At an early hour next morning the luggage was run out of the hold, and

tumbled pell‐mell on deck; and the youth of either sex, hitherto contented

with the shabbiest and most negligent of attire, watched eagerly for their

boxes, dragged them to a convenient corner, and made an elaborate

toilette, either for the benefit of their American friends or to give the

_coup de grâce_ to the sweethearts they had encountered on the voyage. It

was like the transformation scene in a pantomime, and I could hardly

recognize my lady acquaintances in their gay bonnets and neat dresses.

Much of their finery, however, suffered serious damage before they emerged

on the Bowery. In the afternoon, the custom‐house officer came on board

and took his place near the gangway, alongside of which lay a tender for

the passengers and a barge for the luggage. The boxes were scattered all

over the deck, and to get them examined one had to drag them to the

officer, open them and close them, obtain a Castle Garden check from an

official at the head of the gangway, and then they went over the side on

to the barge, and the passenger on to the tender. Every one was anxious to

be off, and all scrambled at once towards the gangway, dragging boxes and

bundles with them. Never did we see such a scene of tumult and confusion.

Such a babel of tongues; such despair at boxes that either would not open,

or more frequently, being opened, would not shut; such lamentations over

their often hopelessly shattered contents—the married women imploring some

one to mind their children while they dragged their boxes to the gangway;

the single ones begging quondam admirers to help them to move their heavy

trunks—appeals to which the latter, sufficiently engrossed with their own

struggle to be off, generally turned a deaf and unkind ear. The custom‐

house officer seemed to discharge his duty with as much good‐humor as the

necessity of examining some thousand boxes in a limited time would allow.

We got off with the first tenderful, and after waiting an hour or two in

Castle Garden, where we at once cleared the refreshment stall of what we

then thought delicious coffee and pies, we were told to fetch our luggage

on the following day, and then passed out into Broadway to seek our

various fortunes.

In the boarding‐house where I spent the night in New York, I met

passengers from most of the other lines. All complained of their

accommodations, and affected to believe that they had unfortunately

selected the most uncomfortable service. For my own part, I believe that

on the whole there is but little to choose between the accommodations and

provisions supplied by the different companies, and that the description I

have given of the arrangements of one line would generally apply to the

rest.

Martyrs And Confessors In Christ.

Nor let any of you be sad, on the ground that he is less than those who,

before you having suffered torments, have come by the glorious journey to

the Lord, the world being conquered and trodden down. The Lord is the

searcher of the reins and heart, he sees the secret things, and looks into

things hidden. The testimony of him alone, who is to guide, is sufficient

for earning the crown from him. Therefore each thing, O dearest brethren,

is equally sublime and illustrious. The former, namely, to hasten to the

Lord by the consummation of victory, is the more secure; the latter is

more joyful, to flourish in the praises of the church, having received a

furlough after the gaining of glory. O blessed church of ours, which the

honor of divine condescension thus illumines, which in our own time the

glorious blood of martyrs thus makes illustrious! Before, it was white in

the works of the brethren; now, it is made purple in the blood of martyrs.

Neither lilies nor roses are wanting to its flowers. Let all now contend

for the most ample dignity of both honors. Let them receive crowns, either

white from their works, or purple from their martyrdom. In the heavenly

camp peace and war have their respective flowers, by which the soldier of

Christ is crowned for glory. I pray, bravest and most blessed brethren,

that you be always well in the Lord, and mindful of us. Farewell.—_S.

Cyprian._

The Roman Empire And The Mission Of The Barbarians.

Third Article.

So the great Roman world sinned on to the last. Christianity, with a cry

of fear and alarm, pointed to the stormful North, and exhorted to

repentance; but her voice was drowned in the mad shouts of revelry and the

wild din of reckless passion. The mistress of nations would not consent to

show signs of fear or alarm. She cast her far‐seeing eye over her wide,

rich provinces towards the frowning horizon, and she had some knowledge of

what sort of elements were hidden behind the black cloud‐wall there. Never

yet had the whole terrible ferocity of latent wrath burst forth; but

still, from time to time, as she had watched for some centuries back, the

storm‐cloud had opened for a moment, and the low thunder‐peal had been

heard, and the lightning‐fires had scathed her frontiers, and sometimes

even had touched the very heart of some of her outlying provinces. But the

fiery sword had been sheathed. The rent seemed to close again, and the

thunder‐murmurs died away. Still no brightness tinged the angry North. But

darker, wilder, more fiercely threatening the storm‐cloud grew. There was

an angry God behind it, with his warrior hosts, hidden, and biding the

solemn, predetermined moment. If the queen of empire felt, at times, a

thrill of alarm, she tried to shake it off again. For proudly she gazed

around on her widespreading dominions, and counted her almost countless

monuments of conquest and glory, and appealed to the long past for her

claim to live on immortally; and then took consolation and confidence to

herself that the pillars of the firmament would crumble to dust, and the

heavens fall, before she could be moved from her everlasting foundations.

But still there were hearts that trembled for fear, conscious that

something terrible was coming upon the world. The cry of the rapt seer of

Patmos seemed still to be rising from the bosom of the Ægean Sea, and

ringing in the ears of those who had faith in a God of justice. All those

terrible woes foretold in the sixteenth and seventeenth chapters of the

Apocalypse seemed about to be accomplished. With strange wailing sound, as

of a warning archangel’s trumpet, the prophetic voice appeared to repeat:

“Thou art just, O Lord, who art, and who wast, the holy one, because thou

hast judged these things: for they have shed the blood of saints and

prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink.... And great Babylon

came in remembrance before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the

indignation of his wrath.” Louder still that voice seemed to rise in tones

of merciful warning: “Go out from her, my people; that you be not

partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues. For her

sins have reached unto heaven, and the Lord hath remembered her

iniquities.... She saith in her heart: I sit a queen, and am no widow; and

sorrow I shall not see. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day,

death, and mourning, and famine, and she shall be burned with fire;

because God is strong, who shall judge her.” So appeared to sound out

clear the sad, wailing voice of the prophet in these sorrowful days. And

the people of God took warning. Full of fear and dread, they fled from the

“great Babylon” and the other principal cities of the empire, and hid

themselves from the wrath that was to come. Those who remained behind

laughed with mocking incredulity at their fears, and, as if in defiance of

a mighty God, drained the sparkling goblet with an intenser relish, and

the din of revelry waxed louder, and the Circensian games were applauded

with a wilder joy. Countless numbers of Christians, who still had faith in

God’s Word and fear of his justice, hurried with rapid steps from these

scenes of reckless dissipation and pleasure. They went to kneel with

uplifted hands amid the sands of the Libyan Desert, or the wooded

mountains of Lebanon; to implore mercy on a wicked world, amid the islets

of the Tyrrhenian Sea, or in the rocky caves of the Thebaid.

At intervals another warning voice is heard, sounding, with the vehemence

of the Baptist’s cry, from the holy precincts of Bethlehem. S. Jerome is

meditating and commenting, in his convent cell, on the prophecy of

Ezekiel. As he ponders on the judgments of God on Jerusalem of old, he

cannot but think of Rome in his own day. As the images of ruin and

destruction grow before his mind, and his great heart burns with

compassion for sinful, sinning man, he pauses in his reading, and lifts

his voice in warning of the vials of wrath that are about to be poured out

upon the empire. Through the voluptuous palaces of Rome which he once knew

so well, the loud warning voice of the holy anchoret of Bethlehem pierces

with an awakening sound, and helps to persuade many a patrician beauty “to

exchange the dream of pleasure, so soon to be interrupted by the clangor

of the Gothic trumpet, for the sacred vigils and austerities of the Holy

Land.” “Read,” he cries out, “the Apocalypse of S. John: mark what is

written of the woman clothed in scarlet, with the mystic inscription on

her forehead, and seated upon seven hills, and of the destruction of

Babylon. ‘Go out of her, my people,’ saith the Lord; ‘that you be not made

partakers of her crimes, and partners in the plagues that shall afflict

her.’ Leave the proud city to exult in everlasting uproar and dissipation,

satiating her bloodthirstiness in the arena, and her insane passion in the

circus. Leave it to her to trample under foot every sense of shame in her

lascivious theatres.” After these words of startling vehemence, he attunes

his voice to gentler accents. And pours out his enthusiastic soul in

language of sweetest music, winning and captivating both ear and heart. He

throws a ravishing fascination and sweetness around his life at Bethlehem

that must have been irresistible to souls in which yet lingered any purity

of sentiment or love for the holy and beautiful. “How different,” he

exclaims, “the scenes that invite you hither! The most rustic simplicity

is characteristic of the natal village of our Redeemer, and sacred hymns

and psalmody are the only interruptions of the heavenly stillness and

serenity which reign on every side. Walk forth into the fields: you

startle with mingled astonishment and delight to find that ‘Alleluia’ is

the burden of the ploughman’s song; that it is with some inspired canticle

the reaper recreates himself, in reposing at noontide from his

overpowering toil; and that it is the royal Psalmist’s inspiration that

attunes the voice of the vine‐dresser, as, scroll in hand, he plies his

task all day.” Thus does he paint in charming colors the immediate

neighborhood in which he lived so happily. His words take us back to the

days of Eden, and make us realize what unfallen and sinless mankind would

have been. Then he passes on to those scenes and names which are

interwoven into the history of our Lord’s life, and round these again he

casts the fascination of his poetical outpourings. We are carried on as by

a magic spell, and we feel ourselves drawn captives after the mighty heart

that glows with such a fiery heat of love in that grotto of Bethlehem. We

cannot wonder that many souls felt the wondrous spell of that clear, sweet

voice, as it broke with its music‐tones of penetrating power into the

palaces of Rome. The loud‐wailing trumpet‐tones of the Apocalyptic seer,

as they rose with terrific warning from the bosom of the Ægean, and the

melodious music of the anchoret of Bethlehem, as it was carried westward

on the breeze, both conveyed a message from a merciful God to the children

whom he yet loved. But we will listen again to that winning voice from

Bethlehem, as it pleads on, trying to draw Christians from the perils that

were so near: “Oh! when shall that blessed day arrive,” it continues,

“when it shall be our own delight to conduct you to the cave of the

Nativity; together to mingle our tears with those of Mary and of the

Virgin Mother in the sepulchre of our Lord; to press the wood on which he

redeemed us to our throbbing lips; and, in ardent desire, to ascend with

him from Mount Olivet?” We will hasten thence to Bethany to see Lazarus

come forth in his winding‐sheet, and to the banks of that blessed stream

sanctified by the baptism of the Word made flesh. Thence to the huts of

the shepherds who heard the canticle of “Glory to God on high” and

“Tidings of great joy,” as they were keeping their night‐watch over their

flocks. We will pray at the tomb of David, and meditate under the steep

precipice where inspiration used to come on the prophet Amos, until we

hear again the living clangor of his shepherd‐horn. In Mambre, we shall

commune in spirit with the great patriarchs and their consorts who were

buried there; visit the fountain where the eunuch was baptized by Philip;

and in Samaria honor the relics of S. John the Baptist, of Abdias and

Eliseus, and devoutly explore the caverns where the choirs of the prophets

were miraculously fed, in the days of famine and persecution. We will

extend our pilgrimage to Nazareth, and, as the name implies, behold the

_flower_ of Galilee. Hard by is Cana, where he changed water into wine.

