Ecole des Hautes Etudes.
Space will not permit us to examine all the essays in detail,
or to set down wherein we have had occasionally to differ
with the authors as we read them. But we should wish to
make a special mention of the two conferences of M. Anatole
Leroy Beaulieu on Democracy and Socialism in relation to
Christianity. These are temperate and thoughtful papers which
it would be to the profit of both sides of the question in dis-
pute to study well. M. Leroy-Beaulieu recalls to the attention
of his readers that although since the French Revolution there
has been a rather constant conflict between the representatives
of Democracy and the representatives of Christianity, there is
* Religions. et Socittes. Paris: F^lix Alcon, fiditeur. 1905.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 253
absolutely no reason in the nature of things for this opposi-
tion, Not only in the Gospel but in the history of the Church
do we discover principles and facts which make it clear that
popular sovereignty is against no Christian dogma or moral
precept, and that whenever Church and people have come into
conflict on the matter, this was due to some extrinsic cause
which it is not hopeless to remove. Thus at the time of the
great Revolution, extreme democracy overthrew the Church as
well as the Empire, because the two were united. And the
anti-Christian spirit of those days of blood and terror has been
since passed on as an unhappy inheritance. But, M. Leroy-
Beaulieu remarks, the hatred of religion as such, and the hold-
ing of it up to contempt as a necessarily despotic imposture,
are discountenanced now by all intelligent men, who see how
untenable were such opinions of the encyclopaedists. Unfor-
tunately, while all educated persons have given up those ex-
travagant and dangerous views, the uncultivated and irreligious
among the masses have retained them. To-day, consequently,
there is a class of active atheists who maintain as bitterly as
Voltaire himself that all religion is opposed to human progress.
And it is from this class that proceeds the endeavor to hinder,
persecute, and destroy religion which we observe now and
then even in Christian States. M. Leroy-Beaulieu, insisting
upon the point that the highest and purest democracy need
have no dread of religion, points to the United States. The
American Republic, he says, is deeply penetrated with the
Christian spirit; its founders were brought up in Bible Chris-
tianity; its laws have never restricted belief or worship; and
its future is secure because it believes in God. We can only
say of this deserved tribute to our country, that we trust that
France, too, will see that religion is the strongest safeguard of
the State, and that God cannot be officially banned without
bringing every hope of liberty and progress to the ground.
In the lecture on Christianity and Socialism M. Leroy-
Beaulieu presents incisive proofs that extreme communistic
socialism is irreconcilable with the Christian religion, for it
rests upon a philosophy of man's nature, nteds, and destiny
which is in full opposition to every theory of the supernatural.
He closes with these words: "Socialism perhaps can some day
destroy the foundations of the present social order; but I
question whether it can erect upon the ruins a new society, at
254 NEW BOOKS. [May,
all events a society of liberty and justice. For to build any
such edifice solidly and enduringly, you must have moral ener-
gies at work ; and I must persist in maintaining that in the
first rank of moral energies stands religion, which is to-day as
ever in the past one of the indestructible bases of human
society."
This little volume is one of the
HERBERT SPENCER. best many will say, the very best
By Royce. contributions to Spenceriana
which have been called forth by the
publication of Spencer's Autobiography.* The intimate informa-
tion which the philosopher has left to the world concerning
the personal origin of his views on Evolution contributes to a
more accurate appreciation than could hitherto be arrived at,
not of the objective value of the Evolution theory itself, but of
the credit to be assigned to Spencer as an original contributor
to the treasure-house of philosophy. An estimate of Spencer
formed from the polemical literature of twenty years ago would
represent him as, before everything else, the prophet of the
Unknowable, the founder of Agnosticism the adherents of
that view of religious knowledge, or rather anti-religious nes-
cience, would award him the crown of complete success. Yet
Professor Royce seems to feel that he is merely pointing out the
obvious when he remarks that to Spencer himself the problem
of knowledge was but an incidental concern, which " he never
attacked with any very serious and reflective interest " ; and
the professor dismisses the solemn Gospel concerning "the
Universal Postulate," "Theories of the Metaphysicians," and
" The Relativity of Knowledge " as " Conscientious but unin-
structed preliminary efforts to clear the way for quite other
considerations in which he was interested." What, then, was
his chief interest and purpose ? It was " to bring into synthe-
sis an organic theory of the unity of the evolutionary process,
with a doctrine regarding the freedom of the rights of the
individual which had come down to him from an age when
evolution and the organic unity of things had indeed interested
Englishmen very little." The character of Spencer's method
is happily hit off: "In sum Spencer appears as a philosopher
of a beautiful logical naivete. Generalization was an absolutely
* Herbtrt Spencer. An Estimate and Review by Josiah Royce. Together with a chapter
of personal reminiscences by James Collier. New York : Fox, Duffield & Co.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 255
simple affair for him. If you found a bag big enough to hold
all the facts, that was a verification of science. If, meanwhile,
you were ready to present a beautifully ordered series of illustra-
tions of your theory, this showed that your facts themselves
were conceived with a due respect to their own orderly theoreti-
cal unification." Professor Royce's charge against Spencer's
formula is that while it offers a principle of differentiation,
combined with a secondary subsequent process of unification,
it offers no principle that will explain, in any given case, this
subsequent tendency of unification which is opposed to the
former : " Just because every case of evolution is obviously a
case where mutually opposing tendencies somehow balance one
another, and combine into higher unities, the requirement for
the situation is, not that the philosopher should tell us (truly
enough) that evolution involves both shrinkings and swellings,
both mixings and sortings, both variety and order, but that he
should tell us hoiv these various tendencies are, in the various
types of evolutionary process, kept in that peculiar balance
and unity which, each time, constitutes an evolution." The
criticisms passed upon Spencer's educational theories are con-
cerned with its narrowness resulting from the fact that Spencer's
principles are all drawn from the too restricted field of his own
personal experiences. Persons who may not be able, or may
not care, to read the autobiography will find a substitute for
it in Professor Royce's pages, supplemented as they are by
Mr. Collier's sketch.
The two apologies of Justin Martyr
APOLOGIES OF JUSTIN, have just been edited in the ex-
cellent series " Pour l'tude Histo-
rique du Christianisme " by Louis Pautigny.* The Greek text
is given along with a parallel-page French translation. A
brief but scholarly introduction indicates' the dogmatic impor-
tance of these two great works. Altogether this volume is well
within two hundred pages, and hence, from the point of view
of convenient use, is one of the best editions available. The
erudition of the work is guaranteed by the names of the
editors of the series of which it is a part, Hippolyte Hemmer
and Paul Lejay.
* Justin: Apologiet. Texte Grec, Traduction Frangaise, Introduction et Index. Par
Louis Pautigny. Paris : Alphonse Picard, fiditeur.
VOL. LXXXI. 17
256 NEW BOOKS. [May,
Mr. H. Pomeroy Brewster's vol-
SAINTS AND FESTIVALS, ume* of brief sketches of the
By Brewster. Saints is well and reverently writ-
ten. Mr. Brewster is not a Catho-
lic, but he endeavors to tell the story of the Saints in a
devout spirit, and he succeeds. The one unfortunate slip is that
he speaks throughout of the Roman Church, which is an unhis-
torical and objectionable designation of Catholic Christendom.
Apart from this we have found in his book nothing that we can-
not admire. Mr. Brewster has gone to considerable pains in the
way of study in compiling these sketches, and we incline to
the opinion that no other volume of the size of this one con-
tains so much hagiographical information. The book is taste-
fully published, and should have a great influence for good.
A new edition of that popular story For the Old Land,^ by
Charles Kickham, has recently been issued. The book de-
serves a long life, so full is it of the humor and pathos of
Irish life. Such well-known types as Con Cooney, Rody
O'Flynn, and Mrs. Dwyer are as welcome when they reappear
as old friends. Happily some of the conditions presented here
have been greatly improved within the past few years, and
one has the satisfaction of knowing that the Irish farmers and
peasantry are not likely to suffer again the humiliations and
deprivations of twenty, years ago.
Again Mr. Weyman seeks his ma-
THE ABBESS OF VLAYE. terial and his inspiration in a
By Weyman. troubled period of French history;
and if his latest book does not
surpass his past successes, it is inferior to none of them. The
Abbess of Vlaye \ opens at the council board of Henry IV.,
from which the monarch sends forth a young soldier of fortune
to restore order to one of the provinces in which a powerful
noble is carrying things with a high hand, and riding rough-
shod over the wretched peasantry. The story has all the
characteristics of Mr. Weyman's work, a whirlwind of incident,
a goodly number of well-defined characters, the leading ones
* Saints and Festivals of the Christian Church. By H. Pomeroy Brewster. Illustrated.
New York : Frederick A. Stokes Company.
t For the Old Land. By Charles J. Kickham. Dublin : M. H. Gill & Son.
\ Tke Abbess of Vlaye. By Stanley J. Weyman. New York : Longmans, Green & Co.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 257
of which, as the wise man tells us is the case with the world,
are set in balance and antithesis one against the other. There
is, too, just a little of what many of Mr. Weyman's admirers
consider one of his weaknesses a tendency to draw rather
too largely on the credulity of his reader. The rapid succes-
sion of wonderful coincidences, hairbreadth escapes of the good
people, providential interventions just in the nick of time, are
all wrought out with such skill that, separately, they are all
plausible, but they come so close together that they prevent
the reader from lulling himself with the fancy that the story
is one of reality a delusion necessary to the enjoyment of
fiction. Many of the situations are so powerful, and the
characters are so deftly woven into the story, that one will
want to turn a deaf ear to the suggestion of improbability.
The wretched condition of the peasanty, drawn with a power-
ful pen, is probably the feature of the book in which, as any
historical novel worthy of the name should do, it offers some-
thing of value to the historical student. As we view the
picture of the wicked, daring, young abbess we look out, but
in vain, for some intimation that an abbess in those troubled
times frequently reached her position through family influence,
and was a religious often only in name. Her sister is really
a charming creation, capable of inspiring her worthy lover with
the conviction that " in their clear moments men know that
love is the one great thing in the world, and a thousand times
more substantial, more existent, than the things we grasp and
see the love that gives and does not ask, and being denied
loves."
As wa can scarcely suppose that a writer who is so careful
of his facts, and so scrupulously faithful in the verification of
his historic material, could be ignorant that an error of person,
as it is called, renders a marriage null and void from the be-
ginning, we must presume that he was tempted to sin, in this
respect, by the effective aid which a marriage of this kind lent
him in working up a powerful climax.
The present volume is a treatise
RULES FOR PSALMODY, on the "pointing" of the Psalms,
but we do not see the practical
necessity for a work of this kind, which, we presume, is an
explanation of the method used in pointing a " Psalter with
notes," mentioned in the course of the work. As some of our
258 NEW BOOKS. [May,
readers are aware, pointing the psalms means the addition of
various marks to the printed text to enable the singers to make
the various inflections and pauses together. Every choirmaster
knows that it is absolutely necessary to have a pointed arrange-
ment of the psalms in the hands of his singers, not only for
Vespers and Compline, but also for occasional services; such
as Tenebrae and the Office for the Dead ; but it is quite imma-
terial to him by what method the pointing was done, provided
it answers the purpose for which it is intended.
On page I of this volume* we read: "The difficulty of
chanting lies in adapting the different verses to the distinctive
tone which never varies in the course of a psalm. On this
account it is essential to have a method at once exact, consist-
ent, and simple. This is all the more necessary if the chanting
of the psalms is expected to be congregational."
Then follows a table of the Eight Tones, with their ten
mediations and twenty- six endings; the portioning off of the syl-
lables for the intonations; the "Tenor" or recitations, the me-
diations, and terminations; illustrated by capitals, small letters,
modified letters, accents, cedillas, dissyllabic types, tetrasyllable
types, pentesyllabic types, tonic accents, secondary accents,
tonic dactyls, tonic spondees, paroxy tones, proparoxy tones, etc.,
etc., all of which are intended to make a method for the choir
and congregation " at once exact, consistent, and simple."
We notice some innovations which we suppose must be
recent discoveries; on page 7, e.g., the solemn intonation of
the Magnificat is given in notes, with the following explanation:
" In the 2d and 8th modes the intonation shown above is used
for the first verse alone, the following verses (giving the 2d and
3d with notes) have the festal intonation." One would be led
to infer that the remaining verses have no intonation. Accord-
ing to the "Liber Usualis" (1896) the solemn intonation is to
be used for all the verses of the Magnificat.
We notice again, on page 13, that words from eight differ-
ent psalms are adapted to the Tonus perigrinus. We were al-
ways under the impression that this tone belongs exclusively
to the "/ exitu Israel" in the Sunday office, when this psalm
is sung with the antiphon Nos qui vivimus.
There is a delightful uncertainty about the pauses: "The
length of the pause (at the mediation) -must be exactly equiva-
Rules for Psalmody. Adapted from the revised second edition of the Petit Traite" de
Psalmodie by the Benedictines of Solesmes. Paris : Descle"e, Lefebvre & Co.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 259
lent in value with the last tonic dactyl or spondee of the
mediation" "Those who think this pause too long may re-
duce it to a single beat" We may imagine the result if in
the same choir or congregation there are some who do and
others who do not think the pause too long.
There is a great deal of " clarite " about the following :
" The short penultimate mi is not given an extra rvote, but
has the clivis, which thus becomes weak ; the accented syllable
Do no longer is found under the clivis, but is put back and is
given a strong extra note which robs the clivis of its force.
This extra accented note is a reduplication of the first note
of the clivis, and must be placed in column 2 where the ac-
cented notes are always to be found."
On page 32 we find the whole subject in a nutshell: "To
sum up this little book in one sentence, the secret and the suc-
cessful practice of Roman psalmody depend upon the substitu-
tion of tonic dactyls for the original tonic spondees."
This book* is a rather pitiful and pathetic attempt of an un-
learned man to accomplish a task that is difficult even for the
most learned to prove by reason the immortality of the soul.
The brochure represents rather the heart-strivings of an honest
man than the mind-product of a philosopher. It may be said
to expose the hopes and beliefs in the future life, as they
alternate with doubts and fears in the mind of a simple man
who has no more solid ground for his faith than the data of
his own reason and his own experience. The learned, of course
will smile at such an effort ; but the simple and unlearned, who
are after all the elect, may find some little help and consolation
in the fact that a sensitive soul can persuade itself indepen-
dently of -a truth which can be placed beyond all doubt and
uncertainty only by the teaching of a divine authority.
In the November, 1903, number of THE CATHOLIC WORLD
we took pleasure in recommending Bernard St. John's work,
The Blessed Virgin in the Nineteenth Century. \ The work has
had a wide circulation, and has lately been translated into
Immortality of the Soul. By Alois von Bauer. New York : J. Diamond,
t The Blessed Virgin in the Nineteenth Century. Apparitions, Revelations, Graces. By
Bernard St. John. London : Burns & Gates ; New York : Benziger.Brothers.
260 NEW BOOKS. [May,
French. The following letter from Cardinal Merry del Val
tells of the Holy Father's appreciation of the volume.
I have with pleasure placed in the hands of the Holy
Father a copy of the book, which you have published with
the view of furthering devotion to the Blessed Virgin in Eng-
lish-speaking countries. It is unnecessary for me to tell you
how acceptable to the August Pontiff is this act of filial
homage on your part, and how he appreciates the intentions
which underlie your work. His Holiness has profoundly at
heart that all Catholics, forming but one heart and one mind
in the unity of faith, should more and more love and vene-
rate their common Mother, the Blessed Virgin. The Holy
Father, while thanking you for your homage, augurs for
your book that the Queen of Heaven will smile benignantly
upon it, and thus concur in the fomenting and increasing of
piety among Catholics, and especially in connection with
the auspicious event of the celebration of the fiftieth anni-
versary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate
Conception. In thanking you for the copy of this same book
with which you have graciously presented me I herewith
transmit you the Apostolical Benediction affectionately
granted you by the Holy Father.
R. CARD. MERRY DEI. VAL.
In the April Number of THE CATHOLIC WORLD we pub-
lished the subscription price of The New York Review, to be
issued under the editorship of Father James Driscoll, Presi-
dent of Dunwoodie Seminary, as two dollars per year. This
was an error. The subscription price is three dollars a year.
April n, 1905.
Editor Catholic World, New York City :
As my name has been published by George Barrie &
Sons, of Philadelphia, as a member of the Editorial Board
of The History of North America, I would ask the courtesy
of your columns to state that their use of my name is with-
out authority and without warrant.
I was engaged some months ago by George Barrie &
Sons to make a Catholic revision of this work, and did revise
the first volume, and part of the volume on Canada ; but as
my revisions, for the most part, were not incorporated by the
editor, where I deemed them essential from the Catholic
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 261
standpoint, I declined to proceed with the work, and dis-
tinctly refused to allow my name to be connected with the
History, and so informed the publishers.
I would apprise the public especially the Catholic pub-
lic that in no way do I stand as a guarantor of the charac-
ter of 7 he History of North America.
Yours truly, CONDE B.
The Waters of Lethe * is the first work of its author, Lida
L. Coghlan. Like the first literary productions of most writ-
ers, it shows both faults and virtues. A certain awkwardness
in the handling of incidents, an inability to condense, and
an utter lack of humor, are the faults which off set a dramatic,
well-conceived plot, some able character drawing, and genuine
enthusiasm on the part of the author for the people of her
story.
The volume has these merits at least, which we note with
pleasure, and what is more important still, the book is marked
thoughout by a high moral tone.
Miss Anna C. Minogue, in this romance of Kentucky,! has
given us a decidedly thrilling and melodramatic story of that
country during the period of the Civil War. The background
is a Southern community of the familiar type, and the char-
acters figure in a plot that, in its minor details at least, is
strikingly original. In the writing of the tale there is often
an evident striving after redundancy and pseudo-poetic effect,
but the writer undoubtedly manifests a distinct ability in the
matter of story-making.
* The Waters of Lethe. By Lida L. Coghlan. New York: John Murphy Company,
t Cardome. A Romance of Kentucky. By Anna C. Minogue. New York : P. F. Collier
& Son.
^foreign periodicals,
The Tablet {u March): The first leader is a sharp criticism of
an article in the National Review by M. Combes, in
which the ex- Minister of Worship tries to justify him-
self before the English public. Fr. Thurston concludes
his series on confession in England before the Norman
Conquest. The result of his investigation is, that from
the time of Bede onward auricular confession was prac-
ticed habitually in every part of Christian Britain.
(18 March): Under the title, "The Catholic Church in
Sweden," a writer describes the condition of the Church
there, and gives a short history of the present Catholic
revival. The Rev. John S. Vaughn contributes an
interesting letter to the discussion on the theories of
biblical inspiration.
(25 March) : Fr. Joseph Rickaby presents, in conversa-
tional form, the Catholic doctrine on original sin.
(i April): The letter from France gives an account of
the debate on Separation, and particularly on the ques-
tion : What shall be done with Church property ? A
socialist leader proposes that it be given to the Church.
The Month (April) : Fr. Gerard exposes many misconceptions
of certain Freethinkers concerning the relation of faith
to scientific investigation. There are those, he says, who
contend that intellectual freedom is impossible unless
one has absolutely no convictions concerning the problem
which he attempts to solve by experiment and argument.
Freethinkers for the most part regard faith as a blind
assent. Fr. Gerard shows that this notion of faith is
erroneous, and after explaining its true character goes
on to prove that the acceptance of a truth on authority
does not render one incapable of arriving at the same
truth by means of investigation and argument. Miss
Petre outlines the excesses and the deficiencies of Oscar
Wilde's philosophy of life and morals ; and admires his
courageous exercise of his artistic faculty in the midst
of adverse circumstances.
Le Correspondant (25 Feb.) : M. Henry Lacombe contributes
the first of a series of articles on the "Divinity of Jesus
1905.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 263
Christ." It is a learned controversy, for, to defend a
dogma, so obstinately attacked, the writer diaws proofs
of his thesis from all authentic sources, showing thorough
acquaintance with the works of all his predecessors in
Church history and theology. A highly interesting
paper is that of M. Charles de Lomenie on " Madame
Recamier," called forth by the appearance of a new
book, Madame Recamier and her Friends. There is a
judicious criticism of the work, followed by M. de
Lomenie's own careful sketching of Madame Recamier's
portrait, and her personality apart from her surroundings.
(10 March): M. E. Daudet concludes his series on the
relations of Napoleon with the Bourbons, terminating
with the execution of the Due d'Enghein, March, 1803.
M. Andre Cheradame accuses Germany of having, for
the past ten or fifteen years, steadily egged on Russia
to her insolent and unjust policy in the Far East.-
, , : M. Paul Nourisson severely arraigns the French Govern-
ment for its criminal indifference in not repressing crimes
against social order and public morality. The policy
of the United States towards the interoceanic canal is
reviewed by a writer (De Barral-Montferrat) who divides
it into four periods: La periode de desinteressement; la
periode d'ambition ; la periode de domination; la phase
commerciale. The writer, while looking upon the agres-
sive activity and imperialism of Mr. Roosevelt as a threat
to peace, thinks that it might be just another piece of
American luck if the President's temerity should turn
out to be more apparent than real. An unsigned arti-
cle criticises the latest projets de loi regarding the sepa-
ration of Church and State. There is a historical study
of Anna Comnenius and the First Crusade. M. Bechaux
contributes a somewhat desultory but interesting and
suggestive paper on the bearing of some actual facts on the
socialistic movement.
(25 March): M. Olivier, of the Academy, justifies the Con-
cordat historically ; and says of the proposed law to
suppress it: In suppressing the salary of the clergy, it
proclaims national bankruptcy ; in appropriating the goods
of the Church, it is guilty of robbery ; in profaning the
sancturies, it inaugurates a persecution. An anony-
FOREIGN PERIODICALS. [May,
mous writer finds that the jealousy of the English col-
onies towards the establishment of a French naval base
in the New Hebrides, will be a source of trouble to
French and English statesmen in their efforts to render
permanent the present understanding between the two
countries. M. Faquet, of the Academy, severely criti-
cises the views expressed by Abbe Delfour in his book,
Catholicisme et Romanticisme , the thesis of which is that
the classic school should be substituted, in higher educa-
tion, for the romanticists of the nineteenth century, be-
cause these writers are neither good Frenchmen nor good
Christians. M. de Lacome (Sur la divinite de Jesus-
Christ) outlines the cou'rse of polemical activity in the
age of Bossuet. Fustel de Coulanges and his writ-
ings are the subject of an essay from M. Imbart de
la Tour. M. Leon Seche has a convincing apology
for Madame Charles and her platonic friendship for La-
martine. He disagrees with some conclusions arrived at
by M. Douriiie, and "laisse a cette femme charmante
tout son aureole." There is a welcome note of op-
timism in M. Laudet's " Impressions of Gascony," where
he finds much change introduced recently, but not all
for the worse, in village life.
tudes (5 March) : Henri Berchois reviews at length the great
wrongs committed against the Church in France dur-
ing recent years. Speaking of the attitude of French
Catholics during all this time, the writer asks: "Whence
comes the inertia that has astonished both friends and
enemies ? " He says they should, in the very beginning,
have made an "intelligent, energetic resistance." In
conclusion, he appeals for more real, active faith in
Catholics. Gaston Sortais gives some interesting cita-
tions from the work of an Italian Dominican, R. P.
Papagni, regarding the scholastic controversy over the
question of free-will. Father Papagni is quoted as say-
ing that the theory of physical predetermination is " in-
trinsically false," and in addition, that it is in complete
contradiction with " la pensee de Saint Thomas d'Aquin."
(20 March) : The great historical value of Jesuit
writings is evidenced in an article by Jules Doize on
Japan. The history of that people and its customs are
1905.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS. . 265
drawn from the accounts of travelers, but principally
from the records of the Jesuit missionaries to that coun-
try. Their books, correspondence, official reports, etc.,
are cited. The work of St. Francis Xavier is narrated,
showing how marvelously the seed of faith planted by
him grew amongst the Japanese people. The Masonic
Conquest an historical treatise on masonry in France,
the recent work of Mgr. Delassus is frequently referred
to touching on the Masonic danger just at this present
day. It shows how enormous is the influence of Masonry
in the Government ; also, the urgent need for Catholic
activity to prevent the complete Masonic conquest in
France.
La Quinzaine (16 March): The literary productions of Don
Jose Echegaray, sage, politician, and poet, are the sub-
ject of a lengthy article by Angel Marvaud. In an
article entitled " Religion in the Human Evolution," H.
Dauvergne gives us his opinion as to what are the pro-
gress, conditions, and factors in society. Science, he
believes, plays only a secondary role, while the part of
religion is essential, and unless our Christian societies
be founded on integral Christianity, that is, Catholicism,
they cannot succeed. The ending of the work of the
commission, consequent on the incident at Hull, is the
occasion of an article by Henry de Montardy.
Studi Religiosi (Jan. -Feb.): A. Ghignoni, on the problem of the
essence of Christianity, warns us not to forget that
Christianity has ever been a living organism, and that
consequently we cannot justly estimate it unless we join
to the study of the Gospels the study of Christian ex-
perience in all the ages since. The newly-discovered
"sayings" of Christ are translated and briefly com-
mented on by F. Mari. M. Frederici summarizes the
great work of Clemen on St. Paul, and takes occasion to
remark on the failure of the destructive school of Von
Manen and Schmiedel, to gain any notable number of
adherents. The first instalment of a new Italian ver-
sion of Isaias concludes the magazine.
Stimmen aus Maria Laach (March) : This number contains an
article on " St. Hubert, Patron of German Huntsmen."
The paper is devoted to an account of the saint's mira-
266 FOREIGN PERIODICALS. [May,
culous conversion, his subsequent life, especially as
Bishop of Liege, and the veneration which has been paid
him in Germany and northern France. Fr. Baum-
gartner concludes his series on Fr. Isla, the Spanish
humorist.
International Journal of Ethics (April) : The movement for
reform in church music offers to Prof. J. W. Slaughter
an occasion for giving a psychological analysis of the
relation between music and religion. They both, he
maintains, make the same claim on human nature, and
consequently, unless music is made to serve, it will sup-
plant religion. Mr. S. H. Mellone has a remarkable
article on the significance of the late decision of the
House of Lords in the Scottish Church case. The fact
that eleven hundred churches were dispossessed of the
whole of their property will have a far-reaching ethical
result. The principle on which the decision was based
is, that the churches do not now profess the creed they
taught when the money was contributed for their sup-
port. This principle, the writer states, if carried into
execution in England, would cause endless confusion
among all non-Conformists.
Revue Thomiste (March-April) : An article entitled " Credibility,"
by Fr. A. Gardeil, discusses the meaning of that term
as applied to the truths of revelation, together with the
part played by it in the genesis of an act of faith.
Following the thought and method of St. Thomas, the
writer states clearly enough the common theological
position on the question. The credibility of a truth of
revelation, and its claim to be accepted as an object
of divine faith, come not from the intrinsic evidence
of the truth itself as perceived by reason, but from
the fact that the truth proposed for our acceptance
has been revealed by God who is all truth and cannot
deceive. This, however, is only one element in the
origin of an act of faith, since divine grace must come
in at every step in the process, and concur with the
human will in its final act of adhesion to the truth pro-
posed. R. P. Hugueny, O.P., continues to discuss the
teaching of St. Thomas on the question of the "vision
of God " as the final happiness to which man is destined.
1905.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 267
1 he Hibbert Journal (April) : The Bishop of Ripon advocates
such modifications in the present system of clerical
training, in his Church, as would enable the theological
student to realize more strongly the change which the
adoption of scientific methods have wrought. Professor
Henry Jones severely takes to task the method pursued
by Mr. Balfour, in his Foundations of Belief. Under
the caption, "The Lord is a man of War," Rev. Mr.
Orde-Wade sets forth the view that, in the divine
plan of the Universe, progress towards ultimate per-
fection in the physical, intellectual, moral, and spiritual,
is assured only by the conflict of contending forces
and the synthesis of opposites. A fellow of Mer-
ton College, Oxford, Mr. H. W. Garrod, thinks that
the elements of our moral ideal which men, whatever be
their verbal professions, value the highest, are neither
Christian nor Greek, but Gothic the ideals of chivalry
and honor. Professor Charles gives an account of the
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, " a veritable
romance in the region of ancient religious literature."
In "discussions" Baron von Hugel takes exception
to the interpretation offered last month by " Romanus "
of M. Loisy's view of the Church. Professor Gardner,
too, maintains that M. Loisy's own statements refute
the contention of "Romanus" that, "applied to the
critical movement in theology, the antithesis of Catholic
and Protestant is out of place.
Current Events*
The most noteworthy feature of
Russia. the situation in Russia is the state
of serious disturbances still exist-
ing in many parts throughout the length and breadth of the
European provinces. Those disturbances are no longer confined
to the workingmen of the towns, but have extended to the
hitherto peaceful and loyal peasantry. This loyalty of the
peasantry is being made a motive for moving them to an
attack upon the property of the officials and the landlords.
Leaflets have been circulated declaring that the Tsar is in
danger, and that he has been thrown into prison by the nobles.
" Hasten to help him, plunder the landlords, slay the enemies
of the Tsar and the Fatherland." The peasants accordingly,
armed with axes and scythes, plundered and destroyed the
houses of several landlords, some of whom barely escaped with
their lives.
Among the Armenians a serious agitation exists. They
having formed the hope, which they take no pains to conceal
that the Kingdom of Armenia may be revived at the cost of
Russia and Turkey. Officials have been shot in many places.
Property of every kind has been looted. The red flag has
been carried in procession. Students of Universities and
Colleges have refused to attend lectures until the constitutional
reforms which they demand are granted. Even the police are
becoming disorganized, and have passed all legal bounds. In
many towns the police stations are said to have been con veiled
into torture chambers, private houses have been broken into,
unarmed persons massacred, and, where the police ought to have
acted, they have failed to do so.
An appeal has been made by Father Gapon to the peasants,
in terms which make it evident that worthy leadership is not
to be found in him. Speaking of the governors, popes, and
other authorities, he says: "Death to them all. Let us avenge
the innocent blood of our brethren ; let us sacrifice our lives
for ourselves, for our relatives, for the whole people. Hurrah
for the armed insurrection of the people, for the conquest of the
land and of liberty." The proclamation is addressed: "To you
Russian peasants. I call upon you, inhabitants of the small
1905.] CURRENT EVENTS. 369
' '*
towns and of the villages, you who are oppressed, exploited,
deprived of all rights, given up to hunger and misery, 'to ; the
bastinado, to the knout, to the nagaika, I appeal to you as
judges. Judge for yourselves, O people, peasants of Russia.
Judge according to your conscience as you always do." Al-
though in this appeal the oppression undergone by the people
may not be exaggerated, the spirit of the appeal is not that
which should animate the constructor of the better order of
things which we hope is coming for Russia. Unless the country
can find a man of a different type, the new order established
under such auspices will be worse than the old.
It is not to Father Gapon, therefore, that the people can
look for guidance. Is there no other leader? What can we
hope of Count Tolstoy? He, too, has issued not a manifesto
but a statement. But if Father Gapon errs in being in favor
of measures which are too energetic, Count Tolstoy goes to the
other extreme. All agitation, even the most legitimate, will, he
thinks, only delay the true social amelioration. " True social
amelioration can be attained only by religious moral perfection-
ing of ths individuals. Political agitation, putting beiore indivi-
duals pernicious illusion of social improvement by change of
forms, habitually stops the real progress, as can be observed in
all constitutional countries France, England, America/' It is
the inner spiritual activity which alone gives true welfare to
individuals as well as to society. The Russian Government is no
better and no worse than any other government. They all
sanction and seek to sanctify the most dreadful crimes, and there-
fore all the efforts of those who wish to improve social life
should be directed to the liberation of themselves from all govern-
ments. This is to be done by each one becoming himself more
perfect. He does not approve of any effort being made to im-
prove the radically unimprovable. There is, of course, a good
deal of truth in what Count Tolstoy says. St. Paul looked upon
authorities as being concerned rather with the evil-doer than with
the well-doer, and Christians were not to go to law in heathen
courts. The testimony of Mr. Gladstone to the secret wickedness
of the European Chancelleries may be found in Mr. Morley's Life.
And we know that when the end comes of this dispensation,
even the rule of Christ as man is to come to an end, that all
things may be subjected to God. But until then we fear that
we shall have to have governments of one kind or another,
270 CURRENT EVENTS. [May,
and that it will be part of a Christian's duty to strive for the
bettering ot governments (as of other things) by every legitimate
means.
For this reason we cannot think that Count Tolstoy can be
accepted by the Russian people as a guide in their struggle,
when he counsels them totally to abstain from every effort for
improvement. To whom, then, are they to look? No hope
can be placed in the Tsar " the waverer still, man of much
heart, and little will." The choice is between those who have
minds of their own, and those who are striving to secure a
dominating influence over the Tsar. The Grand Dukes on the
one hand seek to maintain vested interests, and on the
side of Reform, who is there ? One man only has given
evidence of capacity and insight M. Witte. To him is due
the awakening of the best forces of national labor to a sense
of self-reliance, and he for some time successfully administered
the finances of the Empire. He was, however, removed about
eighteen months ago. In the discussions on Reform which
have been going on for the purpose of giving practical effect
to the Tsar's Rescripts, M. Witte has taken a leading part, and
his influence is on behalf of the abolition of the present arbi-
trary regime. Consequently he has many enemies, and it is
doubtful whether he will not be defeated. In fact it is rumored
that, having lost all hope, he is going to leave Russia. Should
this prove to be the case, hope of amelioration will be very
small. The Imperial Word, conceding the representative prin-
ciple, has it is true been plighted, but what of that ? Who
can bind a despot ? It is, however, loo soon to despair. Dis-
cussions are still going on, and great changes cannot and should
not be made hastily. Moreover, the influence of the man who
has been called the evil genius of the Empire, M. Pobiedonost-
zeff, has received a rude shock. He has held the office of
Procurator of the Holy Synod, since 1881, and has represented
the most unbending form of autocracy. He was, too, the most
trusted adviser of the late Tsar, Alexander III., and to him,
therefore, more than to any one else, is due the present crisis.
But a movement has been initiated for the revival of the Pa-
triarchate suppressed by Peter the Great. A Council of Bishops
has been called to meet in Moscow, for the purpose of dis-
cussing the matter. The Tsar has given his consent to the
calling of this Council, although the success of the proposal
1905.] CURRENT EVENTS. 271
would mean the conferring upon the Church of some little de-
gree of greater independence of the State at all events an
appearance of distinction, instead of the almost absolute iden-
tification now existing. It would, too, deprive M. Pobiedonost-
zeff of the power which he, as the agent of the Tsar, has so
long wielded.
While the Tsar is shut up in his
Germany, France, and Morocco, own palace, surrounded and guard-
ed by troops, and virtually a
prisoner in his own Empire, the Kaiser has been traveling.
Leaving his own dominions, he has made an incursion
into a Continent unvisited from time almost immemorial by
any European potentate. Worse than that, he has been
making speeches, and this he seldom does without causing
anxiety to the statesmen both of his own and of other nations.
Before setting out for Africa his Majesty made a speech at
Bremen in furtherance of the world policy upon which he has
set his heart. The construction of a Navy which may be "a
defiance to the world and a defence to the Empire " is an
essential element of this policy. Strange to say, with all his
zeal for the Army first and now for the Navy, the Kaiser's
most ardent desire has, he declared, always been for peace.
When he came to the throne he told his auditors at Bremen
that he swore a soldier's oath that he would do his utmost to
keep at rest the bayonet and the cannon ; but, he adds, he
also swore that the bayonet must be kept sharp and the can-
non loaded, and both efficient. This, however, was not for
conquest, but for defence; for he had learned from history
that- all world-wide Empires had speedily come to ruin. The
world- wide Empire for which he was striving would be one
founded, not upon conquests gained by the sword, but by the
confidence of those nations which press towards the same
goal.
To form an Empire in this way will certainly be the in-
auguration of a new era, and no great confidence can be felt
in any such result being achieved ; the Emperor himself does
not seem to place much reliance upon it, for he proceeded to
insist upon a strong and a large Navy as being necessary even
for the preservation of his present dominions. The speech in-
cluded a reference to God, and in these days of irreligion and
VOL. LXXXI. 1 8
272 CURRENT EVENTS. [May,
unbelief this is something at which to rejoice. Perhaps, how-
ever, he identified the Father of all mankind somewhat too
closely with the destiny of the German Empire to be altogether
reverent. " Cherish," said he, " the firm conviction that our
Lord and God would never have given himself such pains with
our German fatherland and its people if he had not predestined
us to something great. We are the salt of the earth." The last
affirmation will not, we fear, be assented to by every, perhaps
not by any, other nation. However, no one will have a right
to complain if only the Germans will fulfil the duties of so
lofty a vocation ; if they will, as the Emperor inculcates, pre-
serve good morals, discipline, and order, reverence and reli-
gious feeling. Then although other nations may not, perhaps,
owing to their own vanity, be willing to take quite the same
view, yet they will be entitled to respect, perhaps even to
affection and confidence, as safe and trustworthy people, such
as the Emperor urges them to be.
But in all humility we think that the Emperor should set
his people a better example, if other people are to form
towards the German Empire these sentiments of trust and
confidence. For immediately after making this speech the
Emperor proceeded on that voyage to Tangier, which seems
to have had no other object than to disturb the peaceful rela-
tions which have lately been formed between France and
England, and to do this in such a way as to render it very
difficult to repose any confidence in the trustworthiness of
German policy. The Anglo-French Agreement, concluded last
year, included among other things a renunciation on the part
of England of any active interference with the affairs of Mo-
rocco; and France was left alone to carry out the task of its
restoration to order. This Agreement was brought to the
knowledge of the German Government, no protest was made,
and this silence was taken as consent to the terms of the
agreement. For, while Germany has commercial interests in
Morocco, these interests are small and, such as they are, fully
safeguarded by the Agreement. Spain was the only country
which had a right to complain, and with Spain France has
made a special agreement satisfactory to the Spaniards.
France, accordingly, prcceeded to peacefully penetrate
Morocco, and undertook the task of bringing order where
chacs exists, and some degree of civilization and justice where
1905.] CURRENT EVENTS. 273
barbarism and oppression are dominant. The Sultan of Mo-
rocco, like all other officials, does not like to be interfered
with. He thinks all is well, or at least, if all is not so well as
it might be, that he is the man who can best set things right.
And so he does not relish the interference of the French, and
is supported in his resistance by the large class who, in Mo-
rocco as elsewhere, profit by the existing evils. And an ex-
ternal supporter he has found in the German Emperor. No
great surprise can be felt at this. For a long time England, to
her eternal disgrace, was the supporter of the Turk, notwith-
standing his crimes and abominations. Since she has given
up the task as a bad job, Germany has taken her place, and
it is to the German Emperor that the Turkish Sultan now
looks for support; and not only looks for but finds it; for,
had it not been for the Kaiser and the Tsar at the time of
the Armenian massacre, the Sultan would have been deposed
by a European coalition. And so it is fitting that another
Sultan should look the same way. This is the result of the
Kaiser's visit to Tangier.
He told the representatives of the Sultan on his visit that
he had come expressly to maintain the absolute equality of
German economic and commercial rights in Morocco, and would
not allow any other Power to obtain preferential advantages.
The Sultan, he said, was the free Sovereign of a free
country, and Germany would insist on always carrying on her
affairs direct with him, and would never allow the intermediary
of any other Power. Doubtless he was well within his rights
in making this declaration, although it might have been made
tor France direct. But when he went on to say that the pres-
ent was an unfavorable time for the introduction of reforms on
European lines, and that all reforms should be founded on
Islamic law and tradition, he not only went directly against
the proposals of France, but made himself the defender of the
existing barbarism and encouraged the Sultan to resist every
effort to make things tolerable.
One of the mysteries of the world is that when an evil
seems on the point of being righted it often finds defenders
among those who claim to be the best representatives of the
good. Germany claims, and many allow its claim, to be the
highest representative of science, of art, of learning, of modern
civilization generally, and yet it now undisguisedly makes itself
274 CURRENT EVENTS. [May,
the defender of the Turk and the Moor, with all their enormities
and barbarities.
" For the sake of the Austro-
Austro-Hungary. Hungarian Monarchy, for the sake
of the dynasty, and, above all, for
the sake of Hungary herself, I cannot and will not give way."
These are the words of the Emperor of Austria, spoken in his
capacity of King of Hungary. For nearly two months the crisis
in Hungary has remained unsettled. The King will not accept
the proposals of the majority of the Parliament recently elected,
and the majority will not take office unless their proposals are
accepted. Every effort has been made to find a man able and
willing to direct affairs, but so far without success. The de-
mands of the Hungarian majority are a compromise between
the several minor parties of which that majority consists; but
they include one which the King considers inadmissible, and
indeed fatal, to the unity of the Dual Monarchy. According
to Mr. Francis Kossuth, the leader for the largest of these
parties, this demand is that the word of command in the
Hungarian army shall be given to the troops in Hungarian by
the major and all subordinate officers, while from the major
upwards the commands shall be given (as now) in German. It
is apparently a mild proposal, but it meets with the absolute
Imperial non possumus. The Austrian military authorities regard
it as certain to lead to the disintegration of the Army. Its
adoption would in their view render it simply impossible to
command and direct the military forces. They apprehend that
if the Hungarian language is allowed for Hungarians, the same
concession will have to be made to the other nationalities of
which the army is made up the Czechs, Croatians, Poles,
Ruthenians, and Italians; and where will officers be found of
linguistic capacity sufficient for this ? And so no solution has
yet been found ; and the crisis promises to be of indefinite dura-
tion.
Italy has had a series of parlia-
Italy. mentary crisis. After "Flight the
Fourth " of Signor Giolitti, Signer
Fortis attempted to form a Ministry, or rather to prolong
the life of the former Ministry with but a few changes; he did
not, however, meet with success. The Minister for Foreign
1905.] CURRENT EVENTS. 275
Affairs, Signer Tittoni, then undertook the task. His Cabinet
however, fell within a week, and then Signer Fortis made a
second attempt, this time with better results. The new Cabinet
retains Signer Tittoni as Minister of Foreign affairs, and several
changes have been made, but to all intents and purposes things
are left as they were. The constant turmoils, to which these
changes are due, are greatly discrediting Parliaments. Many
are beginning to have doubts as to the all-surpassing excellence
of the much lauded system. Let them, however, turn their
eyes to Russia, where autocracy still holds sway, and their
doubts should be removed.
In France the Committee appointed
France. to consider the Bill for the sep-
aration of Church and State hav-
ing made its report, the debate on the reading of the Bill has
begun in the Chamber of Deputies. An attempt was made to
defer the discussion until after the general election, to be held
next year. The self-willed spirit of the Chamber appears from
the fact that only fifty- five members voted for the ascertain-
ment of the real wishes of the people of France. Even in
1848, the year of Revolutions, when a similar proposal was
made, the Committee then appointed reported that separation
was impossible without consulting the electors. M. Briand, the
reporter for the Committee which has just made its report, did
not venture to affirm that the French people wished for the
separation. He opposed the proposal on the ground that it
would be a sign of weakness on the part of the Government
to make such an appeal. An equally deaf ear was turned to
the proposal of the Abbe Gayraud, that the opinion of the
representatives of the Church should be asked, although he
recalled to the remembrance of the Deputies the fact that the
salaries of the clergy which the Bill proposes to confiscate
were recognized, by the law passed in 1789, as a debt due to
the Church by the State, and that this confiscation would be
a breach of contract and an act of bankruptcy. Such con-
siderations, however, had no weight with lawless legislators.
The Abbe found only 144 supporters, while 386 refused to
listen to the dictates of natural justice.
The preliminary questions having been settled, the general
debate began, and has been going on for some weeks. In the
276 CURRENT EVENTS. [May,
course of this debate the great injustice of several of the pro-
posals of .the Bill was brought out injustice recognized by
several Republican deputies. The Bill, gives the various com-
munes the right, after twelve years, to sell the cathedrals and
churches, so that, for example, Notre Dame may, if it shall
seem good to Parisians, be once again a temple for the wor-
ship of the goddess of reason. In old times these cathedrals
and the parish churches were built to a large extent by the
voluntary offerings of the faithful. But what was done in the
days of old has no weight with those who worship only the
new. Many churches, however, have been built by the money
of the faithful in the period since the Revolution with very
moderate subventions from the authorities. And three-fourths
of the older churches in some districts have been rebuilt at the
cost of the congregations. Yet the Bill proposes that after
twelve years the national or local authorities may secularize
these churches at pleasure. It is a pity that the much vaunted
modern spirit, which is supposed to be so much more pure
and lofty than the antiquated notions of the past, should mani-
fest itself in actions which if done by an individual would
consign him to a felon's cell. Even at the Revolution, when
the State appropriated ecclesiastical property as belonging to-
the nation, it assigned the churches to public worship, and
every nation that has voted separation has handed over the
church buildings to the churches. The Concordat, under which
France has lived since the beginning of the last century, pro-
vided for the payment of salaries to the ministers of religion
in such a way as to make them a part of the national debt;
the present proposals are, therefore, equivalent to repudiation,
and are consequently a national disgrace and dishonor. The
framers of the present Bill are anxious to prevent like dis-
honor falling upon their descendants ; for they have included
among its provisions regulations to prevent the enrichment of
of the Church in the future. They are not only taking away
her present possessions, but doing everything in their power to
keep her in perpetual poverty.
The dissolution of the religious houses, as carried out by
M. Combes, has been so severely condemned by many English
Liberals as an act of unjust oppression that it has caused con-
siderable annoyance to that eminent representative of conti-
nental Liberalism. He has made an attempt to justify his
1905.] CURRENT EVENTS. 277
action by writing a defence in the National Review. His first
assertion is that the Catholic Church is in open revolt against
the Government. M. Combes must take it for granted, and
perhaps rightly, that the Liberals, for whom he is writing, have
no knowledge of the repeated injunctions of Leo XIII. in which
his Holiness called upon French Catholics to support the Repub-
lic. But it may be said many Catholics did not listen to the
voice of the Pope. The Pope and the Church cannot be blamed
for this, and it is, therefore, a monstrous exaggeration to say
that the Church is in open revolt. But what if many Catho-
lics are unable to look upon the Republican form of govern-
ment as the best for France? Is it a revolt to try by legiti-
mate means to establish a better form of Government ? It may
not be wise, but is it a revolt ? That M. Combes should seek
to stigmatize in such terms the exercise by French citizens cf
their legitimate rights gives a true measure of his liberalism.
It may be regrettable, but in many European countries oppo-
nents of the established order exist, and the most arbitrary of
the existing powers do not try to expel their fellow- citizens in
the way in which M. Combes has expelled not only men but
voteless women. The whole of his article shows that his notion
of liberty means liberty to think as he does ; every one who
differs, be he Bonapartist, Royalist, Nationalist, or Plebiscitaire,
is to be treated as a conspirator.
M. Combes will scarcely recommend his course to the Eng-
lish Liberals, to whom his article is addressed, by the principle
which he lays down as the justification of his odious actions:
"The supremacy of civil authority, and its absolute indepen-
dence of religion and dogma, ... is one of the funda-
mental conceptions of the Republican Constitution. An irre-
concilable antagonism between the civil and the religious pow-
ers inevitably arose in proportion as the Republican regime
became consolidated." Could any better vindication be offered
of the opposition of religious men to the Republic, if what
M. Combes states is the real truth ? It is not the real truth,
but we are concerned only with M. Combes' statements that
the Republican Constitution involves the supremacy of civil
authority, not equality, not freedom of both Church and
State; and absolute independence not merely of dogma and
Church authority, but also of religion. The Liberals of Eng-
land make no* such claim. Even the Church of England, estab-
278 CURRENT EVENTS. [May,
lished as she is, and subject to State control in many ways,
her doctrines being submitted to the interpretation of State
tribunals, is looked upon rather as a partner to a bargain than
as subject to the supremacy of the State, in the sense indi-
cated by M. Combes. In fact here again he shows that no
notion of what liberty really is has entered into his mind.
In one respect M. Combes' article gives great encourage-
ment to those who are fighting for the Church. It testifies
to her great power in France, and to the success which has
attended her work. The present persecution is not an evi-
dence of the weakness of the Church, but a testimony of the
dread with which her success has inspired her enemies.
"[Under the Monarchical Governments] the Clerical Party had
captured every sphere of public activity. Its nominees occu-
pied the most conspicuous positions throughout the country.
Under the cover of the famous Loi Falloux, which had sub-
stituted liberty of teaching " observe that it is under liberty
that the Church flourishes " for the University monopoly,
clericalism had founded schools, in competition with the State
schools, in all our country towns and chief rural communes.
Clericalism . . . was thus able to capture the liberal pro-
fessions. . . . Female religious orders had greatly multi-
plied. ... In proclaiming the general liberty of teach-
ing" again it is liberty that M. Combes hates "without
mentioning the Monastic Order, the Loi Falloux enabled them
to build schools to their hearts' content. They even suc-
ceeded in invading the public schools, owing to the liberty
enjoyed by the Communes to decide whether education should
be under lay or clerical schoolmasters." Whatever claims M.
Combes may have for honor and fame, the defense of liberty
will not be reckoned among them on his own avowal. It is
this liberty of teaching that he and his predecessors have
been taking away. What stronger testimony to the power of
the Church, when she has anything like fair play, can be
given than that which M. Combes proceeds to give ? " As
fast as the Orders were expelled from the State schools, they
developed their own schools, and year by year increased the
number of their pupils. Gradually they succeeded in killing
lay competition, while they competed with the State in the
number of pupils receiving secondary education. Their influ-
ence grew with the growth of the rising generation, which
1905.] CURRENT EVENTS. 279
had become impregnated with their spirit. It had become
urgent with the Republic to defend itself. Ten years later,
as Waldeck-Rousseau said, it would have been too late." De-
lenda est libertas. Such is M. Combes' attitude towards liberty ;
such the reasons for his suppression of the rights of his fel-
low-citizens. Are these reasons more likely to meet with the
approval of the lovers of real liberty than the actions them-
selves ? What these were we cannot give a better account of
than that which Viscount Llandaff gives in his reply to M.
Combes.
" It is difficult to realize the magnitude of the ruin wrought
by these measures. Complete statistics are wanting. M. Wal-
deck-Rousseau, in introducing the Law of 1901, stated that
some 75,000 persons had to be dealt with as members of un-
authorized Congregations. M. Combes is said to have received
applications for authorization for 12,800 houses or establish-
ments. There were twenty-five teaching Congregations of men,
with 1,690 establishments in the list of the unauthorized.
Eight of these had no less than 228,523 pupils. The first
batch of establishments closed included 750 schools taught by
the Christian Brothers, 1,054 schools for girls taught by reli-
gious women, and nearly 600 orphanages where the waifs and
strays of the country were tended by the sisters. There were
numerous establishments where the deaf and dumb were taught,
where the blind were educated, where the sick were nursed.
No less than 250,000 aged and infirm persons were supported,
clothed, and served by the charity of the Congregations. All
those schools and charitable institutions were erected, main-
tained, and equipped by voluntary effort, and without any
assistance from the public taxes. The cost to the public of
replacing them is estimated in millions. The 'State cannot pro-
vide the lay teachers who are to succeed the Religious in suf-
ficient numbers, or with sufficient qualifications. Orders that
have existed for centuries, like the Dominicans with their list
of celebrated names from St. Thomas Aquinas to Lacordaire,
or the Benedictines with their noble traditions of learning, of
labor, and of prayer have been swept out of France. Fran-
ciscans who have followed the precepts of their Founder and
have taught the fraternity not of M. Combes but of the Gos-
pel have disappeared with their missions in China, Abyssinia,
Turkey, and the Holy Land. The suppression of these mis-
28o CURRENT EVENTS. [May.
sionary Congregations is described by M. Leroy-Beaulieu (who
is not a ' clerical ') in the Revue des Deux Mondes as a ' policy
of national suicide.' Thousands of men and women have been
turned out of the homes where their lives were devoted to
prayer and works of charity. Many were of advanced age,
and ill-fitted to begin life afresh in the menial occupations to
which their poverty compelled them to resort. Many were
driven into exile, for M. Combes allowed them no peace in
France. Soldiers with fixed bayonets were sent to expel peace-
ful women from the homes where they had lived for years in
the service of God and of their neighbor. Some officers re-
signed their commissions rather than assist in this hateful task;
and M. Combes describes this recoil of outraged consciences as
an 'unheard-of act of insubordination."
Although the laws of M. Combes have been drawn up with
the utmost skill in order to carry out effectually the ruthless
results thus described, the Ursulines of Avranches have found
a flaw in the methods pursued in their case, and instead of tak-
ing the road to banishment have, after having been driven out
of their monastery, rented a house in the city and are waiting
now to see whether the government will attack. In this
undertaking they will have the sympathy and the prayers of
the Catholics of America.
THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION.
THE death of Jules Verne, on March 24, has elicited many telegrams of con-
dolence from distinguished men. At his home in Amiens he was honored
by election to the municipal government, yet on account of his edifying life as a
Catholic he got little recognition from the f reethinking immortals of the French
Academy. A few years ago he wrote: "I have just completed my seventy-
third year, and it is not at that age that I am likely to be found with the
ambition to enter the Academy." His greatest ambition then lost, he con-
tented himself with the honor which the world bestowed upon him as a most
successful writer in the popularizing of science.
Few men have ever undertaken and fulfilled such a contract as M. Verne
bound himself to during the last forty years of his life. When in 1861 he
published Five Weeks in a Baloon, his first scientific work, M. Hetzel, his pub-
lisher, at once appreciated the value of the ideas with which M. Verne was
imbued, and two years later made a contract with the writer for all his literary
output, of at least two novels a year. For his service M. Verne was bound
for many years, and was to receive annually a large sum, which, however,
left him with a small percentage of his earnings.
Until a few years ago M. Verne fulfilled his contract, producing his two
books a year, all of them -vith his usual care and completeness. Most of them
are now found printed in all European languages. He once said : " I work
from five o'clock in the morning until noon. Then I take lunch and my day's
work is finished." Unlike some other great writers, he wrote with his single
pen. During his life he produced in all more than eighty novels.
Jules Verne was born at Nantes, February 8, 1828. He was the young-
est of three brothers, all of whom lived to an advanced age. The eldest of
them died fourteen years ago, at the age of no. After receiving at home a
start on his education, M. Verne went to Paris to study law. His favorite
study was always geography, but in Paris his time was almost entirely taken
up with literary projects, and at the age of seventeen he wrote several tra-
gedies and comedies. Many of his friends were musicians, and with them he
soon was writing operettas, two of which were produced in Paris.
While in Paris M. Verne met the younger Dumas, and was also intro-
duced to the elder, with whom he collaborated on several works.
M. Verne was married more than a half century ago to Mme. de Vianne,
a widow with two daughters. They had one son, Michel, who lives in Paris
with his wife and two children.
The writer's recreation consisted mainly in yachting, but he always sailed
with an eye toward getting information for his books. Once only he visited
America, then as a passenger on the Great Eastern. He landed at New
York" and went as far as Niagara Falls, which he saw locked in ice. He
traveled all over Europe, but knew the Mediterranean best.
Among the greatest honors M. Verne ever received, and his only decora-
tion, was the rosette of officer of the Legion of Honor. " I was the last
man decorated by the Empire," he once said. " Two hours after my decree
was signed the Empire ceased to be. Yes, that is some recognition."
The manager of the Columbian Reading Union appreciates very much
282 THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. [May,
the kind words in the following letter, which will serve to awaken renewed
efforts for the diffusion of Catholic literature:
I am exceedingly obliged to you for sending me the various guide lists
prepared by the Columbian Reading Union. From afar I have long admired
the efficient methods employed by the Union in its thorough-going plan of
campaign ; but never more so than after examining these lists, which reveal
such unwearied zeal, skilful research, and real enthusiasm for the work on
the part of their compilers. The apathy we, as a body, have shown (I am, cf
course, speaking of the laity) to our glorious opportunity for spreading a
knowledge of the faith, by a widespread diffusion of the best Catholic litera-
ture, has certainly been most extraordinary and most disheartening. Even
more culpable, it seems to me, has been our indifference to the fact, so glar-
ingly evident, that by the printed word, more potently perhaps than by any
other means, have been scattered broadcast with pestilential activity the
deliberate attacks against the Church of those who glory in calling themselves
her enemies. Hardly less dangerous are the strange misconceptions, pre-
judices, and errors publicly expressed in all departments of literature by those
who write as they do, not through malice, but through such ignorance as
they would be ashamed to show regarding any other subject than the Church
of the Living God. And yet, knowing all this, many of us have been content
to look tranquilly on, wondering meanwhile that our prayers for the conver-
sion of our non-Catholic brethren have not been "heard " more frequently,
and crying out with amazement at " the leakage in the Church ! " We should
be thankful, indeed, that there have been a few far-seeing leaders among us,
thoroughly alive both to the opportunity and to the tremendous danger;
unwearied in sounding the call to arms, and in striving to vanquish the enemy
on their own ground, by opposing to the printed word containing their base-
less accusations the printed word clearly stating the Divine principles of
Catholic teaching. To this providential fact that something of Father
Hecker's faith in the inspired mission of the Apostolate of the press has
descended on so many of his brother priests in this generation, must surely
be due, in great measure, the awakening to a like realization which now at
last seems to be stirring mightily the entire body of the Catholic laity. Led
on by the pioneers the Knights of Columbus and the members of our innumer-
able Reading Circles it does seem as if the vast army of the faithful were
getting so thoroughly into line in this endeavor that Father Hecker's dreams
would be more than fulfilled for an extended and systematic diffusion of Catho-
lic literature throughout the land. Do you not feel that ''the true, right
time has come " for the Columbian Reading Uuion to publish the proposed
list of books by Catholic authors of which you have sent me sample pages ?
If the list could be brought out exactly as planned, it would be far and away
the most comprehensive and the most reliable in the English language, and
would be invaluable not only to specialists students, teachers, librarians, and
directors of Reading Circles but to the Catholic reading public at large.
In answer to the question regarding the list of Catholic authors in the
English language, we regret to state that the outlook at present is not favor-
able. The contributions for that purpose sufficed only for the publication of
the first part, which has already been mailed to all sending a donation. It
is a work of very great magnitude, requiring much time and patient research,
1905.] THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 283
and deserving of ample compensation which is not forthcoming. The dis-
cussion of the project in these pages has borne fruit in a number of special
lists prepared for the use of the patrons of public libraries, especially in
Baltimore and Buffalo.
*
Madame Helena Modjeska, the actress, who has been living in retire-
ment in California for a year, is to have a benefit in New York City, and no
less a personage than Paderewski, the pianist, has volunteered his services
at a concert to be held at the Metropolitan Opera House on May 4. Daniel
Frohman, who has engineered some of the biggest benefits in the history of
New York, will undertake the business management.
It is expected that Madame Sembricb, who is now on tour with the
Metropolitan Opera Company, will take part, as will several other noted
artists. She was to have sailed for Germany very soon, but in response to a
telegram from Paderewski replied that she will change her plans if the date
of the concert cannot be altered.
Madame Modjeska made a fortune during her prime, and the news that
she is in financial straits will come as a surprise even to her intimate friends.
Next to Mary Anderson she has maintained the highest standard of dramatic
art, and her departure from public life will furnish an occasion for a fitting
tribute to her worth.
Madame Modjeska has been most exemplary in her life as a Catholic,
though exposed to the dangers inseparable from her chosen profession.
Some time ago she consented to prepare a paper for the Newman Reading
Circle, of Los Angeles, Cal., and appeared at one of the meetings to read
it in her own finished style. Her subject was : The Influence of Chris-
tianity Upon the Stage. The paper is here condensed as follows :
I should only weary you if I related here the beginnings of the Christian
drama. Its development is very well known. It was born in the cathedrals
first in the shape of liturgic dialogues, later on in the so-called plays, which
for a long time supplied the only popular entertainment for our forefathers,
whose pious minds they edified by episodes from the Holy Scriptures and from
Lives of the Saints. I prefer to pass to another illustrative fact which, being
less known, may offer you some interest, and which, moreover, concerns a
Christian woman. I claim myself happy to have had the occasion of pro-
claiming the name in a paper which I read before the International Woman's
Congress in 1893. I refer to the influence, however indirect, upon the drama
exerted by the works of a German nun of the tenth century, called Hroswitha,
or as she is better known, the nun of Gandersheim.
This great writer and holy woman may claim the honor of having marked
the first steps in the evolution of the modern drama. Well acquainted with
the classic authors, especially the Roman playwright, Terencius, some of
whose works were then frequently studied and even performed in the cloisters,
the only asylum for a long time of learning and literature, she felt, as the
good Christian she was, a strong aversion towards pagan morals and lascivi-
ous pictures contained in the Roman comedies, and so she conceived the
laudable ambition of writing a series of plays in which the literary charm of the
ancients would be subservient to Christian ideas and pictures of Christian life.
Her works are of great literary and artistic merit. Full of poetic imag-
284 THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. [May, 1905.]
ination, with a mind rich in the most delicate shades of sentiment, Hroswitha
was the first to break with many traditions of the old classics, such as the rule
of three unities, and to introduce into the dramatic literature new elements,
due entirely to Christianity.
Strange to say, considering that she was a pure and pious nun, her con-
ception of love between man and woman, so entirely different from the old
pagans, may seem to have inspired our modern romantic poets.
It is only just to say that she stands between the ancient and modern
drama like a solitary column, the only logical and genuine transition. For
six centuries her works remained hidden in the recesses of German convents.
It is only at the beginning of the sixteenth century that a German humanist,
the poet Conrad Celter, had them printed in Nuremberg and offered them to
public light. They created a strong impression and were soon translated
into Italian, German, and Spanish. The supposition that she impressed the
Elizabethan writers, and especially Shakespeare, is justified by the fact that,
as we know, the poet took many of his plots from the Italians, who on their
part followed in some of their works the subjects treated by Hroswitha, among
others the story of Romeo and Juliet. Certain scenes, notably the whole
plot of the fifth act, follow rather closely the nun's tragedy called Cal-
purnius. Of course, the very end is different; the lovers are brought back
to life by a miraculous intervention more acceptable to the Christian audience
of the tenth century than it would have been to the English people of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
.On the first occasion I spoke in public of Hroswitha, my subject was the
connection of woman with the stage, my object was to show how much the
drama is indebted to woman. It is a pleasure for me now to again glorify
her name as a Christian, to procalim how much we owe to her for having
first used the drama as a vehicle for the highest Christian ideas, for having
first brought into it elements of charity, purity, abnegation, forgiveness, and
the most delicate refinement.
After the Renaissance movement the drama had passed many ups and
downs. Not only did its authors forget its Christian origin, they often
proved false to an artistic standard. The dramatic literature of the present
century, whilst brilliant during the revival of romanticism, especially in Ger-
many and France, became in the latter half a matter of pure handicraft, and
was prostituted only too frequently in order to pander to the lowest instincts,
and catch the pennies of the greatest numbers.
But the fault does not lie in the dramatic art itself. The so-called com-
mercial spirit, so aggressive in all manifestations of life at this time, has had
a great deal to do with the degradation and with the deviation of the stage
from its higher mission. Happily there is no lack of signs of a revolution for
the better in its sphere. The public taste js already surfeited with the
mediocre, idiotic, corrupt plays that were offered to it during the last decades,
and it welcomes heartily any new works of a higher moral and artistic stand-
ard. I think we can safely look to a healthy revival in this direction, and I
do not know anything that can help more to this result than such work as
the Newman Club has for its object, the broadening of the minds and the
improvement of the souls by the spreading of high Christian literature.
M. C. M.
THE
CATHOLIC WORLD.
VOL. LXXXI. JUNE, 1905. No. 483.
/
THE STRANGE REASONING OF BISHOP DOANE.
BY JOHN T. CREAGH, D.D. J.U.D.
[N view of the solemn and explicit manner in
which the Catholic Church reprobates divorce,
we can imagine very readily how great was the
surprise of non- Catholics, as well as Catholics,
when Bishop Doane, of Albany, recently advanced
the claim that the " Roman " Church sanctions divorce " in
the freest possible manner," and that her matrimonial discipline
is "equivalent to the non-Roman or Protestant recognition of
divorce from the bond." * Surprise is, in fact, a poor word to
describe the feeling caused by such a claim, especially in the
minds of those who are in any measure acquainted with the
doctrine and practice of the Church in regard to marriage.
In the absence of contradiction, Bishop Doane's statement
of the position of the Church on the divorce question will
have weight with some persons. He is a prelate grown old in
the service of his church ; he is Chancellor of the University
of the State of New York ; he has received honorary degrees
from various institutions of learning on account of his presumed
acquirements; he is a minister of God who may be rightly ex-
pected to treat the tenets and discipline of even the " Roman "
Church with justice as well as with charity, and who may be
believed to be free from that unholy spirit which leads bigots
to speak beyond their knowledge, and to substitute malevolence
* " Remarriage after Divorce ; the Practice of the Roman Church contrasted with its
Theory," in the April number of the North American Review.
Copyright. 1905. THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE
IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
VOL. LXXXI. 19
288 THE STRANGE REASONING OF BISHOP DOANE. [June,
for science when they have to discuss another religion. What
more lawful presumption than that this venerable, seemingly
learned, probably unbigoted prelate of a respectable church
will not discuss publicly a religious matter without being in-
formed on it, and especially will not attribute to another Church
a position which it never held, which it does not hold, and
which it never will hold ?
This lawful presumption, however, is not conclusive in the
present case. Like most presumptions it fails in presence of
a contrary fact. And the fact here is that Bishop Doane, in
endeavoring to tell the readers of the North American Review
what the Catholic Church teaches and practices concerning re-
marriage after divorce, has demonstrated his absolute incom-
petence to treat the subject of his article, has made public his
ignorance of Catholic law and theology, and has been guilty
of misrepresentation which is so gross and so reiterated that
it takes on the nature of a crime.
It is, in truth, nothing short of criminal to misrepresent
and falsify in this matter and in these circumstances. T he
Catholic Church condemns divorce and excommunicates those
who seek it. Her children, on account of this stern disapproval,
shrink from divorce. The influence exerted in consequence on
our social life is highly beneficial, it is the best and most
effectual that we know. No good man would care to see this
influence destroyed. Any one who rashly and unreasonably
sets to work to subvert it is an enemy not only of the Catho-
lic Church (such enmity would be easily pardoned by many),
but of the State; for he weakens the barriers which stem the
dangerous current of divorce, and he thereby menaces the wel-
fare and permanency of our republic. He commits an act of
immorality, the more heinous when it comes in the form of
pernicious doctrine from one whose position, while it obliges
him to a sacred adherence to truth, lends to his utterances on
any subject a high authority and assures him, before he speaks,
of a very considerable following.
Of this reprehensible offence, the Bishop must plead guilty,
and guilty with aggravating circumstances. His achievement
surpasses what our wildest fancy could have contemplated as
possible. A careful reading of his argument discloses that he
has consummated more error in a briefer space than any writer
who has ever contributed an article on any subject to a respect-
1905.] THE STRANGE REASONING OF BISHOP DOANE. 289
able periodical. His paper covers barely ten pages of the
North American Review, and from these we must subtract over
two pages of an introduction, which deals not at all with re-
marriage and divorce in the Catholic Church, but with the
doings of the last General Episcopal Convention ; we must
also exclude from the Bishop's work a full page quoted from
Father Thein's Dictionary, which does not support the Bishop's
contention, but contradicts it ; so that the pertinent matter
covers less than seven pages of print. It would be regrettable
enough if the Bishop had fallen into one or two serious errors,
or even seven, one for every page ; but he is by no means so
comparatively innocent ; each page tells its story of misrepre-
sentation, gross and reiterated, and in some passages sentence
closely follows sentence, each staggering under its heavy burden
of indefensible and inexcusable error.
A notable example of the Bishop's peculiar method is found
in five sentences to which he directs our attention in particular,
and on the truth of which he rests his claim that the Catholic
Church has no right to be considered the special guardian of
the institution of marriage. We quote these lines as they
appeared in the North American Review :
According to the Roman Church, marriage being a sacra-
ment, and no one being able to receive the grace of a sacra-
ment unless he is a Catholic Christian, it follows that the
marriages of persons who are not Roman Catholics are not
sacramental, and have no sacramental grace or sanctity con-
nected with them. They are simply legal contracts which the
law creates and which the same law can dissolve. Some
Roman theologians hold that if both parties are baptized, their
marriage is Christian marriage, though they have no grace
of the sacrament unless they are Roman Catholics ; but the
modern Roman fashion is to lebaptize all converts to Roman-
ism, and so to invalidate all baptism but Roman baptism. So
that even when both parties to a marriage are baptized per-
sons, unless they are both Roman Catholics, the marriage is
merely a legal contract. Whatever difference there may be as
to the theory, the practical fact is that Rome regards as dis-
soluble the marriages of all unbaptized persons, marriages
between an unbaptized person and a baptized Christian who is
not a Roman Catholic, marriages between a Roman Catholic
and a non-Romanist, baptized or unbaptized, which has (?)
been contracted without dispensation.
290 THE STRANGE REASONING OF BISHOP DOANE. [June,
To these five sentences, as I have said, the Bishop calls
the special attention of his readers ; on these he rests as a
sufficient proof of his claim. In the first! sentence there are
four errors, so plain that we need not declare them to our
Catholic readers; in the second sentence, likewise, there are
four errors, not less glaring ; in the third sentence, four errors
again; in the fourth, there are two erroneous statements; and
in the fifth, the Bishop indulges once more in his favorite
practice of making one poor sentence bear the burden of four
misstatements regarding the practice of the Church. So that
we have in these five sentences eighteen errors errors that
need no captiousness to detect them ; errors that are explicitly
confuted by the authoritative sources from which Bishop Doane
assures us he has drawn his information. Most of our readers
will have difficulty in reconciling such an achievement with
good faith ; their difficulty will not be lessened when they
turn their attention to other features of the Bishop's argu-
ment, and note how continually and unblushingly he brings
forward charges which he does not substantiate, and for which
no warrant of any kind can be discovered in the teaching or
practice of the Church.
Eighteen errors in five sentences dispose forever of any
pretension of Bishop Doane to be considered a capable wit-
ness when the doctrine and practice of the Catholic Church
are under discussion ; and he cannot even allege in his own
behalf that the passage so grievously burdened with misstate-
ment stands alone. There are others equally offensive to truth
and justice. One such is the paragraph in which much is
made of the, conjugal adventures of Henry VIII. and of the
marriages of Napoleon, in order to discountenance the Church
and demonstrate the laxity of her discipline in regard to
divorce and remarriage.
Taking up first the case of Henry VIII. , the Bishop de-
clares : " It seems to me unmistakably clear that he (Henry
VIII.) used as a means for gratifying his passions the ecclesi-
astical system under which he had been trained, and with
which he was perfectly familiar." This would signify to an
innocent reader that as Henry was trained as a Roman Catho-
lic, and was familiar with the system of the Catholic Church,
it must be the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical system that he
used as a means for gratifying his passions. It would not
1905.] THE STRANGE REASONING OF BISHOP DOANE. 291
signify the real facts of the case, viz., that Henry, who, it is
true, was brought up a Catholic and was familiar with the
doctrines and practice of the Catholic Church, found it neces-
sary to cease to be a Catholic when he desired to gratify his
passion by a union with Anne Boleyn. It would not convey
the idea that the Pope refused to annul the marriage between
Henry and Catharine, that the Pope forbade Henry, under
pain of excommunication, to attempt marriage with Anne, and
that, when the complaisant Cranmer pronounced Catharine's
marriage invalid, Pope Clement VII. declared "that the mar-
riage between the aforesaid Catharine and Henry, sovereigns
of England, had been and is valid and canonical, and has had
and has a right to obtain its due effects, and that the afore-
said Henry, King of England, is bound and was and shall be
under obligation to cohabit with the said Queen Catharine, his
legitimate spouse" The historical record of Henry's matrimo-
nial transactions shows that to secure countenance for them he
had to create an ecclesiastical system of his own, which was
not at all what we understand by the Roman system, a sys-
tem that was at war with Rome on many issues, but particu-
larly on the matter of Henry's marriages. It is hardly honest
to blame the Holy See for crimes that it reprobated. Precisely
because Henry could not use for his questionable purposes the
ecclesiastical system in which he had been trained, he broke
away from that system and set up the church to which, I be-
lieve, Bishop Doane's church must trace its origin.
Here is the account of Henry's case, as given by a non-
Catholic historian, Makower, in his Constitutional History of
the Church of England, pp. 49 and 53:
By the king's wish, the Pope had commissioned Cam-
peggio and Wolsey to determine the issue in England. But,
on Catharine's appeal, he revoked the case to Rome, and
on July 23, 1529, the two Cardinals adjourned the court.
From that time, the Pope adopted an attitude of decided
refusal. In spite of the fact that the Pope had reserved
decision to himself, the question of the king's divorce was
tried before Cranmer as judge of the archiepiscopal court.
Cranmer, on May 23, 1533, pronounced the marriage null
and void. Anne Boleyn, whom the king had married pri-
vately some months before, was now crowned. The Pope's
answer was to give his own verdict, and to declare the
marriage of Henry and Catharine valid, March 23, 1534.
292 THE STRANGE REASONING OF BISHOP DOANE. [June,
For a fuller understanding of the case we should also know
that the Pope's sentence was preceded by three letters, one
of 1530, in which any other marriage was interdicted while
proceedings in the case of Catharine were pending ; another
of 1532, in which the Pope expostulated with Henry, pro-
nounced any marriage with Anne null and void, and threatened
excommunication; and a final remonstrance addressed to the
polygamous head of the English Church in 1533.
The Bishop continues :
His (Henry's) original marriage to Catharine was a vio-
lation not only of the law of the Church, but of the law of
God, because she was his brother's widow.
Now, here are two assertions, first, that this marriage was
a violation of the law of the Church, and, secondly, that it
was a violation of the law of God.
The first statement is disproved by a remark of the Bishop
himself in the sentence of which the above quotation is a part.
He says that "the Pope had dispensed with the law and
allowed the marriage." The marriage therefore was not a vio-
lation of the law of the Church, since the dispensation had
made the law inoperative in this case. The law of the Church,
by the way, is that such marriages are unlawful unless a dis-
pensation is obtained.
The second statement supposes that the law forbidding
such marriages is really divine, which many persons think open
to very serious controversy. Gury, whom Bishop Doane says
he has consulted, says that the impediment in such cases is a
purely ecclesiastical law. However, on this point, while I be-
lieve that Gury is right, and while I know that the Bishop
does not represent the unanimous opinion of his own church,
I do not care or need to dwell. The important fact is that
Catharine's first husband was dead when she married Henry VIII.
The next curious statement is that in spite of Henry's own
"protest that the marriage was not lawful, and of opposition
both public and private, they were, so to speak, married."
The marriage was lawful in view of the Papal dispensation,
and Henry's opposition, which was really the only essential
circumstance in the case, can be appreciated when we remem-
ber that within six weeks after his father's death, the young
king hastened to take Catharine to wife.
1905. ] THE STRANGE REASONING OF BISHOP DOANE. 293
And then, says the Bishop, because of a flaw in the dis-
pensation, or because it was held that the Pope could not
dispense with the law of God, the marriage was declared null
and void, not by the Pope, but by the Church, along strictly
Roman lines.
No information could be more misleading than this last.
Neither the Pope, nor the Church, of which the Pope was the
head, declared the marriage null and void. The use of the
designation " the Church," would certainly lead a reader to
imagine that, while the Pope personally had nothing to do
with the case, his Church was responsible. To tell the truth
in this matter, it is necessary to say that the Pope solemnly
declared the marriage perfectly valid, and that the Church
which issued the decree of nullity was not the Roman but the
Anglican Church, which had severed the bond of Roman obe-
dience, and evidenced its separation by pronouncing in a mat-
ter which the Pope had reserved to himself. Nor was the
Anglican declaration along strictly Roman lines. For, as has
just been stated, the Pope had forbidden any merely local or
national tribunal to pronounce in this case, and had ordered
those interested to await the judgment of the Holy See. No
decision, therefore, could be given along strictly Roman lines,
unless it were given by the Pope himself. Moreover, in virtue
of ancient usage, the matrimonial cases of princes are to be
decided only by Papal authority ; an inferior tribunal, even
acting by Pontifical delegation, must not go counter to the
will of the Vicar of Christ. Hence, we can easily judge whether
the sentence of Cranmer, given by an unauthorized local tri-
bunal, at war with Rome and openly contradicting the will of
Rome, was "along strictly Roman lines."
So, also, when the Bishop immediately afterwards declares
that Henry's " marriage with Jane Seymour was made possible
by a dispensation, Roman though not from Rome, before he
beheaded Anne Boleyn," he is leading his readers astray.
Henry had a church of his own by this time, a church which
was not Roman, and it was this church, and not the Roman
Church, which gave the dispensation that made possible his
marriage with Jane Seymour. It was an Anglican, or if the
Bishop prefers, an Episcopal dispensation ; it was certainly not
Roman. Rome would never have granted it.
Similarly incorrect is the assertion that Henry " married
294 THE STRANGE REASONING OF BISHOP DOANE. [June,
Catharine Howard because, by a dispensation strictly along
Roman lines, his marriage with Anne of Cleves was declared
null and void, on the ground that he had never given his in-
ward consent." Does the Bishop not know that the rupture
with Rome prevented the obtaining of a dispensation from the
Pope ? Does he not realize that, since the dispensation in
such a case would have to come from the Pope, it is difficult
to see how an Anglican tribunal, proceeding in violation of
Roman Canon law and in rebellion to the head of the Roman
Church, can be said to act "along strictly Roman lines?" The
fact is that it did not so act, but followed a course of action
that, pleasing as it was to Henry VIII., could not but be
reprobated by the Pope.
If the Bishop desired to be candid in this matter, he should
have informed us that the Roman Church, acting through its head,
had decreed the validity of Henry's first marriage, that an op-
portunity was never given to Rome to speak in the later matri-
monial ventures of Henry VIII. , but, inasmuch as Rome declared
his union with Anne Boleyn to be adulterous, and adhered to
that declaration at the cost of the loss of England to the
Papacy, we can readily fancy how unlikely it would have been
to follow the course adopted by the Anglican bishops.
However, Bishop Doane foresees and answers the objection
that the Pope did not grant this dispensation, /. e., the one
which enabled Henry to marry Catharine Howard. His answer
is, that "it must be remembered that in those days, '1'Eglise
c'est moi ' had not been pronounced, and the secret of the
possibility of these performances lay in what I have called the
innumerable grounds of dispensation and countless definitions
of prenuptial impediments."
His answer then is two-fold. He says in the first place
that, because no one had said " 1'Eglise c'est moi," it was possi-
ble for Henry to get this dispensation from the Church with-
out getting it from the Pope. The fact is, the possibility of
the dispensation was really owing to the declaration made by
Henry VIII. : " 1'Eglise c'est moi." The Church, the Catho-
lic Church, was Papal. That Church Henry had forsworn. He
had set up another of which he could truly say : " 1'Eglise
c'est moi " ; since it was a church which he had created, which
he could control, and which did his bidding only too servilely
in the affair of his marriage with Catharine Howard.
1905.] THE STRANGE REASONING OF BISHOP DOANE. 295
In the second place, Bishop Doane attributes Henry's abil-
ity to obtain the dispensation to " the innumerable grounds of
dispensation and countless definitions of prenuptial impedi-
ments." Passing over for the moment the false implication
that in the Catholic Church grounds of dispensation are in-
numerable, and definitions of impediments wtntless, we may re-
mind the Bishop that in this instance it was question of only
one impediment, as he expressly tells us, namely, absence of
"inward consent," and that grounds for dispensing from this
specific impediment were not submitted to the judgment of
the Pope or of the Papal Church.
Why did not some good angel whisper to Bishop Doane
that the case of Henry VIII. was the last one that he should
choose to substantiate a charge of malfeasance against the
"Roman" Church? Henry's sins against the sanctity of mar-
riage merely show to what lengths man can and will go when
he removes himself from the wise and conservative judgment
of Rome. They demonstrate not what the Church did, but
what could not be done by one who remained in her com-
munion.
The divorce and remarriage of Napoleon, which the Bishop
cites as reflecting on the attitude of the " Roman " Church in
relation to the sacredness of matrimony, are by no means as
conclusive as he seems to judge them. The only sentences
pronounced in the matrimonial case of Napoleon emanated from
local tribunals. The first sentence from the diocesan court,
and the second from the archdiocesan tribunal, were motived ;
they rested on the absence of consent and the failure to observe
certain essential conditions in the form of celebrating the mar-
riage. To decide whether these reasons were sufficient to jus-
tify a sentence is not to the point now. What is pertinent is
that the sentence, relating as it did to the marriage of a sov-
ereign, could come properly from no other authority than the
Holy See, if it was to be pronounced " along strictly Roman
lines." The refusal of thirteen Cardinals to assist at the reli-
gious celebration of the marriage between Napoleon and Marie
Louise, was based on the uncanonical character of the action
in the local ecclesiastical courts ; and this refusal is conclusive
proof that the divorce and remarriage of Napoleon were not
approved and sanctioned by the law of the Church.
Those who desire to know the real attitude of the Church
296 THE STRANGE REASONING OF BISHOP DOANE. [June,
towards the marriages of Napoleon will find it correctly de-
scribed in a letter written by Cardinal Consalvi to Cardinal
Pacca on November 18, 1814:
It might be true that the first marriage was not valid, but,
until its invalidity was decreed by competent authority, a
second marriage could not be contracted. The root of the
difficulty lay in the fact that the Vicariate of Paris, which
declared null the first marriage, was not a competent authority,
since the matrimonial cases of sovereigns are reserved exclu-
sively to the Pope.
We must not overlook the way in which the Bishop strives,
in one passage, to enliven his journey and sustain the interest
of his readers by growing facetious. He pictures himself as
sitting under a " shower of anathemas so thick that if one es-
capes here, one is caught there"; and he gives the list of
anathemas found in the Council of Trent. Of course he expects
us to smile at his pretended confusion, but we confess that
after we have repressed the smile which, in spite of ourselves,
the general tenor of his article has caused, we are unable to
join in his merriment over the law of Trent. An anathema is
an excommunication. It is a shower of excommunications, there-
fore, over which the Bishop becomes humorous. Here are some
in the list that provokes his mirth : The Church .excommunicates,
i. e. t cuts off from her communion, any one who says that po-
lygamy is lawful, any one who says that matrimony is not a
sacrament, any one who says that the Church errs in allowing
separation from bed and board for a number of reasons, any
one who denies the truth of St. Paul's statement that virginity
is a higher spiritual state than marriage, any one who condemns
as superstitious the benedictions and ceremonies employed in
the celebration of marriage. These are the objects of the
Bishop's ridicule; but I venture to say that few serious men,
even of his own religious communion, will consider them proper
matter on which to exercise one's wit. Most persons will ad~
mire the wisdom of these enactments, and the authority and
discipline which make them effectual forces for the good of
society ; and not a few would welcome their recognition out-
side the Catholic Church.
Those of us who are acquainted with the canons as they
are given in the Council have a very special grievance which
1905.] THE STRANGE REASONING OF BISHOP DOANE, 297
hinders our appreciation of the Bishop's humor, for on closer
examination, we find that he has given all the canons save one,
and this omission we find it difficult to ascribe to chance. The
Bishop's list proceeds step by step with the Council so faith-
fully that he must have had the text before him as he wrote.
Yet he passes over in silence the fifth canon : " Let him be
excommunicate who says that the matrimonial bond can be
severed on account of heresy, or cruelty, or desertion." Why
did he omit this canon ? Was it because he felt that at one
fell stroke it made his entire article worthless, and that if he
expressed it as he did its companion laws he would have to
beg the editor of the North American to excuse him from at-
tacking the " Roman " Church on the issue of remarriage after
divorce ?
The Bishop's leading charge against the Church, which he
repeats in different places, is that "the multiplied possibilities
of remarriage by innumerable grounds of dispensation and
countless definitions of prenuptial impediments," take away all
value from the claim that divorce is not tolerated by the
Church, and demonstrate that therefore the Church is not the
"special guardian of the marriage bond."
It would perhaps be sufficient for our purpose, if we left
the entire matter at the point where we now stand, with the
Bishop evidently convicted of being, to say the least, an
untrustworthy witness in matters bearing on the matrimonial
doctrine and practice of the Church.
But we can afford to put the Bishop on his feet again,
and to take up this statement of his as if we were not already
acquainted with the questionable character of our accuser.
And so we shall proceed to discuss what he says concerning
our " innumerable grounds of dispensation " and our " countless
definitions of prenuptial impediment." But at the very outset
we must ask the Bishop to withdraw two words from his
charge. The grounds of dispensation are not innumerable,
and we are sorry to say that the Bishop shows himself ac-
quainted with this fact, since in one paragraph of his article
he tells us that he has read the limited number of grounds of
dispensation as given by Gury, and, moreover, the reading of
Gury's statement must have made it clear to him that not all
of the grounds mentioned will be applicable in regard to any
one impediment. Nor are our definitions of prenuptial impedi-
298 THE STRANGE REASONING OF BISHOP DOANE. [June,
ment " innumerable." The only impediments which affect the
validity of the marriage bond, and in consequence the only
impediments of which the Bishop can possibly be speaking,
are the diriment impediments ; and these are fifteen in num-
ber, and for that reason cannot be said to be innumerable.
Again we regret to state that the Bishop gives proof (in the
same paragraph above referred to) of his knowledge of the
precise number of the diriment impediments, since when en-
lightening his readers on Gury's doctrine, he says: "He gives
the fifteen diriment impediments." Anyhow, it is certain that
grounds of dispensation are not "countless" and definitions of
prenuptial impediment are not "innumerable."
The question is therefore reduced to this: Does the recog-
nition of impediments, and of the lawfulness of dispensing
from them, evidence a looseness of theory and practice which
conflicts with a high regard for the sacredness of marriage ?
The Bishop says that it does. We are sure that any one who
will ponder the philosopy of the Canon law on impediments
will find therein a most admirable and effective safeguard
against whatever might prove detrimental to the permanency
of the marital contract, and a system which States may envy
in proportion as they find it impossible of imitation.
The Church has hedged round the sanctity of marriage
with certain decrees which we call impediments. Some of
them are merely prohibitory in character ; they do not affect
the validity, but the licitness, of marriage ; and, since they
leave the bond intact, they cannot form an issue in a discus-
sion which relates to divorce. One who marries while detained
by a prohibitory impediment, is really married, and no eccle-
siastical judge would dream of declaring a marriage null on
account of the presence of an impediment which can have no
other effect than to forbid the union of two parties.
It is different with diriment impediments. They have more
than a prohibitory effect. They do not simply proclaim that
a union will be unlawful, they prevent it from coming into
existence. If persons attempt marriage while such an impedi-
ment stands between them, their attempt fails and they are not
married.
Is there anything objectionable in such impediments to
marriage ? To answer such a question wisely, we must bear
in mind the nature of the married state. Its obligations, its
1 905 . ] THE S TRA NGE REASONING OF BISHOP Do A NE. 299
permanency, its peculiar character, demand that every precau-
tion should be taken to see that it be never entered unless
those who embrace it be co situated that no evil can result to
themselves, and especially to society.
One who would consider it unnecessary and inadvisable to
make parties desirous of marrying subject to regulations that
operate as a hindrance to whim or deceit or malice or thought-
lessness, would not only come into conflict with the first sug-
gestions of common sense, he would question the righteous-
ness of legislation that has commended itself as sound and
necessary to the various commonwealths of our Republic. The
Bishop cannot be unacquainted with the fact that our States
generally in their legislation distinguish between void or voida-
ble marriages, and those that are simply prohibited. If he
gives the matter the slightest consideiation he will see that
this supposes that the States pretty generally have their own
diriment and prohibitory impediments, and that he cannot
make war on the system of impediments without placing him-
self outside the pale of both secular and ecclesiastical law, as
well as of common sense.
Neglecting as not pertinent to our present matter the pro-
hibitory impediments of the secular law, it may be instructive
to see what is the nature of some of the diriment impediments
recognized by the different States. Turning to the Bishop's
own State, New York, we find the following list under " void
or voidable " marriages :
Within prohibited degrees ; bigamous ; when either party
is incapable from want of age or understanding ; or incapable
from physical causes; or when consent of either party has
been obtained by force or fraud.
Despite the difference of terminology, and some variance
in application, we have no difficulty in recognizing in this list,
the " cognatio, vis, ligamen, error, impotentia, aetas, raptus,"
that figure in the list given by Gury. In the law of Alabama
we find a parallel for Gury's " affinitas " and " honestas." The
law of Kentucky, and of other States, requires the celebration
of marriage before an authorized person or society, and herein
is reproduced, in a secular garb, the " clandestinitas" of Gury.
More than one State has class legislation which justifies Gury's
" disparitas cultus." Gury's " crimen " does not figure, in so
300 THE STRANGE REASONING OF BISHOP DOANE. [June,
far as I have been able to ascertain, in our legislation, but
since this impediment renders impossible the marriage of a
guilty husband or wife with an accomplice in the crime of
adultery or conjugicide, committed with the hope or intention
of a future marriage, its adoption would meet with universal
approbation.
So that Gury's list is not so foreign and unfamiliar as one
might be led to imagine after reading the Bishop's remarks.
I do not say that the impediment has the same field of appli-
cation in the civil as in the canon law, but there is at least a
substantial resemblance, and one which it is important to bear
in mind. In fact, "Holy Orders" and "Solemn Vows" are
the only impediments in Gury's recension which have not
some warrant in the law which is applied every day in the
courts of our country and in Bishop Doane's church. The
presence of these two impediments can be easily explained in
a canonical code which consults the spiritual and religious in-
terests of individuals.
There is one important feature in which the diriment im-
pediments of the State differ from those of the Church, and it
is a difference which is signally of advantage to the Church
when the relative concern of the two powers for the matri-
monial bond is under discussion. The impediments which I
quoted from the laws of New York were ranged under the
heading, " void or voidable marriages." The civil law, then,
recognizes a voidable marriage, that is, there may be cases in
which the impediment will operate only after the marriage, on
a decree being given by some competent court. The marriage,
therefore, in spite of the impediment, comes into existence in
these cases, and is subsequently destroyed. The Church, on
the other hand, will not allow a valid marriage in presence of
a diriment impediment, and consequently does not admit that
voidableness of marriage which the State frequently allows.
The sacredness of marriage is in one case conserved, in the
other it is menaced and frequently defiled. There can be no
question which of these practices manifests a greater reverence
for the permanency of marriage and a greater unwillingness to
sever the bond tied by God himself.
However, it is precisely on this point that Bishop Doane is
most querulous. He insists on the equivalent admission of
divorce by the Church in its system of impediments:
1905.] THE STRANGE REASONING OF BISHOP DOANE. 301
. . . the impossibility of defence against the immorali-
ties resulting from the definitions of impediments, the declara-
tions of nullity and the dispensations for marriage afterward,
often only discovered and declared, and used as reasons and
excuses for getting rid of an unhappy marriage and finding
a way for entering upon another; and again, he says: It
seems to me really true to say that Rome justifies and prac-
tically sanctions what amounts to divorce, although it is not
called so, in the freest possible way, unless both parties to the
previous marriage are Roman Catholics.
From which cloud of words we gather that there are im-
moralities resulting: i. From the definitions of impediments;
2. From declarations of nullity ; 3. From dispensations for
marriage; 4. That the Church justifies and sanctions divorce
in the freest possible way, unless both parties to the previous
marriage are Roman Catholics.
Let us proceed to the discussion of these different points
in the order in which the Bishop has presented them.
I. The immoralities resulting from the definitions of impedi-
ments ! We may leave the Bishop to fight it out on this line
with the law of his own State and of his own church, which
we have seen to correspond to the law of the Catholic Church
in no slight measure. Is it immoral to prevent an impotent
person from marrying, or a woman who is subjected to duress,
or one who already has a husband or wife living, or one who
is a victim of gross fraud, or who is so closely related to his
partner that reasons of health and humanity forbid marital
intercourse ? Is it immoral to take measures to forbid clan-
destine unions which promote bigamy, or to prevent very
young children irom entering a state of life whose obligations
they can neither appreciate nor fulfil ? And, with regard to
those impediments of Gury, that are specifically religious in
character, one who admits freedom of conscience will h'esitate
to declare immoral, regulations that are intended to preserve
inviolate the spiritual interests of members of the Catholic
communion, or are designed to bind priests and religious to
the performance of an agreement which they have made freely
and in the most solemn manner. A churchman should be the
last person in the world to detect immorality in the "defini-
tions of impediments."
II. The immoralities resulting from the declarations of nul-
302 THE STRANGE REASONING OF BISHOP DOANE. [June,
lity, the Bishop says, are incapable of defence. Inasmuch as
they do not exist, they certainly cannot be defended. The
charge of immorality in this connection rests on a misappre-
hension of the nature of a declaration of nullity, as decreed
by ecclesiastical tribunals. A declaration of nullity is a decree
which affirms the existence of a diriment impediment at the
time of marriage, and the consequent invalidity of the mar-
riage. We find no difficulty in saying that the Church is
bound, by her very system of diriment impediments, to admit
the possibility of such decrees of nullity. A marriage may be
entered into when the parties are legally incapable of con-
tracting and when their incapacity may fail of detection on
account of peculiar circumstances. If later, the character of
this union is brought to the attention of ecclesiastical author-
ity, a declaration of nullity may be rendered necessary, and is
sometimes decreed.
It is not necessary to insist on the absolute dissimilarity
between such a decree and a divorce. The decree of. nullity
operates where the bond has never united the parties, the di-
vorce severs it after it has been brought into being by a valid
contract. In one case there is not, and there never has been,
a marriage ; in the other case the parties are really man and
wife.
Nor is it necessary to insist on the impossibility of deny-
ing the lawfulness of such a decree. The sentence of the ec-
clesiastical court simply confirms the principle laid down in
the law which created the impediment. That law for just and
sufficient cause declared the parties incapable of marrying, be-
cause of some unfitness. That unfitness continues. As it ren-
dered them incapable of marrying, logic demands that it con-
tinue to exercise its effect, and that these same parties be con-
sidered incapable of being recognized as man and wife. The
Church must be prepared in certain cases to issue a decree
of nullity.
Does the Church therefore encourage immorality? She
would, if she exercised no supervision over the parties previous
to the matrimonial contract, or if she administered matrimonial
law in her courts in a lax and negligent fashion.
But neither hypothesis is true. It is only because Bishop
Doane is unfamiliar with our matrimonial legislation that he
brings forward a charge of immorality on the present score. I
1905.] THE STRANGE REASONING OF BISHOP DOANE. 303
cannot here set forth in detail all the law governing the action
of priests and people previous to a marriage, nor is a complete
treatment necessary. The essential note in everything done
before marriage is a most religious care to prevent an attempt
at union in face of an impediment. The priest interrogates
the parties together and separately concerning any possible im-
pediment, their names are published on three different occasions
in those places where they are known, in order to bring the
future marriage to the notice of all those who may be able to
object and allege cause against it, all the faithful are under
the strictest obligation to reveal any impediment that may have
come to their knowledge ; if one of the parties has been mar-
ried before, he or she must adduce unquestionable proof of the
death of the former spouse ; in a word, the possibility of con-
tracting an invalid marriage is minimized as far as is possible
to human prudence. The reader can judge of the extent to
which this preliminary process, far more minute and painstak-
ing than that enjoined by any other authority, ecclesiastical or
civil, tells against the charge of immorality.
However, even the best directed human agencies will at
times prove ineffectual. It may happen in spite of every care
that an undetected impediment has rendered the marriage in-
valid. Will such a happening be prejudicial to morality, will
it be a menace to the sacredness of matrimony? If we remem-
ber that such cases will be rare on account of the preliminary
procedure of which we have just spoken, we shall be inclined
to doubt the possibility of any serious immorality arising from
this source, and still more inclined to doubt the impossibility
of defending it, even if we adopt the Bishop's terminology and
call it immorality. But there is a more cogent reason against
Bishop Doane's charge than that to be drawn from the com-
parative rarity of the instances needed to support his view,
and it is to be sought in the procedure which has to be fol-
lowed by one who attacks marriage on the ground of a diri-
ment impediment. Without doubt, if all that is necessary be
the mere allegation of an impediment, consequent immorality
will have to be feared. Husbands and wives who have tired
of a first matrimonial experience can trump up a cause of nul-
lity the more easily if collusion takes place, and bigamy will
be a thing of easy accomplishment. But the trumping up of
causes and successful collusion are rendered impossible by the
VOL. LXXXI. 20
304 THE STRANGE REASONING OF BISHOP DOANE. [June,
law of the Church. Does Bishop Doane know anything about
the procedure governing matrimonial cases in our courts ? Is
he acquainted with the law governing the right to accuse, with
the stricter rules of evidence that apply in cases looking to a
decree of nullity ? Has he ever heard of the official known as
the defender of the marriage bond who must contest all claims
of invalidity, and cannot accept a decree of nullity even when
the evidence is conclusive against validity, but must appeal and
carry the case on to other courts, with the expense and delay
and inconvenience which render these processes so uninviting?
Does he know that more of these cases issue adversely than
succeed ? We cannot but think that if his knowledge were pro-
portionate to his zeal, he would be more chary of spying out
immorality in this field where few care to walk, and where
they have little opportunity of doing wrong; he would never
say that causes of nullity "are often used as reasons for getting
rid of an unhappy marriage and finding a way for entering
upon another."
The unsoundness of the Bishop's argument becomes more
apparent if we employ an illustration which will appeal to
every one. Suppose that two persons are found living as
husband and wife in Bishop Doane's home city, Albany. The
Bishop says: "You must not separate this man and woman, in
any circumstance or for any reason, because you will thereby
do what the Catholic Church does, you will make them free to
marry some one else, you will encourage remarriage after
divorce." But, we ask, what is to be done if the man in the
case has a wife by a former marriage living in Buffalo, or if
the woman was compelled against her will to go through the
form of marriage, and is still compelled against her will to lead
a married life, or if they are simply living unlawfully to-
gether? The Bishop still says: "You must not do what the
Catholic Church does, you must not declare that there is no
marriage in such a case, you must not decree nullity." The
Bishop is bound to say this in order to be consistent with his
line of argument; but every one else will say that in such a
case the proper authority must pronounce that this man and
woman are not married, must order their separation, and, if the
form of marriage has been gone through, must declare its
nullity. This the Church says, and this the Church does; not
in many cases, but in infrequent ones; not hastily and remorse-
1905.] THE STRANGE REASONING OF BISHOP DOANE, 305
lessly, but only after every other means of remedying the un-
happy condition has proved unavailing, after reconciliation and
her dispensing authority have been spurned or found inappli-
cable. She declares the truth, she says that this is not a
marriage, that the parties are not husband and wife, that they
must be separated. And because of declarations of this kind,
relating to cases in which there has been no marriage and
consequently can be no divorce, declarations that are not at
all numerous, Bishop Doane asserts that the Catholic Church
recognizes divorce in the freest possible manner. He points
exultingly to one such declaration, and comments on the com-
motion which it caused, unmindful that in his own illustration
he is arguing against himself and demonstrating that the
Catholic sense is so finely trained to abhor divorce that even
the semblance of that great evil is shocking, and moreover
that these decrees of nullity must be almost unheard of when
one of them will excite so much comment among members of
the Church.
III. It is not easy to discover why the Bishop felt justified
in invoking " dispensations for marriage " to support his con-
tention that the Church sanctions divorce. A dispensation
supposes an impediment affecting unmarried persons, whose
union it renders lawful ; it does not in any way relate to re-
marriage after divorce. In fact, a divorced person cannot
obtain a dispensation. To speak of "dispensations often only
discovered and declared and used as reasons and excuses for
getting rid of an unhappy marriage," is to use language
altogether unintelligible and utterly contradictory of the genuine
idea of a dispensation. The mystery which veils the Bishop's
meaning is only rendered more impenetrable when we reflect
that Catholics discover and declare, not dispensations, but. the
reasons for granting them.
IV. The Bishop has now to prove that " Rome justifies
and practically sanctions what amounts to divorce, although it
is not called so, in the freest possible way, unless both parties
to the previous marriage are Roman Catholics."
His proof we have already seen. It is the famous para-
graph, in which five poor sentences bear the burden of eighteen
misstatements concerning Catholic doctrine and practice; the
paragraph on which he stakes the truth of his declaration that
" Rome cannot proclaim herself the special guardian of the
306 THE STRANGE REASONING OF BISHOP DOANE. [June.
institution of marriage." We hesitate to believe that this proof
will convince many that Rome practically sanctions in the
freest possible way what amounts to divorce, since it is all too
evident that the good Bishop has a very indistinct idea of
what Rome does and does not sanction.
A full exposition of all the misleading assertions contained
in Bishop Doane's article is impossible in the narrow compass
within which we are obliged to confine our discussion ; but,
from the examples shown above, it will be easy to understand
the general character of this latest and most reprehensible
calumny against the Catholic Church. Never did such an arti-
cle appear before, never, let us hope, will such a one appear again
to discredit its author and impose upon him the odious duty
of a general retractation. Never was so important a subject
taken up by a bishop in such grave circumstances in so care-
less and unworthy a spirit. Insufficiently equipped, Bishop
Doane has spoken beyond his knowledge, he has attributed to
the Church doctrine which she does not teach and has never
taught, and has made her responsible for practices which she
would not dream of authorizing. If he had spoken in a hesi-
tating way, as if uncertain of his ground, some excuse for his
action might be pleaded ; but he has filled his article with
bold, unqualified statements of error, to which he has lent all
the authority of his high clerical dignity, his supposed learn-
ing, and, what is most reprehensible, the assurance that he has
drawn his information from authoritative sources. On these
errors he has based a serious charge against the Catholic
Church, a charge that menaces civil as well as ecclesiastical
well-being; a charge which is in no way true or justifiable; a
charge which, false as it is, leaves intact the reputation of the
Church as the special guardian of marriage, but fixes forever
the Bishop's rank as a religious cpntroversialist and perhaps as
a good citizen.
THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST.
BY THE REVEREND JOSEPH McSORLEY, C.S.P.
|HE nineteenth century has with justice been
named " wonderful." Over the wide field of
all the earth its career of conquest ran; the
army of its scholars laid under tribute land and
sea and sky. The dead past was exhumed,
buried cities were explored, the stories of forgotten civilizations
recovered, books older than Moses found and read again.
In the interests of new knowledge science put the living
present under the microscope, wrested secrets from the ocean's
depths and the heart of mountains, exploited the plants and
animals of all the globe, and almost numbered each star in the
long procession of the Milky Way. The far distant future was
foreseen and bound to service ere its birth; prophecies were
spelled out in the reign of changeless law; and coming events
were traced with as much precision as if the limitations of
time and space had been forever overpassed. Such were some
of the achievements of the century.
As a result, more than one venerable tradition has ceased to
be. We behold philosophies and schools of thought, recently
popular, now possessed of neither disciple nor defender ; politi-
cal forms and religious systems, reverenced in the past, now in
great measure set aside. And the outlook is such as to strike
the mind with amazement ; a new heaven and a new earth
are dawning on the vision of the human race. Men affirm
that what we have seen is but the beginning ; that the new
generation is sure to be more revolutionary than its prede-
cessor. Already some of us seem to have heard the mutter-
ing of distant thunder forecasting a time of wider disillusion-
ment, when still other walls will fall down at the trumpet-
blast of criticism and the rivers at which ages have slaked
their thirst will run dry.
It is now that the Catholic Church encounters an old foe
in a new guise. Grim, hostile, scornful, Rationalism stands at
the threshold of the twentieth century with menacing brow
308 THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST. [June,
and threatening finger, warning the Church: "Thus far shall
you go, and no further. You have lived through a score of
centuries ; you have survived the storm and the battle. The
tempest has been loosed and you have not perished. Nations
have risen up against you and you have lived to chant their
requiem. But now at last you are face to face with a test
that you cannot survive. We shall no longer attack you ; we
are going to explain you."
Against Religion science is summoned to prove that reli-
gion is a mere form of animal emotion, developed out of the
savage customs or the alarming experiences of primitive man.
For does not organic evolution show all existing things to be
the natural result of the sifting and singling out of the ages,
the complex descendents of simple ancestors which again were
descended from simpler forms and man no great exception,
but the mere climax of a long process of development from a
prehistoric simian stock !
Against Christianity criticism is summoned to prove that
the Scriptural basis of Christianity has been destroyed, that the
Bible is but one of a group of writings, a mere national litera-
ture not the oldest and not the best. For have we not
learned that the sacred books are merely human products, re-
flecting the ignorance and errors of the ages in which they
were composed ; that they were made up largely of older
Oriental traditions collected and adapted to the genius of the
Hebrew people; that they have undergone various recensions
and re- editings; that they are full of parable, legend, and
poetry ; that cruelty and superstition are more characteristic
of them than historical accuracy ; and that in lew cases have
they been written by the person and in the time which the
Christian Church has always presumed to teach !
Against Catholicism history is summoned to prove that
Catholicism is a mere phase in the development of Western
civilization, due to clearly defined causes, and following in its
various stages the laws which govern the growth of every
social organism. For has not a chronicler of the Roman
Empire's decline and fall enumerated the five sufficient rea-
sons which account for the spread of the Christian Church !
Has not a German historian of dogma put his finger on the
component elements, and shown how Jewish hopes, Roman
law, and Greek philosophy were welded together into the
1905.] THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST, 309
composite called Catholicism ! And has not a French psy-
chologist sketched the growth by which a primitive conception
of the Kingdom of God steadily and inevitably developed into
discipline, dogma, priesthood, episcopate, and papacy, as we
have them now !
Such is the statement of the case by Rationalism.
What has the Christian Church to answer?
Merely this. " You mistake my nature. No fact that has
been proven, no fact that ever will be proven, can in any wise
militate against my claim to be of God."
Religion is not a theory about the growth of the material,
visible world, or the processes of human development. What
it implies and insists upon is this, that at the beginning of all
things is a first cause, God, without whom was made nothing
that was made. Against that pronouncement and its implica-
tions, science, by its own showing, will never be able to
declare.
Christianity does not stand and fall with any theory about
the dates of the books, nor the names of the writers, nor the
character of the composition of the Bible. What it is com-
mitted to is the assertion that these books were written under
the inspiration of the Holy Ghost for the moral betterment of
the human race. As critical acumen and private judgment do
not suffice for the correct appreciation and proper interpreta-
tion of Scripture, neither on the other hand can they ever
pretend to demonstrate that the Bible is not from God.
Catholicism does not repudiate the conception which pic-
tures the Church as a living organism marvelously well adapted
to its environment, absorbing new elements of growth day after
day, drawing upon the best that there is in the external world
for its nourishment and its instruments of labor. As leaves
change their hue season by season, and as animals vary from
youth to age, the Church, too, alters various of her accidental
details, always remaining, like the leaf and the animal, un-
changed in essence and individuality. History must ever con-
fess itself as helpless to explain away the Church as the
biologist to reveal the source of the life animating the proto-
plasm which he is about to submit to analysis. And since,
when we compare the Church with other living things, she is,
so far as history knows, immortal, it seems reasonable to pre-
sume that her life is of an order as much higher than the
310 THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST. [June,
lives of men and nations as her existence is more enduring
than theirs.
The Church, then, is purely sacramental. She has an out-
ward and visible form and an inner divine life ; that which the
eyes of history see and the hands of science touch is the
human vessel, the material embodiment; that which men love
and believe and live by is the spark of divinity within. The
Church conceives of herself as living in another realm than the
field of scientific research; and of her doctrine as of something
lifted up out of the reach of critical attack ; and of religion as
of a life lived down in the calm depths of the soul, untroubled
by the ripples and the tossings and the tempests on the surface.
We learn to know the Church, as friends learn to know and
love each other by means of a subtle sense which pierces
through the material to the spiritual ; which goes straight to
the Reality behind the veil; which communicates with the
soul hiding inside the body. We get into sympathy with the
Church only by becoming in our own little measure like unto
the Christ whose body is the Church. We see the Church, in
very truth, only after we have received and corresponded with
the energetic grace of Christ; for only after doing the truth
may we hope for the light.
Religion, then, is a spiritual life; and Christianity is a
divine love ; and Catholicity is a knitting fast of the soul to
God it is that, or it is nothing. As mere science, history,
criticism never yet made a man a Catholic, so neither have
they ever been able to destroy his Catholicity. And this we
dare affirm : that mankind will never grow away from the
Catholic Church while men are devoted to the spirit she was
founded to diffuse.
The spread of this spirit is broader than the limits of the
visible Church, it is true. Catholic doctrine teaches that all
who ever attain to eternal life, do so in virtue of having been
touched by the grace of Christ ; they reach heaven through
some sort of union with him, without whom no one goeth to the
Father, without whom no one resists temptations for a long
time, or keeps even the natural law intact. To be free from
sin the soul must in some measure share Christ's spirit and
live his Hie. His strength and his virtue are in all the strong
and all the good, whether within the limits of his sheep-
fold or without: the ancient prophet, the martyr on the
1905.] THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST. 311
sands of the Coliseum, the catechumen murdered by Chinese
Boxers ; African and Asiatic, Greek and Roman, Celt and
American; Catholic and Buddhist and Puritan and Jew; the
Indian maiden in the Mohawk valley, the Fakir on the banks
of the Ganges, the Lama seeking the river of life in a
word, all the just and noble and pure and brave; all who at
any time have spent their days and nights in the service of
duty, or have been nailed to the cross for conscience' sake ; for
all are branches of the true vine, Christ, are flowers sprung of
his root, are prisms breaking up into divers colors the white
light of his holiness. If their stories stir our souls it is be-
cause, like iron magnetized by contact with him, they draw us
with the magic spell of his sanctity ; and because our very love
of him compels us in some sense to imitate and be one with
them.
This, however, is an invisible union only, a purely spiritual
City of God ; whereas the fundamental principle of the Incar-
nation was a manifesting of the unseen through the seen, an
expression of the invisible in terms of the visible, a linking of
the spiritual with the material, a revelation of the Word in the
flesh.
Therefore, when Christ's earthly life was nearing its end, God
formed in the womb of humanity a Mystical Body for his Son
a heart to throb with sympathy for the afflicted unto the end
of time; a brow to wear the glory of- Thabor and the shame of
Calvary while the world should last; feet to tread the moun-
tains of all the world, carrying the messengers of the good
tidings of peace; lips to pronounce the pardon of every truly
repentent sinner ; hands to stretch to all nations, bearing gifts
for every child of Adam ; and fingers to break the bread of
life to every famishing soul.
The Church's mission was to redeem countless millions from
vice, to heal the soul-sick and the conscience-dead, to preach
the Gospel of the homeless Christ to the poor of all the world,
to tame the savage and sanctify the barbarian, to defy mon-
archs in the cause of justice, to convert woman into an angel
of peace and a symbol of purity, to strike the shackles from
the slave, to be a sign of contradiction to the world until the
last hour of its wicked existence ; out of the weak things and
the ignoble and the base to construct heroes and Christians
and saints.
312 THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST. [June,
This was the Visible Church of God, the Mystical Body
of Christ.
She has drawn to herself what was best in old times and
in new, in East and in West, in all places and all ages ; and
she has given it out again to men as their needs demanded.
To her has the world gone to school for two thousand years,
and from her has it learned the highest and best it knows.
Through her each of us shares in the fruits of the collective
life of Christendom ; to her we owe it that we are born not
into a spiritual wilderness, but into a flourishing civilization.
Raised in her arms to a wider outlook than is possible to even
the wisest of individuals or the oldest of nations, we discern
an infinite horizon, we see things, as it were, with the eternal
eyes of Christ, we appropriate his divine enthusiasms, the
noblest heritage of the race. Stimulated by her inspiration,
and guided by her age-old wisdom, we go out of our selfish
littleness to become great in devotedness and generosity, and
we are carried along by the crowds of her saints where he
that walks alone must faint and lie down.
She names us, nourishes us, weans us, teaches us. She
holds up the Crucifix before our childish eyes, and wins our
young hearts' love for Christ. She reconciles us with God
after we have strayed away. When we return from our wan-
derings, she sets us down at the heavenly banquet and cheers
us with Christ's Sacred Body and his Precious Blood.
At Baptism, Confirmation, Marriage, and Ordination she
ministers to us the graces we need. She watches over and
soothes us in our dying moments; and under her benediction
we descend into the grave. She is, indeed, the sacrament of
sacraments, the Mystical Body of Jesus. Truly does the Christ
in her cry out to the Christ in us. Truly in her speaking his
sheep hear his voice and follow him.
This then is the Church that is facing the twentieth cen-
tury, not only brave, but calm and confident and smilingly
certain of the future. That attitude of hers is indeed justified
by the history of the century just closed, when, especially in
this youngest and most progressive country of ours, she has
given proof of so marvelous a vitality, exhibiting a capacity
of growth the like of which history does not report. The ex-
planation can be sought only in the fact that the Church is
not the embodiment of a dead past, but the Mystical Body
1905.] THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST. 313
of Christ, living with his life, and working his works among
men, yesterday and to-day, and the same forever. Christ has
endowed her with prerogatives appealing to every age and to
every clime; and so to-day, among us, she vindicates her
claim by the manifesting of characteristics which tell on our
minds as perhaps no others could.
God knows we Americans have our faults, but, whatever
we are in practice, we are not Pharisees in principle and sympa-
thy. And we want a Church that, like Christ, will go to the
sinner. The worst enemy of the Catholic Church makes no
attempt to deny that she does this; that she receives any
penitent soul into the bosom of her love and communion;
that she works over the most hopeless cases, and nurses the
weakest invalid back to life, if the chance be given her ; that
she never yet has broken the bruised reed, nor quenched the
smoking flax, but ever and always has carefully fostered the
faintest sparks of moral vitality.
With our love of liberty we Americans have a keen sense
of the value of government and authority ; and we want a
Church that, like Christ, will speak as one having authority ;
that will send forth a voice venerable and mighty to ring in
thunder tones unto the ends of the earth ; that will say defi-
nitely what to believe, and command finally what to do; that
will shrivel up offenders with the Godlike wrath of her indig-
nation.
Lastly, we are nothing if not practical ; and we want a
Church that does things with men a Church that, instead of
whimpering about loss of membership and lack of ecclesias-
tical vocations, multiplies buildings year by year to keep pace
with the growth of her children ; that attracts the very pick
of the race to the defense of her cause and the propaganda
of her doctrine ; that can fill her temples to the doors, though
storms and blizzards rage in a manner sure to frighten fair-
weather Christians away ; that insists on the proud humbling
themselves in confession, and on the extortioner restoring his
plunder ; that dares bar from her communion those who kill
off the race by depriving an unborn generation of its right to
live.
These qualities appeal to the practical mind of the modern
man ; and the Catholic Church rejoices in the possession of
them. So she goes on her way in quiet majesty, undisturbed
THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST. [June.
by newly discovered facts, untroubled about the possible verifi-
cation of new hypotheses. Her ultimate purpose is purely
spiritual; she concerns herself with things material and human
only for the sake of things divine ; she is never to be caught
by the vicissitudes of human history or entangled in the
meshes of science.
Scientific and historical revelations may multiply ; theories
come and pass away again, Jew give way to Gentile, Plato
to Aristotle, and privilege to equality. Dynasties may crack
and totter, ecclesiastical temporalities forever disappear,
friends turn to foes, and the eldest daughter of the Christian
Church lie prostrate, the shame of Christendom and the pity
of the world. These things are of the earth, earthy, and they
cannot destroy a life that is divine. With her finger on the
pulse of humanity, the Catholic Church keeps beside it in its
progress, ministering to its spiritual needs, helping it in its
struggles, whispering to it of God. She is thus making ready
for the moment when, tired of the deceits ot the flesh, every
man at length will turn to the spirit of Christ, and be folded
in the arms of his Mystical Body, which is the Church.
A GREAT IRISH FAMILY.
BY KATHARINE TYNAN.
ANYTHING that concerns that romantic hero, Lord
Edward Fitzgerald, must possess a great inter-
est, not only for Irish people, in the cause of
whose freedom he died, but for any one who
possesses sufficient of the literary sense or the
adventurous spirit to make them delight in this most charm-
ing of heroes.
Most happily, like many of the gentlemen of '98, he wielded
a delightful pen. The letters to his beloved mother sug-
gest that if he had not been a harum-scarum hero he had
been a literary force. Revolutions in Ireland seem to make
for literature. Nearly all of those Irish soldiers of fortune,
fighting in a desperate cause, seem to have carried the pen of
the ready-writer in their knapsacks. Lord Edward's letters
and Wolfe Tone's diary are human documents of the most
exquisite interest, while the memoirs a servir of Holt, Teeling,
Cloney, and half-a-dozen others, bring the time before us in
its habit as it lived.
In the history of the Leinster family there is material for
a hundred romances. One thinks of our dear lost Stevenson
in reading of those days. In Lord Edward Fitzgerald, in
Tone, in Napper Tandy, in Holt, he had subjects made to his
hand. They are there awaiting the coming of the Irish Ste-
venson.
If one wanted to know whence Lord Edward derived his
quixotic spirit, one has only to look to her of whom he was
indeed bone of her bone, flesh of her flesh, his exquisite,
adoring, adored mother, the Duchess of Leinster, the daughter
of one Duke of Richmond, the sister of another.
She was a widow, and had borne seventeen children to
the Duke of Leinster, before her romance began : Mrs. Delany
described her as the proudest woman in Ireland. She had
engaged as tutor to her sons a Scotchman, Mr. William Ogil-
vie, who kept a school in Cole's Lane, Dublin. He was a
316 A GREAT IRISH FAMILY. [June,
good classical scholar and mathematician, but seems to have
been a man of unprepossessing appearance; "uncouth" is the
adjective used for him by Mr. Gerald Campbell, whose Edward
and Pamela Fitzgerald is the latest addition to the steadily
growing mass of Fitzgerald literature.
Mr. Campbsll gives us a delightful glimpse of the terms
upon which the new tutor was received into the family.
"Lady Leitrim," he writes, "was one day spending the
evening at Leinster House with the Duchess when the Groom
of the Chamber came in to tell her Grace that Mr. Ogilvie,
the new tutor, was arrived.
" ' Show him to his room.'
" ' If you please, your Grace, is he to have wax candles or
tallow ? '
" Upon which the Duchess turned to Lady Leitrim and
said :
" ' Qu'en pensez-vous ? '
' " Finally she came to the conclusion :
" ' Oh, moulds will do till we see a little.' "
It will be seen that this Mr. Ogilvie must have been a
very remarkable man to have won the Duchess, not only for
his wife, but for a wife who gave him unquestioning faith and
passionate devotion. More, he won his stepchildren as no
stepchildren were ever won before. " Mr. O ," who is con-
stantly in the Leinster letters, was a father as much feared as
loved, and he was well loved. Seeing what a big place he
took in their lives, one wonders over the late Duke, of whose
name one never finds a mention. Doubtless, like his son who
succeeded him, he was a weak, well-meaning gentleman, whom
the strong personality of the Scotch tutor swept out of the
thoughts of his wife and children.
The family group at this time or rather at a later time,
when the young Leinsters were grown up to man and woman-
hood, and the two little Ogilvie girls, Ciss and Mimi, were
not far behind them was one of extraordinary interest.
The Duchess remains in one's thoughts as the wife and
the mother. Her mind towards her second husband is revealed
in her letters to her children; and those letters, burning and
throbbing with motherly love, are among the most beautiful
things in literature. These letters, and the letters of the
children to her, can hardly be read without tears, especially
1905.] A GREAT IRISH FAMILY. 317
when one remembers the martyrdom she was fated to endure.
She is always the centre of the picture.
On each side of her her two sisters, Lady Sarah Napier
and Lady Louisa Conolly, group themselves. Lady Sarah,
who, as Lady Sarah Lennox, all but became the Queen of
George the Third, was a most remarkable woman. If her sis-
ters, the Duchess and Lady Louisa, stand to us for heart, Lady
Sarah wins our admiration for her intellect, her spirit, her wit,
and common sense. She had married Colonel Napier, who at
this time was in command of English troops in Ireland, but all
her sympathy was with the Irish in the troubles, although she
brought to the understanding of the matter a coolness, an
impartiality, a wisdom very different from the hot-headedness
of the young Fitzgeralds. Mr. Gerald Campbell says, no doubt
truly, that a combination of Lady Sarah, Lord Fitzwilliam,
and Lord Moira would have settled the Irish question without
all the blood and trouble, the heritage of wrong and hatred,
which is a bane to both countries.
Lady Louisa Conolly was the wife of Mr. Conolly, of Castle-
town, Celbridge, County Kildare, a member of Parliament.
She also was profoundly and tenderly attached to that country
which has the gift of winning hearts
" Our glory, our sorrow, our mother. Thy God
In thy worst dereliction forsook but to prove thee.
Blind, blind as the blind-worm, cold, cold as the clod
Who, seeing thee see not, possess but not love thee ! "
and which attracts to itself particularly the hearts of settlers
within its borders.
Lady Louisa, in a way, was almost as interesting a character
as Lady Sarah. In many respects she was a Jane Austen
character, and might have been created by that most delicate
and witty of observers. She was most affectionate and gentle,
but at times over-amiable and ready to forgive for her quick-
witted sister, Lady Sarah. Lady Sarah, after Lord Edward's
death and the incredibly mean sequestration of his estate, kept
"Lord Castlereagh and hjs sett" at arms' length; but com-
plains of her sister :
" She excuses, doubts, pardons, and forces herself to show
no sign of displeasure, because she has, as usual, transferred a
3i8 A GREAT IRISH FAMILY. [June,
wrong thing into unkindness only to her, and therefore she has
an opportunity of exerting her self-denial and Christian for-
giveness to the highest degree, by calling it all want of kind-
ness to her ; she hopes to forget as easily as she forgives, and
she succeeds in both."
However, even Lady Sarah acknowledges Lady Louisa's
spirit at times; and she was as loving as her sister, the
Duchess.
Within this big family there was an inner, intimate circle.
With the Duchess and her sisters it consisted of Lord Edward,
Lord Henry, and Lord Robert, Lady Lucy, and Lady Sophia
Fitzgeralds all, with the two daughters of the Duchess'
second marriage, Ciss and Mimi Ogilvie. Round these names
the letters and diaries of the delightful family revolve ; their
sayings and doings are chronicled, while there are only pass-
ing allusions to the rest of the family.
Lady Lucy, afterwards Lady Lucy Foley, was Lord Edward's
favorite sister, and if she had been a man instead of a woman
she would have been found fighting by his side. She was the
only one of the family who went as far as he did in patriotism.
She was much with Lord Edward and Pamela in the days
when the revolution was hatching, was entirely in their con-
fidence, and was, one suspects, somewhat in love with that
other member of the partie carree of patriots, the fourth .of
" ce cher bien-aime aimable quoituor " of Pamela, Arthur
O'Connor. Lady Lucy was forty years away from her golden
youth. Pamela had followed Lord Edward when she wrote to
Lady Bute concerning Arthur O'Connor and Lord Edward :
" He (Lord Edward) was one and thirty before he dis-
covered what he ever after called the twin of his soul. When
at the time he was self-elected to free his country or die for
her, he met a soul, 'twin to his own' was his expression,
because each breathed and loved alike and their object, Ireland !
Ireland, where each had first drawn breath Ireland, more great
in her misfortunes, in her wrongs, than the most favored
country of the earth Ireland so true to God, to the early,
unchanged faith of the Gospel Ireland, whom neither false-
hood could entice nor interest bribe to apostacy, suffering
through successive ages from the oppression of a nation infer-
ior to herself in all but in some of the adventitious circum-
stances of fortune. It was the heart that felt all this as he
1 905 . ] A GREA T IRISH FA MIL Y. 319
himself did. ... It was that person who could have told
how Edward once loved."
Lady Lucy, after Lord Edward's death, wrote a passionate
and rebellious address to the Irish people, which, however, was
never published. Fortunately the text was preserved, and we
find it in Mr. Gerald Campbell's book.
She was like Lord Edward in other ways. She was " comi-
cal," as the family called it. Indeed, she was Lord Edward in
petticoats, impressionable, ardent, impetuous. Her letters, so
fresh and delightful, are of to-day as they are of yesterday
and to-morrow.
Lady Sophia was very different. She was a plain-looking,
delicate girl and woman, not strikingly intellectual, apparently
not at all humorous. Yet Lord Edward's epithets for her indi-
cate to us the regard in which she was held. She was " Silk
and Steel"; she was "Father Confessor." "I love Sophy,"
said Lord Edward once. " There is more good in her little
finger than in all of them put together." She apparently did
not shine in the brilliant circle ; she was slow, rather dull, a
lover of solitude, fond of country walks and gardening, dread-
ing society. But she was the reliable one. It was she who,
in the stormy times to come, took Lord Edward's daughter,
Lucy, and devoted herself to the child, and afterwards to Lucy's
child. " She loved much and she was much loved," wrote
Pamela's daughter, Lady Campbell, the grandmother of Mr.
George Wyndham.
" Dear Henry, he is almost perfect," Lord Edward said of
his brother, Henry, whose passionate struggle to be with Lord
Edward at the time of his illness and death, and whose spirited
outcries against the cruelty of the administration, make one of
the most bleeding passages in Irish history.
The stepsisters, Mimi and Ciss, seem to have been dearer
to those choice spirits among the young Fitzgeralds than the
real brothers and sisters outside the charmed circle. They
were objects of specially tender devotion to their mother, the
Duchess, who felt it as a kind of wrong to these little daugh-
ters that they should be commoners and poorly endowed,
while her other children held so proud a rank.
The family "The Good Family" as its members called it
among themselves lived between Dublin and London, some-
times at Frascati, Blackrock, the Duchess' little country house,
VOL. LXXXI. 21
320 A GREAT IRISH FAMILY. [June,
or the various members went visiting about at Carton, the
Duke of Leinster's seat, at Castletown, with Lady Louisa Con-
oily, or with Lady Sarah Napier, and other friends and rela-
tions. About 1785 Lady Charlotte, the eldest daughter of the
Duchess, afterwards Lady Charlotte Strutt, quite out of sym-
pathy with the wayward and brilliant members of the family,
and another Jane Austen character, was staying with Lady
Sophia at Castletown.
Mr. Campbell gives us an idea of how the ladies spent
their time : "... In stringing bugles, looking at prints
of dresses, reading aloud the English newspapers, the psalms
and chapters, and other improving literature ; working at their
carpet-frames, and sewing trimming on to their Castle petti-
coats for their occasional jaunts to town. For exercise they
indulged in long walks, which, like their talks, they called
' comfortable.' Every now and then they were cheered by a
visit from ' the gentlemen ' from Dublin, who went out hunt-
ing as soon as they arrived ; and in the evenings, when they
were not sleepy and stupid with their exertions, generally en-
tertained them exceedingly. One or other of the ladies was
usually in the state known as ' taking to her bed,' for the
monotony told rather heavily on their poor bodies as well as
their poor spirits. When they fell ill they took a powder ;
and some kind friend, usually Lady Sophia, was at hand to
read them 'a Blair'; in other words, a sermon by the popular
divine of the day."
One finds the Duchess in her darkest moment, when "that
dear Angel Edward," as she called her best beloved son, had
been taken from her so cruelly, seeking consolation in some
well-worn phrase from Blair's Sermons.
The ladies seemed to have quarreled over little things, as
one might expect. There is an account of a stormy evening
at Castletown, in a letter of Lady Sophia's, in which every one
seemed to have been at loggerheads. First it was Lady Char-
lotte who was huffed with Lady Sophia. Then it was her
cousin Louisa:
" Louisa said she wou'd eat the guizard out of the chickens,
and as she did not come for it immediately I put it between the
two fowls to keep warm for her. When she came for it I told
her what I had done, upon which she said she did not believe
me. This huffed me excessively ,. . . and she huffed me
1905.] A GREAT IRISH FAMILY. 321
in the same manner at work, upon my proposing to have an-
other table, as the one we were working upon was very in-
convenient, its being so large, and I said I considered poor
Harriette's chest, as it might hurt her to lean so much against
it; and Louisa said: ' O to be sure, you consider her chest.'
. . And at dinner, as she gave me another cause to be
huffed, I then did let my anger out. However we went to
dress and were very good friends, and worked at the carpet
in the evening."
There was another occasion in which Lady Sophia was
going to a ball and had promised to go round by her mother's
house, so that she should see her dressed. But her chaperon, the
young Duchess, would not have it so, saying that they were
already late. So poor Lady Sophia, very ill at ease, danced
only one set, and next 'day was received very coldly by her
mother.
"I cried most part of the night," she said, "shocked at
the very idea of seeming disrespectful to my mother, tho' God
knows I did not mean to do it, but it all proceeded from
want of thought. Next day my mother was as pleasant to me
as if nothing had happened, but I have not forgiven myself as
soon as my dear mother has."
However, this life, which suited Lady Louisa and her
daughters, and Ladies Charlotte and Sophia, would not have
suited the more spirited members of the family. Lady Lucy
about this time was dancing and receiving proposals of mar-
riage and falling desperately in love and observing her world
with a keen eye, and a " comical wit," as far away as London.
Of course it was a little London in comparison with the mon-
ster we know, and a drive from Harley Street to Kensington
in "the chariot," or in Lord Henry's "curricle," is worthy of
record in Lady Lucy's journal. Here is an extract :
" At home all day. It is the King's birthday. They all
went to the opera and to a great party at the Duchess of
Gordon's. There is nothing thought of but the itch which is
in the house. Opera in the evening, very pleasant. It was a
new ballet and very pretty indeed; cupids flying in the air.
I saw Moseley, who ordered me medicines. Played at Ccm-
merce in the evening."
Here is a bit of contemporaneous manners :
" By the bye, have you heard of the piece of work at the
322 A GREAT IRISH FAMILY. [June,
opera the other night ? The Prince found Charles and Mr.
Lascelles in Mrs. FitzHerbert's box. They withdrew immedi-
ately, but he flew into the most violent passion, called them
all sorts of names, and scolded Mrs. Fitz so loud that all the
house heard it. He was drunk, as you may suppose. The
next day he begged her pardon."
Again it is Lady Sophia who is in London, keeping a
journal, and writing of herself quaintly in the third person.
" Very busy all morning making up things for the play,
dined very early, and at four o'clock went to Richmond House
Theatre to secure good places. Mother, Ciss, and Mimi, were
in the Duke's box, Sophia in the pit in the front row in order
to see Henry well. He really was more delightful and charm-
ing than can be expressed. Everybody that had seen Garrick
thought Henry equal to him, some parts beyond him. Mr.
Walpole and all the critics were charmed with him, and as for
the ladies, they left the theatre dying for love of him.
"This is the first day of Mr. Hastings' trial. Sophia was
obliged to get up very early, which she did not much like ;
breakfasted, then called upon Lady Talbot, and they both went
together to the trial. Mr. Burke spoke and they were delighted
with him. It was really very fine. Sophia came home rather
pitying poor Mr. Hastings . . . hearing himself accused
of so many crimes; but he seemed very indifferent about
them. . . .
"We all went in the evening to see the play at Richmond
House. Henry was charming. Mrs. Siddons was there. She
rather disappointed us in her praises of Henry, as she said
much more a'bout Lord Derby, who certainly is not to be
named with Henry. At the same time he is a very good
actor, but in quite a different stile."
Lady Sophia's partiality for Lord Henry is very evident.
Later they lived in adjoining houses, at Thames Ditton, and
the tender friendship between them lasted harmoniously to the
end. There is an excellent picture of Lord Henry, by Hoppner,
which shows a face of extraordinary beauty, a face like a
young archangel's. One can imagine the tender admiration
of the sister who was always plain looking, the Ugly Duck-
ling of a beautiful family, for this debonair brother, who was
always her friend and confidant.
Lady Lucy is always up and down in her journals and let-
1905.] A GREAT IRISH FAMILY. 323
ters. Everybody is "human," or they are "wretched" and
" inhuman." And she has an unhappy love affair which makes
her journal read like a modern novel. How it makes her live
for us to-day !
"We had many men in our box, one so like him! The
way of sitting, the look of the head ; I felt a sort of illusion
of past happiness.
" They all went to the opera, not me. Mimi and I played
together, harp and harpsichord. The music had its usual effect
on me, but as usual made me wretched.
"We had a ball in the house, I danced with Tom Bligh
and Charles ; there was nobody else we knew, but a precious
set of quizzes.
"Mama took me to make visits, which I hate; it snow'd
for the first time this winter. My spirits worried because of
being remonstrated with on what I can't help.
" Went to Lord Mount Edgecombe's and Lord Salisbury's ;
did not see him at any of those odious places. In the evening
to the opera; nobody there. Where can he be? Alas, why
should it concern me ?
"I went to the opera with Lord Henry. While leaning on
Lord Robert's arm he spoke to me. I never thought I should
have again heard his voice, and address'd to me; I did not
seek it."
There are several pages of this record of a young girl's
transient wretchedness, as fresh, as vivid, as if it were not all
done with more than a century ago. Once she mentions her
first meeting with Arthur O'Connor, who at a later day was
to have so large a share of her thoughts.
However, she is not always love-sick. There are rejected
lovers of whom she discourses gaily.
"You did right," she writes to Lady Sophia, "to tell Tina
about A if you thought it would amuse her; but don't
talk of it to other people, as I don't think it quite right even
by him to talk of those sort of things; and he begs I will not
wound his feelings by divulging it ; Edward will dye of it ; I
knew that day that he premeditated something, and I told
Edward. Then came this letter from him. It is not ill- wrote;
he desires leave to mention his proposals to Mama and Mr.
Ogilvie, and says he has it in his power to settle 1,500 a year
on any lady who honours him with her hand ; then he says
324 A GREAT IRISH FAMILY. [June,
that, beyond the powers of language to express, he loves me
grimy wretch ! I hate to think of him."
Poor A . Another sister writes of this proposal :
"You have never been told about that vile, that grimy A
having dared to propose for Lucy. He wrote her a fine roman-
tick Love Letter, throwing himself and pelf at her feet. He
says he is no fortune-hunter or adventurer, but an English
gentleman, and as such he thinks himself (wretch) not unworthy
of her. Papa was in a fury. Mama still thinks it a joke of
Eddy's. We all scream and laugh, as you may think. It was
answered as it deserved, a cold but decided but civil refusal.
A ! oh!"
About a month later Lady Lucy, sad to say, is writing to
Lady Sophia of a certain B :
" So B has been flirting with Miss G . ... If
you had known that odd creature better, you would not have
expected him to leave off flirting. You might as well tell him
not to eat or drink. I don't much mind that unless it was
serious, and if it was, why should I mind it ? We have made
no promises to each other; and therefore both are free. He
has often told me that he would wish me to amuse myself as
much as I pleased while he was away, provided I would
promise to be glad to see him when we met."
And here is a portrait of another unhappy lover :
" I am sure you will be glad to hear that I am likely to
get over that foolish antipathy I have had all my life for rats,
as C , one of my favourite beaux, is so like that animal
that it is impossible not to be struck with it, and yet I don't
shudder at his approach, which gives me hope that I may not
faint away when next I see a mouse, as I did at Malvern."
That was a very gay winter for the Duchess and her chil-
dren, in Harley Street, although already Lord Edward had
bsgun to fall under the suspicions of the government.
" Everybody," says Lady Lucy, " seems gone wild for
dancing : Cecilia and I have a very pleasant set of partners
this year, mostly young things in the Guards. It is so mov-
ing to have them setting off after a ball to join the Duke of
York. I described the feel to Edward once. It puts Ned in
such a rage, our being so merry, for we are literally a laugh-
ing club that meet in our box at the opera. We are some-
times a little noisy to be sure; he never speaks to us but to
1905.] A GREAT IRISH FAMILY. 325
attack us, and he downright scolds mama for being so young."
" Ned," wrote another sister, " seldom makes his appear-
ance in our box. ' Lord God,' he says, ' what should I do
among all those boys ? You are much too young and too riotous
for me.' "
On this note of coming calamity we leave them ; but I
must quote three delightful letters, which Mr. Campbell has
rescued from the family archives. They are all written to
Lady Sophia, and are as follows :
From her sister, Lady Charlotte FitzGerald, very elder-
sisterly :
" I hope, my dear Sophia, you will exert yourself to get a
little forward in your learning, for believe me I should not
have half the regret to leave dear mama if I thought that you
were advanced enough to be a pleasant companion for her, and
it is quite a grievance to me to think that, at present, you
are so little fit for it. Mama is very lucky, to be sure, in
having Mr. Ogilvie so fond of home, but he can't be with her
every hour in the day. When the hunting season comes on
she will be a good deal alone, and if you don't try to make
yourself as agreeable as possible you will be of no sort of good
to her, and the only way to make yourself agreeable is to try
and apply yourself to your learning, and to get the better of
that little obstinacy in your temper, that will make you so dis-
agreeable and tiresome to mama to be obliged to be always
finding fault with you. You ought also to behave both
honestly and prettily to Mrs. Simpson, to endeavour to make
her stay with you, for you won't get any other to stay with
you; for suppose mama gets another, and tells her her daughter
is fifteen years of age ; why, that person will think that about
a young lady of fifteen she will have nothing to do but to
hear her read, etc., without any plague, but when she finds
that you are so childish, and that you ought to be treated like
a child, she won't know what to do."
From her grandmother, Lady Kildare:
" I am sensible your time may be employ'd more to yr.
advantage than diverting yr. poor old granny, which the account
of the vermin did that tormented you on yr. journey from
Paris to the venerable chateau you are now in. How poor
Ireland wou'd be abus'd if the Inns were half so nasty, but
am sorry to owne that many houses in Dublin are infested
A GREAT IRISH FAMILY. [June.
with buggs, that I believe the breed was imported hither by
foreign goods from time to time, but hope will not increase by
care of destroying them upon first appearance, as they are not
yet so general as, in London. They are filthy animals."
From her niece, Lady Mary Coote :
"My dear Aunt Sophia: We hope that your rheumatism
is better than when you last wrote, now that the weather is
more dry ; tho' an East wind and here smoky and foggy.
The reason of my now writing to you is to caution you, and
to beg that you will caution your servants, and all persons
that you can, against eating the blue or green parts of cheese,
which some people prefer; for, only think of it, our cook, Mrs.
W , found last week nine or ten common brass pins in the
blue or green part of some cheese, apparently Cheshire seme
of the pins were inside the cheese and some of them stuck out-
side of it as in a pincushion. You may judge of our horror,
when Mrs. W brought it upstairs to show it to us; how
shocking ! to put such poisonous and dangerous articles in
what is perhaps the food of thousands, or perhaps millions, of
poor persons, who can seldom if ever afford meat; and we
think it right to inform and caution as many persons on the
subject as we can; without naming the person from whom it
was bought, who denies being aware of it. One comfort we
find, that some persons to whom it has been mentioned had
already heard of such things being done, but more persons had
not; we understand that it is done to give part of the cheese
an old appearance; but how shocking to insert such poison-
ous articles for that purpose ; and we have also heard that
they also for the same reason sometimes insert a brass wire in
Stilton Cheese, and sometimes put a halfpenny in the saucepan
with green vegetables, when they are boiling, to make them
look green ; so that the safest way is never to eat any if one
ever dines out. We think it right to name all this, particularly
about what we saw in the cheeses, as a caution, after being
informed of it, to as many persons as we can."
"AND WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR?"
BY M. F. QUINLAN.
" As the faces of them that look therein shine in the water, so the hearts of men are laid
open to the wise." Proverbs, xxvii. jy.
|T is written in the parable that a certain man
went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and there
fell among robbers, who also stripped him, and
having wounded him went away, leaving him
half dead.
Times change. No man to-day is robbed on the highroad.
According to modern custom, he is held up and stripped at
his own fireside. And having been wounded by want and
starvation, the sweated victim is left in his hovel, half dead.
Meanwhile the employer goes his way and the capitalist
passes by on the other side. They both live afar off, where
the cry of the oppressed does not penetrate. And as we read
in the Book of Proverbs : " Better is a neighbor that is near
than a brother afar off." So it is that the poor fall back
upon themselves ; for though the Decalogue may be broken
in the tenement, the greatest commandment is faithfully kept.
Thus in every mean street there are to be found a few saints,
many sinners, and a multitude of Samaritans.
As I walked down a side street one day I saw a woman
sitting on a doorstep. She was singing to herself, while her
gray hair was blown in the wind. With a grimy hand she
brushed it out of her eyes and nodded.
" Hiven keep you," said she.
" No easy task for the saints," I answered.
The woman threw back her head and laughed softly. We
were allies.
"Where is your husband?"
" In bed " ; and she jerked her thumb over her shoulder.
" Why not at work ? " I asked.
"An' would you 'ave 'im a black leg?" she demanded.
" I didn't know the men were out."
328 "AND WHO is MY NEIGHBOR?' [June,
"Well, they is an' they ain't. The lightermen is out, which
means as the water-side labor is stopped. An', be the same
token, the lightermen is paid an' we ain't."
"In the meantime," I said, "how are you getting on?"
" Shure the Lord only knows ! Howsomever," she re-
marked after a pause, " himself is in bed ; fur theer ain't
nuthink to eat, an' no fire ter cook it wid. Glory be ! but the
times is bad ! "
She gave a deep sigh and smoothed her hair. Presently
the expression of her face changed.
" D' yer remember the letter from Injia ? The letter wot
me son writ. D' yer mind wot 'e put in the front of it ? as
'e'd send 'is mother a packet o' tea?"
" Has it come ? " I asked.
" Yuss, be the powers! It come o' Frid'y. An' the smell
on it ! Wait now " The dishevelled figure disappeared up
the tenement stairs, and with equal haste she returned, bearing
in her hands a small tin. This she opened tenderly and, hav-
ing held it under my nose, she awaited the verdict.
"It is good"; said I. Her face beamed
" 'Taint often, I reckon, as yer've smelt the like of it," she
said with conviction.
"But why is there not more in this tin ?" I asked. "Have
you tasted it yourself ? "
" To be shure an' I 'ave. But not to tell a lie abaht it,"
she said confidentially, " 'twere like this. Seein' as 'ow times
was bad, an' money a bit tight, I thinks ter mesilf as it would
be a rare treat fur me neighbors to 'ave some. So I makes it
up into little packets an' I gives them rahnd abaht. An' sich
a to do as it made dahn the street ! 'Twas nothink but
'Good luck ter yer, Sue ! ' as I passes along. Or mebbe a
lady puts 'er 'ead aht of a top windy an' calls dahn : ' May
the blessin', o' Hiven go wid yer,' sez she. W'y ! " said the
untidy figure, "jes' to 'ear 'em, were better nor drinkin' the
tea."
A few days later I passed the same doorstep. " Is the
tea finished ? " I asked.
" Wuss luck!" was the response. Then the conversation
drifted.
" You haven't been to Church lately, I suppose ? " The
woman shook her head.
1905.] "AND WHO is MY NEIGHBOR?' 329
"But you are going next Sunday?" I suggested. Again
she shook her head.
"Why not?" I asked.
" Hush ! " She spread out her hands in mysterious protest.
" Hush ! I 'ave ter think of the people as lives at the back."
"Why should you?" I queried.
"Be the reason," she replied, "that they earns good money
an' goes aht decent."
"Well, what then? I suppose your soul is your own?"
"Ah, Musha ! w'y talk abaht me sowl, w'en me boots is
broke. 'Tis me feet that's aht on the street." She raised a
foot encased in a dilapidated boot. "Wot d' yer say ter
that ? "
"Go early," I said. "No one will see you." At this she
was silent.
" Do you mind getting up ? " I asked.
" 'Taint the gettin' up," she answered, " nor yet the walk-
in' theer fur p'heps the lady wot lives opposite would give
me the lend of 'er boots. Taint thet," she said slowly ; " but
ter go to the 'ouse o' Gawd an' not ter give nuthink ter the
altar, w'y it makes yer feel mean 'carted."
The following Sunday morning I was hurrying along to
Church. It was 6:45, and on the other side of the road a
muffled figure was returning. But in spite of her feet being
tidy for the Samaritan had lent the boots the wearer kept
to the far side of the road. Her head was bent and the brown
shawl was pulled over her face. It was a small matter that
she was starving, for that was the common lot; but to have
gone to Church and to have made no offering to her God
this was a bitter and a shameful reflection.
In the Devil's Alley I heard the sound of moaning. I
stopped and listened. It came from No. 47, so I knocked at
the door.
" Come in," said a weary voice from behind.
"How?" I asked, for the door handle was gone.
" Arrah ! " was the testy reply, "an' can't yer pull the
sthring ? "
I was about to put further questions, when my eyes fell
upon an old bit of string which showed limply through a hole
in the door. The string had a corpulent looking knot on its
330 "AND WHO is MY NEIGHBOR?" [June,
extreme end, and in a spirit of scientific research I pulled.
Then the door opened; though why it should, I cannot say.
To get into the hovel you had first to squeeze through the
partially opened door, then to evade the bedpost, whose agres-
sive leg challenged the unwary. A woman lay under the bed-
clothes.
"Well! how do you feel?" I asked.
"The saints on'y knows," said Mrs. Flynn between her
groans, " but I'm very bad entirely."
" What is the matter ? "
" Shure ! an' 'ow would I be knowin' wot's the matter?"
she ejaculated sharply ; " though p'haps," she added in a mol-
lified tone, "an' mebbe 'tis the poomony"
"Perhaps it is," I acquiesced. "But perhaps, on the other
hand, it's a wake." For I was not without knowing Mrs.
Flynn.
" Divil a wake is it," she answered. And there was no
resentment in her tone.
"What! no wakes lately?"
"Well!" said the voice under the blanket, "I won't be
denyin' as I was at wan o' Toosd'y night. But 'tis little I
took thin, an' more I could 'a done wid," answered this im-
penitent sinner.
" As open confession is good for the soul, where was the
wake ? " I asked.
