Littera occidit, spiritus autem vivificat.

"The letter killeth; but the spirit giveth life."

[It is due to R. P. Hyacinthe to say that the following

translation is made from a short-hand report, published in the

_Semaine Religieuse de Paris_. In style, in development of

ideas, the _compte rendu_ is incomplete. But to us who

cannot listen to the great Carmelite's eloquence, in the nave

of Notre Dame, even an outline of this conference, so full of

fresh and healthy thought, will be acceptable.--TRANS.]

Rev. P. Hyacinthe takes this text from St. Paul, at once as the

basis and the summary of his entire conference. On previous

occasions he had pointed out two elements in the Jewish Church,

opposed to each other yet equally essential to the aims of that

church; the one exclusive, securing the preservation of the

sacred deposit of revelation; the other universal, insuring the

diffusion of this deposit throughout the whole human race. These

two elements he now calls, in the language of the apostle,

_letter_ and _spirit_. According to the letter, the

Bible--that is to say, the Old Testament, is exclusive; according

to the spirit, it is universal. The internal struggle of these

two elements forms the history of Judaism, thoughtfully viewed.

Their startling rupture during the life of Jesus Christ

introduced the Christian era, inaugurated the Catholic Church. As

sons of that holy and infallible church, we need not fear the

triumph of the letter; but as members of a church composed of and

governed by imperfect men and sinners, we should not disregard

the struggles of the letter for predominance. Let us, then,

review the profitable history of these combats between letter and

spirit in the bosom of Judaism, considering successively the

representatives of the letter and the representatives of the

spirit in the Jewish Church.

I. The Representatives Of The Letter.

These were the kings and priests. The kings represented the

letter in the political order; the priests, in the religious

order.

I. David prophesied, "He shall rule from sea to sea, and from the

river unto the ends of the earth. And all kings of the earth

shall adore him; all nations shall serve him." And discerning in

the far-off radiance that one among his sons whom he called the

Anointed, the Christ _par excellence_, he said, or let the

Lord say by his lips: "Sit thou at my right hand until I make thy

enemies thy footstool. With thee is the principality in the day

of thy strength: in the brightness of the saints: from the womb

before the day star I begot thee."

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In the throne of the son of David, the God-engendered, two

royalties were united: a temporal royalty, created to reign over

the house of Jacob, confined within the narrow limits of its own

blood, _regnabit in domo Jacob_; and a royalty destined to

extend throughout all humanity, within the wide boundary of the

faith of Abraham, _regnabit in aeternumn_.

The danger lay in confounding these two royalties, in absorbing

the celestial in the terrestrial royalty--an error so frequent in

similar unions. To this danger succumbed the synagogue.

In a national church, or in a religious nation, no peril is more

imminent, none more fatal, than the confusion of religious and

political forms. [Footnote 168] Already great while remaining

human, for such it is in character and origin, political thought

becomes still greater in ascending to the heavenly spheres of

morality and religion. But religion shrinks in dimensions,

abdicating its true position, revolting against human instinct,

and wounding the attributes of Divine Majesty, when it assumes

political forms, adopting the ideas, the habits, the paltry

interests of politics.

[Footnote 168: Lest those who may be unacquainted with

previous conferences of Père Hyacinthe should interpret this

passage as referring to the temporal power, we subjoin a

quotation from a conference delivered by him in Notre Dame in

the year 1867. Speaking of the complications caused by

placing political power and religious power in the same

hands, R. P. Hyacinthe says: "Nowhere under the sun of the

Catholic world do I find this dreadful confusion. If you bid

me look toward Rome, it is not the confusion, it is the

exceptional alliance of the two powers that I hail in that

place, itself exceptional as a miracle. Beneficent alliance,

knot of the liberty of conscience, never to be united,

because it unites there what it must separate elsewhere,

never were you more fearfully necessary to us than now! You

have received the testimony of French blood, shed by those

who have been called mercenaries while they are simply

heroes! You are defended by the eloquent words, the national

words of our orators, by the energetic and loyal declarations

of our government."

In a conference preached at Rome during the Lent of 1868, R.

P. Hyacinthe compares those who urge the church to throw

aside the temporal power, and lead a purely supernatural

existence, to Satan tempting Christ to cast himself from the

pinnacle of the temple, that angels may bear him up.]

Such, however, was the kingdom which kings, and the partisans of

kings, persistently dreamed of giving to humanity. For one single

instant, under David, that prophetic ideal foreseen and pictured

by the prophet king shone with unblemished purity, soon to be

veiled under the worldly, (we will speak in plain terms,) under

the pagan ideal of Solomon.

Solomon was a great king, especially at the outset of his career.

He was always great, even in his errors and crimes. But

intoxicated with the science of nature, which he possessed, says

the inspired text, from the cedar growing on the summit of

Lebanon to the hyssop piercing the cracks of the walls, Solomon,

not content with knowledge leading to God, wished to possess all

the riches and the loves of earth. He built him palaces bearing

little resemblance to the palm-tree beneath which Deborah

administered justice, or to the tents where David camped with his

soldiers; palaces so sumptuous that the queen of Sheba came from

the depths of Arabia to admire them. He had harems filled with

women, chiefly foreigners and idolaters; seven hundred sultanas

and three hundred concubines! Then letting this inebriation

mount, I will not say from heart, but from sense to brain, he

fell down with his women at the feet of all their idols,

venerating, under poetic symbols, that great nature which is the

work of God and so easily takes the place of God.

Such was the spectacle presented by Jerusalem under the successor

of David--a hideous spectacle, but made less repulsive in the

days of Solomon by a glory he had no power to bequeath to his

heirs in Judah and to his Israelitish emulators. He left them

only his pride, his sensuality, his idolatry; and when the two

inimical yet analogous monarchies succumbed at last beneath the

blows of powerful neighbors, of those northern conquerors whose

favors they had so often solicited, and whose arms they had so

often braved, they left behind them, in the history of the holy

nation, a long track of mire and blood.

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Such was the royalty of Judea, such the royalty of Israel;

promised to the world under the name of the kingdom of God!

So perverted were the Jews by their kings--or, to speak more

justly, for we must not misjudge these kings, so perverted were

they by national pride, that they could not throw aside this

gross ideal, but contemplated still, under the profaned name of

the kingdom of God, the domination of races with the sword and

with a rod of iron. When the true Messiah, Jesus, came to them,

they misunderstood him, chiefly because he rejected this low and

narrow royalty, proclaiming the true principle of the kingdom of

God--a spiritual kingdom which should be in the world, but not of

the world; _regnum meum non est de hoc mundo;_ a spiritual

kingdom which comes to bear witness of the truth, _ego in hoc

natus sum et ad hoc veni in mundum, ut testimonium perhibeam

veritati._ They preferred, before him, the seditious Barabbas,

who had fought in the streets of Jerusalem, shedding blood to

deliver them from the Romans. They preferred, before him, all the

false Messiahs, all the impotent and treacherous Christs, who

closed their mad career by precipitating the ruin of the nation,

the city, and the temple they had pretended to save.

Break, then, vase of Jewish nationality! formed so lovingly by

God through the hand of Moses; royal and sacerdotal vessel,

break! since thou wilt have it so. Thou wert formed to keep the

treasures of religious life for all humanity; thou didst close

upon thyself in jealous egotism; break! and let thy shivered

atoms, scattered through the world, spread abroad the balm which

shall intoxicate all nations. "The vase was shattered," says Holy

Writ, "and the whole house was filled with the odor." _Et domus

impleta est ex odore unguenti._

What kings effected in the political order, priests accomplished

in the religious order. Indeed, fatal as is the mistake of

confounding religious with political forms, still more lamentable

is the error of identifying, within the very heart of religion,

accidental and accessory forms with essential forms. Every

religion--above all, the true religion, the Christian

religion--going back to Moses, Abraham, Adam, is not merely a

religious idea, a religious sentiment, as it pleases contemporary

rationalism to call it. It is a fact, and therefore has positive

forms; it is a living fact, and therefore has a determined

organism. But, placed amid time and space, the fact of religion

must consider the varying conditions of space, the changing

conditions of time. Its organism must discharge its functions

amid dissimilar or even contradictory surroundings. Therefore,

side by side with substantial, permanent forms, we find variable,

accessory forms, clothing the first, so to speak, according to

the exigencies of races and centuries. By trying to confound

religion with accessory forms peculiar to certain countries or

races, we should isolate it from the great current of humanity in

the present. By trying to bind it to worn-out forms, we should

isolate it from the great current of humanity in the future. We

should misinterpret St. Paul's words to the ancient synagogue:

"_Quod autem antiquatur et senescit, prope interitum est_."

No worse service could be rendered to religious unity. On this

shoal the Jewish priesthood stranded.

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I would speak respectfully of that priesthood. Last Sunday we

inhaled the perfume of its censers, we listened to the harmony of

its canticles. The rod of Aaron had not blossomed in his hands in

vain, and in the ancient tabernacle we almost adored the body of

Christ Jesus prefigured in the manner, the word of Christ Jesus

prepared in the decalogue. But however respectable in origin and

essence the Levitical priesthood, it no longer merits respect,

corrupted as it now is; or, at least, corrupted as are most of

its members. This corruption bears a special name, pharisaism.

Is pharisaism hypocrisy? No. Whatever the dictionary may say, in

the biblical sense pharisaism is not hypocrisy, unless in that

subtle form, at once most innocent and most fatal, that

unconscious hypocrisy which believes itself sincere. Jesus often

said, "Pharisees, hypocrites," _pharisaei, hypocriae_; but

he explained this expression by another, "Blind guides,"

_pharisaee caece_. And the great apostle Paul, himself a

pharisee, reared, as he says, at the feet of the pharisee

Gamaliel, bears witness in a striking manner to their sincere

zeal for God, _habent zelum Dei_, but not according to

knowledge, _sed non secundum scientiam_.

Pharisaism, thoughtfully considered, is religious blindness, the

blindness of priestly depositaries of the letter, who think they

guard it best by explaining it least; blindness bearing on all

points of the sacred deposit--blindness in dogma, predominance of

formula over truth; blindness in morals, predominance of external

works over interior justice; blindness in worship, predominance

of external rites over religious feeling. Blindness in dogma.

They taught the truth. "The scribes and pharisees sit on the

chair of Moses," said Christ; "all, therefore, whatsoever they

shall say to you, observe and do: but according to their works do

ye not; for they say, and do not."

There is no revealed idea enlightening and vivifying the world

that has not words to contain it: _lucerna verbum tuum,

domine_. But when speech compresses itself, when it encloses

the idea as in a jealously narrow prison, obscuring and choking

it, that is pharisaism. That is what the apostle Paul called

guarding the word, but keeping it captive in iniquity. That is

what forced from the meek lips of our Saviour Jesus the terrible

anathema _Vae vobis!_ "Wo to you who have taken the key of

knowledge, and will not enter, and all those who would try to

enter, you prevent."

In morals, it is exterior works, it is a multiplicity of human

practices, resting like a despicably tyrannical load upon the

conscience, making it forget, in unhealthy dreams, that it is an

honest man's conscience, a Christian conscience. The pharisees

said to Jesus Christ, "Why do thy disciples transgress the

traditions of the ancients? for they wash not their hands when

they eat bread." And our Saviour replied, "Why do you trample

under foot the commandments of God, to keep the commandments of

men?" Rites are essential to worship, as formula is essential to

dogma--wo to him who tears the formula of biblical revelation, or

the formula of the definitions of the church; and, since works

are essential to morality, wo to him who sleeps in a dead and

sterile faith, without works.

Worship! but worship is the expansion of the religious soul; it

is the heart's emotion rising odorous and harmonious to God. It

is action working from within outward; it is, also, the not less

legitimate reaction from without inward. Rites elevate religious

feeling, and arouse inspiration in heart and conscience.

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But when there is no religious feeling, when heart and conscience

bend beneath the weight of exterior practices; "Yea, verily,"

said Jesus Christ again, (for the gospels are full of these

things; the gospels are the eternal reprobation of pharisaism,)

yea, verily, the prophet Isaias spoke truly when he said, "This

people honoreth me with their lips, and with their hands, but

their heart is far from me."