Thence to Mount Tabor, where our prayer shall be that our rest may not be

with Moses and Elias, but in the eternal tabernacle, where we shall enjoy

the beatific vision of the Father and the Holy Ghost. Thence returning, we

shall see the Lake Genesareth, and the wilderness where the merciful Jesus

feasted the multitudes; and Naim shall not be passed by unheeded, where he

gave back to the disconsolate mother “her only son.” Hermon shall be

pointed out, and the torrent of Endor where Sisera was overcome; and

Capharnaum, the theatre of so many miracles. Thence going up to Jerusalem,

as it were in the retinue of our Lord, as the disciples were wont to do,

we will pass through Silo and Bethel; and having made the circuit of so

many scenes, consecrated by the presence, the preaching, and the miracles

of the Son of God, to that grotto where he was born to us a Saviour, we

shall at last return; perpetually to hymn his praises, to deplore our

trespasses with frequent tears; to give our days and nights to holy

orisons, as if smitten with the same love which exclaimed, “Him whom my

soul hath yearned for, have I found. I will hold him, and will not let him

go.”(278) Such wondrous music did the spiritual enchanter pour forth from

his lonely grotto. In such words as these, throbbing with love and holy

zeal, did the great heart of the worn ascetic of Bethlehem gush forth. And

they depicted in such vivid colors the sweet peace and purity and

happiness of a new earthly paradise far away in the Eastern land, that

many souls were lured away by the charmer’s voice out of the great Western

Babylon in time to escape the tempest that was just about to descend upon

it. Many illustrious names appear among the fugitives. Paula forgot her

lofty pedigree and her more than princely fortune, and fled eastward, and

S. Melania and many others of patrician rank hurried away to Bethlehem to

escape the impending doom. And there, whilst the mighty God thundered, and

hurled his flaming arrows of vengeance, and the great sinful empire

tottered and crashed under the awful blows of his wrath, did those favored

Christians tremble and pray amid holy scenes and sweet associations, round

the grand spiritual figure of S. Jerome.

But it was not only among the believers in God’s Word, and those who

observed the signs of the times from their watch‐towers in the heart of

the empire, that the belief in the imminent catastrophe had taken a strong

hold. The idea that vengeance was close at hand was agitating with fierce

intensity the barbaric nations themselves. Whence that idea came, they

themselves could not have told. It had long been working in their minds

like a living fire; it had gone on inflaming their souls till they felt

their whole being on fire with an ungovernable passion for destruction and

vengeance. They had been kept for long centuries by an overruling power in

their northern forests, waiting for an unknown moment in the future. But

that moment, they felt, was now at hand. They were ready for it, for they

knew they were the scourges of wrath in the hands of a mighty God.

But before that fierce, black storm‐cloud up yonder in the North pours out

its fiery wrath upon the doomed empire, we will try to get a glimpse

behind it to see what elements are hidden there.

Let the reader open his historical atlas, and follow with his eye the

boundaries of the Roman Empire in the West. He will see that the east,

west, and south of Europe are lying at the feet of Rome, the heart and

centre of the world. As he casts his glance over his chart, he will be

struck by the countless names that cover the face of Italy and Gaul and

Spain, and all those countries that are comprehended within the rule and

civilization of the great capital of the empire. But as he raises his eye

northwards, he marks the outlines of Roman power. He might say that the

Rhine and the Danube are the boundaries in that direction of imperial

dominion. And what does he see beyond? Nothing that denotes that

civilization has ever set a firm foot there. The great Hercynian forest

begins at the Rhine, and stretches far away, with its dense, impenetrable

blackness, as far as the Vistula. It looks like a long, broad line of

fortification thrown up by nature to guard the North from Roman ambition.

Beyond this, again, is a wild unknown land. The student becomes bewildered

as he tries to gain an accurate knowledge of it. It is a dreary wilderness

of forest, and swamp, and vast tracts of land that have known no tillage.

He finds no name of city or town, but only the hard names of countless

barbaric tribes. These seem to fill, without order or defined limit of

dominion, the vast area from the borders of the Rhine and Danube to the

Baltic Sea, and the mainland and innumerable islets of Scandinavia. If he

cast his eye towards the North‐east, the prospect is of a land still less

known, and, at the same time, less thickly peopled. But the barbaric names

are there, though few in number, and the wild waste seems to stretch away

interminably into the darkness. The map calls it Scythia, and that is

almost all the student can gather from looking at it; but it seems to him

that it is the high‐road by which the countless barbarian tribes have come

into Europe. We may well believe Gibbon when he tells us that this vast,

unknown northern land, cut off from the Roman Empire by the Rhine and the

Danube, and shrouded in gloom and darkness by its widespreading forests,

extended itself over a third part of Europe.(279) Tacitus describes it as

a country under a gloomy sky, rude, dismal in aspect and cultivation; more

humid than Gaul, more stormy than Noricum and Pannonia.(280) It was a

country where the waters were often covered with thick ice, and the

mountains with snow, where the air was cold and sharp, and the storms blew

fierce and strong. It was, in a word, a country where no delicate, soft

races could have lived, but where only men of stalwart frame and hardy

natures could have their home; men who could bound up the snowy mountain

heights with a feeling of luxury, could hunt with delight among the frozen

swamps, and run in the teeth of the sharp blast through thick forests

where the warm sun‐rays never penetrated. And what was this strange,

unknown land, so dark and impenetrable, so vast in its extent, so defended

by rivers and ocean and far‐reaching fortification of Hercynian forest, so

wild and uncultivated, so dismal and cold, and overhanging with its

savage, frowning aspect the empire of Rome? It was the camp of the God of

battles. With a divine purpose of his own, he had kept it free from Roman

conquest. He had marked it off for himself by those wide rivers and stormy

seas, and planted that thick long line of forest trees on its frontier,

and shrouded its vast area in secrecy and mystery by widespreading woods.

And under the shadow of these thick forests he had, for long generations,

been gathering his warrior‐bands. The great empire had been growing for

centuries in power and riches, and had piled up her monuments to tell the

ages of her glories, and had come to think herself everlasting; but whilst

she thus developed her power so mightily, her destroyers were being

gathered together in secret in that Northern land. It was not by chance

that the Roman Empire had built herself up in such glory and imposing

magnitude on the ruins of the great empires that had preceded her, and not

for a barren purpose. God had marked with his finger the boundary‐line of

her dominions long before she extended her power so far, and he had

appointed her the work which she was to do for him. But he had marked out,

also, the term in the future whereunto she should endure, and had chosen

beforehand the instruments which he would use for her destruction. As she

was to be the most mighty of all empires which the world had ever seen, so

would her destroyers have to be mighty and terrible in their powers of

destruction. And those destroyers God will have ready at the right moment.

No human eye could see what was going on under that dense darkness in the

North; its mysterious depth was impenetrable to mortal kin. It was the

secret laboratory of God, where he was fashioning his instruments of

wrath. He had long been there amidst the terror and gloom beckoning the

wild races of the earth to come to him, and they had obeyed his call,

though they knew not why. Far back in the ages of time, before history had

taken up her pen, there was a great breaking up of the Aryan family in the

Eastern land, and they divided themselves into two great sections. They

moved in opposite directions, one towards the East, the other towards the

West. Though that breaking up seems, at first sight, to have nothing

providential about it, yet it was no accidental separation. Bringing our

Catholic principles to bear upon it, we soon see that it was the work of

God. The wild tribes wandered on, they knew not whither. But they had a

guide as real and definite as the Israelites in after‐times. It was,

perhaps, no pillar of fire nor mysterious moving cloud, but yet as

unerring in its leading. The Eastern Aryans took possession of Persia,

and, invading India, gradually made themselves masters of the country as

far as the Ganges. In this rich and fertile region they soon advanced,

with rapid steps, to a high state of civilization. When we first meet them

in history, they are a powerful nation, with well‐disciplined armies, and

arts and sciences highly cultivated. Of those who took the westerly

course, some settled down in the southern parts of Europe, and at the

opening of history are found in a state of civilization. One section of

them, wild, bold, and free, remain in a nomadic state. They wander on

towards the Northwest, never settling down, ever restless. They feel

themselves drawn ever onward, as by some mysterious power which they

cannot resist. That strange, unseen power is he who dwells amid the

darkness of the Scandinavian and Suabian forests. And as they pour into

that weird gloom, band after band, they are lost to view. God wants them

there for a time. They are one day to rush forth again, at his bidding,

wild and fierce as ever, to do their appointed work.

Of these multitudinous tribes, hidden under the dark covering of those

Northern forests, we cannot undertake to give any detailed account. The

student who has ever pored over his historical chart representing the home

of the barbarians, knows well how impossible it is to obtain accurate

ideas about them. He is simply bewildered with the number of tribes, and

the hard names by which they are designated. He is content to let Dr.

Latham and Mr. Kingsley dispute at their pleasure as to whether the Goths

were Teutons or a separate tribe. Some authors, with Gibbon, would make

the Teutons the great tribe which included and absorbed almost all the

rest, whilst Dr. Latham insists that they were far less in numbers than is

commonly supposed. It is not now our purpose to enter on a question of

this nature. Our view of them is simply as a _fourmillement des nations_,

confused, indistinguishable, undefinable. We cannot pretend to speak with

accuracy as to what territory was occupied by each tribe. What they do we

can only guess at. They do not regard themselves as in their settled home.

They wander about restless, and unsatisfied in their wild forest lands.

They have only an indistinct idea whence they came, but they have a

mysterious instinct whither they are to go when the appointed day comes.

At one time they are on the Baltic shore, at another on the Danube bank.

They never think of marching back Eastward, whence they came; their faces

are turned towards the South, and they dream of a rich, golden city in

which they are one day to revel and feast to their heart’s content.

It is something bewildering to pause over and think upon, in our

historical studies, is this Northern land of darkness, with its hidden

millions of wild savages silently wandering about in their gloomy forest,

under the eye of God, and waiting for the signal to rush forth upon the

sin‐laden empire of Rome! There never was anything more mysterious in

history. They hang for long years, like a suspended curse, over a sinful

world. They would have come down thundering like a crushing avalanche long

before they did, if God had not held them back. It is wonderful to think

how really they were in the hand of the great Over‐ruler. Suddenly it had

entered into their minds, as we have seen, to break up their home in the

far East, in prehistoric times, and they had obeyed the instinct. They

moved away from their native land, and set out upon their wanderings. They

knew no land beyond their own, nor had they reason to expect that they

would discover anything better than what they enjoyed in the country of

their birth. But still they wandered on. Whither they were journeying they

had no knowledge, but they were obeying an overmastering power. They found

themselves, at last, gathered together in a mysterious land of darkness,

and there they paused. They felt they were at the rendezvous to which they

had been called. They were at the feet of him who had beckoned to them to

leave their homes in the Eastern land. Their instinct now was to remain

hidden there for a time behind the great fortification of the Hercynian

forest. From beginning to end all through their history these barbarians

are in the hand of God, under his generalship, and used to execute his

designs. Such teaching as this will, no doubt, appear puerile to the

sneering atheism of men like Herbert Spencer. He and those of his school

have discovered that God has nothing to do with the course of human events

or the government of the universe.(281) Social Science has led them far

beyond the old‐world ideas of God and divine government; but, thanks to

the sound and safe teaching of Catholic principles, there are yet men in

these days who refuse to run after the _ignis fatuus_ of Spencerian

philosophy.