" 'Twas in the tenements rahnd the top o' the Coort. They
was wakin' Dinny Slogan," she said discursively; whereupon I
nodded. By some mistake I happened to have attended this
same wake myself. But at sight of the corpse with the
stretched sheet and the sarcenet bows, and at the feet of the
corpse the plates of tobacco and snuff I had beat a hasty re-
treat. Therefore my experience was shrouded in silence. "No
need to say what I think of wakes," said I severely; but my
protest was obliterated in her groans.
Mrs. Flynn's present condition was difficult to diagnose ;
inasmuch as she adhered to generalities, referring you for par-
ticulars to the saints now in glory. That her state was abnor-
mal was evident from her vacillation between deprecation and
defence. But after gazing at her critically, I decided she was
ill.
" Who looks after you," I asked.
1905.] "AND WHO is MY NEIGHBOR?" 331
"Little Mike does wot 'e can," she answered, " 'e gits up
of a mornin' bless 'is little 'eart an' 'e makes me a cup o'
tea. 'Tis little else 'e kin do, 'cep' 'e goes to the dispinsary
fur a bottle o' medicine."
" Shall I send for the parish doctor ? "
"'Tisn't me that'll be bothered wid the likes of 'im," she
replied with spirit.
" Well, may I tell the Nursing Sisters to come ? " She lay
awhile and groaned.
"Yuss"; she said finally, " tell the blessed Sisters to come,
an' may the Lord reward 'em."
SD for the next ten days the Sisters came and cared for
her as they did for all the sick and maimed in the many
courts and alleys of Stepney. Christian or Jew, saint or sinner,
it mattered not to them; for as they did unto the least, they
did unto him the Author of life.
Over the little convent door might have been written the
words of the Evangelist: "He that loveth not his brother,
whom he seeth, how can he love his God, whom he seeth not ? "
Therefore they nursed the sick and fed the hungry. And
the blessings of the poor and the outcast ever followed the
"Blue Sisters," whose veils were the color of the Italian sky.
A fortnight later I was passing through the deserted alley,
when a rough brown hand was stretched out of a hovel.
"Shure I wants yer." And the hand and the voice be-
longed to Mrs. Flynn.
"What for?" I asked.
" In the matter of little Mike," she answered.
"Yes?"
"'Tis 'is schoolin', she began, "an" the inspector bad luck
to 'im 'e do be comin' dahn the alley, fur to arst me ques-
tions. An' sez 'e: 'they'll put me in prison an' they'll take
away me little Mike, an' they'll put 'im to school, an' I'll never
see 'im no more.' Achone ! achone ! " Her eyes were full of
tears. "Shure, wot would I do widout 'im at all?"
She thrust a grimy summons into 'my hand. "Yer'll find
it writ dahn on the paper," said she in gloomy apprehension.
"What am I to do?" I asked.
"Ah! can't yer write a bit of a letter to the magistrate?"
The suggestion was advanced with the utmost confidence in
my jurisdiction.
332 "AND WHO is MY NEIGHBOR?" [June,
"That's all very well," I said, "but what can I say?"
"Can't yer tell 'im," she said, "'as me little Mike is the
on'y one as b'longs ter me ? Tell 'im as 'is mother's bin ill.
Say as my child runs me arrants an' biles me tea. Tell 'im
as it'll kill me entirely if 'e takes away me little Mike ! ' "
Her cheeks were wet and there was a prayer in her eyes. She
laid her hand pleadingly on my arm.
" Ah ! shure, 'tis yourself as knows wot ter put. An' if
the magisthrate 'as a 'eart in 'im at all, 'e'll be good to me
then."
" How long has Mike been away ? " I asked impartially.
" 'Tis three weeks, mebbe," said Mrs. Flynn.
I shook my head in protest. "You weren't ill three
weeks."
" Dunno' 'ow long I was bad." Mrs. Flynn was obviously
hedging.
"Well, about Mike. How long?"
"The divil knows," was the evasive reply.
" Very likely," I answered, " but in a British Court he's
not sworn."
" Did any one ever know the like of yer ! " and Mrs. Flynn
gazed at me resentfully out of the corner of her eye.
" If I can help you, I will." I opened my notebook and
took out a pencil.
Still the woman said nothing.
" Shall I say a year ? "
" Musha ! no"; said Mrs. Flynn, roused into indignant pro-
test.
"Six months, then?"
" The Lord save us, an' it aint never six months. But
p'heps" she said slowly and here she looked anxiously into
my face, as though she would read the magistrate's verdict
"p'heps you might say four."
"Four months." I wrote it down.
" An' yer'll write to the Coort ter-day ?" she added quickly,
or they'll come and put me in prison. An' then wot'll 'appen
to little Mike ? "
Mrs. Flynn's career had been interesting hitherto in its
variety. It had also been chequered in parts. It was not
known outside the alley and the alley avoided the mention
of broad arrows that Mrs. Flynn had done time already.
1905.] "AND WHO is MY NEIGHBOR?" 333
Seven years' hard was the former sentence, and it was in the
prison that little Mike was born. Times were always bad in
the Devil's Alley, and she being weary with the struggle had
gone under. So in partnership with another, and he Mike's
father, she had coined false money. The plant was found in
the hovel under the bed. Then the man escaped to America,
and the woman bore the burden alone. And thus, eight years
later, they lived in the alley the woman and her child. Wed-
dings and wakes and burials and brawls these things were
incidental; but Mike was an abiding treasure. It was for him
that she pounded through the mud and the fog ; with the
rusty crape bonnet on her head and the basket of flowers on
her hip It was for him she now pleaded. The grip of her
trembling fingers was still on my arm, as I made my way back
to the Settlement. There I laid the summons before the head-
worker, and asked permission to intercede in favor of Mrs.
Flynn. But the head, being wise, vetoed the appeal.
"She'll be sent to prison," I said sadly. For my heart
had gone out to Mrs. Flynn.
"There isn't, room for every one," was the sardonic reply;
and with this I had to be content. Ten days later I was
coming down stairs when I saw a woman sitting on a chair in
the hall. She was huddled up in an old brown shawl, and she
crooned to herself in sorrow. Presently she turned her head.
"Well, Mrs. Flynn," said I with an attempt at sociability,
" what have you been doing with yourself ? "
"Achone!" sh6 cried, "'tis in prison I've been. Fur the
reason," she added, " as yer ain't never writ to the magis-
thrate."
Her tone was reproachful, and indeed I felt as if I had put
her there.
" Yes, I know " ; was my guilty admission, " and I'd hate
it myself. But never mind," I said. "You are out now and
you can go home to little Mike. He is waiting down the
alley."
"Bless 'is little 'eart ! " she ejaculated, "an' I 'opes the
Almighty in his goodness 'as watched over 'im."
She stood up to go.
"What is in your apron?" I asked. Whereupon she ex-
tended the corners to let me see.
" 'Tis the prison bread," she said huskily.
334 "AND WHO is MY NEIGHBOR?" [June,
"You should have eaten it," said I in reproach.
A fierce light blazed up in her eyes.
"If 'twas on'y a crumb 'twould 'a choked me!" said she.
"What will you do with it?"
"'Twill be food fur little Mike," she answered softly. And
with her eyes full of tears she gathered up her apron and was
gone. I stood at the open door and watched her go down
the steps and out into the night, where the snow beat against
her face with pitiless force as though it would bar her way,
and the bitter wind blew her rags as if in very mockery.
And this was just, for she was a sinner. Even so, in
ancient times, did the culprit receive his deserts before the
Jewish tribunal. For when the elders were asked whether they
would abide by the letter of the law, the Sanhedrim made
answer: "Wisdom without favor, and justice without mercy."
And as I peered out into the darkness, and watched the
frail figure struggling with the blast, lo ! the pitiless voice of
the Sanhedrim seemed to speak again in the icy wind. But
the woman did not falter. She bowed her head and drew the
old shawl closer; and so breasting the storm she trudged on.
Whither did she go? To the accursed alley; to the filthy
hovel ; to the tiny room she called her home. Yes ; with a
prayer on her lips and the prison bread in her hand she
trudged on. For there, in the depths of the evil court, a lit-
tle child sat waiting and watching.
It was one day last summer that a poor woman came to
see me. I was not in the East End then. But by walking
some of the way, and expending her savings a few pence in
all she was able to buy a railway ticket, single fare, and so
arrived at her destination. The lines had deepened in her
face, since I had seen her,, and she looked very careworn
Not long ago she had worked for a good firm. She was a
trimmer by trade. But her unlucky star was now in the ascen-
dant ; she had fallen upon evil times,
"So things have gone badly with you?" said I.
" Ah ! " was the reply, " many .a time I could 'ave took me
own life, I've bin thet miserable, thet seemed like as if I
couldn't face it. But the Almighty is good," she said, " an I
ain't done it. But sometimes, w'en I'm alone, it makes me
feel queer to think of wot might 'ave bin ! . . . An'
1905.] "AMD WHO is MY NEIGHBOR?" 335
'twasn't as if I could 'ave wrote to yer," she added, " fur I
'adn't the stamp."
"What did you do?" I asked.
" D' yer remember as I wrote to yer from the 'ome ? and
I'm not denyin' as the Sisters wasn't kind; but I couldn't fur-
git as I was on charity. I'm nigh upon seventy, as yer not
without knowin', but them hands was made fur work, an' I
mean ter work ter the end. So I come aht o' the 'ome. I
'ad no money, an' nowheer ter lay me 'ead. Never mind, I
sez, an' I prays ter the saints to 'elp me. An' as I walks
along, wot do I see in the winder but ' WOMAN WANTED.
APPLY WITHIN ' ; an' in I goes. It were 'alf rag shop an' 'arf
ole-clo' shop, with a dirty-lookin' Jew be'ind the counter.
"'Yer wantin' a woman,' I sez to 'im, ' w'y not me?' 'E
looks me up an' dahn.
"'Well,' 'e sez, 'yer ain't young, but yer looks active.
Wot's yer trade,' sez 'e ?
" ' Trimmer,' sez I.
"'Theer's more'n hats to do 'ere,' 'e sez. 'Kin yer patch
breeches an' mend blouses ? An' yer'll 'ave to clean the 'ouse,
an' lend a 'and with .the cookin'.'
" ' Wot's the money ? ' I sez to 'im.
'"Five shillin's a week,' sez 'e.
"'Gawd 'elp us,' I sez to myself, 'a tailor an' a dress-
maker an' a slavey besides; all fur five shillinV But seein' as
'ow I 'adn't a penny in the world, an' it meant livin' in, I sez:
*Yuss; I'll do it.' 'Will yer show me,' I sez to 'im ' wheer
I've got to sleep ? '
'"Time enuff fur thet,' 'e sez, 'lend a 'and 'ere.'
"So I works all thet day in the rag shop, an' thankful I
was ter be theer. But first I must tell yer, as the Jew 'ad a
wife as dirty-lookin' as 'imself, an' a ole mother besides. An'
neither of 'em couldn't speak the language. An' theer was a
bit of a dark kitchen," she continued, " openin' orf the rag
shop wheer them two old witches used to sit talkin' gibberish
-all day. I couldn't understand a word of it, so they used ter
make signs to me. An' the filthy ways of 'em Lord ! "
"Where did you sleep?" I asked.
" Well, as I was sayin'," continued the woman, " when
night come on I was tired an' I sez to the Jew-man: 'Wheer
-do I sleep ? ' sez I.
VOL. LXXXI. 22
336 "AND WHO is MY NEIGHBOR?" [June,
"'Theer,' sez 'e.
"We was standin' in the bit o' a kitchin, an' I looks rahnd.
' Wheer's thet ? ' sez I. 'In thet box,' sez 'e; an' yer kin
make the best of it.' With that 'e slams the door on me.
"Well, wot with 'avin' to choose between lying in the box
or lying in the street ; an' wot with slavin' all day fur five
shillin's a week; an' wot with 'earin' nothink but gibberish
since mornin'; an' the Jew-man slammin' the door in me face
I was between laughin' an' cryin'. So I opens the lid o' the
box 'twere a longish box, like a coffin an' I sees a bit o'
straw at the bottom. Then I sits dahn on the edge o' the
box an' I looks dahn at the straw. Presently I takes it up in
me 'and an' I feels it. 'Bad luck to ' Then I stops, an'
thinks a bit. ' Umph ! ' I sez to meself; 'so straw ain't good
enuff fur a Christian to lie on, ain't it! not good enuff fur an
ole woman o' seventy when the Almighty was laid in a
manger. Gawd 'elp me,' I sez, ' wot did fur 'im, oughter do
fur me.' But the tears was wet on my cheeks as I lays dahn
on the straw. An' that night I wakes up, an' I feels the walls
o' me bed, 'an',' sez I, 'is it layin' in my corfin I am?' an'
I was afeerd. Well; that was my bed," said the woman after
a pause; "the work was wuss. 'Twas nothink but sortin' out
rags, an' mendin' dresses, an' trimmin' hats, an' servin' be'ind
the counter. An' wot with seein' to the fire an' lendin' a
'and with the cookin', an' scrubbin' an' cleanin' an' fetchin' an'
carryin', I was dead beat at the end of the day. Then Satur-
day come an' the Jew give me the five shillin'. But the nex'
Saturd'y, 'e on'y gives me four- and- six, a 'arf crown, an' a
two-shillin' bit.
" I looks at it fust to make quite sure, an' then I sez to
'im: 'This ain't five shillin',' I sez; 'yer've give me a two-
shillin' bit by mistake.'
'"It ain't no mistake,' sez 'e, 'that's all yer'll git.' An
w'en 'e sez this, I felt as if 'e'd knocked me a blow on the
'ead. Me knees was all of a tremble, an' everythink went
rahnd.
'"Five shillin',' I sez, 'was the contract.' But me voice
was gone like, an' me 'ead was swimmin'.
"'If yer don't like it,' 'e sez, 'yer kin go!' 1 There was a
catch in the woman's throat. " 'E knew as I 'adn't a friend
didn't 'e read it in me face w'en I took on the job ? So with
1905.] "AND WHO is MY NEIGHBOR?" 337
never a word I takes the money an' goes back to me work.
But me 'eart was sore. Well, the nex' Saturd'y I was sortin'
aht the rags in the shop w'en 'e sez to me : ' I pays yer be
the month,' 'e sez, 'not be the week. 5 D' yer see wot 'e
meant?" she asked me abruptly. " 'E wanted thirty days'
work, an' 'e wouldn't pay fur more 'n twenty-eight days."
Here her voice died away in silence.
"I went on workin'," she said presently, "fur I 'ad no
choice. But wot with worrittin' abaht the money ; an' never
'earin' a word o' English ; an' workin' along all day from
week's end ter week's end; I begins to feel lonely like in me
'ead. An' when the Jews was gone to bed o' nights, an' I was
lyin' in the bottom o' the old box in the kitchen, it used ter
come to me as p'haps I'd fergit 'ow to speak; an' I'd find
meself makin' sounds with me voice jes' ter see if I could.
" ' What ails yer ? ' I'd say aht loud ter meself. ' What
ails yer, to 'ave these queer thoughts ? ' An' then I'd answser
meself back, an' tell meself things, as if mebbe I was some
one else. But ne'er a soul was there; nothin' but the pitch
dark, an r the cockroaches crawlin' over the floor. 'Twas one
day when I was sewin' upstairs, an' feelin' low an' ill with
overwork, an' payin' no 'eed ter nothink, when suddenly I
drops me needle.
" ' Wot was that knock ? ' I sez to meself. An' I dunno
wot started me, fur I 'adn't noticed it at the time. But wot
if it was the posty ? With that, I run dahnstairs into the
shop.
'"Who knocked?' I sez to 'im.
" 4 Postman,' 'e sez.
"'Where is it?' sez I, my fingers all itchin'.
"The Jew shook 'is 'ead. ' Gorn,' sez 'e.
" Like a flash I was aht the door an' rushin' like a mad
woman dahn the street. Neither bonnet nor shawl was on me
'ead, an' me 'air was wild. Along Mile End I run, bumpin'
into the people as I went. ' Wheer is 'e ? ' sez I; an' they
never answered, thinkin' I was daft. Then I catches sight of
'im comin' aht of a shop, so I runs faster than ever, nearly
cryin' as I went.
" ' Give it ter me,' I sez to 'im, me voice all of a shake,
' Give it ter me 'tis mine,' I sez.
" ' Wot is ? ' sez 'e.
338 "AND WHO is MY NEIGHBOR?" [June,
'"The letter wot yer took ter the Jew. Weren't it fer
Mrs. ? Thet's me.'
""Ere y' are, Mother!' 'e sez, 'that's all right!'
"An' sure enuff," said the woman, brushing away the
tears, " the letter was from yerself. 'Twere the answer to the
one I writ yer. An' w'en I'd read the letter I puts it safe in
me pocket. An' thet night w'en I goes ter bed, I 'olds it
tight in me 'and, an' I cries meself ter sleep. Ah ! Gawd 'elp
a lone woman," she said brokenly.
"Did you stay on for that month?" I asked.
The woman nodded.
"Yuss; an' wot d' yer think 'e paid me? Sixteen shillin'
fur thirty days ! An' if I sez a word 'e sez as 'e'd beat the
life aht o' me."
The tears trickled down the old woman's cheeks.
" On'y ter talk of it makes me feel bad," she said.
It was not very long after this that she broke down from
overwork, and was taken to the Infirmary.
Her employer at this time was owing her three weeks'
money which he refused to pay.
The woman came to see me after coming out of the In-
firmary. Her hair had become white, and her face more care-
worn than ever. In a broken voice she told me about the
money that was owing.
" Sometimes," she said in conclusion, " when I gits thinkin'
abaht it, I feels as if I could curse that Jew until I died.
Hell lasts furever," she said slowly, " furever an' ever. But
theer's times w'en I feels as if hell ain't long enuff fur them
as robs the poor." She paused ; and her head sank on her
breast. " May Hiven forgive me fur a wicked old woman," she
said penitently, "an' may we both find mercy at the judg-
ment."
There were tears in my own eyes as I tried to comfort her.
" Do you remember what is written : ' Better the poor man
walking in righteousness than the rich in crooked ways' ?" But
deep down in my heart the cry went up : " How long, O Lord,
wilt thou forget the souls of thy poor ? "
A tenement stood in my favorite lane. And it was the
wicked end of the lane where the tares outnumbered the
wheat. But it was here among the shadows here, in spite of
1905.] "AND WHO is MY NEIGHBOR f" 339
all the laws of spiritual horticulture that the flowers of human
charity bloomed brightest. But concerning this particular tene-
ment. Outside it resembled its fellows; inside it was differ-
ent. From the street pavement you stepped on to the rickety
staircase ; and it wasn't like other staircases. Sometimes, when
I was feeling reflective, I used to wonder whether it had not
met with an accident in its early youth ? For the base of its
spine was twisted and then jambed into the corner, whence it
climbed somewhat feebly up the side of the grimy wall.
When the street door was left open you could just distinguish
the lower part of its anatomy as far as the fifth step ; the
rest had to be taken on trust. And you stepped up and up into
the darkness, with nothing to cling to but the intangible axiom
that all finite things must end ; not even a slum staircase
being exempt from the general law of limitation.
The upper part of the stairs was always wrapped in im-
penetrable darkness. It was a darkness that you could take
between your fingers and feel. And it felt sticky. It was a
kind of staircase that had a distant manner and no rail. No
matter how long you were acquainted with it, you never got
to know it any better. For myself, I always thought it had
more steps in reserve, and I was only advised to the contrary
by coming in violent contact with a door which gave way a
concession which greatly facilitated one's entry.
" I suppose it is one way of knocking," I said apologeti-
cally, finding myself thus hurled into the tenement room one
morning.
" Ah ! 'tis yerself ! " said a voice from the bed.
" Either a whole or a part," I answered vaguely.
" May the Lord an' 'is Blessed Mother love yer fur comin',"
she ejaculated. And she offered me her hand in greeting.
But with the movement a sharp spasm of pain contracted
her features, and her outstretched hand fell nerveless.
This woman was a bottle-washer, and just now crippled
with rheumatism.
For months and months, year in, year out, she stood inches
deep in water. Day by day she washed bottles, bottles noth-
ing but endless bottles, down by the docks.
The hand that lay on the coverlet was knotted and de-
formed ; and she was moaning with pain.
" Sit yerself dahn ! " said she when she could speak. But
340 "AND WHO is MY NEIGHBOR? " [June,
her face still twitched as she continued: "I'd been prayin' as
yer'd come ! Yuss ; an' I listened all yesterd'y fur yer step.
Lyin' 'ere all day yer gits ter know the footsteps. Fust it's
the waker-up, to call the lady acrost the road. Thet's at a
quarter ter five. But before thet agin, theer's a knock at 'arf
past three. Thet's to wake 'er 'usband. Then yer kin 'ear the
men startin' aht fur the docks. An' by an' bye the milk
comes along, an' the sweeps goes aht. Then comes the women
wot cleans the orfices up West way aht be the Minories ; then
yer kin 'ear the factory gels 'urryin' orf ; an' then comes the
children goin' ter school Arter thet it's all quiet, fur the
lane do be empty all day. But now an" agin some one turns
aht of the main road, an' I lies 'ere an' I listens to see if I
knows the step. I kin 'ear 'em comin' a long way off; fust
'tis on'y a footfall in the distance faint-like; an' they seems
all alike far off. But when they comes closer I knows 'em.
Yer was way dahn the lane, jus' aht o' the Court, when I sez
to meself: 'Thet's 'er ! ' sez I. An' 'ere y' are!"
"And I've been a long time coming," I said penitently,
" considering that you were ill."
"Ah! but yer do 'ave a lot o' people to see," she said in
extenuation.
" Never mind ! I'm going to be a reformed character after
this."
The woman's eyes twinkled. " An' 'ow are yer ? " she
asked.
" It isn't how I am," I answered, " but' how you are.
What!" I ejaculated, looking at the untidy grate, "no fire?"
" Divil a bit," she replied, " an' I do be feelin' the want
of it. But wot kin yer do? 'Ere I've bin fur the las' six
weeks not able ter move 'and nor foot, an' o' course earnin'
no money. An' pore little Katie, wot kin she do in the way
o' buyin' coal ? 'Tis on'y five an' threepence a week she gits
at the jam factory. An' wot with payin' the rent, an' the bit
we 'as to eat, theer ain't much fur firm'."
"No, I should think not"; I answered.
"D' yer reckon as the Settlement would give me some
coal ? " she asked.
"Yes, I think it would"; and I jotted down her need in
my notebook.
"Yer see 'ow it is," continued the rheumatic woman; "aht
I905-] "AND WHO is MY NEIGHBOR?" 341
o' Katie's money she 'as ter buy 'erself a dress now an' agin.
Yer ain't never seen my Katie, 'ave yer ? " she asked abruptly.
" Not yet," I replied. For Katie was always at the factory.
"Yer would like my Katie," she said simply. "Yuss; an'
I don't care if she is me own gel, fur a better gel nor Katie
yer never see. She works 'ard all day, very 'ard, she do, at
the factory. An' when 'er work's done, she comes straight
'ome. No 'angin' abaht the streets fur Katie, but straight 'ome
she comes ter make me bed an' ter tidy up the place a bit.
Then of a mornin' she's up Jike a lark boils me 'a. cup o' tea
an' gi'es me somethink to eat, an' away she goes to 'er work.
There ain't no time fur much else," she said looking round the
dishevelled tenement room, "fur if she ain't at the factory door
w'en the bell rings, they docks 'er pay, so they do. An' she
do keep 'erself so nice an' ladylike gen'ally in black. W'y !
'er last is jes' sich a dress as yer might wear yerself, an' not
feel ashamed of it neither ! An' it ain't as if she spends much
on 'er clothes, pore little Katie, fur she ain't got it. But wot
she gets is tasty. She b'longs ter one o' them fact'ry clubs,"
explained the woman ; " one as they gits up theirselves."
"How?" I asked.
"Well! say my Katie wants a noo dress. P'haps it might
cost a matter o' twelve shillin'. Well, then, she gits twelve
fact'ry gels ter join, an' each of 'em pays a shillin' a week fur
twelve weeks. At the end of each week, d' yer see, they draw
lots. An' one of 'em gits twelve shillin's in a lump, an' she
kin go orf an' buy a noo dress. I'd like as yer'd see Katie's "
Again her face worked in pain. " But it's put away," she
said wearily.
"Later on I can see it."
" Please Gawd ! " was the response. For Katie's new dress
was pledged for food.
"Sich a pretty dress as it is, too," she continued; "an'
she do look fine in it ! 'Tis a black alpaca wid a blue silk
front, an' a "
Here the door opened stealthily and a head was thrust in.
It was a weird looking object. The face was not visible, for
the shawl concealed it from view. And, as if to make assur-
ance doubly sure, a sooty hand held the brown shawl in place.
From the upper opening of this shawl a tuft of gray hair
stood up and asserted its independence. It was the only thing
342 "AND WHO is MY NEIGHBOR?' [June,
to be seen, and therefore compelled attention. As hair it was
unique. It simply stood on end and remained there. Like
the suspended tomb of the Prophet it was a law to itself a
mysterious triumph of matter over force. Catching sight of me
the owner of the tuft of hair hastily withdrew. Whereupon
my friend, the bottle-washer, announced to me in a stage
whisper that the apparition was her landlady the house being
a tiny tenement. Then, evidently conscious that her landlady's
hair needed an apology, she remarked abruptly : " 'Ad a fright
once, she 'ad ! an' ever since then 'er 'air won't never stick
dahn. But she's reel good ter me," said the sick woman.
"Yuss; she's jes' goin' ter the pawn-shop fur me lendin' me
some of 'er things she is, 'cos mine's all gone. She's got a
black eye to-day, that's w'y she was 'oldin the shawl over 'er
'ead." '
" She need not have minded me," I began.
But again the woman started with pain and the limbs were
drawn up.
" May the Lord give me strength to suffer," she murmured,
as she clutched at the bedclothes in agony. For some moments
she lay there unable to speak. Then she raised her voice with
an effort and called : " 'Ere ! Mrs. Mould ! "
Again the eerie figure appeared round the door.
"Wot d' yer want?" said a voice from underneath the
shawl.
" Come right in," said the sick woman, fur yer needn't
mind this 'ere lady."
Thus adjured, the shawled figure came in, bearing under
her arm a bulky packet tied in a colored handkerchief.
"I'm jes' a-goin'," she said, "but the 'andkerchief keeps
comin' orf me eye."
" Let me help," said I.
The figure hesitated, and I felt as if I were being weighed
in the balance. Then she put down the bundle of rags she
was going to pawn and slowly withdrew the shawl.
"I 'ad a fall las' night," she said with diffidence. "Mean'
me ole man was comin' along the lane, w'en I slipped an'
nearly cut me eye aht."
"Yes, it's badly grazed"; I said. For, where her face was
not cut, it was black and blue with bruises. "Where did you
fall ? " I asked, as I folded the old handkerchief lengthways.
1905.] "AND WHO is MY NEIGHBOR?" 343
" Yer knows the fish shop in the lane? Well, it ain't a
fish shop exactly, but where they salts the fish. Theer's allus
fish scales on the pavement," she added, " an' 'twas theer we
slipped las' night me an' 'im."
"A woman fell there just now," I said, "as I was coming
along."
" 'Urt much ?" asked the battered figure hastily.
" She was moaning with pain as she was carried into the
tenement."
"Ah! pore thing!" said both women with sympathy.
" Are you ready?" I asked, holding out the handkerchief.
"Yuss"; and the broken head was lowered.
" Tell me if I hurt," said I ; for the stiff gray hair was an
unknown quantity.
" Thank yer kindly," said the woman when I had tied up
the black eye.
She drew her shawl over her head and tucked the bundle of
rags under her arm.
In the doorway she turned round and nodded to us.
" S'long ! " said she.
And the Samaritan vanished, to pledge her all.
Her footsteps died away in the lane, and the tenement room
was hushed. And in the squalid doorway I thought I saw the
Angel open the Book and write therein. After which, turning
from the East End to the West, he stretched his hands over the
city and said to a Christian world : " Go, and do thou in like
manner."
CERVANTES AND HIS WORK.
BY JAMES J. WALSH, PH.D.
[T is the custom of the present day to sympathize
rather condescendingly with Spain for the loss
of her empire and the dissipation of that supreme
influence in world affairs which she once pos-
sessed. In one phase of our modern life, how-
ever, it must not be forgotten that Spain still maintains a
supremacy from which she will never be dislodged, and in
which, indeed, she has no rival. The soldier-poet maimed at
Lepanto, captive for so long in Algiers, whom the proud
hidalgos of his time thought so little of, and whom even the
most distinguished literary men among his contemporaries
valued far below his worth, has, by his wonderful book, in the
words of a distinguished American critic, restored to Spain the
universal empire she lost. For all the world reads Don Quixote
and takes that brave old knight to heart, and comes back year
after year to find in this story a new meaning and a new mes-
sage, until it has become part of the world's literary soul. All
this is recalled the more appropriately now that the literary
world is celebrating the three hundredth anniversary of the
publication of Don Quixote, and acknowledging its unrivaled
supremacy as a work of art.
So much has been written and so much is thought of Don
Quixote and of Cervantes, that somehow the impression has
obtained that he stands alone in the Spanish literature of his
time. Nothing could, however, be less true than this, and it
may be said at once that no supreme literary genius has ever
manifested itself without having been led up to by predeces-
sors often much less distinguished, but never quite unworthy
of the great master that was to be the culmination of their
line. Victor Hugo once said, in one of the Delphic expressions
he so much affected, that genius was a promontory jutting out
into the infinite. It is not so very clear just what may be the
definite meaning underlying the great French poet and critic's
word, but it is certain that, in literary history, the promontory
never stands alone, but is preceded by a chain of lower peaks
from the mainland.
1905.] CERVANTES AND His WORK. 345
The greatest of Cervantes' predecessors in Spanish literature
is undoubtedly St. Teresa, whose name in the world, Teresa de
Cepeda y Ahumada, has been entirely eclipsed by her religious
designation. It may seem an index rather of Catholic partiality
than of genuine literary appreciation to give such a place to
St. Teresa and her writings, but for those who must have
critical authorities for their opinions, there is no dearth of
acknowledged ones to overcome all hesitancy. The most re-
cent, Fitzmaurice Kelly, who is himself a member of the Royal
Spanish Academy, and who was selected by Edmund Gosse to
write the history of Spanish literature in Appleton's series of
Literatures of the World, says of her :
Santa Teresa is not only a glorious saint and a splendid
figure in the annals of religious thought ; she ranks as a
miracle of genius, as, perhaps, the greatest woman who ever
handled pen, the single one of all her sex who stands beside
the world's most perfect masters. Macaulay has noted, in a
famous essay, that Protestantism has gained not an inch of
ground since the middle of the sixteenth century. Ignacio
Loyola and Santa Teresa are the life and brain of the Catho-
lic reaction ; the former is a great party chief, the latter be-
longs to mankind.
The English poet, Richard Crashaw, himself surely capa-
ble of judging both of the mystical and the poetic side of her
character, cannot find words strong enough to express his feel-
ing.
A woman, he says, for angelical height of speculation ;
for masculine courage of performance, more than a woman.
Who yet a child, outran maturity and durst plot a martyrdom.
Over and over again writers have quoted his burning words
of admiration :
Sweet incendiary, the undaunted daughter of desires, the
fair sister of the seraphim, moon of maiden stars.
How much of Crashaw's own conversion was due to the
influence of Teresa's writings, and how much of the sublimer
depths of his own great religious poetry, to the inspiration of her
burning words, will never be known. Teresa's letters are, to this
day, the model of classic Spanish prose style, and it is no
surprise to find great genius ready to manifest itself through
the same vehicle.
346 CERVANTES AND His WORK. [June,
Nor were Cervantes' more immediate contemporaries unwor-
thy of him. Lope de Vega represents one of the great sources
of modern dramatic, literature. Tirso de Molina is scarcely
less well known to his countrymen, and only somewhat less
admired, though the world outside of Spain knows so little of
him. As to Calderon, who was to be Cervantes' great successor
in attracting world-wide attention to Spanish literature, there is
no doubt that he is one of the dramatic geniuses of all time.
The Schlegels, Frederick and August, were unstinted in their
admiration of the great Spanish dramatist. James Russell
Lowell said of him :
For fascination of style and profound suggestion, it would
be hard to name another author superior to Calderon, if indeed
equal to him. His charm was equally felt by two minds as
unlike each other as those of Goethe and Shelley, and in-
deed admiration for Calderon has always been the touchstone
of true critical appreciation, and the more broad-minded the
critical judgment the surer has been its verdict as to the
genius of Calderon.
Probably something of Cervantes' intellectual development
was due to the fact that he was born in Alcala de Henares,
where the great Cardinal Ximenes had founded the famous uni-
versity which, in the early part of the nineteenth century, was
transferred to Madrid. It seems probable from the records of
the University that at the time of Cervantes' birth there were
not less than seven thousand students in attendance at this
university. At no time during the sixteenth century had the
number fallen below five thousand.
It has been the custom to consider as trivial the old knightly
romances which were so popular before the publication of Don
Quixote. They represented, however, a definite phase of literary
development. It must not be forgotten that the romances of
chivalry, which Cervantes took it upon himself to satirize, were
very widely read. Thirty 'years before Don Quixote was writ-
ten, St. Teresa complained that many of the nuns in the con-
vents in Spain gave themselves up to the reading of these
romances, which she considered as neither suitable to their state
in life nor likely to improve their minds or spiritual condition.
She does not hesitate to confess, however, that as a young
woman she herself took great delight in reading them, and this,
1905.] CERVANTES AND His WORK. 347
too, even after she had become a nun. There is a tradition
that she tried her hand at writing some of them when she was
in her teens, and knowing her facility of expression in Spanish
prose, and the imperative need at all times for a woman of her
disposition to have something to do, this would not be sur-
prising.
That it was not the idle rich nor the young nobles alone
who devoted themselves to this sort of reading can also be
appreciated from many well-known facts. Charles V., serious
as he always was, had a favorite romance of this character,
and continued to enjoy it even after he himself had promul-
gated decrees against the reading of romances of chivalry. It
is said that the distinguished theologian, Mendoza, when sent
on an embassy to Rome, took with him in his library Amadis
of Gaul, one of the books that is particularly satirized in Don
Quixote, and another of the same character, Celestina. The
reading of these romances of chivalry was considered to be so
serious a matter after a time that even ecclesiastical regula-
tions were made in order to try to break up the evil habit.
There is no doubt that the books did a great deal of harm,
more because they encouraged a certain dissipation of mind,
than by any positive immoral influence. The story of a pas-
sionate, universal devotion to the reading of romances of a
character not so different from those of the old Spanish times,
either in their literary value or their truth to life, has been
repeated in our own times, and we are still in the midst of
the unfortunate movement.
Occasionally the reading habit, acquired through the peru-
sal of the romances of chivalry, seems not to have been with-
out its good results. It will be remembered that when Igna-
tius Loyola was wounded at the battle of Pampeluna, and had
to bear long weeks of convalescence in bed, he demanded that
certain romances of chivalry should be given him. None of
them, however, were to be found in that remote and uncul-
tured part of Spain, and so he had to content himself with
whatever reading matter there was at hand. The only books to
be found were a Life of Christ and some lives of the saints,
and accordingly Ignatius devoted himself to these. There are
not wanting those who hint that some of the ideas for the
formation of his great company of knights, who were to fight
for the Church, were obtained from the reading of romances
348 CERVANTES AND His WORK. [June,
of chivalry, which had been such a favorite occupation of his
younger days. It is rather curious to think that some have
even hinted that Cervantes was satirizing the life of Ignatius
Loyola in Don Quixote, though of course this is entirely with-
out foundation.
Cervantes wrote his Don Quixote with the avowed purpose
of undermining the popularity of the old romances of chivalry.
It has sometimes been said that the arrows of his wit and
humor were aimed at the old chivalry itself. Nothing could
well be less true than this, however. Cervantes himself was
the last of the knights of the olden time, and he had all the
utter unselfish spirit that animated them. His life is full of
actions that ever since the writing of his book would be called
nothing less than Quixotic. His enlistment as a Crusader
under Don Juan of Austria was only the first of these chival-
rous steps. On the morning of the battle of Lepanto he was
in bed with fever; when he heard the preparation for fight no
entreaties could keep him below : " I would rather die fighting
for God and the king," he exclaimed, " than think of my own
safety and keep under cover."
Not only did he insist on coming on deck, but he pleaded
earnestly for a special post of danger, though what he asked
for was a post of honor, and his request was granted. He
fought from a skiff alongside the galley, and he would surely
have lost his life but for the fortunate chance which transferred
the fiercest fighting to the other side of the vessel. His de-
scription of the battle afterwards breathes all the inspiration of
the moment. Notwithstanding his wounds, when the trumpets
sounded the triumph of the Christian fleet he was utterly un-
conscious of the injuries that he had received.
I held my sword in one hand, he writes; from the other
flowed waves of blood. My bosom was struck with a deep
wound, my left hand broken and crushed ; but such was the
sovereign joy that filled my soul that I was unconscious
of my wounds. Yet was I fainting with mortal pain.
After six months in the hospital he again enlisted, and
was present at the capture of Tunis. When two years later
Cervantes heard of the recapture of Tunis by the Turks, with
the brave garrison overpowered by numbers perishing to a
man at their posts, he cried out: "Would to God that I had
remained to help them or perish with them." Later on, when
1905.] CERVANTES AND His WORK. 349
he was captured by the Moors, the same spirit of self-sacrifice
for others characterized his life. When money was sent for
his ransom, he insisted that his brother, Rodrigo, should first
be set free, and remained himself in captivity, though he must
have realized that all the possible efforts of his friends to help
him had now been exhausted, and that he must be ready to
bear long years of slavery. Twice he was the leader of at-
tempts to break from captivity, and on each occasion he in-
sisted, at the risk of death, in assuming the whole responsi-
bility and taking whatever punishment might be meted out to
the organizer of such an outbreak. Apparently it was only
the genial character of the man himself, which had so im-
pressed his captors, that saved his life. Surely no one was
better fitted than Cervantes himself to tell with supreme sym-
pathy, and the utter kindliness of good humor, the story .of
Don Quixote's knightly efforts to help others, absolutely re-
gardless of the consequences to himself.
While Don Quixote is the only work for which Cervantes
is famous, it must not be thought that this is his only work
of great merit. It seems not unlikely that, if he had never
written Don Quixote, he would still have deserved an enduring
place in Spanish literature for some of his novelas and short
stories. These are conceived in the style of modern realism,
and indeed contain many reminders of the work of so modern
a writer as the Russian realist, Maxim Gorki. Like Gorki,
in Russia, Cervantes had seen, in Spain, much of the life of
the tramp, the unemployed, and the gypsy, and it is these
that he has particularly pictured in his short stories. The
most important characteristic of these tales is their absolute
fidelity to the life of the time and their value as social studies
of the period. " Rinconete and Cortadillo " a story of Seville
founded on Cervantes' own experiences is the best exam-
ple of these. Thieves and ruffians and bullies, as well as typical
characters of all the criminal classes, are described with the
pen of a master. This short story contains some of the ele-
ments of comedy and humor that foreshadow Don Quixote.
"The Colloquy of the Two Dogs" is not without its re-
minders of Burns' poem with a similar title. "The Illustrious
Kitchen Maid " is noted for its simple straightforwardness and
apparent absence of all artistic effort. The scene is laid in
a lodging house in Toledo, still visited by the traveler, said to
this day to be in the condition in which it was at the time
350 CERVANTES AND His WORK. [June,
of the story. "The Illustrious Kitchen Maid" in many respects
recalls to the reader Maxim Gorki's " Night Refuge." This is
true particularly because of its verisimilitude and its almost
brutally plain statement of facts with regard to the condition
of the poor. Another, perhaps the cleverest and best known
of Cervantes' short stories, is "The Little Gypsy." This is the
first of a series of short stories in which a baby girl, having
been carried off by gypsies, is brought up by them, but finally
restored under romantic circumstances to her proper station in
life. The story contains some simple, tender ballads that have
added not a little to Cervantes' reputation.
Though these short stories were so different from the
romances of chivalry, they sprang into popularity at once, and
ten editions of them were called for in nine years. If we recall
that at the present time short stories are the special bete noir
of the publishers, and that few of them get beyond a first
edition, and very few beyond a third or fourth, this will enable
us to realize that, with the smaller circle of readers in Cervantes'
time, these short stories must have been almost universally
read in Spain. One of his distinguished contemporaries, Tirso
de Molina, because of this collection of short stories, spoke
of Cervantes as the Boccaccio of Spain. The title is, how-
ever, to say the least, unfortunate, for Cervantes' work is dis-
figured neither here nor anywhere else by any appeal to
sensuality. There is no doubt, however, that to the mind of
Spanish critics these short stories are written in purer Spanish
than is Don Quixote. Even Lope de Vega, who was not prone
to praise his contemporaries over much, and who was especially
sparing of praise in Cervantes' regard, conceded that the stories
were not wanting in grace or style. They have not, however,
appealed to the wider world as Don Quixote has. The latter has
been translated into every language, the former are to be found
in comparatively few. Cervantes was from the very beginning
a favorite with English readers, and yet, even down to the
present day, there is no translation of his complete works. At
least there was none ten years ago, and the lacuna has not,
we believe, been since filled.
It is not surprising to find that the great critics, and espe-
cially the most human among them, have all been unstinted
in their praise of Cervantes' great work. Don Quixote was
never, however, a classic in the definition of that word which
has sometimes been given a book that every one praises and
1905.] CERVANTES AND His WORK. 351
no one reads. The " Knight of La Mancha " became a pre-
cious possession for the critics, and they learned to speak of
him, not so much as a character of fiction, but as of some
one whom they knew better than they knew their intimates,
and to love very tenderly, even while they laughed at him
very heartily. A typical example of this attitude is our own
Lamb, with whom Don Quixote was a favorite character.
Lamb's wonderful taste for what is best in literature enabled
him to appreciate, as few English before his time, the sur-
passing beauties of Cervantes' work. A greater difference
could scarcely be imagined than that between the personalities
of Lamb and Coleridge, their critical faculties and their train-
ing; yet Coleridge was quite as completely won by the mar-
velous creation of the Spanish writer as was Lamb.
Their great contemporary, Sir Walter Scott, liked Don
Quixote above most books, and often turned to it and found it
rcsttul from his labor, yet an inspiration in his work. It is a
matter for some wonder, however, to find that Heine, the
scoffer, for whom almost nothing in life was serious, should
have realized all the pathos that there is in Don Quixote, and
should, indeed, have been one of those who insisted most on
the fact that it is the saddest of all sad books. On the other
hand, the great French critic, Sainte Beuve, for whom mere
beauty of style so often seemed to dominate critical opinion,
has not a word to say of the lack of style in Don Quixote,
while he cordially appreciates the wonderful humanity of the
book and the broad world-sympathy with which it is written.
It is he who said that Don Quixote is the one book to which
no one, with any pretensions to culture, can afford to miss a
reference in any language of Europe.
Horace's prophecy of himself, "I have raised a monument
more lasting than bronze," has seemed overweeningly preten-
tious to many, but it pales before the declaration of Cervantes
that no language would be without a translation of Don
Quixote ; and the Spaniard's prophesy has been fulfilled, if
possible, more truly than that of the Roman. Don Quixote
has been translated more frequently, and into more languages,
than any other work, even that of Dante or our own Shake-
speare. The dear old knight of the rueful countenance has
literally become a friend and very living person to more
cultured men than any other character fiction ever created.
VOL. LXXXI. 23
352 CERVANTES AND His WORK. [June.
True to the life of the little country town in the most back-
ward district of Spain in the sixteenth century, Don Quixote is
yet the type of the idealist of all time, and his fat little pudgy
squire with the sharp eyes, ever on the lookout for his own
interest, is the contrasting type of the self-seeking realist.
The whole story is written so close to the heart of human
nature, and comes so directly from that mingled fountain of
tears and of smiles in the depths of every human heart, that we
feel rather than appreciate it, and re-live rather than re-read it.
Yet it was all done by the brave and rather shiftless sol-
dier-poet, the wanderer who suffered much, and in suffering
saw things for himself, who was the butt of fortune, and whose
life assuredly spelled failure, if any ever did, according to the
ordinary standards of worldly success, but who kept a buoyant
heart through it all and saw life, in spite of the "lachrymae
rerum," to be not such a bad lot, all said and done. At the
end, he turned as naturally to the faith that was in him as
the child to its mother, and having written in a last letter:
" Farewell wit, farewell my pleasant jests, farewell my many
friends!" concluded with the sublimely simple words of Chris-
tian hope : " Dying I carry with me the desire to see you
soon again with joy in the other life." To any one who knows
how St. Francis of Assisi, with his utter lack of conventional-
ity, must have appealed to the heart of a man like Cervantes,
for whom life had been so thoroughly stripped of its illusions,
it is no surprise to learn that Cervantes, towards the end of
his days, became a member of the Third Order of St. Francis.
According to directions, left in his will, he was buried in the
habit of the order, with the brethren as his chief funeral at-
tendants. His only child, his beloved daughter, had become a
nun in the Convent of the Holy Trinity at Madrid not long
before, and in order that his remains might not be far from
her, Cervantes requested to be buried in the little cemetery
attached to the convent.
The immortal creator of Don Quixote had his last fond
dream of peace for all that was mortal of him, within the
echoes of the convent choir and apart from the busy hum of
city life beyond the garden walls. When the convent was
moved, Cervantes' body was transferred to another convent
cemetery, and all trace of the last resting place of Spain's
greatest son was lost.
PARCEL-POST SYSTEM OF GERMANY.
N.
BY J. C. MONAGHAN,
Head of U. S. Consular Service.
'NY ONE who has stood in a German post office,
at the counter where parcels are received for
transportation to places far and near, and has
seen the constant stream of private carriers
men, women, and children pouring in through
the doors with packages of all descriptions and sizes, and lining
up in never-ending rows before half a dozen and more re-
ceiving officials ; who has watched heavy wagons driving up
to the doors and depositing hundreds of packages, all directed
from a single manufacturing house; and who has noticed the
mountains of parcels heaped up in the rear rooms of the post
office, cannot but have been forcibly struck with the magni-
tude of the parcel-post system of transportation in Geimany,
and its immense importance and value to the industrial and
commercial interests of the Empire. The writer remembers
distinctly the deep impression which the first sight of this
great transportation agency in its feverish activity made upon
him, and his firm conviction that the inauguration of such a
system throughout the United States would prove an inestima-
ble blessing and would revolutionize numerous cumbrous, time-
killing, expensive, and inconvenient, though under present
conditions unavoidable, methods in retail business.
In this article all the leading features of the parcel-post
system of Germany are presented, beginning with the despatch
of the package, and ending with its delivery to the addressee.
Every package must be accompanied by a parcel-post ad-
dress card, about 4x6 inches in size, and with black print on
yellow paper of the strength of a common postal card. Where
a number of packages are sent to the same address, three may
be sent under one address card, unless one or more of them
are also to be registered, insured, or a collection made on
delivery. In the latter cases every package must be accom-
panied by its own address card.
354 PARCEL-POST SYSTEM OF GERMANY. [June,
Every address card is divided into two parts. A third of
the card to the left is devoted to the address of the sender of
the package, the stamp of the receiving post office, and for
any communication that the sender may wish to make to the
addressee. This part is detached from the rest of the card on
the delivery of the package, and forms a convenient record of
the day and place of its despatch, name of sender, and his
communication. The other two-thirds of the card contains the
address of the intended receiver of the package, a right-hand
upper corner for stamps, a blank for the indication of the
number or character of the packages sent, the weight of the
package as determined by the receiving official at the post
office, and a distinguishing number correspondirg to that of
the parcel and given to it at the post office. At the top of
the back of the card, next to the one- third left blank for
communications, , is a space for the storage number (if kept in
store), for any direction of the sender in regard to the delivery
of the package, and then a place for the signature of the
receiver, in case of insured packages, with declaration of value.
The rest of the card contains directions as to its use and the
more important regulations respecting the transportation of
parcels by the post office.
These address cards may be bought at the post office for
the price of the stamp upon them, if stamped, and at the rate
of twenty for 5 cents (20 pfennige) if unstamped. The use of
private cards is also permissible, provided such cards are made
in exact imitation of the standard official card.
The package itself must also be addressed in the same
manner as the card attached to it. In addition it must also
show whether postage has been prepaid by inscribing the word
" free," and whether the package is " registered," or to be
"delivered per special messenger," or a certain amount "col-
lected upon delivery," etc. In case the package consists of a
crated living animal, a further direction must be stated, as:
" If not delivered, return to " ; or, " If not delivered, send
to "; or, "If not delivered, sell"; or, "If not delivered,
telegraph sender"; etc. All addresses must be written plainly,
with names in full and street numbers. Where packages are
insured their value must be written upon the package itself, as
well as upon the card.
In case of lighter objects of little value, which can with-
1905.] PARCEL-POST SYSTEM OF GERMANY. 355
stand pressure and which have no moist or fatty exterior, a
simple wrapping of ordinary paper is sufficient. All heavier
objects, weighing more than 6 pounds or thereabouts, must be
put up in several covers of heavy wrapping paper. Parcels of
greater value, which suffer easily from moisture, pressure, or
rubbing, must be covered with oilcloth or pasteboard, or be
packed in boxes covered with heavy linen material. Fluids
shipped in bottles and flasks must be packed in special cases
or baskets. Live animals must be so boxed as not only to
protect them from injury, but also safeguard the officials who
handle the cases.
The packages must be so tied or sealed that the contents
cannot be examined without appreciable injury to the package.
Insured packages with a declared value must be securely sealed
by the use of sealing wax and a stamp. In case of specially
locked packages, or cases, or well-made casks, no further scal-
ing is required. Detailed regulations govern the shipment of
coins or paper-money and other valuable paper.
Ordinarily parcels are sent only by the accommodation
trains and not by the limited trains. It frequently happens,
however, that in case of live animals, flowers, etc., rapid ship-
ment is highly desirable, if not absolutely necessary. Provision
is made that on condition of the payment of an extra charge
of I mark (24 cents) such parcels will be sent on the limited
trains and delivered on their arrival by special messenger. In
such cases the parcel pays the regular charge, which will be
given presently, plus the special messenger charge of 10 cents
and i mark.
Urgent shipments cannot be registered or insured. They
must bs easily distinguishable through the attachment of a
special colored card, with the word " urgent " written or stamped
in large letters. The address card must be distinguished in
like manner.
Ordinarily a delivery of packages is made from the receiv-
ing post office twice a day, and sometimes oftener, in large cities.
Where a package is to be hurried to its destination, a special
messenger may be sent out in the familiar manner. The charge
in such cases is 10 cents in case of delivery within the city,
and 22 cents in case of rural delivery. Instead of delivering
the entire package, the messenger may be instructed to deliver
the card alone, thereby giving notice to the receiver of the
PARCEL-POST SYSTEM OF GERMANY. [June,
arrival of a package. In the latter cases the charge is the
same as in case of the delivery of letters, money orders, etc.,
namely, 5 cents for city delivery, and 15 cents for special rural
delivery.
If the sender pays the special messenger, this fact must be
recorded on the address card, as well as on the package itself,
in the words " Bote bezahlt" (messenger paid). In other cases
the charge is collected on the delivery of the parcel.
In the absence of a special delivery, the parcel is taken out
to the addressee on the regular daily route, either in the morn-
ing or in the afternoon, by the parcel-post delivery wagon.
The charge for delivery varies with the weight of the package
and its destination, that is, whether it is to be delivered with-
in the city limits or out in the country. The minimum charge
for city delivery is 2^ cents, and includes all packages weigh-
ing less than 5 kilograms (n pounds). Heavier parcels pay
3^ cents. If a number of packages is delivered to a single
address under one address card then the charge is as above
for the heaviest package, and but i^{ cents for every other
package, that is, for the other one or two, as it will be remem-
bered that no more than three packages can accompany one
address card.
In case of the rural delivery, of ordinary packages the charge
is 2^/2 cents for every parcel weighing less than 5^ pounds, and
5 cents for every other package, irrespective of their number.
It must be noted here that the general delivery fees, as
presented above, vary in different cities, this being determined
by the central postal officials through local regulation. It is
not a matter regulated locally by local authorities.
The very large mass of the parcels sent in Germany appear to
be sent to the post office by private messengers, namely, office
boys or girls, clerks, servants, etc. This means is both expe-
ditious and convenient, where somebody is at hand to carry
the parcel. Otherwise the parcel collection wagon, which at
the same time also acts for delivery, may be called to the
office or house by a postal card addressed to the local post
offi:e. Packages may also be carried out to a parcel delivery
wagon while on its regular route when it passes or while it
stops in the neighborhood. The charge for collection is the
same as the charge for delivery 2^< cents provided the par-
cel is delivered inside the city limits.
1905.] PARCEL-POST SYSTEM OF GERMANY. 357
In the case of rural collection, all parcels weighing less than
5^ pounds are accepted for 3^ cents; if heavier, the charge
is 6 l / cents.
When, for one reason or another, it is impossible to deliver
a parcel, the sender is notified and requested to give instruc-
tions for its disposition within seven, days, and at the same
time pay a charge of 5 cents. If the sender has any doubts
as to a difficulty in the delivery of the parcel he can, as was
already stated, write instructions as to its disposition on the
address card at the time of the despatch of the parcel.
The question of the charges for transmission is, of course,
of vital and determining importance in a parcel-post system,
and it is here that the German system offers an admirable ser-
vice, for its chief virtues are moderate charges and an almost
infallible service. Weight and distance determine the amount
of the charge. The distance charge is determined by means
of zones. Taking the point from which a given package is to
be transmitted as the centre, the first zone lies within a cir-
cumference whose radius is 10 geographical miles; the second
zone lies between 10 and 20 geographical miles; the third,
between 20 and 50 geographical miles; the fourth, betwten
50 and 100 geographical miles; the fifth, between 100 and 150
geographical miles; and the sixth, or most distant zone, be-
yond 150 geographical miles.
For parcels weighing less than 1 1 pounds, but two zones
are distinguished one within ten geographical miles, and the
other beyond this distance. The charge for a parcel weigh-
ing less than 11 pounds is 6 cents within the first zone of 10
geographical miles and 12 cents for every greater distance.
For parcels weighing over n pounds the charge for the
first 5 kilograms is the same as given above. For every
additional kilogram, or fraction thereof, the charge varies
proportionately.
Every parcel is weighed on its delivery for transmission
note of its exact weight being made on the address card by
the receiving official. Extremely heavy packages are received,
the limit in weight being no pounds.
In case the postage upon parcels is not prepaid, an extra
charge of z 1 /* cents is collected where the packages do not
weigh more than 1 1 pounds. In case of heavier packages no
extra fee is charged. The aim of this provision is, apparently,
358 PARCEL-POST SYSTEM OF GERMANY. [June,
to avoid the shipment of unpaid parcels in weights of less than
5 kilograms, the chances for so doing being greatest for the
smaller class of packages, which constitute by far a majority of
all parcels sent.
Parcels of light weight, but considerable size, or which
possess a delicate character which makes them difficult of trans-
portation, both in handling and in the space which they occupy,
are placed in a special class by themselves, under the name of
" special express," under the American usage of the term. In
this class are included all parcels whose dimensions in any one
direction exceed 1.5 meters (59 inches); also parcels which
measure I meter (39.37 inches) in one direction and more than
0.5 meter (19.68 inches) in another, and yet weigh less than
10 kilograms; also baskets with plants, hatboxes, furniture,
delicate basket work, cages with animals, or when empty, etc.
all of which occupy comparatively large space and require
comparatively careful handling.
Packages such as the above pay, in addition to the regular
postage, an extra charge equal to one-half of the regular
postage charge. Insurance fees are not calculated in determin-
ing the extra charge.
Parcels which possess an extraordinary value are generally
insured, the rates being most favorable. The minimum charge
for insurance is 2 l / 2 cents, and covers all parcels less than 600
marks ($142.80) in value. Every additional 300 marks in value
pays a charge of 1.19 cents. Thus 1,500 marks ($357) pay an
insurance fee of 25 pfennige (5.95 cents), 6,000 marks ($1,428)
pay a fee of I mark (23.8 cents), 12,000 marks ($2,856) pay
a fee of 2 marks (47.6 cents), etc.
The postal charges, both for insured and for ordinary
parcels, are so moderate, and the advantages of a rapid trans
mission of smaller shipments of commodities, etc., are so great,
that the German parcel-post system of transportation has grown
to be one of the most important commercial communication
agencies of the country. The parcel-post brings the fish from
the North Sea, the colonial products from the seaport towns,
the dairy products from Switzerland, the wines from the Rhine
valley, the fruits of Italy, and the vegetables of the whole
South into the heart of Germany. When the Mannheim or
Chemnitz fruit-dealer runs short, he sends a telegram for 12
cents to his import dealer at Hamburg, Bremen, or Berlin, and
1905.] PARCEL-POST SYSTEM OF GERMANY. 359
the next day the case is delivered at his store, the whole
transaction involving an expense of from 12 to 50 cents or $i ;
and involving this highest rate only when the case weighs at
least 50 pounds. The rates which permit of the sending of
parcels up to 1 1 pounds in weight any distance for 12 cents
attract an utterly inestimable quantity of packages Every-
where business men express high praise of the system, and
declare it to be an indispensible institution, performing a service
which could not be rendered as promptly or as conveniently
by any other known agency.
The parcels post rates of Germany, from the inland cities to
foreign countries, are extremely moderate. The parcel rate
and letter postage to Austria- Hungary are the same as in
Germany itself, and parcels for Egypt via Switzerland and Italy
are sent for 52 cents per n pounds.
The charges for parcels to the United States are : One
kilogram (2.2046 pounds), 33 cents; I to 5 kilograms (2.2046
to ii pounds), 31 to 88 cents, according to the circumstances
of sending and delivery.
In all cases certain requirements for the foreign customs
department must be followed, which for the United States are,
besides the card of address, two declarations pertaining to cost
and contents; and as regards size, packages for the United
States must not be over 105 centimeters (41.24 inches) in
length, and the circumference must not exceed 180 centimeters
(70.87 inches).
The rate on from 2.2 to 44 pounds is 26 cents. For each
additional 22 046 pounds, or fraction thereof, there is a charge
of 13 cents, so that the rate for 220.46 pounds, is $1.31.
The railroad express rate on 44 pounds is 30 cents, so
that the express rate for 220.46 pounds is $3.04.
The Manchester street railway (or tramway) committee has
for some time had under consideration the details of a scheme
for carrying parcels on the street cars in that city. Lately
the committee adopted a scale of charges for parcels, in-
clusive of the charge for delivery, for two areas, the " in-
side" and the "outside." The "inside" area will include
the whole of the city of Manchester, the borough of Salford,
and the township of Stretford as far as Warwick road. The
"outside" area will include the suburbs which are around the
district thus outlined and within the tramway's circuit. Par-
360 PARCEL-POST SYSTEM OF GERMANY. [June,
eels will be delivered to all parts covered by the scheme at
intervals of not more than a quarter of an hour. It is ex-
pected that the service will be put into operation next month,
The following are the charges for the two areas :
Rates for carrying parcels on street cars in Manchester,
England.
Weight. Inside Service. Outside Service.
Not exceeding Cents. Cents.
14 pounds, 4 6
28 pounds, 6 8
56 pounds, 8 12
112 pounds, 12 16
Manchester, with Salford and Stretford, all included in the
" inside " area, has a population of about 800,000 people. The
"outside" area includes a number of suburban towns and vil-
lages. Persons who have been discussing parcel- carrying
schemes by trolley cars in American cities will watch this
experiment with considerable interest.
The numbers of pieces mailed during the past year, in
Germany, England, and France, were 6,894,899,000, 4,251,-
709,000, and 2,849,577,000, respectively. Per capita, the high-
est numbers of pieces mailed were as follows : Switzerland,
130; Germany, 114; the Netherlands, 86, and France, 83. In
the telegraphic service Germany ranks fifth, with 67 messages
to every 100 inhabitants. The countries which surpass Ger-
many are England, 214; France, 114; the Netherland, 78;
and Switzerland, 72 messages each for every 100 residents.
The German post office at the end of the year enjoyed a sur-
plus of $14,624,095, being surpassed only by England, which
had a surplus of $20,088,947. In France the surplus amounted
to $14,063,519.
The exports from France in 1904 amounted to $864,771,-
500, of which the goods sent by parcels-post amounted to
$61,123,100.
These statistics are most interesting. At a time when the
world is wondering what it will or ought to do with its vast
and valuable franchises concerning public or quasi- public utili-
ties, the question of a parcels-post is sure to force its way
into the papers and into the halls where such problems are
discussed. A great danger lies in indifference. At no time in
1905.] PARCEL-POST SYSTEM OF GERMANY. 361
our industrial or economic life was there so much need of in-
telligent thought and action as now. No matter how vast the
interests of the express companies concerned, the people will
be justified, until greed is eradicated and replaced by a spirit
of fairness, in demanding not only a parcels- post system that
will enable them, at small cost, to send commodities to foreign
countries, but one that will replace, to a very large extent,
the present expensive system of sending goods by express.
If the question is ever put properly before our legislators
they will hardly dare to hold back so effective a means of
promoting the public welfare. It is hard to see how any sys-
tem of opposition will be allowed to prevail against so neces-
sary and commendable a change. Conservatism, of such a
character as is called for by those who oppose reforms, is
foolish if not wicked when offered in opposition to a system
such as is outlined here. Of course nothing will be done till
experts have looked over the entire field. Luckily others have
gone through the experimental stage ; and they also have
borne the losses, inconveniences, etc., consequent, as a rule,
upon experiments. We are now able to go on, avoiding most
of the evils which others met. The foregoing article was made
up from material furnished by the United States officials sta-
tioned abroad, and from personal experiences gained during my
twelve years service in Germany as United States Consul.
JAPAN AND CATHOLICITY.
BY BARLEY DALE.
IF the making of books about Japan there is no
end ; but one has been published lately in Eng-
land which differs from all that have hitherto
been written on the subject, inasmuch as it is
written by the Japanese themselves. Experts
.in the various questions dealt with have given their views,
which have been translated, and the whole * edited by Mr.
Alfred Stead, with the result that a most interesting volume,
full of valuable and reliable information, has been produced.
We propose here to touch only on those chapters which treat
of the questions of religion, education, and the position of
women, as coming more within the scope of a Catholic periodi-
cal than political, financial, commercial, constitutional, and
industrial matter, with all of which the book itself deals.
No Catholic could read this remarkable book unmoved, or
without crying to heaven for another St. Francis Xavier to
plant the true Faith in this Island Kingdom, which lies like a
ploughed field, waiting for the sower to sow wheat, barley, oats,
or turnips, as seemeth to him good; waiting for a religion, un-
certain which to embrace, and equally drawn to Confucianism
Buddhism, or Christianity.
The Japanese themselves confess they are in want of a reli-
gion, and most pathetic, and alas ! also, most humiliating to us
Christians, is the way in which they weigh the various advan-
tages and disadvantages of these rival creeds. Listen to Pro-
fessor Tnazo Nitoke, one of the writers on Religion :
Buddhism has lost its earnest strivings, busying itself
with petty trifles among its small sects. The light of Confu-
cius and Mencius has paled before the more taking, if more
variegated, light of later philosophers.
Christianity has wandered far from the teachings of its
* Japan by the Japanese. Edited by Alfred Stead. London.
I905-] JAPAN AND CATHOLICITY. 363
Divine Founder, and as too often preached is a farce and a
caricature of the original.
The heart of the nation is still swayed by Bushido.
And what is Bushido? The nearest translation of this
mysterious word, Professor Nitoke says, is chivalry ; but. yet
Japanese chivalry differs so much from our Western notions of
chivalry, that he almost despairs of making Europeans under-
stand exactly what he means, especially as it is commonly said
in the West that the age of chivalry has passed away. Profes-
sor Nitoke argues that as an institution chivalry in the West
has passed away, but sad indeed, he thinks, will be the day when
the virtues it inculcates have disappeared also; but yet as a gen-
tleman is everywhere a gentleman if we can divest a Japanese
knight, a Samurai, of his, to us, quaint manners and odd cir-
cumstances, and, looking beneath these, behold in his soul the
soul of a modern gentleman we shall easily understand the
Japanese chivalry and moral system ; in short, we shall under-
stand Bushido.
Chivalry or Bushido is still the dominant moral power in
Japan ; but Bushido is a moral code which chivalry was not,
so it is a more comprehensive term; it was the "noblesse
oblige" of the Samurai class, that is of the knights, who in
time of war were soldiers, in time of peace, gentlemen. The
morality of Bushido is based on manliness, and the cultivation
of all manly qualities. It existed first as a code of honor for
the Samurai or knights, and has since come to stand to the
whole nation in the place of religion.
To this code of honor, or foundation of Bushido, was added
a certain Confucian element, but it was more the Chinese forms
of expression than the dogmas of Confucius which Bushido
adopted. It also derived something from Buddhism, principally
the habit of contemplation, without assimilating its philosophy ;
and lastly, it owed something to Shintoism, which is the
worship of nature and of ancestors.
Having attempted to define Bushido, this writer describes
some of its ethics. It places first the duty to one's self in
the preservation of health, not for health's sake, but because
the health of a man is a source of pleasure to his parents,
and of profit to his master. The body is looked upon as some-
thing lent us for the time being, as a clothing for the spirit;
364 JAPAN AND CATHOLICITY. [June,
the followers of the teachings of Bushido are pre-eminently
stewards of health.
The sense of shame is keenly cultivated, though this sense
is quite different from our Christian acceptation of the term. A
man who has lost his sense of shame, forfeits all claims to be
treated humanely. Conscience, called by a word which means
also heart, spirit, and mind, is the only criterion of right and
wrong; Bushido has no dogmatic creed. Whatever conscience
approves is right, whatever enables a man to do right is
courage, and, as might be expected from its warlike origin,
courage is an important factor in Bushido.
The crowning grace, however, is benevolence, and in this
connection the author makes a strange confession. He con-
fesses he feels an indescribable difference between the love
taught by Christ and the benevolence inculcated by Bushido.
He cannot understand why he perceives this; he tries to ana-
lyse his reasons, and asks among other questions, 'is it that
the one is of heaven heavenly, the other of the earth earthly ?
Again we long for another Xavier to convince him and his
country that he has guessed right. His final conclusion is
that Bushido anticipated a further and more glorious revela-
tion of love.
What if Buddhism did the same ? What if that most mys-
terious of religions, the most like and the most unlke Chris-
tianity, which while it in some points so startlingly resembles
the latter, is yet such a horrible travesty of it, should have
anticipated as it undoubtedly did, a more glorious revelation;
awaited, we might say, the doctrine of the Incarnation ? What
if some prophet should be raised up in these latter days to
convince the Japanese followers at least of Sakyamuni, the
Light of Asia, that he but anticipated the Light of the World,
that his religion was but the distorted shadow of a far more
glorious faith; and thus win for Christianity this wonderful
nation, waiting for the truth ?
But to return to Bushido. Other virtues inculcated by it
are patriotism, love and loyalty to the Emperor, and filial piety.
The author quarrels with Christianity because, he says, it sets
conjugal love above filial love ; though in his opinion Christ
never meant it to do so, even when he said, a man must leave
his father and mother and cleave to his wife.
Of course the truth is that filial piety is the only piety
1905.] JAPAN AND CATHOLICITY. 365
known to the yellow race. Christianity sets no lower value on
filial piety than do the Chinese and Japanese. No ; but it
rightly places real piety, devotion, and love to Almighty God,
before our duty to our neighbor, and teaches that, if these
clash, our duty to God must come first.
Professor Nitoke tells rather a witty little story apropos of
this virtue of filial piety. Once upon a time a Chinese sover-
eign made Japan a present of The Book of Twenty-four Acts
of Filial Piety, which gift seems to have irritated the recipi-
ents, who sent the Chinese Emperor in return a Book of Twenty-
four Acts of Filial Disobedience, with a letter saying that,
whereas in all China only twenty-four acts of filial piety would
be recorded, in all Japan only twenty-four acts of filial diso-
bedience could be discovered.
The virtue of self-control, and this to an heroic degree, is
evidently insisted upon by Bushido, and this not among men
only, but among women and children also, all of whom were
subjected to Spartan discipline, and it was considered unworthy
of a Samurai's wife or mother to sob or shriek.
Such is Bushido ; it is rather a moral system or a code of
honor than a religion, but nevertheless it is placed before
" Ancestor- Worship " which is described in this volume by
Professor Hozumi. He ascribes the origin of ancestor-worship
not to the dread of ghosts, as is commonly said, but to the
love of ancestors, which led to offering them food and drink and
worshipping their spirits. Ancestor-worship was the primeval
religion of Japan; it dates back 2,500 years, and is practised
universally by the nation at the present day. There are three
forms of ancestor-worship: i. The worship of imperial ances-
tors; 2. The worship of the patron god of the locality or of
clan-ancestors; 3. The worship of family ancestors.
In every Japanese house there are two sacred places; the
Shinto-altar or god-shelf, a wooden shelf on which are placed
offerings of rice, sake, and the sakaki tree, in honor of the
first imperial ancestor, to whom the Shinto altar is dedicated;
the second sacred place is a second god-shelf, dedicated to the
family ancestors of the house; on this shelf are placed tablets,
bearing the names of the ancestors, their ages, and dates of
their death, and offerings of rice, sake, fish, and sakaki tree.
Lamps are also placed on both these shelves; these are lighted
366 . JAPAN AND CATHOLICITY. [June,
in the evening, and every morning the family worships before
the Shinto altar by clapping their hands and bowing.
Eleven festival days, which are public holidays, are kept
during the year, all of them save two, New Year's Day and
the Emperor's birthday, relate to feasts of the imperial an-
cestors. On these days flags are hung from all the houses,
women put on their best dresses, and holiday-makers fill the
streets ; the children go to school to assemble before the por-
traits of the Emperor and Empress, while his Majesty's speech
on education is explained to them ; which does not seem a
form of holiday-making calculated to appeal to Western chil-
dren, whatever it may do to the Japanese.
Marriage is recognized by law as an institution, because it
is regarded as "a means of perpetuating the worship of ances-
tors." Marriage was instituted for the purpose of obtaining
a successor to keep up the worship of the family ancestors,
for it was considered the greatest misfortune for a man to die
without leaving a son to perpetuate this worship.
In another chapter Baron Suyematsu maintains that the
moral precepts and ethical rules are exactly the same in Japan
as in the West, though he thinks some points might be more
developed in Japan, and others in the Western world. He
also says that the Japanese are very tolerant in religious mat-
ters; perfect liberty is allowed by the Constitution in the
choice of a religion, and no difference is made in the law or
in society on account of religious opinions. One of the leaders
of the largest political party, recently dead, Mr. Kataoka, was
a Christian, and died while holding the office of President of
the House of Representatives. The Salvation Army is allowed
to parade the streets of the large towns; even Mormonism is
tolerated, though only under condition that its missionaries do
not preach polygamy. The Red Cross Society is working well
there and numbers one million members.
Christianity was first introduced by the Spanish and Por-
tuguese Jesuits in the sixteenth century, and many con-
verts were made. Many of the feudal chiefs were converted,
churches were built, and for sixty or seventy years Chris-
tianity was tolerated. With the advent of the Dutch, how-
ever, came Protestantism. The rivalry of the sects created
discord; mischief was made between the Japanese and the
1905.] JAPAN AND CATHOLICITY, 367
Jesuits, the Dutch persuading the Japanese that the Spanish
and Portuguese were using their influence for political pur-
poses, and in the end not only was Christianity exterminated,
and thousands of Jesuits and native Christians martyred, but
all foreigners were banished, except the Dutch who, under
special restrictions, were allowed to remain at Nagasaki. An
end was put to all intercourse with Western civilization. This
seclusion lasted for two hundred and fifty years. Almost all
of the good work done by the Jesuits, who had labored most
zealously in educating the people, was undone and their schools
broken up. In the beginning of the nineteenth century the
Japanese themselves were growing dissatisfied with this seclu-
sion, and many books of the Western world were legally or
illegally admitted, especially medical and geographical works.
Japan owes its new and better era to the iamous treaty
with the United States, concluded by Perry in 1854 a treaty
that opened Japan to the world of commerce and Western
civilization.
The restoration of the Emperor to his full power occurred
in 1868. Western methods of education were introduced, the
first Imperial University was founded, and schools of various
kinds were opened. All the old schools, founded on the worn-
out educational system, were swept away, and new schools,
modelled mostly on the English educational system, were in-
troduced.
The Japanese have one great difficulty to contend with in
education. Japanese literature has derived so much from Chi-
nese literature that it is necessary for students to learn Chinese
as well as Japanese characters, and also to study Chinese
classics. Another drawback to scholars is the difference be-
tween the written and spoken languages ; originally they were
nearly identical, but while the spoken has remained Japanese,
the written has become more Chinese than Japanese.
One foreign language, either English or French, is insisted
upon in all secondary schools, and is taught in the higher
primary schools ; German is also taught in the higher schools,
and in the universities certain subjects have to be taught in
French, other subjects in German, as Japanese text-books on
these subjects do not exist.
The moral lessons given in primary schools are purely
VOL. LXXXI. 24
368 JAPAN AND CATHOLICITY. [June,
secular, and are not founded on any religious doctrine. The
Japanese seem opposed to any and every attempt made to
introduce religion into their schools. Professor Namse, founder
of the first University for women in Japan, writes:
Education and religion ought never to be confused. I
strongly oppose religious people who try to teach a particu-
lar religion to the students of their schools, and who in
some cases seem using education as a sort of bait for con-
verting youths to their religion.
On the other hand education, he .thinks, has no right to
attack any religious system, but should show a spirit of tole-
ration to all religions, and allow the students perfect liberty in
the choice of a religion. We cannot of course approve these
most illogical views, but it is well to know what the Japanese
think and feel.
Besides primary and secondary schools, they have kinder-
garten, middle, normal, technical, and higher schools, both for
girls and boys, and besides these many private schools for
higher education.
There is an Imperial University at Tokio, and one also at
Kioto; these have colleges of law, medicine, engineering, lit-
erature, science, and agriculture. There is also a college for
girls in Tokio called the Women's University.
Women have always occupied a more important position
in Japan than in other Asiatic countries. In the past there
have been very celebrated women in all ranks of life ; em-
presses distinguished for their culture, bravery, and intelligence;
heroines who have fought in Japan's wars as soldiers; poets,
artists, novelists. In olden times, particularly during the ninth
century, almost all the light literature of Japan was produced
by Japanese women. The study of Chinese was then the fash-
ion, and many of the women were celebrated for their knowl-
edge of the Chinese language and classics.
Japanese women have always enjoyed a great deal of free-
dom, though not to the same extent as Western women, still
far exceeding that of any other Eastern nation. The history
of the country mentions many women who have played impor-
tant parts in its making. In modern times, Japanese women
appear to be very little behind any of their Westefn sisters in
1905.] JAPAN AND CATHOLICITY. 369
culture or progress; there are a few women doctors, and seme
women journalists; many novelists and authors; large numbers
of women are engaged in educational work, and as in the past,
so in the present, they play a large part in political life.
Among the lower middle and lower classes,, women are em-
ployed now as clerks in public and private offices and in fac-
tories of various kinds.
The number of men and women is nearly equal in Japan,
so all Japanese girls look upon marriage as their ultimate fate,
and when once they have entered the marriage state, devote
themselves to their households and home duties, abandoning
all careers except that of a wife and mother which, in their
opinion, is the highest destiny of woman. Women enjoy the
high position they hold in Japan from the teaching of rever-
ence to parents, which makes them sacred in the eyes of men
as actual or possible mothers.
On the whole, judging from the general tenor of the work
before us, and from the special utterances of some of the con-
tributors, Japan appears to be in the state of King Agrippa
of old; almost is it persuaded to adopt Christianity. Again
and again irritation with the various sects of Christians, who
endeavor to proselytize, peeps out ; and the criticism of modern
Christianity is as shrewd as it is humiliating.
If Christianity were undivided, if heresy and schism had
never invaded the Island Kingdom, there is little doubt Japan
would have become Christian long ago, and would do so now
if its evangelization were left to the Catholic Church.
A CATHOLIC AND
v.
BY THE REVEREND JAMES J. FOX, D.D.
MY DEAR SIR:
So your friend acknowledges that, if what I say is correct,
(is his name Thomas?) "much greater intellectual freedom is
permitted in the Catholic Church to-day than was allowed
heretofore." His endeavor to turn this fact to his advantage,
as a proof of Rome's defeat by science, is a fair polemical
manoeuvre; but it masks a retreat. His summary, very neatly
drawn up, presents the charges usually made against Catholi-
cism, concerning intellectual liberty, in so clear and compen-
dious a form, that it facilitates the task of replying to them.
From the references given, I see that, to support his position,
he relies on the History of the Warfare of Science with Theology,
where, he asserts, there is ample proof of the following state-
ments :
1. Rome, for ages, taught religious doctrines that are now
acknowledged by her representatives to be false. What, then,
becomes of her claim to infallibility ?
2. She has changed her teaching. How can she any longer
claim to be unchangeable ?
3. She has abandoned her ancient interpretation of Scrip-
ture because modern criticism, infidel, or rationalistic, she calls
it, has taught her the true nature of the Bible. Yet she pre-
tends that she alone may, and can, correctly interpret the
Word of God.
4. Knowing that the triumph of science would be her de-
struction, she has always hindered, as far as lay in her power,
the advance of knowledge.
Now let us sum up the purport of White's history, as far
as it- is directed against Catholic doctrine. The Church, or
churchmen, or theology for to Mr. White these three are one
taught a now exploded system, astronomical and geographical,
of the visible universe; they regarded as direct interferences
1905.] A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. 371
of the Deity, of .'.'.the. devil, many events, phenomena, occur-
rences, such as' the ^rainbow, storms, comets, epidemics, certain
diseases all of which are now accounted for by natural laws
and sequences. Addicted to a liberal interpretation of Scrip-
ture, they defended as strictly historical the narratives of Genesis
concerning the specific creation of all animals, the origin of
various tongues, Noah and his Ark, the Dead Sea marvels, the
whale of Jonah, etc., etc. When, in the course of time, men
like Roger Bacon, Vesalius, Galileo, entered on scientific en-
quiry into nature, they were looked upon as dangerous in-
novators, if not heretics, and punished. When any one dared
to publish views incompatible with ancient ideas, the book fell
under ecclesiastical censure, and was put on the Index. If we
stand by the celebrated and approved norm of Catholic faith
"that is of Catholic faith which is believed always, and every-
where, and by all" scores of false notions were part of the
obligatory creed. Several times popes gave their infallible
approval to error. Such is the charge ; the evidence offered
for it fills two large volumes, and extends from the days when
Lactantius assailed the germ of the heliocentric theory that was
latent in Greek philosophy, down to the condemnation of Bar-
tolo, and Lenormant, and Loisy.
It is needless to say that any critical examination of all
White's statements and references is not possible here. The
author makes many serious mistakes about facts; other facts he
misinterprets. But, for argument's sake, waiving the numerous
objections that might be sustained on these points, we shall
grant that, in many cases, scientific truths and beliefs for there
is much belief in science that are now accepted by every-
body, theologians included, were once opposed as incompatible
with religious truth ; and that, frequently, the persons and the
books advocating them incurred ecclesiastical censure. And
now let us see just how much, or how little, all this means as
an argument against the Catholic Church.
The apologist sometimes meets the attack by a flat denial.
He maintains that, as science is truth and revelation is truth, they
cannot be in contradiction he is not speaking to the point; for the
world has often resounded with the war between science and the
defenders of religion. Sometimes he cites such facts as that the
Church instructed and civilized the barbarians of Europe; opened
and supported the monastic schools; preserved the legacies of
372 A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. . [June,
Roman and Greek culture; founded the great universities; that
famous scholars and scientists have been, and others are, Catho-
lics; that popes have been munificent patrons of learning; that
Catholicism gave birth to modern art music, sculpture, archi-
tecture. All these things are very creditable to the Church ;
but the argument is not a crushing reply. The plea rather
resembles the forensic proceeding of bringing testimony to the
character of an accused person, instead of directly demolish-
ing the case against him. Or, as it is developed by some
writers, it might be likened to an attempt to prove that the
prisoner at the bar could not have committed an alleged as
sault, because, when the injured person was young the accused
had done him a kindness, and was very much attached to his
brothers and sisters. Others, again, chiefly historians, have
followed such tactics that the late pope believed it necessary
to remind us that the historian's first duty is to be truthful,
for, hath God any need of our lie, that we should speak de-
ceitfully for him ? The Church can be adequately defended
without any violence to veracity.
In justice to Mr. White, it may be noticed that he takes
occasion emphatically to observe that Protestants may not
reproach the Catholic Church with intolerance towards science,
for, since the days when Luther and Calvin condemned, as
bluntly as did any Roman theologian, the doctrine of Galileo,
down to a few years ago, when the hierarchy of the Anglican
Church persecuted Bishop Colenso for rejecting the Mosaic
authorship of Genesis, and even later, Protestant authorities
and theologians have been no less active in their opposition to
the new views of science than were Catholics. He writes :
" Nothing is more unjust than to cast especial blame for all
this resistance to science upon the Roman Church. The Prot-
estant Church, though rarely able to be so severe, has been
more blameworthy. The persecution of Galileo and his com-
peers by the older Church was mainly at the beginning of the
seventeenth century; the persecution of Robertson Smith, and
Winchell, and Woodrow, and Toy, and the young professors
at Bsyrout, by various Protestant authorities, was near the end
of the nineteenth. Those earlier persecutions by Catholicism
were strictly in accordance with principles held at that time
by all religionists, Catholic and Protestant, throughout the
world; these latter persecutions by Protestants were in defiance
1905.] A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. 373
of principles which all Protestants hold to day, or pretend to
hold."
Another feature in White's statement of the problem which
reflects on his perspicacity as creditably as the above one does
on his integrity is that, as he sees the struggle which he
chronicles, it is one, not between science and religion, but be-
tween science and theology. If it had suited his purpose he
might have pushed his distinction further. A thorough analy-
sis would have demonstrated that the conflict was between
science and that portion of theology founded on, and aggres-
sive chiefly in defense oi, a literal interpretation of the Bible.
Subtract from his pages the chapters dealing with notions
founded upon the literal view of biblical narratives, texts, and
expressions ; then of those two portly volumes you will have
scarcely anything left.
This view of inspiration, as you have seen, has been greatly
modified by our leaders in biblical criticism. Many of the old
beliefs were abandoned long ago ; such, for example, as that the
earth is flat, that -comets were specially created to serve as
heralds of divine wrath. The king's evil is no longer cured by
the touch of a royal finger; the rainbow is not a supernatural
sign of God's fidelity to his promise, but an occurrence as
natural as the iridescence of a stagnant pool. It is long since
Catholics began to consider epidemics and nervous diseases,
like epilepsy, as legitimate matter for scientific medicine and
surgery. But let us come to the rescue of those who imagine
that the Church's infallibility has been compromised in the
abandonment of these ancient beliefs, and that, under the pres-
sure applied by science, she has reconstructed her doctrine. To
admit this would indeed be to admit that the claim of infalli-
bility and indefectibility made for the Church is false.
As we have seen, there are various bodies who participate
in the teaching office of the Church ; the gift of inerrancy is
shared only by the Church herself, speaking in a general
council with the pope, and by the pope himself, speaking as
the universal head for the entire Church, to declare some truth
of faith or morals that was contained in the divine deposit of
revelation given to the Apostles, or some fact essential to its
preservation. In no case cited by White did either general
council or pope in the exercise of his supreme prerogative,
declare to be true any of the theological tenets that have
374 A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. [June,
failed to hold their ground ; nor did either assert any scien
tific conclusion to be false. Many times White assumes that
popes did pronounce " infallibly," and in doing so fell into
error. For example, he says that " Nicholas III. and IV., by
virtue of their infallibility, decided that he (Roger Bacon) was
too dangerous to be at large." Poor Roger's character did
not form the subject of any communication of Christ or the
Holy Spirit to the Apostles. Elsewhere he tells his readers
that Alexander VII. by his Bull prefixed to the Index, deci-
sively and " infallibly " condemned " all books teaching the
movement of the earth and the stability of the sun." Con-
demn the doctrine he certainly did ; condemn it in the exer-
cise of his infallibility ? Not at all ; for the conditions essen-
tial to the exercise of infallibility were wanting. Every other
instance proffered as an example of the infallible Church hav-
ing gone wrong is a fallacy of this kind. It is the usual as-
sumption of non-Catholic polemists that every time the pope
opens his mouth, to address all or any of the faithful, Catho-
lics must accept the utterance as infallible.
But, even though the Church has not erred in any dog-
matic pronouncement of authority, is she not compromised
otherwise? Any doctrine believed, "always, everywhere, and
by all," is, on the admission of theologians, a part of obliga-
tory faith. Now White contends, in many places, that many
beliefs which are no longer, were once universally held by
Catholics. It may be observed, by the way, that the char-
acter of a vast amount of White's evidences, drawn from all
kinds of writings of private individuals, would indicate that he
assumed the canon of St. Vincent of Lerins to read, not "al-
ways, everywhere, by all," but "anytime, anywhere, by any-
body." But, let us select an example that is strongest in his
favor. " For over a thousand years it was held in the Church,
' always, everywhere, and by all,' that there could not be
human beings on the opposite side of the earth, even if the
earth had opposite sides; and when attacked by gainsayers,
the great mass of true believers, from the fourth century to
the fifteenth, simply used that opiate which had so soothing
an effect on John Henry Newman in the nineteenth century
Securus judicat orbis terrarum"
It is quite true that this belief prevailed in the Church, as
stated above. The ancient Fathers maintained it. When in
1905.] A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. 375
the eighth century the Irish monk, Virgil of Salzburg, attacked
it, he was delated to Rome by no less a personage than the
great St. Boniface ; and he narrowly escaped condemnation. It
prevailed for centuries after Virgil's time. It was universally be-
lieved, indeed. But before we can conclude from this universality
anything against the inerrancy of the Church, we must examine
on what footing this tenet stood and then the case falls to
the ground. It was not held as a part of Catholic faith, but as
a theological opinion. Probably many theologians of the time
would have insisted it was a part oi faith but that assertion,
also, would have been but a theological opinion ; and mere
theological opinions are no part of the divine deposit, no part
of Catholic faith. Theologians, to be sure, when they unani-
mously testify something to be an article of obligatory faith,
are witnesses of the living Church, and then that belief is of
faith, not because theologians teach it; but they teach it be-
cause it is of faith. The question of the existence of antipodes,
however, was not of this kind; it was one of reasoning, in-
ference, speculation. In this region of theology there is room
for change, simplification, elimination, progress. " Erroneous
opinions held by some," says a received authority,* "may be
corrected ; demonstration and defense may be remodelled and
improved; and, speaking generally, progress is made chiefly in
the correction of partially held erroneous opinions." Moreover,
says Father Lagrange : f "It must be acknowledged that an
opinion held by all the theologians of a particular time, provided
that it remained on the footing of opinion, and was not by
them expressly given as a dogma of faith, may in the course of
time prove false."
The entire argument against the Church, in matters of this
kind, is constructed upon a confusion between obligatory faith
and inferences of theologians. At the risk of repeating myself,
let me make this point clear. What is Catholic doctrine ? In
the eyes of many outsiders, it is everything and anything
believed by Catholics, or found in books written by professed
exponents of Catholicism. Those who would claim to be better
informed would say it is everything found in the teachings of
acknowledged theologians; and though they come somewhat
nearer the mark, they are far from being correct. Dogmatic
Manual of 'Catholic Theology. Wilhelm and Scannell. New York. 1899. Vol. I., p.
151. t La Mtthode Historique, p. 125.
376 A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. [June,
theology is made up of two elements, one divine, furnished by
Revelation, one human, furnished by reason. Theology deals
exclusively with the divine, when it sets forth the things to be
believed as integral parts of faith. Here there is no room for
addition or subtraction ; the truth of the Lord remaineth for-
ever. But this portion forms only a small section, quantitively,
of theological' writings. The remainder consists of the results
of human reason working upon revealed data and authoritative
pronouncements of the Church, plus natural knowledge of all
kinds, inferential and experimental. Now in the human elements
error may creep in man is not infallible and thus conclusions
drawn from the truths of revelation, by means of erroneous
rational premises, may also be erroneous. Many such con-
clusions, after having obtained in the past, have at length
betrayed their real character. But, because they seemed to be
connected with revelation, they were vigorously defended ; and
those who attacked them were warned off as trespassers upon
the border-land of revelation.
The action of authority in this respect was justified by the
fact that the full content of revelation was not completely un-
folded in the beginning, but continued to develop as time went
on ; hence, when a doctrine even seemed to be an implicit con-
tent of revelation, prudence required that it should be protected
till its real character should become manifest. Let us listen to
good old Father Hogan : * " Around the solid mass of revealed
truth fully ascertained, there has been, from the beginning,
and in increasing measure, a floating mass of doctrinal elements,
some of which, in the course of time, have clung to the centre,
others have disappeared, while many more of doubtful character
still remain, equally liable to vanish, or to be incorporated, or
to continue unsettled to the end."
Theologians, in the golden age of scholasticism working on
the Bible, the writings of the Fathers, and the philosophy of
Aristotle, extracted, by means of deductive reasoning, an im-
mense quantity of conclusions, good, bad and indifferent, which
in an uncritical age, were not rigorously tested and classified.
Many of them were based on false premises that were supposed
to be true, in the prevailing condition of knowledge. " To
those unacquainted with their methods," says Father Hogan, f
"one of the most surprising things in the theologians of that
* Clerical- Studies, p. 167. \ Ib., p. 171.
1905.] A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. 377
age is the extraordinary amount of knowledge which they claimed
to have upon all sorts of subjects appertaining to, or touching
upon, religion. They knew, for instance, everything about the
angelic world. Theologians told the story of the creation it-
self, in all its principal stages and in all its particulars, wjth a
detail such as nobody would venture upon at the present day.
They described the state of innocence, as if they themselves
had lived through it, explaining what Adam knew, and what
he was ignorant of, how long he lived in paradise, and what
sort of existence he would have led if he had never fallen,
etc." And, he continues, as they knew the beginning, so they
knew the end, of the human race. They told in minutest de-
tail the events of the Judgment Day, the ultimate fate of the
earth, the nature and location of hell, the occupations of the
saints and angels in heaven ; in short, they solved all possible
questions relating to God, man, angels, devils, earth, hell, and
heaven, " with an assurance beside which that of modern sci-
entists is modesty itself."
Perhaps it is worth while, in pursuance of our theme, to give
an example of this theological speculation, from an eminent
master who flourished as late as the seventeenth century, and
whose authority on some subjects is still great. Treating of
future punishment,* Lessius divides the question into three:
Where is hell? What is its area, or cubic content? What is
the nature of the tortures which Infinite Goodness inflicts ?
The answer to the first is that hell is certainly in the bowels
of the earth. Such, the author states, just as White would,
has been the common conviction of saints and doctors, the
general belief of all the faithful, and of those ancient poets and
philosophers who gave attention to the matter. Then the theolo-
gian proceeds to prove his thesis from texts of Holy Scripture.
The first is from the Old Testament, declaring that the earth
opened and swallowed Core, Dathan, and Abiron, who went
down alive into hell. Several other texts of equal cogency
follow from the Old and the New Testament. Next come cita-
tions from the Fathers ; closing with a proof from reason, which
reflects the astronomical knowledge of the period : As the dwell-
ings of the blessed will be in the highest and noblest place
* Leonardi Lessii, S.J. Theologl De Perfectionibus Moribusque Divinis Opusculum. .Novain
Editionem curavit P. Roh, S.J. Herder: Friburgii Brisgoviae. MDCCCLXI.
A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. [June,
nearest to God, so the resting place of the damned ought to
be in the lowest and vilest. Then the author observes that we
must understand him to assert, not that hell is in that point
which is under the centre of the earth, but that the centre of
the earth coincides with the centre of hell.
Having located hell, the next step is to determine its area
in square miles, or its cubic capacity. Lessius rejects the opinion
of Ribera and others, who hold hell to be a vast plain, with a
large lake of fire and brimstone in the middle, in which heresi-
archs and other notable offenders are fixed, while the lesser
sinners are arranged on the adjacent land, the whole width
being one hundred miles, and the circumference three hundred.
This estimate Lessius considers excessive, since it would make
hell as large as Italy. His own view is that hell is not a plane,
but a vast cavity, with the brimstone pool in the centre. Cal-
culating for the room required for the pool, the devils, and the
burning bodies, the diameter may be put down as two leagues,
or eight Italian miles. Allowing six feet for each body, which
is abundance, and remembering that, as part of their punish-
ment they will be closely packed, the given space is more than
sufficient, for it could contain three hundred thousand millions,
while it is certain that the number of the damned will not ex-
ceed one hundred thousand millions. And then Lessius pro-
ceeds to describe the tortures. Here, then, around the dogma
of future punishment the theologian has wrapped a vast tissue
of speculation. But, observe, he does not pretend that his
conclusions are dogmatic ; though, I suspect, the person who
would have expressed doubts about the location and the lake
of sulphurous flame, would, probably, have fared very badly in
1620. The dogma remains unchanged; but no theologian, as
far as I know, now takes the above proofs and calculations
very seriously.
To return to White's crucial instance. It is similar in char-
acter to the one we have just considered. A dogma of truth
is that Christ died for all men. In the ages when the earth
was believed to be flat and stationary, to assert that there
were men on the other side of the earth was considered
equivalent to teaching that there were men who neither de-
scended from our first parents nor were redeemed by Christ.
Hence, argued Boniface against Virgil, the opinion was hereti-
1905.] A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. 379
cal. The theologian's first premiss was revelation, and, so, true
and unchangeable. His other, a piece of the science, or nes-
cience of the age, was false; his reasoning was false; and his
conclusion was false. Ages passed before the erroneous scientific
notion was dissipated. Meanwhile the theologian, never doubt-
ing its accuracy, continued to enforce the view that the man
who believed in the antipodes denied the dogma on which the
theological conclusion partly rested. But the other support
reason had supplied, and eventually pulled away ; then the old
doctrine tumbled, while the column of Catholic truth remained
standing.
Let us consider another of White's instances the ancient
views concerning the age of the earth and the antiquity of
man. In the early times, and down to a comparatively recent
period, all Christians agreed that man and the entire universe
had come into existence a few thousand years before the birth
of Christ. The arguments for this notion were based on the
belief that the Bible is the Word of God, and, consequently,
every statement in it is true. In it scholars considered there
were sufficient data, the ages of the patriarchs, etc., to indicate
that Adam was created about 4,004 or 5,000 years before
Christ, and that the universe had been called into existence
only a short time before its lord and master appeared. When
geology and egyptology began to speak they were lashed as
impudent and impious charlatans who called God a liar. But
after a long and bitter fight for the doomed opinions, the
theologians surrendered, not very gracefully it must be con-
fessed. Then succeeded a series of attempts to " confiscate
science to the use of theology." Those systems of concordance,
spoken of somewhat severely by Fathers Lagrange and Prat,
came into vogue, and were blessed from high places, for hav-
ing brought home the spoils of the Egyptians to adorn the
temple. But the reconciliations did not reconcile. And now
the old confidence in Hebrew science has waned ; yet those
who no longer entertain it, show that its decay nowise involves
the dogma of inspiration.
When, then, we are confronted with the question, has the
Catholic Church varied in her doctrine, whether by addi-
tion, or diminution, or alteration? the reply is: If by the
Church you mean the magisterium instituted by Christ in the
380 A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. [June,
Society which he founded, to which he entrusted his teaching
with the promise that the Spirit of Truth shall watch over it
No; the doctrine has undergone no change, though elements
of it that were not fully unfolded originally have, in the
course of time, received more explicit formulation. If, on the
contrary, by the Church you mean, not alone this ntagisterium,
but also everybody within the Society, officials and non-
officials, high and low, theologians, doctors, corporations,
schools; and if, in the term doctrine, you include all opinions,
pious beliefs, legends, speculations, conjectures, excresences
developed on the trunk of Catholicism by the action of local
atmosphere or national character Yes; in all this realm there
have been changes innumerable, and, if we may judge of the
future from the past and the present, changes there shall be,
world without end.
The process of removing parasites and deadwood is being
carried on to-day, we are told, with unexampled assiduity, by
the knife of modern criticism. Indeed many persons passion-
ately devoted to all that is antique, or associated ' with the
cherished memory of their ancestors, occasionally protest against
the removal of anything. They fear, for example, that if we
throw aside the venerable tradition of uncertain age, which
tells how the Twelve Apostles composed the Creed, then the
Creed itself will be in danger. But those on the other side
answer with Father Hogan : * " As regards the ascertained doc-
trines of the Catholic faith, modern criticism cannot weaken them.
They rest ultimately on the authority of the Church, and no
progress of thought, no discovery, can shake them on that
immovable basis. Far from shunning inquiry in their regard,
the true believer invites it. A critical discussion of proofs may
indeed, and often will, do away with spurious authorities and
weaken reasons by which honest ignorance or mistaken zeal
have endeavored to strengthen positions sufficiently safe by
themselves; but sacred truth gains more than it loses by their
elimination. . . . Not only does modern criticism place sacred
doctrine on its true basis, but, in place of the decayed sup-
ports which it removes, it substitutes props of enduring strength."
It is, however, I think, carrying inference too far, not without
infringing on charity, to assert, as some do, that the disincli-
* Op '/., p. 169.
1905.] A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. 381
nation to remove the worthless props betrays a lurking scep-
ticism as to the ability of the sound columns to sustain, unaided,
the edifice.
Although our answer to the first two charges made against
the Church, false teaching and variation in doctrine, also antici-
pates the third, a few direct observations with regard to this
one may not be out of place. Does it not seem to be incom-
patible with the claim of the Church to divine guidance, that
erroneous beliefs, even though they were not taught as obliga-
tory faith, should have widely prevailed ? And this incongru-
ity is emphasized when we observe that these beliefs were, in
a great measure, erected on a view of Scripture whose elimina-
tion has been accomplished not through the initiative of our
teachers, but chiefly owing to the pressure of foreign and hos-
tile activity.
We must remember, however, that the manner in which
Providence guides the Church is not to be adjusted to our, or
our opponents', ideas of what ought to be. The Church claims
that the divine guidance will protect her from ever losing or
perverting the truth committed to her care. She does not
hold that the Holy Ghost is ever active to hinder the growth
of harmless superfluities, or to correct the inaccuracy of the
natural knowledge existing at particular times, that is the
medium through which she must speak to her children, if she
is to speak to them at all. It was not her business to ex-
plode ancient astronomy and geography, before teaching the
Resurrection and a judgment to come. The missionary to a
tribe of South Sea Islanders need not put his neophytes
through a course of modern physics and geography, as an in-
dispensable preliminary to instruction in the Creed. Those
souls can grasp with saving faith the truths of the Gospel, as
effectually as a Newton or an Aquinas. When they understand
that, at death, the just shall go to God, the wicked to suffer-
ing, the missionary, if he is sane, will not trouble them, even
though they set this truth in an imaginative frame that does
not square with the heliocentric theory. He will not think it
necessary to warn them against the unphilosophic nature of
anthropomorphism, nor give them a lecture on the difference
between univocal and analagous predication, if they persist in
seeing the hand of the Almighty guiding the tornado, and
382 THE FLOWER. [June.
hearing his angry voice in the thunderclap. In his own little
sphere, the missionary follows the method pursued by the
Church in the world at large, she follows Christ, who, as
Father Tyrrell puts it, " in using such ideas as he found cur-
rent, as a medium of expression for quite other truths, did not
commit himself to matters in which he has left us to the guid-
ance of our senses, our reason, and the accumulating wisdom
of the race." Believe me,
Fraternally yours,
THE FLOWER.
BY P. J. COLEMAN.
This flower that I pick from its place in the dew,
Have you thought how it bourgeoned and blossomed and grew ?
How it slept in the sap, how it lay in the sod,
Full-fashioned e'en then in the purpose of God,
Abiding in patience its ultimate hour,
Then burst from the bud to this exquisite flower?
Hold it up to the sun ! Lo, the veinage so fine !
Lo, the marvel and miracle of design !
Can your jeweller carve, can your alchemist plan
So perfect a thing by the knowledge of man
So frail and so fragrant, so finished and fine,
Complete from the mind of its Maker divine ?
What wisdom evoked it ? What wonderful cause
Attained it such beauty obeying no laws ?
"Evolution," say some, "through aeons of time
It rounded to this from the primitive slime."
"Blind chance," says the fool in his stubborn heart.
" God's handiwork here," sayeth reverent Art.
Current Events,
Very little progress has been made
Russia and Reform. in the carrying out of the reforms
promised by the Tsar in the mem-
orable Rescript of the 3d of March. We should not, how-
ever, feel much disappointment on this account, if reliance
could be placed upon the pledged word of the Supreme Ruler.
But this is what it seems impossible to do. It is one of the
mysteries in the midst of which we live, that the destinies,
spiritual and temporal, of 140,000,000 of human beings should
be confided to the care of a single one of their number, and
when this particular individual seems to be in the highest de-
gree self-infatuated, the burden of the mystery is simply over-
whelming. Nor is it the well-being of the Russians alone that
is entrusted to this young man, for such is the solidarity of
the human race, that there is not on the surface of the earth
a single human being who can be' said to be altogether unaffected
by the decisions which he may take. His character, there-
fore, must be of something more than interest to all. Espe-
cially to Catholics is the present state of things both interesting
and instructive, for the Tsar is practically Pope as well as
Emperor, and we, therefore, in the events which are taking place,
have before our eyes the practical outcome of the identification
of Church and State in a country professing Christianity. In
pagan countries and in Mohammedan it is an old story, and
the results are well known. In some Protestant countries such
an identification has been a profession and an aim, but has
never long been realized, and is now altogether abrogated. In
Russia it approaches the nearest to a reality.
And what are the results? No one can deny that there is
a manifest respect paid to the external rites of religion by
high and low, by ruler and by subject, a respect which wins
for Russia the good will of many Catholics. But we are afraid
it is a case of saying, " Lord ! Lord ! " and not doing the
things which the Lord commands. People are not wont to
look upon evil as a consequence of good, and when we con-
template the grave misfortunes which have befallen Russia, both
within and without, and the moral evils which have been the
cause of those misfortunes, we cannot but believe that they
VOL. LXXXI. 25
384 CURRENT EVENTS. [June,
spring from the rejection of the Catholic Faith. At all events,
it is clear that it is not in every case true that prosperity has
followed upon such a rejection.
The position of the Tsar, according to the best information
to be had, is one of almost complete isolation. M. Plehve and
the Grand Duke Sergius have been assassinated, and have
found no successors. The fear inspired by these events, and
the approbation accorded to them more or less openly by the
Russian people, have made even the much criticized Grand
Dukes draw near to the Liberal camp. The Grand Duke
Vladimir has disclaimed absolutism, and has declared the wor-
ship of that idol a worse foe of the monarchy than anarchy
itself. The Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovitch, the patron
of Admiral Alexeieff, and a leading cause of the war, has
now become ,a Liberal and an urgent advocate of the re-
forms which have been promised. The Grand Duke Constan-
tine has made a public act of faith in Liberalism. The Dowa-
ger Empress has departed from the camp of the absolutists.
She has come to realize that the beliefs on which absolutism
rests are departing, and is using all her influence over her son
to make him listen to the voice of reason. The widowed
Grand Duchess Sergius is acting in the same way. All think-
ing people are combining against autocracy. All the profes-
sions are making their voices heard, demanding in one form
or another that the people shall be consulted engineers,
academicians, barristers, men of letters. The barristers have
threatened to strike in the event, of no step being taken. The
members of the outer Bar of St. Petersburg passed a resolu-
tion, in which they declared that the labor and agrarian
troubles have been provoked by a policy of injustice culminat-
ing in misery and ignorance, and that these troubles call not
for coercion but for a thorough overhauling of economic
relations. The present government is, they declare, unmind-
ful of the well-being of the people, and anxious only to up-
hold its own power, and is thereby swiftly conducting the
nation to hopeless anarchy and appalling disaster.
But the Tsar remains unmoved, clinging to his absolute
power, and claiming for it the divine sanction. The Rescript
is to be interpreted, and is to be put into practical effect,
only in so far as it does not conflict with his absolute suprem-
acy. His sole support, except the vile flatterers which every
1905.] CURRENT EVENTS. 385
one in the possession of any kind of power inevitably collects
around him, is his wife, the present Tsaritsa. She has taken
the place of ministers, of the spirits of Philippe, and of all
other guides: "Art not thou Autocrat of Russia? If thou
art, there can be nothing impossible for thee in thy own realm.
Thy will shall be done. People say thou art a child, show
thyself a man." Such is, or at least such is thought to be,
the ruling influence by which the Tsar is for the present guid-
ing himself; and it cannot be wondered at that now the Tsar's
will has become so much a byword that even the cab- drivers
speak compassionately of it. This is why the delay which has
taken place may possibly indicate not that the reforms are to
be well-considered, but that they are not to be made at all,
if the Tsar is left to have his own way.
The vacillation of the Head of the Empire has manifested
itself in his public acts. What is done on one day is undone
on the next. Last month it was reported on the best author-
ity that feeedom was to be given to the Orthodox Church,
that a Council of Bishops was to be called, and a Patriarch
elected. This was the plan favored by M. Witte. The Tsar,
however, has refused to give his consent, the times being too
troublous for such a change. The Church, therefore, is to
remain the department of the State, which has been her lot
for so many years, and to remain in chains. For those ranked
as schismatics and unbelievers a decree has been published
which grants liberty of worship and removes many harassing
restrictions. Among those who are to benefit by this decree
Catholics are reckoned along with Mohammedans, Lamaites,
and Buddhists. The compulsory closing of Catholic monas-
teries and convents in Poland ceases when the new decree
comes into force. The extent to which the Russian govern-
ment has ventured to interfere with individual rights, as re-
vealed by the concessions made in this decree, is amazing.
Perhaps the most promising sign of the times is the forma-
tion in Russia of the essential elements of parliamentary gov-
ernment political parties. No fewer than three have already
been organized. The most numerous is the Radical or Con-
stitutional party. This party comprises the majority of the
Zemstvo members, professors and students. It aims at univer-
sal suffrage and a secret ballot. The second party styled the
Liberal or Opportunist, and comprising the minority of the
386 CURRENT EVENTS. [June,
Zemstvo members and a number of merchants and business
men is less extreme and will be content with a limited fran-
chise. The least numerous party is that styled the Conserva-
tive or Pan-Slavist; it is made up of the aristocracy and high
officials. This party favors a representative 'assembly, but is
unwilling that it should have any power, wishing it to be a
merely advisory body. What will come of it all remains to
be seen.
The question, however, which has
Germany and the Morocco excited the greatest interest since
Question. we wrote last is that raised by
the German Emperor with refer-
ence to Morocco. It is important in itself; it is still more
important on account of what lies behind. Is Morocco to re-
main as it is, a scene of anarchy, an abode of cruelty, oppres-
sion, and injustice ? If the European conscience (such as it
is), or what is more potent, the European interests, cannot
tolerate the existent evils, what means are to be taken to
bring them to an end ? The agreement between France and
England made last year eliminated England from the field and
freed France from all interference on her part. The next most
interested country is Spain. With her France has made ar-
rangements which are said to be mutually satisfactory. Ger-
many, however, claims that she was forgotten, that she was
not even informed of the making of the agreement, and that
consequently is within her right in refusing to take any cog-
nizance of it. She is, accordingly, ostentatiously entering into
direct negotiations with Morocco, with the result that the
Sultan is hardening his heart in resistance to the amelioration
of the state of things in his dominions. But Germany is not
satisfied with this; she wants more than the open door. Os-
tensibly acting as the friend of Morocco, she is in reality an
enemy. Among the many Pans with which the world is
afflicted, there are the Pan Germans. Their main object is to
make a German Empire which is to strip Austria of her Ger-
man provinces, and to extend German territories to the Med-
iterranean Ssa. Nor are they satisfied with this extension.
The pressure of population in Germany is so great that new
territory to receive the surplus population is urgently needed.
This want has been the mainspring of German policy for
many years past. It is the origin of her colonizing schemes.
1905.] CURRENT EVENTS. 387
It has, however, met with but a partial success. Thwarted by
Great Britain and by the United States, she is still on the
lookout, and her eyes have been cast upon Morocco. The dis-
memberment of Morocco has been openly advocated for some
years by the Pan-Germans. The active entrance of France
upon the scene, if successful, will frustrate any such partition,
and Germany will have to look in other directions for a place
to which to send her colonists. This is the real reason for
the interposition of the German Emperor, and for his desire
to have the whole matter referred to a European Conference
in which the Anglo-French agreement would be ignored, and
in all probability a partition of Morocco made. But so far
his efforts have met with no success, England having loyally
acted in the spirit of the agreement, and Italy having turned
a deaf ear to the German proposals.
But behind those immediate aims there lies a question of
still deeper moment. In Prince Bismarck's time Germany
dominated Europe, and to a certain extent the world; but
since his deposition Germany has been losing by little and
little the luxury of predominance, until at the present time she
finds herself almost in isolation. The Triple Alliance exists, it
is true, but the bonds are very loose, and its power sadly
diminished. Austria is crippled by the conflict with Hungary;
Italy's heart has gone out to France and could not be
brought to act against her; no public reference was made to
the Triple Alliance by King Victor Emmanuel when he and
the German Emperor met at Naples the other day; Russia is
the ally of France, but is hardly taken into account at present.
The Anglo-French Agreement has brought into line England
and France, so that the one cannot be played off against the
other any longer. All this has very much chagrined the German
Emperor. He has at least the usual love of being consulted
which is characteristic of those in authority, and feels deeply
mortified at being ignored. By his action in Morocco, beyond
the immediate, he had an ulterior object; he hoped to disen-
gage France from her understanding with England, and in this
way to adjust the balance of power in a way more in ac-
cordance with his ambition. When, at Bismarck's instance,
Beust was dismissed from his office as Chancellor of the
Austrian Empire he said: "There is no longer a Europe."
Germany was all in all. By a series of mutual arrangements,
388 CURRENT EVENTS. [June,
of which the Anglo-French Agreement is the latest, Russia, Italy,
Spain, France, and England have reconciled their interests for
the maintenance of a peace not subordinated to the will of
Germany, and a new Europe has been formed independent of
Germany. To this the German Emperor objects. His first
attack upon it has proved futile. His efforts to separate
France and England have failed. In fact they have resulted
in making that union closer and more effective.
In the Austrian Empire nothing
Austria. has happened to call for attention.
But the non-occurrence of any
event is sometimes more important than many occurrences. For
some months the deadlock in the Hungarian Parliament is un-
broken. The ministry of M. Tisza remains in office, although
at the General Election its policy was condemned and a large
majority was returned in opposition to the government. This
majority, although divided into several groups, has agreed upon
a common policy; the government is willing and anxious to
resign; the Emperor- King, however, cannot bring himself to
accept the demand of the majority that the Hungarian language
should be used in the Army. And so the question remains
unsolved ; although every effort has been made, every states-
man whom the country possesses having been consulted. One
step, however, has been taken, although it may be considered
a step backward. The Lex Daniel, passed in the last session
to overcome systematic obstruction, has been repealed. There
appears to be something like devotion to principle on the part
of the majority in annulling this law, for it enables the oppo-
nents to take advantage of the weapon placed in their hands.
Time will show whether their virtue is strong enough to enable
them to resist the temptation. The crisis is undoubtedly serious.
M. Kossuth describes the present state as a return to absolut-
ism on the part of the ever-denying Royal Power. Other mem-
bers talk of suspending the payment of the annual sum pledged
by Hungary for the service and sinking-fund of the common
Austro-Hungarian debt. Rumors have been in circulation that
the King would resign, overborne by the difficulties of the situ-
ation. The House adjourned, however, without doing anything
more serious than voting an address to the King, in which the
wishes of the Parliament were laid before his Majesty. These
1905.] CURRENT EVENTS. 389
wishes were for the appointment of are sponsible government
able and entitled to claim the support of the majority of the Cham-
ber ; impartial exercise of executive power; improvement of the
legal position of public officials and better protection of public
liberties; Parliamentary and electoral reform, including an ex-
tension of the franchise and redistribution of seats; fiscal and
social reform; the effective establishment of economic inde-
pendence for Hungary, with an independent Customs territory
and an independent system of credit, after due preparation and
under proper preliminary conditions ; clear expression of the
national character of the Hungarian army in its language and
emblems. The address concludes by promising the King notable
advantages from prompt satisfaction of Hungarian desires, and
by hinting plainly that refusal or delay to satisfy them, will
shake the belief of the nation in the reality of Hungarian con-
stitutional life. The whole document is in fact a warning to
the Crown not to oppose the will of the nation, lest perils of
all kinds ensue. After censuring by a large majority the Tisza
Cabinet the Chamber adjourned, leaving the anomalous situation
unchanged.
"A British detachment lowered
Crete and Greece. the Greek flag which had been
hoisted on Government House at
Candia to-day, and rehoisted the Cretan flag with due honors.'*
Such is the conclusion of a movement in a direction directly
opposed to that within the Austro- Hungarian realms. Crete,
after having been conquered by the Turks in 1669, became a
part of the Turkish Empire, but by no means a submissive
part, there having been almost a continuous series of insur-
rections. Matters came to a climax in 1897, when a Greek
force landed for the purpose of annexing the island to Greece.
The Powers, however, intervened ; the Greek forces were forced
to withdraw. But the Turks also were compelled to evacuate the
island, leaving it under the nominal suzerainty of the Sultan,
with Prince George, the second son of the King of Greece,
as High Commissioner. The movement for union with Greece
was not, however, abandoned, and as Prince George has proved
to be a somewhat autocratic ruler, having gone even so far as
to imprison a professor, a rising in favor of union with Greece
has just taken place, the assembly has declared it accomplished,
and the Greek flag was hoisted as a symbol of the attainment
390 CURRENT EVENTS. [June,
of the desired end. The obdurate Powers, however, refused to
concur, even Greece would not consent, and the union cannot
yet for some time be brought about. Doubtless, however, it
will not be long before it is achieved.
A conflict similar to that between
Sweden and Norway. Austria and Hungary has come to
a head between Sweden and Nor-
way. The movement is in a similar direction towards a relaxa-
tion of the bonds between the two. These bonds are very
slight and of recent formation, for, until 1814, Norway and
Denmark formed one kingdom. The only bond of union now
existent is that the two countries, Sweden and Norway, have
the same King and a common Foreign Minister and Consuls.
Norway is by far the smaller country, not having half the
population of Sweden. Her people are democratic in their
ideas, having abolished the nobility in 1821, while the Swedes
are strongly aristocratic in their sentiments and institutions.
Norway looks upon herself as a sovereign state, she feels her-
self affronted because she is represented abroad by Swedish
Consuls ; she claims the right, too, to appoint her own consuls,
and this without the permission of Sweden. The latter country
wishes to discuss the matter further; the Prince Regent has
made what appears to be the fairest of proposals for such a
discussion. Norway, however, holding herself to have been
deceived heretofore, will discuss no more, and is proceeding to
make her own appointments, without even asking the consent
of Sweden. There is reason to apprehend that this action of
Norway springs from a desire to dissolve every kind of union
with Sweden. This might lead to European complications,
for within a short distance are harbors which Russia very
much wants, and should a quarrel take place between the two
Scandinavian nations, it is to be feared that she would then
find her opportunity. To this objections might be raised by
benevolent neighbors, with what result cannot yet be foreseen.
In France the question as to Mo-
France, rocco is the one to which the
most attention has been given,
although one far more important, and involving changes af-
fecting far more deeply the well-being of the country, is be-
1905.] CURRENT EVENTS. 391
ing discussed in the Chamber the separation of Church and
State. We have already spoken of Germany's proceedings,
which have, of course, been a cause of anxiety to France.
For the negotiations M. Delcasse, the foreign Minister for the
past seven years, was chiefly responsible, and for his conduct
of these negotiations he was criticised in the French Assembly.
He was blamed by Socialist members for not having immedi-
ately negotiated with Germany on the conclusion of the Anglo-
French Agreement, for the dark procedure of his diplomacy,
for having displayed too much reticence in his communications
to Parliament. Although the Premier announced his entire
agreement with M. Delcasse and that of the entire Cabinet,
M. Delcasse felt it his duty to resign. He considered that his
authority had been so shaken by the criticism passed upon him
in the debate, that he could not deal with foreign nations,
especially with Germany, successfully. Now M. Delcasse is
the one man who seems to be necessary for the well-being of
France. He has held his place in every Cabinet for the last
seven years, and has undoubtedly done much for France. Ac-
cordingly his resignation was looked upon as a calamity, not
only by France, but even in some degree by Europe. The
President and his colleagues implored him to withdraw it.
This he has done, and so no change in the attitude of France to
Germany and to England is to be expected. As he has proved
himself to be a peace-loving statesman, the world may con-
gratulate itself upon this result, for critical times will come
when the negotiations take place on the conclusion of the war
between Russia and Japan.
The debates on the Bill for the separation of the Church
from the State have formed the chief occupation of the as-
sembly. Efforts have been made on the one hand to make its
provisions more stringent, on the other to mitigate their strin-
gency. In one case the latter have been successful. In the
form in which the Bill was originally introduced all Church
property was eventually confiscated. Moderate Republicans,
and some even of the Socialists, were not satisfied with such
barefaced robbery. A new clause has been introduced, which
stipulates that within one year from the promulgation of the
law all Church property, both real and personal, shall be trans-
ferred, with the same obligations to which it is now subject, to
the new associations, which are to take the place of the present
392 CURRENT EVENTS. [June.
organizations. It seems absolutely certain that the Bill will be-
come law, and that after the first of next January the union
between Church and State, which has existed for so many
centuries, will come to a final end.
The attention of the people of
Italy. Italy has been chiefly devoted to
the Railways, their management
and their workmen. A Railway Bill led to the resignation of
Signer Giolitti, the disciplinary clauses having met with the
violent disapprobation of the employees and leading to a strike.
A new Bill has been introduced by Signor Fortis, in which
these clauses do not appear. Provisions to secure the control
of the State in another, but an effectual, way are contained in
the Bill. The railway servants were so little satisfied with it,
that they struck a second time, but without success. They
met with little sympathy from the general public, which no
more likes to be put to inconvenience in Italy than it does
in New York. The Government stood firm, and was opposed
by only a few Socialists. By the . new Law the railway ser-
vants are declared officers of the State, and are looked upon
as having resigned if they leave work or interfere with the
regular working of the service.
The relations between Austria and Italy, while on the sur-
face excellent, cause anxiety to those who look deeper. There
are several questions calling for solution, and any accident
might render these questions acute. Diplomatists have an
anxious time in covering the ignes suppositi with the requisite
amount of ashes. Signor Tittoni, the Italian Foreign Minister,
and Count Goluchowski, the Minister of Foreign Affairs for
Austria-Hungary, have lately held a conference at Venice, and
we are assured by the newspapers that every difficulty has
been solved. The German Emperor, too, has been paying a
visit to various Italian towns, and has met the King. We may
hope, therefore, that misunderstandings have been removed.
The prominent part which is being taken by the Sovereigns,
and the many visits they are making one to another, is a new
feature in the regulation of the relation between States which,
we hope, will make for peace and the tranquil life of their
subjects.
Bew Boohs.
To those who did not hear of
THE SANCTUARY OF Father Wilberforce's death last
THE FAITHFUL SOUL. December, while conducting a
By Blosius. course of Advent sermons at Chis-
wick, the prefix "late" before the
name of the translator of the works of Louis of Blois* will
carry a mournful message. Since the publication of that re-
markable Book of Spiritual Instruction, readers of spiritual
literature throughout the English-speaking world have looked
forward expectantly to each new instalment of the translation
of the famous sixteenth-century Benedictine. All in all, those
books have done so much toward spreading that high type of
spirituality of which Blosius was the splendid expositor, and
Father Wilberforce the successful advocate, that the publica-
tions may be looked upon as one of the most important and
valuable contributions to spiritual literature in our time. In a
private letter to the present reviewer, Father Wilberforce re-
ferred to Blosius in words which may without impropriety be
quoted here, as showing why, in the opinion of an eminent
teacher of the spiritual life, the old Latin treatises deserved to be
put into English and presented to the readers of our own day:
" Blosius I have a special love for and his treatises I think
most useful for souls. He is so calm, nothing exaggerated,
and while, on the one hand, he directs the soul to aim high,
he is always encouraging. One main difference in my opinion
between him and so many modern books is that they fix the
eyes of the soul so much upon self, while Blosius fixes them
upon God. The former, therefore, so often discourage, for de-
pression must follow much self-inspection, and humility and
encouragement follow from the method of Blosius. Oculi mei
semper ad Dominum. I remember dear old St. Gregory the
Great says that even in examining conscience we should look
at God, for, as if we look at the setting sun we must see all
that stands between us and it, so we shall see things between
us and God if we look at him. I have found that the spiritual
direction most good souls want is to get them to look at
God and not themselves." And again : " There is in his
* The Sanctuary of the Faithful Soul. By the Yen. Ludovicus Blosius, O.S.B. Trans-
lated from the Latin by the late Father Bertrand A. Wilberforce, O.P. St. Louis, Mo.: B.
Herder.
394 NEW BOOKS. [June,
works, such a largeness of heart, such simplicity yet depth,
he is so full of unction and holiness and wisdom that there
are few like him. The great point is that he makes the soul
look at God our Lord and not at self. This appeals to the
heart. . . . It is such a happiness to hear that the book
has been used by our Lord as an instrument of help and good
to souls. In fact the one thing worth living for is to help
souls on to God. . . . No pleasure is so great and so true
in this world as to have good reason to hope one has been
allowed by God to help a soul to love him better. This is
indeed better than gold and precious stones."
It is the true spirit of Blosius and his distinguished
Dominican disciple which breathes out of the above lines ; no
further word need be said here in recommendation of books
full of such sentiment. Lasting benefit has been conferred on
us by the work; and to both author and translator we owe
gratitude. So we trust that an ever-widening sphere of in-
fluence is to be the result of the translation given to Blosius by
Father Wilberforce. Let this present volume which is a sec-
tion of a larger work take its place alongside the previous vol-
umes edited or translated by the same hand : Book of Spiritual
Instruction, Comfort for the Faint-hearted, Oratory of the Faith-
ful Soul, Mirror for Monks. It will serve as an additional
attraction, perhaps, if we note that the present treatise was
begun with the desire " to bring forward carefully everything
likely to give comfort to the soul, and hope and trust in God,
to one who, though sinful and imperfect, is nevertheless a man
of good will, in order that all Christians might be able to use
the book as a spiritual mirror. Beside the consoling words
spoken to the tempted and to the imperfect of good will,
there is another attractive feature in the shape of a chapter
given to exercises of introversion, or inward conversations,
which will teach the reader something worth learning about
prayer.
Every book* of selections from
REFECTIONS OF A MYSTIC, the old mystics is a favor to be
By Rusbrock. cordially appreciated ; for the old
masters of prayer are incompara-
bly the greatest and best. Modern spiritual literature wears a
* Reflections from the Mirror of a Mystic. From the works of John Rusbrock. By Earle
Baillie. London: Thomas Baker.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 395
poverty-stricken look when compared with the works of the
Benedictine, Carthusian, and Carmelite golden age; and in
the last three hundred years, it is doubtful if any ascetical
author, save Francis de Sales and one or two Benedictines,
will ultimately be rated higher than mediocre. We love our
own age too well to have the least inclination for the melan-
choly office of laudator temporis acti ; but we must confess
that barrenness, has for some mysterious reason fallen upon
Catholic mysticism, and that to-day we have no successors to
Tauler, Riisbrock, John of the Cross, or Father Baker. The
very form of prayer which those mighty spirits teach is looked
upon with wry faces and orthodox lifting of eyebrows. We
must all abandon as unsafe the spontaneous elevation of the
soul toward the Deity, and the direct flight of the will to
God. Freedom of the human spirit in union with the divine
spirit is often distrusted as not regular, methodical, and uni-
form enough. And so we have fallen under spiritual conven-
tionalities. And when conventionalities harass one, and one
would give wing to the contemplative instinct which is not so
rare as many imagine, it is back to the dear old days of soul-
freedom that one must go for sympathy and help ; back to
those men who directed souls by no written method and no
mathematical exercises, but, free from all such preoccupation,
simply endeavored to observe the Holy Spirit's purpose in
their penitents' souls, and to put them under the immediate
guidance of the heavenly Paraclete. One of these old masters
is John Riisbrock; a gentle soul, possessing little human learn-
ing, but marvelous spiritual insight; a secular priest, too, with
much of St. Francis* spirit of affection for every creature' of
God. A few pages of his writings are put together in Mr.
Baillie's book, and the one criticism that we pass upon it is
that it is so short. We trust that more of Riisbrock will be
given us than these few thin chapters. We need him in Eng-
lish ; we need Tauler, too, and others of their school. Let us
have in orderly and comprehensive fashion their treatises on
prayer and the guidance of the spirit. It will mean much for
modern Catholicity thus to be exhilarated again with the de-
votional teaching which is the glory but the forgotten glory
of ancient Catholic mysticism. Devotion is what we need far
more than devotions, and it is from the mediaeval cloister that
we shall learn it best.
396 NEW BOOKS. [June,
Father Noldin, the celebrated theo-
DEVOTION TO THE SACRED logian of Innspruck has written an
HEART. interesting volume on devotion to
By Noldin. the Sacred Heart.* It contains
both a history of the cultus and
observations upon its theological and ascetical importance. The
historical sketch is brief but valuable. From it we learn that
for a long time the new devotion met with intense opposition
from many bishops and theologians, and even Rome itself.
When a petition was laid before the Congregation of Rites,
asking that a Mass and Office of the Sacred Heart be permitted,
the Congregation gave the matter long and earnest delibera-
tion. The objector on the occasion was Cardinal Lambertini,
afterward Benedict XIV., perhaps the greatest scholar that ever
sat in St. Peter's chair. The outcome of the examination was
that the Congregation refused. The grounds of their action seem
to have been that the devotion was new, that it would unwar-
rantably increase the number of feast days, and that the the-
ology of the worship of Christ's physical heart was obscure
and uncertain. Soon after, of course, the devotion became rec-
ognized and began its extraordinary growth, which is still un-
diminished. Father Noldin bids us remember that the devotion,
intrinsically, is independent of Margaret Mary's revelations.
Even if one should regard those revelations as delusions, the
devotion would still be intact, inasmuch as it is based upon
the Church's approval. Speaking of the wonderful visions of
Margaret Mary, Father Noldin acquaints us with a heavenly
communication of hers which was new to us. The holy nun
learned from Christ that it was his desire that Louis XIV.
should consecrate himself to the Sacred Heart. At about the
same time Pere de la Chaise, the Jesuit confessor of the king,
was also privileged with a divine message that he should make
known the purposes of heaven to the grand monatque. The
father did so, but, as we might expect, the royal reprobate
gave a downright refusal to this summons from on high. Well
may Father Noldin add: "The royal house of France has had
bitterly to atone for his rejection and neglect of grace."
We must confess to a little astonishment at Father Noldin's
treatment of the twelfth promise. He not only gives no expo-
* The Devotion to the Sacred Heart. By the Rev. H. Noldin, S.J. Translated by Rev.
W. H. Kent, O.S.C. New Yoik: Benziger Brothers.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 397
sition of it, but positively excludes it from his book. It will
be recalled that the twelfth promise alleged to have been made
to Margaret Mary, was to the effect that the grace of final
perseverence would infallibly attend the "making of the nine
First Fridays." Recently this promise has been vigorously
attacked and valiantly defended. The opponents of it maintain
that it is a late addition, not included in the original promises
at all, and that moreover, as it is currently explained, it is ex-
ceedingly hard to reconcile with the Council of Trent. Conse-
quently we looked with a good deal of interest to this work
of a great theologian for light on the dispute. The matter,
however, is not mentioned in Father Noldin's pages, and, what
is more remarkable, he gives the twelfth promise thus : " Pro-
claim this, and let it be published throughout the world. I
will assign no measure and no limit to the gifts and graces
which I will bestow on all who seek them in my heart." We
think, however, that this curious evasion of the twelfth prom-
ise question will be the sole objection which devout clients
of the League will make to this book.
Dr. Mason's book of sketches of
MARTYRS OF THE PRIMI- the early Martyrs* is a delightful
TIVE CHURCH. volume, that will be appreciated
By Mason. from the standpoint of history as
highly as it deserves to be rated
from the standpoint of piety. It contains brief accounts of
the great athletes of the Lord who died to glorify him in the
young years of the Christian faith. Illustrious are those
names : Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin, Cyprian, Lawrence, Per-
petua, the martyrs of Lyons, the Forty of Sebaste, and many
others. Dr. Mason writes of them with tender sympathy, de-
vout veneration, and scholarly competence. The chapters are
not biographical in the full sense, but relate only the narra-
tives of the saints' agony and death. And in these narratives
Dr. Mason fortunately quotes abundantly from the ancient
Acta. This greatly adds to the charm of the book, for those
old accounts are often of incomparable beauty. "What, for ex-
ample, can be more sublime than the letter of the Church of
Lyons, describing the martyrdom of the mighty confessors of
* Historic Martyrs of the Primitive Church. By A. J. Mason, D.D. New York: Long-
mans, Green & Co.
398 NEW BOOKS. [June,
Christianity in Gaul ? We repeat this is a fine, wholesome
book that will make the religion of Christ better loved by
showing what great souls have died for it. Dr. Mason is an
Anglican, but we observed only a phrase or two that would
imply non-Catholic authorship.
CHURCH AND STATE IN M ' ^. eraa . rd G f ud u ' s P">pU;
on Church and State in France is
. . .
By Gaudeau. a bltter arrai S nment from a Catho-
lic standpoint, of the proposed
abolition of the Concordat. The author's thesis is that as
soon as the Concordat is set aside France will become not
merely a lay State, but an atheistic State. We in America
find it hard at first sight to understand that, having our own
country before our eyes where, despite separation of Church
and State, the most benevolent relations exist between the
nation and Christianity. But on a closer study of conditions
in France one finds only too much reason for apprehending
that M. Gaudeau's position is correct. It is impossible to con-
ceive any other purpose in the minds of men like Combes
than the subjugation and destruction of Catholicity. M. Gau-
deau does well to answer the objection now flung from every
direction into the faces of Catholics, that the Church should
not object to persecution since she is, by her principles, a
persecutor herself. He denies that if Catholics were again in
control of France they would make the slightest attempt upon
any man's conscience. In regard to the propositions of the
Syllabus, he makes the classical distinction between thesis and
hypothesis; the thesis regarding a non-existent and ideal order,
the hypothesis the actual world around us. Thus the Sylla-
bus, as regards its pronouncements on civil liberties, has in
view an ideal condition of human society, and was never
meant to apply literally to society as it actually is.
M. Gaudeau gives some attention to a study of the origin
of the extreme liberalism now prevailing. He finds that origin
in materialism, Kantism, and socialism. This is too vast a
matter for a score of small pages in a pamphlet, and we hardly
need say that this portion of the work is inadequate. M. Gau-
deau might have found a good share of the reasons for present
misfortunes much nearer home. We trust that France as a
* L' glise et l'tat Laique. Par Bernard Gaudeau. Paris : Librairie Lethielleux.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 399
lay State will not be the organized atheism which our author
fears. He has rather too violent a hatred for laicism in our
judgment.
The New York Sun on Christmas
POVERTY. Day, 1904, contained a short
By Hunter. editorial on "The Season of Re-
joicing," which enumerated as
good reasons " for happiness this Christmas " such considera-
tions as these : We are building the Panama Canal, governing
successfully our island possessions; we have a Pacific cable;
there are nearly 20,000,000 young people in our schools ; we have
immense exports and inexhaustible resources. The writer con-
cluded: "The present is happy and our outlook for the future
was never brighter." Just about that time, this volume on
Poverty * appeared. The author's aim in writing it was " to
show the grievous need of certain social measures calculated to
prevent the ruin and degradation of those working people who
are on the verge of poverty." An effort is made to define
and describe poverty in the United States, and to direct public
attention to the unskilled, underpaid, underfed, and poorly
housed workers, as well as to the dependent and vicious classes.
Mr. Hunter is a well-known social settlement worker, a fact
very clearly shown by the objective manner in which he sees
social conditions and states his views. The chapters are entitled :
Poverty ; The Pauper ; The Vagrant ; The Sick ; The Child ;
The Immigrant; Conclusion. The work contains a good list
of authorities used by Mr. Hunter, which constitutes a service-
able bibliography.
In the conclusion, the author states as his convictions: that
in fairly prosperous years there are 10,000,000 in poverty in
the United States ; of these 4,000,020 are paupers ; 2,000,000
workingmen are unemployed four to six months each year
half a million immigrants arrive annually; nearly half the
families of the country are propertyless ; 1,700,000 "little chil-
dren are forced to become wage earners"; 5,000,000 women
find it necessary to work; "probably 10,000,000 now living
will die of tuberculosis." The reforms proposed by Mr. Hunter
include demands with which social students are to some extent
familiar. Meeting them as we generally do, one at a time, we
are accustomed to welcome many of them; as, for instance,
* Poverty. By Robert Hunter. New York : Macmillan. Pp. 382.
VOL. LXXXI. 26
400 NEW BOOKS. [June,
shorter hours, exclusion of children from factories, the fixing
of minimum standards, insurance against idleness, sickness, old
age, improved conditions of labor. But when we meet the
whole list in a summiry, an impression of hopelessness is made.
The reading of the volume has made one feel the need of
drastic action, but the facts and limitations of life present
tremendous obstacles.
Mr. Hunter's volume is the subject of much discussion. It
has already, in the few months since it appeared, directed
public opinion to the failures of our civilization in a way that
will have great educational value. The accuracy of the author's
figures is a secondary consideration, although he carefully relies
on first-rate authorities. The facts which he describes are
appalling. But the indifference of the public to them is no less
so.
Books such as this inevitably aid progress. If they tell
the truth, they frighten conservatism and compel remedial
action, or they correct the exaggeration of the radical, as the
case may be. At any rate, no lover of the race can fail to
gain much in knowledge of facts and views by reading this
volume. Until the actual failures and deadening helplessness of
our time be known, we cannot expect the awakening of social
conscience to bring relief.
This is a strong story,* based on
THE WALKING the play of forces to be seen in the
DELEGATE ijf e o f the modern labor union. The
By Scott. iniquity, shrewd boldness, lack of
moral sense sometimes shown by
lawless men who work ahead in the leadership of unsuspect-
ing laboring men, are displayed with much power and set in
contrast with the nobler type of labor leader. Tragedy, senti-
ment, and lively narrative give the book a real interest, which
will not fail to attract many students of the labor question.
Bishop Stang's book on Socialismf
SOCIALISM. is a vigorous presentation of an-
By Stang. cient truths as a remedy for a
recent error. The right reverend
author concerns himself but secondarily with the economic side
The Walking Delegate. By Leroy Scott. New York: Doubleday, Page & Co.
t Socialism and Christianity. By Rt. Rev. William Stan g. New York : Benziger Brothers
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 401
of socialism. He considers it almost exclusively from the stand-
point of morality. Consequently, being a moral vagary, it needs
the old-fashioned treatment of Gospel-preaching. Injustice will
be cured only by justice ; stealing by honesty ; violence by char-
ity ; and dissatisfaction by the thought of God's providence
and the hereafter. Let men turn to religion, and the huge
fabric of social disturbance will collapse. This is the sum of
the bishop's message, delivered, as becomes a veteran mission-
ary, in very downright and uncompromising fashion. Doubt-
less it is the best programme. But will it be adopted ?
There is a chapter on socialistic history which is of value
as positive information, and frequently throughout the book
there is appeal to Leo XIII. 's encyclicals, a source which, of
course, ensures the safety and orthodoxy of all views derived
therefrom. There is a noticeable controversial side to this
volume. The bishop maintains the thesis that a higher degree
of civilization existed among Christian nations prior to the
Reformation than has ever existed since, and that the social
confusion of our time is due to Protestantism. One, of course,
can think as one pleases with regard to that. At all events,
we may be permitted to venture the opinion that the picture
of pre- Reformation society is a little too rose-colored. Hold-
ing before our eyes the moral condition of the Italian cities in
the fifteenth century, and the economic status of the French
workingman of the same period, we should be bold indeed to
say that all was well in those days. Still we are sure that for
all who hold to the strict Catholic view of historical and social
questions, Bishop Stang's volume will be useful as a confirma-
tion of the faith that is in them.
M. Sully Prudhomme's volume on
PASCAL. Pascal* is a work of first-rate im-
By Prudhomme. portance for philosophy. It con-
sists of an examination of Pascal's
intellectual position with regard to the problems of theistic
and Christian belief, together with extensive observations and
criticisms of M. Sully Prudhomme himself, who is deeply read
in philosophy, and is master of a clear and incisive style.
The Pensees are studied with a view to discovering Pascal's
religious development ; and the result is probably the most
* La Vraie Religion Scion Pascal. Par Sully Prudhomme. Paris : Librairie Fdix Alcon.
402 NEW BOOKS. [June,
complete and accurate picture that we yet possess of Pascal's
growth in theological perception, of the difficulties that he
encountered, and of the peculiar apologetic wherein the affec-
tions hold so prominent a place, on which he finally settled
as the best defense of faith. All this would be a valuable
treatise at any time, on account of the commanding genius of
the brilliant young philosopher, but it is especially useful now,
when we are hearing a new appeal for Pascal's methods, ard
a growing claim that he has furnished the best weapons to
Christianity in its conflict with philosophy and science.
In the criticisms of M. Sully Prudhomme the orthodox
reader will find much at which to take offense. As those who
have read his Le Probleme des Causes Finales need not be
told, the distinguished academician cannot accept Christian
dogmatics, and in fact he has much fault to find with the
traditional tenets of theism. Accordingly, only the well-read
and robust in their philosophy should pick up this volume.
But the ex-professo student of the deeper things of the mind
will find in it both thinking and writing of very high order,
and will make no mistake if he gives it a place upon his
shelves beside the deepest works of contemporary philosophy.
Beside the papers contained in the
THOUGHTS FOR GIRLS, original Stray Thoughts for Girls*
By Soulsby. published twelve years ago, we
have in the new edition chapters
on Making Plans; Conversation; Great Things to do To-day;
Sunday ; and A Good Time. It may be well for the informa-
tion of some of our readers to mention the fact that Lucy
Soulsby is an old hand at the writing of helpful books of an
instructive and religious nature; and that the present volume is
one of a series which includes: Stray Thoughts for Mothers and
Teachers ; Stray Thoughts on Character ; and Stray Thoughts
for Invalids In general it may be said that her writing is of
the highest order for practical, healthy, elevating suggestions ;
and the spirit of religious earnestness which gives tone to all
her books is of that happy kind which attracts, instead of re-
pells, the youthful mind. It is rather hard to believe that
any young girl, who has the least interest in making her life
Stray Thoughts for Girls. By Lucy H. M. Soulsby. New and Enlarged Edition. Lon-
don, New York, and Bombay : Longmans, Green & Co.
1 905.] NEW BOOKS. 403
useful and beautiful, can go through these pages without profit.
There are numerous neat little pointed hits that will proba-
bly wake up some consciences to the existence of previously
unnoticed faults, such a,s the description of the thoughtless,
useless, irresponsible girl who tells you that these are her
characteristics in an ingenuous way which makes her best friends
long to box her ears; she "might be called 'The Artless
Japanese,' because she reminds one of the princess in the
'Mikado' who says: 'I sit and wonder in my artless Japanese
way why I am so charming.' ' Behavior at school and be-
havior at home, the attitude to assume toward companion and
toward mother, the way to study and the way to play, how
to gain culture and how to grow in virtue, all these are treated
very practically and very attractively in the fourteen chap-
ters of this little book. One closes ^ it with a sense of the
great good it is sure to do, and with the hope that there is
soon going to be some writing of this kind covering the ground
peculiar to Catholic girls and their possibilities in lift a de-
partment in which the two booklets recently published by Miss
Margaret Fletcher, Light for New Times and The School of the
Heart, have already demonstrated what valuable work can be
done.
Mr. Robert Hugh Benson's novel
BY WHAT AUTHORITY ? of Elizabethan times and charac-
By Benson. ters * is an unusually fine piece
of work. In fact we regard it as
one of the most excellent Catholic stories that we possess in
English, and by far the best that has appeared for a long
time. The " spacious days of great Elizabeth " form the stage
whereon the action moves ; the imperious Queen herself is
one of the figures in the narrative ; and her bloody persecu-
tion of England's ancient faith is the tragic motive of the
whole. The story is strongest on its historical side. As a
picture of those days of change and bewilderment and terror,
it is so very good that we are at a loss to recall any other
work of fiction which surpasses it in this respect. Mr. Ben-
son makes it clear, without the slightest trace of pedantry,
that the English people were not hostile to Catholicity, that
Elizabeth herself loved not persecution and the spilling of htr
own subjects' blood, and that the real strength of the pro-
* By What Authority ? By Robert Hugh Benson. New York : Benziger Brothers.
404 NEW BOOKS. [June,
Reformation movement in the nation took rise not in a theo-
logical or religious, but rather in a nationalistic and patiiotic
sentiment. Pius V.'s bull of deposition was absolutely disas-
trous, and the sending of the Armada, which bore the hopes
of Spain and the blessings of churchmen, roused the fury of
that section of the English people that were already anti-
Catholic, and threw into consternation those that still stood
loyal to the Church, and wished also to be loyal to their coun-
try and their queen. With affairs in this condition the ma-
lignant persecutors and haters of Catholicity found it easy to
procure tyrannical and murderous legislation ; they had only
to allege the pretext of safety to the State. And thus many
a martyr, although as devoted to England and as obedient to
the sovereign as Drake or Walsingham themselves, entered
into his agony for the faith, on a fictitious charge of treason.
How splendidly these martyrs died is put vividly in Mr.
Benson's story. The finest piece of pathos in the book tells
how Father James Maxwell, released from the Tower by Eliza-
beth in a manner that shows a brighter side to her imperious
character, said Mass secretly in his mother's house after he
had been brought home. He had been cruelly torn by the
rack, and was half dead from pain. But Sunday had come
and he would offer the great Sacrifice for Lady Maxwell, his
mother, Mistress Margaret, his aunt, and the few faithful that
still clung bravely to the old faith they loved. We cannot
forbear giving a page of Mr. Benson's beautiful description :
A moment later there came slow and painful steps through
the sitting-room, and Lady Maxwell came in very slowly with
her son leaning on her arm and on a stick. There was a si-
lence so profound that it seemed to Isabel as if all had stopped
breathing. She could only hear the slow plunging pulse of
her own heart.
James took his mother across the altar to her place and left
her there, bowing to her ; and then he went up to the altar to
vest. As he reached it and paused, a servant slipped out and
received the stick from him. The priest made the sign of the
cross, and took up the amice from the vestments that lay folded
on the altar. He was already in his cassock.
Isabel watched each movement with a deep, agonizing in-
terest; he was so frail and broken, so bent in his figure,
so slow and feeble in his movements. He made an attempt
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 405
to raise the amice but could not, and turned slightly ; and
the man from behind stepped up again and lifted it for him.
Then he helped him with each of the vestments, lifted the
alb over his head and tenderly drew the bandaged hands
through the sleeves ; knit the girdle round him ; gave him
the stole to kiss and then placed it over his neck, and
crossed the ends beneath the girdle, and adjusted the amice ;
then he placed the maniple on his left arm, but so tenderly !
and lastly lifted the great red chasuble and dropped it over
his head and straightened it and there stood the priest,
as he had stood last Sunday, in crimson vestments again ;
but bowed and thin-faced now. . . . Much of this faith
of course was still dark to Isabel ; but she understood
enough ; and when the murmur of the priest died to a throb-
bing silence, and the worshippers sank in yet more profound
adoration, and then with tenible effort and a quick gasp or
two of pain, those wrenched, bandaged hands rose trembling
in the air with Something that glimmered white between them,
the Puritan girl too dropped her head, and lifted up her heart
and entreated the Most High and Most Merciful to look down
on the mystery of Redemption accomplished on earth, to send
down his grace on the Catholic Church, and especially to re-
member the poor battered man before her, who not only as
priest was made like to the Eternal Priest, but as a victim too
had hung upon a prostrate cross fastened by hands and feet ;
thus bearing on his body, for all to see, the marks of the
Lord Jesus.
We have said that the best feature of the novel is its his-
torical delineation. Still, in the matters of plot and character-
study, it has a goodly merit too. The passing from heresy to
faith of Isabel, the Puritan girl, is described so well that ue
think no one not a convert could surpass it. On the whole,
we have here a piece of fiction which displays an exceptionally
high order of talent. It leads us to expect frcm Mr. Benson's
pen work which will take high rank in contemporary literature.
It was a ' happy thought of Ben
JUVENILE ROUND ziger Brothers to make a collec-
TABLE. tion,* from our leading Catholic
writers, of short stories whose he-
roes and heroines are children. The stories in this volume
show literary work of creditable merit, and one feels, on run-
Juvenile Round Table. Second Series. New York : Benziger Brothers.
406 NEW BOOKS. [June,
ning through the book, that it was worth compiling. There
are twenty stories altogether, among them: "The Fortune -
Bag," by Eugenie Uhlrich ; "Two Mothers," by M. E. Herry-
Ruffin; "The New Scholar," by Margaret E.Jordan; " Vera's
Tramp," by Katherine Tynan Hinkson; "The Jominy's Experi-
ment," by Mary Catherine Crowley; "Boys Together," by
Theo. Gift; and "Helen's Five o'clock Tea," the very title of
which reveals Maurice Francis Egan. The volume is to< be
commended.