This is the yoke of which St. Peter said, "You would impose it on

the head of nations; neither our fathers nor we have been able to

bear it." This is the smothered and exhausted breath with which

they thought to renew the world. This is not the Judaism of

Moses, but the decrepit Judaism of the scribes and pharisees.

When the entire world, by the eloquent lips of Greece and Rome,

asked of the East salvation; when, by the sudden stir of

barbarians quivering in the depths of Germany and Scythia, the

world demanded light and civilization, this was offered to them!

Judaism became the more inadmissible as the world had more need

of it. Pharisaism, in its blind fanaticism, stood before the

gates of the kingdom of heaven to prevent generations from

entering.

Away! men of the letter; away! enemies of humanity.

_Adversantur omnibus hominibus_, says St. Paul. And thou,

Jesus, arise, my Saviour and God!--thou who wert moved by wrath

twice only in thy life! Jesus felt no anger against poor sinners.

He sat at their table; and when the woman taken in adultery fell

at his feet, burning with shame and weeping with remorse, he

raised her up, thinking only of absolving her: "Go in peace, and

sin no more." He felt no anger against heretics and schismatics.

He sat by Jacob's well, beside the woman of Samaria, announcing

to her, with the salvation which comes from the Jews, _quia

salus ex Judaeis est_, worship in spirit and in truth. But

Jesus was moved with wrath on two occasions: once, scourge in

hand, against those who sold the things of God in the temple, and

again, with malediction on his lips, against those who perverted

the things of God in the law.

Arise, then, meek Lamb! arise in thy pacific wrath against the

enemies of all men, and against the true enemies of God's

kingdom! Arise and drive them from the temple! Thus did the

synagogue perish, and the Christian Church come to life.

II. The Representatives Of The Spirit.

I have said (and you already knew it) that we have nothing to

fear from the triumphs of the _letter_. Yet we cannot

overlook the struggles and temptations, not only of every

priesthood, but of all pious persons; the temptation of the

faithful, as well as of priests, to allow the letter to

predominate over the spirit. Let us glorify God because we are

born in a holy and infallible church, which Jesus Christ

protects, and will protect until the consummation of his work, in

the course of ages, against the ignorance of our minds and the

weakness of our wills.

But what voice strikes my ear? These are no longer the coarse

tones of earthly domination, nor of carnal legislation. Nor yet

is it a Christian voice, the voice of Christ speaking to us a

moment ago; but, though anterior to Christ, how like to him it

sounds:

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"Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear to the

law of our God, ye people of Gomorrha," saith the voice; and

yet it is speaking to the church of Sion. "To what purpose do

you offer me the multitude of your victims, saith the Lord? I

am full; I desire not holocausts of rams, and fat of fatlings,

and blood of calves, and lambs, and buck-goats. Offer sacrifice

no more in vain: incense is an abomination to me. The new

moons, and the sabbaths, and other festivals, I will not abide;

your assemblies are wicked. My soul hateth your new moons, and

your solemnities: they are become troublesome to me; I am weary

of bearing them. And when you stretch forth your hands, I will

turn away my eyes from you: and when you multiply prayer, I

will not hear: for your hands are full of blood.

"Wash yourselves, be clean, take away the evil of your devices

from my eyes: cease to do perversely, learn to do well: seek

judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge for the fatherless,

defend the widow. And then come and accuse me, saith the Lord:

if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as

snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as

wool."

This is the voice of Mosaic spirituality in all its energy and

light. How different from the pharisaism we were speaking of just

now; from the letter, smothering beneath its murderous weight

reason, conscience, and heart! How like the gospel, the law of

Christ, with its two commandments: an insatiable hunger, an

inextinguishable thirst after righteousness, and a heart ever

open to mercy! Ah! I feel that this is no local law, no national

organization, no restricted or temporary code. It is the law of

all people and of all ages. It needs but the breath of St. Paul

to bear it from one end of the world to the other.

But the voice of the Spirit still speaks--no longer, now, of the

carnal law, but of the earthly _kingdom:_

"And in the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord

shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and it shall be

exalted above the hills: and all nations shall flow into it,

_fluent ad eum omnes gentes_. And many people shall go,

and say: Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and

to the house of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we

will walk in his paths: for the law shall come forth from Sion,

and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, _quia de Sion exibit

lex et verbum Domini de Jerusalem._ Come, let us break our

swords and make ploughshares; let us shatter our lances and

turn them into sickles, for the anointed of the Lord will reign

in justice and peace; all idols shall be broken, _et idola

penitus conterentur_, and in those days the Eternal shall

alone be great."

Such was the future _disfigured_ by kings and the successors

of kings. Understand it well; this is not oppression, but

deliverance! It belongs to the letter to impose itself by force;

this is its necessity; it has no other way, if this can be called

a way. To the spirit belongs the appeal summoning us to the

liberty of man and the liberty of God. _Ubi spiritus, ibi

libertas_. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is

liberty." Therefore, I do not see in the Messiah's hands a sword

besmeared and gory. I see nations rise up spontaneously, like a

sea shuddering to its deepest abysses. _Fluent ad eum omnes

gentes;_ this is not servitude; it is deliverance. This is not

the reign of the Messiah victor; but it is the reign of the

Messiah liberator.

But you ask me whose is this voice preaching a spiritual kingdom

to priests, a divine royalty to kings and nations? The voice

shall interpret itself; it shall tell its origin and mission.

Here Père Hyacinthe relates the famous vision in which Isaiah

receives his mission after a seraph has purified his lips with a

burning coal. This is prophecy.

And were not prophets and saints; necessary to the Jewish Church,

as they are necessary to the Catholic Church? The two beggars in

the dream of Innocent III. upholding the crumbling Lateran

basilica, as if symbolizing the decadence of the hierarchical

church in the middle ages; those two mendicants, Dominic de

Guzman and Francis of Assisi, what were they but prophets of the

New Testament, sprung not from the hereditary tradition of ages,

but from the living kiss of Jehovah?

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Yes, we need saints, we need prophets--that is to say, men of

love, martyrs; men of vision who read not only according to the

letter but according to the spirit, who see God in the vision of

their reason enlightened by faith; in the ecstasy of their

conscience elevated by grace. "I have seen the Lord with my

eyes"--_Oculis meis vidi Dominum_. We need men who speak to

him face to face like Moses, and, above all, men who love him

heart to heart, and pass through the struggles of days and ages,

struggles only to be fully understood by contemplating them in

the final future. _Vidit ultima, et consolatus est lugentes in

Sion._ Such men were the prophets.

They were _seers_. They saw the future. They did not look

only upon the present, so accurately fitted to the measure of

narrow minds and hearts. They did not return with cowardly tears

toward the past, never to be born again. It was for Gentiles, for

pagan antiquity, to dream of a golden age for ever lost. The

prophets, gazing into the future, saw the golden age of Eden

reappear, under a form more full and lasting, at the gates of

heaven, yet still upon the earth.

The prophets believed in the future because they believed in God.

They believed in progress; they were in all antiquity the only

men of progress. Antiquity did not believe in it, not even

knowing its name. But the prophets believed in the most

incredible and the most necessary of all progress, moral and

religious progress. They believed in it despite the fall, or

rather because of the fall and of the redemption. To them evil

did not lie in radical vice, essential to our nature, or in the

inflexible decree of destiny; it was in the liberty of man, and

must find its remedy in the liberty of God. If God had allowed

the starting-point of man to recoil, be cause of sin, into the

abyss, it was in order to raise, through the redemption; his goal

to the very heavens. From the summits to which their faith lifted

them, they saw salvation spread from individuals to nations, from

nations to the human race, from the human race to all nature.

Such was progress to the prophets; such the future universal Sion

they hailed in the future? Isaiah prophesied it in the existence

and in the relative prosperity of Jerusalem. Jeremiah mingled it

with tears shed over the smoking ruins of his beloved city.

Ezechiel in the bosom of captivity pictured Sion, no longer

Jewish, but humanitarian, where all nations were to find their

place. He engraved upon the pediment of the gates this immortal

device, "The Lord is there;" _Dominus ibidem_.

II. This was what the prophets, men of faith in vision and men of

vision in faith, believed and respected. This was the object of

their love, for they were men of understanding, and also men of

heart.

I do not love Utopians, I do not love thought which dwells

exclusively in the future, feeding on sterile and chimerical

dreams. I love men of the future who are also men of the present;

contemplatives, but workers too. The prophets were workers. They

did not love the future in the future, but in the present where

it germinates. They did not love humanity in humanity--too

abstract if it be an idea, too vast if it embrace all

individuals; they loved humanity in their nation; they loved the

typical Jerusalem of their vision in their terrestrial Jerusalem

of their existence.

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I love to follow them in their writings; to see them rise up in

the face of every national fact, every religious fact of that

gross people--rise up to meet every evil deed with anathema, to

consecrate in the Lord's name every moral or religious act

tending toward true progress. I love to see them go down into the

deep ravines, to the borders of the torrent of Cedron, where the

Messiah was to drink before lifting up his head; climb the abrupt

acclivity to the citadel, to the temple where Jesus was to teach;

traverse the public squares where ever and anon the wind from the

desert, as if to mock their hopes, caught up the dust beneath the

burning sun and flung it in their faces.

Now, in the ravine, in the citadel, and in the temple of Sion, in

the streets possessed by the whirlwind, everywhere in that city

environed with their love and their devotion, they saw that Sion

which was to grow up in its bosom and embrace the world. They

loved the future; they loved humanity in God; they loved them in

the house of Abraham and in the church of Jesus Christ.

In the presence of these great examples, let me say to you of the

love of country all that I have said of domestic love. We no

longer know, or rather we no longer rightly know, what it is to

love country and people; to see and love, in them, the city of

humanity, the city of Jesus Christ, the city of time and

eternity.

III. Men of vision and of love, the prophets were also men of

combat, and, when necessary, martyrs, soldiers, and victims. No

man passes without effort that Red Sea which separates present

and future. The prophets crossed it bearing with them on their

vigorous shoulders the ark of God and the ark of mankind. But

what combats and struggles!--struggles majestic as their visions

and their love. They shrunk from them in their infirm human

nature; they dreaded these struggles. They knew that the word of

God ends by slaying those who hear it: "I have slain them, saith

the Lord, in the word of my mouth." "Ah Lord God!" cried

Jeremiah, "behold I cannot speak, for I am a child;" and the Lord

answered, "Say not, I am a child; for thou shalt go to all that I

shall send thee: and whatsoever I shall command thee thou shalt

speak. Behold, I have given my words in thy mouth. Lo, I have set

thee this day over the nations, and over kingdoms, to root up and

to pull down, and to waste and to destroy, and to build and to

plant. For, behold, I have made thee this day a fortified city,

and a pillar of iron, and a wall of brass, over all the land, to

the kings of Judea, to the princes thereof, and to the priests

and to the people of the land. And they shall fight against thee

and shall not prevail, for I am with thee to deliver thee."

And to Ezechiel, colleague and successor of Jeremiah, God ever

spoke the language of struggle: "Fear not; I send thee to an

apostate people that hath revolted from me, _ad gentem

apostatricem;_ but I have made thy face stronger than their

faces, and thy forehead harder than their foreheads; I have made

thy face like an adamant and like flint. I will set thee up like

a wall of iron and like a city of brass, for I will be with

thee."

Thus did the prophets struggle for that Sion which fought against

them, repudiating them. They never forsook it, they always loved

and always served it.

We are about to part for another year. Let me entreat you now to

unite yourselves with me in a consecration to that kingdom of

God, to that church whose courts we have traversed. Christianity

is not of today nor of yesterday. It belongs not merely to the

historical period of Jesus Christ and his apostles.

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It comes from David, from Abraham, it comes to us from Adam, our

father, our king, our pontiff. In this unique religion, this

church changeable in form, immovable in foundation, friends,

brothers--let me use words which come from my heart--let us

consecrate ourselves, following the example of the prophets, to

the love and service of God's kingdom. The kingdom of God is for

ever established in Christianity, in the Catholic, Apostolic,

Roman Church. But, as I said just now, this church must ever pass

from form to form--_de forme en forme_-from brightness to

brightness--_transformamur claritate in claritatem_--until

her pacific empire shall cover the whole earth, until with

humanity she shall attain the age of the perfect man in Christ

Jesus.