But when we consider how the great civilized world of the Roman Empire and

this world of the barbarian tribes bordered so close on one another for so

long a time, and when we think what conquests Christianity had made

wherever civilization had set its foot, we wonder how that dark Northern

land could remain still heathen. Were not the citadels of the Christian

religion planted all along the borders of the Roman Empire? Did no gleams,

then, of Christian light shoot forth into the darkness beyond? We know

that such certainly was the case in the Northwestern portion, where the

Goths dwelt, for we read of Ulphilas and his apostolic labors among that

tribe. But for the most part, the darkness was unpenetrated, and we are

struck by the sight of two worlds running so close up to one another and

yet remaining so isolated in a religious point of view. The fact was, the

time for the conversion of the Northmen had not yet come. Their apostles

were to be a race of heroes born on the mountain‐heights, and nourished in

the pure, bracing air of monastic solitude. The barbarians were waiting

for the monks. It is true that these wild tribes had already a worship of

their own, and deeply religious in their way they certainly were. It was a

religion quite in keeping with their wild, free character. Men who were so

restless and active in their disposition, who delighted in storm and

mountain and roaring torrents, would have no temple of wood or stone for

their place of worship. Their temple was out in the open air, under the

driving clouds, within hearing of the tumbling waterfalls, in sight of

nature’s face; for nature to them was God. They saw him in the great

mountain towering up on high, in the rocking forest‐trees, in the wide‐

stretching plain, in the flowing river, in the gushing fountain. He was in

every object around them; in every speck of light in the overarching

heavens; in the glistening streamlet; in the variegated flowers bedecking

nature’s face; in the rock that stood out to break the power of the

rushing sea‐waves; in the very stones scattered around them on the plain.

There was a divinity of some kind in everything they saw.(282) It would,

perhaps, be more true to say that their religion was polytheism rather

than pantheism. We find, moreover, that the tendency of their religious

belief was to keep alive in their souls the warlike spirit. The greatest

and highest of their gods were beings of mighty power and terrible

violence. “Woden, or Odin, as he was called in Scandinavia, was the

omnipresent, the almighty creator, the father of gods and men; who ruled

the universe, riding on the clouds, and sending rain and sunshine; in whom

were centred all godlike attributes, of which he imparted a share to the

other gods; and from whom proceeded all beauty, wisdom, strength, and

fruitfulness, the knowledge of agriculture and the arts, the inspirations

of music and song, and all good gifts. He was the giant hunter, who in the

darkest nights rushed through the air on his white charger, clad in a

brown mantle, his white locks streaming from beneath his slouching hat,

followed by a train of wild huntsmen, the horses snorting fire, the

bloodhounds baying, announcing war and carnage, danger and distress, as he

passed along with lightning speed. But he was in a more special way the

god of war, revelling in blood and slaughter, giving courage and victory

to his votaries, and admitting to his Valhalla, or hall of bliss, none but

those who died by the sword.

“Next to him was his son Thor, who rode on the thunder‐cloud and

whirlwind, whose hammer was the thunderbolt, whose arrows were the

lightning flashes, and whose wagon dashed through the heavens with

crashing noise and ungovernable fury.”(283)

Then there was Saxnôt, another son of Woden, who occupied the third place

among the gods. His name is afterwards associated with those of Woden and

Thor in the abjuration of paganism made by those who were converted to

Christianity. He is designated under many different names. He is Eor, or

Are, or Ere, or Cheru, Tyr, Zio, Tuisco, or Tuis. He was the god of war,

fierce and terrible, rushing to battle, at Woden’s side, and bearing down

whole hosts with his mighty sword of iron or stone.

War, blood, and violence, then, were ever, in the minds of the barbarians,

associated with the greatest of those beings whom they worshipped and

admired. The character and the deeds of these gods were the highest and

the noblest they could conceive. To be mighty in battle like them; to

wield their war‐weapon as Thor wielded his huge hammer; to mow down

enemies as Tuisco did with his terrible sword, would be the grand object

of their soul’s desire. We may judge how little there was in their

religious worship to tone down their fierce natures. Everything symbolized

war; their deities were almost all warlike. Even Freyja, the Northern

Venus, was pictured to their imagination as delighting in war. She was

believed to be ever present in the battle‐field, wielding her flaming

sword, with frantic joy, over the heads of their enemies, and ready to

bear off the souls of the slain to Odin’s Valhalla. In that imaginary

Elysium the joys of their fallen heroes were also of a warlike and savage

character. They revelled there in “constantly massacring visionary foes,

and drinking without satiety, out of the skulls of the slain, brimming

ale‐cups presented by lovely Valkyrja.” What shall we expect, then, when

these wild warriors are turned loose upon the Roman Empire?

But is it possible to obtain a further glimpse behind that vast, dark line

of pine‐trees? Can we, by any means, get a glance at the wild indwellers

of the mysterious land beyond? What are those men like whom God has so

long kept hidden there? From time to time they have come forth from their

forest homes and stood on the boundaries of the civilized world, and

rolled their glaring eyes around over the rich empire that was to be their

booty. But that has been, as it were, only for a moment. They have plunged

again into their native darkness. Yet such writers as Apollinaris and

Ammianus Marcellinus have told us something of them. By their aid we can

picture to ourselves what those terrible hosts of avengers will be like,

who will presently come down with such a headlong sweep upon the doomed

empire of Rome.

All that we can imagine savage and terrible and extraordinary in figure

and habit is found in real fact among those barbaric hordes. There are

among them tribes who are small of stature, and thin and brawny, but quick

and fierce as the wild‐cat. There are, too, men of giant height and

strength, who can wield their huge clubs like playthings, and shiver the

hard rock like glass. They have blue, flashing eyes, and bathe their

flaxen hair in lime‐water, and anoint it with the unsavory unguent of

rancid butter. Some of them roam about nude and uncovered as the wild

animals of the forest, proud of their iron necklaces and golden bracelets;

others are partially clothed with the skins of savage beasts, cut and

shaped after the most odd and fantastic fashions. Some give additional

terror to their appearance by wearing helmets made to imitate the muzzles

of ferocious beasts. Plutarch tells us that all the Cimbrian horsemen wore

helmets made in the form of the open jaws and muzzles of all kinds of

strange and savage animals, and surmounted these by plumes shaped like

wings, and of a prodigious height. This gave them the appearance of

monstrous giants. They were armed with cuirasses of most brilliant metal,

and covered with bucklers of uniform whiteness. Some shaved their chins,

and, what must have added much to their hideousness, the back of their

heads, whilst their hair was drawn to the front and hung down over their

eyes like the forelock of a horse. So says Apollinaris,

“Ad front em coma tracta jacet, nudata cervix

Setarum per summa nitet.”(284)

Others, again, allowed their hair to grow, and wore long mustachios and

beard. Their weapons of war were various and strange as their own

appearance. Some fought on foot, wielding with savage fury the huge club,

or crushing mallet, or heavy‐headed hammer; or they did fierce work with

their rude sword, or long javelin with its two points, or double‐edged

hatchet; or they were skilful in the use of the sling or the arrow pointed

with sharp pieces of bone. Others rushed to battle on high war‐steeds

barded with steel, or on small horses, ugly and wretched to look at, but

swift as eagles in their course. If they fought on the level plain, these

barbarians were sometimes scattered over a large space, or they formed

themselves into cuneiform bodies, or they pressed together into compact,

impenetrable masses. If the contest was waged in the forests, they clomb

the trees, which they worshipped, with the agility of monkeys, and there

combated their enemies with wild ferocity, thus borne on the shoulders and

in the arms of their gods. If they were conquerors in the battle, they

abandoned themselves to acts of the most savage cruelty. To illustrate

this we need only think of the tragic deeds that were done amid the swamps

and the wooded hills of the Teutoberger Wald in the latter days of

Augustus. It is sad, indeed, to read in Tacitus and the pages of Dio of

the fate of that noble Roman army over which Varus held command. Yet we

cannot regret to see the well‐concerted rising of the German tribes, under

the splendid military genius of Arnim, to throw off the Roman yoke. We

hold in deepest horror the wrongs, the oppressions of the Romans from the

first ravages of Cæsar to the judicial murders of Varus. We think with

feelings of indignation of the treachery and the bloody cruelty of Cæsar

when the Usipetes and the Teuchteri were all but annihilated on the banks

of the Rhine, and the Roman general rejoiced at his own unprovoked

atrocity. We recall with sorrow all that the barbarians had had to suffer

from their Roman conquerors through succeeding years, and our souls are on

fire at the recollection of it. When, then, we see that the day of

deliverance is at hand, we carrot but rejoice with Arnim and his brother

Adelings at the prospect of future freedom. Our sympathies are with the

Germans, not with their Roman oppressors. Whilst the Romans, then, are

hungry and starved in the long, boggy valley between the sources of the

Ems and the Lippe, and the rain falls in torrents through the cold night,

and the soldiers’ spirits sink as they find themselves hemmed in by the

enemy on all sides, we are, meantime, in imagination and feeling with the

barbarian chiefs holding high festival as they recall the memory of

ancient freedom and the deeds of former days, and we join in the war songs

as they echo among the wild, dreary hills, and swell above the howlings of

the storm. And when the morning breaks ominously and darkly over the

Teutoberger Wald, and the tempest rises higher, and the heavy‐armed Romans

cannot advance, and find it difficult, even, to keep their footing in the

wet and slippery swamp; when we see their bows now useless from the wet,

and their spears and shields no longer glittering in military pride, and

their entire armor and clothing drenched and made too heavy for the poor

benumbed and hunger‐stricken soldiers to bear, we can scarcely feel one

pang of sorrow. On the contrary, our heart leaps with gladness when Arnim

from his watch‐eminence gives the signal, and the trumpets ring out and

the war‐weapons clang, and the terrible Barritum described by Tacitus(285)

is heard rising above the howlings of the storm. We know how that tragic

day ended, and how the evening saw the Roman host covering, with their

dead bodies, the length and breadth of the battle‐field. Never had there

been, in the annals of military warfare, such a terrible massacre of Roman

legions. The news of it seized upon Augustus like a madness, and the old

man, during the short remainder of his life, wandered sad and disconsolate

through the apartments of his palace, sometimes dashing his white head

against the walls, and murmuring, _Quintili Vare, legiones redde!_(286)

But the barbarians were not content with such terrific slaughter as nearly

annihilated the Roman army; their wild ferocity and cruelty showed

themselves in their treatment of the captives. Tacitus in his _Annals_

tells us(287) that in the neighboring woods the barbarians had altars

erected to their gods, and there the surviving Roman tribunes and the

centurions of the first class were offered in sacrifice. Around Varus’s

camp Roman heads were fixed, in cruel mockery, on the trunks and branches

of trees, and in the midst arose a huge mound of Roman bones, left to be

stripped of their flesh by the wild birds of prey, and then to whiten

under that northern sky into a long enduring monument of a great barbarian

victory.