The Sisters of the Visitation
GEMS OF THE VISITATION Monastery, in Brooklyn, have
ORDER. taken occasion of the celebration
of the fiftieth anniversary of their
Brooklyn foundation to compile a number of biographical
sketches* of the saintly persons whose virtues made the beginning
and early days of the order so mighty an inspiration to future
generations, whether within or without the cloister. The pres-
ent publication aims successfully at giving, in clear and sirrple
language, an authentic account of the foundation of the order,
and a picture of the ideals which have obtained in the com-
munity and borne fruit in the saintly lives of its members. We
are presented, of course, with a sketch of St. Francis de Sales,
whose veneration has spread so widely in the world through
the influence exerted by his peculiarly amiable and tender dis-
position, and to whom the Visitation always looks back as to its
Father. We have, too, a sketch of the remarkable woman to
whom was entrusted the task of realizing the idea conceived by
the Bishop of Geneva, when he set out to found a community of
women to meet the needs of the day. Page 62 gives an ac-
count of the " important transformation " in the Constitutions
by which, at the instance of the Cardinal Archbishop of Lyons,
the order became one of the cloistered, contemplative com-
munities of Holy Church. How successful the institution was,
from the very start, is seen in the fact that to the fourteen
houses established during the lifetime of Frances de Chantal,
there were added eleven others within three years of her death.
The volume contains also a sketch of the life of the Blessed
Margaret Mary, who promoted the devotion of the Sacred
Heart; and of the Venerable Anne Madeleine Remusat, who
* Jubilee Gems of the Visitation Order. By the Sisters of the Visitation of Holy Mary (
Brooklyn, N. Y. New York : The Christain Press Association.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 407
instituted, with the permission of Pope Clement XL, the Asso-
ciation of Perpetual Adoration of the Sacred Heart; and finally
of Mother Mary de Sales Chapuis, whose great work was the
building up of the schools of the Visitation in France after
the Rerolution.
The volume is well gotten up and attractively written. As
suggested in the beautiful little introduction by Father McCarty,
it will help to fill the lamentable lack of books suitable for
Catholic School premiums.
In this volume * Dr. Sheehan, as
A SPOILED PRIEST. he must now be called, ventures
By Sheehan. i n to the difficult field of the short
story. It would be too much to
expect that he should gain there the successes which he has
so well merited in The Triumph of Failure ; My New Curate ;
and Luke Delmege. But it goes without saying that a pen so
skilful as his will leave traces of distinction on whatsoever sort
of page it writes. So in these stories we often come upon
literary touches which betray the trained artist and expert
raconteur. And if there is also some suggestion of the com-
monplace, how few are the short-story writers who escape it?
As a biographer, historian, essay-
EMMANUEL BURDEN. ist, and scholar, Hilaire Belloc
By Belloc. needs no introduction to the Eng-
lish-reading people of two con-
tinents. It remained for Emmanuel Burden f to prove him a
satirist of the first order. The book takes the form of a
biography of " Emmanuel Burden, merchant, of Thames Street,
in the city of London, exporter of hardware; a record of
his lineage, speculations, last days, and death." The plot is
built upon the founding of one of those great money-getting
companies which the imperialism of England has fostered.
Between the open, honest, conservative, business methods of the
Thames Street merchant and the sensational booming of the
" M'Korio Delta Developing Company " an admirable contrast
has been drawn. The various devices resorted to by modern
promoters, such as the allotment of stock and the buying up
'A Spoiled Priest; and Other Stories. By Rev. P. A. Sheehan, D.D. New York:
Benziger Brothers.
t Emman uel Burden. By Hilaire Belloc. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
408 NEW BOOKS. [June,
of the press, have been exposed with telling frankness, which
loses nothing by the guileless attitude of the narrator.
Mr. Belloc has drawn his characters with a delicate irony
which only an Englishman, or one familiar with English types,
can fully appreciate. But the German- Jew Barnett, the ad-
venturer Harcourt, the "jointed hop-pole" Benthorpe, the
" sound " Mr. Abbott, the weakling Cosmo, are, after all, types
not confined to England.
The gravity with which the author relates the minutest and
most inconsequent incidents, the travesty on contemporary biog-
raphies which he accomplishes by the elaborately traced lineage
of his hero, the moral digressions in which he allows himself
from time to time to indulge, contribute not a little to the
humor of this brilliant book. To quote from pages where
every paragraph contains something quotable is as impossible
as to praise temperately when one's enthusiasm is unbounded.
The illustrations, by G. K. Chesterton, are faithful to the
spirit of the text, and are excellent cartoons.
The Burns & Gates Company de-
THREE CLASSICS. serve our gratitude for issuing in
beautiful and cheap editions the
three fine old classics of William Roper's Life of Thomas More ;
Richard de Bury's Love of Books ; and Jocelyn's Chronicle of
Brakelond* This last book, a monk's story of his abbey, and
no less a quaint, true picture of mediaeval England, is ex-
quisite. Never was there a simpler, honester, and pleasanter
record set down by mortal hand. We cannot too highly com-
mend it. Dr. Barry's introduction adds to its value.
The name of James Barnes is syn-
THE BLOCKADERS. onymous in the minds of a good
By Barnes. many boys with a capital story.
His latest book, The Blockaders^
will certainly not detract from his reputation. It is a collec-
tion of short stories which deal with Confederate cruisers, geo-
logical expeditions, hidden treasure in Africa, valentines, and
Fourth of July celebrations. In such a range of subjects it
would be impossible for every boy not to find something to
* Life of Sir Thomas More, Knt. By William Roper. Love of Books. By Richard de
Bury, Bishop of Durham. Chronicle of Brakelond. London : Burns & Gates.
t The Blockaders. By James Barnes. New York : Harper & Brothers.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 409
his taste. The stories are well written ; the plots are worth
writing about; the boys who figure in them are real flesh and
blood boys ; and the style is crisp, direct, and natural. The
book is published by Harper's in that excellent series of juv-
eniles which by its inexpensive form makes good reading
accessible to all.
A new edition in English of
SOCIALISM. Father Cathrein's standard work
By Cathrein. on Socialism is a book to be cor-
dially welcomed.* The author is
well-known as a moral philosopher; and, in the preparation of
the present work, he has given us the best fruits not only of
an extensive knowledge of Christian and Catholic ethics, but,
on the admission of socialists themselves, of wide reading in
socialistic literature. His chapters discuss the origin and de-
velopment of Socialism; its fundamental tenets; its relation
to religion and morality; its false promises and impractical
programme. From this it will appear that both the economic
and the religious side of Socialism is the object of the rever-
end author's investigation. And from a reading of his criti-
cisms it also appears that the social theories which he has in
mind are those which, in the economic order, imply thorough-
going communism, and, in the religious sphere, imply atheism
and immorality. Father Cathrein's animadversions upon this
theory of human society are radical and caustic. Possibly
some will say they are at times a little too summary, and
do not indicate enough appreciation of the ills of our present
industrial system, or enough sympathy with its victims. How-
ever, as the volume is rather a work of criticism than of con-
struction, and as the dangers to which it calls attention are in
the last degree deadly, one does not feel inclined to press re-
monstrances of this kind. At all events we have here the best
work from a Catholic source that has yet been written against
Socialism, and this fact ought to suffice to win for it as many
readers among ourselves as the original has gained in Ger-
many. We cannot help expressing regret at a footnote, on
page 227, presumably from the pen of the translator. The
author has just quoted the words of a member of the Reich-
stag to the effect that the public schools of Germany are be-
coming seminaries of Socialism. To this statement these words
Socialism. By Victor Cathrein, S.J. Authorized Translation. Revised and enlarged
by V. F. Gettelmann, S.J. New York. Benziger Brothers.
410 NEW BOOKS. [June,
are appended: " If this be true of German elementary schools,
what shall we say of our American public schools, with their
fads and pretensions?" That is an uncalled-for and unjusti-
fiable question. Our American public schools are not training
places for Socialism, and it is hard to see the pertinence of
the remark about "fads and pretensions." Let us criticise, if
we must, but let our criticisms be dignified, and not cheap.
We are glad to see a second edition of Miss Conway's
Christian Gentlewoman* It is a bright little volume of good
counsel, and will do, we have no doubt, a great deal of good
in the world about us. Its four chapters discuss : The Chris-
tian Gentlewoman and the Social Apostolate ; Broad-Minded-
ness ; The Novel-Habit; and The Uses of Prosperity. Under
these headings we have a number of pointed recommendations
which aim at cultivating in Catholic women those solid and
unpretending virtues which give so attractive a look to the
old-fashioned gentlewoman of a generation past. Miss Conway,
however, has a higher aim than the inculcating of a social
code. Character, spiritual cultivation, a state of soul, not mere
outward demeanor, are her purpose ; and this gives a high
ethical value to her sincere and simple pages. Perhaps in all
good faith a reader might consider some paragraphs of the
chapter on broad-mindedness to be rather narrow and thought-
stifling ; but even if such a criticism be made, it must straight-
way be forgotten, in the general geniality, good-nature, and
earnest piety of the volume as a whole. It is a book that de-
serves success.-
We regret that the author of The Suffering Man- God 'f did
not confine himself to piety and edification. Unfortunately he
keeps an apologetic and controversial aim ever in view, even
amid his most devout reflections on our Lord's Passion, and this
results in a deplorable disfigurement of his book. For his
controversial remarks are futile, his proofs at times worthless,
and his temper exasperating. In its substance, however, this
volume consists of meditations on Christ's agony which are
helpful ; and to this extent it is a work for which we should
be thankful.
* The Christian Gentlewoman and the Social Apostolate. By Katherine E. Conway. Bos-
ton : Thomas J. Flynn & Co.
t The Suffering Man-God; or, The Divinity of Jesus Christ Resplendent in His Sufferings.
By Pere Seraphin, Passionist. Translated by Lilian M. Ward. New York : Benziger
Brothers.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 411
The number of well-written, healthy stories for the young,
published to-day, is all too small. Consequently it is with a
special pleasure that we commend this tale for young girls. It
is not for the very young, but rather for those who are draw-
ing near the years of womanhood. Nut-Brown Joan* is to be
commended both for its literary merit the merit it has in it-
self, and the stimulus it will give to its readers to study the
English classics and also for its thoroughly wholesome atmo-
sphere. It will be both a pleasant and profitable introduction
for young girls into that very important field nowadays of
what they ought to read and what they ought to be. But it
is far from being a sermon, and the author does not indulge
in any laborious moralizing. With true skill she leaves that
to the reader herself. Joan is a girl who, through indifference
and lack of ambition, might not have amounted to anything,
but encouragement stimulates her, and responsibility brings
out her latent worth. The volume holds a very practical les-
son for young girls, and the lesson is excellently presented.
The first number of a new English magazine, to be called
The Crucible, is to appear in June, 1905. It will be published
under the editorship of Miss Margaret Fletcher, and starts with
the approbation of the Archbishop of Westminster. The mag-
azine is to appear quarterly, and to be devoted to the interests
of secondary education in the Catholic girls' schools. Members
of the Religious Educational Orders and experienced writers
and teachers in the secular world will contribute to its pages.
The magazine hopes to generate a general Catholic educational
atmosphere, arouse the intelligent interest of parents, and through
co-operation bring the ablest teachers of Catholic schools into
constant touch with one another. The questions that arise with
regard to discipline, moral training; general literature, and
modern methods of teaching, will be taken up and treated in
a most thorough and intelligent manner. The magazine starts
with our every good wish, and we hope for it a wide field and
a pronounced success. The subscription price of the magazine
for Americans is $1.20, post free. The office of publication is
89 Woodstock, Road, Oxford, England.
* Nut-Brown Joan. By Marion Ames Taggart. Pp. 314. Price $1.50. New York:
Henry Holt & Co.
^foreign periodicals,
The Tablet (15 April) : The Very Rev. Abbot of Downside con-
tributes the first article of a series entitled, "The Divine
Authorship of the Scriptures." The dogmatic teaching
of the Church is embodied in the formula, Deus est
Auctor Novi et Veteris Testamenti. The writer's first
inquiry is : " Do we know the meaning of the word
Auctor in this formula ?" In view of the numerous and
comprehensive quotations from ecclesiastical writings,
canons, and creeds dating from the sixth to the nineteenth
century, all of which seem clearly to affirm that the
author of both Testaments is one and the same God, and
nothing more, the author concludes that the idea of
literary authorship was by no means present to the mind
of the Church in the word Auctor. It is simply an as-
sertion of the one divine origin of the Scriptures as
against the double origin taught by Manes and his
followers. Secondly, the formula as modified by the
Vatican Council throws no light on inspiration, neither
as to its nature, its mode of action, nor its effects. The
Vatican uses the word Atictor in its traditional sense.
God, therefore, is the author of the Scriptures as the
primum principium, the first source or principle. The
religious drama, " The First Franciscans," is criticized
for historical inaccuracies and lack of qualities to arouse
enthusiasm, although some of its sketches are said to be
remarkable for manifesting sincerity and reverence.
(22 April): After about three years of deliberaticn, the
Biblical Commission has issued its first decision. May
certain passages dealing with historical facts be treated
as tacit or implicit quotations from other writers and,
therefore, outside the sanction of the inspired writers ?
Answer is negative, except when, due regard being paid
to the judgment of the Church, it is proved by solid
arguments: "(i) That the sacred writer has really quoted
the writings or sayings of another; and (2) That he has
neither approved nor adopted them, so that he may be
properly considered not to be speaking in his own name.
In the opinion of the correspondent, other equally im-
portant decisions will soon follow.
1905.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 413
(29 April): Mgr. John Vaughan leaves Rome the ist of
May, for Lucca, where he is to enter the Carthusian
Novitiate. Mgr. Vaughan is probably best known to us
through his work, Faith and Folly.
The Month (May): Fr. Sydney Smith writes on the Revival
movement which has been going on for some months
among the non- Conformists and Anglican Evangeli-
cals in South Wales, and is said by the papers to be
extending to parts of England. There is much that is
good in them commingled with an amount of harm that
is unnecessary and deplorable. Revivals in the past
have been regularly followed by an increase of cases of
dementia sufficient to affect the statistics of lunacy.
The publication is announced of The Crucible, a Catholic
magazine of Higher Education for Women, about to ap-
pear for the first time in June (address 89 Woodstock
Road, Oxford), and to be conducted by Margaret
Fletcher, whose two little books for girls Light for New
Times and The School of the Heart have attracted such
attention for their solidity and common-sense statement
of necessary and precious but little talked-of truths.
The decline of Darwinism is written up by Walter
Sweetman who, in a short pamphlet printed some years
ago, and more recently in THE CATHOLIC WORLD of
December, 1901, drew attention to five arguments against
the materialistic theory for the formation of the body of
man which seem to him " to appeal to everybody's com-
mon sense and to be perfectly unanswerable." Father
Herbert Thurston writes on the fate of the last five of the
Jesuit missionaries to Japan, in 1643, about whose possible
apostasy there has been some discussion. After describ-
ing the extremely ferocious character of the torments to
which they were subjected, and going over the evidence
as a whole, Father Thurston says : " It can hardly be
doubted that some sort of renunciation of Christianity
was extorted from one or more of the Jesuit missionaries
by the extremity of their torments. What exactly
happened we shall probably never know, but he would
indeed be a severe censor who refused his sympathy to
the infirmity which the unfortunate victims may have
shown, or who ventured to pronounce that by thr.t act
414 FOREIGN PERIODICALS. [June,
they had irrevocably cut themselves off from all hopes
of salvation. Perhaps the most terrible trial of all must
have been the loneliness of their position and the impos-
sibility of succor. For they were the last survivors of
a forlorn hope, itself primarily organized that a helping
hand might be extended to the unfortunate Father Ferreira,
Provincial of the Jesuits, who had caused infinite sorrow
throughout the Order by falling from the faith in 1633.
Few probably estimate how terrible was the position in
which these latest comers found themselves, as compared
with that of the early martyrs at the beginning of the
same century. It is one of the inexplicable mysteries of
God's providence that we should now be honoring upon
our altars as Canonized Saints of the Church many who
passed to their reward by the swift and easy passage of
the sword, while the incredible torments overcome by
such heroes as Father Mastrilli and Father Rubino are
still uncelebrated, at least in this world. Still stranger
is it that others who, like Fathers Ferreira and Chiara,
persevered for long hours in defying the most hideous
form of torture, were in the end destined to succumb,
forfeiting honor, comfort, peace of mind, and even, it is
to be feared, their robe of sanctifying grace. A re-
view is published of Les Infiltrations et I* Exegese du
Nouveau Testament, by M. Fontaine, who is said to spoil
a good cause by a certain fundamental defect of method.
It does not seem to occur to him that a fact is
a fact and an argument is an argument whencesoever it
be derived. . . . He shows little realization that we
are already brought into close quarters with these
chronicles of antiquity, and that though it is to be hoped
that they will render a signal service to the Church in
the long run, as in some respects they are doing now,
they have also yielded an array of historical difficulties
very perplexing from a biblical point of view to those
who are aware of them. Did he realize this more fully
he would perhaps feel less certain that the motives of
his opponents of some of them at all events are due
simply and solely to their Protestant leanings. In de-
scribing the system of Pere Lagrange, M. Fontaine mis-
conceives and consequently misrepresents it. The same
1905.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 415
is apparently the case with the theory of Pere L<mon-
nyer. There is a further misunderstanding, indeed a whole
set of misunderstandings, in the author's account of what
he calls the legendary system of biblical interpretation.
It is particularly unfortunate as, whether the system so
described be sound or unsound, it ought to be examined
and discussed on its own merits, whereas its adherents
would find it hard to recognize their theory in the
dummy which M. Fontaine sets up and knocks down.
The Church Quarterly Review (April): The writer on Church
Reform, advocating an increase of the number of dio-
ceses in England, points out how some oi the difficulties
in the way of that measure may be overcome. The
recent edition of William Cowper's correspondence by
Mr. Wright is favorably reviewed, with a few strictures
by one who loves the most lovable of English poets.
Apropos of Ferdinand Fabre, and his exquisite pictures
of French clerical life, a reviewer says, among many other
kindly things, of the French secular clergy : " M. Fabre's
works were written now some quarter of a century ago.
But we believe the spirit of the country clergy to be
unchanged, and that the bulk of them, whatever may
be the upheavals in the world of ecclesiastical politics,
keep on their humble paths untouched by party strife,
concerned chiefly with the souls of their parishioners,
and meddling not with them that are given to change."
An opening paper on the problem of the Johannine
authorship exposes the data available for a study of the
question. An article on " Matter " first summarises,
in somewhat popular, but accurate form, the insight ob-
tained through modern physics, especially by recent
investigations in radio-activity, into the constitution of
matter, and then discusses, in the spirit of Mr. Balfour's
recent address before the British Society, the bearing ef
this new knowledge on the problem of consciousness.
There is an interesting aperfu of Mr. C. H. Turner's
monumental edition of the Nicene Creed and Canons,
which will be very useful to those students who have
not access to the work. The present interest in the
comparative values of the Catholic and Protestant- Eng-
lish translations of the Bible lends a timeliness to an
VOL. LXXXI. 27
416 FOREIGN PERIODICALS. [June,
article on Welsh translations. A Reman Catholic dis-
cusses the present ecclesiastico-political situation in
France. He finds that the ecclesiastical claim to make
the State subservient to the Church is at the bottom
of French Catholic anti-clericalism. The present situa-
tion, he believes, has been precipitated by the extrava-
gances of the school which has its loudest exponent in
the Abbe Maignan, who has written that "the people
must be taught that it is not master; the triple power
legislative, executive, judicial must be entrusted to the
rulers to whom the government is committed as to the
representatives of God ; public opinion must be deprived
of the power of influencing, in any way, the manage-
ment of affairs of State ; the Catholic religion must be
proclaimed as the sole religion of the country and its
government. This intolerant ultramontanism of the anti-
Americanists, which, the writer points out, found itself
quite compatible with gross disobedience towards Leo
Xni., is, he believes, regarded by Frenchmen as the
genuine and dangerous spirit of traditional ecclesiasti-
cism, developing, to-day, into despotism.
Dublin Review (April) : Henry Norbert Birt, O.S.B., reviews
eight of Charles Booth's seventeen volumes .on Social
Conditions of London. These eight deal with religious
influences. The greatest influence is exerted by Catho-
lic priests, who are " poor and live as poor men among
the poor." Those churches tending toward Ritualism
attract the largest and most devotional congregations.
Those using moving pictures, popular music, and free
coffee, foster neither reverence nor devotion. Sir
Henry Bedingfeld, " one of the foremost Englishmen of
his [day," is blackened in history by Foxe, the mar-
tyrologist, and his followers. Miss J. M. Stone shows
his loyalty to his country by the marks of esteem be-
stowed upon him by Elizabeth, though he had been a
severe jailor while she was in his keeping. The clergy
of the English Church appeal to antiquity to expose the
"Romish corruptions" to which a "spurious Catholic-
ity" has been imparted. John Freeland quotes copi-
ously from the Fathers to prove the belief of the early
Church in the Invocation of Saints, Power of Relics,
1905.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 417
Prayers for the Dead, Mass, Real Presence, etc. F.
Aveling reviews Robert Flint's Philosophy as Scientia
Scientiarum, and finds that modern philosophy is ap-
proaching our traditional system, but St. Thomas has
left little to be solved in the systematic epitome of
reasoning. " The Holy City of Kairouan," by Her-
bert Vaughan, tells something of the unspoiled Oriental
life of this interesting city near Tunis. At a religious
service he witnessed the eating of quantities of glass, and
the self-infliction of real wounds from which no blood
flowed. Maxwell-Scott gives a touching account of
the Duchesse D'Aiguillon, niece of Richelieu, who in
devotion to her friends gave up the man she loved,
married another, after his death left the convent where
she had found happiness, and when in the world again
refused to marry her first love because she had given
herself to God. W. H. Kent takes occasion of the
tercentenary of Don Quixote to urge us to study Span-
ish literature. It is neither heretical nor licentious.
Don Quixote, " the greatest of all novels," is not a cyni-
cal satire on true chivalry, but rather on the " extrava-
gant romances" of chivalry then so common. T. Leo
Almond, O.S.B., says of Aubrey De Vere, that his
failure to secure greater success is attributable to lack
of ambition, and no desire for married life. His ap-
proach to weakness of style was due to the absence of
obligatory work.
Le Correspondant (10 April): " L'Ame Japonaise, d'apres Laf-
cadio Hearn," by- Ludovic de Contension, is both an
analysis and an acute criticism of a chapter on the idea
of pre-existence. This idea is fundamental with the Ori-
entals, and is at the roots of the differences in thought
and taste of Eastern and Western Civilization. It explains
also the serenity and joy with which the Japanese face
death ; for death loses half its terror to men who think
the dead are not less real in this world than the living.
" Les Commencements du Pere Gratry, a 1'occasion
de son centenaire," by H. de Lacombe, is the author's
testimonial of reverence and affection to a veneiated mas-
ter. The article reviews the years of obscurity during
which Providence was moulding the soul of this great
4i 8 FOREIGN PERIODICALS. [June,
priest, his ambition, his struggles, the influences to which
he submitted, and finally the triumph of divine grace in
his vocation and sanctification. Criticism, appreciation,
anecdotes, and reminiscences fill out the portrait of the
illustrious orator.
tndes (20 April): Opens with a letter from the French Car-
dinals to the President of France. In this letter, written
March 28, 1905, the five prelates give six reasons why
the Concordat should be maintained. A. Lugan con-
tributes an article on the recent strike among the coal
miners of Germany. This so-called model strike, though
it comprised about 250,000 men, lacked the violent char-
acter usually seen in similar cases. Hence it had public
opinion with it, the clergy, both Catholic and Protestant,
supporting it. As a result, the strikers' demands were
complied with. In answer to an article which appeared
in this magazine of January, on "The Infallibility of the
Pope and the Syllabus," Paul Viollet writes a letter to
the editor questioning the soundness of many of the
statements of the writer of the above article. Among the
points questioned are the infallibility in theological pro-
nouncements, in canonizations, in general views ; the his-
tory of the Syllabus and propositions 61, 67, and 80.
La Quinsaine (16 April): The recent trip of the German Em-
peror to Morocco, and the agitations consequent upon
this, are the occasion of an article from the pen of Henry
de Montardy. The writer gives a short account of the
Franco- English alliance of 1904, and the attitude of the
German politicians on, this affair. " Lamennais and
Beranger " is the title of an article in which C. Marechal
describes the deep friendship between these two men,
their troubles and hardships. To make better known the
state of mind of contemporary thinkers, the nature of
their questions, the obstacles which stop them, and the
difficulties which trouble them, E. Le Roy asks and an-
swers the question " What is a dogma?" He gives four
strong objections made against the very idea of dogma
which is repugnant to modern thought. Front these he
deduces some practical conclusions, aiming to show that
the notion of dogma condemned by modern thinkers is
not the Catholic notion of dogma.
1905.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 419
(i May): Contains the first instalment o{ an article, by
M. Hemmer, on the present religious crisis in France.
The writer, who takes a broad and unusually hopeful
view of the situation, is of opinion that the proposed
separation of Church and State by the dissolution of the
Concordat is an inevitable outcome of the logic of events,
and, far from being an unmitigated evil, will on the
contrary prove a source of. blessings to the Church and
religion ; for, while it will doubtless entail great suffer-
ing and great injustice for a time, in the event it can-
not but make for the liberation of the Church and the
revival of the religious spirit among the people. To
the relations of Church and State under the Concordat
can be traced, the writer believes, many of the evils
that afflict the French Church to-day, especially the
alarming decay of practical Catholicity amongst the peo-
ple. By making the maintenance of religious worship a
function of State, and reducing the bishops and clergy
to mere paid functionaries of the Government, the Con-
cordat had been instrumental in establishing a wide gulf
between clergy and people, and, while seriously crippling
if not deliberately suppressing personal initiative and
missionary zeal among the clergy, had deprived the
laity of that intense interest in religious matters which
comes from a realization of one's personal shaie in, and
responsibility for, the maintenance of the exercises of
divine worship. But when this barrier between clergy
and laity has been removed, when religion is no longer
an office of Government to be performed by paid func-
tionaries, when the bishops and clergy, animated by
missionary zeal, will labor amongst their people, honored
and loved by their people, not so much for the robes
they wear, as for their personal worth and devoted per-
sonal service, and when the religious indifference of the
laity has been supplanted by a sense of personal re-
sponsibility, then a new era of life and hope and pro-
gress will have begun for the Church of France.
"Traits of the Ideal Character," by M. Guibert, is a
strong and helpful discussion of the nature and function
of conscience and will-power as elements in the up-
building and development of the ideal human character.
420 FOREIGN PERIODICALS. [June,
M. Fonsegrive contributes a clear and interesting
discussion of the relation of Catholicism and Free
Thought.! While freedom of thought is an essential
condition for intellectual, moral, and scientific progress,
free thought, in the sense that each one is to investi-
gate and decide for himself in all matters, in denial of
all authority, is as impossible as it is destructive of all
progress, intellectual, moral, or scientific.
Revue Benedictine (April): In 1557 Mathias Flacius Illyricus
published, at Strasburg, a small volume entitled: The
Latin Mass formerly in use about A. D. joo anterior to
the Roman Mass, faithfully transcribed from an ancient
and authentic codex. Flacius was a Protestant and the
Reformers hailed his book with joy, for in it they thought
they had a convincing argument against the authority of
the Roman Mass in use in the Church. At the same time
consternation fell upon the camp of the Church's de-
fenders. An ecclesiastical tribunal, called by Philip II.,
condemned the Mass of Illyricus. Pope Sixtus V. put
it on the Index. Then it was discovered that this Mass,
instead of opposing Catholic doctrine, furnished strong
evidence in favor of such warmly controverted doctrines
as the devotion to the Blessed Virgin, the cultus of the
saints, the doctrine of the Mass, of prayers for the
dead, of purgatory, etc. Tactics, of course, now
changed. The Reformers passed from the offensive to
the defensive, and strove to destroy the unfortunate
document. They succeeded in making copies of it so
scarce that it was little known until rediscovered and
edited by Lecointe in his Annales Ecclesice Francorum.
The doctrinal bearing of this Mass having been happily
settled in favor of Catholicism, the discussion has since
turned to the questions of its date, sources, and author.
Dom Cabrol in this number of the Revue offers as a
probable conclusion from a careful study of the data,
that the Mass of Illyricus is not anterior in date to the
Roman, but was composed during the reign of Charle-
magne and at his court somewhere between 780 and 796 ;
that it is a fusion of the Roman and Gallican liturgies;
and the probable author was the famous Alcuin.
Dom Clement begins a sketch of the career of Conrad
1905.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 421
d'Urach, sometime Abbot of Citeaux, later Superior-
General of the whole order, and finally raised to the
Cardinalate by Honorius III. Conrad lived in the
stirring times of the Fourth Lateran Council, and his
life gains an added interest from his prominence in ec-
clesiastical affairs as head of the grand order of Citeaux
and as Papal Legate. In an article entitled : " The
Idealism of Kant and Descartes," Dom Proost compares
the principles of these two founders of modern phil-
osophy, and concludes that both should be classed under
the head of temperate subjectivists. Dom Rene
Ancel continues his historical study of the politics of
Cardinal Charles Carafa. Two books dealing with
Holy Scripture have appeared during the past year
one in Italy by Fr. Bonaccorsi ; the other in Germany
by Fr. Hummelauer. A review of these volumes forms
the subject matter of an article by Dom Lebbe on the
" Inerrancy of the Bible." The writer sees similar ideas
and conclusions in each of these authors. The conclu-
sions he considers to be the last phase in the evolution
by which Catholic exegesis has come to regard the
Bible as a teacher neither of natural science nor of
history. The writer briefly examines the principles and
theory advocated by the two authors, paying especial
attention to Fr. Hummelauer, whose work he criticises
as too absolute while apparently agreeing with his
principles. The writer concludes with this observation:
"It is necessary, above all, that we reform our con-
cepts. In place of bringing the Bible to our level, we
ought to put ourselves on its level. There is nothing
to lose and everything to gain by this change of per-
spective."
Studi Religiosi (March-April): A summary is given of the
Italian pamphlet on Pius X. which has caused such
agitation in Rome. This remarkable document is cur-
rently reported to be either directly inspired by the
Pope, or to reflect his mind. It speaks out with almost
incredible boldness with regard to many needed reforms.
It castigates the methods of Italian seminaries, sayirg
that they have a tendency to stifle and retard generous
and frank characters, and to produce a bigoted and
422 FOREIGN PERIODICALS. [June,
hypocritical type of man. Ecclesiastical promotions have
too long depended upon influence, and have too long
given full play to selfish ambitions. Pius X.'s purpose
is to remove these scandals and to reward merit alone.
Many Roman Congregations urgently need reform, and
the Roman Prelatura must be thoroughly overhauled.
The great need of Catholicity is men of frank and
courageous character. F. Mari gives a sketch of
preaching methods in the early Church. M. Federici
describes the agricultural life of the ancient Hebrews.
N. Terzaghi outlines the methods and conclusions
of Miss Harrison's recent book on the Greek religion.
And P. Minocchi continues his new Italian transla-
tion of Isaias.
Atnalfs de Pkilosophie Chretienne (March): The Abbe Mesure
tells Catholics how to regard liberty of worship, of
speech, and of the press. He gives warning against
trying to bring the theoretical condemnation of these
liberties into the practical order, as though Catholics
would destroy them if they came into power. Theoreti-
cally error has no rights. But States and civilizations
are neither founded^on nor governed by theory. Rights
and liberties, too, are based on fact, not speculation.
And in the order of fact, at the present day, men have
a positive right to the fullest possible liberty of con-
science, speech, and the press. M. Girerd examines
inspiration in the light of psychology. He inclines to
the opinion that there is a hopeless contradiction in
the modern position of many Catholics, that there can
be historical and scientific mistakes in the Bible, and yet
no errors. M. Koch continues his studies on the
moral presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Two other
articles deal with Dante and mysticism, and the Logos
teaching of Tatian, Athenagoras, and Theophilus.
Revue des Questions Scientifiques (20 April) : M. Van Biervliet
treats the question of the " sixth sense " in a very in-
teresting and scholarly manner. The arguments of those
who deny the existence of the muscular sense are first
proposed ; the experiments and opinions of M. Flournoy
are dealt with especially. Over against these arguments
and experiments the writer places his own views, to-
1905.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 423
gather with the views of men like Woodworth and
Sherrington, from which he constructs very strong argu-
ments in favor of the existence of this "sixth sense."
An article upon what has been named "the lin-
guistic method of evangelization adopted by Rome" is
contributed by R. P. Peeters, S.J. He shows how great
has been the influence of the Church all over the world
in perfecting the languages of the nations with whom
she came in contact. In past ages the Church has done
a great deal for the Oriental languages. To-day, in the
Far East, her missionaries are doing valuable work by
writing grammars, dictionaries, geographies, etc., for the
poor natives among whom they have brought the Gos-
pel. Here in America we owe a great debt to Catholic
missionaries for their part in preserving the different
Indian languages. Out of the three hundred writers on
native languages of America there are two hundred and
twenty Catholic contributors. The article concludes with,
an excellent bibliography of the works of Catholic mis-
sionaries on the native languages of America, Oceanica,
Asia, and Africa.
Quartalschrift (April) : Prof. P. Wolfsgriiber gives a lengthy
historical sketch of the " Episcopal Conference " in Aus-
tria. After describing the needs and conditions that
called for this united effort of the Austrian bishops, he
gives a brief account of each of their several meetings,
and shows what the- " Conference " has done towards
protecting and promoting the interests of the church in
that country. Prince Max of Saxony has a thought-
ful paper on the heretical and schismatical churches of
the East. He calls attention especially to the amount
of . true doctrine that many of them still retain He be-
lieves that far too little effort is being made to bring
them back to the true faith. Fr. Weiss, O.P., con-
cludes his series on " Religious Danger."
THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION.
AT Cliff Haven, N. Y., on Lake Ckamplain, the Catholic Summer-School
will hold its fourteenth session during nine weeks, from July 5 to Sep-
tember 5, 1905. 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 relating to the
schedule of lectures :
First Week, July 5-7. Course of three lectures. Subject : America's
Work in the World's Progress, by Professor Francis X. Carmody, Department
of Constitutional Law in the Brooklyn Law School of St. Lawrence Uni-
versity, N. Y.
Evening Lecture Recitals. By Miss Charrille Runals, of New York
City. America in Song and Story.
Columbus, 1492. He gained a world ; he gave that world its grandest
lesson : On and on.
Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, 1620. A band of exiles moored their
bark on the wild New England shore.
Yankee Doodle. The gay little pivot upon which swung the mightiest
events of a nation's life.
The American Revolution, 1775-81. Vision of Betsey Ross ; Birth of
the Flag; The Old Thirteen.
War of the Sea, 1812-14. Constitution and Guerriere ; The Yankee
Boys for Fighting are the Dandy, oh ! ; Star Spangled Banner, with the third
verse in full; Song of America.
Civil War, 1861-65. Barbara Frietchie; Sheridan's Ride; To Canaan ;
Do They Miss Me at Home ? Year of Jubilee ; Battle Hymn of the Republic.
Banner of the Sea, 1889. American Prize Song in Times of Peace.
Song of the Drum. Old Glory.
Spanish-American War. Eighteen Ninety-eight Meets Fifteen Sixty-
two ; Call to Colors ; Just One Signal ; Keep On and On.
My Own Columbia. He who unfurled our beauteous banner says it shall
reign a thousand years.
Accompanist. Miss Marian C. Poole.
Second Week, July 10-14. Five lectures by the Rev. Joseph M. Woods,
S.J., Woodstock College, Md. Subject: The Bollandists. These scholars
represent the oldest literary and critical club in existence. Their work the
Ada Sanctorum, or Lives of the Saints is a storehouse of learning and a
model of sane and scholarly criticism within the Catholic Church.
Third Week, July 17-21. Five lectures by the Right Rev. Monsignor
Loughlin, D.D., Philadelphia. Subject: The Vatican Council, (i) A Sur-
vey of the Religious World Since the Council of Trent; (2) The Preparatory
Labors Relating to the Vatican Council ; (3) The Earlier Sessions ; (4) The
Question of Papal Infallibility; (5) The Fruits of the Council.
Fourth Week, July 21-28. Five lectures by Jean T. P. DesGarennes,
A.M., LL.M., Washington, D. C. Subject: A Comparative Study ot French
and English Comedy.
1905.] THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 425
Evening lectures by the Rev. James P. Fagan, S.J., Loyola School, New
York City. Subject : Forgotten Facts in the History of Education.
Lecture-Recitals by Camille W. Zeckwer, Director of the Philadelphia
Musical Academy. Subjects : Ancient Music to Fourteenth Century ; Folk
Music.
Fifth Week, July 31- August 4. Five lectures by the Rev. John T.
Creagh, D.D., J.U.D., LL.B., Catholic University, Washington, D. C. Sub-
ject: Religion and the State in America. .
Evening lectures by Miss Helena T. Goessmann, M.Ph., Department of
Catholic Higher Education in American Book Co., New York City. Sub-
jects: A Cosy Corner in Bookland ; Some Facts and a Fiction in the Hall of
Education.
Lecture-Recitals by Camille W. Zeckwer, illustrating the Eternal Femi-
nine in Music versus Sacred Music.
Sixth Week, August /-//. Five lectures by the Rev. John T. Driscoll,
S.T.L., Diocese of Albany. Subject: Philosophy Among the Novelists.
(i) Scott and the Romantic Movement; (2) Victor Hugo : -Romanticism and
Realism; (3) Balzac and Realism; (4) George Eliot and Positivism; (5)
Mrs. Humphry Ward and Humairitarianism.
Evening lectures by the Hon. Hugh Hastings, New York State Historian,
Albany, N. Y. Subject : Battles With England in New York State. The
battle of Saratoga treated from the political and philosophical as well as the
military standpoint. Contests for supremacy on Lake.Champlain during the
War of the Revolution and the War of 1812.
Lectures by the Rev. Bertrand L. Conway, C.S.P., New York City.
Subject: Conditions in Palestine During the Public Ministry of Christ.
Seventh Week, August 14-18. Five lectures by Professor J. C. Mona-
ghan, of the Department of Commerce and Labor, Washington, D. C.
(1) The Game of Empire What the game is; by whom it is being
played What it was in the past ; by whom played What it meant then
What it is now What it means, may, or must mean What it is to be
Dangers, doubts, deficiencies. The Golden Rule What is wanted to usher
it in What has been done to help the world to understand it and attain it.
(2) Commercial and Industrial Asia Asia's resources Pastoral, agri-
cultural, mineral, fisheries, forestal, etc. Possibilities of power coal, water,
wind. Its industrial and commercial past, present, and future What it all
means to us and to others.
(3) Commercial Europe Its pastoral, agricultural, mineral, fish, forest,
and other possibilities. Its possibilities of power derived from coal, water,
wind. Its industrial past, present, future.
(4) Commercial and Industrial America Its resources pastoral, agri-
cultural, mineral, fish, forest, etc., etc. Possibilities of power coal, water,
wind. The industrial history of its past, present, and the possibilities of the
future.
(5) Commercial and Industrial Africa. Its resources pastoral, agricul-
tural, mineral, fish, forests, etc. Possibilities of power from water, wind, and
coal. Its industrial and commercial history. The past, the present, the
future. Commercial and Industrial Australasia. Its resources pastoral,
426 THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. [June,
agricultural, mineral, fish, forest, etc. Possibilities of power from coal,
water, and wind. Industrial history of its past, the present, and the outlook
for the future.
Evening lectures by James J. Walsh, M.D., Ph.D., LL.D., New York
City. Subject: Biology Present Position of Darwinism.
I. Significance of Darwinism; II. Color Problems in Nature; III. Dar-
win as a Poet rather than a Scientist ; IV. Evolution from Within.
Eighth Week, August 21-23, Five lectures by James J. Walsh, Ph.D.,
M.D., LL.D.. Subject: Some Steps in Physiological Psychology. I. Multi-
plicity of Senses and Sense Organs; II. Some Conditions of Sensation; III.
Vision; IV. Illusions; V. Emotions and Sensations.
Ninth Week, August 28-September i. Five lectures by the Rev. Francis
P. Siegfried, St. Charles Seminary, Overbrook, Pa. Subject : Some Catholic
Ideals in the light of Common Sense, Philosophy, and Poetry.
The aim of this course will be to define these three points of view and to
illustrate them by application to certain Catholic ideals, notably those for
which the Summer-School exists.
Lectures are arranged for the Rev. P. J. MacCorry, C.S.P., August 28-
29. Subject: The Gospel Narrative as illustrated by Christian art, with a
large collection of the finest views.
Three lectures on American Humorists, by Mr. W. P. Oliver, Brooklyn,
New York City, September i, 4, 5.
Two lectures on the True and False interpreters of the teaching of St.
Francis of Assisi, in view of his Seventh Centenary, by the Rev. F. Pascal
(Robinson), O.F.M., July 20, 21.
Two lectures, July 10, II, by the Rev. Valentine Kohlbeck, O.S.B., Di-
rector of the Bohemian Benedictine Press, 464 West Eighteenth Street, Chi-
cago, 111. The publications under his charge are:
Ndrod, Daily and Sunday. Katolik, semi-weekly. Pritel Ditek, weekly.
Hospoddrske Listy, semi-monthly.
Two lectures, July 17, 18, by Professor C. H. Schultz, Newman School,
Hackensack, N. J., prepared with a view to determine Cardinal Newman's
place in the realm of literature as a writer of prose and poetry.
Miss Marie Narelle, the distinguished Australian soprano, will be one
of the soloists at the Catholic Summer-School at Cliff Haven.
Two lectures, July 13, 14, by Professor W. F. P. Stockley, Halifax,
N. S., Canada, dealing with the latest researches concerning religion in
Shakespeare. i. The Religious Spirit in Shakespeare: The subject of
Shakespeare's plays, and their consequent limitations; what is assumed, in
religion and in morals, if not expressed ; the variety of life, the humor of
life, the facts, and the difficulties ; the triumphs of evil; the absolute good;
no bar in the plays to further knowledge by revelation ; the scepticism of
" Hamlet " and of " Lear "; the supernatural and the fancies of the "Mid-
summer Night's Dream" and the "Tempest." 2. Shakespeare and the
Church: The age of Elizabeth, and the first generation under the new reli-
gion ; the advantage of Catholic insight in feeling with and understanding
these circumstances; Shakespeare's treatment of anti-Catholic passages in
older plays ; the spirit of Shakespeare's contemporaries; his attitude towards
1905.] THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 427
clerical and monastic life, and towards Catholic observances ; the Papacy and
"King John" and " Henry VIII." ; the Renaissance, the Reformation, and
the Church; Coleridge's judgment, Taine's, and Dowden; Puritanism within
the Church and without; the effects of the break up of Western Christen-
dom ; Shakespeare's use of the Bible.
Conference on methods of advancing Catholic Educational work in Par-
ish Schools and Sunday-Schools, August 28, under the direction of the Rev.
Thomas McMillan, C.S.P., to whom all inquiries bearing on this department
may be sent, addressed to 415 West 59th Street, New York City. Special
attention will be directed to the misleading and unreliable statistics relating
to Catholic Schools as usually given in the reports of public officials.
Reading Circle Day, August 30. Programme to be arranged by Warren
E. Mosher, A.M., Editor of the Champlain Educator, which is especially de-
voted to the advancement of Reading Circles. Send for specimen copy to
No. 39 East 42d Street, New York City.
Special Lectures for Teachers. The picturesque environment of Lake
Champlain, together with the distinguished abilities of the specialists chosen
for the lectures, will secure for those in attendance a most favorable opportu-
nity to combine pleasure and profit. Some of the informal discussions after
the lectures, in the beautiful pine grove overlooking the lake at Cliff Haven,
will be found much more deligh'ful than the ordinary meetings held tor self-
improvement during the school year.
Physical Culture. Miss Loretta Hawthorne Hayes, 416 North Main
Street, Waterbury, Conn., will organize a class for physical culture and
dancing. During the sessions of 1903 and 1904 Miss Hayes was a favorite
with the hundred or more children at Cliff Haven. By the plan approved
this year the little folks can acquire useful instruction in combination with
suitable entertainment. For particulars, parents are requested to write to
Miss Hayes.
Lessons in Music. Mr. Camille W. Zeckwer will arrange for music les-
sons at Cliff Haven. At his recitals in the auditorium he will include selec-
tions from leading musical composers in America and Europe. He is pre-
pared to teach Piano, Organ, Violin, and Theory, including Harmony, Coun-
terpoint, Canon, Imitation, Fugue, Composition, and Instrumentation, at
summer rates. Mr. Zeckwer is Director of the Germantown Branch of the
Philadelphia Musical Academy, Organist and Director of St. John's Roman
Catholic Church, Philadelphia, and Director of the Manheim Orchestra.
Post Office address : No. 6,029 Main Street, Germantown, Philadelphia, Pa.
The Summer Institute for Teachers, established at the Cliff Haven Sum-
mer-School by the State of New York, under the Department of Public Instruc-
tion, will be opened on July 3, and will continue for four weeks. Registra-
tion will close on July 10, and no students will be registered after that date.
Courses of instruction will be provided to meet the needs of teachers, but
Latin, Greek, French, and German will be omitted from the curriculum of
studies this year.
The programme of courses and instructors will be published in a separate
prospectus, which may be had by addressing the Education Department, State
of New York, Albany.
Athletic Sports. A varied programme has been arranged by Mr. James
428 THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. [June,
E. Sullivan, including Rowing, Swimming, Archery, Basketball, Golf, Base-
ball, etc. As the director of the World's Fair Athletic Exhibit at St. Louis,
Mr. Sullivan has been honored with the highest recognition that can be given
in America. He was an officer of the National Association and in the Athletic
Union. A member of the first board of governors of the Amateur Athletic
Union, and is at present the only active member who has served since the
formation.
The Summer-School has been honored by having as special guests the
most distinguished citizens of our country, among them the late President of
the United States, William McKinley; President Theodore Roosevelt, when
Governor of New York State; the late Vice-President, Garrett L. Hobart,
Admiral Schley, and others.
From England comes the Right Reverend Dom Gasquet's tribute :
4 GREAT ORMOND STREET,
LONDON, W. C.,
March 13, 1905.
DEAR FATHER MCMILLAN : Your letter brought back many pleasant recol-
lections of last summer at the Catholic Summer-School. I have often thought
how delightful my first experience of America was with your Paulist Fathers
at Lake George and then at Cliff Haven.
The Summer-School was in many ways the most interesting thing I saw
in America. It is a wonderful creation; and if it only keeps up, as there is
every prospect of it doing, it cannot fail to do great good to Catkolics. The
mere fact of bringing so many Catholics together, and getting them to know
each other, is a great matter. I fear that with us such a thing would be
practically impossible. Then, too, the lectures must have a very great educa-
tional value, and it was a very great pleasure and surprise to me to see how
well they were attended.
Please remember me most kindly to all your Fathers, and believe me,
Yours very sincerely, FRANCIS A. GASQUET.-
Dom Gasquet's luminous exposition of the condition of mediaeval England
as showing an ideal of Christian Democracy, so highly praised by Pope Leo
XIII., will long be remembered by those who heard him last year at Cliff
Haven. He was accompanied by the Right Rev. Mgr. Nugent, who has been
a devoted friend of the Summer-School for many years, and a welcome visitor
during two sessions.
* * *
In these days of public reading rooms, public libraries, and other insti-
tutions and associations for the spreading of knowledge, the develop-
ment of character and manhood, it might seem that there is little room to
appeal for reading facilities for one particular class of men but there is,
and that for a class in which Catholics should be particularly interested.
And this is the great army of young men who are busy in the forests, or in
developing our mineral wealth, or constructing our railroads. It may sur-
prise many readers to learn that there are some fifty thousand men engaged
in the lumbering industry in Ontario alone not to mention the great army
of miners scattered far and wide cut off from home influence, Church
influence, and the opportunities for self-improvement provided in thickly
settled places.
1905.] THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 429
Ofttimes there is loud complaint that these young men annually spend
their hard-earned wages in a few nights of debauch. The loss of money is
the least part of the evil. The real tragedy took place, not in the town and
saloon under the public eye, but away back in camp on Sundays and even-
ings when, off work, the young man, remote from his Church, his hcme, and
his employers, with no means of occupying or improving his mind, missed
opportunity to buttress the fortress of the soul.
A movement has been started known as the Canadian Reading Camp
Association ; which provides rooms for reading, entertainment, and intel-
lectual advancement in lumbering, mining, and construction camps. The
Reading Association proposes in particular to put up a building at each
lumber operation, fitting it up attractively, placing on the tables magazines,
current literature, daily papers, innocent games, so that the men when off
work may have a place to enjoy some good wholesome reading and
recreation.
Another phase of the work is that a man is placed in charge of the read-
ing camp, who takes up instruction work with the men and seeks to interest
them in things pertaining to their higher nature. The moral aim of the
association is the developing of character, and the seeking to place an influ-
ence round the shantyman and miner, which shall help him to resist tempta-
tions on returning to the cities and towns.
The Ontario Government has recognized the work by a small subscrip-
tion, $500 last year, but otherwise so far it is entirely supported by business
men and public men interested in such aims. The association should com-
mend itself to all citizens, for society owes much to frontier pioneers.
The Catholics of Ottawa especially, where this Reading Camp Asso-
ciation has an office under the care of Mr. H. D. Robertson, should be vigi-
lant in resisting any attempt to make this philanthropic movement an agency
for heretical teaching. The selection of the books and magazines will re-
quire the decision of fair minds. We have already shown in this depart-
ment, by a review of Black Rock, written by Ralph Connor, that a novel
may be used for sectarian purposes. Such a signature as Ralph Connor
may deceive many readers, who would be on guard at once if they knew that
the author's real name is the Rev. Charles W. Gordon, a Protestant min-
ister of Winnipeg, Manitoba, having no love for the French Canadians, and
something like hate for the Catholic people of Ireland, as proved by the
fact that he selects his sinners and his villains from these two races. Per-
haps his ideal of fraternity is the Orange lodge.
A letter from the Rev. Charles W. Gordon (Ralph Connor) was read at
the Canadian Club, in Toronto, on March 7, in which the statement was
made that Sir Wilfrid Laurier had allowed his judgment to be clouded and
his mind to be disturbed from its equitable poise "by the undue influence of
a bigoted and sectarian group of his followers." The only offence charged to
the Catholic premier of Canada was that he proposed to extend to the new
provinces the same broad toleration which the Catholics of Quebec have long
conceded to the Protestant minority, in allowing public money to be given
for separate denominational schools.
M. C. M.
BOOKS RECEIVED.
BENZIGER BROTHERS, New York:
Some Little London Children. By Mother M. Salome. Pp. 171. Price 75 cents. The
Spirit of Sacrifice. From the original of Rev. S. M. Giraud. Revised by Rev. Her-
bert Thurston, S.J. Pp. 500. Price Ss. The Ttansplanting of Tessie. By Mary F.
Waggaman. Pp. 186. Price 60, cents. By What Authority ? By Robert Hugh
Benson. Price $1.60.
LONGMANS, GREEN & Co., New York:
Home is Best. Papers by Susan Sybilla Soulsby. Edited with preface by L. H. M.
Soulsby. Pp. 126. Price zs.
LITTLE, BROWN & Co., Boston:
On the Firing Line. By Anna Chapin Ray and Hamilton Brock Fuller. Pp. 289. Price
$1.50. A Knot of Blue. By William R. A. Wilson. Pp. 355. Price $1.50. Curly.
A Tale of the Arizona Desert. By Roger Pocock. Pp. 330. Price $1.50.
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & Co., Boston and New York:
The Children of Good Fortune. By C. Hanford Henderson. Pp. 406. Isidro. By Mary
Austin. Pp. 425. Price $1.50. The Christian Ministry. By Lyman -Abbott. Pp.
317. Price $1.50 net.
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, New York:
The Cambridge Modern History. Vol. VIII. The French Revolution. Planned by the
late Lord Acton, LL.D. Edited by A. W. Ward. Pp. 875. Price $4 net.
THE CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY, Chicago, 111.:
The Popes in Rome. Pp. 30. Price one cent. Paper. Agnosticism. By Most Rev. P.
J. Ryan, D.D., LL.D. Pp.23. Price one cent. Paper. The Truth. Are You Sin-
cere? Pp. 14. Price one cent. Paper.
FR. PUSTET & Co., New York:
Bob Ing ersoll's Egosophy ; and other Poems. By Rev. James McKernan. Pp. 65. Price
60 cents net.
THE KNICKERBOCKER PRESS, New York:
The Haunted Temple; and other Poems . By Ed. Doyle. Pp. 92.
THE McGRAW PUBLISHING COMPANY, New York :
The Letter of Petrus Peregrinus on the Magnet, A.D. 1269. Translated by Brother Arnold,
M.Sc., with Introductory notice by Brother Potamian, D.Sc. Pp. 41.
THE CATHOLIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, New York :
Vigils with Jesus. By Rev. John L. Whelan. Pp. 94. Price 40 cents.
ROBERT GRIFR COOKE, New York :
The Vanishing Su-ede. By Mary Hamilton O'Connor. Pp. 209.
THE CHRISTIAN PRESS ASSOCIATION, New York:
The Sacrifice of the Mass. By Very Rev. Alex. MacDonald, D.D., V.G. Pp. 117. Price
60 cents net. Postage 6 cents extra.
ROOSEVELT HOSPITAL, New York :
Thirty-third Annual Report, from January i , 1904, to December ji, 1904. Pp. 145.
THE GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, Washington, D. C. :
Report of the Commissioner of Education for the year /ooj. Vol. I. Pp. 1,216.
KANSAS STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, Topeka, Kans.:
Report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, for the Quarter ending March, 1905. Pp.
246.
H. W. MANGOLD & O. LUND, Spokane, Wash.:
The Four Orphans. A Tale of the Twentieth Century Slaves. By H. W. Mangold and
O.Lund. Pp.237. Price 50 cents. Paper.
VICTOR LECOFFRE, Paris:
Initiatives Feminines. Par Max Turmann. Pp. 428.
LIBRAIRIE BLOUD ET CIE, Paris:
L Authenticity du Quatrieme vatigile et La These de M. Loisy. Par A. Nouvelle. Pp.
176. Paper. Les Actes des Apotres. Traduction et Commentaire par V. Rose, O.P.
Pp. 273. Paper. Epitres Catholiques ; Apocalypse. Traduction et Commentaire. Par
Th. Calmes, S.S.C.C. Pp.238. Paper. Les Principes, ou Essai sur le Probleme des
Destinies de L'Homme. Par L'Abbe Georges Fremont. VI. La Divinite" du Christ.
Pp. 420. Paper.
DODGE PUBLISHING COMPANY, New York:
Friendship's Fragrant fancies. By Catherine Moriarty. Pp. 167.
P. J. KENEDY & SONS, New York:
Whirlwind. By Catherine Faber. Pp.466. Price $1.25.
^ THE
CATHOLIC WORLD.
VOL. LXXXI. JULY, 1905. No. 484.
DUBLIN CASTLE IN 1798.
BY WILLIAM F. DENNEHY.
NE of the latest publications of the English Histori-
cal Manuscripts Commission is a volume com-
posed of documents in the possession of Mr. I.
B. Fortescue, preserved at his family seat, Drop-
more. The volume has been admirably edited
by Mr. Walter Fitzpatrick, who has shown no desire to sup-
press anything tending to promote the interests of historic
truth. As a result of his conscientiousness, the collection of
papers now printed casts much light on the condition of things
prevailing in Dublin Castle and in the inner councils of the
Irish Government during the period of 1;he Rebellion of 1798.
The useful information thus conveyed is contained, for the
most part, in a series of letters written from Dublin by the
Marquis of Buckingham* to his relative, Lord Grenville, then
a member of the British Cabinet, as Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs. The Marquis came to Ireland as the professed
friend of Lord Cornwallis, who had succeeded the Earl of
Camden in the office of Lord Lieutenant. Camden, aided by
the brutal exertions of Luttrell, Lord Carhampton,f who held
George, second Earl Temple, born i7th of June, 1753. Created Marquis of Buckingham,
4th of December, 1784. Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1782, and again in 1787. He died nth
of February, 1813. He was succeeded in his titles by his son, who was created Duke of Buck-
ingham in 1822.
t Henry Lawes Luttrell, second Earl of Carhampton, a man of infamous private and
public character. General in the British army and Colonel of the Sixth Dragoon Guards.
He held the position of Commander-in-Chief in Ireland in 1796-97. He was born August 7,
1743, an d died April 25, 1821. As an Irish peer he was eligible for election to the Westminster
House of Commons after the passage of the Act of Union, and was returned to Parliament as
member for Okehampton in 1817. He retained the seat until his death.
Copyright. 1905. THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE
IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
VOL. LXXXI. 28
432 DUBLIN CASTLE IN 1798. [July,
the position of Commander-in-Chief, had been the person most
responsible for goading the people into revolt, and for forcing
the leaders of the United Irishmen to embark on a civil war
for which their followers were but poorly prepared. It turned
out, however, that both Camden aud Carhampton had allowed
their hatred of the majority of the people of Ireland to hurry
them into a course of action which did not at all accord with
the military convenience of their masters in England. Camden,
indeed, became panic-stricken at the result of the policy of
torture, which he had set Carhampton and his soldiers loose to
carry into effect, and wrote to London imploring Pitt and his
colleagues to send over Cornwallis to take command of the
army or as Viceroy. As a result of this appeal, the latter was
appointed both Commander-in-Chief and Lord Lieutenant.
When, however, the question of sending reinforcements to
Ireland came to be considered, it was found that, outside of
the brigade of Guards, the entire number of regular troops in
Great Britain was something less than 4,000 men, many of
them only recently enlisted. The Guards were 4.500 strong,
but there was little inclination to send them across the St.
George's Channel.
At this perilous juncture, Buckingham came to the succor
of the Government and of Cornwallis with a suggestion which
was promptly acted upon. He was Colonel of the Buckingham-
shire Militia and, having sounded the feelings of the officers
and men of that corps, proposed to Lord Grenville that a
Bill should be introduced into Parliament permitting English
Militia regiments to volunteer for service in Ireland for a certain
limited period. The idea was gratefully approved and, in due
course, Buckingham and his men were transported to the
scene of conflict. They arrived, however, rather late in the
day. The issue of the insurrection, regarded from a military
point of view, had never been for a moment in doubt. Save
in the County of Wexford, where Orange Protestant outrages
had absolutely compelled not only the people but many of
their priests to take up arms in self-defence, the bulk of the
Catholic population and of their clergy held aloof from a
movement which they fully recognized could only result in
delivering them into the hands of their bitterest enemies.
Nothing can be more certain than that, despite all the
temptations of cruelty and tyranny, the great mass of the
1905.] DUBLIN CASTLE IN 1798. 433
Catholics of Ireland maintained their allegiance to the throne
throughout 1798, and this despite circumstances of exaspera-
tion probably unparalleled in the history of Christendom. The
explanation of their patience is not, however, far to seek. AH
power was in the hands of the landlord oligarchy, who domi-
nated the Irish Parliament, exclusively Protestant as it was in
composition. They realized that most of the wrongs which
they endured were the creation of a bigoted and intolerant
section of their fellow-countrymen, and many amongst them
were, naturally enough, by no means disinclined to look to
England for relief from native tyrants. Mr. Fitzpatrick quite
correctly summarizes the events of the time in the following
words :
When Bonaparte turned his mind, at the end of February,
1798, from an invasion of England to conquest in the East,
the French Directory pledged itself to Wolfe Tone and
Lewins, agents at Paris of the Society of United Irishmen, to
equip and despatch simultaneously to convenient points of the
Irish coast, several small expeditions in aid of a national in-
surrection. In France, however, performance lagged a long
way behind promise. And the arrest of Lord Edward Fitz-
gerald and the Messrs. Sheares at Dublin in May disconcerted
the plans of the Governing Council of the United Irishmen.
A few partial outbreaks of civil war within the confines of the
old English pale, and in one or two counties of Ulster gave
little cause of apprehension. But the burnings and other out-
rages of bodies of yeomanry, living at free quarters among a
Catholic population, provoked a semi-religious conflict in
Wexford, which proved truly formidable, and threw the Irish
Government into a state of panic.
It was under such circumstances that the Marquis of Buck-
ingham and his militia regiment were sent to Dublin. Already,
however, Nitt and Grenville had decided to make effort to
subvert the Parliamentary Constitution of Ireland by means of
a legislative union between that country and Great Britain.
In pursuance of this policy, Buckingham, as an ex- Lord Lieu-
tenant, was regarded as a suitable person to carry on certain
extra-official negotiations likely to assist in the development
of the scheme which found favor in the eyes of the two states-
men named.
The first of the Marquis' letters from Dublin, contained in
the collection now published, dated July 6, 1/98, was addressed
434 DUBLIN CASTLE IN 1798. [July,
to Lord Grenville, was written in the Dublin barracks, in
which Buckingham and his regiment were quartered and where-
in, as he states, he had " taken refuge from all politics . . .
up three pairs of stairs." Nevertheless the letter shows that
the writer was busily engaged in intrigue. It ran in part as
follows :
I have not time to say much to you, nor do I see my way
clearly enough through all the difficulties of this moment to
form any very decided opinions respecting the state of this
kingdom. But it seems as if the moment was very critical,
and certainly it will require L,ord Cornwallis' best exertions
to save Ireland from a very long and very fanatical war.
Much as I had trusted to my knowledge of this country, I had
not a conception of the extent to which the religious differ-
ences are now carried; or of the creed of persecution,
preached by both sects as indispensable to the peace of the
country. The barbarities and bigotry of the Catholics can
only be equalled by the project of extirpation of which all
good Protestants talk with great composure as the only cure
for the present, and the only sure preventive for the future.
Nor do I find one who does not believe that it is the interest
and intention of Great Britain to fight that battle "usque ad
internecionem." .
This description of the state of feeling between Catholics
and Protestants cannot be regarded as over-colored. The most
ruthless and sanguinary amongst those engaged in the sup-
pression of the rebellion were the most determined and vehe-
ment opponents of any project of union with Great Britain,
because they feared that, as actually happened, an Imperial
Parliament would grant Catholic emancipation, and eventually
put an end to Protestant ascendency in the administration of
the local or provincial affairs of the country. The reality of
the apprehensions which stimulated "patriots" of the type of
Speaker Foster* to hostility towards Clare and Castlereagh,
* Right Hon. John Foster, born September 28, 1740, died August 23, 1828. His wife, who
was a daughter of Mr. Thomas Burgh, M.P., of Bert, was created Baroness Oriel in 1790,
and made Viscountess Ferrard in 1797. Foster obtained these dignities for his partner as he
had no inclination to relinquish his lucrative position as Speaker of the Irish House of Com-
mons, while he wished to secure the ennobling of his descendants. In September, 1785, he
was elected Speaker, holding the office until the Union, when he obtained a pension of
^5,038 per annum. He sat for the County of Louth in the Irish and English Parliaments from
1769 till July 17, 1821, when he was created Lord Oriel in the peerage of the United King-
dom. He was a bitter enemy of the Catholics of Ireland, and opposed the Union mainly be-
cause he regarded the College Green Parliament as the principal bulwark of Protetsant
ascendency.
1905.] DUBLIN CASTLE IN 1798. 435
in their efforts to pass the Act of Union, were only fully ap-
preciated by their descendants, who are mostly Unionists, when
Mr. Gerald Balfour induced the Westminster Parliament to
accept his Irish Local Government Act, which has practically
transferred the whole control of local concerns from the Prot-
estant landowner minority to the Catholic majority of the peo-
ple.
At the time the letter just quoted from was written, Buck-
ingham was still on friendly terms with Lord Cornwallis, and
approved the measures he was taking to bring to an end the
system of terrorism and torture set afoot by Camden and
Carhampton. On the 23d of July, 1798, he wrote again to Lord
Grenville assuring him that tranquillity was being restored and
military license checked. In the course of this communication
he said :
I know that Lord Cornwallis feels as I do upon this
point, but his generals (I believe the worst in Europe) do
not seem to have an idea of enforcing any one of the first
principles necessary for a soldier. The rapine and cruelties
of the troops have, in many instances, been as atrocious as
they have been mischievous to the public service. Lord
Cornwallis knows that in many instances the surrender of
individuals and even of parties has been checked; and, in
some, the wretches actually refused when suing for the pro-
clamation pardons.
Buckingham went on to describe how, by opening negotia-
tions with the Kildare rebels, he had induced 5,000 of thetn,
with their commanders, Messrs. Aylmer and Fitzgerald,* to
surrender. It may be noted, however, that they had previ-
ously lost 2,000 of their original strength. That the Marquis
was friendly towards the Catholics is shown very clearly in
this letter which proceeds as follows:
This proclamation (i.e., of amnesty and protection on
surrender), and the general tenor of Lord Cornwallis' very
* William Aylmer, of Painstown, born 1777, died June 21, 1820. He surrendered July 12,
1798, to General Dundas, on the sole condition that his life would be spared. He earned a
high reputation for chivalry and clemency during the Rebellion. In 1801, he entered the
Austrian service, and commanded the cavalry escort which accompanied the Empress Marie
Louise from Paris to Vienna in 1814. Shortly afterwards he resigned his Austrian commis-
sion, proceeding to South America, where he served in the War of Independence, under Gen-
eral Devereux, as colonel of a lancer regiment. He was mortally wounded at Rio de la Hache,
but lived to be conveyed to Jamaica, where he died as he was being landed. His companion,
mentioned by Buckingham, was Edward Fitzgerald, of Newpark, County Wexford, a gentle-
man of considerable means.
436 DUBLIN CASTLE IN 1798. [July,
meritorious conduct, has raised much ferment amongst the
very violent Orangemen, who have formed a very dangerous
society, professing very loyal principles, but certainly united
as a body almost in every town in Ireland in contradistinction
to the Catholics ; and wherever they have not been suffered
to be formed, namely, in the counties of Kerry, Clare,
Galway, Sligo, Mayo, all which are Catholic counties, not
a man has stirred, nor has a United Irishman taken arms.
It is, however, understood that the Catholics there are only
quiet because the Protestants are so.
Very soon, however, Buckingham altered his attitude
towards Cornwallis, and so far from his conduct being de-
scribed as " very meritorious," it was henceforth criticised in
the most hostile fashion. This was due to what the Marquis
regarded as a professional slight inflicted on him by the Lord
Lieutenant. The French had landed at Killala, and Cornwallis
was engaged in hastily assembling troops to oppose the pro-
gress of Humbert and his followers. In this emergency, he
ordered the bulk of Buckingham's militiamen to the front, but
commanded their Colonel, with a small remnant of the regi-
ment, to remain in Dublin. The Marquis was frantic. On the
26th of August, 1798, he wrote a furious letter to Grenville
describing the manner in which he had been treated. He said :
I have now to state to you the situation in which per-
sonally I have been placed by the measures taken by Lord
Cornwallis on the 24th. I heard this news from the officer
commanding the artillery here, having just received orders
from Lieutenant-General Craig to parade 350 men for an
immediate move. Though I was a little hurt at receiving
orders in that way from Lieutenant-General Craig, without
the slightest communication, as usual, from Lord Corn-
wallis, I wrote instantly to him< to offer and to request that
I might move with my detachment, or that I might com-
mand the two detachments (namely, the Warwick and mine),
and to offer my services in any way in which my local
knowledge or any other circumstances could make me useful.
To this I received a dry note thanking me for the offer,
but stating "that it was his intention that the detachments
should be commanded by a Lieutenant- Colonel or Major."
The next day, yesterday, my detachment was increased to
500 men, and I then wrote another note to press the same
thing, and to intimate very strongly, though in the easiest
1905.] DUBLIN CASTLE IN 1798. 437
terms, my confidence that if he left Dublin he would not
leave me and my regiment to ' ' faire la guerre des pots de
chambre."
This appeal, coarsely enforced though it was, was answered
by a verbal message, conveyed by Lord Hobart,* that the
Viceroy " felt it awkward to write, but that he was very sorry
to decline offers which were very handsome." Henceforth there
was war to the knife between Buckingham and Cornwallis.
Two days later, the 28th of August, the Marquis transmitted
to Grenville the sorry tidings of the historic " races of Castle-
bar," doing so in terms which indicated his belief that the
United Irishmen had underground channels of communication
unknown to the Government. He said :
During the whole of yesterday they (i. e. the Castle author-
ities) attempted to keep as a profound secret the news of the
entire defeat of our troops under Hutchinson, but actually
commanded by L/ake.t The secret was instantly whispered ;
and I (who knew, and had told Cooke that I had proof, that
Lewins, the agent from O'Connor to France, had landed with
them, and had sent up an account to his friends four hours
before the Government received theirs) soon heard the fact,
which can hardly be mis-stated because nothing could be
more complete.
Then followed an account of the so-called battle, which
came to a speedy termination through the early recognition by
Lake's yeomanry and militia regiments that conflict with trained
French troops was a wholly different thing from combat with
undisciplined and ill-armed Irish peasants. Buckingham went on :
Our artillery eight pieces evidently had the advantage,
and everything promised most fairly, when the stray shot of
some of the French guns opened on our infantry, who gave
way instantly in the most cowardly manner, particularly as
* Robert Lord Hobart, who was Chief Secretary for Ireland, April 1789 to 1793. He was
member for Portarlington in the Irish House of Commons from 1785 to 1790 ; and for Armagh
to 1797. He was called to the Irish House of Lords in 1798 and in 1804 became fourth Earl
of Buckinghamshire.
t Gerard Lake, born July 27, 1744, died February 20, 1808. In consequence of his suc-
cessful services in India, he was created a Peer in 1804, as Baron Lake, being raised to the
Viscounty in 1807. He was during the greater portion of his life a boon companion to the
Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV. He surrendered to the Americans at Yorktown. On
the creation of a vacancy in the representation of Armagh in 1799, through Hobart's elevation
to the House of Lords, he secured membership of the Irish House of Commons.
438 DUBLIN CASTLE IN 77^, [July,
I hear the Fraser fencibles and the Kilkenny militia. The
enemy occupied Castlebar and last night they had pushed on
to Tuam.
The invasion was, of course, merely a move in the huge
game of war which Napoleon was playing for the capture of
Egypt. He made pretence at yielding to the solicitations of
Wolfe Tone,* but the force landed at Killala for the supposed
conquest of Ireland would scarcely have been sufficient for the
permanent occupation of the Arran Isles in face of English
hostility. What Napoleon actually sought, and to some con-
siderable extent secured, was the distraction of English naval
attention from the Mediterranean to the British Channel and
the Atlantic.
Buckingham, apparently, was in nearly the same condition
of panic as the militiamen who fled at Castlebar. His letter
makes this quite plain. He went on, in almost hysterical tones,
to bemoan that " In the midst of all this we have no Govern-
ment, or anything like one, in the capital, where people talk
of a rising with the same coolness as they would of any other
event." He found some consolation in the fact that he was
" persuaded that there will be no rising in Dublin " ; but as
against this he was " most sure that there will be risings in
Meath and Kildare." Worst of all, " the real mischief is the
no-government in the no- hands of Lord Castlereagh and Gen-
eral Craig." Both Castlereagh and Craig possessed the confi-
dence of Cornwallis, and this was sufficient to deprive them of
Buckingham's. Two days later he had, in some degree, recov-
ered his equanimity and accordingly wrote Grenville, on the
3Oth of August, telling him that:
After Lord Cornwallis had wrote word to the Duke of Port-
land that Lake had been forced to evacuate Tuam, and that
the French had occupied it, he wrote to Lord Castlereagh to
* Theobald Wolfe Tone, born June 20, 1762, died November 19, 1798. He married, in
July, 1785, a Miss Matilda Witherington, whose sister was the wife of Thomas Reynolds, the
informer who betrayed the revolutionary purposes of the Society of the United Irishmen to the
Government. Tone was admitted a member of the Irish Bar in 1789, but never had any legal
business. Although a Protestant, he was employed as the paid secretary of the Committee
for obtaining redress of Catholic grievances, and in this capacity did much good work. His
Memoirs, written by himself and edited by his son, contain many passages which display a
strange perversion of judgment on many religious and social questions. It is impossible to
read them without being convinced that the failure of the French invasion of Ireland was a
blessing for her people. That Napoleon, however, expected the expedition to succeed is
mpossible to believe.
1905.] DUBLIN CASTLE IN 1798. 439
stop the letter, for that the officer who had reported it to
him appeared to be deranged in his mind, and that Lake had
collected 1,800 troops there, and meant to hold it.
The purely strategical character of the invasion was evi-
denced by the fact that the French were already surrendering
the prisoners taken at Castlebar " not having men to guard
them." They did not, however, return the nine pieces of
cannon, with tumbrels and ammunition, which they also cap-
tured. Buckingham declared that "every militiaman ran be-
fore the enemy got within musket shot of them," and that
"never was so disgraceful a scene." He went on to say that
he -intended to resign all his commissions by way of protest
against the action of the Lord Lieutenant in leaving him to
do garrison work in Dublin when fighting was afoot.
The French, from the first moment of their landing, had
been in a hopeless position, despite the victory obtained at
Castlebar. This is made evident by a letter written to Buck-
ingham by Major Freemantle, one of the officers of his regi-
ment, whom Cornwallis had ordered to the front while he con-
demned its Colonel to inactivity in the capital. Freemantle
wrote from Athlone, on August 29, 1798, as follows:
After a very fatiguing march of sixteen miles from Tul-
lamore to this place, we encamped near Athlone, under the
command of General Moore and Lord Huntley, with the
two brigades twenty light companies the One Hundredth
regiment, eight pieces of artillery, and one brigade, which I
command. We were joined during the night and early this
morning by the Reay, Sutherland, and Suffolk Fencibles,
the Armagh and the Downshire, with a troop of the Hom-
pesch. . . . We have in our army about six thousand
. seven hundred infantry.*
Buckingham, in his letters to Grenville, continued to criti-
cise Cornwallis, who was bent on making assurance doubly
sure by collecting an army sufficiently strong to render sur-
render by the French inevitable. On the ist of September, he
wrote to Grenville as follows :
His (i.e., Cornwallis') return last night is now lying
before me, and he had in camp last night at Ballinamore
The total strength of Humbert's force, including the Irish who had joined them, was
estimated by Freemantle as 2,000 men.
440 DUBLIN CASTLE IN 1798.. [July,
6,766 rank and file ! All this is exclusive of the debris of
Hutchinson's army and of General Taylor's force of 1,437
men at Boyle, and of the force which is to join at. Tuam.
Surely, as versus less than 1,000 French, assisted by cer-
tainly less than 2,000 croppies, this does seem a very cautious
proceeding ; and from that very caution it is the more haz-
ardous.
The rest of the letter consisted mainly of renewed denun-
ciations of Cornwallis for not having allowed the writer to
accompany the detachment of his regiment engaged in active
service. The truth appears to be that Buckingham had come
to Ireland thinking that, as an ex-Lord Lieutenant, he would
have cut an important figure in the exciting events of the
time, but this was precisely what neither Cornwallis nor Cas-
tlereagh at all desired he should do. If the rebellion was to
be suppressed, and a union with Great Britian effected, they
wished to retain the credit of such services for themselves,
save in so far as they might share it with Lord Clare, to whom
the manipulation of the House of Lords had almost inevitably
to be confided.
On the loth of September, 1798, Buckingham was able to
write Lord Grenville telling him of the collapse of the French
invasion. He could not refrain from pointing out that Lord
Cornwallis had been no match for the enemy in generalship,
and that it was more ill-luck on their part than skill on the
part of their opponents which prevented their reaching Dublin.
Even if they had, however, it is difficult to believe that any-
thing but defeat must have awaited them. The people showed
small desire to join them, and every man who did increased
the difficulty of obtaining sufficient supplies. They had abso-
lutely no base, and had to gather what food they could as
they pressed forward. Nothing more hopeless than their un-
dertaking could possibly be imagined, but it was pursued with
an audacity and determination which almost deserved success.
Buckingham's report was as follows :
I now enclose to you the details of this complete victory
of General Lake, You will observe that Lord Cornwallis
let them slip him at Castlebar; that he missed them in his
second plan of pinning them into Mayo by occupying Coloo-
ney, near Sligo ; that he missed his third plan of pinning
them to the West of the Shannon by occupying Carrick-
1905.] DUBLIN CASTLE IN 1798. 441
on-Shannon ; and that nothing saved Ireland but the exer-
tions of his infantry, who, having marched fourteen Irish
miles on Friday, marched again at 10 o'clock on the same
night, and completed twenty-six Irish miles by eight next
morning, total forty Irish or fifty-one English miles in little
more than twenty-four hours. You will observe that, at the
last, the enemy had the start of Lord Cornwallis in this
race, which they acknowledge was for Dublin.
Buckingham proceeded to say that, when he found the
French were eluding Cornwallis, he proposed to General Craig
and Lord Castlereagh that he should be allowed to proceed to
Trim with the troops in garrison in Dublin, but they, not un-
naturally, refused to leave the capital unguarded. Had the
suggestion of the Marquis been accepted, there would have
been no force available to quell popular disturbance in the
city. The " details " enclosed by the Marquis were contained
in the following letter from Major Freemantle :
September 8, 1798, St. Johnstown Camp.
I have great satisfaction in acquainting your Lordship
that the whole of the French and rebel army have surrendered
themselves prisoners to General Lake. Our column, under
Lord Cornwallis, marched from Carrick about 10 o'clock last
night, and reached Mohill by eight in the morning, when
every preparation was made for beginning the action ; but
unfortunately the Sutherland fencibles and Downshire militia
had missed their road from the darkness of the night, which
delayed us an hour and upwards, during which time the
French decamped, but fell in about eleven o'clock with General
Lake's column, who had not been joined by Moore. We saw
the action from our left ; it lasted about half an hour.
The remainder of Freemantle's letter deserves attention, for
it tells of massacre as brutal as Cromwell ever perpetrated.
The Major proceeded :
The light third battalion of Irish light infantry stood the
chief of the action ; and charged the French who were posted
behind some turf, upon which they immediately surrendered ;
about six hundred French, and four hundred croppies only,
who are by this time nearly demolished, for no quarter has
been given them. Our fellows took six, but did not kill them,
owing to their begging for their lives so piteously that they
could not butcher them in cold blood ; for which they were
abused by some of the officers of the baggage guard.
442 DUBLIN CASTLE IN 1798.. [July,
" Our fellows," were the English soldiers of the Bucking-
hamshire militia, and their humanity contrasts honorably with
the barbarity displayed in the horrible butchery carried out by
other regiments.
Buckingham had by this time become as vehement a de-
nouncer of the policy of clemency almost invariably favored by
Cornwallis as he had been previously of the "mad violence"
of Carhampton. On October 2, 1798, he wrote Lord Grenville:
My views and my fears are now very gloomy on the sub-
ject of Ireland, and the public opinion is equally desponding.
Lord Cornwallis is now employing two obscure men to enquire,
and to liberate at their discretion from the gaols and prison
ships, men ' ' improperly committed by the civil or military
power, or improperly convicted by military tribunals." You
will hardly believe that I quote the words exactly as stated
by Mr. Justice Swan, one of these Inquisitors, to be the nature
of his employment. In consequence of which, amongst very
many others, Murphy the feather merchant in whose house
Lord Edward Fitzgerald was hid, and who was in the room
when Lord Edward was taken committed for high treason,
was yesterday liberated, to the indignation of all Dublin,
without the slightest communication with any one of the
law servants of the Crown.
It is by no means improbable that Murphy's release was
obtained through the influence of the Duke of Leinster who,
while a supporter of the existing form of government, can
scarcely have been ungrateful to the man who harbored his
son.
On October 18, 1798, Mr. E. Cooke,* the Under Secretary,
was able to inform Buckingham of an event which was to lead
up to one of the saddest of the many sad tragedies enacted
during a year full of bloodshed. Writing hurriedly, from the
Castle, he said :
I have not been able to send your Lordship a word until
this moment. Sir I. B. Warren writes from Lough Swilly,
the i6th, that on the i2th, after a long action, four French
* Edward Cooke, son of the Rev. W. Cooke, Provost of King's College, Cambridge, born
1755, died March 19, 1820. He came to Ireland in 1778, with Sir Richard Heron, then Chief
Secretary. In 1789 he became Under Secretary, was dismissed by Lord Fitzwilliam, but
restored by Lord Camden He was one of the principal agents in securing the passage of the
Act of Union, but resigned in 1801, when he found that the policy which he thought should be
based on that measure could not be pursued.
1905.] DUBLIN CASTLE IN 1798, 443
ships struck, among them the Hoche of eighty-four guns.
. A brig went off at the beginning of the action
which, he thinks, was Napper Tandy's.
Theobald Wolfe Tone was on board the Hoche when she
surrendered. His brother, Matthew Tone, had been amongst
those captured at Ballinamuck, and was almost immediately
hanged. According to Buckingham,* " He refused a priest,
and said he gloried in the principles and name of a French-
man." On November 10, the Marquis was able to tell his
friend Grenville that :
Tone has just been tried ; he desired to give the court-
martial no trouble ; acknowledged that he was an Irishman,
and in the service of the French Republic ; gloried in hav-
ing been the means of uniting three millions of his fellow-
citizens against the oppression and tyranny of England,
and of having procured from " the great nation " that assist-
ance for the recovery of their liberty which had so unfortu-
nately failed. He was stopped in parts of his declamation
addressed to the Catholics of Ireland, for whom, he said,
he was happy to lay down his life ; and requested of the
court that they would copy the humanity of the French
Directory and government who, in judging to death Char-
rette, Sombreuil, and others who had fought in opposition
to them, had reconciled their death to the feelings of a
soldier; and he therefore begged to be shot, "not so much
from his private feelings, as from a sense of respect to the
uniform he wore." He finished by requesting that the sen-
tence might be sent to Lord Cornwallis instantly, and hoped
his Excellency would confirm it, and order it to be executed
within the hour. Notwithstanding all this he was much
agitated, and I cannot help thinking that he means to de-
stroy himself before Monday, on which day it is supposed
he will be hanged.
The concluding words of this remarkable communication
make it perfectly clear that Buckingham, in common with the
Castle authorities, knew perfectly well that poor Tone, imbued
as he was with the pagan theories of the French Revolutionists,
contemplated suicide. Nevertheless, they deliberately refrained
* Letter to Lord Grenville, dated 2gth of September, 1798. Matthew Tone was a brother of
Theobald Wolfe Tone, and born in 1770 ; he was executed September 29. 1798. He was a
Protestant, and it is difficult to understand why his captois should have asked him to accept
the ministrations of a priest. Like his far more gifted brother he was a votary of the French
Revolutionary Goddess of Nature. He held a commission as adjutant in the French army.
444 DUBLIN CASTLE IN 1798. [July.
from taking any steps to protect their prisoner from the con-
sequences of his insanity. On the I2th of November the Marquis
was able to report to Grenville that his prognostication had
been fulfilled. He said :
There having been much appearance of ferment this morn-
ing, I have only time to tell you that Tone cut his throat, but
will live to be hanged. However, L,ord Cornwallis took so
much time to consider whether he would hang him or not that,
in the meantime, Curran moved the court of King's Bench for
a habeas corpus, which was granted. The Provost-Marshal
was directed to make no return, and a capias was moved and
issued against him, so that our civil and military powers are
directly pitted against each other. The present orders are to
hang him to-morrow, but his Excellency is so versatile on this
subject that it is still doubtful. The sentence was that his
head should be fixed upon the most conspicuous part of Dub-
lin, which his Excellency was pleased to disapprove ! What
folly is all this.
Buckingham could scarcely contain himself at what he re-
garded as the mistaken leniency of the Lord Lieutenent.
A day later, on November 13, he again wrote Grenville:
The consummation of L,ord Cornwallis' incapacity seems
drawing on very fast. He has suspended Tone's execution
till further orders ; he has directed Major Sandys the acting
Provost-Marshal of Ireland to put in for answer that his
reason for not obeying the habeas of yesterday was "because
Tone could not be moved with safety." . . . Since I wrote
this, I am assured that Lord Cornwallis will hang this man as
soon as he is a little better, and that he means to stand his
ground and to abide by the military courts. If so, his conduct
is tenfold more unintelligible. God protect us from such ab-
solute imbecility, the result of which, I will venture to foretell,
will shock and loosen the little government now existing.
Buckingham was athirst for blood, but he did not real-
ize, as Cornwallis and Pitt and his colleagues did, that the
hanging of Tone, who was an officer in the French army,
would have justified Bonaparte in hanging some of his English
prisoners by way of retaliation. The death of the captive from
the effect of his self-inflicted wounds solved the problem which
puzzled Dublin Castle.
WAS BLAKE A POET?
BY PERCY CROSS STANDING.
|ONORED by posterity under the names of poet,
painter, and engraver, the memory of William
Blake is cherished by many thinking Englishmen
to-day as that of one of the shining lights of
the Georgian epoch. Of humble origin, and pos-
sessed of an eccentricity which to the day of his death im-
pelled him to reside in an attic bedroom, much of Blake's work
is unquestionably informed by a singular spirit of lackadaisical
and irresponsible poetic thought, doubtless touched by the atmos-
phere of the age in which he wrought, but much of it reading
like inspired nonsense. As a lad, he believed that he saw vis-
ions of angels always a dangerous belief ! As a man, he alleged
that the subjects of many of his verses were communicated to
him "in a vision" by the spirit of his deceased brother. Of
course they were not communicated by such a medium. But,
if it pleased his brother's brother to suppose that they were,
who shall say him nay ?
These critical remarks have to a great extent been suggested
by a study of the dainty little volume dedicated to the poetic
genius of William Blake in the Canterbury Poets' series. From
this illuminating little work I find that the most noteworthy
among Blake's published poems are contained under the heads
of Poetical Sketches, Songs of Innocence, and Sovgs of Experi-
ence ; the remainder being added in a curious kind of jumble,
roughly entitled : Later Poems. Included under the first of
these descriptions is a lengthy attempt at a dramatic poem en-
titled " King Edward the Third," which, however, will not
bear quotation. In these Poetical Sketches, issued in 1 783, there
is much that invites, at the same time that it coyly defies,
quotation. Such an example is the " Song," commencing :
" I love the jocund dance,
The softly breathing song,
Where innocent eyes do glance,
And where lisps the maiden's tongue.
446 WAS BLAKE A POET? [July,
" I love the pleasant cot,
I love the innocent bower,
Where white and brown is our lot,
Or fruit in the midday hour."
If this does not please the reader, we may try again. For
my own part, I can only say that if the poet is to be judged
by such alluring strains as
" The modest rose puts forth a thorn,
The humble sheep a threat'ning horn ;
While the lily white shall in love delight,
Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright,"
then his place in the literary firmament must be uncommonly
difficult to allot. " The humble sheep a threat'ning horn " is
distinctly precious, but it is by no means Mr. Blake's highest
flight.
" When silver snow decks Susan's clothes,
And jewels hang at th' shepherd's nose,"
is a rich and rare example of the delicate genius of a poet
who, according to the gentleman (Mr. Joseph Skipsey) by
whose .hand a memoir is contributed to the Canterbury Poets'
volume, produced work that was " full of tenderness, sweetness,
and delicacy." If the examples of unadulterated bathos which
I quote were isolated specimens, I might be accused of undue
severity ; but, unfortunately, they are only too fair an average
example of Blake's verse. It would, for example, be grossly
unfair to refrain from quoting the exquisite passage beginning
with the declaration that
"The caterpillar on the leaf
Reminds thee of thy mother's grief " ;
or not to quote in its entirety the nerve-destroying ditty
which this extraordinary writer entitled " Infant Sorrow":
" My mother groaned, my father wept,
Into the dangerous world I lept
Helpless, naked, piping loud,
Like a fiend hid in a cloud.
" Struggling in my father's hands,
Striving against my swaddling bands,
Bound and weary, I thought best
To sulk upon my mother's breast."
1905.] WAS BLAKE A POET? 447
It is only fair to mention that the poet's prose efforts ap-
pear to be a shade more readable, but with his prose we are
not concerned. His biographer informs us that " the more he
seemed unable to catch the true inspiration of the poet, the
more and more, and with a firmer grasp of the pencil, he
seemed to be able to catch the true inspiration of the de-
signer." But to what position must we assign the mass of
Blake's verse written before he had become so deeply en-
amored of the designer's art ? It is simply silly to mention
Blake, as Mr. Skipsey does, in conjunction with the names of
Swinburne, Dante, Rossetti, and other great poets who were
more nearly Blake's contemporaries.
Under the bewitching title of Songs of Experience on
which one can only surmise that the poet must have enjoyed
and disenjoyed some memorable experiences I find the fol-
lowing example of Blake's muse :
" Dear mother, dear mother, the Church is cold,
But the alehouse is healthy and pleasant and warm ;
Besides, I can tell where I am used well,
The poor parsons with wind like a blown bladder swell.
" Then the parson might preach and drink and sing,
And we'd be as happy as birds in spring;
And modest Dame Lurch, who is always at Church,
Would not have bandy children nor fasting nor birch."
Is it not simply idiotic ? One does not wonder that the
poet's " mother groaned " and " father wept " over him. An-
other " Song of Experience " contains the singular avowal that
when
" The days of my youth rise fresh in my mind,
My face turns green and pale."
But space can be found for but one more extract in this
kind, being an eight-line stanza entitled " The Sick Rose."
" O rose thou art sick !
The invisible worm
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,
Has found out thy bed of crimson joy,
And his dark, secret love
Does thy life destroy."
VOL. LXXXI. 29
448 WAS BLAKE A POET? [July,
Mr. Swinburne is the author of an essay on Blake, pub-
lished in 1868. William Blake was born in 1757, departed
this life in 1827, and was essentially a Londoner. For his
work as artist and engraver he will always be remembered.
He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1780, and among
his works was a particularly fine series of 537 colored illus-
trations to Young's Night Thoughts. He was the son of a
London hosier. His output, under both forms of art, must
have been very great. The small volume from which the
above extracts are made, consists of almost three hundred
closely packed pages. It concludes with a number of " prov-
erbs" made by Blake. Some of these are remarkable for keen
human insight and a large humanity, while very many of
them are illustrative of the writer's yearning after the weird
or the vaguely mysterious, which may partially account for
the respect in which his writings were held by many in the
crude age in which he lived. Here follow a few examples :
In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.
Drive your cart and your plough over the bones of the
dead.
The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
Prudence is a rich, ugly old maid courted by incapacity.
The cut worm forgives the plough.
Dip him in the -water who loves water.
A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
He whose face gives no light shall never become a star.
Eternity is in love with the productions of time.
The busy bee has no time for sorrow.
The hours of folly are measured by the clock, but of
wisdom no clock can measure.
All wholesome food is caught without a net or a trap.
Shame is pride's cloak.
Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps.
The most sublime act is to set another before you.
Now, much that is contained in the foregoing precepts and
maxims savors of a very real wisdom, with more than a spice
of a delicate satire. For this reason alone it seems a sin and
a shame that the self-same hand could have permitted itself to
commit to paper suoh arrant drivel as the following:
"Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
1905.] WAS BLAKE A POET? 449
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry ?
" And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart ?
And, when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet ? " *
These lines are from the Songs of Experience, stated by
Mr. Skipsey to contain "a treasury of the richest jewels!"
"And what," demands the same enthusiastic admirer, "what
did he sing that did not spring from the depths of his soul?"
One really does not know what rejoinder to make to this
very embarrassing question. After frankly confessing that he
very frequently does not know what the poet is driving at,
Mr. Skipsey continues : " Passages in even the most mystical,
as far as my reading of them goes, however, are noted for
real poetical beauty, and The^ is full of tenderness, sweetness,
and delicacy throughout. Indeed, this is a real and genuine
poem, and I say this without presuming to be able to decipher
in clear terms the author's drift, for I do not regard that par-
ticular ability altogether essential before such a verdict is
given, so long as the product possesses to me a meaning
an undefinable one though it may be or constitutes spells by
which visions of beauty and delight may be conjured up in
my imagination, and visions of which the poet himself may
never have dreamed for it is in the nature of things that the
seer may see further than he thinks ; that the singer may sing
more than he knows ; that, in short, the poet's work may
awaken and arouse the mind of the reader to the perception
of a star-like galaxy of ideas, before whose dazzling splendor
the light of his own particular drift may seem, in comparison,
but the insignificant piece of yellow flame of a farthing can-
dle. All of our very highest inspired work is noted for this
character ; and Blake's best is permanently so ; while some
of his most imperfect has a touch of it. And as his work
was, so was the man. . . ."
Now the foregoing utterance, if it has any meaning at all
for such an expression as "perception of a star-like galaxy of
ideas" leaves one's mind a little obscured, must surely mean
that, although the writer of it knows that he does not know
* Songs of Experience, p. 171. t Ibid*
450 WAS BLAKE A POET? [July.
what Blake was "driving at," he thinks that he knows a
meaning which it might be permissible to attach to at least
some portions of the poet's output. But if those portions
only turn out to be as " the insignificant piece of flame of a
farthing candle " (?) of what avail is it all?
Of noteworthy interest, however, is the unquestioned fact
that William Blake did in reality believe and aver that certain
of his works were directly inspired and produced with the aid
of visitations from the disembodied spirit of his dead brother,
Robert. This brother, who was William's junior by about
five years, died in 1787. The pair were greatly attached to
each other, and Robert was tenderly and devotedly nursed
through his fatal illness by William. In fact, according to one
authority, when the moment of dissolution arrived the highly
strung, hysterical William beheld the soul of the dead man
"ascend through the matter-of-fact ceiling." After this it is
not surprising to learn that the survivor insisted that practically
the whole of his verse, and a very great proportion of his work
in illustration and design, were due to the presence of the brother
who, he sometimes averred, had never really gone away at all.
Blake's industry, as I have already inferred, was simply
colossal. Whether he was a poet or not, appears to me a
question that is very gravely open to doubt. Apart from its
poverty, a large proportion of his collected verse strikes the
intelligent reader as being singularly pointless and devoid of
ordinary merit practically the whole of it as having been dis-
tinctly below the average of eighteenth century versifying.
Any claim that criticism should be mild, in view of the cir-
cumstances of his humble origin and necessarily imperfect edu-
cation, falls to the ground when one calls to mind the antece-
dents of a Burns, a Hogg, and others of Blake's immediate
contemporaries.
William Blake lived to be seventy years of age. Probably
no one would have been more surprised than himself to know
that the nineteenth century was to bring forth more than one
critical estimate of his works, besides a number of minor pro-
nouncements devoted to the task of endeavoring to " place "
his position in the realm of art and letters. Working with his
pencil and his pen almost to the last, the veteran eventually
passed out of life on a day in August, 1827, "singing of the
things he saw in heaven."
AN ANCIENT HOSPITAL: THE PARIS HOTEL-DIEU.
BY THE COUNTESS DE COURSON.
a moment when religious orders in France are
suffering from a persecution such as they have
not experienced since the evil days of the great
Revolution, a pathetic interest is attached to the
few communities who have, so far, survived the
almost universal shipwreck.
Alas ! the tempest let loose upon the country by a God-
hating government has swept away, not only the teaching and
preaching orders, but, in many cases, those whose vocation it
is to minister to the needs of the sick, the aged, and the poor.
Throughout the length and breadth of France, the nuns
have been ruthlessly expelled from the public hospitals, and,
instead of the familiar gray robes and white "cornettes" of
the nursing sisters, lay "infirmieres " move to and fro among
the sick who, sad to say, have not benefitted by the change.
Sweeping assertions are rarely absolutely fair, but we may
safely say that, as a rule, the "infirmieres" employed in French
hospitals are of a very different stamp to their Anglo-Saxon
sisters. They are recruited from a lower class, and, whereas
the Anglo-Saxon trained nurse generally embraces her calling
as a vocation, the French " infirmiere " is often a rough ser-
vant who, being miserably paid and having chosen nursing as
a means of earning her livelihood, has no scruple in taxing
her charges.
Hence, the distressing and often repulsive stories that are
told of the French hospital nurses, into whose unscrupulous
hands are committed the bodies, and oftentimes the souls, of
the sick !
At the present moment, the few hospitals still served by
nuns are mostly private institutions, whose founders and sup-
porters, being independent of the State, are free to use their
own judgment in the treatment of the patients whom they
receive. Yet, strange to say, there exists one public hospital,
the most ancient and interesting in Paris, where, as we write
452 AN ANCIENT HOSPITAL. [July,
these lines, the black-robed daughters of St. Augustine are at
their post. For the last thirteen hundred years the " Hotel-
Dieu " has been under religious government, and though it
would be childish to build upon an uncertain future, there
seems, at present, no question of the nuns relinquishing a
position which they held even during the worst days of the
Reign of Terror.
Nothing is left of the mediaeval " God's Hostelry," but the
modern hospital occupies almost the same site, in the ile
Notre Dame, under the shadow of the great Cathedral, whose
Canons were, for many years, its appointed governors. Its past
history is closely bound up with that of the capital ; all the
events that, from time to time, shook the city to its very foun-
dations, were echoed within the walls where the devoted Au-
gustinians watched by the bedside of the poor.
From the kings of France downwards, all classes of citi-
zens loved this hospital; the magistrates, tradesmen, and arti-
sans of Paris were its benefactors. In the seventeenth century
the most popular saint of modern times, St. Vincent of Paul,
trod its wards and exercised his wise and holy influence over
its inmates.
For these reasons the story of the Hotel-Dieu is singularly
interesting; it is not, and could not be, a record of unvarying
and absolute perfection. Like all things human, it has its
lights and shades, but, taking it all in all, it is the noble
chronicle of thirteen centuries of active charity, with an ele-
ment of picturesqueness and variety that redeems it from dull-
ness.
The original founder of the Paris Hotel-Dieu is St. Lan-
dry, who was Bishop of Paris in the middle of the seventh
century. He built a house of refuge for the poor and sick,
close to a certain chapel dedicated to St. Christopher, a favor-
ite saint in mediaeval times. The patients of the hospital were
then nursed by some religious women, called the " daughters
of St. Christopher," and the institution itself was, until ico6,
under the joint government of the Bishops and the Canons of
the Cathedral. At that date, Bishop Rainaud relinquished his
share in the management of the hospital, which was henceforth,
during many centuries, directed solely by the Chapter of Notre
Dame.
Towards the end of the twelfth century, the Cathedral, the
1905.] AN ANCIENT HOSPITAL. 453
episcopal palace, and the hospital were rebuilt, under the rule
of Maurice de Sully, one of the most eminent pastors that ever
sat on the episcopal throne of Paris, and it is from this time
that " St. Christopher's hospital " became known as the Hotel-
Dieu, " God's Hostelry," a singularly appropriate name for a
house where those whom suffering has made God's very own,
are cared for in his Name and for his sake.
The old records tell us that, at the same period, the hospital
was served by two communities, one of men and one of wo-
men, a curious arrangement that lasted for four centuries.
The "Brothers" and "Sisters" were religious, bound by
the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience; their living
rooms, refectories, infirmaries, were wide apart, they were
strictly prohibited from visiting each other, only the Chapter-
room and Chapel were common to both.
The superior of the Brothers was called the "Master,"
and was responsible to the Chapter for the temporal govern-
ment of the hospital. Of his subordinates, four were priests,
and these ministered to the spiritual wants of the sick; the
others kept the accounts, ordered the necessary provisions, and
overlooked the landed property, from which the hospital drew
its income.
The Sisters were absorbed, day and night, in their duties
as nurses; most of them joined the community when very
young, they were then called " Filles Blanches," literally
" White girls," because of their dress. This consisted in a
surplice of linen over a white dress, "fashioned like a bag,"
say the old records, " in order that it might fit any one of the
Sisters equally well." Over this clean, but inelegant robe, they
wore a white cloak and veil.
When the " Filles Blanches " became novices, they assumed
a black cloak and veil ; when professed, they were given another
white linen surplice, reaching to their knees, which they wore
over a black or brown dress.
The superioress, or " Prieure," was the " Master's" colleague,
but in no way his subordinate; she owed an account of her
administration only to the Canons of Notre Dame.
If the patients were not tended according to the prescrip-
tions of modern science, they, at any rate, were made welcome
to the best the house could offer, and their devoted nurses,
although woefully ignorant of our twentieth century sanitary
454 AN ANCIENT HOSPITAL.
principles, had a tender love for the poor and a large-hearted
pitifulness for human suffering.
Early in the thirteenth century Stephen, Dean of the
Chapter of Notre Dame, drew up the Constitutions which,
for several hundred years, ruled the Hotel-Dieu. He bor-
rowed largely from certain regulations that the Knights of
St. John had framed for the use of their own hospitals, and
the quaint phraseology of these rules picturesquely embodies
the spirit of the times.
The souls of the patients were to be cared for first and
foremost. When a sick person was brought to the hospital, he
was advised to go to confession and to receive Holy Com-
munion. This being done, he was put to bed and "treated like
a lord." Through the varied phases of their long history, the
nuns of the Hotel-Dieu were faithful to this rule, and the sick
were, in very truth, the lords and masters, whose welfare was
their paramount object.
The great Paris hospital was at all times considered as a
national institution; the kings of France were its constant
and generous benefactors. Blanche of Castile and her son,
St. Louis, gave largely towards its support, and the holy king
endowed "God's Hostelry" with many privileges; thus he
exempted all the provisions that were brought to the hospital
from the taxes that the kings had a right to levy on certain
articles of importation. The readiness with which St. Louis
despoiled himself on behalf of ' ( the poor, made his ministers
complain. " It is sometimes necessary," he answered, " for
kings to spend too much. If I am extravagant, I prefer it
should be in almsgiving, rather than in things that are of no
use."
Charles IV. bestowed an annual gift of three hundred cart-
loads of fire wood on the hospital ; but to the generous dona-
tion was attached the following curious clause: "On the four
great feast days of the year, the ' Master,' accompanied by
some of the Brothers and Sisters of the Hotel-Dieu, should
convey the relics of the Sainte Chapelle to the king, if he
were residing in Paris or even within thirty- four leagues of
the city." These relics, among which was the Crown of
Thorns that St. Louis had brought from Palestine, were to
travel in a chariot drawn by four horses.
Philip VI. confirmed his father's donation, only stipulating
1905.] AN ANCIENT HOSPITAL. 455
that the wood should be taken from the " foret de la Bievre,"
near Versailles. It was customary on the death of a Queen
of France, to give the late sovereign's bed and furniture to
the great Paris hospital. Every Good Friday, the queen and
princesses visited the house and, as a memento of their visit,
left a generous offering.
On one occasion the Hotel-Dieu, as the following incident
will show, benefited even by the war that distracted the king-
dom when, after the death of the mad King Charles VI., the
French and English struggled for supremacy. One Good Fri-
day, the wife of Charles VII., the French King, sent a mod-
est gift of 4 "livres," whereas the Duchess of Bedford, whose
husband was Regent of France for the infant King of Eng-
land, Henry VI., gave 80 "livres." The old historian, who
mentions this fact, seems to have been pro-English in his
sympathies, or else he was dazzled by the generosity of the
offering, for he contemptuously alludes to the French princess
as: " Celle qui se dit Dauphirie " She who calls herself the
Dauphiness. A few years later the tide of fortune had turned;
Charles VII. was firmly established on his father's throne and
his unfortunate rival and kinsman was involved in the disas-
trous War of the Roses.
The Paris magistrates, merchants, and small artisans were,
like their sovereigns, warmly attached to an institution which,
for many centuries, was the infirmary of the city. The gen-
erous manner in which these mediaeval Catholics gave to
God's poor a share in their daily lives, speaks volumes for
their spirit of faith. Thus the drapers were accustomed, when-
ever their corporation held an assembly, to give each patient
a loaf, a pint of wine, and a piece of meat ; the grocers gave
an annual present of " fine powder," and the goldsmiths, every
Easter Sunday, treated the inmates of the hospital to a ban-
quet. The " menu " of the feast still exists in the national
archives ; to each person was given a loaf, a dish of soup, some
wine, two eggs, a piece of roast veal, besides a small sum of
money.
A great number of citizens, at their death, bequeathed
considerable sums to the Hotel-Dieu, thus, out of 48 wills
registered by the Paris Parliament under Charles VI., 40 con-
tain a clause in favor of " God's Hostelry." On these ancient
lists are the names of men of every rank and station, bound
456 AN ANCIENT HOSPITAL. [July,
together by the golden link of charity. Mingling with kings
and princes, cardinals and bishops, warriors and magistrates,
are the " wife of the king's barber," minstrels, physicians,
soldiers, shop-keepers, drapers, etc., some of whom explain, in
quaint language, that, by giving to the hospital, they hope to
"quiet their conscience."
In consequence of these legacies, the Hotel-Dieu speedily
became possessed of houses, mills, and fields in the neighbor-
hood of Paris, but, although its revenues were considerable, they
often proved inadequate to the demands made upon them. In
times of war, pestilence, and famine, the Brothers and Sisters
were in sore straits to satisfy the sufferers that claimed their
assistance.
The old records, from which we have borrowed these de-
tails, give us a living picture of the hospital in the Middle
Ages. The Brothers and Sisters rose at five and, after matins,
took possession of their different posts; at six o'clock the outer
doors opened and any sick person anxious to enter was taken
in: "all persons, of whatever nation they may be, friends or
enemies, known or unknown," were made welcome and, accord-
ing to their illness, sent to one or other of the wards. At the
head of each ward was a Sister, called the " Chieftaine," to
whom obedience was due.
Until the thirteenth century no doctor seems to have been
officially attached to the hospital, and it is likely that the
Brothers possessed some medical knowledge and prescribed for
the patients. In the thirteenth century two physicians are
mentioned as visiting the sick, and, in 1328, Charles IV. de-
creed that two doctors and a midwife should henceforth form
part of the institution's staff. Even in mediaeval times large
metal baths were in use, and an ingenious system had been
devised for bringing water into all parts of the house. The
most dangerous cases, the "griefs malades," as they are
called in the ancient records, were sent to the infirmary; in
the " Salle St. Denis " were those who were less dangerously
ill; in the "Salle St. Thomas" the convalescents, "cracked
glasses that require gentle handling"; in the "Salle Neuve "
were women, and those about to be confined enjoyed each a
private room. Immediately on entering the hospital, the new-
comer was expected to cleanse his soul by confession and his
body by a bath. His clothes were taken to "la pouillerie," a
1905.] AN ANCIENT HOSPITAL. 457
terribly suggestive name, where they were carefully purified.
It has often been urged, as a proof of the ignorance and care-
lessness of the nuns, that they put two, three, or even four
patients into one bed. The charge is true, but, repugnant as
it is to our notions of propriety and hygiene, there is some-
thing to be said in defence of the Sisters. They acted accord-
ing to the custom of the age. Though from time to time pro-
tests arose against the practice, it was resorted to as a matter
of course in times of crisis, when the nuns had to choose be-
tween refusing admittance to the sick or packing them together
in a repulsive fashion. Mediaeval beds too were extraordinarily
wide, but even this circumstance makes the custom only a little
less unpleasant, and we are relieved when the historians of the
Hotel-Dieu tell us that it was adopted only in moments of ex-
traordinary distress.
Even as late as 1710, when, after an unusually hard winter,
the hospital was overcrowded with sick and starving people,
the nuns, rather than reject the applicants who clamored for
admittance, packed them together so closely that the result
was: " querelles et batteries," incessant quarreling among the
sick. In consequence, it was decided to enlarge the buildings,
and a report for 1787 informs us that arrangements had been
made which provided for 1,500 patients with separate beds, a
vast improvement upon former conditions.
It must be remembered, in order to understand how the
Hotel-Dieu became so overcrowded, that " God's Hostelry," in
mediaeval times, was ever wide-open to receive, not only the
sick, but the hungry, the homeless, and the naked. Pilgrims
and travelers were freely admitted, and from sixty to a hun-
dred little waifs, whose parents had deserted them, were scat-
tered through the house no desirable home for these tiny
pensioners, it is true, but yet the only one the Sisters had to
offer.
The old records inform us that the hospital wards were
thoroughly whitewashed once a year, at Easter, and freely
washed every morning. The house was lighted with oil lamps,
and a favorite form of charity among the mediaeval Parisians,
was to bequeath money for the "support" of a lamp. In 1487
Martin Guignon, the king's notary, and in 1496 Guy Bois-
leaue, a canon of Notre Dame, bequeathed a certain sum to-
wards this object, and the terms in which the bequest is worded
458 AN ANCIENT HOSPITAL. [July,
lead us to believe that the benevolent donors were in the habit
of visiting the " pauvres griefs malades." Another canon, Eudes
de Sentis, left some money to buy wood, in order that the
"veilleuses" or Sisters who sat up at night, should have a
good fire.
The inmates of the hospital had two meals a day, at eleven
and at six; they abstained from meat on Wednesdays, Fridays,
and Saturdays, but were plentifully supplied with eggs, fish,
fruit, sugar, cheese, and tarts ; the best of everything being
naturally given to the " griefs malades."
Although it was an abode of suffering and of pain, the
great hospital occasionally presented a festive appearance. On
holydays, sweet-smelling herbs and flowers were scattered on
the floor, and on the beds of the sick were spread bright, col
ored coverlets, "tapis ystoriez," says our mediaeval guide; the
chapel was brilliantly lighted, the meals were more plentiful
than usual, and the Brothers and Sisters were allowed fowl and
a double allowance of wine.
At certain periods of history, the " chalit des morts," where
the patients who died were carried before being removed to
the cemetery, was filled to overflowing. Thus, during the pes-
tilence of 1349, five hundred persons died in one day within
the precincts of the hospital, and among them many Sisters,
who, says an old historian, after tending their charges without
fear, were called to eternal _rest. In 1418, another calamitous
year, 5,311 persons died within twelve months.
At all times thrifty French housewives have prided them-
selves upon their ample stock of linen and, even at the pres-
ent day, in remote provinces, we come upon houses where the
huge Norman and Breton cupboards are closely packed with
piles of fine and fragrant house linen, that appears, from its
quantity and quality, quite out of keeping with its humble
surroundings. So at the Hotel-Dieu, even in mediaeval times,
linen seems to have been plentiful, and special care was taken
to keep the supply in good condition; 1,500 pairs of sheets were
in use at ordinary times, and the "Prieure" expended a con-
siderable sum every year in adding to her store. The " Prieure,"
for this purpose, would visit regularly the fairs held in the
neighborhood of Paris ; driving there in one of the hospital
carts, and attended by one of the Brothers serving as coach-
man. Thus, for example, in February she was accustomed to
1905.] AN ANCIENT HOSPITAL. 459
go to the fair of St. Germain des Pres, in June to that of St.
Denis. The piles of new linen brought home were immediately
carried to the " Chambre aux draps," where four sisters were
employed all the year round in making sheets and pillow
cases. The nuns themselves washed the patients' linen in the
Seine, which flowed in front of the hospital. On the spot where
handsome stone quays now are, once stood a small covered
building close to the water's edge. Here the " Soeurs lavan-
dieres " spent long hours engaged in their trying task, which
seems to have excited the compassion of their contemporaries.
Under Charles VI. a preacher took these devoted women as
the theme of his discourse and spoke of their work in sympa-
thetic terms, and of the Sisters as "standing knee deep in the
icy water during the winter months," to wash the linen of the
poor.
From the ancient records that still exist, it seems an in-
dubitable fact that, during several hundred years, the Hotel-
Dieu worthily fulfilled its charitable mission. The Canons of
Notre Dame, who governed the hospital, exercised their con-
trol with judgment and charity. That they were heartily in-
terested in the work is proved by the manner in which they
enter into minute details respecting the sick. Thus, in 1494,
they added several items to the regulations already existing ;
one was to the effect that the food of the "griefs malades " ;
the worst cases should be " honnetement," conscientiously,
prepared, and that they should be given good wine from the
vineyards belonging to the hospital, instead of a certain " vin
du Gatinais," the effects of which seem to have been disas-
trous. As the Canons quaintly put it, this wine caused several
patients "d'aller de vie a trepas." Also, with truly fatherly
care, the Canons provide for cloaks, stockings, and slippers
to be given to the sick when they were able to leave their
beds.
The Sisters seem to have been, as a rule, exemplary in every
way, and their standard of religious decorum was a high one,
if we judge from the severity with which they punished even
trifling faults. Thus a certain Sister Perrenelle la Vertjuse once
indulged in unkind gossip on the subject of "Dame Anellette
Burian," into whose family she had been sent as nurse; for
the nuns of the Hotel-Dieu were occasionally allowed to at-
tend patients in their own homes. Perrenelle's uncharitable
460 AN ANCIENT HOSPITAL. [July,
remarks, " injures et villenies," so shocked her superiors that
they condemned her to beg pardon of Anellette's children, to
remain for a whole year without leaving the Hotel-Dieu, and,
for some weeks, to eat her dinner with the ground for a
table.
The old annals, from which we have so largely borrowed,
give a touching picture of the Sisters' charity. The writer,
evidently an eye witness, describes them feeding,' cleansing,
comforting their sick charges. He even enters into realistic
details, that may have been acceptable to mediaeval readers,
but that jar upon our twentieth century delicacy. He tells us
too how in winter the nuns washed the linen of the sick in
the cold river, and performed other laborious and painful
duties, in the discharge of which they were occasionally in-
sulted and beaten by delirious or discontented patients.
Such was the Hotel-Dieu during the Middle Ages ; a
model institution, which was justly looked upon as realizing
the ideal of a religious hospital. After the fifteenth century
this bright picture is somewhat overshadowed. A long period
of peace and prosperity was succeeded by years of trouble,
rebellion, and unrest ; the kingdom was just then in a state
of anarchy, and the spirit that prevailed outside the hospital
exerted its influence within.
In 1497 a difference of opinion between the Canons and
the Brothers caused the former to send to the Hotel-Dieu a
certain Jean Laisne, as their representative. The two com-
munities, however, sided with the " Maitre," Jean Lefevre,
whose opposition to the Chapter had started the quarrel.
They received Laisne with dangerously hostile demonstrations,
and, armed with sticks and knives, they besieged his room ;
and the Sisters, in particular, seem to have been most war-
like. The Canons hastened to their "protege's" assistance,
but their interference only added fuel to the fire; Brothers
and Sisters were in open revolt, and even the sick rose from
their beds and joined in the fray.
At last the King, Charles VIII., heard of the quarrel, and
urged the Canons to show proper firmness and severity. In
consequence, some of the most aggressive Sisters were re-
moved ; but even this was not sufficient to restore peace and
discipline, and in 1505 the Canons made over the temporal
affairs of the hospital to the Municipal Council of the city,
1905.] AN ANCIENT HOSPITAL. 461
and kept in their own hands only the spiritual government of
the house.
About the same time they sent to Flanders for some
" Gray Sisters," whose pacifying influence would, they hoped,
bring the rebels to a sense of their duty, but, alas ! the Gray
Sisters' mission seems to have been a failure. Far from turn-
ing the tide of popular opinion, they were so " vexed and
molested," that they returned home, and so, during many
years more, the weary tale of dissensions and rebellion dragged
miserably on. Occasionally peace seemed to have been re-
stored. Thus, in 1510, we read that: "Thanks be given to
God, all is going on well"; but soon afterwards, in 1526, the
"Master" is charged with negligence, the Brothers with
"being always out," and the Sisters with "leaving their work
to run to the gates whenever a troop of soldiers passed down
the street." In 1535, the Canons persuaded some monks of
St. Victor to take up their abode at the hospital, in the hope
that they would succeed in infusing a new spirit among the
Brothers and, at the same time, they drew up a new set of
rules for the government of the Hotel-Dieu.
It seems clear that the good Canons, throughout these
years of strife, lacked the wisdom and firmness that were
needed to cope with their turbulent subordinates, but, if de-
ficient in governing powers, they were touchingly in earnest
in their love for the sick, and were doubly anxious that the
patients should not suffer from their troubled surroundings.
In their new rules, they exhort the infirmarians to tend their
charges with "sweet and gracious countenances," " face sereine
et regard gratieux," to address them softly, never to give
them useless pain, lest their sickness should thereby be in-
creased.
Towards 1620, the Brothers who served the hospital seem
to have gradually died out, thus the dual government, that
was undoubtedly a cause of friction, came to an end, and the
Sisters remained alone in charge of the Hotel-Dieu.
About the same time, under Henry IV., the buildings of
the hospital were considerably enlarged, and a separate house
was built for the smallpox patients, whose presence was a
standing danger for the other sick people. Another and still
more beneficial change was at hand, one that was to touch,
not merely the outer kernel, but the inner life and spirit of
462 AN ANCIENT HOSPITAL. [July,
the ancient foundation. The community needed a thorough
renovation after the long years of turmoil through which it
had passed.
The agents through whom it pleased God to effect this
reform, were a holy priest, known in Paris as " Monsieur
Vincent," and a sister of humble birth, Genevieve Bouquet.
She was the daughter of a Paris jeweler, and had served, when
a girl, in the household of the first wife of Henry IV.,
Marguerite de Valois, the famous " Reine Margot." At the
age of twenty-two she joined the community of the Hotel-
Dieu and, contrary to the usual custom, she waited some years
before making her profession, as she thought it right to be-
come thoroughly acquainted with religious life ere she bound
herself by solemn vows. The same feeling led her to advocate
the foundation of a regular novitiate ; for, until her time, the
young religious were trained individually by some older sister,
who generally had many other duties to perform. By degrees,
Genevieve's devotedness and piety, her earnestness of purpose
and sweetness of manner, won the love of the sick and the
confidence of the community. This quiet and gentle woman
succeeded where the well-meaning Canons had failed. She
raised the tone of the house, and implanted a truly religious
spirit among the nuns. Like all reformers, she met with "great
contradictions," but her smiling good temper and genuine
humility carried her through. When, to her dismay, she was
elected as "Prieure" by her companions, her power to do good
was enlarged, but she continued, despite her new dignity, to
work harder than the rest, to wear the shabbiest clothes, and
to perform the most trying tasks.
It is possible that Genevieve Bouquet first saw St. Vincent
of Paul at the court of Marguerite de Valois, to whom he
acted as chaplain from 1610 to 1612. Whether or not " M.
Vincent" and the future " Prieure " became acquainted under
the auspices of the erratic " Reine Margot," they at least met
on congenial ground towards 1634. At that date some of the
wealthy ladies, whom the saint trained in the path of practical
charity, expressed a wish to visit the sick at the Hotel-Dieu,
where, although the nuns gave their charges the best they had
to offer, there was ample scope for the " Dames de Charite " to
exercise their generosity.
Nothing proves St. Vincent's prudence and tact more clearly
1905. ] AN ANCIENT HOSPITAL. 463
than the rules that he laid down for the guidance of these
fervent volunteers; in fact these rules are as much to the point
in the twentieth as they were in the seventeenth century.
Before allowing the ladies to begin their work, he was
careful to submit their plans to the spiritual and temporal
superiors of the hospital and to the Archbishop of Paris; then
he impressed upon the visitors that they must show much respect
to the nuns, who are, he says, the " mistresses of the house,"
he also exhorted them to act in all things with gentleness :
" The spirit of God is gentle, we must imitate him."
These directions were not superfluous. St. Vincent was
probably aware that, some twenty- five years before, a few
"honnetes dames" had volunteered to visit the patients of
the Hotel-Dieu. Their indiscriminate charity had done more
harm than good. The "Dames de Charite " scrupulously abided
by the saint's advice, and the nuns gladly welcomed these tact-
ful and generous helpers, to whom were added some members
of the newly-founded Congregation of Sisters of Charity, who
prepared the extra food and luxuries that were provided by the
charitable visitors.
In St. Vincent of Paul were united, to a rare degree, most
opposite qualities. He had a breadth of view and boldness of
action, of which his foundations are a living proof, and he dis-
played, at the same time, a close attention to details that
made him a most capable organizer.
Thus, with regard to the " Dames de Charite " he entered
into the minutest particulars of their work, even writing a
small book whereby he taught them how to give the sick sim-
ple and practical instruction on religious subjects. He advised
them to dress plainly, in order that the poor should not be
pained by the contrast between their own misery and their
visitors' luxury, to use " simple language," and to be "humble,
gentle, and affable" in their demeanor. With equal good sense,
he decided that only a limited number of ladies should visit
the hospital together, and that others should take their places
after a stated lapse of time.
Many of the charitable women, who devoted themselves to
the care of the sick under " Monsieur Vincent's " guidance,
bore the greatest names in France. One was the Duchess
d'Aiguillon, Cardinal Richelieu's beloved niece, who was left a
childless widow at the age of twenty, with a large fortune and
VOL. LXXXI. 30
464 AN ANCIENT HOSPITAL. [July,
a lovely face. Her all-powerful uncle prevented her from en-
tering a Carmelite convent, but he allowed her to devote her-
self to works of charity. In these she took such delight that
St. Vincent describes her entering the wards of the Hotel-Dieu
with a radiant look, "as if she were going to a feast." Among
her fellow-workers was Marguerite de Gondi, Marquise de Maig-
nelais, who, like Madame d'Aiguillon, was left a widow in th e
flower of her youth. After the death of her only son, she
broke with the world and only kept her carriages and horses
because they served to take her to the Hotel-Dieu. Another
was Francaise de Maillane, Comtesse de la Suze; she was
attracted by the most loathsome and repugnant cases, and
dressed the patients' wounds with loving tenderness. Last,
but not least, was Madame de Miraineau, who, at that period,
filled a unique position in the charitable world of Paris. Her
influence was strongly felt at the Hotel-Dieu, where she caused
a separate ward to be kept for sick priests, who, she was
pained to see, mingled with the other patients. It was also
owing, in great measure, to her exertions that funds were col-
lected tor the maintainance of the six ecclesiastics who acted
as chaplains to the hospital.
During the period of distress that marked the beginning of
the reign of Louis XIV., the presence of St. Vincent and his
daughters at the Hotel-Dieu was of untold value. To the
horrors of civil war were added those of famine, and, during
the calamitous struggle of " la Fronde," there were over two
thousand sick persons in the great hospital.
The work of reform so happily brought about by Mother
Genevieve whose influence was supported by that of " Monsieur
Vincent," was completed by the framing of new Constitutions.
These were drawn up by a canon of Notre Dame named Ladvo-
cat ; they were gladly adopted by the community, whose ideal
of monastic perfection they faithfully embodied, and when, in
1660, St. Vincent breathed his last, the institution that owed
so much to him was peaceful and prosperous. It was fortu-
nate that the great Paris hospital was in so satisfactory a con-
dition, both from a spiritual and temporal point of view, for,
in the following century, its resources were taxed to the ut-
most. The early years of Louis XIV. had been full of strife
and misery, then came a period of dazzling splendor followed
by fresh reverses and distress. In 1709 an unusually severe
1905.] AN ANCIENT HOSPITAL. 465
winter was followed by a terrible famine, during which the
King and the Archbishop of Paris sent their plate to the mint,
to be turned into money for the starving people.
At last, the Hotel-Dieu became so overcrowded that a
second hospital was founded, under the patronage of St. Louis,
and in March, 1710, there were in both houses nearly five
thousand patients, most of whom were suffering from the effects
of insufficient and unwholesome food.
Almost more perilous to the welfare of the Hotel-Dieu than
these external difficulties, was the internal crisis through which
it passed at this same time.
Our readers may remember how, in spite of the energetic
measures resorted to by Louis XIV., the Jansenist heresy crept
into many French communities. Its influence was all the more
dangerous because of its apparent austerity, and the story of
the nuns of Port Royal is a mournful instance of the -disastrous
effects of Jansenism upon religious women of stainless lives and
high ideals.
The promoter of the doctrine at the Hotel-Dieu was a cer-
tain Marie Louise Claire des Tournelles, who joined the com-
munity in 1701, under somewhat sensational circumstances.
She was highly connected, and had been decidedly worldly in
her tastes. One day, after praying at Notre Dame, she went
immediately to the hospital and begged to be admitted, then
and there, into the community. The extravagant headgear, the
rouge and " mouches " of this singular candidate seem, not un-
naturally, to have startled the Prioress, who made some diffi-
culties against granting her request: "If you turn me away
now, I will never return," urged Mile, des Tournelles, and she
gave as her reference a certain canon, named Lenoir, whose
name so far reassured the Prioress that she yielded to the
wishes of her visitor.
By degrees, Mile, des Tournelles became a person of im-
portance at the Hotel-Dieu. Both she and her friend, Canon
Lenoir, were unfortunately much inclined towards the new
heresy, which had its adepts, not only among the Chapter 'of
Notre Dame, but in even higher places, for the Cardinal de
Noailles refused to accept the bull " Unigenitus."
The nuns took part for or against the new doctrines and,
alas! the Hotel-Dieu, where theological discussions were rife,
was fast losing its reputation as a " house of peace," as Achille
466 AN ANCIENT HOSPITAL. [July,
de Harlay, the President of the Paris Parliament had called it
a few years before.
Happily Cardinal Fleury, Bishop of Frejus, the young King's
prime minister, acted in the matter with judgment and decision.
The wavering canons, the rebellious nuns, and the members of
Parliament who chose to support them, were brought to sub-
mission, peace was restored, and the Hotel-Dieu was saved
from becoming a Jansenist stronghold.
From these events to the terrible upheaval of 1789, noth-
ing of importance broke the even tenor of life in the great
Paris hospital. When, in 1790, the government suppressed
religious houses throughout the country, the Prioress and her
community begged for permission to remain at their post.
This was at first refused, but in the end, finding that it was
difficult to replace the nuns, the men, from whom M. Combes
nov draws his inspiration, authorized the Sisters to remain at
the Ho!:el-Dieu, provided they put aside their religious garb.
This they did, and throughout the whole of the Reign of Ter-
ror, while the great city was deluged with blood, Marie Ange-
lique Mailliard, " Sceur de St. Cloy," and her little band of
Sisters, served the hospital of " Humanity," as " God's Hos-
telry " was called to suit the spirit of the times.
In 1810 the community was authorized by Napoleon to
resume their name, dress, and ancient rules, but instead of
being under the jurisdiction of the Canons of Notre Dame, it
was placed under an ecclesiastical superior, chosen by the
Archbishop. The hospital itself was annexed to the "Assist-
ance Publique," the official French organization for the relief
of the poor.
The "Commune" of 1871 brought back days of turmoil
that seemed like a repetition of the Reign of Terror and its
attendant horrors. The H6:el-Dieu was seized by the revolu-
tionary leaders, and the nuns had not only to put on secular
clothes, but also to don a red sash. Under this livery of the
Revolution they remained at their post, entirely absorbed in
their duties towards the sick and wounded. The " Com-
munard" leader, who commanded at the Hotel-Dieu, had never
bsen brought into contact with religious; he began by observ-
ing the Sisters with some suspicion, but was speedily won
over by their quiet courage and entire devotion to their self-
chosen vocation. When the regular troops entered Paris on
1905.] AN ANCIENT HOSPITAL. 467
the 26th of May, he gave notice of the fact to the nuns, and
advised them to resume their religious habit. Let us add
that the grateful Sisters concealed their " Ccmmunaid " friend
for several days, and thus saved him frcm the fate that over-
took his comrades at the hands of the victorious army.
A few years later the portion of the Hotel Dieu that stood
on the right bank of the Seine was thrown down and com-
pletely rebuilt, on a large scale, at a few steps distance, in
such a manner that the noble Cathedral, which was formerly
hemmed in by the hospital buildings, now stands alone in its
time-honored splendor. In front extends the "parvis," with
a colossal statue of Charlemagne covering the space that, in
former times, was occupied by the Hotel-Dieu; but although
it no longer masks the view of Notre Dame, the great Paris
hospital still stands, as it has done since mediaeval times,
under the shadow of the basilica, with which its fortunes have
been for centuries past so closely linked.
As we already observed, the Augustinian nuns still serve
the Hotel-Dieu, but, alas ! they are no longer, as they were in
the days of St. Vincent of Paul, "the mistresses of the house."
The decrees that placed them in charge of the most ancient
hospital in Paris have not, so far, been repealed, but their in-
fluence and authority have been curtailed as much as possible.
One Sister is still in charge of each ward, but the lay nurses,
men and women, who work under the nuns, are appointed by
the " Assistance Publique," and the Superioress has no voice
either in their selection or in their dismissal.
Our visit to Sceur St. Marguerite, in whose person are
vested the traditions of over twelve centuries of charity, im-
pressed us deeply.' She came to us clad in the "linen sur-
plice" of her mediaeval Sisters. Under the gentle simplicity
of her manner lie a quiet strength and an unflagging zeal.
This twentieth century Superioress has to contend with
difficulties less visible, but no less grave, than those that were
faced by her predecessors during the evil days of the Fronde,
the Terror, and the Commune. With unswerving firmness she
and her Sisters remain at the post that is theirs by right of
inheritance, but it is only by a continual exercise of tact, gen-
tleness, and infinite patience that the Superioress can steer her
course through many conflicting elements. She preserves
peace with the freethinking directors of the "Assistance Pub-
468 AN ANCIENT HOSPITAL. [July.
lique," and keeps in touch with modern methods by sending
her novices to the official medical lectures of La Salpetriere,
but she has no illusions as to the uncertainty of her position,
and awaits the future with unmurmuring faith.
The buildings of the mediaeval " God's Hostelry " have been
swept away by recent improvements, nothing now remains of
the wards where the fifteenth century canons visited the "griefs
malades," and where the beautiful and noble women, whom St.
Vincent of Paul had trained, brought relief and comfort to the
sick and suffering. But, if its exterior has been transformed,
the spirit and traditions of the ancient Hotel-Dieu are, to this
day, worthily embodied in the brave nuns, who, among diffi-
culties of no common order, carry on the work that was be-
gun in the seventh century by St. Christopher's daughters,
of whom these twentieth century Augustinians are the lineal
representatives.
May they be spared the trials that have made so many
French communities homeless, and, in spite of M. Combes'
crafty and cruel persecution, continue the mission that even the
bloody upheavals of 1793 and 1871 were powerless to interrupt.
NOTE. It is hardly necessary to state that the above article was written before the
downfall of the Combes' ministry. [Eo.]
MIRANDA AND JULIET.
BY A. W. CORPE.
|N the characters of Miranda and Juliet we have
two idylls of young love in all its innocence,
purity, tenderness, and self-abnegation. In these
respects, Miranda and Juliet resemble one an-
other ; in their surroundings, and the issue of
their affections, they could scarcely differ more. It may be
interesting to consider these together.
Whatever was the motive when the plays were first col-
lected together for placing "The Tempest" at the beginning
of the volume, no fitter entrance to the temple could have
been selected, and no priestess more charming than Miranda.
It is for some such reasons probably that " The Tempest "
has been a favorite inauguration piece.
Miranda, the only woman's part in the play and that a
comparatively small one, is interesting rather on account of
the character exhibited than for her share in the action.
Driven, along with her father, from Milan, when barely three
years old, she has lived with him ever since upon the en-
chanted island, attended only by the ill-conditioned monster
who served them. This secluded life has developed in her
an artless simplicity which gives her a peculiar charm.
At the opening of the play a vessel has been wrecked upon
the coast in a storm, which Miranda, accustomed to the dis-
play of her father's magical powers, suspects to be of his con-
triving. No more fascinating introduction to what is to fol
low can be imagined than the picture of the storm and wreck,
the concern of Miranda for those on board, and Prospero's
dignified assurance
"Tell your piteous heart
There's no harm done. . . .
No, not so much perdition as an hair."
Prospero has learnt, by means of his art, that the crisis of
his fate is at hand. It is accordingly necessary to tell Miranda
MIRANDA AND JULIET. [July,
something of her history. She. now hears for the first time
that twelve years before her father was Duke of Milan. A
beautiful turn is given to her inquiry : " What foul play had
we, that we came from thence? Or blessed was't we did?"
"Both," he says; and proceeds to tell her of Antonio's
treachery.
Presently she falls into a charmed sleep, during which we
are introduced to Shakespeare's last creation in the world of
fancy, the " quaint," " delicate," " fine," " dainty " Ariel.
Shortly after she awakes, Ferdinand comes upon the scene.
From the moment we hear Prospero bid her, "The fringed
curtains of thine eye advance and say what thou seest yond,"
we know his design. Her naive exclamations of wonder as
she beholds Ferdinand, "What is't ? a spirit? ... It car-
ries a brave form. But 'tis a spirit. ... I might call him
a thing divine, for nothing natural I ever saw so noble," are
delightful.
Ferdinand too for his part is not less amazed. Ariel's
song has worked upon him, and he fancies he sees something
more than earthly : " Most sure, the goddess on whom these
airs attend " ; he begs to know, by chance anticipating her
name, if she is of mortal birth or not, " my prime request,
O you wonder! If you be maid or no?" To which
she replies, with charming simplicity : " No wonder, sir. But
certainly a maid."
Some editions suggest a play on words here, " If you be
made or no?" but the suggestion is quite unnecessary.
" Mayd " is the reading of the folio of 1623, the earliest
known edition of the play, and Ferdinand evidently uses the
word in the sense of "woman" as opposed to "goddess,"
which he had used just before; that this is so, is clear from
his expression later on: "O, if a virgin, and your affection
not gone forth," etc.
At the first sight they have "changed eyes" and are "both
in cither's powers"; to avoid "too light winning" Prospero
adopts the device of Joseph in Egypt, and denounces Ferdi-
nand as a spy. " There's nothing ill can dwell in such a
temple," pleads Miranda; but Prospero forbids her to speak
for him, and at length Ferdinand is invited to draw upon
Prospero, when he finds his arm rendered powerless ; Miranda
again intercedes for him. Prospero tells her she is the advo-
1905.] MIRANDA AND JULIET. .471
cate for an impostor, and that "to the most of men this is a
Caliban, and they to him are angels." To which she prettily
answers: "My affections are then most humble; I have no
ambition to see a goodlier man."
Prospero proceeds to set him task work, which moves
Miranda to compassion.
" Alas, now, pray you
Work not so hard. . ... If you'll sit down
I'll bear your logs the while."
Ferdinand asks her name, " Chiefly that I might set it in
my prayers."
" Miranda," she replies. " O my father,
I have broke your hest to say so ! "
He tells her his condition and that it is for her sake he is
" this patient logman."
" Do you love me ? " she asks with delightful unself-con-
sciousness, and presently weeps. "Wherefore weep you?"
he asks.
" At mine unworthiness that dare not offer
What I desire to give. . . .
. . Hence, bashful cunning !
And prompt me, plain and holy innocence !
I am your wife, if you will marry me ;
If not, I'll die your maid; to be your fellow
You may deny me; but I'll be your servant,
Whether you will or no."
They join hands, hers as she says with her heart in it, and
so ends this beautful little scene.
In the last act we find Ferdinand and Miranda over a
game of chess ; not exactly, one would suppose, the kind of
game with which a pair of lovers would occupy themselves.
Probably this was so in the unknown story from which, accord-
ing to his usual practice, Shakespeare may be presumed to
have obtained his materials. Chess, however, as appears from
Chaucer, to quote no other authority, was formerly more a
pastime and less a study than modern analysis allows it to be.
The climax of the play is at hand, and all the characters
are gathered together upon the stage, when Ferdinand and
Miranda are discovered at this game, and it may be some con-
solation to persons, of what the Latin grammar ungallantly calls
472 MIRANDA AND JULIET. [July,
" the more worthy gender," to find that Miranda by no means
confines her admiration of it t6 the person of Ferdinand :
" How beauteous mankind is. O brave new world
That has such people in't,"
she exclaims. A remark, by the way, not quite complimentary
to Prospero.
In " Romeo and Juliet " the part of Juliet is much more
developed than that of Miranda in " The Tempest," forming,
with that of Romeo, the main purpose of the play.
The earlier scenes have introduced us to Romeo in love
with one Rosaline, a cold beauty, who is inaccessible to " Love's
weak, childish bow," and in consequence the cause of much
unhappiness to Romeo, whose companions treat him with that
want of consideration usually shown to persons in his condition.
Presently Lady Capulet and the garrulous old nurse appear
upon the stage. Paris, a nobleman attached to the court, has
asked the hand of Juliet, and her father has objected that she
is too young. Lady Capulet sends for Juliet to break the sub-
ject to her, and she and the nurse proceed to reckon up her
age It appears from the nurse's account (whose memory, like
Mistress Quickly's, is of the circumstantial order) that Juliet is
within a few days of fourteen. Juliet, on the suggestion of
marriage, protests : "It is an honor that I dream not of"; but
Lady Capulet, more eager than her husband, tells Juliet that
ladies of esteem in Verona, younger than she, are already mar-
ried, and that she herself was Juliet's mother much about her
age; and goes on to inform her of Paris' offer, to which Juliet
makes a dutiful reply of indifference, and the pair are then
called away to supper at the ball which the Capulets are giving.
Meanwhile Romeo and Benvolio have accidentally been in-
formed of the Capulet's ball, and they and Mercutio determine
to go thither. It is noticeable, in relation to what follows, that
Romeo on entering the Capulet's house has a presage of im-
pending misfortune; this seems in strange contrast with the
exhilaration he experiences at Mantua just before hearing of
Juliet's death. Both moods are true to nature, but it is com-
monly by the light of afterwards that we see them.
Romeo's first sight of Juliet is finely conceived :
" What lady's that, which doth enrich the hand
Of yonder knight ? .
O she doth teach the torches to burn bright ! "
1905.] MIRANDA AND JULIET. 473
He addresses Juliet, and a pretty little play of words ensues,
when Juliet is called away by the nurse and Romeo presently
learns who she is. Juliet also, as the company are leaving, en-
quires who it is with whom she has been conversing, and finds
to her dismay that it is Romeo and a Montague:
" My only love sprung from my only hate."
Romeo has left the ball, but he cannot tear himself away
from the spot; he ventures into the Capulet's orchard, where
he overhears Juliet's soliloquy, the simple charm of which is
heightened, if possible, by contrast with Mercutic's lively but
somewhat elaborated wit. Romeo discovers himself and the
dialogue ensues which ends in the exchange of the lovers' vows.
Familiar as this scene is, it can scarcely be recalled without
the discovery of fresh beauties; whether it is Juliet's philoso-
phical conceit on the subject of names, so prettily turned at
the end,
" Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself."
or her alarm at being discovered :
"What man art thou, that, thus bescreen'd in night,
So stumblest on my counsel ? "
or her recognition of him :
" My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words
Of that tongue's utterance, yet I know the sound."
or her apprehension on his account:
"How earnest thou hither, tell me, and wherefore?
The orchard walls are high and hard to climb,
And the place death, considering who thou art.
I would not for the world they saw thee here."
or the mingled modesty and warmth of her avowal :
"Thou know'st the mask of night is on my face,
Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek.
Fain would I dwell on form, fain, fain deny
What I have spoke."
474 MIRANDA AND JULIET. [July,
And then, almost in the very words to be afterwards put in
the mouth of Miranda:
" But farewell compliment !
Dost thou love me ? I know thou wilt say ' Ay,'
And I will take thy word ; yet, if thou swear'st,
Thou may'st prove false; at lovers' perjuries,
They say Jove laughs. O gentle Romeo,
If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully ;
Or if thou think'st I am too quickly won,
I'll frown and be perverse and say thee nay,
So thou wilt woo; . . .
But trust me, gentleman, I'll prove more true
Than those that have more cunning to be strange.
I should have been more strange, I must confess,
But that thou overheard'st, ere I was 'ware,
My true love's passion."
or her alarm at Romeo's adjurations, which finds further ex-
pression in the pathetic passage at the close :
" O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon.
Do not swear at all,
Or, if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self,
Which is the god of my idolatry,
And I'll believe thee."
or her vague apprehension like that which had affected Romeo
before :
" I have no joy of this contract to-night;
It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden ;
Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be
Ere one can say 'it lightens."
or her frank reply to Romeo's entreaty for the exchange of
her "love's vow" for his:
"I gave thee mine before thou didst request it;
And yet I would it were to give again."
or her self-dedication :
" If that thy bent of love be honorable
All my fortunes at thy foot I'll lay
And follow thee my lord throughout the world."
1905.] MIRANDA AND JULIET. 475
or, which is perhaps the finest strain of all, her touching ap-
peal already referred to :
" But if thou mean'st noc well
I do beseech thee
To cease thy suit and leave me to my grief."
Throughout, the thought and the expression are alike ex-
quisite.
Here she is interrupted, and the tension of the spectator is
afterwards relieved by a playful passage. With this scene,
scarcely longer than that we have been considering in " The
Tempest," the story, so far as the present paper is concerned,
comes to an end. The lovers meet at Friar Laurence's cell
and are there married. The play itself is scarcely more than
begun ; the untimely death of the brilliant Mercutio by the
hand of Tybalt ; Tybalt's in turn by that of Romeo ; Romeo's
banishment; Juliet's heroism; the hapless fate of the lovers;
are all to follow.
If "The Tempest," with its atmosphere of calm dignity, is
interesting as the last of the comedies perhaps Shakespeare's
last play,
" Now my charms are all o'erthrown,"
"Romeo and Juliet "is not less interesting as his first tragedy,
in which, interspersed with passages recalHng the quibbling
and artificial wit of "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" and
" Love's Labor Lost," we see the earliest indications of that
tremendous power which was to culminate in "Lear" and
"Othello."
Though a year older than Juliet, Miranda, as is natural
from the circumstances of her early life, is the simpler and less
self-conscious ; but such difference as there is in this respect,
is due to their education and surroundings rather than to na-
ture; Juliet's position as the daughter of one of the principal
houses in Verona, would necessarily bring her into contact with
the world. While Miranda is not less true, Juliet is certainly
more ardent. If Juliet seems cast in a more heroic mould, we
are sure that Miranda's single-hearted faith will never fail. It
is impossible to say which is the more charming ; happily we
are not called upon to decide; but we may admire both, and
the magician's art to whom we are indebted for them.
INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN GERMANY.
(Concluded.)
BY J. C. MONAGHAN,
Head of U. S. Consular Service.
ACCORDING to the promise made in the March
number of THE CATHOLIC WORLD, I offer here-
with a final article on the industrial, industrial
art, commercial, and technical education of the
German Empire. In the first article of this se-
ries I called attention to the danger of taking the Mosely
Commission's promise too seriously. When I penned that ar-
ticle I had no idea of finding so able and efficient an officer
as Consul-General Mason, now at Berlin, but soon to serve at
Paris, confirming my views by facts furnished by a commission
of German experts who had been silently and carefully taking
notes among us when the Mosely Commission was going up
and down the land. Mr. Mason's report deals with the facts
furnished by the German experts, as all consular reports should
deal with facts furnished in a purely objective manner. Like
all good reports it is as valuable for what it suggests as for
what it says. It has in it so much that is worthy of consid-
eration that I quote it in full. It is as follows :
The throng of German engineers, mechanics, scientists,
educators, merchants, and manufacturers who went to America
during the past summer, not only to see the Louisiana Pur-
chase Exposition but to travel over the United States and ex-
amine with expert intelligence the details of American railway
management, and our agricultural and industrial methods, are
now returning and relating to their neighbors and colleagues
what they have seen. One can hardly take up a German
newspaper without finding a more or less extended report of
what some one of these clever observers had found and learned
in the United States, and has related to his verein or local
chamber of commerce, with his comments and conclusions as
to what it all means to Germany. It has been no mere pleas-
1905.] INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN GERMANY. 477
ure trip to these thoughtful gentlemen, but an earnest, serious
effort to learn everything possible of the real productive and
commercial strength of our country, and what Germany will
have to meet and compete with in the future struggle for a
growing share in the world's trade.
It is quite worthy of note that the general tone of these
reports is distinctly reassuring to the hearers before whom
they have been delivered. While admitting freely the bound-
less resources of our country, the energy, industry, and unsur-
passed mechanical skill of the people, the superiority of our
factory system, the speed and cheapness of rail transportation,
and the restless, progressive spirit which is always looking for
a new and better machine or method than the one already in.
use, the German experts find, or think they have found, de-
fects in many parts of the American system, which unless re-
formed will continue to weaken our country's grasp upon
international trade, and promote the interests of competing
nations. Without necessarily concurring in these criticisms, it
may be of timely interest to hear and consider briefly what
they are.
It has been noticed that there is on the part of our people
a general feeling of complacent satisfaction with everything
American, a secure conviction that whatever is done or pro-
duced by them is the best, and that they have only to keep
on as they have begun to have the future securely in their
hands. A pervading ignorance and indifference exist, say these
critics, about everything outside the United States that, from
the German standpoint, will be, unless corrected, a serious
handicap in our quest for foreign trade. The careless confi-
dence with which agents and salesmen are sent abroad, with
no special preparation and with no knowledge of any lan-
guage but their own, to do business in countries where only a
trifling percentage of the population understands English,
strikes these careful, methodical European experts as amazing.
The meagreness of technical education, the trifling annual con-
tingent of chemists, engineers, educated dyers, weavers, and
electricians, as compared with the throng of lawyers, physi-
cians, dentists, and unspecialized graduates turned out by our
colleges and universities, seems to them shortsighted and im-
provident. The high standing and excellence of a half dozen
great technical schools in the United States are frankly con-
478 INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN GERMANY. [July,
ceded ; but what are these in a country of eighty millions of
people in which practically every student is destined for an
active and useful life?
But the absence of any adequate system of special educa-
tion for commerce, banking, and foreign trade appeared most
surprising of all to the German visitors. They consider our so-
called commercial colleges, where young men with a district or
grammar school education are rushed through a three- months'
course of bookkeeping and commercial usages, as little better
than a farce. One of the visitors, a stadtrath and professor of
commercial ethics, talked with some of the students of such an
institution in one of the Eastern cities, and was surprised at
their limited and superficial knowledge, their ignorance of lan-
guages, and of nearly everything else outside the United States,
and their cheerful confidence that their ten weeks at the "col-
lege " would equip them for success anywhere. Reduced to
simplest terms, these investigators generally conclude that the
reliance on a general and more or less superficial education,
together with natural adaptability, to fit young men for almost
every walk in life, and the lack of specialized study in physical
science, modern languages, and the industrial arts, will, if per-
sisted in, neutralize much of the advantage which our country
enjoys, through natural resources and advantageous geographi-
cal position, for the South American, Mexican, and Asiatic
trade. They note also the enormous disparity between Ameri-
can and European wages, the high rates charged by express
companies, and the general heavy cost of handling business in
the United States, and conclude that on the whole the "Ameri-
can danger " has been greatly exaggerated, and that a stead-
fast adherence by Germany to the educational system and
commercial methods now in practice will leave the Fatherland
little to fear in future competition with American manufac-
tured goods.