Do we not wish to work for this kingdom? What are we to do if not

that? What are the works of our public and private life if they

do not relate finally to the kingdom of truth, justice, charity,

to all which constitutes Christianity, to the Catholic and

Apostolic Roman Church? I do not ask you to love her as she does

not wish to be loved--to love her as a sect is loved, as the

gross Jews loved the synagogue, with a heart and mind restricted

to the letter. I do not ask you to love our grand Catholic Church

by glorifying the infirmities of her life, which are your

infirmities and mine; or by condemning all the truths professed

and all the virtues practised outside of her by men who are often

her sons without knowing it. No; let us have no sectarian love! I

ask you to love the church with the heart of the church herself;

with a heart commensurate only with the heart of Jesus Christ,

_dilatamini et vos_. "You are not straitened in us," said

St. Paul to the Corinthians; "but in your own bowels you are

straitened. But having the same recompense, (I speak as to my own

children,) be you also enlarged." _Dilatamini et vos_.

Before leaving you, let me tell you the secret of my youth. Let

me speak to you of the day of my priestly consecration, when in

this nave, less crowded then than it is to-day, stretched upon

that icy pavement, filled with burning palpitations, I was

sustained, I was inebriated with one thought--the conviction that

I had but one love and one service, the kingdom of God and

humanity.

Yes, let us love the church in every man, and every man in the

church! What matters condition? Rich or poor, ignorant or

learned, _omnibus debitor sum_, I am every man's debtor,

says St. Paul. What matters country? Whether Frenchman or

foreigner, Greek or barbarian, _omnibus debitor sum_, I

answer with St. Paul. I am the debtor of barbarism as of

civilization. In a certain sense, what matters even religion, if

we would love a man?

Ah! if he is not a son of the Catholic Church in the body, by

external union, he is so, perhaps--he is, I hope, in the soul, by

invisible union. If he is a son of the Catholic Church neither

according to the body nor in the spirit, nor in the letter, he is

so at least by preparation in the design of God. If the water of

baptism is not on his brow, I grieve to know it; but I see there

the blood of Jesus Christ, for Jesus Christ died for all, opening

wide his arms to all the world upon the cross! The world belongs

to Jesus Christ, therefore the world belongs to the church, if

not in act, at least in power. Let me, then, love all men; and

you, too, love all men with me--not only in person, not only in

their narrow earthly individuality, but in the great Christian

community, in the great divine community which summons each and

all.

{699}

When Moses, founder of the Jewish church, died on the mountain

within sight of the land of promise, the Hebrew text says that he

died in the kiss of Jehovah. Before dying let us learn to live in

the kiss of Jehovah, which is also the kiss of all humanity. O

holy Church! thou art more than man and thou art more than

God--than God alone in heaven, than man alone on earth. O holy

Church! thou art the kiss of God to man, the kiss of man to God;

the embrace of all men, all races, all ages, in the flame of

universal and eternal love. "He who abideth in love abideth in

God, and God abideth in him."

----------

A Sketch Of Leo X. And His Age.

In the annals of literature and art, the name of Florence peers

above that of any other Italian city, Rome excepted. Here were

the poets who tuned the Italian language and made it the most

musical of modern idioms; here was the illustrious astronomer,

who was not the discoverer of a planet, but the revealer of the

whole celestial machinery; and here, too, were the artist and

politician who were not only the first sculptors and statesmen of

their time, but the inventors of the very art and craft in which

they excelled. Every day the pilgrim scholar arrives at her gates

and requests to be shown the monuments of her great men, and

every day genius worships at the shrine of genius.

At the time of which we write, the middle ages had seen their

palmiest days, when a Charlemagne courteously entertained

ambassadors from the Mussulmans of Florence and the Caliphs of

Bagdad, and when the flower of chivalry, headed by a valiant

Philip, a lion-hearted Richard, and a sainted Louis, rushed to

the plains of the east to battle with the Moslem foe; they had

presided over the erection of those great Gothic piles whose

sublime architecture towered to the clouds, and had beheld the

pontiffs of Rome issuing orders for the foundation of

universities not only in Italy, but on the very outskirts of the

civilized world; [Footnote 169] and finally they had seen the

laborious and prolific genius of the schoolmen multiplying

inventions and discoveries, fathoming the profound depths of

theological science, and disserting on those great metaphysical

problems, which, like so many apples of discord, have caused

endless dissension and controversy among modern philosophers.

[Footnote 170]

[Footnote 169: Gibbon tells us in a foot-note to his _Decline

and Fall of the Roman Empire_ that, "at the end of the

fifteenth century, there were about fifty universities in

Europe." Though this is indeed a glorious tribute, considering

from whom it came, paid to the mediaeval ages, we are, however,

more inclined to believe with the _New American

Cyclopaedia_ that, "before the year 1500, there were over

sixty-four universities in Europe."]

[Footnote 170: Mackintosh says, "Scarcely any metaphysical

controversy agitated among recent philosophers was unknown to

the schoolmen." (_Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical

Philosophy_.)]

But before these great medieval ages had reached their terminus,

they again shone forth with brilliant splendor. That, indeed, was

a glorious epoch in the world's history, when the most important

invention recorded in the annals of mankind came forth from the

brain of Guttenberg; when the stormy Atlantic was first ploughed

by adventurous keels, and new worlds discovered; when letters,

philosophy, and the fine arts were cultivated in such schools as

the Medicean palaces, and were patronized by such men as Cosmo

and Lorenzo de' Medici.

{700}

Under the enlightened patronage of these princely merchants,

Florence became the Athens of Italy, and one of the favorite

retreats of the muses. Her public halls were crowded with youths

eager to listen to an eloquent hellenist, expatiating upon the

beauties of Homer; her poets sang in the idiom of the great

Mantuan; her philosophers were smitten with love for the divine

Plato; and her scholars were so well read in antiquity, that

students from every country came thither, to slake their thirst

at what was then considered the fountain-head of ancient lore.

The gardens of the Medici recalled the groves of the Academies in

which the Athenian philosopher descanted upon human and divine

things, and the shady porches of the Lyceum, in which the

Stagirite perambulated whilst delivering his sublime lessons.

A great bustle might have been observed in these gardens on the

11th of December, 1475; artists and humanists were vieing with

one another in congratulating Lorenzo the Magnificent on the

birth of his second son, who, in memory of his paternal uncle,

was christened Giovanni. Lorenzo was proud of his little

Benjamin, and he listened with complacency to those who admired

his keen, restless eye, his pure and noble forehead, his flowing

hair and snowy neck. In contemplating the sweet expression of his

countenance, the poet declared that he would revive classic

literature; and the Neoplatonician predicted a bright era for

philosophy; whilst a fugitive Hellene read in the Greek profile

of the infant happy days for his dispersed countrymen; and an old

sage, endowed with Simeon-like prophecy, exclaimed, "My soul,

praise the Lord! Giovanni shall be the honor of the sanctuary."

The education of the young child's heart and the embellishment of

his mind were, for his enlightened parents, objects of supreme

importance. The former duty necessarily devolved upon themselves;

and how well they succeeded was best shown by the mild and

placable temper, polished manners, and kind and affable

disposition of their little favorite; the latter they entrusted

to scholars whose names even then were running through the

schools of Europe, especially to Politiano, one of the best

classical writers of the _renaissance_, and the preceptor of

a pleiad of illustrious men. Naturally docile, well endowed with

parts, in constant intercourse with men of rank and talent,

Giovanni acquired a dignity of deportment, a facility of

conversation, and a fund of knowledge, much beyond his years. At

sixteen, he had completed the curriculum of Pisa, was graduated

doctor and invested with the insignia of the cardinalate, and

thus entitled to take his seat among the princes of the church.

These precocious acquirements and early preferments ought to have

ripened into days of serenity; but no, they were more like the

calm that precedes the storm. Brought up in the school of

prosperity, he was to acquire his last finish amidst the rude

trials of adversity. Before attaining the highest dignity that

can adorn the brow of man, he was destined to experience the

instability of human affairs and the fickleness of men. The death

of his father, and the demise of his munificent protector,

Innocent VIII., inflicted deep wounds on his sensitive heart.

{701}

In the mean time, a terrific storm was gathering in Florence. The

inhabitants of this metropolis, exasperated at the seemingly

unpatriotic conduct of Piero de' Medici, his elder brother,

expelled from within their walls even the last scion of their

noblest family; something like the ungrateful Athenians, who

ostracized the very man on whom they had conferred the title of

just. To cheer the dreary hours of exile, no less than to enrich

his mind with useful knowledge, the expatriated cardinal resolved

upon visiting the principal cities of Europe. Even here,

difficulties and disquietudes unforeseen lurked in the background

of the smiling ideal that he had formed of his itinerary. The

suspicious authorities of Ulm and Rouen arrested the little

caravan, and ordered him and his companions to confinement; the

foaming billows deterred him from proceeding to England, and thus

deprived him of the pleasure of visiting the land of Bede and of

King Alfred. On his return, he was cast by a storm on the Genoese

coast, and, thinking it advisable to relinquish his voyage,

proceeded by land to Savona, where he met the celebrated Cardinal

Della Rovere--a remarkable coincidence, if we consider that Della

Rovere, Giulio de' Medici, and he himself were afterward raised

to the dignity of the tiara. Notwithstanding all the afflictions

that poured in on him, the future pontiff invariably preserved

that equanimity of mind and amenity of manners which were the

prominent features in his character. Better and brighter days

were now about to dawn. The premature death of Piero, partially

disarmed the hostility of the Florentines, and they finally threw

open their gates to the illustrious representative of the

time-honored family of the Medici. A year had hardly elapsed

after his restoration before Rome was plunged into mourning by

the death of that wary and energetic pontiff, Julius II. The

conclave assembled immediately after the obsequies, and Cardinal

de' Medici was called by the unanimous vote to the see of St.

Peter. Giovanni de' Medici was now Leo X., and the choice of that

name, as Erasmus spiritually remarks, was not without its

significance. If Leo I. saved the eternal city from the ravages

of the "scourge of God;" if Leo IV. again repelled from her walls

the barbaric bands of Saracens, Leo X. was to make her the

capital city of the republic of letters, as she was already the

starry centre of the Christian world.

Italy had already taken the lead in the restoration of ancient

learning, and supplied the fire from which the other nations

lighted their torches. [Footnote 171] As may easily be fancied,

the elevation to the pontificate of the son of Lorenzo the

Magnificent spontaneously awoke the most sanguine expectations of

the artists and literati. In their fervor, they imagined that

genius, worth, and talent could not remain unnoticed or

unremunerated. "Under these impressions," says a Protestant

writer, [Footnote 172]

[Footnote 171: Hallam, _Literature of Europe_, vol. i.

ch. i.]

[Footnote 172: Roscoe, _Life and Pontificate of Leo_,

vol. i. p. 306.]

"Rome became, at once, the general resort of those who possessed

or had pretensions to superior learning, industry, or ability.

They all took it for granted that the supreme pontiff had no

other objects of attention than to listen to their productions

and to reward their labors." That their hopes were to be

realized, was evident to all from the very first act of the new

pontiff's administration, the selection as apostolic secretaries

of Bembo and Sadoleti, two scholars who resume in themselves the

intellectual life of the time--Sadoleti, a profound philosopher

and the best exegete of his age; and Bembo, who emulated Virgil

and Cicero with equal success, and recalled in his writings the

elegance of Petrarch and Boccaccio. [Footnote 173]

[Footnote 173: Bettinelli. It is to Bembo that we are

indebted for the restoration of the long-lost art of

abbreviated or shorthand writing.]

{702}

A new era in literature and art was about to dawn; its first

bright rays were for Italy, that "land of taste and sensibility."

With a pontiff who could say, "I have always loved accomplished

scholars and _belles-lettres_; this love was born with me,

and age has but increased it; for literature is the ornament and

glory of the church; and I have always remarked that it knits its

cultivators more firmly to the dogmas of our faith;" with such a

pontiff, the intellectual movement that then pervaded Italian

society was nobly sustained and enlivened, until at last the

golden age again reappeared on earth. All sorts of

encouragements, such as honorary employments, lucrative offices,

pecuniary gratuities, and even ecclesiastical preferments, were

lavished upon talent and genius. Every latent energy luxuriantly

budded forth and blossomed in the genial sunshine of such

munificence.