If, on the contrary they were conquered, their fury was boundless, and was

even turned against each other. When Marius overcame the first Cimbrian

league, those who composed it were found on the field of battle bound fast

to each other, so that they could not fall back before the enemy, and thus

were compelled to conquer or die. Their wives were armed with swords or

hatchets, and, shrieking and gnashing their teeth with rage and grief,

they struck both Cimbrians and Romans. They rushed into the thickest of

the fight, snatching with their naked hands at the sharp‐cutting Roman

sabres; they sprang upon the legionaries like tigers, tearing from them

their bucklers, and thus purposely drawing upon themselves their own

destruction. It was a dreadful sight also to witness some of them when the

fortune of the day had turned against them, rushing to and fro with

dishevelled hair, their black dresses all torn and bloody, or to see them

mounted like mad fiends on the chariots, killing their husbands and

brothers, fathers and sons, strangling their new‐born infants and casting

them under the horses’ hoofs, and then plunging the dagger into their own

bosoms.(288)

Some of the barbarians delighted in eating human flesh. Ammianus

Marcellinus gives us a picture in his history which freezes our blood and

haunts us with its horrid memory. He tells us that, after the defeat of

Valens under the walls of Constantinople, a barbarian was seen rushing

among the imperial troops, naked down to his waist, sword in hand, and

uttering a hoarse, lugubrious cry. He sprang with savage fury upon an

enemy whom he had slain, and, applying his lips to his throat, sucked out

his life‐blood with a wild beast’s relish. The Scythians of Europe were

amongst those who showed this same instinct of the weasel and the hyena.

We have the authority of S. Jerome for believing that the Atticoti also

were accustomed to feed on human flesh. When they were wandering about in

the woods of Gaul, and happened to meet herds of swine or other cattle,

they cut off the breasts of the shepherdesses, and large pieces from the

bodies of the shepherds, and ate them as dainty bits.(289) The Alans tore

off the heads of their enemies, and caparisoned their horses with the

skins of their bodies. The Budini and Geloni were accustomed to do much

the same, being particular in reserving their enemies’ heads for

themselves. The appearance of the Geloni was a sickening sight to look

upon. They were accustomed to have their cheeks cut and gashed; and their

proudest distinction was a face all covered with wounds that were scaly,

and livid and crowned with blood‐red crests.

But if there is something terrible in the appearance and customs of the

barbarians whom we have mentioned, it is surpassed by what we are told of

the Huns. We shall not be able to form a true idea of the dreadful

avengers who are to come down out of that Northern gloom, unless we look

for a moment at this most terrible of the barbaric tribes. The Goths

themselves, the stalwart giants of the Scandinavian forests, who knew no

fear of men, could not but be terrified when they first fixed eyes on the

hideous forms of the Huns. Jornandes, the Gothic historian, tells us that

“the livid color of their skin had in it something shocking to the sight;

theirs was not a face, but a deformed mass of flesh, provided, instead of

eyes, with two black sinister spots. Their cruelty wreaked itself even

upon their own new‐born offspring, whose cheeks they lacerated with iron

before they had tasted their mother’s milk; and from this cause no down

graced their chin in youth, no beard gave dignity to their old age.” We

are told by Ammianus that “they looked not like men, but like wild beasts

standing on two legs, as if in mockery of the human species.” They were,

in truth, the wildest and most savage of all the barbarian hordes. They

loved to be free and unrestrained as the wandering blasts of their native

solitudes. They ate and slept on the ground under the open sky. They took

their food raw and uncooked, like the tigers of the forest. No temples of

worship had they; their God was a naked sword fixed in the ground. They

were devoured by an insatiable thirst for gold, which they were ever ready

to procure through blood, and smoke, and wholesale ruin. But the

characteristic of their race was a ferocious delight in cruel massacre,

and they gloried in pillaging, burning, and levelling down to the ground

every monument of civilization that came in their path, till the regions

over which they swept bore a resemblance to their native deserts. The rest

of the barbarians were amazed at their inhumanity, and looked upon them as

fiends under the likeness of men.

But we need say no more. We have caught some few glimpses of what is

behind the dark storm‐cloud, and we can form some idea of the horrors that

are hidden there. Well may men tremble as they look northwards in the Vth

century. Well may Christians think they hear now again, ringing out more

clearly than ever, the warning voice of S. John, and flee to far‐off

hiding‐places. The sinful empire herself feels, at times, as if under the

horrors of a nightmare; in her frightful dreams she thinks she is trampled

upon, and crushed under the feet of fierce, wild men of terrible aspect,

and torn and hacked by their strange weapons of war. As the tempest lowers

over her darker and darker, and threatens to become all‐enveloping in its

wrath, a deep shudder runs through her mighty frame. And well may she

stagger and quake for fear. The reckoning‐day is close at hand, so long

waited for by the holy martyrs of foregone centuries. And a day of

dreadful destruction it will be.

But lo! the hour has already struck. God has given the signal to his

warrior‐hosts. The Goth has given a ringing blast on his horn, and the

German has shouted the first notes of his terrible war‐song, and the pine‐

trees of the Hercynian forest are trembling at the sound. The avengers of

the martyrs and the Christian name are coming, and the whole North is

shaking under their tread. At last the storm‐cloud bursts, and fiery

destruction sweeps down upon the doomed empire of Rome.

New Publications.

IRELAND’S CASE STATED: IN REPLY TO MR. FROUDE. By the Very Rev. T.

N. Burke, O.P. New York: P. M. Haverty. 1873.

Ireland’s case has been stated, argued, vindicated, and, so far as the

verdict of the American people is concerned, adjudicated. Mr. Froude has

given his last scowl and his last growl, and gone back to his own

country—which he has damaged by his foolish escapade—the most badly beaten

man of the present decade. It is rather late in the day to revert to the

topic of F. Burke’s combat with this obstinate champion of bad characters

and bad causes, and we will, therefore, let it pass with these few words.

We are hoping to see soon issued Mr. Haverty’s promised second volume of

F. Burke’s _Discourses and Lectures_, and we once more express our regret

that any should be found so unmindful of propriety and courtesy, to say

the least, as to interfere with F. Burke’s control of the publication of

his own works. The eloquent Dominican preacher may be assured that the

respect and sympathy not only of all Catholic Irishmen, but of all other

Catholics of the United States, will be his while he remains here as our

honored guest, and will follow him when he returns to his native land, or

to his own beloved and imperial Rome.

KEEL AND SADDLE: A RETROSPECT OF FORTY YEARS OF MILITARY AND NAVAL

SERVICE. By Joseph W. Revere. Boston: J. R. Osgood & Co. 1872.

We are so often disgusted, in reading books of entertainment, with a

revelation of positive rascality and impiety, or at least of a want of

high moral and religious principle in the author, that it is a relief to

meet sometimes with a happy disappointment. This is a lively, entertaining

book of varied adventures on field and flood. Yet we always find the

author, when his personality comes into view, not only a bold and brave

soldier, but a gentleman, an honorable man, and a frank, staunch Catholic

Christian, who never obtrudes yet never hides his faith and his principles

of virtue. His views of Spanish affairs strike us as rather defective, and

occasionally there is a narrative concerning persons of depraved morals

which would have been better omitted for the sake of his youthful readers.

The “Golondina” episode in chapter xxiv. relates an adventure whose

lawfulness, we suspect, though perhaps admitted by quarter‐deck theology,

would not stand the test of a strict examination. Sometimes we are at a

loss to discover whether the author intends us to understand his narrative

as historical, or is merely relating a _conte_ for our amusement. In his

own personal adventures and the descriptions he gives of what he has seen,

we discover at once that his narrative is real as well as picturesque. And

it is certainly most interesting. The off‐hand, unstudied, and unaffected

style reveal the character of the true, genuine, frank sailor and soldier;

while at the same time, the refinement of taste and the cultivation of

mind which are manifest throughout give these sketches from the diary of a

long and adventurous life the literary finish which belongs to the work of

a scholar. Notwithstanding certain exceptions we have made, we reiterate

our commendation of the high tone of moral principle, the unaffected

religious reverence, and the generally healthful and invigorating spirit

which pervades the book which the gallant General Revere has given to the

public as the retrospect of his forty years of naval and military service.

HYMNS AND POEMS: ORIGINAL AND TRANSLATED. By Edward Caswall, of

the Oratory. Second Edition. London: Burns, Oates & Co.;

Pickering. 1873. (New York: Sold by The Catholic Publication

Society.)

Father Caswall’s hymns are as well known as Father Faber’s. Indeed, if we

mistake not, many of them are popularly attributed to the departed writer.

In the present volume we have a complete collection of the Breviary hymns,

in the first place. This is especially valuable as the only one in the

language (as far, at least, as we are aware). And the author deserves the

more praise for this labor of love, because of the great difficulty of

rendering the terse, stiff Latin. Then, secondly, we have “Hymns and

Sequences of the Roman Missal”; followed by “Hymns from Various Offices

and other Sources.” Thus the translated portion of the volume is quite

sufficient to make it worth possessing. The execution, too, is very happy,

on the whole. No one who has attempted to translate these hymns himself

will insist overmuch on the absence of phrases commonplace or prosaic.

The second portion of the volume, “Original Hymns and Meditative Pieces,”

also contains much that entitles it to a place in every household. The

devout Catholic, and more especially the convert, will find many things

said for him which have come into his mind, but without his being able to

express them. Moreover, several pieces turn on topics which are generally

supposed themes for the dryest meditation. They are here proved suggestive

of true poetry.

The only fault we have to find with Father Caswall’s verse is the same

that we find with Wordsworth’s: the too frequent sacrifice of poetic

diction and the use of too many long Latin words. But this defect is

unimportant compared with the value of the thoughts and teachings

conveyed, and we fervently thank Father Caswall for his contribution to

our scanty Catholic poetry.

THE POET AT THE BREAKFAST‐TABLE. Boston: James R. Osgood & Co.

1872.

“Once I wrote because my mind was full;

But now I write because I feel it growing dull,”

or,

“I have lived long enough,”

or,

“Poor old man, thou prun’st a rotten tree

That cannot so much as a blossom yield

In lieu of all thy pains and husbandry,”

or some such saw, this Poet at the Breakfast‐table should have affixed to

these four hundred pages of incomparable drivelling.

“I talk half the time,” says the poet, in his opening paragraph, “to find

out my own thoughts, as a schoolboy turns his pockets inside out to see

what is in them.”

And what does the schoolboy find there?

Rusty nails, old shoe‐strings, copper pennies, dead bugs, crumbs of bread,

broken knives, and other trash neither beautiful nor useful. The

similitude is just. The contents of the Poet’s brain are as precious as

those of the boy’s pocket; and if we wish to push the comparison further,

the wares of both are often of doubtful ownership. The only serious thing

in the book is its humor.