In just what degree these observations are correct, and the
resultant conclusions logical and justified, it is not the purpose
of this report to inquire. Inevitably, the observations which
have been here roughly summarized were made from the Ger-
man standpoint by men who might naturally overlook or mis-
understand much that did not conform to their theories and
traditions. But the fact that such conclusions have been de-
clared by trained observers, after several months of close ob-
1905.] INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN GERMANY. 479
servation, may well suggest the reflection whether some-points
in their criticism should not be taken into account.
Certainly it should not continue to be truly said of our
people that their most dangerous weakness is over-confidence,
an undue reliance in their own skill, and the innate superiority
of everything American, and their consequent unwillingness to
adapt their goods to the wants of foreign consumers, or make
the systematic effort, which other nations have found necessary,
to build up and maintain a prosperous export trade. That this
danger really exists does not rest upon the testimony of the
German visitors alone.
An eminent English technician who recently visited the
United States was impressed with the lack of scientific knowl-
edge on the part of foremen and high-class operatives and the
indifference on the part of their employers to the latest and
highest improvements in machinery. The latter portion of this
criticism is confirmed by various Americans who are engaged
in supplying new labor-saving machines to Great Britain and
Germany, and who find that progressive foreign firms in the
metal industries are more enterprising than their American ri-
vals in adopting up-to-date labor-saving equipments of Ameri-
can origin. Germany and Great Britain afford especially good
markets for American machinery of the best types. Not only
this, but the labor conditions abroad seem to favor the use of
such perfected machinery. This opens up the latest and most
important fact in the whole situation, which is that the condi-
tions of labor, especially in the metal industries, are rapidly
changing have, indeed, changed in England and Germany
since the great machinists' strike in Great Britain and since
the Germans have learned that it is against America, not
Europe, that their industrial strength must in future be mea-
sured.
An incident which illustrates this is related by a leading
American manufacturer of machine tools, and has been pub-
lished on both sides of the Atlantic. The manager of a large
machine shop in Berlin was about to order a new machine
tool, and sent to an American factory sample pieces to be
worked by it in order to ascertain precisely the time that
would be saved and how well the work would be performed.
The pieces were worked out and returned, with a report of
VOL. LXXXI. 31
480 INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN GERMANY, [July,
the time occupied by each operation. Among others, a piece
had been roughed out to the required size by an engine lathe
in seven minutes. Shortly after the American manufacturer
visited the Berlin shop, and was shown the written tag affixed
to the piece and was told that it was absurd that the lathe
work would require at least an hour. He then offered to
demonstrate that it could be done in seven minutes, the en-
gine lathe having meanwhile arrived and having -been set up
ready for work. But the German foreman said : " No, that
was unnecessary ; if the Americans can do it in seven minutes,
we can." Two days later the foreman reported that under his
supervision the lathe had done the work in five minutes.
The story is pertinent only as a proof and illustration of
how German shops are being supplied with the very latest
and most highly perfected machinery, and how German work-
men have been taught to take the American rate of produc-
tion as the standard and to work up to or even beyond it.
Realizing that the future prosperity of German manufacturers
will depend, as now, largely on their export trade, and con-
sequently their ability to compete with those of America,
German workmen of the better class have come to the con-
clusion that their best interest is to be as efficient and pro-
ductive as possible. There is a, new and pervading ambition
to beat the foreigner wherever possible at his own game and
with his own tools. When it is remembered that this highly
educated, efficient, and ambitious labor costs the employer only
from one-third to one-half the wages that are paid in the
United States, and that it is comparatively tractable and easily
managed, it will be seen that a situation is being developed
here which our countrymen will do well to take into account.
In no other country is banking capital so largely, so skil-
fully, and so effectively used to develop and sustain manufac-
turing industries, and to market their products in foreign coun-
tries as in Germany. A large, enterprising, and steadily growing
merchant marine carries the products of German industry to
every part of the inhabited globe. The united influences of
the Government, the powerful sale and trade syndicates, and
the capitalists who found banks and finance railways in new
countries, are all intelligently and systematically exerted to
give Germany a front place in the list of exporting nations.
1905.] INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN GERMANY. 481
As Germany has been clever and enterprising in adopting
and making the best use of improved methods and machinery
from abroad, so the nations which, like our own, must meet
this competition in the world's markets, will find it needful to
imitate her methods in much that relates to thoroughness in
specialized education, in the art of adapting and selling goods
to alien peoples, and to high service in everything that per-
tains to the development and maintenance of foreign trade.
If banking capital is thus largely, skilfully, and effectively
used to develop and sustain manufacturing interests, it is be-
cause German boys in Berlin, Bremen, Cologne and Chemnitz,
Frankfort and Frankenthal, are carefully trained in finance.
If the conditions of the Empire are such as the London
Times correspondent has painted, and such as Mr. Mason
points out, they are so because the schoolmaster has literally
been abroad. He has ransacked the world for its facts. These
he is furnishing to a people as eager for facts as are the
Japanese. In all this there is an evident lesson for us. If we
pass it by, building as in the past on our rich resources in
raw materials, we will be but* the gatherers of material wealth,
wanting in much that makes for what is best in life. The
greed grasping greed that measures everything by a dollar
and cent standard is unworthy of a people whose past was
full of high purposes and lofty ideals.
Although a little out of the exact line with the foregoing,
I am going to add a word here about the buildings in which
the school work of the Empire is done. Nowhere in the world
are the artistic and the useful combined as they are in the
public buildings of Europe, particularly in Berlin, Dresden,
and the leading cities of the German Empire. Licenses to
build are regulated not only by law but by esthetics. Wealth
is not allowed to do as it pleases. Taste is seldom very seri-
ously offended. Happily nothing but fairly harmonious results
is to be recorded in all the large cities. Schools, churches >
court houses, etc., etc., all public buildings, are expected to
serve a higher purpose than a mere utilitarian one. They
educate. They are public monuments. They stand for the
State. If national, the majesty of the nation must appear
in wide, high porticoes. If built by a city, as city buildings
4$2 INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN GERMANY. [July.
they are made to suggest the character of the city. The
city buildings of Hildesheim, Hameln, Brunswick, Nuremberg,
even Frankfort, Dresden, and Berlin, have something about
them that is suggestive of the genius of the city by which
they were built. All efforts to get the Empire to give up its
written and unwritten laws, those based upon all that is best
in architecture, in favor of the sky-scraping buildings of this
country, have thus far been vain. What Berlin will do in the
years to come can be, of course, only a matter of conjecture,
but it is hardly possible that a people who have put up such
technical high schools as the one at Charlottenburg and the
one at Stuttgart will ever favor the grotesque creations such
as are oftentimes seen here in our own country. If high
buildings are ever constructed in Berlin, or in other large cities
of Germany, they will hardly prove as ugly as some of the huge
structures in our large cities. The past is the best guarantee
of the future. Populous cities that have dedicated vast tracts
in their centres to parks and public buildings, like the great
opera houses, theatres, schools, churches, and stations, such as
Cologne, Frankfort, Dresden, Munich, and Berlin, are hardly
liable to "fall down" when they come to the problem often,
twelve, or fifteen story buildings.
JUNE.
BY JEANIE DRAKE.
An instant fragrance, as of roses in the air,
A light touch on my shoulder, and I turned to see
The June among her flowers. A radiant, gracious form
She stood serene and fair ; and from the very crown
Of the small, queenly head down to the bare, white feet
Were roses. Roses 'mid the dusky, rippling hair,
And roses gleaming from the misty vestment's fold.
Their hue was on her cheek and at her finger-tips,
And on her curved, sweet, and smiling lips their dew.
She raised her hand in beck'ning, and with the full .gaze
Of those most tender, wistful, lovely eyes on mine,
How could I choose but follow her ! So went we forth
Across the wide green meadows starred with butter-cups,
And where her light tread touched the grasses sprang new
blooms.
The sleepy oxen slowly gazed at us, then plunged
In neighboring pools and, with the water rolling off
Their heaving sides, stood with full measure of content.
And on we went by each small drowsing hamlet, white
Beneath the sun. And on to hear the tinkling bell
From distant mountain-side, where careless shepherd sang
While watching. Then we passed a flowing rivulet
In whose transparent ripples leaped the shining fish,
And silvery pebbles sparkled from the crystal depths.
This led us to the coast where waves crept up the sands,
While out upon the waters rocked the white-sailed boats,
And clouds high up in air were mirrored floating by.
484 JUNE. [July.
And always that fair form before me gleamed along
The way ; and not the sky o'erhead was bluer than
Her eyes ; and ever shone she through a golden mist
Which seemed to lie on earth and sea and sky and her.
Our steps retracing through umbrageous woods we went,
The friendly breezes whispering of us overhead
To the proud trees, which bent and fanned our glowing cheeks
With leafy branches and fantastic wav'ring shade
Upon our pathway threw. And now, methought, my guide
Seemed lingering close at hand, and I, perchance, might clasp
And hold her evermore for mine. But sudden out
She passed into an open space where in the wind
There rustled corn. And it was noon-tide, and the change
From shade to dazzling sun struck swift mine eyes
To blind confusion ; and when I could look once more
Alas! I was alone. The peerless June was gone!
THE EXTRICATION OF PATRICIA.
BY M. T. WAGGAMAN.
COULD never be a nun," cried Patricia, with an
air of audacious decision, as she proceeded to
permeate the Bishop's book-belittered study.
Her immense gray muff was deposited on the
desk, where it totally eclipsed a stack of statis-
tics on divorce.
"I could never be a nun," she repeated; "no community
would keep me. They'd vote me out even before they felt
the need of praying for light ; besides, everybody seems to
think I ought to get married."
"Everybody?" interrogated the Bishop, the humorous lines
around his keen eyes skirmishing with the austere angles about
his mouth.
" Oh, that was simply secular exaggeration not at all ac-
cording to Rodriguez," she answered roguishly.
" I didn't know your were an authority on ' Christian Per-
fection '"; then, with premeditated irrelevance, he added: "I
suppose you think that great and gorgeous get up of yours is
is most attractive."
Patricia frequently had qualms regarding her rashness as
to raiment, which qualms she was wont to put to rout by
precipitate extravagance with her orphans, incurables, and
other pauper people. She felt that this was one way out of
remorse, if not the most courageous.
She loosened her silver fox stole and adjusted a rebellious
feather as she seated herself on an ecclesiastical looking chair.
" Of course I know my Paris gown is becoming that's
not vanity, but merely an appreciation of truth "
" And beauty," broke in the Bishop.
" You are either a flatterer or a teaze both are equally
criminal. Plainly, you are not a proper person to advise me
and then love affairs are such a bore at best."
" Bishops must expect to be bored," remarked Patricia's
uncle with delectable resignation.
486 THE EXTRICATION OF PATRICIA. [July,
" I feel somehow or other that you don't approve of me.
Why don't you tell me so ? "
" I'm averse to making superfluous statements," replied the
Bishop smiling.
" So your disapproval goes without saying ? Well, just un-
ravel your reasons please I wish to know the worst you
must admonish the sinner"; and Patricia forsook her seat and
appropriated a diminutive stool.
"What a very imperious young person I have for a rela-
tive ! She reverences neither age nor episcopal power."
"Forty-five is not very old for a bishop."
" I succeeded in securing it early," he suggested.
"You religious people are so secretive you hear so many
things you can't tell, that you forget to gossip at all. Per-
haps you are not aware that I know how you tried to beg off
the bishopric. If you had been only a shade more mediaeval
you would have hidden yourself in the desert, like that blessed
man of old when they were bent on giving him a mitre. That
you are a saint is an occasion of sin to me I yield to feel-
ings of pride every time I thiak of it. It's so unique to have
one in the family."
"The Recording Angel will have much to do keeping ac-
count of your idle words, Patricia."
"That's uncharitable. I've come all the way here for coun-
sel, and I am sure it's not my fault if I've been put off."
" Patricia calls for counsel ? incredible ! "
" You're frivolous "
" It's infectious "
" So that is your diagnosis, my Lord Bishop no more sub-
tleties or subterfuges you fancy I'm frivolous because be-
cause you think I encourage people people in particular,
men, I mean some men " Patricia paused ruefully. " I am
afraid you don't see my side of it."
" In other words, I am an old bigot of a bishop," he said
benignly.
"Now let me elucidate," put in Patricia; "if it is my vo-
cation to marry, I ought to marry;, that is transparent enough.
The opaque problem is the man. He would have to be ready
for canonization to bear with me. Who is he? Where is he?
That's the question ! In the meanwhile, I am experimenting
I have a series of possibilities on hand. Usually one has to
1905.] THE EXTRICATION OF PATRICIA. 487
have more than a bowing acquaintance with a man before one
knows whether he is one's fate or not."
" Your consideration of that poor agnostic fellow is a part
of the prospectus I see " ; and the Bishop nodded compre-
hendingly as he closely scanned as much of Patricia's profile
as was visible.
" I am hoping he will emerge from the fogs and the bogs
at least before death. I know you're rather sceptical about
such conversions, but I say the rosary for him every night."
There was a suspicious nonchalance in her voice.
"Are you in love with the young man, Patricia?"
"What is love?" she asked airily. "You wouldn't have
me marry a non- Catholic ?"
"Why do you allow him to pay you attention in this
way ? He has been haunting you for two years."
"Three," volunteered Patricia, "I think he belongs to the
soul of the Church agnostics do, sometimes, don't they?"
" Why don't you like Dr. Sullivan ? " demanded the Bishop
abruptly.
" I do like Dr. Sullivan."
"Why don't you marry Dr. Sullivan? He would make such
a splendid husband he has offered himself, I am sure."
"Yes, five and a half times no, five and three-quarters,"
calculated Patricia on the tips of her gray- gloved fingers. Dr.
Sullivan is pokey he's pious because he is pokey, not pokey
because he is pious of the two afflictions I'd choose the latter.
Martyrdom through marriage is too undramatic. I prefer In-
dians and tomahawks, or amphitheatres and lions and tigers
anything but Dr. Sullivan, dear man ! "
" I wish he would propose to some one else," said the
Bishop with pastoral practicality.
" I have been generous enough to recommend even that to
him. His proposing to me has become a habit. He is a
slave to good habits. If he only had one or two bad ones he
might be more bearable."
" I hear that Dick Carrington calls twice a week what
does that mean ?"
"Who told you?"
" It's a bishop's debilitating duty to keep an eye on his
ward."
" Oh, don't bother about Dicky, he isn't at all dangerous.
488 THE EXTRICATION OF PATRICIA. [July,
Sometimes we have most edifying interviews it was only the
other evening he spoke ot entering the priesthood."
" Merely as an alternative, I surmise," chuckled the Bishop.
The combination of Dicky and Holy Orders capped the incon-
gruous.
" He did accuse me of being obdurate," Patricia admitted
reluctantly. " Perhaps you haven't heard of Mr. Maddox," she
went on, " he is a brand new admirer, a rampant reformer, a
political economist now, wouldn't it be the height of compla-
cency for me to assume that he will tumble in love with me ?
There have been only cloudbursts of theories as yet. Do you
think I ought to be icily rigid and unsympathetic when he
unfolds his schemes for making over the masses ? You
wouldn't have me that unkind ! The whole world has the
rickets, and he is going to set it to rights. If he labors under
the delusion that I can assist him what is one delusion more
or less?"
" O Patricia, Patricia," sighed the Bishop, " what does that
curious little conscience of yours say to all this?"
" It's a nasty, nagging little conscience," moaned Patricia
petulantly. " It says it says that I care too much for the
agnostic ! " and a dark red pompadour was recklessly rumpled
against the purple sleeve of a soutane.
" My dear, dear child " the Bishop whispered, as he ca-
ressed the crown of a picture hat the episcopal ring flashed
amid sundry dove-colored plumes. " My dear, dear child
this is what I feared. I told you to send him away."
"I did," faltered Patricia. "He stayed for three weeks,
and then he said he would never play hermit again "
" Has he ever been baptized ? "
"When he was a wee bit of a baby in the Episcopal Church.
At nineteen, he went to College, and now he doubts
everything in and out of the world."
"Episcopalians are not very 'long' on logic, and that col-
lege is rather ' short ' on religion. Perhaps he isn't quite cer-
tain whether he exists or not ? "
" It's almost as bad as that," Patricia acknowledged for-
lornly.
"At times he must question his love for you?"
" I fear he does I know he does," she dolefully granted.
"Yet he wishes to marry you?"
1905.] THE EXTRICATION OF PATRICIA. 489
" O yes ; yes ! "
" And this Inconsistency's ideals of marriage what of them,
Patricia ? "
"They are high, but I am afraid they are the flimsy, in-
termittent sort " There were tears in this opinion. She felt
herself the leader of a losing cause.
"You do not trust him?" the Bishop interposed.
" I cannot I cannot," she cried. " A temperament like
his, without a fixed faith, is too too paradoxical to count on.
Oh, do not blame him ! The difficulty lies so deep it's the
very underpinning of his character. How can a man upbuild
his being on quicksand ? Who can be spiritual, or even moral,
with only a debatable decalogue in the background ? Honor,
of course, keeps men from doing a lot of things, but honor and
ethics are not synonymous terms. I know there are people
who are naturally virtuous, and there are others whose cast-
iron conventions and prejudices stand them in good stead ; but
when one is unconventional and unprejudiced, with, a strong
inclination to overturn rock bottom principles there's the rub.
Without the dogma of infallibility, I tell you, I'd be floating
nebula."
" We should indeed pity those outside the fold of our Lord
Jesus Christ," said the Bishop with mystic tenderness. After
a moment or two he asked : "What does your Aunt Katherine
think of it?"
"Aunt Katherine is a house divided against itself she con-
siders the agnostic rather a good match, mundanely speaking.
He will probably make his mark on earth if he misses it in
heaven. He is already quite a power in politics, and the
President has promised him a big promotion but Aunt Kathe-
rine does not believe in mixed marriages. She and Uncle
Tom never did move on the same plane, and when it came to
educating the boys there was always more or less of a well-
bred rumpus "
"When does your Aunt Katherine sail for Rome?" inter-
rupted the bishop.
" Next month, she will be abroad for a whole year ! "
Patricia accented this last word into a geological aeon.
"Why not go with her?" the Bishop proposed with a
dubious assumption of cheer.
"And leave leave all everybody?" Patricia protested.
490 THE EXTRICATION OF PATRICIA. [July.
"Yes; leave me and the agnostic."
" Oh, ought I to go ? " A pair of brimming eyes seemed
to seek the Bishop's very soul in tragic confidence.
" I think it is wise for you to make the sacrifice. You feel
this yourself. Surely the old Church knows what is best for
her children."
Patricia paced up and down the bare floor of the study. "I
suppose I can weather it," she said at last, with a traitorous
tremor in her voice. " Hearts do not break. I feel that it is
for the best I know it is for the best, and yet I thought per-
haps yes; I will go abroad I will give him up I will not
even write to him I promise you that; but I can't help hop-
ing on, just the same, for a St. Paul miracle."
"We can net the Atlantic with novenas if you wish,
Patrica."
But Patricia had vanished. The Bishop leaned on his desk.
"A game little girl," he murmured, "a game little girl!"
HER LADYSHIP.
BY KATHARINE TYNAN.
CHAPTER I.
THE GOOD EARL.
i*HEN John Adolphus Patrick Fitzmorris Fitzgarret
Chute, Earl of Shandon, died at the early age
of thirty three, leaving only a baby girl to suc-
ceed to all the honors and emoluments, there
was great grief among his tenants and depend-
ants.
He had been a quiet, scholarly, large-hearted man, with a
great sense of his responsibilities towards those whom Almighty
God had, as he considered it, entrusted to his care. He was
the father of his people, and while he lived they felt his fatherly
hand extended over them in a beneficent protection.
In politics he had been a Conservative of Conservatives.
He had no sympathy at all with the new ideas which would
make Hodge as good as his master. To his mind God had
made the classes to rule and the masses to be ruled. If the
classes did not rule with wisdom and love, then they betrayed
their trust shamefully. But that the people should ever rule
in the place of the aristocrats was to him something incredible,
almost wicked. He was absolutely out of sympathy with all
republican institutions, but he judged his own class by an
inflexible standard. If the gentry had done their duty, he
would say, republican institutions would never have arisen.
No heated orator on the popular side could have condemned
the bad landlord, the absentee landlord, more finally than the
Earl of Shandon, although, to be sure, the Earl's verdict would
have been spoken with moderation, in fine, classical, scholarly
phrases, that said the last word of judgment and condemnation.
For the rest he had had an exquisite young wife, a creature
so beautiful that people talked of her in hyperbole, recalling
the Gunnings and other famous beauties. The marriage had
been a romantic one. She had been one of half-a-dozen sisters
492 HER LADYSHIP. [July,
as beautiful or nearly so. In her first season she might have
married any one, from a Prince of the Blood down to the rich-
est commoner in England.
She had dawned on Lord Shandon's amazed eyes like a
new planet when he had met her at dinner at his aunt, Lady
Fyfield's, in Berkeley Square. He was in London to attend
the sale of a famous library. Wild horses would not have
dragged him into the vortex of its gaiety.
Up to this time he had been oddly untouched by women.
He had found the Muses sufficient to his mind. Now he looked
at this airy, exquisite, laughing creature, with the mystery
unawakened in her violet eyes, and adored her.
Lady Fyfield was a dull, elderly lady of pronounced Evan-
gelical views. The company at her dinner- table was generally
of the dullest. If the beauty of the season found herself there,
it was because of the amiability which distinguisned her among
her sisters. To be sure she was " going on " ; she was " going
on," from one fine house to another, till the June morning
should be golden over London. She was like Aurora herself,
in her gown of white chiffon faintly shot through with rose.
Nobody at the dinner- table knew what was happening, none
of the colonial bishops, the serious evangelical noblemen and
gentlemen, with their ladies in gowns of obtrusive dowdiness.
It was the most unlikely place for that rose of love to flower
full-grown. But so it was. Soul had leaped to soul, heart to
heart, across the early Victorian decorations of Lady Fyfield's
dinner-table, in an atmosphere of solid English cookery, for
Lady Fyfield would have suspected the Scarlet Woman in a
French chef.
The wooing had occupied about three weeks. When it
was sprung upon Lord Dunlaverock, Lady Cynthia Hazelrigge's
father, from whom she inherited her amiability, he had flung
out his hands in consternation.
"My dear fellow!" he had said. "You amaze me."
To his intimates Lord Dunlaverock had remarked that
Cynthia would never stand Shandon. She was as eager for
sunshine as a butterfly. The excellent fellow would bore her
to the point of death or of . . . Lord Dunlaverock never
concluded the sentence, but shrugged his shoulders. There
were alternatives one would not suggest in the case of one's
own girls. To think of Mount Shandon, in the wildest, loneli-
1905.] . HER LADYSHIP. 493
est, most desolate part of the County Kerry ! Poor Cynthia !
Lord Dunlaverock had never denied his daughters any of the
gaieties their souls craved. He had gone about in the midst
of them, a fair, bland, handsome middle-aged man, adored by
his lovely girls, and treated by them with an easy camaraderie,
which was as delightful as it was unconventional. Poor Cyn-
thia ! It would never do.
Cynthia thought it would do, was quite certain it would
do, insisted, indeed, on marrying Lord Shandon before the end
of the season, with a will of her own and an air of knowing
her own mind which rather bewildered her father.
The marriage had turned out an idyll. It lasted less than
half-a-dozen years. Lady Shandon had filled Mount Shandon
with what gay company she would during those years. It
would have been quite foreign to her husband's nature to have
interfered with her tastes in that way ; the vulgarity of distru-st
or jealousy would have been impossible to his fine, simple, dis-
tinguished nature. So long as he might follow his own way,
might make flying visits to Dublin and London and Paris, where
he haunted second-hand book- shops and auction-rooms, might
devote himself for several hours a day to his library and to his
great history of the County of Kerry which he had been en-
gaged on for some years, he was satisfied that Cynthia should
have the gaieties which were natural to her youth and beauty.
Those who thought that Lord Shandon was dull or indif-
ferent, where his wife's doings were concerned, were as much
mistaken as those who thought Lady Cynthia a flirt, dissatis-
fied with her prematurely middle-aged husband and his dull
ways.
They would have been amazed if they had seen Lord
Shandon on those rare occasions when he drew a pen through
some name in his wife's visiting- list. All the lovely sisters
were married by this time, and they lived in a more tolerant
world than Lord Shandon's. The gossips v/ould have been
still more amazed if they could have seen Lady Shandon with
an arm around her lord's neck, herself perched on the arm of
his chair like a particularly bright humming-bird, her lovely
lips smiling contentedly while the excision was made.
Her ladyship flirted to be sure, and her lord knew it and
smiled at it. It was flirtation that never outran what was digni-
fied and becoming. For the life of her Lady Shandon could not
494 HER LADYSHIP. [July,
resist the desire to make herself pleasant, and she had troops
of lovers, not one of whom but was the better for adoring the
exquisite woman.-
There were some who said that Lord Shandon's heart was
in his books, in his collection of Waterford glass, and engrav-
ings and old furniture. But they were wrong there ; his heart
was in his wife, and it received a fatal shock when she was
brought home one day dying from the effects of a carriage
accident.
Her lovely face was uninjured. All the surgeons in all the
capitals of Europe could not give life to her.
" Never mind, Jack," she said, stroking his cheek, after her
sentence of death had been spoken. " I've had a lovely time
and you've been so good to me. It wasn't in me to lire to
be old and ugly. And it must be ' au revoir,' my dearest."
At the time of her mother's death little Lady Anne was
three years old. She was seven when her father died.
For those four years she was his constant companion. The
blow that menaced and finally ended his life had left little
outward trace. He had always been, as he called it to him-
self, a dull fellow. He was not duller than of old ; indeed to
the discriminating he had gained a certain subtle radiance of
aspect, as of one who always lifts his face heavenward and
receives the benediction of the skies. That " au revoir" was
with him constantly.
He was not too eager to follow Cynthia. He wanted to
stay long enough to set Anne's little feet on the road they
must take. He had finished the County History by this time,
and he had an idea that it was not worth while to begin any-
thing else. He had to train Anne to the duties of her sta-
tion.
While he read or wrote she played sedately with her toys
in an oriel of the library. Her taste was for boys' toys, for
engines and steamboats, drums and guns.
She could ride like a Centaur from the time she was four
years old. She was always with her father when he went to
see his tenants, cantering along beside him on her wild little
mountain pony, her own wild, black curls falling down over
her scarlet habit like the mane of the pony.
Her father would lift her down and bring her into the
farmhouses. She would listen, with a bright-eyed intelligence
1905.] HER LADYSHIP. 495
which delighted him, to the conversation between him and the
farmers. Presently they would go out over the land to see a
field which required draining or a bit of reclamation from the
bog which meant a ten-pound note off the rent. Lord Shan-
don would get down and feel the sides of the little cattle with
a grave interest which gave no suggestion of his frail tenure
of earth. He would talk of the rotation of crops and the
newest implements of husbandry, suiting his talk, it seemed, to
childish ears, so simple were the words he used, so lucid his
explanations.
Everywhere little Lady Anne went with him. Sometimes a
house mother would suggest, if the day was raw, or the rain
coming down from the hills, that the little lady should keep
within doors and await his Lordship's return.
" Will you stay, Anne ? " Lord Shandon would say, smil-
ing at her.
But Anne would not stay. She would be with her father,
evincing a precocious interest in the affairs of the farmers
which used to make the people smile and lift their hands.
" Sure, glory be to God," they would say, " if she wasn't a
girl 'tis the young landlord we'd be calling her."
The father talked to her about unchildish things as they
rode home together.
" Remember, Anne," he would say, " the people belong to
you and they are not to suffer. It would be better that we
should suffer ourselves than that the people should suffer."
And Anne would listen to him with intelligent, violet eyes.
The eyes were the one beauty she inherited from her lovely
mother the violet eyes, and the long, curling lashes. For the
rest she was dark and irregularly featured, but with a beautiful
softness, which made up in many people's minds for her lack
of regular beauty. But that was later. The tenants thought
her ugly and compared her, to her disadvantage, with her
mother. Their ideal of childish beauty was to be fair and
plump and golden- haired.
Some of them noticed in time that his Lordship had a
cough and a dark flush, and that he was not so active as
formerly, but took many opportunities of sitting down now, as
though he were tired. He gave up hunting, too, and he no
longer pretended to race Anne and her pony along the excel-
lent roads. The tenants had gloomy premonitions.
VOL. LXXXI. 32
496 HER LADYSHIP. [July,
" Sure, any change 'ud be for the worse," they said, " an'
there's no depindin' on a girsha. 'Tis as like as not she'd be
after marryin' them that 'ud take no thought of us. 'Tis a
pity his Lordship wouldn't be livin' forever."
His Lordship did all he could to postpone his going. He
consulted doctors in vain. He even went to Bad-Nauheim and
took the cure, although absence from home was now more
than ever distasteful to him. But all the same he set his
house in order, arranging for a minority which was to be a
long one, and appointing guardians for little Lady Anne, who
might be counted on at least not to bend the tender plant in
an opposite direction from that he would have wished it to
take.
He was a rich man for an Irish peer, with many invest-
ments as well as the ownership of the great stretch of coun-
try which included certain mountains and lakes of perfect
beauty. The mountains and lakes brought him little revenue
a-id another man than Lord Shandon might have under-esti-
mated their value to the estate; but not so the Earl of Shan-
don. He was proud to hold so much beauty in fee, and he
dealt with it generously, so that all the world might come and
be refreshed at its fountains ; and he bore with equanimity
the occasional clownishness with which his generosity was re-
warded. Beyond that there were great stretches of bogland
and the arable land was not large in proportion. Indeed the
farmers could hardly have lived under a harsh landlord. No
wonder the tenants said, sorrowfully to themselves, that any
change must be for the worse.
Before the end came, the Earl grew more persistent in in-
culcating on his little daughter her duty to the flesh and blood
over whose happiness and misery she had so much power.
" I have written it all down for you, Anne, to read when
you are older," he said. " God has given us great responsi-
bilities. If we do not use them rightly, it would be better for
us if we had not been born. Remember, Anne."
Anne promised to remember, clinging closely to her father
as though she saw something she dreaded.
Then one day the blinds were down all over Mount Shan-
don as they had not been since the beautiful Countess had
died. There was lamentation up and down the countryside,
because the good landlord, the kind friend, the father of his
1905.] HER LADYSHIP. 497
people, had been gathered to his fathers. Little Lady Anne
had stolen away from her nursery, where she was a close
prisoner, while her nurse slept, and had been found on her
knees by the dead man, kissing his hand and crying out,
through the dreadful, unchildlike paroxysms of her grief, that
she would remember.
After that one of her guardians, Colonel Leonard, took
her away with him much against her will, and rode home with
her to his wife. She had fought like a little wild- cat against
being taken away, but had finally yielded because papa would
have wished it.
" Here, Nell," he said, walking into the big, faded drawing-
room at the Chase, where only other people's children came
to delight the childless lovers of children. " Here is some-
thing for you to comfort." Lady Anne had fallen fast asleep,
worn out with her vigils and her sorrows.
When she awoke Mrs. Leonard's kind, sorrowful face was
leaning over her. She remembered with a long, shuddering
sigh, and then turned to the comfortable breast and burst into
tears.
"Thank God," said the Colonel, coming in. "I knew if
any one could do it you would, Nell. Egad, she frightened
us."
In the days that followed after John Adolphus Patrick
Fitzmorris Fitzgarret Chute had been laid with his fathers,
his little daughter used to sit silent, with a puckered brow,
in the midst of the happy children whose presence was sup-
posed to comfort and distract her the children of Mr. Os-
borne, the Rector, who had a quiverful, their innumerable
cousins, and various others.
Once Mrs. Leonard rescued her from a game of nuts in
May, during which the gloom of her small face was worse
than tears.
" What were you thinking of, lambkin ? " the kind woman
asked.
Little Lady Anne put her hand to her forehead with a
bewildered air.
" They were miking so much noise," she said, " and all
the time I was trying to remember as papa told me to."
498 HER LADYSHIP. [July,
CHAPTER II.
COMING OF AGE.
In time little Lady Anne emerged from those glooms and
shadows, as was natural, seeing the splendid health that fell
to her share. She did not forget her father, as another child
might, but after the first grief and despair her nature put out
tentacles to suck up the joy there was in the world, a beauti-
ful world where no one could go on being unhappy.
As time passed she was the despair of nurses and nursery-
governesses and governesses. She had developed, as might
have been expected, into a tomboy. She was always with the
Rectory boys; and the anxiety suffered on her account by
Mrs. Osborne, the delicate mother of robust children, was
something harrowing.
" I've almost given up expecting my own to be drowned
or smashed up every time they are out of my sight," she said.
"But how could I forgive myself or them if anything were to
happen to Anne? Do look at the boat, Reginald! She is in
it now with Rex and Arthur. Doesn't it look like the boat
of the Flying Dutchman. Such a day for a girl to be out ! "
The rectory windows looked on an inlet of the sea, across
a lawn which grew sea-pinks and bents, and sea-holly instead
of the orthodox grass.
It was a wild, wet day, with the rain driving in sheets off
the mountains. The boat passed across the little bay and out
of sight, with one wet sail filling before the wind. Seen through
the driving rain it had, indeed, a spectral look.
" I do hope they are coming in," Mrs. Osborne said dole-
fully. " They've been out since lunch time. I think you ought
really to stop it, Reginald. She'll get her death from a chill
one of these days, and I dread those sailing boats, seeing all
the squalls that come down from the mountains."
" I have great confidence in the boys' seamanship," her
husband replied. "You see, they're quite accustomed to a boat.
And she won't take a chill. If they've been out since lunch I'd
have something substantial for tea. They'll come in with the
appetites of hunters."
He had hardly spoken, indeed, when the young voices were
heard outside, and Lady Anne came in with the boys, having
1905.] HER LADYSHIP. 499
taken off the pea-jacket which they had lent her. The spray
was on her lashes and her black curls; her eyes were bright;
her cheeks glowed; her white teeth showed as she smiled;
one forgot that her mouth was a large one, seeing how red
were the lips, how white the teeth.
" Your mother was growing anxious about you, boys," said
their father, as the young barbarians lifted the covers of the
dishes on the tea-table and sniffed appreciatively. " Wasn't it
rather a wet day to have taken Anne out ?
The boys stared.
" Oh, she wouldn't be left at home," one said, while the
other said, with the air of paying a compliment, that Anne
wasn't like a girl at all, and that she'd take no more harm from
the water than his retriever would.
As a matter of fact she seemed impervious to cold, and
neither on this occasion nor on any other did she take the
chills which were prophesied. In fact the worse the weather
was, the brighter were her eyes, the curlier her hair, the rosier
her cheeks; she was a very big girl, big and dark, and she
seemed to grow like a young tree in the fain and the wind
and the sea spray.
" She's straight as any poplar tree,
But not so aisy shaken, O,"
might have been written for her.
Indeed, as for shaking, those who had to do with her came
in time to find that she had an inflexible will of her own. The
tale of torn pinafores and frocks, of stockings out-at-heel, and
boots water-logged and mud-logged, was followed by the com-
plaints of the governesses that Lady Anne wou-ld not learn
the things they wished to teach her. The accomplishments
did not appeal to her, or perhaps it was the way in which
the governesses sought to impart them. Where she did not
wish to learn, said the governesses, she was positively stupid.
On the other hand, where she was interested she learned with
an amazing ease.
She perturbed those good ladies horribly, for she would
fling their Charlotte Yonge to the other end of the room, and
be found, a little later, immersed in some book in the library
which her governess, for the time being, thought utterly un-
suited for her. There was a legend that she had once been
500 HER LADYSHIP. [July,
discovered reading Tom Jones, with her elbows on the library
table and her hands thrust through her curls. The legend
went on to say that when the governess in a panic fled to
the Rev. Reginald Osborne with her tale, the good gentleman
had shrugged his shoulders.
" Pooh ! my dear creature," he was reported to have said.
" Pooh ! It will do the child no harm. She will miss all the
undesirable things. It's much better reading for her than the
modern novel."
But to be sure Mr. Osborne was hopelessly eccentric and
unlike other people look at his friendship with the priest!
who, if the rector had not been his friend, would not have
spoken with an educated person once in a twelvemonth. A
good many people held that the friendship was a scandal, and
some few among the rector's flock showed their disapproval by
transferring themselves as worshippers to the next parish.
Mr. Osborne was no person for a harassed governess to
carry her griefs to. When he heard the complaint that Lady
Anne would only learn the things that pleased her, he remarked :
" And why not let her learn the things that please her ? "
He discovered presently that, just as she would read the
books his boys read while refusing those intended for her sex
and age, she would learn the things the boys learned. She
had, as a matter of fact, picked up a certain amount of Latin
and Greek and mathematics the latter less willingly before
the rector discovered her tastes. After that he taught her as
he taught his boys and with them, and he was amused and
amazed to find how quickly she outstripped them. What to
Rex and Arthur and Eric and Herbert were mere tasks were
to her an ea'sy delight.
" She is her father's daughter, with the love of scholarship
ingrained in her," said Mr. Osborne delightedly to Colonel
Leonard, and proceeded to read for him a set of Latin verses,
which had a remarkable elegance and polish, as the work of a
girl of sixteen.
The Colonel did not see it in Mr. Osborne's way. Instead
he received the reading of the verses on a note of dismay.
"Good God! Osborne," he said, "you're making a blue-
stocking of her! She'll be going to a woman's college next,
bending her back and dimming her eyes. Look at poor Shan-
don ! If he hadn't been so taken up with books he might have
1905.] HER LADYSHIP. 501
been among us to-day instead of leaving a child like that to
carry on the estates. And a woman, too ! I never knew a
learned woman to be good for anything."
Mr. Osborne smiled at the dismay he had created. The
Colonel was mopping his forehead with a red bandana hand-
kerchief, wearing at the same time an air of being greatly
disturbed.
"It wouldn't do her any harm if she were a lad"; Mr.
Osborne suggested.
" Oh, lads don't take it seriously. It comes in the day's
work to them with the cricket and the ragging and the drill.
Girls take it like the measles. It's an inoculation, that's what
it is."
" She takes it like a lad," Mr. Osborne said.
"The thing we'll have to do is to get her married," the
Colonel went on. " Latin and Greek, indeed ! Latin and
Greek never yet got a girl married. I declare the responsi-
bility poor Shandon put on us makes me sweat at times to
think of it. I wonder if we were wise now to put that ^"5,000
into railway shares. Consols are safer when you are handling
other people's money. You take it easy, Osborne. For my
part, I'll be very glad when she's married and we can hand
over the whole thing to her husband."
Mr. Osborne smiled.
"She will be her own mistress when she's twenty-one," he
said, quietly.
" Nominally," said the Colonel. " Of course she won't be
able to do without us. She won't be off our hands till she's
married."
A few days later Lady Anne waylaid the Colonel.
" I want the tenants at Knockbeg Point to have the right
of turbary," she said.
" Right of turbary," the Colonel repeated. " My dear child,
we couldn't do it. The right of turbary has always belonged
to the estate. It would be a most dangerous precedent. Even
if we could do it ourselves there are other people to be
thought of. We must hold together, we landlords. Don't you
see that we should put the others in the wrong ? "
" Then they'd better not stay there. They'd better do
what we do," said Lady Anne as though that were a con-
clusive statement. " Papa would have given them the right.
502 HER LADYSHIP. [July,
You see the bog wasn't there in his time. The bog-slide di-
verted it, and it has cut right into their lands. It would be
most unfair that they should not have it. Another thing
the tenants must take what seaweed they will from the fore-
shore when it lies by their farms. Papa would have wished
it."
" Who is to say what he would or would not have
wished ? " the Colonel said testily.
It was quite true that some of his friends had been per-
suading the Colonel to take a firm stand on the Shandon
property, so as to bring it into line with the other properties.
He had been persuaded rather against his will and judgment;
and it annoyed him the more that, when he had persuaded
himself it was all for the good of the estate, the heiress her-
self should interfere at her age, too.
" My dear," he said, speaking more gently. He was de-
voted to Lady Anne in his' heart, and had a fatherly pride
in her bigness and strength and cleverness. "My dear, you
must not interfere. You are only a little girl, you know.
Bless my heart, to think of a little girl of sixteen, with her
hair down her back in a pigtail, talking about turbary rights
and right of the foreshore and such things ! You must trust
your guardians, my dear, to do their very best for you and
the estate."
Lady Anne said no more, but looked at him in an odd
way. The end of it was that the good gentlemen climbed
down, pretended to have discovered for himself that the case
of the Knockbeg Point tenants was an exceptional one. Some-
how he minded less the mingled sorrow and anger with which
certain of his adult friends regarded him after the climbing
down than he had that odd look in Lady Anne's eyes.
" I don't want her to be kicking over the traces at the
first possible moment," he said to himself in extenuation of
his weakness.
Lady Anne was certainly very much on the Colonel's mind.
By this time she was entirely free .from the rule of her gov-
ernesses. They had departed one after another, being too
conscientious, some of them said in their anger, to keep a
position in which they were rather the governed than the
governing. At last one had stayed, a quiet, faded, elderly
spinster who had been discovered by Mr. Osborne. She had
1905.] HER LADYSHIP. 503
been too old at forty-five for the Ladies' College to which she
had given her youth, and now she was quite willing to sub-
ordinate her learning to looking after Lady Anne in a gen-
eral way, as much as the young lady would allow her. And
having made the sacrifice of her learning, it was an amazing
and unexpected delight to find that after all the refractory
pupil was ready to meet her in the studies her soul loved.
She almost wept as she told Mr. Osborne how she and Lady
Anne were reading Euripides together. " She learns for love,"
she said; "and there is a world of difference between that
and learning for any other reason."
In an unobtrusive way she did a good deal for Lady Anne,
which might not have been done if the young lady were left
to those who had not the sense of honor to stimulate them to
a diligence, the absence of which would not have been dis-
covered. For the rest she was certainly happy, except for the
ever-present fear that Lady Anne, grown to womanhood,
might find her too old as the College had found her.
" Miss Graham is all very well," said the Colonel discon-
solately. "An excellent creature, although a trifle melancholy.
But what is to be done, I ask you, Nell, when Anne is grown
up ? . She can't live in that big house all alone. She will need
a chaperon. There must be some relative of the family who
would come and stay with her. There was Lady Fyfield's
daughter she seemed discreet enough she might do."
He loooked at his wife with a hopeful air as he concluded
the speech, and found his Nell laughing softly to herself.
" Lady Fyfield's daughter ! " she said, " Miss Madge Win-
terton ! I can't see Anne accepting Miss Winterton for a
chaperon."
Indeed as soon as the matter was broached to Lady Anne
she put her foot upon the proposal. She was at this time
eighteen.
" Papa left me absolutely free and my own mistress at
twenty-one ? " she said.
"Quite so," assented the Colonel. "But even when you
are twenty-one you will still require advice and assistance. It
is not as if you were a boy."
"No; it is not as if I were a boy," she said enigmatically.
"And I don't propose to have Cousin Madge here. Miss
Graham will do very well. I shall not want to go out much
504 HER LADYSHIP. [July,
before I am twenty-one. Odd, isn't it, Uncle Hugh " she
always called Colonel Leonard, Uncle, although he was no kin
of hers " that there is no medium in our family between ex-
treme seriousness and extreme frivolity?"
She had just returned from a round of visiting among her
English relatives, with a scornful and amused wonder over
their indefatigable pursuit of amusement. She lived every
hour of her life, and she could not imagine any one having
the necessity for killing time. For her the happy days were
all too short.
The Colonel smiled.
" I don't ask you to have Lady Sylvia Hilton, Anne," he
said ; Lady Sylvia was a widowed sister of the late Lady
Shandon. " Gad, how she would wake us up ! "
He had been going to say something stronger, but had
made the harmless substitution just in time.
Lady Anne went her own way. By this time she knew
the needs of the tenants as well as her father before her, and
she was more modern than he in her ideas of what the needs
demanded. She bided her time, saying nothing. It would be
time enough when she was twenty-one to talk about the
things she was powerless to do till then.
At last the fateful day arrived. There was to be a dinner
to the tenants, a dance for the servants, and many other fine
doings. The house was crammed with the English friends and
connections, half of whom turned night into day with bridge,
while the other half read The Christian and turned up their
eyes at the wickedness of the world.
" My dear Anne," Colonel Leonard said, with an affection-
ate hand on his ward's shoulder. He had done what he called
" giving an account of their stewardship " for himself and Mr.
Osborne, who was a tongue-tied person in matters of busi-
ness. " My dear Anne, you are now free and your own mis-
tress by law. But I may say that you may count on Osborne
and myself, in the future as in the past, to do all we can to
help you in the difficult position in which you find yourself.
You have succeeded to a big property and a big responsibility,
too big I may say for a girl like yourself to support unaided.
But your father's old friends will not fail you. My dear child,
you must let us bear this burden for you till, in the most
natural way, it devolves on your husband."
1905.] HER .LADYSHIP. 505
The Colonel paused for breath. Before he could go on
again Lady Anne spoke quietly.
"Thank you very much, Uncle Hugh," she said. "Of
course I know that you would do anything for me. But I
have been preparing myself all these years to do what I know
papa wished, that is to manage the estate myself. I shall not
even have an agent. A steward, perhaps, but not an agent.
I do not intend that any one shall come between the tenants
and myself. To-morrow I will look into those leases "
"Good Lord!" gasped the Colonel. " Good Lord ! You'll
come a cropper, young lady, I tell you; you'll come a crop-
per ! "
"You dear!" she said, jumping up and kissing him on
top of his bald head. " I can never thank you enough, you
and Mr. Osborne, for having taken such care of things for
me. If I ever needed advice of course I should come to you,
but I warn you frankly that I do not anticipate that I shall
need advice."
" Good Lord ! " said the Colonel to himself. " Good Lord
If it had been a lad now! If it had been a lad! "
CHAPTER III.
MISS 'STASIA.
There is a certain Dublin street which lies on a hilltop,
surrounded by other streets, into which the dry rot has been
eating for many a year past. This has not yet suffered the
degradation of many of the others, which have fallen into
disrepute as streets of tenement houses, but it has a dreadful
melancholy by the side of which their squalid over-crowding
is cheerful. The houses were houses of the nobility and
gentry in the latter half of the eighteenth century. They were
built over what once were cherry and apple orchards. The
rooms are lofty and spacious, decorated with Italian stucco-
work; they have doors of wine-red Spanish mahogany, and
fine marble mantel-pieces, although where they have become
tenement houses the enterprising builder has in most cases torn
out the mantel-pieces, and replaced them by something com-
moner.
Wharton Street is off the beaten track, runs away from the
main thoroughfare, where the electric trams climb and descend
5o5 HER LADYSHIP. [July,
the hill. It connects two streets with an unnecessary con-
nection, since you may take the high road a few steps further
and make the connection more cheerfully. I doubt that any-
body ever saves those few steps by turning up Wharton Street.
There is something deadly to the spirits in its black house-
fronts. Its one solitary bit of renown is that a political
murder took place some thirty years ago in a low archway in
the middle of the street. For the rest the lower windows are
screened from the public gaze by short wire blinds which go
half-way up. The upper windows have curtains of red mo-
reen, with the cheapest Nottingham white ones to indicate the
drawing-room. One wonders how in this city of few manufac-
tures, with the fields not half a mile away, the house-fronts
could have become so black. The imaginative person passes
Wnarton Street with a shudder, thinking that a life within its
precincts would be a living death.
Every house in the street lets lodgings, and the lodgers are
all old ladies. They have seen better days. They hold aloof
from each other as a rule in a proud isolation, wrapping them-
selves about in their memories of past glories. It is a sort of
Beguinage for the widows and maiden sisters and maiden
aunts of the Irish land-owners, whose provision for these
helpless ones, which they thought as solid as the solid earth,
went down in the wild storm of the early eighties.
At the very top of the dreariest, grimiest, blackest house
of them all lived the Honorable Anastasia de Courcy L'Es-
trange Chevenix, Lord Shandon's cousin, seven times removed.
She was the greatest hermit of all the old ladies, never went
out to tea with any of the others, not even to Mrs. Mont-
morenzy De Renzy on the drawing-room floor, nor to the
Misses Burke Vandaleur on the third floor. For one thing,
she could not have afforded to return the hospitality, and that
was a thing she could not have borne. The old ladies expected
a return of hospitality too. For another thing, she was des-
perately shy and sensitive. For yet another, she had a gnaw-
ing wolf at her vitals in her fear that as she grew older the
tiny annuity she had saved out of the debacle would be insuf-
ficient to keep her. As it was she starved, inasmuch as she
never had enough to eat. She would have literally starved if
it had not been for the landlady, Mrs. Cronin, who had been
kitchen-maid to Miss Chevenix's brother, Lord Moneymore, in
1905.] HER LADYSHIP. 507
the great days, and now reared a large family, somewhere in
the basement of the house, of discreet children, who from their
earliest months learned to be quiet and demure so as not to
disturb the old ladies.
Mrs. Cronin sent up many a little dainty to Miss Chevenix's
table which the tiny sum the lady paid for board did not war-
rant. Sometimes Miss Chevenix had compunction over those
dainties.
"You are feeding me too well, Eliza," she would say. "I
don't expect an egg with my tea when new-laid eggs are at
famine prices. And that little sole yesterday. A Dublin Bay
herring is a very dainty and sweet fish ; I should have been
quite content with one."
" Is it Dublin Bays, Miss 'Stasia ? " Mrs Cronin would an-
swer. " Sure, they're great commonalty, and besides they're
scarce. That little sole now, the fishwoman had her basket
full o' them. 'Take them at your own price,' says she, ' for
I'm heart-scalded wid them. There was a terrible take o' them
last night,' she says. As for them eggs, my cousin Bridget
brought me a present of a dozen. Sure it was a bit o' business
dalin' I was doin' wid ye, sendin' you wan up for your tay."
After an interview like this, and there were many such,
Mrs. Cronin would descend to her own premises, wiping her
brow and hoping the Lord would forgive her.
" I'm after tellin' lies as fast as a dog 'ud trot," she would
say to Mr. Cronin, who was a waiter by night, and in the day-
time cleaned knives and chopped wood and polished boots and
washed dishes. "Sure my tongue runs away wid me. She'd
ha' been deceived wid the quarter o' the lies I told her. In-
deed she's as aisy deceived as a child ; aisier, for childher are
sharp as needles look at our own Mary Anne ! "
Both John and Eliza Cronin for, although John owed none
, of the special loyalty to the Chevenixes which his wife did as
an old servant, he yet thought with Eliza in pretty nearly all
matters both John and Eliza would have been distressed if
they could have known of that wolf of fear which was ever
gnawing, gnawing at poor Miss Anastasia's heart.
It would never have occurred to Eliza that Miss 'Stasia
could have cause for fear. She was quite content to shoulder
the burden of Miss 'Stasia's advancing years. Not that they
need be apprehended for a long time. Why, Miss 'Stasia's
sixtieth birthday was yet some way off. But when the time
508 HER LADYSHIP. [July,
should come, sure the children would be grown up by then
and doing finely ; already Mary Anne had a position in view
in a big draper's, for which she would receive the princely
income of five shillings a week. And it was no use meeting
trouble half way ; and God was good.
But Eliza had not reckoned with Miss 'Stasia's pride. Miss
'Stasia's mind was made up. The idea of becoming a burden
on the willing Eliza would have been the last thing possible
to her thoughts. She had considered several alternative insti-
tutions where her days might be ended. She might perhaps
be able to creep into one of these, concealing the fact, at least
from the other inmates, that she was the daughter and the
sister of two Lords Moneymore. She imagined disguises in
which no one would ever trace the blue blood of the Cheve-
nixes. When the time came she would have courage to enter
one or other of the abhorrent institutions. It might even have
to be the workhouse. Then, on the other hand, perhaps she
might die before the necessity arose. She prayed a great deal
that God might find a way out for her, creeping along the
dark streets a darker little figure shrouded in rusty crape,
and closely veiled lest she should meet any one belonging to
the great days to the Church which was her one bright spot
of the neighborhood.
If she could she would have hidden herself away com-
pletely in that room of hers at the top of the house, ap-
proached by a garret stairs. Its very position seemed to give
it an impregnability which she hugged with a sense of satis-
faction. Mrs. De Renzy was asthmatic, the Misses Vandaleur
had one a weak heart, one a rheumatic lameness. None of
the three would attempt the garret staircase unless the temp-
tation were greater than any she was likely to offer.
She loved her garret room. For one thing the windows
were not level with the street, but stood back, invisible from
it, in a privacy, since it was the only house of the street
which possessed a garret story. From those windows she
could see, across the smoke of the city, wonderful glimpses of
mountain and sea. In the early mornings indeed and she
was often up for an early service, before the chimneys smoked
there was a fairyland of beauty visible from the garret win-
dows, when even the spires and chimney-pots of the city in
its valley but enhanced the loveliness of the world which
every night seemed to be born in new loveliness.
1905.] HER LADYSHIP. 509
She had, as all the old ladies had, relics of the old life
about her which gave her garret room a certain distinction.
What if the wall-paper was of the cheapest and commpnest
and the floor-covering an " Art Square," of an incredible
dreariness of color, the place was redeemed by Miss 'Stasia's
own furniture, which she had brought in with her. One or
two elegant Chippendale chairs, a sofa brass-inlaid, with he-
raldic eagles supporting it on their wings and their claws
grasping a ball, a few miniatures, a brass-bound cellarette
Miss 'Stasia's workbox and writing desk, the old chintz cur-
tains which draped the small bed and hid it completely away
in the daytime these things gave the little room its air of
refinement and charm.
The room in itself was a certain happiness to Miss'Ana-
stasia. She had imagined fancifully, smiling to herself, that it
would have been a comfort if she could have taken it with
her when the other world opened its doors. It was the dearer
to her because she looked forward to the day when its friendly
shelter might no more be hers.
It had been prettier once on a time, but there had been
emergencies when one and another article had disappeared, as
had most of her trinkets. John Cronin had been the kindly
and discreet medium in the disappearance of the things ; that
was something she could not have managed for herself, and
John had removed the things after nightfall, never betraying
by a stumble on the steep garret stairs or by so much as a
creaking boot to the other inmates of the house Miss Ana-
stasia's lamentable necessity.
" If I should die in the night," she had said to Mrs. Cro-
nin, "these things" indicating the furniture that was left
"will bury me. I have left them to you, you kind creature.
You will find my will in my writing desk when I am gone.
If I should have an illness you must sell them, and keep me
as long as they will pay my expenses. After that you must
send me to a hospital."
"Is it me to do the like?" Mrs. Cronin had responded in
horror ; " me, that was born on the estate and was in the
kitchen at Moneymore the day I was twelve years old ! An'
'ud never have left ye, Miss 'Stasia, if the place hadn't been
sold. I wouldn't be talkin' of sickness or wills or the like.
Sure you're young yet. As for hospitals, never one o' my
5io HER LADYSHIP, [July,
flesh and blood I put into them; an' it isn't likely I'd ever
be thinkin' of it for you."
" Oh, my dear creature," Miss Anastasia cried, beginning
to tremble, " I .couldn't wrong you and your family like that.
Indeed, you'd have to put me into hospital. It would be a
thousand times worse to lie here knowing that I was taking
the bread out of your children's mouths. I know you don't
do very well. You're not cut out for business any more than
the rest of us. Promise me, now do promise me, that if I
fall ill, and it is likely to be a long illness, you will send me
to hospital."
Mrs. Cronin promised "for the sake of peace," as she ex-
plained to John afterwards, adding that if sickness were to come
upon Miss 'Stasia she wouldn't stand up against it very long,
since she'd no more strength than a sparrow and ate as little.
" There she sits, up in that terrible cowld room," she said,
" mendin' her stockin's. I offered to put in a bit o' fire for
her, but she wouldn't hear of it. It's roastin' too in summer,
bein' under the slates. She used to be a wiry little lady,
Miss 'Stasia, for all that she was so delicate and pretty look-
ing; but she wants comforts, God help her, and I can't give
them to her, an' she wouldn't take them if I could. 'Tis a
shame, so it is, that she should be left like it in her age."
It was a rather hopeless outlook just then in the Cronin
family. John had lost his job as a waiter, having been super-
seded by a young Swiss lad, deft and quick beyond what
John had ever been. The place which Mary Anne had looked
forward to so long, had been given away, as she put it, over
her head. John in his shirt-sleeves, sat turning over a news-
paper, scanning the long columns of advertisements somewhat
hopelessly.
"I'll never wait again, Eliza," he had said despondently,
"an' I don't know what else there's for me to do. I'm too
owld to learn a new trade. Aye, it's sad about the poor owld
lady, but, sure it's a sad world for most of us. It 'ud be as
well some of us were out of it."
While his wife rebuked him for this unusual fit of de-
spondency, half-scolding, half-rallying, John turned to the por-
tion of the paper which contained the news of the day. He
had to go nearer the murky kitchen window to read it. The
light, always bad in Wharton Street basements, was worse than
usual on this winter afternoon.
1905.] HER LADYSHIP. 511
"I wonder if she'd come down an' take a hate o' the fire,"
Eliza said. " I believe she would if I asked her. She was
never proud with us."
"' Coming-of-age of Lady Anne Chute,'" read John from
his paper. "'Entertainment to the tenantry.' She's a cou-
sin o' Miss 'Stasia, isn't she, Eliza ? You wouldn't think that
she'd be after lettin' the owld lady want if she knew it, an'
she her own flesh and blood. An' I'm aieared it'll be want
with the whole of us before long."
Eliza was arrested midway of the table and the door; she
was just going up to ask Miss 'Stasia " to come down and
take a hate o' the fire."
" To be sure she is," she said, coming back and looking
curiously at the paper. " Miss 'Stasia's papa was sixth cou-
sin to the Lord Shandon before last. What were you thinkin'
of, John Cronin ? "
"Mary Anne's a fine scholar an' a beautiful hand with the
pen," he said, staring abstractedly into space.
"She'd never forgive us if she was to know," Eliza said,
in an agitated voice.
" We'd never forgive ourselves if we had to turn her out,"
replied John, " an' we might have to come to it, Eliza. An'
perhaps the young lady 'ud never forgive us ayther."
" If you tell me it ought to be done, John," said Eliza
trembling. " Poor Miss 'Stasia. 'Tis little I thought she'd
ever come to it. I remember her in white satin with roses in
her hair comin' down the stairs at the Abbey the first time I
ever laid eyes on her. I thought she was like a queen."
A shadow crossed John's paper as he held it to the light
of the window, a slight shadow that was gone almost as soon
as it came. An angular child's figure came down the area
steps to the kitchen entrance.
"There's Mary Anne," said John, "there's our little scho-
lar. Get the pen and ink, Eliza, and a bit o' paper."
" 'Tis a great comfort," sighed Mrs. Cronin, as she watched
her offspring's pen glide quickly over the paper, " to have a
man to make up your mind for you, so it is. But I won't be
able to look Miss 'Stasia in the face. Indeed she'd murder
me if she knew what we were after doin'."
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
VOL. LXXXI. 33
A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE.
VI.
BY THE REVEREND JAMES J. FOX, D.D.
MY DEAR SIR:
When it is understood that never once has the infallible au-
thority of the Church been compromised by condemning any
scientific truth, the first and the only really serious count in
the indictment against Catholicism, of having obstructed the
march of knowledge, has been satisfactorily met. If the charge
incriminating infallible authority could be sustained it would
be destructive of the Church's claim to be the unerring inter-
preter and teacher of divine truth. Once the infallible magis-
terium is dissociated from the case, then, if any blunder or
mistake can be proved against us, the only inference that may
legitimately be drawn is that, besides the infallible voice, there
is also a non infallible, human agency, sharing in the teaching
and juridical functions of the Church ; in other words, the
assistance promised to the Church by her Founder does not
protect from inerrancy every action and procedure of the
entire organization. And this is but to state the theological
doctrine that the infallible prerogative belongs incommunicably
to the Supreme Authority.
This point being placed clearly beyond discussion, we may,
without any misgivings as to the result, consider the evidence
offered to establish the accusation that Catholic authority has,
in modern times, shown itself the relentless foe of scientific
progress.
This assertion has been so frequently repeated that its
truth is now almost taken for granted. It is a postulate as-
sumed by non-Catholic writers in every European tongue,
when they treat of modern history, or the advance of civiliza-
tion, the development of science, religion, or philosophy.
Who, forsooth, would waste time in pointing out the obvious,
illustrating the evident, or proving the indisputable ? And
what is more evident, obvious, and indisputable than that
1905.] A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. 513
Roman authorities, since the day when the modern mind
threw off the yoke of ecclesiasticism, have done little else but
condemn and silence every one, within their own borders, who
claimed the right to engage in free scientific inquiry. And for
science, that has progressed only because it was, fortunately,
independent of her, and safe from her machinations, Rome
has had nothing but curses and anathemas. Her accusers de-
light in brilliant metaphors about owls blinking in the noon-
day, the blind man denying that the sun is shining, upas trees
poisoning all the vegetation around them. Modern knowledge
is the dawn that has chased the darkness of mediaeval super-
stition, and science is likened to the infant Hercules who be-
gan his career by strangling the venemous serpent that would
have killed him in his cradle. The Roman Church not opposed
to science ! Si monumentum quceris circumspice : examine the
record of the Index from Paul IV. to Pius X., and if you
are not yet convinced, cast an eye over the famous Syllabus
of Pius IX. Besides, if we are to believe our opponents, in
resisting intellectual progress, Rome was but obeying a pro-
found instinct of self-preservation, for the triumph of science
means her destruction. The progress made by rational knowl-
edge may, we are told, be accurately expressed by the figures
that indicate the decline of ecclesiasticism, and of Roman
ecclesiasticism in particular.
In reply to these allegations, we can point to a long, glo-
rious list of Catholics, from Copernicus to Secchi, from Am-
pere to Pasteur, who have been among the leaders in the advance
of modern knowledge. But this argument, that would seem
conclusive, is not allowed to count for us. The retort is that,
of course, no instructed person would dream of denying that
a Catholic may be a brilliant astronomer, or mathematician, a
successful physicist, or chemist, or surgeon, or biologist; he
may become famous in almost any science. The antagonism
of Catholicism is not to the sciences, but rather to Science, to
the spirit which vivifies all the sciences ; which demands com-
plete freedom to investigate every field of inquiry that opens
to the human mind, and to follow truth whithersoever it may
lead. Science scorns to acknowledge a power which claims the
right to say to the thinker or the investigator : You may range
at will through the boundless realm of mathematics ; you may
experiment upon molecules and gases and chemical affinities;
514 A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. [July,
you may, now, explore the utmost recesses of the astronomical
heavens with your telescope ; you may classify beetles and
plants ; you are free, within certain limits, to pursue your studies
in history, philology, ethnology, and even philosophy ; but I re-
serve to myself the right to arrest you when I please with a
prohibition of Thus far, and no farther; and that right I shall
exercise whenever, in my opinion, you threaten to trespass on
the domain of religion.
The Church, certainly, does claim this right. She professes
to be the divinely appointed guardian of truths communicated
to men by the Almighty through revelation. When the scientist,
or the philosopher, or the scholar, puts forth doctrines or views
that are contrary to revelation, she steps forward to condemn
these pronouncements as erroneous, since they conflict with what
she has received as truth on the authority of God. When the
investigator enters upon a course of reasoning that, obviously,
will lead him into contradiction with faith, she warns him that
he is losing his time; and, if he publishes his views, she forbids
her members to read his works lest they may thereby be led
astray. This policy is, clearly, a limitation of free inquiry ; it
is the direct negation of absolute freedom of thought. But
the question is whether or not it is a just and reasonable co-
ercion.
Every established truth is a similar limitation of thought.
I may not, under penalty of being unreasonable, think that two
and two make five. When the scientist discovers some hitherto
unknown fact, there is a new fingerboard set up for him and
his fellows bearing the caution : no thoroughfare. Once, it was
free to scientific men to deny or admit the theory of the cir-
culation of the blood. Harvey put an end to that liberty. If
anybody now were to insist upon his right to explain the com-
mon pump by the principle that nature abhors a vacuum, or
to deny the existence of gravitation, he would be looked upon
as a lunatic or an eccentric. Every man must acknowledge
that, provided God has really revealed any doctrine, reason de-
clares that we must bow to it and accept the limitations that
it imposes, just as we do in the case of scientific truth. When
the Church proves that revelation has taken place, and that she
is the authoritative exponent of its content, our question is
settled, as far as the philosophic or logical objection is con-
cerned. The historic side still remains.
1905.] A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. 515
The historical charge cannot be met with a categorical de-
nial. The Index is a great, public fact, with a history of three
centuries open to all who wish to study it. The works that have
been placed upon it, the various cases of writings which, after
being kept for a long period upon the list of the proscribed,
were at length permitted, are very well known. Here, un-
questionably, is evidence of a systematic, strenuous, coercion of
thought, enforced, frequently, when ecclesiastics had the power,
by serious penalties. Besides, its records show that, in many
instances, doctrines that at first have been branded as false
have, even on the admission of theologians, turned out to be
true. We might conceive a representative of science, with a
synopsis of the evidence to be found in the lists of the Index,
addressing authority somewhat as follows : You claim to have
an infallible organ whose decision is always correct, and we
must submit to it. Very well. But I find that it is rarely the
infallible voice that has condemned us. Long before we can
lay our case before the supreme tribunal, we are arrested and
silenced by those who acknowledge they may make mistakes,
who have erred before now, and may go wrong again. They
permit us now to teach many things that their predecessors
condemned ours for having taught, and their successors may
allow ours to hold those opinions for which we now are con-
demned. It is the official theologian, drest in a little brief
authority and trailing robes of scientific ignorance, with whom
we have to reckon. Besides the dogmatic articles of faith, he
has endeavored to sustain a number of mere human opinions
that are now relinquished. He held these errors to be true,
and, shutting his eyes to the evidences that we produced, or
failing to appreciate them, he declared that we were contra-
dicting the truths of faith, and consigned us to perdition.
The defenders of orthodoxy have assailed us in season and
out of season ; they have imputed the worst motives to us.
When we pointed out the teachings of geology, we were
infidels, atheists, and slaves to secret immorality. When
science ventured to doubt the historical character of some
contents of Genesis, it was arraigned as a seducer of the
people, speaking against Moses and the prophets. We ques-
tioned whether the Hebrew lawgiver really descended the
mountain carrying under his arms two slabs on which the
Almighty had personally engraven the decalogue ; then we were
516 A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE, [July,
denounced as secret profligates, who habitually violated every
one of the Ten Commandments. If, in the face of the volumi-
nous evidence that exists, persons will still maintain that the
Roman Church has not, for the past two centuries and more,
waged a relentless war against the human intellect, then we
may also declare that such a personage as Julius Caesar or
Napoleon Bonaparte never existed.
Fortunately we are under no necessity of defending all
that some well-meaning apologists of religion have written
against science and scientists. They have indulged in great
generalizations, attributing to the entire scientific world the
anti-religious bias that, undoubtedly, has been displayed by a
not inconsiderable number. They have, frequently, been be-
trayed into intemperate opposition to truth ; and, to borrow
a happy metaphor, have mistaken the dawn of science for a
conflagration threatening the indestructible Gospel of Christ.
But this spirit is only temporary, and never has been univer-
sal. It is fast yielding place to a growing willingness to ac-
knowledge that scientific men are not, exclusively, or even
primarily, actuated by a hatred of religion. When the dogmas
of faith are not involved, scriptural scholars are now quite
ready to reconsider old opinions in the light of fresh evidence
brought forward by science. Theologians, too, though, per-
haps, with more reluctance, are beginning to admit that, on
matters of their province, history affords much information
that has long been overlooked, and that the dogmas of the
Church do not depend on the fate of Aristotle's physics and
metaphysics.
When tempted to hold the defenders of religion to a strict
account for the excesses of a few, one must remember that not
so very long ago there was a very strong antipathy to religion
displayed by those who set themselves up as the standard
bearers of science. We have only to recall the noisy days of
the last century, when, from the physical science side, the
doctrine of evolution came into prominence, and along with it
the aggressive agnosticism of which Huxley was the popular
champion, while, concurrently, in the world of biblical criticism,
the extravagances of the most advanced rationalism were spread
broadcast as the mature and unassailable results of sane criti-
cism. When an unscrupulous enemy is threatening the strong-
hold, the defenders cannot safely refrain from firing lest they
1905.] A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. 517
may hurt some innocent person who happens to reside on the
ground occupied by the foe.
The cases in which authority has interfered with scientific
men within their own field, where, alone, they have any par-
ticular right to speak, have been very rare. It is not with
science, but with pseudo-science, with speculation passing for
science, with the popular peddlers of hypotheses, theories,
conjectures, and guesses, that ecclesiastical authority has usually
crossed swords. Sometimes, too, writers of scientific eminence,
presuming upon the reputation which they had gained in their
own department of knowledge have set themselves up as dog-
matists in religious or theological matters in which they were
not qualified to speak. Yet the private opinions which they
were pleased to express on these topics were often assumed
to be the verdict of science. Twenty or thirty years ago, for
example, the worship of Herbert Spencer, as the prophet of
science, was a widely spread cult throughout the English-
speaking world. His ponderous volumes were revered as the
revelation of reason which had forever disposed of the claims,
not merely of supernatural, but also of natural religion. Had
he not, by a profound course of reasoning, demolished the
pretensions of metaphysics, and banished God from the realm
of intellect ? The spokesman of modern thought had proved
religion to have sprung from savage ignorance or superstition,
and to be henceforth fated to pant and grope after an ab-
straction in the darkness of the unknowable. To-day, Spen-
cer's solemnities on metaphysics and religion are waived aside
by leading thinkers, like Professor Royce, as the uninstiucted
efforts of a great mind to deal with matters for which it had
no aptitude, or the work of one distorting the facts to his
pre-conceived theory. At present the representatives of sci-
ence recognize its limitations. They evince a sobriety that is
in strong contrast with the arrogance of a few years ago.
When one of them attempts, in the name of science, to " dog-
matize out of bounds " he seldom escapes a rebuke from some
of his fellows.
One of the foremost physicists of England has recently
castigated Professor Haeckel with a dignified vigor that our
theologians and apologists might envy. A passage of Sir
Oliver Lodge's recent article on Haeckel's popular book, illus-
trates the change that has taken place in the temper of the
5i8 A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. [July,
scientific world, and the value that it assigns to the anti-
religious speculations which passed under the name of science
in the last century. In his crushing criticism on the Riddle
of the Universe, Sir Oliver Lodge says of its author : " Unfor-
tunately it appears to me that, although he has been borne
forward on the advancing wave of monistic philosophy, he has,
in his specifications, attempted such precision of materialistic
detail, and subjected it to so narrow and limited a view of
the totality of experience, that the progress of thought has
left him, as well as his great English exemplar, Herbert Spen-
cer, somewhat high and dry, belated and stranded by the tide
of opinion, which has now begun to flow in another direction.
He is, as it were, a surviving voice from the middle of the
nineteenth century ; he represents, in clear and eloquent fash-
ion, opinions which then were prevalent among many leaders
of thought opinions which they themselves, in many cases,
and their successors still more, lived to outgrow, so that, by
this time, Professor Haeckel's voice is as the voice of one
crying in the wilderness, not as the pioneer of an advancing
army, but as the despairing shout of a standard bearer, still
bold and unflinching, but abandoned by the retreating ranks
of his comrades, as they march to new orders in a fresh direc-
tion." Elsewhere he remarks that " if a man of science seeks
to dogmatize concerning the Emotions and the Will, and as-
serts that he can reduce them to atomic forces and motions,
he is exhibiting the smallness of his conceptions, and gibbet-
ing himself as a laughing-stock to future generations." Yet,
because Catholic authority rejected and condemned the views
of Spencer and his followers, when they first appeared, hun-
dreds of pens poured forth floods of eloquent sarcasm and in-
dignation over the intolerant obscurantism of the Catholic
Church. In biblical criticism the same phenomenon has oc-
curred. The systems of Baur and Paulus, and the entire
Tubingen school, with hundreds of minor rationalistic theories,
were, on their first appearance, applauded by unbelieving
scholarship and condemned by the intolerant foe of scientific
progress. Now the scholars have come round to the judgment
of authority concerning Tubingen, while they maintain, in
turn, some opinions of their own that, in due time, their suc-
cessors will relegate to the limbo in which Baur and Paulus
repose.
1905.] A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. 519
While, in many cases, time has thus justified authority, it
is true that, in many others, science has made good opinions
which authority at first resisted. And only those persons who
take a very superficial view of the situation can cherish the
rosy optimism which fancies that similar cases will not again
occur. There is no likelihood of an alliance, in the near fu-
ture, between the scientific world and the principle of dog-
matic authority, of which the Catholic Church is now the only
consistent and uncompromising representative. We may de-
plore the fact, but the fact remains that the methods of sci-
ence which can point to such brilliant results for their justifi-
cation cannot but get into occasional temporary misunder-
standings with ecclesiastical organs. Authority, in the due
discharge of its office, will continue to regard scientific inquiry
with suspicion, and occasionally to thwart its progress. But
we maintain that this interference will not result in the ulti-
mate rejection of any ascertained knowledge; and will only
occur in a measure necessary for the protection of faith. If,
on the one side, the scientific investigator could go straight
to his goal, without any preliminary floundering or groping,
and if, on the other, every organ of authority enjoyed the
supreme gift of infallibility, no collision would ever arise. But
these conditions do not, and never will, exist. Let us see
what this means.
In the strict and rigorous sense of the word, science in-
cludes only ascertained knowledge. This, indeed, is the per-
fect product of scientific method, the pure gold that remains
when all the processes of extraction and purification have been
completed. But, if we exclude mathematics, there is no science
which does not contain, at any given period, a great deal of
dross mixed with the genuine ore. Intermingled with verified
facts there are assumptions and theories that may or may not
prove true in the end. The investigator, in his travel, may
sometimes stray along a false route, either to reach the right
path at some point further on, or to find himself obliged to
retrace his steps altogether, and start off in a new direction.
A champion of science, the late Professor Huxley, has ex-
pressed this fact with his usual lucidity. " It sounds paradoxical
to say that the attainment of scientific truth has been effected,
to a great extent, by the help of scientific errors. But the
subject matter of physical science is furnished by observation
520 A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. [July,
which cannot extend beyond the limits of our faculties, while
even within those limits, we cannot be certain that any obser-
vation is absolutely exact and exhaustive. Hence it follows
that any given generalization from observation may be true,
within the limits of our powers of observation at a given
time, and yet turn out to be untrue when those powers of
observation are directly or indirectly enlarged. Or, to put the
matter in another way, a doctrine which is untrue absolutely
may, to a great extent, be susceptible of an interpretation
that is in accordance with the truth." Then Huxley proceeds
to give illustrations from the history of physical science. His
observation is equally applicable, as you perceive, to the other
sciences which bear directly or indirectly upon theological
doctrine. At certain stages of those sciences that have con-
tributed to our modified estimate of biblical history, the truth
was to the error as four grains of wheat to four bushels of
chaff ; and, in many cases, the error was of a deadly nature,
while the truth, though valuable to the scholar, was of very
little importance to salvation. Could authority have acted
otherwise than it did that was, to place the entire mass un-
der lock and key till the process of winnowing had been car-
ried out ?
If it is true then, that errors are an indispensable condi-
tion of scientific progress, evidently the Church cannot, even
provisionally, accept them when they touch upon religious
truth. She cannot take into account the possibility that they
may be serviceable to progress, and are sure to be rejected
in the long run. The purity of doctrine, not the advance of
science, is her concern. She is bound to denounce the error
as soon as it appears ; and she leaves science to extricate it-
self as best it can, if it will not accept the helping hand which
she proffers. The scientists may say that, if they are hindered
from pushing inquiry freely in every direction, the march of
knowledge will be retarded. She replies that divine truth is
incomparably more valuable than all secular knowledge. Un-
trammeled speculation, the publication of immature, false, or
partially false, theories may help to stimulate inquiry, and en-
sure the advance of knowledge ; but the same influences may
ruin, or irreparably weaken, the faith of thousands; and dead
faith will not be restored to life by the subsequent rectifica-
tion of the scientific error.
1905.] A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. 521
To afford ample protection for faith, authority may be called
upon to resist, at least for a time, the introduction of new
knowledge that, in reality, does not conflict with faith, but
only with such human traditional opinions as those we have
referred to before. Cases of this kind are cited as the most
glaring evidence of the Church's intolerance. But we must re-
member that the line which separates the domain of faith
from the adjacent territory of pious belief, theological opinion,
popular interpretation, and amplification, is not always obvious
to even the trained mind, and still less so to the great mass of
believers. Hence a legitimate curtailment of the latter domain
might easily seem to be a trespass on the other. A sudden
and violent uprooting of traditional beliefs might seriously dis-
turb the dogmas around which they have long clung and
flourished; just as an ill-advised surgical operation for the re-
moval of some malignant growth or harmless blemish may kill
a patient, who might safely have been entrusted to the genial
restorative powers of nature. Our mental point of view cannot
be changed all in a moment. The immediate result of the in-
troduction of some fresh piece of knowledge often is to startle
and confuse. A truth which is to take the place of some long-
standing misapprehension may at first sight seem incompatible
with other truths that were long associated in our minds with
the traditional error. The adjustment, especially in the case of
beliefs that we hold not on evidence, but on authority, demands
time. When, for example, it was universally taught that hell
was a place situated in the centre of the earth, any sudden ad-
mission that this belief might be erroneous, would certainly
have tended to shake belief in eternal punishment. We can
conceive that many would have come to the conclusion that,
if ecclesiastical teaching on the nature and whereabouts of hell
had proved unreliable, it might easily happen that the same
teaching should turn out to be quite as mistaken concerning
the existence of hell. Nor are the learned, in this respect,
much better off than the simple. Have we not seen that the
greatest theologian of his day declared that to assert the diur-
nal motion of the earth was to call in question the inspiration
of Scripture and the veracity of Christ ? There are some peo-
ple, now, who find great difficulty in conceiving how Catholic
faith can stand, if we give up belief in the universality of the
deluge or the historical character of the Book of Jonah.
522 A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. [July,
Authority, then, acted wisely, with beneficent result, when
it hindered the premature diffusion of knowledge which, how-
ever valuable, might have irreparably hurt interests immeasur-
ably more sacred. The situation might be compared to that
which arises in war. Representatives of the press, intent only
upon providing the world with the latest and most detailed in-
formation from the scene of hostilities, are careless of the harm
that might be done to one of the belligerents by imprudent
disclosures. But the military censor steps in effectively to im-
press upon the newsgatherer the good sense of the proverb
which says there is a time to speak, and also a time to be
silent.
In his recent brilliant essay on the reconciliation of the ideals
of science and faith, Mr. Wilfrid Ward has happily described
the position of the Church towards new knowledge offered by
science: "Authority tests it, and may, in doing so, seem to op-
pose it. She plays, as far as scientific proof is concerned, the
part taken by the ' Devil's Advocate ' in the process of canoni-
zation. She is jealous of disturbing changes in the human
medium by which faith in the unseen is habitually preserved
hie et nunc ; science is placed by her on the defensive; excesses
and fanciful theories are gradually driven out of court; a truer
and more exact assimilation of assured results in science and
in theology is thus obtained by the thinkers; then, and not
until then, Authority accepts such results positively. She is
the guardian, not of the things of science, but of the things
of the spirit, it is not for her to initiate enquiries beyond her
province." *
It is no reproach, then, to the Church that she has main-
tained a position of watchfulness, even of suspicion, towards
modern science, and, occasionally, has been obliged to bor-
row a phrase from Mr. Ward to act to some extent as a
drag on the freest adoption of speculations advanced in the
name of modern criticism. Nor is the strength of her case
weakened when opponents submit a long list of instances
where the resistance to progress has been carried to an un-
warranted extreme by the Congregation of the Index, or any
other subordinate authority. Equally irrelevant is the charge
that numberless theologians and apologists have obstinately
* Ideals of Science and Faith. Essays by various authors. Edited by the Rev. J. E. Hand.
Longmans, Green & Co., p. 318.
1905.] A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. 523
arrayed themselves against the legitimate claims of science,
and, frequently, shut their eyes to the strongest evidences.
In the Church, as in the world at large, Providence works
through secondary causes, whose imperfections and failures are
made contributory to the divine purpose. The action of the
Holy Spirit, as the history of doctrinal development and the-
ology testifies, does not exclude a concurrent action of the
human mind, operating under its natural limitations. "Theol-
ogy," writes Father Hogan, " is subject to two distinct laws
or tendencies, the law of conservation and the law of progress.
As directed by human hands, either of these two tendencies
may be developed at the cost, even to the destruction, of the
other, but always with detriment to the science itself. The
progressive tendency, if unchecked, would soon emancipate it-
self from authority and do away with all definite, -settled be-
lief, while pure conservatism would end only in stagnation."
These two forces, mutually counteracting each other's excesses,
under the eye of Supreme Authority, have contributed to the
adaptation of doctrine to the changing conditions of the human
mind, without any change in the essential content of faith.
But history forbids us to say that they have so controlled each
other as to produce, at every instant, a perfect equilibrium, or
to keep the proceedings of all authorities, great and small, in
the undeviating line of rectitude.
We are under no necessity to deny that mistakes may have
been made, in this department, as in several others, of ecclesi-
astical government. It has long been noted that the fulfilment
of the divine promise made to the Church is manifested as
much by her escape from the dangers that have arisen within,
as by her victories over external enemies. The case which
Father Hogan describes as follows is not altogether imagi-
nary:* "There is such a thing as blind conservatism, and
theologians are not necessarily exempt from it. They may
cling obstinately to antiquated notions, and go on repeating
confidently weak or exploded arguments. They may, by un-
conscious exaggeration, extend the immutability and sacred-
ness of divine truth to solutions and speculations which are
but human, and, in their eagerness to preserve in its integrity
the deposit of faith, they may allow it to be overladen with
worthless accretions which destroy, instead of enhancing, its
* Clerical Studies, p. 154.
524 A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. [July.
purity and beauty." The condemnations of St. Thomas and
of Galileo's doctrine, the various mistaken attacks upon scien-
tific truth which have furnished to our opponents weapons
that our apologists find somewhat troublesome, are all to be
ascribed to the local or temporary possession of power by
some representative of the " blind conservatism " to which
Father Hogan refers.
Even if it were proven that the authorities who have con-
ducted the censorship of books have sometimes erred through
ignorance, or allowed themselves to be carried away by per-
sonal motives when they ought to have been actuated only by
devotion to truth, what, again, would this prove, but that
neither grace nor office, except in one man, and then under
very strictly limited conditions, is an assurance against the
failings of humanity? Nobody pretends that the Index is
presided over immediately by the Holy Spirit. When it was
instituted, there was a frequent complaint that the theologians
who controlled it took advantage of it to the injury of a
rival school. Many an author found his name upon it because
his enemies were in, and his friends were out. Not always
has Providence so signally interposed to prevent injustice as
happened in the case of Bellarmine. Pope Sixtus V. had de-
termined to place a work of the Cardinal on the Index. The
list was already in print. But before it could be officially
published, as Father Aquaviva, the Superior-General of the
Jesuits in 1590, informs us, Providence removed Sixtus, and
his successor was of a different mind.
The great Pope, Benedict XIV., knew that those who ex-
ercised the tremendous power of the Index were exposed to
the danger of using it to the prejudice of religion. Hence
he issued those admirable instructions which, unbiased judges
will admit, express the spirit that, on the whole, has presided
over the work of the Congregation of the Index. " Let them
know," writes Benedict of the examiners of books, "that they
must judge of the various opinions and sentiments of any book
that comes before them with minds absolutely free from pre-
judice. Let them, therefore, dismiss patriotic leanings, family
affections, the predilection of schools, the esprit de corps of an
institute ; let them put away the zeal of party bearing in
mind, moreover, that there are not a few opinions which appear
to one school, institute, or nation to be unquestionably certain,
1905.] A CATHOLIC AND THE BIBLE. 525
yet, nevertheless, are rejected and impugned, and their contra-
dictories maintained, by Catholics, without harm to faith and
religion all this being with the knowledge and permission of
the Apostolic See, which leaves every particular opinion of this
kind its own degree of probability." The order to put away
all prejudices, personal, local, patriotic, intellectual, is a hard
saying; and if those to whom it is addressed have some-
times failed to hear it, we can only conclude that " men, not
angels are the ministers of the Gospel."
Summing up the several points that are to be taken into
account in a fair consideration of the Church's position towards
science, we may say: (i) A great deal of the thought that has
been put forth as science, is but speculation ; (2) In science
itself, besides verified fact and ascertained knowledge, there
has bsen included, also, a considerable element of hypothesis,
a large proportion of which has ultimately been rejected by
scientists themselves ; (3) As the guardian of revealed truth, it
is the Church's duty to check, for a time, the diffusion of
knowledge, when its sudden spread among minds unprepared
for it might act injuriously on the interests of faith; (4) The
principle of Authority is not affected by some rare mistakes
made by authorities.
Only those who deny the existence of revelation can logi-
cally find fault with the restrictive policy of the Catholic Church.
The wisdom of that policy is evinced in the safety with which
the gradual adjustment of doctrine to the immense progress that
the modern mind has made in so many departments of knowl-
edge that bears directly, or indirectly, upon Christian faith.
Non-Catholic Christians may boast that they have more rapidly
assimilated the results of science ; that, for example, they ceased
earlier than Catholic theologians to oppose the teachings of
geology. That may be. But what has been the result? The
almost complete destruction of the old Protestant belief in the
Bible, with a consequent collapse of all dogmatic Protestantism.
Everywhere we hear of reconstructions of Christianity, revisions
of creeds, restatements of confessions. But each attempt at
building has begun and ended in the uprooting of some more
of the old foundations of the temple, till now there is left
scarcely a stone upon a stone. On the other hand, as may be
seen in the pages of Lagrange, Prat, Hummelauer, and their
fast-increasing school, the work of assimilation is proceeding
526 THE WREN. [July.
among us with all the rapidity that prudence allows. Convinced
that there can be no real conflict between the truths of reason and
the truth of Christ's message, Catholics await with confidence
the arrival of the day when, no longer distorted through the
medium of human perversity, and enfranchised from the fogs
of comparative ignorance that now surround them, the sciences
will all converge in one splendid flood of light, to render the
City on the mountain top visible from afar.
Believe me, Yours fraternally,
THE WREN.
BY EDWARD F. GARESCHfi, SJ.
How can I praise so slight a thing as thou,
O merry atom of the rolling song !
As brisk thou rangest all the paths along
To lift huge twig-beams to thy hollow bough
Dost build a cosy nest within? And how
Wilt feed thy young, small father? Nay, I wrong
Such patient cheer ; thy little heart is strong
To hope great things from toil, nor fears allow.
O little wren, brave builder all the day,
And pausing but to lift thy voice and sing ;
'Tis pleasant, sure, to see so small a thing
So large in hope ; with firm assurance gay
That present needs a present aid shall bring,
And he who sends the want, will send the way. ' '?-
flew Boohs.
It looks at first sight a daring ven-
RENAN. ture for a Catholic priest to write
By Dr. Barry. a life of Ernest Renan.* But if
the hazard is to be made, we know
of no abler hand to manage it than Dr. Barry's. Dr. Barry
wields a pen of eminent distinction, and there is a fitness
about his undertaking a study of a man whose style is a very
miracle ; and in the second place we are assured at the outset
that Dr. Barry, so wide has been his reading, so sincere is his
intellectual honesty, and so robust his Catholicity, will pre-
sent Renan to us fairly, neither flinging a polemic at his head,
nor letting him escape the just censure of a Christian scholar.
So this work is finely wrought as a piece of literature, is judi-
cious, brave, and reverent; and we fancy that it will become
one of the most discussed books of the year.
Ernest Renan was one of the most highly gifted and per-
haps the most influential of all the men of the nineteenth cen-
tury. It is very doubtful indeed if even Charles Darwin so
directly acted upon his age and threw into tumult so vast a
multitude of minds as the ex-seminarist of St. Sulpice. Renan
was brought up devoutly, made a brilliant course of prepara-
tory studies, spent three years in the seminary, received tonsure
and minor orders, and then, just as his class made the irre-
vocable step of the subdiaconate, which however he did not
make, left the sanctuary and the Church, and became a deist
of a vague and uncertain kind. He has told us the whole
story in the seductive pages of the Souvenirs. It was biblical
difficulties which gave proximate occasion for his momentous
apostasy. But the remote cause was his own nature and tem-
perament. He possessed but a thin and feeble religious sense.
That solemn sense of the eternal, that worshipful obedience to
the august oracle of conscience, that apostolic eagerness to
grasp an ideal of righteousness and love, which were so char-
acteristic of another man who entered the Catholic Church
three days after Renan abandoned it, John Henry Newman
of all this Renan was destitute. He judged religion from the
Ernest Renan. By William Barry, D.D. New York : Scribner's.
VOL. LXXXI. 34
528 NEW BOOKS. [July,
single standpoint of intellectual criticism. The needs of a soul,
the perfection of spiritual character, and the postulates of the
practical reason as a foundation of moral life he would not
allow in his reckoning.
Perforce therefore he threw off Christianity. Not that Renan
was immoral. On the contrary, his life was clean and blame-
less, even though at odd time,s he would utter some epicurean
sentiment, which seemed to condone indulgently in other men
the weaknesses of flesh from which he was himself exempt.
But the point is, and it is the fundamental thing in understand-
ing Renan, he had no strong sense of religion. Humanity fac-
ing God did not cast him down in awe, but rather roused in
him a good-natured curiosity about so entertaining an affair.
He was the perfection of bonhomie. He was forever smiling.
He described his own life as "a charming walk through the
nineteenth century." Devoted all his life to the study of the
Hebrew language and religion, he never caught in the smallest
degree the Hebrew seriousness before the problems of life.
Too learned to be a dilettante, he nevertheless displays many
elements of the dilettante spirit whenever he speaks of the
sacredest interests of man.
Still it is only just to say that cries break at times from
Renan's lips which spring from the depths of his soul. He is
not always the smiler at superstition. He does not always ap-
proach the Sphinx of the universe with a jest; but now and
then he seems subdued by the uncommunicating countenance,
and ill at ease at sight of the mysterious desert beyond. But
he never wavered in his infidelity. Dr. Barry says we cannot
question his sincerity. He died as he had lived, and told them
to engrave this epitaph upon his tomb : Veritatem dilexi.
Dr. Barry, as we have said, describes this man's career with
admirable ability and considerable tact. He is silent upon the
futile behavior of some of Renan's professors when the lad had
begun to drift. Certain it is that those early doubts were not
discreetly dealt with. To make a student say the Miserere as
a penance for questioning the translation of a verse of the Vul-
gate is not wise, especially when the student has the original
Hebrew in his hand. Dr. Barry also passes over in charity the
hideous lack of scholarly men who might have answered Renan.
But the arch-rationalist had hardly an adversary worthy of him
among the orthodox, as Kant had not had, nor Darwin. These
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 529
three names may warn us that deep and critical scholarship is
demanded for the welfare of Christianity in these modern
times. These men have furnished almost all the weapons of
the present warfare upon faith, and they are still weighty in
the world of thought. Their equals must arise before the an-
cient Civitas Dei can feel safe and at peace.
This biography passes over rather hastily the Vie de Jesus,
and is unaccountably brusque toward the Histoire du Peuple
d' Israel. One would gather from Dr. Barry that this latter work
is worthless as history; and we are all but told that Sayce's
Assyrian studies have pulled the foundations from beneath it.
This latter point is, we fear, an exaggeration of Professor
Sayce's contribution to biblical science. We apprehend that
there is another side to Babylonian discoveries than the high-
ly favorable one given by Dr. Barry. And as for the histori-
cal value of the Histoire, every Scripture student to-day knows
that it is often wrong and cannot at all be regarded as an
adequate picture of the present-day attitude of criticism toward
ancient Israel. But in substance the work unquestionably re-
mains an embodiment of the rationalist position on Hebrew
history, clothed in a French style of almost overpowering fas-
cination ; and as such is a production of momentous impor-
tance. However, Dr. Barry's volume is, as we have already
observed, a strong, clear, Christian judgment of Renan that no
student of contemporary history or theology can afford to miss.
This English priest is the most brilliant living writer among
the Catholics of England and America, and we trust that he
will give his pen no rest, but will continue to favor us with
studies like this, which do so much to make us understand
both our religion and our age.
The strongest and bravest voice
ESSAYS. that speaks for righteousness to
By Bishop Spalding. tne people of this country is Bish-
op Spalding's; the strongest be-
cause it finds its utterance in the nobility of the human soul
and in the loving kindness of God; and the bravest because
it recks not of consequences when it has truth to proclaim.
One must read Bishop Spalding * deeply and extensively to
* Religion and Art ; and Other Essays. By Bishop Spalding. Chicago: A. C. McClurg
& Co.
530 NEW BOOKS. [July,
understand him properly, and to get a grasp upon the world-
view and life-philosophy which underlie his writings. Some-
times one hears the objection that there is not much dogmatic
religion in the Bishop's works. But this rests on a total mis-
conception of his purpose. That purpose is not to write a
theology nor to deliver a polemic. It is far deeper and nobler
than that, being nothing less than penetrating to the ultimate
springs of human endeavor, to our faculties of loving, think-
ing, and aspiring, purifying these heavenly sources from greed
and selfishness, and thus sanctifying the life of man at its very
origin. This is not the day for contentions among Christian
churches. The need now is to save the foundation of all reli-
gion, to convince men that they are not brutes, to liberate the
spirit from the flesh, to open dull eyes to the beholding of the
supernatural, to recall the race from voluptuousness to the
austere obedience of the moral law which speaks within our
conscience, and to initiate a bewildered world into the peren-
nial joy and serene stability of the higher life. This is the
glorious end to which Bishop Spalding keeps his eye directed
in every page he writes ; and in no holier way could he serve
his fellow-men. His words cut like a lash when he attacks a
greedy and sordid life ; they burn with indignation when he
describes the public corruption and private sin which darken
the fair face of our Republic ; and they tremble with inspira-
tion when he holds up before men and women the blessed
ideal for which God has fitted them and which they may vic-
toriously attain. To every young man we say : Get Bishop
Spalding's books, read them, ponder them, live up to them,
and your life will be no futile animal existence, no character-
less, shiftless bubble blown into the shape of a man, but will
be a benediction on this earth, full of courage, power, gentle-
ness, and edification.
This present volume consists of chapters on " Religion and
Art"; "Education in the Nineteenth Century"; "The Mean-
ing of Education"; "The Physician's Calling"; and "Social
Questions." Of these we would give a word of special men-
tion to the second, which was delivered before the International
Congress of Arts and Sciences at St. Louis last fall. It is a
glorious appeal for the right spiritual view of education, which
is not filling a mind with information, but leading it upward
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 531
to a region of goodness and beauty, that it may be as cultured,
free, and religious as God intended. Courageously the Bishop
maintains that education is " a human need and a human right,"
" the right not of a class nor of a sex, nor of a profession
merely, but of all " ; that " universal education is a postulate
of democracy " ; that " the people must have the knowledge
and wisdom which nothing but education can impart " ; that
"if education is to be made universal, it must be organized
and supported by the State through a system of free schools
brought within the reach of all, which it alone has the means
to establish and maintain"; and that "the belief that educa-
tion should be universal, and the recognition of the fact that
it can be made so only through a system of public schools for
which all are taxed, have given the impulse to the most char-
acteristic developments of educational ideas during the nine-
teenth century." Then follows a description of the ideal teacher
as a man or woman who is called on "to found here a king-
dom of heaven wherein truth, justice, and love should prevail,
wherein men should do the will of God." Teachers of this sort
are " the world's guides and saviors, the inspirers of the mul-
titude, the leaders out of captivity and bondage." This great
essay closes with giving voice to that " infinite hope," which
has descended upon the world, that man is made for God and
will never, as a race, leave the pathway that leads on high.
Again let us say, Bishop Spalding's writings are brave and
beautiful and inspiring. If a man is losing sight of the moral
ideal, they bring it near and brighten it ; if a man is tempted
to abandon all holy ambition because his sphere of action is
small, they sound in his ears the heavenly lesson that every
life has an infinite and eternal side to it, and that it is im-
possible for any child of God to play an insignificant part or
to do a merely transitory work; and finally, if a man has been
narrowly trained and one-sidedly educated, they break open
fresh fields of thought and lead him out into a world-wide cul-
ture which will stimulate every faculty and destroy every un-
worthy prejudice. We trust that Catholics will not be remiss
in appreciating the great work which this sturdy thinker puts
before them ; and we hope that the Bishop will long be spared
to speak his mighty message to the modern world.
532 NEW BOOKS. [July,
Dr. Shahan's addresses,* now
ADDRESSES. brought together into a goodly
By Dr. Shahan. book, were well worth publishing.
They are full to flowing over with
historical facts, details, side-lights, and suggestions, such as only
a man who lives history and thinks history could furnish. One
who reads this volume from cover to cover will acquire rare
information on Christian art and archaeology, the social and
public influence of mediaeval Catholicism, the Church's dealings
with education, Catholic foreign missions, and the history of
Ireland, in an amount not to be equalled, we think, in any
other single volume that we possess. Not that these essavs
are technical studies on these subjects. On the contrary, most of
the chapters in the collection were originally delivered as popu-
lar lectures; as for example: "The Teaching Office of the
Bishop " ; "The Office of the Priesthood "; " Ireland and Rome " ;
"Robert Emmet"; "The Future of Ireland"; and "Do we
need a Catholic University?" But woven into every one of
these papers, however popular, are precious threads of history
which make up the chief value and best adornment of the
book. The rhetoric is often daring, what with venturesome
metaphors and luxuriant style ; but doubtless one should not
search scrupulously for academic calm in compositions which,
for the most part, were spoken addresses. On one or two
subjects however we wish Dr. Shahan had been more objective.
We refer to the essays on Leo XIII. and the Brussels Con-
gress. Eulogiums on great men like the late Pontiff have their
place, no doubt; but we have had them in plenty. Now that
Leo has been dead nearly two years, it is time for a scientific
study of his career, a study that will not be an indiscriminate
adulation, but will, with affectionate good-will, estimate his
strength and his weakness, his successes and his failures, and
will anticipate the judgment which history will ultimately pro-
nounce upon him. Dr. Shahan could do this so well, owing
to his knowledge of papal history, that we regret that he
passed the opportunity by. And as to the Brussels Congress,
we would wish that something had been said in this essay on
the present state of science among Catholics, what these Con
gresses mean, why they have been opposed, and what they
The House of God; and other Addresses and Studies. By the Very Reverend Thomas J.
Shahan, D.D. New York : The Cathedral Library Association.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 533
may lead to. This would demand frank and courageous speech,
of course. But our savants ought to be frank and courageous.
The day when timidity would do any good is gone. In con-
clusion we again cordially recommend this book, as indeed we
feel safe in recommending every future volume that will come
from the same capable pen.
Dr. MacDonald gives us a theo-
THE SACRIFICE OF THE logical treatise * on the Sacrifice
MASS. of the Mass which will be interest-
By Dr. MacDonald. ing to stu dents of this tract in
Christian dogma. He maintains
at considerable length that not merely the oblation, but also the
destruction, of the thing offered is essential to the idea of
sacrifice. This position is supported by citations which dis-
play wide reading in theology, and the treatment throughout
will call for the admiration of those to whom such disputes
are important. The second part of the small volume has for
its purpose to show that the Sacrifice of the Mass is the self-
same as that of Calvary. In proving this point Dr. Mac-
Donald expresses his regret that post-Reformation theologiars
conceded that the Mass is simpliciter diver sum from Calvary.
This unfortunate phrase, he says, is an obstacle to the proper
understanding of Christ's one Sacrifice made on the Cross and
continued on the altar. We may take occasion of this work
to wish that some Catholic would give us a critical study on
the Last Supper. This is a matter about which a mighty de-
bate is now going on among New Testament critics, and, so
far as we have seen, neither in English nor in any European
language, is there any adequate representation of the Catholic
side. No one, of course, should undertake such a task who
is not familiar with the methods of scientific exegesis and of
positive biblical criticism.
It must prove a source of satis-
SAINTE-BEUVE faction to the lovers of the great
IN ENGLISH. masters in literature to learn that
some of the historic and literary
papers of Saint- Beuve have been translated into English and
published in two beautiful volumes, by the Knickerbocker
Press, under the general title of Portraits of the Seventeenth
* The Sacrifice of the Mass. By Very Rev. Alex. MacDonald. New York : The
Christian Press Association.
534 NEW BOOKS. [July,
Century* There are many to whom the French original is
practically a sealed book, and whose knowledge of Sainte-
Bauve was limited to fugitive, condensed, and wholly unsatis-
factory translations of an occasional Lundi, and to such these
volumes will be most welcome. And even to those to whom
French is not unfamiliar the work will be no less welcome,
since it presents in sound, idiomatic English some of the best
work of the man who holds rank as one of the greatest critics
in all literature.
In one of his delightful monographs Paul Bourget has
shown how, especially in France, the Critical Essay is the
" survival of the fittest " in literary forms. And we can read-
ily see how the spirit of the French people, no less than their
language, naturally and most successfully lends itself to this
form of literary expression. Keenly appreciative of style and
form, ever alert to the ban mot, always shrewd and pointed in
criticism, no people, as a whole, could take to the Essay with
greater zest. Hence it is not surprising to find this literary
form at home in modern French literature. It flourishes, it is
interjected into every kind of prose, the novel, the treatise,
the history. And as the Frenchman lives in an atmosphere of
art, as the feeling for form, the poetry and inspiration of
color and tone, are in the very air he breathes, perforce he must
be the artist or the critic ; he must create, or he must appre-
ciate.
And just as Montaigne is the father of the modern essay
in its broadest conception, just so surely is Sainte-Beuve the
parent of the modern Critical Essay. After Montaigne the
form grew richer and richer, and its fecundity was little
short of the marvelous. But Sainte-Beuve was the first scien-
tific and universal critic, and only Balzac shares with him the
primacy of influence upon the France of the nineteenth cen-
tury. This influence is so real, so pronounced, that men of
authority in the world of letters do not hesitate to declare
that there is not a writer in France, of the present day or of
the past half century, who is not more or less directly in-
debted to Sainte-Beuve.
He is the acknowledged prince of critics. Both by train-
Portraits of the Seventeenth Century. Historic and Literary. By C. A. Sainte-Beuve.
Translated by Katherine P. Wormeley. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
The Knickerbocker Press.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 535
ing and by temperament he was analytical; in him that qual-
ity was ever dominant. His was the widest learning, to him
the greatest pleasure was to comprehend. In his youth he
had studied medicine ; he had been a physiologist before he
became a poet and a novelist; he had been all three before
he devoted himself to the Critical Essay. The old school of
criticism regarded a book as a finished product, to be judged
by itself and apart from its writer. Sainte-Beuve saw that to
understand a work one must know and understand all that was
involved in the process of its making and especially one must
know the writer, the man as he moved and breathed and had
his being, not only the man in himself, but the man in his
whole environment, his antecedents, the social, family, reli-
gious forces that had any play in his development, the racial
characteristics, ambition, views of life that prevailed in his
age and country all these entered into the concept of Sainte-
Beuve as necessary material for the Critical Essay. And it is
this which makes this form of literary expression one of the
richest and most life-like pictures of all that served to create
the particular work under notice.
These were the qualities which made Sainte-Beuve call his
work the " natural history of minds." And for such work he
was admirably equipped. He possessed an acute perception
of all that was vital and significant in his subjects. His learn-
ing was profound, his research far-reaching and painstaking.
His theories of criticism were thus broad and sound, founded
on knowledge he had made his own, and a study that was so
wide in its range as to merit the term universal. He had a
tact that even in a Frenchman was wonderful, while his taste
was well-nigh perfection. His style is a model of French
prose, clear, dignified, exact. It can, therefore, be readily
understood how he drew for so many years the attention of
the whole world of letters in every land and of every tongue
to the pages of the Constitutionnel and the Moniteur in which
his wonderful Causeries appeared. From one of his biogra-
phers we learn with what care each of these papers was pre-
pared for publication.
He began each Monday to prepare the article for the fol-
lowing week. Having selected his subject, he dictated a
rough outline of the article, filling in blanks and making cor-
rections. This first draft was then copied, revised, and
536 NEW BOOKS. [July,
sometimes even wholly rewritten. For twelve hours daily
this continued until Thursday, when the manuscript was
sent to the printer. The proof was then subjected to a
revision as minute and thorough as that which the manuscript
had undergone, before everything was pronounced ready for
publication on Monday. And when it did appear, the ac-
curacy and aptness of every quotation, the correctness of
every name and date were as noteworthy as its finish and
effect as a whole.
This elaborate, painstaking work reminds one of our own
Walter Pater, and of the late W. E. Henley, both possessing
high standards to which Henley, for instance, was so loyal,
that it is said he would not allow even a four line notice of a
book to appear till it had been polished usque ad unguent.
The first of Sainte-Beuve's famous literary causeries was
published in 1830 in the Revue de Paris, but it was not until
1849 that he regularly contributed the Causeries du lundi to
the Constitutionnel, and these he continued till his death in
1865. These literary monographs cover the widest range, from
the classic writers of antiquity to those of his own day. The
mere bulk of his work, fifty-three volumes, is of itself impos-
ing, and when one considers the precision, subtlety, and deli-
cacy of his writings, the whole stands unrivalled in the litera-
ture of criticism.
The English presentation of Sainte-Beuve under considera-
tion has been taken from the Causeries du lundi, the Portraits
de Femmes, and the Portraits Litteraires. The two volumes
(which, it may be useful to note, may be purchased separately)
deal with the important personages in France during the
seventeenth century, and a list of the subjects discussed would
be sufficient to show the wide range of Sainte-Beuve's special
gifts and power as a critic. The whole series of papers is too
lengthy to print here, but we may notice that the first volume
contains papers of special interest on Cardinals Richelieu,
Mazarin, and De Retz, on de La Rochefoucauld, the Abbe de
Ranee, the reformer of La Trappe, and Henrietta Anne of
England ; and the second volume treats of the History of the
French Academy, of Bossuet and Fenelon, of Moliere, Cor-
neille, and Racine, of Boileau and La Fontaine, of Pascal, of
Madame de Sevigne.
Here and there passages in the original have heen omitted,
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 537
but these are practically of no importance, or relate chiefly to
distinctions of style, etc., which cannot be made clear in
English. Likewise, where two or more essays on the same
person have been written in different series they have been
put together, with, of course, the omission of repetitions. The
volumes are beautifully printed and bound, and the portraits
of the different celebrities have been artistically reproduced.
The work must, as we have said above, be welcome, and will
prove of absorbing interest to all whose love for the great in
literature is genuine.
Dr. Miinsterberg's brief essay * on
THE ETERNAL LIFE. Immortality has much in it to at-
By Munsterberg. tract and much to exasperate.
His interpretation of life in terms
of will is done with extraordinary skill and perspicuity, con-
sidering the small space allotted to the problem in his paper.
But his application of the theory of will- values to individual
immortality appears to us unsatisfactory and weak. To speak
first of the former point, Dr. Munsterberg insists that the true
value of human life cannot be stated in terms of mechanics,
physics, space, or time, but rather consists in our will-attitude
towards reality. Our beliefs, endeavors, and ideals are our
life, so far as that life is specifically human and not material
or animal ; and these beliefs, endeavors, and ideals represent
the position that our will takes toward the world about us,
and toward the absolute. Obviously this will-attitude is inde-
pendent of time ; it shares in the absoluteness of the reality
which is not imprisoned in forms of finite thought. Therefore,
says Dr. Munsterberg, a man's true life is in itself eternal, and
it is futile and unworthy to dream of a continued individual
existence after death. There is no future as there is no past
or present to life, when life is thus ideally regarded. A will-
attitude toward absolute reality is eternal ; and to fall from
this high conception to the animal desire for a space-and-time
futurity is egregiously to miss life's nobler meaning.
"With this interpretation of life in terms of will we have
only sympathy ; with its application to immortality we totally
disagree. Dr. Munsterberg, in our judgment, needs in his
philosophy a deeper and more comprehensive idea of the in-
dividual as such. He reduces man to a series of impersonal
* The Eternal Life. By Hugo Munsterberg. Boston : Houghton. Mifflin & Co.
538 NEW BOOKS. [July,
will-attitudes, and ignores the underlying Self which makes
those will-attitudes possible and gives them meaning ; he
empties all content out of the great affirmation, Ego ; and he
totally passes over the very highest element in will-life, the
element of responsibility. Because there is a timeless aspect
to our life now, away, he says, with the superstition that we
shall be shut up again after death in a prison subject to time.
Rather, we would maintain, because our earthly life catches a
glimpse of absolute values, and to that extent is beyond the
constraint of time, is it all the more likely that we shall here-
after see more of those absolute values ; or else these present
gleams of them are futile and purposeless. The greatest value
of life consists in our attitude toward ultimate reality. True ;
but that attitude is inconceivable, unless referred to the per-
sonal self that takes the attitude. Life and reality are non-
existent to us, until we fling our personalities against them
and adjust our selves to them. This adjusting of individual
selves to the absolute merely begins, merely dawns here on
earth, and we die almost as soon as we have found that in
this adjustment our purest life consists. The adjustment,
therefore, must go on in a world to come, or else the highest
finite reality we know, namely a conscious self, has a more
horrible fate than the meanest grain of matter. And if that
adjustment to the absolute will continue, it can continue only
in terms of self. Otherwise the impersonal is higher than the
personal, and the august fact of individual responsibility is
blown sheer out of human life. Mr. Miinsterberg reads the
world in terms of will. It is astonishing that he should seem
to forget that will means a self; and that if there is an eter-
nity in will-attitude, there must also be an eternity in self-
attitude. And if there is an eternity in self-attitude, his
unreal foundation of impersonal will-postures is demolished,
and we are standing on the traditional ground of everlasting
individual permanence in the world to come.
Two small volumes by Catholic
CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS, laymen, on vital questions of con-
troversy and apologetics, are
heartily to be welcomed.* In Europe it is not uncommon to
" The Light of Faith. By Judge Frank McGloin. St. Louis : B. Herder. The Church
of God on Trial. By Edward J. Maginnis. New York: The Christian Press Association.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 539
find learned laymen entering the lists in behalf of religion, but
in America the spectacle has thus far been rare. Judge Mc-
Gloin and Mr. Maginnis give us hope that we shall have a re-
nascence of the lay apostolate. Judge McGloin's volume deals
with such fundamental questions as the existence of God,
divine revelation, and the immortality of the soul. On these
subjects Mr. McGloin writes as one who has read pretty
thoroughly in the modern literature of science, and he acquits
himself with distinction.
Mr. Maginnis' volume aims at proving the Church and its
sacraments against such objections as are contained in the
Thirty-nine Articles of the Anglican Church. The discussion
is brief, but it has a legal incisiveness, and never wanders from
the point. Naturally in so summary a treatment, many points
are undeveloped and some conclusions seem hastily arrived at;
but the book furnishes stimulus for wider research and more
exhaustive investigation. Again let us say it, these treatisse
are in a high degree encouraging. May the number of our
lay defenders speedily increase. It is time for another Brown -
son.
M. Leon Lefebure has written a
GREAT CATHOLICS OF THE . . - . ... , f ,
NINETEENTH CENTURY, book * consist mg of four sketches
_ _. , . of eminent French Catholics, be-
By Lefebure.
heving that one of the best apolo-
getics for faith is the life- story of great men who have be-
lieved. This is a just and true belief, and M. Lefebure is
happy in the choice of characters who illustrate it. He has
selected Montalembert, Augustin Cochin, the philanthropist,
Franfois Rio, the historian of Christian art, and the Abbe
Guthlin, student and philosopher. These were men who lived
abreast of their age in the spheres of study and practical
activity, and remained always sincere and simple Catholics.
Of Montalembert's Catholicity there is no need to speak. In
prosperity and in trial, in the ardent hopes of his youth and
in the sorrowful disillusions of his old age, he stood firmly
true to faith, and allowed no shock or vicissitude to loosen his
loyal grasp upon it. M. Lefebure writes of him with especial
tenderness, treating chiefly of his misfortunes wherein he is so
superbly great. Lamennais is harshly spoken of in these
* Portraits de Croyants au XlXe. Siicle. Par Le*on Lefebure. Paris : Librairie Plon-
Nourrit.
540 NEW BOOKS. [July,
pages; rather too harshly we think. Is it not with great sor-
row that we should behold that mighty ruin of a gifted soul,
rather than with unfeeling censure ?
How Catholicity lived in and inspired the careers of his
three other subjects, M. Lefebure shows in eloquent pages.
Cochin was a lover of men and a well-doer to them, who in
every deed of charity kept before his mind the spirit of the
Gospel and the traditional ideal of Catholic philanthropy ; Rio
was a student of art who counted the most brilliant men of
his age among his intimate friends: Lord Houghton, Carlyle,
Gladstone, and many others, in whose company he was ever
the edifying, devout, and fearless Catholic; the Abbe Guthlin
recalls Pere Gratry; like Gratry he was of an ardent, idealiz-
ing nature, whose fine qualities of mind were incessantly pre-
occupied with means for winning the modern world of scholar-
ship to Christ. He died in the very prime of life, just as he
seemed about to realize the brilliant promise of his youth. It
does one good to read these sketches of noble and believing
men. We are sure that books like these will give inspiration
to many lives exempla trahunt and we trust especially that
among the Frenchmen of to-day there will arise Christian
heroes not unworthy of the splendid names on France's long
roll of honor, to restore and strengthen in their countrymen
the Christian spirit which appears now to be obscured.
This book,* written for religious,
THE SPIRIT OF SACRIFICE, gives the rugged and old-fashioned
By Giraud. lessons of spiritual life in an earn-
est, pious manner which is not
without a certain attractiveness. There is little in it that is
new, as we might expect even the similes and examples are
taken from Francis de Sales, Cassian, and Rodriguez but we
dare say that it will compare favorably even in literary inter-
est with almost any other of its kind. We were astonished to
find that there are no chapters on prayer. The old monastic
way of writing spiritual books made all other considerations,
whether on vices, virtues, or vows, only preparatory to a long
and analytic study of prayer, which is the highest occupation
of the human soul, and ought therefore to be the most im-
portant part of a religious book.
* The Spirit of Sacrifice in the Religious State. By Rev. S. M. Giraud. Revised by Rev.
Herbert Thurston, S.J. New York : Benziger Brothers.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 541
The preface styles Father Rodriguez' work on Perfection
the first and foremost treatise on the religious life. We ven-
ture to say that not many people, whose reading in spiritual
literature has been moderately thorough, would approve this
astonishing statement. The chapter on manifestation of con-
science should have been omitted. Leo XIII. 's decree Que-
madmodum abolished the custom in all lay communities, on
account of the abominable abuses to which it had given rise ;
and inasmuch as this book will almost certainly be used chiefly
in sisterhoods, this troublesome matter should have been
dropped. The final chapter, too, on the apparitions at La
Salette, had better been excised, for reasons that will be ob-
vious to whoever reads it. But in conclusion let us say that
we read one sentence in this good book with sincere delight.
Here it is : " After the priesthood, there is nothing more holy,
more sublime, than the religious life." Heaven be praised that
right order is observed at last ! The disparagement of Christ's
priesthood goes so far in some treatises on the vowed state as
apparently to regard the priest as merely a canonical func-
tionary. Cardinal Manning was justified in his indignation at
this subjection of the apostolic priesthood to any other state,
however holy. To the person, author, or editor, who wrote
the sentence quoted, we would express our gratitude.
THE HISTORY OF NAZA- f 1Ong ', r
__ _ history clusters about the Galilean
'
By Gaston Le' Hardy. villa ^ e of Nazareth - A P art from
the biblical events that occurred
there, nearly every century of Christian history has seen some-
thing worth recording on the scene of the Annunciation.
Christian art finds fascination in the basilicas which devout
hands raised in the Holy Family's honor; pious romance may
revel in the pilgrimages that stream through all ages toward
the venerated spot ; and interests of a sterner and sadder
kind will be occupied with the wars and conquests which
drenched in blood the birth- land of the King of Peace. This
story of Nazareth and its basilicas has been concisely written
by M. Gaston Le Hardy in a volume * of extraordinary value.
Woven into the substance of the book are long citations from
ancient authors, arranged chronologically, which tell with great
* Histoire de Nazareth et de Ses Sanctuaires . Par Gaston Le Hardy. Paris : Librairie
Victor Lecoffre.
542 NEW BOOKS. [July,
vividness, and of course with weighty authority, what learned
pilgrims and historians of old found in the holy hamlet, or
heard existed there. Its shrines are minutely described, and
the fate which decreed that it should pass in violence from
Christian to infidel hands is fully and sympathetically narrated.
Naturally in a book on Nazareth we look to find the author's
account of the episode of the Holy House, said to have been
transported to the West by angels, and at the present time to
rest in Loreto. M. Le Hardy is not very forward or dog-
matic in giving his opinion on the matter, but it is perfectly
clear that he regards the Holy House legend as unhistorical.
He points out, as so many other historians have done, that
long after the alleged miracle, travelers in Palestine positively
declare that the Holy House existed unchanged in Nazareth ;
and he indicates the very late date of the legend as a grave
reason for its historical untrustworthiness. M. Le Hardy, let
us remark, is a devout Catholic. On the whole this is a very
interesting book, and every one who reads it will feel grateful
to the author.
A new edition of the Little Flow-
THE LITTLE FLOWERS ers of St. Francis* is a favor to
OF ST. FRANCIS. b e welcomed. These tender and
immortal legends make one for-
get for a time the tumult and the shouting of our modern
world, and beguile one's fancy with visions of mediaeval Um-
bria, and the mighty servant of God, St. Francis. They tell,
as the world knows, of how blessed Francis chided Brother
Elias for speaking disrespectfully to an angel; of how he com-
manded Brother Bernard, under obedience, to tread three
times on his throat and mouth, because he had half-admitted
an unkind thought about Brother Elias ; of how he had
divers colloquies with the Lord and several of his saints ; of
how while he was praying one night a little boy-brother saw
him conversing with Christ and his holy Mother ; of how he
tamed Brother Wolf, after Brother. Wolf had killed many peo-
ple; of how he preached a sermon to "My little Sisters the
Birds " ; and many other charming stories, as artless as the
look of a child, as fresh and pure as the dawn of day. It will
do every one good to read the Little Flowers.
* Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assist. London: Kegan Paul, French, Triibner Com-
pany.
1905.] NEW BOOKS, 543
An excellent manual * of consti-
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. tutional law in the United States
By McClain. has been written by Judge Mc-
Clain, of the Supreme Court of
Iowa. An introductory section is historical in character,
giving the English and Colonial antecedents of our present
Constitution. The body of the book is naturally taken up with
the Constitution itself in its various regulations concerning the
three branches of our Government, the inter-relation of States,
and the rights and guarantees of the individual citizen. A
useful appendix contains extracts from Magna Charta, the Bill
of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and other similar
instruments of popular government. The volume is very well
adapted either for private reading or for classes of civics or
history in our schools.
The well-known name of M. E.
TALES. Francis appears on the title-page
By M. E. Francis. of a new volume f of short stories.
Like so many of the author's
earlier writings, these sketches have their scene of action in
Dorset Dorset of quaint speech, simple manners, and guile-
less hearts. And so appropriately, these stories are simple
too, being pastoral tales and quiet romances of an English
village's joys and sorrows and superstitions and affections.
They display no agitation of great adventure, no painful in-
genuity of plot, no detailed delineation of striking characters.
But they are fascinating from their unpretending simplicity,
their pure goodness, and their warm, human interests. Every
one who loves good literature and has a heart for the quiet
humanities of our lot will find delight in reading them.
A book on the gruesome subject
LYNCH LAW. of lynching $ is not pleasant to
By Dr. Cutler. read, but it may be a means to-
ward remedying a great evil. Pro-
fessor Cutler has collected a vast amount of data on this par-
ticular feature of lawlessness ; he gives a summary of the pre-
* Constitutional Law in the United States. By Emlin McClain, LL.D. New York:
Longmans, Green & Co.
t Dorset Dear. By M. E. Francis. New York : Longmans, Green & Co.
\Lynch Law. An Investigation into the History of Lynching in the United States. By
James Elbert Cutler, Ph.D. New Yoik : Longmans, Green & Co.
VOL. LXXXI. 35
544 NEW BOOKS. [July,
ventive measures thus far proposed for destroying it; and in
his last chapter he expresses the personal convictions to which
his investigation has led him. It is hardly necessary to state
that Professor Cutler is uncompromising in his abhorrence of
lynching. He admits, of course, that the provocation is often
exceedingly grave; but he denies that it ever justifies mob
action. He makes the point that lynching does not deter from
crime, and that the terror excited by such summary vengeance
has no permanent effect for good. The speedy vindication of
justice by strictly legal procedure, he insists, would not only
remove a reproach flung often against our country by aliens,
but would also be the best check on the crimes that have
brought lynching into being. And as for the punishment of
lynchers, this volume repeats what the whole world knows;
namely, that although nearly all the States in which lynchings
are frequent have laws on their statute-books making lynching
a crime, these laws are practically inoperative and worthless.
We agree with Professor Cutler that lynching ought to be
made a federal offense to be tried in federal courts. Lawless
men would hesitate long before forming a lynching mob if they
knew that they would have to stand trial before a judge who
directly represented the central government of the country. For
our comfort, Mr. Cutler's figures prove that lynching is decreas-
ing. Whereas in 1892, 235 persons were lynched, and in 1893,
200, the average yearly number from 1899 to 1903 was in.
With the spread of education, and the growing sense of religion
and civilization, we have abundant reason to hope that this sin
against society will soon disappear. It is absolutely necessary,
let us say in conclusion, that the men who handle this ques-
tion, whether in pulpit, press, or Congress, should be free from
sectional bitterness, and should adapt their fine academic theo
ries to the exigencies of human nature. No man who has not
lived or extensively traveled in the South, and sympathetically
learned the South's difficulties, burdens, and traditions, should
presume publicly to discuss the problem. The noble South is
bravely doing its best to sustain its share of our country's re-
sponsibilities, and to have a fitting part in America's splendid
progress. It is neither disloyal nor lawless. It simply has a
perplexing crisis to confront, and it will confront it and pass
through it honorably and successfully if the North will give
help instead of criticism, sympathy instead of censure.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 545
A novel that since its publication
THE GARDEN OF ALLAH, has received extensive notices, most
By Hichens. o f them laudatory, is The Garden
of Allah* by Robert Hichens. The
Garden of Allah is the title poetically given by the Arabs to
the Desert of Sahara, and the desert with its " atmosphere,"
its silence, its charm, its heat, and its sky-effects, is employed
as the background of this tale, and the interpreter, in great
measure, of the feelings and emotions of its characters. The
novel, in so far as it employs the dry and voiceless desert for
this purpose, is unique; the theme of the story itself is exceed-
ingly trite. We have had, indeed, a nauseating surplus of this
kind of frenzied novel writing within the last two years, and
we need but mention two others that have been widely and
sensationally exploited The Shutters of Silence and The Broken
Rosary. We have called it frenzied novel writing, and we think
the adjective a just one. The author of such a book is evi-
dently beggared for a theme, and his selection of the abnormal
and the unusual is a confession of weakness. Genius in order
to find its expression need not distort nature nor display its
eccentricities and its exceptions. In truth by such a proceed-
ing a writer but seeks to conceal his own weakness by attract-
ing the attention of the observer to the freak of nature. Art
is but the powerful expression of the true, and the good, and
of what is fundamental in the proper growth and perfection of
all things. Could we differentiate art from morality, which we
cannot, any more than we can separate soul from body and
still have life, this novel, The Garden of Allah, would yet sin
grievously against the first canons of art; for it creates not
normal, natural characters, but characters that from the outset
are unreal, impractical, and artistically, or rather inartistically,
monstrous. It is a straining after the unusual, glaring in its
great daubs of yellow and red, and attractive because of its
very unusual coloring, its fantastic lines, and its sensational
lights, as, in another order, the display lines of a penny daily
are attractive to many jaded minds, or the two-headed calf in
the menagerie is attractive to the curious crowd.
This novel has been praised, and praised almost without
limit, for the power of its English. If power be an excessive
use of the adjective, a down-pouring of words, a repetition ol
* The Garden of Allah. By Robert Hichens. New York : Frederick A. Stokes & Co.
546 NEW BOOKS. [July,
sentences with the same meaning, and the employment of
phrases which when analyzed seem to have no purpose save the
creation of that intangible thing called " literary atmosphere,"
if delicacy be a fault and simplicity a weakness, then the pres-
ent work may be called powerful indeed. We have read it, but
the reading has been a laborious task. Many times during the
reading we had to seek a respite. The book, from the point
of view of writing, is decidedly heavy. It is overdone, it smells
of the lamp, and the endeavors for great effects and unusual
climaxes are pitiful.
The immorality of the book is, to our minds, so gross that
we fail to see how any soul, cherishing the pure and holy
things of life, can fail to be disgusted and sickened at the
reading of it. We do not wish to be prudish in the matter.
Literature, since it is a study of life, must deal with life in its
entirety, and, in depicting the sinful and the forbidden, litera-
ture but fulfils a necessary part of its office. But when an
author deliberately exploits the sensual, describes minutely,
carefully, and with the single view to arouse the purely ani-
mal in his characters, he makes himself but the arch-priest, or
rather the arch-devil of the indecent, and his work should no
more be tolerated in the respectable home than his like con-
versation would be listened to in the drawing-room.
We have spoken thus at length because the book in ques-
tion has been praised by journals that claim to be eminently
respectable, and the author is said by them to have entered
once more into his own perhaps he has.
We might continue our criticism of the volume, and speak
of how the author, with all his claims to exactness, fails utterly
to understand the sacrament of marriage as taught by the
Catholic Church ; how he makes his chief character grossly in-
consistent; how he violates most obviously the laws of physi-
ology but we would have to continue indefinitely. The Gar-
den of Allah is not a worthy nor an artistic creation; it is a
reeking monstrosity.
Dr. Osier is the author of one of
JEQUANIMITAS. the best single volume text-books
By Osier. of medicine in English.* He dedi-
cated that book to the memory of
* ^Eqttanintitas. With Other Addresses to Medical Students, Nurses, and Practitioners of
Medicine. By William Osier, M.D., F.R.S., Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity, Baltimore. Philadelphia : P. Blakiston's Son & Co.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 547
his teachers, the first of whom is the Anglican minister of Wes-
ton, Ontario. It is somewhat unusual for a scientist thus to ac-
knowledge indebtedness to his early religious training, but this
affectionate remembrance is an indication of the character of
the author. Dr. Osier's extensive sympathy, his elevation of
thought, his insistence on worthy ideals, his wide reading are
all strikingly exhibited in the volume before us. The book
gives us an excellent idea why the medical profession was
so enthusiastic in its tribute to him on the occasion of his
departure for Oxford. We will be pardoned if we quote a few
passages from the work. In his address on teaching and think-
ing, or the two functions of the medical school, Dr. Osier said :
"Tis no idle challenge which we physicians throw out to the
world when we claim that our mission is of the highest and of
the noblest kind, not alone in curing disease, but in educating
the people in the laws of health, and in preventing the spread
of plagues and pestilence ; nor can it be gainsaid that of late
years our record as a body has been more encouraging in its prac-
tical results than those of the other learned professions. Not
that we all live up to the highest ideals, far from it we are
only men. But we have ideals which mean much, and they
are realizable, which means more. Of course there are Gehazis
among us who serve for shekels, whose ears hear only the
lowing of the oxen and the jingling of the guineas, but these
are exceptions. The rank and file labor earnestly for public
good, and self-sacrificing devotion to community interests ani-
mates our best work.
Apart from this expression of lofty ideals of conduct, to be
met with so frequently in these addresses, the most striking
feature is the breadth of reading and the extent of the literary
knowledge displayed. The Bible is quoted very frequently and
very appropriately. Other favorite authors are John Henry
Newman, Walter Pater, Plato, Shakespeare, George Eliot, Cer-
vantes, and Dante. These writers are quoted evidently not
from any mere chance reading of striking passages, but from
a deep knowledge and intimate familiarity with their spirit and
intention. Thus Dr. Osier himself is a wonderful example of
the advice he has so often publicly given to medical students
and physicians that, besides their vocation, they should have
some avocation to which to turn in their leisure moments, and
that they should acquire, if not a scholar's knowledge, at least
548 NEW BOOKS. [July,
a gentleman's knowledge, of the immortal literary works of all
time.
Dr. Osier, to his praise be it said, continually insists on
the necessity for a professional man rounding out his life with
other interests beyond those of his profession, and with other
desires beyond that of making money. Real success, he writes,
means happiness in life, not merely the accumulation of money,
which may indeed be a source of more worry than pleasure to
its possessor. Some of Dr. Osier's expressions in this regard
are not limited in their application to the medical profession.
Speaking of a great University he said :
While living laborious days, happy in his work, happy
in the growing recognition which he is receiving from his
colleagues, no shadow of doubt haunts the mind of the
young physician, other than the fear of failure ; but I
warn him to cherish the days of his freedom, the days when
he can follow his bent, untrammeled, undisturbed, and not
as yet in the coils of the octopus. In a play of Oscar
Wilde's one of the characters remarks: "There are only
two great tragedies in life, not getting what you want, and
getting it!" And I have known consultants whose tread-
mill life illustrated the bitterness of this mot, and whose
great success at sixty did not bring the comfort they had
anticipated at forty. The mournlul echo of the words of
the preacher ring in their ears, words which I not long
ago heard quoted with deep feeling by a distinguished
physician: "Better is an handful with quietness, than both
the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit."
Dr. Osier has realized especially, and expressed in a strik-
ing way, the duty of charity, and in so doing has paid more
than one tribute to the work of the Church. We quote an
example from an address to nurses :
Among the ancients, many had risen to the idea of for-
giveness of enemies, of patience under wrong-doing, and
even of the brotherhood of man ; but the spirit of Love only
received its incarnation with the ever memorable reply to
the ever memorable question, Who is my neighbor ? a reply
which has changed the attitude of the world. Nowhere in
ancient history, sacred or profane, do we find pictures of
devoted heroism in women such as dot the annals of the
Catholic Church, or such as can be paralleled in our own
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 549
century. Tender, maternal affection, touching filial piety,
were there ; but the spirit abroad was that of Deborah not
Rizpah, of Jael not Dorcas.
If more of our teachers in America had the breadth of
human sympathy, the depth of learning, and the precious love
of high ideals, which characterizes those addresses, we should
feel less anxious about the effect of present-day education on
the rising generation.
Coincident with the publication of
GREAT ENGLISHMEN OF the lectures delivered at Cam-
THE SIXTEENTH bridge, England, by Professor Bar-
CENTURY. rett Wendell, of Harvard College,
By Lee. is the appearance of a volume of
lectures delivered the same year
at Lowell Institute, Boston, by the distinguished English scholar,
Sidney Lee.
Mr. Lee's subject is Great Englishmen of the Sixteenth Cen-
tury * and he has chosen as representative of the highest cul-
ture of the period, Sir Thomas More, Sir Philip Sidney, Sir
Walter Raleigh, Edmund Spenser, Francis Bacon, and William
Shakespeare.
No attempt at detailed biographies has been made by Mr.
Lee. He has endeavored rather to trace in these men " the
course of a great intellectual movement." This movement, it is
needless to say, is the spirit of the Renaissance, "which reached
its first triumph in More's Utopia, and its final glory in Shake-
spearean drama." By their versatility of aim, ambition, and
achievement, More, Sidney, Bacon, Raleigh are indisputably
typical products of the Renaissance. As Mr. Lee says of
Bacon: "His philosophical interests embraced every topic;
his writings touched almost every subject of intellectual study.
To each he brought the same eager curiosity and efficient in-
sight. He is the despair of the modern specialist. He is his-
torian, essayist, logician, legal writer, metaphysician, a com-
mentative writer on science in its every branch."
With commendable fairness and conscientious criticism Mr.
Lee has handled the virtues and the weaknesses of his sub-
jects. His enthusiasm over Bacon's scholarship is exuberant,
but his censure of his lax morals is keen. In his essay on
Great Englishmen of the Sixteenth Century. By Sidney Lee New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons.
550 NEW BOOKS. [July,
More, he has naturally failed to see that noble man from the
point of view of one within the Church; to him it is "one of
history's perplexing ironies " that " the man who, by an airy
effort of the imagination, devised the new and revolutionary
ideal of Utopia, should end his days on the scaffold as a mar-
tyr to ancient beliefs which shackled man's intellect and denied
freedom to man's thought." More was beheaded, as Mr. Lee
himself says, and as every schoolboy knows, because he re-
fused to bow to the Act of Supremacy which conferred upon
Henry VIII. and all his successors, in place of the Pope,
the title of Supreme Head of the Church. For Catholics the
paradox would have existed had More subscribed to Henry's
claim. Aside from this lack of sympathy with More on the
fundamental question, Mr. Lee's appreciation of him is eulo-
gistic. He speaks of him as "one endowed with the finest
enlightenment of the Renaissance ; a man whose outlook on
life was in advance of his generation ; possessed, too, of such
quickness of wit, such imaginative activity, such sureness of
intellectual insight, that he could lay bare with pen all the de-
fects, all the abuses, which worn-out conventions and lifeless
traditions had imposed on the free and beneficent development
of human endeavor and human society."
This volume of essays is a valuable addition to literature
on the subject.
Eden Phillpotts is the writer of a new West of England
tale entitled The Secret Woman* The scene is laid in that
bleak yet beautiful Dartmoor country which the author knows
how to describe so well. The novel belongs to that class of
heart-burning tragedies which Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles
typifies, and it is quite as gloomy and unpleasant. The old
story of sin and its terrible consequences is told again with
dramatic and forceful power. Clever and powerful as the book
is, it none the less raises again the old question, would it not
be better for a talented writer to devote his energies to life's
happier episodes?
Notwithstanding the sincerity of Mr. Phillpotts, and the
stern lesson his tragedy preaches, the book is not one for in-
discriminate circulation.
* The Secret Woman. By Eden Phillpotts. New York . The Macmillan Company.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 551
The Bishop of Beauvais has written to his clergy a pas-
toral letter * on Scripture-study which is highly creditable to
its distinguished author. It is sanely conservative but honor-
ably sympathetic with the just endeavors of modern criticism.
It is a great pleasure to read it, after one has been disheart-
ened by the multitude of pamphlets that have come from cer-
tain quarters in violent, but not very scientific, disparagement
of the historical method in biblical study. This brief work
recognizes that new problems have arisen in the field of
Scripture, that the fathers have not exhausted human science,
and that sound criticism is to be encouraged. More particu-
larly the bishop admits the great principles of implicit quota-
tions, and of diversity of interpretation depending on diversity
of literary form. From this the initiated will understand that
we have here a broad and enlightened prelate.
In A Short Handbook of Missions^ Mr. Eugene Stock gives
a great deal of valuable information concerning the foreign
missions of the non-Catholic Christian denominations. Accord-
ing to his figures these missions now govern between three
and four million converts, of whom a million and a quarter
are regular communicants. The missionaries number between
fifteen and seventeen thousand, including four thousand married
and over three thousand unmarried women. Interesting sketches
are given of the chief missionary societies in non-Catholic
churches, and also brief biographical notices of some of the
more celebrated missionaries. Unfortunately Mr. Stock intensely
dislikes the Catholic Church. He discredits our foreign mis-
sions, and makes various charges against our missionaries, some
of which charges, however, seem to spring from irritation at
the number of Catholic converts. At all events this exhibition
of prejudice is repulsive, and greatly disfigures his book.
* L' Etude de la Sainte Ecriture. Lettre de Mgr. 1'Eveque de Beauvais au Clergd de Son
Diocese. Paris : Victor Lecoffre.
\A Short Handbook of Missions. By Eugene Stock. New York. Longmans, Green &
Co.
^Foreign periobicals,
The Tablet (13 May): The Rt. Rev. Mgr. Mignot, Archbishop
of Albi, studies exhaustively the advantages and disad-
vantages of the French Concordat. The letter manifests
much practical knowledge of affairs and considerable
moderation of view, and it will be a great aid to the
appreciation of the true condition of the crisis. The civil
and religious powers must necessarily be distinct. This
is a principle arising from the very nature of the
Church's divine mission. The mutual independence of
the two powers in their respective domains, is comple-
mented by the duty of living and working together in
concord and harmony. That these principles have not
been adhered to, cannot be laid at the Church's door.
The present crisis is not the outcome of the Concordat.
On the contrary the fault is clearly imputable to those
whose duty it was to use the Concordat. A govern-
ment, animated by intentions merely pacific, would not
take forty-eight hours to settle the dispute honorably
for France and joyously for the Church. In addition,
the writer traces a provisory line of conduct to be pur-
sued by his clergy until reorganization is attained. The
most serious fault of the present system is the lack of
autonomy for the French clergy. In this hour of vio-
lent transformation let the Church put aside that passive
attitude with which the clergy have been reproached.
(20 May): The Bishop of London, speaking of the re-
marriage of divorced persons in Churches, says, that
what the State has done in decreeing a divorce, the
State, if it wishes, must undo ; the Church should not
be compromised in the matter at all. The convenience
of the world is one thing, the standard and teaching of
the Church is quite another.
(27 May) : The Archbishop of Albi contributes an ex-
amination of the French Separation Bill. The pretexts
for disunion are shown to be artificial.
Le Correspondent (25 April) : "Japan, France, and Europe," by
Marcel Dubois, is a serious study of the dangers which
threaten the French, English, and Dutch colonies in
1905.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 553
Asia in the result of a final victory of Japan over Rus-
sia. The writer points out means for averting these
now almost imminent dangers. " Why Dogmas Reas-
sert Themselves. The Balance-Sheet of Positivism," is
a critical essay by J. E. Fidao. It is the refutation of a
work by M. Gabrielle Seailles, Les Affirmations de la Con-
science Moderns. The author in the Correspondant studies
Positivism under three aspects: (i) The limits which
science may not overstep without ceasing to be science ;
(2) Religion has its own realm, the supernatural, and
plays an essential part in the world which nothing can
replace ; (3) There is no religious society without a
" spiritual power " and a Credo which all believe, and
which its ministers are bound to maintain in its original
sense. M. Fidao thinks that there are few unbelievers
who would not be converted to Catholicity by this
apologist for Positivism ; witness M. Brunetiere, to men-
tion only one name. M. Amedee Britsch, in " An
African Hero," recalls the brilliant but too brief ca-
reer of Commandant Lamy, a true patriot, who gave
his energy and his military talents to the achievement
of success in the Saharan mission entrusted to him.
He made the French flag respected on African soil,
where he would conquer only to pacify.
(10 May): In " A German Jubilee" M. Andre .makes an
intelligent and impartial analysis of the works of Schiller,
and traces with a masterly hand the moral influence
this great poet exercised on his generation. M. Andre
thinks that Schiller well deserves, not only the homage
of the German people, who are celebrating his fame so
grandly, but of the whole world ; for, to quote the
poet's own words in the " Prologue to Wallenstein," He
who has sought to satisfy the noblest souls belongs to
all times and nations.
(25 May): "The Kingdom of Hungary. Its Erolution
and its Present Crisis," is a learned article by Rene
Henry on the history of the peoples who compose this
nation, and shows the causes of the several crises it has
passed through, and especially the ministerial crisis of
the past year. Ferdinand Loudet has a most inter-
esting article on Gascony, entitled "The Changes of a
554 FOREIGN PERIODICALS. [July,
Village." He pictures the rural life of old times, and
notes the little signs and tokens of progress which at
present are visible here and there throughout the coun-
try.
tudes (20 May) : Th. Gollier contributes a lengthy article on
the intellectual state of Japan. The first part is devoted
to a review of the growth of institutions of learning in
that country, giving statistics on the number of schools,
pupils, and various branches taught. In the second
part, after briefly describing the chief characteristics of
the Japanese mind, the author sketches the work of the
Japanese in philosophy, from its introduction into their
country down to the present day. Schopenhauer and
the philosophy of the will are the occasion of an arti-
cle by Lucien Roure. The writer dwells on that radi-
cal and pessimistic philosopher's conception of the will;
on the relation between his pessimism and the philoso-
phy of the will; and on his deductions from this rela-
tion. Other articles of interests are "The Location
of our Churches," by Paul Auclerc; "Lourdes: Ap-
paritions and Cures," by Gaston Sortais.
La Revue Generate (May) : The usual comments of Europeans
upon America, its people and customs, are summed up
by a friendly critic, H. Primbault, in an article entitled
" In the Land of Youth and Energy." Our commer-
cialism is particularly noted and little praised. The
spirit of independence and equality existing here, the
energy and vitality of the people, come in for a good
share of praise. Some things American surprise our
critic, for example, the mingling of the sexes in schools,
in factories, etc., and also the fact that so many of the
weaker sex are bread-winners. He touches on national
dangers, race-suicide for example. Our methods of
amusement are shocking to the conventional European.
According to the statistics the writer errs in ranking
Philadelphia as second city in the Union ; Chicago has
managed to get hold of that distinction.
La Quinzaine (16 May): "Catholicism and Free Thought," by
George F. Fonsegrive, is concluded in this number.
The method of free thought is shown to be legitimate
in science, yet illegitimate for all practical life. Catho-
1905.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 555
lie dogma provides an example; by many it is con-
sidered a kind of science, or something purely intellec-
tual. In truth it is not this, but rather the sum-total
of concrete practices of religion, of single acts of intel-
ligence of the will and of the heart. Dogma, to be
sure, is made up of intellectual propositions, yet these
come to the individual not by scientific demonstration
but through faith. Knowledge of faith is totally different
from scientific knowledge; the former cannot adequately
be expressed in the terms of the latter kind of knowl-
edge, nor can the methods which are legitimate in sci-
ence, free thought for example, be considered as legiti-
mate in religion, a practical, vital matter for each indi-
vidual soul.
La Revue Apologetique (April) : Abbe J. Lensson continues his
story entitled, " Life and Providence," examining in this
number the question of animal evolution. He concludes
that we may take this evolution as a fact, and that
while it has not been demonstrated, yet to oppose it
simply because it has been used as a weapon against re-
ligion would be to commit an imprudence; for, if evo-
lution is a reality, it has been accomplished under the
direction of a superior intelligence, and is a proof of the
existence of divine Providence. Under the title "Con-
cerning the Syllabus," J. Vosters concludes a criticism of
M. Viollet's recent work on that famous document. The
writer, in this issue, considers M. Viollet's interpretation
of the sixty-first proposition and finds it to be " unfor-
tunate." As to the nature of the Syllabus, M. Viollet
reached the conclusion that it should be considered as
an anonymous document, neither composed, nor solemnly
promulgated, nor signed by Pius IX., and that its doc-
trine is not infallibly imposed. The present writer con-
siders the Syllabus " a doctrinal act of Pius IX.," and
that "the infallibility of its doctrine does not depend
upon its being a doctrine imposed by an ex cathedra
act, since in addition to its direct, it has an indirect
object of infallibility, and besides the solemn magisteri-
um it has the ordinary and universal magisterium."
(May) : About the middle of the nineteenth century
three evils raised their heads to disturb the peace of
556 FOREIGN PERIODICALS. [July.
the Church. These were: Scientific Fatalism or "De-
terminism," rationalistic optimism, and liberalism. In
an interesting article on the consequences of the dogma
of the Immaculate Conception, A. de la Barre shows
how in this one short formula the three errors men-
tioned above were condemned and guarded against.
H. Bovens, S.T.D., treating of some of the comple-
mentary questions connected with civil divorce, answers
some interesting queries concerning the proper action of
Catholic officials under the divorce laws existing in Bel-
gium.
Annalcs de Philosophic Chretienne (May) : The Abbes Simien-
ski and Denis describe the characteristics of false devo-
tion to the Blessed Virgin. The former notes with ap-
proval the crusade against unwholesome devotions started
by several French bishops, and hopes that this vigilance
will not be relaxed. The Abbe Denis remarks that
false devotion is due largely to rival religious orders
which wish their own particular forms of cultus and
legend to predominate. M. Ermoni, reviewing Chante-
pie de la Saussaye's Manual of Religions, warns Catho-
lics that comparative religion is a science of which they
must take account. A. Riguet shows how solicitous
St. Irenaeus ^is in his writings for the honor of the
Blessed Virgin. Albert Leclere contributes another
article in his series on Dante and Catholic mysticism.
Gabriel Prevast examines the function of the
modern press.
Stimmen Aus Maria Laach (April): This number contains an
article on Frederick von Schiller, occasioned by the
hundredth anniversary of the poet's death. The writer
gives an estimate of the more famous of Schiller's pro-
ductions. Fr. C. Pesch, S.J., has a paper on the rela-
tion of the Church to Religion, in which he shows the
need of a living, speaking authority to preserve religion
and morality in their purity. Fr. C. A. Kneller, S.J.,
begins a series of papers on the life and labors of Louis
Pasteur. This first article is given to an account of the
education and the early career of the great scientist.