The academies of literary men philosophized on the banks of the

Tiber or in the cool recesses of a fragrant villa. The lovers of

the arts, the votaries of the muses, and the cultivators of

polite literature sat side by side at the sumptuous banquets

frequently given in the Vatican. At these grand entertainments

all topics were convivially canvassed, and fancy soared aloft to

delight the guests by her sublime improvisations. Popular

favorites, like the poet of Arezzo and the "celestial" Accolte,

read their productions in public halls to admiring multitudes;

while the best scholars of the age, yielding to the invitation of

Leo, filled the professorships of the great universities. Italy

was then, in the beautiful words of Audin, "the promised land of

the intellect;" [Footnote 174] and Rome the centre of learning

and the nursery of great men. No wonder, then, that the

snow-capped Alps presented but a feeble barrier to the

transalpine scholar, and that every day some new Hannibal

descended their craggy flanks and pushed forward to the

seven-hilled city, to pay a courteous visit to the accomplished

pontiff, and gratify a long-entertained desire of conversing with

the celebrities of the age. The whole world thus recognized that

"The fount at which the panting mind assuages

Her thirst of knowledge, quaffing there her fill,

Flows from th' eternal source of Rome's imperial hill." [Footnote 175]

[Footnote 174: _Vie de Luther_, vol. i. p. 179.]

[Footnote 175: Byron, _Childe Harold_, Canto III.]

Since the days of Petrarch, the Italian muse had all but hushed

her lovely strains; her lyre was silent and unstrung. Politiano

came, swept its music-breathing chords, and sent its sweet notes

on the wings of the zephyrs throughout the Italian peninsula. All

listened with rapture to the enchanting strains of the Tuscan

siren, and, after a moment of hesitation, prepared their pens to

write on every theme and to illustrate every department of

science and letters. The classic models of heroic poetry, fresh

from the Aldine presses or half consumed by the dust of ages,

were taken down from their shelves and studied with passionate

ardor. The children of song were delighted with the epic muse,

and were now hard at work at their great poems.

{703}

Mozarello elaborates his _Porsenna_; Querno, the archpoet,

cadences the twenty thousand verses of his _Alexias_; Vida,

like Horace of old, draws up the rules of the metrical art, and

sings his _Christiad_ in verses of Augustan purity and

elegance; Ariosto, the Homer of Ferrara, condenses into his

_Orlando Furioso_ a vein of poetry so remarkable for its

grace and energy as to leave it doubtful whether the palm of

superiority should be awarded to him, or to the author of the

_Jerusalem Delivered_. [Footnote 176] The terrible

eventualities of tragedy and the more pleasing casualties of

comedy were brought upon the stage by Trissino, Ruccellai, and

Bibbiena; the protean burlesque assumed its most humorous forms

under Berni's magic pen, and the shafts of satire were keenly

pointed by Aretino, whose virulent epigrams drew upon him such an

amount of physical retaliation that a contemporary writer calls

him "the loadstone of clubs and daggers." [Footnote 177]

[Footnote 176: Laharpe. _Cours de Littérature_, vol. i.

p. 435.]

[Footnote 177: See Addison, _Spectator_, No. 23.]

Guicciardini wrote the history of his country with the elegant

diction of the great historians of Rome; Giovio's periods were so

flowing as to make Leo X. declare that next to Livy he had not

met with a more eloquent writer. The _Prince_ of

Macchiavelli enjoys a world-wide reputation, and his _History

of Florence_ is so remarkable for the beauty of its style,

that it is said to have had more influence on Italian prose than

any other work, except the _Decameron_ of Boccaccio. Besides

these reigning stars, there was a host of other literary

celebrities who shed a brilliant lustre on Leo's golden reign.

There was Fracastoro, who, at the early age of nineteen, had won

the highest academic degree of the Paduan university, and was

nominated to the professorship of logic; Navagero, whose aversion

to an affected taste was so intense that he annually consigned to

the flames a copy of Martial; Aleandro, who was only twenty-four

when the celebrated Manuzio dedicated to him his edition of the

_Iliad_, alleging as a reason for conferring this honor on a

person so young, that his acquirements were beyond those of any

other person with whom he was acquainted, and it is well known

that the Venetian typographer was the friend and correspondent of

almost all the literary characters of the day; Augurelli, whom a

contemporary historian calls the most learned and elegant

preceptor of his time; Castiglione, who was called by Charles V.

the most accomplished gentleman of the age; Leonardo da Vinci,

who, long before the philosopher of Verulam, proclaimed

experiment the base of the physical sciences, and, before the

astronomer of Thorne, taught the annual motion of the earth; and

Calcagnini, who wrote an elaborate work to defend this startling

thesis. The correction of the calendar was investigated by

Dulciati, and even hieroglyphics found an expounder in the

encyclopedic Valeriaro, who wrote no less than fifty-eight books

on that abstruse subject. Literature, indeed, was a universal

hobby; it was the royal road to distinction in an age when the

love of the well-turned period and the mellifluous sonnet was

epidemic. The lady cultivators of polite letters were numerous,

and not only accomplished proficients but formidable rivals. The

sonnets of Veronica Gambara rank among the best; Vittoria

Colonna, in lively description and genuine poetry, excelled all

her contemporaries with the sole exception of the inimitable

Ariosto; and Laura Battifera is represented as the rival of

Sappho.

{704}

Notwithstanding this general enthusiasm for the amenities of

literature, great attention was bestowed upon the more arid study

of languages. Already the Latin muse had come to dwell again

beneath the beautiful sky of Ausonia; and the humanists, fleeing

from the savage fury of the triumphant Ottomans, sang, in the

gardens of Florence and on the banks of the Tiber, the fall of

Troy and the adventures of Ulysses. Leo X. was not only a Latin

scholar, he was also a refined hellenist. Moreover, he knew what

vast treasures of patristic lore are contained in the Greek

fathers, and hence, as a lover of sacred and profane literature,

he lavished his treasures on the revival of that beautiful

tongue. A little colony, fresh from the Morea, was installed in a

magnificent mansion on the Esquilian hill, and a Greek seminary

was opened to impart to the Italians the true pronunciation and

the very genius of the Homeric idiom. The famous Lascaris, at the

invitation of Leo X., relinquished his position at the French

court, in order to direct the studies of his young countrymen and

superintend the editions of the Greek classics that were issued

from the Roman press. The Hebrew was taught at Rome by

Guidacerio, who published a grammar of that language and

dedicated it to Leo X.; the Syriac and Chaldaic were taught at

Bologna by Ambrozio, a regular canon of the Lateran, who at

fifteen could converse in Greek and Latin with as much ease and

fluency as any of his contemporaries, and who subsequently

mastered eighteen languages. A useful and authentic lexicon was

first given to the learned world by Varino. A new Latin version

of the Bible from the Hebrew having been announced by Pagnini,

Leo X. requested an interview with the author, and was so well

pleased with his competency as well as with the elegance and

accuracy of the work, that he defrayed all the expenses of

transcription and publication. Erasmus, who corresponded with

Leo, and, more than any one else, knew his great desire to

promote biblical studies, inscribed to him his _New

Testament_ in Greek and Latin with corrections and

annotations. Giustiniani commenced, in 1516, a new edition of the

Bible in Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, and Chaldaic. If to this

we add that the famous Cardinal Ximenes dedicated to Leo X. his

herculean work, the Complutensian Polyglot, we shall have some

idea of the efforts made in the beginning of the sixteenth

century toward the promotion of scriptural and philological

studies. [Footnote 178]

[Footnote 178: It may here be remarked, in passing, that,

before the Reformation, the Bible was translated into not

only the classic and oriental languages, but also the

vernacular of every nation of Europe. For particulars, see

Cantu, _Histoire Universelle_, vol. xv. p. 12.]

It has been said that a genuine love of literature invariably

evinces its existence by an insatiable thirst for books, "those

souls of ages past." This love Leo X. possessed to an eminent

degree; he was a second Nicholas V. At his request and under his

patronage, sterling bibliophiles set out from Rome to overrun the

world in quest of manuscripts. The monasteries of Britain and

Germany and the ruins of the Byzantine libraries were diligently

searched; ample pecuniary remuneration was everywhere offered for

unpublished works; and as kings and princes encouraged this hunt

after books, it may easily be fancied that volumes teemed in from

every quarter. The Vatican was made the recipient of these

literary treasures; and, thanks to the zeal of the popes, it now

possesses the most valuable collection of manuscripts in the

world.

{705}

Leo X. was not only a man of letters, he was also well versed in

antiquities. Prior to his elevation to the pontificate, his

greatest delight was to shut himself up in his library or museum,

and there pore over his hoarded treasures. This antiquarian taste

he inherited from his illustrious ancestors, whose collections

were famous throughout all Italy. One day, while he was yet a

cardinal, a statue of Lucretia was exhumed; his joy was supreme,

and in the heat of his enthusiasm, he strung his lyre and

commemorated the happy event in beautiful iambics. On another

occasion, a piece of sculpture, representing the ship of

AEsculapius, was, owing to his exertions, discovered in the

Tiber. This was considered by his omen-liking friends as an

augury of his future dignity. The discovery of the famous group

known as the Laocoön was an epoch in Rome. That evening, the

bells were rung to announce the event; the poets, among whom was

Sadoleti, lucubrated all night, preparing their hymns, sonnets,

and canzoni, to welcome the reappearance of the masterpiece. Next

morning, all Rome was on foot, and the public works were

suspended while the antique statue, festooned with flowers and

verdure, was carried processionally to the capitol, amidst the

sound of vocal and instrumental harmony. Such was the joy of the

Roman artists on the discovery of a relic of ancient art.

The twin arts painting and sculpture shared largely in the

munificence of the pontiff. Bramarte, Michael Angelo, Raphael,

and Leonardo da Vinci, the princes of modern art, were the worthy

emulators of Phidias and Apelles. In immortalizing their names

and that of their patron, they immortalized their age and their

country. At their call, genius again returned to earth, and

exhibited, in the chiselled marble and on the glowing canvas,

such animated representations as filled the eye with wonder and

stirred the deep foundations of the heart. Bramarte planned and

commenced St. Peter's, which, in the estimation of the sceptic

Gibbon, is the most glorious structure that has ever been applied

to religion; for

"Majesty,

Power, glory, strength, and beauty, all are aisled

In the eternal ark of worship undefiled."

Michael Angelo, whose very fragments have educated eminent

artists, continuing the noble structure, placed the pride of

Roman architecture in the clouds, and drew the design of the Last

Judgment, which connoisseurs pronounce a miracle of genius.

Raphael covered the Vatican with his inimitable frescoes and

sketched his Transfiguration, which was hailed by the Roman

people as the type of the beautiful, a paragon of art, and the

masterpiece of painting. The profound Da Vinci painted the Last

Supper and thus afforded Christian families a neat ornament for

their refectories and a piece of artistic finish for their

drawing-rooms. Sansovino's productions, according to the

historian of the arts, were among the finest specimens of the

plastic art, and Romano's were worthy of his "divine" master.

Such was the flourishing state of the arts and the great impulse

given to all branches of learning just before the memorable epoch

when the fetters of the human intellect were, forsooth, burst

asunder by the great Saxon hero, the unfrocked monk of

Wittemberg, against whom Leo X. hurled the bolt of

excommunication. If this grand impetus was not followed up, if

the pen was forgotten for the sword, and the altars of Apollo

were deserted for those of the homicide Mars; if the era of the

reformation "was truly a barbarous era," [Footnote 179] it most

certainly was not owing to incapacity on the part of the Roman

pontiffs, since sectarians themselves proclaim them "in general

superior to the age in which they lived," [Footnote 180] while

historians of the depth of Neander are struck with admiration to

find the popes "ever attentive to the moral and religious wants

of their people;" [Footnote 181] but it must be attributed to the

immediate effects of the so-called Reformation, that spirit of

blind fanaticism which was equalled only by the wholesale

brigandage and all-destroying vandalism of the sainted

evangelicals.

[Footnote 179: Schlegel, _Philosophy of History_.]

[Footnote 180: Roscoe, _Life and Pontificate of Leo X_.]

[Footnote 181: Neander, _General History of the Christian

Religion and Church_.]