“I don’t suppose my comic pieces are very laughable,” writes this poet,

philosopher, sage; “at any rate, the man who makes a business of writing

me down says the last one I wrote is very melancholy reading; and that if

it was only a little better, perhaps some bereaved person might pick out a

line or two that would do to put on a gravestone.” He has a most

infallible instinct for the right comparison; as, for instance: “I love to

talk, as a goose loves to swim. Sometimes I think it is because I _am_ a

goose.” This is the first evidence of intelligent thought in the whole

book. “My book and I,” he informs us, “are pretty much the same thing.

Sometimes I steal from my book in my talk, without mentioning it, and then

I say to myself: ‘Oh! that won’t do; everybody has read my book, and knows

it by heart.’ And then the other _I_ says: You know there are two of us,

right and left, like a pair of shoes! The other _I_ says: ‘You’re

a—something or other—fool.’ ” The other _I_ is evidently a sensible

fellow. “They haven’t read,” continues the other _I_, “your confounded old

book; besides, if they have, they have forgotten all about it.”

Again, the other _I_ says: “What a Balaam’s quadruped you are to tell ’em

it’s in your book; they don’t care whether it is or not, if it’s anything

worth saying; and if it isn’t worth saying, what are you braying for?”

This is the question the reader asks himself all along, as the evidence

that the poet has nothing to say worth the saying becomes more and more

overwhelming. This kind of criticism, we know, is little better than

trifling; but the performance deserves no other treatment, for we candidly

think that a sorrier book could not proceed from a mind untouched.

Why did this Poet, when he meant to write a book, seat himself at the

breakfast‐table? Did he not know that a full stomach does not argue a mind

replete? Had not Shakespeare said long ago that fat paunches have lean

pates, or was he not physician enough to know that the _mens divinior_ is

not to be found in hot rolls and coffee?

We shall conclude with one other brief quotation from the Poet:

“What do you do when you receive a book you don’t want from the author?

said I: ‘Give him a good‐natured adjective or two if I can, and thank him,

and tell him I am lying under a sense of obligation to him. This is as

good an excuse for lying as any, I said.’ ”

As we do not believe there can be an excuse for lying, and as we are

certain that in this case there is no obligation under which to lie, we

cannot give the author “a good‐natured adjective or two”; but we shall

thank him to give us no more such nonsense.

YOUNG AMERICA ABROAD. Second Series: Cross and Crescent; or, Young

America in Turkey and Greece. A Story of Travel and Adventure. By

William T. Adams (Oliver Optic), author of “Outward Bound,”

“Shamrock and Thistle,” “Red Cross,” “Down the Rhine,” etc.

Boston: Lee & Shepard, Publishers. New York: Lee, Shepard &

Dillingham. 1873.

This is the third volume of the second series of _Young America Abroad_,

and, like all the rest of the series, is most instructive and

entertaining.

THE TREASURE OF THE SEAS. By Prof. James De Mille, author of “The

B. O. W. C.,” “The Boys of Grand Pre School,” “Lost in the Fog,”

“Fire in the Woods,” “Among the Brigands,” etc. Illustrated.

Boston: Lee & Shepard, publishers; New York: Lee, Shepard &

Dillingham. 1872.

This is one of the best of the “B. O. W. C. Series,” and will certainly be

a favorite with the boys.

THE POLYTECHNIC: A Collection of Music for Schools, Classes, and

Clubs. Compiled and written by U. C. Burnap and Dr. W. J. Wetmore.

New York: J. W. Schermerhorn & Co.

THE ATHENÆUM: A Collection of Part‐Songs for Ladies’ Voices.

Arranged and written by U. C. Burnap and Dr. W. J. Wetmore. New

York: J. W. Schermerhorn & Co.

The best criticism of both these musical publications is found in the

preface to the first one cited:

“Collections of school music are already sufficiently numerous and bulky,

but too often they are found to contain very little that is available for

the ordinary or the extraordinary occasions of school life.”

HART’S MANUAL OF AMERICAN LITERATURE—A MISTAKE CORRECTED.—Since

writing the brief notice of this really valuable work which

appeared in our December number, we have observed a very serious

misstatement in it respecting a distinguished convert to the

Catholic faith, the late Dr. Ives, formerly Protestant Bishop of

North Carolina. Prof. Hart states that he _returned to the

Episcopal Church_. He never dreamed of such an act of superlative

folly. He died, as he had lived, a most fervent and devout

Catholic, we might almost say—a _saint_, and was buried with all

the rites and all the honors of solemn obsequies in St. Patrick’s

Cathedral, New York. Prof. Hart, who always endeavors to be fair,

and whose notices of Catholic writers are marked by their

courtesy, would never have made this incorrect statement unless he

had been misled by some false information, and we rely on his

rectifying it in his next edition.

The following circular has been sent to us, and we publish it

because we think there is nothing more hostile to such nefarious

projects than free and early ventilation. Why does not Mr. _Abbot_

renounce his popish name, in his zeal to abolish every vestige of

Christianity? Our readers will not fail to see how apposite an

illustration this document furnishes of some of the remarks in our

first article. We have also received an article from the

_Cincinnati Gazette_ advocating the persecution of Catholics in

this country, with a trenchant reply by F. Callaghan.

(_From_ THE INDEX, _January 4, 1873_.)

Organize!

Liberals Of America,

The hour for action has arrived. The cause of freedom calls upon

us to combine our strength, our zeal, our efforts. These are

The Demands Of Liberalism.

1. We demand that churches and other ecclesiastical property shall

no longer be exempted from just taxation.

2. We demand that the employment of chaplains in Congress, in

state legislatures, in the navy and militia, and in prisons,

asylums, and all other institutions supported by public money,

shall be discontinued.

3. We demand that all public appropriations for sectarian,

educational, and charitable institutions shall cease.

4. We demand that all religious services now sustained by the

government shall be abolished; and especially that the use of the

Bible in the public schools, whether ostensibly as a textbook or

avowedly as a book of religious worship, shall be prohibited.

5. We demand that the appointment, by the President of the United

States or by the Governors of the various states, of all religious

festivals and feasts, shall wholly cease.

6. We demand that the judicial oath in the courts and in all other

departments of the government shall be abolished, and that simple

affirmation under pains and penalties of perjury shall be

established in its stead.

7. We demand that all laws directly or indirectly enforcing the

observance of Sunday as the Sabbath shall be repealed.

8. We demand that all laws looking to the enforcement of

“Christian” morality shall be abrogated, and that all laws shall

be conformed to the requirements of natural morality, equal

rights, and impartial liberty.

9. We demand that not only in the constitutions of the United

States and of the several States, but also in the practical

administration of the same, no privileges or advantage shall be

conceded to Christianity or any other special religion; that our

entire political system shall be founded and administered on a

purely secular basis; and that whatever changes shall prove

necessary to this end shall be consistently, unflinchingly, and

promptly made.

Liberals! I pledge to you my undivided sympathies and most

vigorous co‐operation, both in _The Index_ and out of it, in this

work of local and national organization. Let us begin at once to

lay the foundations of a great national party of freedom, which

shall demand the entire secularization of our municipal, state,

and national government.

Let us boldly and with high purpose meet the duty of the hour.

Rouse, then, to the great work of freeing America from the

usurpations of the church! Make this continent from ocean to ocean

sacred to human liberty! Prove that you are worthy descendants of

those whose wisdom and patriotism gave us a constitution untainted

with superstition! Shake off your slumbers, and break the chains

to which you have too long tamely submitted.

FRANCIS E. ABBOT.

TOLEDO, OHIO, Jan. 1, 1873.

Liberals Of New York,

Shall the coming “National Association to secure a Religious

Amendment to the United States Constitution,” to be held in New

York in February, find us unorganized for resistance? Let us at

once form a “Liberal League,” in which we may arrange a campaign

offensive and defensive for our liberties. Send me at once the

addresses of those who sympathize with us, that a meeting may be

called at an early day: remember that “he who is not for me is

against me,” and that our liberties are threatened.

E. F. DINSMORE,

36 Dey Street, New York,

Agent of _The Index_.

[Transcriber’s Note: Obvious printer’s errors have been corrected.]

FOOTNOTES

1 Alfred de Musset.

2 _The Life and Labors of S. Thomas of Aquin._ By the Very Rev. Roger

Bede Vaughan, O.S.B., Cathedral‐Prior of S. Michael’s, Hereford. 2

vols. London: Longmans; Hereford: James Hull. 1871‐2.

3 Proverbs vi., vii.

4 _Adv. Prax._, c. 2.

5 Bishop Wilson, _Sacra Privata_.

6 _Homil._, in S. Ignat., vii. p. 593.

7 Οὐχ ὡς Πέτρος καὶ Παῦλος διατάσσομαι ὑμῖν· ἐκεῖνοι Ἀπόστολος Ἰησοῦ

Χριστοῦ, ἐγὼ δὲ ἐλάχιστος.

8 Κλήμης ἐν ἕκτῳ των Ὑποτυπώσεων παρατέθειται την ἱστορίαν·

συνεπιμαρτυρει δὲ αυτῷ καὶ ὁ ἱεραπολίτης ἐπίσκοπος ὀνόματι Παπίας.

Τοῦ δὲ Μάρκου μνημονεύειν τὸν Πέτρον ἐν τῇ προτέρᾳ ἐπιστολῇ, ἦν καὶ

συντάξαι φασὶν ἐπ᾽ αὐτῆςς Ῥώμης· σημαίνειν τε τοῦτο αὐτὸν τὴν πόλιν

τροπεκώτερον Β βυλῶνα προσειπόντα, διὰ τούτων· Λοπαζεται ὑμᾶς,

κ.τ.λ.

9 Eusebius’ _Eccl. Hist._, l. 2, c. 25.

10 Τοῦ Πέτρου καὶ τοῦ Παύλου εν Ρώμηλ εὐαγγελιζομένων καὶ θεμελιούντων

τὴν ἑκκλησιαν.—_Eusebius_, l. 5, c. 8; also, S. Irenæus, _Adv.

Hæreses_, l. 3, c. 3.

11 Ἐγω δε τα τρόπαια των Ἀποστόλων ἔχω δεῖζαι, κ.τ.λ.—_Eusebius_, l. 2,

c. 25.

12 _Eusebius_, l. 3, c. 1.

13 “Edant ergo origines ecclesiarum suarum; evolvant ordinem

episcoporum suorum, ita per successiones ab initio decurrentem, ut

primus ille episcopus aliquem ex apostolis, vel apostolicis viris,

qui tamen cum apostolis perseveraverit, habuerit auctorem et

antecessorem. Hoc enim modo ecclesiæ apostolicæ census suos

deferunt: sicut Smyrnæorum Ecclesia Polycarpum ab Joanne collocatum

refert; sicut Romanorum, Clementum a Petro ordinatum

itidem.”—_Tertulliani_, _De Præscriptione Hæreticorum_, c. 32.

14 “Si autem Italiæ adjaces, habes Romam, unde nobis quoque auctoritas

præsto est. Ista quam felix ecclesia, cui totam doctrinam apostoli

cum sanguine quo profuderunt! ubi Petrus passioni Dominicæ

adæquatur; ubi Paulus Joannis exitu coronatur.”—_Tertulliani_, _De

Præscriptione Hæreticorum_, c. 36.