Current Events*
The destruction of the Russian
Russia. Fleet, and the consequent anni-
hilation of the power of Russia
on the ocean is, of course, the most striking event of the
month. The causes of this disaster are not far to seek, if
credence can be given to the reports which are sent by the
presumably well-informed. Want of discipline on the part of
the men and contentions between officers are the immediate
causes; but the real cause lies deeper. Every nation has its
gift and, as of each individual so of the nation, it is true that
it has not been granted by the powers above that each should
have all. Russia has brave soldiers, and although it may have
brave sailors they are not skilled, or, at all events, are not so
skilled as their opponents; they are not at home on the sea;
and consequently they have proved no match for the island -
power.
Another enfeebling cause is that the Russians are fighting
under compulsion and in a cause not their own. Their rulers
have taken it upon themselves to exclude the nation from all
accive participation in the conduct of affairs, and have made
the whole duty of man to consist in passive obedience to
the head; and when it is incompetent, what can be expected
except that the whole mass should rush headlong into the
deep ? The Russian system has deprived the nation of free-
dom and of the right to think, and thus has prepared the
way for its own downfall. Almost a pathetic interest, there-
fore, is excited in the attempts which are being made to re-
move the incubus which has for so long crushed out the life
of so many reasonable beings. For a long time the promise
of the Tsar to call a representative Assembly has remained
unfulfilled, and had it not been for the naval disaster it is
probable, or at least possible, that nothing more would have
been heard of it. The promise has, however, been renewed,
but no great confidence in any satisfactory outcome can be
felt. The influences to which the Tsar is yielding himself are
manifested in the appointment of the notorious General Tre-
rf r
558 CURRENT EVENTS. [July,
poff as Under-Secretary of the Police and Assistant Minister
of the Interior, and in the powers which have been given to
him. These powers consist in the right to close all assemblies
and congresses, to suspend indefinitely all societies and leagues
and other bodies which manifest, in the opinion of the au-
thorities, pernicious activity, to take all steps to preserve what
the Tsar looks upon as order, that is to say, to suppress any in-
terference with the established regime. This appointment is a
virtual re-establishment of that Third Section of the Police
which was the instrument of the worst deeds of Alexander III.
It places the lives and liberties of the whole of Russia at the
mercy of an official who virtually becomes a dictator. The
Minister of the Interior, M. Buliguine, has in consequence
resigned, but the Tsar has refused to accept his resignation.
On the other hand, the government, we are assured, is steadily
proceeding with its plan for the fulfilment of the March-the-
third promises, and will not. swerve therefrom on account of
any difficulties.
What the thinking portion of the nation desires may be
learned from the proceedings of the second congress of Zemst-
vos, which met in Moscow early in May. This congress was
a thoroughly representative gathering of the existing Zemstvos.
After a great deal of discussion and much difference of
opinion, which nearly led to a split, a programme was agreed
upon. The question of universal suffrage as the basis for the
hoped-for national assembly was the chief cause of the differ-
ences which arose. A leading reformer, M. Shipoff, was in
favor of the Deputies being elected by the Zemstvos. These
Zemstvos were, however, to be extended and popularized, but
not on the basis of universal suffrage. The opponents of this
plan, the Radicals, do not think that a house thus indirectly
elected, and on a restricted franchise, would have the neces-
sary authority. They think it essential to go to the people on
the basis of universal suffrage by direct ballot for the Lower
House, while for the Upper House they urge that the -mem-
bers should be returned by the Zemstvos and Dumas, these
bodies, however, being reorganized on the basis of universal
suffrage. The Radical plan received the approval of the ma-
jority of the delegates. M. Shipoff ultimately gave in his ad-
hesion. To give these proposals legal sanction the congress
has in view not a Ukase of the Tsar, issued on his sole
1905.] CURRENT EVENTS. 559
authority, but the convocation of a Constituent Assembly
elected by universal suffrage, thus giving the sanction of the
people to the new order of things and basing it upon their
will.
The Buliguine Commission, appointed to elaborate the re-
forms promised in March, has made its report, and it is said
this Report has received the sanction of the Tsar. A repre-
sentative assembly is to be summoned, and it is to have the
power to make laws, but not to control the finances or even
to discuss them. It would deprive the assembly of any real
power were such a restriction to be maintained, but if the
Russians are men they will know how to develop and amplify
these concessions. Extensive reforms are granted to Poland,
Finland, the Caucasus, and the Baltic Provinces. The Jews are
to be placed on the same footing as persons of other nation-
alities living in Russia. Such is in outline the programme said
to have been approved by the Tsar.
All the horror of the actual position in Russia lies, accord-
ing to M. Witte, in the fact that the government refuses to
recognize the gravity of the internal situation. The internal
history of Russia consists of a series of assassinations, out-
rages, and riots, against which the costliest police in the world
is utterly powerless. The selfish determination of those in
power to retain that power, even though the country may be
ruined thereby, is no worse a sign of the existing evils than
the utter indifference of the peasants, who make up the main
body of the population, to all political reforms. Their hunger
is for the possession of the land ; if this is gratified they will
be satisfied ; and if it is not gratified the state of unrest which
exists may be mitigated but will not be removed.
One result of the promulgation of the Imperial ukase
granting religious freedom is that wholesale conversions from
the Orthodox to the Catholic Church have taken place in
Poland in the governments of Lublin and Siedlce. No less
than twenty thousand persons are said to have returned to
the Catholic Church. Of the many crimes of the Russian gov-
ernment, its unmitigated hostility to the Church is by no
means the least. The Church has every reason to look for-
ward to an increase both in numbers and in power, when the
changes expected are made.
VOL LXXXI. 36
560 CURRENT EVENTS. [July,
Great as is the interest excited by
Germany. the affairs of Russia, the German
Emperor, his speeches, and his
doings, are at the present moment of more vital importance
to the world at large. For it cannot be denied that the peace
of the world is threatened by his proceedings, rumors being
abroad of the mobilization both of France and Germany. We
do not think that there will be a war, but if it is avoided it
will not be due to the Emperor's wisdom or moderation. His
interference in Morocco has met with a two-fold success the
Sultan has rejected the French proposals and M. Delcasse
has resigned. The desire of France to bring about a reform
in the anarchic conditions existent in Morocco, although doubt-
less not quite pure or disinterested, deserves the sympathy of
every one who wishes to see the horrible sufferings of his
fellow-men brought to an end. It excites something like dis-
gust and indignation to see the Emperor bolstering up the
reign of a barbarous tyrant, and doing everything in his power
to perpetuate these conditions. The mission sent by him to
the Sultan succeeded in inducing the latter to reject the pro-
posals of the French government. In place thereof the Sultan
has called a conference of the European Powers interested in
Morocco. This is what the German Emperor desired, for the
effect would be to set aside the Anglo-French agreement,
so far at least as Morocco is concerned. But it requires two
to make a bargain. The Powers chiefly interested England
and France have not yet accepted the Sultan's invitation,
and those whose interests are not so great have made their
consent dependent upon the acceptance of these more inter-
ested Powers. Consequently the holding of a Conference re-
mains doubtful, and it may be that the Emperor will receive
yet another rebuff. He is now doing what formerly he refused
to do, negotiating directly with France. What the outcome
will be is, we fear, somewhat uncertain. No one can fathom
the Emperor's mind. The ally of France is so crippled and
exhausted by the present war, and especially by the removal
to the East of all her troops from the frontier of Germany,
and by the destruction of her navy, that he may think it op-
portune to make an attack upon France This is the dan-
ger, but we hope it may be averted, especially as England
will not allow France to be isolated. There are in Germany
1905.] CURRENT EVENTS. 561
many persons who think that a war between Germany and
England is inevitable, and the same feeling is shared by not a
few in England. The decision will rest with the Emperor, and
if he lays himself out to provoke a war, thinking this is a
good opportunity, he doubtless has the power to bring it
about. Although Germany has a Parliament and a Constitu-
tion, neither the Emperor nor his ministers are responsible
directly for the administration of affairs, and the present head
of the State has no mean opinion of his own power and
ability, and does not look for guidance to any one except
himself. On his decision the future of Europe largely rests,
and what that may be is now in suspense.
The ruling party in the Reichstag the Catholic Centre
has made another contribution to the well-being of the Empire,
by exercising a moderating influence over the extremists, of
which the German Navy League consists. This League has
been very active in promoting the increase of the Navy, and
has been looked upon with favor by the Emperor and the
various Sovereigns, and to its efforts the present power of the
Navy is largely due. A short time ago it put forth a demand
for an immense increase in the number of vessels. Three double
squadrons of battleships, with the complement of cruisers and
destroyers, were said to be necessary. This extravagant de-
mand was not approved by the governing party in the Reich-
stag. The agitation promoted by the League was declared by
one of the Catholic members to be a public danger. Without
the support of the Catholic members it is impossible to carry
through any measure which involves fresh burdens on the re-
sources of the Empire. The government, therefore, has set
itself against the League's agitation. The Emperor sent a tele-
gram expressing disapproval of the League's demands. As a
consequence the two Generals who, as members of the League,
Wire chiefly responsible for its action, have resigned, the pro-
gramme has been modified, and the League is forced to be
satisfied with the less ambitious object of adding to the Navy
large cruisers and torpedo-boats, and the substitution of new,
for some nineteen obsolete, ships. The Emperor has been ap-
peased, the Generals have been reinstated, the League becomes
a semi-official organization.
On the occasion of the visit of the Emperor to Jerusalem
seven years ago, it will be remembered that he presented to
562 CURRENT EVENTS. [July,
the German Benedictines a piece of consecrated ground called
the Dormitio Sanctcz Maria Virgines. The late Patriarch of
Jerusalem, in recognition of this and of other courteous acts,
bestowed upon his Majesty the Order of the Holy Sepulchre.
When the Emperor was at Metz a short time ago, Cardinal
Kopp conferred the Order upon him, and inasmuch as Arch-
bishop Fischer, of Cologne, and Bishop Benzler, of Metz, and
the Chancellor of the Empire were present, a discussion has
arisen as to what was the real purpose of this imperial and
ecclesiastical conclave. The fact that Metz was chosen is
also considered very significant. The speech of the Emperor
merely gave expression of his good will towards German
Catholics. Many think, however, that a step has been taken
to place the Catholics in the Turkish dominions under German
protection, although this has been semi-officially denied.
In Austria no event has occurred
Austria. of any note. The Parliamentary
sessions have transacted their busi-
nsss with all due decorum and tranquillity. German has worked
with Czech in unwonted harmony. An unfounded rumor
that the Emperor was going to pay the long-deferred visit to
the Italian King, with the approval of the Pope, caused great
surprise and was speedily contradicted. Count Goluchowski,
the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, has celebrated, in the
midst of manifold expressions of good will and many congratu-
lations, the tenth anniversary of his appointment. Although
a pure Pole by birth, he has had the confidence not only of
his own Emperor, but also of the rulers of Germany and Rus-
sia. His policy has been one with that of the greatly loved
and trusted Emperor Francis Joseph a policy animated by
the desire of always maintaining peace and concord. To his
collaboration with the Emperor are due the work of reform
(such as it is) in Macedonia, and the maintenance of peace in
the Balkans; the Austro -Italian understanding concerning Al-
bania; the maintenance of the Triple Alliance in such a way
as to preserve good relations with other countries ; the success-
ful preservation of the position of Austria-Hungary as a Great
Power in spite of internal troubles and dissensions.
But while all has been going well in Austria, the settle-
1905.] CURRENT EVENTS. 563
ment of the conflict with Hungary seems as far off as ever.
The Crown finds itself unable to grant the demands of the
coalition majority for the use of the Magyar language in the
Hungarian Army. In all purely internal affairs it is willing to
give uncontrolled power to the coalition. And yet no common
ground of agreement has been found, although envoys from the
Crown on the one hand, and the coalition on the other, have done
their best. The Cabinet of Count Tisza, which has been carry-
ing on the necessary work of government since its defeat, in-
sists on relinquishing its task. It would have been impossible
to find any one willing to undertake the formation of a new
Cabinet under conditions which render failure almost inevitable,
had not the devotion of Baron Fejervary, the former Minister
for many years of National Defence, to the Emperor- King,
moved him to make the attempt. His acceptance is looked
upon as little short of heroic, for he is sacrificing a brilliant
past and a comfortable present, and condemning himself to
pass the rest of his life as an object of execration. For the
majority are committed to a course which the wisest, even
among themselves, look upon as foolish, but which no one has
the courage or the manliness to resist, since the populace has
set its heart upon its attainment at any cost, even at that of
breaking up the union with Austria.
To what lengths national spirit
Norway and Sweden. unduly cherished will go is shown
by the conflict which has arisen
between Norway and Sweden. The two countries have been
united since 1814. Denmark, with which Norway had until
thea been united, had taken the part of Napoleon against the
Allied Powers. On the defeat of Napoleon, Norway was de-
tached from Denmark and united to Sweden under one King,
but it retained the privileges and rights of a sovereign State.
The Act of Union declared Norway to be " a free, indivisible,
and inalienable kingdom, united with Sweden under one
King." Have the terms of the Union been observed ? Most
outsiders would hold that they have, and the terms of respect
in which King Oscar is addressed by the decree of the Stor-
thing which deposed him, show that no blame can be attached
to his Majesty. The country has not suffered either in its
564 CURRENT EVENTS. [July,
material or intellectual interests. On the contrary, Norway has
increased in wealth and prosperity, and if it is not intelligent
it is its own fault. The only justification offered for a step
which must have many deplorable consequences is, in the first
place, a certain incompatibility of temper between the two
peoples who yet have a common stock, a common creed, and
a kindred tongue, and, in the second, the desire for absolute
independence. The Consular question was a pretext only, a
means to the end, and that end was the dissolution of the
Union.
As, however, the Norwegians are practically unanimous, and
as Sweden, although she feels great regret for the action of
Norway, yet will not attempt coercion by force, the separation
must be regarded as an accomplished fact. In making the
change the Norwegians had no wish to establish the Republican
form of government. In fact they showed their confidence in
their former King by asking him to nominate one of his own
family to the throne of Norway. This he will undoubtedly
refuse to do. In fact it is very doubtful whether any prince
will be willing to rule over such an independent race. It is
curious, in the light of these recent events, to recall Mr.
Gladstone's argument for Home Rule based on the experience
of Norway and Sweden. According to him the tie which
bound the two countries together had effected "not discord,
not convulsions, not hatred, not aversions, but a constantly
growing sympathy never to be broken." There is a saying to
the effect that the lack of wisdom o'f the rulers of mankind
is very remarkable. Perhaps the lack of knowledge of its self-
chosen guides may offer a parallel.
From California to Rome is a far
Italy. cry, and yet the most important
act yet taken by the King of
Italy is due to a citizen of that far- distant State. The King
has called a Conference of delegates from every civilized nation
to discuss the formation of a world-wide organization of agri-
culture. The idea of summoning this conference was derived,
as the King publicly acknowledges, from Mr. David Lubin,
who has made in California and elsewhere a study of the needs
of a class of workers the most numerous of all, and of the
1905.] CURRENT EVENTS. 565
disabilities under which they lie. The possibility of removing
those disabilities by a permanent international organization
seemed so feasible, and the advantages so great, that the in-
vitation has been accepted and the Conference has been held.
The results have not yet been published. It is interesting to
note that one of the delegates sent by the British Government
was at one time the Sub -Editor of the CATHOLIC WORLD.
The most important events which
France. have taken place in France have
already been mentioned the re-
jection by Morocco of the French plans for reform and the
resignation of M. Delcasse. For seven years this Foreign
Minister had remained in office, having seen some half-dozen
Premiers come and go. The services he had rendered to
France and to the peace of the world have been universally
recognized. When he took office the relations between France
and England were strained almost to the breaking point Italy
and France, as a consequence of Bismarck's policy, were es-
tranged. In fact France was practically isolated. As a result
of the treaties and understandings with various Powers which
M. Delcasse has negotiated, France has regained the position
which had been lost, and Germany has lost the leadership
which she had held so long. That it was due to the success
of Germany in Morocco that he resigned cannot be doubted ;
although other causes had their influence. Democracy does not
love distinction and other men were anxious to take his place.
M. Rouvier, the Premier, has succeeded him, relinquishing the
Ministry of Finance. It is understood that he is a warm sup-
porter of the Entente with England, and not quite so much
opposed to Germany as was M. Delcasse. At the present time
delicate and difficult negotiations are being carried on between
the three Powers, on the outcome of which peace or war de-
pends. The object of the German Emperor seems to be to
separate France from England and to effect a rapprochement
with the former. It is not likely, however, that he will suc-
ceed.
The Bill for the Separation of Church and State is still
being debated in the French Assembly. The discussion is,
566 CURRENT EVENTS. [July,
however, drawing to an end. After it has passed the Lower
House it will have to go through the Senate. It is not
yet known whether or not it will be radically altered. There
is, however, little anticipation of any great change being
made. If it becomes law the relations between Church and
State will be fundamentally changed. The provisions of the
Bill we now proceed to state with but little note or com-
ment. The Bill guarantees liberty of conscience with com-
plete freedom of worship. All restrictions which hamper any
religious body are removed. Magistrates in interpreting the
law must seek the solution most favorable to liberty of con
science and freedom of worship. The vital section of the Act
is the declaration that the Republic neither recognizes, nor
pays, nor supports, any form of worship. All expenses con-
nected with the exercise of public worship will disappear from
January I next from the budgets of the State and the Com-
munes. The Ministry of Public Worship will be suppressed.
The State will keep within its own sphere, which concerns the
things of earth alone. How little this is done is shown by
the enactment of penal regulations of several kinds. A priest
who celebrates a wedding before the civil ceremony has taken
place incurs punishment. The property of tfie Church is to
be transferred to the new Associations. No part of the Church
patrimony is to revert to the Treasury. The " Budget des
Cultes " is suppressed. This involves the loss by the Church
of the greater part of the sum of nine million dollars, which
has hitherto been voted every year, and which is in reality a
debt due to the Church for the confiscation of the Church
property secularized in 1789. The Bill, however, leaves to the
Church the greater part of the property, whether real or per-
sonal, acquired during the past century. Disputes about prop-
erty must be decided by the civil courts.
Pensions are provided, but on a very niggardly scale.
Those who have served for twenty-five years or more are en-
titled to life pensions ranged from $80 to $240 yearly. Other
ministers will receive, during four years, an annual sum
equal in the first year to the whole of their present salary,
but declining gradually to a third of that amount in the
fourth year, alter which they receive nothing. The Bill thus
practically throws upon the street some fifty thousand men
1905.] CURRENT EVENTS. 567
who are unadapted to any other career, and who had the right
to rely upon the State's fidelity to its contract. Such are the
tender mercies of Liberalism.
The sacred edifices of France are divided, under the Bill,
into two classes, those erected before, and those erected after,
the Concordat. The former group, which includes cathedrals,
churches, bishops' palaces, priests' houses, and seminaries, are
to become the property of the State or the Commune. The
new Associations will be allowed to use them without payment
for two years from the passing of the law. At the end of
that time the buildings will be let with 'the furniture to the
Associations for a term not exceeding ten years in the case of
churches and five years in that of houses. The rent to be
charged must not exceed ten per cent of the average annual
revenue of the establishments which have been suppressed un-
der the law. The expense of upkeep and insurance falls upon
the Associations, but State funds will be employed for restora-
tions on a large scale. When the first twelve or seven years
are complete, the State will have full liberty either to re-let
or to sell the property. That is to say, the cathedrals and
churches may become museums of art or warehouses, accord-
ing to the feelings dominant in the near future. The second
class of edifices, those, that is, built since the Concordat, re-
main the property of the various religious bodies, and must be
transferred to the Associations. Bishops' palaces and semina-
ries will be at the free disposal of the State after two years.
The Associations which will hold so important a place in
the administration of the new Act must, under its provisions,
consist of at least seven adult members, householders or resi-
dents in the parish. They are permitted to receive subscrip-
tions, offertories, and the money contributed for founding
Masses, etc. ; also pew-rents and funeral expenses. They are
forbidden to receive any subsidy from State or Commune,
with the exceptions of sums allotted for the structural repair
of churches. They may, under the provisions of the present
Bill, group themselves into unions and form central funds.
This was forbidden by M. Combes' Bill. The indefinite accu-
mulation of wealth is prevented by forbidding the Associations
to have mor than a fixed capital, calculated upon the yearly
requirements of the district or parish. They are compelled also
568 CURRENT EVENTS. [July.
to prepare a yearly balance sheet which may be inspected by
the Prefect.
The Bill gives still another proof of the respect for liberty
which animates those who call themselves Liberals. The Bill
contains many pages of Police Regulations, the general aim of
which is to keep politics out of the churches. Any minister
of religion who attacks public officials in his sermons, or at-
tempts to influence the electors, or to incite to illegal acts, is
punishable by fine or imprisonment. The Associations are
made responsible for the strict observance of these rules by the
clergy. Religious processions are forbidden ; bell-ringing is un-
der municipal control. Public worship may be held only in
places annually registered for that purpose, but gardens or
other spaces may be allotted for open-air services. Streets,
squares, and highways must be kept entirely clear.
For the above statement of the provisions of the Bill we
are indebted to the British Weekly. We have made use of it.
first on account of its excellence, and secondly because, being
made in a Protestant publication, it is not likely to be unduly
biased in favor of the Church. Comment upon the iniquity of
the projected law is not needed.' It is open and manifest.
THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION.
THE annual reception of the John Boyle O'Reilly Reading Circle was held
June 15, in the hall of the Catholic Union of Boston, Mr. F. B. Conlin,
president of that organization, presiding.
The guests of honor were the Rev. D. J. McMahon, D.D.; the Rev. D. J.
Hickey; the Rev William P. McQuaid and Rev. R. Nagle representing the
Catholic Summer School. For continuous success during many years this
Circle has been an incentive to many other workers in the Reading Circle
Movement. The excellent results secured must be attributed to the remark-
able unanimity among the members, and particularly to the able manage-
ment of the president, Miss Katherine E. Conway, whose books illustrate
her noble ideals of Catholic home life. The programme was brief, consist-
ing of the report of the Circle's work and addresses from distinguished
guests, interspersed with music.
* * *
Trinity College, at Washington, D. C., should furnish many leaders of
the intellectual movement for self-improvement represented by the numerous
Reading Circles in large cities and small towns. At the closing exercises
recently the Rev. John T. Creagh, D.D., of the Catholic University, ably
demonstrated the necessity of soul-culture as well as brain- culture for the
individual ; and that the rights to the satisfaction of the nobler yearnings
which spur the human soul are not the peculiar prerogative of any sex or
condition of mankind. Woman, too, knows high desires for intellectual
and spiritual betterment.
She may hope, as well as man, for the fullest delights of scholarship. If
there be degrees in education, its every degree should be hers according to
her needs and opportunities. Made, as truly as man, to the image and like-
ness of God, with a mind to perceive and a heart to appreciate all that has
been discovered of inspiring truth, she may walk the ways of learning
untrammeled by any sense of incapacity or unfitness. She has no lack of
equipment for intellectual pursuits. When admitted to competition with her
brethren, she does more than demonstrate an absence of mental inleriorily.
She is acknowledged to have a special aptness for teaching, and teaching
surely demands a thorough intellectual preparation. And if we admit that
inestimable benefit and elevation of soul come from converse with great
minds and from communion with high truths, woman, even more than mar,
should be deemed worthy of the fullest opportunities for enlightenment, and
her desires for knowledge should be given freest scope for realization, since
she furnishes our souls their first instruction in goodness and greatness of life.
This certainly is the mind of the Church, speaking through her latest dis-
cipline. She regards with approval the modern spirit which prompts woman
to sound the depths of learning, she encourages the opening of schools for the
higher education of women, she recommends her daughters to take advantage
of the courses offered in such schools. Great as is the latitude which we
Catholics have in many of our judgments regarding womanly activity, we
should be of one mind on the matter of Education. Woman, who has always
been regarded by Christianity as the privileged heir of honor and blessing,
570 THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. I July,
and as peculiarly adapted to exemplify the fullest perfection of the Christian
life, must not be denied the right to realize one of the fairest aspirations of
that life.
But neither the Church nor woman herself would hold that the knowledge
of Latin or Greek, of science or philosophy, is woman's most perfect ornament,
or the all-sufficient means of dignifying the sex and accomplishing its true
mission. If it be necessary to teach the worth and sacredness of life to men,
to encourage their longings for the fulness of soul perfection, if generosity and
sacrifice be necessary, not only for man's individual well-being but for the
safety of society, who cannot see that for woman the need of such teaching
will be doubly urgent, since she, much more than man, lives not for herself
alone, since her rank in society depends altogether on her qualities of sou),
and since her power for good or for evil transcends immeasurably that of men.
Is it not of supreme importance to lead woman toward the heights of life,
to open to her vision life's fairer beauties, to sustain her in her natural striv-
ings for all that gives grace and honor and beauty to human nature? She is
the greatest of social influences; her power is greater than that of man; her's
is the finer and more effective power of heart and soul. It has often been said,
and truly, that most of -vhat is worthily done by man is accomplished under
the influence of woman. The sacred name of Mary and her gracious sway
over our minds reminds us how true this is even in the supernatural order.
Woman's example and love move where naught else is effectual. She has the
divinely given ability to sense the beauty of the purest and noblest causes
when man is dull and unresponsive. Her finer sensibilities make her devotion
to a principle more hearty and more persevering and more disinterested. On
each generation she acts through that all-powerful mother-love which gives to
the young soul its earliest and longest-remembered lessons, which pleads irre-
sistibly with the strongest passion, which lives as a power for good when even
religion can no longer persuade. God himself on earth saw fit to obey her
and to defer to her. He has made her dignity and influence a corner stone in
the temple of his religion ; a man must recognize them to be a foundation of
society. Let woman's influence be exerted aright, and all will be well for the
family and for the State; let her turn her allegiance to evil and sin and vul-
garity, and general ruin is imminent. She can subvert or she can save society.
What folly it is to speak of equalizing the sexes ; of opening every field
of activity to woman ! She is not destined by nature or by religion to be the
equal of man, nor to do those ruder tasks from which God has saved her by
making her not an equal but a queen, with queenly dignity and queenly
power and queenly privileges.
Not the equality of woman with man, but the maintenance in her of the
real causes of her dignity and power and superiority must be the ideal of
those who would have God's all-wise plan find its full fruition. She must be
carefully trained to keep alive her love for all that is true and good and beau-
tiful in life. Her virtue is the keystone ot society; her sense of duty and
honor and right is reflected in every home ; her unselfishness and devotion
and correctness of view are our safeguard against social shipwreck.
It is the great glory of Trinity College that at a time when the soul's
most urgent needs are exposed to general forgetfulness, she has assured
woman of influences which will lead infallibly to all that is best and most
1905.] THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 571
desirable in womanly life and character; and the great consolation of her
graduates must be that while others have to hear what a school should be,
they can be told what their school is. Here is a pleasant shelter in the desert
of modern life where souls are refreshed and strengthened by the waters of
wisdom as well as those of knowledge; where each moment brings its high
inspiration and ils noble impulse, and where each day marks a growth from
power to power, an approximation to the divine ideal on which rests the
approving judgment of God and man. Here all high desires find fulfilment;
here, in answer to your prayers, you receive in its fulness the spirit of wis-
dom. Here modesty and virtue, unselfishness and heroism, reverence for
truth and duty, are not left to chance, or to college spirit, or to human
respect, or to the unreliable development of an aesthetic sense of right, but
are made the prime, explicit object of the endeavors of both teachers and
students. Here the young soul advances in wisdom and age and grace with
God and men.
This high ideal of an advanced education for women is now assured of a
concrete reality in Trinity College, at Washington ; St. Angela's College, at
New Rochelle, N. Y. ; and at St. Elizabeth's College, Convent Station, N. J.
Reports from these three institutions indicate satisfactory progress within the
past year.
*
The Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte, of Baltimore, recently appointed a mem-
ber of the cabinet by President Roosevelt, delivered an address at Trinity Col-
ledge, after the conferring of the degrees, in which he affirmed the right of
corporal punishment as applied by the mother in the home circle. He spoke
in part as follows :
Know thyself was a precept of well-nigh boundless utility for the ancient
Greek; it is no whit less suited to the American of to-day, and you may per-
haps spend a few minutes fruitfully in the attempt to practically apply it, or,
in other words, to find out, if you can, what you are, and more especially what
you have now become when about to leave the sheltering walls of your Alma
Mater.
In a little address which I delivered sometime since to an association of
ladies, I pointed out that it was a feature of our Christian civilization to com-
mit those principles of thought and action which we hold really essential to
our welfare to the guardianship of our women ; in other words, when all the
women of a country such as ours firmly and practically believe something to
be true, we find its truth recognized as vital in the laws, the manners, and the
accepted standards of feeling and conduct of the entire community. I have
called this a feature of Christian civilization because it is not found in a Ma-
hometan or a Buddhist or, to-day, in any non-Christian society ; but some-
thing of the sort existed in the better days of Spartan and Roman history,
when, as with us, it was understood that mothers are pointed out by nature
as the first and best teachers for whatever all must learn, and that no one can
teach what he or she does not believe. What we never forget, we have been
taught by our mothers ; respect for maternal authority is the germ of all the
virtues of a citizen and of a soldier, and mamma's slipper constitutes a sanction
for law and public order in the domestic community which realizes the well-
nigh hopeless ideals of penologists for the community at large. No other
572 THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. [July,
form of punishment ever devised by man has proved one-half so effective,
whether as a deterrent to law-breakers or as an agency of reformation. In
short, it is quite safe to say that the only schools which can or will make
Americans worthy of their country's greatness and consequent responsibilities
must b: in the future, as they have been in the past, schools of the fireside,
with mothers as their principals.
Will the mothers of to-morrow in our country be worthy principals for
such schools? Will the typical American woman of this century fulfil our
hopes and prove equal to her duties ? It is for you, young ladies, to answer
that question ; that woman will be what you make her, her traits will be a
composite photograph for all those who each year go forth from halls like
these equipped to bear the burdens, to justify the dignity, of womanhood.
If there be aught unworthy in the picture, anything mean and repulsive in the
features it shows to the world, no small measure of responsibility will rest on
the colleges where American girls are trained for the labors and duties of life.
This is not the time, I am not the person, to discuss in what branches of
learning such institutions shall perfect their pupils; already this is a serious
problem and, as the bounds of science rapidly widen before our eyes, it grows
daily more difficult of solution. I leave it to those better able than I am to
cope with its perplexities.
*
Mother Ellen Griffin White, of the Society of the Sacred Heart, died on
May 30, in the Convent, where she had taken the veil more than forty years
before. Mother White was a daughter of the late Judge James White, of New
York City, and like her mother, Rhoda White, the author, and her sisters,
the late Jenny C. White del Bal, Janet Edmonson Walker, late of Boston, now
of Berkeley, Cal., and Lucy C. Lillie, was a woman of marked literary and
artistic ability. She had also the administrative gift, and had successfully filled
the office of Mother Superior at the convents in Rochester, N. Y., Elmhurst,
Providence, R. I., and London, Ont., building a fine new school and chapel
in the place last named. She was a niece of Gerald Griffin, the famous Irish
poet, novelist, and dramatist.
A woman of great personal charm, she made warm friends of her pupils
everywhere, and her death is much deplored by her sisters in religion. Her
excellent work for the encouragement of Reading Circles was known only to
those who came directly within the sphere of her personal influence. Miss
Ellen H. Walworth, of Albany, has written the following touching tribute to
her memory :
The lovers of Indian lore well know that the green and pleasant valley
mentioned in Longfellow's "Hiawatha," is the valley of the Normanskill, just
South of Albany. No less an authority than Schoolcraft gives us the meaning
of the word Tawasentha, which just precedes that beautiful line. It signifies
the Place of Many Dead. There the Indians had a burial pit lined with rich
furs, where the bones of Mohawk heroes were treasured. There in mournful
cadence they have chanted the long roll of Iroquois chiefs, beginning with
Hiawatha's name, and gone through other rites and ceremonies of the con-
doling council.
The silent Indian no longer dwells by those pleasant water courses, but
the no less noiseless tread of cloistered nuns presses on leaf and twig in their
1905.] THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 573
old trail alongside a tiny water course up, up, close to its source under the
Kenwood trees; and thence, near Rosary Alley, turning with a sweeping
curve to the upper river terrace of old Hudson, their footfalls cease as they
whisper the De Profundis near a rustic calvary. There on the North side of
the silent valley the arms of a tall cross stretch over a newer and a Christian
burial place. There, too, are many names and dates in white painted letters
on plain black iron crosses, marking the graves of holy nuns. And down
under the rolling hills below the convent, South by Westward, tosses the
cataract of Norman's Creek, chanting a perpetual requiem.
Just at the end of May time of this year, 1905, the sun shone brightly
among the trees, whilst Mother Ellen White, a wise and learned woman, a
true-hearted daughter of New York State, was laid lovingly to rest in that
peaceful spot. About the grave stood her cloistered sisters in an open square,
each bearing a candle, thrice ten and more of them with well-trimmed lights,
ready for the Bridegroom's coming whenever it may be. A hearse stood at
the gate, but no carriages. Only the dead are driven on wheels to this ceme-
tery. Up the winding path from the convent chapel others must go afoot.
The happy schoolgirls, gathered in great circles at their sewing hour, plying
their needles deftly and listening to entrancing stories read aloud by sweet-
voiced comrades, were all unaware of the solemn cortege that had formed
and slowly issued from the noviciate wing of the building, and was soon lost
to view among the trees. They had only heard of Mother White as a patient
invalid.
But to an earlier generation at Kenwood, her's was a name to make the
eye sparkle and the blood bound. How she was loved by her Third English
Class ! How they worked over their compositions and letters to win her
smile of approval, and the promised story from her eloquent lips! How they
wept when she left them to become superior of the Convent of the Sacred
Heart at Rochester, N. Y. What a treat, later, to hear her recount her con-
versation with the cloistered daughter of the Count de Montalembert at Paris,
whither she went to a reunion of the superiors of her order.
A highly gifted mind, sanctity, and the warmest of warm hearts gave
Mother White a host of friends. Among them were the daughters and other
relatives of Horace Greeley, Clevelands, Hoyts, Schuylers, Van Rensselaers,
and many a Van besides were in its list. Her aunt, Madam Kate White, was
well known as an author of text-books in the domain of Belles-Lettres. They
came of a family belonging to the Irish gentry, some of whom moved early to
America, not so much to seek as to spend a fortune. They settled at Silver
Lake, N. Y., and loving our land remained to serve it, in and outof Congress,
and to become bone and sinew of its wholesome patriotism, in the West as in
the East, even into far California.
The last task of Mother Ellen White, before her magnificient energy
gathered its waning forces for the final struggle of all the maintenance of
patience amid pain was in the cause of science. She labelled and arranged
the new museum of Manhattanville Convent in the departments of geology,
mineralogy, and ethnology, during the course of the past year.
White was her name, and white was her record. Clear was her soul as
the crystal sea before the great white throne; and the eve of Ascension Day
was a fit time for her burial. ~ M. C. M.
BOOKS RECEIVED.
BKNZIGER BROTHERS, New York:
Introduction to English Literature. By Arnold Harris Mathew. Revised by Very Rev.
W. A Sutton, S.J. Pp. 412. Price $1.25. English Monastic Life. By Abbot Gas-
quet, O.S.B., D.D. Pp.326. Price $2 net. Fhe Race Jor Copper Island. By Rev.
H. S. Spalding, S.J. Pp. 206. Price $1.85. A Daughter of Kings. By Katharine
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Village Life in Palestine. By G. Robinson Lees. Pp. 236. Price $1.25 Song s and
Poems. By Lizzie Twigg. Pp. 74. Price 60 cents. Homeric Study. By Henry
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Life of John Knox. By Andrew Lang. Pp. 274. Price $350. Lynch Law. By
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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, New York :
Sturmsee. Man and Man. By the author of Calmire. Pp 682.
THE CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY, Chicago, 111. :
The Church in the Philippines. By Captain William H. Johnston. Pp. 31. Paper.
Napoleon's Divorce. By Rev. Reuben Parsons. Pp. 15. Paper.
O'SHEA & Co., New York:
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GINN & Co , Boston:
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Price 45 cents.
FR. PUSTET & Co., New York :
The Crux of Pastoral Medicine. By Andrew Klarmann. Pp. 162.
THE AVE MARIA PRESS, Notre Dame, Ind. :
A Story of Fifty Years. From the Annals of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy
Cross. 1855-1905. Pp. 214.
REV. J. L. CAMPBELL, Green Creek, Idaho :
Missionary Ramblings in Texas. Parti. Pp. 61. Paper.
A. M CLELAND, Northern Pacific Railway, St. Paul, Minn. :
Wonderland 1905 . By Olin D. Wheeler. Pp. 120. Six cents.
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE, Philadelphia, Pa. :
Child Labor. Consisting of a number of addresses on the subject made at the annual
meeting of the National Child Labor Committee. Price $1.25.
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, Washington, D. C. :
Reports of the Departments of the Interior. 1903. Vol.11. Pp. 2,511.
INVESTIGATION COMMITTEE, Davenport, Iowa:
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PRIEST'S TOTAL ABSTINENCE LEAGUE OF AMERICA:
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THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR VISITING CATHOLIC PRISONERS. P. O. Box 15, Philadel-
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30. Paper.
THE CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY, Ireland :
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VICTOR LECOFFRE. Paris:
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Paper. Etudes D Histoire et de Thtologie Positive. Par Pierre Battifol. Pp. 388.
Lourdes, Apparitions, and Guerisons. Par George Bertrin. Pp. 558. Price $fr. 75.
PLON-NOURRIT ET CIE, Paris:
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Par Le"on Lefe"bure. Pp. 350. Let Principes. La Divinite du Christ. Pp. 420. Price
Sfr. 50.
THE
CATHOLIC WORLD.
VOL. LXXXI. AUGUST, 1905. No. 485.
RACE SUICIDE IN FRANCE.
BY J. C. MONAGHAN,
Chief of the Division of Consular Reports, Bureau of Manufactures,
Department Commerce and Labor.
'EITHER frenzied finance nor the question of labor
is so critical a problem for our statesmen as
those that now confront the French republic.
And the difficulties in France, due to the ex-
pulsion of religious orders and to the deporta-
tion of monks and nuns, are as nothing to the problems con-
nected with the constant depopulation of the country. To the
Frenchmen of Bordeaux, Lyons, Marseilles, Paris, or Havre,
the people beyond the borders of Alsace and Lorraine, adding
nearly a million a year to their sixty millions, are as a night-
mare. Moltke's remark that " Germany's birthrate is the best
guarantee of her permanent position as a great power " giving
her the equivalent of an annual battle gained over her watch-
ful rival is one of those gruesome and grim sayings that
have sunk deep into the French heart and mind. In 1800
Europe had 98,000,000 inhabitants. Of these France numbered
26,000,000; in 1900 France had 38,000,000 out of Europe's
total of 343,000,000. In other words, the republic's relative
position was far below what it had been at the beginning of
1800; for, instead of having 26 per cent of Europe's popula-
tion, it had only 1 1 per cent.
While it is true that the French language is still the lan-
guage of a large part of polite society throughout the world,
and is likely to continue to be such for some time, it is no
longer popular among the world's masses. To-day 45,000,000
Copyright. 1905. THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE
IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
VOL. LXXXI. 37
576 RACE SUICIDE IN FRANCE. [Aug.,
speak French; 100,000,000 German; and 150,000,000 English;
and the last two are rapidly increasing. It is even doubtful
that French will again be the language most widely used in
science, society, and literature.
In 1850 France had a little more than thirty-five million
souls (35,260,000); in 1900, 38,961,000, an increase in fifty
years of 3,701,000; Great Britain had 27,369,000 in 1850,
41,484,000 in 1900, a gain of 14,115,000. Germany's population
jumped from 35,397,000 in 1850, to 56,345,000 in 1900, a gain
of 29,948,000 ; to-day it is beyond the 60,000,000 limit. Aus-
tria-Hungary had 30,727,000 in 1850, 45,314,000 in 1900, a
gain of 14,587,000. Russia had 66,714,000 in 1850, and 128,-
893,000 in 1900, gain, 60,183,000. Italy had 23,617,000 in 1850,
32,450,000 in 1900, a gain of 8,833,000. In the case of Great
Britain, Germany, Austria, and Italy, these are normal figures
rather than normal growths. One is hardly justified in cdm-
paring them with American and Australian figures, for these
have been largely influenced by enormous tides of immigration.
For example, the present tide pouring into the United States
brings nearly a million a year.
The best way to get at what is bad or good in the French
system is by going back to the very beginning, or at least far
enough back to get beyond the waves of what the world calls
modern thought and civilization, both of which have been in-
fluenced by modern materialistic philosophy. In 1698 France
had 38 per cent of Europe's population, or something like
nineteen or twenty millions ; less than a hundred years later,
in 1787, she had 26,000,000; but of these a million or more
were added by the annexation of Lorraine, in 1766, and of
Corsica two years later. The natural, normal increase, due to
the people's virility and virtue, was large also. The atmosphere
of France beyond the borders of the Court was healthy. The
home was still the hearthstone of as manly men as ever fol-
lowed the banners of Bayard, Louis IX., or the white plume
of Navarre. As late as 1850, France held first place in point
of population among European states. After that the down-
ward tendency is rapid. First in 1850, she was sixth in 1900.
Even Italy, at the present rate of increase in the peninsular
kingdom, will surely eclipse France. The increase per thousand
in the leading countries of Europe is indicated by the follow-
ing graphic figures for five decades. France for the decades
1905.] RACE SUICIDE IN FRANCE. 577
beginning 1850 increased 93, 123, 130, 73, and 46, respectively;
England 156, 256, 340, 285, and 375; Germany, 235, 307,442,
419,692; Austria-Hungary 181, 304, 180, 548, 394; Italy, 108,
178, 1 66, 200, 200. In 1899 the excess of births in France,
over deaths, was 31,321 ; in England, 422,156; Germany, 795,-
107 it is now (1905) nearly a million; Austria-Hungary
530,806; Italy, 385,165. In 1900 the excess in France was
nearly 20,330, while in all the others a normal increase is re-
corded. Is it any wonder then that French thinkers are call-
ing attention to the fact that the republic is weak in one of
its vital parts ? Consul Haynes quotes a lawyer who talks of
his country being eaten by a deadly canker which is consum-
ing its influence, its powers to expand, and its brilliancy, little
by little, until, if things go on as they have been going, from
bad to worse, France will count no longer in the councils of
Europe. I can see a day not so very far away, if matters
continue as they have done for years, when the Germans will
have spread from the Baltic to the Pyrenees, and from the
Rhine to the English Channel. Slowly, surely, irresistibly, the
race that gave a name to Northern Italy (Lombardy), and a
name to Northern France (Normandy), are penetrating into the
interior of France. The tide takes on greater and greater pro-
portions as it grows. Glacier-like, it is becoming more and
more irresistible. Unless France reforms, or God interposes in
her behalf, Paris is to pay tribute to Berlin.
That the family is fundamental nobody knows better than
the French. There are few Frenchmen foolish enough to deny
the need of a virile and virtuous race if perpetuation is to be
possible. Foresters, for a long time, foolishly led legislators
to believe that the forests of Europe might be saved by the
planting of a tree for each tree cut down. To-day the
educated, scientific forester knows that if a forest is not to
perish, not one, but many trees must be planted for every
tree cut down. The same is true of families. Two, even
three or four, children in the family will not save it, if the
purpose is merely to save. Calculations of that kind are not
based upon virtue, and where there is no virtue there will be
little or no virility. Even the four and a half children to a
family, of the world's learned physiologists, will not save
society, unless behind the four we have the good old whole-
some virtues for which mathematics and Malthusian methods
578 RACE SUICIDE IN FRANCE. [Aug.,
of regulation of populations are no substitute. Of the 10,845,-
247 families in France in 1900, 1,808,839, or 16.68 per cent
had no children. Nearly 2,000,000 families in France child-
less ! Is it any wonder that men like Beaulieu, Neymark,
Guyot,; and before them Lavergne, are alarmed? Of those
10,845,247 families 2,638,752, or 24.33 P er cent, had but one
child each, 2,397,259, or 21.94 P er cent, had two children,
I 593>387, or T 4-69 per cent, three each, 984,162, or 9.07 per
cent, four each, 584,582, 5.39 per cent, five, 331,640, 3.06
per cent, six, 287,771, or 2.67 per cent, seven, and the re-
mainder, 234,855, 2.17 per cent, an unknown number.
There is something suggestive, even significant, in the
French laws of 1666 that provided a pension of $386 (2,000
francs), the equivalent of considerably more than a $1,000 of
to-day's money, to each family of 12 children, and $190
to each family of six children. Did the French kings and
statesmen of that day discern the germ of the evil that is
now destroying France ? It would seem as if some far-
seeing philosopher had gained the ear of the king. Was it
Bossuet? Had it come a little latter than 1666 one might
suspect Fenelon. Both were great men. Both were far-
sighted. Both were wise and virtuous. In modern times the
first vigorous word of warning came from Lavergne. It came
when the census of 1856 had revealed a state of affairs for
which even the most pessimistic were far from prepared. For
some years, preceding 1846, the annual average increase had
been 200,000 ; from '46 to '56 it had fallen to 60,000. The
best men in France, even its philosophers, began to be
alarmed.
In 1882, a German, Grad, compared the population move-
ments in France and in Germany for the period 1820-1880.
He found that France had increased to 36,000,000, from
30,000,000, while Germany leaving out Alsace and Lorraine
had increased from 26,000,000 to 42,000,000. According to
Herr Grad, Russia required only 50 years to double its popu-
lation, Norway and Sweden 53 years, England and Prussia 55,
Belgium 79, Italy 84, Spain 104, Austria no, France 183. It
was undoubtedly this evidence of weakness, figures like those
of the German, that led Bertillon, one of the ablest of French
scientists to cry out : " Our country is threatened with an ir-
redeemable loSs. The sterility of French marriage threatens
1905.] RACE SUICIDE IN FRANCE. 579
to relegate France to an obscure corner of the Anglo-Saxon
world."
Of literary leaven, there has been, God knows, enough.
The republic reeks with the rottenest of literature. Apart
from the vile things of Zola, Maupassant, and Flaubert, the
erotic works of Loti, there has been a flood of literature so
vile and vicious that the whole vocabulary of French argot
or slang and the lingual powers of the republic's gamins,
could hardly characterize it. The republic is reaping what it
sowed. To-day France is flooded with a literature that is ex-
pected to stem the tide. It is Canute and his courtiers, or
Mrs. Partington and her broom again. French engineers, by
planting alder on the banks of torrential streams in the Alps
of Southern France, and by building dams of carefully selected
and carefully constructed masonry in the same hills, have con-
trolled waters that hitherto had washed away vast wealth and
ravaged vineyards. They have reforested denuded lands on the
mountain sides and along the shore, saving vast regions to the
republic, ravaged formerly by the winds that swept them with
sands. Will the economic and sociologic engineers, or wise
men do as much to obviate the dangerous and destructive
winds and waters that are sweeping French society from its
feet, undermining French family life, the very foundations of
the republic? "What is to become of France, the great
nation?" is being asked by the best blood in the republic, for
there is a best blood, that which runs red and true to the
virility and virtues of the France of a Bayard or a Louis IX.
Remedial legislation in the forms of bills has been submitted,
discussed, and passed. But when, in human history, was any
people, or a part of any people, legislated into virtue ? Debate
after debate has been held inside and outside the walls of
Parliament, but all to no purpose. The cancer remains eating,
is ever eating, its way into the vitals of the country. Societies
have been formed for the purpose of concerted effort to stay
the tide, everything that the imagination of man, the fancy of
woman, the experience of the past suggested, except the good
old-fashioned virtue which is the best guarantee of virility, has
been tried ; in other words, every remedy but the one that
right reason demands has been employed. The population is
practically standing still.
In 1896 an organization known as the "National Alliance
580 RACE SUICIDE IN FRANCE. [Aug.,
for Increasing the Population of France " was founded. Its
purpose is to point out the dangers threatening France from
the indifference of its children. It hopes to help by the intro-
duction of fiscal or other measures to augment the number of
births. Just what the " other " measures are to be does not
appear ; but nobody believes that any fiscal measures will save
society. The Alliance calls attention to the facts: First, "That
France is on the way to become a third-class power." As if
the question of the position occupied by a people had, or should
have, anything to do with its virtue or the practice thereof.
It would be hard to indicate the class to which Switzerland
belongs as a world power; but its place, by virtue of its
people's sturdy and lusty virility, is well towards the top of
any European classification. The Alliance says : Second, "That
this tendancy, to become a third-class power, is due to a di-
minished birth-rate." Third, " It is the duty of every man to
contribute to the perpetuity of his country as much as it is to
defend it." This is a novel but a natural kind of patriotism.
Fourth, " To bring up a child is to subject oneself to a form
of taxation." Fifth, "To subject oneself sufficiently to such
taxation each family should rear at least three children."
Why three ? Here is the hopeless mathematics of all this
French philosophy about families, family life, population, and
depopulation. The key to it all is virtue, virility, and every
honest effort to get as many children as can be begotten,
in lawful wedlock, by healthy, honest parents. Anything
less than this will be weakening ; any artificial interference
based on three or thirty- three will end in disaster. The
republic must go back to the sturdy virtues of the France that
bred children for the love of God and the glory of Christ.
The Alliance goes on to say : Sixth, " That families with more
than three children should be free from taxation." It is this
topsy-turvy way of measuring the whole question of life,
family, and population by the dollar and cent, franc and cen-
time standard, that is playing havoc with the home life of the
world. Wherever it is introduced death ensues. Seventh, says
the Alliance, "The laws of inheritance and the methods of di-
viding property should be modified, since the present laws,
based as they are on compulsory division, contribute much to
what is called paternal egotism." It seems to me much more
like paternal egoism. It is perhaps a little of both. The
1905.] RACE SUICIDE IN FRANCE. 581
Alliance says : Eighth and lastly, " Iniants should be pro-
tected in order to diminish the mortality of the new-born."
How? When? Where? Under what kind of conditions?
Normal and natural, or abnormal and unnatural ? Under
virtuous, virile conditions, or under vicious, effeminate, or
articificial conditions ? I am far from opposing the Alliance.
Any effort that has for its purpose the resuscitation and
perpetuation of a great people, like the French, must not
be ridiculed. I admire the spirit of the Alliance. It has
worked day in and day out for nearly ten years. In 1900
it caused the whole question to be carried into the French
Senate, where it was discussed for days. As a result the
Senate sent out a committee to study the subject, to give
hearings, to collect evidence, etc. In 190.2 this committee went
back to the Senate laden down with material. The amazed
and frightened senators sent out another, larger coir mitt 6 e in
1902, with instructions to go into the "momentous" question
quite exhaustively. This committee has been meeting from
time to time, but has, as yet, no definite report to offer.
Nobody doubts the ability or the desire of French senators to
size up a situation such as the vice-condemned have built up
and the absence of virility and virtue has augmented, but
how many children do French senators and representatives of
the people in the French Assembly average themselves? How
many children will one find in the families that are forcing
France to be false to the past?
Only the mocking laugh of a Voltaire could arouse the
French people to a full realization of their danger. In assigning
causes for the constant tendancy towards deterioration in French
family life, all kinds of theories prevail. A popular one is the
weakness of religious convictions, the failure, in millions of
families, to practice the sturdy virtues of the past. Possibly
this will appeal to all those who, after carelul investigation,
find the old-fashioned families of 10, 12, or 14 persons in those
parts of the republic that have retained the practice of their
religious duties. While it is apparently true that Normandy
and Burgundy are the most prosperous parts of the republic,
it re just as true that Brittany, Auvergne, Aveyron, and other
steady, solid, virtuous, and virile parts, are the most fecund,
/'. e., have the largest families. I said apparently most pros-
perous. I used the word "apparently" advisedly. What is
582 RACE SUICIDE IN FRANCE. [Aug.,
meant by prosperity ? Are the people of vast wealth in
France or in this republic the most prosperous people of
France or of the United States ? I doubt it. Prosperity is a
word that will bear many interpretations. One fact that stands
out in all the discussions about depopulation, degeneracy, etc.,
etc., in France is this : that the parts of France that are faith-
ful to the traditions of the ancient religion, and to the tradi-
tions of the old French families, have large families. Atheists,
freethinkers, and all those who are opposed to the Catholic
Church, rail against that religion because, forsooth, they be-
lieve it to be unfavorably disposed to the repopulation of France,
because it tends towards mysticism, advocates the celibacy
of the priests, religious orders, etc., etc. How about Italy,
Spain, Bavaria, and Baden ? These are sad and silly asser-
tions ; they are anything but arguments. Material prosperity
is made to do service for those who fail to find anything along
the saner and safer lines followed by those who never ignore
the mighty forces of religion and heredity as well as those of
environment. Let us have the full equation, every factor.
Let none be left out. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth !
Economic absurdities are made to take the place of actual
facts, because prejudice precludes clearness of vision. Tenden-
cies, we are told, are laws; and the word law is applied to a
heterogeneous mass of muddy, meaningless theories. Agricul-
tural and industrial crises, we are told, have their influence upon
population. Of course they have, but to what extent ? Does a
family diminish its strength in its struggle for existence, does it
wisely diminish its expenses by curtailing the number of little
ones that it allows to enter its fold? We are told that it
does. If this is so, how about all the economic heresy of the
past ? How about Evolution ? May not the crises be caused
by a decrease in the number of children? Will not a father
of six children work harder, longer, and better, etc., for his
little flock than a man who has no little ones? And will not
the work of such a man mean more to society than the work
of the man who shirks the responsibilities of paternity ? Will
it not add more to its material prosperity ? Will not such
citizens be a nation's best guarantee against the vicissitudes
of financial crises, and the still sterner vicissitudes of war?
Paternal selfishness, the egoism referred to above, is put down
1905.] RACE SUICIDE IN FRANCE. 583
by some as a cause. It is said that certain fathers, who
would have been able to get along nicely with one or two
children, take artificial means to limit the number of arrivals
in their family circle, thus debasing themselves physically, and
prostituting the home. Another specious, but dangerous
doctrine is advanced by those who oppose to the foregoing
what they call the more profound and generous sentiment,
" paternal love, which prefers one child, well clad, to six or
eight in rags." Again I ask an explanation of this absurd
and heretical economics. As a matter of fact, the families
that are smaller are the ones, 999 times in a 1,000, that are
best able to clothe little ones, were they allowed to come.
One writer tells us that the present financial condition of
France, necessitating, as it does, heavy taxes, outweighs, in a
majority of cases, paternal love. By leading men to disobey
the injunction to "increase and multiply," it leads them to
prefer one or two children, and it has led France to a prob-
lematical, hypothetical poverty. This writer tells us that
France has a public debt of $6,000,000,000 ; but Alfred Ney-
mark, in a most elaborate, able, and convincing series of
papers, shows France to be better off, financially, in spite of
her enormous debt, than any other European State. Then,
again, what answer shall be given to those economists who
claim that eminence in debt in no way debars a people from
eminence in prosperity, or those other scientists who say
emigration offers evidence of a people's condition ? The fact
of the matter is society has yet to solve, scientifically, a great
many questions which now, as formerly, are left to empiricists
and charlatans. Figures offered to help us understand the
French crises, and its problems of population, are as mislead-
ing as any ever put forth to bolster up a political or economic
theory. "In 1874," says one writer, "after the liquidation of
the war of 1870, the ordinary expenses of the government
amounted to $493,000,000; twenty-six years later, all years of
peace, they were $682,641,000, an addition of $189,641,000."
The average annual budget increase for the last twenty-five
years was $7,000,000. Besides, France, with her 36,000,000
people, is said to support the biggest budget in the world,
but she has the biggest debt. Again, as Mr. Neymark points
out, if not in so many words, at least by inference, France is
better able to bear her budget, big as it is, than are many
whose budgets, even relatively, are much smaller. France is
584 RACE SUICIDE IN FRANCE, [Aug.,
regarded as the richest country in Europe ; certainly in conti-
nental Europe. If the tide of emigration tells the story, she
certainly is.
The net interest on the public debt of France, in 1874,
was $190,105,000. To-day, by the transformation of stocks,
$20,844,000 were taken off, still the total to-day is $223,000,-
ooo. But is not the France of 1905 better able to bear the
burden of $223,000,000 than the France of 1874 was to bear
that of $190,105,000? I dislike comparisons; but the history
of our own budget will occur to many, and will be the best
answer to those who object to increased expenditures in
France, or seek to solve the problem of depopulation of the
country by reference thereto. I can hardly connect, as some
writers do, " the lagging wheels of industry in France," " small
profits," etc., etc., with the burden of taxation. What I mean
is that they, the lagging wheels and small profits, are not
entirely, nor in any very great degree, due to taxes. To
quote Neymark again, the burden of the French debt is held
at home. Almost all the interest is paid to the French people.
Enormous sums also are paid to the French people by Russia
and other countries. I have seen it stated somewhere that
Russia holds at least $2,000,000,000 borrowed from France.
Taxes ! France, it is true, is taxed heavily, and I am not sure
that it is not taxed, in many cases, very unwisely. But we
must look elsewhere for the cause of lagging wheels and small
profits. The history of Germany since 1871 will suggest some
of the causes. There is a poll tax, it is true, a rent or in-
come tax, dog tax, land tax, vehicle tax, door and window
tax, octroi tax besides customs duties affecting foods and life's
various necessities. In 1876 the average per capita tax in
France was $15.25, in 1902 it was $18.50. If departmental
and communal taxes are added, the total is fully $25. In
Russia, the average is $7.14, in England $9.65, in Italy $10.04,
in Germany $11.19, in Austria $12.35. Have we here the so-
lution of the population problem; or of the lagging wheels
and small profits ? By no means. These taxes do not turn
parents from the delights of parentage; nor discourage mar-
riage and maternity. All these are infinitesimal compared with
the awful want of the simpler virtues summed up in the lives
of the saintly peasants that lived for and in the love of that
God whose words well worth heeding were, " increase and
multiply." France needs to return to the bed-rock of the
1905.] RACE SUICIDE IN FRANCE. 585
virtues inspired by the religion from which she is turning.
By some, military service is supposed to be responsible for
much of the indifference to marriage and parentage. Mr.
Yves Guyot, one of the ablest statesmen in France, a man
who was once Minister of Public Works, says: "The military
service is one of the chief elements in the causes underly-
ing the falling off in the population of France." In another
place he says, referring to primogeniture, which prevails still
in some parts of France :
The eldest son inherits the land, such as it is. There
will be no fear of having to share it with others, no danger
of its being divided. The heir finds himself in a position
equal to that of his parents. This is a dream of all good
French parents, and they are numerous. Their intention
is to protect their children against all the contingencies
of life. The child is brought up to hate and to fear com-
petition. He thinks a great deal more of his position, al-
ready acquired and that he is born into, than of any posi-
tion he might win for himself. When, later, he marries, he
takes to wife another acquired position, he must have a
"dot," a fortune that will enable him to keep up his
proper position and rank in the world. Such as these
think more of conserving than of acquiring, of keeping what
they have inherited than of striving after anything farther.
They take fright easily, and stand in dread of anything
that might compromise them. Protected by their parents,
when young, they demand protection from the State when
they are grown up. They become landowners, magistrates,
officers. They will receive modest salaries, but their future
is assured, and they will have a retreat or pension ready
for their declining years. As a result, they will not al-
low the even tenor of their lives to be troubled by too
many children, the weight of which would endanger the
equilibrium of the budget, and whose future welfare would
be too troublesome a subject to be bothered with.
Doctors in law, divinity, and medicine, never disagreed more
as to ways and means of meeting evils in the realms over
which they rule than do economists and sociologists as to the
best methods of applying remedies to social and economic
evils. Thousands, all over the world, are wondering whether a
way will ever be found for solving the population problems,
not only of France but of other countries. Since the doctrines
586 RACE SUICIDE IN FRANCE. [Aug.,
of Malthus and Ricardo disturbed the mental equilibrium
which, willing to leave all to God, went on its way rejoicing,
the population problem has been a black beast among econo-
mists and statesmen. Thousands have suggested all kinds of
remedies for the difficulties under which France suffers ; since
all see the possibility of the social plague passing beyond the
borders or boundaries of France. Indeed, the divorce evil of
the United States and other countries promises problems no
less difficult than that by which the French are confronted.
But all these schemes leave God out of the equation. Among
the many methods suggested, that of fiscal reform alone has
been followed consecutively for any long period of time. Of
course, I am calling attention to those who seek to find a solu-
tion along what are called scientific, economic, or sociologic
lines. To say that the solution should be sought where others
have found it, along lines laid down by dogmatic religions,
would leave oneself liable to the charge of being unscientific.
The writer to whom reference has been oftenest made in this
article, calls attention to Kenan's remark, to the effect that
contemporaneous French society seems to be formed upon a
belief that man is a theoretical rather than a real being, des-
tined to live alone without family or relations with other men.
Indeed, Frenchmen may be said to have done a large part of
the world's social, economic, and political experimenting. Many
have chosen to live alone, that is if the life lived by the bache-
lors of the big French cities can be called living alone. Again,
according to some, all this living alone goes back to taxation.
"The state" we are told, "in trying to tax the apparent re-
sources, the outward, or apparent signs of wealth, often taxes
unjustly." Families seem, at times, to be taxed according to
their size, and not according to their actual ability to pay.
Persons, particularly the so-called rentiers of France, retired
business men, a class little known in England, and not at all
in the United States, who have large families, have need of
larger houses than bachelors require, hence these persons have
to pay heavier taxes than bachelors who may have much more
money, for the taxes are based upon the amount of rent paid.
This same tax bears heavily upon the married men, fathers of
families, for the larger the house the more numerous the doors
and windows, and the heavier the taxes. Again the pater-
familias has to pay out more in taxes when he comes to feed
the mouths of his little ones, for his octroi tax is sure to in-
1905.] RACE SUICIDE IN FRANCE. 587
crease as the number of mouths to be fed increases. Bertillon
believes that three children to each family are necessary if na-
tional equilibrium is to be maintained. An American writer
thinks, with some European scientists, that 4^ to a family is
the only fairly safe or successful average. Two of Bertillon's
three are to replace the parents, the third is a sort of reserve
to increase the population or to take the place of the dead, or
of chose who emigrate. According to that great Frenchman
(Bertillon), the family that fails to raise three children, fails in
its duty to society. Such a family should make up to the
State by the payment of taxes, while the families that give
more than three children to the commonwealth should not only
be untaxed, but compensated. But neither Bertillon nor the
advocates of rewards have ever been able to devise a practical
basis upon which payments to big families should be based.
Old-fashioned economists believe the big family, if solid, sound,
sturdy, and healthy, will give and reap its own rewards. Bill
after bill has been drawn and presented, having for its object
the taxation of old maids, bachelors, and childless families. This
is not a new idea, nor is it exclusively French. Some say
that an inheritance law favoring large families would work
wonders. At present France has an inheritance law that has
all the effect of a tax. Every dollar left as a legacy or falling
to an heir pays a certain percentage to the government. It is
proposed so to regulate this that it will fall heaviest on families
of one child, less heavily on those leaving two children, etc.,
etc., and thus have the effect of a premium on large families.
Bad as are all these fiscal or financial ways of working up an
interest in large families, this is one of the best, not so much
because it affects the size of the families, as that it affects a
fairer disposition of the wealth left by the dead. Such a law
as that outlined above all but succeeded in passing the French
Senate in 1900. It failed by 30 votes out of a total of 228.
In 1901 an inheritance law did pass which was a slight modi-
fication of the one outlined above. It is a modification of
the old inheritance law, and favors large families.
The new law puts a tax upon the individual parts of inheri-
tances, whereas the old law imposed the tax upon the inheri-
tance as a whole. Under the new law an only child pays
more than is paid by three or more children. For example, a
fortune of $50,000 left to one child is subjected to a tax of
two per cent ; while the same amount, if left to three children,
588 RACE SUICIDE IN FRANCE. [Aug.,
pays but one and three-fourths per cent. If there are five
children, heirs, the tax amounts to one and one-half per cent.
A certain Colonel Toutee has seriously proposed a law, under
which the only child shall receive no more than half of an
inheritance, the rest going to those who would inherit were
there no child. Military men have long advocated increased
limits in regard to exemptions from service to sons who have
several brothers, thus, by enabling boys to remain at home to
help at bread-winning, encouraging large families. The Interior
Department, particularly the Internal Revenue Division, is re-
ported to have helped the cause considerably by according in-
creased pensions of $11.50 per annum for every child above
three. The Northern Railway gives a pension increase for
every child above two. The Ministry of Marine awards its
gratuities .at the end of the years on this basis, viz., the num-
ber of children in a family.
Scientific efforts are indefatigable in reducing the rate of in-
fant mortality. In a hundred years it fell from 28.2 to 22.1. Still
the loss is 170,000 a year. Another means, say scientists, of
affecting the desired results, viz., large families, is to cut down
the debauchery that has come to France because of alcoholic
drinks. Incredible as it may seem, the record of France in
this respect is terrible, a thing very much to be regretted. Of
4,744 persons treated for sickness in Parisian hospitals, during
1900, more than 2,500 were treated for alcoholism. Of every
hundred persons treated in Paris for consumption or tubercu-
losis, 90 were down for alcoholism. Wave aiter wave of the
wildest political and economic orgies has swept the fair fields
of France. Waterloo is a peaceful scene compared with the
death rate of the running, peaceful years. The tears shed for
the ceded provinces seem silly, not sacred, to such as know the
death rate due to the deceiving doctrines of those who are
devastating, because depopulating, the republic. For the million
and a half lost by the cession of Alsace and Lorraine, for which
the nation will never cease to mourn, many millions are lost by
a race suicide that is as fatal and terrible as the ravages of
war. To-day France is ten or fifteen millions short of what,
under normal, healthy, virtuous conditions, it should count in
its population.
What is she to do ? At the risk of being unscientific I will
point out a simple remedy. It is a panacea for the race suicide
of that republic and this. It is for both to go back to the
1905.] RACE SUICIDE IN FRANCE. 589
simple life, to the strong, sturdy, solid, simple virtues of the
past. Back, like Magdalen, to the feet of Christ; back to the
bosom of that Church whose chief claim to the modern world's
gratitude is the fact that for nearly twenty centuries she has
been the world's one, sure, strong, and safe bulwark against
the desolating waves of the world's lust. To her the home has
been a sacred place. To her the marriage tie was not only an
indissoluble tie, it was a sacrament, put side by side with the
other six, as sacred in the sight of the Church as any other.
She made the physical union the source of a spiritual grace,
the outward sign of which was often found in large families.
What Felix Adler has been saying in New York about mar-
riage, the Catholic Church has been saying, but saying it better,
for twenty centuries. In the palaces of Rome, Paris, Berlin,
and London, in the huts of the Himalayas, and in. the homes
of the virtuous all over the world, she has stood for the sanc-
tity of marriage and the sacred obligations and injunctions that
go with it, "to increase and multiply." In doing this she has
done only her duty. Her Divine Founder demanded this. To
the really thoughtful man, there is more in her simple solution
than there is in all the panaceas of politicians masquerading as
statesmen. France, Hercules-like, in her frenzied desire to tear
from her shoulders the poisoned robe of unrighteous and false
life, put there by her philosophers and politicians, is destined,
some day, to turn, as all must turn, to him who is the foun-
tain head of the family, the true foundation stone of the
State, Christ. Till that day dawns all good men will pray
that France be not tried beyond her powers to recuperate
and endure.
What France wants is not law but virtue. She has too
much law as it is. In spite of it her population does not in-
crease; relatively it is constantly diminishing. It is hard per-
haps for France to learn the lesson that goes with God's love
for the little ones, and she will have to learn it before Alsace
and Lorraine will be won back ; or before the republic will
win back what is better than fifty provinces like Lorraine and
Alsace, the virtue that was her peoples, the chivalry that be-
longed to her sailors and soldiers, and the happiness that once
filled all her hills and valleys. In suffering the little ones to
come, and in caring for them, she will grow in virtue and in
vigor; and these will beget again the France of which the
590 RACE SUICIDE IN FRANCE. [Aug.
world is so fond, the France that the world was wont to won-
der at, admire, imitate, and emulate. She must come up out
of the mire of her own making. In her desire to eat of all
the trees in the gardens of the gods, she has failed to find any
but the painted fruit of the Hesperides. Another maid must
come up for her out of Domremy. What Pasteur did for her
vineyards and sheepfolds, great teachers must do for her rav-
aged homes. But, unlike the law of life in the vineyard, with
its wealth and vigor built up upon imported scions from the
vineyards of the United States, the moral regeneration must
come from within, it must begin in the homes, in the schools,
in the churches, in the literature, in the heart of France. The
degrading debacle, written over so much of French life, wilder
and wickeder than any ever dreamed of by Zola, must give
way to a renaissance. A resurrection is not what is wanted,
except in the gospel sense. In the waters of sorrow the sin
must be washed away. A change must come over the France
that has fed on such doctrines as this : " That social progress
takes effect through the replacement of old institutions by new
ones; and since every institution involves the recognition of
the duty of conforming to it, progress must involve the repu-
diation of an established duty at every step." The duties that
have to be cast off before progress is possible, according to
these writers, are first, " Man's duty to God " Duty to God
a large part of the people, that speak for the France of to-
day, has repudiated. " Man's duty to his neighbor," is the
next duty that must be repudiated. Egoism or egotism is to
take its place. These are to be succeeded by man's duty to
himself. What then when this no longer serves to satisfy ?
In answering the question, put all this over against the gentle
Galilean, with his law and the prophets summed up in his
Gospel of love for God and love for one's neighbor ; put it all
over against the life or lives that have been lived in accord-
ance, or anywhere near in accordance, with the Gospel; put
the France of to-day, after two hundred years of false phil-
osophy, against the France following God and his Gospel ; put
this republic, these United States, with its race suicide, its
wretched divorce record, its disregard for law, its indifference
to duty on the part of so many politicians, over against the
United States of a hundred years ago, when the simple life,
the Gospel life, was the only life that appealed to our people.
CATHOLICISM AND THE JAPANESE.
BY R F. O'CONNOR.
may not be amiss to recall now, when there
is widespread discussion of the " Yellow Peril,"
that it was dread and fear of a Western Peril
which led to the great persecution of the na-
tive Christians in Japan. It was thought, as
a result of that persecution of the seventeenth century,
that Christianity was utterly annihilated in Japan. But
when, in 1854, more than two' centuries afterwards, the
country was re-opened to foreigners, as many as 22,000 Catho-
lics, descendants of the native Christians converted by St.
Francis Xavier, the Apostle of Japan, and the Jesuit mission-
ers in 1549, were found in the neighborhood of Nagasaki.
These faithful sons and daughters of persecution though ren-
dered spiritually destitute for long years, without priests, al-
tars, or sacraments still clung tenaciously to Catholicism.
A close study of the Japanese character fully bears out the
high opinion, expressed in his letters, which St. Francis Xavier
formed of the race. Their natural intelligence, their desire for
knowledge, their receptivity and facility of assimilating ideas
and usages, their high sense of reverence, of duty, and of sub-
mission to authority, their deep faith in the unseen, and their
spirit of sacrifice, favor the hope that, once converted, their
conversion would ultimately lead to the Christianization of the
yellow races. And of all forms and expressions of Christian-
ity, Catholicism is the only one which would be likely to meet
with permanent acceptance by a people so mentally constituted
as the Japanese. The experience of a recent English writer,
who enjoyed exceptional advantages of studying the country
and the people, and whose book is an admirable impressionist
description of Japan and the Japanese, endorses this view.
The religion, such as it is, of the Japanese has far more points
of contact with Catholic belief than it has with Protestantism.
Prayer for the dead, which with us is a link that unites the
VOL. LXXXI. 38
592 CATHOLICISM AND THE JAPANESE. [Aug.,
Church Militant with the Church Suffering, has, to a certain
extent, its counterpart in Buddhist requiem services.
The loving recollection of the dead is deeply rooted in
the hearts of the Japanese, and has often smoothed the way
for Catholic teaching.* The Buddhist priests mark the 9th
of February as the " Feast of the River's Farthest Shore."
The name alone seems to constitute a tie between the thought
of the East and West. Life and death, and life's renewal
after death these are the undying and indivisible inherit-
ance of the children of God wherever he has placed them.
The Japanese believe that those who die beloved, and for
whom remembrance is constantly made, do not suffer in the
shadowy peace of Meido, that home of departed spirits, which
is not a prison, and from which they constantly come to visit
the living, to protect and comfort the bereaved.
Is it possible that this humble, impersonal faith can sus-
tain the survivors in the dreadful emptiness of the stricken
home ? I think it helps them greatly, because it is a part
of eternal truth just that portion of it which they are fitted
to apprehend now.
The pure Shinto form of religion forbids funeral pomp, but
enjoins the use of white robes, white woods, quantities of
flowers, everything simple and cheering ; just as white, instead
of mourning black, is customary at a Catholic child's obse-
quies in the West, and the joyous canticle of the three chil-
dren in the fiery furnace is introduced into our own beautiful
requiem service for those little ones who have passed away in
their baptismal innocence.
The reproach of heartlessness has been leveled at the
Japanese on account of the calm and cheerful countenances
with which they accompany their dead to the grave ; but their
long and tender remembrance of the departed, Mrs. Fraser
avers, surely exonerates them from the accusation. She at-
tended the funeral of a Japanese prince and the long cere-
monial concluded with the chief priest reading aloud, in a
high, chanting voice, two valedictory orations which finished
with the phrase " May thy soul have eternal rest and peace in
* A Diplomatist's Wife in Japan. Letttrs to Home. By Mrs. Hugh Fraser. London :
Hutchinson & Co.
1905.] CATHOLICISM AND THE JAPANESE. 593
heaven!" The Festival of the Dead, though spoken of in a
scornful, superficial way in Tokio, is kept religiously in the
provinces. They fondly imagine that little children and old
people, all the souls that pass out of earth's family day by day,
love not the short winter days or the long, dark winter nights;
but that when summer broods over the land, when the night
is welcome because it brings a breath of coolness to those
whose work is not yet over, the dead come back in shadowy
myriads to visit their old homes, to hover around those who
still love and remember them, to receive the gift of love which
never forgets, or disbelieves, or despairs. For three days in
July the 1 3th, I4th, and I5th heart-broken mothers fancy
they feel the little lost son or daughter close at hand. Though
no one sees them, they are thought to take their old places in
their old homes, decked and garnished for their coming.
The Japanese remind one of sweet, wise children, whose
play will always be an imitation, a childish rendering, ol
some great truth overlooked, as often as not, by their
elders in the rush and bustle of life.
Protestantism, compared with Catholicity, must strike the
Japanese, imbued with mystical beliefs expressed in a ritual
that appeals to the imagination and the heart, as cold, unemo-
tional, and repellent. Speaking of the Anglican Mission School
of St. Hilda, Mrs. Fraser observes :
The Christian element, although enforced by Bible and
catechism lessons, appears most strongly in a kind of rough
contempt for all the devout traditions of the Japanese.
Ancestor worship, which is such a tremendous factor in
Japanese life, instead of being transformed into tender and
prayerful remembrance of the dead and a desire to imitate
their virtues, is stigmatized as idolatry, and the Protestant
dogma regarding departed spirits is put forward in all its
brutality, as the only recognized truth. No one who has
not lived among them can imagine how shocking this is to
the feelings of the Japanese ; for with them parental and
filial devotion rank as the chief virtues, and make the
harmony of the family. Minor prejudices and refinements,
the duties of hospitality and friendship, the thousand gen-
tlenesses which give so much beauty to the family life of
the Japanese these, instead of being wisely utilized and
594 CATHOLICISM AND 7 HE JAPANESE. [Aug.,
encouraged, are pushed aside, ridden over rough-shod, in
the attempt to transform the shy, quiet Japanese maiden
into the healthy, selfish, rough-and-tumble schoolgirl of our
own clime.
Reverence for authority in Church or State or household,
and an affectionate reverence for childhood, are among the
most marked features in the public and social life of Japan.
In the school and in the home high ideals are, in a variety
of ways, impressed upon the receptive and impressionable
mind of youth.
This grave belief in abstract things (which in England
to-day could only be mentioned with an apologetic smile
for one's own weakness) is still the foundation of edu-
cation in Japan, and gives the parent or the teacher a
strength and authority in dealing with the young spirit
which our poor 'schoolmasters can never exercise. Ha-
tred and fear from the little fellows, to whom all moral-
ity is made horrible because their chief torturer is prob-
ably their preacher as well that is what our dominie
gets at home, that is what I have seen and shuddered at
for so many years in Protestant England, that it is an
unspeakable relief to be among people where the teacher is
still venerated, where the position of master in a school is
considered honorable enough for the eldest son of a great
noble to accept it gladly, where education leads youth
unblushingly back to the feet of those great schoolmis-
tresses, the cardinal virtues, and still has for its object to
make gentlemen, scholars, and patriots out of Japanese
subjects. In this reverence for truly great men and things
lies the real strength of the people.
" Treasure flowers " is the pretty name which the Japanese
give to children during their infancy ; and when the flowers
blossom into children of larger growth they are none the less
treasured. Quiet self-possession, without self-assertiveness, a
complete absense of gaucherie, innate courtesy, self-effacement,
and consideration for others, are qualities our author discerned
in all classes. She extols
A system of education which, without robbing childhood
of a moment's bright happiness, can clothe little children
of every condition with this garment of perfect courtesy.
1905.] CATHOLICISM AND THE JAPANESE. 595
I have rarely seen its match, except once or twice among
little Austrian and Italian royalties ; but there inheritance
and environment, as well as the high standard of behavior
insisted on in all noble Catholic families, royal or other-
wise, had had full scope, had moulded the little personality
from the very outset of life. Here, explain it who can, it
is in the blood, and can be counted on with absolute cer-
tainty. The love showered upon children simply wraps
them in warmth and peace, and seems to encourage every
sweet, good trait of character without ever fostering a bad
one. Japanese children are never frightened into telling
lies or hiding their faults.
Mrs Eraser ascribes the fact of Japan having bright chil-
dren, faithful wives, and devoted mothers, to the sentiment of
duty.
In real womanliness, which I take to mean a high com-
bination of sense and sweetness, valor and humility, the
Japanese lady ranks with any woman in the world, and
passes before most of them.
Mrs. Fraser was much interested in the work of the nuns
at Tsukiji Orphanage. They are called the Black Nuns, to dis-
tinguish them from the Sisters of Charity with their white cor-
nettes, who have a school at the other end of the town. The
establishment at Tsukiji is divided into two sections : one a
resident school for pupils, who pay from three to four dollars
a month for board and tuition ; while the other which is,
of course, kept quite separate is the orphanage proper, where
about 180 children of all ages are maintained and educated by
the Sisters. The Convent stands near the Catholic Church in
Tsukiji, which is the foreign settlement of Tokio and full of
Europeans and Americans. It is close to the sea and the fresh
breezes come to play in the courtyards of the convent with
the willow and wisteria trails, and sometimes find their way to
the chapel. At this convent a few European girls attend as
day-scholars among the boarders. Two or three of the schol-
ars are children who had been abandoned by European fathers
when they found it convenient to leave Japan, and, although
no one paid for them, the Sisters gave them the same educa-
tion as the boarders were receiving, and kept them nicely
dressed in European costume at considerable expense.
596 CATHOLICISM AND THE JAPANESE. [Aug.,
But it is the other side of the house which draws me
most. There the big orphans help the little ones, and the
sweet-faced Japanese lay Sisters teach the babies their
prayers, and carry about the tiniest ones; and the whole
place is desperately poor, but so sweet and clean that one
forgets the poverty of it.
A great crowd of the children follows me about, for I
want to go everywhere ; and the lay Sister suddenly mar-
shals them in the sunshine, and says in Japanese: "Sing
for the lady one, two, three ! "
" Les voilh parties ! " exclaims the good nun at my side,
as all the little voices break out together, with a clapping
of hands and nodding of dark heads, in a hymn whose
strain must be heard by the junks in the canal yonder.
When we come down again, we go to the long barn-
like room where the children are having their evening meal.
I found them seated in endless rows of benches at little
narrow tables in a kind of "weight for age" arrangement.
Each child had at its place a cup of water and a little
wooden saucer with a scrap of fish and some pickles and
sauce. This was intended as a relish to the huge bowl of
rice, which made the staple of the meal. The rice is brought
in in large wooden tubs and served out by the elder girls,
two of whom carry a tub between them up and down the
long rows of benches, filling the bowls as the children hold
them out. The rule is that as long as the bowl is held" out
it must be filled; and when the tub stops its walk, all the
little mouths are absolute!)' satisfied.
The religious question seldom creates any difficulty among
the children. The Sisters are very uncompromising about
certain things. When the girls first come, they and their
parents are told that they will be required to attend the
religious services in the chapel, and to be present at the
catechism lessons. Otherwise the subject of religion is not
mentioned to them by the Sisters until they come, as they
often do, to ask to be baptized. But some of the girls them-
selves are eager little apostles, and do all they can to per-
suade their pagan companions of the beauty and truth of
Christianity. Sometimes the parents will not consent, for
the old prejudices are still strong ; and then there is long
waiting and much prayer before O'Hana or O'Yone can re-
ceive the Christian equivalent of her name and wear a white
veil in Church, a privilege reserved only for Christians.
As for the orphans, most of them are taken in as babies,
1905.] CATHOLICISM AND THE JAPANESE. 597
and are baptized at once. Where the child is older, she
must receive instruction and really deserve baptism before
it can be administered, but there is no opposition of parents
to retard conversion, and there is much less prejudice against
Christianity among the extreme poor than among the richer
classes.
But not only youth comes here, marshaled by the black-
robed Sisters, but bowed old people, men and women,
forlorn paupers, whom their charity will not turn from
their doors, and who have invaded the two or three mat-
ted rooms which were meant as workshops and porter's
lodge just inside the gate.
This glimpse of a Japanese convent interior will give the
reader some idea of the work of the nuns and the difficulties
under which it is done. But the priests labor under difficul-
ties quite as great. They have only fifteen yen, or thirty
shillings, a month to live on Out of this they must pay
house rent (if there is no dwelling house attached to the
chapel), food, clothing, the expenses of getting from one part
of the parish to another, and dispense charity ! Mrs. Eraser
could not discover that any of them had any private income
If they had, it has all been given pour les ceuvres ;
and thirty shillings a month is what they receive and
live, or die, upon! "Why why?" I cried in indigna-
tion, when I first learnt all this. Because there is no more
to give ; the Church is in the straits of holy poverty.
The class who, especially in France, used to contribute
so generously to mission work has been obliged to de-
vote those moneys to voluntary schools, since the name
of God has been eradicated from all the public ones ; and
missionary work would be paralyzed if the priests could not
live like paupers dear, kind, clean, holy paupers, but
just that. I have heard it said that the sums spent by dif-
ferent sects of Protestants in Japan equals that which the
Holy Father has at his disposal for mission work through-
out the world. I do not know how true this may be ; but,
watching the two systems at work, close beside me, I have
come to the conclusion that in these matters money is of
secondary value, of next to no value, as compared with
prayer, self-sacrifice, and the heaven-taught discipline of
a holy life. It is impossible for the most hardened scoffer to
598 CATHOLICISM AND THE JAPANESE. [Aug.,
make the acquaintance of one of our priests or Sisters of
Charity here without feeling that he is in the presence of
a power for good.
The work of Father Testevuide, one of the French mis-
sioners among the lepers and the poor, among whom and
for whom he spent and sacrificed his life, is illustrative of the
type of men to be found in the advanced guards of the
Church's sacred army, engaged in the conquest of souls and
extending the frontiers of her wide dominion.
The prevalence of leprosy is one of the sad sides of
Japanese life. Through a kind of false shame the authorities
refuse to acknowledge the necessity of either providing special
hospitals for lepers or of preventing the spread of the disease.
The Japanese do not believe in contagion, the caprices of the
malady giving a certain amount of excuse for the error
Among the better class it is looked upon as a terrible dis-
grace, and never called by its proper name, the sufferer being
hidden away in the house and tended in secret. Among the
lower classes very little notice is taken of the first approach
of the disease, it being of a very insidious character, and, ex-
cept for experts, difficult to diagnose; but when the unfortu-
nate patient becomes an object of loathing and horror, when
he is most in need of care and help, he is cast out to linger
on in misery and die alone an agonizing death. It is said
that one of the Empresses, Komyo Kogo, many centuries ago,
touched with pity for this wretched class of her subjects,
founded a hospital for them, where, although she was the
most beautiful woman of her time, she was not afraid to go
every day to wash their sores and attend to their wants. But
no trace of her charity remains now, although, it must be re-
corded to her credit, the present Empress devotes all the time
she can spare from public duties to the sick and suffering for
whom she has boundless pity. Lepers are received with other
sick people in a very few hospitals of the old simple sort.
Mrs. Fraser was in one where she saw cases of leprosy,
typhoid, and diphtheria in the same ward.
Seeing the great need of a Leper Hospital, Father Teste-
vuide founded one in 1886. Like many great undertakings, it
had a very small beginning. A poor woman, a hopeless leper,
cast out by her family, was dying slowly and quite alone in a
1905.] . CATHOLICISM AND THE JAPANESE. 559
deserted shed, when Father Testevuide discovered her, naked,
blind, going out from the agony of life to the darkness of
death. The priest nursed and tended the poor creature, did
all he could to lighten her sufferings, and made them more
endurable by the hope and promise of a future life beyond the
reach of pain. He tried to get her admitted to some hospital,
but found it impossible ; there was no place for such patients.
He then obtained the Bishop's leave to devote himself to the
work of founding a hospital for lepers. A little money was
sent to him for charity, and he applied it to this, hiring a
small house near Gotemba, a village lying on the lower slopes
of Fuji San. All sorts of difficulties had to be overcome.
The cost of a patient's treatment was about six shillings a
month, but this seemed to be beyond what his very limited
income could afford. However, he started with six patients,
but was pained to have to refuse constantly applications for
admittance. Another difficulty arose. The people of Gotemba
grew frightened, and asked him to depart from their coasts,
and take his sick people with him. The landlord being heav-
ily in debt, the village elders threatened to make him pay
unless he turned out the priest and the lepers. But more
money coming into Father Testevuide's hands, enabled him to
buy the six acres on which the hospital stood. A sum of
150 covered the cost of the land, the building, and furnish-
ing of the house, and provision for the requirements of the
patients and employees for three years and paid for one
funeral. No questions are asked, and the obstinate pagan
receives just as much care and tenderness as the born Chris-
tian or convert.
But, of course, the whole atmosphere is warmly Chris-
tian. The poor souls for whom faith is pointing to
brightness and peace when death shall cure them for
good and all they are eager to bring new comers in to
share the hope which so greatly helps to lighten present
suffering. I am sure there will never be a despairing
deathbed in the Gotemba Hospital. The Fathers say that
they have found ready help among Japanese Christians for
the work of tending the patients. One good man, whose
name has at his own request been kept a secret, has shut
himself up for life with the lepers, on condition of food
being found for his family which he supported by his work.
6oo CATHOLICISM AND THE JAPANESE. [Aug.,
As for Father Testevuide, much has been said about his
heroism and goodness, and of course he is constantly com-
pared with Father Damien, the saint of Molokai. The
world catches at the name of one good man, and extols it
to the skies. We Catholics are rather surprised at the
noisy enthusiasm, for we expect these things from our mis-
sionary priests.
Mrs. Fraser predicted that when Father Testevuide should
be called home, there would be found many others ready and
eager to step into his place, and the prediction received its
fulfilment in 1891 when this good priest died and Father Vig-
roux replaced him.
When the Archbishop wrote to Pere Vigroux, Pro-Vicar-
Apostolic, asking him to take up the Gotemba charge, he
promptly accepted, although his hands were full of work. He
had scarcely any money and there were thirty in patients.
The new director's first grief was his inability to receive
all the poor creatures imploring to be admitted. However, he
took ten of the worst cases, trusting to the help of Provi-
dence to acquire funds to enable him to take more later on.
In a short report of the work he gave a harrowing description
of his leper parishioners. It was at all events a consolation to
them to know that henceforth they would never be abandoned
to their fate ; that shelter and food and clothing, medicines for
their sick bodies, and kindness to cheer their sad hearts, would
never be wanting. Eleven of the number were Christians ;
and he says that all were resigned and patient. Some, we are
told, seemed even thankful for the misfortune of a sickness of
the body which brought the healing balm of faith and cleans-
ing to a still sicklier soul. And these, little by little, helped
to convert the others who, in their poverty and suffering,
clung lovingly to the faith which would perhaps have appealed
to them in vain in health and prosperity.
The nuns are not behindhand in succoring the poor out-
cast lepers, true in this as in other respects to the best tradi-
tions of Catholic charity, of which the history of the Church
and the lives of the saints present such noble examples. A
poor leper was once found, and left, dying by the roadside in
a suburb of Yokohama. An Englishman in the course of a
walk was startled by the cries of some one in great pain.
1905.] CATHOLICISM AND THE JAPANESE. 60 1
Drawing near the spot indicated by the sound he found, to
his horror, that a crowd of Japanese boys were pelting with
stones a poor creature who was rolling on the ground, naked,
in agony, in the very last stages of leprosy. The pitiable
condition of the man was such that it required the greatest
courage to go near him. Mrs. Fraser, having read a letter
which the indignant Englishman sent to the Japan Mail, wrote
to the nuns of the convent in Yokohama and got them to
look into the case. The next day brought a letter from the
Superioress, Mere Sainte Mathilde, an old nun over seventy
who had been half a century in religion, in which she wrote :
Be comforted. He for whom to-morrow is as to-day, and
who sees the desires of our hearts, accomplished yours for
the unfortunate leper before you had formed it. The leper
was baptized by one of our Sisters, and died soon after, in
perfect peace, and with the most lively gratitude for the
grace he had received. . . . The poor man was dis-
covered by a charitable gentleman, who at once went home,
procured a carpenter, and with him brought nails and
wood to build a kind of shed over the poor creature, whom
it was quite impossible to move. He gave him wine and
food, and then hastened to call us to see if it were still
possible to instruct and baptize this dying man, who was
literally at the last gasp.
Although in Japan reverence for childhood has developed
a system of kindness and care and protection ; although there
is no baby torture, no beating, no starvation, none of the
indescribable horrors exposed and punished in some degree by
the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children;
although from one end of Japan to the other a child is treated
as a sacred thing, be it one's own or a stranger's, each little
one carrying its name and address on a ticket round its
neck; a man will kill his child outright, scientifically, pain-
lessly, if he sees that there is nothing but want and misery
before it; but while he lives the child will not suffer.
This adds a new horror to the horrors of famine or acute
distress. When something approaching a famine desolated the
land in 1890, owing to the failure of the rice crop, and
the prevailing destitution reached the starvation stage in
the poorer quarters of the city, a coolie led two little girls,
602 CATHOLICISM AND THE JAPANESE. [Aug.,
frightfully emaciated, to the gate of the Tsukiji Convent.
The poor father entreated the nuns to take the children and
bring them up among the orphans. He said he could no
longer earn a livelihood for them ; their mother was dead ; he
had nothing left in the world. Alas ! he was not the first who
had come on the same errand. During the few previous
weeks one child after another had been brought to the good
nuns, or left helpless at their gates, the parents certain that it
would be cared for by them. Every corner was filled with
sick and hungry people. It did not seem right to crowd the
children's dormitories any further, and people were sleeping
on the floor in the passages already. The Sister gave the
poor man food, and a tiny sum, all she could possibly spare,
in money. "Leave me your address," she said, "and the
moment I have room I will send for the poor little girls.
Have courage; I will not keep them long waiting." So the
man went, taking his children with him ; and the nun, seeing
the despair in his eyes, was troubled all night about it, amd
sent down the first thing in the morning to tell him that she
would risk it, he might bring the little girls back. Both chil-
dren were dead !
The social and religious conditions of Japan present a pic-
ture in which the lights and shades are sharply defined.
Alongside the vices, inseparable from paganism, are natural
virtues susceptible of being supernaturalized under the regener-
ating influence of grace ; fine traits of character and tender-
ness which give promise of reaching a higher degree of moral
and intellectual culture when brought completely under the influ-
ence of Christian civilization. Of that civilization the Japanese
have heretofore had distorted views, owing to the racial and
religious differences and trade rivalries of the Western Powers.
In the Uyeno Museum there are relics of the Japanese
embassy to Rome, when the great Daimyo of Sendai, Data
Masamune, sent one of his nobles with a huge train of fol-
lowers to acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope, and to
ask for prayers and assistance There is an oil painting of
the ambassador in early seventeenth- century costume, praying
with folded hands before a crucifix ; in a case are various
objects of devotion rosaries, crucifixes, and so on ; and close
by are the horrible blocks of metal, generally stamped with a
crucifix, which in the persecutions were laid down before the
1905.] CATHOLICISM AND THE JAPANESE. 603
feet of those suspected to be Christians they had to walk
over these or die.
How many thousands refused, how many pure souls
left their martyred bodies to their enemies, how many
delicate women and little children kept their faith and lost
their lives, we can hardly tell. Christianity was stamped
out as a national religion ; but I think the martyrs
prayed for their beloved country, cruel as it had been
to them. And a little germ was kept alive. Nearly
thirty years ago,* some missioners, landing near Nagasaki,
found whole villages, hidden away in the hills by the
sea, where the old prayers were still said just as they
had been learnt two centuries before, where baptism was
administered and marriages and burials prayed over faith-
fully, although never a priest had set foot there since their
first pastors had been killed. The poor people's joy was
overwhelming ; but even at such a recent date persecution
found them out again. They were exiled and dispersed for
a time ; but only for a time. Universal toleration was pro-
claimed in 1873, and on the twenty-fifth anniversary of their
discovery, after my arrival in Japan, the Catholic bishops
and their priests went in state to celebrate a great religious
festival among these faithful people. The people came
flocking on foot over the hills, whole fleets of boats cov-
ered the sea, and the good souls wept for joy, crowding
round the bishop to touch his hands, his robes, his feet.
The Rev. George W. Knox, a Presbyterian clergyman in
Japan, styles the Catholic mission there " one of the miracles
of missions and a story of great success." Since its resurrec-
tion, after the cessation of persecution, it has rapidly recovered
lost ground, and grown in numbers and influence. The Catho-
lics are now roughly estimated to be 75,cco.f The Church is
administered by one archbishop and three suffragans, namely,
the Archbishop of Tokio and the Bishops of Nagasaki, Hako-
date, and Osaka. There are 84 European and 20 native
priests, 100 European and 28 native nuns, who have charge
of three hospitals, 17 orphanages, with 2,000 orphans, and
other similar charitable institutions. The Archbishop's coad-
jutor, Mgr. Mugabure, who has lately been giving his impres-
The author wrote in 1902.
t In Korea there are 10,000, and Manchuria 30,000.
604 CATHOLICISM AND THE JAPANESE. [Aug.
sions of Japan, says the Emperor and his ministers are most
favorable to Catholicism, placing at the disposal of the
bishops buildings adapted to public worship, and giving them
every encouragement in their work. At the Memorial Mass
for the late Pope Leo XIII., the Emperor was represented,
and all the civic authorities attended in state at the Cathedral
in Tokio. On the election of Pius X. he telegraphed his con-
gratulations to the Holy Father. Many Catholics hold high
rank in the Japanese military and naval services. The fine
Cathedral at Tokio is attended by about 600 worshippers,
while 300 native Christians frequent the Church in Yokohama,
and 100 that at Korea. About 1,500 attend the convent at
Tokio, 700 the convent at Yokohama, and 600 the convent
at Robe. The Communities are composed of French nuns.
Considering that as late as 1867, when the Emperor came to
the throne, 4,000 native Christians were torn from their
homes and distributed as criminals throughout the empire,
the change is so marvelous that we cannot refrain from say-
ing, digitus Dei est hie.
THE POETRY OF FRANCIS THOMPSON.
BY KATHERINE BREGY.
cHEN a certain slender volume entitled Poems by
Francis Thompson was issued in November,
1893, critical London opened wide eyes of at-
tention and astonishment. It was not, of
course, the mere fact of a new luminary on the
poetic horizon too frequent an occurrence to cause much ex-
citement, and too apt, alas ! to prove but the giddy flight of
a star shooting down to oblivion. But in these pages there
was manifestly something unusual something elemental and
arresting. Their author was straightway greeted with the
dubious distinction of new poet, and every variety of criticism
was showered upon his work. The old, old cry of " native
woodnotes wild" came from one reviewer; from another the
complaint of too much polishing ; his diction was decried as
illiterate on one side, and as " too literate " on the other.
On the whole, however, the verdict was one of deep appre-
ciation ; and if personal details of a more or less romantic
nature began to mingle with current criticism, they merely
added to the poet's vogue. But all this was more than a
decade ago. Those who now care to look, may see Mr.
Thompson's work as a whole, and through a perspective of
time which naturally changes some details of the outlook.
The fact which does not change is our realization of tiis
genuine worth as a poet. For Mr. Thompson's verse is not
the sort that suffers by repetition ; on the contrary, a certain
amount of familiarity is necessary to reveal its peculiar
beauties.
Deaf is he to world's tongue ;
He scorneth for his song
The loud
Shouts of the crowd.
So the "crowd" has mostly relapsed into indifference; but to
606 THE POETRY OF FRANCIS THOMPSON. [Aug.,
the remembering few, even a silence of eight years does not
in any wise dull the memory of his song.
The credit of " discovering " Francis Thompson seems to
rest, in the first place, with the editor of the Catholic periodi-
cal, Merrie England ; although his deepest debt of gratitude
is due to Mr. and Mrs. Meynell. To these "dear givers" was
dedicated that first volume of 1893 the volume which brought
immediate fame to the quondam medical student, who had
loved the public libraries too well to keep to his " Materia
Medica." It consisted of three parts, all very characteristic:
''Love in Dian's Lap"; "Poems on Children"; and "Miscel-
laneous Poems," treating of nature and of the soul. It was
one of these last "The Hound of Heaven" which silenced
the most adverse batteries of criticism, and still stands as one
oi his very greatest productions. The Sister Songs, published
in 1895, were really written about the same time as the
earlier volume, so we cannot expect them to show any de-
velopment of art ; while full of beauty, this " offering to two
sisters " is rather less interesting than its predecessor. Not so
the New Poems, which appeared in 1897. The keynote of this
little volume might be called accentuation, for every character-
istic of Mr. Thompson's earlier work we here find deepened.
It is at once more philosophical and more fanciful ; its tender-
ness is more tender, its pathos more intense and at times,
alas ! its obscurity is even one cloud the grayer.
In considering this production as a whole, we shall merely
be following a world-old tradition if we give first place to the
love poems. And in scarcely any other division shall we find
Mr. Thompson's work so unique or so exquisite. They are
the record, for the most part, of one of those high and beauti-
ful friendships which literature has time and again immortal-
ized for us.
At the rich odors from her heart that rise,
My soul remembers its lost paradise,
I grow essential all, uncloaking me
From this encumbering virility,
And feel the primal sex of heaven and poetry,
the poet declares, in one of that series which Coventry Pat-
1905.] THE POETRY OF FRANCIS THOMPSON. 607
more has said "St. John of the Cross might have addressed
to St. Theresa." It would be hard indeed to find anything
more delicate and beautiful of its kind than the "Dream
Tryst"; "Her Portrait"; or " Manus Animam Pinxit." They
are not by any means the usual sort of "amatory verse,"
these which see in the body but a veil and vesture of the
spirit within, and whose most piercing cry is :
O be true
To your soul, dearest, as my life to you !
But there is that in them for which Mr. Thompson has taken
all true womanhood into his debt as did, long ago, that
brave Cavalier poet who laid his noble tribute at the feet of
Lucasta. A certain passionate pain vibrates through the love
poems of the last volume, and the pathos of that series called
Ultima is only exceeded by its dignity. "No man ever attained
supreme knowledge unless his heart had been torn up by the
roots"; this has been used by Mr. Thompson as a text for
his "Holocaust." And the joy and pain of love pass hand in
hand through the succeeding lyrics, until the final outburst of
the Ultimum is reached :
Now in these last spent drops, slow, slower shed,
Love dies, love dies, love dies ah, love is dead !
The days draw on too dark for song or love :
O peace, my songs, nor stir ye any wing !
For lo, the thunder hushing all the grove,
And did love live, not even love could sing.
And lady, thus I dare to say,
Not all with you is passed away !
Beyond your star, still, still the stars are bright ;
Beyond your highness, still I follow height;
Sole I go forth, yet still to my sad view,
Beyond your trueness, lady, truth stands true.
In that "little dramatic sequence," comprehended under the
title of " A Narrow Vessel," Mr. Thompson has written a
series of much charm and ingenuousness. There is something
VOL. LXXXI. 39
608 THE POETRY OF FRANCIS THOMPSON. [Aug.,
magical in the great emotional sweep of "Love Declared"
the description of that moment when
The winds
Caught up their breathing, and the world's great pulse
Strayed in mid-throb, and the wild train of life
Reeled by, and left us stranded on a hush.
Almost as a shock comes the Epilogue, where we learn that
this very, very human story is but an allegory of something
more divine, and
She, that but giving part, not whole,
Took even the part back, is the soul.
Very few poets have written more feelingly of (we do not
say for) children than Francis Thompson. There is a passage
of great beauty in the early part of Sister Songs which sug-
gests that one of these little ones
A flower
Fallen from the budded coronal of spring,
And through the city streets blown withering
had laid her ministering touch upon the poet's heart in those
dark earlier days ; but such speculations are scarcely to the
point. The fact of his real love for child life is patent in all
three volumes. Positively haunting are those lines to " Monica
Thought Dying," with the image of Death holding state
among the little broken playthings, thrice intolerable with
This dreadful childish babble on his tongue.
In quite different vein is that charming "Ex Ore Infan-
tium "
Little Jesus, wast thou shy
Once, and just so small as I ?
And what did it feel like to be
Out of heaven, and just like me ?
But no detached passage can give the tender gaiety of the
whole. It recalls some of Crashaw's divinely human touches,
as when he marveled
That he whom the sun serves, should faintly peepe
Through clouds of infant flesh ; that he, the old
Eternal Word should be a child, and weepe.
1905.] THE POETRY OF FRANCIS THOMPSON. 609
Of course, the standpoint of verses, like "Daisy," "The Pop-
py," et cetera, is far from being a childlike one ; they are the
wistful musings of one who, having known the full measure
of manhood, has still a heart meet for " the nurseries of
heaven."
In his " Mistress of Vision," Mr. Thompson has proclaimed
a number of achievements, without which the poet may not
hope to attain his mystic " land of Luthany." The final test
of his vocation is a state of inner vision by which he per-
ceives that all created things,
Near or far,
Hiddenly
To each other linked are,
And thou canst not stir a flower
Without troubling a star.
This mingling of the dainty and the profound is quite dis-
tinctive in his own nature poems. On one page is a fragment
like that "To a Snow-Flake," of incredible delicacy; on an-
other, an ode that thunders into sublimity. It is impossible to
quote from the wild, Bacchic gladness of the " Corymbus for
Autumn," or from his beautiful " Ode to the Setting Sun,"
with its half-tragic blending of death and birth. For Mr.
Thompson can rejoice in beauty with all the sensuous loveli-
ness of Keats ; but ever through this glad earth-cry he
catches dim pealings of " a higher and a solemn voice." Na-
ture becomes sacramental, and the visible a portent and pro-
phecy of the invisible. Yet he is as far as possible from the
delusive mists of pantheism Perhaps no one of the poems
illustrates this attitude as Christian as it is poetic more
characteristically than the lovely Paschal ode " From the
Night of Forebeing," with its inspiring
Look up, O mortals, and the portent heed :
In every deed
Washed with new fire to their irradiant birth,
Reintegrated are the heavens and earth !
From sky to sod,
The world's unfolded blossom smells of God.
Of purely devotional poetry Mr. Thompson has written
6io THE POETRY OF FRANCIS THOMPSON. [Aug.,
comparatively little " Ex Ore Infantium," the soaring lines of
the "Assumpta Maria," and a few others. Yet through all
his work the soulful element is so strong that he has been
called "the essential poet of essential Christianity."* One
poem of his, " Any Saint," is tender and personal ; but reli-
gion is more than an emotion to Francis Thompson ; it is a
philosophy. The mission of pain and evil has been revealed
to him not lightly, but through great spiritual conflict; and
his firm hold of faith is a hundredfold more significant because
of his wide-eyed outlook upon life.
If hate were none, he somewhere asks, would love burn
lowlier bright ?
God's fair were guessed scarce but for opposite sin ;
Yea, and his mercy, I do think it well,
Is flashed back from the brazen gates of hell.
Throughout the mystical or soulful poems, which form so large
a proportion of his work, there runs a very poignant message.
It is the old, primal story of God and the soul and we find
it thrilling in never-to-be-forgotten intensity through that
magnificent ode, "The Hound of Heaven."
I fled him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled him, down the arches of the years ;
I fled him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind ; and in the mist of tears
I hid from him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped ;
And shot, precipitated
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears,
From those strong feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbed pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat and a voice beat
More instant than the feet
"All things betray thee, who betrayest me!"
4
Thus begins the flight from this " tremendous lover." The
soul speeds on and on, knocking vainly for shelter at the
* Academy, May, 1897.
1905.] THE POETRY OF FRANCIS THOMPSON. 6n
door of earthly love ; then seeking comradeship with the ele-
ments, in the very "heart of nature's secrecies":
But not by that, by that was eased my human smart.
In vain my tears were wet on heaven's gray cheek.
For ah ! we know not what each other says,
These things and I ; in sound I speak
Their sound is but their stir, they speak by silences.
One by one fails every human hope,
Even the linked fantasies, in whose blossomy twist
I swing the earth a trinket at my wrist ;
there is one last bitter cry, and then submission ! Love has
conquered, and "like a bursting sea" sounds the voice of the
pursuer :
All which I took from thee I did but take,
Not for thy harms,
But just that thou might'st seek it in my arms.
All which thy child's mistake
Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home ;
Rise, clasp my hand, and come.
The "Dread of Height" is another of Mr. Thompson's
most characteristic poems. It is the cry of a soul that has
stood very high upon the mountain peaks, and in the glory of
fire and cloud feels eternal banishment from the little, joyful
things of mortality ; for
' Tis to have drunk too well
The drink that is divine,
Maketh the kind earth waste,
And breath intolerable.
Moreover, human feet are weak, and the highest election none
too sure; neither does any know the depths of hell like him
who has gazed down from heaven's viewpoint. So with this
cry of spiritual isolation is mingled the pleading voice of
human impotence:
Some hold, some stay,
O difficult joy, I pray,
612 THE POETRY OF FRANCIS THOMPSON. [Aug.,
Some arms of thine,
Not only, only arms of mine !
Lest like a weary girl I fall
From clasping love so high,
And lacking thus thine arms, then may
Most hapless I
Turn utterly to love of basest rate ;
For low they fall whose fall is from the sky.
Melancholy is the besetting sin of the sensitive mind, and Mr.
Thompson's verse is not free from it. There are passages
notably those " To the Dead Cardinal of Westminster " in
which he is led to question the service of art itself. But on
the whole his philosophy is a cheerful one, placing pain but
as a stepping-stone to the joy beyond. In him, seemingly
more than in any poet of the present time, the ascetic ideal
finds a champion and an exponent.
Lose, that the lost thou may'st receive;
Die, for none other way can'st live,
he bids us, in words that might be an echo of those which
once rang across the Sea of Galilee. The world has never been
willing to accept them without a struggle ; perhaps, indeed, it
is only through struggle and conflict and defeat that their
truth is made manifest.
" The greater Crashaw " is one of the titles laid by appre-
ciative reviewers at our poet's feet; and it is as deceptive as
such generalizations usually are. To be sure, that human as-
piration for supernal beauty, which Edgar Poe once defined as
the essence of the poetic principle, is supremely potent in the
works of both ; but this might be said of numberless others.
The real resemblance would seem to He in their mystical and
spiritual attitude toward life, and in that devotional tenderness
a " divine familiarity," Mr. Thompson once called it, com-
menting on the older poet which is almost the birthright of
our Catholic songsters. But Crashaw's was essentially a lyric
genius; and Mr. Thompson is as dramatic as Browning. Tem-
peramental differences are quite as striking; for while the
voice of Richard Crashaw comes to us in tones of angelic
sweetness, soaring up to the clouds as to its proper sphere, the
1905.] THE POETRY OF FRANCIS THOMPSON. 613-
author of the " Hound of Heaven " has pierced to the depths
of human experience, and speaks to us in "words accursed of
comfortable men." The one might well be called the poet of
Bethlehem ; the other of Gethsemani.
The drawbacks of Mr. Thompson's verse are usually ob-
vious enough. In the first place, his eccentric choice of words
sometimes plunges the reader in semi- helplessness; and the
sentence structure, too, is often a cause of much obscurity.
Faults like these seem superficial enough and therefore the
more unnecessary; but they have their roots in some funda-
mental idiosyncrasy of thought, and are rarely overcome. In
a searching piece of criticism on the first poems,* Coventry
Patmore granted to Francis Thompson all the " masculine "
elements of "profound thought and far-fetched splendor of
imagery, and nimble-witted discernment of those analogies
which are the * roots ' of the poet's language," but regretted
his lack of the " feminine faculties of taste, of emotion that
must have music for its rendering, of shy moderation which
never says so much as it means," et cetera. Reserve strength
is, of course, an incomparable possession, and we could wish at
moments that our poet's verse had more of this stern restraint ;
perhaps, too, there are vagaries which seem to transgress a
fine sense of the " eternal fitness." But one hesitates to bring
the personal equation too close to an author's individuality, or
to criticise the passion-flower because it is not a rose. No one
who has read Mr. Thompson's illuminating little prose reviews
in the Academy and elsewhere could for a moment ques-
tion his real critical ability. And the fact that he has
written lines of intense melody, suggests that in others he may
purposely have sought the effect of dissonance.
However, he is not and never will be a "popular poet."
In more than one passage he has imprisoned emotions still
palpitating with life, and found words for those flashes of con-
sciousness which almost to our own souls remain inarticulate.
But they are not surface emotions ; and in mode of expression
Mr. Thompson is quite heedless of the wide appeal. No one
is more conscious of this than the poet himself, and a few
lines of "The Cloud's Swan Song" allude to it with delicate
pathos :
* Fortnightly Review, January, 1894.
6 14 THE POETRY OF FRANCIS THOMPSON. [Aug.
Like gray clouds one by one my songs upsoar
Over my soul's cold peaks; and one by one
They lose their little rain, and are no more;
And whether well or ill, to tell me there is none.
For 'tis an alien tongue, of alien things,
From all men's care how miserably apart!
Even my friends say: "Of what is this he sings?"
And barren is my song, and barren is my heart.
But for the most part, he is too much in earnest to keep
his audience at all in mind. And being far from obvious,
these verses demand somewhat of the reader's co operation
with the inevitable result of minimizing the circle of these
readers. Any one who is willing to delve a little, however,
will find real gold in Mr. Thompson's volumes gold of a purity
and brilliance rare enough in the mines of latter day poetry,
His work is a precious heritage ; memorable for its artistic
power and its deep, human sympathy, but most of all for its
Catholicity and its spiritual elevation. So it is that we turn
back wistfully to those last verses of his, the Envoy of the
New Poems :
Go, songs, for ended is your brief, sweet play ;
Go, children of swift joy and tardy sorrow ;
And some are sung, and that was yesterday,
And some unsung, and that may be to-morrow.
This morrow has been long adawning, so that we have al-
most ceased to hope for its light ; but in the day which has
been granted us, at least, we can rejoice and be glad.
SERVIA AND RUSSIAN DIPLOMACY.
BY BEN HURST.
*T the present crisis, when the storm, which she
has so long and skilfully eluded, has broken
over her head, Russia is not likely to forget the
demonstrations sympathetic or otherwise of-
^ fered her by the different nations of Europe.
She will probably rate at their true worth the protestations of
her effervescent Latin ally, but there are other important factors
in her future career, whose official declarations it behooves her
to gauge with more precaution.
Nothing is supposed to escape the keen eye of a Russian
diplomat ; and those who are thickly spread over the Balkan
peninsula can doubtless testify to the amount of sincerity con-
tained in the recent addresses and telegrams to the Czar. But,
as we have too often seen, affinity of race, creed, and language
is no guarantee for identity of interests; and Russia will have
a rude awakening, should she reckon on the unqualified support
of the peoples delivered from the Sultan's yoke, when she under-
takes her legendary march on Constantinople. It is the intimate
conviction of the more serious politicians in the Balkan States
that since the Congress of Berlin, in which she did not play
the prominent part she believed herself entitled to, Russia has
steadily worked to weaken and disorganize these States, with a
view to their ultimate absorption. Passing over the usual shib-
boleths of " Slav fraternity," and the current press articles on
" union of hearts," and " Russia's maternal care for the younger
Slav nationalities," let us glance at a few salient facts which
go far to justify this appreciation.
In 1877 Russia forced Roumania to go to war with Turkey
for the possession of the province of Dobrudja, but, after it
had been won by Roumanian blood and Roumanian money,
Russia annexes Bessarabia to her own dominions! Here, how-
ever, thanks to the firm and patriotic rule of Charles of Hohen-
zollern, her aggressions and intrigues have come to a stop.
In Bulgaria, through which lies her shortest land route to
Constantinople, her efforts have been more successful. Ferdi-
nand, after a short struggle, allowed himself to be corrupted at
616 SERBIA AND RUSSIAN DIPLOMACY. [Aug.,
the cost of the independence of his adopted nation, or rather
of the nation which adopted him ; for this unworthy scion of
the Bourbons knows no fatherland and no god but his personal
ambition. Patriotic Bulgaria, however, was not to be quite de-
ceived, and that the massacre of Stambuloff did not annihilate
his party is evident in the Sobranija of to day. Ferdinand's
truckling to Russia has rendered him so unpopular that his
maintenance on the throne is the question which most preoccu-
pies the government of the hour.
The Greeks have not forgotten that, when their fleet was
surrounded by the combined fleets of Europe in the harbor of
Khania, it was their Russian brethren alone who found courage
to fire on the Christians who had taken up arms against infidel
misrule. The quasi-cession of Crete was due to the united
pressure of the Powers ; and had Greece been victorious, she
would have had to yield the indemnity which, according to
Greek statesmen, Russia was prepared to demand.
But it is the country in which Russian manoeuvring has
been most steadfastly opposed, that lies helpless to-day, crushed
by disaster on disaster. Servia is an object lesson for the little
sister kingdoms in the Balkans who dream of resisting Russian
" influence," /. e. t Russian dictation. With the extinction of
the Obrenovitch dynasty, the national aspirations of the Serbs
have received a death blow, and already the statesmen on the
Neva are degrading and belittling their newly-crowned tool.
The record of King Milan's reign since he incensed Alexander
III. by the elevation of his principality to a kindgom is the
record of a series of plots and counter-plots anent the cevelop-
ment and progress of Servia. Prior to this, by cleverly foment-
ing discord between the people and its rulers, Russia had man-
aged to keep the country in a constant state of agitation. In
1842 Prince Milosh was forced to abdicate in favor of his son
Michael, who was banished in the same year and replaced by
Alexander Karageorgevitch, father of the present king. After
a reign of sixteen years, Russia connived at the dethronement
of this weak prince and the restoration of Prince Michael, who
nevertheless, excited her displeasure by his marriage with a Hun-
garian lady the present Countess Arenberg and by his encour-
agement of the German colonists. By the promotion of various
home industries, and the advantages offered to foreign capi-
talists for the development of Servia's mineral resources, the
country soon made rapid strides in every direction.
1905.] SERVIA AND RUSSIAN DIPLOMACY. 617
But the reign of this enlightened and patriotic prince was
brief. He was assassinated in 1868, and although his ministers
managed to exclude the rival dynasty suspected of instigating
the murder it was a period of trouble and despondency that
followed his young cousin's accession.
As time went on, however, national aspirations became
centred in the boy. Prince Milan's rare mental capacity, his
extraordinary grasp of intellect, excited the admiration of all
who came in contact with him. Unfortunately, these brilliant
gifts were marred by an ungovernable temper and a too arbi-
trary will. Nevertheless, the benefits he conferred on the
country to which he was devoted heart and soul make his
memory forever dear to the nation. For the misfortune of
both, he fell in love with and married a young Russian noble-
woman, whose naivete and high spirit provided a fair field for
Russian diplomacy. The slights, real and imaginary, which
she suffered from her young husband were adroitly magnified,
and her patriotic sentiments worked upon, till every personal
grievance became in her eyes an insult that would be resented
by her native country. The incident of the Russian emissary,
who affected to bring instructions from the Czar and guaran-
teed the recognition of Queen Nathalia as regent if her hus-
band were brought to abdicate, will probably never be cleared
up It is certain that the Queen was incited to work against
her husband's authority and prestige, with a view to securing
the immediate accession of her son. But the secret agent
failed to give the promised proofs of his authenticity, and,
after days of painful groping, Queen Nathalia suddenly broke
off all negotiations and dismissed him as an adventurer.
Rumors were circulated that he was an agent paid by King
Milan to test and incriminate the Queen, but these did not
hold ground.
The Russian government, which had on diverse occasions
openly encouraged Queen Nathalia to resistance and defiance,
ceased to bestow any further attention on her once the divorce
was pronounced. It now set to work to undermine King
Milan's throne by encouraging the wild demands of the Radi-
cal party, whose leaders received subsidies from the Russian
government for the advancement of the " liberties of the
people." The King was finally forced to abdicate to avoid the
eruption of civil war, and with his departure, and the seizure
of power by the demagogues, Russia was for the moment
618 SERVIA AND RUSSIAN DIPLOMACY. [Aug.,
satisfied. Internal disorder was rife in the country until Milan
outwitted his antagonists by the coup d'etat of the ist of
April, 1893. Acting under his instructions young King Alex-
ander suddenly declared himself no longer a minor and im-
prisoned the Regents who had misgoverned the country. This
step was hailed with joy by the people, and thus^ began the
career that was to end so tragically. The pseudo- reconcilia-
tion between Alexander's parents by the annulment of the
divorce had no effect on their mutual relationship, but it en-
abled each in turn to visit him unhindered and to offer him
counsel and support. Queen Nathalia was by this time disil-
lusioned with regard to Russian friendship, and, though many
continued to consider her as the faithful upholder of a Rus-
sian alliance, her intimates knew that the Queen was no longer
to be played upon. Experience, and her maternal instincts,
combined to make her fight shy of Russian diplomats,, and her
ripened good sense was made evident by her acquiescence in
King Milan's definite return to Servia as Commander-in-Chief
of his son's forces.
Russia's antagonism to her old enemy now broke forth in
the most outrageous fashion. The Russian minister in Belgrade,
Mr. Jadovsky, was directed not only to belittle but openly to
defy the king's father. In spite of the overtures of reconcilia-
tion made by the Servian Court, Russia finally withdrew her
representative. Shortly afterwards the famous attentat on
King Milan took place. It was followed by the proclamation
of martial law and the imprisonment of those Radical politi-
cians who were known to be ardent Russophiles. A sorry
attempt has lately been made in a German paper by an ex-
minister of the period to throw the shadow of patricide on the
late King Alexander, but this unsupported calumny needs no
refutation. It would nevertheless be a hopeless task to try to
trace the far away hand that, through a succession of obscure
agents, aimed a pistol at the man who devoted his whole
energy to the re-organization of the Servian army. The Rus-
sian press affected to consider the attentat as a clever fraud
inspired by Milan himself, but the people thought otherwise and
clung to him the more, feeling that his cause and theirs was
identical.
Consolidated and strong, the kingdom stood at this time on
a pinnacle which it had never before reached, and the bril-
liant alliance which Milan had been enabled to arrange for his
1905.] SERVIA AND RUSSIAN DIPLOMACY. 619
son was on the point of being realized when opposition and
total ruin came from the most unexpected quarter.
Mr. Manzuroff, who, from Secretary of Legation, became
Charge D'Affaires of Russia after the departure of the arrogant
Mr. Jadovsky, was noted as a strangely reticent man. His
tactics were conciliatory towards the Court and deferential to
his colleagues. After the bluff and bluster of Mr. Jadovsky
this soothing, modest diplomat won golden opinions from
everybody. For private family reasons he mixed little in so-
ciety and was considered a person of no importance by his
European colleagues. Some time after the recall of Mr. Jadov-
sky this gentleman of secluded habits began to take regular
drives in the evening dusk, and these drives were invariably in
one direction, and ended in a call on Madame Mashin, Queen
Nathalia's former lady in-waiting. The inhabitants of the street
in which this lady lived grew familiar with the rumble of the
Russian's carriage, and some thought themselves clever in re-
marking that if official Russia paid court by proxy to the ab-
sent Queen it was with a view to ensuring her speedy return
and the consequent withdrawal of King Milan. Others, more
astute, suggested that Mr. Manzuroff sought to influence the
young King through Madame Mashin, who, with many young
girls of the best families, shared the reputation of having in-
spired Alexander with a "grande passion."
It has been the fashion lately to describe this lady as a
clever, fascinating demon, who plotted for her elevation to the
throne while yet in her teens. Former schoolmates have come
forward and recalled a dream which she related to them, in
which she beheld herself crowned. Nobody, however, remem-
bered this when Queen Nathalia took the poor engineer's widow
to be her companion in exile. The arrangement was con-
sidered advantageous for both parties. The Queen would have
the agreeable society of a pleasant, well-bred woman, and
Madame Mashin would be relieved from the painful penury
in which her husband had left her. It was but fitting, said
many, that the House of Obrenovitch should remember what
her grandfather, old Lunevitch, had done for the country and
the dynasty in the rising of 1815, when he gave all he pos-
sessed for the purchase of cannon.
The lady herself had fallen into the routine of her new
position with characteristic adaptability. She was the beau
ideal of a lady-in-waiting: always cheerful, self-restrained, and
620 SERVIA AND RUSSIAN DIPLOMACY, [Aug.,
deferential towards her royal mistress ; graciously amiable to
everybody else. I met her frequently at this time, during
Queen Nathalia's visits to her son, and on me, as on all those
who passed a quarter of an hour in her society, she left the
impression of a charming woman, but with little depth and just
enough culture to make her a sympathetic listener and com-
panion to the gifted queen. Her personal attractiveness was
great, but although her features were regular it was not actual
beauty that distinguished the late Queen Draga. She was of
low stature, with a fine, delicately-poised head, large, lustrous
eyes, and a small mouth. In her voice, I think, lay her chief
charm. It was rich, caressing, and enveloped one in its mu-
sical modulations, so that it was difficult to harbor any preven-
tions against her while under its influence. Beyond this there
is little to say. She had the usual superficial instruction of
her countrywomen ; spoke French and German, dressed taste-
fully, and was capable of any amount of small chat. When
she left Queen Nathalia ostensibly for health reasons, in real-
ity because the latter was displeased at her encouragement of
the young king's open admiration Madame Mashin continued
to profit by all the advantages attached to her recent position.
Her at-home days were among the most successful in Belgrade,
and the pompous and densely conceited representative of Ger-
many at that epoch, Baron Wecker Gotter, led the fashion in
dancing attendance on her. The rumors of her clandestine
liaison with the king were never absolutely confirmed, and on
the solitary occasion that he entered her doors, before the en-
gagement was announced, it was to meet Mr. Manzuroff.
Reports had been diligently circulated some time previously
of Alexander's violent attachment to his cousin, Miss Constan-
tinovitch (since married to Prince Mirko, of Montenegro), and
the pros and cons for an alliance with a simple Servian of good
birth, as contrasted with a foreign alliance, were freely dis-
cussed by all classes of society. Up to this it had been sup-
posed scarcely possible for the monarch to marry within his
own country. The idea was new and the scoffers were legion ;
but that it had been mooted was a great step for the pro-
moters when it cropped up, later on, in dead earnest.
Meanwhile the Servian envoy in St. Petersburg was, in his
own opinion, gaining ground with Count Lamsdorf, who let it
appear that Russia was no longer so diametrically opposed to
a recognition of King Milan's position as Commander of the
1905.] SERVIA AND RUSSIAN DIPLOMACY. 621
Servian army. Then, one morning, the bomb burst. In the
absence of his father who had gone to Carlsbad ostensibly for
a cure, in reality to put the finishing touches to the contem-
plated alliance with a German princess King Alexander pro-
claimed his formal engagement to Madame Mashin under the
auspices of the Russian Emperor, who graciously consented to
act as " Koum " or " Sponsor " to the newly affianced pair.
To understand the grief and despair which this announce-
ment called forth among his subjects, one must remember that
the people's hearts were closely bound up in their young sov-
ereign, whose birth, during the Serbo-Turkish war of 1876,
had been hailed as a special gift of God ; that they had suf-
fered sorely from the dissensions of his parents; that all their
hopes for the future were concentrated in his person ; that
they looked forward to a brilliant marriage for him as the
surest means of rehabilitating the throne, consolidating the
kingdom, and restoring the finances by opening the gates of
foreign credit and exciting interest in the vast undeveloped re-
sources of Servia. Statesmen of all shades of opinion hastened
to the palace and conjured the king to change, or at least
postpone, his decision, but he remained inflexible. Poor boy !
He was very young and very much in love. His bride showed
herself more amenable to reason and was, at one moment, on
the point of leaving the country. Any attempt to characterize
her as a far-seeing, capable woman could not hold ground with
those who beheld her vacillations at this time. Even the as-
surances that there was a mighty empire at her back could
not vanquish her timid fears when the critical moment arrived
of appearing in public in her new role. Members of her own
family do not deny that she had fits of anguish and remorse
during the weeks preceding the wedding ceremony, and that
"only the dread of offending the Russian Emperor" deterred
her from breaking all off. Queen Draga was nothing but a
tool in clever hands, which bent her to the working of political
schemes that her shallow brain could not even fathom.
To those who reproach an army, since regicide, with hav-
ing made no united protest at this time against an unworthy
alliance, we must recall : first, the Czar's telegram of approval
and congratulation ; second, the King's threat of abdication if
he were thwarted this meant the return of King Milan and
open rupture with Russia ; third, the suddenness of the affair,
which left no time for combination ; fourth, the sentiment of
622 SERVIA AND RUSSIAN DIPLOMACY. [Aug.
loyalty then still existing towards the last scion of the Obreno-
vitches.
We can scarcely wonder that a tiny, fourth- rate, struggling
kingdom of recent date should hesitate to oppose the great
Autocrat to whom the first-rate powers of Europe had shown
of late years such a marked deference. Many were the moves
devised and debated among the honest patriots of Servia, but
the possibility of evading the catastrophe was nought, in the
face of that decisive message from the North. King Milan gave
no sign. Check-mated at last, and wounded to the very soul,
he retired to Vienna, where he was soon to die. The nation,
bewildered and prostrate, saw that all opposition would be fu-
tile ; but the peasants murmured to one another : " Why has
the great Czar condemned the boy ? His is but a youthful folly
and he should be saved instead of being thrust into the fire.
Somebody should go to the Czar and tell him that she is middle-
aged, a widow, barren with her first husband, and not of a
rank fit for our king ! " In other circles hot tears were shed.
The misguided young monarch's faithful adherents echoed his
mother's words : " Son, for me it is not your marriage, but
your burial ! "
The fictitious show of rejoicing at the wedding deceived
nobody; a people mourned, as well it might. Here, too, the
devoted loyalists, who rallied round the king, reconciling them-
selves for his sake to the inevitable, had to witness the dolo-
rous spectacle of his systematic degradation. Instead of send-
ing a special representative for the important function of
" Koum," which he had accepted, Nicholas II. appointed Secre-
tary Manzuroff the manager of the whole affair, a man of neither
rank nor title. The obligatory present to the bride, a gold
bracelet set with emeralds, was not worthy of the Imperial
giver. Neither did the Queen like to show it to her female
friends. The sovereigns of an independent kingdom were treated
as unimportant vassals.
Once the fatal union was accomplished, Russia's old policy
of lowering the reigning house of Servia was resumed and pur-
sued to the bitter end. By instigating and solemnizing his
monstrous marriage, Russia prepared King Alexander's removal
from the throne; by refusing to receive him as a guest she
gave the signal for the conspiracy which accomplished his death.
TOBIAS GREEN, TONSORIALIST.
BY JEANIE DRAKE.
JES, sah " ; Green said, strolling up and down his
shop and swinging a pair of scissors on his fat
thumb, " the affairs of Europe is at present in a
state of most tremenjous concatenation. Take
Russia, with her Nihilists' assassinatin' and pre-
carious schemes; take England, with her Conservators and
Homerulers conspirin' conglomerately against the Government ;
take Germany, with her international depredations "
"Take my razor, instead, will you, Green, and give me a
shave? for I'm in a deuce of a hurry," said a good-looking
young fellow among the waiting customers. Green's very black
and shining face showed a faint expression of offense at this
abrupt check to his eloquence.
" I would do so, sah, with the greatest condescension,"
bowing and waving the gentleman into a chair, " but," in mys-
terious aside, " this is Jim's place, an ambitious tonsorialist, sah,
nearly as good as myself. Mustn't hurt his feelings. Now,
Jim, lively and give Mr. Dabney a real Siberian sensation."
He may have meant Sybarite; he clearly meant not-him-
self-to serve Mr. Dabney. Dabney, indeed, a youngster but
a short year or so on the Exchange, and whose importance
there lay hidden as yet among the possibilities. No; since the
day when, amid the network of short city streets situated laby-
rinthine within sound of the Exchanges, the modest sign of:
"Tobias Green, Tonsorialist," first caught the attention of a
quick- eyed member of the Cotton Exchange, Green himself had
acquired a certain dignity. Older, stouter, and much more
prosperous, he was no longer ready to wait with eager polite-
ness on all who entered, but reserved his own deft and velvety
ministrations for a favored few. To these he had confided the
touching story of his early life, if confidence that may be called
which all around, white-aproned 'prentices and lathered and
tousled customers alike, were welcome to hear. In fact, it
VOL. LXXXI. 40
624 TOBIAS GREEN, TONSORIALIST. [Aug.,
was chiefly to the manly sympathy aroused by this story that
his rapid success was due; to that and the circumstance that
he knew how to shave.
He cast a proprietor's glance around now at the luxurious
fittings, at the electric fans overhead, at the dusky youths busily
manipulating faces upturned to the ceiling. A placid smile
overspread the pompous good-nature of his countenance, and
his broad, inflated nostrils sniffed with relish the enjoyable
odors of cologne, bay rum, and other sweets with which the
air was charged.
" Yes, sah " ; he continued, looking over the curtain of the
door into the darkening street, "the conditions of Europe at
present is resuscitatingly alarming ; and when the auspicious
war-cloud hanging over the country bursts, something must ex-
punge, something must expunge ! "
The door flew open in his face, and a tiny newsboy's yell
split his ears: " Hyar's yer Gazette, TeV gram, Bull' tin, Post, 'n
Era."
" Evacuate these premises promiscuously," said Green sternly ;
but the imp was gone, seeing with' lightning quickness that no
one wanted his wares.
"Seems as if something had burst outside, Green," said a
languid customer, finding temperate amusement between a Puck
and the barber's polysyllables. " Perhaps it's your war-cloud
come over on a vacation."
A sudden downpour of rain did, indeed, beat noisily upon
roofs and pavement; but Green paid no attention to the scoffer;
being now busy welcoming a gentleman who entered with drip-
ping umbrella. To take this and hand it to one of the boys,
with the customer's hat and coat ; to induct him into the most
comfortable chair; to wrap a snowy bib about his elderly per-
son ; to hover around him like a stout and ebon Angel of
Justice, while he put a finishing touch to a razor already mir-
aculously sharp, absorbed him now completely to the exclusion
of European affairs.
" Quite a perennial excitement on the Street to-day, I am
credulously informed, Mr. Van Houton, sah," he began, when
the iron-gray stubble field of operations was well covered with
a white fluff. "P. G. and L. took a deciduous flight up, I be-
lieve." Mr. Van Houten's eyebrows arched slightly in oracu-
lous vagueness. "I wonder, sah," deferentially, "that the hy-
1905.] TOBIAS GREEN, TONSORIALIST. 625
perborean strain is not too much for you gentlemen. You look
a little overstimulated this afternoon. Now, there's my Jere-
miah, my only posterity, sah, as you -know " The droop of
Mr. Van Houten's lashes may have meant assent " he has
soaring aspirements in the brokerage line, but I discourage them
euphoniously ; for I know how that sort of excitability brings
on vacillation of the heart." The razor playing around the
corner of Mr. Van Houten's mouth may have encouraged his
natural gravity ; but Mr. Dabney, arranging his tie and ad-
miring himself in a glass, took the opportunity of smiling.
"Ah," said the barber, heaving a mighty sigh which percep-
tibly swelled his apron- front, "the gregarious trials of my early
days has totally misfitted me for anything like financiering ex-
citement."
"Suppose you tell us about it," suggested the man with
Puck, who had no umbrella and was waiting for the heaviest
shower to be over. " I've never heard it, Green."
" Nor I," said Dabney, lightly ; " it must be interesting."
Green would have suavely evaded wasting his eloquence on
these triflers, but Mr. Van Houten, now able to speak, said
solemnly: "I know the pitiful story, of course, Green; but
don't mind repeating it before me. It may do these young
men good to hear something of the horrors from which their
fathers saved you."
" To obligate you, sah, is my most consequential desire. A
little bay rum or some tonic to help that bulbous desication ? "
Dabney and the other man exchanged a second smile. Incipi-
ent baldness, so frequent with young America, had made them
both familiar with the phrase " bulbous desication."
" It was an afternoon just like this, gentlemen," began
Green, amid a flattering silence, " with torrential floods pour-
ing from ebonious clouds that I relegate from my memory.
In a miserable shanty my father and mother and I lived on a
plantation in Carolina. I was only a child, but had been so
hard worked since daybreak with a field gang, that I lay ex-
hausted before the log-fire, where our penurious evening colla-
tions of musty corn-meal and spoiled bacon was cooking. The
rain dripped through vacancies in the roof and poured multi-
fariously down the chimney, and the smoke made me cough as
well as my father, who was sitting on the other side too worn
out to fill his pipe, and could do nothing but rub his poor
626 TOBIAS GREEN, TONSORIALIST. [Aug.,
lame knees that were tormented after a day in the wet
ditches."
The grayness without and the dreary, steady splashing of
the rain helped his hearers to imagine the forlorn scene he
described.
"Then my mother came in dripping wet from the storm
and threw herself down and groaned out : ' Oh, my Lord ! my
Lord ! ' over and over. My father stopped rubbing his knees
and asked her what was the matter. She told him she was
sick with fever and not able to work ; and because she was
slow with her task the overseer had been driving and cursing
her all day, and had threatened her with worse to-morrow."
It was noticeable how the barber dropped his long words
and used simple language as emotion seemingly stirred him.
A gentleman sternly reproved one of the boys who let a brush
fall; and Green resumed in faltering tones: "Well, when to-
morrow came she could hardly stand, but went into the field
and before night was sent up for punishment. She showed us
the marks and my father, beside himself, stole away with us
that night and hid out in the marsh. They tracked us with
bloodhounds " a thrill of horror went through the audience
" and they brought us in more dead than alive. I will not
intimidate your feelings, gentlemen," said the barber, after a
momentary pause, during which the thunder muttered sullenly
overhead, "with telling you all that happened to us then.
But at the end the overseer said that as we were cattle likely
to stray we had better be marked. So, gentlemen, I know
how it feels to be branded with a hot iron." He pulled up
his sleeve and on his forearm could be seen an anchor and
the letters " R. H. B."
The silence was broken- by indignant exclamations, and
young Dabney looked unusually grave. " My mother died
from their cruelty. Then the war came and, the master being
off with the army, the overseer, who hated my father, had ar-
ranged to sell me away from him as he had done my
brothers ; but we ran away again and hid and starved and ran
and begged, and at last were helped through the lines and got
to New York. But it was too much for my father, and he
died and went to my mother ; and I was left, an enfeebled, in-
fortunious, tenacious castaway in the big city."
., Here Green's voice broke, and a tear from sympathy, or
1905.] TOBIAS GREEN, TONSORIALIST. 627
an incautious dash of bay rum, appeared in Mr. Van Houten's
eye. " Well, I held horses and blacked boots and ran
errands and went to night school, and by officionating sum-
mers as waiter in Saratoga, gentlemen, I acquisitioned " this
with proud humility " a superfluity of classified learning.
When I first set up my ostentatious, humble sign here in the
street, Mr. Van Houten and other gentlemen were officious
enough to take an interest in my wearisome history, and since
then my fortunes have rapidly declined to prosperity."
He waved in air the brush with which he had finished
whisking off the portly Van Houten figure, and added with
impressive magnanimity: "I will not consecutively affirmate or
deny that there have been plantations where all was peaceful
and quietudinous, but ours was a hell upon the terrestrial
sphere; and, gentlemen, I trust you will never formulate the
acquaintance of any one like our old owner or his children."
The rain was over an'd several of the now thoughtful
customers passed out, Mr. Van Houten first pressing a coin of
value into the palm of the grateful barber.
" A friend was to have met me here, Green," observed
Dabney, taking his hat, "but I can't spare any more time just
now, and he being a Southerner it is, perhaps, well he was not
on hand for your story. If any one asks for me ; gentleman's
name is Burgess say I couldn't wait ; will see him in the
morning."
"What name, sah ? "
"Burgess, Mr. Robert Hamilton Burgess."
The great advantage of a complexion of the shadowed livery
of the burnished sun is that it never betrays its owner by any
sudden change of color. " Very well, sah," answered the
barber, with his bow of ceremony, a very fine one, about
which Dabney was less disposed than usual to be flippant.
" I had no idea the poor fellow had suffered like that,"
said he outside the door to the reader of Puck, whom he
sheltered under his umbrella from a finishing sprinkle. " Never
could understand before why Van Houten and the other old
capitalists about here made such a little tin god of him.
With their patronage I'm told he's rich, lives high, and sends
his black swan, Jeremiah, to college. A sort of martyr, you
see; and a martyr that knows how to shave and keep a first-
class place too. Your car? Well, good-day."
628 TOBIAS GREEN, TONSORIALIST. [Aug.,
When Dabney entered the shop the next afternoon, he was
accompanied by a gentleman several years his senior, of dis-
tinguished appearance, though but of medium height and build,
and wearing his clothes with an easy disregard for the latest
style. A kindly expression was further enhanced, when he
spoke, by a singularly winning smile.
" Mr. Burgess," said Dabney, introducing him to two or
three friends present. " I see you are ready for me, Jim. If
you're not engaged, Green, you should show Mr. Burgess what
can be done in New York to make shaving a dream of de-
light."
If Green had any reason to feel embarrassment at this meet-
ing with Mr. Burgess, he had been sufficiently prepared for it
not to show any. He came forward with his usual bow, and
the smile which displayed such dazzling teeth ; and at the
same moment Mr. Burgess started, looked again, held out a
friendly hand, and said delightedly : Why, Toby, is it possible !
This is a surprise to see you here ; and a pleasant one to see
you doing so well. But why have I not heard from you in
all this time ? "
The barber's face was as unresponsive as a piece of ebony.
He came no nearer, but made another bow and said : " I am
most promiscuously glad to meet you, sah, but I think you
have mistaken the personage. My title is Green, and my visible
orbits have never had the honor of remarking you previously."
"Your name is not Toby, and you have never seen me be-
fore ? " said Mr. Burgess with a sort of stupefaction, still staring
at the barber. And you were not born in South Carolina on
our place ? and your father was not Jerry, my father's own
man ? and and " Mr. Burgess paused and concluded : " The
most surprising thing is that while your voice is Toby's own,
you look even more like Jerry now."
" My name, sah, is T. Alexander Green," said the barber
constrainedly, still showing the gleam of white teeth ; " and all
the gentlemen herein aforesaid," waving his hand around, " have
acquaintance with my clerical history."
" Well, Green," said Mr. Burgess quietly, turning away in
disappointment, "you must excuse the mistake, but I took you
for a very fine fellow, a trusty, attached friend and companion
of my youthful days, my own boy, Toby, about whom I am
anxious to learn something."
1905.] TOBIAS GREEN, TONSORIALIST. 629
"No excuses, sah," said Green huskily, "are pertinacious
to the case. Mistakes are incongruous to all." He cleared his
throat once or twice before consigning the Southern gentleman
to an assistant's care. Old Van Houten just leaving, and con-
necting the tragedy of Green's childhood with slave owners
generally, cast several glances of disapproval from under his
shaggy brows towards the reclining figure; but the others
thought with something like amusement that Mr. Burgess looked
most unlike the brutal tyrants of that dismal story. And the
keen-eyed Dabney did not doubt that " Toby " had been con-
nected with episodes joyous and troubled in Mr Burgess' life
when he remarked the retrospective, thoughtful mood into which
this chance likeness had thrown him. Also he smiled to him-
self, seeing how the shock of being mistaken for a plain, every-
day "Toby," well fed and well-treated, had checked the flow
of Green's eloquence and deprived them temporarily of his
obiter dicta on the affairs of nations. The comparative quiet in
the shop, which was the result of this, enabled them to hear
presently in a shrill chant, rising above the hum of the street,
a chorus of small Arabs :
" Jeremiah,
Blow the fire,
Puff, puff, puff!"
And simultaneously the door opened and a negro youth, attired
in the exaggeration of fashion, entered, followed by a taunting
yell of: "Ah-h! Get on to the dude nigger!" The little
scene wherein he had been obliged to contradict a customer
had perhaps unnerved the barber, for his hand slipped and made
quite a gash in the chin of Mr. Amsterdam, an important
patron.
" D n it 1 " cried that gentleman promptly, " what's the
matter with you, Green ? "
The barber muttered something about " his boy's unpromul-
gated appearance."
"Well," testily, "you've seen Jeremiah before, haven't you?"
with an irate glance at the spot of blood on the towel. " Be
careful, now, confound it ! "
The name attracted Mr. Burgess' attention, and he regarded
Jeremiah, a lanky youth, not entirely unlike his father as he
might be under the disadvantage of a tall white hat, a brilliant
630 TOBIAS GREEN, TONSORIALIST. [Aug.,
cravat, and much jewelry. He met Mr. Burgess' gaze with un-
easy defiance, and superciliously ignoring the colored assistants
strutted into the back shop. His father reluctantly responded
to some request which he whispered, and then rather hurried
him away.
" I hope you are not pampering that Jerry of yours, Green,"
said Mr. Amsterdam with tartness inspired by a glimpse of his
scratch in a mirror.
" I ventures to opinionate not, sah," replied the barber
blandly. " He's a fairsomely good boy and high up in the cur-
ricle of his college. But the youth of this generation," with
a very grand bow to all present, " have not the manners the
grandioseness the savvy fare of the ancient regiment."
Mr. Burgess smiled, and his eyes meeting the barber's by
some inadvertence of the latter's, they wore again their puz-
zled look.
"Will you dine with me at the ' Brunswick,' Mr. Bur-
gess?" asked Dabney on their way up town. He had taken
a strong fancy to this soft- voiced, gentle- mannered stranger, a
very recent member of his Exchange, whose reposeful, sympa-
thetic bearing gave a sense of refreshment to his own eager,
nervous temperament. Over their coffee and liqueur Burgess
reverted with a half smile to Green.
'It is the most extraordinary likeness," he said. "I am
afraid that it annoyed the man, however."
"He has something in the nature of a 'strawberry mark,'"
said Dabney, "a 'brand' I believe he calls it; and tells a
most dramatic story of ill-usage during slavery times."
" There have doubtless been such cases," said Mr. Burgess
thoughtfully, " for there is always the chance of irresponsible
power being abused. But most of that life was peaceful and
patriarchal, certainly in our region; and the negroes on our
place were a proverb as a lot of lazy, spoiled darkies. I well
remember Jerry, my father's valet's plausible excuses for ap-
propriating his master's clothes almost before they were worn ;
and the way he idled and laid down the law to the others, on
the score of ' having gone courtin' with 'massa,' was an achieve-
ment. As for my boy, Toby well, well, the times that fel-
low and I have had together, fishing, swimming, bird-nesting,
coon-hunting, E/ieu fngaces ! When I ran away to the army
at fifteen I would have left him behind, not to get him into
i. 90S-] TOBIAS GREEN, TONSORIALIST. 631
trouble, but the rascal cried and went on his knees ; and so
at last we ran off together. When my dear mother wrote
she said it was some comfort to know that at least Toby was
with me. I was wounded twice in Virginia, and he nursed
me both times ; and he nearly died of fever, and I nursed
him ; and at the end of it all we found ourselves somehow
barefooted and hungry back at the old place. But with the
dwelling burned and fields laid waste and the slaves dispersed
there was not much to do there. I found some work in a
town, picking up a little needed education between times. A
valet was too pretentious for fallen fortunes; so, when the
fellow grew restless over his friends' report of gold to be
gathered in New York, I helped him to get there. I had
taught him to read and write myself when we were both chil-
dren sitting on the hearth by the light of plantation pine-
knots, and I had letters from him pretty regularly. When
phosphate was found on the old place, and fortune smiled
once more, Toby wrote with hearty congratulation and request
for help to a little schooling. I was proud of his ambition
and gave it willingly and later a small capital to start him in
whatever business he was fit for. The letters ceased then,
and I know no more and have sometimes feared that my poor
fellow died. But when, being without ties, I made up my
mind to come up here and settle, I declare to you, Mr. Dab-
ney," with his sweet smile, " that a favorite fancy with me
was that some day, somewhere, I might come across Toby.
Hence the surprise I gave the worthy Green, for the likeness
is striking. But I am boring you."
" I am much interested, I assure you. Anything pastoral
is a novelty to a flinty, sordid man of business. Green's ac-
count of slavery, on the other hand, is a bit lurid; but, cer-
tainly most harrowing."