{706}

A kind dispensation of Providence it was, that saved Leo X. the

sight of the harrowing scenes that Europe then presented. He had

already occupied the throne of St. Peter eight years, eight

months, and nineteen days, during all which time he had

faithfully guarded the interests of the church against royal

encroachments, and the liberty of his dominions against foreign

aggression; he had presided over the last seven sessions of the

oecumenical council of Lateran, and conferred on an English

monarch the title of _Defensor fidei;_ and now, in the

forty-seventh year of his age, cruel death takes him from the

affection of his subjects, the love of his cardinals, and the

veneration of men of letters. Sad was the day when it was told

that Leo X. was no more. Artists and humanists dropped a tear for

their friend and benefactor; the sculptor and the painter

commemorated their deceased Maecenas in the virgin marble and on

the glowing canvas, while the historian wrote the annals of his

reign and the poet embalmed his memory in immortal verse. Rome

erected his monument, and posterity, admiring the virtues of the

Christian, reverencing the eminent qualities of the pontiff, and

idolizing the protector of letters and art, has called the age in

which he lived the golden age of Leo the Tenth.

----------

Translated From The Spanish.

Little Flowers Of Spain.

By Fernan Caballero.

"Humble flowers of religious poetry, and derivations of popular

expressions and proverbs," is the title given by the authoress

to the article headed "Cosas (humildes) de España"

--_Humble Things of Spain_.

If there exists an individual who has read all that we have

written--and the case, though not probable, is nevertheless not

impossible--he must have noticed that our zeal, our labor, and

our specialty is to find out origins and causes, draw inferences

and conclusions, and trace things to their why and wherefore. We

are really apprehensive lest in this branch we may become too

notable.

Our system is the same that is followed nowadays by writers of

history. Let it be understood that we do not meddle with such

weighty subjects, nor venture into profound depths, and that our

employment of the aforesaid modern system is solely in questions

of the humble schools. Our information is all obtained from

popular traditions, romances, and beliefs. The data which it is

our delight to place in relief, all the world has handled as the

Indians did gold before their conquerors gave it value; as future

generations will give value to the things of which we treat when

they lament their loss.

{707}

Our explorations in these rich mines have been rewarded. We have

ascertained that the first tree that God planted was the white

poplar; therefore the white poplar is the most ancient of

trees--the vegetable Adam. We have learned that the serpent went

straight, erect, and proud of his triumph in Paradise, until the

flight into Egypt, when, encountering the Holy Family, he

attempted to bite the child Jesus, and the indignant St. Joseph

prevented him with these words, "Fall, proud one, and never rise

again!" From that good day to this he has crawled. We have

learned, moreover, that snakes and toads are permitted to exist

solely for the purpose of absorbing the poisons of the earth. We

have found out that the evergreen trees are endowed with their

privileges of life and beauty in recompense for having given

shelter and shade to the Mother and Child whenever they stopped

to rest in their flight from the sword of Herod; that the

rosemary enjoys its fragrance and always blossoms on Friday, the

day of Our Lord's Passion, because the Blessed Virgin, when she

washed the little garments of the babe, used to hang them to dry

upon its branches; also, that for this very reason it has the

gift of attracting peace and good-hap to the dwellings that are

perfumed with it on Holy-night. That everybody has sympathy,

affection, and even reverence for the swallows, because

compassionately and with such sweet charity they pulled out the

thorns that were piercing the temples of the divine Martyr. That

the red-owl, which, grieved and appalled, witnessed the cruel

crucifixion of the God-man, has done nothing ever since but

repeat the melancholy cry "Cruz! Cruz!" That the rose of Jericho,

which was white before, owes its purple hue to a drop of the

wounded Saviour's blood that fell into its cup. That on Mount

Calvary, and all along the way of agony, the gentle plants and

fresh herbs wilted and died when our Lord passed by bearing his

cross, and that these places were presently covered with briers.

That the lightning loses its power to hurt in the whole

circumference that is reached by the sound of praying. That at

High Mass on Ascension-day, at the moment of the elevation, the

leaves of the trees incline upon each other, forming crosses, in

token of devotion and reverence. When newborn infants smile, in

dreams or waking, we know that it is to angels, visible only to

them. A murmur in the ears is the noise made by the falling of a

leaf from the tree of life. When silence settles all at once upon

several persons forming a company, it is not, as the wise ones

say, because "the carriage is running upon sand," but because an

angel has passed over them, and the air that is moved by his

wings communicates to their souls the silence of respect, though

their comprehension fails to divine the cause. Likewise, we have

ascertained that the tarantula was a woman extravagantly fond of

the dance, and so inconsiderate that when, on one occasion, she

was dancing, and His Divine Majesty [Footnote 182] passed by, she

did not stop, but continued her diversion with the most frightful

irreverence. For this she was changed into a spider with the

figure of a guitar delineated upon its back, and possessed of a

venom that causes those who are bitten by it to dance and dance

until, fainting and exhausted, they fall down in a swoon.

[Footnote 182: The Blessed Sacrament.]

In effect, we have learned many other things: some of them we

have already written; the rest we mean to write; that is to say,

"If the rope does not break, all will go on as usual."

{708}

But, among these things, there is one which we are going to

communicate immediately, for fear lest we die of cholera, and it

descend with us into the tomb; for it barely survives at present,

and with it would perish its remembrance.

In times when faith filled hearts to overflowing, offerings and

_ex-votos_ were brought by thousands to the house of God.

Now that we are enlightened, we have other uses for our gold, our

rare objects, and fine arts; for, as the poet says,

"En el sigh diez y nueve

Nadie á tener fé se atreve,

Y no huy que en milagros cred." [Footnote 183]

[Footnote 183: In the nineteenth century, no one dares to

have faith and there is no one who believes in miracles.]

It is well--or, better said, it is ill.

The first ostrich eggs procured by the Spaniards, in their

voyages to Africa, were regarded as marvels, and deposited,

either as offerings or _ex-votos_, in the churches, where,

bound and tied with gay ribbons, they hung before the altars and

were looked upon as ornaments of great value. And even now,

before modest altars in humble villages are sometimes seen these

enormous eggs; presenting with their worn and faded decorations

the appearance of porcelain melons. By whom were they brought?

where were they found? who hung them here? are questions that

assault the mind of the beholder, and send his thoughts and fancy

into the vast field of conjectures impossible to verify, but all

sweet, romantic, and holy.

The imagination of the Spanish people is an _instinct_. They

cannot see a material object without attaching to it an ideal.

Out of the fervor of their own heart they made a symbol of this.

The belief adapted to the ostrich egg, hung in front of the

altar, is one that will be sagely qualified by sanctimonious

devotees of literal truth as superstitious and fanatical. We

offer it to the Protestant missionaries who favor us with their

propaganda, as a killing weapon against the benighted and

malignant papists.

It is said that the mother-bird cannot hatch these eggs, which

appear to be of marble, because it is impossible for her to cover

them, and because there is not heat enough in her body to warm

them through; but that she has in her look such fire, kindled by

her great desire to free her offspring, that by keeping her eyes

continuedly and without distraction fixed upon the eggs, the

ardor and concentration of her love penetrates the hard shell and

delivers her little ones. And they hung these eggs before the

places where the holy sacrifice of the mass is offered, to teach

us to keep our eyes fixed upon the altar with equal desire, equal

love, and exclusive attention and devotion. O poets! if you would

fulfil your mission, which is to move the heart, learn less in

palaces, and more from the people who feel and believe.

Among sayings and proverbs that have been accepted everywhere

without having to show their parentage, is the well-known

expression, _Ahi me las den todas:_ May I get them all

there.

One of the creditors of a certain dishonest fellow, that owed all

the world and paid nobody, laid his complaint before the judge,

who sent an alguacil to suggest to the debtor the necessity of

paying at once.

For response to the intimation, the debtor gave the alguacil, who

was a very dignified man, a slap on his face. The latter,

returning to the tribunal, addressed the magistrate thus: "Sir,

when I go to notify an individual on the part of your worship,

whom do I represent?" "Me," answered the judge. "Well, sir,"

proceeded the alguacil, touching his cheek, "to this cheek of

your worship they have given a slap." "May I get them all there,"

replied the judge.

{709}

Here is the etymology of another saying, _Quien no te conozea

te compre:_ Let some one buy you that don't know you. Three

poor students came to a village where there was a fair. "What

shall we do to amuse ourselves?" asked one as they were passing a

garden in which an ass was drawing water from a well. "I have

already hit upon a way," answered another of the three. "Put me

into the machine, and you take the ass to the fair and sell him."

As it was said, so it was done. When his companions had gone, the

student that had remained in the place of the ass stood still.

"Arre!" [Footnote 184] shouted the gardener, who was at work not

far off.

[Footnote 184: Geho!]

The improvised ass neither started nor shook his bell, and the

gardener mounted to the machine, in which, to his great

consternation, he found his ass changed into a student. "What is

this?" he cried. "My master," said the student, "some ill-natured

witches transformed me into an ass, but I have fulfilled the term

of my enchantment and returned to my original shape."

The poor gardener was disconsolate, but what could be done? He

unharnessed the student, and, bidding him go with God-speed, set

out sorrowfully for the fair to buy another beast. The very first

that presented itself was his own, which had been bought by a

company of gipsies. The moment he cast his eyes upon it, he took

to his heels, exclaiming, "Let some one buy you that don't know

you."

_Yo te cono cí ciruelo_--I knew you when you were a

plum-tree--is a common saying. The people of a certain village

bought a plum-tree of a gardener, for the purpose of having it

converted into an effigy of St. Peter. When the image was

finished and set up in the church, the gardener went to see it,

and, observing the somewhat lavish coloring and gilding of its

drapery, exclaimed:

"Gloriosisimo San Pedro,

Yo te cono cí ciruelo,

Y de tu fruta comi;

Los misagros que tu hagas

Que me me los cuelgan á mi!"

"Most glorious Saint Peter!

I knew you when you were a plum-tree,

and ate of your fruit;

the miracles you do,

let them hang upon me."

_Ya saco raja_--He has got a share--is often said, and we

trace it to Estremadura, where the live-oak groves are divided

into rajas; _raja_ being the name of an extension yielding

acorns enough to feed a given number of hogs. When the

_rajas_ are public property, they are distributed at a

trifling rent to the poorer householders, who are, as will be

supposed, very anxious to have them. But to obtain one is

difficult, for the _ayuntamientos_, or town councils,

generally give them to their _protégés_ and hangers-on; and,

from this circumstance, "He has got a hog-pasture," has come to

be said of any person that by skill, cunning, audacity, or good

luck succeeds in obtaining an advantage difficult to get, or of

which the getting depends upon some one else.

_El que tiene capa escapa_--He that wears a cloak

escapes--dates from the giving way of the new bridge at Puerto

Santa Maria, under the weight of the great crowd that had

collected upon it. To prevent thefts and disturbances,

Captain-General O'Kelly issued an order to the effect that no

person wearing a cloak should be allowed to cross the bridge. In

consequence of this order, no one wearing a cloak fell into the

river.

{710}

It is usual to indicate that a person is poor by saying, _El

esta á la cuarta pregunta_--He is at the fourth question. This

assertion is derived from the interrogation of witnesses for the

defence in suits when, among other circumstances, that of poverty

is wished to be proved. This extreme being comprehended in the

fourth question, as follows: "Does the witness know, of his own

knowledge, that the party he represents is poor, and possesses

neither landed property nor income; so that he has absolutely no

means of support except the product of his own labor?"

----------

The Pearl And The Poison.

From The French.

Chanced it, where along the strand

Softly foaming broke the sea,

Lay an oyster on the sand

'Mid her neighbors merrily:

And her shelly doors, ablaze

With the sapphire's thousand rays,

She had opened to the sigh

Of the zephyrs flitting by.

Fell into her bosom there

Just a single drop of rain--

Just a rain-drop dull and plain:

When, behold! a jewel rare--

A sudden pearl exceeding fair!

Chanced it on the heath hard by

That a viper, lurking dread,

Uttered then her hissing cry--

To the zephyr raised her head:

When upon her dart accurst

Fell a rain-drop like the first:

Just a drop of poison more

To recruit her venom's store.

With twofold nature are our hearts endued,

Nor open less to evil than to good:

Responding kindly to the tiller's care,

The soil becomes what skilful hands prepare.