15 “Videamus quod lac a Paulo Corinthii hauserint; ad quam regulam

Galatæ sint recorrecti; quid legant Philippenses, Thessalonicenses,

Ephesii; quid etiam Romani de proximo sonent, quibus evangelium et

Petrus et Paulus sanguine quoque suo signatum

reliquerunt.”—_Tertulliani_, _Adv. Marcionem_, l. 4, c. 5.

16 1 _S. Peter_ v. 13: “The church that is at Babylon, elected together

with you, saluteth you; and so doth Marcus, my son.”

17 _S. John_ xxi. 18: “Verily, verily I say unto thee, when thou wast

young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldst: but

when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and

another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldst not.”

Also, 2 _S. Peter_ i. 14: “Knowing that shortly I must put off this

my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me.”

18 “Seven Roman cities strove for Homer dead

Through which the living Homer begged his bread.”

19 “Veteres omnes in errorem abrepti sunt.”

20 _Instit._, l. 4, c. 6, n. 15.

21 “De Babylone dissident veteres et novi interpretes. Veteres Romam

interpretantur, ubi Petrum fuisse nemo verus Christianus dubitavit:

novi, Babylonem in Chaldea. Ego veteribus assentior.”

22 Prof. Stuart, Andover _Biblical Repository_, Jan., 1833, vol. iii.

p. 153.

23 _Lectures on Ecclesiastical History._

24 _Introduction to the Study of the Holy Scriptures_, vol. ii. p. 361.

25 _A New Literal Translation, from the Original Greek, of all the

Apostolic Epistles; with a Commentary and Notes._

26 Prior Vaughan, _S. Thomas of Aquin_, i. 464.

27 _S. Thomas of Aquin_, Introduction.

28 _Christian Schools and Scholars_, ii. 20, 21.

29 _S. Thomas of Aquin_, i. 369.

30 _Christian Schools and Scholars_, ii. 325.

31 _Ibid._

32 _Christian Schools and Scholars_, i. 9‐11.

33 _S. Thomas of Aquin_, i. 134.

34 Montalembert, _Monks of the West_, i. Edin. ed.

35 _Monks of the West._

36 _Ibid._

37 _Monks of the West._

38 _Christian Schools and Scholars_, ii. 426.

39 _Monks of the West_, ii.

40 _Christian Schools and Scholars_, i.

41 _Ibid._

42 _Ibid._

43 _Christian Schools and Scholars._

44 _Christian Schools and Scholars_, i.

45 Montalembert’s _Monks of the West_, iii. 195, 197.

46 _Monks of the West._

47 _Monks of the West._

48 _Monks of the West._

49 _Monks of the West._

50 _Ibid._

51 _Christian Schools and Scholars._

52 _Christian Schools and Scholars._

53 _Ibid._

54 _Christian Schools and Scholars._

55 _Christian Schools and Scholars._

56 _Ibid._

57 _Ibid._

58 _Christian Schools and Scholars._

59 _Monks of the West._

60 _Gladstone._

61 _Christian Schools and Scholars._

62 _Monks of the West._

63 _Monks of the West._

64 _S. Thomas of Aquin._

65 _Christian Schools and Scholars._

66 “All the more reason.”

67 Term for the peasants and workingmen.

68 “Go, my son, there are now no Pyrenees.”

69 The queen’s bed‐chamber.

70 The king’s bed‐chamber.

71 “I am the state!”

72 “An instant more, and I should have had to wait!”

73 “The king is dead, long live the king.”

74 The Duchesse de Polignac.

75 Louis only knew how to love and to forgive; had he known how to

punish, he would have known how to reign.

76 Bancroft.

77 Bancroft.

78 Shea.

79 Lake George.

80 Caughnawaga.

81 _Christian Schools and Scholars_, i. 327.

82 _Ibid._

83 _Ibid._

84 _Christian Schools and Scholars._

85 _Life of S. Thomas of Aquin._

86 _S. Thomas of Aquin._

87 _Ibid._

88 _S. Thomas of Aquin._

89 _Christian Schools and Scholars._

90 _Ibid._

91 _Christian Schools and Scholars._

92 _Ibid._

93 _Christian Schools and Scholars_, ii. 370.

94 See _S. Thomas of Aquin_, i. 42.

95 Montalembert, _Monks of the West_, v. 159.

96 _Ibid._, v. 97.

97 _Christian Schools and Scholars._

98 _Ibid._

99 _Christian Schools and Scholars._

100 For all these and the following details, see _Christian Schools and

Scholars_.

101 _Christian Schools and Scholars._

102 _Ibid._

103 _The Condition of the Catholics under James I. Father Gerard’s

Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot._ Edited, with his Life, by John

Morris, Priest of the Society of Jesus. London: Longmans, Green &

Co. 1871. New York: Sold by The Catholic Publication Society.

_Her Majesty’s Tower._ By William Hepworth Dixon. Second series.

Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1869. Reprinted.

104 “The great house then rising at Charing Cross was said, in reference

to these gifts, to be plated with King Philip’s gold. Much of Don

Juan’s money passed in Cecil’s pocket.... Northampton and Suffolk

also obtained the most princely sums.”—_Her Majesty’s Tower_, pp.

59, 60.

105 _History of England_, ix. 36.

106 _Statutes of Elizabeth_, chap. i., v., xiii., xxi., xxiii., xxvii.,

xxviii., xxix., xxxv.

107 _The Life of Father John Gerard_, xcvii.‐ix.

108 Fifth Examination of Fawkes, November 9th and 10th, _State Paper

Office_, No. 54.

109 _Life of Father John Gerard_, p. clxxviii.

110 Page 221.

111 _A Narrative, etc._, pp. 76‐77.

112 Told to the writer as a fact.

113 This incident is authentic, and occurred at No. 13 Rue Royale.

114 _The Life and Labors of S. Thomas of Aquin._ By the Very Rev. Roger

Bede Vaughan, O.S.B. 2 vols. London: Longmans; Hereford: James Hull.

1871‐2.

115 xiv. 15, 16.

116 “Stop, traveller.”

117 “Behold, traveller.”

118 “Farewell,” or “Hail, for ever.”

119 _Sit tibi terra levis._

120 _Locus_, _loculus_.

121 Matt. xii. 32.

122 1 Cor. iii. 13, 15.

123 1 Pet.

124 Apocalypse xxi. 27.

125 2 Mach. xii. 43‐46.

126 xvi. 14.

127 xxxv. 19, 20.

128 2 Chron. xxi. 19.

129 “_Les morts ne sont pas les oubliés: ils ne sont que les absents._”

130 Sismondi, _His. Ital. Rep._

131 See CATHOLIC WORLD, vol. xiii., No. 73, April, 1871, p. 1.

132 _The Following of Christ_, b. iii. chap. v.

133 _Following of Christ_, b. iii. chap. v.

134 The Marquisate or March of Ancona was then governed by Charles of

Valois, who held Naples.

135 That is, in the territory of Padua, founded, as the student will

remember, by the Trojan Antenor, whose tomb is shown in Padua to

this day.

136 That is to say, the hermitage of the Camaldolites in Milton’s

Vall’ombrosa.

137 _Oriental and Linguistic Studies. The Veda; The Avesta; The Science

of Language_. By William Dwight Whitney, Prof. of Sanskrit and

Comparative Philology at Yale College. One vol. 8vo, 416 pp. New

York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co. 1873.

138 _Oriental and Linguistic Studies. The Veda; The Avesta; The Science

of Language_. By William Dwight Whitney, Prof. of Sanskrit and

Comparative Philology at Yale College. One vol. 8vo, 416 pp. New

York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co. 1873.

139 Title of the work given at head of this article.

140 Still stronger in the original: “Vielleicht ist noch kein Europäer

so tief in diese Sprache eingedrungen als er.”—_Mithridates_, vol.

i. p. 134.

141 Sidnarubam seu Grammatica Samscrdamica, cui accedit dissertatio

historico‐critica in linguam Samscrdamicam, vulgo Samscret dictam,

in qua hujus linguæ existentia, origo, exarati critice recensentur,

et simul aliquæ antiquissimæ gentilium orationes liturgicæ paucis

attinguntur et explicantur autore Paulino a S. Bartolomæo. Romæ,

1790.

142 _Catalogo de las Lenguas de las Naciones conocidas._ Madrid,

1800‐1805. Six large 8vo volumes.

143 These lectures, printed in book‐form at London, were soon after

first published in the United States by the Presbyterian College of

Andover.

144 “Wouldst thou the young year’s blossoms and the fruits of its

decline,

And all by which the soul is charmed, enraptured, feasted, fed,

Wouldst thou the earth and heaven itself in one sole name combine?

I name thee, O Sakuntula, and all at once is said.”

145 _L’Aryanisme, et de la trop grande part qu’on a faite à son

influence, etc._

146 How such information could have been had from the _Fasti Consulares_

is difficult to say; the suppression was probably a _lapsus memoriæ_

for Josephus Flavius. The date of S. Paul’s coming to Rome is too

uncertain to be fixed at 61, yet we accept this year on the

authority of those who put it forward in the discussion.

147 See _Op. S. Irenæi_, Ed. Cong. S. Mauri, Ven. an. 1734.

148 _De Viris Illustribus_, c. i.

149 _Ap. Eusebium_, H. E. lib. iii. c. i.

150 _Via Appia da Porta Capena a Boville._ Descritta dal Commendatore L.

Canina. 2 vols. Roma. 1853.

151 _La Roma Sotterranea Christiana._ Descritta ed illustrat dal Cav. G.

B. de Rossi. Roma. 1864.

152 _Defense de l’Esprit des Lois_, 3e partie.

153 Aringhi, _Roma Subterr._ lib. iii. c. 2.

154 _Ner._ 48.

155 _Pro Cluent._ 13.

156 _I cimeteri sotteranei di Roma sono stati scavati dai cristiani

fossari tranne pochissime eccezioni, le quali importanti per la

storia, nell’ampiezza però della sotteranea escavazione scompajono;

e possono veramente dirsi quello, che i matematici appellano una

quantitià infinitesima e da non essere tenuta a calcolo._—App. p.

39.

157 Psalm xxiii.

158 S. John x. 14‐16.

159 _O præclarum diem, cum ad illud divinum animorum concilium cœtumque

proficiscar, cumque ex hac turba et colluvione discedam! Proficiscar

enim, non ad eos solum viros, de quibus ante dixi, sed etiam ad

Catonem meum._—_De Senectute_, 25.

160 Coleridge’s _Piccolomini_, scene iv.

161 xii. 40.

162 Newman’s _Church of the Fathers_, Introduction.

163 Jonas iv. 2.

164 S. Augustine says:—“Love the men, destroy the errors: be bold

without pride in the maintenance of truth; strive for the truth

without harshness; pray for those whom you rebuke and

confound.”—_Contra lit. Petiliani_, l. i.

165 xx. 23.

166 Romans vi. 3, 4.

167 S. Augustine, _Serm._ 296, p. 1195, tom. v.

168 Tertullian, _Scorpiace_, p. 628.

169 1 Epist. iii. 2.

170 Am. ed. p. 82.

171 _An Eirenicon_, Eng. ed., p. 101.