"You can hardly understand," his guest continued apolo-
getically, the nature of a tie, non-existent now, where two
children of different races grew up together, with griefs, inter-
ests, and sports in common; never forgetting their relations
of superior and inferior, but only remembering to exercise a
protecting if despotic guardianship on one side, and a devoted
and grateful attachment on the other. I recall," with a laugh,
" making a wandering sailor in our parts tattoo me secretly
to prove to Toby that it did not hurt; and then having the
632 TOBIAS GREEN, TONSORIALIST. [Aug.,
same mark pricked on him. He yelled frightfully, and I was
glad I had taken the precaution of having it done out of the
hearing of his mother and mine." He pushed his cuff upward'
to show his host an anchor imprinted above the wrist and the
letters " R. H. B."
" Odd fancies boys have ! " commented Dabney mechani-
cally, while a flood of light burst on his mind; but he was a
young man of much discretion, and while he raised his glass
and seemed to be examining its pale green contents, his reso-
lution was made. Why should he distress this honest and
kindly gentleman by the disclosure of the ingratitude and
monstrous imposture of his old-time servant and companion ?
Curiously enough, even with the anger he felt against the
latter, he was able to divine the origin of his deception.
More than likely some of his first patrons, old men of aboli-
tionist traditions, inquiring tentatively into his past, had given
a clue as to the role which they would find most movingly
picturesque. " It had certainly paid," Dabney thought, re-
membering with grim amusement his own emotion during the
story told with accompaniment of wind and rain.
" Singular coincidence, too," pursued his companion, finish-
ing some unheard remarks, "the son's being called Jerry.
Image of my Toby, and name of Toby's father." But Dabney
held his peace.
From that day, when the young broker was not yelling
himself hoarse over the rise and fall of stocks, or otherwise
courting Fortune, he took a certain pleasure in meeting his
Southern friend at the " Tonsorialist's." He noted how, in the
presence of the former, the magnificent mountain torrent of
Green's eloquence dwindled to a mere trickling rill. He noted
the half-wistful, half-amused expression called into Mr. Burgess'
eyes by certain words and tones, and also when Jeremiah, like
a gorgeous comet, flashed upon them now and then. He noted
how ingeniously the barber evaded waiting personally on Mr.
Burgess. He took delight in requesting Green to relate his
pitiful story to the Southern gentlenian; and diverted himself
with the barber's fertile variety of excuses. He made beads of
perspiration stand on Green's ebon brow by proposing that he
should show his "brand" to the stranger, and held his breath
at the audaciously resourceful aside to himself: " I feel contu-
maciously convinced, Mr. Dabney, sah, that you would desire
1905.] TOBIAS GREEN, TONSORIALIST. 633
me to demonstrate some delicate considerations for the feelings
of a Southern friend. We know that there were tyrannies and
badgerations in their ulterior midst ; but perhaps he was of a
differential kind." And Dabney revelled in the thought of some
little poetical justice done when the barber, perceptibly thinner
after some weeks of this, announced that he was going to Sara-
toga for a while " his primary vacations in numeral indus-
trial years."
It was the afternoon before that day which Green had fixed
upon for his trip, and the shop was crowded and every chair
occupied. The barber and his chief aide waited upon such
patrons as Van Houten and Amsterdam ; the assistants were
busily occupied, and there was a hum and buzz of talk in the
air. Dabney had just come in, and was trying the effect of a
downward instead of an upward curve to his moustache, when
suddenly there came a sort of roar from outside, followed by a
deafening crash. The door, quickly opened, let in a cloud of
powdered mortar and brick dust.
" It's the new building down ! " cried one of the boys, and
Dabney, the barber, and others, rushed out. It was indeed the
newly finished office building nearly opposite, which had re-
placed an older and much safer edifice. A crowd had already
gathered and policemen hastened to the spot.
" No one had moved in yet," said Dabney, replying to Van
Houten's look of inquiry; "some of the offices would have
been occupied to-morrow."
" But the passers-by ! " said Van Houten. " Ah, there is a
woman they are lifting out. Hear the poor creature groan ! "
The injured woman being carried away, others, terribly hurt,
were extricated from the fallen masses of brick and stone.
" Ha ! Who's that ? " gasped Green, the whites of his eyes
widening; he was standing at their elbows as he had run out,
aproned and brush in hand. At the same moment, with an in-
articulate cry, he pushed past them roughly, treading on the
astonished Van Houten's feet, and ran up to the policemen
standing and kneeling about a prostrate figure.
"It's it's a gentleman I know," said the barber hoarsely;
"bring him into my shop."
"Might as well," said one of them," until the ambulance
comes; but I think he's dead."
The barber, an ashy tinge over his dark skin, went on be-
634 TOBIAS GREEN, TONSORIALIST. [Aug.,
fore, throwing open the glass doors and clearing a way into
the back shop; and Dabney walked beside the melancholy pro-
cession full of horrified concern. They laid Mr. Burgess' un-
conscious form on a lounge, and a physician hastily summoned
was there almost as soon. He examined the wounds, listened
to the breathing, felt the pulse.
" Does any one know him ? " he inquired.
" Acquaintance of mine, not long in the city, a man of
means, no relatives here, but many friends," answered Dab-
ney.
" He must not be moved," said the doctor. " It seems
a matter of a few hours at most. There are some fearful
hurts."
Green's eyes had been fixed on the surgeon's face; and at
these words, with a wailing cry he fell upon his knees beside
the lounge. The excitable, emotional nature, removed by but
two or three generations from absolute unrestraint, burst
through all bounds. He rocked backward and forward, his
tears streaming on the sufferer's hands.
" Mas' Robert ! " he moaned with passionate appeal to the
white face and closed eyes ; " my good, kind Mas' Robert !
Oh, look at me just once just once ! Speak only one word
to me your poor Toby that denied you and will kill himself
if you die ! Oh, Mas' Robert my own dear little Mas'
Robert forgive me ! Don't you remember the fields and the
quarters the coon dog and Mammy's sweet potatoes the
branch where we went in swimming, and all the happy times
together ? Oh, wake up so we can talk about them ! Oh,
don't die, my splendid, darling Mas' Robert ! "
" Here, this won't do at all," said the doctor with a stern
grip on his shoulder. " Do you want to kill your master or
whatever you call him ? If you really want to help, get the
folding doors shut between the shops. Make your boys clear
the front room and close it. Then put up your shutters and
keep the place quiet. Mr. Dabney, will you see this done?"
The astonished spectators of this scene numbered among
them Van Houten, Amsterdam, and many old patrons, as well
as Jeremiah, arrived in time to be completely dazed by his
father's incomprehensible burst of humble contrition. They
now retired into the front, and Green, standing before them,
tears rolling down his cheeks and with broken voice, spoke :
1 90S-] TOBIAS GREEN, TONSORIALIST. 635
" Gentlemen, as I presumption you know by this time, Mr.
Robert Burgess is my old master's son, and the best that ever
lived on earth. When I told you he wasn't, or his father, it
was all a big lie. And the rest about bad treatment and
branding and running away was all a lie, too ; and I guess it
was the devil made me tell it." Mr. Van Houten flushed un-
easily. " There never were people had a happier life than we
all on the old Burgess place. And me and Mas' Robert went
through the war together, and he saved my life in a fever
and taught me to read and write and gave me the money for
the elevated education which you have ascertained in my lan-
guages " a gleam of dismal satisfaction was visible even
now. " And, gentlemen, if he dies, it will be a Lord's judg-
ment on me ! " And with a groan he went through the rear
door. The little crowd, impressed in various ways, quietly
dispersed, and most of them never saw Green again.
It was in the dusk of the evening that the surgeon re-
marked some slight signs of returning consciousness in his
patient. A few moments after he opened his eyes and they
rested on Green's face.
" That you, Toby ? " he whispered faintly.
"That's me, Mas' Robert," promptly, with a gentle touch
on his hand. "Nursin' you. Keep quiet now."
" There is just one chance in a hundred for him," said the
doctor next day. Then a month later: "Well, Green, he
certainly owes his recovery to you. I thought once he was a
dead man."
" That, sah," said Green, showing his white teeth once
more," is an everyday, extraordinary event between Mas'
Robert and me. We always nurse each other back, sah, from
the confinements of the tomb." And when the patient was
sent to the Springs Green went with him.
" I'm told he has sold out," said Dabney, passing the new
sign which replaced that of: "Tobias Green, Tonsorialist,"
" He had Mr. Burgess' full forgiveness ; but lacked courage to
face his patrons with his tragic prestige destroyed. I confess,"
smiling, " that I for one miss the good-natured, plausible,
pompous, black rascal, with his polysyllables and his bow."
HER LADYSHIP.
BY KATHARINE TYNAN.
CHAPTER IV.
AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR.
!HE frost which came in the January of that
year is not likely to be soon forgotten in that
country, accustomed to winters little less mild
than its summers. It began with snow a
great fall of snow which heaped itself in drifts
and masses ; then came the frost, and the snow remained on
the ground for six weeks. The days were bright and pierc-
ingly cold, with a North wind that cried and whistled all day
long, especially in high, exposed places like Miss 'Stasia's gar-
ret. Every evening there was a gorgeous sky of orange and
scarlet, the city smoke rising against it in murky wreaths.
Every night the stars glittered with fierce intensity.
To be sure these aspects of the sky she loved were more
or less concealed from Miss 'Stasia by the thick frost flowers
on her window- glass. There was not sufficient heat in the
room to thaw them. By this time pretty well all her portable
belongings had found their way to that bourne, which their
late owner could only think of with a shudder which nothing
would have induced her to name.
From parting with what was left to her she shrank with a
great horror. The chairs, the sofa, the cellarette, the minia-
tures they were her provision against her last illness and
burial. Were they to go because the weather was cold ? Why
the weather might change any day, would be certain to
change at once if she were to commit the criminal folly of
getting in a bag of coal. She would put on additional
clothes; she would keep her bed if that proved insufficient.
She would do anything rather than sell any one of her few
belongings to purchase coal.
1905.] HER LADYSHIP. 637
It was not in Mrs. Cronin to coerce Miss 'Stasia even for
her good. The glory and glamor which had hung about Miss
'Stasia as his Lordship's sister, in a white satin gown, had
not departed so far as Eliza was concerned.
In her perplexity she spoke a word to Mrs. De Renzy,
who, as an audience, necessarily included the Misses Vanda-
leur, since the three ladies had clubbed together to have a
sitting-room fire by which they could have a reasonable hope
of being warmed.
" I don't like the look of her, I really don't," she said.
"The fingers of her are gone dead, an' she's lookin' that
pinched that it's the pneumony she'll be havin' next. She's
not as young as she once was, poor Miss 'Stasia, an' she's
delicate. There's no more hate in her than in a little bird."
"She can't be allowed to commit suicide," said Mrs. De
Renzy in a deep voice. She was one who naturally took the
lead in any assemblage of old ladies in which she might
chance to find herself. " Let me think."
She put her hand to a massive brow and was silent for a
moment. Then she looked up with illumination in her face.
" Leave it to me, Mrs. Cronin, leave it to me," she said,
getting up solemnly out of her chair.
Mrs. Cronin lingered irresolutely.
" She's very shy and proud, the creature," she said, with
a soft tenderness. "You'll take care, Mrs. De Renzy, not to
hurt her feelings ? "
The Misses Vandaleur looked rather alarmed, but Mrs. De
Renzy took the speech in excellent part.
" I quite appreciate your concern, you good soul," she
said ; " but I don't come -from a family of diplomats for
nothing. If you'll come back in half-an-hour's time, you'll
find your Miss 'Stasia happy and comfortable amongst us."
She sent Mrs. Cronin away comforted, but somewhat mys-
tified, for she didn't know what a diplomat was.
" She's a great old lady," she said to John in the kitchen.
" I should have spoken to her about Miss 'Stasia before. She
wants crumpets for the tea, too, three-pen'orth. Will you
go for them, John ? An' by that time Mary Anne '11 be in to
help me to toast them."
Mrs. De Renzy made quite a toilet before calling on Miss
'Stasia. She conferred a certain dignity upon the establish-
638 HER LADYSHIP. [Aug.,
ment by keeping her own maid, an attached elderly depend-
ant, for whom the world would have had no place if Mrs. De
Renzy had parted with her. She slept in an alcove off her
mistress' room and was always ready to wait on her in things
small and great. This constant service helped to keep up Mrs.
De Renzy's air of stateliness, for she could not so much as
pick up her own handkerchief if she dropped it. Now, as she
stood to have the Indian shawl draped round her shoulders
by the faithful Kate, to have it fastened with a cameo brooch,
at the back of which was the late Mr. De Renzy's hair and
photograph, she had something of the air of an Eastern
queen.
Miss 'Stasia was sitting miserably huddled up in all the
wrappings she could find. Her work-basket was open and
there was some fine, delicate needlework on the table. There
was a guild of ladies in connection with her church who
looked after the altar-linen and sewed for poor children. She
had taken out the work, but found it quite impossible to do
it. Her fingers had only ceased to ache because they were
dead. Her feet were like stones. Her cheeks and the tip of
her pretty nose were blue. Big tears had come into her eyes
and remained frozen there. She had a huddled look, like the
many little birds in that hard winter who gathered themselves
up within their feathers before they toppled off the bough and
died of cold.
There was a knock at the door. Miss 'Stasia looked up.
If it was Mrs. Cronin with a request that she would come
down and " take a hate o' the fire," now the kitchen was
clean and the hearth tidied up, and no one but herself in 'pos-
session, she would certainly go. The cold was becoming
unendurable.
But in answer to her gentle " Come in," to her amazement
it was Mrs De Renzy who entered. It was a long, long time
since Mrs. De Renzy had paid her a visit. For a moment,
after the ascent of the garret stairs, Mrs. De Renzy sat wheez-
ing and panting for breath. She was horrified at the tempera-
ture of Miss 'Stasia's room, but she did not say so.
" I've come to ask a favor, Miss Chevenix," she said, as
soon as she got her breath back again. " It has occurred to
us, to the Misses Burke Vandaleur and myself, that perhaps
you wouldn't mind joining forces with us in the -matter olf
1905.] HER LADYSHIP. 639
coal for our sitting-room fire. We can keep one good fire
going on what would be three miserable fires, if we can only
endure each other's company during the daytime. I quite see
your difficulty about fires. It is a height to carry coals to,
and we know how considerate you are. It would settle that
question nicely if you would consent to join us. We needn't
incommode each other any more than is necessary. There is
a seat for you by the fire and a corner of the table for your
work, and presently we shall light the lamp. Do join us, my
dear."
She leant a little nearer ingratiatingly and spoke in a whis-
per:
" Those poor Vandaleur girls are very poor. It is a kind-
ness to them to put our resources together in this way. And
they will not suspect that a kindness is intended, which might
hurt their pride, if you will join us."
Miss 'Stasia could not resist so delicate an appeal.
"Then I shall fall in with your arrangement with great
pleasure, Mrs. De Renzy," she said. She could hardly keep
her teeth from chattering as she spoke. " I suppose we shall
begin to-morrow morning?"
" No ; this minute. The very next scuttle of coal shall be
yours. At the present moment the fire's mine. Come down
and sit by it and give me the pleasure of your company at
tea."
Miss 'Stasia began to say something about tea not agreeing
with her digestion, but was quickly over- ruled.
"I use the best China tea," Mrs. De Renzy said. "My
grandson sent .me a chest some months ago, and it's not ex-
hausted yet. It wouldn't give an ostrich an indigestion."
She smiled as though she had said something conclusive;
then she picked up Miss 'Stasia's strip of fine embroidery, mo-
tioned her majestically to take her work box, and preceded her
out of the room, apparently quite unconscious of the fact that
she was trying to speak, to make further excuses for not com-
ing to tea.
"What a delightful, airy position you enjoy," she said,
pausing on the third step. " When the fine weather comes we
shall positively invade you. Till then I shall hardly be equal
to the climb."
" If we are to share your sitting-room," said Miss 'Stasia,
VOL. LXXXI. 41
640 HER LADYSHIP. [Aug.,
coming out of her tongue-tied state, "may we not also give
the teas in turn ?"
" Why so you shall, if you will," Mrs. De Renzy answered
in high good humor. She was quite pleased with herself for
capturing Miss 'Stasia, especially since she had discovered what
the atmosphere of the garret room was like. "That is to say,
you shall provide the crumpets if you will ; but it must be my
tea, my grandson Lloyd's tea. There isn't an indigestion in a
chest of it."
" And the butter," said Miss 'Stasia anxiously, " and the
other things. I like a little cream with my tea, and some tea-
cake, and a water- cress sandwich."
"You won't find any such high living with me," said Mrs
De Renzy on her own door mat ; " but if you want to make
gluttons of us "
Poor Miss 'Stasia was covered with confusion over her faux
pas, and the frozen tears nearly fell as she crept into the warm
room, the air of which came out to meet her like a caress.
It had all been made very easy for her pride. The smell of the
fragrant tea was delicious ; and here was Mary Anne coming
in, with a face burnt a bright red from toasting, carrying a
simmering, covered dish of crumpets. The tea-table was set
out daintily, with old china and thin silver spoons, and an em-
broidered cloth, a little the worse for the wear.
To be sure the thawing process was painful to Miss 'Stasia
as she sat by the fire with a screen between her face and its
heat she had really a charmingly delicate complexion her
fingers and toes smarted terribly, as the life began to come
back into them. Still it was delightful to feel the warmth;
and Mrs. De Renzy and the Misses Burke Vandaleur were so
kind and so well-bred. They seemed to know that she was
enduring agonies of shyness ; and the eldest Miss Vandaleur
was telling a story of how they had met somewhere a male
friend of their youth, who had been delighted to see them and
had offered himself as a caller, to which every one listened,
leaving Miss 'Stasia quiet in her corner.
" I declare he wouldn't be put off," went on Miss Nora
Vandaleur, who was the elder and plainer-looking. Miss Lily
had been pretty and hardly looked her fifty-five years. " He'd
been a lot about the world, and I think people who travel get
the bloom rubbed off their refinement, although he is a dear
1905.] HER LADYSHIP. 641
fellow still. He couldn't be made to see that it was impossible
for ladies living alone to receive male visitors."
" Although we put it to him as plainly as girls could," said
Miss Lily, with a sigh to the memory of that too- persistent
old friend.
" And he never came after all," went on Miss Nora. " I
think he was offended. If I could only have told him straight
out. But I couldn't bear to tell such a thing to a gentleman.
He ought to have known."
" To be sure he ought," said Mrs. De Renzy, with a twinkle
in her eye.
Mrs. Cronin came in with, the teapot and looked her de-
light at seeing Miss 'Stasia in the warmest corner, eating her
crumpet daintily, and vainly endeavoring not to get her fingers
buttery in the process. She telegraphed her admiration to Mrs.
De Renzy, who sat with an impressive mien that refused con-
gratulations on the score of finesse.
For once Miss 'Stasia went to bed warm. What if the gar-
ret were like an ice house! she had had a delightful after-
noon and evening. Her embroidery had been much admired
and she had accomplished a whole head of wheat the design
was one of grapes and corn ; she had sung " My Mother Bids
Me Bind My Hair," and had been applauded for the sweetness
of her voice. There had been a game of Spoil Five, for the
smallest possible stakes, and she had won and been compli-
mented on her play by Mrs. De Renzy, who played cards HI e
a man, since you could never tell from her demeanor whether
she was winning or losing.
She slept quite happily, but she awoke to a terrified sense of
the extravagance to which she had committed herself. Suppos-
ing those fires, those teas, those card parties were to continue
Mrs. De Renzy had even talked of inviting other old ladies in
the street why then the remaining articles of furniture would
have to go. She would rather die than not do her part with
the others. It meant, it seemed to her, a short life and a
merry one, at the end of it the poorhouse the poorhouse for
Lord Moneymore's daughter! She was conscience- stricken.
What had she committed herself to ?
Besides, she was really too shabby to go amongst them.
Mrs. De Renzy had her collar of Limerick lace, and her ame-
thyst necklace. The Misses Vandaleur had worn one a quilted
HER LADYSHIP. [Aug.,
red silk petticoat under a bunched up sacque of black silk,
worn and turned, but a good silk it was plain to see, while
the other had had a fichu of yellowed China crepe over her
gray soft woollen gown. Poor Miss 'Stasia, her rusty blacks
had suffered all processes of renovation, and revealed them-
selves as ancient garments fit only for the rag-bag. She had
given her mother's Limerick flounce to trim an altar cloth, and
had never regretted that the indignity of ordinary sale was not
for it. How could she have been so happy yesterday !
She sent word to Mrs. De Renzy, in answer to a message
that the fire was lit and would she come and eat her break-
fast by it, that she was not well.
She was indeed not well, for she was fretting herself into
a fever through all the chill of the piercing atmosphere.
" Miss Chevenix's compliments, and she would call to see
Mrs. De Renzy presently."
She saw Mary Anne depart with the message. Then she
left her breakfast untasted, while she considered what she
should ask John to turn into money for her. Her stock of
money was very low. Hardly anything was left when the
week's money due to Mrs. Cronin had been put on one side,
tightly screwed up in paper. The little extravagance of the
teas and the fires was a nightmare only explicable by her
lonely and secluded life, a life in which terrors and misgivings
grow big.
She opened her writing desk at last, found an ingenious
secret drawer and took something from it, which she held in
the palm of her hand looking at it. It was a miniature set
round with pearls, fine little seed pearls close together, with
a twist of red gold between them and the portrait.
She had always wanted the miniature to be buried with
her. Now the time might come when it would have to go
like the rest to keep her alive. If she were going to be gay
and company-keeping, to be led into all kinds of pleasant
follies, the time might be brought perceptibly nearer. If it
were not for Eliza, now, she would seek another lodging, away
from the allurements which she feared. But Eliza was her
only shelter in a cold world, the only friend she had, the only
link with the exquisite and painful past.
She had finished her breakfast and carried the tray down
to the top of the kitchen staircase, so that Mary Anne would
1905.] HER LADYSHIP. 643
be saved the long climb up and the weight of the tray down
all those stairs on her thin, childish arms. It was something
Miss 'Stasia would do despite Mrs. Cronin's remonstrances.
She had returned and set her room straight, dusting and tidy-
ing with a meticulous carefulness. She had got out her em-
broidery and was thinking irresolutely of the good fire down-
stairs and the pleasant company.
Where she was, in her retired garret, she had not heard
the rat tat at the door which heralded a visitor. There was a
step on her stair ascending, more than a step, two pairs of
feet. Who could it be ?
The door was opened, and Mrs. Cronin herself announced,
in a voice in which triumph and conscious guilt might have
been heard by a discerning ear, "Lady Anne Chute."
Something came in with the big, dark, brilliant presence in
its furs and velvets, something sweet like the air that used to
blow over the mountains and boglands long ago. The gracious
and charming presence came up to poor Miss 'Stasia with a
soft rustle of silk. She was taken into the generous, warm
embrace. Lady Anne's lips were on her thin cheek.
" My dear cousin," said Lady Anne, " I have only just
discovered you, and I have come to take you home with me.
I want you to live with me. How soon can you be ready ? H
CHAPTER V.
THE BENEFACTRESS.
After the first swift glance round her, Lady Anne had not
seemed to take any notice of the garret, nor of its excessive
cold. It she had an impulse to take off her sable cloak and
wrap it about the poor little forlorn spinster, she repressed it.
She was going to wrap the cloak of love about the shivering
life for the rest of the years that were left to it. But inside
her sables she shivered with a sympathetic chill.
" When will you be ready to come ? " she went on. " I
can give you a day or two. But not to stay here. I am at
the Shelbourne. I am going to carry you off there with me.
What arrangements can you have to make ? Your pretty
things here ? They are very pretty. You must take them
644 HER LADYSHIP. [Aug.,
with you if they will make you feel more home-like at Mount
Shandon."
She laughed and chattered with a flashing of white teeth
and a manner which had an enfolding tenderness. In her in-
nermost heart Lady Anne was shocked at the manifest poverty
in which she found her old cousin. She was angry with her-
self, unreasonably, because she had not known of her exist-
ence before. How she must have suffered ! The idea of no
fire in this Siberian frost ! And the old blood runs thinly.
Giving a quick side glance at Miss 'Stasia she had a hor-
rible idea that she looked as if she had not had enough
to eat.
" You are to come with me, now, at once," she said, in her
impetuous, overmastering way. " I have a cab at the door.
We are going shopping. Do you know that Mount Shandon
is in the wilds ? You won't see the shops again for ever so
long. You will want many things. That is my concern. Of
course you will have your allowance as my companion and
cousin. Everything here can be sent down after you. I am
going to talk to the woman of the house a sensible, good
creature she seems. You need take no more than what you
stand up in. The rest can follow, and, of course, there will
be your outfit. Will you get ready, my dear cousin, while I
talk to the woman of the house ? "
She made her own way downstairs and interviewed Mrs.
Cronin in the narrow slip of back room in which the landlady
received would-be lodgers, and transacted business of the
genteeler sort. Mrs. Cronin had fallen head over ears in love
with Lady Anne at first sight. She poured out now a deal
about Miss 'Stasia and Lord Moneymore, and the great days
that used to be at the Abbey, revealing incidentally how
perilously near Miss 'Stasia had gone to starving.
" And she would, only for you, you excellent creature,"
Lady Anne said, in a generous heat. " I shall never forget it
for you. Money won't repay what you've done," as she
counted out ten golden sovereigns on the oilcloth table cover.
" I shan't lose sight of you, I promise you. Tell me now,
what is there that I can do for you ? "
Mrs. Cronin, quite overcome, sobbed out the tale of the
evil days that had fallen on the "waiting."
" And John so clever, my Lady," she said. " I always tell
1905.] HER LADYSHIP, 645
him 'tis a butler not a waiter he should be, only that he won't
leave me and the children."
Lady Anne's eyes looked at her speculatively.
" You don't make much of the letting of lodgings, do you
now ? " she asked.
" Indeed it isn't what it was, or maybe I don't manage
rightly. Tisn't easy to keep the ladies up to their regular
payments when they've so little. Sure we know they'll pay
when they can. There's generally a good bit owing. You
couldn't be bothering ladies like them."
" I don't know if you're anything of a cook ? " Lady
Anne began.
" Sure amn't I a beautiful cook ? The old Lord Money-
more, Miss 'Stasia's father, was that particular about his food
that it was as much as the butler's life was worth to hand him
a dish wasn't done 10 his liking. I was trained the way I
ought to go. Many's the compliment I've had over my
cooking."
" The butler and cook at Mount Shandon are getting old.
They'll be glad to be allowed to retire into private life. Sup-
posing you and your husband were to take their places?"
" Oh, my Lady ! But the children ? " gasped Mrs. Cronin
with the look of one who sees a heaven opening before him
from which he may possibly be debarred. "We couldn't be
parted from the children."
" I've thought of that. There's a very good house in the
stable-yard. You and your husband might have that and keep
the children with you."
" It 'ud be the saving of them. The town life doesn't
agree with them, and there's no room for them down in the
kitchen, and that's the only place they have to live. Mary
Anne's not the same since she's had to wait on the lodgers.
The stairs is too much for her, and the weights, my Lady.
Yet I couldn't do everything myself, an* little Nora, that's as
fat as butter, '11 be as thin as Mary Anne once she begins
climbing them weary stairs."
" Talk to your husband about it, and let me know what he
says to-morrow." Lady Anne said, kindly. "You can take
your time about finishing up here. Three months will not be
too long. Kernahan and Mrs. Kernahan will stay on as long
as I need them."
646 HER LADYSHIP. [Aug.,
There were no arrears in Miss 'Stasia's case to be paid,
except a few shillings which Lady Anne thought it wiser to
allow her to pay herself.
" I am going to smarten you up," ^he said as they drove
across the own to Grafton Street, " and you are to let me do
what I like, as though you were my own dear elder sister.
Of course you are my cousin, the only cousin I possess on
papa's side. You don't know how I am going to love you
because you belong to papa's side."
The attendants in the smart Grafton Street shops craned
their heads forward, and nudged each other to look, as Lady
Anne and Miss 'Stasia came in together, the one exuberant
with youth and vitality, beautifully and richly dressed, the
other, timid, nervous, trembling in the shabby attire so unfit
for the inclemency of the season.
Lady Anne marched straight on as though she knew all
about the shop, which she did not. They went to the
costume department, where she found a lady in a trailing
black silk who looked like a princess and possessed quick in-
telligence and some sympathy. Three or four dresses of dif-
ferent kinds were found which would fit Miss 'Stasia with
slight altering. Was there anything else? Anything which
Lady Anne would prefer to see where they were which was
in a secluded, carpeted, and mirrored room above the shop ?
Yes, there were several things. Certain of them could be
sent on approval to the hotel, but there were certain others
Lady Anne wanted immediately.
An assistant brought an armful of fur cloaks and flung
them on the green carpet as though they were of no value at
all. Lady Anne pounced on the most beautiful of them all, a
dark sealskin softly lined with peach bloom silk. She put it
about Miss 'Stasia's shoulders and fastened the silver clasps.
Then there were hats Miss Stasia had confessed that she
couldn't bear bonnets. Her Ladyship ordered hats with a
prodigality. One was found to suit Miss 'Stasia exactly, and
it went on with the fine cloak. For the rest, Lady Anne
gave her orders quickly in an undertone to the intelligent
princess. She did not mean to tire out her newly- found
cousin.
They went back and lunched at the Shelbourne, such a
lunch as had become only a memory to Miss 'Stasia. She
1905.] HER LADYSHIP. 647
could hardly eat anything for excitement. Her little hands
trembled, two red little roses came and went in the thin
cheeks, the faded eyes brightened and dimmed.
" Do you know, my dear ? " she said to Lady Anne after-
wards, " I feel as if I must have died in my sleep and wak-
ened up in heaven. It is so deliciously warm and comforting,
I'm afraid it was a little cold at Mrs. Cronin's."
" In that other life ? " Lady Anne said, with her rich
smile. " It was piercingly cold, my dear cousin. You are
going to be warm henceforth."
Miss 'Stasia sat before a glowing fire in the bed- room,
wrapped about in a soft, fleecy shawl which Lady Anne had
paused a moment as they left the shop to purchase and take
with her.
Presently there came a deft young woman from Messrs.
Brown & Thomas's, accompanied by a great many boxes of
all sizes and shapes, and Miss 'Stasia had to be fitted on and
to select all manner of things. The young woman's manners
were excellent. If she thought it an odd thing to have to fit
out an elderly lady with everything she could possibly require,
down even to the trunks to contain the outfit, there was no
indication of it in her manner. To be sure she was accus-
tomed to dire poverty among aristocrats ; and the explanation
she found for herself, and imparted to the other young ladies
when she returned to the shop, was that Miss 'Stasia had
been discovered by a rich relative in one of the houses for
distressed ladies which were usually filled by those who had
suffered during the land agitation. Some one suggested that
the old lady had come into money, but that was an embroid-
ery which did not find acceptance. It was quite easy to see
that Lady Anne Chute was a benefactress and the Honorable
Miss Chevenix the benefitted. The shop knew by this time
that the pretty, faded, ringleted old lady in the shabby gar-
ments was the Honorable Miss, and its interest went up ac-
cordingly.
Intimacy and affection grew so rapidly between the two
Lady Anne was one to love where she benefitted, and Miss
'Stasia had given up her poor starved, frozen heart to this
glorious young kinswoman at first sight that in the evening
after dinner, while they sat in the drawing-room at the hotel,
Miss 'Stasia transmogrified in a gray poplin dress with a collar
648 HER LADYSHIP. [Aug.,
of rich lace, she told Lady Anne all about Mrs. De Mont-
morency De Renzy and the Misses Burke Vandaleur. Unless
Miss 'Stasia were to repay that tea party in kind she would
feel guilty about it forever afterwards. Not that she hinted
such a thing to Lady Anne; but the latter, for a big, young,
unhurt, energetic creature, had delicate intuitions.
" Supposing we ask your friends to tea and keep them to
dinner ? " she said. " Would they come on a short invitation,
do you think ? It will have to be in the nature of a farewell
dinner, for we shan't be in Dublin for a long time again.
Papa would never keep a Dublin house and I should have no
earthly use for such a thing. Do you think they will come ? "
" If you ask them, Anne."
Miss 'Stasia said the monosyllabic name softly, as though
the sound of it were very pleasant to her ear. She had never
called anybody by their name before on so short an acquain-
tance, but Lady Anne had made questions of time and space
as though they were not to think she had not known her
yesterday ! had swept all timidities, all old-fashioned reserves,
away as a spring freshet might sweep little twigs and straws.
It took all Mrs. Cronin's tradition of good manners, from
having lived with the best people, to keep her silent when
Lady Anne came to No. 9 Wharton Street with the trans-
formed Miss 'Stasia the next day. Miss 'Stasia was very sen-
sible of the transformation and very shy about it, and she was
grateful to Mrs. Cronin for her gaze of aloofness when she
opened the door. Mrs. Cronin made up later when she had
Miss 'Stasia to herself for a minute and whispered to her rap-
turously that she reminded her ot the first day she ever saw
her at the Abbey, in the white satin, coming down the stairs.
She was shyer still of facing her fellow-lodgers, and she
went in meekly in the wake of Lady Anne, as though she
would conceal herself behind her. She was aware of Mrs. De
Renzy's one glance which took in all the difference in her
looks from yesterday and was quickly withdrawn. She could
hear Mrs. De Renzy say in her authoritative voice as soon as
they should be gone : " Alaska sealskin, lined with lavender
brocade. It never cost a penny under forty pounds." And
so on through her various garments.
Not that she felt any sense of shame about receiving so
much from Lady Anne. When one had a dear younger sis-
1905 ] HER LADYSHIP. 649
ter that was how Lady Anne had put the distant relation-
ship very rich and generous and loving, and one was poor
and chilled and lonely, why wouldn't one accept the love and
the gifts as one would give them if the cases were reversed ?
As the little woman sat there, her eyes downcast, while
Lady Anne made captive the hearts of the other poor lonely
elderly women, who must go on living in Wharton Street,
though she saw the spring begin in the exquisite country, her
heart was full of a humble wonder and thanksgiving. How
kind they were too ! They seemed quite sorry to lose her,
and yet quite glad that such wonderful, unexpected, blessed
things should have befallen her.
Oh, there was Lady Anne it was just like her she was
hoping that they would all visit Mount Shandon in the sum-
mer, and Mrs. De Renzy was saying for herself and the others
how very pleased they would be to come.
" For a long visit," said her Ladyship, radiating light and
warmth. " Mount Shandon is such a big house, and it will
be a kindness. I believe it's rather dull when there's no
hunting, at least so my English cousins say. They must be
always killing something if it's only Time. And I think Time
is the last thing in the world to be killed, because he kills
himself before we want him to."
The ladies were quite captivated. They accepted with gra-
cious readiness that distant invitation for the summer, and the
nearer one for the following 'afternoon at the Shelbourne.
How long it was since any of them had been at the Shel-
bourne, and with what glorious things and days the name was
associated !
Lady Anne herself took an interest in the Shelbourne din-
ner on the following day, and indeed consulted with the
manager as to the dishes to be served to her party. They
had a special table set near the fire, and it was a surprise to
find in January such items on the menu as salmon trout and
new potatoes and milk- fed lamb and green peas. The giver
of the feast delighted in the dainties which she had caused to
be spread for the poor ladies, and the good wine which
warmed their thin blood.
Then when the wonderful evening was over, and they were
cloaked and hooded and pattened to venture out in the pierc-
ing wind and wait at an arctic street corner for a tram, there
650 HER LADYSHIP. [Aug.,
was a comfortable carriage at the door to take Lady Anne's
guests home.
The stay in town extended to a week. Lady Anne seemed
to have many people to see, not only lawyers and men of
business generally, but also various public men and others in-
terested in movements for helping the people by putting them
in the way of helping themselves.
But at last Miss 'Stasia, still in a dream-like state, found
herself in a first-class carriage at the King's Bridge, wrapped
in a rug of the warmest and fleeciest, with a heap of books
and magazines beside her, and a luncheon-basket looking at
her from the opposite seat, out of which peeped the gold foil
of the neck of a champagne bottle. A bunch of violets lay
on her lap.
Opposite to her Lady Anne sat smiling at her like a big,
beneficent young goddess. Lady Anne's rug was flung care-
lessly to one side. She had Mr. Benjamin Kidd's Social
Evolution on her knee. When the time came to open the
luncheon-basket she would eat her food heartily; but very
much as though one kind of food was the same as another.
All the dainty bits would be for Miss 'Stasia, and the cham-
pagne would be for her. Beyond the requirements of a
healthy appetite Lady Anne was ascetic in her tastes. She
was never cold ; she never needed the stimulation of wine ;
she didn't care about novels. But she liked other people to
have those softer things of life which she disdained for herself.
" It is nice to be getting home," she said with her kind
smile. " You are sure your foot-warmer is really hot ? I
must get it changed at Maryborough. It is very cold."
Her own foot-warmer was under the seat, pushed there by
her own foot.
"Oh, my dear," said Miss 'Stasia, "you heavenly- kind
creature, I can't tell you what it is like to be going home !
I used to think I would rather die in the Hospice for the
Dying than in another hospital, or the poorhouse."
Her head began to tremble and her tears began to flow.
"Hush, hush!" said Lady Anne. "You are going home,
to live, to be happy, to make me happy."
1905.] HER LADYSHIP. 651
CHAPTER VI.
THE SERIOUS COUSIN.
" I am expecting my Cousin Dunlaverock to stay," Lady
Anne mentioned casually to Colonel Leonard some time after
she had come back bringing the new addition to her household.
"Alone?"
"Yes, alone; I am going to have what visitors I like,
Uncle Hugh, now that my Cousin Anastasia does duty for
propriety. I am very glad I found her, the dear, but if I
hadn't, I believe I should still have had what visitors I liked.
You needn't frown. You represent propriety to me, Uncle
Hugh, and I am very glad to propitiate you."
" Ah, thank you, my dear," Colonel Leonard said grimly.
He was still a little sore about his ward's readiness to whistle
him and his co-trustee down the wind.
He reported the interview afterwards to his wife.
" She says quite frankly that, if she hadn't found Miss
Chevenix, she'd have done without a chaperon," he said.
" We may be grateful that she did find Miss Chevenix. What
do you make of Dunlaverock's coming over so soon again?"
" I might know what to make of it on his side. What I
make of it on Anne's is not what you make, my poor Hugh.
Anne is very good friends with her one serious cousin. But
she has no intention of abdicating in favor of a husband just
yet."
"I was hoping I saw a glimmer of sense in her," the
Colonel replied sorrowfully.
The present Lord Dunlaverock was a nephew of the late
peer. He had succeeded to the title and very little else, and
it was with no great willingness that he gave up the life in a
Highland regiment, in which he was profoundly interested, to
assume the management of the property that went with the
title.
He was a tactiturn, humorless, proud young man, with great
ideas of what devolved on him as head of the house. If he
were serious, he was also amiable, and that explained how he
was at once laughed at, looked up to, and loved by his frivo-
lous army of cousins. It was whispered about in the family
that he had begun by being in love with Amy Hilton, Lady
652 HER LADYSHIP. [Aug.,
Sylvia Hilton's only daughter, and she with him. But Amy
Hilton had married, after her first season, a plain-looking, mid-
dle-aged country gentleman, with nothing to recommend him
to youth and beauty like hers unless it might be that he was
a member of the banking firm of Lonsdale, Hanbury & Mellor,
and was therefore enormously rich.
Mrs. Mellor was by all accounts a model wife to her mid-
dle-aged husband. They lived in a seclusion far too great to
please Lady Sylvia Hilton at their country-seat, Astridge Park,
and Lady Sylvia was wont to shrug her shoulders and lift her
hands and eyes at Amy, who was domesticated and devote.
"Imagine a child of mine!" she would say; "and the only
one who really kept up the tradition of the family beauty ! "
Whatever had happened between Lord Dunlaverock and
his cousin in the past had not embittered him. If he were un-
observed his irregular features sometimes wore an oddly tragic
look. He was too old for his years, which were only some-
where about twenty- six; he had a good many lines in his
face and a powdering of gray hair about his temples. He had
a manner slow and gentle. He was possessed with a sense of
responsibility, and the only person he seemed to dislike in the
world was Lady Sylvia Hilton, the fashionable butterfly who
was as gay and frivolous as ever, although she was a grand-
mother.
The lady was quite open about his antipathy.
" He blames me because Amy married James Mellor in-
stead of him," she would say. " Silly fellow ! What was the
use of him and Amy marrying, and they both as poor as
church-mice ? I am sure Amy is very much obliged to me
for finding her James Mellor, although, I grant you, she doesn't
make any fuss over it. And so would he be if he knew on what
side his bread was buttered. Why shouldn't he marry Anne
Chute ? Of course the property is in Ireland, which is always
a drawback. Still and Anne is a fine girl, although no one
would take her for lovely Cynthia's daughter."
It was Lord Dunlaverock's way to be thorough about what-
ever he did. Since he had to give up his sword for the
plougshare, the plough should be driven straight and cut a
straight furrow. He went thoroughly into the affairs of his
property, such as it. was. There was a good deal of it moor
and mountain, not much of it productive.
I9Q5-J HER LADYSHIP. 653
There was something of a flutter of indignation in the fam-
ily when it heard at first that Alastair proposed to let Dun-
laverock and the shooting for a certain number of years. Not
that the indignation ever reached him. With one so insensible
to delicate signs and hints of displeasure, so certain that his
own affairs concerned him alone, it was no use going on being
angry. In a very little while the family relinquished its indig-
nation and laughed instead. You could always count on tbe
family's laughter, sooner or later, generally sooner. The family
agreed to find Alastair a subject for affectionate laughter be-
fore the indignation had had time to reach its object.
He let Dunlaverock and the shooting to, of all people,
James Mellor. The Mellors proposed to inhabit Dunlaverock
for several months of the year. The heir and only son needed
a more bracing climate than that of Sussex, in which Astridge
Park was situated. The heir's delicate lungs did not seem as
if they could get enough air to breathe in the luxuriant, leafy
county once summer had brought the heavy leafage. At Dun-
laverock, with its wide stretches of moor, its heathery hills,
the heir throve exceedingly.
Lord Dunlaverock took up his residence in a factor's two-
story house of gray stone which happened to be empty. The
letting of Dunlaverock relaxed to some extent the tense gravity
of his face. Not only was he spared the upkeep of the great
house, which he could not have borne to let go without the
things it needed, but it left him with money in hand to carry
out certain draining and fencing and building and other opera-
tions on which he had set his heart.
He went very little to Dunlaverock when the Mellors were
in residence, and the house was filled with the family and
other gay persons. Mrs. Mellor might be domestic her pas-
sion for her one son was almost piteous in its intensity she
might be devote, but she was tolerant After all, apart from
its frivolity, there was no harm in the family. Its worst enemy
could say no worse of it than that it danced through life, as
though life were a garden of roses. There were no unfaithful
wives, no profligates of it. Even against Lady Sylvia Hilton
as a wife scandal had never said a word. They were wild,
frivolous, pleasure-loving. Perhaps they lived too much on the
surface of things to have any very evil inclinations.
At Dunlaverock they danced, they played bridge, the
654 HER LADYSHIP. [Aug.,
younger members flirted; they motored all over the country
to a hiring fair, a market, a rustic festival that might bring
them amusement. The rustics thought them all rather mad ;
but they were very friendly, and they had fascination and
beauty ; also, they were very free with their not very full
purses. Even their motor cars, flying through the alarmed
villages, were followed by smiles instead of scowls once the
villagers had discovered that they 'were the motorists. They
used to make a gallant show at the Kirk on Sundays, where
the services were drearily long and the doctrine of the gloomi-
est. They used to sit it out patiently, in spite of the motor
cars, the boats on the lake, and all the other out- door allure-
ments. If wasn't in the family to offend the susceptibilities of
humble people, no matter what it cost them.
Lord Dunlaverock used to walk in on them sometimes of
an evening, when the bridge tables were in full swing, and
look at them in wonder. He knew they would still be playing
when the lark swung out of the heather, shaking the dew from
his wings. He had very little in common with the family. He
would smoke a pipe with James Mellor in his den, which
looked like a very small, 'very shabby counting-house. To
Mrs. Mellor he had very little to say. She was generally to
be found at the piano, when she was not attending to the com-
fort and enjoyment of her guests.
In time a certain companionship sprang up between Dun-
laverock and the man who, according to report, was his suc-
cessful rival. They walked and rode together, and had long,
serious talks. Mrs. Mellor's eyes used to be sad and grave
when she saw them go. She used to wonder over the com-
panionship. Sometimes she laughed to herself with an irre-
sistible mirth, which yet brought her as near tears as laughter.
She was wont to say of herself that, although all the weight of
sorrow in the world pressed her down, she must laugh. She
was an exquisite brunette, oddly unlike her golden- haired,
pink and white mother, the only lines of whose face were lines
of laughter. She had an irresistible gaiety, although in repose
her face was a little sad. The expression it wore when she
watched her husband and her old lover go off together had in
it the tender enjoyment of the mother over her child.
Dunlaverock was a very pleasant meeting-place for the
family, now that the Mellors were in it for at least six months
1905.] HER LADYSHIP. 655
of the year. And to be sure it was a different thing letting
it to James Mellor from letting it to the first soap-boiler who
wanted a fine old house in the Highlands, possessing at once
a sufficiency of modern comforts and conveniences with inter-
esting historical associations. If Dunlaverock had decided to
live in a corner of it, as the family had thought at first it
was his duty to do, he most certainly could not have made it
a place of assemblage for the family and its friends as it was
now. In the end the family agreed that, as everything was
for the best in this best of all possible worlds, it was really
quite an excellent thing for Alastair to have decided on let-
ting.
"And to be sure," said Lady Sylvia Hilton with cynical
honesty, "seeing that darling papa starved the place so that
there might be enough to dress us and give us our chance of
being soon married, I don't see what else Alastair could have
done."
It was this serious cousin who had supported Lady Anne
at the coming- of age festivities, who, as head of the family,
had been always at her side, who had been ready while the
others amused themselves and how exquisitely they did amuse
themselves in the gayest and saddest and most unexpected of
countries ! to tramp with Anne over the boglands and the
mountains, to call in at farms and talk to the farmers, to be
interested in crops and cattle, to turn an unfailingly sympa-
thetic ear to Anne's plans for schools and technical schools
and the making of new industries, the fostering of old. How
the cousins would have shrieked with joy if they had known
the subjects of conversation between Dunlaverock and Anne
Chute !
The cousins looked upon it after a fortnight or so that
if affairs were not settled between the two, they were in a fair
way to be. Ceitainly they seemed not to tire of each other's
company. There were wet days, days of drenching rain, dur-
ing that fortnight, when the party at Mount Shandon was
reduced to beginning bridge after breakfast. Only Dunlave-
rock and Lady Anne were undeterred by the wind and the
weather.
Her Ladyship would wrap herself from head to foot in a
Scotch plaid which had belonged to her mother. She had the
secret of wearing a plaid as a protection from the worst the
VOL LXXXI. 42
656 HER LADYSHIP. [Aug.
weather could do. She would come down short- skirted,
brogued, wearing a deer stalker cap, the plaid wrapped about
her from head to foot. She would take a stout blackthorn
stick in her hand. Dunlaverock would be in his homespuns,
impenetrable as a board against the weather.
They would tramp for miles. The rain would lie in silver
drops on Lady Anne's black curls and her thick eyelashes, it
would deepen the violet of her eyes. They would come to a
farmhouse. If they had got very wet, Lady Anne would re-
tire with the farmer's wife and come back without the plaid,
which would be hung to dry at the kitchen fire, but wearing
some rustic garment of flowered print, misfitting but charming
enough as she wore it. Dunlaverock meanwhile would get in-
to a coat of the farmer's while his own garments were put to
dry. Anne used to make very merry at his expense on these
occasions, while Dunlaverock would smile quietly, as though
he had an enjoyment of the joke, or at least of her enjoy-
ment.
Those days at Mount Shandon were not two months old,
and yet here he was coming back again. He had offered
himself as a visitor with true Dunlaverock directness.
"Ah," said Lady Anne, unsuspecting; "it is the reclama-
tion of the bog that interests him. Perhaps next year we
shall have wheat growing in that corner of it."
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
PROFESSOR STERRETT ON "THE FREEDOM OF
AUTHORITY."*
I.
BY THE REVEREND JAMES J. FOX, D.D.
3T would be a mere truism to remark that one of
the most striking movements in the religious
world for the last twenty or thirty years, is the
rapid process of disintegration that has been go-
ing on in dogmatic belief among Protestant de-
nominations, threatening the total extinction of all historic
confessions among them. Rankling memories of the long con-
flict of three hundred years that Protestantism has waged
against us, might naturally beget a frame of mind that finds
satisfaction in the disappearance of a formidable adversary.
We have heard, to, Catholics say that the loss of their an-
cestral faith on the part of such great numbers of Protestants
is a benefit to us, because the work of conversion can be prose-
cuted with more fruit among those who have lost, than among
those who retain, their ancient convictions. This opinion seems
to be the result of a too superficial outlook; and the triumph
of rationalism, or agnosticism, over Protestant Christianity ought
not to be a cause of satisfaction to any Christian. No doubt,
to win an earnest, religious soul, that has no fixed belief be
yond a love of Christ, may be an easier task than would be
the conversion of the same soul if it cherished the picture of
the Master as refracted through Lutheranism or Presbyterian-
ism. But if the unity of Christendom is once more to return
and to doubt such a consummation is to have little confi-
dence in the conquering power of Christ's Church one can
scarcely believe that, short of some new Pentecostal out-pour-
ing on the clergy in every land, reunion will be reache'd by
means of individual conversions.
The Frtedom of Authority : Essays in Apologetics. By J. Macbride Sterrett, D.D., the
Head Professor of Philosophy in The George Washington University. New York: Mac.
mill an.
658 PROFESSOR STERRETT, [Aug.,
The number of converts made annually in America, though
great enough to be ample reward for the labors of the zealous
priests who toil in this portion of the harvest-field, is discour-
agingly small, when compared to the vast extent of non-
Catholic Christianity. Besides we must take into account, as
an offset to the total of conversions, the deplorable leakage
that is taking place amid the crowds of badly instructed, or
utterly uninstructed, foreign Catholics pouring in on us irom
southern Europe. If one looks to Europe itself, there is little,
indeed, to encourage high hopes of a Catholic restoration by
the conquest of infidelity through missionary effort alone.
Nor can Protestantism re-enter, as the Greeks returned in
869, by the submission of the head and hierarchy; for it has
not one head, but many. It seems probable that the return to
the Church of the nations whose influence in the world is daily
becoming more predominant, will take place through the play
of internal forces in Protestantism itself. The approach to
Rome will be made slowly and unintentionally, by the revival
of the Catholic principles, which alone can cope with the tre-
mendous attacks of infidelity and rationalism under which
Protestantism now groans. The successes of rationalism have,
thus far, indirectly contributed to reunion by minimizing or
eliminating almost all the dogmatic tenets in the greater Prot-
estant churches, which have been the grand obstacles to rec-
onciliation. But if the dissolving process should go so far as
to destroy the one Catholic principle which the reformers, how-
ever inconsistently with other parts of their systems, retained,
the Protestant world would have its face resolutely and hope-
lessly turned from the Church. That principle, it need not be
remarked, is authority.
The notable endeavors that have been made, within the
past few years, by Protestant leaders of thought, and heads of
organizations, to find, amid the wreck of creeds, some solid
basis for the reconstruction of their Christianity, is a hopeful
sign. The logic of the actual situation, as well as the native
genius of Protestantism, suggests two opposite ways for this
undertaking. One is to cut down dogma to a minimum,
or to zero ; to eliminate all authority, thus reducing Chris-
tianity to the merest individualism, without creed, without
external worship, and without any social embodiment. This
method has been advocated lately by two eminent leaders,
1905.] THE FREEDOM OF AUTHORITY. 659
one in France, the other in Germany, Harnack and Sab-
atier. On the plea of restoring Christianity to its Gospel
simplicity and purity they would eliminate dogma, worship,
organization, everything external; leaving only a "religion of
the spirit"; an inner impulse, if we listen to Sabatier, to real-
ize in our lives the ethical ideal of Jesus, or, according to
Harnack, a recognition of the only truth that Jesus taught, the
Fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man. The breadth of
these theories, the alluring but deceptive promises they hold
out of placing faith in Jesus beyond the range of rational-
istic attack, and of dispensing with the elemental principles
which have hitherto served to give Protestantism its cohesive-
ness, but are now succumbing to dry rot, secured for Harnack's
and Sabatier's views a very warm welcome on their first ap-
pearance. Sober second thought, however, has reversed this
judgment; for but little reflection is required to make clear
that Christianity, according to the above specifications, is a re-
ligion which never existed, and never could exist, in this world,
outside the brain of a theorist or a visionary.
The alternative is to essay the rehabilitation of some form
of visible, social organization, endowed with authority sufficient
to preserve unity of creed and worship in short, to exalt the
Catholic principle which the reformers did not reject, but asso-
ciated with another and antagonistic one that has from the
beginning tended to oust it, and has now well-nigh triumphed
private judgment. If history has any lesson to teach on the
subject, it is that those who are attempting reconstruction in
this sense have undertaken a Sisyphus-like task. Yet we may
look with sympathy upon every effort of this kind, as con-
trasted with the surrender to rationalism made by the party of
Sabatier, Harnack, and the followers of the Ritschlian school.
Every practical step towards this end, every apologetic for
authority, is an acknowledgment of the distinctively Catholic
principle.
For this reason there is a special interest attached to the
series of essays recently published in book form, by Professor
Sterrett, whose previous publications entitle him to a place
among leading Protestant thinkers. There are many essential
points in the doctrinal views expressed in the volume, to
which Catholics must strongly demur. The purpose of the
present paper, however, is not to fight old battles over again,
660 PROFESSOR STERRETT, [Aug.,
or thrice to slay the slain; but rather to undertake the pleas-
anter and more profitable task of drawing attention to a great
"soul of truth in things erroneous."
In the first place it is refreshing to find that, in vigorous
contrast with the evasive, shifty, equivocal expressions, that
may mean everything or nothing, in which so many Protest-
ant trimmers deal, when touching on the Incarnation, Dr.
Sterrett makes plain confession of the divinity of Christ, as
true God of true God, consubstantial with the Father. He
accepts the Nicene Creed ; and has little patience with those
"abstract supernaturalists " " who pervert the Church's doctrine
of the God-man into an assertion that the man Jesus, in his
state of humiliation (Kenosis), was only a veiled deity, and
deny that he ' increased in wisdom and stature ' to his full-
orbed divinity at the Ascension." " Much," he says, " of the
lately prevalent orthodoxy has run through the gamut of ex-
cluded heresies, especially those of Doketism and Monophysit-
ism."
Another feature worthy of passing notice is that on the
question of the adjustment between science and religious ideas,
in favorable contrast with the feverish impatience of many
Protestants, and of not a few Catholics, the Professor insists
that in this matter the Church is justified in proceeding with
prudently -conservative leisure. He expresses himself on the
subject in a strain identical with that of Mr. Wilfrid Ward in
his contribution to the symposium entitled Ideals of Science
and Faith. " There is no call," writes Professor Sterrett, " for
any age-long religion to abdicate its specific work at the bid-
ding of the scientific culture of any age. She can stand bold-
ly and firmly on the vantage ground of centuries of beneficent
results. Only so far as her interpretation of the religious life
has become interwoven with views of a less adequate scientific
description of the physical world, does she need to readjust
herself to the new views, and then, not hastily, nor until the
new scientific view is firmly established. The religious life gan
be nurtured in a religion that is not up to date with modern
scientific views. Besides the change of the setting cannot be
made rapidly, except at the peril of the religious life. For
that life is largely in the realm of feeling. And the attach-
ment of feeling, domestic, social, or religious, cannot be rudely
dealt with in the merely intellectual way." This is precisely
1905.] THE FREEDOM OF AUTHORITY. 66 1
the ground upon which sound Catholic conservatism opposes
the rash procedures of some of our biblical critics.
The pearl of great price, the thesis which underlies and uni-
fies the various essays that make up this volume, is that, from
the beginning, Christianity ever has been, and till the end must
continue to be, a living society, organized and preserved by
the abiding presence of authority. It must possess a dogmatic
creed, an external form of worship, and an organization, by par-
ticipating in which the individual, far frcm losing his due free-
dom, finds that freedom protected, regulated; and frcm which
he draws invaluable nutriment for his religious life. The Church
is the mystical body of Christ, incorporating in her life the
creed of the ages, collecting and preserving for the use of every
generation the spiritual experience of all the souls who in the
past have lived Christ's life. She watches over the norms of
doctrine, by which the vagaries of individualism are to be cor-
rected. She is the authority which, far from hanging as an
oppressive yoke on the soul, is a guiding line helping it to
keep in the straight path and hold fast to all that is good.
"Vital, progressive, missionary, and educating Christianity," says
Professor Sterrett, " always has had, and always must have, a
body. It must be an organized body, with polity, creed, and
cult external, objective, secular, if you will, in form a king-
dom of heaven on earth not in heaven. It is not something
invisible and merely heavenly. To fault ecclesiastical Christian-
ity is to fault Christianity for living rather than for dying
among men; for existing to preserve, maintain, and transmit
the Gospel." This is the very antithesis of Harnack and Sab-
atier, the Professor's verdict upon whom is, that to evolve a
conception of the essence of Christianity, or of the religion of
the spirit, from their subjective consciousness, and call it true
Christianity, is enough to bow them out of the consideration
of all students of history; they have forsaken the realm of
the positive, the actual, for the cloudlands of mere subjectiv-
ity; they are in the realm of illusions and delusions; in a
dream-world, where one dream is as little real as another, one
view of religion as little verifiable and as irrational as another.
Reading the many passages in which Professor Sterrett repeats
this conviction, one recalls with a smile the innumerable volumes
of controversial literature in which the Catholic Church was
supposed to be routed by a quotation frcm John iv. 24..
662 PROFESSOR STERRETT, [Aug.,
Another stock charge against Catholicism has been that it
has overladen and adulterated the religion of the New Testa-
ment and of primitive Christian times with a mass of foreign
accretions. The Scarlet Woman has committed fornication with
Roman paganism, imperial jurisprudence, Greek philosophy,
Byzantine tyranny, and barbarian superstition ; and out of this
fell commerce, in the Dark Ages was born the monster that
the modern world knows as Roman Catholicism. " Back to
Christ back to the simplicity of the churches of Corinth and
Macedonia," has long been the cry of those who refuse to ac-
knowledge the Catholic Church of to-day as the legitimate
representative of the apostolic communion. Where can you find,
our opponents have insisted ever, in early records, any guar-
antee for the oppressive, juridical, and executive organization,
the elaborate ritual, the complex dogmatic content of Roman
Catholicism ? To this objection our contemporary apologists
and theologians have found in the theory of development a
.more satisfactory answer than was formerly provided. It is
something to find a man representing the religious position held
by Dr. Sterrett heartily acknowledging the soundness of the
principle on which our answer is based, even though he might
limit the scope of its application. In his criticism of the indi-
vidualists he observes: " One may grant, as the Church always
has done, that there was a freshness in this pristine form of
Christianity, that has scarcely ever been present in its later
and fuller 'forms. Scanty creed and polity and cult were theirs,
but such as they were, it has always been considered that they
gave the historical germs for the later and fuller developments
of historical Christianity. -* . . If Greek philosophy and
Roman law and pagan cult, as environments, served only to
deteriorate primitive Christianity, we must give up the concep-
tion of a divine Pedagogue in all pre-Christian history."
His thought is carried out in a subsequent passage, declar-
ng that the cry of " Back to the primitive Gospel" is a vicious
error of abstraction, which takes a part for the whole, the seed
for the tree; a return to the primitive is psychologically im-
possible "We cannot return to primitive Christianity. We
cannot Judaize ourselves, put ourselves into the states of con-
sciousness of the early disciples. For better or worse our con-
sciousness is that of the modern world, into which Greek and
Roman and Germanic elements have entered." In the spirit of
..1905.] THE FREEDOM OF AUTHORITY. 663
the wise conservatism, which we have already noted, he adds:
" No more, indeed, can we absolutely modernize ourselves, re-
pudiate those historical fibres that are not modern, and yet are
very flesh of our flesh and spirit of our spirit. The spirit of
the age, the modern spirit, is abstract and untrue when wrested
from its organic continuity with the spirit of the ages."
One is accustomed to find Anglicans maintaining these
Catholic doctrines, and their repetition of them by another
Anglican would not be a matter worthy of notice. But the
significance of their appearance in the volume before us is
that its author is not an Anglican ; has little sympathy with
Anglicanism, as such, and none at all with those who would
fain repudiate the designation of Protestant for their Protest-
ant religion. He has no intention of surreptitiously entering
the gates of Rome without the pass- word. "I have," he tells
us, "been suckled at the mother-breast of Protestantism. I
have a dislike for ecclesiasticism. . . . I have no sympathy
with the so-called Catholic party in our church. I take it to
be a psychological impossibility that I should ever beccme a
Roman Catholic, or an Anglo- Catholic." That this set aver-
sion to Roman Catholicism arises from no vulgar bigotry is
-evident from the many generous tributes the author pays to
.the Church, on the head both of her constitution and of her
historic services. Whence then does it arise? To this ques-
tion there is no direct answer vouchsafed in the book. But
one may gather that he conceives Catholicism to be so much
an external system, that there is no room whatever for indi-
vidual liberty ; a system in which the visible organization is
developed to the suffocation of the invisible Kingdom of
Christ. He, we may venture to believe, from some of his
remarks, as well as from the general tenor of his ideas, con-
siders that Catholicism makes external conformity to a sys-
tem of theology, blind submission to a heteronomous author-
ity, the essence of religion and of union with God ; the Visi-
ble Church is, practically, an end to which the individual is
sacrificed, not a means of personal sanctification ; the religious*
life consists chiefly in an intellectual assent to certain theologi-
cal formulae, rather than in a conformity of the human to the
Divine Will. *
Yet, it need hardly be said that this is an erroneous pic-
ture, or rather a caricature, resulting from a wrong point of
664 PROFESSOR STERRETT, [Aug.,
view, taken by the external observer, who has misapprehended
the due proportion of the constituent parts. The outsider,
even when he honestly endeavors to gain a true conception of
Catholicity, often succeeds only in photographing the dead
stones and mortar, while the nature of the life that goes on
within escapes him. He sees the external body, which is not
without blemish and imperfection ; but he remains a stranger
to the vivifying soul within. Probably hundreds of earnest
Protestants like Professor Sterrett would rub their eyes in
wonder were they to find before them the real living Church,
as she stands forth in the pages of our apologists say, for
example, of Father Tyrrell. One passage of the eminent Jesuit
we might here offer, on the chance that these lines may, per-
haps, fall into the hands of some who labor under delusions that
are unfortunately too common. It is somewhat long, but to
mutilate it were sheer vandalism. After dwelling on the truth
that the religious life consists in the union of our will with
the Supreme Will, and that every constituent of religion is
valuable only so far as it helps to promote this consumma-
tion, Father Tyrrell, treating of the Church as a means of
grace, says: "In its actual and historical form this communion
of saints, this society of God-loving men, is called the Invisi-
ble Church, and finds its head and unitive principle in Christ,
the simple fulness of whose perfection is analyzed and broken
up for our study and help in the various measures of Christ-
liness shared by other men, in whom its inexhaustible poten-
tiality is brought to even greater explicitness by its applica-
tion to an infinite variety of circumstances and conditions. It
is to this society, to this many-membered corporate Christ
of all times and ages, that we must go to school, in order to
perfect ourselves in the art of divine love and to bring our
will into more extensive and delicate sympathy with God's.
For ' no man hath seen God at any time,' nakedly aind face to
face ; and vain is the effort of that false neo-platonic mysti-
cism that would seek him by intellectual abstractions, in the
.very emptiest of our class notions, rather than in the living
fulness of his spiritual creations. Only as mirrored in the
progressively human soul is he brought within the grasp of
human apprehension. ' No man cometh to the Father but by
Me ' is true in its measure of the mystical and corporate
Christ, no less than of the personal Christ, in that sanctified
1905.] THE FREEDOM OF AUTHORITY. 665
humanity clustered round the cross of Calvary that his good-
ness is incarnate and revealed to us. Union with God 'means
necessarily and identically union with the whole body of his
saints with the choicest flower, the richest fruit of humanity ;
with those who, like Christ, have gone forth in all ages and
peoples as sheep in the midst of wolves, self-sacrificed victims
to the cause of God; whose blood, mingled with that of the
Eucharistic chalice, wins forgiveness and grace for their de-
stroyers; with those who have sown in tears that others
might reap in joy; who have failed a thousand times that
others might succeed at last ; who have labored hard and long
that others might enter quickly into the fruit of their labors,
whose deaths are precious in the sight of God, and, in union
with that of the Crucified, are daily accepted by him as a
pure, holy, and spotless sacrifice of praise."
Such is the Invisible Church, the mystical Christ on earth ;
what is the relation of the visible society towards it ? " Be-
tween us and it the Visible Church mediates as a divinely ap-
pointed instrument of communication. Every spiritual move-
ment or enthusiasm that unites the hearts of multitudes, and fires
their love, tends spontaneously, and by the law of its nature,
to fashion some kind of social organization or institution
for the furtherance of its own development; and from the first
the cause of God's Kingship over souls has been furthered by
the instrumentality of a Visible Church, union with which, and
submission to which, is enjoined solely as a means, a measure,
an expression of voluntary union and spiritual sympathy with
the Invisible Church- with Christ and with the best and great-
est and most Christ- like souls that have ever lived." Submis-
sion to the authority so conceived is no slavish abjuration of
personal freedom at the bidding of a hieratic oligarchy, as men
frequently fancy. " It is ultimately and only to their purely
spiritual authority, to their compelling goodness, that we sub-
mit ourselves gladly and freely, when we yield obedience to
the lawful rulers of the hierarchic institution, not grudgingly
nor of necessity, but as cheerful givers." It is hardly possible
that any one realizing this to be the true Roman Catholic con-
ception of the Church could speak of Catholicism as a me-
chanical, unethical form of Christianity.
Unfortunately for themselves, and for the general interests
of Christianity, Protestants still consider that Catholicism is
666 PROFESSOR STERRETT, [Aug.,
primarily a rigid theological system, plus a tyrannical, highly
centralized oligarchy, and only secondarily, if at all, a spirit-
ual life. Intellectual assent to the theological formulae, and
unquestioning submission to the autocracy, is the whole duty
of the body of the faithful. The Ecclesia docens is supposed
to be in reality the Church; the great body of believers are
assigned a role of absolute subjection and subserviency which
realizes the metaphor of the sheep and the shepherd, with a
literalness never intended by Christ.
II.
Only the existence of some such misapprehension as that
which we have just touched on can account for the fact that
Professor Sterrett, or anybody else who appreciates, so keenly
.-the necessity and. the role of authority in Christianity, could
turn aside, almost contemptuously, from the only Church in
which that principle is realized, to amuse himself with the de-
lusion that there is de jure no " universal, external, corporate
form of Christianity," and that the Catholic Church is an ag-
.gregation of all Christian churches, sects, denominations, that
have any corporate form; that "the Holy Catholic Church is
like the universal State, that federation of nations and Parlia-
ment of man, to which individual states are subordinate, and
which is the world's tribunal to pronounce and execute judg-
ment upon them." To this one might reply, did not the
answer savor of unworthy flippancy, that the universal State and
the Parliament of man exist only, as yet, in the poet's dream ;
the war drum throbs quite loudly at present, and it will be
many a long day before the battle flags are finally furled; and
thus the Professor's simile is apposite. If the purpose of this
paper were polemical, we might easily formulate from the
Professor's tenets a number of problems that would not be
easily solved without violence to some of his principles and
assertions. He would, for instance, find it difficult to prove
that to see in the aggregation of all the various Christian cor-
porations, set against each other on important points of doc-
trine, that authority which is indispensable to Christianity, is
to rest satisfied with an abstract idea, instead of a vital
reality. But controversy is not our theme.
A more profitable endeavor would be to diagnose, for the
1905.] THE FREEDOM OF AUTHORITY. 667
purpose of finding a remedy, the causes of that imperfection
of vision, which prevents numbers of Protestants, heart weary
as they are of individualism and the simulacrum of authority
presented by their own churches, from seeing the truth.
Doubtless many of the causes are subjective, but there are ob-
jective clouds, too, that intercept the view. The old stock
charges of former times purgatory, the worship of the Blessed
Virgin, the tyranny of the confessional are, indeed, no longer
reiterated by intelligent Protestants. The chief stumbling block
to-day, as even a moderate acquaintance with contemporary
literature makes clear, is the administrative machinery of the
Church. A notable proof of this fact is to be found in an
article in last month's Norlh American, written in an irenic
spirit, and with large sympathy towards the Church. The
writer, Reverend Dr. Briggs, by the way, declares the common
Protestant opinion that the Catholic Church is an unreformed
church an opinion shared by Professor Sterrett to be erro-
neous. He devotes himself to a consideration of the reform-
ing programme attributed to the present Pope; and discusses
the matters in which that zeal will find most scope. And it
is here that, incidentally, he evinces how predominately the
Curia elicits the repugnance of non-Catholics. In concentrat-
ing their non-placet chiefly on this institution, Protestants are
but returning to the initial position of those who inaugurated
Protestantism. For, as Dr. Briggs remarks, the Reformation
sprang less from disagreement on dogmatic subjects, than from
the opposition of the Northern nations to the methods and
claims of the Roman court relative to temporal affairs and
juridical administration.
The Doctor's statements on this point might, with some
important qualifications, and in less offensive phraseology, be
paralleled from Catholic historians in high esteem. He states
that "The princes and peoples who made the Reformation
made it, not in the interest of dogma, but in the interest of
freedom from the tyranny of Rome, and of the rights of the
nations; and hence the immediate result was national religions,
State Churches, all over the Protestant world, repudiating the
supremacy of Rome. The more serious evils were just what
is evident in Russia to-day autocracy, bureaucracy, and the
intrusion of the Curia in secular affairs." Evidentl)', here,
Dr. Briggs overlooks one of the most potent causes in the
668 PROFESSOR STERRETT. [Aug.,
promotion of the Reformation the ambitions of covetous self-
ish, sensual princes. He claims that the same evil exists in a
less acute form to-day.
Here, then, in the Curia is embodied, to Protestant eyes,
the "Roman tyranny" which brings on the Church the unde-
served reproach of being a system of mechanical, unethical
authority. The Congregations, we are told, keep all power in
their own hands, the Curia has deprived the bishops of the
world of their ancient rights; and "when we consider that a
majority of the members of the Congregations are not only
Italian and Roman, trained in the traditions of the Roman
Curia, which is, to a great extent, self-perpetuating, and that
few of them have much knowledge of the world outside of
Italy, it is easy to see that all questions throughout the
Catholic world are determined from a Roman point of view,
and in Roman interests." " In civil affairs," continues Dr.
Briggs, " Italians and Romans, in modern times, have not
shown any remarkable ability, yet these Congregations think
that they have the ability to govern the Church throughout
the world, and to govern it with absolute authority, demand-
ing unquestioning obedience." These Congregations, so runs
the arraignment, are antiquated in their methods, and, from
whatever point it is estimated, their personnel scarcely seems
adequate to the important tasks confided to them, and "the
reform that is needed above .all is to put these officials in
their proper place as servants of the Pope, and deprive them
altogether of their usurped power over the bishops of the
Church ; the officials of the Curia should be, like those of the
best modern States, responsible servants, and not, like the
Russian bureaucrats, irresponsible autocrats." As an offset to
the note of exaggeration that is obvious in this account, we
must, though it is irrelevant to our subject, credit Dr, Briggs
with a warm appreciation of the present Pontiff's religious
zeal, and with .brushing aside as empty the charge so often
made since 1870 formulated in extreme terms by Sabatier
that, by the definition of infallibility, the Pope has become an
absolute autocrat over the intellect and conduct of all Catho-
lics, because he may, at any moment, from his own conscious-
ness alone, promulgate any doctrine or decree that he pleases.
On the contrary, Dr. Briggs admits, " the autocracy of the
Pope, while recognized in principle, is really much limited in
1905.] THE FREEDOM OF AUTHORITY. 669
fact; for while in one sense the Pope cannot be said to be a
constitutional monarch, in another sense he is ; because, though
he may, under certain unusual circumstances, make infallible
decisions in faith and morals, he may not make any decisions
which contravene any made by Popes and Councils in the
past." The writer might have added that no doctrine can be
made dogmatic that was not contained in the deposit confided
to the Apostles in the beginning.
These excerpts suffice to indicate the tenor of what is a
representative Protestant estimate of the Church's authority in
its concrete form. Yet if even the entire indictment were, for
argument's sake, admitted, what would it prove against the
essential character of the Church ? Nothing. Whatever facts
exist to give it a certain measure of plausibility have no intrin-
sic root in Catholicism. For the most part, they may be traced
to a former state of affairs, when the spiritual papacy and the
ecclesiastical administration were bound to a temporal Italian
princedom. The bureaucratic spirit, and the evils attendant
on bureaucracy everywhere, may easily have permeated the
spiritual regime. It was almost inevitable that, under former
conditions, a tendency should arise to concentrate all the power
of the spiritual kingdom in the hands of the tace which was
rightly entitled to the exclusive possession of the offices sub-
ordinate to the temporal papacy. But since it has pleased
Providence that the spiritual supremacy should be severed from
a kingdom of this world, time may be counted upon to wipe
out any injurious legacies derived from the former situation.
The vigor with which the present Pontiff is laying the ax to
the root of the tree is assurance that no hereditary abuses,
personal ambitions, or class interests, will deter him from his
purpose to reform all things in Christ. Of course a mighty,
world-wide society like the Catholic Church cannot be governed
without an extensive, organized administration, in which there
will be many places of large power and high honor. And, as
long as human nature remains what it is, power and honors
will engender personal ambition. Their appeal will be the strong-
est in those breasts in which the apostolic fires burn low.
Italy, after all, is not to be condemned with too much severity
for having taken pattern somewhat too closely from the too thrifty
mother of the sons of Zebedee, who, on the strength of rela-
tionship, claimed for her children the best places in the gift of
670 THE FREEDOM OF AUTHORITY. [Aug.
the Master. As long as the Church is human her Founder
will still find occasional reason for the complaint, Nescitis cujus
Spiritus estis.
Many unequivocal signs indicate that we are entering upon
an era when the spiritual nature of the Church will shine
forth more conspicuously than it has done for ages ; and her
truly Catholic character will be more strikingly emphasized in
the composition of her governing bodies. At the same time,
agnosticism and infidelity are impressing on the non- Catholic
Christian world the truth that every other authority than the
Catholic Church is a deceptive imitation that fails in the hour
of stress. In this conjuncture one of the most effective ser-
vices that can be rendered to truth is to assist in removing
the false impression prevalent concerning the role and nature
of authority.
In conclusion let us return for a parting word with Profes-
sor Sterrett. He has quoted, with approbation, a passage from
an eminent Unitarian which ends thus: "Protestantism, unless
it can recall its separations, and atone its schisms, and, re-
nouncing dogmatic wilfulness, round itself into one, is doomed
to pass away, and be absorbed in the larger fold of an Ecu-
menical Church." The professor's comment on this assertion
is: "If Protestantism cannot do this, what if Rome, which
has often shown master-strokes of wisdom, should arouse to
her opportunity, and rise to her duty ? What, if dropping
her now provincial name and character, she might seek to re-
integrate all Protestantism ? It looks like a seeming impossi-
bility. But if the day ever comes that Protestantism ceases
to be a religion of authority, and that Romanism itself can
take up all the noble fruits and principles of Protestantism,
then the time will come when every Christian must answer the
question to such Catholicism, why, or why not ? " Is there
any cool-headed, unbiassed thinker, of any religion, or of no
religion, who believes that Protestantism, divided ad subdi-
vided against itself into innumerable fragments, among which,
the law of repulsion is in full play, can ever unite and form
a homogeneous whole, on a distinctively Protestant basis ?>
Scarcely ; at least, none have placed themselves on record as
holding that conviction. The way to the realization of the
vision splendid of a reunited Christendom, one fold under one
Shepherd, lies in another direction.
THE TEACHING OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
BY THE REVEREND JOHN F. BRADY, M.D.
'HE great civic question of the day in our land
is the question of education of real, solid, effi-
cient education ; of education, therefore, which
looks not merely to the stuffing of youthful
heads with a mass of data wrongly called
knowledge, but of education which aims at the formation of
the highest and noblest manhood and womanhood. To this
question the minds of trained thinkers are turned, and upon
this the brain energy of educators is at work seeking a proper
and efficient solution.
In proof of this, we have but to recall that notable meet-
ing of teachers a short time since, at a popular summer resort
in New Jersey, where thousands of those whose vocation it is
to instruct the youth of the land, gathered for the purpose of
discussing present-day methods, and of finding by mutual co-
operation lines of improvement in the system now in vogue in
our national educational institutions. The meeting was well
attended by many citizens prominent in the nation's affairs,
and this fact alone would make it well worthy of study as
evincing positive evidence of the interest taken in things edu-
cational.
Even while these lines are being penned, the Catholic
Educational Association is holding its annual session in New
York, and there, too, delegates from the various parts of the
land representing every degree of Catholic educational effort,
from the highest, the Catholic University at Washington,
which has done so much for the unification and completion of
Catholic instruction, down to the lowest are, in conference
assembled, searching for ways yet unknown to make more effi-
cient a system which at present more than compares with any
educational system in the broad land. These are facts which
do not fail to make a deep impression on the most casual ob-
server, for they show full clearly that there is a better reali-
zation among the people of the urgent need of education for
VOL. LXXXI. 43
672 THE TEACHING OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [Aug.,
the prosperity and well-being of the country. The days are
past, never to return, when heads of families were satisfied if
their children received any kind of education, provided they
spent the usual number of hours of the day in the school-
room. Nowadays it is not the number of hours spent in the
school that counts, but how that time is spent. It is, indeed,
a most healthy sign of the times that so much thought is
given to the education of our youth.
We Catholics are by no means laggards in this movement
for the improvement of educational methods. It is little short
of marvelous what Catholics have done to provide for their off-
spring that which to them is the only true and effective edu-
cation. For the Catholic considers that education unworthy of
the name, the only aim of which is to impart secular knowledge
unworthy of the name because such training can develop
only a part of the composite human being, and that the lower
part, while the superior part is left untutored. It is not for
us to speak of the great sacrifices made by the Catholic body
to provide Catholic education for their children; we need but
point to the results, and they speak for themselves Yet these
results are so pronounced that they evoke the admiration of
all, even of those who would have things otherwise.
The Most Rev. Archbishop of New York pronounced a
most pertinent truth when he said, at the opening session 01
the Catholic Educational Conference : " If there is no outside
criticism of the parochial school now, it is not because th,ere
is more piety in the world, but because the schools by their
efficiency now command the respect of all." If one v/ere to
search for the key to this wonderful success under such unto-
ward circumstances one would find it, I think, in this : that
the Church has ever insisted on the value of religious educa-
tion, even for the very young ; that religious instruction has
always taken its proper place in the curriculum of our paro-
chial schools ; it has been a powerful factor, too, in the im-
parting and reception of secular knowledge and disciplinary
formation, to such an extent, indeed, that the Superintendent
of Schools, in his official report, proclaimed them in these re-
spects " second to none." How wise the Church has been
then in her unflinching insistence that the children committed
to her care should be trained first and foremost in the knowl-
edge of religious truths ; that they should be thoroughly
1905.] THE TEACHING OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 673
grounded in their duties to God, to their neighbor, and to
themselves, seeing so clearly that all this made for the strong-
est development of youthful character, and tended to the
formation of better citizenship, even from the viewpoint of
natural and civic morality ! It has been uphill work ; but
success has crowned her efforts. This is an incontrovertable
fact. Yet we are only at the beginning, and success in the
future will depend in very large measure, as it has up to the
present, upon the success attained in imparting religious in-
struction. Hence we are brought face to face with the su-
premely important question, What can be done to insure per-
manent success in the necessary teaching of the truths of our
holy religion to the children ? The question deserves careful
consideration.
And here it will not be without profit to lay before the
reader some of the salutary thoughts given us by our Holy
Father Pius X. in his recent encyclical on " The Teaching of
Christian Doctrine." Coming from the head of the Church,
and dealing principally with the most precious part of his
flock, the priceless souls of the little ones, the letter is of the
utmost importance. In the opening of the encyclical we are
reminded that ravening wolves have not spared the flock, that
the enemy of God has succeeded, with his subtle cunning, in
robbing Christ of souls purchased by his redemption. The
Holy Father ascribes this evil " chiefly to ignorance of divine
things " ; to the undeniable fact that in our days there are so
many people professing the name of "Christian" who are in
the densest ignorance about what concerns their salvation.
This charge refers not so much to those who walk in the
humble ways of life, and who by virtue of their condition are
deprived of the opportunity to improve themselves, but is
made chiefly in reference to those who have had the advantage
of intellectual training, and, sadder yet, even against those who
are foremost in the field of secular sciences. Surely we might
expect good fruit from such trees, yet of them it is said that
"in religious matters they pass their lives in thoughtlessness
and unconcern"; heedless of the very darkness in which they
live " giving no thought to God or the teachings of Chris-
tianity." What wonder then that such men, after a life of
carelessness or of worldly vanity, come to the hour of death
either little or entirely unprepared, thus putting a tax on the
674 THE TEACHING OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [Aug.,
patient charity of the priest or rejecting absolutely his spiritual
ministrations. " Fittingly has it been said by our predecessor,
Benedict XIV.," says the Holy Father, '"We declare that the
greater part of those who are damned have brought the ca-
lamity on themselves by ignorance of the mysteries of faith,
which they should have known and believed in order to be
united with the elect.'"
The natural result of this is not only intense worldliness,
but an increase " in the corruption oi morals and depravity of
life." If we would be convinced of the truth of this we have
only to turn to the daily papers and learn there of the cry
that is going out over the whole land, raised up by ministers
and jurists, and students of social and political economy, and
by professors and presidents of colleges and universities, for
the re-creation of the olden-time spirit of public honesty.
There we may learn of the spirit of madness that has seized
upon the hearts of so many who, forgetful of the natural law,
forgetful that the prosperity of the nation is to be preferred to
individual gain, have given way to the lust of greed to such an
extent that they hesitate not to harass and even trample on
their fellow-citizen in his effort for self-preservation and sap
the strength of the nation. Why this state of affairs in a cen-
tury so enlightened and so progressive ? Because, as the Holy
Father tells us, men know not Christian truth, which " shows
us the nature of God and his infinite perfections, uhich bids
us revere Almighty God by faith, by hope, and by charity,
and thus subjects the whole man to his supreme Author and
Ruler"; they know not Christian truth, which "unfolds for us
the true nobility of human nature, and from this very dignity,
and from the knowledge of it, Christ wishes us to learn that
we should love one another and live as behooves the sons of
light." We have only to look about us and see that men are
turned to "brutish beasts" because they know not God and
know not themselves, and this for no other reason than that
they have never had solid religious training ; because the
principles of religious truth were not given them, or were
given inadequately, in the formative days of youth. A godless
school has but one inevitable result a godless way of living.
On the other hand, continues Pius X., " it follows that not
only does Christian teaching illumine the mind and enable it
to retain the truth, but it inflames the will and enkindles that
1905.] THE TEACHING OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 675
ardor which makes us aspire to God and unite ourselves with
him by the exercise of every virtue." What is needed then is
a remedy against this fatal " ignorance of things divine." This
remedy is none other than religious instruction. The duty of
applying this remedy, as we learn from the encyclical, is in-
cumbent, by virtue of their office, upon the bishops and priests
of the Church. Here the Vicar of Christ sets before us the
great value attached by God himself to this mission of impart-
ing religious instruction. " Nothing is more pleasing to Jesus
Christ, the Redeemer of immortal souls." " No weightier duty
appointed to priests." The work of the catechist is vastly
more important " than the work of the sacred orator " ; more
important even than " the work of those who laboriously write
books in defence of the truths of religion." What is needed
then above all else is the sowing of the seed of religious in-
struction, the teaching of Christian doctrine.
Here then are the views, as expressed in his latest Ency-
clical, of our Holy Father, a man of vast experience as priest,
bishop, primate, Pope. What can be done to improve the sys-
tem of religious training ? In answering we must make a dis-
tinction between religious instruction given in 'parochial schools
and that given to other children. As to the parochial school
nothing need be said. The system of daily instruction given
there meets the most stringent requirements. Would that the
other lambs of the flock, those who for one reason or other do
not avail themselves of the great privileges afforded them in
the parochial schools, were the recipients of the same zealous
attention. Their case calls for more serious thought and more
energetic co-operation on the part of parent and priest. It
will not do to say that they refuse to partake of the banquet
prepared for them at so great cost, and therefore must take
the consequences. No; the obligation is not lessened but in-
creased by this factor, since their danger is greater.
Turning our attention, then, to the question of religious in-
struction to be given to Catholic children who attend non-
sectarian schools, or who are so conditioned that they are com-
pelled, at an early age, to abandon the schoolroom for the
shop or the office, we are at once brought face to face with
a most serious need, and that is the need of organization. We
mean organization not so much of the part as of the whole.
It is quite unnecessary for one to prove that organization brings
676 THE TEACHING OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [Aug.,
into activity the best energies, in the best way and at the most
opportune time, and is therefore the most efficient factor in the
achievement of the highest and most lasting results. The testi-
mony of the hour bears ample confirmation of all this. We
may see, for example, the results that are obtained year after
year in the field of politics by careful organization. Hence the
months and months spent in attending to the minutest detail
in the plan of organization before the opening of a political
campaign. What lesson is drawn by our statesmen from the
very disastrous and one sided war that has been the burden of
men's thoughts for the past year ? Clearly this, that success
waits upon perfect organization. Whether one turn to the bus-
iness world or to the social world, the same conviction is borne
in upon the mind ; viz., the royal road that leads to success
is skilful organization.
So Christ in giving us his Church gave it in the form of
an organized society. He chose the Twelve and bestowed upon
them the commission to teach and to rule. Later he perfected
his organization by constituting Peter the supreme head of his
society. And what is it under God that has given her, and
what is it that gives her to-day, her marvelous unity, solidity,
and permanance, enabling her to withstand, as she has withstood,
the tempests and the natural decay of time, and to do so suc-
cessfully the great work she has done, if it is not the perfec-
tion of the Christ- given organization ? So, if we would seek
for better results in our Sunday school work, we must not hesi-
tate to profit by what we see around us, we would do well to
adopt methods that have led to success in every field. What
we need, then, is organization. To be plain, the Sunday-school
work would be rendered more efficient if placed under the di-
rection of one head or, if preferred, a board of directors, to
whom would be given full power to organize, to grade, to plan,
to execute, etc. Some might think this chimerical, but it is
not. It is only applying to this branch of work what has al-
ready been applied to the parochial school branch. Seme years
ago a board of school directors was constituted, and under them
a superintendent of schools appointed, whose duty it is to visit
every school and to examine into every detail of the work.
The results have been most gratifying and the system has proved
to be most acceptable. It is true that there are some difficul-
ties to be met with in this field that are not met with else-
1905.] THE TEACHING OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 677
where; but these difficulties are by no means insurmountable.
To some minds the most serious problem to be grappled with
is lack of attendance. Yet instances might be cited in which
this problem was solved, and the means used in the solution
were simple enough. They were, first a tonic dose of gentle-
ness, then a whole-hearted endeavor to persuade the children
that their presence would not only fulfil a duty, but yield them
personal pleasure as well, and a rooting out of that impression
lingering in so many youthful minds that, because they do not
attend the parochial school, they are to be merely tolerated in
the Sunday-school. Further efforts were made on the part of
catechists to give in their instructions more than the dry bones
of the articles of faith; and, as the Supreme Pontiff has uigtd
in his encyclical, liberal use was made of the Sacred Scriptures,
of ecclesiastical history, of the lives of the saints, stories, para-
bles, etc., so that life and raiment were given to the truth ex-
plained, and the total result was attractiveness.
The second point which suggests itself for the improve-
ment of the Sunday-school enables us to follow more closely
the wishes of the Holy Father as expressed in his encyclical
on Christian doctrine, and refers to the catechist. Of course
the priest is "par excellence" the catechist; yet in every
large city the number of children to be catechised is so great
that it is necessary to call in the aid of lay teachers. To this
class of Church workers we cannot give too high praise. By
their work they give lessons in zeal, patience, and self-sacrifu e
that are both edifying and fruitful. The work of teachirg
catechism is not always attractive and is not likely to win
popular praise. But generous souls like these look to God for
their reward, and the Vicar of Christ speaks to them in his
recent letter in the following terms: "We deem it superfluous
to dwell at greater length in praising such instruction, or
showing its value in the eyes of God. No doubt the pity we
manifest in relieving the wants of the poor is most accept-
able to God; but who will question that the care and labor
by which we procure not transient benefits for the body, but
eternal for the soul by teaching and warning them, are far
more acceptable. Nothing certainly can be more desirable,
nothing more pleasing to Jesus Christ the Redeemer of im-
mortal souls."
The Supreme Pontiff lays stress on the fact that "no
678 THE TEACHING OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE, [Aug.,
weightier duty is appointed to priests," and hence it is evi-
dent that all who are called to help the priest in the fulfil-
ment of this duty should understand well its importance.
When this is once grasped, the necessity of preparing oneself
for its proper accomplishment will be manifest; the necessity,
on the part of the catechist, of study and inquiry ; and hence
too the obligation on the part of the head of the Sunday-
school of training the teachers. This is the suggestion that we
would make in order to meet the requirements of the time in
the way of improving our Sunday-schools; teach the teachers.
Now this is not said by way of reflection upon those who
devote so much of their time at no slight sacrifice to instruct-
ing the children, and we are ready to believe that no one will
comprehend the helpfulness and even the necessity of this
suggestion more readily than the teaching corps itself. The
priest, before he is sent to the Sunday-school work, is trained in
the seminary for four or six years. There he spends his time
in acquiring a fuller knowledge of the truths of Christianity,
so that " his lips may speak knowledge " for the people ; and,
what is of equal importance, he is likewise taught, and that
very assiduously, how this knowledge is to be given to those
who seek instruction at his hands. Who will say then that
some plan of instruction is not necessary for those who are to
be the priest's helpers in this great work of teaching Chris-
tian truth to the little ones, or for that matter to those grown-
up members of the flock who know little and wish to know
more of divine truths ?
It happens not unfrequently that those who present them-
selves for this work have never had other opportunity afforded
them, of studying and grasping the doctrines they are sup-
posed to explain to their pupils, than the ordinary course in
the catechism as taught in their school days in the Sunday-
school, and explained to them by a teacher not well-equipped
for the task. This course most probably consisted in a
memory recitation of question and answer as found in the
penny catechism. How necessary that teachers, if they are to
be teachers in the real sense of the word, should first receive
this knowledge from one fitted by vocation and training to
impart it.
It is clear then that there should be a training class for
the teachers. Without this it is useless to hope for perfection
1905.] THE TEACHING OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. 679
in results in the Sunday-school work. No amount of energy,
no amount of good will, no amount of generous self- sacrifice
will fully compensate for the lack of a trained teacher. But
given the teacher possessing energy, patience, and good will,
the spirit of sacrifice added to a sound and thorough training
on the doctrines taught in the Sunday-schools, and what a
power for effective work is at the disposal of the head of the
school ! Nor will the teachers demur when such a proposi-
tion is made to them. Those who give themselves to this
work are " made of sterner stuff," and will be found more
than willing to take advantage of every chance offered them
to fit themselves for their noble work. In fact they are
" waiting for the descent of the angel and the moving of the
waters." How is this to be done ? In one of two ways
either by the formation of classes within parish or district
limits, or better still by means of a normal training school for
catechists. It is with pleasure that we call attention to the
existence of such a normal school in the Archdiocese of
New York. This school, which is an outgrowth of the " Con-
fraternity of Christian Doctrine," has been established for the
past five years, and during that time has done most gratifying
work in the preparation of teachers for their labor in the
schools of Christian doctrine.
A complete course of three years, junior, senior, and post-
graduate, has been carefully arranged and has been approved
by the Most Rev. Archbishop. The junior year is devoted to
the study of the pedagogy of the Sunday-school how to hold
the attention of the children; how to make the explanation of
each chapter of the catechism interesting; where to search for
useful matter; how best to impress important truths on youth-
ful intellects; these and kindred subjects form the matter of
the first year's study. The senior year is devoted to the ac-
quisition of a more thorough knowledge of those truths of re-
ligion usually presented in the higher Christian doctrine classes.
Lectures on the Sacred Scriptures; on the life of our Lord;
on the Sacraments ; on the Church ; on the Commandments,
etc., are given during this period. At the end of each year
the student is required to pass a written and oral examination
in the matter treated during the course, and at the close of
the second year is presented with a teacher's diploma. The
third or post-graduate year is devoted to the study of Church
680 THE TEACHING OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. [Aug.
history, and interweaves very fittingly with the work of the
preceding year, especially with the lectures on the Church.
This supplemental course is most valuable, for it gives the
teacher a clearer and firmer understanding of doctrinal points
and acts as a strong stimulus to further research, the final re-
sult of which is the acquisition of a storehouse of argument
to be used as occasion requires in the Sunday-school.
As experience is the best test of the applicability of
nrethods and the effectiveness of systems, let us say one word
based on experience about the results already accomplished by
this school as yet hardly known. It has trained over one
hundred teachers, most of whom so appreciate the work done
for them that they return year after year to follow the courses
anew. Many of these teachers, filled with an exemplary spirit,
are doing catechetical work among the Italians, Bohemians,
Poles, etc., and a few of whom are conducting sub-training
classes in various parts of the city. Surely these single-
hearted laborers in the vineyard and the school that trained
them are carrying out in a fruitful way that work for Christ
of which Pius X. says there is " none nobler, none more pleas-
ing to the Redeemer of immortal souls." Here then are some
practical results of the two suggestions offered in this paper
organization and training of teachers. We feel that there is
scarcely need to argue further. Our Holy Father has ordered
the establishment in all parishes of the " Confraternity of
Christian Doctrine," calling attention at the same time to the
rich indulgences that accrue to its members. This indeed is
most timely, and should have the effect of drawing into the
Sunday-school work a goodly number of young folk who have
both time and ability which could be used profitably in mak-
ing known and loved the " Redeemer of immortal souls."
This solicitude of the Supreme Pontiff should likewise proclaim
to the world that the Church of Christ is still faithful to the
commission given her by her Divine Founder when he sent the
Apostles to "teach all nations," that she is ever doing her
share to uplift human society by laboring for a nobler man-
hood and womanhood.
Current JEvente*
Several events have recently taken
Russia. place which may render this year
memorable in the world's history
The most striking of these are what we hope may be, and
yet scarcely dare to expect will be, the death throes of a
corrupt and tyrannous despotism. The state of Russia, to the
reader of the newspapers, is a scene of massacre, mutiny, and
riot on the part of its people, and of vacillation, ineptitude,
and insincerity on the part of the rulers. It is, of course,
easy to make a collection of the mishaps and misdeeds which
take place in any country, even the most fortunate and the
best-governed, and thereby to give a totally wrong idea of
the state of that country. But no such consideration as this
will render it possible to believe that the state of Russia is
even tolerable. The mere fact that these disorders exist in
the face of the enemy, and of the common danger resulting
from that enemy's success, makes it clear that despair has
taken possession of the people, and that they do not care
enough for their country even to put on an appearance of
patriotic feeling. The open mutiny of the Kniaz Potemkin
may be but the manifestation of the widespread disaffection
of the army, both of the officers and of the men. In fact
some of the former have refused to be the agents of the
bureaucracy in shooting down defenceless men and wcmen and
children. The annihilation of the Baltic Fleet has accentuated
the demand for the assembling of representatives of the nation
in order to make peace, and has even led to its being openly
intimated that what a National Assembly did in the days of
old it may repeat at the present time replace, i. e., an in-
competent head of the State by one capable of efficient work
for the good of the nation. For the system of government
adopted by the immediate predecessor of the present Tsar, and
continued by him in full force, is at the root of all the disas-
ters which have taken place. In the words of a Russian be-
longing to the class of landed proprietors, the present system
"demoralizes the educated classes and leaves the masses in
ignorance. The privation of all liberty of thought and action
682 CURRENT EVENTS. [Aug.,
drives the majority of the governing classes into the pursuit
of pleasure, and, as the officials of the government are poorly
paid, most of them have recourse to peculation and jobbery."
In fact to the latter the defeat of Admiral Rozhdestvensky is,
in a measure, traceable. And yet the Tsar stands upon his
dignity, and while his whole Empire is on the verge of revo-
lution and anarchy, demoralized throughout its entire political,
moral, and social organization, he refuses to recognize facts
patent to the whole world. He has indeed accepted President
Roosevelt's appeal ; has even named envoys ; yet the world
cannot bring itself to believe in his honor and sincerity. The
flattering tradition nearly two hundred years old, that Rus-
sia's destiny is to conquer and to rule, is not easily aban-
doned ; the corrupting influence of the possession of unlimited
power happily causes its own ruin by incapacitating the su-
preme ruler for the right exercise of that power, and as a
consequence leads to its being taken away.
" Gentlemen, my promise to summon the elect of the
nation shall be fulfilled without delay. I thank you for com-
ing to me and for speaking fearlessly and frankly. From this
day forth I hope that the relations between me and my peo-
ple will enter upon a new phase. I count upon you, gentle-
men, to help me to attain my ardent desire." In these words
the Tsar replied to the address presented by a deputation of
the Zemstvos and Dumas, in which he had been told that the
nation had been thrown into an accursed war by the criminal
negligence and by the abuses of his advisers advisers for
whom the Tsar was responsible, inasmuch as he himself had
chosen them. The address proceeded to enumerate the evils
with which the Empire is afflicted the vices of the odious
regime Q{ the Prizkaz, the oppression everywhere rife, the sup-
pression of individual liberty as well as of speech, the admin-
istrative tyranny, the cutting off of access to his person so
that the truth could not be made known to him. All hope of
saving Russia, they declared, rested in convoking the repre-
sentatives of the people, and that at once and in the estab-
lishment of a new regime.
The address concluded with the following words : " Sire,
you hold in your hands the honor and power of Russia and
its peace at home, upon which depends its peace abroad.
Your country and your Throne, the heritage of your ancestors,
1905.] CURRENT EVENTS, 683
is in your hands. Do not lose an instant, Sire, for at this ter-
rible moment of trial for the Russian people your responsi-
bility before God and before Russia is immense." That the
Tsar should have replied in the terms cited above, to an ad-
dress so frank and fearless as to make him visibly wince in
the presence of his court, might be taken as satisfactory evi-
dence of the advent of the new order. And if the Tsar were
a man bound by his word, the nation would now be re-
joicing in the assured accomplishment of its desires; the new
era of which the Tsar speaks would have become an ac-
complished fact. " My will," he declared, " is the sovereign
and unalterable will, and the admission of elected represen-
tatives to the works of the State will be regularly accom-
plished." But the same sovereign and unalterable will, in the
same terms, decreed, a few months ago, the expulsion of the
Japanese from Manchuria. The will so sovereign and so un-
alterable in word has in deed so often proved subject to all
kinds of influences, and so changeable, that the solemn an-
swer to the deputation has not brought a return of peace and
confidence. In fact to the police government created by the
bureaucracy which, as was stated by Prince Troubetzkoi in his
address to the Tsar, consists of persons determined to defeat
everything detrimental to their own interests, and sworn to
mislead their nominal master and to interpose themselves be-
tween him and the nation to this police government the Tsar
still entrusts the execution of his purposes. It accordingly
proceeded to edit the Tsar's utterances, to make them less
definite and precise. The newspapers have been warned to
abstain from all comments upon the speech, and the very dele-
gates who were graciously received by the Tsar have been
shadowed by the police as guilty of an illegal act in making
the presentation. No wonder that the subsequent internal his-
tory of Russia is made up of massacres, insurrections, bomb
outrages, Cossack brutalities. Mussulmans have been permitted
to slaughter Armenians, or at least have not been prevented
from so doing. Hundreds have been slain in Poland, and mar-
tial law, which gives to brutal soldiers the right to work their
own will in their own way, has been proclaimed in several parts
ot this kingdom. Still further inroads have been made on the
rights of the Finns, involving yet anothtr violation of the
pledged word of the sovereign. The promise of religious lib-
684 CURRENT EVENTS. [Aug.,
erty, of which we spoke in the last number, has been so in-
terpreted as to deprive it of a great part of its value. The
large number of Catholics who had been forced by the gov-
ernment to join the Orthodox Church, and who on the publi-
cation of the edict returned to the faith and communion of
Rome, so alarmed the Orthodox authorities that they have
obtained from the Tsar the declaration that his Edict gave no
right to seek to convert any member of the Orthodox Church,
and that such action entailed all the former penalties.
We must, however, be fair and give to every one his due.
Certain rights, hitherto denied, have been restored to the
Polish Catholics. Reforms recommended by the Russian Min-
isterial Committee, and ratified by the Tsar, have been recently
promulgated which give to the Poles in the -kingdom of Poland
proper privileges hitherto denied them. In all public and
private schools instruction will be permitted in the Catholic
Creed. In some cases this is made obligatory. This instruc-
tion may be given in the Polish language by Catholic priests
or by Catholic laymen. Various other privileges have been
granted, the effect of which, if realized (and this is an im-
portant if), will be to render the condition of the Poles in Rus-
sia much better than that of the Poles in Germany. In fact,
certain German officials were so much disturbed that they pre-
vented the official telegraphic agency from publishing to the
world the news of this concession.
While the Emperor of Russia is
Germany. unwillingly looking to the nation
for guidance and help, or pre-
tending to do so, in order to release himself from the grasp
of the underlings who control him in the exercise of his
power, the German Emperor rejoices in uncontrolled mani-
festations of his singular personality. It is true that both
as Emperor of Germany and as King of Prussia he has par-
liaments with which to deal, yet he does not hold himself
accountable to them ; his ministers too are responsible to him-
self, and hold office even when condemned by a parliamentary
majority. The Emperor not only believes himself to have a
divine commission to rule and govern, but publicly declares this
his belief, and acts upon it. He is not, however, full master
1905.] CURRENT EVENTS, 685
of the situation, for although the Parliaments cannot themselves
do very much, yet they have extensive power of control. They
can effectively prevent many of the ruler's projects. The power
they have is, however, weakened by the excessive number of
parties into which every continental parliament is divided. This
enables the ruler, if sufficiently skilful, so to manipulate mat-
ters as to get his own way by playing off one party against
another. The personality of the ruler is, then, a matter of im-
portance. From this point of view it is necessary to give close
attention to that of the Emperor. In fact, for good or for
evil, the peace and contentment of Europe, and perhaps of
America, depend upon his being satisfied, or at least effectually
held in check. There appears to be little reason to doubt that
within the last few weeks he has brought Europe to the verge
of war of a war which might have involved the whole of Eu-
rope ; a war, too, with no shadow of justification, except dis-
appointed ambition. Truly the days of chivalry are gone. This
is made plain in many ways, but in no way is it made more
plain than by the recent proceedings of the German Emperor.
Of course we cannot penetrate into the inmost thoughts of the
Imperial mind; we can only judge of those thoughts from fair-
ly well-authenticated deeds. According to these the Emperor
deemed himself to be neglected. That position in Europe which
had belonged to his predecessor, and in a measure to himself,
was his no longer. To Russia even, though allied to France*
he had been forced to pay unwilling court. He is said to have
urged on the present war with Japan, and his benevolent neu-
trality enabled Russia to send troops to the East which other-
wise would have been needed at home to guard the German
frontier. This, we believe, he did in the full confidence that
Russia would be victorious. The reverse has happened. Russia
has been so weakened that Germany no longer dreads her power.
The German Emperor has not, therefore, scrupled to take ad-
vantage of the situation and to brow- beat the ally of Russia
France, with the view of forcing her to subordinate herself in
her foreign relations to the views and interests of Germany.
The Emperor has not wished to make France his enemy ; on
the contrary, he has taken this strange method of making France
his friend and even ally. The enemy in the background is
England, and the real object of the recent negotiations about
Morocco, has been to break up the recent entente between the
686 CURRENT EVENTS. [Aug.,
two countries. It cannot be denied that a measure of success
has been achieved by the Emperor, and that what has been
achieved may lead to further developments such as he would
wish. The Conference of the Powers about the affairs of Mo-
rocco, which France was unwilling to accept and which England
positively refused, is to be held. It will not, however (if the
assurances given by the German government may be relied
upon), take into consideration the question settled by the agree-
ments of France with England, Spain, and Italy. At least this
is what is stated ; what it will take into account, these agree-
ments being excluded, it is somewhat hard to see. But the
fact that France has consented to the Conference being sum-
moned constitutes for Germany a diplomatic victory, and in a
measure restores her to the position of influence in Europe which
she held in the time of Bismarck, and which a short time ago
appeared to have been lost.
Although the Conference is nominally called for the purpose
of introducing reforms into Morocco, the effect of the Agree-
ment will be to place the corrupt government of Morocco in the
same position as that of Turkey, and to give to it the same
protection. Owing to the rivalries of the so-called Christian
Powers, the shameful rule of Mohammedan oppression, which
was threatened by the action of France, will be perpetuated.
For some years past Germany has been the protector of the
detested Sultan, who pollutes and defiles the city which was
once the second capital of Christendom. The German
Emperor has now achieved the dubious honor of becoming the
protector of another Sultan, not personally indeed so vile as
the former that would be well-nigh impossible but the head
of a State which is even more barbarous than Turkey. Such
are our current men, and such our present-day politics; such
the outcome of their supreme efforts.
The German Empire embraces, of course, every sort and
condition of man, and we suppose, were it not for the some-
what self-willed personality of its Emperor, its external action
would be the resultant of the various forces exercised by
the various classes. The most extreme and least wise of these
classes consists of the Pan-Germans. They have lately been
holding a Congress at Worms. At this Congress Dr. Hasse,
the president of the league, made a strong protest against the
adoption of a peace policy as the sole function of foreign
i 9 o5.J CURRENT EVENTS. 687
policy, and insisted that the whole world ought to understand
that Germany was at all times ready to draw the sword.
Under other circumstances this might, of course, have been
merely an innocent platitude; but, having been made as it
was in the course of the negotiations with France in relation
to Morocco, it was a plain incitement to war. Compared with
these enthusiasts the Emperor William's aims are moderate.
He was in fact criticized on the ground that he was willing
to guarantee the integrity of Morocco and the independence
of its Sultan. On the continent of Europe the Pan- Germans
hope to extend the boundaries of the Empire until that
Empire has a port on the Adriatic; while in Morocco itself
there is to be an out-lying possession giving it a port on the
Atlantic.
The energies of France have been
France. engrossed in the diplomatic con-
flict with Germany in which, for
not having been true to herself, she has suffered not a little.
The resignation of M. Delcasse was due to foreign influence,
an influence which would have been ineffectual had it not
found support among French politicians. A kind of panic
took possession of many, produced by the fear of war. It is
said that several newspapers in Paris were subsidized by
German agents, and a widespread belief was produced in the
imminence of war and in the bad faith of England. The latter
power, it was said, was using France as a catspaw to further
English designs upon Germany. For some days those notions
threatened to bring about the alienation of France and
England, and the much- desired rapprochement of the latter
power to Germany. But the conduct of England in support-
ing France has now been admitted to have been satisfactory ;
the entente between the two countries is as cordial as ever.
Some responsible French politicians are going so far as to
advocate a defensive alliance between the two countries.
The Bill for the separation of Church and State has passed
the Assembly and now goes to the Senate. A few modifica-
tions have been made in the original proposals, the out-
line of which was given in our last number. The right of
freely using the Churches, and the property contained in them,
is now given, although bishops' palaces, priests' houses, and
VOL. LXXXI 44
688 CURRENT EVENTS. [Aug.,
seminaries will remain, as originally proposed, subject to rent.
The provisions with regard to pensions have also been modi-
fied. Priests who are over sixty years old, and who have
served for thirty years at least, will receive a life pension
equal to three-fourths of their present salary. Those who are
over forty-five, and who have served at least twenty years,
will receive a pension equal to half their salary. No pension,
however, is to exceed $300. For all the rest of the clergy the
original proposals remain unchanged. In the matter also of
Police Regulations some modifications have been made. A
fine has been substituted for imprisonment in the case of a
member of an association failing to keep the law. These are
small mercies, but the granting of these concessions indicates a
growing perception of the injustice of the original proposals,
and makes it possible to entertain the hope that the more
mature judgment of the Senators may demand further changes.
The relations between Austria and
Austria. Hungary are more critical than
ever so critical, indeed, that it is
hard to see how a separation can be averted except by the
use of force. Were the constitutional principles, as adopted
by England and France, the standard of judgment, the con-
duct of the Emperor- King, Francis Joseph, would have to be
condemned. The coalition has a majority in the Hungarian
Parliament, and accordingly it is entitled to have its way
whether that way is for the good of the country or not. But
the King is not willing to act unreservedly up to this stand-
ard. He has granted nine out of ten points of the demands
of the majority ; but is unbending in refusing to grant the
tenth. He insists that it would ruin the army were it optional
to give the commands in the Hungarian language. The major-
ity is as resolute in refusing to abate its demands. It has
therefore become impossible to form a ministry on the accus-
tomed lines. For six months the defeated Liberal Ministry
administered affairs. On Count Tisza's insisting upon being
relieved from such ungrateful duties, an extra-Parliamentary
Ministry has been formed, not- a single member of which has
a seat in either House. The Premier, Baron Fejervary, had
however to present himself and his fellow- ministers on the re-
1905.] CURRENT EVENTS. 689
assembling of the Chamber. The Premier well knew that he
was powerless, and had provided himself with a Royal Rescript
proroguing the session. Having read the Rescript appointing
him Premier, he wished at once to read the second Rescript
making the prorogation. By parliamentary custom he had a
right to do so, the King's messages always having precedence
over every other business. The Parliament, however, was so
incensed that it set aside this custom of centuries. Some of
the members dubbed the Premier a rogue. One honorable
member manifested the intensity of his feelings by spitting on
the floor in front of each retreating minister. A motion,
proposed by M. Kossuth, was then carried by which the
Chamber declared its distrust of the Fejervary Cabinet, be-
cause it was incompatible with the Parliamentary form of
government. This was carried by a two-thirds majority. The
second Rescript, proroguing Parliament till September, was then
read. Notwithstanding the prorogation a debate was opened
upon the Rescript, and a motion proposed by a former Premier,
Baron Banffy, was carried, which declared the prorogation be-
fore the granting of supply to be illegal and unconstitutional,
forbade the payment of the Hungarian quota of contribution
to Austro-Hungarian common expenditure, summoned counties
and communes to collect no taxes and not to enroll recruits,
and denounced as illegal and unconstitutional any eventual
calling out of reservists for military service. The motion was
carried by a two-thirds majority, and the proceedings closed
amid cries of "Long live Norway."
The result of this failure to reconcile the conflicting parties
is to place Austro- Hungary in what is called " ex lex." While
Hungary has before now repeatedly found herself in this illegal
plight, Austria has been able to escape by the use of the
Emergency Paragraph of her Constitution. The common Aus-
tro-Hungarian government has not hitherto had this experience.
The common government is taking the mildest measures com-
patible with the carrying on of the business of the State, in
order to avoid a bitter conflict, and is acting so as not to ap-
pear to over-ride the will of the Hungarian Chamber. By
further negotiations with the leaders of the coalition, an at-
tempt has been made to overcome their resistance; but unsuc-
cessfully. There seems to be no way to break the deadlock.
690 CURRENT EVENTS. [Aug.,
The action of Norway in separat-
Norway. ing from Sweden encourages the
Hungarians in their very similar
mode of proceeding. It is in truth hard to justify either of
the two nations. No one ventures to accuse either King
Francis Joseph or King Oscar of tyrannical conduct, or of
violating any right of his subjects. But the sympathy of the
world seems to be with the abettors of division. In the case
of Norway its action seems to be clearly illegal, and to be a
breach of the compact entered into when the Union was
formed. The Swedish King, however, has no desire to make
use of force in order to compel the Norwegians to maintain
the former state. But he maintains that the Norwegian action
is illegal, and is unwilling that future relations should be based
upon a questionable foundation. His government accordingly
has asked for powers from the Swedish Parliament to settle
with Norway the conditions upon which a rightful dissolution
may be effected, and upon what terms the relations of the
two countries shall in future be regulated ; for guarantees, also,
that these terms shall be loyally observed. To this the Par-
liament has assented and a Committee has been appointed to
settle the precise conditions. There are two parties the Con-
servatives and the Liberals. The former are in favor of mak-
ing these conditions somewhat stringent and the guarantees
adequate, the latter are more willing to let Norway depart
easily. Whatever may be the result, another nation has come
to take a place in the world perhaps even another Republic,
but that is still very doubtful.
The Italian Parliamentary session
Italy. has come to an end, with what
was formed as merely a stop-gap
ministry still in power, and even strengthened by its skilful
settlement of the very difficult question of the railways. With
the exception of some two thousand kilometres, the control
and management of the whole of the railways in Italy has
now passed to the State. Instead of diminishing the sums de-
voted to the army and navy, the opposite course has been
taken, and taxation, already crushing, is increased. It is not
1905.] CURRENT EVENTS. 691
to be wondered at that Italians are coming to us in tens and
hundreds of thousands. In the municipal elections at Rome
the Conservatives and Catholics have defeated the efforts of
the Freemasons and Socialists to secure control. In this way
Catholics are exercising their power for good.
The visit of the King to France
Spain. and England has brought Spain
more prominently than usual be-
fore the public eye. His majesty has made a most favorable
impression. His grace and modesty, courage and frankness,
have won the hearts of all. He passed some years in Eng-
land when he was a youth. This led him, he declared, to
form a great admiration for the constitutional system of gov-
ernment, and for the way in which Queen Victoria performed
the duties of a constitutional ruler. It was his intention to
take her as his model. No sooner had he returned home than
he had to exercise those duties by forming a new Cabinet, of
which within twenty-six months there have been no fewer
than six. It may perhaps be within the power of the King to
bring about greater stability in the political affairs of the
Peninsula, and thereby render these questions more intelligible
and interesting.
IRew Books.
This volume,* by the Hon. Mrs.
FOTHERINGAY. Maxwell Scott, is a most valuable
By Mrs. Maxwell Scott wor k for every one who would
wish to gain a true insight into
the last years and death, and, we may justly add, into the
whole character of Mary, Queen of Scots.
Mrs. Maxwell Scott's book is founded on, is in great part
a translation of, the journal of D. Bourgoing, physician to the
murdered Queen during the years of her imprisonment and at
her death. This journal, written by an intimate friend, is in
turn supplemented by the letters of Paulet, Queen Mary's jailer,
and the whole further supplemented by other hitherto unpub-
lished manuscript documents.
Mrs. Maxwell Scott's account begins with the removal of
Mary from Chartley, when the Babington Plot had been re-
vealed, to Fotheringay, where the Queen was finally executed.
The author gives us first-class evidence. Her own commen-
taries are but few, and the words of the first journalists are all
too plain and intelligible. Oftentimes these contemporaneous
reporters, intimates and enemies alike, give us the very words
of Queen Mary herself words so strong, so sincere, so often
reiterated in the very shadow of death, so dignified, so confound-
ing to her accusers, that it would seem they were powerful
enough to annihilate every shadow, every unhappy rumor and
how many there are that has ever attached itself to Queen
Mary's name. With regard to the murder of Darnley, though
this volume does not deal with it, it is well to remember Mary's
words before her accusers : " God and I know that I have never
attempted nor connived at the death or murder of any one."
And if, with some, Mary's last words be not sufficient to kill
every suspicion, they at least show a virtue in Mary at the
end which is something more than human, and surrounds her
brow, robbed of an earthly crown, with a halo of martyrdom.
Of course the trial of Mary was as wretched a mockery of
* The Tragedy of Fotheringay . By the Hon. Mrs. Maxwell Scott. New Edition. Edin-
* burg : Sands & Co.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 693
justice as could be, and the perfidy of Elizabeth too much for
human words to express. The volume shows these things in a
very evident way.
The late Mr. T. G. Law, author of the chapter on " Mary
Stuart" in the latest volume, The Wars of Religion, of the
Cambridge Modern History, writes : " When all hope was lost,
she (Mary) represented herself as the victim of religious perse-
cution, and sentiment has invested her pitiable suffering and
tragic end with the halo of martyrdom."
After reading this volume by Mrs. Maxwell Scott, and re-
membering the words of Walsingham and Davison to Paulet,
Mary's jailer, wherein Elizabeth is said to note in Paulet, be-
cause he did not hasten the execution, a lack of care for the
preservation of religion, remembering also the words of Lord
Kent to Mary herself on her last day " that it had been de-
cided that she could not live without endangering the State,
the life of the Queen, and the religion. ' Your life would be
the death of our religion, your death will be its life/ " remem-
bering these one cannot but believe that it is not sentiment
alone that has been effective in investing Mary's suffering and
end with the halo of martyrdom.
In the preface to his Life of Knox *
JOHN KNOX. Mr. Lang tells us that he has tried
By Andrew Lang. to get behind what he calls tra-
dition, but which is also known as
prejudice and partiality, and in this respect we believe that
Mr. Lang has succeeded admirably.
Not every traditional view is prejudiced or false, and it
happens that Mr. Lang, in getting behind one tradition which
is false, has given us another traditional view which is true.
All "traditional" biographies of the great reformer have
been based on his own History, which Mr. Lang submits to a
careful, critical study. He finds that this basal source of in-
formation is reliable only when corroborated by other tested
data. For, "the constant aim of Knox, his fixed idea as a
historian, is to accuse his adversaries of the treachery which
often marked the negotiations of his friends."
John Knox and the Reformation. By Andrew Lang. New York: Longmans, Green &
Co.
694 NEW BOOKS. [Aug.,
The best Mr. Lang can say of Knox is that he was pure,
self-denying, and lived and died a poor man. He was no
hypocrite "He believed as firmly in the 'Message' which he
delivered as in the existence of the visible universe."
The worst that can be said is that Knox was a man of the
times, steeped in its bigotry and fanaticism, which lead him to
advocate that the killing of Catholics was a meritorious act.
The merit and charm of Mr. Lang's volume are due to its
honesty and impartiality. From the preface to the last appen-
dix one feels that the author has conscientiously lived up to
his solemn sense of duty as a historian, and had Mr. Lang
chosen to give us some of his candid reflections on the more
important questions in Knox's life and work, we are sure
they would have been most interesting and far from " tradi-
tional," at least as regards one school of history.
But because the work is as true and impartial as it is, it is
the best life of Knox we have. We heartily commend it to
every student who wishes to form an honest estimate of Knox,
and we commend it just as heartily to all who admire honest
history.
In his faithful interpretation Mr. Lang, we might say, be-
comes at times unattractive. The current of his thought runs
now and again unevenly, nor does its expression gleam and
sparkle so often with that vividness and lucidity that have
characterized Mr. Lang's other works. Perhaps the nature of
the subject-matter precluded any great play of the imagina-
tion ; but the divisions of that matter might certainly be im-
proved, for at times the chapters are formed mechanically.
But these defects do not lessen the intrinsic value of the
work. It is truthful, capable, and impartial, and for it we are
much indebted to Mr. Lang.
It is a true instinct which im-
HOLY CONFIDENCE. pels us to seek for such assur-
By Mother M. Taylor. a nces of God's tenderness and
mercy towards men as shall re-
move all disquietude and anxiety. Souls honestly trying to
observe the divine commands are often distressed and un-
nerved by the consciousness of weakness and by the sense of
sin. The reason why Catholic spirituality reiterates so con-
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 695
stantly its teachings of hope and trust and confidence, is not
that we may experience the gratification of assured salvation,
but rather that we may be freed from the morbid, unhealthy,
and paralyzing dread which is one of the most powerful in-
struments of the powers of darkness. Rarely, if ever, has an
earnest spirit been demoralized by too generous a conception
of God's mercy ; frequently, on the other hand, the spirit to
attempt and the will to accomplish great things have been
numbed by excessive timidity. Few persons experienced in
the guiding of souls will hesitate to name anxiety as among
the greatest actual obstacles to progress in virtue, or to
welcome writings which go to promote peace and calm in the
soul of the earnest seeker after holiness. Of course there is a
minimum limit as well as a maximum, and it would be pos-
sible to encourage presumption while cultivating confidence.
But practically, and with regard to the earnest and the honest,
there is far greater reason to labor for the development of
peacefulness of spirit 1 than to bar souls from too familiar and
too child-like an intimacy with God. Down at the root of
things, it may be, egotism is intertwined more closely with
uneasy fear than with calm joy; and egotism, of one sort or
another, is the great enemy of holiness.
The volume before us at present,* then, is welcomed grate-
fully. A searching criticism might, indeed, discover numerous
opportunities of amending and improving the work. Yet the
defects will entail little or no harm, and the excellences will
bear much wholesome fruit.
The Carmelite Nuns of Boston
A RETREAT OF TEN DAYS, have translated and published for
general circulation a little volume
called The Cenacle f which, for years in the American and for
centuries in the European houses, has been used as a book of
preparatory exercises for the Feast of Pentecost. Written in
* Holy Confidence; or Simplicity with God. Translated by Mother Magdalen Taylor.
S.M.G., from a work of Father Rogacci, S.J., entitled Unum Necessarium. Revised by
Father James Clare, S.J. London : Burns & Gates (Ltd.)
t The Cenacle. Retreat of Ten Days. Preparatory to the Coming of the Holy Spirit into
our Souls. Fifty Meditations on the Holy Spirit and on his gifts. Collected in 1696, and pre-
sented in this form by the Discalced Carmelites for their Spiritual Exercises. Translated
from the French of the Abbd L. G.. by the Carmelites of Boston. Boston : Carmelite Con-
vent and Angel Guardian Press.
696 NEW BOOKS. [Aug.,
Italian in 1671, by the Procurator-General of the Discalced
Carmelites, translated into German and later into French, the
work has had no small share in fostering and spreading that
spirit of prayer with which the name of Carmel is so inseparably
associated. The happy inspiration which assumes that there
are numerous souls here among us at the present day worthy
of acquaintance with this little treasure-book, must not be
suffered to go unrecognized or to remain fruitless. We be-
speak for the present publication a reception which will show
that in point of appreciation at least, however we may fall
short in practice, we deserve to be numbered among the fol-
lowers of that high ideal which burns bright and steady upon
the mountain where the saints of Carmel canonized and un-
canonized have been called to dwell.
A book which is written for " all souls desirous of spiritual
progress," whether in the cloister or the world, which is redo-
lent of the spirit of contemplative prayer, which is built up
out of the doctrine of the Holy Ghost's indwelling in the hu-
man soul, which ranges all other conceptions and particular
notions around this central and elementary one, which directs
the eye of the mind away from self and toward God, which is
the offspring of deep experience in the things of the spirit,
and has been recommended by the test of practical utility for
generations and generations such a treatise is the work now
for the first time put within the reach of a people hungering,
if we mistake not, for spiritual instruction of the highest and
purest kind. We trust that those who have been instrumental
in bestowing this favor upon us will witness such results as
will amply recompense them for their labors.
Mr. Leslie Willis Sprague has
RELIGION OF DUTY. collected and edited the steno-
By Adler. graphic reports of a number of
Felix Adler's addresses to satisfy
a demand " on the part of many people " for a book giving
the results of the Professor's thought and practical work in the
field of ethics and religion. An occasional good thing appears
amid the long stretches of very ordinary paragraphs, and the
general trend of the whole is toward noble and unselfish
modes of thinking and living. Yet one doubts if the book
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 697
can really be considered adequate to its glorious title,* or if
the discussion of the great subjects touched upon is much
more than commonplace. The Ethical Culture Society is usu-
ally represented as being quite free of bias with regard to
creed. The volume before us shows the practical impossibility
of maintaining this neutrality when abstract ethical culture is
made concrete and represented by an energetic advocate.
From the viewpoint of the philosopher who is " religious " in
the generally accepted sense, which is not M. Adler's the ad-
dresses before us will appear rather superficial and totally un-
critical. At the same time, it is to be hoped that the plea
here made for heroism and unselfishness will reach and influ-
ence many of those whose ears are closed to the appeal of the
Church. To grow better must needs mean to grow more like
a true Christian, more fit to be a true Catholic.
A great deal of curiosity has been
THE SOLESMES manifested concerning what is
PLAIN-CHANT. known as the "Solesmes Plain-
Chant " ; more particularly since
it has been rumored that this particular version is to be taken
as the basis of the new Vatican editions which are in course
of preparation. Hitherto one who wished to obtain informa-
tion on the subject, has been compelled to wade through vari-
ous lengthy treatises in French or German, and as each author
has his own opinions, the result has not been very satisfactory
to the student. We gladly welcome, therefore, the present
work.f
And yet, after reading the work carefully, we must confess
that we are somewhat disappointed. Our dream of plain-
chant choirs in every parish is rudely shattered by the fol-
lowing extracts from the preface : " In the first place, we
must not lose sight of the fact that the correct singing of
plain-chant is difficult, more difficult than the singing of or-
dinary figured music. It is, therefore, not subservient to the
end to be obtained if clergymen would initiate the introduc-
* The Religion of Duty. By Felix Adler. New York : McClure, Phillips & Co.
t A Complete and Practical Method of the Solesmes Plain-Chant. From the German of the
Rev. Suitbertus Birkle, O.S.B., with the authorization of the author. Adapted and edited by
A. Lemaistre. New York : Joseph F. Wagner.
698 NEW BOOKS. [Aug.,
tion of plain-chant by summarily dismissing their salaried
singers, where such had been previously engaged, and by en-
trusting the singing of the chant to volunteers, often ignor-
ant of the art of singing, of music, and especially of chant."
" As to boys' choirs, they are difficult to establish and more
difficult to maintain. In large parishes only will it be feasible
to make use of them." What will the pastors think of this,
who, about the middle of September, tell their organists to go
into the school and pick out some boys to form a choir
which, it is expected, will be ready to take its place in the
church for the first time an Christmas Day ?
We are still more disappoined with the " practical " part of
the work. On page 16 we read: " The strophicus originally
sung vibratim or tremolo "/ on page 36 : " What we would
like to exclude by our warning above is the exaggerated ex-
pression of a subjective feeling which the text produces in a
singer, and to which he endeavors to give vent by a theatrical
tremolo "; and on page 49 : " Whereby a similar effect would
be attained by a slight tremolo of the voice." We would very
much like to know what is the difference between these two
varieties of plain-chant tremolo, which are apparently allowed,
and the theatrical tremolo, which is " excluded." The instruc-
tion on the subject of " Bars " is rather confusing. " The
pauses are indicated by bars, double bars, and half bars. It is
obvious that the half bar indicates a short pause, the bar,
however, a long one." It is not " obvious " that a short bar
indicates a short pause ; we might give any meaning to a
short bar. "The double bar indicates the end of a melody."
In the "Liber Usualis " (1896) we find double bars at the end
of all the intonations, and before the final phrases of the
Gradual and Alleluia versicles. Are we to infer that the por-
tions of chant which follow these double bars are not melodies ?
The instruction on "scales" is very erratic. "We have
(page 27) in plain- chant as many different scales as there are
final notes of the natural scale" What is meant by a natural
scale, the scale of nature or one of the scales which may be
played on the white (natural) keys of the piano ? We are in
the habit of defining a scale as a series of eight sounds, dif-
ferent in pitch, having a certain relation with each other. If
we ascend, the highest sound must be the final, and if we
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 699
descend the final must be the lowest sound; and as both the
highest and lowest sounds have the same name it follows that
the natural scale can have but one final; therefore (according
to this reasoning) there can be but one scale in plain-chant.
"There are, however, only four final nofes in plain-chant."
Yet we find eight finals in the " Liber Usualis."
" A melody in the scale of re, differs peculiarly from one
in the key of mi, fa, etc." The author evidently thinks that
a- scale is the same as a key. This notion is incorrect. There
are no keys in plain-chant. A scale, as was said above, is a
set of sounds which have a certain definite relation with each
other ; thus, we have the major scale, from do to its octave ;
the minor scale, from la to its octave ; or the various Grego-
rian scales. A key is the set of absolute-pitch sounds, which
corresponds with the major scale, and which, of course, con-
tains the minor scale, and in which we may find all the
Gregorian scales. We speak of the key of A, for instance,
which is composed of the absolute -pitch sounds of A, B, C
sharp, D, E, F sharp, G sharp, and A, and which contains
the major scale of "A major," the minor scale of "F sharp
minor," and in which we may find all the Gregorian scales.
We must here remind the publishers of this work, and
publishers and editors of musical works in general, that the
musical nomenclature used in France for naming keys is not
used by English-speaking people generally. We do not speak
of the key of Do, of Re, of Mi, meaning the key of C, of D,
of E, etc. ; we use the syllables do, re, mi, etc., for the ist,
2nd, and 3d, etc., degrees of the major scale; the meaning
which was given them by Guido d'Arezzo, their inventor.
The laws of chant receive in this volume a large share of
attention. In Chapter II. we find the following: "Are there
really laws of musical form in plain-chant?" "In modern
music such laws exist'*; "We must not seek such fixed rules
and metres in chant"; "The simplest motif of two bars" ;
"The first two notes form a motif"', "Plain-chant . . is
like the art of oratory " ; " An oratorical discourse . . .
must be satisfactory in its exterior form"; "It is impossible to
establish rules for this outward form."
And now let us examine these laws which apparently are
impossible to establish: "The first law of plain-chant form may
700 NEW BOOKS. [Aug.,
be put into the following words, etc." ; " The second law of
musical form in plain-chant is, the union of motifs is a free
one, /. e., it does not take place according to rules or
schedules."
The second law evidently tells us there is no law. "The
third law is : the single parts of a motif must be arranged in
due proportion."
Now the first law says that motifs are made up of two or
three notes, and as the "single parts" of a motif are single
notes, what is meant by a " due proportion " in the arrange-
ment of the single parts ?
" Since all art must rest upon certain laws, so also must
laws govern in such cases laws more generative than the law
of symmetry." " The supreme law in art is human nature."
The following is strange, indeed : " Is not an architectural
structure founded on the golden rule far more beautiful and
artistic than the mathematical division into equal parts ? " And
this is surely not very lucid : " There must exist a beautiful
symmetry, not so much between the single parts of a melody
although even this is -very often found . . . but rather
between text and melody, or, really, between thought, text, and
melody, i. e., the melody must keep pace with the text, and
the latter with the thought. In other words, the melody must
grow forth from the text, and this must be entirely governed
by the thought."
Some promoters of the Solesmes Plain-Chant, we fear, have
several pet theories, and if the facts do not always fit those
theories, so much the worse for the facts. The following re-
marks on pauses and note- duration are instructive: "The
notes of a plain-chant motif do not vary in duration"; "All
notes of plain-chant are approximately of equal value"; "A
theme composed of equally long notes is conceivable"; "The
reason of this deviation of the chant from modern music "/
" The word pause is observed after every motif, i, e., every
motif must be separated from the following one by a barely
perceptible intermission." And then follow the directions for
making this intermission: "A very brief extension of the last
note suffices as a rule " ; " Notes immediately preceding a pause
are to be somewhat lengthened." These remarks are illustrated
by examples written in modern notes in which quarter, eighth,
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 701
sixteenth, and thirty-second notes are employed ! What
would be thought of a teacher who would impart information
to his class something like this : " The coins of the United
States are approximately of equal value ; but of course you
must not expect to get as much value for five cents as you
will for a dime." We cannot understand how an intermission
can be made between motifs by extending the last note of
each, and we would also like to know when this "deviation"
of plain- chant from modern music took place, and whether it
is likely to continue for any length of time.
These rules on note- duration, etc., completely contradict
those laid down by Dom Pothier in his work Les Melodies Gre-
goriennes; but we have no doubt that Dom Pothier is now con-
sidered quite out of date, because undoubtedly new discoveries
are continually being made by the various students of the dear
old " Manuscrits." We are led to this supposition by the discov-
ery of several things in this book which do not appear in the
Liber Usualis of 1896; among them are (p. 66) two forms of
the versicle ; a different accentuation of the versicles of Ten-
ebrae, of the question in the Epistle, a brand new setting of
the " Deus in adjutorium," another of the " Capitulum," etc.
The remainder of the book is taken up with an analysis of
the Psalm-tones ; a ten-page disquisition on the " Gloria " in
Simplicibus ; another on the " Gloria " de Angelis, which is
unaccountably mixed up with some other " Gloria " (unidenti-
fied) ; and about a half-dozen pieces of chant of various grades
of difficulty ; and a vast amount of preaching.
jforeign periodicals*
The Tablet (17 June): A wisely planned and powerful organi-
zation has been founded by Mgr. Bonomelli, Bishop of
Cremona, for the relief of Italian emigrants in Europe
and the Levant. This society affords assistance to all
deserving persons, without distinction of creed. The
importance of the Bishop's initiative in this work may
be measured by the vast scale of Italian emigration and
by the miserable conditions in which those poor people
are generally forced to live. Only three biblical stu-
dents have had the courage to undergo the first exam-
ination of the Biblical Commission for degrees in Sacred
Scripture.
(24 June) : The French Assembly has decided by vote
that bishops' houses are to be granted free of charge to
the associations of worship for a period of two years,
and seminaries and like institutions for a period of five
years. Previously, similar regulations have been made
with regard to Church property.
(i July) : Belgium keeps this year the Diamond Jubi-
lee of its national independence. Fitting tribute is
paid to a great and venerable soul recently passed
away, Right Rev. Mgr. James Nugent. The Liverpool
Daily Press speaks of him as one of the most remark-
able men of his day. His philanthropic personality
was unparalleled. The story of his life-work is one of
uninterrupted good, done to the young and the frail,
the burdened and the led-astray. All who needed the
solace of true Christian correction and benevolence,
found in him a gentle, saintly, manly spirit and a life-
long friendship. Mgr. Nugent was a good Samaritan.
Dublin Review (July): "The Form of the Human Skull and
Particularly of the Earliest Known Skulls," by the Presi-
dent of Queen's College, Cork. " St. Athanasius and
Pope Julius I.," by the Rev. Dom John Chapman,
O.S.B., is a short history of the trouble between Atha-
1905.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 703
nasius and the Eusebians, of the appeal of both to the
Pope, of the synod at Antioch, and of the great Council
of Sardica, and finally the results of this council's ac-
tions. Rev. Dom H. N. Birt, O.S.B., in the "Re-
ligious Influences in London," continues his sketch of
the work of the various religious institutions there, con-
sidering in this number the Salvation Army, individual
missions, revivalist meetings, etc.- In answer to the
question, Why does the Protestant Church Read the
Book of Esther ? Rev. Hugh Pope, O.P., writes a lengthy
article, showing the attitude of the Fathers on the Deu-
tero canonical books, especially that of Esther. He
draws a comparison of this attitude with the views of
the reformed churches on the same books. In conclu-
sion, he appeals to Cardinal Newman's opinion of the
Book of Esther, justified, as it is, by the words of Pro-
fessor Sayce "The ' Acta Pilati' and the Passion
Document of St. Luke," by Very Rev. Mgr. A. S.
Barnes. Rev. Thomas J. Gerrard sketches the main
lines of argument in Newman's Grammar oj Assent, and
discusses some of the objections to it, especially those
of Bishop Hedley. " The Anti-Christian Policy of the
French Government," by Rev. A. Coleman, O.P., treats
of the French troubles, Combes' defence of his policy,
the Bill of Separation, and the present condition of
Catholics in France. Rev. A. B. Sharpe attempts to
justify the ways of God to man, discussing the problem
of evil in the world, enquiring how evil can enter into
the constitution of the universe without destroying or
impairing its essential goodness.
The Month (July): Under the title "The Problem of Evil,"
Rev. Sydney F. Smith undertakes to offer a solution of
this much-discussed question. He directs his arguments
mainly against the materialists who claim that the exist-
ence of evil in the world is a sufficient proof of the non-
existence of God, and against the pessimists, e. g., Scho-
penhauer, who, while maintaining that there is a First
Cause, infers that it cannot be good, and imputes to it
an evil character. In the first place the writer acknowl-
edges his inability of solving fully the problem, and re-
VOL. LXXXI. 45
704 FOREIGN PERIODICALS. [Aug.,
signs himself to the task of showing that in this world
"there is nothing demonstrably incompatible with belief
in the power and goodness of its Maker," limiting his ef-
forts in this article to the existence of physical evil. He
argues that pain and suffering are overbalanced by the
amount of good, giving examples to uphold his arguments.
Though this be true, there still remains a question to be
answered. Why does God, since he is all-good and
omnipotent, allow anything to mar the happiness of life ?
Perhaps, it is replied, God was not free to make a uni-
verse without an intermixture of good and evil, for such
a course might have been intrinsically impossible. But
allowing that it were possible for God to have made a
perfect universe, he would have had to adopt one of these
three alternatives : " Either he must have determined to
make some readjustment in the present arrangement of
things, or he must have determined to interpose continu-
ally to check each evil effect of the natural operation of
the present cosmic causes as soon as it was on the point
of arising, or he must have refrained altogether from
creating a material universe populated by various forms
of organic life." But each of these would have resulted
in a far worse condition than the present one.- Rev.
Herbert Thurston concludes "The Strange Story of the
Abbate Sidotti " Rev. Francis Aveling makes a plea
for emotion in religion. He maintains that since emotion,
like volition and intellect, is a property of mind, it should
be a legitimate guide in the religious side of life.
The Crucible (June) : First issue of " a Catholic magazine of
higher education for women." The editor explains that
the new magazine is the outgrowth of a sense that
" we have no choice between pressing forward toward
excellence and seeing the education of Catholic children
gradually passing out of our hands." The editor will
receive in a spirit of gratitude all criticisms, and will
be glad of any suggestions as to the kind of articles
likely to prove useful, or of practical ways in which
the magazine may serve the Catholic educational body.
Free copies of the opening number will be sent, upon
receipt of postage, to any one who will undertake to
1905.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 705
distribute them. Sr. M. X. speaks of the crisis that
is now upon the Catholics of England, urges all to
reach the standard of scholarship required, and laments
that of the Catholic body at large it may be said:
" We see the wind sit sore upon our sails, and yet we
strike not, but securely perish." Father Strappini
contributes some thoughts on education. Marie
Maugeret sketches the Christian Feminism movement in
France. Dom Nolle describes secondary education of
girls in Germany. Margaret Fletcher (the editor)
gives a paper, full of illumination, as to the influences
brought to bear on the development of women by
Christian faith, and as to the changes witnessed during
Christian history.
La Quinzaine (16 June): Georges Goyau writes of the life
and work of Jean-Adam Moehler. Gabriel Louis-
Jaray gives us his opinion of the trouble between France
and Germany over Morocco. Albert Toughard com-
ments on the series of disasters which have befallen
the Russians in the Far East.
Le Correspondant (10 June): The leading article of this number
is from the pen of Emile Ollivier, of the French
Academy. The subject he has taken in hand is that of
Italian affairs of the last century, treating especially of
the conflict between the Garibaldian party and the Holy
See. The writer shows a wide knowledge of the inter-
national complications of that trying period, together
with a sympathetic appreciation of the position of the
Papacy. The parts taken by Bismarck, by Victor
Emmanuel, by Napoleon III., are indicated. The mili-
tary struggles are described, first concerning the battle
at Monte Rotando and then of the struggle at Mentana.
To outsiders his praise of French bravery and activity
at that time and place seems slightly exaggerated.
(25 June): "The Emperor and the Pope after Men-
tana" is a continuation of Emile Ollivier's first article in
a previous number of this magazine (June 10). This in-
stallment gives more of the French side of Italian poli-
tics. The effect of the battle of Mentana on both sides
of the Alps is told ; in France there was great joy, as
706 FOREIGN PERIODICALS. [Aug.,
evidenced in their parliament, as shown by some
speeches quoted, especially the words of Chesnelong,
Lamartine, Rouher, and Moustier. In Italy there was
corresponding depression, together with the dogged in-
tention of keeping up the struggle until the Eternal
City would be taken from the Papacy and made the
capital of the Italian nation. Quotations from the
speeches of Micelli, Crispi, Ferrari, Ratazzi, and others
are given. A new book on the Concordat has been
published by Alfred Baudrillart and is reviewed in this
number by Auguste Largent. The work is highly
praised and evidently is an excellent treatment of this
highly complicated and important question of French
and Papal politics.
Etudes (5 June) : The last legation and the death of St. Fran-
cis Borgia are the occasion for a lengthy article by
Pierre Suau. Victor Poucel sends in his first article
on " Intellectual Spontaneity," a lengthy discourse on
the role excitation plays in the nutrition of the mind.
"The Falsehoods of the Rupture" call forth a
lengthy article from the pen of Jean Lefaure. The
writer first expends a considerable amount of righteous
. ' indignation on the French Freemasons, through whose
efforts most of the anti-clerical laws have been enacted,
especially that of 1901 against religious orders, and
that of 1505 against religious teaching. He claims that
the very title of the law regarding Church and State is
false. It should be " the suppression of Church in the
the State," and not separation of Church and State.
Furthermore, he laughs at the law guaranteeing liberty
of conscience and free exercise of religion. Many more
of the new laws come in for the ridicule of Lefaure,
especially that the Republic " recognizes no sect," " does
not pay any sect," " the churches are the property of
the State," etc.
(20 June) : Jules Doize gives us the history of the most
important cathedrals of France. As a preparation for
the beatification of Fr. Salez and his companion, Fr.
William, F. Tournier sketches briefly their lives, work,
and martyrdom. Victor Poucel continues the series of
1905.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 707
articles on " Intellectual Spontaneity." " The Iniqui-
tous Separation," by Paul Dudon.
La Revue Apologetique (16 June): In this number a series of
articles on Catholic apologetics is begun by Rev. G.
Lahousse, S.J. This first installment is mainly historical,
that is, tells of the methods that have availed in past
times to defend the Church against error. A good out-
line of the old traditional apologetic is given the proof
that is based on the divine commission of the Church as
the divine organ of revelation. To-day the author tells
us of foes that disregard the old methods. The attacks
of rationalists and the methods of higher criticism seem
to demand a new and stronger array of Catholic apolo-
getics. The writer suggests some arguments : First, the
Church as she is and has been in times past is a guar-
antee of what she teaches ; secondly, the argument from
history. The Abbe J. Fontaine in reviewing an old
book of apologetics L? Art de Croire, by Auguste Nico-
las shows an intense distrust of what has been called
the " New Apologetics," and advises a speedy return to
the methods employed in the last century by Nicolas.
Razon y Fe (June) : M. Fernandez contributes an article on
apologetics. The opening paragraph of the article is as
follows : " No one who attentively considers ,the present
state of men's minds can help feeling a sentiment of
terror deep enough to unnerve the most vigorous. Every-
where there prevails a complete forgetfulness of the most
elementary principles of order and morality ; man wan-
ders blindly and uncertainly over the rough way of life.
The so-called wise ones have apostatized from the true
wisdom and now, satisfied with having forgotten the su-
preme destiny of humanity, combat with furious hate the
one true religion which alone can lead men to that des-
tiny." In another paper wilt be given the author's ap-
preciation of the " Method of Immanence," and then his
view of the traditional method. Commenting upon Va-
caudard's tudes de Critique et d* Histoire Religieuse t L.
Murillo objects to the conclusion that the Apostles Creed
is of post-apostolic origin, to the qualifying of the tra-
ditional opinion as a " legend," to a certain marked pre-
7o8 FOREIGN PERIODICALS. [Aug.,
dilection for advanced critics like Harnack, to offensive
remarks concerning the august and truly Catholic Philip
II., to the supposition that Urban VIII. was impelled by
convenience rather than truth to intervene in the case
of Galileo.
Rassegna Nazionale (t June): L. de Feis makes 'reply to the
criticisms passed upon his denial of the authenticity of
the Holy House of Loretto. Twenty- five years ago he
became nearly certain that either imposture or hallucina-
tion was at the root of the belief in question. Yet he
never spoke of his opinion, and even when questioned
he was silent or made evasive answers. When at last
he thought of settling the question by examining the
diaries of pilgrims to the Holy Land, in the years suc-
ceeding the supposed date of the translation of the Holy
House, the idea was applauded very generally, for it
was supposed that the result would be gain for the
truth and for the Church. The publication of an article
quoting pilgrims who saw the Holy House in Nazareth
after the supposed date of the translation has, however,
occasioned many adverse criticisms. " Nevertheless crit-
icism is necessary and, without failing in the respect due
to traditions, we can examine which are worthy of be-
lief and which are not ; indeed, we should do that much
out of respect for the truth to which we should never
attach falsehoods. It is not doubting the divine omni-
potence if we examine miracles, as the Church does, in
order to see if they are well proved, so that there may
be no false witness to things which God did not do.
Will the Gospel be less true, said the great Fleury, if
we learn that St. James never went to Spain nor St.
Mary Magdalen to Provence? nor, I may add, if we
knew not the lives of St. Expedit and St. Philomena,
which are built the one upon ignorance and the other
upon visionary accounts." The Rassegna sends its con-
gratulations to Mgr. Bonomelli, Bishop of Cremona, on
the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of his first Mass.
R. Mazzei also presents a sketch of the Bishop's famous
pastoral recently published and greeted with much sym-
pathy by some, but sharply criticized by others, who
1905.] FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 709
were either timorous of conscience or glad of a chance
to attack a bishop who, beside deserving well of the
Church, is unhappy in having deserved well of his country
also. The pastoral outlines the character and reason-
ableness of external devotions, and rebukes superstitions,
such as that of the lady who offered a light to both
statues of the Madonna lest offence might be given to
one of them, or such as that practised in a diocese
(non-Italian) where they distributed a sheet made up of
one hundred little pictures of the Madonna, with instruc-
tions to swallow one picture daily for one hundred con-
secutive days.
(16 June): Obituary tribute to Mgr. Scalabrini, of Pia-
cenza, one of the foremost prelates of Italy, and founder
of the institution to care for Italian emigrants in
America.
THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION.
THE annual convention of the Catholic Educational Association was held
in New York City, July II, 12, 13. His Grace the Most Rev. Arch-
bishop Farley kindly offered the use of Cathedral College, Madison Avenue
and East Fifty-first Street, for the convention. The Buckingham Hotel,
Fifth Avenue and Fiftieth Street, was the headquarters for the association
during the convention. It is directly opposite the Cathedral and most con-
venient.
The officers of the association are : The Right Rev. Denis J. O'Connell,
D.D., rector of the Catholic University, Washington, D. C., President Gen-
eral ; the Very Rev. E. R. Dyer, S.S., D.D., Baltimore, Md., Vice-Presi-
dent ; the Very Rev. Bernard J. Mulligan, Camden, N. J., Treasurer ; the
Rev. F. W. Howard, Columbus, Ohio, Secretary j the Very Rev. Patrick
McHale, C.M., Brooklyn, N. Y. ; the Very Rev. P. J. Garvey, D.D., Over-
brook, Pa.; the Rev. John A. Conway, S.J., Washington, D. C. ; the Very
Rev. L. A. Delurey, O.S.A., Villanova, Pa. ; the Rev. Louis I. Walsh, Salem,
Mass ; the Rev. Thomas A. Thornton, New York City.
The order of exercises for the sessions of the convention was :
Tuesday, July II. 9. A. M. Pontifical Mass in St. Patrick's Cathe-
dral.
II A. M. General meeting in Cathedral College. Opening of session by
the Right Rev. D. J. O'Connell, D.D. Registration. Appointment of com-
mittees.
11:30 A. M. Department meetings in Cathedral College. In these
meetings the following papers were read and discussed :
In the Seminary Department meeting The Teaching of Holy Scripture
in the Seminary, the Rev. Simon Lebl, D.D., St. Francis' Seminary, Milwau-
kee; the Rev. James F. Driscoll, S.S., D.D., St. Joseph's Seminary, Dun-
woodie, N. Y.
In the College Department meeting History of Philosophy, the Rev. E.
L. Rivard, C.S.V., St. Viateur's College, Illinois.
In the School Department meetings Catholic View of Moral and Reli-
gious Training in Elementary Education, by Rev. M. J. Considine, of New
York.
Wednesday, July 12, 9:30 A. M. Department meetings in Cathedral
College. The following papers were read:
In the College Department meeting Catholic College Discipline in the
Formation of Character, the Rev. Francis Cassilly, S.J., St. Ignatius' Col-
lege, Chicago, 111.
In the School Department meeting Supervision of Catholic Schools:
Necessity, Methods, Aims, the Rev. E. F. Gibbons, Supervisor Catholic
Schools, Buffalo, N. Y.
In the Seminary Department meeting The Teaching of Pedagogy in
1905.] THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 711
the Seminary, the Rev. Hermann J. Heuser, St. Charles' Seminary, Over-
brook, Pa. ; the Rev. Francis P. Duffy, D.D., St. Joseph's Seminary, Dun-
woodie, N. Y. ; the Rev. Thomas E. Shields, Ph.D., Catholic University,
Washington, D. C.
II A. M. Discussion in College Department on Statistics of Attendance
of Catholic Students at Non-Catholic Colleges, and the Causes Thereof.
Discussions in the School and Seminary Departments at the same hour.
8 P. M. General meeting in Cathedral College. Joint discussion on
What the Parish School Can Do for the Catholic College. Points suggested
for discussion : (a) Closer union of all our educational forces the need of
the hour; (b) How many graduates of our parish schools go to non-Catho-
lic colleges? (c) The founding of scholarships for the parish school by the
college; (d) The teaching of Latin arid other preparatory branches in the
parish school ; (e) More active interest by college men in the work of the
parish school.
Thursday, July ij. 9 A. M. General meeting. Business session.
Election of Officers.
9:30 A. M. Department meetings. The following papers were pre-
sented :
In College Department Best Method of Teaching Rhetoric and Poetics
in the College Curriculum, the Rev. L. A. Grace, C.M., Niagara University.
In the School Department Text-Books in Catholic Schools, the Rev.
Thomas J. O'Brien, Supervisor Brooklyn Catholic Schools.
In the Seminary Department Practical Work in the Seminary as a
Preparation for the Work of the Ministry, the Rev. W. C. Hoctor, C.M., St.
John's Seminary, Brooklyn, N. Y. ; the Rev. A. Vieban, S.S., J.C.D., St.
Mary's Seminary, Baltimore.
II A. M. Discussion in all departments. Business sessions and general
meeting. Reading of resolutions and closing exercises.
The sessions were public and open to all wishing to attend.
At the grand public meeting Thursday evening, at 8 o'clock, in Carnegie
Hall, the programme was as follows:
Overture, " America," by the New York Catholic Protectory Band; the
" Star Spangled Banner," national anthem, by a chorus of seven hundred
boys and girls of the New York parish schools, under the direction of Pro-
fessor Renz ; " The Red, White, and Blue, "by the chorus; Mascagni's " Ave
Maria," by the Alumni Quartet of Manhattan College; "Holy God, We
Praise Thy Name," by the chorus; " God of Nations," by the Catholic Pro-
tectory Band.
Addresses were delivered by Most Rev. John M. Farley; Eugene A.
Philbin, Regent of the State of New York, on Education and the State; Cor-
poration Counsel John J. Delany, on Education and Good Citizenship; Luke
D. Stapleton, on Education and Parental Rights ; and the Rev. W. O'B. Par-
dow, S.J., on Education and Religion.
The local arrangements for the convention and public meetings were in
charge of the following committee: The Right Rev. Monsignor Lavelle,
D.D., V.G. ; the Very Rev. James F. Driscoll, D.D., President of St.
Joseph's Seminary, New York; the Rev. John J. Collins, S.J., President of
7i2 THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. [Aug.,
Fordham University; the Very Rev. David W. Hearn, S.J., President of St.
Francis Xavier's College; the Very Rev. P. J. Hayes, D.D., President of
Cathedral College; the Rev. Brother Edward, F.S.C., President of Manhat-
tan College; the Rev. Anthony Lammel, P.R. ; the Rev. Dennis J. Mc-
Mahon, D.D., P.R. ; the Rev. Thomas McMillan, C.S.P. ; the Rev. Thomas
A. Thornton; the Rev. Joseph F. Smith; the Rev. Thomas J. O'Brien,
Brooklyn, N. Y. ; the Right Rev. Joseph F. Mooney, D.D., V.G., Chairman.
The delegates of the Catholic Educational Association represented Par-
ish Schools and Institutions containing over a million students. In the dis-
cussions much practical wisdom was shown and a desire to utilize the best
results of modern pedagogy, particularly in teaching the secular branches of
knowledge; while never ceasing to affirm the supremacy of the spiritual
element in the child's life, in accordance with a recent statement by the
Rev. Edmund T. Shanahan, D.D., of the Catholic University.
He spoke strongly against the materialistic tendencies of the times and
the social and economic systems responsible for them, and a plea for a higher
appreciation of the individual and a loftier estimate of life. He said in part:
The trend of thought and endeavor in our day is away from the spiritual
and the personal and toward the material and the physical. The rapid ad-
vance of science during the past fifty years has contributed much to our ease
and Cumfort, but has not correspondingly improved the quality of our man-
hood. We have learned to control the forces of nature much more effec-
tively than to shape our own conduct. It is only natural that we should have
the defects of our qualities. *
Our ways of thinking and acting have been affected by the era of
material prosperity in which we live, so much so that the word " honor" has
an air of the counting-room about it, and the type of man who fills the pub-
lic eye is he who adds to the sum of human wealth.
The cause of it all is not tar to seek. The spiritual and moral value of
man has been forced out of consideration in the interests of trade. We are
now witnessing a crucial instance of this tendency in the factitious transfer of
moral responsibility from personal individuals to impersonal corporations.
A public evasion of justice upon so large a scale shows how little Christian
ethics has penetrated into the structure of our civilization.
It is a high-spirited age, needing the bit and bridle much more than the
whip and spur, and needs no type of man more than the organically complete
and developed individual.
We have become so infatuated with the idea of progress that we have
not stopped to inquire into its definition. It is this one-sided understanding
of what novelty means that has cheapened our ideals, deadened our moral
and spiritual sense, and made man remain stationary while the material
world about him is steadily on its way to betterment.
* * *
Principal Walter B. Gunnison, of the Erasmus High School, Brooklyn,
discussed one of the most important questions on the programme of the
National Educational Association, which held its annual convention recently
at Ocean Grove, N. J. Dr. Gunnison argued that the time and energy of
principals should be given to teaching in preference to administrative work.
1905.] THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 713
A certain amount must be given to parents seeking advice, and others dis-
posed to shirk responsibility for the stern performance of duty in regard to
their spoiled children. He will find many to approve this outline of a prin-
cipal's duties:
First The art of teaching involves many things, and one of these is the
necessity of keeping alive one's interest in the imparting of knowledge.
Second A man in charge of a high school must direct and adjust the
working of specialists in many branches. There still remains the fact, how-
ever, that a principal should represent sound and accurate scholarship in some
line.
Third The most valuable duty of a principal is to have his pupils, not
by name or number, but to know them so that there is established, however
imperfectly, the kindly and friendly relation that exists between the parent
and child.
Fourth Again, closer than the intimacy between pupil and principal
should be the intimacy between teacher and principal. The real success of
an institution depends not on one but on all. The educational czar should
understand that he is an anomaly in these days, and is beset with the same
dangers in the educational world as his prototype in the political world. He
may succeed for the time, but his crown is the target for every missile, and
will remain in place only because of a Cossack cordon of official red tape and
bureaucratic inefficiency.
Fifth Again, the assumption of simple direction and supervision is a
dangerous one, in that it too often leads to a feeling of superiority and dog-
matic infallibility which is humorous to the one who knows the facts.
That we may, therefore, be in position to do our fullest service to our
charges and to advance our usefulness in the honorable and commanding
places we occupy, I would urge your careful consideration of this matter, and
earnestly give it as my humble opinion that each principal can do no greater
service than to demand that conditions shall be so changed, or, better and
truer, that he should so change conditions, that his time shall not be used in
the less essential matters of a clerical assistant, but that his training and ability
shall be felt in the noblest part of school work, so that when he lays aside his
work he may be entitled to that greatest of all titles teacher.
* * *
Among the Paris book notes of the Evening Post Stoddard Dewey re-
lates some interesting reminiscences of the youngest member of the French
Academy in these words :
A book of more recent history, vitally interesting to many still living,
and instructive to all who wish to follow the inside story of their own times,
is the Journal kept day by day by the late Comte d'Haussonville during the
Siege of Paris from beginning to end. It starts from the fatal 4th Septem-
ber of 1870, and shows the drifting apart of Paris from Thiers and the party
which had picked up authority in the street ; but it does not comprise the
after-explosion of the siege in the bloody civil war of the nation against Paris
during the Commune. The author was a member of the French Academy,
like his son, who now publishes the book ; he had for his wife a Broglie,
granddaughter of Madame de Stacl an instance of continuity in history and
letters.
THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. [Aug.,
Etienne Lamy, the new Immortal, elected to the French Academy June
8, is perhaps known abroad only to the readers of the Revue des Deux
Mondes. If Americans could interest themselves in his subjects, it would be
well worth their while to make acquaintance with his books, with their pure,
manly, crystal-clear French and upright, Liberal ideas. Of course he has
been chosen by the "party of the dukes," but by a respectable majority.
His only serious competitor was Maurice Barres, who is also a Conservative,
not to say Nationalist, in politics, and far more resplendent with literary
glory before a vain universe. All the members of the Academy were present,
including the now un-Parisian Rostand, excepting Anatole France and
Henri Lavedan. The former, since the Dreyfus affair launched him on a
passionate sea of anarchism, notices the Academy only to blast it with the
anathema maranatha of his new religion ; the latter is son of the famous edi-
tor of the Catholic review Le Correspondant, whose place M. Lamy has taken.
As far back as 1883 Taine, after reading an article of M. Lamy on the
Republic, declared : "If that author presents himself at the Academy he shall
have my vote." In fact, with all his Liberal Catholicism and the close rela-
tions in which he stood to Leo XIII., M. Lamy has always been a Repub-
lican, and has suffered for his political as well as for his religious faith. He
is now sixty years old, and was a pupil of Lacordaire's school, which did so
much to unite unavailingly, as it seems in France the old and the new in
Liberal thought and action k By the way, like Barres, Jules Lemaitre, Renan,
and even Anatole France and Waldeck-Rousseau, Le is an example of those
masters of literary style that seem to issue from the Church schools more
readily than from the science-tormented State Lycees. At the close of the
fatal Franco-Prussian war he was sent up to the National Assembly, which
was to try to reconstitute France, by his native department of the Jura. He
believed in the Republic and against Thiers, carried through a demand for a
reform of all public services. The navy was assigned him, and the present
high commission is the result of his studies of several years. Against Mac-
Mahon he was one of the 363 Republican deputies returned after the dissolu-
tion of Parliament; but the Republic, now advancing on its Radical way,
soon broke and banished him from political life. He had refused to accept
the famous Article VII. of Jules Ferry, with its wholesale suppression of reli-
gious schools. This has given him the leisure for historical studies of the
Second Empire and the National Defence, and of France in the Levant, and
for the desperate effort to unite men of his own kind in consistent action for
a Liberal Republic. Where the Pope failed, he could scarcely succeed ; but
the universal esteem in which he is held by all parties may still allow his
great talent scope if the Republic begins soon enough the return swing of its
pendulum.
M. Lamy was all but elected to the Academy several years ago, losing
only by a single vote in favor of Paul Hervieu. His book of most importance
to American readers is undoubtedly La Femme de Demain (The Coming
Woman); that of most interest, his Memoirs of Aimee de Coigny the light
prisoner of the Terror, who inspired her fellow-captive, Andre Chenier, with a
priceless ode only the poet lost his head a second time, under the guillotine,
while the lady, who had only lost her heart, lived to lose it again and again
down to her death in the full peace of the Restoration.
1905.] THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 715
The Seton Circle tendered a reception to the Most Reverend Archbishop
Farley recently, at the Fordham club-house, which was beautifully decorated
with the national flags and the Seton Circle colors and was brilliantly illumi-
nated. The Archbishop expressed his approval of the careful study that was
being made of the classics, of great movements, such as the Tractarian move-
ment, and of history. The Archbishop especially commended the study of
Scott's novels. The address of the evening was by Judge Tierney. The
President of the Bronx Borough, the Hon. Louis Haffen, introduced the
speakers. A fine literary and musical programme was rendered. Later in
the evening supper was served. The Seton Circle is famous, not only in the
Bronx but in the surrounnding boroughs, for the excellence of its literary
work and for the spirit of sociability which it fosters. The society has been
in existence ten years. The Moderator of the circle this year is the Rev.
Daniel Burke, D.D. The President is Mrs. J. J. Barry; Mary C. Freeston,
Secretary.
* *
At the latest monthly meeting of the St. Vincent's Reading Club, South
Boston, Thomas B. Fitzpatrick gave a most interesting and instructive ad-
dress to the members, on The American Citizen. After the lecture an infor-
mal reception was tendered to Mr. and Mrs. Fitzpatrick. Miss Ellen A.
McMahon is the efficient President of this club, which owes much to the fos-
tering care of Father Patterson and the other priests of St. Vincent's Church.
The Cathedral study club, of New York City, under the direction of the
Rev. William B. Martin, has completed a very successful year.
In addition to the constant service rendered to the Hecker Reading
Circle, of Everett, Mass., Mrs. F. F. Driscoll is much in demand for her rare
musical gifts. She delighted her friends recently by a song recital, assisted
by Mr. M. J. Dwyer, of Boston, with Mr. James T. Whelan, organist of the
Boston Cathedral, as accompanist. It was given in Whittier Hall, Everett,
in presence of an audience which crowded the spacious auditorium, and re-
presented all that was best in the society of the town, without regard to
religious dividing lines, while many friends of Mr. and Mrs. Driscoll came
from Boston and other places. Few people are so beloved in their native
place, and justly so, for noble Christian example, public spirit, and helpful-
ness to all, as Mr. and Mrs. Driscoll. The latter also has won high reputa-
tion in the musical circles of New England through her superb and well-
cultivated voice and exquisite taste in music.
Among the audience were the Rev. J. F. Mohan, rector of the Church of
the Immaculate Conception, the Mayor of Everett, the superintendent of
schools, most of the membership of the Everett Club, with which Mrs. Dris-
coll has been long connected, and the Hecker Reading Circle, whose first
president she has been.
These young ladies acted as ushers: Misses Annie G. Hill, Alice Lane,
Elizabeth Herlihy, Dora Keegan, Alice Sheehan, Jeanne Breau, Daisy Har-
denbrook.
As the programme proceeded many compliments were paid by the music-
lovers present to the charm and freshness of the selections, and their artistic
rendition. Following is the programme:
716 THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. [Aug., 1905.]
Cavatina, " Roberto tu che adoro " (Meyerbeer), Mrs. Driscoll ; Aria,
"Flower Song from Carmen" (Bizet), Mr. Dwyer ; Songs, (a) "The Swal-
lows" (Cowen), (b) "The Lullaby of the Night" (Brackett), Mrs. Driscoll;
Duet, "A Night in Venice " (Lucontoni), Mrs. Driscoll and Mr. Dwyer;
Songs, (a) " The Sweetest Flower" (Lieber), (b) " Because " (Guy D'Herde-
lot), Mr. Dwyer; Song, "Song of Love" (Mrs. Beach), Mrs. Driscoll;
Piano, (a) " Fantaise Impromptu, C sharp minor" (Chopin), (b) " Gavotte,
B minor" (Bach-St. Saens), Mr. Whelan ; Songs (a) " Still* as the Night"
(Bohm), (b) " Irish Lullaby " (Needham), Mrs. Driscoll ; Duet, " O That We
Two Were Maying" (Smith), Mrs. Driscoll, Mr. Dwyer; Waltz Song, " Voci
di Primavera " (Strauss), Mrs. Driscoll.
*
Mrs. J. H. McDonough, of Dallas, Texas, has written a letter to The
Southern Messenger, published at San Antonio, in regard to the supply of
reading for the young. She has a definite plan capable of application to
many places, and expressed in these words :
The intelligent, inquiring American child of to-day will read something
if not clean, moral books suitable to his age, then books of the Midnight
Marriage stamp, and pastors, parents, and teachers are responsible. So the
question arises how to provide proper literature for the children in the forma-
tive period of their lives, thereby cultivating a taste for the best, and making
the reading of dangerous and trashy books, in after years, no temptation
simply an impossibility. Now there seem to be only two ways open to us
one is to create a demand for Catholic books in the public libraries, the other
is to establish parish libraries. I have been told that books requested by a
number of public library patrons would be purchased, but in the Southwest,
where the Catholic population is numerically small, I fancy the number of
Catholic books which reached the library shelves during a year, through this
method, was rather insignificant. The more effectual plan, though involving
work and sacrifice, is the establishment of parish libraries in connection with
the Sunday-Schools. These being under the direct supervision of the pastor
will be a great influence for good will reach all the children alike, rich and
poor, will foster a love for reading, and raise the thoughts and minds of the
children to higher things. In the Cathedral parish, Dallas, a Sunday-School
library was opened last year with a limited number of books, which through
the donations of friends has been increased to 300 volumes. For six months
the circulation was 1,542 books, and the library has been open only one hour
on Sunday between the Masses. The ambition of those in charge is to fur-
nish the room with bcok-cases, desk, tables, etc., to increase the number of
books, and open at least twice a week. This they hope, with our Lord's help
and the kindly assistance of friends, to accomplish. To see the avidity with
which the children read and demand such writers as Father Finn, S.J.,
Father Spalding, S.J., Father John Talbot Smith, Charles W. Stoddard,
Marion Ames Taggart, Maurice F. Egan, Marion J. Brunowe, and other
standard Catholic writers, is to prove that they know what is good, and that
every effort spent in this direction will bear fruit a hundredfold.
M. C. M.
THE
CATHOLIC WORLD.
VOL. LXXXI. SEPTEMBER, 1905. No. 486.
MODERN PSYCHOLOGY AND CATHOLIC EDUCATION.
BY EDWARD A. PACE, PH.D.
|HERE is now on foot in this country a move-
ment to provide for the religious instruction of
our children. It has been organized in an as-
sociation whose members represent all varieties
of educational interests. But a short time since
its deliberations were held in Boston, and the views then ex-
pressed have found an echo in every part of the United States.
That differences of opinion should exist as to the practical ex-
ecution, is only natural. But these differences cannot obscure
the significant fact that American educators are practically
agreed upon the necessity of giving to religion a larger place
than it has hitherto held in our educational scheme.
To the Catholic mind this turn of affairs is particularly in-
teresting. The Church, it is true, has been kept rather busy
for a century or so with the development of her own schools
too busy, perhaps, to follow in all their details the various
modifications introduced into other systems. But she cannot
help noting a change of attitude on the part of non-Catholics
which is in itself so important and which may have far-reach-
ing consequences. Simply as an observer of events, she is in-
terested to see the lessons of her own long experience con-
firmed and emphasized by the experience of the present gen-
eration.
There remains, ol course, this radical difference between
the position of the Church and that of other teaching agencies:
while these may spend much time and thought and energy in
Copyright. 1905. THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE
IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
VOL. LXXXI. 46
;i8 MODERN PSYCHOLOGY. [Sept.,
the discussion of ways and means, the Church must continue
without pause or delay the work of religious education. She
cannot afford to postpone the application of her principles un-
til a theoretically perfect arrangement has been devised. Her
care is for the child of to-day not merely for the children
who are yet unborn. She has to deal with actual conditions
and not to wait for those that are ideal. As in the past, so
in the future, her aim must be to develop and maintain the
spirit of religion in the souls of her children by every means
which she can consistently adopt. If the present movement
shall result in any practical system of religious instruction, so
much the better ; if not, she will regret the failure, but she
will not desist from her own endeavor.
Whatever the final outcome, it is certain that this whole
matter of moral and religious education is receiving just now
more careful attention and more thorough discussion than ever
before. It has become a matter of scientific investigation with
methods of its own and with a literature that grows rapidly.
It occupies a larger place in our general reviews and it finds
scholarly treatment in reviews more specially devoted to its
problems.
Now all these inquiries as to the method of religious in-
struction pre-suppose what has been accomplished in the field
of secular instruction. They assume, quite correctly, that the
moral and religious training of the child must be adapted to
the nature of the child, must respect the laws of mental de-
velopment, and must profit by every new insight which can be
gotten through the analysis of mind. In a word, it seems clear
that the teaching of religion will be based upon the findings
of psychology. We are not, perhaps, agreed as to the scope
and nature of this science ; and much less as regards the in-
terpretation of its latest results. Psychology itself has de-
veloped to such an extent, within the last few decades, that it
is hard to say just where its boundaries are, and just what it
has accomplished on the side of practical application. Never-
theless, there are certain large conclusions which may be re-
garded as fairly secure ; certain principles which, in the main,
are accepted as the basis of educational theory. On these,
likewise, moral and religious education must rest.
But again we should remember that instruction implies
something more than method ; it implies content. Teaching
1905.] CATHOLIC EDUCATION. 719
means that there is something to be taught. The teaching of
religion means that there is some definite system of belief and
practice which must become the mental possession of the child.
Religious education, therefore, involves necessarily these two
factors : the mind of the pupil and the doctrine of the Church.
If, then, method is to be based on psychology, the form of
religion is, in a measure, subjected to psychological tests. Re-
ligious practices that are at variance with psychological prin-
ciples will bid defiance to correct method ; and conversely,
those forms and practices which conform to the laws of psy-
chology will not only find their advantage in right method,
but will also aid considerably in making the method right.
My purpose just now is to inquire into the educational
value of Catholic teaching and practice. I do not ask whether
this or that particular method, these devices or those others,
are in accordance with the principles of psychology. I propose
rather to look at the work of the Church as a whole not
merely what she does in the schoolroom, but also what she
does in her worship, her ministration, her discipline, her
preaching of the Gospel of Christ. The Church has been the
teacher of mankind for two thousand years. She has had ex-
perience with all races and classes of men. She has ex-
pounded to them the highest of all truths in preparation for
. the highest of all destinies. The question that I now wish to
discuss is this: How far does the Church, in teaching moral-
ity and religion, conform to the principles of psychology ?
It is needful at the outset to understand what we mean by
" Catholic education." What are its essential characteristics,
aims, and methods ? Wherein does it differ from other educa-
tional systems; and what warrant has it for so differing?
In reply, I would say :
First. The Catholic Church maintains that intellectual,
moral, and religious education cannot be separated without
detriment to the mental life. They are in reality parts of our
education. Knowledge alone is not a sufficient guide for con-
duct, and moral training which leaves religion out of view is
inadequate.
Second. In the matter of religious education, the Church
holds that instruction and practice must go together. It is
not sufficient that the child be taught what he is to believe.
He must also be trained to live out his belief in action.
720 MODERN PSYCHOLOGY. [Sept.,
Third. As regards the means and the methods of reli-
gious education, the Church claims that they must be adapted
to the needs of the human mind, and must therefore be in
harmony with the established principles of psychology.
Our present purpose is to select the more essential of these
principles and to show that they find their application in our
Catholic system.
A leading characteristic of modern psychology is the im-
portance which it attaches to the sensory processes of mind.
We are no longer satisfied with the general statement that all
knowledge takes its rise in sensation ; nor even with the
accurate description of the various sensory functions. By
means of careful experiment, we have discovered the laws
which govern these functions and the part which they play in
the higher mental activities. The more we search into the
nature of sensation, the more are we convinced that the entire
life of the mind intellectual, emotional, and volitional is
closely bound up with the elementary processes that take
place in the organs of sense.
In the earlier years, the role of sensation is especially con-
spicuous. With its intellect and will scarcely awakened, the
child is literally a " bundle of sensations." With its brain yet
plastic, it is receiving impressions and storing up images that
will persist during life. The whole future of the mind is
largely determined by what is seen and heard in this period.
The attitude of the boy or girl towards things spiritual de-
pends to a great extent upon the training that is given to eye
and ear. If we hold that reason must govern conduct, and
that will is the keystone of character, we should not forget
that both reason and will are aroused and directed by per-
ception, by the commerce of the mind with the external,
material world. And in the same way are called forth those
affective states feeling and emotion and the beginnings of
passion which tend to become, and often do become, the
mainsprings of action.
Clearly, then, it is of the utmost consequence that the
development of the sensory activities should take place in
such a way as to safeguard the moral nature of the child. As
far as possible, those impressions should be multiplied which
fill the mind with images of things high and pure and beauti-
ful. As far as possible, also, whatever contains the germ of
1905.] CATHOLIC EDUCATION. 721
corruption, whatever leaves upon the brain an impression that
will fester and become a moral taint, must be kept beyond
the reach of the growing sense.
The need of such caution is the more urgent when we
remember that one great purpose of modern teaching is to
build up the power of observation. The training of the
senses, we are told, must not be left to chance ; it must fol-
low psychological methods. Vision must be sharpened to
detect the slightest variations in color and form. Hearing
must be quickened to catch the faintest of sounds and the
barely perceptible changes in tone. And so of all the senses ;
they are to be educated just as far as the structure and
normal function of the organs will permit.
This undoubtedly is the correct view; and, so far as it is
realized in our educational practice, its results must certainly
be beneficial. Keener perception means ric.her imagination,
wider range of ideas, finer analytical thinking, and, above all,
the ability to appreciate the marvels of nature in delicate
structure and subtle, scarce noticeable, function.
But it also means that the avenues of the mind are thrown
open, with greater freedom of access, to a thousand impres-
sions which may quicken or deaden the moral perception, may
lift up the will to the highest plane of endeavor, or cast it
down to the level of emotion and impulse. If, therefore, we
insist on the training of the senses, we must further insist
that the impressions they receive shall be of the right sort.
If we provide the mind with better instruments of perception,
we must see to it that these instruments are rightly employed.
And if, with its heightened powers of observation, the child
gets a closer view of nature in the physical world, it should
also be inspired with a deeper regard for the spiritual nature
that is growing up within itself.
Now this is precisely what the Church has all along en-
deavored to do. Whatever philosophers and psychologists may
have taught regarding the value of sense perception, the Church
has always recognized the importance of these processes for
the development of intellectual and moral activity. We have
only to look at her liturgy. What more forcible appeal could
be made to the senses than that which she makes in her cere-
monial, in the administration of the sacraments, in the adorn-
ment of her temples, in every prescription of her ritual ? Light
722 MODERN PSYCHOLOGY. [Sept.,
and color, movement and harmony, stately forms and graceful
lines are all combined to impress the eye and ear of him who
worships in her sanctuary. The art of the builder, the painter,
the sculptor, and the musician is pressed into the service of
religion. And religion itself as doctrine, as historical fact,
and as moral precept is brought home to the mind through
the portals of sense.
The Church, indeed, has often been accused of excess in
this respect. Her outer forms are criticised as " sensuous,"
" external," " realistic," lacking in spiritual force, and setting
appearances in the place of substance. Much is said of the
" pageantry of her worship " and the " pomp of her ritual."
And even when her services are described as solemn or beau-
tiful, the insinuation too often is that she makes no attempt
to reach mind and heart, to stir up those deeper activities of
the soul which are needful for conduct and life.
Let us suppose for a moment that this criticism is just ;
let us suppose that the Church really aims at nothing more
than the stimulation of sense and the pleasurable feelings which
thence result. It would still be true that she is doing impor-
tant educational work. She would be cultivating and refining,
imparting the power to discriminate what is fair from what is
coarse, developing the appreciation of beauty, arousing the
artistic sense. In a word, she would be laying the foundation
of that aesthetic culture which means so much for the growth
of all the faculties.
As a matter of fact, however, the purpose of the Church is
far higher. If she strives to impress the outer sense, it is be-
cause she would make sense the bearer of meaning to spirit.
It is because she would enlighten the mind and enable it to
discern through the visible forms of her ritual the invisible
things of God. Everywhere in her worship she greets us with
symbols, with sacramental forms, with outward signs of inward
grace.
What these are, and what their meanings, the instructed fully
understand. Every Catholic has learned to read in the exter-
nals of the Church those lessons which are beyond the grasp
of sense lessons of faith and reverence and love. He has
learned to interpret the symbols, so that while these affect his
senses, their deeper significance fills his thoughts.
But our present concern is to discover the psychological
1905.] CATHOLIC EDUCATION. 723
import of symbolism. Is this practice of the Church purely
arbitrary, or is it in keeping with the laws of the mind ?
We know that each sensory impression leaves its trace upon
the brain. We know further that every idea is in some way
connected with a cerebral process. And when a certain idea
has been linked in our experience with a certain sensory im-
pression, the recurrence of that impression involves the revival
of that idea.
Now this principle of association, on which modern psy-
chology lays so much stress, is just what explains all symbol-
ism. Once we have been taught that what we see has a defi-
nite meaning that it represents something beyond the mate-
rial thing before us the sight of that object tends to recall
that other object for which it stands. Once we have learned
that our country's flag means more than a combination of
colors that it is a symbol the sight of those colors brings to
mind thoughts of a higher order. And when we have heard
the story of the Cross, a single glance at that sacred symbol
recalls to consciousness the mystery of our redemption.
The Church, therefore, in employing external signs, simply
applies, in a practical way, the law of association. She is not
content to set forth the truths of morality and religion in
spoken word or printed page. She seeks to make her teach-
ing more vivid, more concrete, and therefore more vital, by im-
pressions and images, chosen from all the departments of sense.
What comes through the ear is reinforced by what passes
through the eye. Complex groups of mental images are thus
formed as the basis of the spiritual ideas which she seeks to
impress upon the mind. And these groups, bound together by
association, strengthened by repetition, enriched, as time goes
on, by wider relations and deeper meanings, become the psycho-
physical basis of the highest religious thought.
But now remark a consequence which is of great impor-
tance in educational theory and practice. What we call the
association of ideas implies not only the opening of paths with-
in the brain and the establishing of connection between ideas ;
but also the gradual turning of the mental life in a given
direction. As a result of association, the mind takes on a
definite set or attitude grows into a certain position, from
which it views and appreciates whatever is presented. If, then,
by means of association, the mind is filled with images and
724 MODERN PSYCHOLOGY. [Sept.,
ideas of the brighter and purer sort, the whole mental attitude
will be such that the opposite kind of ideas and images will
be entirely barred out or easily excluded. The will to resist
evil suggestion is all the stronger because whole areas of the
brain have been placed at its disposal. If, on the contrary,
association has warped the mind by filling it with the wrong
sort of images, any appeal to the moral sense encounters a
serious obstacle. It is not only that the will is weak in
regard to moral goodness, but also that the brain is engaged
in the service of evil. Exhort as we may, promise or threaten,
appeal to reason or hold up fair ideals, our efforts must count
for little if the organic processes are against us; if, in other
words, the habitual trend of thought has established the wrong
kind of connections in the brain. It is to forestall such con-
sequences that the Church makes use of symbols, that she
surrounds the child with the emblems of things divine, and
that, while quickening the imagination, she stores it with forms
that are purest and fairest.
But there is a further reason for this method a reason
which is supplied by psychology and justified by experience.
For we know that an idea is not merely the representation of
an object ; it is a source of action. Every mental process
tends, in its own degree, to manifest itself. Whether this
manifestation shall amount to a perceptible bodily resonance,
as in the case of certain emotions, or limit its effects to a
central brain disturbance with no appreciable external effect, as
in the case of abstract thinking, the statement in the main is
true that the mind naturally seeks an outlet for its content.
Impression calls forth expression. In the language of physi-
ology, the stimulation that comes in over sensory paths makes
its way to motor centres and through them to motor paths,
the apparatus of movement and speech.
These, if you choose, are organic connections between or-
ganic processes. But now observe an important consequence
for the mental life. In proportion as an idea gets itself ex-
pressed in action, it becomes more vivid and more vigorous.
It means more for the development of the mind, because it is
more completely the possession of the mind. And it is more
influential in determining mental habit and attitude because its
expression involves new conscious states which tend to rein-
force it.
1905.] CATHOLIC EDUCATION. 725
The modern science of education has been quick to profit
by this psychological truth. Motor training has its value, not
simply in teaching the child to do things, but also in strength-
ening and deepening the power of thought. No man becomes
a painter or sculptor by reading books on the production of
pictures and statues. No student of physics or chemistry
or biology can advance very far if he stays away from the
laboratory. However clear and penetrating his thought may
be, it cannot open out its full meaning except it issue in
action.
We are only just coming to realize that what is true of the
arts and sciences the pursuits of maturer minds is also true
of the beginnings of education. Long ago we were told:
" Not words but things." It was the protest of realism against
formalism the appeal to nature as against the exaggerated
cult of the classics. But to-day we are told: Not merely in
the perception of things does education consist, nor in the
multiplication of ideas, nor even in the vocal expression of
those ideas. It consists, above all, in securing outer activity in
response to that which is within ; it consists in doing.
It matters little, for our present purpose, when or where or
by whom this view was first put forth. In the eyes of the
Church it was no new discovery. It was simply the applica-
tion to the ordinary school methods of what she has all along
practiced. "Not he who sayeth Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven ; but he who doeth the will of my
Father." The Church has never denied that morality and re-
ligion must have their seat in the heart; that the interior life
of thought and will is essential ; and that without this life
merely external performance is worthless. But she has also
insisted, and she still insists, that religion must have its out-
ward manifestation, if it is to grow as the mind grows and to
become a dominant power as the faculties unfold. This is the
philosophy that underlies her whole system of worship a sys-
tem which is so ordered as to secure, in the most appropriate
forms, the expression of our belief. To kneel in adoration, to
bow one's head in prayer, to approach the sacraments as the
ritual enjoins, to share in the various observances which mark
the seasons of the ecclesiastical year what is all this but the
concrete expression of our religious life ? And this expression,
bodily, external, ceremonial as it is, nevertheless is the best
726 MODERN PSYCHOLOGY. [Sept.,
means of cultivating sentiments that are of the soul inward
and spiritual and full of the divine life.
But here again the inevitable law appears. Unless the child
be accustomed from the earliest years to this manifestation of
what he learns about religion, the ideas which he has imbibed
will avail but little. They will soon be effaced by other ideas
which do find expression. The motor activity will flow out in
other channels, and the thought of heavenly things will count
for nothing in the shaping of conduct.
Sense-perception, association, and the tendency to self-ex-
pression are the fundamental activities of mind with which
education has to reckon. To these must now be added
another complex process which includes them all and yet has
a significance of its own. As the child becomes more and
more interested in what it perceives, as the power of observa-
tion develops, one class of objects in particular attracts its
attention, and that is the behavior of other human beings.
The child not only perceives what other people do, it tends
naturally to copy what it sees. Its action is governed by a
law which psychology has but recently explained the law of
imitation. At home, on the street, in school, from parents,
companions, teachers, and books, the mind of the child re-
ceives countless suggestions, not simply to act but to act. in a
definite way. The first word it utters, the first lesson it
reads, and the first picture it draws, are the results, more or
less perfect, of imitation. In the teacher, above all, the child
finds a model far more suggestive, in word and look and
deed, than the plainest admonition or the strictest rule of dis-
cipline. "Go thou and do likewise" is a precept that need
not be written or spoken; it is nature's prompting instinctively
obeyed.
Later, when the mental view has widened, when the boy
and girl are able to look beyond their present surroundings
and to live, in imagination, with the men and women of the
past, imitation passes into a new and more important phase.
History, biography, and literature are now the sources of sug-
gestion. There are heroes to be imitated, great deeds to be
done, high ambitions to be realized. In a word, it is the time
when ideals are formed, and when, consequently, the whole
life-course is determined.
It is hardly necessary to show that modern education has
1905.] CATHOLIC EDUCATION. 727
taken advantage of this tendency to imitate. Volumes have
been written to prove that moral training consists largely in
pointing to examples. Every teacher has heard that fable and
fairy tale, Bible story and classic legend, as well as the
records of secular history, may be used to inspire the pupil
with splendid aims, to shape his ideals, to map out his career.
And this is precisely what the Church has been doing ever
since she was commissioned to "teach all nations." She holds
up, for imitation, the highest and holiest of ideals; not Plato,
nor Socrates, nor Marcus Aurelius, but Christ, the way, the
truth, and the life. She reminds us constantly of the men
and women whose faith has overcome the world, who have
walked in the footsteps of the Master, uho have sacrificed all
things, even life itself, that their imitation of Christ might he
more perfect. The Church honors these heroes of sanctity in
her liturgy, in her festivals, in the most solemn of her func-
tions. Thereby she proclaims to all the world that these are
the patterns to be copied and the ideals to be realized. Not
far off, impossible ideals ; but the actual lives and achieve-
ments of men and women who had to struggle with the very
difficulties which we encounter.
Such, then, is the philosophy of the Church on which she
bases education. Sense-activity, mental association, self-expres-
sion, and imitation are to be developed and directed in such
a way as to make all our thinking and all our doing the
living manifestation of our religious belief.
I have said that the practice of the Church is in accord
with the teachings of modern psychology. She recognized the
practical import of the laws which govern the mind. She
knows full well what sense- perception means something must
be seen, something must be heard. The question is: Shall
this something be of the earth earthy, or shall it be the sem-
blance of things divine ? She knows full well how thoughts
and images are grouped by the process of association. The
question is: Shall the mind be furnished with ideas that are
material and coarse, or with ideas that are elevated, spiritual,
refined ? She understands thoroughly the law by which every
mental state tends to outward expression, and the other law
by which this expression reinforces the mental prccess. The
question is: Shall action be directed along paths that lead
upward, or along paths that lead downward ? She realizes the
728 MODERN PSYCHOLOGY. [Sept.,
significance of imitation for determining conduct and building
up character. The question is : Shall the models proposed
for imitation be pagan or Christian, examples of worldly suc-
cess or of heavenly aspiration ?
This is the choice that lies open to us as educators. How
the Church decides we already know. And whatever judgment
may be passed by her critics upon her educational ideals, she
surely cannot be accused of setting at naught the principles
and laws of psychology.
Yet it may be said it often is said why should the
teaching of religion be brought into the work of the school?
Why not leave it to the catechism class or postpone it until
the mind is sufficiently mature to appreciate its meaning and
grapple with its problems ? What relation can there be, in
principle or method or content, between religious instruction
and the subjects that fill the curriculum ?
The answer to these questions is furnished, again, by psy-
chology as applied to education. For we know that the re-
ception which the mind gives to any idea is determined, not
simply by the nature of that idea, but also by the nature of
the ideas that are already in the mind. If the new idea is al-
together strange or foreign to those that have been acquired,
if it is not welcomed but intruded upon the mind, it will have
little or no effect upon the mental development; it will re-
main a solitary, unassimilated thought, and will quickly perish
for want of support. On the contrary, if the mind is prepared
to receive it, if it is seized on by a group of congenial ideas,
it not only becomes a lasting possession, but it also exerts a
powerful influence upon the growth of the mind.
This law of apperception is one with which every teacher
is familiar. It is the corner stone of an educational theory
which has many distinguished advocates in this country. And
it bears the sanction of modern psychology.
Applied to religious education, this law means that the
truths of religion must enter the mind along with ordinary
knowledge. If they are held back to the years of maturity,
they will not be apperceived. They will be as the seed that
fell upon stony ground. If they are reserved for the Sunday-
school, or any other means of instruction which sets them
apart from the daily work of education, they will be regarded
as superfluous and possibly as antagonistic to the knowledge
1905.] CATHOLIC EDUCATION. 729
that is gotten in the school. They will not appear to the boy
or girl as things of vital importance, as truths which have to
do with everyday conduct. There can be no growth where
there is no germination; and the most vigorous germ of
thought must wither and decay if the ground has not been
prepared.
We should not forget that a course of study is an object
lesson. Whatever it includes is rightly supposed to possess
some value. What it excludes is supposed, rightly or wrongly,
to be worth little or nothing. Once this appreciation is set-
tled in the mind of the child, no amount of pedagogical skill
will secure a proper estimate of truths that have not been
taught in the school. And the reason is that the interests of
the child have been led off in other directions. Modern psy-
chology has done much to clear up the problem of interest
and modern education has been the gainer. What the Church
claims is that the supreme interests of life, the interests that
reach out to eternity, should be awakened and strengthened to
such a degree that they may sanctify and ennoble every other
interest, every other concern of the human mind.
That these interests are dear to all Catholics, is a fact that
calls for no proof. But they are specially dear to those who
are engaged in the work of education. Catholic teachers un-
derstand the importance of instructing their pupils in the truths
of religion. It is of equal importance to realize that these
truths may be taught by methods which are thoroughly in
keeping with the laws of psychology.
THE LIMITS OF THE DEVELOPMENT THEORY.
BY GEORGE TYRRELL, S.J.
N an article in the Month (January, 1904) I dis-
cussed some difficulties attendant on the effort
to find in the doctrine of development a middle
way between the dominant theology of the
Catholic schools * and that of the liberal or, we
might say, German school as represented by Caird, Gardner,
Sabatier, or even more liberal writers " liberal," in so far as
they discard the fetters imposed on free thought by the
belief in a supernatural revelation and in a supernatural inter-
pretation of the same. We can believe in the rights of criti-
cism on the one hand, and of Catholic theology on the other,
to work out the results of their several presuppositions ; we
can believe in unity of all truth, natural and revealed; and
yet fail for the moment, or forever, to establish that unity in
a way satisfactory to our own or to other minds.
Yet the unifying effort is a plain duty on the part of the
professed exponents of Catholic truth, nor will any number
of failures justify inertia or intransigeance. Not only is it in-
cumbent on our theologians of to-day to establish by sound
apologetic their presupposition of a miraculous revelation
miraculously interpreted ; but they must also show either that
these presuppositions do not absolutely bind us down to the
bygone thought-forms and categories of the various ages in
which our doctrines were formulated; or else that to be so
bound down is not that grave intellectual disadvantage which
at first sight it would appear. For if to adhere to the social
forms, languages, and usages of past time would cut us off
from all healthy participation in the social life of our age ancl
country, so too we should be shut off in sterile seclusion from
the movement of contemporary mental life were we irrevocably
Needless to say that Catholic theology is related to Catholicism as Christology is to
Christ, or as natural science is to nature, or as the theory of any living organism is to that
life and organism, or as a man's account of himself is related to what he is. Between natural
and supernatural reality there can be no conflict, but only between the theories of one and the
other, between natural and sacred science.
1905.] LIMITS OF THE DEVELOPMENT THEORY. 731
committed to obsolete modes of thought with all their implica-
tions and consequences unless indeed we were to cut away
our religious thought from the unity of our mind and put it
to moulder away in a watertight compartment by itself.
But if, on the other side, we are asked to accept the unani-
mous conclusions of critical experts, we may surely suspend
our judgment until we see some way of reconciling these con-
clusions with convictions derived from more sacred sources.
It may well be that the results of free criticism do not seem
to us more irreconcilable with the teachings of faith than the
philosophy of Aristotle seemed to the Fathers, or than the
astronomy of Copernicus seemed to the theologians of the
sixteenth century ; but we too have a right and duty of intran-
sigeance pendente lite.
I ventured to suggest in the article aforesaid that the at-
tempt to find a solution of the dilemma in the principle of
development of ideas was in many ways unsatisfactory; that
the principle was all-dominating in the case of liberal theol-
ogy ; that it was dominated and brought under that of author-
ity in the case of Catholic theology. There it was a wild
horse in the prairies; here, a tram-horse in harness moving up
and down within fixed limits along fixed lines; there it was
mistress ; here it was but a handmaid, an ancilla theologies.
And the root of this difference I assigned to the fact that
liberal theology, like nature science, has for its subject-matter
a certain ever-present department of human experience which
it endeavors progressively to formulate and understand, and
which is ever at hand to furnish a criterion of the success of
such endeavors; whereas our school-divinity professes to find
its subject-matter in the record or register oi certain past ex-
periences that cannot be repeated and are known to us only
through such a record. In the former case our knowledge
progresses not merely (as in the latter) in virtue of mental
labor and reflection brought to bear on an unchanging datum,
but in virtue of an ever new supply of experience, presenting
us with ever new aspects and parts of the subject-matter.
Our first naive formulations and categories soon prove too
tight and narrow for our accumulating experience, and after a
certain amount of stretching and adaptation they burst alto-
gether, and more comprehensive conceptions take their place.
These we criticise, not by their correspondence to the aban-
732 LIMITS OF THE DEVELOPMENT THEORY. [Sept.,
doned forms, whose interest is henceforth merely historical,
but by their adequacy to the newly revealed matter. We do
not ask if Copernican be true to Ptolemaic astronomy, but if
it be true to experience. Nor does the liberal theologian ask
or care that his theology be substantially identical with that
of the past, but only that it be truer to experience than that
which it supersedes. The new contains the old, not as an un-
changed nucleus with additions, not as three contains two ;
but only as Copernicus contains Ptolemy ; as a new hypothe-
sis is said loosely and inaccurately to contain the old, because
it explains the same facts and experiences, albeit in a totally
different synthesis.
For theological developments of this scientific sort the con-
ception of the depositum fidei as a record of a bygone super-
natural experience leaves no place whatever. Those to whom
that supernatural experience was accorded could not communi-
cate it directly to others ; they could not open the eyes of
others to see what they saw. They could only (under divine
inspiration) reconstruct the revealed realities in the rude
algebra of conventional signs or symbols, by means of which
others, for whom those signs possessed a like value, might re-
produce this reconstruction in their own minds, and see, not
what the Apostles saw, but the symbol thereof, the expression
of things supernatural and ineffable in terms of things natural
and communicable. That symbol, that " form of sound words,"
is the depositum fidei ; the realities symbolized were revealed
for a moment and then withdrawn again into darkness. Hence
the preservation of that symbol, not merely of the dead words
but of the meaning they bore for their first hearers, of the
figures under which the mysteries revealed to the Apostles
were presented by them to the minds of their followers, is
the supreme end of the Church's doctrinal authority. From
the nature of the case this original expression of the mysteries
of faith is classical, normative, inspired ; for it alone has been
shaped in face of the realities expressed. Were it a mathe-
matical equation, and not merely a defective presentment of
the higher in term? of the lower, we might safely translate it
into its equivalents and not alter its truth-value ; but, as it is,
we dare not tamper with it; we cannot adjust or correct a re-
presentation of what we only know through and in that repre-
sentation. But the Church can and does correct and adjust
1905.] LIMITS OF THE DEVELOPMENT THEORY. 733
later copies, expansions, and illustrations of that representation
by means of it. For not only are the inevitable explications
and applications of the apostolic tradition liable to error; but
the meaning of the language and symbolism in which it is
transmitted is continually shifting. Words and material signs,
so far as they are dead things, are comparatively stable, but
their sense grows and varies incessantly with the growtl. and
variations of the living mind. " La fixite des mots," says a
recent writer, "qui designent des choses mouvantes, trompe les
esprits et cause de faux jugements." Obviously it is the sense,
the thought-forms, the categories, and not the material signs,
that constitute the depositnm fidei. The Church criticises
doctrinal developments by the standard of " Apostolicity," /. e.,
of their conformity to the sense of her original record, in re-
spect to which they are either false ,or true. Her criterion of
dogmatic truth .is not the eternal reality, but the inspired re-
presentation of that reality given to her keeping by the
Apostles. That later presentments of dogma should swallow
up and supersede these earlier and earliest, as Copernican
superseded Ptolemaic astronomy is therefore (from the nature
of the presuppositions of Catholic theology) quite impossible.
For doctrinal development in that sense there is no room.
The Athanasian Creed is not the fruit of a fuller supernatural
experience than the confession of St. Peter, but is simply the
explication of that confession, the fruit of the Church's re-
flection thereon, of her ponderings and inferences; of her
endeavors to relate it to the rest of human knowledge. There
is no question of gathered experience bursting through the
narrower categories and formulations ; of new wine seeking
new bottles. All unworthy though even the original inspired
formulations must necessarily be, we dare not, in the absence
of the eternal realities for which they stand, translate them
into higher categories such as inspiration might have used had
the revelation been deferred to our own day. For we only
hold so much of those realities as is symbolized in the nar-
rower categories ; nor have we any other data beyond that
limit.
By way of illustration of all that I have said, I would ven-
ture, with some diffidence, to contrast Newman's Anglican
Theory of Developments of Religious Doctrine, as sketched in the
University Sermon of 1843, with the application of the same
VOL. LXXXI. 47
734 LIMITS OF THE DEVELOPMENT THEORY. [Sept.,
theory in his Catholic Essay on the Development of Christian
Doctrine (1845); an( * to show how, in being combined with the
presupposition of a past revelation infallibly interpreted by
present authority, it necessarily becomes an ancilla theologies,
and loses that independence and supremacy which it possesses
on the presuppositions of liberal theology.*
In the University Sermon of 1843, Newman asks : f "Why
should there not be that real connection between science and
its subject-matter in religion which exists in other departments
of thought?" He speaks throughout of the object of Revela-
tion (the Trinity or the Incarnation) as continually presented to
our apprehension in a way quite parallel to that in which the
natural world is presented, and as therefore furnishing us in
like manner with a sort of experimental criterion of our forrr^u-
lations and mental reconstructions of that object. " Revelation
sets before it (the Christian mind) certain supernatural facts
and actions, beings and principles ; these make a certain im-
pression or image upon it; and this impression spontaneously
or even necessarily becomes the subject of reflection on the
part of the mind itself, which proceeds to investigate it and to
draw it forth in successive and distinct sentences." J Revela-
tion is described as an abiding " master-vision " controlling the
workings of the Church's mind. A dogma professes to formu-
late the results of " direct contemplation " of the object de-
fined. || The very "first impulse" of every Christian's faith
" is to try to express itself about the ' great sight ' which is
vouchsafed to it," and which is the subject-matter of its theory
just as the vision of nature is the subject-matter of natural
science.^]" The devout mind turns "to the contemplation of
the object of its adoration and begins to form statements con-
cerning him " till " what was first an impression on the imag-
ination has become a system or creed in the reason." ** This
"impression" of God "is not a thing of parts. It is not a
system. . . . It is the vision of an object," and " may be
fitly compared to the impressions made on us through the
senses." ft As being " images of what is real," the ideas
which we are granted of divine objects may be called real; It
* I am only speaking of these two writings of Newman's considered, apart from the con-
text of his entire life and work. Also I quite recognize the purely ad hominem character of the
Essay on Development which simply takes Tractarianism on its own admissions, and may stand
with a different synthesis in the author's mind to that which he is actually defending.
t P. 328 in Longman's edition of 1900. \ P. 320. $ Pp. 322, 323.
|| P. 325. If P. 327. " P. 329. tt P. 33- 8 P- 330.
1905.] LIMITS OF THE DEVELOPMENT THEORY. 735
and like all real concrete objects can never be exhaustively
formulated. " Creeds and dogmas live in the one idea which
they are designed to express and which alone is substantive."*
This idea or "sacred impression," which is "prior" to its
formulations " acts as a regulating principle, ever present, upon
the reasoning," just as ever-present nature offers the test of
direct experience to the theories of science.f " Religious men,
according to their measure, have an idea or vision of the
Blessed Trinity in Unity, of the Son Incarnate and of his
Presence, . . . not as the subject of a number of propo-
sitions, but as one and individual and independent of words, as
an impression conveyed through the senses." \ For the under-
standing of all these quotations it is only needful to remember
that with Newman " idea " does not mean the mental formula-
tion of an experienced object, but the object itself considered
as apprehensible and intelligible. In his Essay on Development,^
he defines the "idea "of an object as "the sum-total of its
possible aspects" or, as we might say, the sum- total of possible
experiences in regard to it; and as this sum total is % inex-
haustible to the finite mind, it follows that we can go forever
developing our formulation (or reasoned reconstruction) of the
idea.
This conception of doctrinal development, though applied
to a supernatural revelation, is, I think, in principle identical
with that of liberal theology. For the subject-matter of de-
velopment is not a formulation of the object revealed, but the
object itself ever present to experience or at least present in
the same way that material objects are present. To the objec-
tion: "There is no such inward view of these doctrines dis-
tinct from the dogmatic language used to express them," he
answers : " It should be considered whether our senses can be
proved to suggest any real idea of matter," || of the thing in it-
szlf, as distinct from the sum-total of experiences it produces
in us. But this answer still insists on the parallelism between
natural science and theology in respect of the abiding presence
of those experiences which they formulate. "The senses do
not convey to us any true impression of matter, but only an
idea commensurate with sensible impressions."^ Of matter in
se we know nothing, but only of matter as it impresses itself
on the senses; of the Trinity in se we know nothing, but only
* P. 331. t P. 334- \ P. 33i- i$ P. 34- II PP- 338. 339- *l P. 340.
736 LIMITS OF THE DEVELOPMENT THEORY. [Sept.,
of the impression which it makes on the human mind by its
revealed presentment thereto. This "impression" is not a
verbal formula, but as real an experience as any sense impres-
sion. Newman feels the difficulty of this supposition of a per-
petuated revelation abiding in the Christian mind. He sug-
gests that divine grace may implant new ideas ; or refine and
elevate to sacramental efficacy those of the natural mind ; *
that the illuminating grace of Baptism may produce at least a
capacity for receiving impressions ; f that " the terms and fig-
ures which are used in the doctrines of the Holy Trinity
may by their combination create ideas which will be
altogether new though they are still of an earthly character." f
But when we reconstruct some unique experience in terms of
conventional signs for purposes of communication, all we can
possibly communicate is this reconstruction and not the experi-
ence symbolized. Only those who have experienced the like,
will translate our communication into its true experience-value.
It is vain to describe a symphony to a man deaf from birth ;
the novel word-combinations simply puzzle him. Unless we
have here an "impression" of the supernatural already, words
can never evoke such an impression to memory ; no combina-
tion of natural experiences can yield a conception of an in-
commensurable order.
It seems to me, therefore, that as in the later Essay he is
trying to square the same theory with theology, so in this
sermon Newman is trying as far as possible to square theology
with the free and unfettered theory of doctrinal development
as applicable to matters of immediate experience ; and that to
this end he is trying to see how far revelation may be regarded,
not as a past event, living on only in its record, but as an
ever-abiding perpetuated experience of the mind of the Church.
Were it such, then it is hard to see why we should venerate
and rule ourselves by the past, and presumably less perfect,
formulations of an ever-present object; why we should not be
as free of the past as the liberal theologian who finds his sub-
ject-matter not in a sacred doctrine given long since from
heaven, but in the present facts of conscience and religious
experience ; or why we should need the intervention of an in-
fallible authority to control the work of development and re-
flection, seeing that such a principle of control would be fur-
* P. 339- t P. 333- \ P. 339-
1905.] LIMITS OF THE DEVELOPMENT THEORY. 737
nished by the experienced impression of the eternal realities
themselves.
May it not be that this sermon is a tentative counter-
theory opposed to the Biblical-Protestant (and, to some extent,
to the Tractarian) appeal across the silent centuries to the
oracles of a dead past as the all-sufficient rule of Christian
truth ; that is, a plea for a revelation that still lives and
teaches, even as Christ's Spirit still lives and teaches, in the
living Church ; that it gropes after the notion of an " apos-
tolicity " that is not the privilege of one age, but the attribute
of all, making all equally authoritative; that it is so far in the
direction of Catholic as opposed to Protestant and even Trsc-
tarian theology ? Yet as a theory it differs from that of the
Essay and that of the prevalent school-theology, in so far as
it conceives the Spirit of Christ as an abiding principle of
revelation, perpetuating in the mind of the Church that " mas-
ter-vision" of God which was given to the Apostles; not in-
deed adding substantially to the content of that vision, but
continuously expanding and elaborating its expression in ac-
cordance with the growth and development of the human mind
from age to age so that the Church of to-day speaks frcm
vision, not from memory, of revealed truth. It conceives Christ's
revelation as an element or germ of supernatural truth knit up
from the first with the organic unity of the human mind of
the Christian community, growing with its growth, strengthen-
ing with its strength, changing with its changes and yet semper
eadem, always the same in the sense in which every organic
growth (whose past nevertheless dies away into its present)
preserves its identity.
In this view, the criterion of present expressions of the
ever- revealed truth is not their identity with, or subjection to,
those of the past, but their conformity to supernatural experi-
ence of the present a criterion of little external or demonstra-
ble value, and whose application is most difficult and obscure,
compared with that of the school- theology. At best it might
be possible to point out the unity of spirit between later and
earlier developments ; to show that these find their explanation
and " final cause " in those ; or to use the observed law of
growth and expansion as a criterion ; or to appeal to the test
of universal spiritual fruitfulness. "As objects excite senti-
ments," he says in the Essay* "so do sentiments imply ob-
* Ch. i., sec. ii., n. 7.
738 LIMITS OF THE DEVELOPMENT THEORY. [Sept.,
jects." It might be said that the spirit was given to us pri-
marily as charity, as a sentiment, and that doctrinal truth was
but the object implied in, and deduced from, that sentiment
even as our constructions of the material world are deduced
from our felt experiences. But all such criteria are hopelessly
lacking in definiteness for purposes of doctrinal statement and
confessional agreement.
In the avowedly tentative Essay on the Development of Chris-
tian Doctrine (1845) it seems to me that Newman, having the
same theory of development in his mind as in 1843, applies it,
only just so far as it is applicable, to the actual history of
Catholic theology. He is arguing with the Tractarians on
their own presuppositions. He is showing them that they
can identify the Catholicism of the first four General Councils
with the depositum fidei only by the implicit acceptance of a
principle of development which should equally compel them
to accept the Council of Trent. If this principle was always
implicit in the dogmatic life of the Church ; if it became im-
perfectly explicit in a writer here and there, as in Vincent of
Lerins ; yet it was too little in harmony with the statical modes
of thought and with the imperfect historical sense of earlier
centuries to have admitted in those days of the easy recogni-
tion which Newman, more than any one else, has now secured
for it. The reference of doctrinal disputes of the first ages to
the Apostolic Sees was dictated by the belief that they held
the pure apostolic tradition unchanged and undeveloped. Ac-
tual, literal, and not merely substantial and virtual, apostolicity
was for centuries the criterion of orthodoxy. The sub-apos-
tolic age, with its belief in an immediate consummation of all
things, could have no sense, no need of the supposition of
doctrinal developments. Apostolicity was its criterion ; and
subsequent ages followed suit. In the theology of St. Thomas
and the scholastics there is little or no explicit reference to
the principle of development as a solvent of problems. It is
assumed that the whole doctrinal system could be discovered
in the Scriptures or in the Fathers by careful analysis and
exegesis, as it were, by the use of a theological microscope
and scalpel. The disciplina arcani, or else the imperfection 'of
documents, is liberally invoked to explain discrepancies which
our modern theologians would explain at once by development.
Literal apostolicity is still the test. Could they have seen the
1905.] LIMITS OF THE DEVELOPMENT THEORY. 739
whole past history of theology, even as we now see it, the fact,
the process, and laws of its growth would have forced them-
selves into recognition; but the interval that divided their age
from that of the Apostles was for them buried in obscurity.
In the sixteenth century the reformers and their opponents
argued largely on the implicit common assumption that literal,
actual apostolicity was the test of Christian truth, and hag-
gled over texts instead of testing the legitimacy of develop-
ments. The Tractarians, against whom Newman urges the
principle of development, were certainly patristic in refusing
it explicit and sufficient recognition, and in their notion of
apostolicity, actual and not virtual, as the rule of faith. He
shows them that both they and the Fathers implicitly admitted
the principle, and that they must abide by its consequences ;
that it formulates a necessary law of the mind in its reflection
on any subject-matter whatever, be it a fact or a document,
an experience or a record of experience.
But the whole Essay of 1845 assumes the presupposition of
the Tractarians, namely, the conception of the deposition fidei
as being the communicable record and symbolic reconstruction
of a revelation accorded to the Apostles alone. The subject-
matter of the development there discussed is not an object re-
vealed but the symbol of that object, the primitive Credo.
Consistently with this, and only with this, conception of the
matter Newman declares the need of "an infallible developing
authority."* Were the object ever present to us by a per
petuated revelation we should have in itself a sufficient criterion
of its formulations; as we have of natural science in nature.
But the ever- shifting sense value of dead words and symbols
would quickly and hopelessly obliterate the 'sense of the primi-
tive Credo in default of some supernatural intervention. In the
hands of an unscholarly reader the New Testament yields a
vastly different sense to that which it bore to its writers. If
he have faith, he will try to square the rest of his mind with
this misconceived divine teaching to the prejudice of reason ;
if he have no faith, he will scoff at what he has simply mis-
understood, owing to the changed value of language.
Again, it is consistent with, and only with, the same pre-
supposition when Newman claims for this Credo and for its in-
fallibly warranted developments that jurisdiction over all depart-
*Ch. ii., sec. ii.
740 LIMITS OF THE DEVELOPMENT THEORY. [Sept.,
ments of thought which "imparts to the history both of states
and of religions its specially turbulent and polemical char-
acter," * and this, because " facts and opinions which have
hitherto been regarded in other relations and grouped round
other centres henceforth are gradually attracted to a new influ-
ence and subjected to a new sovereign."! If we hold the
revealed object only as communicated in certain consecrated
categories or thought forms ; if we have no direct access to it
for purposes of adjustment, of re- expression and re- clothing,
then the preservation of those categories is a matter of life and
death. But they belong to, and entail the unity of, the whole
living organism of human thought and knowledge ; if they are
to live they must be in agreement therewith ; if in the event
of discord, they cannot yield to novelty, novelty must yield
to them. Else religion will be a walled- off department of our
mind ; neither affecting nor affected by rest. Here we have
the conflict of Church and State reproduced in the realm of
knowledge; another application of the same principle. Again
he is consistent to the same presupposition when he makes the
earlier developments the criterion of the later; and the deposi-
ttim fidei the supreme criterion of all thus subjecting the pres-
ent and future to the past. The inverse obtains in natural
science, which can afford to discard its past theories or to
judge them by their conformity to present views. For, in or-
ganic and psychological as distinguished from mechanical or
dialectical developments, the earlier stage is explained and
criticised by the later ; the means by the end. The true cri-
terion, namely, the final issue, lies hidden inaccessibly in the
future. So far as present developments explain and find a use
for what was inexplicable in the past they are presumably in
the right direction; but who can say what present irregularity
or evil may not find its justification in what is yet to come ?
Liberal theology lacks that definite, workable criterion which is
furnished by an appeal to the past; it can only appeal to the
criterion of an imperfectly determined spirit or law of devel-
opment, if it is not to justify the whole existing state of things
en bloc.
If Newman amends J the almost purely quantitative con-
ception of development implied in Vincent of Lerins : "Small
are a baby's limbs, a youth's are larger," by suggesting that
* Ch. i., sec. i., n. 5. t P. '185. Edit. 1900. Cf. p. 355. t P. 172.
1905.] LIMITS OF THE DEVELOPMENT THEORY. 741
there may be " considerable alteration of proportion and rela-
tion as time goes on," and that the butterfly is the develop,
ment, though not the image, of the grub ; yet this is' but to
make room for "a multitude of propositions . . . which
gather round the inspired sentence of which they come," * or
for " doctrines, rites, and usages,'.' which " have grown up
round the Apostles Creed and have impenetrated its articles,
claiming to be part of Christianity, and looking like those
additions f which we are in search of."| The conception
throughout is clearly that of an unchanging dogmatic nucleus
round which "additional" propositions ever group themselves
into a doctrinal system ever "the same," because its central
beliefs are actually, its subsidiary beliefs virtually apostolical,
/. e. t identical with the " deposit of faith."
Such is the daring scheme of the celebrated Essay which
harmonizes as far as possible the dynamical conception of
orderly growth and development with the more statical con-
ception of an unchanging original deposit of faith supple-
mented by infallible and irreformable interpretations frcm time
to time. Though at first viewed askance by many, it has
since commended itself so universally that the more ancient
and literal interpretation of the test of apostolicity is now
hardly maintained anywhere in its purity, except perhaps in
the petrified theology of the Greek Schismatical Church and
among Protestant Bible Christians, if there be any left. The
disciplina arcani rusts away quietly among other obsolete
weapons of controversy. The growth of doctrine is a fact that
in the Western world has become evident to all. We must
either (with Protestantism) deny all apostolicity to these
growths ; or accept them as lawful developments, and as
therefore virtually apostolic.
In the case of so subtle a dialectician as Newman, we can-
not conclude at once that he is himself quite satisfied with a
theory which he happens to be urging ad hominent, or that he
is unaware of its difficulties and limitations. Thus, when he
urges that the violent and unseemly modes of procedure which
are sometimes alleged against Catholic orthodoxy of modern
times were equally characteristic of the orthodoxy of the
patristic age, and that courtesy and gentleness often seemed
the monopoly of heterodoxy; or when he replies to the
* P. 59. t Italics mine. \ P. 92. $ Ch. vii. sect. 4.
742 LIMITS OF THE DEVELOPMENT THEORY. [Sept.,
charge against later Catholic theology of unreal and fantastic
handling of texts by showing that respect for the letter and for
the immediate sense of Scripture went oftenest with heresy,
and that orthodoxy stood for the loose, mystical sense, all
this is plainly ad hominem and is not a plea for violence or
for inaccuracy. And so, too, as a whole, the Essay cannot
be adduced as demonstrably representing Newman's inmost,
still less his final, view, or as really contradicting the Univer-
sity Sermon which deals with the theory of doctrinal develop-
ments and not with its application to a particular controversy
and its data. Great, however, as is the relief which the Essay
offers to "what has now (even in 1845) become a necessary
and an anxious problem," * it raises or leaves unsolved some
great difficulties.
As each department of thought and knowledge, so too
(according to the prevalent evolutionary philosophy) knowl-
edge as a whole grows from generation to generation into
something qualitatively different ; it is not only more, it is
other. The collective mind of our day, it is said, is not that
of savagery, plus that of barbarism, plus mediaevalism, plus
modernity ; as it were concentric circles framing one another,
or stories of a house piled one on top of another, or wings
and additions of different styles made to it at different
periods and still persisting in their differences. The catego-
ries of the past have died and dissolved into those of the pres-
ent ; they do not and cannot coexist unchanged. Words and
signs like dead monuments may survive, but their sense has
perished to live again in something fuller or other. If this is
not so, we must show that it is not so. We must show that
the general mind does not grow in this organic fashion, but
rather, as the scholastics teach, by working on certain perma-
nently established categories, principles, and facts, the same for
all men at all times, and by progressively building these up
dialectically into an ever more complex and comprehensive
system of knowledge ; we must show that the development of
doctrine, as described in the Essay, is simply a particular case
of the general conditions, static and dynamic, of mental
growth. If the first conceptions in which the Christian revela-
tion was given us can grow out of all shape and recognition
like letters cut on the bark of a young tree; if they are not
P. 30.
1905.] LIMITS OF THE DEVELOPMENT THEORY. 743
immune from the law of progressive transformation; if the
very subject-matter of our theology grows with the growth of
the mind, how can it be used as a fixed standard and criterion
of that growth ? A building may grow, but if the building-
materials also grow, the results will be like those of the
croquet-party in Alice's Adventures.
Ultimately the question resolves itself into this : Does
thought grow architecturally or biologically ? If the former,
then the problem arises : Does the " deposit of faith," and do
the infallible definitions of the Church, bind us absolutely to
the categories and thought forms of the age in which they
were framed. That they do, would seem to be indicated by
the ceaseless polemic aforesaid between theology and profane
philosophy, science, and history consequent on the indirect
jurisdiction which the former claims over the whole realm of
man's thought a claim which would be unnecessary did the-
ology hold these categories to be of but a relative and sym-
bolic value which they could retain irrespective of the fluctua-
tions of thought, and did it not treat them as finally assured^
not as amendable results. If, as it seems, we are bound to
them as of absolute value, as finally true for philosophy
science, and history, then we have a new brood of problems %
for we must show that those of different ages are consistent with
one another, and that those of all the ages together are still
valid and furnish collectively a rule by which modern thought
should be corrected. That is the difficulty on one side. On
the other, if we deny that past forms are to be the criterion
of present and stand by all the implications of that denial, we
not only contradict tradition in a substantial point f but we
shall find it hard in many ways to erect a secure barrier
against liberal theology.* To find some via media between the
In my former article I denned (and exemplified) "liberal theology " as that which pre-
scinds entirely from miraculous revelation and professes to be simply the philosophy or natural
science of man's universal religious experience. Needless to say it discards all belief in, or
deference to, the teaching authority of the Church, and has therefore nothing whatever to do
with what is sometimes called " Liberal Catholicism, ' which in this point is professedly Catho-
lic ; nor again with the older Protestantism, which holds on to the belief in a past miraculous
revelation as the rule of present orthodoxy. This latter is Harnack's position so far as he ap-
peals to an exceedingly dwindled nucleus of primitive Christian revelation as a doctrinal test
a nucleus which he does not regard as in process of ceaseless transformation along with
mind, but as gathering round it accretions and additions, which, whether legitimate or illegiti-
mate, have no divine authorization. At times he leaves it doubtful whether he conceives the
revelation of God's Fatherhood and man's brotherhood as communicated doctrinally to
mind, or as the infusion into the heart of a certain spirit or sentiment which spontaneously e>
plains itself and its object to the understanding in that doctrine. This latter view would put
him in a category apart.
744 LIMITS OF THE DEVELOPMENT THEORY. [Sept.
Scylla and Charybdis of these pressing difficulties is the en-
deavor of those who follow in the footsteps of Newman. This
article does not pretend to contribute directly towards a solu-
tion of the problem in question ; but only indirectly, that is,
by endeavoring to clear the issue as much as possible, to indi-
cate the precise lie of Scylla on one side and Charybdis on
the other.
Yet a difficulty stated is, in many cases, a difficulty solved.
When we can rest neither on one horn of a dilemma nor on
the other, we may be sure that we are victims of a fallacy of
" imperfect disjunction." A reconciliation of an unchangeable
body of primitive beliefs with a theory of development in no
way prejudicial, either to unity of faith or to the laws of
mental growth, is to be looked for close at hand in elementary
principles common to all Christians, in the recognition that the
Gospel was preached to the poor, to the non-scientific. But
this would take me beyond the scope of the present article.
THE WEAVER.
BY N. F. DEGIDON.
'HE cottage lay close by the narrow roadway, on
the other side of which a mountain torrent, un-
protected by wall or battlement, forced its way
over boulders in a mad race to the sea. On
its shelving banks Tom Garvey's blue-eyed chil-
dren played all day and every day, and people used to wonder
how Tom and his wife Biddy saved them from a watery grave,
for the brook abounded in treacherous pools.
Tom was tall and fair, with genial blue eyes and a face
that might be considered handsome were it not for the weak,
receding chin. He was never busy, never in a hurry. He
tilled his acre of land and grazed his cow along the road
dykes in summer time when her usual pasture land was stopped
for the growth of hay. Sometimes he did a day's work for a
neighbor for hire or kindliness generally the latter. He had
always the kind word for young and old, always the spare
time to stop for a chat, always the willing heart to do a
neighborly act, anci, in consequence, was much liked, if not
too much respected.
Biddy, his wife, had been a beauty in her youth, and, as
the mother of six noisy youngsters, was still comely. She had
chosen Tom out of many admirers, although he possessed
nothing he could legally call his own, for the cottage and three
acres of land belonged to his elder brother. They were mar-
ried by the parish priest one Sunday and the pound-offering
made by Tom was borrowed from a neighbor. They returned
to Tom's brother and made their home with him without even
asking his leave. Paddy Garvey did not welcome them, neither
did he resent the intrusion; the only evidence of feeling
showed was a little pallor of the face and a tightening of the
lips, as of one who did not quarrel with fate and bowed to the
inevitable. Biddy noticed these things as she sat by the kit-
chen door and watched Paddy as he went on with the prepara-
746 THE WEAVER. [Sept.,
tion of their modest evening meal, for he and Tom had lived
alone in the cottage since their mother's death the former do-
ing the housework.
" I've brought home a housekeeper," said Tom at last, look-
ing at his brother sheepishly.
" Aye ! " ejaculated Paddy without ceasing his work.
" SKe'll be handy," went on Tom.
" You'll need some one handy when I'm gone," answered
his brother. " An' some one more than that, I'm thinking,"
he went on in a tone slightly suggestive of bitterness.
Biddy flushed, but she took off her bonnet and mantle and
sat down to the meal without an invitation. The three ate in
silence and the monotonous tenor of their lives began.
The marriage was more than a nine days' wonder. People
were never tired of praising Biddy never wearied setting her
up as a brilliant example. Nobody ever saw her at work, yet
the cottage was always as neat as new pins, the children tidily
and cleanly, if poorly, clad. She devoted a goodly part of each
day, when weather permitted, pacing slowly up and down the
roadway with fingers busy building up, stitch by stitch, abnor-
mally long stockings. The inquisitive puzzled their brains as
to the probable destination of these, since Tom could not pos-
sibly wear out as many as she knitted, and, so far as any one
knew, she had no relations, near or otherwise.
Tom and Biddy were popularly supposed to be an ideal
pair, and should have been ideally happy were it not for the
gloomy presence of Paddy, and much pity was bestowed on
the young pair for this dark cloud in their bright household,
for Paddy Garvey was dark and sullen and silent. No one
ever saw him smile since Biddy crossed his threshold, and he
worked so hard that he never had any time for kindliness.
He was by trade a weaver, and the bright, sunny cottage had
one gloomy chamber set apart for his entire use, where bales
of wool hung suspended from every beam over a big, ugly loom,
in the midst of which Paddy sat, unwashed, unkempt, plying
his shuttle as if impelled by an unseen power.
Sometimes the children peeped shyly in, but ran away
again as they might at the cry of Bogie- Man, and, at such
times, an observer, had there been any, might have seen a
swift spasm of pain pass over the man's tired face. Occasion-
ally Biddy came into his den with a cup of tea, a few pota-
1905.] THE WEAVER.
747
toes, a bowl of milk, or some such scanty portion of their
meal when he delayed joining them over-long, and laid them
silently on a small table at his back. Often the neighbors
called in with work for him and the will to tarry for a little
mild gossip, but he usually cut them short, and they went
away more convinced than ever that Tom and -Biddy were
much-enduring mortals. When their concern evinced itself in
words, Biddy had a peculiar trick of sucking in her lips and
looking at her husband with an expression that was not kin
to love, and he had an adroit way of quickly changing the
conversation, or' rising suddenly with an ejaculation about
some important business left undone through forgetfulness,
which set more than one thinking. But curiosity remained
unsatisfied. Biddy could close her lips to some purpose. She
never spoke ill of Paddy, of her husband, of anybody. When
she had no good to narrate, she held her peace. Tom laughed
good-naturedly at everything, or joked facts away when they
came persistently before him. Paddy remained grim, silent,
unapproachable. It was only once a year, when the parish
priest hunted him out to perform his Easter duties, that the
neighbors caught a glimpse of a clean, uncomfortable man
attired in best clothes of a very ancient pattern.
The strange trio had thus lived their lives about a dozen
years, with little or no break in the monotony save the peri-
odical arrival of a fair, blue-eyed child, when Biddy, entering
the dark chamber one morning with the customary cup of tea,
found the loom still and the dark figure absent. It took her
several seconds to take in these facts, and her breath came a
little quickly as she climbed the ladder stairway to peep into
his attic bedroom. Not that she expected to see him there,
for Paddy rarely lay abed after the sun, but, since he seldom
went abroad, it was useless seeking him in the fields. The
summer sun was fighting its way in at the small attic window,
and lingered on the lowly bed and a still figure with pallid
face which lay there. The eyes were wide open and sad, the
mouth drooped, and the hands lay limp and inert on the quilt.
Biddy's .breath came quickly. " Paddy ! " she said in an awed
whisper.
" I couldn't help it, Biddy," answered a weak voice,
set the kitchen in order, lighted the fire, fed the fowls, and
then I turned in again. Biddy, do you know I am dyin' ? "
748 THE WEAVER. [Sept.,
The sad, patient eyes searched her face, lingering on its
rounded curves and pouting red lips.
" Paddy ! " she reiterated as the blood crept away from
her cheeks and a mist swam before her eyes.
" 'Tis thrue," he said. " Mortal man couldn't stand it, an*
I've been givin' this year or two."
Biddy came close to the bedside, and, kneeling down,
looked into the sick man's face saying : " I'll send for the
doctor. Pat Donovan will get us a ticket, an', bein' a kind
neighbor, he might call for him on his way to-morrow."
The sick man smiled answering: "Never mind the docthor,
Biddy asthore ; I'm thinkin' I won't be in his need to-morrow."
" Paddy," she said brokenly, " we didn't heed you much,
but we'll be different when you are better again. The chil-
dren "
" Ah, yes ; I was only an old crank, Biddy, an' you were
a fair young colleen. Who could expect that you'd take me
an' leave Tom ? "
" I couldn't help likin' Tom best then, but if I had the
time over again "
" If you had, you'd have married Tom just the same, an'
ye'd have let poor ould neglected Paddy work to fill the
children's mouths."
" Don't," she moaned.
" 'Tisn't that I mind goin'," he went on as if he had not
heard, " for when a man goes around with a heart of lead,
day in an' day out, 'tis bound to weigh him down at last;
but I pity the children with a lazy father like Tom, although
they always kept me far away from their little hearts, an' I
pity the girl I gave my life for "
Biddy's sobs broke into his speech, and he raised himself on
one elbow with a painful effort, while, with the other hand, he
gently stroked her head.
" I was the queer old man, to be sure," he went on half
unheeding, " but the first day I ever saw you, when the boys
gathered down in the kitchen for a dance an' you stood beside
Tom, I thought the ould kitchen wasn't the same while you
were in it so bright like, as if the sun had come out suddenly
after a dark mornin'. 'Twas rainin" hard, I remember, as ye
ran in, but I didn't notice the rain or the darkness for the
brightness that was all around you. I was the queer old man
1905-] THE WEAVER. 749
for sure, to be askin' you to stop with me, when I knew from
the first you had eyes only for Tom. Sure I carried him on
my back when he was a little lad, an' when he fought with the
other youngsters, as boys will, I beat them till they were black
an' blue for darin' to lay hands on him. I was always more
like his father than his brother, an' I never wanted a thing
from him but the girl he wasn't man enough to work for, an' "
" Don't say anything against Tom," Biddy interrupted, start-
ing up. " He can't help being made as he is."
" Was I sayin' anything against him ? I'm the queer old
man, an' the sooner I lay my bones to rest beside my poor old
mother, the better for all."
But Biddy was of an active mind, and did not believe in
sympathetic words where deeds would serve belter, so, without
more ado, she retreated to the kitchen and bustled about the
wants of the sick man. Tom was sent at once for the priest
and doctor, while little Patsy, the eldest boy, was despatched
to the village for such dainties as could be procured there.
" 'Tis the way we didn't heed him enough," she said to the
doctor, and the doctor laughed. The idea of any deeper mean-
ing in her words did not filter through his mundane mind.
According to his thought, a sufficiency of food and drink was
enough to satisfy any man's needs ; and if the sick man had
not had a sufficiency in that way, it was surely his own fault,
since trade was brisk and wages good in his line of life.
Yet for all the care and ministrations of physicians for body
and soul, Paddy lay inert, slowly but surely bound for the land
of shadows. The heart of the big, ugly loom in the dark cham-
ber ceased to throb, and the bales of wool made uncanny
shadows when the moonlight filtered through the uncurtained
window. The children peeped in, and seeing the dark figure
absent, whose will moved the uncanny thing to weave great
bundles of flannel and frieze, they took to playing hide and
seek between the beams and joists.
Paddy heard them as he lay still in his attic bed. Some-
times a shout of delight warmed his heart a little, but such
manifestations of joy were quickly quelled by the mother, lest
they might disturb him. It troubled him, for he had loved
them in his slow, silent way for her sake, and he bade her
leave them free, since childhood was a time of joy. He wished
they would come up and share a little of their youthful gaiety
VOL. LXXXI. 48
750 THE WEAVER. [Sept.
with him, but they never came further than half-way up the
ladder stairway, when he would suddenly see two big round
eyes and a fair curly head peeping over, only to disappear
again as soon as his eyes turned in that direction. "Why did
they fear him ? They had always held aloof from him. It was
time he was going home.
" You are tired, Biddy," he said one day. " I never thought
I would live to give you so much trouble."
The tears came up and stood in her eyes She knew now
it was no use striving against the Reaper.
Paddy had entered the valley of shadows, and the neigh-
bors, although they had been kind and sympathetic during his
illness, could not but feel that Biddy and Tom would be hap-
pier when time had softened the sorrow that usually follows
in the train of death. They did not know that Want came
and sat an unwelcome visitor in Paddy's place at their board,,
for Biddy was ever one to keep her own counsel, and when
they still came with bales of spun wool to be woven, thinking
surely Tom worked the loom in his brother's place, she never
let them know that, early in the morning and late at night^
her own hands threw the shuttle that transformed their wool
into good, sound flannel for rough wear.
" God rest his soul," she would say to herself as she arose
early for her day's toil, and the same again as, wearied and
over-burdened, she lay down for a brief rest.
CURA ANIMARUM.
BY VINCENT McNABB, O.P.
jEEING that a highly developed organism such as
the Holy See, and a highly complicated phe-
nomenon such as Condemnation, cannot fully be
described from one point of view, but should be
approached from every side, I will set down the
thoughts raised in the mind of one who would describe him-
self as a loyal and tolerant Catholic, by the phenomenon of
recent condemnations. To others may well be handed over
the difficult task of analysing the human motives that some-
times play no mean role in the tragedy of condemned think-
ers. The fact that even the Sacred Humanity of our Blessed
Lord had its limitations prepares the Catholic for a broad-
minded tolerance of the earthen vessels within which the
Balm of Gilead is kept, if not always kept fresh. There will
be, as there has been, no lack of writers to volunteer pains-
taking analyses of the human side that is, the outside of
recent decisions. Neither will there be any want of clever-
ness and brilliancy in stating facts which even in their own
unheightened obtrusiveness are likely to swerve over-sensitive
minds from the substance of phenomena to their mere accom-
paniments. Yet, the loyal and tolerant Catholic view is not
so often, nor so easily, put forward that a writer may under-
take the task with no sense of responsibility.
To loyal Roman Catholics, Rome is not only the meeting-
place, but the market-place, and still more the Metropolis of
Souls. There are ten thousand other interests by the banks of
the Tiber; because life, and especially spiritual life, is a syn-
thesis of countless functions. The artistic, archeological, po-
litical interests are there unquestionable ; nay, supreme ; and,
at least, so prominent that to some men Rome is an art gal-
lery, to others a museum, to others a forum. To us, Catho-
lic Rome is a Sancta Sedes, a Holy See; that is, something
lasting, something holy; not that all its decisions stand, nor
that all its acts are holy. It should not be viewed as a mere
752 CURA ANIMARUM. [Sept.,
Holy Office governed by a commission, but as a world -wide
institution whose curve of motion is expressed by a scheme.
This view of it makes it imperative to allow no difficulties of
the subsidiary parts to beckon our attention away from the
general organic function. Just as we may recognize that mon-
archies have been a blessing in spite of Nero, and republics,
in spite of the Convention, so must we recognize that the Holy
See has stood and stands for souls in spite of Julius II. and
Alexander VI. With fluctuations in fervor she has been a not
unfaithful steward of the commission to see that the poor have
the Gospel preached to them.
This is her unique function. Sometimes she has seemed to
coquet with monarchs as with Charlemagne, or with pagan
civilization as during the Renaissance, or with other forms of
merely worldly power, but her conscience has been smitten
at last. The strokes of persecution or apostasy have always
opened her eyes in time, and sometimes only just in time, to
save her from an official treason to her divine mission. How
often has she falsified all the calculating diplomacy of mon-
archs, who would bind her with golden fetters, by some scruple
about the validity of a marriage or the orthodoxy of a formu-
lary ! When most fervent and most faithful to her divine com-
mission her cry has been: "Da mihi animas ! Non tua sed
Te ! " And on the whole she has been faithful to her com-
mission. Though begetting and educating sons who could take
the front rank in art, politics, philosophy, she has never yielded
to the temptation to view these things as the end, or even as
the chief means of her work. Even in her approval or con-
demnation of what has claimed her acceptance, her chief, if not
her only, canon of criticism has been the " Cura Animarum."
Though a custodian of the truth, it may not be a paradox to
say that in approving or condemning she has been concerned
about truth less than about goodness. She has looked less in-
tently into the relations of theory to the mind than to the
soul. By this I do not mean to say that she has sacrificed
truth ; she has but found the shortest way to it. Even in
such seemingly abstract questions as those that formed the dis-
puted frontier in her struggles with Arianism, Nestorianism,
Monophysitism, she looked less to the mere abstract dogma of
the occult relations between the Father and the Son, between
the Infinite and the finite, than to the effect which these said
1905.] CURA ANIMARUM. 753
abstractions might have upon the fellaheen of Upper Egypt or
the poor of Constantinople.
This is, perhaps, the reason why, to use the strong words
of Newman, there came a time when the " divine dogma of
our Lord's divinity " (as defined at Nicea by the Bishops)
" was proclaimed, enforced, maintained, and, humanly speak-
ing, preserved far more by the Ecclesia Docta than by the
Ecclesia Docens" because the first formal decision had been
drawn up less as the outcome of dialectics than as an adjust-
ment to the inner needs of the human soul. The men whom
she calls heresiarchs have arisen for the most part from the
ranks of those who have had no very great anxiety for the
needs and temptations of souls. They have troubled the world
by their abstract questionings, which, lawful in their time and
place, are too much allied to mere pagan intellectualism to
stanch the soul's wounds or even quench the soul's thirst.
Arius, Nestorius, Eutyches, Pelagius, are names of subtle
thinkers whose conception of religion would liken it to the
Republic of Plato, which could appeal only to the few who
have education, wealth, and leisure, and not to the many poor,
unlettered toilers, ignorant of abstractions, whose souls lie be-
yond the touch of all but divine realities.
Yet whilst maintaining that the Church's attitude towards
opinion is determined by her maternal "Care of Souls," we
must not be conceived as maintaining the paradox that dogma-
tic truths are verifiable by the voice of Conscience, as if the
virgin birth were a dictate of the same inner tribunal that
warns us "Thou shalt not steal." To be quite accurate, or as
nearly accurate as the subject-matter will permit, we should
say that the question of souls is not so much the reason as
the motive of her decisions. Neither must we be taken to
deny the fact that on the whole the pure, upright conscience
has an insight into dogmatic truth, seeing that on the whole
there is a very subtle, yet very real, relation between being
and well-being, between what is and what is good, between
what is likely to scandalize the " poor " and what is the will
of him who preached the good tidings to the poor before all
others.
This is at once the explanation and, if you will, the justi-
fication, of certain condemnations on the part of the Holy
See. Long before any absolutely final or infallible decision is
754 CURA ANIMARUM. [Sept.
arrived at, she takes care of souls by daily warnings. If
writers are of such personal reverence and self-forgetfulness
that even in their most unverifiable opinions they have the
soul of faith, she usually considers them harmless to the faith
of souls. Her long tradition of experience, her world wide
dealings with every class and nation, her absolute dependence
upon the supernatural, the dangers that lurk for her in mere
worldly aims, all urge and fit her to appraise men and things,
writers and writings, in what she graciously calls the " balance
of the sanctuary." Before a writer can lift himself from the
scholastic level of his library or his lecture-hall, she has made
a valuational judgment upon the effect which his work, it may
be even his life's work, will have upon the poor of Christ.
This should help the one who feels the pressure of her guid-
ance and hears her warning call, to follow loyally in her wake
or to walk frankly in her sight. It should make obedience
if not easy, at least easier. It should convince the mind that
the task of submission may be as much an outcome of aposto-
lic zeal as is missionary work to the poor and to the heathen.
It should help to withdraw the subject of vexation from the
sphere of personal rights, where pain is most enkindled, into
the higher sphere of obedience, responsibility, the care of
souls, where pain is wrought by acceptance into merit, success,
reward.
HER LADYSHIP.
BY KATHARINE TYNAN.
CHAPTER VII.
MASTERS OF EARTH.
[E is not at all amusing," said Miss Graham. She
had picked up the phrase from the Family dur-
ing that fortnight. The word "amusing" was
always in the mouth of the Family. " Is he or
she amusing ? " they asked, when they required
a credential of character. " Was it amusing ? " they asked,
when one had climbed the Matterhorn or had been received by
the Pope.
Miss Graham had been captured, captivated by the Family.
It might be put to their credit that no one was too lowly
to be caught within their net of captivation. They were an
excessively amiable Family and a well-bred one. In their
manner -to her there had been no cognizance of the fact that
she was a dependent of Lady Anne's, not particularly suitable
or efficient, who but for her Ladyship's goodness of heart
would be a derelict, high and dry, on the shores of life.
" He is not at all amusing," she said to Miss 'Stasia re-
assuringly, "but he is most estimable."
She knew what it was to break out in a cold sweat at the
thought of a happening which might menace the rest and peace
she had found in Mount Shandon. She imagined something of
the same fear in Miss 'Stasia, who had not known Lady Anne
as long, or as well, as she did. In her own mind she said to
herself with a happy confidence that she and Miss 'Stasia were
safe as long as they lived.
However, she had miscalculated Miss 'Stasia's profound ca-
pacity for selflessness. The little lady was rather disappointed
than otherwise at the suggestion that Lord Dunlaverock might
be too dull a person to capture her benefactress' heart.
" I don't know that Anne would require a a person to be
amusing," she said. " I rather fancy that she would like a
756 HER LADYSHIP. [Sept.,
serious person. She has so many interests that she has not
the same necessity as other people have of being amused by
their friends."
Lady Anne herself drove over to meet Lord Dunlaverock at
the little wayside station, which seemed to have been dropped
down all alone in the wide, flat country, beribboned with
streams that came down from all the mountains. Mount Shan-
don house and property occupied that wide plain. It was
ringed half-way about by mountains. The railway, that was
the way into the world, climbed a hill to a little mountain
gorge to find its way out. Mount Shandon, with its long
front and wings, turned its back to a mountain. From the
front windows one might see across open country the blue or
silver waters of a bay of a thousand islands. The house was
on a height. The plain that stretched, in front of it. had been,
so tradition said, at one time a great lake. The lake had
drained itself, said the country people, into a subterranean
river which carried its waters away to the sea.
It was April now and the hills were in alternate rain and
sunshine. Above the Lonely Hill behind Mount Shandon the
clouds banked themselves up stormily in gray black masses up-
on which the sun was shining. The rain- clouds formed and
broke, sweeping down the mountain side in sheets of silver,
Clouds wreathed themselves about the flanks of the mountains,
leaving the purple cones clear in air. The larks were climbing
so many invisible stairs to heaven that the air was full of a
tangle of song. The salt sweetness of the sea was in the at-
mosphere, as well as the fragrance of the green things newly
come alive, and the scent of hawthorn and lilac, early in bloom
in the semi-tropical climate.
The rain was on Anne's cheek and hair. So always must
he picture her. He came out of the little station to her
where she sat with a firm hand on Patsy's rein. There was
not a soul to see their meeting except the station master,
who was looking inquisitively through the bars of the window
that lit his office from the outside.
" Jump up," she said. " Patsy is pulling the arms out of
me, or thinks he is. I didn't dare leave him to welcome you.
, For the same reason I didn't even bring Terry, who is very
ornamental sitting on the back, but wouldn't be much use in
an emergency. And how is every bit of you ? "
1905.] HER LADYSHIP. 757
The Irish brogue, the Irish speech, were music in his ears.
Was it possible that only two months ago he had thought it
strange, contrasting it with the soft voice which had once made
him music ? As he took his seat beside her, and Patsy went
off in a straight flight 'like a bird's down the well made, lonely
road it was a road of the famine days, made for endurance
aid little used he sniffed the air appreciatively.
"There is still snow on the hills with us," he said; and
the north wind comes in claps down my chimney and puffs the
smoke out in my face "
" You should have the chimney rebuilt," she said, handling
the reins in a way which was a delight to see, at once giving
Patsy his head and yet ready to restrain him. "They've grown
so used to the smoke here that they think it's something they
have to bear, like sickness or death or the will of heaven. I'm
putting in new fireplaces and chimneys for some of the worst
of them. They won't know what's happened to them when
they don't weep at the burning of green wood and get their
complexions as well smoked as their bacon."
"There are a great many things I would wish to do," he
said slowly, "both for myself and for my people. I am always
hindered, as I told you, by lack of money."
" I know," she said with a sympathetic glance at him.
" Amy Mellor told me at least she said in my hearing that it
was very hard on you to get the title and an exhausted estate
because grandpapa could refuse nothing to his daughters."
" I have no quarrel with Uncle Dunstan," he said. " Natur-
ally he would think of his girls, not of one who was practically
unknown to him."
It was on the tip of Lady Anne's tongue to say that Mrs.
Mellor's speech had been made in generous defence of him
when some of the Family had depreciated a Lord Dunlaverock
who lived in the factor's house and neglected the graces of life
so different from the handsome, debonair papa, whose mem-
ory the Family were agreed to adore. However, she did not
say it. Instead she turned and smiled at him.
" Do you know it is very kind of you to brighten our lone-
liness ? " she said.
"I liked to come." The young man's honest blush went
and came unnoticed. He bit awkwardly at the ends of a rag-
ged moustache, which was a new growth since she had last
HER LADYSHIP. [Sept.,
seen him. " Something rather remarkable has happened, about
which I wanted to tell you. By the way, you don't propose
to go through the village at this pace?"
" I shall pull up in good time, before I reach the village,
because the children straggle beyond the village sometimes.
What is it, Alastair ? "
They called each other by their names, cousinly.
" It is a very wonderful thing for me, if it turns out as I
think. I've been looking for water in some land that was of
little value because it had none. We had to sink pretty
deep. What do you suppose we found ? "
" What ? "
" Coal, fire-clay, iron. No, that's not quite right. The
seam of iron came first, then the clay, then the coal. We
don't know how far the seams run. I must have expert ad-
vice, of course."
" And afterwards ? " He was always too slow for Lady
Anne.
" Afterwards ? There will be the capitalist or capitalists to
be found. Perhaps we shall float a company. I have not had
time to think about it yet. I came to tell you."
" There will be no difficulty about the capitalist."
" I think not, with what we shall have to show him."
Patsy had slackened his pace now to a gentle trot. They
had turned the corner of the road round by a little coppice, and
could see the village before them, a straggling place of miser-
able houses. Dirty children were playing cheerfully in the vil-
lage street, disputing its possession with the cocks and hens
and pigs and goats. Their unabashed mothers came to the
cabin doors to look after Lady Anne and Lord Dunlaverock
and pronounce them " a fine couple."
" It isn't my property, you know," said Lady Anne, an-
swering Dunlaverock's unspoken thought. "Indeed it is a No
Man's Land. The spot where the village is built was originally
common land. These people were originally squatters. They
are dirty, careless, idle, even irreligious, although that's a
strange thing in these parts. They'll never do anything herded
together. If one could separate them now ! The men will
work hard enough in England, when they go over presently
for the hay harvest ; here sure the land grows potatoes of
itself, and there's always a few eggs to trade off for the fish
I905-] HER LADYSHIP. 75 9
that comes when there's been a particularly good haul in the
bay. There are always the children and their possibilities."
" And your schools."
"Yes; they'll learn things their parents never dreamt of.
If I could get them out of the village on to the land ! Why
shouldn't the men work their own bit instead of going to Eng-
land ? And we might teach the girls something, even if the
women wouldn't learn. Indeed the girls know something al-
ready. A good many of them are employed at the Convent
at the Point, making lace and embroideries, carpet-weaving,
spinning, doing many other things."
"You could make it a hive of industry if you only had the
land."
" I propose to find the land."
"To buy it where?"
" Not to buy it. To reclaim it. Look there ! "
She pointed with her whip straight before her. The sun
now was shining on Mount Shandon in the distance. It showed
dimly through a haze of silver. At the back of it the Lonely
Mountain stood up darkly purple, with the silver haze half-
way up it sparkling and shifting. It was a vaporous world, in
which things were never two minutes the same. The haze
lifted higher. Mount Shandon's chimney-stacks and house-front
came out of it. The lake in front was like a pearl in the sun.
At the back of the house there was a great stretch of vivid
emerald.
"Do you see that?" she asked. "There where it is so
green ? "
"The bog?"
"Yes, the bog. It is of no use to anybody as it is; it is
so treacherous that even the cattle cannot find a spot for graz-
ing. I look at Dooras Bog, and I see houses and farms."
"You would be putting your money in a bog."
" You mean that the bog would swallow it ? Possibly ; but
it would give it up to me again. I intend to go very cau-
tiously. There is a fall from the bog to where we stand.
The ground falls all the way down to the sea. No one would
say that drainage is impracticable. Anyhow I am going to do
it little by little; it may take me a lifetime to do it, but to
add so much solid earth to the world, to make homes where
there was only quaking bog land, would be a good record for
a lifetime."
760 HER LADYSHIP. [Sept.,
He looked at her, his face lighting up with a slow enthu-
siasm.
" It is worth doing," he said. " The question is whether it
isn't too much. How far does the bog go ? "
" Miles. It runs round the base of the Lonely Mountain
and extends some way up the mountain itself. But I only in-
tend to devote myself to my own particular portion of it.
There is a mile of bog-land there between Mount Shandon and
the Lonely Mountain. I see it the most productive portion of
the estate."
"Ah!" his eye kindled. The hand to hand struggle with
nature was something that appealed to him, to his brave,
austere, combative spirit. "Why should there be bogs in this
country where they reclaim the very wilderness ? You will go
very slowly, little by little, Cousin Anne?"
" I shan't impoverish myself or the estate. I don't mean
to be the last of my line. I am sure papa would have wished
me to marry. I shall do nothing rash for the sake of those
who come after me."
She said it with the most superb unconsciousness, smiling
reassuringly at him the while, and he was able to rise to the
height of her unconsciousness, answering gently, "Yes, Anne,"
with a tenderness that made the words sound far more tender
than they were on the surface.
" Besides," she said, " there is another reason why I shall
go slowly with the reclamation of the bog. I have other things
to do with my money, although there is a good deal of it.
And " at this moment they drove up to the foot of Mount
Shandon " I want to be at least in part, and at this early
stage of proceedings, your capitalist, Alastair."
He flushed up to the roots of his light red hair.
"I never thought of such a thing, Anne," he said. "You
don't suppose I came to you for that? It is just at this pre-
liminary stage of the proceedings, my dear cousin, that I shall
not feel justified in accepting your offer, generous as it is. A
little later, when we see our way better and are sure there is
money in it "
" Yet you encouraged me about the bog," she said reproach-
fully, as they went into the house together.
1905.] HER LADYSHIP. 7 6i
CHAPTER VIII.
THE LOAN.
The people who were profoundly interested in Lady Anne's
friendship with her cousin and there were some half a dozen
such people, exclusive of dependents and retainers, and the cheer-
ful world of the villagers, who found the affairs of their betters
as engrossing or more so than their own might have been dis-
appointed if they had known how severely practical were the
discussions between the two.
Miss 'Stasia indeed had received quite a shock one morning
when she had sat by an open window, below which Lord Dun-
laverock and Lady Anne were walking up and down, up and
down, while they waited for their horses to be brought round.
She had felt herself obliged to move further into the room
lest she should be guilty of eavesdropping, and as she stood
up quietly, so as not to warn them of her presence, a phrase
of Lady Anne's came to her ears.
" A light dressing with guano would be advisable," were
the words.
What on earth was a light dressing with guano ? Miss
'Stasia wondered with a vague uneasiness. She had an idea
that guano was not a nice thing for a lady to talk about, and
her anxiety on this score led her to consult Miss Graham.
Not for worlds would she have revealed where or how she had
heard it. She looked up from a book she was reading, when
she and Miss Graham were alone together, and asked as though
the question arose out of her reading :
"Can you tell me what is guano?"
" Oh, bone manure," Miss Graham answered.
Ah, she had known it was something evil-smelling and
nasty. She must have seen it, smelt it, in the old days. To
be sure Anne was always right. She was a true-blue Anne
person, ever since Anne had come into the impoverished room
at Mrs. Cronin's, bringing with her warmth and the scent of
violets. She would be a true-blue Anne person till she died.
But it hurt her as a disillusionment that Anne could be talking
about such things with Lord Dunlaverock. In her days it had
been very different. And she had rejoiced in the love affair
762 HER LADYSHIP. [Sept.,
she had thought to see unfolding beneath her eyes. Lord
Dunlaverock was courteous and deferential to her as he would
have been in the presence of beauty, being a simple and chi-
valrous young man; and she was his friend. To think that
he and Anne should have been talking about guano rather than
the flowery things with which she had credited them.
Lord Dunlaverock could give no more than a week or so
to this break away from his business. During that week a deal
of business was talked. Lady Anne did not refer again to the
question of putting some of her money into Lord Dunlaverock's
mines that were to be. But she told him a good deal of how
her money had been invested. Safe investments with moderate
returns. The Colonel and Mr. Osborne had not been the per-
sons to play ducks and drakes with her money. As the Colo-
nel had said ruefully, they had left that to herself to do.
It did not seem strange to Dunlaverock that she should lay
before him the statement of all she was possessed of and ex-
plain how the money was invested. After all he was her near-
est male kin, the head of her mother's family. He went into
matters with her in his quiet, painstaking way. Truth to tell
he was somewhat amazed at the extent of his cousin's fortune,
although it might easily have been a bigger one if the trustees
had looked for eight and ten per cent rather than for the safety
of three and five per cent.
Lady Anne was a little bit impatient about the caution
which brought her the small, safe returns.
" If I want money," she said, " and to be sure I shall want
money, I shall sell out there and then. Indeed I shall sell out
in any case and transfer the money. One thing I did when I
was in Dublin was to find a safe, respectable stockbroker. He
is quite safe, Alastair. Mr. Gregg, our old family solicitor,
recommended him. He can get me twice as much for my
money as I am getting at present, even if he deals in only
gilt-edged securities."
" I shall hear you talking of bulls and bears next," Lord
Dunlaverock said with his slow smile. "You won't do any-
thing without consulting Gregg, I suppose?"
" I expect I shall have to do a great many things without
consulting Mr. Gregg, or his partner, Mr. Sinclair. You see
I am come to man's estate, Cousin Alastair." She had never
looked more bewitchingly soft and feminine. "I am come to
1905.] HER LADYSHIP. 763
man's estate ; papa trusted me or he would not have left every-
thing to me. Uncle Hugh said that I should have been tied
up till I was twenty- five or till my marriage. As though I
shall have time to get married for years yet! He would have
liked me to be tied up all my days. A lily-footed Chinese
lady would have been more to Uncle Hugh's liking as a ward.
But papa trusted me. He had been trusting me, you see, Ala-
stair, all those years before he died; and although I was little
I think he knew.that the lessons had sunk in."
Lord Dunlaverock shook his head. He went a long way
with his cousin, yet he felt that she ought to consult Gregg, or
some man, about money matters. He felt a certain sympathy
with Colonel Leonard'a attitude towards the heiress.
"You should consult some one, Anne,'' he said. "Your
husband will expect to be consulted some day."
"I should tell him, of course, but consult him ! You
see, Alastair, I always have my mind made up. It would be
horrible to consult him and then just take my own way in
spite of him if he objected."
" Your husband will need to have large affairs of his own."
" Oh, I should like him to be immensely busy about his
own affairs unless he went heart and soul with me."
" Poor chap ! " Dunlaverock said, with that faint glint across
his rather careworn face which had made Lady Anne say that
she really believed Alastair was acquiring a sense of humor.
The week gave no time to entertain Lord Dunlaverock. A
dinner at the Leonard's, an afternoon call at the rectory, a
drive of ten miles to see a new friend of Lady Anne's, a Mrs.
Massey, who from her invalid's sofa was beneficence to half
a country-side, exhausted the social events. For the rest, the
property was pretty well driven over ; there was a house to
house visitation of the farmhouses, where the tenants were vis-
ibly excited, and the farmer would address himself as often to
Lord Dunlaverock as to Lady Anne, plainly regarding him as
the master in the future if not in the present.
Lord Dunlaverock did not seem to notice this attitude of
mind, which half amused, half -annoyed Lady Anne.
" For a people who are so very unromantic in their own mar-
riages," she said impatiently to Mrs. Massey, " they are amaz-
ingly quick at scenting a love affair. A friendship between a
man and woman is nowhere so impossible as in Ireland."
764 HER LADYSHIP. [Sept.,
"Is it possible anywhere?" Mrs. Massey asked, softly
cynical.
" It is possible to me, you unbelieving Ida," Lady Anne
flashed at her.
"And your cousin?"
" Alastair thinks of me as another young man. I shouldn't
be at all his ideal She would be something soft and dainty
and fragrant and feminine like you. I am only bon camarade
to him."
" My poor Anne, what pitfalls I see in your path through
life ! "
The conversation changed to other things. Lady Anne was
sitting at Mrs. Massey's feet, learning from her the best way
of doing her duty to the people whose well-being was so much
in her hands. It sometimes occurred to her indeed people
had not been slow to tell her that she was going further than
her father had ever gone, ever would have gone, and she had
answered that it was an inevitable law; people could not stand
still, to stand still was to decay. There was one thing about
Lady Anne in those days she was always quite sure of her-
self. Mrs. Massey had suggested to her that a little human
fallibility might be becoming. But Lady Anne was not to be
discouraged. Her belief in herself was a part of her, like her
superb physical health.
It came to the last day, the last hour of Lord Dunlaverock's
stay. Lady Anne drove him to the station as she had fetched
him from it, again dispensing with the services of Terry, the
small groom. Patsy was a bit lame, and they had his sedate
elder sister, Kitty, who was what Lady Anne called " a sweet
goer," whom anybody might drive, and who went according to
her driver's mood. They had started early to give Kitty her
time, and give time for the interminable discussions, during
which Kitty was frequently allowed to walk while a certain
field, or a crop, or cattle were under inspection.
" It has been very pleasant, Alastair," Lady Anne said,
after one of these pauses. "We have always so much to say
to each other. I shall have to write reams to you. It is the
community of interest that makes a friendship like ours pos-
sible. I suppose it is that which makes marriage successful in
a surprising number of cases. Ida Massey says that when every
other subject has exhausted its interest long ago there is the
I905-] HER LADYSHIP. ,765
unfailing interest of how to make ends meet. She says it ex-
plains the domesticity of the middle classes."
" I wish it would have the same effect on the upper
classes," he said seriously. Cynicism always puzzled and de-
pressed him.
"By the way, Alastair," she said, and she laid a hand on
his arm, " I shall want to hear about your minerals. I have
not been talking about it, but it has been much in my mind.
If the expert reports favorably "
"If he reports favorably?"
" You'll want money at once to go on, before you have
found your capitalist."
" I shall raise it somehow."
" Take it from me when the expert has pronounced favor-
ably. Ah, do, Alastair ! I am not satisfied with two-and-a-
half per cent on my money. Take what you want and pay me
whatever you like. We are kinsfolk. Even if it were a risk
it will be no risk couldn't I oblige a kinsman with a few
loose thousands ? You will be hampered at the beginning for
want of money, till you have found your capitalist."
He had known the difficulties. They had been making him
a little more haggard of late. Now to be sure she had meant
this when she had placed all her affairs open before him, when
she had revealed to him the extent of her resources. To let
her risk anything big was out of the question ; but a few
thousands, which it would not be beyond him to repay, that
was another matter.
She was watching his face, eagerly and anxiously expectant.
The reins were slack on Kitty's back in a way which would
have invited disaster if it had been Kitty's brother. They
were going down a sweet bit of road, with low hawthorn
hedges all out in bloom and scenting the air intoxicatingly
sweet. She was looking into his face with a soft appeal. He
noticed the bloom on her cheek, the purple-black of the loose
curls about her brow, the upward sweep of the lashes above
the beautiful, honest eyes. His heart began to thump against
his side.
"I think, Anne," he said with a measured deliberation,
"that there are circumstances, conditions, under which a man
might borrow money from a woman. We will call it borrow-
VOL. LXXXI 49
766 HER LADYSHIP. [Sept.,
ing, since we are yet in the dark as to the capacities, the
resources, of the mine."
"Yes"; she said with a little wonder that made her eyes
dilate like a child's. "Yes; kinship or friendship would make
it all right, Alastair; it will make it all right, won't it, be-
tween you and me, if you will call it a loan and not an in-
vestment ? "
He leant closer to her, and his eyes grew ardent.
" I could take the money from my affianced wife," he said.
Something chilling fell on his ardor. She had looked away
from him, and, leaning forward, caught up Kitty's reins.
"Don't, Alastair," she said, "don't talk of marriage. I am
not ready for it. If I could think of it "
"You would think of me ? "
" Perhaps. I am very fond of you, Alastair, more I be-
lieve in you. I think perhaps papa would have been pleased.
But not yet; leave me free."
He drew himself back a little stiffly.
" I am not going to worry you, Anne. For the rest, per-
haps I ought to be glad to be left swinging between earth
and heaven, since you do not refuse me."
" I wish I could give you a better answer. But it is not
so I have thought of my life. If I were married, marriage
would take me away from other things; oh, yes; it must do
that to a great extent. If you are in the mind to do it, ask
me again, Alastair, when I am twenty-six."
" There will be other men," he said jealously.
" I shall not be thinking of them. I like you Setter than
any man I have ever known, except of course papa."
He said to himself that he would have to make her love
him best of all before he could win her. He divined in her
the vestal who shrank as yet from love and marriage. Would
it be his lot to bring her soul out of its fastnesses, to wake
the woman, the wife in it ? His heart burned within him at
ttie task that she had set him.
"Is it to be a semi- engagement ?" he asked.
"How do I know?" she answered turning away from him.
" I like you better than any one else, except papa. Can't
you be satisfied with that for the present ? "
"For the present, yes"; he said soberly.
" And you will take the money ? "
IQ05-] HER LADYSHIP. 767
"Because it will be a bond between us I will take the
money."
"Ah, that is a good Alastair, a kind cousin."
She smiled at him brightly. There were five good years
before she need think of that shadowy bond ; and when she
must think of it, why, who could there be whom she would
like better than Alastair?
CHA-PTER IX.
AN ASSISTANT.
A good part of Lady Anne's dream was a reality, or on
the way to become one. A strip of the bog had been re-
claimed, as an earnest of the whole. Dooras Village was still
as dirty, as improvident, as cheerfully unashamed as ever; the
day of its redemption was still postponed, but it was coming.
Meanwhile in the farmhouses and cottages on the Shandon
estate wheels whirred and looms rattled. Girls stood on the
doorstep in the evening sun working at their strips of embroid-
ery and fine lace-making. It made an incredible difference
when everything necessary for the existence of a usually large
family had not to come out of the land and the men's labor.
All this is to say that Lady Anne was two years older
than when she had made that intangible half- promise to her
cousin. It was a promise of which he did not remind her
when he came and went. He would not remind her of it till
the time she herself had fixed, and she, at least, was not eager
for the time to come. She was profoundly interested in the
things she was doing. Of course she meant to marry, because
papa would have wished it, and the line must not cease. But
she put the concrete thought of it away with a certain impa-
tience. It would mean such an interruption, such a distrac-
tion, and a permanent one.
By this time she had met many men of many classes, not
one who stirred her pulses in the smallest degree, or menaced
that half- bond with her cousin. A good many of the men she
met would fain have come nearer. Apart from the fact that
she was a great heiress, her charm increased with her years.
She won hearts unconsciously by her bigness and softness,
her frank, innocent ways, which had mind and will behind
768 HER LADYSHIP. [Sept.,
them. She could not help people falling in love with her, but
she had no coquetry. Her eyes met the eyes of men with
the frank gaze of a boy in them. Some of them called her
cold, some of them called her unawakened ; she turned the best
of them into friends ; none of them was the worse for falling
in love with her.
"The people are my children," she would say, "and what
I am doing for them is my career."
At which her friend, Mrs. Massey, who had grown closer
and dearer to her with time, would laugh softly and predict
that the day would come when these would not suffice.
Even Mrs. Massey knew nothing of the semi-bond between
Lady Anne and her cousin. Dunlaverock came and went at
intervals. It seemed as if he had to come to talk things over
with Anne. His mines had been no very brilliant success al-
though the workings were still open. The yield of coal had
been a negligible quantity. The seam of iron he was still
working with indifferent results. The fire-clay was the only
thing which had quite fulfilled expectations, and in the train
of the fire-clay had come a new industry in the making of
tiles and drain-pipes. Dunlaverock still believed both in the
coal and the iron ; but the capitalists had not come forward ;
and he had discovered, like many a man before him, how the
earth will swallow a fortune before she will yield up one.
In the matter of the industries Lady Anne had not been
content to go slowly. She had far outstripped Mrs. Massey
in the extent and scope of her work. The Mount Shandon
industries were beginning to get a name. When she had be-
gun, she had found something of a dead-lock in many of the
existing industries. So much of the lace and sprigged muslin
had gone to America; now the new American tariff shut them
out. There must be something to take their places.
She had talked it over with Ida Massey. She and her
friend had driven together it was astonishing how much
Mrs. Massey managed to get about, considering her invalid
state to see " the most practical woman in Ireland," Mother
Patrick of the Convent at the Point. Mrs. Massey had been
wont to say of her that if she were made absolute King of
Ireland for a year, the Irish question would be settled.
The Convent had now a flourishing factory attached to it,
which brought prosperity to the surrounding country with
i95-] HER LADYSHIP. 769
none of the drawbacks usually associated with a factory. It
was giving employment to half the country side, teaching
them a trade, too, making tweeds, blankets, flannels, carpets,
on a severely business basis. Mother Patrick believed in pay-
ing her workers according to their skill and industry ; and
there was no temptation for them to better themselves by
transferring their services.
Lany Anne fell in love with the fresh faced, capable-look-
ing nun at once ; and the attraction seemed mutual. To be
sure Mother Patrick was ready to lend some of her workers in
order to teach Lady Anne's people.
"We've no secrets here," she said. "It might be very nice
if we had, but we haven't. And I quite agree with your
Ladyship that the day for confining our industries to the mak-
ing of luxuries is over. For the one person who requires
Limerick lace, ten thousand require tweed and flannels."
Lady Anne hankered after just such another factory as
Mother Patrick's, which was clean and fresh and airy, with a
crucifix on the end wall of each of the long rooms. She
glanced in the direction the nun indicated in one room where
a sour- faced, elderly man was standing by a loom.
" Yo'u saw him ? " said Mother Patrick, her face wrinkling
and sparkling with the most delightful humor. " He's the
blackest Orangeman ever came out of the North, but a capital
workman. I had to pay for him, I can tell you, but he doesn't
shirk his work and he's taught us all he knows. We're a bit-
ter pill to him still, but he believes in me. At first he looked
at me as if I were a snake, and I assure you I was proud when
he told me one day that I was 'a gr-r-eat wumman in spite
o' ma supeersteetions.' I've had a good many compliments
paid me, and by notable people mind you, Lady Anne even
by royalty itself but I never was as pleased with any of them
as with that from Andrew MacNiece."
Later, when the factory on the edge of Dooras Village was
spreading itself out long and low Lady Anne could not hav
borne the ordinary factory building in the landscape, and this
was made with many doors and windows to open on the lake-
side, and was being planted with fuchsias and roses and hy-
drangeas and red- berried mountain ash all about it Mrs.
Massey protested to Mother Patrick against her friend's too-
great absorption in her work.
770 HER LADYSHIP. [Sept.,
" She is giving up everything else," she said. " I doubt
that she has time to say her prayers. As for her social duties,
why she has never performed any, and yet I'm sure her fa-
ther's daughter ought to. Just imagine, Mother Patrick, she's
never been presented ! I want to take her to Dublin for the Cas-
tle season and present her. That poplin you've begun to make
I saw a piece in the loom the other day, white with golden
lines in it like running water I want her to have a presenta-
tion train of it. It ought to make poplin the fashion once
more. Who designs your patterns for you ? "
" That was, I believe, Hugh Randal's," Mother Patrick said.
"Hugh is a clever fellow. He's wasted at what he's doing;
but it was his father's business, and when the old man died he
felt bound to return and take it up. I've got a book of his
designs for lace somewhere beautiful ! and he's practically
untaught, or at least he taught himself. Hugh is the oddest
mixture of the artist and the business man. To be sure the
spirit bloweth where it listeth, especially in this strange country
of ours."
" She ought to have some one to take things off her
hands," Mrs. Massey went on, reverting to her complaint about
Lady Anne. " I believe she could do more for the cause we
all have at heart by going more into the world and adver-
tising what we have to sell. That poplin on Anne's back,
with her mother's Limerick lace, would bring you many or-
ders, Mother Patrick, to say nothing of the good resujt to the
other poplin manufacturers and their weavers. She ought to
take it over to England too among her fine relations. The
younger generation has a good many beauties among its mem-
bers. Why should they not wear poplin, and show what Ire-
land can produce as against the rule of shoddy ? She is at
that building morning, noon, and night."
" Wait, dear ! " Mother Patrick said with a thoughtful finger
on her lip ; " wait, I have an idea. Why shouldn't Lady Anne
have Hugh Randal? He's thrown away where he is. Why,
he's made for her ! "
" What can he do besides designing lace ? "
" All the things a man can do and a woman can't do, not
even myself, though, to be sure, I'm tied up here, nor Lady
Anne for all her energy. Hugh will go out in the world and
create a demand for the things we make, and supply it. He'll
1905.] HER LADYSHIP. 771
start agencies in London and Paris ; he'll travel to America or
anywhere else you like where there's an industrial exhibition,
and he'll arrange for the things to be shown ; he'll buy her
machinery and come between her and the many people in the
world who will think her Ladyship's industrial fad something
arranged by Providence to put money in their pockets. There's
no end to the things Hugh will do for her. Upon my word,
I'm not sure that she can have Hugh. I believe I want him
myself. I've a <iute American acting as my agent, but, now I
come to think of it, Hugh would be worth twenty of him.
Hugh has imagination. He'll see the thing as you and I and
her Ladyship see it as a matter of hard cash, and nothing
more. He'll go about with that new young man, Mr. Yeats',
poems in one pocket and a drawing-book in the other. I be-
lieve the poetry helps him with the designs for carpets and
embroideries and laces and damasks. After all, I don't think
I can let you have Hugh."
" He sounds an ideal person. A judicious mixture of the
romantic and the practical. You must give him to us, Mother
Patrick."
" If I must, I must " ; Mother Patrick fell to considering
again. " Lady Anne must make it worth his while. He sup-
ports a mother and widowed sister and three small children
belonging to the latter, by his shop, and he's engaged as well."
" He has a shop ? "
" Didn't I say so ? A tailor's shop in Ardnagowan. If her
Ladyship made it worth his while he might get some one to
manage the shop for him and devote himself to her interests."
" If he is all you say, he sounds very promising. Engaged
too. That is a guarantee of steadiness. I hope he doesn't con-
template an immediate marriage. It would be against his doing
all those fine things for Anne."
"Now, how can I tell you? Sure what have I to do with
marrying and giving in marriage? I am sure Hugh will do
the sensible thing. She's a little girl he had in as bookkeeper.
Not a penny to bless herself with, of course. It's just like
Hugh."
" I'd better get Lady Anne to come to sec him. What's
the address? 43 Castle Street ? Thank you very much, Mother
Patrick. I hope she will see it in a sensible way and consent
772 VOX SC I ENTIRE. [Sept.
to give herself up to the world a bit more than she has done.
You're not more out of it yourself."
" Indeed, then, I've often been told I'm a woman of the
world," the nun said humorously. " And those who said it
meant it for a compliment, too. I wonder whether it's the right
thing for a nun to be ? "
" You've the wisdom of the serpent and the harmlessness of
the dove," Mrs. Massey said laughing. "That's why poor
business men have no chance against you."
(TO BE CONTINUED )
VOX SCIENTLE.
BY M. T. WAGGAMAN.
I rule reality. At my desire
Mad forces meet, coeval powers disband ;
Creation's secrets lie within my hand.
The dark dissolves and time and space retire,
Meek vassals unto me are ice and fire ;
Unleashed the lightnings leap at my command ;
Suns I have measured and star arches spanned,
And yet to unreached realms my feet aspire.
O dream-spent spirits of a yearning world !
Come, follow me whose forward course is strown
With triumphs, and whose heart is quick with youth ;
Beyond the days a challenge I have hurled
Courage ! Though moveless stands the dumb unknown,
The silence is the shadow of God's Truth.
THE FOUNDER OF MODERN CROATIA.
BY BEN HURST.
the various nationalities of conglomerate
Austria, Croatia ranks foremost as a country of
peace and loyalty, industry and conservatism.
If one were asked to characterize briefly the dis-
tinctive feature of this Slav people, one could
hardly fail to designate it as intense Catholicity. In an empire
ostensibly Catholic, but including also Semitism, Calvinism,
and Eastern schism, Croatia is the greatest stronghold of the
Catholic faith. Like the Irish and the Bretons, the Croats
have never allowed their national ambition to weaken the
bonds that unite them to St. Peter's Chair.
The Serbs and the Croats are one race ; their traditions and
customs are identical ; their language and their literature are
the same. But the Croats use the Latin alphabet, while the
Serbs retain the Cyrillic. The division between these neighbor-
ing and kindred peoples is less of creed than of allegiance.
Doctrines are no barrier, say the Serbs, but they cannot sub-
mit to the jurisdiction of Rome. And they are distrustful of
those who do; styling them traitors to the great cause of Pan-
slavism, and foes to the Muscovite Mother of all Slav states,
their natural protectress, Holy Russia.
No more thorough refutation of this, and its kindred charge
of bigotry and fanaticism, can be found than the life of Cro-
atia's greatest son, the late Bishop Strossmayer. His favorite
motto, " All for Faith and Fatherland," in no wise hindered
his adherence to the Croat proverb: "a brother is a brother,
of whatever creed." His political policy tended to nothing less
than the reunion of all Southern Slavs; and if the movement
known as Illyrism meaning the adoption of the name Illyria
by all the Slav races between the Adriatic and the Black Seas,
from the Alps to the Balkans was finally abandoned, this was
certainly not due to any want of energy or enthusiasm on the
part of the Croats.
The ancient state of Croatia has always succeeded in pre-
774 THE FOUNDER OF MODERN CROATIA. [Sept.,
serving its autonomy and its national characteristics. One is
apt to forget that the Crown of St. Stephen includes Croatia
as well as Hungary, and that the former is a potent factor in
Transleithania. But if Cisleithania, with its numerous states of
Austria, Bohemia, Galicia, Tyrol, Styria, Carinthia, Dalmatia,
and others, presents a uniform spectacle of united interests
working pacifically on the whole, it is otherwise with the dual
kingdom of Transleithania, where the antagonism of Mag-
yar and Croat bids fair to rival that which threatens to dis-
solve the union of Austria and Hungary. A prominent Croat
has informed me that if Hungary persists in her unreasonable
demands, and separation results, Croatia will at once range
herself on the side of Austria and abandon her consort of
centuries.
The Chrovates or Hrvats, as they style themselves, who first
settled on the Illyrian coast, in the seventh century, never for-
get that their union with Hungary was not the result of con-
quest, but of a matrimonial alliance between the two reigning
houses. Although they did not play a part in European his-
tory equal to that of their Slav cousins, the Czechs and the
Poles, their independent state comprised a vast extent of ter-
ritory from Zara to Bosna-Serai and, in the tenth century, they
were masters of the Adriatic. Their union with Hungary at
the end of the eleventh century, through the marriage of a
Croat princess with King Ladislas' eldest son, was entered into
on terms of perfect equality, and all attempts to treat Croatia
as a province of Hungary have hitherto met with failure. In
the heroic struggle against the invading Turks, Croatia was the
outpost of Christian Europe, and as such bravely bore the
brunt. Napoleon the Insatiable counted Croatia among the
lands of his ephemeral empire under the name of the Duchy of
Ragusa ; but after his fall it was once more reintegrated with
the Crown of St. Stephen, and shared Hungary's allegiance to
the House of Hapsburg. In the terrible upheaval of 1848
Croatia ranged herself loyally on the side of Austria, and
it was the timely aid of the Croatian troops, led by the Ban
(Chief) of Croatia, Yellatchitch, that enabled Prince Windish-
Graetz to repulse the Hungarian attack on Vienna. When
peace was restored Croatia retained its parliament, while rebel
Hungary was subjected to a dictatorship ; but the disaster of
Sadowa forced Austria to yield to the reclamations of the
1905.] THE FOUNDER OF MODERN CROATIA. 775
Magyars, and the " Ausgleich " or Arrangement of 1867, seem-
ingly favorable to the Croat nation, has proved quite the
contrary.
When Croatia was called on by this Arrangement to resume
her union with Hungary, the famous Deak presented a sheet
of white paper to Bishop Strossmayer, chief of the Croat
delegates, and said : " Bishop, write your conditions. They
shall be final." The Bishop did so, in all good faith ; but
his confidence, and that of the millions for whom he signed,
was misplaced. Fierce Magyarizing tendencies soon showed
themselves, and the contract which, in so far as it was possible,
guaranteed the rights of Croatia, was trampled upon. True,
the parliament at Agram preserved its privileges with regard
to the administration of justice, the control of public worship,
and education; but through its retention of the railway com-
munications, post and telegraph, the Magyar government exer-
cises a vexatious pressure on the Croat population, forcing it
to adopt the Magyar language, and refusing to employ any but
Magyar officials throughout the provinces of Croatia. The
Croatian delegates to the parliament in Budapest are too few
to remedy matters, but a revision of the "Ausgleich," in 1873,
obtained for Croatia a greater control of her finances, and the
nomination of her Ban by the king instead of by the Hunga-
rian ministry.
In spite of all adverse circumstances the little country, dur-
ing the last half century, has advanced in intellectual culture
and material- prosperity to an unprecedented degree. The suc-
cess of her endeavor to develop and advance without becoming
absorbed in either the German or Magyar elements which pre-
dominate in the empire to which she belongs, has been mainly
due to the extraordinary abilities and patriotism of one man.
Indeed, the history of modern Croatia in her struggle for poli-
tical freedom, for fair play, for the cultivation of her language,
and the right to preserve untainted the traditional customs in-
terwoven with her faith, is so closely connected with that of
him whose death she mourns, calling him "her Moses and her
Chrysostom. her Pericles and her Maecenas, her Thomas a Kem-
pis and her Michelangelo," that a sketch of the life of this
Father of his Country, the late Bishop Strossmayer, will suffice
to make us acquainted with the Croat nation, its attainments,
and its aims.
776 THE FOUNDER OF MODERN CROATIA. [Sept.,
Like the Norman settlers in Ireland who became " more
Irish than the Irish themselves," Bishop Strossmayer was, as
his name shows, of German descent. His ancestors settled in
Dalmatia in the beginning of the eighteenth century, and soon
identified themselves with the people among whom they dwelt.
The Bishop's parents were from a humble walk in life. His
father was a cattle-dealer, and his mother altogether devoted
to her household duties. She was a woman of rare personal
beauty, and exceedingly religious. One of the Bishop's earliest
recollections was a glimpse of her figure, in the dusk of dawn
or twilight, kneeling before a picture of the Madonna. The
Bishop had a twin-brother who died soon after birth, and as
the parents were not sure of the child's identity the survivor
was called by both names: Joseph-George (Yusef-Jurai) ; and
thus he always signed himself, although double names are un-
usual among the Croats. At an early age his love of learn-
ing manifested itself. As soon as he could read he was to be
found wandering with a book on the banks of the Drave, and
when he had finished the normal school of his native Esseg,
he begged his father to ask for his admission to the seminary
of the adjoining town of Djakovo. Here his spirit of obedi-
ence and his mental capacities drew the attention of Bishop
Sutchitch, who placed his name first on the list of students
chosen to enter the Central College of Budapest. From this
moment the young levite applied himself with ardor to the
attainment of every excellence. He subjected his naturally
vivacious temperament to severe discipline, and, sharing his
superiors' conviction that the best guarantee of his salvation
was his consecration to God's service, he determined to do
his utmost to deserve it. The extraordinary talents which
promised him a brilliant career in any walk of life, were to be
devoted to the noblest ; and he already longed for a field in
which he could employ them for the glory of God and of the
Church. His comrades seem to have looked on him as quite
beyond themselves, and on the occasion of his severe illness
one of them, a Hungarian (Count Ivan Ciraky), exclaimed:
"There is no fear of Strossmayer's death. He must live, for
he is born to be a bishop ! "
After matriculating at Budapest, young Strossmayer hoped
to be ordained without delay, but in this he was disappointed.
On account of his youth and delicate health it was considered
1905.] THE FOUNDER OF MODERN CROATIA. 777
advisable to postpone his admission to the priesthood; and he
returned to his home in Esseg, where he remained for several
months. It was during this period that Bishop Kukovitch chose
him as a companion on a tour through his diocese. They
traveled finally as far as Vienna. Strossmayer was the guest
there of the Franciscan Fathers, for whose order he showed
a marked partiality in after life. He profited by the leisure
and opportunities now at his disposal, and made himself ac-
quainted with the treasures of art and science contained in the
museums of the Austrian capital. There were no railroads in
those days, and the journey to and from Vienna gave him an
opportunity to study the people's mode of life, their views
and traditional customs.
At length came the day to which he had long looked for-
ward, and of which he afterwards wrote:
" Saddened in soul, and corporally ailing, I had returned to
my native place, fearing that I should not live to celebrate
the Holy Sacrifice. On this, as on so many other occasions, I
was sustained and strengthened by the sympathy and encour-
agement of my spiritual superiors. For the goodness of Bis-
hop Kukovitch I can never be grateful enough his name is
every day in my prayers and I thank God that I had the
privilege of returning to Canon Rastovich, at his golden jubi-
lee, the service which he rendered to me on the day of my
first Mass."
With ordination, peace of mind and health returned to the
young priest, who entered with zeal on his new duties as curate
in the parish of Peterwardein. After two years, however, the
longing to pursue his studies led him to ask for removal to
Vienna ; but his departure was opposed by the Canon of Peter-
wardein, who did not wish to lose such an efficient aid.
Strossmayer, unwilling to incur his displeasure, yielded for a
time; but the impulse was too strong, and at last he set out
for Djakovo to implore the Bishop to decide in his behalf. Bis-
hop Kukovitch, however, received him coldly, saying that he
had already heard of his "restlessness," and advised him to
return on the morrow to Peterwardein. The young man with-
drew sorrowfully, and spent the whole of the following night
in prayer. In the morning he wrote in his private notebook :
" I have always loved to converse with my Creator in soli-
tude, but never has my prayer been so consolatory as during
778 THE FOUNDER OF MODERN CROATIA. [Sept.,
this past night. Blessed be the Savior, who, in spite of all
present deceptions, means to work great things through me for
the poor people around me."
That morning Strossmayer had hardly finished his thanks-
giving after Mass when the Bishop sent for him. As he en-
tered the reception-hall the Bishop advanced to meet him,
smiling, with a letter in his hand. It was from the Imperial
Chaplain in Vienna announcing the selection of young Stross-
mayer by the Emperor Ferdinand for admission to the Theo-
logical Institute of St. Augustine. Still under the impression
of the past night, the young priest accented his good friend's
congratulations calmly ; but then exclaimed, involuntarily, or
as in a dream :
" Your Eminence ! I am destined some day to be your suc-
cessor ! "
These apparently presumptuous words displeased the Bishop,
who turned away in silence, not then foreseeing how earnestly
he himself would work for their realization.
Strossmayer's brilliant record in the Institute of St. Augus-
tine remains unparalleled to this day. Two years sufficed for
the attainment of his degree of Doctor of Theology, and he
was then recalled to Djakovo, where Bishop Kukovitch made
him Director of the Seminary and Instructor in Christian Doc-
trine A little later he taught classes in natural science and
mathematics, for which he had a particular aptitude ; and many
have regretted that his versatile capacities, solicited in different
directions, hindered his specialization in these two branches.
Nor was he allowed to remain long in Djakovo. At the re-
quest of Canon Feigerl, Bishop Kukovitch consented to part
with him in order that he might fill the post of Director in
the Augustinian Institute in Vienna, where he had so lately
been a student.
For this important charge, neither before nor since confided
to one so young, Strossmayer was selected, less for the sake
of his brilliant talents, than for the exemplary holiness of his
life. His appointment, at the same time, to the Court Chap-
laincy was fully justified by the eloquence of his sermons and
the deep religious principles and charitable instincts which he
instilled into the breast of young Francis Joseph. His mani-
fold avocations at the Court and the Institute did not exhaust
Strossmayer's energy, and we find him, by special request,
1905.] THE FOUNDER OF MODERN CROATIA. 779
lecturing on Canon law, in addition, at the Vienna University.
The terrible revolt of Hungary, in 1848, and the simul-
taneous outbreak of the Vienna mob, caused the Imperial
family to fly to Inomost, and, after the savage murder of
Count Latour, to Olmiitz. The Institute of St. Augustine was
then closed and the students despatched to their homes.
Strossmayer remained in charge of the few who were not able
to leave; but vyhen the Palace itself was bombarded, and
shells fell thickly on the roof of the adjoining building, he
decided to conduct the students to the Franciscan Monastery
for greater security. He led them safely through the tumultu-
ous streets and then returned to save a sum of money which
had been confided to him by Mayor Zenner at the beginning
of the disturbances. The roof was burning when he reached
the place where the money was secreted, and thrustir/g it
hastily under his plastron, he groped his way back through
the stifling smoke only to be met at the door by a hail of
bullets. Darting through this unhurt, he escaped to a side
street ; but here he was chased by the rabble, who were led
by a frenzied woman alternately beating a drum and call-
ing on them to "catch and hang the priest." Once again
God's protecting hand was held out over his servant, and he
reached the monastery in safety.
For three days anarchy reigned in Vienna, until the junc-
tion of the Croat troops, led by the heroic Ban Yellatchitch,
with those of the Imperial Army under Prince Windish-
Graetz, enabled the latter to drive the Hungarians from their
positions outside the city, and thu quench the rebellion with-
in.
In the ferment of re-organization of Church and State
which followed, Bishop Kukovitch realized that age and in-
firmity rendered him incapable of fulfiling the onerous tasks
before him, and he begged to be relieved of his See. In a
letter to the Emperor he indicated his protege, Strossmayer,
as best qualified to take his place. Apart from this, Stross-
mayer's nomination had been proposed by the Ban. When a
final decision was made in Strossmayer's favor the news was
received jubilantly by the Croats and Slovenes in Vienna.
The Slovenes, as nearly akin to the Croats in race and
tongue as are the Scots to the Irish, now began to forego the
spirit of rivalry that kept them apart. It was among the
780 THE FOUNDER OF MODERN CROATIA. [Sept.,
Slovenes of Vienna that Strossmayer first undertook the cru-
sade which has since resulted in the happy fusion of these two
Slav peoples. This fact sufficiently indicates his life-long
policy.
Thus, at the age ol thirty-four, Joseph- George Strossmayer
was appointed Bishop of the ancient and important diocese of
Djakovo. However popular this appointment, and great the
hope founded upon it, both have been surpassed by his actual
services to the nation. In the words of his biographer, the
Rev. M. Cepelitch : " If the Ban Yellatchitch had wrought no
more for Croatia than to have given it a Strossmayer as
leader, he had by this act alone earned its eternal gratitude."
It was on the occasion of his consecration that Strossmayer
made the acquaintance of one who was to become his most
intimate friend, the Papal Nuncio, Monseigneur Viale Prela.
This friendship, severed too soon by an untimely death, stood
him in good stead through many dark hours.
His entrance into Djakovo was memorable; and was sur-
passed in grandeur only by the scene on the day of the con-
secration of the magnificent cathedral which he bestowed upon
the town at a later date. In the purest Croat dialect the
Bishop told his people that he was one with them in heart
and tongue and national feeling. He did not hesitate to allude
to the storms which had lately convulsed the State, and men-
tioning the holy word " freedom " told them that the first free-
dom to be sought was freedom from sin. " If you attain this,
you need fear no oppression. . . , Imitate naught of what
you see around you. Do not neglect your own beautiful Slav
tongue, the inheritance of your heroic forefathers. Love your
land, your customs, and your literature. We are neither Ger-
mans nor Magyars ; we are proud to be Croats. Let us work
together for the advancement of our country. Let us guard
the purity of our creed and uphold the banner of the Slavs."
Thus did Bishop Strossmayer frankly state his programme
and start on his career of active opposition to the pan- Ger-
manism that threatened to spread throughout the empire under
the specious name of superior civilization. On the following
day, after the Mass, the capitular, in the name of the clergy,
read a Latin address, to which the Bishop replied extempore
with that marvelous command of the language which earned for
him the title of the first Latin scholar in Europe.
1 905 . ] THE Fo UNDER OF MODERN CROA TIA . 781
During the first decade of his episcopate Strossmayer
devoted himself mainly to the improvement of the schools in
his diocese. He founded public libraries, and contributed
largely to the distribution of cheap literature throughout the
land. To those years also belongs his re- organization of the
College of St. Jerome in Rome, which he placed on a footing
of practical utility for Slavonic theological students.
After having ( built a primary school for boys entirely at
his own expense, the Bishop likewise erected a convent, with
hospital and girls' school attached, and invited the Sisters of
Mercy in Vienna to found a community in Djakovo. From
this nucleus branches have since spread throughout Croatia,
where female religious orders were previously unknown.
The first public step which the Bishop took for the further-
ance of the object dearest to his heart was to visit, in com-
pany with Cardinal Viale Prela, the capital of Servia, and
enter into friendly relations with the clergy of the schismatic
church. This new departure, viewed with suspicion in Vienna,
was denounced to the Pope by Austrian statesmen as " danger-
ous to the empire and derogatory to thd Church." The en-
deavor to attribute unorthodox leanings and ambitious designs
to the young prelate was, however, without effect, for in the
following year he was appointed Primate of the Catholics in
Servia. Henceforth he frequently celebrated the Holy Sacri-
fice in the little chapel of the Austrian Legation in Belgrade,
then, as now, the only place of Catholic worship in Servia.
On one occasion he traveled in the depths of winter to a
mining district in Servia in order to dispense the consolations
of religion to the Catholic miners. Strossmayer was the first
Catholic Bishop to enter as such into the kingdom of Servia,
and his conciliatory attitude towards the Servian clergy won
their appreciation and good will. After a few years had passed
we find him actually seated at a banquet given in his honor
by the Metropolitan of Servia, and replying to a speech de-
livered by the Rector of the Belgrade High School, in which
his services to the common literature of both countries were
dwelt upon. No deception, however cruel, caused the Bishop
to relinquish his hopes for the ultimate reconciliation of this
schismatic with the true Church. The following extract from
one of his Pastorals contains an exposition of his views :
" Let us love with a particular affection those of our breth-
VOL. LXXXI. 50
782 THE FOUNDER OF MODERN CROATIA. [Sept.,
ren who are not iii full communion with us; for the glorious
name of Catholic, which makes us one with men of all races
and climes, as God and Jesus and Christianity are one, im-
poses on us the duty of loving our enemies, and, far more,
those bound to us by ties of race and creed. Yes, thank God !
we are united by the same creed, not merely similar, but al-
most identical ; and, my children, let us be careful to dwell
rather on the many points of belief we share in common, than
on those few that divide us."
The Bishop caused a Mass to be offered for this intention
once a month in the seminary of Djakovo, and it was the main
incentive of his political workings, as exemplified by his dis-
courses in the Parliament at Agram. The magnificent Cathe-
dral of Djakovo, the creation of his brain and of his material
sacrifices, is symbolical of the same. The structure, unique in
design, is a bold combination of Gothic and Byzantine. The
Bishop had studied the monuments of ecclesiastical architecture
in Italy and Germany, and carefully hoarded the main part of
his revenues for many years before he undertook to lay its
foundation stone. When the last touch was given to the
gilded cupola of the east wing he began the arduous task of
decorating the interior. It was continued on similar lines.
The principal painting, The Adoration of the Three Kings, re-
presents a Croat kneeling to lay a bunch of ripe grapes at the
feet of the Divine Child. Near him is a group of Slavonic,
Dalmatian, and Herzegovian maidens in their respective na-
tional costumes. Finally, Bulgarian and Serbian shepherds unite
in worshiping the Savior. Thus the Southern Slavs appear to-
gether in the finest picture in this monumental edifice. It is
dedicated to St. Peter, and every detail was planned by the
greatest Slav which the century has produced. No railing
separates the altar from the nave in the Cathedral of Djako-
vo, and this, attributed by many to a desire of conciliating
Eastern prejudices, was thus explained by the Bishop in his
dedicatory sermon.
" In our land priests and people are inseparable. The hum-
blest among you, youth of Croatia, may aspire to mount to
this sacred altar. But remark its elevation ! The priest is
mediator between God and men. Never forget his awful dig-
nity. Never forget the respect you owe to his sacred office."
His ardent striving for a Slav brotherhood could not fail to
1 905 . ] 7V7.fi- FO UNDER OF MODERN CROA TIA . 783
excite hostile criticism both among Austrians and Magyars.
The Emperor Francis Joseph, who had admitted him to the
rank of member of his Privy Council, was induced by Hun-
garian pressure to censure publicly the Bishop's " overtures to
Russia." When the Russian Church celebrated the milleniuni
of Russia's conversion to Christianity, Bishop Strossmayer sent
a telegram of sympathy and felicitation. This telegram raised
a storm which reverberated throughout Europe. The Bishop
was accused of fraternizing with schism and of wielding his
authority to further the aims of Muscovite ambition in short,
of plotting to subvert the empire.
" Bishop," said the Emperor, at a public function where
they met, " your telegram to Kiev has wounded many sus-
ceptibilities. Acknowledge that it was, to say the least, ill-
advised."
" Sire," replied the Bishop calmly, " my conscience is quite
at rest."
Rome was next called upon to administer a rebuke, or, at
least, a paternal admonition. She did neither.
Hungarian politicians had their revenge at a later date when
they succeeded in hindering Bishop Strossmayer's elevation to
the archiepiscopate.
Meantime his appointment to the bishopric of Bosnia had
given him a heavy charge. The Church in the newly- delivered
provinces of Bosnia had suffered too long from Turkish oppres-
sion to revive at once under the control of Austria, to whose
language the Serb population were strangers. Bishop Stross-
mayer decided to found a seminary exclusively for Bosnian
students in Djakovo ; but for this, as for so many of his generous
undertakings, he did not escape blame. He was accused of
exciting the Christians of Bosnia against their Mohammedan
brethren in the course of centuries of subjection to the in-
fidel yoke many Bosnians had adopted Islamism and Austria
protested loudly against any interference with the creed whose
liberty she had guaranteed. He had, besides, the sorrow of
seeing his seminary closed in 1876, uhen the province was
ceded to Magyar control.
Strossmayer's great soul inspired him to brave great re-
sponsibilities. In his own words: "The man who harbors the
idea of a righteous enterprise must quail before no peril or
difficulty in accomplishing it. Let him attack the obstacles
784 THE FOUNDER OF MODERN CROATIA. [Sept.,
boldly, and work on to the end, confident in the Almighty's
assistance to bring all to a successful issue.
The first great national foundation which his country owes
to this munificent patron of art is the Academy of Agram,
which is expressly designated as an academy for all Southern
Slavs. In a memorable letter to the Ban of Croatia the Bis
hop explained his project and submitted a sum of $20,000 to-
wards its realization. This was but one of many subsequent
donations for the same' object, and when he had defended it
in the Parliament for even here a hostile party opposed the
foundation the nation responded nobly by generous contribu-
tions. When the existence of the Academy was assured he
undertook to provide a suitable building for its permanent es-
tablishment; and here too, leading the way by a princely dona-
tion, he saw the necessary funds quickly supplied by his en-
thusiastic compatriots.