Dear parents, take you heed. If yours the will

To guard your children's sacred innocence,

Be timely care and foresight the defence;

And drop by drop instil

Into their little spirits thoughts of good,

To be their daily food.

If you are wise, through years to come

A pearl of a child will make you blest:

If not, you'll cherish in your home

A very poison to your rest.

-------

{711}

Foreign Literary Notes.

The testimony of so distinguished an authority as M. E. Littré,

of the French Institute, is now added to that of Digby, Maitland,

Montalembert, and so many others, to show that the middle ages

were not "barbarous." M. Littré, as is well known, is very far

from being a Catholic; but, treating the subject with his great

erudition from a purely historical point of view, he shows, in

his _Etudes sur les Barbares et le Moyen Age_, that, after

the frightful degeneration of the Roman world--a degeneration

aggravated and precipitated by the violent immixtion of barbarous

peoples--the period of the middle ages was an era of renovation

in institutions, in letters, and in morals; a renovation, slow,

it is true, but certain and continuous; a renovation entirely due

to Catholicity, revivifying by powerful and fecund impulsion the

antique foundation formed by pagan society, and augmenting it by

all that Christianity possesses superior to paganism. On this

beneficial and constantly civilizing influence of the church,

which formed the moral unity of a world whose material unity had

disappeared, re-educating people fallen into infancy, rescuing

letters by her schools, clearing the forests by her monks,

founding social and political institutions worthy of the name,

and the like of which the Roman empire had never seen--for the

reason that all its conceptions of man and of liberty were false,

and it could never raise itself to the idea of a spiritual power

that was independent of the lay power--on all these points, so

worthy the attention of the historian, there are, particularly in

the first two chapters, some admirable pages. M. Littré speaks

with admiration of the spread of monachism in the west, and

distinctly recognizes the many great blessings that followed in

its train. He (p. 3) reproaches Gibbon with having ignored the

importance of the religious fact of Christianity. And yet his

"naturalism" has led him astray from the conclusion to which the

invincible logic of his own presentation of facts must bring him.

----

A valuable addition to biblical criticism is, unquestionably, the

lately published _Saint Paul's Epistle to the Philippians_.

A revised text, with introduction, notes, and dissertations. By

J. B. Lightfoot, D.D., Hulsean Professor of Divinity, and Fellow

of Trinity College, Cambridge. London, Macmillan. 8vo, 337 pp.

This book forms the second volume of an exegetical work that is

to embrace all the epistles of St. Paul. Galatians has already

been published. The present volume is particularly valuable for

its introduction of the results of the latest archeological and

historical research. The commentaries on Seneca and the doctrines

of the Stoics are interesting, as also the remarks on the [Greek

text] in verse 13 of first chapter.

----

A distinguished priest of the Oratory, H. de Valroger, has

recently published an able and learned disquisition on biblical

chronology. He terminates it thus: "No more than the Bible has

the church laid down a dogmatic system of precise dates strictly

connected and confining the primitive history of the world and of

man within narrow and inflexible limits. No more than the Bible

does the church deprive astronomers, geologists, paleontologists,

archaeologists, or chronologists of the liberty of ascertaining

scientifically the period of time elapsed since the creation of

the world and of man, or since the deluge, which terminated the

first of the reign of humanity."

----

In the Foreign Literary Notes of our number for June, we noticed

an important publication by the Abbé Lamy on the Council of

Seleuciae, a translation from one of the numerous productions of

early Syrian literature, so rich in works relative to the church,

its history, its discipline, and its dogmas. And, in this

connection, it may be proper here to note a typographical

transposition seriously interfering with a correct reading of the

notice in question, namely, the six paragraphs of the first

column of p. 432 that precede "Concilium Seleuciae et

Ctesiphonti," etc., should follow the second paragraph on the

second column of the same page.

{712}

This work of the Abbé Lamy is one out of many recent publications

showing the great attention lately given to the monuments of

early Syrian literature by theologians of Europe. Especially in

Germany is the activity great in this new field. It has long been

known that a serious chronological break existed in this

literature, covering a period of nearly three hundred years,

stretching from the translation of the Scriptures to the

classical period of Syrian patristic literature.

Only of late years has this void been partially filled by the

important work of Cureton, (W.,) entitled, _Ancient Syriac

Documents relative to the earliest Establishment of Christianity

in Edessa_. With a preface by W. Wright. London: Williams &

Norgate. 1864. This work of Cureton was preceded by his

_Spicilegium Syriacum_, containing remains of Bardesan,

Meliton, Ambrose, and Mara bar Serapion. London: Francis &

Rivington. 1855.

In connection with these may be mentioned Cardinal Wiseman's

_Horae Syriacae_, Rome, 1828; Pohlmann, _S. Ephraemi Syri

Commentariorum in S. Scripturum;_ Lamy, _Diss. de Syrorum

fide et disciplina in re eucharistica; S. Ephraemi Syri Rabulae,

Balaei aliorumque opera selecta_. Oxford, Clarendon. 1865.

----

An interesting historical controversy has for some time been

going on between M. Cretineau Joly, of Paris, and the Rev. Father

Theiner, Prefect of the Archives of the Vatican, concerning the

authenticity of the memoirs of Cardinal Consalvi, published by M.

Cretineau Joly, in 1864. Father Theiner, in his History of the

Concordat, throws serious doubts upon the genuineness of these

memoirs. On the other hand, M. Joly, in his lately published

_Bonaparte, the Concordat of 1801, and the Cardinal

Consalvti_, defends his position, and declares that he

translated with the most conscientious exactitude the memoirs in

question, "such as they were confided to me at Rome, such as I

now possess them in MSS. at Paris, such as any one is free to

test by examination."

----

_Logicae, Metaphysicae, Ethicae Institutiones quas tradebat

Franciscus Battaglinius, Sacerdos, Philosophiae Lector_.

Bologna, typogr. Felsinea. 1869. 1 vol. in 8vo, 712 pp. This work

is a collection of the lectures delivered at the Seminary of

Bologna, by Professor Battaglini. The spirit of the learned

professor's philosophy is, as he himself states, _secundum divi

Thomae doctrinas_. No slight task, certainly, to bring the

"Angelic Doctor" within the grasp of the young theological

student.

The work has attracted the attention of many of the French

clergy, and is highly approved by them.

----

There appears to be serious danger that the French people are in

a way soon to know all about the Bible. Besides the numerous

copies of the sacred Scriptures already in existence in France,

the publisher Lethielleux now has in press the first volume of a

new edition of the entire Bible, which will give the Latin text

of the Vulgate, with the French translation, and a full body of

commentaries--theological, moral, philological, and historical,

edited so as to include the results of the best works in France,

Italy, Germany, and elsewhere, with a special introduction for

each book, by the Abbé Drach, D.D., and the Abbé Bayle, Professor

of the Faculty of Aix.

----

The mantle of Mai and of Mezzofanti has fallen upon Cardinal

Pitra, recently appointed to the important position of librarian

of the Vatican. The office could not be filled by one more

erudite and worthy of it in every respect, and his holiness could

hardly have made a better choice. Cardinal Pitra is well known as

the author of several learned works in theological and canonical

science. Like a true Benedictine, his life has been devoted to

study and scientific

{713}

A succession of articles lately given in the _Revue des Deux

Mondes_, by M. d'Haussonville, [Footnote 185] has thrown fresh

light on the long and interesting struggle between Pope Pius VII.

and Napoleon; between moral and physical force, between the

inspiration of heaven and the inspiration of the world. M.

d'Haussonville, by the publication of numerous documents until

now unpublished, and by the letters and despatches of Napoleon

the First, lately given to the world by the present imperial

government, has added a new interest to the sad story of the

captivity of the holy father, and the negotiations at Savona.

[Footnote 185: Lately elected a member of the French

Academy.]

The dignity, firmness, and elevated piety of the noble pontiff

stand out in more striking relief from their necessary comparison

with the rude and merciless tyranny of his oppressor, and have

wrung the strongest expression of admiration from sources the

most unexpected. In an article entitled, "The Papacy and the

French Empire," the _Edinburgh Review_ (October, 1868) says:

"The meek resistance of Pius VII. to the overwhelming force

which had crushed every independent power on the continent of

Europe, was therefore a protest worthy of the sacred character

of the head of the Latin Church in favor of the dignity and

liberty of man; and, by the justice of Heaven, the victim

survived the conqueror, the feeble endured, the mighty one

perished."

----

Great activity prevails throughout Europe in the search for and

publication of documents, long buried in libraries and private

collections of MSS., which are calculated to throw light upon the

history and workings of the so-called Reformation. And this

activity is probably greatest in Switzerland, where every canton,

separately or with an adjoining canton, has its historical

society in active and industrious operation. German and French,

Catholic and Protestant, vie with each other in their

praiseworthy efforts to rescue from decay and ruin old

parchments, chronicles, protocols, and letters, that are

calculated to throw any light on the events of past centuries. In

this direction works the Protestant Berner in the _Helvetia

Sacra_, and the _Pius Verein_ promises great results in a

collection of which the first volume has lately appeared,

entitled, _Archiv für die Schweizerische

Reformnationsgeschichte. Herausgegeben auf Veranstaltung des

Schweizerischen Piusvereins_. Erster Band. Solothurn. 8vo, 856

pp. The central committee of this society consists of Count

Scherer Beccard, of Lucerne, and Prebendary Fiala and Professor

Barmwart, both of Solothurn. The volume announced contains

chronicles, monographs, and extracts from the archives of

Lucerne, the mere enumeration of which would be too much for our

space.

----

The old Benedictine abbey of La Cava, in Italy, has long been

known to possess in its archives a mass of documents and MSS.

said to contain treasures of diplomatic and archaeological

erudition. They cover the period from Pepin le Bref to Charles V.

Father Morcaldi, one of the most distinguished savants of Italy,

has undertaken their classification and publication. They will

fill, when printed, eight or ten folio volumes, and require from

five to seven years for publication.

----

A recent number of the _Literarischer Handweiser_, edited at

Münster by Dr. Franz Hülskamp and Dr. Herrmann Rump, contains an

article on Catholic journalism in the United States. Here is an

extract:

"Since the cessation of the well-known Quarterly, edited by Dr.

Brownson, American Catholics possess but one really first-class

periodical, namely, _The Catholic World_, founded some

four years since, and published at New York, in handsomely

printed monthly numbers. This monthly, founded by Father

Hecker, of the Congregation of the Paulists, a zealous convert,

distinguished for his effective dialectic and polemic ability,

is one of the most welcome manifestations in the field of North

American periodical literature. Already, during the short

period of its existence, it has gained numberless friends, and

bears favorable comparison with the best productions of the

European press. The influence and writings of Father Hecker and

his collaborators are sufficient warrant that _The Catholic

World_ has an important future before it in the field of

defence and polemics, and that it will most probably be for

many the guide to the bosom of the church."

----

{714}

Among new English books announced is _Mary, Queen of Scots, and

her Accusers; embracing a Narrative of Events from the Death of

James V., in 1552, until the close of the Conference at

Westminster, in 1569_. By John Hosack, Barrister in Law. The

work is to contain the "Book of Articles" produced against Queen

Mary at Westminster, which, it is said, has never hitherto been

printed, and will be published by Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh.

If this work be in Mary's defence, it is not the first one--to

their credit be it said--produced by the Protestants of Scotland.

We confess to some surprise that some one of the many English

Catholic writers, with their peculiar facilities for reference to

authorities, have not taken up and exposed the scandalous malice

of Mr. Froude's attack on the memory of the unfortunate queen.

His desperate attempt to advocate the genuineness of the silver

casket letters, bold and ingenious though it be, is nevertheless

a failure, and its unfairness and sophistry should be exposed.

----------

New Publications.

Life Of Mother Margaret Mary Hallahan, O.S.D.,

Foundress of the English Congregation of St. Catherine of

Sienna, of the Third Order of St. Dominic.

By her religious children.

With a preface by the Right Rev. Dr. Ullathorne.

New York: The Catholic Publication House,

126 Nassau street. 1869.

All who are interested in the extraordinary, not to say

miraculous, revival of the Catholic faith in English-speaking

countries, will hail with delight the appearance of this book. It

is a simple and evidently a truthful narrative of the life of one

of those providential personages who, in all great movements,

stand out as beacon lights to mark their progress. Margaret Mary

Hallahan was born in London in 1802, of Irish parents, who had

fallen from a respectable position in life to honorable poverty.