172 “If there be one writer in the Anglican Church who has discovered a

deep, tender, loyal devotion to the Blessed Mary, it is the author

of _The Christian Year_. The image of the Virgin and Child seems to

be the one vision upon which both his heart and intellect have been

formed; and those who knew Oxford twenty or thirty years ago say

that, while other college rooms were ornamented with pictures of

Napoleon on horseback, or Apollo and the Graces, or Heads of Houses

lounging in their easy‐chairs, there was one man—a young and rising

one—in whose rooms, instead of these, might be seen the Madonna di

Sisto or Domenichino’s S. John—fit augury of him who was in the

event to do so much for the revival of Catholicism.”—Newman’s

_Essays_, vol. ii. p. 453.

173 _Memoir of Keble._ By Sir J. T. Coleridge, Eng. ed., p. 305.

174 Dr. Nevin, one of the leaders of religious thought in the German

Reformed communion, of which the _Mercersburg Review_ is the organ,

has said: “The man cannot be right at heart in regard to the faith

of the Incarnation, whose tongue falters in pronouncing Mary Mother

of God!”

175 _A Letter to Dr. Pusey on his recent Eirenicon_, p. 59.

176 The late Dr. Faber, when an Anglican, said: “Thus I hold it pious to

believe that in pagan times many a wandering beam, many a pitying

angel, many a rent in heaven, many a significant portent, many an

overflow of the appointed channels of grace, were vouchsafed,

whereon a poor glimmering faith might feed, and grow, not wholly of

itself, into a feeble yet steady light, acceptable for his sake who

sent such faith its food.”—_Foreign Churches and Peoples_, p. 535.

177 Horace, _De Arte Poetica_, 391.

178 Keble’s _Christian Year_—Easter Eve.

179 Lib. iv. c. 4.

180 _A Hist. de l’Art._

181 Page 36.

182 Page 30.

183 The scourge used by one of the executioners at the pillar was

amongst the number, and is now to be seen in the cathedral of

Aachen. It is composed of narrow leathern thongs, terminated by an

iron point, the whitish color of the leather bearing manifest stains

of the precious blood that bespattered it. Constantine’s signet, the

eagle and ciphers, is distinctly visible on the time‐worn, faded

seal, that looks like a sort of hard chalk. The reliquary is a

crystal vase, encased in gold and gems.

184 It is not within the limits of this sketch to follow the “Saint

Suaire” through its subsequent translations, but it may interest

such of our readers as are not acquainted with the fact, that it is

now at Aix‐la‐Chapelle, where _every seven years_ it is opened by

the chief prelates of Catholic Germany, and in the presence of

princes and bishops exposed to the veneration of the faithful for

three days, the church bells ringing all the time, and the cathedral

crowded day and night.

185 _The Russian Clergy._ Translated from the French of Father Gagarin,

S.J. By Ch. Du Gard Makepeace, M.A. London: Burns & Oates. 1872.

(New York: Sold by The Catholic Publication Society.)

186 “L’ouvrage s’ouvre par une introduction majestueuse sur le treizième

siècle.”

187 _Memoir of Count De Montalembert, Peer of France, Deputy for the

Department of Doubs._ A Chapter of recent French History. By Mrs.

Oliphant, author of _The Life of Edward Irving_, _S. Francis of

Assisi_, etc. In two volumes. William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh

and London. 1872.

188 The Anitchkoff Palace, on the Nevskoi Prospekt.

189 In 1859, _Le Second Empire_; in 1860, _La France, l’Autriche et

l’Angleterre_; in 1865, _France et l’Allemagne_.

190 _Particularism_ here means the tendency and policy on the part of

Bavaria and the Southern States of Germany to resist absorption of

their autonomy in certain matters by Prussia.—_Translator._

191 The town where Henry IV., of Germany, performed a penance imposed by

Pope Gregory VII.—_Trans._

192 In the work, published in 1865, which procured me the honor of being

made the subject of a parliamentary debate, I had dwelt upon the

two‐fold danger to be feared, whether from an alliance which might

reopen the Belgian question, or from a war on our frontiers, it

might be, on our invaded territory. I advised appeasing our

political discords, the better to resist this double peril. This

sums up in a few words the purport of my pamphlet.

My adversaries in the tribune and in the press denied the existence

of these dangers which they asserted were merely imaginary; they

charged me with having got up a sham Belgian question, and with

having, in that way, spread the knowledge of it abroad.

“With what have I charged the Honorable M. de Champs?” said M.

Dolez. “It is with having pretended that our nationality was

environed by perils, and that a Belgian question was on foot in

which our independence might be taken away from us.”

M. Frère‐Orban ridiculed in a pleasant way my forebodings. He said

that I was “a lookout man who, in his tower, descries that which no

one else can possibly see, ... who imagines that he has discovered

that which nobody had seen before. To‐day,” he added, “when there is

_nothing, absolutely nothing_, of a nature to cause uneasiness to

the country, we are told, in consequence of a party scheme: Let us

hold our tongues and appease our discords. The liberal party must,

in order to save Belgium from a _danger which does not exist_, cease

resisting the pretensions of the clerical party.”

Well, what does M. Frère‐Orban think now? While he, as minister, was

uttering in the tribune the above quieting and optimist statements,

M. Benedetti had entered with M. von Bismarck into a parley, the

subject of which was the Belgian question. This was the diplomatic

peril. The other peril has been clearly revealed to us after Sedan.

General de Wimpfen has stated to General Chazal that the question of

invading or not the territory of Belgium had been earnestly

discussed at Sedan. This would have been bringing the war on our

violated soil.

193 Priests and religious, men and women, numbering together 1,909, have

given corporeal and spiritual attendance to 21,000 sick and wounded,

and this only out of love for God and their neighbor.

194 Referring to the very bitter attack on the definition of

infallibility and the doings of the council which appeared about

that time in pamphlet form from a writer under the _nom de plume_ of

Janus.—_Translator._

195 The bien‐aimé of the Almanac is no more the bien‐aimé of France,

He does everything ab hoc and ab hac, puts all in the same sack,

Justice and finance, this bien‐aimé of the Almanac, etc., etc.

196 Zamore was a negro who repaid by the basest treachery the favors

lavished on him by Madame du Barry; he was the immediate cause of

her execution, having betrayed her hiding‐place to the convention.

She is the only woman of that period who died like a coward,

struggling to the last.

197 “Let our hearts be light and gay,

Glory’s hour is here to‐day;

The blood‐red blade is raised on high,

We conquer when we die—

Rally to victory.

’Neath the flag of a dying God!

We tread the path he trod;

We run, we fly

To glory nigh.

Behold our ardor rise,

Our hearts are in the skies,

Arise, arise!

The scaffold mount—and God’s the victory.”

198 Blue is the color of knowledge.

199 _Der liebe Gott_, the received formula in Germany, as the “good

God,” _le bon Dieu_, in French, and Almighty God in English.

200 Exod. xv. 11.

201 Matt. vi. 33.

202 Eccl. xx. 9.

203 Lam. iii. 31.

204 Is. xxix. 18.

205 Matt. v. 10.

206 Rom. xi. 33.

207 Ps. xlii. 1.

208 Baruch v. 6.

209 The Arno, Chiana, and Mugnone.

210 London _Times_, Feb. 3.

211 As was shown in THE CATHOLIC WORLD last month, excommunication is

not only recognized by the law in the case of Protestant

excommunicators, but has been sanctioned and confirmed by law, on an

actual case being brought into court. Of course we shall be met by

the objection that the formal declaration of Papal Infallibility has

altered the connection between the Catholic Church and the state.

Unfortunately for this easy method of explaining away difficult

matters, excommunication has not been a whit altered in force,

relation, or form from the days of the Apostles to Pius IX.

212 In proof of which read the declaration of Count Andrássy to the

Austrian Parliament that, notwithstanding the friendly assurances

with which the three emperors parted at the breaking up of their

recent conference at Berlin, he could not guarantee peace even up to

Christmas. Observe also the significant rearming of all the great

European powers and the recent order from Berlin of 3,000,000 rifles

of a new pattern.

213 Witness Bavaria’s remonstrance, which was disregarded, at the sudden

imposition of the severe military code of Prussian service without

allowing it time to recover. As a more recent comment on that, read

the very able and interesting letters which appeared in the _New

York Herald_, Nov. 22, on the European situation, a short extract

from which, of a Bavarian view on German unity, we give: “Germany

accepts it, because it in some respects realizes the German dream of

unity. That, of course, every German wants. But no one wants a

united despotism, a military code that turns the whole nation into a

camp, and takes half a million able‐bodied men away from the farms

and industrious callings. We want a Germany for the good of the

fatherland, not for the glory of a little upstart Prussian prince

whose name is not much older than the Bonapartes’ crown.”

214 “Desine fata deûm flecti sperare precando.”—_Virg. Æn._ vi. 376.

215 In Germany.

216 “Divorce Legislation in Connecticut,” and “The Indissolubility of

Christian Marriage.”

217 For this and the following references, see Rohrbacher’s _Histoire

Universelle de l’Eglise Catholique_. This work is so comprehensive,

and so full of the most learned and accurate researches, that we

have relied entirely upon its lengthened narratives for the facts

mentioned in this article. The work is excessively voluminous (28

vols 8vo), and to verify personally each separate reference given by

the author would be almost impossible, besides being a very tedious

undertaking. We have preferred, therefore, to rely upon the single

authority of one who is confessedly the best modern church

historian.

218 _History of the Reformation._

219 E. Dally.

220 “It is an error to suppose that the Catholic faith limits the

existence of man to about six thousand years. The church has never

decided this delicate question, and this abstention is full of

wisdom. Nothing positive, in fact, has been revealed to us on this

point. The various chronological systems are the work of man; they

rest on bases often hypothetical. Nevertheless, we cannot admit even

the possibility of the arbitrary theories of several distinguished

geologists who date the appearance of man on the earth twenty and

even thirty millions of years back. Good‐sense alone should incline

one to be moderate on this point.”—Mgr. Meignan, _Le Monde et

l’Homme primitif_, chap. vi.

221 _L’Homme pendant les Ages de la Pierre dans les Environs de Dinant‐

sur‐Meuse._ 2e édition. Bruxelles: Muquardt. 1872.

222 This is true, at most, of the formations previous to the quaternary

deposits; in the latter, the synchronism of the fauna becomes wholly

uncertain, and only founds the emigration or disappearance of

certain species of animals on inductions that have a hypothetical

basis. As to their emigration, we have had too many instances in the

historic period, as M. Chabas justly observes, to make us regard

that necessarily the index of vast chronological intervals. Where

are the elephants that abounded in Mauretania Tingitana, according

to Solinus’ _Polyhistor_; the hippopotami of Lower Egypt, the boas

of Calabria, the lions, aurochs, and bears of Macedonia, the beaver,

etc.? In the XVIIth century of our era, the stag, roebuck, wild

boar, wolf, and bear still formed a part of the fauna of the

Cevennes. The reindeer lived in the Black Forest in the time of

Cæsar, who describes this animal from hearsay, but characterizes it

sufficiently by the peculiarity of the male and female having the

same kind of horns. M. Lartet is also inclined to the opinion that

_the age of the reindeer is perhaps not so ancient as was once

supposed_. The mammoth is no longer found alive, but has been

discovered with its flesh and skin still remaining, embedded in ice,

and affording nourishment to dogs and other animals. Struck with

this preservation, M. d’Orbigny expresses a doubt as to the

antiquity of the mammoth. He thinks it may have existed five or six

thousand years ago, and believes it may still live in some

unexplored locality. At least, it lived in America till a

comparatively recent period. Its remains, and those of the mastodon,

have been found in the auriferous deposits of California, among

remarkable traces of human labor. At the Congress of Copenhagen, M.