Bishop Strossmayer next turned his attention to the com-
pletion of the National Croat University, whose foundation
stone he had laid many years before. The necessity and
utility of this institution were fiercely attacked in Parliament
by the representatives of the Magyar element ; and again the
Bishop's eloquence was brought to bear in order to overrule
opposition. He had given $12,000 towards the creation of this
university, and now he undertook to collect the whole of the
necessary sum. In a short time he succeeded, and had the
joy of witnessing the realization of his second great aspiration
for the youth of Croatia.
The wisdom of Strossmayer in guaranteeing to his country-
men the advantages of higher education in their own land, sur-
rounded by the salutary influence of their pastors, rather than
expose them to contact with heretical and Semitic prejudices,
was made evident in 1892 when the Hungarian Parliament
ratified the civil marriage bill. This iniquitous measure, intro-
duced for the greater facility of mixed marriages in a land
overridden with fanatical Jews, legalizes a marriage between
any two persons who present themselves before the mayor
of the district; and dissolves it, in like manner, without diffi-
culty. It would not have pressed so sorely on Catholics, had
it not been made obligatory even on those who, as hither-
to, made marriage a religious ceremony, and considered that
the sacrament dispensed with all civil formalities. The peo-
1905.] THE FOUNDER OF MODERN CROATIA. 785
pie, Catholic Croats and Hungarians, and schismatic Serbs,
who were first forced to comply with its rules, showed their
contempt by appearing before the mayor in soiled or ragged
clothes and openly deriding the contract. Many went to
prison for insulting the " dignity of the law," and in some vil-
lages there were violent disturbances. Unlike the Parliament
of Croatia, which consists of but one Chamber, the Magyar
Parliament comprises a Lower and an Upper Chamber, the
House of Magnats. Strossmayer had long since ceased to oc-
cupy his seat in the latter, but at the time of the passing of
the Civil Marriage Act he worked actively to secure its defeat
in the House of Magnats. Although this .Act could not affect
Croatia, he felt called upon to denounce an infringement of
the Church's rights in a neighboring country professedly Catho-
lic, and therefore a gross injustice to the Croats resident in
Hungary. His campaign resulted in the defeat, on two differ-
ent occasions, of the bill in the Upper House, and when at
length it passed, the victory was obtained by only four votes.
I remember, at that time, listening to the pastoral addressed
by the Bishop to his flock, and which expressed so vehemently
his grief and indignation that the priest's voice faltered as he
read, and many of the congregation were in tears. It was,
indeed, incredible that pagan institutions should sully the great-
est of the lands belonging to the Crown of St. Stephen, nor
can I forget the lowering faces of the honest Croats around
me. If Hungary had wished to alienate Croat sympathy, and
put the greatest bar to her Magyarizing tendencies, she could
have done nothing more effective than the passing of the CivH
Marriage Act.
Strossmayer's life was as thickly bestrewn with sorrows and
deceptions as with honors and triumphs. The bitterest trial
of his career was the libellous pamphlet circulated throughout
Europe, and even in America, containing a hostile criticism of
the Catholic Church signed with his name.
This infamous document received its shadow of possibility
from the fact that Strossmayer was an Inopportunist. The
Bishop's attitude in this, as in every instance, testifies to his
unfailing sincerity and conscientiousness. He feared aught that
might tend to widen the breach between the Eastern and West-
ern Churches; and, as Cardinal Manning afterwards declared,
performed his duty as a true son of the Church. His dis-
;86 THE FOUNDER OF MODERN CROATIA. [Sept.,
course, pronounced in that assembly of holiness and learning,
is a beautiful specimen of the purest classical Latin; but more
beautiful still in the minds of all lovers of virtue are the ser-
mons in which he expounded to his people the dogma of
Papal Infallibility, to the promulgation of which he now gave
ihis fullest and warmest support.
In 1871 the pamphlet which purported to give a report of
the Bishop's speech at the Vatican Council was sown broadcast
throughout Austria. To those who are even slightly acquainted
iwith the Church's discipline, it was evident that the Bishop
could not have retained his post after such violent diatribes
kgainst his superiors, even for the sake of preserving the Croat
nation from a schism ! The secession to the Greek Church
of Croatia was an intention with which the Bishop's political
opponents were fond of crediting him. The forged pamphlet
was, however, welcomed with delight by the enemies of the
faith, and translated into many tongues. In spite of Bishop
Strossmayer's disclaimer, the Austrian liberal press continued
to proclaim it genuine, and the Old Catholics of Germany em-
ployed it as their chief weapon at the Council of Constance in
1873. It was then that Bishop Ketteler came forward and de-
clared that he had known Bishop Strossmayer intimately dur-
ing their sojourn in Rome, but that never, either in public or
in private, had he heard him express an opinion similar to
those contained in the pamphlet. Silenced in Germany, the
calumny still subsisted in England and America, and as late as
1889 we find the Bishop writing to the Bishop of Covington on
the matter. Meanwhile Strossmayer had received a letter from
a priest in America who had received the confession of the for-
ger. The man, who had been an apostate, entreated Bishop
Strossmayer's forgiveness, and died full of remorse.
In 1900 the venerable prelate celebrated the golden jubilee
of his episcopate. His regular and active life had led him to
a hale old age; at his death, in the beginning of 1905, he was
the oldest bishop in the Roman Catholic hierarchy. His ex-
traordinary vitality remained almost unimpaired during the last
decade, and his interest in his educational foundations never
waned. He had founded a chair for the old Slav tongue in
the College of St. Jerome in Rome, and one of his latest acts
was in reference to it. Pope John VIII. had accorded to the
great Slav apostles, Cyril and Methodius, the right to use the
1905.] THE FOUNDER OF MODERN CROATIA. 787
Slav liturgy, and it was largely due to Bishop Strossmayer's
endeavors that Pope Leo XIII. issued the Bull, " Grande
Munus," which confirms this right, and places the Slav tongue
on a perfect equality with the Greek and Latin. Invited by
the Bishop of Loreto to celebrate High Mass at the dedication
of the new Cathedral in Loreto, Bishop Strossmayer gladly
consented, and thus the first time the Holy Sacrifice was offered
in this Church, .which is under the patronage of Saints Cyril
and Methodius, the liturgy was sung in the language of the
Slav apostles.
On looking back over the long and fruitful life of the
great Croat, one is forced to ask : How did this one man ac-
complish so many gigantic undertakings?
The ferment of 1848 had undoubtedly given a new impetus
to national life everywhere ; and the Croat people had just
awakened to that sense of their own power which only re-
quired a competent leader to transform it into action. Bishop
Strossmayer was that leader. But, although his training in
hut and palace, and his eminent abilities, fitted him for the
post of teacher and adviser, it was neither of these that won
for him the unbounded sway he exercised over his compatriots.
Their attachment and confidence, born of the faith which is
their dearest heritage, were irresistibly drawn by the great
spiritual force behind all the Bishop's acts. As member of
the political councils and legislative assemblies in Vienna,
Pest, and Agram, as Governor of the province of Vitir, as
pastor of Croats, Serbs, and Bosnians, as leader of the great
intellectual movement in modern Croatia, Bishop Strossmayer
never worked for actual present results, but always with a
view to the future and the hereafter. His extraordinary en-
ergy and perseverence in the performance of his self-allotted
tasks arose from that keen sense of duty with which he had
been permeated from childhood. Thus, persuaded that the
talents with which God had endowed him were precious
charges to be employed in his service, he feared nothing so
much as the temptation of allowing them to rust. Hence, his
political correspondence with Gladstone coincides with the
time of his Latin poems in the honor of the Blessed Virgin ;
and his literary communications to several European univer-
sities did not interfere with his revision of the schoolbooks
788 THE FOUNDER OF MODERN CROATIA. [Sept.,
in his diocese or his contributions to the series of instructive
books issued by the Society of St. Jerome. During the erec-
tion of the Cathedral of Djakovo he visited it several times
daily, studying the plans with the architect, and inspecting al-
most every stone. As a priest he was indefatigable ; he had
revived the custom of reading the Epistles and Gospels aloud
in the Croat tongue ; and he continued to preach until the
infirmities of age, weakening his powerful and melodious voice,
forced him to abandon the pulpit. The distribution of the
Holy Eucharist was his dearest privilege ; he often traveled to
distant villages in order to celebrate Mass on a First Com-
munion day. On these occasions he addressed the children
familiarly; reminded them that Croat meant Catholic; that
their attachment to their religion was the guarantee of their
future as a nation ; and gave them his blessing often with
tears of emotion running down his cheeks.
Strossmayer has been accused of ambition even of aspir-
ing to the greatest of all dignities, the sceptre wielded so
powerfully by his compatriot, Sixtus V. ; but to those who
knew him personally, as well as to those who study impartially
the record of his life, it is plain that his zeal for the Church
and his devotion to his own nation were the barriers to his
elevation to the archiepiscopate.
One of the most edifying moments of his career was that
in which he hastened to pay homage to his newly-appointed
superior his inferior in years, in services to the Church, and
in mental qualifications. At the aged prelate's approach, the
new Archbishop advanced to meet him and, in confusion, re-
versing the usual order, bent down to kiss his hand before
Strossmayer could protest. Tears stood in the eyes of all
present, and only the countenance of one remained serene.
He, whom Hungarian statesmen thought to mortify, was well
content to work in any capacity in the Lord's vineyard. The
pallium which Leo XIII. soon after conferred on the Bishop of
Djakovo, and a letter expressing the warmest appreciation of
his services to the Church, sufficiently demonstrated the esteem
in which he was held by the Head of Christendom. As an
instance of the Bishop's conciliatory spirit, we may recall the
following :
He had contributed largely to the erection of a new church
1905.] THE FOUNDER OF MODERN CROATIA. 789
in honor of the Blessed Virgin, on Mount Tersatt, in Dal-
matia, where the Holy House of Nazareth is supposed to
have paused in its miraculous journey to Loreto. When in-
vited to officiate at the dedication, however, he waived the
honor in favor of one who was considered his great political
rival, but who had ever remained his dear brother in Christ,
Bishop Stadler, the upholder of the Austrian element in Bos-
nia, f
It was Bishop Stadler who pronounced the funeral panegyr-
ic on the Bishop of Djakovo when he was laid to rest, in the
Cathedral of his own foundation, amidst the tears of a nation
and in the presence of numerous representatives from neigh-
boring states and of envoys from several crowned heads of
Europe.
The orator took for his text the motto of the deceased
prelate, the motto to which he had so faithfully adhered: " All
for Faith and Fatherland" and showed that this valiant son of
the Church had accomplished so much, because he was essen-
tially, and beyond all else, a man of prayer.
" I have always loved, beyond any human converse, that
which solitude procured me face to face with my Creator."
BRUGES.
BY ELLIS SCHREIBER.
RUGES, a city "from whose towers (to borrow
the words of Matthew Arnold) still breathe the
enchantments of the Middle Ages," can boast
high antiquity, an eventful history, great pros-
perity, and importance in the past. From a very
early date, probably from the time of the Romans, there stood,
about nine miles west of Ghent, a fortified camp or castle on
a small oblong-shaped island, formed by the confluence of the
river Boterbeke with the Roya, and a broad moat connecting
the two streams, in the northwest corner of Flanders. This
lonely, desolate spot, hemmed in by forest and marsh, was lit-
tle more than a dismal waste. Caesar mentions it as a barren,
unhealthy land, and Eumenius says of it that the land seemed
to float on the ocean, and when trodden on quaked underfoot.
Its name of Brugge, or Bruggestock, was perhaps taken from
the brugge, or heather and undergrowth which surrounded it,
or from the brigge (bridge) whereby it was approached. Some
chroniclers say that the fort was erected in the fourth century
to protect the bridge, the ancient seal of the city being a cas-
tle and bridge. Hard by the fort, on the mainland, was a
small sanctuary, supposed to have been built by St. Eligius in
the seventh century ; tradition asserts that on the site of that
chapel St. Saviour's Church now stands.
Towards the close of the year 630, as is recorded in a life
of St. Amand, Bishop of Bourges, by one of his disciples (Boll.
Acta SS. vi. Feb.) that prelate, having journeyed to Rome, was
praying before the tomb of the Apostles, when suddenly he
heard the voice of St. Peter, bidding him return to Gaul,
where he must preach the Gospel. So impressed was he by
the reality of the command, that he instantly set out for the
North, and presently reached Sens. There he was told that
there was a country beyond the Scheldt called Gand, where
1905.] BRUGES. 791
dwelt a wild people who had forgotten God and worshipped
trees ; so rude was this land, and so fierce its inhabitants,
that no missionary dare venture thither. " This must be the
field," quoth Amand, " which St. Peter would have me till,"
and, with a small band of followers, he landed on the further
side of the Scheldt. The newcomers were received with unmis-
takable signs of hostility by the settlers around the fortress of
Brugge; the sain', himself was seized and plunged into the
river. This so terrified his companions that they fled in dismay;
but Amand fearlessly continued the work he had begun, and
in course of time won the confidence of the people, many of
whom he baptized, and whose idol temples he destroyed. For
thirty years he remained in that district, teaching and preach-
ing and enduring all manner of hardships. Presently he was
joined by other missionaries. Churches and monasteries were
built, the land was brought under cultivation, villages and small
towns were formed. Several of these towns in the neighborhood
of Bruges claim as their founder one or other of the missionaries
who at that time evangelized the country. In the eighth cen-
tury St. Boniface and St. Walburga are said to have visited
Bruges, the former founding a church in honor of our Lady,
the latter the parish church which bears her name. Already
in the seventh century Bruges had a civic organization of its
own, and appears to have been a place of some importance.
Charlemagne secured the tranquillity of Germany by sub-
duing the Saxons. Some of these Saxons, however, settled in
Flanders. This accounts for the difference of language in the
northern and southern provinces ; in the former Flemish, in
the latter Walloon is the vernacular. The early governors of
Flanders, appointed by Charlemagne and his successors, bore
the title of Forester, because they had charge of the vast
forests about Bruges. They had also to defend the coast
against the Normans, who made descents, ravaged the coun-
try, and left a trail marked by the ashes of towns and vil-
lages, the ruins of churches and monasteries. So much were
these ferocious pirates dreaded that the Brugeois added a peti-
tion to their litany : " From the fury of the Northmen deliver
us, O Lord." The title of Forester was changed to that of
Count on the appointment of Baldwin Bras de-fer, who carried
off and married the fair Judith, daughter of the King of France.
792 BRUGES. [Sept.,
He was the first of the long line of Counts of Flanders, whose
power was gradually augmented as Bruges, their chief town,
extended its limits and increased its commerce. Thither Em-
ma, the widow of Canute, went to live when driven from Eng-
land. Entering as an exile, she quitted it later in triumph
when her son, Hardicanute, who had joined her at Bruges, was
elected King of England.
In the eleventh century Arwulf, Bishop of Soissons, was
sent to preach to the Flemings, and to convert the then Count.
Arwulf was the means of transforming him from a cruel, war-
like ruler to a peaceful, devout Christian. The Bishop's labors
and those of the monks of the Benedictine Abbey of Ouden-
burg, which he founded and where he died, completed the civ-
ilization and evangelization of Flanders. During the rule of
Charles the Good a famine desolated the land. The Count
daily fed a hundred destitute poor in Bruges; and on being
reproached for this liberality, answered : " I know how needy
are the poor and how selfish the high born." He was murdered
while kneeling in the Church of St. Donatus ; his body was left
lying in the desecrated edifice until one of his servants wrapped
it in a winding sheet and placed four candles round it. The
assassin was hurled to death from the Church tower.
During the reign of Thierry of Alsace, who for forty years
ruled well and wisely, St. Bernard came to Bruges preaching
the crusade. " Worn with fasting and mortification," says an
ancient writer, "pale, seeming scarcely to live, the saint's ap-
pearance moved men almost as much as his words." Count
Thierry more than once took up the sword of the crusader ;
on his return from one of these expeditions he brought to
Bruges a treasure which has had no little influence on the ar-
tistic and religious development of this city, which for centuries
has attracted and still attracts to it thousands of pious pilgrims.
When Thierry was about to leave Jerusalem, his brother-in-law,
Baldwin III., King of Jerusalem, gave him, as a guerdon be-
cause of the valor he had displayed, a crystal vial in which was
a crimson fluid, said by tradition to be some drops of the Pre-
cious Blood of Christ, collected by Joseph of Arimathea and
Nicodemus when they washed the blood-stained body before lay-
ing it in the sepulchre. Thierry received, on his knees, the sacred
relic, which was closed by gold stoppers ; but he said a rough
1905.] BRUGES.
793
soldier like himself was unworthy to be the bearer of so sacied
a treasure. So he hung the silver chain attached to it round
the neck of his chaplain, Abbot Leo of St. Omer, who had ac-
companied him to Palestine. The Abbot never parted with it
night or day until, on the evening of April 7, 1150, he
reached the gates of Bruges. News of the treasure having
reached the city, crowds came out to meet him, and with sol-
emn pomp the r^lic was transferred to the custody of the
Court chaplains, four of whom were appointed to guard it,
after it had been deposited, in the presence of the Count and
all the magnates of Bruges, in the chapel of St. Basil, which
Baldwin of the Iron Hand had built. The earlier history of
this precious relic is veiled in mystery, but from the day when
it was brought to Bruges its story is unbroken.
Count Thierry was away on another and a last expedition
to the Holy Land when St. Thomas of Canterbury, forced to
fly from England in consequence of having resisted the king's
encroachments on the rights of the Church, landed in disguise
near Bruges, and placed himself under the protection of the
Count's son, Philip, who was governing Flanders during his
father's absence. The King of England sent letters demanding
that the Archbishop should be given up, but no heed was paid
to them. Philip was then building a Church at Crepy, and the
fugitive Archbishop asked to what saint he intended to dedicate
it? Philip answered: "To the first martyr." "The first of
those who were martyred or of those who shall be?" rejoined
Thomas with a significant smile. The Church was not yet
finished when the Archbishop was murdered in the cathedral
of Canterbury, and to him it was dedicated. Many traditions
connected with the saint linger in the vicinity of Bruges.
In 1203 Count Baldwin IX., with the chivalry of Flanders,
assembled in the Church of St. Donatus at Bruges to receive
the cross before starting on the fourth crusade. The Bishop
of Tournay presided at the ceremony ; taking a linen cross
embroidered with gold, he fastened it on the Count's right
shoulder, saying: "Take this sign of the cross in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, in memory
of the Passion and Death of Christ." Baldwin was elected Em-
peror of Constantinople, where he died, leaving only two young
daughters as his heirs. King Philip Augustus, of France,
794 BRUGES. [Sept.,
availed himself of this opportunity to invade Flanders, and
take possession of Bruges. The carnage was terrible ; a thou-
sand dwellings were burnt and acres of fertile crops consumed
before the French retired, in consequence of the destruction of
their fleet. The people of Bruges detested the overlordship of
France, and were faithful to their own Counts; they were in-
volved in constant struggles in order to maintain their rights
and privileges and to prevent annexation to France.
On one occasion the inhabitants of Bruges rose up against
the French who occupied the city, cutting down all who could
not pronounce the fatal shibboleth: Schilt ende vriendt ;
Flanders for the lion. All the day the slaughter went on.
Villani says the streets and squares were so encumbered with
corpses, that three days were required to remove the dead
for burial without the walls. This was called the Bruges
Matins. The King of France sent an army to avenge his
fallen soldiers; it was met by the Flemish army, stalwart
peasants wielding heavy clubs. The marshy ground proved
fatal to the armor-clad knights, and the French army was com-
pletely routed. This, the most memorable battle in Flemish
history, was called the Battle of the Golden Spurs, from the
great number of golden spurs found on the field of battle, four
thousand, some say. On that day the flower of French chiv-
alry perished; seven hundred spurs were, hung up as a trophy
in the church of Notre Dame, and as the cavaliers of that day
wore only one spur, this testifies to the death ot at least seven
hundred gallant knights.
Another historic fight was that of Minnewater (lac d'a-
mour). When the inhabitants of Bruges were digging a canal
to carry the waters ot the river Lys to their own city, they
were attacked by the citizens of Ghent, whose commerce would
have been injured by the formation of the canal. The assail-
ants gained the day and entered Bruges in triumph; but the
fighting was soon suppressed and peace restored.
These and other contests did not, however, impede the
growth and prosperity of Bruges. As the head of the Han-
seatic league it was a centre of commerce and industry. The
merchants of North and South met in its markets, and the
produce of the North was exchanged for that of Southern
Europe and distant India. The principal source of wealth was
I905-] BRUGES. 795
the skill Q the legions of weavers; England supplied wool
which, in the populous villages of Flanders, was woven into
fabrics for all lands, of varied texture and coloring. The
heavy market- dues belonged to two noble families who were
bound to protect the traders against pirates and robbers.
Bruges was also famous for her guilds and corporations of
foreign merchants trade guilds for the most part, though some
were military. The most powerful guild was that of the ma-
sons, while the carpenters claimed precedence, as formerly the
houses were entirely constructed of wood. It was under the
patronage of St. Joseph. These guilds took part in all
pageants and municipal displays, which were often of great
magnificence. Our own poet Longfellow says, when to his
imagination the shadowy phantoms of the past seemed to walk
the earth again at Bruges :
" I beheld the pageants splendid that adorned those days of
old;
Stately dames, like queens attended, knights who bore the
Fleece of Gold ;
Lombard and Venetian merchants with deep-laden argosies ;
Ministers from twenty nations ; more than royal pomp and
ease "
A chronicler of the Middle Ages describes the inhabitants
of Bruges as " tall, refined of features, fair in complexion,
frugal and sober, and rich in dress." In fact, so splendid was
the attire of the citizens that when Puilip the Fair, King of
France, visited Flanders with his Queen, she was so astonished
at the display of wealth, and the magnificence of the dames of
Bruges, that she exclaimed : " I thought I alone was queen,
but behold hundreds here. It appears that the burghers
are all princes, since their wives are arrayed like queens and
princesses." Again we read that in the fifteenth century,
when an alliance was formed with England, on the occasion of
the marriage of Duke Charles the Bold with Princess Margaret
of York, all the leading citizens of Bruges went out to meet
the Duke and his bride at Holy Cross gate, and do homage to
the princess, offering her wine and wax. Minstrels were posted
in the turrets of the gate, who sang sweetly as she passed, and
796 BRUGES. [Sept.,
there were grand rejoicings for many days, tournaments and
banquets. At the palace were two figures of archers ; from the
bolt of the crossbow of one flowed red wine, from the end of
the arrow of the other, white wine, wherewith to regale the
crowd. The fair of Bruges, lasting six weeks, was a matter of
European celebrity.
It is recorded that when, in 1351, the burgomasters of Bru-
ges and Ghent went to Paris, to pay homage to King John, they
were received with great pomp and distinction ; but being in-
vited to a banquet they observed that their seats at table were
not furnished with cushions ; whereupon, to show their dis-
pleasure at this want of regard for their dignity, they folded
their richly embroidered cloaks and sat upon them. On rising
from table, they left the cloaks behind ; when reminded of this.
Simon van Eertrycke, Burgomaster of Bruges, replied: "We
are not in the habit of carrying away our cushions after din-
ner." And when Louis XI., while Dauphin, having quarreled
with his father, took refuge at the court of the Duke of Flan-
ders, the latter desired to impress the future King of France
with the greatness and might and wealth of the Low Countries.
Consequently, when he and his guest came in sight of Bruges,
the nobles and magnates, with eight hundred merchants, clad in
robes of silk and velvet, went to meet the prince with torches
and shouts of greeting. Louis, who was not famed for cour-
age, was alarmed at this noisy reception and turned pale with
apprehension. But the sight of such opulence and prosperity
excited his avarice, and he, when King, endeavored, though
vainly, to annex Flanders to France.
The grandest of all the pageants was the yearly procession,
in May, of the relic of the Precious Blood. The first procession
was in 1303. The circuit made in old times was from the
Chapel of St. Basil, whence it started at ten o'clock, to the
ramparts and back round the town The bells of all the
churches announced the start of the procession, which was pre-
ceded by a body of horsemen to clear the way. These were
followed by trumpeters, blowing silver trumpets decked with
costly embroidery ; then came the city magnates and magi-
strates in gala dress, the trade guilds with their deans and
chaplains, the members of noble confraternities, the municipal
authorities with the great standard, a black lion on a gold
I9Q5-] BRUGES. 797
ground, the clergy, religious and secular, prelates from all
parts, musicians and singers, thurifers in a cloud of incense;
lastly the relic borne between two priests, and followed by a
crowd of devout persons.*
The burghers of Bruges on two occasions all but lost
their much-prized treasure. During the troubles with Ghent,
in the days of Philip Van Artevelde, the relic was one May
day being carried in procession round the ramparts, when a
band of soldiers was encountered. During the confusion some
one cried out: "The Ghenters are upon us!" A panic en-
sued, the clergy hurried away with the relic, and when order
was restored it was missing. For some days no one knew
where it was, until one morning, a Beguine, going to wash
some linen in the stream that ran through the convent grounds,
saw something shining at the bottom of the water. It was the
reliquary which one of the fugitives, not knowing where to
hide it, had thrown into the stream. Again, during the troub-
lous times at the commencement of the sixteenth century,
when Calvinism was triumphant, and churches and monasteries
were sacked, it was through the prudence of an individual, one
of the wardens of St. Basil's Chapel, that the relic was saved
from falling into the hands of the heretics. He secretly con-
veyed it to his own house and concealed it in a cellar until
the storm had passed. For twenty five years, at the period of
the French Revolution, from 1795-1820, the treasure was hid-
den in the houses of various citizens to preserve it from
Jacobin fanaticism.
There were marly monastic institutions in Bruges during
the Middle Ages. The oldest was the abbey of Eeckhout
(Canons regular of St. Augustine), so called because it was
built in an oak wood which fringed the left bank of the Roya.
No vestige of it now remains. The Carmelites came to Bruges
in 1265, thanks to the piety of Margaret of Constantinople,
the younger daughter of Baldwin, the Emperor of Constanti-
nople. There was also the great Abbey of St. Clare, founded
in 1270; the Black, or nursing Sisters; and two centuries later
the far-famed Grey Sisters. The Carmelite nuns of Sion came
in 1487. The Beguinage, instituted in the thirteenth century,
still subsists. It is a spot where peace and tranquillity reign
This procession still takes place yearly on the first Monday after the ad of May.
VOL. LXXXI. 51
798 BRUGES. [Sept.,
supreme ; far from the busy world, it is given to be the abode
of pious women devoted to the service of God, and consists of
a number of houses encircling a court, or green, planted with
elms. Each Beguine inhabits a separate house with her servant \
all are subject to a superior, and take vows of obedience and
chastity ; they are, however, free at the end of each year to
go back to the world, if they so desire. Formerly this spot
was surrounded by fertile vineyards, as the name still attached
to that quarter, Place de la Vigne, testifies.
The most striking feature in Bruges is the belfry, and the
melodious carillon of its bells. Of this Longfellow sings:
" In the market place of Bruges stands the belfry old and
brown;
Thrice consumed and thrice rebuilded, still it watches o'er the
town.
Still most musical and solemn, bringing back the olden times,
With their strange unearthly changes, ring the melancholy
chimes."
The belfry has stood from time immemorial; originally it
was of stone, surmounted by a bell- tower of wood. It was the
symbol and home of the city's liberties. In 1280 it was burnt
down for the first time ; all the charters and early records were
reduced to ashes, only the stone walls of the tower part were
left standing. When rebuilt, a spire was added with a figure
of St. Michael ; this was struck by lightning soon after, and
when it was restored, the lion of Flanders took the place of
the Archangel. From the balcony over the arched gateway
public proclamations are read out. Two watchmen are there
day and night to give notice of the outbreak of fire in any
part of the city, by ringing the alarm bell.
It must not be thought that only trade and commerce
flourished in Bruges in the Middle Ages. Architects and
artists, painters and musicians, wood carvers and woikers in
brass, all found students and patrons among the proud nobles
and wealthy burghers. The names of Van Ecyk, Hans Mem-
ling, Albert Durer, David, may bementioned among the great
artists who, if not natives, were for a considerable time deni-
zens of the city, and whose works may still be seen there.
igx>5-] BRUGES. 799
Until the thirteenth century the houses were constructed of
wood; brick or stone being used for the first time in the erec-
tion of the ecclesiastical buildings of that period. The beauti-
ful fagade of Notre Dame, with its delicate tracery of windows
and arches, elegant turrets and carved stone work ; the grand
old Hotel de Ville, from the balcony of which the Flemish
rulers were proclaimed, the picturesque gabled fronts of the
old houses, thesQ yet remain to tell of past glories. Dante on
his travels visited Bruges; it is one of the four Flemish cities
mentioned in his Purgatorio. His description of the dykes Ira
Guzzante e Bruggia corresponds exactly with the topographical
conditions of that vicinity. Caxton spent a great part of his
thirty-six years residence on the continent at Bruges. Six of
the earliest specimens of the newly-found art were printed
there, and when he sailed from its port on his return to Eng-
land, he carried with him a freight more valuable than gold,
the first printing press. Erasmus declared Bruges to be: "A
most famous city, possessed of men of learning, and many who,
if not learned, are quick-witted . and sound in jugdmen,t. I
am tempted," he says, " to live at Bruges, if I can find snug
quarters there and agreeable company."
Bruges had reached the zenith of its prosperity ; its rise
had been slow, but its decline was swift. In the sixteenth
century, under its Spanish rulers, it fell into great misery;
pauperism prevailed, the once busy marts were comparatively
deserted, the warehouses were empty, the quays without ships.
Wars, civil and religious, contributed in great measure to this
altered state of things; still more, the discovery of America
and the opening of a new road to India. Commerce sought
new paths and ports ; moreover, Bruges lost access to the sea,
through the decrease of water in the Zwijn. That estuary,
never very deep, could no longer float vessels drawing much
water, and ships of two hundred tons could no longer pene-
trate into the town. Calvinists overran the Low Countries;
armed burghers at the closed gates saved the churches from
pillage, for the people of Bruges remained staunch Catholics,
although the authorities allowed Anabaptists and Calvinists
to preach their new doctrines. For six years the party of
William of Orange was in power, during which time William
caused the Franciscan friars to be whipped and banished, the
8oo BRUGES. [Sept.,
Catholic leaders to be arrested, the bishop cast into prison,
and the public exercise of the Catholic religion prohibited.
The altar pieces were daubed with whitewash, the chapel of
St. Basil robbed of its gold and silver vessels; the costly
shrine adorned with precious stones shared a like fate, the
relic itself being hidden in the house of a private individual
until the storm of fanaticism passed over. When the submis-
sion of the city was accepted, peace was restored by Alexan-
der Farnese, the Prince of Parma. No estimate can be formed
of what ecclesiastical art and literature lost by the havoc of
the so-called Reformation.
On the Catholic revival in Europe three new houses of
religious men were founded in Bruges ; one of these being a
Jesuit College. The year after the great plague of London
(1665), the same scourge fell on Bruges. It is said that no
fewer than 20,000 of its inhabitants perished. The clergy who
visited the pestilence-stricken had to carry in their hand a red
wand, called peste-stok, to warn passe rsby to avoid them.
A wave of persecution once more swept over Bruges at the
time of the French Revolution. The church of Notre Dame
was almost demolished ; the pavement torn up, the stained
glass broken, the beautiful flamboyant stalls which lined the
choir carried away ; every kind of havoc was done, only bare
walls left standing. As we have said, the precious relic was
concealed for a quarter of a century ; until then it had been
exposed for veneration every Friday. When tranquillity again
prevailed, the venerable edifice was restored.
Through the causes we have mentioned, the population of
Bruges was reduced, in the early part of the last century, to
43,000, Now, as the poet Wordsworth says:
" In Bruges' town is many a street
Whence busy life has fled ;
Where without hurry noiseless feet
The grass grown pavement tread."
But a halo of past glory still lingers round the ancient city,
and despite its small, though increasing, population, it covers
a considerable area. Its ramparts are five miles round, and
only the leisurely visitor can know it as it deserves to be
1905.] BRUGES. 801
known. The meditative stroller will ever discover fresh beau-
ties; new points of view from which the three striking and
dissimilar spires of the belfry, the cathedral, and Notre Deme
are seen at their best; silent canals along which the swans sail
stately amid the water lilies; grassy quays and wonderful old
houses with crow- stepped gables, inscribed with far-off dates
in beaten iron. As he leans over some ancient bridge be-
neath the shade .of convent or Godshuise, and listens to the
carillon sounding high in air afar off, he may think that the
supposed melancholy of " Bruges le morte " has been somewhat
exaggerated. For Bruges has recently begun to feel a revival
of commercial ambition. Not satisfied to sit " stately and sad "
amid canals that mirror her thrice-famous spires, she is de-
sirous to become once more a busy centre of trade. She is,
in fact, once more cutting her way to the sea, access to which
she lost four or five centuries ago. Besides, in these days of
easy locomotion, pilgrims in increasing numbers flock to adore
the sacred relic which it is her pride to possess. The proces-
sions take place with the same solemnity as of old, and are
concluded with a most impressive ceremony. The blessing with
the holy relic is given from a temporary altar erected on the
Bourg to the assembled multitude, the drums of the massed
bands sounding at the moment of benediction, and the soldiers
standing with drawn swords.
ABBOT GASQUET'S NEW BOOK.
BY ETHELRED TAUNTON.
tOME few years ago in England, at a clerical meet-
ing, a prominent ecclesiastic read a paper upon
what he was pleased to call " The Catholic Pre-
sentment of History." I have always been at a
loss to know exactly what is meant by such a term.
I know what history means; and I know, alas! too well, how
it has been prostituted by parties for the sake of gaining con-
troversial victories. I have read so called Catholic histories ;
I have read also what are known as Protestant histories. His-
tory is truth ; and truth needs no qualification. Of course a
Catholic should understand certain matters and their real mean-
ing in a way that a non-Catholic writer cannot be expected to
know ; so the former will be able to detect tendencies and
trace effects back to their real causes. Beyond this, as a mere
investigator of facts and criticiser of documents, there is noth-
ing on the score of religion that gives the advantage to the
Catholic over the non-Catholic.
I am speaking plainly. When one writer, timid and for-
getting that human nature is the same everywhere and at all
times, hides or glosses over what is unpleasant, he presents
just as much a distorted picture of the truth as does the
blatant and virulent opponent of the Church who gloats over
the failings and shortcomings of Catholics, and holds them up
as the sum of all history. The suppression of truth suggests
falsehood; and bad effects are bound to ensue from such im-
morality. It is a fatal policy to set before the world the spir-
itual aspect of the Church as the sole one. She has as well
a human side a very human side -which must be taken into
full consideration. The true idea of the Church, that is, of the
Church as she really is, can only be gained by an adequate
comprehension of both aspects. To hide one hinders our vision
of the other. A day will come when the truth will out; per-
haps it will b.e rudely forced upon us by an enemy instead of
1905.] ABBOT GASQUET'S NEW BOOK. 803
a friend. Is there not always a danger of reaction, as from a
shock, when we find that things are not what they seem, and
that we have been deceived by those whom we trusted as
guides and teachers of truth? And this may go far further
than to human things only. But, thank God, there is a better
spirit abroad ; though the danger is always present. Cardinal
Manning, towards the end of his life, apprehended this truth.
He spoke to Leo JXIII., in 1883, of the timidity of certain his-
torians. "If the Evangelists," said he, "did not conceal the
sin of Peter and the fall of Judas, neither ought we to conceal
the sins of bishops and of other personages." "There are
some," he also remarked, "who would like to leave all such
matters out of the Gospels as not being for ' edification.' "
As though real spiritual life can be built up on falsehood in-
stead of on God's truth! Another English cardinal, Newman,
makes weighty remarks on the matter : " Here another great
subject opens upon us, when I ought to be bringing these re-
marks to an end. I mean the endemic perennial fidget which
possesses us about giving scandal; facts are omitted in great
histories, or glosses are put on memorable acts, because they
are thought not edifying, whereas of all scandals such omis-
sions, such glosses, are the greatest" (Historical Sketches, II.,
P- 231).
There is no need, of course, that history should be a mere
gathering of scandals, or that these should be dealt with for
scandal's sake. But when a period in history cannot be under-
stood without dealing plainly with events painful to vanity or
esprit de corps, when a disastrous effect cannot be explained
without probing the cause to the bottom (probing is always
painful to the probed and often to the prober), then I say, in
the name of the God of Truth, go on fearlessly. The result
will be more wholesome, and will tend to a radical cure of a
disease far better than hiding up a festering sore which affects
the whole body.
Some five or six years ago I was brought face to face with
certain historical problems in our own history. Why was the
English hierarchy allowed to lapse, and why did the English
people finally turn against the faith of their forefathers ? Most
writers had burked the question, and were evidently afraid to
deal with it. The matter was attracting attention outside the
Church as an important part of English history that required
804 ABBOT GASQUET'S NEW BOOK. [Sept.,
investigation. It was judged better that a Catholic and a priest
should be first in the field and show that we were not afraid
of facing the truth, however disagreeable it might be. Besides
a Catholic who simply aimed at telling the truth would be
able to draw attention to what would, naturally enough, not
strike a non-Catholic writer. The work fell to me; and I was
able to show that, whatever were the faults of a few disobedi-
ent men who were by no means representatives, the Church
was in no ways compromised. Of course my work did not find
favor in certain quarters. I never expected that it would ;
although it was written without animus, and with no other end
except to free the Church from a false accusation. I try al-
ways to be tolerant of other people's opinions. I don't suppose
I am forgiven yet for doing what I meant and think to be a
true service to the Church; and for some years I was a very
well-abused man.
But the cause of truth must go on. We cannot prevent
enquiry; and it is but ordinary policy that we should take
a share in the work. The Right Reverend Abbot Gasquet
has just brought out one of those illuminative books * which
have made his name honored as a trustworthy and solid his-
torian. Henry III. and the Church is a work conceived and
executed in strict conformity with the principles enunciated
above. The Abbot is no controversial historian ; he is simply
an investigator, scrupulous and painstaking, of the facts of the
past. Minimizing and exaggeration he leaves to others who
want to score a point over an opponent. He writes with that
only impartiality that becomes a historian, viz., a bias in favor
of truth. By the way, there is no more foolish cuckoo cry than
that of "partiality," which is so often raised against a writer
whose sole aim is to set forth, without fear or favor, what he,
by due labor, finds to be the truth. Smugness disturbed by
truth is ever ready to raise the cry of " partiality " and to prate
and pose about the "judicious impartiality" that becomes a
historian. One worthy of the name of a historian does not
venture to formulate an opinion until he has the whole case
before him ; and often the general reader only sees a very
small portion of the reasons that have weighed with the author
when formulating his conclusions. The " partiality " is gen-
* Henry the Third and the Church. By Abbot Gasquet, D.D. New York : The Mac-
millan Company. London, 1905 : George Bell & Sons.
1905. ] ABBOT GASQUET'S NEW BOOK. 805
erally on the side of the reader, who is vexed to find that his
preconceived notions are challenged.
The subject of Abbot Gasquet's new work is most impor-
tant, both as regards the ecclesiastical as well as the secular
history of England. No one has hitherto attempted it with
any thoroughness. It bristles with difficulties. Lingard gives
but a sketch ; and he does not see the wider influences at
work, nor the gtfjat object lesson the story gives. On the
other hand Dean Stephens, of Winchester, to take a late book,
in the second volume of his History of the Church of England
(with its natural limitations, an excellent series) does not, be-
ing an Anglican, see the true nature of many of the phenomena
with which he has to deal. His picture, therefore, i? often out
of focus. Abbot Gasquet, in his introduction, touches upon the
difficulty experienced by such writers of history: "Many peo-
ple come to history to find evidence for something they wish
to prove, and their eyes consequently magnify what they ex-
pect to see, whilst probably, quite unconsciously, they obscure
or diminish or discount what does not accord with their pre-
conceived notions. If this be true with regard to facts, all the
more certainly is it the case with respect to inferences or de-
ductions which have to be drawn from them, in order to ex-
plain their existence or to point their moral. Every one who
has made the endeavor will recognize how difficult it is ac-
curately to determine the sense of even one document, and
what stern self-discipline is requisite as the first condition of
every critical inquiry or historical investigation."
The reign of Henry III. of England shows some most ex-
traordinary aspects of the relations between the Church and
State. Let me briefly sketch them.
England, as the sole country in Europe that was directly
evangelized by Rome, was always considered by the Holy See
to be connected with her in a special way. As the political
world changed and the Feudal idea was engrafted on Latin
society by the northerners, so did the Church come under that
influence; and a relationship between the head and the mem-
bers, which was indeed of the very essence of the Church, re-
ceived a striking development. The primacy of the Pope be-
came accentuated as that of the over-lord, first over the bis-
hops and clergy and then over the laity. The mind of Europe,
ABBOT GASQUET'S NEW BOOK. [Sept.,
after the fatal millenary was safely passed, was more than ever
possessed with the idea of unity. It was found at work on all
sides; in law, in State, in Church, in art, in sciences. The
divine unity of the Church, which was following the laws of a
natural development, found its counterpart in the unity of the
Christian state under the Emperor of the Holy Roman Em-
pire. This empire was a direct creation of the Church. When
Popes crowned the successors of Charles the Great on that red
porphyry slab which, to day, is seen near the great door of
St. Peter's, the highest secular officer in Christendom received
his power from the Pope; and thereby acknowledged him as
over-lord. Thus it was not considered, at the beginning of the
thirteenth century, to be unbecoming the regal prerogative, for
Kings to declare themselves tributaries of the Holy See and
put themselves and their realms under the direct protection of
the Popes. Modern Europe was then, and for long after, in
the state of formation, and a strong moral head was needed to
preserve the rights of the smaller nations from the overwhelm-
ing power of the more energetic races. At this period Spain
and Portugal were already tributaries of the Pope, and found
the policy useful. Henry II. of England, when in need of as-
sistance, did not hesitate, in 1173, to acknowledge the feuda-
tory dependence of England on the Holy See, although Wil-
liam of Normandy had proudly, in the moment of conquest,
rejected any* such idea. John Lackland, two years before Magna
Charta was wrested from him, and when his barons, disgusted
with his treachery, had invited over the French, thought it bet-
ter to be feudatory of the Pope, thousands of miles away, than
yield to his turbulent barons at home. So on the I5th of
May, 1213, at Dover, John yielded to Pandulph, the legate of
Innocent III., " the entire kingdoms of England and Ireland
and all their rights," etc., "with the common consent" of his
barons, that is, of those who remained faithful to him. On
th.e same day he did homage to the legate of his over-lord,
acknowledging that both England and Ireland now formed a
part of the patrimony of St. Peter, and that he and his heirs
held them "of the lord Pope and his successors." "The act
of submission was acquiesced in," says the Abbot, " for the
sake of peace. That it was approved by any one is extremely
doubtful; as indeed how could it be?"
1905.] ABBOT GASQUET'S NEW BOOK. 807
The result, however, of this submission was to bring relief
to John from the threatened deposition at the hands of the
French King. "To the clergy and birons, also, the King's
action brought relief from the pressure of the papal interdict
which now for a long time had seriously affected all classes
of society, and the punitive effect of which was felt in every
parish and every home throughout the country." How John
played fast and lorse, both with the Pope and with his barons,
need not be told here. He deceived every one as the advan-
tage of the moment suggested ; and he succeeded in creating
mutual distrust.
But when he died, the i6th of October, 1216, the legate
Gualo, who five mDnths previously had been sent to protect
the interests of John against his barons, found the destinies of
England fallen into the hands of a youth of ten years. Gualo
secured the crown to the rightful heir and received from the
royal lad the act of homage " to the Holy Roman Church and
the Pope" for the kingdoms of England and Ireland. If
Henry III., the new King, was feudatory to the Holy See it
was obligatory on the Pope, as over-lord, to defend the rights
of the new prince. Gualo, acting under instructions of Pope
Honorius III., undertook, with William Marshall, Earl of Pem-
broke, the management of the kingdom during the minority
of Henry, and by slow degrees recalled the recalcitrant barons
back to their allegiance. How faithfully the Popes observed
their part of the contract, and how zealously and effectually
their various legates worked for the pacification of the king-
dom, will be found set forth 7n the Abbot's pages. The net
result was this. England retained its place as, a nation. Had
it not been for the papal forethought and protection, England
might, and in all probability would, have become a feudatory
State under the French Crown, or it may be, even an outlying
part of the German Empire. Indeed, as late as the Council
of Constance, in 1417, the French endeavored to maintain that
rightly England was not a country apart, but that legally it
was an integral portion of Germany. If in the making of the
nations England was saved, it was in some measure at least
because, as the late Lord Acton once declared, the union of
this country with the papal system " tended to increase con-
siderably the national power and national greatness."
8o8 ABBOT GASQUET'S NEW BOOK. [Sept.,
But there is another side to the story, and this the Abbot
approaches with fearlessness. If the Popes saved England as
a nation, a price had to be paid for it; and the paying of a
price opens the door to endless disputes and misunderstand-
ings. If the question of money caused scandal and much bit-
ter feeling, nevertheless it set into clear light the wonderful
understanding that our fathers had of the true nature of the
spiritual side of the Church. For in the relations between
Church and State, three provinces must be distinguished, if
we wish to understand the situation properly ; % there is the
purely spiritual, the purely temporal, and a third which lies
between the two. Of this last the boundaries were ever shift-
ing; and hence encroachments by either party were possible.'
The State made claims on this debatable ground, and the
Church resisted them ; on the other hand, she also insisted,
often logically, on an extension of her claims. But the point
which the Abbot brings out so clearly, and this is one of the
most valuable portions of the book, is the same that he set
forth in The Eve of the Reformation, viz., the disputes that
existed between the Holy See and England never touched, in
the smallest degree, the spiritual rights; they were only con-
cerned with those mixed claims included in the debatable land
between the two great provinces of the Spiritual and Tem-
poral. Moreover, even in the midst of the dispute, there was
discernible, in Englishmen, a distinct bias in favor of the
Church; for the principle invoked against the Pope was not
so much that of Justice as of Equity. The Summum jus was
recognized ; even if the consequent Summa injuria made men
smart and cry out and be indignant. The position was this :
If England were a feudatory kingdom she had obligations
towards the Holy See. If the Pope protected her, she was
bound to help her over-lord in his necessities, both in those
that arose from his labors for the common good of Christen-
dom as well as those which were of more peculiar advantage
to England.
Now during the reign of Henry III. the Popes " organized
the opposition to the infidel, who at one time threatened to
overrun all the Christian countries of Western Europe which
had been slowly built up on the ruins of the Roman Empire.
Then the Latin West had to defend the Latin East, and this
1905.] ABBOT GASQUEFS NEW BOOK. 809
seemed naturally to devolve upon the Popes ; whilst the in-
vasions of the Tartars, and the frequent wars with the Hohen-
staufen, demanded constant vigilance and expenditure of much
money on the part of the head of Christendom. It is ad-
mitted, I believe, that it was to carry out these public duties
and benefits to the world that the Popes were obliged so con-
stantly to appeal to the generosity of their spiritual children
whose temporal qunrrels they were really fighting. It was not
out of a passion for wealth, nor indeed to gratify any love of
personal splendor, that the mediaeval Popes made those un-
popular demands for money, about which much will have to
be said in the following pages." Thus writes the Abbot.
Not only, then, had the Popes to defend Christendom
against outsiders, but they had to contend against enemies at
home. Sometimes entirely dispossessed by their enemies, they
were at critical periods of history actually reduced to great
straits in the government of the Church and Christendom. If
now the Pope depends upon the free-will offerings of the de-
voted flock ; then, when the churches of the various nations
were rich, it was thought fit and just that they should con-
tribute of that abundance to the necessities of the Common
Father. The theory was right ; the difficulty arose from the
application. That the Pope, as having the supreme dominion
over the goods of the Church, had the right not only to levy
taxes, but also to dispose of ecclesiastical property anywhere,
was an axiom recognized by canonists then as it is allowed to-
day. For only he who gives force to the rights of individuals
can decide when these rights must give place to the more im-
perious claims of the common weal. Salus populi sufrenta lex
is a principle that obtains both in ecclesiastical as well as in
civil affairs of life. On this principle, then, the Popes levied
heavy taxes upon English churches, and rewarded, often their
only means of rewarding, faithful servants by appointing them
to English benefices, overriding, for the time, the ecclesias-
tically conferred rights of patrons. Much harm was undoubt-
edly done to religion in England when the Pope appointed to
bishoprics, canonries, parishes, and other benefices, foreigners
who neither knew the native language nor worked in the place
whence they derived their incomes.
The position became intolerable; and bitter were the com-
8 10 ABBOT GASQUET'S NEW BOOK. [Sept.,
plaints from clergy and laity. Like his father, Henry, when
he had emancipated himself from the tutorship of legates, used
to play clergy and laity one against the other, and both against
the Pope when occasion served. Doubtless also there was
much unnecessary friction caused by the methods of the Papal
collectors, which were often overbearing and sometimes not
without suspicion of private greed. The country was drained
of its resources. The Papal exactions came in some years to
a sum greater than that raised by the King for all civil pur-
poses. The goose that laid the golden eggs was being slowly
killed. Yet throughout "not only was there no attack made
upon the spiritual supremacy of the Popes, but that supremacy
over the Church universal was assumed in every document
emanating from England ; and this spiritual supremacy was
constantly asserted to have been established by Christ himself."
This is remarkable and shows that in the thirteenth century
Englishmen had the sense not to argue from the abuse against
the use.
Among the many figures that come before us in this note-
worthy book, two are remarkable, perhaps, above others : St.
Louis of France and St. Edmund Rich, Archbishop of Canter-
bury. The latter who, standing as he did for freedom against
the invasion of undesirable aliens, was canonized by popular
acclamation immediately after his death, could not cope with
the situation both ecclesiastical and civil. He was not made
of the stuff of a Becket or of a Langton. But he eventually
knew himself ; a rare virtue even in a saint. After some six
years he gave up the struggle and fled the kingdcm. He was
one of those men who could not understand opposition to
what appeared to him to be right and reasonable. Hence, un-
fortunately, he was perpetually at logger- heads with every one
with whom he had to deal.
"It is not unreasonable," says the Abbot with considerable
acumen, " to see in St. Edmund's previous career one cause at
least conducive to that attitude of mind which led to misun-
derstandings with those with whom in later life he had to do.
He was a student whose training had not previously brought
him much into contact with his fellow- men, and a professor
whose authority had been rightly accepted without question by
his disciples. Because of this mental training, it is more than
1905. ] ABBOT GASQUET'S NEW BOOK. 811
likely that he was unable or found it difficult to make allow-
ances for that deviation from strict law and principle which
every practical ruler of men has to admit as a working hy-
pothesis. The word of a superior is not always in practice a
law to his subjects as that of a professor rightly is to his stu-
dents ; and the man who has been buried in books and used
to teaching in the schools is apt to expect more of mathema-
tical precision in /obedience, from those over whom he may
afterwards be placed by providence, than in real life is usually
accorded." St. Edmund, I may add, is a saint, not on account
of the weakness of his character, but for the personal sanctity
which marked his life, for his upright character and fearless
devotion to his duty as he saw it. One meets with a similar
case in St. Thomas a Becket ; though the influences partook
more of the personal and were at the other extreme of the
pole. The history of " the blissful martyr" still awaits a cour-
ageous pen.
St. Louis showed in his dealings with Pope Innocent IV.
a fearless front when urging that Pontiff to put a stop to
grievances. " He had long held his tongue (he says) for fear
that he might scandalize others who had not the good of the
Church at heart, as he was known to have, since every one
recognized him as the most Christian prince and a devoted son
of the Church. Since, however, their grievances, so far from
diminishing, seemed rather to increase, he felt that he ought
no longer to keep silence. He consequently sent his represen-
tative to the Holy Father in order to call his serious, personal
attention to them. The French people, he declared, were all
agreed on the matter; not only were the nobles and others
astonished that he, as King, had endured, the matter so long;
but it was abundantly clear that the nation, as a whole, was
fast losing that devotion which it had been wont to have for
the Roman Church. In fact he might say that already it was
well-nigh extinct, and not merely extinct but turned into real
hatred and rancor." St. Louis could and did speak plainly.
Moreover, when necessity arose he could, without any injury
to his sanctity, act strongly. In these two saints we see the
weaker man giving up the struggle, and the stronger resisting.
I must now conclude this outline of some of the features
of a remarkable book. Abbot Gasquet has entered one more
8 12 ABBOT GASQUET'S NEW BOOK. [Sept.
claim for our gratitude by this masterly work. The stern
self-discipline of which he speaks, makes itself felt upon every
page. He contents himself with giving, wherever possible, the
very words of the personages with whom he is concerned.
His authorities are of the very highest. They are either that
of the very actors themselves, or of eye-witnesses who are
trustworthy chroniclers and in immediate relations with those
about whom they write. The narrative is, therefore, based on
documents of the very first quality. The two historians, who
lived in the days of Henry III. and were the independent
chroniclers of contemporaneous English history, were Roger of
Wendover, and Matthew Paris, both of them, like their illus-
trious brother-historian of to day, English Black Monks of St.
Benedict. Somehow or other it seems that this great Order
has always been drawn to history rather than to the specula-
tive sciences. Perhaps it is the practicality of St. Benedict's
spirit that has directed the tendency. The monks did ; they
left dreaming to others whose ideal was perhaps less immediate
and less clearly adapted to the direct needs of humanity.
Whatever the cause, Benedictine names are written prominent-
ly on the list of historical authors; and to-day such a book
as this, along with the others from the same pen, shows that
the name of Gasquet takes equal rank with any other of his
brethren.
THE ROSE OF MAY.
BY A. W. CORPE.
the character of Hamlet has been the sub-
ject of countless commentaries, that of Ophelia
has not, I think, received its due share of at-
tention ; and in such attention as it has received,
the estimate formed of it has not seldom been
biassed by extraneous or mistaken considerations. Unhappy in
her love, unhappy in her short after-life, unhappy in her death,
her misfortunes did not end there. Though the crowner had
sat on her and found it " Christian burial," in the eye of the
Church she was a "peace-parted" soul; no requiem might be
sung that were to profane the service of the dead and it was
only by special favor that she was laid in consecrated ground
and allowed her virgin crants and maiden strewments and
the bringing home of bell and burial. Since then her repu-
tation has been at the mercy of the commentators who have
found her, if loving and tender, weak and untrue to her love,
and with whom even her honor has not been above suspicion.
Goethe, who has so strangely discovered the key to Ham-
let, but who in reality very imperfectly apprehended the char-
acter, makes his Wilhelm say: "The whole being of Ophelia
floats in sweet and ripe sensation. Kindness for ^ the Prince,
to whose hand she may aspire, flows so spontaneously that both
father and brother are afraid ; both give her warning harshly
and directly. Decorum, like the thin lawn upon her bosom,
cannot hide the soft, still movements of her heart ; it, on the
contrary, betrays them. Her fancy is smit ; her silent modesty
breathes amiable desire ; and if the friendly goddess Oppor-
tunity should shake the tree its fruit would fall."
" And then," Aurelia says in reply, " when she beholds her-
self forsaken, cast away, despised; when all is inverted in the
soul of her crazed lover, and the highest changes the low-
est, and instead of the sweet cup of love, he offers her the
bitter cup of woe."
"Her heart breaks," Wilhelm continues, "the whole struc-
ture of her being is loosened from its joinings; her father's
VOL. LXXXI. 52
8 14 THE ROSE OF MAY. [Sept.,
death strikes fiercely against it; and the fair edifice altogether
crumbles into fragments." And further on Wilhelm says:
"Silently she lived within herself, yet she scarce concealed
her wishes, her longing; the tones of desire were in secret
ringing through her soul, and how often may she have at-
tempted, like an unskilful nurse, to lull her senses to repose
with songs which only kept them more awake. But at last,
when her self-command is altogether gone, when the secrets of
her heart are hovering on her tongue, that tongue betrays her;
and in the innocence of insanity she solaces herself, unmind-
ful of King or Queen, with the echo of her well- beloved songs,
'To-morrow is St. Valentine's Day' and ' By Gis and by St.
Charity.'"
To which Aurelia replies : " I must admit your position of
Ophelia to be just. I cannot now misunderstand the object of
the poet. I must pity, though, as you paint her, I should
rather pity than sympathize with her."
Gervinus, while not disposed to go quite so far, says:
" Hamlet's conversation with her is equivocal. . . . This
has infested her imagination with sensuous images and inspired
her in her quiet modesty with amorous passions; this is ap-
parent in the songs she -sings in her delirium, and in the signi-
ficant flowers she distributes, as clearly as anything so hidden
in its nature can and may be unveiled. . . . She lends
herself to the snare placed for her all-sensitive lover, who sees
himself abandoned and betrayed by all ; when she has seen
him in his distraction, she gives him back his gifts, which af-
fects the irritable man in this condition like a farewell act.
Her real madness punished the feigned insanity of Hamlet,
which gave the first shock to her mind."
An eminent modern authority says: "Ophelia is tender,
sensitive, affectionate, but the reverse of heroic; she fails
Hamlet in his need, and thus, in her turn, becoming the suf-
ferer, gives way under the pressure of her afflictions. We do
not honor, we commiserate her."
It needs hardly be said that widely different views have
been entertained by many able judges, but these are cited as
typical examples of the opinions that have been expressed by
critics of the highest consideration. These characters have be-
come so real to us, that we are in danger of regarding them
as actual personalities, and filling up the outline of the text
1905.] THE ROSE OF MAY. 815
from our own imagination, instead of going to the text to
elucidate the poet's meaning. I will invite the reader to go
through the part of Ophelia with this purpose in view.
At the opening of the play we find Ophelia, the daughter
and, as we are led to infer, the only and motherless daughter
of Polonius, the Lord Chamberlain, the object of attentions on
the part of Hamlet, the heir to the throne of Denmark.
Hamlet is represented as of engaging person and manners, and
in every way qualified to win her affections, and notwithstand-
ing the chronology of the first gravedigger, evidently not past
early manhood. His addresses, notwithstanding their difference
in station, have been perfectly respectful. Ophelia has every
confidence in his honor and has received presents from him.
Laertes, Polonius' son, is about to sail for England, and
Ophelia first appears upon the stage as Laertes is taking leave
of her. There is something engaging in the first sentence she
utters-, in reply to Laertes' rt quest to let him hear frcm her,
"Do you doubt that?" Laertes then goes on to mention
Hamlet, who has evidently been already the subject of con-
versation between them. He bids her not to regard his at-
tentions, "the trifling of his favor," as anything more than a
passing fancy. "No more but so?" is the quiet response
with which (as Lowell remarks) Shakespeare tells us that
Ophelia's heart is bursting. Laertes proceeds to point out
that Hamlet is not his own master in the matter of marriage,
and, not unkindly, but without much delicacy, cautions her to
be on her guard. She takes his counsel in good part, giving
him a little hint in return as to the difference between preach-
ing and practice. Presently he takes his leave, bidding her
remember what he has said, to which she replies: " Tis in
my memory locked and you yourself shall keep the key of
it." Polonius, who has entered shortly before, asks what it
was Laertes had been saying to her. She answers with a
slight reserve : " So please you, something touching the Lord
Hamlet." He then proceeds, in a manner coarse and almost
brutal under the circumstances, and only to be excused on ac-
count of his unworthy suspicions :
'Tis told me he hath very oft of late
Given private time to you; and you yourself
Have of your audience been most free and bounteous.
Si6 THE ROSE OF MAY. [Sept.,
. . . I must tell you,
You do not understand yourself so clearly
As it bshooves my daughter and your honor.
What Is between you ? Give me up the truth.
He hath, my lord, made many tenders of his affection to
me.
Affection! pooh! you speak like a green girl.
Do you believe his tenders, as you call them ?
I do not know, my lord, what I should think.
Marry, I'll teach you : think yourself a baby ;
. . . . Tender yourself more dearly ;
Or ... you'll tender me a fool.
My lord, he hath importuned me with love
In honorable fashion.
Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to.
And hast given countenance to his speech, my lord,
With almost all the holy vows of heaven.
Ay, springes to catch woodcocks.
Then he proceeds to lay his commands upon her :
From this time, daughter,
Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence;
Set your entreatments at a higher rate
Than a command to parley.
And then more strictly :
This for all:
I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth,
Have you so slander any moment leisure,
As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet.
Look to't, I charge you.
I shall obey, my lord.
After her brother's caution and her father's suspicions, what
eould she in modesty do but obey ?
The next view we have of Ophelia is after the interview
with Hamlet in her closet; before considering this it is neces-
sary to take note of Hamlet's position.
1905.] THE ROSE OF MAY. 817
Hamlet on his first introduction to the spectator is repre-
sented as moodily brooding over his father's death and his
mother's o'er-hasty marriage, and dreamily meditating upon,
though not actually contemplating, suicide. It is while in this
condition that he encounters the alteration in Ophelia's behav-
ior to him in pursuance of her father's injunction.
As you did command
I did repel his letters and denied
His access to me.
He is piqued and irritated by her behavior; he would na-
turally consider that a young lady in Ophelia's position would
be honored by his attentions, and he knew that she had pre-
viously regarded him with favor. He would easily guess, even
if he did not gather it from Ophelia herself, that this was in
consequence of her father's injunction, and would suspect a
motive, which would arouse his indignation, not only against
Polonius, but against the poor girl hersel 1 , for yielding to them.
Close upon this follows the shock of the preternatural visita-
tion, with the terrible burden of revenge laid upon him. At
the first shock of the communication made to him, he is con-
scious that his mind is so disturbed that he may at any mo-
ment be betrayed into eccentricity of conduct, and, as Charles
Lamb expresses it, he thinks his real perturbation of mind
would be best covered and pass concealed under a disguise of
pretended lunacy.
It is a remarkable instance of the irony of things that this
false scent, which effected so little for Hamlet's purpose in the
play, should have been so potent a cause of misconception
ever since. Because Hamlet had said that he might see fit to
put on an antic diposition, and he was manifestly feigning in
his scene with Polonius, therefore it has been supposed that in
his most dreadful paroxysms, and in the face of his express
affirmation to the contrary, he must be feigning.
Dr. Conolly, who has made an interesting study of Hamlet
from a professional point of view, treats this as a common
symptom in mental disorder. It is by no means infrequent, he
says, when disease is oply incipient that the patient has an
uneasy consciousness; he suspects that he is suspected and
anxiously accounts for his oddities, sometimes challenging in-
quiry, sometimes declaring that, in doing extravagant things.
8i8 THE ROSE OF MAY. [Sept.,
he has only been pretending to be eccentric. However, the
question of Hamlet's condition, except so far as it affects
Ophelia, is apart from the present question. His state of
mind, after the ghost leaves him, is clearly enough described
in his pathetic soliloquy :
Remember thee !
Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe. Remember thee !
Yea, from the table of my memory
I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,
r * . ; ' .
f,\ That youth and observation copied there.
He had been separated by her repulse from the only being
ne loved; now he feels that love, marriage, happiness in this
world are not for him ; his terrible task has absorbed all his
energies and left no room for any softer emotions. He will
pay her, who was his love, a last farewell.
It is difficult to understand how in the affecting scene, de-
scribed . by Ophelia, any one can ever have supposed Hamlet
to be feigning; for Ophelia the scene is real enough; she is
alarmed, and on Polonius suggesting that Hamlet is mad for
Jove of her, doubtfully acquiesces. Ultimately Polonius decides
fo bring the matter before the King, to whom, and to the
Queen, Hamlet's recently changed manner had occasioned great
concern. He accordingly goes to the castle and lays the
case before the King and Queen, and the issue of this con-
ference is that a meeting shall be brought about, as if by ac>-
cident, between Hamlet and Ophelia, of which the King and
Polonius shall be unseen spectators, and hereupon ensues the
difficult scene of Act III.
Casuists have amused themselves with speculating as to
what circumstances render deception justifiable. I believe all
are agreed that such a course is not only justifiable but
right and proper, when practised upon a sick man, with the
object of relieving him. It was obviously necessary that
Ophelia should join in the scheme, and, whatever the motive
of the others, her motive was sincere and honorable. She
now knows that no objection will be made to her marriage
with Hamlet, on account of their difference in rank, and she
avows, with modest simplicity, her affection for him and hopes
tor his recovery.
I9Q5-] THE ROSE OF MAY. 8.19
And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish
That your : good beauties be the happy cause
Of Hamlet's wildness; so shall I hope your virtues
Will bring him to his wonted way again,
To both your honors.
Madam, I wish it may.
; u :j-jirn*ri <ri! /-.
It has been much debated whether at any time during this
scene Hamlet suspects that he is being overheard. It is evi-
dent in the soliloquy he believes that he is alone ; but it is
possible that he detected some constraint in Ophelia's manner,
which caused him to doubt, and he knew from their own con-
fession that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern had been set upon
him ; there is, however, no such indication in the text, and it
is difficult to conceive that Hamlet could in his right mind so
wantonly and cruelly insult the girl he had loved, merely for
the sake of mystifying the King or whoever might be listening.
It seems more natural to suppose that, irritated by Ophelia's
offering to return his presents, one of his mad fits seized him,
and that he lost all self-control and spoke at random. We
know that another such fit seized him in the scene with
Laertes in the churchyard. " This is mere madness," said the
Queen on that occasion, "and thus awhile the fit will work on
him." And when Hamlet again met Laertes, before the fenc-
ing, he himself says :
What I have done
. . I now proclaim was madness.
But we are rather concerned with Ophelia's behavior in
this trying scene. She has entered into her father's scheme
with the hope that she may be the means of restoring Ham-
let by inviting him to renew his attentions to her, and she
now knows- that she would be acceptable to the King and
Queen as a daughter-in-law. At their last interview he had
bidden her a strange farewell, and she will test his sincerity
by returning his presents. His first words to her show him
to be in one of his moods.
Good my lord
How does your honor for this many a day ?
I humbly thank you ; well, well, well.
820 THE ROSE OF MAY. [Sept.,
My lord, I have remembrances of yours,
That I have longed long to re-deliver ;
I pray you now, receive them.
No, no; I never gave you aught.
My honored lord, you know right well you did ;
And, with them, words of so sweet breath composed
As made the things more rich ; their perfume lost,
Take these again ; for to the noble mind
Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.
There, my lord.
Then it is Hamlet bursts out :
Ha, ha! are you honest?
. . . Are you fair?
Words which affect us almost as a personal affront to our-
selves. Ophelia can only reply by startled exclamations.
After some wild language, he breaks off :
I did love you once.
Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.
You should not have believed me
I loved you not.
I was the more deceived.
Hamlet again talks wildly and again suddenly breaks off:
Where's your father ?
At home, my lord.
Of course this was an untruth, and, if deception is never
justifiable, may be condemned by those moralists who do not
live in glass houses. But what was she to do ? Could she
betray her father ? No doubt a less truthful person would have
found a ready equivocation, but she t is not practised in that art.
Probably this question of Hamlet's was merely a bow at a
venture ; if he had suspected any one was listening, he would
have taken it to be the King, as in the case of the interview
with the Queen after the play.
If Hamlet had known Polonius was listening, he would cer-
tainly have taxed Ophelia with lying, but as it is, he accepts
her answer.
'905-] THE ROSE OF MAY. 821
Ophelia, with "love's fine wit," perceives only too clearly
the state of the case; she has now no doubt, and all her fond
hopes forsake her.
O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown !
The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword ;
The expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
The observed of all observers, quite, quite down !
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,
That sucked the honey of his music vows,
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,
Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh ;
That unmatched form and feature of blown youth
Blasted with ecstasy; O, woe is me,
To have seen what I have seen, see what I see !
A few hours later, on the very same day, Hamlet again
meets Ophelia; apparently he has no recollection of what has
so recently passed between them; he speaks to her as if noth-
ing had happened; but now, for the first time, he makes use
of equivocal expressions in talking to her. It has been sought
to account for this, by reference to the manners of the period,
and no doubt contemporary instances of such language are to
be met with ; but, as Gervinus remarks, neither Romeo, nor
Bassanio, nor even Proteus, has spoken so with their beloved
ones. This has an important bearing to be referred to Ophelia's
songs; for the present it is sufficient to note the quiet unob-
servance with which she puts his allusions aside.
An interval occurs before we again encounter Ophelia and
then it is not Ophelia we see. Hamlet has slain her father in
mistake for the King, and in order not to excite public atten-
tion to the manner of his death, he has been buried in an
obscure fashion and not according to his rank and dignity,
and Hamlet himself has been sent away to England. The
calamity of her father's death coming upon the top of her other
troubles has overwhelmed her; her reason has given way and
she has sunk into the most hopeless and pitiable of the ills
that flesh is heir to, when life has become nothing but a jum-
bled and distorted memory. There is no need to recall the
affecting scene in which she sings her snatches of songs, dis-
tributes flowers, and utters enigmatical sayings; it is only
THE ROSE OF MAY. [Sept.
necessary to refer to one of the ballads, which the poet, with
consummate art, has introduced among her songs. If there is
one characteristic of mental derangement more constant than
another it is the impairment of the sense of decency. This is
the explanation of Hamlet's equivocal talk. Shakespeare makes
Lear say : " An ounce of civil good apothecary to sweeten my
imagination." " The foul fluid," is a constant allusion of Ed-
gar's during his assumption of madness, and without assuming
anything as to the connection between demoniacal possession
and lunacy, it may not be out of place to refer to the fre-
quent description of the devils as unclean spirits. Sir Edward
Strachey has pointed out how, in mental derangement, delicate
and refined women will use language so coarse that it is diffi-
cult to guess where they can ever have even heard such
words, and reminds us that such a nurse as Juliet's would be
quite sufficient to account for all that falls from Ophelia's lips.
It is moreover certain that the recording tablets of the brain,
as ^Eschylus calls them, may unconsciously receive impressions
which may remain latent like the invisible picture on the photo-
graphic plate, ready to flash into consciousness when the oc-
casion arrives. Is it possible that this saddest trait of Ophelia's
malady has been so misunderstood, as to give rise to a suspi-
cion of her honor ?
10 r Surely Coleridge's is the truer insight: "Note the conjunc-
tion here of these two thoughts, that had never subsisted in
disjunction, the love for Hamlet and her filial love ; with the
guileless floating on the surface of her pure imagination, of the
cautions so lately expressed, and the fears not too delicately
avowed, by her father and brother, concerning the dangers to
which her honor lay exposed. Thought, affliction, passion,
murder itself she turns to prettiness."
The Queen tells us the manner of her death and her
gentle words at the grave almost dispose us to forgive her for
her part in the tragedy.
Such is Shakespeare's Ophelia, a creation in which he
seems to have combined the purity and innocence of Miranda
and the gentle tenderness of Julia with the indefinable grace
which comes of patient suffering and resignation. Truly
Hamlet spoke wiser than he was aware of, when he said: "Be
thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape
calumny."
Current Events. -
In Russia, since the last notes
were made, what has for some
time been the normal course of
unsettlement still exists. Not, however, in so aggravated a
form. Only one higti official has been assassinated ; nor have
so many hundreds of the people been shot by the orders of
the Little Father. Peace, however, is far from reigning ; nor
will, or in fact should, it reign until fundamental changes of
government, such as to make life bearable, have been made.
How necessary it is that there should be a change may be
judged by the simple fact that in the single year 1903 no
fewer than 4,867 persons were arbitrarily arrested for holding
political opinions, and sent without any trial to long imprison-
ment or to various forms of exile in different parts of Siberia.
This was done in spite of the fact that in 1896 a Ukase had
been issued which seemed to abolish all arbitrary arrest for
political offences or political opinions. It is not to be won-
dered at that a more substantial security for life and freedom
is now found necessary than the word of the supreme ruler.
The hops that such security will be realized is made brighter
than ever before by the long-expected manifesto issued by the
Tsar on August 19. In this manifesto the Tsar declares that
" the time is come to summon elected representatives from the
whole of Russia to take a constant and active part in the
elaboration of the laws, attaching for this purpose to the higher
State institutions a special consultative body entrusted with the
preliminary elaboration and discussion of measures and the ex-
amination of the State Budget. While preserving the funda-
mental law regarding autocratic power, we have deemed it well
to form a Lower House of Assembly and to approve the regu-
lations for elections to this Lower House, extending the valid-
ity of these laws to the whole territory of the empire," with
some exceptions.
The manifesto excludes Finland from any of these conces-
sions and declares that, with regard to that province, the Tsar
will take special measures. The general Assembly is to meet
not later than the middle of January, 1906.
824 CURRENT EVENTS. [Sept.,
The manifesto sets forth at great length the provisions for
the Constitution. The members of this State Council will be
elected by the people for the term of five years. This National
Duma, or Lower Council, may be dissolved at any time by the
Tsar and new elections ordered at his will. The Council shall
have authority but only advisory authority to consider new
laws or modifications of old ones ; to examine and to give its
opinion on the different State budgets; to examine the official
report of the comptroller of the Empire ; to consider the con-
struction of railways by the State and also the organization of
stock companies that involve exceptions from the present laws
and also to consider matters which an Imperial decree submits
to them for debate. This Council may initiate bills and may
pass on bills submitted to it by the ministers and chiefs of
departments and the secretary of the Empire. Its sessions are
not to be open to the public ; but representatives of the press
are to be admitted to all save closed sessions. The President
of the Council must exercise censorship over all press reports.
Bills that have been passed by this State Council go then to
the Council of the Empire. The results in each Council are
to be submitted to the Tsar.
Such are in brief outline the long looked-for concessions
which have been granted to Russia by the Imperial manifesto
to the Russian people. It is in no way the grant of a Con-
stitution. For its validity and stability it depends on the will
of the Tsar and his successors. Their autocratic power is ex-
pressly reserved, both in general and in particular. The power
of perfecting the organization of the Lower House and to
make changes in it, is declared to belong entirely to the
Emperor.
Although the manifesto was published only a few days ago,
its principal provisions have been known and discussed for
many weeks and at a Congress held at Moscow, of representa-
tives of the Zemstvos and Dumas of the Empire, the scheme (as
it then was) met with almost unanimous condemnation, as be-
ing merely an extension of the present hated bureaucratic sys-
tem. Many of these representatives were in favor of making a
revolutionary appeal to the people. Better counsels, however,
prevailed; the wise decision was taken to make the utmost use
of the concessions which were expected, as a means for the
attainment of further and greater concessions. This they did
1905.] CURRENT EVENTS. 825
because they feared that the Russian people might be upon
the point of holding a position of power and influence to
which they had never been accustomed, and that there were
others besides themselves who had it in their power to appeal
to them. In fact, there are many who think with Count Tol-
stoy, that all political changes are of no use for the ameliora-
tion of the immense majority of men. Kings and emperors,
noblemen and gentlemen, may have been guilty of oppression
and of acting unjustly; but, after all, in their oppression there
was something of the grand and the magnificent; but the op-
pression of the class beneath the upper class, that is, the
so-called middle class, to whom political changes have given
power in many countries, is as great and infinitely more sor-
did and humiliating, and therefore less tolerable. The Russian
people, ninety per cent of whom are peasants, have been
brought up to venerate, love, and trust the Tsar, and have
but little regard for any one else, least of all for the doctors,
professors, merchants, landed proprietors, and the classes who
are mainly represented in the Zemstvos. What the peasants
want is the land, and if they can get that, each one enough
for his own wants, Parliaments and political changes of every
kind are, in their eyes, of no account. For their well-being,
temporal and eternal, they would place greater trust in the
Little Father than in parliamentary representatives. If ninety
per cent of the Russian people could be brought to be con-
tented with their lot, the Tsar might well have thought that
he could defy the rest the so-called intellectuals. The mani-
festo, however, has settled this question. A step has been
taken towards a Parliament. It is too early to form a judg-
ment as to results.
The German Emperor has been
Germany. the chief centre of interest, not
only in his own domains, but
throughout the length and breadth of Europe. His diplomatic
victory over France, which resulted, in .the fall of M. Delcasse,
has not induced him to relax his activity. That victory was
not entirely due to himself. If the French had stood as a unit
in support of the minister's policy, their plan for the peace-
ful penetration of Morocco would not have been frustrated.
826 CURRENT EVENTS. [Sept.,
M. Delcasse's fall was due, to a great extent, to the dislike
felt for him by the Socialists, represented by M. Jaures. The
Socialists are averse to war and stand in special dread of a
war with Germany, and to this dread M. Delcasse was sacri-
ficed. The German Socialists have the same aversion to war^
and were willing to unite with the French in a peace demon-
stration to be held in Berlin. M. Jaures was invited to ad-
dress this meeting. Common sense, and some little feeling of
gratitude for his services to peace, should have made him wel-
come. The very opposite happened ; Prince Biilow wrote to
the German ambassador in Paris to request M. Jaures not to
go to Berlin. The Prince said that M. Jaures was a very ex-
cellent man, holding many opinions of -which he highly ap-
proved; but that the German Socialists, who are by far the
most numerous of the German parties, having some three mil-
lion votes, were so very unpatriotic that they would use M.
Jaures' presence in Berlin for the purpose of their campaign
against the State and against national interests. The result of
this action has been to bring prominently into notice the
aims of the international Social Democracy, and into favorable
notice, too. The prospects of peace being preserved are far
better when there are, as in Germany, millions of the Ger-
man working classes, who form the backbone of German in-
dustry and also of the army, bent upon peace and out of
sympathy with any policy of aggression.
But the visit of the Emperor to the Tsar has been the all-"
absorbing subject ever since it took place, and the speculations
concerning it would fill many pages. Did the Tsar invite the
Kaiser or the Kaiser the Tsar ? What was the real significance
of the meeting ? Was it aimed at the alliance between France
and Russia ? Had the Emperor in view the formation of a
a league against Japan, the revival of the Triple Alliance of
1894 of Russia, Germany, and France? Or was the visit merely
an act of personal friendship on the part of the two monarchs ?
Were the internal troubles of Russia the main subject of dis-
cussion ? Did the Emperor urge the Tsar to continue the
war, or was his influence exerted in favor of peace? Or per-
haps it was the affairs of Norway and Sweden which were the
chief subject of discussion. The European newspapers have
devoted columns upon columns to the discussions of those
questions without, we fear, imparting any real knowledge.
I905-J CURRENT EVENTS. 827
The interview, of course, was important. Our fear is that it
will not have done much to promote the well-being of the
world. We cannot forget that it is to the advice of the Em-
peror that the present war is due> for it was he who prevailed
upon the Tsar to occupy Port Arthur. The results of the
present interview will be revealed by the impending events.
It is not to the Tsar alone that the German Emperor has
paid visits. King Oscar of Sweden and King Christian of Den-
mark have been likewise honored. Concerning these visits,
also, rumor has been busy. Much has been written, but very
little is known. It is worthy of note, however, how great is
the influence which, in the somewhat decayed condition of Par-
liaments at the present time, is being exerted by the different
rulers. Emperors, Kings, Presidents, are very busy and seem
to be taking their places at the head of affairs and to be sup-
planting their ministers, even in countries which give but little
power to the head of the State.
It cannot be doubted that the feeling against England
is growing stronger and stronger in Germany ; in fact, it is
said on good authority that it is as intense as it was dur-
ing the Boer War. This was shown when it was announced,
that a British Fleet was going to cruise in the Baltic. In Ber-
lin this was interpreted as a political demonstration intended to
counterbalance the impression created by the activity of Ger-
man squadrons in those waters. As a matter of fact, the cruise
had been arranged three or four months ago. Some of the
German papers argued for the Baltic being declared a mare
clausum like the Black Sea. Most of the papers, however, de-
clined to go this length. The British cruise, however, will
prove a strong argument for an increase of the German navy.
It may be thought that too much attention is being paid
to the German Emperor for, after all, he is but a single unit
of the many on the surface of the globe. Yet even in these
days, in which the people are supposed to rule, the fate of the
many is dependent upon the will of the few ; and among these
few the Kaiser has a very great power for good or for ill,
and a very distinct personality. He is determined not merely
to reign but to rule. Prince Bismarck's fall was due to this
determination; every subsequent Chancellor holds his office
upon this condition ; and if Prince Biilow has any distinc-
tion, it is that he recognizes this fact more fully than his
828 CURRENT EVENTS. [Sept.,
predecessors. The German Constitution gives to the Em-
peror very ample powers, the bare enumeration of which
would occupy too much of our space, and the Emperor is,
like most other officials, not unwilling to enlarge those powers
and to violate the spirit and often the letter of the Constitu-
tion in order to have his own way. In order to understand
his foreign- policy, it must be borne in mind that Germany is,
as it were, in a vice between France and Russia. To escape
from this situation the Triple Alliance was formed. Further
efforts for the same object were made by the endeavor to
raise up for France other enemies. Jules Ferry was encour-
aged to annex Tunis. Russian schemes in Central Asia were
encouraged in order that the possible enemy on the other side
might become involved with Great Britain. The recent de-
feat of Russia in its conflict with Japan has formed a deliver-
ance earnestly desired, indeed, but not, we believe, directly
promoted by the Kaiser. One arm of the "vice" has been
destroyed. But through the entente which has been brought
about between France and England a new danger to German
predominance had arisen. This the Emperor endeavored to
render abortive by his proceedings in Morocco. His object
was to detach France, to isolate her; even, some say, to
render Paris dependent upon Berlin. Distrust and suspicion of
England were insinuated by German agents. England, it was
said, was using France as a cat's paw to work her will upon
Germany. That England is the enemy of Germany seems now
to be taken for granted throughout Europe. The question for
France was to which side should she attach herself. There
was a period of hesitation ^ nor can it be said with perfect
confidence that that period is over. But signs are not want-
ing that the decision has been made. Nay, it may be shrewd-
ly surmised that the entente cordiale will harden into a definite
alliance between France and England, to which the Emperor's
opposition will have distinctly contributed. The fetes at Brest
on the occasion of the visit of the British fleet bore evidence
of the most hearty good will on the part of the French peo-
ple and of the French government. The interests alike of
France and England point in the same direction. England
has it in her power, by means of her fleet, to free the army
of France so that it may not have any care for the defence
of the coast-line; and the services of the British Fleets in
1905.] CURRENT EVENTS. 829
other ways would render England a valuable ally in a defen-
sive war. Whether or no an alliance is to be formed, there
cannot be any reasonable doubt about the solidity of the
entente.
The affairs of France have been so closely intermixed with
those of Germany that there is but little left to mention. Anx-
iety is beginning to be felt on account of the delay of Ger-
many in giving particulars with reference to the Conference
about Morocco. Even after the concessions which France has
made, it is feared that further trouble will arise. The conces-
sions granted to a German firm, and the rumored issue of a
loan to the Sultan by German bankers, seem to indicate a
wish to take advantage of the present situation in a way which
would be a violation of the terms agreed upon between the
various powers.
In the Hungarian dominions the
Austria-Hungary. conflict between the Fejervary
Ministry and the coalition major-
ity is being continued throughout the country. Parliament hav-
ing been prorogued, we do not hear of those scenes which at-
tract the attention of the newspaper reader. The contest has
taken the form of the "passive resistance " which has been so
widely resorted to in England by those who object to the Ed-
ucation Act. This resistance to the tax collector is defended
on the ground that the Ministry has no right to govern after
it has been defeated in both Houses of Parliament, even after
the Grown has refused to accept its resignation. " In the pres-
ent circumstance it is the duty of every one to withhold all
public services from an unconstitutional government." This is
the declaration of a manifesto issued by the managing Com-
mittee of the Coalition. The Government threatens to dismiss
the local officials if they refuse to perform the duty of collect-
ing the taxes. In this event the Committee promises to com-
pensate them on the restoration of normal conditions. It is
the government and its supporters that will have to pay the
penalty in the end. How soon this end will come cannot be
predicted; but the decisive conflict cannot long be delayed.
VOL. LXXXT. 53
830 -CURRENT EVENTS. [Sept ,
Italian politicians are enjoying a
Italy. vacation, Parliament having ad-
journed. We hope the study which
it deserves is being given to the Encyclical addressed by the
Pope to the Italian bishops. It can scarcely be doubted that
it involves a new departure and that the Catholics of Italy
will be called upon by their bishops to work for the well-
being of their country, in order " to reintroduce Jesus Christ
into the family, into the school, into society"; "to co-operate
for the miterial and civil welfare of the nation." "The
Church," the Pope declares, " in the long course of her
history, has always and in every case clearly proved that she
possesses a wonderful power of adaptation to the changeable
conditions of human society, so that saving always the integ-
rity and immutability of the faith and morals, and savirg
equally her sacred rights, she easily adapts and accommodates
herself to all that is contingent and accidental to the changes
of the times and to the new exigencies of society."
Spain is now under the rule of
Spain. the Liberals and looking forward
to a general election. The party
in power carefully organizes these elections, as carefully as our
fellow-citizens in the Southern States; nor is there any secret
about it. In fact, for many years by mutual arrangement
Liberals and Conservatives alternately governed the country,
the one making way for the other, with the greatest equanim-
ity and in the spirit of the most perfect fair play. This seems
a truly enviable method, were it not that, as the recent war
showed, both also seemed to have been equally ready to neglect
their real duties. The King is on the point of adding one
more to the long list of royal visits. He will this time be the
guest of the German Emperor.
The Committee appointed by the
Sweden. Swedish Riksdag have made their
Report as to the method to be
adopted by Sweden in view of the action of the Norwegian
Storthing in declaring the Dissolution of the Union. Sweden,
of course, could not accept the action of Norway as final,
from a legal point of view, however willing ,it might be to
1 90S-] CURRENT EVENTS. 831
accept it as practically decisive. The Committee was ap-
pointed to find a means of making the dissolution legal. This
can only be done with the consent of the King oi Sweden
and of the Swedish Riksdag. This consent the Committee re-
commends should be given should the dissolution really be
the will of the Norwegian people, provided four conditions are
fulfilled. In order to ascertain the will of the Norwegians, the
Committee recommended that the question should be put be-
fore them categorically, either by means of an election of a
new Storthing or by a direct vote in the form of a referendum.
The' Norwegians did not stand upon their dignity and declare
that their will had already been declared by the vote of the
Storthing. The referendum was adopted, and with practical
unanimity the will of the people that the Union should be dis-
solved has been manifested.
The other conditions are, we presume, practically accepted,
for, if there had been serious objection to any one of them it
would not have been worth while to have had a referendum.
The most important of these conditions is that a zone on
either side of the southern frontier line shall be established in
which no forts or fortified positions shall be allowed. We
may in all probability look upon the separation as an accom-
plished fact. It is a strong proof of the power which the
idea of nationality holds over the mind. There was no op-
pression, nor any material grievance, of a substantial character
at all events. Norway's rights as an independent nation seem
to have been fully recognized, except in the matter of a dis-
tinct consular service; and even this point the Swedes were
willing to discuss. But Norway would not tolerate the mere
appearance of dependence on the Swedish Minister and Parlia-
ment. Now she has to stand alone, a small nation of some
two millions of people. Taxation almost certainly will be in-
creased. What form of government she will adopt depends
upon the good will of European princes. While among the
Norwegians there are those who prefer the republican form of
government, the majority are in favor of a monarchy. The
country is, however, so democratic in its customs and whole
spirit that few princes will be desirous of so empty a title.
Other reasons may render it impossible for them to find a
King. And so, perhaps, one more Republic may be added to
the list.
IKlew Boofce.
Just as a successful race horse
GLENANAAR. must, as a consequence of his past
By Sheehan. triumphs, submit to the penalty of
carrying extra weight in subse-
quent entries, so the author who has already made his mark
must expect to satisfy a severer standard than that applied to
the debutant. Hence one picks up the latest production of the
pen to which we owe My New Curate and Luke Delmege, with
high expectations and in a somewhat exacting mood. Perhaps,
to continue the slang of the turf, Canon Sheehan may have
contrived to lower his penal weight somewhat by his more re-
cent performance ; for but our concern is with Glenanaar*
not with A Spoiled Priest. How runs the story ?
Towards the end of the nineteenth century there arrived in
a Munster village, a " Yank," gorgeous in broadcloth and jew-
elry. He was cold, taciturn, with an air of supercilious aloof-
ness and mystery that proved impenetrable even to Irish curi-
osity. Naturally nobody liked him, not even the parish priest,
who is the relator in Glenanaar. Soon, however, circumstances
so dictated that the "stand-offish" middle-aged Yankee should
take part in a local hurling match; when he proved himself a
past master in the dangerous game, and incurred some injuries
that confined him to the hospital. There he made the ac-
quaintance of the parish priest, now his admirer. Confidences
arise, and the priest learns that the stranger is Terence Casey,
who, twenty years before, had achieved fame as a hurler, still
celebrated in many a local ballad. Assuming that Casey has
returned to look for an Irish wife, his Reverence endeavors to
bring about a meeting between Casey and a widow, Mrs. Leon-
ard, whom time and adversity have not deprived of all the
virtues and graces that, in years gone by, belonged to the
village belle, Nora Curtin. This well-meaning plan fails, for
Casey refuses to disclose to the public his identity, and the
widow will not see the stranger. But the priest's efforts re-
sult in bringing forth Casey's story, or rather the story of
Casey's parents and grandparents. And here, in the third chap-
Glenanaar. A Story of Irish Life. By the Very Rev. Canon P. A. Sheehan, D.D.
New York : Longmans, Green & Co.
NEW BOOKS. 833
ter, is sounded the motif of the piece, brought out with strik-
ing force by Canon Sheehan. It is the fierce, unquenchable
hatred and abhorrence which the Irish peasant bears towards
the loathsome wretch whose trail is over every page of Irish
history, the informer.
The narrator carries us back to the notorious Doneraile
conspiracy, in the early years of the century, through which a
large number of innocent and estimable farmers were brought
to the gallows on the evidence of a band of perjurers. Others,
who had been in equal danger, escaped through the dramatic
intervention of Daniel O'Connell, then rising into fame.
Among the latter was Edmond Connors as Canon Sheehan
presents him one of nature's noblemen, clad in brogues and
frieze. About the time of the trial, a girl infant is abandoned
by her mother at Connor's threshold ; he has the child brought
into his family, although he, and he alone, knows that the lit-
tle one is the child of the archinformer in the Doneraile con-
spiracy, Cloumper Daly. Through many chapters, in which we
find some delightful sketches of Irish life, the events are told
which occur in the years that develop the foundling into a
winsome girl, beloved of old Connors and of his family. But
gradually the damning secret of the girl's parentage leaks out.
Hate of the informer is carried out to cruel and murderous
measures against herself and her chivalrous protector. Finally,
after many trials, Nodlag, that is her name, marries, and gives
birth to Terence Casey, who grows to manhood, ignorant of
the stain upon his lineage, and sharing in fullest measure the
general hate for the informers. But at length he learns the
truth, that he is the son of Cloumper Daly's daughter. Driven
to madness, he reviles and abandons his gentle mother; breaks
with his sweetheart, Nora Curtin, whom he loves too much to
make her a sharer of his disgrace ; and flees to America, to re-
turn, after many years, at the opening of the tale. The rest
is soon told. Faithful to his ideal, he offers to make his old
love his wife; but when she refuses, he transfers his attentions
to her daughter, who realizes much better than the care-worn
widow the picture that for years, through mining camp and
crowded city, he had carried in his heart of the girl that he
had left in tearful woe under the hawthorn twenty years before.
The book abounds in exquisite sketches of various features
in Irish life, lit up with that thorough insight into the per-
834 NEW BOOKS. [Sept.,
plexing depths and cross-currents of Irish nature and that
tender pathos and delicate humor which is Canon Sheehan's
own. Only on reflection does one notice a certain tameness
and absence of force when the author deals with the fiercer
passions and strong, dramatic situations The part of the
book, and it is the greater part, in which Nodlag figures is
charming. But its excellence injures the novel as a whole.
For afterwards the interest dwindles. After her, we refuse to
care very much about Mrs. Leonard. Notwithstanding some
clever dialogues and adroit presentations of the changes
wrought by the present Gaelic movement, Casey's final court-
ship, with the substitution of the daughter for the mother, is
an anti-climax. Canon Sheehan has suffered from his wealth
of imagination, and, by condensing into one story materials
that should have served to set forth two, has injured the unity
of his creation. But we have still to thank him for a story
which, if not so good as it might have been, is yet very good.
The reader who will begin at Chapter III., and close the
book at Chapter XXIII., will have enjoyed a tale not un-
worthy of a place alongside those of Carleton.
May we impute to the incorrigible typographer the ap-
pearance, more than once, of the meaningless phrase "the ould
dart" in Canon Sheehan's pages? Misled by a faulty current
pronunciation, our manufacturers of the stage Irishman, who
are probably unacquainted with the almost obsolete word
"airt" (point of the compass, quarter of the world), have used
that blundering form instead of the true expression " the ould
airt," equivalent to " the old country."
One of the latest volumes * in the
ST. COLUMBANUS. well-known French series of Lives
By Abbe Martin. ^ o f t he Saints is devoted to Colum-
banus, the Irish monastic legislator
and founder of the celebrated monastery of Bobbio in Northern
Italy. Columbanus is one of the grandest figures in religious
history, and has many a lesson for our own time. He was one
of that vast multitude of Irishmen who flocked to the cloister
in the centuries immediately following St. Patrick, and so dis-
tinguished themselves for holiness and learning as to win for
their country the title which Ireland will cherish forever, "the
* St. Columban (540-615). Par 1'Abbd E. Martin. Paris: Librairie Victor Lecoffre.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 835
island of saints and scholars." Departing frcm Erin with a
company of monks Columbanus traversed France and part of
Germany, founding monasteries as memorials of his labors at
Luxeuil and other places, until he settled in Bobbio, the last
and most famous of his religious houses. For his monks Col-
umbanus wrote a Rule which was widely adopted in the mon-
asteries of the West, becoming, indeed, so extensively followed,
that for a time it was an open question whether Benedict or
Columbanus would be recognized as the chief monastfc legisla-
tor of Europe. But Columbanus 1 Rule was too austere to pre-
dominate over the gentler and wiser code of the great patri-
arch of Monte Cassino. It might have been tolerable to the
fierce Irish temperament of those heroic days, but, in the na-
ture of things, it was not capable of providing a permanent
basis for the cenobitical life, which, like every other life, must
make some concessions to human limitations. Columbanus made
none ; and neither old age nor sickness was a reason for ex-
empting any of his monks from the rigid prescriptions of his
Rule, or from the lashes on the bare back that were the pen-
alty of infringing them.
But of more practical importance for us is the private char-
acter of Columbanus. Herein it is that he is needed as a mode)
for us. He was brave ; and along with his eminent sanctity
he possessed a fearlessness in expressing his opinions, whether
to kings or popes, for which the world would be better if it
prevailed to-day. Pusillanimity in presence of the great, and
silence in presence of abuses how many disasters in Church
and State have they not caused ! How many are they still
destined to cause! May the magnificent figure of this old Irish
monk do something to inspire in us an apostolic intrepidity
when conscience says that we ought to act and to speak !
May his sublime words, "si tollis libcrtatem, tollis dignitatem''
"if you destroy a man's liberty, you destroy his dignity," ring
loud in modern ears and summon modern men to higher paths !
Read this man's life and learn the lesson of it, is our counsel.
We need it, and it will do us good. As for the Abbe Martin's
execution of his task, it is very creditably done indeed. He
gives us an excellent picture of the times, and is evidently in
love with the great character of whom he writes. Perhaps we
could wish for somewhat wider information as to the historic
importance of Columbanus' Rule, and of his great foundation,
836 NEW BOOKS. [Sept.,
Bobbio ; but, considering that this volume is restricted to less
than two hundred pages, we must admit that it contains about
as much, both as to matter and spirit, as we could reasonably
expect.
We venture to say that the Cath-
THE RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK olics of France, clerical and lay,
IN FRANCE. w ill receive no advice better worth
By Abbe Hemmer. following, in their present and ap-
proaching trials, than is contained
in M. 1'Abbe Hemmer's recent brochure.* M. Hemmer looks
the breaking of the Concordat straight in the face as an in-
evitable event, and turns his attention to the consequent diffi-
culties which the Church in France must meet, and in what
spirit it ought to meet them. He is no lover of the Concordat.
It has deprived the French clergy of liberty. It has made
them mere functionaries. It has paralyzed their free action
and their personal initiative. It has obscured their sacred
character as priests with the rags of state officialism. But on
the other hand, says M. Hemmer, let us not be blind to the
dark days in store for French Catholicity when the final sepa-
ration comes. Granted that priests and bishops will then be
free, many of them will also be brought to utmost penury.
Already it is common for the thrifty peasant to grumble at
paying marriage or burial fees once or twice in a lifetime.
How shall he be trained to contribute constantly, when his
pastor's support is left completely to his generosity ? Hard
times will fall upon many a diocese, and probably more than
one cure, shut up in some mountain hamlet or scattered vil-
lage, will have added to the grievous burden of friendless loneli-
ness which is now his portion, the sharper pains of hunger.
But, says our author, if the French clergy meet the situation
wisely, the time of suffering will be foreshortened, and out of
misery will come greater good. If, however, they meet it un-
wisely, the road ahead will end in ruin.
How shall the Church of France face her crisis with pru-
dence? The Abbe Hemmer gives this answer. In the first
place lay co-operation must be earnestly cultivated and loyally
and squarely accepted. We Americans are so happily situated
* Politique Religieuse et Separation. Par 1'Abbe" Hippolyte Hemmer. Paris : Alphonse
Picard et Fils.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 837
in this respect that we wonder at the need of such a recom-
mendation. But we must remember that in France priest and
people unfortunately are not so near together as we see them
here. In fact a large number of French ecclesiastics are ter-
rified at the thought of a live laity. They would actually pre-
fer them dead. This type of the cleric shudders to day at the
ghost of laicisme, as a few years ago every individual hair upon
his head stood up before the spectre of Anie'ricanisme. And
of course if this feeble, futile, feminine folly keeps up and
spreads about, it will be sad for Catholicity in France. But it
cannot keep up nor spread about. The inherent sanity of
human nature must prevent it. In the second place, says this
brilliant little book, the clergy must beware of becoming a caste
with narrow little interests of their own, and with an ignorant
mepris of all other human concerns. Vigorous social activity
and an earnest mingling with their flocks in every legitimate
exercise of zeal and good will, should be the programme of
priests and bishops from now on. In the third place the
French Catholics are warned against forming a political party,
as some of them have proposed doing. Proeperity for the
Church will come from saving souls with single-minded disin-
terestedness, not from fiddling with politics. That will lead to
destruction. And finally, says our author, liberty must be pro-
tected. Fairness in the election of bishops, due recourse for
those who suffer from the exaggerations of authority, openness,
honor, and candor in ecclesiastical affairs, must be guaranteed
in order to ensure the well-being of the Church and to win to
its support the public respect and benevolence ot which it is
now deprived.
All honor to brave and loyal men like M. Hemmer, who
thus give utterance to the silent thoughts of many thousands !
To such men great credit will be due when final success comes
after many reverses. For final success must come. We cannot
doubt it, even though we are unable to forget the mournful
history of French Catholicity for the past three-quarters of a
century. Now that the ultimate disaster threatens, we are sure
that the vast resources of faith and piety within the Church
in France, will provide a refuge from it, and will furnish a
foundation for better days to come.
838 NEW BOOKS. [Sept,,
The Vicomte de Meaux has writ-
PERSONAL RECOLLEC- ten an interesting and valuable
TIONS. volume* on the history of France,
By Vicomte de Meaux. f rom the close of the Franco-
Prussian war to 1877. While the
work consists of souvenirs, personal recollection?, ar.d such
matters of public policy as the author himself had a share in,
nevertheless it gives us a pretty full account of French govern-
ment during those six years, for the reason that the Vicomte
de Meaux was one of the foremost figures in France under
the presidencies of Thiers and MacMahon, and was intimately
connected with every interest, foreign or domestic, which then
preoccupied his country. No need to say what momentous
years those were for France. Years they were in which the
ancient nation, from which so much of modern civilization has
come, emerged from one great disaster only to plunge head-
long into another and a greater. With a rapidity which made
the world wonder, and caused her victorious enemy to fear,
France recovered from the shock of her humiliating defeat by
Germany, rearranged her finances, reorganized her army, and
bore herself with as much dignity as a new republic as evei
she had boasted as an ancient monarchy. It was renascence,
new life, and every lover of democracy rejoiced. But the
shadow of death was on her even from the beginning; and it
was the shadow of the blackest and most hopeless of death?,
the death of faith, and with faith, of purity and every other
foundation of a State.
It is unutterably sorrowful to behold the beginnings of that
religious persecution which has brought France so low. There
was no sign of it at first. The national assembly of 1871
opened with prayer, and ordered public prayers for the coun-
try's restoration. The great Bishop of Orleans, Dupanloup,
was a member of the assembly, and was listened to with a
feeling nearer to love than mere respect. It seemed as though
the nation had fixed its eyes Godward, and was destined to
have its bruises healed by the oil and wine of her traditional
Catholicity. But then came the dreadful cleavage between the
people and their faith. The cry of clericalism was raised and
exploited by cunning demagogues; the claim that the Church
was scheming for the monarchy and hostile to the republic was
* Souvenirs PoUtiques 1871-1877. Par le Vicomte de Meaux. Paris : Plon-Nourrit et
Cie.
1905-] NE w BOOKS; 839
dinned systematically into the ears of the electorate, until sus-
picion turned to hatred, and hatred to a savage resolution to
destroy. And the misery is that Catholics laid themselves open
to such attacks. They did hold aloof from their country's in-
terests; they attempted unwisely to fling France into the Italian
quarrel, although they knew that the instant a French army
set foot upon the march for Pius IX.'s relief, Germany would
fling her irresistible battalions across the frontier and complete
the ruin half accomplished at Metz, Sedan, and before the for-
tifications of Paris ; and finally, these Catholics, for whose folly
it is hard to find a fitting epithet, turned upon their own breth-
ren and struck down the hands that were strongest to save
them. The mischief, the havoc that an intemperate press can
bring about, and that unwise leaders, episcopal, sacerdotal, and
lay, can carry to the point of irreparable disaster, may be seen
with sorrowful vividness in the France of the seventies and
eighties. May all the rest of the world, may France herself,
profit by the lesson !
All this M. le Vicomte tells quietly, modestly, and with
some degree of completeness. His attitude throughout is very
noble. He grieves for the blunders of his own party; and he
is burdened with sorrow at seeing how terrible is the issue
which has been reached under Waldeck-Rousseau, Combes, and
Rouvier. His work is a real contribution to a great period of
modern history.
Our readers may remember that
INFALLIBILITY. several months ago we gave a
By Paul Viollet. favorable notice of M. Paul Viol-
let's pamphlet on the limits of
Papal Infallibility and on the authority of the Syllabus. The
author of that treatise, a veteran professor of Canon Law, was
led to undertake his task by the conviction, which thousands
share with him, that many people are kept from the Catholic
Church because they have an unduly exaggerated idea of the
authority of the Church's rulers. His purpose was to set such
people right. And so he wrote his little work, which is a
mine of erudition and is loyally Catholic throughout. He was
attacked of course. The best of men will differ in matters of
theology; it is a science famous for its " controvertiturs" And
now he issues another pamphlet* in answer to his critics.
InfaillibiliU et Syllabus. R/fonse aux " Ztudes." Par Paul Viollet. Paris: Roger et
Chernoviz.
NEW BOOKS. [Sept.,
Those who read the earlier work will find this supplement
thereto nowise unworthy of it. In a few fruitful pages he
discusses the meaning of " theological certainty " ; infallibility
in the canonizing of saints; and the meaning and authority of
two or three articles of the Syllabus. There are here too a
keenness of dialectic and an easy command of theological eru-
dition which mark the genuine scholar and the thoroughly
trained student. We heartily recommend the treatise, and
express our hope that we shall hear more of M. Viollet. He
is evidently one of those rare men whose pen is capable of
doing vastly more than it has yet accomplished.
The sixth volume * of a series of
THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST, works in defense of Christianity,
By Abbe Fremont. a ll written, we believe, by the
Abbe Georges Fremont, deals with
the fundamental question of the divinity of Christ. We hardly
need to speak either of the momentous and timely nature of
such a subject, or of the profound scholarship which one who
attempts it must possess in these days of ours. The old treat-
ment, enclosed within a few pages of the tract De Verbo In-
carnato, is insufficient now, and must be supplemented by ac-
curate and painstaking information regarding the methods and
conclusions of the higher criticism of the New Testament. M.
Fremont has some appreciation of this fact; and consequently,
when compared with certain others of our manuals, his work
wears a look of modernity. He endeavors to take into con-
sideration the new learning which has confronted apologetics
with fresh problems, and he gives frequent citations from the
Libres-Penseurs of the day. Everybody, by the way, accord-
ing to the good Abbe, is a libre-penseur who has any opinions
different from Bacuez and Vigouroux's Manuel Biblique. Woe
upon us if we dare to talk about " redactions," or if we ven-
ture to hold that Mark's Gospel is prior to the others. Libres-
penseurs will be our tag in such a case. The only consolation
left us is the reflection that nearly all Catholic critics hold
many of the opinions thus branded, and we who are of like
sympathies, may faintly hope that they know as much about it
as the Abbe Fremont.
There is some serious work in this volume, we are glad to
La DiviniUdu Christ. Par I'Ablx* G. Fremont. Paris: Librairie Bloud et Cie.
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 841
say, and it is marked by an edifying earnestness to do good
to the great cause of Christian truth. Our best wishes for
success must attend a purpose so exalted. But we cannot re-
frain from observing that the pious author has something still
to learn before he can win distinction with his present theme.
This we say with respectful deference to the arguments irresisti-
bles which he tells us he can furnish, and to the twenty-five
or thirty years of study which he informs us, over and over,
he has devoted to his task. We fear that not enough of that
long period was given to the study of the authors whom he
sets out to overthrow. In the discussion of such subjects as
the synoptic and Joannine problems, the meaning of Filitis Dei,
and the testimony of St. Paul, the Abbe Fremont hardly dis-
plays the critical erudition and acumen which, these matters
demand.
As to the tone of the work, it is dignified enough until the
Abbe Loisy is mentioned, whereupon it descends to abuse.
Whatever other censures M. Fremont might have been able to
pass upon M. Loisy, he made a grave mistake in selecting
Loisy's scholarship as the object of his sarcasm. That scholar-
ship is too deep and varied and too widely recognized to be
injured by unfounded charges. Some other line of attack would
have displayed better the Abbe Fremont's prudence. However,
let us once more recognize that much in this volume is sound
and strong, and that it is, taken all in all, a creditable essay
in Christian apologetics.
The expectations, formed concern-
THE NEW YORK REVIEW, ing the New York Review* high
though they were, have been
more than fulfilled by the initial number. In point of literary
excellence the Review will stand comparison with the very
best of the great secular magazines ; and the excellence of its
matter will prove a revelation to those who have been led to
believe that the Catholic Church has ceased to produce en-
lightened thinkers and scholars.
The most striking, and encouraging feature of the Review
is that the entire contents, articles, book reviews, editorial
notes, Scriptural studies, breathe one and the same spirit
This fact is all the more remarkable because, as we have
learned, this unanimity is not the result of any previous un-
The New York Review. Vol. I., No. i. New York: St. Joseph's Seminary, Yonkers.
842 NEW BOOKS. [Sept.,
derstanding, consultation, or editorial direction. The intel-
lectual attitude unmistakably manifested throughout the num-
ber is a cheerful willingness to welcome the legitimate claims
of the modern mind, and regard it as a potential ally to the
cause of Catholic truth. It has become almost a truism among
us that the Church's great need, to-day, is a genius who
would do for our age what St. Thomas did for his, which was
to bring our theological system into harmony with the ad-
vances gained in secular knowledge. But no commanding in-
tellect like that of the great Dominican has been vouchsafed
to the Church in these later days. Indeed, the vast growth of
the sciences forbids the possibility that, ever again, one single
mind, within the compass of a lifetime, should be equal to
forming the synthesis of science and theology. The task must
be achieved by many men working, under one co-ordinating
principle, along many distinct lines. The composition of the
New York Review, with its contributions from America, Eng-
land, and France, affords consoling evidence that everywhere
there is a strong movement in progress towards the desired
end. The Spirit of God is agitating the waters for the heal-
ing of the nations. Hitherto the movement has suffered for
want of an organ for its adequate expression in the English
tongue. The English-speaking world has to thank the Arch-
bishop of New York for conferring on it the blessing of which
it stood in need. Let but the New York Review realize, as
everything indicates it will, the splendid promise of its initial
number, and Archbishop Farley will have the satisfaction of
knowing, not merely that he has built himself a monument
cere perennius, but that he has done an inestimable service to
the Church in every land where our language is spoken. We
)ffer to the learned editor and his able assistants our warmest
;ongratulations, and our sincerest good wishes for their con-
tinued success.
The Reverend Henry Browne,
HOMERIC STUDY. S.J., of University College, Dub-
By Fr. Browne. H n> has published a handbook to
Homer* which deserves the high-
est commendation. It deals with judiciously selected topics
concerning which the student needs to be informed, and in
* Handbook of Homeric Study. By Henry Browne, S.J. New York : Longmans, Green
& Co.
1 90S-] NEW BOOKS. 843
treating them combines the thoroughness of specialized schol-
arship with a happy manner of popular presentation. We all
remember what we wanted to know as our reading in Homer
progressed: Who was this Homer; or who were these
Homers ? How did the cycle of poems come down to us ?
Who were the people and what their customs, among whom the
Iliad and the Odyssey arose ? And what is the philosophy of
Homer's poetic and grammatical peculiarities ? All these ques-
tions Father Browne answers simply and eruditely. He is
acquainted with the best works in the recent English and
German literature of Greek philology; and he has a happy
aptitude in addressing himself to a student's mind such as
only long experience in the classroom could give. The use of
a manual like this will transfoim the study of Homer from a
dull to a fascinating exercise. Marvelous it is how some
teachers can lead their students through the classics as though
it were through the Sahara ; never a word on the history of
the author; on the customs of his age; on the literary prob-
lems involved ; on anything beyond a bovine plodding from
word to word which leaves the wealth of the original unap-
preciated, and our English vernacular wounded grievously in
the house of its friends. It will be to Father Browne's credit
that he will be the means of relieving so scandalous a situa-
tion and of surrounding Homeric study with the pleasure and
profit which should always accompany it. We may mention in
conclusion that Father Browne strongly maintains that the
Homeric poems are not the work of one man, but that the
period of their composition extended through several genera-
tions.
It was a happy thought that led
SAINTLY WOMEN. to the writing of this Dictionary
By Dunbar. of Saintly Women* by Agnes B. C.
Dunbar; a work in two volumes,
of which we have just received the first, consisting of biographi-
cal sketches of women who are honored as saints. It is writ-
ten with ardent sympathy and with a highly respectable eru-
dition. It would appear that the author is an advanced Angli-
can, although it is possible that she is a Catholic. A few
phrases, very few indeed, however, indicate a falling short from
the traditional Catholic spirit; as when shs says that St. Ger-
A Dictionary of Saintly Women. By Agnes B. C. Dunbar. London : G. Bell & Sons.
844 NEW BOOKS. [Sept.,
trude relied more on the Savior's grace than on the indulgen-
ces of the Church. Slips of this sort, as we said, are very
rare. Substantially the work is Catholic in spirit, and it makes
profitable and edifying reading. When completed it will be a
valuable addition to hagiography. It is a slight blemish that
Mother Augusta Theodosia Drane is referred to as Mrs. Drane.
The present volume* is a worthy
ELIZABETH SETON. memorial of the centenary of Eliz-
By Sadlier. abeth Seton's conversion to the
Catholic Faith. The life and work
of this heroic and saintly woman are familiar, or should be fa-
miliar, to every Catholic in the land. From the beginning,
absolute and unerring faithfulness to the will of God was the
greatest and most constant desire of her soul. Even when she
went much into society, she never neglected her rigorous ex-
amination of conscience. To know God's will this was her
hunger and her thirst. When that will led her, through a veri-
table crucifixion of spirit, to the Catholic Church, Elizabeth
Seton followed it heroically, even though it cost her poverty,
helplessness, and social ostracism, and persecution by her fam-
ily. She saw nothing then of her wonderful after work, which
we see and know now.
Widowed and left alone with her children, she started a
school in New York City, but her pupils were taken away be-
cause she was a Catholic. Later she went to Baltimore and
there laid the foundations of the community of the American
Sisters of Charity, which afterwards, from Emmitsburg, was to
establish houses throughout the entire United States. These
early days were days of suffering, of distress, and doubt ; but
the struggle, the pain, and the sacrifice, the hunger, and the
cold, are all to be blessed because, like the darkened back-
ground, they bring out in pure, strong light the soul of this
wonderful, saintly woman, whose work has done so much for
the inspiration of others, the welfare of country, the glory of
the Church, and the glory of God.
The lessons of her exceptional life are manifold. A wife f
a mother, a religious; faithful and devoted, she was watchful,
tender, and resigned, she was self-denying, holy, and thoroughly
* Elizabeth Seton, Foundress of the American Sisters of Charity, Her Life and Work. By
Agnes Sadlien New York : D. & J. Sadlier & Co.
1 90S-] NEW BOOKS. 845
spiritual. To the reader her life is a personal inspiration ; an
inspiration, not only in the sense that he is moved to imitate
the virtues which she displayed so continuously and so emi-
nently, but an inspiration also in this, that in Mother Seton,
in the bishops and priests of her day, the Church in America
has a noble history, that God is with it in his holy purposes,
obscure though they may be, and that the present generation,
with the same spirit of complete sacrifice, the same abundance
of hope, should take up and enrich the inheritance.
The author's work, though it forms but a small volume, is
done quite thoroughly. It is evidently the fruit of much con-
scientious labor and of great love, for the spirit of exactness
and enthusiasm characterizes it. The volume is a worthy tri-
bute to a most worthy woman.
The author of this volume of poems * has not chosen high
and lofty themes that might have led her into the obscure and
the indefinite. The subjects of her poems are simple ; and
their treatment simple also ; yet their poetry is not trite nor
commonplace. Her work is sweet and musical, and the author
evidences a measure of poetic insight and of easy writing.
And because of this the volume deserves a worthier title than
the empty, alliterative one which has been given to it.
The Daily Review \ is such an exceptional newspaper, and
puts forth such worthy aims, that we willingly give it here a
word of praise and encouragement. This daily newspaper is a
courageous movement in favor of white journalism. It prints
in condensed form all the important news of the world that it
is necessary or edifying for one to know ; and for the reader
is a saving both of morals and of time. It excludes all unbe-
coming advertising, such as liquor, tobacco, or indecent and
suggestive matter. The Daily Review is a distinct and hope-
ful departure and we wish it all success.
* Friendship' s Fragrant Fancies. By Catherine Moriarty. New York : Dodge Publishing
Company.
t The Chicago Daily Review, 1322 Wabash Avenue, Chicago, III. $i a year.
VOL. LXXXI 54
Ipenobicals,
The Tablet ((5 July): The Rev. Herbert Thurston, S.J., treats
of the complicity of St Pius V. in the Ridolfi con-
spiracy. He challenges the unqualified statement of the
late Lord Acton that " Pius commissioned an assassin to
take Queen Elizabeth's life." Further, in dealing with
Cardinal Wolsey, the divorce of Henry VIII., also in
considering the question of the premeditation of St.
Bartholomew's massacre, the writer differs from the
opinion of Lord Acton. Father Thurston, while grant-
ing to the Cambridge professor an extremely wide knowl-
edge of facts and acquaintance with the opinions of
others, denies him the supreme requisite of the true
historian, viz , an unbiased, judicial quality of mind.
- Communication from Rome acquaints us with the
death of the Rev. Mgr. Mooney, Rector of the Irish
College.
(22 July): Recently there were published in the Journal
Official two decrees suppressing no fewer than 126 con-
vents and schools belonging to the Ursulines, Christian
Brothers, Sisters of Charity, and others. - The memor-
able controversy on Plainsong is closed in this num-
ber. - Three Biographies, each superlatively interesting,
are now in course of preparation. They are the lives of
Cardinals Newman, Manning, and Vaughan.
(29 July) : Rev. Father Thurston, S.J., endeavors to
bring to light a further striking example of the extrava-
gance of the late Lord Acton's anti Roman bias. He
offers a refutation of the latter's statement that St.
Charles Borromeo, together with St. Pius V., sanctioned
the assassination of heretical rulers.
The Month (Aug.): Rev. J. A. Pollen deplores the fact that
Catholic students of English history are so dependent
on Protestant manuals, and that we are so behindhand
in advanced histories, and in reference books. The
remedy does not seem to be easy. For says the writer:
"To judge from our very slow progress in providing
i95-] FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 847
handbooks of Catholic Theology, of Scripture, of Church
History, we may well say that the practical difficulties
are very great." Assuming, however, that the right
men and the means can be secured, Fr. Pollen sub-
mits a plan for the compilation of a Dictionary of Eng-
lish History, supplementary to the ordinary text-books,
and adapted to the use of Catholic teachers and ad-
vanced students. He favors a scheme of co-operation,
the contributors taking up the subject one from another
in such a way as to present a more or less continuous
story. He, further, offers suggestions as to the nature
of the work, as to the standard of scholarship to be
maintained, and as to the list of topics. In comment-
ing on Professor Bury's Life of St. Patrick and His Place
in History, J. S. Shepherd praises the author's genius
for deep research and his spirit of impartiality. He
disagrees, however, with some of the professor's conclu-
sions; notably those regarding the saint's birthplace, the
place of his captivity, and his destination after his es-
cape from bondage.
Le Correspondant (10 July): With fairness and reserve Mgr.
Batiffol praises the efforts of the Anglican clergy in bib-
lical criticism. He cites the numerous endeavors of
prominent scholars in that body for a clearer apprecia-
tion of the truths hidden in the Old and New Testa-
ments. Among those whom he deems especially worthy
of mention are Hastings, for his Dictionary of the Bible,
and Cheyne, for his Encyclopedia Biblica. But the writer
thinks that this criticism of the Bible has, in some cases,
gone to extremes. For instance, he considers the efforts
of Cheyne to explain the two verses of Samuel (xxvii.
10 and xxx. 29) mentioning the Jeramehelites, to be on
the verge of falsehood. Not only are some of these
High Church scholars hypercritical, but at times they
are rather intemperate. Canon Henson, who was accused
of denying the fact of the Resurrection ; Rev. Mr. Beeby,
censured for his denial of the Virginal Conception of our
Lord ; and Mr. Mallock, who defended them in the
Nineteenth Century of September, 1904, are scored for
intemperance. F. de Witt-Guizot describes the actual
848 FOREIGN PERIODICALS. [Sept.,
situation of the laboring classes in the United States,
shows the relations of capital with these classes, and
finally the part played by the public in these relations.
(25 July): Now that the discussion over the separation
of Church and State has been closed, many opinions are
given regarding the future welfare of the Church. Abbe
Sicard seems to have gloomy presentiments. When, from
1792 to 1807, the support of the clergy depended upon
the people, the Church in France, he says, was in sad
condition. Priests were poorly paid, some even dying
from want. The French peasant demanded a priest, but
because of his deep spirit of economy, not to say avarice,
he allowed the servant of God to die from hunger. In
1804 the State came to the clergy's aid, but only partly
relieved them. In 1807 the support of the Church again
passed into the hands of the government and the priests
were saved from hunger. Soon the State will cease to
pay the clergy. Will history repeat itself, or have the
French Catholics learned a lesson from fifteen years'
experience ? F. Pascal considers it a bad sign when
patriotism is lacking in the primary schools. Such is
the case in France. The schools, he says, are being in-
vaded with socialistic and anarchical teachings, destroy-
ing both love of country and love of God. He suggests,
as a remedy, that a little more religious teaching be
tried. France has lately witnessed the formation of
syndicates of farmers, and of syndicates having a purely
socialistic and revolutionary character. Max Turmann
explains their growth and their actual development, and
proposes remedies for the establishment of peace in the
troubled parts of the country. Marc Helys gives an
account of the origin, organization, and great results of
the Japanese Red Cross Society.
La Revue Apologetique (16 July): Henry Mainde sketches the
life of Cardinal Wiseman. C. de Kirwan writes a
lengthy article in praise of Abbe Fontaine's book, Infil-
trations Protestantes.
Revue Benedictine (July) : D. Germain Morin presents a critical
study of some unedited fragments of ancient Gallican
antiphonary which he thinks formed part of a liturgy in
I9Q5-] FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 849
use in France before the introduction of the Roman.
Dom Chapman contributes another of his biblical
articles, that is both interesting and suggestive. The
article is entitled " The Testimony of John the Presby-
ter on the Subject of St. Mark and St. Luke." The
writer arouses attention to the fact that the author of
the fourth Gospel was evidently striving to harmonize
St. Mark and St. Luke. Some of the conclusions to be
drawn, if the writer's thesis is accepted, are: that the
Presbyter spoken of in the fragment of Papias is the
Presbyter John ; that this John is the author of the
fourth Gospel ; that Luke followed Mark ; and finally
that great importance was attached to the exactitude
of historic details in the time of Presbyter John. D.
Rene Ancel brings to a close his study of the politics
of Cardinal Charles Carafa.
La Quinzaine (i July): Those who are interested in pedagogy
will do well to read the leading article of this number.
"Womanly Patience in Education " is the theme; Louis
Arnould the author. He gives his idea of the virtue
of patience and of its necessity in dealing with children.
The obstacles that try the patience of the mother or
teacher are pointed out. Concrete examples are given
to illustrate his subject. The first mentioned is Miss
Anne Sullivan, the well-known instructor of Helen Kel-
ler. An extensive review of M. Brunetiere's latest
work is begun in this number by Joseph Wilbois. First
he analyzes the book, then discusses the theses advanced
therein. To show the importance of this new book of
apologetics, the reviewer points out the prominence of
positivistic philosophy in recent times. The system
of metaphysics evolved from positivism is sharply criti-
cised, as is also Comte's attempt to reduce religion to
the religion of Humanity. Then follows a further criti-
cism of Comte, in which the fallacies of his philoso-
phy and the ludicrousness of his religion are strongly
set forth.
(16 July): M. Wilbois' review of Sur les Chemins de la
Croyance is concluded in this number. The religious
tendencies of contemporary positivism are taken up here,
850 FOREIGN PERIODICALS. [Sept.,
the reviewer noting particularly their effects on con-
temporary Catholicity. Two objections are stated in
criticism of M. Brunetiere the first is that he regards
the Church too much as an external corporation, the
second that, like his former leader, Comte, he tends to
make religion purely social. In conclusion M. Wilbois
commmends M. Brunetiere for the work he has done,
and expresses the hope that the remaining volumes may
soon appear.
Annales de Philosophic Chretienne : An obituary notice of the
Abbe Denis by Pere Laberthonniere who has become
editor of Les Annales tells how the deceased (who
died on the I4th of June, at the age of forty-five years)
practically re-created Les Annales during the ten years
of his editorship, enlarging its scope and opening it to
the living thought of the day. An article by the
Abbe Denis is devoted to an apology for Catholicism
against Sabatier, Harnack, and Reville. A. Brisson
devotes several pages to a discussson of the view held
by some Catholics, namely, that Christ foreknew his
death only as " une eventualite" and that part of the
human infirmity taken upon himself was the lack of
special light concerning the result of his work and his
death.
Studi Religiosi (May-June) : An anonymous article comments
on the extraordinary number of pamphlets now issuing
in Rome from Catholic sources urging various reforms,
some of which are very drastic, in the conduct of the
Roman Curia and its entourage. One of the latest of
these significant publications is from the pen of a Ro-
man prelate, who maintains the following positions: I.
The Roman Curia has wrested to it altogether too much
power; so much, in fact, that it has destroyed all
personal initiative in a great number of bishops and
priests ; 2. Several religious orders have utterly aban-
doned their primitive monastic ideals, and are now
grasping at places of power in the government . of the
Church, bringing with them all the prejudices and nar-
row views which characterize such close corporations ;
3. Communities of women ought not to be bound by
1905.] NEW BOOKS. 851
strict cloister and should not take perpetual vows; 4.
Superstitious popular devotions should be suppressed ;
5. The Breviary should be radically reformed; 6. Much
of our theology makes of it the Don Quixote of sci-
ences, battling with age-worn weapons against dead
enemies ; 7. Thf Index should be checked from precipi-
tous condemnations. E. Buonainti gives a careful out-
line of M. Blondel's philosophy of action. F. De
Sarlo discusses the place of spirituality in the recent
psychological Congress. S. G. criticises the recent
attempts to disprove the Virgin- Birth.
BOOKS RECEIVED.
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, New York:
Henry the Third and the Church. By Abbot Gasquet, D.D. 1905. Pp. xvi.-^6. Price
$3-
ROGER ET CHERNOVIZ, Paris:
Infaillibilite' et Syllabus. Response aux " Etudes," Article de M. 1'Abbe" Bouvier, Numero
du 20 Jonvier, 1905. By Paul Viollet. Pp. 59.
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.
THE ETHNOLOGICAL SURVEY, Manilla, P. I.:
The Bontoc Igorot. By Albert Earnest Jenks. Pp. 266. Paper.
STORMONT & JACKSON, Washington, D. C.:
The Pioneer Fortcaster of Hurricane. By the Rev. Walter M. Drum, S.J. Pp. 29. Paper.
JOHN LANE, New York and London:
The Life and Letters of Robert Stephen Hawker, sometimes Vicar of Morwenstow. By his
son-in-law, C. E. Byles. With numerous illustrations, including lithographs by Ley
Pethybridge and Reproductions from Portraits, Photographs, etc. Pp. xxvii.-689. Price
$5 net.
THE CATHOLIC TRUTH SOCIETY, Chicago, 111. :
What About Hypnotism ? By a Priest. Pp. 22. Paper. Some Martyrs of Corea. By
Cardinal Wiseman. Pp. 13. Paper.
GARY & Co., London:
Downside Masses. By R. R. Terry. (No. i) For Four Voices. (No. 2) Simple Mass for
Four Voices. (No. 3) Mass for Four Voices. (No. 4) Viadanas Mass for Four Mixed
Voices. (No. 5) Hasleis Mass. (No. 6) Mass Quinti foni. Price is. 6d. each.
WELLS, GARDNER & Co., DARTON & Co. LTD., London, Eng. :
The Truth of Christianity. By W. H. Turton, D.S.O. Pp. 529.
SOCIETY OF THE DIVINE WORD, Shermerville, 111. :
St. Michael's Almanac, for the year 1906. Pp. 112. Paper. English and German.
CATHOLIC PROTECTORY, Arlington, N. J. :
Introductory History of Ireland. By an Irish Priest. Pp. 39.
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, Chicago, 111. :
The Messianic Hope in the New Testament. By Shailer Mathews, D.D. Pp. 338. Price
$2.50.
THE UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING SOCIETY, New York:
The American Family. A Sociological Problem. By Frank H. Hagar, A.B. Pp. viii.-
196.
SANDS & Co., Edinburgh:
Joan of Arc. By Mrs. Maxwell Scott, of Abbotsford. Pp. 106.
THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION.
MANY even among the intelligent and instructed, imagine that they can in-
dulge with impunity in the indiscriminate reading of all kinds of litera-
ture, but it is a grave mistake, says Cardinal Logue, Archbishop of Armagh,
in his recent pastoral. Slowly perhaps, and insensibly, but not less certainly,
will an injurious effect be produced. The body is not more certainly affected
by the food upon which it has been nourished than the mind by the thoughts
to which it has long been habituated. But if injurious effects may be pro-
duced on minds that are mature and judgments that have been regulated by
experience, how much more certainly will they be produced on the impres-
sionable, unsuspecting, inexperienced minds of youth. Here arises the very
grave obligation by which the heads of families are bound to exercise care,
vigilance, and judgment in excluding from their homes all literature which
might be injurious to those under their care. Suspicion in this matter is laud-
able; over-confidence may be ruinous.
Nor is it enough to guard youth against doubtful or injurious literature.
They should be supplied with sound, solid, wholesome reading reading which
will furnish both instruction and amusement without prejudice to either inno-
cence or edification.
* * *
We take the following passage from the notable pastoral letter by Bishop
McFaul, of Trenton, N. J., and at the same time strongly commend the pam-
phlet to our readers. It is published by Benziger Brothers, New York, and
only costs ten cents; yet it is a whole volume of good, practical, Catholic
reading:
What shall we say of the efficacy of good books upon family life and
thought ! When we speak of books we do not mean to restrict them to re-
ligious and devotional works. No; we include all healthy literature. Incur
day everybody reads. Periodicals, pamphlets, and newspapers are the litera-
ture of the millions. It is the daily newspaper, however, that enjoys the lar-
gest patronage. We must have the news warm, at our breakfast table every
morning. No doubt, a newspaper is a potent factor for good or for evil; and
America publishes some excellent secular newspapers, which may safely be
introduced into the family. Our religious weeklies are performing a very
beneficial work, and should receive a more generous support. Every Catholic
family should subscribe for a Catholic newspaper and a Catholic magazine,
possess a small library of religious books, and such other works as will in-
struct and interest.
But, what about those purveyors of uncleanness, the vulgar sheets reek-
ing with narratives so largely read by all classes? Reprove them for their
vileness, and the reply is: "We printjthe news." Yes, they do, and such
news; and such advertisements! Let us recall the words of the Apostle of
the Gentiles: " But all uncleanness . . . let it not so much as be named
among you, as becometh saints; or obscenity, or foolish talking, or scurrility,
which is to no purpose " (Eph. v. j, 4).
1905.] THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 853
Every one will admit that some of our newspapers are a disgrace. It is
shocking to witness the harm which these disreputable journals do by pander-
ing to the lower passions of the multitude. They educate in crime, destroy
purity ; in a word, sow immorality. They are so many foul demons entering
the family for its defilement and ruin. Perhaps the most terrible indictment
that can be brought against America is that the public demand for the filth
supplied by the "yellow journals "is so great as to render rich and prosperous
the unscrupulous editors, writers, and publishers who cater to debased ap-
petites.
We desire to employ all the power of our holy office to stem this flood of
corruption, and we, therefore, most earnestly beseech parents to banish all
such newspapers and books from their firesides. O fathers and mothers,
never permit them to contaminate your homes !
*
The people of Vienna are going to give wholesome literature its chance.
According to the Academy, that city has of late been terribly afflicted with
cheap sensational printed matter, with the result that suicide is increasingly
frequent and Hooliganism stalks abroad. Whereupon the Viennese have
established a society for the encouragement of decent literature through the
offering of substantial prizes for healthy novels. The idea is not simply to
give authors an incentive, but to make a special appeal to the public. The
prize-winning novels will be put on the market at so cheap a price that the
unhealthy authors will be unable to compete, but will be compelled, like the
rivals of the Standard Oil combination, to shut up shop. The Academy hopes
for the best, but there is much to justify the surmise that the public which
buys sensational fiction buys it because it prefers it, and not from any abstract
desire to lay out money to the best advantage. The consumption of good or
bad literature can never be arbitrarily fixed. The gradual education of the
public is all that we can rely upon to work improvement in the matter, and
this process is not only slow, but, at the best, is bound to leave a large area
of ignorance, especially among those who, by the agency of secular education,
are deprived of the Christian ideals upon which civilization is founded.
* * *
Professor W. F. P. Stockley, M.A., prepared a very suggestive outline
for a study of the religious belief of Shakespeare by request of the manage-
ment of the Champlain Summer-School. Some of our Reading Circles may
profit by the following synopsis and bibliography :
THE RELIGIOUS SPIRIT OF SHAKESPEARE. The subject of Shakespeare's
Plays, and their Consequent Limitations. What is Assumed, in Religion
and in Morals, if not Expressed. The Variety of Life, the Humor of Life,
the Facts, and the Difficulties. The Triumphs of Evil. The Absolute Good.
No Bar in the Plays to Further Knowledge by Revelation. The Scepticism
of Hamlet and of Lear. The Supernatural and the Fancies of the Midsum-
mer Night's Dream and the Tempest.
SHAKESPEARE AND THE CHURCH. The Age of Elizabeth, and the First
Generation under the New Religion. The Advantage of Catholic Insight in
Feeling with and Understanding these Circumstances. Shakespeare's Treat-
ment of Anti-Catholic Passages in Older Plays. The Spirit of Shakespeare's
854 THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. [Sept.,
Contemporaries. His attitude Towards Clerical and Monastic Life,, and to-
wards Catholic Observances. The Papacy and King John and Henry VIII.
The Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Church. Coleridge's Judgment,
Taine's, and Dowden's. Puritanism Within the Church and Without. The
Effects of the Break Up of Western Christendom. Shakespeare's Use of the
Bible.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Carter. Shakespeare, Puritan and Recusant.
Pym Yeatman. The Gentle Shakespeare. The Roxburghe Press, 3
Victoria Street, Westminster.
H. S. Bowden. The Religion of Shakespeare. Burns & Gates, Orchard
Street, London.
Edward Dowden. Shakespeare, his Mind and Art. C. Kegan Paul,
London.
W. S. Lilly. Studies in Religion and Literature. Chapman & Hall,
London.
Charles Wordsworth. Shakespeare's Knowledge and Use of the Bible.
Eden, Remington & Co., London.
G. Wilkes. Shakespeare From an American Point of View. Sampson,
Son.
Sidney Lee. Life'of Shakespeare. Smith, Elder & Co., London.
Histories of England. Froude, Gairdner, Gatquet, Tessop, F. G. Lee,
etc.
Karl Elze. William Shakespeare. (Translated.) George Bell, London.
W. J. Birch. The Philosophy and Religion of Shakespeare. London,
1848.
A Cosmopolite. Shakespeare, Was he a Christian ? London, 1862.
Edinburgh Review, January, 1866. Was Shakespeare a Roman Catholic?
Chateaubriand. Essai sur la Litterature Atig/aise (i. 195).
Reichensperger. William Shakespeare, insbesondere sein Verhaltniss
zum Mittelalter und zur Gegenwart. Munster, 1872.
Flir. Briefe liber Shakespeare's Hamlet.
Ebrard. Das Verhaltniss Shakespeare's zum Christenthum. Erlanger,
1870.
Holinshed's Chronicles.
American Catholic Quarterly Review, October, 1879. Shakespeare's
Religious Convictions, by Dr. Harper, brother of the late Father Harper, S.J.
In conjunction with the Catholic Club of New York City, the Champlain
Summer-School arranged an extension course of lectures on Some Women of
Shakespeare, by Dr. James J. Walsh, Ph.D., LL.D. A synopsis is here
given :
WOMEN OF THE GREAT POETS. Shakespeare has many heroines, but
no heroes. Ruskin says: "No men who stand in unmarred greatness.''
This is not surprising in the light of constant traditions among the great
poets. Homer's women stand out almost as supremely as Shakespeare's.
The women characters of the great Greek dramatist are the prototypes of
Shakespeare's women. Dante's Beatrice, the first modern type of the poetic
ideal of woman's position in life.
A WOMAN WHO LOVED. The story of Romeus and Juliet before
1905.] THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 855
Shakespeare treated it. The English dramatist's adaptation. The purpose
of the story according to Arthur Brooke, Shakespeare's change of that pur-
pose. The added characters, the nurse and Mercutio, their relation to the
plot, and their significance. Juliet's age and the youth of Shakespeare's
heroines. His sense of their responsibility in life. The speech Shakespeare
came back to rewrite.
AN INTELLECTUAL WOMAN. The original story of the Jew of Venice.
Shakespeare's modifications. Two centuries' interpretation of the play and
the modern change of view. Shakespeare's works so close to the heart of
nature that it stands either interpretation. Portia as Shakespeare's idea of a
woman of the Renaissance. Her cleverness, intellectual acumen, and ready
wit. The men bright women love and Bassanio's contrasting commonplace-
ness. Truth of Portia's character to tradition of Renaissance women. The
mercy speech as the expression of feminine ethical ideas.
A WOMAN WHO WON. Shakespeare's maturity when life looked all
happy and the three great comedies represented his feelings. " As you like
it." The Forest of Arden and Shakespeare's mother. Rosalind the favorite
character of the dramatist. Love finds a way to right all wrongs. The
cynic and the lovers. Only nature's trials remain in life for those who read
its lessons.aright.
A WOMAN WHO FAILED. An old mediaeval story and the eternal
problem of man's destiny and the significance of life. Ophelia's place in the
web of fate at Elsinore. The homemaker's tragedy. Hamlet's love for
Ophelia. Her entrance just after the expression of the climax of despairing
thought in Hamlet's soliloquy. Her little lie and its consequences. The
inevitable, unmitigated tragedy. Ophelia's death and the art and truth to
life of Shakespeare's development of the characters and of the plot in which
they were so hopelessly involved.
A WOMAN WHO LOST. All human life a tragedy in its incompleteness.
The real tragedy of life and its significance. Clytemnestra as a great proto-
type of Lady Macbeth. Ambition and love. Ethical ideals and success in
life. Woman's place in the ethical sphere. Superstition and its influence.
Macbeth's contrasted weakness in spite of the grim determination that makes
him more cruel.
A WOMAN SAINT. The play of Henry VIII. as the best possible com-
pendium of the history of the times. Some questions of authorship and
Shakespeare's part in it. No doubt of his creation of the character of Queen
Katherine. The simple, truthful history that seems to require no art for the
telling of the story. The beautiful character depicted. Shakespeare's
knowledge of women and the portrayal of Katherine's antitype in Cleopatra,
the woman with power for evil. Katherine's deathbed scene and the sub-
lime forgiveness.
*
Not long ago the Holy Father received in private audience a very dis-
tinguished Irishman in the person of Sir Francis Cruise, of Dublin, on whom
he has recently conferred the Knighthood of St. Gregory the Great. A mere
accident has prevented Sir Francis from being an American, for in his youth
he lived for several years in the United States. He returned to Ireland, how-
856 THE COLUMBIAN READING. UNION. [Sept.,
ever, and, in the course of a long life, grew to be one of the most famous
physicians in the country. But he did not allow the cares of his profession to
absorb all his energy. When a mere boy a relative presented him with a copy
of the Imitation of Christ, and from that day to this he has been a student of
this most wonderful book, and of the other works of its author, Thomas a
Kempis. While he was still a young man, a great contest was being waged
as to the authorship of the Imitation. Learned prelates and other scholars
had filled volume after volume with arguments in favor of A Kempis, or of
Gerson, or of Gersen, and the issue was still undecided. Sir Francis entered
with zest on a complete study of the subject, examined the most ancient man-
uscripts, consulted the most learned writers on the subject, visited the birth-
place and the monastery of Thomas a Kempis and then wrote his book. To-
day there is hardly a single authority of weight but admits that A Kempis is
the author of what has been well described as the most perfect of books, ex-
cept the Scriptures. The people of Kempen, the town whose chief glory is
the fact that it gave birth to Thomas a Kempis, have named one of their
streets after Dr. Cruise. Meanwhile this busy Irish doctor was engaged in a
new English translation of the Imitation. It has been published within the
past year by the Catholic Truth Society of Ireland, and is now printed by the
Catholic Truth Society of San Francisco, so that it bids fair to become the fa-
vorite version throughout Ireland and America. Pius X. conferred the
Knighthood of St. Gregory on Sir Francis, as a reward for his zeal and learn-
ing, and in receiving him in audience blessed him and his family most effu-
sively, and told him that it was now recognized that his works were indispensa-
ble for all students of the life and writings of Thomas a Kempis.
*
Aubrey de Vere was a Catholic writer of prose and poetry who should be
better known among cur Reading Circles. At least one quotation from his
writings could be presented at every meeting for the coming year. His claim
to recognition is thus presented by Miss Jeanette L. Gilder in a notice of
his Memoir:
One of the most interesting men of letters in London was the late Aubrey
de Vere. He was a poet by temperament rather than by his acomplishment
in the way of poetry. His verses were refined and scholarly, but they were
not epoch-making; and, though he published several volumes in the course
of his long, interesting life, it is not as a poet, but as a friend of poets and
men of letters that he will be best known.
He was such a delightful man, such a gentleman, that his friendship was
eagerly sought and highly prized by men and women of the highest standing
in England. He was an Irishman and a Catholic, but he lived the most of his
life in London and he began as a Protestant.
Ever since Mr. de Vere's death we have been expecting a "memoir"
containing his letters to and from the well-known people whom he had known
so intimately. Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co. publish the Memoir, based
on his unpublished diaries and correspondence, and edited by his literary ex-
ecutor, Mr. Wilfrid Ward. Mr. de Vere published a volume of Recollections
tefore his death, but he was so modest that he kept himself in the background,
and yet it was his own personality that his readers wanted to get at.
1905.] THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. 857
Sara Coleridge, the daughter of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, said of Mr. de
Vere: I have lived among poets a great deal and have known greater poets
than he is, but a more entire poet and one more a poet in his whole mind and
temperament I never knew or met with. But he wa,s more modest about his
own attainments than most poets, and therefore one really gets more of the
man in these memoirs than in the book that he wrote with his own hand.
Wordsworth was his friend, and it was Wordsworth who influenced his poetry,
but his verse did not have all the qualities of his master.
There is no gossip in Mr. de Vere's letters he was not of the gossiping
nature but there is much intimate talk in his diaries of his friends among
men and women of letters. With Tennyson he was very intimate and saw
him in all circumstances. For instance, he records in his diary in 1845 :
I called on Alfred Tennyson and found him at first much out of spirits.
He cheered up soon and read me some beautiful elegies, complaining much of
some writer in Fraser's Magazine who had spoken of the "foolish facility" of
Tennysonian poetry. I went to the House of Commons and heard a good
speech from Sir G. Grey went back to Tennyson, who "crooned" out his
magnificent elegies till one in the morning.
April 18 Sat with Alfred Tennyson, who read MS. poetry to Tcm
Taylor and me. Walked with him to his lawyer's; came back and listened to
the "University of Women " Had talk with him on various subjects, and
walked with him to Moxon's. As I went away, he said he would willingly
bargain for the reputation of Suckling or Lovelace, and alluded to "the fool-
ish facility of Tennysenian poetry." Said he was dreadfully cut up by all he
had gone through.
Then, again, there is another allusion to Tennyson. He Mr. de Vere
had been out with Wordsworth to buy spectacles and then returned to tea:
Alfred Tennyson came in and smoked his pipe. He told us with pleasure
of his dinner with Wordsworth was pleased as well as amused by Words-
worth saying to him, " Come, brother bard, to dinner," and, taking his arm,
said that he was ashamed of paying Mr. Wordsworth compliments, but that
he had at last, in the dark, said something about the pleasure he had had
from Mr. Wordsworth's writings, and that the old poet had taken his hand
and replied with some expressions equally kind and complimentary. Tenny-
son was evidently much pleased with the old man, and glad of having learned
to know him.
At another time he found Tennyson in a bad mood :
On my way in paid a visit to Tennyson, who seemed much out of spirits
and said he could no longer bear to be knocked about the world, and that he
must marry, and find love and peace, or die. He was very angry about a
very favorable review of him. Said that he could not stand the chattering
and conceit of clever men, or the worry of society, or the meanness of tuft
hunters, or the trouble of poverty, or the labor of a place, or the preying of
the heart on itself.
He complained much about growing old, and said he cared nothing for
fame and that his life was all thrown away for want of a competence and re-
tirement. Said that no one had been so much harassed by anxiety and
trouble as himselt. I told him he wanted occupation, a wife, and orthodox
principles, which he took well.
858 THE COLUMBIAN READING UNION. [Sept., 1905.]
Of Wordsworth, who w;:s his friend as well as his master, Mr. de Vere
writes :
He strikes me as the kindest and most simple-hearted old man I know,
and I did not think him less sublime for inquiring often after you (his sister),
and saying that you were not a person to be forgotten. He talks in a manner
very peculiar. As for duration, it is from the rising of the sun to the going
down of the same. As for quality, a sort of thinking aloud, a perpetual purr-
ing of satisfaction. He murmurs like a tree in the breeze; as softly and as
incessantly; it seems as natural to him to talk as to breathe. He is by
nature audible, as well as visible, and goes on thus, uttering his being just as
a fountain continues to flow, or a star to shine.
In his discourse I was at first principally struck by the extraordinary
purity of his language, and the absolute perfection of his sentences; but by
degrees I came to find a great charm in observing the exquisite balance of his
mind, and the train of associations in which his thoughts followed each other.
He does not put forward thoughts like those of Coleridge, which aston-
ished his hearers by their depth of vastness, but you gradually discover that
there is a sort of inspiration in the mode in which his thoughts flow out of each
other and connect themselves with outward things. He is the voice and na-
ture the instrument.
Our own Professor Charles Eliot Norton was one ot Mr. de Vere's friends,
and there are a number of letters in the book addressed to him. One entry
in Mr. de Vere's diary tells how he brought Tennyson, "murmuring sore, "to
Hampstead, to see Mr. Wordsworth. Rogers came, and there was an amus-
ing scene in the garden, Rogers insisting upon Wordsworth's naming a day
to dine with him, and Wordsworth stoutly exhibiting his mountain lawless-
ness, stating that he would dine or not as it happened, or as it suited his con-
venience, and saying that he was sure he would find the best accommodation
of every sort at Mr. Rogers', whether Mr. Rogers was in the house or not.
Mr. Rogers at last replied : Well, you may as well tell me at once to go to
the devil; I can only say that my house, its master, and everything in it are
heartily at your service come when you will.
Of Macaulay, who was a guest at a certain dinner party, he says :
Macaulay is far from being ill-conditioned, but he is rather bluff and
good-humored than genial. His mind is evidently a very robust one; it has
also ardor enough to fuse together into new combinations the mass of strange
and disorderly knowledge with which his great memory litters him.
It has also a self-confidence which belongs to narrowness, and an utter
inappreciation of all matters which it cannot wield and twist about, but which
greatly increases his energy and apparent force, but I could observe in it no
trace of originality, depth, breadth elevation, subtlety, comprehensiveness,
spirituality in one word, none of the attributes of greatness. He is, how-
ever, a strong man, and will do his day's work honestly before his day is done.
I should think he despises falsehood, and likes, if not truth, at least the ex-
hilaration of a hunt after truth or the animation of the battle for the cause of
truth.
M. C. M.
AP The Catholic world
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