She was their only child, and became a complete orphan at the age

of nine years. Her education had been provided for, as well as

circumstances would permit, by her kind-hearted father, in the

schools established in London by the Abbé Carron, a refugee

priest of the French revolution. Slender, indeed, were the

prospects of a poor Catholic orphan girl in the capital of a

country so full of bigotry as was England in 1811. Having spent a

short time in the orphan asylum at Somerstown, she was placed

under the care of a Madame Caulier, whose harsh discipline was

hardly compensated by occasional acts of kindness. In her

twentieth year, she was introduced by this lady to the family of

Doctor Morgan, once physician to George III. Being then an

invalid, he was attended by Margaret during the last six months

of his life; and after his death she became the bosom friend of

his daughter, Mrs. Thompson, whom she served, rather as a sister

than as a domestic, for twenty years. Five years of this time

were spent in England and fifteen in Belgium. In the latter

country she became a member of the Third Order of St. Dominic, on

the feast of St. Catherine of Sienna, in the year 1835.

On her return to England, in 1842, she took charge of the

Catholic schools of Coventry, where Father Ullathorne, of the

Benedictine order, was pastor. Her days were spent in the

education of young children, and her evenings in the instruction,

religious and secular, of the poor factory girls of the place.

{715}

In a short time, there was a visible improvement in the Catholic

community of Coventry; and Sister Margaret had the happiness of

beholding a religious procession, the first of the kind seen in

England since the change of religion, at the head of which was

borne her own image of the Blessed Virgin, the only treasure she

had carried with her from Belgium. A few pious companions, having

united with Sister Margaret in the performance of good works, she

and three others, by the advice of Father Ullathorne, and with

the authorization of the general of the Dominican order, received

the habit of the Third Order of St. Dominic, with a view to

living in community, on the 11th of June, 1844. On the 8th of

December, 1845, they made their religious profession. Soon after

this, Father Ullathorne was appointed by the holy see vicar

apostolic of the western district; and, having established his

residence at Bristol, it was deemed advisable for the young

community, of which he was the father and protector, to remove to

Clifton, near his episcopal city. This was in 1848; and when, in

1850, the Catholic hierarchy was reestablished in England, Bishop

Ullathorne, now transferred to Birmingham, founded the second

convent of the Dominican Sisters at Stow. This became the general

novitiate of the order in England, and here were established by

Mother Margaret her boarding and free schools, her orphanage, and

hospital for incurables. In 1858, she went to Rome to obtain of

the holy see the canonical erection of her community into a

congregation governed by a provincial prioress. Her request was

granted by a brief given in 1859, by which she was named

provincial prioress, which office she retained until her death,

in 1868. Here we may be allowed to quote the words of her friend,

Bishop Ullathorne, in his preface to her life:

"And now behold this lonely and poor woman, made ripe in

spiritual wisdom and in human experience, returning, a stranger

and unknown, to the land of her birth. Yet God has already

prepared a way for her, and she begins a spiritual work which

slowly rises under her hands, from humble beginnings, into the

highest character, and surrounds itself with numerous

institutions of mercy and charity. Foundress of a congregation

of the ancient Dominican order, she trained a hundred religious

women, founded five convents, built three churches, established

a hospital for incurables, three orphanages, schools for all

classes, including a number for the poor; and, what is more,

left her own spirit in its full vigor to animate her children,

whose work is only in its commencement."

The history of her life will amply repay perusal. It is a

continual exemplification of her great maxim, _All for God_.

The most prominent feature in her administration of the affairs

of her order was, that she never allowed external employments,

undertaken for the benefit of her neighbor, to encroach in the

least upon the hours assigned for prayer and meditation. Her zeal

in decorating altars, and in providing all things necessary for

the decency of divine worship, knew no bounds.

We heartily recommend the life of Mother Margaret Mary to all our

readers.

----

Die Jenseitige Welt.

Eine Schrift Über Fegefeuer,

Hölle Und Himmel.

Von P. Leo Keel, Capitular des

Stiftes Maria Einsiedeln.

Einsiedeln, New York,

and Cincinnati: Benziger. 1869.

The first two books of this work are out, and we anxiously expect

the third, on Heaven, a topic on which it is very difficult to

write anything worth reading, and on which very little has been

written in our modern languages. German books are generally

better than others, and a work which merits the praise of German

critics is sure to be solid. The present work is highly esteemed

in Germany, and we have examined the part which treats of

purgatory sufficiently to convince us that the author has written

something far superior in learning, and vigor of thought, to the

ordinary treatises on religious doctrines which are to be met

with. To those clergymen who are Germans, or who read the

language, we can recommend this book as well worth its price. It

is printed in the neatest and most attractive style.

{716}

Warwick;

or, the Lost Nationalities of America: A Novel.

By Mansfield Tracy Walworth.

New York: Carleton. 1869.

This novel is a remarkable production, exhibiting vivid

imagination, extensive and curious research, descriptive power of

a high order, chivalrous sentiments, and a lofty moral ideal, in

the author. Its principal scenes, events, and characters belong

to an ideal world entirely beyond the possibilities of real and

actual life, with an intermingling of some minor sketches drawn

from nature which show the author's power to depict the real if

he pleases to do so. It seems to us that the serious arguments

which are interspersed through the book, and the curious

speculations respecting the original inhabitants of America,

which are not without at least historical and scientific

plausibility, would be presented with far greater effect if they

were detached from a plot which is too absorbing to leave the

mind leisure to give them due attention. The moral effect

intended to be produced by the story itself would be also greater

if the characters were more real, the events more natural and

probable, and the scenes drawn more from real life. The great

praise, so seldom deserved, must be given to the author, that he

inculcates high moral and religious principles in an eloquent and

attractive manner, and will therefore undoubtedly exercise a

refining and elevating influence over the mind of many a young

reader who would reject graver lessons. Highly-wrought works of

fiction have become a necessity to a large class of readers, and

here is one which will give their imagination a wild ride on a

racer over a safe road. The young and accomplished author of

_Warwick_, will, we trust, follow up his literary career,

and produce other and maturer fruits of his genius, which will

add more renown to the illustrious name he bears.

----

The Life Of John Banim, the Irish novelist,

author of _Damon and Pythias_, etc., and one of the

writers of _Tales by the O'Hara Family_.

With extracts from his correspondence, general and literary.

By Patrick Joseph Murray.

Also selections from his poems.

New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co. 1869.

The Ghost-hunter And His Family.

By the O'Hara Family.

New York: D. & J. Sadlier& Co. 1869.

John Banim was born in the city of Kilkenny, on the 3d day of

April, 1798. His parents were in humble life, but, through

industry and economy, were enabled to bestow upon their son the

inestimable advantage of a good literary education, while their

precepts and example united to secure for him a thorough

Christian training. His genius for novel writing manifested

itself at an early age. While in his sixth year, his ready fancy

gave birth to a story of no little merit.

"He was not sufficiently tall to write conveniently at a table,

even when seated, and having placed the paper upon his bedroom

floor, he lay down beside it and commenced the construction of

his plot. During three months he devoted nearly all his hours

of play to the completion of his task; and when at length he

had concluded, the writing was so execrable that he alone could

decipher it. In this dilemma he obtained the assistance of his

brother Michael, and of a school-fellow; they acted as

amanuenses, relieving each other when weary of writing from

John's dictation. When the tale was fully transcribed, it was

stitched in a blue cover, and John determined that it should be

printed. But here the important question of expense arose to

mind, and, after long deliberation, the youthful author thought

of resorting to a subscription publication. Accordingly the

manuscript was shown to several of his father's friends, and,

in the course of a week, the subscribers amounted to thirty, at

a payment of one shilling each. Disappointment was again the

lot of our little genius; for in all Kilkenny he could not

induce a printer to undertake the issuing of his story. This

was a heavy blow to his hopes; but honorable even as a child,

he no sooner found that he could not publish the tale than he

waited upon his subscribers for the purpose of restoring to

them their shillings.

{717}

All received him kindly and refused the money, telling him that

they were quite satisfied with reading the manuscript."

In this little incident of his boyhood, the salient features of

the character of John Banim, the man and the author, are easily

discernible. His extreme facility of conception, his hurrying

energy of execution, his confidence in the merits of his

productions, his indomitable persistence in commanding public

attention, his patience and courage under defeat and

disappointment, and his scrupulous honesty of purpose, which

controlled alike his writings and his business relations, are all

contained and foreshadowed in the circumstances of this almost

infantile enterprise. Maturer years darkened the shadows,

deepened the lines, heightened the lights of Banim's character;

but such as he was, when he ran home from his school-mates in

their hours of play, "to see that 'Farrell the Robber' had not

stolen his mother," such also was he, till, in his last hours, he

begged of his brother,

"That I would stand by while his grave was digging, and that,

when his body was lowered to its last resting place, I should

be certain the side of his coffin was in close contact with

that of his beloved parent."

Of the literary life and achievements of Banim, of his privations

and discouragements, of his physical sufferings, and his

premature decay and death, the pages of Mr. Murray's book contain

a tolerably full description. It is to be regretted, however,

that the task did not fall into the hands of Michael Banim, his

brother and co-laborer in the O'Hara Tales. The work before us is

too evidently the accomplishment of "an outsider"--of one who

draws his information from letters, from books, from the accounts

and descriptions of others, and not of one who "knew his man,"

and delineates the results of his own personal sight and hearing.

John Banim was a man whose biographer should have been his most

intimate and dearest friend, whose choicest qualities those who

knew him most thoroughly could alone adequately value, and whom a

distant public can be taught fully to appreciate only by a writer

who himself has learned the lesson through long and close

association.

Of the works of Banim, (one of the best of which we have also

just received,) it is needless for us to make particular mention.

They are worthy to be classed among the standard fictions of the

century, whether for their rhetorical or dramatic power, and are

almost wholly free from the loose sensationalism which disgraces

the pages of so many modern tales. We have found them to

inculcate virtue and industry, to do honor to purity and

devotion, to abound in filial affection and religious fidelity to

duty; and there is no half-heartedness in our wish that they, and

such as they, may supplant, at least among Catholic readers, the

noisome volumes which come swarming faster and faster both from

the American and English press.

----

Problematic Characters: A Novel.

By Freidrich Spielhagen.

New York: Leypoldt & Holt. 1869.

It seems unnecessary, to say the least, to translate from the

German pictures of life like those contained in this romance,

since there are innumerable English and American novels, filled

with the same sensuous details, and teeming with shameless

descriptions of illicit love. In all the family life introduced

to our notice in the course of this thick volume, the only

married pairs that are described as living comfortably together

are objects of ridicule, while men who make love to their

neighbors' wives, and the married women who respond to these

advances, are made to appear exceedingly interesting and lovely,

and their wicked words and deeds justified on the ground, so

popular in these days, _incompatibility_ in the conjugal

relations.

As might be expected from such immoral teaching, utter infidelity

follows in its wake.

{718}

Responsibility to God or man is ignored throughout these pages,

though much is said about the great eternal laws of nature, which

seems to mean, according to this author, unbelief in the God of

revelation; since the only persons who profess to have any faith

in the life beyond are proved arrant hypocrites, and excite only

our disgust by their assumed piety.

Such reading should be condemned without qualification, although

the style may be, as in this volume, graceful and polished, the

language vigorous, often piquant, the descriptions of natural

beauties glowing with light and warmth, social questions

discussed with equanimity and calmness--but the trail of the

serpent is over them all. We unhesitatingly pronounce this a

dangerous book--not _problematically_, only, but positively

bad reading.

----

Walter Savage Landor. A Biography.

By John Forster.

8vo, pp. 693.

Boston: Fields, Osgood & Co.