Schaffhausen expressed the opinion that the lost species should

rather be regarded of a more recent date than that the antiquity of

man should be extended to hundreds of thousands of years. As to the

wretchedness and inferiority evident from the primitive pursuits of

man and the conformity of his organs, the enemies of Christianity

triumph over the discovery. We believe with Mgr. Meignan that “a

proof of the authenticity of the Bible has been lightly transformed

into an objection against it. The revolt and disobedience of man

explain the wretched state in which he at first lived; and the

hardships he underwent during the period he inhabited caverns and

lacustrine dwellings prove to all who believe in the goodness of God

that a great crime must have armed His justice.”

223 “In the year of the Nativity of our Lord 710, the sixth day of the

month of December, under the reign of Eudes, most pious King of the

French, during the ravages of the perfidious Saracen nation, the

body of the most dear and venerable Marie Madeleine was secretly and

by night transferred from its alabaster sepulchre into the present

one, which is of marble, and whence the body of Sidonius has been

withdrawn, in order that the other may be better concealed and be

beyond the reach of the above‐named perfidious nation.”

224 Seven years later, when the head was taken to Rome by Charles,

Boniface VIII. sent to S. John of Lateran for a relic which had long

been venerated there as the maxillar bone of Magdalen; on adjusting

it to the broken part, it fitted in so exactly as to leave no doubt

as to where it had originally been taken from.

225 Shea.

226 See the narrative and map in Shea’s _History of the Discovery and

Exploration of the Mississippi_.

227 Pronounced Ac‐o‐ma—the accent on the first syllable.

228 “This way, gentlemen.”

229 Red pepper; _chile verde_, green pepper.

230 This estimate, which was considered as too high by some of the

clergymen present, is given only as conjectural. It is based on the

census of 1870, according to which there are in the state, in round

numbers, 203,000 persons of foreign parentage at least on one side,

of whom 113,000 are foreign‐born. It would seem probable that we

might allow out of this number 83,000 foreign‐born and 67,000

native‐born Catholics. It is certain, from other evidence, that the

number is over 100,000, and, whatever the correct number may be,

nine‐twentieths is very near the proportion of the native‐born to

the whole number. The entire population of the state is 537,000.

Nearly two‐fifths of the whole are, therefore, of foreign parentage.

231 Eugénie de la Ferronnays.

232 “The Church the Champion of Marriage,” CATHOLIC WORLD, February,

1873.

233 Deut. xxi 16, 17.

234 Gen. xxiv. 39, 57, 58.

235 Numb. xxvii. 8; xxxvi. 3, 8.

236 S. John i. 13.

237 Jeremy Taylor’s “On the Marriage Ring,” besides many modern ones,

especially by the Rev. Dr. Morgan Dix, New York.

238 Matt. vii. 21.

239 Matt. xxii. 29, 30; Mark xii. 24, 25.

240 _Considérations sur la France_, chapter x. _et alibi passim_.

241 M. de Maistre is sometimes quoted as taking a different view; for

example, in an article in the _Correspondant_ for Nov. 10, Joseph de

Maistre declared revolution an epoch and not an event. But this by

no means signifies that the illustrious publicist meant that

revolution was about to prevail. He says: “The French Revolution is

an important epoch, and its manifold consequences will be felt far

beyond the time of its outbreak and the limits of its original

sphere.... If there is not a moral revolution throughout Europe, if

the religious spirit is not strengthened in this part of the world,

the bonds of society will dissolve.” The clergy of France, in

particular, are called to “the essential work” of reacting against

the influence of the _Goddess of Reason_. See _Considérations sur la

France_, chap. ii.

242 _Etudes sur l’Italie contemporaine_, and _Notes d’un Voyageur_.

_Première Etude_, June, 1871; _Seconde Etude_, July, 1872. Paris:

Amyot.

243 _Première Etude_, p. 3.

244 “Except the _Univers_, which has a correspondent at Rome, and keeps

up constant communications with that city in other ways, and, on the

other side, the _Journal des Débats_, which is supplied with

information by the Italian government, and, as we have been assured,

receives a handsome subsidy for the patronage accorded, most of the

French papers have no other source of supplying their readers with

news than the conjectures, more or less unreliable, of the Havas

agency, a _succursale_, as to what concerns Italy, of the Stefani

agency at Florence. It is supposed, however, that nothing is easier

than to obtain information about a country at our very doors.”—M.

Ed. Dulaurier, member of the Institute, “Impressions et Souvenirs de

Rome,” in the _Gazette du Languedoc_ for Sept. 19. I take the

liberty of recommending to M. Dulaurier, and all who wish to know

the state of affairs in Italy, the valuable _Correspondance de

Genève_. The _Journal_ of Florence, recently combined with the

_Cattolica_ of Rome, affords instructive reading. Besides

information peculiar to itself, this paper reproduces in each number

interesting extracts from various Italian journals.

245 “The French, under Napoleon I., introduced the idea of

centralization into Italy and the code of the Revolution which the

restored princes had the want of foresight to retain. The old

municipalities were destroyed, and never recovered their former

independence even in the States of the Church. Piedmont, of all the

states of the Peninsula, was the longest under the poisonous

influence of foreign ideas. Hence it became the centre of the

Revolution.”—_Quel est l’Avenir de l’Europe?_ pages 40‐41. Geneva:

Grosset, 1871. The author of this remarkable work is of the school

of the Count de Maistre, and worthy of his master.

246 _Première Etude_, pp. 6, 12, 13, 15; _Seconde Etude_, pp. 4, 10, 11.

247 _Première Etude_, p. 10.

248 _Journal d’un Diplomate en Italie._—See the _Etudes_ for July, 1872.

249 _Journal d’un Diplomate en Italie_, pp. 305, 306.

250 _Journal d’un Diplomate en Italie_, pp. 116, 117.

251 _Les Diplomates Français sous Napoléon III._, by B. d’Agreval.

Paris: Dentu. 1872. A work we recommend to all publicists who wish

to add to their knowledge.

252 _Première Etude_, p. 10.

253 _Première Etude_, pp. 5, 10, 11; _Seconde Etude_, p. 4.

254 _Première Etude_, p. 7.

255 The minister has laid before the Parliament the account of the

expense of opening the breach in the walls of Rome. This crime cost

nearly forty‐eight millions.

256 _Première Etude_, p. 11; _Seconde Etude_, p. 12.

257 Cf. _Première Etude_, p. 10.

258 See a forcible and eloquent article in the _Civiltà Cattolica_ on

the _Caresses de la Providence_. Sér. viii. vol. v., No. 519, Feb.,

1872.

259 (_Première Etude_, pp. 7, 8, 27; _Seconde Etude_, pp. 11, 12.) “The

invaders take the stand of masters, but the people have not joined

them. They remain isolated in their midst in the position of a

military and administrative colony, about as favorably regarded and

received as the Prussians in those departments of our country where

they are still encamped. The Romans, it cannot be denied, love their

Pope.”—M. Ed. Dulaurier, _loc. cit._

260 _Union_, Nov. 26.

261 “We continue to be regarded at Berlin with the most favorable

dispositions, as the demonstrations of which our princes were the

object prove.”—_Speech of M. Visconti‐Venosta_ in the Chamber of

Deputies, Nov. 27, 1872.

262 _Seconde Etude_, p. 13.

263 _Address_, April 28, 1872.

264 _Correspondance Diplomatique_ in the year 1815.

265 _Première Etude_, p. 17; _Seconde Etude_, pp. 4, 14, 15, 16, 17.

266 _Première Etude_, pp. 25, 26; _Seconde Etude_, pp. 15, 16, 26.

267 See, in the _Etudes_ for Oct., 1871, the article by Fr. Ch. Clair,

who, in an address to the government of M. Thiers, carries on a

vigorous argument _ad hominem_ respecting the “necessary liberties”

of the Pope.

268 P. Toulement, _La Providence et les Chàtiments de la France_, ch.

xvii.

269 _Première Etude_, pp. 24, 25, 26: _Seconde Etude_, pp. 17, 22, 34.

270 _Journal d’un Diplomate en Italie_, pp. 17, 18.

271 This alludes to the indication of superhuman power by the budding

horns which Michael Angelo has represented upon the head of Moses,

adopting the Jewish symbol of strength so frequent in Scripture.

272 Ecclus. xlviii. II.

273 So soon accepted!

274 “I, the undersigned, parish priest of the most holy Constantinian

Basilica of the Twelve Apostles of Rome, certify that in Register

XII. of the dead, letter N, page 283, is to be found the deed of

which the following is the copy, word for word.

“The twenty‐second of December, eighteen hundred and sixty‐six,

Mademoiselle Claire‐Françoise‐Amélie Lautard, of Marseilles,

daughter of M. Jean Baptiste Lautard, a most pious virgin, while

offering last Sunday her life to God for the Holy Father, Rome, and

the church, was seized on the spot by illness, and having received

most piously the sacraments of the church, in the full possession of

her faculties, in prayer, and surrounded by several priests and

virgins, gave up her soul to Jesus Christ, her spouse, with the

greatest serenity, Wednesday the 19th, at half‐past nine in the

morning, in the house Rue Ripresa‐dei‐Barberi 175, at the age of

fifty‐nine years. The following day, the 20th, her body was carried,

after the completuum, accompanied by a great number of religious, to

this basilica, and was here exposed during the morning after the

manner of nobles, the office of the dead and a solemn Mass being

performed; in the afternoon it was conveyed to the Church of Santa

Maria in Ara Cœli, and there interred in the tomb of the Sisters of

St. Joseph of the Apparition.

“Given at Rome,” etc.

275 This mistake is awing to a wrong meaning given to a word in the Book

of Joshua in the Septuagint; where the word _tsorim_ is translated

_knife of stone_, when it also means _a sharp knife_; _tsor_ only

means _stone_ in the sense of _rock_ or _block_.

276 Simonin, _La Vie Souterraine_.

277 Ancient name of the Prussians.—Trans.

278 S. Jerome’s _Epist._ 44, 45.

279 _Hist. of Decline and Fall of Rom. Emp._, vol. iv. ch. ix. p. 262,

1st ed.

280 _Germania_, i. 5.

281 “The Study of Sociology,” by H. Spencer, in the May No. of _The

Contemporary Review_, 1872.

282 See Mrs. Hope’s _Conversion of the Teutonic Race_, ch. i.

283 _Conv. of Teut. Race_, p. 20.

284 Apollin., _Paneg. Major_.

285 _Germania_, iii.

286 Suet., _in Oct._ xxiii.

287 I. 61.

288 Plutarch, _Vita Marii_.

289 S. Jer. _adv. Jovin._ ii.