Mr. Forster has led us to expect so much from him, by his

excellent biography of Goldsmith and other works, that we are not

only disappointed but a great deal surprised by the defects of

the present bulky volume. Landor's life was a tempting theme to

one who knew it so well as Mr. Forster. Stretching far beyond the

ordinary limit of human longevity, crowded not perhaps with very

stirring incidents, yet with figures of deep historical and

literary interest, and curious for its extraordinary

manifestations of a strong character, it was a subject of which

an accomplished writer might have made one of the best

biographies in the language. Mr. Forster has committed a grave

fault, however, in being too diffuse, and, valuable as his book

must be to the student of Landor's history and times, it

certainly cannot be called very interesting. What with the

prolixity of the narrative, and the prolonged summaries and

analyses of Landor's writings, the reader is too often tempted to

close the book from utter weariness. Yet there is a remarkable

attraction in the life of that violent, wrongheaded, wonderful

old man of genius, who left so many enthusiastic friends, though,

it has been truly said, nobody could possibly live with him, and

who has enriched English literature with poetry worthy of the

classic ages of Greece, and prose among the purest and most

eloquent in the language, though there is probably no other

author of equal pretensions of whom the mass of readers are so

completely ignorant. For this reason, Mr. Forster's biography,

cumbrous as it is, deserves an extensive circulation, and it

contains so much merit, that we hope he may be induced to bring

it into better shape.

----

Wandering Recollections Of A Somewhat Busy Life:

An Autobiography.

By John Neal.

Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1869.

If the Messrs. Roberts had desired to issue a book "_for the

season_," they could hardly have selected one more appropriate

than this pleasant autobiography of John Neal. Like the life of

its author and subject, it is full of variety, "everything by

starts, and nothing long," and runs as naturally from the piling

up of bricks and mortar in the resurrection of Portland from the

ashes of 1866, to the traditions and incidents of two centuries

ago, as Mr. Neal himself seemed to slip from shop-keeping into

authorship, and from peddling into law.

It is a book that one can take up anywhere, and find somewhat of

amusement and instruction; and can lay down anywhere without

fearing to lose the train of thought or the thread of narrative.

There is method enough in it to entitle it to be called an

autobiography; there is also a complete justification of the

title which its author has appropriated to it. It is the pleasant

chat of an old man of seventy-three, over events and personages

into contact with whom extensive travel and a long life have

brought him; a "_potpourri_" of the memories and

observations of two continents and of over three-score years. Its

publishers have done for it in print and paper what the matter

and the manner of the work deserved; and if it finds its way into

the portmanteau of the summer tourists whether by mountain-side

or sea-side, it will hardly fail to be read, and so put to good

use otherwise perhaps wasted hours.

----

{719}

Sogarth Aroon; Or, The Irish Priest.

A Lecture. By M. O'Connor, S.J.

Baltimore: Murphy & Co. 1869.

The author of this lecture was once the bishop of Pittsburg, a

prelate hardly second to any member of the American hierarchy in

learning and all the highest qualities of a bishop; and, as all

know, he resigned his dignity to become a simple Father in the

Society of Jesus, where, in spite of his broken health, he has

ever since been zealously laboring for the salvation of souls.

Father O'Connor has always been remarkable for his intense

devotion to his native country and to the best interests of

Irishmen. More than once, his learned and powerful pen and voice

have been employed in their cause. In this lecture he has once

again given a just and glowing tribute to the Irish priesthood.

There are some, both here and in Ireland, who are fearing lest

the tie which has bound the Irish people to their priests should

be weakened by the efforts of demagogues seeking political

influence, and by other causes of like nature. We trust this may

never be the case; but it behooves all who love the Irish people

truly to imitate Father O'Connor, and do everything in their

power to strengthen this tie, and keep alive the spirit of

Catholic faith in the bosoms of the children of the Martyr Church

of Ireland. We recommend this lecture to general circulation both

here and in Ireland, as an antidote to the poison which some

traitors to their race and their religion are seeking to

disseminate.

----

Young Christian's Library, containing the lives of more than

eighty eminent saints and servants of God.

12 vols.

Philadelphia: Henry McGrath. 1869.

This miniature library should be found in every Catholic

household. While necessarily abbreviated, "The Lives" it contains

are by no means mutilated condensations, and can be read, not

alone with much spiritual benefit, but with real pleasure, in so

admirable a manner has the editor performed his allotted task.

Hence, although specially designed for youth, we have no

hesitation in recommending it to persons advanced in years as an

excellent substitute for the Rev. Alban Butler's more elaborate

work, from which they are severally abridged. The series is very

beautifully got up, and reflects great credit on the taste and

liberality of the publisher.

----

Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia For 1868.

This well-known annual sustains its reputation as a valuable

repertory of contemporaneous history. One great merit it has, is

the careful manner in which authentic documents are reproduced

_in extenso_. In regard to Catholic matters, it is, as

usual, guardedly respectful, evidently intending to be impartial

to every body. This is, of course, attempting the impossible, and

it is easy to see which way the drift and current of the work do

run. We say this in order that the younger and more inexperienced

Catholic students may understand that works of this kind,

proceeding from non-Catholic sources, are only to be used as

lexicons and books of reference, but never to be trusted as

guides or authorities for forming their opinions.

----

The Habermeister.

Translated from the German of H. Schmid.

New York: Leypoldt & Holt.

Price, $1.50.

In this novel we have a vivid picture of German peasant life. The

plot rests upon the assumption of unlawful authority, in the name

of an ancient custom, the necessity of which has long since

disappeared; and the catastrophe is brought about by the use made

of it by infamous persons. The characters are well delineated.

The rag-picker's ride and the grave scene will be found to

exhibit to advantage the talents of an author whose greatest

success lies in his description of men. The denouement is

satisfactory, although brought about by slightly distorting the

truth in regard to the convent reception-room. But the changes in

the butcher's character were impossible, if we regard terror as

the cause, for terror brings only degradation.

----

{720}

The Irish Brigade, And Its Campaigns:

with some account of the Corcoran

Legion, and sketches of the principal officers.

By Capt. D. P. Conyngham, A.D.C.

Boston: Patrick Donahoe. Pp. 559. 1869.

In this, the second edition of Captain Conyngham's well-known

work, the publisher has left nothing to be desired, but has given

us a book which, with its clear type, good paper, handsome and

substantial binding, will compare not unfavorably with any recent

issue of the press.

----

THE CATHOLIC PUBLICATION SOCIETY will have ready, in a few days,

a new edition of _St. Liguori's Way of Salvation_, and a new

edition of the Douay Bible, 12mo, printed on fine paper. Also an

8vo edition, on superfine paper, illustrated.

----

THE CATHOLIC PUBLICATION SOCIETY is now printing a cheap edition

of Challoner's _Catholic Christian Instructed_, 24mo, to be

done up in strong paper covers, and sold at 20 cents per copy, or

_ten dollars_ for _one hundred copies_. This will

enable clergymen and others to distribute this valuable book

among non-Catholics. The Society will also print a cheap 12mo

edition (large type) of the some book, which will be sold at a

low price. At the same time, cheap editions will be issued of

_The Poor Man's Catechism_, (two editions,) _Poor Man's

Controversy_, Bossuet's _Exposition_. Gallitzin's

_Defence of Catholic Principles_, and Gallitzin's _Letters

on the Bible_. Also cheap editions, bound, of _The Following

of Christ_ are in press. These, with several other new

editions of valuable books, will be printed during the fall. The

new edition of Bishop Bayley's _History of the Church on New

York Island_ will be enriched by several new notes, and

portraits on steel of Bishops Concannon, Connolly, Dubois, and

Archbishop Hughes.

----

Messrs. John Murphy & Co.,

Baltimore, will soon publish _The Life of the Very Rev.

Frederick W. Faber, D.D._

Mr. Patrick Donahoe,

Boston, has in press a _Life of Christopher Columbus_,

translated from the French.

D. & J. Sadlier & Co.

are preparing for publication _Ten Working Designs for Catholic

Churches_. The work is highly recommended by several

archbishops and bishops.

----

Books Received.

From Leypoldt & Holt, New York:

Stretton. A Novel.

By Henry Kingsley.

With illustrations. Pp. 250. 1869.

From Lee & Shepard, Boston:

Credo; an American Woman in Europe.

Patty Gray's Journey from Boston to Baltimore.

From Benziger Bros., New York and Cincinnati:

Cantarium Romanum.

Pars Prima.

Ordinariun Missae.

----------

{721}

The Catholic World.

Vol. IX., No. 54. September, 1869.

----------

Daybreak.

Chapter XV.

"The Coming Of The Messenger."

All through that terrible day, the two staid by Mr. Granger's

bedside, holding his hands, cooling his fevered face, and

watching for a sign of consciousness that came not. At evening

there was a struggle, short but sharp, and before they had

breathed forth the breath they caught as he started up, the soul

had broken loose, and a lifeless form sank back upon the pillow.

Do they listen to us when they are gone? Could he, in the first

surprise of sudden freedom, hear the cry, like that of a bereaved

Lear, that sought to follow him, "Oh! stay a little!" or the

weeping testimony of the other, "There stopped the noblest,

kindest heart that ever beat"?

But, listen though he might, from one he heard no word of

mourning or appeal after that. Since he was happy, and had no

longer any need of her, and since she had done all in her power

to do for him, she could now remember herself. That his

humiliating offer of an empty hand had been kindly meant, did not

lessen her resentment, but rather increased it. However confident

he had been that his interpretation of her perfectly frank

conduct was the true one, he should never have allowed her to

know it, she said. Her heart seemed hardened toward him, and all

her friendship dead. "How I have wasted myself!" was the bitter

comment with which she turned away from taking her last look at

him.

More than once, in the first days of their loss, that fiery anger

of an insulted heart broke forth. On their way home, as she sat

on the steamer-deck at night, slowly touching bead after bead of

her rosary, not praying, but waiting for a prayerful feeling that

might come, there came, instead, a recollection of the year

before. It rose and painted itself, like a picture, between her

and the wide, cool shade and sparkle of midnight sea and sky.

There was the home parlor, the window where she sat that day

after her retreat was over, so happy, half with heaven and half

with earth, the curtain fanning her, the vines swinging in and

out in the light breeze. She saw Mr. Granger come to her side and

drop a rosary into her hands, saw the silver glitter of his

pretty gift, and heard the words that accompanied it, "And

indeed, it should have been of gold, had not Jupiter been so

poor."

{722}

The words caught a new meaning as she recollected them.

"If not gold, then nothing!" she exclaimed; and, leaning over the

rail, flung his gift as far as she could fling it out over the

water.

The waning moonlight ran around the frosted chain and pearl

beads, as if some spirit hand had swiftly told every Pater and

Ave of them in expiation of that rash act. Then the waters caught

them, and they slipped twinkling down through the green deeps.

Margaret left the deck, and went down to where Mr. Lewis walked

to and fro, keeping his mournful watch. His face was pale, and

his eyes heavy. He looked perfectly grief stricken.

"What is the matter?" he asked. "Has any one spoken to you?"

"No; but I have been thinking." She leaned on his arm, and looked

down upon the casket at their feet. "That man thought that I

wanted him to marry me. Is it only a wicked pride, I wonder, that

rises up in revolt when I remember it? Should not there be a

better name? I could not be angry then, because he was dying; and

I forgot it till the next night, after all was over, when I went

in to see him. I was full of grief then, and had some silly

notion, just like me! of telling him, and that he would hear. The

wind had blown the hair over his forehead, and just as I started

to put it back, I recollected, and caught my hand away and left

him. I had nothing to say to him then, nor since. What did he

want to kill my friendship so for? His memory would have been

sweet to me.

It is poisoned." "Well," Mr. Lewis said, with a sort of despair,

"women are queer beings, and you are ultra womanish. One day you

will risk your life for a man, and the next you will look with

scorn upon him in his coffin. A better name than pride, do you

say? I call it the most infernal kind of pride. Where is your

gratitude, girl, toward the man who never had any but a kind word

and thought for you? He arranged everything for you, that first

night, just as much as he did for Dora, and made me promise that

you should never want for a friend while I live. You ought to

humble yourself, Margaret, and beg his pardon."

"Do you think so?" she asked faintly. "I hope that you are right.

I would rather blame myself than him."

"Of course I think so!" he answered indignantly. "Did he ever

give you one unkind look, even? Did he ever prefer any one else

before you? Did he ever allow any one to speak against you in his

presence? I never, before nor since, saw him take fire as he did

once when some one criticised you to him."

"Did he? Did he?" exclaimed Margaret, kneeling by the casket, and

laying her cheek to the cold wood. "Ah! that was indeed

friendship!"

In that softened mood she reached home.